Who: Lorna and Hyun-ae What: Cupcakes and coping When: Day of Jean's memorial Where: A cupcake chop then a park Status: complete Rating: PG-13 for some dark subjects, but mostly pretty light
Lorna had two coping mechanisms for when life got her down. She either had sweets to help distract herself from her problems, or she got stoned until she didn’t care about them anymore. After the memorial for Jean it didn’t seem appropriate to get stoned until the world went away, so she went to a local bakery instead. She was still wearing her black dress, her hair tucked up under a black hat. She was very sad, and also a little mad. Not at Jean, of course, but at the world. Nobody should have to go to three funerals in one year. That wasn’t a thing that should ever happen. Even if she hadn’t known Jean personally, the woman had given her life to save them all, and Lorna couldn’t help but honor her sacrifice, and regret never getting to know the redhead. They might have been friends, like in the dreams.
Her thoughts circled around in her head, heavy and deep as she entered the bakery. The cheerful bell above the door rang out, but Lorna was stuck in her gloom. Even the cheerful colors of the cookies, donuts, and cupcakes couldn’t lift her spirits. In a way, she wanted to be sad. Being sad was the right reaction to all of this.
The green-haired woman seemed to be walking with a cloud over her head. Hyun-ae blinked as she walked past. She wasn’t sure if she should do something but the woman looked so...sad. And angry. There was definitely anger there.
So she followed her, and when she saw an opening she cleared her throat. “You should try those over there, they’re really good?”
Lorna jumped a little when she was addressed, and looked over at Hyun-ae. “Hmmm? Which ones? The ones with sprinkles?” She moved closer to Hyun-ae, to get a look at the case from her perspective.
“The ones that are kind of..yeah the sprinkles! And these filled ones here, too. They’re sweet but not too sweet, and really creamy.” She came here perhaps a little too often.
Lorna chuckled a little. “I do like cream.” She smiled at the girl, trying to pull herself out of her bad mood. Moping was something she did a lot, and she didn’t want to start. “Thanks for the suggestion.”
“I know when I feel a little crappy it helps. That, and the right kind of music. And I do sewing.” Which probably isn’t something that everyone would enjoy.
“I like to crochet.” Lorna said with a smile. “It’s a lot slower than sewing, but I’m terrible at cutting out patterns and then doing neat seams and ironing. There’s way too much ironing in sewing.”
“I don’t mind. I make costumes, so I need to do a lot of that. Gluing, and..well a lot of things.” Hyun-ae picked out something with chocolate. “But it’s fun, and distracting?”
Lorna cocked her head a little. “Wait, did we talk on the network? I gushed about San Francisco or something.” She accepted her donuts with a smile, and paid for them before heading toward a chair. She hoped the other girl would join her.
“Oh! I think we did! I was new to the network!” Hyun-ae followed Lorna, her natural inclination to be friendly with people.
“Neat!” Lorna smiled again. “You’re a cosplayer, right?”
“Yes!” Hyun-ae practically bounced on her heels before she sat down. “I’m working on my third ever major costume right now!”
“Who?” Lorna asked, taking a big bite of her pastry. It was pretty delicious.
“She’s called the Sorceress. From this Master of the Universe Cartoon. But not the really old one.” She pulled out her phone and pulled up a picture. “I liked this design a lot better.”
Lorna looked at the picture, giggling a little. “Oh, the headpiece will be neat. How are you going to do the wings?”
“Real feathers,” she wanted to get really soft ones but there was the danger of just petting them for hours.
Lorna whistled. “That takes a lot of patience, you must really enjoy doing it!” She hated it when people told her they couldn’t do crochet due to lack of patience or time, but putting together wings from real feathers definitely seemed like it would take a lot of both.
“I’m probably crazy stupid. And there are other things I wanna do too.” Things she’d dreamed about. Her father in her dreams was way more awesome.
“Like what? What costume do you want to make the most?” Lorna would be excited to make an epic crocheted dress for herself.
“Well I want to get into engineering and stuff! But costumes? I’ve thought of soooo many. I wanna do...there was this girl that did armor. It was amazing!”
“Oh, you meant non costume stuff.” Lorna felt a little embarrassed. “That does sound neat. Do you know what kind of engineering you want to do? I know some science-y people hang out on the network.”
“I don’t know yet. I dream of this ship...” She rubbed the back of her neck. “It’s silly.”
“It’s not silly.” Lorna assured her. “What kind of ship?” It didn’t matter if it was a dream or a Dream, they were equally important as far as Lorna was concerned.
“Kinda like a generation ship? I was born there. My dad was the guy in charge of the engines and computers!”
“Wow.” Lorna said, laughing a little. “That’s incredible! What kind of power source did it use, what was it mission?” She was all kinds of curious about her dreams of the war in space.
She tilted her head, then nodded. “Fusion power plant. It was pretty slow. Faster than a lot of things but we were looking at a couple thousand year journey!”
“That’s incredible! We had a ship with some kind of alien reactor in my dreams. I had no idea how it worked or what it was, exactly, but I knew when it was working and I was glad it always did.” She giggled a little.
“I don’t think this was alien! That’s awesome! I think I was learning the basics. I wanted to..well I guess I was going to apprentice to my dad eventually.” Hyun-ae blushed. “But he told me once that if I found something I really enjoyed, it was okay. There would always be someone he could teach to replace him.”
She rested her hands behind her back, smiling. Lorna was looking cheerier, which felt nice.
“Your dream dad sounds really neat.” Lorna noted, her expression reverting back to its original state. She’d dreamed of the conversation where her dream parents told her she was adopted the previous night, and it made her remember the dream before that, when she killed her mom on accident, and Magneto left her behind.
“He’s awesome.” She frowned when she saw Lorna close up. “.. are you okay?”
Lorna shook her head. “No, but it’s not really stuff I want to talk about.” She finished another donut and leaned back a little. “How did you get into cosplaying?”
“I kind of fell into it. My mom took me to a convention a few years ago and I just..well fell in love with all the pretty costumes. So I had to do it!” She didn’t think her parents really minded. It made her happy, right?
Lorna smiled, but it wasn’t as easy to forget about the crap that was on her mind this time. “I don’t blame you, it seems like a fun hobby, and some of the prizes for those contests are pretty big. It’s good that you want to do something else for a career, though, I can’t imagine doing something that intense for money.”
“I could probably do it, but it wouldn’t be as fun and I’d lose my mind after a year or two.” She shook her head. “I’ve been trying to figure all that out. Shadowed a coroner, and other people and nothing is really..sticking.”
Lorna nodded. “It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up, and when I did I still had to give it up eventually. Nothing ever goes exactly the way you planned it to.” She hadn’t anticipated falling in love and having something to stay out of trouble for.
“What did you want to be?” It seemed sad to Hyun-ae, that someone would give up on their dream.
“I ran a pot dispensary and craft store. It was a lot of fun, but then I got serious with a guy and I worried that I’d eventually get sent to prison or fined a lot of money so I sold the shop.” She shrugged, trying to make it sound like it wasn’t a big deal. The fact that she’d destroyed most of her plants on accident after dreaming of a genocide only made her mood worse.
“But isn’t it legal?” She wasn’t up to date on the rules, but she was pretty sure that it was legal. “I mean, you shouldn’t give up on your dream just because you’re worried about a little risk. I could get felt up at a con, or worse, it’s not going to stop me from dressing up. I know that’s not the same, but it’s how I feel.”
“It’s complicated.” Lorna said with a shrug. “Alex and I want to have kids, someday, and having a mom who’s in federal prison for selling drugs isn’t going to be very fair to them.”
“Well no, I guess not.” She felt a little pouty at the idea, and she’d only just met the woman. “Isn’t really fair, is it? Is there anything else you love doing?”
“I love my job, don’t worry about that.” She laughed a little. “I work for a bunch of crazy ex-military types to make the world a slightly better place.”
“Oh. Weird. But if you’re happy?” Hyun-ae nodded her head. “Then I’m glad. Maybe we should get some more cupcakes to go.” She wasn’t sure where to go. But she didn’t want to stay here.
“Oh, yes!” Lorna said with a nod. “There’s a nice park near here, I bet it’s pretty today, even if it is pretty hot.” She stood up and tossed the little bakery bag in the garbage. “What flavor do you like best?”
“Chocolate,” Hyun-ae replied without hesitation. Because duh. “...but I also like fruity things, too.”
“Ooh, I wonder if they have a fruity chocolate flavor?” Lorna asked, peering into the case. She smiled at the person behind the counter and ordered three chocolate cherry and three regular chocolate (with sprinkles). Six cupcakes would be enough, she figured.
“Oh! I can pay, you don’t have to....” Hyun-ae flailed her arms.
Lorna waved her offer off. “I have it, don’t worry!” She smiled and handed over her card. “Did you drive here? My scooter’s no good for carrying cupcakes.”
“I uh, borrowed my mom’s car, yeah.” Hyun-ae flushed a bit, feeling embarrassed. “She’s off with my dad somewhere for the day and night, so as long as I don’t wreck it it’s okay if I drive.”
Lorna giggled. “Uh oh. Well, we’ll take your car, and I’ll come back for my scooter.” She laughed after a second. “If you don’t mind, that is.”
“No, I don’t mind!” She bounced on her heels and took a step back to give Lorna room to move back.
Lorna grabbed the box, and started for the door. “Can you get the door, please?”
“Yes ma’am!” Hyun-ae made her way for the door and then stepped outside to hold it open for her. “My car is the little red sedan over there.”
“Thanks!” Lorna said with a laugh. “It’s cute!” She bounced over toward the car, smiling brightly.
“Thanks! I’ m supposed to get it when I graduate. But I don’t really believe them. They’re sneaky that way.”
“Well, I hope you do. Having a car is important. How old are you, anyway?” Lorna opened the door with her powers without thinking.
“Whoa,” she said, staring at the car door like it had just become a snake that threatened to bite her.
Lorna didn’t even realize anything was wrong for a moment, and when she did she needed another moment to understand what was wrong. Then she began panicking. “Ha, that was weird, wasn’t it?”
“You’re a superhero!” Hyun-ae blurted, pointing at her like that was the absolute most awesome thing in the history of ever.
Lorna gaped for a minute. Well, at least she wasn’t screaming. She closed her mouth and shook her head. “I’m just a science teacher with special powers. I’m anything but a hero.” She looked down at the cupcakes. She spent more time running from danger than protecting others from it. Her guilt over Jean’s death and her own inaction against the husks came back in full force, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to bluff her way back into a good mood.
“You just need me to make you a costume,” Hyun-ae said, innocently and confidently. Like that should be her mission in life.
Lorna opened her mouth, then closed it. She laughed once and nodded. “Yes, I probably do.” Maybe the costume would make her feel more heroic. “Think you’re up for it? I’ll make you a sweater as a trade.”
“Can it be blue? The sweater, I mean. I like blue.” She looked at Lorna critically. “I know your hair is green, but I’m not sure more green is the answer.”
“Any blue you like.” Lorna promised. “I think purple looks nice. I know pink is its opposite color, but I don’t think I can do a lot of pink.” She slid into the car, and put the cupcakes on her lap.
"Purple, or a really dark red," Hyun-ae said, nodding her head thoughtfully. "Have to avoid the Christmas Conundrum."
“Yeah, red used to be my favorite color.” She sighed and shook her head. “I was a superhero at a costume party where I met my husband, but that costume was mostly black, since it was New Year’s Eve.”
“Black and maroon?” Hyun-ae looked like she was taking mental notes.
“I don’t know, I’m not really. . . dark.” Lorna laughed a little. “But maroon a lighter color might look nice? I don’t have. . . like a symbol or anything. My powers are based around magnetic fields, so there’s no real easy way to represent that unless you go with the cartoon-y ‘u’ shaped magnet.” And that was a definite ‘no’ as far as Lorna was concerned.
"You know, a lot of diagrams about magnetic force kind of look like the infinity symbol," she pointed out, helpfully.
“Yeah, but a lot of them look like parentheses.” Lorna said with a laugh. “Beside, the infinity symbol seems a little. . . like tempting fate, I guess. I’m anything but infinite.”
“We wouldn’t want to tempt fate! No symbols then. Uhm...” She made a circle with her finger, because she couldn’t bring herself to say ‘boob window.’
Lorna snickered. “Maybe. I’ve had some cleavage-y costumes in the dreams. It’s not like the material’s going to protect me much, anyway. I’ll need a really good bra.”
“Underwire. You could use your powers...” Hyun-ae sighed dejectedly as she got in the car. She’d never have anything that impressive.
Lorna looked down and shrugged. “I mostly use them to get the hooks together in the back. It’s so hard to do it on my own, and I can’t make Alex do it for me all the time.”
“Well I mean you could..lift..and separate..with the right kind of underwire, and it probably won’t hurt. They kind of look like they’ll hurt.”
Lorna shook her head. “Not if they fit. That’s the real trick.” She laughed a little. “I had to go to three different shops to find a style that worked for me, but it’s totally worth it.”
Hyun-ae looked down at her own chest as they came to a red light. “Where to?”
“Oh! Right, the park.” Lorna laughed and pointed to the right. “Turn right, and the park will be on your left, can’t miss it.”
“Okay!” Hyun-ae gave Lorna a thumbs up, and took a swerve to the right, then hung a left and hit the park. “Aaaand here we are.”
Lorna hopped out, taking the cupcakes with her. “Don’t go to the pond, the ducks are vicious. There’s a gazebo out a ways, I bet we can hang out there.”
“But the ducks are cute...” she frowned but followed anyway. If it made her new friend smile, it would be worth it.
Not being bitten by ducks would make Lorna happy. A run in with a goose in her younger years made them the one part of nature she truly disliked.
Hyun’ae plunked down in a seat in the gazebo. It seemed a little out of the way, and she giggled at a thought.
Lorna put the box of cupcakes down between them, and gave Hyun-ae a curious look. “What’s funny?”
“Just thought this would be a fun place for a romantic interlude. Uhm. If I had a romantic person.”
Lorna nodded. “Don’t worry, you’ll find someone. There’s no need to rush, anyway. Romance is still awesome when you’re older, after all.”
“I hope so! I’m too busy for it anyway.” She grinned at Lorna. “Between cosplay and studies.”
“I was like that with my master’s degree. I played around during my undergrad, but I got super serious about school for that. Somehow I managed not to die.” She giggled and handed Hyun-ae a cupcake.
She took the cupcake and took a bite. “That’s amazing..This is amazing...This was a good idea, Lorna!”
“I agree, thanks for poking me out of my mopey mood.” She smiled at the younger girl, and unwrapped her own cupcake. Not bad, for her third funeral in one year.