Who: Wendy & Leliana, guest appearance of Schmooples the Nug. What: Pinterest craft tea parties and talks of wuv. When: This afternoon! Where: Leli's cubbyhole house. Rating/Warnings: Low Status: Complete!
There were apparently over forty things you could do with toilet paper rolls. Literally. Pinterest had an entire section for it - mirror frames, miscellaneous wall decor, even a jewelry holder! Because what girl doesn’t want to hang their lovely shinies on toilet paper cardboard?
Anyway, Leliana had an abundance of them with other crafty supplies; scissors and spray paints and glue. And open windows, running ceiling fans for proper ventilation (especially if they were spray painting), a kettle on the stove to prepare the hot water, and the bird-themed teacup set was finally taken out of the box for proper usage. She’d even prepared simple eats to go with it - cucumber and cream cheese finger sandwiches sans the crust, and strawberry shortcake kabobs (another pinterest endeavor, though this one actually looked like the picture). All very simple things that took little time to prep and no actual cooking or baking was involved.
Dreams about Thedas and upcoming wars, regular life situations of gleaning intel illegally and possible assassinations targets set aside, and she was determined to enjoy a little evening of the girly variety.
“I have sugar cubes, milk, and honey…” Leliana hummed, all those additional condiments placed in cute little porcelain bowls for presentation. Everything was set on a tray, ready to be transported to the coffee table. “Do you take anything else with your tea?”
The response, as Wendy sat on the sofa, was a stardust giggle - all on account of Schmooples the nug snuffing and climbing all on her, the cute little pig-bunny on her hind legs like she was asking for a lift up to the comfort of a warm lap. Which Wendy obliged, of course, because the sweet baby was quite adorable and she just couldn’t deny affection from something that was so unfortunate-looking it actually tipped the scales into heartwarming. Into her lap Schmooples went, who continued her snuffing and odd noises.
The mini Victoria sponge cakes now on the coffee table, a tasty tea-time treat and offering to this crafting event, were light and fluffy and boasted a berry and cream filling - a staple of her youth, in addition to the Battenberg cake but that had been more complex and she’d mostly finished that. Or actually the men in her life had finished that. Sigh. In her teal a-line frock, dotted with vibrant magenta and yellow posies and pearly buttons, with Mary Janes on her feet, she looked ready for teatime as well. The gold watch that James told her to keep, she still wore around her neck on a slender chain and she’d closed it, though it hadn’t actually been ticking. It was still stuck at half past one, and she ought to take it to a jewelry repair place or something but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
“Oh, no, milk and sugar is perfect,” she assured Leliana. “Your dream pet is so precious. I bet everyone just loves her.”
“I am glad the reactions to her have been fairly positive,” she confessed, tossing the obviously comfortable nug with her new human friend a look of amusement. Schmooples was a ham. A shy thing at first, but offer a couple of pets and she was yours. “The public tends to have...mixed reactions to her. Confusion and horror, mostly.” Pig-bunny’s weren’t a thing around these parts. There was some ridicule too, mostly by teenagers without an ounce of maturity. She’d given them a most threatening stink-eye. Let them try something, and rest assured she would make those boys cry so hard they both pissed and shat themselves. That was a promise.
Anywho, the kettle finally screeched. It was all ready, so she brought the tray of goodies over and propped them onto the only open space available on the coffee table - it was certainly crowded, with all the things they had gleaned for projects. “I love animals. It is my first time having an official....pet.” Leliana even gave Schmooples a squint. “I tend to move too much to offer stability. I suppose I will have to keep her with someone, while work strings me along.”
Look no further, because Wendy was going to volunteer for the job! “I’m sure you’ve got plenty of people vying for the role,” she grinned, adjusting her hair comb - it was gold, shaped like a leafy vine, and kept some of those tawny waves away from her face. “But you can always count on me to watch her. I think the boys I live with would find her amusing.” And Schmooples would get plenty of lettuce scraps, since if there was ever a vegetable shortage in Wendy’s house then it was safe to say that someone should call the police and report a pod person.
Then, to the tea, once she’d given the pig-bunny more smooches and cuddles and set her back down so she could run around and do whatever she wanted with her abundance of toys. Wendy added a touch of milk, some sugar, to her cup and stirred to let the creamy white sink in and turn the blend a whole different colour. “Well! What sort of crafty projects did you have in mind?” she asked. If Leliana wanted ideas, there was a binder that Miss Darling brought with her. A very organised binder. There was a binder for everything really, let’s be honest. The one she’d meant to use for Cora and Lydia’s wedding unfortunately had gone back on the shelf since both girls moved away, but maybe she’d have another wedding to help with soon? In the meantime, crafts!
God, her life was depressing.
Well, not a bad idea! Considering the two hit it off well, Leliana would have to keep that in mind once things heat up again. They eventually would. Like always, it was clockwork. And she hadn’t taken account the late night emergencies, the things that don’t go as well as planned. All that nitty-gritty stuff was in the second bedroom, her ‘office,’ sealed and reinforced. It could double as a panic room, really, but it had boards, pictures and thumbtacks, strings - almost a little cliche, but visuals like that worked for a reason.
“Toilet paper roll crafts,” she giggled, because the concept was ridiculous. She had to bring up the damn site on her phone to scroll through. “Over forty different kinds of things to make them into, it’s both creative and somewhat gross? It makes me wonder how people translated bathroom cardboard to ‘exquisite wall decor.’” Oh, well. Who was she to stomp on their creative energies? Leliana prepared her tea, stirring with the dainty little spoon that came with the set (it was adorable), and right when she brought it to her lips, was when her eyes spotted the trinket around her neck.
“Is...that?” Half-past one, the watch?
Wendy set her own cup down on its dainty saucer (she really liked the bird theme - her tea set was delicate china adorned with hand-painted flowers, if it was of any surprise to anyone, probably not), and her hand closed around the watch, making a fist, as she often did whenever she got anxious. Like she was holding onto it for dear life as an anchor or something. “Yes, I’ve been wearing it,” she admitted sheepishly, though she already mentioned that before. But just in case Leliana wanted to see it in the flesh, there it was. “It’s broken but I still don’t take it off.” That probably said something about her - what, she didn’t know. Things wrong with that watch, things wrong with whatever was between her and its original owner - and yet tenacity was such an annoying trait to possess sometimes. No wonder giving up was easier.
Her grip loosened and she went for a sandwich, nibbling on it. “Actually, you can make lovely faux wrought-iron wall decorations with toilet paper rolls. I think that’d look nice in here. The hardest part is cutting the balsa wood.” But it was a type used for crafting, so it’s not like you needed a chainsaw or anything.
Leliana thought it was sweet. The way she kept the watch, that is - it was important, it belonged to the man she so very much fancied that met his unfortunate fate in the jaws of a reptile. Likely, he’d have better luck in this life.
“You know,” she said, after taking a sip of her tea. Just a dash of milk and honey. “They say nothing in this world worth having comes easy.” The unfortunate reality of life was struggle. It wasn’t sparkles and true love all the time - although the thought sounded very pleasant! She knew some of the other woman’s predicament. Leliana was rooting for her, though. There was nothing like giving and receiving love, was there?
Her suggestion was cute, and she set down her cup and saucer to gather the cardboard rolls she’d salvaged. She’d seen pictures where they were cut, spray painted and put together to form flowers - couldn’t be that hard, could it? They’d start simple. Otherwise she’d be disheartened by the high DIY standards pinterest so cruelly placed.
“I think so too,” Wendy sighed, eyeing the freshly made Victoria sponge cakes. They looked so good, and she hadn’t taste-tested them, but used her mother’s recipe - the one that had been passed down throughout the generations - and knew it was foolproof. Also, baking cake for teatime had left her with an odd sense of nostalgia. She missed England occasionally. Missed Surrey, with its scenery and its small, cosy cafes and tea rooms - the light afternoon meal was a specialty, and one day she’d do a proper one here. Hot water over those cured leaves, scones with clotted cream and jam. That was all. But she missed it quite a bit.
Anyway, she decided that they’d get in some craft time first before she indulged in cake. “I met this boy from the network, you know, he’d just come from a bar...” She reached for the wood, while she talked, also an exacto knife. Dainty, prim and proper, you can be that she’d cut perfect strips to make a square frame. “He was drunk and miserable because he’d been left by his boyfriend and it feels like the end of the world, but I told him that we’ve all got more than one soulmate. The idea of it seems too important to restrict to one romantic soulmate your whole life, don’t you think?” It seemed like people forgot that you could have a platonic soulmate too, then again, that was merely her opinion.
“Alright, you need the practise, so cut your toilet paper rolls down the side,” she instructed, giving another giggle. Madame DIY would make sure they did this right! “You can even shape the curls with a stick or something.”
Soulmates. There’s a term she hadn’t heard in forever. It was a very romantic idea, wasn’t it? Leliana never knew if she believed in such a thing, not even when she was paired up with Marjolaine, and she loved the woman dearly. And, well...she also didn’t go out and seek out relationships of the sort, the kind of things cemented into permanence. “That does make sense,” she hummed, head tilted. “Any person you’ve ever been romantically involved with, I think they will be always be apart of you. No matter how things went or how they ended.” Maybe that kind of passionate love would fade, but the link wouldn’t. Leliana never loved Logan, and she tried - but it wasn’t in the stars for them, and neither were her and Marjolaine.
Scissors in hand, she followed Wendy’s instruction as closely as possible - today she was the mentor, and Leliana the student. “Is...a situation like that, relevant to you and him?” She brought it up while they danced around the conversation, she figured it was safe to assume.
It was odd-yet-comforting for Wendy to talk about this sort of thing - well, she’d had similar conversations with Jack, and he tried his best when it came to girl talk, but sometimes you just needed an actual girl to bounce things off of. Especially while doing crafts. Chewing on her lower lip, the full pinkness of it, she concentrated on carefully cutting wood pieces with the very precise knife blade. The curly toilet paper roll q’s, whatever design Leliana wanted, would be glued and put in the frame and then they’d use the spray paint, let it dry, and voila!
“Relevant, yes,” she admitted, pert nose crinkling. “He was just trying to forget about how he felt and push it away but it wasn’t working so I finally brought it up because everything had just been so weird lately, I had to get things off my chest. I could tell something had happened before, I mean, I’ve worked with him for awhile. I just...I don’t know. I told him it was okay. I mean, you just can’t drop off your baggage even if you know you should.” She supposed that was where the ‘being patient’ and ‘fighting for what you want’ and ‘cultivate this like a garden, don’t piss on it’ came into play.
Leliana was almost tempted to suggest they add something a little extra in their tea, that alcoholic umf with a little bit of lemon, maybe? Considering they were dealing with scissors and hot glue guns, however, it was best that sobriety stay in play during this conversation. “And it seems as if you’re willing to wait, no?” To fight, do the whole thing to prove pursuing whatever they had was worth it. “It sounds like you will need a well of patience, to push through this. But if you want him, and you think it is worth it, then fight on.”
People’s love lives were interesting. Not that she was nosy in a gossipy nature, but there was genuine curiosity when it came to Leliana. A way of living vicariously through others, maybe? Wendy was sweet, though. Very genuine. She didn’t know the man she was so enamored with, but she’d keep her fingers crossed. What is meant to be will be; she believed that wholeheartedly.
She was an idiot, so sure, she was willing to wait. Why did these things never go like they did in films?? It was bloody irritating that there wasn’t a completely ridiculous ‘conflict’ henceforth solved in approximately 90 minutes with a swell of music in the background, spinning camera angles, and a kiss in the rain. Instead Wendy got a morose dream pirate who was so terrified of moving on - but oh well, she’d take him anyway. Life wasn’t rainbows and meet cute’s, after all.
“Not forever,” she amended, because no, she wasn’t going to wait for an eternity - no one should have to. However, as long as he was trying, then that was good enough. “But...I will, yes. Sorry, not like I meant to unload all that. Though it feels better having that as an issue rather than dream injuries.” And she had the courtesy to flash a small, guilty smile. “How are your curly q’s coming? Your roll designs?” The frame was just about glued together, very exciting!
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Leliana assured, brow quirked at the silly notion. She’d been asking, after all! And Wendy looked like she could use a listening ear, so she hadn’t minded, not at all. “It is good to vent. Especially in the company of another woman. There are only certain things we understand, no?”
She hoped he’d see exactly what he had in front of him. If not, his loss. Wendy was young, had much to offer - he’d be a bit of a fool to let past baggage keep him from something new, someone that wanted a future with him.
Schmooples sauntered over with cautious, awkward sniffers poking the little bits of fallen toilet cardboard. Even started to kind of chew on some, until Leliana gave her a gentle shove away. “And they are coming...alright. I suppose we spray them with paint, next?” She had an assortment of colors. Each would fit right with the color scheme of her house - dark and light colors, all accenting each other in some sort of mosaic design.
She exhaled a sigh of relief. “Yes,” Wendy admitted. “My best friend is a man, sometimes he probably doesn’t want to listen to me prattle on about my girly feelings.” Oh, quite, those girly feelings. It made her laugh, more like poking a bit of fun at herself. “That’s why I think the concept of ‘soulmates’ isn’t limited to strictly romantic endeavours. I have a lot of feelings for him but just not...romantic ones? I mean, he’s good-looking, of course, but it’d be weird.”
Was that even making sense? Alas. Back to the crafts.
“If you want a wrought-iron look, we can glue the design into the frame and then spray paint with the black, probably. Or whatever colour you want.” Or she supposed that each curly q could be a different colour; that would be quite the mish-mosh! This was Leliana’s crafty journey, and Wendy was simply the gentle guide.
“It is entirely possible to be friends with the opposite sex and not want anything more than mere companionship,” she expressed, her smile wry. Same goes for same sex, and not all of Leliana’s friendships consisted of sex. Aside from Zee, there’d been Isabela only once, and now she had someone else for that kind of thing, she supposed. Everyone else was purely platonic. Sleeping with friends like...Cindy, or Neal, or Cassandra - no thank you, just hugs and smooches on the cheeks. All of them were near and dear anyway, close to her heart, so yes, she understood the concept of ‘soulmates’ when it came to merely friendship.
Now, to colors….she hummed in thought, pausing to take a mini-sponge cake to bite into. No point in neglecting food, there was plenty to nibble on. “Is rainbow iron a thing?” Probably not, but the concept sounded nice! Leliana liked colors. Everything else in her life was dark and dreary, she’d at least give a little splash of life to her home at the very least.
“Yes, exactly,” Wendy giggled, giving in to the temptation of the homemade cakes and biting into one - oh, it was delicious, just like her mum used to make. “I’m glad it’s not just me, and I’m not completely mad. I swear that poor drunk boy I met thought I was insane for sharing my thoughts on soulmates.” She hoped he was doing better now; would have to send him a message to check up on him now that he’d had some time to, hopefully, give things more sober consideration.
She hummed, dusting off her hands, picking up the cup of tea to sip contentedly. “Rainbow iron can be a thing if that’s what you want, this is your special craft time,” she nodded with a bit of an amused sparkle in her eye, the decision made. “Let’s go on and paint them, then. We’ll have to do each cluster separately, then paint the frame, and glue it all in once it’s dry.”
Those little spongecakes were good. If Leliana had a knack for baking, she’d beg for a recipe, so the only viable option was to pester Wendy in the future for a batch. She could make cute little sandwiches and non-baked desserts but anything that actually involved heading and a precise timing - she was a tad too flighty for that. At least she had a superb talent for boiling hot water for tea! It was a very important tidbit.
“You will have to come over more often,” she said, after shoving the rest of the cake into her mouth and practically swallowing it whole. And she’d reach for a second, the paint could wait for one more minute while she gorged herself, yes? “Perhaps give me lessons in the art of spongecakes, too. I have much to learn!”
Between that and peculiar DIY Pinterest crafts, Leliana felt like such a young grasshopper.
Wendy’s expression lit up, the brilliant shine of Christmas tinsel, her smile completely pleased. “Oh, I’d love to,” she said, happy that her sponge cakes were such a hit. “I have the perfect tins for baking these and, well, it’s a very old recipe but I can certainly share.” Crafts and baking, two things she was good at - and, right now, if she couldn’t fulfill her dreams of becoming a famous author, penning glorious works of fiction, then she’d settle for utilising her talents in other ways.
It was keeping her sane, anyway. That was probably a good thing.