InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "White walls are scary..."

20lbs_of_crazy (20lbs_of_crazy) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2010-10-16 23:16:00

Entry tags:

parker, xander harris

Who: Parker and OPEN
What: Parker decided to get advice by way of fortune cookies.
Where: The complex kitchen
When: Sometime in the evening
Rating: Tame unless something unexpected pops up

Parker had been pretty sure that she could handle the Apocalypse. She had dealt with all sorts of things before and somehow got the idea that all she had to do was splash some holy water and do some fighting. She had been so wrong. This place was worse than just the movies she’d seen in which the world was ending. There were so many additional challenges. Seeing Eliot when she had thought he had been possessed shook her up a great deal. With the development of the last curveball the Trickster had pitched their way, Parker felt even worse.

Though she had friends in this place, she felt like she couldn’t talk to any of them about how she felt. Back home she always felt like she could talk to Hardison or Sophie. Sophie could have helped her, she thought. Sophie was an expert in advice on sex and relationships, though Parker had only ever wanted to talk about the latter.

Since she didn’t have a person to go to for advice, Parker went with the first idea that came to mind. She took a plastic grocery bag with her and went to all of Lawrence’s carry-out Asian restaurants, taking a handful of individually wrapped fortune cookies from each place she visited. Somehow, she remained inconspicuous and the owners and employees of said restaurants were none the wiser regarding the missing cookies.

Once her bag was reasonably full, Parker returned to the complex and dumped the contents of her bag onto a kitchen table. Somewhere, in one of these cookies, she had her profound bit of advice. She’d just have to munch on a bunch of cookies to get to it.

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xander_shaped
2010-10-22 10:19 am UTC (link)

The very first thing that Xander noticed when he walked into the kitchen was the mountain of fortune cookies piled along the kitchen table. It was kind of a hard thing to miss when you were a regular to the community kitchen; the whole plastic wrapped pile of cookies by the dozen thing really didn't fit in with the kitchen's usual decor. Tugging the yellow hardhat off his head, Xander set it onto the counter, folded his arms over his chest, and eyed the cookies with an air of interest. Funny. Most people didn't even like the cookies, save the fun part where one got to rip it open and read the message scrawled away inside. Of course, cookies were cookies. And cookies? They were delicious, bearing wittily written fortunes or not. Nonetheless, the picture was still an odd one. Pile of cookies, one woman, no Chinese food. Kinda weird.

"Gee, are all of these for me?" Xander glanced over at Parker, flashing her a teasing sort of smile. "Aw, you shouldn't have. No, I mean it. You shouldn't have. Where am I gonna put a hundred fortune cookies?"

There were definitely some odd comings and going around here, but walking in to this hadn't been on Xander's list of expectations for the evening. Not that he was complaining. This particular scenario was far better than finding out that another type of monster was planning on attacking the city or that Lucifer was just gonna step on them all right now like itty, bitty bugs or something. Xander could settle for fortune cookies. They were all right, considering. "Whatcha doing with all those, anyway? That's a lotta fortune for just one person there."

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20lbs_of_crazy
2010-10-23 12:22 am UTC (link)

Parker noisily finished munching on a cookie, looking up at Xander as she finished the little morsel. She offered a half-smile and a tiny nod.

“The person who usually gives me advice is back home.” She took a peek at the tiny piece of paper that had been hidden away inside of the cookie and scowled. “You know where you are going and how to get there. Lucky numbers - 41, 53-- Well, that’s useless.” She grumbled and wrinkled up her fortune.

“You can have some.” Parker gestured to another chair. She was okay with sharing her fortune cookies with Xander. Xander seemed to be a nice guy.

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xander_shaped
2010-10-23 04:24 am UTC (link)

"So your solution to this problem is to confide in fortune cookies?" Xander raised his brows. "That's one I haven't seen anyone try before. Interesting method, but how's a cookie gonna tell you what job to take or what to do when a monster comes crawling through your front door?" Accepting her offer, Xander dropped down into one of the chairs at the table and pulled a cookie from the pile. He ripped the plastic from it and cracked it open, eyes immediately dropping down to the message printed across the tiny strip of paper that fell out of the cookie. "The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously. Huh, yeah. I tried that once. Didn't end well. Seriously, don't ever steal your best friend's Barbie. She'll break up with you and make you cry." Okay, he had barely been in grade school at the time, but still. Stealing Barbie's from girls was living dangerously. Especially when you were a boy.

Xander tossed the paper aside and bit down onto one of the cookie halves. He took a moment to chew at the cookie thoughtfully, then swallowed and gestured to Parker with a hand. "I take it you haven't found what you've been looking for yet?" Probably not. If she had been, Xander sincerely doubted she'd still be sitting at this table, digging her way through the seemingly never-ending pile of fortune cookies. Yikes. "'Cause, you know, there's this neat little magic shop down the street from here that sells those magic eight balls. You could give one of those a try next if this whole cookie thing doesn't work out for you."

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20lbs_of_crazy
2010-10-23 04:55 am UTC (link)

Parker wrinkled her nose slightly, confused and curious about the Barbie doll incident.

“Your girlfriend broke up with you over a doll?” She finished chewing her cookie and just looked at Xander for a moment or two. “Huh...” She nodded. There had to be some kind of story behind it. The only toy she’d ever really treasured was her stuffed bunny, and her step-father had taken it away from her on more than one occasion, so she supposed that she could understand it all. She nodded again and found herself looking off into space.

“Do you think I’m pretty?” Parker’s voice was uncharacteristically soft and she looked almost sad before she caught herself and put a less readable expression on her face. Inwardly, she scolded herself for ruining the fun mood and shook her head.

“I think it’s not a problem with not knowing the answer. I think I just need to feel better about the answer. I guess I’ll just save my cookies for another time.” She sighed, but took another cookie anyway, this time not bothering to even look at the fortune inside.

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xander_shaped
2010-10-23 05:51 am UTC (link)

"We were five," Xander pointed out. "Also, she really loved that doll. I only stole it because I thought it'd go great with my Skywalker action figure, but I digress." He waved a hand in the air dismissively at that. Ah, the good old days. Back when weird was just weird and not somehow always connected to monsters and mayhem. The only things he had to worry about back then were usually his schoolwork and avoiding the usual bout of drunken, domestic feuding that went on under his roof. He might have missed being more simple-minded, but Xander really didn't miss his family. He was glad he didn't have to make up excuses to avoid them anymore now that he was here. At least there was one plus side to this whole apocalyptic nightmare.

Xander was picking at another fortune cookie when Parker spoke again. Brows rising in surprise, he shot Parker a somewhat uncertain look before he shook his head sharply and flat out said, "Are you kidding me? If I had to rate you on a scale of one to ten, you'd be a high eleven." What was up with that? An attractive woman look Parker really didn't need to be doubting her physical attractiveness. Because, frankly, she was attractive. Very much so, in fact. "What's all this about? Who said you weren't? 'Cause, hey, whoever said it must be either drunk, blind, or extremely stupid. I'm kinda set on assuming that they fit the all of the above category. You're gorgeous, lady." Xander didn't bother with another cookie. He dropped the one that he had been set on peeling apart before, elbows propping along the edge of the table as Xander leaned forward curiously in his chair. He couldn't help it - it seemed weird to think that someone like Parker would doubt that she was attractive.

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20lbs_of_crazy
2010-10-24 02:33 am UTC (link)

The corners of Parker’s mouth twitched a little like they were trying to form a smile but, for some reason, were having trouble doing so. She finally gave in and smiled but it only lasted for a few seconds. She certainly was feeling gloomy, but she didn’t want it to show. Somehow, she kept herself from looking too melancholy. Parker didn’t like to worry people a whole lot.

“Thank you.” She said, sincerely. “It’s not that I think I’m ugly, I just...” Parker trailed off, fidgeting with one of the fortunes she had crumpled up. “It’s about that... Whatever it was that made us all happy. I guess I’m kind of stupid to have thought things would go smoothly afterwards.” She shook her head and sniffed, wiping her nose a little with the sleeve of her t-shirt.

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xander_shaped
2010-10-25 04:47 am UTC (link)

"You were filled up with false happiness for days," Xander pointed out, brows scrunching together in concern when Parker sniffed and wiped at her nose. "The ride was fun and nice; we all got to do stuff that we wouldn't have done otherwise." Like jump at the chance to screw his ex-girlfriend who, last he had checked, hated his guts for leaving her at the alter. Yeah, that was one that Xander wasn't going to be living down anytime soon. He didn't even know how to address Anya at this point. What was he supposed to do? What did she expect him to do? It was kinda...weird. "I don't think you're stupid. Coming off that high was like a big slap in the face to all of us, 'specially those of us who weren't all too happy with what was going on out there in the real world to begin with, right?" Xander believed that almost every person staying at the complex alone had severe issues. Some of them might have been able to hide their thoughts and feelings through smiles and all, but really, how could any of them be truly happy when they were cast away from their homes and into a world that was downright doomed?

Pessimism. Ah, it tasted delicious. Xander leaned forward in his chair, fingers locking together as he propped his elbows against the edge of the table and looked across at Parker somewhat seriously. "You're not stupid, okay? And trust me, I know stupid. I've had to put up with Spike for years." He tried for a reassuring smile at that. The last thing that Xander had expected to find when he walked into this kitchen was that stack of fortune cookies, let alone a woman who appeared to be pretty bothered about something. Xander didn't know Parker too well, but she seemed nice enough. Finding her in bad shape really didn't sit too well with him.

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