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Sunshine has been out of the infirmary for a couple of days, now, and found that the winter solstice had caught her unawares. She might be still recovering, but there is baking to be done and Solstice gifts to arrange for her friends. Her weakened state led her to decide on giving decorative tins full of lace cookies, this year, as they are relatively quick and easy to prepare, and can be made with any kind of fruit juice to lend them flavor. She has chosen orange, peach, and pomegranate juices, as they will make for a pleasing variety of flavors and colors.

She is recovering, but the frequency with which she has to sit and rest is disheartening to her. She nearly drifts off a time or two, but makes herself get up and make another pot of tea before continuing on.

Find Sunshine in the kitchen on this grey, next-to-shortest day of the year, singing quietly to herself under her breath as she works.

(ooc: Mun is running away for Fantastic Beasts shortly, but will return afterwards! <3333333)

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Her peace is disturbed by tall fellow who nearly bursts into the kitchen and seems to be scraping something off his leg on the door jam. If Sunshine looks--and really who wouldn't?--she'll see on of the elves flop to the floor outside the kitchen.

Rae looks around at the noise, in time to see the little elf toy - she's seen quite a few around the bar room lately, some sort of Christmas thing she isn't familiar with - flop to the floor.

"Are you all right?" she asks the person who had burst in at such speed.

"Yes, yes," Eliot says looking up with a grin, before looking over his should to peer through the window in the kitchen door. The elf doll is, of course, inanimate. "Although I seem to be quite naughty this year."

Turning to face Rae fully, he smiles more honestly before his brows crinkle in something like concern. "Please tell me I didn't ruin a soufflé? I doubt I could live with myself."

[OOC: And I just realized I should've checked that you were okay with an elf appearing, however briefly. Sorry.]

(ooc: No worries! I've just had Sunshine out of the way so much of the plot that it hasn't really figured in her awareness. I figured her spending a few hours making solstice gifts counts as a sustained level of Nice, and would clear out any elves lingering in the corners around the kitchen, anyway. :D)

Sunshine smiles back, but it is a tired smile. "No soufflés here to ruin, so no worries of additional naughtiness there. Lace cookies are already as flat as they can be, so they aren't in danger of falling."

Stepping around the kitchen table, Rae carefully picks up one of the delicate treats and holds it out to him. It is clear from its appearance how the lace cookie got its name - it is full of tiny holes from where the orange juice evaporated during baking, leaving only the thinnest latticework of flour and butter and orange zest to hold the thing together until a bite is taken and it shatters to disappear in a brief burst of flavor like summer sunlight upon the tongue.

Edited 2016-12-20 21:41 (UTC)

"Oh, these look divine," Eliots says, but adds, "You aren't some sort of enchantress or fae maiden seeking to bespell and whisk me away to your realm now are you?"

His tone is teasing but his eyes are serious.

Sunshine chuckles. The question is a slight surprise, but she doesn't question its validity.

"I am fully human," she assures him, wryly amused but sincere. "And there is no magic in these. Just quality ingredients and skill."

Sunshine probably didn't expect Teja in the kitchen, all by himself, with neither Egil nor the cats hin tow. He's wearing black leather trousers of indeterminate history, and and ancient ratty tee-shirt that once must have been black, and still says GOTH in faded red blackletter type.

"Good morning, Rae Seddon," he says gravely.

Sunshine, whose mind had been wandering, looks up from the shadows of her tea cup and offers him a tired smile. "Good morning, Teja," she replies. "Happy solstice."

"Indeed," Teja says, "that is what it is today. You do not look happy, though."

She shrugs, her smile wry as her fingers quietly tap out the melody of the song the season got stuck in her head. "I'm not terribly happy, no."

Eliot accepts the cookie with a little bow, picking it up carefully with forefinger and thumb. With a hint of a flourish, he turns it to take a bite and his eyes widen.

"This is fu..." he starts to say before remembering the elves on the other side of the door. "Fabulous and amazing," he says instead. "I must have the recipe."

"Are you worried for your friend, who is in the wars?" Teja asks.

Sunshine chuckles, delighted at his reaction. "I'm glad you liked it," she says, stepping over to the counter to get pencil and paper. "They're lace cookies. Not really difficult to make - only four or five ingredients - but they get bitter if you let them brown, and you have to make sure your baking pans are as flat as possible."

Every recipe has its finicky aspects.

"Also," she adds, grinning a slightly tired but still-sincere grin, "Hi, I'm Rae."

"For Autor, and for Emcee, and for my other friends here facing danger in their worlds," she murmurs. "And for myself, and my own circumstances. And I am still... very tired, from healing Emcee."

Jay leans on the door frame and breathes in. Just enjoying the smell and warmth.

Sunshine doesn't notice Jay's presence right away. Her voice is soft, unselfconscious, as she sings to herself and carefully pipes pomegranate lace cookie batter onto a baking sheet.

"It's the season of possible miracle cures, where hope is currency and death is not the last unknown... Time begins to fade. Age is welcome home..."

Sunshine is always most at peace doing what she loves, making delicious things for people. The baked goods she makes are imbued with the care and love she put into them, for the sake of those who will enjoy them. But it is clear that her movements are slower today, her hands less steady than usual. She preserveres, but persistent fatigue and the sunless season weigh heavily upon her.

"It's the season of scars and of wounds in the heart, of feeling the full weight of our burdens. It's the season of bowing our heads in the wind, and knowing we are not alone in fear. Not alone in the dark... Don't forget. Don't forget I love, I love, I love you. Don't forget... Don't forget I love, I love, I love you..."

Jay doesn't know the song but he hums along. He has a decent voice, enough to him in tune.

Sinric brings a tray of empty tea things down to the kitchen, thanking a rat as they take it from him.

He smiles to Rae, listening to her song.

"I heard of that," Teja says. He may not have been involved, but of course takes good notice of Security matters.

"Is there any thing I may do for you to help revive you? I might bring you a glass of Pyrrha's horchata, which is a wondrous thing."

After nine years in Milliways, Teja has learned that food or drink may be more helpful than sympathetic lamentation.

~~Also, Pyrrha is an aspect of Loki, so who knows what her horchata might do...~~

Rae looks curious. "I've heard of horchata, but I don't think I've ever had the opportunity to try it."

Sunshine's own voice is plain and slightly tired, nothing special, but she can carry a tune well enough. Hearing Jay's voice, she smiles slightly over her shoulder at him, setting aside the piping bag of cookie batter.

"It's the season of eyes meeting over the noise, and holding fast in sharp realization. It's the season of cold making warmth a divine intervention... you are safe here, you know."

And they are. Relatively. That is sometimes the problem. This is her second winter solstice since she last was home, and today she is definitely feeling it, even as she takes the hot tray of thin, flat cookies from the oven and replaces it with the next. She is among friends in Milliways, for the most part, and she loves them dearly, but Milliways is not her world.

"Don't forget. Don't forget I love, I love, I love you. Don't forget... don't forget I love, I love, I love you."

"It is a spiced, sweet milk made of almonds, with no milk at all," Teja says. "Some that eat only plants from your time have such drinks often, but this is a traditional recipe made for pleasure, not the reasons of health or abstinence the moderns favour."

Sunshine meets Sinric's gaze, and smiles slightly in reply. She generally doesn't sing in front of others. She generally doesn't sing at all, not thinking much of her own voice, but it is solstice, and some times call for accompaniment. This is a song for the winter season, for the darkest night of the year. An acknowledgement of one's pain and one's burdens, but also a reminder that no one is truly alone, that we are all in this together despite distance and time, and that the sun will return one day but for now, the warmth in their hearts must be enough to carry them through.

It's the season of grace coming out of the void,
Where a man is saved by a voice in the distance.
It's the season of possible miracle cures,
Where hope is currency and death is not the last unknown.
Where time begins to fade,
And age is welcome home.

It's the season of eyes meeting over the noise,
And holding fast with sharp realization.
It's the season of cold making warmth a divine intervention.
You are safe here you know, now...

Don't forget.
Don't forget, I love, I love, I love you.

Don't forget.
Don't forget, I love, I love, I love you.

It's the season of scars and of wounds in the heart,
Of feeling the full weight of our burdens.
It's the season of bowing our heads in the wind
And knowing we are not alone in fear,
Not alone in the dark.

Don't forget.
Don't forget, I love, I love, I love you.

Don't forget.
Don't forget, I love, I love, I love you."

Sunshine chuckles, taking a tray of wafer-thin cookies from the oven and setting in on a cooling rack before placing another waiting tray into the oven to bake. "So many recipes simply don't have meat or don't have animal products at all, but slap the Vegetarian or Vegan label on there, and some people won't even try it, thinking it was created for those reasons of abstinence or health rather than simply being the way the recipe goes. I should try horchata sometime."

"They are simply food, and quite delicious at that," Teja says.

That, from grim Teja! He has truly changed in those years, as he never had in his life.

"I shall fetch you some. It takes me but a moment."

Pause.

"But would you do me a favour?"

Edited 2016-12-21 15:39 (UTC)

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