milliways_bar | Entries tagged with balthazar blake

He falls into a chair with a creak of aged leather and the clink of buckles against wood, this hobo in leather and wool and too many years.

He'll order tea in a minute.

First he's going to enjoy being somewhere Dave isn't. Somewhere Horvath isn't.

He imagined this all being... easier. Or at least more straight forward. And involving fewer duels in bathrooms.

sunbaked_baker

Sunshine has been busy. There has been a lot of baking and gift-basket arranging, but soon they are all finished to her liking, and cards have been written. So tonight, though it takes many trips between the bar and the kitchen, Rae leaves the complete collection of gifts with the bar, to be picked up by the recipients the next time they come in.

( Gift baskets for Autor, Dr. Lecter, Jason Todd, Gavroche, Ichabod and Katrina Crane, Dr. Bloom, Lord Elrond, and Balthazar Blake. )

For all of Rae's other acquaintances and friends, there are tins of lace cookies, or plates of orange-ginger muffins, or plates of cinnamon rolls the size of human skulls, or plates of strawberry meringue cookies, each left with a note reading: "Happy Solstice! -Sunshine" that will appear next time they order from the bar.

Lastly, before she heads upstairs to her room to sleep, Rae makes a sizable donation to the Children and Bound Patrons' Fund, in Urquhart's honor.

sunbaked_baker

There's a sign up on the kitchen door today, proclaiming: Chocolate Experiments In Progress: Willing Test Subjects Inquire Within.

Inside the kitchens, Sunshine has been busy. Careful about her slowly-healing shoulder, too, but mostly busy.

Busy with chocolate. It has been a chocolate-needing day, you see, and who is she to argue?

A number of the day's experiments - at least the ones that have passed her initial quality tests - are sitting on various racks on the kitchen's table. A grouping of lime-filled chipotle-chocolate cupcakes sit together, the one in front decorated with a red fondant skull over crossed chili-peppers. Beside them, slightly spicy, chilled dark chocolate mousse in chocolate mugs, topped with whipped cream, sit in neat rows. Alone sits one, just one, tall cake made of thin chocolate pancakes layered with homemade whipped cream and drizzled all over with hot chocolate syrup.

The baker herself, should you want to volunteer to taste-test these experiments, is putting the finishing touches on a group of small, dark chocolate and raspberry tartlets dusted with crushed pistachios.

Willing guinea pigs will be fed chocolate and then asked their opinion.

Current Mood: good

777thdegree

He stumbles into the bar, more obviously nursing the fractured ribs Horvath gave him than he did in front of Dave. Even though the boy royally deserves a scare after wandering off, he's... still not ready for the big conversation. At least, he thinks the boy isn't... the boy is starting to ask painfully pointed questions.

Balthazar's just as happy to be here, instead of the unused subway turnaround that he was walking into. He just... doesn't know how to have that conversation.

And his ribs hurt like hellfire.

777thdegree

The front door opens, and a golem walks in.

A tiny one, barely topping four feet.

Actually, no, it's just a mud-covered boy, barefoot and bedraggled.

Except for the heavy ring on his left hand, he is a pretty classic mud urchin, and a very relieved-looking one at that. He wasn't looking forward to running into his master like this.

777thdegree

The front door opens, to admit a small, tow-haired boy in tunic and leggings, his slightly shapeless boots spattered in mud.

He freezes just inside the doorway, his ice-grey eyes gone wide and startled.

"I didn't do it."

777thdegree

After making sure one of his apprentices hasn't done anything horribly permanent to herself, Balthazar Blake goes to take up residence on the couch. Wearily, he sighs.

Vaguely, he wonders why he ever longed for the day he would have an apprentice. Never mind having two. This is just plain exhausting.

sunbaked_baker

Sunshine had a go at getting back into the habit of practice-fighting, earlier today. She had called up an animate earthen figure as a vampire stand-in - something to aim for, something to dodge. She had done this many times before, and yet, she hadn't lasted five minutes before she couldn't stand the feeling of the wet earth surrounding her hand when she plunged it into the figure's chest. It was too close to the real thing. Wet, cool, dead.

So theoretical learning is probably more her speed, today. Or, at least, learning that doesn't involve the real or remembered feeling of crushing someone's heart inside their chest.

So there is a baker sprawled out on the grass this afternoon, her back dappled by the leaf-shade of an old rambler rose, flipping through her Encantus to find something new to try. Infinitely botherable.

(ooc: Mun has gone to bed, but post is open for new tags forever. <3)

Current Mood: curious

the_cupbearer

Outside there is a young man whittling a forked branch to form a sort of flute, careful with his knife to leave room enough to embellish the instrument when it's done; he's got all the things he needs spread out in the grass around his bare feet; an awl, a sharp rasp to fine down the cuts he makes, a sanding block with sheets of progressively finer paper.

He's humming to himself as he works, enjoying the pretty day and the drone of bees and insects around him, and watching the sunlight glare off the lake surface. It almost looks tempting enough to swim.

balancingminds

Due to two lessons on shielding, Charles has been thinking about the metaphors that are used to learn and make sense of abstract concepts and few things are more abstract than the workings of the mind. It's something he's always been fascinated by as how he pictures his shields has changed as he's grown older.

Currently he's at a table with a notebook, an illustrated book about historic battlements, his personal copy of The Once and Future King and the remains of his tea as he puts down the chronology of his mental walls.

Every once in a while, he'll look around and listen, savoring the diversity of minds here before returning to work. Perhaps no one will ever read this but it's useful for his own knowledge.

Tiny tag: Charles Xavier, Antinoos, Wing
OOC: Charles is passively listening to thoughts so please include them in the narration of your tags or if he won't be able to hear your characters thoughts, explain what he will encounter. Thank you.

sunbaked_baker

Long day at the coffeehouse, today. Unscheduled tourist groups dropping in out of the blue for lunch are not a great way to make a family-run restaurant grateful to your touring company, even if you're bringing it 'so much new business!' In consolation, Rae had left the door to her bakery open so she could hear her mother and Consuela rip the touring company's manager a new one, while she hurriedly made scores of muffins and rolls, whatever took the least time to bake, to help settle the influx of people.

The very satisfactory deal regarding all future tours to the area that Rae's mother had accepted from the frantically apologizing manager would've been more satisfactory if her mother had not then given everyone else a taste of her ire. The coffeehouse staff would usually use the sudden quiet after the departure of a large lunch group to regain some sense of order and sanity, mentally recharging for the afternoon coffee and tea crowd. But instead of being able to deal with their own feelings of burnout and irritation, they all got the overflow from Rae's mother. And Rae, ever the favored lightning rod for her mother's anger, bore the brunt of it.

So there is a baker outside of the bar, this afternoon, trying to work out her frustrations by wearing herself out. She's on her second lap around the lake, footfalls still steady if not as light as they were during her first circuit. The late afternoon sun slants through the branches of the budding trees in shafts of golden light.

Current Mood: frustrated

sunbaked_baker

The kitchen, at least, is in a lot better shape than it had been. Spills and debris have been cleaned up, broken things thrown away and salvageable things salvaged. It almost looks normal, apart from the kitchen door still being completely off its hinges, leaning up against the wall, the lack of glass in the window, and some of the cabinet doors needing new hinges.

Things in the kitchen were at the point where Rae felt comfortable trying a new cooking experiment. The idea came to her a few days ago, and has been simmering since then.

She'd heard stories, you see, from people enthusiastically extolling the virtues of the taste of Atlantean wine, but just as enthusiastically warning about its potency. And Rae felt there should be a way of enjoying the taste without worrying about the resulting hangover.

A wine reduction would seem to be the perfect answer. She could use it in a hearty vegetable stew, or in a sauce for some other dish. Rae felt that it'd be interesting anyway, to find out how long it took the alcohol in the wine to cook out.

Except that somebaker forgot about the hazards of breathing in evaporated alcohol, and is now sitting on the kitchen floor with her back against the nearest cabinet to keep the room from spinning, giggling helplessly to herself. The wine continues to simmer peacefully on the stove.

Current Mood: drunk

sunbaked_baker

Rae trips and nearly falls when she crosses the threshold of the bar. She wasn't expecting there to be a sill there, since there isn't one between her bakery and the back hallway at Charlie's Coffeehouse. The change nearly made her spill the tray of cinnamon rolls she was carrying.

It's a surprise to see Milliways - not just because it's been a couple of weeks, and there hadn't been any sign of a door until now. Rae hadn't expected to see Milliways ever again, but here she is, and the bar looks... well, trashed, yes, but everything feels normal again. Not at all the way it felt when she last saw it.

It's a bit disconcerting. Though... also quite heartening, in a way.

She takes the tray of cinnamon rolls (fragrant and fresh out of the oven though they are) to the kitchens to see if there's something she can do to help clean the place up. She hopes the rats are all right.

Current Mood: surprised

sunbaked_baker

Honestly, she hadn't meant to take a nap today. One wouldn't think she would need one, judging by how late she slept this morning. Rae had intended to do some baking, and maybe take a walk outside (since there was some sort of building with guns blocking her normal running route around the lake).

But she hadn't felt like baking, and her walk just took too much energy. Sitting outside in the sickly redness of Milliways' sunlight hadn't helped, either; it had just made her sick to her stomach. Not even her usual jolt of caffeine really helped her feel more like herself. So, calling the day an utter bust, she'd curled up on the couch to do some reading (Altar of Darkness, today). Except that plan had failed, too. She had fallen asleep, book still open and balanced on the couch armrest, right in the middle of the plot twist.

Current Mood: gloomy

777thdegree.livejournal.com

It's been a busy couple of days for Balthazar Blake, between alternatly abusing Dave to get him to train, and abusing Dave during training. He used to think that he and Horvath had set an unbreakable standard in the amount of trouble an apprentice could create during training...

They hadn't figured on David Stutler.

This all would be why there's a sorcerer snoozing in a dark corner, a half-finished mug of coffee growing cold in front of him. He'll be embarassed later for missing the chaos.

sunbaked_baker

"-ust back off, all right? I know!" Rae replies impatiently as she comes through the door, carrying a cardboard box about twice the size of a shoebox. She slams the door behind her, cutting off the sound of her mother's voice, raised to be heard through walls and her daughter's unwillingness to listen.

The box she unceremoniously shoves onto a nearby table, before heading to the bar for a drink. Something stronger than tea, tonight. This is not how she foresaw her day off from work going.

(ooc: ~~Mun is heading to bed now.~~ Post is open for new tags forever. :D)

Current Mood: avoiding the issue

27_53

There is a man with wings sitting at a table in the main area of the bar.

Correction: there is a man with wings sitting ON a table in the main area of the bar.

He's not wearing a shirt or coat -- simply a pair of well broken-in jeans and a tattered pair of black boots. He's got puzzle in his hands -- a Rubik's Cube, to be exact -- roughly half-solved.

(He hasn't been trying to solve it, however. He's trying to make sure that all the different colors are spread out on all sides of the cube. It's much more decorative this way.)

A waitrat occasionally squeaks at him in an effort to get him to take his feet off of the tabletop, but from a distance -- they don't like coming near him. He's too much of a predator for its liking.

[He's botherable and post is open!]

sunbaked_baker

Near the edge of the forest, under the winter stars, there is a bright light flickering. Nightmares have driven Sunshine from her bed, and she knows she won't get back to sleep any time soon. So rather than fight the nightmares she knows she can't defeat, she has decided to practice defeating those she can, in the waking world.

Practice has made her better at animating figures for her to fight, though it still takes concentration to keep the spell going, even with the Merlin's Circle aiding her. Her hope is that the physical and mental exertion will be enough to get her back to sleep later, before the sun rises.

The two solid shadow-shapes Rae has called up strike quickly against her, forcing her to keep moving as she fights. The knife she wields shines like a miniature sun in the darkness, Sunshine and her opponents casting long shadows far back into the trees.

Current Mood: restless

sunbaked_baker

Sunshine finally finished up her solstice-gift baking earlier today. It'd taken longer than she'd expected, but soon, baskets with tags labeled "Happy Winter Solstice, from Sunshine" are left with the Bar for: ( Balthazar Blake, Thirteen, Ben Wade, Ned, Axel, Teja, Finvarra, Urquhart, James Watson, Howard Stark, Gene Hunt, Elrond Halfelven, Juliet O'Hara, Shawn Spencer, Burton Guster, Steve Rogers, and David Stutler )

The baker herself, is asleep on the couch next to the fire. In Sunshine's opinion, whoever said that winter was 'the most wonderful time of the year' was lying through their teeth.

Current Mood: sleepy

sunbaked_baker

The napkin that appears to Sunshine as she brings out a tray of the day's baking is quite welcome, really. Maybe the Bar knows that she's been trying to save up money for gifts. It's a cold night, so she figures people could probably use something hot to eat and drink.

Specials!
Hot mulled cider
Hot mulled wine
Tea
Coffee

Fresh cinnamon rolls
Warm maple-sugar poundcake
Caramel Cataclysms
Killer Zebras
Chocoholia
Bitter Chocolate Death
Glutton's Grail

"Happy Hour's started, everyone!" Rae calls, putting her sunflower-spotted apron back on. "What can I get you?"

Current Mood: mellow

sunbaked_baker

Things back home might count as 'quiet' if it weren't for SOF. Those members of SOF that frequented Charlie's Coffeehouse, who knew Sunshine and what she could do, could tell that the attack that had taken Paulie might have been aimed at her. They meant to keep her safe, whether she wanted them to or not. It had taken her nearly an hour (of behavior and language that went right past non-professional and into hostile territory - she swears someday Charlie is going to fire her, stepfather or no) to convince Pat that she neither wanted nor needed a SOF escort to and from work, and that they should leave her the hell alone. Even then, the only tactic that worked was asking him how he was going to justify the expense for the SOF escort to the goddess of pain without making her suspicious. The threat of the goddess getting involved was enough to make the strongest of SOFs uneasy.

Pat had eventually backed off, with the usual assertions that SOF and Sunshine were on the same side, meant to take her off of the defensive (and as usual, it didn't work). Pat had just been lucky that it had been Mel's day off when he confronted Rae - Mel may have settled down from his bad-boy days, but his temper was certainly still there.

Rae couldn't do anything about SOF at the coffeehouse though, so at least one SOF was there when she arrived in the morning, and at least one stayed until closing each night. She had had to take up the slack with Paulie's absence, so Rae was back to working every morning baking shift, from 4:30 to 10:30, with a couple of tea and aspirin breaks in what moments of quiet she could steal.

It's enough stress that when the bar door appears as she leaves her bakery, taking another tray of double-chocolate fudge brownies, maple poundcake and triple-ginger gingerbread out front, she takes the opportunity.

So tonight, there is a baker at the bar, with the strongest cup of tea she can stand.

Current Mood: busy

777thdegree.livejournal.com

A while back, Balthazar went back to New York, to make sure Dave hadn't managed to kill himself in some new and creative way. This was after making sure his other apprentice fully understood that he meant what he said about training on her own.

The door slowly opens, and a small, tousle-headed blond-haired boy peers around the edge, his hood making the inevitable fall onto his shoulders.

It was said that Merlin himself was coming to the manor house today, but he did not expect magic such as this. He cannot even recognize the place, and him an occupant of this manor all his days.

777thdegree.livejournal.com

Balthazar Blake is beginning to wonder if the bar is stalking him. He cannot seem to turn around in Dave's underground study space / apprentice training area without finding another doorway. After going about his business five times, he's decided to see if there wasn't something urgent he was needed for.

It helps that he feels he could use a break. He hopes, fervently, that when the attack comes, Dave does not need to defend himself with plasma bolts. It will not end well, if Dave's current ability is any indicator.

sunbaked_baker

(OOM: Conversations with (Un)Dead People )

Physical and emotional exhaustion had been the flavors of the day. SOF had been questioning all of Charlie's employees about Paulie's disappearance, when they had last seen him, etc. Pat and Theo had given Rae some pointed looks and unsubtle comments about how tired she looked, but she couldn't even rise to respond to them. They must have read something more in her look, because they had not pressed the issue. Not even when the report came in that Paulie's body had been recovered from an alley near the parking lot where his car had been found. He had been coming into work when the sucker had gotten him.

Thankfully, Rae didn't have time to dwell in her own dark thoughts too much. She had her hands full. There was baking still left to do, with her apprentice dead, though needless to say her heart wasn't in it. Rae's heart was with July, her apprentice's wife. She had broken down into hysterics in the middle of giving a statement to SOF, and had to be rushed to the local hospital. Once the required baking had been done, nothing extravagant or experimental today, Rae had volunteered to take care of Terry. The infant's father was dead, his mother was in the hospital, he had been awakened far too early and there were too many strange people around and being loud. A crying baby just made people more on edge.

So when the door to Rae's (now solely Rae's again) bakery opens to Milliways, Sunshine welcomes it. The bar room is practically empty, and much quieter than the coffeehouse full of people coming together to gather information and surreptitiously confirm that they and other people are still alive. She settles with the infant on the couch, singing quietly in hopes that Terry will soon be able to get some sleep.