city sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style

[floozyfacade]

What it says about her, Olive doesn't really know, but she just doesn't get tired of all this. Granted, the corsets can make things a bit tiring, but if she remembers her exercises and posture from her lessons and doesn't try to rush overly much, it really just becomes another detail that fades into the background, part of the whole situation and

Comments

[pointzerothree]

"Nothing that comes to mind," Eduardo says as he crosses to Olive's side, an arm wrapping around her waist when he reaches her, head turned in her direction rather than towards the counter. It's too hard to help when just saying so is something so welcome. The cold, he's no more sold on than he was when he was at Harvard, and the whole nineteenth century London thing is more than a little strange, but this - making their own meals, running their own house, even the goddamn clothes - he knows without a doubt he could get used to. After almost a year of eating whatever they had in the kitchen or the Winchester, getting to go shopping for ingredients and deciding what to have is as novel in its own right as the rest of it, and even then, it really only just feels right. They're in the wrong place and the wrong time, and yet this feels like real life, rather than the break from it that the island itself always was. He only wishes it could last. "What about you? Any thoughts?"

[floozyfacade]

Olive leans her head against his shoulder, glancing up to catch him looking at her, and smiles. She's been consulting whatever cookery books the shelf in the Compound will give her, intent on finding recipes used during this actual era, since she suspects they'll be easier to manage on this stove than something out of a more modern cookbook. They're not as informative as newer volumes, though, so it's a big jumble of recipes and notes in her morning room, alongside all the scattered bits and pieces for the presents she's making, and instead of being messy, it all just feels cozy.

"I might try my hand at a Yorkshire pudding," she says. "Which is not actually a pudding, it's a kind of bread. How does roast beef sound?" They'll have to get the ingredients for the rest of it elsewhere, but she's got to think about breakfast, too, and they're low on bread.

[pointzerothree]

"Sounds good to me," Eduardo says with a slight nod, pretty sure there isn't actually anything he would have disagreed with, unless she were suddenly suggesting they make pork. It's all worth trying and worth trying to make, a welcome break in itself from the usual Island dishes served, no matter how good their cooks are. Thumb absently brushing the curve of her waist over her coat, he shrugs a moment later, a little less decisive a gesture but no less earnest. "If that's what you feel like making. And we'll have to get some things to go with that, right?"

This part of everything, he's fairly unaccustomed to dealing with himself, but that doesn't make him any less eager to catch on, or to offer assistance. Half the point of this - or at least the appeal, in his eyes - is that it's the two of them getting to take care of the house together, and he isn't so old-fashioned that he'd expect her to prepare all the meals just because she's a woman or some shit like that.

[floozyfacade]

"Some kind of side," Olive says, nodding. "Vegetables. Potatoes, maybe?" She's pretty sure that's the traditional assortment of side dishes, and she kind of loves the idea of making very British dishes in keeping with everything else, but they don't have to go with that. The really fantastic thing about all this is getting to mix it up, eat foods they don't get on the island, and make it themselves. The hardest thing will probably be the pudding, although she figures the bright side on that is that she actually has no idea what Yorkshire pudding is supposed to be like, so as long as it tastes good, it'll be a success.

"Okay, so we need a loaf of bread," she says, directed mostly to the shopkeeper. He's a lot easier to see when she addresses him, not a motion in the corner of her eye anymore, and she's finally getting used to that. "Oh, let's get some scones."

[pointzerothree]

"Yeah, that works," Eduardo says, as much in response to one as the other. These weird spectral Londoners - the shopkeepers and carriage-drivers and people on the street - still give him the creeps, but he tries to ignore it for now, putting on a smile like it will make a difference to a person who probably isn't really there. He turns to Olive again in short order anyway, thoughtful. "Can you think of anything else we might need here?" It isn't as if they can't just come back whenever, but it's worth double-checking just in case.

[floozyfacade]

"Everything," Olive says. "Pick a pie, let's get a pie for dessert. What pie do you want?" She's been directing most of the menu thus far tonight, so she'll leave dessert entire in his hands. Besides, all of them look delicious. She's not going to be sorry, no matter what he chooses. They don't need more than that, though, not when it's only the two of them, and she'd rather try and make any cookies herself. She should try that soon, she decides, and see if it's hard to make sugar cookies with that stove, before Christmas-Hannukah gets here.

[pointzerothree]

"Shit, um, I don't know," Eduardo says, a little surprised, his eyes going wide. He's not even sure what they have, for that matter, though given the nature of this place and its half-ghostly shopkeeper, he wouldn't be surprised if they just happened to have anything he could think of. "There's always, what, apple, that's pretty standard, right?" Whatever they get, he's sure it'll be good, anyway, one other quirk about this place he really isn't going to object to. It definitely makes things a whole lot easier for them.

[floozyfacade]

"Apple pie it is," Olive says, this to the man behind the counter, who carries on with gathering what she's asked for. She always feels bad for these people, doing all this work and not being fully real; it doesn't seem fair that they should exist and vanish on the whims of others. That said, she's grateful they exist at all, considering that it allows them access to fresh foods she couldn't procure on her own. She leans her head against Eduardo's shoulder as everything's packed up. Once it is, she slips the bundle in her basket and says "Thank you," before glancing up at Eduardo. "Shall we?"

[pointzerothree]

"We shall," Eduardo says, nodding as he smiles down at her, half-teasing. There's something about all of this - the city and the clothes and everything else - that lends itself well to excessive formality, and while they'd probably have said the same thing regardless, it's an easy sort of thing to fall into now. His arm stays around her waist as they start for the doorway, though he glances back at the half-real shopkeeper in thanks of his own before they make it outside, and once through it, he looks to Olive again, drawing in a shaky breath from the cold. "Alright. Where to from here?"

[floozyfacade]

Basket over one arm, Olive slips the other around Eduardo, absently rubbing his back in hopes of somehow keeping him a little warmer. "Potatoes and vegetables first, I think," she says. "We should get meat last. We could... always go by the frost fair for those." She looks up with a little smile, shoulders wiggling slightly. Even saying it, she knows she's in danger of spending far more time there than is necessary, looking at all the little crafts and foods for sale, but then, she doesn't see what's wrong with that. Either the winter will end and they'll be on the island again or the ice will thaw and the fair will be over; one way or another, there's a limited amount of time to enjoy its wares.

[pointzerothree]

"You really think that's a good idea?" Eduardo asks, skeptical but amused, eyebrows arching as he looks down at her. While they could get them there, it's true, that's hardly the only thing available to buy at the fair, and he knows Olive and how easily he can get distracted. By the same token, though, he also knows she'll get what she wants one way or another, his willpower not typically very strong when it comes to things like this, and it isn't as if they're in a hurry. Holding out is mostly just for the principle of it, and a little bit because she's adorable when she gets petulant. "We'll just wind up spending all day there."

[floozyfacade]

"Aw, come on," Olive says, bouncing on the balls of her feet in her lace-up heels. "I'm the one carrying the basket, you won't even have to do that, no matter what I put in it, and it's so cool. I mean, it puts our farmers market to shame, and you have not seen our farmers market. It's like - it's a whole thing." She knows that, sooner or later, on a matter of such trivial importance, he'll cave if she keeps it up long enough, so she has no qualms about going all the way just to cut to the chase. Eyes wide and hands clasped together, she looks pleadingly at him. "I wanna go on the swings. And we wouldn't even have to go to the butcher, we can just get meat there, and you know the butcher freaks me out, with the animals. In the window. With their eyes. All sad and dead."

[pointzerothree]

"Alright, alright," Eduardo says, hands held up in front of him in a show of surrender. He means to sigh with the words, but what comes out instead is a laugh, and then he can't help continuing, shaking his head at her as he grins. It's ridiculous and adorable and unnecessary and absurd and a million other things, but endearing most of all, as so much about Olive tends to be. They'll wind up spending far more time there than they ought to, they'll get way too cold, it really isn't the responsible choice at all, but he has difficulty enough saying no to her as it is, and when she pulls out all the stops like that, he just doesn't have it in him. "We can go to the fair, you can go on the swings, you don't have to see the sad, dead animals, and I will even hold the basket if you get tired of carrying it."

[floozyfacade]

Olive claps her hands, hopping with no regards for her basket of baked goods. They'll survive a little flopping around, even the pie. "Yes," she exclaims. "Good, because ugh, God, is it really necessary to put like, the entire pig with the head in the window? Is it? This is going to turn me into a vegetarian and I don't want to be one, I like meat too much." Hand on his shoulder, she kisses the corner of his mouth, grinning, then kisses him properly on the lips just because she can. "We should get a carriage there."

[pointzerothree]

"We should," Eduardo agrees, though he kisses her again while she's still close, just for a moment not caring that they're outside and it's cold and they should really get moving. He's already relented; a few seconds longer won't make much difference. He's all for not walking, anyway. Soon enough, the island is bound to return to normal, so they ought to make the most of alternative forms of transportation while they can. Besides, it is freezing out, and it'll save time to take a carriage instead of going all that way on foot. "And no, I don't think it should be necessary, but I also don't eat pig, so I don't really care about that part."

[floozyfacade]

"It's still a poor pig," Olive laments. "You don't have to eat it to be sad for it. Or grossed out." If there's one thing she hasn't taken to, when it comes to this Victorian life of theirs, it's caring about the rules of propriety or whatever they are. She's enjoying the challenge and experiment of dressing this way, but she intends to kiss her boyfriend whenever and wherever she likes, even if it causes a distant murmur. Those people aren't really there, or they barely are, and it's enough to make her question if she's imagining it or not (she's with Marie on this, though. Scandalizing them is fun). "Look, there, here's one coming. Wave it down."