☈ strike #17 (action / video)

[thestormishere]

Action; House 41; morning and onwards of the 22nd.

[ The calendar used in Luceti might be noticeably different than that of Cocoon's, but the way Lightning-- or rather, her friends seem to figure, since her previous birthday was roughly a month before her arrival last November... a Saturday in 'October' seems about as good a time as any to

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10/22 | {action}

[contempsi]

[Hope is glad that Lightning had decided to drag random housemates around to... well, Do Stuff, as it's mentioned. Because once she and Aerith are out of the house? (Well, and hopefully Zack too...) - He'll be getting down to business! Which is... making the biggest cake he can find a pan for.

He's not even sure if Lightning likes white or chocolate cake... so he decides to do a layer of each. Chocolate on top, white on the bottom. This also means that the bottom layer is frosted in chocolate, and the top in buttercream. In essence, it would be like an abstractly yin-yang cake, if he even knew what a yin-yang was...

It might sound awesome in retrospect, but Hope's never made a cake entirely on his own before. He had to find and follow a recipe to the best of his ability. So that means... well, the layers are a little lopsided, the frosting thicker in some places than in others... a gunblade drawn on top that looks more like a sad scrawny narwhal...

Okay, so it's not the most aesthetically pleasing pastry in the end. It basically looks like something a fifteen-year-old boy would make. But hopefully it'll be the thought (and the flavour) that counts?]

[thestormishere]

[ It occurs to Lightning while she's still out that leaving a baking-inexperienced teenager alone with the oven might not be such a good idea, but fortunately the house doesn't seem to be burned down or anything when she returns, so... so that's definitely a plus?

Yeah, she's not so surprised he decided to mirror her in undertaking the creation of birthday baked goods, but she is surprised when she finally gets a glimpse of the final product. THAT'S QUITE A CAKE, LIL BRO. ]

-- Oh. [ Wide-eyed blinking! ] Did you...?

[contempsi]

Um...

[He's just finished sticking the candles in when Lightning arrives. Hope didn't think he could arrange twenty-two of them very artistically, and he didn't want to mess up the gunblade he worked so hard on. So there's just a few of them scattered tastefully over the top of the cake.]

Yeah, I did. Happy birthday, Light...!

[A bit of a shy smile here.] Well, it didn't fall apart, at least. I, um... I don't know how it tastes either but I followed a recipe, so... [More nervous shuffling!]

[thestormishere]

[ A few more blinks, with Lightning's expression at once amused and incredulous as she looks from cake to teenager. WHY IS HE NERVOUS SHUFFLINGING? THAT THING IS FUCKING AWESOME. Colored her impressed/pleased. ]

I'm sure it tastes fine, Hope.

[ Although she's not entirely sure what that thing on the top is supposed to be, but... that's okay. Way better than her fail-at-colored-icing!cupcakes, at least. She pulls on a more obvious smile. ]

Thanks...

[contempsi]

[His art skills are fantastic, okay. Only not really. He nudges it a little closer to her and grins with a bit more confidence.] I was almost afraid you wouldn't leave the house...

[Because then she probably would have tried to stop him...]

Want me to light the candles?

[Three guesses how he plans to do that.]

[thestormishere]

[ A soft laugh, but then... Lightning looks up, from cake to teenager, very slowly.

You know, she was never really a visual person before, but Hope... boy, you have quite efficiently taught her the ways of picturing really insane ways for things to go wrong with the most innocuous of comments and questions. ]

Do I?

[ Best response she can come up with. Yes, she does, but-- well, does the mildly warning expression on her face say enough? ]