Zoe stares at the counter with the slightest bit of trepidition before she fetches the extra cookie dough from the cooler and brings it back to roll out. Starting over. Right.
It's when she's rolling the dough flat that she speaks again. "I haven't seen Piper for a few days." There was something about the Joker that reminded her of Chives, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
Starting Over to Reset what she'd Done to His Kitchen, even if it wouldn't Completely Erase what had happened. Just set them back where they Ought to be.
Off come the gloves so he can get his hands nice and sterile, get a bit of a feel for the dough himself. Make sure the problem doesn't start Here.
"She's been keeping fine." There's barely a Thought that he knows this about a Joker of all people. "She's inside every other night."
With him. It worked Well, really; spending half his nights basking in being allowed to be Near Annie, and the other half with Piper curled up safe and sound against his side.
She might not even be able to eat a linzer cookie without remembering the category five storm that had erupted into an almond dough and raspberry jam mess. It hasn't been her best domestic goddess moment.
"Oh, is she?" She casts him a curious look and manages a small - tiny, really - smile. "She's very fond of you," she adds. "Is she a cousin?"
The dough is good. As Expected. The Issue clearly came from the jam. He'll have to simply Watch.
Or, well. Simply startle back slightly.
"...what?"
She's a Joker. How in the World could a Joker have come from the Chives family? Which aunt would have thrown a child--even a girl-child--off into the wilds?
Zoe blinks at him, pausing momentarily in her methodical rolling, and she tilts her head to one side.
"You have similar eyes," she says. "It's not the color so much as the...shape?" And the intensity of expression, truthfully. "So I thought maybe you were related, distantly, at least."
So many in the Deck were, after all. Zoe herself was Athena and Judith's second cousin, or something like that. She'd lost track of exactly how the Huntlys were connected there.
For a few seconds, there's simply a quiet Frown, his mind flashing quickly and quietly through his mental Index. Comparing Piper's face to his own, to his aunts' and uncles' and cousins' faces, to his--
Brother's.
"...a... bit, perhaps, Miss." There's the faintest shake of his head as he leans down over the cookie dough again. "It must be... quite difficult. To... trace back the Jokers."
"I...suppose it's the nature of them. No one really knows where Cynric's from," except a few older Hearts who murmur about him being the image of a Heart who'd long since been gone, "or Dybbuk, really. Or Jubilee." Jokers are all odd, which is why Zoe's never had much to do with them.
"And I suppose, with old families, you can't keep track of all the members. That's how it is with my mo...with the Huntlys. I can only manage to keep track of my first cousins, and my grandparents, and aunt and uncle."
"...Oh." Huntlys were uniformly given ridiculously upper-class middle names. Hence her own Caterina Melissande, which was easily the worst of her generation. Jessica had gotten Caroline Elaina and Sara had gotten Ariane Rebecca.
"That was probably it, then." Her own impatience combined with her refusal to just use already jarred jam. Sometimes needing to do everything perfectly went too far.
She picks up the star-shaped cookie cutters and hands him one, with a slightly expectant look. It might help take his mind off whatever his mind was on now.
There, see? She's back to being Herself. She's back to being someone he can Depend on to Look After him in her own quiet way. Back to being a dutiful pupil in the kitchen.
So he'll fall to cutting, setting them into a tray, shifting from his pensive nervous silence into his usual productive silence and gentle attentiveness.
It's when she's rolling the dough flat that she speaks again. "I haven't seen Piper for a few days." There was something about the Joker that reminded her of Chives, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
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Off come the gloves so he can get his hands nice and sterile, get a bit of a feel for the dough himself. Make sure the problem doesn't start Here.
"She's been keeping fine." There's barely a Thought that he knows this about a Joker of all people. "She's inside every other night."
With him. It worked Well, really; spending half his nights basking in being allowed to be Near Annie, and the other half with Piper curled up safe and sound against his side.
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"Oh, is she?" She casts him a curious look and manages a small - tiny, really - smile. "She's very fond of you," she adds. "Is she a cousin?"
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Or, well. Simply startle back slightly.
"...what?"
She's a Joker. How in the World could a Joker have come from the Chives family? Which aunt would have thrown a child--even a girl-child--off into the wilds?
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"You have similar eyes," she says. "It's not the color so much as the...shape?" And the intensity of expression, truthfully. "So I thought maybe you were related, distantly, at least."
So many in the Deck were, after all. Zoe herself was Athena and Judith's second cousin, or something like that. She'd lost track of exactly how the Huntlys were connected there.
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Brother's.
"...a... bit, perhaps, Miss." There's the faintest shake of his head as he leans down over the cookie dough again. "It must be... quite difficult. To... trace back the Jokers."
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"And I suppose, with old families, you can't keep track of all the members. That's how it is with my mo...with the Huntlys. I can only manage to keep track of my first cousins, and my grandparents, and aunt and uncle."
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"...we do keep track, Miss." They had it all written out, diligently updated. "Quite... extensive records. And... the naming."
He had his father and grandfather and great-grandfather as patronymics. Feilim had had the secondborn's of each generation.
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"Well, maybe I'm wrong, then?"
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Just a Normal Baking Experiment.
Hm.
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"Raspberry?" She offers, and then peers into the pot. "I think it's too thin. Or too hot." It's too something, at any rate.
Just like Chives is too quiet, but she doesn't know how to ask about it.
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But that'll be after the Cutting and Setting in the Oven and being Quiet together. To get back the Equilibrium of Her being his Perfect Princess.
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She picks up the star-shaped cookie cutters and hands him one, with a slightly expectant look. It might help take his mind off whatever his mind was on now.
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So he'll fall to cutting, setting them into a tray, shifting from his pensive nervous silence into his usual productive silence and gentle attentiveness.
The next batch would be Perfect.
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