04 | Video

[talesuntold]

Good afternoon, my darlings.

That last event was a rough one for a lot of people, and I know some of us are also bracing for what comes next. I'll be in the kitchen for the next four hours, and I'll take requests the whole time I'm there. I think we could all use a little comfort food, or some distraction.

Requests don't necessarily have to be culinary in nature. I'd be delighted to improvise a poem or tell you a story. An off-the-cuff Scheherazade, with bonus cookies.

Come keep me company for awhile.

[Of course, certain people don't have a choice in the matter. She has conchas baking for Seth, cookies for Wirt, all her teammates' favorites, and so on. Friends and acquaintances who fail to show up may well find Maggie at their doors afterward with a plate in hand.

Even a few people who might not expect it, if she's ever had reason to worry about them.

Maggie is going to start climbing the walls if she doesn't find meaningful ways to fill up her days here. This takes care of one day.]

Comments

[thecourier]

"Huh? Oh, sure, go fer it." He doesn't actually look at her before he gives permission. Oscar is a well-trained pup, but he won't attack anything unless Dan gives the order and he loves being petted. Maggie will find that the spaniel pesters for attention too, as soon as she starts fussing over the larger dog.

"Most people're too freaked out t' want t' touch 'im at first."

Finally, he turns away to the cupboards to look at her. She looks like just the type of person to be freaked out by the dog, but he supposes you can't judge a book by its cover.

"'Is name's Oscar. The li'l one is Cinnamon."

[talesuntold]

She would never ignore one dog while petting the other. Maggie crouches down and buries one of her hands in each dog's fur, completely ignoring the big mixing bowl on the counter that had occupied her attention before they came in.

"I'm a horror movie fan who ran my house back home like an unofficial dog rescue. Dogs will never be on the list of things that freak me out. Hello, Oscar and Cinnamon." She isn't looking at Dan now, focused much more on his dogs for the moment.

[thecourier]

Both dogs react favourably to the attention, wagging their tails and moving towards the hands offered out to them. Oscar in particular seems pleased, given that the only person who has ever touched him without any sense of hesitation is Dan himself.

He stops what he's doing to watch, a small smile quirking one corner of his mouth upwards.

"Y' prob'ly jus' made 'is day, miss."

[talesuntold]

"It's Maggie," she tells Dan, glancing upward for a second with a bright smile. "And he made mine, so that seems only fair. I was making treats for another dog earlier. Give me a moment, and I'll get some for these two if that's alright."

Though she'll have to stop petting them to do that. Maggie takes her sweet time standing up to snag chicken jerky from the counter.

[thecourier]

"Dan," he replies in low response to her introduction. It's good to see Oscar getting some positive attention from someone who isn't him, and Cinnamon could use the fussing, too.

"An' yeah, sure, jus' don't give the li'l one too much."

She'd eat the whole lot if you let her, but it would just upset her stomach. Oscar, on the other hand... he isn't sure that Oscar actually has a stomach, but he'll eat like any normal dog.

[talesuntold]

"Are dogs like Oscar the norm, where you come from?" Maggie asks curiously as she feeds him some jerky.

"My world's science went off the rails in an entirely different direction."

As directed, she's careful not to give Cinnamon too much to eat. She's used to her own little dogs and their small stomachs, so that isn't difficult.

[thecourier]

"Mm, not really. Only seen a few like 'im, an' most of 'em in the same place."

A place she wouldn't want to go, even if it was filled with dogs like this. None of them were as friendly as Oscar (or Rex), only programmed to attack and kill. He'd had to put down more of them than he was happy to remember.

"Group 'a old world scientists made dogs like this. Few of 'em got out."