Room 414, Tuesday Afternoon

[solarhippie]

Apart from going to class, Karolina had spent yesterday mostly hiding out and dealing with the horrors of having handwavily been a guy all weekend. That meant also that she'd missed out on celebrating her birthday in any kind of a significant way.

She was seventeen and a day, today. Slowly edging towards eighteen and adulthood.

She wasn't so sure how she felt about that. She'd braved the outside world, anyway, to get a sixpack of strictly vegan cupcakes from the mainland on her way back from therapy. Getting an entire cake had seemed wasteful, but she wanted to do something nice for herself. And cupcakes were nice.

Also, they were really cute, so she probably couldn't be blamed if she just stood by her desk admiring them for a while. Right?

[ooc: Open door/post! I'm still home sick though, so SP may occur as my attention span flounders, but gdi I already had to skip mentioning her birthday yesterday.]

Comments

[arsenicmauls]

True, the last time Gert and Karolina had spoken hadn't really gone so well. But after everything that had happened, Gert would feel weird not getting Karolina a present, and since she couldn't contact her own version of Kar, she figured making amends with the one here might be a good start.

So she knocked on the door, holding a bag in one hand that contained something she thought Karolina would like.

"Hey."

[solarhippie]

Karolina looked a little bit surprised to see Gert at her door, even she herself was probably the one who'd been bruised the most by their last discussion. Not necessarily bad surprised, though.

"... Hi."

[arsenicmauls]

"So... happy belated birthday," Gert said, swinging her arms a little uncomfortably. "I'm not gonna yell at you again. I just wanted to give you this."

She took a step or two into the room, holding out the bag.

[solarhippie]

"I didn't think you were going to yell at me," Karolina was quick to assure her. Because she was Karolina Dean, and that meant being nice even to people you'd been a little wary of.

She reached out for the bag, surprised. "You... got me something?"

[arsenicmauls]

"I saw it at one of the stores in town and the colors made me think of you," Gert shrugged. "It might be a little cold for it in this dumb weather, but--" it'd be just fine in sunny LA-- "I figured you could save it for when it's warmer."

[solarhippie]

Karolian reached into the bag, and then she gasped as she pulled the dress out.

"Oh, Gert, this is so pretty! Thank you! This is... this is perfect."

[arsenicmauls]

Gert grinned at that. Look, you try not preening in response to Karolina's happy gushing. It was hard. "Glad you like it,' she said sincerely."It probably isn't the best choice for flying around, for obvious reasons, but I figured the colors kind of bring out the Lucy in the Sky when you're all normal."

[solarhippie]

Yeah, Karolina's gushing tended to have that effect on people. It helped that she was absolutely sincere with it, too.

"Thank you, that's so thoughtful," she said. "I can't wait to wear it."

[arsenicmauls]

"No prob." Well, that was a good icebreaker, at least. As screwed-up as it was to buy someone a gift to win their friendship back, it wasn't like that had been Gert's entire reason for doing it, and anyway, Karolina seemed happy. "So... how are you otherwise?"

[fewer_explosions]

"Ah. You have cupcakes," Liara observed from the door. She had been walking... ...okay, she had been walking here, as a matter of fact, now that the oddness between her and Karolina seemed to have evaporated.

Please excuse her the obviousness - she was a little giddy she was starting to recognize these things at all.

[solarhippie]

Well, cupcakes were a good thing to recognize, as far as Karolina was concerned. She smiled over at Liara.

(There was still some oddness. But it was less obvious.)

"I do! Fully vegan, too."

[fewer_explosions]

"Vegan," Liara echoed. "That means it does not contain animal products, I believe?"

She'd take the smile as a sign that she could step into the room.

[solarhippie]

She might as well. All it meant was that Karolina saved the trouble of inviting her in words in a moment or two.

"Yes," she confirmed, nodding at the cupcakes. "I try to stay away from things that are harmful to animals."

[fewer_explosions]

"Can I try one?" Liara asked brightly. "I have only had the ordinary kind."

She had not been aware they had been particularly harmful to animals, but she would take Karolina's word for it.

[solarhippie]

Well, cupcakes weren't too high up on Karolina's list of potentially harmful things, either. But it was nice to be sure.

"Sure," she said, nodding again. "I did buy enough to share for a reason."

[fewer_explosions]

There was a lifetime of difference between the shuffling she'd done last time she was here and the nearly-bouncing Liara did as she came over to grab a cupcake this time. "You have not touched them yourself," she did observe, though.

[solarhippie]

Karolina offered her a shrug and a sheepish smile. "Well, they're so cute, it's been hard to get to eating them."

[pursuedthestars]

Coming up a few flights of stairs after his class wasn't a big deal. He'd decided to check in on Karolina, make sure she was doing okay since he knew she'd had a tough few weeks.

Maybe he was self involved as all hell but he did care about his friends. He just tried not to be too obvious about it. Because he was him.

[solarhippie]

And whether he was obvious about it or not, Karolina appreciated it all the same.

"Hey, Jim."

[pursuedthestars]

"Hey," Jim said, taking up a familiar position by leaning in her doorway. "What's happening today, Karolina? Is your desk really, really interesting?"

[solarhippie]

Karolina did her usual chuckling thing, too. "No," she said, shaking her head. "I just bought some cupcakes, and they're almost too cute to eat."

[pursuedthestars]

"Oooh, cupcakes?" Jim asked, wandering into her room and coming over to peer down at them. "What's the cupcake-y occasion?"

[solarhippie]

"It was my birthday, yesterday."

She was not going to be getting into why she'd not celebrated yesterday, most likely. Too embarrassing.

"A full cake seemed like overdoing it. And these are really cute."

[pursuedthestars]

"Aww, your birthday?" Jim cooed teasingly. "How old are you now? Twelve?"

[solarhippie]

"Seventeen!" Karolina exclaimed, although she knew he was just teasing. "Seventeen. Not twelve."