Stark Industries - Monday

[slothbabyproductions]

Having come back from her visit with her family yesterday, Kamala had gone from being delighted to find it snowing sugar yesterday to over-the-moon enthusiastic to find the Stark Lobby having multiple ponies in sweaters.

Sorry work, you were taking a back seat to Kamala taking lots of pictures and selfies with tiny ponies.

Comments

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Too cold for smoothies," Arden declared, thus proving that she had not yet been properly indoctrinated into the Cult Of Red Dye #4. But she was handing over a cup of cocoa. "Enjoy something warm."

[slothbabyproductions]

"Oooo! Thank you!" Kamala said straightening up from her selfie with the pony she had named Eduardo. She took the cup in both hands getting a good whiff of the cocoa. "Much better than the one at the Starbucks here. For some reason it tasted like cranberry. How was your Thanksgiving?"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

For some reason, that made Arden groan and bury her face with one hand. "There was...a powerpoint presentation."

[slothbabyproductions]

Kamala blinked at her in confusion. "Instead of turkey?" she asked cautiously.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I mean, there was also turkey, which I didn't eat, and ham, which I did," Arden said. "There was so much food. Which makes sense, because Raiden, you know? But it was also a trap. For the Powerpoint. Not by Raiden, he would never trap food. But Bellamy is sneaky and not to be trusted."

[slothbabyproductions]

"Okay, I'm going to need some context," Kamala said as Eduardo was nuzzled out of the way by the pony Kamala had dubbed Bailey. She gave the pony some ear scratches to keep it occupied. "What kind of trap-slash-powerpoint-presentation was this?"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"An educational powerpoint created and given by the Avatar of Lust," Arden groaned, putting her face down on Kamala's desk. A pony helpfully began trying to chew her sweater. "Of course, the rest of them also needed to offer suggestions."

[slothbabyproductions]

"Taliesin! No chewing!" Kamala exclaimed, shooing the pony away before turning back to her friend with a sympathetic look. "I can only feel the embarrassment for you, because that just sounds—"

Kamala paused, realizing "horrible" wasn’t quite right, and quickly shoved the word "intriguing" out of her mind. Of course, now she was wondering if Arden had a copy of the PowerPoint, but she squashed that thought aside too. After a brief moment of hesitation, she finally blurted out:

"-Awkward."

Yep. Perfect word. No notes.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Without picking up her head, Arden gave Kamala fingerguns. "Awkward is exactly the right word," she said. "There was a whole subsection about the importance of lube."

Like Bellamy would allow her to leave without a copy. What if she needed to reference something later!

[slothbabyproductions]

Now Taliesin was butting her head against Kamala's thigh to get ear scratches which was impossible with the hot chocolate.

"Sooooooo. Awkward family gathering but for entirely different reasons than I expected," Kamala said now just having the word 'lube' echoing in her head. She paused, unsure of what to say next. "So the food was good?"

Yes. Awkward transition for the win.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Amazing," Arden said, finally lifting her head back up. "Some of those pies could make angels weep. I don't know how many pounds of butter were in the mashed potatoes, but they tasted buttery while still being light and creamy...and I think the candied yams could qualify as some kind of sin."

She grimaced at the unintentional pun and then looked up at Kamala. "How were things with Bruno and his grandmother? Still okay...?"

[slothbabyproductions]

"Honestly, it was still awkward but still way better than it was," Kamala said with a sigh. "I guess he's dating someone now? Or at least something involving some girl name Dinah. Anyway we had moments where we were almost back to our normal banter. It was nice. Oh! Pies! Your pie was a hit!"

She pulled out her phone and nudged Eduardo out of the way so Arden could see a picture she took of her father eating the pecan pie directly out of the pie plate with a guilty expression as her mother was glaring at him with her arms crossed. "Abbu told me if you would like to send more, he wouldn't say no."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden snickered. "I'm glad he liked it," she said. "Though we do have to figure out a time to see them in person so I can accept being..." She ducked her head and said, "--you know. 'Dopted."

[slothbabyproductions]

Kamala’s smile grew a little bigger as Bailey tried to get her attention by pulling on her blazer. “I know they are going to be thrilled,” She promised Arden as she scratched Bailey’s ears. “Ammi was asking all about you and it was so hard not to spill the tea with her. Do you know when you want to tell them?”