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“...What’s all this?” The red-haired girl asked, staring at the six plates before her with about the same intensity as she had staring down a space monster only a mere month before.
A breathy chuckle escaped the lips of the short black haired girl behind Cyl, as she finished setting down the last plate. “Cake!” Izu answered, with probably a little more jubilee than the situation really called for.
“...Why?” Cyl knew about cake of course, even if she never remembered eating any- knew it was usually eaten for celebrations at least. There was fanfare when she returned to Earth, the Aberration seemingly beaten for good, and the crew it tried to steal for itself, rescued. But Cyl didn’t particularly care about celebrating then. None of them did. It had been a long, arduous period in all their lives. And the physical exams and surgeries that followed. The seemingly endless interviews and questioning. Keeping up with the news about the suits who had practically abused the lot of them's well-deserved punishments. And then of course, having to explain to the Moore parents that they suddenly had two daughters. It was little wonder that they all basically passed out into their beds at the first opportunity (Picayune swearing she only found it ‘a little’ funny looking at Cyl’s incredibly contented smile as she sank into a soft bed for what was the first time Cyl remembered.) She thought it strange to pick it back up now.
“Izu remembered you mentioned something about you never eating a cake before-” Matt tried to explain.
“Which is an absolute injustice we needed to fix immediately!” Interjected Harley, who pulled out two seats at the opposite end of the table to Cyl. Taking one, she gestured for Alexis to take the other.
“...” Cyl stared at the plates before her. Izu, as Rabbit, claimed to know of Cyl’s favorite cake. Cyl in turn claimed she didn’t know if she had one. That exchange felt like a lifetime ago, and Cyl was slightly impressed that Izu would remember such a small thing, especially considering it was immediately followed up by a fight to the death. Or would-be death, had the Aberration not apparently been so intent on letting none of them actually die.
Six different flavors. The last plate Izu sat down was put right in front of Cyl. A triangular slice, with two deep red layers separated and coated on the outside by a thinner layer of white buttercream. Cyl eyed the rest of the slices. One was different shades of brown. Another, very pink. Yellow and white. One more orange, with a carrot of icing atop the white frosting. And one more creamy than the rest.
“...All of these are different?” Cyl asked. She still hasn’t quite figured out what knowledge she did or didn’t wake up with. She knew language, had a sense of duty and something of a sense of snark. Yet she never could recall any sort of sensations while in space. Never remembered favorite flavors, or smells, or even music. Picayune took most of the personality when they split, she figured. It didn’t bother her a month ago- there were more important things to worry about then after all- but now she has to learn to adjust to Earth life. She does know now that falling and hitting your face on the floor feels bad, at least. It’s still preferable to being shot at however.
“Yeah.” Alexis spoke up. “We… wanted to see which one you liked best…” Cyl suspects there may be betting on if her favorite is the same as Picayune’s. She doesn’t even know which one that is, until her ‘sister’ finally joins her at the table, and immediately goes to grab a slice of the deep red variety from the cakebox. “Red Velvet” is what the label reads. She realizes Izu put her plate in that spot on purpose.
Cyl picks up the fork… and drops it on the plate, resulting in an obvious clang. “...” She sighed, before making another attempt, remembering to grip it tighter this time. “...This is hard when you’re all staring at me, you know.”
10 eyes avert their gazes. “Oh sorry.” Matt apologizes.
Fork in hand, Cyl presses it down into the red velvet slice in front of her, watches it pierce the buttercream and the cake layers nigh effortlessly. Bringing it up to her face, she sniffs it. She recognizes a vaguely chocolate scent, and a hint of something tangy, almost like something ‘mom’ used for dinner last night. She lets the flavor sit on her tongue for a moment, the buttercream is a little sweeter than she’d like, but the cake itself is almost perfect, she thinks.
“Soo what do you think?” Picayune now. She’s smiling- this time it’s a comforting one that fits a human face, not like…
“...Not bad…” Cyl delivers the verdict.
Picayune pouts in playful disappointment, emphasizing it with an "awww…"
Cyl restrains an eye roll and looks to her left. Izu has a slice of the carrot cake. Of course. So that’s what Cyl tries next. The texture, Cyl finds, is slightly yet jarringly different, with harder bits strewn amongst the softer, spongier parts of the cake. The carrot sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s not a deal breaker, but she prefers the first one.
At the other end of the table Harley is feeding Alexis a bite of chocolate cake with a spoon and only misses a little bit. Cyl opts for that one next. She notices the icing on this one, deep brown, is a little harder than what was on the carrot cake. As she makes the incision with her fork she sees chocolate chips fall off or hang for dear life to the newly exposed edges.
She needs a longer moment to come to a conclusion on the chocolate cake. Once again there’s harder bits but they dissolve in her mouth. The cake itself she finds almost cloyingly sweet but she does enjoy the scent of it. She hears Alexis giggling as she wipes the chocolate off her cheek.
Looking over, she notices Matt has gone for a slice of the pink cake, so Cyl goes for that. The smell is unfamiliar to her. The taste, even more so. It’s sweet, but not overbearing. There’s no tang, she notices. She thinks on it for a moment. The icing has also been colored pink, and tastes much sweeter. It’s rather spongy, but consistent.
“Strawberry.” Matt says, answering the question Cyl hasn’t asked yet. “Pretty simple, but I like it. It’s easier to get used to after… removing all the augmentations.” The part about entirely regaining his human body goes unsaid, but heard. Aside from Picayune herself, he was probably the one changed the most- even before the Aberration got to him.
“I don’t think I’ve had a strawberry yet…” Cyl mutters, before clearing her throat. “...That doesn’t mean anyone needs to run out and get me one.” She hears stifled laughter to the left and right of her.
“We should probably get some anyway…” Picayune muses to herself. Cyl pretends to have not heard her as she swaps out the strawberry plate for the yellow slice. This slice crumbles under the fork without protest. Cyl brings up the bite on her fork to her nose. Vanilla. The taste confirms as much too. The flavor is also simple, not overly sweet, not even the icing this time. But that’s not a drawback to Cyl. This one is fluffy, and she likes the smooth, consistent texture.
One last plate. She moves the vanilla cake out of the way and pulls the creamy looking one towards herself. This one is much different from the rest, she notices. There’s a crumbled crust on the outside of it, and the majority of it is a white sort of cream. Cyl takes her finger and uses it to bring some crumbs to her mouth. Sweet, as expected. It is bits of some sort of sweet bread, and grains of sugar after all. Next she takes her fork, and presses down on the cream. The fork slides through effortlessly, leaving impressions of the tines’ path perfectly within the cake. The crust on the bottom only slows down progress for a second before it relents. The scent is of vanilla and… lemon, it takes her a moment to realize. Very slight lemon, but it’s there. Then comes the taste test.
She feels her eyes may have widened, even if ever so slightly. The first thing she notices is that this one is a little cooler than the others. And it is just as smooth as it looks, and practically melts on her tongue. It’s more sour than the others, just a smidge, but the crust balances it out nicely. She takes another bite fast.
“Oh I think we have a winner…” Izu whispers across the table to everyone, as if trying to make sure Cyl both does and does not hear. Sure enough in the next moment Cyl is already halfway done with that slice.
“That good huh?” Matt asks, smiling.
Cyl only answers with a nod. In time there’s no slice left at all as the red haired girl, only slightly sheepishly, runs a finger over the plate, looking for those last valuable bits of cake.
Picayune watches, mostly quiet but highly amused, grinning ear to ear…like a normal human. “Cheesecake. Interesting.”
"Hush." Cyl responds, internally grappling with whether she wants another slice of that or should at least have the decency to finish off the other slices. She does grab the box the cheesecake came in, turning it over to find the ingredients. Maybe she'll pick up a hobby.
Did she have any cooking knowledge from Picayune? She searches the recesses of her memories, but comes up short. Well, she has no shortage of time now to learn. "Vanilla, crackers, eggs…" She mutters to herself.
Harley notices Cyl studying the label. "I'm game for a ride to the store. I gotta get my energy drinks." She stretches, cracks her knuckles. "Well- I'm game to ride, the rest of you walk."
Alexis clears her throat.
"…Alexis and I ride, the rest of you walk."
Picayune pipes up now, responding with "That sounds nice."
"Oooh! Field trip!" Izu exclaims. "We can get some strawberries while we're there!"
Cyl rolls her eyes. "Have we not been on a field trip all day?"
"Kikikiki!"
Cyl notes that she will have to ask Picayune- later- if Izu always laughed like that.
Matt looks over the table- a good portion of the cakes had been thoroughly annhilated by these six hungry astronauts. "Are we done here? Let's pack these up and head out then."
Moments later, it had been decided what leftovers will go with who (Harley almost growling over rights to the chocolate cake.) The other four all unanimously deciding that Cyl will take the cheesecake, and putting the rest of her test slices in the box with it.
The boxes were then piled into a basket on Harley's bicycle. "Stay safe, alright?" Matt tells the biker, who scoffs, smiling.
"Pft. Who do you think I am?" Alexis joins her by her side. "See you all at the store!" Cyl glimpses the two of them share an intimate moment before straddling the vehicle, only a little awkwardly, and heading out.
The walk down the street is mostly pleasant, Cyl thinks, the only drawback being the smell of gasoline from the cars. She still isn't quite use to the scent of modern day urban Earth, but it's bearable. She looks to her side. They were crossing a bridge, and the water reflected the evening sky. Hues of blue, and red, and purple intermingling as the sun sat behind the city buildings in the distance. Matt and Izu walked ahead, in jubilant discussion about… something. Picayune walks to Cyl's right.
Cyl stares at the rippling water for a long moment. "…Why did you all decide to do this?" she asks, mostly to her 'sister', but really to anyone listening.
"…Why not?" is the response she gets. "I mean, you did risk quite a lot saving us when you very well could have just left us all. We were trying to kill you a lot."
"Yeah, carrot brain!" Izu interjects herself in, causing Cyl to only jump a little bit. "After something like that it's not right to just not do anything!"
"I mean I mainly pitched in as an apology to all the dissection and dismemberment comments I made to you almost every time we met. No hard feelings?"
"Maaatttt!" Picayune and Izu laughed in unison.
"None at all." Cyl laughed back. "None at all…" She smiled, looking ahead as she stretched her arms behind her. Hopefully, she thinks to herself, she'll stop minding the gasoline smell in time and Earth will be bearable. The store was up ahead, along with Harley and Alexis, waiting for them.