Eleventh Cream Cake: [Action]

[vor]

[Very early in the morning, Gregor can be found in the back yard of house 60, carefully snipping a bit of black hair and setting it into a brazier he found for specifically this purpose. He adds a carefully constructed hatchwork of rosewood dowels. Two sprays of a perfume he found that smells a little like he remembers her wearing. Lastly, a white winter flower, waxy and perfect and elegant.

Twenty-one years ago on this day, Princess Kareen Vorbarra was killed.

The offering in the brazier burns quickly, thanks to the perfume, and with little smoke until the delicate white flower atop the pile withers and blackens.]

Comments

[complicatedliar]

It's traditional to have an early morning, or something else?

[vor]

Something else. [He dumps the oatmeal into the bowl.] I was burning an offering.

[complicatedliar]

Ah. I wasn't aware you were religious.

[vor]

I'm not. It's just...I haven't explained this to you?

[complicatedliar]

I don't believe so.

[vor]

It's something we do for our dead. A sort of memorial.

[complicatedliar]

Ah, I see. My condolences.

[vor]

You're twenty-one years late, but thank you. We often burn offerings on the anniversaries of deaths.

[complicatedliar]

Ah... whose death, then?

[He has educated guesses, but guessing isn't really a thing to do at these times.]

[vor]

Mother's.

[He never called her "mother" during her life, but it's a little silly for a grown man to say "Mama."]

[complicatedliar]

[Loki nods slowly, then repeats himself:] My condolences.

[vor]

[He doesn't get a lot of condolences. He didn't get a lot of condolences at the age of five, either. It causes him to pause and blink at Loki, then go back to pouring water into his bowl.]

Thank you. I don't remember her well, though.

[Which, as Amelia agrees, makes it worse.]

[complicatedliar]

I can't imagine that makes it any better.

[vor]

It really doesn't. [The anti-depressants have definitely been taking effect. Otherwise, this merely personal conversation would have had him slumping. He stirs the oatmeal as if it is very interesting.]

[complicatedliar]

Anything I ought to do?

[vor]

It's fine. I just do this every year.

[complicatedliar]

[He chuckles softly.] Ceremonies are just that because they are done so regularly. It doesn't release anyone else around from responsibilities. [Shrugs.]

[vor]

You don't have any responsibilities. It's fine.

[complicatedliar]

[Loki nods.] All right.