ELFebruary Crosspost Day 2: Reward
Feb. 2nd, 2019 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emptymanuscriptCourtney DaCortenay binge-stuffed overbuttered popcorn into her mouth as she slumped on the dying family couch watching the latest flick in her personal anti-valentine’s day horror marathon. The woman on screen was just about to open the door that Courtney knew, KNEW, the monster was behind all slick-slime and glistening artophagous teeth. Her mother floated by behind the couch, flicking the fluff that erupted from the back of the couch arm and sighed as if Courtney had gotten all her popcorn from there instead of from an unbreakable microwavable bowl.
“How can you watch that stuff?” Her mother asked as the heroine screamed at the gnashing teeth.
Courtney paused her popcorn stuffing. “I like it, Mom. I’ll watch something sweet next month. But February has to die in screams and blood. And snakes. I think Saint Valentine did something with Snakes.”
“We’re protestant, dear. We don’t care about saints.”
Courtney leveled one finger and a full fist at her mother. She groaned as one fluffy piece of deliciousness fell, bounced off her pj’s / exercise outfit, and was lost forever beneath the horrid pastel blue of couch. The loss added extra vehemence to her accusation. “And yet, despite our lack of Catholicism, you’re here to talk to me about Valentine’s Day.”
Courtney’s mother pursed her lips and put one fist on her hip next to a particularly large red stain on her painting smock. “I just wondered if you had a date. Women your age date.”
“Women my age?”
“Yes, hoary old ancient bags too decrepit to climb the steps in the convent like yourself do in fact occasionally bring someone home. Why, you’re even almost old enough not to live at home with your mother.”
Courtney hmphed and stuffed more popcorn down her throat. “Low blow, Mom. Low blow. But honestly, the only place I want a man is in a horror movie.” She gestured to the cathode ray TV that was older than she was, where all the brand new equipment piled on top was streaming in a man being eaten by the monster as he desperately stabbed at it, dropping the weapon Courtney was sure would be needed later on the ground.
“Nice try, Courtney, you came out about fourteen years ago. You can’t pretend you’re angry at a guy.” She paused and then looked sympathetic. “Did a girl dump you?”
“Jesus, no, Mom.” She paused the movie, realizing that this was going to be a big discussion and not wanting to miss any more of the gore. “I can’t get a date, alright. That’s why I’m sitting around stuffing my face and wasting my life as I get behind in my car payments. Are you happy now?”
Courtney knew she had made a tactical error when her mother gave her best wicked grin. “Oh, that’s too bad. Well, since you don’t have a date and are just wasting time, that means you can do a chore for me.”
Courtney gaped her mouth and narrowed her eyes, trying to convey horror and murderous rage all at once. She tossed a handful of the popcorn at her mother. “You… heartless… get Danny to do it.”
“He can’t. The warding on the roof needs redoing.”
Courtney rolled her eyes and hated herself for the teenage whine that came out of her sixteen years too late. “Mo-om. I can do it later. Rewarding the house is in no way more important than me stuffing the hole that is my heart with butter and horror.”
“How long since you last did it? You want us all to live here safely young lady, then the wards have to be tight. You think that Sidhe blood in your veins just takes care of itself. A vampire would just love to drink it all.”
“You told me there weren’t vampires.”
“I said no such thing. I said vampires were just people. Big difference. Now, go reward the roof before the house burns down with us all in it.”
“Ugh.” Courtney threw herself down across the couch so her long dark hair splayed over one arm and her bare feet rested on the other. She kicked her feet against the couch arm in a tiny tantrum.
Her mother patted her head condescendingly. “This is why we can’t have nice things, dear.” Then she floated off in all her ethereal paint splattered beauty.
Courtney called after her, “I hope your painting sucks.” She sat up and took a consoling bite of popcorn. “Popcorn is going to be cold when I get back. And I have to get dressed. What the hell. Life sucks. Monsters from outer space just need to eat everybody so I can live alone with the last other woman on earth and she’ll probably be a face eating Martian in disguise. Ah!” She forced herself up and stomped to her room to get dressed with full accoutrements.
Twenty minutes later she was shoving the oversized skylight open and crawling out onto the roof with a bucket of gray paint in her gloved hands. She had put on some of her “disposable” white seamless knit gloves, just deciding ahead of time to sacrifice them to the gods of magic and home repair. She kept rubbing her thumb against the side of her pointer finger, feeling funny that there wasn’t a tiny rib there. Most of the gloves she wore were meant to be fancy so no one would question her keeping them on but all the nice ones had that little join there that rubbed her skin all day out of the house to remind her that she had to keep at least some of the world at bay from her Sidhe lineage. The human and the elf didn’t always get along. She sighed. Which was why she needed to reward.
Courtney traced the arcs of the ward along the roof tiles, stepping carefully because it would be that extra sort of stupid to fall to her death while laying down a spell of protection. On goddamn Valentine’s day. She painted in where the weather and time had worn the line away or thin, muttering the old elfin song her mother had taught her when she was young. Though she interspersed verses with curses because she so did not want to be up on the roof on a cold Thursday afternoon.
“That will just make you have to redo the wards sooner,” her mother called from just inside the attic. “Now do it right before I sick Nana on you.”
Courtney mimicked her grandmother’s patrician voice. “A DaCortenay does not threaten. A DaCortenay offers a prize for a job well done that cannot be refused.”
“Well trust me on that then. And best behavior while you’re doing this.”
“Fine. Fine. Anything else?”
“Nope, just checking on things. Oh, and there’s somebody coming about the satellite. So could you look out for them?”
Courtney turned full toward the skylight and her mother. “What do you mean somebody is coming? A repairman? Mom… did you use the phone?”
Her mother grinned her wicked grin again. “Women our age can use the phone. Keep a weather eye!” And before Courtney could say anything else her mother was gone.
Courtney bent back to her task keeping her cursing to a minimum. She had to admit that the song seemed to flow better with the paint, the sounds sticking into the clingy pigment and laying the protection strong and thick onto the house.
A white van that looked like it belonged in a horror movie, with all its back windows painted out and too tall for its wheel base rolled through the house gate, trundling along up the rocks to park next to her car.
Courtney carefully scooted over to the satellite dish to lean on it for support and call down.
A blond woman whose plain blue buttoned collar shirt Courtney could see right down swung out of the van and smiled up at Courtney in that perfect fake way you master in any kind of customer service. “You trying to fix it yourself?”
“Wha- Oh, no, I didn’t even know it was a problem until my mom told me to keep an eye out for you. I’m just painting the roof.” Courtney held up her paintbrush to illustrate.
“Oh.” The blond smiled in relief. Her lips relaxed showing that they were lush and full and just the kind of lips that Courtney might like to kiss for valentine’s day. “Good. I was worried because I guess whoever called asked for the prettiest repair woman.”
Courtney sighed and put her gloved hand to her forehead. She winced as she felt a drop of paint slip through her hair. “Oh, goddamn it, Mom.”
“What was that?”
Courtney shook her head. Nope. Nope. Nope. “Come on up!”
“How can you watch that stuff?” Her mother asked as the heroine screamed at the gnashing teeth.
Courtney paused her popcorn stuffing. “I like it, Mom. I’ll watch something sweet next month. But February has to die in screams and blood. And snakes. I think Saint Valentine did something with Snakes.”
“We’re protestant, dear. We don’t care about saints.”
Courtney leveled one finger and a full fist at her mother. She groaned as one fluffy piece of deliciousness fell, bounced off her pj’s / exercise outfit, and was lost forever beneath the horrid pastel blue of couch. The loss added extra vehemence to her accusation. “And yet, despite our lack of Catholicism, you’re here to talk to me about Valentine’s Day.”
Courtney’s mother pursed her lips and put one fist on her hip next to a particularly large red stain on her painting smock. “I just wondered if you had a date. Women your age date.”
“Women my age?”
“Yes, hoary old ancient bags too decrepit to climb the steps in the convent like yourself do in fact occasionally bring someone home. Why, you’re even almost old enough not to live at home with your mother.”
Courtney hmphed and stuffed more popcorn down her throat. “Low blow, Mom. Low blow. But honestly, the only place I want a man is in a horror movie.” She gestured to the cathode ray TV that was older than she was, where all the brand new equipment piled on top was streaming in a man being eaten by the monster as he desperately stabbed at it, dropping the weapon Courtney was sure would be needed later on the ground.
“Nice try, Courtney, you came out about fourteen years ago. You can’t pretend you’re angry at a guy.” She paused and then looked sympathetic. “Did a girl dump you?”
“Jesus, no, Mom.” She paused the movie, realizing that this was going to be a big discussion and not wanting to miss any more of the gore. “I can’t get a date, alright. That’s why I’m sitting around stuffing my face and wasting my life as I get behind in my car payments. Are you happy now?”
Courtney knew she had made a tactical error when her mother gave her best wicked grin. “Oh, that’s too bad. Well, since you don’t have a date and are just wasting time, that means you can do a chore for me.”
Courtney gaped her mouth and narrowed her eyes, trying to convey horror and murderous rage all at once. She tossed a handful of the popcorn at her mother. “You… heartless… get Danny to do it.”
“He can’t. The warding on the roof needs redoing.”
Courtney rolled her eyes and hated herself for the teenage whine that came out of her sixteen years too late. “Mo-om. I can do it later. Rewarding the house is in no way more important than me stuffing the hole that is my heart with butter and horror.”
“How long since you last did it? You want us all to live here safely young lady, then the wards have to be tight. You think that Sidhe blood in your veins just takes care of itself. A vampire would just love to drink it all.”
“You told me there weren’t vampires.”
“I said no such thing. I said vampires were just people. Big difference. Now, go reward the roof before the house burns down with us all in it.”
“Ugh.” Courtney threw herself down across the couch so her long dark hair splayed over one arm and her bare feet rested on the other. She kicked her feet against the couch arm in a tiny tantrum.
Her mother patted her head condescendingly. “This is why we can’t have nice things, dear.” Then she floated off in all her ethereal paint splattered beauty.
Courtney called after her, “I hope your painting sucks.” She sat up and took a consoling bite of popcorn. “Popcorn is going to be cold when I get back. And I have to get dressed. What the hell. Life sucks. Monsters from outer space just need to eat everybody so I can live alone with the last other woman on earth and she’ll probably be a face eating Martian in disguise. Ah!” She forced herself up and stomped to her room to get dressed with full accoutrements.
Twenty minutes later she was shoving the oversized skylight open and crawling out onto the roof with a bucket of gray paint in her gloved hands. She had put on some of her “disposable” white seamless knit gloves, just deciding ahead of time to sacrifice them to the gods of magic and home repair. She kept rubbing her thumb against the side of her pointer finger, feeling funny that there wasn’t a tiny rib there. Most of the gloves she wore were meant to be fancy so no one would question her keeping them on but all the nice ones had that little join there that rubbed her skin all day out of the house to remind her that she had to keep at least some of the world at bay from her Sidhe lineage. The human and the elf didn’t always get along. She sighed. Which was why she needed to reward.
Courtney traced the arcs of the ward along the roof tiles, stepping carefully because it would be that extra sort of stupid to fall to her death while laying down a spell of protection. On goddamn Valentine’s day. She painted in where the weather and time had worn the line away or thin, muttering the old elfin song her mother had taught her when she was young. Though she interspersed verses with curses because she so did not want to be up on the roof on a cold Thursday afternoon.
“That will just make you have to redo the wards sooner,” her mother called from just inside the attic. “Now do it right before I sick Nana on you.”
Courtney mimicked her grandmother’s patrician voice. “A DaCortenay does not threaten. A DaCortenay offers a prize for a job well done that cannot be refused.”
“Well trust me on that then. And best behavior while you’re doing this.”
“Fine. Fine. Anything else?”
“Nope, just checking on things. Oh, and there’s somebody coming about the satellite. So could you look out for them?”
Courtney turned full toward the skylight and her mother. “What do you mean somebody is coming? A repairman? Mom… did you use the phone?”
Her mother grinned her wicked grin again. “Women our age can use the phone. Keep a weather eye!” And before Courtney could say anything else her mother was gone.
Courtney bent back to her task keeping her cursing to a minimum. She had to admit that the song seemed to flow better with the paint, the sounds sticking into the clingy pigment and laying the protection strong and thick onto the house.
A white van that looked like it belonged in a horror movie, with all its back windows painted out and too tall for its wheel base rolled through the house gate, trundling along up the rocks to park next to her car.
Courtney carefully scooted over to the satellite dish to lean on it for support and call down.
A blond woman whose plain blue buttoned collar shirt Courtney could see right down swung out of the van and smiled up at Courtney in that perfect fake way you master in any kind of customer service. “You trying to fix it yourself?”
“Wha- Oh, no, I didn’t even know it was a problem until my mom told me to keep an eye out for you. I’m just painting the roof.” Courtney held up her paintbrush to illustrate.
“Oh.” The blond smiled in relief. Her lips relaxed showing that they were lush and full and just the kind of lips that Courtney might like to kiss for valentine’s day. “Good. I was worried because I guess whoever called asked for the prettiest repair woman.”
Courtney sighed and put her gloved hand to her forehead. She winced as she felt a drop of paint slip through her hair. “Oh, goddamn it, Mom.”
“What was that?”
Courtney shook her head. Nope. Nope. Nope. “Come on up!”
