Vote Results

-Ying

-The Neighbors

-The Homeless

-Daisy & Travis

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Thanksgiving (Pt. 1): Checking In With Friends

--- Jon Whitaker ---

(Okay, just have to be quick about this.) He told himself as he carried a bunch of containers to the roof.

“So if all your neighbors are doing a party thing on the roof does that mean you’re inviting your family to it or… what exactly?” Miss Edna asked from behind him as she and his Ma carried the ones he couldn’t grab without risk of dropping them.

“Nah, it’d be one thing if it was just Kenneth and Sarah up here, but given the Jeffersons and Petrovichs have all their kids too. It would be a little much for everyone to show up.” His Ma explained.

“You just don’t want anyone to see everyone fawning over you after getting out of the hospital.” He pointed out as he used his elbow to open the door to the public patio. “I’m sure our family would be relieved to know you’re making friends, and Jake would love to play with other kids his age.”

“Maybe, but what about Sasha? Can you see her enjoying this?” His Ma scoffed, nodding towards where everyone else was already gathering. “Girl would either brood in a corner all day or stab someone. And you know how Kristen gets in crowds.”

“Okay, fine. Everyone would rather not deal with our neighbors.” He conceded as he started setting desserts on the table.

“We’ll try not to take offense to that.” Ms. Valentine smiled, having heard him but not his Ma from where their adult neighbors were watching the younger ones play.

He gave his various neighbors a dry smile. “Oh, would you guys like to meet five more Whitakers? Maybe more if everyone decides to come.”

“Will the building even be standing with that many of you in it?” Mr. Jefferson joked, from where he and his wife sat.

“Depends on if anyone brings C4.” He admitted, remembering that one new year’s party.

“Yeah… did not get the deposit back on that place.” His Ma sighed as she made her way to the punch bowl.

“Didn’t you own that house?” Miss Edna pointed out, while running her fingers over the patio table, a faint trace of magic bubbling out as she circlelessly enchanted it.

“I did.” His Ma nodded as she poured herself a glass. “Doesn’t change the fact that the hole in the lawn really lowered the property value.”

“Wait, you owned a house?” Ms. Valentine blinked in confusion even as the older adults looked a little… off. “Why’re you living here if you have a house?”

“Political corruption and an asshole boss.” His Ma answered with a twitch of her lips.

“Language, there’s children present.” He frowned, before elaborating that. “She uncovered this police corruption thing and Internal Affairs transferred her so that she wouldn’t kill whoever was sent after her since they couldn’t deal with everyone.”

“So you are in witness protection?” Mr. Petrovich asked with more than a little concern as he glanced at his family. “Is that… something you should be telling us?”

“Kind of the opposite.” He shrugged. “It’s more like… criminal protection services.”

“Yep, either they ship up or I get shipped back.” His Ma grinned, before glancing at him and Miss Edna. “Thinking of, didn’t you two have a thing you wanted to do before everyone shows up?”

“Uh, right, my cooking club’s comparing food so I need to grab a couple plates from the batch I was going to take out to that homeless camp later.” He nodded, rubbing the back of his neck as he thought of everything he still needed to do.

“Oh, you’re giving food to the homeless? Hmm…” Mrs. Jefferson smiled, before glancing towards Aliyah who looked split between wanting to come over and wanting to keep an eye on her siblings. “Hey, Aliyah honey, can you come over here?”

Her decision made, the teenage girl made her way over while glancing his way. “Yes, what do you need mom?”

“Nothing much, it’s just Jon here is apparently feeding the homeless later and I was wondering if you’d like to help him?” Mrs. Jefferson explained with an odd tone to her voice.

“Wait, what now?” Mr. Jefferson frowned when Miss Edna snorted at something.

“Oh, uh, if-if you, uh, wouldn’t mind.” Aliyah smiled, not quite looking at him. “Um, were you going to go now or…”

“Um, I was probably going to go after my actual family thanksgiving.” He admitted with a grimace. “I want to go now, but I’ve got a little too much on my plate given how my ma would starve before cooking anything.”

“That’s slander, I can cook.” His Ma frowned.

“If you did I’d be the one starving.” He reminded her, before explaining that, “I’ve still got to check in with my friend Ying given how her situation is… and while I wanted to check in with Miss Edme and take something over to Samantha, if I’m lucky I can catch them when I stop by Daisy’s to save a trip.”

“Oh, that’s… a lot of people to see on Thanksgiving.” Aliyah grinned a bit tensely.

“Would’ve been worse if I also stopped by Audrey and Val’s but I’ve got no idea where they live.” He thought aloud in an attempt to once more justify why he wasn’t giving them anything. “I mean, I could ask Artemis but she said she’d rather her parents not know she was sneaking me over so I can’t stop by there either.” (And I can’t call her to tell her I’m bringing them something when I’m not getting her anything.)

He just wasn’t callous enough for that.

“Oh…” Aliyah blinked, looking a little overwhelmed from him thinking aloud. (Oh, I almost forgot about that…)

“Uh, anyway, if you want to go out when I feed the homeless we can.” He offered before glancing at his Ma as he wondered, “You think Sasha will want to help with that? It’ll let her get out of the apartment for a bit, I mean?”

“She… might.” His Ma hedged, looking somewhere between amused and confused. A look shared by every other adult save Miss Edna -who was just amused- and Mr. Jefferson who looked annoyed.

“You know, given how you’re basically using me as a taxi for the day I guess I should be glad you’re not trying to get me to swing by Rosalind or Jill’s place either.” Miss Edna grinned.

He couldn’t help but frown at that. “Yeah, I know Jill is having a bit of a time at college last I called her, and Rosalind is on her own since DeSade is… helping Miss Edme with that thing.” (Really wished I hadn’t let slip he was still in town, but at least he has a reason why.)

In attempt to change the topic he snapped and pointed his finger at Ms. Valentine as he grabbed a bag off the table and handed it to the single mother. “Oh, speaking of parents Ms. Valentine, I almost forgot. These mini-muffins are for Kenneth, I know he sometimes gets fussy about his veggies, but whenever I watch him for you he’ll usually eat them if I offer him one of these after.”

“Th-thank you?” Ms. Valentine blinked, before blushing as she realized all of the neighbors were looking at her oddly as Miss Edna started laughing.

Rolling his eyes at her antics he checked his phone before grimacing at the time. “We really do need to get moving if we want to get everything done.” He reminded his second parent as he started dragging her away.

It was a few seconds later that Mr. Petrovich asked, “Minerva, is young Jon what people call a… player player?”

---

“Oop, overshot!” Miss Edna warned him as they appeared in the air.

He blinked once before quickly doing a flip and landing in a crouch as he held his backpack to his chest.

“Miss Edna? Jon?!” Ying cried from… somewhere.

He blinked before looking around the other teen’s room, taking note of the large glass window that made up one side of her room, the equally large canopy poster bed against another wall, and the number of bookshelves on either side of a desk with an extremely fancy computer on it. (Huh, I just realized this is the first time I’ve been in a girl’s room… excluding Sasha.)

“Ah, uh, hey Ying.” He waved at the other teen with an awkward smile.

“You know, when you said you were on the top floor I think I misunderstood what that really meant.” Miss Edna admitted, dusting herself off as she looked out the penthouse window. “These things are one way, right?”

“Of-of course.” Ying answered, her eyes darting to and away from him. “W-what are you two doing here?”

“Well, it’s thanksgiving and given your… situation with your mom, we brought goodies.” He tried to explain as he started pulling containers out of his backpack, more than aware that as a Deviant Ying’s metabolism was faster than most. (And that’s before we get to the Dragon thing.)

“That’s, um, that’s kind of you, but… how did you know I would be here?” Ying asked, looking a little overwhelmed while wearing (what’s actually kind of a fancy dress.)

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I tagged you with a tracking spell during the summer. Given the rarity of a Storm Dragon I can track you down to… twenty or so feet.” Miss Edna shrugged as she continued to walk around Ying’s room, (that might be bigger than my entire apartment…) “What’s with the dress?”

“My mother is hosting a small event for Thanksgiving.” Ying explained, moving as if to put the older woman between her and him even as she glanced towards her door. “You, you two shouldn’t be here.”

Rather than acknowledging that he instead summoned Pix in a swirl of blue light. “What about Pix, can she be here?”

The little fairy blinked as she adjusted to being summoned before spotting Ying and zipping to the draconic teen with a happy series of chirps and tweets.

“It’s, it’s good to see you too Pix.” Ying assured the fairy with a wry grin, before once more glancing towards his door. “But you three really need to leave before my mother or the security team finds you here.”

“Security team?” He frowned, as a worried Pix tried to console the clearly distressed Ying.

“Yes, um… Damn it.” Ying cursed while massaging her temples. “As you’re both aware my mother is anti-Deviant, and while there are no Deviants on her security team there are a number of detection systems bought from Sanctuary to detect Deviant energies. You might have a break due to my room having a blindspot to keep my Deviancy secret from my mother's associates, but…” The draconic teen turned towards Miss Edna. “How much power does your teleport expel?”

“Uh, I… don’t actually know, uh, they didn’t have- Those sensor things are new…” Miss Edna stumbled, clearly off put by Ying’s behavior before shaking her head and putting on her more confident grin. “How about we break you out of your prison. I know you’re not quite up to that stuff we were working on yet but I can warp us all out of here easy enough. That way you don’t have to attend your mom’s racist bullshit.”

Ying gave Miss Edna a soft smile before sighing with a shake of her head as she picked Pix off of her shoulder. “I wish I could, but part of my truce with my mother means I have to attend these parties whether I like them or not. As long as I attend and pretend I’m her perfectly normal” Ying spat “daughter in public then I’m allowed to spend my personal time as I please.”

“Are, are you sure?” He had to ask. “I mean… What if, what if we sneak you away just for a couple hours? I mean, you… you really don’t look like you want to be here.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Ying nodded as she crossed her arms. “Long term it’s better if I dress up and put on this act instead of being stuck in a cage indefinitely.”

He looked towards Miss Edna, wanting to help but not really sure how.

“You know you’re old enough that your mom can’t actually tell you what to do, right?” Miss Edna asked after a moment before gesturing to the room around them. “I mean, I know with… all of this it seems like she does, but… if you want out, we can get you out.”

“I know.” Ying assured them with another soft smile. “And maybe I’ll need that if she keeps this up for another year, but… if I’m going to do that, I don’t want to run away.” That soft smile became full of fangs as her eyes turned into reptilian slits. “I want to burn it down as I walk out.”

Ying inhaled before exhaling and losing her draconic edge. “Unfortunately, that’s not something I can do today. Sorry…”

“Hey, hey, none of that.” Miss Edna frowned as she pulled Ying into a hug. “You have nothing to be sorry about. This is your life, so you need to leave it on your terms, not ours and definitely not your moms. If you think you need to stay then we won’t stop you, just know that we’re all here for you if you need us.”

As if to underline this statement Pix let out a series of tweets before once more flying into Ying’s face and hugging her.

He raised a hand, tempted to join in the group hug before letting his hand fall down, fairly certain touching him wouldn’t do her any good with the distance she’d been keeping from him.

“I, I appreciate that.” Ying eventually said as she pulled away from Miss Edna to wipe at her eyes with another watery smile. “But, seriously, my mother will be here to collect me any minute and I need to fix my hair after Pix made a nest of it.”

“Alright.” Miss Edna sighed, while giving Ying one last squeeze. “Just… call us if you need anything.”

“I will.” Ying promised, before biting her lip as she glanced his way. “And Jon…”

He swallowed. “Y-yeah?”

“Thanks for… the food… and… everything…” Ying trailed off awkwardly.

“I-” (didn’t do much.) “Anytime.”

---

“Well, that didn’t go the way I was hoping…” Miss Edna admitted after they’d teleported away from Ying’s… the place Ying lived.

“Yeah, I… I was hoping that’d be a happier reunion.” He agreed, leading Miss Edna towards Daisy’s apartment.

“Everyone’s got their own fights kid, all you can do is offer to help.” Miss Edna reminded him as rubbed his back. “Try not to let it keep you down, after all you’re seeing the rest of your family after how long?”

“Before everything in Blackwell.” He sighed, running a hand down his face. “Ma tries to make sure we visit my uncle and cousins for the first couple weeks before dropping me off at camp on the way back.”

“Well, it’ll do ya some good to see them again after everything. I know it’s been a stressful few months, and family always makes everything a little easier.” Miss Edna smiled.

“Even when they annoy you to high heaven.” A new voice added, drawing their attention to Miss Edme in the apartment hall. “I’m assuming you two are here for Daisy’s little cook off?”

“Uh, yeah, you?” He asked.

Miss Edme shook her head. “Normally yes, but with the Halloween Haunt this year I need to try and fit in a meeting with the expert the Association insisted I bring in. I still dropped off a few spares but I can’t actually stick around for anything since he apparently doesn’t view Thanksgiving as a proper holiday.”

“Yeah, DeSade seems like that kind of asshole. I mean, he left his kid alone in Blackwell.” Miss Edna practically growled.

“Well, that’s… something.” Miss Edme frowned, before shaking her head. “Given how you live in Blackwell I’m hoping you can tell me how best to deal with him?”

“Try to kill him.” He suggested.

Both sisters looked at him.

“He respects that kind of thing.” He shrugged. “Put your foot down and work towards your goal without give. He’ll usually help you along but he’ll also be working an angle the entire time. So you’ll get what you want, but he’ll probably get whatever he wants out of this as well. As long as it’s not something you mind giving up you can work with him.”

The fact that what DeSade wanted was for Jon to kill the Halloween Horror -(which I want too)- was something he was going to keep to himself.

“I’ll uh, I’ll keep that in mind.” Miss Edme told him slowly before shaking her head and quite blatantly changing the topic. “Will you two be attending Thanksgiving proper?”

Miss Edna nodded back. “Yeah, I’ll probably stop by after meeting the rest of the Whitakers but I think Jon said something about passing food out leftovers to the homeless later.”

“I’m not handing out leftovers, I made a whole second set of food to hand out. I’ve got it all tucked in here.” He corrected with a tap to his backpack. “Also I didn’t want to intrude given how we… just met.”

“You wouldn’t be intruding.” Miss Edme assured him. “You’re practically Edna’s son, you’re as welcome as she is… possible more so.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Miss Edna frowned.

“Given how he’s such an upstanding young man as to feed those in need, he probably won’t try to steal anything he can get his hands on.” Miss Edme explained.

“Oh, come on, you steal my shit all the time!”

“When we were kids perhaps!”

“Bullshit! What about that cardigan you stole just last month?!”

“That was mine and I was just taking it back!”

(Yeah, it might be best to just… walk away from this.) He decided as he went ahead and made his way to Daisy’s apartment and knocked.

After a moment the diminutive woman answered the door with a smile, “Jon it’s so good to see- What’s with that yelling?” Daisy trailed off with a frown.

“What about that book on celtic circles relevant to mid-western druidic practices of the nineteenth century?”

“Hey, you traded me for that sex manual for dominant women!”

“Miss Edme ran into her sister.” He explained, looking over his shoulder.

“I did no such thing!”

“Oh, wait, that was Samantha…”

“Can I come inside?” He asked, hoping to get away from all of… that.

“You gave my daughter what?!”

“It’s nothing you haven’t done!”

“That’s not the point!”

“Please.” He pressed with a tense grin.

“Oh, of course.” Daisy nodded, before letting him inside.

“What was with all that yelling?” Travis asked from where a number of people were gathered.

“Family reunion.” He answered, before looking everyone over and recognizing most of them from the arcane meeting the month prior. “Uh, I thought this was just supposed to be a cooking contest or something between the four, er, three of us?”

“That was sort of the plan, but we’re the only ones who can actually cook so we just sort of pooled together with everyone else being the judges.” Travis told him.

“Hey, you’re not the only one who can cook!” A blonde woman called.

“Then why am I the only one who does cook?!” Travis yelled back.

“Because you’re a better cook than either of us!” A thin man with pale long hair smiled.

“Can bet your ass I am.” Travis grumbled.

“Perhaps later.” The man smirked.

“Oi, no. His ass is mine today.” The blonde woman frowned in a clearly exaggerated kind of way.

Travis rolled his eyes with a huff before motioning for Jon to follow. “Come on, let’s get you set up in the kitchen kid. Your stuff already cooked like Edme’s or do you need to use the kitchen?”

“I already cooked everything, I just need to warm it up.” He glanced towards the living room. “Though uh, I don’t think I brought enough for everyone since I also cooked for my family and… I’ve got extras but I was hoping to swing those by the homeless shelter or something later.”

“Ah, you’re bringing food to the shelter? That’s so sweet of you Jon!” Daisy applauded him lightly.

“You say that like we don’t pawn all of our leftovers from this contest on them.” Travis scoffed as he checked something in the oven.

“Maybe but he cooked for them flat out, that’s a good step better than us who just hate leftovers.” Daisy pointed out as she turned to check something in the fridge.

“Never said I was a saint.” Travis grumbled before shaking his head. “This has got at least another ten minutes on it.”

“And the pudding is just setting on this pie.” Daisy sighed.

“So, neither of y’alls food is done?” He frowned as he started pulling out containers from his bag.

“Eh, some of it is, but we weren’t planning on most of this being done until lunch.” Travis admitted with a shrug. “The only reason we’re in a rush to get it done early is because Edme had to drop her plate and run.”

“Is your family doing Thanksgiving for lunch or dinner?” Daisy asked after a moment.

“Lunch… I honestly just thought this was going to be like a dessert contest or something, not a full thanksgiving type of deal.” He confessed, rubbing the back of his neck.

“We can still do that part, neither of my pigs ‘ll say no to having dessert first.” Travis assured him.

“Even if they won't, we'll still need a bit more time for our desserts to be ready.” Daisy reminded them with a worried look towards the clock. “I hope that won’t make you too late for your family’s Thanksgiving. It’s already getting kind of close to lunch time.”

“It shouldn’t matter too much since Miss Edna is here to get me back and she’s got this teleport spell she likes to use to catch people off guard.” He shrugged, not really worried about it since with the distance everyone has to travel it was probably going to end up being a late lunch either way.

“Miss Edna?” Travis repeated. “You mean Edme?”

“Uh, no, Miss Edme’s sister… and my magic teacher.” He tried to explain.

“Wait, your magic teach is Edme’s sister?” Travis frowned.

“It’s a small world I guess?” Daisy shrugged, before taking another glance at the clock. “But, uh, either way we’re going to be a minute so…” The smaller woman suddenly clapped with a smile on her face. “Meaning you have just enough time to go out and make some new friends with everyone!”

“Uh…” He took another look at the three hunters in the living room.

“Don’t worry, Alan and Sarah don’t bite.” Travis assured him before thinking about it for a moment. “Well, they won’t bite you at least.”

“And Guy might look intimidating but he’s a huge softy on the inside.” Daisy promised. “So just go out and mingle.”

Who should we talk to?

[]- Stay with Daisy and Travis.

[]- Talk to Guy just watching everyone.

[]- Speak with Alan and Sarah who are bickering.

[]- Go check on Miss Edna and Miss Edme.