i have made you brownies from scratch B( // clara

[Sarafine Duchannes]

[ au / future / icc verse / whatever you wanna call it ]

Sarafine had not realized how much she'd grown to despise family visits - probably because she hadn't had any reason to visit her family on anything resembling friendly terms since she'd been sixteen years old. At least things had been easier, when they'd been on undeniably hostile terms. Now things were just tense, and - well, even she couldn't pretend she didn't notice, awkward. Her family's attitudes ranged from outright disdain (mostly from Macon and Emmaline, the latter of which was still pretending as though she only had one daughter), to fear (Ryan had taken to speeding in the other direction whenever she spotted her), to tentative uncertainty (Del hadn't been hostile - but she hadn't been doing anything but avoiding her sister, either). Really, Sarafine wouldn't have bothered at all - wouldn't have even been allowed to bother - if it hadn't been for Lena, and the rest of the people she...traveled with.

For reasons most of them were still being suspiciously vague about, they'd all gathered to stay at the Duchannes residence for a few days. It was amusing, because she could tell that Macon was just about at the end of his rope - but on the other hand, it was also vaguely worrying. The Doctor and his 'friends' were always off saving the universe, or graphiti-ing on asteroids, or...gods knew what else. She knew they wouldn't be here, taking a break from all of that, unless there was some very important matter to be dealt with. And if they were in trouble - if her daughter was in trouble - then there wasn't a force in the universe, her family included, that could keep Sarafine away. She hadn't been staying here with the rest of them, certainly not overnight, at least, but she'd been checking in when she could. Under the radar, mostly - she saw no need to constantly alert the rest of them to her presence. The very fact that the House was letting her in without a fuss should have proved that she wasn't a threat to any of them (if the goddamn color of her eyes didn't), so she saw no reason to notify the masses whenever she checked in if the only reaction she'd get was an overwhelmingly negative one.

In the time that she did spend here, she'd kept mostly to herself. Occasionally, she'd spend time with Lena, but it wasn't often that Macon let the girl out of his sight now that she was back home, and Sarafine didn't really think it was worth pushing the issue right now. One other person whose company she didn't mind, surprisingly, was Clara. She'd never thought she'd see herself on friendly terms with a Mortal...but then, Clara was a bit different than most Mortals. Regenerative abilities aside, she'd seen far more in her time with the Doctor than most people had seen in there entire lifetimes, and she was far more...tolerant of the unusual than most humans seemed to be. In fact, though Ravenwood was probably one of the most chaotic environments on any planets, she hadn't seen Clara do much more than blink at a good chuck of the shenanigans that occurred here. And beyond that, even, Clara managed not to be nearly as judgmental as the Duchannes clan was. Despite the fact that she'd seen Sarafine at her Darkest, she seemed to trust her now. All things considered, her company was far preferable to that of the other Casters who resided here.

How very strange things had gotten.

Today they'd decided to vent some of their stress through baking - an activity they both seemed to enjoy. As an added bonus, the kitchen was well out of the way of the rest of the house, and probably the closest thing to quiet you could find around here. Sarafine wondered whether she should have mentioned that the Ravenwood kitchen, like many other aspects of the house, was in fact sentient. Well! Clara would likely find out soon enough, if she didn't already know. She doubted such a detail would be surprising, considering she lived in the TARDIS - but the Ravenwood Kitchen was used to cooking on its own, and had an obnoxious tendency to try and interfere with anyone who tried to take its job from it. Hopefully, it wouldn't be feeling particularly mischievous today. As she perched on the kitchen counter, idly flipping through one of the cookbooks for ideas, she'd already had to put up with Kitchen flipping the pages to make various 'suggestions' several times.

"That's enough," she hissed as it did this once more, slamming the book shut and glaring up at the ceiling. "It's like you think I'm incapable of cooking the Mo-- normal way. Stop being so nosy." Scolding the kitchen - add that to the list of things that only occurred at Ravenwood manor. Honestly, it should have seen her when she'd been possessing Mrs. Lincoln. She was fairly certain she'd surprised that book, Link, on several occasions - her baking had probably been better than his actual mother's had.

[Clara Oswin Oswald]

Really, Clara would've thought just staying in one place for a few days would be a bit less strenuous than this had been, even if that one place happened to be Ravenwood. Her little group on the TARDIS had already been there on occasion, merely popping in to let Lena and Ridley visit. As such, Clara had met most of the Duchannes clan but this point, and she certainly couldn't say most of them were unlikable. For the most part. Just a bit...eccentric. And odd. But, then again, Clara was certainly no stranger to odd, seeing as her little group was made up of an alien, two Casters and an Incubator that had been separated from his hivemind. And including Clara herself, the regenerating Victorian governess. Made a bit of a motley crew, them, and she wouldn't really have it any other way.

Thankfully, upon their arrival at Ravenwood, the Duchannes' had been welcoming enough, save for Macon, who had quickly been thwarted in his attempt to keep Clara, Fluffy and the Doctor out of Ravenwood by Lena's pleading. Even so, Clara herself wasn't on close terms with any of them, save for Lena and Ridley. Emmaline was polite, but rather chilly towards their guests, Macon was really only good for trying to get a rise out of, and poor Delphine was certainly friendly, but couldn't be around Clara for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time without getting a headache. Strangely enough, the only adult Caster that Clara did get along with was Sarafine.

A couple of months ago, Clara would have never guessed that she and Sarafine wouldn't be on anything even resembling good terms. With her attempting on several occasions to break into the TARDIS to get to Lena, as well as torturing her on one of them, one would think that Sarafine would be playing the classic villain to their group of time-travelers. However, that had...changed. Quite a bit, actually. And once it had, once Clara had begun to see that Sarafine was gaining reason to fight her Dark tendencies...well. She did have to respect the lengths that Sarafine had begun to take to keep Lena safe. It was an odd sort of respect now, that the two of them had for each other, and a friendship, if one wanted to go so far.

And, considering that both Clara and Sarafine needed a break from the constant chaos of Ravenwood, they'd agree to meet up in the only properly quiet place in the manor, the kitchen. Clara had, of course, known from prior experience that Ravenwood itself was sentient. And that hardly surprised her, seeing as the TARDIS was the same way. So, working in a sentient kitchen certainly wasn't out of her repertoire, so long as said kitchen was agreeable with letting her do so. There was a few times when the TARDIS had been feeling particularly mischievous and played a few tricks on Clara while she'd been baking there, but it was only a bit of fun on the time machine's part.

Having made the Doctor promise to stay out of trouble for the day, Clara made her way to Ravenwood's kitchen, in the process of putting her hair up in a slightly tighter style than usual. Wouldn't really do to have it all coming down around her face while she was trying to concentrate. Most of their little group was still a bit dubious about Clara's tendency to stick with her dresses, rather than go for something that would blend in a little more, but Clara was often quick to point out that they didn't really blend in much anyway, no matter where they went. Besides, if Ridley was allowed to dress the way she did, Clara certainly didn't see anything wrong with someone doing the opposite.

Pushing the door of the kitchen open with her free hand, Clara secured the last lock of her hair up and stepped inside, only to find Sarafine there already, in an argument with Kitchen already. She lingered in the doorway, watching with amusement. "Must've been too much to ask, to be left completely alone," Clara finally spoke up after a moment, giving Sarafine a smile as she shut the door behind her and walked over to the other woman's side. "Then again, that seems to be the norm 'round here."

"So!" Clara idly folded her arms, looking around. Blimey, modern kitchens were still a bit weird. She was used to the TARDIS kitchen, of course, but on most occasions there, she'd asked for the ship to make the kitchen at least appear to be more what she was used to. "Got anything specific in mind? Wish we had someone who'd eat whatever we do make without thinking you'd poisoned it." Of course, they had perfectly good reason to think so, but still.

[Sarafine Duchannes]

Sarafine's gaze immediately shifted to the doorway when someone spoke - thanks to the commotion Kitchen had been causing, she hadn't noticed she had company. She relaxed a moment later upon recognizing Clara, however, and managed a faint but genuine smile. Had it been anyone else who...didn't reside in this household, she might have regretted being caught bickering with the kitchen, but Clara likely understood the many woes of living under a sentient roof all too well. "Kitchen's used to doing the cooking around here - so it likes to interfere a bit when anyone else tries doing things manually." Sarafine told her, a bit apologetically. Really, the last thing they needed right now was to have to fight against a sentient kitchen, make a huge mess in the process, and bring Macon storming in to see what all the commotion was about. As if she had Delphine's ability, she was already having visions of it - both of them covered in flour, the kitchen in shambles, and Macon stumbling upon the scene and banishing them from ever having access to it again.

She quickly pushed the thought away accidentally Kelting it to Clara because waywards :], and gave a light shrug. "But, you know. Considering the special circumstances, I'm sure we won't have any behavioral issues." At this she cast a brief, vaguely threatening glare around the room, eyes narrowing only for a moment before she reverted to her former, relatively chipper demeanor. Well. If Kitchen decided to be mischievous, Sarafine was sure the two of them could handle it, anyway. She was working with Angry Mary Poppins, after all. Suppressing a slight laugh, she slipped down from the counter as Clara approached.

Well, the Victorian woman had a point there. No matter what they made, accusations of having 'poisoned' it were likely to start flying around due solely to the fact that Sarafine had participated in the making. She was torn between amusement and faint bitterness - her family's abandonment would always be a bit of a sore subject, but at least they were fun to get a rise out of. "We might be able to talk Ryan into being our taste-tester - her sweet-tooth overpowers even her survival instincts. Otherwise, I suppose we'll have to settle for using the Doctor." She flashed a quick, mischievous grin. The Doctor might not have been the most agreeable under normal circumstances, but even Sarafine was aware that Clara could more or less get him to do whatever she liked simply by batting her eyelashes at him. "And of course, we can always ship whatever we don't eat off to one of Gatlin's bake-sales; they'll buy just about anything." As long as they didn't make pies. Apparently the most recent pie contest the town had held had not gone exactly as planned.

With that said, she idly handed Clara the cookbook. "There are a few interesting cake recipes in there. Otherwise, I have a brownie recipe that never fails to please - unless something else tickles your fancy?" If they made brownies, they'd just have to skip giving one to Ethan. Apparently he wasn't a fan.