Harley - Dream 09 - Chocolate art?

[justwantsafety]

((note: His POV as usual, and dream-effects as usual (if you want them?) which means basically, that feeling of being really focused on whatever task it is, and looking forward to the result... and then, of course, being glad at the end, when it's done. ♥

Tagging Style: either. Posting this in prose because I just feel like it. :3))

Harley was out and about once again, two tether ends in hand -- one, Noireau's leash, and the other, the rope for the giant innertube sled he was tugging around, a giant basket lashed to the top with more thin rope, for all the groceries he was returning with, packages of frozen bacon, cheeses, frozen pizzas... the usual. He paused to see why Noireau had stopped, to see her sniffing at the curbside, tail wagging. Funny pup....

And then he looked up at the store they were by -- to see a display of brown things inside, and red and pink hearts, cellophane, flowers... Curious, he headed inside to investigate.

The Dreamberry seems to skip a minute, for the scene changes....

He'd taken off his coat in the warm store, leaving the sled just inside. It would stay cold for a while; he wasn't too worried, and it wasn't like the whole lot of it wouldn't be consumed in the next two, maybe three days anyway. Noireau was busy playing with a loose piece of red cellophane, shaking it around and creating noise, while Harley checked out the shelves of displays and boxes of similar things. Something called cordial cherries, brown shapes in cellophane, paper-wrapped, flat foil bars, plastic-wrapped logs of -- they couldn't be rations, could they?

He picked one of the items up, an orange plastic wrapper with something printed across its top -- peanut butter cups? What were those? -- and opened it carefully, frowning in uncertainty at the little discs inside before dumping them into his hand. What was this? It certainly smelled good, though....

It skips several minutes this time, turning back to--

A square. Cube, more like. The sides were bumpy, the edges and corners all rounded. He stuck this one into his mouth as well, the sweet flavor renewed, and oh god it was so good! There was something soft inside, and little hard chunks that he mashed up in his teeth easily, like the hard bits in-- peanuts! That's what it was inside, peanuts! And the next little cube had... strawberry jam inside? Another quickly proved to be something he couldn't identify, but was delicious anyway. He looked from the soon-emptied box of delicacies to the shelf next to it, where other chocolates waited to be eaten, and found himself picking up a large box with a clear top, which showed another shape inside -- a heart, with a lace pattern and flowers on it, as though carved. He stared at it a moment, wondering at how it ended up looking like it did....

It changed-- a little less distinct, but certainly no less real, skipping from vision to vision....

He pulled a large, flat object up out of the sink, watching the water pour out of it into the steel basin -- it was a computer keyboard. An ancient one, if its appearance were any indication, all deep ivory where it was once presumably white plastic, and an irregular tan where it had probably once been a light gray, on the keys which weren't letters or numbers.... those that remained, anyhow. Several keys were missing, letters in the middle of it, several of the F-keys, some from the number pad off to the right... it was plainly junk, but he was washing it, soaking it through and letting the water pour back out again.

--and he smoothed the little cube of wax with his thumb, making the edges on the top a little nicer, before putting it down in front of him, on the keyboard. It neatly filled in one of the missing keys' gaps, completing it again, at least cosmetically.

--shook a tall can in his hand. The keyboard was in a small box, barely bigger than it was, of cardboard and hot glue, lined with a clear, thin plastic wrap. He aimed at it, and pressed, and a clear mist sprayed out over it....

--pouring a thin white goo from a big can into the keyboard's box, watching it melt over the keys and run down between them, to the wax that filled every crack, every space under the keys, to prevent the liquid from getting too far inside it.

--a small chisel brush with something thick and white on it, and carefully coated the inside of the cubelike depressions in the white, rubbery mold. He reached up to pull a small saucepan off of something that looked suspiciously like a candle warmer. He dipped the brush into it, pulling up another gob of white, waxy material that smelled suspiciously like chocolate, and replaced the pan, going back to work on the next little compartment....

--the knife pressed down into it. What looked like a Butterfinger bar with its chocolate scraped off split into a few pieces and lay on its wrapper. He picked them up, dropping them into the coated-with-white-and-sandy-brown mold, putting the longest pieces into a long bar on the bottom....

--pulling the white rubber away from something thick and heavy and dark brown, which sat on the table itself now, on more plastic wrap. A brown-stained spatula lay nearby, and the saucepan from earlier was off of the warmer, empty now, but with traces of dark brown up near the top rim. Colorful paper wrappers, and bright metallic foil ones, filled the garbage can nearby, the smell of chocolate heavy in the air.

--leaning in close, a tiny little nylon brush leaving a fine mark of nearly-black brown on a key that was white on top, fading to dark brown at its base, among similar keys, all hand-painted. F G H J K

--closing a thin brown cardboard box, pausing to push some cellophane back into it, before tucking the flaps securely into place, feeling accomplished and well pleased with himself.

Harley sighed faintly, bringing a hand up to his head to rub his eyes....

A laugh -- a female voice. He grinned widely, watching her. Short red hair, glasses, a round face. She put the keyboard box down on the long, paint-splotched table in front of her, among bits of electronics and plastic pieces, and turned to smile up at him, trying to control her giggling enough to speak. "You dork! I can't believe you actually--"

Harley shook his head, breaking his gaze away from the chocolate heart in its little box, to see what Noireau was up to. The pup was still harassing the bit of plastic, pawing at it and sending it underneath her, only to step back and try again, to the same result as before.

He set the little box back down, and looked down at the shelf just below it, where long bars sat, in goldenrod plastic wrappers, similar to the Butterfinger in the scenes just past. He reached for one of those....