Apartment Above Luke's, Sunday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

The quiet was nice.

Kathy looked around the empty apartment, wandering from room to room. If asked, she'd say she was picturing where all their stuff would go when she and Raven left Eliot's place (okay, Eliot's and Parker's and Hardison's, but it had been Eliot's place in her mind for years and it would take some adjusting to) and moved in here, but really, she was just appreciating the quiet. It was nice, being somewhere that no one else was for a little while. She didn't have to worry about whether her smile was convincing or she appeared happy--and grateful! One mustn't forget grateful!--to be alive again. Not that she wanted to be dead again or anything. But sometimes it was hard to be happy about anything. But around people, she felt like she owed it to them to try. Or at least to put up a decent enough facade that they could convince themselves she was.

Alone, though, she didn't have to pretend. She could just do her own thing, try to distance herself from her recent spate of nightmares and just wander for a bit. She would have thought she'd gotten enough walking in as an ex, but maybe her body'd just gotten used to the repetitive motion. Maybe idly poking around the place really would give her some ideas for what to do with the place. Or maybe it was all just bullshit and she should focus on thinking less altogether.

Yeah, it was probably the latter. But until she found a decent substitute for her previous activities that shut her brain down (besides zombieism, ha ha, she was hilarious), walking and appreciating the lack of people would have to do.

[Post open! Link to Anders' thread]

Comments

[tigerundercover]

"Oh my god, a dinner party." Raven's mouth twisted almost unwillingly into a broad grin. "Give me flashbacks to the fifties, why don't you. Let's see, it's well after Labor Day, so we wouldn't want white gloves, but ivory or cream could be appropriate. . . ."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, it's decided then, you're making the pot roast," Kathy declared. "I have to make sure our dresses are properly ironed and starched and we both have pearls to wear."

[tigerundercover]

"Excellent choice," Raven said. "I was well known for having the absolute worst pot roast in all of Westchester."

That wasn't even much of an exaggeration.

"You wouldn't eat any of it anyway, though," she said, careful to keep her voice casual. "We should maybe go for something vegetarian."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy froze, just for a moment. "Ah," she said softly. "You noticed."

It was like Kathy wasn't slick at all or something. Go figure.

[tigerundercover]

"You've eaten, like, three things this week," Raven said. "It wasn't hard."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'll get over it," Kathy said dismissively. "It's just been awhile, you know? It's easy to get overwhelmed by stuff."

...Sure, that was logic.

[tigerundercover]

"You remember that I was in that world too, right? I actually saw a lot more of it than you did. You can tell me stuff."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Exactly, you saw a lot more than me," Kathy said. "I died and woke up here. Apart from a few bad dreams, I'm doing okay."

And if she said that often enough, maybe it would be true.

"How are you doing?"

[tigerundercover]

Kathy still wasn't trusting her. And she didn't even know yet just what Raven had done.

Awesome.

"I'm restless," she said, thinking maybe if she modeled being open about things, she might get Kathy to open up about whatever was really bothering her. "I spent so much time in motion and now I'm just . . . here."

[spin_kick_snap]

You had plenty of your own problems, Raven, and most of them could be traced back to Kathy's own stubbornness. You didn't need more of her bullshit weighing you down. You deserved fun, happy, 2016 Kathy.

"What was it like?" she asked. "I mean, I know you've probably been asked that a million times already, so you don't have to answer, but...What happened? After we failed."

[tigerundercover]

"It was . . . long. Tiring. Either really quiet or really scary, but -- you get used to it. To quiet and scary." She wandered into the apartment's kitchen, dawdling while she tried to figure out how to answer Kathy's question.

She couldn't tell her about her family. She couldn't. Not until she asked. She was going to put off Kathy hating her as long as possible.

"The Mighty Dragon dropped you off at the Observatory. I told him to watch out for you, because I was going to get back here and get you a cure." She shrugged. "And I did. Took a bit longer than I thought, though."

[spin_kick_snap]

An image flashed through her mind; flashing lights and stars arcing overhead. But that didn't mean anything. Kathy had gone to the planetarium enough times to be know both of the movies they played backwards and forwards. She was just remembering that, is all.

"Kind of like patrolling then, huh?" she asked. "Quiet and boring, quiet and boring, and then suddenly you're surrounded and fighting for your life."

Or failing at it.

[tigerundercover]

"Yeah, I guess." Raven shrugged. "Like that, only the stretches of each are longer. And it goes on forever. You never go home and unwind, you just hope the quiet lasts long enough for you to rest up." She rubbed the scar on her shoulder. It shifted better, now, though there was always going to be a slight discoloration there in her alternate forms. Rubbing at it was becoming a nervous habit. "And sometimes you have to make them long enough, because otherwise you're screwed."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy glanced at her shoulder, though it took her a bit to notice the discoloration. "You've got a scar there, too?" she asked, her hand absently going up to where the bite had been before Nanika's magic had removed it.

[tigerundercover]

"Too?" Raven asked, frowning. "You -- it scarred?"

She didn't know why that surprised her. Of course it would scar. Why wouldn't it?

[spin_kick_snap]

"It never really healed," Kathy said. "Or, at least, I don't think it did." The dreams where it remained a gory circle on her shoulder were just that. Dreams. "I don't think any of the injuries that exes ended up with healed enough to scar. But it feels like it should have. And that it should still be there."

It had literally changed her life in fundamental ways. There should be something there to commemorate it.

"Where'd yours come from?"

[tigerundercover]

"A rifle," Raven said. "In Texas. I was trying to warn people about a new ex in town and they . . . didn't take it well."

In no small part because they'd known Raven as a pet dog, not a blue girl.

Details.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Fucking Texas," Kathy said with a grimace. "Bunch of ingrates."

She looked down at her shoulder again and blurted out, "I'm thinking of getting a tattoo. There. As a reminder, kind of."

[tigerundercover]

"Fucking Texas," Raven agreed. "Tattoo of what?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Ilh-eo beolin salamdeul-ui gieog sog-e," Kathy said, then translated, "In memory of those we've lost. But in Hangul, in a small circle on my shoulder."

The inked characters would lay where the memory of teeth still haunted her, an indelible mark on her skin.

[tigerundercover]

"That's beautiful," Raven said softly. She thought of all the people Kathy had lost in this, her friends, her family. Her entire city.

And in her mind's eye she saw Sarah, lying broken on the floor, her ravenous father perched above her. Her eyes burned, and looked away sharply, turning towards the bedrooms at the back of the apartment.

"So how many rooms does this place have, anyway?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy raised a hand down Raven's arm, then slipped her pale hand into Raven's blue one and squeezed. "Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and this really awesome open floor plan kitchen/living room deal," she said and if her voice was a little thick, she didn't think Raven would blame her.

"The bedrooms are almost as big as our old dorm." An exaggeration, but not much of one. "We should figure out which one we want to claim."

And because she loved you, Raven, she hadn't already yelled dibs on the one with the master bath.

[tigerundercover]

"Which one do you want?" Raven asked. "I'm good with whichever." It wasn't like she'd do much sleeping in there.

. . . maybe she could set up some kind of nest or something.

[spin_kick_snap]

"There's one with a connected master bath," Kathy admitted. "But if you wanna flip a coin or something for it to be fair..."

[tigerundercover]

"You said two bathrooms, right?" Raven said. "So . . . either way I get my own bathroom." She smiled. "I didn't even have a bathroom most of this last year."