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

[spin_kick_snap]

"But what if you're not dressed and--riiiiiiiiight," Kathy said, snorting back a laugh. "Never mind."

[tigerundercover]

Raven snorted, then giggled. Then let it grow into a full blown laugh.

"Worried your gentleman callers will be scandalized by your roommate's wanton nudity?"

[spin_kick_snap]

That did an effective job of killing off Kathy's amusement, honestly. "Think it'll be awhile before I have any gentleman callers to worry about, I think," she said softly.

[tigerundercover]

Whoops.

"They came to LA to help us get you, Kathy. They can't be too mad at you, can they?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Anders said he went to make sure nobody else got killed," Kathy said. "And even if they're talking to me again, it's not the same as it was. They haven't forgiven me, they don't trust me, and they've moved on." She shrugged, because pretending like it didn't hurt was the second-best thing to it not actually hurting, right? "Can't really blame them for doing any of that, so...here we are. You're free to run around naked and scandal-free."

[tigerundercover]

"That doesn't sound like as much fun," Raven said, though she'd lost a lot of the joking energy. Kathy knew the boys much better than she did, but she suspected the situation wasn't nearly so cut and dry as Kathy made it out to be.

For once in her life she wished she had Charles' power, instead of her own. It must be so much easier to deal with things when you could know exactly what everyone was thinking.

"Maybe we just need to go out and find you some new gentleman callers?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Raven was underestimating the depth of Dante's anger and Anders' betrayal--though Kathy was also inclined to think the worst of anything that had to do with her, especially now.

"Might have to go to Baltimore for that one," Kathy said with a tired smile. "Pickings on the island are a little slim. We'll find you someone, too."

[tigerundercover]

They had taken her out for drinks this weekend, though. Unless the whole zombie thing was a deliberate ploy, that didn't smack of utter hatred and contempt forever!

"Mine wouldn't be a gentleman caller, though," Raven pointed out. "Or a lady caller. I'm thinking I might look for a rapscallion."

Or she'd moon over people from afar because they weren't a bearded person in a long wool dress.

[spin_kick_snap]

Even Kathy wasn't melodramatic enough to think it was going to be hatred and contempt forever. But it also wasn't enough to put them into the realm of gentlemen callers.

"Oooh, a rapscallion, huh?" Kathy asked. "That sounds like it might be nice. What traits make up a proper rapscallion, so I can keep a lookout for you. You know I'll wingman for you any day."

[tigerundercover]

"You know, I'm not sure what one would look like in today's fashions," Raven mused. "What do you wear when you want to express an utter, but lighthearted contempt for law and order?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Dapperpunk, obviously," Kathy said, though she wasn't sure if that was a thing anymore. She'd been away from Tumblr for nine months after all. Anything could have happened. "Nicely dressed, but with that punk aesthetic that says they go protesting on weekends now."

Dante had told her Trump was president on their earlier phone call. She'd spent a few hours furiously googling everything.

[tigerundercover]

". . . Isn't punk, like, the literal opposite of dapper?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Tell that to the internet," Kathy said, giggling. "Besides, punk just means going against the establishment, doesn't it? You can be well-dressed and still anti-establishment!"

[tigerundercover]

"Well, I mean, I grew up hearing it used for male prostitutes. But 'geek' also used to mean, like, the guy who bites the heads off live chickens at the carnival, so."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Don't tell Hardison that," Kathy snorted. "That puts his 'age of the geek' thing into a really different context, ew."

And yes, she WAS going to ignore the memories of those weird dreams where she'd done that and worse to anything she could find. And if she froze for a minute while she pushed them all away, well, sometimes that just happened.

"...So!" she said, far too cheerfully a second later. "We should figure out what colors we're going to paint this place, huh? Do you think they'll be okay with letting us paint?"

[tigerundercover]

Raven blinked at that conversational hop, and shrugged. "I think Mr. Spencer would let you do pretty much anything. And if he didn't, Hardison would let me do it." Let's face it, these two had them wrapped around their fingers. "But -- why are we painting it?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Because she'd just thought of it in an effort to not think about biting the heads off of small animals?

"Why not?" she asked, gesturing to the apartment. "This is our place now. We get to decorate it and make it our own. I thought some paint on the walls would be cool to have. You know, all bright and cheery and ours. It's not something I've ever been able to do before, you know?" Beat. "We should go furniture shopping!"

[tigerundercover]

"Do you have any money?"

Please. Like they both couldn't get limitless super-platinum credit cards just by casually mentioning they might want to buy something.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Some," Kathy said. "Hardison got the bank to reissue me a debit card so I'd have access to my accounts again. I should see how much has built up while I was gone. Barry's got some kind of autopay thing that just keeps shoving money into my account, even though I haven't heard from him in ages."

Not that she'd have to dip into it if she didn't want to because of the aforementioned limitless super-platinum cards. Hardison was probably just itching for an excuse to hand them over anyway.

[tigerundercover]

"Hmmm." Raven made a show of carefully thinking things over, then grinned again. "I think this definitely calls for a shopping spree."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Just so happens there's an Ikea the next island over," Kathy noted. "Isn't that convenient?"

Especially with how it meant neither of them had to venture onto the mainland, where they'd be surrounded by thousands of people!

[tigerundercover]

"I have only one more question," Raven said. "Do they deliver?"

She was not trucking whatever shopping therapy induced them to purchase up all those stairs. Even if she could turn into an elephant.

[spin_kick_snap]

"...That's a damn good question," Kathy said, frowning. She pulled out her phone to check. "With the amount of stuff we're going to need to buy, they'd better," she muttered.

[tigerundercover]

"If not, maybe we can bribe people with pizza?"

Or guilt Eliot and Hardison into being pack mules, maybe.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Time honored practice," Kathy said, still navigating the website. "Though we're gonna need a lot of pizza for that. May be cheaper to just higher movers to do it instead."