Isle of Ikea, Tuesday

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy and Raven had a new apartment in need of decoration and furnishing and they also had a lot of things to not think about and/or work their way through, depending on how they were feeling at the time. Conveniently enough, both of those things worked with the other. Kathy had spent her sleepless hours the night before making lists, flipping through magazines for inspiration (seriously, how many Williams-Sonoma catalogues did you need Eliot?!), and doodling layouts to try to figure our furniture arrangements. Then, once it had gotten bright enough outside that it wouldn't be weird to be up and about, Kathy had put together a trip to the Isle of Ikea. Because what could be better than combining a caffeine buzz, a ridiculously generous budget, and four teenage girls?

You were welcome, Ikea employees!

"So we need pretty much everything," Kathy said, as they landed on the shores of the isle. "Two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and our bedrooms. Pretty much the sky's...the..." She trailed off, looking at the building in front of them. She'd known the whole island was devoted to the store, but she hadn't really thought about how big that store would be. "And this looks like it has everything," she added. "Okay then."

[For those invited, and I have no idea whether the Isle has squirrels or not! Also open for phone calls]

Comments

[that_oldsaying]

"It sounds like fun, though!" Alluka chirped. "It sounds like, like having a never-ending closet of dress up clothes."

Alluka would kill for a never-ending closet of pretty clothes.

"Do you play an instrument? Or maybe thinking of learning one? I've been thinking of that, but I don't know what to pick or where to start." She was pretty sure her papa was partial to the guitar himself, but Alluka didn't know if that suited her. "And yes! Beds with desks under them! Like bunkbeds only the bottom bed isn't there and there's a desk or a dresser or space for shelves under there!"

[tigerundercover]

"It's exactly like that," Raven confirmed, and with a quick glance around to see who might be watching, shifted the color of her dress from black to purple. "I actually don't have any real clothes at all," she confided. "I used to, but I threw them all away."

Actually, they were in a box in Eliot's attic. But as far as she was concerned, they could stay there forever. They were mostly from the '50s, and '50s clothes were terrible. The foundation garments alone. . . .

"So I could put, like, a big mirror set up under it? Or a fluffy couch? It could be like a reading nook." Or a internet browsing nook, let's be real.

[that_oldsaying]

Since Raven was trying to keep it secret, she did her best to keep her delighted squeal to a low-flail.

That was so, so amazing!

"A big couch might be too big, but a small, fluffy one or a chair would look really pretty under something like--" Alluka went up on her tiptoes to peer around the store. "Like that! That's what I was talking about! And there's one with a desk!"

[tigerundercover]

"Oh!" Raven immediately rushed over to the one Alluka had pointed out, running her fingers along the black wood. She climbed up on the first step of the ladder and craned (and very slightly grew) her neck to get a better look.

It was almost like a little hidey hole. Zombies tended not to do a lot of climbing.

She tilted her head to look at the space underneath it again, then looked back at the bed. And spotted one in one of the little display rooms nearby, showing the way it hugged in close to the ceiling. It even had a little couch underneath it (and a laptop desk!). Raven hopped down from the ladder and headed over to check that one out.

"Alluka, this is perfect! Good eye!"

[that_oldsaying]

"Oh! I--"

She hurried after Raven, beaming with pride.

"You really like it that much?"

[tigerundercover]

"No one would even be able to see you up in one of these things!" Because the really important thing about your own private bedroom was the ability to hide in it. "Someone's going to have fun getting it up the stairs to the apartment, though."

And then putting it together. Raven was not that mechanically oriented.