33 Apocalypse Ave, Tuesday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

It was October, even if the weather didn't match Tumblr's expectations of the month, and Kathy was getting into the spooky spirit. She'd decorated the living room with some window decals and a small stuffed bat for the cats to play with, there were a chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven and a bowl of ganache cooling on the counter for chocolate monster cookies, and two gallons of apple cider sat in the fridge, waiting to be mulled or spiked with cinnamon-flavored booze.

Now she was sprawled on the couch, playing through her repertoire of songs she'd learned on the guitar, and trying to figure out if she could learn to play Bad Moon Rising before it ceased being relevant. Hmm, maybe she should try to play something off of the Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads instead.

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

"You know, I have trouble picturing that," Dante admitted. "He seems so casual about shit now, you know?"

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Kathy nodded. "I mean, he was never paranoid about it or anything," she said, "but I think something inside him has relaxed. Until Cassandra showed up, I don't think anyone from the Circle had even known about the island."

She'd missed the return of Alistair and Morrigan one Homecoming.

"And anyone who'd found out he was a mage just thought it was cool, not a danger. Years of being told that there was nothing wrong with you has that affect, I guess."

That was true for the three of them.

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Dante's mouth curved.

"I do remember him having trouble with that."

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"He never really bought into that idea anyway? That having magic was a curse or whatever? But he was more defensive about it, like he expected everyone to argue with him when he said it. Not having to fight every moment about whether or not he was worth something helped."

And even if they'd never become friends, never fallen in love, Kathy would have been grateful that he'd come to the island for that reason alone.

[rebelseekspizza]

"It fucking sucks he had to feel that way at all," Dante said quietly. "Getting treated like something different... something worse? It fucks you up."

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Kathy nodded. "That's something I never had to deal with," she said softly. "Not the way you two did."

Sure, there was sexism and racism, but it wasn't as targeted and specific as what they'd endured. It hadn't ground her down in the same way.

She almost reached over to brush his hand with hers, but refrained at the last moment, clutching her guitar instead.

[rebelseekspizza]

"He took it better than I did, seems like it," Dante offered. "And even then... you can either lay down and let it be the thing you are, or you can get pissed and kick back. We both got pissed."

And thank fuck for that.

"You guys got to see me coming out of that. Don't know if it's a good thing or not that I wasn't there to see him do it."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I don't...I don't know," Kathy said thoughtfully. "Maybe it would have hindered him. Maybe it would have helped you. Of everyone, I probably have the least idea how it would have shaken out."

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"What do you mean by that?" Dante asked.

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"Trying to guess means making assumptions about how either of you two would have reacted--" something she was already pretty terrible at "--based on a life experience I've never had. I'm not really in a position to guess how it would have gone down."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I guess," Dante said, tilting his head. "But you do know both of us." Beat. "It's not important, anyway. I've seen his manifesto a couple of times, seems to cover everything."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, yeah, but knowing you doesn't mean..." She looked for the words, then gave up. It was a pointless discussion to have anyway. "I should see if he has a new version of that. I haven't seen one since last year and I bet he still needs an editor like whoa."

She should probably feel bad for introducing him to Tumblr and their way of presenting arguments. But she was amused by the number of sarcastic 'sweeties' and smiley faces that made it into his writing when he was on a roll.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Seemed all right to me," Dante ventured.

Then again, he barely remembered the books he'd read when he was young.

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Kathy shrugged, feeling a little like anything she said now would just seem like criticism of something Anders had worked hard on. "Like I said, it's been awhile since I've seen a draft,"

[rebelseekspizza]

Criticism was fine, Kathy. Honestly. "Weren't impressed when you saw it the first time?"

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Enh. Sometimes it was less fine than others.

"No, not like that," she said. "He's got a lot of passion and fire and makes good points, but the structure gets away from him. No one is going to read three pages of text with no paragraph breaks, you know? Or he'll go on tangents that weaken his underlying point. That's why I used to edit for him; not to change what he said, but to trim it into a cohesive whole."

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"Who knew you were a newsie too?" Dante teased.

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"Pretty sure you did," Kathy said, snickering. "You know how much I love nerd shit. It was like editing persuasive essays in English class. I probably aced that section of the SATs because of that manifesto."

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Dante laughed. "Score one for Anders."

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"Fighting for mage freedom and 800 scores on the SATs since 2014," Kathy said with an amused shake of her head.

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"Big brain," Dante said sagely. "Still can't store a rock song."

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"Big hands," Kathy retorted right back. "Still hasn't played me one all the way through."

She'd gotten a lot sassier since hanging out with the both of them, that was for damn sure.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes again.

But he did launch into a functional acoustic version of a not-too-complicated rock song.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy cushioned her chin on her guitar, listening to him play with a contented smile. Dante was skilled on the guitar and she liked his voice.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante was unafraid when he sang, too; there wasn't any modulating his volume or keeping his guitar down. No, his foot went tapping against the floor to the beat of the drums, and he got caught up in the song for a minute or two, letting it carry him.