The Island to Various Rifts, Friday Through Sunday

[spin_kick_snap]

This is what happens when you stopped listening to the radio for the island; you were taken by surprise when you stepped on the island and saw that half of it looked like it belonged somewhere and somewhen else. Like, even moreso than usual.

Even with all the differences in the island, the first rift took Kathy by surprise as it opened up under her feet, too wide for her to bounce out. It reminded her a little too much of that column of light that had grabbed her to bring her to LA. Only this time it was down instead of up and when she looked around...

"Okay, I am not in Kansas anymore."

[For thems what are there with her.]

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[spin_kick_snap]

Her grin faded as she wondered if she'd pushed the joke too far, but nodded, waving over one of the staff to order a kimchi burger for herself, a double All-American Bacon Cheeseburger for Dante, fries, and shakes for them both. Strawberry for him, caramel Oreo for her.

And an extra side of pickles, of course.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante kicked her gently under the table after she was finished. "See, was that so hard?" he teased, trying to get a new smile out of her.

[spin_kick_snap]

"You know, you're perfectly capable of ordering for yourself," she pointed out, expression arch.

Tiniest worry wrinkle between her brows, but she was ignoring it.

[rebelseekspizza]

"But why do it when you look so pretty asking for all that meat?" Dante said, batting his eyelashes.

[spin_kick_snap]

That had her face easing a smile rising back up. "You're just lazy," she informed him. "And I might not let you have a bite of my kimchi burger, either."

And then she stopped, eyes growing wide.

"I ordered a burger."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante reached for her hand quickly.

"You want me to steal the meat for you?" he asked. "Or see if they have one of those Beyond things?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy thought about it. Really thought.

And slowly shook her head. "I wanna at least try it," she said, her voice faint. "Maybe it'll be a bad idea, but I...I really fuckin' miss burgers, Dante."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante nodded slowly. "Okay," he said. "Then you're having a burger."

[spin_kick_snap]

She was suddenly very relieved she hadn't gone the usual route - the old usual - and ordered a double for herself, too. Then she really would have been sick.

"...If I run out of the door and into the alley, will you hold back my hair?"

IT WAS A JOKE. HA HA HA. A VERY FUNNY JOKE.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yes," Dante said, simply.

It was hilarious.

[spin_kick_snap]

Her smile was grateful even as it was nervous. "Makes up for never needing you to do that cause I was drinking," she said. "That only happened once, thank God, in that racist Western sim with Eliot where I died again."

She was babbling. Yes.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Racist Western sim, huh?" Dante said, smiling at her. "You wanna tell me more?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Were you here when the aliens invaded and threw us all into weird, shared, mental simulations while we were actually naked on a space ship?" Kathy asked, nervously shredding a napkin into tiny strips. "No, wait, I think that was a little before your time. Maybe even just before."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I don't think so," Dante said, "Though now I'm picturing a sexy spaceship..."

[spin_kick_snap]

"More like a 'locked in a creepy pod, naked and afraid edition,'" Kathy said, wrinkling her nose. "I had to beat up aliens and steal their, like, car tire tread armor pieces so I could leave without flashing everybody."

God, had she still been a virgin at that point?

...She relayed that thought to Dante, too, in appropriate tones of horror.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Oh god, let's not think about the dark times," Dante said, fake-shuddering.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Too high-strung with no release valve," Kathy said, shaking her head. "Anyway, yeah, so I went from this K-drama romance sim - with Anders, actually - and then fell from that into this Wild West cowboy thing, still dressed in my royal concubine hanbok of all things. And...the Wild West wasn't great about things like 'women' or 'Asians.' Lucky Eliot was there."

For multiple reasons.

"And we didn't have our powers, so I ended up drinking about half a growler of moonshine and, uhh, regretted it immediately."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Poor Kathy couldn't hold her moonshine either," Dante sighed. "What a few years of getting laid won't do."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy threw a sugar packet at him. "You drink that much moonshine that fast without your stupid amounts of stamina and metabolism and let's see how well you do."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante caught it. "Excuses, excuses."

[spin_kick_snap]

"And, oh my god, my mouth," Kathy said, remembering how embarrassed she'd been up until the alcohol had hit. "It was 'cocksucker' this and 'whore' that. Something about that sim just got into your brain. I was so embarrassed."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante burst out laughing. "You said 'cocksucker'?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Only like fifty times," Kathy said. "The reason I'd started drinking is because I was cutting off the lower half of my hanbok and mentioned how good it was to get some air on my nethers, only nethers wasn't the word I used. In front of Eliot."

Who had only been a beloved teacher back then.

[rebelseekspizza]

"So how badly did you die when things went back to normal?" Dante said, grinning.

[spin_kick_snap]

"I don't think I was able to talk to Eliot without squeaking for a solid month," Kathy admitted. "Oh god, I learned two new-to-me slurs in that thing, too - it was a wreck."

It had also been the second time her heroism had gotten her killed. Oy.