Room 505, Tuesday Evening

[thatsamilkshake]

So hey, you know what's fun? An unplanned week or so of vacation with blood magic, plague and creepy crazy sorcerers, yay! And also no showers. And no phone reception, though that didn't stop Francine from running the battery down by trying.

Oh, no, wait, fun was something else. Which would be why when the group finally made it back from Firekeeper's world to the preserve, and from there to the dorms, Francine had just barely enough energy to shuffle down the hall to her room -- and just enough thought-moths caught in the cobwebs in her head that she waited a moment, leaning on the doorknob, before she went in.

[OOC: For That Girl. No, not you, Marlo Thomas.]

Comments

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo took the opportunity to offer Francine the pajamas she was still holding; the momentary distraction would be nice, and she could take a second to calm the hell down.

"The plague left you with a . . . burn scar?"

[thatsamilkshake]

Towel. Pajamas. Towel. Pajamas. Yes. She could balance enough to do that.

"Yeah. It was a magic thing. It's different for everybody. Merlin's eyes changed color. Derian..." Was a little more complicated to explain. "Kind of looks like he's part horse, now."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"And you ended up with a kinda dirty-looking flower." How the hell Katchoo managed to sound that casual about it, she had no idea, but turning away to gather up the shampoo and conditioner bottles was a convenient way to hide the look on her face.

"Jeez, Francie, you can't do things halfway when you get into situations, can you?"

[thatsamilkshake]

PJ's buttoned, Francine could use the towel to blot at the drippy mass of her hair. "Maybe not." So. Yeah. That. This. "Thing is, the disease only gets people who have some kind of ... thing."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo didn't have to think much further than Merlin's eyes changing color. "Some kind of thing that makes you freak out at mirrors and turns your hair white."

[thatsamilkshake]

Trust Katchoo to have known that - or accepted it - before Francine herself. "Some kind of thing like that. Yeah." She might have to marry this towel, it was so good at obscuring her face while she rubbed at her hair with it. "When I was sick, I saw stuff."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Trust Katchoo to have known and accepted a lot of things about Francine before Francine did, maybe.

"Mirror kinds of stuff?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"All kinds of stuff. Some of it was creepy, but some was--" Francine wrapped the towel around her head and grasped for words like she hadn't been thinking about nothing but this almost since she woke up. "I saw you and me as old ladies together."

The other image came hard on its heels. You and me raising babies together.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

And if Katchoo's thoughts jumped straight to the other unspoken image when she heard about the first, it couldn't be helped, right?

"I couldn't think of a better way to spend my old age than with you anyway," she said, laughing a tiny bit because it was either that or freak out.

[thatsamilkshake]

"I had a big poofy bun on top of my head." Francine made a comically-exaggerated face. "I looked like my grandmother."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Well, sure. Once you get past the seventy-year mark it's a requirement." Ahahaha comically.

[thatsamilkshake]

"It's your job to stop me from doing that when I hit seventy," Francine said, shaking out her hair and draping the towel around her shoulders.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"It's a job now?" It was kind of a shame Katchoo wasn't the type who'd be inclined to pretend that lily-shaped scar wasn't there any more, now that she couldn't see it. "Does it come with a benefits package?"

[thatsamilkshake]

Bathtub. Bubbles. A snorkel, for God's sake.

And another flash that wasn't ridiculous at all, of arms and legs and sheets. And. And.

Francine stared for a moment without answering.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo pushed away from the wall and looked at her, quiet herself for a moment or two.

"Vacation time, at least?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"With or without the revolutions, creepy blood-mages, fevers and barf?" Francine's last vacation had been, um. Yeah.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

". . ."

Um, yeah, indeed.

"Francie, I think maybe we should get you back to bed now." Because there had been creepy blood-mages, which meant now there might be a reverse-limpet thing going on here.

[thatsamilkshake]

Arms and legs and. Yeah, could you just hold that flashback, Cartoonist? Francine's had kind of a day, and we've already seen it once, pretty as many of us might find it.

"Um. Yeah. Okay. Bed. Yes."