thatsamilkshake | Room 505, Thursday Night

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Room 505, Thursday Night

So it turns out that punching a tree? Kinda stupid. ~~SAM.~~ Which was why the girl with her chin buried in the fur of a hunting hound (that she was still allowed to call a puppy because...YOUR FACE) looked like she was flipping people the bird if they walked past the half-open door. It wasn't them; it was just the splint. ...Okay, it was also the mood. But still not them.

Brynne, unsurprisingly, was very good at cuddling; Owain...tried to be? But there was a reason the owl on the bed was currently cuddling with Francine's birthday present (whose name was apparently Agravaine, according to -- well, that thought wasn't depressing, was it) instead of Francine.

Look, she wasn't letting them spend the night in the stables tonight, shut up. Also, just... shut up.

[OOC: Open but emo. Last post before Francie heads off for the backpacking trip, but probably not the last post in Fandom.]

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When the day passed with no word from either Arthur or Merlin, Firekeeper and Blind Seer's suspicions were pretty much confirmed. Which was why they were upstairs knocking on Francine's door, wondering if her friend knew yet.

"Francine?" she queried, poking her head through the open door.

"Hey," Francine said quietly when she realized who it was. Brynmor perked up, though, barking a puppy-no-matter-what-size-I-am greeting at Blind Seer.

Blind Seer returned the greeting, tail wagging in amusement at the puppy's (who was younger than Blind Seer, and thus totally a puppy) enthusiasm.

"What happen?" Firekeeper frowned, nodding at the splint as she pushed the door open.

Francine glanced down and flexed her finger at the only joint that would. "I was stupid and didn't let Arthur give me boxing lessons before he disappeared into thin air, so the tree won."

...Yeah, Firekeeper only followed about half of that. Still, she pounced (figuratively) on the part she did understand:

"So," she glanced at Blind Seer, who stayed infuriatingly silent. "He find his way back, then. And Merlin too?"

"And Morgana." Francine curled the fingers of the other hand in Brynmor's fur. "I guess." It was less guess than her sullen mood wanted to admit; the surety that they'd get home had in that moment become surety that they had, but after that, there was nothing left to be sure of. What happened after, whether they were safe, whether she'd ever see them again... "They just...poof. Gone. Right in front of us."

"Magic!" Firekeeper said with a snort, though at least by this point it was more exasperation than outright distrust. "Always trouble."

At other times, Francine might have argued that, but this was hardly the best time to catch her disagreeing. "I don't know what they did to make it work when it wouldn't before. There was a monster; maybe that did it."

Firekeeper nodded. "That was our thinking, when we telled them of the creature's presence," she admitted, seeing no reason to hide this fact from Francine.

"You saw it too?" At least she wasn't alarming anybody by mentioning something that was already gone, then -- though Firekeeper would be the last person Francine would expect to be...alarmed, exactly.

"This past night," she nodded. "We was hunting in the preserve when we see it! I lose an arrow," she was still somewhat put out by this, despite the relative ease with which she could acquire new arrows.

"Arthur and Merlin killed it," Francine said, a weird vein of pride running through the mope. "I think. Arthur got it with a spear and it fell."

"He say he have something to settle with it," Firekeeper told Francine. "I am pleased he do so," the corner of her mouth quirked up in something like a smirk.

"Oh, good for him." Sorry, Arthur; not your fault, but then again you weren't here to get smacked by the wave of pissiness anyway, so maybe it all evened out. "Glad that worked out. Too bad it meant they all disappeared without getting to say goodbye and left Brynne and Owain and the horses behind and who knows if they'll ever come back."

"I- both of us would be lying if we say there would be no sadness if we not see them again," Firekeeper admitted, resting a hand on Blind Seer's back. "But..." she shrugged. "We also know what it is like to be here, and not allowed to go home for so long a time. When the chance come, it would have been cruel not to let them take it." Perhaps she was projecting a little there, due to her own longing for news of the Isles.

"I don't blame them," Francine replied, even if at the moment that was sounding iffy even to her. "I just hate feeling like they got taken away."

Or like you got left behind, just like the dog and the owl and the horses some slightly more cynical part of her said, and she'd have punched it but she already had one splinted finger; she didn't need more.

Firekeeper nodded. "Perhaps they will find a way to get word back?" she suggested, though it sounded weak even to her.

"Merlin said he was going to try to make the phones work by magic somehow," Francine said. Of course, that was planned in the cotton candy cloud land where Fandom would just let them walk home across the causeway and come back when they pleased.

"Such a thing could be possible?" Firekeeper asked, surprised.

Francine shrugged, half hopeful, half not wanting to invite Murphy's Law by being hopeful. "Maybe? He's Merlin."

There had to be some sort of magic at work here considering how many places the phones in Fandom reached. If this island could do it, why not That Merlin?

"Then perhaps I should learn more of my own such," she mused. Look, she knew what buttons to press on speed dial to reach a handful of people. And how to retrieve a voicemail. That was about it.

"You should let me put my number in your speed dial, at least," Francine said, offering her a small, wobbly smile. "We're supposed to be leaving on the senior trip tomorrow."

She tugged lightly on Brynne's ear, then smoothed down the fur. "I don't know, though. Brynne and Owain and the horses were supposed to go back to Camelot too. Who's going to take care of them if we leave for a whole term?"

"Blind Seer and me take care of horses every week!" Firekeeper pointed out, digging out her phone and offering it to Francine. "Two more would be no trouble. Neither would a dog and bird."

"Really? Are you sure?" Not about the phone - that was getting Francine's number regardless. "I'm not even sure I want to go now, but..." But maybe Fandom would seem less empty now if they weren't in Fandom for a bit.

"Would not say it if I were not sure," Firekeeper scoffed. "You go! See new places!" it was not an opportunity Firekeeper or Blind Seer would ever in a million years consider missing. New and exciting places!

Edited 2010-05-08 05:37 (UTC)

Katchoo hadn't gone to work after this morning -- bad enough she'd badly missed Arthur's usual pestering on yesterday's shift, and after this she just couldn't bring herself to spend hours in that store and think about how she'd never see him shouldering his way through the door like he owned the place. She could swear there was a spot on the counter that had been worn to a high gloss from him leaning on it, and that way lay staring at it, and brooding, and an even more morose mood than usual.

Instead, once they'd gotten Francine's hand taken care of, she'd alternated between wandering up to the roof to smoke and coming back to the room, staring at her unpacked luggage, and . . . not doing a damn thing to rectify that.

She slouched back in from her latest trip to the roof and curled up on the bed behind Francine, careful not to disturb the new animal occupants.

"Hey."

"Hey." The nice thing about puppies was they were pretty flexible when it came to snuggling. (Owls, not so much, but there was a whole half the bed over there for Owain to stake out.) To Bryn(ne), one more person was just THAT MUCH MORE TO LICK OMG.

Which at least teased a brief smile from Francine, when the squirming around resulted in Katchoo's nose getting a very wet hello.

"Okay, okay, furball, I get it, geez," Katchoo protested splutteringly, reaching out to scruffle the dog behind the ears.

There might've been a brief hug in there too, and then Katchoo squirming around to rest her head against Francine's knee.

Katchoo wouldn't take it as an insult if the fingers that had been stroking through the puppy's fur a moment ago were now repeating the same motions in her hair, right?

"I wonder if apartments in St. Louis let you keep owls," Francine said, voicing a thought that she was supposed to be too cheery and hopeful a person to have, but to paraphrase Katchoo sometime or other, $%&## that.

"They'll just have to deal." Katchoo couldn't possibly take that as an insult. (Had those fingers been running through a cat's fur a moment ago, on the other hand, that might be a bit dicey.) "Guess we gotta take care of 'em, huh?"

"If they haven't found a way back by then." Francine failed at complete pessimism, or at least she was trying.

And Katchoo, for her part, was trying to go for some tiny modicum of optimism. It was a little weird, and bumped up against her awareness of how badly Arthur, at least, had wanted to get home.

"There's gotta be one," she said, cautious and neutral. If purely in theory, right? Blah blah closes a door opens a window yadda all that jazz.

"Right." Francine also failed at sounding sure of that. She slid her hand through Katchoo's hair again, then just let her fingers still, biting down on the second, more cynical right that wanted to slide out of her mouth.

The one that Katchoo's brain had filled in without missing a beat, with an extra touch of cynical when she happened to catch a glimpse of her phone on the nightstand?

Oh. Yeah, that one.

"God, Francie. Damn them for making me miss 'em."

"Seriously. Why couldn't they be total jerks? It would make this so much easier." Francine made a stab in the direction of funny, but there was a reason it was a dumb idea to let her wield sharp objects outside of a kitchen. She kind of stabbed herself in the eye this time, because it wasn't the first time she'd said it.

"I told Arthur that a long time ago, right after I found out he and Merlin ... that it was both of them. On the same day I got back from finding out Dad left." Francine Peters, queen of awesome timing.

Edited 2010-05-09 03:38 (UTC)

Still snuggling Brynmor (she could do that, okay), Katchoo sat up to wrap one arm around Francine, and yes, she still wanted to punch Frank Peters in the face for it.

"Because they're pains in the ass that way?"

She couldn't even make herself sound all that pissed off about it, either. That just made things worse.

Francine smiled a little. "Arthur did offer to try to be more cruel if I wanted him to. He was hugging me at the time, though, so it lacked a little sincerity." Or she was glommed onto him in a wet, snivelly mess. Details, details.

"And if he wasn't being bitchy at me, that's when I'd suspect something was wrong," Katchoo added.

She wasn't taking bets on that wet, snivelly mess detail, okay.

"Funny how I suspect he'd say the same thing about you."

"We had an understanding," Katchoo intoned. "It works."

Works, not worked, because denial was tasty.

"Merlin and I don't have understandings," Francine replied. Mmm, tasty denial with buttercream frosting. "We have ...exciting and not at all disastrous attempts to figure things out."

And sprinkles. Don't forget the sprinkles. And maybe a lava cake-type filling.

It was gourmet, boutique level denial here.

"Not at all disastrous," Katchoo echoed, laughing gruffly in a mirthless but buttercream-frosting-fueled way. "Whaddya have to say about that, dog-and-owl show?"

The owl half had chirrup to say, but was more interested in checking Agravaine's feathers for fleas. Good luck there, buddy. The dog half said, "Aroof!" and put a paw over her nose, looking up at Katchoo with big eyes.

"I think she says she wants ice cream."

Which just reminded Katchoo of a conversation with Merlin in the park, and going for ice cream with Brynmor in tow -- or rather being towed by Brynmor -- and that wasn't terribly cheering.

"You and Merlin would teach the dog to have an addiction to ice cream," Katchoo said, not remotely as exasperated as she was trying to look, but her heart wasn't in the impression anyway.

"Hey, we eventually switched to doggie ice cream! ...Mostly." Emo, table for four? Except really it was two, because the other two hadn't quite cottoned on to the reason for the emo yet.

No, and could they keep it that way? Katchoo had enough emo all on her own for about six.

"I didn't even realize they made doggie ice cream."

"It's called Frosty Paws." Which made Francine want to laugh just a little, except she was a little afraid to do that because... because. "Arthur still thinks it's spoiling her. We don't care."

"He would." Katchoo was staying just this side of the laughing line herself because of the same because, thanks. "Now I wish I'd gotten around to trying to get him to . . . to . . ."

There was that because again, and she slumped against Francine.

"God."

That was about Francine's take on the situation too. She dropped her forehead against Katchoo's and wriggled around so she wouldn't be squishing or squished by a hunting hound when she started the actual clinging. Because clinging there was.

"I know this is supposed to happen, we're all supposed to grow up and leave and miss people and go on with our lives or whatever the heck they did on that graduation episode of Leery's River, but I hate this. They're not just people we went to high school with."

[Yes, months later I have to come back and correct the meta. STFU.]

Edited 2010-06-17 06:59 (UTC)

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Room 505, Thursday Night

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