text; un: didnot.

[morns]

( maybe she's had one too many drinks when this post comes to mind, which is why it isn't as anonymous as she might like it to be.

... which is why it gets posted instead of deleted as soon as the words flash over the screen. )

ever think about how long we could be here? already been a year. living here pretending shit's normal. getting jobs. playing with magic.

forgetting who we used to be.

that a good thing? being separated from all that shit?

could be here for years more. become someone new. do shit you never thought you would.

( she's already there, just by having a business. how much further can this place push her out of everything she believed she was? )

Comments

[garyoutensei]

Magic's more ubiquitous where I come from, I'll give you that, but I didn't really need it there, and I don't really need it here. That's not the kind of shit I find worth worrying about.

[ Another swig. ]

But that's just me.

[morns]

Nobody needs magic. Makes things worse than it needs to be.

( personal opinions? on my avalon network??? )

[garyoutensei]

Where I come from, magic keeps the lights on, so I can't hate it, but it's hard not to see it as also being part of humanity's problems.

[ A drink, a lengthy pause, and her tone darkened some. ]

A whole war, over a century long, because someone got the bright idea to make magic-infused beings... and then turn them into weapons...

[morns]

People figured out how to make that happen without magic.

( then decided they needed magic on top of that.

... but. ah. that sounds incredibly familiar, doesn't it? )

'S no other point for people to have magic in their minds. Just another way to fight.

( better weapons to fight their wars. )

[garyoutensei]

It was supposed to help everyone. "Free energy". Limitless.

[ Another pause. ]

Jokes on us, I guess. Our weapons didn't want to fight for us... they wanted to replace us...

[morns]

'Course they did. Can't give out power and think summat won't use it.

( or find ways to distribute it even when they shouldn't. )

[garyoutensei]

It runs deeper than that, but... not much sense in talking about it, if you didn't live through it.

[ Another pause, another drink. ]

Or more accurately, "survive" through it.

[morns]

... Try me.

( it is, in many ways, miraculous that home has survived over a decade with this damn power pill and not collapsed into a global catastrophe, but there's been casualties. national level casualties, the crumbling of places once considered stable and strong and the continued threat of those same movements growing in country after another.

eventually, Kate expects, something will break. )

[garyoutensei]

... Maybe later. [ A sigh. ]

Mood's already feeling heavy. And I'd make poor drinking company if I went any further down that road.

[morns]

( snort. )

Fine. I'll be th' shitty drinking company.

( how rude, Baiken. be depressed with her, dammit. )

[garyoutensei]

Nah.

[ A swig. ]

You got time to be shitty later. Tell me something that's happened here that actually made you happy. An experience you wouldn't have gotten, otherwise.

[ Baiken was always hesitant to speak in those sort of terms, herself, but Kate... seemed like she could use it, really. ]

[morns]

( she's quiet for a while there, mulling over things which have happened. choosing from a strange myriad of things she would never have expected to have at her disposal. )

... Owning my own business.

( that's a good one. )

[garyoutensei]

It does seem like there's not a lot stopping people from doing that kind of thing here. I got a friend who runs a flower shop, too.

[ Wait did she just say "friend"? ]

[morns]

( flower shop? )

Think I know th' place. ( it's said with a slight approving tone. it's a good place, that. the lavender she bought is still doing quite well. )

So, what's your answer?

( what has Baiken liked here? )

[garyoutensei]

I got to fuck a girl that thought she was the whole country of Belgium.

[ Said so matter-of-fact-ly one could easily have thought she said something else far more mundane. ]

[morns]

( wait.

the whole country of what. )

... Why Belgium?

( yeah, that's the takeaway from this sentence. why Belgium, of all places. )

[garyoutensei]

Didn't ask.

[ Because why would she? ]

The important thing is, she didn't freak out about my scars, so that won her a lot of points in terms of being a good bedmate.

[morns]

Fair.

( Kate generally doesn't ask either. people say they're named after booze? sure, why not. shit gets weird here. )

That all it takes? ( goddammit Katherine. ) Nowt else you like?

( being direct, not asking about personal shit... )

[garyoutensei]

She also knew what she was doing.

Generally, competence and not being weird over my scars is all I can really ask of anyone.

[ Sex was already a necessarily intimate experience. She didn't want to make it more complicated than it had to be. ]

Part of that is why I usually pay for professionals, when I have an itch to scratch.

[morns]

( okay, that's all fair enough. she does her best to keep the intimacy out of shit as far as possible, but sometimes it slips in. )

Simpler, huh?

( drunk sex is pretty good, whether with men or women, but she can see the advantage of a professional. less of a roll of the dice, even if it means paying.

Kate, meanwhile... well, most of her urges aren't itches that need scratching so much as they are simply distractions from her own thoughts. finding a professional is more work than propositioning someone or getting more drunk. )

[garyoutensei]

S'probably obvious, but I'd get real itchy if something got more complicated than that.

... And that's fine.

[ She was, after all, still making friends, even if she hesitated to use that word as much as she did. Anything more than that was definitely crossing a line, though. ]

[morns]

( and this why Baiken is a good drinking partner. )

Never said it wasn't.

( anything more than a one night stand, or a FWB thing, just seems like inviting a whole world of problems and hurt.

and Kate doesn't think she'll ever be ready to revisit that. )

[garyoutensei]

Didn't think you would, but you know how some people are...

[ Baiken had her own reasons... ones that were probably just as depressing. ]

[morns]

( hi5 for depressing shit hidden under lots of booze. and so Kate snorts at that comment. oh does she. )

Get real pissed at shit that's none of their business.

( that's so much energy that could be better spent working out. )