hadriel_logs | I want to go where everyone goes

Entry tags:

I want to go where everyone goes

Who: Lance Sweets and The Girl
What: Two people show off their pets and catch up
Where: Sweet's place
When: 5/9
Warnings: None, will be updated as needed

Thump. Thump.

She knocks twice, smacking with an open palm before reaching up to scratch the black cat clinging to her shoulder. The Girl keeps a wary eye on the stairway while waiting. The apartment spires made her a little uneasy. She's used to sharing quarters, but not with strangers. Even with walls and floors separating them, she couldn't imagine living like this.

This Lance is the trusting sort, she reasons. It's evident enough that he let her come over instead of pressing for neutral ground. If he hadn't been so kind before, she'd think he set a trap. As it is, she just thinks he comes from a more honest world than she was used to.

She raises her hand to knock once more.

Thump.

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Lance had, for nearly his entire first year here, been almost paranoid about letting people know where he lived; he didn't meet anyone there, avoided his neighbors, and generally kept to himself. But at this point he's decided it isn't worth it to keep that up, and he also highly doubts The Girl means any harm.

So he doesn't mind inviting her over; besides, it means he doesn't have to try to carry a fennec fox somewhere else, which is good because Sandy is not always that cooperative. When he hears the knock he goes to the door, opening it up and giving her a small smile.

"Hey, come in." He steps aside to give her room, noticing the cat--it's so cute augh--and then glancing toward the living room, where Sandy has perked up from her nap on the carpet. She's always curious about new arrivals, just a little shy.

She smiles briefly as the door opens, eyes gliding from him and across the room. She takes a moment to look for exits; an impulse she hasn't shaken in her few months in this city. The cat moves from her shoulder into her arms, his back stiff as he eyes the fox.

"Nice place. Really, uh, clean," Girl says after taking a few steps in. She's used to chaos and grime, evident in her own lack of hygiene. Any sense of order is still odd to her.

"So. This is the cat." She lifts her arms, making the cat rumble his displeasure. He's still staring at the fox. With an eye roll, she starts scratching his ears. "He ain't ever seen another animal that weren't a bird or lizard. It might take 'im a moment to chill out."

He watches her look around, although he's not sure what exactly the reason for it is; Lance does the same thing whenever he goes to someone's place for the first time, because you can learn a lot about someone from their home. But there are other reasons to for it too, and he can't tell right away.

The apartment is indeed clean, though mostly because Lance both straightened up and doesn't use all the rooms; he rarely cooks and when he's home he mostly stays in his room, which is far more disheveled than the main part of the house but easily hidden behind a door.

"Thank you." Lance smiles a little at the awkward compliment; it's the thought that counts, really, and his attention is soon on the cat. He... Definitely doesn't look too happy, and Lance can't help but smile a bit more at that and The Girl's explanation. "That's okay; Sandy's friendly but she's skittish, so he might feel more confident once he realizes she won't do anything to him."

The fox in question is cautiously but curiously approaching, big ears pointed forward as she stalks slowly toward the three of them. Lance glances toward her, then looks back at The Girl. "Do you want anything to eat or drink? I can't guarantee I have anything good, but..." There's at least some food in his house at the moment, as well as some tea.

Maybe she could learn something about his home if she could get past her preconceptions. She associates clean and orderly with the people of authority. Not allowed to step out of line, not allowed to show personality, not allowed to exist outside a perfect box. She's trying to shake those ideas; it gets a little easier the longer she stays here but it's still the first thought in her mind.

Girl sits the cat down at her feet. He backs up against her legs, shoulders hunched. "Can't really call this guy friendly. He mostly just ignores everyone until he wants attention. But I've never seen him get wary of anyone before."

She smiles at the creature coming forward. Girl nudges the cat out of the way so she can crouch down and offer a hand to be sniffed. The cat stays curled around her side, watching the approach with eyes that dart between his master and the new animal.

"I don't really take anything I ain't seen someone take first." She shrugs, looking up from Sandy. She can't remember a time when she didn't want something. She knows scarcity like the back of her hand. But she knows paranoia just as well. "No offense."

Sandy approaches more slowly, unsure of the cat's posture, and after getting about four feet away she sits down and gives a ridiculous squeaking noise. But when The Girl approaches her, she stands back up again and immediately sniffs her hand, then ducks her head in a clear indication that she wants her giant ears pet.

Lance watches all of this with amusement, though The Girl's response to his question is unexpected; the caution doesn't bother him, but it does tell him some things about her that he files away mentally before responding. "That's fair, especially here." But considering she'd given that response instead of the much easier 'no', he's going to guess she does want something. "It's fine if you want to watch me make it, and I'll try it first." It doesn't make any difference to him, and if it reassures her then it's well worth it. If she's this cautious about food or drink, she must be pretty nervous about being in someone else's house too.

She smiles at the fox as it steps forward for affection, scratching her fingertips around the base of an ear. The cat slinks forward, sniffing at the creature receiving his master's attention. He meows and rubs against the arm she out outstretched to pet the fox. "See? Ain't hard for you to get along with her."

Girl eyes Lance for a moment, trying to find any reason to say no. He's nice enough. He reminds her a little of someone she used to know, quiet and calm enough to be an oddity in the chaos around them. Maybe that's why she finds herself nodding. "Okay," she says, standing carefully. Girl waits a moment to be sure the animals won't fight. The tip of the cat's tail is slowly twitching in anticipation the other will play, so she figures it's safe to leave them. "A lil' something wouldn't be so bad. I'll follow you."

Sandy is used to Harlan's cat, and so once the cat becomes a little less cautious she's totally ready to play. Lance similarly gives the animals a brief glance to make sure they've fine, but they seem like it and he's quietly a little pleased that Girl is willing to take him up on the offer.

So he leads the way toward the kitchen, which is still easily within view of the animals, and sets up some water to boil before digging through his cabinets.

"There's water, of course, but I think I also have tea and some really bad instant coffee." And he means really bad, but sometimes you've just got to have coffee no matter how terrible it is.

She follows behind him, satisfied that her cat is going to fine. The kitchen is as neat as the rest of the house she's seen. She keeps her arms tight by her sides, worried about touching something and making a mess.

"I thought all coffee is supposed to be terrible. It's a necessary evil kinda thing," she jokes, cracking a smile in his direction. "I never had tea before. So coffee or water, whichever is fine by me. 'm not all that picky."

"I think tea's worse, honestly, though I'm apparently the only person who does." Lance responds, grinning a little too, and then decides to go for the terrible coffee anyway. Might as well.

But as he finds it and glances back at her, he notices how careful her stance is. "Are you alright? You seem nervous." And there are plenty of reasons for her to be, so he's not taking a guess as to which it is just yet; might as well ask instead.

"Worse than bad coffee?" She mock-grimaces. "You don't make a good case for it. Maybe it's a culture thing, if everyone else is so into it. I figure that explains most the weird stuff I notice from people."

Girl pulls her arms in tighter, crossing them over her stomach. It's awkward being called out. She's not used to people taking that much notice of her behavior. "I'm peachy. Ain't that nervous. Just tryin' not to mess up anything. I don't wanna go into someone's place a screw with their stuff. Unless their an asshole but you don't seem like one."

"Yeah, I think culture's a big part of it. I've also been drinking coffee since I was twelve or something, so that probably factors in."

As to why he likes it better, he means; if he'd been drinking tea instead he's sure he'd like it better. Being here he probably should try getting used to tea instead, but eh.

He watches her for a moment as she answers, but looks away and finds some mugs as she continues so as not to make her feel even more awkward by staring. "Thank you, but don't worry about it. You're not going to mess anything up, and even if you somehow did it would probably be fixable, so try not to stress over it."

He knows that's easier said than done, but still; he definitely doesn't want her to worry about this.

"Just since twelve?" It's half teasing, half curious. She's been stealing from her crew's mugs for as long as she could remember. But she's been doing the same with harder liquids and this place has shown her that's far from the norm. Maybe most people waited for caffeine too.

She relaxes by a fraction when he takes his eyes off her. She doesn't quite make herself comfortable- that's something she'll never be with wall around her. But she releases tension from the slop of her shoulders and carefully leans into a wall. ''m not stressed," she says after a moment. "I'm just not used to this whole civilized thing. It's just weird."

"The reward never outweighed how terrible it tasted before that." He offers the response as a joke, but it is true even if it wasn't really a main reason. But he doesn't want to get into the others, so he moves on; the water is boiling, so he sets the mugs on the table so she can see them before getting the coffee steeping.

She doesn't seem to have relaxed much, but a little is definitely better than nothing and he glances up briefly from what he's doing. "What do you mean?"

She huffs a quiet laugh under her breath. Girl herself hardly minded the taste. Bitter wasn't an unusual taste after the end of the world and no one was ever in a position to deny anything edible that came their way. "At least it was different from drinkin' water all the time. 'sides, wasn't gettin' to act grown up reward enough?"

Girl doesn't bother to hide how closely she's watching him with the mugs. If he already knows she's wary, she figures he can't get offended. She keeps her eyes on them even as she answers. "We didn't have stuff like this where I'm from. Nice houses. Shit that works. Towns. It's just weird seein' it all like this. It's like all the stories of before the wars."

"Are water and coffee the only options where you're from?" Lance asks it genuinely, because it's entirely possible they are. "I drank juice most of the time as a kid." And a lot as an adult, but no need to add that; he also avoids the question about getting to act grown up. His childhood had been a little strange, and he'd had enough of feeling like an adult very early on.

He definitely notices how carefully she's watching, but indeed he already knows she was going to and it doesn't bother him. He listens at the explanation, and it's both fascinating and really kind of sad. "Did the wars happen before you were born?" Or just when she was too young to remember?

"Oh no. There was juice too. And soda and liquor. Just a lil' harder to get your hands on stuff like that. When something's rarer it makes it pricier, you know?" She makes a face and shrugs, 'what can you do'. "I mean, we didn't keep coffee all the time 'cause of that. But it's worth the price tag compared to just gettin' something sugary."

Girl shakes her head, taking a moment to gather the timeline in her head before answering. Parts of her history are hard to forget. D's nostalgia seeping into every broadcast made sure she kept the basics in mind. But she's rarely been called upon to recite it. "The big war was before. When they dropped all the bombs and everything just-" She puts her hands together and pulls them out. "Poof. Gone. When most people mean before, they mean before that. That was, I dunno, twenty or thirty-ish years ago? Then there was the Analogue Wars and they ended right 'round when I was born. The years are kinda hard to keep track of so I can't tell you exactly when."

He nods a little in understanding at the first part, although he still thinks juice would be more worth it than coffee as a kid, but the situations he and The Girl have dealt with are completely different, so who knows?

"Speaking of sugar, do you want any?" For the coffee; he wonders if she's ever tried it that way. He doesn't have a lot of sugar, but he does have some and this is a good occasion to use it.

As for her explanation about the wars, that's... Pretty awful, and he almost regrets asking mostly because he isn't sure of what to say. He doesn't think she wants any sort of sympathy or anything, though, so he just nods again. "That makes sense. It's been enough time that things must be pretty worn down." As far as houses and such go.

"Yeah. I mean, I ain't gonna pass it up if you got it to spare." Her eyes goes slightly wide. She can't remember the last time she'd found any sugar packets to add to anything, let alone coffee. At least it'll be something to brag about when she sees Ghoul.

"Yeah. People ain't exactly bein' gentle with what's left either." Girl's glad he doesn't make a big deal out of it. She hasn't spoken extensively about her home world here because even the minor details put people into a frenzy. She doesn't know how to deal with other people's feelings about her day-to-day. The pity, the shock and horror; it makes her skin crawl to realize how abnormal her life has been.

"Guess you didn't have wars like that where you're from."

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I want to go where everyone goes

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sorry for the delay; was moving and had no internet ugh

No problem! Hope it was a smooth moving process

Thanks! It was a whole thing, but it's all good now and could've been worse

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