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The suburbs.

To some, the little bush-lined roads and mismatched houses were trademarks of a mediocre lifestyle. They represented middle-class in all it's glory, complete with brightly colored seasonal flags, faded front porches, and mailboxes painted in every possible color. Some of them were tacky and out of date, faded flags with Jack-o-Lanterns fluttering in the cold winter breeze. Others were brightly lit with the décor of the season, white-wire reindeer bending stiff metal necks to graze along their snow-covered yards.

Aree, as she strolled down the sidewalk, found it all strangely charming. The half-formed snowmen in the middle of every other yard, the deep divots of snow angels on the small front lawns, even the scoops of snow taken from atop the mailboxes to make snowballs. It was all representative of the fact that there was still something solid, something utterly and boringly normal to be found in the world. While she might pity these people their mediocrity, she also understood the value of having something standard to hold onto.

It had only been slightly surprising when Audrey had invited her over. Being in the Negaverse, you didn't have much time for a social life. You were friends with the Negaverse. You told your secrets to the Negaverse. If you had to sit around eating chocolate and watching bad romantic comedies, you did so with the god damned Negaverse. Unfortunately, the Negaverse didn't make a good shoulder for crying, and it laughed at all the wrong parts of your sad, dramatic little life. In fact, the Negaverse sucked at anything other than providing you power and giving you an overzealous desire to use it.

Aree tugged at the sleeves of her winter coat, pulling her arms through and slinging the bulky, patched jacket over one arm as she ascended the stairs that lead to Audrey Collins front door. Her black sweater was form-fitting but faded, her faded jeans patched in several places. Aree Cadence might have been pretty, she might have been graceful, but she was poor as hell and had all the social grace of someone in a coma. She shifted a brown paper bag from one arm to the other.

Tap, tap, tap, rapped her knuckles upon the front door.

If Andeon were present, he would get one sight of the Warcraft Mountain Dew and promptly hug Audrey and never, ever let go.

For Aree, the only response was to think that Audrey was undeniably, surprisingly, insanely...adorable. Adorable enough that the usually stoic young woman cracked a small smile and muttered her thanks as she strolled in the door. Aree was.. stupidly tall for a woman, but the frame was thankfully tall enough that s**t didn't have to duck her head as she crossed the threshold.

The interior was just as charming to Aree as the exterior had been. Quaint, unassuming, and painfully tidy. It was a far cry from the barely-furnished, completely undecorated apartment she had inherited from Ursula. She forced a small smile as she glanced around. What was she supposed to say? Nice house? Cute dress? Hell, this entire social scene has always evaded Aree as though she was somehow poisonous to it. After a long, awkward moment of silence, she decided on something.

“I brought Cheetos.”

She let out a small laugh as Audrey tugged her along, intrigued by the girl's apparent excitement. It was difficult for Aree to separate the world in which she was supposed to live and the one in which Tanzanite existed, but Audrey seemed so... normal. Happy. Like a teenage girl should be. It was fascinating, even a bit contagious. A grin found its way onto her face, and seemed to stay there longer than usual before fading to an expression of curiosity mixed with excitement.

“I have Gone With The Wind,” she said as they climbed the stairs, “And Labyrinth.” While she loved both of those movies, her real reason for bringing them was that they were two of the only acceptable choices in the $1 rental section. After all, Aree didn't have money to be dropping on pricey $4.99 new releases.

“Are there people who don't like Labyrinth?” Aree asked, seeming sincere in the question. She didn't understand how someone could not like a movie that had David Bowie and a small army of dancing, singing goblins. It was a staple of Aree's childhood, watching the dusty old VHS cassette over and over until the tape ribbon was so worn that all remained was two hours of long periods of snowwy static punctuated with the occasional snippet of film. She still had the useless tape, stored in a shoebox and tucked under the sofa that served as her bed.

Aree set the bag down on the coffee table, along with her jacket and the soda she's stolen from the fridge. There was an awkwardness between the two of them that stemmed from knowing each other mostly as members of a supernatural organization hellbent on ruling the world. The two of them had ended dozens of lives without batting an eye. It amazed Aree that Audrey seemed so.. normal. She was talkative, charming, slightly shy in a way that made her seem every bit a teenage girl and not at all a Negaverse officer who might someday be more powerful than a battalion of armed men.

The awkwardness would be ended as Aree withdrew the DvD from the case and stared at the computer. For a long moment she looked like a grandparent trying to figure out how to use Facebook. Of course, Aree didn't use Facebook. She didn't use Myspace or Google or anything else. Unlike many of her classmates, Aree hadn't grown up with the internet as her friend. She'd grown up with books and dictionaries in place of Wikipedia, forests and tire swings instead of World of Warcraft. While she knew the very basics of a computer, it had been a while since she had used one. Crystal girls didn't really have to type up reports and research papers. They were dancers, musicians, singers, actresses, and whatnot. Most of them, particularly the good ones, could slide by with minimal academic effort.

Thus, the expression she wore was she turned from the computer to Lina, her cheeks slightly red, was that of a teenage boy having sex for the first time, “Er.. where do I put it?”