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 Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 8:20 pm
The first thing Finn did when he got back to the apartment was take a long shower. He was planning to stand there until the hot water ran out but when he was thirty minutes in he realized that probably wasn't going to happen and he was just killing the environment. But it was still probably good that this was the first thing he did back, because he was covered in pond muck and blood and smelled like the bottom of the lake.
His drive home with Leah had been awkward to say the least - she seemed to suspect that he was one of the combatants, but as with all things in life, his little sister had promised not to tell their parents that anything had been amiss at camp, and Finn elected to not go into the house because he didn't want to explain to his parents why he looked like he'd been through a dredging machine.
He turned off the water, toweled off, and changed into pajama pants and an old t-shirt. He rubbed too much neosporin on the cut on his face and put a Charlie Brown band-aid on it. Finn inspected his reflection and decided he didn't look too shabby.
Then he went back out into the living room and found Tate sitting on the couch. Finn didn't say anything, just slouched over and buried into the cushions next to her, the top of his head coming to rest against her thigh.
After a long while, he said, "It was lousy and hot and there were monsters and it sucked and I'm not even getting paid for all the s**t I went through, I am never going to camp ever again."
Hopefully she'd be sympathetic to the statement.
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Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:07 pm
With Parker still being a non-communicative douchebag, Tate had plenty of time to make new friends and catch up with old ones. Finn was one of the latter, even if she'd only found him again by accident, through Craigslist. (Why she'd been in that section of the internet personals, no one needed to know. Ever. It was a ******** secret, okay?) Today, in a rare day completely off from every job or responsibility she held, she'd cleaned the living room, the bathroom, and then kicked Parker's door in an attempt to draw him out. It hadn't worked.
So, as any good friend would do, she bailed. On the way to Finn's, she bought a box of Sun Drop--it had the collective caffeine content of two twelve-can boxes of Mountain Dew, so she'd gotten quite familiar with the citrusy taste of the soda. He should be home soon, and even if he wasn't she could sure use the relative boost one hundred and forty-four ounces of caffeine would give her. Theoretically.
The door was unlocked, so she abandoned the box on a counter and dropped into her usual spot on the couch. She could hear water running, so she'd just wait, right there.
So she did, and she didn't make as much of an irritated sound as she might've when he laid his damp hair against the side of her thigh. Slacks dried. "You say that every year," she said. "Except without the monsters. That's a new addition. I'm sure the kids weren't that bad, you just need to man up."
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Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:34 pm
Finn headbutted his forehead against her thigh. Yes, it was true that he said that every year, and every year he wound up going back, but that was Jewcamp. It was traditional to kvetch about Jewish summer camp. That was how people knew you'd enjoyed it. Larkspur had been decidedly different. "No," he groaned. "There were swamp things. Three of them. I killed two with a baseball bat. And King Kong's soggier, smellier brother."
He was pretty sure he was not being melodramatic. Leah had confirmed his story in the car - she'd seen the whole thing. Finn rolled over and stared at the ceiling lamp. With an air of finality, he pronounced, "It was terrible."
For impact, he counted to fifteen in his head before doing anything else. "Anything else" was sitting up and confirming that the box on the table was indeed full of Sun Drop and he was indeed going to drink one. He downed a third of the can in one gulp. "I killed two lake monsters with a baseball bat, I don't think that me manning up is the issue," he said defensively.
He was still rather proud that he'd scored two kills, even if he'd snatched them out from under other people's noses and the second was shared with Nifhel. Tate didn't need to know that. "The point is, I am never, ever doing that again."
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Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 8:18 am
She was taking him seriously, though her amused look down at him definitely didn't show that. Swamp things, at Camp Lark-whatever? Could the Negaverse's reach be so long? Idly, she started to run her fingertips through his hair, twisted the locks around a knuckle but didn't pull. That would be mean, and right now he hadn't done anything to deserve her being mean to him. Other than being ridiculous, but after dealing with Parker never coming out of his room, ever, she could handle ridiculous bare-handed.
"I'm sorry it was terrible and you mistook seaweed-covered campers for swamp things," she said, not sounding very sorry at all. "At least you didn't get sunburned." Tate let go of his hair so he could go get a can of soda; during this time, she tucked her feet up on the couch and gave him a deadpan look.
Honestly, if she didn't know what she knew, she'd think that Finn was being altogether ridiculous and needed to lay off the drugs. This would be a good tack to take, if she didn't want to keep him talking. "Well, swamp monsters have to be at least a once in a blue moon opportunity," she said, her expression a mask of innocence. "I'd say you're good for a lifetime."
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Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 12:16 pm
Finn rolled away from her and sat up, knees pulled to his chest. "I thought you'd believe me," he said, taking another gulp of soda. Then, he pouted at her and poked her leg with his toes. A couple of times, for good measure and to see if she would swat him for it.
"But if you're not going to, then fine. Fine. I made it up. It's just Finn up to his usual tricks. Whatever." He glugged his soda like it was beer. "How were your two weeks? Better than mine, I hope."
He stared sourly at the wall. Of all the things that annoyed him about camp, he had to admit that not getting paid for all of it was one of the big ones. He'd been counting on that money to save him from having to go begging back to his parents, and now it didn't exist. He couldn't tell them that, of course, though! Then he'd have to tell them about everything at camp!
"I need a job," he said with a sigh. It was not a happy thought.
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Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 6:28 pm
"I do believe you," she said, and she didn't swat him. Instead she just flopped sideways, her shoulder against his knees. She puffed out her cheeks and gave him a deadpan look, somewhat like an irritated squirrel. "Your usual tricks involve blow-up rabbits or Santas on Sovereign Heights grounds, not lying about swamp monsters. Did I ever tell you about the time I got saved from a giant centipede? Or a massive, amorphous blob of yuck? Swamp people are not really a big, Finny." For good measure, she patted his knee and then exhaled, still leaning hard against him.
She shrugged a bit at the question about the past two weeks. "I have more personal time, since classes are out? Thinking about bolting on Parker, he's just... being an a**, and he's not even pretending he likes to communicate or play nice with others." Which she got, to a point. She didn't like playing nice, although communication was a soft spot. She could take the quietness if he'd just sit with her, or even occasionally tell her to ******** off. That'd be more bearable than just complete silence.
Way more bearable.
Jobs! She could handle jobs. "We're hiring grunt work at the bakery," she told him, tipping her head back to look at him upside-down, as was proper. (Somehow, she still managed to look completely unimpressed.) "Kneading bread and moving shelves. There's upward movement potential. If you want."
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Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 6:47 pm
Finn was relieved that she came around to believing his story, although she had never told him about the centipede and he made a mental note to ask her about it later. Perhaps it had happened in the time between high school and their re-connecting. He jiggled his soda can, deep in thought.
"You could move in here!" he said brightly. To tell the truth he didn't know much about Parker beyond what Tate had told him, and couldn't recall ever meeting him beyond in passing, but living with people who didn't even talk to you didn't seem very nice. Better than a roommate who was loud and had sex everywhere, but then most things were better than that.
"That wouldn't scandalize anyone, would it?" he asked. Anyone who were to walk in right now would think maybe they were a couple, the way they'd devolved into a tangle of limbs on the sofa. Despite that, platonic was not even platonic enough to describe the comfortable relationship Finn and Tate shared. "I mean," he said, "You're living with a dude already and I'm pretty much gay as the fourth of July."
When you put it that way, it sort of sounded like the setup for a sitcom. Finn cringed.
"I guess I could work at the bakery," he said, moving on from one subject to the next. It didn't seem terrible, and Tate worked there. "It'd be... what, minimum wage?" He'd just be doing it for spending money, so he didn't have to go back to Gwen and Anthony every few weeks - it wasn't like he needed to live on this money. And maybe working minimum wage would give him some of what people called 'Life Experience.'
He took another gulp of soda and swished it around. It occurred to him that he really wanted to tell Tate about the awesome handsome senshi he'd kissed before camp, but then again he was sworn to secrecy. He settled for headbutting her gently, finishing the rest of the can, and whining, "I can't decide if I want another. Also, do you think I'm gonna get a scar on my cheek and would that look cool or stupid?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 8:00 pm
Moving in with Finn would be an experience. He was, as he'd just said, as gay as the fourth of July. Safe, she supposed, although really, she liked living so close to so many senshi. Like, she had no idea who in the apartment complex was a senshi, but she knew she saw them pretty regularly, so they had to at least have friends there.
For some reason, she didn't trust the Negaverse very much any more.
"I'll think about it," she said, patting his knee again. "And I'll bring you an application from the bakery. You can tell your parents you enjoyed your working experience so much you decided to just get a part-time job, or something. Just keep the pocket spending down 'til your first paycheck, yeah?"
Tate did need to live on her money. It wasn't fun, but her uncle helped sometimes and that made it almost bearable. "If that's your biggest problem, you're doing okay. Scars always look stupid, by the way, unless they look like they're from a knife fight with sharks. Communist sharks," she added conscientiously.
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Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 8:23 pm
"Just promise you won't sell us out to MTV and turn our lives into a semi-scripted drama because I think I would have to kill you," joked Finn, and then paled briefly. "I mean not really kill you, just sort of kill you. Which is to say not at all." He had a sense that being a little bit dead was like being a little bit pregnant - at the end of the day you were one or the other.
He patted the bandage on his cheek thoughtfully. It still stung a little bit, but the neosporin seemed to be helping. "I guess I could have fought with communist sharks," he conceded. "I mean, I don't know how to tell a swamp thing's political affiliation, but those guys looked pretty Pinko."
Not that Finn had any problem with Communists. This was the boy whose idea of fun was running the Soviet flag up the Sovereign Heights flagpole just to see who would salute. One might even say he had some socialist leanings that he indulged from time to time. The point being that it hardly mattered to him one way or another whether the sharks were communists or capitalists or even anarchists.
"It is so going to ******** scar," he groaned. "Am I going to look okay with a scar?" You kind of needed to be a badass to pull off a scar, and Finn wasn't sure that he was.
He wondered, darkly, what Vin would think of the scar he just knew he was bound to get.
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 7:45 am
She lifted both eyebrows at him. Tate was gifted like that; her eyebrows moved around apparently free of muscular restraint. She could quirk just one a minuscule amount, or both of them, or... It was just weird, or so Tate thought. In this particular case, though, the eyebrows were notably raised. "Damn," she said, "there goes my college fund. I was all over having the entire world up in my business."
No, she was not. That was a lie, and Finn would hopefully know it or she would have to commit terrible acts of violence against him.
"You can tell because if they are attacking you on American soil, they are definitely not red-blooded Americans." She made a face, and patted his shoulder. His questions were always a little repetitive; it was the third time he'd asked about the scar since she'd gotten there. "Well, if it's a wussy scar you'll look like s**t, but I believe in your ability to make scars less wussy even if it takes enlarging it yourself."
She did not actually believe in his ability to make scars less wussy. She was pretty sure he was going to look sort of like he got into a fight with a set of stairs.
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 8:04 am
"Terrorist swamp monsters," agreed Finn, snorting with laughter. Leave it to Tate to make him feel better, if only because she was incapable of taking anything that came out of his mouth seriously. "They hate our freedom." If the national news media was paying attention to Destiny City, which they didn't seem to be, the pundits would probably have a field day.
"Hey," said Finn, nudging her as he reached for another can of Sun Drop. "What do you think Glen Beck would have to say about the senshi and the negaverse?"
He straightened his posture and puffed out his face, a fair approximation of the notorious commentator. "Well," mocked Finn, "I think both groups are criminals. We should lock these people up and subject them to testing! What have they got what we don't? It's all those soft-assed left wing crying-heart liberals in Washington that lets this reign of terror continue in one of America's cities, and Innocent American Citizens are the victims! Isn't anyone concerned that this is going on three hours outside of Washington DC? I bet they're all homosexuals."
He watched Tate, searching for a response, all talk of scars - wussy or otherwise - forgotten. "Well?" he asked. "Well?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 9:02 am
"Envious, more like. Under the sea, you know, it's a monarchy. We fought for the right to not be ruled by a king two hundred twenty-odd years ago, they just wish they had the courage to do the same." Her face was completely straight. Poker face, you could call it, and Tate's was one of those who had a poker face that absolutely couldn't be read.
She scooted away from the blond, making an irritated face. "Both groups are criminals, Finn Beck," she said. Did she even have to go into all the civilian deaths and property damage and everything? Seriously, though. She was pretty sure senshi were some kind of space alien body snatchers, but the Negaversers were murderers, and that impinged strongly on Tate's well-developed sense of justice. It wasn't fair that Tate or Finn should have to fear for their lives when they went out after dark.
Tate also possibly gave people mood whiplash so bad they walked on tiptoe around her for weeks, just in case of a relapse. "Vigilantism is still a crime, when last I checked, anyway."
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 10:34 am
"I never said I was endorsing it!" protested Finn, partially upset that Tate was steadfastly playing along. He leaned senshi, all personal affections included and because, between the negaverse and the senshi, one aide had attacked him and one side had kissed him and it didn't take a genius to figure out which was which.
And besides, what Camelot had said rang especially true to him. Both sides were turning the earth into a battleground. Maybe the knights could be the intervening party.
"I mean," protested Finn Beck weakly. "They're illegal aliens. From space. Are you sure this isn't about immigration reform and enforcement? Deport them!"
Except wait. The senshi were the supposedly good guys. "I just wanted you to laugh," he admitted lamely.
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 2:20 pm
Tate knew nothing of knights and disapproved heartily of any sort of powered intervention. Taranis took her to space; why couldn't every senshi and Negaverse officer just go? The thought of what Wolframite had become disgusted her now where it once had excited her. Warriors for Earth! Soldiers for their people? Lies. Horrific, horrible lies. The television broadcast they'd done, pretending to be senshi, just drove it in.
Things weren't black-and-white. She scrubbed her face and looked over at Finn Beck. "You can't deport people to space. The senshi would have to go there themselves. I know they can." They stayed for… what? To defeat the Negaverse? The Negaverse, who murdered living people and… whatever their new modus operandi was. Did she even want to know? Surely it was as horrific as theft of starseeds.
She could imagine plenty of fates worse than death.
"I don't think this is very funny. There's nothing about this entire situation that I like, Finn." She shrugged, and patted his shoulders.
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 2:43 pm
Finn Beck gradually sank back to whatever depths he had emerged from. Left in his place was a quietly brooding shadow of himself - Finn shot Tate a glum look. "I really... I was joking," he said quietly. It stung that Tate was seemingly immune to his charms, and even more that he'd somehow only made her feel worse about everything, ever.
He sank down into the cushions. "Turning our city into some kind of turf in a gang war," he grumbled, "I mean, how is that fair?" They'd never gotten a say in it, and what made anyone want to fight in Destiny City? It wasn't a political or economic or even entertainment center. It was by all means quiet - a metropolis with a small-town feel, where sooner or later it seemed like you knew everyone.
"Anyways," he shrugged. "Let me know if you need to leave that b***h Parker." Having Tate move in would save her from the trouble of sneaking into his apartment. It would also probably mean more cuddles in front of the tv than he already got; also not a bad thing.
"And about the bakery job, too, yeah? And leave the Sun Drop. Or take it. Whatever you feel like."
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