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 Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 4:41 pm
It was Saturday night, and Tate had been just about to shuck her shoes after her last shift of work when she received a call from Janice Fitzpatrick, involving some sort of game night. She didn't hear anything odd, just... go to an address, because they needed one more player for a board game? She didn't exactly want to, because how many terrible horror movies had begun with having to go to a strange house in an unfamiliar part of town on the behest of a friend that you almost, kinda trusted?
A lot of them, if Tate thought about it, and she still wasn't sure why she'd agreed. She loitered at home long enough to finish her cup of coffee and change out of the uniform polo into a comfortable sweater, then headed off to... where-ever she was going. She grabbed the notebook she'd written it down in and hit the streets. The address wasn't very far away, which was a bit surprising. Sure, Destiny City wasn't Manhattan by any stretch of the imagination, but she'd kind of expected Fitzpatrick to be... somewhere else, for some reason. Both of her parents were doctors of some kind, right? Shouldn't she be... Tate didn't know, further away from DCU? Which was a little silly, in retrospect, since wasn't Fitzpatrick a student there too, Tate felt fairly sure she was.
Tate checked the written-down address and then looked up to the blue and brown house. The numbers matched and she was on the right street, and it wasn't like it was a creepy part of town, but the rock of foreboding had essentially sunk in the pond of her metaphorical stomach. Oh well, hopefully Fitzpatrick wasn't a walking serial killer cliche. And the lights were on downstairs, so there were people home. Tate knocked on the door and shoved her hands in her pockets, ready to wait.
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 5:25 pm
She didn't have to wait long.
A short laugh could be heard from other other side of the door, followed by a low, growling grumble, and it was opened within seconds, by a distracted blonde in a mustard-yellow cardigan. Though she spoke to Tate, the freckled girl's attention was on Janice, who was kneeling on the ground and neurotically organizing the components of what looked to be four or five games... At once.
"Hey, come on in, we-" The words died as Kess glanced from the interior of the house to the porch, recognition hitting her in the form of a toothy grin. "Tate." She was Jan's friend? That... "Makes sense." Stepping back to hold the door open further, she waited for the taller girl to cross the threshold before shutting it with a push of the hand.
"Look who's here," The announcement was a cheerful one [if entirely unnecessary], and Kess took it upon herself to point out the dozens of options. "We haven't really decided what to play yet."
The living room had been rearranged from it's typical set-up, the coffee table shoved aside to make more room for the stack of boxed board games, various packs of cards, and their accessories. A throw pillow or two had ended up on the wood floor [which could use a polish sometime soon], to soften where they'd be sitting.
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 5:44 pm
"Yes. Tate," clipped Janice at Kess's observation, busy hands currently at work setting up a Parcheesi board. It was one of the stack of games that she had brought over after begrudgingly accepting the invitation over and putting together a list of whatever the woman didn't own. Kess had regarded it with a bit of disdain, surprisingly; Janice couldn't imagine why. "We went to the same high school. Why, do you know her?"
Maybe Kess wasn't a fan of Parcheesi. Oh well, not like she was going to let that be an obstacle -- there were already plenty of potential sources of discomfort on her part that were bound to reveal themselves and, dammit, this would even the playing field a bit.
She didn't take her intense gaze up from the array of game boards for more than a nanosecond as Tate walked in, only flickering her attention upward for a brief instant to acknowledge her presence. "I hope the short notice wasn't too much of a problem, Konstantin. Then again, if it was, you wouldn't have shown up in the first place." It was typical surly Janice, really. "Now can we order some damn food, or something? I've been sustaining myself on coffee all day."
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 6:07 pm
That laugh. Tate knew that laugh, didn't she? It was a recognizable laugh, certainly.
Jesus Christ she could already feel the flush creeping up her neck, and it was a noticeably uncomfortable Tate who returned the smile, awkwardly. Only she'd hoped to never see Kess again in any setting less formal than, you know, a classroom. Or someplace where she could politely excuse herself. Because she remembered how she'd acted at the Halloween party, and it was embarrassing, and Not To Be Repeated.
The look she gave Janice was nothing less of betrayed, but then, she hadn't told Janice about her Close Encounter of the Lesbian Kind, had she? Probably she should have, and Tate shed her shoes while she turned that thought over in her mind. Actually, this was probably better than finding out if Janice would throw her under the bus that way, so she resigned herself to a night of games and the probably mind-blowing puddle of awkward she would surely turn into shortly.
"No problem," said Tate. "I was looking for something to do, anyway." She made a face at the idea of food, and crouched down to the floor, elbows pressed into her knees. It gave her an opportunity to stare at the Monopoly board like it had personally wronged her, which meant she could maybe just pass the blush off as exertion from the walk. "As if that's new to you, Fitzpatrick. But d'you have any ideas?" Because Tate had just got off work at a bakery, and was not particularly hungry.
(Mostly this was because she'd eaten three cupcakes that otherwise would have been trashed for being stale. She would not admit this, because she walked everywhere. She could eat as many cupcakes as she wanted.)
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 6:27 pm
Of course, Kess had just seen Tate a few nights prior, but neither girl would be talking about that, instead, she watched the lanky girl twist her mouth into a grimace and attempt to drill holes in Janice's head. It didn't appear to be working.
"What'd you want, Jan?" The blonde staked out a spot between both grumps, flat on her stomach with her arms crossed over a pillow, her bare feet similarly crossed at the ankle. Her phone was within arm's reach, but she'd be damned if she was going to call for something that Janice didn't specifically request. If there was anything she'd learned, it was that she was likely to eat whatever Jan picked, but that Jan was not likely to eat what anyone else picked.
"How've you been, Tate?" Kess reached out with one slim finger, idly pushing over a pile of newly stacked cards.
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 6:51 pm
Janice was, of course, unaware of any goings-on between Kess and Tate, only able to confirm the fact that they knew each other somehow. Tate always seemed to be uncomfortable about something, so the correlation between her awkward greeting and the mutual acquaintanceship flew right past her awareness as she focused her attention on re-straightening the pile of cards that Kess had just put into disarray.
"Nothing too messy," she decided, shuffling to the side a bit to ensure an even distribution of personal space (in spite of knowing how ephemeral it would be). "I don't want anything to get all over my game boards." It wasn't too difficult to see why: the ones she had brought were all in very good condition, or at least as good as one could get when they all saw fairly regular play. There was a corner crease on one of the Community Chest cards of her Monopoly board, but besides that it was spotless right down to all of the fake money being miraculously intact.
That left few options, as the standard fare for delivery foods tended to at least induce grease splatter. "Maybe sushi," she pondered. "Or there's a burrito place close by that isn't too bad." A small glare was passed at Tate as Janice weighed the options, somewhat annoyed that she wasn't hungry enough to help with the decision making.
"Maybe you can figure out a game to play while we get the food thing figured out," she suggested.
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:22 pm
Well, Kess looked relaxed. (Not like Tate was looking, except she completely was.) Settling down on the floor probably would not kill her, so she crossed her legs under her and leaned over the board. "Work. Classes..." What else was there to really say about her schedule, other than she had one and it was annoying and stressful? Less annoying and stressful now that she was back to a steadier sleep schedule, she supposed. With a one-shouldered shrug, she said, "I've been sleeping a lot more, I guess."
And trying to avoid you, but that's not a big deal!
Obediently--which was a term which could rarely be applied to Tate in her natural state, since she generally was about as cooperative as a live rattlesnake--she turned her head towards the boxes of games. There were more of them set up than she would have time to play, what with a six in the morning shift at the print shop coming. Maybe she could at least keep them away from the Monopoly set? She was terrible at Monopoly... She was about to suggest the grand old game of Life when Janice mentioned burritos as a neat food idea, and she smothered a giggle in one hand. Sure. Burritos, not messy at all.
She looked to Kess to sort that one out, though; Tate did not want to get glared at again. Did they maybe have that one game? ... No, didn't look like it.
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:39 pm
It took a little effort, keeping her face neutral while Tate hid some sort of gurgling sound [was that a mismanaged laugh?] in her hand, and Kess' brows raised in mock innocence as she spoke.
"Sure, let's do burritos. When I get some fresh, gooey guac on your..." She trailed off as she received a stare from Janice. How dare she even hint at threatening her precious game collection.
The blonde ran a hand over her hair, tousling the short, pale strands as she considered their options. "We can all just choose a game, and then go from there." Via rock, paper, scissors, or cage fighting, or something else totally mature.
Moving to her feet, she wandered away and into the kitchen, flicking on a light and snatching a stack of the many take-out menus stuck to the fridge. When she returned, the handful was passed to Janice, and she sat on the arm of the couch, peering down at the papers from over the irritable girl's shoulder.
She loved it when Kess read over her shoulder. Loved. It.
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:14 pm
Janice's hands might as well have been starved alligators, given the viciousness with which she snatched the takeout menus away from Kess. "Just figure out what kind of sushi you want," she snapped. Then she began flipping through all the menus, trying to find the Japanese and sushi restaurants in the pile. It seemed like it would take her a few minutes to stop being irritated about the burrito thing, but at the very least she wasn't retaliating.
Having someone read over her shoulder was a different story, however, to the point where she very meaningfully shifted her position in an attempt to move the menu out of Kess's line of vision. When that didn't work, she huffed a small sigh and handed the menu back over to her. "I'm all figured out. I can write it down or something to make things easier."
Without waiting for a response she rummaged through the Scrabble box, producing a small pencil and notepad she kept in there for scorekeeping -- the notepad was kind of yellowed, and the page it was on had a number of tic-tac-toe games cramped in across the margins. "We should at least play this one, though I don't care much whether it's first," she voted, while turning the page with a little more force than necessary.
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:39 pm
Tate was just going to stay over here, because the way that Janice was looking at Kess was just not even healthy. Couldn't be. She narrowed her eyes at the pair of them--and they were acting rather pair-ish, weren't they? Or at least really, really familiar, and Tate couldn't exactly explain why that would make her irritable. Sure, Fitzpatrick was her friend--rival--she didn't know, but they'd known each other a lot longer than Kess had known Jan. Theoretically, anyway. Tate actually didn't know that, either, and she couldn't exactly--maybe it wasn't even that Kess was so close to Fitzpatrick, but that Fitzpatrick was so close to Kess?
If that was the case, it wasn't like she even had call to be proprietary, she told herself. One drunken kiss (and a chaste one at that) did not a claim make, not in any stretch of the imagination except perhaps in a shoujo manga. Which her life was not, as evidenced by just about all of it. "Are you done," she asked after a moment, eyes flicking between the pair of them, and then back to the stack of games. Scrabble wasn't her favorite, although wasn't Janice some kind of Scrabble wunderkind? Maybe...
She shrugged it off and scrubbed her hands over her face for a moment. "Does anyone object to a game of Life at some point?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:57 pm
Well, chop her legs at the knees and call her shorty, but Tate's snipped comment held a flavor of something beyond simple irritation [Kess was well accustomed to regular annoyance, since, well, Janice]. Fortunately enough, the freckled girl's defense mechanism was nothing more than an indulgent, lazy grin.
Despite her triumph in winning the menu, Kess only looked over it for a moment before rejecting it, letting it flutter to the floor at Janice's side. "I'll have whatever's on special today. You call."
She abandoned the couch for the floor, this time rolling onto her back. Arms were folded beneath her head, and she didn't bother to disguise the long look she gave Tate, flicking her dark eyes over the girl's face as she was busy staring at the instruction manual for some game. Pity. "Sure," A pause, and she wrinkled her nose, before announcing the night's schedule. "Scrabble, Life, Apples to Apples."
Kess liked card games. "What first."
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:49 pm
Kess's decision and prompt for Janice to call ended up being overall more convenient, so she wasn't one to complain. The notepad was carefully tucked back away without any new marks having been made on it, and she plucked the menu back up off of the carpet in order to get the restaurant's phone number.
She muttered away with whoever was taking her order for it, before taking a pointed look at Kess. "Are you sure you want the special?" As genuinely concerned a look as Janice had, the other girl made no protest, and on with the order she went. Tate's behavior went on to be noted without any measure or concern or suspicion: Janice rolled her eyes briefly at her apparent impatience, but otherwise didn't seem to care much.
"It doesn't matter to me," said Janice, during a small pause in the ordering process. "Life might be a better one to wait and eat over, though." She continued on the phone, voice pressed and irritated -- it seemed there was some confusion at hand making the process more difficult than it was supposed to be.
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Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:17 pm
Janice's tone went from neutral irritation to active irritation, her voice dropping an octave into what Kess fondly referred to as her "Christian Bale Voice". As she began to repeat her order, slowly having to state her name, and then spell it, the blonde shifted, head now on her pillow as her hands cupped around her mouth, making her own voice harsh and breathy as she parodied Jan.
"The Dark Knight... Spell it? B-A-T Mmmm-A-Nnnn." Her brows furrowed as Janice struggled to ignore her, speaking into the phone, "Of course I want ginger and soysauce! I'm the goddamn batjan--"
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:23 pm
Tate was determined not to look at anyone. Anyone, including Fitzpatrick, who very rarely if at all counted for an anyone. (She counted more along the lines of tentative friend if anything, which wasn't really anyone territory.) "Scrabble," she said. "I don't know how to play Apples to Apples, so that can get explained over Life, don't you think?" Or over Scrabble, she wasn't going to be picky, but neither was she going to play a game she didn't understand right off. It'd just put her in a bad mood in front of two of the people who actually put up with her.
She settled in to wait through Fitzpatrick ordering the food, hands cupping her face as she watched Kess's antics. Her straight, even disinterested, expression lasted for all of the first three words of Kess's Jan impression. Then the corners of her mouth twitched upwards once, twice, before Tate was laughing and acutely embarrassed by it. Judging by the way she was trying to smother her laughs in her hands, anyway. Batjan--that was a new one, and she wasn't sure why she thought it was so funny, except…
Well, nothing. "Sorry," she said once she could, mortified.
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Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:33 pm
It wasn't just a struggle to ignore the shenanigans in the background, it was an ordeal. Really, it had been more than enough that there had been some mishap in the ordering process and she had to repeat the whole thing to another, less-English-fluent individual who needed her to slow her voice down to an arduous crawl just to get the name and address across. Jan was staring near-tangible daggers at Kess and Tate by the time the order was finished. Then she made some attempt to close her phone angrily, which was pretty unsatisfying since her model was one of the kinds that slid open.
"You know, it's normally polite to not distract someone on the phone who's ordering your god damn food," she passive-aggressively growled as the phone was shoved in her pocket with entirely too much force. "But I guess that's too much to ask for. Do you at least have a game picked out yet?"
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