Grace
The two of them will likely be aware of the drill by now. Two buildings, one of which is an office, the other of which is a warehouse. Heavy steel doors with intimidating locks, which Grace opens via fingerprint with a solid ka-chunk of machinery. And lo, the cats are nowhere to be seen. Must be off sleeping somewhere.
Beyond the portal, the place looks like a Hermetic's pad, like Grace had no input into this. It wasn't as if Kalen didn't try. She just has no input beyond a shrug and a 'whatever'.
In the back, on the first floor, down the hall -- is a room. This room has cushy couches and fluffy pillows and even cashmere blankets draped over their backs, should anyone want to sleep upon them. They're arranged around a gigantic flat-screen television.
It's to that room that Grace leads her assembled herd.
"The, you know, traditional living room-type thing. Tada."
River
River approaches everything in the warehouse like she's going to break it.
The couch probably cost more than some of the places she grew up in; she finds bathtubs comforting for a reason and that reason was that the bathroom was likely the only bit of privacy she got growing up. She looks around and realizes that her entire family has inhabited smaller places than this and now? Now they're doing pretty damned well for themselves with a restaurant at the border and a livable apartment above it.
The place she'd lived with Farrah was about the size of a post card and there were times that River thought it was spacious.
"... holy crap that TV costs more than my life."
Samir
This isn't the first time he's been here. Barring some sort of apocalypse scenario or his being transported Billy Pilgrim style to another planet or something this will probably not be the last time. Sam chain-smoked all the way over here and disappeared into a bathroom as soon as they got inside. After traveling across town and being on a train and in a bar and in a cab or someone else's car or something form of transportation of dubious cleanliness he really just wanted to wash his hands.
He is a hit at parties.
It gives the women a few minutes to themselves. Tada. Living room. TV costs more than her life. He's not there for that. His return is imminent though.
Grace
"The Hell it does," Grace says, and strides up to the thing. "Look, yeah, I know. Kalen has a thing for spending his money. I think it has something to do with his being homeless as a kid. He wants everybody to have the things he never got to have. Something like that."
She gets the remote, and... let's face it, Grace usually watches movies on her laptop. Still, she's a computer genius, it shouldn't be that difficult to connect to the streaming server she set up for this, right?
Right.
There are menus to peruse. There are speakers to turn on, hidden about the room. It'll take a few minutes.
River
"We didn't stay somewhere that we had a television until I was ten," she said, as though that was a statement of understanding, "I can imagine getting really excited to share things though."
She has meandered since then over to one of the couches, kicks her shoes off like she has been dying to do the entire evening. River's not one for wearing shoes, truth be told. Has never really been that much of a fan for various reasons, one of which being that she didn't like how disconnected she felt when she was wearing shoes.
"Elliott seems really nice, how did you two meet?"
Grace
"Randomly. I'd just Awakened, he was one of the first Mages I met in Denver. We started talking, and the next thing I know I'm explaining how I do magick to him, and..."
Soon after that, she got sick with Hydra. And Kalen was there for her.
"He's very nice. I hope you get to know him better. But his butt is in Santiago right now."
She meanders her way over to sit atop the couch's armrest while she fiddles with the remote, which at least now is showing some signs of progress. There's a list of movies on the screen now, at least. Most of the titles are obviously file handles, though.
Samir
They can hear Samir returning from the bathroom because he coughs the sort of cough that sounds like an overworked garbage disposal. It's wintertime in the Rockies and he smokes more weed and tobacco than is probably healthy. And he doesn't know shit about Life magick. He probably has bronchitis.
It's a good warning bell though.
"Where's the rest of him?" he asks as he walks in on the tail-end of that comment. He's caught up on Ginger. He knows Grace is talking about Kalen. He also thinks he's being funny.
River
"His Spanish is very good! I hope that he enjoys Chile? And comes back with stories," and all of his limbs, but that's more a concern about being a mage than her concerns about Chile. River has since plopped herself down on a couch, adjusting as best she can to avoid giving everyone a fantastic upskirt shot.
Her toenails are red and sparklie. She seems pretty happy with them, but she's also pretty happy to curl up on the couch and, well, seem comfortable.
She does toss Sam a look, brows knit together for a second, "you okay? That cough sounded pretty bad."
Grace
Grace rolls her eyes at Samir. What's the count on that tonight? Three? "The rest of him is in France. Only his butt wanted to go to Santiago. Shame, really. That could happen, though. What if you got a teleportation routine totally wrong, and your butt just ends up in Santiago. Pop! Disembodied ass!"
Yup, she went there. Okay, Zombieland is at the end, alphabetically, but she finds it at last, and clicks the thing to start it.
"I'll get the lights," she says, and runs off to hit the wall switch. In the dark, nobody can see your fantastic upskirt shot...
Samir
To the matter of the disembodied ass:
"It'd be kind of funny until you tried to sit down."
To the matter of whether he's okay:
"Yeah, I mean... the doctor says if I don't get laid tonight, I could have lung failure, but other than that..."
River
She inhales, gasps with surprise before she laughs again. It's not hard to make her blush, either that or she's feeling particularly warm and can't quite tell the difference between anxiety and flirtation. But, she does laugh, runs a hand through her hair and straightens her skirt out again.
"Well, I'd hate to put you on the transplant list..."
Samir
Oh shit. That was just a stupid thing he said without thinking because he's nervous. He wasn't trying to flirt with her. Fuck. Why is she blushing. What is happening. Why isn't his brain done developing yet.
"Uh..."
Cough. Where's Grace. Turning off the lights. Great.
Grace
Grace is off getting the lights, and the other two have their couch. She's going to leave them to it, and go sit at an adjoining one while the movie starts up.
She never really was one for a crowded shared-seating situation anyway.
It would be nice if Mike were here, though. The thought strikes her, and she really didn't get enough Irish coffee, did she? Hmm.
The FBI warning comes up on the screen, and she gives it the finger as per custom. "Fuuuuck yoooou," she adds, ritual words for super serious rituals. We're going to skip ahead, past the trailers... Yeah, give her something else for the mind to focus on.
River
Oh thank everything, Grace is turning off the lights! She is reaching back to the back of the couch and stealing one of the blankets that happened to be littering the place. Whatever view of the young Cuban American is soon shrouded by the fact that there are readily available warm, soft things to cover up with.
River clears her throat and seems pretty content to stay on her side of the couch.
"Does anyone actually read the warning?" she asked.
Grace
"Don't. It's all poison. There solely to try to make you as afraid as they are. You ever wonder why they're so afraid? Hahahaha haha."
Okay, Grace. Try not to go on a rant about how people are beginning to wake up to the unreality of money here. There's a zombie movie to watch...
And thus, we do get to the actual movie, and Grace stops fast forwarding through it.
River
[Because I can totally stomach fake blood that I know is fake in a movie, I swear!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
River
River looks at Grace like she has no idea what she is talking about. Grace could be talking about physics and got the same reaction. She offers a mildly confused smile and a shrug. There is an actual movie to watch and, for her part, River has successfully managed to not talk through it.
There is something to be said, though, and it is this: she doesn't reach out and become the stereotypical wilting flower if things she sees are uncomfortable. Nope, River's reaction is to burrow deeper into the blanket so that, by the time they're actually legitimately running from zombies, she resembles a pile of sentient chenile blanket. Or a fraggle.
Samir
For a time Sam is content to sit on the couch next to River and not touch her or sneak closer to her or any of the other juvenile things boys tend to do during movies. Grace is standing right there first of all and second of all a paralyzed bassett hound has more game than he does.
After the protagonist finds himself beset by the reanimated corpse of the girl of his dreams Sam says, "Uh, I need weed if this is what it's going to be like for two hours. Who wants alcohol?"
The assumption could be that he's going to raid the pantry but Grace at least knows he can just conjure things out of thin air. She's sat on his love seat.
River
A hand pops out of the mountain of blankets that has been sitting beside Samir for this time being. For her part, she'd been pretty happy to be a mountain of blankets with a sense of personal space. Occasionally she looked his way. More often than not, while she did enjoy the movie, River looked a little pale and like she might go revisit her lunch.
Which was nothing. Breakfast consisted of yogurt and a muffin from the continental breakfast in the hotel lobby.
"I think I want a rum and orange juice," a second, "Grace, do you have orange juice?"
Ha. Like orange juice doesn't magically appear places.
Grace
Grace flumps down on her couch and raises her hand, before realizing in the dark may not be the best of times to be noticed. "I do."
"OJ is in the kitchen, and that sounds wonderful. Get me some?"
There is a ridiculously soft blanket on this couch too, and she slings it over herself, rather oblivious to the fact that River is having issues dealing with a horror movie. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea? But she'd seemed so gung-ho about it...
Samir
Praise be to the gods of ball busting: Sam does not know enough about alcohol to make a joke about combining rum and orange juice. All he knows is that rum is what pirates drink and orange juice is what white people drink. He doesn't judge. He just gives a sloppy salute that they can't make out in the dark and rises from the couch.
"Aye aye, yo."
Coughing that junky cough as he goes. Winter is the worst season in the world why did he ever leave Los Angeles.
River
[Life 1: Is it rude to scan someone's pattern while they're leaving? +3 diff because she doesn't have any shit with her]
Dice: 2 d10 TN7 (2, 6) ( fail )
River
She does get up, though. Gets up and abandons her fortress of blankets and personal space and hiding the fact that she looked like she might just throw up- and it was away with her to the kitchen and to go be in appropriate lighting.
Then again, the retreat to the kitchen was a little awkward, and she does stand in an inopportune location. Looks a little like she zoned out staring at Samir while reality-
Does precisely fuck all.
She can feel herself sobering up already.
"Do you mind if I smoke with you?" she asks. Ready to continue on her kitchen mission if the answer is a negative.
Grace
Since she's the only person left in the room, and isn't leaving with the herd to go flee from the horror of Zombieland, Grace pauses the thing. It's polite, right?
And then, slumps over on her side on the couch, because the room is dark and it's warm and quiet. Might as well be naptime...
River
River wandered off to talk to Sam, only to find that her timing was off and she wasn't entirely certain as to where she was going in terms of the orientation of the kitchen. She calls back
"Graaaaaaaace, I don't know where the kitchen is."
Grace
"Yes you do!" she says, and drags herself up off the couch to traipse along after River, and lead her upstairs.
"It's upstairs, down the hall, to the left!" she yells up. "I'll show you."
Samir
"THE KITCHEN IS OVER HERE."
Don't get up Grace. You third wheel.
River
She has to stop for a second, heads in the sound of the voice and repeats.
"Upstairs, down the hall, to the left," and she's mouthing it as she heads up the stairs towards the sound of Samir's voice.
"I THINK I FOUND-" she rounds the corner and finds Samir. Stands awkwardly for a minute before she heads on in to the kitchen and makes a break for the fridge. She hasn't bothered to put her shoes back on.
"I can't move in here, this place is gigantic."
Samir
If her barefootedness holds up in the wild he might find it strange if not a bit endearing. He himself lives in the wild now technically and he still pulls on his boots before he makes the trip out to the pipe to take a shower in the morning. One day he will perfect the ritual that lets him start each new day fresh and free from germs but he'll be damned if that doesn't feel like cheating seeing as the whole point of moving out to the sticks was to--
Oh. River's here.
He found the orange juice and was hunting around for the rum when she came into the kitchen. Awkward standing met by awkward watching and then she's at the fridge.
"Yeah," he says with an uncomfortable laugh accompanying it. "I, ah... it's not so bad. I stayed here for a bit. It's better than sleeping under a bridge."
Listen to the voice of experience, over here.
Grace
Grace pops her head in after River. "Gigantic is so relative a term."
"See? You found the kitchen. Totally navigable."
She gives River a thumb's up, though her eyes flicker to Samir when he says staying here was better than sleeping under a bridge.
"That's what this place is for, really."
River
So, there they are, awkward and spending time around the fridge and she notices he has orange juice so she's... carefully... looking through the fridge and pretending like she's looking for something else instead of getting the orange juice that he very clearly already found.
"I think if I moved in I'd get a mini fridge," she says. She realizes, though, halfway through that she's being rude and her brows shift up and her ears are burning and- "I'll really think about it. It's very nice of you to offer."
Once that rum gets found she's more than ready to work on that buzz again.
"If I can get over the fact that Denver isn't permanently seventy six degrees, then-" she loses her train of thought "-yeah, I'll think about it."
Samir
"Where are you from?" Sam asks. "San Diego?"
It's a rhetorical question. Only like five places in the United States are known for their consistent weather. For all he knows she was talking about Miami. Sam is a smart young man but the less he knows about his friends before he meets them the better.
River
"I was born in Florida? But we eventually settled out in San Diego... and... you're from LA?" she draws the conclusion because, well, Ihsan was kind enough to draw said conclusion for her and she was going with it.
"I've never actually been to LA," aaaaaand just judging by the way she makes that admission, River Vasquez has no intentions of ever going to LA.
Grace
"I have a mini fridge too. They're awesome. I don't have to leave my office for anything."
At least Grace loves her work that much, huh? Of course her 'work' is mostly interesting projects of her own choosing, and the occasional taking care of supernatural shit.
She's just apparently happy to have won River over, right? And she knows where the glassware is, so she heads to a cupboard and picks out three for them. Somebody else already has the OJ...
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