Luke's Diner, Thursday

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison cautiously poked his head inside the diner, ready to run at a moment's notice if anything looked even the slightest bit off. The Special's Board looked normal--a lot of baked goods, yeah, but nothing to suggest they were doing a number about eating people. The diner looked the way it normally did, nothing moved or rearranged to make room for dance numbers. And the staff was all moving around their jobs quietly and efficiently, no stage makeup, spangly versions of their uniforms, or random bits of choreography to be seen. Maybe the weekend had gotten it all out of their system. Or maybe the talking-to he'd given everyone about referencing cannibalism when they had tenants who'd gone through a zombie apocalypse had made an impact.

He eased the door open and took a step inside. The busboy looked at him, nodded, and went back to wiping down tables. Nobody else seemed to notice.

Ahh. Finally. Things seemed to be going back to normal. He let out a breath and sat down at a booth, pulling up badge numbers and records of the local Baltimore PD as a favor to Eliot.

And then, from the kitchen, a lone voice rose up in song.
"Make it work
Make it easy
Make it clever, craft it into pieces
Make it sweet
Crimp the edges
Or make it sour and serve with lemon wedges
Even doubt
Can be delicious
And it washes off of all the dirty dishes
When it's done
I can smile
It's on someone else's plate for a while..."

The dishwasher had a lovely voice but Hardison was going bang his head on the table anyway.

Today's Specials
Individual Pot Pies
Creamy Corn Casserole
Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake

Demon Marcus, Thursday

[boneyard_girl]

After the excitement of the weekend, Ada was almost sad at the lack of visitors. It was going to give her plenty of time to work on her alternations queue, which was starting to fill up with prom outfits, and possibly work on her own dress.

Demon Marcus was open and the mermaid... was deciding how brave she was going to be.

The Perk, Thursday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

There were nine different colleges and universities in the city of Baltimore, and several more in the surrounding county. Kathy had gone to the Baltimore Public Library that afternoon and gotten brochures for all of them, bringing them back to the island to browse through. She didn't know if she was actually going to go to one of these colleges. She didn't even know if she wanted to go to college at all. But it was--something. A small acknowledgement that she had a future and maybe she should start thinking about what she wanted to do with it. And looking at colleges...going to college...that was a plan for the future that she could make for herself and by herself, instead of hinging it onto something anyone else was doing.

She wasn't in great shape by any stretch of the imagination. But she was better, at least for now. A little calmer, a little more near an equilibrium. She had no idea how long this would last, but right now, drinking an elaborate concoction that only barely had the slightest resemblance to a proper coffee and going over course listings to see if anything leaped out at her (figuratively! for a change), Kathy was more inclined to enjoy the feeling while it lasted, instead of worrying about its inevitable crash.