fandomtownies | The Perk, Monday Evening

Alice had gotten out of work and was feeling like having a late night coffee. It totally made sense in her head.

She was on her way out when she noticed Allie...and the monstrosity of paper she had brought along. "Long night ahead?" asked as she sat across the table.

"I have to do something to pass the time," Allie shrugged. "And this is interesting. Not completely understandable, but interesting."

"I don't think anybody has spoken like that in a long time." And Allie wasn't even an old vampire, so yeah.

"So you've been having too much time in your hands lately?"

"That's what Jack said." Allie grinned, "In here you get three stanzas of flowery language which translates to 'Hey, you're an asshole.' I like today's direct approach."

"I work one night a week and am a creature of the night on an island of people that keep regular hours. Of course I have time on my hands."

"Ye olde English is all about saying as little as possible with as many words as possible, it seems." Which meant she would probably shoot anyone trying to talk to her like that.

Well that was interesting. "I think I might have a proposal for you."

Allie set aside her book and tipped her head. "Oh really? What kind of proposal?"

"Would you like to join me on a two day trip to my world to kill some zombies?"

There was honestly no better way to ask this.

That...wasn't quite what Allie had been expecting. Her automatic dislike for rabids, no matter what they were called, almost had her saying no. But the demon inside, the monster that hunted and yearned for prey that she'd mostly suppressed and ignored since she'd been in Fandom chose that moment to rear its head.

"When do you want to leave?"

That made Alice smile. She didn't smile that often.

"The sooner the later. I could use a couple of eyes to hunt on the night."

"You're lucky. I only found out I could get off island last week," Allie said as she started to gather up her things.

"I need to drop this stuff off at my place and grab my sword. Plus I should probably stop at the bar and get a bottle or two of True Blood to take with me just in case." She didn't plan on being injured, but it was better to be prepared before Alice's neck started looking tasty.

"Sometimes I'm lucky, I guess." Usually everyone else died when she was lucky though.

"It's good to plan ahead. Once we are there I'll make sure to get us a nice van so you can do...whatever you do during the day without worrying about the Sun. Meet you at the Causeway in an hour?"

"If we're moving I can make do with a van and a blanket. If we're staying put, I can go to ground if I have to. It's messy but it'll do."

Allie paused for a moment, common sense prevailing for a moment over the growing need to hunt. "Are you going back for a reason?"

"I haven't killed anything in way too long."

And that was the truth, really.

"Strangely enough I think I know how you feel." Not that Allie was all that thrilled with the feeling. It was too much the monster and not what she wanted to be.

"Going for rabids?"

"We are overpopulated with them."

So yes, rabids.

"Like the world's worst roach problem," Allie said wryly.

Rabids were good. Rabids were guilt free hunting.

"Only if you want to think about everyone you love turning into a roach. Not my issue though." The bless of having no memories.

"Can I count with you then?"

Allie had lost friends to rabids, had almost been one herself. It was a fact of life for her.

"I'm in. Let me grab my stuff and make a call." Because Kaidan always let her know when he was coming and going from the island, it seemed only right that she return the courtesy.

Alice nodded and stood, nodding at her before leaving. She didn't like to speak so much, really!

Kitty hadn't felt extremely social the last couple days (worry and getting reasons to rant on the treatment of people who were different would do that to a girl), but when the need for coffee that didn't come from her apartment got the better of her, she headed out to the Perk.

And let's face it, the huge book was practically the Ratsignal for nerds, so she had to stop by once she had her coffee. "Whatcha got there?"

Allie had been half aware of Kitty entering the Perk, but was focused on reading through a speech in Hamlet. Lips moving silently as she read, she finished the last few lines before looking up. "Shakespeare. It's all Jack's fault."

"No, we thank, Jack for that," Kitty said. "...Unless you hate it. Then blame."

"I don't hate it. It's just different then anything I've ever read before," Allie explained. "It's taking me a while to understand it. But they told me these would help." These being the yellow and black booklets she had stacked on the table.

"So no blaming Jack. Thanking him, and possibly begging him to take me back to his class occasionally is more like it."

"You got to go to a class?" Well, that was good news, at least.

"I did. He took me to his class last Thursday night." Yes, Allie was still kind of vibrating with excitement over this. "I can leave the island. I just can't go home."

"Okay, the last part still sucks but hey, one thing at a time," Kitty grinned. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," Allie grinned back. "I'm trying to stay calm about and not do anything too crazy, but there is a part of me that wants to call Portalocity and start booking trips."

"Maybe start small," Kitty advised. "First Baltimore, then DC, then the world."

"That's about what I'm thinking," she admitted. "First DC, and then maybe New York or another really big city. Any recommendations?"

"I will always rec Chicago," she said immediately. "New York and LA definitely, because even if you end up not liking them you should at least see it." She was also realizing there weren't a lot of places she'd seen that weren't work-related.

"I've been in our version of Chicago. Not a fun place," Allie said, grimacing at the memory. "It was mostly underwater, filled with raiders and ruled over by a vampire named Jackal." Who just so happened to have been sired by the same vampire that turned Allie. It had been one hell of a family reunion.

"LA might be a little too sunny for me."

Okay, Kitty would be doing her very best to forget that version of her hometown existed.

"How does it work for you? Can you not be out in it at all?" she asked.

"I can for a little while if I'm completely covered up," she explained. "But it's hard because when the sun rises our bodies react by getting sleepy. When I was first turned I was out cold within minutes of the sun rising. Kanin had me practice forcing myself to stay awake. Now I can usually last two to three hours after sunrise if I stay in the shade."

"Yeah, maybe save LA for when it's gloomy till noon, and then add London to your list," she said.

"My list is growing by leaps and bounds. Which isn't a bad thing I guess. I need something to do." It was a really good thing Eric paid her well.

"Have you traveled a lot?"

"I've been a lot of places, but it's mostly been for work," Kitty answered. "I've been there, but I didn't really get to see the good stuff, you know?"

"What kind of work?" Allie asked. "Do you have a worldwide network of bars you manage?"

If Derek hadn't just said that thing about knowing how to stay low, Kitty might have just come out with it, but now it felt weird to just say what she did. "I used to travel around with other mutants, helping people," she said. "I'm retired now."

At twenty.

Allie raised an eyebrow because from little she understood about retirement, it was supposed to happen when you were old. "I bet the nights you have to retape the zombies you rethink retirement."

"Nah. They maybe make me rethink college," she countered.

"Is that such a bad thing? I mean it seems like it's the thing everyone does." Someone might have been poking about online and wondering just what would be possible with the papers Eric was getting her.

"Not everyone," Kitty told her, and shrugged. "I got halfway through my freshman year and took a break to come here. The problem is, the program I was in was so perfect that I can't find anything comparable around here."

"You can't go back?" What, it seemed like the logical thing to do. Unless Kitty had reasons...

"I can. But I kind of like it here right now," she said. "And I'd much rather live less than half a country away from my boyfriend. And I really do love my job. And going back to the exact same thing I was doing before might be kind of going backwards." She paused. "I've put thought into this."

"So it seems," Allie nodded. "Those all sound like really good reasons to stay."

"We'll see what happens," she said with another shrug. "Maybe there's something bigger than college out there for me."

Like saving a bunch of planets, running a school for mutants and training the original X-Men, or something.

"That's sort of the motto of my life right now." Because when you couldn't get home, waiting and seeing was all you could do. "College might not be in the plans for me, but then again, I never planned on ending up here."

The Perk, Monday Evening

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