Streets of town- Thursday afternoon

[throughaphase]

Kitty's portal back to Fandom had been delayed a few times due to weather, which she figured meant that she would be coming back to some kind of rain that would require a shower when she got home. She'd been relieved to see it was just snow, because she totally could handle that.

Then she'd tried walking through it, and it was cold and there was too much snow and screw it, she was just going to phase the rest of the way and not deal with it, and then enjoy the warmth at the house.

Or, you know, not.

[Open if anyone's out in this! Mostly I've had this experience minus the phasing and of course I'm gonna take it out on a character.]

Comments

[filleauloup]

"Well, you'd have to make do without the TV, but at least you'd have the rest of it," Éponine said, mostly succeeding at not sounding too envious. "And maybe you'll have a new fireplace of your own, too. But it's awfully annoying, isn't it? I don't like this weather."

[throughaphase]

"I shouldn't complain. Where I'm from is getting it way worse," she said. "...But this sucks and I hate it."

[filleauloup]

"It never got quite this bad at home," Éponine said, "but then, at least here I've got decent shoes and a coat. Still, it isn't much fun."

She looked down at her feet and frowned. "And decent shoes or not, I'll be walking on blocks of ice after much longer. D'you think people will mind too much if they have to wait another day for their mail?"

[throughaphase]

"I think people probably won't be checking for it much today anyway," Kitty said. "Go home, warm up, cuddle your cat."

[filleauloup]

Éponine looked vaguely guilty for a moment, then nodded. "It's a good thing I've got a whole stack of books I've yet to read, since how am I supposed to play Candy Crush after my phone's run out of battery?"

Stupid game. Stupid stupid game.

[throughaphase]

"I have a battery pack in my purse," Kitty offered, because of course she did.

[filleauloup]

". . . I have got to get one of those."

Yes, Éponine was aware that she'd developed quite the dependency on her phone in the past couple of years.

No, she didn't care if anyone thought that warranted concern.

"But it's all right," she said after a long pause. "You might need it yourself if this goes on much longer."

[throughaphase]

"I have a couple at the house," she admitted. "I have a very real problem, I know."

[filleauloup]

"Ha -- smart of you, that is! It wouldn't do for you to run out of battery, would it?" asked Éponine, who saw nothing at all unreasonable about this concern. "Especially in a storm like this, good lord, where we're all likely to get trapped at home if it keeps up, and how else is anyone supposed to know where we are? I don't know what anyone did before phones were invented."

. . . Éponine, you're from back then.

[throughaphase]

"I think we probably wandered around lost and confused," said Kitty, digging the battery pack out of her purse to offer. "With a lot more talks that went like 'where were you, you could have been lying in a ditch somewhere.'"

[filleauloup]

Éponine didn't quite pounce on the battery pack, but there was a distinctly happy noise.

"Well now. I can't say I'm sorry my father never knew when I was doing that," she said, her pleased expression broken only briefly by a scowl. Because yes, there had been literal sleeping in ditches from time to time. "It's good I could disappear for a while now and then, but now I'm used to having this thing I don't much like the thought of going without it any more."

[throughaphase]

"And it's good that you don't." Especially if there was any possibility of ditch-napping. "I don't actually look at mine that much, but when I can have it with me I need to have it with me."

Her superhero costume didn't really come with phone pockets.

[filleauloup]

No, no possibility of ditch-napping now, since she didn't have to run away from home any more.

"I don't look at mine all that often either," Éponine admitted, "except to play games, but I'm always checking to make sure I've got it on me now. God knows it cost me enough that I should hate to lose it."

She'd been half-consciously patting down her coat pockets as she spoke, too, just to illustrate the point.

[throughaphase]

"Ugh, yes. And it's such a hassle to upgrade... Next time my phone bites it I'm just going to beg Tony Stark for a new one." Or she'd try to fix it herself, whatever.

[filleauloup]

"Cosette's got one of those," Éponine said with a slight roll of her eyes, because of course Cosette did, "along with the one she already had. From class, I think."

Like, for free and everything. Seriously, how was that even fair?

She pulled her phone, which was fairly scuffed up by now and two models out of date, out of her pocket and frowned at it. "S'pose I'm due for a new one now, but so long's it still works . . ."

[throughaphase]

"Might as well wait till the new version comes out anyway. Then the other models go way down in price, or you can get them free," Kitty said. "Which means faster games."

[filleauloup]

Éponine felt like this conversation had actually happened today perked up at the idea of faster games. "I think I'll do that, then. It isn't quite the same as having the newest thing, but it'll be good enough for me."