Outside the Ruins of Furnado, Saturday Morning

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

Dante had taken up patrolling again for the first time in... he'd like to say months, but it was probably weeks. So sue him: the regulars knew the rules of this place now, but the newbies were probably running into trouble a lot.

So he'd gone a-walking, right from the park up past the old restaurant district and then down to here, at Furnado. Most of it laid in ruins, though the front part of the shop was still upright. He wondered suddenly if there was anything of importance left inside. Sure, the cat- and dog food had been scavenged out years ago, but...

... sigh.

He blamed seeing Anders again yesterday. Been trying to avoid that.

He poked his head into the door. "Wonder if they still carry cat t-shirts..."

Nostalgia was a terrible friend, some days.

[[ open! ]]

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[good_for_six]

Isabela had made a terrible mistake and gone down to the docks to see if the Call was still there. That had not gone in any way she might have expected.

"Tentacles! What's with all the tentacles in this place?"

She had also been complaining about that the entire way from the docks to here.

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

"I dunno," Dante said, righting himself up and away from a pile of debris he'd been poking through. "My guess is still that the island read way too much bad fanfic on the internet before shit went down."

Years of terribleness might have given him a mask and a much more dour demeanor, but he was still Dante underneath all of it.

[good_for_six]

"Dante?" Turning, Isabela palmed a dagger, after all if she couldn't trust herself in this place... "...why are you wearing that ridiculous mask?"

Beat.

"Please tell me it's not face tentacles."

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

Dante held his arms up.

"No tentacles on me," he reported. "Just bad fashion choices."

Or trouble coming to term with the death of a twin brother, but to-mah-toe, to-may-toe.

[godilovedthis.livejournal.com]

It was. It might even be the worst friend. Nostalgia was the only reason Kathy could come up with for why she was absently singing old songs, half-under her breath as she made her way back to where she holed up in the ruined warehouse district, rather than squatting in the protected park shanty like a sensible person.

"Tossing and turning all night," she sang (https://youtu.be/bstWoRsocaw) softly, moving more easily over the broken ground than she had in years, "I count the stars as I try to sleep..."

[Shameless new music plug and I don't even care]

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

"Now there's a tune I haven't heard in a long time."

Dante had found not a shirt, but a cat mug, with only a single chip missing. He was looking at it, and not Kathy.

[good_for_six]

"So I'm evil, and you've decided it's a good idea to dress like an Orlesian," Isabela said. "I don't want to know what's happened to Ada."

That way she could tell herself it wasn't terrible.

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

"Just don't walk too close to the oceanfront, then," Dante said. He gave a small shrug. "See you've met the Death Boat."

[godilovedthis.livejournal.com]

Kathy stopped, singing and moving both, cheeks turning bright red in embarrassment, caught not only singing, but singing a rather maudlin song. "It's been awhile since I sang it," she said, stiffly.

Since she'd sung anything at all.

"Didn't mean to disturb your scavenging."

[good_for_six]

Andraste's tits, Dante.

"Tentacles! Not even the fun kind."

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

"I know," Dante said, turning towards her. "At least she doesn't remember growing 'em."

Yeah, that was a consolation.

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

"You didn't," Dante said, stuffing the mug into a bag at his side. "Didn't ask you to stop, either."

[good_for_six]

"Well, I feel so much better now." Could you hear the sarcasm through the mask, Dante?

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

"That's all I've got," Dante said. Bigger shrug. "I mean, there's not a whole lot of making 'you turned into a giant ship full of tentacles' better."

[godilovedthis.livejournal.com]

Kathy shrugged, still flushing. "Not even sure how much of the words I remember," she mumbled. "End up having to switch to la la las halfway through the chorus or something, probably."

She'd forgotten how much she'd liked singing, once upon a time.

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

"So let's find out."

Dante should keep his distance, yes.

But he'd always had a weakness for music.

[good_for_six]

He used to be better at trying.

"Did people stop sleeping with you because you turned into an arse, or did you turn into an arse because there was no one left to sleep with?"

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

He used to not have a combination of depression and a terminal lack of healthy mourning skills.

Well, okay, he used to have that last part, it just wasn't a relevant issue at the time.

"Well, you turned into a giant ship full of tentacles," Dante pointed out sagely. "I've got a lot of kinks, but that ain't one of them." He glanced over her shoulder. "You spot any hollows on your way here?"

[good_for_six]

"Nothing else tried to eat me, no."

[godilovedthis.livejournal.com]

Kathy tried to think of a million reasons why she shouldn't do this; feeling stupid was only one of them. But Dante had asked and Kathy couldn't find it in her to say no.

Fucking nostalgia. That had to be it.

"But you twinkle and dazzle so much that whether I eat or drink coffee, whether I watch TV, whether I laugh or cry..." She faltered over the next line. "It’s like you’re next to me."

And subsided again. "These lyrics are pretty ridiculous."

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

"Okay, good," Dante said. He stuck his hands in his pockets and wandered past her. "You know it's safer to stick to the park, right?"

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

"I don't know."

Dante leaned back, his back hitting a chunk of wall that was still standing up.

"I kinda like it. It's cute. Like old times."

[good_for_six]

Isabela raised her eyebrows. "And yet here you are."

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

"I'm a lot sturdier than most people," Dante said easily.

Look, he had no fucking clue what any of these people did or didn't know about him. It'd been a long time.

[good_for_six]

"That's an interesting way of saying thickheaded." She said it with love. Really.