fandomtownies | In town, Friday afternoon

Ringo had heard that Raven was back on the island, but had sort of kind of been avoiding running into her. Yes, Raven was a friend, and she really was glad that the other girl was back, but she wasn't sure what she'd say, and Ringo was (probably rightly) convinced that she'd demand information about Kathy and not really pay enough attention to the fact that Raven had to have had a terrible time herself.

But this whole thing with Nanika wasn't resolving itself (obviously), and she didn't have a better source of information on where Kathy's body might be or how to get there than Raven.

Which meant that now, thanks to putting things off so long, she was basically guaranteed to start of asking about Kathy and ignore Raven herself.

So, yeah, Ringo was feeling more than a little guilty. However, it wasn't stopping her from heading out on her ATs to find Raven.

Raven	Raven, for her part, had spent a good chunk of her time since she got back trying to find a cure for being a zombie. She hadn't forgotten on her long walk why she'd gotten started in the first place. She...had rather underestimated how hard it would be to actually find a cure, once she was back in Fandom. So she was out walking, a more frustrated, rock-kicking sort of walk than she usually went for. It had taken her long enough just to get here. Who knew how long Kathy would just stick around watching movies in the Observatory? She looked up at the sound of Ringo approaching, not recognizing it at all, and had to fight the urge to tun into a bear and scare off whatever it was that was approaching. She was in Fandom. It wasn't always safe around here, but it wasn't 'scare it off or kill it' bad, either. If she still managed to look a bit like she was ready to bolt at any moment when she spotted Ringo, well. She'd apologize later.
Ringo	While Ringo had explicitly set out to find Raven, she still came to an abrupt, and surprised, stop when she spotted her. "Oh, uh." Blink. "Raven." Ringo dug up a smile, a genuine one, and aimed it at her. "I heard you were back." And even with everything running through her head, it really was good to see her again all safe and sound. Well. Relatively speaking.
Raven	Raven straightened and managed a smile in return. "Hey Ringo." Ringo didn't come from a magic world, she didn't think. Or a crazy science world, either. She probably wasn't going to be able to help much with the 'cure Kathy' mission. "How's it going?"
Ringo	No. Nothing from Ringo's world was likely to be of any help curing a zombie. "It's, um, okay?" Ringo wanted to ask about Kathy, but that guilt made her ask about Raven first. "How, uh, how are you doing? You were, you know, gone for a long time."
Raven	Two weeks in and Raven still wasn't sure entirely how to answer that question. She was fine. Except for how she kept noticing when she did things like wonder if she had to kill the person skating up to her that she kind of wasn't. "I'm alright." She shrugged. "I survived. I kinda get the feeling no one expected that."
Ringo	Ringo licked her kips and looked down at her feet. "Yeah," she mumbled. "We kind of gave up on you." Her voice grew almost too soft to hear. "Sorry." Raven had deserved better than that.
Raven	Raven shrugged and stuck her hands into mimicked pockets. "I haven't," she said. "And I'm not going to. That's why I'm here. I figure if any place has something that can fix Kathy, it's Fandom."
Ringo	Well, that was a good segue. Ringo probably should have taken it, but now she was feeling guilty. She swallowed. "Are you sure you're okay?" she pressed, not realizing that it might be unwelcome. "It can't have been easy getting back." Otherwise it wouldn't have taken so long.
Raven	"Well. No." Nothing about Kathy's world was easy. "I walked from LA to Baltimore."
Ringo	"Oh." What was Ringo supposed to say about that? "I-- I'm sorry that we didn't come find you," she eventually managed.
Raven	"Well, I mean. If you'd gone to LA I wouldn't have been there anymore." And also they quite possibly all would have died.
Ringo	"It doesn't mean we shouldn't have tried." You weren't supposed to just abandon your friends like that. She sighed. "But I'm glad you're back safe. Really glad."
Raven	"Thanks. Uh. Me too."
Ringo	Well. Ringo was glad they agreed on that? "Uh." Oh! "You, uh, said something about Kathy?" she prompted, as if that topic would be less fraught.
Raven	"Yeah. Don't suppose you know of a way to cure someone of being a zombie?" She was sure Fandom had had to do that at least once before. Sure.
Ringo	"Is this, uh, for Kathy?" Ringo asked. As if it could be for anyone else
Raven	Raven wondered if this conversation was actually strange, or if she was just really out of practice. "Yes. I didn't really make friends with any of the other zombies out there." She'd just kind of killed them.
Ringo	"Actually, uh." Ringo paused and licked her lips. "I was actually kind of looking for you to talk about that?" Deep breath. "I have a way to bring her back, but only if we have her body." Ringo turned her eyes directly on Raven. Did she know where they could find it?
Raven	Raven's eyes went wide. "Wait, really?!" Hopefully Ringo was okay with hugs. Because Raven was definitely going to hug her for that. "I totally know where she is. But -- how are you going to do it?"
Ringo	The hug was a surprise, but Ringo had spent enough time with Alluka to respond automatically to them. She hugged back, trying to be careful, but finding the gesture reassuring. "It's kind of complicated?" And involved some things that she was pretty sure were kind of secrets. But she couldn't just not answer. "So there's this girl who's on the island sometimes named Nanika?" she began. "And she's got, like, super-powerful magic or something. And sometimes she grants wishes. She's agreed to bring Kathy back to life, but needs to touch her to do it."
Raven	"She just -- decided to do that?" Raven shook her head. Why was she even questioning? This Nanika person could bring Kathy back! "Whatever. Hardison can open a portal for us." She bounced on the balls of her feet, feeling giddy. "We're really going to rescue Kathy!"
Ringo	"A portal?" Ringo blinked. "But I thought they were all shut off!" She'd been half expecting some plan that involved a cross-country trip through zombie-land.
Raven	Yeah, those didn't actually work that well. "Hardison hacked them." Raven had no idea how that worked, no. "That's how I finally got home. Let's go find him! Maybe we can go right now." Look, she'd been waiting for this forever. She was a little impatient now.
Ringo	Some part of Ringo wanted to be cautious, but she was always hovering near a state of panic over Nanika these days, so any chance to resolve that would have had her jumping in enthusiastically. That that chance also would give her Kathy back? No way was she giving that up. "Let's go!"
Raven	"Yes!" Raven cheered, and led the way back to the house on Godiva. "Hardison! Hardison, we have a plan!"
Ringo	Ringo was hard on Raven's heels. She didn't say anything yet, just looked around trying not to let the sudden surge of hope that Raven's revelation about the possibility of getting a portal to Kathy's LA had started inside her.
Eliot	That was happy shouting approaching, or Eliot might have been reaching for a weapon. As it was, he still got to the door first, just in case. Not that he didn't trust Raven. He did recognize the way she'd been acting since she came back, though, and hypervigilance could sometimes be catching. "Raven," he greeted. "Ringo. What's all this ruckus about?"
Raven	"Mr. Spencer." Raven grinned up at him. "We figured it out! Or -- Ringo did. Or her friend, I guess?" She shook her head. "We have a way to cure Kathy!"
Eliot	"Cure --" Oh hell. He really didn't want to have to have this conversation. "Kids. Kathy's dead. That ain't -- really something you can cure."
Raven	Raven's expression went impressively deadpan. "Yeah. I was actually there for that part. How long have you been living in Fandom?" She looked at Ringo. "Tell him."
Ringo	Ringo nodded. Then she paused to lick her lips a little bit nervously. "So there's, um, Nanika." She squinted. "She can grant wishes. And it turns out that someone wished for Kathy to be alive again. Nanika seems to think that if she can get close enough to Kathy's body, she can do that." But they didn't have said body on-hand right that moment.
Eliot	Eliot hated this island. Except for the part where the bit of himself he let hope for things kind of really loved it right now. "There . . . ain't likely to be a whole lot of body left, girls."
Raven	"No, there is!" Raven said. "She's a zombie. And the Mighty Dragon promised to make sure no one killed her for good before I got back." She was putting a whole lot of trust in the Mighty Dragon right now. But she was also pretty sure Gorgon would murder anyone who did try to off ex-Kathy, too.
Parker	Parker wandered in right as Raven was saying this, and froze. "Who's the Mighty Dragon, and what do you mean killed her for good?" A zombie Kathy was... well. She could maybe get a place in the zombie band, but really, those guys smelled, she shouldn't be hanging out with them, they were way older, and... "Wait, what are we talking about?"
Hardison	"Uhh yeah?" Hardison agreed, a half step behind Parker, his hands filled with a sandwich that may or may not have been his to eat. "I really ain't a huge fan of conversations that involve killin' people." Unless they had just run a con on his Nana. Then things were different.
Raven	Raven made a mental note never to tell Hardison what she'd been doing to survive the last nine months. "We're not talking about killing anyone. We're talking about exactly the opposite. Ringo and I are going to go cure Kathy." By themselves if they had to. Dammit.
Hardison	That...that was different. For reasons. Probably. Though splitting hairs was going to have to wait, because Hardison was dropping his sandwich to gape at Raven. Dropped his whole damn sandwich on the floor. "You're--what? To do what?" he yelped. "You just got back here! How?! I don't even--" Details? Anyone? Please fill him in before he flailed his way into a concussion.
Ringo	Ringo turned and offered Hardison a polite, if slightly awkward, bow. "I, uh, know someone who can turn bring Kathy back, but we have to have her body to do it."
Parker	Parker's mouth fell open, and she stared around at the group wild-eyed. "Wait wait wait so this is a thing? This is a real thing? Why did no one mention this to me before?" She leaned over Ringo, looking way too intent and hyper for comfort. "Who is this person and what do they want and when do they want it and how do we get it for them?"
Eliot	"Now hang on." Eliot raised a hand, still trying to wrap his head around this whole conversation. "I want Kathy back as much as anybody. But Raven, you survivin' all this was -- pure dumb luck. Goin' back there for Kathy's a suicide mission. Y'all need to get that." Eliot would absolutely be going. But he wasn't going to chaperone a couple of kids along the way like they were on a field trip.
Raven	Raven roared at him, teeth gone momentarily to fangs. "Not 'dumb luck'!" She took a breath and visibly shrank back down. "I'm not saying it'll be easy. I'm saying we can do it."
Ringo	Ringo was leaning away from Parker a little uncomfortably. "Um, it's already a done deal. We just have to get Kathy's body back." Well, technically, someone would have to pay for the wish afterward, but they couldn't do it in advance, anyway. She turned toward Eliot. "If it's going to be dangerous," Ringo began. Yeah. Because if. "Then we'll need as big a group of people who can help as we can get." Not just taking anyone, but taking anyone that could hold their own.
Eliot	"That's exactly what we don't need!" Had you been to war, Ringo? Because Eliot had. Many, many times. "This isn't somethin' you throw numbers at, kid. More people just means more targets for those damn zombies to munch on."
Raven	"Raise your hand if you've actually fought zombies before?" Raven said, raising her hand and giving Eliot a pointed look when he didn't.
Hardison	"Whoa whoa whoa!" Hardison said, waving his arms for a second to get everyone's attention. And not to say that he'd fought zombies before. That was not his bag. "Now, y'all need to calm down a tic. I already see half y'all are already makin' plans to go, so lemme remind y'all that nobody's gettin' anywhere without a portal." And that was his bag, remember folks? "So, we're all just gonna take a coupla deep breaths, we're gonna chill out a bit, an' then someone is gonna give us some details, so our resident Mastermind can figure out the best plan. An' then say the tag line." They couldn't embark on a con without someone saying it!
Parker	Parker was breathing more deeply, and now studying Ringo with less intensity but more focus now, which... she probably wouldn't enjoy any more than the previous looming. "He's right. And we also need to understand how this is already a done deal, exactly." She looked at Eliot and Hardison. "I'm all for going to get her body in order to get her back. But." She looked at Raven. "I didn't ask you before, so. Where did you leave her? And is it somewhere we can get to easily?" And then they were going to go steal themselves an undead super-hero!
Raven	"The Mighty Dragon said he dropped her off at Griffith's Observatory," Raven said, glad one of Hardison's partners would take her seriously, even if the other one didn't seem to do much more than glare and order people around. "He said she seemed to like it there. And -- I mean, zombies don't really seem to get bored, so there's not really any reason to think she's not still there." You know, other than it having been nine months full of the end of the world. "And anyway, if she isn't there, I bet we can just find Nick and he'll know exactly where she is."
Ringo	Ringo shot Eliot a glare. She had been to war, actually. Well, AirTrek war, which was actually pretty brutal, if not quite the same thing at all. "And, actually, we have to at least try. It's complicated, but until we get Kathy back, one of my friends is, um, not able to come back." Way to keep it vague and confusing, Ringo! It'd help everyone understand what was going on!
Hardison	Hardison pointed at her, "Details, little mama. The more information we have, the better a plan we can put together. Otherwise, we run a greater risk of gettin' hurt ourselves." And in case that wasn't the deterrent it really should be... "An' then nobody helps Kathy."
Ringo	Had he just called her 'little mama'? Ringo blinked in surprise, but then realized she was going to have to answer him. She was going to try to keep from revealing too much about Alluka. "So there's this girl, Nanika. She can grant wishes, but once she agrees to do so, she gets very, um, single-minded about it? So she's just sitting around waiting for Kathy's body so she can, you know, grant the wish." Which wish, Ringo? Hardison had asked for details!
Eliot	"Yeah. And we're runnin' into a little more trouble there, 'cause I ain't ever heard of anyone named 'Nanika' on the island. Unless she's been bribin' the squirrels something extra, there's a big thing you're not tellin' us here." Sorry, Ringo. You were trying to lie-by-omission to a bunch of thieves. It's not really likely to go well.
Ringo	Yeah. Ringo wasn't a great liar at the best of times, but around this crew? It was kind of sad she was even trying. "It's, um. There are some secrets involved that aren't really mine to share?" That probably wasn't going to fly either, Ringo. Not if people were going to risk their lives.
Hardison	That was so adorable. They were thieves, Ringo, they took things that didn't belong to them all the time. "An' you're comin' to us on a mission that could get more people killed," Hardison said, unimpressed. "Secrets don't really hold up against that. An' the more time you spend dancin' around the subject, the more time we spend not makin' useful plans."
Raven	"Maybe we can go get her and she can tell them?" Raven suggested.
Ringo	Ringo sighed, then straightened. She did want to keep Alluka's secret. If, you know, it counted as a secret when Alluka was so comfortable talking about it. But it sounded like she'd have to tell if she wanted help, and she couldn't just leave Nanika stuck in place, so. She glanced over and short a sort of guilty look at Eliot. "So, um, my friend Alluka has a, uh, another personality? Sort of? Or, maybe it's like another self? Anyway, her name is Nanika and she can, you know, grant wishes. But once she agrees to she won't, er, go away until she does?" She glanced over at Raven. "And she's not exactly, you know, very good at explaining herself." Or maybe she just never felt like doing so.
Eliot	Eliot very nearly yelled. He really wanted to yell. Instead he pressed his hand over his eyes, thinking back to Ringo telling him that Alluka was "away on a trip" and couldn't come to his class. "Let me guess. She agreed to this two weeks ago?" He really wanted to yell. "Right. Alluka's not goin' to LA." If he got his way no one was going to LA but him and maybe Raven, since she knew the territory and had already survived it. But -- well, he almost never got his way on these things. "We'll go get Kathy and bring her back here." He was going to have to find some kind of muzzle. . . .
Ringo	Ringo nodded meekly at Eliot, even wincing slightly, but didn't say anything. She had a feeling she was about to get yelled at.
Parker	"You wished for Kathy back?" Parker said, grimacing. "You didn't exactly plan that out, did you." Otherwise, she kind of thought they would have heard about this a lot earlier. "...what were you going to do if you couldn't get Kathy's body to her?" 'Cause wow, Ringo. Parker was judging you so hard for not thinking that through at this point.
Ringo	"I didn't do it on purpose!" Ringo said quickly, eyes going wide. "I was talking to Alluka, and this was right after Kathy was back for the weekend, and I didn't know that Nanika was listening!" And by the time she'd figured it out, it was too late, and she's said a sentence with the words "I wish" in it.
Eliot	"Why did it take you two weeks to tell anyone about it?" Eliot still wasn't yelling. He was absolutely still facepalming though.
Ringo	"I told Jono. We've been trying to figure out what to do." Give her some credit, Eliot. Not too much credit, of course. But some.
Hardison	Hardison was also facepalming. Alluka had cried in his class during a simulation of a bar fight. "And how far have you gotten in all that figurin'?" he asked dryly.
Ringo	Ringo just pouted. Which was probably enough of an answer.
Raven	"Anyway," Raven said. She'd been working on this for nine months, she didn't want to get sidetracked into questioning Ringo on her poor choices. "That just means we need to do this sooner rather than later. Which -- was already true. Can we go already?" This was the girl who's problem solving skills went in the direction of "walk from LA to Baltimore and figure it out from there."
Parker	Parker made a time-out gesture, then looked at Hardison. "Can you hijack a portal so that we're in L.A., and near the Observatory? And not having to walk across America to get there?" She paused. "Although I guess we could always steal a plane and then some jet fuel if that isn't possible." She was already working on how to do that.
Hardison	"Can't get there, the Causeway's broken," Hardison said. "S'why I had to portal Raven in. Only way to that world is portals. I'd need to get some information in order to program the portal, but I could open it in LA. Dependin' on the data I get, I'll be able to get you somewhere near the Observatory." He was pretty sure Portalocity didn't need to go through near this much trouble, but then, they had a slew of engineers and equipment and just a few years ago he would have blistered the air with complaints about having to work under these conditions.
Raven	"Kathy and Nick and I were all over town fighting the exes," Raven said. "Wherever you can get us, I can get us to the Observatory." That was only a little bit bravado. She had just walked the breadth of a zombie-filled continent. She bounced a little on her toes. "We're totally doing this. We're really going to go save Kathy."
Eliot	Watching Raven's excitement made Eliot feel very old. "Yeah, kid. Assumin' none of us get our asses killed first."
Ringo	"We'll be fine!" Ringo sounded a lot more sure of herself than anyone volunteering to go fight a city full of zombies really should. "We can do this."
Hardison	"This ain't no walk in the park!" Hardison said, debating giving up facepalming in favor of headdesking. Repeatedly. "This ain't the kind of thing that we can win with the power of friendship an' positive thinkin'! This ain't even a con! It's a rescue op into a territory filled with things that want to eat you. Raven, you just got outta that!" He wasn't going to ask if it were worth it. He knew the answer that Raven and Ringo would give. Eliot, too, probably. And it wasn't that he didn't want to get Kathy back, but he'd just spent nine months worrying over Raven because she'd gone to help her friend. And now they wanted to do that again but with a bigger group? "Just ask yourselves--is this what Kathy would want? Y'all putting yourself in more danger?"
Raven	"If Kathy hates it, she can be pissed at us later," Raven said. "You know, when she has higher brain functions again." She leaned in to give Hardison a quick, reassuring hug. "This is why I got out of it. We'll come back. I already proved I can, right?"
Parker	Hardison's TA really did rock. Parker had been kind of aware of this before, but it was doubly true now. "We don't have to rush this. We can do it fast, but do it right, and get back here with her before Nanika gets too antsy." Or heard about it somehow, and decided to try to come along. Practically speaking, they had to do this now, it sounded like. This was why Parker did not trust magic, nope. "And after that... well." They'd have Kathy back. And a whole set of other things to deal with. "We'll figure it out."