fandomtownies | Groovy Tunes, Tuesday

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Groovy Tunes, Tuesday

Raven never wore shirts anyway. Not real actual shirts.

Today she wasn't even pretending to wear a shirt because why not? The island had given her the perfect excuse. She was draped in a couple tasteful bead strands, though, and had done her hair up in a feathery crown for the occasion.

She'd expected the stereo to spend the whole day just playing different versions of "When the Saints Go Marching In", but it had actually surprised her with something that sounded like someone had fed an old timey record through a beatbox machine.

She'd mostly gotten used to living in the 21st century. Like, she'd stopped noticing it, for the most part? But sometimes the future really was just weird.

[open!]

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Around lunchtime, Kathy came around to the store with a bag of sandwiches from Luke's in hand. "Hi," she said, giving Raven a tentative wave. "Time for a lunch break?"

"Sure." Raven hopped over the counter and looked around the store. "We can . . . picnic in the stacks or something."

"Better than picnicking at my new job," Kathy snorted. "Different kind of ambiance entirely."

Kathy wasn't entirely sure she was ready to picnic in between rows of 'marital aids' and 'personal massagers.'

"You got a job!" Raven cheered. That was much better than slowly fading into self-loathing and despair, which was what she'd kind of thought Kathy would end up doing. "Where at?"

Hey!

Well, fair.

But hey!

"I kind of just fell into it?" Kathy said. "Right place at the right time, when one of the Dite's employees decided to quit. And, well, there's nothing in there that's going to remind me of LA, so...seemed providential, I guess."

"That sounds . . . very Fandom," Raven said. "And you'll have lots of options to fill up that drawer under your bed with."

Kathy blushed furiously. "Not why I started working there!" she protested, like she hadn't been joking with Raven about that very drawer when she got her bed originally. "It just sorta...happened?"

Which was also an accurate way to talk about how she'd ended up hooking up with people previously, so Raven could take that as she wanted.

"Well, I for one approve. Maybe it'll tire you out enough you can sleep through the night."

Not that Raven having a job had helped much yet on that front.

The amused look Kathy was sending her way suggested as much. "Yes," she said. "The drastic run on stock once word gets out that I work there will almost certainly wear me out."

Smartass.

"You mean all the boys who are going to come buy things for an excuse to talk to you?" Raven said. "Definitely exhausting. I don't know how you'll deal."

Yeah, Kathy didn't think that was going to be as much of a worry.

"If I can't find something to help me relax at Dite's, there's no hope for me at all," she said, unwrapping an egg-salad sandwich for herself and nudging the back of ~~moddable~~ sandwiches towards Raven. "Though I'm already thinking of ways I can nerd the place up, thus proving everything everyone's ever thought about me."

"Oh yeah?" Raven asked. "Like what?"

"Safer sex displays!" Kathy said, pulling out her phone where she'd been taking notes of her ideas. "And stuff about sexual health. Maybe putting together little care packages for new students so they have access to information and small items!"

"Wow," Raven said. "That is, indeed, super nerdy." She ducked her head a little. "But also super useful so hey. Go you."

"What can I say, I play to my strengths," Kathy said. "Nerdy and useful, that's me."

"Well, I mean. You have a few other qualities, too."

"Yeah, but I haven't figured out how to incorporate bouncy into--"

Right. She worked at a sex toy store.

"--Never mind."

"I mean," Raven said. "That can't be that hard. Though I guess you'd want to make sure you had a, uh. Durable partner."

Dante was pretty--shut up, brain.

"...And now I'm trying to figure out a display for this," Kathy said. "Thanks for that mental image, Raven."

"You're welcome," Raven said cheerfully. She took her responsibilities as a bad influence on Kathy quite seriously. "So . . . anything else been going on you want to talk to me about?"

"Been going on?" Kathy's hand twitched up towards the side of her face. She wore makeup to cover the fading bruises, but Raven saw her long before she got ready to face the outside world. "Went to Baltimore the other day. Ran into someone I knew. From before. That was awkward."

Beat.

"She, uhh, didn't hit me. For the record. I should probably have started with that."

". . . I mean, I was kind of hoping you just hit whoever did that back." Or would that bring up too many bad memories? If protecting herself brought up too many bad memories Raven might have to, like, lock Kathy in a room or something. "I thought you were kind of avoiding Baltimore."

"Of course I did," Kathy snorted. "Well, he knocked into me, I saw he'd snagged someone's purse. Not like a superhero-thing," she was quick to add. "Just, like, a bystander thing. Or, well, it started like that. Then I realized that I, uhh," she dropped her head, but the tips of her ears were turning pink. "I liked it. I was kinda having...fun?"

It was almost like she had a knot of emotions inside and hadn't yet figured out how to work through them or something!

"Kathy," Raven said. "I'd be surprised if you didn't. You loved being a superhero."

Raven didn't care how big your sense of duty was, you didn't keep going to save people after being bit by a zombie if you weren't enjoying it.

"I did," she said wistfully. "Being Banzai was one of the best things in my life. Being her helped me be me, you know?"

Too bad she had a visceral reaction to the idea of putting on her old gi again. Wherever that had ended up. She wouldn't be surprised if someone had burned it after her resurrection.

"Of course, after the fight was over, the purse turned out to be one of my old contacts. She recognized me. Called me Banzai. I told her she was wrong." She rubbed her temples. "I might have handled it better if she hadn't already known I was dead."

Which, you know, might have made explanations awkward. More awkward. Whatever.

"'The rumors of your death'," Raven quoted. "You know, most people don't get to actually use that one." As far as attempts to cheer someone up went, it was a little weak. But hey, they were the lucky ones, right? "At least you really were dead. Everyone just kind of decided to give up on me."

She didn't blame them for it, but it was still a little irritating.

Kathy snorted. "They clearly don't know you very well," she said. "You survived the Great Depression as, like, a toddler. Like a little bit of a walk was going to slow your roll."

Don't get her wrong, Kathy was still impressed as hell with what Raven had done, but she wasn't shocked by it, either.

"Anything new going on with you?" she asked. "Given any more thought to the Jalian situation or anything?"

"I think . . . I think we're done." Raven sighed. "Which I guess I should probably get around to actually telling her, huh. I mean . . . she's going to graduate in May, so maybe if I just wait her out. . . ?"

That was a terrible idea.

Kathy didn't exactly have better ones?

"I'm sure she'll understand if you say you just can't right now," she said. "And who knows how long 'right now' is going to last."

Beat. "Also, she might stick around through August."

"Uggghhh," Raven said with a sigh. "I liked it better when we were talking about you. Maybe you just need a new superhero name. Something totally different and, like, dark. To reflect your new, grown up, edgy outlook."

Speaking of terrible ideas.

Kathy sputtered into a laugh. "I was Lady Dokkaebi one of those weird weekends," she said, thinking about Mistress Hello Kitty with a pang. She was learning to ignore those. "I could wear a lot of black leather and thigh-highs."

...She was not going to be doing that. Probably.

"I would pay to see you fight crime in thigh-highs."

Kathy bounced to her feet, hip jutting out, trying for an expression that was both sultry and aggressive, as appropriate for a thigh-high-wearing anti-hero. "I'm Lady Dokkaebi," she said, voice throaty. "And I'm going to punish you."

It was good to be ridiculous.

"Yesss!" Raven cheered. "Is that from an anime?"

"Well, the 'I'll punish you' tagline is from an old anime I grew up with, but 'dokkaebi' is just a Korean goblin creature," Kathy explained with a smile. "It can help you or hurt you and you can never say which for sure. Perfect for an anti-hero."

"I like it," Raven decided. "I mean, the 'Lady' part is kind of tacky. Maybe just 'Dokkaebi'. With a creepy-sexy mask to go with it."

"You mean, like one of those creepy oni masks?" Kathy asked, startled to realize she was actually considering it, even if only a little bit. "I don't think any of them are exactly sexy, though."

"So . . . no, not one of those. Maybe more of a masquerade mask with, I don't know, horns on it?"

What did Korean goblins look like?

Ugly little critters! But so ugly they were sometimes cute!

"Oooh, those are pretty," Kathy said. "Kinda like a juxtaposition between the lacy and delicate and then the horns and scary. I like it. What kind of mask would Mystique wear?"

Raven smiled a little humorlessly and shrugged. "Mystique's a mask all by herself," she pointed out.

"See, it's funny," Kathy said, also abusing the concept of humor. "I always saw Mystique's form as the real thing and the rest of your guises as the mask." She leaned over and bumped shoulders. "I mean, not necessarily Mystique, but...you were you using your powers to kick ass and it was awesome."

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Groovy Tunes, Tuesday

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