fandomtownies | The beach, Saturday evening

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The beach, Saturday evening

It took a little bit of hunting -- it wasn't exactly yule goat season anymore -- but he'd managed to get himself a reasonably large straw goat to stand in for Krampus. The thing was about four feet tall, decorated in jaunty ribbon. Duke had put a set of googly eyes and plastic vampire teeth on it to give it a properly evil look.

Mike had come through with the pole to hang the thing from, and as Duke said, he had plenty of rope on the Rouge. Bonfires on the beach were a regular enough thing that it hadn't been hard to set up the pyre either. Octavia had provided a nice, wide variety of knives to stab with, and there was plenty of booze and snacks to go around.

Come one, come all, Fandom. It was time for some symbolic revenge!

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It wasn't really that much of a leap in logic, really, all things considered.

Thanks to various Drunk and Bored Club evenings, Anna Pavlova had gained a bit of a taste for Saturday evening walks, and Rosa was willing to oblige the dog, especially since not obliging the dog usually lead to dealing with a spastic forever-puppy all night. And a lot of the times, it was pretty quiet, so she really wasn't expecting to come across anything that night, but she was never really surprised to come across something, either.

She was, however, honestly a little surprised that there hadn't been more of things like this after weeks like this last one, now that she thought about it, and figured it might actually be worth sticking around for something like this, despite various parties (okay, no, one party) involved.

Edited 2020-01-11 17:04 (UTC)

“Not here to shut us down, are you, Detective?”

He didn’t actually think she was, no. Unless it was just to ruin his fun, specifically.

Another thing that didn't surprise her: that of course it wasn't more than two seconds in and Crocker was already on about the cop stuff. She was almost regretting that the little murmured command to Anna to stay put and behave was so effective right now.

So, after a moment of regretting nearly everything in her life that had lead her to this exact moment instead of anywhere else in the world, she lifted a brow and said, "I shouldn't have to, so long as you've got all the proper permits in order," so dryly you'd think it was a desert.

“True,” Duke said, offering absolutely nothing about the state of any permits he did or did not have.

(He had no permits. People here did beach bonfires all the time. He basically assumed Fandom ran on permit-less anarchy where these things were concerned.)

“Want a beer?”

Tonight was about revenge on Krampus, not taunting the cops, after all.

It was a joke. Out of all the weird stuff going on in this town, people without permits for their goat-demon-effigy bonfires was so far on the bottom of the list of potential concerns that it probably wasn't even on the paper.

One of her best friends was growing and cultivating pot in her apartment next to the Trooper Station, for god's sake. This was definitely fine. And even if it wasn't supposed to be? Rosa definitely didn't care.

But she did care about anything that might be getting just a bit too chummy with Captain Morgan over here, so even though she did want a beer, she said, "I'm good. Think I'll just stick around for the show."

Chummy. Like, say, making jokes.

Duke shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He took a long sip of his own. “Suppose you probably didn’t get a chance to get your whacks in on the real thing.”

He hadn’t noticed her there, anyway, but he had been a little distracted by being a hostage at the time.

Making jokes and accepting drinks were on completely different levels. If Blackbeard could have hang-ups about accepting guns in the middle of an invasion, then Rosa could have hang-ups about accepting beers on the beach.

"I got a few good shots in," said Rosa, shrugging slightly ~~despite the lack of ping because certain blonde students ate the player's brain~~. She was, after all, Blackstone's designated personal kidnapping rescuer ~~albeit handwavily~~. "I'd be pretty okay with not having to go through something like that again anytime soon, though."

"I hear that," Duke said. "In fact, the longer I can go before I get kidnapped and dangled over a volcano the better. Or -- either one by itself, really."

He was also rethinking his policy on not bringing guns to school events, but he wasn't going to say that to Rosa.

To Rosa? Rosa who was usually packing so many small weapons (and some not so small) that she'd probably legitimately forget a few if asked to removed them all? That Rosa?

The same Rosa who was currently only making a small, noncommittal sort of sound in response to Duke because she actually had to work a little to maintain a completely straight face now that she was thinking about him being dangled over a volcano?

Duke didn't actually know Rosa that well. Though he did know her -- or people with whom he had similar relationships -- well enough to guess what that noncommittal noise meant.

"Keep in mind, there were a number of people you maybe don't hate also dangling over the volcano with me."

Okay, so now maybe a hint of that smirk managed to slip out, but Rosa kept it pretty restrained, fleeting, but her expression went impassive with a shrug.

"Eh," she said, "it's a good lesson. To maybe not be kidnapped by goat demons next time."

Fat chance, with the person that immediately came to mind, but a girl could hope...

And maybe frown slightly as she realized there actually were more people she didn't hate in there after all. Ugh. This place was making her soft. Just look at her, actually sort of having a conversation with Shiver Me Timbers over here. Gross.

Sorry, Rin Tin Tin, Duke had a way of getting under your skin.

"Yes, because that's definitely something I did on purpose." Duke sighed and shook his head. "I thought he might be a new teacher. Was trying to be friendly. Next thing I know, tossed in a sack."

"That's what you get for trying to be friendly."

Seriously, how could there have been any other response than that?

"Ah yes. Well. Not all of us can be 'badass' robots like you are, Detective." You had better believe those were finger quotes. "Weren't you the one trying to tell me not to make assumptions about people?"

Rosa was going to just look at Duke for a moment, there, with an expression that seemed to find it hard to believe he could even be categorized as a sentient being.

"There's a difference between not making assumptions and just being a dumb ass," she said, "but I can see why you might have trouble with that."

And maybe Rosa was starting to feel like her appreciation for burning shit wasn't strong enough to feel like dealing with this was worth it.

Re: Mingle and hang

betterthanaplan - 2020-01-12 04:10 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Mingle and hang

died8yearsago - 2020-01-12 04:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Mingle and hang

betterthanaplan - 2020-01-12 04:23 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Mingle and hang

died8yearsago - 2020-01-12 04:41 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Mingle and hang

betterthanaplan - 2020-01-12 04:50 (UTC) - Expand

Even with a background fully devoid of any pets of any kind, Octavia was still exactly the kind of person to acknowledge the presence of a dog before the person at the other end of the leash.

Well, this adorable dog, anyway. "Hey, Arlo 2," she said, already crouching to offer a hand.

She also hadn't yet heard of the name change.

Rosa wouldn't have expected her to, and she also couldn't blame anyone for preferring to deal with animals over people, either, considering that most people sucked.

A lot of animals sucked, too, but they generally had a better track record.

In seeing Octavia's approach, Anna got up from where she'd been sitting obediently at Rosa's feet, eagerly watching eeevveerryythhiiinng, but, before going to meet the other person, she paused, and looked up expectantly.

"Prodolzhat," Rosa said, looking back with a small nod, and, with that allowance, Anna now eagerly bounced forward to say hello. To Octavia's hand. With her tongue.

"It's actually Anna Pavlova now," Rosa added, a mild correction. The dog still answered to both, of course, but she behaved better when she was Anna.

God, what a weirdo.

"Anna Pavlova, huh?" Octavia repeated, with a tiny snort and a very vague, very faint smile at the eagerness with which the dog licked her hand. She also wondered whether her boots were going to be safe tonight.

She gave Anna Pavlova a good few scritches with her other hand before finally looking up. (Without stopping what she was doing, of course.) "Hey, Rosa."

Oh, please. Like any boots would ever be safe around Anna Pavlova! But Octavia was doing a good job of buying her footwear some time with all those scritches and the distraction of her hand, which Anna seemed intent on licking thoroughly. Quite possibly until she'd all but licked the flesh off of it, by the rate she was going.

"Hey...." Rosa said, with the sort of pause that felt like Octavia's name should have followed it, only she couldn't quite remember what Octavia's name actually was. So she just moved right on, quirking a chin toward the effigy. "Is this related to what we just got over, or is this some other unrelated goat thing that I've never heard of before?"

"This is related," Octavia confirmed, her tone dry more out of habit than anything else. "Sometimes revenge seems like a good idea." She shrugged one shoulder, dropping her gaze back down to Anna Pavlova. Her hand had never been licked so thoroughly before. "At least on a symbolic level, I guess."

"Hey," said Rosa, "when in doubt? Burn straw goat monster dummies. I've seen worse coping mechanisms."

And was guilty of almost all of them.

Anna, meanwhile, finally seemed to be satisfied with the work she'd been doing on Octavia's hand. So now it was time to seek out the other one, so that they were even, of course.

Octavia was fine switching hands to give her former scritching hand to be licked instead, with a softly murmured, "Yu ste leyos, strikon." Because Anna was kind of funny, and it was endearing.

More properly out loud, she said, "There's also going to be stabbing." Because of course there was. "The hanging and the burning are more Duke's thing."

They were still going to set it on fire together, though.

Rosa's brow quirked marginally. "Does that mean the stabbing is more your thing?"

"Yes."

There was zero point in claiming otherwise. She nodded towards the goat, and the knives laid out by it.

"Those are all mine." A beat. "Slashing's good, too."

"If I'd have known," said Rosa, following Octavia's nod, "I'd have brought more knives."

Both were good, obviously, but this became the better part of the evening solely based on the fact that it wasn't Duke's thing. Not that it would matter, because Rosa would discover that no amount of burning things or stabbing or slashing them was worth sticking around for if it meant also having to deal with Duke, but that was for later, and for now she was just planning on getting over there for a closer look at the collection, except for the fact that Anna Pavlova had officially discovered (rediscovered?) Octavia's boots, and so she might actually be there for a while.

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