The Perk, Saturday morning

[betterthanaplan]

"Right," Duke said, staring at the rat nibbling on a slice of coffee cake across the table from him. "So. You're a rat."

"Clearly," said the rat.

"Named 'Fallacy'."

The rat nodded.

"And you're a demon."

"Daemon."

"Did Lucifer send you?"

The rat facepalmed. Duke didn't know they could do that.

[open!]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

Yeah, no one besides Annie had touched Joan yet, so Annie hadn't realized that was going to be a thing.

Switching to just petting her friend, now, yep, because that was weird. "Is she back in Hawaii?" she asked, or have I just missed seeing a tween around here?" Because yeah, everyone here seemed to be at least high school-aged.

[hatesparadise]

"She came for the weekend," Danny said, already being That Dad and fishing out his phone to find pictures of her visit here to show off. They also featured his partner a perfectly normal, reasonable amount and baby who was also named Joan. "But yeah, she's back in Hawaii now. Luckily things kinda... freeze there? So, to her, I'm not gone."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Is this like how you're stuck here?" Annie asked, because again, just going with it, and leaned in to look at his phone. "I mean, I guess that's the best situation you could hope for. She's like...in stasis until you get back? Weekend visits aside."

As someone whose dad had left and time had not frozen, Annie thought that stasis would have been a nice option.

[hatesparadise]

He let out a wry little huff at that. "Yeah. Everything back home is like that. It's still pretty weird, but now she knows about this place. And I don't have to worry that my kid will think I'm nuts."

"Grace wouldn't think that about us," Jo said, pulling away from Joan to aggressively rub against his shins as a comfort.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"She take it well?" Annie asked, grinning. "At some point, my mother is going to want to see what I'm doing here and - look, we have Supes, but there's a lot here I'd have to explain."

Talking dogs and cats, et cetera.

[hatesparadise]

"Pretty well," Danny replied with a little grin. "Kids are pretty adaptable, though. Pretty sure my ex would have a fit."

So they just weren't gonna tell Rachel about it.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"So I assume she's under orders that Mom doesn't hear about her weekend on Dad's Awesome Island of Wackiness?" Annie guessed.

[hatesparadise]

"Awesome Island of Wackiness?" Danny asked, having to laugh at that. "I think it's mostly so the both of us don't end up gettin' committed, you know?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I feel like this place has to be way more fun through the eyes of a kid who was only here for a weekend," Annie decided. "Like going to Never-Never Land or something."

Whimsical, but still totally fodder for getting committed, yes.

[hatesparadise]

"Well, the porgs definitely lured her in," Danny admitted. "She spent half the weekend, determined to have them like her."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That is a new word," Annie noted. "You're gonna have to help me out. What's a porg?"

She'd spotted the cute, funny birds out on a morning run earlier in the week, but she didn't know they had a name.

[hatesparadise]

"Like if a pigeon and a chipmunk had a baby," Danny offered, suddenly very concerned that someone might have a talking one of those out there. "See 'em mostly on the beach."