Midnight Manor Living Room; Tuesday Afternoon

[totalwildcard]

Did Harley have a specific reason to be at Midnight? Laundry? Sneaking stuff out of or into the office? Other laundry? Nope! But that wasn't going to stop her, and in fact hadn't stopped her from wandering in off the street on one of her usual whims, in search of something to hold her interest for longer than a minute.

And ultimately that call was answered by a classic: the television. You see, Harley's own apartment was great and only getting greater as she kept picking and choosing stuff from the store to take up there, but one thing it was still missing was a TV. And that wasn't a problem here!

So the afternoon saw Harley flopping onto a couch and channel surfing until she found some random channel playing some kind of an outrageous soap opera as a marathon. Perfection.

(Although some snacks would've been nice. Maybe she should raid the kitchen later...)

(it's stray cat day at Midnight, open! mod your own soap!)

Comments

[pocketpretzels]

As it happened, Watts was on his way to the kitchen to drop off a few loaves of bread and some cinnamon rolls when he heard noise from the living room.

"Ah. Afternoon, Dr Quinn."

[totalwildcard]

"Detective!" Harley greeted him cheerfully with a little wave - which quickly turned into pointing at him as her eyebrows climbed up. "Is that baked goods I smell?"

[pocketpretzels]

No 'Fancy Hat'?

Though in Harley's defense, seeing as he was at home, he was not actually wearing his hat, nor his suit jacket, both of which had been hung up on something not actually meant for that purpose inside the private residence section of the building when he'd arrived home following his workshop.

"Your nose does not mislead you, I do have baked goods."

[totalwildcard]

Hey, no fancy hat, no 'Fancy Hat', them's the rules!

"Oooh," Harley cooed, perking up further on the couch. "Are they for sharing?"

She'd heard that was often the case, but it didn't hurt to check! At least to people's faces, since she wasn't always great with the concept of other people's personal property.

[pocketpretzels]

"I was on my way to leave them in the kitchen, so yes," Watts affirmed. "They are."

[totalwildcard]

"Excellent!" Harley enthused. "And am I seeing cinnamon rolls?"

Sorry, her voice got kind of high-pitched at the end there. Common side effect to getting all excited (and occasionally upset, but that was neither here nor there, in the present moment).

"And can I get one? Right now?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Certainly," Watts said, juggling the baked goods in his arms slightly so that the container holding the cinnamon rolls was accessible. "Though you will have to come get it yourself, my hands are full." Of bread and other baked goods.

[totalwildcard]

You could tell how absolutely important and influential cinnamon rolls in particular were from how Harley didn't complain at all about having to get up, and just bounced up from the couch instead.

"Oh, don't mind if I do!"

[pocketpretzels]

"I believe that is what I just said," Watts pointed out.

[suitably_heroic]

You know, it was probably tempting fate to text so many people on the island. Who knew, maybe Mical would pop out of a portal somewhere and peek over someone's shoulder and the jig would be up.

But, it'd been about a month, and Atton found himself genuinely wondering how Harley was doing. She'd felt kind of... in between things in a way that seemed oddly familiar.

So, hell. Flopped over on the sofa, still recovering from the Big Camping Adventure, Atton sent her off a casual text. how's the island treating you so far, anything blow up or try to eat your ankles?

[totalwildcard]

Mical would get a sharp elbow to the torso if he tried to read anything over Harley's shoulder, at least.

Also, Harley didn't actually get a lot of texts from people who weren't Cassandra, so seeing a different name on the screen when she dug out her phone was briefly a disorienting experience.

Also, a month? Harley would have sworn it had been like a week and a half! Or maybe three months, who knows, her grasp on time wasn't always stellar.

ATTON!
You're still alive!
No explosions 😔
But I'm having fun

[suitably_heroic]

yeah please don't go around telling everyone about that because there WAS an explosion here and i'm kind of pretending i'm dead. Might as well be honest about it, right?

glad you're having fun

[totalwildcard]

Dead people don't text, so you're pretending pretty bad

Someone had to say it.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton rolled his eyes. Ugh.

well i don't need YOU to think i'm dead or i wouldn't be texting you!!

[totalwildcard]

It was part of the Harley Quinn MO to make people immediately regret choosing to reach out to her, in some way or form. So you were just getting the full experience, Atton!

Also the two exclamation points only made her snicker, which didn't help.

I don't know, this could be a complicated psyop

[suitably_heroic]

it's not a psyop i just wanted to see if you were doing okay but i guess that's answered.

No matter how Atton changed and grew, he could always be counted on for a good indignant ramble if properly motivated.

[totalwildcard]

I'm fantastic! Harley informed him just the same.

This text was then followed by a picture of a TV screen, currently showing a close up of a conventionally attractive man in a suit staring broodily into the distance in uninspired studio lighting.

[hasaknightjob]

Late in the afternoon Marc came home after running some errands. Ironically, one of them had been to stop by Needful Things so, yanno, go fig.

Marc heard the noise from the living room. Figuring it was one of his residents he went to poke his head in. He was not entirely surprised to discover it was not a resident.

"Hey," he said. Because being articulate in greetings was the order of the day, apparently.

[totalwildcard]

Harley could handle being elaborate: witness the wave and the cheerful, "Oh, fancy meetin' you here!"

She'd almost definitely used that on Steven here once. Didn't matter, a classic greeting was a classic greeting.

[hasaknightjob]

It was Steven's sense of humor so she could frankly keep using it and he'd love it every time

Marc came on into the room, taking in her setup. "Comfy?"

Observation, not a problem.

[totalwildcard]

"Could do with more snacks," Harley replied, in the cheery tone she would probably have used even if he had sounded like it was a problem. She had her feet up, and was sprawling like a champ. "Detective Fancy Hat brought some cinnamon rolls but I already ate what I got."

Also yes, Watts, it was also 'Fancy Hat' when you weren't in the room because then she didn't know the hat status!

(Unless her whole system was actually bullshit!)

[hasaknightjob]

Marc took a seat on the couch. Not right up in her space but not on opposite ends either. "You didn't save me any?"

What? Watts made good cinnamon rolls. Even the vegan ones.

[totalwildcard]

Excellent cinnamon rolls, and that was why Marc wasn't getting any.

Or maybe it was because, "I didn't know you'd show up! Woulda saved some if I knew they were Marc bait."

[hasaknightjob]

That got a bemused smirk out of him. "There needs to be bait for me now?"

[totalwildcard]

"You tell me!" Harley replied cheerily. "Although," and here she gestured at his entire everything, "this looks like the answer's no."

Well...

"Unless it's the crumbs and the cinnamon roll breath that got ya here."