Room 324, Friday Evening

[vanillajello]

After everything that had happened over the last week, and what little had happened today, Kate was just so very glad to have a completely unrelated thing to focus on.

And right now, that thing was the thought of getting a new fake little sibling tomorrow. So, she'd been putting together a little welcome kit with some useful items. It felt a little dorky, but it was pretty fun, actually, doing that. And distracting, which was the important thing.

She'd even considered baking a batch of cookies, but then decided against it both because there'd be enough food at the welcome picnic, and she wasn't really feeling the idea of standing in the common room baking right now. She'd just offer to bake the kid something at a later date.

So now, Kate was just sprawled on her bed, making a refresher list of all the things a newbie to fair Fandom island should be told on their first day.

And she was eating chocolate. Chocolate was a good thing.

[ooc: Open door, open post!]

Comments

[vanillajello]

Something about that sounded a little worse than her own goodbyes with Hannibal, and Kate looked... sort of carefully curious.

"Oh?" she asked. "Who was it?"

[therewaslife]

"Did you know Didi?" he asked, looking a little sad about the subject but also somewhat peaceful. Accepting. "It was her. She's gone now."

[vanillajello]

"She lived next door," Kate nodded, looking a little sad herself, but mostly compassionate. She knew Didi was Death, so... She could guess without asking. "That sucks."

[therewaslife]

"It does," he said and nodded. "I knew her as something different. Where I'm from, she was called The Lady on the Grey. I'd met her before. I'd even danced with her once."

That memory made him smile though his eyes were still downcast.

"She gave me her fish."

[vanillajello]

"I know, you've told me," she replied quietly. She was pretty sure she'd been crying at the time, actually. Or about to, or something.

"Her fish, really? You'll have pets?"

[therewaslife]

"Two of them," he answered with a nod. "I've never had any pets before but I've found that fish aren't too difficult. I suppose it's the least I can do, though."

[vanillajello]

"Hmh. Taking care of Death's fish." She glanced at her screen again, idly wondering whether death should somehow be incorporated into her notes. Probably not.

As useful as it would be in determining whether this was a place the new kid wanted to stay.

"Well, they should be easy. Not as easy as my plants, but anyway."

[therewaslife]

"They should be, yes," he agreed with a nod. "They're called Slim and Wadsworth. Are those good names for fish?"

Poor Bod didn't even know that.

[vanillajello]

That made Kate smile a little again. "They're great names for fish. Though my pothos is called Patrick, so I'm not sure how good a judge I am."

[therewaslife]

Bod smiled again and brought her hand up to kiss the top of it. "It made the fact that I won't see Didi again a little easier. I will someday when it's my time but that's a far into the future."

[vanillajello]

"It better be," Kate said under her breath, and meant it. So very much.

After a pause and properly aloud, she said, "So, I made the new kid a kind of a little welcome package, too."

[therewaslife]

"Oh?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "Do I get to see even if I'm not new?"

[vanillajello]

"There's not a whole lot of it, I'm still kinda trying to think of stuff to add," she said, amused. "If I come up anything, I'll ahve to run by Turtle & Canary in the morning."

She nodded towards her desk. There was a little basket on it. "It's over there."

[therewaslife]

"Over there?" Bod repeated, letting go of her hand so he could get up and retrieve the basket. He brought it back to the bed and settled it beside her. "Explain what you have in here for me."

[vanillajello]

"Because you're too dumb to figure out self-explanatory things?" she snarked, but pushed her laptop's screen down so she could push it aside and pull the basket in front of her, anyway.

She picked up the first item. "A map of Fandom. That's something I wish I would've had."

[therewaslife]

"No, but I thought you'd like to showcase your little package," he replied with a little smile. "I didn't mind not having a map when I arrived. I liked exploring and if I got lost, I just made a note of it."

[vanillajello]

"Well, my fake sis wanted me to meet her at Caritas like my sesond day here, and I barely found my way there," she replied. "So I thought it'd be useful. And..." She spread the map out in front of them. "I took the liberty of circling some important places."

The Perk, Caritas, Turtle & Canary, and a few others were indeed neatly circled in red on the map.

[therewaslife]

"Now, that I do find helpful," he said, skimming his fingers across the map carefully. "I don't think I've been in half of these places yet. I don't even know what some of them are."

[vanillajello]

"Me too, and I've been here for over a year now," she said, tapping her fingers against the map. "Like this whole western bit of the island? Barely ever even been there, apart from the restaurant district."

[therewaslife]

"You've found places you like that aren't over there," he said, glancing at the part of the map anyway. "You're a person who likes her routines, perhaps?"

[vanillajello]

Kate snorted. "No, I'm a lazy person who doesn't want to walk that far for no reason. I mean, Mitchell lives over there." She pointed at 71 Serendipity. "But even he's not there most of the time, so I really have no reason to go there."

[therewaslife]

"I always forget that he lives in town," replied Bod, glancing down at where she was pointing. "I've only ever seen him in classes and in the graveyard."

[vanillajello]

"Well, he's mostly in Bristol, nowadays, and when he's here he doesn't really get out much," she said. "Wait, you've seen him in the graveyard?"

And this was Kate's 'wow, Mitchell, way to be a walking cliche' face. She'd explain it away if needed.

[therewaslife]

"Yes. I was there, just walking through it, reading the gravestones and he was there," he replied with a nod. "We had an interesting conversation, even."

[vanillajello]

"Was it philosophical?"

She'd bet it was.