Kate Gregson (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vanillajello) wrote2010-09-11 02:03 am
vanillajello) wrote2010-09-11 02:03 am
Kansas City, MO & Overland Park, KS, Friday, Late Afternoon to Early Evening
Kate thought there were better things to wake up to than Aunt Charmaine calling to squeal "I got engaged, Katie, I'm engaged!" and to ask whether she could have Kate's room because she had to move out of Nick's place to revirginize herself before the wedding. Which was months and months away.
Charmaine was not getting the room, but her delirious glee was something Kate could exploit since a whim had struck her. She'd kind of been thinking of an excuse to go to Kansas since yesterday, and it didn't take much more than saying that she would've loved to come celebrate if only flying wasn't so expensive. Charmaine immediately promised to pay for her flights. It would probably come out of Nick's money, anyway.
So, Kate packed some stuff,handwavily notified people she wasn't just disappearing (a note for Bobby and a voicemail for Bod), and left on an unplanned trip home.
And because the plane took her to Kansas City, it was only natural to take a little detour for work matters, right?
Right. And that meant she found herself in the Crossroads district, in front of one of the many old factories this artsy area was full of. It almost didn't seem like the right place, but what had she been expecting? A castle? Yeah right. And the woman wasn't going to have wings, either.
(Nevermind that she went to school in a castle, and had gone out with a boy who had wings. This was not Fandom.)
Kate went to what she... thought was probably the door, and instantly felt awkward. What exactly was she doing? Collecting debts several states away from her workplace? She shook that feeling off and knocked on the door, or wall panel, or whatever it was, trying to peer in through the windows. "Hello?" she called out. "Lynda? Lynda P. Frazier?"
She was more than a little startled when the whole wall seemed to start to rise up. Like a garage door. Right.
And on the other side of the wall/door, there was a woman. Kate had had this image in her head of who she was going to meet. Someone tall and blonde and possibly even wearing something in pink and gold. Someone who at least partly matched the fan art pictures Kate had seen.
The black woman in a red dress and a patterned scarf and a necklace that seemed to be made of fuses wasn't quite what she had been expecting. Though she looked pretty damn striking in her own right.
After a few seconds of just... staring, Kate realized she should probably say something. "Is Lynda here?"
The woman looked unimpressed. "Who are you?"
Who was she? Oh, right. "I'm here as representative of CSR," Kate started, squaring her shoulders, trying to be professional even as the woman's gaze seemed to be scrutinizing every little detail about her. "She, uhm, ma'am, owes debts of over 30,000 dollars and it's my job to bring the case to closure." The woman was starting to look amused, but didn't say anything. "Get the money back."
The woman - Lynda? was this Lynda? this was probably Lynda - waved her in with a quiet laugh. "Come on in."
...
Lynda's loft may have well been the most amazing place Kate had ever seen. So many details, so much interesting stuff! She was trying act cool as she looked around the place while Lynda looked for her check book, but really. She was so drawn to the bohemian randomness of it all.
"I'm sorry to do this," she said, distractedly, once Lynda came back.
"You give 'em five thousand, they'll be thrilled," Lynda replied as she handed the check over. "Should hold 'em for a minute."
Kate took the check and inspected it. "Okay..." Well, she'd come all this way, might as well check it out before taking back a check that had been signed with a stupid fake name or something. And there turned out to actually be something she needed to ask about, after reading it. She looked up at Lynda again. "DTKC?"
"That's an arts organization I'm president of."
Ooh, so Lynda was an artist. They had something vaguely in common! "My mom's an artist."
... Yeah, Kate felt embarrassed almost immediately for just blurting that out, especially when all it got in reply from Lynda was a faint smile that could best be described as tolerant.
There was an awkward silence, for a moment. Kate looked down at her feet. "Okay, well, thank you for the check," she said then, starting towards the way out. She wanted to say something else, but couldn't find anything, so she laughed, a little nervously, and just thanked the woman again.
She didn't get more than a few steps away before there was a question behind her back. "So how'd you find me?"
Kate turned around and moved back to where she'd just been standing, in front of Lynda who was now sitting on a couch, smoking. "Um, actually," she said, "I found these paintings, or... posters, of this fantasy, princess, winged lady?"
This mention of the artwork seemed to make Lynda brighten up some. "Oh, Princess Valhalla Hawkwind!" she exclaimed. Kate laughed. "Yeah," she nodded, smiling. "This was the address if you wanted to order art of her."
"Hell, nobody buys that shit anymore!" Lynda said, amused. "I invented her twenty years ago when I was playing D&D in high school? Got to Harvard and started drawing comics of her, naive as shit. Wasn't 'til I took women's studies that I realized she was some sort of... weird, fucked up, inverted anima avatar shadow."
Kate hung on to every word. She couldn't even understand half of them, but that didn't stop her from being intrigued. "Ah, that's so funny!" she said. "Yeah, 'cause... I thought that you were her." Well, might as well admit it. With a vaguely embarrassed smile and a chuckle, eyes downcast. "So I came here expecting to... meet her." She flicked her gaze up to see what Lynda thought of that.
And Lynda? Lynda struck a dramatic pose, one arm up above her head, the other stretched out to the side. "Well I'll always be her," she said, then smirked a bit, lowering her arms again. "A little."
Kate didn't even know how to react, other than by a startled laugh. But she knew she was very, very impressed.
...
And Kate was still very, very impressed swhen she finally made it home, some time later. She could hear the chatter already from the door, her aunt's voice being the loudest one at first, then her dad's. Kate was a little late, but couldn't care less. "Hey peopleators," she greeted everyone as she made it to the dining area, without really as much as a glance around the table.
"Hey, we were worried about you!" her mother said, frowning briefly, as Kate flopped down in the empty chair beside Charmaine and reached for a bowl. "And what's with the sassy businesswear, cutie?"
"I just met the most amazing woman," Kate declared, picking up the salad tongs, "in the world."
"I thought I was the most amazing woman in the world," Tara replied, sounding mock affronted by that.
But Kate ignored that entirely. She was still buzzing from earlier. "I took a little detour to downtown Kansas City for work stuff, and I found this woman who owed a bunch of money," she explained, one hand gesturing for emphasis after she'd gotten enough food for herself and had put everything back. "So, I made two hundred and fifty dollars' worth of commission --" And looked smug about it, as she picked up her bowl again. "-- and more importantly, I got my mind literally blown."
"I don't think you literally had your mind blown," Marshall interjected from the other side of the table. And so did another, unfamiliar voice. "If you literally had your mind blown, your brain would be gone."
Kate looked up, fork stopping halfway between her bowl and her mouth. Random homely looking chick across the table, huh? "Who are you?"
Charmaine turned towards Kate and lowered her voice as if to discretely share a secret. Like everyone at the table wouldn't be able to hear her. "Marshall's ladyfriend," she provided. The girl smiled.
... Okay. What an unexpected turn of events. "Wow," Kate said, eyebrows raised. "Mind literally blown, yet again."
Her brother himself took some offence at the terminology. "Marshall's friend," he corrected, looking a little uncomfortable about the whole thing. Kate was unsurprised.
Their dad, for his part, didn't let any of this get in the way of his good mood. "Well I was just toasting true love," he said, raising his glass. "But Marshall's new friend is just a friend. Cheers."
"Wait, is that what we're doing?" Kate asked, one eyebrow arched. This was what had been happening before she'd shown up? She picked up her glass. "We're gonna toast to love, real love?"
Well, she supposed she could get behind that. Maybe. Even if it sounded a little too grand. (And scary.)
Max smiled. "True love," he told Kate, then looked across the table at Tara, "and the house next door almost being ours, huh?"
Oh yes, Kate remembered hearing about her parents buying the Hubbard house to renovate and sell it. Her mom hadn't seemed thrilled with the idea, first time Kate had heard about it in a phonecall.
Max raised the glass at his wife. "Clink, Tara, to love and houses." But something was a little off. Tara seemed a little distracted, suddenly, like she was looking at something behind Kate, maybe, but Kate knew there was nothing there. Her glass was raised, but it didn't look like she was going to be toasting anything right now.
"Tara? Clink!" Charmaine made it sound like an order, not a suggestion. Tara raised a hand to her forehead, like she wasn't feeling well.
Kate's approach was far softer than that of her aunt. A rarity. "What, mama?" she asked, gently shaking her glass at her mother. "No clinky?"
In response to that, Tara laughed, almost nervously. She put her glass down and brought a hand to her stomach. "You know I think I ate some, some bad octopus," she said, looking apologetic. "Sorry Char."
"Are you okay?" Max asked, but Tara just nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Will you please excuse me?"
After the quick nods from around the table, she got up from her chair and left the dining room, heading straight upstairs by the sound of it.
Okay then.
For just a moment, there was an awkward sort of silence. Kate looked at everyone else, trying to gauge whether this might be something to be worried about. Then Max got up as well, saying he was going to go check up on Tara, and Charmaine cut the rest of the awkwardness short by returning their attention to what was important. "So, Kate, look at my ring! It's a cushion cut!"
And so the dinner continued.
[ooc: NFI and NFB, OOC-okay. Taken and tweaked from USoT S02E02. Lynda! ♥]
Charmaine was not getting the room, but her delirious glee was something Kate could exploit since a whim had struck her. She'd kind of been thinking of an excuse to go to Kansas since yesterday, and it didn't take much more than saying that she would've loved to come celebrate if only flying wasn't so expensive. Charmaine immediately promised to pay for her flights. It would probably come out of Nick's money, anyway.
So, Kate packed some stuff,
And because the plane took her to Kansas City, it was only natural to take a little detour for work matters, right?
Right. And that meant she found herself in the Crossroads district, in front of one of the many old factories this artsy area was full of. It almost didn't seem like the right place, but what had she been expecting? A castle? Yeah right. And the woman wasn't going to have wings, either.
(Nevermind that she went to school in a castle, and had gone out with a boy who had wings. This was not Fandom.)
Kate went to what she... thought was probably the door, and instantly felt awkward. What exactly was she doing? Collecting debts several states away from her workplace? She shook that feeling off and knocked on the door, or wall panel, or whatever it was, trying to peer in through the windows. "Hello?" she called out. "Lynda? Lynda P. Frazier?"
She was more than a little startled when the whole wall seemed to start to rise up. Like a garage door. Right.
And on the other side of the wall/door, there was a woman. Kate had had this image in her head of who she was going to meet. Someone tall and blonde and possibly even wearing something in pink and gold. Someone who at least partly matched the fan art pictures Kate had seen.
The black woman in a red dress and a patterned scarf and a necklace that seemed to be made of fuses wasn't quite what she had been expecting. Though she looked pretty damn striking in her own right.
After a few seconds of just... staring, Kate realized she should probably say something. "Is Lynda here?"
The woman looked unimpressed. "Who are you?"
Who was she? Oh, right. "I'm here as representative of CSR," Kate started, squaring her shoulders, trying to be professional even as the woman's gaze seemed to be scrutinizing every little detail about her. "She, uhm, ma'am, owes debts of over 30,000 dollars and it's my job to bring the case to closure." The woman was starting to look amused, but didn't say anything. "Get the money back."
The woman - Lynda? was this Lynda? this was probably Lynda - waved her in with a quiet laugh. "Come on in."
...
Lynda's loft may have well been the most amazing place Kate had ever seen. So many details, so much interesting stuff! She was trying act cool as she looked around the place while Lynda looked for her check book, but really. She was so drawn to the bohemian randomness of it all.
"I'm sorry to do this," she said, distractedly, once Lynda came back.
"You give 'em five thousand, they'll be thrilled," Lynda replied as she handed the check over. "Should hold 'em for a minute."
Kate took the check and inspected it. "Okay..." Well, she'd come all this way, might as well check it out before taking back a check that had been signed with a stupid fake name or something. And there turned out to actually be something she needed to ask about, after reading it. She looked up at Lynda again. "DTKC?"
"That's an arts organization I'm president of."
Ooh, so Lynda was an artist. They had something vaguely in common! "My mom's an artist."
... Yeah, Kate felt embarrassed almost immediately for just blurting that out, especially when all it got in reply from Lynda was a faint smile that could best be described as tolerant.
There was an awkward silence, for a moment. Kate looked down at her feet. "Okay, well, thank you for the check," she said then, starting towards the way out. She wanted to say something else, but couldn't find anything, so she laughed, a little nervously, and just thanked the woman again.
She didn't get more than a few steps away before there was a question behind her back. "So how'd you find me?"
Kate turned around and moved back to where she'd just been standing, in front of Lynda who was now sitting on a couch, smoking. "Um, actually," she said, "I found these paintings, or... posters, of this fantasy, princess, winged lady?"
This mention of the artwork seemed to make Lynda brighten up some. "Oh, Princess Valhalla Hawkwind!" she exclaimed. Kate laughed. "Yeah," she nodded, smiling. "This was the address if you wanted to order art of her."
"Hell, nobody buys that shit anymore!" Lynda said, amused. "I invented her twenty years ago when I was playing D&D in high school? Got to Harvard and started drawing comics of her, naive as shit. Wasn't 'til I took women's studies that I realized she was some sort of... weird, fucked up, inverted anima avatar shadow."
Kate hung on to every word. She couldn't even understand half of them, but that didn't stop her from being intrigued. "Ah, that's so funny!" she said. "Yeah, 'cause... I thought that you were her." Well, might as well admit it. With a vaguely embarrassed smile and a chuckle, eyes downcast. "So I came here expecting to... meet her." She flicked her gaze up to see what Lynda thought of that.
And Lynda? Lynda struck a dramatic pose, one arm up above her head, the other stretched out to the side. "Well I'll always be her," she said, then smirked a bit, lowering her arms again. "A little."
Kate didn't even know how to react, other than by a startled laugh. But she knew she was very, very impressed.
...
And Kate was still very, very impressed swhen she finally made it home, some time later. She could hear the chatter already from the door, her aunt's voice being the loudest one at first, then her dad's. Kate was a little late, but couldn't care less. "Hey peopleators," she greeted everyone as she made it to the dining area, without really as much as a glance around the table.
"Hey, we were worried about you!" her mother said, frowning briefly, as Kate flopped down in the empty chair beside Charmaine and reached for a bowl. "And what's with the sassy businesswear, cutie?"
"I just met the most amazing woman," Kate declared, picking up the salad tongs, "in the world."
"I thought I was the most amazing woman in the world," Tara replied, sounding mock affronted by that.
But Kate ignored that entirely. She was still buzzing from earlier. "I took a little detour to downtown Kansas City for work stuff, and I found this woman who owed a bunch of money," she explained, one hand gesturing for emphasis after she'd gotten enough food for herself and had put everything back. "So, I made two hundred and fifty dollars' worth of commission --" And looked smug about it, as she picked up her bowl again. "-- and more importantly, I got my mind literally blown."
"I don't think you literally had your mind blown," Marshall interjected from the other side of the table. And so did another, unfamiliar voice. "If you literally had your mind blown, your brain would be gone."
Kate looked up, fork stopping halfway between her bowl and her mouth. Random homely looking chick across the table, huh? "Who are you?"
Charmaine turned towards Kate and lowered her voice as if to discretely share a secret. Like everyone at the table wouldn't be able to hear her. "Marshall's ladyfriend," she provided. The girl smiled.
... Okay. What an unexpected turn of events. "Wow," Kate said, eyebrows raised. "Mind literally blown, yet again."
Her brother himself took some offence at the terminology. "Marshall's friend," he corrected, looking a little uncomfortable about the whole thing. Kate was unsurprised.
Their dad, for his part, didn't let any of this get in the way of his good mood. "Well I was just toasting true love," he said, raising his glass. "But Marshall's new friend is just a friend. Cheers."
"Wait, is that what we're doing?" Kate asked, one eyebrow arched. This was what had been happening before she'd shown up? She picked up her glass. "We're gonna toast to love, real love?"
Well, she supposed she could get behind that. Maybe. Even if it sounded a little too grand. (And scary.)
Max smiled. "True love," he told Kate, then looked across the table at Tara, "and the house next door almost being ours, huh?"
Oh yes, Kate remembered hearing about her parents buying the Hubbard house to renovate and sell it. Her mom hadn't seemed thrilled with the idea, first time Kate had heard about it in a phonecall.
Max raised the glass at his wife. "Clink, Tara, to love and houses." But something was a little off. Tara seemed a little distracted, suddenly, like she was looking at something behind Kate, maybe, but Kate knew there was nothing there. Her glass was raised, but it didn't look like she was going to be toasting anything right now.
"Tara? Clink!" Charmaine made it sound like an order, not a suggestion. Tara raised a hand to her forehead, like she wasn't feeling well.
Kate's approach was far softer than that of her aunt. A rarity. "What, mama?" she asked, gently shaking her glass at her mother. "No clinky?"
In response to that, Tara laughed, almost nervously. She put her glass down and brought a hand to her stomach. "You know I think I ate some, some bad octopus," she said, looking apologetic. "Sorry Char."
"Are you okay?" Max asked, but Tara just nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Will you please excuse me?"
After the quick nods from around the table, she got up from her chair and left the dining room, heading straight upstairs by the sound of it.
Okay then.
For just a moment, there was an awkward sort of silence. Kate looked at everyone else, trying to gauge whether this might be something to be worried about. Then Max got up as well, saying he was going to go check up on Tara, and Charmaine cut the rest of the awkwardness short by returning their attention to what was important. "So, Kate, look at my ring! It's a cushion cut!"
And so the dinner continued.
[ooc: NFI and NFB, OOC-okay. Taken and tweaked from USoT S02E02. Lynda! ♥]