he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
will byers stan first human second
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@hivedfive
cookiecuttercole:
I think I could handle that, for a little while. If it’s to persuade me into switching what I’ve got though, I’m not entirely sure that I have many options other than an American system.
It’s a question of infrastructure and not choice because they refuse to look at -
Thanks, mate, really. Thanks for that fun rant starting in the background here.
cookiecuttercole:
It took some time getting it set up but it’s been working well. I was pleasantly surprised it held up through all the snow recently, but does my having speedy and reliable wifi mean you’ll visit sometime?
It is a terrific incentive, but Phoebe wants to go on a bit about American systems being hopelessly outdated so you’re also warned about that.
cookiecuttercole:
Heard and noted, haha.
Nothing’s broken that I’m aware of. I moved into a new place and am renting out the penthouse as of last November. It’s a bigger place so some of the rooms are bare, and I purposely left some things behind at the penthouse. I’d be glad to have you all over after it’s a little more inviting to be in.
How’s the wifi situation?
Impolite question.
We already know the answer honestly.
Both of you hush. I asked it and now it’s been asked, it’s out there.
cookiecuttercole:
Hah well that sounds…exciting at least. My holiday was quiet for the most part. I spent most of it at home unpacking boxes and looking at some new furniture and fixtures. Not exactly the most exciting way to wrap up the old year or bring in the new one but it wasn’t a complete waste.
Just be careful you don’t encourage her, you’ve been warned.
New fixtures? Did something break or has it just been that long since we’ve had to worry about home repair?
cookiecuttercole:
Ah, well at least you’ve all made it back safely. Did you enjoy the holiday away?
Not what I’d call relaxing. Esme did learn to swear in three languages, if that counts as anything. Did you have a good holiday?
cookiecuttercole:
You’re welcome, and I’m glad the baskets won’t go to waste. How long are you all out of the country?
Officially through the 7th of January, had to take a different airline after an issue with our tickets. Best not to ask. We just touched down again an hour ago because of it.
@cookiecuttercole
We wanted to pass along our thanks for the gifts. We’ve been out of the country intermittently, but we promise all of the coffee will be put to good use.
[delivered wrapped to their brownstone]
[taped to the coffee gift basket]
[labeled specifically for Wren]
Send “That doesn’t look like a scratch.” for my muse to react to yours finding them bandaging a wound.
PSA
I’m doing NaNo this year so it’s fully possible that I’ll be a bit absent over the next month. Wish me luck!
Lorna laughed softly. “I think I’ll do what I do best, have fun. Maybe hit a party…” Lorna hadn’t really given it much thought. She was so busy with school and Brotherhood that her social life was actually deteriorating. She had to fix that. Stat.
“I’ll head over to your place for some free candy though,” she added with a grin. And to pester them, of course. Especially the little purple haired kid they had hanging around. She was fun to bother.
“I hope that there’s no blackout or fish turning or time jumps or anything coming up.” She said with a sigh, exhausted by all that had happened. However, as is the Brotherhood way, she wouldn’t say no to a fight if FoF started something. “Although if there is I’ll know that there’ll be no trick or treating at your place.”
Lorna was then curious. “What was last year’s costume anyway?” If it was expensive it had to be good.
“You’d better be in costume if you do,” Celeste warned. “Anyone trying to skim free candy without bothering to wear a costume gets turned away at the door.”
Anyone else might have to worry about surly teenagers seeking revenge after the fact, which was how so many of them probably got away with it. Telepaths had a few more options to work with. They could simply press the rabblerousers to forget that their house was there entirely. Not that Lorna was likely to break their windows.
“Assassins,” said Phoebe.
“Boots and everything were tailored to fit, with the understanding that this would be our only costume for a while. We were invited to a party last year and...well, you know how it is with old faces,” said Celeste.
“A pathological, entirely irrational desire to impress them with signs of status,” Phoebe supplied.
“Yes, thank you,” said Celeste.
“Touché,” said Cole. At the mention of journalism classes, he momentarily thought back to his undergrad days. He had taken a journalism class once when double majoring, but it had been one of the first classes he had ever taken at NYU that he didn’t remember too many specifics now.
Hearing Sophie’s thoughts being shared, Cole was thinking on this wondering himself, but he soon shook his head, not out of disagreement but rather to keep himself from going off on a mental tangent. “It would be interesting to know how The Bugle determines what they’ll focus on and if they’ll try to present information from an unbiased lens or not. I know from a radio standpoint, our stations occasionally survey the listeners and try to cater to the feedback they get, but I don’t know who, if any of the television networks, or media outlets like The Bugle do the same.”
“We did take psychology, so that covered some statistics and bias in surveys,” Phoebe said thoughtfully. She tapped her mobile phone against her chin as she thought back. “First, the survey targets are already people consuming your media.”
“Like when television shows poll their listeners and get ridiculous approval margins for the host’s point of view?” Celeste suggested.
“If you’re offering a viewpoint, they’re there in the first place because of that,” Phoebe continued. “There’s also the matter that people who respond to surveys do so because they feel strongly about the issue. People who have no strong opinions on a topic are less likely to provide any response.”
“But that;s not entirely the point,” said Celeste, deciding that Phoebe had showed off enough for the moment.
“Yeah, but you start rumors abut muffins laced with hallucinogens and this place will get packed with people who suddenly think they are Captain America or something and that won’t be fun for anyone.” Pietro pointed out, tone matter-of-fact as he leaned back in his seat, finally moving to take a drink from the mug in front of him. “Surprised to see you guys out this late. Or see you at all with how busy everyone seems to be.”
“Were we meant to be confined to our house in perpetuity?”
They had gone in force to the sort of meeting they didn’t inform SHIELD agents about, even ones that were typically more forthcoming with them. It wasn’t only because they had some longstanding issues with the organization and its reflection, but because it let Pietro avoid liability. He didn’t need to be responsible for what he didn’t know.
“But we take your point -”
“- let’s not summon amateur superheroes we’d need to shame -”
“- the coffeehouse might just try to ban the lot of us, for safety.”
“Not that we cause a great deal of property damage.”
“Drinks,” Irma announced unnecessarily, passing out white paper cups to the waiting crowd.
Cole returned Phoebe’s remark with a genuine smirk on his lips. He listened to her and Celeste though, and for a moment he was a little lost following their concerns but he pieced it together by the time Celeste finished.
“They are annoyingly resourceful,” he commented in regard to the mutant hate group, “So I get you wanting to be careful and cover your tracks with them. Honestly I’m not exactly sure how they get as much of the publicity that they get. The Bugle has mutants working at it, and no doubt, other media outlets do too. A little bias here couldn’t hurt them that badly.”
“Generating outrage sells,” Celeste said. Her expression was indifferent, tossing the thought out like a phone book: technically functional but likely discarded as soon as it landed.
“None of us took any journalism classes in college. Philosophy was a much easier way to get those general requirements out of the way,” Phoebe said thoughtfully.
“Sophie’s wondered about distinguishing journalistic ethics and responsible neutrality from a degree of moral imperative when someone is so clearly harmful or blatantly incorrect,” said Celeste, chewing on the end of a coffee stirrer. “Not really my area of wondering, you understand. I think she places a bit too much value on the concept of objective truth, perception drives the narrative.”
Lorna gave a small shrug, not one to judge on that end. “I am totally okay with lying, whatever floats your boat.” They weren’t wrong on that anyway, did anyone really care about the truth on a question like that. Lorna supposed she might cared if someone was really wrong, but a busy cafe wasn’t the best place to speak about personal things anyway.
“I’m good, though. I think I’ve finally settled back into normalcy—or well as normal as I was before the whole time mix up,” she reassured with a nod, trying to tell herself she had returned back to normal, but could there be and return back to the way things were after knowing what could be your potential future?
“So do you have any plans this Halloween?” For all she knew the Cuckoos didn’t even bother with that holiday, but she was kind of looking forward to it. Mostly for the parties that came with the holiday.
“Thank you,” the two said together.
They vacillated sometimes between paranoia about causation and resentment of the happy lives they had glimpsed in that nightmare. Those lives might not have been as idyllic as they seemed, even to telepaths looking in. Who knew what skeletons might have been buried along the way in ten years. But wandering out of a gym storage room to a world they half-recognized had to be some bar of low achievement. Few of the others had quite so much to fear from the future as they did.
But fear wasn’t something they ever showed to the outside world. They hashed it out, let it run through their shared mind until a small anxiety became enough to topple everything, but they didn’t let it out into the light to be judged. They had to find some other way to cope while they decided what to do about all of this.
“We were going to hand out candy, since we have a proper house with a front door. But that will require that no one starts a rolling blackout in the city before Halloween, or turns us all into fish. The lack of thumbs would be unhelpful,” said Phoebe. “Maybe wear last year’s costume, it was a bit expensive. Far too complicated when you tried to extricate yourself at the end of the evening as well.”
“What about you? What do young people do on Halloween these days?” Celeste asked, letting a teasing lilt enter her voice that did not altogether reach her steely gaze.
“I know my reasoning was cake. I was also very fond of pinatas.” She smirked at the memory of her and Sam going to parties solely for the candy.
“That’s so true. I do admire that about them.” Not only was she reminded of Alma but of her son Cole in the future. It had been a few days since she had thought of him and it still pulled at her heart strings when she did.
“You’re welcome! I know we’ll have a lot of fun.” She sighed contently mostly because he migraine was slowly on a mend.
“I don’t think we ever knew anyone who had a pinata at their birthday party,” Phoebe mused.
Celeste shrugged, but offered no further comment on the subject. They hadn’t been invited to very many birthday parties, and whenever they were it was because parents had insisted upon inviting the entire class. Then their parents would insist that they attend and ‘socialize’. No one actually wanted them there, so everyone go to spend an afternoon being displeased about controlling adults.
“I’m sure we will,” said Celeste. “We’ll even make sure that Esme is on her best behavior, promise.”
