ic Nothing Fancy, Just Hanging Out (IC)

[R. Bluefish]

Sam felt her mouth fill with water at Lynn's words. Ever since her impromptu eight-month fast, her appetite lay just beneath the surface and would arise at a moment's notice. Not even needing to eat anymore didn't seem to have discouraged it in the slightest, and it took a certain amount of resolve to resist requesting "all of the above." Being your boss's guest required a certain degree of decorum.

 

"I'll just take a burger," she said from her position on the couch, popping the well-chewed toothpick back into her mouth. "Maybe some of that potato salad too. Though it's your party, I feel like we should be the ones serving you." What's the point of having a birthday if you're still waiting on people? "Unless this is your..." she made a vaguely arcane gesture with one hand, "magic conjured food? If it is, then I don't think I can help you make that."

[Sophistemon]

Now, here was a topic that Samuel could contribute to. "Conjured food can be a little risky," he interjects. "What we call a 'hamburger' and what the denizens of other planes call a 'hamburger' can differ wildly. Misspeak a single syllable and you might end up having to fight an abominable amalgamation of beef and bun for the continued existence of your universe." He shook his head. "With that in mind, I wouldn't say 'no' to a plate of chicken and a side of... well, everything -- if you don't mind!" He reached up a bit and patted his empty stomach. "I don't think that I've eaten much these last few days. I've been busy with some research for a friend."

Edited August 21, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Heritage]

Lynn held up her hands. "Hey, the only person who eats conjured food in this house is me, due to my dietary restrictions; everything else is Grade A Certified Real." She indicated the patio with a jerk of her head. "I'm gonna head out to the patio and start grilling; anyone who wants is welcome to join me. Megan, what do you guys want to eat?" Then she gave Gretchen a nod as she started to head out. "Gretch, you want to set up the chessboard by the fireplace? That way you can spread out a bit while Meg can still keep tabs on Lawrence."

 

Gretchen peered down at the small, well-mannered boy and narrowed her eyes dramatically. "Alright, small one. Let's see how you fare on the field of battle." She grabbed a blockish, modernist set made out of black and white marble off the top of a low bookshelf, and led the wee lad over to the large Oriental rug in front of the fireplace at the other end of the room; she set the board up in the middle of the rug, then took a seat beside it Indian style. "Do you prefer black or white?"

Edited September 6, 2016 by Heritage

[R. Bluefish]

"I'll give you a hand with the food," said Sam, rising from the couch with a grunt. "Don't seem right to have you doing all the work." Maybe I can just blast the patties with energy. Might cook 'em on the stop - I've never tried that. It was also likely to result in tiny particles of charred meat exploding all over the place, though, so she decided it was probably best to do things the old-fashioned way. Unless she found herself needing a party trick. She glanced after Gretchen and Lawrence as they went off for their game. "Hey kid, take it easy on her, yeah?"

 

Pausing, she looked down at Samuel on the couch. "What kind of research you up to? Magic stuff?" Sam had never been the most intellectually-inclined sort - all of her high school teachers could attest to that. She'd devoted more time to smoking weed behind the bleachers and flirting with various douchebags. The former didn't lead her down a particularly shiny road, and the latter turned out to be pretty much a complete waste of time. Although at least one good thing had come of it.

[Sophistemon]

The magician nodded. "Oh, yes! It sort of ties into the other work that I've been doing. He and I, we bounce cases off of one another. Freelance work can be a bit of a hassle but it's lucrative as all get-out. Still, I'm glad to have a steady job at the store." He looked over to Gretchen. "I'm comfortable doing research. Learning things, especially about magic, lets me improve myself. It's a great feeling, to stumble across something that can fill in a hole in your knowledge. I get a little bit better every day." He didn't know how much he was free to talk about, especially about Al-Kazar and the research that they were doing at the shop. "Anyway, it's a rewarding experience. I prefer it to my earlier career."

[Thevshi]

Lawrence sat down across from Gretchen, his expression becoming rather serious and focused as he looked at the board.  "I have no real preference, so you many choose."  He responded to her question as he waited for her to choose a color and the set up to begin. 

Robert took a seat in the living room on a chair near the couch Samuel was seated at.  "Ah yes, research can be become something of an obsession, although quite rewarding.  Although I cannot say I have much experience with magic."  He stated.  "And of course, these days, my research tends to be something more of a hobby." 

A glass of wine in her hand, Megan followed Lynn onto the patio.  "So, how have things been going?"  She asked as the other woman started to cook the food.

[Heritage]

Gretchen nodded thoughtfully as she set out all the pieces. "Okay. I like to play black, because black goes second. That way, you get to see what the white player does first, and then you can start to plan your strategy." She stopped and smiled a little half-smile. "But you're a smart kid, so you probably know that." She gave him an encouraging nod. "Your move."

 

Out on the balcony, Lynn sighed before taking a swig of hard cider, then began laying the various meats on the grill. "It's been...amazing. Things were hard coming back, for a while; just the shock of seeing my family here again, as though no time had passed, and yet you miss so much in three years. My nieces and nephews got so big!" She grabbed a sauce brush and began to slather the burgers with some sort of seasoning blend, and her expression became thoughtful. "I hadn't been thinking of dating at all; after Bill passed, I didn't...it was hard. It was awful, for several years; the thought of being with someone else, after so long with him...ah, f###!" The changeling had to stop to wipe away tears, and then waved off her friend's concern. "I'm fine, I'm fine, don't worry; it's been over ten years for me, but it still hurts. Expect it always will."

 

It took her a few seconds to compose herself, but soon she was smiling again, even though her eyes were still moist. "Being with Gretchen is the best possible thing that could have happened to me; she keeps me grounded and focused, but she respects my space and let's me cry when I have to, and then says, 'Okay, that's enough' and brings me back to Earth." She shook here head in disbelief. "Part of me wondered if I could ever love again, and now...I can't imagine life without her. What did I ever do to deserve to be so lucky? Nothin' that I can think of."

 

Then Lynn pulled the lid of the grill closed and took another swig of cider. "What about you, how are things?"

Edited September 13, 2016 by Heritage

[R. Bluefish]

"What career was that?" asked Samantha, in response to Samuel. "Business?" He looked like the business type somehow - or at least, he did to her eyes. But then, when you grew up with her background, pretty much everybody looked like some fancy businessman in comparison. For all she knew, his prior career was flipping burgers at a fast food joint. Not the most illustrious history for a superhero, but she'd learned that heroes could come from inauspicious places.

 

As she overheard Lynn's words through the open patio door, she paused in her tracks and leaned on arm against the wall. She spent so much time feeling sorry for her damn self, sometimes she forgot that other people had way more messed-up lives than she did. At least she'd never been stuck in an alternate dimension for...more time than she cared to think about.

 

If that had happened to her, when she came back she probably would have been completely broken. It happened to Lynn, and when Lynn came back she was running a bookstore and giving second chances to recovering street junkies. It took all kinds of people to make a world.

[Sophistemon]

Samuel coughed, choking at the question. He thudded his chest and smiled. "Ah, well, not unless you count show-business. No, actually, I was a performer. A stage magician, if you can believe it. It was... it was a long time ago, so I doubt anyone would remember me." He paused. "Thought I did make a pretty big impression in my prime. I toured the country back then, headlined in Las Vegas... I even had an HBO special if you can believe it." He shook his head, a little mournfully. "I've found a higher calling than that. Now, I get a chance to help people. I'm pretty sure that I might have already saved the world on a few separate occasions, but it's hard to tell sometimes when the danger is over just how bad things might have gone if you hadn't stepped in."

Edited September 17, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Thevshi]

"Having an opportunity to see what you opponent might be planning can certainly be an advantage."  Lawrence replied calmly as he studied the board for a moment before reaching out to move one of his pawns.  "But, having to be the one to react to your opponent can also force you into a strategy you might not otherwise want to follow."  He then added as he looked up at Gretchen and waited for her to move. 

 

Out on the patio, Megan nodded slightly as Lynn talked about how it had been trying to readjust to coming back to this dimension.  The blonde speedster still found it somewhat hard to believe that her former teammate Colt was gone, dying a natural death after a long life with Lynn in his home dimension.  But she had an understanding of what Lynn had gone through, having herself spent what had been six years from her viewpoint outside the timestream.  But where sometime had passed here for Lynn, Megan had returned with hardly any time having passed.  She and Lynn had swapped alternate dimension/outside time stories on other "catching up" visits. 

She smiled when Lynn talked about being with Gretchen now, happy for her friend.  "Well first, I can think of a lot of things you have done to deserve being so happy again.  But more importantly, I tend to reject the notion that anyone has to do some great deed to deserve a chance to be happy."  She replied before taking a sip of her wine. 

"I am very happy to hear you have been adjusting and things are going so well with Gretchen."  Megan then added.  "As for me, things are good.  Robert and I still have not finalized a wedding date, but from our perspective, we don't feel too rushed.  Lawrence has been doing well at the Nicholson School, and we have been keeping an eye out for...any signs of the problems with his alternate selves." 

The blonde woman then shrugged, not wanting to dwell too long on the subject of her sons in other timelines, at least not today.  "Other than that, I have tried to keep myself busy working with some charity foundations in the city, and, you know, saving the world here and there."

[Heritage]

The kid was obviously super-brainy, so Gretchen decided not to hold back; she recalled from her own 'gifted' childhood how annoying it was when adults talked down to her, so she would play him as an equal. In fact, with a superheroine for a mom, there was a good chance lil' Lawrence was already smarter than she ever would be. The one thing she did have going for her was experience, so hopefully that would carry her through to victory.

 

Based on Black's first move, Gretch opted for the Sicilian Defense, as she found an aggressive stance served her well, but only time would tell if the risks would reap rewards. "Do you like music?"

 

- - -

 

"Oh, I  wished they'd had special schools like that in Otherworld; we mostly ended up homeschooling ours, at least until they hit the middle school years. Of course, Jon-Jon ended up in military school, and he turned out to be...well, things didn't go so well."

 

Not wanting to dwell on her own parenting failures, Lynn preferred to change the subject as she continued working the grill. "Have you at least figured out where the wedding's gonna be held? Here or in England?"

 

 

Edited September 28, 2016 by Heritage

[R. Bluefish]

Samantha raised her eyebrows, interested despite herself. "A stage magician, huh?" she said, leaning her shoulders against the wall. One might think that spending half her time hanging around actual magicians would make her less interested in stage magic - but after monsters, pocket dimensions, and cursed artifacts, part of her just wanted to get back to the realm of good old-fashioned trickery. "Me and my sister used to try to teach ourselves magic when we were kids, but half the time we weren't even able to pull the right card out of a deck."

[Sophistemon]

Samuel chuckled. "Ah, card tricks can be tricky." He reached behind himself and retrieved a deck from his back pocket. He popped the tab, shuffled the cards, and drew four. When he fanned them out on the table, they were all aces. Specifically, they were all the Ace of Diamonds. "But they can be fun at parties." His eyes sparkled, and he took a drink of water. "I miss it," he admitted. "Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision, leaving it all behind. I used to spend weeks dreaming up new tricks, new illusions. There's an art to misdirection, and there's a science too. It was exhilarating to watch as people saw something that they'd never seen before, and might never see again." He leaned back into his seat and sighed. "But the work I'm doing now is good, too, I suppose. It's certainly less stressful."