Fifth Floor Common Room, Thursday afternoon

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter was... distracting himself from three goodbyes already said this week.

Thus? Mashed potato sculpting. It was therapeutic. First you have to mash them, which is all kinds of cathartic squishiness. Then you have to create something more interesting than Devil's Tower.

Currently Walter had an absolutely horrid representation of Parliament. The building, not the funkaliciousness.

Comments

[nadiathesaint]

If Nadia sat in 502/4/6 all day, she would only end up staring at the empty space that had been Pippi's. If she sat in 507 all day, she'd only end up thinking about why she was sitting there and not in 502/4/6, and make herself sick.

So she's been on the move all day, wandering around.

She stood in the doorway of the common room for a bit, watching Walter do thigns with mashed potatoes that she was pretty sure butlers didn't normally do.

"Are you going to eat that, eventually? Or just play with it?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"That depends," Walter said, looking up from trying to get the columns just right. "If I'm the only one who touches this, then yes, I might eat it. If someone else comes to help me, I'll feed it to the gremlins."

[nadiathesaint]

"Well." Nadia wandered over. "I think the gremlins have to eat, too . . . what are you making?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Ah... would you believe, Parliament?" He didn't, really. The towers kept falling over and really all he was doing was getting mashed potatoes under his fingernails.

At least he'd tucked his rings in his pocket.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia studied the thing for a moment. "It looks kind of like one of those termite colonies they have in Africa. If we make spaghetti, we could make a little person out of it. The gremlins might like it better that way."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"What, use the spaghetti as hair, you mean?" It could work. It would be odd, but really, could it touch attempting to build the Parliament building?

[nadiathesaint]

"Exactly. Want me to get the spaghetti?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Be my guest. Are we making a potato man or a potato woman?" For dealing with lumps and all, of course.

[nadiathesaint]

"One of each? Do we have enough potato?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"If we don't, I have no problem with mashing more."

[nadiathesaint]

"Excellent. I think we have a plan."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter set about demolishing the termite Parliament and dividing the remains into two piles.

While he worked, he turned to watch Nadia. "How are you doing?" Not an idle question.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia set some water up on the stove to boil, busying herself with salting it and finding the spaghetti before answering.

". . . I'm working on it. Dealing."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter flattened out "his" pile of potatoes and tried to figure out how he could get a cigarette into his mouth and lit without potato-fying it.

No luck.

"Pippi said she'd help us keep in touch, since I don't know how well things will go from my end."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia nodded. "She said we should work out a code."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter laughed quietly. "That's because she said she didn't want to read any 'sexy letters' we might exchange."

[nadiathesaint]

"I thought it had something to do with Aziraphale."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Him, too." Although Walter had to wonder just how much a code would really hold up an angel.

[nadiathesaint]

Once the water was set to boil, Nadia moved to lean against him. Not to help, just to lean. Hey, she only had a little bit of leaning time left, after all.

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter was okay with leaning and did some leaning of his own, including leaning over to kiss her cheek.

"Are you going to make one of these?"

[nadiathesaint]

"I thought I'd just watch. It's more interesting than watching the water."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"If you prefer." Walter didn't seem to be in a huge hurry to get to it. The leaning was nice and she smelled good.

He found himself wondering if there was a way to take that smell home with him.

[nadiathesaint]

Well, she could give him some of her perfume, but that wasn't quite the same, was it.

"So. I was supposed to do a gig with Teal Dear this weekend. I've told them I'm staying here."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

And Pippi had just left... "How are they going to perform with both you and Pippi gone?"

[nadiathesaint]

"They've got auditions for someone to drum and someone to play guitar. I didn't want to say no, but . . . I'm already involved in a plot on the island this weekend I want to make the most of the time, you know?"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter probably could have made a dozen arguments in favor of her going.

He just didn't want to.

"Thanks. I know Parker's probably going to tear her hair out, but I'm glad you're staying."

[nadiathesaint]

"I'm more worried about Zero and her mallet. But I offered to find my own replacement and everything. I really . . . I just couldn't go off this weekend. Not when you're leaving, soon."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

He was touched, but didn't know how to respond. She wanted a moratorium on even hinting about the L-word, and he wanted to respect that.

Violence is a solution.

"Your mallet can take Zero's mallet."

[nadiathesaint]

"I dunno . . ." Nadia went for playful. "I don't have nearly as much practice malleting as Zero does,"

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"You're still better trained. And you have Furrball on your side."

[nadiathesaint]

"Well," Nadia said consideringly. "There is that."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Right." Walter looked down at what he had so far.

It didn't look much like a person.

"Did I ever mention that I have very little artistic talent?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Don't look at me . . . you've seen my drawings. And I don't think mashed potatoes would work well as stick figure art."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"I like your stick figures." Largely for humor value, but still, that was value. "You can send me stick figure letters any time you want."

[nadiathesaint]

"Maybe I'll give sexy stick figures a try. . . ."

Wait, that was sort of disturbing.

". . . or maybe not."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"Send me your adventure story instead."

[nadiathesaint]

That thing was destined to turn into a work that rivaled War and Peace in size, if not quality.

"Okay. But you'd better send me something in return for the shipping costs. . . ."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"I'm no writer. I can send you photos? Maybe..."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia nodded. "Photos are good. Or souvenirs. Or . . . anything, really."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

"I'm not going to forget you, Nadia. Ever."

[nadiathesaint]

"I know that," Nadia answered softly. "That doesn't mean that I don't want to hear from you. Know what you're doing, or how you're doing. Dumbass."

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter kept his potato-y hands to himself, but bumped his shoulder against hers. "You'll be the only girl on your block to have fresh, authentic souvenirs from the 1940s." And 50s and 60s. Unless he left his time or she came to his. They have to have Bailey somewhen after all.

[nadiathesaint]

"Well, you know that's important to me. I have to be a trend setter."