Rutherford B. Hayes campfire, Tuesday evening

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah got a fire going in front of the cabin after dinner by dint of a firestarter, some lighter fluid, and a lot of newspaper, then settled in with her laptop and downloaded Radio podcasts from the WiFi in town, to catch up on what she'd missed.

Pretty soon you could hear exclamations of "No way!" ... "What?!" and "Oh my god, Tony wasn't making that up?"


[open campfire is open]

Comments

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine never really planned to make a habit out of visiting other campfires, but it was a little hard not to notice the random bursts of exclamations coming from this one.

"Wasn't making what up?"

Inquisitive minds wanted to know.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah looked up, blinking and confused, and blurted, "Katina schmooping with Merlin this weekend at Chuck's party." She paused, turning red. "Hi, I'm Dinah, and I'll be your random reporter of gossip this evening."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine couldn't help grinning. "Hi, Dinah. I'm Valentine; I'll be your random recipient of gossip on people I don't even know yet. The names are familiar, though."

With that, she took a seat.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah started laughing, and said, "It doesn't make more sense if you know the people involved. Believe me." She stared at the podcast file, then cocked her head at Valentine. "So, anyone tried to convince you that secret squirrels listen to everything we do here yet?"

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Why would they have to convince me of something that's obviously true?" Valentine asked, cocking her head back.

It was still a little odd for Valentine, she'd have to admit, although not for the same reasons as everyone else, she imagined. When most of your exposure to squirrels involved finding their tortured and torn-apart carcasses in the words, you felt a little awkward around live ones.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I still have problems with it, and I've been here four months," Dinah marveled. "Except friends of mine do Radio broadcasts, and they don't have that kind of warped sense of humor. You're adapting way faster than I was, at this point." She paused, thinking, then snapped her fingers. "Valentine! Right, you did Radio with Turtle a week or so ago."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine nodded a little. "I did; I'll hopefully be doing it with her more in the future, too, but we've got a while until our audition. The whole thing's kind of interesting, isn't it? Is there really that much of an interest with keeping up on just about everything everyone does around here?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Kind of? I keep up partly for the amusement factor, since they never get it all completely right. Partly because like I said, some of my friends are DJ's, so it's fun to listen to them mock the news and people doing silly things. And you never know when there'll be a random gremlin biting or bear attack or zombie invasion." Dinah gave her a half-grin. "I'm not sure anyone listens every day, but I wanted to catch up, so... podcasts." She turned back to her laptop, expression puzzled. "Weird, weird podcasts."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine still wasn't exactly up for lots of company, but she'd make an exception for Dinah, so she stopped off at Hayes when she noticed the other girl at the campfire.

The fact that Rutherford B. Hayes was not Theodore Roosevelt may have had something to do with the choice too, mind you.

"Hi," she said quietly, finding a spot on a log and smoothing her skirt over her knees.

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine, incidentally, had been listening every day. She didn't exactly remember all of it, and there might have been one or two that she missed, but such a treasure trove of information at her disposal...it would be a waste to dismiss it.

She nodded a little. "What's so weird about it?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah looked up, saw Francine, and immediately closed the laptop. "Hey." Oh, wow, what to say? Or not say? Francine didn't look like the weekend had been a jolly Love Gremlin prank all fixed now. "How're you doing?" she settled on, biting her lip.

[wantstodirect]

Tony sat down by the fire. "Hey, you actually got it lit!"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"People acting way the heck out of character, in preferences for, well. Schmooping, to quote the squirrels. Not to mention the person in question just does not schmoop," Dinah said, still trying to make sense of that. "I'm thinking it was a gremlin bite. Or some other Fandom weirdness." She frowned. "It sounded like it wore off, though, so hopefully everyone's back to normal now." Merlin had certainly seemed normal enough at the Reserves meeting. Arthur had been... odd, yesterday. But that could've been a hundred things.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I did!" Dinah said, giving it a proprietary poke with one of the sticks. "And it only took half a can of lighter fluid and a huge foooomph!"

[wantstodirect]

Tony snapped his fingers. "That was my problem. No foooomph!"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Dinah said, giving him a grin. "So. Are you and Merlin doing the magic-y side of the Reserves organizing?"

[thatsamilkshake]

"I should be asking you that." And not only because it made an excellent deflection, but out of actual concern. "You had to go home in a pretty big hurry. Is everything okay?"

[wantstodirect]

"That's the theory," Tony said. "I made posters."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

"Or alcohol," Valentine offered. "What exactly is schmooping, anyway?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Which reminded Dinah of her own weekend craziness, and had her simultaneously relaxing and frowning a little. "Yeah, it is. Now. My sister did something really risky, and wound up in the hospital for three days. They had to induce a medical coma to make sure she'd be okay." Dinah poked the flames so sparks flew up. "And another family member showed up to help with the mess that started it, and he doesn't get along with Helena, and ... anyway. I spent half of Sunday asleep after keeping them from strangling each other all weekend. Didn't get back 'til yesterday." She rubbed her eyes, then smiled less anxiously at Francine. "It'll be fine now, though." She studied Francine, thinking. "You?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Public affection with nauseating sweetness, apparently." Dinah couldn't help a little sideways smile at that. "I guess the right, or wrong, kind of booze could have done it?" She looked speculative. "Or maybe Chuck added something to the fires."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oooooo," Dinah said, sounding impressed, eyes sparkling. "So, they say... Come one, come all, to the wizard's ball?"

[wantstodirect]

"A little twee, but not bad," Tony said. "You can help next time. Though wizards don't have -" Yeah, stopping right there. "I mean, it's a meeting, not a party."

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

There was a pause.

"Or the smoke," Valentine offered.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah giggled wickedly, putting her hand to her mouth, then gave Tony an innocent look. "Awwwwww."