Battle of the Bands Campfire, Early Sunday Afternoon

[vanillajello]

Clockwork spiders were awful.

This was what Kate had learned yesterday, when she'd spent seemingly half the night trying to barricade her alcove so that they wouldn't get in. That, in turn, meant she hadn't gotten to bed until way late, which then explained why she now looked like she had just barely woken up even though it was already the afternoon.

Technically she still felt like she should've been laying low and avoiding some people, but right now she couldn't bring herself to give a fuck about that. Sitting by her cabin's campfire, she was having a Pop Tart for breakfast, texting her brother, and enjoying the campgrounds being spider-free again.

[ooc: Open!]

Comments

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan was sans a chickified Ramona today which meant he could go on about his daily routine without worrying about feeding and caring for her. He just really hoped Simon wasn't doing perverted things with that chick.

He actually stopped when he spotted Kate. There was a cigarette dangling between his lips and an blank look on his face. Mostly, he'd just thought she'd disappeared or something.

At least his nose and face had healed up pretty much completely so she wouldn't have to see that. He was just going to stand a few feet away and keep looking at her until she noticed him.

[vanillajello]

Kate was concentrating on her breakfast, and it took a while for her to register there was a familiar form standing in the periphery of her vision.

And once she did, there was no grand reaction, though her shoulders tensed a little, on guard despite herself. She turned her head just a bit and her gaze flicked to him.

"Hey."

Nice and neutral, that.

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan snickered under his breath at the contrast between her last greeting to him and this one right now. At least that meant he wasn't going to get his nose broken again.

Hopefully.

"How very monosyllabic of you," he quipped, still keeping his distance while he smoked. "Your vocabulary is still massive and complex, I see."

[vanillajello]

Kate shrugged a shoulder. "Well, I'm still waiting to see if you're gonna get pissy and start blaming me for something that's not actually really my fault."

See? More words. She could totally produce them.

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"So, that wasn't your head breaking my nose a few weeks ago?" Nathan asked, feigning confusion. "Really? Do you have a twin that I don't know about? The resemblance was uncanny."

[vanillajello]

"That," she said, picking at the pastry in her hands without looking at him, "was me two years ago after I'd died, scared and alone, on an island overrun with vampires."

It wasn't her. But the resemblance had been uncanny inside her head, too.

[lockestheway]

"What the hell was that yesterday?" Peter said, all attempts at charm out the window. At the moment. They might return later on in the conversation.

[vanillajello]

"'S far as I can tell, it was a steampunk invasion meant to ruin a perfectly good Saturday," Kate drawled, glancing over. She wasn't much for charm this morning afternoon. "Points for novelty, though."

[lockestheway]

"They got all over my hardware not dirty!" Peter said. Naturally, his reaction was less 'fear' and more 'offense'. How dare life be this ridiculously insane at him? He had work to do, and every minute in this place meant another minute off the time where he could do good work. Or was, at least, another chance for the school to add a blemish to his record, which he really didn't need, and-- "Does this happen often?! Why isn't anyone doing something about this?"

[vanillajello]

Even without the ability to read narrative, Kate raised an eyebrow at him, and dared to look mildly amused. Just a little.

"Well, me and a lot of other people, I'm sure, took a very hands-on approach to doing something about it," she pointed out. "Namely, stomping on and stabbing the little fuckers. Beyond that, there's not a whole lot we can do. I mean, that stuff just... happens."

[lockestheway]

"Nothing just 'happens' like that," Peter argued, calming a little. He parked his ass down. "It's a miracle this school hasn't gotten closed down for criminal negligence and safety violations yet."

[vanillajello]

"High percentage of future superheroes and other champions in the student body," Kate replied, shrugging. "We always pull through somehow."

And there were so many kids around who had less than ideal relationships with their parents that Kate figured there weren't even enough people to complain about the stuff that kept happening.

[dollpocalypse]

"So, I was thinking," Topher said, coming up to sit down next to Peter. "Those spiders yesterday? If you ever need me to program any little robots like that, I'm totally your guy."

Yes, hello to you too.

[lockestheway]

"What in the world would I do with killer robots?" Peter asked, rolling his eyes. "That's just asking for trouble--"

Except wait. Waaait. He could get Topher to rig up some mobile reconnaissance hardware for him that way, couldn't he?

"...in this day and age, killer robots are out of fashion," he segued, smoothly. "You'd need something more sophisticated than that." Damn squirrels were probably listening in.

[dollpocalypse]

Yeah, but killer people robots were probably just sophisticated enough to do the trick. Too bad it would be another five years or so before Topher could add that to his resume.

"I'd be game for something more sophisticated," he said, eyeing the bushes critically to see if there were any squirrels around.

[lockestheway]

So did Peter. Who finally got up, walked towards the bushes, and leaned over. "Tell my buddy Butters that I'm saving some marshmallows for him," he said, "Now shoo."

The squirrel gave him a foul look, threw an acorn, then sped off.

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[dollpocalypse]

Topher was more than a little disappointed when he saw that all the spiders were gone.

And then he saw that that crazy vampire girl was there, and he jumped onto a log. "You!" he yelled.

[vanillajello]

Kate jumped a little at that sudden yell. She turned to look at Topher, eyebrows raised.

"... Um. Yes?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher pointed a finger at her, already very worked up about this. "You bit me!" he exclaimed.

Yes, it had been during that weird weekend when everyone had looked different, but still! Biting someone was not okay!

[vanillajello]

Kate's eyes widened. Shit. "... Oh." She deserved some points for figuring it out quickly enough that Topher had looked entirely different over that weekend. "I'm -- I'm sorry. Which one were you?"

Because she'd bitten more than one person.

[dollpocalypse]

Oh, so she just went around biting people as a matter of course? That was really messed up!

"Uh," he said, searching for good descriptive words. "Dark hair, um... weird-looking nose... probably kinda annoying?"

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Good news, Topher!" Nathan greeted, giving the other bloke a grin. "I did not succumb to my base instincts and eat Ramona the blue chick!"

Not that he'd been planning on it but hey, why not share?

[dollpocalypse]

"Hey, good for you!" Topher said, sticking up a hand for Nathan to high-five. "It's all about taking it one day at a time," he joked.

Or some other cheesy motto.

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

Nathan leaned forward and smacked Topher's hand, unable to resist the cheesy gesture. He leaned back and flicked some ashes off his cigarette.

"It helps that her roommate's got her for a few days because he's a chickenshit who thinks I'm gonna kill her but at least I'm not doing perverted things with her."

Slandering Simon's name? Yep.

[dollpocalypse]

Aaaand he had to say the p-word. The other p-word. Not the... thing.

"Good to know," he decided. "Did you... tell her roommate about the whole eating-her plan? 'Cause that might've caused the confusion."