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Second floor common room- Wednesday evening

After last week's trip home (or at least to some version of it), Sabine was feeling way better about things, and had also spent most of her free time since in her warehouse. By today, she felt like she should at least get out a bit, even if it was just to the common room.

She'd long ago figured out that if you ordered food, they'd send too much. So today when she placed her order for Chinese food, she got way too much on purpose, just to see what would happen. It wasn't like she knew what everything was yet anyway.

The delivery guy showed up with half the order, and they forgot the egg rolls.

Anyway, have some food, there's still plenty.

[Open CR!]

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"Mystery Chinese food is sometimes the best Chinese food," Astrid said with a knowing nod, moving in to investigate another one. "But also, sometimes, it's the worst."

She'd never had the latter experience here, though, not yet, so now it was probably bound to happen.

"That almost sounds like something you'd find in a fortune cookie."

"Okay, those I don't understand at all," Sabine admitted. "I don't want nonsense paper in my cookie."

"They're not even really Chinese," Astrid said with a laugh, after looking a little unsure about whatever it was in the box she'd checked, so she went to inspect another one. "They're actually based on a Japanese tradition and they're from California. Exactly where is pretty hotly contested, though. I've been to at least five different restaurants claiming to be the home of the original, which is weird, if they're trying to pass it off as some big Chinese thing."

"That does sound very American, but I'd still rather just have an actual cookie," Sabine said thoughtfully, frowning at a box. "I can tell this is chicken, that's progress."

"That is!" Astrid agreed. "Although I think that statement just convinced me to stick with whatever just has veggies." Which she seemed to have found in the latest box, mostly snowpeas and carrots and brocolli, but that worked for her, so she went to find a bowl to portion some out over some rice.

"But you're telling me," she said, "that you don't put a whole lot of stock in some random slip of paper found in a cookie? You know, the real fortune is when you manage to get one that's not stale."

Astrid was not nearly witty enough by half to come up with that one herself; it was stoled straight from her mother, said nearly any time they'd gotten Chinese food while her spirits were good.

"...Are they not supposed to taste like that?"

Sabine frowned, and went to the bag of cookies, picking out one to break open. "'To affirm is to make firm,'" she read.

And shrugged.

"'To affirm is to make firm,'" Astrid repeated, thoughtfully, deeply, ruminating over it carefully before concluding, "Okay, that is bad. But now I have to try one."

So she did, cracking one open, having a look. "'A dream you have will come true,'" she read.

Which was just a little awkward, since, if anyone knew how prone Astrid was to nightmares, it would be Sabine.

"Well, that's conveniently vague," she stated.

"Much like dreams," Sabine quipped. "And now we have broken cookies, and lucky numbers, for some reason?"

She opened one more container, and figured if she didn't know what it was anyway, she could always settle and try it.

"And a random Chinese word we'll never use." Astrid was going to go ahead and eat her broken cookie anyway, though, because she actually kind of liked them, they were definitely the stuff of good memories and childhood for her, and she briefly wondered if she could somehow smuggle Chinese food into prison, since she hardly doubted they served it in the cafeteria.

"You know," she said, as she took her bowl, dashed in a little soy sauce, and went to have a seat on the couch, "all this talk of fortunes is reminding me that I have my mom's tarot cards. Maybe I should dust them off, see if anyone wants their fortune read one of these days."

"I don't know what tarot cards are," Sabine admitted, grabbing a plastic fork and taking a seat.

"I'll have to show you," Astrid said with a faint smile. "If anything, it's a great set, really gorgeous art. They're cards used for fortune telling; I'm not very good at it, not like she was, but the idea is that you draw a series of cards from the deck, and it's supposed to tell you about the person's past, present, and future, based on what type of cards were drawn and in what order."

And since Sabine didn't really seem the type of person that would believe in something like that, Astrid added, "She always said it was much more about reading the person than reading the cards, though. No more divine than any of those little slips of paper. But it was always fascinating, watching her do it, seeing what she'd come up, and how people would respond."

Edited 2019-01-24 03:01 (UTC)

"You had me at 'art.'" Which Astrid probably knew. "It does sound interesting to watch, at least..."

To watch, Astrid noted, figuring that would mean reading Sabine would be a hard sell, which only made her realize just how interesting Sabine would be to read.

She thought a little around some book choy.

"Maybe," she mused, "we could put something together one of these days, down in the lobby or something. I'll put on my mom's white kimono and set up shop, like she used to do in Mexico, see if there's any takers."

Edited 2019-01-24 03:25 (UTC)

This was quite possibly the most Astrid had ever talked about things like her mom, and Sabine was pretty sure if she pointed it out, she'd stop.

"We did talk about having monthly parties. Which we did... once," she noted. "I'm sure people would be up for it."

Sabine would not be wrong about that. Talking about Ingrid now, even in a vague, distant sense made the longing a little worse, but also more tolerable.

"Well, I wouldn't want to make a party out of it," she said, laughing off the idea that just made her want to retract into her shell again, "but if we wanted to do a January party, it could be a good time to do it, I guess."

"Parties here do tend to end up being the same people who we see in common rooms," Sabine pointed out.

"That is true," Astrid agreed, which meant it made it both easier and more difficult trying to read some of them. "We are quickly running out of January, though. We'd have to plan quickly if we want to meet the margin."

"It's not like I have much going on." She still wasn't entirely counting on there being any kind of mission yet, so she wasn't worrying about that interfering. "Whenever you want to do it, I'm there."

"I guess there's this weekend?" Astrid shrugged a little. "Last minute, maybe, but word always spreads around here. Either that, or Monday." She made a disgruntled face. "Just to celebrate the fact that another Monday is over."

Sabine thought about it. "I say Monday. ~~Since I radio it anyway.~~ Give people something to look forward to."

She had nothing against Mondays. But other people did!

Other people with every Monday class, for example.

Thanks a lot, 'case worker.'

Astrid breathed a sigh of relief already for a moment when all those classes would finish and had to marvel a little at the idea of being excited about a party.

"Monday, then," she agreed with a nod. "Take over the sixth floor again, maybe?"

"It might as well have some purpose," Sabine agreed.

"And just like that," Astrid grinned, "the party-a-month plan is off on the right foot for the new year. Only eleven more to go."

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Second floor common room- Wednesday evening

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