it's not your house, where'd you go wrong?

[coppelganger]

WHO: Sarah, Sarissa, Kavinsky, Ruby, Chloe, Cosima (later)
WHERE: Various places
WHEN: August 10-20
WHAT: Just hangin' out, pretending feelings don't exist
WARNINGS: Drug use, drinking, language, will add as necessary



For Sarissa

[ Thing Sarissa never should have done: given Sarah her new address. Alas, hindsight is 20/20.

Right now, Sarah is standing on Sarissa's doorstep, because if she doesn't see someone, she'll have to sit at home, alone, with her feelings, and feelings are dangerous. Feelings are awful. She might be a little bit drunk already. (She's definitely a little bit drunk already.) She's lugging a large, thin cardboard box behind her, and she has a few bottles of "housewarming" booze in her backpack, and… oh, god, there's another, smaller box poking out of the backpack, too. The bloody thing can't even zip shut.

She stops to catch her breath for a second, then pounds on the door with her fist, calling ] Hey, lemme in before I get mugged, for Christ sake. [ Sisterly love, right here. ]

—

For Chloe

[ She doesn't think she can bring herself to sit in this apartment one second longer. If she does, something bad'll happen. She's not sure what, but she knows herself well enough to know that she's not going to spontaneously pick up knitting, or crafting, or anything else productive. She pulls on a jacket over her tank top and walks through the darkened apartment until she reaches Chloe's room. It might be too late for this—Chloe might be sleeping. Whatever. Doesn't matter. She knocks and then opens the door without waiting for an answer. ]

Hey, kid. Let's go out. I'm buying.

—

For Kavinsky

[ Kavinsky she doesn't have to worry about lying to, or offending, or making him feel used. That relationship's not there yet, and frankly, she doesn't think it ever will be. So she texts him, her words brusque and leaving no room for argument. ]

meet me at krakatoa. it's in heropa. bring something fun. i have $

[ She heads there directly after sending the text, bypasses the line outside, and goes straight to the bar. Kavinsky will either show up, or he won't. If he doesn't, Sarah's sure she can find someone else willing to sell to her before the night's over. ]

—

For Ruby

[ She's got no reason not to, so she starts spending a lot of time in the other three porter cities. Usually, she goes to a bar or a club, gets drunk, gets in a fight, goes home, tries not to feel anything. But tonight, she realizes she's in Maurtia Falls, near the imPort housing area—Ruby lives in there, she's pretty sure. Ruby seems cool. They should hang out, be friends.

Sarah can vaguely remember the days she had friends (well, non-clone friends, or non-related-to-clone friends). She misses that. Being able to show up at someone's house and know she'll have a good time and not have to worry about scientific conspiracies or terminal illnesses or bloody Rachel Duncan. She wants distraction, easy banter, all that good shit—so before she can stop herself, she pulls her communicator out and dials. ]

Hey, I hope this isn't weird, but I'm in town. You wanna hang out?

Comments

[magnitudes]

( Holy Christ, everyone she's related to is so fucking dramatic. Sarissa's assembling a bookshelf while also working on a beer, a project destined for greatness, and as such ambles to the door with a hammer in hand. )

Keep your shirt on.

( And the door opens, eyebrows raising roughly to the ceiling. ) Christ on a pogostick. What happened?

[coppelganger]

I brought you some stuff.

[ She sure did. The first box is thin, but wide, and the second one is poking out of her backpack like a plank of wood. This is what happens when you're selling high-price drugs making a hell of a lot more money per week than you'd normally end up spending. You buy ridiculous crap that nobody needs, and you pass that crap off as housewarming gifts, or birthday gifts, or... whatever. ]

Can I come in?

[magnitudes]

Yeah, course. ( That's not even a question, and she moves to the side.

The place is decent, wooden floorboards stretching out, walks crisp and white and ceilings high. The blessing of working private security for a crook.

Vaguely, she gestures up the hall. ) Make yourself at home. There's uh, an extra couple rooms. In case your ever need to crash.

( And once Sarah's in, she shuts the door. ) Thanks.

[coppelganger]

[ Sarah whistles as she comes inside, dragging the bigger box in with her. ]

Yeah, I might take you up on that sometime. Nice place. [ She leans the box up against the nearest wall and slides the backpack off, then goes digging around inside it for the bottles of whiskey. ]

[magnitudes]

You need a hand with that?

( Nodding to the box and already moving to help regardless of the answer. Sarah seems to have it taken care of already. But also: peering. )

Feeling ambitious, I take it.

[coppelganger]

Yeah, sure, if that's what you wanna call it.

[ She pulls the three bottles out and places them on the floor next to her and then tugs the smaller box out of the bag as well. This! is! fine! Everyone is in a good mood and happy and Alison's back and Cosima's back and nothing is wrong! ]

You wanna open 'em? Or should we drink first? Drink and unpack, hey?

[magnitudes]

Holy shit.

( A quiet murmur, as she just... tries to take in how much stuff Sarah's turned up with. It's a lot of stuff. Sarissa didn't even have very much stuff before she moved out, and had to mostly invest in new furniture. She had a lava lamp but, ultimately, there are other necessities that people tend to rank over a lava lamp. (Monsters.) ) I'm gonna need to get that mini-bar set up.

( Whether or not it gets out of hand and eventually involves tiki-torches in the back yard is another matter. ) Drink and unpack. Want me to get fancy swirly straws, or are glasses good enough for you?

[notsheepish]

Oh, uh... [It only takes a second for her to recover from the surprise.] Yeah, sure. I'm not up to anything.

[Just catching up on some bad TV shows after work, like an adult.]

Did you have something in mind?

[coppelganger]

We could go out, get some drinks. Unless you'd rather stay in.

[ She doesn't really care either way, since she can drink to forget just as easily in someone's apartment. ]

[notsheepish]

Out sounds fun, but I might clean up a bit first if that's what we're doing. Wash the work off of me.

[She's not gonna say it aloud, but, well... she smells like cheese, okay?? She works in a cheese shop. It happens. Get over it. Just give her a minute to fix this.]

You're close by, right? Wanna just meet at my place?

[coppelganger]

Yeah, sure. Text me your address and I'll be there in a bit.

[ She's already walking in the direction of the government houses, and as she goes, she pops a pill into her mouth and swallows it dry. Blech. ]

[notsheepish]

Mmhmm. See you in a minute then.

[She sends the address and then starts on the attempt to make herself presentable.]

[coppelganger]

[ It takes her closer to ten minutes to walk over there, but then Sarah's knocking on the front door. ]

[pillz]

[kavinsky shows up. wifebeater and leather jacket and giant designer sunglasses perched in his forehead, the usual amount of skeeze. there's a bag over his shoulder that represents the business aspect of this transaction. he flirts with the bouncer, who looks perturbed a little; even if kavinsky is 21, as his id claims, the man is easily twenty years his senior.

the dream thief walks into three bar laughing, and sits down beside the woman.] Special occasion? [he asks.] Let me guess. The clap is gone. Mazel tov.

[coppelganger]

Newly single, [ is all she allows, her voice casual, almost upbeat. She keeps telling herself that this is fine. She's been alone before. She doesn't let herself miss people. That's not who she is. And she's sure as hell not going to cry to Kavinsky about her permanently dead boyfriend. Instead, she raises her glass in a half-hearted toast, then drains it. ]

[pillz]

[kavinsky orders himself a beer. pays for it in cash.] That's why you guys should stop fucking girls, [he says, too careless to intuit the truth today.] Men you can just fuck and that's it.

How long do you wanna be out? [he sets his jaw on his fist, a snakey smile in his eyes.] Half an hour or the night? Couple days?

[coppelganger]

[ Sarah just laughs, too amused by his assumption to bother arguing with it. Also, he's got a point about men. It's just that she can't seem to stop caring about people lately. Depressing. ]

All night, mate. [ She wouldn't have asked for him for anything less. ]

[pillz]

[maybe kavinsky will develop a pill that generates soulless apathy someday. instant best seller. until then, this will have to do.

he produces a pill out of his bag. it's beige as the mushrooms from whence the mainstay of its contents were extracted. there's some other stuff in it too, of course. nanites mean more risk, more fun.] Take with water, [he says.] Or the fluids of your choice.

[his laugh makes that last part idiotically dirty.]

[coppelganger]

[ she would be his #1 customer tbh ]

How much for it?

[ Sarah figures, if it does what she wants it to, that she'd better pay him upfront. ]

[helladoomed]

[Chloe's been giving Sarah some space since George left, just trying to help out. Cooking mostly, it's the only chore she was good at. But honestly, she'd liked George too (admittedly not as much) so she wasn't really feeling the social need anyway.]

[Still, when Sarah came to her she perked up immediately. She'd been about to get high, as evidenced by the joint on her desk, but she grabbed it and stuck it in a drawer as she stood up. Instead she pulled her coat off the back of her chair and stuck her beanie on her head.]

Where we goin'?

[coppelganger]

Let's check out a club downtown.

[ Loud music, flashing lights, a swarm of people, drinks. It's just what she needs right now. ]

[helladoomed]

[Chloe's already following after her. Okay, this was an...improvement? Maybe? Unless Sarah's plan was to get wasted and hook up with a stranger. Not that Chloe could throw stones at that particular glass house but...still.]

Sure. [She grins a bit.]

Dancing is better than sitting around here right?

[coppelganger]

Anything would be better than that.

[ Sarah grabs her keys and some cash, then heads for the front door. ]

[helladoomed]

Mm. [She hurried after her, but didn't say anything until they were out on the street.]

...How're you holding up?

[She'd managed to not ask for days give her a little credit.]

[coppelganger]

I'm great, Chloe.

[ She's not great. ]