For lastvoyages: Twenty-Fifth Vision [video+spam]

[can_has_vodka]

[Arkady is patching one of her filmy skirts for the umpteenth time, using squares of purple velvet and blue gauze. A fat red hen sleeps on the ratty blue couch next to her.]

Oh hullo! This is Arkady. Is anyone out there today?

[private to Scrad and Charlie]
Are you doing all right? I'm sorry about scattering my marbles all over that conversation.

[pub spam]
[Arkady hums as she putters around filling drink orders. In between, she is working on some new drink formulas. One of them is bubbling furiously and another is a deep ruby. She sniffs them experimentally and then tries the red.]

Not enough lemon.

Comments

[nochikkins]

[Of course there's someone out there. Kait is pretty much always out there. What's not supposed to be happening is anyone talking in here, because she was fucking shielded and... Oh. Typical.]

'Kady. This had better be important because I'll look like a moron patrolling in a tinfoil hat.

[can_has_vodka]

Kaaaaaiiiiiit! [She flails hard enough that the chicken tries to take off and proves as aerodynamic as a steam iron. Thump.] Oops, hang on. [She bends down and picks up the confused bird.]

Right, how is talking for the first time in six bloody months not important?

[nochikkins]

[Kait ducks into a doorway to concentrate on the conversation, and while her face isn't smiling, there's a perceptible smile in her mental voice.]
Sorry. It's not been six months for me. This is when you were on the Barge again, right?

[can_has_vodka]

Oooo! It's more of that timey-wimey thing then. I understand. If that's true then you should be due to having me by with another supply delivery within a few weeks.

Still on the Barge. Still with Scrad and Charlie the two-for-one Inmate. They're actually quite adorable. Any news from home? Those helicopters shouldn't be a problem anymore. The barrier will stay up until Britain's rebuilt.

[nochikkins]

[Kait laughs; a richer, less bitter laugh than the old Whitechapel days, though still dryly contained. Then she relaxes the shield to show Arkady her surroundings, the new city she's learning to defend as avidly as the old.]

We're a bit beyond helicopters here now. I s'pose you already know where we ended up - well, I know you do now, I mean then.

There's still crime though. Future crime.
[She sounds ecstatic about that, and she is; the human race has come a long way, but the spiralling predator-prey race of police and thieves is apparently eternal. Kait had worried privately that this might turn out not be the case; but if humans were meant to have evolved past it by now, then at least she's not the only straggler.]

[can_has_vodka]

There always is.

My last Wish was to keep off would be conquerors until Britain rebuilds. We can fix the land, but it's no good if we end up a bloody colony.

Yes...future crime, and crime in other worlds. Though I'll always be focused on our own mostly.

[championoftime]

There's always someone out there. You just have to look hard enough.

[can_has_vodka]

Oh hullo Doctor! [She bounces happily.] How are you? How is Herself? Everyone turned fuzzy for a while here and I had to hunt for all my marbles again. But generally things are all right.

[championoftime]

So I heard from Jesse! What made off with your marbles?

[can_has_vodka]

Wonderland. It stole everyone's marbles for a few days. Rather troublesome actually, but I'm used to troublesome.

Not the same without you around, though.

[championoftime]

I heard that, too. But just in general.

[can_has_vodka]

Well, I was the way I was before that knock on the head un-addled my brain. All caught up in past and future and people's thoughts and things I thought were terribly important except I can barely remember them now.

[twoheadsofcabbage]

Does this mean your brains are back?

[Charlie asks.]

[can_has_vodka]

Oh yes, I'm fine. [No embarrassment whatsoever.] I remember I was trying to warn you about something and I had a brilliant idea, but things are a bit fuzzy.

[twoheadsofcabbage]

Brunettes.

We might...wanna talk about some stuff.

[Says Scrad.]

[can_has_vodka]

All right, loves, then, let's meet. Do you want to come to my rooms or meet somewhere else?

spam

[twoheadsofcabbage]

Your place is fine.

[Scrad answers.

And the boys come a-knockin' shortly.]

spam

[can_has_vodka]

[Arkady is puttering around when they get there, cleaning up a bit. Three Mike's Hard on the table, as she suspects this conversation will take more than tea.]

Come in, come in. I'm just waiting for the chips to cool.

spam

[twoheadsofcabbage]

[They slip into a seat, a Mike's in each hand. They don't drink them, though.]

So. We said some stuff.

[Scrad begins.]

spam

[can_has_vodka]

Yes? To anyone in particular? [She plops down in the chair across from them and takes her drink. Predictably, there is a chicken on her lap within thirty seconds.]

spam

[twoheadsofcabbage]

[Charlie makes a face at the chicken. This is srs, chicken.]

Yeah, uh. So when we were all kids, that guy Arthur kind of tried to slay us.

[Scrad says.]

We told you about.

[Charlie reminds her.]

So we were kind of pissed about that.

[Scrad explains.]

The words hurt the most.

[Charlie sighs.]

But then he said he was sorry. And we were like, well, if he's sorry, then no biggie. So we let him off the hook.

[Scrad continues.]

But he didn't say he was sorry for anything exactly, so...

[Charlie points out.]

Do you think he was really sorry?

[Scrad asks.]

spam

[can_has_vodka]

[She sits back, thinking about this.]

The thing to remember about Arthur is that, for all his good points, he's rather a git. So even when he apologizes and really means it, he's going to sound a bit snooty and terse. But a man like that does not give an apology without a good reason. I think he wishes he hadn't done that.

There are times when an apology doesn't feel like enough, though. Do you really feel like it was enough?

spam

[twoheadsofcabbage]

If he really was sorry, then yeah.

[Scrad says.]

spam

[can_has_vodka]

Well, the way that you tell that he's really sorry is if he never does anything like that to you again. People who lie about being sorry eventually do the same thing again that upset you in the first place. People who mean it, never do that thing again. That's why sometimes it takes a while for someone to accept an apology fully.

Re: spam

[twoheadsofcabbage]

[Charlie narrows his eyes.]

So what if they just never get the opportunity to do it again? Then how would you know?

spam

[can_has_vodka]

Well, you know how sometimes a person doesn't do the exact same nasty thing again, but they still act like a bloody ass and hurt you in other ways? It's like that.

Re: spam

[twoheadsofcabbage]

We said sorry to Kay too.

[Scrad says.]

spam

[can_has_vodka]

Oooooooooo. [This is a big step and she knows it, but she also suspects the Agent didn't take things so well.]

I don't imagine that he knew how to take it, but I'm proud that you did it.

Re: spam

[twoheadsofcabbage]

He hung up.

[Charlie reports.]

spam

[can_has_vodka]

Oh my.

Don't take it personally, boys. It has to do with his daughter. It's going to take him a lot of digesting that before he could think to accept such an apology.

Re: spam

[twoheadsofcabbage]

So what do we do until then?

[Scrad asks.]

spam

[can_has_vodka]

[She pops off the top of her drink.] Oh, that's fairly straightforward. Just give him his space, and do your best to not do things that would piss him off. But mostly just...go on with your life, do your usual things, and trust that he'll be able to forgive you eventually.

Re: spam

[twoheadsofcabbage]

So do nothing?

[Scrad interprets.]

We can do that.

[Says Charlie.]

spam

[can_has_vodka]

Do nothing mean, and don't bother him. The rest will sort itself out in time.

[She takes a swig of her drink.]

Sometimes apologizing to someone is absolutely the right thing to do whether or not they can accept it, especially straight off. It's about you guys and your character as much as it is about mending fences.

[dividedloyalties]

What are you doing on this channel, human?

[can_has_vodka]

FreakAngel, technically, which makes me only mostly human. I believe we're having accidental cross-transmissions. Hello!