Twisted stars beneath my feet, I cruise the crowd

[designed2kill]

[[Feel free to treat Luka's post as a party thread, even if you were not invited by her.  Additionally, feel free to threadhop with each other or all pile into one thread.  I'm cool with anything.]]

It's 5:45 pm on Saturday, and Luka has just arrived at the Athena restaurant in Greektown. She's invited J and some of her other friends out to

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[thehighestwing]

Phoebe never means to be late. She is just very easily distracted, and finding the perfect outfit for an outing with good friends is always a Very Big Deal.

She goes for the bohemian look, which is her favorite. An assortment of wide bangles jingle on her wrist, a flower printed dress billows behind her, and her favorite accessory--the bandana--is wrapped securely around her hair.

"Hi, Luka!" Phoebe flashes her one of her brightest smiles once she's spotted her. "What's kicking?"

[designed2kill]

Luka smiles back at Phoebe when she comes in. "Hi Phoebe!" She waves Phoebe over to her table.

She is however, slightly baffled by Phoebe's question. "I haven't kicked anyone today," she says, slightly unsure. "Or is that not what you meant?" Luka is well aware of Phoebe's odd turns of speech.

[thehighestwing]

She grins guiltily as she joins Luka at the table.

Just like Luka remembers Phoebe has her own way of speaking, Phoebe remembers not everyone is used to it just yet. "Sorry! I meant, what's new with you? We haven't talked in a while!"

This might be because Phoebe became a hermit after Jo died, not that she'll admit it.

[designed2kill]

"..." Luka's not quite sure how one gets from "What's new with you?" to "What's kicking?", but she'll just go with it for the moment.

"I've been helping out a lot in the office lately," Luka says as she regains her footing. "I'm getting a lot better with paperwork. I don't like it as much as doing jobs, but it's better than not being useful at all when no one gives us work." And that's about as much detail as she'll go into about recent developments at work. While J knows what she does, neither Babel nor Phoebe have any idea about the true nature of her job and she intends to keep it that way.

"What have you been doing recently?" Luka figures it's only fair to ask the same question in return.

[thehighestwing]

It is less exhausting if one just rolls with it, Luka. Phoebe wrinkles her nose at the mention of paperwork. "I can totally see why that would not be a whole lot of fun. I don't think I could concentrate long enough to do any paperwork. Then again, it brings in cash, right?"

Reminds her she should be looking for a job, too. She can't always rely on the fact the hotel's got free room and board.

"I've been hanging out at the Conrad, pretty much! Nothing exciting. There are always new wanderers coming in that need to be given the welcome wagon speech and be shown the way to the hotel. I don't mind doing it."

[designed2kill]

"Well, they pay me by putting money in my bank account directly," Luka says, always a stickler for accuracy. She understands what Phoebe meant this time, though. "But yes, I do get paid more for doing the extra work."

"I should come to the Conrad more often," Luka says. "I went there once with an angel named Elizabeth and I have a key now." Well, actually the key was from an earlier trip to the Conrad that Luka's not going to discuss. J might have a hard time keeping a straight face here.

At any rate, nothing bad happened on that trip with Elizabeth, so Luka feels fairly comfortable using that key now to get in by herself. She makes a mental note to herself to start carrying her key in her wallet from now on.

"And, is there an actual wagon? Or is that another saying?" Luka had to ask. The concept of a welcome wagon seems a little bit silly, but you never know.

[thehighestwing]

Phoebe brightens at Luka's suggestion for two reasons.

She'd love for Luka to come to the Conrad more often, and she knows the angel in question. "Omigosh, you met Elizabeth! That is awesome. She's totally one of my best friends."

She likes the Conrad for that reason. Nearly everyone she knows is there for one reason or another, so she gets to see them all the time. "You should definitely visit more often. Or maybe I could come visit you, too!"

Phoebe figures it's only fair.

"Another saying," Phoebe admits, more sheepishly now. She's going to try to stick to basics from now on. "Either way, there are a lot of wanderers pouring in so, it's nice to get to help them."

[designed2kill]

"Really?" Luka says. "I like her a lot." Then again, Luka likes everyone a lot. Everyone here is so much nicer than at the Laboratory, she thinks.

"I don't actually know if I'm allowed to have visitors at my apartment," Luka muses. "It belongs to the company I work for and there might be some things on the premises that they don't want other people to see. It's also a ways out into the suburbs, so I'll just come visit you at the Conrad instead."

Luka doesn't mind if Phoebe uses different sayings that she doesn't understand! She wants to learn these things, so as long as Phoebe doesn't mind explaining what she meant every so often, it's all good. "Do a lot of Wanderers come to the Conrad? I haven't met any new wanderers--all the wanderers I know have been here for a while."

[thehighestwing]

"She's awesome! I'm really glad you guys met, now we can all do something together! Like go to the movies."

In Phoebe's dream world, they're all a big family and no one is ever lost to them. Phoebe's dream world doesn't match up to the reality of Chicago.

"Oooh, gotcha. Well, that's okay. You're more than welcome at the Conrad whenever you wanna come by."

Phoebe will never mind explaining anything to Luka. "They do, every so often. Sometimes I'll find them in Grant Park minutes after they've fallen. They've all got that confused, kind of scared look about them. So we take them to the hotel cause who wouldn't want free room and board?"

[designed2kill]

"I would like that," Luka says. She still doesn't really get movies, but she would be willing to go to spend time with her friends. "It has to be sometime when I don't have work though, like in the evening or the weekend."

"I've spent a lot of time in Grant Park, but I've never found any new Wanderers. Maybe I'm not good at recognizing what they look like. I'll try to pay closer attention the next time I'm there. Now that I know where to take them I'll be sure to try to help out as much as I can." As usual, Luka's response to a perceived fault of hers is to try harder. Her heart's in the right place though.