En Route to the Causeway, Thursday Afternoon
Éponine had hung back and waited outside the Portalocity office for a few minutes after watching the conversation that had taken place, and after Kennedy left the building. She didn't like how that encounter had looked from her vantage point across the street; she couldn't hear from there, of course, but Kennedy's body language was unmistakable.
Needless to say, Éponine was not thrilled, and sorting through how she felt about the past weekend (what she remembered of it, anyway) had left her feeling as though her head were foggy and a bit numb; dealing with jealousy in a rational way was not something she had the wherewithal to do right now.
Dealing with it in some way that had involved eavesdropping on someone else's portal arrangements first, though . . .
She had some lost ground to make up for as a result of hanging back, but she was good at following people, and anyway it still wasn't hard to trail the girl through town. She walked as if she owned the streets and was talking fairly loudly on her phone, too absorbed in her conversation to notice if she was being followed at a distance just within earshot by a tall, lanky girl who kept slipping behind rickshaws and passersby whenever she could.
"I'm running late, I know, I stopped in Fandom to see if I could clear up the portal issues from the office here and --" She saw the girl pull the phone away from her ear and cover it with her free hand for as long as it took to sigh in frustration. "Look, I'm on my way home right now, okay? I swear. I've got a portal back in an hour, then I'm all yours for the rest of the night."
The girl paused and laughed, then continued in a softer and definitely more seductive tone, "Yeah. Just you and me. It's a date, babe."
Still trailing her at a slight distance, Éponine narrowed her eyes. "Ah, and we already have someone waiting at home, do we, now? That isn't very nice of you, dearie," she muttered to herself.
Kennedy
Once she was sure that her girlfriend was in a better mood, Kennedy hung up and tucked her phone back into her pocket. Okay, so that was that. Hopefully the whole portal situation would be closer to snag-free (she wasn't dumb enough to assume it would ever be perfect) from now on, and it hadn't even been that hard. A little flirting, a little smooth talk, piece of cake. Willow couldn't get too upset with her for that, right?
"Oh, yeah," she drawled, grinning in self-satisfaction, "I've still got it."
She'd be fine with basking in her sense of accomplishment for the next hour. Well, and emailing back and forth with the other Slayer squad leaders just to be bossy.
Éponine
Éponine watched as Kennedy slowed to a stop, waited several breaths, then ran down the causeway toward her as if she'd been trying to catch up all along.
"Mademoiselle," she called. "Pardon, mademoiselle, but I've a message for you."
Kennedy
Wow, wasn't that way old-fashioned? How cute.
"Oh, yeah?" Kennedy asked, turning to see who'd been yelling for her and... huh. With that voice she'd expected some middle-aged guy, not a girl younger than her by a couple of years, maybe, and kind of cute if you squinted except that she looked like she'd really let herself go. Kennedy's Slayer senses picked up on a whiff of alcohol from her, too. Not that much, but it could explain the girl's bloodshot eyes and Marlon Brando-type voice.
An instinctive look of disdain flashed across her face, without her realizing it.
Éponine
Éponine was familiar with that look, and recognizing it now didn't make her any more favorably inclined toward this girl. She looked her over, sizing her up: if her attitude hadn't already made it abundantly clear that she was rich and used to getting her way, her clothes certainly did.
Of course. It wasn't the same vicious stab in the gut that it had been the first time she'd laid eyes on Cosette after nine years to see the other girl healthy and well-off -- nothing would ever feel as bad, seem like as much of a personal condemnation as that did -- but some things never changed.
"I've just come from the Portalocity office," she said, putting on a falsely sweet smile and hating herself a little bit for how easy that still was. "Seems your portal's been delayed until tomorrow."
Kennedy
"Right," Kennedy said, dragging the word out. "Why didn't the hot chick who works there just call me about it, then? Not like they don't have my number on record."
And she couldn't help herself, and just had to add, "Besides, she's totally into me."
One of these days she might learn that her mouth got her in trouble. Unlikely, though.
Éponine
Éponine bit back an angry retort about how just because girls like Kennedy could always get what -- or who -- they wanted it didn't mean they had the right to do it all the time.
"Oh, d'you know how the phones go funny sometimes and send calls every which way? They've been having problems again today, and I happened to be passing by," she lied smoothly. "Anyhow, there's another portal for the taking, and that one's due in just a few minutes if you'd rather not wait so long, so oh, how I ran to find you in time!"
Kennedy
"...huh," Kennedy said after a moment. She was still eyeing Éponine dubiously; not an intentional thing, and she'd have been apologetic if anyone pointed it out to her, but sometimes her upbringing showed. This all seemed a little bit weird, but then again, she'd gotten caught up in enough of Fandom's wacky phone days herself. "How's that for personal customer service?"
Éponine
Éponine inclined her head slightly. "I'm happy to help," she said, again with that false sweetness; she could almost swear it actually left a sickly-sweet taste in her mouth. "You'd best hurry, though, or you'll miss the portal."
She had no idea where Quor'toth was; she'd just happened to overhear that this particular portal had a nice long layover there.
Kennedy
"Yeah," Kennedy said, shoving her hands into her pants pockets. "Yeah, cool. Uh, thanks?"
She dug around in her pocket and found a 20-real note-- whoops, side effect of living in Brazil this long, but at least Fandom was cool about currency exchange.
"Not sure if this is a tipping situation, but hey." She held the money out to Éponine.
Éponine
Éponine couldn't help thinking of the last time she'd carried a message under false pretenses, and she slipped her hand into her own pocket to touch the five-franc piece Cosette had given her that night, that she'd stubbornly kept ever since. What she'd done that night had been selfish and desperate and foolish, too; she could admit that now.
This was different, though, it was, she told herself. Through the warped lens of her jumbled sense of morality it made perfect sense: Kennedy didn't have any right to behave the way she had, just to get what she wanted from someone Éponine thought ought to be treated better than that. That was what decent people did, wasn't it? Look after the people they cared about? So there, it wouldn't do anyone any harm if Kennedy got her comeuppance for how she'd acted.
"Thank you kindly, mademoiselle," she answered with a nod as she pocketed the money; her gratitude wasn't sincere, and she hated it as much as she'd always hated having to accept the coins she used to beg for. She would take a particular pleasure in spending this, though, and without waiting for Kennedy's response she turned and ran off.
[OOC: NFI, OOC okay. Preplayed with, uh, me. Because playsforkepesh is evil and enables me to make my characters fight, and then it sort of snowballed from there and then this happened and I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS THREAD TO GET KIND OF DEEP ON ME. HELP.]
Needless to say, Éponine was not thrilled, and sorting through how she felt about the past weekend (what she remembered of it, anyway) had left her feeling as though her head were foggy and a bit numb; dealing with jealousy in a rational way was not something she had the wherewithal to do right now.
Dealing with it in some way that had involved eavesdropping on someone else's portal arrangements first, though . . .
She had some lost ground to make up for as a result of hanging back, but she was good at following people, and anyway it still wasn't hard to trail the girl through town. She walked as if she owned the streets and was talking fairly loudly on her phone, too absorbed in her conversation to notice if she was being followed at a distance just within earshot by a tall, lanky girl who kept slipping behind rickshaws and passersby whenever she could.
"I'm running late, I know, I stopped in Fandom to see if I could clear up the portal issues from the office here and --" She saw the girl pull the phone away from her ear and cover it with her free hand for as long as it took to sigh in frustration. "Look, I'm on my way home right now, okay? I swear. I've got a portal back in an hour, then I'm all yours for the rest of the night."
The girl paused and laughed, then continued in a softer and definitely more seductive tone, "Yeah. Just you and me. It's a date, babe."
Still trailing her at a slight distance, Éponine narrowed her eyes. "Ah, and we already have someone waiting at home, do we, now? That isn't very nice of you, dearie," she muttered to herself.
Kennedy
Once she was sure that her girlfriend was in a better mood, Kennedy hung up and tucked her phone back into her pocket. Okay, so that was that. Hopefully the whole portal situation would be closer to snag-free (she wasn't dumb enough to assume it would ever be perfect) from now on, and it hadn't even been that hard. A little flirting, a little smooth talk, piece of cake. Willow couldn't get too upset with her for that, right?
"Oh, yeah," she drawled, grinning in self-satisfaction, "I've still got it."
She'd be fine with basking in her sense of accomplishment for the next hour. Well, and emailing back and forth with the other Slayer squad leaders just to be bossy.
Éponine
Éponine watched as Kennedy slowed to a stop, waited several breaths, then ran down the causeway toward her as if she'd been trying to catch up all along.
"Mademoiselle," she called. "Pardon, mademoiselle, but I've a message for you."
Kennedy
Wow, wasn't that way old-fashioned? How cute.
"Oh, yeah?" Kennedy asked, turning to see who'd been yelling for her and... huh. With that voice she'd expected some middle-aged guy, not a girl younger than her by a couple of years, maybe, and kind of cute if you squinted except that she looked like she'd really let herself go. Kennedy's Slayer senses picked up on a whiff of alcohol from her, too. Not that much, but it could explain the girl's bloodshot eyes and Marlon Brando-type voice.
An instinctive look of disdain flashed across her face, without her realizing it.
Éponine
Éponine was familiar with that look, and recognizing it now didn't make her any more favorably inclined toward this girl. She looked her over, sizing her up: if her attitude hadn't already made it abundantly clear that she was rich and used to getting her way, her clothes certainly did.
Of course. It wasn't the same vicious stab in the gut that it had been the first time she'd laid eyes on Cosette after nine years to see the other girl healthy and well-off -- nothing would ever feel as bad, seem like as much of a personal condemnation as that did -- but some things never changed.
"I've just come from the Portalocity office," she said, putting on a falsely sweet smile and hating herself a little bit for how easy that still was. "Seems your portal's been delayed until tomorrow."
Kennedy
"Right," Kennedy said, dragging the word out. "Why didn't the hot chick who works there just call me about it, then? Not like they don't have my number on record."
And she couldn't help herself, and just had to add, "Besides, she's totally into me."
One of these days she might learn that her mouth got her in trouble. Unlikely, though.
Éponine
Éponine bit back an angry retort about how just because girls like Kennedy could always get what -- or who -- they wanted it didn't mean they had the right to do it all the time.
"Oh, d'you know how the phones go funny sometimes and send calls every which way? They've been having problems again today, and I happened to be passing by," she lied smoothly. "Anyhow, there's another portal for the taking, and that one's due in just a few minutes if you'd rather not wait so long, so oh, how I ran to find you in time!"
Kennedy
"...huh," Kennedy said after a moment. She was still eyeing Éponine dubiously; not an intentional thing, and she'd have been apologetic if anyone pointed it out to her, but sometimes her upbringing showed. This all seemed a little bit weird, but then again, she'd gotten caught up in enough of Fandom's wacky phone days herself. "How's that for personal customer service?"
Éponine
Éponine inclined her head slightly. "I'm happy to help," she said, again with that false sweetness; she could almost swear it actually left a sickly-sweet taste in her mouth. "You'd best hurry, though, or you'll miss the portal."
She had no idea where Quor'toth was; she'd just happened to overhear that this particular portal had a nice long layover there.
Kennedy
"Yeah," Kennedy said, shoving her hands into her pants pockets. "Yeah, cool. Uh, thanks?"
She dug around in her pocket and found a 20-real note-- whoops, side effect of living in Brazil this long, but at least Fandom was cool about currency exchange.
"Not sure if this is a tipping situation, but hey." She held the money out to Éponine.
Éponine
Éponine couldn't help thinking of the last time she'd carried a message under false pretenses, and she slipped her hand into her own pocket to touch the five-franc piece Cosette had given her that night, that she'd stubbornly kept ever since. What she'd done that night had been selfish and desperate and foolish, too; she could admit that now.
This was different, though, it was, she told herself. Through the warped lens of her jumbled sense of morality it made perfect sense: Kennedy didn't have any right to behave the way she had, just to get what she wanted from someone Éponine thought ought to be treated better than that. That was what decent people did, wasn't it? Look after the people they cared about? So there, it wouldn't do anyone any harm if Kennedy got her comeuppance for how she'd acted.
"Thank you kindly, mademoiselle," she answered with a nod as she pocketed the money; her gratitude wasn't sincere, and she hated it as much as she'd always hated having to accept the coins she used to beg for. She would take a particular pleasure in spending this, though, and without waiting for Kennedy's response she turned and ran off.
[OOC: NFI, OOC okay. Preplayed with, uh, me. Because playsforkepesh is evil and enables me to make my characters fight, and then it sort of snowballed from there and then this happened and I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS THREAD TO GET KIND OF DEEP ON ME. HELP.]