never gonna give you up

[rhymingdevil]

Let me put this out there before I say anything else. I don't usually get worked up over technology. It's there, I use it, let's move on. I don't have weird gadgets like some of the people here have and that's mostly because when you're dead, you don't tend to carry around a lot of worldly possessions. You can manipulate the environment around

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[sluttylyingliar]

"Dear God what is that?" Rachel proclaims as she saunters in, clad in a bikini top and shorts, in search of at least a vaguely current fashion magazine. A girl can't sunbathe without a magazine, and it would be helpful if it was at least post-shoulder pad era.

[rhymingdevil]

"I think it's supposed to be music, but I'm pretty sure that's just a lie the record company told us," I said, giving the jukebox a dirty look. I'd begged, I'd pleaded...now I needed to just ask for outside help.

"Do you know any way to make it change the song?"

[sluttylyingliar]

Rachel thinks that over for a second before trying for her usual remedies to any situation.

"Hey!" she shouts, stomping over and giving the jukebox a kick. "Play something else you piece of shit."

The song screeches to a stop before revving right back up with a hearty, "I'm bitch! I'm a lover! I'm a child I'm a mother!"

Rachel rolls her eyes. It's appropriate.

[rhymingdevil]

I glanced from box to girl, duly impressed. It wasn't a song I knew, but anything was better than Rick Astley on a loop for the rest of my life.

"I think I owe you a drink or something for that. I'm Peter, by the way," I said, offering a hand.

[sluttylyingliar]

"Ha, I thought you looked familiar," Rachel says, taking his hand. "I'm Rachel. The stripper. You're the baseball guy."

Somehow it seems less feminist to introduce herself as Raylan's girlfriend, than putting two and two together for him.

[rhymingdevil]

I grinned a little. It was hard to forget Raylan had a smoking hot girlfriend and I needed to remember that while I was (mostly) single, she definitely was not.

"Peter the Pitcher and Rachel the Stripper. It sounds like a kids' book gone wrong."

[sluttylyingliar]

"Or gone really, really right," she says, snorting as the jukebox continues to wail. "You want to get out here, Peter the baseball guy? We both know Raylan and I'm heading to the beach and..." she trails off, trotting over to grab a magazine. 1998. Not bad.

"That makes us practically friends."

[rhymingdevil]

"I think it probably does," I agreed, figuring anything was better than the jukebox and its apparent vendetta. I had ignored the thing up until now but now, oh, now we were enemies.

"I grew up in California. I'm an expert beach bum. It's practically a way of life out there."

[sluttylyingliar]

"So," she says, nodding towards the hall outside. "Are you going to start a baseball team? I'd like you to for two reasons. The first being Raylan looks hot playing and the second being he needs more to do other than be broody and babysit his convict."

[rhymingdevil]

I laughed a little and nodded. It'd be good to get out and do something and now that my arm was healed, I wanted to play again. Will had said I needed purpose to get better, or something, and baseball was as good as any.

"I pitch, Raylan can play...whatever, I guess. Not sure what he plays. My therapist plays too."

[sluttylyingliar]

"Something that involves him bending over a lot," Rachel votes, pushing her way out into the bright sunlight. "Is your therapist cute? Because I'm liking this baseball thing more and more."

[rhymingdevil]

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, at that point, because I had somehow gone from a nice, friendly chat with my friend's girlfriend to trying to decide whether or not I thought my male, presumably straight therapist was "cute."

"Uh. I guess. He has a girlfriend?"

[sluttylyingliar]

"Probably cute. Almost everyone around here is cute. It's like being trapped in some sort of alternate world hot people world," she comments, taking the most direct path down to the beach. "What about you? Boyfriend? Girlfriend?"

[rhymingdevil]

"It's...complicated."

That was probably the easiest way to say it and I wasn't about to go into details when I didn't really know where to start. Shari and I had come to a truce, or something, and I didn't know if referring to her as the wrong thing would constitute a display of aggression and end the cold war.

"Trust me, you don't want me to go into it."

[sluttylyingliar]

"Hey, I get it. Complicated I totally get. I am currently doing complicated," Rachel snorts, pretty sure Peter doesn't want to hear about she and Raylan's bullshit anymore than he wants to talk about his own.

"We can both go be complicated on the beach. I bet this shitty magazine has a quiz that'll help."

[rhymingdevil]

"I'm sure it'll tell me how to find my ideal man," I quipped, amused and happy enough to go along with her. She was easygoing, which was pretty much my only requirement in a person. I'm not too hung up on social climbing.

"I think he has it bad for you, though. Raylan."