MCA Apartment Zero (not Pi), Sunday Evening

[needsaparrot]

Waiting around to hear from certain people who dropped major bombshells on him then ran off to spend the weekend someplace that might possibly have corpses? Why no. Alternating that with worry about other people, just for a change of pace? Of course not.

After all, Xander'd had a busy week. He'd rented two apartments (three if you counted the one

Comments

[mparkerceo]

Parker had gotten back to the dorm and collapsed for about seven hours, before going out in search of food. She'd left messages for Weiss and Jarod that she was back, then went off to talk to someone who was neither.

"Knock, knock," she called at the door, suiting the action to the word. "I have Ching Tai."

[needsaparrot]

"See, and people think 'Open Sesame' are the magic words. They're so, so wrong." Xander opened the door. "Hey, Parker."

[mparkerceo]

"Hey. We're alive." Parker grinned and handed over a bag of wontons and egg rolls. "And I have sesame beef. Close enough. Bridge stop by yet?"

[needsaparrot]

Xander nodded, closing the door behind her. "Trust me, if he hadn't let me know you guys were all right, I'd be talking to you from the ceiling by now."

[mparkerceo]

Parker laughed, and strolled in, setting down the other bag of food and a bottle of wine. "So, he give you most of the gory details?" Her voice might have sounded a little more strained and less matter-of-fact as she searched for chopsticks. "And do you mind me just showing up? I probably should have called...."

[needsaparrot]

"The, ah. Bare bones." Xander grimaced. "No, sit down. I'd been thinking I should talk to you about some things, anyway. For a while now."

[mparkerceo]

"Yeah?" Parker took out some chopsticks, and clacked them at him, looking curious. "Like what?" She curled up on one of the kitchen chairs, and went hunting for the shrimp again through the bags. "And do you want to hear horrible tales of space non-vampires first, or tell me your stuff? You may or may not want to eat. I'm so hungry that I don't care. You might, though."

[needsaparrot]

"I...haven't really eaten much today," Xander admitted, finding himself a plastic container and some chopsticks. "Little distracted."

[mparkerceo]

"Yeahhh. We had a really good meal, on some planet called Beaumonde. And then it kind of got overturned by the bar fight. And the cannibals." Parker sighed, and opened up one of the boxes, diving into the shrimp and rice. After a minute or two of eating, she said, "And we found out that River might be crazy, but she wasn't wrong. Or a murderer. Always a bonus."

[needsaparrot]

Xander stared at the food for a second. "The cannibals. Right."

[mparkerceo]

Parker stared at the food too, took two more bites of the eggroll, then gave up. "Right. And now it'll be another hour before I can eat anything more, at least." She put the food down and poured herself a glass of wine. "Did Bridge tell you how they got made? The drugs in the air, and the goddamn stupid government who was trying to do things to people for 'their own good'?"

[needsaparrot]

"Yeah, he hit the main sad creepy points. Wanna join me in pretending it could never happen here?"

[mparkerceo]

"I wish. I so wish." Parker took another slug of wine. "River reminds me of Angelo. And those creeps...." She shook her head, thinking of the Centre. "I hope it works out. I hope it gets stopped. We had to come home before we found out how the story ended. I hate that."

[needsaparrot]

"Angelo... yeah, I can see that." Xander reached for the bottle of wine and poured himself a glass, because that, at least, didn't seem to be ruined by the concept of space cannibals. "Seems like they've both been through a lot." Among other people, he didn't say, but didn't not say.

[mparkerceo]

"A lot, a lot." Parker's eyes narrowed and she shook her head. "Nothing ever changes. It's depressing, five hundred years in the future-- some future, maybe not yours, maybe not mine, and it's still happening." She blinked, and then covered with, "People still get hurt for no good reason."

[needsaparrot]

"And people still try to stop it," Xander pointed out. Back at home, in her own way, it had seemed like... Maybe now was as good a time as any to bring that up. "You remember when I said I saw somebody who looked like V, back home?"