somethingwithturquoise | Outside MHA #4; Late Thursday Night [11/18].

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Outside MHA #4; Late Thursday Night [11/18].

Well. So. That was...a whole thing.

Honestly, Summer was kind of disappointed. That didn't take nearly as long or as much effort as she thought it was going to, and while there was a certain cleverness to what ultimately brought down the New and So-Called "IMPROVED" Galactic Federation, it was all kind of an anticlimax, and then....that was it. Sure, once again, the planets under Federation control were being thrown into utter chaos, but that she was a little more willing to leave to her mom and her crew because she was honestly just a little bit over it and kind of just wanted to get back home again. She missed people. She missed Fandom. And, obviously, she was totally on call if anything started up again, which she was sure it was going to, but for now?

Home sweet home, baybeeeee!

She parked her spaceship in the junkyard, feeling glad her spot was still there but a little disappointed not to see any ships she didn't recognize, grabbed her bags, and headed back to MHA under the cover of darkness, Pancakes prancing along next to her. And it felt good to get back, with a little wistful grin at Caritas as she passed it by before slipping into MHA and heading on upstairs, down the hallway, to her apartment, slipping her key out of her pocket and ready to just get back in and revel in being home.

...only to have the key not fit into the lock.

"What the hell?" she murmured, frowning down at it as she tried again, and jiggled the handled. Pulled. To no avail.

"What the fuck?" she gave it another tug, another attempt to unlock it. "Did someone change the locks?"

Someone defintiely changed the locks.

"Great," she murmured. "Just fucking great. I swear to god, Jon, you asshole, if you rented my apartment out...I paid you six months rent in advance! In cold hard cash! So help me..."

She was already on her knees in front of the door, shaking her head as she dropped her bag and started digging around for some hairpins. "If I have to break into my own damn apartment, because someone fucking sublet it out, despite the rent being paid in full for six fucking months, I am going to choke a bitch. I will." Pancakes let out a protesting meow. "I'll fucking do it, just you wait.

"Wait," she then realized, blinking, pausing in her attempts to pick the lock and pulling out her phone. "Have I been gone for more than six months--no. Nope. Definitely not, okay, good, because I was going to be fucking pissed if I was gone for...I mean, I still am pissed," she resolutely returned to her work, "but not about that. At least I didn't just lose half a year, even if I guess I lost my apartment!"

Pancakes let out another meow, this one more impatient and upset, and Summer cooed at her with a small apologetic smile.

"Ohhhh, I know, baby," she said. "I wanna get home, too, but Mama's just got to break into her own damn apartment, apparently just reaaal fast and we'll be golden, okay?"

And as she got back to work, she shook her head. "I swear to god," she said again, "he better not have fucking rented out my apartment to someone else, or else this is about to get real fucking awkward!"

She was just glad that, with all her experience breaking into Rick's lab (and, hey, she even broke into Rosa's place that one time, too, and that was Rosa!), a lock like this should be easy-peasy.

And if not? Well, fuck, then, she could just portal in, dammit.

[[ OH HEY GUESS WHO DECIDED SHE WANTED TO COME BACK BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS BEEN TOO BUSY TO WRITE HER SOME CRAZY SPACE ADVENTURES and is insisting that, okay, other characters got to have their time to shine a little, we're OVER it. I was going to do this over the weekend, but, well, this happened and I couldn't refuse? Like, how could I not do this??? Anyway, oh, hey, yeah, the post is totally open ]]

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Billy had spent most of the day messing around at the shop... his shop (man that was still going to take some getting used to) and he had planned to spend most of the evening relaxing.

He had been getting ready to head out to the beach for an evening walk a couple smokes. But something made him pause outside. A voice. A rather annoyed voice, and one he didn't recognize. But granted, he had met only a handful of the other tenants so that didn't mean anything.

Opening the door, Billy stepped out into the hallway, only to be immediately met by the unusual sight of someone apparently trying to pick the lock of the apartment next-door.

"Can I help you?" he asked, giving the scene before him a well-deserved stare.

Oh, what? Like you'd never had to break into your own apartment before, Billy? Pfft.

Summer, at this point, was pretty honed in on the task, her concentration leaving her tongue poking out of her mouth a little as she just gave it oooone more jiggle, and... "Ha!" she declared triumphantly as she heard everything unlatch and tried the knob again, this time to have it turn and gave the door a little bit of a nudge forward.

Pancakes took the opportunity to rush immediately inside, meowing with irritation that it had taken as long as it did and ready to make sure all her favorite toys were still waiting for her.

Welp. Summer hoped, if her apartment had been rented out, they sure didn't mind random cats busting in in the middle of thing night!

Or random redheads, for that matter.

But with the success in front of her, she could only look over at the guy in the apartment next door with a triumphant grin. "Nah," she said, "thanks. I think I got it."

Also?

"You're new."

She didn't even think about that! There had to be at least a few new people since she left, right? She audibly gasped her excitement at her own narrative there. She loved newbies!

Billy leaned against the wall out in the hallway and folded his arms across his chest, a slightly amused smirk spreading across his face. He had dealt with a fair number of true crooks and criminals over the years and he himself was mighty handy at opportunistic entry (breaking and entering Billy, it's called breaking and entering) so he could appreciate the skills.

"Breaking into apartments is a crime you know" he said simply giving a nod towards Summer and the door. She didnt look like the criminal type but still... best to make sure what was going on and all. Not that Billy really cared about someone else's apartment. But he did want to make sure his place was secure... not that there was a lot to steal really.

Edited 2021-11-18 13:44 (UTC)

"Breaking into other people's apartment," Summer corrected, tucking the hairpins she'd used on the lock back into her ponytail before standing up, brushing her hands off a little as she considered Newbie over here and wondered if she should mention that she'd broken into his apartment before, too, back when Rosa lived there, how would that be for a first impression?, "maybe, but this one," she cocked her head toward the door, "is mine."

A beat, as she sucked in the sort of breath that made it seem like she was ready to go straight back downstairs and break into another apartment and commit a crime far worse than just a little harmless B&E.

"At least," she amended, "it should be, considering I fucking paid for it, and I didn't expect the locks to have changed while I was gone."

Because someone's email got hilariously sent through the spam filter.

And checking her mail was definitely a save-it-for-tomorrow thing.

Annie had been working in New York until late (it was probably shocking to no one that Vought was already pushing holiday stuff onto her and part of what had kept her late was a meeting with the stage manager at Radio City -- apparently Starlight went great with the Rockettes and Annie was just gonna have to spend the next couple weeks not having any kind a crisis of comparison, there) and thus was just letting herself into the building when she came upon Summer.

"Oh my God, Summer!" First, exclamations, joy, et cetera. "Oh -- oh, shit, they changed the locks. Do you need help?"

Help either in the form of Annie either hunting down the key or blasting the door open. Dealer's choice, really. She was just glad her bestie-slash-across-the-hall neighbor was here and holding her cat and looking very back.

"Right" Billy said simply, still considering her for a moment.

"Well, Jon said he sent notices and the new keys are in the mail boxes downstairs. I guess..." Well yeah this was gonna be an obvious statement but he was already into it... "I guess you have been out of town for a bit?"

Seemed logical. Wasn't like there was a lot of insanity and oddness to explain absences. This place wasn't as strange and weird as some people were making out. Right?

Truth be told, Summer had yet to actually meet a lock that she couldn't handle (well, probably because she still hadn't tried breaking into Barry's lab yet, although she'd thought about doing it, just for shits and giggles), so she was not even worried about it, especially since she was not expecting to run into anyone tonight, much less superhero bestie, soooo....

"Why the fuck did they change the locks?" she asked, because greetings were for losers. "Is this some kind of weird new Fandom thing I totally missed out on?"

Ohgod, how many weird Fandom things had she missed out on? She was going to have so much to catch up on.

"Well, yeah," said Summer. Logical, obvious, either way, it necessitated a roll of her eyes and a shake of her head. "I've been off in space taking down an evil galactic empire."

Like, geez, Newb, duh. Obviously.

"I literally just got back, like, ten minutes ago."

She gestured to the bags gathered in front of the door for proof.

"No idea, we opted out," Annie replied, shrugging. "Because we just replaced it after I broke the door in August, anyway."

Hopefully there wasn't, like, an important impetus for this lock change that they'd just ignored. (Though, as always, Annie was pretty confident that anyone who broke into #2 over there deserved the blinding-slash-stabbing-slash-Lord-help-them-if-Five-was-over they got, anyway.)

"Are you, like, back?" she had to add. "Or is this, like, just a visit under cover of night?" Because Annie could be sneaky about this if needed, for sure.

"Riiiiight. Space. As in outer space, space?"

Yeah judge the newbie Summer, go ahead. Couldn't you remember what it was like to be the confused and bewildered newbie?

Billy considered her a moment and then gave a slight sigh and shook his head. So much for nothing overly weird or strange....

"Right, of course you have...." Billy really was going to need that cigarette break tonight.

There was a little sympathetic sort of what-can-you-do expression about breaking the door, like that was just a totally normal part of life (and really, where was the lie in that?), and nodded, before all pretense of caring about locks and doors were swept completely away by a big, unabashed grin, so big she had to bite her lower lip a little with a little eager bounce as she reported, "Back back! That's right, the New, Supposedly Improved Galactic Federation is nothing but space dust! Like, pro tip? If you're gonna reboot an evil galactic federation, don't get in bed with corporate sponsors. Like, I know it sounds appealing, like, match made in heaven, right, you scratch my evil back, I'll scratch yours, but, see, here's the thing: when all your weapons are branded to prove that nothing, not even space lasers, can destroy your jeans, some bitch is definitely gonna show up and open a portal to a dimension made entirely of Wranglers jeans and fuck your shit up."

Because, yup. That's how it went down. She just opened a portal to a denim dimension and that destroyed them utterly.

She...still wasn't sure if this was actually really awesome or the lamest thing ever, to be honest.

It definitely seemed to track with canon, though.

Edited 2021-11-18 14:17 (UTC)

No, actually, she kind of couldn't.

But that was neither here nor there.

Judging the newbie was a time-honored tradition that Summer Smith celebrated with pride, dammit!

...they were just so cute when they were all green and squishy and clueless.

"Dude," she said, grinning at that sigh in particular. "My engine's still probably warm, I could give you a ride right now if you don't believe me."

Not dirty.

She had a boyfriend.

Well...

...maybe a little dirty. Look, space was super horny, the last few months had been rough, okay? She was allowed.

"...you defeated them with denim?" Annie wasn't sure why this was surprising to her, knowing all that she did about Summer's particularly weird world and the multiverse in general, but -- really?

From where she was sitting (over here as a reluctant semi-minion of corporate overlords and all), it sounded kind of awesome? In, sure, a slightly lame way, but -- way to hoist them with their own petard! (Whatever a petard was!)

"Is your mom good, still?"

"No, no... it's ok. I believe you," Billy said, holding a hand up in surrender.

Wasn't like it was his responsibility, and if she really didn't live next door, someone else could deal with it. Wasn't anything he was going to get overly involved in. But still... if she was actually his neighbor, it would probably be a good idea to stay on friendly terms and all.... seeing as he was the new guy.

"I'm Billy, by the way," he said, giving her a slight smile.

But they were Wranglers, Annie! Wranglers! Not even cool jeans! They were jeans that her gross pervert brother and her nerdy ass boyfriend who could barely even dress himself wore! She felt that kind of nudged it in the lame category, although, really, at least that also meant there was no love lost for the denim sacrifice that had to be made. The world was not any lesser for it.

Summer smiled a little fondly at the question and nodded. "Yeah," she said, "she's good. She..." There was a small sigh, a shake of her head. "She's a little weirded out right now because, like, she doesn't know what to do with herself? Which I definitely get, she's kind of made this whole Fight against the Galaxy bit her whole thing now...but...there's always mercenary jobs in space, and she's keeping a close eye on things because you just know they're going to try again eventually, why wouldn't they, they're an evil space empire, they're like fucking cockroaches."

A pause.

"Literally in this case, too! Because, you know, bugs!"

Damn. Summer really did love taking newbs up in her spaceship, too, but whatever, man! Your loss, clearly.

She gave a slight smile back despite the disappointment. "Summer," she offered back, then tilted her head toward the cracked-open door. "The cat you saw rushing in was Pancakes. So...." Now that the threat of potentially having the cops called on her seemed to have passed, she gave her new neighbor a thoughtful and appreciative once-over. "Just how new are you, anyway?"

Did he also just get here literally ten minutes ago? Because with that response to the whole space bit, she'd believe it!

There were certain things you got a sort of mental heads up when you had the Force, like when you could tell your friend was back on island.

So incoming text: Are you back?

Could the Force also pick up expressions like the teasingly coy, perfectly innocent one that Summer felt she had infused into her oh-so-ambigious-but-also-totally-obvious response back?

Maaaaaaayyyybeeeeeee.

Always another time Summer, there was always another time....

"Been here about a month... something like that" Billy said with a non-committal hand wave. "Granted the first half of that was spent just trying to leave the island so... about 2 weeks of being semi settled in?"

He gave a general wave down the hall. "Met a few others here and there. But pretty sure I still count as fresh meat around here in any case."

Slight pause.

"Not from anywhere as exciting as space or anything, ended up here trying to get from Cancun so... yeah... ended up a little bit off course" he added with a chuckle.

Jon hadn't really been sleeping, which he considered a bonus when he knew that Summer was back and missing her new key.

He hastily retrieved it and hurried up to her apartment, only to find she'd broken in. He stared at it for a moment, unsure how to feel about that. The new locks were supposed to be safer, after all. But on the other hand, it was Summer, and at least she hadn't had to wait for him.

He held out the new key to her. "Erm. H-hello, Summer. Welcome back."

"Gross," Annie said happily. Fighting evil space bugs sounded kind of appealing, at least, in the 'rah rah these guys are clearly evil and gross' kind of way. Things were always muddier in Annie's universe. "But, like, Beth totally has my sympathy -- even if I feel like I'd probably want to, like, retire to Aruba after all that. Or, like, space Aruba. Maybe that planet with the spa."

For just a visit?

She was betting not, with the number of vowels in that response.

Safer. Oh, sweet summer...whatever the hell you actually were, Jon.

Summer blinked at Jon (she might wonder why everyone else seemed up so late at night, really, except for him, she was pretty sure he didn't actually even know what sleep was), looked a tthe key he was holding out toward her, looked toward the door she'd broken into, and then looked back.

"What," she pronounced. distinctly, "the. Hell, Jon."

Not unless you were Lucille and Tisarwat, anyway. She still owed them a double-date to the moon, but, hey! At least she hadn't forgotten!

"Oooooh," said Summer, looking impressed. "Cancun! Jealous. I can see why you would have wanted to get the hell out of here if that was the case."

Then there was a pause, a considering one, because she knew this could be kind of plot-breaky, and also Fandom liked to mess with it, anyway, if it felt so inclided, and there was a good chance he was still green enough to not really believe her, but she'd feel bad if she didn't at least offer....

"I take it you're stuck, then? You know....I got a portal gun. I can't guarantee it'll work, because it's not immune to Fandom blockages, because, trust me, I've learned the hard way that if Fandom wants you here, it's gonna keep you here until you wear her down into submission, but...if you wanna try to get somewhere, all it takes is maybe a little..."

She held up a finger like a gun and shot it at the floor, "Pew!"

"I, um. I caught one of the other residents changing a lock, and she...she implied they could be better, so I thought I would, uh...fix that. I did let everybody know. Or, um. I thought I did. And the key was, um. In the mail. But here. Sorry."

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Outside MHA #4; Late Thursday Night [11/18].

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