Laurie & Vanessa | Tuesday evening

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

Laurie comes by the penthouse without warning but with a mission: feed Vanessa or bust! Casting the Dresden books with friends, girl talk and unknown layers follow.

Vanessa was still rearranging stuff in the penthouse. It was far more room than she was used to having so it was probably a good thing it'd already been furnished when Adrienne had rented it to her. She was busy sitting in a pile of books that she was attempting to reorganize by genre and then by author within the genre when she heard a knock on her door. Turning to stare at the door as if she could see through it, the metamorph quirked an eyebrow. "Hm?"

Uncovering herself from under all the books was a bit of a process, but she managed to get enough of them off of her so that she could merely stand up. It was a little painful watching them all tumble to the floor haphazardly, but since they didn't have feelings she tried not to feel too bad over it. Vanessa padded over to the door on bare feet and swept a loose strand of hair out of her face. An eye to the peephole unveiled her mystery guest. "What's the secret word?"

"Roast dinner with all the fixings," Laurie replied with a grin, holding up the bags of ingredients she was holding. She'd come into New York for the day to do a bit of reading at the state library but had decided on a whim to go see Vanessa and check out her new digs. She figured her friend had probably gone quite some time without a home cooked meal, and had taken it upon herself to provide such. "And, possibly some form of crumble for dessert."

The door unlocked with a click and one suspicious red eye could be seen through the crack of space the door had opened. "Some sort of crumble dessert? Like if I look at it wrong I'll hurt its feelings and it'll fall apart?" She really needed to put a chain lock on the door just so she could open the door, peer at people, then close it heavily and slide the lock undone. Vanessa lacked dramatic effect when she simply opened the door the rest of the way and grinned at her pseudo-adopted sister. "Well, I guess I oughta play nice, eh?" An arm extended in a gesture for Laurie to enter.

"Only if you want non-burned roast potatos anyhow," Laurie replied with a grin, setting down her bags and giving Vanessa a hug. "Didn't think I'd let you get away without a hug, did you?"

Having completed the official sisterly hug, Laurie picked up her bags again and swanned past Vanessa and into her apartment, gaze curious as she looked around.

"I was testing to see if the world had ended something," Vanessa replied as she hugged Laurie back. The metamorph then promptly locked the door back up and trailed off after the brunette. "So what brings you 'round these parts, doll?" The wink that followed went perfectly with the faux Texas drawl, or so Vanessa thought. "Other than being something like an angel and deciding I need to be fed. Am I withering away here?" A finger poked at her stomach as if to check for signs of withering.

"Not so much withering away, as my ploy to turn you into a Russian Grandmother lookalike," Laurie said, bustling into Vanessa's kitchen and looking around for cooking utensils."Besides, Jean-Paul won't let me feed him, and most of the people at the mansion these days aren't the type to let themselves be fussed over. I'm in a fussing over mood."

"Oh, fuss away, m'love!" Vanessa hopped up onto a counter and stayed out of Laurie's way while she wandered about the kitchen poking into this drawer or that cupboard. "The secret with Jean-Paul, I think, is that you need to just leave the food and walk off. I think he'd probably eat it if it was just sitting there, looking all pathetic and unloved and uneaten. But if you give it to him, I think that's the problem? The expectation because you're right there in front of him. But I could be totally wrong." Thinking of the last thing she'd just left for him made her smile. "But I'm willing to bet he's not eating the cookie I left on his door on Valentine's Day. Mostly because I didn't say who it was from." Vanessa's expression painted itself in innocence. "He needed something to counteract his simmering surly!"

Laurie had finally gathered all the implements she would need to cook a good roast dinner, and she laid them out on her work space, reserving the centre island for preparation as she pulled ingredients out of the bags and went about arranging things to her exacting standards.

"You may be right, he certainly got very evasive when I told him he should let me pry. What sort of cookie did you leave him?" she asked, absently starting to hum to herself as she worked.

"He's totally turned into Master Evasion. I sorta let it go or I poke in other ways until he coughs up some answers or makes it clear I won't get any. I give up more times than not." Vanessa sighed and slumped against the cupboard at her back. "I left him a sugar cookie. Like an eight inch tall heart cookie covered in pink frosting with little white balls of frosting on it. It was horrendously girlie. He's got enough PMS, I figured he deserved a girlie 'thinking of you' type present."

"Hmm, you'll have to take pictures if he flies over here in a snit then," Laurie noted, placing a large, deep pan on the center island before splashing oil into it and then transferring the large leg of lamb she'd brought with her. Sure, it was a little much for two people to eat all in one sitting, but that's what left overs were for. "Bet he breaks out the 'I am not surly' talk as well."

"Yeah, and that talk will go over with me about as well as the 'I am not too skinny' talk did. I pointed out you could see his wrists and they were bony. He tried to refute the boniness. I started to have pastries delivered to the hostel he was staying in before he went back to Xavier's." She was pretty sure he was still refuting how bony his wrists were. And his collarbone. And no doubt his ankles. Vanessa might consider having another food delivery sent his way as a none too subtle hint.

"Boys," Laurie noted wryly, as if the one word explained absolutely everything that needed to be explained. "Now, this is going to take a few hours to cook, so I figure I should help you with your organizing, yes?"

"If you're feeling alphabetically proficient and eager, sure. Or we could swap roles and you can sit around on your ass while I do all the work." Vanessa grinned at this. She had learned her lesson already, you did not get in Laurie's way when she was cooking unless she assigned you duties. She was pretty sure she'd been threatened with a rubber spatula once, but she could have just been making that up.

"You don't have to twist my arm to get me to sit around on my ass," Laurie noted with a cheery smile, walking back into Vanessa's main living space and choosing a somewhat comfy looking chair to rest herself in. She'd have to get up and bast the lamb in a half-hour, but until then she could simply keep her friend company. "So have you figured out what you're going to do now you're not working for Snow Valley?"

"Best I've got so far is either model or join the Scooby gang to solve mysteries," she told Laurie with a bit of a snort and a roll of her eyes. Vanessa dropped to the floor close to her original position and went about sorting her books once more, though she ensured she could look up and have her friend in her line of sight. "I can fuck people or kill them. There's not a lot of job opportunities going on there, I think. I mean, who lists 'sniper' and 'fellatio' as skill sets for a position?"

"CIA agents?" Laurie replied, stretching out her legs and wiggling her toes after she removed her shoes and placed them neatly beside the chair. "Super spies, corporate assassins, people with too much time on their hands. Wait, the Scooby gang is real?"

"Saffron seems to think so." A nonchalant who woulda known sort of shrug followed. "I'm pretty sure if they are then they've got damn good hallucinogenics 'cause, man, talking dog? Seriously? Mystery solving, talking, stoner dog?"

"Probably a mutant, or maybe something from Asgard. There's been weirder freaky woo-woo stuff then that," Laurie noted, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. "I could see you solving mysteries though, maybe not getting about in a van but one of those private investigator type things."

"Only if I get a sidekick." It was a throwaway comment, really. Vanessa? Private investigator? Yeah, right. "Sherlock had that dumpy guy. I think I need someone short and chubby so they make me look good or something. Isn't that how sidekicks go? Dumber, less attractive, less competent, getting themselves into trouble that the hero needs to dig them out of?" Vanessa looked up from the book in her hand and her eyes slid over to Laurie with a considering look on her face. "Hm..."

"Watson was just playing dumb so that Sherlock didn't get all upset about not being the smartest one in the room," Laurie replied with a grin. "Can't speak for more attractive though, I'd have to see pictures, and be given time to really think on it. What you'd really need is an executive assistant type. Someone to do all the scut work and filing and making you doctor's appointments when you forget to take care of yourself while working on a case."

Vanessa actually scoffed. "Doctors are for sick people." Of course, luck would have it that karma would bite her on the ass for making that comment. Cue her getting deathly plague-ridden any day now, right?

"Also for people who don't want to get deathly sick," Laurie noted, a slight sniff indicating that her thoughts on people who didn't go to the doctor until they were about dying were less then sterling. Not surprising considering her current line of study would lead to medical school somewhere down the track. "See, executive assistant, definitely needed. Also, maybe a cop buddy to bring you leads like that girl from the Harry Dresden novels."

The reference had Vanessa shuffling books about on the floor. She pulled out a paperback and held it up. It was Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden book Summer Knight. "So I need a Murphy. Does there need to be sexual tension? 'Cause the only cop-like people I know are Lucas Bishop and Garrison Kane. One is pretty but a former coworker who I have amazingly platonic feelings for. The other one is dating my best friend. And who's Bob?" Vanessa quirked a smile at Laurie. "Are you Mister?"

"More like Mouse, or possibly Michael, dependable, good to a fault and there to get you out of danger when you're hip deep in it with nowhere to go," Laurie noted, a teasing light in her eyes. She well knew Vanessa was more then capable of getting herself out of danger, but that didn't mean Laurie wouldn't be there in a heartbeat if her friend needed her. Less then a heartbeat if she could help it, really. "Bob, hmm...I suppose Adrienne could be Bob, but you'll have to figure out the cop one, sexual tension or no."

"Minus the good to a fault, I think soldier boy qualifies for Michael more than you do." Now her smile was broadening into a grin. "I think you're more Mouse. Growly, yappy. I could see you with a notched ear. Always on the alert, picking out danger and yammering in a way that's both obnoxious in a sisterly way and saves my ass so I have to begrudgingly appreciate you saving my short hairs." Was that phrasing even applicable if she wasn't wearing a male body?

"Not yappy, distinguished," Laurie said with a small pout, but her wink entirely spoiled the look. "I suppose Lex can be Michael. Although, don't go picking up any strange ancient coins, that'd be bad."

"I try to keep away from the demons. I think it really spoils my occasional decisions to be a do-gooder." Actually, Vanessa couldn't remember the last thing she did that would qualify her for that. Sure, she did good things. And they usually involved someone bad getting shot. That evened the scales, right?

"I suppose with you here and not at the Brownstone or Mansion there is less of a chance of running into demons," Laurie noted in an airy manner. She wiggled her toes again, scrunching them down into the thick pile of the carpet, it really was a lovely place that Morgan had ended up with. "Of course, you'll need an apprentice too, someone who was a do-gooder but had some bad choices or something."

"Maybe we should be writing this down. Cop to bring me leads, do-gooder with bad choices, Bob. Actually, Adrienne really might count for Bob. Her brain's in the gutter enough. If I wasn't Harry I'd say that might be me. Or Mister. I might be the cat all with the 'fuck you, I'm glad you're alive, now feed me'." Vanessa stopped to think about this. "We've got Michael covered. We need a Morgan. A Dresden Morgan, not a me Morgan. Who wants to see me killed that badly? And, wait, who was Harry's apprentice? Oh, and I need a devilishly handsome half-sibling who's an incubus. Actually," she trailed off, tapping a finger against her chin. "I think that might be Adrienne. She'd make a good Thomas. Oh and I need a Susan! Hot girl who has narcotic happy drug saliva for the win?"

"Michael's daughter, she's sort of kick ass," Laurie noted, thinking about the possibilities. "I suppose Catseye could be Mister, she's even got the whole cat thing going for her. Dresden Morgan could be Remy, maybe. All 'grr, I will end you if you cross the line' type. Amanda could be Susan, or maybe Cammie? Although she's more the poison touch then the happy drug saliva."

It was such a surreal thing to be doing, Laurie thought, casting their various friends and acquaintances into Harry Dresdan's world. Still, there was something to be said for moments of surreal silliness. It gave her a grounding in the real world, let her know that not everything had to be blood, death and violence.

"Aren't I supposed to want to bang Susan like mad? Cammie I only want to throw out a fucking window. From very, very high up. Or through a wall. Damn, that'd be fun." A smile full of wicked delight stretched across Vanessa's face with that thought. "You should probably stick to Amanda on that one. Not sure she's really quite sleuthy enough for the role, though. LeBeau could be Dresden-verse Morgan, yeah.

"We still need Bob. Bob is very important here. Who has a giant brain full of facts?" She thought about that and her eyes narrowed. "Not Sam Guthrie." But, honestly, he was probably the most history minded person she knew. He was definitely the kind of guy who would pull random information out of nowhere that would be entirely useful.

"You and Amanda?" Laurie asked with raised eyebrows, it wasn't that she didn't know that Amanda and Vanessa batted for both teams, it was that she hadn't considered that they would try batting together. "How does Lex feel about that? Or is this more of an ex situation?"

"Uh, no. More of a 'if she'd ever been single when I was I would've pinned her to a wall' situation." She left off that the blonde witch currently wasn't speaking to her. Amanda had good reason for it, but it made Vanessa a bit mopey on the inside when she wasn't busy being indignant.

"Interesting," Laurie noted, giving her friend a closer look, as though looking for something. "You should see if Lex is interested in a threesome."

She left that out there, knowing that Vanessa would know she was joking, or would possibly throw something at her. Either way she'd get her friend to smile, and it would hopefully remove the sudden air of sadness that Laurie could almost feel coming from her.

Vanessa waved a hand through the air dismissively. "I don't do split attention spans and I've have to sock him if he said yes and that'd leave him to explain the black eye and broken nose are from his girlfriend. And damn, isn't that embarrassing?"

"Well, not sure about embarrassing so much as intriguing for some of his co-workers, I would think," Laurie noted, with what could only be described as a twinkle in her eyes. "You are rather tall and strong, he might just tell them you guys got a little too carried away."

It had been long enough that she needed to check on the roast, and she motioned for Vanessa to hold that thought as she got up, went into the kitchen and basted the lamb before placing it back in the oven and re-taking her perch beside her friend. She would need to add the vegetables in an hour or so but that could be worried about later.

Vanessa went back to organizing the books with her full attention until she heard Laurie pad back into the room on quiet feet. "His coworkers used to be my coworkers," she pointed out without looking up. "I don't think they need the mental image of us going at it in fun, happy, naked ways and him getting a black eye from it. I guess they could assume we were sparring, though." It probably said something that her mind jumped to the gutter and then had to crawl back out of it.

"Sparring could work," Laurie noted, settling herself back into her chair with a happy sigh. There really was only one or two things better then a comfy chair and a friend to gossip with. "You realise that this is what they consider girly-talk, yes? That thing you say you're horrible at."

Red eyes slid to the side to stare at Laurie through the corners of them. It was hard to tell her eyes moved because the red of them was almost uniform save for a bit of darkening where the iris was. "No it's not. I don't do girl talk. This is normal talk. We're just both female." In a mutter she added, "I knew there was a reason I didn't have chick friends."

"This is definitely girl talk, and you are definitely engaged in it," Laurie said, grin widening her mouth slightly. "And you love having chick friends, or you wouldn't have them."

"The novelty will wear off." A hand was waved through the air dismissively and a bit in Laurie's direction. "Then I'll decide to be rid of the lot of you and I'll be down to an all male revue again."

"But then who would eat ice cream with you when you were having nightmare cramps, and needed to cry and yell at exactly the same time?" Laurie asked, pulling her feet up to curl up more easily in the chair.

"The cat." She meant an actual fully feline house cat, not Catseye the six foot tall catgirl. "That I don't have. Yet. I'll work on getting the cat. Once I've got a cat I'm kicking the rest of you hormonal bitches to the curb." Vanessa was obviously kidding from the expression on her face, though the words came out dryly.

Laurie couldn't help but burst out laughing at that, especially the idea of Vanessa, one of the strongest women Laurie knew, blurting out her feelings to a small furry companion, who wasn't Catseye. She waved a hand at her, possibly in apology, but couldn't cease the peals of laughter.

Vanessa narrowed her eyes at the girl overcome with hysterics. She then found a book she wasn't that fond of anyway and threw it at Laurie's head. Not waiting to see if it connected, Vanessa painted an expression of innocence on her face and went back to sorting.

Laurie caught the book, her hands drawing it into her lap rather then trying to catch it outright. She looked down at the title, and raised eyebrows at Vanessa. "I didn't know you read poetry."

"What, I can't have layers?" She gave something approximating a shrug and painted an utterly innocent expression on her face. "That chick makes no bloody sense half the time anyway. Blah blah death, blah blah more death. Jesus, someone oughta shove a sunflower up her ass and see if it improves her mood at all." Emily Dickinson, big mistake there but Vanessa had been in one of those open minded moods when she'd bought the book. As it turned out as good as the woman might have been, Dickinson in no way spoke to the Bostonian.

"Remind me to get you and Yvette talking then, she's all about the poetry," Laurie noted, thinking it might be an interesting conversation. Yvette could be somewhat retiring and Vanessa was anything but, yet the two might actually get along. "And you'll be up at the school with the whole temporary teacher thing."

"Yeah, well, that and the best friend who lives there thing and the boyfriend who lives there thing and the practically my sister person her lives there thing. Oh and the lack of any other gym thing. Jesus, there's more reasons for me to be there than not, aren't there?" Vanessa was pretty happy to be living on her own, though. Her being away from students was a major points bonus. She liked being able to kidnap her boyfriend away and possibly said best friend and whoever else. And she liked being in the position to give Jean-Paul somewhere to run away to if he needed it.

"And here I thought you just showed up to harass us all and steal food," Laurie replied, flicking a pillow from the chair at Vanessa. If there was going to be throwing of things, Laurie was definitely not going to be the only one having to catch. "Although I'm sure Lex doesn't exactly mind the harassment, if you follow me."

"Or the food stealing since he's usually the one cooking." Vanessa had ducked the pillow and it had bounced off the mostly empty bookshelf. "But you need to remember, Peaches, that 'harass' is just another word for 'love.' Unless it's some skeezy bloke, then it's another word for 'please kick me in the nuts.'"

"Remind me to never tell you about the guy who tried to sleeze onto me in Sri Lanka," Laurie said, opening the book on her lap and rifling through some of the pages. She just wasn't that into poetry though, and especially not this type of poetry. "How did this lady not slit her own wrists?"

"Who says she didn't?" Vanessa had no bleeding clue how Dickinson died, but judging from the woman's words it seemed damn possible. In response to the guy in Sri Lanka Vanessa only asked, "Did you stab him? Take off a hand? Did someone shoot him for you?"

"That would've made for a lot more paperwork then I wanted to do at the time," Laurie noted, thinking back, it didn't have the same power to make her want to throw up as it had back then, and she wondered if she was becoming cold to the amount of death that had resulted. "He was a red cross medic, I was helping them out at the front gates, choosing who would be treated. I don't even know if he survived."

Now that had Vanessa's attention. She'd mostly been kidding about the mutilation, dismemberment and death of the offending guy. Well, she was pretty sure she was mostly kidding anyway? "Um, come again? You don't know if he survived because....you induced a heart attack?"

"No," Laurie said, shaking her head. "The refugee camp was attacked by Indian mutants, um, Imperial Guard or something, I can't remember what they called themselves. They killed a lot of people, but we got out, I think maybe they thought killing foreigners would backlash on them. But I never checked to see if all the Red cross people got out okay, I guess I just didn't want to think about it."

"If you sit around worrying about whether or not everyone else got out alright then you never get alright yourself. You think about it too much and it eats at you. Cut your losses and get the fuck out when you can in those situations. It's the only way you really survive." Maybe that was just a tad too cynical sounding.