Wiping Mr. Quacks off with the napkin he had previously offered Willy, Jonathan hides his good friend in the same pocket as before. He leaves the ink-stained crumpled-up napkin on the counter, though. Gotta keep up villainous appearances somehow.
Satisfied with his contributions, Jonathan takes a few steps off to the side, leaving ample room for the trembling-with-anticipation Clarissa. Who is still recording the proceedings, even now that she is up close.
Putting as much thought into his actions as usual, which is almost none, Lucas holds his hand out towards Clarissa.
"Lemme guess, you want a good shot while you sign too, yeah? Here, I'll hold it for ya." As Lucas makes his offer, Clarissa freezes for a moment, her eyes widening slightly. With a huge smile, she looks
Before Mikah has even made it to the door, Lucas decides he is done with having any sort of audience at all. Turning to look at Clarissa, who is still every bit as excited to be recording him as before, he wrinkles his nose and frowns at her, although only lightly."All right, that's enough fun. I don't know why anyone would want to watch boring paperwork as it is, but whatever, it's not like you were getting in the way. Uhh, I dunno about a dress code or anything yet, but I assume you still have work clothes from your time at uh, whatsit, uh, Howling Cartographer? If not, you have some shoppin' to do missy, no way we're gonna bother with handin' out uniforms. Even if we finalize our... Current agreement for an HQ, it's gonna take some work before it's usable. Probably not gonna need you for well over a week, probably more. I'll let ya know when. Go on now, unless you had somethin'
Trying not to make too big of a deal of Miss Masher's questionable standards, Lucas clears his throat loudly and then finally begins heading for the door."Well, anyway, we should get going, too." Speaking up to get things going once again, Lucas makes a beckoning gesture with his right hand, intending on leading the way.Although, he doesn't make it very far before being stopped."Oh, when I left Calc was still in the back room you guys last saw her in, we should probably go check there for her first. We're better off taking the employee door." When Miss Chievous speaks up to adjust their route, Miss Masher turns to look directly at her face. Pausing for a moment, she seems to determine that her sister's actually being honest, so she turns and starts leading the way t
After a few more rounds of wordlessly agreed-upon improvised hopscotch, the group finally reaches their destination.Unconcerned with minor things like knocking or such kinds of decorum before entering a room with a closed door, Miss Chievous just pushes the door open and walks right on in.It would be foolish to assume you have anything resembling privacy when she's within a several-mile radius, short of being locked in a very VERY secure room. In which case, she'd probably coax Miss Masher into smashing a wall down so she could get in out of sheer spite, even if they know there's nothing worth being interested in within it.In a turn of events that didn't surprise anyone involved, Miss Calculated is still sitting exactly where she was when Miss Chievous left, her tab
Finally noticing the awkward atmosphere, Lucas develops a bit of a confused expression, then scratches the back of his head a few times. Jonathan is tensely locked up next to him, at a loss as to how to diffuse what he assumes is a misunderstanding, but isn't confident enough to act on that guess."Wh-what? The three of you combined probably can't eat as much as Jonathan alone, it's not like it's a big deal." Although Lucas is off-target, it at least breaks the strange tension in the air when Miss Chievous starts giggling.Miss Masher looks thoughtful for a moment, then starts sizing up Jonathan, seeming to have accepted the interpreted challenge.Miss Calculated finally thaws, gently pats Willy twice, then stands up to walk over toward Lucas with her tablet after sett
Realizing that free lunch is imminent, Miss Masher is up and on her way out of the door in surprisingly short order. Miss Chievous had actually managed to beat her there, thanks to the couch she was on being notably closer to the door.Not having much else to tidy up, Miss Calculated heads back over and shuts off Willy's tablet, putting it into the bag with the other electronics paraphernalia that belongs to Lucas and Jonathan."Shall we?" Miss Calculated raises a brow while asking this, offering the bag of their recently purchased possessions back over to Lucas. Once he takes it, she starts heading out the door which Miss Masher is still holding open.At first, Lucas just nods in response, but seeing how all three women are apparently rarin' to go, he chuckles and sta
Once everyone is outside and James has finished his keyless hands-free locking of the door, he wastes no time at all in vacating the premises, as if staying a second too long would make Miss Calculated change her mind. He at least had the decency to wave his tablet goodbye at them before peacing out.'Same dude, same. I certainly lost count of how many times I did roughly the same. Without, you know, super-cool psychic powers, though.'[...]'Like you're even remotely surprised.'[Not in the least bit. I can certainly see the similarities between you two.]'I'm not sure why, but I feel like you just insulted me, somehow.'
Without his recently destroyed toy to amuse him, Lucas, unsurprisingly, grows bored in short order."Sooo… Hey Mash, what were ya talking about with Jon before, anywho?" Craving some form of stimulation, Lucas decides to finally break the silence of their traveling trio plus pooch."Eh? Oh, I was just tellin' him some stories from around when the war ended. Even though lotsa us supes end up on the streets, we don't really talk to others about it much, since we often don't wanna bring it up. It was nice. Could really tell he went through some serious shit too, what with how he reacted to some of it." While Miss Masher fondly recalls bench-time story-time, Miss Calculated visibly flinches and stops walking.Noticing her older sister's reaction, Miss Masher immedia
Noticing Miss Masher's intent on joining in the pending scuffle, Miss Calculated holds an arm out in front of her."Mash, seriously, this is a terrible idea. I can almost guarantee that they're far back in the alley, with nothing for you to hide behind on your way to them. There's no way you'll be able to get close. If anything, you should be trying to stop Lucas." While Miss Calculated actively tries to dissuade her sister, Miss Masher visibly hesitates again."...But pointlessly destructive assholes like that are the worst. Even if we do leave, what if Chi or Jon get hit on their way past here while tryin' to catch up with us? 'Sides, Lucas has got endurance too, he can probably take the hit, an' maybe when seein' two of us the bastard might even surrender." As Miss Masher speaks her mind, she gently pushes Miss Calculated'