[Homeplot 2009] Decompression

[forhawkeye]

See, what it all boils down to is simple: it’s been a very long twenty-four hours. Between the invasion and my own personal drama, it’s something of a relief to just relax, even if it’s only for a little while. There are still too many unanswered questions -- Why am I back? Why did they come with me? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? -- but there’ll be time to answer them later.

There are about twenty different kinds of pizza lying around -- ranging from pepperoni and cheese to some ridiculously organic vegan thing -- and the amount of junk food piled on the kitchen counters could feed an entire college dorm for at least a semester. Despite all that, Felix insisted on making enough of his 'famous chicken cardarelli' for everyone. Admittedly, it’s sort of nice having some real food to balance out everything else.

And as for Alice, well, I sent Tommy to go get her some bunnies.

It’s not a party by any means, but that’s just about the last thing we need right now, anyway, especially for the people who got a crash course in war yesterday. Copious amounts of alcohol, maybe, but a party? Yeah, not so much.

"I'm federal agent Jack Bauer, and today is the longest day of my life," voice overs Kiefer Sutherland from the episode of 24 playing in the background.

"Yours and mine both, Kief," I mutter under my breath. "Yours and mine both."

Comments

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

The bunnies are kind of cute. Then again so are calves and lamb and that doesn't stop them from being delicious.

Holding one of the bury (http://mfrost.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/02/08/leap_bunnies_rer.jpg) in her hands, she wiggles her nose at it. "Are you just the cutest, most delicious things I've ever seen?" she murmurs to it.

It isn't exactly cougar, but finding one of those that isn't working her way through her fourth husband would be kind of a stretch.

[sink-nor-swim.livejournal.com]

"I can't believe you're actually eating those," Mikal says, wrinkling her nose a little as she takes a seat beside Alice, though there's a wide smile on her face. She'd known already about her, of course, and she can hardly have a problem with what Alice can't help. "Good?"

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

Sniffing the bunny in hand, Alice makes a quiet shushing noise before taking a bite out of the tiny thing. The simple act causes her to feel filled with a delightful sort of warmth and she feels the best she's felt all day.

Pulling the now-deceased rabbit from her mouth, she nods. "It is. I kind of missed this," she admits guiltily, wiping the sides of her mouth.

[sink-nor-swim.livejournal.com]

It probably isn't a good thing, that Mikal can watch this and not be incredibly disturbed, but it isn't something she's going to dwell on. She's seen a lot of really weird shit, and is pretty sure this isn't the weirdest, especially after the freaking battle earlier. Besides, it's Alice; it would just be fucking dumb to hold something like this against her, and rabbit is definitely preferable to human.

"Well, after so long, I can't say I blame you," she says with a shrug, biting back a laugh and decidedly not looking at the bite mark in the rabbit. "Crazy, isn't this? All of it."

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

Human isn't something that Alice has taken a nibble out of in a very long time and she'd like to keep it that way. She's got a streak to maintain and all of that.

Eyes widening she nods. "I know, totally crazy! But fun crazy not ohmygod zombies crazy."

[sink-nor-swim.livejournal.com]

"I miss my boyfriend," Mikal confesses before she can help herself, letting out a mirthless huff of a laugh. "Is that weird? It's like... it's like someone trying to show me something, or something like that. I'm here, and, you know, really alive, but I miss where we were."

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

Alice giggles. "No. It's not weird. I mean, I miss things all the time."

Like Jasper. But that was someone that she's not certain she's ever going to see again so she's starting to learn to not think about him. It's probably for the best anyways.

[sink-nor-swim.livejournal.com]

"It's just... not something I'd expect," she settles on, shrugging a little awkwardly. There hadn't really been time to dwell on it before, but she's pretty sure there isn't anyone she trusts as much a Alice and Kate, the latter of whom she wants to give the time with her friends. "Not - not missing him, I mean, but how much. I never thought I'd want to go back there, if I got to really be alive again."

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

"You are alive again. Back there. Back on the island. You just didn't think that you'd end up back in the real world alive and without him. It's a strange thing."

Just like Alice didn't think she'd ever end up alive and single, but sometimes life is like that.

[sink-nor-swim.livejournal.com]

"I did, though," Mikal admits, ducking her head. "He told me. I - back there, I got sent back, and all I've been thinking for the past week is that I'd never get that chance. Now, I do, and... I don't know if I want it." Sighing, she takes a long swig of the beer in her hand, hoping for it to make her feel just a little better. It doesn't.

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

"Really?"

She does her best to act suprised, but in this world, back to how she started, Alice already knew that catch. She knows that Mikal would pick life when given the choice between death and everything else. It's the Zia option that's all headachey. "I'm sorry dearheart."

[forhawkeye]

"So, did Tommy have good taste?" I ask, settling down beside her. My own food is distinctly of the not rabbit variety, but if they started making bunny flavored chips, I'd probably be more grossed out than Alice eating them live. "Because if he didn't, I can send him back out for something else."

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

"Delicious. I love them nice and fast on their feet," Alice giggles, nuzzling the rabbit against her cheek before taking a nice hearty bite out of it. Wiping her mouth when she finishes, taking care to lick her teeth.

"It's not cougar, but it'll do."

[forhawkeye]

"Cougars are a little harder to get on short notice," I say, arching an eyebrow, not fazed in the slightest that she just killed the thing. Better the bunny than one of us. "...though I'm sure Tommy would probably try to find you one."

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't really expecting him to steal me one from the zoo." Alice laughs, shaking her head as she searches for a place to discreetly stash the now limp body of the rabbit. "That would defeat the purpose of keeping a low profile."

[forhawkeye]

"I'm not sure anyone would even notice at this point," I admit. A good chunk of New York's in ruins. A missing cougar would be the least of anyone's worries. "But, uh, I don't think the guys would be too happy with having a cougar in the house." I wait beat. "Not that kind of cougar, at least."

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

"Are you making a statement about the level of observation amongst your fellow New Yorkers?" she says casually taking up her best professorial tone as she reaches for another bunny. Alice coos softly at one, scooping it into her lap. "I'm technically the other kind of cougar. All by my little self."

[forhawkeye]

"Don't let Tommy hear--" But it's too late, he's already sitting next to me on the couch, like he's been there this entire time. He looks about as fazed as I do about Alice's dietary choices, which is to say, not at all.

"Someone say cougar?"

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

Alice waves a hand. "I did."

Holding the squirming bunny, she gestures to Kate. "I was telling Kate how in addition to eating cougar, I am technically a cougar. As in the sexual slang term."

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

It was none of his business, Felix knew that. He'd had the situation explained to him quite thoroughly, that it was just her nature, that she couldn't really help what she was, and that the alternatives were far more unpleasant. But now, sitting in a sofa across from Alice and openly staring at the gruesome spectacle before him, he knew he had to take action. She was eating bunnies. Not commercially slaughtered and processed rabbit meat (an ingredient he was something of a master with, if he did say so himself), but tiny, adorable, floppy-eared, hoppy-legged, twitchy-nosed little bunnies!

He wouldn't be able to save them all, but he had to make the effort. Just look at them, so sweet and innocent and unsuspecting before they were savaged. Rising quickly to his feet, Felix took a few unsteady steps over to her before opening his mouth to speak. However, when he attempted to make some sort of protest, all that seemed to come out was an incredulous, horrified, high-pitched "How?"

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

Alice stares at him for a moment. Just for a small moment and then she out and out laughs. It's his twitchiness and the fact that all of the thoughts running through his head making and unmaking half a dozen futures is positively hysterical.

Perhaps she should offer him an apron or something.

"Easy. I just hold them and bite. How else do you eat something? A straw is impratical."

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

Gaping at her in open horror, Felix wavered slightly in his resolve at her response. How could she be so chipper while perpetrating such atrocious acts? It was... oddly disarming.

"You just- bite and- a straw?!" he sputtered in disgust, eyes wide. "But it's so barbaric! And so messy! And they're so cute!"

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

"So are people. Would you like me to eat you?"

Alice is pretty certain that Felix wouldn't taste very good. All sorts of stress and other additives flowing through the bloodstream. There is no way that can be good for a person.

"Cooking them is barbaric. I feel bad for lobsters. They're still alive and boiled no less! They squeal!"

[oscaroscaroscar.livejournal.com]

Felix wasn't about to argue her first point for fairly obvious reasons. He was very cute.

"That is actually an urban myth," he said with a finger in the air. Blind, unreasoning horror was no reason not to be informative when he was able, after all. "That's just the sound of heated air escaping from the carapace as it turns to steam." He paused, thinking about it for a second.

"It is still kind of sad, though. Even if they're not particularly cute."

[asinglechange.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't know. I've never actually cooked a lobster. I've only watched Julia Child cook one."

On the television, with a sort of fascination that can only come from watching but being unable to enjoy.

"Most humans aren't particularly cute either."