WHO: Cate Adler and Thorne Proudfoot WHAT: Two friends check in and catch up. WHEN: Wednesday, June 26th [Backdated] WHERE: Delilah's RATING: SFW
Thorne knew people were outraged on his behalf on the memo that was circulated right before the end of business on Monday, but in many ways it was a relief. Thorne didn't harbor (much) ill-will. Honestly, it was better than he expected. Suspension pending investigation. Considering his legal trouble and being-status that was downright generous. Other institutions wouldn't even have given him the courtesy of cleaning out his desk.
People were expecting him to fight, but what they failed to realize is that Thorne had been fighting. Fighting every goddamn blessed day and he was still kicked when he was down. Or stabbed. He was tired of fighting, dammit. All he wanted to do was solve the complex problems that wards and similar spellcraft presented, but he kept running head on into roadblocks and frankly there were only so many times he could do that without realizing his efforts were futile.
Sitting in the corner booth of Delilah's, Thorne had his phone and tablet at his elbow was currently ignoring both. As he waited for his order (steak, practically mooing, decaf coffee, and curly fries), he was currently puzzling over something completely different. The masquerade wasn't the first time he had done wandless magic. There had been other instances over the years, but he hadn't called anything up on purpose since before he'd come to the Proudfoots. It had marked him as too different.
Spread out before him were a handful of small round glowing orbs. At first glance they might remind someone of marbles, but upon closer examination they revealed themselves to be suspended balls of light. With a gentle direction of his finger he guided each one into place, revealing a recreation of Corvus and Cassiopeia followed by Ursa Major, and then finally Cynus. The patterns came to him easily, but keeping them all alight and in place was taking all of his concentration.
Cate had been using her time before work to run some errands to prep for her trip away this weekend, but she'd intentionally saved the best for last. She'd ordered Kent's birthday cake back when she and Tony had first discussed it, just to make sure she could time it correctly. Now they were leaving tomorrow, and it was a good thing she had so much to keep her occupied, because she was stupidly giddy about it. She'd never been to Mexico before.
The walk-up counter was pretty busy when she entered. She briefly considered whether it being run by her future sister-in-law was enough to let her slip behind the counter and just grab it herself, but she decided against it. That would only speed her through her errands, and she was already enough like a kid before Christmas. She glanced sideways as she stood in the line, and immediately her smile shifted to concern. While, logically, she knew that Thorne was fine to be up and about by now, she couldn't help remembering how pale he'd looked on Saturday.
"That's pretty. What is it?" she asked, as she leaned against the bench seat opposite him, birthday cake temporarily forgotten.
Thorne's head jerked upwards and a flash of embarrassment crossed his face. With a wave of his hand, the marble-like lights disappeared in a wink. "It's nothing." People didn't like it when he did wandless magic. Accidental magic was fine when you were a kid, you couldn't help that. Wandless magic, however, was a signifier that you were other. Something to be feared. Freak.
"What are you up to, Cate?"
A flash of hurt crossed Cate's face, but she covered it up as quickly as she could. It wasn't any of her business if he didn't want to share with her, especially after the kind of weekend he'd had. She felt almost awkward now, where any other time she might have ignored any perception that she was unwelcome as a quirk of Thorne's personality. But right now she honestly wasn't sure.
"Shopping," she said, and then made a greater effort to push the smile back to her face. "We're surprising Kent with a trip away for his birthday, so I've had to pick up a few things." She nodded toward the counter. "Including his birthday cake."
He glanced over at the counter. He probably should have gotten Quen a birthday cake, as it was he'd barely remembered the man's birthday and that was one of the few dates Thorne had positively committed to memory. Maybe he should get one. Though flavor was the big question. What flavor did one get for being a total Debbie Downer?
But that was a digression. Internally shaking himself, Thorne turned his attention back on Cate. As much as seemed to be stuck in his own mind, unsurprisingly being suspended gave you a lot of free time, Cate was an Other too. If only in a slightly different way. "Oh? Where are you guys going?" He tried to keep the jealousy from his voice. He'd never been much for travel, sticking mainly to the US, but with his movements being so restricted, his feet got itchy.
"Mexico," Cate said, her smile nearly recovered now. "I've never been, but Tony knows all the best places, apparently. He's doing all the booking, so that'll be a little bit of a surprise for me, too. My job is planning a birthday lunch as a screen for Tony packing Kent's bag. It's this whole covert mission thing." She debated for a second and then slid into the booth across from him. "It's weird not working as much at the Kestrel."
"Sounds like I should pull up the Mission: Impossible theme on my phone." He glanced at it, as if he was seriously considering the prospect, but then shrugged, the thought forgotten as quickly as it had come. "Is it weird to have a life outside of work? I never thought so."
But it was weird not knowing how to fill his hours now. Thorne didn't think he liked working for the Reserve as much as he did. It was a change of pace from any of the cities he'd lived in, certainly, but it had been challenging in it's own way. "I'm sure the Kestrel will still be here when you get back." The thought was meant to be reassuring, but it sounded like Thorne was just making small talk, like he would with any person he couldn't get out of a conversation with. But this was Cate and she had never been just any other person. What was wrong with him?
"No, it's not weird. But it's not like I'm working less. Just less at the Kestrel." Cate was quiet for a minute, because it felt like something was off, but she couldn't quite place it. Was it the elephant in the room? The fact that Thorne had been stabbed and then suspended? She wouldn't have thought so, considering she'd seen him once since the former had happened, but maybe she was wrong? "The Kestrel was just fine before I even started working there full time. That's not really the point."
She bit her lip for a second, then leaned forward and dropped her voice. No need to give the town more to talk about. "Do you want me to go? I can leave you alone if you want." She did have the perfectly good excuse of errands, but she couldn't quite bring herself to use it. "I didn't mean to interrupt."
"No sorry. There's nothing really to interrupt." Thorne dropped his hands into his lap as he picked at his ragged cuticles under the table. Out of sight, out of mind. "You want to know how I am, don't you? Physically, I've been cleared by the healers. Mostly trying to figure out how to fill my hours right now." It was getting to the point that he was considering going back to his advanced certificate coursework, but he hadn't touched that in almost a year. They possibly dropped him as a student.
Thorne looked over the top of his glasses and tried to give her grin, but it looked more like a crooked grimace instead. "I'm at loose ends, Cate. So there's really not much to interrupt because I'm not doing much."
Her teeth still pulled at her lip, but Cate smiled a bit at that. "Am I that obvious? I can't help but worry, even seeing you sitting here." She'd already spent a fair amount of time expressing her concern on Saturday, so she reined that in for now, even if it hadn't entirely faded. "Have you heard anything? About when you might be able to go back, I mean."
She leaned forward, elbows on the table. "What do you want to be doing?"
Turning his face upward, Thorne looked at the ceiling and shook his head. "Who even knows anymore?" Well that sounded particularly grim. He shook his head and looked back at Cate. "You're not the only one who's asked, no. I guess I should be feeling pretty grateful for that, but it's starting to feel too much like pity." And people could take their pity and shove it as far as Thorne was concerned. He'd never wanted it nor needed it. He wasn't about to start now.
"I want to go back to warding, but there is no way in hell anyone is going to let me near anything beyond anti-gnomes with my history." Partial-vampire. Criminal record. Dodgy employment history. There were far too many marks in the con column to outweigh any pros. "And if they did? They're not going to be located in Snowcap."
"What about private contracts? I mean, I know nothing about it, so I don't even know if that's a thing, but it seems like it should be. Or maybe you could find someone who's in business for themselves who needs a partner or apprentice? People with houses want wards just as much as big businesses. Freddy's work is sort of like that, even though he's with a firm. He travels to the work and then back home when he's done. He's not, like, sitting at a desk all the time."
Cate shrugged, folding her hands together on the table. "Or I could talk to some of the people I know, see if they know anyone. I mean, it's weird that a magical tech company gave me a shot, but it's worked out well enough, even though there are certain parts I can't do myself." Sometimes she wondered if that would matter more now that she was devoting more time to that particular career, but she'd made up her mind not to worry about it until or unless it came up. "I only got it because I had a friend there, though."
She was offering solutions, but Thorne wasn't having any of it. He was in a place where he couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel, though he knew it was there. He'd find it, eventually. "Thanks." He ran a hand through his hair, back to front. "But I'm not sure any of that works, exactly." Shaking his head, he tried to offer her a smile. "I know you're trying to help, and I appreciate it. But…."
His voice trailed off to nothing and he was at a loss for what to say. "So Mexico, huh? Never been. Excited?" The change in topic was hardly smooth, but if meant he didn't have to talk about himself it was a good thing.
If Cate had learned anything in her long friendship with Thorne, it was when to press a subject and when to back off, and her instincts were telling her that she'd pressed as much as she could for now. It didn't mean she was finished, but she could relent in the short run. "How could I not be excited? Boyfriends, sun, sand, ocean, long weekend away? What's there not to love? Plus, Kent doesn't have a clue, so there's the excitement of the surprise. I've never pulled off one of this magnitude before. I feel a little like I'm pulling a heist. I need some good theme music."
Picking up his phone, Thorne did a quick search before hitting play after half a second or so, the theme song to Mission Impossible began to play. "Done." He grinned at her. "Want me to send this to you? Though it might tip him off….." Tapping his chin as if he was lost in thought, Thorne returned to his phone to pull up another song. "He'll never suspect that."
Cate grinned at the first choice but launched into a giggling fit at the second. "Oh my god, I haven't heard that in years. I don't think he'd suspect, but I'm positive he'd wonder at my sanity if I played that song during our lunch date." She shook her head, but it didn't quite rid her of the mental image. "But yes, send them both to me. If only because I want to listen to the whole thing later and see how many words I remember."
She glanced back to the counter. The line was better now, thankfully. "We should plan to do something soon," she said, even as she was sliding toward the edge of the booth. "Intentionally, not just running into each other than random or chatting on Wizgram. Like, I don't know, something incredibly nerdy that only the two of us might enjoy."
Before he could even really think about it, Thorne was already tapping away, sending the songs are requested. It wasn’t that hard in the long run and it made happy. “Well, I’m free for the foreseeable future. Let me know, yeah?" Maybe having things scheduled during his day would be good for him. A distraction from all that was going on in his life. "I think there might be a few things in the Laramie that we could get up to doing."
"After I'm back from Mexico, for sure," Cate said with a grin. "I have some very fond memories of 'getting up to' things in Laramie that ended in various levels of nerdy insanity more than once, so I'm in. I'll text you!" And with that, she joined the much-shorter line for her cake, thoughts of all the packing she needed to do on her mind.