Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 Who: Rae, Astrid .. later Fox Where: Living Room When: early afternoon What: Girl Talk
As far as vacations went, so far, this had to be one of Astrid's favorites. It was kind of hilarious having her boyfriend be so totally mellow now, given that this was day two of baked Keagan, and while she didn't judge, it did mean that she had to give the friendly little 'Nooo, I don't need a joint right now' to him every so often. So this was one of those times. Astrid was sitting in the TV room of the beach house with a big book and a bunch of baggies and jars and all sorts of weird-looking things. Astrid was planning on doing her ritual on Saturday and she wanted to make sure she had everything.
Rae had went upstairs to shower for the second time today -- just to get all the sand out of her clothes, thank you very much to Fox for knocking her ass over on the beach -- and galloped downstairs wearing jeans and a skinny strapped black tank top. Her tattoos were in full display, and the thin material of the top -- which was meant to go under something, really, but she was improvising because she had only brought one outfit per day, and this was half of another outfit -- made it clear she had body jewelry..somewhere other than her bellybutton.
"Hey, what's up?" she said immediately interested in Astrid's clearly witchy doings.
Astrid glanced up as she heard Rae's voice, then grinned and held up the little athame that Keagan had made for her after they got to the house. After all, sneaking a knife onboard a plane would NOT go over well with TSA security. "Heeey, not much." She flipped the knife in her hand, then put it back down. "I am double-checking to make sure I have everything I need."
"For what?" she said, flopping down on the couch beside Astrid. In the beginning of the week Rae had practically avoided her, because she was shy and didn't know what Astrid wanted to talk about but now... well, now she had gotten drunk with Astrid, faked an orgasm in front of her, and split dessert with her at dinner.
"Well, my dad had called before we went on this trip to tell me that I kind of... forgot about a Norse holiday, and since I'm a Norse witch, thaaat's kind of a big deal." Astrid flipped a page in the book she had open on the floor, then grabbed a little bag of sea salt she had at her left, tossing that into her pile of things she needed. "So I'm gonna do my sabbat Saturday before we leave here. The beach will be a nice change from where I normally do it."
"Isn't that going to ah, call some attention to you? Out there?" Rae asked, glancing at the back door before looking back to the little baggies Astrid was working with. "Need help?"
"I'm not too worried. I'm probably just gonna sneak out when I know it's late, and, y'know, there aren't that many beach houses around ours, so I'm sure it'll be cool." At the offer for help, Astrid smiled some. "Uhhh, there isn't too much to do, but hey, I'd love the company. If nothing else, you can tell me if Cassie's come up with anymore ideas for the sexplosions puppet extravaganza you thought she would have with your toys." Astrid hadn't even finished saying her joke before she was already giggling.
"Aaahaah.." she covered her face with one hand, chipped dark purple nail polish decorating her fingernails. Sober, now, Rae was back to barely laughing aloud and speaking in her usual wry monotone. "Jeez."
"I'm sorry," Astrid chuckled, glancing back at Rae, blonde hair in her eyes. "I'm wondering if there are rules for what you can and can't talk about when you're sober after a game of drunken 'I never.""
Rae laughed, then shrugged. "Eh, whatever. We can say whatever happens in Myrtle stays in Myrtle. Y'know, like Vegas, but vastly less glitzy. Besides, I've been spilling my guts all over the place anyway this week." She laughed and leaned back into the couch, pulling her legs up against her chest.
"Yeah, but I would say the massive spilling of guts is a good thing." Astrid turned some so she could see Rae better, then kept on organizing her stuff. "I mean, it's been nice to be able to get to know you and get to know Cassie. I mean, hell, I dunno if I ever would have talked to Cassie otherwise, simply cause, y'know, I didn't really know her. And you're awesome, but we hadn't really talked all that much."
She blushed at the pure...honesty coming from a very sober Astrid. She was awesome? Why? Why was she glad to get to know her? What had she said that was so great to deserve such a nice compliment?
"Uh.. thanks." She bit at a hangnail. "Yes, I guess so. A good thing, I mean."
"I may have to kick your brother, though." Astrid chuckled as she opened up a baggie of rose petals and sniffed, glad that they still smelled nice enough for an offering. "That scuzzweasel totally FAKED being hurt during Laser Tag and zinged me badly."
"Ahahaha, that was awesome. Did he tell you what I did to Fox? Did Fox tell you?" she waggled her eyebrows, grinning wickedly.
"No? What did you do?!" Astrid was sitting up and eager to listen with a giggle the moment that Rae mentioned her doing something to Fox. It was April Fools' the other day, it HAD to have been good. "Tell me tell me tell me."
Rae laughed softly and propped one arm up on the back of the couch. After doing a quick sweep for incoming Fox, she told the story of her fake sex dream.
The longer the story went on, the more Astrid realized how toooootally caught off-guard Fox must have been, and by the end her eyes were wide and her mouth was wide open in a smile before she managed to let out the laughter she'd been holding back. "Holy shit, that is totally awesome!" She laughed. "Seriously, seriously awesome!"
Rae couldn't help it, and Astrid managed to get a positively girly giggle out of her.
"Yeaaaaaaaah it kinda was."
"You are a genius, I bow to your awesomeness." Astrid laughed before giving a little melodramatic bow to the ground. "I mean, seriously, that is freakin' insane. I suck at lying, so I would have started laughing three seconds into trying to tell that kind of a story!"
"Oh, no, I'm good at lying," Rae said, with a smirk, sniffing delicately in the direction. Rose petals? Mmm.
"Yeah. We just went tattoo shopping. Well, for him. I'm thinking of getting a piercing."
Astrid glanced over at Rae before her sight focused on her shirt, and she could tell that Rae's anatomy had a few bumps hers didn't. "Um... where?"
She put a finger near either of her collarbones. "Dermals. Maybe two here, or three here." She pushed three dots into her minimal cleavage. "Though if I had your boobs, they would look better there. And would probably happen much easier." Astrid was chesty!
Astrid laughed a little, holding her hands up and waving them in the universal 'oh hells no' motion. "Oooh, no, I can't do piercings. At least, not more than my ears. But, hey, more power to you if you can handle it. I would think it would hurt and be a total pain, though."
"Eh, I love it," she said with a half-shrug and a smirk. "So what is this ritual for? Like, a religous thing? Do you guys pray to Oden and stuff? I was just talking about Norse myths the other day, that's so funny." She had no idea Astrid was a Nordic witch. So cool.
"Yeah, it's the festival of Ostara. It's normally just the spring equinox and there's no big holiday for Christianity, but, yeah, my whole family is Norse, so we're used to praying to Alfather - " She paused to explain. "Odin - and we follow the whole Norse myths thing pretty closely."
"Wow, that's fucking awesome. I love Norse mythology. Loki is my fav. I always pictured him being super hot. Or, at least, you know.. half hot, and the other half super misunderstood." She grinned, reaching down to scratch at the side of her bare foot.
Giggling some, Astrid nodded and flipped pages in her book until she came to a picture of Loki. Well, at leas, it was an artist's rendering from this book on Norse culture. "Yeah, he's always one of those gods you want to keep happy. We don't really worship him so much as give him offerings in the hope that he won't stir up trouble for everyone else. You know what's weird, though?" Astrid sat back and glanced over at her. "Norse mythology hates witches."
"Catholicism seems to hate happy people, so you know, they all got their quirks," she said with a shrug and a snicker, reaching forward to poke at the bag of rose petals. "Mmm, smells good." Yes, she could smell it from a few feet away.
"Yeah, Keagan and I found some cheap roses from a local vendor Monday morning. I thought they'd be a good offering to Freyja, since this is one of her bigger holidays." Astrid said at the mention of the rose petals.
"So he's all cool with this? What is he, anyway, I forget. Aside from inexplicably virginal," she said, with a smirk.
Astrid turned a little pink at the mention of Keagan's lack of sexual experience, and she shrugged. "he's totally cool with it. In fact, I think he finds it really really interesting, because he asks me a ton of questions about it."
"That's cute," she said, stretching her legs back down and melting into the sofa a little. She pulled an ottoman closer with her feet to rest her ankles up. "You guys are nauseatingly cute together."
"Well, thanks. I think?" Astrid giggled, shaking her head a little. "I'm aware of how grossly cute we can be, though. But, I hope we've managed to keep it toned down a little for this trip."
"No no, I wasn't making fun, I mean it. It's cute." She twisted her mouth, wondering if she'd ever find a guy like Keagan. A tinge of jealousy tasted bitter in her mouth, so she swallowed it quickly, disappointed in herself.
"Well, it's certainly better than having Fox yipping at my heels." Astrid grumbled before shifting so she could lean back against the couch. "Which, y'know, I think he, uh, likes you more than he says he does."
She arched an eyebrow at the television screen, but slowly turned it toward Astrid. "Are you postulating, or did he say something to you?"
"Well, y'know, he and I have done nothing but butt heads for weeks now, but I wanted to try y'know, working things out to a fairly level playing field. So we were chatting last night and when I mentioned you he told me that you guys had gotten along really well and he gave the 'we're just friends' line, but it was NOTHING like when he says he and I are just friends." Astrid was dead serious, but her face had a devious smirk.
Rae tried to hide a smirk but her attempt was unsucessful. "Wait, why did YOU mention ME?" she said, with a soft laugh.
"It just came up in conversation because he was trying to steer said conversation towards Keagan and i know the two of them hardly tolerate each other and so I... y'know... diffused." Astrid giggled, realizing how lame that sounded, but it HAD been the truth.
"Eeeh that's okay, I talked about you with him today, too. I called him out on trying to mack it to you first, and then when you turned him down, he's giving me the eyes now." She crossed her arms. "He goes -- you could have asked, I wouldn't have denied it --- what sort of bullshit is that?" She shook her head, wet hair swishing against her naked shoulders. She smelled of peach and vanilla.
"He's cute, but it won't work. I know he likes me, or whatever, but I'm not his type. He thinks he likes me."
"Actually, to be totally honest," Astrid got up and then plopped down beside Rae on the couch, the witchy things momentarily forgotten. "I think he says that because he's too scared of being turned down. So I think he likes you, I think he just doesn't have the first idea how not to screw it up. The, uh, part of the gigantic blow out fight we had last week was because I called him on his bullshit, and he finally admitted that being friends with people and actually liking someone for more than just what they could do for him was totally out of his comfort zone. But, y'know, he is trying."
"Yeah, I can see that." She scooted over to make more room for Astrid, pressing against the sofa of a couch. "I guess....whatever. I don't think he's the sort of guy for me. I want a guy who likes .. having a girlfriend, and doing things boyfriends do, and talking.. not someone who is afraid to be himself. That's .. I mean, especially not so afraid to be himself that he feels like he has to be an asshole to other people." She bit at her cuticles. "I get WHY he does it, but that doesn't mean I have to put up with it."
She laughed a little in response and nodded. "Oooh, I am totally right there with you. It's why I am dating Keagan and whyyyy..." Astrid groaned a little, putting her hand to her forehead. "I wish that Jack didn't act like that kind of guy that could be a good boyfriend if he just didn't get so bored."
Rae screwed her face up, pinching her nose. "Oooh, dude, you do nooot want to break up with Keagan for Jack. I mean, Jack's not as bad as he seems but... nooooo, not a good trade. I mean, I love him, but.. Keagan.. nooo."
"What? No! No, I wouldn't, I didn't mean it like that..." Astrid laughed, blushing even more red. "Believe me, I really love being with Keagan and he's definitely the only guy I really care about. But your bro is a friend, at least, I consider him a good friend, and I just know that if me and Keagan were to ever go south, I would toootally wind up thinking of your brother at some point."
Rae just shook her head and laughed. "I dunno. Maybe you could tolerate him. You have that tomboy thing going."
"Well, to be fair, Jack said he gets bored easily? And, I mean, I'm soooo weird, I don't know how anyone could get bored of me." It took Astrid a second to realize what she said and she scoffed. "Wooow, I did... I think that came out totally wrong."
Rae was used to girls going kerplotz over her brother. She appeared relatively unphased by this line of conversation. "Yeah, he says that, but in reality of the three semi serious girlfriends he's had, two of them broke up with HIM."
"Ouch." Astrid winced, hissing a little. "Let me guess. 'You don't talk to me, we never talk about our feelings?'" Astrid clicked her tongue and sighed. "Jack had mentioned not wanting to be 'crowbarred' apart by girls he dates."
"Yeaaaah, sounds about right." She slid off the couch, feeling the need to find something to munch on. "He's totally less in denial about being a nice guy than Fox is, though, which is a huge improvement. He used to be JUST LIKE Fox," Rae said, moving toward the kitchen.
Astrid grinned and then hopped up to follow her. Munchies did seem like an awesome plan. "Well, think of it this way, that says there's hope for Fox and that Jack's nice guy isn't a front, it's part of who he is." Astrid grabbed a soda on the counter and popped it open. "My opinion on guys like Jack and Fox is that eventually they will find a girl that totally throws them for a loop. And when they do, suddenly they'll realize that they don't have to act the way they do."
"Mmm. Sounds like a movie made for Rachel McAdams or something," she said, grabbing a wine cooler for herself and a bag of Doritos. She moved back to the living room, grinning.
Astrid found her brain food - Pop Taaaaarts - and followed Rae with a smirk. "Y'know, you're probably right. Maybe with, like, I dunno, Ryan Reynolds playing a megadouche or something. Who then realizes that being a megadouche is a really good way to lose someone he cares about."
"Mmmmm... Ryan Reynolds..." she said, smirking as she plopped back onto the sofa. She opened the bag and held it open for Astrid.
"Oo, thank you." Astrid plucked a Dorito from the bag, then sat back some to munch. "We need more hot guys at this school to act like the sweet goofball guys out there in the world. Like... like, um, that dude... on That 70's show. The main character boy who has like, a billion expressions."
"Topher Grace?!" Rae squealed. Yes. Squealed.
"Yes! Him! Ooooh my god, he is so totally cute!" Astrid squealed as well. How could you not when talking about Topher Grace!
Astrid happened to look up at Fox after Rae did, and she couldn't help but snicker a little as well. Clearing her throat, she glanced up at Fox and grinned. "Heeeey, Fox."
Fox had just come back inside after a brief run along the beach, intending to go up and shower, but seeing the two women talking with each other and snickering set off little red flags. "Oh, hey ladies." He looked from one to the other, more than a little confused. The only reason they'd be looking at him like that was that they'd been talking about him. Oh lord.
Rae caught his expression and then decided trying to hide it was pointless. So instead she grinned up at him from next to Astrid, and went so far as to cuddle up against her a little, biting her lip. "What's up?" she said, nostrils flaring with an impish glee.
Astrid was liking this. They were totally about to start being impish and devious and it was about damn time anyway. She hadn't had a chance to really do so lately. "So, uh... Fox... I, uh, I heard that you were the subject of someone's fantasy yesterday? That must have been pretty thrilling."
Fox glanced at Rae. So the little wench had decided to share her practical joke on him? Har har. Adopting a cocky stance and a casual grin, he teased back, "But of course! I mean, aside from you two, who could resist me?"
"Ohh ho ho," Rae said, returning to her original position, her hand disappearing into the Doritos bag. "We're starting a support group, don't worry. We'll help Fox-stricken girls everywhere see through your indestructible charm."
"Indestructible is a good word for his charm." Astrid chuckled, and she took a bite of Pop Tart. "And don't feel bad, Fox, you can't help that we're just both too awesome for you."
Fox shook his head. Women were crazy. Whatever went on in their heads, he wasn't sure he wanted to know. "Yeah, but at least you two have been giving the guys an eyeful this week." He flashed a grin. "Enough to keep us all happy for awhile."
Rae rolled her eyes and looked to the TV, munching happily.
"Yeah, well, y'know, Fox," Astrid blew him a kiss, giving him a flirtatious pout. "We do it all for you."
Fox gave Astrid a wink and caught the kiss she blew at him. He felt a lot better now that they were on good terms again. It was almost like he could flirt harmlessly and they both knew it was okay since nothing would come of it. Glancing over Rae's outfit, he noticed she had changed. "Get all the sand out, Rae?"
"Yeah, thanks again, by the way." She smiled cheekily up at him, wiggling her bare toes.
"I don't want to ask, do I?" Astrid said as she took a sip of her soda and looked between the two of them. "I mean, I hear that sex on the beach is way more uncomfortable than people think it would be."
Fox grinned at Rae. "Anytime," he winked. Moving, he rested his arms on the back of the sofa between the two, watching them both. "Y'mean all this talking and she hasn't told you?"
"Oh, har har," she said, rolling her eyes. "We were barely on the beach. We went tattoo shopping. Zucco here has no tats. I'm gonna pop his ink cherry."
"Would that be a V-card, or like... an I-card? Like an iPod but more... hilariously greaser." Astrid was kind of having fun ribbing Fox in tandem with Rae. It was fun. "To be fair, though, I think you'd look pretty cool with a tattoo, Fox.
Fox smiled down at Astrid, ignoring Rae's dig. "Thank you," he smiled. "I didn't really see anything I liked right off the bat, so I'm gonna look around and find another design."
"Yup, he has until Saturday," Rae said, slithering off the couch. "I'm going to go check my email," she announced, pulling her jeans up to cover more of her sides. They had shifted downward in her lazy lounge on the sofa.
"Okay?" Astrid smiled and nommed her pop tart. "Lemme know if you get any emails about increasing the size of your penis. I love hacking those back to the bot that sends them to people." She looked over at Fox. "You can hang with me while I do witchly things or go... check her email with her."
Fox climbed over the back of the sofa as Rae toddled off. "If you don't mind, I think I'll stay here." He gestured to the various acoutrements set out. "I've never seen this side of you."
"Well, you sort of saw it when you heard pappa practically chewing me out over the holiday. I was telling Rae that I'm gonna go ahead and do my sabbat on Saturday." Astrid held out a piece of pop tart to Fox in case he was interested. "So you and Rae were hanging out looking at tats. That sounds seriously awesome."
Fox nodded and gave a quick thanks to her as he took the poptart and popped it into his mouth. Yum. "Yeah, we were checking things out. Found a shop not too far from here. I'll probably get one on Saturday before we leave." He glanced back over his shoulder the way Rae had left to indicate her. "She's thinking about another piercing."
"Yeaaah, she mentioned. She show you where?" Astrid shifted to look at him a little more, then crossed her arms over her chest. "Y'know, not to be pushy, but, um, she's really sweet. I think you two really seem to get along."
Fox pointed to a spot on his chest, right between the breasts. "A dermal, she said was what she was looking at." Cocking his head to one side, he picked up the Doritos bag Rae had left and dug in. "Yeah, we're pretty cool."
"May I make a suggestion?" Astrid asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
Fox licked some of the nacho flavoring off his fingers. "What's that?"
"Take a leap around her, okay? Don't, y'know, don't close up or anything. I'm really glad that you've been so nice to me and that we're on good terms, but..." Astrid smiled. "She likes you but I don't want you to match her a notch."
Leap around her? What the hell did that mean? "Uh," he started, obviously confused. "Wanna try that in English?"
Astrid sighed, sitting up and suddenly bringing her hands down on his shoulders. "Get out of your comfort zone, Fox! Tryyyyyy...." Astrid started to shake him, trying not to laugh.
Fox let his head loll around on his shoulders as she shook him, figuring it'd be good for a laugh if nothing else. Once she finally stopped, he chuckled. "I have been actually. It's kinda weird, but nice at the same time." After glancing back over his shoulder to make sure that Rae was upstairs and out of hearing range, he turned to face Astrid, running a hand through his hair. "I've actually, uh, been thinking about something, About asking Rae something, but I'm not sure what she'd say."
"Askiiiing what? Exactly?" Astrid leaned a little closer to him, as if she was his co-conspirator. "C'mon, you know you can tell me."
Fox pursed his lips a moment before giving a slight shrug. Eh, why not? "I was wondering if she'd be willing to design a tattoo for me. I mean, she's a good artist, and I think I've got something in mind, but I don't think she'd go for it."
"Why don't you just try asking her and finding out?" Astrid had actually been expecting him to give her a different answer, but hey, that was okay. Baby steps! "And if you tell her you think she's a good artist, I'm sure she'd go for it. What's your idea?"
Fox shrugged. "Barbed wire armband at first, but that just seems a bit d-baggy now. So I was debating on a tribal design. A fox maybe? Or is that too cliche?"
"Well, it would be cliche if it was all 'Rar, i'm a fox on your arm!' If it's more tribal-looking and y'know, stylized, that would be pretty cool. And yeah, the barbed wire does kind of shout 'I'm a d-bag.'" Astrid polished off her pop tart and sat back again, sipping her soda.
Fox leaned back against the sofa. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking." After crunching on a few more chips, he asked casually, "So what were y'all talking about?"
"Oh, y'know, the norm." Astrid shrugged. "You, Jack, Keagan, the fact that we got wasted the other night."
Fox arched a brow and kept working on the chips. "Oh? Care to fill me in?"
"Uhhh... what would you like to know?" Astrid held a finger up. "Although, I cannot quite guarantee that you will get an honest answers, as the chicks before dicks rule applies."
Fox nodded, agreeing. "I'd rather you say you can't tell me than lie though."
"No worries. I will. I'm just letting you know that it's got a rule." Astrid reached up and pat him on the head while she swigged soda once more.
Fox snacked on another chip. "Cool. So what about us guys were y'all talking about?" He left the question open, because he was just curious. Didn't care who or what about.
"Oh, all sorts of stuff. Mainly about who's cute. But other than that," Astrid shrugged some and reached out to grab a chip out of his bag. "And about how the best way to lose someone you like is to be a megadouche to them."
Fox nodded at the first and sighed, dropping his head against the back of the seat. "So I'm pretty sure that last one was about me."
Astrid smiled a little, leaning close to nudge him with her shoulder. "Not just you. Her brother was the subject of that conversation, too. BUT, you were one of the people on my mind when I thought about that." Astrid held a hand up, chip in hand. "I'm not lecturing you, though."
Fox rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you and everyone else. Apparently I am the ultimate douche. Sounds like I should go for a barbed wire tat."
"I didn't say you WERE the ultimate douche. I was saying to Rae that I think you ACT like one because you don't like the idea of having to open up to people and then get hurt." Astrid shrugged a little, looking over at him.
Fox nodded, muching on his chips. "Which is true. Mostly."
"Where does your opinion diverge on the subject?"
"I don't intentionally act like one. And I'm not a big fan of opening up period."
Astrid nodded some, sipping her soda and finishing the food in her mouth before she spoke again. "Well, to be fair, when you open up, you show me that you're a good guy. You show Rae you're a good guy. We like that."
Fox nodded. "I know." He licked more of the nacho seasoning from his fingertips. "But I'm combating twenty years of habit here. Give me a break."
"I do. And I did. And i will continue to do so. It doesn't mean that I can't rip on you for it." She grinned, reaching up and tapping his nose with her finger.
Fox wiggled his nose after she tapped it. "Yeah yeah yeah." He dug into the chip bag again. "Whatever makes your jello jiggle."
"Something about you and jello and jiggling and suddenly i've lost my appetite..." Astrid laughed, and she hopped up out of her seat. "And on that note, I need to go find my boyfriend. He promised me we could pick up the last of the stuff I need for my ritual on Saturday."
Fox nodded, reaching out for the remote for the TV and flipping it on. "Alrighty then. I'm just gonna sit here and veg out for awhile."
"Cool. I will talk to you later, sunshine!" Astrid grinned, then scooped up all her witchy things on the floor and headed out.