InsaneJournal

It had been a fun show, and Richie loved those. Every performer could indulge in a little bit of razzle dazzle, enjoying it, experiencing the rush of adrenaline - the familiar thrill of electricity skittering up his spine, the feel under the hot lights, that was why he did what he did. Not to mention the appreciation of the applause, applause, applause - it was kind of like a natural high, and a lot better than chasing something synthetic (which he had done in the past and didn’t bother with any longer).

Bananas was an intimate venue too - so small and cozy they went with free pizza on show nights, which did tend to be a big draw. Whenever the show was done (on nights when Richie wasn’t performing it was burlesque or some kind of stretchy circus thing, very cool) everyone went and packed at the bar to drink, but on this particular night he stayed back and decided to focus on the pizza instead. He was hungry, okay, and needed to rehydrate - that was why he had water and carbs, both very important aspects of life. His shirt was loud, as usual, black and printed with neon cacti and piñatas, paired with jeans and hair that was curly and loosely styled to flop over into his eyes like usual too - maybe Richie personally had changed a lot since arriving in Vallo almost two years ago, but his sense of fashion really hadn’t. Which may be upsetting but -

Deal with the eyesores. Those who loved him found a way.

He liked when friends came out to see his shows, and he got to test out material he wrote himself on people he cared about. After he finished, he maneuvered backstage and resisted the call of the post-show cigarette (his pre-show ritual included vodka and mints), freshening up before heading back out to join the crowd and swipe some pizza; he made sure to grab slices for the aforementioned friend, and an extra water, and squeezed in between bodies to find appropriate seating.

This wasn’t the first time Alex had been to Bananas to see Richie’s show. It had only been a handful of times, scattered through the months (maybe even a year now?? Insane) they’d been friends. She’d brought Lena here for a date night before because sometimes a good comedy show was the kind of fun they needed. It was always a good time, full of laughter invoked by a slew of good comedians, Richie among them.

It had been a while since her last visit. She’d been doing her best to do the recovery thing, which meant sliding slightly back into some workaholic behavior to curb the cravings and attending AA on a weekly basis. She was doing good, though, if she did say so herself. She was had just hit sixty days now, even had the gold chip in her pocket as proof. She kept it in her hand now, stroking across the surface with her thumb, while she waited for Richie at a little table. She was looking forward to the pizza and…water. She’d have liked a beer, but such was the curse of alcoholism. No fun for her.

(That was a joke. Mostly.)

When Richie appeared, she got to her feet, accepted her water bottle and paper plate to put on the table, then turned to him with a grin. “You were awesome as usual,” she complimented him, very sincerely. She pushed up on her toes (because he was tall - taller than both Clark and J’onn) and wrapped him up in a hug. “I don’t know how you don’t sweat more under those lights, damn.”

Richie’s grin was bright as a bare, naked lightbulb - just so much wattage all up in here as he returned the hug, stooping a bit (yeah, being a lanky giant was fun - he’d incorporated it into his routine a few times and scored a few laughs at his expense but such was the comedy life which was about truths). “Heeeey, thanks, glad you liked it,” he said, before plopping down onto the seating - coziness was the name of the game here; there were a couple couches but that made balancing a plate hard, so worn chairs did the job and the table was just the right amount of sticky. Really gave a place a certain classic charm.

“Back home I had very talented makeup artists who helped with the sweat thing, to keep me fresh under the lights,” he added, unscrewing the cap on the water bottle - he’d be supportive of the ‘no alcohol’ thing; a few of his friends had trouble with various substances and he knew part of recovery was learning how to function in an alcohol-soaked world, like being out at bars and clubs without temptation creeping in too much. They could always go somewhere else, if it got to be too annoying. “Here I just kind of...hope for the best. So how have you been? No Vallo weirdness to contend with?”

Sometimes it affected everyone, sometimes it was personal - you never could tell which way the wind would blow, you see.

“No Vallo weirdness,” Alex confirmed, picking up her slice of pizza (it was one of those giant ones, big enough that she needed two hands to pick it up) to take a bite. Giant, yes, but greasy and delicious - she approved. “Mostly just working on the no-drinking thing which…isn’t the easiest, but—” She picked up the chip from where she’d dropped it on the table. “I hit sixty days, so that’s something. Thanks for the water.”

She hated feeling like others had to stop drinking around her. She could handle it if they didn’t; part of the whole AA thing was not shoving it down other people’s throat because not everyone had issues controlling their consumption like an alcoholic. She appreciated the solidarity, though. Lena never drank in front of her either. It was a sweet gesture.

“How about you? How’s the whole guardian-of-a-teenager thing going?” she questioned. She had met El in passing a time or two and knew she had some serious power going on. “You like the dad gig?”

Richie made an oooh sound, stealing the chip so he could give it a good lookover before giving it back to her. “Very awesome,” he congratulated Alex. “And water anytime, I promise. I need rehydration after being up on stage and I could always stand to drink more water regardless.” It’d be healthier for him as well, to not down a beer or shots - he was trying to keep on keeping on with his own health goals, for various reasons. One of them had to do with what Alex just mentioned.

“But yeah, I love being the dad gig,” he confirmed excitedly, taking a bite of his own pizza slice. He loved the pizza here at Bananas - it was always so cheesy and perfect, and he could fold the slice and watch that grease drip off which was when you knew it was good. “I never thought I would, you know? But after meeting Max and then there was Enola before she disappeared and Max and I got married - it just kind of snowballed and we were like, yeah, we want kids?”

And he thought he made a pretty great dad - he tried his best, because he wanted his kid(s) to have every opportunity in life. Needed them to know they were loved and wanted and would be cared for. “You had a kid too, right?” he asked, in between bites. “When Alfie was here. He was a little younger than yours.”

Alex was definitely proud of herself. It was a little disheartening to have to be at sixty days after she’d gone through it once before successfully and ruined all her progress. But she wasn’t thinking that way - positive thoughts. She was getting through it day by day, and that was the best she could do.

She nodded along when Richie explained. “I get that, totally. That was how I was with my ex. Just turned out that I was the only one who wanted kids.” There was a shrug that followed while she bit into her pizza. It was a long time ago, and she was past those hurt feelings that had come with the end of her relationship with Maggie.

“I never expected to have kids with Lena, I can say that much,” she chuckled. “Theo is his name. We adopt him at some point, although…I don’t really know when.” She loved Lena and the relationship they’d found themselves in was easily the best thing that had happened to her in a long time. But it was a Vallo thing, not more than a passing ‘she’s attractive’ sort of thought in her head back home. It was part of why she was so determined to stay - and Theo was the other part.

“Yeah, the whole timing aspect is weird to figure out,” Richie agreed. “Then again, I guess it’s best if we don’t have all the details - because we’d try to like, influence stuff?” Just a guess - but as a psychic, he felt as if the less that was revealed the better. He knew very well that the future was subjective - it was also not concrete, it could easily divert or shatter like a glass panel, cracks that splintered off in different directions like many possible roads, possible outcomes.

It was extra confusing for a guy whose brain was often on fire anyway, who tended to overthink with the best of them - but he was getting better at sorting it out. “I’m not sure when we adopt Alfie either but I’m guessing it’s soon,” he shrugged, spinning the water bottle cap on the table with long fingers (because he always needed to be doing something with his hands; it was a side effect of quitting smoking). He wasn’t going to spend time obsessing over it even if he wanted to (and yeah, he really wanted to). “I figure it’ll happen when it happens - I just don’t want to lose Max. It’s always fucking terrifying. To think that the person you love could vanish. Not that it stopped us from getting married because hashtag yolo, but still. It’s just not a thing most people have to worry about.”

Now he was word vomiting a little but not sorry. Man, those disappearance lists were the worst.

Word vomiting was totally okay in Alex’s eyes. She’d been guilty of the same a whole lot, more often when she was nervous than anything. And Kara was not exactly known for keeping her composure at all times. Her nerdy little sister could ramble on a mile a minute, and since she didn’t need to breathe as often, it could go on for a long time until she got ahold of herself.

And this particular batch of babble? Alex felt it deeply. Things changed so fast around here - people were here one day, gone the next. Some arrived and left within days; some disappeared and came back a few different times. There was no rhyme and reason to it - something that she’d accepted but did not sit well in her scientist brain, certainly not in Lena’s. All they could really do was hope it worked out.

“You’re right. It’s a weird feeling, thinking someone could literally pop out of your life at any moment. But I think you’ve got the right idea, charging headfirst into doing what you want to do, anyway. Saves you regrets, you know?”

It had taken her a long time to come around to that conclusion herself, too busy living in fear that she was going to fuck something up, but living like that was exhausting. Keeping her distance from things she wanted was a waste of energy. If she lost it all tomorrow, so be it. At least she’d have done what she wanted to do.

The water bottle label was something Richie scraped at even though he probably shouldn’t (because it would get wet and peel off) but whatever. There was that need to fidget, to keep his hands busy again - something that wouldn’t necessarily grow out of him, he thought. No matter how much he evolved or how many times he quit smoking. “Yeah, totally,” he nodded. “I mean, what’s the other choice? Hide in a cave here to prevent heartbreak? That would suck.”

Mostly because the cave would probably be filled with flesh-eating zombie squirrels or something and then you’d die. Seemed legit. Seemed very Vallo.

He tended to think the same thing, however - if he disappeared, he would have done what he wanted to do. Loved who he wanted to love - and he would have experienced it all, even if he wouldn’t be able to remember when he departed Vallo. The fact that in another life, another universe, someone else had been his universe - and it was a beautiful thing. “We should hang out sometime,” he decided, popping a piece of pizza crust into his mouth. “I mean, besides how we’re hanging out now. Like on a double date. I don’t think I’ve talked to Lena much? And Max is super friendly, he always likes meeting new people.”

They were alike in that way, Richie and his husbando - Max was just so personable and charming. It was how he got a whole Inquisition to follow him into battle, literally.

Alex’s friendship with Richie was definitely a more casual one, devoid of much interaction with significant others or a huge amount of hanging out. They were mostly bonded through Catra - their mutual, grumpy little cat sister - but she genuinely liked him. He was a goofball, but he was kind and he’d talked her through some stuff on darker days, mostly when she was still drinking. She wanted to get to know him better, and while this was one step in the right direction, making an effort to do even more was a good idea, too.

“I’d love to do a double date. I’m sure Lena would, too. I haven’t talked to Max much either, but he seems very sweet. Maybe we can check out Sofia’s? If we can even find it.”

She was intrigued by the idea of an Italian restaurant just drifting through the void, waiting to be stumbled upon when you were least expecting it. She’d only heard rave reviews - particularly about those garlic knots.

Oh, shit. Yeah, Italian void restaurant was definitely a go - Richie was into the idea, and he hadn’t been to Sofia’s yet so it seemed pretty solid to him. “If we can even find it,” she echoed, with a snort, because what the fuck. They definitely didn’t make it easy to get to those garlic knots. “I like a challenge, though, so it’s on. I’ll mention it to Max and see when it might be a good time to do the thing.”

Richie waved his hand in a gesture that was supposed to mean whoo-whoo magic, that sort of thing. He was just so not involved with that - unless you counted Prigany, and he didn’t. Not in the sense that they weren’t magic (they were) but he tended to only stick with the divination parts of coven life and the ins and outs of that, as opposed to dipping his toes into anything related to the enchantment they did or like, curses (cool as that would be). “He does a lot of coven stuff at different times and I tend to work nights too, obviously, but downtime is important too so we’re gonna do it.”

Come hell or high water. Give him the garlic knots, damnit, and the spaghetti noodles.

“We could always make it a lunchtime adventure,” Alex suggested. “Let me know what works for you guys.” She didn’t mind either way. If anything, it would probably make Mobius proud that she was making an effort to pull herself out of her work and go out for food and be amongst people at the same time. She very weirdly craved his approval in that way. If it wasn’t for him, she’d probably still be drinking beer like it was water.

After swallowing another bite of pizza, she continued on because she had questions. “So, what’s the coven thing like? I’m not magical, but it’s such a big deal around here, can’t help wondering, you know?”

Honestly, she wasn’t all that interested in magic herself. If Lena’s hadn’t been stirred awake by her memory update, she probably still wouldn’t be too interested. It was cool to have around here, so openly put into action and integrated into daily life, though. Covens were a big deal - their goings-on were spoken about even more than the actual Vallo governmental agencies. She wondered if it would be a good fit for Lena, if she decided to go in that direction.

“Lunchtime would be awesome, actually - we can eat a lot of carbs and then fall asleep at our desks. Or, well, Max will fall asleep,” Richie grinned. He didn’t have the same type of 9-5 that his husband did, and often spent his days catching up on errands or bringing food to Max in order to ensure he actually ate. There were some benefits to the night life schedule, even if sometimes he arrived home late and he and Max still needed to connect for the day - but they made it work. He was always Richie’s priority.

Now full of a shit ton of pizza (how many slices had he eaten, goddamn? At least three - but performing always made him ravenous), he leaned back a little to take a break and digest, maybe see if he had room for a fourth slice. “Oh, I love it,” he said about the coven. “I’d be lost with the whole foresight thing if I didn’t have Prigany. It started out with my just talking to them - “ Because he loved to talk, was that not obvious? It probably was, to those who knew him for more than five minutes.

“Then they just had me hanging out with them more and more, and I learned more and more - I wanted to, actually. They’re cool. And eventually they asked me to join? It’s been chill so far. They’re all amazing. And they do enchantments too,” he added. “And like, transfiguring. I don’t touch that, but it’s really cool what they do with weeds and stuff, and other nature-ey things.”

Alex wasn’t far behind, picking up a wad of napkins to clean off her greasy hands before reclining in the chair just a bit, hands draping over the arms. They’d done a good job of putting comfy furniture in here instead of hardback chairs you were constantly wriggling around on to get comfortable.

“Did you know you had the whole foresight thing going on back home? Or was that a Vallo development?” Color her curious. There were a lot of magically inclined Outlander types here, but she wondered if they had all come here that way or if Vallo could sort of…bestow magic on someone? Maybe that would be an idea worth a little research via network cultivation.

“I didn’t know at all,” Richie admitted and, for real, it had come as kind of a shock to him. “But like - it wasn’t as if I had time to really figure it out? I guess battling the demon clown in the sewers kickstarted something I’ve always had,” he explained, also reaching for a napkin - he definitely needed more than one, because greasy pizza and eating with your hands meant greasy mess. The last thing he wanted was to go home to Max and try to get all touchy-feely with grossness happening. “I think...me and my friends have always had something too. It’s just the way it is in that pocket of the country - some spots are supernatural hot zones, and the New England area seems to be one of them. Maine especially, there’s a lot going on there.”

He remembered when Dwight was in Vallo. The Troubles, he called them - basically the worst superpowers one could imagine (and Dwight would know, considering he’d been a magnet for bullets and it took him awhile to figure out how that could be useful). They were more like curses and it was all thanks to Haven, Maine.

“Nothing like shooting fire from your butt or anything. But shit like mind reading. Or seeing the future. Or having a weirdly uncanny sense of direction.”

“Shooting fire out of your butt sounds much more uncomfortable than any of those others,” Alex laughed, “but can’t say I ever considered having a good sense of direction as some sort of supernatural one-up.” She could see it, though, and she accepted the idea that some places just had more of this sort of phenomenon. She was almost positive she and Richie weren’t from the same universe - even if the evil alien clown sounded like it could absolutely be something they encountered at the D.E.O. - but most Earths had similarities.

Richie grinned when she laughed, though it was halfway a smirk. “It’s what Eddie had - like, he just never got lost. Ever. Always knew where he was going and could sense things too, I don’t know.” Maybe it was some fucked up version of spidey sense or something - maybe that was why Eddie had been so damn paranoid about everything. Mix that with a touch of a hypochondriac nature and it was just so fun.

It was also testament to how far he’d come that he could even talk about Eddie at all without breaking down - so, yeah, was he proud of himself? Definitely. Vallo had been one wild time so far, and he didn’t expect it to let up anytime soon either.

“Home’s weird,” was what he settled on. “I’m not eager to go back. I don’t think either of us are and that’s cool. So be sure to stick around, Alex, ‘cause I’d miss you otherwise.” Not like she had any control over it, but he thought he’d put it out there into the universe regardless.

“It would be a handy power to have,” Alex acknowledged, and that was absolutely true. She generally got around without any trouble, and these days, you could navigate wherever you wanted to go with a standard smartphone. But just knowing instinctively would be useful, too.

She grinned, twisting the cap off her water bottle to take a drink. Part of her did want to go home, if only for Kara, but she knew what awaited her there from what Lena had told her. And while it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t what she wanted either. So, she’d do everything in her power (which, admittedly, wasn’t much) to stick around.

“Promise to do my best,” she replied.