"Wow, this place is really, really nice," Eleanor said as she stepped into the penthouse. "No creepy clowns to greet you on the way in, even. Nice touch in leaving those out." Not that Marina or anyone would randomly add clowns to their decor? Who did that? Fake, made-up Eleanor, that's who.
"So are you sure you don't need to be hanging out with your friends who were in the shithole version of Vallo?" She asked. "Or I don't know, taking a nap after all that magic portal stuff?" She wasn't really complaining. After realizing that pretty much no one in Vallo would have noticed she was missing except maybe Fandral (who wouldn't have any trouble finding someone else for a friends with benefits thing and in fact, probably had several others already) she was sort of relieved to be at Marina's place.
At least there had also been Lux as an alternative to hanging out at home, by herself, with whatever alcohol she had left. Eleanor was starting to resent the snow globe version of Vallo for forcing her to think about such things. It was time to move on. Especially since it seemed not everyone she talked to was disappearing anymore.
Marina arched an eyebrow at the mention of clowns. She couldn’t figure why she’d have clowns in her penthouse, but then she remembered the weird paintings in Eleanor’s apartment. She didn’t question those because she didn’t really want to understand the clear obsession with clowns.
“They’re not really...friends. Just people I know.” Marina was careful not to ever call people friends until it was too late or she was yelling at someone for killing everyone. It wasn’t like anyone was going to tell on her for that one. Alice was dead and they’d ended up having a lot of things happen after. Probably everyone forgot after the trauma of it. “And I’m fine. The increase in magic running through your body feels more like a…” She paused, trying to think of the right thing to say, “Like uppers. It makes you feel good, not tired. Collaborative magic is even better. Sort of like fucking.” She shrugged. She could remember the first time she’d felt that level of power coursing through her body.
It was nice to know she’d have fewer things to keep track of now that people were back, though. Lux would have Lucifer, but she might still ask if that counted as her interview for a managerial position to go with her university classes. She was also going to make sure to get alcohol from Dorian in exchange for his school. She moved over to her bar, pulling two glasses out. “Do you have a drink preference? I’ve got pretty much everything.”
"Oh, in that case it sounds like I'm missing out," Eleanor replied. She didn't think magic was really a thing where she was from, but it could have been. There was plenty of things she hadn't known or even bothered to care about. Though it would have been nice to have some sort of powers she could have used to her liking.
That may have landed her in a different Bad Place though.
"Oh," she said, taking in the bar. "This reminds me of my friend Tahani's place. They gave her this huge mansion in the afterlife while I got my tiny little cottage with creepy clowns and primitive Icelandic design with hidden stairs they always waited to tell me about after I'd spent ages climbing into my bedroom..."
Realizing none of that probably made any sense, she chose a drink at random. "Vodka?"
Marina shrugged slightly. “Most are. But that’s because Brakebills doesn’t really get to in depth with the collaborative spellwork like Hedgewitches do. And we’re seen as lesser.” She scoffed at that. Brakebills wasn’t going to be the only group of people that could do magic. And they certainly weren’t the only ones worth it.
The whole part of the conversation where Eleanor rambled about her friends made Marina miss hers just slightly. Stupid as Tony Stark and Julia could be, she wondered what they were doing now. Probably having lots of sex and babies. She wrinkled her nose at the thought before tuning back into the conversation just to hear ‘vodka’.
She poured herself some bourbon before pouring Eleanor some vodka. “I worked hard to steal this place, so it might as well get some use.” She wasn’t really concerned about revealing the fact that she’d stolen a whole penthouse apartment. She’d needed a place and she wasn’t going back to the apartment where her other self died. At least not outside of rifling through her other self’s things to find anything useful. “It came with Baba Yaga and a weird payment plan, but what are you gonna do,” she asked like it was some normal problem people had.
Already second guessing vodka, because that was never good on its own, Eleanor eyed the glass before taking a sip. This was nothing like the four dollar bottles she used to buy that had her wondering if she wouldn't just be better off drinking rubbing alcohol, though it probably wasn't nearly as smooth as the bourbon Marina had poured herself.
"You have the good shit," she commented, grateful that she could say shit and not shirt and that her brain had apparently reworked itself back to where she thought in proper swear words again. Now that she was removed from the bad place, the more she considered Michael absolutely diabolical in his planning. Respect.
"Baby Yaga isn't here, though?" Eleanor asked, glancing around. "I mean, it is Vallo." How quickly she had adapted to the strange shit happens here, mentality. "And if you're going to steal a penthouse, this seems like the one to steal."
Again, it didn't even have clown paintings.
"So Brakebills is the school, which you didn't go to?" Everything Eleanor knew about Marina's life came solely from fanvids, so she may have incorrectly come to conclusions about who Julia was in relation to her. Which maybe she should have realized given the various videos she'd found with her shipped with Tahani, Jason, and even Janet in addition to Chidi. None of which she minded when they were done well.
Marina grinned. “Yeah. I don’t settle for the cheap stuff. If you’re gonna splurge, it might as well be on things like this.” And she just wasn’t the same girl she was back when she accepted the cheap stuff. She wasn’t living with a useless, alcoholic father or her mother who didn’t really warrant mentioning if she was being honest. She wasn’t an undergrad in the city with barely enough money to pay for school and food either.
“No Baba Yaga here,” she agreed. “She wasn’t in Tumbleweed either.” She missed the safehouse she’d had there, the space that came with it. But she wasn’t going to pine over the annoying lack of things that were around her. She heard the sound of FB running around upstairs and glanced up before turning her attention back to Eleanor.
“I went to Brakebills, but they expelled me three months before I was set to graduate.” She made an annoyed expression at that before rolling her eyes and taking a sip of her drink. “They took my memories. Well, amputated them. I knew magic was real, but not how to do it.” Fogg was a real bastard. But they did that to anyone they expelled after that long. Couldn’t have people knowing about magic when you wanted it to only be the people from your schools with it. “Are you sure you don’t want anything with that vodka?”
"It's really smooth," Eleanor said, not really fussing over the drink. "But for your sake, maybe some orange juice?" No use annoying Marina by being an over the top drunk far too early in the night. See? She had experienced growth in the afterlife.
"That's annoying. When they wiped my memory in the Bad Place, they really wiped it. At least everything that had happened since I died. Whoever did that was an asshole. But obviously, you were able to relearn it."
She wouldn’t have minded too much, she just rarely met anyone that ran for Vodka only. She leaned down to get a small orange juice from the mini fridge, setting it down on the top of the counter. “You don’t have to do anything for my sake. If you get too drunk, just sleep on the couch. I’ll do a spell to keep any potential vomit off my furniture.” She also knew spells to get blood out of things, which came in handy for less murdery reasons.
“Yeah. I fought to get everything back that I could. I got my Brakebills memory back, but now Fogg doesn’t trust me. Oh well.” What else was new? She wasn’t that worried about it. “So what did you want to watch tonight?”
"Fogg's not here?" Because if not, Eleanor didn't really see where it would matter outside of the residue dickishness from past actions. And if Fogg was here, whoever they were, maybe they could do something about it.
"Oh, I don't know," she replied to the question. "Maybe something in your ongoing romance with Julia?" Though to be fair, Eleanor wasn't sure that it was ongoing. The videos she'd watched all seemed to rehash the same scenes.
She reached for the orange juice and poured half of it into the glass. Though she had to admire Marina's nonchalance toward drunkenness and the use of magic to render the usually terrible aftermath into a mere annoyance. "Magic would've been really useful in my early twenties," she mused.
“He’s not. He’d have made himself known already if he was and I’d be much more annoyed.” It was bad enough being surrounded by his Wonder Team all the time. Only now none of them were here anymore either. “I’m the only one still here from my world.” The only one she really missed was Julia, but she’d probably be different and not the Julia she murdered a man to protect, so she wasn’t sure that she wanted it. She wouldn’t have been happy without Tony anyway.
Marina rolled her eyes at that. “We don’t really have an ongoing romance.” Not that she hadn’t assumed that they might have, but Julia’s weirdness was because she’d sort of gotten her killed and not because they’d had some intense sexual tension. It was disappointing. “Pretty sure her and Creepy Romcom Guy are together in our show.” She found it both weird and boring, but whatever happened, she guessed. “I’m pretty sure that group has all fucked each other at some point or thought about it, so they just weirdly pass each other around and are weird about it.”
“It’s definitely useful to have. For most things.” She moved toward the couch, turning the tv on. It was a smart TV so she could bring up most of the fanvideos on the TV screen. “I’m kind of surprised the fans who scream how much they like me are extra boring about only shipping me with one person in my own fandom. I’m surprised they haven’t shipped me with Margo.”
Eleanor followed her lead, but not before she grabbed the vodka, the orange juice, and her half empty glass. Knowing she could crash on the couch meant she wasn't too concerned about drinking too much. And Marina was cool, both with the spells and lack of responsible drinking lectures. She could appreciate that.
"Which one's Margo, again? The one with the eye patch? Oh that would be brilliant now even if you got your clockwork eye in Texas and not there. Your ship name could have something to do with that."
Marina casually missed her wand she got from Harry Potter world, but she also tried not to get too drunk around people because the fact of existing in her world was that she didn’t trust too many people and she could always get up or do a spell to refill the cup. It depended on how she felt when the time came.
“Yeah. She’s the one with the eye patch. We dueled in a forest once and sort of had a brief...whatever.” She wasn’t sure what to call it. Trying to beat each other at magic being similar to foreplay was not exactly off brand, but she wasn’t going to overthink it either. “If he wasn’t so emotional, Scarves might be okay.” Scarves was also known as Creepy Romcom Guy, but she went back and forth. “Glasses definitely thinks too much and I’m not sure I can be into someone that lets work be something distracting from sex. Have you seen me?” She gestured to herself in that moment. “If I’m not distracting enough, something is wrong.”
And rest of them? “Ghost Two is an alcoholic with daddy issues. I guess he could be interesting, but...no thanks. Then there’s the emo one with the hair and that’s just...no. He killed all my-” She paused, biting back the word friends “Hedges. Just cause he thought he was the only one who cared about Fillory. Like, okay, you’re a nerd with severe depression. What’s new about that concept? And maybe he didn’t have a shade, but whatever.” She was surprised by the lack of Anna content, though. Even if she did get a glimpse into the future to see there wasn’t even a point. Anna wasn’t going to accept her for who she was. She took a sip.
“Why don’t we watch one of yours first. Then we’ll see which one of Julia and me we haven’t watched that includes separate mes and sometimes people who aren’t me but have my face.”
Not only did all the people Marina know have names, she also had at least one nickname for all of them and sometimes more. That made it incredibly difficult to keep up with but it was easier when they were actually watching videos.
And Eleanor caught the hesitation before hedges, but didn't say anything. She wasn't really the sort to push and they'd already discussed in full the tragedy of Marina hugging people who might consider that a sign of friendship. Besides, there were cheesy videos to watch and alcohol to drink. Nothing that called for any serious conversation.
"That works. I found one that I haven't watched yet that's this what if myself and Tahani were soulmates." After focusing more on her and Chidi last time, it would be a nice change of pace. The video wasn't long, and even Eleanor could tell it was heavily edited and not just from parts of her afterlife she hadn't gotten to yet or that had been erased, but when it was done she nodded, and echoed what she'd said in one of the clips. "I might legit be into Tahani."
Marina sat back and watched the video. She could see the possibility of it and she thought Tahani was pretty. She wasn’t sure how much she’d have liked her outside of admitting she was pretty, but it probably didn’t matter. Eleanor wasn’t the most annoying person to her. If her friends showed up, she’d do what she could not to be a dick to them. For Eleanor’s sake. She decided not to analyze that.
There was a soft noise of amusement as she did a quick spell to refill her glass. “She’s hot, so I guess that’s fair.” Taking a sip, she put her name into the search bar on youtube. A video with her and Julia (in a most unsurprising manner) popped up that she hadn’t seen. I can’t save us. Well, that seemed depressing. She guessed that went along with everything about their lives. The strongest magic came from pain. She rolled her eyes when people pointed out that they had no one. Like they knew shit. Is anyone really going to miss you made her frown slightly. “Well...that was...definitely something.”
Eleanor followed the hair this time around to keep track and Marina was right, it worked. But the video itself? "Depressing?" she asked to fill in the blanks. "So Julia got you killed, and that other version of yourself is definitely not as badass as this version of you. Or did I get that all wrong?" Maybe she should put off her assessment that it worked until she confirmed she'd followed correctly.
Marina nodded. “Well, I have a lot of power, but definitely not god level power, so I can’t be that mad.” A beat. “That I died, I mean. I can’t speak much for badassery, but I like to think I’m the best person in any lifetime. Things were just different in that timeline. I decided to help someone with a god problem that they were supposed to fix and when it came down to it, she wasn’t there to keep me from dying.” She was used to disappointment and she didn’t really understand everything that happened. She knew what Julia told her about it and what the Wonder Team said. “Julia and I didn’t know each other in my timeline. She wasn’t a Hedgewitch. She died before we even ended up at Brakebills.”
She downed her drink mostly to avoid any feelings associated with her dying ever. “I also didn’t have the post apocalyptic bullshit to deal with or having to bury everyone in a mass grave the muggle way, so I guess experiences make the adventure.”
"Wait, hold up," Eleanor said. "You didn't even know Julia? This must be a trip and a half, outside of watching yourself die." Maybe she just needed to start with episode one if she even wanted a chance of being able to follow that story. "Your videos are weird, man."
She glanced over at Marina and said, "You've been through some shit, huh? I mean, all the videos we've watched of me have taken place after I died and not one of them is that dark." Maybe they should have stuck to just reading bad fanfiction to each other, but so much of it was really bad, not even the funny, amusing bad. The stories that were actually hot were few and far between and Eleanor wasn't good at finding them.
“I know her now and when she showed up in my timeline. That one time. So it would have been weirder when I first showed up in Tumbleweed. The only episodes were season one? And that was kind of too weird for me.” She wasn’t dead at the end of it, though. She’d checked. “I guess that’s part of the adventure. It’s even more weird when it’s not any version of me.”
Marina shrugged slightly. “It’s fine. Helps with the magic.” Which was an easy way to brush things off. She still felt the loss of her hedges and burying them had been a son of a bitch, but she was not going to let that keep her from whatever she was doing. The self preservation was strong. “They’re depressing as fuck,” she agreed. “Maybe we can watch trash TV instead and make fun of everyone.”
"Yeah… I can't follow any of that," Eleanor admitted. "But you got to know her in Tumblweed? That's cool. Weird, but cool." All of this was weird, only weird was starting to be normal. "But hey, I'm all for watching trash TV. Like Real Housewives or The Bachelor. I wonder how Kandi or NeNe are doing. They gotta still be on, right?"
She was referencing Real Housewives of Atlanta without clarifying, but easily buying into Marina's change of plans. The last few days had been stressful, probably. No need to do a deep dive into emotions. At least not without a lot more alcohol and a ton of regrets later on.
Marina made a face when she thought about her arrival to Tumbleweed. “We started out a little rocky. She was all No one trusts that you won’t try to kill everyone and I was not impressed…” She frowned before doing the spell to refill her glass again. “That was possibly a slight exaggeration. But her friends didn’t trust me, which was apparently my problem. So I had to agree to a Word As Bond for them to not be fucking weirdos about it. Won’t harm any of the displaced people.” She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t have plans on doing anything to her friends, but I didn’t really trust them either.”
She had no idea what she was talking about, but that’s because she hadn’t really gotten invested in The Bachelor or Real Housewives. She just wasn’t sure she felt the need to feel sad about things that weren’t even real or uncomfortable about her death or miss Julia being there for her to annoy some of the time. Even Tony’s stupid face made her a little sad to think about and he’d be annoying about it if he knew. Probably would take that moment to gloat about it. She missed Holland and Ethan, too. Right. She didn’t want to think about this anymore.
“Who the fuck even are you talking about?” She sat up. “Just trying to figure out if this is something on the subscription service or if I have to look it up on the laptop.”
"The Real Housewives of Atlanta," Eleanor said. "I haven't kept up with it since dying, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't still on the air, which means it should be available somewhere. People eat this garbage up."
She shrugged, turning her head toward Marina. "It's okay to miss your friends, you know. I miss mine. And I didn't even really make true friends until after I'd died." She had friends before, of course, but she'd been a pretty terrible person even to them.
Marina shrugged and pulled up one of the streaming services, typing it into the search part of it. She hmm’d thoughtfully as she searched through. “How are there so many Real Housewives?” Because there was Atlanta, Dallas, Salt Lake City, New York City, New Jersey (but why), D.C., Beverly Hills, Miami, and Potomac (also why).
She was decidedly going to do what she could to avoid the conversation of friends. She might’ve had them, but she didn’t really want to talk about people who definitely wouldn’t remember her in this universe except to make fun of them or just casual things. Her hedges were another matter. That was just part of home. Everyone was dead and people could watch her show and see her call them friends. “They’re all dead, so it’s nothing to talk about.” Yes, because the ones from Tumbleweed weren’t dead, but she was just going to ignore that. “Did you have a preference on Housewives?” She didn’t know which ones were filled with more drama than the others, but sure. She could get behind whatever. She wasn’t sure New Jersey was worth it. Probably just another Jersey Shore waiting to happen.
So were Eleanor's friends, or at least the good ones, but she got the picture and didn't add anything else. Marina reminded her of herself when she was alive. More badass definitely, maybe even hotter, but with enough emotional issues to drive a therapist into retirement. So Real Housewives it was!
"I've only ever watched Atlanta, but we can try any of them," she said, refilling her now empty glass. "As long as you realize that it's all trash and you'll want to punch each of them in the face before fifteen minutes has passed by. But also maybe make out with a couple of them. Or both. Oh and don't give the men any credit to start. Not worth your time."
Marina considered the options before starting the New York City season 1. It hadn’t even fully started and she was rolling her eyes. “This is kind of the general attitude about New York City, so at least that’s familiar.” But she also agreed that she preferred New York City to the rest of the world. Well, she liked some of the big cities around the world she’d visited. It helped being able to speak just about every language for the purposes of magic. “I’d ask how people like this even existed, but I know them.” She glanced around her penthouse. “Like yeah, okay. I have a pretty great place, but I stole it.” Which meant she was different or something. Take what you can, give nothing back...or whatever that pirate movie said.
Romona was definitely annoying. Jill wasn’t better and she was already generally unimpressed. She was tempted to turn it into a drinking game, but she didn’t even know what to make into reasons to drink. Just to see, she googled the real housewives drinking game. “Do we tempt fate and the potential for alcohol poisoning and play the drinking game?”
"None of these women are a NeNe," Eleanor mentioned. "But yeah we need a drinking game and maybe something other than vodka." She was watching the screen, frowning. "Do you feel bad for the kids? I do. I want to gather them all and tell them how great emancipation can be."
She really had changed since dying, she realized. Whereas before she'd have devoured this garbage, her eye was more critical now. Still, it was a change of tone from the depressing video Marina had managed to find. Changed or not, Eleanor was still far from being skilled at navigating difficult emotions whether they belonged to her or someone else. The pure drivel that was Real Housewives was a relief.
"I wonder when the real crazy shit starts," Eleanor mused. "All the name calling and crying and I know you slept with my man."
Did Marina feel for the kids? She wasn’t sure she did. She had a bullshit childhood, but she’d come out somewhat well adjusted. Ish. “I just got lucky that my dad died.” But that wasn’t really when she was as young as these kids. She’d been old enough to bury him. No one was going to look for him or miss him.
“What did you want to drink instead?” Cause watching this and avoiding conversations about her feelings was going to require more drinking than she really intended to do. She’d regret it tomorrow and figure out a way to deal with that then. She was sure the potential for magic potions that cured hangovers existed somewhere.
Marina considered the question. “Probably soon if I know rich New York women.” She studied the one daughter that wanted to go to a detox camp and frowned. “Parents are overrated.”
"Parents are overrated," Eleanor agreed. "I ditched mine when I was fourteen." Though once again Marina dangled a subject that seemed to have the potential to explode in front of them, though maybe her dad's death was nothing to her.
"Honestly if we're playing a drinking game, Jack and Coke? Rather than straight shots because I'll be knocked backwards into tomorrow. I didn't drink as much after dying as I did when I was alive."
Well for the most part that was true.
Marina didn’t really feel much for her dad. He was a drunk and a useless one at that. She didn’t really grieve him because he hadn’t really been someone that she needed. She guessed not everyone felt the same about their family, but she was pretty sure that none of them honestly came from good family lives. At least not where she came from. Maybe Josh did, but he’d also been trapped forever in Fillory. Or something. “Probably the best plan.”
But she got up, taking the orange juice and the vodka and went back to the bar to grab some coke and the whiskey before going back to the couch. “I haven’t done college levels of drinking in a while,” she agreed. There was the potential to be murdered by the Beast 2.0. But she might have spent at least a night drunk then. It was probably going to end poorly, but considering the everything that was this show. They were fighting about why someone hadn’t been invited to a cooking party now.
Rolling her eyes, she pulled up the drinking game rules on her laptop. Guess we’ll start now. No need to play catch up.
"Are we sure this isn't Desperate Housewives?" Eleanor asked. "That tennis pro was not hot, and his abs didn't even live up to the expectations." If a man was going to take his shirt off on one of these shows, he should be in better shape.
Now with whiskey and Coke available, she drank a bit faster. It was too bad she didn't have that same magical ability to refill her drink that Marina did, because as they continued watching the show, the alcohol was definitely being consumed. She wasn't sure how long they had watched and whether the show was back in New York or still in the Hamptons or both because who even knew, but the drinking game was potentially deadly because the show was absolutely ridiculous.
"Fork, I'm drunk," Eleanor said, and then frowned at herself. "Why the fuck am I still saying fork!?"
“None of the men are living up to expectations.” They were either old, boring, or old and boring. It was disappointing that the women were too annoying for her to be interested in. Bethenny could have been interesting, but they were probably all depressingly heterosexual. The more that time passed and the more that the triggers for the drinking happened, the less grounded she felt. She felt good, but it would end in misery tomorrow. She was regretting not changing before they started this.
“Because you have a personal problem with real words?” Marina shrugged, moving to let her hair down because that seemed like the less annoying option than having it up in a ponytail. Ugh. She hated this. “I think I need to get out of this dress.” She’d kicked her shoes off at some point because the concept of keeping them on seemed troubling to her. She liked the dress earlier, but this was far too many drinks in and she did not want to be confined anymore.
It was only after her shin hit the table that she realized she’d pushed up off the couch. “Ow.”
Eleanor watched amused as Marina stood up, swaying as she did so. "Oh you're drunk. You're drunker than I am and that usually doesn't happen. I guess I thought you'd have some magical tolerance level or something."
But maybe that was rude. She was the guest after all. What would Chidi do? (Eleanor missed Chidi and his morality rants even if she'd deny it then.)
Standing up as well, she felt her footing was at least a little stronger than Marina's. "You need water. I need water. I'll get some water."
Marine frowned at Eleanor. “Shut up.” Because that was both very eloquent and very likely to work for her at this less than pulled together part of her existence. She ran her fingers through her hair, closing her eyes briefly. “I don’t...usually drink this much.” And magic couldn’t really make someone any more or less drunk just by nature of having it. She wished it did, though.
She did need water. Water and sleep and not to be in this outfit. It was such a good outfit for existing, but less so for being drunk in and she was mildly annoyed that she was drunk. It meant her defenses were down which was the most dangerous part. She knew this was possible, but she’d kind of hoped they’d both black out before this point or maybe Eleanor would pass out first.
Ugh.
She sat back on the couch all the same. She’d figure out pajamas eventually. “I hope one of them ends up losing something important to them forever,” she muttered as she watched the Real Housewives keep playing.
"Harsh," Eleanor replied, not clarifying if it was in response to being told to shut up or the line muttered at the housewives. Maybe both. Right. Water.
She could handle that easily enough, filling two glasses (and then downing half of hers and refilling) before returning to the couch, probably sitting closer than she needed to and handing over a glass.
"Drink this before passing out."
Marina took the water, mostly not paying attention to how close Eleanor was. She nearly allowed herself to lean into her, but stopped herself at the last second. She drank the water, quietly wishing that she was already in her bed and not the couch. “How do these people even...even do anything?” Because she really couldn’t figure it out. She couldn’t even focus too closely on their faces, but they were always arguing, which seemed like something they usually did.
She kept drinking her water. “I’ve got to bed. This is already embarrassing.” Except she didn’t move. She was still sitting there.
Eleanor smirked. "Trust me , I am the queen of embarrassment. This? This is not it. This doesn't even come close to my top 100 embarrassing moments. For one, you haven't stuffed shrimp down your bra." Never mind that there hadn't been shrimp in the first place. "I'd say at least thirty of those moments involved me stuffing shrimp down my bra."
She downed the rest of her glass and set it down, then flipped off the television before taking Marina's glass from her hand and moving it to the table too and shut up, because she was drunk and she was close to turning this night into something in the top 100.
"Alright, you gorgeous, drunk, emotional mess. Can you actually make it to your bed?" Eleanor asked, nudging Marina, wagering the answer was no.
Marina’s brow furrowed and she looked over at Eleanor. “Why would you ever shove shrimp in your bra?” It just made no sense. It would be cold and slimy. It sounded gross and unpleasant. Her face scrunched even more the more she thought about it. “No. I don’t want that.”
She didn’t move as the cup was pulled from her hands, noticing belatedly that all the stupid women in the show were done talking. At least she didn’t need to hear about them complain any longer about how they wanted children and marriage and to move in with their boyfriend. Was that all of them or just one of them?
“Maybe.” She frowned, trying to push up again. She’d done it before. She got up, but swayed slightly. “I’ll never do this again.” She held herself up by putting a hand on the side of the sofa. “You’re the emotions,” she said after a moment. “I’m fine.”
"Shrimp is good," Eleanor said sleepily, but actually impressed that Marina managed to stand up. She took advantage of the empty couch almost immediately, stretching out and making herself comfortable.
"This was fun," she added, stifling a yawn. "Don't lie."
Marina took that moment to crawl over to the other side of the couch. The L-shaped couch was clearly a stroke of genius and she would never question it in her life. “I’m not lying,” she mumbled into the pillow she grabbed. “You’re lying.” It was her most adult response. Either way, she was just going to sleep here and have regrets about it later. She was already regretting her habit of not having throw blankets available.