Thursday Morning: A Warehouse formerly named George...

[badassprodigy]

While most of the island was still dealing with the lack of clothes and a heatwave, there was one warehouse that was dealing with some interdimensional weirdness of its own.

One moment everything was fine and in the next there was a rip in time and space. Gusts of wind blew debris and sand around the warehouse as a human sized figure fell through to the ground.

"All right! Send my shit through!" he shouted through the portal.

Various metallic crates began to shoot through the portal causing Barry to dodge and swear.

"Jesus fucking Christ! Be careful with those!"

Eventually all the crates came through and the portal sealed up behind Barry as he took a look at his old warehouse.

It was there, still standing. Barry stood outside and felt the sentimentality wash over him. It was here that he had his first date. Where he had made the dreadful mistake of trying to create a gremlin vaccine. Where he nearly lost his mind watching the evils of science and how it nearly destroyed the humanity of Eleanor’s universe. It was where one of his favorite teaches had adopted him as a… little brother? (That thought was immediately pushed away as he soon remembered how he and his girlfriend used to have sex on nearly every piece of furniture in the place)

Barry had made friends before Fandom. He’d also known love. But it was here in this warehouse that he realized just how important those things were. How they were more important than even (gasp) science.

The lock on it was new but not a challenge for Barry. It fell to the ground and with a slight hesitation he pushed open the door…

To find out that Kathy had redecorated.

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! WHAT IS WITH ALL THIS IKEA BULLSHIT?! WHO GETS RID OF STAIRS AND REPLACES IT WITH A FUCKING ROPE! GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!”

Barry paused. Took a deep breath and let it go. Easy Barry. It’s been ten years. Lots of changes. It’s okay. Changes are good. And at least some of the same stuff was there where he left it.

Dragging in his equipment he immediately kicked on the power generator and stepped over to his communication array and started the process of downloading five years of information to review.

And that's when he caught one email in particular. A notification he never got while dimension-hopping.


"Oh. Oh, no."

There's only a few things that can shake Barry to the core. Losing a friend and not being to do anything about it? That was the first one on the list.

He sat there for a long time just sitting there stunned.

"Fuck."

He was going to be that way for a while.

[ooc: Open. Trigger warning for link as it involves character death.]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

"Why on Earth would you think that?" Kathy asked, blinking at him. "It's Fandom." She peered at the readings, not that she could make heads or tales of even the science ones, regardless of anything. "...Oh god that could be so many different things, I don't even know. Anders. Dante. Hell. Nanika. The residual weirdness from being a klipspringer for a month..."

[badassprodigy]

"Well the island usually gives you at least one fucking day before it breaks your brain," Barry replied in his typical grumpy tone. "And let's back it up here because you mentioned Anders, I think two other people, hell and a being Klipspringer for a month? Man, an animal for a month. That's fucking harsh. Very Fandom."

He looked around the warehouse for a moment or two. "Maybe I'll just hunker down in her until I actually to have to fucking teach something."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy is just gonna send an uncomfortable glance up to the loft. "Uhhhhh. Maybe I should. Uh. Do some laundry before you settle in."

Uncomfortable cough.

"And yeah! Anders! The other two people came after you..." She droops ever so slightly. "Left."

She'd missed you, Barry.

[badassprodigy]

"Yeah, I know. At the time it was the right decision for me," Barry said feeling guilt creep into him. "If I had known what was going to happen to you-"

And that's when he realized what Kathy meant about doing laundry.

"Ahhhh, shit. What did you do? Isn't enough you turned this place into fucking Ikea-ville? Now I got to disinfect fucking everything."

It was Reno and Rikku all over again.

[spin_kick_snap]

"You were gone!" Kathy said, flustered. "You weren't using George anymore! I didn't think it would matter if I did!"

Phrasing, Kathy.

"And, hey. I get it. I was gonna leave, too. Head off to Stanford. But then..." You know. Zombie apocalypse followed by her death and reanimation.

She folded her arms. "If you didn't want me fucking in your warehouse, you should have kept in touch."

[badassprodigy]

Barry let out a long sigh. "Yeah, okay fair enough. I did leave it and at least it wasn't taken over by some fucking maniac hellbent on stealing my technology," he relented. "It's been more yours than mine for the last five years. Well... five for you. Ten for me."

"If that's the fucking case, do you mind if I move back in?"

...

"And while the rope is cute, I'd like stairs again."

[spin_kick_snap]

"The rope was important," Kathy said quietly. "When I needed to be safe."

You could pull a rope up behind you when you climbed, after all.

"But yeah. George was yours first. I suppose that as a sublet, it goes back to the owner when they return." She fondly pats the couch she'd pulled in and the spare guitar.

[badassprodigy]

Barry paused for a moment. In the past he probably would have just steamrolled over Kathy's comment and put up stairs.

"That's fine," he said in a way he was trying to sound very casual but failed. "Rope ladder stays. And all the Ikea shit too. Anytime you need to crash when you're in Fandom? You're welcome to crash here. I barely fucking sleep anyway so I probably won't use the bed anyway."

"Speaking of not sleeping, I was hoping you were still around Fandom. The last night I was in Ramaat I came up with a new concepts for you Banzai outfit. Two words: Extradimensional Pockets."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy grinned at Barry. "I mean...I also have faith you can create a set of retractable stairs that also turn into a slide in the morning," she says.

Even her smile is different. No longer small or shy, Kathy smiles and her whole face lights up. She smiles like she's used to being happy and bright and not worrying about hiding it anymore.

Then her face goes on a kind of journey, faltering at 'Banzai' and going back to excited at Extradimensional Pockets. "I...found the other prototype suit you made for me," she says. "The sneaky one, with the armor?"

[badassprodigy]

Barry's posture stiffened a bit and his eyes went back in forth; a worried expression on his face. "You mean... the prototype?"

...

"And clearly it didn't explode. Right?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"NO IT DIDN'T EXPLODE!!"

Beat.

"WHY WOULD IT HAVE EXPLODED?!"

[badassprodigy]

"IT WAS A FUCKING PROTOTYPE!" Barry exclaimed, as if that was a very normal thing.

"I hadn't fully tested everything yet! That's why I didn't give it to you."

...

"Oh shit. If you found that... You didn't use the grappling gun did you?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"It's literally saved my life," Kathy said. "It's my favorite of the whole kit!"

Sadface.

"Tell me you're fucking with me, Barry!"

[badassprodigy]

Barry tried to keep a straight face and finally broke into a grin.

"Yeah, I'm just fucking with you," he said laughing. "At least about the grappling gun. Seriously, stop wearing the suit."

He laughed again. "Are you still glad I'm back?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"You're such an ass," Kathy said but barreled over to hug him again. "I am, though. I so am."

You deserved this hug, Barry. This was a punitive hug!

[badassprodigy]

And now that Barry had MOSTLY gotten over the fact that Kathy had died (No. that might never happen.) he was his usual self when getting any kind of physical affection.

In other words: completely awkward. His posture stiffened and he could feel his ears turning red and hot. He eventually started to return the hug the way a sibling might awkwardly hug another sibling and it was pretty clear (affection for Kathy aside) that Barry was getting overwhelmed here.

Punitive hugs were the worst.

"Yeah, but I'm a smart ass," he tried to joke. Badly. "So are you still living on the island? Or are you and Anders and whoever else fighting crime elsewhere?"

Yes. Distract Kathy and maybe she'll end the hug!

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy relented and let go of him. For now. But the hugs were always lurking, Barry. Always.

"No, we moved to Limbo City a year or so back," she says. "Uhh, up in Connecticut, one dimension over. But I was teaching here before the whole klipspringer fiasco and I own a store here on-island, so I'm back pretty frequently. Anders is busy with a clinic in Limbo City, so he's here less frequently, but Dante comes back with me a lot. Less crime-fighting and more demon-hunting, though. And no more superhero shenanigans."

...Mostly? Look, it was hard to explain.

[badassprodigy]

Barry visibly relaxed when the hug was over. Sorry, Kathy. Nothing personal.

"Demon hunting."

Barry had to pause on that one. "Okay. I'll need to do some research on that because that's going to change the outfit I had in mind. Judging that you're still alive, I'm assuming you're not needlessly risking your life against a horde from hell? And you own a store now?"

Clearly he did not calculate that future for you Kathy.

[spin_kick_snap]

People change, Barry. Especially on Fandom. And also after eating other people as a reanimated corpse.

"...I..." This was hard. "After coming back from LA, being a superhero was...hard. I don't even use Banzai anymore. She died. I died. And then I spent almost year wandering around in rainbows eating people." She glances down at the inside of her left wrist, where there is a tattoo with seven tally lines on it. "When I came back, I didn't want any part of that. I was...I was pretty badly broken. PTSD, night terrors, all of it." She looks up, giving Barry an awkward smile. "I remember. Everything I did. Because I did it. I wasn't a person, but my brain was still recording. And when I came back to life, I suddenly had a person's reaction to...all of that."

[badassprodigy]

"Shit."

Barry sat down and started rubbing his hands through his hair. "There's so many things I could have done for you. I could have cloned you. Transferred your brain waves. Removed whatever caused it. Blocked memories. I feel like I'm a pretty crappy friend for not being here for you. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Nobody should have to deal with that bullshit."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Barry." Kathy groaned, reaching over for his hand. "You were off living your life. There's nothing wrong with that. You couldn't have known what was gonna happen. This isn't on you. It's on Josh for starting the fucking thing and on me for being stupid about it. Not you. Never you."

[badassprodigy]

"Yeah. Well-"

Barry didn't necessarily flinch when Kathy took his hand but he was certainly hesitant about it.

"I have a thing about losing friends. It's actually what brought me to Fandom to begin with. So I'd keep my friends safe from all the bullshit that happens from my experiments."

He gave Kathy a rueful grin.

"So. Yeah. Losing friends is not my favorite thing."

He gave Kathy's hand a reassuring squeeze before letting go. "But this isn't about my bullshit. I'm just glad you're good now and safe. Except for beating the crap out of demons."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well that's just part of living in Limbo City," Kathy said, shrugging. "And being part of Dante's life. And I dunno. It's different in my head. Being Banzai to fight petty crime is one thing. Being Kathy in a badass prototype suit, sans rainbows, keeping people safe from literal demons is another. It's way more terrifying than beating up muggers and dealers and stuff, but it means more, too."

[badassprodigy]

“Well... as dangerous as it sounds, you found meaning. I can fucking understand that,” Barry said hesitantly. “You’re definitely not the girl I’d lectured so many fucking times about risking your life needlessly. God. I was so fucking pompous. I’m amazed you never decked me.”

[spin_kick_snap]

"I wasn't much for decking people back then," Kathy pointed out, laughing lightly. "But you...cared. About me. And that meant a lot." She frowned inwardly. "Besides, you weren't wrong, were you? In the end."

She tilts her head. "You should meet Dante. You'll like him. He'll scandalize you, but you'll like him."