Hong Kong, Tuesday evening

[lovemykilt]

"Look," Priestly said. He'd finally managed to scrape together enough money for a long distance phone card and had, naturally, immediately called the Beach City Grill. "You guys can't keep sending me money. You're both broke, too. Unless Trucker decided to give you raises."

"Who?" asked Jen. Priestly pinched his nose and successfully resisted the urge to throw his phone against a wall.

"Is Priestly talking about his imaginary friends again?" asked Tish in the background.

"They're not -- aaaaggggh!" Priestly groaned. It was no use, he'd tried explaining it to them any number of times before, ever since they first started denying the existence of his mother. "Look, is Zo around? Does she still exist?"

"The crystal lady across the street?"

Priestly pumped his fist in the air.

"We haven't seen her in weeks. She put up a sign saying 'closed for the apocalypse' and stopped coming in."

The fist came back down. Priestly gaped at the phone.

"How are you doing on getting home? We're really worried about you, Priestly. Even Tish."

"Not 'cause I like you or anything!" Tish called in the background.

"I'm in Hong Kong," Priestly said. "I managed to hop a boat. I'm going to see if I can make it to Japan. I may or may not have a friend there, depending on the dimensions."

Jen sighed. Talking about dimensions wasn't helping her thinking he'd had a psychotic break. "Maybe you should just try to get deported."

"Maybe you should try figuring out where my mom and dad, Mr. Julius, Camille, Trucker, and half the population of Santa Cruz went."

"I'm serious, Priestly."

"I'm running out of minutes."

"Well, call us back when you've figured out what you're doing next, okay?"

"I told you, I'm going to Japan."

"I don't know where that is. Priestly? Priestly, are you still there? Priestly?"

Priestly stopped banging his head on the wall. "Yeah, Jen. I'm still here. Even if no one else is."

[ooc: It's fun to be evil! Open for any pan-dimensional phone calls.]

Comments

[heromaniac]

"Same here; finding out similar stuff was happening to her totally made me cry in relief. Even if it wasn't exactly the same, it was good to have someone else remember what I did. Something even disappeared while she was here, so it wasn't just me!"

[lovemykilt]

"Yeah? How's she doing? I haven't had the money to call her in a little while." Fun with essentially living as a migrant worker.

[heromaniac]

"Besides totally freaked out? Fine!" Momoko smiled. Barely. "Are you doing okay? I can totally help if you need something? I have a job and everything, now!"

[lovemykilt]

"Oh hey, what kind of job?" It was nice to talk about something normal for once.

[heromaniac]

He was not going to distract her from offering to send him money if he needed it. She would just bring it up laters.

"I have an internship with the police! Totally boring and dull, but I get to meet new people? They have me doing a lot of the 'lost tourist' duty."

[lovemykilt]

"I bet you're really good at it. They let you do your superhero shtick, or are you secret identitied while you're there?"

[heromaniac]

"Totally still secret identity. Which is harder now than before! I have a roommate, curfews and rules about furloughs at school and I can't just leave work when I need to." Momoko sighed. "It's worse now, of course. It just seems like I don't have time for everything."

[lovemykilt]

"Yeah. Being an adult'll do that. That's probably why I dropped out of school and ran away to the Far East."

[heromaniac]

Momoko's brow furrowed at that. Was this how the old-Momoko had started out? The idea was worrisome. "Well," she tried to turn it into a joke, "I totally don't have anywhere to run to, so I guess I'm stuck."

Oh!

"Speaking of, I talked with my mom! If you agree to cook at least one dish without fish in it, she said you could have my old room if you visit and need a place. I'll even make sure they change the pink blankets out!"

[lovemykilt]

"Sweet! I might have to take her up on that. I think I'm still going to Mongolia, next." If Mongolia still existed. "But I'll totally have to get to Japan, too." As soon as it existed again.

[heromaniac]

"Mongolia?" Momoko did not sound impressed. "I mean, I guess. That's... cool?"

So not impressed.

"There's... goats?"

[lovemykilt]

"And barbecue!" Geez, why did no one else ever think of the barbecue?

Priestly's priorities were not everyone's priorities.

[heromaniac]

"... You do know that 'Mongolian Barbecue' is totally Taiwanese, right?"

It's food, Priestly. Momoko knows food. "I heard that they eat horses, though!" If that suited you.

[lovemykilt]

"Wait, what?" He did not know that, no. "And hey, Koreans eat dog sometimes. I try not to judge."

[heromaniac]

"That's all good, but ew." Momoko made a face. "I like my hot dogs to be made of totally not real dog."

"But yeah, I don't know why it's called that, but it's not from there. You might find someone who can make it, though? Are you into learning about true ethnic foods or just about food in general?"

[lovemykilt]

"Both?" Really, Momoko was assuming a lot more direction than Priestly really had for this adventure. "I don't know, I just don't know anyone who's ever been to Mongolia, and I'm pretty sure it's not in a war zone."

[heromaniac]

Momoko chuckled. "No, not in a war zone. At least not now. And there's a reason no one goes to Mongolia; it's totally not as interesting as Japan! Am I being too subtle?"

"But seriously, I haven't heard of anything, like, evil about it. But still, you had better be careful. I totally don't want to report to Dinah that you got lost in my neighborhood."

[lovemykilt]

"Yeah . . . I'm not sure we still have a Japan in this universe, Momoko. Or I'd totally hit it up."

[heromaniac]

There was a moment of silence, and then a sigh.

"Yeah, I'm adding a column to my spreadsheet: 'whole countries have disappeared'. So far, you're the only check mark, thank goodness... Hey, you do know you can call me at any time and I'll come get you, right? No matter what universe, no matter the problem?"

She knew she wasn't as close a friend to him as Dinah, but she totally meant it.

"Though if it's just that you burned your goat meat or something, I will totally lecture you when I get there."

[lovemykilt]

Prieslty couldn't help but blush faintly at that. "Thanks, Momo. And the same back. Minus the super powers."

[heromaniac]

Alfred's didn't need superpowers. Although he totally could use some martial arts or boxing lessons or something. She worried.

"And minus the lectures for burned food?" Her voice was warm as she tried to get them back to pretending like things were normal in their lives. "Because that's a lot of lectures."

[lovemykilt]

"No lectures. But if if happens too much, I might have to steal your cookware."

[heromaniac]

... "I'm supposed to have cookware? I usually just use whatever I can find in the kitchen I'm in. Like, a frying pan, or something. Should I have my own?"

[lovemykilt]

Priestly needed to remind himself sometimes that not everyone was obsessed with cooking food. "I guess not."

[heromaniac]

"Is that why I don't cook very well?!"

THIS TOTALLY EXPLAINED EVERYTHING!

"Is there, like, a starter kit or something? I can get one! I probably need to find a cooking store or something, right?"

She was TOTALLY calling Karla next, to tell her!