Beach City Grill, Santa Cruz, Tuesday afternoon

[lovemykilt]

"Everybody relax!" Priestly burst into the Beach City Grill with his usual fanfare, which involved a lot of shouting and five seconds of random dancing. "I'm here!"

Tish smirked at him. "And you are . . . ?"

"Tish, you wound me. Right here." Priestly pressed his hand to his chest. It was his first time back in the grill since he'd left for points abroad that summer. He'd gone straight to his mom's when he'd finally made it back to Santa Cruz on Christmas Eve, so it was even the first time he'd seen Jen since then.

Which would explain the giant grin she was wearing as she restrained herself from rushing out from behind the counter to give him a hug.

"Did I offend your delicate sensibilities?" Tish asked. "However will I make it up to you?"

"Well if you're taking suggestions --" Priestly cut off as the apron Tish threw him smacked him in the face. "It's good to be home."

He briefly considered trying to vault over the counter for extra cool points, but decided that would end badly, and instead edged past Tish and Karla while heading for the back room.

Then he froze, eyes going wide. Karla? He turned around and pointed at the woman in question.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" he squeaked. He turned to Jen. "What -- why -- who let Karla near a stove?!"

Jen and Tish exchanged "Priestly's gone crazy again" looks. Trucker came out of the back room, caught sight of the look, then raised an eyebrow at Priestly. Karla looked between all of them, looking lost.

"I'm Piper," she said. "I work here." Priestly blinked.

"Right," he said. "The Dean thing."

Because that made sense to anyone but him. Time to obfuscate the problem with brash ridiculousness.

"I wasn't notified. Why wasn't I notified?!"

Trucker smiled. "Priestly. I hired someone new while you were gone."

"Thank you!" Priestly said, tying on his apron and looking for a spatula. "I swear, we need a staff email or something."

"Or a cook who doesn't randomly decide to move to the Philippines," Jen offered.

"Hush, minion."

It was good to be home.

[ooc: and canon is kicked off! Mostly establishy, but as always open to phone calls or emails or texts and things.]

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Christmas in New Gotham as great and weird as ever.

WE HAVE PENGUINS!

[lovemykilt]

I'll trade you. We have a new Karla doppelganger who sometimes makes the sandwiches.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah stared.

Holy Mother of God, that's terrifying.

[lovemykilt]

I KNOW!

She says her name is Piper. She's an artist. V. nice. Probably thinks I'm insane.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was still boggling. Although not so much that she couldn't type.

Piper? OK. The universe is messing with us?

Also, you are not insane. No more than me!

[lovemykilt]

Okay, so you can tell her that it's just 'cause we went to school with someone who looked like she could have been played by the same actress or something, next time you're in town.

(Don't actually tell her that, it's weird to find out there are people out there who look that much like you)

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I'll call her Karla too, then she can at least think both of us are crazy?

Reminds me. Add Penguin onto the Helena-Stalker E-mail list.

[lovemykilt]

A penguin is in love with Helena? That's ADORABLE.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah started laughing, and it was a few minutes before she could reply.

THEM TOO. They were following her! At the Gotham Harbor ice festival!

But I meant The Penguin, this short little guy in a tux with a long nose who likes to plan robberies with bird themes.

[lovemykilt]

Priestly could only stare for several moments.

Your dimension is weird.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

CopyKarla!...

C'mon, now.

also, he calls her his 'dove of love.' Money on when she kills him?

How was the rest of your holidays?

[lovemykilt]

Okay, but my dimension isn't weird and also creepy. Yours is totally weird and also creepy.

He glanced over towards Piper.

Make that mine isn't also creepy beyond the whole 'it really looks like someone's letting Karla cook' thing, anyway.

Holidays were good. Mom's not sure why I went all huggy, but I think she liked it, anyway. I even was nice and wore a nice shirt with my kilt when we went to see extended fam.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah couldn't help shuddering again. Flashbacks!

Awww, yay. Peace and getting along with family. Tell Naomi I said hi!

Jason and Tim got into a food fight at dinner, Alfred had to mediate, it was hilarious.

[lovemykilt]

Dude, tell me Alfred trounced them both with a bowl of gravy or something.

Priestly's form of mediation was not everyone's form of mediation.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

He did The Glare. And threatened to withhold pie.

There might have been ear-holding, but I won't testify to it in court.

Alfred could be a scary old guy when he put his mind to it.

[lovemykilt]

See, and I totally would have gone for the gravy. On the other hand, I haven't mastered The Glare or earholding, yet.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

It takes decades to master The Glare. We are not worthy!

To tell or not to tell. To tell or not to tell. To tell or not to--

lkfjdfKyoijdf

Dinah's fingers tried to decide for her, and they couldn't quite manage it.

[lovemykilt]

Okay, so either you're having a stroke, or you're attempting to communicate in a secret best friend language that we haven't actually invented, yet.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

We should get on that! It would come in so handy!

And then, because deflection was for wimps when you were this far into the lava:

Kyle and I broke up. Right before Christmas.

[lovemykilt]

Priestly fistpumped, then reminded himself that that was not appropriate until he knew how she actually felt about the break up.

Oh hell, it wasn't like she could see him fistpumping, anyway.

Oh yeah? he typed non-committally. Mutual, or. . . ?

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Mutual but sucky.

Dinah really wished Priestly were here to hug now. (The fistpumping might have deep-sixed that, so just as well he wasn't.)

He wants me to grow up and stop being weird. I wanted him to deal. He wanted to not be scared for me. I wanted him to trust me...

Two lines, no intersecting points. Much chocolate ingested.

[lovemykilt]

What? Kyle had not been on Priestly's good side since he'd heard that the guy wasn't handling Dinah being Dinah very well. Priestly was totally allowed to privately fistpump.

That sucks, he commiserated in text. Bad timing, too. But it sounds like it's for the best? You don't have to wonder about him not dealing any more?

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Which was totally in the Best Friend's Manual, and in six months, Dinah would appreciate it. She was too raw and reeling, and too guilty to deal well now, though.

Yeah. It's kind of a relief.

Does that make me a terrible person? And I still miss him. Lots.

[lovemykilt]

You're physically incapable of being a terrible person. And of course you do, he was your boyfriend for, like, ever. I still miss Claudia, but that doesn't mean we were perfect for each other or something.

Priestly and Claudia kind of had been perfect for each other, so it wasn't a very good analogy. But that was the only girlfriend Priestly had ever had.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Far away in New Gotham, Dinah sniffled. Feeling a little bit better.

You were pretty awesome together, though. But yeah. Nothing's totally perfect. Kyle and I weren't. At least not the last couple months.

I dunno. I hope we can be friends. Sometime. Probably not soon.

[lovemykilt]

I guess that's probably a fair amount of awkward to get over first. Priestly wasn't convinced Kyle deserved to get to be friends with Dinah, but then, he was a little biased. Who knows, maybe he'll grow out of being all weird about the weird

He'd wanted to use much stronger words, on that last bit.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Maybe? Dinah would actually feel weird if he did. Not gonna date for a while. Too difficult. Too stressful. School's more important.

So how's Tish?

Look, she promised not to bug him about asking her out. She didn't promise not to ask how she was!

And Jen? And Trucker?

[lovemykilt]

Tish is Tish, Jen is Jen, Trucker is Trucker. It was like a zen cohen! No one has asked anyone out yet. Santa Cruz remains pretty stable, when not being eaten by large clouds of nothingness.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Yay on the stability front! Because really, that's what Dinah was going to be celebrating in 2012. And now Karla is Piper. That's different.

Different would be ... nope, promised not to push. And in honor of my new not-dating, I will stick to that.

For now, anyway.

[lovemykilt]

The management greatly appreciates your discretion. Piper-who-is-not-Karla is kind of adorable. She's doing that 'I will now be purposefully odd so as to fit in with you weirdos' thing.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Awww. Odd like how? You said she was an artist?

Now I want to drag Karla to Santa Cruz and surprise her with her twin!

[lovemykilt]

Don't be mean. Priestly had done the whole having an unexpected twin dance. It was only really fun from the outside. You know when someone's just a little too loud and enthusiastic about things? You know, trying too hard.

Like Priestly did every day. That wasn't the point.

Apparently, she thinks Elvis is dead. It's a sad world.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

She'll get the hang of it.

Of course, this was Priestly's world. And now Elvis was on an island with Marilyn somewhere.

Other Me was being all heroic in Jaime's world. I promised he'd introduce us sometime when I was there last week before Christmas. Dinah did, kinda, sorta, get how it wasn't fun in some ways. Oh, and SamW is engaged!

[lovemykilt]

Priestly's eyes went wide, followed quickly by his grin. To floppy haired guy? What? That was totally a valid description. He didn't go find some other stud while I wasn't paying attention, did he?

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

aldkfjd Ahahaha! No! I mean yes! Peter Petrelli!

He said our love Was Just Not Meant To Be. I am an Abandoned Almost Ex-Wife!

She didn't sound too sad about it.

No date set yet. Might be another year or so. But hey. End of world. Stuff happens.

[lovemykilt]

Stuff happens like LOVE! There went another fistpump. Piper leaned over towards Jen to ask if Priestly was always like that.

The answer, of course, being "yes".

Go brother of faux-me! You will have to report back all about the wedding. Lots of details. When it eventually happens.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

LOVE! Dinah agreed. So awesome. V.v. happy for them. And sure! if you can't/don't go. Will take pix, send 'em.

End of world rough on everyone. Momoko & Karla still trying to deal. You still on for dress-shopping? Soonish?

[lovemykilt]

Hell yeah! I told you I need a new dress for New Year's. Priestly hadn't had a nice new dress in aaaaaaages. Maybe I'll even brave Portalocity to attend as many shindigs as possible.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Woooo! This would be the most fun since she beat up Poison Ivy's minions.

Will text w/details when I have them. You know you're invited to New Year's here too.

Tell Piper-not-Karla that Dinah says hi! That'll weird her out a little more.

[lovemykilt]

"Hey Piper," Priestly called. Piper glanced up, a little deer-in-the-headlights-y. Jen shot him a 'be nice' look. "Dinah says hi!"

Piper looked back towards Jen. Jen shrugged. "His best friend. Lives on the east coast. She's cool."

Piper nodded, then looked back. "Tell her hi back?"

Priestly grinned.

Piper says hi back. Jen is running weirdness interference.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Jen is awesome like that. Dinah chortled.

I need Priestly hugs, soon! So will call you soon as possible, dude.

[lovemykilt]

Priestly hugs are the best, he agreed proudly. I suppose I should actually get back to work. Trucker's gonna think I'm all lazy.

It was far, far, far too late for that. And yet, Trucker kept him on the books. Lord only knew why.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Heh. Trucker was amazing, in many ways. Sort of like Alfred.

Dinah was now trying to imagine introducing them.

Trucker should meet Alfred!

Non sequitors are Lance.

Love you and miss you and looking for blue chiffon for you!

*hugs*

[lovemykilt]

. . . Okay, but that might somehow destroy the fabric of the apparently rather delicate multiverse. Polar opposites of concentrated awesome. Could be volatile. I look better in green. See you soon!