Oswald Restaurant, Santa Cruz, Monday night

[lovemykilt]

"You know I don't mind cooking for us, right?" Priestly asked, balking a little as Tish led him towards the restaurant door by the hand. "I even really like it."

"Priestly," Tish said, stopping and turning to look at him without letting go of his hand. "You've been working double shifts all weekend to cover for Piper while she and Noah and Julia are at Disneyland. You need a break from cooking."

Priestly opened his mouth to protest again, and Tish pressed a finger to his lips. "And you look fine," she said. "There's no dress code, they're not going to kick you out for having a mohawk, and it's my turn to feed us and I don't cook so I say we get to have dinner in a fancy restaurant."

Priestly kissed the finger on his lips. "Okay. But I reserve the right to be snooty if their food isn't as good as mine."

Tish smiled. "I'm looking forward to it, even. Now come on, I want to get a table outside before they fill up." It was a gorgeous night, cool and bright under the full moon, the earlier cloudiness having mostly cleared up.

And, well, if an outdoor table would make them more visible and easier to stalk spy on observe, then so be it.

[ooc: for the sneaky shipper spies and slow-play.]

Comments

[heromaniac]

Momoko turned back to the table she was supposed to be watching... "EH?!" She shoved her glasses back on and reached for the brim of her hat, pulling it back towards her face. "Oh no! Quick! Plan B! Go!" She was totally glad she'd packed some chocolate buns in her disguise bag. "Bathroom?"

[lovemykilt]

"Are your friends actually spying on us?" Tish asked.

Priestly was definitely facepalming now. "I have no idea. It would explain the hats."

[glacial_queen]

Of course they weren't spying! They just happened to be here! Having dinner! With giant hats and wigs!

Shut up, Tessa!

Karla nodded frantically, then got up and bolted for the ladies' room. "Don't eat the snails!" she yelled as she ran, holding her hand over her mouth like she was about to be ill.

See? Now they had a reason to be running! A good cover was in the details.

The waiter bringing their breadsticks and sodas looked very confused as she dashed by.

[heromaniac]

"Thanks for the meal!" Momoko would hug Karla for that awesome idea, but she was too busy grabbing her things and trying not to knock over the waiter on her way to the bathroom.

She didn't succeed on that last bit. "SORRY!" She hissed, hesitating a moment as she was torn between leaving and helping him up. Finally she gave another quick apology and ran the rest of the way to bathroom.

[hatesthekilt.livejournal.com]

Priestly sighed. "I'll go --"

Tish held up her hand as she put her napkin back on the table. "Oh please, let me. They did go to the girl's room, after all."

She stood up, helped up the waiter with a quiet "we're going to check their medication levels" and headed for the bathroom. "Knock knock! Friendly neighborhood hat ladies?"

[glacial_queen]

Uh-oh.

This could so not turn out well. Karla gave Momoko a horrified look, even as she pulled on a new hat over her wig. What were they supposed to do now? They had not covered the extreeeeemely unlikely possibility that they would get caught!

"What now?" Te$ha couldn't hear them if they whispered, right? "Hide in the stalls?"

[heromaniac]

It was whispering! Who could POSSIBLY overhear these two when they were whispering? Momoko was still tugging on her next wig, which wasn't going so well as she was also frantically looking about for some idea of what to do to ESCAPE. "Totally good idea!" Wig still askew, she scooped their things back into the bag and dragged Karla with her into the closest stall. "Now shhhhhh! And maybe she'll think we climbed out the window!" Cause that was the OBVIOUS thing to think if they didn't answer her, right?

[hatesthekilt.livejournal.com]

Overhearing the commotion if not the actual words, Tish decided to just go ahead and enter. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it, looking around the bathroom.

"Okay," she said. "You guys are friends with Priestly, so the craziness is totally not surprising. But please don't pretend to be dumb -- or that I'm dumb. You wanna make sure I'm good enough for your friend, you come out and talk to me, not stare at us like creeps when we're trying to have a nice dinner out, for a change."

[glacial_queen]

Karla exchanged a long glance with Momoko. On the one hand, she could make it so that they literally did disappear: a sight and aural shield and Tia would never be able to find them. They might even be able to make her think she was crazy and go home and lie down or something.

On the other hand, Priestly probably knew about Karla's Craft and what he didn't know, Dinah did, so odds were high that their gaslighting wouldn't last long.

"No chance we can convince you this is all a big mistake?" she called. "Also, we're not creeps."

They were die-hard shippers. Totes different.

[heromaniac]

Totally different! And they were wearing the T-shirts under their disguises to prove it! Momoko was frowning, now, and elbowing Karla (or rather, forearming her, since they were squeezed so close) for practically ADMITTING the girl was right. They weren't trying to determine if this girl was good enough for Priestly - they knew she wasn't! "Calling us crazy and creepy is totally not making us want to talk to you. If we were even here to do that. Which we totally aren't - we eat too." Lots! Really! Ask anyone!

[hatesthekilt.livejournal.com]

"In disguise," Tish noted. "In a restaurant that's, what, half the globe away from where you live?" She didn't know the half of it. "In the hometown of your friend, who you didn't even stop in and say hi to when you got to town." She folded her arms over her chest, checking her manicure. "Yeah. That's an airtight alibi."

[glacial_queen]

"We were going to say hello after dinner," Karla protested. You know, once they'd compiled a list of all the reasons by Tiara was bad for Priestly.

Because that would absolutely work, yep.

"If we'd tried to stop by before dinner, there would have been no way Priestly would let us not eat something he made."

In other words, you're welcome for your date, Tansy.

[heromaniac]

Hey! Momoko totally had an alibi! She was totally at work! Just ask at the Academy! But don't ask for her at the station, okay? It took some doing to get the shift trade! "He wasn't at the restaurant when we got here!" Technically, the parking lot wasn't the restaurant. "And it's totally rude to interrupt someone at dinner!" Another tick mark against her: she was totally rude and had no etiquette. DINAH would have known that!

Momoko blinked as she whispered to Karla. "He wouldn't not cook for us again, would he?" No way, right? Not for trying to make him happy!

[hatesthekilt.livejournal.com]

"You two seriously aren't going to own for spying." Yeah, that was classy. Why the hell was Priestly friends with these two? "Look, are you going to come out and try talking to me? Or are you here just to ruin the date?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla looked at Momoko and gave her a nod, before stepping down from the toilet and coming out to face Tasha.

"We're not trying to ruin your date," she said, reluctantly pulling off her wig. Yep, she was a complete twin to Piper. Weird, huh? "If we did, we really didn't mean to."

Because that would give her some kind of moral victory. They'd been here to hopefully watch Tess ruin her own date and take extensive notes on her flaws and all the ways she was inferior to Dinah.

Very different than actively attempting to ruin things.

[heromaniac]

"We don't even know you, remember?" Red eyes finally exposed and blonde wig still slightly askew, Momoko gave a short, frustrated snort as she joined Karla and faced the Not!Dinah girl, her arms folded.

Someone was still upset about being called a crazy creep.

"And to be totally honest, we don't care about you; just him. And we wouldn't hurt Priestly like that. He's our friend, no matter what." Duh. "Karla and I live too far away to see him often but we still worry. When we heard he finally asked you out, we had to come see."

[hatesthekilt.livejournal.com]

"Really. You two are totally doing this entirely for Priestly." Tish's tone could start a new ice age. "What exactly did you think would happen here?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla just raised an eyebrow at her tone. Oh bitch, please. "We thought we'd get to know you when you weren't aware that two of Priestly's friends were around. When you were just yourself. And then after dinner, we could potentially join you for dessert and introduce ourselves."

In order to get yet more information on how she was less awesome than Dinah. As you do.

"You're the first female he was into since his last girlfriend. So we wanted to see you for ourselves."

[heromaniac]

Momoko was still a bit stuck on how she totally didn't think this was anything to do with the girl. Except in how she totally wasn't good enough for Priestly, of course.

"Of course we did it for Priestly! Why else would we leave our jobs and come all the way to another wor... country?" She could totally be kicked out of the academy if anyone found out she'd left without permission! "And we totally thought we'd see Priestly not pretending, too. If we'd just walked up, he'd totally have put up a front just because he doesn't like people thinking they know what he should do."

Or, rather, he'd piece things together and kick them off his planet and never feed them ever again and tell Dinah and Dinah would lecture them and get stubborn about helping Priestly and then it would be even harder to get her to date him and they would never be happy!

[hatesthekilt.livejournal.com]

"Are you two even listening to yourselves? Seriously. You're here grading Priestly on his dating ability? Do you do this with all the 'females' he dates?" Oh yes, those were some vicious air quotes there, Karla. "No wonder he's completely neurotic about dating!"

[glacial_queen]

Whereas Karla was completely convinced it was all about Therese. But also how she totally wasn't good enough for Priestly. Karla was here to compile lists of all the ways she wasn't.

Like abuse of airquotes. Just sayin'.

"No," she said, giving the other female a poisonously sweet smile. "We're very well acquainted with his dating ability. After all, we all knew his last girlfriend." Err, sorta. In that they'd attended the same school. And it was small. "It just his taste that's sometimes questionable. So glad we got a chance to see you without those polite fictions people maintain when they're meeting someone else's friends for the first time. "

[heromaniac]

"Priestly's not neurotic and we're not here grading him. We know he's awesome."

Momoko's eyes narrowed slightly. "And don't make fun of the way she speaks English. It's not polite."

[hatesthekilt.livejournal.com]

Tish looked from Momoko to Karla and back, nodding her head. "Ah. I see. Fuck you two, then." She straightened from the door, glaring both of them down. "And tell whoever the hell you're here representing that she missed her chance. And Priestly will date whoever he goddamn well wants to. Right now? That's me. Because I am awesome."

She slammed the bathroom door open behind her with an open palm and stalked out, only to run almost directly into Priestly, who'd been waiting outside.

"Tish, what --"

She cut him off with a fist in his shirt, pulling him in and pressing a firm kiss to his lips. He flailed for a split second, grunting softly, then returned it until she pulled back.

"Your friends suck." She opened her hand on his shirt and pressed her palm against his chest. "Tell them they owe me a fucking dinner."

And she started off again, arms crossed over her chest, her head bent low, leaving Priestly standing in front of the restroom door.

[glacial_queen]

Karla looked at Momoko, not utterly confused.

"What's wrong with my Kae--my English?" she sputtered. "And what the Hell was that all about?!"

Tanya had just stomped off after insulting them!

"That's not how Dinah would have handled it," she muttered.

[heromaniac]

"WHY IS IT ALL ABOUT HER?! We were here for Priestly! We SAID that!"

"TOTALLY not how Dinah would have handled..." Oh no. Dinah!

And with that thought, Momoko stopped glaring at the door and wishing she could suddenly develop laser vision. Time travel was totally what they needed now. "If she tells Priestly... he's gonna tell Dinah..."