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

[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..."

[lovemykilt]

Speak of the punk, he was now knocking on the bathroom door.

He would really like to know what Karla and Momoko did to piss off his girlfriend that much, yes.

[glacial_queen]

At least his first instinct wasn't to yell? That was helpful. And hopefully the baffled expression Karla was wearing when she opened the door would help their case.

"Why in the world would you run off halfway--Oh. Priestly!" Karla was doubly glad she'd taken her wig off. It would just be too weird otherwise. "Did you see--" What was her name again? "--her? She just stormed off!"

[heromaniac]

Momoko was actually sorta kinda glad it wasn't the girl back again. She was still mad at how rude the girl had been, even if that anger was quickly wearing off.

"Priestly?" Momoko leaned around Karla to see. "This is the girl's bathroom?"


...Wasn't it?

[lovemykilt]

Priestly was attempting to keep a modicum of calm, considering that they were still very much in a public restaurant. So while there were any number of emotions he could be expressing right now, he settled for incredulity. And maybe a pointing finger.

"What did you do?!"

[glacial_queen]

...Karla had a feeling that an innocent smile and the answer 'tried to have dinner' were not going to work very well here.

And neither would her other immediate answer, which was something along the lines of saving him from a girl who was obviously crazy.

"Tried to talk to her?" she offered. "I don't think it went very well, though."

They were clearly the reasonable ones, here.

[heromaniac]

Uhm. Momoko didn't like that look. Or that finger pointing. It totally meant that Priestly was not in his happy awesome let's-go-have-dessert place...

"We were trying to not bother you! Honest!" Hence the wigs and hats and the running away! "We were just... And then she followed us and wanted to talk and we did!"

[lovemykilt]

The incredulity and pointing finger didn't go away. "What did you say?"

[glacial_queen]

"Not as much as she did," Karla muttered. They hadn't been throwing around words like 'creepy', 'crazy', or 'neurotic'.

"We said we came for dinner, wanted to see you both together, and planned to come over and say hi for dessert," she said, more loudly. "Things just...escalated."

[heromaniac]

"And that we didn't say hi or anything when we got here because you would have made us eat with you and that totally wasn't what we were trying to do."

Momoko was totally holding back and trying to not badmouth the girl and make Priestly like her even more.

"She wouldn't believe we were here because we cared about you."

[lovemykilt]

Priestly shook his head. He wasn't buying a word of it. "That doesn't even make any sense. I know you both know what telephones are, and how useful they are for things like coordinating plans."

[glacial_queen]

Karla was just going to give him a 'duh' look and shake her head. "Momoko just told you that we didn't want to eat with you," she said. "Why would we call and coordinate not eating together?"

[heromaniac]

"We totally used the phone with each other! We had to, so we could come all the way here from two different worlds at the same time to make sure you were okay!" Momoko was also giving him a confused look. "Who else would we call? All your other friends already know her and like her! We needed to see for ourselves!" And make copious notes and catty comments about how OBVIOUSLY she wasn't Priestly's type.

And the girl had totally proven that, in Momoko's opinion. Next time she was a kid, Momoko decided suddenly, or a boy, she was totally coming back here. It had broken up Kyle and Dinah, after all.

Which was sad, actually, and Momoko's face fell a bit at the memory, since she still felt a tiny bit guilty about that. LOOK! She didn't want her friends to be hurt, ever, okay?


[ooc: look look! I pinged! Thank you for patience! <3!]

[lovemykilt]

Priestly gaped. He shook his head and ran his hand over the back of his neck. "I don't -- I don't even know what to say to you two."

Maybe it was the double shifts all weekend. Maybe he was just tired and he was hallucinating that his friends decided it was better to spy on him than trust him to pick his own girlfriend. Maybe none of this was actually happening. He looked down at the floor, at the walls, at anything but Karla and Momoko. Because this totally wasn't actually happening.

Absolutely not.

[glacial_queen]

"Wait, wait, wait!" Karla said, holding up her hand. "It's not like that! It isn't! We just wanted to see the two of you! Together! Meet her, see how you are together, when no one is watching."

Wait, no, that sounded wrong.

"Not like that. Not gross or hiding outside in the bushes somewhere." They'd discarded that plan. "But we didn't get to meet her like everyone else. So we wanted to see you both together for a little while and see for ourselves before making our introductions."

[heromaniac]

"I'm sorry you're upset Priestly, but I'm totally not going to pretend I'm sorry we came here. Maybe we shouldn't have been disguised, but that was totally the point since we didn't want anyone to know we were here."

Momoko removed her wig and started to shove it into her bag. "We totally didn't want a fight or to make you upset. We just wanted to know about this girl. Someone you've liked for a while and we don't know? Dinah even said she didn't agree to go out with you until you told her your name. And even though she knew you don't like telling people! And you did it! How are we not supposed to worry? Only Dinah knows your name!" Totally another reason for Dinah+Priestly!

Momoko frowned and turned slightly away to grab a hat from the stall. "If it were my world," she muttered under her breath as she remembered something from her own past, "there'd totally be a chance she was actually a villain."

[lovemykilt]

"I don't need to run my girlfriends by you!" Yes, of all the jumbled up things in Priestly's head, that was what came out. "They're my girlfriends!" Wait. "Friend! Singular!" He was getting sidetracked. "You two do not live in my life!"

[glacial_queen]

"What, you think we were going to issue you some kind of report?" Karla snapped. "Are you worried that, what, we'd come up later and give you a detailed explanation of what we did and did not like about her?"

...That might have been a plan at one point, but then decided that that was probably a bad idea.

"No one is saying that our approval--" or complete disapproval, which was what it was "--was at all required for you to continue to date her! We didn't come into this assuming you'd change your life on our say-so!"

Though you totally could if you want to, Priestly. Just throwing that out there.

"But she's dating a friend we care about, and started doing so only on a condition. We wanted to see her for ourselves. Or, what, have you never wanted to meet any of Dinah's boyfriends? Never wanted to get to know them without them focusing on making a good impression?"

[heromaniac]

Of course not a report. A powerpoint slideshow was totally better. Pictures always made your point much clearer.

Plus Momoko totally had some awesome animations already made!

Momoko totally wanted to point out that they did have a say in his choice. Who ever he dated would end up with a chance of knowing their secrets and not just his.

But that wasn't why she was here! Momoko was here to see this girl Priestly was dating and figure out why he could want to date her instead of Dinah. Who was totally awesomer, by the way. This trip totally proved it.

Momoko finished pulling the rest of the disguises into her bag. "I don't remember much about the future reunion us-es, but I remember you weren't happy. I know you quit school to stop that from happening, I totally don't see why you won't let us do whatever we can to help, too. We just want you" and Dinah "to be happy."

[lovemykilt]

It was like they were completely logic-proof.

Maybe they'd been replaced by robots.

"THIS DOES NOT MAKE ME HAPPY!" Priestly said. He turned on Karla, finger out and pointing again. "And who is 'everyone else'? Dinah has met her. And you know how she did that? By walking up and saying 'Hi, I'm Dinah, you must be Tish!'. THAT IS HOW YOU MEET PEOPLE." The finger swung to Momoko. "And -- just -- no! Bad!" And both hands in the air now. "I am not having this conversation. You've clearly been replaced by robots."

And he turned to start heading out the door. He had a girlfriend to go comfort. And try to explain why "they were replaced by robots" was totally a valid possibility when it came to his high school friends.

[glacial_queen]

For the record, robots would likely have been more susceptible to logic. Maybe they could argue they were suffering from one of the over-dramatic weekends, which was why their idea had made perfect sense?

...It still made perfect sense to Karla, though. But she rather thought this might not be the best time to mention it.

It was also probably a bad time to snap her fingers and say, 'Tish! I knew it wasn't Trina!' So she was just going to keep that thought to herself, too. Seemed to be best.

She looked at Momoko and shrugged, then pointed to Priestly. That was code for, 'You totally know him better! What can we say?! MOTHER NIGHT, HE'S GONNA CALL DINAH AND THEN WE WILL BE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE AND THEY'LL STAY APART OUT OF SPITE!'

It was an expressive shrug, okay?

[heromaniac]

Karla! Momoko was giving you her confused face, TRYING to ask you who 'Tish' was...

Oh, wait, what did you shrug? Dinah?! Oh NO...!

"Priestly! Really!" Momoko called after him. "We totally didn't mean for this to happen. Really. We really didn't."

They'd thought they would get away with it, yes, and wanted to use the intel gathered to break them up, but... "We totally didn't want you upset or mad. Or to ruin your date."

Yet. Although at the moment, Momoko was totally wondering if the Dinah+Priestly club should go underground for a few months. "For that, we are totally sorry!"

[lovemykilt]

Priestly stopped, shoulders slumping. Dammit, he was such a pushover. Even girl robots got to him.

He really needed some guy friends.

He didn't turn all the way back around. They'd created enough of a scene in the restaurant already, after all. "You're only sorry because you got caught, Momo. You don't get it. How would you feel if Dinah and I showed up to spy on one of your dates?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla gave Momoko an uneasy glance. "It would depend on why," she said quietly, not admitting that if they'd shown up on a date to break up her and Warren, she wouldn't be best pleased at all.

But this was different!

"I mean...yeah. I get why you're upset. But at the same time, we honestly thought we were--" okay, not helping. That wasn't the right word "--not doing something so very wrong. We just wanted to see how you guys were together. In public!" she hurried to add, so he wouldn't think they were going to hover in his bushes and watch their alone time. That had been Plan C. "Just watch you two for a bit and then go up and introduce ourselves."