November catch-all

[madginger]

WHO: Max & Various
WHERE: Various
WHAT: Sleep overs, fights and various other possibilities
WHEN: Any time after her arrival through November
WARNINGS: cussing, serious angst related to murder/death, unspoken trauma / traumatic reactions - will add as needed


Prompts in the comments.

Can discuss ideas on plurk metaljean, on this journal, or discord midknightcat if you have an idea of something you want to do.

Comments

Open prompts

[madginger]

OTA - Ocean of Feelings | definitely refer to cw list on top

[madginger]

Sure, her and Billy had reached some sort of understanding, but she hadn't told him everything, not yet. Not that she could, or he was in any place for it. That night had been painful enough. Max isn't not happy about the fact they opened up, but she's pensive.

To be fair, she's still processing, not just Billy and him wanting to change, the changes he's already made, but also Vecna and what she learns of what happens when she goes home. She's not a fan, but she knows she has to face it at some point, too.

It all leads to this weird desire to not be alone, but not actually be around people, either. She isn't sure she can manage a proper conversation. She finds herself at the diner, and after slapping a large container of cocoa at the counter, snags a table toward the back, a place where she can see anyone coming, and no one can sneak up on her.

She only has a piece of paper and a bottle of nail polish - something blue with a little green in it, already on her nails - so she swipes the brush along the paper as she thinks. The smell might be strong and attract annoyance, but she thinks she's far away enough it shouldn't be an issue. She doesn't even realize, at first, what she's painting, until she sees the waves. The use of white paper for sun blazing on water.

Okay, fine. She misses the ocean, too. One of these days, when the replicator isn't done with her, she'll have to get some colored pencils. Or a book. She needs something

Anytime she sees anyone headed her way she just stares and waits to see where they're actually going. Hopefully a table far from her.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve's sat a few tables away, and initially he pays Max no mind, assuming she's writing a note on the napkin for someone, and she seems to concentrate on it really hard. It'd be rude to pry.

He's just here for a cup of water and something to graze on; he tries not to take more than what anyone else eats if he's not going to go out and hunt it down himself, because he knows he's got a big appetite.

When he's done, he just waits, nursing his cup, gets up to get more water.

He gives it a little bit before she seems done with whatever she's doing on her napkin. "You must be new here," he says. "I'm Steve."

[madginger]

It was hard not to notice Steve - he's a little big - but Max tries to otherwise block out the diner. Until he approaches her table.

She can't ignore that.

Max looks up, fails to offer her own name, as she remarks, "You always approach strange people, Steve? Are you the alien planet greeter?"

She's only slightly hesitant. Steve seems oddly genuine, not something she's accustomed to.

[pursuitofcappiness]

"Sure," he says. "But it's more like, it's a small community. I'm gonna run into you sooner or later." And also, well, apparently he likes collecting the angry kids.

Mostly, he doesn't think this is a place for kids. And he wants to make sure they're alright.

"Do you have a name?" he asks, because that's not something he missed.

[madginger]

At the moment, she's not as angry as sometimes, but she's definitely troubled. Max at least hears Steve out, and she can't refute his points, either. Steve also isn't wrong - it's not the best place for most kids. So far, though, Max thinks home is more treacherous. Maybe not as often as Temba, but still. She doesn't realize things could get worse.

He asks her name, and she's tempted to give a smart-assed response of, 'No, my parents forgot to give me one,' but there's something his earnest, serious personality that stops her.

"Max." She cants her head to the seat in front of her. "You want to sit there? It's easier to have a conversation that way."

[burnyoudown]

Kavinsky wasn't one to be put off by others being in less than stellar moods. He didn't know a whole lot of people by sight here yet, so when he saw a familiar face, of course he made a beeline in Max's direction. He offered a smile, though didn't make any attempt to take off his white-rimmed sunglasses yet.

"Hey there, sweetheart." He rested his hands on the back of a chair, but didn't pull it out to sit yet. "Would you mind some company?" He was probably going to join her either way, but he figured he'd at least ask first.

[madginger]

In the case of Kavinsky, after their first meeting, she doesn't mind him interrupting her current mood. She knew going to the diner opened her up to this, anyway.

She manages a smile in return.

Max doesn't miss a beat to teasingly scold him with, "Does you girlfriend know you throw that word around?"

Then she gestures to the seat across from her. "But yeah, join me."

[burnyoudown]

He laughed, pulling the chair out to flop into it. "Pretty sure she does. I call everyone sweetheart." Or princess...or baby doll- they weren't exclusive to any gender, in his opinion.

"So what're you working on?" He nodded towards the paper. It felt like a better option than asking how she was doing. He'd already taken note of her expression when he'd stepped into the diner.

[madginger]

"That's one easy going girlfriend," Max tells Kavinsky, but that's as most as she teases about that.

He's clever - asking how she was could definitely get a snarky retort. Asking about the image is a little less direct.

"I'm just," Max tries to think of a suitable word for what she's doing, somehow thinking while her hands just move? "doodling." Yeah, that will have to do.

Closed prompts

[madginger]

Closed to Chrissy and later Robin - Something Softer

[madginger]

Max gives Chrissy a sheepish smile, but laughs as she shows her the results - a bottle of nail polish, a small tape player with a tiny speaker (but it's something) and admits, "I guess that's it for me. I already have a pillow. I made some other stuff, so I guess we know it has limits."

She tucks the items away.

"Maybe you can get it to make a tape of some other music, and a little food? If you don't have a pillow, that too. Robin kept mentioning pillow fights." Max is smart, and observant, but no, she still doesn't get that.

3626421841 years later sorry!

[ephemerios]

“All right, let's see.” She's used this before too, so she's not sure if she'll be able to make as much as Max or more, but that's what this science is for. “If one is all I get, music or pillow first? I have some of both already but super indecisive where to start.”

They are absolutely going to pillow fight their hearts out, okay.

You are totally good, no worries

[madginger]

If they don't have a pillow fight after that conversation with Robin, is it even a slumber party?

But Max does pause, trying to decide between the two. "Pillow. We can just listen to 'Running Up That Hill' all night."

[ephemerios]

It is NOT.

“One hopefully fluffy pillow coming up.” And it's a few moments later when it's done, when she gives it a good fluff. “That should work for pillow fighting. Thoughts?” She passes it over to Max while she tries to see what music the machine will spit out for them.

[madginger]

Then pillow fight it is!

Max grins as she catches the pillow.

"Seems firm and fluffy to me," but just in case, she gives it a good punch, then squishes it. "Good!"

Closed to Robin - About a Harmit Crab

[madginger]

In the morning, with the device working again, even as Billy took her back, she sent Robin a quick text.

Got rained in. Some bad storm. Couldn't contact you. Billy had me stay with him. I'll tell you when I get back.

And once at the hotel, she didn't check to see what he did, and wasted no time in heading to Robin's room, because if anyone deserves to know she actually managed to tell him anything about Vecna, it is Robin, after their first heart-to-heart, at least. Especially when thinking next steps - like should she tell him everything? She isn't so sure, and without El, or Lucas to toss her thoughts at, Robin is the first that comes to mind.

She knocks.

[work_wife]

Robin hadn't been worried all night. Not at all. Not after remembering how many scary looking creatures were in the Dick Shun Airy. The message in the morning, though, is a relief. At least someone was learning the new technology.

I was scared. I couldn't find you in the hotel.

But she doesn't press more than that because Max promised. She is at her door pretty instantly to open it though.

"Max."

[madginger]

Max was grateful Robin didn't press at the time. She was trying not to draw Billy's attention to what she was doing, and she might understand how to use the device, but she's not skilled at typing on it, yet.

No, this is a face-to-face conversation, anyway.

She breathes in when Robin answers and says back, "Hi, Robin. Back safe and sound." She gives a weak smile.

[work_wife]

"I noticed," she says, trying to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. Old defense mechanisms die hard. "I almost went out searching."

Closed to Harmit Crab, Robin and Max

[madginger]

Not long after the discussion with Robin about talking to Billy about not living on the beach for winter, and sometime after Max's disastrous conversation with Billy over the car, Robin and Max set out to the beach shack.

She's not entirely sure what mood they'll find Billy in, or if he will even give Max a second of his time so when she knocks on the door of the shack, Max readies to shove her foot in the door, if she has to. Assuming he even answers. They might need a back up plan.

Max whispers to Robin, "You might have to speak." She probably should have warned Robin Billy might not want to see her. Oh well, they can adjust.

[work_wife]

"Yeah, I'm expecting that I would have to," Robin says with a sigh. Because she knows this is going to be awkward for all of them. So someone gets to be assertive about this.

Mostly it's going to be her.

[playingtough]

There's at least an indication that he's home, since there's smoke curling up from the chimney. His hair is still wet from his post-workout shower, but he's dressed and listening to the tape player when he hears the knock.

Who--?

No one visits him. He always goes to people, rarely do they ever come out to him. But that was definitely a knock.

So he groans and gets up, sticking a fresh lollipop in his mouth before yanking the door open. "What is—" And the sentence stops as he sees both Max and Robin on his metaphorical doorstep. "The hell do you two want?"

[madginger]

"No, I mean just to get-" Beat. "Never mind." She meant to get the door even open, but Billy opens it all the same, and Max's foot steps forward.

"I want to give you an apology," she takes a deep breath in. Despite Max's words, she looks tense, ready for a fight. Things she's not great at? Apologizing to Billy, or talking to Billy without getting mad. So they'll see how that goes.

"And we," she looks at Robin and indicates all three of them with a finger, "need to discuss the fact you can't stay here - in a shack, on the beach - for winter."

Throw me a prompt

[madginger]

[What it says. If you're inspired, toss me something here, I'll follow whatever, prose or brackets, past or present tense.]