"They seemed to be in the dark about it just as much as we were."
Caitlyn just watched as Chloe got up and went over towards the edge, and then managed to scramble up the wall and onto the roof. There was no way that she was going to be able to do something like that, not in one try at least. And what was with people and climbing and jumping all over the place, what was wrong with just using stairs or a ladder or something.
With a resigned sigh, she walked over and accepted the hand that had been reached down to her. She was a little curious, and it would be nice to get a place a bit quieter.
"Or they want to ensure that we have some freedom. Would you rather they lock us in a cell or something so we don't start running across rooftops? But a closer look would be nice."
Chloe was, for as small as she stood, surprisingly strong. With a little heft, she helped Caitlyn up onto the roof and gave her a cheeky look. What? She loved being in places she wasn't supposed to be. Scrambling around on rooftops was entirely normal, and so was parkour. Ok, maybe for her.
Taking the lead, she led up to a nice spot, thankful that there weren't too many drops or steep angles on this part of the roof, so it was possible for the two of them to just sit out on the mostly low tiles, looking up and into the sky.
"Mmmm, I think we can be sure they have us on a tight leash. Our little escapade's just an appearance of freedom, not the real thing," she admitted. "But I'm a stubborn girl when it comes to being adventurous. I don't like being told where I can be or not be. Though, I confess I am a bit ... paranoid sometimes."
Caitlyn had no doubt that Chloe would be able to take off and leave her up here, at which point she'd be all but stuck and would be nowhere near as graceful getting down. But she did have to admit that up here, above the pollution of the light from the interior and the noise drifting out, the night sky was a lot more captivating and calming.
As for the views of their hosts, it seemed that for now they'd have to agree to disagree. Sometimes rules were in place for a good reason.
"About what? Being trapped somewhere you don't want to be?"
"Mmmm? Oh this place is just fine. Almost quaint," she said, making an idle gesture as she glanced over at the woman next to her with that casual air that she seemed to carry all the time about her. It was like being kidnapped or trapped here was ... fine. "I'm a little used to being trapped where I didn't expect to be."
She shook her head and smirked a little, looking up at the stars now. "I suppose I am used to my captors having more ... ulterior motives than these seem to have. They might conceal it behind shock and empathy, but I sometimes assume the worst. That's all. I suppose you could be right. It's certainly better than some places I've seen."
"I've been accused of being paranoid before too. Told that I was looking for something that wasn't there, something that couldn't possibly exist. And it turned out that I was right all a long."
Caitlyn set a hand on Chloe's shoulder as if to reassure her and confirm that she understood on some level. There were certainly times that she had felt trapped as well, the expectations and shadow of her mother keeping her from truly experiencing some things. But now there was nothing she wouldn't give to have her back.
"I'm not saying that you should blindly trust them, just don't make them out to be bad guys either. I've learned that things aren't always so simple, even if we wish that they were."
She looked at Chloe for a moment and then back,
"I mean look at that, you'd never see a sky like that in the city back home."
"Mmmm, paranoia is just a well developed sense of preparedness sometimes," she mused, looking up at the stars. There was a momentary tension at the physical contact, but it eased. For all that she was built small and on the surface a bit soft, there was little soft to her. However long she'd lived on that island, she'd never lost her edge. She allowed herself a shrug and nodded once.
"You will never see a sky like this in the haze of the city. Only alone on the beach, in the mountains, can you see them like this... Strange sky or not..." Her gaze locked onto the panoply of stars, noticing no sea or river of them as in her home world. No Milky Way. Still, there were many that dotted the sky, if fewer than she was used to. "It's a dark sky compared to home. Lonely but you can appreciate them more individually."
"I suppose that's to be expected given how far away they are. No matter how close they might appear to us, there's always so much distance between them."
Being thrust into a new world made that distance seem all the more real as there was nothing about that sky that was familiar as she looked up at it. Each of them were alone weren't they, sole representatives of their homes for now. Feeling the tension that rose at the touch, Caitlyn let her hand fall away from Chloe's shoulder, not certain whether she should apologize or not. She hadn't meant to intrude or make her uncomfortable, she had just wanted to let Chloe know that she understood.
"But they are pretty to look at, and to see so clearly for a change. Is this something you used to do a lot?"
"A distance that is almost unfathomable to is, the light of which has traveled years just to find us on its lonely, weary journey." She sighed as she considered it, her tone and smile more distant and wistful. "There are many more of these where I come from, It feels so very... quiet in such a field. On a night like tonight, without a moon, it is almost like a great river of stars spans the middle of the sky, seemingly without number."
A sigh and she glanced over at her. "I do suppose I've grown to appreciate how much of a journey my life has been. Such strange places. It isn't so bad to appreciate the view, yes?"
"I'm not really sure I ever took the time to truly appreciate something like this before. I was always, preoccupied."
Always chasing after something, trying to find her place and her purpose aside from just following in her mother's footsteps and becoming a council woman. For someone that always had their eye on the target and caught the smallest of details in a crime scene there were quite a few things she had been absolutely blind to. So much that she didn't really understand and was still in the midst of trying to figure out.
"It is beautiful though. Kind of calming and helps to really put things into perspective."
"I suppose I love the beauty around me too much to not notice it. Living in a villa far from society can make one a hopeless romantic at times." Also a lot of other things, but she did have a flare for romance and drama in her own dark way. Of course, her problem had always been more a lack of empathy....
"It reminds us that, whoever we are, we are small in the scheme of things. Not but ripples in time. It can make you appreciate the time you have."
Not that Caitlyn was complaining; she rather liked listening to it, and it was pretty thought-provoking. Plus, Caitlyn was still lost in the stars; for the moment, everything was just still and calm. All the troubles and the worries that had given her so many restless and sleepless nights were now in an entirely different world. It was like a weight being lifted from her shoulders, the responsibilities of the position thrust on her just fading into the night.
"Time is something we always wish we had more of. And I know I'm guilty of not making the most of it, there's so many things I should have done, should have said, but never made the time for."
"I like to think of myself as something of a poet on my good days," she said with a bemused twist to her tone. What was life if not a chance for a little playful banter? She certainly enjoyed adding to a conversation a little wit or wonder. The stars above helped.
"It's funny... I don't really wish I had more time. I just suppose I wish that I had not squandered the time I had to now the way that I did. But, a girl has to learn these things the hard way sometimes." Right hand strayed to left, feeling over the fingers. There was a memory there for a moment before she sighed. "I suppose this place is a new beginning for as long as I'm here. Yes?"
There were a few faces she hoped never to see here. Those would be painful. Especially as most would not remember her, and the few who would... well, awkward might have been the best way to speak of the few relations from her birth world.
"In a way it is I suppose. A chance to learn from what we've done, and yet not be entirely trapped by it."
Not expectations being tied to a family name, no limitations, a chance to put their mistakes and misguided decisions behind them. They would be able to move forward and learn from what they had done, and could make a better choice from having learned those lessons. At the touch, she looked down focusing on the other's hand, something about the touch hinting at there being a story there. But Caitlyn wasn't going to push, rather she would let Chloe open up about what she wanted when it was the right time.
"But that doesn't mean that it's the end of who or what we were before either. Just a chance to grow in a new way, free from the constraints of where we were before."
"Oh, I will always be the very girl that grew up in that vineyard with their best friend so very long ago," she said wistfully. "You can never truly stick a fork in that part of me." For whatever reason, she chuckled at that. The woman had a bit of a dark humor about how she'd died to a dinner fork though she rarely explained the joke.
"But I think perhaps I'm a bit wiser than I was once, more discerning of whose wisdom I trust and what it is that I seek to live for. I've spent too long as someone's blade. I won't anymore. I am my own." She glanced over and winked. "It can be freeing, knowing that I don't actually answer to anyone for not serving them anymore."
So she'd been a soldier of some sort then; it was strange that the similarities were starting to come out. She'd recently learned about being a bit more discerning about who she trusted as well, and in whose advice and wisdom she followed. If it was something she'd learned earlier, perhaps many people wouldn't have paid the cost of her ignorance.
"And in knowing that you're not being used for some hidden agenda. Yes."
Taking a few steps forward, Caitlyn let her hand slide from the other's shoulder before wrapping her arms in front of her. She had been arrogant, stubborn, so angry and blinded that she'd just listened to the poisoned advice from Ambessa and now Piltover was going to be caught in an all-out war. And yet she'd escaped here before the gates could be stormed, before the full consequences of those choices full caught up to her. Though her eyes had been opened.
"But it's not answering to who I was under that is the problem, rather those who I was supposed to serve, to protect and defend and yet failed to do so."
Their problems and regrets weren't quite the same. Of course, that was intrinsically the difference between an assassin and a soldier. The only protection she did was in killing the person before they could cause harm according to her master. But there were still similarities. She smiled to herself and watched the woman getting to her feet, cocking her head a little.
"I suppose mine stems more from the blood I've shed, the lives taken or harmed that perhaps should not have been. But their ghosts linger in their own way in my life. Still... we can face those ghosts if we choose here. I've been doing that for a while now." Weird that that blasted island had helped.
"Perhaps you will have a chance to make amends. Most of those I shed the blood of were... not the sort I'd ask forgiveness from." She tended to kill awful people.
"I suppose we'll see. There may be a chance for a lot of things here to be set right, but then there may be the chance to experience new things as well. To learn a bit more about ourselves and other people that we might be able to learn and grow from."
She looked back towards the other,
"Who knows, we might even get to name a few new constellations."
"Mmm we could, at that. Does anything in the night sky strike you as looking just a tiny bit like anything?" She was looking up after returning the woman's gaze. It was all too easy to come up with shapes, but she was curious what sorts this woman would see, what she'd seek out. It could say a bit.
Caitlyn had learned and practiced identifying trends and seeing patterns since she was young, and she had a relatively keen eye from the years she'd spent working on her marksmanship. So, looking at the sky, she was able to take in the view fairly quickly and began to try to make connections and find anything that might be easy to recognize.
"This reminds me of being a child, and looking up at clouds and talking about what they looked like."
Only with clouds the image was always fleeting, with the stars it was something a bit more permanent. Spotting a cluster of stars Caitlyn pointed out to them, tracing a shape over them.
"There, that group looks like a rabbit that's racing across the sky."
Like the rabbits she used to track and hunt in the snow by her family's lodge. Back when things were simple.
She nodded as she looked at it. The ears were the telling thing. Her own hand pointed to behind the hare, where a long trail of stars spanned the sky, seeming to link with a triangle at the end. "That one almost reminds me a little of Serpens back in my world. A serpent. Though it is easy enough to find a long trail like that. I just have to link it to a head. Still, if there is a hare, ought it not have one it chases or who it is chased by?" she said, musing a little and rising and standing along with the other woman.
"Freedom is never quite without its perils, is it? Always one chasing after."
"Perhaps. It's be nice to be able to pause for just a bit though, to stop having to chase after something, or worry about something catching up to you."
How long had she been chasing after Jinx, and now that she was in custody, she questioned whether the chase had been worth everything that come with it. Esepcially now that she'd found herself as the one being chased and pursued. Inevitably waiting for when she would be caught.
Shaking her head she tried to push the thoughts away, it wasn't something she could do anything about, not here and not now.
"Well if you're going to call yours Serpens, I suppose I should name our rabbit."
"I certainly think if we're picking names out, I should get one and you the other... Serpens feels a little like being back at home so I'll keep it. What will you call your furry little friend?" She giggled a little. It was childish in a way but a good way to take their minds off of things.
"And don't you worry. I have a feeling we have all the time in the world for this little pause." How long had she been on the island? Five years? Six? There was time again.
"Well since they're always running across the sky, how about Dasher? Or maybe Harelyn?"
She was horrid at naming things, often coming out a bit too literally, or putting far more thought and effort into it. Plus, coming up with something on the spot also put her at a bit of a disadvantage also.
"Both are fine names," she said, walking up slowly. For how she'd reacted with a bit of a start when Caitlyn had touched her earlier, she seemed just as willing to initiate touch herself. A hand reached over to pat on the woman's arm and she considered for a moment. "Which do you like more... It is your choice after all."
To the other question though... she smiled a little sadly and winked. "What I want does not matter. I'm dead, my dear. I only live because I'm here." A little giggle followed and she let her smirk broaden. "Why not enjoy the extra time I have, whatever form it takes?"
Caitlyn's eyes widened a little at the revelation. Chloe was dead. . . did that mean that, no she was certain that she'd gotten out of there. She had seen to everything in the aftermath. She looked around for a moment, trying to figure it all out, but then Chloe had sounded so relaxed about it. Eventually, she just let out a breath, placing her hand onto of the others.
"I'm sorry to hear that, but yes, at least you have a little time now. Hopefully, it can be one that's a bit more pleasant, that you can enjoy."
Still, Caitlyn's curiosity did get the better of her.
She considered that for a moment. "Another day, yes. Not here." There were ears. she wanted to choose what people learned about Atia and her island. If anyone. "But don't worry your pretty little head about it. I am quite at peace with my passing, I assure you. I just think of this as a new lease on life."
It had also been five years. It was easier to cope with being dead when you had years to do it in. Trained counselors helped too. She winked. "Perhaps you'd join me for dinner tomorrow? Away from the crowds?"
It was a bit open and exposed, and there was no telling if there might be someone listening in. Besides it was a nice night, and they seemed to be having a pleasant time admiring and naming their own constellations. It was peaceful, and Chloe's assurance that she was at peace with the events that had happened was enough to put Caitlyn at ease for the meantime.
"I'd like that, but where? I certainly don't have anything that would make for a decent meal."
"Oh, why don't you stop by my place in this case? I'm not really that great of a cook, but I suspect we can at least convince them to let us have something better than appetizers," she offered with a bemused smirk on her face. "We can worry about impressing or poisoning each other with cooking soon enough. Let's just take advantage of our hosts for now."
She made quite a few assumptions about those hosts, but she suspected this one was safe.
"I'm not the best cook either, but I can manage something simple. But if something was already prepared that would leave us more time to talk and spend time getting to know one another."
It would also probably be a lot more filling and there wouldn't be the matter of who would have to clean up afterward as well. Caitlyn would have felt uncomfortable thinking about having left a sink full of dishes or something to be done for later.
"Oh we are a pair. We can burn down my kitchen next time for fun," she said with a bemused giggle. Reaching into her clothes, she pulled out a small pad and scrawled the directions on it along with a time right around the dinner hour. "It was ... nice to meet you, Caitlyn. I do hope this is the beginning of something interesting."
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chiming
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Date: 2025-02-08 02:37 pm (UTC)From:Caitlyn just watched as Chloe got up and went over towards the edge, and then managed to scramble up the wall and onto the roof. There was no way that she was going to be able to do something like that, not in one try at least. And what was with people and climbing and jumping all over the place, what was wrong with just using stairs or a ladder or something.
With a resigned sigh, she walked over and accepted the hand that had been reached down to her. She was a little curious, and it would be nice to get a place a bit quieter.
"Or they want to ensure that we have some freedom. Would you rather they lock us in a cell or something so we don't start running across rooftops? But a closer look would be nice."
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Date: 2025-02-09 03:38 am (UTC)From:Taking the lead, she led up to a nice spot, thankful that there weren't too many drops or steep angles on this part of the roof, so it was possible for the two of them to just sit out on the mostly low tiles, looking up and into the sky.
"Mmmm, I think we can be sure they have us on a tight leash. Our little escapade's just an appearance of freedom, not the real thing," she admitted. "But I'm a stubborn girl when it comes to being adventurous. I don't like being told where I can be or not be. Though, I confess I am a bit ... paranoid sometimes."
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Date: 2025-02-09 03:59 am (UTC)From:As for the views of their hosts, it seemed that for now they'd have to agree to disagree. Sometimes rules were in place for a good reason.
"About what? Being trapped somewhere you don't want to be?"
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Date: 2025-02-09 04:32 am (UTC)From:She shook her head and smirked a little, looking up at the stars now. "I suppose I am used to my captors having more ... ulterior motives than these seem to have. They might conceal it behind shock and empathy, but I sometimes assume the worst. That's all. I suppose you could be right. It's certainly better than some places I've seen."
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Date: 2025-02-09 04:39 am (UTC)From:Caitlyn set a hand on Chloe's shoulder as if to reassure her and confirm that she understood on some level. There were certainly times that she had felt trapped as well, the expectations and shadow of her mother keeping her from truly experiencing some things. But now there was nothing she wouldn't give to have her back.
"I'm not saying that you should blindly trust them, just don't make them out to be bad guys either. I've learned that things aren't always so simple, even if we wish that they were."
She looked at Chloe for a moment and then back,
"I mean look at that, you'd never see a sky like that in the city back home."
no subject
Date: 2025-02-10 05:10 am (UTC)From:"You will never see a sky like this in the haze of the city. Only alone on the beach, in the mountains, can you see them like this... Strange sky or not..." Her gaze locked onto the panoply of stars, noticing no sea or river of them as in her home world. No Milky Way. Still, there were many that dotted the sky, if fewer than she was used to. "It's a dark sky compared to home. Lonely but you can appreciate them more individually."
no subject
Date: 2025-02-10 02:48 pm (UTC)From:Being thrust into a new world made that distance seem all the more real as there was nothing about that sky that was familiar as she looked up at it. Each of them were alone weren't they, sole representatives of their homes for now. Feeling the tension that rose at the touch, Caitlyn let her hand fall away from Chloe's shoulder, not certain whether she should apologize or not. She hadn't meant to intrude or make her uncomfortable, she had just wanted to let Chloe know that she understood.
"But they are pretty to look at, and to see so clearly for a change. Is this something you used to do a lot?"
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Date: 2025-02-11 02:58 am (UTC)From:A sigh and she glanced over at her. "I do suppose I've grown to appreciate how much of a journey my life has been. Such strange places. It isn't so bad to appreciate the view, yes?"
no subject
Date: 2025-02-11 02:40 pm (UTC)From:Always chasing after something, trying to find her place and her purpose aside from just following in her mother's footsteps and becoming a council woman. For someone that always had their eye on the target and caught the smallest of details in a crime scene there were quite a few things she had been absolutely blind to. So much that she didn't really understand and was still in the midst of trying to figure out.
"It is beautiful though. Kind of calming and helps to really put things into perspective."
no subject
Date: 2025-02-12 04:19 am (UTC)From:"It reminds us that, whoever we are, we are small in the scheme of things. Not but ripples in time. It can make you appreciate the time you have."
no subject
Date: 2025-02-13 02:01 pm (UTC)From:Not that Caitlyn was complaining; she rather liked listening to it, and it was pretty thought-provoking. Plus, Caitlyn was still lost in the stars; for the moment, everything was just still and calm. All the troubles and the worries that had given her so many restless and sleepless nights were now in an entirely different world. It was like a weight being lifted from her shoulders, the responsibilities of the position thrust on her just fading into the night.
"Time is something we always wish we had more of. And I know I'm guilty of not making the most of it, there's so many things I should have done, should have said, but never made the time for."
no subject
Date: 2025-02-15 05:19 am (UTC)From:"It's funny... I don't really wish I had more time. I just suppose I wish that I had not squandered the time I had to now the way that I did. But, a girl has to learn these things the hard way sometimes." Right hand strayed to left, feeling over the fingers. There was a memory there for a moment before she sighed. "I suppose this place is a new beginning for as long as I'm here. Yes?"
There were a few faces she hoped never to see here. Those would be painful. Especially as most would not remember her, and the few who would... well, awkward might have been the best way to speak of the few relations from her birth world.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-16 01:35 am (UTC)From:Not expectations being tied to a family name, no limitations, a chance to put their mistakes and misguided decisions behind them. They would be able to move forward and learn from what they had done, and could make a better choice from having learned those lessons. At the touch, she looked down focusing on the other's hand, something about the touch hinting at there being a story there. But Caitlyn wasn't going to push, rather she would let Chloe open up about what she wanted when it was the right time.
"But that doesn't mean that it's the end of who or what we were before either. Just a chance to grow in a new way, free from the constraints of where we were before."
no subject
Date: 2025-02-16 04:41 am (UTC)From:"But I think perhaps I'm a bit wiser than I was once, more discerning of whose wisdom I trust and what it is that I seek to live for. I've spent too long as someone's blade. I won't anymore. I am my own." She glanced over and winked. "It can be freeing, knowing that I don't actually answer to anyone for not serving them anymore."
no subject
Date: 2025-02-17 02:24 pm (UTC)From:"And in knowing that you're not being used for some hidden agenda. Yes."
Taking a few steps forward, Caitlyn let her hand slide from the other's shoulder before wrapping her arms in front of her. She had been arrogant, stubborn, so angry and blinded that she'd just listened to the poisoned advice from Ambessa and now Piltover was going to be caught in an all-out war. And yet she'd escaped here before the gates could be stormed, before the full consequences of those choices full caught up to her. Though her eyes had been opened.
"But it's not answering to who I was under that is the problem, rather those who I was supposed to serve, to protect and defend and yet failed to do so."
no subject
Date: 2025-02-18 04:22 am (UTC)From:"I suppose mine stems more from the blood I've shed, the lives taken or harmed that perhaps should not have been. But their ghosts linger in their own way in my life. Still... we can face those ghosts if we choose here. I've been doing that for a while now." Weird that that blasted island had helped.
"Perhaps you will have a chance to make amends. Most of those I shed the blood of were... not the sort I'd ask forgiveness from." She tended to kill awful people.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-19 03:07 am (UTC)From:She looked back towards the other,
"Who knows, we might even get to name a few new constellations."
no subject
Date: 2025-02-19 03:30 am (UTC)From:Almost like a starry rorschach blot.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-19 03:44 am (UTC)From:"This reminds me of being a child, and looking up at clouds and talking about what they looked like."
Only with clouds the image was always fleeting, with the stars it was something a bit more permanent. Spotting a cluster of stars Caitlyn pointed out to them, tracing a shape over them.
"There, that group looks like a rabbit that's racing across the sky."
Like the rabbits she used to track and hunt in the snow by her family's lodge. Back when things were simple.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-20 04:30 am (UTC)From:"Freedom is never quite without its perils, is it? Always one chasing after."
no subject
Date: 2025-02-21 05:49 pm (UTC)From:How long had she been chasing after Jinx, and now that she was in custody, she questioned whether the chase had been worth everything that come with it. Esepcially now that she'd found herself as the one being chased and pursued. Inevitably waiting for when she would be caught.
Shaking her head she tried to push the thoughts away, it wasn't something she could do anything about, not here and not now.
"Well if you're going to call yours Serpens, I suppose I should name our rabbit."
no subject
Date: 2025-02-24 05:47 am (UTC)From:"And don't you worry. I have a feeling we have all the time in the world for this little pause." How long had she been on the island? Five years? Six? There was time again.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-25 04:13 am (UTC)From:She was horrid at naming things, often coming out a bit too literally, or putting far more thought and effort into it. Plus, coming up with something on the spot also put her at a bit of a disadvantage also.
"But is that what you want?"
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Date: 2025-02-25 04:26 am (UTC)From:To the other question though... she smiled a little sadly and winked. "What I want does not matter. I'm dead, my dear. I only live because I'm here." A little giggle followed and she let her smirk broaden. "Why not enjoy the extra time I have, whatever form it takes?"
no subject
Date: 2025-02-27 10:09 pm (UTC)From:"I'm sorry to hear that, but yes, at least you have a little time now. Hopefully, it can be one that's a bit more pleasant, that you can enjoy."
Still, Caitlyn's curiosity did get the better of her.
"Do you want to talk about what happened?"
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Date: 2025-02-27 10:37 pm (UTC)From:It had also been five years. It was easier to cope with being dead when you had years to do it in. Trained counselors helped too. She winked. "Perhaps you'd join me for dinner tomorrow? Away from the crowds?"
no subject
Date: 2025-02-28 06:23 pm (UTC)From:It was a bit open and exposed, and there was no telling if there might be someone listening in. Besides it was a nice night, and they seemed to be having a pleasant time admiring and naming their own constellations. It was peaceful, and Chloe's assurance that she was at peace with the events that had happened was enough to put Caitlyn at ease for the meantime.
"I'd like that, but where? I certainly don't have anything that would make for a decent meal."
no subject
Date: 2025-03-03 05:12 am (UTC)From:She made quite a few assumptions about those hosts, but she suspected this one was safe.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-04 02:08 pm (UTC)From:It would also probably be a lot more filling and there wouldn't be the matter of who would have to clean up afterward as well. Caitlyn would have felt uncomfortable thinking about having left a sink full of dishes or something to be done for later.
"What time? And just where is your place?"
no subject
Date: 2025-03-04 04:15 pm (UTC)From:(OOC: What do you say I start a new thread?)