Something to take the blues away [video]

[mightythinice]

[Ellie clicks on the console. While those who don't know her might think she looks like a normal 14 year old, those that do know her can tell she's trying to distract herself.

She rubs her nose as she ponders how to start this, before thinking that maybe she should even just cut the feed off. But, hell, she made it this far.

Her arm is bandaged up in a rough sling-- something she did herself.]

Sooo... I guess we can talk about what the fuck just happened, or we can talk about something better. Like, okay, I've had some of the kedan read to me?

Guys, guys. Their stories are fucking hilarious. I'm not even sure how someone gets engaged 12 times on accident, but there's a story for that.

And there's a story about the guy who had a huge case of mistaken identity, and owed a stupid amount of debt because someone pretended to be him when gambling.

... And a huge amount of these end up being romance stories.

Don't even fucking ask me.

[she shrugs and offers a little grin]

I asked if there was any stuff about someone pissing off a monster, or going to outer space, but nope. Nothing. Nada.

How fucking weird is that?

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[mightythinice]

[Getting to Tess’s isn’t that hard. And admittedly? She wanted to see this crazy turtle named Hector. It was still weird to imagine Tess mothering the damn thing, but whatever.

Stranger things had happened. Stranger things just happened. So, Ellie knocks on the door, not quite familiar enough with Tess yet to just barge in. But she was getting close.]

[nowthatsfunny]

[Hector is outside, munching on... well, something. He'll eat just about anything, Tess has already realized, and since she doesn't know what turtles are supposed to eat - certainly not giant magical psychic turtles - she's just sort of... letting him do whatever.

She opens the door and lets Ellie in with a vague smile and a wave of her hand.]

How's the arm?

[mightythinice]

[she shrugs her good shoulder at the question as she steps in. The turtle was new, and a bit distracting, but the question brings her back to Tess.]

Same as it was yesterday. Kind of sucks, I’ve gotten hurt before, but not like this.
[she thought she’d go out of her mind resting anymore. In fact, she missed wandering and hunting, weirdly enough. She was getting a lot better at it, and now she was pretty much useless.]

I see the turtle thing’s going well, though.

[nowthatsfunny]

Joel clearly took better care of you than I was able to manage.

[Tess says that almost nonchalantly, and goes to pour herself another drink, because why the hell not? And okay, so maybe she blames herself just a little bit for Ellie getting injured so bad. She made a promise, after all, and there she was, her arm in a sling anyway.]

I guess it is - I'm not really sure what I'm expected to do except... let him hang around when he wants.

[mightythinice]

Pffff.

More like I took care of him. [she mutters a bit. Admittedly, there was a little give and take there, but winter had been one of the hardest seasons for both of them.

She'd learned more than she wanted to about stitching together broken skin. Compared to this? That was way worse]

[nowthatsfunny]

[Tess gives an almost-surprised sort of laugh.]

I'll bet. He's like that sometimes. He's good at looking scary when you need him to, though.

[mightythinice]

[Ellie decides against elaborating further. The last thing she wanted to think about was back then. She’d rather focus on the here and then, and getting the lowdown on how Tess took in a baby turtle.]

So… Hector, huh. Hector’s an interesting name. He say anything else? [since he apparently could say his name.]

[nowthatsfunny]

He's been sayin' a lot of things. Or, well, asking.

[She taps her forehead.] Stick around long enough, he'll probably start asking you stuff, too. In your head, it's weird.

[mightythinice]

I heard they can teach you how to read Kedanese from one of the guys. [she looks up at Tess, clearly wondering if she’d gotten that memo, but she doesn’t ask outright. At least, not yet] Don’t you think that’d be useful?

For, like, smuggling and stuff? [… let her in on the family business, yes?]

[nowthatsfunny]

[Tess laughs a little.] Yeah, it could be real useful. You lookin' to show me your resume too?

You know I'll let you help out however you can.

[mightythinice]

I might be interested. Joel never talked much about it, though. [Tess had been off limits as a topic of conversation not even thirty minutes after she’d died, and Ellie hadn’t wanted to bring up smuggling, lest it bring up her.]

What’s it like? Anything like trekking all the way across the country with a girl?

[nowthatsfunny]

[Tess snorts faintly, and waves Ellie over to a chair in the kitchen, grabbing munchies for them both.]

Not so much travel. Most of it's, uh. We used to call it networking, I guess. Making contacts, talking to people, meeting other people through them. Joel wasn't so good at the people stuff. It's why we started working together.

[Well... sort of. In a roundabout way.]

[mightythinice]

Joel? Not good at people? Get out. [Ellie moves to take the seat, despite the sarcastic comment… She felt she’d been around him long enough, by then, that she could say it. Joel would have killed Henry at least twice, and the fight he’d caused with Maria and Tommy… and her. Joel was a lot of things, but people person wasn’t one of them.

She wondered what he was like, back when it was just him and Sarah, though. She’d sort of gotten some answer… and the rules of football. It was a start.]

Networking. Do you have a network here, already?

[nowthatsfunny]

You noticed, huh? [She pushes a bag of potato-chip-like-things in Ellie's direction, looking amused. If nothing else, Tess and Ellie both know the value of having plenty of food all the time.]

Starting one. Since I've been doing the books at the Brazen Turtle I've been meeting a lot of people. Dipping my toes in, so to speak. It takes time, but even a business like the Turtle relies to some extent on, uh. Less than legal means for certain things.