multiversallogs | John's concern for Tommy knows NO BOUNDS.

Who: Kate and John
What: John uses Tommy as an excuse to talk to Kate, HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES TOMMY
Where: the library
When: during Kate's work hours (SORRY MARTEL)
Notes: takes place after Tommy's post to the network
Warnings: probably not, but the library IS a pretty racy place, what with all the books

It's late afternoon when John slips out of the Samizdat offices, figuring he's finally accrued enough intern abuse to be excused for an early absence. At this point he knows they can't fire him — he does too much, and one of the editors just had a mental breakdown. They won't appreciate this, but they can't do jack.

He's been back to the library a few times since the first time he ran into Kate, but he hadn't seen her those times because he'd been taking care to avoid her, and if he had seen her on those occasions, he would have flung away the romance novels he'd borrowed as research panickedly. So far the basic plot outline seems pretty straightforward, and if he fills in the blanks with more interesting characters, maybe someone will see fit to publish it.

There's also the matter of Tommy's monster from the black lagoon, but with teeth. If he'd wanted to ask Kate about that, though, he could have just messaged her over the CiD. But that's no way to make an impression. Not that he's trying for that. Trying is for try hards. He is instead just super casually dropping by her desk, and if he happens to be slightly better dressed today, sort of (it's the nice hoodie), so what.

He'll just open up with a totally awesome, "Hey."

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Biting her lip in consideration for a moment, Kate opens her mouth and a flood of words come out with nary a breath in between them. "Better roles for the women? Sure, not all of them are going to go out and save the world, but at least one or two of them would like to. And a lot of women aren't going to sit around waiting for some Fabio dude to come and save her from a life of whatever with a kiss. Maybe they'll meet him along the way, but they'll want to do most of the work themselves."

Even though she reads them often, Kate can't seem to connect with the roles in the novels, both romantically and socially. Waiting for her hero to come is such a foreign concept to her and something her and Eli argued over endlessly at home. She's rather have a guy on the side or even waiting for her rather than wait for him and let life pass her by.

It's more than John was expecting, but it all makes sense, and it confirms the criticism he's heard before for romance novels. In fact, he'd like to ask her more, but more than one question in this direction will kind of ruin any remaining plausible deniability, while more 'subtle' questions will probably come off really fucking weird. Not that he's good with subtlety anyway.

So he nods, trying not to look too thoughtful about it. "I don't think I'd know what to do with a woman who needed to be saved like that." In an absentminded way, he's thinking of his mom and also of Rogue, though even he would admit neither judgment is fair. "But then, I'm definitely not a romance novel hero."

"You save her." Kate states this as if it's the most obvious thing ever. "If she can't help herself, somebody has to help her. But if she can and she wants to do it on her own, all you have to do is stand back and let her do her own thing. And not make stupid commentary about it."

Sure, now she's going off into her own personal issues territory, but it all goes hand in hand with the caliber of reading material she's come across. "Anyway," she shrugs again with a smirk, "your hair's not long enough to be one." No comment on the state of his pecs or abs.

Edited 2011-12-19 07:14 (UTC)

"I wasn't talking about actual life or death situations, just romance novel plots." He says mildly. It's kind of interesting that Kate has more than that on her mind, but he doesn't jump to any conclusions — real vigilantes and superheroes are virtually unknown when and where he's from, the X-Men aside (he wouldn't call them that), and the various motivations for heroic actions have never crossed his mind in any depth. "But I'll remember that."

"It works for books too. After a while, the same old, same old gets boring to read." Everybody has their motivations for what they do, some Kate agrees with and others Kate can do nothing but side-eye at (hi, Magneto.)

But right here and now, Kate pushes the book away a little further, no longer interested in it, and goes back to leaning on the desk. "Hey, are you going to the holiday party thing at the inn?" She's never been one for big Christmas events, but a party seems relatively safe, especially when it's one for the residents and not just as a show of how much money one has.

The subject sort of perks John up a little, even though he tries not to show it. "Maybe. Are you gonna go? Because —"

Well, he can't really talk about how his boss is Jewish. "— I sure as fuck don't want to party with my editors. And actually I've never seen It's A Wonderful Life. I probably won't like it but what the hell, right?"

"Probably." She's shrugging again, but in all likelihood, Kate will be there. It's a change of pace from the daily ins and outs of work and patrol and the gang does need something to cheer them up while they heal. While Billy and Tommy heal and Kate stares at them so they're never out of her sight for a good long time, that is.

"It's a pretty good movie and there'll be food. A lot could go wrong, but why not have faith this time around?"

John's concern for Tommy knows NO BOUNDS.

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