died8yearsago | The Parking Lot at the End of the Causeway and Points Beyond; Friday Afternoon [10/26].

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The Parking Lot at the End of the Causeway and Points Beyond; Friday Afternoon [10/26].

Y'know, being a panther hadn't been so bad. Rosa had almost started to get used to the idea, but, then again, it was really hard to argue that being a powerful predator that could slink and skulk like liquid midnight was anything but cool as hell. But it wasn't without its annoyances, either, so when she turned back to normal yesterday in a way that let her take full advantage of being human again, she had no complaints. Especially since she had work to do before next week, and it was going to be pretty difficult getting all her crap done this weekend if she was a giant cat the whole time.

So it was time to get to work, and that meant shooting off a text ("Got a class idea. Taking you up on that coffee. Meet me at the causeway at 2.") and then heading to over to wait.

Sure, the whole plan was flawed if he wound up not taking her up on it, but...c'mon. Yeah, right. Like that was going to happen.

[[ for he of the tightest of pants, for great sp justice, with anything past the causeway NFB for distance, obvs ]]

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"Only ever been on a hoverbike before, but I think I can manage," Miguel said.

Especially if they weren't being chased and having to blow things up. That made hanging on harder.

Yeah, hoverbike was still going to get a little bit of a weird look out of Rosa, because her brain still wasn't wired yet to just accept that those were kinds of things were totally things for some people. She did just spend more than a day as a large feline animal and had fully processed the fact that one of her best friends here could pass through solid objects, though, so it was getting there, albeit slowly.

"Good," she said, tossing her spare helmet over to him. "We're heading out. I'm not wasting any of my booze trying to bribe any of those stupid rodents into not scribbling down any details when we can literally just leave."

Which was far more of her plans than she would normally reveal, but it was useful when you were expecting those stupid rodents to at least scribble down that.

"Besides," she added with a shrug as she went to mount the bike and expected Tightpants to follow suit, this part far less for show, "it's nice to just get away from this place for a while."

Miguel caught the helmet easily and put it on as he followed her. "I haven't gotten onto the mainland that much. Hope you know a coffee place."

"Nah," Rosa shook her head, started up the bike. "Not a clue. I was just going to drive around aimless until we hit something."

No, she wasn't. But that didn't sound too bad.

"Fair enough." Miguel shrugged as he sat behind her. He wasn't going to complain about holding onto Rosa for a while, after all.

And Rosa was definitely not going to complain about being held onto. Sure, she was mostly doing this as a set-up for her class, but she'd also set it up to have its own additional benefits. A real case-study in work smarter, not harder, really.

The trip wasn't that long, either way, to a little cafe on the mainland that Rosa was getting fairly familiar with, as she'd been stopping by nearly any time she returned to the island after a stint back home to mentally prepare herself to be stuck back in Weirdsville, USA. She parked easily and turned off the bike, turned her head slightly toward the passenger.

"You got this?"

Look, you did a lot of thinking when you were a bored, hungry panther, and one of the things Rosa thought about was coming to terms with the idea that her reign as a Free Drink Queen might be running short. So she had to try to make the most of it while she still could.

"Sure," Miguel answered easily. He took off the helmet and handed it back to her. Hey, he'd had a lot of money saved from a top-tier job, and the exchange rates from 2099 to 2017 had been ridiculous. He could afford a coffee or two.

See? See how easy that was? Tightpants knew what was up. Rosa kicked open her side compartment and dropped the helmets in, kicked it closed again, and headed for the door. "Dope," she said. "I'll grab a table. Just get me a plain, regular, no bullshit coffee."

Hey, weird as fossil fuels were, Miguel knew they cost money, and Rosa had taken care of the ride; coffee on him seemed fair.

"If there's bullshit in any of it, they're doing it wrong," he said wryly, going to order.

"Damn right," Rosa agreed, going to find a table. One over by a window. Where she might just be glaring at any squirrels as if to determine whether or not they were just normal squirrels, and then shaking her head, because how was that a thought she should even be having? Gross.

Two of the largest black coffees they had later, Miguel slid into the seat opposite her and set one down, curling both hands around the other. "Large black coffee for the lady, but you can have it instead."

Dammit. Rosa snorted, and she definitely hadn't had enough of that coffee yet today to hold back a smirk nearly as well as she usually would.

"Lucky me," she said, pulling the cup closer, and getting to business before she went and got distracted by the fact that Captain Tightpants was more than just a pair of tight pants. She leaned forward. "So I need you to plant something in your office and be okay with kids breaking into it."

She'd ~~oh so handwavily~~ started most of these conversations like that, and it had worked surprisingly well so far.

Hey, he'd been a genius a lot longer than he'd worn ~~tight pants~~ UMF!

"Huh." Miguel blinked. "Some kind of scavenger hunt?" he guessed. "Am I supposed to make it easy, or lay on the defense?"

"I prefer the term heist," Rosa wasn't even going to bother not to smirk at that one, shrugging a shoulder, "but yeah. Pretty much. And you're getting the real thing, not any of the decoys, so I want yours to be as boring and unassuming as it could be."

"I'm honored." Miguel grinned. "What is it? Can we hide the real thing in a decoy?"

"No," said Rosa, who clearly had a hard time deciding whether that was a brilliant suggestion or the dumbest thing she ever heard. But she was too busy pulling it out from that mysterious place from where she seemed able to keep weapons too large to fit comfortably...anywhere.

There was something so satisfying about the way a hatchet thunked when plopped on a table. Even more so when it had been etched with "Best Bad Ass Bitch".

"I had Blackstone whip them up. The decoys say 'Fake Ass Bitch'."

She was waaaaay too proud of thrm.

Miguel laughed. "I love it." He picked it up easily and tried not to look like an axe murderer as he looked it over. "You looking to have it displayed, propped up in a corner, or what? There's not a lot in my office; I can use it an as excuse to furnish or something."

Rosa shook her head. "Just toss it in a drawer or something. Where you can't just see it unless you look for it, but where most people aren't going to bother looking because it's just so obvious and boring."

"I can do that," Miguel agreed. Maybe he'd web it to the underside of the desk or something. "Trying to teach the students to be sneakier, or to be better detectives?"

"Both, I guess," Rosa shrugged after taking a moment to think about it. "They kind of go hand-in-hand. I mean, most of them are already pretty good at that kind of thing anyway; half this class is turning into a case study so I know where to look first if anything criminal actually ever happens on that stupid island, but this should at least be interesting for them. A little first hand experience. Way better than them sitting in a classroom with me just talking at them."

Better for both parties involved, really, because that sounded pretty miserable for Rosa, too.

"I've mostly been using the Danger Shop for the first-hand stuff," Miguel said. "Some of them are pretty creative. At least that way they won't blow themselves up."

"Yeaaah," said Rosa, brow furrowing a little dubiously, "I try not to mess with that stuff."

Too many malfunctioning printers, copiers, computers, so on and so forth, left damaged in pitiful piles of broken parts after even the slightest suggestion of not working or giving her trouble.

"And just hope that they...don't."

And stand by the fact that if they did go and blow themselves up, then, well, they probably deserved it.

"Seems to be working so far," Miguel pointed out. "At least nobody's reported on your class blowing up, so either it's working or you're really shocking good at bribing the squirrels."

"Less bribing," Rosa admitted with a short before sipping her coffee, "more threatening. Those furry little assholes have broken into my apartment enough times to know what they're in for if they really screw up. But they're little masochists, too, like to see what they can get away with. And that's why..."

She gestured to their nice, squirrel-free coffee shop.

Well. It wasn't the only reason, but that was the only card she planned on playing.

"And here I thought you just wanted to get me for the priciest coffee you could," Miguel said, grinning.

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The Parking Lot at the End of the Causeway and Points Beyond; Friday Afternoon [10/26].

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