MHA #5, Saturday afternoon

[deaddadsclub]

Well, it had happened. Cristina had finally given up on leaving the island any time soon and signed a lease on an apartment. She'd skipped her clinic shift to do it, even.

She'd had to, since she'd managed to buy several rooms' worth of furniture on the Isle of Ikea this week.

As far as coping mechanisms went, skipping work and furnishing an apartment via impulse shopping was fairly low-key for her. She wasn't lying on the floor of an OR shaking or catatonic, and she'd stopped just being drunk 24/7, so she thought she was doing pretty well.

And ordering around the Ikea delivery people was soothing in its own way, too.

[open! MHA folks, come say hi to your new neighbor]

Comments

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity was literally right next door, so she figured she'd should at least pop by and say hello to the new neighbor. And maybe try to figure out whether she needed to explain the mice and their tendency for loud parties. And her general refusal to use her front door when there were perfectly good windows to climb through.

WELCOME TO THE BUILDING, CRISTINA!

[deaddadsclub]

Hey, as long as the mice didn't try to invade Cristina's apartment, she was okay with that. There would be plenty of loud music coming from Cristina's apartment, too, and there was always a remote possibility of midnight redecorating.

If Verity tried to climb in through Cristina's windows, though, she would have to be prepared for a lot of screaming and throwing things.

"Do you all assemble the furniture for me too, or just deliver the boxes? I can pay."

[arboreal_priestess]

Whoa, whoa! Verity wasn't an intruder! Though sometimes she might use Cristina's windows as hand- and footholds as she scaled the walls.

"Definitely get them to put it together," Verity said from the door, holding a bottle of decent scotch since it wasn't like she baked or made casseroles. "Liam and I just tried to put together a single bed and it was a disaster."

[deaddadsclub]

That also might result in screaming and throwing things, honestly. At least the first couple times.

"And if I wanted to mess with screws and hardware, I'd have gone into orthopedics," Cristina said. She stepped back as another set of burly delivery people came by, carrying a vacuum packed mattress. Cristina eyed the ass on one of them appreciatively as he went by. "I tip well, too!"

[arboreal_priestess]

My foot resembles that remark Cristina

"Bet you do," Verity snorted, seeing where Cristina's eyes fell. And taking a good look for herself, because, hi. In love was not the same thing as blind. "Anyway, I brought you a housewarming gift," she said, holding out the bottle. "Seemed more useful for someone moving than a green bean casserole or whatever. I'm right next door in apartment 6."

[deaddadsclub]

Describing ortho as "carpentry" is canon!

"Definitely better than a casserole," Cristina said, accepting the bottle with a smile. "Thanks. I'd give you a warning about keeping weird hours, but around here that's barely even true."

She sounded quite put out by that fact.

"And anyway, you're a bartender. So you're probably used to late hours anyway."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Bartender, dancer, and I spend a lot of time wandering around Baltimore," Verity said. "Weird hours are kind of the norm."

Weird everything was kind of the norm, but that was true for this whole island. Though she was willing to bet that most people didn't have their axes lined up by size in the hallways leading to their bedroom. Or have a spare room just for mice.

"Uhh so...how are you about noise?"

[deaddadsclub]

Not most people, but probably at least two in this building alone!

"I'm used to sleeping in on-call rooms," Cristina said. "Between the intercom, the pages, and other people's sex-dramas, that pretty much means I can sleep through anything."

Sure, she was also usually dead on her feet when she did that, but still. . . .

[arboreal_priestess]

And that was why this was the best building.

"Oh cool," Verity said, looking relieved. "Sometimes there's, uhh, cheering from my place."

And chanting, but there was no way that wouldn't sound weird.

"I'll try to keep it down, but you know how it can get."

...with pathologically religious cryptid mice that worshipped your family as gods?

[deaddadsclub]

"You live with big sports fans?"

Yeah, Cristina had been here long enough to know that probably wasn't it. But she could dream. . . .

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity opened her mouth. Then closed it. Then said, "I mean, we do get very into televised dancing competitions?"

So that was, y'know, like a yes? If you squinted?

[deaddadsclub]

"Is that a sport?" Cristina asked, then realized that might be a little too snarky for the competitive dancer neighbor who'd just given her a bottle of scotch. "I mean -- I'd have figured it was more of an art."

[arboreal_priestess]

"You've never danced much, have you?" Verity asked, more amused than offended. "Dancing - especially competitive dancing - starts before dawn and leaves you wiped by the end. It only looks like art because there's so much fine control so you don't see how hard everyone's limbs are shaking."

[deaddadsclub]

"I dance all the time," Cristina disagreed. "And now that just sounds like Residency."

[arboreal_priestess]

"What, stupid long hours with someone screaming orders at you constantly, scarfing down a granola bar if you're lucky, and ending the day sinking onto the nearest flat surface and praying no one will make you move?" Verity asked. "And still getting up to do it again the next day because you love it too much to give it up?"

[deaddadsclub]

"Throw in 'if you screw up, someone probably dies,' and yeah, that's a surgical residency. Heck, half the time the people would end up dying anyway."

[arboreal_priestess]

"We just have 'if you screw up, someone probably breaks a leg and can't ever dance again,'" Verity admitted. "Less life or death, to be sure."

The life and death stakes were for her other calling.

[deaddadsclub]

"Sounds practically relaxing," Cristina said with a wry smile. "So I should be braced for noise during Dancing With the Stars, huh?"

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity thought of the grueling hours backstage of Dance or Die, where her feet had bled and muscles had turned to water and hid a wry smile. Hey, if that's how Cristina viewed relaxation...

"Well, I'm not always around when it airs," she hedged. "So it could be pretty random. If w--I'm making too much noise, just bang on a wall or something. It'll quiet right down."

The mice had been spoiled by not having anyone around. They'd need to remember subtlety. Or, more accurately, learn it for a first time.

[deaddadsclub]

Early in her career, Cristina had spent 14 hours retracting a tumor that weighed more than 100 pounds. And then the patient died anyway. She'd once been not only prepared, but proud to wear an adult diaper for a long surgery so she wouldn't have to leave to use the bathroom.

So sure. Relaxing!

"I'll keep that in mind," she said. "Or maybe come over to join the festivities."

[arboreal_priestess]

Crap. Verity should have seen that coming.

"Just, uhh, give me a head's up so I'm wearing pants," she said, leaving out the part where she'd also be herding the mice into their room. "And feel free to throw popcorn at me when I start overanalyzing the moves, okay?"