Alder Heights New friendships

Apartment
Look

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Rosemarie had made ratatouille, homemade vegan focaccia, with a raspberry pie for dessert. Store-bought crust, but vegan! It was a non-dairy evening fit for royalty.

There was, of course, a police car sitting outside her apartment building. Hopefully, something she wouldn't have to explain to her new friends. It could be there for anyone!

She was in the middle of putting food back in the oven to stay warm when she heard the buzzer. It didn't take long for her to buzz her new friends into her building, where she waited behind her front door on the fourth floor.

There wasn't an elevator, sorry boys.

outfit
and mostly for my own reference for the moment, the wine he's brought

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As much as it wasn't his usual, preferred way of going about sharing a meal with someone new, Richard found quite a bit of novelty in simply needing to show up and not fuss over food. It gave him plenty of time to find the perfect chardonnay. And extra time to fuss around his clothing to try and find something not too overstated and appropriate for someone new in their own home, but also not lie about exactly who they were dealing with.

So no rainbow black cat sweaters today, but space was a great close second.

A bit eager to go say hello, he didn't think much about the police car. Nor did he much mind the stairs. It was good to keep active and elevators could be a bit spooky if you let them.

Knock knock, they were here! Bottle in hand and all.

Something about being confident in your self-identity for too long made it easy to slide into caricature. Ted understood what the sweater choices meant and enjoyed them, before they faded into the kind of everyday detail you can never nail down completely. Some out-there sweater, you know how Rich is! For his own part, Ted had come in tried-and-true white dress shirt and jeans, his personality exaggerated only in the wildness of his hair and the engaging aura of too much cologne. He huffed and puffed a little outside the door, bringing nothing except a general willingness to like this new lady, another psychic to add to their menagerie. Hello!

Rosemarie opened the door a couple of seconds after the knocks to greet them. They were quite a sight indeed! Richard dressed in a wonderful space sweater that made her think of William — not that William would be bold enough to wear such a piece, but it reminded her of the Planetarium where they met. And, his husband, Ted, dressed simply and nicely with wild hair that made her like him already.

Rose smiled warmly, happy to be an extrovert for such occasions as these as she welcomed them in.

"Hello! Welcome."

Eyeing the bottle in Richard's grasp.

"Let me take that off your hands." Then: "You must be Ted!"

"This is indeed Ted," he agreed as he extended the bottle to the woman, glad to see her and deciding she looked quite lovely when she wasn't wasting away in the dark after a scare. But who wouldn't in comparison? All the same--he'd already thought her quite darling and now it was a confident assessment.

"Thank you again for the invitation, it smells lovely in here."

The small talk was inevitable but he drew such power from it.

He was Ted, indeed! "In living color," he confirmed, sliding into the apartment after a handshake, looking around with unmasked curiosity. "Well, this is cute."

Oh, Rosemarie liked them both already. She smiled as they entered her space and she led them further into the main living area.

"Thank you. This is most of the apartment." Rose laughed. "Otherwise, I’d give you a proper tour." It was small but certainly decorated to reflect its owner.

"Would anyone like a glass of wine to start?" She figured there was no immediate rush to sit down and eat. Things were warm in the oven when they were ready.

The apartment, small though it might have been, suited her. Though truth be told she could have lived in a sprawling castle and Richard would have thought no different. Utterly determined as he was to like her and everything about her--as if it was a favor he could do her and them both at the same time. Some people you met and just decided you needed to be friends with them and would not be easily deterred.

Really, Teddy was the harder one to win over, but her having magic in her blood certainly improved the odds, far as Richard could say.

"I have never been known to say no to that, thank you. Do you want any help?"

He cast his gaze toward his curious ally, watching him take it in and trying to gather what first impressions were already beyond the words. Cute, though. Cute was a promising start.

"Sure," he tagged on to the drink order, smiling at Rosemarie for a reassuring moment before returning to his inspection. The apartment was a little modest, maybe, but not everyone was blessed with decades of dual income and no kids. She clearly had an eye for basic interior design, and the apartment had a feel that Ted found appealing, if not anywhere near original. It felt alive, and energetic, and loved. That was Ted's diagnosis.

Without an immediate cog to catch in the machinery of getting-to-know-you talk, he navigated around the couches to inspect the prints on the far wall. Was teal her favorite color, he wondered?

Rose smiled and waved a hand.

"No, please, have a seat on the couch. Make yourselves at home. I’ll be with you in a moment."

Rosemarie gestured towards the green couch before slipping under the awning into the small kitchen space really only built to have one person working in there at a time. She removed three wine glasses and opened the bottle, pouring enough for each of them before returning, balancing three glasses in her hands.

Setting the glasses down on the coffee table, she peered at the both of them as she took a seat.

It had been a while since she’d last entertained guests; let alone magical ones.

"So, you’re both psychics too," Rose smiled, starting them off.

So it was, she dismissed him and he was happy enough for it, and while Teddy was up and investigating whatever he could get his eyes on, Richard sat down at the couch and leaned forward to pick up one of the coffee table books--this one about a theatre, which he began to flip through, listening to her work in the kitchen, knowing it would not be long. He cast a few glances to Ted but all communication about what they were finding intriguing was wordless.

The book was open on his lap as we was turning through mostly to look at images when she returned.

"Now would be a very strange time to confess otherwise, wouldn't it? But indeed. I tend to be a bit more straightforward. Made a bit of a habit of teleporting a couple of years back." Simplest introduction to the matter.

Her presence drew Ted away from snooping. He settled on the couch and accepted a glass, nosing into it to inhale for a moment before jumping in. "He started doing it in his sleep! At first we thought we had a Tyler Durden situation on our hands." This was a comical fabrication, as Ted had had no idea about the random teleporting for a good while. Then he remembered Grace teleporting onto the windshield of his car and smiled. "He's newer at it. I got a power in middle school, of course I didn't know what the hell it was then."

Tyler Durden... Rosemarie quirked a brow but laughed a little, not quite understanding the Fight Club reference. She'd never seen it. Never would.

Rose considered what it must be like to teleport in one's sleep. Probably terrifying!

"I can imagine that being difficult to understand then. I still don't know what I'm doing."

A beat.

"Also, in your sleep? My god, Richard, that sounds terrifying!"

She took a small sip of her wine.

Richard was all smiles as the information was passed around, a chuckle at Ted and a shrug to accompany all the good nature as Rose clung to the revelation of his less-than-grounded introduction to what had become of him. "Oh, it was, I can promise you that. Especially the time I'd turned up on a mountain. Thankfully by then I had the sense of what was going on to get myself back, but... there's something to be said for getting things under control or at least moderately understood. Right, Teddy?"

A great opening for him to explain himself, if he wanted. It was one thing to risk yourself for a little extra good fortune when you knew you were doing it. Quite another to send yourself to the hospital out of instinct-driven desperation.

Ted, of course, took this off on his own tangent. "You know, one good thing—one of the many good things about people with powers talking to each other, sharing everything, is I kind of learned how much I don’t know yet! Even after using my luck thing for twenty years." Try thirty, Ted. "That part’s pretty good too." He scratched his beard, realizing that he wasn’t sure if this was more of a casual dinner or some kind of psychic-intensive date. "Did I hear you’re not sure what your power is yet?"

Turned up on a mountain?! Rosemarie's expression was one of utter shock and amused horror.

Her attention turned to Ted as he explained more about his own power and realization that talking to other psychics, she assumed, helped. It made sense. Even just telling Grace and meeting Richard had helped in some way or another. At least she wasn't alone.

Rose shook her head after taking another sip of wine, setting her glass back down on the coaster on her coffee table.

"I don't, though I know it happened fairly recently."

Another reason to be glad to be having all these connections: different points of view. Ted really dug into it in a way that Richard often failed to grasp, having come into his ability with quick insight and someone to fall back on immediately. In the grand scheme of things, and compared to many others, he felt as new to this as Rose surely did.

"I didn't want to pry too much, given the state of things the other night, but which psychic have you been talking to?"

He figured that was who had informed her her presence in the world had shifted.

Which psychic had she been speaking to? For a second, it confused Rosemarie, only because she was thinking of a certain vampire who told her what she was. She hid her confusion quickly with a sip of wine and set her glass back down.

"Grace?" Did they know her?

That was a name that surprised even while being... completely predictable, somehow.

But Richard wasn't the one to go on about Grace. Not when Teddy was in the room. Who he looked at now with an oh! sort of expression, seeing his husband's reaction seemingly more important than having his own.

Ted provided a larger reaction, too! He honked, which was probably a laugh, and seemed not to be able to decide whether his head was nodding or shaking. "Of course it's Grace. Grace knows every psychic, without exaggerating." He leaned in on his knees. "She wasn't too much, was she?" Grace was...brassy! Unrefined! She was the kind of girl who talked with her mouth full, but their loyalties were decided.

Rosemarie laughed at their response, not surprised to know that they were acquainted with Grace already. She seemed all-knowing. How large was the psychic community anyway?

At the question, Rose cleared her throat and shook her head.

"Not at all. I actually owe Grace and her pact a great deal. They cured me after I was infected by a were raccoon last fall."

Ted delivered, and Richard chuckled through it. She was a bit much, but in a way that was charming. Even someone as gently mild and refined as Rose seemed to agree.

Though... history certainly had a way of informing that. It was his turn to speak up, the thrill of terror that came with a scary story already resolved. "A wereraccoon, truly?" It felt almost familiar, this story, though now hearing it from this side it was a lot more striking. "No, I can't even imagine you as one of those strange animal people, especially something so... utterly ordinary."

Lucky to know Grace, something they could all relate to.

Ted was not prepared for two unrelated revelations so close together. He gawped while Rich talked, his glass wavering. "That was you? What happened?" Then, realizing this was not necessarily a party story, he winced in regret. "If you want to go into it."

"No, it’s okay. It’s easier to talk about now," She reassured Ted. "And yes. A wereraccoon. Who knew those existed?" Rosemarie laughed at the absurdity of it all and sighed.

"Strange, or perhaps fitting, that it occurred in the Tunnel of Terrors or whatever it was called at the fall festival last year. I was just wandering through and saw a reddish-looking raccoon who once stole my phone in a pharmacy. It was startled and bit me. I didn’t even know it was a, uh, shifter? Or whatever but met Grace after talking to her about it online and the rest is history."

"You met the same raccoon twice?" A reddish raccoon... he hadn't even realized such a thing existed, but perhaps it was a thing with shifters.

Stalked by a raccoon, stalked by a vampire... Rose had not been treated kindly, and though he hardly knew her, Richard was offended greatly that anyone would harass her for even a moment, let alone to this extent. His hands splayed on the book open still in his lap, as if holding it down would solve problems already behind them.

Ted was accumulating more questions than answers. How did a raccoon steal your phone? How did raccoons come in non-regulation colors? Why did you approach a raccoon and get close enough to get bitten? How did you know you'd gotten infected? He was sorry, Rosemarie, but this was not something you mentioned casually and then continued on past! "How did you know the bite got infected?" Ted looked almost mad!

"Yes. I only knew because it was huge and the same odd colour." Rosemarie shuddered and considered Ted’s question.

"I didn’t at first. It healed right away? Then I was met with a bad fever, like a bad cold or flu that stretched on for a long time. I went to the doctor thinking it was rabies and the doctor was the one to tell me first that I was infected."

"Goodness. I wonder how many infected people passed through the hospital before we knew what to even look for..." It made sense to him that doctors would know, now. How common was it? Not very, he dared to hope, but it was the kind of thing to keep in mind, because you never knew...

"I'm glad you thought to go in. I imagine a lot of people don't."

Huh. And Rose must have gone online or something, looking for a cure, and...enter Grace and her entourage. "Funny your power didn't kick in then. But what was the uh, the curing like?"

"Thank you," Rosemarie said to Richard and offered to top up anyone’s wine glass. Perhaps she should set out dinner for them soon.

Why did powers kick in?

"It was a bit brutal. For all of us. I sat in the center of the pact and they worked their magic. We all got brutal fevers and were exhausted from the process. Then the fever just… went away?"

"Got to get worse before you get much better... Sounds a bit like a vaccination, actually." Ponderous thoughts, trying to relate to something that he had never witnessed nor been a part of. It all tended to feel a bit fantastical in spite of how much more he knew these days. Richard liked to think himself something of a realist who enjoyed a good story. And then the good stories became real and he had to reevaluate.

Double-brutal. Ted tried to imagine boiling the disease out of someone, and then thought about how that sounded distinctly medieval, and then wondered, could you transmit the werewolf stuff from doubling up on leeches? Could you get it from a mosquito bite? That was...! Concerning! He looked slightly alarmed. At the last second he seemed to process what Rich had said, and flipped his expression around to a grin. "I mean, as far as I know, those are magical too. It's a little disappointing there weren't, say, flickering lights or incantations or anything." That always struck him as a bit of a waste, how non-magical actual magic could be.

Now, if he developed illusion...

Rosemarie laughed at both the analogy to vaccinations and the idea of chanting.

"Yeah. I must say I expected more chanting myself."

A pause and then.

"Well, shall I set out our food? I feel like I've spoken a fair amount and I want to get to know both of you more."

It was true. In a book Richard imagined he would have encouraged a lot more glitz to any magic, any rituals. But it sounded all very mundane and practical compared to what imaginations often came up with on their own. Wasn't that the way of most things, though? The reality was a lot different than the dream...

But it seemed Rose was feeling the weight of the effervescent spotlight. Much as either of them could have continued to interrogate her for the fine details, it was not the only reason they were here, and they owed her the chance to return curiosity.

"Please, by all means. Your hard work cannot go unrecognized." The prettier way of saying he was hungry.

Supporting this, Ted sniffed appreciatively, one foot sliding back from its sprawl in preparation of getting on the move again. "What's on the menu?"

Rosemarie stood up, bringing her wine glass and bottle with her as she gestured for them to take a seat at the dining table. It already had plates, cutlery and cloth napkins out for them.

"I've made ratatouille and some vegan focaccia bread, along with a vegan raspberry pie for dessert." Spoken with a little less confidence, but said with a smile as she disappeared into the kitchen to fetch everything.

Returning with the focaccia first, she placed it in the center of the table, before offering to pour more wine into their glasses. Then she'd return after another minute with the ratatouille in hand, setting it in the center between them.

Richard didn't waste much time in settling in, knowing from his own experiences as host that it was just best to listen to her wishes and let her do her thing. There was a time and a place to help, and when someone had put such heart into a production--now was not the time to fuss. If he was honest with himself, though, it was very strange to be the one sitting and being catered to.

But he did happily take a bit more of that wine, it really was an excellent vintage. Maybe he'd get her another bottle for the holidays if she liked it too.

"It look wonderful, very colorful," he commended as everyone came back together.

Ted was already yelling. He was immediately up, looking briefly at Rich as if to strengthen his claim, which he shared to Rosemarie with raised, grateful hands. "It's my favorite! Oh, my god!"" Apparently energized by the dinner at hand, he bustled, trundling gleefully around the small space, eagerly helping to set the table. "I can't believe it," he sighed as the meal made its appearance, still looking very much like he had won a trip to Disneyland. "I can't believe it. The movie Ratatouille was actually based on me, you know."

It was hard not to laugh at the display of excitement shown by Ted and the kindness shown by Richard. Her face flushed and she smiled warmly at the pair of them as she sat down.

"I'm so glad I picked a favourite!" Rosemarie laughed again, the feeling making her heart swell with pride and warmth. It had been a few months since she laughed with such freedom. It felt good. It felt so good.

Rose started by passing around the dish of ratatouille for the men to take from first before scooping some onto her own plate.

Truthfully, Rose had had no way of knowing. Richard knew, of course, and his own subtle attitude about it was only barley a counter action to the sheer, boyish enthusiasm. The Disney movie! Really, Teddy. But it was endearing even to someone who had seen that glee in that first glance.

"Best get your fill before he falls too in love and won't let you take any," he told their sweet host, glad to hear her light up. She looked different, better as she laughed. Richard was inclined to think this was the truer side of the woman, rather than the distressed version he'd gotten not so long ago.

"Which rat did they base off of you again, dear?" It was too easy a tease to pass up, his glance to Ted failing to be convincingly serious.

Ted was pretty used to people laughing around him! It was a happy side effect of being Ted. He loaded his plate with what he felt was a respectfully metered portion of ratatouille, inhaling the nuanced aroma of all the assembled vegetables when baked. Unbothered by Rich's poking, he grinned and took his fork in hand, replacing it on the napkin with tines pointing down. "The talented one, obviously," he replied with a chortle, and turned to peer again at Rosemarie. "Thank you again for having us, this is delightful."

Rosemarie laughed at the tease issued by Richard, then glanced at Ted as he answered. The talented one! Why, of course!

She smiled and bowed her head a little. "Thank you both for coming. It’s such a pleasure being able to host you both." It really was. It had been so long since she was able to enjoy such an occasion without being worried for her safety. Just. So nice.

"So, tell me about you two. How did you meet? What do you do?" Rose shovelled an appropriate amount of food onto her plate as well when the dish was passed to her.

Food was such a good coming-together point for any group of people. It was why Richard thrived on dinner parties. Far from a grand cook, he appreciated when someone else was a little more than his 'merely competent.' Though all was tempting, he had to try some of this bread, first.

They could talk around the meal, another thing at which he was greatly practiced.

"Oh, we met a million years ago, more or less. I was in school for technical writing, which is about as interesting as it sounds. But I've been a literary agent for nearly as long. Twenty five years, I want to say?"

A glance to the other as if he would need to confirm, but it was the unspoken passing of the baton.

Ted smiled faintly back at Richard with the pleasant expression of someone who does not understand, and does not pretend to understand, time. "Sounds right to me!" Thinking back, his smile changed to a more beaming one, the product of reflection on that happy time in his life. God, so many of their friends from that era had died.

He blinked back toward Rosemarie, saddling ratatouille onto his fork as he spoke, still smiling. "He's the one with the real job. I'm a ceramics artist, mostly."

Rosemarie smiled softly as Richard spoke, chuckling a little at the technical writer portion, intrigued by the literary agent aspect. Ted was an artist too, how wonderful!

"An agent and an artist, how wonderful!" She beamed at them both, taking a small bite of food before continuing.

"I work in the performing arts. Mainly a theatre professor at Alder Heights College and some acting classes for film and TV on the side, but I produced the Ridgefield Fringe Festival back in May of this year."

Ah yes, as predicted, she was much more interesting than a mere glance would dare to tell.

"Oh yes! I remember the event. I actually volunteered as an usher for a few nights of that. I hadn't realized you were responsible for it. Our new friend is basically celebrity, Teddy." Easy praise, it had been a triumph as far as he was concerned. He only wished he'd been able to enjoy even more of it, but being a teleporter didn't mean he could be multiple places at once.

Ted made approving sounds through his ratatouille. "That was fun! Are you doing it next year?" And he speared a zucchini round, not giving her time to answer. "Who’s your favorite playwright?"

No faster way to learn about someone than to make them explain their tastes in art!

Oh, would you look at that! Richard had volunteered at it! She laughed at the celebrity comment and waved her hand. Ted asked two questions in a row, and Rose figured she'd start with the easier one to answer.

"We might. I would need to speak to the theatre owner again. Maybe find some other venues as well."

Rosemarie definitely needed more help with it this year if she was going to try and run the Fringe again.

"As for my favourite playwright. Well. I don't really have one. Never been a big fan of the bard though. There is a play I really love by Claudia Dey called Trout Stanley. It's wonderfully weird, dark and comedic. Canadian, I believe."

Richard was entirely too keen on seeing the festival come back again. And if she did it--well! He'd be the first to volunteer himself for a greater role, if she'd have him. Now that he knew her and felt inclined to call her a bit more than a mere acquaintance, well. Nothing had ever stopped him from going over the top on something if he was given the chance. And he had quite a few footholds here.

"Oh, that's one I've not heard of. Now you've got me all curious." He did love a new discovery, especially one that someone else loved out loud.

Undoubtedly, Richard was the educated one in the pair when it came to writing; for all Ted consumed plenty of art and media, what he had to offer now was his default of excitable, uninformed irreverence, slapped out in staccato fragments of sentence in between the devouring of a meal that, for being vegan, was quite good!

Eventually it was Ted’s turn to pick a topic, and it seemed natural to circle back to the main reason they’d arranged this play date. "So, have you given any thought to finding out your superpower?"