Voicemail

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Hey, y'all. This is Hardison, I'm not here right now, you know what to do. And man, Eliot, read your damn email. That answers whatever questions you're calling me with right now. If it's you, Nana, sorry for cussing."

Beep

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Comments

[bookbeltof_love]

Hardison hadn't, like, given her any deadline for when to get the New Orleans stuff done but, like, there was only so much checking up on people (who didn't want to be checked up on), fussing over animals (who mostly just wanted food and clean litter and naps anyway), and writing in her diary until her hands cramped (Nina wasn't fully ambidextrous, she was atrocious with right-handed combat with her bookbelt, but when it came to writing, like, that was easy….), and so that had left her with trying to research Prompto's world (no go, when her concentration was totally shot and reading a million treatises about things she only barely understood because she didn't have the cultural background to understand them was… not working…) which left her to organize all of her notes on the restaurants.

Since Hardison hadn't mentioned anything about how he wanted that all sorted, she broke it down her own way, first organizing the restaurants by alphabetical name, then in each folder having a list of subfolders detailing general information (location, hours, general prosperity, layout of each restaurant, type of clientele, reputation on the street), monetary information (Nina had struggled here, since she could track down which banks each place used, but could not get through the security they used, but she did track what each restaurant's monetary intake was, as noted, before it hit the bank), owners, and staff. The last two folders were by far the most extensive and it was here, really, that Nina's talent shone.

Nina loved knowing things about people. She loved it. She'd been given weeks to find out about the owners and how many kids they had and where they lived and who they talked to and what they ate and what they were like and people here were so stupid, they put their entire lives out on the internet and maybe she couldn't break through a bank's security, but she could wriggle her way through Facebook and Tumblr and Twitter and Instagram no problem. She had lists on what people were allergic to, on what they liked to eat, on where they shopped. What music they listened to, and what their last concerts had been. She noted favourite movies and shows and who was in fandom and who wasn't. 4th of July plans were written down. She had charts of who was sleeping with who and where and why and how that had gotten started and while she was careful, since this was a report to keep her glee out of it, the sheer volume of (neatly organized) information was still… it was still a lot.

He'd asked for information about the restaurants, and she'd given him that, but she'd also dropped the life stories of a lot of people on him. Because, like, wasn't it the people that made businesses work?

Besides, he hadn't been more specific and she was, like, pretty sure this was a test to see what she could find anyway. So.

Also shut up doing this all right now was the best coping method she had about the entirety of last week.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Sometime on Tuesday, Hardison sent a text to Nina, just to check in.

How's it going?

[bookbeltof_love]

Bus Dean gave me a project because I begged for work, Nina reported since, like, that really did say a lot about how she was doing, didn't it?

She was doing terribly, but she was doing better than Vette and Prompto combined so, like, Nina didn't even know.

Do you think I can glitter up a campfire party????????

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hell yeah, Hardison sent. There's biodegradable glitter on the market now. You can glitter up a bonfire AND be environmentally conscious.

How did Hardison know about that? He had diverse interests, okay?!

Does begging for work mean you've finished the assignment I gave you?

[bookbeltof_love]

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nina was super not going to question it! She was just going to make a note on her pile of things-she-was-doing because it was way better to have a pile than be a useless, worthless girl.

As much as I can right now, without getting arrested or going down in person, she reported. What is, like, the OBSESSION with banks in this world ANYWAY?????????

Nina's world did, uh, not actually have banks. Hide your money under your bed was a completely viable strategy there! Or invest it in trade! Or be, like, a king and have a treasury, but... well, see above about useless, worthless girl.

ALSO OH MY GOSH YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED CONGRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison chuckled out loud at that. Well, at several parts of that, actually.

You'd be surprised how useful banks are, he sent. My fiancee, Parker - WAS HE SAYING THAT JUST BECAUSE HE LOVED IT? YES, YES HE WAS LOVES visiting banks.

To rob them, mostly. But that was a conversation for another time.

And yeah. Yeah I am. Apparently me'n Eliot have been dancing around asking for awhile now.

[bookbeltof_love]

Oh my gooooooosh that's WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a pile of ecstatic hearts and flowers and stars from a teen girl, Hardison. Have all of them. Is, like, everyone REALLY invited to your wedding?????????????? Oh my gosh, how long have you all been together???????????????? Why now????????????????????"

Romance stories were the best stories! That was why she beat monsters up with them!

Why does Parker like banks so much??????????????

[geniuswithasmartphone]

They're a hobby, he said, answering it on the oblique. She likes studying the blueprints.

All true enough, if not the full truth.

And, we've been a crew for over a decade now. Me'n Parker got together bout five years ago. Took a few more years before Eliot realized we loved him too. And now, we're thinking about what comes next for us. Marriage seemed like an obvious step.

He laughed. And yeah. Everyone. Assuming we're not all monsters or whatever.

[bookbeltof_love]

Yeaaah, yeaaah, since Nina was all alone except for, like, Foomy, who didn't really count (sorry, Foomy), Nina's flinch at that was not at all repressed.

Were you a monster too?

She didn't really want to know, but she did at the same time, because Nina wanted to know everything, ever, really, even when it bit, or struck, or stuck.

Are you, like, ohmygosh, are you checking in because I asked someone else for something to do?????? Am I in trouble???? Should I not have????? It was just, like, what I'm doing for you, it, he, it's a mess, I needed something else, something not.... I needed something to DO.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Whoa whoa whoa. Apparently Hardison had stepping in something far deeper than he'd anticipated.

Something perhaps better not left to text.

So her phone was ringing now.

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina was extremely well put together right now, what even was he talking about?

Okay, no, she wasn't, but like she was still going to stare at her phone like it was a snake that was going to bite her before she answered it.

(And she only answered it because, like, what if he was mad at her and ignoring it just got worse and then he'd know she was useless and worthless and that, that was unbearable, she had to get her head back together--)

"Hi," she said, muted.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Hi Nina," Hardison said, voice gentle. "You wanna tell me why you think you'd be in trouble for askin' for more work? Cause you ain't, not with me. I was checkin' up on you to see if you needed help, not cause I thought you were doin' anything wrong."

[bookbeltof_love]

And that, that was the sound of her brain stuttering to a complete and total stop at that. Like, what? She got the words, she was good at languages, but he was still speaking absolute gibberish to her because, because...

"Ummmmmmmmm."

The 'what' there was pretty loud, for all that she managed not to say it.

"Like, um, like....... I asked you to help teach me, only I didn't ask until you'd, like, caught me, and you were like, super great about that, but then, like, I went to someone else to ask for something to do and, like, maybe I shouldn't have because what if I'm just wasting everyone's time and now I've asked too many people for things and Lord Shin says a scattered focus learns nothing and I need to, I can't not, I mean--"

That was a sentence that was... going places, but not anywhere fast or coherently.

"............ I don't know?"

Well, she did, sort of, but she didn't, like, how to even, where to begin, she wasn't--she wasn't just going to tell people how not great she was.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Nina, girl, where you at?" Hardison asked softly. "Never mind that, actually. You wanna meet up? Milkshakes? My treat. Sounds like you need a milkshake."

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina hesitated.

Hesitated a lot.

But, like, she didn't think he was going to laugh at her, buuuuut...

"Foomy's, like, my pet, and he wanted to hang under the bed," she said, which was a total lie, since Foomy was busy trying to roll over one of her shoes, she was watching him do so. "So............... I'm hanging out under my bed."

It was, quite seriously, a much better spot than her closet. Deflated floaties were not super comfortable to hide under.

"I do like milkshakes though," she admitted, since she was also sort of hungry and that didn't sound like anything horrifying that she might have eaten as a monster. "If, like, you're sure???????"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Would I joke about milkshakes?" Hardison asked, chuckling softly. "Nah. I'm dead serious. Why don't you bring what you got for my project, meet me at Chilly Boulder, an' we'll talk about why I decided to teach you an' what I expect. Sounds fair?"