everyonelives | because the lives of the wicked should be made brief

( Mia is like the friend that Hope never thought she'd have. Hope's the rough around the edges weird and violent girl with the chip on her shoulder, but the tabloids and the magazine get Mia all wrong. That, or Hope doesn't know what it means to be a socialite.

She pictured debutante balls, the flashy engagement she knows was broken up, but Mia's got rough edges and curly hair and just gets into things.

Hope is very self-actualized, but if there was someone she'd want to emulate? It might be Mia. )

Hey! Yes! This is such weird timing. Josie and me and two of our friends who coincidentally stumbled onto a witch conspiracy I suspect you were also involved in... is so many words to just say, we're in the quarter at a place called Rousseau's. And you should definitely come. Also, we need to compare notes because I've heard 'duck and cover' before, but sometimes people just say it and other times they mean it? All that's to say, get your ass down here.

omw.

[And roughly twenty minutes later, she does stroll her way into Rosseau's. Her eyes scan the building, taking in all the exits as she's been trained to do, before her eyes land on Hope's table and she makes her way closer.]

Got room for one more?

( Hope is standing at one of the two tables they've grabbed. )

Everyone, this is Mia. Mia, you remember my girlfriend Josie, and this is Ben and Jed, and our friend ( Mia might doubt Colm is Josie's friend ) Colm is at the bar with his roommate, Ivan. Ben and Jed were being held captive among the Redwoods. Pretty sure, that was the flip-side to whatever it is you were doing post-castle.

Ah, yep. Thanks for bringing Spike back, by the way.

[That's more to Jed and Ben. It means more than she can and will say.]

But yeah, they were tracking down some old ass witch bodies to burn them so that the witches in question couldn't keep body jacking their descendants. And then my team took out the actual witches and burned down their boat.

( "We were on the same plane," Ben says, simply. "It was more Davina, than me," he shrugs. )

Well, if that isn't progress. You need a drink. ( She hops up. ) Does anyone else need a refill?

Please.

[Josie and Jed both shake their heads, and since Colm is already at the bar, that's all my folks accounted for. She then frowns as she points towards Jed.]

Were you in Prague?

["I was," Jed nods. "Being an actual tourist, unlike those of us who can't seem to do anything without finding trouble."

Josie rolls her eyes. "You would have helped if we had let you."

"Yes, and I'm still a little annoyed I wasn't asked."]

( Ivan is also at the bar, and Ben is fine with his beer he's barely touched. He's just happy to be out of the spell. In the bustle of the Quarter. With Jed again. )

Boys rule, girls drool. It's an age old concept.

( And, should casualties have ... multiplied, she wanted to keep them safe. Not to mention, the hunters all running around. )

We managed. And we had a wildcard. We filled them in after.

Sometimes things move fast, and you have to react rather than strategize.

[Then again, Mia struggles with being a team player in the same way her father does.]

You didn't really miss much, unless you consider being caught in a magic maze a good time.

[Jed wrinkles his nose, given how he spent his last three months. "Yeah, I'll pass."]

We'll be right back.

( She weaves her and Mia through the tables and around some dancing tourists, reaching the other side of the bar. No offense to Colm or Ivan, but it's time for girl talk. )

So, I heard Buffy burned down her high school gym, once. Trying to get in good with the boss?

Oh, Buffy was there. And Faith was the one setting the fires.

[Mia smirks a bit because the boss as Hope put it isn't usually one to worry too much about property damage.]

No, this was more about making sure they paid for the people they killed.

And couldn't row their little boat around after.

( She flags down the bartender, ordering a martini, turning to Mia. )

And whatever she wants, but her money's no good here, so ( she leans in, her eyes dilating ) don't let her slip you her credit card. ( and then she's back, smirking. ) Mia Queen's persuasive. Let me treat you.

[Mia holds up her hands as she leans back.]

Believe it or not, I know how to let someone buy me a drink.

[Usually not under these circumstances, but she did date once. She in theory could date again. She orders a rum and coke, and waits until the bartender leaves before turning to face Hope.]

Looks like you have a good group of friends.

What I feel like I have is a slightly dysfunctional rotating cast of characters ever since I made it to college, and - well, my family. But, Jed, I knew at boarding school. And I met Josie there. And, the more I let myself, the more I can say that, yes, I have friends. ( A little reflection. ) Colm and Ivan are new. Colm and Josie were in the same class ( and likely won't be again ) and we met Ivan at a party we were invited to. And there's Josie's sister, Lizzie. You met her in Prague. And her new roommate Alice who is my aunt's stepdaughter, and yes, that's a coincidence. Friends, yes. But, like I said. Feels like a rotating cast.

Sometimes that's what friends are.

[Mia knows that circles can change. Whether it's family friends or friends who are like family, or the college friends you call on when you happen to bein the same place.]

Having people you can count on who can pop up anywhere.

I definitely have that. And sometimes they pop out of nowhere.

( But, she's there to help them when needed and vice versa. Taking a sip from her martini, she turns contemplative, not having ever done research into her famous friend. Hope's famous herself in her own way. )

Did you go to college?

I did.

[She makes a small face.]

Don't remember a lot of it. But I definitely went.

[She even has a degree to show for it, though it likely was something generic like liberal arts. She had a place in the world, she didn't need college to make it for her.]

Josie's thriving. Getting involved on campus, got us trapped once in a traveling exhibit, making friends.

( She watches her girlfriend laugh at something Ben says, like it's a joke, right, but then Josie's laugh tapers off as she realizes Ben is saying something literally and she sips from her drink politely. But, that's Josie. The more she finds herself, the more she fits in and she loves that for her girlfriend.

[Mia hears how much Josie is doing well. But she doesn't think that Josie is the thing that Hope pulled her to the side to talk about.]

But you not so much?

I hold my own, I like the people Josie doesn't, and that balances. But, Josie has campus clubs - and - direction?

( Is that the word for it? )

I felt lame majoring in general studies before I got here, and I still feel lame now. What should a girl with the rest of her eternity ahead of her really be studying? I lost the first guy I thought was the love of my life. Nearly lost my family, like, five times, all because of who I am. College just seems so...

Trivial?

[Mia can see that. It was kind of that for her, and she's not effectively immortal. You get raised by a family of superheroes and there are always bigger problems than going to class.]

I get that. And one could argue that if you are immortal you could theoretically go back whenever you want, when you know what you actually do want.

[Hope should do whatever she wants to do. That's part of the fun of being young, for better or worse. At the same time:]

But what will you do if you drop out? Because sometimes having nothing to do can be worse than having only trivial things to do.

I didn't say anything about dropping out. Could I? Drop out?

( She thinks about that, what that would even look like. )

I know it sounds trivial and I know it's also important to people. It's a rite of passage. But, I feel like I've had, like, five? First betrayal. First love. First big bad.

Rites of passage are different for different people. You don't have to hit all the same ones regular human eighteen year-old girls go through because to put it bluntly, you're not. Most of them don't have a big bad to contend with.

[For starters.]

I'm not advocating you should go one way or another on dropping out. Maybe it would be better if you shift up your course load for things you feel better about spending your time on. Maybe it would be easier if you found campus things that you really liked. But if none of that sounds appealing, you also don't have to stay. I'm sure your dad would appreciate saving the money.

Or, their big bad is, like, their advisor. Or their absentee father. Which, I also had.

( She sips, again, resting an elbow on the bar. )

I'm sure my thousand year old father and his neverending coffers probably wouldn't blink. But, I don't know how he'd take it. Or, like you said, what I'd even do. Instead. ( She shrugs. ) I do like art. A lot. And I'm good. Maybe that's an avenue I can take. At least learn some real fundamentals.

Exactly. Follow your bliss. You don't need college for the practical reasons that most other people do, so might as well have fun with it.

[And if immersing herself in art is what she feels a good way to spend her time, then why not.]

And if my bliss isn't in college?

( She has to hear the answer out loud, so she still asks. )

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