text, @TARANTO, day after the saloon fire

[heavyhitter]

hey guys guess what: blankets!!! me and TF to the fucking rescue, we rustled up like 40 of these bad boys
super cozy, some nice patterns. one of them has a robot wolf on it
it was also all entirely legal

they're ALMOST free, all you gotta do is tell me a story then come get one (i'm by those spiky ass fat plants that bleed if you knock them over)

also since i have 40 and there's more than 40 of us, i guess also pick someone to get cozy with

Comments

[heavyhitter]

[ yeah no she stands no chance, she knows this ]

yeah watch your back
better not sleep tonight

come to think of it where ARE you holing up

[gutpunching]

[Ah yes, better not sleep or he'll get attacked by a blanket, of all things. The most dire of threats.]

Why? Feeling like a sleepover?

[heavyhitter]

definitely
the more bodies the cozier, right?

[gutpunching]

[He definitely should have expected her to take him seriously, in hindsight.]

Running low on bodies over there already?

[heavyhitter]

[ sorry that SOME PEOPLE don't fuck around about their sleepovers ]

i only have 2, that's just 2 more than none, jason
it's a serious issue

[gutpunching]

[That sounds like a personal problem!!!]

They do say three's a crowd.

[If she expected him to not be Difficult about just about anything then I don't know what to tell her anymore.]

[heavyhitter]

really? the more the merrier is what i keep hearing

[gutpunching]

If you were looking for Merry Men, you should have just said so.

[Didn't they play out the Robin Hood references a few comments ago.]

[heavyhitter]

wait

did you bring this around to robin hood again? that's still robin hood right
i thought we got past that

[gutpunching]

It is a classic.

[You're the one who wanted to be making merry, how can he resist the low hanging fruit. They don't often get to share a reference. But mostly he's just deflecting while he gets around to deciding how much he's going to humor her.]

Would you prefer La Cosa Nostra?

[Sounds a little more her speed than the men in tights.]

[heavyhitter]

i might have a SLIGHT preference, maybe

[gutpunching]

[Maybe. He can switch metaphorical gears, he's accommodating like that.]

Here I figured being Boss of Blanket Mountain would make you pretty popular.

[And yet she's still sitting at a paltry two bodies, what a shame.]

[heavyhitter]

hahaha that's much better
anyway i'm a discerning boss of blanket mountain, i don't pick up just anyone to be capo

come on seriously stop by for like an hour tops

[gutpunching]

[It's like being King of the Mountain, only warmer and goofier sounding, probably. After a beat, as if he has to Consider This Seriously—]

Deal. Give me half an hour.

[That is, before he shows up at the doorstep of her slowly-shrinking quilted kingdom—hands in pockets, collar turned up against the desert chill. Hope she's wrapped up her story-bartering by then.]

[heavyhitter]

[ Score. An hour visit is way easier to stretch into proper hanging out, once she's got her foot in the door. And half an hour is certainly enough to have reduced some of Mt Blanket, which leaves Sigma and Ramir's tent set up with most of the remainders draped over its sides to keep in the heat.

Ramir's hanging out outside, wrapped in a blanket as she skims the jewelry network, with Sigma in the tent itself where reasonable, heat-liking people tend to be. She offers a wave as Jason shows himself over. ]

Oh shit, look who made it!

[gutpunching]

[Put it that way and it almost sounds like you're trying to con him into sleepovers against his will. That's some real shady business, bud. By the time he comes around, Blanket Mountain looks a little more like Blanket Molehill, and the sun's sunk a little lower in the sky. He cants his head back at her and stops a few feet away, hanging outside like the unreasonable, stubborn, cold-weathering people they are.]

Look at you.

[That's some setup she's got. Makes you wonder why she'd bothered fishing after his.]

Settling down already?

[heavyhitter]

Check it out, I'm like a professional hobo. [ She gestures with a nod at the tent back behind her, like there was any question what she meant. ] I even got a heater in there. Solar-powered.

[ She's had a few years to perfect this whole thing, after all. She hops up to her feet and scoops up a blanket that had been folded next to her, tossing it over toward Jason. It's plain red, but cozy and fleecy. ]

You wanna come in? It basically doesn't get any cozier.

[gutpunching]

[Aw, look at her indulging his #aesthetic, that's true friendship.

He catches the blanket absently, without missing a beat. (The part of him that is prone to balk at being a charity case stirs to life, but it's mitigated by the part of him that she's won over with persistence the past several months. He'd spent long enough on the street to know how to navigate a little homelessness and come out alive—even when he was out of his head and half dead. But knowing how to handle it doesn't really make the elements any softer. Coming from that really teaches you the value of a warm place to crash.)

He gestures with the blanket in a "ladies first" sort of way.]

If I'd known you were living it up over here, maybe I would have come around sooner.

[Probably not, but. You know.]

[heavyhitter]

[ Nice. She does indeed lead the way, ducking into the tent — it's a pretty small affair, big enough to house two people lying down and not much else. The heater is set up in the middle and hard at work making the whole place, as promised, super cozy. ]

Found him!

[ She heads immediately for the tent's original owner, plopping down to sit next to Sigma and looking proud of herself. There might have been betting going on, that she'd be able to make Jason turn up for a visit. ]

[12inches]

[ It'd been impossible not to hear the two voices from inside the tent where he laid curled up in front of the heater much like the cat likewise tucked against his chest, so at least he's had a couple minutes to gear himself up for the disappointment of a couple Qorral dollars lost. ]

[ When the tent flap opens, Sigma sits up a little straighter, unseating Pepper and earning an annoyed chirp and a stretch before she pads around to languish in the body heat he'd left behind instead. ]

No shit? [ He peeks outside before glancing back at her, brow furrowed. ] You gotta get him in here, you know.

[gutpunching]

[Stop making bets about him, Ramir, he's going to start feeling a little used at this rate. But there's a familiar voice.]

Well, gosh. If I didn't know better I'd think you were happy to see me.

[He's hardly surprised to hear Sigma inside, since it doesn't take an overabundance of deduction to figure that the other half of the aforementioned two-body equation would be Ramir's other half. Still, he stops midway through the entrance to give first the cat and then her owner a raise of his brows. (Letting the cold air in in the process just for the moment, what a gentleman.) As he finally shoulders his way inside—]

Taking in strays?

[heavyhitter]

[ Where there are bucks to be made, bets will be placed about Jason Todd. She makes a face while Jason does his dramatic pause, and can't stop herself from making a c'mere! gesture a few instants into his idle. ]

Oh my god, you're gonna fuckin' -- man, I worked for all the warm air in here, jeez. [ Then he's in, and she's content to make herself a little more comfortable in a lean against Sigma. ] Anyway, that's all this guy, ask him.

[12inches]

[ And when there are bets about handsome young men not being dragged into his tent by his girlfriend, bets will be placed about Jason Todd. Just kidding, he likes the guy enough. Except when he's letting all the cold air in. Sigma bristles, tugging his blanket up a little tighter around his shoulders. ]

Hey, this thing was working. [ He nudges the little space heater with his foot. ] And I was working. You were outside pretending to be cool by freezing your ass off.

[ Accusations of coolness aside, when Ramir settles against him, he throws an arm around her like a big blanket bird taking her under its wing. ]

[ And to Jason, ] She's not a stray! She just... strayed into my room back in Oska. [ So she's a stray. Anyway. ] ... You been keeping busy?

[gutpunching]

["Handsome young men," you're gonna make him blush, Sigma's meta. Don't worry, he gives the lovebirds as much of a berth as the close quarters reasonably allow while they settle in, shrugging his ALASTAIR-issued duffel off his shoulder so he can sit. This isn't the first time he's been third wheel to this particular party. Or maybe it's fourth, this time, since this does put him right next to the cat—who wastes no time in experimentally sniffing at one of his gloves once it's in reach. (It probably smells like burnt out building and gunpowder or something, gross.)]

Sure. Harder to freeze your ass off that way.

[Only slightly sardonic. In case you missed it, the town's been in a bit of a uproar, and he's just not good at being tentwarming kinds of being busy. Everyone's got their methods.]

[heavyhitter]

[ She's not a stray, she just showed up one day and demands food and regular maintenance. Ramir snorts, but offers no complaints out loud. Pepper knows where she stands in Ramir's esteem. ]

He's been busy being mysterious and vague. We open, friendly people could never understand. [ fuckin prove her wrong, Jason. ] So, what's the verdict? Do we know who dunnit?

[ It's almost an earnest question; she's not even sure Jason would share with the team at large if he did figure out who'd done it. ]