Dinner
In which there are crab legs.
This is fucking insane.
One more time, Evie looked herself over in the standing mirror of her bedroom. Not because her choice of dress particularly needed any preparation – blue jeans and a white long-sleeved shirt would work, she’d decided – but because she had to be sure she was at least mostly holding it together.
As it was, she was only slightly trembling.
There was a huff of amusement from her nose. It was funny – she had zero problems with stealing, breaking the law, or even throwing hands if it came to that. Hell, she was even on an actual goddamn supervillain team now. If she wasn’t already on the PRT’s wanted list, she’d be there by the end of the month. All of this, and she was still doing fine in her other life as Wraith. Thriving, even.
Meanwhile, eating dinner with her dad’s boss was damn near grounds for an anxiety attack.
Not just because the woman was her dad’s boss, obviously. If that were all it was, Evie might be a little nervous, the small talk would be a little awkward, and then she’d get over herself.
The issue was the fact that within days, Evie was going to rob this woman blind.
She took a deep breath in, and let a deep breath out. Had to anchor herself to the present moment, lest her brain start spiralling into a giant ball of anxiety. A bigger one than it already was, anyway.
Then the doorbell rang, and that train of thought went completely out the window.
The things she was willing to do for crab legs.
Not that they were the only reason Fractal was here, of course. Michael was genuinely one of her team’s best. Given the chaos of the Bay, she’d promised to help him with materials for remodeling his house, and perhaps as a thank you, he’d invited her to dinner. That wasn’t the kind of thing you’d say no to; or at least, not without sounding like a jerk.
None of that meant that she wasn’t feeling at least a little nervous. It was just a fact of reality now, the nagging question every time she met someone new. How would they react to the monster? It was why she’d taken to wearing a hood, whenever she felt she could get away with it. Something she could get away with at her employee’s dinner table, though? Probably not.
Fractal adjusted her suit jacket, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles. She’d been considering her attire for the night longer than she’d prefer to admit – was she supposed to wear something formal? Informal? Her decision paralysis was broken by settling on the suit, in the end: the jacket a deep blue going on purple, unbuttoned to show a similarly coloured dress shirt. Nice, but not to the point where she looked like a show-off; professional, but not intimidating.
She hoped so, at least.
A couple seconds had passed since the doorbell’s chime. Fractal could hear footsteps approaching the door, as well as muffled voices coming from inside. Michael’s family just getting themselves in order, she presumed.
When the door swung open, it was Michael that greeted her. “Fractal, glad you could make it!” he said warmly, stepping aside from the doorframe. “Please, come in.”
“Thank you for having me,” she replied, entering the house. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the interior lighting – incandescent bulbs, casting a warm, soft glow on the entryway. She was immediately struck by how… homey everything felt. Hardwood floors, the smell of something savoury from the kitchen, and picture frames lining the walls: one depicting Michael and his family in front of a large waterfall; another, a picture of them outside of a large Châteauesque building, its copper roofs rusted green; yet another, a picture of his daughter in front of a floral flag, red and white flowers in the shape of the Canadian maple leaf¹.
…Right. They were Canadian. She remembered to take her shoes off.
Michael led her into the living room, where a woman was waiting – his wife. She looked as old as he was, give or take a few years, and was a few inches shorter. Brown hair, green eyes – a contrast to her husband’s blonde and blue. She stood as the two of them approached, a kind smile on her face despite her examining gaze looking over Fractal’s unusual features.
“It’s a pleasure,” the woman said, extending a hand. “I’m Julia. My husband’s told me about the things you’re doing for us with the house, and we really can’t thank you enough.”
“Please, think nothing of it,” Fractal replied, quickly bringing her hand up – she’d remembered this time – in that gesture she’d started using in place of smiling. “Michael’s done incredible work with us. It was the least I could do for one of my best employees, what with all the craziness in the city, lately.”
She found herself looking around the living room. It was quaint. Cozy. An entertainment center opposite the couch held a television set with a cable box, an old Betamax player, and even a games console, with a few game disks lined up in their cases. Bookshelves were lined with a variety of books and magazines, their contents wildly ranging from things like Poe and Orwell to teen fiction and People’s Magazine. It was a true living room in the sense that it actually felt lived-in; a family space, where you could see the pieces of each of its members if you looked.
For a brief moment, there was a melancholy pang of longing in Fractal’s chest.
Michael gestured further in, towards the dining table. “I think we’re just about ready here, if you want to take your seat.”
Julia hurried off to the kitchen as Fractal took in the spread. A deep brown rectangular wooden table, with some flowers for a centrepiece. Four plates, two of each on opposite sides – guess the kid was joining them, then. Speaking of, where was she?
Footsteps thudded down the carpeted switchback stairs behind her. Fractal turned to see the girl just as she’d arrived at the landing, stopping once their eyes met. Blue eyes widened in recognition. “Oh. Um, hi?”
“Hello,” was Fractal’s response. Keep it simple, don’t give her a reason to freak out. “You must be Evie?”
The girl fidgeted uncomfortably. One hand went to her pocket, while the other brushed platinum blonde hair from her face. Damn. Well, at least Fractal had gone two for three tonight, when it came to the whole “not causing people dread by simply existing” thing.
“That’s me,” she answered. “You’re my dad’s boss.”
Fractal nodded. “Indeed I am. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Evie. Your dad’s told me a lot about you.”
She extended a hand, almost forgetting that the girl might not want to shake hands with something so inhuman. But to her surprise, after only a brief hesitation, Evie took it. Her grip was as gingerly as expected, yet Fractal couldn’t help but notice the girl’s callused hands. Not the kind of thing you expected from a bookish schoolgirl.
Huh.
Sternum. Left kidney. Stomach.
She wasn’t looking for the woman’s pressure points consciously, but Evie found herself very, very familiar with them all the same. Not that she was likely to win a fight, if the unmarked van conveniently parked on her street was anything to go by.
If things went to shit, teleporting was the better play here. Just get the fuck out of Dodge, and deal with the aftermath later. Still, what would her parents think? How would they react to finding out their kid’s a supervillain? Well, a fairly minor supervillain, all things considered – petty theft didn’t really match up to what the ABB or Empire were up to these days – but a villain nonetheless. Would they think they’d failed as parents? (They hadn’t.) Would they disown her altogether? (They probably should.) Would they report her to the PRT? (They probably should do that, too.)
…She’d been holding the woman’s hand for way too long.
She pulled her hand back, breaking the awkward handshake.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
If Fractal cared, she didn’t make a point of it. “Shall we?” she asked, gesturing to the dining room table.
“Yeah.”
Evie walked into the dining room, taking the closest seat of the four. Fractal sat opposite from her, thank God. Small mercies – better to be across than right next to her.
Evie’s mom and dad came bustling in with steaming plates and pots of food. Shrimp, crab legs, bread, some greens, some sort of… stew thing? She probably wouldn’t be eating that one. Drink pitchers and a bottle of wine followed – clearly her dad cared a lot about this, if he was busting that out. The whole thing was almost appetizing enough to overcome the anxious feeling of nausea in her gut. On any other day, she’d love this.
Her mom sat next to her, while her dad sat next to Fractal. “Alright!” her dad announced. “Have at ‘er.”
Food was passed around. Evie settled on a piece of bread, some shrimp (her favourite), and two of the crab legs. Small enough that she could actually stomach it, but not small enough that it looked like she had an eating disorder.
Things were starting out quiet, with Evie nibbling away at her bread. She noticed Fractal had mostly loaded up on crab legs, and was… huh. Fractal was eating through that coloured spot on her face, by the looks of it; it was way higher on her face compared to where Evie figured her “mouth” would be. Evie hadn’t really looked at the Case 53 long enough to get an in-depth impression of her physiology yet, but even just seeing her do something as simple as eating, it was a reminder of how alien she was. Not really creepy or weird, just—
“Ah. I can assure you it was quite weird for me too, at first,” Fractal was saying, looking straight at Evie. And she was doing that weird friendly hand thing again.
Oh. Fuck. She was staring, and now she felt like an asshole.
“N-No no, it’s not like that,” Evie stammered, “I just haven’t seen anyone like you in person before. It’s just… different.”
“I understand,” the woman assured her. “Took me quite a while to get used to, actually. I’d go to take a bite of something, and it was just—bop!” As if to highlight her point, she poked her chin – the spot where a human mouth would be – with her index finger.
Evie smiled a little at that; she felt some of the tension ease in her shoulders, if only a little.
Her mom was the next to pick up the conversation. “So, how’s everything at the company? Michael’s said it’s been busy lately.”
“Busy doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Fractal said, with a tone of… exasperation? It was hard to tell with the woman. “We’re making some good strides, but we’re always looking towards the next thing, never sitting still. Even more so, lately. I’m lucky I was able to find the time for tonight, truth be told.”
A chance to press her. “What’s keeping you so busy?” Evie asked.
There was a sound like a chuckle. “Talking about that, I’m afraid, would get me in trouble with my boss,” Fractal answered. “NDAs on top of NDAs. It’s a ruthlessly competitive industry. But needless to say, we’re in the business of improving people’s lives. I’m very proud of our work.”
Improving people’s lives. Evie wasn’t so sure, anymore.
“I get it,” she replied. It was about the response she’d expected, but maybe Lisa could get something from it.
She was surprised when the next question came from Fractal. “And how about yourself? I understand you’re attending Arcadia. Has it been treating you well?”
God fucking dammit. It was a softball question, yes, but it was being directed at her nonetheless. At least it was one she could just answer truthfully.
“Well, it’s nice, but definitely an adjustment,” she explained. “For one, I’d never heard of the Pledge of Allegiance before we came here. In Canada, school started with them playing the national anthem over the loudspeakers, so I expected it worked the same here. Was really confusing the first time.”
“I can imagine,” Fractal nodded.
“History class took me a while to catch up on, too. Canadian history classes are mostly about, like, our first colonizers, confederation, the Natives… almost nothing about the States. I had basically zero baseline knowledge.”
“But not too hard to get to speed, I hope?” the woman asked.
“Not that bad,” Evie replied. “Switching to American spelling is really throwing me for a loop, though. Stuff like colour, armour, harbour…”
“Favor, flavor, labor…” Fractal continued.
“Yeah. My English teacher’s not a fan of my U’s.”
“If it’s any reassurance, I don’t think it matters much, outside of an academic context.” The woman cracked open another crab leg with her utensils. “Unless you’re writing for something like a scientific journal, or for uptight English teachers, as it were, you should be fine.”
Evie couldn’t stop herself from smiling when she nodded. She was imagining herself writing for some journal. Parahuman Laws, and Why I Ignore Them. Probably something she’d write from jail, if they even could keep her in jail – she genuinely had no idea.
Despite that, it was almost… nice, talking like this. Sure, she was still on high alert, feeling the pressure of everything she was hiding, and everything that was soon to come. But Fractal seemed okay, actually, as though she had a genuine interest in talking with Evie. It almost made her forget she was sitting across the table from one of the heads of an evil megacorporation.
The adults were talking about her mom’s work, now. Easy enough for her to tune out – she really didn’t care about her mom’s takes on office politics, and instead found her mind drifting to the upcoming heist. She wondered what they’d dig up – how deep dig the rabbit hole go? How involved was her dad? What atrocities was this very woman at her table overseeing?
Part of her was dreading to find out.
…God, this would be way easier if she wasn’t nice.
Honestly, this hadn’t gone half as terribly as she’d expected.
Awkward? Yes. God, yes. She knew from the second Michael invited her here that it would be awkward. But it wasn’t disastrously awkward; it was more “breaking the ice for the first time” awkward than “my employee invited his monster boss into his home and his family doesn’t know how to deal” awkward.
All things considered, it was as good as she could hope for.
“Ah, right. One more thing,” she remembered, standing in the house’s entryway. From her jacket’s pocket, she removed a small circular device, made of metal and glass. It was in the shape of a saucer, like a classic sci-fi UFO. She held out the device for Michael to take.
“Take this to any rooms you need measured, and press both sides together once until it beeps. It’ll use a laser projection to handle the measuring for you, while storing the data on-device. Just bring it back to me on Monday.”
“I’ll do that,” he said, taking the device from her. The way he held it carefully with both hands, one would think he was handling a bomb. Such was how non-tinkers often saw tinker tech.
She nodded. “Thank you again for hosting me, Mr. and Ms. Winters. This was nice.”
“And thank you for coming,” Julia smiled. “I’d love for us to do this again sometime.”
“I may just have to take you up on that,” she said. “Michael, I’ll see you on Monday. Julia, I hope to see you again soon.”
“Of course,” the woman replied.
She turned the doorknob, just about ready to leave, when she looked over her shoulder at the teenager behind her parents.
“Oh, and Evie?”
Again, with that deer in the headlights look, if just for a fraction of a second. She was fairly certain at this point that it wasn’t because of her appearance. It didn’t strike her as social anxiety, either. What was it with this kid?
“Good luck with school,” she called to her.
“…Thanks,” the response came, after a brief pause.
What an odd child, she thought to herself, as she closed the door behind her.
- All of these are real places. I'll do a small writefag for a character of your choice if you can guess them.