open the door, close the door, got to get through the other side of the door, open the door.

[Pippi]

Today’s T-shirt: Dark blue, with two boxes with rounded corners on the front containing the words “A: Ally” and “B: Betray” respectively, all in electric blue



There was a mild, crisp breeze in the Salem air, and that meant that Poppy Fontaine couldn’t see jack shit.

For what felt like the twentieth time since she had left the house a half hour ago, Poppy huffed and sighed and brushed her fringe out of her eyes, blowing air out of the corner of her mouth to try and shift the last few offending strands of hair with limited success. Sod’s Law was well and truly in effect today; the one time she’d decided she would risk heading out without her beanie, and, well, here she was. Fringe doing its level best to try and engulf her glasses whole.

She brushed her hair into a mostly-presentable state with her hands, before shoving them back into the pockets of her hoody, meandering along all the while. For such a tall girl, she sure did walk at a speed comparable to molasses, but that had always kinda been the way she’d lived her life; at her own pace, absorbing every little sense and sensation. She would always be the last one to finish her meal, and take twice as long to get from Point A to Point B as anyone else, but she had no intention of changing that. It was a beautiful day, after all, and she wanted to fully appreciate it, even on a journey as simple as ‘House > Sandwich Shop > House Again’. The air was the perfect level of crispness and coolness to sting her throat like she’d just swallowed a whole roll of mints, there were birds in the trees and the hubbub of shoppers and tourists milling about, and the scent of baked goods and fresh-ish coffee hanging on the air.

Now if only she could actually see any of this damn stuff.

Poppy couldn’t help herself from smiling as her hand darted from her pocket, pushing her fringe to the side again as it threatened to cover her face once more. She’d had to deal with this shit ever since she’d started growing her hair out, but it was a problem worth having, as her mum would probably say. That was definitely one of her Top 5 Mum Phrases, alongside ‘Worse things happen at sea’ and ‘Once it’s gone, it’s gone’. It was a pain in the arse, to be sure, but one so familiar now that it would feel wrong if she didn’t have to deal with it anymore.

One sudden gust of wind hitting her head-on later, and Poppy decided that, actually, she’d changed her mind, if her hair could magically stay in place forever that would be really cool, thanks.

Now, Poppy was so accustomed to having to readjust her hair whenever she went outside that she didn’t even break her stride as she attempted to regain the power of sight. Which meant, of course, that there were several seconds where she was paying 100% attention to her fringe, and 0% attention to her surroundings.

And that was how Poppy Fontaine tripped over the kerb and faceplanted directly into a bench.

[TheLordOfAwesome]

[Danielle “Dani” Bird: Pregame — START]

It wasn’t very often Dani came to this part of time by herself. It was far too much of a tourist destination for her tastes, though admittedly not as much as Essex Street can be with its tourist traps, but still the city visitors were always attracted to the Bewitched Statue for some reason. Not to mention the shops here were not exactly the quality she generally preferred. If it weren’t for the occasions where her friends wanted to come down this, she’d probably not pay the store fronts much mind and would probably spend her day on the streets of Boston.

Really, the only reason she was out here today was just to get out of the house and go on a walk. The weather was chilly, but generally agreeable enough that the mood struck her to head out to town. Besides, she looked damn good and all the world had to see. White Badyfur puffer jacket with a fur-trim hood over a white, sleeveless turtleneck, black mini-skirt, pantyhose, four-inch heels, a pair of designer shades over her eyes and — in her opinion — a cute as hell, little black beret. Her look was impeccable she felt, with not even so much as a hair out of place on her head. And, oh, she made sure that not a single one was as she used well practiced hand movements to put her hair back in place before it drifted in front of her line of sight by the breeze, tucking the offending hairs back in place. She thought that maybe she was doing it far too much, but she had an image to maintain.

It got her the appropriate amount of looks from passersby. It wasn’t one of her more revealing attires she could have put on, but it was flashy enough to stand out in this part of town.

She was enjoying this little outing of her’s for the most part. Plenty of fresh air, good smells from the bakeries and coffee shops singing their siren song of foods her diet wouldn’t allow her to eat, the ambient noise of the people and birds, the crispness of the air.

It would have been a perfectly fine time out if it weren’t for watching someone trip over a curb and slamming face first into a bench right in front of her.

Dani stopped in her tracks, gapping and gasping as she brought a hand to her mouth and stared in shock. After a few tentative moments to process what she witnessed she approached the fallen girl, looking at her with genuine concern.

“Hey!” she said, sounding a little more urgent than she intended and stopping just a few feet shy from them. “A-Are you okay?”

[Pippi]

Y’know, the one good thing about this little incident was that her pride was the only thing that got damaged in the fall.

Poppy groaned, and shifted herself so that she had one arm resting on the bench, and nope, no, there it was, there was the pain, right on schedule, careening through her skull and down into her arms, a hiss escaping through her teeth as she rested her forehead on her forearm. Christ, it felt like she’d gone and headbutted a brick wall; she could feel the beginnings of a migraine coming on fast, and she ran her tongue over her teeth to make sure she hadn’t knocked any loose.

“Ffffffuck, ow, Jesus Christ.”

And, of course, she’d gone and made a total tit of herself in public, hadn’t she? Her eyes were closed and pressed against her skin, but she was absolutely certain that everyone in the vicinity was standing and gawping at her, unsure of whether she needed help or not, the Girl Who Tripped And Ate Shit In Broad Daylight.

Poppy could feel the heat rising in her face, and the desire to turn tail and run back home and bury herself in her duvet with a bag of crisps and an LCS stream increasing dramatically in her mind, but thankfully, one of the onlookers had decided to save her from shrivelling up and dying of sheer embarrassment.

She raised her head up off of the bench - she was pretty sure she recognised that voice, didn’t she have a class or something with its owner? - and began to slowly and shakily push herself back up to her feet, wincing as she grabbed the arm rest to help lever herself up.

“Ow, fuck, ah, yeah… yeah, I’m okay, I just-”

She brushed her hair out of her eyes for the twenty-first time, Jesus Christ, and then frowned as the girl standing in front of her remained just as blurry and out of focus as before. She blinked, then blinked again, and just as the sudden pang of panic that she’d somehow damaged her vision in the fall entered her brain, she realised exactly what was causing her saviour to be so ambient and fuzzy.

“-Uh, actually, have you… seen my glasses anywhere?”

[TheLordOfAwesome]

Dani watched with some concern as the girl pushed herself up, somewhat relieved that she wasn’t seriously hurt from her fall. At least as far as she was letting on anyway. Once she was back on her feet Dani was able to recognize her as someone from school. That one trans girl she shared a class with if she were to recall correctly. After a few seconds the name came to her: Poppy Fontaine.

Of course, she would have had an easier time remembering her if she wasn’t currently missing her glasses.

“Umm…”

Dani looked around at the surrounding street and sidewalk, trying to spot Poppy’s missing eyewear. Just a few feet away the glasses sat on the ground, having been launched off Poppy’s face from her fall no doubt. Dani walked over to the glasses, bending over and plucking them off the hard concrete. She held them up, inspecting them aaaand…

They were cracked.

Dani grimaced a little. While overall their condition was okay, a cracked lens would still be very annoying. Maybe Poppy had a second pair? How expensive would a pair of glasses be? She couldn’t imagine they cost that much. After all, she has a few pairs of fake glasses for her cosplays and they were only a few dollars. Practically chump change and no doubt a prescription pair would cost the same. Regardless, Poppy would be down a pair of glasses if she didn’t have a replacement ready, and walking around with a broken pair wasn’t ideal.

“Here’s your glasses back,” she said, handing them over. “They, uh, kinda crack during the fall it looks like.”

[Pippi]

Of course. Oooooooof course.

Poppy felt her heart sink all the way down to the soles of her Converse as she looked down at her glasses, clutched in Dani’s outstretched hand, a lightning bolt crack running from one hinge to the near-perfect centre of the lens. Christ. And it was hard enough to see out of them when they got covered in dust and fingerprint smudges.

“Well… shit,” Poppy muttered, gently taking the frames from Dani, looking forlornly down at them. She remembered, several years back, when one lens of her glasses had just straight up popped out of the lens while she was playing football; she hadn’t even touched the ball yet, it had just decided ‘fuck this I’ve had enough’ and chucked itself out independently. Those glasses had been a total writeoff, because it would have cost more to replace the lens than to get a whole new pair, and she was almost certain it’d be the exact same case with this pair.

Her heart, which had just about wriggled its way up to her ankle now, suddenly did an about turn and divebomb right back into her shoes, as she remembered that her spare pair of glasses was a set from about seven years ago, kept in a dusty case in the drawer of the dining room table, and most horrifying of all, ugly as sin. She was pretty sure they were tortoiseshell frames, which really, she couldn’t think of something that would suit her less.

“Ah, well, cheers anyway.”

She offered Dani a smile as she put her glasses back onto her face, the frame sitting slightly askew on her nose, with one of the arms bent out of shape, but even the spiderweb crack in the lens couldn’t hide the downcast look in her eyes.

“You’re… Dani, right?” Poppy asked, keeping her usual cheerful smile fixed to her face, trying to jog her brain back into its previous positive state. “I think we’ve got, uh, English class together, or something.”

She also thought that Dani was very very pretty indeed, and her heart, finally having clambered its way back up to its usual place in her chest, did it's oh-so typical flutter whenever somebody attractive did something nice for her.

“Would you believe me if I said this isn’t the first time I’ve done this?”

[TheLordOfAwesome]

Dani smiled a little after Poppy bounced back from her rather embarrassing fall. She was glad that she was alright, even if the glasses were a lot worse for wear. Given that she put the damaged ones back on she deduced that Poppy only had the one pair on her. She should recommend to her later that she should get herself a few pairs to carry on herself in case she fell over again.

“Falling over and landing face first on a bench happens often?” she joked, chuckling a little bit. Her face fell and cleared her throat. “Sorry, that was a little rude.”

She took off her designer shades, looking them over. After her inspection of her expensive eyewear she offers them to Poppy.

“Wanna borrow these?" she asked. "You might have less people gawking at your broken glasses if you wear these over them. These are only five-hundred dollars, so not a huge loss on my part.”

She smiled again. It was the least she could do, she thought. Plus, these are styling shades and they would look good on Poppy she felt.

[Pippi]

Ooookay, wow, there was a lot to take in here, huh?

Poppy had been about to reassure Dani about her little joke, because it had been funny, because she had, in fact, tripped and eaten shit and smacked her head against a bench on at least two separate occasions before today. One of which had not been her fault, it had been frosty as hell that day and she’d just stepped on a patch of black ice, but the other… yeah, that had just been her legs conspiring to trip up over thin air.

And then Dani had informed her of just how much the sunglasses cost, and Poppy’s eyes turned into goddamn saucers.

Like, she’d heard that correctly, hadn’t she? Five hundred dollars? Five zero zero? She tried her best not to react to the price, but ‘hiding your emotions’ had always been an uphill struggle for Poppy, and she couldn’t help but baulk slightly. Cause, y’know, that was a lot of money, in dollars or in sterling! Outside of her gaming PC, she couldn’t think of anything she owned that was more than, like, four hundred pounds, and definitely not any kind of clothing. You’d have to tiptoe on eggshells whenever you wore it, right? Brian had bought a £250 shirt one time, and immediately gotten curry stains on it, and Poppy was absolutely certain she’d do the exact same thing, only even faster.

But she was remembering now, that was one of the things Dani was known for, wasn’t it? She had money to burn, and the ability to get whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. It was such a different universe to the one Poppy lived in, and she couldn’t deny the slight twinge of jealousy that she felt at that fact, but it was much more amusing to think about how out of place they both had to look, standing next to each other; there was pretty much no overlap between their social circles, outside of class or, like, getting really really drunk at a party.

“Oh, shit, really, are you sure? I mean, I’ve already broken one pair, and I don’t wanna…”

Poppy began to stammer out some words of protest at Dani’s offer, before she stopped, and let logic take command; a rare occurrence, but a pleasant one. She really couldn’t walk around all day with cracked glasses; she doubted she could pass it off as a fashion statement. So, hey! If she was gonna spend the day with her vision cut in half, might as well look stylish while she did!

“Thanks,” Poppy said, giving Dani a gracious smile as she removed her glasses and slipped them into her hoody pocket. “That’s really sweet of you!”

She blinked, as she put the new frames onto her face, the world in front of her eyes becoming a fascinating mix of blurry and dim. She flashed a grin at Dani - at least, she hoped it was Dani, and not a total stranger who’d rolled up in the past couple seconds - and curled a lock of hair around her finger.

“So, how do I look?”

[TheLordOfAwesome]

A bright smile stretched across Dani’s face as she saw Poppy’s eyes widen at the price being mentioned. She supposed it wasn’t everyday someone that didn’t come from a multimillion dollar family gets offered something like this. It was rather charming in a way to see Poppy’s reaction and she couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride, in no small part that her generosity sparked such a reaction. It really was a small trinket in the grand scheme of things of Dani’s life, so parting with it was no more a hassle to her than if she misplaced a pen. Sure, in this case it was a stylish pen that looked fantastic on her, but the point still stood.

“It’s really no trouble,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “I can always get another pair… Pretty sure I have another pair or two at home.”

She was so caught up in her musings of her various designer eyewear she almost didn’t notice Poppy putting the shades on. Dani watched her with keen interest, scrutinizing the other girl’s facial features with bated breath. Once the sunglasses were on her face and she asked how she looked, Dani beamed at her.

“Oh, you look fantastic!” she cheered, clapping her hands together. “They’re a good look for you, Poppy! Really!”

Dani reached to the side of her skirt and slipped out her smartphone that she had tucked away, quickly navigating the lock screen.

“Mind if I take a quick selfie with you?” she asked, as she pulled up the phone’s camera. “I’ll be sure to send it your way on Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram, or whatever you have.”

[Pippi]

The big, bright smile on Poppy’s face grew even wider, and she felt the very familiar sensation of heat flooding her cheeks, the rosy red blush highlighting her freckles. It had been a while since she’d actually worn any kind of sunglasses, not just five-hundred dollar ones; she’d never seen the need of getting a prescription pair when staying in the sun for too long just turned her into a strawberry. So, to be totally frank, she’d been kinda nervous about trying this pair on! And not just because of high chance of totally breaking them.

But Dani had said just how good they looked on her, and sure, maybe she was just saying that to be polite, but it really didn’t feel like that was the case not with how earnest she sounded, and how exuberant she was being, and now Poppy was practically bouncing on her heels with glee, pretty much all of the lingering self-disappointment at breaking her one pair of glasses having miraculously vanished into the aether.

There was also, of course, the fact that Poppy was not immune to being complimented by a pretty girl, but for once, that was not the leading factor in her bright red face.

“Oh, uh, yeah, hell yeah, I’d love that!” She blurted out, beaming at Dani, quickly checking to make sure her hoody hadn’t caught itself on her skirt or something. “Probably best to send it to my, uh…”

Which platform should she mention to Dani? The Facebook account she only used to talk to her friends back in England? The Twitter account that had been gathering dust since sometime last year? Or the Instagram account that she had made entirely to watch a funny video of a leopard gecko?

“Facebook, I guess.”

She brushed her hair out of her eyes yet again - still couldn’t get away from that fun little problem - before looking back at Dani, her smile now a little more bashful, a little more sheepish.

“You really think I look good in these?”

[TheLordOfAwesome]

“Facebook… Got it,” Dani muttered, logging the information in her memory. She’ll also send a friend request to Poppy later she figured. She was pretty sure she didn’t already have her. Poppy was a nice enough girl, but up until this point their interactions were very limited. Perhaps this would lead to them talking more and Dani felt more friends were better anyway.

“Yes, you do. And if anyone tells you differently just send them my way and I’ll set them straight,” she replied to Poppy’s worries. She moved in close to the girl, wrapping an arm around them and extending the hand that held the phone. “So stop worrying and give the camera a winning smile!”

Dani gave the camera a smile and a wink, waiting for Poppy to also smile. Once she had what she wanted she pressed the take picture button four times. With the pictures taken she pulled away to look at the photos.

“These. Are. Amazing!” Dani sang as she looked through the photos. “I look great, as usual, but Poppy, you look so good! Very photogenic. Seriously, those sunglasses fit you so well!”

She’d have to decide which of the four was the best. After all, there were subtle differences but those differences can be very important. Image was very important. She was sure Poppy would prefer the best looking pic out of the bunch. It was the least Dani could do after Poppy agreed to indulge her in having a selfie together.

[Pippi]

So, either Dani had somehow failed to notice Poppy’s beet red face, or she was fully aware of it and was very politely choosing to ignore it; maybe she just thought that she was still embarrassed over the whole bench-faceplant thing (which she was, don’t get her wrong). Whatever the reason, Poppy seriously appreciated it; she was fully aware of the flush in her cheeks and the probably-dopey grin on her face, after all.

She just hoped she’d be able to rein it in for the actual selfie.

Speaking of, Dani moved in close, phone in hand, other arm wrapping around Poppy to pull her in even closer. She froze briefly, arms hanging awkwardly by her side, unsure of how she should stand, and that little anxious voice in her head piped up, running through a cavalcade of impossible scenarios; ‘What if you look so awkward that Dani deletes the photos and never speaks to you again’, ‘What if Dani gets so embarrassed to be seen with you that she takes her sunglasses back, and also takes your glasses out of your hoody and stomps on them for good measure?’

Rational, logical stuff like that, y’know.

But it didn’t take too long for her to relax and loop her own arm around Dani, her free hand flashing the traditional peace sign, cheerful smile back on her face. She was a very touchy-feely sorta person normally, any one of her friends would have told you how much she loved hugs, especially when drunk, but it was different with people she barely knew, y’know? People she hadn’t really gotten the measure of yet, people who she didn’t know what they were comfortable with. There was always that lingering fear that she’d make some horrible faux pas, or say something stupid, that would damage their relationship before it even began.

But, hey, Dani was clearly comfortable enough around her to take selfies with her and lavish compliments on her, and those fears were very quickly going the way of the embarrassment and pain from her little trip. Poppy peered over Dani’s shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of the photos, and she was relieved to see that, as far as she could tell, her skin was back to its usual pale-as-hell complexion, which was nice. The photos looked nice. Her face was endeavouring once more to provide her camouflage for a sea of fire engines, but, hey, y’know…

She did look pretty cute in those photos, didn’t she? It was… yeah, it was nice.

“Aw, shush!” Poppy said, giggling, running a hand through her hair. “You’re gonna make me...”

She paused, then giggled again.

“... I was gonna say ‘make me blush’ but, uh, that ship’s kinda sailed, hasn’t it?”

She gently adjusted Dani’s sunglasses, making sure she didn’t smudge the lens with her fingertips; God knows, it had been hard enough seeing out of her glasses before The Crackening, with the amount of dust and fingerprints on the lenses.

“Maybe I should look into getting a pair of these myself, if they look that good on me!”

Or rather, a pair that looked like them, but that didn’t cost an arm and a leg.

[TheLordOfAwesome]

Dani giggled, enjoying just how charming Poppy was. Just how did she go so long without speaking with her like this? Clearly an unfortunate oversight since Poppy was such a sweet girl, and the fact her face was so red just made her all the more endearing to Dani. She just hoped she wasn’t making her feel too embarrassed by all this, but she could make it up to her later if she was.

“They do look rather good on you,” Dani said. “I say you should definitely get a pair of your own!” She paused for a moment, tilting her head to the side and humming in thought.

Poppy was a pretty cute girl and she did look good in those shades she was borrowing from Dani. It would be a shame if she were to give those back to Dani and she didn’t get her own pair. They were, after all, pretty expensive to those of lesser financial status than Dani. Slowly an idea dawned on Dani, like a light bulb coming on.

Dani gave a wide smile, nodding her head enthusiastically. “You know what? Why don’t you keep them!” she said, cheerfully. “They look so good on you that it would suck if you didn’t have a pair of your own! This way you don’t have to worry about giving them back to me either.”

Dani placed a hand on her head, waving her other hand dismissively as her smile became more coy.

“Besides,” she said. “Like I said it isn’t that big of a deal for me to be down a pair. I think I might have another pair or two at home. Maybe we could totally wear ours together and match each other! That would be so fun!”

[Pippi]

“Wh--Huh? You mean it? Like, for real?”

One look at Dani’s face was enough to tell Poppy that, yes, she was absolutely 100% really for real letting her keep the sunglasses. A stark contrast, no doubt, to what her own face looked like; seriously surprised, most likely, probably as close to an ‘:O’ as you could get in real life. On the one hand, it was another reminder that Dani had serious money to burn, if she was willing to hand off a pair of (and the point absolutely bore repeating) five-hundred dollar sunglasses to someone who was basically a total stranger.

But on the other hand… she really had no reason to do so other than to be really sweet and generous! It wasn’t as though the Fontaines were, like, some powerful crime family that Dani needed to bribe, or as though Poppy was one of the mega popular cool kids that Dani just wanted to suck up to, after all - haha, wow, could you imagine? That’d be one hell of a role reversal.

“That’s, um, wow. Gosh, uh, that’s really lovely of you, thank you!”

Tempting though it always was to decline the offer, that little bastard of a voice that lived in Poppy’s head that told her she would be greedy to accept literally any gift ever, she fully believed that it would be much ruder to actually do so; that was what friends were for, doing favours and getting each other things they thought the other would like! She giggled, and adjusted the sunglasses again, keeping her hands occupied as she tried to think of a way to repay Dani for the gesture.

“We absolutely should wear them together, yeah! Actually, we should hang out more in general, are- Oh!”

Poppy clasped her hands together suddenly, her eyes wide and starry, a big broad grin spread out across her face.

“Are you doing anything right now? I mean, uh, like, did you have plans before you came and helped me out? We should, like, totally go and get lunch together if you’re free!”

[TheLordOfAwesome]

“Am I doing anythi-”

Dani paused and thought for a moment. She supposed she didn’t have anything going on since she was only out here to go for a nice walk. Coming across Poppy was just a happy little accident, really. No real plans meant that she was free to do whatever she wanted without time constraints. Besides, she was feeling a little peckish and getting a bite to eat while she was out with someone who might be a new friend sounded fun!

“You know what?” she said, waving her hand with a dramatic flair. “Let’s go get some lunch! I got nowhere to be, so let’s do it! I got my car park a little down the way so I can give you a lift to wherever you feel like!”

Dani smiled a little sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.

“Though, uh, I have a bit of a strict diet. So don’t be surprised if I just get myself a salad or something. But don’t let that stop you from picking someplace you really want to go to!”

[Pippi]

Ah, the old ‘salad and water only’ diet, huh? Yeah, Poppy had sure been there before, for the first few months after she’d finally gotten her hands on her Tiddy Skittles, just as a measure to cut down all the weight she’d gained from an almost nonstop stream of Little Caesar’s and Chinese takeaway. Looking back, it really hadn’t been all that bad - there was more to a salad, after all, than just a tangle of leaves on a plate! - but she would still absolutely take a homemade Thai green chicken curry over a salad any day of the week. Dani really didn’t look like she needed to go on a diet of any sort, but hey, Poppy wasn’t about to judge anyone when it came to food, there wasn’t any way of her knowing what anybody’s preferences or dietary necessities were.

Unless their favourite food was broccoli. Then, oh boy, then they would get judged harder than anyone had ever been judged before.

“Hell yeah! Let’s do this!”

Poppy grinned at Dani, smile effortless and natural, subconsciously pumping her fists just a little bit in her excitement. She had to wonder whether she had, like, any hobbies or interests in common with Dani; she couldn’t exactly see the other girl being thrilled with a recital of the entire plot of the Zero Escape series. But, hey, she was certain she could find some common ground to talk about; you could never go wrong with bitching about schoolwork! And if worst came to the worst, she had a ton of photos of Missile on her phone, which always got a great reaction, especially the one of him sitting in the wastepaper basket.

“I was just planning on hitting up this, like, sandwich shop! I think it’s a couple blocks away from here. I’ve, uh, never been before, so I dunno what their menu choices are like, but I’m sure they’ll have options to accommodate for diets and stuff! And, hey, we can always head someplace else if their options kinda suck!”

A little lightbulb appeared above her head suddenly, and Poppy gently shifted the sunglasses down the bridge of her nose, peering over the top of them.

“Oh, uh, could I ask you to lead the way, though? Just that, ah, obviously these look fantastic, but my eyesight is fucking awful at the best of times.”