They don't make jukeboxes like they used to...

[rememory]

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To reach the unreachable staaaaaaaaaar....

From the kitchen that she'd designated as the focal point for de and reconstruction, Sabine barked, "Mimi!" and then choked out a laugh that was half a sob. Man of La Mancha had always been one of Byron's favorite musicals.

"What? You can't build without music and you don't have a boombox!"

"No one has a boombox anymore. Don't make me regret manifesting you." She shook a finger at the showgirl ghost who was lounging on the back of the couch like it was a baby grand.

Unrepentant, Mimi went on singing,

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star.

"I love that line, don't you?" Mimi teased not just Sabine but Scott, even though he was out of earshot.

"Zip it, or it's Tsura's turn," Sabine snapped, cringing at the reference to their chaste, but far less than pure love.

"What was that?" Scott emerged from the next-door apartment through the hole he'd put between them to make testing the walls for support beams easier. There were two more like it in the filthy foursquare they'd chosen to turn into a community area -- for the time being.

"Nothing. Mimi was just asking your favorite musical so she could sing for you. Isn't that right, Mimi?" Mind-to-ghost she sent #Don't even contradict me.# Forbidding it with power was the simplest of her abilities, but Sabine didn't abridge her free will.

Mimi just laughed and laughed, sticking to Impossible Dream until the next person joined them Then she started in on songs from Annie:

It's a hard knock life for us!
It's a hard knock life for us!

Sighing, Sabine shot Scott and the newcomer an apologetic look then shrugged helplessly. "It's not like she's wrong."

[ooc: Gathering post! Sabine and Scott are clearing out a group of four apartments to start with to make a communal kitchen, dining, sitting area on level D. Mimi is audible and vaguely visible as a holographic figure of a showgirl with an indistinct face. She won't interact unless you ping me and ask for her. Will, Molly, Marie, Jack, Sebastian, Nick, Porthos, Maggie, all got a message inviting them for potluck and construction. Anyone else can have heard from them or have seen the 'excuse our dust' sign and stop by. Feel free; all are welcome. Tag Sabine with a note in the subject line; all other tags are top levels.]

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[thewinterlady]

Molly had the invite arrive with a gentle tone on the tablet she'd been given and she'd gone mostly out of curiosity. She wasn't about to cook anything. No one deserved to eat her cooking.

She'd arrived to find Sabine and a guy she was introduced to as Scott working on demolishing the walls between two larger apartments. Both were run down, but Molly could see the potential in the space.

Humming along with the ghost girl singing show tunes, Molly rolled up her sleeves and got to work.

[wgraham]

Wandering out of the first room Will had entered, he headed toward the sound of demolition, looking for Sabine or anyone else who had already arrived. He supposed it shouldn't have surprised him that the first person he saw was Molly, golden hair knotted at the nape of her neck while she worked. He stood back and watched her for a few minutes, aware that she could sense him in the room, able to read the admiration and attraction from him without turning to face him.

When she did finally turn around, he smiled and made his way across the room to meet her.

"Don't mind me," he said, his grin gaining a teasingly lustful edge. "I'm just adding 'construction worker' to my list of sexy fantasies about you."

[thewinterlady]

Molly dropped the piece of something similar to plasterboard on the junk pile and brushed some dust off her face to make herself a little more presentable, probably only succeeding in spreading it around. Will had been watching her for a while, his attraction flowing over their connection and making her flushed and wishing they were alone right now.

She managed to school her immediate desire to kiss the life out of him and poked her tongue out at him instead, giving him a haughty look. "Hey, stop ogling the workforce and come get dirty with the rest of us." She said, laughter in her voice as she gave up the haughtiness and stepped into him, kissing him softly in greeting. "Hi."

[wgraham]

Will caught Molly in his arms and kissed her back, inhaling the scent of her, freshly washed hair and the subtle smell of her makeup, the edge of dust on her skin from her recent work. He slid his hands into the small of her back and held her close, kissing her again before he eased back a fraction. "Hi," he replied, feeling warm and content with Molly pressed so close to him, her own happiness effusive through their bond.

"Did they recruit you, or did you volunteer?" he asked as he nodded toward the wall Molly'd been helping to demolish.

[thewinterlady]

The physical contact made Molly sigh happily, breathing him in and letting the contentment roll between them. She wanted him close all the time at the moment and it was a relief in a room full of semi strangers.

"A little of both. You saw the invite...I guess I was at a loose end." She waved a hand at the wall. "It's therapeutic." She smiled and gave him a speculative look. "Wanna get your hands dirty with me?"

[wgraham]

Will gave Molly a look that told her he appreciated her sly double-meaning (as if she couldn't feel the heat of his appreciation through their bond), and he shrugged. "It's been a while since I've destroyed anything with my hands," he said, moving to shrug out of the sport coat he was wearing and setting it a ways away from the demolition site.

"Are we just taking the wall down, or is there more finesse to it?" he asked as he joined Molly once more, his hand fitting automatically into the small of her back as he stood at her side.

[thewinterlady]

"I think the point is to just get it down." Molly said, grinning over at him. "I think Sabine has a plan but I was told just get on with expanding the space so..." She waved a hand at the lump hammer and the walls. "They're not load bearing apparently." She added, already seeing Will wondering about technical engineering details. She knew some of his calmest moments were when he was working through something technical so it was great to see the tension easing out of his shoulders a little.

[wgraham]

Will nodded, and though he trusted what Molly told him (and what Sabine had told her), there was always a desire to verify when facts were presented. The material didn't look like wood (which made sense), but it still seemed that it could be taken down with a sledgehammer and use of force. He assumed the particles weren't toxic (no one was wearing a mask), so there was no reason for Will to protest offering his assistance.

"Were these old living quarters?" Will asked as he approached the partially demolished wall, looking into the empty space on the other side.

[thewinterlady]

Molly nodded, slipping up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist for a moment before she moved to grab a heavy lump hammer and handing it to him.

"I think this level is pretty much abandoned so Sabine kinda...took it." She laughed, shrugging a shoulder. She didn't have an issue with Sabines acquisition of the space. If anyone came looking she could convince them it was a good idea to let them all keep it. "It's a good idea. I mean, I'm not gonna cook, but I can eat with the best of them."

[wgraham]

Will pressed a hand against Molly's arms when she held him, connecting with her physically as his mind was filled with her, close and comforting. He sighed in contentment as she slipped away, and he took the hammer she offered him.

"It does look a bit ramshackle," he agreed, looking around the space again as he moved in closer to the wall. "If no one else is using the space, I can't imagine anyone will mind Sabine repurposing it."

Then he turned and grinned at Molly. "It's a good thing someone around here cooks, since you know I'm not any help there either," he joked. "If it wasn't for Sabine, we'd be doomed to replicator food for the rest of our lives."

[thewinterlady]

Making a face, Molly couldn't help but agree. "Don't even joke about that. As much as I appreciate free food, that is not what I had in mind."

She looked at the pieces of wall that had already been taken down and lay scattered in shabby piles all over the floor. She hadn't tested her power much since they'd gotten here but she took a breath and squared her shoulders, pulling a shield into a small disc in front of her. It was shaky at first but it quickly solidified and she grinned as the magic flowed through her. She started gathering up the detritus, using the shield like a scoop or a brush to move it out of the way so Will and she had room to work.

"Better." She said, stepping into the empty space and setting about the wall.

[wgraham]

Will, who was facing away from Molly surveying the structure of the wall, could feel when Molly began to manifest her magic, the vibrations of it running along their connection, the ozone smell and slightly pungent taste of it filling Will's senses. He turned to watch her work, a disc appearing and flattening out so Molly could use it as a sort of plow, pushing piles of debris aside in a way that looked effortless. He felt a little shiver run through his body when she finished and her magic ceased, something like satisfaction echoing through their connection.

"Nice work," he told her with a smile, and he knew she could feel his pride and happiness at her being able to use her magic here as well as see it in his expression.

[thewinterlady]

Molly grinned at him, proud and relieved that her magic was back to it's normal level after the muting effect of quarantine, enjoying his pride at the same time.

"I think so." She said and sent a tiny, invisible curl of a shield out to nudge him gently towards his own section of wall. "Get to work, slacker. Race you. Last one to get their section down gets the beer or beer like substance." She lifted her hammer and rested it against the wall, pushing her playful energy through their connection. "Three, two, one, go!" She called and started to smash.

[rememory]

Sabine had seen Molly arrive (and been alerted by Corwin who appreciated the blonde beauty rather more politely than Mimi did every attractive male within several hundred yards or her), but she'd been busy just then, wiping down the cooking surfaces so that she could put together a hearty but easy-to-eat meal from what she'd been able to acquire without expending her entire allowance for the month.

Now that she had a moment, she rinsed her hands and dried them, then grabbed two beers from the mini-fridge. After opening them, she went over to Molly with the open beer held out. "Thanks for showing up. We can definitely use the help."

[thewinterlady]

Taking the bottle gratefully, Molly smiled and puffed a strand of hair out of her face.

"No problem. I will not inflict my cooking on you guys, but I can knock through walls with the best of them." Molly said, murmuring a purification charm over her bottle before she sipped it. It was surprisingly good. "Oh god...where did you find this? All I get from my little replicator thing is that weird soup-mush stuff and water."

[rememory]

Sabine noticed the murmur and wondered at it but took no offense. After a decade of working through countless issues with spirits from hundreds of cultures, she tended to accept anything that wasn't outright threatening in stride. Instead, she had a sip of her own beer--not her personal preference, but it tended to be less risky than wine or spirits in a new place.

"Ghosts make surprisingly good scouts. Especially ghosts that were gourmands in their lifetime." Sabine laughed and manifested Sal, who of all of her spirits had the most pronounced features owing to his powerful sense of selfhood. He swept a bow that was no less graceful for the portliness of his figure and dipped his head. "He says he's charmed to meet you. Molly, meet Sal."

[thewinterlady]

Molly smiled as the ghost bowed low and replied with one of the more elegant curtseys she'd been taught in Mabs court. "Pleasure." she said, enjoying the mans aura as it glowed proudly around him. He seemed a kind sort of guy.

She turned to Sabine. "So you just sent him off to find you supplies you could buy?"

[rememory]

"More like he begged me to let him investigate what 'culinary delicacies' he might be able to find." Sabine smiled at Sal and he brushed a kiss against her cheek, the cold spot from his touch tingling in the wake of his passage. "He gets bored since there's not much else he can do, and he's a love. He likes to help." Sabine could both see and feel the warmth of his blush. She imagined Molly might sense his pleasure as well; she wasn't sure, entirely.

[thewinterlady]

The ghost..? She wasn't sure what term to use so settled for 'spirit' in the end. The spirit was evidently pleased with Sabine's compliments, pride and pleasure coming from him, making Molly smile, feeling warmth and an affection she couldn't quite name in the wake of the words.

"I guess they're pretty useful to have around a new place, huh?" Molly said, sipping her beer. "Have they been with you long?"

[rememory]

"They're good company," Sabine returned, gently redefining Molly's assessment. She tried not to think of them in any way that made what they did for her anything other than friendship. "And they've been known to go to dangerous lengths to help them. I lost one of my oldest friends that way, the last time I was taken captive. He pushed himself beyond the range of our bond to find--" She glanced over to where Scott applied himself to a section of wall next to a support beam. "Scott, broke the bond, and used up the last of his earthly energy in the process."

A soft wistfulness overcame her features and she had to pause a moment to let the pain of that loss on top of the others fade. "He always did want to be a romantic hero, so I guess at least he fulfilled his life's ambition." She smiled then, sweet and a little wry. "He, Byron, and Ada and Sal had been with me since I got out of juvie. Sal's the only one of them left. Mimi and Corwin have been with me since a year, and two years after respectively. Leah was the newest. She and Ada got left behind when I got here. And Tsura stayed with me after a nasty incident near Lety concentration camp. About five years now."

[thewinterlady]

"Wow." Molly murmured. She couldn't imagine having that many different presences around her all the time. Still Sabine seemed completely at ease with it so maybe it wasn't as intrusive as it sounded. When Sabine looked over at a man working on some wall across the room Molly caught the look, felt the affection and grinned a little.

"I take it they're not around all the time?" She asked, gesturing at the guy.

[rememory]

"There's usually at least one of them--" Sabine glanced at Scott and back to Molly and then blushed slightly. "Oh. No. It's not like that between us. Not that I wouldn't, but it's complicated."

But since the substance of what she'd asked was less so, Sabine continued more easily to explain, "I tend not to sleep with anyone who doesn't know about them, because they're not always discreet. If I ask them to give me privacy, they will--mostly." Again the sorrow of loss swept over her, but she continued doggedly, "Byron used to play unpleasant tricks on the men in my life and he could be very resistant about leaving when he knew I'd be having sex. It's one of the only times I've ever used my power to force one of my companions out of my presence."

[thewinterlady]

"You're very forebearing." Molly said, wincing a little at the loss that swept over Sabine. She could understand loss like that, but it never made it easier to feel it in others. Molly was a fixer and some things just couldn't be fixed.

She shored up her defenses and smiled. "But this is good." She said, gesturing around. "What made you decide to start something like this?"

[rememory]

Sabine's mouth twitched in a small, sad but fond smile. "Home is Castle Kinross, honest to goodness Scottish castle. Our rooms are generous but the kitchens are shared. Whenever anything bad happens--which is often, someone starts cooking and someone else joins, and people eat and cry and talk or not talk..."

She rolled her shoulders in a slow, pained shrug. "It seemed like the sort of thing we could use."

[thewinterlady]

"It's a really good idea." Molly said with a smile. Kitchens were always comforting to her. Her mother had ruled the stove with an iron gauntlet, but it had always been a welcoming and warm place, a place to talk and relax, occasionally a place to stitch wounds or have heated arguments. It was the soul of a place, really.

It'd be a shame if something happened to it, Molly thought, images of someone official coming through and seeing what they were doing. But she could do something about that.

"If it's okay with you, I'll put some wards around the place. It'll essentially stop anyone that doesn't know about it for realising it's here. they'll just...pass it by." She offered.