A Hotel Room Somewhere in the US, Tuesday Evening FT

[whenshewasnice]

The North American ENVY tour was in its last leg. Only a bunch of shows on the west coast remained, and then --

Envy wasn't sure what then. They were going to start taking a crack at Europe next, of course, but a tour over there wasn't happening in the near future, and they'd only set up a handful of off-universe shows so far, still figuring out the strategy for multiversal marketing. Something that hadn't really happened for a while now was about to happen: she was going to have some time on her hands.

She had no idea what she was going to do with it.

Except that was a lie. She had some ideas. Some thoughts, the ones that came to her when she was alone in hotel rooms or backstage or staring out the window of the tour bus with music in her ears instead of talking to her band members or the crew. But she tended to ignore those thoughts. There was, perhaps ironically, not time for her to be dwelling on them.

Except when there was. Like tonight, when she was alone in a hotel room, wrapped up in the fluffiest robe known to man, curled up on a couch while the television droned on with some insignificant, mindless entertainment show on the screen. Something felt...

Empty.

[ooc: NFB but open for all the usual.]

Comments

[lockestheway]

Peter preferred 'bored'. Certainly, 'bored' was a broad concept when you applied it to the life of someone who held the world's future in his hands, but still, generally - bored was the word.

Or at least that was what he was telling himself. After all, he'd been given two hours off - ordered two hours off - by his chief of staff. And now he was on the sofa, ignoring the droning of the senseless, empty drama on screen, and he had nothing else to do.

Besides call Envy.

He'd blame nostalgia. It wasn't like he could pin it on substance abuse like world leaders past.

[whenshewasnice]

It wasn't unexpected that Envy's phone rang.

It was unexpected that the name on the screen was the one it was when she picked her phone up. (Which wasn't as easy a task as it sounded, when she had the world's fluffiest sleeve to contend with.)

"Envy speaking," she answered after a moment, her tone the mild, detached drawl of someone who hadn't checked caller ID.

[lockestheway]

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. It wasn't as if Peter had fully expected her to pick up.

"It sounds quiet on the other end of this line," he said, "Is it quiet?"

Other people just asked if they called at a good time, Peter.

[whenshewasnice]

"Does an all too thorough rundown of some Desperate Housewives of Wherever star's shoplifting incident count?"

It was impressive she could even rattle off what the junk on her screen was. It wasn't as if she'd actually been watching.

[lockestheway]

Peter pulled a face. "Turn that off," he suggested, "I hear it rots the brain."

He was being half-facetious. Maybe a third.

[whenshewasnice]

Envy rolled her eyes. "I don't know, brain rot sounds pleasant enough."

[lockestheway]

"Is the road treating you that bad?" Peter asked.

The benefit of having this conversation over the phone was that Envy couldn't tell that he was hanging out on his sofa in a bathrobe.

... Okay, it was Envy. She could probably tell.

[whenshewasnice]

It was best to never underestimate the disregard for the fourth wall.

"It's just that kind of an evening," she replied succinctly. A verbal shrug. "But this tour has been intense."

[lockestheway]

"Intense how?" Peter asked. He stretched his legs across the sofa and reached for his glass of water.

[whenshewasnice]

At least Envy's glass had wine in it.

She was quiet for a moment, the drone of the TV quiet in the background. "It's different when there isn't a band. When it's just me."

[lockestheway]

"Because all the focus is on you?" Peter asked.

He took a sip. (He liked his water better, sorry.)

[whenshewasnice]

"Yes."

Well, it was a part of it, anyway.

"I don't know if I took fully into account there being another side to being the sole focus of everyone's attention."

[lockestheway]

"Is that positive or negative?" Peter asked.

[whenshewasnice]

"It's what I make of it," Envy replied. Which was vague, she knew, though it also had a less vague layer of meaning if you tilted your head right.

And, whatever. She was working up to saying things she'd gotten upset at him for not explicitly picking up on last time. She'd had a lot of time to think.

"I'm alone a lot."

[lockestheway]

"Is that what you make of it, too?" Peter wondered. "I mean, it's lonely at the top, blah blah."

[whenshewasnice]

"No. I'm just lonely."

Slowly, she sank a little further into her cocoon of a robe.

[lockestheway]

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line.

So sue Peter. He wasn't used to her being fortright with him. At least, not anymore.

"Do you have any days off on your tour?" he asked finally.

[whenshewasnice]

The silence was comforting in its own way, really. Showed she was getting to him.

That he was getting her.

"Not before the end," she said. "But that's... only about a week and a half away."

[lockestheway]

"You're welcome here, if you'd like," Peter said.

Or he could come over. But he was holding on to that one for in case it became necessary.

[whenshewasnice]

"Mmh."

That noise sounded amused (although at what, only she could tell, and wouldn't). And soft. She swished her wine around in the glass for a brief moment, letting a pause form.

"You know, if you were anyone else, at this point in the conversation I'd be enticing you to come over right now."

[lockestheway]

"And if I were anyone else, I would just drop everything and come over there," Peter said wryly. "My bodyguards would murder me."

Not that it wasn't, in its way, tempting.

[whenshewasnice]

"And that's why you're not anyone else."

Not that she had a whole lot of people left in 'anyone else', either.

"So I won't entice."

[lockestheway]

Peter's mouth curved up again.

"The phone will have to do," he said. "Tell me about your last show."

[whenshewasnice]

"Well, it was much the same as the ones that came before it," Envy replied, sipping her wine again. "Good crowd, good energy. More people seem to know the words, every day."

It was a weird rush of power, that.

"I played Satellite Mind acoustic about halfway through the show," she added. "I wasn't sure how well that would go over, since it's a departure in style. But they ate it up." She was definitely gaining a following. Or expanding on what she'd already amassed during earlier parts of her career. "Closed with Nothing But Time. The usual."

[lockestheway]

"The usual for an indie superstar," Peter said wryly. "It's a rush, isn't it? Knowing people have heard your words and like to repeat them."