*bad boys bad boys whatcha gonna do~ plays distantly in the background*

[sciencesaggressively]

It had started out innocently enough, just a casual conversation with Kate on the topic of the envelope mystery. It's when she'd brought up the idea of getting ahold of the security footage that they'd both stared at each other, clearly coming to the silent agreement that they need to get ahold of the security footage. It doesn't take long for both of them to get changed--all black, of course, because that's what the movies always say is best--and rendezvous at the train station at 1800 hours during a convenient switching of the shifts at the information booth.

Newt tries to look cool, leaning against the wall nearest the empty booth as a few people pass him by--and he finds it kind of weird that they seem to be noticing him more than usual, or maybe he's just being paranoid. The door to the security room is just around the corner and the station is emptying out, so it's pretty much now or never. Well, never until the next shift change, whatever. He peers around the corner, failing to notice Kate coming up behind him, so when she taps him on the shoulder he can't stop the yelp that escapes from his throat, and he really wishes he'd bought that ski mask he'd seen at the store because his cheeks are awfully red right now.

"I thought you were the fuzz," he says even as his eyes crinkle from a wide smile and he leans over for a kiss. "I think we're in good shape to do this, you ready?"

Comments

[sciencesaggressively]

Newt bites down hard on the insides of his cheeks to keep from smirking because the guard seriously looks like he's ready to knock them both out, his cheeks are burning red and Newt suspects that if this were a cartoon, there'd be steam blowing out of the guy's ears. He tugs on Kate's hand as he slips out the door, making sure the door shuts firmly behind them and giving a two-finger salute to the guy who's sitting at the information booth now.

It's not until they're a full block away from the station that he pulls her down onto a bench and starts to laugh hysterically, the result of a combination of adrenaline and nerves and well, shit, Kate had told that guy off and it had been awesome. Ok, there's the not-so-awesome part where Kate's almost definitely going to be handed a pink slip next time she goes in, but he thinks she deserves a lot better than this job anyway. "Well. There'd better be something on that damn tape, or I might lose my mind."

[everyonetakes]

"So I'm totally getting fired," she says as she drops down onto the bench beside him, but she can't help it, she's laughing, too. They have a tape, although she has no idea what might be on it and now that she's had a little time to think about it, she really hopes it's not just a creepy compilation of all her shifts. It might actually be better if the thing is blank, especially if that's one of the other options. She'd been joking about the guard, but seeing how red he'd turned, she's not so sure she was wrong about it.

"What if it's nothing? What if it's completely blank, are you really going to lose your mind?" she asks, grinning at him. "Because if you are, we're totally watching this at your place, I'd like my giant flamingo to remain unbroken in the ensuing rage spiral you're going to end up in." The flamingo is still her pride and joy, the best part of her apartment, even though she thinks she's done a pretty good job with the rest of it.

"Okay, seriously, are we going to go watch this? Do you even own a VCR?" She's not sure she does, now that she's thinking about it. The apartment came with a TV, but she doesn't spend much time watching it unless it's on in the background just for the noise.

[sciencesaggressively]

"You are, you definitely are, adios to the info booth." He groans, taking his glasses off to rub a hand over his face before he gives her a sidelong glance. He doesn't have the best feeling about the tape, is both eager and uneasy about watching it because he can't imagine that it was left there in that drawer on purpose, not when everything else had been taken away. Maybe it's blank, maybe it's been erased, or maybe there's something really, really creepy on it that's going to traumatize both of them for life.

"Only a tiny bit of my mind, not the whole thing, the part that's not like, super important. Just kidding, every part of the brain is important, that's preposterous. But I promise to never do your flamingo any harm, that would be near blasphemy." Her question about the VCR is what makes him drop his head onto his knees. "Wow, that would be useful, right? A VCR, I don't even know, does anyone have a VCR anymore?"

[everyonetakes]

"There's a pawn shop near our building," she says, because she kind of goes in there a lot and has maybe decorated almost her entire apartment with things she's found there. She's realized a long time ago that she's never going to live somewhere with marble countertops and cool, clean lines, not only because she can't afford it, but because when she wanted that, she was pretending to be someone other than herself.

"They might have one. Because I'm pretty sure my place didn't come with one, which probably means your place didn't come with one either." On the other hand, she's never actually checked, so she can't be sure. "What if there's something totally creepy on there like the video in the Ring? What if we only get seven days to live after we watch it?" She's mostly joking, but even as she says it, she realizes she's not as excited to watch it as she thought she was. This entire place has been good to her for the most part and now that she's trying to unravel things she's a little nervous about pissing it off. If they delve too deeply into what's behind the envelopes, they might actually discover something and she suddenly doesn't know if that's such a good idea.

[sciencesaggressively]

"Nice, okay, pick up a VCR and I'm not going to lie, I might do some more poking around because you saw my place. Interior decorating really needs work." Newt's not looking for anything fancy, no way, he considers Dimera lucky that he hasn't absolutely destroyed his place yet and that's only because he hasn't had any monster bits to toss around his living room. Still, since he's pretty sure he won't be finding a miraculous path out of the city anytime soon, he figures he might actually put a little bit effort into making it his own. He'd had vintage posters up around the lab, some bongos and instruments, comic books and action figures, and he wouldn't mind a bit of that for his new apartment. He doesn't know if it's weird to ask Kate help him with something so domestic, but... They're going, right? Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

He makes a face at the mention of The Ring, he very vaguely recalls seeing that way back when, but he'd been twelve when it had come out, and he'd ended up analyzing the hell out of the logistics of that girl crawling out of the television. "Well, if we're only going to have seven days to live, we should make it a really badass seven days, right?" He knows it's not a thing that's going to happen, obviously it's not going to happen, but what if it happens? He almost suggests that maybe they should just hold off, not even watch the tape at all, at least not before drinking heavily. But on the off chance that there's something on that tape that's actually worth seeing... Well, he can hardly resist that potential.

[everyonetakes]

"If some creepy girl crawls out of my TV, I'm going to need like, all the alcohol in the world to deal with it," Kate says before she stands again and holds her hand out to Newt. "Come on, let's go buy a VCR and something so your apartment looks less like a prison cell." She's teasing, she'd actually liked his apartment just fine, but she thinks that may have been due to the fact that she likes him so much. Beyond the table and the couch, there's not actually a whole lot she remembers about his place and she completely blames him for that, for being so distracting and nice to her.

"But seriously, we're watching it on your TV now, because I'm just picturing a girl crawling out of mine in the middle of the night and I'm pretty sure I'm never going to sleep again," she realizes. "Not that I want her crawling out of your TV either, that'd be pretty shitty. Maybe we can convince someone else to let us use their TV." She's not sure if that's how it works, but she's willing to take the chance.

[sciencesaggressively]

"That's the risk we're taking here. It's almost Halloween, we're practically asking for that to actually happen. I do have an abundance of alcohol at home, though, so we'd be covered." He takes her hand and pushes off the curb. "You won't lead me astray, right? I mean, you have a flamingo in your apartment, so I'm trusting your decorating skills." He's not even kidding, he's down with the flamingo. "Maybe I can find like, a dragon. Since kaiju aren't really a thing here."

"Well, I'm glad you have my personal mental health as a priority in your decision-making," he teases. He's pretty sure that it wouldn't matter whose TV they watched the tape on, if a girl is coming out of the screen, she's probably not going to pick and choose who she brutally murders based on who the unit occupant is. Then again, he wouldn't even be entertaining this idea if they had been anywhere else, but he supposes that at this point, he should probably expect that anything can happen. "So we knock on a neighbor's door and not tell them about this, right? Both our TVs are totally broken, so we need to borrow one for very important businessthat they can't be a part of. Sounds legit to me."

[everyonetakes]

"Yeah, no one's going to fall for that and there's no one in our building I really dislike enough to send a creepy TV demon after," she says, thoughtfully, heading in the direction of their apartments. There used to be that one woman who lived on her floor and was really nosy, but she seems to have moved out and Kate likes pretty much everyone else she knows in the building. There's no way in hell she's going to drag Reggie or Nick into this.

"So maybe we just get drunk." And that way if there is something super unsettling on the tape, she'll be able to deal with it better or she'll just care a lot less. "But that still means we need to get a VCR first. The pawn shop's just up ahead, they'll have something and I totally won't lead you astray with the decorating, my mom is an artist, I have a very keen eye or whatever the hell it is they call it."

She doesn't know a damn thing about art, just what her mother's tried to teach her over the years, but Kate's never much listened. She likes what she likes, regardless of what other people think, and she's pretty sure that's the way to go when it comes to decorating.

[sciencesaggressively]

Newt almost suggests knocking on Chuck's awful neighbor's door but eh, seems a little too cruel of a hypothetical punishment to send her way just for giving them the evil eye. He can admit to the fact that he'd maybe been a little louder than usual but it had only been because he'd wanted so badly to tell Chuck about his first date with Kate. He agrees, though, he can't think of anyone in Dimera that he's met who he'd be happy to see a murderous ghost girl kill.

"Drunk, yes, good." He can get on board with drunk, maybe drunk will mean he can stop entertaining the notion that a video tape that causes the death if its viewers in seven days is a thing that actually exists. He's always had a creative mind, has been able to think outside the box, but he's gotta make Kate responsible for this particularly thought process. Though when she says that thing about her mother and art, her imagination suddenly becomes much clearer to him. "Your mom mom or one of the, uh-- the alters? Because if it's one of the alters, I might suddenly get very suspicious about what kind of stuff I walk away with today."

[everyonetakes]

"No, dude, my real mom," she says with a laugh, nudging him in the ribs with her elbow as they walk. "My mom's the only part of her that actually did anything. Shoshana is the only alter who ever bothered to pretend she had a job and she really just sat around and talked about nothing. My mom's an artist. She paints and does sculptures, stuff like that. She's really good, actually, but she didn't get the chance to do it much when she was transitioning so often. She wasn't exactly super reliable."

She pauses for a long moment, then grins again as they enter the pawn shop. "Plus, one time when she was doing this mural for this woman, one of her alters took a knife and scratched 'die yuppie cunt' on in, so, you know, people were kind of reluctant to hire her after that." It makes her a little sad, knowing how important that mural had been to her mom, but it's not like it's the only terrible thing the alters have done. "But even if one of the alters was the artist, I still have totally great taste."

[sciencesaggressively]

He grins and holds his hands up in mock surrender before rubbing at the spot she'd elbowed, giving her his best pained look. "Just checking! Shoshana, the psychiatrist, right? Jesus, I'm curious what she would have said about me, wonder if it would match up to what other idiots have tried to say." Ooh, he wishes he hadn't said that because it makes it sound like he's had people shoving diagnoses down his throat for ages but maybe she hadn't caught it. "Very cool, with the painting and sculptures, though. You're not big on the art thing, then? I was so going to ask you to design my next tattoo, what a bummer."

A bell rings when the door to the shop opens, and he pokes at a rusty-looking copper sculpture of an ostrich that greets them in the threshold. "Wait, what? Wow, that's all kinds of messed up, your poor mom." He picks up a delightfully ugly lamp with a six-inch tall owl at the base except covered in fake feathers and with two giant yellow eyes above its beak. "Are your artsy senses tingling? Would your mom approve?"

[everyonetakes]

"Yeah?" Kate asks as she pokes around on some shelves. She loves this place, mostly because she's never sure what she'll find in here and she knows they're looking for something specific right now, but she can't help it. "What have other idiots said?" Maybe it's completely not her business, but he'd brought it up, and it's not like whatever he has to say will be any worse than what she's dealt with basically her whole life and if he doesn't want to tell her, he can just not tell her. She's okay with that, at least for the time being.

She laughs at the lamp, then shakes her head, reaching out to touch the feathers. "No way," she says. "Definitely not for you." She's not sure who might want that in their apartment, but as much as she likes weird, tacky stuff, she's not sold on the owl lamp for Newt's place and definitely not for hers either.

Instead, she picks up a framed picture of a little Victorian girl with a basket of flowers that looks like it's about a million years old. "God, this is terrible, too. There's a lot of really bad stuff here today." Which is really part of why she loves it so much.

[sciencesaggressively]

Oh, well, of course she'd caught it. Newt supposes he should have known better than to hope she wouldn't, but it's not like the psych asshats at the PPDC had ever been successful in smacking a legitimate diagnosis on him, so he figures he might as well share. "Okay, so... When I got recruited to the PPDC, I had to take a psych eval, right? Whatever, fine, I already told you that I hate psychiatrists, but this team, I don't know. I think I pissed the guy in charge off or something because every time another eval came up, they tried to say I was manic-depressive, which I'm so not, okay? I'm a little hyperactive sometimes and I talk a lot and I don't sleep for days when there's stuff to get done sometimes but that doesn't make a person manic. You don't slap a label like 'manic-depressive' on someone just because a few signs are there."

He takes a deep breath, realizing that he's gone into ranting territory and picks up a dusty pair of binoculars only to put them right back down. "Anyway, they never made it past saying I was just borderline manic, so whatever. It's a thing and now you know it, not even a big deal, right?" He'd never thought so, had never sought help or anything like they'd suggested because he hadn't needed it, but he's also used to people trying to drive-by diagnose him that who don't even come close to having a psych degree. Which is totally a bullshit degree anyway. He doesn't think Kate will do that, but the fact that it's out there now is giving him just a little bit of anxiety so he gives her a big smile before zeroing in on a vintage music box.

"How 'bout I get this and then I can hang that flower girl on my wall. Maybe get some cracked porcelain dolls. Creepy enough to make the girl crawling out of the TV right at home."

[everyonetakes]

"Don't you have to have like, depressive episodes to be considered manic-depressive?" she asks, still moving things off shelves, looking at some of the pictures. He does have a lot of energy and he does talk a lot, but so does she on both counts and no one has ever called her manic-depressive, although she's sure it's probably one of the many things Shoshana has secretly slapped on her. "I mean, my knowledge of mental illness pretty much begins and ends with DID, but still."

She turns when he looks at the music box and crosses to where he's standing. For a second, she looks at it, nose wrinkled, then shakes her head before she leans into him and presses a kiss to his cheek. "Hey, I don't care," she says. "I mean, I care about the music box and the porcelain dolls, because that shit is creepy and I'll never come over again if you do that, but I don't care about all the other stuff. My mom was split into at least four other people my whole life, so..." She trails off and shrugs. "I like you, whatever a team of douchey psychiatrists have said, but seriously, no creepy dolls, that's where I draw the line."

[sciencesaggressively]

He turns back away from her, narrowing his eyes but pretending to be very interested in a dusty old globe. He's momentarily distracted when he wonders where on this globe Darrow would fall, if it would even fall on it at all. Oh, but right, manic bullshit and all that. He remembers hacking into the PPDC system to see his file, remembers seeing the long list of reasons why he'd been marked as "borderline," whatever that even means: displays signs of grandiose notions, increased talking speed and volume, inappropriate social behavior (which Newt is still convinced had been referring to his invested interest in the kaiju), inappropriate irritability, increased energy, poor judgment, severe insomnia... Hermann had caught him peeking and had shrugged like he'd agreed, and that had set Newt off all over again.

"I mean, yeah, so sometimes after a nasty fight with my lab partner or like, a rough meeting with my boss, I'd get into a little bit of a funk, but it wasn't depression." He's feeling tense now, and it's not because of her, he doesn't mind talking about it with her. Not that there's anything to talk about because he rejects the idea that he's borderline anything but awesome, but whatever. Then she's kissing him on the cheek and telling him she doesn't care, like none of it matters, and the tension's leaving his shoulders because she likes him and that's what matters.

"No dolls. No music box. Roger that." He points at a set of bongos and holy shit, what are the odds that this place has bongos? Stoked. "That's a solid yes, though. If you're not good with those, ooh, I don't even know how this is going to work." He winks, nudging her with his elbow. "Thanks, though. Really."

[everyonetakes]

She shrugs and smiles, because it really isn't a big deal, as far as she's concerned. She doesn't have a whole lot of faith in the mental health industry as a whole, having watched it fail her mother time and time again, but even if they're all completely right about him, it doesn't make a difference to her. There aren't many people in this world Kate will admit to admiring, but her father's right at the top of that list and if there's anything she's learned from him it's that sometimes things are worth sticking with. She misses Max suddenly, kind of painfully, and turns her attention back to one of the shelves.

"Hey, as long as I don't catch you playing them naked, they're cool with me," she says with a laugh, beginning to look through a stack of old, framed posters. "Because I'm pretty sure even famous people get arrested for that sort of- wow, okay, this is cool," she says, cutting herself off as she pulls an old Godzilla poster out from behind the others. She turns, showing it to Newt, having almost completely forgotten they're here to find a VCR. "I mean, he's not your monster, but if you don't want this, I'm taking it." It's in great condition, which is impressive, and she's not even sure how old it must be.

[sciencesaggressively]

He's ready to forgot this part of the conversation ever happened, not that he regrets saying anything, but now that it's out there, he figures it never really has to be ever again. He doesn't know why he hates talking about it so much, maybe he's just afraid that one day he'll start to think that it's kind of true. But not today, not here in this shop with Kate because this is a happy place right now.

"Ooh, I definitely can't promise I won't be playing them naked, isn't that kind of just like, standard when it comes to bongos?" He's examining a super cool tin lunchbox with Spider-Man and remembering that Spider-Man lives in their goddamn building when he glances over to see the-- holy shit, the awesome as all hell Godzilla poster she's holding up. He discards the lunchbox and holds his arms out for the poster like it's a newborn baby, eyes wide and jaw dropped. "Oh my god, this is like... This is original 50s Godzilla, this is awesome." No, it's not his monster, but he'd been a huge fan of all sorts of kaiju movies since childhoold. Godzilla and Mothra, even King Kong vs. Godzilla, all of it. "I might cry."

[everyonetakes]

"Quite the date, huh? We broke into a locked room, stole a video tape, got our dumb asses caught, and then I made you cry," she says, looking amused as she hands over the poster. It's just something she found in a pawn shop, not even something she got him as a gift and there's no reason for her to feel as weirdly proud as she does, but he just looks so happy. "But this has been a pretty freaking lucrative trip, I'd say."

They still haven't found a VCR, but she doesn't even care anymore. They'll figure it out.

"I wonder if there are any more," she says, going back to digging through the pile. "Are you really going to cry if I find another one?" One is pretty great, but she thinks having two posters in the same family but from different movies, maybe, would be an even better deal and she pulls out another creepy painting of a little girl in her search for something else for him. It's kind of great making him smile like that.

[sciencesaggressively]

"Yeah, you know, it's that last part that really highlights everything." He's kidding, of course, but he's not sure if it really comes across because he's so entranced by this poster that he's already forgotten what he'd said. He feels like a kid on Christmas morning except this poster is an infinitely more epic gift and okay, maybe it isn't an on-purpose gift but that doesn't mean much to him, it's the thought that counts. He's not even embarrassed when he hugs the framed poster to his chest, it's become his first valued possession, he's totally going to cradle it.

"If you find another, I might not recover. Say nice things at my funeral because I'm putting you and Chuck in charge of the eulogy." The thought of Chuck delivering something like that actually makes Newt laugh because they really haven't been friends for very long, and Newt's pretty sure he'd just kind of stand there in silence for a long time until mumbling something Australian and walking away. He frowns at the awful painting she's holding up now. "What the hell is with these little girl paintings, I am so disturbed."

[everyonetakes]

"I don't know, someone must have sold a whole bunch of them at once," she says, making a face before she drops the painting unceremoniously and pulls another poster out of the pile. It's not another Godzilla poster, but it is a pretty cool print from Psycho and she turns it around with a shrug. She's not really the movie poster type, it's not the kind of decoration she tends to put up on her walls, but it's still pretty neat looking and she doesn't know what kinds of movies he likes, but it's better than a lot of the other options in here.

"Hey, there's a VCR," she says, suddenly remembering why they're here. It looks like it might actually be in pretty good shape, too, far less than a million years old, which was pretty much what she's been expecting to find. "Which is apparently a better find than another Godzilla poster, because I'd hate to have to deliver a eulogy, I'm shit at stuff like that." She can talk a lot, but she really doesn't love the idea of having to stand up in front of a bunch of grieving people and say nice things without crying. That's just not something she imagines she'll ever be any good at.

[sciencesaggressively]

"That is a sweet poster," Newt says with an approving nod. "That movie scared the shit out of me when I was a kid, I showered with the curtain open for like two weeks after I saw it. And the violin screech? Damn, the music for those old horror flicks are so fantastic, the composition is just mind-blowing." He could go on and on about music and movies--especially monster and horror movies, he's never been able to get enough, though he can't remember the last time he'd even gone to see one.

He's propping the Godzilla and Psycho posters up side-by-side, beaming like a proud father at each one, when she points out a VCR and oh, right, they'd come here for a VCR because tape with maybe nothing, maybe death on it. "I'm sure you'd do a fine job, it could just be like, y'know... Oh, Newt, yeah, he was an okay guy and then you could just leave. I'm easy." He squints at the VCR, and he's pretty sure the last time he'd seen one was when he was just starting high school, like 1999 or something like that. But he'd taken it apart to make other things. "Well, at least if we don't die after watching this tape, I can get some other use out of the parts inside."

[everyonetakes]

"Are you going to take it apart and build something else?" she asks, pulling it off the shelf. The cord comes tumbling down after, puffing dust up everywhere because it clearly hasn't been touched in a very long time. It's actually kind of gross, just how much dust coats the surface and she makes a face, trying not to hold it too close to her body to save her clothes from getting covered in dirt.

"Ugh, you can totally have this, it's disgusting," she says, taking it over to the counter where they have to pay, mostly because she doesn't want to have touch it any longer. "So you've pretty much made out like a freaking bandit here today, huh? Movie posters, bongos, the gross VCR and we totally got away with getting one tape, plus we got to make out a little in the locked room. Good day, overall. As long as, you know, there's not something super fucking creepy on that tape that we seriously come to regret having seen for the rest of our lives."

She pauses, then smiles. "Not to sound super negative or anything. I'm sure it'll be fine." She's not sure of that at all.

[sciencesaggressively]

"I'd much rather do that than have to look at it any longer than I have to," he says just before he sneezes when a puff of dust blows up his nose. He takes a few steps making, wiping at his eyes, and nearly knocks down an old coat rack that is so totally not placed where it should be placed.

"You're so good to me." He rubs at his nose as he follows her, doing his best to drag all his new goods along with him. "But yeah, this stuff is going to make that apartment feel way more like home. A home that I might not stick around in for very long if that tape is as messed up as we're making it out to be, really hope you're prepared to have me camp out in yours if that happens, I'm just saying."

He piles all his stuff on the counter and tops it off with the VCR, pulling out his wallet as he waits for the shopkeeper to ring them up. He turns to face her, grinning as he leans against the glass. "But I'm not too worried 'cause like you said, we got to make out in a locked room today, so it's not like I'll die sad."

[everyonetakes]

"Hey, exactly," she says, leaning against the counter and peering at the old watches and rings that are spread out below the glass. "And, hey, if you end up having to camp out in my place, we can totally make out there, too, so it'd just be like a bonus before we died horrible deaths."

The more she says it like that, the less likely it seems, so she feels like she should keep talking about it and maybe they'll end up okay. It's like something Shoshana would say about giving something more power by ignoring it. She's totally not interested in doing anything Shoshana thinks is a good idea, but it actually seems like sort of a decent idea.

On the other hand, she's definitely not opposed to the idea of him being stuck at her place for awhile. She totally meant what she said, they can make out all they want there, too.

[sciencesaggressively]

"I would not even be mad about that, at least they'll have something to write on my headstone. 'Here lies Newt Geiszler, at least he died while he was making out.' People might even cry at how beautiful it is. Chuck might even cry. Chuck will definitely cry."

The shopkeeper hands him a receipt and offers a couple bags that are pretty useless considering the only thing that would probably fit would be the VCR. Newt's thankful for that much, though, because he's not super inclined to walk back to the apartments if he has to sneeze every two seconds. Though he's less concerned about that right now than he is about this promise of making out because yeah, that sounds good, really good. So good that he thinks the tape can maybe even wait for just a tiny bit longer.