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It was not easy to get the reception out there in Moab as it was. Now, with the Hellmouth springing to life only a few days ago, it was nearly impossible. That is why Nagomi was surprised to hear her phone ring. On a Tuesday at 2 am no less. Not that she was sleeping. Kinda hard to do that these days.
“Hello.”
“Gomi?”
“Margo.”
“Hey, sorry for calling this late but I’m just leaving work and saw your number go back online.” Xe sounded tired.
“I wasn’t sleeping yet.” Pause. “Why did you call?”
“Uh. To chat? Catch up? I know we see each other at games sometimes but-"
"Yeah." It wasn't the same. No time to mingle with opposing teams lately.
“How are you? With the whole..” Margo gets quiet for a bit but Nagomi knows what xe is talking about. The shadow monster on her face.
“I’m managing."
+++
"Hi, I just heard" Gomi sounds tired.
"Yeah" Margo chokes out "Hurley's gone."
They both stay silent for a moment.
"Do you want to.. Talk about it?" Nagomi says awkwardly, like she isn't sure how one should act in a situation like that.
"Not really? Not yet. It's just-" Her twin sounds so lost. She wants to distract xem somehow so she tries to change the topic.
"Talk to me about something different then"
Margarito hesitates.
"There's this new guy on the team now, Winkler" Nagomi notes the way Margo's voice is still shaking a little when mentioning the Flowers have a new player now "Went all the way from Boston to Hawaii to watch the game, jumped the fence at the right moment and yeah. He's on the team now. Wanted to be a Flowers player for a while apparently." Margo laughs softly, the shake in xir voice gone now "Blaseball a good game. A fun game even. Just-"
Margo pauses. After a moment xe asks
"Do you think it's gonna get easier one day? Someone gets incinerated and everyone will shrug, say 'that's blaseball for ya' and just keep on playing?"
"No." Nagomi says with certainty.
“Don't die”
"Yeah, sure, I'll just let the umpires know 'hey, if you want to eviscerate someone do the other guy, not me!'" She fakes an excited voice, then deflates. "Ugh, this is horrible, sorry"
Margo's laugh is brighter now.
+++
“I’m the new captain. Temporary of course, Beck will be back in no time.” Margo says like Nagomi isn’t the only one out of the two of them xe is trying to convince.
"And if she wont? Be able to come back? Or want to come back? After Caligula-"
"Then I'll deal with it. I have help."
"Oh, do you?" Nagomi had a feeling who that help might be and was ready to tease her twin about it for as long as it was physically possible.
"Yeah, Nic said he can help both with the team and with the bar, his family also ran a place so he has some experience-" Bingo.
She lets her twin talk about xir plans (and about xir developing crushes).
+++
"Hey Gomi, we are all part plant now!"
"Wha-" she sounds groggy.
"Shit, did I wake you up?"
"Language."
"We are adults."
"Oh, right." Pause "Ok I'm awake now, what were you saying?"
"The Garden gave us all grass blood. Supposed to help with performance" xe sounded revitalised. Must've had some tasty sunlight.
"Oh, so your Garden is like Hellmouth now?"
Margo laughs. “Not sure about that. But hey, body horror twinsies!”
“Yeah, I have an eldritch shadow monster on my face and you're sprouting vines or whatever, same thing” She sounds sarcastic but xe can also hear relief in her voice.
They're both a bit fucked up now in a body horror depatrament. There's camaraderie in that.