I'm blonde, skinny, rich... and a little bit of a-

[Roger Vandelay]

Roger was backstage in the costume closet at La Maison Magnifique; he spent a lot of his spare time there, when he wasn't in class or at training. There was something almost indescribable about the 'House' that he really enjoyed. It was so campy and kitschy, like some kind of performance space out of a bad French movie. The fact that the burlesque house's matron, Cynthia, had a faux French accent didn't hurt the comparison. Or maybe it was more like the setting of an 80's drag show. Either way, it was just kind of a melting pot of creativity and sexuality, both words describing Roger fairly well, as well, hence it being love at first sight when Roger had first visited.

Cynthia had selected the girls' costumes for the week, and it was left to Roger to do the sewing and altering to make sure they fit just right (or, as Cynthia liked to say, 'just slightly tighter than is comfortable'). Roger had gotten pretty good at this sort of tailoring, so he chose a random weekday afternoon to come in and get some work done. Another thing he liked about the House was that there was always something going on, even when there wasn't a performance that day - always workers and performers coming and going, not to mention Cynthia there basically all day every day. So the shapeshifter had a feeling he wouldn't be alone for long - it was just a matter of who would show up and when.

Being in the costume closet, temporarily alone with his thoughts, made him remember the day he'd done that kid, Lucah's suit fitting. That had been hilarious; he'd basically molested the poor kid (mostly accidentally!) while Callie had watched, presumably oblivious to what was going on and how uncomfortable he was making the pianist. Yeah, that was a good day... he wondered if they would be getting any new performers any time soon so Roger could do a repeat performance of his own.

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie had something of a spring in her step that day. If it were possible, she had a brighter smile on her face. She was more cheerful; more sunshiney. Lucah wasn't around today - or at least, she hadn't seen him around - but that did nothing to quell this girl's buzz. She knew she'd see him again soon, because they were officially together.

She'd gotten the message about a costume fitting, and willing turned up at her allotted time a little early. She really did like Roger. He could be mean, but there was so much more to him than just that! He was a friend, after all. When she turned up, Callie knocked on the door before opening it. "Hellooo~" She called out, not wanting to breeze right in if he was with someone else. "Roger~" She sung out, "Are you here?"

[Roger Vandelay]

Whoever was knocking at the door was a lot more considerate than Roger was; he would've just barged on in, and if someone was half-naked, they could deal with it cuz he was the costume guy. "Come in," he called out in response, still unsure as to which girl was about to enter (hell, there were an awful lot of girls who worked at the House, and most of them were around the same age). Once he heard his name, though, he recognize the voice.

"Callie girl, get on in here," he said, heading over to the door and swinging it wide open. "How've you been, sweetie?" He asked, giving the girl a quick hug and an air kiss. He moved back over to his sewing table after this, quickly finishing up what he'd been doing and tossing it aside. "Ugh, I'm swamped," he murmured. "I love it, though." He liked being busy, especially at the House; he felt like he was part of something spectacular. "So what have you been up to?"

[Calliope Gallo]

When she heard his voice beckoning her inside, Callie paused for what felt like a moment when the door was suddenly opened from the other side. Her bright blue eyes lit up even more when she actually saw him. She reciprocated the hug and the air kiss with ease. "Good! How about you?" She asked, at first wondering if she should have said she was busy. But knowing him, he was more busy. And that would have made her busy feel redundant.

So she offered a little frown when he said he was swamped, but the darkened expression - if you could even call it that on Callie's face - lightened again when he admitted that he loved it.

"Work and school. I failed an English test last week." Callie offered with another small twinge of a frown. "I slept through it, actually. I don't really know how else you fail an English test..." It was a bad thing, and it had annoyed her, but she was all but over it now. And besides, she knew what news he was more likely to care about. Instantly her face changed, a small frown replaced by more of an elated smile than anything else. "So gueeess what happened with me and Lucah?"

[Roger Vandelay]

By the time Callie had entered the costume room - or the 'closet,' as Roger and the other crew members liked to call it - Roger was already back at his table, gathering all of the articles of clothing that still needed sewing: he'd get to them eventually, once he was done catching up with Callie. He got along with just about every dancer at the House, but something about Callie's consistent bubbliness was a perfect counter-point to Roger's sassiness and teenage angst. They were like an odd couple, and Roger didn't usually like chipper people but Callie was an exception.

He raised an eyebrow when the blonde mentioned failing an English test. "Girl, that's your own language," chided, before hearing that she had slept through it. "Oh. Meh, happens." He wasn't exactly the star pupil of Hammel, so he couldn't really judge.

At the mention of Lucah, Roger's lips twitched into a smile. "So you finally did it, huh?" He asked, moving away from the table again and towards the girl. He'd heard that Val had urged Lucah to stop seeing Callie, but he never would have thought he'd actually take her advice. "Girl, I'm proud of you. He was no good anyway. I mean, I kinda felt him up - you were there, I don't think you realized what was going on - and he was nothing special. I mean, look at me, like I'd kick him out of bed, right? But still, you could do so much better." Clearly he had assumed Callie was about to announce that she had broken up with the pianist. What other news could it have been? After all, he knew what he'd heard: nothing happened within the House walls that he didn't find out about.

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie looked at him with clear surprise. Of course, she was completely oblivious to everything that had happened between him and her friends, save for the small touch of insight Chester had offered with his new found ability. But she'd never asked Val. She'd all but forgotten something could have even happened.

"What? No!" She interjected quickly, exhaling on an almost awkward laugh. "Wait, what? You did what?"

She shook her head slightly, as if trying to straighten everything out and get back in order. The day he was talking about jolted back into her memory quickly, and she remembered walking into a seemingly regular situation. Maybe with Roger, it was. "No, I mean we're like, together now." She admitted, looking at him with clear curiosity. "Wow, does everyone hate him or something?"

[Roger Vandelay]

Oops. So, Roger had evidently completely miscalculated that, having assumed that Callie had finally dumped Lucah, when in reality it was exactly the opposite. Of course, he'd already assumed they were together, so he was a little confused as to why she was announcing it like it was news, but perhaps he had miscalculated again. 'Come on, Roger, get it together. You've lost your touch.'

"Oh..." For a moment, the shapeshifter wasn't sure how to respond. He didn't mind Lucah - he had made for an entertaining afternoon, at the very least - and he didn't really know what other people thought about the Romanian other than his friend Val, but his assumption hadn't come from hatred. The cryokinetic was just kind of a jerk to him and he figured the blonde could do better. But now he felt kind of bad, a rare emotion for him to experience, but he didn't want his friend thinking he didn't support her relationship. Roger was often rude - hell, he was a total bitch sometimes - but not to his actual friends.

"No, no, it's not that... I just... thought you had broken up with him and wanted to support you." Eh, could've been better. The irony wasn't lost on him, though, that he was saying he was pretending to be happy for her breakup but was in actuality pretending to be happy for her, well, non-breakup. "Oh, and... yeah. I did that. I mean, it actually wasn't intentional, believe it or not... I mean hey, I'm not complaining or anything, but..." He was blushing a bit, as he was very rarely caught off guard and wasn't really prepared. "That's great though... about you and Lucah."

[Calliope Gallo]

"Yeeaah." Callie dragged out, purposely after his little 'oh'. Now it was a little more than just awkward. And Callie desperately hated feeling awkward. Awkward made her want to bail. Luckily, she stopped herself from looking at the door with such desperation.

She shook her head, suddenly feeling a bit of the pressure Lucah seemed to be suffering from. Where they worked was heavy with gossip, and for the most part Callie stayed away from it. But it wasn't always avoidable. But look, he was blushing. Callie mentally ran through the motions, trying to figure out what would lighten the mood. It wasn't a mood to even be lightened. So Callie reached over and pinched his cheek quickly. No need to blush. "At least you don't hate him." She said with an amused smile. She supposed she could overlook the strange encounter she'd evidently walked in on months ago. "Everyone else seems to. My friend Chester gave me a massive talk about why he was bad for me."

Among other things, anyway. Remembering that conversation just brought up another issue. "But... I have a problem." She admitted, pursing her lips at the mere thought. She wasn't really going to tell him, was she? "I can trust you, right?"

[Roger Vandelay]

Roger's face scrunched up instinctively as Callie pinched his cheek. That was... different. What was he, a small child now? His cheeks were just ripe for the pinching? He couldn't imagine anyone in the world other than Callie who could get away with doing something like that. Anyone else, and he'd already be plotting his revent three-fold. It just wasn't something that was done. Except for when Callie did it.

The name Chester. Now, that name sounded familiar. It took him a moment, but then... "HA!" Yes, Roger knew Chester. Intimately. They'd gone at it one night while Roger had been shifted into a beautiful woman. Chester had found him out, but before then he'd enjoyed making out in the back of a limousine for a while. "Yeah... I don't think you need to worry about him." He was definitely a pompous individual. He was actually sort of surprised Callie was friends with him.

The brunette quirked an eyebrow when Callie suddenly change the subject. "Yeah, of course," he said, nodding his head. Actually, he sort of could be trusted, contrary to popular belief. Callie was the first person he'd told about his little game with Lucah, despite the fact that there had been plenty of opportunities to spill the proverbial beans elsewhere. Callie wasn't a gossip herself, so he would feel weird about spreading anything about her. Other people were totally within limits, though. "What's up?"

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie blinked cluelessly when he laughed. What was he laughing about. Why didn't she need to worry about him? "I'm not worried. He's not as scary as everything thinks." She answered anyway. Oblivious, party of one. Callie loved Chester, but Chester wouldn't love the fact that Callie was calling him not-scary.

"Okay..." Callie breathed a sigh. Her teeth sunk into her lower lip, feeling the pressure of her impending admittance on her shoulders. Glancing up at him, Callie took one final moment before she said anything she might regret. Nope, this was happening. "How... Do you handle being with someone but... Sort of maybe liking someone else too?"

She searched his eyes for some kind of emotion, but she was never really good at reading people. "There's Lucah, right. But... There's this girl."

[Roger Vandelay]

Roger was a bit unsettled by how Callie was acting now. It seemed like she was preparing to say something fairly earth-shattering. He wasn't entirely sure he himself was prepared to hear it. Though it was Callie, what could it possibly be? That she'd cheated on a math test or something?

The shapeshifter shrugged his shoulders at the question, which was somewhat enigmatic but revealing enough. "Meh, it happens," he replied, looking down briefly to get a little more work done. "I mean, what can you do? The heart wants what the heart wants." That was surprisingly sage for someone with Roger's demeanor, but really he knew what it was like to want something and just go for it without even trying to resist. Hell, it was why he'd seduced his own roommate disguised as his roommate's engaged crush.

Heh. Good times.

At the mention of a girl, though, Roger looked back up. It never occurred to him that Callie might be bisexual. Of course, he wouldn't have cared either way, but the thought just didn't exist in his mind. So when the blonde mentioned a girl, Roger just assumed she was talking about Lucah. The whole 'other woman' thing he heard about so often. "Girl? What girl?" He asked, walking back around the table towards his friend. "Is Lucah cheating on you? I will kill him. I will... pay someone to kill him."

When it came to being oblivious, Callie had a true companion in Roger.

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie looked at him with surprise. It happened? Really? That made her feel a little more at ease about it. Still, it was the kind of thing that gnawed at her conscious. The concept of the heart wanting what it wanted wasn't lost on her either.

"What?" She asked instantly, surprise colouring her bright eyes. "No, no way. Lucah's not like that, trust me."

How could he be? He'd been so hurt by that before, Callie knew he'd never do that to another person. It was one of the reasons why she'd been so nervous about agreeing to be exclusive in the first place. She didn't have that same trust in herself. "I mean me. I really like this girl." She paused, unsure if she should keep explaining herself at that point. It didn't feel safe. "Her name's Penelope and she... She's beautiful, and... And Chester says she has a really bad reputation, but that doesn't even matter." She shook her head. The memory of Chester's berating behaviour should have been distant by now.

"She's genuine. With me, I mean. She's honest." Instinctively, her thoughts travelled to the night of the Retreat. She leaned down onto the counter, pressing her face into her arm. "And she's really hot."

[Roger Vandelay]

"Oh..." It took Roger a moment to realize what exactly she'd meant then if she wasn't talking about Lucah, and the words were coming out of Callie's mouth just as they were forming in Roger's mind. He scarcely had time to process that, though, before the blonde mentioned said girl's name.

Penelope? Not Lopez... was it? That would just be too much of a coincidence. Unless Callie had come to him about this before she knew they were friends. That might make sense. Honestly he was too shell-shocked to make sense of anything at the moment.

Bad reputation, huh? Yeah, it was definitely Penelope Lopez. He wasn't sure whether he should mention their connection, in case she didn't know and it would make things awkward. "Listen, honey," he said, shifting his weight onto his right hip and folding his arms across his torso loosely. "If people with bad reps were never given a chance, then that spells bad luck for me." He chuckled. "From what I know about Chester, he has his own reputation to worry about. "Did you know he hooked up with a tranny?" This was, of course, a totally insensitive word to use, but he was referring to himself, so he figured it was okay. If he wasn't offended, nobody else could be.

He laughed out loud, briefly but definitely loudly, when Callie called Penelope hot. "Sorry, it's just... weird hearing you say that." He shook his head. "Listen, I actually know her," he added, "guess I shoulda led with that. She's fine. I mean... we have bitch and booze sessions, it's fun." What he was trying to accomplish by saying that, he wasn't sure, but he felt the need to mention their connection at this point. "Well, like... if I forced you to say right now which one of them you're more into, who would it be?"

[Calliope Gallo]

Callie took the small sound he offered on the chin. It felt more judgmental than it probably was, but he said she could trust him. She had to trust that she could.

She peeked over her arm at him when he told her to listen. And she did, as attentively as her mind abled her to. She scarcely let a soul talk down about Chester - he was important in his own way - but she let it go for the greater good in that moment. Still, she managed to laugh at the apparent news of her childhood friends choice in companions.

And a splash of crimson coloured her cheeks when he said he knew her. That just made things all the more embarrassing. "Oh, sorry... I didn't even think about that." Hopefully it wasn't about to get more awkward.

But the question. She spent as little time as she could musing over the answer.

"Lucah." She admitted, but she did sound a little hesitant. "Except, it's like he's scared of me, or something." With that, she ducked her head down again, resting her forehead against her arm and staring at the desk. This was embarrassing. "He's just really cautious. Like, all the time. It drives me crazy." Given that she got enough of the overprotective vibe from her brothers. "Maybe it's that thing... Wanting what you can't have?"

[Roger Vandelay]

Roger took a moment to hop up onto his sewing table, legs dangling over the side as he pondered what Callie had just said. It was ironic that Lucah was afraid of Callie, given that he would have expected it to be the other way around. Lucah, at least in the shapeshifter's own experiences, was very standoffish. He was cold and distant, and according to the few people he'd spoken to about the Romanian, his first impression had been largely accurate. He still didn't quite get why Callie would choose to be with him, but he was cute, and at their age that was a pretty big factor.

"Yeah, I mean..." He paused for a moment, aware of the fact he was about to say something kind and not particularly proud of that, "it's like, Lucah got you first so it's only fair to let him have his chance, you know?" Roger could be quite a bitch, but at least he wasn't genuinely a mean person; he knew right from wrong, he just usually chose to blur the distinction. "Have you tried telling him?" He wasn't even sure that was good advice, but what did he know about relationships? That could potentially make for a hot threesome, at any rate.

Hey, he was still Roger.