fandomhigh | Adulting 101- Monday- 2nd period

Maybe having a baby a couple months ago saved Kitty from the weirdness. If so, thank you, island. She was very grateful to be standing here in the Danger Shop, totally fresh from a weekend at her proper size.

"Welcome back, hopefully everyone's where they need to be today," she said, preeeeetty sure it was normal today? Hopefully? "Today we're talking about apartments. Once you move out of the dorms, you have to figure out a living situation. In Fandom it's pretty easy. You don't have as much selection as you would on the outside, but if you're working here that probably doesn't matter to you. Or maybe you're lucky enough to be able to live with family or friends while you figure things out and save money, but for the rest of us, it's time to look elsewhere. You have options. You can find a roommate and split costs to save money, or you can strike out on your own, which is more expensive but means you get privacy. Today we're going to visit a few places, just to let you see what's out there, and you're going to get to figure out what you want in a place. Like I would need at least two bedrooms, it'd have to take dogs and dragons, or at least dragons that look like cats if you put an image inducer on them, and I'd need room for a baby who's going to be mobile before I know it. Just know that you can want a lot of things, but unless you've got the money to back it all up, you'll have to make some concessions. Especially in an area like this, where the prices have apparently gone up since the last time I did this class." Seriously. It was kinda scary. "So before we go in, we're going to go around and you'll tell me what you must have in a place."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Like you've seen either the best or worst apartment.

Norman Babcock

Astrid Magnussen

What do you want in a place?

"I mean... I've been living in the dorms for a while now and that's been working for me," Norman noted. "I don't have any pets, and I probably won't. Ever."

Unless that three-headed dog at the Magic Box ended up coming home with him.

That'd be fun to explain to a future landlord.

Or do his dad.

"So I guess I really just need space for my stuff."

The apartment in Hollywood was easily the one place Astrid had lived the longest, and they hadn't even had that for that long before....everything happened. And everywhere she'd ever lived, she'd mostly lived there because...that's what was available. It was wherever Ingrid could find a free room. It was wherever social services assigned her. It was wherever the wind carried there or wherever the case worker decided would fit.

And the idea of living by herself, alone, without anyone, not even a roommate...mildly terrified her in ways she couldn't quite understand.

"I mean, as long as there's a roof over my head," she shrugged, "I really can't complain. I guess I wouldn't want something that has rats or something, if that could be avoided."

Which was the...reasonable response, when the truthful response required something (her mother) that might never happen again or something (an outdoor pool) that just sounded...frivilous and stupid.

The first place was... interesting. That was a lot of wood paneling, folks.

"This place is $750, in Lexington Park, just over the causeway. It's a small building, no bells and whistles at all aside from laundry facilities, and it's only 330 feet. How this isn't a studio, I don't know. If you can deal with something like this, and all you care about is the price, maybe this is someplace you could deal with."

Sure.

Was it bad that Norman figured this kind of worked for him?

Because... at that price, and given he didn't really want roommates and he was already well on his way to being a crazy hermit - it kind of ran in the family - this... kind of worked for him.

Yeah, some of these kids were not hard to please at all. Astrid took one step in, looked around at all that wood paneling, and was...kind of in love.

It felt just like the place she and her mother would live in for a while, really.

"I'll take it," she said, grinning faintly, although, no, seriously, even the fact that it was set over a store in a strip mall had a weird homey appeal to her. SHe could absolutely live here, with Ingrid, once she got out of prison, and listen to her complain about that wood paneling for hours on end.

On to the second, much nicer place.

"This is nicer, and also more expensive, at $1125 a month," Kitty said. "But for that price you get 720 feet of space, a washer and dryer in your unit, you get a patio, access to facilities like the fitness center and picnic areas."

On the one hand, this place had a pool, and it was really nice, but it didn't have...any of that homey charm that she'd found in the first one. It felt like a hotel, but not like the ones they stayed at in Amsterdam, in Paris, the one that Eduardo had owned where they remained after the season had passed until cats took over the place and the hurricane weather drove them out. Clean, austere, impersonal.

...but that pool...

The third was higher end, and more modern?

"This is in Baltimore, a one-bedroom for $1300. It's 678 square feet, and you're in a city with more around you, but while you can get to things like their gym, you don't get the patio or other perks you would at the last place. You do get a washer/dryer hookup, but you'd have to come up with your own, and there's no laundry on site."

This one was an interesting mix between the austereness of the last one with at least some attempts at the rusticness of that first with the cabinets. Astrid could live with those, though she didn't like them as much. She did like the building, though, it felt a little European in its style and design, she liked the more modern pop-art-esque feel to it and what felt like an almost clashing of styles. It felt...bohemiam, but modern, and she could definitely see herself, a struggling artist barely making rent, trekking down to the closest laundromat with a garbage bag of clothes, sketching spin cycles for hours.

And by herself, too, which struck her as odd. This place seemed to make the prospect that she was probably going to be on her own after she graduated a little more...palatable. It was the kind of place she thought Ingrid would approve of and be proud of her for maintaining, where she could come and stay with her if it weren't for prison.

The last place was bigger and nicer than the first, but smaller than the last two.

"Lastly, here we have a studio in Baltimore, which means you don't get a bedroom. Your bed will be in the living or dining room area, you get a smaller kitchen and bathroom, but you have everything you need. If you're on a tight budget and live alone, this could work for you. It's $900 a month, and 412 feet."

This one looked way too much like the short term homes she'd stayed at in California on the outside, but then back to that hotel feel on the inside, both easily points against it, though the price, she supposed, since she'd have to think about things like that, didn't seem too bad. She could definitely live here if she had to, but it probably wouldn't be the one she'd choose.

And there was a crazy thought. All it took was one class, and here she was talking about having a choice in these things. Remembering that, some day soon (three years didn't seem that long all of a sudden), she wouldn't have a choice in the matter of having to choose, and that...

...well, three years hopefully wouldn't be so short that she couldn't start getitng used to the idea.

Who's grateful for Fandom real estate, and for having a boyfriend-turned-husband who came with a house.

Let me tell you how fun apartment shopping/moving is not in the winter.

Adulting 101- Monday- 2nd period

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