[OPEN] a shade of an angel born

[badcoverband]

Who: badcoverband & you!
When: OOC: 8/23
Where: Outside Niteo, OR inside the CERES game center, OR the Entertainment District shrine, OR your own choice!
What: Kara's return after death and a canon update has her confused more than ever. But she's keeping busy...
Rating/Warning: None for now.

---

[Kara has to be honest with herself. Sitting through the presentation a second time upon her return from canon update brief disappearance of three days, she's had enough of the disorientation she experiences now. Her mind's filled with colors and galaxies and star patterns, and she'd returned to find herself under deep suspicion...and now she's back here again? And now there's a strange glow about her, almost undetectable but undeniably there.

Well, at least she won't find herself under threat of airlock...well, hopefully. Even if she did, wouldn't she just come back? Something...some kind of weird emptiness inside her is different, like she can't reach a part of herself that would make her feel normal again. (Whatever the hell "normal" is.)

There are only a few ways of handling this situation.]

--
scene i.

[Kara takes a trip to the CERES marketplace, armed with her pay card and a picture in her head she needs to get out before she loses it. Some picture that makes her feel closer to her goal, to the destination she'd been trying to reach before she was plucked out again and reshuffled into the mix. It's Earth, actual Earth, the one she's stood on before -- she's sure of it, and she's got to get that star system from her mind to reality.

So she buys twelve cans of paint, sixteen different brushes, a small table, and jars for paint water, and heads to the Entertainment District. She picks one of the blank walls of her very own workplace, Niteo, and begins. Her manager might say something, but since when has that ever stopped Kara Thrace?]

Hey. Isn't that vandalizing?

[She's into her painting but not enough to ignore the voice behind her. She rolls her eyes. Here we go, some kind of BS she doesn't have the energy to deal with. Can't they see she's busy?]
--
scene ii.

[Kara's tired of obsessively thinking about it so she takes a break from painting, covered in various colors, and decides a game of pool and a beer is exactly what she needs. So she heads not to Niteo, but for the CERES game center.

Three beers and the same amount of pool matches later, she has more than the recommended amount of alcohol (but, strangely, she can hold it better than before). When she perceives someone as starting Some Shit™ a.k.a. someone talking about her game, she turns around and decks them right in the face*. (*Or! you can choose for her to break the pool stick over your head! Choose your own adventure~)]
---
scene iii.

[She finds herself wandering on one of her breaks at Niteo she intentionally takes an extra twenty minutes for, when she discovers the little shrine. She enters, feeling oddly out of place, but pulls out the two figures she has, little ones of Aphrodite and Artemis and kneels. She stares and wonders if they're the ones who guided her. Candles flicker over her and she sighs, feeling lost more than ever.

It figures that when she finally knows where Earth is, almost everything in the universe is working against the Fleet and her.]

Lords of Kobol...I don't even know if I should pray to them anymore...
---
scene iv.

Wild card - choose your own adventure!

Comments

[fishyoldman]

What, are you gonna sparkle at 'em until they cough up?

[He lightly teases, taking the Cerevice as she shoves it back at him, switching it off and pocketing it.]

Is this kinda thing normal in your world? 'Cause in my world, people only get all glowy and stuff if they're castin' a magic arte.

[badcoverband]

I should. Or maybe it just enhances my natural charm. [She scoffs ("charm") before she gulps down some of the second bottle of sake she'd gotten.]

Wouldn't know. Don't think I ever met a human who died and came back to find out. The ones that died and came back had the technology...they weren't really human in the traditional sense.

Casting magic artes sounds like something out of one of our fairytales. That stuff actually happens where you're from?

[Somewhere, deep in the back of her mind, is a voice that says "don't ask" but she's too boozed up not to:]

Is that how you're - sorry, the 'guy you know' - here?

[fishyoldman]

Huh? [It takes him a second to pick up on what she's asking -- or he's deliberately playing dumb to buy himself a little time while he thinks of how to answer.] Oh, uh... I'll tell you how I'm here when we're somewhere a little more private.

[He didn't want to get into all that stuff with Kara and make it more complicated than it needed to be. But now it's something they have in common, he can't exactly hide it forever and pretend he doesn't know what it feels like.]

As for castin' magic artes, we have technology called blastia that converts aer into magical energy. The more we use bodhi blastia in battle, our artes get more powerful and we learn more. It's kind of a mixture of energy from the aer and a person's inner potential, so everyone's artes are different.

My specialty's wind artes -- they'll blow ya away if you see 'em!

[Ba dum tssh.]

[badcoverband]

Sounds like an elaborate ruse to get me alone.

[She manages a wink, feeling better by the minute. Maybe it's the booze, maybe it's his silliness. Maybe it's knowing she's not alone in these first few days of total confusion.]

You don't hafta, though. I don't even know how I'm here so it's not like I can offer anything in return. I know you like to keep your mysterious old man persona strong too.

[She took what should be her final swill of sake and puts it aside as well. Things have changed already in such a short time. Still, she listens and snorts at the end.]

That sounds real frakkin' useful, actually. We don't have that kinda magic, or any that anyone would consider traditional magic. [She deadpans at his "joke."]

Not before I blow you away, hot stuff.

[Her tone isn't as playful as it usually is, even with him.]

[fishyoldman]

Heh, do ya know me so well already?

[It's not that he cares so much about his self-image so much as how useful it is at keeping others away. Maybe it's for the best to get away with not telling. Kara has her own problems without adding his own to the pile.]

Ya can blow me any way ya like, but at least try ta sound a little less like a downer when you say it. [He punches her lightly on the shoulder. Not sexy, Kara.]

[badcoverband]

[She narrows her eyes and punches him back.]

Do I know you that well already? You and all your secrets...

[But he's right. Even she's tired of being a downer about the whole thing. She's back, somewhere inside her is the way to Earth, and that's enough reason to keep functioning, right?

So she leans close, entwines her fingers in his hair, and smiles against his ear when she murmurs:]

This any better, old man?

[fishyoldman]

Ah, yeah, that's more like it.

[He shifts to make himself comfortable, putting an arm around her shoulders companionably. Then he closes his eyes, enjoying the feel of her fingers in his hair.]

You seem to be pretty into the secrets, so maybe it's better we stay that way.

[badcoverband]

I don't know...you know a pretty big secret of mine. I don't think it's fair not to get at least one of yours.

[Her voice comes out low and her eyes are hooded. Distractions sound good, even if she isn't gonna let him off the hook forever.]

So gimme a good one, if you got it.

[fishyoldman]

I thought I already told ya one. Y'know, about that guy I know...

[He cracks open an eye lazily, watching her out of the corner of his eye. Well, if she's going to be all cute like that, maybe he can manage another.]

All right, listen up. Once upon a time, a younger but equally dashing Raven was a soldier in the Great War.

[badcoverband]

[If there's one thing Kara's learned just from being herself, it's that you can't judge a book by its cover. She is far from the perfect soldier, but to imagine Raven as one? Incredible.

It's a nice added dimension to Raven. She doesn't want to Get Too Vulnerable in front of him, either, but it's nice to know there's more to him. (Not that she's been dissatisfied so far.)]

That guy you know who totally isn't you...right, I guess that halfway counts.

[She widens her grin when he looks at her.]

So that's why calling me Captain and following orders came so easy to you. Hell, now that I know that I'll really boss you around.

[fishyoldman]

H-hey, old Raven's military days are long gone...!

[He couldn't deny that was at least part of the reason, though; she had the right of it. Yet it isn't the whole truth, and he's still not sure how much he'll ever tell. Old habits dying hard, and all that.

Despite his whining, he slips his arm down from around her shoulders to her waist, fingers splayed lightly on her stomach.]

You better be real nice to me, because that's the only kinda boss I'll take orders from these days.

[badcoverband]

Yeah, I can tell. You slouch too much, you need some push-ups to get you back in shape.

[She winks because who the hell is she to talk about slouching? But goosebumps crop up on her skin where his hand moves and settles even over her clothes - but it doesn't keep her from jabbing him in the chest with her index finger.]

I don't know if I can keep being nice. I mean, you already get discount drinks...a girl's got a limit, y'know.

[Then she smirks - her favorite pastime.]

And let's be real. You'd take orders from me no matter what.

[fishyoldman]

[Raven barks out a laugh.] Yeah, maybe this city's gotten me outta shape too...

[Not that it'll ever stop the slouching. The amusement doesn't last long when she pokes him in the chest, though.]

You're gettin' a little too into this orderin' thing. I dunno what kinda extremes you might be plannin' to take it to. [Is he morbidly curious? Maybe so. Especially if the hand on her stomach starting to wander upwards is any indication. Someone's getting a little handsy...] Kinda makes me wanna find out, though.

fifty shades of g-raven

[badcoverband]

No no, I get it. Hitting on women instead of exercising will do that to you.

[Again with the hypocrisy. And why does she put up with him again? Well, besides the obvious. Her face feels flushed and she feels her heart beat faster - well, or whatever's in there, she's afraid to think about it - so at least those things haven't changed. Thirst level, or whatever it is.]

Not into BDSM, if that's what you're thinking. But, if you wanna test your limits - [with one hand she grabs his wrist, stopping his movement even while she slides her other hand up his thigh with a grin. she can get handsy too.] - I won't say I wouldn't enjoy an excuse to take control.

ravens have only one shade and that's black smh

[fishyoldman]

[Raven tenses when she grabs his wrist and that hand goes to his thigh, and he makes a show of looking alarmed.]

Bee-dee what now? [...Even if he's spent a lot of time in the Pleasure District since getting here, it's not a term he's familiar with. Old people are lame like that.]

O-or maybe I'll take it back... You always get kinda scary when you're like this, y'know...

[Like most things with Raven, his alarm is pretty much feigned; he's happy to play along with what she might have in mind.]

[badcoverband]

[Is he...serious... Well, whether he is or not, she purses her lips and arches an eyebrow at his big show of being a dummy.]

You saying Raven the Great's scared of little ol' me? Huh. I might make you do fifty push-ups in that case.

[She half-smiles and lets go of his wrist to play with his hair. It's more fidgeting than flirting, but she'll pass it off as the second. Her other hand is still sitting pretty on his thigh, and she leans in, stopping just short of their noses touching, her eyes locked with his. Her voice is low and deliberate.]

I wanna know if everything feels different. Y'know...being dead and all.

[She thinks if she says it enough she'll believe it. Sure things feel off but...really?]

[fishyoldman]

Hmmm... How's threatenin' me with push-ups supposed to make you less scary?

[His thigh's still tense in anticipation of what she might do next. But then, the playing with his hair is pretty relaxing. As she moves so their faces are nearly touching, he eyes her with a lazy, half-lidded expression.]

I dunno... for me some things are the same, some things are different, so... [He's old and tired now, and sometimes his heart hurts, and sometimes he thinks he only cares about sex because there are long stretches of time where he simply hasn't felt anything. Still... He reaches up to cup Kara's cheek in his hand.] I think I can help ya find out for yerself, darlin'.

[Then he kisses her. Might as well start somewhere, right?]

[badcoverband]

Because apparently you like scary girls...or any girl who will pay you attention.

[She smirks, even though she's almost nervous. What the frak? This is not something she gets nervous about - but then again, she hasn't ever had a major life ("life") change this big before, either.

Her eyes flutter shut for half a second when he touches her face and she laughs with an "ain't that sweet of you" - but her fingers curl around a fistful of his shirt the second he kisses her. Her other hand slides from his thigh up his side, finally to curl her arm around his shoulders.

(She might as well have let him feel her up a second ago since that's the inevitable fate anyway.)

But she still feels a little far off, even as she parts her lips to deepen the kiss. This is the time for taking charge of her own destiny after all, or something. And if that means taking charge here too, well, she knows he doesn't mind.]