2.3/ closed/ i'm running out of time; keep stepping out of light

[dedikated]

Who: Kate / Carlisle & Glacius / Brennan / Richie & Eddie / Atem / Whistler / Bianca / Cecily
What: A Lot. November shenanigans, kill-list fallout, first meetings...
Where: Spire 2, Spire 3, The Clinic, The Speakeasy
When: All through the month
Warnings: Nothing at the moment!

( please look to comments for starters! )

Comments

brennan/ but these little bones can't help to feel alone

[dedikated]

( In the wake of The Null's announcement, Kate stays longer hours at the clinic - stops going for walks on her breaks, foregoes the small pieces of relaxation that she'd begun to enjoy for something older and familiar. Ceaseless work. Constantly keeping her eyes open at the sight of visitors, just in case.

Just in case, just in case, just in case.

The uncertainty is maddening, worse than the threat itself. She checks rooms in the morning with extra diligence, for unfamiliar faces or things out of place, and there's always a hitch of breath, a moment of what if that never comes true.

This morning, she's cupping her hands around a cup of coffee from the coffee cart, eyeing the documents on the office desk warily. Ah, for those moments only a few weeks ago where their organisation was a chore of boredom, not one laced with the wonder of what if there's a trap. Then the twitch of her ears as a noise catches her from the corridor. )

Who's there?

[notimpervious]

[Brennan is not thinking about whether or not she may frighten someone. She is also not too concerned about being on the Null's hitlist. In fact, she has decided she is not likely to be murdered in exchange for the weapon, so she goes about her days as if nothing has changed following the Null's announcement.]

Dr. Temperance Brennan, [she announces in response to Kate, as she steps into view.

As she steps into view looking quite pleased with herself, actually.]

Hello, fellow person on the Null's list. That is not why I am here, but it is an appropriate greeting, since I am in fact on the list, although I was not on it to begin with, like you were.

[dedikated]

( It's just Brennan.

Lord. The uncertainty is going to kill someone before an actual assassination attempt does. She gets what Sweets and Rosen were concerned about now. Everyone seems like they could be a threat, and while Kate might be able to control herself well enough-

Not everyone has that training. )

Y'got yourself put on it?

( She's seen the list on the network, and even the edits, but hasn't really considered how people managed to do that. )

[notimpervious]

[Yes, it is just Brennan, who does not share your apprehension and anxiety over the matter in the least, Kate. Nor does she sense yours. What is reading body language, what is catching social cues. Things that Sweets is skilled at, not her.]

Yes. [She almost beams.] They took issue with being told in no uncertain terms that genocide is not the answer to their problems with our abductors.

carlisle & glacius/ so every time the beat try to hold me back

[dedikated]

Hey.

( That's the greeting any person would give to their friend on being put on a kill list and dragged into staying with them for a yet-to-be determined length of time, right?

No?

Well, it's going to be now. Kate raises her hand in a lazy wave to Carlisle as she lets the door swing closed behind her, as though this was nothing more than a social visit. As though there's nothing to be afraid of and this is just a way to kill time. )

[tongueamok]

Kate.

[He knows this isn't a social visit. Glacius told him that this would not be a social visit. Glacius insisted it was for her safety. Carlisle is her friend. He cares, does he not?

He hasn't figured that out yet. He tries to pass it off as nothing to be concerned about, but his uncertainty is tight in his brow.]

Do you need something?

[Asked with the exact tone of someone who already knows what the answer is, but wants to hear it from her.]

[dedikated]

( Really, Carlisle? Kate's arms fold, tilting her head back to look him in the eyes, clearly unimpressed. )

You forget I were crashin' on the couch or summat?

( She knows Glacius will have said something. That's just who he is. )

cecily/ i feel it coming on with a strong alcoholic attack

[dedikated]

( The Speakeasy isn't Delight's Bar, it doesn't have the same lingering joy that came with the old building. It's smaller, subdued, and closer to theirs.

Some days, Kate wonders if some idiot will try and blow this one up too. The one thing that makes all the bullshit easier.

But for tonight, she has a glass in hand and the company of a friend. )

How's it feel, bein' wanted?

( A friend who managed her own place on the list that has them all looking over their shoulders. She tilts her glass towards Cecily's in a mock toast. Should they feel proud that The Null are so threatened by their very existence? It often feels surreal to consider that their lives have come to this - to a strange city on planets not their own, being chased and wanted dead for...

Relatively little, really. )

[closerift]

I have to say, as this isn't the first time someone's been after me, it does tend to lose its charm.

[ She knows that many assassination attempts had been silenced without her even knowing (thank you, Leliana), but she can guess that they existed all the same. ]

The tallest abomination of a person ever wanted badly to destroy me. [ Cecily says lightly, wine swirling around her glass. ] After that, the Null are almost adorable.

[dedikated]

( Kate's not oblivious enough to think that no one else has wanted to kill her over the years. Whether it's people who wanted Agents dead or the groups later who (rightly) blamed each of them for the mess things became.

She can't quite claim any story as interesting as that, though. )

Haven't seen them. Could be biggest ones yet.

( She hopes not. But sod's law etc. )

richie & eddie/ won't you tell me what's going on?

[dedikated]

( Some days - okay, a lot of days - the routine of Hadriel gets stale. Wake up, go to work, work out, drink and fall asleep. A city half-destroyed without enough people to provide the variety a city would means that after a while, you're going in circles, seeing the same things and places.

But there's always friends. Friends who are capable cooks willing to open their doors for an evening.

And that's the story of why and how Kate ends up walking the stairs of spire three, a bag of groceries in her arms, and therefore the story of how she ends up dodging a blur of adolescent energy that's barrelling down said stairs. )

Watch it- ( Good grief, child, you'll break your neck. )

[trashmouths]

--And that's why I sleep with your mother-- [ Richie is not paying attention. Richie is never paying attention, not really, so that's no different from this-or-that, but right now, Richie is absolutely not paying attention, because as he's running forward with all the energy a 13 year old has, he's also looking back at the person chasing him. Running forward and looking the opposite direction is a good recipe for disaster, especially when there's a girl with groceries walking towards the apartment they've exited.

The result?

Richie looks ahead of things just in time to plow into the girl, glasses-to-groceries, and fall unceremoniously on his ass.

Careful Eddie, or you'll wind up in a heap too! ]

[multivitamins]

— no you don't, knock it off — [ Running and having a full blow argument seems to be a thing these days and no small feat for someone with asthma, the kind that drives aforementioned mother to shriek about how delicate her son and his illness is. It's certainly not stopping Eddie right now from tearing after Richie. Having to stay in close living quarters with the other kid is a whole new lesson in patience that Eddie seems to be slowly failing. There's only so many mom jokes someone can take.

He only just notices Kate at the same time as Richie does, doing his best to skid to a stop and doing nothing but colliding with his friend and landing in a lump on the ground.

Okay now? Now is the time to try and catch his breath on the floor, one hand automatically digging through his pocket as he tries to grab his inhaler.] Richie you are such an asshole, you know that. Did we bump into someone?

[ Rhetorical questions at their best, Eddie glances up and over towards Kate, briefly wondering how murdered they're about to be on a scale of one to dead.]

atem/ i was unafraid to start a fire

[dedikated]

( The clinic beds are rarely full, but often dotted with those who manage to get in over their heads, whether from events or the caves, or - in the worst cases - other residents. She can't know the story behind every person who ends up staying the night, since her own abilities are nothing more than first aid and power related, and the kid who sleeps in one of the makeshift wards is no different in this regard.

Apart from the fact that the sight of him brings back flashes of a dragon all too powerful to be wholly real.

She clears her throat as she steps in the room, face carefully neutral as she approaches. )

How're you feelin'?

[puzzlingly]

「Hey, he remembers her, weird dreams she's got... Well, he's not that sure if it did happen or if it was just a dream but whatever; he's also seen her around the clinic doing... stuff, barely ever looking this way to which in all honestly, has been welcoming so far, he's got enough to deal with Law being a pain (just doing his job, he knows, he knows...). But she approaches and here comes the dreadful question, he knows it—and there it is!」

Like I should be in a sarcophagus.

[dedikated]

Hope'd just bring you back.

( Ah, Hadriel. That concept will never stop being strange. Though it's just another reminder of that dream - of the real events which preceded it all that time ago. It feels like another life, but still the ghosts seem to hang around.

Another threat brought back to mind with the threat of The Null looming, their list of people they want dead.

Kate shakes a loose piece of hair that's faded from pink to blonde - doesn't she wish she could have kept that part of the dream - out of her face and glances over the kid. He doesn't seem like anything's about to go to hell, just as though his body is slowly repairing itself.

Which is all they can ask for. )

What's your name, anyway?

whistler/ i was just afraid of the fall

[dedikated]

( The few flights of stairs between her place and Glacius' means Kate doesn't really need to drag her things with her. She takes the distance as a little bit of extra exercise and comes back to shower, to change clothes, to check that no one's come along and set fire to her place. And today, like any other day, is no different. Her flat remains undisturbed and she picks out clothes for the morning from a pile of clean pieces tossed haphazardly over the couch.

She holds a cup of tea in hand as she locks up, its balance precarious in her fingers. )

Shi-

( There's a moment where her keys clatter together loudly as she saves the contents of her cup from meeting the floor, commotion just loud enough that it might attract the attention of a neighbour. )

[whistlewhilstyouwork]

[Whistler had been eating when the distinctly sharp sound of something metal being dropped makes his shoulders jump. Its far enough away so he doesn't jump dramatically, but still close enough to be unpleasant, jaw locking in place and nose wrinkling unhappily.

By the sound of it, what had been dropped had been several smaller metallic somethings. Keys. 90% likely that it was keys. Particularly so as he had just heard his neighbor's door shut.

Now that he thought about it though, he'd never made contact with his neighbor. He knew her by her voice, by the weight of her footfalls on the staircase. The occasional curse word he overheard in passing outside his door, perhaps when she was on the phone. So in many ways Whistler feels like he has met her.

But technically he hasn't. So maybe it was time to change that. Or at least have a bit of fun.

In small curious steps he comes to his own door, pressing his ear against it and smirking to himself]

Didn't break anything, did you?

[He calls through the wood teasingly]

[dedikated]

( Oh.

So she does have a neighbour. Who knows when that happened. Maybe she's always had one and never known it. How long did it take her to realise that Carlisle was her neighbour the first time around? Kate drains some of her tea from the mug before bending down to sweep her keys back into her grasp before she deigns to do anything about responding.

And responding, obviously, is best done by stepping over and rapping her knuckles on the door. Right? That's what people do, isn't it? )

There a reason you can't open th' door?

( Kate das rude. )

bianca/ i'm not afraid any more

[dedikated]

( They could meet at the clinic, but one doesn't simply meet Bianca at the clinic unless she's been shot and needs treatment. No, of course not. It's much more fitting that they meet where alcohol is served and talk. It's been far too long and with everything going on, Kate finds herself more and more inclined to know the standings and opinions of the people she calls friends.

She's already argued with Glacius about their situation, and Bianca…

Bianca is Bianca. Quick, clever and charismatic. The same woman who learned what Sharon did and masterminded them into a worse situation.

She could be planning anything. But Kate's almost certain she's planning something. )

What're we drinking?

( But first. Priorities. )

[wormintheglass]

Bianca sweeps in, her head high. She always pauses, when she enters a room; pauses as if for applause, and although the pause is infinitesimal, someone watching closely might see the ever-reapeating flash of wry disappointment in her eyes when her applause continues not to happen.

But they light up again, bird-black and wicked, when she sees Kate.

"Darling. I'll have what you're having. As long as you're having tequila. Has anyone tried to collect your head for the bounty yet?"

[dedikated]

One day, Bianca. One day, perhaps the applause will come. Maybe you need to return to singing for the city. Who knows. Kate simply waits for the woman to be seated before gesturing for two drinks.

"You know me," she comments with a shrug. Of course it's tequila. Or beer. Occasionally wine if she's just hanging out with a friend. But tequila is the front-runner when, as one says, her head has a bounty on it.

"Not yet. You thinking of trying?" It's said lightly, but doubt will linger for a long time after this. Always wondering if contacting a friend might lead to a nasty surprise.

ignis/ take a little part of me for everyone to see

[dedikated]

( The offer itself is simple enough that she decides to text it - Coffee? - despite the wariness recent events have instilled with regards to the network. Simple enough to meet outside the Colosseum one evening after they're both done with anything that needs doing. Kate shakes the smell of the Clinic out of her hair and ties it back up as she walks the short distance from there to the Colosseum.

Perhaps it's some leftover emotion from Tranquility's little ideal city all those months ago, or something she can't quite name, but spending time with Ignis has become commonplace, comfortable. He's already proven himself trustworthy, and at this time, that is worth the weight of a thousand pieces of gold. )

Ready?

[claritatis]

[It isn't an invitation he'd take from just anyone.

Ignis is in the Guard HQ when he gets the message, texting back a quick 'Certainly' before he goes back to firmly letting Henry know that he is not going to provide any more meals for the Guard than he is already. He simply doesn't have that kind of time, no matter how much they enjoy it.

Spending time with Kate has become something he finds himself looking forward to. It fills at least a part of that space left by the absence of his lifelong friends. He takes the walk to the Colosseum briskly, and arrives not long after she does.]

As I'll ever be. [A smile. They come more easily around her these days.] But I should warn you, I take coffee very seriously.

[dedikated]

( She looks up at him, flickers of amusement traced over her face at that comment and the smile that accompanies his greeting. For all the time they've spent together since arriving here, she's never actually known that.

But some days, even Kate wants a drink that doesn't have a percentage tacked on the label. So coffee it is. )

So'd the people who set up the cart.

( She remembers Emily's ranting fondly, their morning chats in the clinic which so often turned to venting and gossip. The girl's long gone by now - to a world Kate only vaguely remembers as being not much better than Hadriel itself - but her presence is still felt in the cart, and the sewing shop. )

You visited any of the temples before?

( It was better when it was at Delight's Bar, true, but that no longer exists. )