Depressed

[Dane Gregory]

Bored. Dane was bloody bored. He sat inside a restaurant in downtown, pressed against the window, wishing he hadn't left Mexico. He hadn't seen Aria in weeks, but that wasn't to say that she hadn't seen him. He was trying to stay away from her, but the woman was worse than a drug. He was addicted and couldn't get another hit. Worse yet, he wanted to kill her every time he thought about her, but the problem was he could only kill her once. She would be gone forever then, completely out of reach, unless he kept the body around somewhere. It would turn rotten eventually, smell and decay. Unless there was a way to preserve her using the power. Actually, that wasn't a bad idea. How, though? He needed to practice. To work it out.

He pulled out a map from his Wallet and searched for the nearest pet shop.

[Ilesha]

She'd been in Moscow longer than she had anticipated. It was such a large place and there was a reason to stay, but she wasn't sure what to do about it. Witches, and magic. Walking the streets of the city made her feel at home. It wasn't New York, but it still felt more at home than her hotel room.

She felt like she'd been walking for hours. The crowds were everywhere, and she had passed the monument the Ascendancy had made many times marveling at the execution and engineering that was accomplished with the power she wielded yet it wasn't there for her to examine. She hated that. She hated not knowing what was going on.

The crowd was not particularly thick along this street. Men and women were walking by quickly minding their own business. It didn't matter they were Russian it was still home. A man walked past her and when he did so he started to run with her purse that she'd slung over her shoulder. The thin strap snapped and the theif was running with her belongings.

The man in a gray track suit ran past a man in a tweed jacket and hat almost toppling him. Ilesha called out, "Hey. Stop. That's mine!"
She extended her hand and it was only a second thought when she saw the earth pulling up from the ground in front of her and forming a solid wall that the thief ran head long into... What the hell? Ilesha knew she'd done it, but she didn't know she could do that. She just felt the need to stop him and it happened...

[Thalia]

The world had pivoted, and everything was different. Not that she wasn't still petrified (she was, every single moment she dwelt too long on the thought), but perspective shined a new light, and in it the future did not look so bad. The woman in the park was going to help her understand the terrible power that lurked under her skin, and Calvin had agreed to come with her. Above and beyond the call of duty really, but it made her feel warm inside to know that someone cared enough to take the risk. And from the wispy remains of her darkest memories she was pretty sure it was a risk.

In the days that had passed she still hadn't returned to her apartment (that fear could wait another day), but she was at least out and about. Much to Aylin's relief. Her sister worried. A lot. She called regularly during work, and was chatting away in Thalia's ear at the moment (lunch break) while she threaded through the street, bag slung over her shoulder, coffee pressed to her lips between "uh huh's" and "yeps" into the wallet snug between shoulder and cheek. She was not much watching where she stepped. Did she ever? It wouldn't have prepared her anyway. Not when the earth suddenly spouted up to brain a man running hell bent in the other direction.

She stepped back, too quickly, almost scalded herself with coffee trying to rescue her wallet before it hit the floor, then raised wide eyes to the passersby around her. To make sure they saw it too. And suddenly recognised a face. "Dane?"
She wasn't so good with names, but even she managed to remember someone who'd gone to the extremes of portraiture flirting. Was that a thing. No. No it probably wasn't. Her surprised gaze fell to the man prone on the floor, a women's bag strung from his hand. Huh. That probably wasn't his.

[Dane Gregory]

Yelling made him lift his head from the glass. Some young brunette made a fuss over someone running away. Dane watched, casually interested in the events unfolding. Mostly, he was interested in whether or not anyone would try to intervene. When the sound of his own name pulled his head another way, his gaze settled on a soft, familiar face.

Shit. He couldn't remember her name.

He pushed to his feet, going closer to the lady. She seemed familiar, and was pretty enough to be exactly the kind of woman to grab his attention the first time around.

"You'll have to forgive me. Please tell me your name again?"
His tone was gentle, but his prior mood continued to curtain his gaze. Nobody seemed to care about the ruckus around them, and swift-paced pedestrians smoothly avoided stepping on the man on the ground.

[Thalia]

The irony tickled her, and she laughed. He was polite enough, but his expressed shuttered like maybe he was having a bad day. She wavered between backing off and asking what was wrong, but settled for simply answering the question. Shifting her satchel round, she began to rummage for her purse - pausing a moment with a soft "oh"
when the tinny chirps of "hello?" from the wallet in her hand sudden pierced through the distraction. Fishing out her purse with one hand, she sandwiched the phone against her ear. "Lin, something came up. No, nothing bad! I'll call you later. Love you, bye."


Phone dumped back in her bag, she handed over the card with its cartoon likeness of her face and doting speech bubble. "All's forgiven. It's Thalia."
She meant it too. The guy had stood her up, after all, but she'd wandered around the gallery on her own anyway, and it hadn't been a bad afternoon. She wasn't one to hold grudges in any case.

Her gaze slipped back to the commotion everyone else seemed so keen to ignore, and finally spied out the startled looking brunette with her arm outstretched. For the first time ever the knowledge didn't try to shy away when Thalia grasped at it. There stood a sister. Her eyes widened. Distracted again. "We should help. No one else is going to."

[Ilesha]

Ilesha stood staring at the wall she made then down at the man laying splayed on the ground. His nose was bleeding, so was his forehead. He'd hit pretty hard.

Ilesha ran over, she was torn between helping the fallen man or leaving him for the authorities. She grabbed her purse and spoke to the their. "I bet that hurt."


Ilesha needed to be away from the scene. She didn't want to end up in jail for using her power. She rushed through the middle of a couple talking. "Excuse me."
She looked at the woman and frowned stopping just the other side of her and turning back. She felt connected to the woman but she didn't know her, it was like when she had met Claire and Oriena.


Edited by Ilesha, Oct 23 2017, 12:59 PM.

[Dane Gregory]

The memory was coming back, spurred by the artistic card and the whimsical name. Thalia, yes. The tube, yes, he met her there. It had been a rather unpleasant experience, not speaking with her, but some other man ruined the conversation. He forced himself to smile and thanked her for the jogged memory.

Her attention was rather distracted by the fuss. Sighing, he followed her line of sight back to that brunette. She stood over the sorry, bloodied face of a man on the sidewalk.

She wanted to help, but Dane hesitated. "From the looks of things, she doesn't need any help."
In fact, the young lady snatched her purse back and came over to speak with them.

Feeling obligated to say something about it, Dane spoke up. "Are you going to be okay?"

[Thalia]

It seemed Dane was right; the woman retrieved her purse and looked keen to be away from the scene. But she paused on her way past and met Thalia's eye like she sensed that faint tugging of familiarity too. Usually it'd be enough to make Thalia turn tail, but she didn't recognise this face at all, so it wasn't that. Curiosity swelled where once there would have been fear, but she couldn't think of a (sane) way to articulate it. Instead she only stared while Dane checked the woman was okay.

[Ilesha]

Ilesha barely heard the man for staring at the woman. She wasn't friendly to most people but she gave him a smile. "I'll be fine."
She looked back at the fallen thief. "I think he broke his nose though."


She looked back at the woman. "Do I know you? I feel like I do."
But she couldn't. She hadn't been in Moscow long. "I shouldn't stay here long. Things like that just don't happen by themselves."
Last thing she wanted was to go to jail or something because she could do weird things. She hadn't even meant to.

Edited by Ilesha, Oct 31 2017, 01:21 PM.

[Thalia]

Really, again!? Though at least this time a stranger hadn't called her by another name. Thalia laughed, though it had an edge of discomfort to it. "Funnily enough not the first time that's happened to me recently. But... I don't think so? I'm Thalia, and this is Dane."
She was right about not wanting to hang around... though how would they even prove it was this woman who'd caused the ground to spike? It could've been any of the passersby. This new ascendant thing - the people didn't exactly have a glowy sign on their heads. But oh, she wouldn't be surprised if there were scapegoats anyway. Better not to tempt fate; in fact, better to stay on her good side.


Edited by Thalia, Nov 1 2017, 10:02 AM.