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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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 Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 12:32 pm
[Hera]
The young woman tumbled out of the street without looking. She caught her heel on what might have been a cobblestone, but where she landed there was wood instead of stone. Rather than the long, dimly-lit passage between two banks, here was a cafe. The Hero straightened and squared her shoulders, instantly alert. Her heart hammered in her chest and her palms felt slick; it was as though in the last hour she had forgotten all of her training. She sucked a breath between chapped lips, aware of their roughness as a reminder. She was a wanted woman.
How had it happened?
But this place looked safe enough, and indeed like no other place she had ever seen. It was quaint, comforting, like the lodge where she had grown up. Only it was warm in here, not icy like her mother liked it. And there was a man standing at the counter wearing - well, Hera couldn't even tell.
"Excuse me," she said, peering through the brown hair that had fallen from her braid. "Could you tell me the name of this place?" She shrugged. "I thought I knew every inch of this city, but I guess not."
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 12:40 pm
Isra Bal'Hakim A woman with a disheveled braid entered after Isra. She was clearly not dressed for the desert, but neither did she look like she emerged from the desert. He was instantly suspicious. What was this place? His instincts told him it wasn't quite natural.
He lifted his hands to unwind the wrap around his head, letting it fall away. His shoulder length, curly dark hair was stuck to his scalp from sweat, so he shook it loose with his fingers. With his robes covered in sand and grit, his dusky skin streaked with sweat, and his hair an unruly mess, he was probably a sore sight indeed.
"This place? I wouldn't have the faintest idea, nor would I considered this region much of a city" he remarked, picking up the glass of ice water provided to him and downing it in several deep gulps. How could they even get ice out here?
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 12:50 pm
[Hera]
Hera looked from the stranger to herself. She wore a full-body suit, tight at the neck, wrists and ankles; aerodynamic and made of sturdy sythanum, it regulated her temperature and protected her against, well, everything. It, like her insignia, was blue with a white crane imprinted on the front, and it was pristine. Her boots, too. She pushed hair hair back into its braid and fixed the man with a steely grey-eyed stare.
"Look," she said. "I don't take kindly to insults of that kind. Olympia may not be built-up like some places, but it's a beautiful city." She gestured at her outfit. "I guess you haven't been here for very long, or you'd know that."
The man was dusty, dishevelled. Where on earth could he have come from? He was certainly dressed for the heat, but it was hardly a desert out there - just a normal summer heatwave. Now she was suspicious.
"Where are you from?" she asked.
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 12:58 pm
Isra Bal'Hakim Isra set his cup aside, assessing the woman with a slightly tilted head and studying her body suit. It was unlike anything he had ever seen, but appeared functional. He cringed to think that the fashion might catch on in Dedzehep, but kept that opinion to himself.
"I think the better question is where this place is, not where I am from. We walked in through the same door, but I'm fairly positive we didn't come from the same place before. You said you were in a city. A grand city. I have no doubt it's quite nice. You don't look like you're heat-sick, so I'll go ahead and take your word for it."
He fished a piece of ice out of his cup and popped it into his mouth, letting it melt against his tongue in relief.
"I came out of the middle of the Brem'el. The Sands. Desert. There isn't a the closest thing to a civilization to me are the Erodaharad mines," he explained.
Magic was involved. This woman had not come from the same place he did. There was simply no way.
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 1:15 pm
[Hera]
"Brem'el?" She tried to pronounce the word but it sounded strange on her tongue. She felt like she was speaking with a mouthful of marbles. "Then we are definitely not from the same place. Olympia is a city-state in the Elys Isles. We have no deserts, no mines in this part."
She looked at the rest of the cafe more closely, now. The panelled walls were old-fashioned, but the tables seemed newer. There was a fireplace over on the far wall, and nobody else present.
"I'm sorry for snapping at you - before," Hera said. "You caught me a bit off guard. I've had... a rough morning. And then, all of this..." She extended her hand. "I'm Hera."
She tried to keep her face still, but she couldn't control the hammering of her heart. If they found out about this place, she couldn't say what they'd think of it. And if they found her in it? That didn't bear thinking about. Whatever the case, she was sure it wouldn't end with the charges against her being dropped. And yet she couldn't bring herself to leave. It seemed so welcoming here, so safe. She couldn't help but feel that nothing bad would happen to her as long as she stayed.
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 1:27 pm
Isra Bal'Hakim He smirked and shook his head. "Isles. What I wouldn't give to be surrounded by water at the moment." He took her extended hand, well aware that his was dirty. Washing one's hands became less of a priority when water was scarce and had to be preserved. "I'm Ezra Bal'Hakim. Don't worry about it. If I had a coin for every time a woman snapped at me, I wouldn't ever need to marry," he chuckled. Isra came from a family of strong-willed, feisty women.
He scratched the two-week-old beard growing on his face with his free hand and glanced around the place. "You don't suppose I'm the heat-sick one? Conjuring this place in my own head..." he mused. He had known men to go mad after being lost in the desert without water. They created alternate realities for their minds to go to to escape the harsh desert that was slowly killing them.
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 1:41 pm
[Hera]
Hera laughed. "If you were heat-sick, would you dream up a cafe? I'd dream up a feather bed, a cool pool and a large bottle of champagne." She turned to the waitress and gestured that she would also like a glass of water. Her throat was dry from running but overall she felt much better now that she was inside, away from the Guard. "I'm glad about your family, I guess. I'm supposed to have much better control over myself, but that's always a problem I've had."
The waitress delivered her water and Hera took it in both hands. "Do you want to sit down? I think both of us will be here for a while. And besides, I want to hear more about this desert. I've never seen one. Are there really storms like you hear about in books?"
Hera picked a table near the fireplace and sat down in an armchair. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to forget what was going on outside this cafe. It might have been unHero-like, but she didn't care. After all, she figured, once you've had your own guns turn on you, it's time for a little selfishness.
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 1:53 pm
Isra Bal'Hakim Isra chuckled and shrugged. "I suppose you're right. I would probably be swimming in the biggest, coolest lake mankind had ever seen if this was just a hallucination."
"Yes, I would love to sit." His whole body ached, which wasn't entirely unusual for him. He was hard on his body. Between the heat, the hard ground, his training, and real hunts, he had taken quite a bit of abuse. His muscles were constantly in a state of knots, and his back, especially gave him grief. He was only twenty-four years old and he felt like an old man.
He followed her to the table she picked, easing himself down with a groan and getting the weight off of his feet. He gestured for the waitress to bring him more water.
"Never seen a desert? Imagine that. I feel as if anywhere else must be a paradise. You're not missing out on much. The storms are real, and they're brutal. I've seen them scour the flesh right off a man. Everything out there is deadly, it seems. The sandstorms, the sun, the sand, and every living thing you encounter."
He wondered if she had ever even heard of a mesekher or spiny locust.
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 2:10 pm
[Hera]
"As much as I love Olympia, I think I'd rather be just about anywhere else right now." Hera sipped her water, relishing the coolness of it as it soothed her throat and tongue. "Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the desert is brutal, but I would love to experience something that is naturally brutal. When you see as much pain and suffering as I do on a daily basis, you start thinking about the nature of things like that."
Hera rolled her shoulders, feeling the muscles in her back tighten beneath her suit. She could feel a bruise forming on her jaw - one of the few places not secured by her suit - and it hurt. Although a punch to the gut could hurt, it never bruised. Superheros were not as indestructable as everybody liked to think. She wrinkled her nose, freckles dancing.
"Have you lived in the desert your whole life?" She thought she sounded clueless, but she still didn't care. It was nice to talk to somebody who wasn't a Hero, wasn't from Olympia. She hadn't realised how isolating that had been until now.
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 2:18 pm
Isra Bal'Hakim "Yes, my whole life," he confirmed. "I actually live along the Dedzehep River, so the cities themselves are built up around fairly fertile land. I do most of my work in the Bram'el and Erodaharad. The dunes, like I just came from, and a rocky part of the desert," he added in explanation.
He furrowed his brow slightly and cocked his head when she mentioned the things she saw. What on earth could her life be like? "What kind of pain and suffering do you see on a daily basis?" he wondered, finding her phrasing particular. He supposed he saw plenty of misery in his day-to-day business, but overlooked most of it. He had been blessed to be born to a wealthy family. Even though his life was hard, he always got to go home and relax after each hunt.
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 2:38 pm
[Hera]
"I..." Hera paused. How did you explain something like this? It just was. "It's my job. I'm supposed to save people, y'know? That's what I do. I save people and stop the bastards trying to hurt them. But it doesn't always work the way you'd think, and sometimes people get caught up in things they can't control. It's... hard work. My speciality is women victims, and children - although it doesn't always work out like that either." She shrugged.
Thinking about it, having to explain herself to this man, made her squirm. It wasn't that she didn't like being a Hero - far from it. This was more than her job: it was her life. But that didn't make it any easier to see, especially from outside like now. It was like being a god and watching yourself try to climb out of a pit of barbed wire.
"It sounds like you're content," she said after a while. "I don't get much time to think about things, but being here is a kind of experience I never thought I'd have. Do you... have anybody like me where you're from? Not all nations have Heroes, I'm sure of it, but everybody has something similar, I think."
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 2:48 pm
Isra Bal'Hakim Isra listened and nodded as the waitress brought over more water. He knocked this glass back in a few short gulps, too, and then fished out more ice to suck on. He understood. Crimes against women were dealt with special brutality where he was from.
"We have an enforcing guard that takes care of crime. Especially against women. I can't say they're exactly like you. They're just regular men, and I get the feeling you indicated that you're something a little different. Plus, the uniforms aren't quite the same between you and the guard I'm accustomed to," he joked with an easy grin, his white teeth showing off brilliantly against his dusky, dirt-smudged skin.
He picked slightly at the wooden tabletop, swirling the piece of ice he had around in his mouth. "I suppose I'm content. It's not like I have anything else I can do. This was really the only trade my family had to teach me, and it makes me valuable. I might marry into a good family." Once, of course, his grandmother strongarmed him into an arrangement, not that he would have any say in the matter. Besides, he was too afraid of the old bat to fight her.
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 3:11 pm
[Hera]
"I have a few tricks." Hera smirked. She couldn't tell if he would bolt when she showed him, but most people in Olympia loved to see a few party favours - and she got the feeling that Isra had never seen her brand of law-enforcement before. It was certainly a perk of the job. She pushed her glass a little further onto the small table, lining it up with her elbows. "Wanna see something I've been working on?"
She didn't wait for him to answer. She formed a circle around the glass with her hands and then curled her fingers tightly against the glass. The moment her nails brushed it, there was a jolt of power in her fingers. She pressed her fingers tightly, and then worked them upwards, towards the rim. Slowly the water begin to rise, pooling towards the pads of her thumbs and away from her fingers. Soon the water was above the rim, pushing against her thumbs inside an invisible cylinder as she continued to raise them.
After a few seconds she felt her fingers begin to tingle from the effort. She let the water drop and it splashed the table a little.
"Sorry," Hera said with a laugh. "I'm still practicing. I can move solids easier."
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Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 3:24 pm
Isra Bal'Hakim Isra watched in amazement as she showed him her "trick." He watched intensely as the water rose with her hands, shaking his head in wonder. It was nothing short of magic. She got the water to suspend outside of the glass before it all splashed back in, some of it getting the tabletop.
"Amazing!" he felt like applauding. "If you get to where you can do it easier, what kinds of things do you hope it will help you with? For your job, I mean," he added, as if that wasn't obvious.
He clenched his own dirty hands. He had no chance of accomplishing such a feat. Even if he could, he wasn't sure what he would even do with the power. It was probably better that he simply remained normal.
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Psychotic Maniacal Sanity Captain
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Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 3:07 am
[Hera]
At the mention of the future of her job, Hera felt a cold sweat run down her spine. "I don't know," she said softly, grey eyes downcast. "I have - had - a friend who was great with ice... She can convert water, but she can't move it. I thought I could... Well it would have been nice to have a partner." Hera felt a hot, prickling wave rising inside her. It was frustration, tinged with something else. The Pulse. She curled her fingers tightly into her palms and changed the subject; she wouldn't let it get the best of her, not here. Why should she? She let out a long breath.
"Anyway. You look like you've been wandering for a while, if you don't mind me pointing out the bleeding obvious. Can I ask why?"
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