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 Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:35 am
Keren Della-Blue liked attending Horizon Institute. Not only for the state-of-the-art forensics lab where she'd been spending all of her time, but because of the uniforms, which made her feel so much more grown up than the sailor suits at Crystal ever had. Thinking back, the Crystal uniforms annoyed her. The tiny waist, which almost certainly required a girdle on even the thinnest girls. The shortness of the skirts, always drawing the eye up and up the inner thigh- All things that, in retrospect, Keren despised.
There were advantages to an urban campus, of course. You could hop out to lunch in the park (not that the cafeteria food wasn't world class), and if Keren Della-Blue had one guilty pleasure in all the world, it was street food. Falafel, precisely. Fried bean paste, covered - no, smothered - in every topping known to man, tucked inside a warm pita pocket. Tomatoes and cucumbers and tahini and peppers and hummus. It was a mouthgasm. A foodgasm.
Except - the falafel cart wasn't in its usual spot. Keren frowned at the lamp-post it was usually parked under and curled her firsts. She'd had such a good morning, and now - this? This was bullshit. She glanced around the fountain and didn't see the familiar cart anywhere.
Keren's stomach grumbled, and she wondered - now what was she supposed to have for lunch? She couldn't eat just any street food - not when she'd had her heart set on the world's most perfect falafel sandwich!
"This," she proclaimed to the nearby flock of pigeons, "Is nothing short of a travesty."
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:45 pm
This being Micah's first week actually in the city, she had been shoved into her new life at full speed, and now had to struggle to get her mind up to the speed at which she now had to go at. Really, Micah should have waited to enter school another year. Her parents feared that she'd already missed too much schooling, however, despite the catch up she'd already had to play to keep up with the curriculum of her new school. The past week Micah had been moving at 95 miles an hour, scrambling to find a job, get instated in her school, and trying to make at least one friend. She still had no job, was a non entity in her classes, and had not offcially made any friend. Yes, she'd gone out for ice cream with Castille, and they'd talking about books they liked, but they were hardly friends as of yet.
And Micah did so desperately need them. Even when she was in one of her bitterly angry moods, she craved human interaction. It was the one thing that made her feel better. Even if it was just a few words they made her feel better. And now, with Micah's nerves frayed, and on her first day off in a week of constant movement and action, she didn't know what to do. She'd found a park to sit at, and now that was all she could do. She could only sit, wide eyed, wondering at the millions of years that had passed in a week. What all had even happened? She couldn't really pinpoint definite events. More like windows where things probably took place, though she may be mixing up times and locations.
It was a voice that drug her out of her reverie. Travesty? Micah looked up, gold eyes still wide, though having calmed down a little bit. "What is a travesty," Micah asked, her own voice making her nerves jump almost violently.
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 7:27 pm
Keren looked up from the pigeons, icy eyes sweeping over the girl who had spoken. Starting at the head, she had a mess of curls that just begged to be braided and tamed into something presentable, and Keren clenched her hands at her sides to restrain herself from trying to resolve this situation right at this very second. "The falafel cart," she explained to the brunette, pursing her lips. Keren was definitely in a sour mood - how could she not be? She was hungry!
"It's usually right here," she added, indicating the flock of pigeons pecking at the grease-stained concrete. "But, I mean, clearly it's not here right now, because... flying rats." She screwed up her face unappealingly, causing her glasses to slide down her nose. Keren pushed them back up and gestured to the rest of the plaza. "And not anywhere else around here, obviously."
"That was my first and only plan for lunch," she sighed, a tad over-dramatically. "I could go back to Horizon and eat in the cafeteria... but that's no fun. I've been there every day this week." Too bad they wouldn't let her eat her lunch in the lab. She'd never come out if they did!
Keren shrugged at the other girl. "So I guess it's time to come up with another option. A better option. Or else find the falafel cart. I'm Keren Della-Blue. Two E's. No A." It bore saying. "And you are...?"
What she really wanted to do was do something about those unruly curls.
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:20 am
Falafel? Micah searched her memory for the meaning of the word. It sounded like some sort of strange waffle. If that was what it was, Micah could go for one too. A waffle with whipped cream, strawberries, chocolate, and all manner of sweets on top. Her stomach grumbled at the thought of it, causing Micah to hold it, as if to muffle the sound. She looked up at the girl as she spoke again, letting go of her own stomach. Keren without an A. Fair enough. Micah would forget it, just like she did everything that didn't involve food, but whatever. At least she'd been told. "Micah," she said simply, holding out her hand and standing. "With an H," she added with a smile smile.
"As for food, I can't say much about falafles, but I'd be happy to treat you to something else." Too late did she realize how odd it was to offer to pay for a stranger's food. "It's sort of a thing I do," she added quickly, tucking a particularly rebellious curl behind her ear. "When I meet someone I take them out for food. It seems to bond people better than anything else."
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 5:37 pm
Keren had more than the means to buy her own lunch. She'd gone to Crystal for two years on no scholarships, following in the footsteps of an older sister and a brother who'd paid full tuition at Azure Valley. She could go anywhere for lunch that she wanted - she could treat Micah, for all she wanted. But she wanted falafel on principal and giving that up meant she was more than happy to let Micah buy her lunch. Because, money not being an issue, the only thing more satisfying than falafel was food on someone else's dime.
"Alright," she said, shaking the offered hand. "I can get on board with that." Really, who wouldn't? Generous friends were the best kind of friends to have. "How about... um..."
This was going to take a bit of thought. She'd only been at Horizon for a few weeks, and hadn't totally memorized all the food places near campus like she'd memorized Crystal. "How about that Soup and Salad place?" she suggested. "Like half a block from Horizon Institute?" She'd been meaning to try it, after all.
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:41 am
Soup and salad sounded really good. Now that food was a real possibility, and not just an idea, Micah's stomach growled louder. She looked down at it accusingly. What's your problem? She patted her stomach soothingly, promising it silently that she would feed it soon. Sooner than she had previously anticipated, as a matter of fact. As she drew her hand back, Micah stood, pulling absently at a curl what flew in her face.
"Horizon Institute," she mused, the name ringing a bell. "I've heard of that place from somewhere. Like... it was built after a weird phenomena occurred or something." Micah shrugged, dismissing the thought. "Maybe I heard wrong. Maybe they're just rumors, who knows. It's just that... well, rumors haven't stopped flying about this place since I got here." Another breeze tangled her hair, causing her to growl and rake at it with her fingers. "I swear to god, I'm shaving this mess off next chance I get." A frequent and empty threat against the rats nest of a mane she toted around.
"I mean," she sighed, tossing the lost cause over her shoulder, "it's like this whole town is obsessed with monsters and aliens and stuff. I keep hearing stories about these... weirdly dressed soldiers who run around chasing monsters." Another shrug as Micah shoved her hands into her pockets. "I haven't seen anything, so I can't say one way or another but... you know."
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:30 am
Keren gestured for Micah to follow her out of the park. Now that she'd figured out an alternate lunch, she was starting to imagine the possibilities of what she'd order and it was just making her more and more hungry. "Yeah, Horizon Institute," she agreed, glancing down and making a game of not stepping on the cracks in the sidewalk. "It's cool. State of the art, they've got a forensics lab-"
Keren wanted to marry the forensics lab. Not get married in the forensics lab, but literally marry it, because then no one could ever make her go home. She'd be legally bound to the lab. "I used to go to crystal, but it was prissy and I definitely like Horizon better. Except we don't have a basketball team." She scowled dramatically at her new friend. Tragedy, misery, woe! Clearly.
"Oh, yeah," remembered Keren. It was impossible to put her ordeal on the Surrounding completely out of her mind, but in her day to day life, Keren was trying to adjust back to normal. "The whole school got abducted by aliens." Or else the school was a result of being abducted by aliens? She went to Horizon because Crystal had decided she was dead and expelled her, after all. But it had united her with her beloved forensics lab so everything ever was okay forever.
"It's way over my head," she added, making a corkscrew gesture beside her head. "I mean, plenty of people think it was just mass hypnosis, but I know for sure what I saw." You didn't spend a month in space fighting monsters without starting to believe in aliens. Keren had seen enough monsters to know perfectly well what was under Destiny City's collective bed.
"I just keep my head down," added Keren. It was how she'd survived before ending up at the Surrounding and it was how she planned to survive now. Leave the monster fighting to the Senshi and knights and just stay out of their way. "You'll keep your head, too, if you know what's good for you."
She peered into the window the restaurant in front of them. It looked crisp and modern. Keren glanced at Micah. "This look good to you?" she asked.
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Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 10:25 am
Micah was ready to ask about the forensics lab. It was on the tip of her tongue, as a matter of fact. What kind of forensics do you study? It was there, Micah could taste the words. They just... never got a chance to know life before they were terminated on her lips. Along with the words, Micah's train of thought came to a screeching halt and flew off the rails, ending it's existence in a fiery explosion. She stopped mid step, somewhere between one and another with her face set in deep thought. What did she just say? It was like she was saying "Oh yeah, I just got back from vacation!" Could something that outrageous be said so casually? Was that even allowed?
Oh god, she'd found herself a crazy. Micah prided herself on being an adequate judge of character, how had she not seen this? She groaned inwardly and regained her step, hurrying to catch up with Keren. "Great joke," she said half heartedly, patting Keren's shoulder. "Aliens. Right." She winked lightly, hoping to god she was right, and that this was just a prank. Was that too much to hope for? Was she just getting her hopes up? She prayed that she was not.
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 9:06 pm
"I'm not joking!" protested Keren with a scowl. She lowered her voice as they entered the restaurant, but continued her protestations. "We really did! Read the papers - like fifty people went missing, all at the same time. I was one of them. I swear to god, we were abducted by aliens."
She flopped stubbornly into a booth and smoothed her skirt over her knees. Keren had already lost one friend over her trip to the Surrounding; she wasn't sure if she felt up to losing another, and a brand new one at that.
"I mean, you can think it's a joke if you want to," she added, picking up a menu to leaf listlessly through. "But I know what happened. The crazy magical warriors in the mini skirts? They've got a big rainbow road out in space. That's where we went. No joke, it looks like a level of mario kart."
"Except with monsters," she added, tapping her menu. "I think I'm gonna have the soup of the day."
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:45 am
Micah mouth slid more and more open as Keren spoke. She'd only heard whispers about these stranger fighters in her short time here, so this was the first she'd heard of their actual appearance. Warriors in min skirts. That didn't seem practical at all. And a space road made out of a rainbow? That sounded even less than unlikely.
"S-scientifically," Micah began hesitantly, trying to figure everything out in her mind, "rainbows are just light refrecting off water. How can there be a rainbow in space if likght doesn't exist in it's vaccuum?" A strange thing to cling to, since she'd just been fed the most outrageous story. But it just seemed like Micah should try and puzzle out the one thing she understood most of all. She wasn't a science major, but she knew what went into making a rainbow. And she knew it couldn't exist in space.
When Keren announced her choice of lunch, Micah was forced to abandon her train of thought. "Oh uh..." she flipped furiously though her menu, trying to find something to eat. "The um... the berry salad... with the feta sounds nice." Micah fought with her words, mind still fighting with this new information.
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Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2011 5:17 pm
"I know all about science," replied Keren, rolling her eyes. Of coure rainbows weren't solid! You could chase a rainbow all you liked and you'd never catch it. It was like the song that Kermit the Frog played the banjo in. "Rainbows are visions, they're only illusions. It's the Muppets, isn't it?" Well, she knew for sure that it was the Muppets, because she'd been there and done that and made that OC and played that forum RP, but she wasn't sure if Micah would accept her unabashed fangirl tendencies.
"This was so completely outside the bounds of science, though," Keren clarified, after pausing to place her order. "I mean, as if the aliens weren't a tip-off, right?" Not that aliens weren't compatible with the laws of physics, but clearly something pretty weird had been going on. "And anyways, there was air there. And it wasn't really made out of light, it was just rainbow colored?"
"It was pretty trippy," Keren assured her new friend, leaning back in her seat to make room for the waiter to put out their food. "But it all happened, swear to gog." (Oh, there was the Homestuck fangirl slipping in.) "We got attacked by a giant dragon thing, I don't even know what to call it, and..."
Keren dunked a piece of baguette into her tomato bisque. She brought it to her lips and sucked the soup out, deep in thought. Some of the events on the battlefield still brought chills to her spine. "I think I looked death in the face and death just... walked away." Because how else did you explain the woman in black who'd transformed a boy even as Keren had her terrified arms around his neck, and then walked away without giving Keren even a second look?
At any rate, Keren's more fangirlish side was insisting vehemently that this was a sign.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:27 pm
Micah was riveted. Positivley enthralled witht he story. Her mouth fell open and her eyes went wide. What was this, she didn't even... what? As Keren spoke, Micah wished she would go into deeper detail about things. And as Keren fangirled, Micah analyzed. The main theme seemed to be rainbows. An insibstantial yet no less beautiful vision that could not be captured. Aliens had the same meaning. A fasinating lie. Something which might or might not exist, yet kept us so interested.
"Aliens and rainbows, huh," she muttered, grinning into her glass of water. "One in the same." Micah turned her grin up to Keren when she'd finished. She was ready to dig into her salad when Keren's next statement made her stop. Fork hovered above her salad and she looked up. "Well... was it a western dragon or an eastern dragon," she asked seriously. Now she was interested, after all, the two breeds did very different things. The difference, however, was wiped by her comment about death. Micah dropped her fork.
"Wait... so did you... come close to dying or something?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 9:10 am
"It looked like a dragon," clarified Keren, giving Micah a look like she was deciding her new friend was a smartass. "I called it a dragon-thing. I didn't say it was a dragon." She dunked more bread into her soup. "But let's say it was a space dragon. To go along with the space whale and the space crab that attacked us before that." Jegus, this was really beginning to sound like a joke. Keren groaned inwardly.
"Did I come close to dying?" she repeated, moving on. "Well, I got abducted by aliens, attacked by a space whale, a crab, and a dragon, had to drag Callum's useless a** all the way back to the outpost- yeah, I came close to dying."
But the important thing was that she hadn't. No one had. As many people had come back from the Surrounding as had departed for it in the first place. "But I didn't. I survived. The Doctor came to call and everybody lives."
Oh. Whoops. Her fangirl was showing. "If you get the reference," Keren excused herself, reaching for her water.
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 9:58 am
"Just so long as there wasn't any wood. His screwdriver doesn't do wood." Micah didn't blink a lash as she spoke, popping a blueberry into her mouth. After a moment she betrayed herself with a wink. "Growing up I had a choice between Doctor Who and Jurassic Park. You can't out Who me girly." Another berry dissappeared behind Micah's lips as she grinned. "Though of course, you're welcome to try." A challenge. If this girl was anything like Micah then the challenge would be irresistable.
Micah flipped a lock of hair from her eyes, pushing it back behind her ears. The dragon thing still had her a little hung up. That interest was only increased by the talk of space crabs and whales. "Well, there is still a difference. Western dragons are bent on destruction and greed. Eastern dragons are wise and kind." She shrugged, dismissing the topic. "Can't say the same for whales and crabs, though." Another smile spread across her face.
"The whole thing sounds seriously intense. I can't imagine going through that. I'm just glad I'm normal. No aliens or anything over here."
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:08 pm
"Spoilers," teased Keren, although she didn't entirely follow what she herself meant by it. "I mean, how do I know you're not an alien sleeper agent? With, like, scales and a tail and s**t under your skin? Like V?" That show had been a total stinker, and yet for some reason Keren had tuned in week after week. It was like watching a train wreck with good cheekbones.
"And when I say spacewhale, I don't mean docile, awesome, rebuild London on its back spacewhale. I mean this thing ******** our s**t up." Keren distinctly recalled turning funny colors and being thrown through the air. Basically it was a pretty lame way to get welcomed to the Surrounding. The field trip had not gotten any better and she'd spent the whole month and a whatever in gym clothes, which had sucked.
"How's your salad?" she asked, finishing of her baguette and moving onto her soup in earnest with an honest-to-god spoon. "This is pretty ace."
Though maybe not as satisfying as falafel would have been. It was hard to say.
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