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 Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 10:16 am
Delphine Amary was bundled up in a solid three layers of thick clothes. She may run around in a skirt most of the time, but it seemed that only when she was powered up did she have a resistance to the winter chill. As a civilian, the cold made her absolutely miserable. But, it really wasn't just the weather that was cold. Delphine felt particularly frosty after another fight with her mother. Tension was running high between the two women in the family, and not even Damon could buffer it any longer. It was Delphine's fault, really. She'd never admit it out loud, but she had let too many things slip in favor of her life as a senshi.
And even her senshi life was a total shitstorm. Delphine did not have enough fingers and toes to count all that was wrong with her true identity. The tally probably ran higher than her civilian life. She should have been able to maintain her family life, her social life, but she couldn't. When was the last time she had hung out with her friends? She hadn't seen Khaldun in ages, but wasn't he always hard to get a hold of anyways. Delphine could get into contact with his brother far easier.
That probably explained why she was standing in front of his apartment door. Her arms were crossed against her chest to fight off the chill. This posture wasn't really working, though. Her cheeks were red, and her teeth were chattering a little underneath the scarf she had covering her mouth. This cold really did make her miserable, and on top of a slightly miserable life... well, she was at her limit. It was all too easy for her to focus on everything wrong in her life, and even easier for her to forget all that was good in it.
She had texted Kam earlier to say she was coming over. But, then again, 'earlier' qualified as five minutes ago when she could spot his apartment from the street. It was mildly impulsive of her, but when wasn't she impulsive? Kamboja wasn't a close friend, but his presence was far more bearable than anyone else's right now.
"Kam! You better be here or I am going to be ******** pissed." She was already pissed, but at least she wasn't pissed at him. That was always a positive. She kicked his door in favor of knocking on it. There was no way she was removing her hands from the warmth of her chest to knock on his damned door. It already had enough scuff marks on it that her's would go unnoticed.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 2:19 pm
Kamboja had been perfectly comfortable curled up on the couch, cocooned in layers of blankets and basking in the little bit of sun that poured in through a partially open curtain. On any given Destiny City winter day, he rarely got up early - maybe an hour or two before it was time to patrol..
Except for today.
The incessant beeping reminder of his phone telling him he'd gotten a text message eventually stirred him from his deep, snoring slumber and he fumbled around the side of the couch until he could pick it up from the floor. He stared at the screen like it was out of focus for a second and then, after an irritated eyerub and a sigh, seemed to realize what was going.
He was just about to toss the phone and roll back over when the sound of a boot against his door made him realize he didn't have an icecube's chance in hell of going back to sleep. ******** Delphine.
"I'm ******** coming, stop banging and s**t," he yelled at the door as he unwound himself from the sheets and had the forethought to pull on the jeans he had shed to the floor the night before. Shirtless and slightly disheveled, he crossed the living room and opened the door onto the freezing cold of Destiny City.
"Get the hell in here, you're letting the heat out." He pulled the door open and stood wide for her to come in, trying not to grimace as the chilly air hit his warm skin and caused a wave of goosebumps across his exposed chest.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 2:37 pm
He looked tired, which did not bother Delphine in the latest. If she was feeling miserable, then he might as well feel a little miserable himself as well. The teen did not need to be told twice to slip in through the doorway and into the warmth of Kam's apartment. Much better. Her fingers felt frozen solid, her cheeks and nose uncomfortably red. Kamboja's apartment felt like a sauna in comparison to the winter chill outside.
"You just got up, didn't you?" she questioned him with a suspicious arch of her brow. It was obvious, okay. He hadn't even bothered to get completely dressed. Delphine shut the door behind her with the heel of her shoe, and began to peel off the layers of clothing that she had stacked on before rushing out of her house. At least she remembered her manners, and wasn't trying to track snow through her friend's apartment. "I guess that also means you didn't shower..." she grumbled.
A stinky half-asleep Kam was still better than anyone else she could think of in that moment. "Anyways, I take it you got my text? Good. It really doesn't matter if you didn't. I'm staying here for the day, figured it was better than walking around outside in the cold. We can patrol or something later, be ******** productive." It didn't matter really what they did. She just didn't want to be home, and Kamboja seemed like enough of a sucker to let her hang around for a few hours and kick his a** in video games. He was the kind of friend she liked having. He didn't really demand her time and attention, but was still around when she needed him. Perhaps this was why she didn't have a lot of female friends - she was the only one who could be high-maintenance.
Kicking off her boots, she still felt miserably chilled, but things were already starting to improve. Testily she wiggled her toes, and was relieved to discover that they hadn't frozen together. It was a small victory in a day which could be considered an overall loss already.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:12 pm
"You're lucky I'm up at all." His voice was thick with sleep and he still seemed half-dazed, scrambling around for a shirt while she busied herself shedding all of her layers. He scooped up a t-shirt from beside the couch, sniffed it, and then pulled it over his head once he was confident it had passed his vigorous odor test.
"Want some coffee?" He wasn't waiting for her to answer. He had already scooped a mug off of the table near his couch and was headed for the apartment's tiny kitchen. He was getting some for himself regardless and she could tag along if she wanted any.
"And why," he called from the kitchen as he started to rustle around in cabinets, "couldn't you just stay home if it's so god damn cold outside?" That's what he would have done - well, was doing actually. He began to fill and set the coffee maker, punctuated by a flurry of beeps and then a soft whir.
Then he just leaned back against the cabinet with his arms crossed, waiting for her to follow him and give him her life story or whatever it was she had to complain about now. At least he listened.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:28 pm
"Sure," she responded casually. Delphine was not the sort of person to pass up something that was free and being made for her. A nice cup of coffee would do the trick to chase the chill out of her bones. Sure, it wouldn't fix her other problems, but she was taking things one step at a time. First, she'd get warm, and only then would she tackle every life issue that had decided to throw itself in her way today.
So, she followed Kam into the kitchen and seated herself on the counter. Either he was expecting her to tell him why she was bothering him, or was just being nice enough to give her a chance to talk about it. Delphine couldn't decide which, because Kamboja hardly seemed like the type to do either of those things. "I think I picked up your family's disease, or something like that, where I completely ******** things up where it concerns my relatives. But, I don't even have the excuse of winding up in the Amazon or some ridiculous s**t like that.
I just ******** it up." She shrugged her shoulders helplessly, like there was nothing that she could do about it now that it had been done. Honestly, that was exactly how she felt. The time frame for when she could fix things had passed by already. It was too late. She hadn't even realized things were out of control until it was too late. In what seemed to be a blink of an eye, what had once been normal family tension had escalated to a point where it was uncomfortable for Delphine to be at home. If she had money, she would have moved out.
She didn't have a job because she feared it'd conflict with her 'save the world' task, and so she couldn't make money. Delphine was stuck at home, where the longer she lingered the worse things seemed to get.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:58 pm
Kam didn't normally pull the 'woe is me' card. In fact, he didn't like to remind anyone that he was basically an orphan. He had Khetal and as long as he knew the kid wasn't face down in a ditch somewhere, he was perfectly fine to ignore the other lacking parts of his life.
And yet it was still a sore spot.
"You're being an idiot." He uncrossed his arms and turned his back on her to put the coffee can back in the cabinet and began to busy himself with pulling out the other necessities instead - creamer, sugar, spoons. The coffee still had a while left before it finished so it was likely just an attempt to keep his hands busy while he worked out his thought process.
"You still have a damn family, you still have time to make amends as long as they're alive." He opened a cabinet and fished out a mug, looking inside to make sure it had actually been put back clean. Then he slid it along the counter towards her and resumed his previous position of counter-leaning.
"So maybe you'll spend a year or two on bad terms with them, maybe you'll really have to work to fix it, but they're still there." Kam the advice guru. It seemed an unlikely thing.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:18 pm
"And you're being an a*****e. Let's both point out the obvious things today," Delphine answered with a roll of her eyes. Her tone, however, wasn't mean. She certainly wasn't going out of her way to insult Kamboja, instead she was simply trying to deflect the truth of his words as best as she could. It was true, probably, but Delphine couldn't figure out how to stop being an idiot long enough to fix the things that were going wrong in her life.
"You know, I don't think a lot of us understand that we're in a war. I fight each day knowing that there is a possibility that I'll die, and the best I can do about it is be the most badass senshi out there. What I'm trying to say is that..." She paused, looping her fingers in the handle of the coffee mug and lifting it up off the counter. For safety reasons, she checked the inside of it too, as if she did not trust Kamboja's judgment of cleanliness. "Ah, never mind that. Forget I said ******** about that." With a few seconds to think, she thought it better to keep some things to herself.
"I can be happy with that, y'know? That they're still going to be there, even if I continue to ******** things up with them. It's not that I'm even trying to ruin my relationship with my family, it's just that I'm not trying enough in general. I can't save the world and keep a healthy family relationship, and in this case I'll save the world before I focus on fixing the things wrong with my social life. One problem at a time." She glanced down at the mug again, wishing it was full so she could distract her mouth with something other than chattering on about her girly emotions. She needed something to shut her up, because she had really come over here as an escape, not to talk about her inability to keep things together.
"But that means that home is... unbearable at times."
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:38 pm
As irritating and grouchy as Delphine could be at times, Kam couldn't say that he didn't understand her. They connected, they figured each other out. They might not ever admit so, or give a damn to, but they were cut from the same cloth. It was just a very.. angry, destructive cloth.
"It's easier to go out there every night knowing that no one is going to miss you when you're gone." He shrugged as he admitted it. "There won't be a family weeping over my grave when some b***h shoves a spear through my gut. I can go out without worrying about it."
The sudden beep, beep, beep of his coffee pot let him have a break from his stationary pondering and he reached out to grab the mug he had been using before. He filled it and then stepped out of the way so she could fill her own, busying himself with cream and sugar. It wasn't until he was done, leaning back against the counter again and waiting for her to finish that he said anything else.
"Maybe it's a good thing that you can care less, it keeps your head where it needs to be. They can wait."
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 4:49 pm
"There are people who would miss you," she stated, as if he needed that reassurance that there were people who cared about him. He probably didn't need it, but she was concerned that he didn't realize that some people would give more than two shits about whether he lived or died. Delphine cared, she wasn't going to come right out and say it though. Kam was easy to talk to, easy to be around, and just sometimes he was wiser than he looked. Over all, he really wasn't that bad of a friend to have. Delphine could have done far worse. "Besides, no stupid Negaverse b***h is shoving anything through your gut. I've got your back, for what it's worth.
Which, I'm just going to lay it out on the table for you, it's not worth that much." Delphine had made far more enemies than she had friends. She still had difficulty connecting with other senshi. She was not above helping them, but she didn't care to get to know them. Ever since she started going back to her home world and uncovering the secrets of her past life, she had stopped trying to be friends with every new senshi she came across. There was something that made her feel wholly different from them, even if they were more alike than different.
Sliding off the edge of the counter, she walked over to the coffee pot and filled her own mug a little more than half full. The rest of it was filled with creamer and sugar. "Perhaps it is. I'm happy as long as they're well, and if we can find a way to permanently destroy the Negaverse, maybe I will have time to fix the things I've broken. Well, if I survive this war. I'll be pretty damned pissed if I don't." Which was probably the only valid reason for if she survived - she would be too ******** upset if she died. The spirit world wouldn't want her, so they'd beg for her to be allowed to keep her life.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 5:02 pm
He smirked a bit to himself as she assured him that she had his back, taking a long sip of his coffee despite the fact that it was probably a bit too hot for most people.
"And I've got yours, which is probably worth a little more these days. At least as long as you don't interrupt that magical s**t anyway." He shrugged as he said it and turned to walk out of the kitchen, leaving her to finish up and taking his place on the couch among his half a dozen blankets. His mug was set on the table as he began to fish around in his 'bedding' and cushions alike for any kind of remote - TV, xbox. They were all swallowed by the beast.
"We'll both make it. It's really less of a war anyway and more like a bunch of stupid kids that just developed super powers." He was still fishing around in the couch as he said it, though he didn't really seem the least bit concerned about it otherwise. Fighting was fighting. He was going to do it, super powers or not, so he supposed he might as well make a difference while he was at it.
He grasped the edge of something hard and plastic, then triumphantly pulled out the TV remote.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 5:15 pm
Her coffee was still too hot for her liking, but it looked like a jackpot of sweet goodness. It was beckoning to her, trying to coax her into taking a sip when she knew that she'd just burn her tongue. Her day had been going badly enough as it was, she did not need to add physical injury to it. "It's good to have someone at my back, instead of a shitton of people after it." A brief smile flashed across her pale face. So, maybe her day wasn't really turning out as bad as she had expected it to. Coming over to Kamboja's had been a good decision, despite the horrible weather she trudged through to get here.
"Hah! Have you been fighting the same battles I've been fighting?" she joked with him as they made their way into the living room. Delphine couldn't recall a recent fight where she felt like her life wasn't on the line. Perhaps she was picking the wrong enemies if everyone else seemed to be having an easier time with the war than she was. "I've got a corrupted eternal senshi ex-friend past-life girlfriend on my a**, another friend who went flipside through mirrors and s**t to cozy up to a purple half-monster Negaverse agent, and a slew more who are just slightly less dangerous. I seriously don't think we're fighting the same battles, man." Perhaps she could have kept Alkaid out of mentioning, since she had never talked about that can of worms with anyone. But hey, she was making a point here. "Let's trade places, hmm?"
She had more trouble on her heels than she was sure she could handle. "Okay, seriously, how long did it take you to find that?" she gestured to the newly discovered remote with one hand as she took a seat next to him on the couch. "And, ugh, is this where you slept? Or were you just building a fort out of mismatched blankets and pillows?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 5:27 pm
Kam's brow quirked as Delphine listed off all of the battles and encounters she'd been having, stuck somewhere between disbelief and surprise. He hadn't been doing anything even remotely like that.
"I can't say that the s**t I've been doing even remotely compares. I just punch a few monsters, save a few damsels, and play patty cake with Vulcan in my downtime." That was probably the key indicator that he wasn't doing much - he had time to goof around while on the job. "Maybe Knights just have it easier or something? Most of the world doesn't even know what we are yet anyway. I get more questions than punches."
His quirk brow lowered into a small glower as he turned the TV on and then commenced his dig for at least one of the xbox controllers. It was impossible how many things their couch managed to hide at once.
"I always sleep on the couch. The rooms are taken and it's a free place to crash." He shifted to dig his hand deeper into the cushion once he thought he felt something, pulling with a grimace until an xbox controller came free with the soft grating sound of rubber on fabric.
"And wait, did you say you were a lesbian?" He glanced up over the controller and paused before he decided to dig for the second one. Lesbians were totally more important than video games.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 5:35 pm
"What I want to know is how you get off so easy, when I feel like I'm dealing with a continual shitstorm every day of the ******** week." In comparison, Kamboja seemed to be having a hell of a time when Delphine was having a hell of a time. Perhaps he was picking his battles better than she was. Delphine had a tendency to bite off more than she could chew. In the heat of the moment, she was confident that she could take anyone and anything on. When that moment passed, she couldn't help but feel a small 'oh s**t' moment.
"Can you at least change it from the cooking channel before you go rummaging through the covers again?" Delphine groaned, and then proceeded to silence herself by sipping her cup of coffee. There, she had waited long enough for it to reach the perfect temperature. She couldn't have done this cup of coffee any better! "You get to stay here for free? That's ******** bullshit. I can't find a free place worth s**t, and I don't have enough time in the day to have a ******** job so I can get my own place."
Finally! He had found one xbox controller. Now all she had to do was wait another ten whole minutes for him to find the other one. "Hmm?" she answered with a vague arch of her brow. It seemed like she just wasn't going to elaborate, but with a shrug of her shoulders she gave in to his curiosity. "Was. The me before was. You know that senshi have lived before, right? A long time ago. Well, that me back then was definitely a raging lesbian.
I about puked when I had a memory of making out with my past life lover." She was making light of a topic that probably had far more importance to her than she'd ever let on.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 5:57 pm
"Yeah, that whole past life.. s**t. We get it too. Or some of us do, it's complicated." He set the tv remote and the controller on the table in front of them and began pulling blankets apart in an attempt to find where the second one had gone. "I'm haven't bothered to find out yet, though."
In Kam's mind, he was dealing with one ******** up life and didn't need to add some dead guy's life to it too. Mars could wait while he sorted himself out a bit.
"That was probably hot though. I didn't know lesbians were that popular a thousand years ago." He was smirking to himself as he spoke, the expression partially hidden as he dipped his head down to continue looking for the remote.
As he picked up one blanket there was a 'thunk' on the floor over the edge of the couch and when he finally pushed the plush, blue comforter aside the second xbox remote was there. He picked it up and held it out to her with one hand while the other reached out to pick up his coffee, from which he took another huge gulp. It was less about savoring the flavor and more about the rush of caffeine.
"Now go pick a damn game so you'll quit harping about my choice in TV." He settled back into the couch with his mug and waited for her to get up. He was content watching the Food Network, so if she didn't move it wasn't going to change.
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 6:15 pm
"I haven't really talked to many other senshi about their past lives. I wonder if they have as vivid memories as I do. Have you had memories? Or do you really not bother with it?" Delphine put a lot into the past, more-so than she would have done before awakening as a senshi. Perhaps it was too much, but that life had more meaning to her than a lot of other things. "I remember a lot, and it is very rare that I remember something... happy." Being a senshi was not glamorous, at least not for Nemesis.
"Hot? You weren't the one macking on someone of the same gender. And who knows if they were popular or not, I just know that she was all I had, one of the few people who afforded me more than a sparing glance. And when she looked at me, it wasn't distrust, it was loyalty and love, the only things that..." Oh, wow, she should stop talking now. It sounded like she was still in love with that person from thousands of years ago, a person who had been reborn, but was more dead to her now than ever before. Delphine was definitely not a lesbian this time around, but there was something about that love that allowed for her to still admire it.
The discovery of the second controller was enough to draw Delphine out of her own thoughts. After taking another sip of her coffee, she took the controller and mused about what game she wanted to kick Kamboja's a** in. "Speaking of relationships, have you managed to hold yourself back from being a manwhore?" Boys did not talk about relationships the same way girls did. Delphine spoke about emotional depth, Kamboja would probably talk about how he banged this totally hot chick from the grocery store.
With a groan she rose from the couch, and began to rummage around for a game that she would likely have the advantage in. "Gears of War it is, then. Anything is better than the ******** food network."
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