While out and about in Destiny City, you notice a particularly strange street performer who isn't getting much attention on the corner he's stationed himself at. He's a rather peculiar looking clown, complete with cliche red nose and squeaky shoes. No matter how many balloon animals he makes or tricks he tries to play, no one seems to pay him any attention. You happen to make eye contact with him and unfortunately, it seems to excite the fellow to have finally won over someone's attention.
You manage to cleverly excuse yourself from the situation but nearly everywhere you go after that point, the strange clown is following you. The more you try to ignore him or brush him aside, the angrier he seems to get - and it's a little creepy, just how menacing he looks with that bright red smile gets turned upside down. Even as you manage to make your way to you or your friend's home, you can't help but notice the familiar, disturbing honks of a bicycle horn or the squeaks of oversized shoes following you... even up onto the front porch steps.
There wasn't exactly any reason to be nervous about hanging around with Rory - not to mention Desdemona didn't do nervous. It wasn't like Desdemona was Otto's girlfriend. She wasn't looking to impress anyone. Otto was just a person who they both happened to share... some extent of proximity with, and of course they were both eternal senshi.
They shared more circumstances than one, and Desdemona had really wanted to bond with some more senshi in the Negaverse. Once upon a time, she'd really fought for that team, and...
Water under the bridge. Not worth considering now. She wasn't really so far from Poppy's age, right? "You haven't met anyone named Poppy, have you? - Poppy Anania-Sedgwick? I don't really know what company she keeps anymore."
Nuxaz
WORDS SRY
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 7:59 pm
Rory didn't know how to interact with Desdemona.
It wasn't that she disliked the girl or thought that there was any reason for her slight unease of things. It had more to do with the knowledge that she knew very little of this woman that Axton-- Otto was so fond of.
Fond enough to remember and want her to know him as he was now. And Rory didn't really know what to do with that kind of information, or the information that Desdemona was a close(ish) acquaintance of Chase Black, the man who owned the coffee shop she worked at part time and the Negaverse general she had turned to when she didn't think that she could trust her own with helping her turn Otto from a knight to...a captain.
It didn't matter that Otto held no hard feelings against her or that he didn't blame her for being incredibly selfish and taking his choices away (she knew she'd have done it anyway and hoped that he didn't remember even if she'd tried to give him a choice) Rory still harbored guilt and the guilt turned into an anxiousness she couldn't quite shake.
Trying to get to know the other staple-- because that was what Desdemona was, now, a staple in Otto's life again, wasn't she? -- only seemed to amplify this anxiety.
What if she didn't like her? What if they couldn't get along?
What would happen then?
Would he end up resenting her then?
She tried not to think about it, but it certainly left her distracted as attempted to interact. "Poppy? Um, no I don't think so." Rory answered, head lifting at the question. "The circle of people I know isn't very big." In fact, it grew smaller more often than it grew larger.
Desdemona gave a smile that was almost a touch wistful. Maybe. Almost. Sometimes she was hard to read, and that was very deliberate after years in the Negaverse. "Ah, yes - that's often the way, isn't it? - for such a big, sprawling organization, there really should be a little more effort to... connect, don't you think?" That was the whole reason she'd started up with people like then Ax and Fritz, honestly. Granted, it was also because she always had a mind for fun and potential recruits, but she was far enough removed by now that she knew what she'd been doing. "My circle isn't so big either. I'd like to change that, though."
Loneliness was a surprisingly compelling force - enough to make the most resolute drift. Thankfully she had gotten it under control. The time away had helped, and just as well considering what she'd come back to. That was what made people like them drift too far to return. What make them traitors.
"She's my sister - Poppy I mean - she's about your age, actually." Maybe Desdemona played some things close to her chest, but not her fondness for Poppy; she might as well have been the only family Desdemona had ever had. "I'll have to introduce you two sometime. I mean, if you wanted."
Nuxaz
Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2018 11:11 am
Not knowing how to respond, Rory shrugged and tugged her cardigan more tightly around her. A fabric shield, protecting her from what, she didn't know but it was something that made her feel more secure, more capable of interacting.
"I think it depends on who you follow," Rory admitted. Her own general wasn't exactly sociable. She was one of two(?) recruits or something like that. Very people sat beneath his wing and once upon a time it made her so proud to be one of the chosen and now...now she didn't know how it made her feel.
"Mister Black seems like he has a large circle, he knew you after all before I did." Something about that stung, that there was a woman so important to Axton-- Otto, his name was Otto now --that she had no idea about. "He could probably help."
Her voice quieted, because she knew that she couldn't help.
At Desdemona's suggestion she nodded, albeit hesitantly. "Yeah, sure. That sounds nice."
Maybe. Maybe Rory was one of those people that could see through the mask that was Desdemona, or maybe it was just of Ax - Otto - or maybe she was just imagining the whole thing and there was no awkwardness at all?
Either way, she didn't let onto it. Instead, she just smiled warmly and shifted gears: "So, I don't know a whole lot about you, Rory; why don't you tell me about yourself?" The first question that came to mind was how long have you been Negaverse?, which was a little counterproductive. "Are you a student, still?"
She was trying; it was a little harder when Rory didn't fall into the box of lover, officer, enemy, or makeshift family, but Desdemona was not about to give that up. A strange man at the corner briefly caught her eye, a performer? - but she didn't pay the man much mind.
Nuxaz
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 11:35 am
Rory had to lift her head to look up at Desdemona but it was nice that the woman wasn't too much taller than her-- though it was mostly tall men that populated her social circle. It was still very nice that she didn't feel horrendously small comparatively.
"Not currently," she answered trying to hide the way the question made her somewhat sad. "I can't afford university right now." Rory shrugged, rubbing at her arm before she looked over her shoulder and saw something that made her double take. The sound of squeaking shoes kept her attention before she blinked, shaking her head to try and refocus.
"I work for Mister Black's coffee shop." And Chase paid well enough, compared to other places she was sure, but it still wasn't something that allowed her to pursue higher learning without taking out loans.
"How long have you been back in the city?" Rory asked, trying to keep the conversation going even though she wasn't sure she knew how to do the small talk thing any more.
Desdemona's lips pressed in a fine line as Rory spoke, and she opened her mouth to say something - and she almost thought better of it, but in the end -
"Have you asked Chase for help?" she asked delicately. "Or vocalized it to anyone? I hadn't finished high school when I came over, " or she was pretty sure she didn't. Desdemona had a rough idea how old she'd been, but either way, she didn't have the degree or the knowledge to back it up, "and I couldn't have afforded my GED without help. There's really no point for someone like me to continue, " and she didn't say it sadly; it was merely a fact. "But if you have the interest and you want to broaden your skill set, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to find the help you need. I could even help."
Money honestly didn't mean much to her; she had it, but beyond the bare necessities - Desdemona wasn't real, and cash didn't have as much application as a senshi. "What do you want to study?"
As for her, "A few months now? I can't say exactly how long, " she admitted. Keeping track of time also wasn't a strong point. "It's kind of been a blur. I've been - " She stopped short, suddenly, whirling to stare back over her shoulder, a soft honk haunting them, along with a flash of color and paint. She set her jaw, her gaze hard. "I don't like that."
Nuxaz
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 1:28 pm
Rory shook her head.
She hadn't asked Chase for help and wouldn't dream of it. It felt weird, reaching out to someone who she had a relationship with but not that kind of relationship for help with something so costly as university. "My boyfriend knows that I'd like to go to school. We've been saving for it."
Well, Rory had been saving for it, putting aside all of her tips and what parts of her paycheck she could set aside that her pops didn't need for help with bills. Akio would have helped her, undoubtedly, but she didn't want to put that sort of thing on him.
"It-- I'm not a charity case." She wrinkled her nose. "I'll get there eventually." There were so many people that could use, and likely deserved, the help more and she didn't want to begin to think of taking that away. She wasn't unhappy with where she was, but school would have to wait.
Jade eyes blinked, head jerking back towards the flash of paint too and the figure that she saw staring at them. White paint across their face...shoes that looked comically big. "Me neither. We should get out of here."
