Catchall log for December

[kaleorbekaled]

Who: Kale & YOU
What: A catchall log for December with a couple of open prompts and some closed ones.
When: All month
Where: Olympia, Wyver & Thesa Station
Warnings: None



Kale was trying to keep busy as much as possible. She and Misa had a residence in both Olympia and in Wyver for the time being, since they were undecided about where they wanted to live. Kale had a slight preference for Wyver, if only because the way they readily embraced fighting reminded her a little of her home planet. But on the other hand, she liked the idea of joining the Guard, even if she still hadn't gotten around to joining. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to go back and forth the way that she did if she had a job with the Guard, and she still didn't know how to present herself.

Fortunately, there was plenty to do, and plenty of odd jobs to be had. The fighting rings in Wyver were easy, legal money for her to get her hands on, which was a plus. While Kale didn't care about riches, she did eat a lot and was paying half of the rent in two small homes.

Comments

For Diana - training

[kaleorbekaled]

[Kale's liked Diana since the day she met her. Diana is strong, and has the kind of confidence and poise that Kale can only dream of. And despite all her strength, she's a compassionate and encouraging person. She has a few of the traits that Kale admires so much in her best friend and surrogate elder sister, but none of the mouthiness. Kale's admiration of Caulifla doesn't make her blind to the elder girl's faults. Caulifla can be rude at times, whereas Kale can't recall seeing Diana be rude to anyone.

Today, they've met for training. Kale greets her with a pleasant smile.]

How have you been?

[That occasional stutter of hers is absent, now that she's become more comfortable enough with Diana. She doesn't feel awkward and nervous speaking with her.]

[wondie]

( Diana is already at the agreed meeting place when Kale arrives. dressed for the intended purpose of their meeting, her training gear might be considered skimpy to some but to Diana it is simply easiest for her to move around in. and she stretches as she waits, finding the perfect buzz in long limbs as she prepares herself for the training to come. she relaxes her stretches as Kale approaches, smiling in return. )

Very well. It is good to have things coming back together again. ( she means the reconstruction of Olympia, which she's been assisting with. she is starting to stretch again, pushing one elbow behind her back. ) And you? How has this month treated you?

[kaleorbekaled]

Well, I've got a little apartment to rent in both Olympia and Wyver with my friend Misa. I've been helping people out with repairs here, and with preparing for the winter in Wyver.

[She doesn't like being idle. It's much better to be useful.]

The fighting rings in Wyver are pretty cool, but the amount of bar room brawls aren't so great. I got hit with a stool and it totally wrecked my lunch the other day...but a nice guy named Clark was kind enough to buy me a replacement lunch and help me calm down.

[Which is probably just as well for the brawling bar patrons. They'd tried to egg her on into fighting without having any idea of what they were getting into. Clark averted it with some kindness and ushering her out the door.]

[wondie]

( that sounds like a lot of traveling to Diana, though Kale wouldn't be the only one moving between the cities. for her part, Diana has mostly stuck to Olympia. she enjoys her work as a guard and the place she's found for herself. it seems as if tensions between the cities are increasing again... Diana suspects that traveling between both might not be possible forever.

however, she's distracted by the mention of Clark, dark eyes widening. )

Clark. Clark Kent? ( that name is quite familiar, and she can't help but wonder if they're speaking of the same one. )

[kaleorbekaled]

Um...maybe? I didn't get his last name. He had short and somewhat curly dark hair, wore glasses, and was about this tall.

[She stretches her arm up, and upon realizing that it's not quite enough to be Clark's height, flies and hovers in place for a few seconds with her arm stretching up to the right height. She lands afterward, with a small smile on her face.]

He was very nice and stayed calm even when people were trying to convince him to join in the bar room brawl.

[wondie]

( Diana laughs. that was actually a pretty adequate description of how tall Clark was, though it isn't quite as difficult for Diana to mime it, since she's nearly as tall as he is. )

It sounds much like him. He is a friend of mine, from home... that I have yet to meet. It is a bit complicated, no? ( Diana waves a hand, as if that multi-timeline nonsense is not that important. ) At any rate. Are you ready to begin?

For Mantis - Thesa station

[kaleorbekaled]

[Kale told Mantis she would show her the teammates she was in the tournament with. Her Namekian teammates, Saonel and Pirina, especially, since they look more like Mantis' species than any other alien species Kale has seen, but if they're already there, she might as well show Mantis the rest of them. Their pods are all nearby one another's, since they'd all been at the tournament together.

When they get to the pods, she shows Mantis the two Namekians first. Even in the pods, it's apparent that Pirina is the elder and bulkier of the two warriors. Both men are well muscled, but while Saonel looks athletic, Pirina is built like a refrigerator.]

These are my teammates, Pirina and Saonel. They're both quite strong. The strongest from Planet Namek.

[Mainly it's the antennae that are similar, as both men have pine green skin rather than Mantis' fairer complexion.]

[uglybug]

[It feels like she's made a friend.

She has other friends, of course, but for the most part those relationships have been forged through hardship. While she and Kale had met under less than auspicious circumstances, this... hanging out? Is that what it is called? This is still new to her.

Mantis wants to reach out and touch the pods -- and she almost does, her hand hovering in the air just centimeters from making contact.]

Oh.

[It's a small, awestruck sound. They aren't quite like her, but they are the closest that she's ever seen.] Namek? I have never heard of that planet. I would have liked to visit it.

[kaleorbekaled]

I know that some planets only exist in one or two universes...and there seems to be more universes than the twelve I'd heard of, too. I'm actually really surprised by how many universes have an Earth in them.

[There's no hint of being bothered by this. She doesn't have anything against humans. She just finds it a bit strange, that there can be that many different versions of a planet.]

Have you heard of Planet Sadala? That's my home planet.

[uglybug]

[Mantis tears her gaze from the pods and shakes her head.] Sadala? No, I have not. The universe is very big, I suppose. What is it like?

[kaleorbekaled]

It's a planet full of warriors. The gravity there is higher than it is here on Thesa station or down below on El Nysa. That's probably part of why our people are so strong.

[She pauses, trying to think of what else to say.]

It's not very industrialized there. Most of our technology comes from trading with other planets around us. We offer our strength as protectors and mediators.

[uglybug]

[She nods in understanding.] Oh, yes. I have met people from planets with higher gravity before. You must be very strong -- and it is good to offer that strength to those around you.

Thesa station - Cafeteria (open)

[kaleorbekaled]

[Kale visits Thesa station a little more often than the average person here, simply because of all the food they're able and willing to provide. She's grateful they're willing to feed her and give her the portions she needs.

As it is, she's walking along with a tray stacked up high enough that it's partially obstructing her field of vision, and she lightly bumps into someone.]

Oh! I'm very sorry! Excuse me! I'm not normally this clumsy!

[But she is this awkward and apologetic, normally.]

[centurian]

[ Garrus also enjoys visiting the Thesa Station, however that's more because he likes the high-tech environment, rather than any particular food. but, sometimes he likes to stop by the cafeteria anyways.

what he wasn't expecting, was to run into a pile of plates. or rather, run into a pile of plates with a human (?) behind them. but hey, there's a first time for everything. ]

Don't worry about it I probably should've been paying attention myself, too.

[kaleorbekaled]

[She still feels a bit foolish and wants to insist that it's her fault, but she's glad that he's not annoyed at her. She's also glad to see someone else who isn't human. She could tell by scent even before seeing him that this wasn't a human's scent, but now that she's looking at him, she can't recall ever seeing an alien race that looks like his, either. Then again, she's since learned that there are far more universes than just the twelve she'd heard of, and each of those universes she'd heard of had plenty of planets in them.]

I should probably have just not stacked up my tray so high, but we don't have to pay for food here, so...

[When you're broke and hungry, Thesa station is a good option.]

[centurian]

[ ooh, are we playing "let's finish the sentence"? because he can totally do that for you. ]

...So you figured that you'd catch up on about a week's worth of food up here, and take it back down to the planet?

[ his mandibles flick back and forth as he contemplates this. ]

You know, that's not a half bad idea.

[ because that looks like a lot for even a hungry krogan, let alone a tiny little human. ]

[kaleorbekaled]

A week?

[She smiles awkwardly at that.]

Oh no, this is a day's worth of food for me. Saiyans have big appetites.

[Much bigger than most people she's observed in El Nysa, thus far. She'd briefly met one boy who had a Saiyan's appetite, and the trail of food had given her hope that perhaps one of her people had awakened, but otherwise most people seemed to eat more modest portions than she did.]

[centurian]

Sayian... [ wait... ] Oh, you're not a human?

[ well... this is awkward. ]

Sorry... you just look really similar to them.

Around Olympia - cleanup

[kaleorbekaled]

[Although she's been spending a lot of time earning money with odd jobs, she has been volunteering to help out with the cleanup in Olympia. The people here seem to be doing their best not to let the attack dishearten them, and have even been talking about their winter holiday plans. She wonders what the winter holidays are like here, and hopes she'll have the chance to see it firsthand.

For now, though, she's got an armful of big and heavy equipment that she's carrying toward one building. It's not causing her any evident strain, if her brisk pace and the way she's able to keep all of the equipment steady is any indication. However, she has realized something mildly unfortunate: the equipment will topple to the ground if she tries to carry it one-handed. So she's forced to turn to the nearest person.]

Um...sorry to trouble you, but could you open the door, please?

[ofobedience]

[There can only be so much quiet observing one does before one draws the attention of those being watched. She may have chosen to hang back at a distance, to watch the Guard train at an unobtrusive remove, but there's a reason (many, really) why Giovanni is well suited to a position like this. What he is - an artificial lifeform, a genetically modified weapon designed for endurance and speed and strength and alertness - it means her presence doesn't go undetected for long.

He sees her there, catches her scent, watches her watching them form the corners of his blood--coloured eyes and on the third occasion he picks out her presence on their periphery he decides enough is enough. It would be remiss of him, surely, to ignore a suspicious sideline observer when he knows that one is there, and he has enough to contend with already, under pressure as he is to redeem himself after his unwitting involvement in the terrorist attacks.

And so he peels away from the rest of his contingent, moves sinuous-smooth across the expanse that separates them until he's standing before the woman who's been watching them so intently for a number of days in a row.]

You're going to gain yourself a reputation, skulking about like this.

[Never mind that he seems to be the only one who's picked up on her presence, so far.]

[kaleorbekaled]

[Kale shrinks back when he calls her out on this, cheeks flushing. She's enjoyed watching the Guard members train, and with her enhanced vision, she can watch from a further distance away and still have a clear view of what's going on. She hadn't wanted to disrupt or bother anyone.

There's something about his smell that's definitely not human. That doesn't bother her, being non-human herself, but his scent also doesn't smell natural, for some reason. It's different than even the other alien species she's met, from her universe and others. It would be rude to point this out, but it gets her attention nonetheless.]

A reputation? Um...

[Now she's blushing even harder when she considers the possibilities of what that implies. Does he think she's a pervert or a stalker?]

I-I just wanted to watch everyone train. T-that's not illegal, is it? I don't really know the local laws. I'm a refugee.

[ofobedience]

A reputation.

[He repeats, flashing a smile, all teeth. She just wanted to watch everyone train, she says, and he supposes there's nothing inherently suspicious in that, not in and of itself. A new refugee, unsure of her place in the world, just getting the lay of the land. Perhaps, possibly. If she's telling the truth.

There's the disconcertingly canine tilt of his head as he observes her through the impassive blankness of his orange lenses, and for the moment he holds back on telling her he's a refugee himself, albeit one who's been around for a scattering of months, now.]

Is that so. There's nothing illegal about watching, no, not in and of itself. It's the purpose behind it, however, that could change that. Why are you so interested?

[kaleorbekaled]

[She fidgets awkwardly, and if his sense of smell is sharp enough to pick up on it, he'll notice she's not fidgeting from fear but rather from embarrassment. She knows she hasn't done anything wrong, and she's not afraid of what might happen to her. However. The idea of getting a reputation is mortifying.]

W-what kind of reputation? I'm not watching to ogle anyone the Guard or anything.

[Although the fact that her mind jumps to defend herself against that rather than to say that she's not a spy or a saboteur perhaps says something about her threat level.]

Watching just...

[She sighs.]

...it reminds me of home and of my friends. I come from a warrior colony, and nobody else from my colony has recovered from the storm yet.

[ofobedience]

[He picks up on it, that absence of fear, the embarrassment that takes it's place, written into the lines her body make, the scent of her-- he knows fear, after all, and this certainly isn't it. But then she speaks, and archly, he raises a brow. In truth, his own mind hadn't been taking that route at all, rarely - if ever - takes that kind of shape. The kind of existence he'd led until the Storm demolished everything he knew and he'd ended up here, unmoored, cut adrift-- it has hardly left space for such things. Violence and vengeance and fear, the daily horror of survival; that kind of experience doesn't exactly lend itself to toward sexual preoccupations.

Now that she's said it, though, he can only assume that ogling is exactly what she was doing.]

I see.

[The same arch look remains, something vaguely disbelieving in his face but--]

If it's the thought of fighting you miss, then why not just join up? It'd be more fun than looking. It's all a little tame, but better than nothing at all.

[Because that's something he can comprehend-- the need for physical exertion, for the heat and momentum of a fight. It's all he's ever known and, like her, he's quite alone here for now. Mother sleeps on, as do the rest, even Heine, and without them to give his existence meaning, he has to make do with whatever small shreds of familiarity he can get.]

[kaleorbekaled]

[Oh no. Does he actually think she's like that? Inwardly, she begins lecturing herself about how that was a stupid thing to say, and how there were a hundred better ways she could have answered his questions, until he asks a much safer and less embarrassing question.]

I-I don't know if I'd be good at the job. I can fight, but I'm just...

[She gestures to herself vaguely, and is reminded of how many times she's been told to have more confidence and to stop saying "I'm just", to stop apologizing for everything. There's a lot of self-doubt, although there's none when she says the words "I can fight". If there's one thing she knows for sure she can do, it's that.]

I'm not very good with confrontation or being intimidating. Not when it's body language or talking to people. You seem to have that part down...assertive but still professional. I don't know if I can do that part of the job.