A few days had passed since that fateful night, when Mara and the others had knelt in the ash of an old and venerable building and the lives of who knows how many awakened individuals. Since that point they had walled themselves in, sealing themselves against the outside world, a form of isolation one might say. In hopes that they would not draw the attention of those beyond their tiny little motel room.
It was late saturday, and by now each of the members of the team had secured their own little habitat in the crowded room. It was necessary of course, tempers were running ragged and patience was thin, and it had been for the best that each member of the team, had their own space..small as it might be.
Mara had taken the space between the one bed and the exterior wall of room, a small inclosed space that sectioned her off, giving her some space to exist. She had made a makeshift bed there as well, taking one of the spare pillows and propping just so, so that others might use the bed.
In this moment of their isolation, Mara sat there, cross legged and quiet. Her gaze was turned from the others, the woman looking at the exterior wall before her. Her hands rested on her knee's and breathing was slow and deep.
SerafineSera seems to prefer sleeping in the bathtub, for the gods only know what reason, but spends some of her waking hours sitting on the other side of the exterior wall, between the a/c unit and the front door. Days have passed, and the food is cheap and processed and the drinks are dwindling, so mostly they drink tap water. Sera alternates her clothes: sometimes she wears a t-shirt and underwear, while her bra and cut-off shorts are being washed or dried. The rest of the time, she wears a black bra with red details and cut-off denim shorts.
Goes about barefoot because god with her clodhoppers she could take off someone's toes if she stepped wrong. And barefoot, it turns out that she's pretty short. She inhabits space because she fills it, and seems tall because of the proportions of her body and the fact that she tends to wear shoes that, between the platforms on the soles and the heels, add at least four to six inches to her height. Which is ridiculous. So, it turns out that Mara is taller than Sera, which she may not have expected.
For all her talkativeness, Sera knows when to be quiet. She's sensitive to the vibe of a room and shuts the hell up when people seem to need her to shut up. And when she shows herself up in Mara's space, sliding across the bed against which the Akashic is resting her spine, she knocks.
In a way. Bare, pale legs slide down the shoulder of the bed preceding her. Sera's toenails are painted black spread with silver glitter, and her pedicure has held up better than her manicure in their exile. So: bare white legs, which haven't been shaved in a few days, glittering black toenails. The sour scent of another body in the close space, and
" - hey." Greeting and query all at once. If Mara looks up, Sera is perched at the edge of the bed, a look of inquiry on her striking features. Brows lifted, eyes steady, mouth still. "Mind if I join you?"
Serafine(brb!)
Mara AndrewsMara's choice of clothing in the gathering heat of the room had been utilitarian. She thanked the Record and the Akashakarma that she had the foresight to leave a pack with a spare change of clothing in her car, and so that spare change of clothing had found its way into the room. Where on the eve of their adventure she had worn military stylings with flare. The spare set of clothing was thoroughly utilitarian.
A pair of plain black yoga pants, flared and loose below the knee covered her lower half, while a simple grey tanktop covered her torso. She had thoroughly eschewed the use of footwear, or socks since their arrival, her toes baring a gentle shade of mint green, which at this state was in lamentable condition. Mara herself had chipped most of it off in an attempt to keep her mind occupied, and her legs were now similar to Sera's days of neglect left a fine stubble of the palest blonde.
There was another area of course which now saw neglect, Mara's hair, or lack their off now showed signs of resurgence, pale blonde follicles now sprouted from her scalp, and now and again the others might note her running her fingers over that growth with an irritated look upon her face.
Mara is aware of the intruder in her space when she sat down upon the bed, squishing the springs and those pale green eyes turned to regard the Cultist as her legs slid over the side, the gaze travelling up, up..until it rested upon that beatific, if unorthodox beauty. The question for parley, or simply a desire for company is expressed and Mara's full lips purse into a thin line...but then she nods.
"Sure...come on down." She said patting the space beside her. "Whats up?"
SerafineSera could use some clippers too. Her own (partially) shaven skull is not cut so close as Mara's and probably needed to be clipped even before their venture to the warehouse. Now, the neglected is more noticeable. As is the fact that her black roots are dyed black. So looking like a blond with black roots is a sartorial choice she makes.
Look, she slides down the side of the bed with ease. Not the sort of physical ease the Akashic shows so easily, but a certain confidence born of native athleticism - more grace than strength in this. Sera's skinny as a rail. Still, the bed creaks beneath her weight because it is a creaky bed, and sighs upward as she slips down the side, hands braced on the cheap carpet. The creature folds up her knees and wraps her arms around them, lacing her hands in front of them. Clothes off, she has more tattoos, the most prominent of them follows the curve of her ribcage on her left flank, but the shape is mostly obscured by the line of her bra.
"We're not gonna be in here forever, you know," she starts off, quiet, studying Mara's features in profile. Her own gaze attentive in its way, lingering over the curve of Mara's skull before returning to her features. Sera seams her mouth, considering her next words carefully. "And then there's the matter of what to do when we do get out. Aside from watching our asses, of course.
"Before the techs came, the folks in that warehouse were having an argument about what to do with Leah Walker. And I suppose I was wondering what you thought was the right course?"
Mara AndrewsThey could both use a spa-day, really the entire team could. Somewhere to relax and refresh, recoup and rebuild. Not that everyone present would take such an opportunity. It was hard to imagine Jake or Jim sitting down and having their nails done and their bodies pampered.
But one never did know these days. Still that thought made Mara smile unconsciously, those full lips widening briefly as she hunched over at let her elbows rest upon her knee's. Her neck craning gently from side to side as she loosened muscles that had become still from a lack of movement. Her eyes narrow as Serafine speaks her mind, her features taking on the caste of someone who had opened themselves to a deeper level of thought, a deep breath taken as she turned her head to regard Serafine directly.
"Good questions, definitely. I've given it some thought myself, and far as I can figure, as that door there hasn't been smashed down..i figure were in the clear. So the best thing we can do is just go back to the way things were. Work, live, sleep..whatever." Her shoulders hitched upward in a gentle shrug before she stretched upwards, her spine coming in line with the side of the bed once more.
"Leah Walker on the other hand...is a whooole different problem." She reached up with both hands, the fingers of each interlaced as she brought them slowly over the stubble of her skull before letting them rest behind her head. She held that position for a moment, before her nose crinkled, and she quickly dropped her arms back down, obviously smelling something less then pleasant.
"I don't know about the rest of them, but to be honest? I don't think we have the pure power to take on something as strong as what Leah did...we'd all end up just like the others. Which leaves us with three options...we either leave her the hell alone and hope someone bigger picks up the ball. We try to convert her to the light side of the force....or we waste her before she sees us coming." Her words hang like a dagger in the air at that last sentiment, the woman obviously not excluding any options from her thoughts.
"To be honest.." Her features becoming apprehensive as she spoke. "I don't know enough about whatever the hell she is to make a call on this. The safest route is avoidance, the surest route is death...but neither of those really sit well with me."
SerafineSerafíne listens to Mara's answers quite closely and quietly. She is in profile, her own head lowers, long hair pulled back into a ponytail except where it has been shaved. Her posture is loose but there's a tension beneath it, a quickening to her frame and her reflective gaze as Mara shifts from the problems of potential notice by the Techs or the Fallen. When Sera glances up like that, a quiet look on her features, her eyes darkly reflected, her mouth still, a neutral line in her sharp face, she is all still, thoughtful.
Then, Leah Walker. Mara lays out what she considers the three options, and when she describes the third option waste her before she sees us coming, the Ecstatic looks away, all at once. Inhales a deep breath in a quick sharp flare of her nostrils and otherwise swallows her reaction as well as she is able. She is so expressive, concealing feelings on the subject is well-night impossible. If there were a pencil in her hand, she would have snapped it in thoughtless tension.
The reaction is so immediate, so fucking visceral, that Sera very nearly misses or misunderstands the Akashics last comment: that neither the safest route nor the surest route sit well with her. It's only while Sera is sitting there, breathing out slowly, in a faintly controlled rhythm that allows her to at least look back at Mara and count out each one underbreath that she realizes what Mara means. And decides that perhaps this isn't a lost cause yet.
"She's a sixteen year old girl. I saw her. I saw her aura. She didn't do that when she was being left alone. She did that after she was attacked, after the woman who helped her and healed her was murdered in front of her eyes, and when a bullet was coming for her head. She's scared and alone and she's a kid. That's what she is. Whatever's inside her she hasn't - "
Sera arrests the impassioned statement mid-sentence. She does not know what Leah Walker has or has not done by now with whatever's inside her, but her own position is out on the table, without qualm or apology.
"We're going to look for her. We can't leave her out there. If you don't want to get involved, or you aren't sure if you think we should help her, or whatever, I won't blame you for not getting involved. I'd still be there for you if shit goes bad on the other end of things. I wouldn't blame you, either.
"This feels dangerous, and it's not fair to force it on you. But if neither of those options appeals to you and you actively want to help her, we can work together."
Mara AndrewsMara manages a laugh in that moment. Not because of Serafine's react to her words but simply because of one small statement.
"Feels dangerous?" She chuckles once more. "Sera, you have a mastery of the understatement." A wink followed to show the good humour in the words and just as swiftly as the levity arrived, it disappeared in a uncertain sigh.
"I'm down to help...I really am. But Sera, all the good intentions aside, we all have to be ready to acknowledge that this might be a lost cause. I sure as fucking hell hope it ain't, but...." And she leaves it hanging there, leaves the words unspoken, words that she obviously doesn't have the heart to say in this moment.
"So keep me in the loop alright? lemme know if theres anything I can do. I ain't about to back down from the challenge now after all." She spreads her lips in a confident smile, a sign of surety and purpose.
One can only hope they are up to the task.
SerafineThere's something - withheld about the singing glance that Serafíne shoots Mara in that moment. Her aura, her resonance, somehow banked beneath her skin The look is searching and perhaps troubled, but it ends with a little twist of her mouth in response to the other woman's confident smile.
"Cool," is what she says in the end, pushing herself up off the floor. The edge of a half-smile gracing her mouth as she leaves Mara's little section of the motel room. "I'll let you know."
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