choose your own adventure!!

[skort]

Date & Time: Let's say anytime the first week of July
Location: All around Exsilium.
Characters: Kara Zor-El and YOU
Summary: Kara does stuff!! With people.
Warnings: None for now, will update as needed.
Pee ess: Both prose and action tags are a-okay with me!



Kara doesn't really have any kind of set schedule, though her days are undeniably full. She expends a good deal of energy helping out with rebuilding projects as much as she can. Part of it is, of course, an attempt to garner goodwill with the natives. She's had enough bad press in the past to realize how disastrous it could get if interactions between all three people groups of Exsilium--Transports, natives, and Initiative members--stay strained. Another part of her drive is just the fact that she wants to help. Ever a bleeding heart, Kara's not able to turn away from anyone in need. And boy is there a lot of need.

But she does have other priorities too. She can also be found exploring some of the more ramshackle places in the city, looking for an abandoned building to renovate and turn into her on Fortress of... Something. The name and the plan both need work, but she's determined to get a work space. Other times she can be found in one of the libraries, pouring over books and information on her tablet. She usually takes up a whole table with all her reading materials, notes, and graphs. Whoever said collating data wasn't fun?

If she's not there, she's usually either training or patrolling. Training for her usually isn't a lot of heavy combat. For one, her superstrength makes it hard for her to really get any use out of things like practice dummies or punching bags. But she'll go through the motions of a fight on the mats a few times a week. If she's training with her weapon, she's usually hovering and seated as if she was meditating while her little silver orb darts around her training room and into hallways.

Patrolling is, well. Patrolling Exsilium. Usually she does it from the skies as it gives her the best view as what's going on down below. And, you know, there's also the fact that it gives her an excuse to soar through the air. So if there's more loop-de-loops than is strictly necessary, that would be why.

Comments

[implying]

[ For as much as he loves people, now and then Vanadi doesn't mind a stroll through... well, not exactly nature, but the outskirts of Exsilium. The place where broken down buildings become more common than the working sort, the people get far scruffier, and in some places, the silence is beautiful.

He'd come with a lunch he doesn't need, a walk in mind, and a mind full of the pleasantly addictive haze of the bloodthistle drug. Any day is gorgeous with bloodthistle, whether he has to bring along an umbrella (he does, although it's only sprinkling) or not.

He settles himself down on some relatively dry crumble of what used to be a fountain, eyes turning to the sky, and... wait a second. Was that a girl? ]

[highhealplz]

[ One of his portals opens directly to the library, and it's not uncommon to see Ashraf appear quite suddenly between two of the shelves, with no more to announce his presence than a brief flicker of white light under his feet. It fades as quickly as it'd sparked to life, and he looks around.

Well, the library isn't in flames, or anything. Always a good start to a trip, right? When he steps out from between the shelves he finds himself directly behind Kara's table, and wow, that's a pretty impressive spread of information she's got going there. He studies it over her shoulder for a second, then grins. ]

That's some serious reading.

[skort]

[ it is indeed a girl! who doesn't seem to mind the sprinkling, even as it wets her ponytail and sweatshirt. she's also huffing at the building she was inspecting, hands planted on her hips. it's, sadly, not going to work for her. which just means more time she's going to have to spend searching.

she turns, intending to move on to the next building, when she spots vanadi. she takes one look at him sitting on the damp fountain and decides that since she's here, she might as well offer him a hand. ]

Hey! Want me to dry off a place for you to sit?

[ ahh, the joys of having well-controlled heat vision. ]

[implying]

[ Don't mind him if he just... stares. A little. Both ears are pricked up with an obvious interest, and he's grinning by the time he answers. ]

Can you? [ A decidedly musical voice, accented by what could be Portuguese. ] I didn't realize they'd invented a plug that long for hair dyers.

[ But if this is who he thinks it might be, she probably has something else in mind, so he stands up obligingly. Surely Steph wouldn't have a high opinion of just anyone. ]

[skort]

[ kara's not at all surprised when someone leans over her shoulder. years of dealing with supersenses has made her pretty aware of her surroundings. but she does lean away a bit when she turns to see just who is peeking at all her work.

luckily, it's not work she's trying to keep secret for now. the open books are mostly about sewing patterns and how to sew your own clothes. though there are a few sketchy pie charts with data from her survey floating around the table. ]

Well, I am a pretty serious reader. It's only fitting.

[skort]

[ she laughs and floats down to the ground. it's much easier to have a conversation when she's not hollering from the clouds. ]

I can. Though not with a hair dryer. [ she's really pretty amused by that suggestion.

but without commenting on it anymore, she lets her eyes glow red and her heat vision pan over the remnants of the fountain. it's always difficult, regulating it so it just evaporates the water instead of burning the stone. but if there's anything "shaving" with her heat vision has taught her over the years, it's how to control it. ]

There. That should do it.

[highhealplz]

Apparently!

[ He leans away again in a second, not willing to encroach too much on someone he's just met. He circles around more to the front as well, though he's still curiously looking over the materials. ]

Sorry— do you mind? I know how it is to have someone start up a conversation when you're reading. [ He loves it, actually, but expecting the same of everyone would be a terrible way to do empathy. ]

[implying]

[ He makes an impressed noise as she works, but really, his attention is more on her than on the fountain. The seat has lost all his interest. ]

My. I'm impressed! Have you ever considered a career at the end of a carwash? [ But that's a joke, and doesn't need an answer. So he half holds out the bag he'd been carrying over one shoulder, smiling hopefully. ] Could I interest you in lunch?

Patrolling

[100hearts]

[Seated by himself, sort of, under a canvas provided by the Transport run medical facility, Law read a book from a tablet in silence. Besides him on the table itself, there were several severed heads lying still on its surface. Besides the severed heads--a little radio, playing classical music and a few containers of water and hospital-issued juice.

He seemed impassive to the situation. A few of the heads twitched, a couple letting out noises as their owners snored. Only occasionally did he get a stare, but otherwise there wasn't a panic in the little seating area he had. The staff had gotten used to it and the nurses seemed to find it beneficial that the attending could handle his own calls.

Wearing his plain white smock and casual clothes underneath--it was clear that Law was having an immensely dull day.]

[lar]

Out of the list of 'things that no longer suck with me' Ella had written, she had already ticked off the whole feeling like utter crap (now it was just a mild weakness) and not being invulnerable (although she wasn't going to test that anytime soon). She wasn't sure about the rest, but she was at least capable of standing up and walking around.

Or, Ella being Ella, she's not sticking around her room anymore. There's really nowhere she wants to go though, which means that soon after she's looking at people train.

"It doesn't look like you're even trying," she says, hands on her pockets as she makes her way to where Kara is training.

[skort]

[ there's a snarky reply on the tip of her tongue that disappears when he offers lunch. she's genuinely surprised be the offer. she doesn't even know who this guy is and suddenly he's wanting to do lunch? ]

I wouldn't want to intrude or steal any of your food. [ kara does offer him a smile, though. ] But thank you for the offer.

[skort]

No, no! It's okay. [ she waves her hand through the air dismissively. ] Truth be told, I could probably use a break.

[ if it weren't for random encounters like this, she'd probably never remember to take a breather every now and then. it's the curse of the workaholic. ]

I'm Kara, by the way.

[skort]

[ when kara firsts spots the heads out of the corner of her eye, she's alarmed. to say the least. even in places like gotham, people usually don't sit calmly next to severed heads. but then her senses catch up with her and she recognizes the movement and the snoring.

that would be when her curiosity takes over.

she carefully floats down until she's hovering just a few feet away. it takes a significant amount of willpower to not shove her nose into law's business and peer at all them heads. ]

How is that possible? [ she pitches her voice low so as not to wake anyone up. ]

[skort]

Kara freezes, one leg up in the air in a high kick, and holds the pose for just a moment. Then she drops out of her stance and pivots all in one smooth motion. Her hands go to her hips and she raises an eyebrow at Ella. Really, now. Not trying her spandex clad butt.

"It's a little hard for me to do anything else than that. Everything here is too breakable." She waves a hand at their surroundings. "Keeping control's pretty hard, you know."

Her tone's fairly light--she's not actually taking the comment seriously. She's just playing along because it's the easiest response.

[100hearts]

They're sedated. [He didn't bother raising his voice. Law, without looking up from his tablet, pulled up his left hand and with his index finger, pointed right at Kara's feet. On the backs of his knuckles, there had been the tattooed word 'DEATH' written over each knuckle, per letter. In the center of his hand, a circular tattoo of its own. It just so happened that he had a few reserves in the lazy quip department left over from a day full of arguing passively with his nurses.]

How is that possible? [Not that anyone flying could ever surprise him, but it was worth the wager that it was fair game to speculate that despite all odds--maybe, just maybe--someone else in the universe ate a Devil Fruit to get their abilities.

Law wagered this in total apathy, dragging his right index finger over the tablet surface to go to the next page.]

[lar]

"Oh, so you're super strong. Woe is you," Ella shoots back, because everyone needs a good dose of snark now and then. "Don't tell me the guys that pluck people from time and space and dimensions can't make you a sturdy potato sack." But the idea of Kara being super strong is actually very interesting, and Ella feels like it deserves testing. Not just yet, though.

"I'm not at one hundred percent, but as soon as I feel completely recovered I'll take you on a sparring match. If I have one redeeming feature is that I basically unbreakable."

[skort]

The short answer is I can control my own gravimetric field. [ the long answer is significantly harder to explain, so she hopes that her answer suffices. ]

Sedation doesn't explain how the heads can survive separated from their bodies. There's no blood, either.

[ she glances over at the seemingly disinterested law, then shoves her hands in the pockets of her sweatshirt and goes back to looking at the heads. idly, she wonders if maybe she shouldn't feel a little guilty for looking at these guys like science experiments, or lab rats to be studied.

but it's just too fascinating for her to really care about that for long. ]

[100hearts]

[Law turned his hand over and lowered his index and middle finger down to the throat of one such patient, touching beneath their chin to check their pulse.]

It's an ability of mine. I'm an 'Operation Man'.

[Though he couldn't say that Kara's answer told him whether or not she ate a fruit, but most Devil Fruit users referred to their powers as making them an 'X' Man or Woman. It was common enough that he figured it was general protocol.]

That's how my ability works. Any body part I take off of someone will operate independently from the body itself no matter the distance. It can be interacted with independently, but in the end--it's still technically connected to the body.

[Given that he was technically on break, he didn't care about mincing words at all. It was his own time and he had nothing else to do but screw around.]

I've heard it get called magic.

[highhealplz]

Kara Zor-El?

[ His smile brightens, and even as he slides into a seat at the same table, he outstretches a hand to shake. ]

Nice to actually meet you! I'm Ashraf Salib. [ A little amused: ] One of your many responders.

[implying]

Oh, please. There's enough for... oh, four, five people in here?

[ He slings the bag down and tugs it open, making a halfhearted pretense of looking through it. ]

Do you like ham and cheese? I've tuna, as well! Nothing terribly elegant, but then elegant food isn't meant for being hauled about in a lunch sack.

[thephix]

Truth be told, this is all rather inconvenient. They've already shoved her down once, her hands scraping on the rough concrete, soaking her skirt and top, because the ground in Exsilium never dries (sometimes she thinks about what would happen if the water could just stop draining away and they could all drown in the constant rain, but she tries not to dwell on thoughts like that). There's six of them, all men - it's always men - and they're angry that a Transport is walking through their territory like she owns it.

Their words, not hers.

Idly, as one of them grabs her hair and hauls her back to her feet, she notices a tear in her stockings. That's even more inconvenient than the bruises; at least those will fade, but that's a good pair of tights ruined, and they aren't exactly easy to come by in this city. She misses malls.

They get angrier in the face of how passive she's being, that she won't fight back, but she refuses to indulge this stupidity, not when it'll just make things worse in the long run, if she were to hurt them. The Exiles will forget their anger, eventually, but they won't forget if she fights back. So she simply steps back to avoid a punch, waiting for a good moment to make her escape, though they way they managed to back her into a dead end alley really isn't helping with that.

She'll figure it out.

[skort]

Well, if you're sure... [ she's certainly not going to turn down food. now that she's thinking about it, she can't clearly remember the last time she sat down and ate a meal. ] I prefer tuna to ham.

[skort]

Oh! [ her smile brightens in recognition. ] You're the one I talked to about the technology. The person who'd been gone for fifty years.

[ she pauses, and then continues, distinctly amused. ] I gotta say, you look pretty good for a guy who's gotta be at least sixty.

[skort]

[ kara lets out a not exactly dignified snort and waves a hand through the air. ]

Magic is just science we don't understand yet.

[ it's not exactly clarke's third law, but it's close enough for jazz. she takes another moment to peer at the heads, a small smile crossing her face, before she turns to face law. ]

That's really incredible. And, uh, sorry if I'm interrupting. Sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me, you know?

[skort]

"I can rip a car in half without a second thought. If someone can actually build me a punching bag that I won't actually break, I'll be thoroughly impressed," she says, highly amused. But for all the joking, she really would be interested in seeing if it was possible to build something like that. She knows that she could probably cobble together some red sun lamps to turn her powers off, provided she had the right materials. But the thought of doing that in an Initiative-run building just sets her on edge.

"You really think you can keep up?" Kara smirks and tilts her head to the side. "I'm pretty kick-ass when it gets right down to it."