Collette (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
whatsupcroc) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
exsiliumlogs2012-08-24 09:27 pm
whatsupcroc) wrote in exsiliumlogs2012-08-24 09:27 pm
[closed] basketball attractions and unplanned demolitions
Date & Time: Morning of the 25th of August
Location: Smaller training Gym near and/or around the Hold.
Characters: Adam Jensen, Barnaby Brooks Jr, Collette, and Vanadi.
Summary: People are so going to play basketball.
Warnings: Unfortunately, the gym will not survive. Also Vanadi's around. Expect flirtations hand in hand with ridiculousness!
Collette knew the basketball wasn't an actual basketball. For one, it wasn't the right texture, and it was on the large side. For another, it lacked the right coloration or striping. The important point was the ball bounced with sufficient give as one would expect from a basketball, and there was a hoop attached to a backboard in this very gym. Even without a net, Collette figured they were all set up and ready to go.
Which is why she waited for her team of misfit elder males to assemble. Should they have a name? She was passingly fond of The Baskteers, and picturing Barnaby's face at the announcement of anything like that was temptingly amusing. Still, for Adam's sake, she figured she should play nice.
Ball in lap, Collette tested out her chair's maneuverability on the gym floor. Near the top of the key she brought herself to a stop. "She shoots," she said, lifting the ball in her hands and letting her elbows drop down. Letting it arc through the air, Collette snorted as the ball hit the backboard, bounced off the rim, and shot to the far left. "She doesn't even come close to scoring."
Location: Smaller training Gym near and/or around the Hold.
Characters: Adam Jensen, Barnaby Brooks Jr, Collette, and Vanadi.
Summary: People are so going to play basketball.
Warnings: Unfortunately, the gym will not survive. Also Vanadi's around. Expect flirtations hand in hand with ridiculousness!
Collette knew the basketball wasn't an actual basketball. For one, it wasn't the right texture, and it was on the large side. For another, it lacked the right coloration or striping. The important point was the ball bounced with sufficient give as one would expect from a basketball, and there was a hoop attached to a backboard in this very gym. Even without a net, Collette figured they were all set up and ready to go.
Which is why she waited for her team of misfit elder males to assemble. Should they have a name? She was passingly fond of The Baskteers, and picturing Barnaby's face at the announcement of anything like that was temptingly amusing. Still, for Adam's sake, she figured she should play nice.
Ball in lap, Collette tested out her chair's maneuverability on the gym floor. Near the top of the key she brought herself to a stop. "She shoots," she said, lifting the ball in her hands and letting her elbows drop down. Letting it arc through the air, Collette snorted as the ball hit the backboard, bounced off the rim, and shot to the far left. "She doesn't even come close to scoring."
so im guessing vanadi is already his inofficial cyborg boyfriend this will not end well
(Granted, he did then even when he factually had better things to do, but he simply needed a change of pace every now and again and had never liked to exclusively play by the rules.)
Adam usually only left his place in clothes that would conceal most of his mechanical parts, and this time was no different--long sleeves, coat, high neckline, though no gloves since there wasn't really a point to hiding his hands anymore and they'd only dull out the minimal sense of touch he had in them even more. Not very ideal when you're going to play with a basketball; he might exert too much pressure and then they've had a basketball for the longest time.
Though it wasn't even one, from what he could tell. That wasn't really the part that surprised him most, though--so she didn't know how to fix a wheelchair because she was a nurse.
Oh.
He wasn't going to comment on that, though. He just watched as Collette threw the ball, and missed.
"Aimed too high," he said, although it was fairly obvious. "But that was pretty good already."
--Like he's one to talk, he pretty much has the same problems, being unable to really calculate the force behind his own blows or in this case, throws. Casually, he followed the bouncing ball, on his way to pick it up.
WOW I SUCK HI GUYS
What surprised him more was the presence of someone else, because he'd assumed that this session of "training" would be no different from the others (lacking random spectators, for one thing) - although basketball did tend to be a team sport now that he thought about it, so he shrugged at no one in particular before walking through the doorway.
"It won't be much of a game if that's the best you can do, 'coach.'"
As if he'd ever played basketball in his life. His tone wasn't quite as rude as the words, if someone listened closely, something slightly amused buffering.
[SOMETIME AFTER ALL THESE SHENANIGANS vanadi + collette]
She's perched, as she usually is, on one of the top wings of Vanadi's mask, tiny wings stilled and tiny feet clutching the perch, watching the game just like Vanadi is. Unseen, of course. It was the strangest thing, how dæmons seemed to lose their presence in other worlds, visible only to those who had one themselves. A bit lonely, maybe, having to save his comments to her for when they were alone, least he look crazy for talking to himself. A trouble Vanadi is sure Collette is used to! After all, with Flash —
And that's about when it hits him.
He'll be waiting for Collette when the group finally parts ways, one demolished gym later. He's leaned up against a wall, arms folded over his chest, Aleva huddled in a small, feathery, miserable pile at his shoulder. ]
[and it all falls down]
She'd figured with the way everyone was leaving, there wouldn't be anyone still around by the time she earns herself a free path out. She paused to stretch, rolling her head to loosen her neck muscles. ]
Not how I was expecting today to go.
[ Wistful, said with a smile, and then a start when she notices Vanadi. ]
Vanadi! I didn't see you there. You don't think they're going to bill us for this, do you?
[ She presses her lips together and looks over her shoulder, sucking her lips in as she considered the scene of basketball crime with amusement and some trepidation. She did know consequences. Or at least she thought she did. ]
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But that's sort of a stupid kind of wistful thinking, isn't it? He steps forward to fall into step next to her, shaking his head as he does. ]
Oh, it's no trouble. I'm certain we can find some way to forward the bill to the Initiative.
[ He doesn't want to bring this up. He really doesn't. ]
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[ She smiles, putting herself back to working on locomotion. She figures she's going to be feeling strain by tonight. A good bath and arm massage isn't out of the question. ]
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They did leave us armed and dangerous right at the door.
[ She wonders if today bothered him on some level, if it has anything to do with how he is, or how Adam is, or how Barnaby is -- maybe even herself. He usually sounds more present in a given moment. Was he worn out? ]
Hey, are you okay? You don't have a fever or anything, do you?
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Collette... [ He should add in some frills. An "if I may", a "I was simply wondering". None of it comes out, though. Just: ] Where is Flash?
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Was Tony around?
When she came to a stop, she twisted around to give him her full attention. She wasn't expecting that question. It doesn't sound rhetorical. Where is Flash? That she wants to ask, who is Flash, or what is Flash, that she's hesitating at all, it's undermining the 'ease' in lying otherwise.
Collette swallows, her stomach sinking. She opens her mouth to say anything, distract, redirect, but she can't quite make herself follow through. ]
I don't know.
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Quietly: ] Yes, I know.
[ He sinks to a crouch, slowly, to be level with Collette. ]
You've never been to Cittágazze, have you? [ The tone is soft. Sad, not accusing. A beat, and he adds: ] Honestly, please.
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Her throat tightens, fingers weaving together and fidgeting in her lap. Her voice is small and soft as she answers. ]
No.
[ It's surprising how much admitting that hurts. Collette blinks rapidly, willing herself not to cry. It'd be his right to hate her for having lied like this to him, and she knows it. Something else she's messed up because the lie was brighter than the reality. ]
I wish I had, but I'm pretty sure this is the only place I'll ever be.
[ She glances down, feeling she's losing a battle with her own tear ducts. It's embarrassing and annoying. ]
I'm sorry. I thought if I said yes, and you were so happy, and no one ever is, and -- and you probably know a better me than the me here.
[ Her voice is tight, small, and miserable. Staring down at her own hands, she doesn't feel brave enough to look up and find signs of rejection and censure that she feels she deserves. She's lied to someone who is -- or would have been -- a friend. And she let him believe something not true.
Undeniably selfish of her, but knowing that truth doesn't stop her chest from constricting, or the tears she's crying from falling down off her face into her lap.
Hopefully he gets angry and leaves soon, or gets disappointed and leaves so she's not left being double atrocious with a snotty nose and red eyes. She was already sweaty. This would help her hit the trifecta of "do not want in my backyard," she's pretty sure. ]
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What does surprise him is how much it hurts. ]
...Thank you, then. It was nice to believe it for a while.
[ Nice to think he had someone who actually understood what he was talking about, when he talked of the place he so desperately wanted to return to. Oh, but that's not fair, is it? This is still Collette. Not his Collette, no, but there's a reason he'd come to like her in the first place. She's a delightful girl, with or without prior knowledge of him.
He stands again, drops a gloved hand to rest briefly on the top of her head. ]
If you don't mind, I think I'll — go.
[ It's totally unfair of him to be feeling this low and unhappy over this, he's sure of that. So he'd better go and do it in private. ]
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I mind. Of course she minds, because that's a goodbye. It's an end, and it's crossing a line that can't be undone in her head. Does she deserve the chance to say that? She's hurt him. She was wrong, and this is suffering the right and proper consequences.
It's not the first time she's been walked away from, and she knows it won't be the last. It's better not to linger over it -- ]
Just like that?
[ She hardly recognizes her own voice.
You're fine, Collette. Pull it together. No use crying over spilled milk, or whatever Mom used to say. Of course, she also said you lie in the bed you make for yourself. It didn't stop her from crying right then, or stop her from feeling the guilt and shock of loss without having lost anything quite yet. ]
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But he doesn't immediately leave. He tugs off his mask, and the transformation is sudden. Underneath is a soft sympathy, a few dozen unspoken apologies, and an encompassing sadness to round it off. He leans down to press a kiss to her forehead, same as he had the day he'd first met her. ]
For now, only for now— I think I'll take a while to consider this, is all. I'm sorry.
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As she looks up, she finds it in her to force herself to talk past the lump lodged in her throat. ]
Why are you sorry? Stupid, I'm the liar.
[ She tries to smile, managing a twitch of her lips, but this is her own inability to push past the all-engulfing nature of how she feels. It's a part of being young, and nothing she's had to grow past. Not when she's lost the composure of keeping things in happy slots that let her ignore the unpleasant parts of reality until later. ]
I'm the one who's sorry. I understand if you don't...
[ She swallows, looking away again, then back to him. He's going to disappear. She knows that. Better to watch it happen then wait to be rewarded with the inevitability.
Her hands twist out of each other's grasp as she starts worrying at the end of her shirt. ]
... If you don't want to be my friend anymore. Because I'm not your Collette. And I wasn't honest about it. It's okay if you don't --
[ She loses her nerve, letting her gaze drop down to her hands, both fisted in the material of her t-shirt. ]
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You are my Collette now, my dear.
[ It's said with a smile, but it's a terribly sad one. Until the mask clicks into place, again, and it becomes simply a smile. Then he turns, rather abruptly, and starts away.
If he doesn't go now, it feels like he never will. ]
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No, I'm not!
[ Not quite a shout from Collette. She protests the idea. ]
I'm not her. And I'm not her replacement, either!
[ Which makes no sense, given she tried to pass herself off as the same as herself from another time and another universe, from the sounds of it, and isn't that her? But it's not.
Ugh, it'll be better with him gone. Then she can -- go distract herself, or whatever, take that stupid bath she'd been thinking about before this confrontation. Why had she thought it was a good idea to lie? ]