Wishing you were somehow here again... [OPEN]

[dust_of_life]

((OOC: Figure she's going through this routine every night this month. Feel free to forward-date or back-date tag-ins.))

Growing up among the Cainites of the Order, Fatima had picked up on mechanisms for coping with stress from all across the world and across time. But not a single one of them was making it easier for her to deal with the emptiness of the space next to her in her bed. She'd been stuck on this flying Hilton for months now. But sleep still didn't come easily. After knowing what it was like to hear someone breathing beside her on the pillow, Fatima was having more than a little difficulty letting go.

Fortunately, growing up among the Cainites of the Order had also provided Fatima with a few extra outlets she could use.

It was usually after midnight when she would slip into the leotard Beverly had given her. The halls were quieter at night. Fewer people. Fewer judgmental crew members staring after her like the invader that she was. And the training facility was usually empty.

First, she'd start with a few yoga stretches. Some aggressive chin-ups. Knuckle push-ups. And then the real work would begin.

Somehow, her iPod had managed to survive her ordeal in Zelien. Fatima had doubted very much that she'd ever be able to coax any music out of it, but it was working now. All of her songs were there. Well, they weren't exactly her songs. The classical music was from Liam. The rock-and-roll was from Denise. And the oldies were from Auntie Diana. Didn't matter though. She always listened to the same song anyway. Survivor's Eye of the Tiger on repeat, the earbuds shoved deep into her ears, like she wanted to block out the rest of the world.

The punches she threw against the punching bag were precise and powerful. Fatima had fused the martial arts styles she'd studied with street boxing. And despite the work-out clothes, she always trained in her high-heeled boots. As she used to argue to Arty, you never knew what you were going to be wearing when someone attacked you. Better to be prepared for anything.

If only her loneliness could be punched in the bag.

Comments

[dust_of_life]

Absently, Fatima's fingers continued to stroke the fur between the cat's ears, but her full, active attention was decidedly on the boy.

Pruned.

Pruned.

If that didn't sound like a Cainite term, nothing did. And it was only the fact that he wasn't pinging her radar that kept her from going for a stake.

You didn't talk about people like that. People. But she had to remember that he was from another world. Different rules. Different ideals. Just ones that she happened to...find repulsive.

"Well," she said, forcing herself to form conversational words, "that's still bigger than my family. Just me and my mother."

[reincarnshaman]

Oh, he doesn't like it either. But that's essentially what it is. Pruned. Culled. Making sure those damn bastards can't come after us and kill us all... Though those that do the killing generally don't come out well in the end. Because if there's one thing that's more dangerous than a bunch of McCallums is a lone McCallum whose family has been murdered.

Dynasties have toppled because of that.

"It's bigger than most families... much to the terror of neighboring countries." He grine a little. "But it must be nice to have your mum all to yourself."

[dust_of_life]

Parvana Merali died when Fatima was sixteen. Her mother had been her whole world. Without her constant, warm, affirming presence, Fatima had plunged into an inky blackness.

There were still fingerprints from that time on her soul.

But she just nodded slightly.

"Where are you from, exactly?"

[reincarnshaman]

Trever kind of knows how that feels. When the eldest McCallum sibling... vanished... the entire family fell into a sort of despair that they've never quite recovered from. His mother doesn't like going back home any more because of it and his youngest aunt went into fairy and nearly died to find out what happened to him. Trever was only eight when Dara vanished but the memory of that day is pretty well seared into his mind.

"Eire. M'da's king, but I was raised in my mum's home for safety reasons."

[dust_of_life]

"Eire," she repeated. That was Ireland, wasn't it? Well, at least in her world it was. Fatima was reasonably sure that her father had been Irish. Hence her full name: Fatima Aine Merali. So she'd made a point of studying it a little. As if in some kind of vain attempt to pretend that her life was normal.

Well, fair was fair.

"I'm from Los Angeles," she said. "Year 2009."

[reincarnshaman]

It was Ireland! Or Ireland was Eire as Trever's had to figure out.

"Year 2015 for me... but I don't know where Los Angeles is."

There's no United States in his world. The entire "new world" is completely different in his world so references to such places are completely beyond him.

[dust_of_life]

Normally, when Fatima found out that someone was from her future, she'd grin and ask if there were flying cars, like in the Jetsons. Somehow, she had a feeling that joke wouldn't go over as well with this guy.

Also, there might really be flying cars.

"Southern part of California," she said dismissively. "It's a pretty awful place. I wouldn't bother with it."

[reincarnshaman]

Actually that would go over well with him. He's a science fiction fan.

"I still have no idea where that is," he said vaguely sheepish. "Is it in the United States? Because that doesn't exist in my world."

[dust_of_life]

Well, that confirmed a few things.

Fatima nodded slowly, confused and intrigued more than ever. "Yeah," she said. "The United States. A pretty lengthy hike from Eire. I'm sure I can find you a map sometime, if you're interested."

[reincarnshaman]

"That'd be cool. I'd rather like that," Trever said. "The existence of that country is a really big difference between mine and a lot of people's worlds."

And then, perhaps in a bit of a whiplash moment, he then went on to say, "So, does everyone in your world know about magic, like they do in mine?"

He's watching her reactions very intently, the slightly ... average guy with a squirt gun facade is still there, but there's a calculating look in his eyes now.

[dust_of_life]

Fatima had neither the desire nor the motive to lie. And anyway, given her blase reactions, she'd made it perfectly clear that she was 'in' on it. As it were.

"No," she replied simply. "There are very few people who know about magic. I'm either one of the lucky ones or one of the unlucky ones, depending on your point of view. My family's known about it for thirteen generations."

They were a part of it. Half-royalty, half-legendary. It was a strange sort of in-between space where she lived.

[reincarnshaman]

"I honestly couldn't tell you if it was unlucky or lucky. Everyone in my world has magic of some sort. So, I personally would say you're lucky." Tilting his head towards the cat, he said, "She says you smell funny in a not human way but are okay."

Veena licks her paw innocently. She totally wasn't tattling.

[dust_of_life]

Her fingers twitched and stiffened, floating over the cat's head in mid-scritch. It wasn't unheard of for animals to be able to detect the supernatural. Some of the Cainites back on the compound couldn't be anywhere near a dog or a horse.

But the seamless communication between cat and boy was unnerving, to say the least.

"I'll try not to take that as an insult," she said dryly, withdrawing her hand.

[reincarnshaman]

Veena takes the hand being removed as an insult and she swats at the woman's hand. BAD MINION! BAD!! Trever's lips twitch into a smile at her behavior.

It does help that Trever's knack is to talk to and understand animals. Just a little bit.

"It's not one. She's a cat after all." He doesn't seem to act like her smelling non human is in anyway weird, threatening or unusual.

Before he can continue, the cat vanishes from where she was swatting and Trever looks up from where he'd dropped down. Putting a finger to his lips, which barely hid the grin on his face, he retreated quickly behind something to hide.

[dust_of_life]

The whole encounter just kept getting stranger and stranger by the minute. But who was Fatima to argue with a possible Fae? Their ways weren't exactly the same as hers.

If she could deal with angels, she'd figure out a way to deal with this too.

Possibly.

...maybe.

She straightened up, glancing at the opening above. "If anyone stains my clothing, there's going to be hell to pay," she muttered.

[engineermage]

And out of the opening a small drone buzzes out followed by a man who looks identical to Trever. He drops down, clutching his squirt gun and then bounces up easily to his feet at the ready.

Spotting her he asked, "You haven't see anyone who looks like me, have you? But with a cat? Black? Teleports?"

[dust_of_life]

Her eyebrows twitched slightly, but Fatima managed to keep a more or less blase expression. And she managed not to ask if the drone was his familiar. The stories about technomages were fairly horrifying, back home. She already had enough trouble with nightmares.

"I have," she said calmly enough. "But I think it would be cheating if I told you where he went, wouldn't it?"

[engineermage]

While talking to her, Kale taps at a small control tablet he's attached to his wrist, letting the drone buzz around.

"Nah. It's only cheating if you get caught." The idea of cheating is a strange one for Kale (and Trever). Because people always say, 'don't cheat' but there are cheaters anyway. So, cheating is just another rule. The addition to the rule being 'don't get caught'.

Victory at all costs.

In a way.

[dust_of_life]

"The refrain of married men everywhere," she quipped.

It seemed her workout was over for the time being. But she honestly didn't mind. At the very least, these two were giving her things to focus on, besides her own misery. So that was something.

She tilted her head back slightly to watch the drone. "Is that Starfleet issue? Or one of your own?"

[engineermage]

"Oh, no. That's completely different. You don't break vows. Rules are one thing. Vows and oaths are another."

That is probably not helping her thought that they might be fae related.

"One of my own. Though I stole some bits off of Starfleet technology. I've been working on getting the hovering done properly for months now. And then here I finally figured out how to do it."

[dust_of_life]

"What does it do?" she asked. "Besides hover?"

Fatima had no real interest in technology. Texting and Googling were pretty much all she needed in life. But what it did say about her was her sense of loyalty and fair play. If the boys wanted to play hide-and-seek, that was fine by her.

But she was no traitor.

[engineermage]

"It's a spy drone," he said bluntly and unashamedly, still looking around, trying to find his brother.

None of the Starfleet officers has caught him yet. And if they haven't well - it's not spying if you don't get caught.

[dust_of_life]

Fatima would have to remember to start looking up before she took showers. Not that she was worth spying on. But some guys weren't so picky.

And most guys were perverts of one kind or another.

"Seems to me that you'd cover more ground if you split up," she commented. "You and drone-y, I mean."

[engineermage]

Kale is picky enough in that Fatima is completely not his type. Not into girls.

"Well, the intent of this particular exercise is to see how well the drone works as a scout for me and work out any bugs it might have. We're using Veena as a sort of control."

[dust_of_life]

"I can't say I'm familiar with that aspect of the scientific method," Fatima said, sitting down on a rolled-up tumbling mat. "Maybe you could explain how a cat is a control for a drone?"

Whatever the explanation ended up being, no doubt it would be entertaining.