KC (doingmything) wrote in low_tide, @ 2010-02-16 21:49:00 |
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Current mood: | surprised |
Life Less Ordinary
"Yeah, I know I promised to send them yesterday, but you've got them now... Yes, check your email." Rhiannon's shoe kicked a broken piece of concrete into the gutter. She was in no particular hurry. The afternoon sun slanted shadows on the street. She stayed in them, on her way back from the small property management company that leased out her house. At least rent, if not her work assignment, was on time. "So you got them. Do they look okay?" She slipped a lock of hair away from her sunglasses. "Alright cool, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye."
She closed the cell. Her boss at the tourism board lectured, but he was all bark and no bite. Though Rich Patterson had noticed a -- what was the word he used? -- tonal difference in Rhiannon Lee's work since November, he didn't take any issue with it. Said it was 'edgier'. How graphics depicting Key West as a tropical paradise could be edgy, Rhiannon didn't know. It felt grotesquely pedestrian to her. Whatever. Being a sell-out had its perks.
She looked both ways before striding into a crosswalk. Heat had cracked the white paint and faded it. Too busy staring at the asphalt, she barely noticed the tan brunette coming towards her. Rhiannon looked up only as their elbows met. "Sorry."
The tan brunette in question was one Kris Michaels, on her way home after finishing a shift at the station, looking forward to a well deserved week off. She had all kinds of plans, one of which was to swing into that bar that Hayden worked at, see if she couldn't catch up with him and maybe drag Jenny out with her, the girl could do with having some fun. Simon on the other hand had way too much fun and Kris had had to deal with another random one night stand left in his bed. The asshole had ditched before the woman had woken up, leaving Kris to explain a few things. Less than fun.
She was so having words when he got home.
"It's okay," she answered as she briefly met the gaze of a dark brunette, moving to continue on her before feeling something... tug. Kris frowned and turned her head, trying to work out what the issue was and it was only when she saw that she had what looked like a chain around her wrist that her eyebrows both lifted. "What the..." She followed the pathway of the chain and found it was also attached to somebody else, the same dark brunette that she'd brushed elbows with.
Rhiannon didn't notice the chain at first, either. She was too busy slowing in the street and staring at the back of Kris's head. Shit, should I say anything? Whistler had mentioned the other Slayer was in Key West, only just learning of her supernatural abilities. The first instinct was to offer help. The second was to chicken out. Back home, Kris had been one of her best friends, so it could be tricky getting to know her again (tricky equaled painful). All of that contemplation led to stalling, but that would get trumped if Rhiannon got up the guts to say hello now.
She felt a tug and looked down. Silver metal grated against her wrist as Kris pulled on it. "Hey, wait, I'm caught on your---" Uh... what was it? Rhiannon turned her arm. "Newfangled handcuffs?"
A car eased to a stop at the crosswalk. Its driver tooted the horn.
Rhiannon threw them an annoyed look, but didn't say anything.
Kris did much the same as Rhiannon before she shook her head. "These aren't mine. Definitely not mine." She swept her free hand through her hair and held a chunk of it as she returned to the other brunette's side, wondering why she felt an odd sensation in her stomach. Little did Kris know but that feeling was all part of being Slayer, the joys of being able to hone in on the supernatural and locate it.
"We should probably get out of the middle of the road." Kris glanced at the annoyed driver behind the wheel of the nearby car and then headed back in the direction of the sidewalk, wondering how and where in the hell the chain had come from.
She reached down and gave the chain a good pull, seeing if she could find some sort of weakness in one of the links. No joy.
Back on the curb, Rhiannon inspected the bewildering metal leash. At least it kept her from gaping at Kris, searching her for differences. "What the fuck is this thing?" Rhiannon walked her fingers all the way to Kris's end. Maybe the sunglasses were the reason she couldn’t find a clasp. She propped them on her head and looked around them, then tried again with the chain. She hadn't noticed anybody else in the crosswalk, and she felt like she would've seen a person hell-bent on lassoing them together.
Maybe this is how Slayers recognize each other in Bizarro-World, she thought, about 90% kidding. But nothing freakish happened when she ran into Destiny. She sneaked a look at Kris. "FYI, I didn't do this," she grumbled. God, she's identical. Well yeah, what did I expect? Bet she's got a few less scars.
"Hell if I know," Kris muttered with a shake of her head. "Never seen anything like it." She continued to scrutinize the chain like that might make it disappear or slacken to the point where they could just slip it off. She'd already tried pushing the links down on her wrist but there was no way her hand was fitting through.
She looked up at the FYI comment and offered a slanted smile. "Yeah, ditto. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm usually the one slapping cuffs on people, but this? This I had nothing to do with."
Rhiannon wasn't as panicked as she could be. Worse things had happened. Still, it was weird as shit. "I'm Rhiannon," she said, offering the other Slayer what passed for a smile under the circumstances. "You look... sturdy enough, and I'm pretty fit." That was one way of putting it. "Maybe if we both pull. Unless you want to break out the service gun and open fire on it in public, which I'm all for, but... yeah." Her eyebrows quirked.
I've gotten out of more intimidating-looking restraints. Okay, glad I didn't say that out loud. At least if her strength was unveiled in front of Kris, she had a ready (and familiar) explanation. Rhiannon grabbed onto the chain with her right hand and awaited Kris's verdict.
Kris should probably have been more panicked than she was, but weird and wonderful seemed to be becoming part of her day to day routine. "Kris," she answered with a smile of her own. "And as for firing my service gun? I'd really rather not. I hate using it, even when I'm on duty." As weird as that was, but she was very much a police officer who hated firearms.
"Alright," she said with a nod of her head, taking a hold of the chain. "On the count of three?" Kris braced herself by spacing her feet apart, curling her fingers around her part of the chain. "One... two... three!" And just like she said on the count of three she pulled, hoping their combined strength might be enough to break the chain.
Rhiannon pulled, too. Just in case Kris was holding back, she said, "Don't be afraid to pull hard, I can handle it." They stood there for about ten seconds, locked in a tug-of-war, and it was probably obvious that she could deal with the other woman's strength, since they were caught in a dead heat. Neither of their feet budged. Unfortunately, the chain didn't either. "Damnit." Rhiannon relaxed and rubbed her lips together, trying to think up a solution. The chain was obviously mystically enhanced or they'd have torn through it in no time flat. Maybe she ought to text Purity or Izzy to see if they had idea. Failing that, Whistler might know of something.
Yeah, right, he'd just crack a joke... Like hey, great time for a nude photo shoot.
Kris wasn't holding back and she was all too aware of just how strong the other woman's pull was, it felt... way stronger than she'd been expecting. Huh, maybe... Kris looked up at Rhiannon and furrowed her brow, wondering if she was different like her, if she was... a Slayer? Whistler had mentioned that there was another Slayer in town. "Well," Kris muttered as she regarded the unaffected chain. "That definitely didn't work."
She reached up with her free hand and rubbed at the back of her neck, wondering how to broach the fact that Rhiannon was really strong, too strong. "Hey, this is a weird question, but... do you know a guy called Whistler?"
Rhiannon lifted an eyebrow, her humor on the dry side. "Do I know him? You could say that."
She put her hands on her hips and squinted around the intersection. A few stray looks of curiosity, sure, but nobody looked guilty or in-the-know about what was going on. There was a street cam on the corner, but she had no idea how to access the old footage, or whether it was owned by the Florida Department of Transportation or the city government. Maybe it was worth looking into. "And yeah, by the way," she said, "I am what you're thinking. The capital S. He told me you were in town, too. There's a third, a girl named Destiny, but I'm not sure she's really gung-ho for it these days."
Kris took that in with a nod of her head. "I figured as much given that we both pulled on this thing and neither of us budged." She breathed out slowly and just glanced at the chain again, wondering how something like this happened. "So neither of us had anything to do with this and it just... turned up out of nowhere." Kris rubbed at the back of her neck and rocked on her heels, back and forth.
"Sounds a little... weird. But then I'm getting used to that."
"Magic," Rhiannon said, watching her. When the breeze picked up from the waterfront, she trained a piece of hair behind her ear. "I mean, that's the only explanation I can think of... that this thing's been reinforced. It's just a matter of who did it and why. Is it just us? Is it happening to people who have power, or are we just a coincidence?" She bit her bottom lip. And if there's a bigger force behind this playing puppet master, there's a subtler way to introduce us.
"You want to go somewhere less street-cornerish and start talking this through?" Rhiannon asked. While they were at it, maybe she could do a little investigation into Kris's new life, like who was in it and if they had familiar faces.
Kris lifted an eyebrow at the mention of magic and it was almost on the tip of her tongue to go 'wtf?' but she refrained, reminding herself that she was a Slayer and monsters? Really did exist. Anything was possible these days. "Yeah, somewhere less street-cornerish would be great. Really great."
Some of the looks they were getting were somewhat offputting, even if Kris did return them with a glare.
"Well, we could go get a drink or just head to my place," Rhiannon offered. "The only person who lives there besides me is Connor. He's a demon fighter, too, but I think he's at the college this afternoon." She put her sunglasses over her eyes again. Had he met this Kris already? God, she couldn't remember. They needed a spreadsheet. "You can trust us," she added. "Not that you'll take my word for it, if you're as smart as I think you are. But it's true anyway."
Wait... "Connor?" Kris repeated, looking every bit as stunned as she felt. "I... uh, met him already. He was- I was patrolling and he happened across a domestic a couple of neighbours were having. He gave me his number, to call if I wanted to talk about stuff."
Whistler knew these people and he hadn't exactly screamed untrustworthy, but at the same time it was all a lot to take in and being chained to a fellow Slayer was going to be... interesting to say the very least. "You know what? I'm totally feeling a drink right about now."
Rhiannon nodded. "I was really hoping you'd vote drink." She looked around and took stock of their location. A decent, dark bar waited within two blocks. She cocked her head in that direction and began to walk. "Connor... Me and him go way back. Well, a couple of years," she amended, remembering she was supposed to be twenty-two years old, counting the handful of days until her next birthday. "But not as far as me and Whistler," she said. "He found me, you know? When I was sixteen and didn't know what I was." The brunette tucked her thumbs in her hip pockets. She looked at Kris and wondered what the woman's life was like here, career in law enforcement aside (god, she'd give her eye-teeth to tell Chicago's version about that turn of events). Did she still feel strapped to her family? Did she work herself to death? Who was she dating? Did she even know Hayden, who was here, too?
Kris trailed alongside Rhiannon and nodded her head as the other woman spoke. "That's pretty cool. I was really freaked out when he came up to me and pretty much told me what I was, not at all helped by the fact a guy who I thought was human turned out to be not and he was... somewhat eager to bite." She pushed open the door to the bar and held it open for Rhiannon, immediately trailing in the direction of the bar.
"Can I get a pitcher of beer and two glasses?"
She had a feeling they might need it.
Rhiannon picked up the frosted glasses and carried them to a booth on the far wall, where they could talk in private. If the bartender thought anything was odd about the women, he didn't say so -- wisely. Rhiannon sat down and drew a leg underneath her. "Yeah? At first, I thought he was a pervert. He came up to me outside a 7-11 and started following me home. I threatened to waste him with a beer bottle. Then out came a vampire. Whistler tossed me a stake and shouted commands from the sideline. It was pretty odd, but it felt right, too, you know?"
She took off her sunglasses and set them by the salt shaker.
Kris settled onto a seat on the booth and nodded, giving a small smile. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Even if I'm still trying to take all of this in." She rubbed at her hair and drew out her phone, shooting a quick text off to her mother who had been expecting her for dinner. When the pitcher of the beer was delivered to the table, Kris lifted it to pour herself and Rhiannon a beer. "I'm just glad the station stopped talking about the perp that got away overnight."
She rested her phone on the table and very sensibly put it on silent.
Rhiannon knew they should brainstorm about the chain... Try to do something useful with their time. The urge to get to know Kris again was overpowering it, though. "I'm gonna fire off a few texts," she said, pulling out her phone, too, "To some people I know. A few are magic types. Maybe they've heard of this kind of thing." Her thumbs flew on the miniature keyboard. 'Slight situation. Have somehow gotten myself chained -- literally -- to Kris. Links won't break. Mystical? Any ideas?' She sent the message to Whistler, Purity, Izzy, Connor, and Destiny.
When the animated envelope disappeared, Rhiannon slid the phone aside and picked up her beer. "So are you in Key West with family or...?" She trailed off and lifted her shoulders, hoping Kris would fill in the blanks.
"Hopefully they'll know something," Kris muttered, wondering if she should send a text to Jenny to give her housemate a heads up. She decided that it was probably a good idea and picked up her phone, sending a quick message. 'Hey, I'm in the weirdest predicament. I'm literally chained to another person. Just thought it best to tell you before you saw me and went all... wtf. Hope all is good and you're not working too hard.'
Once the message was done she put it aside and took a sip from her glass. "Me? Yeah, I've got a whole hoard of family in Key West. Granted there's one less now that my older brother has returned to active duty, but it's still an impressive hoard." She looked up at Rhiannon. "How about you?"
Older brother in active duty? The whole family in Florida? Rhiannon hid her surprise behind her beer glass, taking a long sip. When she resurfaced, she shook her head and rubbed her lips together. "No family. I've got friends down here, though." It was strange. Key West had given Izzy and Purity second chances with their families; even Kris seemed to be in different circumstances. Hers? Almost identical. Apparently the butterfly effect went a little light on Rhiannon's personal history. At least it made for an easy adjustment.
"More than just Connor and Whistler, I mean," she amended. "A lot of us just kind of..." Hmm, how to put this? "Landed down here. I'm from Michigan, originally." Rhiannon leaned back against the cushioned seat. The vinyl was old and cracked in places, but comfortable. She encircled her knee with an arm. "Do any of them know about you? What you are? When I found out, I tried to tell my dad, but he thought I was stoned. Told my boyfriend. He wasn't such a fan, but I didn't really care. I wasn't that big a fan of him."
"My housemate," Kris shared as she took another sip from her glass. "She's the only one that knows. I haven't even told my best friend about this, not entirely sure how to given that he's... well, he can be an idiot at times." She sat back into the booth and drew her leg up, resting the sole of her boot against the edge of the vinyl seat. "Thankfully my housemate was pretty cool with it. Very accepting, but she's always been really open-minded so I'm lucky."
She tapped her fingers against the side of the glass. "Not sure what my family would make of it. My mom's worried about me as it is, what with being a police officer. I keep telling her that Antonio's work is far more dangerous, but she doesn't listen."
"Because you're a woman?" Rhiannon asked. Her mouth turned up at the corners as a smile worked on it. "Ironic, considering they chose us to carry the greatest strength in the human world. Greatest burden, too, but that part's nothing new. Women are used to that." She drew a line down the side of her mug. A drop of water stayed on her fingertip. A lot of times, she was struck by the parallels that could be made between slaying and the other sacrifices women made.
She gave thought to Kris's unnamed housemate. A person would have to be pretty damn 'open-minded' to handle news like that.
"Yeah, that and the fact the violence on the streets has gotten a whole lot worse recently. Fortunately I can take care of myself." Kris offered a wry smile and took another sip from her glass, returning her fingertips to the cool glass. "Whenever my mom's pissed at my dad she tells him about the many hours she spent giving birth. He goes a very odd shade of grey at that point."
She lifted a shoulder. "Not that I'd change her for the world."
Rhiannon's eyes jumped from her glass to Kris's face. "So they're married, then? Your parents?" She tried to ask it as casually as possible. "Mine were, too, before my mom died. Just seems like a rare thing now." She softened the bluntness of the comment with a smile. Maybe Kris's dad was an upstanding guy now; that would be a relief to her. She drank farther into her glass. The beer was cold and tasted good enough; despite being a frequent drinker, Rhiannon had never been picky about drinking what was on tap.
She played with the links around her wrist. The chain was so small and delicate that it might've passed for jewelry, had it not locked them at the arm. At least if she found herself in a fighting situation, the person attached to her could hold her own. Hell, it might even be an interesting style of taking out a demon. Two-on-one.
"Happily so," Kris said with a smile. "Managed to survive all the traveling and having my dad away for weeks, even months at a time. The banes of being a marine's wife." She sipped at her beer and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, eyes dropping to the chain that wrapped both her and Rhiannon's wrist. "This is really surreal, hoping your friends might know how to get it off. Not that I'm saying I'm hating being attached to you, but it would be nice if we'd met up under better circumstances."
"Like crashing a vampire house party?" Rhiannon's eyebrows went up. Yeah, that sounded exactly like the kind of fun they had together. Maybe they'd get close enough to do it again. It's weird sitting here with you. So much is the same. I wish I could tell you. She poured herself a refill on the beer and watched the golden-brown fluid rise in her mug. There were warnings she'd like to give Kris, too. Like about watching out for Elfleda, who used to get her jollies pumping Kris full of poison and watching everybody scramble.
"How much have you learned so far, about the kind of monsters that exist?" she asked, collecting her glass and reclining against the vinyl. "I mean, maybe now's not the time for me to unload on you, but I'm kind-of wondering."
"That sounds pretty extreme," Kris said with a chuckle and a smile. "But it might be fun if I was more experienced in this whole Slayer thing." She drained what was left in her glass and pushed it to on side, drumming the tips of her nails against the table. "Not a whole lot? I mean, I've read a couple things, but I don't have a lot of experience. I have more experience with human beings than I do the supernatural at the moment, but Whistler mentioned a Watcher and I'm not so sure what's happening there."
She leaned back and lifted her shoulders. "I guess I need to get out there and do more."
"Yeaaah, Watchers?" Rhiannon wrinkled her nose. "Kinda hit-and-miss. If you get one, great, even better if they're good at it. But if you don't, the ship hasn't sailed or anything. There's other ways to learn what you need." She took a sip. What are you gonna do, offer to help out? Imagine those sparring sessions... you, Kris, Connor, Deanna... Try explaining that.
Other than Deanna being a recovering blood-a-holic, a little two-on-two wasn't a terrible idea. Big 'other than', though. Huge. Sixteen-point font in bold.
"I'm just saying, if you really want to do this, there's a place for you and a way to learn." Rhiannon shrugged it away.
"I'm still trying to work that one out," Kris answered honestly. "I have a pretty rough day and sometimes a night job that has me working a lot of hours and I deal with a lot of shits on a regular basis." Her lips quirked in the corner and she lifted one shoulder. "But I'm not one to walk away from something that seems this important. Just need to get my head around it, you know?"
She reached out to pour herself another glass of beer. "Should've guessed something was up given the fact I had to prove I wasn't on performance enhancing drugs when I applied to the Academy."
Rhiannon reached to her left and fiddled with a salt shaker. "So you don't remember when it happened, then? Late May 2003, maybe? No big, revelatory moment?" She tried to imagine going about her life without realizing things were sharply different. It came on like nausea in the locker room at school when she was sixteen. She accidentally pulled the bathroom stall door off its hinges. Afterward, she knew something was wrong (actually, as it turned out, something was 'right'), but had no clue what until Whistler.
"Can't say I had that experience," Kris admitted with a shake of her head. "Things just started happening and I didn't know where to start and I was worried people might think I was nuts or pumping myself full of steroids so I ignored it, worked around it and just kept doing what I knew how to do. Certainly helped me be a better cop."
She took a sip and put the glass back on the table. "I guess this is what makes people different, their experiences."
"Yeah," Rhiannon said. "Definitely didn't mean to imply it was wrong. Just... You know. I was curious." And I'm trying to take peeks into your back-story to figure out who you are. Rhiannon scratched her eyebrow and checked her phone. So far, no texts. "So, where do you want to head after this? My place? It's not much, but it's safe, you know? Connor'll just do a double-take."
"Might be an idea," Kris said with a nod of her head. "I live with two other people, one of which would probably understand this and the other? He'd probably make some crude joke about chains, hot chicks and porn." Simon was a fun person, when he wasn't being a... guy. "He lives in hopes."
She took a final sip from her glass. "At least this way I can find some more out about being a Slayer."
Rhiannon finished her beer, too, and grabbed her sunglasses. "Ask away. Doesn't look like we're on a tight schedule." As she scooted out of the booth, the chain scratched on the wooden table, doing its part to remind them if they temporarily forgot their problem. Once the tab was settled, they headed outside into the bright afternoon. At least they were both on foot.