Karolina Dean (teenglowstick) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2019-07-29 11:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !log, jedikiah price (contradictions), ~2019 july, ~25 points, ~~karolina dean (teenglowstick) |
Who: Karolina Dean + Jedikiah Price
When: Backdated to Friday
Where: Outside the apartments
What: Picking up a new ward
Warnings: None
Status: Started in gdoc, tbc in comms
Karolina was still partially in shock over how quickly it happened. One moment, Amy was sitting right there at the dinner table, telling a story, and Karolina had gotten up to get another soda from the fridge, when the story cut off in mid sentence. She’d still been laughing as she came back in the room to see what was wrong, and it had taken a few minutes for her to confirm that yeah - Amy was gone. Overall, this really sucked.
Now she sat outside the apartment building with a suitcase beside her of some of her things. She knew that she needed to come back to get the rest of her stuff tomorrow, but she didn’t want to spend the night in the apartment alone, and since she was getting a new guardian, it seemed better to just get things over with now.
Only she hadn’t expected her new guardian to be the man that John had warned her about. Nothing had actually happened in all the months he’d been in Madison Valley, though, and she wondered if he was really as bad as John claimed. In short, she was willing to try and give him a chance.
***
Jedikiah had been heading home when he’d gotten called down to city hall; nothing like getting told you were being handed a new ward to end your day, he noted with a wry smile to himself. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was being assigned another one when he’d already been assigned a ward, but he wasn’t going to argue or complain. He was, however, going to tell the city hall staff that he’d be in contact with the necessary people shortly to make arrangements for moving into something with the proper number of bedrooms -- because he’d seen the look on the woman’s face, and he wasn’t about to walk into that trap, thank you very much.
Jedikiah Price left traps for people, he didn’t walk into them.
He wasn’t entirely sure where Karolina was at the moment but figured he’d head back to the apartments to take a look before messaging her -- better checking in person before getting strange and possibly creepy. And if she’d only just been reassigned, she would probably still be in her former apartment.
… or sitting outside the building.
“Karolina?” He smiled slightly. “I’m Jedikiah.”
***
She had been fiddling with the thin metal cuff around her wrist that dampened her powers, yes staring off at nothing, and so Karolina never noticed him walking up. When he spoke, she jumped slightly and looked up, then gave a slightly wary smile. “...Yeah, that’s me. Hi,” she said before pushing to her feet and holding out her hand. If anything, her mother had drilled manners into her.
“It’s nice to meet you,” she told him. He definitely seemed nice at first glance, and didn’t seem to be all murdery or anything, so for the moment she relaxed a bit. “Thanks for picking me up.”
***
“Not a problem,” he assured her as he shook her hand. “I actually got the call about this on my way home. We’re going to be staying in the apartment another couple of days -- I already have another ward, she’s about your age and her name’s Glimmer, so I have to look into an appropriate living space for the three of us so I’m afraid you’re going to be on the couch until we move.”
He laughed slightly. “I promise, it won’t be for more than a couple of days.”
***
“Glimmer?” She thought she’d seen something on the network, but she hadn’t met her yet. Karolina had been focusing more on her art lately than social media. Even now, she had some dried paint stuck to one of her arms, and a couple stains on her jeans.
“The couch is fine. If it’s an inconvenience though, I could talk to my girlfriend about maybe staying with her and her guardian? Or one of my friends?” Karolina really didn’t want to be in the way.
***
“No, it’s absolutely fine,” Jedikiah assured her. “I just didn’t want you thinking I’m going to make you sleep on the couch forever -- even if it is a perfectly comfortable one.” He smiled almost teasingly as he headed back to the building, reaching out to hold the door open for Karolina.
“And did you have a chance to eat anything tonight or do you still need dinner?” Because that was something easy he could take care of, the least of their problems. They could both take care of that one easy enough, whichever answer.
Plus they could save all the harder stuff, like him asking whether Amy’s stuff was still there and whether or not she’d want help with her own stuff, for in the morning.
***
“I don’t mind sleeping on a couch,” she said quickly, but after a moment she returned his smile. “But it’d be nice not to do it for long, I guess.” Being honest was a good thing, right?
“We were...I’ve eaten,” Karolina replied as she picked up her suitcase to head back in. She was a little surprised to learn they lived in the same building, but considering they all got apartments when they arrived, it wasn’t too big a deal.
***
“Okay, then,” he said with a slight nod. “But if you need to raid the kitchen, go ahead and feel free.” It was her place, too, he wasn’t going to tell her she couldn’t.
“How’re you holding up?” he asked as they headed up to the apartment. “I mean, besides the obvious. “Were you and Amy close?” Jedikiah wasn’t going to pry, but he wanted to get at least some kind of sense as to how much he could -- and should -- talk about everything at the moment.
He wasn’t as insensitive as people tended to think he was.
***
“Thanks, I appreciate that.” Karolina smiled again, glancing over at him as they walked.
“I think I’m still kind of in shock? It just happened so fast. And I guess we were. I’ve been here almost a year, so we just got to know each other pretty well over all that time.” She gave a small shrug as they stopped outside a door.
“It’s still really weird in general. Every time I think I’m used to this place, something new happens.”
***
“I know the feeling,” Jedikiah said with a slight laugh. “I’ve been here since… January, but every time I think things make sense? Something changes that perception just slightly. I’m used to having my worldview challenged, but this place can be pretty good at rapidfire changes.”
As he let them in, he said, “I’m sorry you lost someone you were close to, though. It… it’s not easy losing anybody that matters.”
He’d lost Roger, though not the same way. His brother had died in his arms, and he hadn’t even really grieved that. He’d lost Morgan -- except that’d been half his own doing and all for her own protection. Losing people was generally how Jedikiah wound up keeping people safe.
His life was kind of screwed up that way.
***
“Yeah, it’s not,” she said softly. For a moment, Karolina thought back on everyone from home, and Nico’s sister...but then she gently pushed all of that aside to instead focus on Jedikiah and what he was saying.
As they walked in, she glanced around the apartment. None of it screamed evil or anything, so Karolina walked over to the couch, dropping her bag beside it as she sat.
“If you don’t mind, I’m pretty tired. I think I should just get some sleep for tonight.”
***