Re: Axel: Rae & Fen
In Rae's world, challenges were smaller. Subtler. Control was better than domination and wasn't domination a bore? She'd no idea what it was he was doing in her proximity but Rae was unsurprised by his presence in town as she was now unsurprised by anyone from the past passing through. Vale was the past, its serenity and staidness confined to history and the breathless confines she'd shed long ago, an ancient chrysalis.
He moved to close the distance and Rae looked as relaxed as she had prior to him doing so. She'd never been on his sibling but her elipsis and periphery had brushed Nel's enough to recognize her once they'd come abreast on the same tide in Chicago. She'd flirted, but hadn't she with anyone who was remotely lacking in insipid stupidity? It had been the only relief from boredom, flexing that particular muscle. Scratch that: plaid and hairy didn't look insipid and she hadn't the faintest recollection of flirting with him. It had been decades.
"Isn't it a classic by now?" She picked at her popcorn, broke a kernel apart between finger and thumb. "I rather like strange past-times, as a rule." She smiled into the sharp slice of his face. Rae could look serene when she chose; she chose now. "There are more and more every day in town."