Dutch Velders (godutch) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-04-06 21:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | dutch velders, kanan jarrus |
Who: Kanan Jarrus and Dutch Velders
What: Hanging out at the beach during the blood rain
When: Hunger Games Plot
Where: The beach and an apartment complex near the beach
Rating/Warning: Low/Blood
Status: Complete when posted
Hanging out with Kanan was a great deal of fun for Dutch, even when it was just business like her teaching him how to handle a sword. Truthfully, she probably wasn’t the best teacher Orange County had to offer. She’d learned everything she knew from the dreams, literally waking up one morning knowing how to lop off heads and wound things. Still, it was something, and if she could provide him with some knowledge then she would happily do so.
Especially if by doing so she got to spend the day at the beach with him as her reward.
This time Dutch was wearing much comfier shoes. The beach was no place for strappy heels. Her dress was a little less formal, as well. She was altogether a more comfortable person, but still definitely dressed to impress. Dutch was no slouch. She hardly ever even had an off-switch. It was a rare occasion that one could catch her in sweat pants.
As she walked the shore line she could feel her muscles. There was a slight, lingering soreness from having worked out. Swordsmanship lessons did count as a workout. It was mostly in her arms that she felt it, but her thighs could feel it, as well.
“Feel like you’re learning anything?” She gently elbowed Kanan in the side, eyeing him without turning her head.
“I think so,” Kanan answered with a shrug and then laughed. “I don’t feel as though I’ll cut off my own head, that’s for sure.” He rubbed at his shoulder, rolling it back as though it were a bit sore. “I didn’t expect it to be quite so intense,” he admitted. But it had been a great workout.
He would probably learn swordplay through the dreams. From what he’d seen on the network, and from what Dutch had told him herself, that seemed to be the case with such skills. But he hadn’t so much as drawn his lightsaber in the dreams. He actually didn’t act like a Jedi at all, so he wasn’t counting on being able to wield a lightsaber effectively just coming to him one morning. Besides, this was the perfect excuse to hang out with Dutch, who was becoming one of Kanan’s favorite people to be around.
He was walking next to her along the shore, bodies comfortably close, occasionally brushing together as they went. The weather was pleasant with a nice breeze coming off the water. Not quite ready for swimming yet, although there were a few brave souls in the water.
Dutch laughed, shaking her head. “Cutting off your own head would be quite a feat, but I’m glad to hear that won’t be happening any time soon. I can only imagine how awful that would be.”
She stretched her arms out in front of her, pulling one to the side to stretch her shoulder. “It’s a lot less intense when you’re dreaming it, that’s for sure. Swords are heavier than they look. It requires more muscle than you think to maneuver them. Light Sabers are probably a little easier to move around given that they’re not made of clunky metal. On the bright side, though, once you’ve learned how to handle a metal sword a Light Saber should be a piece of cake.” Dutch smiled up at him. It was a little odd talking about such things as if they were real, but she’d gotten over that way back when she’d started talking about vampires on the regular.
Shaking out her arms, she let them fall to her sides. A good workout always left Dutch feeling good. It was a wonder she didn’t work out more often. No, most of her hours were spent at the computer and, these days, behind a desk. Perhaps a more active lifestyle would have suited her better. Maybe she would have been happier living the life her dream self lived.
She looked around. Everyone else seemed so happy and the two of them were no exception. Maybe there was something in the air. “I don’t get out this way nearly enough. This was part of the reason I moved out this way from London. The beaches.”
Talking about the Dreams as if they were real - especially his dreams - was something Kanan was beginning to get used to. It still felt a little odd to talk about places like Coruscant and Gorse and people he’d only seen in movies as if they were real, but at the same time he knew them to be real as if he’d actually had been to those places and met them in person. It wasn’t nearly as confusing keeping his waking memories and his dream memories separate as he had thought it would have been at first. However, the more he talked about it with others, especially those who were dreaming of a similar place, and the more he dreamed, the easier and less odd it became.
He had no idea if he’d actually be getting his light saber or not. He hadn’t so much as drawn it in his Dreams, much less activated it. He’d seen it, tucked away among his meager belongings and wondered why he’d bothered keeping it while he was so desperately trying to not be a Jedi. What was he clinging on to it for?
That being said, he enjoyed his workouts with Dutch. Preparing for the time he would be receiving his light saber provided the perfect excuse to spend time with her. Spending time with her was always fun and he found himself looking forward to it more and more. “More than a piece of cake,” he told her with a smile. “With you as my teacher I’ll be able to fend off baddies in my sleep.
He put a casual arm around her shoulders as they walked, drawing her a little closer. “We need to get you out onto the beach more often,” he said. “It looks as though I’m going to be in town a little longer than I thought, so I’ll be happy to drag you out of your dank office to the beach.”
Dutch let out a laugh, happily letting Kanan get a little closer to her. “Well, let’s hope you don’t have to fend off baddies in Orange County. With any luck, all of the dramatic battles will be kept in space.” She sighed. “But with our luck these skills will prove handy somehow. Strange things keep happening around here. I keep waiting for the day when I’ll find one of those disgusting vampires from my dreams just walking the streets. It seems like it could very well happen.” She gave a facial shrug. There was no point in worrying about it.
“Are you?” She lifted her eyebrows slightly, looking at him with a smile when he mentioned that he’d be in town longer than he’d thought. “That’s a nice surprise. More beach trips are definitely required.”
It seemed as if strange clouds had begun to roll in overhead. Dutch eyed them curiously. “Damn, I hope it doesn’t rain…”
Kanan made a face. “I hope we don’t have to fight any of the vampires from your dreams,” he said. “Although...compared to the fog we had last month, it actually might be nice to fight something physical next time around, you know? I know I’d feel more accomplished that way.”
He gave her a grin. “Yup. A friend of mine is having a baby in June. I haven’t seen her in a while - years actually - and it felt kind of a dick move to just show up for a few weeks and take off again before the kid was born. So I agreed to hang around for a while. You know, welcome the kid into this crazy-ass world.” Maybe play Uncle Kanan a little bit. He had to admit, there was some kind of appeal to living a normal life vicariously through Lina and her little family. At least for a little bit. Kanan had never stayed in one spot for more than a couple of months at a time. Staying in Orange County until June would be the longest he’d ever hung out somewhere since he’d been a little kid.
There were other factors involved too. A certain kid he’d taken a shine to and given a job and he really did like spending time with Dutch. He was having a good time, all the weirdness notwithstanding. Maybe he could see himself settling down here for a little while.
He glanced up as he too noticed the clouds starting to roll in. “Shit,” he grumbled. “Figures. We get you to the beach and it threatens to fucking rain. Maybe we’ll be lucky and it’ll hold off until later.
No sooner had Kanan spoke when droplets began falling from the sky.
“If we have to fight the vampires from my dreams, I’m going to have to figure out how to make silver grenades.” Dutch chuckled a little. “Those things are incredibly useful. You have no idea. Pull the pin and the vampires all crumble to the floor.”
“Aw, really?” A smile spread across her face. Dutch wasn’t really the family sort, at least not yet, but she loved seeing families sprout up around her. They seemed to spread happiness. She knew she couldn’t wait to see Pete’s little girl once she was born. “I love births. Well, most of the time. When the circumstances are right they’re happy events. You know, balloons, cigars… All around lovely situations. Not something I’d want to experience firsthand just yet, but I love being a spectator.”
Dutch’s eyes went to her arm as she felt a few slow droplets of rain hit her, but something was wrong. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. It wasn’t clear light water should be, but thicker and red. It was more like blood.
“What the hell?” She wiped at the droplets creating a bright red streak on the flesh of her arm. This was no ordinary rain.
“Yeah, really,” Kanan smiled and shrugged a little sheepishly. “I didn’t really have a family growing up and...eh, I guess it’d be nice being on the periphery of one, you know? Be the cool uncle who teaches the kid all kinds of crazy stuff and then gives her back to her folks. Though,” he laughed, “if I know Lina, she’ll be teaching the kid crazy stuff all on her own.” Kanan was in no hurry to have children of his own. It wasn’t as if the idea frightened him, but he just couldn’t see himself as a father. His life was hardly conducive to raising kids, and he wouldn’t want to raise one while on the road and making underhanded deals. He’d want his kid raised right, have a better life than he did growing up and to do that required changes Kanan wasn’t willing to make at the moment.
A few drops had hit Kanan as well. So much for their good weather. He started when he heard Dutch call out. “What, what is it?” He looked at the blood on her arm, his eyes widening. “What happened? Are you alright?!”
Dutch was visibly a little freaked out, her eyes darting here and there as she tried to figure out what was going on. “It… It’s not my blood.” Finally, her gaze settled on the clouds above them and a droplet hit her square in the forehead. She wiped it away and put her fingertips close to her eyes to inspect the wetness she’d just touched. It was red, like blood.
“Something is seriously wrong with this rain.” Dutch flinched when the next droplet hit her, but quickly acclimated to the fact that she was being splattered with someone or something’s blood. “Either this is some weird, biblical kind of plague or… I don’t even know. I’m out of ideas.” She wiped the droplets from her face, leaving streaks of red on her cheeks and forehead. Dutch looked like she had seen some awful kind of carnage when in fact she’d just gone for a pleasant stroll on the beach.
“What the hell?” Kanan looked upwards towards the sky. He watched as more droplets of a red viscous fluid that was definitely not rain, fell from the sky. A few of those drops hit him in the face, cold and thick and disgusting. He reached up to wipe his forehead and cheeks, smearing red across his skin and hands. He stared at his fingers in shock.
“Is it...shit on a brick is it raining blood?!” Seriously, what the hell was wrong with this place?! First creepy ass fog that lingers for a week and now blood rain?! Why did people live here? This was straight up Wrath of God shit and Kanan wanted absolutely no part of it.
“C’mone, we gotta get out of here,” Kanan said. He grabbed Dutch by her hand and started running towards the boardwalk. “I don’t know from biblical plagues, but I’ve seen movies that always involve the oceans boiling and we really don’t need to be this close to the water when that happens.”
No sooner had Kanan spoke when the tide at their feet started receding fast and far from the water line, much farther than a normal wave usually indicated. Kanan stopped for a moment and stared as the biggest wave he had ever seen started careening towards the beach right where he and Dutch were standing.
“Yeah. Out of here. Now!” Still gripping Dutch by the hand, Kanan raced to - what he hoped - would be the safety of the boardwalk.
Dutch did her best to keep her mouth shut as she ran with Kanan towards the boardwalk. The last thing she wanted was to get someone’s blood in her mouth. She dreamt about vampires; she didn’t want to adopt any vampiric traits. Her feet moved as quickly as they could. If in fact the oceans were to start boiling she didn’t want to be anywhere near them.
Her gaze drifted to the horizon and she caught sight of the gigantic wave headed straight toward them. Dutch’s mouth which had previously been sealed shut hung open in surprise. Her eyes widened considerably. “Holy shit…”
As Kanan picked up his pace to run faster for the boardwalk, Dutch tried desperately to keep up with him. It was times like this that she thanked god for her beanpole shape and long legs. She ran at a ground-eating pace.
“This is hands down the most bizarre thing to happen in this town yet.” She had a look of panic on her face as she said the words. To battle vampires in your dreams is one thing, but to face something terrifying in real life is quite another.
Kanan wholeheartedly agreed. Granted the only other bizarre event he’d seen so far had been an unnatural fog. This was ten times worse. If he didn’t know any better he’d swear this was some biblical wrath of god bullshit raining down on them right now. He gripped Dutch’s hand for all he was worth as the two of them made a bee-line for the board walk. The loose sand under Kanan’s feet made running difficult and he stumbled a couple of times. He paused only long enough to be sure Dutch was still with him, to be sure he still had her by the hand.
He didn’t dare look over his shoulder as they ran. He caught glimpses of other beach goers running for their lives to higher ground, screaming and carrying small crying children. This was utter madness!
He was practically drenched in thick red blood by the time the two of them reached the boardwalk. Panting hard, Kanan looked around desperately for something - anything - that would provide them with adequate shelter from not only the rain, but the looming wave behind them. Something with high ground. “There!” He pointed towards one of the high rise apartment buildings on the other side of the street. “We need to get up high!”
Dutch saw the high rise apartment when Kanan did. She nodded enthusiastically in agreement with him. Nothing sounded better than getting indoors at that moment except for getting indoors and high up. Running with him as fast as she could, Dutch gripped his hand even though her hand was increasingly slick with blood rain. Soon the unstable terrain of sand beneath their feet became pavement as they ran from the beach to the sidewalk beyond it.
In her dreams, there was an unspoken agreement among the survivors of the vampire apocalypse that if one of them was ever bitten and became a vampire that one of the others would kill them immediately. Dutch uncomfortably compared herself to a vampire as some of the disgustingly ferrous liquid found its way into her mouth and onto her tongue. She wondered how close that made her to One of Them.
They were close to the high rise, but there were crowds of people all around them rushing for the same location and those crowds were threatening to pull Dutch and Kanan from each others’ grip. In spite of her slippery hands, she held onto his hand with an almost painful tightness. “Don’t let go!” She shouted. She didn’t want to lose him in this mess for fear of one of them getting trampled or drowned by that freak wave.
Kanan desperately tried to cling on to Dutch as best he could in the stampede of people running in blind confusion. Some of them were running to get out of the disgusting and bizarre rain. Others were running for their lives from the gigantic wave that was now looming over the beach like a behemoth. Kanan’s hands, much like the rest of him, were slick with syrupy thick blood and he felt Dutch’s hand threaten to slip free. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen if the two of them got separated in this chaos.
He pulled her close to him, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and held on tight to her blood soaked arm. “I won’t let you go,” he promised, practically having to shout to be heard over the din of the panicked crowd. “C’mone, we’re almost there.”
He clung onto Dutch tightly as the two of them fought their way through the crowd desperate to escape. With luck they managed to get inside the building’s lobby. The tile floor under their feet was already soaked and slippery with blood rain and it was a chore to not slip on it. Kanan turned to look over his shoulder where they had just come from. He expected to see the beach completely flooded and angry water rushing their way with the intend to break the door down and drown them all. To his amazement, however, the tidal wave had seemingly hit some kind of invisible wall somewhere between the breakers and the beach itself. He stood there, clutching Dutch close and just staring as the crowd jostled around them. “What the actual fuck?”
No sense in questioning their luck now. They were safe and for the time being that was all that mattered. Kanan turned his attention to Dutch, taking her face in his hands and attempting to clean the blood off, a fruitless task considering he was just as covered as she was. “Are you alright?” He asked her breathlessly, his face a study in worry.
Her eyes were locked on the strange display on the beach. What on earth was going on? Her jaw hung open slightly in amazement. She’d never seen anything even close to this before in her entire life. When she realized Kanan was talking to her, she snapped back to reality and looked to him. “Uh, yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just…” Dutch shook her arms slightly as if that would do any good of getting the blood off of her. “Moderately disgusted and shaken up, but otherwise safe and in one piece.”
A smile formed on her face, twitching slightly from all of the nervous energy bottled up inside of her. She’d been expecting a much worse disaster and now with apparent safety upon them she didn’t really know what to do with herself. “How are you? You alright?” She pushed some blood-slicked hair off of her face. It was gross how it all felt, sticky and thick against her skin and soaking her clothes. This outfit was definitely going in the garbage bin when she got home and the moment she stripped her clothes off she’d be taking a Silkwood-esque shower. There wasn’t enough soap in the world for all of the washing she was going to do.
“I’m fine,” Kanan assured her, although “fine” wasn’t entirely accurate. More like horrified and confused, but also relieved that they weren’t drowning in a flash flood or on the ground convulsing and speaking in tongues.
He was as covered in blood as she was and any attempt to clean off her face of the nightmare that had rained from the sky was a futile effort. He gave up when all he seemed to be doing was smearing it over her forehead and cheeks. He stopped when he saw her smile twitching and let his hands fall to her shoulders. This must have been a nightmare for her, blood raining from the sky, pouring over all over her, finding ways into her mouth and maybe turning her into one of them from her dreams.
He pulled her close to him in a comforting hug and held her for a moment, letting the rest of the adrenalin that had been pumping through his body to pass. They were alive and they were safe, and he was entirely grateful for that. After a moment he let her go. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” he said gently. “There’s got to be a shower around here somewhere.”
Dutch nodded. That was all she wanted at the moment. “A shower sounds heavenly.” She laughed a little bit, sounding only just the slightest bit forced. “And maybe burn these clothes eventually, but only after I have something clean to change into. Wouldn’t want to wander the streets naked. Pretty sure that’s still illegal even in case of freaky apocalypses.”
Her eyes kept drifting to the coastline, watching that mysterious border that had kept the wave from wiping all of them out. She was grateful for it, of course, but she didn’t trust it for anything. When things got weird in Orange County she never trusted them.
“How do you think they’ll explain this one?” She asked in a slightly lower voice. There was always some kind of explanation for the odd things that went on in town. Freak weather events seemed to happen there more than anywhere else on the planet. It just didn’t seem right.
A shower was exactly what they needed. Wash all this disgusting blood off as well as the horror of everything they had just experienced. Burning their clothes sounded like a good idea. Kanan had no idea if the blood had actually come from a person or if it had just spontaneously generated in the clouds. Either way he would not be wearing these trunks and this t-shirt ever again. Will probably need to get a new pair of beach shoes as well.
Kanan’s eyes followed Dutch’s out towards the beach. “I have no idea how they’re going to cover this one up,” he murmured. “Fog is one thing. You can pass it off as freak weather, but this? You can’t convince people they didn’t see blood pouring from the sky. You can’t tell them it wasn’t blood.” He looked back towards the gathered crowd. Way too many people had seen what had happened for anyone to report that it was all a hallucination or some kind of freak weather. It was impossible. “C’mone,” he said quietly. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Kanan put an arm around Dutch’s shoulders and steered them both away from the confused and murmuring crowd. The hunt for a shower was on. Kanan didn’t care if they had to borrow someone’s, they were going to get clean, dammit.