Raven loves waffles more than life itself (ofevilsfire) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-08-02 22:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, cosima niehaus, rachel roth (raven) |
Who: Cosima and Raven
What: Cosima mistakes Raven for Shay thanks to the blonde hair
When: Recently
Where: Park
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
Raven still wasn’t happy about the blonde hair thing, but she had more or less come to terms with it. The magic was still in her system, and well she wasn’t completely evened out in terms of her own magic either. She was hopeful that the new set of dreams were close to finished because that would help in terms of that issue (in theory). But it was what it was.
For now though, she just had to deal with the blonde. It was at least no longer new, which meant she didn’t need to answer asinine questions from coworkers on why she suddenly was deciding to be a blonde. A lost dare had been the answer.
For once not hiding away, the teen had an iced chai and book in hand and was sitting on a bench, reading. Admittedly the heat in California, especially in the summer, was made of fail for someone who tended to opt for darker colored outfits, but she did have clothes appropriate for this weather as well where she wouldn’t melt. Especially since she had decided to read outside today.
Not for the first time, Cosima was questioning her sanity. Working on her dissertation was a full time job in and of itself, but she also worked for the Agency. Of course, Jemma was more than understanding when Cosima needed to focus on the dissertation, but she was the type that didn’t like to let anyone down in any area. Even if it meant stretching herself far beyond her limits. Currently, things were easy to balance. She’d typically spend a couple days a week doing work for her dissertation and doing anything else she needed to for school, meetings with advisors, etc, and other days she’d spend time at the Agency doing some work in the lab.
Today she was going to spend some time working on her dissertation. She had her shoulder bag loaded with books and notebooks, and she’d stopped at a cafe to get some tea. But instead of heading for the UC Irvine library, Cosima decided to head for a park. She could do some reading and research outside in the fresh air. It counted as getting out, right? Right.
Walking along, she kept an eye open for an open table. Or a shady spot under a tree. Though something else caught her attention first. A young woman that looked like something right out of her dreams. Cosima stopped dead in her tracks and stared at her. While she always knew that people from her dreams could show up at any time, she’d more felt that someone like Aldous Leekie, Rachel Duncan or Delphine would be the next to show up. But that didn’t seem to be the case because this girl looked like Shay.
And if it was Shay, Cosima owed her some intense apologies for what had happened in the dreams. Or once Shay actually dreamed, that is. But as it was, Cosima decided she should stop being rude and stop staring and talk.
“Um, excuse me?” She asked, a little hesitantly. All the while thinking that of anyone who could potentially show up here, Cosima would take Shay over the vast majority of others.
Why oh why was it impossible for people to let her just read in peace? This was why she didn’t read outside. It was why she kept to herself. But no, get out and get some fresh air. It’s nice outside, why not read there? Peace and quiet. She should have known better, yet here she was. Though why did this person sound hesitant?
Looking up from her reading, Raven blinked. She looked sort of like the guidance counselor who sometimes had been at the high school, the one who Ed had seen. But… different accent if she was correct (not that she really remembered).
“Yes?” The question was wary because honestly, Raven had no idea why this woman needed. But she supposed she’d find out soon enough. God, what was the counselor’s name again?
When the young woman looked up, Cosima could tell it wasn’t Shay. Despite the resemblance, she looked younger than Shay should’ve been. Or, well, who knew how differences between this world and the dreams went. Perhaps it was Shay, but she was just younger. But no, Cosima was just going to convince herself it wasn’t Shay. It would be way less complicated that way.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you, you just look like someone I know.” Now she sounded a bit flustered as she was trying to calm down. Shay would probably be the better of her dream girlfriends to show up here, but it would still be complicated and make everything weird.
“Your name isn’t Shay, is it?” Possibly a weird question, yes, but it was an important one to Cosima. So long as this wasn’t a younger Shay, then things would be fine. If her name was Shay then Cosima wasn’t sure what to do.
O...kay. Slow and wary nod at the comment of ‘you look like someone I know’. Because well, it wasn’t the counselor from high school. Wrong accent and all. But it was still uncomfortable and awkward. So waiting to see what it was that this woman wanted so she could see how this played out.
“No. Raven.”
And just as she had thought. She didn’t know the person who was talking to her. But at least that was out of the way and they could move on with their lives. In theory. Depended on how the woman in front of her carried on given the fact that Raven was more than happy to just go back to her reading.
Cosima was rather relieved when it wasn’t Shay. She really didn’t want to have to dodge that bullet. Things were strange enough as it was! She didn’t need to have Shay around right now. She let out a little sigh of relief.
“Oh, good. That’s definitely a relief.” She smiled, the tension in her body dissipating just as quickly as it had come. “Sorry about that, but better to make sure than not.” Especially with what had transpired in her dreams. “I’m Cosima.” She might as well introduce herself. It was only proper, especially after she’d so rudely interrupted Raven’s reading.
As Cosima rambled and seemed to relax, Raven just watched her, brow quirked some. “Right…. Glad to know I’m not some horrible person you don’t want to deal with.” It wasn’t like she knew who Shay was or why Cosima wouldn’t want to deal with her. Dreams were tricky like that. But she did know something about being unwanted.
“Nice to meet you, not-counselor from the high school.”
Sometimes she was blunt. And really she had no idea on what was going on right now. So straight to the point, blunt. Typical Raven and her lack of people skills.
“Oh no, the person you look like isn’t terrible. Just an ex-girlfriend that would make things kind of way awkward.” Even without the Dreams factored in, it would just be awkward in general all around. Cosima didn’t exactly do well if she ran into exes. She tended to get flustered because they made her anxious sometimes. Especially if the break up wasn’t a good one.
And the break up with Shay was definitely not a good one.
“Not-counselor?” For a brief moment, Cosima was confused, but then the lightbulb went off. “Oh! You must mean Sarah. She’s my sister.” Because the C-word wasn’t something she liked throwing around anymore in casual conversation. Sarah was her sister, plain and simple.
Yeah, that was something which would be awkward. In theory. Raven wouldn’t know, she didn’t have any exes in either this world or in the dreams. There was that horrible time of realizing she was in a love...square or whatever, but that had passed. But she could, in theory, understand why that would be awkward. “Got it. Well. I’m not her.”
She was seventeen years old, okay? But then it seemed Cosima was briefly confused before making the connection.
“Oh. Okay.” Yeah. She remembered Sarah, mostly. More that when Ed had snapped she’d gone after him, ended up locked in a cage healing herself before he would have tried to drain her blood thanks to Orange County being, well, Orange County. “Yeah. She did or I guess probably still does counselling at the high school.” What with her having graduated early and she was now at UC Irvine.
Cosima didn’t think much of it. Raven was clearly still young, and she wasn’t about to go in depth about something that would only make this encounter even more awkward. At least this time she was aware of what would and would not make the situation awkward. Sometimes she was just so comfortable around Jemma, she didn’t always think before babbling happened.
“Yeah, she still works there. Or at least she hasn’t told me otherwise.” Which could be possible, but Cosima just laid off that. And speaking of awkward, this conversation would probably only get moreso if she didn’t move on. After all, Raven had been reading, and she’d interrupted her. “Anyway, I should let you get back to your reading. I’m sorry for interrupting you. It was nice meeting you, Raven.” She said with a friendly smile.
Raven was used to talkative people. Mostly from the dreams, but she could more or less put up with it. Mostly. But she definitely would appreciate the fact that Cosima wasn’t going to make the conversation more awkward than it already was. If she knew.
“Hm.” And Cosima seemed to pick up on the fact (or remembered at any rate) that Raven had actually been reading before she had come up. So she nodded some. “Sure. And yeah, you too.”
And because she was never known for her people skills, the teen went back to her reading.