Our revels now are ended (fly_beyond) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-03-28 15:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, callisto, rachel amber |
Who: Callisto and Rachel, and also Rachel's shitty boyfriend
What: Rachel meets someone a little too dangerous even for her
When: 3/27
Where: some bar
Status: complete
Rating: R
Callisto was starting on a downward slide in terms of mental stability. It wasn’t uncommon, Callisto had her ups and downs normally, but it was getting towards the time of year when Hydra had kidnapped her a year ago and experimented on her. She was getting more irritable and was prone to lashing out. So she’d chosen to take a ride on her bike and then decided to see if she could pick a fight to take the edge off.
She was all tattoos, leather and wild blonde hair when she parked her bike and glanced around. It was her favorite part of town that had some bars in it that always promised a good field for picking a fight. But right now, there were disappointingly few other biker-types around.
Well, perhaps she’d just go have a couple beers and kill some time.
“Eenie, meeny, miny, moe,” she said, pointing from bar to bar until she fell on one. Hopefully the rougher crowd would show up sooner or later.
Mark had left Rachel at the bar while he went to do some of whatever it was he was doing these days. Rachel was nosey enough to pry, but she hadn’t yet. She was a little afraid of what she’d find. Armed with a fake ID and a drink, she rubbed her thumb over her phone as she debated calling Chloe.
Getting Chloe involved in her bullshit actually bothered her for Chloe’s sake, but she couldn’t admit it to herself. She’d been about to text her when this woman, all tattoos and leather and wild blonde hair entered the bar and she experienced one of those Chloe-Too-Gay-To-Function moments. But she smoothed it over, “Hey, can I get you a drink?”
Callisto eyed the woman, momentarily wondering if she had some ulterior motive. Then again, right now Callisto was intensely suspicious of people she didn’t know. That’s how Hydra had gotten their hands on her in the first place. But she had come in here for a drink.
“Sure,” she said, giving her order to the bartender.
Rachel grinned. Her only ulterior motive was that Callisto was hot. And a part of her thought she’d generate a shit ton of revenue for the website if she was willing to play.
But one didn’t start with that kind of offer. She ordered Callisto a drink, swiveling back and forth in her stool. “I’m Rachel, I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.”
“Callisto. I tend to go to different bars.” She leaned her elbow on the bar, watching Rachel swivel back and forth on her stool. “My reputation tends to precede me around here.” And considering she was ultimately looking for a fight? She’d eventually probably need to avoid this bar for a while if she got the fight she was looking for.
“Yeah? So what’s your reputation?” Rachel stopped swiveling, leaning her elbow on the bar and giving Callisto her best bedroom eye. They’d never failed her before.
“Fights. I tend to start and finish bar fights. I’ll pick them mostly out of boredom.” Now, if Callisto wasn’t demisexual, borderline asexual, and not already attached to someone, those bedroom eyes might have done something for her. But as it was, Callisto was unaffected by them. Jane was probably the only person who could get a reaction out of her by giving her the bedroom eyes.
They were failing her Rachel didn’t know what to do about that, but it somehow made her more intrigued. “You remind me of someone, and you’re almost as angry as she is. Rage and tempests.”
That actually made Callisto laugh, though there was an undertone to it that suggested it was not a completely sane kind of laugh. “Oh, no one is as angry as I am. Of that I assure you.” Callisto had a serious amount of anger and rage within her.
“So you have a storm inside you, just waiting to burst open?” Rachel asked. She leaned her chin on her hand, studying Callisto and wondering where she’d come from. “Sounds familiar.”
Rachel could be angry. It was always there, just under the surface. The only times she felt at peace were with Chloe, and then not always.
“More or less. Depends on the time of day, really.” And what she was up to. When she was with Jane, she could be calm. But more often than not, she needed to be actively doing something. There were too many demons and memories inside of her to leave her be for long periods of time.
Not to mention that she was a demon of a sort now. God, she’d love to burn Hydra to ashes from the inside out for what they put her through. Sure, she liked the power she had, but that didn’t negate the suffering they’d inflicted on her.
“I can respect that.” Rachel didn’t really have any outlet or direction for her anger, or even a direct cause. She’d had a perfect family life, even if it sometimes felt like a lie.
Maybe that was part of it.
“Not many do.” Callisto raised her glass to Rachel before taking a drink. “Sounds like you’ve got a storm inside you.” It certainly sounded like Rachel spoke from personal experience, and not just from knowing someone like that.
“I’m a little wild that way.” Rachel was in over her head with Callisto, and didn’t even know it. She was still new to Orange County, and even then anyone who knew Callisto would understand that there was just no competing with that kind of rage. Xena would warn her off if she knew.
“I got sick of being the perfect fucking girl. I never wanted it.”
It took a very special and specific type of person to handle Callisto. Thus far, Jane was up to the task, even when Callisto made it very difficult for her. But that was Callisto, she was fire and rage and she was broken beyond repair. There could’ve been a chance for her to heal before Hydra had gotten their hands on her. But now, she was going to be like this to varying degrees for the rest of her life.
“Good for you. Being perfect is overrated. Rebel against the system and expectations.”
“That’s why I left home. What about you?” Rachel sipped her drink. “What did you rebel against?”
“I guess I just rebelled against the world at large. My family was killed when our house was set on fire when I was twelve. Up until almost a year ago I believed my sister had died along with her parents, but turns out she’s actually alive.” Callisto took another drink. “I learned young that the world is a cruel place, so I learned to be heartless in return. I was in foster care until I met a woman in a biker gang and I ran away with her. Never looked back.”
“Damn,” Rachel whispered. “That’s fucking hardcore! I’m sorry about your family, that was really shitty.”
Maybe she should be grateful for hers. Nah. Her mom was… actually not too bad and she did love her dad, but it had been stifling growing up. Too much pressure, too many masks. Rachel didn’t even know who she was half the time.
“Yeah. Found the guy responsible for the fire, and I made sure he lost his mind before he also died in a fire.” Callisto smirked. That had been entirely satisfying to kill that perverted asshole. And she’d do it over and over again. There was a special place for people like him in hell. Callisto knew first-hand. She’d been in hell.
Did she just...admit to murder? Rachel leaned back, crossing her legs. She wanted to know more. Part of her wondered what that felt like and that was a thought that should frighten her more than it did.
But maybe if it was someone that deserved it?
“He paid, that’s what matters.”
“Exactly. He was a fucking creep anyways outside of having murdered my family.” There was a cold hardness in Callisto’s brown eyes. She was definitely a hardened killer, and unlike some people, she didn’t actually care who she killed. Guilty, innocent, none of it mattered to her.
Some part of Rachel was telling her to put some distance between herself and Callisto. That she was bad news. But she ignored that part of her. She wanted to know more about the fire, and the rage.
But before she could let herself get drawn in deeper, a man’s voice interrupted them. He was tall, looking like the professor type, but his eyes were a little manic and he seemed a little strung out. “Hey, what are you doing?”
He grabbed Rachel’s arm, hard. “Come on.”
She tried to wrench her arm away, “I’m just chatting with a friend, Mark. What do you need me for?”
Callisto eyed the guy. He was clearly strung out on something. While she’d never done drugs, she’d been around people getting high enough to know what it looked like. She didn’t like the way he grabbed Rachel’s arm. So she grabbed his forearm, the one he was grabbing Rachel with, and she tightened her grip enough so that his bones were threatening to break.
“Let her go or lose the arm.” She stated calmly, but it was very much a threat. She could easily rip the guy’s arm out of the socket and beat him with it. She could also easily snap the bones in his arm like they were twigs. Either way, he wasn’t going to be wrenching his arm out of her grip. There were definitely perks to being a demon-goddess.
Rachel looked between the two of the, fear lodging itself deep in her stomach. She was in way over her head. This woman looked like she was going to break Mark’s arm for a long, pregnant moment she was certain that Mark was strung out enough that he’d try to resist.
But then he let go of Rachel’s arm, and made a disgusted face, “Whatever. Stay here if you want, just get home before midnight.”
He pointed at Callisto, “As for you, you’ve crossed the wrong people today.”
Oh that was not the thing to say to Callisto. She grabbed his arm again when he pointed at her, moving almost faster than anyone could see. She was going to break his arm this time, but not before she gave him one hell of a nightmare. She pulled him closer to her.
“I don’t think so. You’ve crossed the wrong person today.” Her eyes turned red as she stared at him. At least with him being strung out, it’d give people a reason to not believe whatever ravings about a demon he might have. Then after letting the red eyes give him a fright, she squeezed his arm tight enough to break it before pushing him back and letting her eyes go back to their normal brown. “Now, scurry on out of here, little piggy.”
This action will have consequences
Mark might have peed himself a little, but he was too distracted by the broken arm to really focus on that. “What the fuck are you?!”
Rachel had exactly the same question, her eyes wide. She grabbed Mark by his good arm, “You kind of deserved that, but we’ve got to get you to a hospital.”
And far, far away from Callisto. Still, as she pulled him away, she glanced back at Callisto, almost as if she were grateful for the interference.
Callisto would have to keep an eye out for that guy. Also possibly bringing it up to Xena. If he was into drugs, he could be a dealer and try to make trouble. Not that any hit put on Callisto would actually kill her, but even so he still needed to be watched.
“I’m a fucking nightmare is what I am.” She said with a smirk. Callisto wasn’t going to say that she was a demon or something, she didn’t know if these two were dreamers or not. She gave Rachel a little nod as she pulled the guy out. That was definitely worth another drink before she moved on.