[Canada Day 2014] Just another day (Serenity & Lorelai)

[Lorelai]

CC was home and this fact alone should have allowed Lorelai to sleep peacefully through the night, only with CC being gone for a week, it left Lorelai with a more desperate need to be near her. She’d already woken twice, having gone to bed early, once because she’d neglected to eat before cuddling up to her unconscious partner and the second time when CC faded out and left her in an empty bed. She was still getting used to dating a vampire and so it things like this were a little odd for her. Waking for the third time that night Lorelai found herself confronted with an unusual and somewhat disconcerting sight; Leo.

Leo had died the week before and while she was still racked with guilt about the state of their relationship when he was taken from them; she had no notion of the fact that this guilt could possibly be strong enough to draw him back to her as it seemed it had. She blinked and rubbed at her eyes as she looked him over. There he stood in one of his more casual outfits and pair of high heels, looking almost as large as life as when he’d been flesh and bone, only he had no real form and Lorelai soon noticed that she could see right through him. Pulling herself up in the bed, her back pressed against the headboard she asked him what he was doing there. Considering she’d never seen a ghost before she was relatively calm.

Leo chastised her for helping his killers, this was something new to apologise for as she hadn’t known that they had been instrumental in his death. She’d been trying to take her mind off of everything that was going on by joining up with them; a decision that was now only serving to deepen the pain she’d felt a few days before. Leo was his usual self, his words pretty much echoing those of CC’s. She began to wonder if Leo was still tethered to CC in the same way he’d always been, even now, but it seemed far more likely that he was still just stuck in his routine, his way of thinking and that he might perhaps begin to alter his opinions over time. Lorelai still didn’t fully understand the vampire-thrall bond but it seemed reasonable to her that Leo may have been conditioned in some way, else CC could never have maintained control of him.

After begging the apparition for forgiveness and crying over his death all over again, she decided that she might just be going mad. What with CC being a supernatural being, it was likely that she might have some opinion or insight on the matter and so a late night trip to Silks seemed in order. Dressing in a thicker than usual, floor length, floral dress, (to help guard her from the elements), she spent only a few moments getting ready before she pulled on her beige, three-quarter length, woollen cardigan that she wore as a jacket and headed for the door. She’d run a brush through her hair which she wore down; the golden strands falling over her back and shoulders in its usual unruly manner. Ready to leave, she checked her bag, cast her eyes over her shoulder (to see if Leo was still behind her) and set out into the night.

[Serenity]

Sighing heavily she stared at the letters yet again, they were party invites. She knew she should go to them but the idea of taken a plane even if it was first class just to spend a night in her family business in Windsor Canada just did not seem like a good way to spend the day. Not that her plans were going to be grand or fun by any means. She ran a hand through her hair as she set the letters down, the addresses of the few places already in her mind. They were after all places her family owned and while they did not hold many places in Canada just yet they did hold some smaller ones and she highly doubted that her second, third, and great uncles would truly want her there. They were still set on the idea that it wasn't the place for a female... even if her father and grandparents had made her the heir... or at least the heir until she was married and then it would all belong to her husband.

Slipping on her shoes she scooped up Sethos, he would at least keep some of the people on the transit away... even if the four legged creature didn't like anyone, or so they kept saying. Personally she just thought they were all foolish in it. Sethos seemed to get along just well with everyone. She had seen him sit in their laps starring at them. They just didn't know how to give him proper attention. Kissing the top of his head she placed him in the doggy bag on her shoulder and then slipped on her brown boots.

Dusting at the fur that he had left from her white sun dress she grabbed her eye glasses and set out to the Cherrydale Transit, she could drive but she had a feeling that with Canada Day Celebration that not only would some roads be blocked off but the traffic would be awful and she wasn't really one who liked to drive... a motorcycle in a dress just didn't seem like the wises of moves, more so when she hadn't really aught onto the whole stopping without the buildings helping her.

Not to say she was bringing Sethos to play bodyguard from people touching her... which while she pretend she had no issues with she truly didn't like the idea of strangers touching her. Part of her knew that the transit would be a bad choice but Wickbidge was on the other the side of the city and she no longer teleported herself anywhere.

“Pray to the Ancestors Sethos that it will be far from crowded on the Transit today.”

[Lorelai]

The station was busier than normal and there was a certain amount of excitement about her as people were celebrating Canada Day; a day that even as a Canadian she didn’t fully understand as it had not been celebrated in the community she grew up in. The people around her were involved in animated conversations and it seemed that she was perhaps the only person waiting for a train alone. This wasn’t something she minded herself, or even gave much thought to but it did make her stand out a little, even if she was practically invisible to those in the scene about her. She cautiously looked each group over, noticing how most seemed to be rather intoxicated. Even if she weren’t pregnant and had been out celebrating herself that night, she couldn’t have resembled those around her as alcohol wasn’t something she had a taste for. She still wasn’t sure what the worth of drinking was, as she couldn’t see the benefits of such a practice, because as far as she was concerned, if people needed to relax, they would be far better off learning the art of meditation.

The train was as bustling as the platform, and as she stepped into the carriage she found herself unable to find a seat and as people were still pushing their way in behind her she was moved further into the carriage than she’d of liked and ended up standing in the middle of an aisle. Had she been further along in her pregnancy, someone may have offered her a seat but as it was, she was barely showing and so would have to stand. This was no hardship to Lorelai, she was more than capable of standing for the duration of her journey, in fact had she the mind for it, this was the perfect crowd in which to hone her craft. There were so many inebriated people all crammed in together that had she seen anyone worth stealing from, she may have lightened their burden but her mind was still on the task ahead; she had to get to Silks and she had to speak to CC.

[Serenity]

Pushing a strain of hair behind her ear she shifted her bag that held Sethos some, Cherrydale or when she had moved in Oldtown had been more quiet, with very little people going from or to but that had changed more so with government poking around. Part of her felt bad for Ripper and Noelle, who had them poking right behind them. At least she was a little bit away from the noise and no one seemed to bother her... fact very few came up to her home these nights, the last few who did who weren't family were hunting Wolffyn. She had removed the alter after that, it didn't set right with her... of course Wolffyn was now learning rituals which meant taken the alter out of storage, not that she minded but it did bring up to question if the open door policy and the request of no violence was getting her no where but then she didn't know for sure if they had harmed Wolffyn while she was inside, all she did know for sure was that the alter had been used... or at least someone had stepped into that area.

So lost in her thoughts about what she should do about her home, while still trying to keep with her belief she hadn't noticed that the transit had stopped before her, not until the doors opened in her face and the soldiers behind her telling her to hurry up already. Placing a hand on Sethos she peaked around and was about to just walk the distance to Wickbridge but she felt hands around her waist and she was boosted up and then pushed along the already far to crowded transit.

She knew she was breathing hard, even if she didn't need to breath. She had been touched, she had not just been touched but lifted up and placed into a very crowded, enclosed placement, and she was still being pushed further back at least she told herself she was being pushed backed the truth of the matter she kept feeling hands in places they shouldn't be and that along kept her moving. All the while she was mentally telling herself to breath... over and over again as her bag began to growl and snarl.

A far to large foot or perhaps a misplaced leg from someone sitting had resulted in her tripping, not just once but three times in her process of moving away from the hands that were touching her, she wasn't sure just how far back she was but she found that she had no place she could hang on, unless she was to hang off of someone, or sit in someone's lap, and none of that would be happening if she had any say about it.

So she stayed as hunched over, eyes tightly closed waiting for the bus to stop... and did it ever stop. Breaks screeching, people screaming, Sethos yelping and she was pretty sure for a second or two, she wasn't touching anything. At least not until she felt herself land hard on the floor of the transit, and someone was on top of her. She was about to scream for her dog when she felt his warm tongue licking her ear, at least she prayed it was her dog licking her ear, she opened her eyes, slowly, there was a leg. She quickly turned her face and sighed heavily in relief it was Sethos licking her and now he was licking her nose.

“You alright?” shouting wasn't even able to hear her own voice but the radio turned on, asking for people to please remain calm, a group of party goers had apparently stepped in front of their route, playing chicken. She tuned out what else was being said, for when she tried to sit up, she found someone was standing on her hair...

[Lorelai]

The numbers on the train began to dwindle, station by station, it was then that Lorelai suddenly awoke to the situation she was in; she was on the wrong train. She had no idea how it had happened but she was now on the opposite side of the city. The last hour replayed itself in her mind and for the life of her she couldn’t recall checking which train she was supposed to take, if she had been stood on the correct platform or why she hadn’t noticed after the first station, being as it wasn’t Coastside as she’d expected. She sighed and slipped from the train when it hit the end of the line. It didn’t take long to find the schedule and her finger ran along the line to see when the next train would depart.

“An hour?”

Her heart sunk as she realised how long she’d have to wait for the next train and that it would perhaps be quicker to take a taxi to Silks. She rummaged in her bag, pulled out her purse and began counting what she had. She didn’t have enough for a taxi and so would need to find an ATM to get some more cash out. This however proved to be more difficult than it ought to have been, as while she did manage to find an ATM, it was no longer dispensing cash. It was then that a bus caught her attention; it was going into town and so she could at the very least get to the next station and hope that the ATM there was better stocked.

There was as much hustle and bustle on the bus as there had been on the train, but at least the soldier’s here kept some sort of order, and she soon found being ushered up the steps and into the vehicle. She smiled sweetly at a couple of the soldier’s that had stepped aside to let her on. Lorelai wasn’t vain and so it never occurred to her that their kindness may be the result of her good looks, instead she assumed that they were chivalrous and had stepped aside to let an unknown female go ahead of them out of the kindness of their own hearts. While she was able too, she checked her purse and pushed her way deeper into the belly of the bus. A handbag growled at her and made her jump but she didn’t look to the owner of the disconcerting item, she kept her head down, and moved on.

When the bus came to a grinding halt, she was thrown forward and had the fortunate advantage of a soft landing. She was horrified at herself for potentially crushing someone in such a manner but then she hadn’t exactly had a choice in the matter, so as she squirmed off of them as quickly as possible. Even as she struggled to right herself she realised this meant yet another trip to the doctor or hospital to check the baby out and while that thought scared her it made her smile as it was the first time she’d put the baby first, thinking of him before the thought of her not seeing her Ana a little longer went through her mind.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she said offering the floored woman her hand, as she wanted to help her up. “Excuse me. Sir?” she said getting the attention of the soldier standing on Serenity’s hair. “Could you move your foot please?”

It was while she had her hand extended and really looked to the person that had broken her fall, that she realised she recognised her. She didn’t speak to the recognition, as she anchored herself with one hand on the nearest seat; Lorelai was not the strongest of women, and while Serenity wasn’t a large woman, she was still a fully grown person that Lorelai wished to help from the floor.

[Lorelai]

With her hand held out to the woman, she began to really study her face and soon found herself lost in the memories of the night their paths first crossed. She and CC had been investigating one of those strange office buildings; this one being a skyscraper in the district of Wickbridge. Once there she engaged herself in removing the arcane lock that had been placed upon the door and CC went about trying to retrieve a keycard. Lorelai was in denial as to the manner in which this was achieved, something she could only maintain as she tended to remove herself from the building whenever she wasn’t needed. It was while waiting around the building that she met Alexandrea and enlisted her services. She had been the one to suggest inviting Serenity to the party, as they required the services of a hacker and none of them were particular suited to the task. They hadn’t done too bad together either as a team, the four of them and the mysterious fifth woman, the name of whom she never learned.

Her thoughts didn’t settle long on Serenity or how they met, they quickly drifted from the raid, to CC and that’s where they stayed, her thoughts flitting through her mind so quickly that only a matter of seconds had passed in which everything had been recalled. She was now remembering how things stood between them, as while she had happily cuddled up to her lover in the daylight hours, she was in fact still staying in a hotel as she and her lover were at odds with one another since her return from the shadow realm. Not that Lorelai knew it by that name, she knew it as vampire hell, and while she could sympathise with her girlfriends experience in one way, she was unable to forgive the coldness of their reunion.

[Serenity]

The weight that was on her was lifted and while she was far from the weakness that most humans had she still recalled a time when such a person would have really hurt. Thus was able to move in the manner of someone who had been hurt. Still as she looked towards the formal weight that was upon her she didn't really recall who she was. She seemed to be the lady who had been in search of a hacker but the only one she really knew during that raid was Wolffyn, she had known of CC, but did not truly know anything about the woman and the only things she knew about her, was that she had used her body chemicals, but that had been such a long time ago now. Prudence if she recalled had been there but she also did not know the woman, short of the fact she was with Cliff. Then again she supposed if you counted what people said on the CrowNet she had a better idea about who people were but she liked to believe that they were far from what they seemed online.

None of that really mattered at the moment as she realized once again that her skills as a hacker and that her being a hacker would be a disappointment to her father but it was a gray area and while it would of given shame to her father to know, he might also understand the reasons she had chosen to do so. She never harmed businesses unless there was no other choice, vampiric information, magical relics.. but she would never really know the truth until she died and hopefully joined her ancestors... something else she was unsure of at the end of the night.

Pushing the thoughts out of her head she gave a faint smile to her, “Thank you for your help” and she was thankful that she had requested the solider to get off her hair. Something that she would of simply put up with up as long as it wasn't truly causing her harm. Running her fingers through her hair she sighed with the fact that it along with the rest of her seemed fine. Though she was in a serious need of a bath now, for a moment she thought of going to Odin's apartment knowing it was closes but a shooting pain in her head quickly changed that thought, she would simple have to make her way across the river to the QZ for her shower.

She knew she couldn't or shouldn't anyways leave the woman's hand hanging there so she quickly grabbed Sethos up, knowing that she must of kept her waiting long enough, even if it had only been a few seconds that everything had gone through her head. She had always been a fast thinker but her mind had improved even more after her turning. Perhaps due to having more insight, but at the same time she wasn't sure, she had been told all her life she was a genuis but she never felt like one until after her turning.

Taking the woman's hand she smiled again, and tried to keep as much weight from the woman as possible as she helped herself off the ground until she in a standing position, "Your help is much appreciated". Still she quickly letting her hand go the moment she was upright, perhaps a bit too fast but she could only hope not as fast as it seemed when she thought on it.

Running her now free hand down over her cloths she began to try and put herself back in order. While hoping that nothing too horrible had shown, she would have to deal with the dirt, and she was unable to see what the back looked like, and that began to make her worry if she looked like some street person, had she known, she would of worn something darker. “White was a mistake...” she muttered in chinese as she thought about all the people that had been walking back and forth, she felt sick to her stomach. Just the very thought of all those people... she pushed the thought down not wanting to dwell on it too much.

Slowly she looked back up at the woman, hoping to keep her mind off all those people she asked the only thing that seemed like a proper question to ask, “Did you hear what they said, I am afraid I wasn't paying attention.”

[Lorelai]

The soldier moved, apologising profusely as he did so. The poor guy looked mortified for having been stood on a lady’s hair without noticing it; in his defence he had been trying to calm a rather hysterical child down at the time. From all the moaning and wailing Lorelai was able to discern that the child had hit his head on the seat in front of him when the bus came to an abrupt stop and the child was therefore not without cause with in his fit of hysterics.

“No, I’m sorry I didn’t. And you’re quite welcome. It was the least I could do considering how we landed. Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” she asked with genuine concern.

Lorelai had not heard the announcement clearly enough to understand what had been said, what with all the panic and the crying child, she’d quite missed it. With the woman on her feet and her hands now free she ran them over her body; one hand lingering self-consciously over her stomach as she looked about her. Whatever else could be said of the situation, she was thankful that the event had not involved any sort of explosives or guns. Lorelai didn’t like those sorts of things and while she’d managed to avoid them for the majority of her life, it seemed that living in Harper Rock brought about no end of exposure to them. (What she had yet to consider, and possibly never would admit to herself even if it did occur to her, was the fact that exposure to these things had also increased from the moment she met CC).

“Do you think we’ll be stopped long?”

Public transport was still relatively new to Lorelai and so it didn’t occur to her that they might have to leave the bus and find an alternative method of transport to reach their respective destinations. Enough people on the bus had been injured, so as to force the bus driver to leave the confines of his seat and come and speak to the passengers directly. Some were already screaming about lawsuits and so he was doing his best to placate them in any way he could, while he reminded them that that incident had not been his fault. Lorelai overheard him assuring people that the youths in question had been caught by the on-board surveillance equipment and that the footage from that would be handed over to the local police department as soon as his shift ended.

[Serenity]

Whatever pain she had been feeling, was long gone now. One of the benefits of being a vampire, though she had seen Blood Thieves heal quickly as well. Still she ran a hand down her sides for a moment as though, before smiling, “I believe I am perfectly fine. I feel nothing is broken” which would be bad, “and nothing seems to be bleeding. There might be some bruises but nothing serious." There wouldn't be of course. “And what of yourself?” she said making sure to make a point to double check Sethos while she was at it. She already knew he was fine, he was clearly fine from the moment he started to lick her but she felt it was only right to make sure as well. With nothing wrong she began to look around her some. There would likely be others and most would never want the help of someone who only been in a year of medical school. Though if she had been dressed right... she would be a doctor... well one made online, but almost no one could tell any of the papers she had created for herself were indeed fake.

Bookworms were well bookworms and that was something that she had learned had little use to most within this city. In her mind it had been all the fighting that was the true issue within her new found race . Yet without pushing her own weight, and harming others it was almost always hard to be heard and when one was heard... well she was used to being told she was useless and long winded among other things.

Again she pushed down those thoughts, as she shook her head in response to her question about the time, “I am afraid I do not know. We won't be able to go until everyone seems alright anyways... and..." she looked a little more around, "I am sure there will be some who will desire to be placed in the hospital and looked at by doctors... real doctors” she wasn't really in a hurry to be going anywhere, well she didn't want to be outside when the partying in this city really went off... in her mind people got to friendly with affection during that time, and while they might not be grabbing her, they would be grabbing someone and that still bothered her. Such things should be done at home, or when no one else is around to see, including friends when one was with family. It was only proper in her mind.

“I'm afraid I didn't catch your name” though she was sure now positive this was the same woman from the team raid who had been looking for a hacker. “My name is Ai'Shi, Serenity Ming” she said in the proper way of intruding herself, last name to first to middle. Yet like many they would likely think her name was Ai'Shi Ming which tonight might not be such a bad thing at all. She motioned to the head of her dog as he popped up, though he was glaring she seemed to not notice the look at all, “This is Sethos”

[Lorelai]

"Oh no. No. I'm fine," she said her hand subconsciously pressing to her stomach as she said the words, as while she knew that she was fine, she wasn't so sure about the fate of her child. Her pregnancy wasn't something she was going to talk to Serenity however as she barely knew the woman. "And I'm sorry. I should have introduced myself before but things were a little crazy in that building and I wasn't really sure who I should be speaking to."

She didn't elaborate in this, as the explanation would have brought around a similar situation as their meeting originally had. Lorelai wasn't sure who was human and who was a vampire these days; so saying nothing (at times) seemed to be the smartest option. She recognised CC's energy well enough and knew what she was, but she wasn't sure if all vampires shared the same sort of energy. This was something she was working on but without knowing any other "confirmed" vampires she wasn't exactly making any progress in this particular area.

"My name is Lorelai Lee. And I’m sorry but I’m not sure I can pronounce your name. Ai-isha was it? I don’t suppose you have a nickname I can call you by?"

Usually she was a lot more polite than to ask such a thing but either CC or her current need to find the woman was making her a little thoughtless. The noise around her was also causing her a fair few problems and while she thought that she was fine, she was starting to get quite a headache and the confined situation she was standing in wasn’t helping any. The hand that had been holding her stomach went to her head and she rubbed at her temple as she glanced around her.