Bo
Lux had given Bo the opportunity, one might say the out in which to talk, to bare one's soul to a near complete stranger. For most that might seem insane, a violation of one's own internal security and confidence. But Bo...Bo seemed to relish it, she needed an outsider, someone who was not involved, or even potentially involved [so far as she knew]
So the call had gone out, an address in Parker given to the woman and a quick, energetic thank you thank you thank you offered up before the line went dead.
What Lux comes across...is perhaps not what she expected. Parker seemed like a nice enough place, one might almost call it a suburban paradise, strip malls and chain stores abound, and detached homes for the middle class working stiff were the home of choice in pleasant little Parker. When she arrives at the destination, it becomes obvious that Bo was hard pressed to find a decent location for a meet, so in one last stab at some manner of anonymity..she had chosen an Applebee's. Tucked away in its own corner of a strip mall the great neon sign shone in the night air and Bo....
Well Bo was waiting outside, dressed in a pair of white jeans with graffitti style art painted directly onto them, and a simple hoodie upon her lean upper torso. Even dressed down as she was now...Lux might get the feeling that such places are not Bo's usual habitat.
But here she was....and theres a wave and a big ol electric grin. "Lux!"
Lux
There is a reason so many stories have their roots in Suburbia: and all those stories are stories of madness and corruption hiding beneath the surface. Of appearances, and beneath those appearances something darker and alltogether more disturbing. Suburbia hides things. It pretends to be Eden - but tongue-in-cheek Eden, an Eden that knows something more exciting might be out there, but of course never something more pleasant and lulling and safe and well-kept and restrained. On the phone, she'd said nothing about Bo's attempt at anonymity, been nothing but receptive, and now here she is -
A tall, beautiful creature in a fitted olive green jacket, military-style with a chain or two glinting at the breast, something cinched at the waist with a severe elegance, coupled with jean shorts fraying at the ends and tall slouchy boots. Her shoulder-bag is grimy, well-worn, and looks like one of those 'Public Library' faux-bags, a few keychains dangling from the handle. It bumps against her hip when she walks down the sidewalk and into the fall-out glow of Bo's big ol' electric grin.
Lux grins right back, this curl-of-smoke cheschire thing, and whatever else Lux is, she's a point-of-gravity, the center of a god-damned star - it's in the edge of her smile; the welcome in her eyes; the way she looks at Bo and even says her name, "Bo! Or should I say, The Bo."
Then she looks from Bo to Applebees, "After you?"
Bo
Lux was the heart of a star, a burning eternity that could both provide heat, light and all the comforts of civilization...but it could also swallow you whole without even noticing if you strayed to close. Bo was no star, it was not her interest to be the center of the solar system [contrary to appearances] but she was warm, and she was alive, so alive in comparison to some [to most] and lent its own potency to the young mortal.
When Lux offered her greeting Bo's grin held and a chuckle issued from her lips at this familiarity betweens strangers, the woman both amused, and eager in the same heartbeat. "That's Bo the incredible." She offered in return, her lips curling into a gentle smirk as she looked from Lux to the door.
"Why thank you madam, you are as ever...a lady." She says with a gentle but silly curtsy and a hoity toity accent before she chuckled and stepped to the door, pulling it open.
Music, conversation and the smell of food filled the air as the two stepped inside and a waitress welcomed them in. Bo looked around briefly and in the end, asked for a seat in the bar area, one of those booths that seated two and only two...didn't need anyone getting any idea's that these ladies were here for the suburban version of singles night.
She moved along after the waitress and looked sidelong at Lux. "Thanks...for doing this huh? I mean...how many strangers wanna listen to another stranger jabber about their drama lama's?"
Lux
"But surely," she replies, the corner of her mouth snicked upward, "'the Incredible' is a title only for use on special occasions, say at a press conference."
- and they're inside. Lux inhales the scent of burgers cooking and onions grilling, the sharp, hoppy smell of somebody's spilled beer over there by the sportsbar, the glasses hanging around it catching and refracting light, distilling it into a ghostly emphasis of that quality glass has to be so lovely and seem so empty and yet be so sharp, so easy to fill, so useful. The bar area is central and sunken in. There are high faux-wood walls and the seats are high, too, even in those narrow two-person booths, and the waitress allows them to commandeer one away from the small crowd gathered on that-side-of-the-bar watching who-knows-what on the television, apparently happy to get into an argument that swings from fierce to friendly.
Bo gives Lux a sidelong look, and Lux gives her a direct one. The waitress in front of them looks like she's really in the mood to get to the kitchen and tell that cute new guy a joke, is all full of a get-out-of-here mentality in pony-tail corkscrewing up as she cranes her head.
They're at the table and the waitress is shoving menus at them and rattling off the specials and asking if they'd like a drink and pointing out Fat Belly Bob as someone who gets a little rowdy before Lux has a chance to reply.
Maybe Lux and Bo exchange a look as the waitress bounces off; either way, Lux regards the crowd as she slides into a seat, shoulders slouching forward and exhaling like sigh doesn't it feel good to sit down. Then her attention fixes again - rather searchingly, rather questioningly - on Bo. Beauty does not need to be a cold thing, even when it is preserved, even when it is unfading - and Lux is often moved.
"You don't need to thank me. I'd like to think somebody would ..." Lux trails away, that questioning and searching look in her eyes translating to her words. She finally settles on, " - do the same for me. So what's going on, pretty Bo? Unleash the jabbering."
Bo
Bo slides into the seat across from Lux, her body bouncing a little as she gets comfy on the faux leather seating, perfectly designed to repel any beverages that might [and likely did] get spilled in the course of an evening. The woman slid into the corner of the seat and turned her body ever so sligthly, so that the corner was where her back rested, and one foot encased in old adidas skate shoes slid up onto the edge of the seat, the young woman getting comfortable as she turned to look at Lux as the woman explained that no thanks were necessary, the words bring a grateful smile to Bo's lips, but her eyes betray the turmoil within...and she pauses for several long moments to consider.
Her chin dips as she does this, her eyes leaving Lux as she tries to figure out just how to start, what fact to share, what to withhold...in the end she starts with what many of these talks start with.
"Nooo surprise here? It all revolves around a guy." She says it with a chuckle as she put one elbow on the table and rested her chin upon it with a sardonic grin. "A big ol beautiful and oh so drinkable man by the name of Ted." She says with a gentle sigh. "Problem is...I think, hell I know that Ted has been hiding some things from me, a good friend gave me the heads up, played the standing meerkat to my head in the dirt meerkat...and now I'm stuck...I wanna confront him....but I have a feeling that things will not go so well if I do."
Lux
Lux's shoulders stay slouched. How young she looks, sometimes. Younger than she was when she was made as eternal as anything with a physical shape can hope to be. Young, but present. Her tarnish-gray-or-green - oh, just green tonight, just a bright and arresting green - eyes are arresting because they are touched by the force of her singular attention and what drives it. Just now, a will to help a fellow potential-rebel - a woman struggling against chains. The woman cups her chin in the palm of her hand. Her body, her debutante slouch, is turned toward Bo. The military jacket does not appreciate this treatment but it is too well-made to put up a fuss, though there's a Georgia O'Keefe curve where the collar gaps now to show a flash of pale skin.
[Ophelia was a rebel girl.A blue-stocking suffragette.]
She'd smiled or she'd smirked at that oh-so-drinkable man and maybe there'd been something wry about the compression of her pretty mouth there; the angled tip of her chin, like, oh yes. Around a guy. This isn't a night to pass that test.
"Hmm." The hmm is a placeholder, Lux tilting her head to the side in consideration of what it is Bo's laid-out. Then she says, "What do you want to get out of the confrontation?"
Bo
Bo takes no time to answer that question, she'd already thought about it alot, perhaps even obsessed over it in her recent nights, the way she had lost herself in thought while they stood on the street corner the other night would certainly lend credence to the thought.
"I wanna look him in the eye, and I want to get answers. Like why he didn't tell me the truth, why he could be upfront with me." She says firmly. "A girls got a right to know what shes getting herself into, baggage and all. I mean who wants to end up shacking up with jack the ripper without at least knowing thats whats going down?" She asks, going to extreme's in her example to lend it weight.
But then the fire goes out of her eyes, and she looks worried, those great green eyes falling down to the table as she speaks in a softer tone. "But I'm worried, so worried, like..heart stoppingly worried that if I go there, if I hear his voice...see his body..." She shivers. "Taste his lips....that that will be it. I'll be stuck there one way or another. That I'll be his despite myself." She bites her lips and looks up at Lux before rolling her eyes at herself.
"Draaaammaaaa" She says with a gentle laugh as their drinks arrive and she takes her bloody ceasar. "But I dunno...i just can't leave it be...I can't get him outta my head."
Lux
The Anarch(ist) hesitates briefly - or hovers around a hesitation that passes unnoticed because Bo is a talkative little thing, even in distress, so there is no void. The waitress settles drinks and a water and Lux lifts her chin from the palm of her hand, folding her arms instead over the edge of the table, adjusting herself so she is sitting on one leg. The chains on her jacket catches the bar seating's low-lighting and glimmer with the promise of dark. "Is he purposely manipulating you?"
"I mean, what is it this Ted jackass wasn't upfront about? And how much do you trust your friend? You called her - or him! - 'good I think.'"
Then - a soft laugh; it's merest smoke. "Drama," she agrees.
Bo
[Per+Emp How much can I trust you Lux?]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 6, 6) ( success x 2 )
Lux
Trust is difficult to guage. There's so much about 'trust' that just has to be left to chance. Lux is a compelling thing, a magnetic thing, but what about what Bo's looking for. Lux doesn't seem like she has a threshold for 'too much information,' prepared to be receptive to anything and everything Bo wants to tell her. Bo might also get the feeling from the way Lux is listening to her that if she does have a threshold it's pretty high. She also doesn't seem like she's going to rip away any decision from Bo if it sounds like something really bad either, not gonna go screaming to the cops or the women's shelters or some figure in authority (def. not).
Bo
Bo is silent as Lux speaks her part, and while she is silent, her lips are not idle. The ceasar she ordered is tipped gently to her lips and the red liquid slides over her lips and down her throat, the woman imbibing the alocholic beverage with pleasure. Pleasure which is soured when Lux asks her questions. It is not because of her asking that the woman frowns, it is far more complex then that and she sighs as a hand runs through her dark hair as she sets down her drink.
She watches Lux for a few silent moments, an appraising look her in those great green eyes of her's along with an intelligence that is far greater then the bubbly little thing she portrays herself as. A moment later she shifts in her seat, leaning forward as her voice drops, becoming quiet and intimate.
"Def, I mean...with what he was doing, there aint no way he can just say. 'Oh...ma bad darling, I didn't mean to do that.' " She says it in a doofus sort of voice before going on.
"Your gonna find this wierd...but he was trying to make me love him without my consent...I mean, like love him forever's without realizing it." She says it deadpan, which might make Lux think its a joke, but Bo seems dead serious at that before she goes on. "And ma bud is ma bud. We've only know each other for a little while..but were like pea's in a pod, The mighty Kali and Bo the incredible." She grins at that and shakes her head.
"If she hadn't warned me? Damn..."
Lux
[Doo-dee-doo. Manip + Subt about Emotionz?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 6, 6, 6) ( success x 3 )
Bo
[Manip+Subt]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )
Lux
The cat-eyed, black-haired living-creature across from Lux deadpans like maybe this protective armor might make this next weirdo statement a joke or maybe because deadpan is the only way to say something like that. But she seems serious, and Lux seems -
Lux is inclined to take Bo seriously. The play of light and dark in her crystal-green (moon-green) eyes changes, the pupils swelling, gathering more gloom and more contained something, and she is a fine thing when she is moved, when she is resonant with this kind of - sympathy. That is what she seems to be. Sympathetic. Not a meek, platitudes-given, gentle sympathy, but something fierce and intractable.
"I think," she says; pauses, then says, "I know that taking an action like that, playing that kind of thief, is one of the most abhorrent actions one can take against another rational creature. I am utterly biased against this Ted now, but," hesitate. "I do understand, Bo.
"If you do confront him, I would advise you to wait and do it when you know that you are in full control of your own thoughts and your own actions, that he doesn't have any hook still - infiltrating! - your heart like a worm bringing rot to make you soft. That he won't have or be able to influence you like he already tried."
Lux straightens, raking her fingers through her hair, and smiles faintly. This one doesn't touch her eyes, which still seem to be sparking.
"What does your friend think about confronting him?"
Lux
ooc: Eh, straightens = stops slouching.
Bo
Lux is suddenly fire and vitality, her anger towards Ted greater then one would ever expect from a woman who has never met the man. The look on Bo's features at this normally reassuing camaraderie is a mixed bag, she is both grateful for Lux reassuring her of such things, but at the same time she almost looks hurt, like Ted isnt REALLY all that bad, you just have to get to know him [or drink his blood].
Their talk turns to her 'friend' and Bo shook her head. "She doesn't know. It's my business, not her's. I mean...i get that she's trying to help and all that? But i just got this feeling that she might have some kinda stake in it too you know? She's great, i mean peaches and cream and all the good stuff...but....yeah." She shrugs then and takes another drink from her ceasar before leaning back with a sigh.
"Avoiding him is all well and good Lady Lux, but its tough...I mean, you don't know him like I do....." Her eyes almost get dreamy in that moment, the eyes widening as the pupils dilate. "I dont know if I can get him out of my head without getting those answers."
Lux
Ted could be any vampire. He could be somebody Lux hangs out with. (No, unlikely. None of the Anarchs would be so sly. Would they? Maybe they would, considering that little party in the school basement.) That doesn't matter. Lux does not use the word 'abhorrent' lightly; she is still animated, still morning star luminous, in her response. She doesn't hold it against Bo - that look of hurt or that You-don't-Know or even the damned dreaminess. Or she does, but it's in the same way she holds a ghoul's addiction against the ghoul - or the same way somebody else might hold summer's heat against summer. It's part of things.
"I know it's hard. Have you ever been addicted to anything before?" she asks. "Or been friends with an addict?"
Bo
"Do you count Ben and Jerry's ice cream?" Bo asks with a hint of a smirk before shaking her head. "Nah, I don't latch onto things like that, it ain't my style...also I don't need something to define me. I define me." She says with an admirable certainty as she reaches out and picks up her ceasar once more, swirling the contents of the glass idly as she considers.
"Is that what I am? You think I'm addicted to...to what? To Ted?" She inquired, seemingly disbelieving of the whole situation, even if she might know the honest to god truth.
"I'd like to think all my training as a dragon slayer would prepare me to deal with this, i mean hey? I haven't gone anywhere near the guy so far."
Lux
"Ben and Jerry's? No. But McDonald's Milkshakes? Perhaps," she says, lightly, off-handed. Then, "Yes, I do. Or to whatever it is he was slipping you to make you fall in forever-love with him. Do you think it's weird that I believe that?" A beat. And, "You say 'so far,' but c'mon. Haven't you been describing cravings?"
Bo
Bo looks like shes ready to deny that accusation, that she hasn't been showing the signs of cravings, that she is infact quite strong willed and has nothing to fear from those brief but brilliant tastes of Hawthorne's vitae. But she'd already been pointed out as such and she shrugs. "Yeah I guess so, but hell we ALL crave something now and again right? Just because we crave it doesn't mean we go running to it at the drop of a hat, especially when we already know its about as good for us as deep friend chocolate covered butter."
She actually licks her lips at that and tilts her head. "Though I COULD go for some of that right now...just kidding." The wink that follows is mischievous and entertained, Bo fighting off the depression and doldrums with her patented humour and energy.
"It is a litttttle weird you believe that. I mean, have YOU ever been addicted? Or made to forever love someone?" Bo inquries, leaning forward once again in an attempt to discipher whatever clues Lux might give away when she was put under the spot light.
Lux
[DOO DEE DOO. Hiding some things, showing others?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )
Bo
[Per+Emp]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 4, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Lux
Just kidding - that earns another soft-as-smoke laugh; a shake of her head, dislodging the whole silk-sweep of it so it tumbles over her shoulders like it just can't wait to invite somebody to touch it; and she cuts a quick, gleaming glance back toward the crowd over there, suddenly roaring approval, united and unanimous, and then her eyes return to Bo; haunt the other girl's face as she turns the spotlight onto Lux's own experience.
"Yeah," she says, "I have actually fought against addiction." To some drug, probably - look at her. Pretty girls always hide something ugly beneath, just like Suburbia. Some need, some wanting. "And," here, the corner of her mouth lilts upward; it's a winsome expression, and though there is a certain gravity to this admission, it is wielded almost carelessly, "I have been possessed by some unfortunate loves."
"Fuck them."
Bo
Bo nods to Lux's moment of sharing and she accepts it with the honest that is required of such things. But then she smirks and raises her glass to that last part. A gentle chuckle on her lips as she said. "Cheer's to that, I don't know a girl who hasn't." She tipped her glass back and drained what remained of her spicy ceasar, the glass set down with a thunk and left on the edge of the table for their waitress to collect.
"So your advice is just...stay away right? Don't go where he goes, dont see who he see's, just....cut that part out of my life and leave it to wither and die on its own?" She inquires, trying to find the whole of Lux's advice to her situation. She crossed her arms now, resting them on the table as she remained hunched forward in a comfortable and amenable fashion.
"Not a dragon worth slaying?" This asked with another little smirk, she just had to say it.
Lux
"My advice is to stay away until you don't have the urge to go back any longer," Lux says. "Until you don't give a damn about what he thinks or his lips or any of that nonsense. Because if you do, and you're still dwelling, then you're still in the guy's power. And you've already given up. But after that, it depends. Maybe kick his ass. Maybe live your life better and more you than you have already been."
Lux pauses; it's a precise thing, this - and see how her lashes lower to gleam an invitation 'cross the table. An invitation to - dragon-slay? Who knows; it's rilled, contained laughter. "I'll still show you how to slay dragons if you'd like. Not tonight, but some other night. Parker doesn't have that je ne c'est quois - " excellent accent " - so necessary to dragon-slaying."
Bo
Bo laughed and looked around at the room and in turn the world beyond, the city that was Parker, her eyes widened as she nodded to that idea. "Yeaaaah if there are any dragons' around here they're off chasing the desperate housewives or whatever...so not my problem." She says with a wave of a hand as she reaches into her pocket to pull out some cash, tossing it on the table top.
"Well Lady Lux, I appreciate you listening to me, annnnd I appreciate the advice, but most of all...I appreciate your offer for Dragon Slaying...I'm pretty good, killed more then a few reds...but I could use some more tricks, who can't." She offers as she looks across at her compatriot, her dragon slayer/therapist in crime.
"Shall we call it a night then? I should probably get my ass in bed, need to go apartment hunting tomorrow...somewhere not in Parker."
Lux
Lux hasn't touched her drink; you can see the realization unwinding in her like a spool. She blinks once, and see - shouldn't a city somewhere be ready to take up arms? Then she stretches, elegant and still so careless and also very full of enjoyment because she enjoys her own body and the way it feels when she moves it. Because it's an enjoyable thing, being a living (more-or-less) thing.
A negligent nod once she stands up, rubbing her thigh like maybe it fell asleep. "Any time, Bo. I'll walk you to your car." A pause, and then, that contained and vibrant hint-of-laughter thing again, coiling in the creatures eyes - "Give it to me straight. Do you play that D&D game?"
- and she will walk Bo to her car, too. Or the busstop. Or where-ever.
Bo
[WP?]
Dice: 4 d10 TN8 (7, 7, 7, 8) ( success x 1 )
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