The Perk; Friday Afternoon.

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

There was company invading the room again today, and the library had been closed that afternoon, which left Adah with her next choice down the list, to satiate her worrisomely growing need for caffeine in the form of tea. She blamed the cold, the clouds, the light and sporadic rain; she liked them, of course; it made for a very nice limp over, and it made her appreciate the warmth of the tea even more. Curled up in an armchair that she was getting to know quite nicely with a large mug, Adah then worked on getting herself better trained at that whole multitasking thing, trying to read from a book on her crookedly bent legs. It wasn't working. Yet. But it will. Eventually, damn it. If she could force herself to be able to walk, managing a book while drinking tea should be a cake walk...


[[ open for all your perkly neeeeds ]]

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[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

The door practically slammed open when Kerrigan arrived - the staff scurried almost as if on reflex.

Maybe caffeine would take the edge off the building loop in her mind. She got her coffee lightening-fast, crashed down in a seat close to Adah's, and made loud grumbling noises into her cup.

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Adah was very rarely good with loud; loud noises had a tendency to stay, linger, most likely in the form of pain if they were unexpected like the slamming of a door that made her body move on its own, jolting, pulling at things that usually didn't pull, and such a shock coursed through Adah at that moment. The left seized up while the right twitched, and her tea almost threatened to spill, but she'd thankfully had enough of it that only a bit sloshed over the rim of the mug onto her leg, the right one, dying down from twitches so she barely even noticed. She sucked in a deep breath to try to get control over the impulsive reaction, and tried not to glare over at the nearby chair and the woman within it, but she couldn't help a little bit of it. She'd just started to get a hold on something that might have worked as an effective means to her measure, and it was completely shot now, back to square one, longest chute down.

Because, really, was all that necessary?

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

The mental diatribe connected with the feedback loop like a whip, and Kerrigan momentarily forgot about any sense of decorum or stealth when she growled a dark, "Yes." in Adah's direction.

Christ; it felt almost like her dampeners coming loose. Couldn't these people keep their damn thoughts down every once in a while? Fear, anger, irritation, like an old rhythm she knew too damn well.

She rubbed her forehead with both hands.

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Adah blinked a little, for a brief moment of confusion. Because she knew she didn't say anything. Of course, she blamed this slip entirely on the fact that the physical was currently stronger than the mental right now, the ringing from the sudden pain slowly dying out. Another mind reader, then, clearly, like River. She considered just a heightened intuitiveness, not holding back in now watching the her from behind her tea mug, but that couldn't be it. The woman was clearly not in a state where she could have properly gleaned Adah's thoughts from just observing them. Which just left Adah wondering pointedly why it was necessary, as the only thing it seemed to accomplish was making the staff nervous and causing a crippled girl pain. She supposed another person's pain could certainly be therapeutic; she understood that one well enough, but, at the same time, she might suggest a more challenging target in this instance, as there was certainly no feeling of accomplishment there. She was much too easy of a target in that respect.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

She sagged forwards over the table a little, fingers moving to her temple. "Will you stop?" Kerrigan asked, halfway between a snarl and a sigh. Her mind was reeling at its restraints for some reason, that goddamn annoying leash put into place to keep her from going completely batshit insane.

Couple more days of this, and she was going to have to break someone.

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

That certainly quirked an eyebrow on Adah's side of thing, because it wasn't exactly like it was something she could just switch off and, clearly, at least at this moment, the reading wasn't something the woman could just switch off, either. There was a moment of annoyance over the fact that if she really wanted to avoid being around thoughts, she shouldn't have entered a public sphere; there had to be a certain responsibility there, but Adah wasn't entirely without sympathy, so she tried, although she knew it was hopeless. Thinking was all she mostly did. Did mostly, she all was thinking...She even got stuck thinking about not thinking.

Yup. She was hopeless. She sent apologetic eyes the woman's way, and then cast her eyes to all the other seats available on the other side of the cafe if it was really that much of a problem, but River said she could hear her through walls and floors, so the other side of a room might not do any good.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

She streaked one hand through her hair, feeling two days' worth of no showering and miserable weather between her fingertips. Kerrigan sighed, taking a long drink off her cup before casting Adah the closest thing she could find to an apologetic look.

It probably helped not to start snapping at people over their thoughts again. Her secret most definitely lost on this one, she elected to respond with a vague gesture at her head - it hurts - with hope that the general idea would arrive.

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Holding back a slight sound at final, lingering tug of pain at her shoulder, Adah shifted again, needing to find a new comfort position as her body realigned itself on its crooked, constantly bent center. The book fell out of her lap, diving toward the arm of the chair, threatening to crawl under the crack between the cushion, and Adah sighed, decided to leave it for right now. It might be a losing, downhill battle from here. She'd afford the other woman more attention now, since the book was not being nearly as cooperative as she was, having to seemingly calmed down a little. She couldn't exactly say that she knew exactly what kind of pain she was experiencing, but she still felt that she could maybe understand being stuck with pain you couldn't do anything to get rid of. Maybe. Just a little...

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

And Kerrigan just nodded slowly, almost physically feeling the blood slipping from her face. She drew a loop in the air, then gestured from her head to Adah's and back. Forward and back. Forward and back. Faster and faster.

And then she made the internationally recognisable signal for a nuclear explosion.

She certainly wasn't going to discuss this stuff out loud.

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Adah had a sharpened smirk at the gestures, attempting to bury it in her tea despite knowing that it was mostly useless to try. She tried to keep all other thoughts clear for a moment to replace it with thoughts (thoughts because she couldn't exactly be as physically communicative as the woman with her gesture) of the internationally recognisable signal for there, there.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

She nodded again, even slower this time, then turned her gaze away from Adah. Apologies made and all. Kerrigan sipped her coffee again instead, trying to ignore the thoughts that were practically radiating off the girl.

When the reverb became too much, she shot the girl - Adah - a glance from the corner of her eye. "Nice day, isn't it?" she asked-- gallows humor (though was it strictly gallows, here?) always helped.

Well, usually.

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

The wry smirk managed to find room to sharpen. Oh, yes, lovely. Cloudy rain, cold she wasn't used to, forced out of her room, denied access to her library, and then random mind-reading women with migraines the size of Kilimanjaro. Perfect.

And she hoped that, through the annoyance of pain, the fact that her humor was intended as remedy would be picked up on, though she knew that sometimes, through the annoyance of pain, it didn't always work.

[on-her-korhal.livejournal.com]

If Adah was to get any answer, it wasn't in words - just Kerrigan, pressing her lips against her coffee cup at the exact moment the thought arrived and snorting, loudly, into the hot coffee, nearly spilling it everywhere.

Her headache eased up just a little bit - still buzzing, but thoughts, at the very least, no longer bouncing through her skull like ricochets.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

Sometime after his player crawled out of the office in the afternoon, Lee wandered into the Perk, pretty certain he hadn't been in here before.

Of course, this meant he paid no attention to anything else but the layout of the Perk and what exactly it was Perk-ing, so to speak.

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Then there was a good chance that he might not have noticed a quiet girl in an armchair, giving up on a book that refused to stay in her lap and peeking over the edge of a mug of tea. Which suited Adah just fine for the time being.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

It didn't take him long to, once he'd figured out this place sold coffee and other things, turn around and notice her, though.

With his examination of the menu forgotten, he smiled at her and said, "Hi there. What's good here?"

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Blast. If only she'd worn a dress more the color of the fake leather of the armchair in which she sat. With a slight duck of her head in greeting, Adah answered the Eel's question by lifting her mug of tea. Not that that helped him at all as he would have no idea what it was, but that was partially the point, and it left her amused, smirking, before taking another sip.

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"So, I should order a cup," he said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "But, what to put in the cup? Milk?"

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

And Adah was thinking, as she attempted to duck her head and give the Eel a look that was slightly skewed by her amused grin, that yes, that sounded like an excellent choice, milk, perhaps with a nice side of arsenic to quell that smart ass quipping.

"It's tea," she told him importantly, although quietly, so he might have even missed it if he hadn't been paying attention. "Earl Grey. Hot."

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"Got it," he said even though he hadn't had tea before. "Much better than the empty class I was going to get."

He turned back around towards the counter, ended up just ordering a small coffee and wandered over towards her.

"How are you doing today?"

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

Adah shrugged her shoulder, her expression seeming wholly apathetic, before commenting, nodding toward the window, "It's been raining a little."

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"It has," he said, following her line of sight. "Have you been out in it? Walked through any puddles?"

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

"I had to get over here from the dorms, didn't I?" Adah pointed out by way of her answer. "Not quite enough for puddles yet, but perhaps if it keeps up, there might be some on the way back..."

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

"I am an expert puddle walker," Lee said, nodding solemnly. "Was the best on Caprica, even. It's such a fine, complex skill, puddle walking."

[ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com]

"And I'm sure it will take you far in life," Adah observed, with a nod of her head and, eventually, a light chuckle that proved her inability to be as solemn as the Eel could on this matter. "Perhaps, if the expert is not too busy, he could stick around a bit until I'm ready to go back, and show me what he means on the walk back?"