fandomtownies | Magic Box, Thursday, 7/8

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Magic Box, Thursday, 7/8

"... I miss you. Should I come home? Is Dad being decent? I -- I'd come home if you wanted me to." A beat. "No, everything's okay, I just ... s-saw one of my friends mom's yesterday and it made me miss you."

Tara started her day at the Magic Box with a rare call to her mom. She was still thinking about Arella's sacrifice from the day before, and it made her really, really wish she could see her mother. She needed to check on Raven soon, too.

Once they had to hang up, she went about her duties in the store, moving as if she was underwater.

[OOC: Open, emo, OCD-free Magic Box is open, emo, and OCD-free.]

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Peter had been concerned after Karla's e-mails yesterday. This lead him to step into the Magic Box for a third time, completely of his own free will.

"I wasn't sure if you'd be here today," he greeted, trying to give off a reassuring smile.

She smiled slightly back at him. "Yeah, I got back yesterday morning and slept p-pretty much all day after class," Tara said.

A pause. "You t-talked to Karla, huh?"

"I heard about the epic battle against demons," Peter said. "I didn't think of you as the... crusading into hell type." He wasn't trying to sound like a jackass, he was just trying to crack a little friendly joke to lighten the mood.

"T-t-technically it was, uh, taking off to another planet," Tara said solemnly. "I've never done anything like that before. It was intense."

"That's pretty brave," Peter said, sincere. "But you're okay, right? Physically, at least. I'm sure it had to be draining mentally. I sure as hell can't imagine demon war being anything but overwhelming."

He had trouble imagining take part in an epic battle with demons at all, admittedly.

"It was hard to watch," Tara admitted. "I don't have offensive powers, really, so just seeing my friends go into it ... it wasn't easy."

"But being there for support is just as important," Peter said. "My relatively unrelated knowledge of war history at least shows that's usually true. I definitely wouldn't mind you having my back if I ever fought anything with horns and cloven hooves."

"... I have to take that as a compliment," Tara said, after a moment of boggling "Thank you, I think?"

She shook her head. "I'm really hoping there won't be too many horns or cloven hooves in my future. They're pretty, um. Ugly."

"It was meant as one," Peter said. "And believe me, I'll be the most surprised if my future involves demons of anything but the personal, metaphorical kind."

He smiled again. "I really just wanted to make sure you were okay. I guess I'm starting to get a little protective of my friends around here." He was a little surprised at that, too.

Tara was a little surprised Peter considered her a friend, truth be told, but she appreciated it nonetheless.

"I'm fine," she affirmed. "If you know Raven she's the one who really needs help. I just need a little rest."

Edited 2010-07-08 19:16 (UTC)

"I met her once," Peter said. "I think it might be a little awkward if I drop in on her, offering help." He shrugged.

As for Peter considering her a friend, well... Sometimes Peter knew how much of an ass he was, and he appreciated those that seemed to put up with it.

"I'll catch you later, Tara."

"She's been through a lot," Tara agreed, but smiled a bit for the first time. "See you soon, Peter."

Yeah, Kennedy usually only spoke to her mother three times a year: her birthday, her mom's birthday, and at Christmas, but she'd put in a long-distance call (to Portugal, was that where she was these days?) herself yesterday. She'd had time to sleep off her exhaustion from the trip to Azarath by now, but some of the strain still showed around her eyes when she showed up with lunch (and recently showered; Battlefield Tactics had been a muddy affair) despite her best attempts to look at least somewhat upbeat.

All it took was one look at Tara's general demeanor today, and the carryout bag from Outback (the lunch menu of choice for the day) was destined to wait on the counter for a bit while Kennedy went straight over to give her a hug.

Tara didn't need any prompting (not that she ever did, really) to return the hug, and there was more clinging than usual before she finally let go.

"Are you doing okay?" she asked.

"Yeah." At least she didn't sound worn out any more, which (she hoped) made it easier to be convincing... and Kennedy really wasn't going to object to the clinging, all things considered. She wasn't exactly moving away, either. "Still kinda sore, but no big, I'll get over it. You all right, babe?"

"Yeah, just ... feeling bad for Raven." And she wanted her mommy. "But you guys, you fighters -- you were all awesome. I never felt not-safe."

Not that badly, anyhow. She had this feeling Kennedy would keep her safe no matter what.

Kennedy would do her best about that... and was feeling pretty grateful there'd been a relative lack of fussing over how much she'd gotten tossed around. Or comment on how, on the scale of ass-kicking, she didn't rank as high as some of the others. "You were more useful than I was at the end, there," she ventured, a little sullenly.

If she was really honest, that had been bothering her a bit ever since.

"Maybe." Tara had been trying and she had felt strong working with Sam, but she'd been paying more attention to the whole situation than to her individual efforts.

Then she look another look at Kennedy's expression and was surprised at what she saw there. "... hold on, does it bug you? I mean, if I was?"

"No," Kennedy answered, then realized that wasn't terribly convincing; having Kerrigan make her feel stupid in class earlier hadn't helped much. "I mean, yeah, it does? But it's not because of you. You were awesome. What was I gonna do, poke Trigon and hope I got him to wobble before he swatted me half a mile again?"

Ugh. Self-pity was not a good look on her; how embarrassing, even around about the only person she'd let see it.

Tara would sympathize on the Kerrigan point, if she knew. She'd spent an hour every week the semester before in much the same position.

"I think the important thing" -- hang on, Tara was going all Hallmark here -- "is that we were there for Raven. She needed friends more than anything else."

She added, "And it wasn't half a mile!" Not quite, anyhow.

"Needs, present tense," Kennedy put in, still somewhat moodily. "Life has got to be less than sunshine and puppies for her right now."

Which was a less uncomfortable subject to talk about than what she privately referred to as her shining moment of fail.

"...felt like half a mile, anyway. The flying part was sort of fun?"

"M-more like stormclouds and cockroaches," Tara agreed with a little wince. Kennedy was right, and how often was she the emotionally sensitive one?

"And -- good? I, uh. Kind of c-couldn't watch you too much, I got scared."

Kennedy, emotionally sensitive? It was a once-a-year event, in an uncharitable opinion. In any case, it didn't happen often.

"Didn't mean to scare you," she said, looking honestly contrite about that part. "I was kind of wishing I had more time to check out what you were doing, but funny thing about being in the middle of a fight..."

Tara shook her head hastily. "You didn't. I m-mean, I was worried about you, but ... I was worried about all of you."

Kennedy a little more than, say, Anakin, perhaps.

"It was just big and chaotic and ... I was trying not to get hurt by doing anything stupid. P-probably about the same as you, but with less, less hitting."

Kennedy estimated she'd gotten hit about as much if not more than she'd done any hitting, so she couldn't really complain about that; she did reach out to wrap an arm around Tara again, though.

"You were great," she offered. "That shield thing was really useful, and the TK thing. I'd be happy to have you around in a fight any time. And everybody came out of it okay. Or... in one piece, anyway."

Except maybe their egos. Kennedy's, at least, was a touch frayed today.

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