The Park, Saturday Morning

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

The park was seeing more traffic than usual this time of year, but generally the people visiting weren't going after each other with weapons.

Metal rasped against metal as the knives clashed, and Surreal lashed out with a kick to her opponent's midsection to try and drive her back for a second attack.

"Good. Again."

It was, Surreal reflected, almost like the last few years hadn't happened at all. She was twelve again and doing her blades training with Titian after the lessons with her tutors. Just...taller.

And with grass and trees around, which she'd never had in Hayll, but they seemed to make Titian happy.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[harpy-mother.livejournal.com]

"Quit attacking like you're still shorter than me," Titian laughed, flipping the knife over in her hand. "We're almost of a height, so use it."

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

"Use it? Most people I'm trying to eviscerate are bigger than me in some way," Surreal retorted, but it didn't stop her from calling in two of her throwing blades and firing the off at her mother with a blast of Craft while she closed the difference in space.

[harpy-mother.livejournal.com]

"No Craft! Cheating!" Titian brought up a leather-clad arm to deflect the knives and then bring her elbow down on the side of Surreal's head. "Again, without Craft. Stop taking tips from Sadi, you're thinking like a male with too much power and not enough sense."

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Surreal didn't answer, her head was too busy ringing from her mother's hit.

She was just going to reverse her hold on her own knife and slash towards Titian's unprotected neck, ignoring the flash of panic that went through her as she did.

Blood-splashed walls, Titian's eyes still wide-open, staring at the ceiling. Her throat--

Surreal shoved down the nausea and pressed forward, making Titian work for it.

[harpy-mother.livejournal.com]

Titian wasn't exactly a fan of sharp-objects around her throat either, given the way she died, but Surreal needed to practice with someone of their tribe, and there weren't exactly any Dea around the island.

Although to be fair, Titian had been doing her best to steer them clear of the other Blood scents all weekend, rather than answer too many questions.

She kicked out at Surreal's legs, aiming to knock the girl over as she parried with her own blade.

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Surreal's legs weren't there. She slid to the side, using the same move Titian had just a moment ago to nail her mother along the side of her head with her elbow, nailing Titian's temple.

"Stop going easy on me."

[glacial-family.livejournal.com]

Sorry for that plan of 'avoiding Blood scents,' but maybe you should have thought about that before going to work in the park. Lots of Queens on the island, running into one another in a green space was kind of a given.

What should also have been a given was the fact that Karla had gotten her tendency to think before speaking from someone. As soon as they stumbled into the area where Surreal and Titian were fighting, Ilyse stopped, gasped and said, "Hell's fire and Mother Night! She's a--"

"Another Queen, yes," Karla interrupted. "I told you there was more Blood on the island, Mother. Surreal goes to school with me."

And didn't know about her distaff lineage. Tersa seemed intent to keep it that way and Karla was not about to go against her. Not with what was at stake.

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Queen-no-more, if you asked Titian, but one rarely did. She ruled a different sort of land now, although she was keeping that from her daughter.

Surreal tensed as she caught Karla's psychic scent coming closer, and paid for her distraction with Titian's knife coming close enough to her face to sever a lock of hair.

"We need to go," she hissed. "Now--"

Except it was probably already too late, and Titian's head was coming up too.

Oh, Hell.

[harpy-mother.livejournal.com]

Another Queen, and the way Titian moved between her daughter and the strangers was not friendly.

"Friends, Surreal?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla snorted at that. "Acquaintances at best, Lady," she said quietly, making no sudden movements. Titian moved in a way that screamed 'danger' even more loudly than Chaosti did. "She doesn't much like me and I tend to avoid her. Saves on bloodshed."

And the possibility of saying too much at the wrong time.

[glacial_queen]

It had been a tense day yesterday, closed off with her parents for much of it. Lots of talking, a little bit of yelling, a decent amount of crying...It was hard when both sides had preconceived notions of what the other was like and both were discovering they were wrong.

Today, they'd decided to go for a walk in the park. The land would soothe their spirits and emotions and maybe they'd get a chance to talk without yelling.

[glacial-family.livejournal.com]

It was hard, though. For all that she longed to talk to her daughter, Ilyse was finding herself with very little to say. She had expected to be able to impart her Queenly wisdom over years, with Karla listening attentively at her feet.

Not only was she now limited to a weekend, Ilyse was also learning that her daughter was not one to sit at anyone's feet. She also wasn't much for listening, though Ilyse supposed that hadn't changed much from when she was a child. But one thing that had changed was the way that Karla had stopped looking up at her adoringly, as if Ilyse was the center of her whole world.

She supposed that was to be expected, but Ilyse was finding it still stung a bit.

"Your Warren seems nice," she said eventually. "I am glad we got to talk to him more yesterday."

With pants on.

[glacial_queen]

"He is nice," she said, a little sharper than she'd intended. "As is Jono and you might be able to meet Raven today, too. I know that you think I'm being...impulsive...in my choice of Court--" Ilyse's comments had been a little less polite than that, but Karla was trying not to argue today, "--but I assure you, they were all chosen for good reason, beyond the fact that they are my best friends and they care for me deeply, as I do them."

[glacial-family.livejournal.com]

"So you have said," Ilyse mentioned, a little wry. "But I don't know if you've given thought to how it will appear to--"

[glacial_queen]

"Please believe me, Mother," Karla said, rather proud of herself for maintaining her calm and not snapping, "I have. We all have. That topic could be demon dead by now, we've discussed it so much. One of the first things I did was talk the matter over with the High Lord and also Geoffrey and Draca at the Keep. We know it isn't going to be easy. But they're going to help me win this war. If I don't do at least that much, then it won't matter whether the aristos approve or not, will it?"

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara run towards the sounds of fighting, because, well, basically because she needed to hit something.

It looked like sparring, but that didn't stop her from drawing an agiel, just to be on the safe side. "Surreal?"

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Titian looked up first this time, and Surreal used the distraction to drop and sweep her legs out from under her, and pounce on top to press her knife to Titian's heart.

"A winner is me, yes?" she asked, tossing back her hair in exhilaration. "Cara! Come meet my mother."

[wrongkindofsith]

"Your mother?" Cara went only slightly less stiff and awkward than she'd been the last few days, meeting parents was not a thing she knew how to do.

[harpy-mother.livejournal.com]

Titian used Surreal's distraction to flip her daughter over and slam a stiletto into the ground by her head. "You're dead, is what you are," she said pleasantly. "Sloppy, finish the kill before preening in front of your... friend?"

Since Surreal was a lot less tense than she had been around Karla, Titian guessed this one was a step-up from 'acquaintance.'

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Surreal just rolled her eyes. "You can't let me win? Not even once?" she asked, but not moving least Titian decided to try and cut her again. "Titian, this is Cara. Cara is my main sparring partner."

And more, but Titian could probably figure that out.

"If you want to jump in and try to hit her to get her off me, feel free. She's just going to keep beating on me until she decides my knifework is acceptable."

[wwiii]

Warren was still on the island, yes. His portal back to Sunnydale was booked for the end of the weekend, so, even though Karla's parents were kind of getting top priority on the 'who gets Karla's time,' list, he was still... kind of just hanging around.

You know, sitting on the edge of a park bench with his wings hanging over and feathertips dusting the ground. Trying not to feel too awkward as he watched Karla and her mother talk across the way.

Sometimes, he really wanted to kick this island in the face.

[glacial-family.livejournal.com]

Audric was also letting his ladies have some private time, which mostly meant that he was hanging back enough to let them have privacy, while still being able to keep an eye on them.

Sure, he and Ilyse were already dead, but that didn't mean he was going to stop being vigilant about their safety.

Seeing Warren, he crossed over to the bench, still keeping one eye out for danger. "You know, I never asked," he said, sitting down next to the lad. "What race are you, to have wings and claws the way you do?"

[wwiii]

Warren nearly started at Audric's question. He'd been watching Karla so intently that he hadn't seen the Warlord Prince coming. Fortunately, aside from some slightly ruffled feathers, he managed to keep any outward shock from showing too obviously.

Score one for Warren?

"I'm... human," he replied, and then gave his shoulders a shrug. "Born to human parents. I guess some part of me decided that wasn't quite good enough, though, since I grew wings when I was still a little kid. The claws... they're something else."

He looked down at the black claws that had remained on his hands after the alien illness had left. A permanent reminder that even he wasn't unbreakable.

"I suppose you could call them scars."

[glacial-family.livejournal.com]

"Interesting form for scars to take," Audric said, raising an eyebrow a bit. "Is this another of what Karla calls 'an island thing'?"

Like they were themselves.

"I have to appreciate the island in that it's allowed us to see our daughter again. Twice now, which is twice more than the dead usually get. But some of the things you've told us about now makes me wish she were somewhere else."

[wwiii]

Warren wasn't going to look up from those claws for at least the next minute, now.

"It can get dangerous here," he admitted. "The claws were an island thing, sort of. Something that happened when the island and all of her quirks was pushed the other way."

He flexed his hands, and then balled them into fists, hiding those claws from view.

"But for all of that, I think being here did Karla a lot of good. It does a lot of people good, really."