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[a_mad_hope]

Karou, proud and confident, dubbed herself the 'Angel of Extinction' and wore her finished wings to show Brimstone.

It didn't go well.

Issa -- lovely, laughing Issa -- called her an abomination, the words spat out in the hiss of a predator. Karou was sent away like a naughty child, like someone who couldn't understand why she didn't belong.

She is still wearing the harness she'd constructed when she walks into Milliways, the stolen feathers of hundreds of different dead birds killed to pay Brimstone for selfish wishes folded in on themselves: drooping, sad. She isn't smiling or proud any longer.

A careful look around satisfies her well-honed survival skills. Nothing looks like a problem here; no one looks ready to hiss or spit at her for what is strapped to her back. Karou breathes in the smell of the bar, so distinctive from any other place she visits through Brimstone's portals, and quickly heads outside.

Maybe she'll feel up to unfurling her wings by the lake. Maybe not.

The 'Angel of Extinction' shouldn't be bothered by the word 'abomination,' but the lostness inside Karou is letting it fester.



[OOC: Usual slowtime warning applies.]

Comments

[street_sparrow]

"...Karou?" Gavroche follows, at a distance, not crowding her, but following. "What's wrong?"

[a_mad_hope]

Karou stops, tilting her head like she's waiting for more, waiting for the right question, before giving in and answering, "I made a mistake."

She just isn't sure what or why that is.

Turning, she manages a small smile. "Hello. Did you get your present?*"



*[OOC: Please assume that Karou is not forgetful and at some point actually left the hilarious caricature of Gavroche's parents with Bar. :)]

[street_sparrow]

"I did!" he says more cheerfully. "It's framed on my wall at home. Thank you."

[a_mad_hope]

That makes her smile widen and her shoulders relax.

"I thought I captured their true essence."

[street_sparrow]

That's good to see, and he resolves on the spot to make her happy at every opportunity. "You really did. Did you show it to them?"

[not_his_pa]

William had been in Arizona dealing with a cow that decided to go poking where it shouldn't.

When he was riding back the world shifted and became Milliways' forest, he's glad of the break and heads Les towards the lake path then stops when he sees the girl with blue hair and wings, "Whoa, there. Sorry, miss."

[a_mad_hope]

Karou fails to startle, offering him a friendly smile rather than a gasp of surprise at his sudden appearance.

It is impossible to scare her.

"For what?" She asks, honestly curious.

[not_his_pa]

"Um, ridin' near where you were standin',"

As soon as he says it, he realizes how stupid that sounds but can't think of what else to say.

[a_mad_hope]

Her head cocks to the side like any one of the birds who gave up their lives for her glistening feathers.

"I wasn't aware that is a crime," Karou says, smiling up at him. "You weren't riding directly at me, and even if you were I'm old enough to know how to get out of the way."

[seat_five_girl]

Time is... uneven in Milliways occasionally.

Which is why, months, and minutes, after she'd last been in the bar, Ako is outside, looking around in confusion. She wasn't supposed to be here, her door at home is terribly stable and locked to the supply room of a spare music classroom.

Except when it's not, apparently.

Anyway, Ako is trying to look at the wings without being obvious. Karou should probably notice.

[a_mad_hope]

Karou does notice.

She is good at noticing.

That isn't to say she minds, of course, and she even turns from side to side to allow a better view. Someone should look at them, if Issa and Brimstone won't.

"Hello," she offers at last.

[seat_five_girl]

Ako tugs her ballcap down. She hasn't even napped yet, let alone got a proper haircut. Last time she tries a short cut when she actually wants to get somewhere.

"Um, hi," she offers in return.

Then, "I like your wings. They're very pretty."

[a_mad_hope]

"Hi," Karou says again, smiling a bit at the compliment and leaning her head back to look at one wing.

"Thank you. I'm hoping they will earn me a good grade in costuming."

There's something sad, almost lost, about her tone.

Disillusioned, perhaps.

[mergich_singer]

There's a snow leopard who's too big to be a snow leopard, lounging lazy in the fork of a tree.

She's watching Karou: curious, surprisingly unthreatening for a big cat high up, eyes bluer than the sky.

[a_mad_hope]

Karou's first thought is run, you beautiful creature. Run before I'm sent to collect your teeth.

The Angel of Extinction says nothing aloud. Instead she positions herself below the snow leopard and slowly extends one wing, dipping over her lowered, pointed leg in a graceful bow.

[mergich_singer]

The snow leopard's ears flick back, then forwards again like radio dishes.

And then she stretches...

...And there's a barefoot woman in a long fur coat, slouched in the tree like an empress on her throne.

(But she still has the same blue eyes.)

"Hello."

(One should not bare the neck to an unknown, even here.)

[a_mad_hope]

Straightening, Karou completes the move with a little turn and sweeps out the other wing like it's all part of a dance.

"Hello."

She looks up and smiles, gently flapping her wings.



Should she worry that she isn't bothered by the fluid transition from beast to human? Perhaps.

Should or shouldn't, she clearly isn't.

"I like your perch."

[says_the_booyah]

Cy sees the strange young woman he chatted with a few months back. And as he tries to say hi, she keeps going.

So, out of curiosity about that harness, he follows.

"Karou?"

[a_mad_hope]

Karou tenses at her name, a momentary thing that has nothing to do with surprise, but she recognizes the voice and draws herself up and around in a graceful turn. Looking right at him, she nods her head and smiles.

It's all very birdlike.

"Cyborg," she replies, a name for a name. "Hello."

If one ignores the lingering sadness, she looks quite happy to see him.

[says_the_booyah]

"Hey. Long time, no see. What's up?" Hard to miss that sadness. Never mind that contraption.

[a_mad_hope]

She shoots him an almost amused look.

"Insert sarcasm here?" she jokes, flicking her gaze up at the trees and sky. "Not much. How are you?"

[wish_monger]

Brimstone had been in the bar reading the Táin Bó Cúailnge when Karou entered and ran through. At her obvious pain, he stood in the shadows and nearly threw the book to the floor to follow her in her flight outback, but quickly saw another, a human, do the same. Sighing, he reclaimed his seat; for her life was one for humans now, as much as he might wish other wise. He quickly found his attention pulled towards her still and so after some few minutes, he followed.

Outside he saw her talk with several of the humans. Hiding in the trees, he still found himself wishing to help her and so when the last human left her, he conjured several sapphire butterflies and set them her way.

[a_mad_hope]

Alone, a faint breeze teasing the fine blue hairs around her face, Karou looks toward the lake but stays away from the shore, enjoying the familiar sound of rustling tree leaves.

It is just the leaves, right?

The butterflies arrive one by one, sunlight glinting on deep blue wings and making her smile. She raises a hand and moves it through the air in a slow dance designed to tempt them into following along. A medium sized one gives in and lands on her finger.

"Such a pretty color," she says.

[wish_monger]

A shadow moves within the trees and asks, "Is that why you choose that color for your hair?"

[a_mad_hope]

Karou slowly flutters her hand up and down. The butterflies flutter their wings like a different kind of shadow, mimicking, vivid like a fresh stain on the world.

"There are worse reasons." She lifts her head and gazes at Brimstone's shadow in the trees, expression thoughtful. "Are you coming down?"