Molly Toombs
The Setting: A coffee shop, how
classic. How literary. This particular shop is squeezed between
buildings and business spaces along the Santa Fe stretch of road, built
deeper than it is wide. The front of the shop hosts a large window that
nearly eats up the whole front face, along with a door to the left of
that window to enter. Outside there are a couple of tables and chairs
set up, but nobody's sitting outside. It's freezing rain right now.
No,
more people are hanging out inside. Inside, where the floors are
hardwood and the coffee bar hugs the right-hand wall. Where there are
exposed rafters above and stones and in the walls, where the artwork and
decor is supposed to be warm and eclectic both. Where the tables and
chairs are mismatched but all can be gathered under the blanket term of charming.
Through
the window poured warm, dim yellow light. People could be seen working
at the bar and enjoying their warm drinks and shelter from the rain.
The place wasn't too busy-- most people stayed at home or were out at
proper restaurants celebrating their mothers. Among the sparse
smattering of patrons, though, was Molly Toombs, and she was settled
into an armchair that could be seen through the large window.
She'd
dressed for the weather, and her tan raincoat was hanging on one of a
couple coat racks set up near the front door for patrons. Her hair was
left down, and she was dressed in a white wool sweater and a pair of
snug dark indigo jeans. A pair of black rain boots were on her feet,
and a maroon knit scarf rested about her neck and on her chest. She was
occupied reading a book whose cover was old and faded and battered and
blank-- it was possibly quite old, and/or used to have a sleeve that was
long since discarded.
To her right, a small table on which her
cup rested. On the other side of that table, an empty chair. It's
practically an invitation, really.
Kali
Kali isn't
particularly big on rain. Truth be told, she very much disdains it.
Rain ruins her hair, and she generally has to cover up in order to not
have people questioning her sanity for wandering around looking like
she's half-dressed in the middle of a storm. (Oddly, she gets away with
it in the snow, but not the rain. She'll never understand that.) It's
the one part of Denver's weather cycle she dislikes and envies Los
Angeles for.
Damned rain.
And that's why she's wearing a
long coat over what is for her a pretty conservative outfit. There's no
corset tonight; instead she's rocking a body-contouring razor-cut dress
the color of deep maroon (those numbers that are equally parts trashy
and classy) underneath that overcoat. Her hair is its usual red, though
the water has made it curl slightly in a way that deeply irritates her
and she's still smoking even when she's getting rained on. The
cigarette seems to be close to disintegrating but she doesn't care;
she's going to finish that thing when she decides, not when the weather
does.
And this is how she walks by the coffee shop, which is a
place she wouldn't normally go in. She likes going into bars so that
she can get a feel for how the competition is doing. Coffee shops don't
do much for her. But in this case, she happens to glance in the window
and she pauses under the awning to flick the smoke away (yes, now she's
done). Her eyes fall on the woman with her book and a brow quirks.
The two haven't spoken since that night, and there's a moment where
she's considering before the decision is made. The door opens and
closes and the Ravnos is inside, nodding as she approaches Molly.
"Hey, you. How's tricks?"
Molly Toombs
It's
been nearly a month since Molly's encountered Kali last, and they
hadn't really spoken at all on that evening. Really, it was more like
Kali had gone to battle against a craven of disease and Molly had
slinked in the shadows and watched the ordeal through a gap in the
fence. Something Very Strange was discovered in a hole in the ground,
being dug up (or buried again?), and Molly still had no idea what that
Very Strange Thing was. She had heeded the red-haired Ravnos's warning
to leave immediately.
She snooped and sniffed and asked too many questions, Molly Toombs, but at least she was pretty good at listening.
When
the greeting chimed into the air, interrupting both the quiet
background music over speakers and whatever reading Molly was doing, the
nurse glanced up from her book. Initially the expression had been very
neutral, if not a little curious (as is always the case when you're
approached in public). Upon recognizing Kali's face and identity,
though, Molly's demeanor shifted sharply and immediately. She
straightened a bit more in the spine, whatever slight half-bored hooding
her eyes had going on before was gone now, for the clear blues were
open wide and focused in on the woman before her. All at once she was
alert, attentive, watchful.
Not necessarily fearful, though, that should be noted.
"They're
quiet tricks," Molly answered, and reached for the bookmark that was
sitting on the table beside her coffee. It was lodged in place in her
book, which was closed over so that the blank dull green cover was
showing (showing, but revealing nothing). The book remained resting in
her lap, and her hands closed together overtop of it.
"How are you? I heard you were a bit under the weather."
Kali
Kali
doesn't particularly expect Molly to be scared of her. There are a
couple of reasons for this (from Kali's perspective, anyway). First,
the drug dealer-slash-strip club owner has made sure to present a fairly
civilized and friendly demeanor around the nurse, downplaying her
rougher aspects. There's only so much she can do for that, but she's
shown legitimate concern for Molly and she's hoped that pays out.
Second, Molly knows and willingly associates with Flood and doesn't seem
too worried about him that the Ravnos has seen. And frankly, in Kali's
perspective that puts her well out of the pole position of 'most
frighting creature Molly knows.'
The woman is watchful and
attentive; that makes sense. Kali even respects that, because it means
Molly's smart. She moves over and takes a seat opposite Molly, sliding
out of her longcoat to let it rest over the back of the chair. There's a
bit of a smirk at mention of her being sick, and she leans back a bit
with a nod.
"Yeah, fuckin' bug that was going around. You know
how it is." Yes, the bug of Vampiric-borne magical disease powers.
Just sort of goes around. "You're okay though, then? I was worried you
might have picked it up."
Molly Toombs
"Glad to
see you're better, anyways." To Molly's credit, and by extension to
Kali's own credit as well (credit to the groundwork she's already laid
with the night-nurse), she sounded like she meant it.
The woman
took a seat in the armchair to Molly's right. Molly left her book and
left hand in her lap, but the right one reached out to hook a finger in
the handle of her mug. If Kali were to bother glancing or caring she'd
see white-and-tan foam on the top of the drink-- a latte or cappuccino
rather than straight coffee. There was no protest or sign of discomfort
to the fact that the known-Undead chose to occupy the seat beside her.
Truthfully, Molly probably would've offered the seat as a show of good
manner if Kali hadn't sat on her own accord.
As for her own
health, Molly answered after taking a sip and swiping the bit of foam
from her upper lip with the tip of her tongue. The answer was occupied
with a shake of her head. "No, I suppose I wasn't close enough to catch
it. That or I'm not susceptible to whatever it was."
At this
point the woman's eyes hopped toward the coffee bar where the two
employees working this evening were hanging out. The young man was
watching Kali, partly because people who walked in usually came up to
the counter to order soon after, and partly because of how she wore that
dress. He was far enough away that he couldn't very well make out what
they were talking about over the other sounds of the shop, though.
Content with the privacy of their own conversational bubble, Molly took
another sip before setting the mug temporarily to rest on top of the
book in her lap, both hands now cradled around it for the sake of warmed
fingers.
"Was it actually going around? I mean, who else caught it?" She paused, then added: "Not Bo?"
Kali
"Oh,
thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster no." She shakes her hand, and there
is some relief in her expression even just saying that Bo wasn't hit.
"No, I made sure she played keepaway while I was in Typhoid Mary mode,
and I made sure no one else did catch it by keeping my ass thoroughly
away from people. You and her were the only two with a pulse that were
anywhere near me until I managed to fight it off."
She lets an
involuntary shudder pass down her spine, and she even appears a little
bit disconcerted by the whole experience. She didn't tell Bo much about
it, and certainly not how bad it got. The vampire had nearly worn
herself down to torpor with blood loss because of that bitch with the
blood magic. Kali is a lot of things and she can play cool as a
cucumber with the best of them, but something about that whole thing
just deeply unnerved her.
She lets it slip away though as she puts
up another smile and shrugs. "So yeah, no worries of CDC quarantine or
any of that other wackiness. The source is on ice and I'm hale and
healthy again." She looks at Molly now, curiosity dancing in the dark
eyes of the Rroma. "How've things been treating you?"
Molly Toombs
Bo
was fine. That was good, a show of relief and appreciation for the
good news flashed across Molly's face. She liked the eccentric young
woman-- she was friendly, and talkative, and shared information happily
and willingly. Molly couldn't find herself opposed to any of those
traits. And here Kali was, clearly better, delivering news that nobody
else had come down with this no doubt cursed illness (Molly'd read books
about sorcery that could cast plague-- in a general sense, of course,
she didn't know the mechanics or exact origins of it).
How have things been treating her, though? The light of Molly's eyes went flat for half of a second while she considered.
Oh,
you know. My best friend, who is pretty much only one of two last
human friends I can connect with, has stopped talking to me and won't
take my calls. The other human friend likes to sneak into places and
chase the otherworldly. This leaves my only remaining friends creatures
that could and possibly might kill me any minute. I take pills to cope
with the stress now. But hey, no ghosts have thrown me into walls or
flung furniture and flame at my in a very long time now, so that's good
news!
Instead, she sipped her drink and licked her lip again before replying with a small, almost satirical smile.
"Well
plenty of my evenings seem to center around visits not unlike this--
similar company, you see. So understandably things have been treating
me... interestingly. Not badly, though." She paused, then added:
"Danced with an actual man last night, so I'll chalk that up as a
not-weird win."
Kali
[[Per+Emp: How much to I pick up from you?]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )
Kali
Kali knows fine. She is well-acquainted with the concept of I am so very not fine and everything's horrible but that's not what I'm going to present to you.
She's been the master of Fine in her day, this woman who is not really a
woman anymore that acts as if nothing in the world bothers her when she
walks a razor tightrop between the fire and ravenous sharks every night
she wakes up. There are many experts at Fine, but everyone lets it
slip from time to time, the Fine. And Kali recognizes her own, to boot.
"Well,
good on you for a little not-weird in your life," she says with a
little smile. "We all need as much normalcy as possible in there. I
kinda get that you don't get it a lot, and that really sucks. If you
want your space so you can enjoy a little normalcy I can totally fuck
off and let you have your time."
There's a little shrug that
follows that. "Otherwise, I can just promise to keep the weirdness at
an absolute minimum approaching zero. Truth be told, I don't much like
the weird shit either. Obviously it's about as easy for me to avoid as
it is walking into the cineplex and not seeing a reboot these days, or
making it through a Miley Cyrus concert without seeing some tongue. But
I still try. If it were up to me I'd just run my businesses and do my
thing. So I totally understand the appreciation for the...not mundane,
but not abnormal."
Molly Toombs
Eyebrows rose some
on Molly's freckled forehead while she listened to Kali speak, but she
shook her head all the same when Kali said she would be glad to leave
her alone to give Molly a break from the supernatural for a bit. "No,
you're alright to stay." She added with a small smile, "You've never
caused trouble for me before anyway." Sure, they'd been involved in
some very upsetting and strange shit together before, but Kali hadn't
been the cause of that really.
As for the rest of it, Molly
listened and sipped her drink, and near the end the woman was
chuckling. Again, she shook her head before replying.
"I heard
the last one had an outright giant penis on stage for her to dance all
over. Or so the internet has told me." Another chuckle punctuated the
sentence and the thought entirely, and Molly finally transported the mug
back to the coaster that served as a buffer between it and the table.
She next shifted how she was sitting, crossing her left leg over her
right so that she was rotated more toward Kali rather than facing
directly forward.
"Anyway, by now there's so much about my world that isn't abnormal,
so the word is sort of beginning to defeat its own purpose. Really my
own damn fault when it gets down to the core of it, anyways." She
smiled again, and this time the expression was borderline apologetic.
Like her face was trying to say 'Sorry I get into such shenanigans, I
just can't help myself.'
"Do you mind if I ask what ever came of that whole... situation that went down last month?"
Kali
"Oh,
Mileybird," she chuckles. "You've got to hand it to her, what she
lacks in subtlety she makes up for with even less subtlety." A brief
aside, another in the Ravnos' never-ending string of pop culture
references. Some among her kind might wonder why she bothers, and the
answer is simple: whether banal or artistically relevant, pop culture is
a connection to humanity. It's another example of how Kali maintains
her own relative morality by regular immersion in the kine and their
ways. Otherwise, she would have lost it decades ago.
Molly says
she can stay and the Roma girl nods a bit, keeps there. She smiles
again when Molly says she's never caused trouble, and the smile is
sincere. She tries her damnedest not to cause trouble for the kine, at
least not trouble of the Kindred variety. They're enough trouble for
themselves without needing to spread their concerns to the living. When
Molly says that it's her own fault and gives that apologetic smile,
Kali waves it off as if to say she understands.
Her expression
shifts when Molly asks about the 'situation.' She sighs and leans
back. "Situation remains ongoing. There's a lot I can't really say
about it, because mostly I'm still looking into things. Long and short
of it is that there's a situation going on that may or may not involve
the kinds of things that even the oogly-booglies like myself and Flood
get nervous around. We've got our own myths and legends, just like you
guys. And just like yours, every myth and legend has at least some
basis in reality. There's a lot that I don't know right now, but I can
say that the aggressors in that particular incident are out of the way.
Now we just have to pull back the curtain and hope that it's only a
little old man, not an actual giant green head."
Molly Toombs
Molly
nodded along with what Kali had to say about the 'situation', so to
speak. The one at hand here in Denver, this wasn't a dated pop culture
reference they were making together.
After a brief set of
thoughtful silence, Molly sought clarification. She was careful with
the questions she chose and the paths she opted to explore, trying to
find the questions that she thought would get the least adverse
reaction. She knew better than to prod lions near their eyes and
mouths.
"What happens if it is a giant green head in this scenario?"
Kali
Her
expression is wry in response to the question in a weary sort of way.
Not that she is annoyed that Molly asked; more of a situation where
she's dreading the answer. She flips her damp and slightly frizzy hair
back with a toss of her head and shrugs.
"Then we embark on an
epic quest to stop the Big Bad from being unleashed upon this world.
Think something like those Brendan Fraser Mummy movies, except
that the CGI is better and we do it here instead of in an exotic
locale. Also, probably marginally less less Lara Croft-ing and
hopefully no recasting the hot Egyptologist midway through the
franchise."
Molly Toombs
"Well, there's that...."
Molly
was frowning too, this a gentle and contemplative crease to her
forehead and brow. Much like Kali, she didn't look bothered by the
person she was having a discussion with, but rather the situation that
they were discussing itself. Molly had a general idea of the scope of
the shit and fan that could possibly be meeting down the path these
events may lead, but no real grasp of the scenario itself. She had to
fill the holes with what crumbs and coins of gossip she could pick up
around town.
"I'm not going to sugar coat it, though. I was a
little more concerned about what repercussions it would have on... well,
everyone. The adventure is all good and fine, but I'm worried about
what has to happen for it to reach that point in the first place."
Molly
reached for her mug again, and met Kali's eyes from over the table with
a significant, almost questing look. "Who has to get hurt?"
Kali
"Ideally?
No one." She looks back at Molly, not shying away from the nurse's
gaze. Molly knows of the ability to bewitch with a gaze, but Kali
either doesn't have it or doesn't choose to use it, at least now. Kali
meets the other's eyes only because she wants to be as direct and
upfront as possible.
"The point is to shut the shit down before it
can hurt everyone. If I had a brain in this noggin I'd be moving my
operations to the Great White North or somewhere, but as it turns out
I'm occasionally lacking in that." The right corner of her lips curl up
in a bit of a smirk. "As it stands though, I want to make sure that
the city stays as safe from giant green heads as I can. It could
conceivably be bad, but we've got a jump on things so I'm feelin' pretty
confident."
Molly Toombs
The answer that she
received should have reassured the human who knew too much. But that
was her curse and her gift alike, wasn't it? Her knowledge, that is.
The fact that she was brave, risky, and dumb enough to go around asking
questions and seeking answers. Reassuring someone who knew things like
she did, and had a firm and reasonable grasp of how many of those things
she could survive, made being reassured a difficult thing.
Molly's mouth pressed into a line that whispered of doubt and nervousness.
"You're
the only voice sounding so confident on the topic, Kali. It kind of
makes all of that sound like a bunch of wind in your sails. No
offense."
She picked up her coffee mug again and brought it near
her face. Before she took her next sip she added: "I'm worried about
casualties and things hitting the news."
Kali
She's
not surprised by Molly's revelation that she's the only one sounding
optimistic. She's also not surprised that Molly's heard other voices on
the topic at all. But she doesn't look offended by the comment, she
just gives a dry chuckle and gives a shrug.
"Molly, if you want me
to be completely honest here, the truth is that we don't know. The
only precedent we have is obscured by legends and myths, and I didn't
lie about there being truth in all myths, the truth is typically in the
generalities and not the results. It could be bad, don't get me wrong.
There could be a lot of casualties and a lot worse. But we simply
don't know what state it's at and a lot of people don't quite know the
extent of what I know."
She shrugs then, a casual gesture. "They
know things I don't too, I'm sure. This is unfortunately how it goes.
I'm doing what I can to get some people together, but the point is...we
don't know for sure. So whether people are predicting doom and gloom or
happy days, we're doing it because that's what are minds are making us
fill in the blanks with. And I'm not predicting a Fonzie appearance for
the records; I'm just saying that we've got a real chance."
Molly Toombs
"Well, the unknown is more optimistic than a sealed fate of doom." It's probably about as much as Molly is going to concede. The mild furrow to her brow hadn't budged from her face, and looked as though it fit there. Like she'd been worrying and concerned for some time now. After all, she was just Fine, wasn't she?
"So long as no Big Bads wake up to destroy city blocks or anything like that."
She sounded like she was trying to be funny in tone, but there's a dark vein to that humor that suggests maybe she believes (knows) that's actually a possibility. Either way, her cup was down to its dregs and Molly was rising to her feet. The book that had been in her lap was mid-sized and slipped easily into her purse, which had been resting on the floor between her chair and the table all the while.
"I'm going to be on my way home, I think, before this rain decides to turn into snow and driving becomes a right pain in my side." If body language suggested it to be leaned toward, Molly would shake hands along with the parting of ways. Otherwise, she simply wished Kali well before depositing her mug in the dishes tray on the cream-and-sugar cart, wrapping herself back up in her coat, and heading on her way.
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