THE PLANET MINGLE

[princessia]

Who: EVERYONE!
Broadcast: Maybe, if you want?!
Action: The Planet
When: From May 11th until the end of the month

[ Willing to venture away from the casinos and investigate the nearby green planet? Here's your chance, now that it's in range!

THIS IS A MINGLE. GET HERE. ]

[ Make your own prompts, explore the planet, spend a night there, piss it off by taking its plants, whatever! MAY STAR SYSTEM OOC POST for your reference on getting through the orbit, what's on the planet, etc.! ]

Comments

[deshabille]

[She hadn't heard him, not before the fight. She hears the rat, though, and the struggle against it, and when he's done--]

[Well. Of course she smells the blood. It's what she's built for.]

[She whips her head around towards the source, her eyes wide, pupils dilated in the pitch-black of the forest. Smells the air, chin canted up to scent. Begins walking towards it without any thought, all on impulse.]

[Animal blood is not the same as human blood, but it draws her all the same. After a few moments, she's there, peering through the thick trees at Cole, her eyes reflecting in the dark.]

[killedwithlove]

[Cole is visible, but the eye wants to slid off of him. A vampire may well be different, but most humans find him slightly difficult to focus on right here and now.

He moves though, away from the rat. His knives are drawn and in his hands and he's wiping the blood across the long, thick grass, moving slow and careful and shy.]

I won't try to hurt you.

[deshabille]

[Invisible in the dark, she cocks her head. Won't try to hurt or will try not to hurt? The difference is a big one.]

[Still, warily, she steps out of the deepest dark and observes him, his knife, the way he moves.]

I could hurt you back. [Just a warning, in case he gets any funny ideas.]

[killedwithlove]

[Invisible to sight. Her pains and fears make her stand out bright and sharp to him.

He finishes cleaning the knives and sheathes them across his back again, looking straight at her, head tilted.]

Probably. But I'm not going to hurt you. I know Cassandra, the Seeker.

[deshabille]

[At the mention of Cassandra, her entire body relaxes, her whole demeanor changes. Where before she is wary, now she is calm, if still feral around the edges.]

[It could be a trap, she supposes. But if it is, she wants to know where it comes from, what the purpose is of using Cassandra against her. And she wants to know how this man knows her.]

Know her how?

[killedwithlove]

[He can feel the result of using Cassandra's name. It's reassuring that Mal likes Cassandra back.]

I helped the Inquisition. And I found Cassandra's grandmother's locket when she lost it. I told Cassandra I'd stay and make sure you were okay.

[deshabille]

You told her . . .

[Mal frowns a little. The words have the effect of bringing her a little bit back to herself, but they also embarrass her a little. She doesn't need a minder. (Okay, she definitely does, but she shouldn't.)]

I'm fine. [She isn't fine.]

[killedwithlove]

She was worried about you, so I said I'd stay and make sure you were okay.

[He frowns slightly. He can hear her words. He just knows what's really being said under them, echoing loudly.]

You're not fine. Let me help you.

[deshabille]

I don't need help.

[She retreats a little more into the underbrush, somewhere between trying to hide and trying to defend her ground.]

I've done this before. I did it by myself. I was fine.

[killedwithlove]

But you're hurting. I want to help you.

[He still doesn't come any closer. He's very non-threatening.]

Things are easier when you let people help. You don't have to be alone.

[deshabille]

[But she has to think about how this would look. She has to keep up appearances. She has to--]

[You're being an idiot, something says in the back of her head, and she can't tell if it's Polly or Cassandra.]

What can you do?

[killedwithlove]

[He offers a hand out. Still not getting closer.]

I don't know yet. But at the very least, I can be here with you. I bleed, but I don't really have blood. I can help protect you. And I can tell you about Cassandra.

[Distraction from it all.]

[deshabille]

[It's that last that convinces her. She wants to know. She wants to know everything.]

[Hesitantly, she steps out of the underbrush again. Does not reach out her hand, but doesn't push his away, either, and steps into his arm's reach.]

If I can't hurt you.

[If she can't hurt him, it's probably okay.]

[killedwithlove]

I don't think you can hurt me. I can be somewhere else.

[He can make her forget him, if he has to, but he thinks she's a lot stronger than she thinks she is.]

You want to know about Cassandra. You like her. A lot. I like her too. She's a very good person.

[deshabille]

. . . I like her a lot.

[She's a very good person. Mal relaxes, softens further, her pupils shrinking from their blown appearance.]

Tell me something, then.

[killedwithlove]

You do.

[He takes a moment to think of the things she told him not to say.]

She slayed a dragon once, in a single blow. She leapt on its back and killed it, defending the city of Val Royeaux. Midflight, she jumped to the next one, injured it and flew it into the mage controlling them.

[deshabille]

[A small, almost imperceptible smile.]

She crashed a dragon into another dragon?

[That's Mal's kind of woman.]

[killedwithlove]

Yes.

[He's seen it in the fears and wonder of Val Royeaux.]

When Cadash wanted to go dragon hunting, she made Cassandra come along, because she had experience and no one else did.

[deshabille]

I've never been dragon hunting.

[She wants to go, now.]

Who is Cadash?

[killedwithlove]

Cadash was my Inquisitor. Nadezhda Cadash. She was a dwarf.

She wouldn't take dragon hunting. She said I didn't have the sense to be trusted hunting dragons.

[He keeps talking, distracting her, pulling her into his words rather than the horror the world invoked.]

[deshabille]

[She takes another step closer, cocking her head.]

Why didn't you have the sense? What's missing?

[What makes him different from other people? She can sense it, but she can't understand it.]

[killedwithlove]

I don't know. I didn't understand when she said it either. "Cole, you don't have the sense their Maker should've given you, you're not coming hunting dragons, you'll just get yourself stepped on or fried."

[When he quotes her, his voice is lighter, feminine, accented and slightly rough around the edges.]

[deshabille]

[She cracks a smile, soft and curious.]

You seem sensible enough to me.

[Yes, tracking down a dangerous vampire in a hungry forest is highly sensible indeed.]

[killedwithlove]

Do I? I can't judge these things. I don't really understand them.

[deshabille]

I do.

[She makes a living out of understanding them. Has to understand them, sometimes, or she thinks she'll die.]

Admittedly, we've only just met and I'm half out of my mind at the moment. But you do.