Participants:
Scene Title | How Did You Not Know? |
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Synopsis | Worrying about one friend, another one blindsides Elisabeth … and herself. |
Date | April 25, 2019 |
Raytech Rooftop
The benches scattered among the solar panels draw people during their lunch breaks, but currently they're mostly empty with the late morning sunshine illuminating them. With an earbud in one ear, she may be listening to something from the phone she has tucked into her pocket, but she's got her face turned to the sun and her eyes closed. She seems peaceful… until you get close enough to realize there a pensive cast to her features. Elisabeth is thinking very hard. Hard enough that, her usual hyperawareness of her surroundings is not in evidence. It's taken months to get to the point that she trusts in her own safety within the confines of Raytech's complex enough to let down that guard, even for a little while.
And still, Devi is 10 feet away when the blue eyes flicker open and narrow in on her instantly. A faint smile quirks her lips and she lifts her chin in greeting, a silent invitation for the other woman to join her, if she wishes.
Dark eyes consider the darker reflection in one of the nearest solar panels. No, not the reflection - just the panel itself. Devi purses her lips and turns away, tucking her hands into her black denim pockets. The slight motion brings her attention to Liz - the sight of which changes that pensive expression to one more lopsided and smirky. Without hesitation she crosses the solar “field” and steps up by Liz, rocking forward on her toes.
“What’s cooking, good lookin’?” She finds her favorite pair of reflective, rainbow-colored sunglasses in a breast pocket of her leather vest and pops them on, letting them slide playfully down her sharp nose before she bobs her brows Liz’s way.
The blonde's smile is a little sheepish. "If I were actually cooking — which is my go-to when it comes to being anxious about shit — he'd know I was anxious about shit. Which none of us needs right now, so .. nothing is cooking. Which is actually my problem," Elisabeth laughs. "I should just go down there and cook."
She slides sideways on the bench to give Devi room to join her. "What about you? How goes the exhibit at the Fair? Are you getting a lot of orders and compliments?" Because what she's seen so far has been a positive response.
Each time Liz says ‘cookin’ a penciled, dark brow reaches higher, and higher, and higher until it threatens to crawl up into Devi’s tattooed hairline and disappear entirely. “Woah-woah. Slow your roll.” The biker takes a seat beside the blonde with a chuckle. “Now, if this is about the Fair - don’t worry, I got this. I mean, Seren’s got this and I just stand there and look awesome. But, it’s all set, either way.” A cheshire grin turns her pale cheeks round beside her sharp nose. “We’re going to unveil the Mantis mid-Fair to start a flourish and I’m sure Looney Tune will wrap up with his amazing stuff to leave ‘em all further star-struck.”
“See? All set. So… what’s eatin’ at you that you couldn’t possibly want Toots to catch wind of, hm?” She looks legitimately concerned, looking over the silver rims of her reflective lenses.
Dragging her hand through her hair, Elisabeth pffts. "No, it's not the Fair. Thinking about the Fair just keeps my mind off where he is." Glancing at Devi, she grimaces. "He's up at Plum Island visiting Dessa." Not Odessa or even Des, but the more familiar diminutive. "She…. I'm a little worried that she's… that what he has to say is going to basically gut her. And she's my friend, as weird as that sounds to most people."
The trial of Odessa Price was really well covered, though Raytech had known the woman as Desdemona. "He doesn't need to deal with my reactions on top of hers, yaknow? Especially since I seem to become a babbling fucking idiot when I'm stressed around him lately."
It's probably about as clear as mud.
“How’s he holding up with all that?” Devi’s first concern. Then, perhaps with a sense of secondary consideration, “Sorry ‘bout your friend.” The statement clearly is made out of compassion for Liz. Odessa and Devi may have worked for the same man and the same company, but this seems the only overlap in their respective venn diagram.
“I doubt he’d agree - Toots needs to deal with everything. He’s out to save you and the rest of the world and maybe a few other realities while he’s at it, hm?” She grins cheekily and bumps her shoulder against Liz. “I’m sure he’ll know what to say to your friend, whatever it is.” Clearly she gives the shady man a lot of credit.
"Thanks." She shoots Devi a grateful half-smile at the sympathy. It's not something she can do much about so she really doesn't say much about it.
But to the latter part, Elisabeth gives a hand-waffle back and forth. "Ehhhhhh," she draws out, "I sincerely doubt there's a damn thing that's going to lessen the hit." She sighs. "She cut off their relationship when she found out I was coming home." That much was kind of available to anyone who looked, since he had to testify to it in the trial. "It didn't matter to her that we're open and she didn't have to do that… I respect the fact that she doesn't like to share, and she has to deal with her own feelings on it. But…" She wrinkles her nose. "I don't want the fact that we're tying the knot to destroy our friendship or their relationship. And I'm … a little worried about it. He's going to feel guilty and shit, and that makes me anxious."
Shades already half-down continue to droooop down her nose. They reach a point they are nearly about to fall off before Devi even does so much as blink. When she does, it’s just her right eye in a twitchy sort of way…
“Hold the fuckin’ phone…”
“You’re in an open…” she holds her hand parallel to the ground and waxes it around.
Devi freezes again, like she’s short circuited. She very well may have. “And now you’re… getting married, hitched, joined… eternally, forever.” She holds up her tattooed hands, fingers splayed, and starts jamming them together like an awkward puzzle. Yup, short circuited.
The biker takes a deep, wavering breath and pushes to her feet. “You know - I’m sure he’s got this. I mean, she’s in prison or whatever - what’s left of her to break? Right. Totes easy. Besides, she’s supposed to be happy for him, and for you - as a friend and shit. Right? Totes.” Now who is rambling. Her body language already suggests an urgent need to be gone, every muscle turned into a tightly wound spring. “It’s good. It’s good. Yeah…”
It isn't until the other woman stumbles over her own words the second time and the word 'married' has the subtle emphasis on it that Elisabeth tunes in to something she didn't know. She should have known. And she's kicking herself for not realizing that the flirtation was a cover for a deeper emotion. It could be perhaps mitigated in the idea that for her flirtation was always just about friendship and sex and affection, but … it doesn't excuse what was apparently a far bigger bombshell than she understood.
"Stop." The word is an order as Elisabeth comes to her feet too. "Devi, I… fuck." Dragging her hands down her face, she says simply, "I'm sorry. I didn't know." There is genuine regret for having hurt the other woman. And as she takes in the stunned expression, her own softens still further. "Did you even know until just this minute?"
The biker freezes. Liz has the effect. As the blond starts apologizing, though, Devi’s face scrunches up behind the aviator-shaped shades with a look of utter confusion. But, Liz has come to know her well enough by this point and can see more - at the further reaches of her little wrinkles and somewhere attempting to hide behind shades, liner, and dark irises, maybe there’s a hint of pain.
“What? Come off it. What the fu-… Liz, come on.” She reaches up and pulls off the shades, the gesture fluidly moving to rubbing her tattooed forearm over her brows as she takes a deep breath and releases it as an exasperated huff. She looks off at the solar panels. “No, I didn’t no. I mean, not fuckin really. You know? He’s was just-,” she shrugs. “-always going to be there… and…” She closes her eyes and shakes her head. Words, are not and never have been her strong suit.
Francois' silent observation of her talent for getting to the bottom of an issue with the efficiency of a police raid, overturning furniture, checking the vents and the toilet tank for clues is ridiculously apropos. Elisabeth sighs. "That man…" He has his moments, this man loved by at least three women other than herself that she knows of.
"He's still going to be there. If or when you ever … figure out what's what," she offers in a dry tone. "Unless you're unwilling to share." Then, well… Shoving her hands in her back pockets, she does shrug just a little. "And … I can't exactly speak for him as to how those things go or anything, but given the way he teases you?" She smiles just a bit. "He's kinda clueless and requires a two-by-four on some matters." Who does that? Just offers outright that little bit of advice about the man they're about to marry?!
Devi pulls her raven locks away from her face with a palm across the top of her head, surprise and confusion written as obviously onto her visage as the tattoos there-on. The blonde does have an uncanny way of revealing much about her raven-haired counterpart, and today is no exception. The unease with which she stands here might speak even more volumes…
Devi has never played in a polyamorous relationship. Or, any proper relationship for that matter. The playful jibes and plethora of sexual innuendos don’t often lead to the expectation of long-lasting relations. Except… Her dark gaze wanders to the solar panels again, narrowing. “Yeah…” She’s not talking about Liz and Richard, though, and she does a quick double-take to refocus on her blond friend. “I mean, no-… maybe.” She rubs at the back of her neck. “Things might be more complicated than all that…” She tries on a half-smile.
“Listen to you, trying to sell of your man to the highest bidder. You could make yourself filthy rich, doin’ it.” There it is. The comfortable armor of a quick quip. Devi bobs her shoulders. “You’re good shit, Mama. Forget this. Forget Dess. You hear me?” Shades in hand, she points deliberately at Elisabeth. “You got one thing to worry ‘bout now.” She grins. “Finding a bomb ass dress to make all the other bitches swoon.”
The confusion actually makes Elisabeth smile as she rocks on the balls of her feet. Her expression is a mix of laughter and a perhaps amusing bashfulness. "Well… not trying to sell him, exactly. Just… letting you know it's not exactly off the table. A wedding ring doesn't change things for us. I mean…" She just shakes her head slightly. "Anyway, do with it what you will," she adds, grateful that at the least, Devi doesn't seem hurt worse by the knowledge.
And then she rolls her eyes and grimaces. "Dear God, this is gonna be thing. The one thing we didn't want was some ridiculously large thing, but it's gonna be. I can't even. I may need a fuck-ton of Lemon Death."
Letting her hand and hair falls back, her pale visage finally seems inclined to take back on its regularly mischievous expression. Armed with a renewed smirk, Devi’s ebon-painted lips find a husky laugh. “A thing? Now there’s a ring on it. ‘Course it’s a thing.” She leans her head back, considering Liz from down her sharp nose. “Big or small, it’s a thing. And…” She folds her arms over her chest and leans in to grin. “I’m happy for you. Both of you.”
Elisabeth sticks her tongue out. A ring on it indeed! His father's wedding band, in fact. But she simply rolls her eyes and then laughs. "Thanks." She hesitates, as if she's going to say more, and then bites her tongue. Too much touchy-feely she can do with her guys… Felix, Teo, Francois. Definitely Richard. Her female friends? She's a little awkward there. And Devi seems the same, so fuck it. She's glad that Devi is at least outwardly okay. The rest, the other woman doesn't need her prying at.
"We're keeping it pretty quiet, though. At least for a little while. If you don't mind keeping it under your hat. I'm … there are a few people we've needed to tell in person, and I'm just not ready for the deluge that'll come when we finally… let 'em all know. Apparently a great many of them have been waiting to say it's about time." Mind-boggling, if you ask her.
Dark eyes consider Elisabeth at that thoughtful pause, but strong-Shera-woman code is clearly at play here and the pair happily brush the rest of the feels back to their appropriate hidey holes. Devi straightens and pulls her vest just so. A strange whirring sound emanates from her pocket, but is quieted with a quick slap of her tattooed hand on the leather pocket. She ignores this little interruption smoothly.
“As you wish, Mama. You’re secret’s safe with me.” A pause and a subtly lifts brow. “And, maybe mine’s safe with you?”
The blue eyes on Devi gentle to a softer expression. "Count on it," Elisabeth promises.