[ Normally, Maika would be all for unhealthy coping mechanisms. Unsettling and too-personal battle in a probably-Nekyia place? No reason not to head back into the Nekyia and beat shit up until the tension in her dissipates even a little. Nevermind her current physical state.
But nothing is right here. She's weaker. She doesn't heal like she should. And though she'd rather die than admit it, she's rattled. What the fuck made that place? If she spends enough time there, is it going to absorb enough parts of her to do the same thing? Like Golga all over again, but with a group of strangers who don't have any reason to put her back together again after she tears herself to pieces?
She's always leapt before she looked. But it's not like there'll be a shortage of monsters if she lets herself mull over the idea for a day. So just once she's monopolizing a corner of the dorm kitchen, chopping vegetables with furious purpose for whatever paltry catharsis that can offer. She's at least partway through her rampage before she digs out the stupid phone to send a message. ]
Made too much food. I'm in the kitchen. If you want to commit any atrocities to it while it's still cooking, now's your chance.
[ And if she doesn't get any response, she'll just have to go hunting. Wolves are good at that. ]
[Kainé has been equally restlessly trying to shove her reaction to Aubrey's palace into some deep and unreachable pit of her.
She doesn't understand it, she doesn't want to understand it, and swelling on it is just going to make her feel shittier. It doesn't matter how things have changed: There's still a furious part of her that refuses to go soft - or maybe it was never soft at all.
She almost ignores the yappy notification from the device, but she does check it, her response might not be the expected reaction to that kind of offer.]
you can cook?
[Not really the impression she got from their very first meeting.]
I don't ALWAYS eat my food raw. Depends. How picky are you?
[ Maika eyes the semi-contradictory messages, but drops the device back to the counter before she can overthink sending it. Cooking with one hand keeps her busy enough as it is. No need to add picking over her words to the pile of distractions already occupying her.
She takes a whiff of the soup and goes back to crimping dumplings, briskly efficient even with one hand. It's not gourmet anything, but it's food — it's energy after a long battle that was draining in more ways than one. And it's a distraction not quite equal to beating things up, but acceptable. ]
[Stop contradicting yourself, is the first thought she has in response to the message. But calling Maika out over text just doesn't sound as interesting. There's something in her, rueful and impossible to fully understand, that feels an emptiness where snarking back and forth with someone should be. Maybe that's better done in person.]
what do you think? if it's not gonna kill me then i don't care. you can't suck as bad as this kid i know.
[Who tries very hard and therefore can't be insulted.]
[ Maika glances at the messages coming in as she works, snorting quietly to herself. Is this what she's like to talk to? Agreeing without ever agreeing, the bravado that turns more resilient and insistent the deeper the exhaustion or emptiness or loneliness gets? ]
If you leave the cooking to a kid, you deserve what you get. Kippa's always trying to trick me into eating flowers. What's yours like?
[ "This kid I know," like it's an acquaintance and not someone she knows well enough to be regularly accustomed to their cooking — a kid comfortable, close enough to Kainé to feed her. Goddess. They're both such pains in the ass. Maika drops the last dumpling in the pot and scrubs her sleeve across her face. A couple minutes, then she'll spring her ambush. ]
yonah's not mine. [It's a quick and immediate response.] she probably just feels like she owes me for saving her a few years back so she wants me to try her soups and cakes and whatever when i check up on her
[But...who is there for Yonah? Why does she care so much? The circumstances of her journey to save her never exactly make sense, but Kainé is no stranger to being thrown into situations she doesn't fully understand. Case in point: Being here in this fuckass city.
The thought probably catches her long enough, and she's so busy being defensive and prickly, that she doesn't emerge from whatever rock she's taken up residence under fast enough to sneak out for food.]
[ Oh, so it's like that. Maika's expression softens for a moment at the familiarity and the ache. It's fine. No one's here to see her this time. ]
Good luck trying to shake her, once she's imprinted on you like that.
[ Kids, man.
It's entirely Kainé's fault that she's thinking about Kippa still as she loads everything onto a little dorm room whiteboard that's become an improvised tray. A one-armed woman can carry a surprising amount of food if she's stubborn enough about it. She makes her way to Kainé's room first, giving a cursory knock in case of Kurumi before shouldering her way in. ]
Yell if you're in here. I want to make sure you don't miss me eating all these dumplings right in front of you.
[This room isn't really hers with how she avoids it most of the time, but while she's holed up here for the brief downtime she's taking after the palace, it's become a kind of safe territory. There's a natural defensiveness that accompanies that.]
What the fuck?! [Her voice hits a lower register, very nearly a legitimate growl at the encroachment on her very temporary and poorly guarded territory. She's going to crawl in a window and steal Maika's bedding for that sooner or later.]
You got a point to prove, you better make it quick. ... Don't mess with my shit, either. [What shit? The place is miserably barren and without personality.]
[ Honestly? Maika will completely have it coming when retribution finds her, and it won't even surprise her. Justice has a way of making its way back to her windowsill. She kicks the door quietly closed behind her and makes her way to the nearest table to set the tray down with a satisfying clack. ]
That always gets Kippa out of hiding, too. Why rework a strategy that already serves its purpose?
[ Not that Kainé's been younger-sister-coded by any means. But that name is almost the equivalent of a ceasefire coming from Maika, although she doesn't always have the sense to make that clear. ]
Like I said, I made too much. And I hate wasting food.
I'm not hiding. I was just - [Thinking. Trying to remember something that isn't there, exhausting herself with the wall she always slams up against when trying to push to the other side. Sometimes it feels like there's a heavy chain weighing her past down, but when she looks behind her to try and find the lock, the restraint moves to her throat instead. Her eyes, her wrists. She can never catch the thing that's holding her back, but she sees the holes - everywhere.
She shakes her head.]
... Never mind. Hand it over. If you won't eat it, I will. [Gratitude will have to wait until she's relaxed from her defensive coil. Maika's snarky banter is familiar and maybe even comfortable, and it might even be easier to slip into it alongside her.]
[ She's going to be hearing that one a lot lately, isn't she? "I'm not hiding" "I'm not running."
Well... she can understand that, too. Sometimes, you just want to be where other people aren't. She hefts the tray on over to pass to Kainé, careful despite her flippant words. She might not be a chef but it's still solid and comforting food; soup with an abundance of vegetables and roots for Maika to take out her wrath on, slightly crooked but well-made dumplings. Maika waits until Kainé has a hold on it before flopping back for a seat. ]
I hate this place. I haven't felt like myself in weeks. Can't fight like I should, can't even eat like I should.
[ She gives a yawn and a stretch, keeping the complaint more offhand than not. But it's a little bit of an invitation, too. ]
Thanks. [She takes the tray gratefully and props herself up next to a shitty, dorm-style desk. Even if the food in front of her is piping hot, Kainé tucks in immediately.] I already stopped being able to use magic a while ago. [Before they were kidnapped away to this city, at any rate.] But I feel way less strong. Around this many people, I don't like that.
What's going on with you and food? [It's the first time she's heard something like that, and it stands out to her given their very first meeting at the welcome party refreshment table. It seems like it's bothering Maika, and, contrary to the disinterested public image Kainé usually keeps, she sees it and she asks about it.]
[ Maika flops on her back on the floor, making herself at home — with the tiniest intentional courtesy towards not staring at Kainé while she eats. It's funny to see some of her own traits so mirrored, but distorted in reflection. Maika knows that "thanks" wouldn't have come as easily to her lips. ]
Same shit. I hate feeling weaker around so many people, too.
[ She pauses for a second; but she has no reason to hide what's common knowledge back home. And she wants to meet Kainé halfway. She tugs her tank top down casually far enough to bare the brand of the eclipsing eye on the center of her chest, vertically bisected by a fading, healed scar. ]
Normally... I'd be a lot hungrier than this. Call it a family trait. That got taken away before I got here, too. [ Another pause, as she figures out how to put it: ] I hated it, at first. But having something ripped away from you after you'd made it part of you? I hate that, too.
[ She wonders about Kainé's magic, how she can say that so offhand. Maika's never learned to be sanguine about losing things. ]
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Week 5/post Aubrey palace
But nothing is right here. She's weaker. She doesn't heal like she should. And though she'd rather die than admit it, she's rattled. What the fuck made that place? If she spends enough time there, is it going to absorb enough parts of her to do the same thing? Like Golga all over again, but with a group of strangers who don't have any reason to put her back together again after she tears herself to pieces?
She's always leapt before she looked. But it's not like there'll be a shortage of monsters if she lets herself mull over the idea for a day. So just once she's monopolizing a corner of the dorm kitchen, chopping vegetables with furious purpose for whatever paltry catharsis that can offer. She's at least partway through her rampage before she digs out the stupid phone to send a message. ]
Made too much food. I'm in the kitchen. If you want to commit any atrocities to it while it's still cooking, now's your chance.
[ And if she doesn't get any response, she'll just have to go hunting. Wolves are good at that. ]
no subject
She doesn't understand it, she doesn't want to understand it, and swelling on it is just going to make her feel shittier. It doesn't matter how things have changed: There's still a furious part of her that refuses to go soft - or maybe it was never soft at all.
She almost ignores the yappy notification from the device, but she does check it, her response might not be the expected reaction to that kind of offer.]
you can cook?
[Not really the impression she got from their very first meeting.]
no subject
Depends. How picky are you?
[ Maika eyes the semi-contradictory messages, but drops the device back to the counter before she can overthink sending it. Cooking with one hand keeps her busy enough as it is. No need to add picking over her words to the pile of distractions already occupying her.
She takes a whiff of the soup and goes back to crimping dumplings, briskly efficient even with one hand. It's not gourmet anything, but it's food — it's energy after a long battle that was draining in more ways than one. And it's a distraction not quite equal to beating things up, but acceptable. ]
no subject
what do you think? if it's not gonna kill me then i don't care. you can't suck as bad as this kid i know.
[Who tries very hard and therefore can't be insulted.]
no subject
If you leave the cooking to a kid, you deserve what you get. Kippa's always trying to trick me into eating flowers. What's yours like?
[ "This kid I know," like it's an acquaintance and not someone she knows well enough to be regularly accustomed to their cooking — a kid comfortable, close enough to Kainé to feed her. Goddess. They're both such pains in the ass. Maika drops the last dumpling in the pot and scrubs her sleeve across her face. A couple minutes, then she'll spring her ambush. ]
no subject
[But...who is there for Yonah? Why does she care so much? The circumstances of her journey to save her never exactly make sense, but Kainé is no stranger to being thrown into situations she doesn't fully understand. Case in point: Being here in this fuckass city.
The thought probably catches her long enough, and she's so busy being defensive and prickly, that she doesn't emerge from whatever rock she's taken up residence under fast enough to sneak out for food.]
no subject
Good luck trying to shake her, once she's imprinted on you like that.
[ Kids, man.
It's entirely Kainé's fault that she's thinking about Kippa still as she loads everything onto a little dorm room whiteboard that's become an improvised tray. A one-armed woman can carry a surprising amount of food if she's stubborn enough about it. She makes her way to Kainé's room first, giving a cursory knock in case of Kurumi before shouldering her way in. ]
Yell if you're in here. I want to make sure you don't miss me eating all these dumplings right in front of you.
no subject
What the fuck?! [Her voice hits a lower register, very nearly a legitimate growl at the encroachment on her very temporary and poorly guarded territory. She's going to crawl in a window and steal Maika's bedding for that sooner or later.]
You got a point to prove, you better make it quick. ... Don't mess with my shit, either. [What shit? The place is miserably barren and without personality.]
no subject
That always gets Kippa out of hiding, too. Why rework a strategy that already serves its purpose?
[ Not that Kainé's been younger-sister-coded by any means. But that name is almost the equivalent of a ceasefire coming from Maika, although she doesn't always have the sense to make that clear. ]
Like I said, I made too much. And I hate wasting food.
no subject
She shakes her head.]
... Never mind. Hand it over. If you won't eat it, I will. [Gratitude will have to wait until she's relaxed from her defensive coil. Maika's snarky banter is familiar and maybe even comfortable, and it might even be easier to slip into it alongside her.]
no subject
Well... she can understand that, too. Sometimes, you just want to be where other people aren't. She hefts the tray on over to pass to Kainé, careful despite her flippant words. She might not be a chef but it's still solid and comforting food; soup with an abundance of vegetables and roots for Maika to take out her wrath on, slightly crooked but well-made dumplings. Maika waits until Kainé has a hold on it before flopping back for a seat. ]
I hate this place. I haven't felt like myself in weeks. Can't fight like I should, can't even eat like I should.
[ She gives a yawn and a stretch, keeping the complaint more offhand than not. But it's a little bit of an invitation, too. ]
no subject
What's going on with you and food? [It's the first time she's heard something like that, and it stands out to her given their very first meeting at the welcome party refreshment table. It seems like it's bothering Maika, and, contrary to the disinterested public image Kainé usually keeps, she sees it and she asks about it.]
no subject
Same shit. I hate feeling weaker around so many people, too.
[ She pauses for a second; but she has no reason to hide what's common knowledge back home. And she wants to meet Kainé halfway. She tugs her tank top down casually far enough to bare the brand of the eclipsing eye on the center of her chest, vertically bisected by a fading, healed scar. ]
Normally... I'd be a lot hungrier than this. Call it a family trait. That got taken away before I got here, too. [ Another pause, as she figures out how to put it: ] I hated it, at first. But having something ripped away from you after you'd made it part of you? I hate that, too.
[ She wonders about Kainé's magic, how she can say that so offhand. Maika's never learned to be sanguine about losing things. ]