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Post by skyeknight on Sept 18, 2019 15:45:39 GMT
Aqua sat at the bar, nursing her first drink. She closed her eyes, willing the bartender to leave. She couldn't stand to be pitied and she knew that's what he was doing. She had come to the bar, half hoping half dreading seeing Omar. Only he wasn't there. He and his band hadn't asked to rebook a performance since the demons attacked. He hadn't returned her calls. Jane was sympathetic but Aqua ultimately knew her loyalties lied with her father. She couldn't ask the young woman to pass on any messages. She wasn't about to drag Namine into her mess. The girl loved Omar like a father. Aqua wouldn't be the one to taint the man's image because of her own weak heart.
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Post by Zuyuri on Sept 18, 2019 17:49:22 GMT
Shadow swirled his drink with the nerves starting to spin just as quickly. He had asked out Jane LaRue, a notorious cop hater. He glanced over to the empty stage in the Bourbon. Her father performed here usually, but had mysteriously been absent. He wasn’t the only one here, drowning nerves. A familiar flash of blue hair got his attention. “Aqua?”
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Post by skyeknight on Sept 18, 2019 19:46:37 GMT
Aqua looked up, inhaling sharply but letting it out just as quickly when she saw it was Shadow, not Omar. She looked back down at her drink. She didn't have the habit of spending a lot of time with Shadow outside of work. She shifted in her seat, but putting on her best smile she looked up at him, even though she didn't feel like it. She could feel the bartender's eyes on her again, but mercifully, he drifted away after setting Shadow's drink down. Right next to her. Of course he did.
"Hey, Shadow, how are you?"
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Post by Zuyuri on Sept 18, 2019 19:55:04 GMT
“Um, finally getting a sense of peace after all that happened?’”
It was such an odd thing to say, but the truth nonetheless. He was no longer hopped on pain medicine on regular intervals. The pain of muscles knitting themselves together was gone. He could walk without a crutch. Running was getting easier, but he hadn’t gotten to his regular jet skate speeds yet.
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Post by skyeknight on Sept 18, 2019 20:02:53 GMT
"Good. That's good." she said.
She knew she should be happy for him. He had gone through so much torment and suffering. It was a wonder he had even come back to work. Most people never recovered after what happened to him. A part of her wondered if it was a good idea for him to be drinking after having so many medicines, but he probably knew his body better than anyone else. She kept her gaze down at her own drink. They all had hurts after the attacks. The least she could do was support someone who was recovering.
"We were worried about you."
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Post by Zuyuri on Sept 18, 2019 20:49:09 GMT
“I know that now...”
He didn’t even look up at the Seelie. Aqua has been one of the few cops to ever win his trust, yet he hardly spoke to her. Every time it was, there was always bad news involved. But he was touched that she was even showing concern.
“Took a while, but I got to that point of acceptance.”
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Post by skyeknight on Sept 19, 2019 17:55:50 GMT
"We've got your back."
Not just because he was their coworker, but their friend. He had been there for all of them even though he had absolutely no need to. And that's what Aqua respected about Shadow. He always stood up for the underdog no matter what. He had been through so much because of it. She felt guilty for not trying to help him more, but things had gotten away from her, she lost touch with a lot of what was important.
"What brings you out tonight?" she inquired.
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Post by Zuyuri on Sept 19, 2019 19:27:05 GMT
“I’m coming to grips with what I did recently. Not blow up a house thing. A...social thing. I...I asked someone out, and I’m just...getting over the shock she didn’t run screaming, you know?”
People should be terrified of him. He killed people that weren’t the technical monsters. Heck, he was one of the monsters. A bizarre Frankenstein creation of all the big baddies people tell stories in the dark about. There was blood on his hands, and yet he somehow had someone agree to date him.
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Post by skyeknight on Sept 20, 2019 14:06:02 GMT
Aqua blinked in surprise. She truly knew so little about Shadow she had no idea that he had even been interested in someone. She felt a pang of guilt for not getting to know Shadow better. She had been so selfish... She pushed that thought away. Terra wouldn't have liked that line of thinking. At least one good thing had come from her experience dating Omar. But Shadow looked like a fool in love for the first time, shocked that someone would see past his exterior to know who he truly was inside.
"That's great, Shadow," she enthused, truly happy for him. "Who was it, if I might ask?"
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Post by Zuyuri on Sept 20, 2019 15:00:32 GMT
“Our number one ‘fan’,” he used the air quotes pointedly. While Jane’s prejudice to cops had been dialed down, she was still known for giving them a hard time. The weirder issue was that Aqua was...courting...and he used the term very loosely, was dating Jane’s father. Come to think of it, he had a lot of lip to give about the troll musician, but he didn’t want to step on any toes.
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Post by skyeknight on Sept 24, 2019 1:56:56 GMT
Aqua blinked and stared at Shadow in open mouthed shock. Shadow was dating Jane? The woman was barely civil with Aqua when she had been over during 'family dinner nights' and that was only because Omar had asked her to play nice. She could barely believe that Jane's resolve had changed so much so that she had warmed to someone who was a police officer.
"There's... I... really?"
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Post by Zuyuri on Sept 24, 2019 2:07:13 GMT
"I'm still shocked about it, too."
A slight tiny of red was flashing on his cheeks. Aqua was taking the news as he expected her, too. She was shocked, gaping like a fish that had been beached. She must have seen the rough and tough side as opposed to the kinder heart of gold that Shadow knew Jane had beneath her tough shell. Heck, he was still trying to figure out how he cracked it to begin with.
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Post by skyeknight on Sept 24, 2019 18:42:34 GMT
Aqua considered it before taking a deep breath. She supposed that was why Jane had been so cagey when her dad asked her where she was going. Though he had watched her like he knew some big secret and wasn't about to tell anyone. Jane had been seeing Shadow and Omar knew. He thought it was amusing. She supposed she had been oblivious to that as well, so caught up in the fast romance that Omar had hit her with. But Jane was happy... Jane who Aqua thought was never happy unless she was alone with her family without outsiders like her...
"As long as you two are happy," she said.
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Post by Zuyuri on Sept 24, 2019 19:25:26 GMT
“what about you and Omar?”
He showed her his love life issues, it was only fair to talk about hers. Although in all honesty, everything about the relationship left a bad taste in his mouth. Not that there was any abusive going on, but it seemed to come out of nowhere and was, well, very one sided. And after seeing Aqua’s emotional turmoil of Terra’s passing, well, it seemed unfair.
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Post by skyeknight on Sept 24, 2019 20:22:25 GMT
"What about us?" she asked.
She looked away, unable to meet Shadow's eyes. Shadow would know what a failure she was if the topic turned towards her love life. How she had 'forgotten Terra' and moved on only for it to fizzle out. How played she felt by just being a fleeting distraction for the immortal troll. How he preached that she should move past Terra but he would never move past Cindy. It was complicated. Her love life always was. But it didn't make any of it easier to talk about. If anything, it made her drink taste like ash in her mouth.
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