Getting it together [Lucy]

[Karalie Heise]

The world around her seemed foggy since she and Lucas broke up.  Nothing made sense anymore, yet somehow everything was clear.  She suddenly desperately wanted to out herself to her extended family, she was tired of hiding behind her parents lies.  She was starting to question if they would still love her if they knew.. if they knew how different she was. Was she really so much different than the other people they disliked? The minorities and homosexuals? Heck, the freaking democrats?! 

That wasn't the only thing crossing her mind these days.  She was starting to reconsider the whole waiting until marriage.  Lucas couldn't wait for her, a boy who loved her dearly, or so he'd claimed, and promised to wait.  He couldn't.  Would anyone? Could she ever find someone who would accept her for who she was and be willing to wait until their wedding night to share in the most sacred of acts? Was it really that sacred? Did such a boy actually exist? She'd had her first real taste of love and she wanted it back.  She was craving it, craving that affection, that adoration.. She missed the way Lucas looked at her, as if she were the only person in the room.  How could he have strayed like he had? Was she really not worth waiting for? She knew she wasn't, not with how willing everyone on this campus seemed to be to spread their pretty little legs wide open.  Why not her, then? Why bother waiting? Because God said not to? Well, God would smite her for being meta anyway, right? Or was it because she was afraid to touch them? Not anymore.  Karalie had put an end to her fear of receiving memories.  She touched everything now, everyone, without a care in the world.  If they wanted their memories locked away for only themselves, they would need to keep their distance from her, but in doing so she was getting bogged down with useless visions in her mind.  Strange memories flashed through her brain even when she wasn't touching anything or anyone.  They were affecting her sleep, affecting her schoolwork, unable to concentrate on anything anymore.  She was forgetting things quickly, like what class she was heading to halfway there, getting herself mixed up and ending up in the cafeteria at two in the afternoon expecting lunch though she'd eaten just two hours previous.  She'd been tardy to nearly every class in the last two weeks and she couldn't care any less about it.  Nothing mattered anymore.  Everything she thought was a lie.

Karalie was sitting on the couch, staring at the wall.  She'd barely gotten any sleep the last three nights, waking every couple of hours from strange dreams, dreams she forgot almost the instant she woke up though she got strange bouts of deja vu through the day as something would remind her of the dream, a strange little snippet.  She knew she was supposed to be somewhere.. or was she? She wasn't hungry, classes were done for the day.. was she supposed to be meeting someone? She pulled her phone out and looked down at it, as if expecting the contraption to tell her what she was meant to do next.  Maybe she should start setting reminders.  She didn't even look up right away when she heard someone enter the room, and it wasn't until the person made it clear who they were that her head bothered to pull away from the glowing screen.  Karalie felt her body tense immediately.  The last person she felt like dealing with in this state was Lucy Serrano.

"What d'you want?" She all but snarled to the girl, not much in the mood to battle with her roommates lover. Rumor had it, she was part to blame for Lucas cheating on her, but who knew if that was even true.  Who knew what was true anymore.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Penny's college classes made some days more difficult than others. There were certain times where she simply couldn't reach her at all. She was barely one to use her phone as it was, but Lucy suspected it was always switched off when she was in a class. Like she'd never heard of switching it to silent mode or something. Like she was a little nervous about what Lucy would say just to be the distracting person she was.

She tried to call. Got no answer. Just a very proper voice mail message that she made a mental note to change a little later.

"Love, it's Lucy," She'd said into the phone as she walked the familiar call of the girl's dorm level. Announcing herself even though she knew that despite the psychometrist's parents, no one else would likely be calling her, "Guessing you're in class. Or studying. Which is cool."

It really wasn't cool, but that hardly mattered. "Anyway, I'll be in your room; possibly in your bed, probably completely starkers."

Bypassing the unlocked common room door, Lucy retracted the phone from her ear and ended the call on the best possible note she could think of. But she caught sight of the gay hating roommate almost instantly, her smirk momentarily adrift as she felt the lion on her forearm bear his teeth in her direction.

"Baby," The Australian quickly offered the voice of reason, lightly as she settled her phone in her back pocket, "Why you always gotta be so cranky in the afternoon?" Hand to her chest, she reached back and closed the door behind her; "Breaks my heart when you act so icy."

[Karalie Heise]

Karalie silently fumed, glowering at Lucy as she stood there with that look on her face. She hated that she called her baby, the pet name she'd given Luke when they were dating. It sounded differently coming from the Aussie's mouth, mocking and condescending.

"Like ya'll have uh heart." She grumbled softly under her breath with downcast eyes, immediately regretting the words that slipped through her lips. She hoped there was enough background noise in the room to cover her words, not wanted the lash back from saying something like that to Miss Serrano whose tongue could be more wicked than her own. Karalie considered herself a witty person when her mind was in the right place, but something about Lucy and Penelope frazzled her and made her tongue tie in her mouth, and with her current mental state she couldn't think clearly. Her filter was gone, or at least damaged. With any luck Lucy wouldn't have heard, or would at least cut her some slack and ignore the comment.

Her eyes looked back at Lucy briefly before looking back at that blank spot on the wall. "Look, I'm not in th'mood tuh argue with ya'll today. Just.. go wait in her room. She'll be back eventually." Karalie didn't make it a point to know her roommates schedules, but she knew the whole dorm was too quiet for anyone else to be there, unless they were napping or reading or doing some other quiet activity. She didn't think Penelope was in. Lucy didn't need her to be there to let herself in though, and housing didn't really seem to care all that much. Why should they care if random people were waltzing into her dorm.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Honestly, it was pretty hard to ignore the harsh look on Karalie's face. Lucy took it on board as well as one would expect her to; the lighter connotations of her expression shifted as the corner of her mouth dragged back to that trademark grin.

Her eyebrows rose at the short, low statement she offered. Pressing a fist to her chest instead, she twisted it to one side, as if to quickly lock up the questionable heart she had.

Taking steps towards her, Lucy promptly ran her fingertips along the back of the couch, both hands pressed against it at either side of her when she got close enough. "She's got this really nasty habit of locking the bloody thing." Lucy replied, crinkling her nose at the very idea. She didn't need to check to know Penelope Blaise followed through with the motion, just as she did every other time she left it without the ink manipulator's presence.

"Uh oh. Trouble? In perfect-perfect-hetero land?" Shock. Horror. Lucy's feigned expression clearly struggled with the concept alone. Of course, she knew what happened. When your best friend fucks your girlfriend's roommate's boyfriend, word gets around.

And it usually gets to Lucy Serrano first. "C'mon; If you can't confide in the one you dream about, who can you tell?"

[Karalie Heise]

The small hairs at the back of Karalie's neck stood on end as Lucy moved closer.  She could feel her presence trailing behind her, Lucy's breath blowing the dark strands of hair on the back of her head.  Her teeth clenched at the snide remark about their being trouble in her straight little world, and Karalie could feel her hands tighten into fists at her side.  If Lucy wasn't careful she'd find herself in a fight extended past words, a fight Karalie, even in her foggy mindset, knew she would likely lose.  It didn't matter, though.  Somehow the thought of feeling something other than confusion and utter bitterness sounded good.  

Karalie snorted at Lucy's comment about being in her dreams.  Her dreams were filled with all sorts of strange random things and people, but Lucy Serrano was not one of them.  "Cute ya'll think yer in my dreams." She offered haughtily, wishing Lucy would back off.  "An' cuter yah think I'd ever waste my time chit chattin' with yah about 'em."  She turned and narrowed her eyes at her, showing no fear.  "Don'tchu have somethin' better tuh do? Like eat roast beef or somethin'?" She asked, suddenly feeling mighty bold in the presence of someone who could make her feel very uncomfortable, very quickly.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"It's cute that you think I'm cute." The Australian deftly countered, her tone significantly lighter with the fabricated compliment she'd twisted.

For someone who didn't want to play with the ink manipulator, Karalie seemed pretty keen to dole out what she could. Lucy immediately threw her head back in a laugh, fingers momentarily curling into the back of the couch before she pushed off and let it go. "Is that a gay joke?" She asked curiously, "Cause I have a shitload of analogies that're a lot better than that one."

Interlocking her hands, Lucy pressed them to the back of her head, swinging back around with a few steps so she could at least be seen properly, "Can I offer you a language lesson?" She asked, well aware that the idea - even in this circumstance - was ridiculous. And likely thwarted.

"Or - hear me out - a hug for your worries." Freeing her hands, she held them out, the curve of her hands indicating that she should come closer, "Fair warning, It's probably laced with one of those crazy gay experiences you so want, but don't have the balls to ask for."

A small tilt of her head, slightly to one side as she indicated towards herself with her hands again; "It's okay. I won't tell anyone."

[Karalie Heise]

Karalie suddenly felt a little stupid for her lack of comebacks, especially gay ones.  She made a mental note to go find some better material, though she would likely forget to do that within the next few minutes.  Damn her stupid foggy mind!  She wished she knew some of the better analogies that Lucy spoke of.  Maybe carpet munching? No, that was stupid.  It was too old.. ugh.

When Lucy offered a language lesson she was about to lash out and tell her to just go away again, but the girl beat her to it, offering her a hug for her worries.  As if she would ever willingly touch such a foul human! Of course that was probably precisely why the girl was offering such an act.  It wasn't the type of hug that friends offered each other, it was a mocking gesture, one Lucy didn't mean, and one she knew Karalie wouldn't accept, especially considering the warning that didn't really need to be spoken. She hated the girl for taunting her in this way.  It was a lose, lose situation for Karalie since Lucy was just setting her up for more taunting and ridicule.  

"Oh, you'd tell th'whole school." She offered back in her own mocking voice, plastering on that sweet, naive smiling face that every southern girl came out of the womb instinctively knowing how to make.  "Lucy, the poster child for gay rebellion gettin' uh hug from the gay bashin' southern bell her girlfriend had th'unfortunate luck of bein' roomed with.  I betchu'd eat that right up, wouldn'tchu, hm?" Her eyes narrowed slightly.  "You think yer clever, dontchu.. or maybe ya'll just think yer real funny.  What do ya'll get outta this, huh? You tryin' tuh make me uncomfortable? Is that all it's gonna take tuh getchu tuh leave me alone? Or do yah just need me tuh accept whatchu do with Penelope behind closed doors, or rather with them open.  Hell, doors don't seem to bother either one of you's very much, so ya'll win.  Don'tchu get that? What else do yah want, huh? Want me tuh watch? Cuz I have!  Yah made damn sure uh that by fadoodlin' all over the damn place!" She stood up, her even demeanor slipping away more and more with every breath. "What the hell's it gunna take tuh get you tuh just leave. me. alone?" Her nostrils flared slightly with her annoyance, her hands clasping into fists as she stood up to Lucy the only way she knew how.  She'd never encountered such an obnoxious human being before!

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The small wave of her hands continued, even as Karalie spoke again. But in tandem with them, Lucy offered a small, feigned frown. As if she'd tell the whole school.

The whole school already knew, anyway.

But upon her continuation, the ink manipulator couldn't manage a straight face, much less a straight composure. Posted child for the gay rebellion; she balled her hands into fists, placed one on her hip and threw the other one into the air. If she were in a comic book, she'd be making an awesome cover shot right about now. Especially as the rise in her shirt revealed the tattooed laser gun at her hip. Always armed, always ready - and yes, that counted for the gay crusade, too.

She listened, still, lowering her hands and pressing both to her hips as she did so. Lucy felt half tempted to tell her to shut up, because damn, did she like to ramble. The most she did was raise her eyebrows when Karalie stood up.

When she was finished, The Australian extended a hand, palm to the floor as she lowered it in tandem with the way she spoke, "Caaalm down, love." She offered, her tone light as she retracted her hand back to herself again. "There's a really simple solution here that'll work out for the both of us, I'm sure." She took a small breath, letting her gaze settle on the girl now standing and clearly fuming in front of her.

"Let me touch you." Lucy replied, tilting her head up once. But she wasn't finished, because she was highly aware of her own phrasing; "However clean or dirty you want."

And immediately, she threw her head back in a laugh, hands leaving her hips to press together in a well defined clap; "C'mon, you memory junkies do this shit all the time. Cause I bet you're a little bit dying to know what really goes on in this fucking head."

[Karalie Heise]

Lucy telling Karalie to calm down seemed to only enrage her further. If she'd been a bird her feathers would be bristled, standing on end, ready to attack. But she wasn't a bird. She was an angry, bitter and overly frustrated teenage girl. When the other girl explained there was a simple solution Karalie got the feeling that it was going to be another jab at her. Lucy loved provoking her, and was good at it. It was by the grace of God that Karalie didn't flip her shit completely on the girl who liked to torment her so.

"Let me touch you."

Her nostrils flared and her eyes seemed to grow darker with the storm brewing within. She would say that. She would suggest something so perverse and disgusting. She followed by telling her it could be dirty if she liked, and she suddenly felt even angrier at Lucy. Not only was she being a complete bitch to her, but she was being a shitty girlfriend. Granted she could care less about Penelope's feelings, but having just been cheated on she knew what it was like to be hurt in that way. Lucy wouldn't really touch her.. Karalie decided she was bluffing only to put her off, to light a fire under her ass and push her to react exactly the way she was reacting now. Though the logical part of her mind knew that, she was still a teenager and completely unable to control her emotions.

"It don't work like that." She all but snarled. "You touchin' me doesn' let me know what goes on in that dirty minda yers. In fact you touchin' me ain't gonna do nothin', not that I'd letchu anyway. Ya'll would like that too much." She was feeling brave again, and if Lucy loved her girlfriend like she seemed to, she probably wouldn't take kindly to Karalie bashing her. "I betchu think about me when yer with her, huh? That's why yer tryin' so hard tuh get me tuh letchu touch me." A cruel thought slipped through her mind, one that might not have if she were thinking more clearly these days. She blurted it out before she even had a chance to truly rationalize it.

"Ill tell yah what. Ya'll break up with Penelope, an' I'll letchu touch me any which way you want." She wouldn't really, but she liked the thought of causing problems between the girls, especially since she was certain Lucy was behind her own boyfriend's betrayal. "'Till then, ya'll can just fuck right off."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The reaction given was, in truth, just about everything Lucy initially expected it would be. The way the very notion of contact made her blood boil so obviously expressed more about this girl than she likely wanted it to. Lucy knew the potential mentality of an individual with memory-based powers well enough to see the obvious ways to exploit it, but what she was uncovering was only fragmented by the unfortunate choice in ability. It was barely about the fear of what she might find.

There were two things about Lucy Serrano most could count on. Pinpoint triggers of outlandish aggression, and playing the proverbial game. Finding a way to make the former outweigh the latter was always the trick, and thus far there were only two people who'd managed such an achievement.

Pursing her lips as Karalie continued, Lucy nodded her head. Because it would be so nice for her to think Lucy's mind wandered so intently. Truth be told, she did seem to have a thing for the people who seemed to hate her.

Even at the mention of breaking up with Penny - who she only really just got to that point with months ago - didn't fathom the ink manipulator. Even as she felt the shift of the lion's mane on her forearm, or the way the Siberian tiger so far above it wanted to burn the very skin it was confined to.

"Ah, I get it." The Australian reasoned, her tone intermittent with definite understanding, "Me touching you just lets you know what's going on in your mind, and you're scared of that. Right. I totally understand." Stepping forward, Lucy made the move to breach the distance between them. To close it with a purposeful point; "Because when the boy burned you by banging the hot voice mimic, I bet you wondered if girls are that harsh to each other. Who else is gonna show you the answer to that?"

Raising both her hands, Lucy held them up as if she'd been caught. Fair point - she almost had been, "I know, it's the dark side. May God burn these pathetic hands and all that shit." She offered, doing her best not to roll her eyes at the very notion, "But one touch - clean thoughts, I swear. Can't be worse than what you've already seen." With a small tilt of her head, she raised her eyebrows.

"Permission pending."

[Karalie Heise]

The more Lucy talked, the more she knew she wasn't coming out of this unscathed.  Karalie wasn't mentally in a good place to begin with and she knew Penny wasn't only good at manipulating ink.  It was if Lucy could pinpoint the exact things that made her uncomfortable and focus completely on it.  She was manipulating her words, confusing her and frustrating her.  She didn't want Lucy to touch her, but Lucy knew that and she was exploiting Karalie's weaknesses.  She tried to think of solid comebacks but nothing made sense in her mind, and the moment she brought up Luke cheating on her it was all over.

A sick, numbness washed over her as Lucy threw Luke's infidelity at her so cruelly.  Karalie felt her stomach twist in that familiar way when she longed for him, when she thought about how he was with someone else, touching them, kissing them, probably having all the things done to him that she just couldn't.. Lucy delivered a mental slap hard enough to knock her breath away for a moment as she stared at her, a strange mix of confusion, sadness and anger on her delicate face.  Had she wondered if women do that to each other? She had.  Of course she had.. Not seriously enough to invest herself in trying to be with a woman.  The thought still repulsed her, but she wasn't as against the gays now as she was before she began to mull things over, though Lucy and her girlfriend would likely always be the exception even if she learned to completely accept homosexuals.  

Karalie finally let her brows furrow as Lucy mocked her.  God would burn those devil hands of hers, that was for sure.  But would he scorn Karalie for fraternizing with the Devil's spawn?  Karalie wasn't sure if Lucy wanted to do the touching or be touched, but since she was asking permission she assumed Lucy would touch her.  Lucy wasn't to be trusted, but Karalie, though not thinking clearly, decided that the worst that could happen was she'd get a memory she'd seen at least a dozen times.  Best case scenario, she gets a brief glimpse into Lucy's mind and finds something she could hold over her.

With her jaw set, she reached her hand out, palm up, for Lucy to do what she wanted.  Her body was tense, her guard up.  She could say a million things to Lucy to try and put her in her place, but the fight was useless.  She wasn't in the right place to really keep the fight going, and if Lucy wanted to touch her so badly, then so be it.  The consequences were on her.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The last thing Lucy expected was silence. She spoke a lot in the particular moment; enough to fill the air with even more tension, if that were possible. She half expected a slap to her face as she brought up the heartbreaking boy who seemed to ruin her so intently. A slap to the face from a girl in these dorms wouldn't phase her in the slightest; no body hit hard like the girl she loved, after all.

But she looked down, surprise forcing her dark eyes wide as Karalie actually extended a hand towards her. Complacency? A desire to see what the other side was like? Truth be told, there was only one thing Lucy wanted to offer in this exchange.

With a quick move of her own hand, she swatted the extended one again. In the next beat, she was pressing her hands to Karalie's face at either side. There, she leaned in, and she kissed her.

But all she could think of was Penelope Blaise at the best of times, and this was no exception. From the simply way she managed to provide the aggressive ink manipulator comfort to the way she so often led her through her worst moments, the girl everyone knew as Penelope was simply Penny to her. There was so much more to see - to feel - than physical experiences alone.

From Lucy's perspective, there were few clear sensations. Unbridled, insurmountable love. And the obvious belief that she hardly deserved it in the first place. Self-depreciation wasn't a colour the Australian ever wore, but it wasn't something she could hide in her memories. Nor could she hide the way Penny worked the tension from that belief, despite the fact that it still very much existed.

As it indecent? To kiss another person? Not to Lucy Serrano. It was a brush of her lips against Karalie's; not an ounce of intention remained in the pressure of her mouth. But the moment she pulled away, she took a quick, sharp step back. It was Penny who slapped her the very first time they kissed. And Penny who reciprocated that connection moments before the surprise slap reached the Australian. Steps backwards kept her out of the line of Karalie's potential fire.

"You're bloody well welcome." Lucy replied, running the back of her palm over her mouth.

[Karalie Heise]

Karalie was both confused and annoyed when Lucy slapped her hand away, her brows furrowing at the other girl.  What the hell was her problem? She had basically asked to be touched and here she was shoving her away! Not that Karalie minded all that much, it wasn't as if she really wanted to touch the bitch, or be touched by her, but the idea of receiving a memory to possibly use against her was too good to want to pass up.  What happened next, though, threw Karalie for a loop.

Lucy was grabbing her face and leaned in, her lips pressing hard to Karalie's.  She was so shocked by the unexpected act that she took a moment to register what was actually happening, and before she could react, it was all over.  She stood there dumbfounded, the anger building up slowly as she actually realized what the hell had even happened. It wasn't until Lucy spoke that the fury really hit her.  You're bloody well welcome. What a shitty thing to say.

The emotions swirled in her mind, but the strongest one was hate.  Karalie hated Lucy Serrano, and though she felt somehow like she might be able to use the kiss against her, she didn't like that it had actually happened.  Deep down she suspected that Penelope wouldn't care either, as it was a tool simply to hurt Karalie, to make her uncomfortable, to push her to the edge which Lucy seemed skilled at doing.  

Her hand shot out in attempt to slap the other girl, but she'd stepped just out of reach and the blow missed her, but that didn't stop the raging Karalie.  "Don'tchu ever touch me yah filthy dyke!" She snapped just before lunging at the other girl, an attempt to tackle her and with any luck actually throw a punch or a slap that could do some amount of damage.  She didn't care.. hell, she didn't know what she was doing, all she wanted was for Lucy to know for one second the sort of pain she caused others.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Time, boiling down to mere seconds as it had, worked to Lucy's advantage in the best way. The way Karalie had taken a swing with a moment of delay had given the Australian the perfect means to already be out of the way. After all, who knew what stint of memories she'd gather. Though if it were anything like her counterpart's, she'd suspected the latest set would be the cleanest.

Hatred, though. Lucy knew there was a time where penny had hated her. She was aware that it was a phrase thrown around in passing, more out of humour than anything else. For someone who seemed to lack the ability to suppress her memory gathering when it came to physically intimate moments in Lucy's life with her psychometric counterpart, Karalie was doing a good job at avoiding it all now.

Fatal flaws to her flailing system meant that she'd already given away the fact that she was ripe with fury. She'd already tried a hit. She'd failed. Everything after the fact became predictable. The quick lung under scrutinising eyes was hardly about to throw the ink manipulator. The inhabitants of her arm bared teeth - both the lion and the tiger. The warrior adjacent to the Siberian beast stood to attention in the same vein, sword balanced across her shoulder. Always at the ready.

"Fuck you, you fucking deluded bloody fuck!" Lucy retorted, venom high in the integrity of her tone as she pressed her palms out. Anything to grip the arms in her direction to keep them from flailing so stupidly. "I don't give a right fuck what you fucking call me, and I sure as fuck don't give a fuck what you think!"

Truly, as the sword on her forearm twisted to rest the hilt in her hand, she should have known better. Blood boiling in a new way, she applied equal adrenalin induced pressure to push her back. A scuffle with a broad was hardly such a stretch given where she'd come from, "You think I'm making your life a fucking nightmare now? Keep going! See what the fuck happens when you pull any of this shit with her again!"

[Karalie Heise]

Karalie pushed against Lucy's arms as the other girl held them at bay, keeping them from actually hitting her.  All Kara saw was red, wanting to tear the other girls face off, and given the malice in the other girls tone, she would gather Lucy wanted to do the same on some level.   Finally she gathered enough control to step back, but hardly.  Her body shook with her rage, a high pitched ringing sounding in her ears which made everything sound almost echoed around her.

"Whatcha gonna do, huh?" She snapped back, her hands balled into fists, quivering for a chance to make connection with the arrogant Aussie's nose.  "You think yer so big an' tough? So scary? I'm not afraid of you or yer carpet munchin' girlfriend." She shot a threatening finger out towards the other girl, making it clear she was done with her. "Both of ya'll need tuh stay the fuck away from me."  She wished she had an or else to add at the end of that statement, but she lacked the imagination to come up with a threat good enough to actually make Lucy give a fuck.  She was certain there wasn't anything that girl actually cared about. She suspected Penelope included.  She shot daggers with her eyes, though, hoping Lucy would just back off, unsure how long she could actually keep herself from physically lashing out again.  She wasn't mentally strong enough for this kind of altercation at the moment, not in her current state.  She wasn't thinking clearly.  Maybe Lucy would back off.. Even as she hoped it, she knew it likely wouldn't actually happen so easily.