Topic: Just looking in.

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-02-01 23:41 EST
Well, being the curious type she was, she wanted to stop in and check on how Keaton was doing. Having given him her share of the bounty. she kinda wanted to be sure it was being put to good use. However it was his to do with as he pleased.

She wanted to look around with out being spotted, but she wasn't really making an active effort for it. Taking her time to check out thebuilding, and peer through some windows, and even speak to a few people on the streats that she could stop and talk to.

Seems he was doing well enough. She paused and admired the building, resting a hand on the wall, before she turned and headed away.

Keaton

Date: 2006-02-02 13:39 EST
It just so happens that our intrepid hero - no - it just so happens that our indie-rocking musician friend is strolling down the block from the cafe when Sophie is slipping away from his apartment, whistling to himself, cup of coffee nestled between his hands. An eyebrow arches at seeing Sophie in this part of town, though he smiles, and sidles over. "How's it going?" Today his clothes are bordering on emo, but tastefully - olive sweater and white-and-blue-striped button-up poking out with the tails hanging out the front, his favorite pair of jeans, and his second-favorite shoes, a pair of brown leather dress-casual shoes.

He looks past her a moment to give a lopsided grin to a mohawked chick walking by, who gives him a dainty little wave. He looks curiously back at Sophie, hitching one hand in his pocket.

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-02-02 15:19 EST
Turning her attention from the building, she felt like she nearly ran into him. Taking a step backward, her face took on an expression of shock, similar to a kid cought stealing candy.

Her hands were promptly incerted into the pockets of her brown leather jacket, as she stumbled on her words. "I uh... well I just... eh.." Sigh. "I was curious to see your stuido and stuff... Um, ya know, to see how it was going."

She was in her casual brown leather riding pants, worn enough to show fading, as well as some thin spots that were near to being called holes. That Silken Blue tunic shown under her open jacket. Those muddy brown boots shifted a bit, expressing a slight unease.

She dipped her head a little as a breeze toyed with a few stray locks that had pulled free from her braid. She offered a smile to him. "It looks like you're doing pretty good so far." She sorta wanted to run off, but also wanted all the same, to stay and chat.

Keaton

Date: 2006-02-02 16:07 EST
"It's going pretty well," he grins, canting his head a little before the curiosity fades. He can't blame her for her curiosity. "And thanks again for helping out with that... I was just down in the tech side of town pretty recently with Grem, ordered all the recording equipment I'll need. And construction began a few days ago..." As he talks, his eyes drift over to the squat building, for now relatively inactive as the construction workers are on lunch break. "I've got Jillian, Arya's sister, working for me, too. I guess kind of a secretary." A little sigh as he takes a step or two towards the building, drumming on his thigh, and he looks back at her, eyes discerning: "How've you been, Sophie?"

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-02-02 16:15 EST
She turned a bit as he started walking. "I'm been tip top, physically." She looked away, when she say the look on his face. "Mentally, and Emotionally, well, that's another story.. Been feeling foolish, and some what depressed.... I guess it's because I've reallized how I've been acting recently, and it's just not me...." She looked back at him now.

Keaton

Date: 2006-02-02 16:32 EST
"People get cranky, I guess, when there's stuff on their minds." He tilts his head slightly, his expression easing a little - not that it's easy for him. He remembers very well a lot of what she's said... but being bitter about it will only make things worse. "Walk with me - we'll get some coffee at the cafe, and you can tell me what's been eatin' at ya." He hitches both his hands into his pockets, giving another little smile to a familiar passerby, and walks with her.

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-02-02 16:39 EST
She nodded a little. It's not like she wanted to start a fight, but just, seeing Charna act like that, just, pissed her off. "Alright." Her hands remained in her pockets of the jacket as she walked, somewhat off to the side and behind him.

Keaton

Date: 2006-02-06 16:08 EST
He walks with her, intentionally slowing his pace until she's forced to catch up with him and not hang back so much, eyes peering curiously at her. There are likely things that he won't like hearing that'll come up, but... so it goes. Better spoken than unspoken.

The cafe is nearly empty at this point in the morning - the usual breakfast crowd has long run off to work, and lunch break hasn't started yet, either. So when he shoulders the door open and gives the barrista a grin, it's just the two new customers, the barrista, and a thickset old guy with a short gray beard hanging out in the Audge. Keaton gives the barrista a familiar smile as he approaches, and she gives a little wave, albeit with a curious tilt of her head at the newcomer, letting her bright blue hair sway. "Hey there, how can I help you?"

"Just a cuppa java, one cube, no cream." He glances at Sophie to let her order next.

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-02-06 18:10 EST
She just kinda kept to herself as she walked with him. Putting a hand out to catch the door after he enters. Looking around the place with pale blue eyes, before she notices Keaton looking at her. "Oh, um ... Black.. Please." She tried to offer a nice little smile, but it didn't turn out to believable.

"Nice place...." She said, turning some to look around more.

Keaton

Date: 2006-02-07 17:58 EST
Keaton grins as Sophie's served her coffee, and directs her attention to different sections of the room. "That's Tokyo," he points to a line of booths in the narrower section of the restaurant beyond the stage and the bar, on the right side nearer the bar - half of them have Godzilla posters looming over them in a variety of languages, and the other half, a variety of French movie posters; "and that corner over there is the Audge," indicating a couple of booths with Audrey Hepburn posters that crawl nearly to the ceiling. The rest of the walls include mostly band and concert and movie posters from all different realms, and in the far back is "Paris," with the charming late-19th-early-20th-century French advertisement posters. Gathering up his drink and paying for both, he heads off to Paris, picking a booth and sliding cozily into the corner, cupping the warm drink in his hands.

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-02-07 18:03 EST
"Thank you.." she said to the lady for the coffee. Then looked to Keaton as he pointed around the room, nodding silently. She followed him to his booth and slid onto the seat across from him. "Thanks for the coffee.."

She held it with both hands, taking a drink, and letting out a soft sigh.

Keaton

Date: 2006-02-08 22:20 EST
"Sure thing..." He too sips his coffee, withdrawing his tongue quickly as it gets a little burn. He gives another glance to the near-empty room, then looks curiously back at Sophie. "...So what's up, Sophie? Tell me." He blows gently across the surface of his drink, tucking a tendril of his hair away before it can fall in, eyes still raised to her even as his face is lowered over his coffee.

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-02-08 22:30 EST
She made a little face when he asked her that. Giving a light sigh before setting her cup onto the table. Dull blue eyes peered at him softly. "Not to much more than making a fool of my self, infront of so many people I thought to be friends." Lowering her head a bit to stare into the blackness of her coffee. Her voice was low and pained.

"I just, don't know what's come over me lately. I've been so stupid. Acting like some ..... child." Tipping her head a little to look at him seriously. "It's like, I can't stop my self. I dont know what's going on half the time, and the rest of the time, it's like I don't know how to deal with it." Leaning back into the booth, looking somewhat confuzed. "Does that make any since?"

Keaton

Date: 2006-02-09 01:39 EST
He looks levelly at her as she speaks, hands clasped together in front of his face, leaning his chin thoughtfully against them... and nods. "...You've gotten yourself all worked up over something, and I only have the faintest idea just what." Does Keaton know that he comes into play in it, if only a little? He has some idea. "You can't let yourself worry about it so much, whatever it is. I know I do the same thing - but there are some things within your realm of control, and other things that aren't, that can't be, and you just gotta deal." He shrugs his shoulders slightly, and takes another sip of his coffee. "...But there's still a lot going on up there," he continues, gesturing towards her head, "that I don't know the first thing about."

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-02-09 15:48 EST
She gave a faux smile to him. "Sometimes I don't even know what's going on in my head." Those eyes drifted down to her cup as her hands started to tip the cup just enough to make the coffee start to swirl inside.

"I see all these people cheating on their significant others, like it was all some game. They make it seem like it's okay to do that, like it's just, normal. It gets my feathers in a ruffle...." Sighing a bit and looking back up to him. "I can't help but to feel agervated. I know what it's like to be cheated on, and to have a, lover, taken from me."

She began to chew on her inner cheek a little. "I know it's not my place to butt into other peoples lives. It's been just, like an impulse. I know it's not my buisness, but when it's shoved into my face, it kinda makes it my buisness, ya know?"

Keaton

Date: 2006-02-09 21:49 EST
"If they're hurting a friend of yours, yes, it is arguably your business..." He sighs, and snatches up a coffee stirrer, spinning it between his fingers. "To a degree. But most people who carry them on have a lot else going on, a lot of problems that fuel them, and it's not a simple matter of disloyalty in most cases... and with all that going on, they tend not to appreciate someone else telling them how they should do things differently, or go back to their current lover." He shrugs his shoulders. "I'm not saying it's right... I'm just saying, most people don't like people butting in on that stuff. And from their perspective, in that situation, I'd likely feel the same way." He looks up from his stirrer at her.

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-02-10 15:13 EST
Frowing a bit. "How would you like it, if you were going to be married to someone, or were married to someone, and she was going around messing around with other guys? Perhaps you didn't know about it, but found out, or perhaps you do know about it, and yet, say nothing dispite how you feel. Is it fair to do that, would you look upon your friends the same way? Friends you thought might have had the gaul to make an attempt to reason with her, so she wouldn't hurt you?"

She released her cup now, leaning back into the booth's seat cushion, and resting her hands in her lap. "I know I didn't."

Presenting a faux smile, and a forced laugh. "However, I have horrible luck when it comes to things of that matter..."

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-02-14 16:30 EST
Keaton: ::His frown matches hers, brow quirking at her faked smile, and he replies:: Who was going around messing around with other guys, Sophie? Who was hurting somebody that badly? Did you think Charna was? ::His brow raises a little further at this thought.::

Sophie: ::She sighed and looked at him.:: Well she wasn't doing Hanzo any good by allowing him to fawn over her.

Keaton: It wasn't a matter of letting him, ::he sighs.:: He did it, he was going to keep at it until it wore him out, and she didn't let it get in the way of their friendship. Would I have handled things differently? Yeah, a little... not terribly. ::He shakes his head.:: Things like that are better left alone unless someone's really getting hurt - and best I can tell, all brother felt were the aches of puppy-love. ::He looks slowly around the room, and he gives the stirrer another spin.:: And what about you, Sophie... what's your bad luck with this? ::His eyes drift back to her.::

Sophie: ::She lowered her head down to her cup.:: I've lost relationships due to some other woman doing puppy love to a man I was seeing. Dispite my attempts to put an end to it, like you, he said it was harmless, until one day, some how, it moved past the puppy love, and I found out about it. I also know how it is to be the one doing the puppy love... It's painful.

Keaton: ::He breathes a slow sigh, lacing his fingers together. The coffee's growing cold, but he can scarcely think about it now.:: Charna's and Hanzo's was harmless... but an affair's not an easy thing to deal with... ::He opens his mouth to continue, and hearing her last remark, falls silent, eyes meeting hers, discerning.:: ...Could it be?

Sophie: ::Her brows furrowed a bit.:: His name is Angel.

Keaton: ::The moment of tension in his face passes as swiftly as it came.:: Angel... He loves another?

Sophie: ::She smiled a little in a huff of a laugh.:: He loves many, but he's a man of light... A Knight of Templar.... as well as a reborn Gabriel.

Keaton: Celibate? ::An eyebrow arches, and he can't help but smile too now. It's a classic story - painful, but one that seems to happen often in Rhy'Din.::

Sophie: He doesn't even have the male reproductive systems or organs.. ::look up at him.:: any relationship that is persued, ends up in ruins.. I enjoyed my time with him, but I know it can never be.

Keaton: ::A whistle of wonder - Angel is gender-neutral.:: ...It's never easy to fall in love with someone, when you know it cannot work. ::There is a twinge of pain in his chest, but it passes. His first few weeks in Rhy'Din were filled with mistakes on his part.::

Sophie: I know... ::She sighed.:: There is even more pain to love when you think it will work, and it doesn't.

Keaton: ::He nods.:: Sometimes... it's inevitable, like a nightmare you have no control over. But feelings change, and hearts move on, even if they still hurt a little. It's in our nature.

Sophie: My first love .... Was the man who raised me in my mothers absence... His name was Xeno.... I was with him, in a relationship with him, for a year before we married. He then grew distant, and was now wrapped up in his lab, creating and destroying life... He began to creep me and my guild out. His duties in the forum began to slack. Thing just started going wrong... He refused to divorce, dispite my pleas, clamed we could work it out... But we couldn't, and I moved out of the castle, went back to living on my own at my cave, and at the guild hall. Months went by, and I hadn't seen him, so I began to see other men. Then one day he comes back, acting as if nothing happened, asking why I hadn't been home and such. He threw me a party, thinking it would make me forget everything he put me through, and that night, I told him I wanted a divorce, and I wasn't going to be with him regardless.... He broke into combat with me, and for the second time in my life with him, he attempted to kill me in battle, it just so happened, that this time, he did.

Keaton: ::His eyebrows raise. He has known this about her, that she died, but never known just how it happened. He has known very few who could say that they've died before... He touches her arm gently.::

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-02-16 16:56 EST
Sophie: :: She sighes and looks to his hand, closing her eyes a bit.:: My second serious relationship, I becam pregnant, and he lost his mind, and took the baby right out of my body with some sort of magic... I haven't seen him since August...He just.... lost his mind then vanished. Since him, the only person I saw was you.

Keaton: ::His eyes fall, brow thoughtfully creased.:: ...I always thought you were just easygoing about relationships, playful and flirtatious... but you're as afraid as I was, and to a degree, still am.

Sophie: ::She nodded a bit.:: I have alot of problems with relationships... I've always been carefree and playful though. I just like to feel happy.. With so much bad in the world, it's nice to feel good.. Ya know? ::Smiles slightly.:: It seemed so easy when I was a commander, but I soon realized the attraction to me was only because of my power...

Keaton: 'S always best to remove yourself from power when it comes to love. ::He smirks, releasing her arm to take another sip of his coffee, and arches an eyebrow.:: Lets the raw animal magnetism kick in, right?

Sophie: ::Huffs in a small laugh.:: I suppose... My guild was my life though, it's what I was, I feel so out of place without it.. old habits die hard, ya know....... ::She peered at her coffee, which she had barely touched.:: Sometimes I still wonder who I am, and how I'm supposed to act.

Keaton: ::He takes a slow, deep sip from his coffee, and offers with a little lift of his shoulders.:: If the guild was your life, and it's gone now... make a new life. Find a new place. Occupy yourself with something. Idleness is the enemy of... well, just about everything good. ::He leans back slowly in his seat, arms draped over the back, and arches a sly brow again.:: And all this, coming from the lazy musician.

Sophie: It's not that easy, Keaton..... I wish it were... I have looked around.... Everything has gotten so rediculas, there isn't a place for someone like me, so I have to do my best to be, a civilian now. I suppose I owe it to my self to relax a little and try to live outside the box of Militia.... ::Here eyes rose to meet his.:: Just wish I could find my spot... Every time I turn around, my commanderness kicks in, and gets me into trouble....

Keaton: ::He nods softly.:: I guess I know what you mean... Sophie... ::He stretches slowly, voice a little strained from it at first as he speaks:: I've been in a lot of places, a lot of different realms... and many times, I've been very surprised by just what my place has been. I've been the servant of a goddess, a waiter, a bartender, a groundskeeper, a traveling folk musician and little more than a hobo, and now I play a lot of indie rock gigs and I'm entrepenuering a recording studio... I guess what I'm saying is that anything's possible. Keep an open mind, Sophie, and you'll find your place.

Sophie: ::she frowns a little.:: I know

Keaton: As far as your "commanderness"... maybe it's too much a part of who you are now to give up... and I wouldn't call that a bad thing. Roll with it. You mightn't be a militia commander again, but your leadership and experience with authority might help with something else. Hard to tell, Sophie... ::He finishes off his coffee.:: But maybe if you find a way to put the same abilities you depended on as a commander to use again, your "commanderness" probably won't be rearing its head at inopportune moments.

Sophie: ::She closed her eyes a moment and lowered her head.:: I know..... just hard to find out what I should be doing..... I was ...... :Groans a little, and slumps into her chair.:: was hoping I could find that out, with you....

Keaton: ::Part of him is surprised, another part unsurprised, and another part confused.:: You did... how do you mean? ::His eyes search her face curiously.::

Sophie: ::She chewed on her cheek a moment before looking at him.:: I wanted .. to tell you how I felt... Hanzo even told me... I should tell you... But after how I've been behaving.. I didn't think you'd listen.. or care.

Keaton: ::A soft sigh escapes his lips. Being playful and free-spirited is just as dangerous as being in a relationship... he should've known this. Never lowering his eyes, he looks at her.:: And how do you feel, Sophie?

Sophie: I like you Keaton... I like you alot... I suppose I feared trying to persue it, cause at the time, we both weren't looking for anything serious, or anything that was remotely solid....

PURGATORYWOLF

Date: 2006-03-25 21:53 EST
Keaton: ::Keaton lowers his eyes thoughtfully, biting his lip... and nods slowly.:: ...I should've been more careful, Sophie. I should've been aware of things like this. ::He looks up at her, trying not to sigh, his expression quiet, if sad.:: And I never meant to hurt you.

Sophie: ::Sighs, looking back to her cup.:: Yeah ..... no one ever means to hurt me.........

Keaton: ::He frowns slightly.:: I never knew, Sophie - because you never let me know.

Sophie: Like I said .... you were clear you weren't looking to get into a relationship, so I didn't want to push it. You were having all these girls, so, I didn't say anything ....

Keaton: ::The sigh escapes his lips at last, and he shakes his head. Very, very bad idea Sophie had there. Even when romantic attraction was pretty goshdarned mutual, like between him and Trixie, it was best approached very slowly.:: I don't even know what to say, Sophie... except that I'm sorry.

Sophie: ::Shakes her head some.:: Not your fault that my heart is weak...... ::Stands up fishing into her pockets., retrieving some coins and setting it on the table.:: Thank you for the Coffee Keaton ...... I wish you well, in your future endevors.

Keaton: ::He stares up at her, wishing it all wouldn't be so goddamned bitter.:: Your heart isn't weak, Sophie... it's strong. And I wish you the very same. ::He nods gently.::

Sophie: ::She wasn't bitter about it, just sad. Shakes her head some.:: If it were strong, it wouldn't cause me so much striff. ::Heads towards the door, waving a hand up in a half hearted wave behind her.:: Goodbye Keaton... ::with that uttered, she vanished out the door like myst in the wind.::