You can tell from the red in my eyes that I'm not right now at all...

[taibhsearachd]

Several people are having a Very Bad Day.

Nate is in the kitchen, sitting at the table in the back where he and Mat used to hide out before they got their wards. Sulking is not what he's doing. He's just... thinking. Very, very sulkily. There are several people he'd like to hurt now. Of course, considering one of those people is a First Angel, one

Comments

[nothingsodivine]

Des doesn't so much Know Things as he's generally very good at figuring things out and somehow he figured out that Kara had fled the hotel. We don't question what brought him to that realization, just that he did eventually come to it and now he's standing just a few feet from the tree.

He left a note for Grace on his door, explaining where he went and if she feels anything strange, it's probably because of Kara. He's... Not really sure if another person's psychic distress being accidentally projected on him will register on her senses or not, so best to cover all the bases. He doesn't need her having a small panic attack on top of everything else.

"Who do I have to punch to make you come down?" He asks. It's mostly a joke, but with that hint of seriousness that suggests he really will punch someone if it'll make everything better. It's his thing. Apparently.

[taibhsearachd]

Kara doesn't move for a moment. Doesn't give even the slightest sense she noticed him, or that she's listening to anything he's going to say. She just keeps staring at some distant point far off, eyes unfocused.

After a minute or two, though, she looks down at him, and curls up a little tighter, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. "Go away."

[nothingsodivine]

For a moment, Des doesn't move. On one hand, if Kara tells him to do something, even he's smart enough to do it with no backtalking involved. He didn't try to go after Hart on his own, after all.

On the other hand, there's a fine line between stupidity and being stupidly protective and if Kara's hurting, then he damn well wants to know what's causing it.

He takes a tentative step forward. "Kara..."

No jokes, no games. Just utter seriousness. There's so much in that single utterance of her name- a question about what's wrong, an expression of concern, and more besides. Desmond Descant may be known for his mouth, but that doesn't mean he can't speak volumes with very little when he needs to.

[taibhsearachd]

Kara lets out a soft, discontent noise that could almost be a growl, and leans over a little further. She's not quite glaring at him, but she is watching him rather unhappily.

"Go away! It's not time yet." She's not angry at him. She wants to be, but she's not. Mostly, she's scared, and defensive, and very much not wanting to die, and while none of this is any rational basis for hiding from Des... Kara is rarely rational.

[nothingsodivine]

He thinks about taking a step back- really contemplates it- but he only makes it as far as to put his foot backwards, before he decides that... No, he isn't going to accept that.

"Not time for what?" It's a stupid question to ask. Ten to one, he doesn't want to know and even higher odds says she won't even tell him if he did. "Kara, what the hell is going on?"

He should no better to ask these questions of Kara. Really, he should, but asking questions is another one of his things, apparently.

[taibhsearachd]

"It doesn't matter!" That's accompanied by something of a psychic shove - harder than she intended, but still not that hard. She wants to startle him, unsettle him, not hurt him. "It's not. Now. Going on, I mean."

So it doesn't matter. Except where it does, because she's hiding in a tree.

[nothingsodivine]

Des winces and finally does take a few steps back at the shove, but he remains adamant about Not Leaving. There are few things in the world that can out-stubborn Desmond D. Descant. And, really, nothing short of Kara coming down from that tree and beating him will make him move.

...It would get her out of the tree at least.

"Well yeah, nothing's going on right now, because you're in a tree. Do I have to come up there?"

Yes, Des. Climb the tree to coax the psychic girl down. Clearly you took this 'kitten' thing way too seriously.

[taibhsearachd]

Kara watches him a moment longer, and then sighs, shifting a little so the leaves are partially hiding her from view. This is clearly the mature way of going about things.

"No." From the sulky way she said that, it can be assumed that's in response to Des' question about climbing the tree. Though she's not exactly moving to come down yet. "You don't have to be here."

[nothingsodivine]

Des really does not want to climb that damn tree, but he will, dammit. For now, however, he just walks all the way to the base and stares up at her.

"Well, no. I don't have to be, but since when do I ever care about whether or not I have to be in places? I tend to show up either way and I generally don't leave."

He wasn't needed in Calisto's Warehouse o' Death, after all.... And that's not even remotely the same thing and why that came into his mind is beyond anything the narration can come up with.

"At least come down from the tree?" He asks after a second's pause, sighing.

[taibhsearachd]

For a moment, nothing happens. Kara doesn't speak. Doesn't move.

And then, abruptly, she shifts her weight and just drops out of the tree, landing on her feet - very nearly on top of Des, though she misses actually hitting him. She gives him a sulky glare that seems to convey happy now? (or maybe she's still projecting psychically), and then drops again so she's seated at the bottom of the tree. Well. Not so much seated as slumped. This is not a happy Kara.

[nothingsodivine]

Not a happy Kara, indeed, and that makes Des not a happy Des. He looks down at her, frowning for a bit, before plopping down in front of her. Clearly there will be no moving from the park for awhile.

He cradles his chin in his hands and just stares at her for a minute. "So. Anything you want to talk about?"

Des often fails at things like this. Eventually, he'll get to the hugging and the cuddling and the shutting up, but right now he wants to see if there's even a slight chance that he might figure out how to make things make sense.

[taibhsearachd]

Kara stares back at him, just waiting to speak, and only looks away when he asks if she wants to talk about anything. "No." Simple questions like that probably won't get far with Kara in a mood like this.

"You think you're the huntsman. But you're not. The Big Bad Wolf's coming, and you can't stop her."

...Or maybe you'll get answers, just not the ones you want. Or can understand. Sorry, Des.

[nothingsodivine]

Des rubs his temples in that way that always indicates that he's frustrated- it's not frustration directed at Kara, personally. Just... Frustration, in general. Shit just can't stop going down, apparently, whether he's just on the fringe of it or right on top of it.

"We stopped Calisto. We've stopped a lot of things. How's she any different?"

Des does occasionally learn. Don't bother asking questions like "who is she" or "what the hell are you going on about?". Just pretend to know what Kara's saying and hope she thinks you're on the right track or thinks you stupid enough to need something vaguely like an actual explanation.

[taibhsearachd]

Kara laughs softly. It's not a pleasant laugh. It's one of those half-broken, on the verge of tears and possibly the verge of sanity laughs. "Did you really? Stop her? She's still here. Got her teeth in you. I can see her." Her gaze flickers up, over Descant's shoulder, like she's actually seeing something there. Her expression doesn't change, but her gaze is so focused it's hard to believe there isn't really someone there, invisible to all but Kara.

[nothingsodivine]

Des is... Very creeped out and he's not sure if it's Kara in general or the fact that she's probably right in what might amount to a strangely metaphorical way. Maybe literal, but he's trying not to look at Kara's focused gaze too much to really wonder about it much.

"You're scarin' me. Just a little bit." His tone doesn't really convey the fear- it's more the tone of someone who has just noticed that their cute, innocent friend has made a joke that reeks of black humor they didn't think they were capable of and is mildly weirded out by it.

His tone may be casual, but the fear is real. She's terrifying right now and he doesn't know why.

[taibhsearachd]

Kara sighs and looks down, away from the invisible Calisto or whatever she was looking at a moment ago. She traces the lines of her palm with one finger, staring intently at that instead of Des' face or anything else. "Sorry. Didn't mean to." Sometimes she does mean to scare people, but... that's mostly just Sark lately. She presses her back a little harder against the tree, and closes her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she repeats, though this time the apology may be for something else. It's difficult to tell.