The Arms Hotel, Friday Evening
It had been a rough few weeks--make even rougher by Raven's surprise appearance at Fast Eddie's last night. Karla was still unsure of what to make of that, and had spent all of the time since then ensconced in the library, trying to find something, anything about what could have explained Raven's sudden appearance and disappearance from their midst.
Which was why Warren had stepped in and very politely, but firmly, informed her that they were going to spend the evening together and relaxing for a few hours. Karla had protested, futilely, but Warren was implacable in his own soft-spoken way and eventually Karla had agreed that a few hours not fretting about Raven wouldn't be the end of the world.
Now, the remains of room service on a tray by the hotel door and Warren's hands massaging away some of the tension in her neck and shoulders, Karla was surprised to find herself feeling better than she had in weeks.
Warren
The fact that Karla seemed to finally be relaxing a bit had Warren smiling to himself as he moved his hands firmly but carefully over her shoulders.
"How does that feel?"
He would be lying if he said that this massage wasn't at least partly because he wanted an opportunity to just get close to her for a while, too.
Karla
"Mmm, nice," she murmured, her head lolling backwards a bit. Some of those knots had been there since the battle with Trigon. Having the muscles finally loosen was a relief bordering on ecstasy.
Grief had pretty much killed any spark of desire recently. But with his hands on her skin, Karla was starting to remember that she was alive, sixteen, and head-over-heels for her boyfriend.
With a sigh, she pulled Warren's head down for a kiss.
Warren
See, that was what Warren had been keeping in mind all evening. The kiss. That little bit of happiness, between the two of them, during which anything and everything was going to be okay, no matter what was going on just outside of arm's reach.
He smiled against her mouth, and then folded his wings around her and leaned in to deepen the kiss.
Karla
Karla clung to that feeling as she clung to him, turning around in his lap to wind her arms around his neck and bury her fingers in his hair. Here, in this tiny circle of his wings and embrace, she was safe, she was protected, she was loved.
"I want you," she whispered. "Make love to me."
Help me forget everything except how good you make me feel.
Warren
Warren's breath caught a little. It hadn't been long at all, since they'd first been able to actually do what they wanted, and with all of that Raven mess stuck in between, well, there really hadn't been much of anything at all, lately. So, really, nobody could blame him for grinning a little and practically pouncing on her right then and there, could they? His kisses started at her lips, and then strayed down along her jaw, over her throat, working their way toward those shoulders that he'd been massaging moments before.
He wanted her, too.
Raven?
When Sebastian had bitten off Raven's chakra, her gifts had gone wildly out of control. She couldn't focus them to escape after Sebastian brought her under his power, and she reached out blindly, pieces of her Soul-Self splintering and frantically trying to reach her friends.
One fragile tendril of her soul somehow found its way Karla, but her mental barriers were too strong for it to penetrate. Therefore it turned to the closest person to her at the moment: Warren. The shard of Raven's soul swept inside him, seizing control. The act wasn't one of malice or mischief -- it was pure desperation.
Karla
Unaware of anything else going on in the room, Karla was marveling over Warren's brilliance, making sure her top was already off and somewhere on the floor. Hmmm. His should join it now, yes.
"Warren," she sighed, arching her back and bringing her hands down to stroke his chest. "That feels so good."
She hadn't realized how much she'd needed this, a long night with just the two of them...
Warren
Yep, totally just the two of them!
Warren inhaled, practically purring into her touch. And when he exhaled again with a soft huff that was nearly a moan, the gesture wasn't entirely Warren's own.
Neither was the "Raven" that slipped from his lips.
The pause after that word while he looked thoroughly baffled, however, was.
Karla
"Mmm, Warr--WHAT."
Pardon Karla as her brain finally caught with everything else.
"No, seriously, what?!"
Sorry, Arthur. Your check is in the mail.
Warren
Warren grimaced a little, opening his mouth to explain that he had no idea, honest, and maybe they could just keep going and forget that ever happened? Because, seriously, Raven creeped the hell out of him. It was not exactly up there on his list of names to let slip during foreplay.
"... Belongs to Brother Blood."
That was not his carefully planned explanation, either.
Karla
Yeah, and it really wasn't helping. Karla was drawing away a bit, folding her arms over her chest. There needed to be a lot of fast talking and maybe a little bit of ego-petting if this evening was going to be salvaged.
"I beg your pardon?" she asked in such a way as to inform Warren that it was not his pardon that should be getting begged right now.
She'd get to the pertinent part of what he was saying any second now. Yep. Any second.
Warren
"Raven belongs to Brother Blood," Warren repeated, sounding a little more than a little baffled. And then, after a moment's pause, he tried again. "Raven belongs to Brother Blood."
This wasn't going according to plan.
Far less according to plan as he seemed to take an abrupt left-turn directly into that mindset, until the phrase was everything there was, and he was pulling himself to his feet, looking for a quick exit to the room.
Raven belongs to Brother Blood. Raven belongs to Brother Blood.
Karla
Leaving Karla scrambling up after him. What he was actually saying--besides calling out another female's name while they were making out--was finally getting through. "Wait--you're saying Brother Blood has Raven?!"
Startling powers of observation there, Karla.
"How in the Darkness do you know that? And--dammit, Warren, where you you going?!"
Warren
Clearly, Warren was making his way to the window. In January. With no shirt on. Because that was a brilliant plan.
But he could fly. There was somewhere that he had to go. Somewhere that he needed to be. And that was why he was pulling the window open, still repeating his mantra, not so much as glancing back at Karla to clarify, now.
"Raven belongs to Brother Blood."
Karla
"Hell's fire and Mother Night!" Karla snapped, trying to tackle him before he could open the window. ‘Trying’ being the operative word. "You are not Bobby Drake--you're going to freeze out there!"
Karla didn't like traipsing though people's minds without permission. Other than her jaunt through Warren's mind chasing Emma, she tried to be a considerate girlfriend, going no further than the outermost layers to talk and link and insert naughty images into his thoughts. But this--this was odd enough to warrant a further look, especially if Warren was going to attempt to fly off somewhere, shirtless and without backup.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, and pushed gently past his inner barriers.
Warren
There was a Warren in there, absolutely. But he was somewhere under the rest of it, kind of dazed and wondering what the hell was going on, himself. Above that, pushing him onward, was Raven's influence. That phrase. Somewhere to be.
He wasn't exactly a pushover, with that extra muscle to compensate for his ability to fly. Prying him back from the window was going to be a challenge as it was. He'd managed to get it half open already.
"Raven belongs to Brother Blood."
In case you hadn't gotten that memo yet.
Karla
Yeah, running into Warren had been like running into a sexy wall. Normally, Karla appreciated his sturdiness and the ability to take a flying tackle with a chuckle and turn it into a swing and embrace, but tonight she found herself wishing he was just a liiiiittle less...chiseled.
"Yeah, yeah, I got that," Karla gritted out, trying to delicately pry the compulsion off of his brain. It felt like Raven, but she couldn't be sure there wasn't more there. "Could you maybe take a few minutes before leaping to the heroics?"
Because if he couldn't, then she was going to have to take Steps.
Warren
At this point, Warren probably wouldn't blame her if she happened to tie him down, or something.
"Raven belongs to Brother Blood!"
And this was a big deal! And his head was now sticking out the window! And it felt a fair bit like January out there!
Karla
Dammit, Warren! Karla was possibly even going to feel guilty about this later.
Letting go of the compulsion that was clinging to his thoughts, Karla sent her Craft over to a different section of his brain. *Sleep,* her power whispered. *Rest.*
And then her power thumped him but good in his brain. "Sorry," Karla said as he slumped to the ground. "Necessity."
His Healing factor wouldn't keep him down for long, so Karla quickly improvised some restraints out of belts and various lengths of cloth, before shutting the window and locking it again. "This is so not how I was picturing this evening," she muttered.
Karla
Okay, so as distracting as it was, having Warren squawking out Raven's name at inopportune moments and trying to fly out the window to find her, the bit to focus on was Warren's insistence that Brother Blood had Raven.
Brother Blood.
Sebastian.
He'd tried to kidnap Raven, tried to make her flee the island by feeding from her wearing Max's face, and had been happy to try to harm Karla, too. How Raven had gone from dead to possibly being in his hands, Karla didn't know, but if there was any chance they could get her back, they'd take it.
The problem? Karla had no idea how to find him.
The solution? She knew someone who did.
Ring Ring!
Dinah
Dinah had been suiting up for a night of crimefighting, but stopped when her phone buzzed. "Hey, you. How're you doing?"
Karla
"I need to know everything you uncovered for Raven about Brother Blood," Karla said. "And I need to know it now."
Hellos were for other people.
"He's got Raven."
And so were explanations.
Dinah
Oh, holy crap. Knowing Raven was going to be back had made Dinah happy this week-- but not like this.
"Okay, okay-- gimme a sec." Dinah strode into the room with the Delphi Circuit, and wrote down Brother Blood for Barbara, then pointed at the computer as she said, "Off the top of my head, he was the head of the Brotherhood of Blood church, he had a group of crazed and maybe hypnotized cultists following him and Trigon, and he probably murdered his father." She took a breath. "One minute, Barbara's pulling up the rest of the info now, and how the heck do you know he's got her?"
Karla
"Because my boyfriend decided to ruin our lovely evening by informing me of that little tidbit ad nauseum," Karla said crossly. "And then trying to crawl out the window to flutter to her side. Wherever the Hell she is. Do you know where this church of his is? I have a powerful urge to punch someone right now."
Okay, mostly she was worried and confused, but clinging to anger was so much easier.
Dinah
"Wait, you're making no sense. Warren knew?" Okay, that was just-- freaky with a side of confusing.
"And the main branch or whatever of the church here in my world is in Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts. Like that's not an ominous name or anything." She straightened. "It could be the same in Raven's. Maybe that's where he's got her. Warren doesn't know? Just wants to take off into the wild blue yonder?"
Karla
"There was a compulsion on him," Karla explained. "It felt like Raven when I was prying it off and it made him repeat 'Raven belongs to Brother Blood' and tried to make him fling himself out of the nearest window. If he'd tried to go through it, rather than struggling to open it, I might not have caught him in time."
Though Dinah was taking all this rather well.
"Did someone call you last night, letting you know Raven appeared?" she asked, trying not to sound suspicious. "There's not as much 'But, Karla, Raven's dead!' as I expected there to be."
Dinah
"Oh jeez. That little creep." Dinah took a breath. "Wait, Raven appeared? No, but- I had this dream, two nights ago... it was vague, and I wasn't sure, so I didn't feel like I should call, but. It was Didi. I mean, Not-Didi." She cleared her throat. "She kind of said to keep on the lookout, because Raven would be coming back eventually."
Karla
"You mean what Didi...became?" Karla asked, quietly. Because, honestly, hearing the incarnation of Death had paid a friend a personal visit--even through a dream--was enough to knock some of the wind out of her sails. "Darkness have mercy."
Heaving a big sigh, she ran her fingers through her hair. "Sookie and Bobby convinced me and Jono to go out to Fast Eddie's last night, to try to cheer us up. It was going well enough until Raven just appeared in our midst. She had time to call for help before getting dragged away by hands of flame. I've been parked in the library almost ever since, trying to figure out hows and whys and whats."
Dinah
"Yeah," Dinah said, voice quiet. "She said She wanted to see how I was doing. And that Raven's story wasn't over. Couldn't tell me anything else, though. But it was her, it was Didi. Death." She smiled crookedly. "It's good to get confirmation so soon, even if it's so weird."
She frowned. "So Brother Blood has her, she's alive, she can't get free, and this sounds like a job for the super-friends. I'm sending you a map of Buzzard's Bay in my e-mail, and everything else we dug up on the guy."
Karla
"Thank you, Dinah," Karla said, grateful. "Get here as soon as you can? I'll start rounding everyone else up. If he's got her--if she's alive and the Raven we knew--we can't let him keep her. We can't."
And in the meantime, Karla had a boyfriend to fix and a cavalry to call.
Dinah
"Will do," Dinah said, then grinned. Then bounced. "She's baaaack! And we're gonna save her!" This time.
[ooc: Preplayed with not_a_parakeet, blondecanary, and trigons_child. Open for a specific phone call, but otherwise, NFI.]
Which was why Warren had stepped in and very politely, but firmly, informed her that they were going to spend the evening together and relaxing for a few hours. Karla had protested, futilely, but Warren was implacable in his own soft-spoken way and eventually Karla had agreed that a few hours not fretting about Raven wouldn't be the end of the world.
Now, the remains of room service on a tray by the hotel door and Warren's hands massaging away some of the tension in her neck and shoulders, Karla was surprised to find herself feeling better than she had in weeks.
Warren
The fact that Karla seemed to finally be relaxing a bit had Warren smiling to himself as he moved his hands firmly but carefully over her shoulders.
"How does that feel?"
He would be lying if he said that this massage wasn't at least partly because he wanted an opportunity to just get close to her for a while, too.
Karla
"Mmm, nice," she murmured, her head lolling backwards a bit. Some of those knots had been there since the battle with Trigon. Having the muscles finally loosen was a relief bordering on ecstasy.
Grief had pretty much killed any spark of desire recently. But with his hands on her skin, Karla was starting to remember that she was alive, sixteen, and head-over-heels for her boyfriend.
With a sigh, she pulled Warren's head down for a kiss.
Warren
See, that was what Warren had been keeping in mind all evening. The kiss. That little bit of happiness, between the two of them, during which anything and everything was going to be okay, no matter what was going on just outside of arm's reach.
He smiled against her mouth, and then folded his wings around her and leaned in to deepen the kiss.
Karla
Karla clung to that feeling as she clung to him, turning around in his lap to wind her arms around his neck and bury her fingers in his hair. Here, in this tiny circle of his wings and embrace, she was safe, she was protected, she was loved.
"I want you," she whispered. "Make love to me."
Help me forget everything except how good you make me feel.
Warren
Warren's breath caught a little. It hadn't been long at all, since they'd first been able to actually do what they wanted, and with all of that Raven mess stuck in between, well, there really hadn't been much of anything at all, lately. So, really, nobody could blame him for grinning a little and practically pouncing on her right then and there, could they? His kisses started at her lips, and then strayed down along her jaw, over her throat, working their way toward those shoulders that he'd been massaging moments before.
He wanted her, too.
Raven?
When Sebastian had bitten off Raven's chakra, her gifts had gone wildly out of control. She couldn't focus them to escape after Sebastian brought her under his power, and she reached out blindly, pieces of her Soul-Self splintering and frantically trying to reach her friends.
One fragile tendril of her soul somehow found its way Karla, but her mental barriers were too strong for it to penetrate. Therefore it turned to the closest person to her at the moment: Warren. The shard of Raven's soul swept inside him, seizing control. The act wasn't one of malice or mischief -- it was pure desperation.
Karla
Unaware of anything else going on in the room, Karla was marveling over Warren's brilliance, making sure her top was already off and somewhere on the floor. Hmmm. His should join it now, yes.
"Warren," she sighed, arching her back and bringing her hands down to stroke his chest. "That feels so good."
She hadn't realized how much she'd needed this, a long night with just the two of them...
Warren
Yep, totally just the two of them!
Warren inhaled, practically purring into her touch. And when he exhaled again with a soft huff that was nearly a moan, the gesture wasn't entirely Warren's own.
Neither was the "Raven" that slipped from his lips.
The pause after that word while he looked thoroughly baffled, however, was.
Karla
"Mmm, Warr--WHAT."
Pardon Karla as her brain finally caught with everything else.
"No, seriously, what?!"
Sorry, Arthur. Your check is in the mail.
Warren
Warren grimaced a little, opening his mouth to explain that he had no idea, honest, and maybe they could just keep going and forget that ever happened? Because, seriously, Raven creeped the hell out of him. It was not exactly up there on his list of names to let slip during foreplay.
"... Belongs to Brother Blood."
That was not his carefully planned explanation, either.
Karla
Yeah, and it really wasn't helping. Karla was drawing away a bit, folding her arms over her chest. There needed to be a lot of fast talking and maybe a little bit of ego-petting if this evening was going to be salvaged.
"I beg your pardon?" she asked in such a way as to inform Warren that it was not his pardon that should be getting begged right now.
She'd get to the pertinent part of what he was saying any second now. Yep. Any second.
Warren
"Raven belongs to Brother Blood," Warren repeated, sounding a little more than a little baffled. And then, after a moment's pause, he tried again. "Raven belongs to Brother Blood."
This wasn't going according to plan.
Far less according to plan as he seemed to take an abrupt left-turn directly into that mindset, until the phrase was everything there was, and he was pulling himself to his feet, looking for a quick exit to the room.
Raven belongs to Brother Blood. Raven belongs to Brother Blood.
Karla
Leaving Karla scrambling up after him. What he was actually saying--besides calling out another female's name while they were making out--was finally getting through. "Wait--you're saying Brother Blood has Raven?!"
Startling powers of observation there, Karla.
"How in the Darkness do you know that? And--dammit, Warren, where you you going?!"
Warren
Clearly, Warren was making his way to the window. In January. With no shirt on. Because that was a brilliant plan.
But he could fly. There was somewhere that he had to go. Somewhere that he needed to be. And that was why he was pulling the window open, still repeating his mantra, not so much as glancing back at Karla to clarify, now.
"Raven belongs to Brother Blood."
Karla
"Hell's fire and Mother Night!" Karla snapped, trying to tackle him before he could open the window. ‘Trying’ being the operative word. "You are not Bobby Drake--you're going to freeze out there!"
Karla didn't like traipsing though people's minds without permission. Other than her jaunt through Warren's mind chasing Emma, she tried to be a considerate girlfriend, going no further than the outermost layers to talk and link and insert naughty images into his thoughts. But this--this was odd enough to warrant a further look, especially if Warren was going to attempt to fly off somewhere, shirtless and without backup.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, and pushed gently past his inner barriers.
Warren
There was a Warren in there, absolutely. But he was somewhere under the rest of it, kind of dazed and wondering what the hell was going on, himself. Above that, pushing him onward, was Raven's influence. That phrase. Somewhere to be.
He wasn't exactly a pushover, with that extra muscle to compensate for his ability to fly. Prying him back from the window was going to be a challenge as it was. He'd managed to get it half open already.
"Raven belongs to Brother Blood."
In case you hadn't gotten that memo yet.
Karla
Yeah, running into Warren had been like running into a sexy wall. Normally, Karla appreciated his sturdiness and the ability to take a flying tackle with a chuckle and turn it into a swing and embrace, but tonight she found herself wishing he was just a liiiiittle less...chiseled.
"Yeah, yeah, I got that," Karla gritted out, trying to delicately pry the compulsion off of his brain. It felt like Raven, but she couldn't be sure there wasn't more there. "Could you maybe take a few minutes before leaping to the heroics?"
Because if he couldn't, then she was going to have to take Steps.
Warren
At this point, Warren probably wouldn't blame her if she happened to tie him down, or something.
"Raven belongs to Brother Blood!"
And this was a big deal! And his head was now sticking out the window! And it felt a fair bit like January out there!
Karla
Dammit, Warren! Karla was possibly even going to feel guilty about this later.
Letting go of the compulsion that was clinging to his thoughts, Karla sent her Craft over to a different section of his brain. *Sleep,* her power whispered. *Rest.*
And then her power thumped him but good in his brain. "Sorry," Karla said as he slumped to the ground. "Necessity."
His Healing factor wouldn't keep him down for long, so Karla quickly improvised some restraints out of belts and various lengths of cloth, before shutting the window and locking it again. "This is so not how I was picturing this evening," she muttered.
Karla
Okay, so as distracting as it was, having Warren squawking out Raven's name at inopportune moments and trying to fly out the window to find her, the bit to focus on was Warren's insistence that Brother Blood had Raven.
Brother Blood.
Sebastian.
He'd tried to kidnap Raven, tried to make her flee the island by feeding from her wearing Max's face, and had been happy to try to harm Karla, too. How Raven had gone from dead to possibly being in his hands, Karla didn't know, but if there was any chance they could get her back, they'd take it.
The problem? Karla had no idea how to find him.
The solution? She knew someone who did.
Ring Ring!
Dinah
Dinah had been suiting up for a night of crimefighting, but stopped when her phone buzzed. "Hey, you. How're you doing?"
Karla
"I need to know everything you uncovered for Raven about Brother Blood," Karla said. "And I need to know it now."
Hellos were for other people.
"He's got Raven."
And so were explanations.
Dinah
Oh, holy crap. Knowing Raven was going to be back had made Dinah happy this week-- but not like this.
"Okay, okay-- gimme a sec." Dinah strode into the room with the Delphi Circuit, and wrote down Brother Blood for Barbara, then pointed at the computer as she said, "Off the top of my head, he was the head of the Brotherhood of Blood church, he had a group of crazed and maybe hypnotized cultists following him and Trigon, and he probably murdered his father." She took a breath. "One minute, Barbara's pulling up the rest of the info now, and how the heck do you know he's got her?"
Karla
"Because my boyfriend decided to ruin our lovely evening by informing me of that little tidbit ad nauseum," Karla said crossly. "And then trying to crawl out the window to flutter to her side. Wherever the Hell she is. Do you know where this church of his is? I have a powerful urge to punch someone right now."
Okay, mostly she was worried and confused, but clinging to anger was so much easier.
Dinah
"Wait, you're making no sense. Warren knew?" Okay, that was just-- freaky with a side of confusing.
"And the main branch or whatever of the church here in my world is in Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts. Like that's not an ominous name or anything." She straightened. "It could be the same in Raven's. Maybe that's where he's got her. Warren doesn't know? Just wants to take off into the wild blue yonder?"
Karla
"There was a compulsion on him," Karla explained. "It felt like Raven when I was prying it off and it made him repeat 'Raven belongs to Brother Blood' and tried to make him fling himself out of the nearest window. If he'd tried to go through it, rather than struggling to open it, I might not have caught him in time."
Though Dinah was taking all this rather well.
"Did someone call you last night, letting you know Raven appeared?" she asked, trying not to sound suspicious. "There's not as much 'But, Karla, Raven's dead!' as I expected there to be."
Dinah
"Oh jeez. That little creep." Dinah took a breath. "Wait, Raven appeared? No, but- I had this dream, two nights ago... it was vague, and I wasn't sure, so I didn't feel like I should call, but. It was Didi. I mean, Not-Didi." She cleared her throat. "She kind of said to keep on the lookout, because Raven would be coming back eventually."
Karla
"You mean what Didi...became?" Karla asked, quietly. Because, honestly, hearing the incarnation of Death had paid a friend a personal visit--even through a dream--was enough to knock some of the wind out of her sails. "Darkness have mercy."
Heaving a big sigh, she ran her fingers through her hair. "Sookie and Bobby convinced me and Jono to go out to Fast Eddie's last night, to try to cheer us up. It was going well enough until Raven just appeared in our midst. She had time to call for help before getting dragged away by hands of flame. I've been parked in the library almost ever since, trying to figure out hows and whys and whats."
Dinah
"Yeah," Dinah said, voice quiet. "She said She wanted to see how I was doing. And that Raven's story wasn't over. Couldn't tell me anything else, though. But it was her, it was Didi. Death." She smiled crookedly. "It's good to get confirmation so soon, even if it's so weird."
She frowned. "So Brother Blood has her, she's alive, she can't get free, and this sounds like a job for the super-friends. I'm sending you a map of Buzzard's Bay in my e-mail, and everything else we dug up on the guy."
Karla
"Thank you, Dinah," Karla said, grateful. "Get here as soon as you can? I'll start rounding everyone else up. If he's got her--if she's alive and the Raven we knew--we can't let him keep her. We can't."
And in the meantime, Karla had a boyfriend to fix and a cavalry to call.
Dinah
"Will do," Dinah said, then grinned. Then bounced. "She's baaaack! And we're gonna save her!" This time.
[ooc: Preplayed with not_a_parakeet, blondecanary, and trigons_child. Open for a specific phone call, but otherwise, NFI.]