032: [Video] Homages to Cheesy 70's Movies? Check Check

[only_fell]

[Hello City! Have a space hooker dressed a bit like another iconic space princessThe City deposits Inara so quickly down near the fountain that she almost stumbles, recovering some what gracefully. She's got a bloody scrape on one cheek and her hands are covered in dry blood. Her hair is quite frankly a wreck. She certainly hasn't been at the guild

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[notverypriestly]

[Priestly would squee at Inara's return, but he's too busy lying in one of the buildings' lobbies, asleep in the corner by the mailboxes. Very smelly. Also he's not sure where he left his network device...]

Action;

[only_fell]

Once Inara gets wind of Priestly's condition, she heads out sans bubble bath or a change of clothes to find him. It worries her when he doesn't answer his communicator. Naturally she begins by checking his apartment but skips The Blue Light. If he were there, someone would have said something by now. She begins a methodical process of checking each building. She eventually finds him passed out in the lobby of one of the apartment buildings. With a soft sigh she crouches down next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh Baobei, what did you do?" she asks quietly careful not to take too deep a breath.

[notverypriestly]

Priestly grumbles and rolls over. "Told you. M'not going home, s'pointless." He might not quite buy that Inara's real. Especially dressed like that. The Leia thing was purely a product of his daydreams, never fathomed to become reality.

[only_fell]

When he moves the smell is worse and Inara leans back slightly, grimacing as she does.

"Priestly, I assure you going home is far from pointless. You need a shower as badly as I need a bubble bath."

[notverypriestly]

He rolls toward her now, blinking hard and swiping out a hand to poke her shoulder. The sight before him said 'not real' while her words were screaming the opposite. Inara chiding him was very real. There was totally a way to test it.

"Shut up," he said in order to brush her off. Then he winced just in case it was real. Cause it was probably going to hurt.

[only_fell]

That look that Priestly is getting right now is shock and it's very swiftly followed by righteous anger, a hard slap plus a whole string of Mandarin curse words he's never heard her say before.

"Shén me niǎo? èrbǎiwǔ! Qù sǐ! I thought I could leave the insults and the fighting to Mal. Pigu."

She stands up and starts to walk out. She'd let someone else know he was here. They could be insulted. She'd been through entirely too much the last two weeks to go through this.

[**What the fuck
idiot
Go to hell
Ass

[notverypriestly]

Okay, pain. Bright lights and funny shapes. Priestly's head rocks to the side with the force of the hit. "Ouch!" He hollers, his hand coming up to rub at the sore and probably red skin before he registers that she's up and leaving.

Priestly hurls himself out of his corner, leaving the empty backpack full of who knows what behind and following hurriedly after her. "Inara, wait! Inara! You're back!"

[only_fell]

She's halfway out of the lobby before he gets up and calls after her. She stops, looking over her shoulder with a cold look. She turns on her heel, arms crossing over her chest.

"Very astute, Priestly."

The only reason she's not walking is because he came after her.

[notverypriestly]

That's what he likes; the chase. Of course, he's content once he gets what he's chasing, but for there to even be that first inkling of having to work to get something, Priestly's all over it. He scrubs a hand over his face, wincing at the amount of growth there.

"And you fucking slapped me," he continues, almost happily, really. "If I tell you I was hoping you'd be back, are you gonna slap me again?"

[only_fell]

Inara's not stupid. Some part of her realizes this. Although her reaction this time wasn't calculated. Her anger and frustration is real. If he had sounded more angry about the slap she might have a rebuttal but he sounds almost happy about it. That makes her sigh, relaxing and melting a little.

"No. I'm not going to slap you again. You told me to shut up. That was what the slap was for."

She pauses a moment before taking a step forward and a shallow breath. "Are you alright?" Now there's real worry in her voice and her expression.

[notverypriestly]

The stupid grin he's starting to get probably tips her off. He can't help it, even though deep down he's still pretty rocked by everything leading up to just a few minutes ago.

"I was making sure you weren't in my head," he claims as his defense. It's true, but that doesn't mean it's okay, and he knows it.

The grin fades just a little before he brings it back up again. He's always been good at stuffing the crap down and acting like an idiot to make himself feel better. Priestly doesn't like the worry on Inara's face, so he especially tries this time. "Are you kidding? I'm awesome."

[only_fell]

Inara arches an eyebrow at him. This is her 'I'm not buying your bullshit' look. Clearly the bullshit she's not buying is the part where he's awesome. The part where he was making sure she wasn't in his head, she buys.

"You need a shower as bad as I need a bubble bath."

She holds her hand out to him. "Stay three feet away until we get back to the apartment, shower and if you're very nice I'll let you in the bathtub with me."

[notverypriestly]

He just grins at her thinly veiled insult that doesn't exactly hide the worry she's feeling if one knows her. Which Priestly likes to think he does.

Ooh, commands! Those are something Priestly can focus on. He takes a step back, smiling a bit before really taking in Inara's appearance. Wow. He might be gaping, possibly drooling even. "Well, maybe if you didn't show up in the best outfit ever, I wouldn't have thought you were in my head. Are you seriously wearing leather right now? That is so hot!"

[only_fell]

Priestly knows her quite well. The insults are designed to keep walls up both for herself and him. It puts a distance between her and someone she cares about. She thinks anyway.

And she knows Priestly as well. Cajoling and babying and pleading doesn't work nearly as well as a command for him. He likes to have to work for something. At his gaping and drooling she rolls her eyes and laughs a bit.

"I couldn't be part of a war against Reavers and Alliance in silk."

What? It makes sense to her. Hence the leather and the spiked jewelry. Apparently, she can fight reavers and alliance in a skirt though.

[notverypriestly]

That actually does make sense to him, but it's more fun to mess with her about it. "Oh sure, it's like white after Labor Day."

Swinging from complete indifference to goofing on everything has made Priestly a little emotionally dizzy. He's pretty sure he's gonna get smacked a lot more in the coming weeks, but if it helps him get back to the point he was at before she left? Priestly thinks it's worth it.

[only_fell]

Inara rolls her eyes at him. Everything she's been through in the last few weeks has yet to catch up with her. Once she gets in the bathtub and everything goes quiet, chances are she'll come as close to falling apart as she ever allows herself. Wash and Book are dead. She saw an entire planet that died because they just stopped fighting. It's all definitely fall apart worthy.

"I wouldn't know. White isn't a color that particularly suits me," she tells him with a shake of her head. She'll be happy to oblige him in the smacking. Especially if that's what it takes to get him back to 'normal'.