three. [action]

[aunomdedieu]

[ Caprica has stayed out of the way during the monster curse - thank God she didn't seem to be affected by it. And she doesn't know anyone involved personally (it has occurred to her how little she knows anyone here, a distance of her own making), but there's so much pain on the Vine right now and she doesn't want to deal with it

Comments

[action]

[thesamename]

[Not to be a stalker, Caprica, but Jackie hasn't left the library again yet. She had remained there, because unlike Caprica, she was pointedly and noticeably unsociable, armed with a frown and a litany of abuse that she had already turned on a few of the garden's residents.

It wasn't as though Jackie found the library particularly interesting either, but the insomniac in her was well used to devouring books in the endless nights. The library here had a frustratingly pitiful selection to choose from, however.]

[action]

[aunomdedieu]

[ Eventually, Caprica starts to run out of stones that are any good for skipping. She tucks her hands into the pockets of her pants and heads up the path, slowly, toward the library.

It's quiet and warm inside the building, and after choosing a completely random book from a shelf - none of these are authors she has ever heard of before, but that doesn't surprise her - she goes to take a seat in one of the chairs by the fire.

Only to spot a familiar face there. She's surprised for a moment, and eventually has to make a quiet inquiry. ]

Still here? [ She's almost smiling. ]

[action]

[thesamename]

[She knows what those almost smiles look like, and to see it on this strange woman's face makes Jackie distinctly uncomfortable. She frowns in response, curling tighter into her chair.]

I'm not an 'outdoors' kind of person.

[She notices that Caprica has actually chosen one of the books and tilts her head to read the spine, which just twists her scowl a little deeper.]

Not that there's anything worth reading in here.

[action]

[aunomdedieu]

There are other places to go.

[ She says it gently and matter-of-factly, as she sits down in the chair opposite Jackie, laying her book - a collection of Emily Dickinson's poetry - across her lap. Caprica is beginning to wonder whether that discontent expression on the other woman's face is something perpetual. ]

Isn't there? [ She arches one brow, very slightly. ] I couldn't say. I hadn't read any of it before I came here.

[gravityfists]

[ Stephanie's always the last to know when she's tried. It might be fairly evident on the outside - her eyes are narrowed, with dark, heavy bags beneath them - but it's simply how she's used to feeling. Back home, she attends college in the day and patrols the city of a night, which doesn't leave much time at all for sleep-it's a luxury, one that she hasn't done much in the way of affording herself lately. Now that the trouble with the transformations has apparently died down (and, indeed, her own metamorphosis has worn off), she's finally taken off the Batgirl costume, and is wandering out in the open, lost in her thoughts. One arm is in a sling, though it doesn't seem terribly out of place on her, somehow ]

[ on her way to nowhere in particular, she reaches the lake, and there she spots Caprica, skipping stones. Stephanie doesn't recognise her, and immediately she's curious; even if she's only doing so subconsciously, she's really been embracing the detective side of her role, lately. She's made it her business to know everyone.

[aunomdedieu]

[ She glances over at Stephanie, caught off guard for a moment by her approach. But then her expression shifts into something a little more relaxed - just a little - and she smiles slightly. ]

I don't mind at all.

[gravityfists]

'kay. [ pushing herself back to her feet, Stephanie pulls her arm back, tossing the stone towards the water. It skims the surface, skipping two, three, four times, before veering off course ] Enjoying the great outdoors, huh?

[aunomdedieu]

[ Her eyes lower, her smile thinning a little. ]

Something like that.

[ She leans down, picks up another stone, turns it over in her hand, more like she's feeling the texture than anything. ]

What about you?

action.

[willbereborn]

[ Whoop, here, have a little phoenix. Well, not so little anymore, all creatures grows and though she is still a youngling, she's already of the size of an eagle, with fire and gold feathers. She sits on a tree, watching the pebbles skip on the surface of the water with amazement. Even the little things impress Birdie - she doesn't remember ever seeing that.

So she flies down and hops closer - but carefully - to Caprica, wanting to take a better look at that curious movement that the woman seems to be doing so effortlessly. She tweets curiously, a magic-like little chirp. ]

action.

[aunomdedieu]

[ A flicker of movement and color out of the corner of Caprica's eye catches her attention almost before she hears that little chirp. She turns, and her eyes widen a little. No bird in her world looks like this, and certainly no bird in her world would approach a person this fearlessly.

But this is the Gardens, and after a moment Caprica smiles a little. ]

Hello.

[ ... she's talking to a bird. But for some reason, this one seems different, intelligent. ]

[willbereborn]

[ Oh, the baby bird is still wary of strangers, it's in her nature, but she's beginning to feel a little more self-confident - it helps that Paderau is around. If she needs, she can fly right back to the warden for protection, the pampered little thing. Besides, there's a vague memory of her face (Birdie rarely forgets faces), once, in the mirror, when she first arrived

[aunomdedieu]

[ The sudden change is startling - one moment there's a bird, the next a girl, and it's then Caprica recognizes her. For a moment she simply stares, because she has nothing in her own experience to compare with what she just saw.

And then she smiles, slight but warm, and takes the stones from her hands. It took her a little while to learn to get this right - it's something she picked up living in Caprica City, after seeing someone doing this in an artificial lake in a park. Perhaps she is easier at it because of her slightly better-than-human reflexes.

With a flick of her wrist, she lets one of the stones fly, watching it skip over the surface before sinking like the first. She weighs the other in her hand - then turns to Birdie, and holds it out to her, a little tentatively. ]

Do you want to try?