The Roof, Late Saturday Morning

[solarhippie]

Fall was coming, Karolina could feel it. She wasn't sure how she felt about it, the whole idea of fall on the east coast, though she supposed she was going to take it as it came. No use fighting the seasons.

Still, she'd taken her glorious breakfast of a Pop-Tart up on the roof this morning, sitting on the ledge and looking out over the town. The day was mostly cloudy, but even with just a little sun coming through every once in a while, she was happy enough. Recharging.

And after hesitating and fidgeting a while, she even took off her bracelet. There was no one else on the roof. She could let her true colors show – if that's what they were, the shimmery yellow and pink and blue. She wasn't sure yet.

But it did still feel nice to be out in the open air.

[ooc: Open, omg!]

Comments

[nottrivial]

"Like a glamour," he guessed, nodding. "Useful."

[solarhippie]

Beware the quizzical headtilt, Alec!

"... Like a what?"

[nottrivial]

"Oh. A glamour?" Maybe saying it like it wasn't a question would help there, Alec. "They're a sort of mystical concealer that can keep you from being seen. Or -- well, not you, if that's not... but.... yes." That wasn't an awkward explanation at all. "I thought your thing that you wear might be a type of that."

[solarhippie]

Karolina really didn't mind that it was awkward. It would have been a bit hypocritical, really.

She reached into her pocket for the bracelet, then held it up for him to see. "I guess it works a little like that," she said. "Though I'm no expert."

[nottrivial]

It looked... like an ordinary mundie medical bracelet. Alec had to admit, it was a pretty nice trick.

"They work differently for me," he offered. "In my... culture, we make those sorts of glamours by drawing runes. But it stands to reason that other universes would use them differently."

[solarhippie]

"I think this might be a little more specific than universe-wide, anyway," Karolina said, giving the bracelet another look before sliding it back into her pocket. She doubted it'd work on anyone who didn't happen to be Majesdanian.

But she wasn't intending to get into that. "You draw runes?"

[nottrivial]

Well, she'd gone ahead and put her... colorfulness on display. It was only fair.

"Yeah," he said, pushing back one sleeve so she could see the ink-like Marks swirling up and down his arm. "They can be for different things, not just glamours. I don't... normally show them off, though."

[solarhippie]

Karolina leaned forward for a closer look. "They're pretty," was her verdict. Kind of like tattoos, but she liked that they apparently had some kind of a function too. "What kinds of other things do they do?"

[nottrivial]

Alec hadn't ever heard anyone describe the runes as pretty before, but then, most of the people he'd ever really shown them off to had been raised to think of them as serving functions. "That one's for speed," he said, pointing to a curling one that almost resembled a backwards 'y.' "That one helps with grace--" a looping, complex one over the curve of his elbow-- "and that's an iratze, for healing," he finished, indicating an almost-faded one close to his shoulder. "They fade into scars after a while, like that."

[solarhippie]

Karolina nodded, still looking interested. She preferred her bracelet, but this was kind of cool too. "When they've served their purpose?" she guessed. "Cool. So..."

There was a pretty obvious question she hadn't asked yet.

"Why exactly do you need these?"

[nottrivial]

"Oh." Alec looked a little sheepish, because yeah, that might've been a thing to mention. "I fight demons?" Say it like you mean it, Alec. "My siblings and I do. So... the runes help with that."

It was still a weird thing to say to people, but becoming less of one now that he'd been here a while and it really did seem like no one cared beyond the occasional innocuous interest.

"Do you use your... powers for anything?"

[solarhippie]

Fandom had a way of stripping the special off of specila people.

"Sometimes?" Karolina offered. "We, uh, my friends and I, we fought some bad people ––" Meaning their parents, mostly. But also more minor wrongdoers! "–– before I got sent here."

[nottrivial]

Alec nodded, but still looked thoughtful. "So that's not what they're for," he inferred. Thinking of Liara, he guessed, "Is it just how people look in your world?"

Wait, that sounded rude, and also didn't make that much sense. "But then it wouldn't make sense to wear the bracelet," Alec conceded. "Sorry, I don't mean to pry, it just... sounds nice."