[closed] it's not stalking, it's just heightened interest

[tuskenlancer]

Characters: CT and Kara
Date: klsdfjl now?
Location: The remains of Kara's burned-out building in Earth Sector
Situation: CT wants to find out more about this person York's been spending so much time with. She wasn't exactly planning on meeting the woman herself. Or anyone else.
Warnings/Rating: CT will probably be moody and/or say terrible things.

Okay, even CT realizes that poking around the burned-out remains of York's girlfriend's apartment is...maybe just a little bit creepy.

She can't say, even, exactly why she's doing it, or what she's hoping to find out. She doesn't care who York decides to date, and it's not as though him making friends is anything unusual at all. It'd be stranger if he hadn't connected with people right away.

Still, here she is all the same, standing in the center of the burned-out husk of Kara Thrace's apartment and looking around. There's not much there to see at first glance beyond ash and the scorched remains of walls and furniture, but there's got to be something useful, if only she looks hard enough.

CT crouches down, tucking her hair beyond her ear, and starts sifting through the rubble.

Comments

[knowsmadness]

Kara hasn't been back to her place yet to pick through the rubble. This is the second time her home has been snatched away from her, and this kind of thing is beginning to get on her damned nerves.

Still, she knows that there might be something salvageable in the debris, so she decided it was time to head on back and see what she could find.

Except when she gets there, there's someone else picking through the remains of her stuff.

"Uh. Excuse me?"

Maybe they were just in the wrong place. The building was cinders, after all.

[tuskenlancer]

Oops.

She recognizes the voice from the network, and she should have known, she should have known she'd show up here. Why wouldn't she? This is - or used to be - her apartment, after all, and if anyone else was going to come back here of course it'd be her.

She has to take a moment to remind herself that it's okay, that there's no way Kara can recognize her, and if CT's careful, she'll never make the connection between her and the male voice who's been talking to York on the network.

She drops the sooty stick of wood she'd been holding - she's pretty sure it used to be part of a chair - and looks up.

"Hi."

[knowsmadness]

Kara carefully picks her way over, eyes slightly narrowed in suspicion.

"This was my apartment. You lost?"

Totally a possibility, Kara knows. For now, she's giving this random person the benefit of the doubt.

[tuskenlancer]

"What?"

CT furrows her brow, making a show of glancing around her. So far, so good.

"Um, are you sure? Because I'm pretty sure this was my apartment."

[knowsmadness]

Kara lifts a brow.

"Really? EA-2A? Pretty sure that was what I was living the past few months." She kicks at the remains of the door, hunting the metal lettering.

"You were here the night of the fire?"

Because Kara sure didn't see you coming out.

[tuskenlancer]

"2A?"

CT makes a face, looking down at the door and just shaking her head. "No, listen, I'm sure it was 1A, I mean I'm almost sure..."

She sighs, shaking her head again and glancing back at the floor. The more she avoids direct eye contact with Kara, the easier it will be to fool her.

"No. I was out that night. That's why I came back, to see if there was anything left at all."

[knowsmadness]

"Yes. Two." She gestures, pointing to the ground. "This isn't the building the fire started in. If you're looking for that one, the remains are over there."

In a lot worse shape than Kara's, though the rubble they're standing in will need to be completely rebuilt from the ground up.

"Not a lot left to pick through. What I didn't manage to grab, looters probably took care of." She makes a disgusted noise, and nudges something unrecognizable with the toe of her boot.

"Just...frakkin' great."

[tuskenlancer]

"...Oh."

It's easy enough to pass it off as a honest mistake, at least. Not as ideal as if the woman hadn't shown up at all, but at least she doesn't seem to be overly suspicious.

CT glances around at the rubble, then to where Kara is pointing, frowning in apparent thought as she compares the two. She doesn't excuse herself to go dig through the remains of her supposed apartment, though. Not when there's still a possibility of finding something out here.

She glances at Kara, instead, frowning with what's, at least, genuine empathy - she's not entirely heartless, after all.

"Sorry about your apartment."

[knowsmadness]

"You think that you get a chance to...I don't know. Start over..." She kicks another rock and doesn't finish her sentence.

"Didn't like the deco much anyway. Maybe when it's rebuilt, I'll...repaint the walls."

Again. With countless paintings of a swirling mandala that she would never understand.

[tuskenlancer]

CT shoots her a sharp look at that. She doesn't know Kara's history - doesn't know anything about her - but that reference to starting over is...well, it's interesting.

And maybe there's something to the idea. Or would be, if CT had been lucky enough to end up somewhere where no one knew her at all.

She rises to her feet, sticking her hands into her pockets, and stares down at the rubble that used to be the floor.

"I think you'd be better off just setting up somewhere else."

She glances sidelong at Kara, shrugging her shoulders.

"It's not like you had enough time to really get attached to this place, right?"

[knowsmadness]

"Well, like I said - they're gonna rebuild, or so they claim." She looks two parts bitter and one part fed up. The unfamiliar woman was right - Kara had barely had time to get attached, but it was still a place that she'd started to at least feel a little fond of, which was more than she could say about her apartment back on Caprica.

Or at least, that's what she told herself, anyway.

"I've got a place to hole up for now." Kara eyes the woman, gaze dragging the length of her figure, appraising her.

"What about you? If you were in that frakker that burned to the ground, you might be waiting a lot longer than me."

[tuskenlancer]

"Me? Oh - no, I'm fine."

CT glances in the direction of the other building, and then away again, hoping for the first time that Kara doesn't decide to pry, to try and figure out who exactly she is and where she'd lived. It'd be all too easy for her to catch CT's lie, if she decides to go looking, and that's a headache she doesn't need.

She shakes her head, and then glances back at Kara, her interest piqued. She doesn't want to make herself too memorable, doesn't want to raise suspicions, and yet, with an opening like that...

She shrugs, keeping her voice casual.

"I'm staying with a friend. You?"

[knowsmadness]

Kara's a little too tired right now to pry - that, and CT's lie wasn't all that unbelievable. Kara didn't know who did or didn't live in that building. It's not like she'd made nightly rounds in it.

"Same." She rolled her shoulders, and winced. "He was nice enough to let me crash on his couch until this is all fixed up." Giving it a once over, Kara grimaced.

"It'll probably take a while, judging by the mess."

[tuskenlancer]

"He?"

She's still trying hard to sound casual, disinterested - just making polite conversation, not really invested in the answer at all. CT looks over, trying to keep the loneliness off her face and out of her voice.

"It must be nice, having someone you can count on like that."

[knowsmadness]

"Yeah. Guy named York. Know him?" Kara tilts her head in CT's direction, brows lifted in question.

"Nice guy, to let a girl like me stick around."

[tuskenlancer]

CT cocks her head, puts on a pondering expression, and pauses for a moment before she shakes her head, shrugging her shoulders. "...It doesn't sound familiar."

She gives Kara a crooked grin and a quizzical look. That's interesting, but she tries not to let it show too much as she shakes her head. "A girl like you?"

[knowsmadness]

Kara just chuckles.

"II'm one of a kind, what can I say?" Kara isn't about to tell this nameless woman she's a frak-up. "What's your name, anyway? Don't think I caught it."

[tuskenlancer]

CT laughs easily, nodding. It's not the kind of detail she'd hoped for, but she hadn't really expected more, either.

"Yeah. I know what you mean."

That next question, though, makes her tense, her mind racing. She should have planned for this, should have been prepared...but she hadn't expected to meet Kara here, either, and the fact is that she's not prepared at all.

"Oh - yeah. I'm - my name is Hannah."

She gives Kara a bland smile, but her eyes are sharp as she looks at her, giving her the first name that pops into her head.

"I don't think I caught your name either."

[knowsmadness]

"That'd be because I didn't give it."

Kara grins at her, and sticks her hand out.

"Kara Thrace. Nice to meet a fellow foreigner, Hannah."

[tuskenlancer]

CT smiles back. Her own handshake is a little stiff from lack of practice, but she nods, doing her best to look unsuspicious and, well, normal.

"Kara."

She smiles, glancing around the ruins of the apartment.

"Sorry about accidentally breaking and entering here. Or, well, entering."

[knowsmadness]

Kara’s is firm, her hand warm and calloused on CT’s.

“Don’t worry about it. It all looks the same around here and trust me – I don’t think you broke anything.”

She’s fairly good natured about it, but she can’t help but be a tad pissy. This is the second time her ‘home’ had been destroyed and while this was considerably less devastating, it was frustrating all the same.

[tuskenlancer]

"I guess not."

She shrugs her shoulders, shoving her hands into her pockets and looking up at Kara. Despite herself, she's surprised to find that she's actually starting to like the other woman, dammit, and she glances quickly away again, around the rubble.

"Is this anything like home for you? Not the - the burned building, I mean, but...you know." She kicks a piece of burned wood aside with her foot as she speaks.

[knowsmadness]

Kara's a likable gal.

Mostly.

"The burned building is a little more like home than I'd prefer." She smirks a little, and gestures.

"But as far as being on a damned floating turtle? No. Not a damn thing."

[tuskenlancer]

"Sounds...charming." CT winces. If this is at all like home, she doesn't envy Kara. She sighs, looking at the landscape moodily.

"I still can't believe they were telling the truth about the whole turtle thing."

[knowsmadness]

"That's what happens when humanity gets wiped out by frakkin' machines." Her tone is a little dark there, but she hops topics before she gets pissed off.

"Neither can I. It's still a little hard to take in."