Karlach

[scrapdraught]

Bigge woman

Comments

[ablazement]

-- Fuck!

Uh. Hi. I didn't see anything.

[NICE ONE SAVED IT]

[scrapdraught]

[Did you...]

Uh huh.

[Camille snorts to herself, looking back to the water. Her fingers are cooling off in the night air. She taps them together, letting the water run off in thinning droplets.]

It's fine. You don't have to hide out there. Everyone's going through the same bullshit anyway.

[ablazement]

[she looks sheepish, at least.]

... Guess so, but that doesn't mean I have to make it worse. [she'll come over, though? she'll come over and crouch next to her.

karlach doesn't make any move to try and hide her own tattoo - it's just one word. AVERNUS, right over her glowing heart.]

Bit stupid to ask if you're alright, isn't it.

[scrapdraught]

It's common courtesy. Not stupidity.

[Camille wipes her hand on her jeans with a heady inhale, tucking more hair behind her ear. It barely stifles the fall, waves drifting to curtain half her face.]

I'll show you mine if you show me yours. I've had a little success battling it that way. Fading off after a confession.

[ablazement]

... Yeah, alright.

[she doesn't mind.]

You want me to start?

[scrapdraught]

[Well if she's volunteering.]

Go for it.

[ablazement]

[she figures it'll make it a little easier if she puts herself up first, so.]

Avernus is the name of a place. Hells. Don't know if you've got that. Before I got here, I was there ten years. Enlisted against my will as a soldier.

[scrapdraught]

Oh, we have the concept of hells.

[The actuality is a different matter.]

Conscripted? [That's interesting. On looks alone Karlach would have fit right in. She'd have to have a lobotomy to go along with hellish crusades though.] How'd that happen? What did they make you do?

[ablazement]

That's what I figured. Lot of people tell me the same thing around here.

[a pause.]

Kill demons, mostly. [...] Gave me this. [taps her engine.]

Think I was a prototype. Test subject for it.

[scrapdraught]

[How are demons different from tieflings? Camille could ask but the moment doesn't feel right. One sensitive matter at a time.]

So you were their guinea pig and their pawn. [And she'd played it off like it was nothing before.] Did they single you out in particular for this? The war, the experiment?

[ablazement]

Yes and no. It was just me, but far as I know, it was an opportunity thing. I was there, so I got thrown in.

[scrapdraught]

How'd you get out?

[ablazement]

Luck. There was a ship passing by. I snuck on, it went out of the Hells.

[scrapdraught]

And are they after you?

[ablazement]

Probably. Thing is about devils is they're not really allowed to just grab you. You've got to make a deal with them. And since I didn't, she technically hasn't really got any hold on me.

[scrapdraught]

But she'll still be a bitch about it.

[ablazement]

Yep. That's how she is, old Zariel.

Doubt she can reach this far, though.

[and then she popped out of a grave like six days later so you know]

[scrapdraught]

[She sure fucking did!!!!]

Here's hoping. [Camille lends her half a smile before looking back to the distance.]

Glad you found a way to be free, Karlach. Just a pity it came with strings attached.

[ablazement]

Thanks. It's - better than nothing, it really is. I'll take it. [genuinely.]

... Can I ask about yours?

[scrapdraught]

[Slightly better than nothing. Two months is better than two days.

Camille's head ducks down, her smile half grimace now.]

Sure. Tit for tat.

[ablazement]

[NOT THE NO]

Might make me understand you a little better, which I always like. [gestures a bit like... go on.]

[scrapdraught]

[there's a universe where that was real...........]

That one's more about Amma. My little sister.

[ablazement]

You've got a little sister?

[scrapdraught]

Very little. She's fourteen now.

[Camille clucks her tongue, looking out over the water.]

Mama...had a way with her kids. She could smother you in sight of the public and leave you high and dry behind closed doors. Or she could dote. Obsess. Amma was more like a doll to her in some respects.

[Like Marian before her. Like Camille refused to be.]

And then town itself, that was another thing. Wind Gap is the kind of small, close-knit community that fed its girls through the meat grinder. Some cow to pressure and cope, some never clue in and take their hits accordingly. Amma learned to play the game.

She was smart enough to play both sides. Mama's little angel and junior high head-bitch-in-charge.

[ablazement]

[karlach listens, quietly, tail still for once, just very slightly swaying behind her.

this isn't something she has experience with personally, but she sort of recognizes the way this is going. there are parts of baldur's gate that aren't sunshine and daisies, and karlach's an optimist, not an idiot.]

... Sounds like your Mum's not a very nice person. [cautiously...]