mind over matter, Raennness!

Outfit!!!

Thursday, June 7th, 3 PM

Alex, the charming woman, had told her that she simply must see this girl, and, naturally, Kalypso was obliging enough. Usually, Alex didn't offer her name to patients (something about psychiatry being a soft science?), so Kalypso was first surprised and then amused. The old woman did love to play things the hard way much of the time, but it seemed that in case, she'd rather let a professional handle things.

Which was something that Kallie would not object to.

The Mere Exposure Effect theory stated that the more a conscious organism was exposed to a neutral stimulus, the more the organism came to regard the neutral stimulus as a positive one. And so, from the very first day that Kallie had discovered Miss Mars was living here - on the 2nd - she had decided to ingratiate herself into the girl's view of the park. Instead of going up to her on the very first day and making small talk, Kalypso had stayed in the background, smelling the flowers, enjoying the sunlight. Each day she had done much the same thing, making sure she was well within Miss Mars's line of sight and yet never looking at the girl, and staying there, within plain view for at least ten minutes, sometimes an hour. The day before she had read a very interesting journal article on the Mercurian psyche in a bench diagonal from the girl. Kallie felt it safe to say that by now, Miss Mars had become well acquainted, perhaps comfortable, with her presence in the park.

Now, it was just about time to break contact.

For a long while, nearly half an hour, Kalypso sat on a bench on the other side of a hedge from Miss Mars. Well enough in view. She, however, kept her eyes occupied on a book. She pretended that it was the most fascinating adventure ever, ignoring everyone in the park. Everyone other than Miss Mars.

And then, as the sun arced higher in the sky, further west than east, Kallie checked her watch. Yep, no time like the present, she thought, smiling, and stood up, stretching slightly as she moved to put her book in her bag. But then - and wouldn't you know it? - it slipped straight out of her fingers and fell at Miss Mars's feet! How clumsy she seemed to be!

"Oh, dear," Kalypso said. "Excuse me, miss, I'm terribly sorry." She bent down and picked up the book, dusting it off. She smiled at the girl as she carefully slid the book into her back, sealing it in tightly.

"I trust it didn't hit you, Miss...?" she asked.

There were things to get used to, with living in the park. It was a bit like being back on Mars, the part where she was outside. But it wasn't freezing (and even if it was, she could combat that now, naturally), and nothing there was going to try to eat her, or kill her, or have sex with her. Most of the people weren't regulars. The park was big, and people tended to wander. The few who had a schedule adhered to it pretty closely, and didn't bother her. Mostly, they were just kind of something that came with the territory.

Though most of her was wound up into some unholy, near-frothing rage, she kept a cool exterior. Literally cool, because when she normally got angry, the first symptom was the world around her getting hot as her rage bubbled over in the form of heat, heat, and more heat. She was going to see Ruro, of that much she was sure. But he lived a half an hour away, easily, and she wasn't precisely sure how to go about hailing a taxi.

She'd figure it out, she always did, but... well, walking there was the alternative. And she'd really rather not.

Pacing her way around the territory she and Dei had marked as their own, she scowled, agitated. How could he have touched her, when she had made it so abundantly clear that if he ever hurt her, he'd die? Obviously, he had no sense of self-preservation. That instinct was key in every Martian, bred in after years of hard-earnt survival. Fighting and killing and bruising and maiming and running and hiding and scavenging all leading up to... well, this.

On Earth, it wasn't so. Raen could easily remember years when she had simply referred to the people of the planet as soft, before realising they were simply lucky. And then it became less that they were lucky and more simply privileged. And then it became that it wasn't just the Terrestrials or the people who moved there; it was half of the other planets as well. The wealthier half of Venus, the parts of Neptune not keen to torture themselves (a concept so strange to her that the mere mention of it still baffled her mind).

She supposed she ought to have been used to it by then, after so many years between the red planet and this one. It was strange to her, still being there with summer looming. Normally, this was the point in time when things started to change. She should have been preparing to go home, not... not looking towards a summer surrounded by people she barely knew. She fidgeted, stopping in her pacing -

Just long enough to narrowly avoid being hit by a book. She leapt back, startled, and stared at the woman she had unwittingly come up upon with wild violet eyes. She barely registered that she was being talked to at first, against the fluttering of her heart in her chest and the screaming instinct to run at the first sight of danger. She stayed rooted to the spot, though, swaying a little as her anger towards Ruro kept her grounded. "I-I'm fine," she managed to choke out, blinking wildly. This was one of the park regulars. She really wasn't a big deal, nothing to get excited about. Smelt a bit like the hospital, which was unfortunate, but... well, doctors couldn't do anything to her here, outside of their comfort zone. "Raen." She knew when she was being asked for a name, though, and giving her last was like telling someone water was wet. Mars was a common surname amongst 'her kind', she had been told. Enough so that Dei had wound up with it as well.

She briefly wondered if they would even need to bother with one for Phei - if she could find her.

Ah, a jittery one, wasn't she? Kallie smiled at the girl, taking careful note of the wild eyes and the rapid breath. And she was mad. Well, this was a pleasant surprise. Kalypso loved working with people when they were angry. It meant that they had less control over their filters, which meant all the better for her. Things were working out well today, it seemed.

"That's wonderful, then, isn't it?" Kallie replied to the girl's declaration of "fine." She grinned broadly, hitching her bag further up on her shoulder, her eyes studying the girl's features closely. Definitely ill at ease. Not really directed at her, though; it was more at something else. Kallie wanted more than anything to know what it was, but she remained quiet on the subject. Most people weren't trained in reading facial expressions and tone nuances as she was. To betray that now would make her odd, and this girl would never grow to trust her on such a bad first impression.

"Raen?" she repeated, her eyes crinkling at the thought. Yes, this was good. The girl was trusting her with her name, which was far more than other Martian girls had trusted her with on their first meeting. Things were moving along well. "My Martian is a bit rusty, but I think it means 'Bright Eyes,' yes? What a perfectly fitting name!"

She sighed at herself. "I still can't believe I was such a terrible clod and nearly whapped you with that book, can you?" she asked brightly. She opened her bag, pulling out a sandwich-sized bag with two tiny bacon sandwiches inside. "I was going to make a snack of this, but it would suit me better if I could make it up to you and give to you instead, I think?" Kalypso held out the sandwich bag. "I insist."

She knew she was coming on a bit strong, but she feared that if she was too silent the girl would think she was up to something. Let Miss Mars believe for now that she was trying to hurry through conversation as fast as possible. It was normal behavior for a Terrestrial citizen who was ill at ease with Martians... even if her reassuring smiles refuted that.

Wonderful?

She blinked, taking a step back from the other woman instinctively. She was way too happy, or peppy, or... or something to be up to anything good. "R-right..." Maybe she'd seen her with Dei before? Her scent was familiar, and really, she was familiar. But that didn't necessarily mean safe. Amina was friendly enough, and she certainly wasn't safe.

That lesson in mind, she kept the distance between them appropriate. She was being talked at, after all. Not to, because nobody actually talked to her. Most people couldn't have cared less what she had to say, and the ones that did only cared that she was going to say something. Still, she blinked, taken aback by the other woman's understanding of her language. It was so rarely heard off-Mars, and never in her time had she heard someone who wasn't a Martian use it.

"Y-yeah... that's right," she confirmed, nodding awkwardly again in the face of this woman's apparent enthusiasm. And then she went from hot to cold, sighing and talking about their 'near-accident' again. And what if the book had hit her? It surely couldn't have hurt half as much as having her ribs broken twice in the same three-month span, or as much as avoiding Amina -

No, she wasn't even going there. She didn't have a right to go there, not after she'd been the one doing the avoiding. This was her choice. She wasn't allowed to feel bad about it.

Violet eyes brightened just a bit at the word snack, picking up the scent of the sandwich as she picked apart its components, awkwardly looking away for a moment. Amina had fed her too, the first time they'd met in the park. It was hard to believe that had been over a year ago by then. "No thanks, I... I'm not hungry." She couldn't, wouldn't take that and apply it to this woman. Much like how she had no urge to get trapped in an elevator with anyone who wasn't Michaela, she didn't want to have lunch in the park with anyone who wasn't Amina.

She supposed, like it or not, that she was still her wife. Even if she wasn't wearing her rings.

Definitely ill at ease. It was easy to see why Alex would suggest this girl to her. Kallie could hardly imagine what Miss Mars would be like in a hospital setting. Definitely interesting.

It was easy to see that she was now the stimulus that was causing such a reaction within the girl. Yep, she was definitely coming on too strong. Kalypso had hoped her bubbly personality would get the girl to trust her a bit more, but she would take what she would get. After all, there many others who after three sessions still refused to open up to her. And while this wasn't quite a session per se, it was definitely a step in the right direction.

"Oh, I did get it right?" Kallie asked. She was impressed. Not only was the girl willing to share her name, but she was willing to confirm her name's meaning in Martian. Quite a step in the right direction. Most of her Martian patients refused to share any part of their heritage with her, as if it were something that was decidedly theirs. An aspect that Kallie could respect, of course, even if it frustrated her.

And then Miss Mars refused the food. Kallie kept the surprise at bay, but she wondered why Miss Mars wasn't taking the sandwich she offered. Sure, she was being stereotypical, but most Martians lunged for the last crumbs of food, even if it wasn't even a complete bite. So, this girl refusing a complete sandwich... it was definitely odd, to say the least. Nonetheless, Kallie didn't comment on it and refused to allow the surprise to show up on her face. Miss Mars was her own person, after all, and it was wrong of her, as both a professional and a human being, to define her by her planet of origin.

"Very well," Kallie said simply, sliding the sandwich back into her bag, shrugging. She offered her hand slowly, openly. "I'm Kallie," she greeted, smiling at the younger girl. Best not to offer her full name, if she knew what was good for her. Most Martians, while unable to tell her Mercurian heritage based on sight alone, had the uncanny knack to tell from her name. So by this point, Kallie had come to offer her nickname only. It sounded vaguely Terrestrial, a safer race in comparison to the Mercurians.

So this was Kallie, girl with no last name. It wouldn't have been important anyway, even if she'd offered it, but it was something to note. Generally speaking, people gave her that much to go on. First name, last name. She promptly forgot the latter, remembered the first. But this woman seemed to know Martians well enough to know the meaning of her name (meaning she'd known a Martian who was keen to teach), and that she wouldn't care about a family name.

Regardless, there wasn't much else between them. She shuffled awkwardly, the rage still forcing her blood to an uncomfortable boil that rushed and pulsed through her ears like a rushing river. She nodded acknowledgement, and then took a few, skittering steps backwards, prepared to leave. "Nice meeting you." She had nothing else to say to this woman.

Not when Ruro had touched her sister, her Ushriya. Somewhere in her mind, she heard Ariana make some exasperated noise or another. She disliked Raen playing hero almost as much as she disliked 'drama'. Rei held no opinion, waiting until she was needed, apparently.

The brunette moved without really taking her eyes off of the strange woman, unwilling to give her power or to turn her back to a virtual stranger who had made the point of approaching her. She knew things, and whilst that was unsettling, she was hopefully still harmless. And smart enough, with all of her knowledge about Martians, to know not to lunge after her as she took her leave.

It wouldn't end well for Kallie. Or anyone else, for that matter.

Miss Mars was definitely in a state. Kallie desired to know all that was bugging the girl, but as this was hardly a session, she couldn't incite any feelings that would be likely to cause the girl to forget what she should say and not say. So instead of offering some sort of biting comment or mentioning something that might strike a nerve within the girl, Kalypso allowed the girl to speak next, to lead the conversation.

And she was backing away. Well, darn. She couldn't very well chase after, now could she? That would be very odd. She could greet her again in the park later, to be sure, but she wondered if the girl would take to avoiding her now that they'd met one another. She had to give Miss Mars some reason or way to trust her, somehow. She just wasn't sure what that could be, since the girl had refused the food offered to her.

A risk. She would have to take some sort of risk.

Kallie hated taking risks. Especially with Martians. There were so many troubled ones within the Alliance, ones like Miss Mars, who had been raped and beaten and battered to the point where it had irreversibly changed them. Taking risks with them was often more harmful than helpful, and often had left them damaged in some way. Or angry with her. Which was why Kallie was so unwilling to take a risk with Miss Mars. But it seemed that it would be her only option, unfortunately enough.

"Wait?" she questioned, allowing the girl the choice of staying or leaving. She acted shy now, unsure of herself as her eyes gazed at the girl searchingly. Perhaps, perhaps if she played her cards right, this could go smoothly.

"I'm sorry," Kallie added, her voice lowered, "but you seem terribly... upset? Since I nearly murdered you with a book, please let me make it up to you in some way." She chewed on her lip with obvious worry, acting the part of a mother hen, worried about her duckies.

Now, if only this worked.