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Farah looks at the dagger --- unimpressed, but she supposes it can be mistaken for unfamiliarity, the way she looks at it as though it's a mundane object and not some tool for murder. She can tell from the glistening of steel that it's a fine blade but it's such a pretty, delicate thing. She looks back up at Kasimir, wondering idly if this is what he thinks of her. Honestly, she doesn't really get it. A cute, redhaired bachelor visiting her in the middle of the night with a dagger as a present...
[break][break]
She's not sane enough to think the dagger might be the problem, but she's not insane enough to think this must be some elaborate friendship ritual, either. Only Kasimir, it appears, thinks both.[break][break]

Oh well. Amusements are just that. Besides, she enjoys his company and, through a series of conversations, has become quite invested in her little installments of youthful folly --- delivered directly to her doorstep. Or at least, one of them.[break][break]

She opens the door wide and shrugs at his question.[break][break]

"Well, I am cooking dinner," she lies. "It's probably sharper than the rest of what I have here, no?"[break][break]

She turns away and retreats into the room as she says this, half because she wants to let him in and half because she can't hide the budding chuckle on her lips. Well, she can at least suppress it into a smile, but she doesn't want Kasimir to see that, either. She sure enough of his personality that she knows he'll turn around and ensure the door is closed and follow her in, duty-bound in some strange way to see her safe.[break][break]
It's cute, really.
[break][break]

She walks toward her kitchen, walking backward and reaching her hand out for the knife. It looks like a good enough size to cut a carrot or two, or maybe peel some ginger. A part of her wants to exasperate Kasimir, the other just wants to see how far she can take this without laughing.
[break][break]



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kasimir burovski[break]
farah is currently using: no spells[break]
farah is currently not hostile.

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Ah yes, the 'mugging' incident. Some idiots around the docks had found her arriving from one alleyway or another and had begun circling and taunting her. She had planned to let Amélie loose on them -- to let her familiar have some fun with her enemies after she was done with playing dumb and making sure they weren't actually on to her...
[break][break]
But then Kasimir had stepped in, all red hair and a blade and a pained expression and an 'Are you hurt?' and she had blinked at him, her dumbfoundedness possibly misread as a trauma response. And then, well. She had just gone along with it, and all the silly little consequences of her withheld information.[break][break]

What was she supposed to do? Tell him she was the head of Hydra?[break][break]

Farah laughs at her own thoughts, but the chuckle is timed well enough to seem as though she is laughing at his suggestion. And maybe she is? She considers it for a moment, letting some random man teach her how to wield the dagger. Maybe...[break][break]

"If I'm ever in trouble, I'll just scream," Farah insists. Idly, she spins the knife around her hands, unconsciously displaying a certain familiarity with the weapon as she spins it effortlessly and switches the handle and the dagger in her palm. "I'm sure you'll be just around the corner."[break][break]

It's hard to say it without a trace of sarcasm, but even if it seeps in, she's confident Kasimir won't get why she's being sarcastic. She doesn't given him much time to think, either. She begins opening the fridge and tossing ingredients at him. Potatoes, tomatoes, everything is indiscriminately thrown in his general direction with the assumption that he will catch them and place them on the table for her to cut. For a civilian, she sure expects him to keep up. [break][break]
"So. Where did we leave our protagonist last...?"
[break][break]
The protagonist, of course, is Kasimir. Farah has become a little enamored by his stories (if only because she suspects Zeke's little part-timer at the Blind Moneky is the friend of whom he speaks) and is wants to hear whatever he has to say. Maybe he stopped a murderer or a bank robber this time?

[break][break]
kasimir burovski[break]
farah is currently using: no spells[break]
farah is currently not hostile.

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A taser? Now's he's just being insulting. Farah frowns-- she does not like weapons that don't require skill, a part of her is itching to toss aside whatever image Kasimir has of her in his mind, to pin him against the table with a dagger and tell him to think again.
[break][break]
That part of her, she reasons, is probably Amélie.[break][break]"It would be worse," she objects, but doesn't quite explain why. By this time she's already in the kitchen, and he is already picking up her vegetables.[break][break]

He walks into her kitchen, looking for knives. She's grateful the area is decently stoked -- it would've been awkward if the apartment looked totally uninhabited. Of course, knowing Kasimir, he might think of her as some starving college student and start bringing her grocery runs... He lips tug at his objection, she enjoys anyone's face flush at one of her sly little jokes, but Kasimir in particular. He's just too easy.[break][break]

"What? I think you're perfectly heroic," she presses, beginning to dice the potatoes. She enjoys cooking -- she hasn't had the time to do it in a while, but remembers fondly of when it was all she would do. All she knew how to do. She chances a glance at Kasimir-- at 5'4 he's an inch or so taller than her, and he looks decently built beneath his attire.[break][break]

[break][break]
"See?" She doesn't miss a beat, using his own cautionary tale against him, wanting to embarrass him further.[break][break] "Mmmmm..." she thinks about it, lets it ruminate, both his words and her own teasing of him. "It does ring a bell yes, but I don't think we'd gotten to the daemon God part of it. Tell me."
[break][break]
A daemon god? Is he just bluffing? If not, this honestly sounds like something Hydra should be investing in, minus the whole child kidnappings...She only hopes they do not come to her later with a venia token and a wish for Kasimir's head.
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kasimir burovski[break]
farah is currently using: no spells[break]
farah is currently not hostile.

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Actual heroes?[break][break]
An interesting narrative Kasimir seems to have spun for himself -- that he is somehow unworthy of all his feats. But his humility is really the only thing that makes the stories believable. If he had been bragging, well, she would've asked for proof. But he speaks his life as though it is a cautionary tale; he speaks in dangers and mistakes.[break][break]
Still, she'll draw the victories from him, and turn him redder than his hair if need be. [break][break]
"Moreso than normal," she repeats, scoffing at his little joke, whether intentional or not. Farah can be a great listener, and she is content to listen for details, to pick apart his story for future reference. It's a habit that lots of people on the run pick up: how to be a fly on the wall, and when to be a viper.

[break][break]She nods at his disinterest in Cerberus -- good -- and wonders idly what coven he's joined. Perhaps Sybaris -- slumlings with too little or too much self-importance often wind up there. [break][break]

The story so far doesn't impress her. It's all caution, all context. She picks up the vegetables and moves them to the kitchen, where a steaming pan awaits her. She puts them into the oil, the loud sizzling drowning out the last of Kasimir's set up.[break][break]
"Ah, my bad--" she turns down the heat "--so these people, then, they were all sacrifices for a cult? What was the cult called?"
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She realizes then that she's using past tense and blinks and looks at Kasimir. "You did take them out, right? Our hero?"
[break][break]
The last jab is intentional, but it doesn't sound obviously sarcastic. Her tone is flat, almost flippant. But it's hard to tell when Farah's joking and when she's just placed a genuine expectation on you. It makes her a confusing leader, but someone you often willing to die for to impress.
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kasimir burovski[break]
farah is currently using: no spells[break]
farah is currently not hostile.

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The flash of genuineity in his face, for a second, actually touches Farah. It's rare-- in the world, in many of the ones she has traveled, to see people with a quivering, bleeding heart. She thinks it is what makes him a "hero" in the first place, although...she is not sure what she thinks of heroes. They are not her kind.[break][break]
"Oh? And you would go back, into all that danger?"
[break][break]
She twists away from his worried gaze, a soft smile forming at her lips. This one is less amused, it looks almost contemplative, like she is lost in some memory. This is why what he says next makes her blood run cold --- if only for a second.[break][break]
[break][break]

flashback triggered!

The wind is cold and they are somewhere on the edge of the Windswept Ravine, and looking back at her is a brown-haired man with bright eyes and an arrogant smile.[break][break]

He's offering her a hand as she stands on the edge of the canyon, eyebrows quirked upwards, ever the skeptic, especially of her reluctance.[break][break]

One of his legs straddles a gold and green scaled qilin. The other dangles recklessly off the ledge.[break][break]

"Don't tell me-- you're afraid of heights?"
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present day

Zinnia?--- [break][break]
Amelie's yellow eyes open wide in the corner of her mind. Farah can feel her familiar's tail swish, she can see the teeth barring themselves at Kasimir, at the unfortunate situation Farah has found herself in. She's ready for a fight. She says,
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You're getting sloppy
[break][break]Tch. Maybe so. She does not know who Kasimir is, she realizes, and the thought makes her grip the handle of the pan on the stove before she relaxes it. As far as she knows, there is no real threat. She's just imagining things. Maybe it was just a wild Qilin with a kind heart--
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That's a dangerous game, Farah.
[break][break]
Maybe so. But she has always enjoyed danger. And one stray strand in her plans, after that momentary lurch, leaves her with a dangerous curiosity. She stops, suddenly, and turns to Kasimir.
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"You know...I think you've convinced me." She smiles a small, careful smile. The quiet curiosity returns to her in increments until she seems back in her element, a little more relaxed. And then she is back to her usual, cryptic sayings: "Something about being saved --- never quite sat right with me."
[break][break]
She pulls the dagger from her pocket that he had given her and points the handle towards him. The vegetables continue to cook, perhaps overcook themselves, in the boiling water on the stove. When she speaks next, her tone is imperious.
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"Show me."
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kasimir burovski[break]
farah is currently using: no spells[break]
farah is currently vaguely hostile.

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Ironically, Farah Serizawa is very much a weapons connoiseur. Among friends, she's even a bit of an elitst-- she knows steel, she knows guns better than anyone else, and she's had her fair share of well-weighted bats and maces. She likes tools, she likes the feeling of having the perfect tool for the perfect job.[break][break]
Which is, maybe, what amused her about this situation to let it carry on for this long, anyway.
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He's pretty good, Amelie says, half-teasing and half-genuine.
[break][break]
Pff, she responds.
[break][break]
You don't think he's a threat...
[break][break]
Just because he knows Cain? Then, I'd have to waylay all of Pegasus, no? Let's just say...I'm curious.
[break][break]
"Hmm," she says, contemplative like she is judging him for the way he places his hand on the blade, instead of as though she is learning from him. "Right, that makes sense," she says, as though she is learning, but it sounds half-hearted, non-comittal. [break][break] At Kasimir's suggestion to look after the vegetable, Farah smiles a wry smile, like she's on the inside of some grand joke that's not quite funny enough to laugh at, but amusing nonetheless. Unhurried and ever confident, she says,[break][break]
"I know how I like my soup, Kasimir."
[break][break]
She goes to turn off the stove anyway.[break][break]
She returns with more questions, more curiosities. Some false, and some genuine.[break][break]
"Are you a Sybarite?" A pause. A wait for confirmation. "What made you join?"[break][break]
She reaches a hand out for the dagger, to show him what she's "learned." She plays with it, weighs it again. And then she holds it pointed toward Kasimir, maybe a little too close for comfort, its tip reaching for his nose, getting within inches of his skin if he'll allow it. [break][break]
"Like this?" she asks.

[break][break]
kasimir burovski[break]
farah is currently using: no spells[break]
farah is currently not hostile.