3280/Checking Up

Checking Up
Date of Scene:	08 September 2020
Location:	W08 - Kate's Dorm - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Karolina checks on Kate and makes sure she slept, is eating healthy, and they give each other pep talks.
Cast of Characters:	Karolina Dean, Kate Bishop

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Karolina Dean has posed:
    It's been... rough, to say the least. There's a lot of hope, a lot of science, and people are working themselves to death trying to figure things out. But Karolina isn't going to let people neglect their health. She's making rounds, checking on people when she can, tagging with the others who are doing the same to make sure people are eating and sleeping. She hadn't quite seen Kate after she'd zonked out, though, and comes to the dorms bearing gifts.

    "Kate?" she calls out, lifting her foot and tapping at the door with her toes, her hands full for the moment. "It's Karolina!" she smiles, hearing the muffled response. Good, she's awake! As the door slides open, she steps in, carrying a tray with a big bowl on it, and something bundled up in a small towel, accompanied by a big spoon. "...hey..." she says gently, looking around the room. "...oh... wow... your room is awesome..." she sees the toys and the plants and the weapons and the big comfy bed, too.

Kate Bishop has posed:
Speaking of comfy bed, the archer is sprawled out in the huge comfy bed with it's fluffy comforter and obscenely high threadcount sheets. The muffled come'in was muffled because she was face down in the pillow. Pretty much the same place she has been for the last ten hours easy after running herself ragged the days since the assault without sleep.

The further talking though about her room mannages to really wake her up and she shifts and manages to sit up in the bed and blink more directly at Karolina uncomprehending in her sleepy confusion for a moment. "What?" she asks puzzled about her room being awesome, mostly because se isn't entirely sure what is happening yet.

She has a crease mark on her side of her face, hair a bit disheveled, but thankfully she doesn't seem to drool on her pillow or anything too embarassing. She has on a Hawthorne Academy prep tanktop and comfy pajama pants.

"Oh.. is that breakfast?" pause "What time is it?!" she leans to snag her phone worried.. oh good I mean ten hours is bad to Kate but it could be worse. "Has anything happened?"

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Karolina, in contrast, is barefoot and wearing some snug gym shorts with an Abbey Road tank top, leaving the vast majority of her arms and legs bare. She is, of course, still shining rainbow. She's gotten a shower at least, and isn't covered in dust and blood or anything. "Oh, um... this is lunch, actually..." she laughs quietly. "I made curry, I figured something with a little spice would be a good pick-me-up...." she trails off, getting a little closer, blinking.

    "Wait... Kate... you're THAT Kate? Kate Bishop Kate?" she stares for a moment. No costume, all cleaned up. Et cetera. Karolina's parents might have been famous, but she's not her parents. "You're Hawkeye?" she asks, blushing. "...oh you're cuter than those pictures in those articles.. um..." she seems flustered, her aura rippling a bit, more colors here and there.

    "...are you hungry? Are you allergic to anything?" she asks, sounding the slightest bit more panicked, and now no longer actually walking on the floor but hovering about three inches over it.

Kate Bishop has posed:
Kate was having trouble parsing lunch not breakfast, even though she saw the time on her phone and knows it is definitely past when she had intended to sleep. Then again what does time matter when you are out of school for the week due to alien invasion. Modern Gen-Z life is very strange in a world with superheroes and alien invasions.

The surprise at who she is makes her blink a few times and then blush. She reaches up raking her fingers through her hair and straightening it from some of the tangles. "Oh.. yeah.. I'm Hawkeye." she confirms and then nips her lip. "Everyone .. like all the full members nad people who live here know my identity since my disguise is pretty flimsy. No one out there knows yet... my dad would freak out .. he really hates superheroes.. owns a huge stake in the Bugle and all..."

She sniffs the air and leans in a little bit checking out the glowing girl and her offering closer. "No allergies and that smells interesting in a good way... are you floating?"

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Karolina just blinks again, and nods, and listens, and nods again. "OH... your secret is safe with me. I mean... I'm... used to hiding myself. But. I'm liking doing so even less these days.." she explains quietly, exhaling a little sigh. "At least your dad isn't a supervillain or something, right?" she offers as a compromise--with a little sadness in her own half-smile. "But... you're awesome, so... your dual-life is what it is. Especially if there's issues with your family involved.." she trails off, looking down at the bowl on her tray.

    "Oh! Yeah! It's golden curry, with vegetables! And some home-made bread on the side... just in case you wanted to dip it in the sauce and such... It's one of my favorite dishes.." it's likely a given that it's vegan curry, but boy it smells good, those golden curry spices and everything!

    When she's called out on her floating, though, she looks down, blinks, and slowly lowers herself to being flat on her feet. "Sorry, was surprised.." she smiles warmly, and takes a long breath, and as she exhales, calms, her glow fades, too. She's just a leggy blonde now, looking like your average California girl. "Better?"

Kate Bishop has posed:
"I mean, he does own a stake in the Bugle that is pretty much supervillain territory in my book. Also the companies books are questionable as fuck.. I mean so many offshore accounts." she sort of trails off "Which did make it really easy to get all my gear and motorcycle and all made up through a shell company... but still super shady." she pauses.

"Honestly all billionaires are probably supervillains.. some just don't wear costumes you know." the irony here is the fact her dad is a Supervillain in league with Madam Masque and others, she just doesn't know it at all yet.

She pats the bed by her "That smells great and I haven't had golden curry recently so win win.. also homemade bread is the bomb.." she laughs "No one cook at our place in New York... well I mean the cook does but none of my family can boil water as far as I can tell ... which is not my complaining.. guh.. sorry first world problems.. " she shakes her head. "I'm trying to say that I appreciate the home coking..."

She trails off one more time when the glowng stops and reveals a cute almost stereotypical California girl "Woah.." blink. "I mean.. better is arbitrary you look awesome glowing but yeah you look good like this too." she mms "I wish I had a disguise power .. would make life easier to transform." she studies you.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    "OH... oh.. oh..." The more Kate talks, the more Karolina just blinks, and stares. She seems to gloss over the whole thing about using the shady money to fund her superheroing but the ends justify the means, right? Her group were squatting on basically abandoned property. "...such high profile stuff... so much tech..." she says quietly, moving slowly towards the bed.

    She laughs, too, a bright, good natured, real laugh. "I love cooking. I do all my own cooking at home, back at NYU... I've got a top floor apartment, with a garden... so I harvest a lot of my own plants, too.." she seems pretty proud of this, and settles in next to Kate, blushing a bit, a genuine pink on her cheeks as she's complimented and studied rather intently. Her own blues seem to take in Kate as well, sitting right next to the girl.

    "I just got stuff we had here, or what I could pick up at the store..." she explains, voice soft, not quite stammering. She puts the tray down between them both and gestures, "There's some garlic in the bread.... and there's... cauliflower, green beans, zuchinni, yellow squash, and yellow onions in the curry..." she rattles off what's in this definitely delectable vegan curry. "Hope no allergies?" she asks, hugging her arms around her chest, a little worried in her body language. But maybe more worried in the hopes that Kate will like it!

Kate Bishop has posed:
At the so much tech comment she sort of gestures a bit towards the weapon racks. "I should show you the wild bow that the team made..." then she looks sad for a moment. Mostly because it was Vic, Caitlin, and Donna who were super integral. Yes Kara helped tie it all together but Wonderbow was a four person job.

She blinks and clears her throat. "Wow.. okay I may be out of touch but I know how much a top floor in the city with a Garden runs." her family doesn't have a top floor garden but it isn't because they couldn't. They own several penthouse setups after all. "What does your family do?" she doesn't know the landmine.

Instead she barrels on and settled in takes the spoon and takes a big bite of the curry before making a very pleased noise. "Garlic is never a bad thing, for the record, and no allergies so don't worry... gosh this is great."

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Karolina really did go all out with the curry. Hearty vegetables, rich and thick gravy-like roux. She might've even put some cubed tofu in there for added protein content. It's energy food and it's amazingly delicious. As if she makes this dish twice a week, or something. She listens, intent, nodding, even blushing some. "Oh, it's wonderful. It's right by NYU, so..." she then... yep. There's that landmine. And she looks over her shoulder, away from Kate, and down at the floor.

    It takes a couple of moments, her aura creeping out for a few seconds, her skin shimmering slightly before she manages to concentrate it back down again. "They... were big in Hollywood. Top billing stars on General Hospital... movies... product deals... you name it. The Deans weren't small. But... for one, I didn't know I was an alien growing up, I only learned that a few years ago... and two... they made their fortune, being high profile criminals in the Los Angeles underground... we... my friends, I mean... stopped them... but..." she sighs.

    "...they weren't good people. They're gone. I'm here, and... it can't undo all the hurt they caused, but the royalties from all of their projects and stuff give me a chance to live a good life. A real life. Without them hurting anyone else..." She pulls her legs up, hugging her knees and staring at the window. "...I like to think theyreally truly, sincerely loved me, despite everything else they did."

Kate Bishop has posed:
Kate almost misses the landmine going off, she was so busy taking a second bite of the delicious curry as she tries to parse all the different flavors and spices. Odd breakfast wake up meal but it really is working. The heat should also kick her immune system up a notch in good ways as well.

The silence though has her loking up from the bite of food and then her eyes go a little bit concerned. Not sure what is wrong until Karolina starts to explain evrything. Which is when her eyes widen and she hears the very abbreviated story about the Runaways. "Oh man." is all she can manage there for the moment.

She has some experience with really complicated parents. It isn't a contest and there is a lot she doesn't know about her dad, but to say they haven't been close since her mom died is an understatement.

"That.. is really hard Karolina." she reaches out with her non-spoon-holding-hand and gives your hand a squeeze there as you hug your legs and look out the window. "A lot of the crew here has really complicated families and backgrounds... maybe it is part of some sort of rite of passage of being a hero. Overcoming adversity and hardships." a smile. "You're going to fit right in and you are not alone."

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Karolina's silent for the duration, but she doesn't refuse the hand. Her fingers lace with Kate's and she gives it a gentle squeeze, listening, nodding, even as she stares out at the sky, soaking in the sun as best she can. "My old group... all of our parents were part of it... the underground. The sacrifices..." she says quietly. "...so I guess it really is that, huh. Overcoming adversity or something, Finding the will to be defiant or something?" she offers, looking back to Kate, a small smile on her lips.

    "I'm not defined by, or held back by my parents' legacy. Whatever they did is buried with them. I'm here. Earth is my home. I'm healthy. I'm.... happy..." that last word takes a little effort to say, but she keeps trucking onwards. "I have a new life, and I have new friends. And we're doing important things."

    She nods, letting out a genuine laugh now, "...they probably wouldn't approve of any of this. What I'm doing. What I am. But they're not here to tell me otherwise. Or hold me back." Another softer laugh, and she lets something slip she might've wanted to keep close to her vest a little longer. "...can you imagine coming out to parents like that...?"

Kate Bishop has posed:
Kate smiles back. "Hey the only people on this team really whom I support being defined a bit by their parents legacy is our Amazonian sisters here. Mostly because their legacy seems epic." literally, they did write epics about it after all.

"Being happy is also very important.. I'm happy too doing something important and helping save people." she pauses "Hell helping save the world really. This is a lot more important use of my talents than just going into the family business or something." she is right too.

She retrieves her hand and takes a nother bite of the curry as she listens to Karo and then another bite. "I can not. I am petrified about coming out to my dad... I mean my sister would just be scandalized." she sighs softly "I think mom would understand, she really believed in helping people...." past tense.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    "Ohmigosh, right?" Karolina positively gushes. Beautiful warrior women from a hidden island? She might not be into the big strong warrior types, but.... "I saw video of the cavalry charge, when we were up in space... they're all so beautiful, and fierce, too! It's awesome having them on our team, I could never fight as bravely as that..." she says with a sigh, and a smile, and she was the one practically singing her way through laser fire in space.

    "I.. almost put my powers away for good, so I could focus on studying," she goes back to a little more of a level tone. "...but then I ran into Vorpal, and Donna, and Cait at the bank and... and..." she trails off. So joyful moments ago. So... not... now. RIght around when Kate is talking about her mother. The past tense doesn't escape her, not at all, especially when she's so lucid in her moment. It's her turn now, to rest a shaky hand on Kate's shoulder, squeezing, staring down at the bedcovers. Great food, but beyond that, such somber conversation. She sighs, shaking her head, "...eat up... we need to be well fed, so we can welcome them home properly once we find them, right?"

Kate Bishop has posed:
"You're going to love working with Cassie." it is said with amusement but also honesty about the situation. "She is a bit tempetous but all in good ways. The Amazons are.. something else entirely." she gestures to the main bow on the rack over there. "They supplies the materials for my bow, hippogriff... all sorts of mythical materials. Ridic."

"I'm eating.. I'm eating.." she chuckles and takes another bite. "I'm glad you joined us and didn't set your gifts aside. It is important we help people with our talents and not let them go to waste. I mean I've run into some people who say more good can be done by a doctor or a degree but .. they haven't saved the whole world." she grins and takes another bite of curry.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Karolina might just be the emotional sort. She wears her heart on the sleeve, or would, if she had sleeves. She nods, though, enjoying the little pep talk, and the kind company. "The world is a crazy place, isn't it? Amazons, exotic metals, gods, aliens..." she seems able to smile again, at least. "...I mean I saw stuff like it on TV growing up, but my parents never let stuff about super heroes stay on for too long. Stuff about meddlers and being unregulated and causing more harm than good. But you're right. Doctors have their place, but so do people like us. I mean.. I'm still amazed at the things I can do... and I'm glad I'm doing it with good people..."

    She sighs and gives Kate's shoulder another squeeze, before pulling her arm back and hugging her knees, but this time it's less of a solitary gesture. "People like you~"

Kate Bishop has posed:
"Gods, aliens, and monsters. Don't forget all the monsters."

Then she laughs "Yeah my dad was the same way, like I said.. is proud of his stake in the Bugle." she eye rolls there. "Hawkeye saved my life on a field trip during the Battle of New York.... that was probably the moment that galvenized me. If he could do it without superpowers.... why couldn't I do it." which means she probably hasn't been training as long as she should be to be as good as she is with that bow.

The shoulder squeeze earns a smile and the looks up "Well you are good people too Karolina, you didn't have to go into space.. I mean how crazy is that.. space.." she laughs "To battle for the planet.. but you did and you did a good job."

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Karolina rubs her forehead, then sighs, "...so many monsters... too many monsters... it's amazing and terrifying..." she shudders. She scoots herself back a little, towards Kate, and leans against her side a little bit. "I think your bravery and skill counts as much, if not more, than my weird abilities..." she says warmly. "And no... I didn't have to go into space... but I didn't know I COULD go into space. I mean, like I did. Without the suit. With... I thought I was going to die! Then I didn't! It was terrifying! And then amazing! And... I want to go up there again, but I don't think I can break free of the earth's gravity on my own..."

Kate Bishop has posed:
She slips an arm around Karolina and gives a squeeze now and then just settles in there leaning against her as she eats her curry, pausng with that to try some of the bread. "oh.. god nothing like homemade bread and garlic... you are going to make a lot of friends here at the tower Karo. The way to their hearts are right through the stomach." she smiles.

"Also as for the whole flying free in space... well we do have a T-Jet and can go into orbit and I'm our best pilot now.. so that can be arranged."

Pause.

"Well unless Nadia blows it up...."

Karolina Dean has posed:
    "I mean, so long as they're cool with vegan stuff? I try to make enough for more than one person... unless I'm just doing a meal for me alone... but even then I get leftovers and eat them later..." She seems to be very comfortable, snuggling herself into that arm, settling in against the dark-haired girl rather comfortably now. She sighs, closing her eyes, as if she needed this contact.

    "I mean if people don't like it I can cook other things but I've only ever cooked vegan cuisine, it's totally my jam, you know?" she smiles. Yep, even vegan bread. And..." her eyes light up. "..I'd ask you to take me up to space.. buuuuut I bet you're not allowed to just... take the jet and go on a joyride, huh?" she asks, grinning stupidly. "...next best thing is I could fly you around myself?"

Kate Bishop has posed:
"I mean we have some pretty heavy duty carnivores here it is true, but we have a lot of takeout and delivery options for carnivore night.." she grins and takes another bite of the bread as she gives Karolina the contact she seems to be needing. This has been a rough few days, talk about a trail by fire after all.

"As for the Jet actually yes I am allowed to do whatever I want with it now... I mean yes we should probably have an actual mission when we take it out most of the time but... like I said I think I am one of the only people still here who is certified out on it and able to fly it.. so if not me using it then who will?" she grins. She probably has her driver's license right.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    "Well, I guess if they don't like what I make, they can order a burger or a pizza or something. But all this fighting, people need their nutrients.... veggies are better than empty fat and stuff... unless, I don't know... some of the people here don't have to work out...? Alien physique or something?" Karolina suggests, maybe a little bewildered. But, then shrugs. Then brightens.

    "...soooo you're saying.... you can take us to space, any time you want? ...when Nadia hasn't taken the jet apart while trying to put the drives together? I heard someone else brought her food, and I don't want to interrupt her while she's working.... and I'm no good at all the tech stuff.." she smiles.

Kate Bishop has posed:
"Pretty much, as soon as we are past the whole taking the engines apart and sciencing the T-Jet.. then yes we can go up to space. I should probably clock some more hours in with whatever changes Nadia is making anyways and not just rely on Danger Room simulations." she finishes off the curry and leans past you to set it on the dresser, it is a bit of a wiggle, then she is back where she was and leans against you.

"You should probably do a session in the danger room with me as well, so we can really see what your powers can do before we get out in the field again. I'm not questioning you knowing what you are doing... this is more about my knowing what you can do."

Danger Room?

Karolina Dean has posed:
    "Priorities and all, right? And... I think it's Nadia's way of, you know... keeping her mind on task and off of other things..." Karolina says quietly, with a sympathetic look on her face. "...I guess that's why I just want to cook and bring friendly company to people... that's how I ended up in your bed!" she laughs, not catching herself with how odd that might have sounded. She sees the empty bowl though, and smiles big, "I'm glad you liked the food. I try to make curry at LEAST once a week, maybe twice... I can get the roux mix in bulk, too..." she says happily.

    Then there's pretty much a blink, an owlish, blank blink. "Huh? I'd be happy to share my abilities... but what's the Danger Room? Forgive me, but it sounds, well, dangerous?"

Kate Bishop has posed:
"At least twice a week." she sounds like she may hold you too it as well.

"Well.. not actually dangerous. It's a training room. It uses hardlight holograms and forceshields. Basically it can approximate various..." she pauses "Did you ever see Space Trek. Like the holodecks in those shows but real... I've got a ton of scenarios and so do the others built into it now. T-JEt training.. T-Sub Training.. bank robberies.. fighting Brainiac drones.. lots of stuff."

T-Sub? How much cash to the Titan's have.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Another owlish blink, Karolina's turning into an owl at this rate. Or a certain someone else. But she blinks, then laughs, "...twice a week? Yeah? Well, if you pick up some of the vegetables, then I'll happily whip it all together..." she smiles. "...part of why I love cooking is that it makes people smile, too," she gives Kate another big hug, before listening to her talk on the whole business of the Danger Room.

    "Oh that sounds... incredibly complicated. But you can let loose without getting hurt?" she asks, recalling seeing the capabilities of some of the others on her team, both before, and during the space battle. "...that's.... that's incredible..." she marvels.