bakerstreet | it's raining, it's pouring

it's raining, it's pouring

caught in the rain

It started out quietly, and then, quite suddenly, you're caught in a storm. Time to find cover. Nothing much to do but to wait it out.

Scenarios listed below for those who want 'em.

i WHERE:
001 PLAYGROUND - Well, you can try to hide under the slide or maybe in the jungle gym... at least you're some place fun?
002 PARK - Always happens, caught outside trying to take advantage of the weather... and it ends up pulling a fast one on you.
003 STORE FRONT - Better hope they have an awning you can take advantage of
004 THE BEACH - Not exactly the best place to be during a rainstorm, however it is possible to get caught in a sudden storm
005 WILD CARD - Anyway you want it

ii HOW:
001 TREE - Not the best cover, but it'll have to do, stay close to the roots and you won't get too wet.
002 UMBRELLA - Most conventional... Kinda boring. But it works.
003 NEWSPAPER - Not permanent, but it'll have to do. Good luck
004 BAG - Well... y'gotta do what you gotta do.
005 NONE - You know what. You're a rebel. You don't need cover. Screw convention
006 WILD CARD - that's the way you need it

iii WHY:
001 REJECTED - Welp. Rejection sucks. And no one will see you crying in the rain.
002 WAITING - For the bus? For someone else? For some revelation? What are you waiting for.
003 MELANCHOLY - Sometimes the best place to feel a bit down is out in the rain.
004 HAPPINESS - Is everything going your way? Are you singing a refrain while walking down the lane? Just singin. Singin' in the rain.
005 ANGER - WELL YOU KNOW WHAT. SCREW YOU TOO RAIN.
006 WILD CARD - Anyway you want it.

>> POST with your character
>> TAG others, use RNG if you need to, or just make up your own scenario if you want!
>> HAVE FUN.

(from here.)

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[Well, that didn't go as expected, though frankly, he'd had no idea how she was going to react. He was angry, annoyed, frustrated, confused, and she wasn't helping.

He should just go. He should get his things and go and just leave her alone like she seems to want.

But when has he ever done what he should do. He's a stupid, stupid human and okay, maybe a bit sexist because she was upset and a girl and he couldn't just leave.]

You ever think the reason for that is because you don't ever tell anyone anything?

[Yep, this was going to happen. He was going to open his mouth and wind up dead because he couldn't leave well enough alone.]

When do you ever talk to anyone? I don't know you? You don't know me. Or Scott. Or Isaac. Or anyone. You just see the outside layer and that's good enough for your purposes. You don't take the time to get to know anyone, Dara, you just throw shit at them until they either take it and like it or leave. Is that a werewolf thing or just a bitch thing?

[He was a dead man.]

[The sound of Stiles behind her makes her turn and she's fuming the more he talks. Every word that's coming out of his mouth makes her want to throw him through that goddamn window behind them. And the worst part is...he isn't even wrong about a single thing he's saying.

She's seeing red and doesn't even realize that she's grabbed him by the collar of the borrowed shirt and pushed him up against the side of the building to which the balcony is attached until it's already done and she's up in his face, jaw set and nostrils flaring with the effort to keep from doing something exceptionally stupid she'll regret later. Like throwing him over the side to shut him the fuck up. She's shaking, but it's with rage less than cold. Part of her wants to point out that it's obviously not a werewolf thing since Scott and Isaac don't seem to have this problem, but she doesn't, because that's admitting she's just a bitch and there's nothing more to it when she still thinks there is.

Dara doesn't tell people things anymore, because she doesn't trust anyone anymore. It isn't for nothing; it's a conditioned response to others learned over time the hard way. She doesn't actually think it's so far-fetched that she's terrified to let people in, now, after everything she's been through. And while she isn't discounting all the things that the others have been through recently, her issues are spread over almost a decade's worth of time now. It's a difficult habit to break and even if she wanted to, she's sure it'd find a way to bite her in the ass later, just like it always does.

Looking almost like she's coming back into herself, Dara lets go of Stiles' shirt, blinking rapidly as she's stepping away from him, like she can't actually believe she's regressed this far. It's been a long time since she'd had Stilinski pinned against a locker in the high school, up in his face with rage. Dara doesn't want to be that girl anymore.]

I'm...sorry. Sorry.

[Running a hand over her hair and bringing it down to cover her slack-jawed mouth, she turns away from him to collect herself, because that wasn't okay, what she just did, and she knows it.]

Stiles, I'm sorry.

[Was he afraid? Hell yes. It wasn't the first time Dara had slammed him into something and he felt that shiver of fear like ice in the pit of his stomach. That didn't mean he was going to back down. He saw that look in her face, that one that she got when she wanted to do something painful and physically impossible to him, but it was just a flicker. A moment of that look in passing before something that looked an awful lot like regret took its place.

Then she was letting him go and... wait, apologizing? Okay, that was a first.

He smoothed down the shirt, looking at her and trying to figure out the best thing to say that wouldn't gain him any new scars.]

Dara...

[He sighed, hands scrubbing through his hair.]

You need to find someone to talk to. Someone you can trust, because there are things you just... you won't hear because you're so... because it's too easy to just picture yourself as the bad guy. Because it's easier to remember all the bad things you've done than to focus on anything good.

[Yes, that was experience talking.]

[Stiles says it like that's so easy. Like it's so easy to just tune out all of the bullshit and pretend it's not terrifying to even think about letting someone in. He probably doesn't know it, but he's the only person she trusts even a little, and even then, not enough to pour her heart out to by any stretch.

She doesn't want to look at him when she admits the following, so she doesn't. It's tempting to step back into the rain to cool off, because her face is hot with residual anger and, now, humiliation.]

I can't...

Yes you can.

Find someone, Dara. Deaton, Scott, Me, Jackson... Peter, if you have to. Hell, go find a therapist and unload to your heart's content. Online anonymous comms. I don't care. But... you need to talk to someone. You need...

[His fingers went to the hem of the shirt, playing with it as he fidgeted while looking at her back.]

You need someone, okay? And you can have someone if you want. You just...

You gotta want it.

[Shaking her head and finally turning back to face him, Dara's brow is knit with a mixture of frustration and general upset.]

No, I can't. It's not that easy. I can't just turn it off, Stiles, I can't just turn off the fact that I'm—

[She almost admits that she's scared and cuts herself short before she can say it. Then, she barrels into the cover with only a minor hiccup in between the sentiment meant and the one actually delivered.]

I can't trust people. There's no magic switch I can just flick and pretend that I'm not opening myself up to being burned again. I wish there was, I really do. But there isn't, I can't just stop...feeling like I do. You know?

Yeah, I know. But you can try. Not trying just because something shitty might happen is the lamest excuse out there, Dara. You may as well just dig a hole and crawl in and stop living. Shitty things happen. You get over them. You move on. You live.

You're not. Not lately. You're just... existing. You're here, but everyone knows you don't want to be. That's part of why no one--

[Why no one cares, had been on the tip of his tongue. Why should anyone care about her when she couldn't scrape together a teaspoon's worth of self preservation?]

[Stiles didn't actually have to finish his sentence for Dara to hear the word. Part of why no one cares, she was ninety-nine percent sure he was about to say. The words came as a slap to the face and Dara had to put forth an actual effort to look unaffected when she clearly was. Nobody cared, she'd always known that and she knew that she perpetuated it because it was easier that way for her. But to hear it out loud; for Stiles — the one person she thought might be the one that she could trust if she was going to put forth the effort to try — to be the one to say it out loud...stung. A lot.

She sniffed once, cleared her throat, and gave a curt nod of acknowledgement. The expression on her face said that she didn't care but the betrayal was in her eyes that communicated hearing the truth had hurt.]

Well...then I guess we're at a stalemate for now.

If you think I'm included in that, you're dumber than you look.

[Now he was just being a jerk to get a reaction out of her. He'd seen that look, whether she'd wanted him to or not, and he scowled at her as he took a step forward.]

If I didn't care, would I have gone all over the place looking for you because you were too sunk in your emo-hole to pick up your phone? Use your brain. I know you have one.

[Well, that sounds about like Stiles should be expected to sound, finding a way to kick her when she's down just to get a fucking rise. Her jaw is already set and it clenches a little at the insult. He was the one who implied it, it wasn't a stretch for her to believe he was including himself.]

What do you want from me, Stiles? You want me to spill my guts; tell you all of my deep, dark secrets and leave my bleeding heart on the floor for you to clean up?

[She doesn't sound angry when she asks; she sounds...lost.]

Yes, Dara, clearly that's exactly what I want. It couldn't be at all that maybe I want you to just...

Fuck. Grow up?

[He threw up his hands before turning around and moving a few steps to the window, then stopping because he didn't know where to go.]

Find a way, like the adult you're supposed to be, to get over it. To deal with it, move past it.

This... this going off on your own thing is what five year olds do when they're running away from home for whatever ridiculous reason. And before you start, I'm not saying you don't have reasons I'm just saying...

You're handling them badly.

[The idea of being told to grow up by a seventeen-year-old kid is frustrating. Really frustrating. She wants to point out to him that it's easy enough for him to say when he's surrounded by a group of people he cares about who also care about him enough to keep picking him up when he falls, instead of walking away and not looking back. She wants to point out that he's got his father to lean on when he needs it, so he hasn't lost everything. She wants to point out that if Stiles had a baby sister to protect, she really doubts that that sister would rather leave the country than stay with him.

But Dara doesn't say any of those things, because the fact of the matter is that he's right about the most important part. She's handling things badly. She always seems to be doing that, even when she's trying not to. She probably always has and some part of her is terrified that she always will.

So instead of arguing her case or trying to tear him down the way all of her instincts tell her to do to make herself feel better, Dara just gives him a curt nod.]

...you're right.

...

[He was suspicious. She'd capitulated too easily and she was giving him that look like parts of her wanted to be buried deep in parts of him and not in that good happy fun way. More like the ripping, bleeding, ow way.

But he didn't know what to do. He talked a good game, that was his thing. He read and watched and rambled on without fully thinking through what he was saying all the time, but this? This was... outside his capacity. How do you deal with a sulking, brooding female werewolf?]

Okay? So...

[Deep breath.]

What do you want to do about it?

[Another scowl crosses Dara's face and she shakes her head, throwing up her hands.]

I don't know, Stiles, if I knew that, we wouldn't be having this conversation at all, would we?

Well... think of something. Use a lifeline, I don't know. But this whole disappearing act crap has got to go. I'm going to go grey before I'm twenty.

[Once again, her jaw sets as she looks back at him, tilting her head as her eyes go half-lidded with annoyance. If Stiles is so goddamn smart, why doesn't he just come up with something and let her follow it? He thinks he knows everything, so why doesn't he know this thing? She doesn't know what to say, so she deflects.]

Right, of course. My method of running off to clear my head once in a while is the sole cause for your stress, I'm sure.

It is right now. It's also the reason I got soaked and could possibly catch pneumonia, because some of us don't have supernatural metabolisms.

[Said as he gives another shiver, reminding himself, if no one else, of the fact that he was still damp and standing there in shorts and a thin tshirt.]

[Dara gestures for the door leading back inside, softening her tone again and looking sympathetic.]

Then go back inside, Stiles, nobody's making you stay out here. You're shivering...go get back under the blanket.

No.

[She wasn't the only one who could be stubborn. He folded his arms and gave her a look.]

You don't get to be the only one being a stubborn jerk.

[She heaves a sigh and lets her head fall back again.]

This is so stupid, I'll come in when I'm cold, you go in now that you're cold, everybody wins.

No.

[And he'd just stand there, arms folded as he glared at her and shivered.]

[Rolling her eyes, Dara crosses her arms over her chest, too, looking back at him.]

Fine. Stand there and freeze, then.

I w-w-ill.

[He snapped his mouth shut, hiding the chattering that wanted to start in his teeth, his arms folded just as tightly over his body in an attempt to stop himself from shaking.]

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