540/Pulling Back From the Edge

Pulling Back From the Edge
Date of Scene:	02 October 2023
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Adora finds a dejected Catra at the end of a pier, in the rain. Something must be wrong; and it only takes a little effort to find out what.
Cast of Characters:	Catra, Adora Rainbowfist

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Catra has posed:
It's late in the evening in Tokyo; it's raining lightly, and in the less affluent part of town, near some of the docks on the waterfront, there's some short, entirely deserted piers. Well, almost entirely deserted; one lone figure is sitting on the end of one, with her feet dangling over the edge.

A feline person, no less; big hair, big ears, a tail, and orange skin with stripes. Normally she'd hate the rain, even a light drizzle like this one, but she doesn't seem entirely to be noticing it. Sitting on the pier behind her is a large bag left unzipped and open, large enough to stick something in it, like... a sniper rifle, for example. That kinda size. And indeed there's a scope visible out the top. But it's the object in her hand that has her attention.

Catra is holding up what, if one were close enough, looks basically like a rock. Well, maybe that's unfair; it's a crystal, and a very pretty one at that, that catches the light in its facets and glitters beautifully.

It does not appear to be bringing the feline any joy.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
'Don't go. Stay. Just this once.'

The words run through her head over and over again. Words her Catra used to draw her back from the brink. Words THIS Catra has never spoken.

'Don't you get it? I love you. I always have!'

The punching bag had stopped giving her satisfaction, so she'd taken to a run. She'd only intended to run the block, but then the rain came, and she just kept going. A San Diego Padres hoody is stuck to her body, going along with her leggings and running shoes. Her blonde hair is plastered to her cheeks, both from sweat, and the gentle rain. Enough light rain can still wet you to the bone. Her legs are numb and her chest burns, but still she runs. She's miles from the school now, and doesn't even realise it at first. When she hits the end of the waterfront she stops, staring down into the dark water, reflecting the Tokyo skyline back at her. She stares at it for a long, long moment before she takes in a deep, shuddering breath, trying to calm her thundering heart.

'You love me?'

'You idiot.'

Her bright blue eyes flick up from the skyline beneath her, and she doesn't even notice the seated girl only twenty feet away.

"I love you too," Adore replies to the air.

Catra has posed:
Catra, of course, does not fail to notice that Adora is nearby. The blessing, or perhaps the curse, of having better hearing than basically everyone else.

So startled out of her thoughts is Catra that she forgets the poisoned-honey 'Hey Adora' she might usually lead with; instead she jumps back from the edge of the pier, snatches the rifle out of the bag, and aims it in Adora's direction. Not that it's going to help; it's out of ammunition, and has to be reloaded back at home base. But hey, it's not like anyone else knows that.

"...Adora," comes Catra's voice. She's still staring down the sights. It's almost like she's already forgotten that she's holding a rifle.

Catra pauses, gritting her teeth. "What... what are YOU doing here? ...Got a girlfriend already? Come to sit out in the rain and pratice your lines or something?"

It's the same old nastiness, really, but it's... more forced, than usual. Like Catra's mind isn't really as focused as it usually is. "You're such an idiot." Usually the insult isn't such an afterthought, but it felt... tacked on, this time. Like Catra wanted to say something but couldn't, so she just resorted to being mean.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She sees the girl and her heart sinks. She hopes Catra doesn't want to fight right now, because she isn't sure she has it in her tonight. Still, she turns to face her, blinking when she sees the rifle pointed at her. It's a weird gun, for sure, but Adora is only familiar with the ones from the Fright Zone, anyways. She straightens her back and peels her hood back, letting her unkempt, wet blonde hair tumble out. It isn't pulled back for once.

"No, Catra. I...I don't have a girlfriend." She feels her stomach turn when she says it.

Adora sighs softly and brushes some wetness from her face. Rain? Maybe. "I went for a run and...got lost in thought. I didn't mean to end up...wherever I am."

She sighs and glances towards the skyline, lit up like beacons of light. They look like Prime's Armada, jutting up from the ground. "And what about you? What're you doing out here?" There are no accusations from her.

Catra has posed:
Catra finally clues in that she's holding a rifle, and pointing it at Adora. Which, well, that's what she's supposed to do, right? She's the villain, Adora's the hero, they're supposed to fight and shoot at each other and all that stuff.

But her heart isn't in it. Not tonight.

"...Oh... You know. Go out for a night on the town, take an experimental rifle from Obsidian, test it on people. The usual. Not all that much different from working under Hordak, really." She points the rifle upwards, and then kneels down so she can stuff it back into the back it came out of; and this time she zips it up and as she rises, she slings it over her shoulder.

As she does, she fumbles the crystal she was holding, and dives to catch it; she ends up sprawled out on the pier, with her arm over the edge and almost touching the water. Her hair is all poofed up, as is her tail, but she caught the crystal.

"You... didn't see that," she mutters, as she pulls herself back from the edge and stands up again.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"..>Experimental rifle? Testing it on people?," she asks softly. She's about to inquire further when her eyes widen at Catra's fumble. She covers her mouth, and the laugh she used to share with her echoes out over the docks for a long moment. She catches herself, then, and clears her throat, lowering her hand. She makes her way closer, but still keeps a little bit of distance.

"Mn. Sorry. Just...reminded me of things. What is that?," she asks, glancing at the crystal held her in her outstretched hands.

Catra has posed:
Catra doesn't laugh; and she doesn't call Adora out for laughing, either. Actually the whole sequence of events goes entirely unchallenged by the feline, which...

It *is* Catra on the dock there, right?

"It's a dumb crystal, what's it look like?" Catra snaps, hiding it jealously behind her back. The feline's hackles rise and she backs off a step; and only a step, because if she went any further she'd be swimming. Of the possible places Catra could pick to get in a fight, this is quite possibly the last one.

"Yeah, testing a rifle. You think I'd be lugging this piece of junk around because I thought it was fun? This thing's almost as long as I am, it's ridiculous." She pauses, "I gotta tell Takashi to make it shorter."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Takashi. A name to remember. But right now her interest is the crystal.

Adora moves closer. "Come on, lemme see? I dealt with a lot of crystal stuff in Brightmoon, remember?" She tucks blonde behind one of her ears and holds out a hand, as if this was the old Catra who might hand it over for her to see.

"Or...keep ahold of it and just let me see, wildcat?," she asks, accidentally using one of her old nicknames for the girl.

Catra has posed:
Catra recoils, jerking her hand back and turning to keep Adora well away from the crystal. "No! What the hell?! What do you think your'e doing?" She looks around herself, evaluating the amount of space she's got. Which isn't a lot. Which is actually no space at all against Adora who, if push came to shove right now, she's convinced would definitely one hundred per cent shove her in the drink.

She looks over her shoulder; can she jump to the next pier? Possibly. Probably even. Is it guaranteed that she's stick the landing? Not when it's this wet outside. What if the pier is slippery? It's not like she can smell 'slippery' so she has no idea.

"Okay fine you can look," she mutters, holding up the crystal where Adora can see it, but just out of reach. "It's..." she sucks in her breath, and lets it out slowly. "It's a crystal," she says at last. Way to go, captain 'Catra' obvious.

And indeed it is a crystal; it's irregular, multi-faceted, and very beautiful. It looks like a cut stone that hasn't been cut, per se, it just appeared that way naturally.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She doesn't advance while Catra is feeling out her options. She knows better then making Catra feel too cornered. This is the most she's spoken to the love of her life in awhile without threats being involved. She wants to see how long she can make it last.

She leans in a bit, but keeps her hands behind her back to show Catra that she won't grab for it. She squints at the crystal, considering it for a long moment.

"...It's pretty. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. The ones in the Rebellion tended to be...uh...bigger. Well, you remember." She straightens her back and brushes her fingers back through her damp hair. "Where'd you find it?," she asks curiously. She's curious, and she also wants to keep her talking.

Catra has posed:
"I didn't find it."

Catra clenches her fist around it, and turns to face away, out over the water. It's not really a position of vulnerability; not when Catra does it, at any rate. She can hear what's going on behind her just fine. It's being stuck on the end of a pier that has her rankled.

Or, well, it might be that. It might be something else.

"It's a pureheart crystal." Catra utters that quietly, almost too quietly to be heard. She lets that hang in the air, not immediately elaborating. And it seems like she's at war with herself over it.

Afterall, she's the villain, right? She's supposed to do the villain things. Bad things happen to good people all the time, blah blah blah, so what if she made an extra, non-mandatory bad thing happen? Does it matter? Does anyone really care? Will some chick named Aoki Saori make the news for keeling over and getting dumped in a noddle shop by some obnoxious American girl? Probably not. Nobody knows. Nobody cares.

"It's what the rifle's for," she mutters, apparently managing to elaborate just a little bit further. But only a little bit.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Pureheart crystal." She says the words more to herself then to Catra, and her gaze dips to the bag the rifle was shoved into.

"You said you were experimenting with the rifle on people...and that's how you got the crystal. Pureheart." She repeats the word again.

Look, Adora is big and strong and insanely compassionate...but both of them know she has never been called smart. Battle tactics? She's a master. But normal thinky things? No. Not really. Still, even she manages to piece things together after a long moment of awkward silence, interrupted only by the light rain hitting the water nearby.

"Is there a way we can undo it?," she asks. She doesn't go in with a 'what did you do??' like she might have so long ago. That's what the Adora Catra was fighting would lead with. But this Adora, as Catra is seeing more and more, is different...for some reason.

Catra has posed:
"How should *I* know?" Catra snaps, whirling around to face Adora, "Do I look like the pureheart crystal expert? I got sent out to test the rifle, so I'm out here testing the rifle, okay? That's all I know about it! I didn't build it!"

Catra slips right back into her old responses; hiding pain with anger. And moreso than any other time since they've found themselves on this strange world it's plain to see, probably to everyone and anyone except Catra. She grips the crystal in a vice grip, standing on the end of the pier and shifting her stance to something... defensive. Like she's getting ready to fight.

Except no fists get thrown.

"I dunno what you have to do. It wasn't supposed to kill her. But it's going to if she doesn't get it back, I'm sure of that." Her eyes narrow. "So there you go, I pretty much just killed someone. I'm a *villain*, Adora, I'm a terrible person who hurts people real bad, have you GOT THAT YET?!"

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"You're a girl who's had the worst hand dealt to her all her life. You're someone who has been picked on and kicked, and then ...abandoned by the only person you thought you could rely on," Adora replies. "Power is what the people who hurt you had, so you think it's the only thing that can stop you from being hurt." Her tone is soft. Sad. Not pitying, though. She knows to keep pity out of her voice.

"You're more then what you can provide for other people, and people are more then what they can provide for you." She doesn't grab for the crystal, or physically react to the defensive stance.

"I asked you to come with me, but you couldn't believe there was anything better out there. There is, Catra. Hordak and Shadow Weaver and...Obsidian. They're trying to make you think that everyone uses everyone else. It's not true. They do that, and tell themselves that to try and justify their actions. It's not too late for that girl, Catra, and no matter what you tell me, or tell yourself, it's not too late for you, either. But no matter how many times I tell you that, it's not going to suddenly make you want to change. That's something you need to do on your own." Like she did before. After all the talk, and fighting, it was Catra who made the decision in the end. She needs to here, too. Adora can't make that change for her. Until then all of these are just words.

"I want you with me, doing good things. Enjoying life. At my side. I just...need you to know that that spot is never going to be filled by anyone else but you."

She raises a hand to gesture to the Crystal.

"She doesn't deserve to die, and you...can make it so she doesn't. Nobody else can but you right now, wildcat."

Catra has posed:
"Don't treat me like an idiot, Adora," Catra snaps, "You're *wrong*, everyone just uses everyone else, except for the 'nice' people, who have the singular honor of just getting *used*. I'm not going to be at the bottom of the food chain ever again, not like when we lived with Shadow Weaver." She grips the crystal tightly, with her face twisted into an absolute rictus of rage -- all of it to shelter the scared little Catra Applesauce Meowmeow who's hurt and scared and doesn't know what's going to happen to her. Or to anyone else.

"And you're wrong. You're WRONG. I can't save her. I can't-- ADORA I SHOT HER." She hefts the bag slung across her shoulder. "I literally killed her! How on Earth do you think I'm supposed to save her? That's crap and you know it."

Catra backs off an inch. "I can't save her. I'm not a hero. But you can." She abruptly tosses the crystal through the air; it's a pretty gentle throw, all things considered. "She's in the noodle shop, down the street and around the corner." She nods in the appropriate direction. "Go... go do your hero thing."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Hearing those words from Catra breaks Adora's heart. She had a feeling this would be her reaction...but she wouldn't stop telling her the truth. Ever. She swallows and raises a hand to try and stop her, but she doesn't close the distance.

"Catra, I..."

I love you. Please don't go.

She doesn't voice these words, though. They'd be too much right now, and she knows it. So, she simply thinks them. She lets her girl yell and fume, but she is caught off-guard when the crystal is thrown to her. The jock she is, she catches it with ease. She cradles it gently, glancing down at it with a furrow of her brow. She looks back up again.

"...Thanks. We'll find out a way to save her. You..." She stops before telling her she did the right thing.

"Go get dry, wildcat. I know you hate getting wet..."

Catra has posed:
Catra watches Adora catch the crystal.

There.

She did it.

She just went ahead and handed over a super valuable crystal to her number one enemy, and will have to make something up about why she's coming back empty-handed with a spent rifle, but... somehow she feels lighter for it. There's a weight off her shoulders. Well, maybe just a little bit less weight, anyway.

"Yeah I do," she mutters, as she finally advances, claws out just in case, as she shoulders her way past Adora and picks up the pace as she retreats from the pier. She makes her way back in amongst the buildings, and within moments she's basically just... gone from view, leaving Adora all on her own at the end of the pier.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Adora steps out of the way, never taking a defensive stance. This would be the moment for Catra to strike, with Adora totally unaware. And yet she doesn't. That tells Adora exactly what she wants to know about her, and it makes the pain from earlier lessen significantly.

She turns to watch the catgirl retreat into the darkness of the city. So much light in Tokyo, and yet there are still so many shadowed, forgotten places for a broken girl like Catra to vanish into. She sighs softly, before she feels the weight of the crystal in her hand. Okay, Adora. Time to put your actions where your words are. There's a girl to save.

She tugs her hood back into place and slips the crystal into the pocket of her hoody, keeping it held tight. She turns, and heads towards the noodle shop. After that? Home. A home she hopes to share with her Catra eventually.