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Rena has gone back to one of her old tricks. Fortunately, in this case, the old trick is simply giving Calamity a place to meet with no warning or reason.
Today, the place in question is a big fancy museum. Not exactly the pair's natural habitat, but Rena's invited them anyway.
She currently is leaning on the outside of the building, checking her messages and idly looking around for her sibling. She's dressed in her least offensive t-shirt with a tie lazily and loosely tied around her neck.
Calamity, in contrast, comes ambling up in their rattiest jeans and a charcoal-stained hoodie, looking very much like someone who's looking to cause trouble as they lazily blow cigarette smoke from their mouth. Their dark green bandanna is ever-present, tied loosely around their neck, and they toss their hood off as they get within speaking range of their sister.
"Hey. 'Sup? 'S a...hell of a place to meet..." their gaze follows the architecture of the museum's exterior, with the eye of someone who's looking for the best way to climb it. As one does.
"Yo," Rena says, giving a lazy salute. "Well, there's a really good reason we're meeting here."
She pauses to build some suspense before continuing. A goofy grin is on her face as she does it. It's insufferable.
"We're going to go inside! They're doing an exhibit on missing people. I wanna see if we can see anyone we know and laugh about how they aren't missing. Plus its free tonight. And heated, so you don't turn into one solid block of ice."
"...Huh." Calamity's eyebrow twitches upward and they lean over to put their cigarette out on the side of the building, leaving a trail of ash. "An' it's gettin' warm enough that 's not that freezing at night anymore. Just...kinda. But I just crash at Finn's place when it gets too bad." They shrug. "'S the exhibit like...raising money for somethin'? An' is it just about Philly, or...everywhere?"
"I bet you two cuddle to stay warm~" Rena says, conveniently forgetting that vampires don't have body heat unless they're blushed. "I think it's raising money for like missing people awareness. Probably going to some charity that pockets most of it and uses the rest for art exhibits. You know. To build Awareness. An' I think it's other places too. 'Parently it was started cause of someone who went missing in like Russia or the Ukraine or somethin'."
"Huh." Calamity says again, pointedly ignoring the cuddling comment. "Well at least we're not givin' 'em our money today..." They shove their half-smoked cigarette back into the pack in their pocket and jerk their head toward the entrance. "Lets go - also since you made me come here you should buy me a snack inside." They stick their tongue out at Rena, teasing.
Rena sighs theatrically and leans back with a hand on her forehead. "Oh, alas! If I must! Thou woundeth me-eth." She straightens up and heads in with them, looking around for someone they might recognize.
If Calamity looks around, they might recognize someone themselves. There's, as part of a big wall of pictures of missing people and articles about them, a very familiar blonde. Well, familiar if you put her in a beanie, dyed her hair blue, aged her up a little and lost like all of her muscle mass. But the face is unmistakably Rena's. Picture Rena is clearly in the middle of a track meet and is grinning like a loon as she comes in first place.
See it's one thing to know what Rena's history is (because of course Calamity did some digging after she disappeared,) but it's another to see it. On the wall. In a fancy museum.
"...Wonder if I'm up here, somewhere," Calamity mutters to her as they tear their eyes away from the picture of Rena with a grimace. "My parents prob'ly don't care enough to make a big deal of it. Prob'ly."
Rena shrugs. "if you are, maybe I could leverage it into a meeting where I beat them up. Just, like, suplex 'em through a coffee table." She mimes a suplex. "And even if you are here, there's nothing that they can do to you, you're an adult now and they don't even know your real name."
"Guess that's true. Be kinda cool to watch you suplex 'em like that, they fuckin' deserve it. You uh...you're up there." Calamity gestures kinda vaguely, and looks covertly around, like they're worried they'll be overheard. They're trying their hardest to keep their voice casual, but a little bit of nervousness creeps into it.
"Oh." Rena says, stopping dead in her tracks. Her smile dips and she turns to look at it. "Oh." she says again, the sound coming out emotionally hollow. "Is, uh, is it a good pic or is it one where I had my glasses on?"
"First place at some track meet. But blue's a better color for your hair, I think." Their voice is quiet. "You uh...I looked you up, after you disappeared. Found out...a little about your life, before. Never told no one or anything, but..."
Rena lets out another soft "oh". "I mean, I can't really blame you. I just..." She pauses, trying to come at the sentance from a better angle. "Makes me a lot more pathetic, huh. I'm not a tough punk from the streets, I'm just some rich girl who threw away the one thing she was good at."
"Rena, you're the toughest fuckin' punk I know, fuck're you talking about," Calamity replies with a chuckle, and nudge her arm with their elbow. "You're alive - well -" they grimace, "you know what I mean - which makes you tougher 'n a lotta people. An' plus you're not allow to insult my sister, only I'm allowed to do that."
Rena grins at that, like nothing had happened. "You're right, I am pretty great," she says, straightening herself up. "And if you insult me, I get to rib you more about Finley and your new Mystery Boy. It's only fair."
"Ughhhh," Calamity groans. "He's not a mystery, his name is Anton. And he's...mmph. I guess we're friends now, I dunno. He's gonna teach me German, probably, his mom and his uncle have a bunch of German comic books."
The people in the museum exhibition are few and distant, each of them sticking to a few particular pieces. Pictures, artistic portrait of people growing up then fading into a ghost like presence, paintings of empty rooms, artistic photography that seems to reflect common themes of loneliness and emptiness in homes, bedrooms. Items left alone, untouched over years and years, boxes containing a fading light.
From behind a door marked for employee only, emerges someone in a wheelchair, sporting a leather jacket, jeans and some light make up, they make their way through the crowd with ease, greeting a few of the people warmly. When they're gaze comes across Rena however, their focus becomes singular for a brief moment, but the smile remains all the same.
They begin heading toward the area where Rena and Calamity are currently, flagging them down discreetly with a gesture of the hand.
Rena (alongside her beast) shivers as the newcomer approaches. Rena discretely leans over and whispers, "Careful, that person there is a vampire. Stay close to me, okay?" Then, if Calamity complies, she walks over to them.
"...Uh? O...kay?" Calamity glances between Rena and the the person in the wheelchair, but does follow Rena as she approaches, staying half a step behind her. Their hands are shoved into their pockets, and they've hunched over slightly, making them look even smaller than they already are.
"Welcome to my gallery, I was not expecting a visitor of your caliber." They say, appearing slightly out of breath as the come to a stop near Calamity and Rena. "My name is Shiri Touati, I hope you're having a wonderful evening." a glance toward the particular area the both of them were visiting. "Are you looking for something or someone in particular?"
"Nah, just looking around," Rena says, eyeing Shiri warily. "So you own this whole place? Are you like in charge of this exhibit?" She straightens up, becoming the tall to Calamity's small and giving them a sizable wall to hide behind if need be.
Calamity gives Shiri a small wave, and one of those 'i'm acknowledging your presence but I don't know you well enough to actually smile at you' smiles. They're not hiding behind Rena, honest, they were just half a step behind her anyway, and so what if they lean slightly into her side? They don't need comfort, or protection. Nope, not them.
They seem to be fine with letting Rena do all the talking, for now.
"I do and I am, a few people were wanting to look for a family member after they heard and decided to try and offer the opportunity to others." Shiri explains, then with another look where the two were a moment ago, specifically the image(s) of Rena, they offer "I can notify you if someone comes looking... or would you rather I take it off the exhibit?"
"Burn it and forget you ever saw it, ideally," Rena says, grumbling a little. "And if you can, tell whoever selected me to go fuck off the edge of my dick, pardon my cursing."
Calamity stays close to Rena until Shiri leaves, and then turns to her. "They...seemed pretty okay...? D'you know them, or...can yinz just...sense each other?"
"We got like... I dunno. Crazy animals where our souls are and they always know when they see another crazy animal." Rena pauses. "I get that you know a bunch of nice ones'a us, but like. You can't assume they're all nice. You don't get kicked out of the club for doing a murder, if the murder is of a normal person."
"...Have you? ...Done that?" Asks the kid who's got a ghost following them because they have also done a murder. They glance around like they're worried about being overheard.
"What? Fuck no. But I've done some bad shit when I'm Frenzying. It gets bad, Bug. And I still think'a myself as human-ish. Some of the older fucks straight up don't care about people." Rena's arms cross over her chest and she starts scratching at the barbed wire tattoo on her left arm. Then she notices Calamity looking around. "We should probably bounce to have this conversation, huh."
"Yeah maybe. Plus I need a cigarette after lookin' at all this - still waitin' to see my own face in one'a these pictures..." They look around again, and start toward the door. "There's a starbucks across the street, I uh...I'll buy." Surprisingly generous of them, considering they'd told Rena they were gonna make her buy them a drink at the exhibit.
"I don't drink... coffee," Rena says, in her best Dracula voice (it's very bad). "But I'd be down to watch you drink somethin'." Rena ruffles Calamity's hair. "Some day I'm gonna get revenge and make you quit smokin'."
"Revenge on what?" Calamity ducks away from the hair ruffle with an annoyed scoff. Aah, siblings. "Y'know Anton thinks I should quit too - said he'd help me, even." They grimace. "People keep wantin' to help me with shit, I dunno what they want from me..." They have a cigarette in their mouth before the two of them get to the door, but they're at least polite enough - or care enough about being told off - to wait until they're on the sidewalk to light up.
"Revenge for making me quit, y'know, other stuff," Rena says, caring enough to not say heroin in a fancy museum. "Wait, what the fuck is this guy's deal? You like just met him and he's already trying to change you? Red fucking flag, Bug." Oops, turns out you're talking to the exact wrong person to understand that people are being helpful just to help.
"I mean it was less 'you should quit' and more 'if you know smoking's bad for you why do u still do it? if you ever wanna quit i'd totally help' kinda thing. I think. I...dunno, it...yeah." They take a long drag of their cigarette.
"He...he's kinda like a puppy, though. An' I know that doesn't mean he's not dangerous, or whatever. But. I dunno."
Rena pauses and grins mischeviously. "Like a cuuuuute puppy?" Rena goes to nudge her elbow into Calamity's ribs. "But seriously, keep an eye on him. He probably wants something. Or maybe he just has asthma."
"Oh my god..." They draw out the word in a complaint, elbowing Rena right back. "He definitely doesn't have asthma - just ADHD. He plays fußball." Their pronunciation of the word is actually pretty good. "I think he...just wants friends, t'be honest. He had to leave all of his back in...Austria? So like...he's kinda only got his moms and his uncle, I guess."
"Like with the table?" Rena asks, quirking a brow. "Oh, shit, he's got two moms? That fucking rules! Or wait. I assume two moms. I guess it could be three or more moms? Or wait wait wait, I assume he's got a good number of moms. Does he have good moms or do I need to beat up your new boyfriend's parents? Because I will."
"No, like soccer - he's not my fucking boyfriend, Jesus Christ, Rena. Haven't even...like I dunno 'f I could even call him a friend yet, we...just haven't hung out enough. But...yeah, his moms are pretty cool. His whole family's really smart, his uncle knows like ten languages or some bullshit, 's crazy..."
Rena cackles. Her laugh can be annoying some times and this is probably one of those. "I know, I know, you're just so easy to make fun of." She pauses, "holy shit, you met his family. You like actually met his family. This is too easy."
Calamity turns pink. "You're such a fuckin' asshole, y'know that? I don't even like him like that. So what if I met his family, it got me a decent meal and some comics. 'Ve done weirder shit for less."
"I'm a bitch, it's in my nature," Rena says, still giggling. "Oh fuck, what kinda comics'd you get? Or are they all weird European things like the smurfs?"
"Bunch'a different shit, 's all German though. Anton uh...I mean he and Ludwig said they'd teach me German. And Ludwig said I could hang out in his library whenever...but like. I'll prob'ly only read whatever comics he's got."
"I take it back, you aren't getting a boyfriend, you're getting adopted." Rena ponders for a second. "Would you want that? Like a good family. And while we're on the subject of languages, want me to try to teach you how to sign?"
Calamity's nose wrinkles. "Anton said they'd try to do that. They...were mostly just nice, though. They didn't try to...keep me. Y'know?" They fall silent at the first question, their grimace deepening.
"I'd learn to sign, yeah," they finally say, clearly choosing to avoid the other question entirely. "Be useful, we could talk about more shit when there's people around, prob'ly. Could teach you like, Arabic, 'f you wanted. So you'd know when the guys're insulting you behind your back..." their tone is teasing.
"Yeah, I get it. I mean, I don't trust it, but I get it." Rena says, starting to sign along with her words, trying her best to go slowly, especially with common words. "And I'd fucking love to learn Arabic. And then lets not tell anyone so I can surprise one of the guys one day by just fluently speaking shit out of nowhere."
If she's noticed Calamity's evasion, she isn't showing it.
"Don't have t'trust it to get as much out of it as I can," they say with a shrug, watching Rena's hands as well as her eyes. "Yeah I been practicing a little, feel like I been getting better at it. Can read it now too, which is cool. Writing's harder, but I can do it 'f I really think hard. We eh...come hang out at Fin's place sometime and we can practice together?"
"Oh hell yes. That sounds like a great time," Rena says, beaming. "I'm gonna teach you all kinds of swear words! And also regular stuff too." As she gets excited, it gets harder and harder for her to control the speed she's signing at, but she does her best to keep it remotely readable.
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