Never's the best time//Seren&Temp

Even though Jenna had asked of him to stay away for a few days, Cade had only waited for a couple. Being that ‘couple’ and ‘few’ were synonyms he felt he wasn’t in the wrong. Though on his walk over to the tavern, he couldn’t help but to feel a sense of Deja-vu. This not being the first time he felt he screwed up in an interaction with Jenna, he could only hope the outcome would be the same.

It was a unique feeling for him that a woman could string him up with so much emotion especially since they’ve hardly had much time together. Past relationships for him were more for show, lack of emotion and more of other various activities. He’s had his fair share of arm-candy even at fairly young ages, back then it was all about image. Half his mind hated to be an instigator, but the other half wasn’t satisfied with the ending of their last visit. Cade wasn’t going to let himself be tossed aside so easily.

Cade casually cruised into the tavern, it again being at a time when the bar wasn’t too populated. He would prefer to speak with Jenna in an atmosphere that lacked the loud musings of a bunch of drunken idiots. The place was exactly as he expected, quiet and radiating a depressive mood that would sully the buzz of any party ready frat boy. A strange large figure in a faraway booth eyed Cade as he ventured further into the dry tavern.

He noticed that his winged companion was nowhere to be seen in the place, but he felt it would probably be for the best that he didn’t make a scene to draw her out. He was sure that she would out and about at some point in time so he sat himself at the counter. He hardly had the patience to sit and wait alone, so he pulled out his deck of cards and began to shuffle with one hand, a skill he had developed over time. His eyes drifted as he kept his hand busy.

He noticed from the corner of his eye that the large trench coated figure that spied him walking in had got up from where he was sitting once Cade sat on the stool. He wasn’t sure what was going on with him.

It had been a few years since Serenity had been in the tavern at Port Albion. Nonetheless walking into it, she smelled all too familiar smells all around the area. Tapping her cane against the wood floor, the tapping slowed down the closer and closer she got to a table near the middle of the tavern. Finding the nearest seat and moving the chair around to angle it to her advantage for sitting in it, Serenity slowly took her seat - setting her cane across the table in front of her. A few minutes passed, and from the outside perspective it looked as if the woman was just sitting there peacefully with her hands laying on her lap.

As she sat there, behind the bar the tavern owner George stepped out into the main area - looking around and spotting Serenity with a surprise. The older man quickly grabbed a Shiner and walked over to Serenity, setting the cold beer down on the table with a loud thud. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you around these parts in awhile."

Serenity looked up in the direction of the tavern owner, offering up a smile and taking the beer he had set on the table. "I'm teaching again, I'm glad to hear you're still here." George patted Serenity on the shoulder and they talked for a little while longer before the tavern owner went to excuse himself to attend to some of the other customers. Turning to her table, Serenity sighed and sipped on her beer in a surprisingly lady like manner. The first day of classes had been exhausting and the older woman was glad they were done with.

Cade heard the tapping of the cane as someone else entered the tavern. His thoughts ceased for a moment as he had a quick flashback to a couple nights ago when he’d last heard a familiar sounding tap. It could have been mere coincidence and the seemingly blind woman had nothing to do with the events of that night, but he couldn’t help to draw the connections when he overheard the brief conversation she had with the owner. He thought of confronting her for that reason, but he hardly had enough proof to pinpoint it to her. Besides even if it was, it wouldn’t be her fault for the later event.

The mysterious figure’s attention detracted to the blind woman when she entered. The lumbering giant took a seat at a neighboring table to hers. The figure did nothing more than slouch and lean against the table, the jade eyes of the person seemed to glare at the table and nowhere else. From underneath the stranger’s table emerged a small scorpion no larger than the palm of the average person’s hand. It scuttled across the wooden floor of the bar its path directly toward the blind woman’s table.

Cade had kept his eye on the mysterious figure the entire time, even when his attention was else where he still kept a fraction of it focused on him or her due to their strange behaviour alone. He couldn’t quite see the arachnid scurrying its way over to the blind woman since the furniture of the place blocked his vision of such a small creature. Within a couple of seconds, the scorpion scuttled over the feet of the woman and continued to circle around the area as though it were sent on a mission.

Serenity was quiet and in her thoughts, sipping her beer every now and then when the sudden noise near her feet caused her body to tense up. Serenity waited nonetheless, listening to the scorpion circle her feet. With her vision gone for such a long time, Serenity's other senses made up for it by noticing things that a normal person would not. Just as soon as Serenity felt the time was right, the woman's foot darted out and smashed the scorpion quite quickly. With that being done, Serenity grabbed her cane and stood up angrily with her body turning all around in the tavern. "Who thinks they're funny?" she suddenly yelled - directing her words at whoever was responsible in the tavern for the scorpion.

The woman was not inclined to kill anyone, due to her new job - but the scorpion was something she considered a threat to her and Serenity intended to follow up with equally threatening whoever had sent it out in the first place.

Cade sat in the silence, his thoughts ticking as he sort of lost his sense of reality for a second or two. It was quickly reinstated when the blind woman outburst, almost causing him to scatter his cards all over the floor. Luckily his wide grip clamped on the deck before his shock could cause him to lose them. His head quizzically quirked over to the origin of the shout. His teeth began to ground as he watched the scene.

The reminisce of the squashed scorpion slithered back to the host’s body. The guts of the creature looked suspiciously like sand. The hidden hoodlum sat up a bit more straight and stared off in the direction of the blind woman looking for the culprit. Tem thought her reaction would be a lot funnier, but she supposed she guessed wrong. Now though she seemed a bit more aggressive. Tem didn’t hold any fear of a blinded woman, especially one that she suspected to be no more than human. “I originally thought it was going to be funny, but your reaction is less than satisfactory” Tem retorted in her normal tone of voice in a bored manner. Her disguised face displayed an unamused grimace, though it could hardly be noticed by the woman who was unable to see.

Cade’s full attention was brought into the confrontation when he recognized the cloaked person’s voice, it was the officer he helped at the dock a while back. Though the man in the trench coat hardly looked like the person he saw bending the sand.

Hearing the voice, Serenity quickly turned to Tem with flared nostrils and furrowed in eyebrows. "How dare you think something like that is amusing," Serenity snapped at the stranger - equally holding no fear now confronting the controller of the scorpion. For all the things that Serenity perceived, it would have been almost impossible for her determine the scorpion being made out of sand unless it was on her skin or closer to her nose. The big issue was with coming from a background that made her in tune with all forms of stealth killing, Serenity was convinced that this person was trying to kill her. For what reason though? Sadly the woman could think of many. "If you wish to kill me, then attack me directly," Serenity spat in the direction of the large figure - preparing herself for a fight.

Tem snorted at the stranger’s assumption that she was attempting to kill her. She shook her head and got out of her seat. Her current disguise stood at about 6’5”, so the mere size in her form displayed her strength. As much as Tem would love a one on one match, her previous actions at the beach a month or so ago had given her already bad reputation to a new low. It was nearly tinkering her to retirement, if not for the usefulness of her shape-shifting ability she’d probably would be already..

“What makes you think you have any right to judge my actions?” she spat back, though she seemed to have a better mood about it than Seren did. “Kill you? You’re that scared of a little bug? How pathetic, it was nothing more than a spec of dirt!” Tem continued was a small chuckle after she finished. She broadened her masculine chest and waited because if there was any confrontation she would at least like to get away with the self-defense excuse.

-

Cade watched the scene curiously still. It was about the most action going on in the bar, so it wasn’t easy to ignore. He shoved the deck of cards back into his pocket for safe keeping and got off his stool. With the sand sweeping along the floor toward the gargantuan being there was no doubt in his mind that it was the officer that he originally guessed it was. He watched the woman fling a mammoth-sized worm halfway across the ocean with relative ease, there was no telling what could happen to Serenity if she were to somehow enrage her.

He had no clue how to diffuse the situation quickly, since he hardly knew either of the combatants, but he had to try something. If anything to ensure that Jenna wouldn’t lose her workplace since he could guess that Tem might demolish the place without a second thought. “Hey, hey! Calm down, this isn’t the place for your quarrels!” he shouted from across the building and paced himself over to the two.

Serenity frowned in Tem's direction for a moment, seeming confused at her momentary rival announcing that the scorpion meant nothing. "What the hell are you trying to do if you're not intent on killing anyone?" Serenity suddenly asked Tem, her voice seeming to have relaxed just a bit when she heard the voice of a young man to her side. Turning her face in that direction, she gave Cade a look that only suggested that he should butt out. "Stay out of this, whatever this thing was trying to do SOMETHING to me." The comment seemed strange coming from Serenity since she could not see Tem, but from talking with her Serenity had quickly picked up that Tem didn't move like a normal human being.

That piece of fact alone made the woman start to slowly calm down, for as much as she wanted to accuse Tem of trying to murder her - Serenity was quickly finding out that things weren't exactly as they seemed.

[ooc; I judged my character wrong. >_>; I thought she was going to fight but I think she's hesitant as well because of her job.]

Cade halted his movements when Serenity told him to mind his own business. He gritted his teeth, unsure if he should follow since he wasn’t sure how much his interfering would help the situation. “That thing is a cop, I doubt she’d do anything to outright hurt or maim a resident” he attempted to reason. He wasn’t sure how much more of an argument he could make about the situation, so if his last comment wouldn’t fix it he wasn’t sure what else he could say or do would.

-

Tem glared at Lemaire for his attempts to ease the situation, if he could barely take on an oversized worm she had her doubts that he was able much else. Though his ability to identify her was a feat she wouldn’t have expected from him. “This isn’t an equation Lemaire, go back to your seat” she sneered to the teacher.

Tem displayed a half twisted smile when the blind woman asked for a reason behind her actions. “Linking a bug to murder is quite an extreme view. I was only looking to get some sort of reaction out of you, nothing more. You seem to not take a joke very well” she explained, making her tone sound as though Seren was the one out of line. Tem wasn’t quite aware of the lethality of a scorpion since she’d been around them so often in her life, even having one as a pet. Being that she wasn’t able to be injected by the poison through the stinger on the tail, she never knew it was lethal.

At hearing Cade explain that Tem was a police officer, Serenity most likely would have done a double-take if she could actually see. "You're kidding." She said directly to Cade in a confused yet slightly interested manner. As the giant man thing snapped at Cade and then practically mocked Serenity for thinking that she was trying to kill her, the woman's expression contorted even more. "You seem to not know life very well to not understand what thing like that can do."

Suddenly shaking her head, Serenity felt less enraged as she did a few minutes ago. Reaching out slowly, her hand connected with her beer and she quickly took a swig of it. "What are you?" Serenity suddenly asked Tem in a interested tone.

Cade ground his teeth with a force that could demolish a jaw breaker after hearing Tem’s response. He knew better than to let his raw emotions dictate his actions, besides what could he possibly do? A physical response would be useless given that her body was completely made of sand and he knew that. A verbal response wouldn’t make the confrontation any better, so he stepped back slightly and acknowledged Seren’s question. “Or she poses as one, I can’t quite tell” a slight bitter tone corrupting his voice.

-

Tem’s false face fazed into a more befuddled expression as the blind woman accused her of not knowing enough about scorpions. Such a proposition seemed ridiculous to her, she’d spent her entire life around scorpions if anything she’d be an expert in them if her memory wasn’t so bad. “I have a pet scorpion, I’ve never seen it harm anything larger than a fly. The worst it could do is pinch or sting you, neither could kill you by such a small creature” she reasoned in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

In better circumstances, Tem would be far more open about herself, but given they were a few seconds away from an all-out brawl a moment ago she didn’t really feel like going into the major specifics. There was a faint beeping sound coming from within Tem’s body while she began to phase her arm back into sand form. “I’m something far less human, living sand, a golem if you will” as she finished the beeping sound flowed through her arm until a small black pager emerged from the palm of her hand. She looked at the small device, rolling her eyes when she knew what it was about. “Well, I’d like to stay and chat, but I’m needed back at the station.”

Serenity moved her head in the direction of Cade for a moment, until Tem started talking again and Serenity gritted her teeth in the urge to resist restarting something that she thought was wiser to finish. From the way that this person talked, it was obvious they weren't human and her thoughts were confirmed when Tem stated what she was. "Good-bye," Serenity stated simply - feeling no need to talk with the sand golem anymore. Instead, Serenity grabbed the last bit of her beer and her cane and started in the direction of the bar. As she was walking and tapping her cane against the wood floor, to her surprise the woman's foot caught at an awkward angle and Serenity started to fall forward in a fluster.

Almost impatient enough to wait for a simple good-bye from the blind teacher, Tem walked off even though she felt like bursting out of the door of the tavern in a sandstorm-like fashion. Many things were restricting her from doing so, so she exited the bar quickly morphing her features back to her regular human guise and grew her uniform over the trench coat. Her badge emerged out of her chest and held itself in place.

-

Cade felt a tad bit flustered after Tem had left, although he had been burned a whole lot worse after breaking up a confrontation before so there was a good side to the situation. Whether his intrusion had been a deciding factor on the end result he couldn’t tell, but at least there was little outside of a verbal dispute. The blond man shook his head and groaned slightly as his eyes went back to his old seating place.

Before Cade could even make a step forward, the blind woman stumbled in his path. Almost instinctively, he shot his arm out to catch the woman’s torso and swung his other arm around to her back to ensure a clean catch in a sort of clamping way. “Whoa, almost went toe to toe with the floor there! I can ensure you, you weren’t gonna win that fight” he teased slightly. His catch was more so influenced by luck and positioning, if he’d been a couple of inches away his reflexes wouldn’t have been as fast.

As Serenity was caught and Cade teased her, Serenity's expression turned sharp and she quickly straightened herself up and moved away from the man's grasp. "Every one is allowed to be surprised here and there," she replied to him in a rude manner. Although she appeared angry, it was quite obvious that the woman was embarrassed as well. Feeling for the counter near her, Serenity's hand grasped the hard wood and the woman quickly found a stool. Thinking for a moment as she sat there, Serenity mentally rolled her eyes and turned her head back in the last direction she had known the man to be. "I apologize. I do not normally like people helping me."

Serenity wasn't quite sure if the man that had caught her was a villager or a teacher, but from the brief contact his hands had with her skin the older woman suspected the latter.

Cade was sort of taken back by Serenity’s tone of voice after he’d stopped her from a nasty fall. Most of the time people were thankful for not falling flat on their face, but then again given the way Tem had treated her and added by his comment, she probably wasn’t in the best of moods. Cade was quick to forgive and forget after Seren had apologized for her manners.

Cade quirked a smirk for a second or two before he strolled over to a nearby bar stool to the woman. As it seemed, she was having a rough enough day as it was and frankly Cade’s wasn’t so great either. As the old saying goes, misery loves company. “No, no, you’re right. If everyone was perfect, what need would we have for machines?” he answered as he adjusted his seating and neatened his flashy red vest. “And I know that feeling, sometimes you just have to do things your own way, right?”

His eyes subtly searched around the bar, his target was either someone to serve him or Jenna, though neither seemed to be in sight so his attention went back to the blind woman. His jaw shifted as his gaze fell upon her, his curiosity raised once more. “Wait, you work at the school too, don’t you?” he mostly played off the assumption he had made earlier, but he had a feeling he’d seen her around campus once or twice. Considering that he could also see the battle arena quite well from his classroom, he might have seen her class, though didn’t have a good enough view to know her distinctive features all too well.