Clarissa heard a metal pot clang on the kitchen's hardwood floor. There were smaller bangs and then silence as it spun to a stop. Pali was angry and had every right to be. She sat on the edge of the bed in their room. Almost none of her things had been moved despite her infrequent visits over the last year. This was the closest she came to quitting. They had both known her taking the black cloak and agreeing to this mission would be hard, but this might be too much. There was more banging and a heavy sound as Pali slumped into a chair in other room.
*The spatial set up here is weak. Consider the order of events as well and her train of thought. You need to show that they have been apart a lot and the relationship was very strained."
The smell of spices wafting from the kitchen was painful. They had planned this dinner for a month through and over the strenuous objections of Handler. That was when the invite came for the pop up Dis show. Wrhythm was playing tonight. If she bailed, the persona she had spent a year cultivating in the underground Discordant scene might evaporate. No DisNicknameTK would miss it. The young, rebellious woman she was in that world had nothing better to do and her crew knew it.
She heard soft sobbing coming from the kitchen. Hearing it, her eyes went covetously to the tassled spear and, she marveled at this, still full Air elixir hanging from it. Pali, a stalwart warrior of the Sweep Teams who slew this Ergon warrior before he could take his elixir, was crying over the missed dinner and evening. Clarissa was both jealous and in awe of Pali. She had failed the first round of tryouts of the Sweep Teams and accepted the black cloak instead of the grey. Pali has passed and over the last two years had excelled. Clarissa was on the cusp of similar success, infiltrating a reclusive and effective element cult that so far had eluded the Census Offices' best efforts to penetrate it. She ignored her feelings, they would get in the way now. She would find a way to make it up to Pali, she promised.
Getting up, Clarissa walked back into the kitchen on the way to the door. The scents of the nearly finished main dish were strong because they were spread on the floor where the pan had fallen. The sink was running and Pali's shoulders shook as she held her head in her hands.
Clarissa tip-toed closer and put her hand on Pali's shoulder- the other woman jerked as if shocked and looked up at her with red-rimmed eyes.
"I..." she started, but Pali put her hand up between them, simultaneously shrugging Clarissa's hand off her shoulder. Without a word, she got up and walked to their bedroom where Clarissa had just come from and slammed the door shut.
Clarissa looked around the kitchen and walked over to the sink, turning off the water. Looking down, she regretted that there was no time to clean up the mess she was indirectly responsible for; the show was starting in less than an hour and she would have a lot of explaining to do as it was. Her eyes blinked a few times, feeling a void open inside her, but not knowing what it meant. She would make it up to Pali, she promised.