SUPERNOVA | ❝Don't think, just do.❞
When TOPGUN calls, the pilots flock, with no clue of the trials they are about to face. It brings old friends together, everyone from former TOPGUN classmates to childhood friends - they come and go into each...
┌───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────┐ EIGHT sun and ice └───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────┘
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DESPITE her call-sign, Luisa Romero has learned that even goddesses need a break after a long day of flying. Not that she feels like the goddess Athena she flies under the name of — has she ever felt that powerful? Perhaps there have been only two occasions. When she first got up in the air, and when she held her daughter for the first time...
And yet, both of those passions have been confusing her recently.
The Hard Deck buzzes with an early bustle as Luisa walks in, sunset glowing around the windowpane edges. Her hands slither into the pockets of her battered bomber jacket in search of change. Making a bee-line for the counter, she barely gets to glance at Penny Benjamin before sliding some money across for a drink — when the woman notices her, she flashes the same friendly smile as usual.
"Luisa," she says, "same as usual?"
"I'm gonna need something a little stronger today," Luisa replies hoarsely.
When she finally glances up at Penny, the concerned blue eyes take her aback — damn it, is she really that easy to read? Maybe it's the weariness in the pilot's voice, or her usual glow of optimism dimmed to a mere flicker. Luisa had hoped she wasn't making it obvious. She hates being a bother to anyone, and being the recipient of pity just makes her feel... well, wrong.
She's usually the one reading other people when they're down — it is her special talent. In fact, her mother always used to say she only needed ten seconds to get a good read on someone. Luisa did it with Hangman when he first started chatting her up at the bar years ago, seeing right through his facade. And of course she can do it with all her childhood friends, knowing them like the back of her hand.
Only one person muted her instincts... but that is one man she would rather not think about.
"How strong are we thinking, then?" Penny asks.
"Strong enough to make me relax, but I still wanna walk home in a straight-ish line."
"Hm... would you say you're a wine spritzer kind of girl?"
"Sounds good to me," Luisa sighs. She can't remember the last time she sat at a bar and had a drink like this — it must have been before motherhood. Everything feels like a Before and After, in both the best ways and the more conflicting ones too. No matter how many people warned her of it, she was still blindsided by that fact some days.
