poly_chromatic | ♦ ♦ 25TH CONTRACT

Entry tags:

darker than black - hei

♦ ♦ 25TH CONTRACT

... This is pathetic. How the hell am I supposed to go out like this? I can't even cross the street without getting strange looks. It's like I'm a frea - gjrjzarg

[ The device jolts into video-mode as it clatters to the floor -- facedown. There are sounds of scuffle offscreen. Glasses smashing. A man's startled yell -- aborted by a thud. Then: a female voice -- one of those smoky contralto registers. Any other time, it'd sound attractive. ]

[ Right now? It's just frigorific. ]

Back off. I'm armed. You're not. Consider this in detail.

[ Guess who got genderswapped while visiting the Underground? Ask Hei about his day. He dares you. ]

[ Options for Run-Ins: ]

[ Home: He'll be in the bathroom -- trying to settle to the new body. His hair falls in choppy hanks around his scowling face. There's a dark pile of snipped-off locks in the wastebin, and a box of bandaids overturned in the sink. He rubs at the steamy mirror with his palms, smearing the glass, breathing slowly around words even he doesn't immediately register as cursing. ]

[ Out and About: No plum-red lips. No hair-flips. No swivel-hips. He emerges from a clothing store in nondescript clothes -- baggy blue jeans, a plaid flannel shirt and a hooded-down parka in dull brown. Smaller boots rub at his heels and toes through ugly socks. Inspecting himself in a store window, he wrinkles up his nose and scowls. Ugh. ]

[ Move along, gentlemen. Nothing sweet or kittenish about this little number. There's an unwomanly directness in those eyes. Stay the hell away. ]

[ ooc: Replies will come from

two_zero_one. Please keep in mind that unless you've interacted with Hei -- not Li -- the grumpy lady will be hard to recognize. Replies will be sloooow, so backtags are a joy<3 ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Korra slept through Hei's initial departure, but she wakes up when he gets back. It's the sound of unfamiliar footsteps that catches her attention. She sits up in bed and quickly pulls the sheets to her chest.

She doesn't call out Hei's name; those aren't his footsteps. Moving silently, she slides into her jeans and pulls on her shirt (not bothering with undergarments -- she just needs to be dressed enough to confront the stranger). Once she's dressed, she walks carefully out into the hall, ready to take on any intruder.]

[ Not wanting to stir up a fuss, Hei had left Korra asleep and headed out alone. For a change of clothes. For a personal sweep of the City and its latest curse. For a moment to gather his wits. And, ultimately, to pick up breakfast. While he'd like nothing more than to call in sick at work and disappear into blissful obscurity down Underground today ... ]

[ Well. He did make a promise. ]

[ It's part of the reason why he returns to the flat. Not waking Korra up personally, but noisy enough to do it second-hand, as he pads around the kitchenette barefoot in his loose-fitting new shirt and jeans. There's a hard-edged -- almost whippish -- quality to the way he holds himself. It's not only unflattering on the woman's body, it's eerie. But he finds himself hard-pressed to give a fuck. It's just a temporary curse. (At least he hopes so.) When Korra wanders out, Hei is busy flipping pancakes. His back is to her, but even with the tea kettle bubbling, hey. It's only them in the flat. ]

Good morning. [ It's a lighter version of Hei's usual rasp. A Come back to bed, baby kind of voice. Such a waste, since his next words are, ] Laugh, and I will hurt you.

Edited 2013-05-21 19:53 (UTC)

Mor...ning... [It takes her a moment -- she's never encountered a curse that would change your gender before. She perches hesitantly on one of the stools.]

Why would I laugh? [Her past lives have been male, female, and every variation in between. Even if she doesn't know them, it's given her a more fluid sense of gender than people might expect.

Besides. He's pretty hot as a girl.]

[ Hei has switched skins and names enough times in his profession -- but this is a little too extreme. There's a neatly bandaged cut on his cheek from that scuffle he'd inevitably gotten into when he'd gone out, but he pays that no attention: his current focus appears to be on the food. There's a well-practiced but slightly jerky turn to his wrist as he scoops each pancake off the pan into a plate. He's practically bristling with a pent-up ... irritation? Impatience? Something. ]

[ Firmly, he tells himself sulking will do no good. The curse is done. Now it's just -- dealing with it. ]

Because I'm the same height as you now. [ For once. On another note, ] I sound like a bronchitic hooker.

[She coughs, trying to cover a laugh at his phrasing. He's so grumpy about such a silly thing. It'd be funny if he didn't have a history of being awful when grumpy.]

Would it help if I said you're really hot?

[ The eternal Grumpy Cat. That's him. At her remark, he responds, not with words, but with an irritable upward puff from his pouting lower-lip, blowing the loose strands off his brow. He doesn't want to waste time pondering whether this body is Hot or not. Hell, he'd prefer not to picture any part of it below the chin. ]

[ There's a scrape of a chair being pulled and the clink-clink of plates and two mugs setting the table. None of which he bothers with, when he's alone. But it seems vaguely boorish to send her home without breakfast. ]

It'd help if you wiped that smirk off your face.

[ tsun tsun tsun ]

Edited 2013-05-21 20:42 (UTC)

[There doesn't seem to be an edge of violence in his bad mood...yet. She takes a chance and mimes wiping her face, settling her mouth into a flat line. There's no hiding the twinkle in her eyes, though, even if it's mixed with wary caution.]

There.

[ To be frank, Hei's played-out enough from last night. The chances of his temper escalating are slim. (Or maybe it's the lesser levels of testosterone in this body? He doubts there's truth to the theory. You don't have to be an alpha-male to suffer feral bursts of aggression. But somehow it's more credible than the idea of sex putting him in a good mood. It so rarely happens.) ]

[ He doesn't react to Korra's mock-pantomime except with an unamused quirk of one eyebrow. But there's a twinge at the wariness in her eyes. She so frequently walks on eggshells around him. The classic scenario of abuse? Deliberately, he turns away, ]

Sit down. [ He wrenches the fridge open, slops some milk into a small pitcher, and then, with marginally calmer motions, puts it in the microwave. ] Tell me how you take your tea.

Plain. [She doesn't understand other people's penchant for adding things to their tea. One of the many, many mysteries about this place.]

Where'd you go last night? [It occurs to her too late that he might take that as an interrogation, when all she's trying to do is make conversation.]

[ The microwave dings. Taking the pitcher out, Hei sets it on the table next to the sugar bowl. Without pausing he peels a banana and slices it, dropping the pieces onto the pancakes and sprinkling them with cinnamon. Since Korra's expressed an aversion for sweets, he doesn't bother breaking out the syrup. ]

[ The kettle boils then, adding its shrill whistle to the melange of early-morning noises. Tea is poured, preferences included, before Hei takes a seat at the table. He doesn't answer her question, except with, ] I had things to take care of. [ Which is basically a curt blow-off. But she shouldn't take it personally. It's an effort to navigate around this surreal new arrangement of theirs. He's trying his best to be patient. ]

Things. [Such a typical non-answer, she almost rolls her eyes. Whatever. She pops a few slices of banana into her mouth before taking some of the pancakes. Silence it is then! She doesn't mind. She's in a post-sex good mood, and happy to have food out to sate her grumbling belly. She digs into her meal and lets Hei be Hei.]

[ Despite the cheerful patch of sunlight glowing on their table, the aroma of tea and pancakes, the temperature between them, not exactly high from the get-go, stagnates. Eyes averted, Hei heaps the pancakes into his plate and proceeds to shovel them into his mouth. Once they're gone, he makes an effort to set his shoulders into something easier, calmer, as he stirs sugar and milk into his tea before sipping at it, elbows braced on the table. Under his shirt, the breasts feel like strange wobbly humps grafted on his chest. ]

[ Eventually, reluctantly, ]

I want those bandages. The ones you were wearing when you came in.

[ Because it's too much trouble to go out and buy a damn bra. ]

[Korra looks up at him from her last bite of pancake and blinks. She'd gone into her own thoughts in the silence, and it takes her a moment to register what he said.]

My sarashi? Uh. Okay. [She finishes off the pancake and chases it down with the rest of her tea.]

Do you know how to put it on?

[ Hei bites the inside of his cheek, lips pursed. Without being aware of it, he hunches on the table, leaning his elbows forward, obscuring his chest. Staring down at his body, from this foreshortened angle, at the swell of breasts and thighs in faded jeans, it's easy to disassociate from those sacks of skin and to the empty space in the denim, to imagine them as something other than what they are. He fights to erase words like udders and neutered from his mind. ]

I don't. [ Sullen. He never does like admitting when he's at a loss. ]

It's not hard. [She slips out of the kitchen to go grab the sarashi from his bedroom. She rolls it up as she heads back to the kitchen.]

Right. Off with the shirt.

[ Okay, seriously. She sounded way too fucking cheery when she said, Off with the shirt. Hands wrapped around his yellow ceramic mug, Hei stares at her. Lip curled. Eyes narrowed. ]

[ At length: ]

...Maybe I'll go without it. [ It's not an attack of shyness. It's a physical revulsion. Nudity is usually nothing for him, but suddenly he doesn't like the idea of stripping down. ]

You seriously want to spend the entire day jiggling and making awkward slapping sounds when you walk? [It's not fun, especially when you're in a fight. Also it's just kind of embarrassing when other people can hear your boobs slap against your ribcage.

The look she gives him is unimpressed.]

[ Hei hunches his shoulders further, and folds his arms across his breasts. It's not a defensive posture so much as an awkward one. He looks like an adolescent who has developed curves overnight. He knows she has a point. He needs support of some kind. For these. Skin-sacks. They won't stay up by themselves -- they hurt when he moves. Logically, a different body shouldn't even matter. His focus should be on the practicalities, how to adapt and adjust to the changes. Survival comes first, isn't that how the saying goes? Feelings come second. ]

[ But. ]

[ But he feels like a fucking freak. ]

They're not big enough to make 'slapping sounds.' [ Spoilers: he's lying. ]

[.......is he seriously that uncomfortable with them? Korra's torn between disbelief, annoyance, and sympathy. She wants to hug him, but his body language is so closed off. She tries to think of what to say to make him more comfortable.]

Look, I can wrap this so it flattens your chest. [One of her White Lotus guards had done that to bind his breasts, and he had shown her the trick.] It'll be like they aren't even there.

[ He'd prefer to disassociate himself from the reality of this body entirely. Korra's insistence of referring to the breasts as Yours? Not helping. Exhaling, Hei combs his fingers through his thick hair, which immediately fall back over his eyes. Eventually he decides -- fuck it. Sooner started, sooner over with. ]

Right.

[ Avoiding her gaze, he sets the mug aside and rises from his seat. Hesitates a beat, then reaches down with both hands and yanks the offending shirt over his head. Well then. Unlike the airbrushed covers of magazines, he's not completely smooth and hairless. There's a tentative fleece on his arms and under them. Barely there, but perceptible in the bright morning light. There's no expression on his face, but his tone is flat as Kansas. ]

Get started.

[It's so tempting to touch. They're beautiful, and it's such a shame that he's uncomfortable with him. She'd like to show him how nice it can be, how good it can feel.

But she keeps her touch light, just the barest pressure to hold one end of the sarashi in place as she makes the first tight round across his chest. A second, a third, and the cloth is tight enough to hold the end without her help, so she lets go. After that, she only touches him to make slight adjustments and ensure that he's covered smoothly. His breasts are too big to make completely flat, but she has enough extra cloth to smooth the transition from breast to ribcage. She tucks the edge in firmly and then steps back.]

How does that feel?

[ Now, now. Stop acting like he's a sexually repressed ninny. Hei is tactile by nature. And his mind is still dismally male. One of his first experiments -- after ensuring his abilities were intact -- was checking this new form for a different range of sensations. He'd made no spectacular discoveries. Fingering himself was about as exciting as, well, stanching an itch. And there was, as per usual, no feeling in the breasts at all. But there was plenty of feeling in his spine, which ached in dull stages as the day wore on. It was like being weighted down by two stones. ]

[ When Korra starts winding the sarashi around him, it's confining. His lungs fill underneath her palm, and he raises his arms with the uncertainty of a tightrope walker, eyes tracking her progress. While the end result makes him feel like he's swaddled in several layers of peppermint and serves up his bare shoulders and cleavage as if they're squeezed from a tube, it's not suffocating so much as. Strange. ]

[ Smoothing his hands over the swathes, he mutters, ]

This curse better not last past midnight. [ re: Yes, it's fine. ]

[Korra frowns a little and tugs up the top wraps, just a little. She'd meant to bind his chest, not put him in a functional corset. He shouldn't be showing any cleavage. (Oops.)

She picks up his shirt and hands it to him.]

Well, if it does, at least now they won't jiggle. [Which is a pity, because Korra would like nothing more than to take this new body out for a test drive. But she can behave.]

[ (Oops indeed.) ]

[ Nose wrinkling, Hei yanks the shirt from her hands. His face is cool-eyed and angular in its halo of dark hair. There's a clump in the back that sticks straight up. Damn homemade haircuts. ] I think you're enjoying this too much. [ He has a peculiar close-mouthed way of speaking. The words are resonant, but hit with a terse flatness. It's actual women who open their jaws in that animated manner when they talk -- who use five or six octaves as opposed to two like Hei does. ]

And I think you are a sulky crankypants.

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