♦ ♦ 25TH CONTRACT

[mortemscintilla]

... 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 fromtwo_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 ]

Comments

action-ish? Being stalked /sobs

[moonlitrequiem]

[Yin, of course, has no questions. She is, however, stalking Hei via her specter, perhaps a little more than usual.]

\^^/

[two_zero_one]

[ She'll get quite the interesting show. Hei -- or at least a female approximation of Hei -- leaning over the sink in his flat, as if mesmerized by the steady pouring of the cold water over his fingers, enveloping them like a living glove. His clothes are cut wide and baggy, the shirt loose to accommodate the unsupported bosom. Catching sight of the specter, a dark-blue eye narrows from between a fringe of messy hair. ]

[ He breathes deeply, sucking the air through his nostrils, his spine ruler-hard as he turns the tap off and straightens. ]

[ She'll find him, sometime late at night, at the park. Slumped on a bench, in his shapeless clothes, chomping sullenly on a sandwich. ]

[moonlitrequiem]

[Unobtrusive and silent, Yin takes a seat on the other side of the bench. If Hei's out there, then she could at least join him instead of just watching him from afar via her observation spirit. Different body or not, he's pure Hei.]

[two_zero_one]

[ Silent. Unobtrusive. That's what he likes about Yin. She doesn't jangle the air with tension the way most people do; she slots herself into the space next to him without disturbing it. He's always appreciated that. ]

[ Popping the last bit of sandwich into his mouth, he glances over at her. No expression beyond an ironic quirk of an eyebrow. ]

I've been told off three times today for 'intruding' into the men's restrooms. [ Not a complaint. More a summation of his day. i. e. It's kind of sucked. ]

[moonlitrequiem]

[Complaint or not, it's atypical of Hei to give out any facts of that nature. Yin simply turns to him and gives him a look that should be confused. A slight opening of her mouth. Hei is a man, who looks like a woman. Clearly they are making this judgement off of looks.]

And as curses are running more than one day, there is no certainty this will fade tomorrow?

[two_zero_one]

[ Hei takes her subtly-telegraphed surprise for what it is. There's a twitch at the corners of his mouth. It's not his imagination, he knows; she's noticeably less Doll-like everytime he sees her. Or perhaps the better word is that her behavior adheres less rigidly to the Doll stereotype. He's not sure if it's from being in the City. Or if it's an unspooling that's exclusive to Yin. ]

[ At her question, there's a brief shake of the head. ]

None. It might escalate into something worse. [ But he has no way of knowing what. That's the kicker. A beat, then, ] Keep a lookout with your specter. Once it's midnight -- if there's any abnormal behavior among the cursed -- inform me. [ He'll lock himself away in his safe-house down Underground, if it's something too hideous. ]

[moonlitrequiem]

[Mostly, it's Hei. The City has helped, the fact people here treat her like a person helps.]

[She briefly nods, wondering if the curses thus far have been that way - mostly harmless, then leading into something worse.]

[two_zero_one]

[ They have, and that sliding scale from benign to malevolent is a familiar pattern where Hei is concerned -- both operationally and in terms of past experience. He brushes the crumbs of bread from his mouth before wiping his palms on the thighs of his slacks. It's a remarkably unfeminine set of gestures. ]

[ Studying Yin from the corner of his eye, he asks, more quietly, ]

How are you settling in?

[moonlitrequiem]

[Her head picks up, and she turns to him. They don't typically face each other in these conversations, but she is very much looking at Hei now.]

[For a long time, there's no answer.]

My job was still available to me. It is almost like I didn't leave. [Accept for Hei, the way he acted when she returned, and Mao sleeping in her closet. Maybe that's why they stand out the most, the two that should have been affected the least were affected the most.]

[two_zero_one]

[ The streetlight above them makes metallic silver-gold needles dance across Yin's hair, striking two bright glints in his eyes. Dimly, she puts Hei in mind of a gravesite seraph, delicately honed and filled with mournful meaning. What she says is a simple statement of fact. But as always, with Yin, there are subtexts of meaning there. ] You weren't gone that long. But ... even in the City, time moves differently for everyone. [ His gaze is dipped, voice half-muted. It's the closest he can get to sincerity without it being an affectation. He doesn't add, You were missed, because those fragments of sentimentality aren't for Hei. He measures people more by their usefulness and reliability. ]

[ But that doesn't mean he's devoid of the capacity to feel their loss. ]

[moonlitrequiem]

[All she can do is give a nod. Even for her, it moves differently. It's almost pointless as long as she has Hei and Mao. She carries on as she would have back home.]

[Even now, she silently waits. Except, what was once about blankly waiting for the next order has become about basking in Hei's presence. Merely sharing this space with him, having a conversation that has little to do with work.]

[two_zero_one]

[ It's an easy kind of serenity that settles over the bench, familiar but new too. For the first time all day, scowling and acclimating and stressing, Hei experiences a pleasant floaty feeling -- one he's come to associate with Yin. Must have something to do with all that refreshing calm. It's not because of the Doll's programming. It's just her. ]

[ It's a long moment before Hei breaks the silence, the curve to his mouth faint and fleeting. ]

Have you ever had your palm read, Yin? [ This evening, in the Underground, some gap-toothed idiot had grabbed Hei's wrist and tried to read his palm. It hadn't gone down well. But there's no intimation of violence here. His movements are neutral, casual, as he reaches out and lightly closes his fingers around her wrist. ]

[moonlitrequiem]

[Why would she care for that sort of thing? Yin shakes her head. Never crossed her mind, and no one had bothered to offer to do it, either. Until now.]

[As it's Hei, doing something so random, his hands holding hers, well, she wouldn't have fought anyway.]

[two_zero_one]

[ Little secret: Let me read your palm is a trick 'Li' uses. A shy flirtation to disguise more calculating goals. Like getting a mark in close proximity. Or unobtrusively planting a bug on their clothes. Or looking them dead in the eye -- and electrocuting them to either death or unconsciousness. (In Yin's place, he'd immediately yank his hand away. It's a weak spot, the juncture of his wrist. Too many vital veins branching there.) ]

[ Except this isn't an assassination. Yin's hand feels curiously light in his. (It makes him think of bird-feathers: the brittle bones and blue robin's egg veins under her skin). It's not often Hei allows himself moments of whimsy like these. It's childish, true. But where Huang would recoil in horror and Mao would glare at him out of the corner of catty eyes, he knows Yin won't judge. ]

[ When she shakes her head, he says, in a tone of blunt practicality, ]

Stay away from it. Waste of time and money. [ Lightly, he sketches the lines on her palm with an index finger. Traces the curve adjacent to her thumb. ] That's the life line. [ Hers doesn't seem very long -- but logically, in their profession and circumstances, none of them are guaranteed long lives. ]

[moonlitrequiem]

[His hands are so different from hers. Larger, a shade darker against hers, rougher, but they're also warmer. Or maybe it's only a warmth Yin a dead person can feel.]

[She, of course, isn't on alert for her own vitals. She wasn't told to be, and she's with Hei. Far more than a lack of judgement, she watches his fingers, almost with something that might be curiosity, intent when he highlights her life line, converting the information to memory.]

[There's also a nod. No one else will be reading Yin's palms now. As for the longevity of her line, the concept of length doesn't matter any longer.]

[two_zero_one]

[ If Hei's conscious of her scrutiny, he doesn't let on. The nod -- so damn earnest -- almost makes him smile. But with the screen of choppy hair falling down around his face, it's an easy expression to conceal. To passersby, they'd make an interesting picture. Two women -- one dark and wiry, the other pale and almost fragile -- perched like lazy friends on the bench. ]

[ His finger maps out the secondary creases on her palm -- heart line and fate line, respectively. But he's not about to read her fortune. Lightly, he clasps her wrist in his fingers. ] If anyone ever grabs you this way, remember the weakest point of their grip is where the thumb and fingers meet. Always rotate your wrist so the thumb-side of your forearm is at that point. Then yank. [ Hopefully, as long she's under his watch, she won't find herself in such a situation. But it's very typically Hei to turn an idle chat into a self-defense lesson. ]

[moonlitrequiem]

[For a moment, Yin looking straight across, it's as though she's trying to see through that curtain.]

[To Hei's lesson, she nods, converting the words to memory. She evens put her thumb at the point Hei speaks of, on her own hand, to show she understands.]

[two_zero_one]

[ He notes the demonstration with a sideways half-smile, visible only in thin slivers from behind his hair. Lightly, he sets Yin's hand back in her lap, before shaking the strands off his face. A resigned exhale, then he's rising from the bench. ]

It's almost midnight. [ If the curse takes a turn for the sordid, it's a smarter option for him to be indoors. His gaze sweeps over the deserted park -- chirruping insects, small rustles of trees and a mild breeze -- before resettling on Yin, ] You should head home too. [ Usually it's a cool order. But something in the way his tone softens makes it a quiet suggestion. ]

[moonlitrequiem]

[She does stand at Hei's suggestion, but Yin stops, her feet hesitating. If the curse change, she realizes, there's a part of her that wants the opposite. For some illogical reason - desire - she wants to be there.]

[It might not be in her expression, and it's hard to be in her silence, but the way her feet started to move, the unsure placement, the pause. Yin doesn't want to go.]

[two_zero_one]

[ Hei can read the stutter of hesitation in her movements as plain as day. It seems incongruous for a split-second, because even though it's a familiar mannerism, it's unfamiliar on a Doll. Then again, there's very little about Yin that conforms to the mold of a typical Doll these days. ]

[ For a moment he stays silent, tries to treat everything with a surface level glance. Then, ]

Is something wrong?

[moonlitrequiem]

[She starts to shake her, but stops shortly. Maybe it was being in oblivion for so long, and something about the change in the City's curses. Some form of worry, combined with an ache she hadn't experienced in such a long time - loneliness.]

[Her voice is soft as ever, but it has a certainty a Doll's voice shouldn't.]

I want to stay with you.

[two_zero_one]

[ I want to stay with you. Hei lets the expression on his face stay easy and calm, but there's a sharp prickle racing up his spine and blooming across his skull. Not quite shock, but not too many notches away from it. Another, more unflappable part of him -- the part that accepts surreality as it is -- simply says: Oh. That's what this is about. Still, a tension settles in the line of his shoulders, feet planted, hands fixed at his sides, as if he's debating whether to draw back or come closer. As if he's unsure this is Yin. ]

[ Eventually, carefully, ]

I'll walk you back to your place, then. We can take the long route.

[ Not wary, but watchful. He's never heard Yin use the words I and Want in the same conjunction. It seems unnatural, like the ground's swung up to replace the sky. (Yet, he's cognizant of the fact that she's making the choice to be around him. Something about that makes the creature inside of him whisper, Maybe this is what a pleasant surprise feels like?) ]

[ After a beat, he reaches out and takes her hand, fingers curling lightly around hers. ]

[moonlitrequiem]

[As she should, she gives no complaint to the compromise. Mildly, her fingers curl in return. No matter how long a walk it is, it will still not be enough, but she will appreciate the fact he even gave it, with appreciation a Doll should be incapable of.]