Ｈｅｉ (Ｌｉ Ｓｈｅｎｓｈｕｎｇ) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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poly_chromatic2014-02-10 12:05 am
mortemscintilla) wrote in poly_chromatic2014-02-10 12:05 am
Entry tags:
♦♦ 34TH CONTRACT - ANONYMOUS TEXT/ACTION
I know the City's sense of humor is barely functional but...
Is this supposed to be funny? These things are crawling everywhere. And I doubt they're here for the symbolism.
They better not be poisonous.
Options For Run-Ins:
The Underground: [ In the lit-up nighttime panorama, he is an unnoticed blur. No need for masks and disguises here; he strolls sedately, engaged in his surroundings. Lingers outside a pawnbroker's window to eye up the flick-knives. ]
[ If you want to catch him, be quick about it. Blink once, and he'll fade seamlessly into the crowd. ]
Cafe: [ Almost five in the evening. He's perched at the back of a noisy all-night caff, the windows steamed up as the snow floats hazily outside. Hunched on a small chair with a teacup, coat and hair dripping, his gaze drifts across the surroundings with an idle interest. People-watching is an old habit, the bright impersonal chatter a kind of sop as much as the hot drink. ]
[ Come say hello while he waits for his pastries. ]
Park: [ The grass is a-glitter with frost. Sighing, 'Li' packs up his telescope and trashes half-empty styrofoam cups of tepid coffee. Above, the sky is shadowed behind a sudden blanket of dark-bellied clouds. Not an ideal night for stargazing. Bundled up in his oversized coat and woolly hat, Li slings his backpack and exits. It's the last quadrant of night; he supposes he could patrol, but really he'd rather walk down the center of the quiet streets, breathing the fresh wet air. Everything is closed and sleeping, and he can enjoy the brief illusion that there is no one, alive or undead, outdoors except for him. ]
[ And you, of course. ]
Carnival (Closed To Korra): [ Spread out under the dark screen of sky, the carnival is something like a human body -- all its cobbled arteries clogged with brisk feet and the clatter of carts and skirling music, the ferris wheel pinwheeling brilliantly and the rides moving in streaks of color against the snow-greyed backdrop. On whim, he sends Korra a snapshot and texts the location. ]
[ In addition, he thumbs in, ]
Let's see if you throw up on the rollercoaster.
[ So romantic. ]
[ OOC: Bitten By The Love Bug ♥ Come pester him! Interactions can end in awkward silence, surprises kisses, glomps, violence, tragedy, or anything else you prefer! ]
Is this supposed to be funny? These things are crawling everywhere. And I doubt they're here for the symbolism.
Options For Run-Ins:
The Underground: [ In the lit-up nighttime panorama, he is an unnoticed blur. No need for masks and disguises here; he strolls sedately, engaged in his surroundings. Lingers outside a pawnbroker's window to eye up the flick-knives. ]
[ If you want to catch him, be quick about it. Blink once, and he'll fade seamlessly into the crowd. ]
Cafe: [ Almost five in the evening. He's perched at the back of a noisy all-night caff, the windows steamed up as the snow floats hazily outside. Hunched on a small chair with a teacup, coat and hair dripping, his gaze drifts across the surroundings with an idle interest. People-watching is an old habit, the bright impersonal chatter a kind of sop as much as the hot drink. ]
[ Come say hello while he waits for his pastries. ]
Park: [ The grass is a-glitter with frost. Sighing, 'Li' packs up his telescope and trashes half-empty styrofoam cups of tepid coffee. Above, the sky is shadowed behind a sudden blanket of dark-bellied clouds. Not an ideal night for stargazing. Bundled up in his oversized coat and woolly hat, Li slings his backpack and exits. It's the last quadrant of night; he supposes he could patrol, but really he'd rather walk down the center of the quiet streets, breathing the fresh wet air. Everything is closed and sleeping, and he can enjoy the brief illusion that there is no one, alive or undead, outdoors except for him. ]
[ And you, of course. ]
Carnival (Closed To Korra): [ Spread out under the dark screen of sky, the carnival is something like a human body -- all its cobbled arteries clogged with brisk feet and the clatter of carts and skirling music, the ferris wheel pinwheeling brilliantly and the rides moving in streaks of color against the snow-greyed backdrop. On whim, he sends Korra a snapshot and texts the location. ]
[ In addition, he thumbs in, ]
Let's see if you throw up on the rollercoaster.
[ So romantic. ]
[ OOC: Bitten By The Love Bug ♥ Come pester him! Interactions can end in awkward silence, surprises kisses, glomps, violence, tragedy, or anything else you prefer! ]
Park
[Until she happened on Hei one day when out for a walk, and a little bug bit her.]
[There is no reaction from her when it does, but she actually turns to Hei for the first time in nearly two weeks.]
Park <33
[ At first Hei thinks it's a physical problem, not a mental one. He can't understand it, the blank-eyed numbness about her. Dead suspension. Here is the old Yin back, the one who was supposed to be buried under the new sparks of verve, risen again like something in a horror movie -- degraded and dull. He tries prodding her about what's wrong. No luck. Tries observing her in his spare time, in case something external is bothering her. Nothing. He even monitors the people she hangs around -- colleagues, neighbours, acquaintances -- in case one of them nudged her down this plunge to Doll-like passivity. Nada. ]
[ It makes no sense. Unhappiness creeps, in his experience. It doesn't torpedo. Whatever catalyst is behind Yin's change (relapse?) ... it's something enormous. ]
[ The question What could it be? flowers through Hei's head, even as he spots Yin on the dimly-lit street. There's beat, then two, before he steps closer. His expression is nothing but mild concern, when he asks, ]
Why are you out so late?
Park
Hei. [She speaks so quietly her lips might as well be moving soundlessly. It's also worth noting Yin deliberately doesn't answer the question, but gets closer to Hei. Without the unwanted interference she might have given an answer and gone about her business. That's how she had been so far.]
[But no, she stares at him, and reaches for his arm.]
Park
[ The idea that it's a curse doesn't yet register. ]
[ He catches the hand floating in front of him, a pale, quinquefoliate flower. Draws her closer, in a gesture that might be affectionate, but is really operational instinct. His voice is quiet when he asks, ]
Is something wrong?
[ A coded: Are you in trouble? ]
Park
[Yin shakes her head - everything feels euphorically right suddenly, in a way Yin can't typically relate to - and uses her free hand to reach once again, aiming for Hei's collar. The aim is to pull him lower, while she stands on her tiptoes. The only thing she can think about, now, is pressing her lips to his.]
Park
[ An elbow to the throat, a foot stomp to the instep, a knee to the groin -- that's how he'd react to an unwanted kiss. Didn't matter if it was from a man or woman. But this is Yin. His mind isn't focused on her as a potential threat. The opposite. She's something to protect -- an instinct that isn't fierce so much as it is steady. And right now, he's never been steadier. Flicking his eyes over the street again, he refocuses on her. She reaches for his collar, and he frowns, dipping close on instinct. As if she has stumbled, or is trying to look at something on his face, or perhaps trying to lean in close to whisper a secret so no one else will overhear. ]
[ The last theory is the closest, and while Hei is running through it with a mathematical efficiency, Yin kisses him. ]
[ What the hell --? It's what he means to say. But the words are a vibration between their pressed mouths. Amid the shock, there's something else. A flare of sudden exhilaration, a titillation that's almost like innocence. It's not real innocence, given what he is. But there's a sense of delighted newness. It's not a real kiss; her top lip barely touching his top lip, bottom lip fitted against his bottom lip, but Hei has never been one to do things by halves. Whatever that's holding him back -- alarm, disbelief, an absence of physical courage -- he shuts off for the moment. The fingers of his free hand clasp the sharp little jut of her hip tight, and then he's kissing her back. Hot, breathless, like a gulp of air. ]
[ It only lasts a moment. In the next beat, he's jerked back. His chest is heaving, eyes wide. ]
Yin... I --
[ Sorry? What are you doing? I should go? It can be any number of things. ]
Park
[As the curse fades, though, right in the middle of it, an image, a memory, flickers across her memory: Hei's lips on Korra's. His hands on her skin.]
[The reality that Hei wouldn't kiss her sinks in when they pull away. Her own eyes look up to him, wide and glassy. She wouldn't have done this without a prompt from the City, and it's likely the same for Hei.]
[One moment she had experienced bliss denied Dolls, evolving or not, and now it's ripped away from her. Yin feels little more than an empty space open up and expand, overlapping the happiness until it's vanished completely.]
[Yin takes a few steps back.]
Park
Yin --
[ His expression isn't different, but his eyes are. They have a way of shading to a darker blue when his thoughts are ricocheting like bullets off the confines of his skull. His emotional barometer has been well and truly fucked for years. But he can tell she's upset. Maybe because of the intrusive curse? Maybe because he kissed her when he had no right to? He isn't sure. But he takes a breath and balls his hands into fists, shoving them into his coat pockets as if to substitute determination for certainty. ]
I'm sorry. [ The words taste so unnatural on his tongue. Never mind that she started the kiss. She was cursed. He wasn't. There's no excuse for the liberty he took. (Hei is selfish, that's part of the way he knows how to navigate the world. No surprise, then, that his behavior is of the same brand. But Yin deserves better than that.) ] You surprised me. That's all. I --
[ Hope I didn't offend or frighten you? What a stupid thing to say. She looks miserable and frightened enough. ]
Park
[It's what the kiss was to him - a reason to make excuses. She takes another step back, her expression slightly hardened. For anyone else it might be a slither of frustration, but for her she might as well be narrowing her eyes at him. She had no issue stepping back and putting her own feelings aside for him to be happy with Korra, but the City flaunted her emotions in her face. The City dredged them up, and now Hei has to make excuses. How fair was this to Korra?]
You're not easy to surprise. [Her tone is listless and soft as ever, but there's a chill in it.]
[She sees Hei kiss Korra flicker across her mind once more, then turns to run.]
Park 1/2
[ Instead, he feels the chill glazing her expression, her voice, and thinks: oh God. He keeps thinking it, in every inflection possible, his mind struggling as if through bracken and nettles, splashing through a muddy stream of doubt, cresting one hill and then another. It begins to beat with his heart: oh God, oh God. ]
[ Because suddenly, the rationales and reason burn it down to the bare bones. One way or another, she knows about the arrangement between him and Korra. What follows is a flare of ... more shame? No, it isn't even that. It is something more desultory and cringing. It is embarrassment. (That, in itself, is bizarre. He and Yin are comrades. Friends. They've made no promises; the loyalty he feels for her is of a different kind. The I will fight for you kind. The I'll always have your back kind. In her state, so fragile, her mind scooped of all but the faintest traces of independance, anything else would be wrong. Exploitative. So why --? ) ]
[ So why did I kiss her? ]
Park
I know.
[ What else can he say? Self-disgust wells up like mud squelching around a boot. He understands -- suddenly, exactly -- why he kissed her. It makes him swallow, unsure of how to rationalize his revulsion. He's always fought against any attraction he feels for Yin -- and there are a hundred good reasons for that. Because Yin is in no position to be in a relationship that won't seem grossly lopsided or predacious. More than that... he's come to view her as a safe harbor. A place where he doesn't have to worry about mindgames or keeping his guard up. ]
[ That's exactly what made the kiss so easy. For a moment -- just a moment -- he forgot who he is. Forgot who Yin is. ]
[ Hei shivers. Emotions are only useful to control, survive and succeed. He is apparently re-learning the lesson he thought he'd mastered. It's why he makes no move to go after Yin, when she takes off. She deserves better. ]
[ So, for that matter, does Korra. ]