♦ ♦ 26th Contract

[mortemscintilla]

[ Anonymous Text/Unhackable ]

Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager managing an imaginary menagerie.

[ It reads like total gibberish. But it's a code -- recognizable to any soldier from his team in Heaven's War. If old faces (Amber, Pai, Carime) are here, at least they'll get the message. I'm here where you are. ]

Here we go again. It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood. And the tourists are scattered out like maggots with half the brains. Even under 'new management', the City never changes.

As for me, I have time to kill. A ton of it. The City's a waiting room, and life here's a waiting game, but I'm getting good at it. Who would have imagined? Probably not those I knew before. But if they're not about to confirm or deny, I guess you'll have to take my word for it.

[ Come on, guys. Take the bait. Let him know you're here. ]

[ Options For Run-Ins: ]

[ ∰ Xanadu (Li): It's late evening, and the first stars twinkle in the sky. He's found a good spot on a grassy hill. A telescope rests on its stand beside him, a few small books and tools scattered nearby, along with the remains of a picnic on a checkered cloth under 'Li's reclining form: scraps of bread and cheese, a few tumbled apples, a thermos mostly empty of tea. Just an ordinary young man, out for a night of stargazing. ]

[ Come join him, why don't you? The skies couldn't be clearer. ]

[ ∰ Underground (Reaper): His clash with the six tusked demons has ended. The final monster has dropped -- decapitated, oozing blood. Masked and armed, Hei lies sprawled on the grime-slippery ground, not too far off, a blade still in his hand. The hilt feels hot, and molded to his gloved fingers. But it's quiet now, and that has to be good. He has a few scrapes and bruises that ache from the brawl, but it's nothing serious. The rest of his muscles are singing, the high-pitched song of the battle well-ended. ]

[ If you recognize the masked man, step forward -- carefully. If you don't? Keep your distance. ]

[OOC: Have at him, one and all. Just please be aware tags will be slow, so backtagging is mightily encouraged<33 ]

Comments

[mortemscintilla]

[ Dim slates of sun beam in through the windows as the day slowly starts. Hei watches it paint the back of Pai's hand, tucked in his, in a relief of blue veins and pale skin and milky light. His smile matches the soporific aura of the apartment. Small, wistful, content. Lightly, his thumb traces the delicate row of her knuckles. It'll get harder to remember these little details once she's gone and the days pass. Not because Hei will forget -- when does he ever forget? -- but because they'll be too painful to dwell on. ]

[ Even though she can probably tell his smile is a lie -- he's not happy, he's just trying for her -- he hopes she'll let herself believe it. That way he can too. After all, there's not long. Just a day or two. ]

I have. Not much of a cat. And too talkative for my tastes. But a cat. [ A moment, before he clarifies. ] He's a teammate. A body-jumper in a cat's form.

[sleepingstar]

You have a new team. [It makes sense. She and Amber had known that their plan would separate all of them. Hei would not handle her loss well. (And he hadn't.) She had assumed he would leave the Syndicate, though, which he had not.]

What are they like?

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei couldn't leave the Syndicate. How do you escape a flesh-eating monster that's memorized your scent? Who'll hunt you down, no matter where you run? By absorbing Pai's ability, Hei became too valuable an asset to squander. The Syndicate wouldn't cut him loose. Not until he'd outlived his usefulness. But it was a two-way street, wasn't it? He'd been using the Syndicate as much as they were exploiting him. It was the only way to keep his finger on the pulse of the Contractor world. Stay alert for news that Pai had resurfaced. ]

[ He can't bring himself to regret it. ]

[ To Pai, quietly, ] Had a new team. Back home, it's been ... disbanded. [ His gaze dips. It's not exactly grief -- Hei doesn't function in those terms. What's past is the past, and there's no point in dredging it up. But that doesn't mean he forgets. That doesn't mean he's incapable of valuing the almost-cohesion of an almost-family -- and their second chance in the City. Their days are numbered, true. But when is that an anomaly in a Contractor's life? ] Two of them are in the City.

[sleepingstar]

[Pai quietly files away all this information -- what Hei says, what he doesn't say, the emotions that his face hints at -- but she doesn't push.]

I'd like to meet them.

[mortemscintilla]

[ A smile bubbles up at the remark, sleepy-soft and wry. He can just imagine Yin's calm matter-of-factness -- Pai? I see and the suspicious way Mao's ears would twitch-- So this is the girl who destroyed half of South America, hm? Reaching out, he tugs a dangling lock of her hair -- light and playful. Just enjoying her presence here, the little ways she is around him, and the tightly-shuttered aspects of himself that she brings out in answer. ]

You will.

[ But right now? He's in no mood to share. (Besides -- there's still breakfast to be had.) ]