video / action - the Underground

[sleepingstar]

[It takes Pai awhile to slip away from her over-protective brother, and longer still to figure out how to create a filter she's reasonably certain he can't hack. (Hopefully it won't even occur to him to try -- she may be smarter than him, but she doesn't have his experience with technology.) This is one message she doesn't want him to see.]

[ video - visible to everyone but Hei ]
[She sits perched just past an entrance to the Underground, in a shady corner.]

I believe I have your face.

[If she knew whose face, she'd filter more specifically, but she doesn't. The only thing she knows is that seeing the makeup deeply upset her brother. She wants to better understand why.]



[ooc: Action for Hei at their apartment; open to action for everyone else in the Underground!]

Comments

[indecent_butterfly]

[So that was why nir magic wouldn't stick the makeup this morning and why the new look without trying to upset a certain someone..

Ne recognizes both the girl (oh how he must have cursed nir name and life when he discovered this bit of City amusement) and her location and between one breath and the next ne's slipping between the shadows just a bit away from the girl. It's less a concern of scaring her and more concern over how much she's like her brother in temperament and otherwise.]

Not entirely, but close enough.

action;

[mortemscintilla]

[ She needn't have bothered with the post. ]

[ He's already sent Hatter a message. Seeing that mask forms a little kernel of distaste in his gut, and the seed sprouts tendrils that catch his mind and won't let go. After getting an eyeful of Pai's face, he's shut himself in the kitchen, like a surly animal responsible for its own confinement. The air smells of coffee and butter. At the diamond-shaped window, there's a dark stained-glass pattern of red, yellow, green and blue. The slanting afternoon rays set the tints aglow, but Hei doesn't stop to admire the effect. Right now it just reminds him of Hatter's clownish facepaint. ]

[ Alone at the marble counter, surrounded by glossy copper pots and the masses of groceries he'd brought earlier, he chops vegetables. It'll be a few moments before he shakes his irritation off. In the meantime, might as well fix a snack. ]

[sleepingstar]

[Pai immediately notices nir approach. She has a hand on one of the knives Hei gave her, mindful that she can't use her power here.]

You know my brother.

[She could make small talk, but why? She prefers to cut to the chase.]

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[sleepingstar]

[So typical of her brother -- getting irrationally upset about something and then not sharing what it is. Pai would find it maddening if she were really capable of that feeling. Instead, she feels a detached mix of concern and mildly irritated condescension. He's so human.

She slips into the kitchen, unafraid of his temper.]

Hei.

action;

[mortemscintilla]

[ He sees her reflection in the glossy kitchen paneling. The light is so different in this new apartment. His old flat kept everything shadowy and glum, an atmosphere suggestive of cockroaches, transience and squalid secrets. He'd spent such little time fixing it up that he was seldom inclined to live in it. But there's a strangely cheery quality to the light here; it makes things subtly glow. It might fool anyone else, into feeling like at last they're all clear. Happy and buoyant and free. But every day in the City is a reminder how stuck he and Pai are -- how his little sister is at the mercy of curses ranging from the ridiculous to the dangerous. ]

[ Hei's already failed to protect her once, back in South America. He refuses to repeat the mistake. He needs to make it so he can shield her from the City's flotsam -- as much as possible. ]

[ There's a couple of beats before he says, without looking at her, but also without any bite in his tone, ]

I'm overreacting. I know.

[indecent_butterfly]

In a manner of speaking.

We were wed one weekend. It was very long. [Very, very long.]

But we do know each other quite well otherwise.

action;

[sleepingstar]

You are. [She steps up behind him and wraps her arms around his waist. She's noticed that he relaxes when she touches him, as though he needs the tactile reassurance that she's real. It has the added benefit that he can't see the face that upsets him so.]

Why?

[sleepingstar]

[Married? The idea would make her laugh if she were the type. At first she can hardly believe it, considering how her brother seems to hate nir and his feelings towards marriage in general. But then she remembers -- curses.]

Why does he hate you?

[indecent_butterfly]

Does he?

[Ne's rather amused by the idea. It's fitting actually, as if they were to feel anything else for each other than such heat. If ne wasn't so devoted to nir Lord ne might even take it for love.]

One saw beneath his mask before the rest.

[sleepingstar]

[Pai's eyes narrow slightly. Mask? What mask?]

[indecent_butterfly]

He plays the fool quite well but One has more time on the job than he shall ever hope to obtain.

action;

[mortemscintilla]

[ He expects to tense up at the contact. But the truth is Pai knows him too well. He's learnt over the years to quash any tactile aspects in his nature. But there are ways to overwrite some emotions faster than others. Touch works quickest for him. Taking a big breath and holding it, he feels his muscles loosen, and then relax in little jerks as he exhales. In the face of her cool, sedate calm, he feels the way he did when he was seventeen, cluttered and ugly with flaring emotion. ]

[ Lip bit, he doesn't turn to face her. But he does lean slightly into the cinch. ] Because I feel like I can't keep you safe. [ Carefully-chosen words, but honest too. He doesn't mean the mask. That, in itself, is the least of his problems. It's the fact that she's as vulnerable here to curses as she was to stray landmines or malnutrition or disease in Heaven's War. ]

[ Hei is programmed to view the world in layers of threats. He has no idea how to fight an enemy he can't see. ]

[sleepingstar]

What do you mean?

action;

[sleepingstar]

[She nuzzles his back.]

Of course you can't. [There's no such thing as safety. There's only managing your risks as best you can.]

[indecent_butterfly]

[How curious that response is.]

Do you not know him at all?

He plays at a quite the bumbling idiot, innocent and harmless to all he meets. One caught him unaware and kissed him once...he broke the act showing his true self.

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[mortemscintilla]

[ What she says makes perfect sense. ]

[ But she doesn't have that awful sense of loss looming overhead, like a big black insect waiting to leap at him and smother his brain in spiny black mandibles the moment he relaxes his guard. As someone used to fighting, to coming out on top, Hei considers it a personal failing that he can't protect what's most valuable to him. Like he's misfired the simplest kind of weapon at the clearest reddest bullseye. In the past he's learnt not to dwell on failure but to study the things he can improve, given a similar situation. ]

[ But in the City, everything is treacherously slippery. Devoid of context. ]

I can't. [ It's a dull acknowledgement, but his fingers tighten on the chopping-knife. ] Maybe that's why things happened in Heaven's War the way they did. [ Useless to wonder now, useless to speculate. But in the end, he is human. ]

[sleepingstar]

[The truth is, she doesn't. She doesn't know the Hei from after the destruction of Heaven's Gate, who spent five years as an assassin for the Syndicate. She doesn't know the Hei who wears the mask. In many ways, the brother she lives with is a stranger to her.]

Was that a curse?

action;

[sleepingstar]

[She would turn him to face her, so he could see the conviction in her eyes, but considering his reaction to the facepaint, she thinks that would be counterproductive. Instead, she just squeezes him tighter.]

That doesn't matter here. We're together and there's no war to fight. Isn't that enough?

[indecent_butterfly]

The kiss?

Yes and no. One was pretending to be cursed when we met.

action;

[mortemscintilla]

[ He slips his free hand to cover hers, pressing gently. But he doesn't look at her. Not because of the facepaint, but her quiet question. Isn't that enough? ]

[ It should be. After everything that's happened, it is. But in some ways ... it's like the war's never ended. Looking at Pai, twisted and tossed by the City's supernatural currents, he feels useless and insignificant in comparison, and that comes with a familiar snake of ruthless determination uncoiling at his sternum. Nothing is ever over, not when the war lodges a fragment of itself inside you. You carry it everywhere you go. No amount of lazy afternoons, no amount of brimming plates of rice, no fucking Korra or hugs from Pai -- much as they help -- can quite dispel it. ]

[ Maybe it'll never fade. Maybe it's just the human condition. He's heard and seen enough of it. ]

[ But still, some things are solid, and real. Precious. He takes a breath, before turning to face Pai. Circles an arm around her, gathering her in tight. ] It's enough. You know it is. [ Eyes half-shut, he rubs his cheek in her hair and lets the floaty warmth of her presence wash over him. ] I'm just used to analyzing everything. [ A habit that was rudimentary in the war, but which has since then grown and flourished into an art form. It's one of the reasons Hei's managed to survive so long. ]

[sleepingstar]

You kissed him by choice?

action;

[sleepingstar]

You're an idiot. [Her tone is factual, almost emotionless, and yet the affection is nonetheless perfectly obvious. She squeezes him one more time and then pulls back.]

It'll be over by midnight, won't it?

[indecent_butterfly]

[No one ever accused nem of good taste.

There's a shrug of nir shoulder, why deny something that is neither here or there.]

One likes kisses.

[Okay so ne can also curse others by kissing them, but ne still likes them generally speaking.]

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[mortemscintilla]

It should, [ he says, but as always, there's a kernel of suspicion festering inside. His gaze stakes over the gaudy colors on her face with a deliberate neutrality. All things considered, it's not so bad. (It could be worse. She might be scarred or burnt; two things he'd gone to gory lengths to protect her from in the war.) Letting the knife drop, he lifts a hand to lightly ruffle her hair. His tone is half-teasing, half-serious when he says, ]

Any chance I can convince you to wear a paper-bag?

action;

[sleepingstar]

Only if you tell me whose face this is.