poly_chromatic | ♦♦ 34TH CONTRACT

Entry tags:

darker than black - hei

♦♦ 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! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Ever since Mao returned to the City, Yin hasn't avoided Hei, but she no longer seeks him out. No more random visits to the cafe he works at. No more observer spirit spying on him at intervals. There is no more effort to reach for his hand, or any attempt at touch on her part. For the first time in a long time, Yin has been an exemplary Doll.]

[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.]

[ The change in Yin hasn't gone unnoticed. ]

[ 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?

[She didn't need a curse, or the red-hot burn of bug bite coursing through her veins to feel such a rich, frightening emotion. It's intensified, showing a spark of emotion on her face. Her lips quiver.]

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.]

[ For a moment, he stares, his expression as detached and blank as the sky. Doesn't flinch when Yin mouths his name and steps closer, because even in this cosmopolitan setting, in 'Li's civilian costume, his mind still functions on the framework of dangerous terrain and sagging lines of roads and trees and buildings with enemies speckled like bloodspray across them and nights washing hands stained in red. He doesn't jerk back, but lets her reach for his arm. His gaze is already scanning the street, as if there's a threat nearby. Why else would Yin reach for him? ]

[ 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? ]

[Regardless of reason, that closeness was what she wanted.]

[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.]

[ On a good day (on any day) BK201 is impossible to blindside. ]

[ 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. ]

[For all the curse has a hold on her, there's a part that's pure eager instinct, with all of her inexperience. Yin's lips still move in response, fitting better to Hei's, breathing him in.]

[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

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Park

moonlitrequiem - 2014-02-11 03:24 (UTC) - Expand

Park 1/2

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Park

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Is that a challenge? [She sends the message off quickly before heading to the address given. She's been to a few carnivals in her life, but never anything like this. It's exciting.]

You have to ask?

[ It's thumbed out as a Yes. ]

[ He's waiting at the midway. In jeans and a gray sweater, a jacket slung over one shoulder, looking enormously out of place among the flashing neon rows of skeeball booths and four-shots-for-a-coin. The park glitters chaotically, a ransacked dressing table of a lights lying in a gorgeous heap at the edge of the lake. Everything is lit up like Christmas, the air smelling like cotton candy and fried food, and more faintly, of the bligy water. ]

[ He's already scanned the layout for exits, for bottlenecks, for crowded and empty spots. It's a reflex, not necessity. He isn't on a job, after all. This is supposed to be an interlude -- pleasure, not paranoia, and it is always chilling that his mind never seems to fully understand the difference. ]

[He'll see her before she sees him, of course. She's distracted by the shiny lights, the games, and the food. Oh, the food! She's chomping on meatbuns, popcorn, and finally finds a sweet she likes -- cotton candy. Something about the purity of the sugar makes her skin tingle and her heart race.

She's excited.]

[ It's hard not to spot her. ]

[ He can't remember the last time he's seen Korra so twinkly. In the midst of the gaudy lighting, the crowd, the litter, the low-flying pigeons, the blaring advertisements, she shines like a star. He'd almost find the child-like curiosity adorable -- if it wasn't such a sharp contrast to the way Pai behaved when he'd dragged her here for an evening of frivolity. She'd looked behind her all the way, however much he begged her not to. The entire evening, she'd worn an air of This is dumb. I want to gooooo. Strange, how for all those differences, the warm fierce tickle inside his bones is the same. In other circumstances, the sensation -- all wistful affection -- would repulse him. But right now, it doesn't matter. ]

[ (Why would it? This is how curses work, after all.) ]

[ All the torches angled at the pavements result in floating, glowing circles, showing up people's feet as they mill by, chattering and laughing. Without sound, Hei slips up behind Korra. He's carrying a small paper bag of grilled meat sticks, and two cups of hot tea. He greets her with a shoulder-check, light, almost playful. Hi? ]

Hei! [Exclaimed with a mouth full of cotton candy. She swallows quickly and leans up to kiss his cheek.] Have you ever had this stuff? [She might be a little sugar high.]

[ She leans in to kiss him, and it's like music-box ballerinas spin pirouettes up his spine. It's wierd. (Is he cursed? He doesn't think so. The sensations, even that lacy feeling in his stomach, feel so natural. Almost too natural.) A moment's hesitation, then he reaches to slip his free hand through hers. He wasn't expecting her to like the cotton candy -- personally he finds it a goddamn mess to eat. All sugar and dye, and absolutely no nutritional value. (Then again, Korra does like some sweet things. Some spicy things. It's fun trying to figure it out.) ]

[ His lips quirk at the edges, as he asks, ]

The question is: how much have you had so far?

Too much, I think. My brain feels like it's going to vibrate out of my skull. Do you think they drug this stuff? [Her brain just keeps bouncing from thought to thought. It's weird but kind of fun too?]

Park

Park <33

Park

Park

Park

Park

Park

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