poly_chromatic | ♦ ♦ 13th Contract

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darker than black - hei

♦ ♦ 13th Contract

[ The weekend has come and gone. ]

[ Familiar faces have come and gone with it, leaving him feeling like an animal who's been taunted through the bars of a cage. Ugly memories, dormant for so long he expected to be free of them, emerge now as if risen from the dead. Horrors worse than what lurk in a crate of vodka have his head pounding -- tick tick tick like the City Clock. Like a time-bomb. Sometimes he sees Amber, free-floating, whispering riddles in his ears. Sometimes it's Yin, watching him with blank eyes and a sad not-smile. Pai is almost always closeby: never quite visible, calling out to him from behind a spray of blood. ]

[ Barely able to distinguish sleep from wakefulness, he isn't sure which is worse. The City feels twice as surreal after the atmosphere of the weekend, the atmosphere of his mind. ]

[ Fortunately there are ample distractions. ]

[Audio]

~~So this place has taken its 'prison' aspects a step further.~~

...Is this a practical joke?

[ Options For Run-Ins: ]

[ Shed: Pent-up energy and a mind for solitude have him trekking through the woods. He's in no mood for the chatter and music of smoky bars. He can't muster that effort to be On tonight -- to handle human faces and prying questions. Worse, the City's full of pests and spies. He'd rather not be out in public, where he could be recognized. The outdoors are a better bet, particularly so late at night. Holed up in an unheated shed, a flask of something foul in his coat pocket, he can lull himself into imperfect numbness. ]

[ If he doesn't freeze to death, locked and stranded, first. ]

[ Houseguest: The moon is pale in the sky. Masked and armed, Hei slinks through rooftops in the early-night darkness. Passing like a shadow past signboards and sloping tiles -- graceful, nearly weightless. He's alert, keeping track of everything. But his mind is fixed on Pai, on Amber and Yin and all the possibilities wasted. The thought-pattern is irrational. A time-waster. Dropping into an empty flat, he tries to snap out of it. It's chilly in here. He doesn't bother switching on the lights. Changing into civilian clothes in the bathroom, he splashes cold water on his face and resolves to head home. ]

[ Until he realizes he's stuck in. ]

[ What now? ]

[OOC: open to action and network replies. I'm cool with assuming he was stuck with more than one person during this curse. On that note, those he's trapped with are welcome to threadjack any network responses! Hei's in a tetchy mood after 4th Wall, so GIVE HIM HELL<3 ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Me? [ Congratulations. You have the rare pleasure of seeing Hei completely speechless. His face freezes around his previously pleasant, amused expression. It's been years since he's played charades. He was never even particularly good at them. ] What am I supposed to ...? [ Come on. Pick an animal. Something she might recognize. Something related to cold-climate. He hesitates, then concedes. Arms held down at sides, taking tiny steps with feet pointed outward. ]

[ Penguin, Korra. Penguin. It should be obvious, in theory. ]

[ Except theory and practice are so different. ]

Edited (screw you typos >() 2012-11-10 05:06 (UTC)

[You're either better at this game is than she is, or worse. She manages to guess right away.

Almost. She kind of keels over laughing first.]

Otter penguin!

[SNORT]

A constipated otter penguin.

[ Otter-penguin? It's official. All animals are hybrids in her world. But the laughter takes him by surprise. It's easy for 'Li' to get that reaction. What is he, but a killer in clown's clothing? Not Hei, though. He doesn't dispense anything but death. ]

[ He cuts off that taproot of thought before it reaches irrational bloom. ]

Constipated? [ Hmph. ] I'd like to see you do better.

[ The challenge might be serious if he weren't half-smiling. ]

Just. Watch.

[She lies down on her stomach and flaps her arms like a seal]

Ah... [ What is she supposed to be? Think. Honestly Hei. Your whole life is based on charades and duplicity. AND YOU FAIL AT THE MOST BASIC CHARADES OF ALL. ]

[ ....Oh, wait! ] A seal?

Close! [And then she remembers that the animals in her world aren't the same as everyone else's.] Well, close enough.

[She rolls over onto her back, looks at him upside down, and smiles.]

[ He regards her quietly. She has too much aspect, this girl. She's too easy to amuse or bore, to please or crush. Still so young. A sensation, almost wistful passes over him. He shakes it off. From semi-sanguine to sober in 0.2 seconds. ]

We're still stuck here. [ Charades won't help pass the time forever. ] This curse won't let up until midnight. No matter what 'embarrassments' we do. [ He can feel the temperature dropping. Another chilly night. At least he has alcohol to combat that. ]

[ What about her? Do City Dead even feel cold? ]

Hey, you don't know that.

[She rolls gracefully to her feet and tries to kick down the door again.

Nope. She sighs.]

Okay. We're stuck here.

[She throws herself back onto the floor, a decent distance away but no longer on the opposite side of the room. The cold doesn't bother her; she's from an arctic climate and, more importantly, dead. She wears her heavy fur jacket out of habit more than anything else.

She looks him over again, this time with a more practical eye.]

You gonna be okay dressed like that?

[ He's trained to endure extremes of heat and cold. But his primary training lies in tropical wilderness -- the sticky heat and humidity of South America. He doesn't enjoy the chill. But he can ignore it. At the question, he tilts his head at her. What's this? Polite concern for a killer? ]

[ He can imagine Huang laughing hysterically. ]

It's fine. [ Terse and oblique. He lifts his flask for emphasis. ] I have this. [ He can ration it out carefully. Not get drunk. Remember Scarface: Don't get high on your own supply. ]

[She frowns]

Is that alcohol?

[She sniffs the air and catches the faint scent of it. Her temper flares.]

Idiot!

[She jumps to her feet and in what seems to be one smooth motion, pulls off her thick fur jacket and reaches out to grab the flask.]

You're just making the problem worse.

[Trust someone who comes from a cold climate, Hei. All the alcohol is doing is sending heat to your skin, where it's very, very easy to lose.]

[ Is he being chastised? He's pretty sure he's being chastised. He knows enough to separate fact from myth. The dangers of alcohol and a faulty internal thermometer, hypothermia, death blah blah. But it's only a few hours. Stubbornness and a long-standing habit of treating his body like a useful but disposable tool have him jerking the flask away. ]

I wasn't expecting to be barricaded in a shed. Otherwise I'd have brought hot buttered rum.

[ That, Korra, was sarcasm. It seems odd that this of all things is ultimately what makes her lose her temper. ]

[She may be a meat-eater, but like all the Avatars, she holds a deep belief that all life is sacred. Yes, even his.]

You're not nearly as cute as you think you are.

[She doesn't try to get the flask from him, and instead focuses on getting her jacket around him. She's glad for her broad shoulders; the coat fits surprisingly well.]

[ Huang, at this point, would be having conniptions. How the mighty have fallen!! The lecture is one thing. The attempt to grab his drink is another. But the coat? That's just too much. He would almost be amused, but he's trying to be serious here, no jibes allowed. Until... ]

[ He raises his eyebrows at her. ]

Cute?

[ Incredulous. She may as well have called him a sick puppy. ]

[Aaah, if only she still had the calmness of mind from before. At least she's no longer able to blush, but her embarrassment is obvious.]

Just keep the jacket on and stop drinking.

[She crosses her arms and sits down again, close enough to jump to action if he does something stupid.]

[ More than obvious. And Hei is nothing if not expert at his human arithmetic. He tucks this detail away on instinct -- something for future use, if she becomes a deterrent, if the situation turns pear-shaped. Opportunistic, yes. But he is a Contractor. ]

[ He doesn't drink from the flask. He just sits there, covered by the jacket. But there's something amused -- smug -- to his deadpan expression. It's more maddening than any outright teasing. ]

[ Expected Korra-Explosion in 3 -- 2 -- 1 -- ]

WHAT?!?

[ It's like haranguing Huang. Without the biting insults and racism. ]

[ And she's a hell of alot prettier. ]

Nothing.

[ Perfect nonchalance. But anyone who knows him well might catch the undertone of amusement. This is a good sort of familiar. Like being back home, on lulls between missions. If there's one thing he could always rely on from his godforsaken team, it was that insults came fast and easy in all situations. ]

Edited 2012-11-12 03:57 (UTC)

It's obviously something! So spill it!

[ His lips twitch a little. ]

You might take my drink away if I did.

I might take it anyway.

[Just to fuck with him. She doesn't have anything against drinking as a rule, but he's getting under her skin. Him and his stupid expressive non-expressions. How did that even work?!?!?!??!?]

[ Decades of practice. The Syndicate's operatives are perfectly suited for any role: politics, conning, prostitution or murder. It also helps they don't have a conscience to interfere with work. Perfect sociopaths. ]

It's just a flask. It can't hurt anyone.

[ No touching. Anyone between Hei and his drink will see some real violence. ]

[She grumbles and turns away. It's hard to believe they'd been having fun together before.

If he keeps that smug non-expression on his face, she's going to punch it.]

[ The look is still there. Immobile. Infuriating. In the back of his mind, he's testing her almost like a new weapon. Feeling for limitations and cracks, at how fast it is for her to strike. ]

[ New weapons -- wild elements -- are always interesting. ]

[Damn it she's trying so hard to be good! BUT HE WON'T STOP LOOKING.]

If you're not gonna say anything, then stop looking at me like that!

Like how?

[ He stares at her, completely innocent. Perfect pokerface. ]

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