♦ ♦ 19th Contract

[mortemscintilla]

Tch. It was a smarter option to stay indoors.

But if Pai is out there. Or Amber...

[ Under the awning of a ramen-stand, 'Li's sits belly up in a pyramid of empty bowls. Yes: he ate every single one. And no: he's nowhere near done. As he starts on his twelfth serving, chopsticks poised in mid-air, noodles dripping, he smiles shyly at the Network device. ]

I guess it's another of those weekends, huh?

Please try to keep the panic and shoving at a minimum. If you're lost and need directions, don't hesitate to ask.

[ Also: don't expect him to share his noodles. Get your own. ]

[ OOC: Anything that is anything goes! Just avoiding outing his true identity on the Network. Replies will be slow ~ but BACKTAGS ARE GLORIOUS! ]

Comments

[whenyouneed]

[ Impetus cannot eat as much as Carla. She is, however, very very pregnant and the pregnancy itself is... a strange one. She is very hungry: eating for two. Or maybe it's stress. She's here alone and due any day. ]

[ She is not normally a clumsy woman, but... he's made a mess, and when she stands to make a trip to a bathroom in the store across the street, she knocks over his pyramid of bowls. ]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei wouldn't be what he is if he weren't aware of every micron of his surroundings. He's kept his eyes politely averted from the pregnant lady with Carla's face (a body-double; a shapeshifter; a product from an alternate universe -- the possibilities are endless, but, ultimately, not his problem.) ]

[ When she upends his little pyramid, he switches automatically into 'Li'-mode. A little flail, a clumsy (unsuccessful) grab for the bowls, and a hasty, ]

Ah! I-I'm sorry about that, Miss. [ Although she's the one who knocked everything over. ]

[whenyouneed]

[She stares down at him with a blank expression for a moment, her hands curled around that enormous stomach.]

You ate all of that.

[There's a vague note of disdain, but she's seen similar abilities in her schoolmates, depending on their powers. Others could barely eat at all.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ In his defense, his enormous appetite isn't a special ability at all. He just. Eats a lot. ]

[ Dropping his gaze from the imperious Carla-lookalike, he gathers the fallen bowls up ( good thing they're plastic, not ceramic) and sets them on the table. His smile is timid and tentative, ]

I-I had a long day at work. And I skipped lunch.

[whenyouneed]

[Her eyes narrow. She does not know it for a fact, but his smiling face... She's put on the exact same mask, many times. They are not dissimilar in their job descriptions.]

Starvation is a slow process.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Like knows like, isn't that the phrase? Hei has spent almost all his life in a world that is a grim parody of a po-mo Carnivale -- surrounded by performers whose true faces are hidden behind smiling masks, tightrope-walking through their routines, their focus turned toward the audience. And like true jaded actors, nobody cares about anyone else's act. ]

[ Except Hei. He's driven by curiosity as much as by watching out for 'competition.' ]

Thankfully, I've never been in that position. [ Yes. He has. The best way the Syndicate 'breaks in' disobedient child-soldiers is by controlling what's necessary to their survival. But 'Li's expression is sweet as a schoolboy's. ] Are you, um, lost?

[whenyouneed]

[ She doesn't believe him, a gut instinct born from many years of judging such things. But she says nothing, it's merely a note. If she has no reason to draw out his true behavior -- and if he disguises it so thoroughly she imagines it dangerous -- she isn't going to. She has a baby to protect. ]

Of course I am. Isn't everyone in this city?

[ She isn't normally given to poetics, but this is what she has surmised. ]

[mortemscintilla]

[ In the old days, during his training in Heaven's War, Hei was taught rifle practice on cardboard targets shaped like pregnant women. If he had them in his crosshairs, it'd be a two-for-one shot. You never knew if the woman -- civilian or no -- was carrying concealed explosives or supplies, not a fetus. ]

[ (Yet one curiosity he's always observed: killers or cons, terrorists or mercs, if they were up the sprog, they all wanted to be good mothers. To protect the baby. Too bad war was war. It was all about winning.) ]

[ He regards the woman with his usual solicitous manner, (although part of him feels instinctively like they're duelists circling each other), ] Not really. Some people have been here for years. [ Helpfully, he clarifies, ] The City has 'tourist weekends' every few months. It brings in visitors from other worlds.

[whenyouneed]

All of them were stolen.

[She doesn't say stolen with a resentfulness, she just means that no one was born here.]

Acclimatizing does not change that.

[mortemscintilla]

I guess you could say they're stolen. Everyone here is. [ Acclimatization is a constant process when you live a life in the flux. It's just stagnation -- the idea of permanent and perpetual -- that sparks an itch under Hei's skin. ] But it makes sense to adjust for the time you're here. Why spend every minute worrying when you could be comfortable instead?

[whenyouneed]

[Her smile is impatient.]

Your comfort doesn't mean you belong here.

[mortemscintilla]

[ The politeness never wavers. Belong is such a poetic word. And like most poetry, extraneous. ]

A lot of people try to find somewhere they belong. Most never do. Still, they get by. [ sweetly, ] That counts for something, right?

[whenyouneed]

No.

[Loser's logic. That kind of talk wasn't allowed in the Academy.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ He assumes a crestfallen look!! 8( ]

You don't think so? [ As if he cares, one way or another. His watchword is always survival. ]

[whenyouneed]

Getting by isn't an accomplishment. It's only getting by.

[mortemscintilla]

Sometimes getting by is good enough when all your other options are taken away. [ Playing the soft-hearted wimp, doo doo doo. ]