days dawn and skin's crawling

[quiettotheend]

[Backdated to last Tuesday]

At exactly 7:10 PM, a black Jaguar pulls up to the Gauche. Tabitha helps herself out, and stands on the curb for a few moments, waiting for her father. The stress of the last couple of days has been building up on her, and it's not helping her health. She seems fine enough, though, if not a little tired and wobbly. Mild

Comments

[monitorthebirds]

Hawkes is wandering around Chicago, like he do. He prefers the backstreets and alleys to the actual streets, 'cause they tend to be a lot less crowded and his claustrophobia gets kinda tetchy when there's too many people around, boxing him in.

And then wanders down the wrong back alley. Specifically, Peyton's back alley.

"What're you doin'?" He asks, thoroughly confused. He kills monsters all the time, but he just leaves 'em there. No sense in draggin' it through the city like a crazy person.

[shootsnarkstare]

Why do people need to be in her alley?

This question is not really a useful one. It's kind of like asking, "Why do Bristows ruin everything?" It's just one of those facts of life. If she's going to have to drag a monster down an alley, someone will join her. If she's trying to secure a Rambaldi there's a Bristow.

"You see, it attacked me and- I didn't know- what else to do," Peyton said, looking up at Hawkes, panicked. "I didn't want anyone to ask any questions you know and- I'm not going to get in trouble for this, am I?"

[monitorthebirds]

Hawkes would like to ask the same question. People are awkward and weird! ...People who are Vansen, Murphy, or... Anyone he used to know back on the Saratoga.

He arches an eyebrow at her. "If people are gettin' in trouble for killin' those things, I'd think there'd be a lot more people in jail." He steps closer to her and studies the monster. It's not too big and it can't be too heavy if she's dragging it, being a small-lookin' woman and all.

He waves her away with his hand and hefts the thing over his shoulder with an awkward grunt. It's heavy, but he was built for heavy labor. "Where d'you want it?" He asks, completely stoic.

Behold, Hawkes, the linefacing good Samaritan. Well, he ain't sure what the hell else he oughta be doing.

[shootsnarkstare]

This is complicating things. She can't say, 'Why thank you for helping me good sir, now will you please take this monster corpse to my terrorist bosses?' after pulling that act. She could have him drag it to somewhere and then pick it up later. It is nice getting people to do her work for her, though.

"This way," she says softly, striding deeper into the alley. "Thank you. For your help. Really. I don't know what I would have done otherwise... I really won't get in trouble? You promise?"

[monitorthebirds]

Hawkes follows with another grunt, looking as thoroughly unamused as a freakishly tall kid in the closest thing you can get to army fatigues in civilian shops carrying a monster on his back can look.

He's not the type who goes for the whole damsel in distress act.

"It'd be a first," he mutters. "How'd you kill this thing anyway?"

It's not that he underestimates women or nothin'. It's just... Anyone actin' like that doesn't seem like the type who can take down a monster.

[shootsnarkstare]

Right. How did she kill the monster?

"My father always told me to keep a gun on me, when I'm walking alone at night, you know, just in case," Peyton says rapidly, as if she really doesn't want to think about it. "And well, how to use it. Because if you don't know how to use it what's the point, but I really didn't want to kill it. But see, I'm a zoologist and... You're not going to report me, are you?"

She glances at him apologetically out of the corner of her eyes with a wry smile. "You probably think I'm weird." But harmless.

[monitorthebirds]

"I ain't a rat," Hawkes says stiffly. "Don't get to moanin' or nothin'. I was just askin'."

Geez. Ask a simple question, get... An answer like that. He shifts the monster a bit when his back starts to ache, grunting again. Him Hawkes. Him carry monster.

He eyes her like she might be insane. Her? Weird? He's the one from the future, stuck in some backwoods past with old school tech and half his squad on the other side of the rift and no way of gettin' home. And considering this city, anyone would be weird not to walk around arm.

"I've seen weirder," he mutters.

[shootsnarkstare]

"Sorry, I just got into a bit of trouble with the police once and it wasn't really my fault, they were just looking for someone to mess with, so I get a bit touchy about that kind of stuff," Peyton says, shrugging. This is really awesome. Him carrying the monster for her. Theoretically, she shouldn't shank him when he drops it off at one of their drop locations. It's not like he knows what the monster's for. It's not like she knows what the thing's for. Something about it's bones or something like that. She wants to ask him what kind of weirder things he's seen, but instead, she just laughs. "Well, good. If there's anything a girl doesn't like, it's someone calling her weird."

[monitorthebirds]

...Hawkes files that away in some file marked 'things he should know about girls.' It's right there beside 'don't kiss them unless they tell you to or kiss you first.'

And something about the thing about the police gets his hackles up. Well, he sure as hell knows how that goes and it vaguely endears her to his (somewhat limited sympathies). "Why would they wanna mess with you?" He asks. She's too small to be an InVitro and he's pretty sure he's the only one of his kind here right now, so it just seems... Weird that the police would be messin' with her.

[shootsnarkstare]

"Came from a big town, moved to a small town, just my grandpa and me," Peyton says, shrugging. "Small towns don't tend to trust big city folk, so they liked to keep an extra eye on me, even though I wasn't ever doing anything wrong. But anything I ever did, it was like there was just something mildly wrong with it, even if anyone else had done it, they wouldn't have been looked at twice."

Every good lie has a nugget of truth in it, Peyton knows. So you take something that's true and just expand on it.

"I guess now that I'm back home, I shouldn't worry about that kind of stuff, but it's second nature by this point."

She gives Hawkes a small smile, running her fingers through her hair before turning away and walking further down the alley. Of course, she can still see him out of the corner of her eye. She doesn't like to let people get out of her vision. That only leads to bad things.

[monitorthebirds]

Huh. Hawkes can can relate. Hawkes can relate a lot to an almost uncomfortable degree, even if it strikes him as kinda funny that people would go around treating natural-borns like that. Guess they had to have something to pick on before the AI's and the InVitros were created.

He shrugs, which is rather awkward with the monster on his back. He's going to be a little bit sore tomorrow. "Yeah. I kinda had the same problem where I came from. People don't like it when someone else is different 'n 'em, I guess."

[shootsnarkstare]

Peyton approves of Hawkes being sore due to monster draggings rather than her.

She had honestly been picked on when she was a kid. She was different and didn't learn to be sociable until she was older. It didn't help that she lived with her grandfather. That's just weird. But her trouble with the law is very, very justified.

"Nah, people don't really like it when someone's different," she says. That statement is actually close to her telling the truth. "Don't see how that's an excuse to treat them any different." That was half the problem. People needing excuses. If you're going to treat someone like shit, treat them like shit. But don't justify it to yourself like that.

[monitorthebirds]

Hawkes nods soberly. It doesn't occur to him that this woman might be lying to him. Why would anyone lie about stuff like that? Most people'd lie just to say it didn't happen to them, just so they can pretend that they're better than the rest of the people who got treated the same damn way.

"I don't either, but they do. Guess no one taught 'em any better." He's more than a little grumpy about that fact. "That ain't no excuse though."

[shootsnarkstare]

Hey, she had to come up for some reason an adorable little thing like herself would have gotten mixed up with the cops before. And she needed to make sure he wasn't with the authorities because oh, that could make a mess in and of itself. But she's figured out that much at least and he seems to be more than glad to do her manual labor for her, so she's not about to drop the story.

That, and there's a nice adrenaline rush that comes with making up stories like that and god, it's been so long since she's been able to get a good rush. The work she's doing for Biosys pays the bills and certainly isn't legit, but it's not work for someone of her caliber. Well, no, the work probably is, but it still gets boring. Which is half the reason she's been keeping her eyes on one Michael Vaughn. She needs something to do with her spare time if she's not going to be a double agent. Not that she wants to do him. Ew, ew, ew, Sydney's touched that thing. Oh god. Ew. Ewwwwwww

[monitorthebirds]

Hawkes adjusts the monster corpse again. This is the longest walk ever and he thought hauling ass on enemy planets with pounds of tactical gear on was hard.

"D'you got anyone that actually treats you right anymore?" He asks. He used to believe there wasn't anyone in the world who'd look at a Tank with anything but disgust, and then he met the 58th. He knows how lonely the alternative is, especially 'round this time of the year. It wasn't that long ago that he was celebratin' his first Christmas and with an actual family to boot.

It'd be kinda sad if she was all alone.