(Untitled)

[girlverine]

WHO: Laura Kinney and OPEN
WHERE: Random rooftops and alleyways in unpleasant parts of the city
WHEN: Different nights this weekend.
WARNINGS: Violence, probably!
SUMMARY: Laura is out tracking some drug dealers and runs into people! Specifically Dakan, but anyone else can start a thread too, just let me know when. Laura will either be out patrolling,

Comments

[lolverine]

It was usually business that brought Daken to the city, but tonight he had come back for the singular thrill of being in the only place on Earth where anyone knew who he was. No other city held that threat, that potential to turn the corner and see Frank Castle through a window or Scott Summers getting out of a cab.

Of course, Scott Summers would never deign to be seen in this part of town. His idle path had taken him to a darker street: a late-night talk show flashed blue through barred windows in place of neon lights; trash and dead leaves mingled in the gutters, and he was-- following something.

It was faint, but it was new; not yet destroyed by the wind. He moved faster, hugging the buildings. It was Laura, he realized, and then he was almost sprinting. What would Laura be doing out here at night? Inevitable answer: something entertaining

[girlverine]

Laura noticed the smell a few moments before Dakan began speaking. She was seated on the edge of a roof two alleys over from where she had just tied up a pair of drug dealers and called the police. She'd left their drugs in the trash can next to them and taken their money, which she was counting quietly as she considered whether she was done for the evening.

She stood immediately, stuffing the bills into the pocket of her pants as her green eyes searched around, and she spotted him heading towards a fire escape at the far end of the roof. Dakan.

"...What do you want?" She said, just loud enough to carry towards the ground.

[lolverine]

"No need to be so hostile," Daken replied, pausing to pull himself up the ladder. There were just a few sets of stairs between him and the roof, and he took them casually, unhurried, hands in his pockets. "You and I have no reason to be enemies," he said, stopping when he was a little closer. The metal grate of the top landing was obstructing his view, so he leaned backwards over the railing and smiled up at her. "Anymore."

[girlverine]

His self-assured comments didn't actually make Laura relax anyway, though as he got closed she could smell that he wasn't necessary hyped-up enough to attack. Not that she could actually tell with Daken, his scent was too close to Logan's...and she could never get a very good read on him either.

"The last time I saw you, you tried to kill me and my friends." She said, by way of shooting down that 'no need to be enemies' thing.

[lolverine]

"Yes, I did." He slid off the railing and moved up the last set of stairs, same languid pace. "But the last time I saw you, we destroyed an operation that was experimenting on children. An aspiring Weapon X project," he added, offhand.

That was for the ridiculous conscience she was trying so hard to cling to. No need to mention any of the myriad things he'd done in service of that operation.

"Of course," he stopped on the uppermost landing, "you can believe me or not. There's no one here who'd know it's true." An unapologetic shrug.

[girlverine]

Laura considered that carefully. She knew there were people here from home who were ahead of her on the timeline...a concept she was completely uncomfortable with, frankly. Knowing your own future was something she never wanted to do. But the idea that she'd work with Daken was...unsettling.

"What reason do I have to believe you?"

I'm sorry this is so late :[

[lolverine]

"What reason," he began, planting his foot on the railing, "do I have to lie?" It took him a second to hoist himself onto the roof. He stood up, brushed off his jeans. He'd expected the smell of blood, maybe almost anticipated it; Laura and violence went together, perfectly interlocking pieces of a puzzle. Instead he was getting - what was that, cash? He stepped closer.

"I can't blame you," he continued. A glance around the roof yielded no hints. "We met under very unfortunate circumstances."

I am in no position to complain about late tags! Don't worry about it.

[girlverine]

Laura had backed up some, but she stopped seven or eight feet from the edge of the roof. She wasn't retreating, she was just finding room to make sure she wasn't at a tactical disadvantage. When Daken was finally on the roof she crossed her arms, watching him carefully. There were probably faint traces of blood, she had broken a man's nose earlier, but otherwise it was just sweat and exertion and money.

"...You tried to kill me. You were going to try to kill everyone on Utopia." She paused, her eyes narrowing. "'Unfortunate' doesn't cover that."

[lolverine]

He followed her trail toward the edge of the roof. "Don't take it personally, Laura. I was following orders. You do what Cyclops tells you to, don't you?" It was both a logical assumption and a stab in the dark; he had no idea what she thought of Cyclops or his orders.

When he reached the edge he leaned over, peering down into the alley. Nothing. And scent didn't linger long on windy rooftops, let alone in the spaces between them. What were you doing, he thought, turning back to her.

[girlverine]

Laura had followed Cyclops's orders, yes. She wasn't as sure she would do it now as she had then, but his point stood. In a sense. Still, there were orders she wouldn't have followed. "Not if the order was genocide." She finally decided, keeping her tone level.

She could tell what he was doing. Tracking her scent, following her movements, she did it herself most of the time with other people. It was instinctual, he probably didn't realize he was doing it half the time. Something they'd inherited from their shared 'parent', maybe.

[lolverine]

"Genocide," he echoed, grinning a little. "That's right, you have stand up for other mutants. The mutant race. Have you ever noticed how--"

An approaching siren interrupted him. He didn't need to step over to the street-side edge to know it was going to drive right past them. It was a hunch. He waited for it to pass, watched the lights' reflections on the buildings opposite their roof, turned and watched as they paused somewhere down the street, and the siren stopped.

He looked back at Laura. "Have you been doing something the X-Men wouldn't approve of?"

[girlverine]

Whatever amazing insight Daken was about to make to her was cut off by his distraction, and Laura waited to see what he would do. Would he follow the sirens? She knew they wouldn't stop very far away, considering she'd called them herself. But they weren't there to investigate a slaughter, just pick up some drug dealers and their stash she had left behind.

"No," she finally answered. "I stopped a pair of drug dealers."

[lolverine]

He was still for a moment, grin vanished, studying her. And then she had taken their night's earnings; that accounted for the scent he'd picked up on earlier. But had she killed them? There was stopping someone and there was stopping someone, forever, dead. It would have been fast, might have been clean. She didn't have to smell overwhelmingly like blood. Drug dealers were evildoers, the bane of the people who were -- unfortunately -- raising her; would she have killed them for that? Or was her idiot compassion so idealistic that it encompassed all those who were weaker than she was?

Probably.

"You didn't kill them, did you," he said. It wasn't a question.

[girlverine]

"No," was her only answer this time, just watching him. Part of her wanted to attack him, another part wanted to run. There weren't many people in the city that could fight her to a standstill and win, and the one standing in front of her probably had the best chance to actually kill her.

Didn't mean he would, but Laura didn't particularly want to die, either. "I left them for the police."

[lolverine]

There were a thousand snide remarks he could have made, but he was silent. No mocking observation of his was going to make her realize how futile it was, he knew. Some part of her had to understand that she was better than this, that she was forcing herself to be something she wasn't. She just hadn't gotten over that denial.

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket again and walked past her, back to the fire escape, and hesitated there. It seemed...not enough to leave without a last word.

He turned back to her for a moment. Keep pretending to be on everyone else's level, Laura. See how much time you can waste before you crack. "Good night, Laura."

They are both so weird.

[girlverine]

Laura could almost feel the derision coming off of him. From what she knew of Daken he never hesitated to murder anyone, so the fact that she did probably seemed alien and weak to him. She could see the judging in his eyes, smell the distaste in his every motion.

But she didn't care. She didn't want to kill people. She had never wanted to kill anyone. And even now, with that urge to murder planted deep inside her, she didn't ever want to release it. She could be better than that. She was sure of it.

"Good night." She finally answered, still watching him without moving.