(Untitled)

[cutting_edgex23]

X slips through the front door, pausing to clip her Security badge to her belt. She does not seem at all discomfited (or even aware) of the cropped nature of her new hairstyle

Comments

[isaysimplewords]

X. Has new hair.

Cal is generally not quick on the uptake with new hairstyles, but some things are hard to miss. Plus, it reminds him of when Esfir hacked all her hair off last year.

. . . even if it took him a lot longer to notice that time.

Esfir used to wear her hair back a lot, okay? It totally looks the same.

Anyway. Suffice it to say that X's hair has definitely caught Cal's attention.

[cutting_edgex23]

"Cal," X says, when one of her periodic looks around the bar brings him to her attention.

"Hello."

[isaysimplewords]

"Hey, X," Cal says. "You, uh . . ." He gestures to his head.

Normally, he would just say your hair looks great! because he did spend his life before in a home containing women for whom image was everything, so he knows exactly how he's supposed to react.

(Even when he missed exactly what had changed, he could still read the preening body language from a mile away.)

With X, though, he doubts very much that what she does with her hair has anything to do with her looks. So he doesn't really know what to say.

"Your hair looks - really efficient."

Not knowing what to say isn't often a deterrent.

[cutting_edgex23]

X blinks once.

What -- oh.

Then she shrugs, one-shouldered and quick.

"There was a mission."

Beat.

"It burned off."

[pictureitsicily]

"We got a neighbor that's a lady cop, but she wears skirts," Sophia tells X, apropos of nothing.

[cutting_edgex23]

X turns to face the other woman, head tilting very slightly.

Then --

"I do not like skirts."

It seems like a useful answer to her.

[pictureitsicily]

Sophia eyes the shield on X's belt, and then eyes X.

"You don't like long hair, either." Sophia does not sound impressed. "Her hair's long."

[cutting_edgex23]

"I was fully engulfed in fire," X says, matter-of-factly.

"It burned off."

[evil_koala_626]

Then she'll likely have no difficulty detecting the small form perched amongst the rafters which starts foreword before pausing to snuffle intensely in her general direction.

Smoke is not a usual component of eau de X-23.

[cutting_edgex23]

"Stitch," X says, looking up at his position.

"You are not hungry?"

She has a sandwich to share. And it is not difficult to obtain more.

[evil_koala_626]

His response is to drop to the floor boards and skitter on to the opposite bench in short order.

"Ih."

Stitch's penchant for mayhem tends to mean he's very rarely not hungry. Or at least not hungry enough to turn down food when offered. The empty calories sugary foods provide likely do not help.

"Aloha!" He remembers to add after a moment.

[cutting_edgex23]

"Hello," she says, very seriously.

And then she hands him her half-sandwich.

"I am going to be playing baseball. Here."

[mmquitecontrary]

Mary is supposed to be doing homework.

But a ten-minute break is not going to kill her. (And sleep anyway is for the weak!) She heads over to X, noting absently the new hairstyle in the meantime - hairstyles are not something that Mary registers as particulary important - and stands straight, clasping her hands behind her back.

"I would like to inquire about the murder investigation," she announces.

[cutting_edgex23]

"Okay," X says, turning her attention to Mary.

Then she waits.

Specific questions are useful.

[mmquitecontrary]

"I have been kept busy," Mary explains, with dignity, "and so I have not been able to come to Milliways to follow the progress of the investigation."

Or to participate in it, for that matter.

"Has a culprit been identified yet?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"I am eliminating possibilities," X says.

"It is easy to tell when people are lying."

Right now she's got a very short list left. Very short.