ioduanlogs | I was born with lightning in my heels

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I was born with lightning in my heels | March Catchall

Characters: Pepper Potts, Devin Parker, and you!
Date: Throughout March
Location: Around Aifaran
Situation: Pepper and Devin are getting used to their new jobs. Pepper has an encounter with building materials, goes on patrol, and walks into a bad neighborhood. Devin deals with some personal issues and gets followed around by a pack of inan.
Warnings/Rating: None yet, will add as needed

A. [Pepper] Verdant Sentry - Justice 5 | Open

Pepper has been dutifully studying and basically trying to be the absolute best recruit possible (she may be trying to skip a few steps in this process given her existing skills), and has apparently had a reasonably good impression. They're not letting her run the place yet, but some members of the Sentry have asked her to describe the legal system back home. Apparently, they're intrigued enough that they take her on a few patrols and ask her what police would do, on at least one occasion she's out and about with them wearing the Rescue armor.

B. [Pepper] Sci-Tech 1 | Open

As cool as flying is to get to know the city, it's important to explore on the ground level, too. Pepper is exploring an area where some construction is ongoing. This is normal, for her. New York City almost always had some sort of construction going on, and the scaffolding is a familiar sight. The sudden alarmed yelling as she walks underneath it, however, is new. Before she even has time to properly process what's happening, her ka appears in front of her. The Knight catches the large hammer that threatened to land on Pepper's head, and is shooting an annoyed look at the workmen above them.

C. [Pepper] Crime 1 | Open

Apparently, this is not a great place to wander into. She's on the outskirts of the city as dusk is falling, and Pepper has a very certain sense of being watched and possibly even followed. Perhaps counter to expectation, she is not all that worried. The dagger Solomon gave her is in her boot, Vee is but a thought away, and she's got enough training to be hard to handle. The utter lack of concern on her part appears to have hooked an actual tail, but she doesn't increase her pace.

D. [Devin] Dreaming Bridge | Leo

Most of the time when Devin is not working at the Academy library, he's either in his room or somewhere else quiet where he can read and remain mostly undisturbed. He's not avoiding people per se, but he's not being particularly social, either. The incident with Trahearne and Klaus is still weighing on him. As a result, the vampire is sometimes less antagonistic than he was last month - although sometimes more. Today is one of those days when his roommates are gone long enough that he can have a little peace and quiet, and therefore is probably in a reasonable mood.

E. [Devin] Somewhere Serving Classy Alcohol | Klaus

While Devin can't really afford the amount of alcohol required to get drunk, he does enjoy the flavor of good liquor and isn't opposed to savoring it from time to time. Recent events have certainly been enough to want to take the edge off things, but even if he can't Devin tends to like the atmosphere of older, well-established bars. The lighting is warm, and there's a small booth in a corner that Devin claims so he can see most of the establishment while he sips at a dark, amber-colored drink.

F. [Devin] Metaphysics 3 | Open

He's going to complain to Leo about this. After the young man foisted the cat-like creature on him and refused to take no for an answer, Devin has had to figure out how to be a pet owner. This meant, predictably, a lot of research, and since the inan displays a reasonable amount of intelligence, Devin decides to start training it. He's in one of the city parks working on getting it to come when called when suddenly there's a small pack of the things that seem to want to use Devin as their own personal jungle gym. The vampire is baffled, but he allows the attention and even carefully tries to return it when they let him. One does nip at him, but it's too gentle to break skin, and Devin actually laughs.

(OOC: Let me know if you want a starter or feel free to write your own!)

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After her initial conversation with Pepper, Valdis managed to keep her desire to stretch her legs under control. In Keeliai, she had spent far more time as Hound, but the people there had known her and the people here did not. Hila didn't seem concerned when Valdis discussed it with her, patiently listening to her frustrations with Aifaran without offering comment.

It was mid-day when Valdis texted Pepper to meet her at the beach around sunset. There would be fewer people around, so the chances of being seen were slim. She desperately needed to run. She arrived before Pepper, hiding her bag in the bushes and shifting while Hila kept watch.

Leo had been working pretty hard on a project after he'd seen the fight with Devin and Trahearne. He'd yet to track down the sylvari, but to be honest, he knew Devin and his mental state better. And while Klaus was thankfully there to break up the fight, he heard enough of the fight to figure what was going on.

After all, Devin had pretty much tried to do the exact same thing to him, minus the whole attacking part. So he spent the next few days doing something special, and arrived in front of Devin's door with a suspiciously scuffling box.

He knocked. And would keep knocking until the vampire opened the door.

Repeated and aggravating knocking would not be necessary, since Devin rose from his book and went to the door. He could hear that whoever was on the other side of it was not alone, though there didn't seem to be two entire people from what he could tell. Too much scratching.

He did appear faintly annoyed by Leo's interruption, and the box got a suspicious glance. "Is there something I can do for you, Leo?"

Well, at least he seemed in a better mood than he was after the fight, so Leo counted that a win. When Devin opened the door, Leo stared up at him, clutching tightly on the unassuming box.

"Well, I did want to talk to you after you fought with Trahearne and woke half the city up, but I came up with something better." And that was the moment that he shoved the suspicously alive sounding box into (hopefully) Devin's hands. "It's for you."

What was it with people giving him things lately?

Devin's gaze narrowed at the mention of Trahearne. "I didn't fight with him. He attacked me." The box received a closer examination, and a heavy sigh. It must have some sort of creature in it. "I'm not equipped to take care of a pet, Leo," Devin told him, stepping back to allow the young man entry.

He had the feeling he was going to end up with it anyway.

Of COURSE he was going to end up with it. Leo was a stubborn little shit and was absolutely going to refuse to take a no for this.

"I think I know you well enough to know you tend to escalate things on purpose, and Trahearne isn't someone to attack people randomly. But! That's not the point. The point is you need a companion and something to take care of, and that's what I got you." Leo, to prove his point, reached over to pull open the top of the box, only for the Inan inside to poke its head out and peery curiously at Devin with a peep.

It had a bent and injured ear much like Leo's bibiru Steven, but was very fluffy, cute, and made a chirp at Devin as it tried to get out of the box to investigate the vampire.

"He is the type to attack undead people basically on sight," Devin pointed out, still peeved. "Which, frankly, is the only real reason he needed. Being acerbic may not have helped, but like I told your boss, all I did was answer his bloody questions."

Any more argument was soundly cut short by the inan emerging from the box, and the vampire stared at it not unlike a deer in the headlights.

Oh, hell. The thing was cute. Leo would probably be unhappy with him for saying no. He might even just leave it in Devin's room regardless of any refusal. This wasn't a fight he was going to win, was it?

He caught the inan before she could scramble out of the box and hit the floor, holding her carefully but uncertainly. "Ha ha, you got an energy vampire for the real vampire," Devin said, slightly distracted by the wriggling fluff in his hands.

Pepper wasn't entirely certain what her armor would be needed for, but since it was a scheduled thing and not an emergency she was just curious about what was going on. Getting to use her armor for hopefully-fun things was cool. At the appointed time, Pepper headed into the skies.

The sunset was beautiful and could have been very distracting, but it wasn't long until she spotted the Hellhound and Hila. Pepper touched down carefully and withdrew the faceplate, grinning. "Does this mean I get to take photos after all?"

If Conan had been any kind of normal child,he definitely should not have been out at this time of day. If he had anyone in the city right now keeping tabs on him, he would never have been allowed to wander this part of the city.

As it was, there was nothing stopping him from exploring here and so he was.

He vaguely recognizes Pepper, but more importantly recognizes the signs of someone who is being followed and knows it. That was enough to awaken his curiosity to see how this would end (and help out if necessary). He waits long enough to see the shadow, and follows after.

The tail now has a tail.

Leo had a lot more to say about Devin's personality not helping him win any cases, but now that the man was sufficiently distracted by the Inan, he gained the upper hand.

"Why are you so obsessed with vampires, jeez," Leo said, dropping the box ungraciously on the floor. "It makes them easy to take care of, plus they're super smart and excellent companions. Also maybe you won't start fights if you have a cute animal to pet. It's therapy." Was he being judgemental? Absolutely. But look at that Inan sniffing at your arm and face and just try and be mad.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because I am one," Devin retorted, glancing from the inan to Leo and back again.

The tactic Leo had chosen, namely distraction with a small animal, was reasonably effective. It did not take away from how upsetting the assumption that he had started the fight was. Nor did he appreciate that Leo thought he needed therapy. (He did, but Devin had to want to help himself). It felt like judgement on top of judgement, and that Leo was entirely missing the point of what had happened - not unlike Klaus.

"I did not start that fight, Leo," he said flatly, shifting his grip on the inan so she couldn't escape easily. His agitation was not faked; this was genuinely bothering him. "I do not appreciate you jumping to conclusions and making decisions for me."

Leo wished that he'd brought one of his bibiru's to hold, so he'd be less inclined to want to strangle something with his hands-or drive his fingernails into his skin. He knew that Devin was going to be moody about this, but-well, Leo himself had to figure out why this made him so upset.

"Look, I'll admit that I didn't hear all of the arguement, but I definitely heard enough of it to know you weren't telling the whole truth." Really, maybe it would've stopped Trahearne from getting mad. "If you think I'm wrong, then tell me what you were trying to do."

Devin was well aware that there was more he could have done to mitigate the situation, or at least that the tactic he had gone with was perhaps not the best one.

"I wasn't trying to do anything in particular," he answered honestly. The inan was nosing around the collar of his shirt, and he petted her entire face to dissuade her from getting too interested. Putting her down would only work if he knew he could keep her from running away. "We were having a conversation, and no, I didn't feel the need to immediately elaborate on my secrets because I didn't imagine he would try to murder me in the lounge. The fact that he would have had an extremely difficult time of succeeding is beside the point. He tried to kill me because of what I am, not who, Leo. I don't blame him for that, but both you and Klaus seem to fail to understand what that means."

"H~eh... That's something interesting you got there."

Judai is standing somewhere among the construction, two floors up. (How did he get there? Shhh.) Before any of the workers can finally notice and yell at him though, Judai's jumped down to ground level, taking a surreptitious glance at her left arm.

"How'd you do that?"

Well this is definitely an uncanny valley moment.

Kit gives himself a moment to observe the spectacle from a slight distance, cigarette stuck into the corner of his mouth, before he takes it out, breaths out a whorl of smoke, and ambles closer. He doesn't have much choice about the 'coming closer' part, because his bibiru, already deciding that the inan look like they're having too much fun without it, has decided to hop closer to investigate the playtime.

He stops a few paces back, taps the ash off the end of his cigarette, and cocks his head to the side. "Looks like you're done for, salroka," he declares, and there's the bare bones of an olive branch in his tone, in the slight lift of his eyebrows as he looks at Devin where he lies, besieged by inan.

(Like, obviously the guy is still a prick, but he's a prick who's nice to animals, so that's... something.)

"Well, I still think you're oddly forgiving of someone who literally tried to kill you, but I was gonna go talk to Trahearne later to figure out why he was overreacting so much. Just knowing what you've said to me....well, forgive me for thinking you have something of a death wish."

Leo wouldn't put it past Devin to not care if the guy tried to kill him, and even encourage him, and that's the part that hurt the most. But like before, he just never seemed to be able to communicate properly. What did the sylvari have against vampires anyway? Even Klaus, who hated them, didn't attack Devin like that.

Most of the reason Devin notices Kit's approach is because a few of the inan disengage from crawling up his legs where he sits, and it's the bibiru he spots first. Then his eyes meet Kit's, and for several seconds his expression is blank while he tries to figure out how to deal with being seen like this.

He had not exactly been kind to Kit during their previous encounter. Understatement. And now he's covered in inan, with his guard down and a glimmer of his truer nature shining through. Bugger.

"So it would seem," Devin agrees, a little sheepishly. One of the inan - the one with a collar and therefore presumably his - jumps onto his shoulders with a quiet barking noise. She looks very pleased with herself. "I'm honestly not sure where they all came from." A different inan tries to chew on his shirt, and Devin prods it away. "Hey, that can't be good for you - you don't even eat food."

Her ka whispers a quiet warning in her mind, and a second person steps out of an alley as though to block her way. Pepper offers the new intruder an annoyed look as she comes to a halt, hands on her hips.

"Really? You're going to have a seriously bad night if you don't move," she informs the lurker. "And then a seriously bad week when everyone I know comes after you. There'll be a line."

However true the assertion, they don't seem to believe her or care. The one in front of her brandishes a knife and demands her money or 'else'. Pepper rolls her eyes as she reaches into her bag - for a glove, not coins. "Last chance."

Valdis shook herself from nose to tail, Hila rose as Pepper Landed, padding over to the girl and tipping her head. Valdis followed her ka, walking behind Pepper, tail even with her back.

If it makes you happy. She teased, Besides, if you're that popular, you can help control the imagery.

The light is fading while you chatter. Hila chided before jumping sideways, spraying up sand, and releasing a short, challenging yip.

Valdis looked at Pepper, winked and took off in the opposite direction. Hila yipped indignantly, spun and raced after the black hound.

Safely concealed in the shadows a short distance away, Conan makes his move when he sees the glint of the knife. If he was reading Pepper correctly, she as more than capable of dealing with the lurker she was confronting. But it wouldn't do any harm to take care of the other one before he could do anything.

With the whisper of an inflating soccer ball and soft thud, the second criminal falls to the ground. Conan quickly checks to make sure he was securely unconscious, then moves on towards the alley.

Pepper is not, in fact, wearing a duel disk. The dueling gauntlet is in her bag, however, for the moment tucked out of sight along with her deck.

"Uh." She blinks at Judai when he drops down beside her and Vee, for a moment more distracted by his sudden appearance than the hammer that tried to bury itself in her skull. "It's sort of-- instinctive, with her. She protects me."

Said Knight hands the tool back to one of the workers, and puts one hand on a hip and the other on the pommel of a blade. "What? It's not like I could have seen that coming," Pepper complains at her ka. "It was above me. Thanks, though, that was a good catch." A beat. "Uh, Judai, this is Vee. Vee is my ka, she's basically a part of my soul. Um. Yeah. It's a long story."

In response to that blank look, Kit cocks his other eyebrow. Up comes the cigarette for another lazy drag off of it, then down again. Is this a stale mate?

"So it would seem."

Kit cracks a crooked grin, just a little twist at the corner of his mouth. Well, at least this proves the guy isn't incapable of a little good humour at his own expense.

"Yeah--what are they anyway? Cats? Foxes?" He finishes off his cigarette and then flicks it aside--litterbug--and takes a couple more steps forward, just to make sure that his little bibiru doesn't end up in over its fuzzy head. (The small animal is sniffing at Devin's shoes, little wings flapping in futile excitement; it's not going anywhere.) "This place has got some weird wildlife."

"It's an odd assortment, but that's apparently what happens when you need to make like Noah and build an ark to survive catastrophe," Devin says dryly. "They're called inan, although calling them a cross between cats and foxes is apt."

One of the little creatures scampers after Kit's discarded cigarettes, but very quickly decides it's too smelly to actually retrieve. It does return to the dwarf's side to chirp at him. Another is trying to engage the bibiru in grooming.

"I blame you for this," Devin tells Luthien, who responds by licking his nose. The vampire closes his eyes, hiding his embarrassment, before looking back to Kit. "They're basically energy vampires, so they don't eat solid food. From what I understand they aren't that common, either, so this…" He gestures to the pack of them. "... Is somewhat unusual."

Make like Noah and what now? Like many things do when you're Kit's height and not from Earth, that one sail right over his head, but he doesn't bother trying to figure out the specifics. He gets the gist of it.

"They're pretty cute for vampires," Kit says, chuckling, and crouches down to hold out his hand to the little inan that has come to investigate him. His bibiru, in the meantime, has taken to flopping itself down happily at the inan attempting to engage it in grooming; a clear demonstration of its comfort at the moment, Kit guesses. It doesn't look like it's in immediate distress anyway.

"...From what I understand they aren't that common, either, so this… Is somewhat unusual."

"Maybe the Veil is thin here or something," Kit muses out loud while scratching the inquisitive inan underneath its chin, before realizing what he's just said and adding, "Uh, that's sort of--a partition between the physical world and the Fade--the spirit world, where I'm from. According to mages and human religious sorts anyway. Doesn't really apply to dwarves." Which is what he is, if his height is any indication. "I guess there isn't really a Veil here, is there."

"Many people have tried to kill me. Trahearne will not be the last. It's part of my lifestyle," Devin replied wearily. "I understand his hatred for undead creatures, Leo, but I don't have a death wish."

He tucked the inan more securely against him so she couldn't escape, and this was apparently comfortable enough that she ceased wiggling quite so much. Leo's concern was… not unwelcome, precisely, but helped him better understand where the judgement was coming from.

"I'm not afraid to die," he continued after a breath. "I'm not afraid of pain. I've been in far more dire situations than that. Trahearne hunts and kills the undead - it's apparently what he was tasked to do, to save his corner of the world. In that respect, I'm not much different than him. Whether there's deeper meaning than that, I don't know, but keep that in mind if you speak with him." The inan nuzzled his neck, and Devin ignored her for now. "Making assumptions is what got us into this mess in the first place."

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I was born with lightning in my heels | March Catchall

Pepper | The Beach at Sunset

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