milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

The door opens, and a woman with long dark hair and a short black dress steps in.

Well, really, that's technically only partly true. But it's probably close enough to accurate. Workable, at any rate.

She stops and looks around. This doesn't feel like any bar she's ever been in before, and, darling, she has been in a lot of bars. Desperate people do like to drink, and a week in a bar here or there, that's like picking ripe fruit off low-hanging branches.

Well, well, well. Isn't this . . . interesting?

[OOC: If you're the sort who's good at recognizing demons, feel free. If you're not, though, chances are she's just going to come off as young human woman. Questions, etc., ping elsinorequeen.]

[tiny tag: the crossroads demon, cerberus]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

X tilts her head, studying Verity.

"Some people think it is important."

Beat.

"It does not make sense."

"Sex? Or people finding it important?"

(Verity finds it important. You'd be amazed what people are willing to give up, when they're thinking with the wrong part of their anatomy.)

"Both," X says after a moment.

"It is not relevant."

"Well, it's relevant if you don't want the species to die out."

And what fun would anyone have, without humans to entertain themselves with?

"I am a mutant," X says.

As if that explains everything.

"There are only two hundred of us left. Sex will not help."

Not that she thinks the same is true for humans. Still.

"Probably wouldn't hurt, either," Verity says.

And this considers this.

"Well, not much, anyway."

X is silent for a second. Or two.

Then--

"I do not think sex is supposed to hurt."

Verity shrugs.

"It's like the difference in vanilla ice cream and your root beer float. The first is fine, I guess, but it gets so much more entertaining when you add something with a little bite."

Or a lot of bite, as the case may be.

"Oh."

X considers that.

"I do not like being hurt."

"Some people do."

She might even go as far as to say that most people do, in some way or another, but then, she doesn't usually deal with the well-adjusted portions of humanity.

"What do you like?"

"I like Westerns. And folk music."

Beat.

"And protecting people."

This pause is longer.

"You like being hurt?"

"Depends on who's doing the hurting, darling."

"Oh."

Beat.

Beat.

"I do not hurt people here."

Unless they start something.

"Oh, don't worry. You're not my type, I don't think.

"Anyway, that would be against the rules, wouldn't it?"

"I do not want to have sex with you."

X starts there.

And then--

"Yes. Unless you start a fight. Then I am allowed to stop you."

Beat.

"Sparring is okay, too. Outside."

Oh, "Laura," you're just too entertaining, for all that it's almost too easy.

"Well, I'll be sure not to start any fights," she says.

At least, she won't start any that can be proven to be her fault.

"I'm not much of a sparrer."

(What's the point, if there's nothing that matters on the line?"

"Good," X says.

She means it.

And then--

"I like sparring. It is useful."

"Useful for what?"

"Training."

Beat.

"And learning new techniques."

She tilts her head, studying Verity.

"I protect people at home, too."

Protect. Kill. It's all the same, really.

Protect is one of those nice little words people use to sugarcoat something repellant, like murder. Or calling a terrorist a freedom fighter, or a dead child collatoral damage.

Verity's a call a spade a spade sort.

Sometimes.

"And where is home?"

X is that kind, too. Sometimes. But sometimes it makes people uncomfortable, so she tries to be careful.

"San Francisco."

Beat.

"On Earth. You have been there?"

"Yes.

"Both to Earth and San Francisco."

She did some of her best work in San Francisco, in 1906.

The late 1960's weren't bad, either.

"But you did not stay."

It seems like a logical conclusion.

X is not sure.

"I don't stay anywhere very long," she says.

There's always another crossroads waiting.

"I did not, either."

Beat.

"Before."