Participants:
| Scene Title | Ice Cold Tequila |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Ash runs into Melissa on the street with a bottle of Tequila in hand. |
| Date | 4/11/2010 |
The streets of New York, on the way to Old Lucy's.
It's evening. Working towards late evening. The smart people are inside somewhere with heat, or at least out of the snow. But not Melissa. She's bundled up, sure, she even has a sharpie decorated sling keeping her left arm extra warm, but she's stumbling down the snow covered sidewalk (or maybe the street? It's hard to tell), with a bottle of tequila in her good hand. It looks to be about a quarter empty. Which could explain why she's singing Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. And horribly. It's worse than nails on chalkboard.
Ash is moving along the snow covered sidewalks himself, and while he could at first be mistaken for being drunk, he's far from it. He's limping heavily, favoring his right leg, and he's got his left arm cradled close to him. Blood, now long dried, or frozen, decorates his upper lip, and a bit down his lower lip as well. He can't help but hear the rather awful singing though, and his eyes search the darkness before they find the source in Melissa. Eyes narrow before recognition dawns in them and he huhs softly before he slips across the street in her direction, making slow progress through the snow.
Melissa comes to a stop when she sees Ash, and she squints at him, trying to make out the face, then place the face with a name. The singing stops though, blessedly, and she sways a little on her feet. Then she perks, just a little, and says too loud, "It's Dick! Hi Dick!"
Ash is about halfway across the street when that cry goes out. Ash's head shakes slowly, only for a hiss of pain to escape his lips as it sets off some ache or another in his battered form. He moves closer, finishing crossing the street, and he stops a few paces or so away from her. "Melissa… and yeah… Dick it would be…" He lets a faint smirk play across his features before he glances to the bottle of tequila, eyes peering at it before they pull away and back up to her face. "Tequila huh?" He takes another step forwards, kicking up snow as he does so. "Most be some heavy shit to be slamming back tequila like that."
Melissa's brow furrows and she points at him with the hand holding the bottle. "Yes," she says in an absolutely serious tone, "it is. I'm forgetting." And to prove it, she takes another drink, putting herself that much closer to forgetting. Or alcohol poisoning. It's a tossup which one she reaches first. "And what happened to you? Did you hurt someone and they kicked your ass?" Odd, when she's drunk, her southern drawl is very noticeable.
His attention flits down to the bottle and it's missing liquor, then back to her, trying to judge whether the liquor has been consumed by just her, and just how close to not being able to walk she is. Ash's hands pull out of the coat he's wearing and he gestures in the direction of the bottle. "Mind if I have a drink? And what's so heavy you have to drown it? And looks like you've been doing a fuckload of drowning too." He looks down at himself a moment, then barks a quick laugh. "No. Fight club. Been doing it for quite a long time. Good money, lets me get some serious aggression out. Ran into a speedster in the fight and he worked me over pretty damned good." He tilts his head to one side, a rather loud pop sounding from his spine.
Melissa frowns at him and she cradles the bottle against her as protectively as her left arm is being cradled. "Getcher own. You won't even tell me your real name, Dick." Then she breaks out into a soft giggle. "Don't be a dick, Dick," she whispers. Oh yes, she's very well onto drunk. "Speedster huh? Was he called Felix? I know a Felix who goes fast. I haven't seen it, but he told me. Zooooom!"
A hand lifts up to touch to his swollen lower lip, another hiss of pain making it's way into the air at the pain that lances it's way through his face from that touch. "I have no idea what his name was. That's part of the whole thing. You fight some random fucking person, and do the best you can. I lose some, but I win a hell of a lot. Speedsters usually get me, but I got this fucker. Waited till I saw him blur, hit the ground, tripped him, grabbed him by the ankles as he went down and didn't let his fast fucking ass back up. And… you won't let me have a drink because I wont' tell you my real name? I could tell you any name and you'd never know if it was my real one or not. Fuck, I could tell you my name is actually Dick and you wouldn't know." He snorts softly, then glances to the bottle again. "Where you headed? I'll walk with you till you get there."
Melissa eyes him suspiciously. "Why would ya do that? You don't like me. You wanted me gone, 'member?" But she starts to walk, continuing to watch him like a hawk. A hawk watching a tequila thief. "And now you can't tell me any name 'cause I won't believe you. So you can get your own damn bottle." Then she peers at him a little harder. "You evolved?"
Ash snorts aloud at the statement that he doesn't like her. "I don't like anyone Melissa. I can really only claim to have been friends with two people in quite a long time. A woman named Isis, and a woman named Kaylee. Isis is an ex girlfriend… Kaylee I thought of like a little sister. Can't find her since I got back to the city though.." He scowls at the ground as he walks along, his heavy frame making a rather small amount of noise for someone his size. "Yeah. I am." He offers her. Hey, it might not be his name, but it's something about him. "Don't have the money for my own bottle, and just wanted one fucking drink." He makes a face at her, but the face melts into an amused smile as he limps along at her side, or well, close to her side that is.
Uh oh. He said that name. At the mention of Kaylee Melissa stops and actually lets out something like a growl. "Kaylee…If it weren't for that bitch I might be happy right now. But noooooooo. She had to be here first and pretend to be something she's not," she mutters, going from happy, silly drunk to irritated drunk in a heartbeat.
Ash sees the reaction to Kaylee's name, and it brings a bit of an odd look to his features, the man looking wary, and hopeful, and apologetic at the same time. "Umm… I'm sorry to hear that you dislike her so much…." He looks down at the concrete underfoot hen back up, his face filled with those same three emotions. "She's a good friend of mine, and I've not been able to contact her in a long while. Been looking for her. So… uh… what the fuck did she do to piss you off so much?" He shifts from one foot to the other, a nervous gesture that is not often displayed from the normally way over confident man.
Melissa shakes her head, a little too hard, because she looks a little woozy after it. But that can be solved…with another drink! "Don't wanna talk about her. Anything but her. What's your ability? You did say you were 'volved, right?"
Ash takes a rather quick step forwards, a hand going out to try to steady her when he sees her looking about ready to fall over. When she doesn't he leans back in, pain written across his face from the action. He doesn't try to continue talking about Kaylee. Another time maybe, but not while she's drunk. Arguing with drunk people is utterly pointless. "My ability? It’s… not really one ability per say… it's…" He lifts his shoulders up, then drops them, shifting his coat around a bit. "I'm the perfect human as near as I can tell. And yeah, I said I was evolved."
Melissa looks confused. It's actually sort of cute. "You…huh? Perfect human?" She takes a moment to blatantly look him over, head to toe and back again, before she returns to her walking/stumbling. "I've seen better," she mumbles with a shrug of her right shoulder.
Ash resumes his walking as well, or rather his limping as she does, keeping pace with her. "Didn't mean looking Melissa. I meant physically. I'm as strong as a human is capable of being. I'm as fast as a human is capable of being. My stamina, reflexes, are at the max of human capability… like Captain America from the fucking comic books. Only… he was more than human, but that's what he was supposed to be. I think the fuckers classified my power as… Peak Human Condition." He glances over, then back to the sidewalk, then over again. "So… you going to let me have a drink?"
"Man, what is it with this city and comics," Melissa says with a sigh. "And yeah…guess so…Still want your name though. I mean, look." She stops, tilts her head back, and nearly jabs the neck of the bottle against the underside of her chin as she tries to point to the small scar there, one that a lot of Moab-ites have. "See? You're not the only one who hates the fuckers." Then the walking, again, resumes, and the bottle is held out…sort of in his direction.
Ash goes stone still when he sees that scar, his eyes blinking rather slowly. "You were in Moab…" He whispers, and there is a healthy hint of fear to his voice. He turns his head, exposing a very similar scar on the side of his neck, once his fingers pull the collar of his coat down, showing her his own scar from the repeated injections at that place. He reaches out, takes the bottle carefully, and knocks back a solid swig of the liquor before lowering it and handing it back over, but now he's waiting to see what she says in response to him showing her his own scar.
"Duuuuh," Melissa says in response to his whisper. She doesn't look at all surprised at his scar, though. "So see, you should trust me with your name. Could just look it up, but I'm lazy. Save me the time. And, yanno, brain's sorta fuzzy right now. God I wish I could fly. I'm just fly away…far, far away…"
[OOC] Melissa grins.
Ash swallows hard, the motion visible as it travels down his throat. "Duh? What? Like I was supposed to fucking know you were in Moab by looking at you?" He shakes his head, a light growl escaping him. "Didn't know you were Moab… wouldn't have fucking hesitated to give my name if I had known that…" He steps in towards her, offering out his hand, big, rough, and scarred as it is. "Ash…" He murmurs solemnly to the drunk woman. "What's your ability?" He asks softly, his footsteps resuming if her own do as well, though he does hold his hand out to see if he'll be allowed another swig of tequila. He pulls in a slow breath through his nose, nostrils flaring as it's brought in, but it's let out through his mouth. "What level did they keep you in?"
Melissa's nose wrinkles. "I meant after I showed you. And I don't wanna talk about that place. Just glad I'm out." She looks at his hand, down at her own, then clumsily transfers the tequila to her bad hand so she can take his. "My ability…" She starts to laugh and shakes her head. "It's pain, man…Alllllll pain."
Ash eyes her chidingly at her statement. "Well, I don't have much else to talk about. Life has been fucking hell since I got out of there. Just been doing what I can since then to make life better for our kind. Well… no, had a stint helping someone else get petty revenge for awhile, was good money, but now I do what I can for our kind." He shakes the hand that's held out to his, then pulls his hands back to him since he apparently gets no more tequila. His hands stuff into the pockets of his coat, footsteps thunking softly into the snow. "Pain? As in… giving pain? Taking pain? Both?" Attention is mostly on her as he walks along, not too concerned with bumping into other people or anything with the cold and the snow blanketing the city still like it is.
Melissa shrugs again, then takes another deep drink. "All of the above. It's pain. If I didn't have it, I'd…No, not talking about that. not thinking about that. It's not pleasant," she says, absently offering the bottle back to him, stumbling a little too much to prevent some bumping into others.
Ash moves in closer to her when she starts to stumble bad like that. He takes the bottle into his left hand, and steps in, trying to slip his aright arm around her shoulders to steady her, if she allows him to do so that is. His left lifts the bottle to his lips to take a long sip of the tequila. Once it's lowered he sucks in a breath through his teeth. "Where are you headed? That way I know here to take you in case you can't make it on your own two fucking feet and I'll be able to make sure you get there safe?"
\Melissa's drunk, but not quite pain free, and she hisses in the moment his hand touches her left shoulder, and jerks away. "That hurt…" Pause. "Um…I'm heading to…" Her brow furrows in concentration for a moment. "Oh, yeah. Old Lucy's!" she says triumphantly.
Ash blinks rapidly as she pulls away like that, telling him it hurt. His eyes look bewildered, but after a few moments, understanding dawns and he nods his head. "Can you dump that pain into me so I can help you home?" His voice holds no hesitation at the offer at all. Old Lucy's? That gets another little blink. "I used to know the owner, the old owner I guess. Haven’t been able to get a hold of her. Isabelle? Ashford? She was a moabite like us…." He frowns then, a sad look in his eyes, but still stands ready to help her if she needs it.
Melissa shakes her head sadly. "I can't do anything to myself," she says sadly. "I could take away every bit of pain you feel, or make you feel the worst you've ever felt, but my own pain has to be taken care of the natural way. Or with lots and lots of drugs." And that thought has her pouting a little. "And nah. Dunno her. Abby owns it now. Abby's awesome. She told me to get drunk."
Ash nods rather sadly, his head dipping forwards slowly before a soft sigh escapes his mouth. "Yeah… figured she moved on or something since I Haven't seen her in a long time." He continues along though, his steps slowing as distance takes it's toll on his limbs, fatigue and the pain from the beating he took getting to him. "That's… unfortunate." he comments on the pain thing. "It hurts to be touched then?" His voice is curious, but not pitying. He thinks it sucks, but he's not showing her any pity, just understanding.
Melissa shakes her head. "Nah. You just grabbed where I was shot…Friday? Think it was Friday. May have been Thursday…Maybe? I dunno. The days are sort of blurrin' together right now. That's why the sling though. Keep my arm still. You know…so I don't swing it when I walk or whatever."
Ash stares for a few moments, his eyes seeing the sling, and he just shakes his head at his own idiocy. "Sorry, didn't even think about that… just… well thought it was a side effect of your ability…" He grumbles in his throat at himself, lifting a hand to scrub his fingers back through his hair. "Well, glad you can touch people then. That would seriously fucking suck…. if you couldn't. touch people without hurting." He still has the tequila bottle in his left hand out of sight at the moment, hoping she continues to forget he has it so he can avoid her giving herself alcohol poisoning. "Who shot you? You weren't shot when I saw you the other day."
"I have no idea who shot me. Was this fire, and I was trying to get a couple of friends out of the building, and…bam! Shot. Really fucking hurt too." Melissa sighs then, and it's a sad sound. "I miss touching guys…Celibacy seriously fucking sucks. Why did I decide to go all…monogamous. Without even having a damn boyfriend," she mutters.
"Getting shot seriously fucking hurts. It's why I do try to avoid it as best I can. And I tend to only pick fights I know I can win, and that I have surprise in. But, sounds like you got fucked over period." His footsteps continue, though a snicker escapes Ash when she begins to mutter about celibacy, self imposed at that. "Dunno, why the fuck did you go celibate and shit if you didn't have a boyfriend?" Yep, repeating her question right back at her, a snarky look on his feature s to go with the smirk on his lips, the corner tilted upwards as his feet keep pace with her own steps.
Melissa gives him a dirty look. "I just wanted somethin'…real. If I just wanted sex I could get sex. But…never had a boyfriend, and I want someone for more than just sex." Another sigh. "Wanted him. But nooooooo. The jerk had to be all…grr…I hate men. If I didn't love their anatomy so much more than a woman's I'd totally go gay."
Ash can't argue with that statement. His head gives a slow incline before straightening back. A heavy sigh breathes past his lips as he begins to speak. "I get that. I really do. I tried once after getting out. She was evolved too. But …s he had this tendency to dissa-fucking-pear and not bother fucking telling me what was going on. Got sick of sitting in the dark and worrying so… I broke it off. But… it was… nice… having something meaningful. Having someone that actually gave a shit whether I came home that night or not, whether I was hurt or not. Never really had that before then." He lifts a hand, rubbing his palm over his face firmly before letting his hand fall away. "It's worth it…" he blinks a few times before a light and airy chuckle escapes him. "Well… I can't say the same. I've got no interest in guys, and no luck with women…." he snorts and his head shakes, a bit of snow falling off of the top of his head where it settled on his hair.
Melissa cocks her head and studies him as though seeing him for the first time. She's quiet for a moment, before asking, "Why are you being nice to me? Thought you didn't like anyone. And yeah…it's nice havin' someone worry. I've got that, in a couple friends. But it's not really the same. I can't curl up with them to watch movies, and I really want that. Like, a guy I can grab onto when a movie scares me or something."
Ash walks on a few paces after she asks her question. He's quiet as he walks, not responding until she’s done speaking. When she finishes he pulls in a slow breath and nods his head a touch. "I don't like people. But you’re not just some random fucking person. You've been through shit, you know some of my pain. You were where I was. Whether you had it as bad as me or not, you know what it's like to be treated like a fucking animal, to be hunted." He turns his head, looking back to her. "That's why I originally told you you'd be better off without my name. I stopped being the hunted when I got out and became the fucking hunter. The day before I met you some fuckers busted into the house I was using out on Staten. I killed 8 of the mother fuckers before they took me down. My ass got saved by some people, a couple of whom were in with us. But that's what I do. I hunt /them/ down, and I kill them. They treat us like animals, and I do the same right back to them." His shoulders roll forwards slowly. "You may or may not understand that, but you understand my hatred. That makes you not another one of those fucks out there that don’t' know shit. Which makes you worth knowing." He offers her a tight smile, then turns his eyes back upon the path before him. "And yes, I know what you mean. Well, from the opposite end, but yeah…"
Melissa nods at that but keeps walking. If she doesn't keep her forward momentum she may not be able to get started again at this point. "Yeah…I know what it's like. That place ruined my life. It ruined it in ways I never imagined it would." She nearly walks right past Old Lucy's before she realizes that they're there, and she stares at the place blankly for a minute. "Oh, hey. Lucy's," she says dully.
Ash is reaching out a hand towards the woman when she stops and stares. A smirk lifts up his lips again and his head gives a faint incline forwards. "Yes, that would be Lucy's." He murmurs, then looks at the building, his hand stuffed into his coat pockets again, well, one is, the other is still holding her tequila bottle. "Yeah, same here. I've done shit since then that would deserve me being put in there. But before that? I was serving time in Eastern Pen. My power manifested din the middle of a street fight and I accidentally killed the guy I was fighting. Was a total accident but… I got put in prison for it. Then, they took me from the prison and threw me in Moab… place was hell." He looks over, having found, if not a kindred spirit, at least some common ground with Melissa. "Want me to walk you in? Or you got it from here?" He turns, holding her bottle out to her, though his face lights up in pain as his right knee nearly gives way, the man's body wobbling before he catches himself. The bottle however, stays steady as it's held out.
Melissa looks back to Ash. "I didn't do a damn thing to get put in there but be different." She takes the bottle then puts it in her left hand, before she rests a hand on his arm. It's hard to focus this drunk, and so it takes a minute before she can manage it, but eventually, the pain begins to recede. "I'll be fine. And sorry, but the pain won't stay gone for long."
Ash jerks his head into a nod to her comment about not having done anything. "A lot of us didn't. I may have deserved some jail time for the street fight, as it was illegal. But the killing was an accident. They turned me into the very monster they claimed I was. Before that? I may have been… rough… but I wasn't like I am now." He grunts in frustration, then looks down at himself as the pain eases. He loosens his body up some, stiffness fading with the lack of pain. The statement that it will soon be back is met with an understanding nod. "Thank you. And… take care of yourself Melissa." His voice is soft. He then begins to turn away, stretching out in preparation for a run. If the pain will be returning soon he's going to cover as much ground as he can in that time.
"I will." Melissa smiles faintly, then turns towards Old Lucy's, disappearing inside soon enough. Unfortunately for Ash, it's not time, but distance that is his enemy at the moment. When Mel is about 30 feet from him, the pain begins to return.
Ash begins to sprint away from Old Lucy's as she turns to begin heading back inside, not knowing that it's a distance thing. When he hits 30 feet his eyes flare wide open, and the man goes down hard into the snow. He lays there, for a good little while, recovering from the sudden burst of effort and pain resulting from it, and then from the wipeout. When he finally gets up, he's wet, in pain, and just plain miserable as he starts to hobble off towards wherever he's seeking refuge tonight.