Participants:
Scene Title | Looking for an Outlet |
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Synopsis | Cardinal stops by and Devi confesses her secret. |
Date | August 22, 2010 |
Anarchy Customs:Hangout
Dark wood flooring is illuminated by dome-cage lighting set liberally in the ceiling overhead. This room is simply furnished - a stout rectangular table in the center of the room, flanked by deep, plush leather sofas shoved up to the walls at either side. The northern quadrant of the room is set with a personal mini-bar; namely a fridge full of beer, a shelf of hard liquors, and a cabinet set with a large padlock above it. The walls are covered with large mirrors, the reflective areas surrounded by sketches as well as snapshots of completed tattoos. In one corner, well out of the way, there is a bench complete with tattooing equipment.
The southern portion of the room, however, is set with an opening in the floor, supported by a black-iron staircase that offers passage into the greasy garage bellow. The same staircase also leads upwards to a hatch door into the last, upper floor of this building.
It has only been a few hours since here surprise company had stopped in for a visit. Devi is splayed out on one of her lovely leather sofas, changed so as not to leave grease of course - skinny jeans in black boots accented by metal plating, a lime green tank top with little skulls and bones dotted across its fabric. Her hair is still wet and left to hang loose after a recent shower, but she seems mighty comfortable…
The roach of a polished off joint leaves the aroma of her 'relaxation' technique still in the air. Her bandaged hands are being cooling where they are wrapped against what proves to be the third bottle of beer. She grumbles to herself as she stares at the ceiling before finally picking up Warren's card from the table nearby and scrutinizing it in the light. "Fucker," she hisses.
Doors? Where we're going, there are no doors… as usual, Cardinal's slipped upstairs without bothering with knocking, perhaps out of concerns that he'd been spotted.
Maybe he's just hoping he'll catch her walking around in her underwear or naked, though. Hard to say.
"What, did you touch a hot engine block… engine block…?" The coiling whisper stirs in the air as the shadow spills over the back of the sofa.
"Holy shit!" Today is so not a good day for that trick. Devi bolts upright, bracing a hand to her chest as if to keep her heart from leaping out of it. This, of course, has her cursing again at the pain it brings. She groans as she recognizes the voice.
"You know… that entrance was nifty the first time you did it, but now?" Her mood is definitely in need of repair. Got a wrench for that? She flops back onto the sofa. She looks at her bandaged palms. "Nah, I'm not that stupid. Spider Man came to visit. Had a little shocking girlfriend with him."
"Sorry." The shadow washes up the wall again, spilling down beside the sofa like a door; Cardinal steps out of it, emerging from the darkness, pulling it with him to define his form, colour returning after a moment. A shake of his head to clear it, and then he looks over, brow furrowing, "Spider M…"
"Warren and Elle were here?"
Devi scowls and waves Warren's business card around under Cardinal's nose. "Yup! And, holy hell, dude… those two are frickin' whack jobs!" She tips back another gulp of her beer before slamming it down onto the table and wheeling around to sit properly on the sofa.
"It's all good, though. Looney Tune is sending over a crew to clean up the mess his machine made o' my shop." She shrugs. "But, that blond bitch…" Devi grimaces and waves her hand around as if trying to shake out a fire. "That hurt."
"Elle's psychotic, and Warren's a paranoid schitzophrenic…" Cardinal's hand lifts to snatch the business card from her hand, turning it around to look at the text upon it with a tight frown.
"Sending out a…" He looks up past it, through his shades, "…wait, slow down a minute. What happened, exactly?"
"You know," Devi beings, waving her hand towards the stairs and the mess it reveals of her shop below. "That spider-thing turned my shop to shit. We had a little chat after little Ms. Priss calmed down. He's sending out some dudes to clean up the mess. I'm keeping the machine and working on it. And, well, I'm goin' to help out his business a bit, for good sum of money."
The biker bitch pushes to her feet and grabs a fresh beer from the fridge. She holds one out towards Cardinal. "Want one?"
"Yeah, the only problem there…" Cardinal tosses the card onto the table, reaching out to take the beer with a scowl, "…that by his business what he means is The Commonwealth Institute, and we just blew up one of their facilities last week. These are people who use the Registry as a shopping list whenever they need something for their experiments. You're lucky you're not Evolved, or you'd probably be fucked right about now."
Crack! Devi's own bottle hits the floor and shatters, setting her boots to sparkle with a glimmer of liquid and glass. She glances aside to Cardinal, gulping past the tension in her throat as she watches him out of the corner of her eye.
"Well, what if I were Evolved…" She shrugs on shoulder nervously. "Hypothetically, what would they do, this Institue?" She tries to kick the glass off her boots nonchalantly and reach for another beer.
Crash? Cardinal brings the non-beer-handling hand upwards, drawing the shades down the bridge of his nose and regarding her steadily over the edge for a long moment.
"Hypo…thetically," he states in tones about as dry as Death Valley, "It depends on what you can do. If you were useful, they'd either try to recruit you or just take you. Several of our allies have ended up in sensory deprivation tubes until needed, like fucking canned goods in a cabinet."
"Oh fuck." The room spins. That's right. You just had to go and open your mouth. "Listen," she starts, as she stumbles back before righting herself enough to flop back down onto the couch. The fridge is still left open with a mess on the floor beside her as she sits holding her stomach.
"I might be Evolved. And, I might have told Looney Tune that I can do what he does. And, I may have done all this to keep the bastard from blowing up my shop…"
She suddenly pops to her feet. "Dude! Why didn't you tell me this shit before!?" She starts pacing back and forth in front of the sofa like a caged lioness.
"You sort've scooted your ass off to Mexico as I recall," Cardinal replies with a rough snort of breath, twisting the cap of the bottle off and shaking the beer bottle in her direction, "You haven't exactly been attending the clubhouse meetings — anyway, I don't think Warren's a complete sealed deal with the Institute. I don't think even they really want him, he's too much of a loose cannon, and probably too fucking crazy for the telepaths to do anything with."
Devi rubs at her temples with her burnt fingertips. "Yeah, yeah. Well, you said you wanted me to see that dude about that gang thing. Didn't think it was smart to stroll up to your little bake sales, yeah?" She scratches at the raven tattooed on her throat. She finally shakes her head and stops her pacing. "It's good. I'm good. All cool. They let him enough alone. Just gotta play the cards right, yeah?" She nods to herself and tips back a good half of her beer. Frickin' Evos. They really do manage to make her nervous more than anything else.
"I'll have a talk with Elle about that," Cardinal says, gesturing to her bandaged hand, "I'm not gonna have her zapping you for the fun of it."
"So…" A swig of beer, and then he fixes her with a steady gaze, "…you 'might' be Evo?"
"You buddy-buddy with Shock Tart?" Devi inquires, her mood slowly tipping towards right with each tip of her beer bottle. "Yeah… maybe," she mumbles. "Alright, it kicked in shortly after I got here last year. Weird shit - kept taking my bike apart in my sleep and shit. Drove me nuts. Getting wicked impulses to build stuff. Been working on that spider since the thing came crashing through here." She shrugs, apparently as pleased about her ability as she is about this entirely screwy day.
"I wouldn't say 'buddy-buddy' but I know her," Cardinal replies with a shrug of one shoulder. Of course, who doesn't he know? Another sip of his beer, considering her with a thoughtful purse of his lips, "You're a mechanical intuitive? Shit, that's… useful."
"Yeah, useful in doing what? Turning me into a whacko?" Devi snorts. "I wake up in the middle of the night wanting to take apart my microwave." She glances side-long at Cardinal. "Trade with ya?"
"You just need an outlet." Cardinal gives her a long, considering look, "So if I brought you something… broken, let's say… do you think you could make it work again?"
Devi lofts a brow. "Perhaps. If you brought me something… what sort of something are we talking about?" She downs the last of her beer, setting it aside and turning her interests more fully to Cardinal.
"It's a…" Cardinal pauses, glancing back over his shoulder and then approaching closer, "…it's a compass. It's not just any compass, though, it detects Evolved."
The biker queen leans forward. "Where did you get something like that and what are you going to do with it?" Her fingers dance, drumming on her knees, as if already itching to get a look at the device.
"The Institute has them," Cardinal says with a scowl, his head shaking a little bit as he begins to pace, "If we can get the broken one working, maybe we can figure out a way to block them. I don't want squads of cops running around with Evo Meters."
ORDER: It is now your pose.
Devi pauses in a moment of thought before biting down on her lower lip and giving a quick nod. "Bring here and I'll take a look. Doesn't hurt to try, right?" She flashes a smile. "Like you said, an outlet - I kind like my microwave the way it is, afterall."
A grin touches Cardinal's lips at her last words. "Hell," he observes casually, "You want an outlet, baby, I can come up with all sorts of shit for you to build… I've got some really interesting technology I bet you'd like to get a look at."
Devi grins. "Now you're just talkin' dirty to me, Toots." She laughs aloud and settles for a quick wink in Cardinal's direction. "Alright. Looney's men are coming by tomorrow to clean shop. I'll give ya a call after they leave. Let me know if ya need any help draggin' all the goods down, okay?"
"I will." Cardinal watches her for a moment, then, "Just be careful, all right? He's a dangerous motherfucker, and he's unpredictable. I probably should've shot him in the head a long time ago."
"You forget who your talkin' to?" Devi grins and makes a show of flexing her arms all tough like. "And, I'll take a trip down to visit your other pal soon." She nods and stands, turning away and heading for the stairwell to the upper floor.
"And, Toots… now that I got the Mr. and Mrs. Crazy 'round. Why do you try knockin', yeah?" She smirks and blows a kiss before heading upstairs.
"I keep hoping I'll catch you in the shower," Cardinal calls after her, watching her head towards the stairs with a grin, "Can't blame a guy for trying, eh?"