RIGHT OR WRONG [P]

[Ray "East" Kraus]

He was not the sort of man to seek comfort. Never had been, probably never would be. But he was unsteady on his feet and his hands were shaking more than he thought possible, so hard that the idea of buttoning a shirt was terrifying. "Aw, hell, Fulsi." When he looked at her a second time, he also saw the two bodies. Kev! That's what the second rogue had yelled, once East had killed his comrade, who was apparently named Kev.

And was apparently very dead.

East's mouth was dry, aside from the copper taste still on his tongue. He was uncertain when Riley approached, but he held still as possible, grimacing only when she began to wrap his leg. “Try not to fall over, okay? I need to stop the bleeding.” A sarcastic comment was on the tip of his tongue, but East couldn't manage it; besides, it was too late. She rose to wipe his face. The gesture broke him of his stupor, however, and grounded him some. He did not smile, exactly, but his lip quirked and he didn't look so... stunned. "Okay."

East leaned on her, thankful for the support even if he wasn't saying it. His leg hurt. Actually, it hurt a lot. Each step jarred the wound, and by the time they reached the Studio Ess his face was pale and strained, and the makeshift bandages had already begun bled through. His vision was blurring some when she led him down the hallway, and East grit his teeth against the pain, oblivious to the hushed conversation. When he was presented the chance to collapse on the cot, he did so with abandon, a sharp breath escaping through his teeth.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Was his reply to her command, disjointed by the pain and the way he spoke through clenched teeth. He waited quietly in the moonlight, fearing that she would leave him there. It would make sense... Well, no. It wouldn't. If she was going to leave him, she should have done it beside the dead Rogues, right? Unless she wanted to drag him away from Fulsi territory, to a place where he would not be found, for him to die alone...

And then she came back with a lantern.

Christ, am I being melodramatic. Sounds like something out of a bad murder mystery. His thoughts began, as he desperately tried to distract himself. Of course, I am bleeding to death. I deserve to be melodramatic--er, wait. That's more drama, and, and--

What was she doing? East tried to prop himself up, and eventually succeeded in twisting his legs off the side of the cot. Riley was telling him something. At first he didn't hear, and then she repeated herself, with the air of someone who was annoyed at having to do so. Take your pants off. His brows skyrocketed. Was he hearing her right? Even injured, East could appreciate this.

He unbuttoned his jeans and wiggled his hips to get them to knee level, pausing to wince as the fabric paused over his injured thigh. Actually, to do more than wince. He bit the inside of his lip until he tasted blood (his own, thankfully--the taste of the Rogue was still fresh in his mouth, and it disgusted him). He managed to kick them off the rest of the way, and happened to glance down.

Well.

The knife wound wasn't the worst it could have been, not being as deep as he had expected, but plenty long and jagged. It hadn't severed a major artery, or he would have been dead, he figured. But it was bleeding. A lot. East kept his hands helplessly at his sides, and attempted to distract himself. "Th-this is an awful... lot for the second date... Riley." Seriously, this spoken-through-gritted-teeth business wasn't doing him any favors.

Kev!

The memory was still sharp. East looked away from her. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt guilty over something, but now he did. Now he wished he could take it back, wished he could go back--stop. He'd go crazy thinking about it."How hurt are you?"

[Riley Salvatici]

THE PAST AND THE CHASE

After she set the lantern down, Riley tugged off the Fulsi’s shoes, then pulled cautiously on the hem of his jeans until they came free and she could drop them on the floor. “I’ll try to salvage it. Here.” She held the jug of water to his mouth so he could rinse away the blood, then let him take a few swallows before pulling it away. While he was sitting up, she took the opportunity to pour water over his wound, rinsing away the blood and soaking the floor instead of the cot. Setting the jug aside, she hummed thoughtfully as she poked at the edges of the gash. Pulling up his shirt revealed that the bleeding from the one on his ribs had already slowed. It would do well enough with bandages.

Using her knife, she cut strips from the single sheet covering the cot, then pulled the East’s shirt over his head. “Keep your arms out of the way.” She used one of the cotton strips to wipe away the blood, and wrapped the others around his ribs. “There. You’re gonna need stitches in that leg, though. Down, Fulsi.”

With a few encouraging prods, he was laying flat again, so Riley sat on the edge of the cot, carefully balancing the lantern on it as well and casting a circle of yellow light over the injury. “Not bad. Just scrapes and bruises.” Falling on the gravel was probably going to leave her looking like she’d stood in the middle of a particularly aggressive pingpong match, but it was nothing serious. The bruising she’d get around her throat from being half-strangled would be equally interesting, but again, there was nothing she could do about it.

Fingers moving to opposite wrist, she hesitated, gaze flicking up toward East. “Don’t freak out, okay?” That said, she peeled off her gloves and tossed them onto one of the other cots, revealing fingernails that glowed with a faint light. A quick examination revealed there wasn't any grit in the abrasions on her palms - the gloves had done that much, at least. Pulling a small packet from her back pocket, she tore it open to reveal a needle and thread, stashed for emergencies. It was already threaded and tied, so it was a simple matter to pin East’s leg with an elbow, say, “This might hurt,” and begin stitching.

There’s something to be said for practice - it took only a handful of moments to put in a neat row, closing the gash. Sitting back, she tied off the thread and used her knife to nick off the extra. Most of the remaining makeshift bandages were wrapped around his thigh. Riley took one of the remaining pieces, dampened it with water, and wiped the blood off her hands. And face, from where she head head-butted the rogue. “That should keep for a while. Think you’re going to last til dawn?” Tossing the cloth aside, she moved the lantern to the floor and dropped onto the adjacent cot. She had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

---

ooc: sorry for the delay D8

[Ray "East" Kraus]

THE BEST OFTEN DIE BY THEIR OWN HANDS
AND THOSE LEFT BEHIND CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND

East, for once, did not say what he was thinking--that there was no salvaging this. The shock of water against his thigh wiped his mind of these thoughts, considering the fact it was a combination of cold and... well, pain. Lots of pain. And what broke these thoughts was the fact that she really was very handsy. As in, she wasn't exactly keen on asking permission--instead, she tugged up his shirt, regardless of his protest (albeit, there was not much of one), and examined the gashes on his ribs.

He'd forgotten about them. His thigh hurt worse than his ribs, but at the sight (he couldn't help but look down) he blanched and bit the inside of his cheek. Just gotta remember, Ray, ladies love the battle-scars. He tried to console himself. Fat lot of good that was doing, though. "What are you, good at...everything?" He tried to make it sound like a joke, but it didn't end up that way. He raised his arms and kept them there, out of her way, despite his internal protest. He knew this was necessary, as much as he wished he could just close his eyes and forget about it. But that's now how things worked. She ordered him down, and East obliged with an uncertain, anxious expression.

Good to know that she was fine. Just a few bruises. East concluded that he was incompetent, and that was that. Don't freak out, okay?

Frankly? He wanted to... run, preferably... or curl up in a little ball. Not get stitches. He couldn't say it was a fear of needles, really, being that his veins had had plenty of one-on-one encounters with syringes in the past... but some stupid, naive part of him wanted to ignore his injuries and the entire ordeal, which would be a whole lot easier without messing with stitches, and Jesus, why were her hands glowing? East's eyes widened and instinct told him to scramble away from her touch--the pang he felt in his leg stilled him, however, and he decided to look at her with narrowed eyes.

Her. Fingernails. Were. Glowing. He couldn't wrap his head around it. She was also touching him with the aforementioned glowing digits, thread and needle glinting in her hand. This might hurt. No shit.

He grimaced, but did not cry out, when she began to stitch him up. His fingers tightened on the edges of the cot, until his knuckles blanched. When she finished, he was less than pleased, but he couldn't exactly blame her. She was helping him.

East's dark eyes were locked on Riley as finished up, and washed the blood from her hands and face. Then East glanced towards the wall, trying to force his expression into one of impassiveness. All of his orneriness aside, he had not expected her to help him. Really, she should have just left him on the border of Fulsi, to either be found by his comrades or bleed out alone. She could have run, but she hadn't. And East didn't know if he should have been grateful or not, and if so, what to do with that gratitude.

The answer? To shrug it off with humor, right? "I think so. I've made it this far, and it would suck to waste your string and these awesome sheets on my ribs." But then he sobered, and looked at her with a sense of amazement and confusion. "Thank you. I wasn't... I wasn't expecting you to help me."

Coming from someone as self-absorbed as East, the declaration was a very rare thing. Very rare. He made that clear a few seconds later, with a pair of narrowed eyes and knife-edged smile that belayed his exhaustion. "That's a once in a lifetime thing for me to say, Riley. You better bask in it." His tone, while light, did not match his expression. He shifted and looked up at the ceiling, feeling too wired to fall asleep immediately. Not to mention, that leg was still throbbing. And his ribs.

And the sight of the rogue was still fresh in his mind.

WHAT ANYONE WOULD WANT TO GET AWAY FROM

[Riley Salvatici]

THE PAST AND THE CHASE

Well, she kinda was, but Riley saw no need to share that, so she didn’t answer the question. It was amazing what one could accomplish when two decades were spent in intensive learning, every day, all day, and most of the night. That included developing a pretty spectacular poker face in response to pain - the Fulsi could use some work in that area, but she had to give him credit for staying quiet and holding still. Plus, he hadn’t screeched at her nails, which was more than could be said for her brother.

Sitting on her cot, she pulled her boots off and set them on the floor, tucking up her feet to sit cross-legged. Settled, she lifted her gaze, and frowned at the look East was giving her. It wasn’t often she was thanked, but she knew better than to disregard the sentiment - Fuller would’ve had her hide for discouraging a feeling of gratitude - so she simply shrugged. “I always repay my debts.” An eyebrow arched as his following suggestion. “I’ll treasure the moment.”

When he shifted his gaze to the ceiling, Riley relented slightly. “Besides, what kind of long-lost-lover would I be, if I left you to bleed out?” At least there was no one around to scold her for taking pity on a greenie. Poor sap clearly hadn’t ever dealt with this sort of thing before. On the other hand, it really would have been suspicious if the Fulsi found him with two dead rouges, no ‘Mia’ in sight. So she was justified.

“Speaking of which.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten that you still kissed me, even though you knew your friends were gone. I’ll smack you when you’re better able to appreciate it.” He might not be the creep she originally accused him of being, but that didn’t make him less of a cheeky opportunist. However, she had an unfortunate amount of experience dealing with such people, so it was hard to hold a grudge in the face of ingrained half-amused resignation.

“This won’t hurt you, by the way,” Riley explained, waggling her glowing fingers at him, then amended after a pause, “Unless I want it to.” Getting the radioactivity under wraps had been a priority, lest she poison every living thing around her. The first couple weeks with it had been spent camped in the desert - by the time she’d reeled it in, the dead zone covered a 50 foot radius around her campsite. Thankfully, there wasn’t much life in the area to begin with, but it would be years before the effects could be fully known. Plants and animals might mutate, for all she knew. Practicing with the radiation was equally dangerous, and as a result, she wasn’t particularly good at regulating the intensity.

---

ooc: a bit shorter, but I figured that would work for the back-and-forth of conversation xD

[Ray "East" Kraus]

THE BEST OFTEN DIE BY THEIR OWN HANDS
AND THOSE LEFT BEHIND CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND

There was something to be said for curiosity. East found himself wondering exactly what she had done before the M, if she knew how to stitch someone up as well as she knew how to kill them. Maybe she'd just been in here for ages, he thought. But he did not pursue his line of thought.

"Good thing, too." He laughed, but there was also an edge to it. He hurt. He hurt, and he was tired, and he was high-strung, and he is whiny as hell. East ignore all of his aforementioned discomforts, thinking of how this girl beside him had to be tougher than nails. Her next comment earned a bark of laughter. "A pretty bad one. But I'd be dead and wouldn't care too much--or I would have figured out that I'm secretly very badass, and the second cousin of Rambo." Yeah, right. His head would have been bashed in with a bar if she hadn't intervened, not that he was going to keep thinking on it.

Speaking of which. Oh. There it was. The ceiling was suddenly very interesting. "I don't know what you're talking about." Then he shot a sidelong look at her, one that was devilish. "Besides, you were kissing me back." East said it with an air of satisfaction.

He knew that wasn't exactly true, but still.

This won't hurt you, by the way. East turned to look at her, moving as little as possible. Each time he breathed he could feel the bandages constrict his ribs, and make a little stitch in his side. He looked at her incredulously. He'd forgotten about that little... glow. After she'd stitched up his leg, he really hadn't cared. "What is it? Did you drink the water in New Jersey, and end up radioactive?" He blurted the first thing he thought of, and then had a rather ridiculous thought of her with a New Jersey accent. Shit, this pain thing is making me crazy.

Then he realized. "Christ, you are radioactive, huh? Its one of those Keeper things." He paused, gave her a slit of a smile. "Remind me not to piss you off again. But I guess we're both freaks, then, huh? Don't suppose you want another shot at the whole Empathy thing?" He intentionally made his tone light, a joke. But clarified, in case it was still a sensitive topic. "Just kidding."

WHAT ANYONE WOULD WANT TO GET AWAY FROM

[Riley Salvatici]

THE PAST AND THE CHASE

Riley left him to his delusions, but waved a hand in an exasperated gesture at his next claim. “Of course I was, I thought we were being watched!” She let it go, though. Needling the Fulsi wouldn’t accomplish anything, and like she had said, she’d save the smack he deserved for when he wasn’t already in danger of bleeding to death.

At his speculation of radioactivity, she only arched an eyebrow. He’d figured it out faster than most, excepting the fact that she hadn’t ever been to New Jersey. “You shouldn’t piss me off anyway,” she pointed out. The radioactivity might make it laughingly easy to kill someone who was foolish enough to get close, but in general, she didn’t feel more dangerous for it - it was too slow acting. A sudden burst might cause nausea and headaches, but if she was restrained, someone would still have time to slip a knife between her ribs. That said, she was plenty dangerous without it.

But that hadn’t stopped East from affecting her with the empathy. At his offer, joking as it was, her head tilted consideringly. Now, with him injured and weak, would be a good time to practice. It would let her get a feel for how it worked and how to throw it off, and even if he did get the upper hand, he would be physically unable to overpower her. Decided, she declared, “Alright,” and switched over to sit beside him.

She offered her hand, fingers waggling in invitation even as her eyebrows lifted in challenge. “Hit me with your best shot, Fulsi. I promise not to return the favor.” Empathy could mess with her head, but wouldn’t leave any lasting - or particularly dangerous - effects. Radioactivity, not so much.

---

ooc:

[Ray "East" Kraus]

THE BEST OFTEN DIE BY THEIR OWN HANDS
AND THOSE LEFT BEHIND CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND

“Of course I was, I thought we were being watched!” It took most of his better sense to keep him from waggling his eyebrows, with all the innuendo possible. He figured that the only thing saving him from a good smack was the fact that he had just had his leg stitched up, and she didn't want to be counterproductive. So East just grinned.

"Aw, but you're adorable when you're angry." His tone was a mix between flirtatious and aw-that-puppy-is-cute. Maybe his injuries were affecting his better judgement, or... Well, East was thinking that he was talking more like himself than he had been in the past few minutes, and that was a little comforting. Alright.

Well, he didn't feel so okay any more. East was certain that he has misheard her, and he almost asked her to repeat herself. I didn't get hit on the head, he argued with himself, and he figured that he couldn't be imaging it as she came and sat next to him. He decided to go with it. He doubted he would get another chance like this, and he was fairly certain that Riley was only offering because she knew he was weak as a kitten.

"My best shot, Riley, is wasted on Empathy." He winked before seizing her by the hand. He hadn't had a chance to test out the ability like this on anyone but Damon, who would sit and experience a wide range of the emotions East inflicted on him. It usually ended with a burst of passion, and Damon begging for more. Which was not exactly constructive.

East started simple, holding her eyes. He tried to fill her with the feeling of being content, of not wanting anything. Of relaxation, of a lack of tension. From there it would be easy to progress to a feeling of safety, of being in a place that you were not threatened. He could feel the echo of it, and it made his shoulders slacken some, his eyes get weary. He gauged her reactions quietly.

And then upped it. From safety he progressed to a sense of invincibility, of being untouchable--I can do anything, is what it conveyed. Overconfidence. East abruptly changed the connection from that to a feeling of happiness, of elation. He tried to imagine the emotion himself, but he struggled with it, and instead pictures different situations--weddings, first kisses, the euphoria of a new high. Happy. So happy.

"Those are what's easy to get addicted to." His tone was quiet as he slipped his hand away. He stared at it, uncertain of his own ability. After a pause, he continued. "But I'm not sure that's the side of an Empath you wanted to learn about. Would you would rather feel the anger, the sadness, the things that would make you writhe?"

He offered his hand again.

WHAT ANYONE WOULD WANT TO GET AWAY FROM

[Riley Salvatici]

]

THE PAST AND THE CHASE

“You haven’t yet seen me angry,” she countered. “You’re still alive, yeah?” He’d scared her, with his ability to toy with her emotions, and while that had angered her, it had been mild compared to what she was capable of. As she said, he was still alive. Riley might not always be pleased with the actions of the enemy, but at least they were understandable and expected. The attraction he’d hit her with inspired more disdain than fury - it was her susceptibility to it that made her lash out. Not that that was something she would share with the Fulsi.

“It’s probably wasted on me in general,” she agreed, arching an eyebrow in accompaniment to the jibe. Even so, she let East take her hand, watching him curiously. Within moments, however, her gaze unfocused as she turned her attention inward. Riley didn’t fight the emotions - for the moment, she simply wanted to experience, to see what it felt like.

Contentment filled her, and she sighed somewhat wistfully as it settled in her bones. This, she knew was fake, if only because she never experienced such peace in reality. Her life was lived on an edge, and if ever she had felt so secure, it was earlier than she could remember. Even though it was somewhat abstract - she knew she shouldn’t feel this way - she enjoyed it while she could.

The high of invincibility was more familiar. Her pride was a flaw, and Riley knew it. Fingers flexed against East’s as she resisted the urge to suppress the emotion as she did every other time. It went against habit to revel in the feeling, to accept - rather than fight - that she could do whatever she chose.

Happiness hit her like a hammer blow, and she flinched from it. For a few heartbeats she was blindingly, brilliantly happy, but other emotions crowded it out almost immediately. Riley knew she shouldn’t be feeling such a thing, and was unlikely to experience such a sensation ever again. She was captive, and the reality of it was sobering enough to tamp the euphoria down. There was nothing in her life deserving of such happiness, and the resulting sorrow canceled out the emotion easily enough.

She blinked, and East was talking again. Reclaiming her hand, she shook her head briefly to clear it, re-cataloguing her emotions. “Huh.” Her hand tingled faintly, and she kneaded at it absently with her opposite thumb. “That was interesting.” It was more subjective than she thought it would be. Her own emotions were still present, and the ones he pressed upon her generated more - at least, they did when she realized the emotions were fake. It seemed that it would vary between people. For instance, a more modest person might not be as familiar with the invincibility feeling. Someone more comfortable ignoring reality might easily lose themselves in euphoria.

“Work on the subtlety,” she suggested. “The emotions are plenty strong, but when they come on so fast, you lose the advantage of strength. The jolt makes it too obvious, and then I get an emotion in response.” It was what gave him away last time, except then, the responding emotion had been panic.

“And not yet - try the contentment again, please,” she requested, taking the proffered hand.

---

ooc: AND SUDDENLY, LENGTH XD

[Ray "East" Kraus]

THE BEST OFTEN DIE BY THEIR OWN HANDS
AND THOSE LEFT BEHIND CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND

Her comment made him want to blast her with a feeling of rage, but he quickly brushed away the idea. Because it was a bad one. A very bad one. If she just claimed to never have been angry around him... Well, East would have hated to see her that way. It might have been interesting, for a few seconds, before he lost his head or a good number of his teeth.

"It's probably wasted on me in general." He disagreed, although he did not say it. He merely gave her a smile, satisfied as it was. East was intrigued by this, and by her. She offered him a challenge he would not have normally had, and he wondered that if he really tried if he would be able to manipulate her. He supposed he already had a good basis to go off of, if he wanted to. She did not take him very seriously, and that had it's advantages. The most "threatening" part of him was his Empathy, but she was already learning about that, and apparently viewed him as weak enough to trust him with it.

He pondered it for a few more seconds, but then she was offering him some suggestions. East nodded. "Alright." He could work on the subtle but... Did he just hear her right? East's eyes narrowed some, and he shook his head. Contentment, hm? He was guessing she didn't experience that very often.

Before he grabbed his hand, East pondered how to approach it. He began to think of what he knew from Riley. She was a hardass. She was probably unfamiliar with actual contentment.

So East took her hand. This time, he laced his fingers through hers, offering her a crooked smile as he did it. And then came the Empathy.

This time it would come on slowly. It begun with a feeling of tiredness, of a job well-done. A good day's work completed. East's expression became sympathetic, playing off the emotions she already had to be feeling--tiredness, relative comfort (he was guessing on the second one, being that she had relaxed enough to offer her hand and take off her shoes). Perhaps not safety, but comfort. "You don't feel this very often, do you?" He spoke quietly, conversationally. A friend.

The comfort slowly bled into a sense of contentment. Not as extreme before, per se, but it was there. A steady thrum between their interlocked hands. "I don't think you let yourself be happy very often, do you?" East knew he was trekking on untouched ground, now. He sounded cautious.

WHAT ANYONE WOULD WANT TO GET AWAY FROM

[Riley Salvatici]

THE PAST AND THE CHASE

An eyebrow rose as he linked their fingers, but Riley didn’t comment on it. Instead, she resettled into a state of awareness, watching her emotions carefully. The feeling crept up on her this time, a satisfied weariness pulling at her sluggishly. Distracted by it, she hadn’t been paying much attention to the Fulsi, but she glanced at him when he spoke. At the question, both eyebrows rose, and she didn’t reply. He seemed to think she wanted to experience the emotion for the hell of it, when in reality it simply seemed like a good choice to practice throwing off.

The second query, however, had her lip curling back to expose a canine. “Not much to be happy about, is there?” She found happiness in a job well done, in furthering the cause, in outsmarting and outmaneuvering, in the safety and success of her family. Now she was cut off from the cause, had betrayed her family in the process, and the games of intrigue she had played with locks and explosives and GPS were now limited to fangs and mismatched knives, for fighting over scraps of meat. Her only comfort now was that her brother lived, and even that was bittersweet, because they were in the dome, and they were never getting out.

Clearly the emotion was well established, because these thoughts didn’t do much to her mood. It had steadied into a constant hum of contentment, and now Riley narrowed her eyes and rallied against it. Danger. Enemy. Threat. Panic. Her adrenaline surged, as it normally would, without the usual corresponding alertness. The sense of comfort smothered it. She struggled to counter it, to raise her heart-rate, but it was like fighting against the tide. However, the sensation of not making any headway helped - the alarm that she might not be able to shake the feeling pushed at the sense of safety.

By the time she felt mostly free of the emotion and extracted her hand from East’s, she was panting. “Jesus. That was a lot of work.” Leaning back on one hand, she swiped the other over her face. As she caught her breath, she tilted her head consideringly. “It’s all very... subjective. I had to force myself into a state of alarm to throw that off, which was difficult because there’s no reason for alarm right now. If you tried that emotion on me in the middle of a fight, it would probably be a lot less effective.” Terror or something similar would probably be the best choice to use on someone who was in an active - rather than passive - state, but she wasn’t going to tell the Fulsi that.

“Give me a minute, and we can try again.” Riley rubbed idly at her temple - the exercise was giving her a mild headache. She didn't think she'd ask for the contentment again. She didn't like the way it made the Fulsi's voice go all soft - it made her suspicious.

---

ooc: I ACTUALLY POSTED WHEN I SAID I WOULD GOLD STAR FOR RU

[Ray "East" Kraus]

THE BEST OFTEN DIE BY THEIR OWN HANDS
AND THOSE LEFT BEHIND CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND

“Not much to be happy about, is there?” East said nothing to this, merely gave her a thin-lipped smile. He guessed not. But then what was there to be happy about, anywhere? He had learned a long, long time ago that happiness was pretty much subjective, and that there wasn't a lot to base it on. Act happy all the time, and people began to believe it. Even yourself. But real happiness? He'd given up on it a long time ago, after spending a lifetime of chasing after the materialistic and the false.

East turned his focus on the task at hand, though, watching her expression again. He had a feeling that it was working better this time around, and this pleased him, even if he didn't admit it. "Jesus, that was a lot of work." He retracted his hand with a grin and a cocked brow. "That's very true. But I think you would have learned by now I'm not much of a fighter. Plus, I've learned using Empathy on Riley is a no-no unless she asks for it." He rolled his shoulders and grimaced at the tug of his injuries. "No... I think the Keepers gave it to me because of what I can do with it out of a fight. When I want to be I'm good at convincing people of things, and imagine how much easier it is when I can make them feel whatever I want?"

He wasn't really making a threat or bragging, merely stating things that he'd been thinking about. He would let her take it how she wanted to, though. "What do you want to try next?" His tone, which had risen from the soft octave he used mere moments ago... Well, it was purely conversational right now, even as he continued with a devilish glint in his eyes. "I don't guess you'll let me test out that lust bit again? It sure did make things more interesting. I bet you'd kiss better if you actually wanted me."

He glanced away from her, tiredly, into the dark of the room. "Just kidding. Want to try anger or fear? Or another positive emotion? I could play off that reckless thing again. Give you too much of that in a fight and you'd start doing stupid shit... Well, maybe not you. But some people would."

WHAT ANYONE WOULD WANT TO GET AWAY FROM

[Riley Salvatici]

THE PAST AND THE CHASE

A noncommittal shrug was Riley’s only reply to his question. She took it as rhetorical - what he did with his keeper-given powers was his own business. It would have been useful, outside the dome, but she’d done just fine without it. Inside, as long as he wasn’t using it against her or her ringmates, she didn’t particularly care either way. Nor did she wish to speculate on the motives of the keepers, when the answer would never be something she wanted to hear.

Having pressed her fingertips into her forehead against the lingering headache, she snorted and dropped her hand, lifting her gaze. “If you think I’d act on it, think again. And I’d rather not be uncomfortable for the rest of the night, thanks very much. Besides,” she arched an eyebrow at East, “you didn’t have any complaints about my kissing earlier. Especially since you took the opportunity to kiss me a second time.” She would let him live that down approximately never.

Although she’d been planning on another round of the empathy, Riley couldn’t help but notice how tired he was, as he looked away. He was pale, even in the warm glow of lantern light, the dark circles under his eyes standing out boldly. “Maybe you should sleep,” she suggested instead. “It’s getting late. I should return the lantern anyway.” Saying so, she slid to her feet, picked the object of her statement off the floor, and slipped out the door, leaving the room silvered in moonlight.

She thanked the rogues politely for the use of their light, and returned to the room. Closing the door, Riley pulled her dog tags over her head, and hung those and her keys from the knob in place of a lock. If nothing else, she’d hear it if the door opened. Resettling on her cot, she eyed East. “You gonna be warm enough, Fulsi?” The nights were still cool, and he didn’t have much in way of clothing. Putting his bloody shirt and pants back on wouldn’t be useful, and she was concerned that with his blood loss, the chill could send him into shock. The single sheet on his cot wouldn’t do much.

[Ray "East" Kraus]

THE BEST OFTEN DIE BY THEIR OWN HANDS
AND THOSE LEFT BEHIND CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND

East hadn't been expecting to get anywhere with the comment, so his response was not too different from her previous one. He just shrugged, grimacing as the movement jostled sore muscles and bruises. "Well, when you can die tomorrow you gotta take what you can get, y'know?" He laughed to lighten the severity of the comment, and added with a pair of glinting eyes, "Besides, you weren't a half bad kisser even though you were acting."

East would have been a liar had he said that he wasn't relieved when she suggested he get some rest. But, since he was a liar, he sure wasn't going to admit to being anything less than par. "You sure? I'm golden. I could keep up with this Empathy stuff all night." He wasn't really trying to convince her of that, and his tone said as much. So did the yawn that punctuated his comment, one that he attempted to stifle, only to raise his hand and cover it instead. Her absence only gave him an opportunity to shut his eyes and promptly remember the events of the night.

The taste of blood. The sudden and life-altering realization that his death was mere seconds away, at the hands of some rogue. But it doesn't matter. East thought this forcefully, trying to remind himself that it really didn't. He didn't care about the man he'd killed. He didn't. The repetition of the thought began to drive the meaning of it home. It did not effect him. It just meant that East was alive and someone else wasn't. So what? He swallowed and turned his face to the side, roused from his thoughts only when Riley reentered. He heard a distinctive metallic jingle. Bracelets? No. A necklace? East couldn't say for certain. He opened his eyes, but it was to find that the darkness was dimly lit by moonlight and moonlight alone.

"It is kind of chilly. I don't suppose you're up for cuddling, are you?" It was worth a shot. He really didn't want to freeze on top of everything else that had happened. His voice betrayed the extent of his weariness; despite the sudden droop of his eyes, East tried to get a glimpse of Riley's silhouette in the dark. He could hardly distinguish her from the rest of the darkness.

WHAT ANYONE WOULD WANT TO GET AWAY FROM

[Riley Salvatici]

THE PAST AND THE CHASE

With a roll of her eyes, Riley stood again, sliding into her shift form as she did so. The urge to mock him was there, but he sounded pitiful enough that she let it go. Instead she lifted a forepaw to the Fulsi’s cot and carefully stepped up onto it, keeping her paws on the edges, on the frame, until she was certain it would take their combined weight. Tilting her head, she eyed the narrow bed.

“This would be easier if you were a beanpole.” She circled over East a couple times, paws light and careful as she stepped around him, the pads glowing with the same faint light as her nails. Decision made, she settled against his uninjured side, draping her tail across his feet. Chin dropped to her paws, then lifted to rest on his ribs. “Everyone dies, Fulsi. It’s just a matter of time.”

She could feel it eating at him. For all his cockiness, he wasn’t a killer. The means probably weren’t helping things - of all the ways to kill someone, ripping their throat out with your teeth was one of the most gruesome. Riley couldn’t empathize, could barely sympathize. But she could understand, objectively.

“Better you than him, yeah?” Admittedly, if they’d gone quietly, then bloodshed might not have been necessary. The rogues hadn’t been looking to kill until they put up a fight. Riley wasn’t one for ‘going quietly,’ however, and she had no interest in being taken captive. Been there, done that, no desire to experience the hospitality of the dome’s residents.

[Ray "East" Kraus]

THE BEST OFTEN DIE BY THEIR OWN HANDS
AND THOSE LEFT BEHIND CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND

East couldn't say he was surprised when he saw her shape change in the dark. He was a little disappointed, but this lasted for a mere second. It was better to be snuggled against a giant cat than to be cold, he thought. Her laying down happened to be a haphazard situation, but she managed it after some maneuvering. "Just don't flop on me," East pleaded wearily, eyeing the looming shape of the tiger-cheetah in the dark. This was made easier by the green illumination from her paws. Jesus, this is a weird place. He rolled his head back, however, and shut his eyes. If she were to collapse on him, or if the whole cot were to topple over, it would be better if he didn't have to watch. Plus, he couldn't keep them open anymore.

He had to admit, the feel of her against him just about chased off any thoughts of coldness. It also roused memories of Leon, who would occasionally curl against East's ribs in a similar fashion. Nostalgia was not for the con-man though, and he brushed the memories aside. "Gods don't. If I was Zeus, I could live forever." There was nothing behind the statement, not really. Not even sarcasm. He was just musing idly, knowing that gods didn't exist to begin with.

East knew it too well, though. Everyone died. He tempted fate too often; one day, it wasn't going to let him get away with it. He shifted his arm, his hand going absentmindedly to the nape of Riley's neck. Despite the temptation to pet her, he figured it wouldn't go over well, and he merely left it resting against her fur. Better you than him, hm? He had to admit that she was intuitive if nothing else, but the thought of speaking was becoming increasingly difficult to comprehend. His mind was already slipping off, dulled by pain and exhaustion. "I dunno, was it?" He spoke so quietly it was very nearly inaudible.

Maybe it did wonders to reveal just what kind of man he was. For all his bravado and fool's bravery, East wasn't much of anything but empty. It was too late to say anything more though. Sleep had already dragged him under.

WHAT ANYONE WOULD WANT TO GET AWAY FROM

[Riley Salvatici]

AND FIN!