.02 [ Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This ]

[touchofrogue]

Who: Rogue
Broadcast: nope
Action: Planet with optional Vanquish options
When: Planetside, from beginning to end.

A Is for Augmentation
[It’s the middle of the night, and all good children are supposed to be in bed… so then what is Rogue doing, walking around the boarding house with her gloves off and her eyes closed?

Maybe it’s the same thing that has her shrieking awake a few night’s later, one single, panicked cry that she quickly stifles as awareness returns? Unfortunately, this won’t be her last night with nightmares… and unfortunately, sometimes the sleepwalking and the nightmares may come at once…]

B is for Bounty
[...hunting, that is. Rogue wasn’t planning on making a habit of this, it wasn’t really her thing, but if she found a wanted poster for a guy who did something that pissed her off enough, she would go and make it her business to hunt that particular individual down.

Of course, she didn’t really have any idea what she was doing. It just seemed like a thing to try. How do you find a needle in a haystack, and one poorly washed thug really was almost interchangeable. Walking up to someone and asking, ‘Hey, have you seen this guy?’ was probably not the best way of going about it.

In fact, that’s possibly the kind of thing that could get a gal more attention than she was looking for...]

C is for Chisel (and hammer, and stone)
[Rogue wasn’t exactly sure what that quadraped was, but… she has decided to call it a ‘zeorse’ and she is happy to see it. Do not doubt that she will be making friends in the stables and riding off on adventures…

And one of those adventures takes place after a week or so on the planet, and the quiet confirmation that both Tony and Zessica had… gone, Rogue borrows a chisel and hammer from a local She rides out into the wild and finds a cluster of hard red rock, and in the lee of the wind carves three names there: Tony. Zessica. Anja.

She’ll be more withdrawn and quiet than normal when she returns those tools.]

D is for Drunk and Disorderly
[Sometime after this conversation, Rogue will be… upset.

She will be upset enough to go blindly into the night with a powerful need to punch things, though with Kurt there she didn’t feel it was… the best idea, perhaps, to go and start a bar fight even though it would be so. easy.

So she just goes to a bar. And she orders a drink. And if there is a fight she doesn’t have to start but gets to finish, so be it.

So. Be. It.]

E? E is for Everything Else.

[On the Vanquish? Shopping and hoping to make something out of this material? Staring dramatically into the sunset?]

Comments

D.

[redactions]

[ Who has two thumbs and happens to be in this bar? You guessed it. Jim almost joins in, but stifles the instinct. Helping her now, when she's a flurry of movement and destruction, would feel too much like patronising her. ]

[ Besides, he knows the need to suck poison out of a wound, and she needs to do it herself. None of it stops him from coming up to her after, and looking as though he might hug her any second. The only thing that holds him back is that she's never touched him, and the once she did, she reacted so badly to it. ]

Talk to me.

[touchofrogue]

[People had a remarkable ability to be stupid. Tonight she'd counted on it.

She hadn't started the fight. She'd let it happen, and she'd rolled with it, and she'd even been responsible, not allowing a single blow to connect with her bare scraps of skin. Of course, this meant she had to take some rather nasty body shots instead, but Rogue didn't seem to care. It was over too quickly, and it wasn't enough, and nothing would ever be enough, not really -- she wants to scream.

...and when the hell did he get here?]

Sure. [She shakes her stinging hand.] Nice night.

[A sharp nod (greeting? farewell? acknowledgement?) and then she stalks off toward the door of the bar, intending to leave, and hopefully leave him standing there.

She couldn't stand still. She couldn't talk. Not to him - Gawd, could she stand to see his face shatter when he learned - not to anyone.]

[redactions]

[ She does leave him standing there. Confused, certainly, but not hurt and not afraid. Ghostlike, he drifts after her, following determinedly. She's walking to Hell, and she said they were friends. He can't in good faith let her go alone. ]

[touchofrogue]

[Rogue would not normally rate herself in the top ten of 'most observant people ever.' Even now, she still doesn't - she might be wired from the fight, but she's distracted -- hurt and angry and scared and guilty and hurt -- and so she doesn't immediately notice that Jim is following her.

In fact, she's well into the street, about to head into another saloon in a deliberate attempt to finish a fight when she notices she's got company.

Turning with a hard expression on her face, it softened for a moment in surprise when she saw just who it was. And then, aggravation.] For pity's sake, Jim! I almost took a pot shot at ya! Don't ya know any better than ta go walkin' after girls in the dark?

[Yup, that would just make her night PERFECT, hurting the one person left here who she could truly claim as a friend. Tony was gone, Zessica was gone... Clay was busy... Kurt was here now, but he was... and Gawd knew, if Jim had heard that com conversation, he might not be sticking around for long either.

'You pushed her! That's what happened. That's the last thing I remember!'

She flinched a little at the memory echoing and cutting within her heart.]

A

[save_the_souls]

[ Allen had been staying at the boarding house while his ship was getting repairs. It was just...too stressful, staying on a ship that was constantly showing strange problems. He kept waking up with the same nightmares of past ships. The nightmares followed him to the boarding house, but well, at least there was nothing to magnify them.]

[He's sitting up late after a particular vivid nightmare, trying to calm himself down with a cup of tea. When Rogue stumbles by like that, it catches his curiosity. Luckily for Rogue, while her gloves weren't on, his very much were. ]

Um...miss?

[touchofrogue]

[Sorry, Allen, you're going to need to be louder than that. Though Rogue's eyes are open, she does not appear to hear and just keeps heading blindly toward the door, a distressed look on her face.]

[save_the_souls]

[Yeah, that's...concerning. He'll get up from his table and follow her, calling out to her again]

Miss! Is everything alright?

[touchofrogue]

[The annoying thing about dealing with sleepwalking people is that... well, okay, everything about it is annoying.

You just keep doing that talking thing you're doing. Rogue is going to run into the door. And then scramble for the doorknob. XD?]

C

[geonomy]

[As Rogue comes back to the stables, she'll find Clay there, leaning on the door of one of the stables and seeming to talk to one of them. If she's seen him around here, she might realize that it's the one he prefers, the black horse with white stripes and speckles.]

I just feel like I keep -

[When he notices Rogue come back with the zeorse, though, he cuts himself off, instead straightening up and giving her a wave.]

Hey Rogue! Went out for a ride?

[touchofrogue]

[Still feeling a little sober, she manages a small smile for her captain.]

Yeah, but don't let me interrupt. [She leads her zeorse to the stall and begins take off the saddle.] You were havin' a heart-to-heart.

[geonomy]

Nah, I think I'm about finished up. I think Cassie's tired of hearing my voice now.

[If she looks at the name on the door, Rogue will see that the zeorse's name is not, in fact, Cassie. But Clay thinks it's a lot more dignified than Big Bertha. Heck, she's not even big compared to the others!]

[touchofrogue]

A smooth-talker like you? [A flicker of a smile as she lifts off the saddle and moves it where it belongs.] Not possible.

B / LET'S DO A THING

[huaaaaagh]

[Kirito's just wandering around town rather aimlessly when he spots it: a woman not far off in the distance, asking around about a face on a poster... and just down the road from her, a small gathering of men lurking in the shadows, subtly following her. They don't look armed, but there's a definite air of unpleasantness about them, and that can be dangerous.

It's not like he's the strongest person ever, and he has no idea how capable the woman is, but it doesn't feel right to leave her alone to whatever they're planning. Quietly he starts tailing them, closing the distance while he ponders how to approach the situation. Maybe they can avoid the fight if they're clever about it...]

YOSH!

[touchofrogue]

Look, [Rogue is still addressing the person she was interrogating.] I'm not interested in hurtin' anyone, okay? Just tryin' ta find the guy so no one else gets hurt.

[She was unaware of the men in the shadows, or of the hopeful helpful individual following them.]

[huaaaaagh]

[With the woman stopped, the sketchy looking guys are getting even closer, and Kirito doesn't especially like the look of the man she's currently giving attitude. Definitely seems to be trouble brewing. After a moment's hesitation, where he counts the number of people that could potentially against them and debates how to handle this, he finally dashes forward, dodging around the men following her and sliding right between Rogue and the man she's arguing with, his petite form just small enough to squeeze in without pushing anyone aside. He sends a silent thanks for the GGO developers for making the avatar and faces Rogue with a bright, unusually familiar smile.]

Oh my gosh, hi! Long time no see! How have you been doing?

[He's pretty sure he read this on the internet somewhere. The question is whether or not she'll get the hint.]

[touchofrogue]

[Suddenly, abrupt... person. Trying desperately to look cheerful and as though he(she?) knows Rogue. Okaaay.]

Yeah, I'm... good. You?

[The man Rogue was talking to takes this opportunity make like an egg and beat it.]

A!

[unfulfilledpotential]

[Most people should be asleep at this hour, Shawn included, but he's a bit preoccupied with the photos he had taken earlier that day. As he scrolls through the collection he has on his comm-device-thing, he's a bit too distracted to really see who's walking around.

He does, though, glance up to look at her.] Hey! Everything okay there?

[touchofrogue]

[On the plus side, at least Rogue has learned her lesson from earlier sleep-walking incidents. She usually loves wearing as little as possible to bed as that's pretty much the only time she can let her skin breathe, but hahahahahaha, thanks augment glitches! Not anymore. So she's wearing long pants and long sleeves and gloves and... not... seeming to hear him as she just continues to walk towards a door, slowly and not particularly well, but... have fun with that?]

[unfulfilledpotential]

[This is so going to be the time of his life, he can already tell - Shawn's already bolting towards her, reaching out for her shoulder to try and stop her from, well, walking into the door.

He has approximately zero experience with sleepwalking, but he also knows that she's wearing way too much clothing for a desert planet, even at night. Is she sick? Shawn's not gonna try and touch her forehead, as concerned as he is, so he tries to shake her shoulders a bit.]

Hey! Hey, I'm gonna make sure you get back to bed safe.... [awkward pause] Even if you can't hear me. Like, at all.

e LET ME KNOW IF THIS WORKS

[gleamed]

[ when on her way to the bar, rogue passes one rapunzel in the road. it's rather late for her to be out, and she's on her way back to her ship, but there's a small package under one of her arms and a tiny smile on her lips.

her hurry to get back doesn't stop her from noticing a familiar face, however. a familiar face that doesn't look...so happy. which means that rapunzel, of course, must stop her and talk to her. ]

Oh, hello, Rogue! What brings you out here this evening?

SURE WHY NOT. BRING ON THE PAIN.

[touchofrogue]

[Oh, oh this is so not what she needs. This is the last person who Rogue should be around, ever. Someone like her had no business even talking to someone like Rapunzel.

Rogue doesn't pause, but is afraid that ignoring Rapunzel completely will just keep her following so--] It's a nice night. [--without a pause. Just walk on.]

"BRING ON THE PAIN" IS MY MIDDLE NAME

[gleamed]

[ the thing is, if rogue had stopped to actually give that answer, rapunzel would have probably bought it. but the golden-haired girl is a bit more perceptive than that, and the way rogue just breezes by her sets her to worrying.

if it was a nice night, why was she in such a hurry? wouldn't she rather enjoy it?

rapunzel turns after her. ]

Is anything the matter?

comes in 1000 years later with B

[digthefuzz]

[Kurt's been spending a lot of time on this weird alien planet. It's been nice to get some fresh air, and fascinating to explore an alien world. And the setting felt like he was dumped into one of those classic movies he loved.

Of course, things looked a lot different when the sun went down. Kurt was carefully strolling along, trying to conceal his face beneath the hood of the cloak he was wearing, although it may be easy for those familiar with him to tell him apart just from the way he walks. Suddenly, the town looks a lot more eerie, and Kurt's tempted to poof somewhere closer to the ship when he feels something press against his back.

One of those wanted men is right behind Kurt, gun to his back, demanding valuables. And it looks like some of his cronies are milling about nearby. Kurt's nervous - he knows it's too risky to try to teleport now. He doesn't have confidence in being faster than a speeding bullet, after all.

So he'll just fret nervously and listen to their demands as he tries to think of his options.]

S-some party you're throwing here...

[What Kurt doesn't know, though, is information given on the wanted posters. These aren't just burglars looking for valuables; no, they collect the furs of exotic aliens. That attracts a lot more money in certain circles.]

should have brought coffee, bro

[touchofrogue]

[People collecting the 'fur' of sentient beings are just exactly the sort of thing that would tick Rogue off. And so it was really just Kurt's luck that she'd been...

looking...

...for the guy who was holding a gun to his back.

Oh. Hell. No.

She pauses, assessing all the factors, the various threats and angles... then she takes a deep breath, and quickly removes a glove, reaching all the while to awaken and use a very specific psyche. She focuses and then teleports directly behind the man holding in Kurt's back.

He gurgles and drops and she shoves his psyche away like dirty laundry, reaching out and gripping Kurt's shoulder with her gloved hand before teleporting them both to a roof.]

Go! Get out of here.

[And then BAMF, back down to the street. She is apparently intending to take on the half dozen or so who remain.]

hasn't she hoarded enough already?!

[digthefuzz]

[It all happens so quickly. The man is down and suddenly he is being teleported... by someone else?!

But not just anyone. Her. What in the world is going on?

He stands there, looking stunned on the roof for a moment. Then some anger rises in him, and he shakes his head. He bamfs right back over to the action, dropkicking one of the men over from behind.]

What are you doing!