you're standing too close to a flame that's burning | open, with starters

[wrathfulkhan]

Characters: Eyebrow Squad Gene, Jackie, Deon, and you!
Date: Throughout July
Location: Keeliai and the rest of the shell
Situation: July interactions for Eyebrow Squad.
Warnings/Rating: None initially, but subject to change.

A. [Gene] House Iron Dragon | July 6 | closed to Pepper

Gene's been able to keep his emotions contained after his initial breakdown upon first experiencing the vision, but he can't hold that tide back forever on his own. At least he manages to keep it in until he reaches the house, and immediately goes into the kitchen to make himself some tea just so he has something to do with his hands (that isn't dig his nails into his palms so hard they nearly draw blood). But he doesn't finish making it; he's barely gotten the cup down when he's seized with another wave of grief and anger and frustration and guilt. It slams down a little harder than he'd meant it to, making a clatter, and he rests his elbows on the edge of the counter, his nails digging into his scalp, his eyes screwed shut.

B. [Gene] House Iron Dragon | early July | closed to Raine

Gene's been practicing a little - scraps of different metals were scattered across a piece of the kitchen he'd claimed as his temporary workroom. Some experiments had clearly been more successful than others, but there's a clear progression of his improving skill and finesse with the orange ring. Fine-tuning it had been the hardest part, and he wants to be especially careful when dealing with something as delicate as someone else's soul gem.

C. [Gene] Sky Sector | mid-July | open

Gene's seemed pretty preoccupied as of late - though with things in Keeliai being how they are, who could blame him? His mood's brightened considerably since leaving Zeshora in their wake, though, and he's back to being as chipper as he usually is. Which is to say, not especially, but at least he won't bite your head off if you look at him the wrong way.

He's taking down notes from time to time, but if you try and read over his shoulder, you may not be in luck. Unless you can read Mongolian script, of course. Hey, some people here can read Chinese, and a whole lot can read English. There are some notes he'd rather keep to himself instead of sharing with any nosey parker lurking somewhere over his shoulder.

D. [Jackie] Water Sector | early July | closed to Dove

Jackie's been keeping mostly to himself lately as he's been trying to figure out how to leave the Snakes. Today, he's walking by one of the canals, trying to relax in the most laid-back sector, when he sees someone familiar.

"Hey, Dove!" he calls out, hoping he's right.

E. [Jackie] Water Sector | July 6 | open

The vision had driven Jackie straight to a bar. He doesn't really know what he's drinking and he doesn't much care, just so long it gets those horrible visions out of his head. He knows, somewhere, miserably, that it won't get out, no matter how much vodka-analogue he tries to drown the memory in. It's seared itself on his neurons, and he misses Rio'era terribly.

F. [Deon] Metal Sector | mid-July | open

Deon's been a bit unmoored this month; what with the Stark Industries handover and that horrible vision of the baby turtles soon after, and of course Vincent being around and in the Hotel, he's been very jumpy of late. Definitely jumpier than usual. Nobody come up behind him, okay? It's undignified for a 6'2" man to scream.


G. [Deon] Sky Sector | July 18 | closed to Dr. Light

Deon had gone on a shopping expedition today, but his prize had been quite unexpected. The kedan hadn't seemed to know what he had, and was selling for a reasonable price, so Deon had snatched it up immediately, his heart pounding in his ears.

The laptop sat on the table across from him, bedecked with Tetravaal decals, and dead as a doornail. It had no charge whatsoever, and if it had even shown up in Keeliai with a charger, it had long since been lost.

He picked up his tea, and stared at the laptop. It was exactly what he needed, but he needed to devise a way to power it, first. And that is not his forte.

---

OOC Note: If you want another starter, please hit me up over at Chatvert and I'll pull something together for you! :>

Comments

[lasergrenades]

When Gene stands, Pepper is more than a little confused. Add this to the list of things Gene Khan Did Not Do.

That being said, she could also really, really use a hug.

She nods and mumbles something inaudible before hiding her face against his shoulder and holding onto his shirt, trying not to cry. She may or may not be succeeding.

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene freezes when she does hug him, burying her face in his shoulder; he holds his arms up out of her way for a few seconds, before gently, awkwardly settling his arms around her and patting her back like he's expecting to get bitten.

This is hard, okay?

"It's over now, though. We made sure Malicant would never harm anyone again." Cold comfort, after such a vision.

[lasergrenades]

Pepper doesn't really care if Gene can't figure out what to do with his arms. He's there, and he's trying to make her feel better despite this clearly being unfamiliar territory. Gene cares, and he's comforting her despite how upset he is.

She pulls her head back just far enough so her voice won't sound muffled.

"That kind of pain..." She shivers slightly. "I don't think that goes away, Gene." It lingers, and it burns whenever it's recalled. Pepper releases Gene's shirt and wraps her arms around him, hugging him back. He probably won't ever say it, but he needs a hug too. "It gets easier to deal with, but it doesn't go away."

[wrathfulkhan]

"I know," he says, bowing his head, his eyes closed. "It doesn't."

How much loss has he had to deal with in his short life? His mother, his friends, so many people he'd grown accustomed to here...and now the turtles, too? At least he hadn't seen his mother die. At least he'd been spared that. But the grief from the turtles' death is still too fresh, too raw, now that he's had to see them tortured and killed.

[lasergrenades]

Pepper squeezes Gene a little tighter for a few moments, trying to return the comfort he had offered her. Her determination to make him feel better offers a balm of its own. She didn't pick the name Rescue for nothing.

"It's a good thing we've both got someone to awkwardly hug at times like this, huh?" She lets go of him and stands at arms length, wiping her eyes. The tea kettle had started to whistle, so Pepper turns off the heat and pours the boiling water into the mugs, trying to keep her hands from shaking. "Here."

She hands Gene one of the mugs, giving him a watery smile.

[wrathfulkhan]

He is still confused by this whole hugging thing. But it is making him feel a little better.

"Yeah," he says, his own smile just as weak as he accepts the mug. "Thanks."

He is a little misty behind his glasses, but if she tries to call him out on it, he'll just deny it as a trick of the light.

[lasergrenades]

It's almost like Pepper is seeing another person. In many ways it's true, but she had known this side of him existed for a long time. Even when he was at his worst, she always believed he still had good in him. Still, it's one thing to believe it and a very different thing to see it an experience it.

"You're welcome." She sighs tiredly and goes to sit at the table, pulling one of her knees to her chest. "This is so many different levels of not okay."

[wrathfulkhan]

"You're telling me," he says, curling his hands around the mug. It's hot, but it's helping to ground him - and the mild pain is something he almost thinks he deserves.

After a moment, he lifts it and takes a sip. Still too hot to drink comfortably, but it is helping to shock him out of his funk.

"I'm sorry you had to see that."

[lasergrenades]

Pepper blows on her tea to cool it down, holding it carefully to avoid burning herself. She waits to drink it though; a burnt tongue will only add to her list of problems.

She turns to Gene, frowning slightly, head tilted, studying him for a moment.

"Why do you always do that?"

[wrathfulkhan]

"Do what?" he asks, completely nonplussed, and sets down the mug. His hands are still curled around it for the warmth, and that helps ground him and keep him from slipping back into a despairing funk. Pepper doesn't need to see that from him. He doesn't want her pity.

[lasergrenades]

"You apologize a lot for things you didn't do." Not that Gene doesn't have things to apologize for, but she's noticed a tendency that he seems to have developed in Keeliai. She takes a careful sip of the tea.

"And I know people use 'sorry' because it sounds a lot better than 'empathize' but it still kind of implies you're to blame, whether you mean it to or not."

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene looks at the mug, and says nothing for a little while, watching the steam from the tea curl upwards.

Then: "I am sorry. I could have stopped it," he says, his voice tightly controlled, though Pepper ought to be able to hear the strain. "I'm sorry because I failed them, and because I should have known better than to--"

He falls silent quite abruptly. He doesn't want to tell Pepper about Malicant's boons and what they did.

[lasergrenades]

Pepper restrains herself from interrupting while Gene thinks. Her frown deepens at his tone.

"You realize the whole universe isn't your responsibility, right?" She's not sure he does. All that cosmic power and whatnot probably does things to your head.

[wrathfulkhan]

"I know it isn't, I just..." He sighs. "I should have been more alert. I had the power to protect them, and I didn't. I could have...I could have at least gone to fight Malicant myself as soon as it happened, and I didn't do that either."

[lasergrenades]

Pepper stares into her tea. There were a lot of 'I's in those sentences.

"I know I haven't been here that long, but from everything I've heard about Malicant he'd have probably killed you if you were on your own. That emperor brought everyone here to fight it, not just you. And it took everyone to bring him down." She sighs. "Do you remember that stupid gladiator arena on the Makluan ship?"

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene exhales. "How could I forget it?" He knows Pepper is speaking good sense, but the guilt burning in his soul is still too strong. He couldn't save them, he couldn't save his mother, or Bianca, or anyone. He couldn't even save himself.

[lasergrenades]

"Well, despite everything that had happened, we still did a lot better when we fought together." Pepper continues to fiddle with her mug, since it's still too hot to drink much of it. "And then you saved me and Rhodey. Again. It was always better when we were working together." Even when you were only pretending.

"Look, there's a lot of things you do have to be sorry for," she says evenly, doing her best to sound calm. "Like, serious stuff. But Malicant? The.. what happened in the vision. That was stuff you couldn't do anything about. You've got enough to grieve over without pouring an ocean's worth of salt into the wounds. And there is a lot of saltwater on this planet."

Pepper sips carefully at her tea and resolutely avoids looking up.

[wrathfulkhan]

Pepper? You are honestly going to make him cry one of these days. His eyes sting a little, but he doesn't move to give away his tears by wiping at them, and while she's looking down he blinks furiously to try and dispel them.

"And I am sorry," he says quietly when he trusts himself to speak. "For all of them. But I...there's something I could have done to stop him, to save her. There has to be."

That sure is a Freudian slip there, Gene. He doesn't seem to have noticed that he accidentally started talking about Zhang and his mother rather than Malicant and the hatchlings.

[lasergrenades]

Pepper is about to tell Gene that she knows, she knows he's sorry, and even if she's still angry she'll get over it, that the turtles still aren't his fault - but suddenly they seem to be having a different conversation.

She raises her head, looking puzzled. Did Malicant kill a person Gene cared about, or something?

"Who are you talking about, Gene?" she asks quietly.

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene gives a sudden start, and his expression goes carefully blank as he realizes what he'd said.

"Don't worry about it," he says, looking down, and takes a sip of his tea. Still too hot, but improving. And he desperately hopes Pepper will drop that thread - even though he's sure she won't.

[lasergrenades]

Gene jumps like someone gave him a nasty static shock, and then he retreats back into his shell. Pepper lowers her leg back to the floor and puts her arms on the table, leaning forward with the mug between her hands.

"I won't. But you obviously will." She sighs, sounding tired. "Can we just skip the part where I nag you for days and fill up your console inbox with more messages than it can handle and just generally be really annoying about it until you crack just to get me to stop? I'm tired and my head hurts, and I'm sure neither of us is going to be up for that." She smiles a little, shrugging. "If it helps, you can tell me now, and I can pretend you didn't and spend a week harassing you anyway."

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene sighs and closes his eyes. It's a long moment before he speaks again, and when he does, his tone is blunt.

"My stepfather killed my mother when I was younger," he says tersely, keeping his head bowed. He doesn't want her pity - far from it - but maybe that will be enough to sate her curiosity.

He'd always been touchy about his stepfather. Now Pepper would know why.

[lasergrenades]

Success!

Oh. Or not. There's a fleeting moment where Pepper enjoys her ability to get information out of people, but that vanishes when she fully processes what Gene had said. She kind of wishes she hadn't asked, except for the fact that it is completely clashing with her perception of Gene from a few months ago. He never would have told her this.

And she feels really awful when she hears it. That had not been in her dad's files.

"Oh, god, Gene... I am so sorry." It's not pity, although she certainly feels empathy for him. Pepper had needled Gene about his stepfather before. It was a long time ago, but she sorely wishes she could take back everything she had said.

She opens her mouth to tell him that wasn't his fault either, but now Pepper wonders if she's gone a step too far, and she hesitates, biting her lip instead.

[wrathfulkhan]

"It's..." He lets out a heavy sigh. "It happened a long time ago." And he still feels that pain as acutely as he did the day it happened.

And he quietly sips his tea, not looking up.

[lasergrenades]

The urge to ask a million questions rises like a wave, but for once Pepper ignores it. She feels exhausted, and this newest revelation from Gene just makes her feel even more tired. Suddenly a lot of things want to make a lot more sense in her head, but she's still struggling with two very different versions of reality and it's a bit much to process. Pepper grabs back onto the thread that brought them to this point.

"Even if it was yesterday, Gene, it still wouldn't be your fault," she replies after a while. "There are people that just do what they're going to do, no matter what anyone else thinks, or tries. I mean, come on, you've met Tony, haven't you?" She tries a half-hearted smile, but it feels wrong. "Like I said. You've got enough to hurt about. I'm not going to let you get away with blaming yourself for things you didn't do."

And by that she means she's going to do anything necessary - including arrest him - to get him to stop. It's her job to fight crime, after all.