The good that I want, I do not do
Aug. 12th, 2014 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mortemscintilla posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fuse_boxWHO: Korra, Bolin & Hei
WHAT: Wherein Bolin gets into a pickle, and Korra learns the exact nature of Hei's 'work.'
[ Walking on his way to work -- his real work, not his factory-shift -- Hei buys a warm steamed-bun from a street vendor, enjoying the salty grease and hot dough. The sky is darkening, a filigree of dirty purple on the horizon. The lilac-gray cloudbanks remind him of a recurring dream in which skulls rain down from the sky like hailstones, millions of gleaming skulls covering him in a clattering drift of smooth bone and teeth. What's most puzzling is that the dream never disturbs him, as he imagines it would most people. At nights, sometimes, he closes his eyes wondering, with a sort of wistful curiosity, if it will come to him as he sleeps. ]
[ Crossing a warren of sooty alleyways, he feels the weight from the blades strapped under his clothes: an old Spyderco Clipit nestled in his front right pocket and his favored La Griffe with its two-inch spear point blade around his neck inside the shirt. The cold pommel nuzzles at him like an old lover. It's nothing to be proud of. Any fool can carry a knife. But it's a bigger fool who goes unarmed to jobs like his. ]
[ Funny, how he'd come to Republic City hoping for honest work. But when the purse runs empty, dishonest work has to do. That said, he can't say he's ever seen a place with a less honest look about it than this one. A deserted building. Heavy door and dirty bare windows. A dead juniper bonsai rests at the entrance. The sign reads: Moon-Queen. It's one of the newest Republic City phenomenon: the opposite of a tanning salon. Some young wife-to-be suffering from acne spots or sunburn? No problem. Fifteen minutes on a special bed, bombarded with whorls of therapeutic water-bending, and she's a dead-ringer for the Corpse Bride. The store is a front: drugs, guns, and stolen merchandise are hustled out the back. Half the beds aren't even plugged in. The others are actually tanning chambers. ]
[ One of Hei's contacts sits behind the reception desk. A posterboy for a bleaching salon: fat and fortyish, pale and hairless as a skinned lychee. He's a middle-tier triad guy, a pavement-pounder. He tracks high-ranking gangbangers, cons, cobblers, thieves and anyone too dangerous who winds up on the gang's blacklist -- an unhealthy list to be on. When Hei steps in, he nods, jerking his chin toward the back door. While Hei heads down the hallway, the man slouches to the door and, to the utter dismay of all albinism-worshipping females in the area, turns the sign from OPEN to CLOSED. ]
[ The parlor room walls, ceiling, and floor are draped in transparent plastic. One tanning bed rests at the corner, white with the dimensions of a coffin. Beside it, shackled to a chair and gagged tight, is Hei's target for the night. A rich kid: male, early twenties, working on some patchy facial hair that blooms in dark thatches at his chin and cheek. Hei's seen him in the line-up at clubs, wolf-whistling at girls from his fancy satomobile and slumming it up in seedy brothels. Not him exactly, but he looks like a thousand other guys in this city -- a type. ]
[ Not that it matters. All he is, to Hei, is a conduit for information on Bolin's whereabouts. And it's Hei's job to extract it -- a task which he's already proven, among all the triads whom he freelances for, to be chillingly proficient at. Not a very glamorous job, sure. But at least the pay is good. ]
[ Slowly, he slips out of his coat. Rich Boy watches him, his eyes a cloudy brown. His face is a mask of defiance but around the edges, like a corona of light silhouetting a solar eclipse, he sees fear. Good. Hopefully the extraction won't drag on tediously. He's hoping to leave early. Retrieve Bolin, get some groceries, head home, maybe surprise Korra with her favorite lychee-flavored mooncake when she gets back. A dully-domestic train of thought. But hey. The Black Reaper doesn't have to be a monster during his off-hours, too. ]
WHAT: Wherein Bolin gets into a pickle, and Korra learns the exact nature of Hei's 'work.'
[ Walking on his way to work -- his real work, not his factory-shift -- Hei buys a warm steamed-bun from a street vendor, enjoying the salty grease and hot dough. The sky is darkening, a filigree of dirty purple on the horizon. The lilac-gray cloudbanks remind him of a recurring dream in which skulls rain down from the sky like hailstones, millions of gleaming skulls covering him in a clattering drift of smooth bone and teeth. What's most puzzling is that the dream never disturbs him, as he imagines it would most people. At nights, sometimes, he closes his eyes wondering, with a sort of wistful curiosity, if it will come to him as he sleeps. ]
[ Crossing a warren of sooty alleyways, he feels the weight from the blades strapped under his clothes: an old Spyderco Clipit nestled in his front right pocket and his favored La Griffe with its two-inch spear point blade around his neck inside the shirt. The cold pommel nuzzles at him like an old lover. It's nothing to be proud of. Any fool can carry a knife. But it's a bigger fool who goes unarmed to jobs like his. ]
[ Funny, how he'd come to Republic City hoping for honest work. But when the purse runs empty, dishonest work has to do. That said, he can't say he's ever seen a place with a less honest look about it than this one. A deserted building. Heavy door and dirty bare windows. A dead juniper bonsai rests at the entrance. The sign reads: Moon-Queen. It's one of the newest Republic City phenomenon: the opposite of a tanning salon. Some young wife-to-be suffering from acne spots or sunburn? No problem. Fifteen minutes on a special bed, bombarded with whorls of therapeutic water-bending, and she's a dead-ringer for the Corpse Bride. The store is a front: drugs, guns, and stolen merchandise are hustled out the back. Half the beds aren't even plugged in. The others are actually tanning chambers. ]
[ One of Hei's contacts sits behind the reception desk. A posterboy for a bleaching salon: fat and fortyish, pale and hairless as a skinned lychee. He's a middle-tier triad guy, a pavement-pounder. He tracks high-ranking gangbangers, cons, cobblers, thieves and anyone too dangerous who winds up on the gang's blacklist -- an unhealthy list to be on. When Hei steps in, he nods, jerking his chin toward the back door. While Hei heads down the hallway, the man slouches to the door and, to the utter dismay of all albinism-worshipping females in the area, turns the sign from OPEN to CLOSED. ]
[ The parlor room walls, ceiling, and floor are draped in transparent plastic. One tanning bed rests at the corner, white with the dimensions of a coffin. Beside it, shackled to a chair and gagged tight, is Hei's target for the night. A rich kid: male, early twenties, working on some patchy facial hair that blooms in dark thatches at his chin and cheek. Hei's seen him in the line-up at clubs, wolf-whistling at girls from his fancy satomobile and slumming it up in seedy brothels. Not him exactly, but he looks like a thousand other guys in this city -- a type. ]
[ Not that it matters. All he is, to Hei, is a conduit for information on Bolin's whereabouts. And it's Hei's job to extract it -- a task which he's already proven, among all the triads whom he freelances for, to be chillingly proficient at. Not a very glamorous job, sure. But at least the pay is good. ]
[ Slowly, he slips out of his coat. Rich Boy watches him, his eyes a cloudy brown. His face is a mask of defiance but around the edges, like a corona of light silhouetting a solar eclipse, he sees fear. Good. Hopefully the extraction won't drag on tediously. He's hoping to leave early. Retrieve Bolin, get some groceries, head home, maybe surprise Korra with her favorite lychee-flavored mooncake when she gets back. A dully-domestic train of thought. But hey. The Black Reaper doesn't have to be a monster during his off-hours, too. ]
no subject
Date: 2014-08-13 11:51 pm (UTC)[ His expression remains blank as a test-pattern. But at his sides, his hands clench an unclench -- a subtle sign of escalating tension. ]
[ In a measured tone, he says, ]
He was convinced Amon was still alive. He wanted to hunt for leads. I knew for a fact he was on a wild goosechase. So I didn't try to stop him. [ A beat, before he rolls his shoulders in the equivalent of a shrug. ] Except he got caught in a turf-war between two gangs. That's how I heard the news.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-14 12:01 am (UTC)Why didn’t you?! [Letting Bolin go on a wild goose chase into Triad territory... dorky, innocent, sweet Bolin. She could scream. She could punch him. He should have known better! Bolin should have known better! As if things aren't crazy enough without the people she loves getting themselves into shitty situations.]
Forget it. [She whirls around. She needs to get to the rally building and save Bolin.]
no subject
Date: 2014-08-14 12:13 am (UTC)[ (Of course, if everyone did what's best for them, Hei's occupation would become redundant. It is his dismal experience that people rarely act in their own best interests.) ]
[ Case in point: This. ]
[ Scooping up the half-dazed air-bender, Hei slings her over his shoulder. No sense leaving her here, where someone might be sent to retrieve her. At a fast clip, he takes off after Korra. She's just been attacked by a mysterious group of benders. He isn't comfortable with the idea of her wandering around alone. ]
[ Drawing abreast of her, he says, ]
Why not let me handle it?
[ She should be getting in touch with Beifong. Telling her about the hitmen who attacked her. Not wasting her time -- and risking her life -- on a scavenger hunt for one idiotic boy. ]
no subject
Date: 2014-08-14 12:33 am (UTC)Like you took care of that kid inside? [Her voice is biting.] I don't like the way you handle things. Come on, Naga.
[The polar bear dog takes off.]
no subject
Date: 2014-08-14 01:06 am (UTC)[ Exasperated, Hei watches Naga bound off. The hot lash of her voice, her zinging blue glare, stays branded in his mind's eye. Reading his ruthlessness and the moral bankruptcy it represents: judging him as a human and finding him wanting. And she is in the right. That is the bitch of it. Even after years of associating with him, her moral certainty seems more certain than ever, while his ... Well, he'd had it once. He'd also had the warm net of a family to protect him, a canopy of real stars to light his way, a sister to love him. Life stole and lost the things you'd thought safely pocketed. Or else death did. ]
[ It's that, more than anything, that feeds a gallop of adrenaline into Hei's system. Doesn't matter if she doesn't approve of his methods. They get results. And if she wants Bolin back alive, that's all that matters. ]
[ With that in mind, he's ready to drop the airbender off at a safe-point -- drugged and bound -- and tail Korra until he's sure she and her stupid friend are safe home. ]