Description: Rock and K' talk a little about a mutual acquaintance of theirs, whose name starts with K and ends in rizalid.
Late Monday night finds a surly young figure slouched just outside the doors of an old restaurant in the heart of Chinatown, brooding over an unlit cigarette in his mouth and watching the crowds go by. Either he's thinking of going in the establishment, or he's already come out and just paused for a smoke before disappearing back into the crowd; it's impossible to tell just from looking.
Fresher, younger, more enthusiastic members of the so-called 'team' Kusanagi had scraped together clamored to jump in the ring first. K' had no particular objection to this ordering. He had no particular love of the tournament and no burning desire to leap into it. He was, in fact, resolved not to do any sanctioned combat unless somebody came around to drag him into it.
Mostly, he was in it to see what he could find out. And maybe to spite a certain feathercoat-wearing, clawed NESTS psycho.
Eventually, a hand lifts enough so that a flick of fingertips can spark a light. Cigarette lit, K' sighs a plume of smoke and starts to think about maybe moving along.
Rock is somewhat in the same boat, with his match vs. Team Ash--he's last in the order. Alma was all hot to trot to go up against them, probably wanting to ask at least one of them out, and, well... Rock just got done tussling with Krizalid. Fighters heal fast, but he doesn't mind some time to recuperate mentally. Fighting that bastard always takes a toll on Rock, emotionally. So he's a subdued Howard--just walking the streets of Southtown, wandering aimlessly.
So it's happenstance that he's walking through Chinatown--right past the Genhanten, gloved hands in the pockets of his biker jacket, a distant look on his face as he rewinds the events of Athena's concert and the NESTS attack that came after. He almost doesn't see K', until he stops, his right hand on the doorhandle, head turning to the left.
That makes him stop, his red eyes coming back from infinity; slowly, his right hand comes off the doorhandle and he finds himself stepping to the side, to face off against K', although there's nothing in his body language to suggest he wants a confrontation.
"Dash," he says, attempting to give as blandly sardonic a look as he can, to the jaded clone--whose coloring is so similar to Krizalid, only the attitude saves him from looking more like that crazy bastard.
K' can understand 'fighting Krizalid' as a mentally taxing affair. Not that it requires that much intelligence to cope with him, mind; it's just that the brain gets kinda tired after sustaining the levels of screaming rage that crazy asshole can spur. Like him killing a couple people randomly, just because K' wouldn't do what he said. That threw K' for a loop.
Not that K' would have cared, a couple years ago. People were people were people. But now... he's discomfited to say... he kind of DOES care if people die for no goddamned reason. Especially if Krizalid's doing it to make him heel like a dog--
Yellow eyes flick up as Rock crosses his peripheral vision, slow recognition appearing in his gaze. His stance straightens a little, similarly facing off against the erstwhile rival turned possible peer. There isn't any particular desire for confrontation in his body language, either, though. Maybe with time everyone HAS just mellowed a little.
"...I'd call you Howard," he replies, talking around his cigarette, "but I got this feeling you like the owner of that name about as much as I do." It's... sort of a peaceable greeting. "Heard you ran into some shit at that opening ceremony," he remarks, though his eyes look a lot more interested in just what happened than his nonchalant voice suggests.
Rock's had the same experience--Brazil comes to mind, as well as this moer recent confrontation... and Rock would certainly agree with the screaming rage part. That Krizalid can so easily tap into that rage worries Rock, too; every time he's confronted by the clone, it gets easier and easier to touch that dark edge, to slide just that little bit closer to it. It's exactly what Rock -doesn't- want.
"... you know, I don't mind if people call me Howard. I'm taking the name away from him. Someday... it'll mean something different." Grandiose plans, no?
"... but you're right. I hate that bastard as much as you do." Rock half turns a little more, putting his back against a shade tree planted just outside the door, thumping his right foot against it and slinging his hands back into his pockets.
"Shit. Yeah. Shit named Krizalid." He keeps his tone light as he razzes the other clone, "You wanna trade back? Hell, it's not like either of 'em are human... I think he misses you. Moved on me to fill the void..."
K' hasn't quite got that same problem of sliding towards some dark precipice. For him it's more like he climbed out of one, and doesn't want to slip back down. It took a lot of time and effort to approach some kind of existence that the experiment felt was 'human.' Krizalid makes him backslide. He makes him slip back down to that place where he was a letter and a killer.
A brow lifts as Rock mentions his intention to reclaim the name. It's not a derisive gesture, really, just one that notes the comment. "Fair enough," he shrugs, glancing away. "Sounds like a good plan to me." And it does. K' knows a lot about the desire to tear people down.
A little increased intensity enters his eyes at further mention of Krizalid. That's a feud older even than K''s grievances with Geese Howard. "Wouldn't mind," he replies that question of whether he wants to trade back. "I hate Howard, but in the end he's yours. You know? Same with Krizalid and me." And all of NESTS, really. Vengeance can be a terribly personal thing.
He frowns a little, though, as Rock implies Krizalid just needed a stand-in to pick on. Well, why Rock Howard? "You sound like you got some history with him," he comments. "He say anything while you were fighting?" Anything... incriminating? Revelatory? K' knows he's in the tournament, but no real details.
"Oh, that's right, you wouldn't know, necessarily." Rock's eyes flash with a hint of anger, smoldering and hot, coals banked but starting to reveal themselves. "I guess Krizalid's boss isn't happy with trying to turn you. A few months ago... I was training, in Brazil. For the King of Fighters." In that jacket, his hands clench a the memories dredged up. But his voice remains steady.
"I was based out of a chapel near Rio... and our 'friend'... slaughtered everyone there. To try and get me to join him." Rock turns a mirthless smile to K'.
"You know, they gave him a lot of knowledge but he doesn't understand the mind of a man at all. As if I'd join him because he killed those people... That was the first time... I've had another, but.. he sent a clone of himself to that fight."
The blonde turns his head away from his chat partner, gazing out at the street, seeing the people walk past, knowing Krizalid wouldn't see -people- there. "But I'd bet anything, once you resurface publically... he's coming after you. I don't think I've replaced you, in his mind..."
Yellow eyes flick downwards, considering, when Rock explains just how it is he knows Krizalid. His jaw tightens. Slaughtered everybody there just to make him join up. Yeah, sounds like classic Krizalid.
"He doesn't think like a human," he says suddenly, "cause he wasn't made to. And he never had any reason to learn how." Not like K' himself. "After a while I guess you get used to his habit of brute forcing shit." Something like a smile, but much more humorless, crosses his face. "Last time I saw him he executed some kids just to get me to stick around."
He falls silent, though, as Rock explains it's likely Krizalid hasn't forgotten. That he's after K'. His eyes shut.
"That I don't doubt," he says wryly, thinking back on the obsessive rage in Krizalid's eyes. "Don't think anybody could replace me, when it comes to him. He'll be after me sooner than later... he tried to tell me to stay outta this tournament." And here K' is, being contrary. "But with him, probably would be better to kill him sooner than later. Get him taken care of."
He watches smoke curl off his own cigarette. "Hey. Let me know if you gives you any more shit."
"Yeah, he definitely isn't human. But... he had that freak with him, at the concert." Rock doesn't know how many details have been released, really. The mere existence of K9999... "... that... god, I don't even know what to call him. K-Four-Nine." He shakes his head.
"You know what Krizalid said? He called that thing, and himself, the pinnacle of humanity. If -that's- the pinnacle? I'd rather be flawed..." Rock prefers even his evil blood to what Krizalid would have planned.
"I'll let you know if I see him. Hell... we end up fighting their team? You want to take my place for that fight... welcome to it. I hate him... but you've got the claim." Then again, K' is on a pretty strong team too. "Hope one of us gets into him before we fight each other," he comments, shaking his head.
"Way I see it.. win or lose this damn tournament, if we can take him and his friends out, we've already scored some major points." He puts it into mind to let Adel know that K' might be a good candidate, or at least a potential ally, for Einherjar...
K' grimaces at the mention of K9999. "Yeah I remember that little prick," he says unceremoniously. "If you got to call him something, guess you could call him a fuck-up. NESTS tried -something- with him and screwed up, seems like. Used to pity him, but..." But it was complicated. K' has a sort of guilt regarding all the new clones that came into their horrible lives because of him. Kula. K9999. But Kula showed some independent thought, some ability to learn, some desire to know humanity. K' could pity her for that-- could think a little more kindly of her.
K9999? The kid has proven little more than a rabid dog. Maybe one it'd be better just to put down.
K' glances up though, when Rock offers to let him stand in if he winds up pitted against Krizalid. He looks thoughtful a moment, before he nods. "Yeah I'll take you up on that," he says. "Like to see his face when I show up, after he told me not to."
He finally pushes away from his lean against the doorframe, casting Rock a last glance. Huh. Sounds like somebody's got some kind of Righteous Agenda going on here. But K' doesn't ask-- not yet. "S'what I been aiming for, all along," he remarks mildly on the topic of taking NESTS out, before he just turns to go. "See you around," he says-- the fact he's even saying any goodbye a concession in itself-- before he starts making his way down the busy street.
Log created on 21:19:05 02/14/2011 by K', and last modified on 23:38:24 02/14/2011.