Description: K''s been at the Ikari Base for a few days. He's getting on everyone's nerves--and it doesn't stop after Leona has a chat with him outside the barracks.
See, when your brother's a top secret rogue bioweapon, normals etiquette is just.. difficult to apply. Sure, K' got in. Got a bunk. A hot meal when he wants it. Don't start trouble, his sister says. Just pay attention, his sister says. It pissed K' off right away, and it's a dour mood that hasn't really lifted in the last couple days. The barracks are all but haunted by the firebrand, the base by the various rumours about him. No one's really at ease with the way he scowls, or barely says two words to anyone.
It's just K', behaving. That, and listening. He's listening real carefully to everything within earshot that the Ikari pipe up about - mostly it's pretty standard, sometimes some damn rough shit, but nothing (obviously?) to back up the Kusanagi-infused renegade's theory that the Ikari Warriors are a front for... well, /somebody/ full of shit. This attentive paranoia, and chainsmoking, hasn't done anything to warm the locals. Nor has it warmed K''s own dispotion, where he sits presently outside the compound, under a large shade tree, smoking (again). Eyeing everything from behind those dark, concealing red shades.
Hey, he hasn't lit anyone on fire yet.
Leona, for one, doesn't want K' on the base. She understands why Whip did it--and, in good conscience, she can't deny that familial tie, one denied her long ago, found only in an altered form, relatively recently. But she doesn't like it. She knows that K' will be a distraction to Whip. That he doesn't like the Ikari.
Just returning from a mission to Sunshine City--well, 'mission'--by copter, Leona notes, immediately, the heightened tension around the base. She and Whip will have to discuss releasing the wild K' into the jungle, or getting him a ride to civilization. A few of the Ikari's grunts report that they're worried about the guy lurking around--not for his sake, but theirs.
Blue hair shakes back and forth, and she nods to the men. Not looking forward to this, is she, but she walks in the pointed direction, towards that shade tree. Thinking about what to say. How to say it. And how to tell Whip that she got in a fight with her 'dear brother'... if it comes to that.
Hey, K' /likes/ very, very few people. Here though, the problem is more specific: K' doesn't /trust/ the Ikari. Which makes all the standoffish tension and concern over the flame-infused rogue agent all the more present and cyclical. On both sides. K', as yet unaware to the useless nature of his vigil, simply keeps it. Also, he smokes, did we mention that? He picks out Leona even before she turns the corner, that predator's instinct sparked. The Kusanagi fire screams for blood, even beyond the way K' often yearns for violence, is simply conditioned to it. To breathe it, to speak it. To mete out that fury in poorly measured doses.
He eyes Leona through those shades along her entire approach, unabashedly. It's not a pervert's leer, though he does look her over thoroughly. It's the even, steady danger of a predator who does not feel cowed... even here. Perhaps insanely. K' isn't giving up that power easily, not the way everyone's already quietly giving him his... personal space. Except this one. K' smirks.
He doesn't bother urging Leona to get to the point, or asking what she wants, he just takes a drag off the cigarette, leans back into the tree, and looks away from her, off over the base, for the first time since the Orochi-touched Ikari walked into view.
K' says, "TO even"
Truth be told, intimidation isn't her goal. A valid tactic, to be sure--psy-ops are always a good idea--but she is more no-nonsense about this whole thing. However, if the rogue flamethrower isn't cowed particularly, whether he should be or not...
His presence doesn't cow Leona, either. He's a predator, she can see that in him... and she is, too. But predators need not clash all the time. They -can- coexist. And she isn't here to kick him out of the camp. She studies him the way he studies her--even without the benefit of red shades to hide behind.
Long moments stretch past, and she even tries to sound conversational (she's not very good at it) when she does speak. "Where will you go from here?"
K'.. his whole life is psy-ops, really. Everything from the moment NESTS laid their hands on him. It's a demonstration in both the potency and inherent... risk involved in such manipulations. Of course, the Ikari Warriors seldom call on themselves to play god. Even so, his conditioning doesn't lend itself well to coexistance. Neither does his drive for vengeance. "Don't know if you noticed..." K' notes. He's entirely sure that Leona Heidern has noticed.
"The whole world's going to shit." Pause. Puff. "More shit." He corrects, "You think it's going to be quiet now that one shithead exploded in a cloud of his own bullshit, you've taken too many blows to the head." K' smirks again, even snorts a little, "Where do I go from here? I'm going to make sure the clusterfuck that blows back on you idiots over all of this doesn't suck up my sister." Simple. Right?
Funny, that. She'd just been telling someone the same thing, earlier in the day. Leona doesn't look impressed at the little speech. "Yes. Preparing for the next time a would-be dictator rears his head." She turns, gestures, one gloved hand indicating the training grounds--men fighting each other, hand to hand, practicing their marksmanship, the use of explosive devices.
She turns back, one eyebrow raised slightly. "So. Think you'll... take Whip away from this?" She doesn't use the gesture again, though it could perhaps be implied by the words.
"Think you're better for her than us...?" She honestly isn't sure what his thought processes are, but she is confident that Whip belongs with the Ikari.
It happens in the blink of an eye. K' is on his feet. It's not aggressive, per se; but neither is it passive. Chi fueled, fiery, even at (relative) rest. He paces three steps away from Leona, looking where she indicates. "No." He corrects, without hesitation of the first question. He's not here to take her away. He paces three more steps, then three back, eyes even on Ms. Heidern. "Also no." K' seems deeply amused, for a moment, that Leona bats zero. Or at least, that's his take.
"I just think it's funny you're pointing me at men playing with toys." Deadly, destructive toys. They don't impress K'. "I think it's funny that you're all hyped up on your little outfit here, and how good you are for my sister. How ready you are for anything that comes your way." He emulates the gung-ho marine with the last sentence, even puffs out his chest a bit. He's given up the leather for the jungle heat, wearing black nonetheless, his shortsleeved shirt hanging open over matching military fatigue pants.
"I think it's funny because..." Flames lick along K''s hand, a brilliant menu of autumn colors along the knuckles, flitting like an open flame to his fingertips, distorting the air with sheer /heat/ "/I/ could nuke half this place before you fuckers could stop me." He seems pretty sure of that. "And /I'm/ smart enough to know I'm not the biggest fish. So where does that leave /you and my sister/?" He doesn't tack on the 'bitch'. He told Whip he'd be polite.
It's true that few of the men will become elite troopers--will surpass the need for weapons or, as in Whip's case, make them as deadly a weapon as the flames that race along K''s hand. But... they don't -have- to be. "Underestimating the strength of the Ikari is a bad mistake," she replies, quietly. Still looking unimpressed. Half the base? Mmm. That's a confident assessment.
"So you're not the biggest fish," she says, a measure of coolness sliding into her voice, to match that blue hair. "Is that supposed to mean something to me? If you think you can destroy half the base... so what?" Her eyes fix on those shades.
"Just a base. The Ikari are more than this base. But she's trying to be polite, too. It's a little easier for her, maybe, because she tends to clamp down on that anyways.
"Leaves me and Whip fighting to stop the wrong in the world. Kind of person she is." Left unsaid: What kind of person are -you-?
K' just shakes his head. "I'm not talking about just the buildings." /Polite/. Kill, maim, incinerate people right and left all across the field before they can bring him down. He eyes the trainees as he turns about, paces off to the flank. He can see it, in an instant. The flames lick, burnlessly, across his palm before dissipating.. for the moment. "Sure, you're organized. Power of teamwork, camaraderie, all the wonders of family and righteousness." K' sounds convinced already! Isn't it wonderful and not dripping sarcasm at all?
"Shit part of that? Makes you vulnerable to your weakest link..s. Makes your whole operation emotional and based on good spirits that you can't know will be returned. Not on any scale like that." He says it like /anyone/ with half a brain should realize it. "Righting the wrongs of the world... fixing it all... according to whom? At who's beck and call? Your own perfect judgement?" He doesn't seem to buy /that/ part, either, no. "Everybody's got an agenda, whether they admit it or not; but I'll make this simple for you." Blessed, magnanimous K'.
"In a war, you have your troops, you have your weapons, you have your failsafes and your trump cards big and small. You have a certain number of mediocre, pissy weapons to tie up the other force." K' waves a bare hand absently towards the training field. "You have a certain number of moderately powerful weapons to strike your targets and defend territory." K' even more boredly gestures towards Leona, arching white brows as if checking to see if she's still following.
"Then you have a certain number of big weapons. Tactical nukes. Shit to pull out and obliterate it all when you need all the stops. That's me. As long as you do right by my sister, I won't burn you flesh from bone." It's a fresh perspective on a classic line, except Leona isn't even dating his sister, exactly. "I might even be kind of useful. You doubt that, you're welcome to test your theory. Any fucking time." He almost lives for it, some days. Especially in this damn place.
She still looks unimpressed. "Big talk." K' doesn't know Leona well at all, if he thinks that all the backtalk is going to do anything to intimidate her--or provoke her. "Probably you could do a lot of damage." To the buildings and men both. She's willing to stipulate to that. It's true, after all.
"You don't know the Ikari," she says, stating fact. "What you think you see..." She shakes her head. They're a paramilitary organization, first and foremost, and that is reflected in everything they do--sure, the men form relationships, friendly and brotherly. Strengths and weaknesses.
"Our judgement. All we have to live by. Same as you. But I don't think you'd be useful to us." A thin, -thin- smile curves her lips, barely detectable.
"Too risky." And, he hates the Ikari. The threat to her, regarding Whip? Doesn't even get addressed. It's not as if he'd believe it if she said how she felt about the young weapon-wielding Ikari. She's not sure she can put it into words, herself. It's too... alien. Too strange. She lives in this paramilitary world because she's perfectly suited to it--to the no-nonsense, no-sugar-coating, falsely polite world. She wouldn't know how to live 'normally'. Nor does she respond to his assessment of -her-.
"Don't interfere in our work," she says, starting to walk towards the mess hall. She, at least, considers the discussion over. It probably wasn't satisfactory on either side, but she knows that 'putting him in his place' wouldn't please Whip... and, in any case, while she'd fight him if she had to, the odds -are- heavily in his favor.
Eyes narrow on Leona's back. She might as well have thrown the gauntlet, as disregard K''s rarely offered vague cooperation. There's a flash of anger visible in lensflare... from /behind/ the sunglasses. "Don't interfere in /mine/." It's all he has to say, in parting. No, not precisely satisfactory.
Log created on 23:34:03 03/17/2012 by Leona, and last modified on 16:01:18 03/18/2012.