[rp] naked, shirtless, and katniss

[uncompliant]

When Logan falls through the door of the ship this time, he is wet and naked (though his hair is cut unlike in those gifs). It's been a few months since the last time he was here, and he doesn't appreciate being thrown back in mid-bath that he didn't even want to take in the first place.

...it's a long story. Come say hi to the naked, incredibly muscular man on the deck who is beyond tense. He is truly completely and totally naked. Unf.

James Wilder has been here for days at least. The Hunter's mark has taken over, has taken so much from him over time. He got it ten years ago. The mansion is quiet and empty, but his siblings are there and that's all he can ask for. Maybe the ship finally took pity on him, standing around on its deck, searching for something to hunt or kill only to turn up empty handed every time, because he is now in a gym in the ship. He's been here for hours.

Training with various weapons, crossbows, swords, and the like. He's shirtless and sweaty but focused. Need self defense/hunting classes? Come get trained by a really buff dude... who has a hard time being social or 'normal' or having fun so apologies for that, but he is single and... shirtless. That's a thing that can be appreciated given his... abs.

Finally, there's Katniss Everdeen who went to Chicago and then was sent back into a very au version of her own world where both Peeta and Gale are women and it is totally a thing in that world that gender doesn't matter in romance and that two girls can be chosen for the Hunger Games as well as two boys or a boy and a girl, which is what apparently happened to the Katniss that was there before her. She is currently, standing on the deck of a ship with a bow and arrow pointed outward and a confused expression on her face. She has yet to finish it yet (and has been setting the whole arena on fire due to her Rift change, this is a highly AUed version of her world on every single level really).

Nothing is okay.

Comments

[uncompliant]

Logan smiles a tiny bit when she takes his arm and then he smirks at her response, lifting up an eyebrow at that last part.

"I tend to want to punch a lot of people or make 'em want to punch me so I can see that," he says with a smirk at the admittance. "...so have you smacked him?"

He is her Captain, but he wonders if that would stop her if the person seriously needed to be smacked whether that's smacking sense into them or smacking them when they're too much of a pain in the ass.

[mynameischristine]

"No! Oh, my goodness, no." It's a firm protest but she's smiling as she makes it. "He's my commanding officer. They could bring me up on charges."

And she's clearly one who toes the line. That being said...

"Not that I haven't been sorely tempted a few times. But I respect him as a person as well as his rank."

[uncompliant]

Logan smirks in amusement at that Oh, my goodness. Most people would not genuinely say Oh, my goodness, but most people aren't Christine Chapel. He learned that awhile ago now.

"Thought you had to be at least tempted, but you seem like you have the kind of strong will to keep from being brought up on charges." He's not so good at following orders in general, but this is why he doesn't have a captain (no, just a professor, Logan). "I'd have a real tough time listening to someone I didn't respect."

Not that he respects people easily, not that he listens all that well even when he does respect despite being a soldier for so many years of his life. That time has passed.

[mynameischristine]

"I do respect him. He's brash and impulsive but he's also brilliant."

They've moved back into the corridor by now; she links her arm through his (she's sure he would have offered). They start heading back the way they came, she was on her way to the deck for some sun and air before she was so delightfully interrupted.

"So he's on the ship somewhere." She hasn't exactly been tracking him lately; they're not on their own ship, according to him, there's no need to stand on ceremony. They just check in every couple of days.

It'd almost be like a vacation if not for the not being able to contact or return to their proper home.

[uncompliant]

"Brash and impulsive."

That sounds like Logan himself though it tends to annoy him when some young person's doing it instead, and everyone is young in comparison to him. He smirks softly when she links her arm through his. She's a straight forward woman in that way, and he can appreciate that.

"Still don't trust this place."

The ship. Anything that can take people's control away like that isn't to be trusted, but he also hasn't figured out what makes it all work, what makes it all run. He gets the feeling this place won't be calm for long.

[mynameischristine]

"No, me either." Any place that's going to take a person away without permission isn't trustworthy. She's learned that much while she's been out there among the stars. There's some power behind this. They need to find out what it is. What it wants. And how to make this all stop.

The place may not be worthy of their trust. But she gives his arm a gentle squeeze, offering a faint smile.

"The people in it, though... some of them are worth trusting."

[uncompliant]

"Does that mean me?"

Logan lifts his eyebrow as he looks back at her. There is part of him that is surprised. They have talked a lot, but there's so much about him that she doesn't know. There are the claws inside of his knuckles. The metal that runs the length of his skeleton.

He stops lightly mid their walking and turns to her even as her hand remains against his arm. "How can you be so sure?"

[mynameischristine]

"I just am."

She stops too, turning to face him, leaving her hand where it is. "I get it, Logan. You don't think yourself worthy of that trust. I can't pretend to know why. I don't know what it is that's gone on in your life that makes you think that. I can only go on how you've treated me."

Her eyes search his face, earnest. "All you've done is go out of your way to help, to be kind, to listen. You've had me alone, you've had more than enough opportunity to act up, and you haven't. I trust you not to, with me."

A pause, and then:

"...That is not a challenge to try, by the way."

[uncompliant]

Logan meets her gaze when she looks up at him. There is something about the earnestness in her expression. She's earned and good. She is strong in the ways that aren't like his strength (not muscles but heart, strength of character).

"I'm not always kind. Haven't always been kind. I'm old, and I ain't exactly got a history that shows much kindness."

There are a lot of people who are dead because of him. He has been a soldier, an assassin. He has been many things, and there is adamantium grafted to his bones in the attempt to make him the ultimate killing machine.

He smirks a little bit at that pause. "Wouldn't dream of it."

[mynameischristine]

She doesn't flinch at his words, doesn't shy away at his admission. She holds his gaze squarely.

"I've done things I'll never be proud of. I've hurt people in ways I can never make up for, abandoned them when they needed me. The past makes us who we are today. Maybe we grow from it. Maybe we learn from it. Maybe we regret it and maybe we're proud of it. But whatever it is, it's in the past. We can take things away from it, but we can't live there."

Her hand slips into one of his. "Don't live there. It doesn't have to define you, Logan."

[uncompliant]

Logan is impressed by the way she holds his gaze squarely, speaks with purpose and wisdom, and doesn't back away. It's beautiful to him. She is beautiful.

There are a lot of things that he could say in response, but instead there's a soft smile from up close.

"Have you always been this stubborn?" There's a tiny smirk though since she's being stubborn about trusting him even when he doesn't think he is worthy of that so. "There is plenty that does. Define me. Things that are."

Mutant. The claws just under the surface of the knuckles of the hand that she has slipping into his own.

[mynameischristine]

"Completely." She smiles, not even remotely insulted by that observation. She is what she is, and stubborn--about the things that matter to her--is part of the package. It's the courage of her convictions.

"Something tells me that when I learn those things that are, nothing's going to change."

[uncompliant]

Logan wouldn't want her to be insulted. He meant it as a compliment, and he smiles slightly at her answer, shaking his head slightly as he looks at her. Part of him wonders if he wants to get it over with, prepare for whatever her inevitable reaction will be to it.

"Gonna need a drink before you do."

Learn those things or at least the one.

[mynameischristine]

She cants her head slightly, looking up at him.

"...I'm a military officer, and a registered nurse who's treated casualties in full-scale combat situations. I spent a month on an alien freighter to get to a deep-space outpost, where I had to defend my own life, all on my own, no crew to back me up."

Her mouth curves in another smile.

"I'm pretty sure, whatever it is, I can handle it without drinking first."

After? There have been times where she needed a swift shot of something after. But not before.

[uncompliant]

Logan lifts his eyebrows at what she says, and there's a tiny smirk on his face. He forgets sometimes that she is from an actual spaceship that travels through space and sees shit that he can't even begin to imagine. He's sure if anyone could randomly handle it and handle it well... it'd be her.

There's a slight pause before he takes a step back from her.

"Don't say I didn't warn ya."

It's said softly before he lifts up his hand and points it away from her, letting the claws slide out between his knuckles.

LMAO that gif

[mynameischristine]

There's a soft, slightly startled intake of breath--who wouldn't be startled by something so unexpected? But that's all it is, surprise. She studies his claws with open curiosity tinged with confused wonder. There's an explanation, she's sure.

But when she refocuses her gaze, lifts her eyes to hold and find his, when her lips part, it's not a request for the reasons how or why that comes out. It's something far more personal and honest, more genuine concern.

"...Does it hurt?"

LMFAO LOOK visuals are important

[uncompliant]

There's a pause at that question. She's not the first person to ask him that before anything else, before the why it happens. It always strikes him though when it happens, when that is the first thought that occurs to someone. It says a lot about the person.

It says a lot about Christine, and he isn't surprised at all that that is where her mind jumped to. This quiet ache in his chest that has nothing to do with the hurt.

"Every time." His voice is soft. The answer is still the same. "Don't really feel it so much."

Pain is something someone can get used to, and in comparison to the many other injuries that he's sustained, the claws sliding out between his knuckles is a familiar kind of pain, a known one. He doesn't mind it.

THEY ARE

[mynameischristine]

She's quiet again a moment, her hand drifting down. Fingertips ghost over the back of his hand, his knuckles, and then they glide out along one of the blades.

She needs the moment to consider her words. She's a compassionate woman and usually the right thing to say comes easily. It's always a matter of choosing the right words.

"Have you always been able to do this?"

It's a much better question than what happened or what's wrong or why/how can you do this, who did this to you, what is this. And it gives him space. He can simply say yes or no, or he can elaborate to the degree he feels comfortable sharing.

[uncompliant]

Logan remains very still as he watches her fingertips ghost over his hand and eventually the claws themselves. He feels that ghost of a touch right through his hand to his arm into the rest of his body, and he swallows at the question.

"Always had claws." When he was a child, it terrified him. Over a hundred years ago, he doesn't remember it. He accidentally killed someone with them before he learned how to control it. That's such a common story among mutants. How their powers hurt someone innocent (someone they love) before they learn how to use them. "Weren't always grafted with adamantium."

That came later.

"In my world, there are people called mutants who have... powers, abilities. We're not exactly popular." People fear those that are different, those that can't be controlled, those that have this kind of power. So they try to control them instead, to kill them, to use them. "How about that drink?"

[mynameischristine]

"Grafted," she echoes. It was deliberate, then. The claws, no, but the metal. Grafted to his... claws? Hands? That's all she knows for now, the metal claws. The rest will come.

Later, it seems. She takes the suggestion of a drink as a sign to change the subject for the time being. She nods. "If you want one, sure. I remember where the bar is."

She withdraws her hand from his claws, but rather than let it drop directly to her side, she reaches up and touches his cheek lightly. It's a shock, certainly. Something unexpected to process, to try to understand.

But nothing's changed.

[uncompliant]

There's a nod after her echo as he looks at her face quietly, and there is the understanding there that it is. It's the way that it is. It was deliberate. It was done to him.

Pain isn't a thing one remembers completely not in full force like he felt it that day. Screaming, running, terrified like he'd never been before and like he never would be again (he no longer has fear for himself but in those moments following waking up

he'd known nothing but terror and pain and anger).

He pulls the claws back in through his knuckles which heal after a moment, and then he leans into her touch instinctively almost. His fingertips slide over the back of her hand as he breathes in and meets her gaze.

"You're... something special."

The words escape him after a moment and then he moves, pulls back, and moves towards the bar that he knows of that's nearest.

[mynameischristine]

She turns to follow, falling into step beside him. She takes his arm again, but it's not the more formal linking of hers through his she's done in the past--this time her hand curls around his bicep, lightly, and it's somehow both more casual and more intimate.

She has a million questions. Of course she does; she's a scientist, a nurse, she wants to understand completely.

But she's a human being above all, and so is he. That's more important. That's what drives the way she chooses to stay at his side, the way she chooses to keep holding his arm as they walk.

"So what are you having? Same as last time?"

[uncompliant]

Logan looks down at her with soft consideration as they walk side by side to the nearest bar. There's a small smile on his face before he heads to the bar, which isn't very far away. The thing about a cruise ship is that there are bars everywhere.

It's got more alcohol than anyone could ever need, and Logan has noticed they have a tendency of filling themselves.

"Let me fix the drinks this time," he says quietly, because he remembers what drink she chose for herself last time and he'd like to make her a drink. He heads around to the other side of the bar to get the alcohol ready. "Any questions? Don't mind talking about it."

He's over a hundred years old after all. It's something he has come to terms with in a way a lot of young mutants haven't and can't (other than the part where he lives while the people around him die, but that's not anything he'll ever be able to come to terms with, he thinks).

[mynameischristine]

"All right. Thank you." She settles in--properly, this time, her butt on a stool and not up on the bar itself. She's quiet as he starts to work, the same thoughtful consideration she's had since this started.

"You've had the claws a long time," is where she chooses to start, "before the metal was grafted onto them. Were you born able to do that?"

Careful word choice. Able to do that, not born like that, because it's so easy to misinterpret the latter as a value judgment. It's different, what he can do, no lie. That doesn't make it a bad thing.

[uncompliant]

Logan fixes up the drink, watching her carefully from the other side of it as he leans against the back of the bar. He shakes his head slightly at the question.

"Don't remember much." The memories were taken from him, and while he's gotten most back now, there's still many that he no longer has especially of being a child. "But where I'm from, there are other people like me... not with claws usually, but they have their own abilities. They can do things other people can't, and we're called mutants, because it is in our DNA so I was born with that DNA. Not really sure when I found out what I could do for the first time, but for most, it does start out when they're young, kids."

It's the first time they discover they can do something other people can't. Usually, they find it out by hurting someone... or worse.