[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

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.

[mynameischristine]

"Genetic mutations." She leans in a little more, studying his face. "We have them where I'm from, but not changes to DNA to that degree, those kinds of expressions of genetic code."

She lifts her gaze, eyes seeking his. She knows what it's like, when people are different. It's a challenge even in her more enlightened time, but in his?

"...Do you and other people with the same kinds of genetic mutations have a harder time in your society?"

[uncompliant]

Logan meets her gaze when she leans in closer to study his face, and he breathes in sharp, suddenly aware of how close she is to his face. He finishes the drink, sets it in front of her.

"They do. We're feared by a lot of people."

He doesn't feel like he has it bad simply because there's not much that can be done to him anymore, but it's hard to see all those kids struggling with it, having to hide, lose family.

[mynameischristine]

"I'm sorry." The drink sits there between them, untouched; she reaches for his hand instead, covering it with her own. Her thumb traces over his knuckles and the spaces between, curious.

"It's nothing anyone should be afraid of... but people are irrational at heart. Things that challenge their worldview make them uncomfortable, and sometimes, it's easier to fear, or persecute, or reject, than it is to learn more and to accept."

She glances down at his hand, then lifts her gaze once more. "That's a hell of a healing factor you have there, too. Just the sites where your claws extend? Or is it inherent in your entire system?"

[uncompliant]

Logan breathes in as her hand reaches for his, covers his own, and he looks down at their hands. He leans in against the other side of the bar near out of instinct with a woman like this one.

"They are. Seen it time and time again. Worry more about the kids that have to suffer through it," he says, and he worries more about them than he does about himself who can keep his powers hidden relatively easily, who has stopped making so many ties in the world anymore.

He meets her gaze when she lifts it. "...it's everything," he says. "I'm old. I don't die. Not now. Not ever."

His words are soft though as he looks at her, and his hand drifts up, frames her face. She is beautiful, genuine, strong, warm such a contrast to him with his muscles and roughness. He is so drawn to her.

[mynameischristine]

The thought of children being afraid, not understanding what was happening to them and being persecuted for it or having people fear them is enough to make Christine's heart heavy. It's not right. Children shouldn't have to suffer like that.

And then Logan's hand is cupping her face. She turns to lean into his touch, entirely on instinct. It's welcome. Even though she knows what that hand holds, what it can do, she's not afraid, she wants it.

"That sounds like that could be a very lonely life." Her hand comes up, to cover his, to press it just the tiniest bit more firmly against her cheek. "But maybe it doesn't always have to be."

[uncompliant]

Logan feels the way she leans into his touch, how perfectly her face fits against the roughness of his palm. It's smooth, and she is very beautiful. He breathes in deeply when she says that it can be a very lonely life.

It is. People die all the time, and Logan never does. He kills. He survives. He makes it to the other side, but he doesn't answer her in words. Logan doesn't speak out loud that aching feeling inside of his chest that threatens to rip him in two.

Instead he leans in across the bar, his mouth covers over her own, and he kisses her. His hand slides behind her neck as if in answer.

[mynameischristine]

She doesn't hesitate. She responds at once, lips pressing to his, one hand dropping to the bar top to brace herself so she can lean in even closer.

People don't die in her world, not if it's in her power to do so. She saves lives, enlisted to be part of something bigger than herself. She doesn't stand alone as he does.

She can sense all the contrasts between them, but somehow they all seem to draw her in closer, make her want to keep learning about him and being with him. Her hand curls around his shoulder, a confirmation. It's still all right. She's still not afraid.

[uncompliant]

Logan leans across the top of the bar easily, and his hand slides up behind her head as he deepens the kiss against her mouth.

There are such contrasts between them. He is beast and death, and she is beauty and life. Her hands are soft, small, and his hands are rough, large. His hand slides down her back as he breathes her in, deepening that kiss against her mouth.

His hand rests against her back. His palm presses further against her, and he tugs her in a bit further to him. When he pulls away, it's slow, and he is staring down at her with a quiet expression that sort of takes her in with amazement.

[mynameischristine]

She looks up at him, smiling faintly. Her eyes are clear, focused on his, holding his gaze squarely. She makes no move to pull away; she lets out a contented sigh, and turns her face to rest her cheek against his collarbone.

There's so much that's different about the two of them. There's so much about him that's unpredictable. Dangerous. Difficult.

But she's never felt more safe than she does in this moment, in this spot. In his arms.

[uncompliant]

Logan sees the way that she looks up at him with that faint smile on her face. It's... hard to describe how he feels to see it, to see the way she makes no move to pull away. His claws don't tend to be a positive subject, and he can safely say this is the smoothest that conversation's ever gone with someone who didn't know a thing about mutants to start with.

He slides his hand up against her, pulls her in closer.

Somehow he senses it. Impossibly so, she feels safe with him and that means so much.

[mynameischristine]

She's a kind, good-hearted woman from a more enlightened time. She's been in space, she's seen all kinds of things. And never lost sight of the fact that no matter what else went on, how fantastic or surprising a thing was, that the people behind them were just that--people.

He's a person too. Whatever else he is, or can do, or has been through, he's still a man. One she's come to trust, and respect. That's a hard thing to shake.

"Still need that drink?"

[uncompliant]

"I'm less concerned with it now," Logan admits with a tiny smirk as he looks at her, watching her face.

She is a kind, good-hearted woman, a strong one. He admires the person that she is, that she has shown to him. If there is anything he will be grateful for this ship for, it's the fact that he has gotten the chance to meet her.

He's aware he wouldn't otherwise. They come from such different places and times.

[mynameischristine]

She laughs, the sound soft and pleased. "Me too."

Similar thoughts have passed through her head in the time since they first met. How terrible this place is, to drag people here, to steal them then shove them back without warning or explanation.

But how wonderful, that it let the two of them meet. That they could span the centuries.

"We could take the drinks out to the deck. That's where I was headed earlier before I was interrupted by a naked man."

[uncompliant]

Logan smirks in light amusement at what she says as he nods in agreement, picking up both their drinks before he heads around to the other side of the bar, to her side so they can head out to the deck together.

"You were interrupted by a naked man in public? The hell is this world coming to?"

You're so funny, Logan.

[mynameischristine]

"It's downright scandalous, I'm telling you," she shoots back, clearly teasing. "I may never get over it. We'd better get to a deck chair before I faint or something."

[uncompliant]

"Scarred for life. I should punch that guy in the face," Logan says, and he is teasing too before he even laughs lightly at what she says, stepping out towards the deck chair. "If you fainted, I'd carry you."

There's that after all. Benefits of hanging around a super strong mutant.