A good place to crash (Open)

[Franklin]

“Yes!” Franklin whispered enthusiastically, “Yes, that is what my Father told me once.” She continued to hide her face in shadow, but Franklin didn’t press her. “I grew up on the run.” He groaned and closed his eyes again for a moment, “The Division killed my Mother when she and my Father took me. I was part of a Eugenics Breeding plan. My parents volunteered, they think, but when The Division took me, they broke their mandate and went rogue. I don’t have any memories of my Mother, save what Dad told me, and they tried to take those away too. She was a soldier, like my Father.” Frank smiled slightly, patting her hand. “Like you.” He sighed, “Sometime after Dad explained that home wasn’t just a place, it’s something you have to carry with you – they shot him with a large caliber round from nearly a mile away.” He shook his head, “I tried to do more. The blonde’s name is Haydon. I almost killed him, I wanted to finish him off...” Franklin traced the line of one of the larger scales, “I should have stayed with you, but then they’d have caught us both. I don’t know.” His voice hardened, “We can try to kill all of them.” He lifted his head, though her face was still in shadow, he seemed to find her eyes. “I don’t have to see you in the light to know that you’re still the same woman I made a promise to. The same woman whose kiss I remember. They tried to change the face, but the kiss – no, that kiss was you. I know it now.” The last he whispered, and fell silent, hearing her take a ragged breath. “You remember it too?”

He shook his head, “I don’t know about that. Another trick, another test. They could have used anyone then, just to see if you knew.” Frank looked down, and felt the talon. He pressed his lips together as he passed his thumb against the curve on top of the hard claw. What did they do to her? He looked up at her words, “Good. I’m sorry you had to do that, but I can’t say I’m sorry he’s dead.” He took a very deep breath, “When he took my Father away, dimmed those thoughts, those memories, he nearly killed him in a way that was worse than being shot. Y’know?” Frank wanted to embrace her, just as he had in the Limo, when he had said goodbye. She needed someone that understood her, and he certainly did; she needed a friend, not someone sniffing around her, or someone that kept her around because she was beautiful. She squeezed his hand in return, and he steadied his mine. “I – maybe. Just more blood on their hands and mine. I thought you had, that part is a jumble, but I knew you cared for him.” Frank squeezed her hand again, “Love is taking a bullet for your, Son. Love is dying so your Son can be free. Love is fighting to stay free, when your parents already paid with their blood. My parents taught me what Love is – it’s because of them that I wanted you to be free. My Father would have wanted that too.”

Frank chuckled, her last sentence making him laugh for a moment. “Oh, Cassidy, Vampires try to kill every body. If I had a nickel for every time one tried for a bite.” He smiled slightly in the gloom, and went quiet again. She pulled away, but there weren’t many places to go, and this time, he sidled up, and put his arms around her. It was a bit awkward, and if he gathered her closer, he’d be pulling her into his lap, but he hugged her as tight as the position allowed. “I am glad to see you again. I know I’m not responsible for the entire Division, but – I still feel responsible for you.” He rubbed her back, “What did this idiot Richard do?” There was a scraping sound from under the water, very faint, and the light was revealed again. She heard his pack unzip, heard the crack of another glow stick being snapped, and saw the dancing light as Franklin shook it in his telekinetic grip, and stuck it into the grating to one side of the landing to act as their light. His was green. Softly, he said, “Cassidy, I had a nose bleed, not a sudden attack of blindness. I saw the change to your skin. Let me see you. Let me see your face.” He slid his hand along her arm, and pressed a finger carefully to one of her talons. “This world changes everyone.”

[Cassidy]

Frank was telling a story of his family, his father and his mother and she listened to it, there was some what comfort but still she could not understand what he felt and so she simply listened trying to understand more than just the words. The feelings that he must have experienced learned to understand. “I am no soldier... a soldier offers his or her service they aren’t forced into it.” she whispered having read and gotten an education apart from what they wanted them to know. “Haydon will die if he hasn’t been killed already. I... I have been hunting them. Uh, they were hunting a girl but that was not their mandated target...” Her lips parted slowly before she chewed on them again. “I would—I...” she sighed “I remember both kisses, when I asked you to and when... when you...” she bowed her head further. “When you said good bye.”

She sighed again and drew blood from her lip from worrying at it so much. “But I didn’t know... I just... I thought they had killed you. The Hotel was called Sandy Beach... bloody cold it was... there was a painting with an old brass frame the painting looked like it should be in an old manor... like Nathaniel’s.” She began shivering again more violently. “I am not sorry I killed him, been in control of my life for too long and he gave me that freedom... was the only way to thank him.” She blinked slowly “Cared for him... I suppose I did. He had proposed that morning... had been planning it... for a while, he asked another woman, his sister how she would want a man to propose and she told me that he was... that he loved me. That he trusted me with his life...” she was shivering more and more then it stopped her body stilled itself. “I do not understand the emotion behind the word, I do not understand what love is. To me it is just a word that others use to describe something that I know nothing about.”

She shook her head “Vampires… don’t try to kill you the moment they see you... biting is different at least then you have a chance.” He would feel the irregular formation of her spine. The spikes almost against his skin and she pulled away or attempted to. “No Please Frank, I want you to remember me for who I was and not what I am now.” He rubbed her back and she found herself leaning towards him. “He, told me his wife was dead... that... I wasn’t...” she growled very much like the dragons. The blue light returned and she lowered her eyes to it. The blue tones playing against the black she wore nicely. Then she heard more sounds as her hearing was returning to its full strength. Her hand lifted to his cheek but did not press the scales against his skin. “N-no…” she shrugged out of his arms and rose to her feet stalking down to the lower platform snatching her pack she made a pillow and lay down on the sleeping bag. Her back to the water her eyes upon the metal of the tower.

[Franklin]

“You were trained to be a soldier. Neither of us volunteered, but that doesn’t mean we’re not soldiers. We’re fighting for something now, even if it is just survival and freedom. My Father would say you were a soldier, even if you were poorly used by your commanding officers – such as they were.” Frank sighed and patted her knee, “What I mean to say is, I feel like I can trust you.” He nodded, “I’ll kill him if I run into him first.” He tilted his head, “Your’e what? Hunting them? That’s cra--” Frank fell silent for a moment, and considered what she had said. “You know, in all this time, I never considered doing that. I – I just ran.” He frowned slightly, and met her eyes for a moment when she spoke about the kisses they shared. “I remember wishing there had been time for one more kiss.”

Frank listened to Cassidy quietly, “Of course you didn’t, and that’s what they would have been testing for; to see if you did, and how you did.” His embrace tightened gently whenever she shivered. “In control of your life, and many others, Cassidy; Mine too, likely more than just you and I. He was a snake and probably died way too quickly.” He frowned at her words and shook his head, “It sure seemed like you did. You fought pretty hard, and Cassidy, would it all hurt so much if you didn’t?” Frank sighed and shook his head, he sounded like one of those books he once burned for his fire about three stops ago. He’d taken shelter in a two-tiered bookstore. “I know what my parents did, how I feel about them – never had anyone like you did – I don’t think I was allowed. But I think I understand it.”

He shook his head, “No, they don’t. I—I hadn’t really considered that they’d do that to you. Why would they do that?” Frank felt the hard spots on her back, plates that could almost be spikes. He didn’t flinch or pull away, that would be cruel, and he’d made a promise to her. Her words hit him hard, and his brow furrowed. “I remember who you are. What you were was never as important as who. You’re still Cassidy. They might have changed your skin, and your Gifts, but those weren’t the things that made you who you were and are. I’m not just my Telekinetics, or my face.” Frank nearly growled, “That prick. If that’s true, Sweetheart, then he never knew you and the loss is his.” She was beginning to relax, and then she touched his face, and moved so quickly, he didn’t have time to catch her and hug her again.

Frank got to his feet, and jumped down, accompanied by the slight sizzling sound of his Power being active, if only briefly. He dropped to his knees behind her, and took a breath, and hugged her again. “I have felt the scales on your back, and on your hands. I have seen your claws or talons; I have seen your face. I’m still here.” Frank reached up, and pulled back her hood, and quickly pulled her close, essentially onto his lap and pressed his cheek to her scaly cheek. “Don’t you get it? Everyone I knew is either dead, or looking to kill me – except for you. Except for just now, but that was a misunderstanding.” Frank tried to lighten the mood, as he spoke, trying to make Cassidy relax again. “Breaking conditioning hurts, it still hurts, I have a thousand monkeys in my head all banging their cymbals to their own beat – but – you’re more than worth remembering, and knowing.” He moved and let his fingertips slide along her jawline, “These are nothing. I’m just glad to know you’re alive. I’m glad to see you.”

He shook his head, “You think you’re ugly? Because of one dick shifter? I think you’re ex—well--” He coughed and was at a loss for a moment, “Well, not ugly. No.”

[Cassidy]

“Does love hurt when the object and giver of such is lost? I do not know... I do not understand the attachment.” She trailed off and shook her head. “I wasn’t allowed anyone that is why they took him from me, that is why they took me from him.” she rubbed her face and sighed. “They do that because... because the… the.” She sighed again. “The therapy that they... introduced to me was a, a dragon, they removed some of the... genes that they knew would make me strong, they also introduced...” She began shivering again. “Who am I Frank? I am what they wanted me to be, I am who they wanted me to be. Now I am a creation.” She looked to her talons again and frowned as she left him.

Settling down she got as comfortable enough to sleep, she didn’t want to talk anymore although she could hear his movements. His arms enveloped her and she gasped as he pulled her to him. He then whispered to her and she shivered. Then he pulled her hood away from hiding her features she growled but now in the light her red hued eyes were visible, the slitted pupil even more so as it narrowed with cat like fluidity.; Dragon. Her hands at once shot to his chest and she pushed him away just enough to keep him from embracing her entirely though she was now on his lap, but his cheek pressed against her own had her pause the actions to follow. “I asked you not to.” she growled and pushed him more harshly, her talons digging into him as she did so, but she also kicked away. Her strength causing her to loose balance though she gripped the grate as her lower portion of her body slipped right off. Talons snagged a few breaking unable to get a solid grip as she continued going right off and into the water.

She sank like a stone. A trail of blood behind her though it stopped shortly after it began. She surfaced again gasping for air, finding a grip on the ‘wall’ she inspected the lost talons and grumbled. “I don’t need Pity I... I didn’t want you to see me. Not like this.”

[Franklin]

“It hurt when my Father died.” Franklin tilted his head, regarding her for a moment. “I bet that you do. Not good to pretend otherwise. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to love someone, or wanting to be loved.” He nodded, “I never got that far. You were in the field.” He shook his head, “How did they take him from you if you don’t understand the attachment? You’re contradicting yourself. Don’t let them take that away from you.” Frank nodded slowly, restraining his grimace of sympathetic pain, and took a breath. “Dragon. Jesus. I didn’t know The Division was doing that, or any of it, I thought the Psionics was their answer to ‘Superman’.” He frowned slightly, “You are Cassidy. That you weren’t born by a man and a woman doesn’t make you less human. Not to me.”

Frank managed to hold her, for a time, to pull her close and feel her scales against his cheek. “No, you didn’t. You said, Please…but how am I supposed to be this close to you and not see your face. Am I supposed to pretend nothing at all has changed?” He shook his head, and he saw the red of her eyes, and the feline-like pupil. Dragon, she had said, and Frank could see it more clearly now but it didn’t make her ugly, not by a long shot. It would take so much more to do that. She gouged him with her claws a bit, and he winced as they broke the skin when she shoved him back. There wasn’t much room, and over she went into the water – where she sank. In a hurry Frank shucked his jacket, along with the heavy stainless steel ball bearings he carried, and jumped in after her, not realizing that she hit bottom and was already pushing her way back up.

He sputtered to the surface, and was about to ask ‘Are you alright?’, when she spoke of pity. Frank scowled, and sighed. He grabbed the landing, and lifted the sheet of metal from the water. He wedged it back into place, and she saw the bolts float, and then suddenly shoot into the metal with a ‘spanging’ sound. Frank did this while watching Cassidy, and then swam over to where she clung. Little, very slight clouds of crimson rose from his chest. “Cassidy…this isn’t pity. I don’t pity you.” He swam closer, “I can prove it to you, if you calm down.”

[Cassidy]

“That is the attachment that I don’t understand, I didn’t understand it when it... hurt, when I saw the look on his face when Victor all but told him I was a spy. When you... held me to the wall. It is not a Contradiction because I did not understand, I still don’t. I do not understand the feelings that I feel nor do I really know what they are, we weren’t taught to feel or what to feel.” She growled and sighed again. “I am not human not genetically... well I am but I am not.” Down she went after pushing him away. Her feet touched the bottom and she rose again. She near clawed into the wall and gasped almost diving into the water at the same time because of the sounds. She screamed again writhing in pain under the water. She surfaced again coughing. When Frank moved near she covered her ears again.

She was visibly shaking again. “How are you going to prove that? Another kiss? Another embrace... I grow tired of them. I don’t know the difference between what is real and what isn’t. What I thought was the same was not and what I had I would never know. Which do I believe to be ‘love’ what is love and why do others fight for it. What is hurt if you can’t stop it out?” clutching to the sheeting she growled before turning to it and pressing against it. he could see she was growing wary. Her fingers relaxing and tensing as her body quivered. “I... I can’t stop the shivering... this... this gene therapy made it worse.”

[Franklin]

Frank listened to her and frowned slightly, “You didn’t? You fought like you did, I remember that much. You weren’t as combative then, either. It’s called sympathy.” He paused, “Did my ‘death’ upset you?” He took a breath, “My point is this, Cassidy, you have displayed more humanity in these last fifteen minutes than a lot of ‘Baselines’ I know, more than me at times.” Frank shook his head slightly, “Do you know how my Power works? Never mind, no one really does, but the prevailing theory is that I can manipulate atomic frequencies. That it’s not actually manipulating a thing with my mind, but actually mucking with sub-atomics to create gravitic effects. Mind bending, huh? No pun intended.” Frank looked up towards the unseen sky, “I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, Cassidy. Most of them while under Division influence. Killed, because I was told to, killed with a thought. Did you know that I can reach into you, and pinch off your carotid artery, or your femoral artery – not always one hundred percent accurate, but given the time, I can do it. Give me more time, I can congeal a clot in your heart.” He clenched his jaw, “I almost lost myself to it…like Haydon, he’s a machine. Disconnected from anything resembling a heart, and he doesn’t have scales. You’re still Human, no matter what’s happened to your skin.”

She was shaking from the noise, and he moved closer, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Tired of them? We haven’t even had another one.” Frank scowled, ran a finger against the blood that oozed from the shallow wounds on his chest, and smeared it on the back of her hand. “I’m real. You didn’t think you were hallucinating a few moments ago. I’m not saying I’m in love with you, if that’s what you think – I’m saying I could, I’m saying I would, I’m saying that I am glad to have found you. You, Cassidy, not the pretty skin you wore, and still wear. I still think you’re –“ He grunted, and shook his head. He braced himself, and lifted her out of the water; his touch was gentle, even warm, and there was a golden sheen, like static, as he lifted her out of the liquid. Frank placed a hand to his temple, the sheet was held up before her, and she was placed on her landing, upon her feet. He shivered now, and disrobed her, the sheet unwavering, but he saw the clothes fall, her form silhouetted by a mix of blue and green light, then he wrapped her in her sheet, placed her upon her bedroll, and tucked her in. “Good night, Cassidy. I’ll be here in the morning.”

He pushed off the landing, hissing slightly at the sting of water on the shallow wounds, and let himself sink. He swam down, found the bottom, and pushed up, using his buoyancy and TK to launch him up. He landed lightly upon the steep stairs, above her landing, and walked to his own. Frank began to undress, pulled a heavy towel from his pack. “ ‘Always know where your towel is.’ ” The quotation made him smirk, and then he sighed heavily as he prepared to bed down, and hung his pants and boots out to dry. “Guess there’s no beans or warmth tonight.” He didn’t have a bedroll, just a sleeping bag and some blankets; he did his best to get comfortable on the steel landing, and stared at the ceiling.

[Cassidy]

He painted her skin, her scales with his own blood and she hissed through her teeth the blood very potent with his scent. She could follow him now, most definitely. His words had her shaking her head. “I am not saying that you are I am trying to tell you that I do not understand feelings the way you do, emotions... I am not like you Frank.” Again he did not finish his words and she growled. “For someone that knows what they are-” she was lifted from the water and she struggled but the shivering was becoming too much. She was lifted into the air and set upon the landing, she was then disrobed by his TK hands and she growled at him again. But then he wrapped her in the sheet and tucked her in. When he said good night she remained quiet. Still shivering though it got worse more like a seizure she twisted her body and pressed her back against the walling. Watching him as he did what he did she couldn’t do anything but watch.


Once he was settled she smiled gathering her self onto the ‘bedding’ she curled up whispering “You know when one is attempting to sooth another actual touch is usually better.” She would wait before she climbed up the stairs and cautiously lay beside him almost nuzzling up to him, her body far warmer than it should be. Covered slightly by the sheet she clung to; though her back was visible. He had seen her he had chosen to do so and she decided that it didn’t matter anymore not for him anyway. She pressed against him only the sheet and his blankets separating them. “I can give you the warmth... Beans not so much... but I wouldn’t mind trying a slim Jim?”

[Franklin]

“You think I understand feelings?” Frank laughed softly, putting a hand over his mouth. “Alright, maybe a little better than you do, but I don’t think anyone understands them entirely. It’s something you learn about yourself. You and I, we’re a bit stunted in our growth there, I had my Dad to help, but he was – he was a badass soldier, they’re not big on discussing their inner turmoil.” He heard her growl, and he heard Cassidy start to snap at him. He shook his head, and tucked her in. Frank kept trying, and she kept insisting she was some kind of unlikable Beast, he didn’t think he was going to get her to budge in a night – and she was shaking badly, as if she had palsy or epilepsy, both ailments that weren’t uncommon amongst his sort of Human, especially if pressed into reaching beyond their limits. He’d nearly had an event in that tower, with the nose bleed and the conditioning breaking; every nose bleed reminded him of Jessica, and how her mind and body totally failed her. She was ‘recycled’. Frank didn’t want that to happen to Cassidy, or to him. He didn’t even know why convincing her she was still someone he wanted to know was so important to him, but it was – he saved her once, helped her get away, he still felt like she needed his help to escape – something.

Frank had stripped down to let his clothes dry and did what he usually did in those situations to get warm and dry off himself, got right into his sleeping bag. Sound echoed in the water tower, and he thought he heard Cassidy say something familiar. His brow furrowed as he tried to remember, and he had to rub his temple when he felt the spike of pain, and another piece of his puzzle-cut memories fell back into place. “You – you said that to me before.” Frank felt her close, felt her lying down beside him, and he rolled over, opening the sleeping bag, so she could share the space within, and its warmth. The days were hot, but here in the shade, and at night – it got cold quickly. He tugged her into the sleeping bag with his hands and enhanced-TK strength, because she really was quite heavy. Frank slippd his arms around her, and he chuckled against her shoulder at her request. “Alright, my head is pounding, and you’ve just made this sleeping bag very cozy. He reached passed her and his bag slid closer, his arms still around her, he opened one of the pockets, and pulled out a Slim Jim™, “Here, teriyaki beef, or so it claims.” Then he snuggled against her, and for a time was till, before she felt his fingertips trailing lightly down her back. “What I was going to say is – I still think you’re beautiful. A few scales can’t ruin that – makes you – exotic, but truly, Cassidy, there’s no way I would ever see you as a monster. No way.”