2019-07-12 - Russian In Common

Summary:

A walk in the Botanic Gardens goes wrong leading to two murderbugs meeting

Log Info:

Storyteller: None
Date: Fri Jul 12 22:43:02 2019
Location: Botanic Gardens

Related Logs

None

Theme Song

None

piotr-rasputinlaura-kinneykeiko

"Come back here you walking set of clothing." The words, in a south america accent that seems to have no origin. "Illyana's not going to be happy when she knows you're here. Svo-lach." Yep, that's russian - strange sounding with the accent but nearly perfectly pronounced.

Keiko Kurita is hurrying through part of the Botanic Gardens in Brookly, following what seems to be a rather large dog. A rather large and ugly dog, with leathery skin and small wings protruding from its back. The thing is scampering at quite a speed, too, as it leads the small peruvian a merry chase.

The woman in question is short and slim, the crop top she's wearing displaying the brand on her stomach, the silvery lined tattoo on her back and the other, quite realistic, tattooes that cover her arms and shoulders. Some might call her something uncharitable because of all the ink. Others might call her a walking piece of art. It could either go either way.

Oh yeah. She's wielding a metal quarterstaff as she chases the 'dog'.


"Keiko, wait!" Piotr is nowhere near as fast as his partner. Especially when he is in his currently in his much larger metal form. His footfalls are heavy as he lopes through the garden after the tattooed woman, the seven and a half-foot tall completely covered in metal bands beneath his clothes, which at the moment was a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.


Laura thought that a day at the Botanic Gardens would be pretty boring. Honest. She grabbed a bunch of brochures about things to do in Brooklyn and has been steadily going down the list. No one ever told her that the true mark of a lifelong local is to have never done any of the local attractions because they're all right there and never going anywhere. So she's been doing all of them.

The 5'1" young woman is right in the path of the large, ugly, winged dog. She had been staring at a tree, thinking about who knows what. But the ruckus makes her turn, and when she turns, there she is, right in the dog-thing's path. Now, instead of yelping in fright and diving to one side, Laura stares down the oncoming dog, as if daring it to try something. Keiko chasing it, and Piotr chasing Keiko, draw her attention too, but less so. One brow subtly lifts as her eyes fix on the dog's in an unblinking, challenging stare.


"Can't let it get away, Piotr. Got to send it back." Keiko grunts as she rounds the corner and sees the woman standing there. Just standing there, eyeing the demon down. "How are we going to send it back?" Cause, you know, she expects to catch the thing.

The demon-dog scampers along and Laura might think the thing is snickering by the noise that's making. It sees her and the wings flap nearly comically, lifting up and towards the womans head - well, trying to get over her head but it might have misjudged by an inch or so.


"Illyana isn't here.." Neither is Elena, but Piotr's not going to mention that - after all, that's a secret still. There's a hard frown at the creature and Keiko's question. It's a /good/ one. And he doesn't haven an answer yet. And it is while he is pondering that the newcomer arrives. "Watch out!" He calls out towards Laura as the creature lunges.

"It is not what it seems!" he is trying to warn, and then the creature is leaping and flapping it's obscenely small wings, and Piotr is rubbing a hand over his face. "Boizhe Moi!"


Laura is watching out, it turns out! As the thing takes to the air, trying to fly away, it doesn't quite clear the five feet and two inches necessary to completely avoid Laura.

And Laura isn't trying to avoid the devil-dog, either. At the last possible moment, her arms shoot up, to try and wrap around the dog's middle, under the wings, and then do what could charitably be described as some kind of an amateur wrestling slam to the ground. The dog might well outweigh her, but she's got skill on her side… and if she does manage to get the dog down to the ground, as rough as the attempt is, it's followed by a deep growl at the dog's ear, as if to say: 'I'm the alpha.'


The demon-dog is slammed to ground but it struggles. Clawing and biting at Laura. It's strong, the claws and teeth seem even more so. It growls back as the mutant growls at it.

Honestly, it was probably the right thing to do, except …

"Hey! Leave it alone. We're trying to send it back." Keiko arrives to stare at Laura wrestling with the creature. This could be a woman after her own heart, except Keiko never really went one on one like that. Way too squishy.

"Piotr. She can't hurt it. Illyana won't be happy."


"I am not worried about her hurting it!" Piotr yells back at Keiko. He's more worried about it /hurting/ the girl. Of course, he doesn't know that she's a murderbug. As the demon is growling at Laura, Piotr's right arm shifts and morphs - the gleaming metallic armor is aflame for a moment, before the Eldritch armor snaps into place. Piotr's chrome-colored face scrunches in pain for just a moment.

Then he is hauling the creature off of Laura with the same arm as it scrabbles and lurches at him. "ENOUGH!" he roars at the creature, taking on the tone of the King of Limbo as he turns around to try to rip the demon away from Laura - hopefully it doesn't try to take a pound of flesh from Laura in the process as it suddenly realizes that the former King is /not/ playing.


As if this is the first time Laura's wrestled an apex predator. The young woman seems doomed to a fate of being gutted by some horrible beast, surely… but upon closer inspection, she might actually be getting the better of the fight, just by avoiding getting all clawed up. She seems to be trying to reposition herself to get a grip on the thing's neck when Piotr interrupts and snatches the devil-dog away.

As it's yanked back, Laura eats a hind-leg kick to the face, that sounds like a frozen turkey hitting the sidewalk after being dropped from a roof. A red line is drawn on her cheek by a clawtip, and her eyes flash with anger — and another menacing growl. "I had it," she says, sounding more annoyed at Piotr and Keiko than the dog.


The demon dog howl and yowls, still scratching and biting as it tries to get free. It's talking in demonic and Piotr will get the gist, mostly. Wanna go home. Wanna go home.

It's scared?

The thing hangs from Piotrs hand for a moment before it twist and writhes, breaking the big mans grip. Dropping to the ground, it scuttles under some bushes and … disappears. It's probably still there, just hiding.

Keiko has stopped, the quarterstaff held at ready. Now Laura isn't fighting or distracted by the demon-dog she'll see the collar that circles the peruvians neck - black leather with silvery pink lines twisting through it, melded with the skin almost flawlessly.

This is not a gentle woman, Laura is looking at.

"It wasn't yours. It's Illyanas. If there's to be punishment, it's up to her." The red line on the womans face is stared intently. "She is injured, Piotr." The big man gets a glance. He's the people person, not her.


"I will be right back." Piotr felt the discomfort and fear, and the large Russian frowns. As he makes his way to the bushes and benches, he kneels down. "Stay." he rumbles. "When we are done here, you will come with me, and Darkchilde will return you." he says to the creature.

Before Elena gets home - she does NOT need another pet demon.

Once agreement is reached and brokered, the large man turns to face the others. His eyes study Laura's face, and then he frowns. "I do not see injury, Keiko." he comments.

Indeed, Laura has already healed.


It's true. A gash to the face barely even takes seconds to disappear from Laura's visage. The cut itself didn't even bother her to receive, because she knew that it would be gone faster than she could complain about it.

"Wait," Laura says. She peers between Keiko and Piotr. She doesn't seem incredibly put off by how Piotr is seven and a half feet tall and made of metal, or that Keiko is carrying a quarterstaff. Actually, she might be a little annoyed that she has to crane her neck so much to look up at Piotr.

"Illyana? Blonde woman?" The tiny wolverette has a hell of a poker face. But even she can't hide the way her brows furrow just a bit as she puts two and two together. "Russian? Stupid bitch? That one?"


"She …" Keiko frowns and steps closer to Laura. Personal space doesn't seem to bother her. The quarterstaff is lowered and collapsed into a short rod. No threat, at least, right? "… was." She's not sniffing Laura, but an animal be given how close the smaller woman is.

"Nice trick…"

"Illyana. Not stupid. But blonde and russian, yes. She is … my … " how does Keiko describe her relationship to the blonde. Mistress? Owner? Sister in Law? "… friend. Piotrs sister."

"I'm Keiko, what's your name?"


'Russian bitch'. Ever seen a large Russian man go from zero to sixty in a moment. Every muscle in Piotr's body /stiffens/ as Laura calls his sister that. She can smell the growing anger. "/My/ sister." the large man rumbles.

Because even if she /is/ sometimes, Piotr will never acknowledge that Illyana can be.. blunt sometimes.

But to his credit, he leaves it to Keiko. Because she's the Laura speaker


Laura doesn't seem to register that she's said anything wrong. Either that, or her troll game is so strong that Piotr's obvious fury doesn't even elicit a reaction. At her size, it's entirely possible that she's some manner of little goblin.

"I'm Laura. She's your sister? Wow. That sucks." Laura doesn't say it like she's joking. She says it like it must genuinely suck for Piotr. At the same time, she doesn't seem terribly sympathetic to his plight. "So that thing is one of her things? If I'd known that, I'd have saved us all a lot of trouble and just gutted it. Oh, well. Anyway. Bye."

And now Laura is ready to just turn and walk away, like she didn't just fan all kinds of flames by speaking carelessly.


Keiko isn't the Laura speaker but she's certainly closer to Laura's mindset than Piotr. "Don't speak of Illyana like that. She saved me." The words come out low. The peruvian is strange like that - loyalty, once earned, is hard to lose.

"Why don't you like her? What did she do to you?" As the other woman turns to walk off, Keiko's there … blocking her path. Not in a aggressive way but for a small woman, Keiko has presence.

"And gutting that would have caused problems…"


Piotr, for the moment, is not part of this conversation. Keiko is.. probably closer to his sister than he is. With the collar and all. Instead, he's taking several breaths to steady and calm himself, because well. He's not got Keiko's ability to not wear a heart on her sleeve.


"She cornered me like a weirdo and then opened a portal to drop me into Hell, or whatever it's called." Laura really has a lot of nerve referring to someone else as 'a weirdo,' but there it is. "I think that's a pretty good reason to not like someone. And it would have been your problem. Not mine so much."


Keiko's eyes cut to Piotr. She doesn't speak but the look does her talking. Join her. She knows he's angry but she can't show weakness, can she?

"If she did, she had reason. What happened." Keiko asks, a little more gently. Or, at least, as gentle as Keiko gets. "She doesn't do that lightly. Trust me, I know." beat "This is Piotr, by the way."

She can remember her people skills some of the time. Remember that she is human - for the most part.

"Might have been my problem, if you gutted it. I'll give you that. I would have dealt with it."


When Keiko cuts her eyes to him, Piotr frowns for a moment, but he makes his way forward. "It will be returned home. And I will have Illyana search for other.. accesses." Because Limbo demons seem to be getting out more and more these days.

"You healed quickly." It is to the point, she is like them. "Where are you from?" he asks Laura. "And do you have a name?'


"I told her. I'm Laura." Laura at least does not change what she calls herself between answers, so that's a step in the right direction. "I'm from where I'm from." It's not even an attempt to deflect the question so much as to just put a brick wall in front of it.

"So what's the deal?" Laura looks between the pair (and still has to crane her neck to look at Piotr when it's his turn). "She already followed me around with the southerner. I would ask if you two were keeping tabs on me but you don't sound like you're lying. I'm not sure if that's any better, though."


"Southerner?" That's not familiar to Keiko. She might mean Remy, but with Keiko's grasp on English - made potentially worse for her time in Limbo - it doesn't register. "Why'd she follow you?"

Piotr joining her, has her actually touching his arm. Briefly. But more than she's ever shown in public. It might send the big man silent for a moment.

"You don't know where you're from? Neither do I. All I know is that I lived in a compound after being taken from my parents." It's an attempt, a poor one, to connect. "And no we weren't. Piotr wanted to show me the gardens, thought it might help me … become more human. We were interrupted not long after we got here."


"Ask her. She never gave me a good answer." Laura doesn't sound irritated, really. She sounds like someone calmly reading from technical instructions for how to build a new VCR. That doesn't mean she sounds particuarly gracious in how she speaks to Keiko, either.

"I know where I'm from," Laura adds, as if to make clear to the Peruvian: Laura knows, she's just not going to tell them. There does not seem to be a huge vibe of trust being extended outward from the tiny brunette.


"She had a good reason." Keiko answers again. Laura might be calm, she's muted - like she can't connect with her emotions.

She gets it.

"Knowing where you're from is good. I think. Everyone is telling me I need to discover that about myself. Piotr wants to know when my birthday is." It's … the most Keiko has said in a sentence since she returned.

Maybe she'll ask Illyana about Laura. If Keiko was thinking, she might try to message the blonde now - but she doesn't.

"You look like you're a good fighter, though. What do you now?" Keiko steps aside, unblocking Laura's passage.


"You ask a lot of questions," Laura observes to Keiko. It's a very cliche line, but on the other hand, Laura hasn't seen the hundreds if not thousands of movies and TV shows that have turned it into such. She looks at the space where Keiko was standing, and then flicks her eyes toward Keiko, as if judging whether or not Keiko will try to block her path again. It does keep her there for another second, at least.


"Sometimes." Keiko answers. "I'm also maddeningly frustrated. Just ask Piotr." Still muted and a little dismissive. "It's not often I find someone that will fight demons like I did. Most people just run from them or more stupidly, try to pet them." Keiko's never understood that. Demons are predators, generally, and they see humans as … expendable.

The peruvian sees the way Laura's eyes flick from the space to her and back again. She considers before taking a card from her pocket and handing it to the other woman. "You can call me if you want." It's a business card - Keiko appears to be a … handyman.


Laura's nose twitches when the card is offered. It's as if Laura is… smelling something? Only after that twitching subsides does she take the card, glance at it once, and then tuck it into her back pocket. "Okay," she says, without making it clear what she thinks about the idea one way or another. She doesn't say anything about fighting demons, but her expression is… well, it's a little tense.

Laura gives Piotr one last look, then Keiko another, possibly more pointed one, and starts walking. She doesn't look back over her shoulder, as if she's not concerned about whether the two follow.


Keiko recognises the look and the nose twitch. She's seen enough demons do that to her in her time in Limbo. She doesn't flinch. Laura gets the scent she's after. If she wants to find Keiko, she can. "Anytime." comes the casual response.

The small tattooed woman is quiet for a long time as Laura walks away. "Come on, Piotr. I suppose you want to take that 'dog' back so we can get rid of it. I would have liked to walk about here." It's just loud enough for Laura to know that they're not going to follow.


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