Summary:Sunny catches the thief who broke into her place… and finds out about the man behind the demon. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
  |
Ford was becoming a more frequent resident of Luke's place. Now that he was without a bit of a nighttime job at his usual chop shop and his sister was still none the wiser to his sneaking out, Ford decided to use the extra time he now had digging into Irish mythology. He didn't like sneaking out, nor did he usually arrive any place in disguise if he planned to drink. But habits were hard to break. If he was out at night, it was usually in disguise.
He'd fallen back on an old standby of a shape he liked to use. An older Asian man, fitting given that he was currently nose deep in a book on mythology. The Fomorian attack and his discussion with the pixies had left him with too many questions. Hercules had managed to fill in a few gaps, but Ford was still woefully underprepared for any of this. He liked to be researched. Have his facts straight. Normally, in the heat of the moment, he didn't have the time to think, so now was the time to study up.
Bouncing between eating his fries and turning pages in the book he was digesting, Ford was entirely unaware of anything around him… but he was certain nobody would bother an old Asian man. Nevermind he'd use that disguise in a few robberies in the past. What were the odds someone here would recognize him anyways…?
A place like Luke's? It was right up Sunny's alley. That right mix of rustic without being 'Hipster', honest working class sort of thing that reminded her of days past. Of course, she did sort of stand out a little, but the initial second-glance was probably more to do with the fact the Blonde bombshell seemed perfectly comfortable pushing her way through the door and heading to the bar.
Hair tied back, her form was wrapped rather simply. A pair of black jeans and a bright orange spagetti-strapped shirt. A little smile flashed to the bartender and her order placed, Sunny turns to rest the small of her back against the edge of the bar…and spot a familier face with a frown.
Ford, for his part, is entirely unaware that Sunny is in the bar. He's still got his noise stuck in the book. Normally, he'd be reading on his phone, but he was assured this piece had what he needed, and there was no digital copy. But at some point, he ran out of drink. So he laid the book down a bit and grabbed his empty glass. Standing up, Ford huffed as he headed up to the bar, conveniently in Sunny's direction.
A lovely blonde at a bar? Yes, that caught Ford's attention. And then he recalled, oh yeah, he was supposed to be an elderly Asian man. And then he got a better look at her face.
…oh hell, had he stolen from her before? Trying to play it off casual, Ford immediately turned around and headed back for his table, hoping to collect his book, leave a tip, and hop the hell outta there.
To turn around, most people would be happy to run into the sight that Ford is met to. He'd likely damn near bump into her as the 'goddess' was simply standing there behind him, her arms crossed under her bust and an eyebrow raised. "Hi." She speaks, but that single word was far more foreboding than it was social.
A tilt of her head, she was clearly blocking his path to the point she'd have to be moved for him to flee…and she's a lot harder to move than it looked.
"You broke a vase in my house."
Ford normally would be ecstatic to see a bombshell blonde right in front of him as he turned about. Probably even happier to actually get some physical contact. Not in this case. No, in this case, it was bad news. "…hi." Ford replied, his voice matching the old man that he was looking like, glass in his hands sweating as much as he was. He, perhaps stupidly, didn't not recoil physically from her presence. He wasn't NOT enjoying being this close to a woman.
"Aaaaand for that, I am sorry. But I can fix it! I'm very handy with my hands~" Ford paused, realizing that his current form was not the best to be slinging innuendo. "…sorry. I promise I don't normally look like this… nor do I make a habit of breaking into places. I can fix it. I'm a good handyman."
"Don't normally look like…" she begins, anger swapped out a little for confusion from the blonde as she tilts her head to the side. Sunny's eyes narrow a little, but she'd seen plenty of weird stuff in her unnaturally long life already. She'd even dated a shapeshifter once…it could get confusing.
"So…I figured you weren't normal, when you jumped out of a penthouse window and didn't become a pancake. So you're going to -slowly- go over, buy us some drinks, come back and explain who the heck you are."
"Yeah… gonna take a good deal more than that to hurt me, let's put it that way." Ford glanced at the door, mind immediately calculating the odds of him getting out of here. A part of him was still wanted to bolt, but… honestly, he couldn't remember the last time he'd actually bought a lady a drink. Let alone the lady asking him. His instincts won out in the end, nodding as he motioned at the table he was sitting at, fries still half finished. He placed the book down on it cautiously and headed over to the bar, following his instructions and ordering a couple mugs of draught.
Once he had returned, he nodded at Sunny, sliding one of the glasses over before sitting himself. "Okay… what do you want to know? Like, specifically, or just the whole thing, top to bottom? Because I have to confess, there's a reason I commit crimes in disguise…"
A seat was taken, but she was watching rather closely. It wasn't exactly the first criminal she'd met, and it wouldn't be the first that tried his luck making a wild dash to jump out a window or make a break through the door. Resting back, the blonde woman watches him retrieve the drinks she'd requested. At least the book being left nearby was a good sign he didn't plan to flee.
"How about you start with -what- you are, then the 'why you tried to rob me' part. I'm figuring the 'disguise' part is not wanting to be recognized…which didn't really work out."
Ford stared a little bit back at Sunny. Studying her as much and as intently as he was the book from before. He seemed almost a bit paranoid in his observation, though every so often, his eyes clearly wandered appreciatively. He might as well. He suspected none of this was winning him any favors for later, so might as well steal what he can. Glances at best. "…for good reason. Trust me." Ford stated, before taking a long swig of his drink.
"Do you know what an oni is?" Ford asked, clearly a little pained about having to explain anything about himself. He had rehearsed how he might explain himself to someone many times. He just… didn't think he'd every have to. "…nevermind. I'd be shocked if you had. They are strikingly hard to read up on. They're… demons. Japanese demons. Legends always talk about them being bringers of ruin, spreaders of disease and pestilence, practitioners of black magic, and punishers of the damned in Japanese hell. Yomi, I think it's called." Ford took another long gulp of his drink. He clearly wasn't enjoying having to talk about himself. Not about this side of him, anyways.
"…my father was one. Akira Hikuro, or at least, that's what he called himself. How he and my mom ever settled down for any length of time, I'll never understand. But they did long enough to have me… until he split, that is. So that makes me half-oni… or whole. I don't think most folks are going to care too much about that distinction." Ford fulled expected Sunny to have stopped listening after he mentioned the word 'demon'. He just drank more, prepared for antagonism. It was what he had always anticipated if anyone ever found out about his true nature.
"A demon," Sunny answers, suprisingly quick to have the answer. But she'd seen and hunted her fair share of 'spooky' as she'd put it. At some point she'd obviously seen the right thing or picked up a book at some time. Still, she lets the man continue to answer, taking a sip of her own drink and leaning in to rest her elbow on the table and her chin in her palm.
"So you're a Japanese half-demon who travelled to America or was born here?" she questions, raising her shoulders. "I mean, parents are…interesting. So what about the robbing thing?"
"Born and raised right here in New York. Never even been to Japan. Know about as much as the next guy. Have no desire to go there." Ford adds a bit of disdain in that last sentence, taking another drink. He's certainly barrelling through his drink, and showing absolutely no sign of being worse off for it. Still… he was moderately shocked she was still speaking to him. He figured the moment anybody found out about him, it'd be torches, pitchforks, and probably calls to SHIELD for magical containment or something.
"I do crime because the day job doesn't pay enough. And I need money. Just like anybody else, money keeps the lights on and food in the fridge. You should know that, you've got a pretty picturesque spot to call home. I don't imagine it's cheap. Why else would I choose to break in? If you can afford a place like that, I figured you wouldn't miss a few valuables going missing." Ford leaned back in his seat. "Be glad I didn't act on my instincts and take more. Heck, be glad I'm not acting on them now. Oni are demons of excess and passion and comfort. They demand it all. They crave it all. I'm no different."
That last line and the tone in the voice hadn't been missed, it even earns a little raise of her eyebrow. She'd lived through the second world war and she still had no issues with the country, but she wasn't really a demon girl from the nation, so perhaps she couldn't judge.
Sipping her drink, she raises an eyebrow at his words and shrugs her shoulders. "I mean, as that you saying that an 'Oni' can't get a job? Can't tend a bar, work in a coffee shop or…is that part of the whole 'passion and excess' thing? Too good for it?" His little warning about acting on instincts? It just gets another brow quirk. Clearly, the bombshell wasn't too phased.
"No, not at all. I work as a legitimate mechanic during the day. I love cars. Vehicles. Engines. There is a primal satisfaction in seeing so many parts that really have no business functioning together so well, and making them do just that. No, if I could work as a mechanic and race professionally like I wanted, it's likely all I would do. It's the two things I really love." Ford finished off his drink before slamming the glass on the table.
"But I can't. I've tried. Mutants kinda ruined that for me, on multiple occassions." Ford rested his chin in his hand as he spoke, his tone astoundingly dry. "I don't want to be an oni. I just want to be a regular, normal man. I counter my demon side with pride in my human side. I take pride in not using my powers as often as possible… it just seems like, in order to even get by in this city anymore, you need to use your powers… and in my experience, the more you use your power, the easier it is to abuse them."
"Uh-huh…" Summy speaks, blinking a little. Perhaps it was weird how 'unweird' it all was to Sunny. She was really taking it in her stride. A sip of her drink and she laughs quietly. "So you actually -are- decent with your hands then?"
A shake of her head, there's clear amusement on her lips, seeming to consider a question for herself. "I mean…not everyone with powers uses them all the time, publicly or…well, not everyone can be Superman or Wonder Woman. Maybe it's been recognizable, maybe it's just not being that sort of person."
Shifting from her leaning on her elbow, the girl leans back and crosses her arms under her bust. Regardless the strangeness of the conversation, the blonde continues her questioning. "So…you're in disguise…what do you actually look like?"
Ford smirked, shaking his head and letting out a chuckle. "I may be a lot of things, but a liar? Never." For his part, Ford tried his best to act normal, but this was decidedly not the tone or direction he expected out of this conversation. He always expected whoever he told would be shocked. Repulsed. Either want nothing to do with him or outright try to destroy him. This whole… "relaxed" business was absolutely not what he was expecting. "Oh, I'm not saying if you have powers to use them or not. I'm saying, if you do use them, use them like a responsible adult, and not a psycho, like literally every mutant I've run across. And don't resort to them as your first method of dealing with a crisis. There is something to be said for restraint."
The question of what he actually looked like made Ford freeze in his seat. Sunny had now treaded into uncomfortable territory. This was his shield. Not for him, but for his sister. If folks knew what he looked like, it wasn't too much of a step to identifying him… and in turn, jeopardizing his sister. At the same time… she had taken all of this remarkably well. It made Ford question this expectation as well. "…I don't know if I can. I have… someone precious to me back home. She's all I've got left… I have to protect her at any cost. If my identity gets out - what I really look like - it'll lead right back to her. I… don't think I should…"
Well, Sunny was hardly going to shoot Ford in the middle of the bar…people didn't do that anymore these days. Besides, she wasn't much for a Han Solo impression anyway… Arms still crossed and listening to Fords words the was a little shrug at his advice, but it wasn't like he could tell her age to even suggest she had any experience in such things. After all, aside from her 'divine' looks and strangely being comfortable with all she'd learned, she seemed relatively normal.
His freeze about the reveal? That brings a blink, a tilt of her head. "Someone is hunting you or….is this a 'America's Most Wanted' or a 'Monsters in the dark' sort of thing?"
"I'm very careful about letting my real face or name go free… I can tell you as I am because at least you can't see my real face. Granted, it's a very good looking face… but I don't want it getting out. You've seen how people treat mutants… and they actually look like normal people, for the most part. How do you think they'll react to the news that a little girl is living with a demon, half breed or otherwise?" Ford explained. A part of him really liked the idea of showing his true face. It had been nice to be frank and honest with someone about himself for a change. "You'll have heroes crawling out the woodwork to 'save the child from the insidious hellspawn'. But she needs me… and I need her. She keeps me grounded. Focused. We're all we can count on in this world… and as her caretaker, I need to think about her safety first."
"Uh-huh…" Sunny's left to pause for a moment, adjusting her hair lightly as she listens and given a nod. There -was- a reason the immortal woman had moved around in her life, people hadn't always reacted well to 'different' and Mutants proved that was a long way from changing. Still…
"I mean, one of my closest friends is an eldritch plant-monster," she shrugs, "So people might suprise you. It might not be pitchforks and torches or anything, but I'm not exactly a strange to people making assumptions about…" she trails off, gesturing to herself with a little laugh.
"I keep hoping people will surprise me, but… so far, you've been the only exception I've come across." Ford replied, though a smile washed over him at her laugh. "Is there an assumption I should be making? Aside from the obvious?" He asked, fighting to keep his eyes upwards and failing miserably. Demon of excess and passion indeed… but Sunny had been throwing him for a slight loop. She was not reacting how he would've expected. Perhaps… if one person knew… it wouldn't be entirely the end of the world…
After a moment, Ford's old Asian man persona began to shift a bit, before melting a little and reshaping itself. Gone were the wrinkles and lack of hair, the tired eyes and tallow skin. In their place, taught skin, a well built physique, definitely that of a physically fit young man, and piercing green eyes. The jet black thinning hair thickened and lightened into a short light brown. A decidedly handsome young man. Ford leaned back in his chair, a grimace on his face before smirking and holding out his arms as if presenting himself. "…ta-daaaaa~ Told you I was handsome."
"I doubt that," Sunny muses, still lounging back in the booth and shrugging her mostly bare shoulders. "Most people are good, even if they're scared. It's 'people' as a group that can be dangerous." His question about assumptions in regards to her appearance? It's met with another shrug, but one with a smirk from the 'goddess'. She knew damn well what people made of her appearance after all, and that dive of his gaze wasn't exactly alien to her.
Then there's the shapeshifting, something those eyes are left to watch and assess rather closely for a moment and cross her arms at her chest once more. Certainly, it was a change worth noting, but her response? She actually laughs aloud.
"So you can change yourself to whatever you like…and you went with asian grandpa?"
"People, normal regular folks? Met plenty of good ones. It's the ones with powers that I'm not too keen on." Ford replied. "It's been my experience that folks with powers - mutants in particular - tend to abuse them, or misuse them at best. I've tried to explain that to folks in the past… and got harassed for my troubles. Demonstrated my concerns quite nicely, honestly." Ford folded his arms behind his head, tilting to one side.
"Indeed. I go for forms that folks don't expect or don't bother with. An old man is much less likely to be considered by folks, heroes in particular. Or are you disappointed I didn't take on something more attractive?" Ford's form melted again, until it reshaped itself into Tony Stark. "Perhaps you favor the rich and powerful? Or… the humble and patriotic?" Ford asked, his shape again switching, this time into Captain Steve Rogers himself. "Name your fantasy, and I can be it. If only for a little while." Ford mused, before shapeshifting again, this time into Sunny herself. Voice matching hers almost frighteningly so. "Unless you just wanna talk to yourself."
"I think power affects everyone. Brings out stuff in people for good or for bad. Finding out you're bulletproof can do wonders for your self-confidence and all." She say more, but as topic switches to forms and the man begins to run through forms with each word, she's left to give a startled blink and look around. Hopefully noone in the bar had noticed the sudden appearances of familier celebrities…or her apparent doppleganger.
"And you say you can't make money…whoa…" she speaks before shaking her head with a laugh. "I mean, they're great and all, and everyone likes Captain America but…" a lift of her hand to point at the Sunny-Shifted Ford, "that goes past fantasy and straight to narcissistic."
"Finding out your bulletproof slowly makes you forget that others aren't as durable as you." Ford replied, his tone sounding almost like one of experience. "It makes you forget how dangerous you can be. I find it much safer to treat anyone with powers as dangerous until proven otherwise. I would expect others to treat me the same way… that's why I was on board with the Registration Acts. Not that I can find another being who seems to think that was a good idea poorly executed…"
Ford huffed a bit, shifting back to his normal self to try and not draw as much attention. "By shapeshifting? Oh hell no. Absolutely not." Ford replied emphatically, his tone coldly serious as he spoke. "This is something no normal person can do. I refuse to compete with anyone by doing something they can't do. That's not fair to them. If I'm going to prove myself better than someone? I want an even playing field. Because then nobody can accuse me of using my powers as a crutch." Ford exhaled a bit, looking off to the side for a moment before regaining his composure. "It's only narcissistic if you don't like yourself. If I could talk to myself? I'd enjoy every second. Someone who actually understands me would be fantastic."
What could she really say to that? Talk about the Registration Act? It was decidely skipped over, after all she'd been living in the background of society for nearly three centuries at this point. She remembered when mutants were actually 'revealed' in large number.
His shift in tone and concerns of competition, they bring a tilt of her head as interest is piqued, but she files it away mentally as she reaches for her drink and only comes to laugh at his last comment. "I think most Narcissists like themself -too- much, but I'm not exactly a shrink."
Still, the woman rolls her shoulders and leans forward once more, tilting her head. "I think understanding isn't going to be as hard as you think. There's a lot of different people out there. 'Different' people. Similar trials, similar temptations. We're all going to be unique, but that doesn't mean unsympathetic."
Ford expected no response on the Act. He was used to it being dropped. He instead skipped smoothly ahead, as he always did, confident smirk plastered on his face. "Are you kidding me? What's not to like? Handsome. Smart. Good caretaker. Great cook. Handyman. Best Mechanic in New York. I'm a catch." Ford rattled off, clearly pleased with himself.
His smirk diminished slightly as he folded his arms and looked sidelong 1000 miles into the distance. Sympathy. He wasn't unfamiliar with the concept. He'd just been on the recieving end of it so rarely, it was foreign to him. It was something he could give, but never seem to get. The curse of being reliable and steadfast, or so he guessed. He had always shrugged it off. "Well… I tell you what. Next time I get attacked by mutants, I'll let you explain that to them. Maybe it'll sound better coming from you. I always try to talk things down before throwing weight around, but… I seem to be alone on that tactic." His gaze traveled down, before checking his watch.
"I mean, even I give someone a warning first…remember? That whole robbing my appartment and jumping out my window thing…?" A smirk, a wink, the blonde uncrosses her arms and she waves a hand. "I'm not saying we all have to be lovey dovey and never fight, or that there aren't crap people out there. Just sayin' there's good too."
The look at the watch is noted, a quirk of her brow before she shrugs. "If you need to go, feel free. I'll harass you to fix that vase another day, and I won't shoot you in the back."
"I know. Like I said, you've proven to be an exception to a lot of the rules." Ford replied. Honestly, a lot of the rules he'd come to know were clearly being defied by Sunny. It was weird… he could tell she certainly had some kind of power backing her up, but what it was, he couldn't tell. Much like him. It was… gratifying, honestly. Relaxing to actually sit and talk things through for once.
"Like I said, caretaker. Gotta make sure I get back in time to get some sleep before the school and work day tomorrow." Ford explained. He stood up, bowing politely to Sunny and patting the table. "I can fix it. Honest. As for shooting me… I appreciate it not being in the back. Depending on your choice of caliber, it might not matter, but I'm gratful you'd do me the courtesy of shooting me where I can see you doing it." Ford stated, nodding quietly and grabbing his book. "…it was a pleasure speaking with you. If you have some time? Wouldn't mind chatting again. It's been nice…" Ford stated, only now realizing how nice it had been to actually have a conversation with someone intelligent (criminal gatherings don't typically result in stimulating discourse). Bowing politely, Ford made his way for the door with a wave back.