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AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

The bloodlust was a step too far. Kyle already hated vampires before the event, his species's natural predator. Then the Fae were opening doors into their world, Daybreak was persecuting seemingly innocent members of Midnight while claiming they were practicing Necromagic, and the wolves even had their own kill-some-humans Festival. The supernatural world was a shitty, terrible place for people who were trying to live their lives in peace. And while there were Guardians meant to look out for and protect people, they followed loose laws more concerned with protecting their secrets than in saving lives.

So he started putting the word out. He didn't really know what he was doing, or what he was trying to create. Maybe a new squad. Maybe a book club where instead of weekly reading, they killed guilty parties. He wasn't sure. By definition, he was trying to put together a group of vigilantes.

He put the word out. Coded flyers here, whispers in Hillingdon there, and so on. He reached out to the people he knew and those he'd heard about who might happen to agree with his cause. Anyone and everyone was welcome, regardless of race or faction. Except the vampires he still hated.

[ooc: Kyle is trying to put together a vigilante squad. What the group does will mostly be up to the group, but may include bounty hunting, saving people in trouble, killing 'villains', and so on. Anyone is welcome to chat with him about it, regardless of their interest in joining.]

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It is strange who you meet. Sometimes, you run into people you've met before.

Natasha's night isn't going so much different from the first time their paths crossed—though this time, no blood's been spilled, so that makes it a lot of difference. Without that in the air, Natasha's calmer. She sits at the bar and doesn't attract a lot of attention.

At least not until she sees a face she recognizes.

Kyle's oblivious to the presence of his recent friend, or whatever the hell you call a vampire struggling for sobriety. He orders another beer, probably his last for the night, already feeling a little buzzed and knowing now's not the time to be too careless. He runs a hand through his hair, waiting for his drink, and glances around.

It's only because Natasha's looking straight at him that he even notices her. And then it takes a second to place the face in his mind and to remember what she is. He frowns for a split second with a weird sense of deja vu before realizing there's no bloody threat here.

"Come here often?" He quirks down the bar, ignoring the couple girls that stand between them at the bar. Always the joker.

Oh, Natasha can tell this is going to make her popular with the local barflies. She's not exactly bothered by it, but she recognizes Kyle's particular sense of humor.

And she smiles.

"Not too often. Must be my luck being here tonight."

"What can I say? I bring out the best in people." He ignores the looks of the girls he's talking past, accepting his drink and offering the appropriate notes for it. Kyle takes a sip, definitely less energetic than last time, and waits a beat before calling out to her again. "I'm not moving this time. It's your turn."

He gets a little bit of a laugh out of Natasha with that. There's plenty they'd disagree on, but their senses of humor aren't so out of step.

She picks up her glass and slides off her bar stool and circles behind the girls between them to slip into the open space beside him.

"Better?"

"Better," he confirms, casting a sideways glance her way before returning his attention to his drink for another sip. His master plan to band together with other like minded people and save humans isn't going as well as he'd hoped. Something about the lack of superheroes maybe, although it seems like half the supernaturals' abilities are as good.

"What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" Another dumb, throwaway line. A roundabout way of asking why she's here, if she's going to be attacking another drunk patron, and also deliberately avoiding calling her nice.

The omission doesn't go unnoticed. She smiles at it a little and raises her gin. Not her normal drink, but the smell and flavor are strong enough that it almost overcomes the change in her tastes.

"I don't know," she says dryly, a catch in her voice that might still be humor. She's not on the edge of trying to eat anyone this time, which makes it easier to play human. On the other hand, she's always one tragic mishap at the dartboard away from being there again. "Seems a little rough. I thought it might be about my level—you don't agree?"

Kyle paused and turned to look at her properly, staring after a moment before finally replying. "I can't tell if you're actually bad and pretending to be good, or if you're good and trying to be bad."

He liked her in spite of himself, the paragon he could on a pedestal to give him hope that not all vampires were evil and terrible. It confused his black and white thinking but gave fuel to the idealism that he cherished at times. And even though he knew she could never actually be that thing he wanted, he couldn't help but try to keep pushing her there.

He drains his glass in a long sip and signals for another. "You want another?"

Edited 2016-06-24 20:06 (UTC)

"Hopefully those aren't the only two options," Natasha says lightly, playing off his comment as a joke. It might be still be, even if it's the kind of joke that's funny because it's true.

"I'd love another one," she adds then. "I wasn't planning on leaving for a while yet."

She had time to kill, and while she might have better places to be, they weren't really demanding her attention just now. She was more or less where she wanted to be—and it was kind of nice to run into Kyle again.

"How've you been?"

Kyle amends his order with another gin for her as well, keeping an open tab for now. He turns to look at her again with her comment, appreciating the amusing dismissal even as he dislikes it. It's a little too like himself to be upset about it. Instead, he smiles to appreciate the effort.

"Things are pretty shit," he admits with a light shrug. Shitty, but not the worst he's dealt with. The vampires went on a rampage, Alex wants to kill the queen bee, he worries his family is at risk now, and his attempts to put together a squad are going pretty much nowhere. But yeah, it could be a lot worse. "I enjoy lightly watering my sorrows. What about you?"

Natasha's eyebrows go up a little as he asks. It's not an extreme expression, but there's a certain amount of sympathy. With vampires pushing the boundaries like they have been, something's going to give before long. Whether it's the hunters(which seems most likely), or werewolves(also pretty likely), or someone else (not exactly off the table), doesn't really matter. She might not be part of the nest, but that's not a question most people ask before trying to put a stake in you.

Plus there were the two kidnappings.

She shrugs, smiling very slightly. "About the same," she says. "On both counts. That explains why I keep going out drinking, at least. But I keep on going somehow."

There's something so appealing about the idea of leaning forward and kissing her right then and there. Bodies intertwined, spirits caught up in passion in order to avoid misery, the bar leading to a dark corner then a room. A night away from everything, pretending she's not a vampire and forgetting about all the bloodshed. It's tempting, intensely so for a moment as the vision of what could potentially be passes through his mind. Assuming she's interested, ignoring that it's a terrible idea.

Kyle pushes past it, returning his attention to the bartender as their drinks arrive. He's not the cheating type, even when he wants to be. But he does want an escape. There's a part of him that longs for the deserts of rural South Africa again, or the dirt roads of Soweto. He misses knowing people have his back and having someone else's. Here, he ultimately feels isolated and lonely.

"When you can't walk and you can't give up, you crawl," he replies as if quoting, something drilled into him during training. Kyle lifts his new beer in an offer of cheers. "To crawling. And to bloodsuckers who don't suck blood."

Natasha hums softly in agreement. It's a philosophy that resonates with her, from her earliest memories in a war torn Stalingrad, to scraping out whatever food and freedom she could while being juggled between orphanages, to her eventual recruitment and training with the KGB—to now, it seemed. She'd spent a lot of her life crawling because for better or worse, she wasn't the type to give up.

There's a brief moment of sincerity in her expression as she raises her glass in return, sharpening at his toast. "You have no idea how much I needed to hear that tonight," she says before glancing away, her normal more cynical reservation and wry smile coming back. It had been there for a moment, though. The month so far had been a struggle. Just having the effort she put into this lifestyle recognized, however briefly, was a balm she sorely needed.

"To getting back on your feet," she adds only when the instant passes. "It's got to happen eventually."

"Good. Glad I can be of service." He keeps the 'even if it is a vampire' part of that thought to himself. Natasha's not so bad and he doesn't feel the need tonight to continually remind her what she is. It's not like she's forgotten. Instead, he clinks his glass to hers and takes a sip of his drink.

"Always does," he adds after the latter. Kyle's seen a lot of his people go through a lot of terrible things and has experienced his share of it too. Yet here they are, drinking, with money and still alive. It's not so bad, all things considered.

"Unless you're eating people. Then we have to deal with that." He can't help it.

She grimaces a little at that. Looks like the moment's passed. It was nice while it lasted—and she really did need it. Even if he couldn't hold back all the barbs, it was nice to have someone on her side.

So long as she's not drinking blood.

Somehow this whole situation seems like setting herself up to fail, but even so she'll take it as long as it lasts. As long as she's trying not to drink blood.

"Still on the wagon," she assures him, her tone dry. "Nothing to deal with just yet."

"Good to hear. Because I'm kind of starting to like you," he admits lightly, as much joking as sincere.

His eyes are glued to the back of the bar at nothing in particular as he says it, hating himself a little bit for letting it get personal. He wonders if liking her is like bonding with a drug lord, someone destined to be evil regardless of what humanity they possess, or if she's simply someone born to sin who's trying to redeem herself. He's never been particularly religious, but he gets good and evil and Natasha's the closest thing he's come to seeing something not evil in a vampire.

Kyle takes a sip of his drink and then looks over to her again, with a light smile. "How do you deal with it when your nest wants to eat everyone and you're on a vegan diet? How does that work?"

Natasha snorts, lifting her glass a little. She won't take his admission too much to heart, but it's still not bad to hear. She's in no hurry to tell him it's been a struggle, but she's not above taking what encouragement she can. Anything to get through the night.

"If you mean how I don't join in, like this, mostly," she says. "Try not to think about it too much. Definitely try to avoid it as much as possible."

Except when she's getting dragged into it, playing the hero. She huffs, almost laughing at the thought. "And if that doesn't work, I still have your number around. Looked at it a few times, but it never seemed quite that bad."

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AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

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back from hiatus, feel free to handwave if you prefer

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