16353/The Price One Pays...

The Price One Pays...
Date of Scene:	08 June 2024
Location:	Baskin Robbins - Salem Center
Synopsis:	Rogue reaches out to an unexpected resource for a favor...and pays the price. A single tooth.
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Sinister

---

Rogue has posed:
It was a quick conversation over text, Rogue using a phone that Sinister provided her some time ago. A way for her to reach out to him if ever she needed, and no way for the X-Men to really track her contacting him. They wouldn't like it. Sinister's their enemy after all. A menace to society. Evil incarnate.

Frankly, Rogue has stopped caring about all of that. As soon as she received a text back, she followed his instructions of where to go and ends up in an ice cream parlor. It'll be nice because it's often cooler in places like that than others - since they have to keep the ice cream frozen of course.

It takes Rogue some time to get there as she has to use a taxi for the moment. Not that she can't fly, but she's worse for normal wear and that is quite apparent as she walks into the shop. Wearing denim jeans, a tee shirt and gloves..where her skin is exposed it's marred with either deep purple and black bruising, or the smaller bruises of bluish green surrounded by sickly yellow. Where there aren't bruises there are scabbed over holes where barbed wire had been stabbing her consistently until she was rescued. Her face has a contusion around her left eye, her lip is partly swollen and she walks as if she's in some other sort of pain. Bruised ribs. At least nothing got broken.

She looks around, trying to see if she can spy Sinister quickly and join him in order to be able to sit down at the very least.

Sinister has posed:
The ice-cream parlour is strange. But that probably shouldn't be a whole lot of a surprise.

The noises are muted, a little pod that looks like an Alexa set on the far end of the counter that seems to be responsible for this. And of course, nobody at all is paying the slightest mind to the obnoxiously tall man in the full villainous attire, staring through the glass at the offerings on display.

"Taste the rainbow. Oh for god's sake that's an advertizing slogan. What is this nation's preoccupation with bubblegum anyway?" He doesn't look up, but the deeply cultured english tones drift. "Pralines and cream, a cone. And..." he glances now over his shoulder to Rogue. "..." a look down, a look up, then back. "Turtles."

A look back again, then a gesture to the table, closest to the not-an-alexa, palm up. The mesmerized server does as bidden and without asking or being obviously instructed, dunks the tops on chocolate crackle. He brings the cones over, settles himself, holds hers out to her and then just looks expectant.

He licks the edge of his own cone in a long, purposeful manner.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue hobbles over to where Sinister is ordering ice cream, not saying much as he finishes that, the cones get dunked and then they're walking over to a table. She pulls her chair out and turns it aside so she can sit facing away from the table. It's easier in the moment. She takes the offered cone with a softly spoken "Thank you." before giving it a small lick, hissing as the cold hits her poor broken lip.

"As you can see. I've been through hell." She offers. "I was...captured...by the Friends of Humanity. I'll spare you those details." This much she says, then she has to slightly work to catch her breath. More of the chocolate casing is licked and nibbled at. Then she continues. "While they had me... I was beaten with bats and hit by a sandbag they hung me up with. Sometimes they hit the bag and it would hit me. Sometimes they'd miss the bag entirely...at my expense." That explains most of the bruising. "I didn't know...how I was going to escape. They're smart. Had a dampening collar on me the whole time up until they stuffed me in a bag. Remy says it was wrapped in barbed wire." There's likely more to the story - but what she doesn't know is that Sinister helped in finding her. To a point.

"So I'll get right to it. Logan hates me and he's well within his rights to. But I can't wait for this shit to heal. So you were the other on my list of people who...even might...come close to being able to help me." She turns her head to look at him then. "And I meant it. I don't care what you want for the favor...if you can help..."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister arches an eyebrow up on one side to the tune of the last. The description? That doesn't seem to phase him at all, he barely even reacts to that, beyond "...I know."

More lickitude occurs, taking his sweet time about it and giving her a little space to consume without it melting super fast.

"So, you want me to heal you? Just so we're clear."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue blinks at the simple acknowledgement that he knew. "You knew? You knew what...exactly?" Though she does have to keep some attention on her cone so it doesn't melt on her. Taking time to consume it, but it's going to be a slow process no matter what. Still, somehow, the ice cream is soothing. Comfort dessert, of course.

At his final declaration, getting right to the point as Sinister is known to do, she nods her head. "Yes. I want you to heal me. I can't..." She stops, consumes more dessert. "But also...is there...any way you could wipe the memories of those moments with them? I...I don't think I can handle the thoughts. Let alone the nightmares."

Sinister has posed:
"I knew that you were captured. I knew that they were torturing you. I knew that it was the friends of humanity. I knew all of that." He pulls his phone from his pocket, presses the buttons on the side twice in repid succession and touches the screen with it -- the device unfolds once, the screen expanding. It's silently nudged toward her.

Local reports of the massacre, how it seems to be a gang hit, how the murders were particularly brutal, including a 'hanged man' a'la tarot, made with barbed wire and with the man's jaw broken by a gun down the throat execution. Nazi symbols and words carved. It somehow didn't make it to CNN, but the locals sure as shit knew.

It's just left playing.

"I can erase your memory." Again, plain as dry bread. "I can also heal you. You know that. I want a tooth." A tooth? Yep. That's all, it seems.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue looks over to the display as Sinister shows it to her. It would have made her sick in past times. Now it just makes her grin. "Suppose they didn't suffer long before you dispatched them." Oh. She knows that's his handywork. How could she not? Even as it continues to play, she enjoys her ice cream. Underneath the hurt there's something else. Something....different.

She's still grinning.

"A tooth. Which will likely give you my DNA... even though you likely have several bits of that code these days." She shrugs. "Fine. Healing and erased memories for a tooth. You have a deal." She licks her ice cream. "Just. You know. Don't pull it unless I'm numb or fully under. I know you're a sadistic man, but surely you have your moments of decency."

Sinister has posed:
"No pain," Sinister says the words, then darts a hand out between the nibbles of ice-cream and there's a short, sharp YANK. Her head should move with it, like the normal world of physics would dictate, but it doesn't -- held by telekinesis, no doubt. There's a brief taste of blood.

Then there's ... a pre-emminent tingle? She's described the kicking in of the power she has in that way; the warning that it's all about to flow.

It's soon a lot easier to breathe, the lip doesn't feel cracked, all of the things that should be aching currently don't /anyway/... but there's the changes in colour of the bruises and their ilk.

Cold and clinical on the surface.
Roiling underneath, sometimes seething with frustration or contempt.
A commendable amount of determination, or it would be in someone that isn't -him-. Stubborn? Yes ma'am. But he doesn't usually give up, ever. Persnicketty bastard that way.
A little more and the feeling like you've got a thousand things all cooking at once and somehow it's still running smoothly.
Fascination with the exceptionally gifted...
A lot of current self-loathing...

And then he's gently, but firmly removing his fingers from her cheek. There should have been quite a bit more transferance in those moments he was touching a good while, but ... he really can shield himself quite well, can Sinister.

Rogue has posed:
The blood is noticed first. But he's extracted his price fair and square. Then her breathing gets better. The bruises heal. Everything begins to feel *normal* again. She tries to remember the last few days but there's nothing but blank space. Just the memory of being in Remy's arms the night before, and fighting the FoH before that. Everything in between is gone. Perhaps an echo of knowing something should be there but is gone now...but that's likely expected.

She'll sleep it off.

But he gets something as well. An anger. A seething anger deep within the mind of Rogue. She wants to hurt. To maim. Like her heart has gone somewhat hollow and she's not trying to fill in the void. There's the Southern Belle temper, sure, but this goes beyond that. This ticking bomb could go off with a feather's touch and no one would be the wiser.

She should probably exist with a warning label right now.

After a moment, she finishes the ice cream down to where it's just what's inside the cone. Her emerald eyes turn to him and she smiles. "Thank you."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister holds up her tooth in his grip, smiling to himself as it's looked at between the space of finger and thumb. The ruby red eyes glimmer with a little coal glow that ... marginally escapes his eyelashes and licks around his brows. "Thank you. You see preserved DNA held in conventional means decays over time. Even this will. But not for thousands of years."

The cone is finished off, a few slow crunches.

"A word of advice, Anna-Marie..." he says this as he rises "...be sure you have a nail to drive home when you finally become the jackhammer. It amplifies all the force -so- very nicely."

He plucks up the alexa as he leaves, a ten dollar bill put on the top of the glass for the servers to find. Then... Sinister has left the building.