ἐκδέδῡκᾰ

[ekdeduka]

Crocodiles are easy. They try to kill and eat you. People are harder. Sometimes they pretend to be your friend first.

Steve Irwin

[risenblackwidow]

"Oh, you know. Figured it was kind of fitting. When in Rome. Or, well," Natasha waved a hand, nose scrunched up just slightly, "Brooklyn."

It had been a quiet morning, a rarity that Natasha had allowed herself to both relish and not fixate on. Quiet starts to days were bad omens, something she’d picked up through hard-learned experience that had her a little more on edge than any sunny winter morning had a right to. The cliche calm before the storm, and Natasha was ready for a goddamn downpour considering it had actually been a nice few days. A nice few days, a quiet morning, two-for-the-price-of-one-slices at the pizza place she’d been scoping out? Yeah, the penny was about to drop. And drop, drop, drop it did. A familiar face, one that had Natasha scowling into her pizza. Scowling and casing with careful footsteps, allowing a long leash for the moment as she gathered her information (and clued in Oracle, which was never a happy part of her day, especially when it involved an old case of theirs from their SHIELD days) but keeping him well within her gaze. The following became something more akin to guiding before long, Natasha deciding that being spotted and recognized by Curtis Connors was far less risky than continuing this merry little chase from the shadows with all of these people around. So many people. Too many people, for what she knew from experience could be coming with any wrong moves in this interaction. She hated quiet mornings.“What would you have done if I’d said sorry, wrong redhead?” Or, well, brunette for now. The red hair had been one of the first things to do with the Magistrate’s takeover - the less recognizable the better, even with fast and simple solutions. “I’d like to say I’m honored, but really, we have to stop meeting like this.” She finished the last bite of pizza she’d had in hand, wiped the flour and crumbs and grease off on her jeans and watched him carefully as she chewed. She was armed, sure, but that had never seemed to matter much with the Lizard. She’d had enough interactions with both the souped-up-monster-lizard and the man behind the scaly curtain to know that this was going to need to stay calm, cool and collected or things were about to get messier than Little Odessa was prepared for. “For both of our sakes.”

[ekdeduka]

When in Brooklyn. He'd given that an agreeable sort of hum, keeping his finger tucked inside the collar of his coat, low on his throat. Staying mindful. Like he could count on Romanoff to be. What would he've done? If somebody besides the Black Widow had gone to the trouble of tracking him down. Curtis threw in one of those lop-sided shrugs he hadn't learned his way out of yet. "Felt even unluckier, I guess."

He had another of those nearly-laughs, because - what else, right? He could be unluckier. It could be worse. Might be, soon. His run-ins with her kind of people were predictable, after all. They could both hope, at least, that the trick he had up his sleeve, today, finally, really was enough to keep this under control. (This, him, it.) But neither of them seemed to have much hoping in stock, huh? Seemed generally low, these days. Probably for the best.

And yet, he'd still hope she believed what he'd always told her, told all of them, or tried, at least - that he was even more desperate than they were, to avoid the just about inevitable. If she'd started to doubt, well. He wouldn't have made it this far. Would he? A real vote of... something. Between most-wanteds.

Curtis kept counting that pulse. Still steady, but. Quicker. He took a breath, careful with it. Pointedly. "For everybody's, yeah?" The side-eye that'd ticked the Nat's way slid back to the sea, the wheeling gulls. "While we're on the subject." His free hand - nice, to have one - came off the boardwalk rail; fingers spread, obvious, moving slow into his coat. And out, with what looked like an epi-pen. "If this takes the usual turn, just - pick an eye." Tough target, but. More reliable than the rest of him, these days, when it came to delivery. It'd been a while; he'd rather his hunters be up to date. For everybodys' sake. A glancing wince snuck over his almost-smile as he offered the dose. "That's if you can't hit anywhere more, ah, convenient. In the first, say... thirty, forty-five seconds." As close to a current ballpark as he could hope to give, when it came to how fast that reaction of his really took off. Tough to be exact. Natasha would understand. She'd seen how those seconds got spent.

[ekdeduka]

Honestly, from down in the fluorescent glare of the lab... Curtis hadn’t known it was winter until he convinced his handlers to let him start slithering outside, now and then. It wasn't a bad one, from how he remembered the boroughs. Still the closest he’d been to cold in years. When he’d had any say in it. Which he didn’t, now. But this was good, it was; he’d welcomed the chill, the way it softened the already drugged-dull scratch-scratch at the back of his brain. Yes. Good. 

Even if he was just ever-so-slightly sluggish with it, enough that it took him a moment, and a New York-volume try from the clerk, to realize that he was being spoken to. And a moment more, as he turned, head cocked, arms - still felt unbalanced, awkward, having both - crossed against the cold. The clerk gave it another go, creaking in her chair. "I said, what's the occasion, sweetheart?" Curtis did some straightening up of his own, not quite inside the commercial door, all those bouquets stacking out onto the street around him. "Sorry. Ah... it's - you got sunflowers?" The old lady blinked. "My wife's favourite. Especially this time of year, you know? Little bit of sunshine, keeps the grey away. Always made her smile." He'd started to, himself. Hard not to.

And so had she, crinkling very, very softly. At that made. "In back, maybe. I'll see. Gimme a minute." Curtis nodded, grateful. "Thank you! Thanks." Left alone, he swallowed the sudden ache in his throat and drifted back onto the sidewalk some. Looked cramped, inside the place. Just an absolute cascade of carnations, and... "MJ?" Had to be her. It did, just - blooming into view, from behind the lilies. "Hey, MJ," he rasped, picking that smile up from where it'd sunk to. Couldn't not, for Mary Jane Watson. This'd get complicated, quick. For the moment, though - he'd just be glad. Glad the girl who'd thrown up in one of their mixing bowls over live first aid lessons was still around, to stumble into.

@xjackpot

[ekdeduka]

Where was he going to go? He’d made the point, weeks ago, when he'd first tested the limits of the short leash he was on. They'd had to admit the logic. Really, even if Osborn’s hand-picked, slab-like security details allowed him to leave, to stroll right through all those internal checkpoints between his cell and the lab - which might as well be another - and the actual world, out here... where the hell could he go? That Alchemax outpost wasn't the only hole in the ground he could hide in, but. Certainly the only one that came with everything he needed. And they knew it as well as he did.

Given that, the failsafe Waller had been so very, very pleased to tell him about seemed like overkill. Just her style, he supposed. And exactly what would happen, if he strayed too far, too long. Overkill. They’d set him up somewhere this dense for a reason. As Osborn said, himself. Unnecessarily. Christ, but they'd put every ounce of leverage on the scale, made every threat explicit. No subtlety.

Unlike whoever had followed him to the where he'd settled on, tonight: the near-deserted boardwalk, on Brighton Beach. Or had he been herded? By those glimpses he kept just-catching at the corner of his eye, that scent he could barely taste on the turning breeze. Hard to miss a tail someplace this lonely. Maybe they hadn't been that subtle by design, though. Perhaps they just knew, from experience, that whatever this might be would probably go easier if he didn't get any unpleasant surprises.

Curtis sighed out a slow cloud of breath, sliding two fingers to the side of his throat, tracking his pulse. Easy. "Little Odessa. On the nose," he didn't quite smile, speaking up to the not-empty evening, eyes on the grey-blue drag of the tide. "Man, I... I really do hope it's you. My favourite stalker." A chuff of dry laughter snuck out of him, there. "How fucked is that? Can tell I don't get out much." If he had, she'd have bagged him before now. Only ever was a matter of time...

@risenblackwidow

[ekdeduka]

If there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it’s that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories, and crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, well, there it is. I’m simply saying that life, uh... finds a way.

Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park