dead space.

   fallon shies away from jack’s admittedly creepy , attempt of a smile. looking more terrified than apologetic , herself. “ ri-right …” is all she manages , before scurrying off to the labs. torn between making it a short trip , or taking longer than necessary. no matter what she’s mentally decided on , her feet move on their own accord. carrying her back out to the man that both intrigued and spooked her. “ oh , yay! i think you’ll like it , it’s really laid back and relaxed. there’s this super awesome melon refresher , i love. you should totally try it out , if you’re up to it. ” she tries to fill the tense air around them , with idle chatter. anything was better than the awkward silence, that would present itself. 

   “ nice , alright! uhmm … you can just meet me …” fallon racks her brain for landmarks , that she’d passed in the building. struggling to think of a proper space. “ oh! we can just meet outside the entrance , by that fountain? pretty hard to miss and all , so i don’t have to worry about getting lost. ” stepping into her elevator , she offers a short wave. waiting in the agreed meeting spot , for jack to join. “ so! uhmm … have you been in chicago , long? any particular hotspots , i should know about? ” 

    jack isn’t oblivious to her fear—far from it—but while someone else might regret pulling that emotion from her, it just makes the predator in him hungrier. he doesn’t tend to play with his food, not really, but there’s just something about her that makes him want to. even if just for a few moments, the length of time it takes for him to cross the room and grab her. he has to take a second to shake himself out of the idea, to bring himself back to a reality where he can’t get away with doing that. “yeah, right, sounds like a good place. do you remember what it’s called?” he forces himself to focus on other details—or rather, he tries to. even with the question having successfully tripped off the tip of his tongue, he can’t help but let his mind linger elsewhere. there’s something else scritch-scratching away at the back of his mind, now. something that doesn’t feel quite like him, but that feeds the same monster he holds.

      eiffel doesn’t bother forcing back her taunting smirk , brow arched as if daring , jack to try and argue. humming victoriously , when he waved the white flag. “ mmhhm. that’s what i thought. quiet as a mouse. you know what jackie , i might be great at everything , sure. but when it comes to playing yourself , you’re the damn champ. ” she boasts , looking more than pleased , with her little victory. “ jokes on you , i’ve been taking extra weapon training courses. before you know it , i’ll be kicking your ass on the field , too. just you wait , jack-attack. ” an obvious fib , but she doesn’t care. so long as her friend’s buttons continue to be pushed , she’s a happy camper. “ just admit that you’re sucky at video games , periodt. i won’t think any differently of you , you know that. ” she continues to rib, turning to prop her feet up on his legs. 

    “ could’ve fooled me. you three get along swimmingly , from what i’ve seen. ” eiffel scoffs with a smirk , scrolling through the artillery options. “ oh , fuck off. you adore me , i’m your bestie and you know it. the sooner you admit it , the sooner i’ll quit messing with you. ” another little white lie , but she’s sure they both , know that. hearing his wager , earns another scoff. “on this level , you’d better last at least ten. but …. i bet if i were to set it at the hardest level , you’d be dead in less than that. in fact … when i prove you right , you have to buy my smoothies for the next …. two weeks. ” 

    “yep, you’re right. i played myself. walked into that one,” he agrees, shaking his head. he isn’t about to argue with her on this, not when she’ll just carry it on, and on, and on, and—nope, not happening. not if he can help it. “oh, really? you have?” it isn’t hard to catch that she’s not being truthful, but he doesn’t call her on it immediately. this is exactly the kind of lie that he can use to his advantage. who’s the champ at playing themselves, now? “in that case, why don’t you show up for a little range training with me tomorrow? since you’ve been packing on those hours with weapons, it shouldn’t be anything too hard for you.” he smirks, knowing full well that she can’t hold up her fib for that long. the second she steps into the range, it’s all over. “i’m not—” he cuts off quickly, frustrated. “okay, maybe i suck at video games. so what? it’s just lack of experience, on my part.”

  though feeling guilty , fallon still regards jack with wary eyes. trying to keep a reasonable gap , between them. “ well … still …” she trails off with uncertainty , combing fingers anxiously through her thick curls. “ i shouldn’t have just … snuck up on you , like that. it was awfully inconsiderate of me , to just assume you’d be alright with it. ” the way the apology comes out makes it seem as though she’d violated the man , and not merely rest a hand on his forearm. better to sound over-apologetic , than not apologetic at all. briefly , she wonders if he’ll even accept her offer to hang out. and is mildly surprised , when he does. a relieved smile makes it’s way to her face , as he accepts. maybe once they got a chance to sit down and actually talk , she could figure out why he seemed so familiar. 

   “ right , yes. okay uhm …. i’ll .. be right back , okay? ” with that she makes her way to the labs. making quick small talk and idle chatter , with her soon to be workmates. schedule safely tucked away into her binder , she’s walking back into the hallways. “ actually … if you don’t mind , i had someplace else in mind. it’s just … from my experiences , cafeteria food is the worst. ” she tries to joke easily , with a small smile. the moment they reach the elevators though, fallon hesitates. “ uhhmm … maybe … it’s better if we don’t take the same one? no offense just … you know … “ 

    “it’s fine, don’t worry about it,” he says, trying for a smile—and as per usual, ending up with more of a pained grimace than anything else. he’s not usually friendly to people, after all. tends to keep interactions to a minimum. maybe it’s for reasons like this. in truth, his mind is less focused on her apology and more on why she isn’t making a break for the nearest exit, but even that wondering is short-lived. as selfish and unhinged as it is, he can’t help but think about the missed opportunity he had to take a good, long drink of the energy that had to be lurking beneath her skin. or maybe it’s nothing. but he can’t deny that he felt something there, something beyond the capability of a normal person. something he keeps to himself, for the time being. he’s not one to share much of his thoughts, anyway.

  that earns a snort from her , as they continue on. “ yeah and neither is your dick , but ….” she trails off , with a nonchalant shrug of shoulders.  “ i just need to get used to the controls. ” she mocks teasingly , head tilting back as she laughed. “ you’re literally just pressing buttons. it’s not that hard , torrence. ” eiffel deadpans , sticking her tongue out. making a face over at him , as he trashed her game. “ my games aren’t outdated , stop being so uncultured. they’re vintage , genius. there’s a new word for you , you’re welcome. ” with an overdramatic roll of eyes , she waits for him to finish. 

    “ if you need another practice round , don’t be shy. speak up , jackie. ” eiffel taunts smugly , picking out her weapons of choice. “ don’t worry , alright. my little brother had the same issue at first , when we first started playing. he threw a temper tantrum too , actually. you two seem to have that in common. maybe you two should be best friends instead of us , i could call him in , if you like? ” she’s full out laughing now. taking far too much joy , in messing with jack. all too tempted to instigate , between her friend and siblings. “ alright , let’s go. see if you can last longer , than five minutes. ” 

    jack almost chokes on air—he really should stop not expecting anything out of her. every time he thinks she can’t surprise him, she does. “you’ve never even—you know what? nevermind.” the last thing he wants to do is argue about something like that, and he knows damn well that she won’t back down from literally anything. “you know what? next time you struggle with a weapon on the field, i’ll remember that.” literally just pressing buttons, his ass. sure, that is technically all he’s doing, but coordinating some clunky character with the controls at hand is much harder than it looks. at least, for someone as inexperienced with it all as him. does anyone else even know how to play these games, anymore?

Adam took stock for a moment. Despite the beer back in the glass, he didn’t feel any more ‘empty’. As for pulling time back into the glass, it was just like if he had moved it along the counter. Except took more. Nowhere near the teleporting-halfway-across-the-planet though! “That’s the idea,” He said, shrugging and taking a drink. Tasted just like before. “Why not cut yer finger or summat ‘n’ we can see?”

“Not by myself, and not right now,” Lukas said with a chuckle. “But there are a few people who were already committed before I even arrived into town.” Lukas said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Olympus, some people are calling it apparently.”  Lukas said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Hey, it’s all good. I’m not trying to change your mind or ask you to join.” Lukas said with a chuckle and a shake of his head. 

“I suppose we do,” Lukas had been raised by his parents simply to kill…For the longest time that was all that he basically knew how to do. So it would make sense that some part of him is still loves the chase…Even if another part of him hates that it was all that his parents thought that he could be. Especially when his darling brother was treated like a prince. “To each their own. What do you like to do?” 

    to his credit, it isn’t terribly hard to believe that there are those eager to end the long battle between the mavericks and PRIME—the highest on the list would be the mavericks themselves, of course, albeit not without taking out their hated enemy first. jack isn’t naive enough to think that getting rid of either faction would truly mean an end to the fight. if it’s one thing that humans do well, it’s war. PRIME and the mavericks are really just the latest in a long, long history of similar circumstances. “yeah, well, good luck with that,” is all he really has to say about the matter. in his mind, there’s no real victory to be won.

“A solution. An ending. From what I hear, this war has been going on for quite awhile. And while I understand biding your time to strike, it seems almost as if certain people don’t want it to end.” Lukas said with a snort and a shake of his head before smirking. “Well I would be more than happy to make it end. To finally rid the city of these two organizations that talk about what’s best for the people, yet don’t do any actions for the people they speak of.” Lukas said with a roll of his eyes. “From what I’ve gleamed, anyways.”

“Of course. But that doesn’t mean one can’t obtain skills in area that could help them in another.” Lukas pointed out with a shrug of his shoulders and chuckled when the other repeated his words back with a smirk. “Of course. Whether I’m the cat or mouse, it’s almost always entertaining. Although it tends to end quickly.” Lukas said with a cocky smirk. “Chasing after something while trying to run away from something at the same time.” He admitted with a chuckle.

    an ending. right. lukas isn’t wrong in assuming that one side has no intention of letting the conflict die, but presuming he can put an end to it himself is laughable at best. outright delusional, in his own opinion. “you think you can take down both of them by yourself?” the idea actually makes him chuckle aloud. ending the mavericks is the considerably easier feat, and even that would be nearly impossible without real militant forces. wiping out PRIME is a pipe dream that even a government couldn’t dream of. “sorry if i don’t take your word for it, kid. lived here too long to humor that kind of crazy.”

Lukas has always been open about his abilities. He wasn’t going to cower away just to make some stupid people feel better about themselves. If his wings somehow insulted them? Then they could fall off the high horse they were straddling and go fuck themselves. “Hm…Maybe I am…” Lukas said in a sing-song voice with a grin. “Maybe I want to offer people another option…Get in on this ‘turf war’, you know? I am from New York, after all.” Lukas said with a chuckle. 

“I didn’t serve the government,” Lukas admitted. “I did have a profession that was highly combat based, however.” Lukas shrugged, knowing that would likely surprise the other. Most see his twinkish body and expect him to be some weakling. And that was something Lukas refused to be. “And while I do find wrestling to be entertaining, I do find a good chase to be a bit more enthralling.” Lukas smirked.

    jack pauses, curious. “why would you want to do that? what would you even offer?” the two warring organizations don’t have much they need, other than victory—and even that is debatable. PRIME has no reason to end a fight that benefits them, after all. it’s helpful to have something else to blame mishaps on. accidents happen. with him, more often than not. at least he refers to them as accidents on paperwork.

Lukas merely grinned and winked at the other when he asked who tipped him off, beginning to lazily fly from side to side. “Can’t reveal to many of my secrets, you know? Gotta save some mystery.” The forced conduit said playfully as he looked at the other man. “But with the right connections and motivation? It’s not that difficult.” Lukas hummed with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Oh really? That’s a shame.” Lukas said bluntly with a smirk when the other said that he didn’t do a whole lot of fighting lately. “I’ve found fighting to be a bit more interesting then others would care for others to admit.” Lukas said with a nod of his head and a grin. Most people think that with his powers he’s more of a passive person…But with his history? That’s not true at all.

    “no, i suppose not.” to someone like himself, who makes a point not to reveal his abilities, the casual way that lukas does is almost... confusing. especially when he claims to know enough about the city to hear about the current turf war going on. although conduits aren’t targeted in and of themselves... it’s all too common for them to become some sort of collateral, especially when it comes to PRIME. especially when it comes to himself. he can almost reach out and touch the stranger’s wings, now... and it takes effort to hold himself back. he can’t... yet. “connections, huh? sounds like you’re here for more than the view.”

Lukas couldn’t help but to hum as he heard the other man’s words. “I suppose you could say that about every town,” Lukas conceeded. “But most don’t have a little faction war going on, huh?” Lukas asked with a smirk and a shake of his head as he looked down at the city below them…A city that he planned on ruling someday.

“I am. Still trying to get used to things, you know?” Lukas said before giving off a laugh and a shake of his head. “A fighter are you?” Lukas was one himself…His parents had bred him to be a perfect killing machine, although most would be to distracted by his boyish face to even consider that an option. Which was the whole point. “I’m from New York, New York. So I’m used to faction wars. Just not over the same issues.” Lukas joked with a smirk.

    “true enough.” faction wars aren’t exactly a common thing in towns, although large cities like chicago certainly had their fair share. back before conduits were common knowledge, gangs were a bigger problem. now that PRIME controlled the law... well, organized crime had more or less died off, replaced with their skirmishing with the mavericks. it’s better that way, jack thinks—he can be a part of it that way. “but i wouldn’t have expected an outsider to know anything about that. who tipped you off?” and does that give him an excuse to silence him? he certainly hopes so.