Down Time (Open)

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It took a while but Dante had finally found a place to call home in Jump City. Using some of the money he had stashed and the money he had from conning crocks he managed to rent an apartment. Granted it wasn't a good one, and the area it was in wasn't exactly the safest. But it had the three things that Dante needed; a bed, a bathroom and wifi, though he had to pay extra for the last one. He got a nice room on the fifth floor, just one floor down from the roof, it was small but it was enough for Dante, good old room 552. Dante was pretty sure that the rooms were numbered at random and that they didn't actually have that many rooms. 

The fridge didn't have much in it, just a large bottle of water and what appeared to be leftover pizza. So Dante had to get some necessary supplies; noodles, jerky, cigarettes and booze. He had to slip the cashier some extra money for the alcohol, Dante could have hypnotized him but he didn't feel like it. After unpacking Dante headed up to the roof with a six pack of Heineken and the cigarettes. It was a quite night, Dante hoped it would stay that way; after the craziness of the past few days he just wanted some downtime, no capes, no crooks, and no magic. He lit a cigarette with a snap of his fingers and inhaled deep. Maybe a little bit of magic. He exhaled and watched the smoke drift away for a while, it was something he did as a form of meditation. 

From the distance he could still see Titans Tower, he was still unsure where he stood with the whole superhero thing. He didn't really care at that point, he just wanted to figure out how get the demon out of him. Maybe one of these powers can help him out, he didn't count on it though, he learned not to count on people when it comes to powers. Dante got started on a beer as he enjoyed the stillness of the night. Dante knew things were likely to get more difficult from then on, so he tried to enjoy as much downtime as he could. 

[Silv]

The problem with having ninjas as house guests was that they were usually uninvited and something you didn't see coming. Ravager had been out on a mission earlier that night but it had gone completely under the radar for once. There were no Titans on her tail. She also didn't have a set data retrieval time. So, it was a lazy jaunt across the rooftops for her.

A spark of light had caught her attention in the darkness. His silhouette caught, a slightly darker shape against a dark sky, and she realized that she knew it. The girl stole quietly across the rooftops before she dropped down on his with the grace of a cat and rose slowly to her feet. “Hey,” she greeted as she strode over to him, taking in the little rooftop setup before frowning at the familiar letter looming over the skyline. She decided to forget about the Titans and focus on Dante instead. She owed him that much.

“Told you I'd see you again,” her smile was bright in the darkness like a certain Cheshire cat.

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Dante was lost in thought so he was completely caught off guard by his surprise visitor, it made him react very defensively. Instinctively Dante started to work his magic and electric sparks danced between his finger as he turned to face whoever it was and fight if need be. When he saw that it was Ravager and that she meant no harm he relaxed and the sparks disappeared. "Hi" he said as he recomposed himself "thanks for dropping by."

He smiled back at her "Hope you didn't bring any capes with you, hate to lose the deposit on this place." Dante was joking but after his last encounter with Ravager he learned that she was in the kind of business that usually involved getting in trouble with the authorities. Dante had nothing against that but he hoped to avoid getting into any trouble that night. Maybe he could get some information on this Slade character and maybe even have Ravager set him up with some contacts so he can make some easy money. 

After glancing around to check if there were any other uninvited guests, Dante made a mental note to put up some protective spells around the building later. Nothing too powerful that would attract attention, just to alert him if anyone is trying to break in or sneak up on him. Dante turned his attention back to Ravager "Beer?" he asked as he took out another can from the six pack and offered it to her. Dante guessed she wasn't of drinking age, but he figured that if she didn't mind fighting Titans, she wouldn't mind a cold one.

[Silv]

The girl made an amused scoffing noise when she realized she'd caught him off guard. She wasn't sure what the sparks meant, but she was pretty sure she liked not being on the receiving end. The girl put her hands on her hips before glancing around at his question of whether or not she'd brought any superheroes with her. She didn't see anyone, and hadn't all night. Her response was a shrug.

“If I did, they've gotten really good really fast.” she said nonchalantly and then burst out laughing like that was the most ridiculous thing in the entire world. The idea that the Titans were competent? Please. “I'm a ninja, remember? Nobody sees me unless I want them to,” she talked a good game, but that wasn't exactly the truth. Especially since she was more of a ninja-in-training. Plus, he probably already knew it was false seeing as how she'd practically landed on him when they first met.

“Sure!” she took the offered beer with a grin and popped it open. Wintergreen would so kill her, and her dad probably wouldn't have approved either, but she didn't care. Adults can suck it. “Thanks.” The girl took a drink as she moved to sit down on the edge of the roof. She wasn't very graceful, more plopping down on the rooftop and letting her legs dangle over the edge, like a puppy who hasn't figured out it's too large to sit on the sofa anymore.

Then she did something most members of the super community wouldn't dream of doing. She pulled off her mask and set it next to her. Her bright white hair was a little messy, but the most obvious thing with the lack of mask was that she actually did have two eyes. They were almond shaped, like she had Asian ancestry, and dark blue.

“I didn't catch your name last time we were running from the dork squad.” she leaned backwards on a hand and tilted her head to look at him. “You can call me Rose. Run into any more trouble lately? Or was the last time too much?” the girl was obviously teasing.

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After he was sure no one else was around Dante relaxed a bit more and chuckled at remark about the Titans being inept. Though he did wonder how does someone who wears bright orange on their face manage to remain undetected, and wouldn't the long white hair get in the way? Dante shrugged it off mentally, he figured she was either really good or really lucky. However he did sense some false bravado from her comment about her ninja skills but Dante didn't say anything, he did that sort of thing all the time as well. 

"No problem." Dante said after handing her the beer and sat down next to her. He was surprised when Ravager took off her mask, he guessed that she didn't really care much about her secret identity or maybe she didn't have one. He was kind of baffled when he saw that she had two eyes; her mask led him to believe that she only had one. This raised more questions in his mind, there had to be reason for the design of the mask, he'll ask her about it later. Dante realized he had been staring at Rose for a while so he quickly turned his head forward and gulped down what was left of his beer. 

"Name's Dante." He answered after he finished his drink. "Heh, not really. It's only my second day in this city so I didn't get the chance to run into anymore trouble. Dante took a drag from his cigarette and exhaled before turning his head to face Rose. "Though I could use some trouble tomorrow, know where I can find any?" Dante hoped that Rose could point him in the right direction towards some action and hopefully money. 

[Silv]

He was staring. She could feel it. She also didn't mind the attention. The girl took a sip of her beer, tilting back her head to stare back at him before lowering it. By now he had realized what he was doing and tried to busy himself with his own drink. She blew air out her nose in amusement. “Did you not expect me to have an entire face or something?” she asked wryly with a light shake of her head.

“Only day two?” the girl asked curiously, half an echo as he explained that he hadn't really been here long enough to get into trouble. “You certainly know how to party,” she said sounding mildly impressed. Then he asked, poking around the issue, about jobs. The girl pursed her lips together and frowned at the T in the distance.

“I dunno.” she finally said, swinging her head back to look at him. “He doesn't tell me what I'm doing until he wants me to do it. Apparently I'm a liability or something,” she leaned back with a self-satisfied sort of grin that made it clear she was pretty proud of her own recklessness. “But we could always make our own trouble,” she offered. “With this~” she held up her mask and studied it before letting it flutter back down onto her lap. “Nobody but the Titans gets in my way.”

She was obviously proud of whatever the mask represented, even if she was over exaggerating the effects slightly. She was proud of her Wilson heritage, if only because it occasionally commanded automatic respect among the lesser villains, and Rose liked feeling important.

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Embarrassed that he got caught staring Dante laughed "That does sound stupid now that you said it out loud." Dante was used to seeing strange things, people who deal with magic often do. The price of magic is often high, and even more often are accidents that leave the user horribly disfigured. Mages who had their faces near burnt off, hands frozen solid, and in the case of one very unlucky mage, lose their entire lower body from a bad teleport spell. After seeing all that, things that seem normal become surprising. When he thinks about it, Dante feels lucky that he only got the scar across his face as a price for magic. There's also the bloodthirsty demon inside his soul, but that's an inertly different problem.

"Like I always say, it's not a party until there's a gunfight and a superhero chase." Dante said jokingly as he tossed his empty can over his shoulder. He opened another can and took a swig of it. The young sorcerer didn't know what to make of Rose's expression at first, he thought that the question might have bothered her or that she didn't trust him enough to reveal that information. Then he noticed she was looking at Titans Tower and it became clear to him that her problems with them might be more personal than he thought.

"Here's to trouble and trumping Titans" He said, raising his can for a toast. Though Rose's answer didn't give him exactly what he wanted, it raised a point that had been meaning to bring up anyways. "Guessing that Slade character I heard about last night is your boss. He's the one giving the Titans a hard time?" Dante had tried to do his own research but without any credible sources all he got was rumors and speculations. From the way Rose spoke about her boss and the way she looked at her mask there seemed to a be a connection between them that goes deeper than boss and employee, he didn't know what to make of it though so he just waited for her answer. 

[Silv]

Rose laughed at his description of a party. It was pretty much exactly the same as her own. Though, she'd probably add butt-whooping to the list. Her smile broadened when he proposed a toast, lifting his can out to her. The girl bumped her own can against his, relishing the metallic thud noise and shouting. “Jul mouy!” in response.

Her cheerfulness lessened slightly when he brought up her father. “Slade?” she echoed the name, her nose scrunching up at the description of her father as a Slade character and finding it oddly fitting. “He's not really my boss. I mean...he thinks he's the boss of me. But most Dads think that way.” she gave Dante a lopsided grin. “Yeah. I know. Shockers. I'm Slade's daughter”

The girl took another drink, frowning at the skyline. “I don't know what he's doing with the Titans, really. I think we should kill them. He doesn't seem to agree. Sometimes I think he's just playing with them, but other times...I dunno.” she scrunched up her face as though she'd tasted something sour before she finally tore her gaze off the distant T and turned to look at Dante.

“Whatever you do, don't trust them.” she warned him. “The Titans killed most of my family, and forced one of my brothers to join them. Whatever crap they give you about doing no harm. It's a big. Fat. Lie.” Of course, her own account was terribly biased and not very accurate either. But she had lost her brother, and her Father (he kept coming back somehow) at the Titan's hands. And Joey...well, he wasn't dead, but he was one of them.

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"Cheers!' Dante said as they bumped cups, and took a swig of his beer. As Rose was talking about Slade, Dante was looking at the giant T in the distance and drinking his beer. For a second he thought he misheard her saying that Slade was her father, but when Rose clearly say that she was his daughter Dante did an honest to god spit take. Luckily he didn't turn towards Rose at the time so none of that beer that flew out of his mouth landed on her. Dante paused for a second after that, half in disbelief of what he heard and half that he actually did a spit take. "I didn't know that actually happened in real life." He finally said.

After that embarrassing moment Dante wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his jacket and cleared his throat. "Kinda like a family business huh?" He said hoping to get back on the subject they were talking about. Dante mentally smacked himself in the head for being so shocked, from the way Rose talked about Slade and her job it was clear that there was a deep connection there. Dante didn't see it because of his own family issues, his parents trying to sacrifice him to a demon and all. "Yeah parents are...strange like that. Their plans usually don't make sense until you're all caught up in them." Dante said, he tried to hide his anger and disdain towards his own parents but some of it managed it come out as he spoke.

"I don't intend to." Dante lit up another cigarette with his magic and inhaled deeply. The truth was he didn't completely trust Rose either or her judgement of the Titans. It wasn't personal he made a habit of not trusting anyone entirely and this situation was no different. It was clear that her emotions were clouding her judgement, but Dante didn't care much for what happened, all he cared about is getting what he needed no matter the cost. Exhaling the smoke Dante said "No one's ever as good as they are. No matter they appear to be." To lighten up the mood Dante turned back to Rose and said "You're dad's not gonna put a hit on me because I gave you beer right?" He had grin on his face that meant he was clearly joking, he just wanted to get off the subject and his current train of thought. 



 

[Silv]

She hadn't been expecting the sharp noise that followed her confession that she was Deathstroke's daughter. The girl jumped, staring incredulously at Dante as he spat out his mouth full of beer in surprise. Then, when she realized there actually wasn't any danger, she burst out laughing so hard she flopped back onto the rooftop. It took her maybe a solid five minutes to stop laughing and by then he was trying to draw the conversation back to something normal.

She shrugged as she sat back up, guessing that it could be called a family business. What he said about parents made her wonder, however, if he was speaking from experience. Especially since, a few years ago when her Mother was still alive, she wouldn't have been able to share the sentiment. “Lemme guess. Your parents had super special plans for you and you're running away from them?” the girl raised her brows, staring at him candidly.

Then he asked if her Dad would put a hit on him for offering her beer and she burst out laughing again. “My Dad doesn't care about me at all,” she confessed with a shake of her head. “He hates me. I'm a nuisance.” her voice was growing more bitter. “So, no. He's not going to kill you, or even acknowledge you exist.” which made it fairly clear that was how she often felt.

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It seemed like Rose was surprised by Dante's reaction as much as he was, though she was much more amused by it. Dante couldn't help but laugh along with her until he ran out of breath. It's been a while since Dante had a good laugh like that it felt good, though that feeling went away when Rose asked about his parents. He took another drag of his cigarette and exhaled before answering "No need to run from what's dead." He finally said coldly. Dante didn't meet her gaze, instead he just looked at the smoke for a while before it disappeared. Only a handful of people know what really happened to his parents. Dante would only say that his parents are dead and leave out the whole demon thing, it made things less complicated. 

From the matter of fact way that Rose talked about her father's feelings towards her, Dante wasn't sure what to make of their relationship. He was clearly puzzled by why her father would treat her that way when she seemed to idolize him so much. He put that thought aside for the time being. "Well...that's one less thing for me to worry about." Was all that he could say when he realized that the conversation took an unexpectedly dark and awkward twist. Dante felt like he shouldn't ask questions or get involved in family matters at this point. "Trust me, you're better off without him making 

"So, what kind of trouble did you get into tonight?" It was a very awkward and very random change of subject. Truth was Dante didn't want to open his own can of worms about parental issues and it seemed like Rose had almost as much as he did, but Dante didn't feel like he was close enough to her ask personal questions about her relationship with her father. He much rather just talk about less personal stuff like what Rose might have ninja'd or something like that. 

[Silv]

Rose stilled when he basically told her his parents were dead. The girl frowned at him sympathetically. “I'm sorry,” she said softly, suddenly clutching the side of the roof like she was going to fall off it. “I know what it's like,” she stared straight ahead much in the same way he watched the smoke. Deep in her soul she felt a pang of grief for her mother.

His attempts to cheer her up didn't work much. Being reminded of how her mother was gone, and her father hated her made for a moody Rose. She scrunched up her face before giving a weak shrug at his advice.  “I guess,” the girl said.

Then Dante steered the conversation to easier subjects. “Trouble?” she echoed, turning to face him with wide eyes and an even wider smile. “Me?” a soft laugh. “Nothing of the sort! I only stole some files, and nobody even noticed me,” the girl hung her head slightly, as though disappointed, but there was still a clear smile on her face. “It's kind of boring when you don't get caught. Fighting the guards is half the adrenaline rush!”

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"Don't be." He said as he flicked the finished the cigarette off the roof. That was another reason Dante didn't tell people about his parents' death, the sympathy and the look they give him. It was mostly because he resented his parents, he couldn't feel sorry for their loss after what they tried to do to him. It's not like Dante could say any of this out loud and not be branded as some kind of psychopath, so he kept it to himself and accepted whatever people said about his loss. "I guess it's all a part of this lifestyle."

Even though Dante's attempt to cheer Rose up was unsuccessful she seemed happy to change the subject. "Files huh? How about sending me any magic related stuff you might come across while you're ninjaing around." Dante was a firm believer of 'information is power' and doubly so when it came to power, the more he learned the more powerful he can become. "I wish I could do that, it seems like every time I try to steal or scam anything it always leads to fireballs getting thrown around." At the mention of the word 'firballs' Dante turned his right hand upwards and a tiny ball of flame appeared over his palm, the mini fireball danced between the fingers of his right hand "these spells aren't exactly stealthy, makes it hard to keep a low profile."



(OOC: Meh post is meh, sorry.) 

[Silv]

"Hm."  Rose grunted in response when he told her not to be sorry. She shrugged, realizing that it was kind of a silly thing to say. The girl with the white hair nodded when he said it was part of this lifestyle, especially since she was pretty sure most of the costumed freaks around had similar parent sob stories. Maybe it was just the way it was. It was a sad sack of a fact that it was.

Then he was talking about files. The girl swung one of her legs up onto the roof, and leaned against her own knee, her torso twisted to look at him. "I guess I could," she said with a light tilt of her head and a dramatized frown as though in mock contemplation. "But what would be in it for me?" the wicked grin she shot him was only partially kidding. It turned into a laugh when he mentioned how bad he was at sneaking around. "Yeah, uh, flashy fireballs and ninjawork don't really go hand in hand," [/b]she intoned wryly. "But they're fanfuckingtastic. I wish I could shoot fireballs." her eyes glowed cheerfully as she gazed at the ball of fire in his hand. "I would so set that dorky T over there on fire," she gestured to the glowing yellow T-shaped building on the horizon.

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Leaning back on his elbows Dante met Rose's gaze, he knew that she was only partially joking. Everyone wants something, it's only natural. "Hmm, let's see..." The young sorcerer thought about what he could offer her in exchange for information or help further on. It wasn't until Rose expressed her wish to have fireballs did the idea come to him. "Well, maybe I can do something about that." Dante said grinned at her. "I can enchant one of your weapons with a fire spell, or any other element. It won't shoot fire, but it would burn whatever you hit." Dante made his tiny fireball grow and used his fine control to shape it into a T. "It'll help making that dream a reality." He said in a sinister tone.

Dante held back from telling her about any other enchantments he could add to weapons and armor, he didn't want to give away too much information about what he can or can't do. "I could do it now, if you like." For a basic enchantment like that, all he needed was the item because he knew all the elemental spells by heart and it wouldn't even take that much energy. "What do you say, an enchantment for every new lead?"