none of them want to fight me

[attitude]

Truth be told, the reason why Faye has been so quiet about her plans to infiltrate Kirin's Horn is simple: she isn't sure whether or not she can emerge unharmed. A part of her looks forward to the challenge, to the thrill of being immersed in risk and danger — and even views it as all the more powerful for the choice it is. This isn't like responding to the fire bees with Red Tail's guns. This isn't like being able to escape when a centipede-shaped spirit slithers through the streets.

This is something that Faye is involving herself in by choice.

But at a certain point, Faye also doesn't want to play the hypocrite. Realizing after the fact that Spike had made his mind up to go deep into the Syndicate and take it down had been nothing short of a knife to the stomach. Faye isn't sure that she wants to share the mission she's taken up with anyone she knows, but she at least wants to give her friends a chance to speak up, or forever hold their peace.

The phone rings a few times before she hears Owen pick up. "I'm in the little Armenian diner across from the Bean Counter. If you want to know what I've been up to lately, show up in the next hour or so, and I might actually tell you," she says, smiling faintly.

Comments

[beat_death]

Owen's not particularly busy; he's been going over weevil data most of the day-- a project that falls by the wayside often, but that he's too stubborn to give up on-- but his eyes are starting to cross. The readings are the same, their physiologies are the same as he remembers from Cardiff, and he's on the verge of popping into the hospital if only so he doesn't have to look at the walls of the Station anymore.

He almost doesn't answer when his mobile rings, but Faye's number on the ID piques his curiosity enough that he does. And what she has to say piques it enough that he turns up at the diner she's mentioned about 45 minutes later, looking for her familiar figure, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his leather jacket, though it's likely too warm to be wearing it the first place.

[attitude]

As if on cue, Faye passes by the entrance, a small smirk on her lips as she reaches a hand into Owen's pocket. She knows perfectly well that Owen is involved with someone else — and that isn't even her own ego talking — but the fact remains that it's easiest for them to go unnoticed when they act as a pair with just a touch of intimacy.

If it weren't such an easy act to feign, it might piss Faye off more.

"Aren't you a bit hot?" Faye asks, glancing over her shoulder with an arched brow. "Here, let me take that off your hands. We can catch up. Interested in a drink or two?"

[beat_death]

"Depends on if that innuendo's on purpose," Owen replies, but he's already taking off his jacket, playing along with the act. He's not entirely sure where it's going yet-- last time, it ended with a mess that had previously been a vampire and a ruined shirt-- but he knows it's probably better not to ask questions until he know exactly what's happening.

[attitude]

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Faye declares, though she folds his jacket over her arm and slides into the booth, her own little piece of collateral to keep him around until she finally spits out what she's been waiting to tell him. Waving over the server, she orders two fingers of their best whiskey — splurging a little, and only at the beginning, when both of them are sober enough to enjoy it.

"I found myself a bit of an undercover job," she murmurs, once the server's gone too far away to hear. "Thought you might want to know, in the event that I go incommunicado for a while."

[beat_death]

He starts to protest when she orders a drink for him-- mostly that he'd prefer scotch if they are drinking-- but the protest fades away when she stars in on what she's presumably asked him round for.

"What sort of undercover job?" he asks, non-judgmental, but more curious that he'd admit. The truth of it is that most of his life in Darrow has been technically spent undercover, though there are days that he minds popping into the hospital less than others.

[attitude]

"You ever heard of Kirin? Knowledge and Inspiration Reducing Inequality in our Nation, they call themselves," Faye says, reaching into her pocket for a flyer and passing it in Owen's direction. "Basically, they've seen the difference in power between most of the folks who are native to the city and a lot of those who are coming in from outside. And they want to even the playing field. Understandable, I guess — even if I doubt the methods that they're using. Anyway."

She leans back, crossing her arms over her chest.

"There's a smaller faction within Kirin. They never advertise the group, but it's pretty much what you'd expect. Extremists, much more on the offensive. They've been developing technologies to help take out all of the powered folks in town. They reached out to me after some of my recent jobs, knocking out vampires and werewolves," she explains. "And I thought, well. Might as well check them out, see what we'd be up against if they ever really try to mobilize."

[beat_death]

He looks down at the flier, frowning at Faye goes on to explain herself. He's fairly certain that he's made his own views on much of the supernatural population of the city known by now. As much as Owen was fascinated by the work that they did at Torchwood-- getting to learn about new species all the time-- these are hostile creatures. Tosh nearly died.

Having a few less of them in Darrow sounds like a good idea to him.

"Doesn't sound like such a bad thing if they did," Owen replies, "if they're only targeting the hostiles."

[attitude]

"You think that they're discriminate enough to figure out who's hostile and who isn't? Hell, it's not like we ran thorough background checks when we were doing a bit of hunting," Faye points out, tapping her cheek. "Anyone can be turned hostile if they're being hunted. That's all I'll say."

She leans back in her seat, arms folded over her chest. "Anyway, I want to infiltrate and just get a sense of what they're doing. Maybe I should feel good about the fact that I was invited in, but if this group is successful, I can easily picture them wanting to take out new arrivals as soon as they arrive. Maybe that's just me, though, thinking of worst case scenarios."

[beat_death]

"Point taken," Owen replies.

The first vampire they killed... Owen won't argue that perhaps it was a bit unwarranted on their part. But he's seen enough others by now to know that the majority of them would sooner rip his throat out than hold a civilized conversation.

"They might be worth checking out, at the very least," he agrees, because there's looking out for people's best interests in Darrow and then there's taking it to extremes.

[attitude]

"That's the idea, anyway. But, hey, might as well keep you busy in the meantime," Faye says, reaching into her pocket for a small metal tin, flipping open the lid to reveal bright orange pills inside.

"When they recruited me, they gave me this tin. Pills to trigger energy manipulation, supposedly, though I haven't gone and tested them myself. I gave a quarter of a pill to one of the mice in the testing lab, and it didn't die, so." Faye shrugs, raising a brow. "At least they're probably not trying to snuff me out right away. But what these are made of, and what they're supposed to do, I'm not sure. Figured you'd have an easier time with the spectrometer than I would."

She picks out a few of the pills, sliding them in Owen's direction. "Just... promise me you won't go swallowing these yourself in the name of science. I don't think you're that reckless, but I've misjudged people before."

[beat_death]

Owen frowns, but he takes the pills from her, taking a brief glance at them before quickly wrapping them in a bar napkin and discretely slipping them into his pocket. If anyone's watching them, that hand-off likely looked even more suspicious than it is. The last thing they need is for someone to mistake this for a drug transaction and confiscate what they've got.

"Energy manipulation?" he asks, not quite catching her meaning. It's a very general way to put things, come to think of it.

[attitude]

"Your guess is as good as mine. I haven't tested it, and I have no desire to test it on other people. Some of the mice got a little... sparky," Faye says, shrugging, although the knit of her brow gives away her tension. There's little that she wants more than to understand what the hell the pills are meant for, but she's not suicidal enough to put herself in the way of that kind of danger.

Sneaking into the organization is different. The choices she makes are her own, made with clarity of mind. Worst case scenario, she gets found out, and punished accordingly. Worst case scenario with the pill?

She can't even imagine.

"Thought you might have an idea about what to do with the stuff. I don't want you testing it yourself, mind," she adds, quickly arching a brow. "But it's worth thinking about."

[beat_death]

"Because I'm almost always in the practice of ingesting pills of questionable origin," he replies, expression skeptical. He'd considered testing retcon on himself when he was first perfecting it, but this is different. He doesn't know what this pill is or what it ultimately does. He's been familiar with the make-up of retcon for years now, even if it had taken time to perfect it in Darrow.

"I'll look into it. I'm pretty sure I've got everything I need back at the Station. Could probably do with another mouse or two, though."

[attitude]

"Look, you'd be worried too if you've spent years working with people who thought of the tongue as a viable investigative tool," Faye says, rolling her eyes. There's a slight tension in her shoulders, although she does a decent job at hiding it. It scares Faye that she even cares, sometimes. She'd been so hellbent on just stopping, on never exposing herself in such a way again after Spike left. But... well. It wasn't that easy. Shutting people out just wasn't that easy.

"I'm guessing that the mice they sell at the pet store won't do it, huh," she muses, tapping her chin. They'd be easy enough to get, a couple bucks apiece. But Faye was never quite into the biology of things so much as the physics.

[beat_death]

He has to remind himself that the first set of retcon trials involved accidentally mucking about with Tosh's memory before he criticizes the people Faye has worked with before. But at least he's learned from the experience, and it doesn't sound like her former associates had.

"They've worked alright so far," he says, of the mice, "Though I think I've got an unofficial ban at a few places in town."

Retcon trials had been remarkably unsuccessful, those first few weeks.

[attitude]

Faye snorts at the thought of Owen being banned from pet stores. It makes sense, she supposes. Someone coming in to buy the same kind of animal repeatedly probably looks suspicious, and people who care a great deal about animal rights would be disinclined to encourage that behavior.

"Don't they typically keep mice separated by sex so that they don't reproduce all over the place? Maybe I can just get one of each for you. You can make your own mice farm for whatever tests you need," Faye considered.