the fear of being found /ashley

[Krinn Discord]

Going out alone without Dirk? What sort of idiot would Krinn be painted as today? Surely not the kind that he is usually, which is to say a pretty intelligent individual as far as the mutant race is concerned. Both in luck and shit out of luck that no one saw him in this state, Krinn Discord was limping shallowly through an alleyway. In luck because he was now easy prey to anyone who sought to capture him and exploit him. In addition anyone seeing him in this state was a sheer embarrassment. Dirk would be the only exception for obvious reasons. However this was obviously a double edged sword of epic proportions. Krinn was completely alone, and bleeding out was a nasty nasty thing.

How did he get into this predicament, one could inquire? Of course he'd be more than willing to share should he incur good company. At the present moment however, all that appeared evident was a bullet wound to his side. No amount of incorporeality was going to save his ass now that the bullet was inside of his body. His abilities were kind enough to not discriminate based on articles of clothing he wore or items that he held. In truth, Krinn was glad that every time he phased out of the physical plane he didn't drop his clothes or perhaps his gun, though now he wished that he could simply rid himself of the lead burning in his ribs.

The dirty bastard that had shot him was nowhere to be found. Krinn put a lot of distance between them when in seconds he easily passed through buildings and walls that would take the man a good five minutes to navigate. Honestly it was all bullshit, at least from Krinn's perspective. He offered no harm to the man's immediate body. There was just no reason to whip a gun out on a petty thief, definitely ridiculous to shoot him in the side without saying a single word. In truth it was pretty smart although a bit harsh but Krinn's agitation with the situation and in being bested was fogging up his thoughts. It was absolutely asinine.

Krinn's only method of escape had been to resort to incorporeality. Hopefully the store owner didn't get a good enough look at him or else he'd be wanted for petty theft and latent mutant symptoms. Much too late to try to feign the identity of a carrier when you're disappearing through walls.

It was starting to get dark. It was already dark to begin with, sometime around one in the morning, but now the mutant's vision was being compromised. With a sigh, Krinn rested his back against the alleyway, patiently waiting for his head to stop spinning. Any moment now, it would roll clean off his shoulders and there'd be nothing left of the phantom man. His bright jaundice eyes trailed behind him, seeing just how much blood he'd lost in his limping. He wanted to pull his hand away from his side and inspect the wound but he imagined it hurt just a little bit less if he pressed his palm into it as hard as he could. Staunching the blood flow wasn't working. Krinn's legs felt like jelly.

"This is so... so far from satisfactory."

tags: #ashley stokes #let's hope that she's sympathetic enough to not let him die #shitty first meeting #blood

[Ashley Stokes]

The red-headed girl kept her head down and her ratty sweatshirt wrapped close. It wasn't exactly cold for her. It was never really cold for her. She kicked at a empty and crushed pop can that someone had neglected to throw away properly. It was probably really stupid of her to use the alleys to travel home, but she really wasn't all that worried. It's not like she was defenseless. Of course it would be really inconvenient if she had to start running again. She already picked up and left towns at the drop of a hat if she thought she was being followed as it was, she didn't want to leave this one already she'd just got here.

Ashley let out a heavy sigh. Son of a bitch, this just sucked. Everything about her powers. She wanted to sit down and use them until she could control them fully, but in order to do that she'd have to go somewhere alone and away from people where she could lose control without causing any problems. Like that was going to happen any time soon. She kicked at the can again as she made progress further down the alleyway. Sometimes she wondered if she was an idiot, heading to a big city like this. She almost would have been better off sitting out in some random-ass place of the country where she could be alone.

She sighed and kicked at the can again, missing this time. Ashley looked down to reacquire her target only to find a spatter darker than the rest of the stained ground in the alleyway. Well, darker wasn't the right word. More fresh and wet. She knelt down and poked at it, bringing her fingers up to look at it under the poor lighting. And by poor she really meant none. She didnt usually wear a watch she had a tendency to...break them, but her part-time job she was using for now got done at midnight and it took her about an hour and a half to get home by foot if she was making good time and taking direct routes through the alleyway.

Shit. There was no way Ashley could tell what the hell this crap was on her hand. There was a bit of an obvious solution, she'd have to be careful and just say that she had a lighter. Raising her right hand, she made a flicking motion a couple of times, until a small flame burst into being above her thumb. Her first, gut reaction was to nearly shake the thing out, but if she didnt add more heat to it, the flame would stay that size and fade out naturally. Now with some light, she looked at her other hand.

Blood. Oh was that all? Ashley immediately shook her hand to extinguish the flames and turned the corner. It was probably incredibly stupid of her to go following a trail of blood at 1 in the morning through the back alleys of a big city, but...she couldn't leave someone hurt. And judging by the fact the trail wasn't really decreasing this person was seriously in trouble.

Apprehensively, the redhead poked her head around the corner of the alleyway, looking around the corner at the shadowy, night-masked figure of a guy leaning against the wall. "This is so... so far from satisfactory." Ashley hesitated. While she wanted to run up and see if he was hurt immediately, she wasn't stupid, better to remain behind a little ways and check things out cautiously...