Curiosity killed the cat [Attn: Dave]

[maddy]

There were times that a woman simply wanted to go out and have some fun.

That was precisely what Madelyne Pryor was doing with herself on a warm July evening, in a considerably less reputable area than where she could usually be found.

Not looking back at the mutant she'd just bedded - he had green, almost lizard-like skin, but was nowhere near adventurous enough for her - Maddie tugged the zipper up until her boot was hugging her calf once more, standing up to let her black halterdress fall down. A smooth, pale expanse of thigh showed between the knee high boots and the dress, covered only by a pair of fishnet stockings.

Shaking her head at the offer of a cigarette that came quietly from the bed behind her, the telekinetic ran a hand through her hair and strode out of the hotel room. It was a cheap, dingy complex, but she didn't feel unsafe. Casting her mind out around her, letting the chatter of people's minds wash over her like conversation, waiting for the wrong pattern to show up but not really giving it any real attention.

It was hardly surprising, what went on in this hotel. Drug deals, prostitution, extra marital affairs, a few mutants making a living out of their powers without actually having sex or creating drugs - Madelyne liked their creativity - and...

Something... someone... out of place.

Curiosity piqued, the redhead turned toward the right room, disappointed to see that the curtains were drawn. Doing her best to look utterly innocent, Maddie observed as the curtains fluttered behind the closed windows, in a breeze that didn't exist, pulling apart slightly. Green eyes peered through the gap she'd created to find the face that belonged with the thoughts that had caught her attention.

[Pick a character - and hit me for edits. ]

[Rictor]

Rictor laid on his motel room bed, dozing in and out of sleep. Periodic shouts, sex noises, and violence broke his slumber and had made him very grouchy this morning. This wasn't the type of hotel he wished to stay in, but the money he had taken from the men in New Jersey was drying up - the credit cards were all cancelled except one, and real cash was long gone.

The high from killing those men had lasted awhile, but he had been in New York City for a week now, and staying at this shitty motel and eating in the shitty "Mexican" diners around it had brought down his mood considerably.

Rictor turned over on his side and stared sleepily at the window and door of his room. His eyes were just shutting closed when the curtains of his window fluttered slightly and opened a bit. His tired mind dismissed it for a moment as just a part of the shitty room he was in - who knows what weird drafts existed here? - but then a shadow fell across the light coming in through the gap in the curtains, and Rictor's eyes opened fully.

He sat up on the bed and froze for a moment. ¿La Policia? he thought. No, they don't peek, they just come in. Maybe...the way the curtains moved...

Rictor stood and walked to the door, then opened it without hesitation, leaving his right hand on the handle. He kept his left hand ready, however, to grab and break whoever might try to come in without an invitation.

"Hello?" he asked to the side of what appeared to be an attractive redhead.

[maddy]

Shit! Shit! He'd noticed her. Thinking quickly, Madelyne smoothed her skirt and did her best to look nonchalant. As if she hadn't just been peeking in at him. A sudden movement had her lipstick in her hand, and she squinted at the dirty glass in an attempt to use it as a mirror.

"Hello?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I hope I didn't disturb you." Pursing her lips, to spread the fresh coat of red evenly, Maddie put the lipstick back in her purse and turned to look at the man.

No, no, he didn't belong here. Not in this dump. Not that she belonged there, but sometimes Maddie wasn't interested in taking a person back to her apartment.

He was attractive enough, too. A small smile appeared as she gave him a once over.

"I was just... well, leaving, actually. Are--" there was a short pause, "Have you been here long? You just seem a little... well, out of place." She considered him, wondering if she was going to get herself into trouble for being too nosy.

[Rictor]

"Oh, I'm sorry, I hope I didn't disturb you."

Rictor narrowed his eyes, but his mouth lifted in a small smirk. Bullshit...she moved those curtains somehow, I know it.

"Have you been here long? You just seem a little... well, out of place."

"I may feel out of place, but trust me, most people would say this is where I belong." He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest.

"The same could be said for you."

[maddy]

Her smile was threatening to grow at his train of thought, her lips twitching a little, but Maddie kept it under control and didn't respond to his smirk with one of her own. As much as she wanted to. Dropping all the pretenses was appealing, but there were certain parts of her that weren't willing to do that just at this moment - some parts of her that wanted to keep the charade going until the game grew too boring.

"I may feel out of place, but trust me, most people would say this is where I belong."

"Is that so?" Her eyebrows raised and the redhead looked slightly amused, wondering just what that could have meant.

"The same could be said for you." At these words, her amusement only became clearer.

"Perhaps," Madelyne conceded, "though there are plenty who'd take one look at me and dismiss me as just another whore." Well, the outfit did conjure that image, but still... What she did was for fun, not for money. Even though some people still would have given her the title, if they knew just how much fun she liked to have.

"That could be a mistake," this time she did give in to the smirk that had been threatening, "just as dismissing you out of hand would be one. Am I right?"

She shouldn't have played with the curtains. But she'd needed to have a look at him, once she'd felt him in the room... Needed to know what kind of man would choose to come to a place like this when he wasn't just another drug dealer or pervert. Since there weren't many that chose these accomodations when they belonged in better.

She wanted to know if he was like her.

"I think..." Glancing down at her nails, a bright red that matched her lipstick, Madelyne picked at one as though the words she was speaking were utterly commonplace, "that not many people get away lightly with dismissing you." Her eyes met his once more. "I think. Tell me, have you been in New York long?"

[Rictor]

"Perhaps, though there are plenty who'd take one look at me and dismiss me as just another whore."

Rictor's thoughts mirrored her own on that account - her outfit and location may have told him otherwise, but he had had his own dealings with plenty of whores in California, and she was certainly not one of them. Prostitutes invariably were wary and bitter, and she seemed neither.

"That could be a mistake, just as dismissing you out of hand would be one. Am I right?"

Rictor didn't respond, but his small smile widened a bit, a sure sign that she was on the right train of thought.

"I think...that not many people get away lightly with dismissing you. I think. Tell me, have you been in New York long?"

"Not very long at all," Rictor finally responded. "Too long, you might say," he said with a look around the filthy motel. He almost asked her the same question, then finally figured out what she was.

She's not a whore at all, at least, not one that gets paid. She's a rich girl, and she gets off on slumming with the likes of these people...people like me. Better yet, she's a mutant rich girl. Never met one before.

Rictor really wasn't one for foreplay or intrigue, and his interest in her has solidified considerably in the moment since he had first seen her. "I bet you're from this city, or at least, you live here now. And I bet," he said as he took a step closer to her, "that you know all kinds of interesting places to go..." He took another slow step and then stopped, finding himself almost eye-to-eye with the tall woman.

"...And things to do."

[Rictor]

Suddenly the woman collapsed to the ground and Rictor sighed. He threw up his hands and slammed the door to his room, completely tired of everyone leaving this game.