MEME: Test Drive

[girlalmighty]

The 15th of every month from here on out will bring about our Test Drive meme.

Tag into this post with characters you're thinking of apping to the game (please include the name of their canon somewhere in or on the comment or on their profile page). It can be just a tag, a brief EP, whatever you want. You can be new to the game, or simply want to test out a fresh pup. Tag each other with these characters or those already in game, and have fun.

Comments

[bellpeppers]

Maybe this is where I should leave you wanting more. Women like that, don't they?

[attitude]

You're toeing a fine line, Spiegel.

And what I like has nothing to do with it.

[bellpeppers]

You gonna make me say it, Faye?

[attitude]

Never stopped you before.

[bellpeppers]

For a minute, I had all the pieces to the puzzle.

Then I was falling and everything was blue light.

[attitude]

No, Spike. No one gets all the pieces to the puzzle. That's not how life works.

What you did was shatter what you had into a million pieces more.

And let everyone else try to pick them up.

[bellpeppers]

...Jesus, Faye.

Can't you see that's why it's okay. What do you want me to say? I always have got off cheap and easy. This conversation is just proof that a just universe wouldn't tolerate me.

[attitude]

No, I can't see why it's okay.

I still don't understand.

[bellpeppers]

What's not to understand?

[attitude]

One eye sees the past. One, the present.

That still means you had plenty of opportunity to turn away from it all. I don't believe that every single day felt like a dream to you.

[bellpeppers]

I don't understand why believing it or not means so much to you. I drink too much and smoke too much. I'm lazy as sin. I don't have a god, politics, or even a whole lot of good ideas. I've been dead all along and I accepted it.

And I'm still dead and now you're mad at a lump like me for it?

[attitude]

[ it's hard to tell whether or not he's just obtuse, but... doesn't change the fact that it boils her blood just to hear that. dead all along. dead all along. selfish. and it's just too much after everything, faye stepping up to slap across his face. ]

You know, I thought I'd be embarrassed to admit it, but I'm not. Your life wasn't only your own, Spike.

[bellpeppers]

[ he doesn't look startled when her hand connects - he just turns his back on her and bends to pick up his cigarette where it fell on the ground from his lips. it's not lit anymore. ]

But it was mine. I'm sorry I couldn't be your place to be, Faye. What do you want me to say?

[attitude]

No. You don't get to turn this on me, Spike. You don't get to make me seem like the selfish one. You could've... turned your back any number of times. You had plenty of opportunities.

[bellpeppers]

I'm not tryin' to turn it on you.

I'm tryin' to take the lazy way out, and you're just not letting me.

[attitude]

Maybe you just don't deserve it.

[bellpeppers]

Must be why karma just showed up to bitch-slap me across the face, huh.

[attitude]

Finally, credit where credit's due.

[ maybe a joke. maybe she's still pissed. ]

[bellpeppers]

[ he slips the unlit cigarette back between his lips before reaching out to brush the tips of his fingers over the back of her hand. ]

If this is about deserving what you get, you deserve better.

I knew that when I left. You really want to be this upset over that kind of a loser?

[attitude]

[ she nudges her hand just slightly out of his reach. bishop retreating. your move, spike. ]

You didn't leave because any of us deserved better, so don't phrase it like that. Life wasn't fair to any one of us.

That's what made life on Bebop easier, Spike.

[bellpeppers]

[ when she pulls away, he reaches out to snatch her wrist - it's the first time in the conversation that's not whatever's whatever. it's don't leave me all alone, faye ]

You know I didn't actually mind you on the ship. I'm full of shit. You're right. You're right, it made things easier. Whenever you were around it was so much easier to be like, 'hey, me too.'

You're a pain in my ass.

[attitude]

[ it makes her uncomfortable; his hand feels almost like a brand. but after a small tug, she just... stops. and lets him hold on. ]

I don't get it, Spike. So why? If it was easy, why the devil did you leave? You went months without letting that name get to you. Is it because I —

[ — left first? no, it's — ]

Because Julia was killed?

[bellpeppers]

[ he fidgets, strongly, but doesn't let go ]

And after that it was just a matter of cleaning up the ghosts behind her. I got my answer, Faye. I wasn't ever alive except that she was. I don't expect you to understand.

[ he pulls himself closer. like he doesn't want anyone but faye to hear his real voice say real words. ]

I'm alive now, ain't I. So what does this mean?

[attitude]

I thought it was your life.

[ his proximity is discomfiting, her gaze darting all around him, around the outline of him, before she only just meets his eyes, but she notices the color more now than she ever did before. ]

I don't know. Maybe Vicious couldn't finish the job.

[bellpeppers]

Well it wasn't, but it must have been.

[ he lets go like he's been burned, maybe because he's starting to get the sinking feeling that the reason he doesn't like women is because he can't live his life except he tries to live it for one. ]

Vicious finished the damn job. I think I knew that when I left. Just couldn't see.