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]

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.

[attitude]

So what now? Can you see? Or are you going to spend your days here trying to figure out once more if you're alive?

[ with a steeled gaze, faye raises her hand, trails a finger down the line of his jaw, just like she would with any bounty head if times called for it ]

Because I think I know the punchline to that one.

[bellpeppers]

[ it's not so much that he retires at the touch - he's never been retiring. it isn't acceptance or resignation, either. maybe it's just that he's made a conscious choice to reserve judgment. for now. ]

I don't know, Faye. Can you tell me? 'Cause that's the real bad bitch about this whole sorry situation. I still don't know.

[attitude]

[ she draws even closer, until she knows that he'll feel her breath fanning out over his lips, a quiet brush of a threat ]

Won't even hazard a guess?

[bellpeppers]

[ his own breath pulls in, taking in the heat of hers, sharing the air, sharing her space. when he speaks, it is his guess. dead men don't want for much. and it's completely fucked up, because thirty minutes ago he's sure he was bleeding out. ]

I think I want you. That okay?

[attitude]

[ maybe she's holding this over his head. maybe she has a right to, after everything. or maybe she's building those walls again around herself, because just once more, even just once more, it'll be too much. ]

Not if you're a dead man.

[ is this a bribe? well. wouldn't be the most twisted thing that's ever happened. ]

[bellpeppers]

[ he lets out a hiss of breath and steps away. not too far, but enough to feel a little cold when his mind had been remembering the feel of her lips against his. he'd thought maybe ... well, he'd thought wrong. when he speaks up again, he sounds curious. not accusing, not hopeful either. ]


You telling me I gotta live for you?


[ maybe a little hopeful. ]

[attitude]

[ he always knows how to push her buttons. she can't figure out if it's because they're just made like that, two personalities clashing and jarring against one another, or if it's because he means to do it. like he gains something from seeing the fire rise in her. it's a heavy responsibility, being a reason for someone to live. julia didn't manage. ]

Plenty of other women around, if that's what you're looking for.

[ i'm not telling you to do anything, spike ]

[bellpeppers]

[ spike pulls a lighter out of his suit-coat pocket and lights up again. ]


Maybe the other women don't look like they got enough in them to spare some for me.

[attitude]

[ wordlessly, she yanks the cigarette from his fingers and places it between her teeth, turning on her heel to head down the sidewalk ]

[bellpeppers]

[ there's a battered pack in his pocket. he slides another from it, bent at the tip, to replace the one she's stolen. ]

That's your freebie. I can't remember who owes who a pack anymore.

See ya.