snikting | 6 - [Action]

The mission was a bust. Logan was steamed. Sure, the nature hike in and around the jungle had been fine. The soldiers weren't a bad bunch, either. He made some friends from the other enclosures, as well. But they had one skirmish. One. Damn. Skirmish. The soldiers picked them off with their guns before they even got close enough for Logan to join the fray. That had been his entire week. Patrol duty. For nothing. When they gave him his orders to head back to Luceti, he punched a hole in the nearest tree. Which is why when he got into Luceti, all he had to show for his trip was a blood-stained but completely healed right hand.

In the X-House, he ends up greeted by birthday well wishes from his teammates. A birthday announced by some meddlesome kid. It was a day he'd never shared with his team because it didn't have any kind of associations he could be happy about. If he'd been mad before, he's livid now. He'd been nearly forgotten the occasion, except for that lingering instinct of awaiting Sabertooth to ambush him in the jungle at any moment. Hell, he'd have been glad if he did. The fight would've done him good. So upon seeing cake and ice cream waiting for him, Logan snarls, turns right around, and leaves. His intent is to go into the bar, order as much booze as he can, and then go sit somewhere quiet and drink as much as he can.

When he's got enough booze in him, he decides to get some action of his own. Which is why he spends the twilight hours in the forest, searching out that wolf god everyone's talked about before. He figures either she'll give him some satisfaction of drawing out his primal instincts or, at the very least, give him one hell of a fight.

But eventually, as the morning hours settle in, he writes a short note in the journals he won't be answering. But his nose has made one conclusion.

[Written]

the wolf god is long gone

((ooc: To sum it up, Logan will arrive at home, be steamed at the birthday shenanigans, and make himself scarce. He'll make a very brief stop at the bar before confining himself to the top of Building 1 to drink his way through a twenty-four pack of booze. After that, he'll be in the forest and unstable, tracking down an elusive scent.

He won't respond to the journal.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Our past helps shape who we are today, no matter how unappealing they are."

"But that doesn't mean they are not painful to talk about, or think about," She sighs contritely.

"I am sorry for prying, Logan."

"Who I shaped up to be ain't exactly somethin' to be happy about."

Sure, she'd object to that. So he cut her off before she could. "Just don't take it personal."

To that, Ororo just nods. She knew a closed door when she saw one. Didn't mean she'd try to open a window again later, but for now she'd back off.

A moment later, she thinks to ask another question. "- Have you had anything to eat yet, Logan?" She was in the middle of breakfast when he arrived, after all.

As a matter of fact, he was starving. He wasn't confident he wanted to sit down to breakfast, though. But after a moment of internal debate, he shook his head.

"Actually, I'm starving. We got any thing decent around here?"

"I believe we still have some of that bacon you like." It wasn't her preference, and she was content with the grapefruit she was about to have for breakfast, but she wasn't averse to making some bacon and eggs for him.

"... well, if you're offerin' bacon, that's something I can get behind." The way to a man's heart was with meat. Medically this also meant that by getting to his heart too often, you'd clog his arteries and kill him. But that wasn't a concern for Logan.

She turns back towards the kitchen. At least he wasn't locking himself up in his room.

"I have the coffee on, already. Join me for breakfast?"

He exhaled some frustration before nodding.

"Sure. I could use some of that."

She goes about setting the carafe and a mug for him out on the table (she wasn't sure if he'd appreciate her doing everything for him) before taking his breakfast down from the fridge. If she was still bothered by the conversation they just had, she wasn't showing it.

It'd be easier if she did. Now that she was dutifully putting it altogether, he realized he ought to feel like a heel about now.

"You're too good a woman, 'Ro."

She turned to give him a half smile, complete with raised eyebrow. "And sometimes you are too stubborn a man, Logan."

She continued setting out various pieces of kitchenware, placing chunk of Canadian bacon on the counter and waving a careless hand over it. A pocket of warm air formed around the meat, and soon it would be thawed enough to be cooked.

Much as he liked Canadian bacon, he was content to sit back and watch. Though there was something that concerned him more. Which was how things had gone from him being an ass to getting breakfast.

"I'm serious. I haven't been acting like the kind of man deserving of this kind of treatment."

"Perhaps." And it was good that he realized that. She gave him a pointed look. "But it was also your birthday, so I think we can let it slide, just this once. And in the future, maybe you can change that."

"Maybe." He was quiet as he stared down at his coffee mug. He began to fill it from the pot. "It's Sabertooth."

Well, that certainly got her attention. She paused, alarmed. "Sabertooth? Is he here?" Or perhaps he was on the mission? He would have told her immediately if he was here, wouldn't he?

"That's the thing. He ain't here. But he's always been there. Every year. The same time. The same fight. Except this year."

Wait just a moment.

"Do you mean to say that Sabertooth comes to fight you every year, on your birthday? Like some sort of tradition?"

"It's why I'm never at the mansion this time of year."

He didn't like them getting involved with his fights with Sabertooth. And if he knew it was coming...

She was still giving him an incredulous look. Tradition? Was he kidding?

"Every year..." She repeated, shaking her head with a sigh. "Why did you never tell us? Or at the very least, Charles and I?"

Edited 2013-02-23 06:00 (UTC)

"Some things are personal. It wasn't an X-Men problem. Just mine."

It didn't have to be a problem for the X-Men for her to be concerned. But she was quick to realize that he didn't want to concern the others, so she just nodded hesitantly.

"If he did not show this year, then is that not a good thing?"

"He always shows. This time, I even wanted it. I needed it. But there wasn't Sabertooth. There wasn't even any Sparties. Just trees."

And that was the frustrating part. He'd been so powerless after being zombified and now so restrained. He was desperate for a good fight. If there was on birthday wish he had, it was that Sabertooth would give him a fight that neither would back down from until one of them was dead. Then, maybe then, he could have came back happy.

Ororo thought back to the conversation they'd had nearly a month ago, now. When he'd finally gone on this mission, she knew he was looking forward to seeing some action. Knowing now that he didn't get any at all, and was expecting to see Sabertooth but was let down on top of that, put things into a new light. She frowned.

"... Well, I can't say that I'm not glad that you did not run into him this year, but I know you've been waiting to get into some action, Logan. I'm sorry to hear that." She paused, then asked, tentatively, "If you like, I could possibly help you work off some of that aggression."

"You can't help with it, 'Ro. I'm tired of holding back. Tired of just practicing."

In Luceti, there'd be no release in anything he could do violently.

"Last night, I tried hunting down that giant wolf god. Figured she'd give me the kind of fight I've been wanting. But even she's gone."

She frowned, not liking the idea of him purposefully looking for a potentially, possibly excessively dangerous fights like that. But that was the point, wasn't it? She reeled in her thoughts and went back to preparing his breakfast for him.

"Well, I wish I could do something to help. I hate seeing you this way, Logan."

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snikting - 2013-02-26 06:16 (UTC) - Expand