kimoyos | open rp post

Of course, his cousins don't respect his last wishes.

There's probably a good reason in there somewhere. Something about no child left behind (laughable). Something about the sins of the father not being the only burden on the children's shoulders. Something about family.

Erik fumes, at first, and it boils over a few times. Shouting matches with T'Challa that the Dora get involved in once it looks as though it may turn violent; involved, in this case, being standing between Erik and T'Challa. It doesn't, mostly because Erik is on a short leash. Kimoyo beads on his wrist and a pain in his neck if he gets too outta pocket with it, and he doesn't really want to find out the hard limits, there.

He does, but. He also doesn't. Which is weird. He wants to hate his cousins, but he doesn't. Also, weird.

He can't leave the country, or so he's told. Well, that's fine. Where's he gonna go? Back to JSOC? Back to Oakland? No. Neither of those is home. Neither of them has been home for years, just a place full of bad memories and a life lead in order to meet his goals. He's not really proud of what he's done, who he's been, but there's no room for regrets. Remorse doesn't bring back the dead.

There is only now. Now, and now again.

Now, he's in Shuri's lab, wanting to touch everything and touching nothing, so his hands stay clasped behind his back. Put your mind to better uses, T'Challa said, and fine. He could...do that.

He supposes.

Shuri doesn't trust him yet. She understands T'Challa when he says that he wants to help Erik. To make him better. They're his family, and even if he's done bad things that doesn't mean that he can't be redeemed. Sometimes she thinks her brother looks to her to help him in the same way she did Bucky. The Winter Soldier still rests in a village on the outskirts of Wakanda. Killmonger is living in her home where he rightfully belongs. She accepts that, even if she's uneasy with it.

What she cannot accept is the fact she walks into her lab Erik is there by himself. T'Challa is only allowed now because he's king. He pulls rank and is allowed to wander her lab. This? Is something very different, and she makes a sound of offense as she tries catching him in the act of touching something. Too bad his hands are clasped behind his back.

"Did brother send you here to bother me?" Her tone of voice is playful and teasing. She may not trust him completely, but she has no problem treating him just the same as she does T'Challa.

"Hey, Princess," Erik smirks at Shuri because smirking comes naturally to him but also because it's armor. A distance between himself and the things that could hurt him if he bothered to care. If he doesn't care about his cousins then he can't feel bad about growing up continents and worlds away, can he? If he doesn't care he can't miss people he never knew.

"Probably." Bother bother, Shuri. "What's this do?" Still not touching, but he can point.

He points and she decides if she wants to slap his hand away. Hers hovers right over his, like a threat, but ends up just pushing against his hand instead. Let Erik and her brother have it out in brawls. When a man wants to learn and comes to her looking for knowledge, she isn't foolish enough to turn him away or dissuade him.

"How many times must I ask you to call me Shuri?" She chooses to focus on that as the point of her annoyance, but her tone doesn't hold any real bite.

Reaching past him, she grabs the prototype that he's looking at. "This," she proudly informs him, "Is my next gauntlet model. I believe you remember the first generation?" She can't resist a smug little smile, even if technically her weapon had failed that day. "They worked well but were vulnerable to impact. These will not be as easy to destroy."

He lets her push his hand down and away, shoving it into his pocket. He's glad he didn't manage to kill her, he thinks, and then immediately shoves the thought aside. It's a useless sort of thing. "I'll let you know when I'm done calculating." How many times it'll take. One for every birthday missed, perhaps.

"Yeah I remember. Gonna have a setting stronger than stun?"

She studies his face as he teases her, trying to make any kind of connection to her brother and father. Perhaps she should be looking for a connection to her uncle, but beyond a formal portrait of him in his younger years she doesn't even know him. Erik is proud, like her brother, but holds himself in a way that's infuriatingly cocky. It amuses her now, how easily he can press everyone's buttons with just his words alone. This time, she doesn't rise to the bait.

"Maybe. Are you going to let me test them out on you, cousin?"

She hopes he'll go along with it, because she's got something in her lab for him too. It may not be the best idea to have designed Erik a weapon, but she thinks that if she arms him he'll be willing to fight for Wakanda and their family rather than against it.

Infuriatingly cocky is more or less Erik's jam, as Shuri is well aware. He uses words like weapons; quick and to the killing point. The rest of his attitude is suited to match that worldview.

"Hells yeah you can test it on me, Princess. Gotta see how the bite compares to the bark."

Another smirk and he nods his chin at her. "When are you ready to test it?"

open rp post

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject