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Revenant was never fond of meeting new Legends.
He considered the ones he worked with already insufferable enough, and figured that each new Legend would only intensify this belief. So far, he had been correct.
Mad Maggie was insane and a pain to work with. Newcastle was annoyingly optimistic and fatherly. Vantage… he didn’t even want to get started on her. But, with the arrival of Catalyst… he found his theory turned on its head. He wanted to dislike her, and he did, just like them all… but she gave him nothing to go on. No hateful side eye, no wary glances. No snide comments. She was polite, nearly too polite –-if it weren’t for the fact that he had overheard some of her biting sardonic commentary in the face of their fellow Legends’ idiocy.
So, he had nothing.
And so… Revenant lurked, and stalked, as he was wont to do. Just watching. Unlike most, Cat caught on quick. And unlike most… she just ignored him. He was used to people cowering, or people trying to fight back, but not her. She just… turned her back to him with the vaguest of smiles.
It was infuriating.
He found himself walking straight into her bunk after a match.
It was filled with crystals, tarot cards and other mystical ephemera he’d chalk up to ‘hokey nonsense’, remnants of religions and beliefs from the old world. He picked up a crystal, inspecting it in the light.
“That one’s bumblebee jasper.” Catalyst hummed from behind him. She had been sitting in a darkened corner lit only by candlelight, dressed all in black. Something he had missed when he walked in. With a twinge of irritation, he briefly considered that he was losing his touch. After a huff, the sim went back to the crystal in hand.
It was yellow, with black striations through it, polished into a round ball. He scoffed as he tossed it between his hands.
After she let out a slight giggle, Revenant turned to cast her a gaze and a growl. Her inkily shadowed eyes looked on him in bemusement.
“It’s good for keeping out negative energies.” She offered, as if to explain her laughter.
“Then it doesn’t work.” He replied snidely. He held it up to the light, considering its hardness and how much it might hurt someone if it was pelted at their head. She met him with a considering hum and a shrug, looking back to the cards that she was shuffling on the table before her.
“That would depend on what you need keeping out.” Tressa explained, absorbed in the process before her.
“Bet it’d work a lot better if you just shot it at someone’s head.” He offered darkly.
“Of course.” Smith shrugged matter-of-factly, smirking at him, “How else did you think these things worked?”
Revenant scoffed, letting out an approving grunt. The witch smiled at the sound, casting a glance up at him. Raising a brow, she gestured to the table and cards.
“Do you have a question for the cards?” Smith offered warmly, glancing over to the chair beside her.
The technological assassin let out a harder scoff then, rolling his eyes.
“None of this stuff works. I’ve been around and seen a few things. Died a few thousand times. There’s nothing.” Revenant explained coldly, waiting for the witch to huff, offended, and kick him out. Instead, she gave him an understanding nod.
“I’m not going to say I know what that’s like, but it’s not really about telling the future. That’s impossible.” Tressa shrugged, continuing to shuffle the deck in hand. “It’s more to… consider a different way of looking into the darkness.” Dramatically painted eyes narrowed at him, matching lips smiling. Revenant just stared at her, unblinking, not emoting. He didn’t move, though, so she continued.
“We can start simple, with a three-card spread.” She hummed as she fanned her deck of cards out. Revenant rolled his eyes as he climbed into the chair across from her, crouching in it rather than sitting. “Pick three, but don’t look at them.”
Clawed hands drew along the backs of the cards, pulling three at random and handing them to her. She offered him another smile as she gathered up the rest of the deck, before laying the three cards out.
“This one represents your past, the next your present, and the last your future.” She explained, before flipping over the first card. The card bore an image of the Reverie, struck by lightning while its occupants plummeted to the ground. He nearly laughed at the irony of it, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Well?” He asked gruffly, testing.
“The Tower represents chaos and upheaval. For many, this card predicts a radical change.”
“Gee. I wonder what that might be alluding to.” He replied dryly as he finally settled in the chair, crossing one leg over the other.
Tressa chuckled, eyeing the next card.
“I wonder.” She moved to the second one, flipping it over. The card bore the image of eight swords, a blindfolded figure beneath them. The witch let out a slight laugh.
“Eight of Swords. Currently, you see yourself as the victim, stuck where you are… Or so you think.”
Tensing at first, his metal form shifted in his seat. There was an eerie feeling of recognition in the reading. He let out a scoff, and Tressa’s lips quirked up at the corners. He huffed.
“Tell your damn cards that I am the victim here,” Revenant spat back in a grumble, crossing his arms over his chest defensively, “Don’t believe a thing that conniving wolf tells you.”
At this, the witch smirked at him. “She does have a penchant for the dramatic, doesn’t she?” She asked, wry.
The sim gave her a growl at that, glancing down at the reading impatiently.
She flipped over the last card to reveal… Well. Him. He was cloaked in gold, his scythe resting across his frame.
Revenant glanced up from the card, sending her a glare. Tressa just shrugged in turn. With a tilt of her head, she pointed to it.
“Calling it the ‘Future’ just asks us to consider one potential outcome of the situation.” She heard him let out a low groan, but she continued all the same. “As a card… ‘Death’ is just another way of saying dramatic change.” Explaining, the witch sat back and straightened, clasping her hands together in her lap. “Does that resonate?”
The simulacrum stood up and grunted, this time dejected.
“That was pointless. Of course things change.” He intoned, sharply bitter.
“The cards never tell you anything you don’t already know.” Smith offered kindly, leaning in to gather his cards back up. The same kindness that had enraged him. That she kept offering him. That drove him up the wall. As if she didn’t know how much of a mistake that was.
Revenant let out a furious growl, demonic energy crackling about him. It was finally enough to get Catalyst to stop in her tracks, cool gaze widening in surprise. It brought him in, crouched over the table, scattering her cards. Taking her chin into his metal claw, he brought her gaze level to his.
Looming before her, he heaved, “Nothing tells me anything I don’t already know.” His tone low and gravelly, he could see it settle into the witch’s spine with a shiver. However, in the candlelight of her bunk, Smith’s expression looked expectant. Her brows raised and he noted her breath catch. Then, again, to Revenant’s confusion, she smiled knowingly.
“And yet… You still asked.”
He let out a low rumble, his mechanical chest heaving despite his lack of lungs. He had intended to be the one to get under her skin, to unsettle her so deeply that she feared him like the rest, but it seemed that she had the upper hand. He found himself so upended by her that all he could do was hiss. “You!”
Claws extending, he pulled his other hand back. A certain serenity fixed itself to her face, fear absent from her gaze, and he let out a roar of frustration. He tightened his grip on her chin, tilting her head back, exposing her neck. He swung his clawed hand at her, wondering how close he could get before she flinched.
Only, he never got the chance. With a flick of her wrist, ferrofluid appeared, shooting out along his form, shoving him back and away from her. The liquid slipped between every exposed joint, teasing every wire, sending a refreshing sort of chill down his back strut. All the pain and discomfort that came with his weathered body had vanished, the magnetic fluid energizing him in a way that he hadn’t felt in centuries. As soon as it came, it went. He dropped to his knees before the table, a low groan building in his chest.
“It would do you well to remember why I’m here.” Tressa chided. Humming, she called the ferrofluid back. Idly, she formed it into a ball in hand. Revenant shuddered as he cast his gaze to her. The witch gave him a resplendent smirk. “I have faced many monsters, some far more terrifying than you.”
“None are more terrifying than me.” He threatened with a snarl, although he only sank from his knees to sit on the floor, to which Tressa delicately chuckled. She finally leaned down and gathered the cards he had scattered, proceeding to fold them back into a tidy pile. She wrapped the deck up in a silk cloth, before tucking it away in the stand beside her chair. All the while, he stared at her, wondering what it might take to get her to do that again. Smith returned her attention back to him, staring right back. Setting her hands on her lap, her head cocked to the side.
“Why do you want me to fear you, Revenant?” She inquired curiously. The use of his name gave him pause before he grumbled, set back on his heels. He was able to get up, but unwilling. His glowing eyes met Tressa’s icy blue ones. It didn’t escape him how he had to subtly tilt his head back to meet her gaze. The witch looked at him from the side of her eyes. “Do you worry what might happen if I actually like you?”
“Don’t be preposterous.” He growled.
“I don’t think it is.” She stood, moving toward him. Revenant nearly stood, trying to prevent her from having any power over him, but she just moved right past him. She came to rest in front of her shelf of crystals, grabbing a stick of incense and setting it in a holder. She lit it, taking a step back. “It’s not preposterous to wonder why you’re set on getting me to hate you.”
He had no intention of answering, responding only with a grunt and a roll of his eyes.
Dark lips still upturned into a smile, she looked down at him in odd fascination. It smelled of burning, never a thing the simulacrum was against, even if the smoke it put out bent heady and organic.
“It is easier, you think?” She offered, breaking off his train of thought. She slowly came to sit on her knees next to him. Glowing eyes narrowed warily at her, but she didn’t move any closer. Curls of smoke swirled around them, and Revenant wanted to ease into the scent. Then, irked, he realized he had been right all along. Each new Legend was worse than the last.
“It’s not easier. It’s programming.” He snidely corrected with an aggravated jut of his chin. She hummed in consideration.
“Did programming bring you in here? … Did programming make you pick up that Jasper?” Shifting weight, the witch was in fact leaning toward him. Somehow, he no longer cared, trying to find an answer to refute her with. Tressa brushed her hair from her face, giving him a slight laugh, “… Did it pick your cards for you?” Tentatively, she reached out her hand to his chest plate. “… Or did you?” Gently, fingertips brushed down his constructed chest.
Again, Revenant huffed lungs that didn’t exist. Purring growl building within his vocal processors, his hand snatched the hand Tressa had placed at his chest. Clutching it, he dragged her in close. Bringing the witch to lean over him, he stopped his unmoving face only inches from hers. It had earned him a hard gasp. It was time he let out an amused chuckle, noting the way the errant lock of hair fell back before her face. With his other hand, he brushed it back to gaze into her eyes.
“You don’t actually like me, Tressa. You just don’t know me well enough yet.” He assured her, running his touch back down from behind her ear down her neck. His thumb caressed her pulse. Smith faltered, cheeks growing pink in a blush. Noting how her hair stood on end, Revenant intoned a smirk. “Don’t worry, you’ll learn.”
With a breathy laugh, she grinned in reply.
“Does this mean you’re letting me try?”
He scoffed, his gaze lightening, though only marginally. Claws drew up to the base of her skull, tugging lightly at the roots of her hair. She let out a small smirk, dark lips parting. Revenant wasn’t sure what he was feeling in the moment, only that Tressa’s insistence toward him was an oddly refreshing change. That, and his form still tingled from the caress of her ferrofluid. His unoccupied hand came up to clutch her chin, claws needling along her jaw in a manner that was both threatening and curious. It earned him a warm hum that emanated from her chest.
The simulacrum had not managed to make any more sense of Catalyst. In every way he wanted to throw her in with the other skinbags he was forced to interact with, she had proven different. Unflappable. Tressa hadn’t just peered into the darkness, she lived there.
He could respect that, if not begrudgingly.
“Maybe.”
“A ‘maybe’ is better than a ‘no’, I suppose.” Tressa’s smirk melted into a soft smile. He chuffed at this, demonic energy crackling along his fingertips, warming them both. Though the gesture appeared threatening, there was no malice in it. But to the figure which passed through Tressa’s door, it was a cause for concern.
“Tressa!”
Revenant’s gaze snapped toward the interloper, finding none other than Bloodhound standing in the doorway. They had pulled their ax from the sheath at their hip, holding it at the ready. Revenant released his grasp on the witch, standing up and moving away from her. Anger from being interrupted and shame from getting caught in a moment of weakness warred within Revenant, and he intended to take it out on the hunter before him. But before he could strike, Tressa stood, approaching her friend.
“It’s alright, Hundr. He’s not hurting me.”
“You do not know what he is capable of.” Hound hissed, thrusting their blade in Revenant’s direction. Dodging back with a growl, he knocked into the witch’s bookcase. Catching her incense, he shoved it onto another shelf before crouching down -- the hunter’s axe nearly catching him in the middle.
“Seriously! Everything is fine!” Catalyst shouted.
Revenant wouldn’t be sticking around to try and prove it.
Crouched and climbing he passed both the hunter and the witch before he bounded up and out --quickly making his exit from the room.