i know a little sin to which we can aspire
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Jun 19, 2016 15:58:40 GMT
Post by sovereign on Jun 19, 2016 15:58:40 GMT
he won't pretend he doesn't feel a bit like some nutcase up here.
after all, he's lying on a dock storage building's roof in what could be charitably termed apocalypse prepper chic, the binoculars in front of his eyes pressing rather uncomfortably down on the bridge of his nose where the filter respirator sits. it's the binoculars that do it, he thinks, lend a weird air of conspiracy theory to the whole situation. nobody wants to be lying freezing on a roof at one in the morning looking like they think chemtrails are real.
but he's here mostly because it's filtered down that the borgata have called in the initiative, and aidan does not trust a single initiative hero in this neighbourhood as far as he can throw them.
which is admittedly, he thinks to himself, pretty far. whatever. it's the principle of the thing.
he lowers the binoculars and heaves a sigh, levering himself up into a kneeling position to relieve the pressure on his ribs and elbows. arkham is far from quiet, even at this time of night, still trudging along, and the brief moment of attention he pays it is coloured with the same concern it always is. so many people here, threatened by the initiative and their enemies alike, and the island always suffers. hence why he's here, why he's freezing his arse off in the middle of the night when he has to open the shop in the morning, why he's making absolutely sure that nobody enters or exits the borgata without cross-reference to the memorised dossiers in his mind.
he just wishes it were maybe a little warmer.
KNOCKOUT
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Jun 19, 2016 16:43:09 GMT
Post by KNOCKOUT on Jun 19, 2016 16:43:09 GMT
word on the street was that there was gonna be initiative heroes in arkham tonight, and zoya was thrilled.
usually she had to go to them, she had to hunt them down and do all the hard work. but, being ever so lovely, the initiative was shipping them right to her doorstep. 'so thoughtful,' she mused in her head, approaching the docks quietly. honestly, she had no idea how this was all going to go down, but most of zoya's life went thoroughly unplanned.
still, how hard could it be? they show up, she takes some out, she leaves with the fuzzy feeling inside of knowing the initiative being hindered in some way. well, there were plenty of ways it could go wrong, such as...if they sent extremely powerful heroes. but she'd deal with that later.
creeping in the shadows towards the docks, she found a suitable hiding place to wait for the boat or submarine or whatever the hell the initiative used to arrive to, well, arrive. she was hidden from anyone on the ground, of course, but she wasn't expecting anyone to be loitering on roofs.
sovereign |
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i know a little sin to which we can aspire
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Post by sovereign on Jun 20, 2016 9:28:21 GMT
it wasn't as if arkham was ever peaceful, but usually there wasn't movement round this time of night unless something was going down. unfortunately for aidan, it's not the sort he's hoping for, the sort that results in just a quietly tense, mostly peaceful incursion by the intiative.
mostly it's the fact that she doesn't look like she's seen a pro sponsorship in her life. uncharitable, maybe, but then neither does aidan. after all, which of them is the one wearing the concrete grey parka here?
he slides the binoculars back into the AC duct to hide them, sliding off the roof and looping back to approach her from behind. after all, if he doesn't know her at least on sight then she can't be trusted. up to no good, he'd stake his life on it.
that said, she is just hiding quietly behind the container unit when he plants his palm against the wall, feels the old brickwork give a little under it as he pushes the whole thing away a foot or two, opening up the little hidey-hole.
"evening, miss." his voice is given a faintly distorted quality by the mask, but it's sharply intelligible, clipped and icy. "identify yourself, please."
KNOCKOUT
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Jun 20, 2016 14:19:08 GMT
via mobile
Post by KNOCKOUT on Jun 20, 2016 14:19:08 GMT
zoya couldn't help but be a bit startled when she heard a voice behind her, because she wasn't expecting it. her flight or fight instincts must have been strong, because when she heard the voice she whipped around and punched the man square in the jaw.
"who the hell are you?" she hissed, her voice a half-yell until she realized she was supposed to be hiding and discreet.
and he called her miss? she hadn't been called that...ever, to be honest. he sounded too polite, and she could still hear his british accent despite the respirator mask over his face.
"who i am really isn't any of your business, bruv," she responded, mocking him only slightly with the nickname. she could tell he wasn't the hero she was looking to dispatch, but he had powers, she felt it. he was still a threat.
sovereign |
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i know a little sin to which we can aspire
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Jun 20, 2016 16:49:10 GMT
Post by sovereign on Jun 20, 2016 16:49:10 GMT
to his credit, aidan can take a punch to the face like a champ.
granted, a good part of it is the impact damping - his body trying to enact its own force on her fist at the moment of impact, the little jolt of energy where her hand catches the skin of his cheek above the mask, and with the surprise of it he’s only just fast enough to roll with it, keep the blow from taking the thing off or, god forbid, a tooth. it probably looks like it hurt much more than it did.
“think i asked you first, honestly.” okay, so it’s... a little bit of a blow to his ego, but he doesn’t care. he does what he does for the people, not for recognition. he definitely doesn’t care.
what does wound him a little is the sarcasm, and the brown eyes take on something of a weary look. “in that case, i’ll have to ask you to move along. people live in this neighbourhood, and forgive me if you seem...” his gaze flicks her up and down, brows drawing together as he genuinely seems to be finding trouble finding the right word, “.... shifty.”
pot calling kettle black, aidan knows, but it’s all he can do to try and run her off peacefully. he doesn’t really want to be causing a commotion out here, but if she decides she really wants to fight him there’s little he can do.
KNOCKOUT |
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Jun 20, 2016 17:02:18 GMT
via mobile
Post by KNOCKOUT on Jun 20, 2016 17:02:18 GMT
she had to laugh at that, a short bark as she shook her head, the poofy bun on the top of her head shaking back in forth as she did so.
"if i'm shifty, then what the hell are you?" she asked, and rightfully so. he was dressed in a parka and had a gas mask on, for christ's sake.
squaring her shoulders, the audacity of this guy was getting on her nerves. he was treating her like some delicate little civilian who can't take care of herself, as if she didn't just punch him square in the face.
"i've got as much right as you to be out here tonight, okay?" she retorted. "who the fuck are you, arkham's batman? trust me, we don't need you."
sovereign |
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i know a little sin to which we can aspire
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Jun 21, 2016 17:58:30 GMT
Post by sovereign on Jun 21, 2016 17:58:30 GMT
at least she doesn’t punch him again.
“that’s not the point,” he says, valiantly managing to not reply it’s because i get cold like he wants to. he also avoids the subject of the three hundred dollar ballistic vest hidden under his clothes, because that’s also probably pretty shifty. “it doesn’t change the fact that you’re hiding behind a crate on the docks in the middle of the night right next to the borgata.”
she’s squaring up to him so he takes a half-step back to give her room, try not to corner her - not too much give, but he wants to avoid escalating. “i can’t be sure of that, so please just calm down. i don’t want to have to hurt you, miss, and i’m trying very hard to be civil.” she, on the other hand, is not, going by the whole batman crack.
“i’m one of a lot of people trying to keep the island from getting too bad for normal people, if that’s what you mean. all i know is that you aren’t one of them.”
KNOCKOUT |
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Post by KNOCKOUT on Jun 24, 2016 3:50:36 GMT
miss this, miss that, it was really starting to grate on zoya. she wasn't much shorter than him, so it was easy enough to look him dead in the eye with a burning ferocity sparkling in them.
"yeah, i was hiding, but what are you doing out here tonight?" she asked, turning the question back on him. "you're the one sneaking up on people, you hypocrite."
clenching her fists, zoya's hands were balled up at her sides. he was beginning to sound just frustrated, not even upset, and that bothered her even more. she knew she didn't look like the most flashy of villains out there, but dammit, she deserved to be respected just like the others! then again, she didn't know how much respect they actually did get.
"hey, you're smarter than you look," she giggled. "and hey, who says i'm not trying to help out the normies either? you think you're special or something? do you want a gold star?"
sovereign // im gonna cry this is so bad and im so tired |
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i know a little sin to which we can aspire
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Jun 28, 2016 13:04:16 GMT
Post by sovereign on Jun 28, 2016 13:04:16 GMT
the heavy sigh sounds even worse through the mask, and aidan’s shoulders visibly sag in exasperation. “i’m staking out the borgata,” he begins, explaining rather slowly - because this is honestly his last resort if she won’t just stop with the comebacks - “because the initiative have been invited to investigate, and if anything kicks off i would rather like to stop it spreading to the rest of the neighbourhood. your turn.”
she looks a bit... tense. angry. if she lashes out again he’ll have to put her down.
he’s silent for a moment, just looking at her like she's some sort of alien. "i know all the vigilantes that work out of arkham by sight at least. you're not one of them. and forgive me if you calling them 'normies' isn't exactly making it sound like you care." they could stand up here arguing all night, but this woman has him on edge. something isn't right. "if you won't leave willingly i'm going to escort you out of the area."
KNOCKOUT |
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Post by KNOCKOUT on Jul 3, 2016 23:53:38 GMT
"there are worse names i could call them."
she crossed her arms defiantly, hands still balled into fists. zoya knew she'd probably have to come out of this swinging somehow, unless this guy really was gonna hold up on his word. then again, she didn't trust vigilantes as far as she could throw them.
"but hey, helping them out is just a side effect of what i do. and luckily, i guess we had the same exact idea for the night," she explained, her voice a bit more level now. "somehow the initiative just can't arrive anywhere in secret. sad, isn't it? but hey, at least we're on the same side, buddy."
uncrossing her arms, she took a step closer to him. he was annoying and he'd probably just get in the way.
"i guess now it's more of a turf war than anything."
sovereign |
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i know a little sin to which we can aspire
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Post by sovereign on Jul 5, 2016 12:21:47 GMT
“very probably, but if you’d not i’d appreciate it.”
by now he’s just asking what is her problem internally every couple of seconds, not least because she is getting right up in his face and he reaches out to firmly press a hand to the center of her chest, very careful not to... touch... anything he shouldn’t, and push her back to arm’s length.
his reach is a little longer than hers. he doesn’t want to get punched again.
“i’m not interested in a turf war, thank you. you have just basically confirmed that you’re usually up to nothing good, though, so if you wouldn’t mind -” and aidan’s faster than he looks, reaching out to catch her upper arm in a solid grip, “i’m going to be taking you back to the main neighbourhoods now.”
after all, there are usually more people on patrol there. maybe she’ll be less likely to cause trouble.
KNOCKOUT |
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Post by KNOCKOUT on Jul 6, 2016 3:26:41 GMT
zoya wasn't quite sure what made her angrier, at this point. damn, if it was gonna keep going like this she might as well call herself she-hulk.
maybe it was the way he spoke to her like she hadn't just punched him in the face, or maybe it was because he just literally pushed her back or just maybe it was because he currently had one of her wrists in a tight grip. then again, she did have two hands...
grabbing his wrist with the hand that he had grabbed in a sort of lock, she twisted it to the side sharply, but not enough to pull anything in his arm out of place -- just yet. and for good measure, she threw in a knee to the groin. gotta hit him where it hurts, after all.
"you're not gonna do anything to me."
sovereign |
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i know a little sin to which we can aspire
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Post by sovereign on Jul 7, 2016 20:00:35 GMT
he’s not about to drop his guard around someone like her - he has the distinct sense that she can probably badly hurt him if he does - so when she twists and tries to put him down he’s already rolling with it, using the momentum to turn his body instead of have his arm nearly yanked out of its socket.
she’s faster than he’d like, he vaguely thinks, dropping hard to his knees and feeling one of hers solidly collide with the side of his ribcage. the impact damping eats most of it, but that’s not to say it doesn’t hurt like a fucker.
it takes a good deal of conscious thought to direct the arcs through anything that isn’t the palms of his hands, so the shock he sends through his bared wrist is barely enough to hurt and startle, but maybe it’ll get her to let him go long enough to stand up and face her.
“i can and i will,” comes the response. there’s a crackle of static electricity in the air.
KNOCKOUT |
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Post by KNOCKOUT on Jul 12, 2016 3:16:53 GMT
zoya was just a little ashamed of how much joy it brought her to see him fall to the ground. no matter how strong a man thought he was, there was always at least one way to knock him down a peg or two, that much was certain.
but she gasped and let go of his wrist when a jolt of static pricked at her palm. this guy was full of surprises, apparently, but that only made the fight more challenging. if anything, zoya liked a challenge, and she was getting more and more riled up as this went on. she just wanted to take this guy down for no reason other than he was bothering her.
"i'd like to see you try," she said, shaking her hand a bit to get the tingling, numb feeling out of her fingers before she balled it into a fist and sent it flying at his face once more. the knuckles of her half-glove made contact with something hard -- his gas mask.
sovereign // wow late AND bad im so sorry guh, i'll get into the swing here |
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i know a little sin to which we can aspire
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Jul 13, 2016 10:37:36 GMT
Post by sovereign on Jul 13, 2016 10:37:36 GMT
it almost happens in slow motion.
he’s up on his feet as she speaks, turning on the ball of his foot, darting in low and surging up with the arcs crackling around his hand, formlessly glittering in the dark. he means to disable her, at least for the few hours until the sun comes up - he denies, pushes down the single dark thought that just demands hurt, pain. it’s her shoulder he reaches out for, catches hold of, but in coming within reach of her he’s left himself open, stupid, stupid, and he’s loosing the taser-voltage burst into her body at the instant her fist collides with his face.
the mask is held on, closed with catches, and he imagines he can feel them give. aidan recoils, tries to catch it as it flies off, but he misses. it lands on the concrete.
his unmasked expression is one of shock.
immediately he’s letting go, diving for it, snapping it straight back onto his face with the damage done and the sight impossible to unsee, but he doesn’t want to give her a better look. has he done enough to- he can’t stay, he can’t, but he can’t let her follow him either. put her down? or just run?
he crouches, poised on the ground, gaze intense. the snap of the electricity is audible, now, visible, the white bolts arcing to ground as he stands up. “i really wish you hadn’t done that, miss,” he near-sighs, weary-sounding. “i suggest you run.”
KNOCKOUT |
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