El!
El has been with the site for nearly two years now and has continued to prove her value. Currently, she is heading up our site event, Battle for Liberterram, on top of keeping up with her own personal plots.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peggy Carter!
Lux's posts are all wonderful to read. She has done a wonderful job of grasping the new universe and incorporating Peggy into it.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peter Parker!
It's good to see Spidey back on the site. Watching him deal with the universe shift in his own snarky way has been nothing short of entertaining.
THREAD
SPOTLIGHT
Eight O'Clock on the Dot!
El and Lux are making magic in this thread. Straight up fireworks, and the way they've played with drawing out the reveal is top class.
Post by Z inactive aidenfelidae on May 20, 2016 6:38:36 GMT
I'm Fine in the Fire
I Feed on the Friction
I'm Right Where I Should Be
Don't Try and Fix Me
New York Staten Island May 17th (Following Summertime Madness)
There weren't a whole lot of people Aiden bothered to check up on when trouble came around. There certainly wasn't anyone who ever bothered to check on him, so he saw no reason to go out of his way and be the first. But it wasn't out of any personal feelings for the Volkov woman that he'd asked some of his contacts to keep an eye on her. She'd made a pretty significant first impression on him, and Aiden found her interesting. So, naturally, he wanted to know how she'd react to an alien invasion.
He'd gotten a call earlier that day, telling him she'd been spotted on Staten Island, impaling a few aliens with knives. Either she had a hell of a lot of spunk, or she wasn't the civilian she pretended to be. Aiden still suspected the latter, and he figured he'd get a better idea by heading out to see for himself. All the same, with his contact being a dirty cop, he'd asked the man to try and find any footage of Nadezhda in action before he'd hopped on his bike, eventually crossing the Verrazano Bridge to get to Staten Island.
The extra maneuverability was useful even after the fight, since Aiden doubted he could've weaved through all the abandoned cars, rubble, and corpses in any bulkier, four-wheeled vehicle. Various people still lingered, trying to clean up the mess, but he ignored any that tried to get his attention. The crooked cop had given him the address where the Volkov woman had last been seen, so he headed straight there, fast as the numerous obstructions on the roads would allow.
His contact hadn't stuck around long enough to figure out if the house was hers, but Aiden was sure there was something in there she'd wanted to protect. The aliens might've been moved off her lawn, but the grass was still painted with their blood, and.. bullet holes? He might've thought the Chitauri had done it, had he not spotted the gattling gun sticking partway out of one of the house's windows. Where on earth had she gotten that? Aiden had smuggled weapons before, but nobody had ever tried to get something that destructive. Were those things even legal to own outside of the military? His cop "friend" must've been elsewhere on the battlefield when she'd used it.
And then there was Nadezhda Volkov herself. She.. just.. what? "You are not dressed for alien slaughter," he offered by way of greeting, parking his bike in the nearest spot free of dead Chitlian and Chitauri. Seriously, forget body armor, Aiden was pretty sure she was showing more skin than she covered with those clothes. Maybe she had some sort of superhuman durability? For someone that claimed she was normal, that seemed like blatant advertising that she didn't think the aliens could hurt her. He supposed the invasion might've caught her unawares, but still. He would've thought a CEO could afford to wear something a little more glamorous than short-shorts and a tank-top.
"If it weren't for the big-ass gun in your window, I might worry you were trying to seduce them rather than kill them." Aiden said, chuckling at the thought. He could just imagine the newspaper headlines that would result in. "That is all alien blood on your lawn, right?" He asked, waving a hand in the direction of her yard. "And not.. other stuff?" Not like he would know, after all. Aiden was no expert on the color of alien bodily fluids.
Dugan and his bureaucratic friend had already left, and the dead alien bodies had been picked up, which was good. Nothing was still together though. She still didn’t want to let her two dogs outside, for fear of what alien blood might do them. Still, it was going to have to happen at some point soon. She didn’t imagine it was going to be anything too awful. Had the invasion not happened, she would have been even more paranoid than normal.
Which was an odd thought to have, but when you found yourself scrutinized for the majority of your life, you got used to wearing so many masks to hide your true face. Here, she did not let Aiden onto her inner thoughts at all.
She did not like being watched. Which when Aiden showed up at her house made her think that she was. By who? She would need to find out, and convince that person to start thinking about changing their tactic, and that was her being nice.
That or he was really good at dragging information out of people. Either way, this wasn’t an ideal situation. He could not know these things. She’d really hate to have to kill him, but what other options were available? She supposed she could just let him go, but that was far too dangerous. “I didn’t anticipate an alien invasion, and it is close to summer.” Nadezda responded with, facing Aiden. Annoying. He continued to talk like this was a normal meeting.
It wasn’t, and she was definitely more on the defensive. Attacking him wasn’t going to let her know what she wanted from him. She’d have to coax the information out of him, but then he would know that she was doing that if that was his normal tactic of getting information.
Again, not an ideal situation. She did not like this being turned around on her, so she supposed the best option was to either make good on her promise about taking him out, or just cut him loose quickly. Either way, she wanted him gone extremely soon. As in within the next ten minutes.
“What, exactly, do you think happens to bodies when they die? It’s not pretty.” Nadezhda answered. Though they were aliens so how was she supposed to know. “At least on our planet. I couldn’t say about the Chitauri, I’m not an expert in aliens.” She said, humoring some of his statements.
“What do you want?” Nadezhda said, not entertaining any of his other comments. Getting to the root of the problem would be instrumental in finding a solution for it, which she needed for this one, aside from dispatching the individual, and with Aiden that was too risky a move to take.
Post by Z inactive aidenfelidae on May 24, 2016 2:34:11 GMT
I'm Fine in the Fire
I Feed on the Friction
I'm Right Where I Should Be
Don't Try and Fix Me
Aiden sighed through his nose, partly at Nadezhda’s not-quite-friendly tone, but mostly at the comments she didn’t bother to answer. Why couldn’t anyone else maintain a playful attitude after an alien invasion? Being all tense and serious was boring. When she’d decided to play vigilante, he’d had hopes that she wouldn’t be as dull as the other ninety-nine percent of humanity. But nope. Almost straight to the point. It was to be expected, he supposed. He had sort of ambushed her when he shouldn’t have had any way of knowing where she was. So maybe this was her house. Or, it could be she had any number of other reasons not to be pleased to see him.
"You’re not? And I was so sure you were hiding a pair of antenna under a wig or something," Aiden shot back, smirking. Whether she was gonna play along or not, Aiden was hardly about to leash his typical snark and humor for her sake. She’d knocked him out, kinda-sorta hired him, and then left him to break himself out of jail again. They weren’t exactly friends, and their “professional” relationship wasn’t all that great either. Not that he held any sort of grudge, but he didn’t see any reason to behave differently around her than he normally would.
As for what he wanted? Good question. He hadn’t really driven over here with any particular goal in mind. He seldom bothered to plan things ahead like that. "Hm. I want that gatling gun if you’re selling, but something tells me that’s not what you’re asking," he said, chuckling. He did wonder if he could install something that large on his bike, since he moved around enough that it’d be an enormous pain in the ass to try and set it up at any buildings or apartments he stayed in. He wasn’t exactly built to be carrying around something of that caliber all the time, either.
But back to Nadezhda’s question. What did he want--or more specifically, what did he want with her. "Well, you hired me, kind of, and it’d be pretty hard to get paid if you’re dead. I heard you were here, and I wanted to be sure the aliens hadn’t stabbed, shot, crushed, or otherwise killed you. Good to know you’re good at more than just sneak attacks." He said. The knowledge left him somewhat less confident than he had been until now, sure he could’ve taken her easily enough if she hadn’t knocked him out from behind. Powers or not, the dead aliens at the edge of her yard suggested she might actually pose a challenge.
"And, truth be told, I was curious why the CEO of a coffee industry would be fighting the aliens at all. I figured someone as high up on the economic food chain as you are would be one of the first to be evacuated." Aiden said, rolling his shoulders in a shrug, since that clearly hadn’t been the case. He knew better than most how far money could go by way of bribes, and he suspected Nadezhda Volkov had plenty of it to throw around. So why stay? He doubted it was the house itself. She couldn’t have saved it if a Leviathan had decided to crash through the walls, and she could always buy a new one if it had gotten trashed.
But he doubted he’d get an answer if he tried asking directly, so he glanced over at the Chitauri corpses instead. Stab wounds for some, while others were riddled with bullet holes, no doubt from the enormous gun leaning out her window. Even without his contact having told him, weapons were one of the few things he was legitimately knowledgeable about. He could tell the stab wounds were from knives. If she’d used a sword or most any other larger blade, there almost definitely would’ve been slash wounds as well. Spotting none in his brief observation, and seeing no wounds on Nadezhda’s half-bare body, he guessed she must’ve stayed at a distance for the duration of her fighting.
"There aren’t a lot of people that can throw knives like that," he said, turning his attention away from the alien bodies and back to her. "By any chance, did your childhood involve a circus act where you threw knives at someone while they spun around on a colorful wheel?"
No more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world; I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack, all around the world was waking, I never could go back 'cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open and finally it seemed that the spell was broken
It wasn’t so much she couldn’t maintain being chipper; she was doing much better than several of the other people on their block going through shock at having killed one of the aliens. Most people hadn’t even killed an animal, let alone a being that was sort of intelligent. Naz wasn’t sure how smart they were. She’d already gone through her horror of taking the life from someone, and she really didn’t care to repeat that act all too much. This was mainly because Aiden had gotten far too close to her home and to her personal life than she cared.
She gave him a grim smile. “I wonder, is it really impossible for you to take anything seriously?” Nadezhda asked, though she was sure that the answer would be ‘yes’. At his next quip, she was pretty certain that her inquiry had been answered. “You couldn’t afford it, anyway.” Nadezhda stated, since that thing had cost her a few thousand dollars. “I’m fairly sure you would’ve been informed, and that isn’t why you came here.” Nadezhda said; no one went out of their way to drive, or in Aiden’s case, ride all the way out to Staten Island to check up on a person.
He wasn’t one of her family members, so there wasn’t any reason he should care, and most of her friends were superficial at the most. Sterling had come over to check up, of course and so had Barrett, but they were practically family so it would’ve been weirder had they not contacted her. On the other half, she had to give him a squint. He still didn’t think she could fight, did he? “I told you not to underestimate people. Clearly this lesson isn’t sticking.” Nadezhda said in response, something she should have paid attention to, and she was going to find out what he knew about her exactly.
She almost went into the spiel that this was her home and she wasn’t leaving it, but she really didn’t want Aiden knowing where she lived. He didn’t seem like he was leaving anytime soon, though, which is what she wanted. He’d gotten far too close too quickly. Ignoring him was just going to raise up more questions for the boy, though. “Because this is my home, and I wasn’t going to leave it.” Nadezhda answered, with a more controlled sense of annoyance.
He didn’t need to know much more about the backstory, and she thought he knew too much already. She really hated not having the upper hand on people here, and she wasn’t going to trust him with any sensitive information. Criminal elements were so damn difficult. You couldn’t trust them with anything; Aiden would do whatever it took to get what he wanted, that much she thought she was sure of. Was this going to work out? She knew so little about him. Might as well just set him free.
But not before she figured out how he knew she was here and if he’d already known that this was her house. Someone was going to pay for that, if it wasn’t him, another person then.
Too much of an unknown, too much of a wild card. He couldn’t be trusted, and he didn’t trust her. So what was to be done now? Hmm, he also knew a lot more about knives than she’d thought. “Ha ha.” She said, clearly still in a bad mood. “Give me one good reason why I should trust you at all.” She added, looking at him. Nothing given, nothing gained. “Otherwise, unless you have something relating to business, off you go.” She said, making a shooing motion with her hand.
Tag: Z inactive aidenfelidae Notes: I thought this would go way differently, but nope. Sorry, she doesn’t trust him xD.
Post by Z inactive aidenfelidae on Jun 1, 2016 2:41:36 GMT
I'm Fine in the Fire
I Feed on the Friction
I'm Right Where I Should Be
Don't Try and Fix Me
For Aiden, the civilians in shock over killing a single alien weren't really worth his time. Perhaps he'd been jaded by the violent acts in his own life, but it seemed stupid to freak out over doing what you had to in order to survive. It wasn't like they'd known the alien or even talked to it. He was pretty sure it wouldn't have been a crime to kill them even if it hadn't been in self defense, so really, what was the big deal? At least Nadhezda was dealing with it fairly well, even if she wasn't exactly upbeat.
"Hmm, I couldn't say. Don't think I've ever tried before," he said, mirroring that grim smile of hers with a grin of his own. Taking things seriously was boring. It was far more amusing to joke and snark and tease at every opportunity. "And heey, don't write me off so easy! I actually paid for this bike, believe it or not." Sure, the money may not have been totally clean, but it was hard to get a good, trustworthy vehicle through illegitimate means. He hadn't wanted to go through the hassle of replacing the license plate and any other identifying factors if he'd stolen a bike, and he was sure if he'd gone the cheaper route and gotten something from a black market or a chop shop, it would've fallen apart beneath him. Besides, he had to spend the money he earned from his crimes on something.
He didn't bother elaborating about why he'd come here again. Not so much because it was a secret or anything, but because it seemed to annoy her, being kept in the dark about his intentions. Instead, he responded to what she said next. "Clearly not. But I'd rather underestimate people and be surprised, than overestimate them and wind up disappointed. So far at least, you haven't disappointed me yet." He said. Actually, she was fairly interesting. He would've expected the CEO of a company to be all haughty and stuck-up, leaving the dirty work to any number of goons. But despite her almost dainty appearance, she seemed entirely capable and willing to deal with problems by herself. Aiden thought it impressive, even if it only fueled his suspicion that she wasn't an ordinary human.
The answer about why she'd stayed was simple enough. Predictable, really. She'd wanted to stay and protect her home. The sort of answer he would've expected from most people, even if he couldn't relate. Aiden hadn't had an honest home since he was a toddler, so he didn't really understand the strong need to defend it. He gladly would've abandoned any of his previous living spaces to the aliens if he was overwhelmed by them. The Volkov woman was lucky that the Chitauri hadn't hit her in bigger numbers, that they'd been distracted by others fighting against them, or she might not have made it through the fight alive, just because she wasn't willing to leave.
And then she wanted a reason to trust him? Aiden chuckled at the thought. "Instead of one good reason, how 'bout I give you a bunch of bad ones?" He offered, ignoring the dry tone of her laugh. Really, he couldn't think of any good reasons. She'd be a fool to trust him. But shoud he say as much? He supposed it wouldn't be hard for her to find that much out on her own. The only loyalty he had was to himself. Yet he didn't really know her well enough to be so blatantly honest with her. So instead, he said, "But is there any good reason I should trust you, either? You did hire me out of a jail cell that you put me in, and then you refused to give me the file I asked for."
He all but ignored her dismissal of him. Aiden was the last person who was about to take orders from anyone. And if his being here bugged her, then that just gave him all the more reason to stay. Maybe he'd park his bike somewhere and take a stroll through her house to see what was so special about it.
710 words || Don't worry, Aiden doesn't trust her either. xD || @naz
No more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world; I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack, all around the world was waking, I never could go back 'cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open and finally it seemed that the spell was broken
“I don’t.” Nadezhda said as a matter of fact, though he probably did actually pay for it, now that she had time to think about it. It would mean less eyes on him, and on his bike because it wouldn’t trigger any sort of reaction from the police. Still, he’d shaken her up a bit because of this and she did not like being shaken up. She was mostly over her earlier PTSD but this sort of thing, knowing where she lived, was bringing back very unpleasant memories that she hadn’t thought about it in a while.
Oh christ, was she actually having another panic attack, after all this time? She managed to keep it under control and appear calm as he explained his stance. “Or dead. That’s an option as well, you know. But then you seem very devil may care.” She’d only talked to him once before but he was the same as always. Smiling in the wind and laughing at the world. “One, you’re a criminal element. I suppose I should’ve let myself become an accomplice to your escape, it’s not like I do anything high profile.” Nadezhda replied to his statement sarcastically. “Two, that file wasn’t mine, smart guy. You were in a jail. Where do you think I got the information from?” Nadezhda stated.
“The police themselves if it wasn’t obvious. I don’t have dossiers on criminal backgrounds.” Of course she didn’t, that would be silly. Hector, her hired Private Investigator, had all relevant information she needed about contacts. Save for any of the blackmail, which was now useless since apparently Jason had disappeared in the attack on the city. He wasn’t reported as dead, simply missing. Maybe he’d turned back into his dog form and was roaming around. In either case, unless he came back she couldn’t really help him out.
He didn’t seem like he was going to be leaving. “So, did you come all the way here for your little interrogation, or did you actually have anything useful for me? Or did you simply come here to say ‘I want that file, no thanks on the job’?” Nadezhda asked. He had to have an actual reason to come here besides annoying her. And she really should go back to her house and let her dogs out of it but she didn’t want him to follow her.
She was already way more stressed out than she’d anticipated she’d be, and that was not good at all. In some ways she was very much like her nineteen year old self; young and ready to take on the world and with the naive notion that she could change the world; and not as in control of herself as she was now. She really disliked him for doing this, especially because she had a feeling it was unintentional on his part.
And if he knew more about her than he let on, then it would become intentional. He was the type of guy that liked to push buttons, find out what made people tick. She suspected, anyway. He was very similar in the way he operated to…well, now that was just not fair. She didn’t need to think about her brother at a time like this. She waited to see what would happen now, studying him for his responses.
Post by Z inactive aidenfelidae on Jun 18, 2016 5:51:38 GMT
I'm Fine in the Fire
I Feed on the Friction
I'm Right Where I Should Be
Don't Try and Fix Me
Aiden snorted with amusement at her immediate refusal to believe he'd obtained the bike legally. To be fair, he probably wouldn't have thought someone else like him would pay for something, either. But he hadn't wanted to deal with constant reports of his vehicle being stolen wherever he rode it. It also meant his bike wouldn't get returned to someone else every time he got arrested. Since it actually legally belonged to him, the worst he really had to worry about was that it might be impounded.
At the suggestion that he might end up dead, though, Aiden only chuckled. "'Devil may care..' That sounds pretty accurate. Only I think if I were to somehow die, the devil would kick me out of hell and send me back once he got to know me," Aiden said, grinning. He personally thought religion was a bunch of nonsense, but some of their characters were interesting. From what little he'd read about the "devil," he was some red, horned goat demon that existed to torture bad people after they died. Aiden would've taken it as a challenge to screw with someone like that.
"Hm. So does that mean you do low-profile things, then?" He shot back, intrigued by the possibility. A vigilante CEO was one thing, but a vigialante CEO who also had a bit of a dark side, and committed minor crimes? That was more entertaining. Aiden had been worried she was just some rich goody-two shoes. Maybe it wasn't just because she wanted to try and combat illegal activity that she wanted information on the criminal underworld. "And I figured that much out. But clearly you have a good amount of sway with the police if you got them to let you talk to me alone. I am considered highly dangerous, you know. And I'm pretty sure you didn't convince them you were there for a conjugal visit. Right?" Aiden chuckled. He was positive she had not the slightest interest in him that way She only found him annoying, which was kind of the point.
"I don't doubt you could've gotten me that file somehow. But, it's done now." Aiden merely shrugged. Now that the information wasn't being dangled in front of him, he'd reverted back to being disinterested in what the police might or might not have on him--or his family. Part of him wanted to know, sure. It was why he'd wanted the file in the first place. But a bigger part of him was afraid of what he'd find out and he'd sooner never know. It was easier to go on, remaining ignorant.
Aiden sighed as she got back to why he was here, again. "All work and no play is gonna make you a dull girl, you know." He said. Not that he'd expected much different. Nadezhda didn't seem like the type to swap jokes and verbally spar with him for any prolonged amount of time. Shame. "The answer is no, to both. I had to play dodge-the-cops and jump around from place to place for awhile after I broke out since you so conveniently got me arrested. So I haven't had a whole lot of spare time to dig up dirt on the big names in the underworld while I threw the law off my tail." Having been arrested multiple times before, it wasn't anything new for Aiden and he'd gotten pretty good at it over time, but it was still a tremendous pain in the ass.
"And then all this with the aliens happened. To put it simply, I got eyes on you as soon as I could after our little run in at the bank. Those eyes told me you were fighting the aliens instead of evacuating, and mentioned you were doing it by throwing knives. I guess she missed the gatling gun," he said, mirroring her earlier matter-of-fact tone. It made it easy to slip in the subtle lie as well, a single word marking his contact as the opposite gender. He made no attempt to correct himself or cover it up, allowing Nadezhda to assume he'd slipped up. It should effectively throw suspicion off of his actual contact, at least long enough for him to cover his tracks.
"I was surprised. Fighting and killing aliens is a far cry from knocking me out from behind." Aiden shot her a pointed, if half-hearted glare at that. He'd have to pay her back for the little sneak attack someday. "Shame I missed you in action, but my contact couldn't call me until the aliens had already been taken down, for the most part. Even so, I wanted to see the damage from the invasion for myself, and I thought I may as well get a closer look at how well you fought while I did it. That, and I thought it'd be easier to harass you now that I'm not currently committing any crimes." Well, aside from being a nationally wanted fugitive. But that was a.. passive crime. "Maybe enough to get you to use the powers you claim not to have." Because Aiden was still convinced she wasn't human. More-so, now. The way she'd somehow broken his drill at the bank, seemed to be unafraid of a felon, and now killing this many aliens? It seemed unlikely any ordinary human could do all that.
No more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world; I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack, all around the world was waking, I never could go back 'cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open and finally it seemed that the spell was broken
“You lack an understanding of figurative speech as well, I see.” Nadezhda replied, considering he didn’t seem to know what she’d meant in some ways, and yet in others. That or he was just being incredibly annoying again and simply twisting the words to suit him. “Despite that being theologically incorrect in many interpretations, I don’t believe it would matter how great your personality appears to be.” She added. She shouldn’t be surprised at this point; the boy was lacking in many areas, though it was difficult to tell when he was honestly just ignorant or screwing with her.
“If by dangerous, they mean you invite the danger of someone trying to strangle you, then I agree.” Nadezhda replied. “Haha, cute. You and I both know I’m as interested as you are.” She did pride herself on knowing that much. He was definitely not into her in the way most men and the occasional women were. “Not really, no. It’s an active case file, ergo notice, and also it is more your problem than mine.” She said with a shrug. “As I said before, you’re a thief, so steal it.” A lazy and apparently impulse charged thief but still.
She was tad bit more of a bitch than she usually was this time around. She was still very touchy, and the invasion plus this visit were bringing up things she didn’t like to think about too much, if ever. She’d be fine. Everything was fine, everything was good. It’d be alright. Everything was fine. “Lucky for you we’re not in an abandoned hotel.” She said, making one of the rare movie references she could. It usually wasn’t her style, or her thing to do something like that, but some movies were just that iconic.
Like the stupid Star Wars films. Or Casablanca and all of it’s incredibly memorable lines. “Well next time don’t rob a bank with no prior planning.” Nadezhda said with a shrug in response to that. That didn’t bother her. The next part did, however, and probably had the opposite effect Aiden would expect. It was another slip of composure, but she wasn’t angry at first, rather than running through paranoid thoughts.
How had she not noticed anyone following her? She remembered that event so clearly. There were things she didn’t talk about or tell most people because this sort of thing could happen. Who was following her? Why? She needed to find out. Soon. Case everything, don’t be alone.
Don’t sleep. With the added bonus of her chest starting to hurt because her heart was pounding that fast, she was definitely sure this was a panic attack. It was also Aiden’s fault. She didn’t even note too much that he’d slipped up. Make sure she noted who wasn’t supposed to be in certain areas.
But don’t get caught by the watcher or they’d know she was on to them and then she’d never find them. She was only partially listening to Aiden at this point, but it was enough to piece things together. Another grim smile and then she just looked at him. Threats were meaningless to this man. “Ah, it always comes back to that, doesn’t it?” She sighed. He wanted a demonstration, did he? She wasn’t even sure that would work to convince him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She said. She could threaten him, sure. Could mention that his contact was going to bite it, yes. But it just wouldn’t be as effective. Better play dumb for now; at least she now had a reason for his arrival at her property.
“Well, this chat has been enlightening, but it’s been a long day. If you’ll excuse me.” She said, walking back to her house while attempting to keep an eye on the man, to see what he would do now. Where would he go, what would he do? More importantly, who would he see? Who would he talk to?
She could assume he was telling the truth, but that would not be smart. Better assume he was lying about most everything. But she had to know about being followed or not. Had to; it was kind of a big thing for her. Aiden either didn’t know that, or he did know that and was exploiting it. What to give him credit for? These thoughts were racing through her mind as she kept a steady pace back to her own house. Had to wait for SHIELD to clean up these alien corpse anyway.
Tag: Z inactive aidenfelidae Notes: Almost forgot about this section of her character so this went differently than expected >>
Post by Z inactive aidenfelidae on Jul 8, 2016 6:03:16 GMT
I'm Fine in the Fire
I Feed on the Friction
I'm Right Where I Should Be
Don't Try and Fix Me
Oh, Aiden had known full and well what she meant. But figures of speech tended to be one of the few things he liked to take seriously, for the simple fact that you weren't supposed to. More amusing, though, was that she thought he believed he had an amazing personality. True, he tended to act as if he thought he was great and charming. But Nadezhda had dug through his file and gotten to know him pretty well in a short time, it seemed. And Aiden was well aware of what a pain in the ass he actually was. "Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of him getting tired of me pretty quick, and wanting me in another dimension as soon as possible. Quickest way to get rid of me would be to send me back to Earth."
And come to think of it, that was probably true. He'd made tons of enemies, some of which were capable of a hell of a lot worse than strangling him. Some would probably mow down anyone who got in their way if he got himself caught in their cross-hairs. After landing an attack from behind at the bank, though, it seemed Nadezdha was the one underestimating him now. But then, she probably wasn't aware that he was basically a walking arsenal. He was capable of being plenty dangerous on his own.
Which was, he thought, all that would've been plastered all over his criminal file. His sexual preferences wasn't something he'd thought the cops would be interested in. Or had the Volkov woman figured that part out on her own? He wasn't feminine or flamboyant or anything, and he went out of his way to flirt with both genders, so it wasn't as if he made it that obvious. Maybe he wasn't the only one doing research. Or maybe she'd just had enough men in her life to know when someone was genuinely interested in her. Skilled liar he was, he seldom bothered to fake real interest in a woman unless it was totally necessary.
She seemed to be playing innocent as far as the file went, but that was no big deal. Aiden was sure she could've pulled some strings or made a few bribes if she'd wanted copies. But it wasn't here now, so he'd pretty much lost interest in whatever was wedged into the manilla folder. It wasn't something he was gonna go to the effort of stealing.
"I'll be sure to give it five minutes of thought next time," Aiden chuckled, surprised she hadn't just told him not to rob a bank again outright. Instead, she'd told him not to do it without planning first. Maybe she just knew she couldn't stop him from continuing his reckless and criminal behavior? Still, it didn't seem terribly noble to give a bank robber advice. If he bothered to listen to her, it'd mean more trouble for the banks and police. Man, Aiden was really having a hard time telling what kind of moral compass she had.
And then the comment about having her followed seemed to rattle her a bit. Though she said nothing about it, Aiden could almost see the gears turning in her head once he'd told her, clearly trying to figure out who'd been watching her. Hmm.. if it bothered her, maybe it was something he'd have to poke at. It'd be easy to pay any number of people to follow and take pictures of her, now he knew where she lived. Even if they got caught, he didn't really care if they fessed up. He could tell his contact to give her the same story, and then she'd have no way of telling the real stalkers from someone looking for a quick buck. It'd probably freak her out to feel like everyone was watching her, too.
Of course, she still seemed determined to give nothing away about any possible abilities she had, even when Aiden already had a good amount of evidence to suggest she wasn't human. Hm.. Maybe he'd have to give her a little push, then. Slipping a hand behind his back, Aiden grinned at her casual dismissal of him, as if she actually expected him to be courteous and leave. "You know, you really shouldn't turn your back on a felon."
The words were barely out of his mouth before he sent a half-dozen throwing stars flying in her direction. Less lethal than a knife but easier to throw in higher numbers--but Aiden didn't plan on actually hurting her anyways. They'd simply be much harder to dodge or duck away from than a single blade. He was pretty sure she had some sort of powers, and that she'd use them to protect herself. If it turned out he was wrong, he'd simply dematerialize the small weapons before they hit her.
817 words || I apologize for Aiden. He doesn't actually know being followed is like, anxiety inducing for Naz. He just figures it bugs her. xD Also, ninja stars!|| @naz
