|  Author | Topic: Headaches In the Mall [Open] (Read 96 times) |
xravenx
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« Thread Started on Aug 22, 2008, 12:24pm » | |
Rachel Roth scowled at the racks of bright clothing that burned at her retinas like perfectly aimed lit cigarettes, her jaw tightening in disgust at merely being forced to endure the optical blasphemies. Yellows, oranges, reds, greens, golds...colors that Rachel could never fathom putting on her pale skin.
She moved away from the window as she felt the beginnings of a gag working the long way up her throat. Long, thin hands were stuffed into the pockets of black, boot-cut pants. She would have worn a black t-shirt, as well, but when Kory had objected to the complete lack of color, she'd thrown on a dark navy blue top to placate her friend.
It hadn't helped much, for Kory's arms had still remained crossed over her chest. "I would hardly call that color, Raven. It's so dark it might as well be black."
To this, Rachel had only shrugged, and had begun heading out the door before her friend stopped her once more, grabbing her new young body by the elbow with an unrelenting grip. Rachel's blue-violet eyes had traveled down to the golden-orange skin of Starfire's hand before looking up into the alien's eyes with another sigh. "Yes, Kory? What may I do for you?"
Kory's eyes had narrowed at her friend's tone, but she decided to ignore it. "You can do me a favor. Try putting some color in your wardrobe. You might actually like the results."
"Doubt it."
And yet here she found herself, in a building full of so many pretentious bastards that they made her head hurt with the arrogance and ignorance that filled their brains. Their self-involvement was a loud beating pulse in Raven's temples as her long legs carried her through the corridors of the mall, until, finally, she found a shop that held clothes that would actually leave some of her covered. It was an irony that left a bad taste in Rachel's mouth. It seemed the less material a designer used, the more expensive it was.
She was just glancing over a pair of brown trousers when, somewhere in the vicinity, screaming began. It echoed down the halls eerily, and the wave of fear that came from that area almost nauseated the girl. She clutched her stomach for only a moment before she got herself under control, her feet moving quickly out of the store. She moved against the crowd that pushed and shoved her to get past, and she shook her head.
"Should have known the moment I agreed to go clothes shopping that it was going to be a horrible day," she muttered as she continued towards what was turning out to be the food court of the mall to investigate what had the masses of self-involved bastards fleeing in terror. Glorious day, indeed.
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Anarky
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« Reply #1 on Aug 22, 2008, 5:11pm » | |
((Hope you don't mind Anarky jumping in X3))
Anarky- Lonnie rather, was for the first time in months out in the public eye without a single notion of trying to pursue his more radical goals. No. Today, he was more or less talked into coming out of his shell by MAX who thought he had been working to hard as of late with trying to help the country rebuild after the alien invasion. The only other time he was out in the public eye was to be the host of some party for a charity his company, Anarco, had pushed for. That or he was meeting with a representative of some kind of up and coming business that wanted his backing in a project they were conducting, which while necessary, proved a waste of his time as many new business owners were not on the up and up. These people were later pursued by Anarky directly, their crimes brought to light for the public.
So MAX suggested he go out to the mall like a normal young adult that he was. What MAX didn't seem to understand or atleast failed to remember, Lonnie was not normal. Even some of MAX's suggestions that he could possibly do at the mall seemed to Lonnie that he was scraping the bottom of the barrel so to speak. Clothes shopping? What use did Lonnie have with overburdening himself with material things? If he really needed clothes, a word he cannot stress enough, if Lonnie really needed clothes he would simply pay someone to go pick some up for him.
Making some friends was also one of the suggestions, something that caught Anarky off guard. MAX had a way of doing that. Bringing something completely irrelevant up that makes it relevant to the conversation in that point in time. Honestly, Anarky had tried making some friends in the past, but few met his high expectations and even if they did, Anarky knew that if he got to close he would fear losing them which could be used against him at a later date.
So after an hour or so of argueing, Anarky not willing to be bested and MAX not willing to let Lonnie push himself to hard, Lonnie finally caved in. After all, MAX being wired into his secret base gave him leverage that Lonnie wasn't willing to test... the double was also enough to tip the scale in MAX's favor. So here he was now, dressed in a pair of brown cargo pants, a dark red hoody, a black string necklace with a gold Anarchy symbol around his neck, and a pair of sneakers. Lonnie prefered the casual look to the "suit" look when in public like this because he didn't want to convey that he saw himself as superior to anyone here. He was just a person like anyone else and only wore suits when dealing with the corporate figures.
Looking around at all of the people scurrying about, Lonnie wondered what he was doing here as he pulled his hood down and brushed his curely red hair out of his eyes. Malls were simply dens for the shallow and avarice, he had no place here. He was about to turn around and head back out when a book in the window of a little store caught his eye. Intrigued and excited about this discovery, he followed his impulse to buy said book and walked up to the cash register to pay for it.
Walking back out bag in hand, it dawned on him that he had just partaken of the purchase of a material thing. While not a bad thing, things started to look up for him as he headed over to the food court and got a drink. Taking a seat at one of the tables, he opened up his book on Ayn Rand who was a woman who wrote works that helped Lonnie shape his life and goal. Reading his book and blissfully unaware of anything going on around him, a scream brought him back to reality as a group of thugs came running out of a jewelry store with bags overladen with necklaces and such. "I'm going to defrag that A.I when I get back..." Lonnie deadpanned as the thugs appeared to be armed.
They had set off the alarm which had gotten the attention of security who had arrived on cue, getting shot at by the thugs who ran Lonnie's way. "Shit..." he silently swore as he knew what was coming next and though he tried to meld into fleeing crowd, one thug had grabbed him by the arm and put a gun to his head.
"Stay back or this guy's a dead man!" the thug commanded, taking a few badly aimed potshots at the security officers, instead shooting someone in the fleeing crowd making them drop to the ground injured. That was all the insentive Lonnie needed to act, taking the man's gun hand and pushing down on his hand while pushing up against the wrist with enough force to make him scream and drop his gun, also release his grip on Lonnie who followed up with a swift twist of the arm to make the thug fall flat on his back.
Bullets whizzed his way from the other thugs as he dove over a table, pulling it over to act as an improve shield as he drug it toward the injured. He wasn't in uniform, but that didn't mean he couldn't save lives. "Where are you hurt" Lonnie asked the man until he saw him gripping his thigh. "Ok. Everything's going to be alright, just relax ok?" he added to reassure the man to keep him from panicking as Lonnie took part of one of his sleeves and tore it, wrapping it around the wound and tieing it tightly around the man's thigh to try and slow down the bleeding. Why did this have to happen when he was out of uniform?
((Sorry for the ungodly long post lol))
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xravenx
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« Reply #2 on Aug 26, 2008, 1:16pm » | |
Why does this have to happen when I'm out of uniform?
That thought pounded in Rachel's temples as she strode confidently through the hysteria towards pain and fear, which brought her to the side of a man who was clutching a bloody cloth around his leg. She kneeled beside him, not uttering a word, a hand with long, pale fingers moving over the wound. She called her power to her fingertips, and soothed the wound away, her mind completely focused on healing the pain beneath her touch. When it was done, she stood to her full five feet and eleven inches, and looked down.
"Leave," she commanded brusquely.
Her eyes traveled to the forms of the slightly elderly, overweight security guards that, at the moment, were nothing more than moving targets for the gunmen. Targets that seemed intent on trying to act bravely despite the sickening feeling of fear rolling off of them in sickening waves. A sigh heaved from the girl's slender ribcage as she shook her head and raised her hands. Great, inky pools of black appeared below the guards' feet, and, exchanging terrified glances with one another, they sank into those holes, and were safely teleported outside.
It was only then, when she was sure that all of the other potential targets had been removed, that her eyes slid to the only person left who wasn't her enemy. Not yet, anyway. Her eyes narrowed at him for a moment, her mind probing his. Confidence. Not bravery, but confidence. Vastly different feelings. Bravery could get you killed--a false security blanket that made one ignore their own mortality. He was confident in his own skills, aware of his limits. She nodded once, firmly, allowing him to stay.
The red chakra jewel in the center of her forehead gleamed as her vivid gaze slid to the gunmen, and she glared. The barest hint of a smirk curved cruel-looking lips as she played on their emotions, drew them into herself and manipulated them. They were all afraid, and she took that fear and magnified it. They'd seen her make the security guards disappear, and they didn't want to be next.
She pulled at her astral form, that huge, unearthly raven, that sprang from her center and unfurled its wings, its beak opening towards the sky in a long, silent cry of rage. And then those massive wings flapped around the tall, slender form. The Titans were well known around the city. And Raven, the daughter of an underworld demon, was well known among them. The dark, stoic hero among the group, she stood out in her silence. And her raven was the stuff of legend and fear, the things parents threatened their children with if they even began to get out of line. Well...the Raven, and Nightwing.
Her voice, when it emerged, was soft and deadly, yet it seemed to echo around the now empty halls of the shopping mall, bouncing off the tiled floor and ceilings, designer-clad mannequins watching the scene unfolding behind pane-glassed windows. "I will give you one chance, and one chance only. Leave. Or I will make you regret the human capability to dream."
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Anarky
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« Reply #3 on Aug 29, 2008, 2:11pm » | |
While Lonnie had finished the makeshift bandage around the man's leg when a dark haired angel appeared and made the injury fade away by itself. It was none other then Raven of the teen titans. Lonnie had actually not anticipated meeting any of the titans, though the chances of that happening were very high since this was their city he simply expected to avoid them by not being around when a robbery or other dark deed was done. He could have easily dealt with anyone else, but instead he got the psychic.
It was then he felt a strong pressence in his mind, this he reconized at once as her attempt at reading his thoughts and on reflex he locked his more sensetive thoughts behind heavy iron doors. The man did what he was told and ran off without so much as a thank you to either of them for helping him. "You're welcome..." Lonnie thought sarcasticly as he watched what Raven was doing and watched with a smirk as the gunmen were litereally shaking in their boots.
Lonnie was probably the only person that wasn't terrified, as in secret he had been through enough harrowing things. Argued with Darkseid, bumped heads with Ra's Al Ghul, and even hypnotized Blasfemy, a rogue demon to do his bidding for a short period of time to name a few things. Raven's astral self flapping about did not unnerve him in the least.
It was still impressive... cool was another word that came to his mind as seemed to work on the gunmen who made one last feeble attempt at recovering their nerve only to drop everything they were carrying and break off running in a mad sprint toward the exit. Dusting himself off, Anarky picked up his book that he had bought and said, "So... Let me guess; one of your friends persuaded you to get out more aswell?" Lonnie asked curiously, taking into account that Raven was dressed in more casual attire then her normal uniform. Also taking into account that she was a psychic and from his research, a psychic had to be in control of their emotions... Which intrigued him that someone was able to do so and still be able to put up with the incorherant thoughts of the masses.
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xravenx
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« Reply #4 on Aug 30, 2008, 4:45pm » | |
Rachel's response was to snort derisively and jerk her head in a nod. Her gaze, however, followed the would-be shooters as they fled from the mall. The police were already outside, so that dark girl didn't give chase. If she would have, anyway.
And then those vivid blue-violet eyes snapped to the man in front of her, her focus reaching deep. She couldn't read all of him, and that intrigued her. One common misconception about the Titan was that she actually couldn't read minds, she could only read emotions. Feelings.
Finally, the Titan spoke.
"From now on, I'll let Starfire shop for me. This was...annoying."
Though, if she let Kory buy her clothes for her, Rachel may very well end up going to school in next to nothing. And Donna wasn't a much better alternative. And she certainly couldn't send Dick, Roy, or Garfield out to buy her clothes. That could end equally as badly. Dick might try to dress her in too much, as he had a tendency to be protective over her, and Roy and Garfield wouldn't dress her in anything at all. Perverts.
She shoved her hands into her pockets as she looked him over, cocking her head to the side in her thorough consideration. "When you intentionally hide something, by the way, it only makes me more suspicious of you."
It was a soft warning, and one she didn't seem too terribly serious about as she shrugged and turned slowly on her heel. Her temples were beginning to pound from all of the emotions outside, and it was hard to resist the urge to relieve some of the tension with a massage with her fingers. But she didn't like showing such weakness in front of others. So her long legs began to carry her towards the exit of the mall, out into the streaming masses for hopefully only a few moments, and if she was lucky, back home.
Where she'd promptly tell Starfire to go fornicate with herself if the girl dared criticize her for not buying anything. Annoying, indeed.
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Anarky
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« Reply #5 on Aug 30, 2008, 8:43pm » | |
"From now on, I'll let Starfire shop for me. This was...annoying."
Lonnie heard her finally reply to confirm his suspicions. He liked being right some times, but there were also times when it was difficult being right ALL of the time. Being a proclaimed know-it-all distanced him from most kids his age.
"When you intentionally hide something, by the way, it only makes me more suspicious of you."
He heard her add which made Lonnie briefly tense up, though seeing no intent on following up on that he relaxed once again as she headed toward the exit when a thought occured to him. It had seemed they both had a bad day out in public, to which he was not willing to be a complete loss for himself and she did save his skin so to speak... Well, if she hadn't intervened right away he might have found a way to get out of that situation.
"Hey! I don't mean to be a nuisance, but could I get you a cup of coffee or even some tea? Just a way to thank you for saving my skin." he called out to her in a sincere tone. No tricks, no hidden meaning, just what he meant. Lonnie didn't expect her to take him up on that offer though, but even if she didn't he could say he tried.
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xravenx
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« Reply #6 on Sept 2, 2008, 9:47am » | |
Rachel paused in her slow retreat from the mall when he extended his invitation to her. When was the last time anyone but a Titan had invited her out to do anything? 'Never', she answered automatically. She turned her head slowly, her long, inky black hair falling in a curtain down her back. Her intense eyes focused directly on the redhead's light-colored orbs, as if trying to gage his intentions. Finally, she sighed.
Often, lately, she'd recognized the emotion known as loneliness. She and Kory weren't as close as they had been upon her return. And her relationship with Garfield was strained, at best. He still believed he was the reason she'd left in the first place, and it was her own fault for letting him assume so. She missed their closeness. She missed being cared for. None of this, however, would she ever admit even under the threat of the worst torture.
"I am at a disadvantage here. I have no doubt that you know my name. What is yours? What shall I call you?"
She turned around fully, slowly, her tall, slim form hunching over slightly as she tucked delicate, long-fingered hands into her pockets. It made her somewhat nervous that he met her eyes so unflinchingly. Most recoiled from her very presence, and her direct stare was something hardly ever tolerated.
"I will accept your invitation, whatever your name is. If it was indeed sincere."
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Anarky
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« Reply #7 on Sept 2, 2008, 9:21pm » | |
Low and behold, Lonnie's cynicisim was pleasantly proven wrong when she turned around and accepted his offer. He was also alittle surprised to notice a hint of tension? Nervous perhaps? That was a feeling he was not familiar with as he was normally confident with every action he took because he was absolutely sure about all the facts. Though he could understand alittle as to why she was nervous. She probably rarely got to socialize from her status as a super heroine and reputation, though that in itself was interesting as she had powers that he didn't; so why was she nervous?
That was a question best left unanswered for now as he merely smiled reassuringly. "Oh how rude of me; my name is Lonnie Machin." Lonnie promptly replied as his mind was still curious as to why she was nervous around him. Uncertainty should not be that intimidating, so was it him? "And maybe if I'm permitted I can help your shopping aswell if you need it." Lonnie added offhandedly as he gestured with a sway of his arm toward the direction of some cafe. "Shall we?"
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xravenx
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« Reply #8 on Sept 4, 2008, 10:47am » | |
"...Lonnie," she repeated slowly, carefully enunciating the two syllables as if testing how they felt rolling off her tongue. Her head canted to the side, trying to determine of his name fit the man before her. Red hair, light eyes. Probably European heritage. Possibly Irish or Scottish, or some other similar pale nationality. But "Lonnie" seemed as if it was a name meant only for a child--one that needed to be amended as a boy grew into adulthood.
"...Very well. Lonnie. You may call me Rachel." She nodded twice, the idea indeed acceptable to her. She was used to her taken name, now, after using it while attending high school. School. Which she needed clothes for.
Sighing so deeply that her chest heaved, Rachel shook her head. "No. Your offer is appreciated, but I do not need your help in choosing my school attire. I will let Starfire shop, and hopefully, I can make suitable outfits out of what she chooses." Hell, hopefully some of the clothing would cover her stomach and legs. One never could quite be sure with Kory. The Tamaranian was not bashful by any means, nor did she understand why certain humans were so fond of hiding what nature gave them. Specifically Rachel.
Her eyes slid to the small cyber cafe he gestured towards, sitting lonely and unoccupied. Seems people had fled from all of the stores, as well. Now that she was paying attention, the rich, heady scent of coffee permeated the smells of the food court, beckoning Rachel's need for caffeine and something relaxing. She sighed and shook her head. As much as she was suddenly craving a smooth, rich, hot liquid, she was weary of this shopping mall.
Vivid eyes moved back to Lonnie. "Perhaps we can go somewhere less...turbulant. Besides, the officers outside will not take kindly to two loiterers after the attempted robbery. There is a small cafe on 19th street, I frequent," she suggested, careful to keep her tone neutral and monotonous.
It had been a long time since she had sought out any company other than that of her fellow Titans'. And she'd never brought any of them to the small, special little coffee house she loved so much, preferring to keep their company at the Watch Tower. So it was...a unique offer she extended to this man. And she had no idea why she was even bothering.
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Anarky
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« Reply #9 on Sept 4, 2008, 10:09pm » | |
"Thats a nice name. A pleasure to meet you." Lonnie commented politely. So far so good, he only hoped that nothing else happend to ruin this day. Then when she suggested that they should leave and head to one of her favorite cafe's Lonnie wasn't to worried about police officers. After all the mall was open to the public during the day and so long as neither of them wandered around the crime scene he didn't see a problem with staying. Though at the same time he wouldn't put it passed them to make a stink about it either.
"Point taken. Lead the way then... I'm still fairly new in town." Lonnie admitted with a sheepish grin. He was indeed new here, but his double had been here often so it wasn't like he was clueless as to where he was but he didn't have the time to memorize every single building yet; a majority of them but not everyone of them.
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