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 Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 12:07 pm
The park was a much better place to try her traps, Painite had decided. After two attempts in the alleys, it was time to pick a new location and adapt what she had learned. Both traps had involved nets, and while one she hadn't been able to try before getting interrupted, the second had worked beautifully.
True, she had captured one of her fellow Negaverers, but the point was she had still caught something. It was a positive enough ending to show her that she was on the right path.
She just needed to perfect things further before moving on to a new idea. She loved tinkering with things, from gadgets to her own plots, so it wasn't unsurprising that she hadn't yet moved on from the net idea.
In the park, she opted to try an idea she had. Putting the net on the ground, near some trees, she hide the wires as best she could around tree trucks and foliage. It always worked so well in the movies, but she noticed that it was not quite possible to fully hide the fishing wire, though clear, she was using as her pulley system. Two corners of the net had fishing wire to pull them up, the other two had regular rope. The rope she had hidden as best she could, but she would just have to hope her next victim didn't see the wires until it was too late.
She had the net on the ground, hoping that this instead of falling down and trapping someone, giving them a chance to throw it off or duck from under it, it would scoop them up into a hanging net. She had built a weight hooked up to a trip wire, and hoped that it would suffice.
Now she just had to wait for someone to step on the net. Her Hobby Horse weapon, Mr. Saddles, was laying on the net as bait, and she had paid off a small child to run around the park about losing their toy in the forest. (Since children didn't ask questions, and wouldn't come back snooping themselves. Of course, she also had to trust that the kid would actually do it, and not just run off with the money).
It was glorious.
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Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 10:42 pm
Bad things happened to people who walked through the park at night, or so the rumors went. It was a hotbed of terrorist activity, and innocent people who went in did not come out unscathed. Even worse was when the gangs of terrorists ended up fighting each other, when it was almost impossible not to get caught in the crossfire. In the time since she had started volunteering at the hospital, Sophie had listened to terrified people recount the tales of how they got there, as she changed their sheets and brought them their meals.
It was, then, perhaps not the best idea to cut through the park on her way to the dorms, but Sophie was in a hurry. She'd spent longer than she had meant to at the hospital, and still had an essay to write for the next day. She had her nose in a book she was only half finished with, occasionally glancing around to make sure that she wasn't being followed, or that there weren't any flashily dressed creeps around.
Fortunately, the coast seemed clear, the night was quiet, and Sophie was just turning a page in her book, almost done with her chapter, when she spotted something a ways off to the side. It looked like some poor child had lost their toy. Tut-tutting to herself, she headed for it, tucking her book under her arm. Since she couldn't think of any children at the community center who carried around such toys, she'd have to come back the next day to search for its owner.
Just as she reached out for the hobby horse (since when did kids still play with those, anyway?) Sophie felt a light pressure on her ankles, which sent her sprawling forward uncontrollably, with only time for a brief "dwuh?" before she hit the ground hard. But only, it seemed, for a moment.
"Aaaaaaah!" Sophie shrieked, as something underneath her closed in on her sides, yanking her forcefully upwards.
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Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 12:10 pm
So maybe it wasn't as glorious as she had thought.
Painite was left waiting for some time, a few hours, tucked away in her hiding spot and dutifully watching the net, waiting for someone to trip it. Maybe she shouldn't have put it in an out of the way location, but to avoid people seeing it, or seeing when it went off, she had to, right? Sassolite had told her to make sure she planned for the clean up, as well.
Maybe she had overplanned... if she could find a closer place, and maybe a new way to rig the net so it blended in a bit more...
She was interrupted from her daydreaming, which was almost turning into actual sleep anyway, when someone let out a cry and the net rustled as it snared its prey.
"It worked!" She whooped, though she probably shouldn't have been excited about that... out loud. She hurried over to the net, grinning up at the helpless person she hard trapped. She tried to stay behind the girl, so she didn't see who had captured her. She also spoke in a deeper voice, grand as she could make it, though her generally high tone and English accent made it sound rather silly.
"You fell for my trap!"
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 5:08 pm
Sophie's first thought was that she should have taken the rumors more seriously.
Her second thought, as the net yanked her skywards, was mostly a nonsensical exclamation of WTFGOINGONUPANDNETANDWHAT? It was not, she would later admit, one of her prouder moments. Then, when the net had reached its destination and settled, swinging in the night breeze with its prey, she started to calm down. She poked the net with one disbelieving finger as she realized that, yes, she had been stupid enough to fall for one of the oldest tricks in the book.
In her defense, she hadn't considered anyone she met would actually have reason to try it. So much for that.
As Sophie sat there- or more accurately, hung in an awkward position where her head was next to her knees- she tried to take stock of the situation. It was late. It was dark. She was hanging in the middle of the park in a net, likely set up either by a particularly industrious mischief maker, or one of the terrorists she had heard about. Oh, and there was someone shouting at her from below.
"I did!" she shouted back, grinning in spite of herself. "Congratulations!" Even in the predicament she was in, it was clear that, however inadvertently, she had helped someone accomplish something they had worked hard to do. That always felt good. It would have felt better if her feet were on the ground and the other person was not grinning up at her menacingly, but Sophie didn't like to be picky.
Eventually, however, she had to come to terms with the fact that someone had deliberately caught her in a trap. Whether said trap was meant for her specifically, or she had just stumbled into it, didn't really matter. The point was that someone had wanted to catch her, and had. But why?
Sophie shifted uncomfortably, managing to wiggle into something resembling a sitting position. "So, what happens now?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 1:03 pm
Painite wasn't expecting to be congratulated! Maybe by her Captain, if she had seen the awesome trap, or maybe by Captain Scheelite if she had managed to catch him for a second time, but by a random civilian she had caught in her net? That was surprising, to be sure. She let out a hoot of a laugh.
"Why thank you!" She said, brightly despite the fact that she had every intention of draining this girl's energy. At least it wouldn't kill her? Then maybe Painite could find her again, and see what she felt about her next, better trap.
She didn't let the girl in on the idea, however.
"Well, I'm going to admire this for a second," she said, summoning Mr. Saddles to her hand. She remembered she was supposed to be intimidating, and had lost her deep accent. Clearing her throat, she spoke deeply again. "And then I am going to cut the net down and let you go."
Kinda true. But she didn't just want to explain what she was really going to do, right? Maybe she hadn't thought this one out very well. It would work better if the victim wasn't conscious. She'd remember that for next time.
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 9:36 pm
The laugh was just a little bit disturbing.
"You're welcome!" Sophie called back, though she was twisting in the net, trying to get a better look at her captor. If this was a prank- and judging by the setup, the bait, and the laughter, it might well be- it was a ridiculously well-thought out prank. And played by someone who appeared to be an adult, presumably with better things to do with her time than trap innocent passerby for laughs.
Then again, it could just as easily be one of those delusional nerds who lived their battle games and wanted to try strategy on a real human being. Or a college dropout taking out her frustrations with society on the nearest people, for no reason other than boredom and anger. Sophie wasn't sure she wanted to know, really.
There was a sudden shift in the net, and when Sophie looked down, she saw the woman holding the hobbyhorse. But wasn't that scooped up with her? It must have fallen through a gap in the netting, she decided. After all, what else could explain how it was suddenly there and not here?
And why would she suddenly let Sophie go, after going through all the trouble of catching her?
"Oh, I get it!" While the prank idea still fit well, Sophie realized something that made even more sense. "I'm on candid camera, right?" Or else this really was a hopeless geek or an angry rebel... but Sophie didn't want to think about those possibilities before discarding the more likely ones.
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Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2010 12:50 am
Painite chuckled. At least this catch was entertaining! She was still debating knocking her out, though she knew she didn't want to kill her unless she had to. So long as she could get out of this without spilling any details.
Why not just go with it?
"Now how would you guess this is a set up like that? Did someone tip you off? Damn it! This was supposed to be a lot funnier than that. You were supposed to panic, think you were about to be, I don't know. Killed by an axe murderer. Or left unconscious on the street. It's disappointing, people today, figuring things out so fast."
She sighed dramatically.
"I guess I'll have to think of something else." She grinned, gripping Mr. Saddles. She could only play for so long: if someone came by she might get in trouble.
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:34 pm
For a moment, Sophie grinned to herself. Even in unusual, uncomfortable, and downright unpleasant circumstances, it was nice to be right. Not that her being right was making her captor very happy, but Sophie would take care of that somehow. As she thought about it, though, her grin faded. "I have to tell you," she called down, "this isn't the sort of thing that I think most people would find funny. I'm not talking the victims either, but the audience. Considering the atmosphere in the city, tricks about axe murderers are kind of gauche."
Was this girl really criticizing her captor? Why yes, yes she was.
At least she seemed to be rethinking her choice of pranks, Sophie noted with pleasure and relief. "If you'd like, after you let me down, I'd be glad to help you think up more... appropriate humor." Emphasis on the 'let me down' part. Her legs were starting to fall asleep, and there was no way to untwist them in the position she was in.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:33 pm
Painite could only stare at her captive.
"Well, I'm not doing it for them!" she counted obstinately, though her eyes immediately flickered back to amusement. "I'm doing it for me! And I am very, very pleased with this whole thing. In fact, I think I'm so pleased with it I can successfully end things here, and not worry about missing anything better. Because there's no way for this to be any more perfect than it already is."
So maybe she was lying a little bit to save her pride, but that was alright in her book. She had already established a strange scenario for the whole trap, and the more she spoke the deeper she got. She really needed to just drain some energy and get out of there.
"I'll let you down after that," she said, moving to touch the young woman lightly in order to begin the process of draining her energy.
Up above, something snapped worryingly, and the net sagged a bit. It was not going to hold for much longer. Painite would either have to hurry, though she was still getting the hang of that, or just hope that the creaking and obvious 'net is falling down' hints were just not true.
She had to stop letting herself get distracted, damn it.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:55 am
The way the woman was shouting now made Sophie a little nervous. It sounded a bit like ranting to her, and made her rethink the "caught by an angry social deviant" theory. But there was no way to be sure, and besides the manner in which she was being addressed, there was something about the words themselves that bothered her. She frowned. Clearly this person did not understand the nature of her job.
"While I understand that it's important to be pleased with one's work, I think you're missing the point. Television is a competitive industry already, and not everything gets airtime, I'm sure. In addition to thinking about what you enjoy, you also have to please your bosses, your sponsors, and of course, your audience. It's a difficult balancing act, but I'm sure with a little thought, you'll be able to put together something that will make everyone happy, yourself included."
There were a lot of finer points of the television business that Sophie didn't quite understand, but she was pleased with the basic analysis she'd given. She'd hoped it would be rewarded with a smile or thanks- and maybe some help getting out of the net- but it didn't look like that was happening anytime soon, much to her sleepy dismay.
"What..." Sophie yawned, trying to rub her eyes and getting ropeburn on her cheeks for the trouble. When had she gotten so tired? She still had homework to do for tomorrow! "What else do you need for it to be perfect?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 11:42 am
"Televis.... oh!"
Painite almost burst out laughing again. Right! She thought she was on a prank gameshow or something. The Nega had almost forgotten that, in the heat of the moment as she defended her trap. It might have been a much funnier thing to run with if she had put more thought into it, but alas, she hadn't jumped on that character quick enough. Now she looked like she didn't know what she was doing.
It was flustering, but she had to keep her focus now.
"Just a little more," she replied enigmatically to the girl's question, sounding as villainous as possible when she said it.
She could feel the energy filtering from the civilian into one of those pretty little balls. She hadn't too much experience with the whole hunting thing, but she was certainly learning more with each victim. She was hoping the girl might fall to sleep and stop trying to babble at her about how to run her television show, though why she was upset about tips on a show that didn't even exist she would never know.
The tree had other plans. Though Painite had gathered a small amount of energy, the tree was faster than she was yet. It creaked and splintered, and the branch gave way, spilling the net and its contents to the floor and knocking Painite off her balance in surprise.
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Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 8:44 pm
... right, that wasn't unsettling at all.
"Look, I'm really glad that I'm being helpful to you." Even if Sophie didn't quite understand what part of her being caught in a net was even remotely helpful to another person. "But I think I'd be a lot more useful if you, say, let me down so we could talk things over." Again, the phrase "let me down" was emphasized. Clearly the blood was rushing to her head, and it was making her dizzy. And sleepy, for some reason.
The net shifted, and for a moment Sophie thought that her captor had taken her words to heart. Then the branch above her broke loose from the tree, not only sending her sprawling to the concrete below, but landing on her chest with a painful thump. As she lay there dizzily, she considered the pros and cons of her situation.
Pros included her being alive and not too badly hurt. She was more awake than she had been a moment ago, thanks to the shock of falling. The branch on her was on the small side, which was probably why it had broken in the first place, so while having it fall on her hurt, at least she wasn't pinned to the ground.
Even compared to the cons of being banged and bruised, and in a situation with a probably unstable woman, Sophie felt pretty good. She shoved the branch away and managed to lurch to her feet, still tired and dizzy, but better than when she was caught in the net. Which, upon further inspection, she still was- her feet were still tangled in the rope. Slowly, she set about getting herself out and away, wishing her body would move as fast as she was telling it to.
"Is this still going according to your plan, Miss Director?" she asked dryly, working one foot free.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 9:32 am
Painite watched as the sleepy girl fell from her tree and couldn't get herself up. That was good. Her energy had not been drained to Painite's standards, but things were going so poorly now that she was feeling slightly discouraged. A very rare thing for her, and she was torn between just diving in and taking the rest or running off to regroup, rethink, and try again another day.
The girl was up while she was debating.
Eyes wide, the Negaverser, who had not intended on being spotted tonight, blinked at the girl as she dizzily got to her feet. She sighed, shaking her head and taking an honest moment to respond.
"No, not at all."
She decided to just go for it, get the rest of the energy, and hope the girl forgot about her when she woke up the next day. This was one she wouldn't tell her Captain about, if only because she did not want to have to explain failing, or losing her composure, or risk Sassolite thinking she was a failure or a dummy.
Moving suddenly, she put her hand on the girl's shoulder, forcing her back down to the floor. She shut her eyes and focused, wanting to speed things up as much as she could.
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Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 4:52 pm
"Of course it's not," Sophie said, pulling net off of her other foot. "If you had listened to me in the first place, we might have been able to avoid this whole mess." She gestured to the net and fallen branch, in case any part of the mess was in some way unclear. "I really think it would be for the best if you forgot about this particular plan of yours. If you'd like, we can go somewhere and brainstorm new ideas. I know you want to succeed, but this isn't the way to do it."
Even after being caught in a net, nearly falling asleep, and being dropped to the pavement, Sophie was still, in her way, trying to help her captor. Even though, up close, she could see that the woman was wearing a rather odd outfit. From the back of her sleep-muddled brain, warnings arose about terrorists roaming the city in strange clothing, but before she could act on them, the woman shoved her down to the ground.
Sophie stumbled backwards, tripping over the tree branch before she ended up on her back. Her eyes widened for a moment as she realized exactly how dangerous the situation was. Then her vision blurred, and she rolled onto her side, wanting to drift off to sleep again.
It wasn't about what Sophie wanted. She'd spent years putting her own feelings aside in favor of others. Usually, it worked for her. She was happy as long as other people were happy. But if this person killed her- or did whatever else she was planning- then Sophie would be unable to help her, or any of the other people she knew she could be of service to during her life.
As quickly as she could, which wasn't quickly at all, Sophie reached out for the branch she had tripped over. It was a lot less unwieldy than an oar, and she was used to those, so with some effort she managed to grip it and sweep it towards her captor, hoping to knock the woman off her feet.
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Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 7:41 pm
"Oh, come on!" Painite yelled in surprise, almost losing the energy she had gathered. Enough, she decided, for one failed effort. She needed to get out of there, before something completely ridiculous happened and she found herself on the losing end of the battle.
Which, she was beginning to feel, would be entirely possible.
When the girl picked up the branch, Painite was already reacting. It was why she had cried out in frustration, pulling herself backwards and avoiding the less than quick attack. She could use Mr. Saddles to beat the girl into submission, but she was feeling too flushed, too embarrassed, and wanted to get out of there to think things over and try again another day.
She hated when she got like this, and worked as hard as she could to avoid failing in such a personally embarrassing way. This evening, she was just in over her head by her own design, and it seemed anything she did just made it worse. She didn't think this girl's energy was worth that much frustration, was it?
And she had gotten some, at least, so it wasn't a total bust.
"Say goodnight!" Painite yelled, lunging in and swinging her fist, holding some of her strength back to compensate for the girl being a civilian, for Sophie's stomach. Hit or miss, she leaped away after that, aiming to take to the paths back through the park.
And home, at last.
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