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 Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:32 pm
He hadn't done this in months. Had it been months? Weeks? No, longer than weeks, surely. It was a habit he had finally been trying to break, after long years of just ignoring it and letting it spark up whenever it got too lonely.
It had worked for that long, and it seemed like it would have to work again for now. Some things just couldn't be overcome. It was like an addiction. He was always going on at Nathan about his smoking habit, but seeing himself now, sitting behind the wheel of a car that was not his, Tony could hardly chastise the boy for his own bad habit.
Which, compared to grand theft auto, was not that bad.
Tony blamed how bad the days had been recently for his bad habits resurfacing. He needed to get this thrill, this danger, because he was getting so stressed out with home and work related things that he needed a release. And stealing someone else's car, particularly one this nice, was that release. And what a car it was. Not a classic, in his eyes, but something with a powerful engine and a striking design. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't care.
It drove amazingly. It encouraged him to speed. He kept it out quite a bit longer than he usually did, but soon enough he had it creeping back into the driveway where he had found it, disconnecting the engine carefully, not wanting to be heard.
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Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:54 pm
Sailor Asclepius had gotten a good evening's practice jumping around the city in heels, under the guise of patrolling. The whole idea of going out in the middle of the night and looking for monsters had seemed profoundly stupid to her, but well ... tonight, it was not like she had been able to sleep anyway. The last couple nights, really. The exercise had helped somewhat to tire her out properly so she could rest a bit easier, but the insomnia had still made her decidedly cranky.
Taking it out physically had never really been her thing, but something about jumping from rooftop to rooftop, was exciting, and perhaps even helpful. The white-robed girl was deeply relieved, however, that she had not encountered anything on her patrols yet. The first couple nights, it left her with a feeling that maybe she had prevented terrible things from happening, but by tonight, it was almost starting to feel a little useless. Like maybe the danger had moved on and here she was prancing on people's houses pretending she was helping when she really was not.
Her heels clicked to the concrete and she stopped for a moment to catch her breath, then sighed to herself, "I really don't feel like having to punch out any giant insects tonight, though." It was nearly time for her to go home anyway. Whatever time it was, she was getting worn out, and maybe even tired. With any luck, there would be at least a few hours of nice rest tonight.
Balancing carefully, Asclepius walked along the curbstones. It seemed a bit easier than she remembered when she did this as a child, even with the extremely unathletic footwear. She was grudgingly admitting to herself that this whole weird "make up!" destiny thing was not quite as bad as she had thought originally.
The growl of an engine reached her then, and in the intersection ahead, she saw one of her father's cars speed past. A chill went through her as she half-feared that he had found her missing in the middle of the night and was out looking for her. Her second thought was that he, too, had not been able to sleep, and had just gone out for some fast driving with no traffic. Either way, Asclepius felt like she should get home as soon as possible and creep back into bed. Apparently her own father would not even recognize her while she was "made up" like this, but if she somehow let it slip that she had been recruited into some crazy magical superhero club to him anyway, well ...
She was too tired to think of what, exactly, would happen, but she strongly suspected it would not be good.
Asclepius darted back homeward, slipping through backyards to get there. Her bedroom window was at the front of the house, though, and so she moved around carefully to the front yard when she reached it. The easiest place, unfortunately, to get up to the roof to her bedroom happened to be right beside the driveway.
And she made it to the hedge that separated the driveway from the front lawn with what she thought was extreme ease and excellent stealth. Asclepius froze in a crouch behind the boxwood when she heard the car door open, and took the moment to congratulate herself for being a total ninja in heels--
-- and then noticed the trailing white length of fabric from her costume spread out behind her on the grass, like the white ring around the bull's eye on a target.
The novice sailor scout promptly put both hands over her mouth to hold back the swears, and dearly hoped that her dad would not look in her direction.
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Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 5:53 pm
Tony sighed, sitting back as he felt the wires he had put together under the dash. He sighed, sitting in the car for a long while, the engine just idling. He knew he had better shut it off before anyone heard him, but he couldn't bring himself to do it yet. Something about this whole moment was calming.
It reminded him why he used to like this so much, and why it had stuck with him so long.
He looked up when he heard something, cursing as he pulled the wires and the engine shut off. He ducked down in the car, eyes darting back and forth as he looked around. He opened the door slowly and slid out of the front seat, dropping out of the car and closing the door behind him.
Now wasn't really the time to worry about being impolite by leaving doors open, however.
He didn't see anyone, not sure what had drawn his attention, wondering if it had been a cat. No lights in the house, at least no new ones, and no one coming out to check on the car. He waited and then stood, aiming to hurry off, but he spotted something strange sticking out from the bushes nearby.
Curiosity killed the cat.
He moved over to the white fabric, frowning at it in wonder. He followed it, holding the side of it in his hand as he crouched to stay out of sight from anyone who might be in the house. And then he realized it was attached to someone. A girl, in fact.
"Oh!" He yelped, letting the fabric go.
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Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 2:28 pm
Asclepius was just starting to wonder why her father was letting the engine idle so long when it finally shut off. It was one of those little odd things that seemed wrong somehow, perhaps from knowing her father for her whole life, but then, she tried to tell herself, that it was also quite odd that the both of them were out doing things so late at night, really. Wanting to listen to the car engine certainly was not any weirder than running around in a superhero skirt in the middle of the night.
Her worries were suddenly justified, however, as she heard the door open and peered through the bushes as well as she could ... and saw someone who was not her father. The girl held her breath, eyes going wide as she tried to get a better view through the branches while moving as little as possible. Boxwoods were not terribly transparent, unfortunately.
The person who was not her father started to move and she froze completely as she was fairly sure he was getting closer to her. A theif? Bringing the car back? Some new friend of her dad's that she did not know about? ... In the middle of the night?
Then, the girl felt a bit of cold air reaching her legs where she crouched. It was chilly out, but not cold, and so far, her skirts had done a decent job at keeping her warm enough but ... if she was not moving, then--
Asclepius jumped to her feet and whirled around as the man who had come out of her father's car yelped. Cheeks flushing slightly, her mind scrambled until she recalled one important fact: she was a freaking superhero right now.
"W-what are you doing!?" the girl blurted, clenching her fists and trying to get a good look at the man before her. She was not sure if she recognized him or not (Man that age with brown here? She had probably seen a few dozen who fell into that category around the city), but for the moment, Asclepius was quite alright just knowing that she was not presently facing a bug of unusual size.
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Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 3:11 pm
Tony had certainly not been expecting a senshi. What was she doing here?! Was she there because she saw him stealing the car? Was she going to treat him like a villain now because he had broken the law and probably deserved it? They weren't crime fighters, were they? He had no idea what to think, but he was panicking a bit.
He didn't want to be the bad guy: he was a good guy! He helped Senshi! Or rather, he tried to as hard as he could. Really. It wasn't his fault he was clumsy and awkward, and got into trouble more often than he did offer help.
He still tried!
"I... I... wasn't doing anything! I heard a noise. I mean. Ah. I was just... checking the car... uh..."
He wasn't a very good liar when he was panicked. He had lost that ability over the years, it seemed, though he sometimes had sparks of his past when he could actually be believable while lying. Now was not one of those moments, however, and he fumbled around for words to string together in some kind of sensible order to explain what he had been doing.
Taking a car, driving it around, then returning it wasn't exactly a good thing to do, even if he hadn't kept the car or hurt it beyond a couple of wires.
"Uh... I'm... sorry?" he offered, with a very pitiful, 'please don't hurt me', smile.
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Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 1:38 pm
It was starting to seem an awful lot like this magical superhero uniform meant first and foremost for Asclepius that all of her calm and poise went straight out the window. Even if this guy was not an oversized mosquito, the senshi found herself trying to figure out what on earth she was supposed to say in this situation. She was just secretly thankful that he would never know who she actually was.
... Right, which meant that she could not identify this house as hers.
Edging away from him slightly and keeping her defenses ready, Asclepius attempted to keep her voice quiet enough to avoid waking everyone in the area up, but still authoritative: "I watch over this neighborhood, and I am pretty sure I don't recognize you as a resident here, sir." Oh god, was she doing this right? His fear and his smile disarmed her - she would obviously fight back if he pulled a gun or a knife, but he had not.
Asclepius had made up her mind when all this insanity started that, the next time she needed to, she would definitely be able to punch out an evil monster bug. She was fairly certain she could punch out a masked man with a weapon stealing her dad's car.
But this guy?
Standing straight, she smoothed her hands over her skirts again and tossed her head, hoping to keep up the fierce and angry. What was she supposed to do with a guy who not only bothered to bring the car back, but just straight up apologized?
"How long were you out joyriding in this car that is not yours?" she demanded finally. Crime fighting was supposed to be more black-and-white than this. Why did she have to be getting this test so soon, too?
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Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 1:16 am
Tony's expression fell.
She protected this area? Then she must have seen him up to no good, must have come over to stop him, and must have saw him as the bad guy. There was no doubt about that in his mind: she must have thought he was a terrible human being who wanted to bring mayhem to the area and joy ride in cars and maybe wreck them or steal them completely.
Only one of those things was actually true.
He watched her as she stood upright, fixing his own stance. He tried to look as calm as he could, though it was fairly impossible. He couldn't look at her in the eye, feeling too guilty. Self inflicted, mostly, as the only thing she had told him was that he didn't look to be a resident here. Which was the truth. But it was the tone in which she had said it that cut the most.
Like she knew he was a riffraff, and was rubbing it in without saying it.
"J-just a couple hours..." he said, blushing at how long he had been out with it. Usually he didn't risk going that long, lest someone notice and call the cops. But this car had been so fun, he couldn't help it. And it had been a great catharsis to him: he felt much better after taking out his frustrations while hotwiring and then triumphantly driving the car around. Those good feelings were gone now.
"I'm really sorry, believe me, I just... I don't have a good excuse. I was just... frustrated and pent up, and this is something I used to do as a kid and... I just sometimes need to remind myself that I can still... do it." He sighed. What a terrible excuse. 'I don't usually break the law except when I want to remind myself that I can'.
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Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:46 pm
... The way he was talking made him sound like he really was genuinely sorry. Asclepius was not at all sure what to do with him. Brows drawn down into fierce mode still, she opened her mouth, then shut it again, then sighed.
Taking a few steps back, she got a good moving start and hopped neatly over the boxwoods to land beside both the man and the car. She took care to also position herself between him and the end of the driveway, too, but mostly so she could look past him into the driver's seat of the car though the still-open door.
"I can understand frustration," she finally admitted. "But don't they make video games where you can do this?" She looked up at him, head tilted slightly to the side more with curiosity now; the frown on her face seemed to require a bit more effort to stay there. Asclepius half-wondered then if maybe the touches of grey in his hair meant he was too old for video games, but it might be an unfair assessment. Or just not something appropriate to mention while she did still have him cornered after "borrowing" her father's car.
"Is it the thrill or something?" Maybe the senshi should not be letting her guard down, but part of her did want to feel sorry for him.
Glancing past him, she scanned the dials on the dash. Then Asclepius shot another sidelong glance at the unusually kind car thief.
"Do you have any money on you?" She scrutinized him for a moment, then, realizing the ignoble implications of her question, pointed back over her shoulder with a thumb. "To top off the gas tank?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 8:37 pm
Tony looked surprised as she bounced over him and landed nearby. He looked at her, wondering if she thought he was going to make a dive for the car and try to drive off with it. He didn't want to give that impression, lest he suffer for it, and make an enemy out of a senshi.
He cleared his throat, taking a less than subtle step away from the car. He stopped after one, though, also not wanting her to think he was trying to run away from her. He doubted he'd get very far in a chase, anyway, considering he needed a cane to walk and she just jumped an impressive way.
"Ah, I'm not really the type for video games," he said, shaking his head. He was mostly oblivious about them, save the ones Nate plays. And only then he saw the boxes before Nate took them into the bedroom and shut the door, as per usual. He didn't think he looked like the kind of person who played video games, anyway. On that front, he probably didn't look like the kind of person who stole cars for joy rides, either.
"Ah, yes. I mean, in a simple sense. I just... need to remind myself sometimes that I'm... I don't know, it sounds stupid to say out loud. That I can still do these things, like I said before. I don't think I have a better explanation that doesn't sound even more pathetic than that, at the moment." He sighed softly.
His heart stuck in his throat when she asked him about money. What was this? Was she sticking him up or something? Blackmailing him? She was a senshi, for Pete's sake!
"O-oh. Yes, of course," he moved to get his wallet, fumbling with it, pulling out a couple of bills and offering it to her.
Wait.
"Should I... I go and fill it up? I mean, unless you're just going to leave the money on the dash, how will you make sure the owner of the car gets it? Unless you want to... hot wire it?" He frowned.
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:47 pm
In an emergency room situation, being quick on her toes making decisions would be key. The aspiring doctor would have to be able to make correct choices regarding what to do, and they would have to always be correct. And even though Marcella was not necessarily aiming to be a trauma nurse, it was not like she could keep patients waiting while she mulled over choices.
Not all of them would necessarily be this difficult, or so she hoped, but Asclepius realized that quick decision-making was something she would probably need to work on.
"Uh," she started, then snapped her mouth shut. Should not sound uncertain, even if she seriously was. "First idea. Go and fill it up. I'll come with you." Asclepius nodded, to make her feel more sure of herself. This would be fine. She would make sure he filled it up and brought it back, and if he tried anything funny ... she was a senshi.
Quirking a brow, she grasped the driver's door handle and unlatched it, then started to pull it open, then gestured for the would-be thief to take the wheel again. "No problem, right? You were just driving it."
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Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:11 pm
Tony blinked.
"Go and... oh. Yes, of course. Ah." He awkwardly moved to the car again, wondering if this was some kind of trap. He might have referenced Star Wars somehow, though he wasn't savvy enough to know the opportunity presented to him. Instead, he just moved to the car as she held the door open for him, feeling like a student being ushered into the Principal's office, carefully sitting down in the driver's side seat.
He looked at the dash, then at the senshi. He offered a sheepish smirk before he made to get the car going again, hoping he wasn't pushing his luck by getting the engine purring again. If the owner heard them, he would have one hell of a time explaining himself.
And he doubted the senshi would stay and help him out if things got awkward.
"My name is Anthony Darrow, by the way," he said, with a tone similar to someone turning themselves in. He smiled at her, motioning for her to get in before he drove off. He wasn't about to do anything stupid.
Stupider. Anyway.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:16 pm
Asclepius hoped she was not making a mistake, either, as she watched the man take a seat in the car again.
She put on a slightly awkward smile as he introduced himself, wondering if she should give up her new super-alias in return. Jumping dramatically over the car felt like a silly idea, at least, and so the senshi walked around to the other side, and settled down on the passenger's side.
Though the vehicle was more than familiar, the fact that she had just gotten in with a stranger was not lost on Asclepius. She suddenly felt like a strange tabloid or something, especially with her sailor fuku on.
Trying not to look like she had been in this car hundreds of times before, the girl pulled the door shut and buckled her safety belt. Then, looking back to the man in the driver's seat, she smiled a little and finally replied, "You can call me Sailor Asclepius."
She was quiet for a minute, then asked him, "Why did you just tell me your name like that?" Asclepius was almost disappointed that he had, in a way. And starting to wonder if this whole meeting was somehow staged. Like if ********* the Magic Cat was somehow introducing her to superhero duties with the lamest criminal ever.
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 12:09 pm
Tony had half been expecting her to jump over the car, if he were honest. He almost looked disappointed as she walked around it, though he smiled carefully when she got into the passenger side of the vehicle. He took a moment to note that this was very strange. Very, very strange.
He was hotwiring a car he had already stolen for a joy ride so he could take it to a gas station and refill it while the senshi who had caught him rode shot gun. Yes. Very strange. And yet not completely unexpected for him. It seemed to fit in perfectly with all the other weird things that happened to him.
It would be a boring day, indeed, when something like this didn't happen. It didn't occur to him that others might see them and wonder what a man was doing driving around in such a sweet car with a senshi, or terrorist, next to him. Nor did he take the time to wonder how she was taking the whole thing.
"Sailor Asclepius," he repeated, with effort, to try and make sure he got it right. Some of these names were more difficult than others. He blushed a bit. "I thought it was rude not to introduce myself. I mean, I guess it was rude to... steal the car in the first place... but uh."
He drove them to the nearest gas station, not taking the time to drive around like he was feeling compelled to do again. The purring engine was intoxicating and distracting. No, he would just top the tank off and return it where he found it.
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:46 am
Being in an enclosed space with a stranger who was also apparently a criminal made Asclepius crowd a bit closer to the door and away from the driver; she became conscious of this after a few minutes, and shifted slightly to try to look more at ease. To be honest, he did not seem quite as flustered about this as she was half expecting him to be.
"Have you been caught by senshi before or something?" she asked carefully after a stretch of silence broken only by the growl of the car. "Or I guess ... seen others at least?" Asclepius wondered if there would then be a way to ask where if he said yes; if there were others she could ask about what the heck all of this senshi stuff meant, all the better. But she also definitely did not want to look like she was unsure of what she was doing.
As they came up to an intersection, she leaned forward slightly, pointing. "Turn right there and there's a station on the left after a block or so." She glanced between him and the road. "And you gotta fill up with Plus or Premium. I think he'd know if you put Regular into this engine." Seemed like something her father would be aware of, with his nigh-uncanny senses when it came to cars.
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 12:33 pm
Tony wasn't used to being intimidating. Seeing her huddling away from him, though he didn't comment on it, just made him feel more uncomfortable. It was like he was suddenly kidnapping her, which was certainly not what was going on here. Anyway, she was a senshi, right? For all he knew, she could punch through the car door anyway. Not that he would ever do anything as dumb as try to literally take someone for a ride.
He almost laughed at her question, looking sheepish.
"I've run into them before, yes. I mean. Usually they're saving my life, not... stopping me from crime. I swear, I'm not... you know... a bad guy." He just did bad things sometimes, which was different. Wasn't it? He did not think that way, and knew his brain was only trying to justify things.
Doing bad things did not make a bad person, but there was a limit.
"I do a lot of, ah, research, if you can call it that, on senshi. I'm kind of... a fan. Uh. Yeah." He looked at her when she told him to use which type of gas, a bit surprised. He didn't ask questions, though, pulling up to the pump and getting out to pay and fill the tank back up. At least it didn't need much, as this would have turned out to be quite the expensive joy ride.
At least he hadn't crashed it. Then he'd have to sell his new home.
Once the tank was full he got back into the car and sighed. He turned the engine and pulled out, heading back the way they had come.
"Do you patrol this area a lot? Or are you just familiar with cars?"
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