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 Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 12:16 pm
Late night at the library: half a dozen students kept barely awake by coffee sprawled over books, tucked into secluded corners for the privacy and the quiet, barely conscious of the carefully-hushed footsteps that moved around them.
Technically, only those with an ID should have been able to get in, to poke at DCU's collections and take advantage of the tidy little tables. Al-Janah, however, had his own entrance -- the long wall of mirrors in the bathroom, awkwardly sprawled out over a row of sinks. It was a tricky entrance, sideways, down and over, the movement of his boots setting automatic faucets going as he cursed and stepped down onto the tile, water spotting his pants and his leggings. But it did the job.
This wasn't his first time creeping along the stacks, listening for the telltale sounds of snoring students who had finally given in to the inevitable and collapsed forward onto open notebooks. He knew the place to start, a soft chair almost always the first occupied and just comfortable enough that people had a tendency to nod off.
Mirror shard in hand, he couldn't help but smile to find someone there -- naturally. The wraith slithered free to sweep through the dozing form, leaving the young man shifting and sighing and sinking deeper into sleep while Al-Janah peered up the hall, an eye peeled for trouble.
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Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 3:12 pm
It had been pure chance that Zoe Katsaros had stirred from her all-nighter at the back of the library, driven solely by her need for more caffeine. Between her senshi duties and her over-crammed school schedule, she barely found enough down time to breath, let alone sleep. If the empty monster cans and coffee cups were any indication, tonight was not going to be an exception.
She had chosen school over her senshi duties for the night, but as she turned the corner around a shelf of books she realized that her duties were going to follow her whether she liked it or not. Her eyes landed on what looked like a senshi, but instantly knew that to be impossible. She faltered the instant she saw him and immediately jumped back out of sight, pressing her back flat against the end of the unit.
Great. What now?
She was dead tired, brain fried, and more likely to recite Newton's laws of motion than her power-up phrase. She brought a hand up to her face and rubbed it across, groaning lightly beneath her breath as she tried to decide what to do. She really needed to study, and she didn't really owe that kid a damn thing. Of course, that pesky Senshi sense of duty was screeching inside her skull the moment she even considered just walking out of the door.
Damn it all.
In seconds, Zoe Katsaros was replaced by Midas in a flash of lights and other unnecessary, glittering effects. Once she was on her own two feet again she rounded the corner once more and pointed a finger directly at the "Senshi", whose energy she could now feel. Her intuition was always right, she thought smugly.
"You know the drill, unhand the civilian, stop that.. whatever you're doing and go away." She managed to put her other hand on her hip and attempt to look threatening, but all she really wanted him to do was leave.
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Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:42 pm
It was too late for this to come to an end tidily, at least. The mirrorwraith was already slipping home, more opaque now, teeth bared in Midas's direction as it disappeared back into the shard that was its home. Al-Janah immediately snapped it back into the pouch and tucked it into a pocket, much more concerned for the energy than for his own health.
Impossible to tell if that was arrogance or self-certainty. He shifted his posture, flashing her a bright sort of grin, and raising both hands meaningfully. They were empty, now, nowhere near touching the unconscious civilian. Perhaps 'unhand' had been a poor choice of words.
"...seriously? 'Stop that whatever' is the line that you're going to go with?" His tone was friendly enough, but his eyes were less so. Watching her hands, the way she held herself, trying to determine if she'd hold up under fire -- or crumple.
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Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 10:40 am
She grimaced slightly as soon as she realized both of her mistakes. It was in that moment that she knew she was too tired to make a witty opening and, likely, too tired to try and fight him away from the library.
Not for the first time, she cursed her knew sense of responsibility for strangers.
"Well, I'm afraid you're a bit weirdo than the normal weirdos I have to curb stomp, so yes. That's exactly what I'm going with, unless you feel like explaining, of course." A brow quirked at the offer, as if she were actually willing to wait for him to tell her. In reality she simply wanted to buy time, figure him out past the lackadaisical and probably completely fake exterior.
She took an experimental step sideways, slow and careful. That one step took her nowhere, but more in that direction would put a table and chairs between them and, perhaps, give her ammo to throw in the form of nearby books. She didn't look at them though, just kept her eyes on the senshi before her that she didn't quite understand.
"Hmm? How about it? Then next time I can be more politically correct with my demands." She let her hand fall from her hip, to spread out with her free one in unison, causing the drapes from her bow to hang low in the air. The motion was inviting, though her eyes were no more so than his own.
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Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 11:18 am
He took a step to match her step, as well -- away from the bookshelf by his shoulder, out of the sprawling reach of the unconscious civilian's legs. It would be really embarrassing to start running and trip over a pair of battered blue converse all-stars. Al-Janah wanted to make this one clean.
"I was, uh." He thought about it, obviously thought about it, his own eyes not on her but on the distant light behind her that pointed to the men's room. The men's room with a mirror he could retreat through. Except what kind of a** ran away from a girl? He focused back onto her face and flashed her a grin.
"Borrowing a quarter for the pay phone?" The lie was obvious enough to be insulting. He drew hands up in front of him, prepared to mark her if she moved more quickly than just a step, if she came toward him.
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 7:12 pm
If she had been a little less exhausted, a little less strung out on coffee and energy drinks, maybe she would have had the right mind to see his glance behind her. As it was, she didn't, and even if she had she wouldn't have known what he wanted from a bathroom. There were still so much she had to learn.
His insulting answer earned a slight narrowing of her eyes, enough to kill what little good humor she had left. She was tired, busy and growing increasingly impatient with the disruption to her nightly plans. If she kept playing the avoidance game she was going to waste valuable time that she didn't have. So, instead of taking another step to put the table between them, she took one forward towards the bastardized senshi she still didn't quite understand. More questions for Diana later, no doubt, but for now..
"You could at least do me the decency of telling the truth," there was honest disappointment in her voice when she spoke, but her body composure was already beginning to change. She was tensing, her hands were ever so slowly starting to curl at the tips. In a second she was in motion, bolting across the thin carpet of the library in her heels and leaving a battle cry in her wake.
"Touch of Greed!" Her hands burst with a golden glow, aiming right for the exposed hands of her opponent.
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Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 1:27 pm
No sense of humor at all. Al-Janah snorted at her serious expression, at the flash of anger, and how dramatic she made it all sound. He, at least, thought it had been painfully obvious that he was lying -- and really, what was the difference between an obvious lie and the honest truth? Either way, they made it clear where things stood. It was the silver-tongued fibs that you had to watch out for...
She came toward him in a rush, and Al-Janah reacted immediately, his motions practiced at this point.
"Janah Rake!" He tore the jesses away and tossed his bird, a ghostly red blur, in her direction without hesitation. It circled above her, marked out a circle -- but she was already moving through it, that hand outstretched toward him and Al-Janah stumbling as he tried to move back out of her reach.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:14 pm
It all happened in a blur.
She was closing in on him, so sure that she would stop whatever power he might have and confident that she could do so flawlessly. Then there was a flash of red and something moving in her peripheral. Seconds before she could close in on him, his attack struck first. She had failed to account for what his power might actually be.
Unguarded and left in the open, the bird descended and caught her just as she felt her hand close around the wrist of the senshi. A pained grimace stretched across her face as she tightened her fingers, not even fading as she felt the feeling of power slipping through her hands.
She'd taken it, but not before it could do damage.
An angry set of parallel scratches spanned the length of one cheek. They were bubbling with blood and leaving trails of it down her dark skin. She could feel it stinging, like she'd been branded across one side of her face, and through the pain and exhaustion she no longer had the ability to hide her feelings in their game of bluffs. She was angry and it showed.
"Thanks," she hissed through clenched teeth, curling her hand tighter around his wrist and attempting to dig her manicured nails into any exposed flesh while simultaneously yanking as hard as she could to attempt to throw him off of his feet.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2011 1:48 pm
Midas was surprised that his attack had hit; Al-Janah was more surprised by that sinking feeling, that drawing feeling, his power slipping away from him. She'd been too slow to stop it entirely, but fast enough that he could feel the bird fading out before its attack was done, could feel its lack.
It was disturbing, to say the least.
He was flat-footed, baffled, when she tugged on his arm. The result was probably not exactly what he expected -- instead of finding a battle her tug caught him off-guard, unresisting. Instead of him digging his feet in and holding his ground, he came toward her much more quickly than she likely intended, colliding into her with a startled sound, his own eyes bright and wide. Novices that the pair of them were, more or less, they were most likely going to go tumbling together into a pile on the floor.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 4:47 pm
Midas' eye widened in surprise as the dark mirror senshi not only gave in to the tug but also failed to apply any resistance at all. As unprepared as she was and not quite used to thinking on her feet, her momentum brought him colliding straight into her.
She was taken down by her own assault, falling roughly to the floor on her back, limbs tangled with the opponent she had sought to send down on his own. As his body fell onto hers she gasped for air, finding that it was partially crushed otu of her by his weight.
She shifted immediately under him and flailed not-so-gracefully with any limb she could move, trying to both knock him off and roll herself over to her feet. Unfortunately, she was just managing to make a greater mess of their unintentional game of twister. There was not enough room between them to gather the momentum needed to land any kind of strike.
She was thoroughly pinned and trying her hardest to buck him off before he realized it.
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 6:59 am
It was funny -- this was a position Al-Janah found himself in a lot, wrapped up in an awkward pile with attractive young women. At a later date, maybe he'd ponder this in more detail, wonder if he was just so attractive and magnetic that they couldn't keep themselves away, and laugh at the very idea. Maybe he'd take it as some kind of cosmic sign: the balance of the universe struggling to find him a nice gal.
Of course, usually the girls were pinning him, and having the tides go the other way left him blinking, stunned for long enough that she could get an elbow into his stomach and, briefly, knock the breath out of her. The shocked thought of 'am I winning this one?' resulted in losing some of his advantage, but he struggled to recover it, reaching out for her wrists, desperate to keep her hands off of his skin, if he could.
Al-Janah only had one shot, so it seemed likely that this senshi did too...and yet, he still worried, couldn't help but wonder what else her touch could do. He'd felt the energy zapping out of him. Why were there so many people who could ******** up his attack?
"Chill." It came out hoarse, rough, barking. "Because I'm not afraid to hit a girl."
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 6:55 pm
The few meager points of contact that she managed to make were useless - they didn't hurt him, they didn't even disorientate him long enough to get him off. In the end her flailing was ceased by his hands on her wrists and his weight pinning her down. At his bark, all she could do was freeze and stare up at his face where loomed above her.
"Get off of me," she bit the words out, trying to shoot daggers from her bright pink eyes. She was exhausted, she had things to do, and she was losing. Her poker face was wearing thin and her anger was shining like a backlight beneath her dark flesh. Though a cornered animal was likely to be more dangerous, it was still cornered in her case.
She shifted beneath him, trying to push his arms away by applying force with her wrists. She tried to kick her legs, to no avail, and simply ended up sliding her knees around to try and unbalance him. She just wanted him off of her, before this became some cheesy fanfic for a bored librarian lurking in the darkness. Midas was not some cheap bimbo and she was not amused with the situation in the slightest.
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:44 am
Al-Janah, on the other hand was highly amused and all the moreso when he saw the flash of fury on her face, her attempts to stare daggers at him. It made him grin again, sudden and surprised, fingers stilling around her wrists. The worry faded out of his expression, the struggle sliding down to the same self-certainty that always did [and always would] get him in trouble. Al-Janah really had no reason to look that cocksure. Leto would probably scold it for him.
"Well, this could be worse, I think." His tone was dry, with a hint of a snicker behind it, red eyebrows raised meaningfully. "I mean, this is almost comfortable, I gotta say. So long as you keep the hands off --"
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 9:07 am
Too late.
That was the only thought Midas had before she took advantage of the brief moment he became too sure and too relaxed. Her leg rose sharply, plowing her knee right into his groin with all of the force she could manage from such an impossible position.
And it worked. Really, there were few men that could ignore such a thing.
His weight shifted and she went the opposite direction, rolling out from underneath him and springing to her heeled feet. For a brief moment she considered kicking him while he was down, taking advantage of the situation, but the last time she thought she had him off balance she ended up pinned in a situation that could have ended very badly for her.
No, she was too exhausted to do this tonight.
With a look somewhere between regret and irritation she turned on her heel and made a dash for the library exit, books and caffeine forgotten. Some things were more important than a perfect GPA.
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 9:14 am
In an hour or two, Al-Janah would probably reflect on the fact that he really did deserve that. Pinning a girl who didn't like him much, and then teasing her, was a recipe for disaster. He'd done it before, and yes, he'd probably do it again, but on an objective level, when he was thinking clearly, he knew better. His mother'd taught him better. Or maybe that girl with the pig tails, in the second grade.
Right now, however, he had only one thought in his head:
Girls are bitches.
All he could do was roll to the side, legs curled up and a groan escaping, shocked and horrified both. He tried to stumble to his feet, back away from her, certain that she would pursue her advantage, and turned his head only to watch her flee.
He thanked his lucky stars. It'd take him a bit longer to recover, to stumble away toward the bathroom and through the mirror. Back toward the safety of home, a nice cold shower, and to tend to bruised -- and very important -- parts of his anatomy.
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