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Post by Batgirl on Aug 30, 2017 22:14:17 GMT -5
It had been a long day of looking for Rorschach. Barbara Gordon had begun to sorely wish he was one of those he was one of those vigilante heroes that worked all day and all night and didn't sleep. Or maybe he was and she just wasn't finding him. After all, New York was a big city, and she was just one person.
Well, two people. She and Helena had split up and were about to meet back up to discuss their findings.
Her feet were tired. Her legs were tired. She was hungry. She hadn't stopped all day to take care of herself, and she was starting to wonder how people did this for a living. And still, she persisted. She had to. Finding Rorschach was her only priority today. It was central to the plot, as it were. As much as she hated to admit it, Helena was right. If they didn't do this tonight, Helena might lose her nerve, or worse, go off and do this on her own. They needed Rorschach to make this plan work, and they needed him more than Barbara cared to admit.
Whether she liked it or not, the law couldn't help them get to those death masks. They could try to submit for a warrant, but she wasn't a cop, and there wasn't justifiable cause. It gave her a weird feeling, but vigilante justice was the only way to get things done in this particular case.
God, if her father heard her say anything like that...
As she walked, she felt like she was being followed. Every time she turned around, she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but a couple of times she started to notice the same slight man walking around. It couldn't be the same man, though. But it was. He was smaller, red hair, nothing remarkable about his face to speak of. No real distinguishing marks. And carrying a sign. Crudely made. The sign read "The End Is Nigh".
The third time she saw him, she was tempted to stop and ask him if he was okay. If he was lost. He was across the street. She didn't think he'd seen her, and so she tried to wave at him with her bright, infectious smile. He still didn't look at her. Perhaps he was homeless. Or blind. She tried to cross the street, but before she set foot on the asphalt, he had disappeared into the crowd.
She decided not to think anything of it. New York was a busy place. She looked away and lost sight of him. That was all.
She turned, and moved on.
As it grew darker, the winds got stronger and the temperature dropped. She knew better than to ask anyone if they'd seen a masked man patrolling the streets, and she knew better than to keep to the main streets. Vigilantes didn't walk in the open. She glanced around and pulled her scarf up around her nose and mouth, less to keep the cold away and more to hide her face. She pulled her hat off her head and scooped her hair into it. Her hair, she found, was one of her more recognizable traits. If she couldn't hide her eyes, she'd hide her hair. She pulled her gloves on and slipped into a nearby alley.
After glancing around again, she decided no one was watching her anymore. Not under the veil of night. It was safer in the darkness. She ran up the brick wall of the building to the fire escape and clung to the bars, using her body weight to swing herself up to catch the handrail. She swung herself up once more to land on the railing in a crouch, then pushed off to run up the wall, kicking off the corner of the building to the adjacent fire escape and repeated the process until she reached the rooftops.
From here, she could see into the alleys a lot easier. More than that, she could get to them a lot faster than on the street. If Rorschach was in this burrough, she'd find him
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Rorschach
Neutral 
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27 
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Post by Rorschach on Sept 1, 2017 22:51:51 GMT -5
It had not been an easy task, recovering from his injuries at the Wicked Suit the previous night.
Rorschach had underestimated that woman. To his credit, he tried to assure himself, he had never seen her before nor could he have known she would be such an adept fighter. She'd beaten him. Hard. He was scrappy, but she had finesse. Almost like a dance.
But the dance didn't end well and he'd half crawled up the streets til he mustered up the courage to stand and walk, following Barbara to the penthouse Cade had sent her to.
After their discussion and his various warnings, which he had assumed would be left mostly unheeded, Rorschach had taken himself back to his rancid apartment, managed to tend to himself as best he could, washed the blood from his mask and scarf, tried to sleep.
Couldn't.
Sleep never came easily to him and he worked best at night.
He knew Barbara would come looking for him to follow up. And so, he suited up yet again but not as himself. As Walter Kovacs. He carefully snuck out of the window of his apartment, down the ladder to the dumpster outside. He retrieved his battered old sign, painted in black 'The End Is Nigh' and hoisted it painfully over his shoulder.
This was perhaps unwise until he healed.
Unwise, but necessary.
Barbara did not know about this face. It would be better to find her and keep an eye on her to keep her out of the Wicked Suit if she felt impulsive.
And so he waited. Waited and waited, patrolling his usual post, holding his sign aloft. Until he caught sight of her. She approached.
She did not go inside the Suit nor even stop. Very good. He kept his distance, following her steadily. He kept her in his peripheral vision, never focusing on her with his eyes. She could not know she was being followed.
She seemed to be looking for something....or someone. Him? Perhaps. But how useful ultimately was she in such a task, he wondered. He made note of her movements as she went. She was good. Better than he'd expected.
Now and then, she seemed to move like the blue woman.
Casually, as Walter walked passed one of the alleys, he slid into it, as naturally as if he hadn't been walking just now at all. He set his sign against the wall and whirled in one fluid motion, walking again as he crossed the street and pulled his collar up to hide his face. Keeping to the opposite walk, he kept Barbara in his sights....until she half vanished. He didn't look. But he kept watching. She scaled up to the roof expertly.
She was good.
Very good.
He rounded the corner, turning back to retrieve his face and his clothes where he had left them near the dumpster outside. After he had exchanged the coat and shoes for his own, keeping them similarly neatly packed in the opposite compact chute next to the great heap of steel, he set his hat on his head.
This felt much better.
He looked toward the roof and gingerly held his grapple gun up toward it, firing until the hook on the end of the cable found its mark and pulled him up to the top. If his supposition of her trajectory in this area was correct, he need only wait. And so he crossed to the opposite side of the rooftop and sat there, hands shoved in his pockets.
Waiting.
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Post by Batgirl on Sept 1, 2017 23:23:00 GMT -5
After what felt like hours, Barbara glanced at her watch. It had only been minutes of searching the roofs. Time passed surreally slowly above the streets. It was a whole different world up here that she was only vaguely aware existed.
She moved across the roof in an arcing pattern, hoping to cover more ground in her search for her vigilante ... would she dare call him a friend? She wasn't sure if she had any friends. She definitely wasn't sure if Rorschach counted as one. Or if he would count himself as one. She wasn't sure if that was his fault or hers.
Finally, she saw him.
Just waiting.
At first, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. That he wasn't really there. After all, she'd been searching for a long time, and she hadn't eaten all day. But the closer she got, the clearer he got. He was definitely there.
She grinned under her scarf and ran toward him, giving in to the urge to hug him.
Right, because that's a smart idea, she thought to herself. Hug the murderous vigilante criminal with an arrest warrant.
She let him go quickly and took a step back, taking her hat off to let her red hair flow.
Then she hesitated at her scarf. She was trying to hide her identity and here she was showing it off to the first person she came across. "Good going, Babs," she muttered to herself. Then immediately hit herself in the forehead.
Night one of being a vigilante and she was already failing miserably.
"Okay. Off to a bad start," she admitted.
She stuffed her hat loosely in her pocket and looked at Rorschach.
"So the bad news is, apparently I suck at this masked hero thing. But the good news is, Helena wants to confirm the death masks." Her face still hidden, her smile was invisible, so she gestured a little more broadly to show her enthusiasm. "So, if you're still up for showing her where they are, we can do this tonight. If you're up for it."
Then she realized.
"Are you doing alright? I mean, after what happened, I don't really want you running back into the Wicked Suit so soon if you're just going to get busted up again."
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Rorschach
Neutral
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27
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Post by Rorschach on Sept 1, 2017 23:45:40 GMT -5
That was...an unexpected reaction.
Rorschach, who prided himself on preparedness for most plausible eventualities, found himself in Barbara's not inconsiderable embrace. He froze. What was this? He'd experienced a hug before, he thought, a long time ago. But from Barbara it seemed out of place.
But in a good way? It was strange. He went rigid entirely as she did this before she released him again. He stood there still as stone as the girl composed herself. He didn't know what to say, much less what to do. He supposed that, given Barbara's more nurturing personality, she wanted to make him feel appreciated.
It was good to feel appreciated. He usually preferred to keep his work silent and quick and efficient, but to have someone else to confide in over it....was different, he supposed.
"....yes," he growled after a moment, "It is good to see you, Ms. Gordon. And I would disagree. You are doing well."
He nodded as she explained to him that Helena was prepared to examine the death masks in the Wicked Suit, the ones Cade had evidently amassed over years of his work. Good. This was good.
Perhaps it might lead them closer to their killer, or prove that it was Cade himself all along.
Either way, it seemed beneficial.
"Good," he grunted, "Will be important to get her perspective."
He glanced around.
"Is she meeting us?"
Rorschach shifted somewhat when Barbara inquired if he was all right. He tilted his head to the left then to the right, popping his neck both times.
"Well enough to continue," he grunted, "Don't worry about me."
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Post by Batgirl on Sept 2, 2017 0:14:58 GMT -5
It was a relief, you could say, to hear him say she was doing well. Maybe he was just trying to make her feel better, but it worked. She felt much better.
So she kind of regretted hugging him, from how rigid he went, but that didn't mean she was going to spend the rest of the night beating herself up over it. She was going to try to move on from it. Well, try was the operative word. Honestly, she was just so glad to see him after such a long day, she couldn't help herself. Maybe she was glad to see him. Maybe she was happy to see him standing upright after what had happened the previous night She wasn't sure what possessed her to hug him, but it was in the past now, so all that could be done was take a step forward and move on.
Barbara nodded and stuffed her hands in her pockets.
"We'll be meeting her, actually," she said. "I told her to meet me five blocks from the Suit. We'd try to figure out what to do if I didn't find you. She seemed intent on doing this tonight or she'd run off and do this on her own."
The tone of her voice suggested that she knew she was working with a teenager.
"Be prepared if she doesn't like you immediately. She saw the bruised eye you gave me and went on a tangent about 'guys shouldn't hit girls,' as if I didn't hit you first."
She smirked under her scarf and playfully nudged his side she thought she remembered was less injured.
"If you're sure you're well enough to do this, then let's get going before Helena decides to ransack Cade's office by herself," she only half joked.
"But I won't not worry. I'm half the reason you're hurt. I'm taking half the responsibility for it. And there's nothing you can do to stop me."
She scooped her hair up into her hat again and adjusted her scarf to better cover her face before strolling down the roof toward the Wicked Suit.
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Rorschach
Neutral
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27
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Post by Rorschach on Sept 2, 2017 0:32:51 GMT -5
The nudge from Babs made him stumble slightly. He had not planted himself very firmly, as he hadn't expected an attack. He scoffed and looked up at the girl. He then realized she hadn't meant it as an attack and immediately felt self conscious for considering it such. She had proven trustworthy.
A grunt from Rorschach signaled his acknowledgement to Babs' statement.
"Be prepared if I don't like her immediately." he murmured in reply as he followed Babs' cue over the rooftops toward the Wicked Suit. He kept his eyes on the girl, to see more closely how she worked when she was in this determined mode. Her makeshift mask seemed suitable enough, and arguably less conspicuous than his own. It didn't immediately register as a mask, after all, in this chilly weather. And she had said she would worry? For him? Why? What was the purpose in that?
He had no guesses prepared.
Her legs being longer than his own, he shuffled more quickly to keep pace but still kept behind. It wouldn't do to cast two immediate shadows over any windows below as they moved from rooftop to rooftop.
Rorschach considered for a moment that Babs was young, far younger than he had been when he'd started. Perhaps that was where her optimism came from. She didn't know his city. She knew Gotham, certainly, and that was on par or worse on certain holidays. It was a terrible, unspoken contest in the world.
She was almost gymnastic in her movements, much moreso than he was. Rorschach most often would merely hurl himself and his hard head forward and stick the landing almost out of sheer luck than trained skill. He found it worked, but she had even more of a method to her movement.
When they were near what he assumed was the designated place, by his own calculations, he gripped the hook of his grapple onto the edge of the roof and looked at Babs.
"Same time, perhaps," he grunted, "Don't want to surprise your Helena."
He thought that was her name, but perhaps he'd not logged it away properly. He found that normal civilians weren't useful to memorize unless he had met them.
Rorschach leapt off the roof, gliding down to street level and landing softly as he detached the grappling hook and let it retract into the gun. He slowly stood, looking around as he waited.
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Post by Batgirl on Sept 3, 2017 22:05:54 GMT -5
Barbara watched Rorschach with his grapple gun with some interest. Having one of those would certainly make traversing the city easier. She mentally calculated what it would take to build one of her own and bookmarked the thought for later. She would have to make that a project for when she was alone in her room.
She walked over to a drainpipe and slid down it until she met Rorschach at the bottom.
"We're actually still about a block away. She doesn't know the ... extent of what I do when she's not around. I didn't want her to see me scaling a building."
Safely on the ground level, she removed her hat and her scarf, letting it curl around her neck and drape down her back.
She ran through her mind to try to figure out how she was going to introduce the two of them.
Helena, this is the vigilante I saw kill a man in cold blood. He's kind of hard to get along with sometimes, but I promise he's actually really great once you get to know him.
Rorschach, this is the last surviving member of a mafia family. She's stubborn and hotheaded a lot of the time, but ... well, no she's mostly just stubborn and hotheaded a lot of the time.
Neither of those really felt right, and she only had barely a block to figure it out.
"Now, the thing to remember about her," she felt the need to warn, "is that Helena is unfortunately very confrontational. The first time I met her, she was arrested for throwing a rock through a window. We've gotten into more arguments than we've managed to avoid, and I'm sure we'll get into another one before the night is through." She glanced down at Rorschach. "As a favor to me ... try to roll with the punches. Please?"
She offered him a smile, as she was known to do when she was nervous about something.
Or, alternatively, as she was known to do. She smiled a lot, and she didn't even notice when she did.
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Huntress
Heroes 
Every hero has a story, not that I'm some kind of hero.
Posts: 47 
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Post by Huntress on Sept 6, 2017 20:30:47 GMT -5
They had split up. It likely wasn’t the smartest idea that Barbara had come up with, especially since she had once just told Helena about the club that may or may not contain the death masks of her family. But then again, Helena wasn’t about to object to the plan. Not when being on her own, even for a little while, allowed her the opportunity to get used to the surroundings she would be sneaking through in a short while.
The club was not quite how she envisioned it to be. At least not for a club in New York City. Perhaps it was due to all of the flashing lights, fast moving cars, and the multitudes of colorful advertisements outside and on the street that made her expect a similar decor and atmosphere inside. Instead, upon entering, Helena was greeted by a dark interior; one a rich, red leather and deeply stained wood. The air was smokey, but if the place had a haze to it, she certainly couldn’t tell due to the low lighting. It seemed to feel almost quiet and cozy, in the sense that one would sit at a booth or corner table and conduct private business. Surprisingly, though being in the territory of a potential enemy, Helena felt comfortable here.
Knowing better than to just enter and leave, she sat at the bar for a while, long enough to order a drink and make it look as if she were meeting someone, perhaps a blind date or something. Whatever Americans did in places like this. After enough time had passed, long enough for her to assume it had become dark out and to give the impression that her date would not be showing up, Helena paid for her drink and left, having seen what she needed to see, which, unfortunately, wasn’t much. The Wicked Suit looked like a normal club, and being a patron of that establishment didn’t grant her much else in terms of information.
Once outside, Helena pulled her coat tighter and was so terribly happy for having changed into pants for the evening’s escapades. An odd thing happened though, once she was outside. Her heart started hammering. It didn’t stop even as she approached the meeting point which, at the moment, was empty of any female redheads. She had to double-check to make sure this was the proper time and place to meet up, and even that action did nothing to alleviate her nerves. Figuring it was best not to think of anything, Helena preoccupied herself with the rosary in her coat pocket, quietly saying a brief prayer for every bead she felt and let slip through her fingers as she waited. She was so engrossed in the activity, Helena barely paid any attention to the approaching duo.
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Rorschach
Neutral
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27
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Post by Rorschach on Sept 10, 2017 22:22:37 GMT -5
Rorschach kept a brisk pace, walking against the buildings in the shadows. The crowds were plentiful tonight, the street lamps placed far enough apart that he need only keep his collar up and his head down and his masked face was obscured in the bustle. This was good.
He listened to Babs explain Helena to him, offering only a grunt in reply at first.
When they had reached the edge of the Wicked Suit, the red sign above the door blinking off and on like an advertisement for a vacancy in hell, Rorschach slipped into the alley on the side of the building. He looked up at Babs.
"Can't be seen here," he growled, "Not after last time. But you knew that."
He looked up at the wall. It was the opposite side he had come in before, but he now knew the upstairs layout from his previous runthrough. It wouldn't be too difficult.
"Will roll with the punches," he said as he looked back at Babs, "If she agrees to. Tell her to sneak upstairs. But casually. Place is busy this time of night, girl like her shouldn't be given a second glance around there."
Rorschach gripped onto the ledge of the ground floor window, the blinds on the inside drawn, and hopped up to the cement bricks above it, crouching like a shadow.
"Take a left upstairs," he grunted, "Two doors down is the office. Meet me in there. Shut the door slowly so I know it's her. I'll be waiting."
Like a monkey...with stiff joints and less coordination, Rorschach climbed up the side of the building. He didn't enjoy scaling tall things, but older buildings like this had uneven brick jobs which made for much easier climbing.
It would be a smooth job tonight. If everything went...well.
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Post by Batgirl on Oct 17, 2017 16:58:00 GMT -5
Barbara found herself opening and closing her mouth like a guppy trying to get a word in edgewise while Rorschach talked, but she couldn't. He didn't seem to have a regard for conversation, but she had gathered as much after their back and forth the previous night. At least then, he let her speak. Now? It was more like he was giving her orders to follow. Maybe he was. He knew the Suit better than she did, and he knew how to get to the room with the masks. Maybe it was best just to listen to him.
But that didn't mean she didn't have a lot of questions.
Then, he was off. He was climbing up the building. Awkwardly, but with enough skill that Barbara wasn't worried about him falling. "Wait a minute! But what if she getslosttryingtoFINDYOUUuuu-aaaaand he's gone." She sighed in exasperation and crossed her arms and glanced around before pulling up her collar. She should have seen that coming, but somehow it caught her by surprise. Why? She didn't know. But it had.
She adjusted her scarf as she walked past the windows, lest Laura look outside and recognize her, and walked the rest of the way to her meeting spot with Helena. Once there, she pulled down her scarf and smiled at her, to prove that everything was alright. "Sorry I'm late," she said. "Rory wanted to get a jump on sneaking in." Did she just call Rorschach Rory? "Don't ask me why. I tried to stop him, but he's slippery." She didn't want to admit she didn't try very hard. After all, of the two of them, Rory was the vigilante. He probably knew best. Probably.
"Alright. So, let's get going." She was eager to get the ball rolling, especially because they were behind schedule. She started to pull Helena in the direction of the Suit. "I'll show you which window he went in. It's a bit of a climb. I hope you're up for that."
Barbara walked around the building this time, going through the alley to avoid being seen coming back. It was best to avoid suspicion, the same person seen twice would be a nightmare. She circled the building and showed Helena the window that Rory went into. The open window.
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Huntress
Heroes
Every hero has a story, not that I'm some kind of hero.
Posts: 47
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Post by Huntress on Oct 21, 2017 19:22:55 GMT -5
“Rory?” Helena asked once Barbara arrived. She wasn’t expecting that nickname. “I didn’t know that you and this partner of your were on such a close basis. I thought you and him had only just met?” She was admittedly curious to see the both of them interact in order to judge just how far along their relation ship actually was. For professional reason, obviously. Helena would never use such information to tease her friend mercilessly. Not tonight, anyways. Maybe tomorrow. “Slippery? He’s inside already? I thought we were all going in together? Or at least him and I?” She knew that Barbara was a wonderful investigator, but she did worry about keeping her friend safe. An unknown like Rorschach getting injured or caught was one thing, but Barbara? Helena wasn’t a fan of that idea.
Being yanked in the direction of the Suit, Helena soon found herself looking up at a building where window ledges were the only way up. She saw one of the windows had been left open and, she would have been lying if she wasn’t thinking this was a bad idea. Glancing at Barbara, Helena decided she needed a bit of reassurance before she actually began her climb. “You actually saw him climb up there?” It was a good thing she hadn’t worn a dress and heels. Actually, her outfit for the evening was for two reasons; practicality and a disguise. Running and moving was a lot easier when done in trousers, a long sleeve blouse, and low heeled shoes. The long coat and fedora hid her feminine shape and features, and likely from a distance, or with her hair tucked up under the hat, she looked more like a man. Having a mob boss, or whatever this Mr. Cade was, mad and gunning for you, along with knowing exactly what you looked like, was never a good thing. With any luck, neither she nor her companions would run into trouble tonight.
Taking a breath and mentally preparing herself, Helena hoisted herself up onto the first window ledge and began her climb. It was exactly a difficult venture, but the buildings in Sicily had more places for hands to grasp and feet to rest on, making climbing easier. Perhaps that was why New York City didn’t have as many wrought iron bars or decorative cornices and outcroppings; it did tend to discourage burglars or teenagers sneaking out for late night meetings. Helena may have been slower on the climb than Rorschach, but she managed and was soon resting on the ledge with the open window. She waited for a few quiet moments, listening for anything unusual before slipping inside. “Rorschach?” she whispered, before realizing that Barbara hadn’t said anything about how either would identify themselves in case this ’slippery’ man had ventured further into the building and wasn’t waiting in the shadows. The last thing she wanted was to be punched by a supposed ally.
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Post by Batgirl on Oct 23, 2017 17:08:00 GMT -5
And before she knew it, Helena had done the same thing to her that Rorschach had done. She had taken off to climb the building. Slowly, of course, but she was climbing. Babs huffed and crossed her arms, just silently watching Helena make her way up to the open window without any knowledge of what she was doing or where she was going. "He's not going to be in the first room," she muttered to herself. "But no. No one wants to wait for me. No one wants to wait for Barbara."
She bounced anxiously until Helena took her perch on the window sill. She heard her whisper "Rorschach?" and Barbara rolled her eyes. "Take a left upstairs," she whisper-yelled. "Two doors down is the office. Meet him in there. Shut the door slowly so he knows it's you." She looked around, making sure no one was around that might have heard that. Satisfied, she cupped her hands around her mouth and whisper-yelled again, "You'd have known that if you'd have waited for me!"
And now, there was nothing else for her to do out here. She had to go inside and be the distraction. She made her way around the building again and took a turn away from the Wicked Suit. From inside her coat, she pulled a file folder and held it to her. She dropped her scarf from her face and shook her hair out from her hat, getting a running start up to the Suit. In truth, she was kind of excited to see Laura again. Their conversation the previous night had been a delightful treat, but Rory's words rang in her head. His warning not to get too close to her. Normally, she would listen to him, but Laura was so interesting. She couldn't help it.
She jogged up to the door and took her hat off as she entered the smoky bar, a bright smile spreading across her face. She scanned the bar for Laura, and eventually saw her. She held up a hand and waved enthusiastically, as one might do if she saw an old friend. Granted, she knew that wasn't what they were, but she could still be happy to see her.
She trotted over to the bar and plopped herself onto one of the barstools, brightly smiling.
"I have some news. Remember how I told you last night I wanted to be a detective, and you told me to go for it? Well, I decided to take your advice!"
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X-23
Heroes
There are two types of people. you are weak, or you are me.
Posts: 120
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Post by X-23 on Nov 1, 2017 18:17:05 GMT -5
"what the fuck?" muttered by a rather drunken man looking over Laura's shoulder was the first sign the young woman got that something out of the ordinary was going on. As soon as she turned to see a rather excited red head waving though, Laura couldn't help smiling. True that was probably the most anyone not Laura's Father had done to draw attention to themselves in here since..... the last time Laura had needed to threaten people with a shot gun probably. But there was something to that abnormality, it was almost refreshing to see someone not trying to keep their head down.
Really she was pleased to see Barbara Gordon again, the girl had been pleasant to talk to and nice to her. Earning her an easy place on the top of the list of people she wanted to walk in. So Laura raised a hand in greeting in reply as she approached the bar, not waving, and retracting it almost as soon as she had done, but it was still surprising that such enthusiasm could be somewhat infectious.
The news was surprising and welcome. Laura smiled and hurried through pouring the last drink she'd been getting through so that she could give the woman her full attention. "That is rather impressive. I did not expect you to do anything but relax and try to feel better with your time." Laura replied, trying to be encouraging. A couple people gave her sideways glances at boasting of wanting to pursue the most unpopular job in the favourite haunt of criminals, but if Laura Cade wanted her around they weren't ever going to act on their disapprovals for fear of their necks.
"What is it you drink?" Laura asked, pulling out a clean glass from under the bar. "And please do explain. I would like to hear what you are planning." Which was true. Barbara seemed like a smart girl, so if she had made a decision like this there was most likely sound reasoning behind it.
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Rorschach
Neutral
Soon there will be war...
Posts: 27
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Post by Rorschach on Nov 13, 2017 12:52:36 GMT -5
Rorschach watched the girl enter, his eyes always attuned to the darkness and the individual threads of his mask. They didn't obscure his vision, he had gotten used to them. And night was his time to operate. Truth be told, he found that daylight was more difficult to deal with. So bright.
So glaring.
Too many people not worth his time bustling about.
But it was night, and there was work to be done. So as not to startle the girl, Rorschach waved a gloved hand into the street lights streaming into the windows, revealing his hiding place before he stepped out. He looked up at the girl. She was tall. But she had gotten in silently and gracefully enough, and that was what was called for.
He put a finger to his lips and signaled for her to follow him.
Creeping ever so slowly along the hallway, Rorschach led the girl to the office. The door was shut, but not locked. After listening for a moment, he nodded and turned the knob slowly, slipping inside, bracing his back against the opposite side of the door until Helena Bertinelli entered. And then he slowly shut the door again. His shifting mask turned to the windows, two of them behind the desk. He knew that they emptied out onto the scaffolding stairwell on the side of the building. A fire escape could be noisy, but in a pinch, it was a way down. He moved slowly behind the desk to the paneling, doing as he had before to open it....
...and sure enough, there they were. The death masks.
Hung in neat rows like skulls in a catacomb.
He turned to Helena and gestured to her, showing her that the masks could be nudged aside noiselessly to see the ones behind them. He didn't wish to make any sounds, but he beckoned her closer and growled in a whisper.
"Find them," he rasped, "But don't take them. He'll be suspicious if they're missing. He'll know which ones."
With that, Rorschach slid away from her and stood with his back against the wall, facing the door. If it should open, he'd have the drop on anyone who came in.
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Huntress
Heroes
Every hero has a story, not that I'm some kind of hero.
Posts: 47
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Post by Huntress on Nov 20, 2017 23:46:06 GMT -5
Helena didn’t know what to expect from this Rorschach fellow, but she was certainly taken aback when he stepped out of the shadows. She had never known anyone to be that quiet. If Barbara hadn’t said that he was already up in the room, she doubted that she would have felt his presence. He was short, which was certainly unexpected, but his mask distracted her from making a comment. Black and white, and moving. It almost sounded like the beginnings of a bad joke. Had she been younger and not in a situation where Rorschach assistance would have been needed, Helena would have reached out and touched the material on his face in order to see just what, is anything made its design constantly change as it did. Instead, she quietly nodded at the man once his fingers slid up to where his lips were.
Letting him take the lead, Helena quietly followed Rorschach, taking his cues she stopped when he stopped and only moved when signaled. Barbara would have been proud. Or she would have fainted at Helena’s absolute obedience, one of the two. As they crept down the hallway, Helena’s heart wasn’t pounding from nerves. In fact, it was oddly steady, though her chest felt like it was in an ever-tightening vice; one that wouldn’t let up and she worried if she would be gasping for air at some point. But once the paneling in the office slid back and revealed the rows of masks, the tightness she felt snapped and disappeared, only to be replaced by a sense of dreadful awe.
When death masks were mentioned, Helena thought there would be maybe a couple dozen, trophies of his most memorable hits, but here were more than she could count. There were hundreds. This man was more than just a mob boss, he was a professional killer. Did he take the face of everyone he killed? What were they getting into? For the first time since that fateful night, Helena actually felt exactly as she did when hiding in the closet, except instead of being afraid of being found, she was afraid of what she could find.
With trembling hands, she carefully and quietly moved each mask, that creeping dread building and diminishing with each mask she examined until, finally, her eyes settled on the familiar shape of a nose.
Pino had his nose broken in a fist fight, and the shape of it after it had healed was unmistakeable. Behind that mask was her father’s face, and behind that? Helena barely shifted her father’s death mask before seeing her mother’s familiar lips. That’s when the emotions hit her and hit hard. The world seemed to tilt suddenly, and Helena stumbled backward, falling to her knees. Her stomach twisted in knots, wanting to heave, but she clenched her jaw and concentrated on breathing through her nose, not daring to get sick. Not now, at least. Her skin prickled as the air felt hot and oppressive around her. She squeezed her eyes shut and refused to allow herself to cry. The only comfort she allowed herself was resting her cheek against the cool wood of Cade’s desk.
This man had killed her family.
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