♔

she gave the chains wrapped tight ‘round the handles to the set of front doors of a seedy looking warehouse another yank, for good measure. good to know no one had kept her joint running while she was gone, she thought. with a grumble through teeth grit so tight she bit through the edge of a fresh cigarette, she could only utter curses at her former employees. still. absence from the city or not, the property rights to these warehouses were still in her name.

nina was too far past her days as a pup to find herself upset enough to ignore another’s presence. still, focus tied to the chains keeping her from her former illicit business, she breathed the last plumes of smoke from her lungs, letting instead her hands burn black with flame.

@canatim

▉ He looked at her and closed his eyes. Once more he was being sized up, likely because he looked strong. He’d give props to Medb for her wish’s handiwork, but in a setting where his goal wasn’t destruction and consumption, it was proving to be a pain. It was all meaningless in the end – people were either scared of him or wanted to fight him.

All he wanted to do was nap.

“If you’re lookin’ for a fight I don’t really feel like it. Not like this anyway. Come back when I’ve got some of my shit back.”

she gave him a quizzical glance, irises barely raising over the edge of her lower lashes, not wasting the effort of fully assessing the distance between them. she was never the best at reading airs. body language, sure, though his mixed between annoyance and confrontation, though she could only assume the latter was postural. she’d greeted him with a roll of the shoulders. and now, again, a soft shrug. 

it had been years, she thought; shy of a decade, at least, since she’d last heard the word uttered in such a context. doves, they’d whispered, with voices as fragile as the beats of a songbirds wings, soft as their lonely coos. doves. the ccg. a former threat to what had once been the most important thing to her in this life, in this city.

she had no reason to do anything other than sneer across the bar as he uttered the words. they were a force that certainly took less than kindly to inhuman existences, but she knew, especially, what a threat they could be to their chosen targets. would she make attempts to forge a safe haven here again? maybe, she thought, knocking back her glass of brandy, maybe. 

nina eyed him over the edge of her glass, a crystal horizon line, with a man equally as attentive serving as her point of perspective. it was only a matter of who would break and speak first.

( nina’s had to say her goodbyes, of course. though in the last year, i’d have never expected it to have been with the characters that affected her the most.

she hadn’t slept. 

she didn’t sit still and think quietly, was always aware, never let her eyes glaze over with a haze as thick and soupy as that what hung in the air she breathed. her hands never stopped moving, yet, they’d settled upon her thighs. she stared densely at the river ahead, eyes lost in the place where black water met shadowed storm walls, and all the industrial sector’s scenery blended to nothing.

nina was strong, solid, living steel, yet the pieces of memories that had rushed through the cracks in the past year had broken through her walls, had blown her over, knocked her weight out from under her knees. and yet, they’d never come in full, only flashes of herself. of her present, her past, once her future, once a long stretch of nothing, unknowing. she was solid, but she was shaken.

she’d never been so easy to affect, yet, she was a woman who supposedly knew herself to the core. she knew what she’d come to be in the city, at least, but never had the chance to know the life she’d left behind for all these years. those that left returned to the moment they’d been taken, yet those who returned always stepped into the city with new memories. some found their lost life hitting them like a well-sped wall.

why did her life come in fits of confusion and cliffhangers? she’d so little pieces, and so many blanks.

( they say when you love something, set it free. if it really loves you in return, it will return to you of its own accord. that doesn’t account for a rift in that relationship, does it? a heartbreak? an anxiety? something that drives you apart, that breeds resentment in the cracks between the love.

you never got to set that free. it won’t return to you. not unless you try to mend the rifts.

     ☆ » “probably not, but you should take them out anyway and talk to me.” 

“Back in this shit hole again? Man, there’s a scientist out there who’s got a crush on me, I can feel it.” Cain cups his hands around his mouth. “I bet you just get off watching me take off my suit or something huh? If you wanted a show, you’re gonna have to start paying!” 

“ Then I guess we have a deal. ” It’s interesting; if any human dared speak to him in such a manner, he’d cut them down before their tongue finished flapping. Even the way she speaks rubs him the wrong way– but he’ll tolerate it. No point in spilling non-human blood, whether it be her’s or his own, when there’s no need of it.

As the stranger moves forward, shadows parting from her bladed frame, golden eyes widen ever so slightly in awe. Even he has to admit her form is impressive. He observes her as best he can whilst he continues, “ You’d be surprised. Humankind is too daft to fear what it should, unless they’re forced. ”

she knew his stare, but she also knew she was more than well equipped to smack him down before she’d even reached this level of her potential. nina held her head high and her shoulders straight, wearing her mega evolution proudly. it was a bravado nonetheless, but he’d know from the way she stood just how hard it was to take him seriously.

“ good enough. i’ll do my best to tolerate you. ”

she spoke as an older woman, as an adult well-settled into her alpha status. she gave a subtle half of a nod in response to the slight shift in reflection behind his mask. that was the reaction she deserved.

❛that’s… simplistic. who’s to say a human doesn’t come and chop you into bits?❜ 

she summoned one of her own blades into being, and offered the hilt to her naysayer, holding out her free arm.

Character solidifying!

9. What about political beliefs?

her political beliefs can be briefly summed up as ‘fuck the system, fuck the people that run it,’ since politics are mostly a human construct, the idea of government isn’t really something she really likes as a concept. in human terms she’d probably be anarchist. she wasn’t born into their society and doesn’t want to conform to it, she shouldn’t have to, their culture isn’t her own and the lines of species (especially the argument of civilized versus evolved in her world) divide her kind and humans. she has no want for their systems or laws to apply to her. going by their definitions, she’s entirely evil, after all (not that she isn’t, though).her aims and goals have always been seeded in tearing down the systems that cage her. at one point it was her trainer, humanity, their system and society. now, honestly, she wants the ruling gods of her world gone too. nina’s sort of leadership is pack-oriented. she’s an alpha before she’s a governor, but with somewhat royal blood, when she puts her feet on avalon in her future, the government she’ll run will probably be warlike, a dictatorship or a monarchy, or both.

18. What did they find abroad, and what did they remember?

this is one of those questions that requires you to have answered the previous one. yes. nina has traveled abroad, technically. she never really had a region in her world that she called home. she was hatched in unova and raised there, but her mother’s line comes from johto, her dad’s from kalos. she’s traveled to most of the regions, mostly during the war, but all she really saw there was death and bloodshed. they’re memories she kind of looks upon fondly.

27. How do they relate to their appearance? How do they wear their clothing? Style? Quality?

nina thinks she’s pretty hot. she prefers both form and function but lightweight armor will always be favored for her, usually in the form fitting carbon fiber variety. she’s never straight up worn a catsuit but she’d probably be the type. though her armor is usually pretty embellished she prefers it to be easy on, easy off. she’s got a lot of blades growing out of her body so something that’s pullover doesn’t really fly, zippers are her friend. she’ll blow a lot of money on a high quality piece, because i mean, armor is armor. for someone like her, it’s key.

36. Do they like to suffer? Like to see other people suffering?

she has no interest in letting others see her suffering, no. suffering is broken pride, in a way, she wouldn’t bow to something like that. while she wouldn’t let it get to her it’s not something she wants others to see, you know? that being said, she loves to see others suffer.