(open) december catch-all

[nanamari]

Who: ana amari (nanamari) & YOU
What: open catch-all
When: all of december
Where: olympia & wyver
Warning(s): (ง'̀-'́)ง

if you get into trouble, i'll bail you out.)

[ Ana doesn't go out every night. She has other work and her own human limitations, but she's out enough to be spotted lurking on the occasional rooftop with her rifle propped against her knee and her mask emitting a soft blue glow as the crosshairs focus. This is the only time she goes by Shrike anymore. She operates in Wyver or Olympia depending on the night.

Even with everything that's happened lately - or maybe because of it - petty crime is common. Ana will pitch in to help whether the victim is an innocent bystander or hero whose gotten in over their head. She's more than willing to team up - at least, temporarily. ]

i need healing.)

[ Even with all of her experience, Ana can't predict everything. A few nights later, she finds herself in a dire position. The criminal that she's been trailing has turned out to be the sort of person who can control the local flora at will, including some kind of telepathic connection. Trampling a flower, of all things, had given her away. Ana is currently struggling against vines binding her to a building. Even with a little of Jack's strength in her, it's not enough to break free.

Her rifle is on the ground, and she can't reach her sidearm. The vine around her neck is making it harder and harder to breathe. The man laughs, going on about crushing her like she's crushed that 'precious flower.'

If she dies like this, she's going to come back as a time-travelling ghost and kick her own ass for going out in such a monumentally stupid way.

She needs help, and fast. ]

this is much better than a cabana on the beach.) (Wyver)

[ Now that she's no longer wearing a tracker, Ana has moved her few possessions back into the safehouse she shares with Jack. It's a small even for the two of them, and far from the city center, but it has running water and electricity and clear sight lines.

At the moment, she's at the market, picking up a few things to make it more livable. Most vendors have been willing to haggle, but some... ]

Why don't you just tell me what this is really about? [ Ana's has her hand on his table, gesturing at the rug that she's trying to buy. ] It has a hole in it. You're asking for more than twice what it's worth and I know I don't look stupid.

[ The vendor grunts at her and says, 'Consider it payback for all the freeloading you lot have been doing. If you've got a problem, go crawling back to Olympia.'

She looks like she's seriously considering vaulting the stall to beat the crap out of him in broad daylight. This might be a good time for someone to intervene. ]

heal up.) (Olympia)

[ Despite having moved to Wyver, Ana still comes back to Olympia to help with the reconstruction. She'll strike up a friendly conversation with anyone else who's decided to put in an effort, and may invite them to tea or a practice session if they're the soldiering type. She's an expert shot, and willing to give some pointers if the topic comes up, but she's also more than amiable to learning different weapons and techniques from others. ]

wildcard.)

[ PM or hit me up on plurk to plot anything. I'll be mostly tagging out for event stuff so if you wanna link a starter or anything that's fine too.

Any previous CR is welcome to meet her in the cafe and handwave that she's invited them out for tea/catching up too! ]

Comments

heal up

[gekkajuu]

[Atsushi returned to Olympia the moment it seemed both allowed and doable, which actually wasn't that long ago. Finding a complete mess was half expected; the vandalization was not. It might have been disheartening, but after a conversation with his boss, he finds himself oddly numb to it all.

He doesn't know what the right thing to do is anymore. Maybe that's no surprise, but it sure is depressing.

It's also something he's not likely to find an answer to anytime soon, so he focuses (a little obsessively, perhaps) on what he can do - and that's making the city livable again. Having started with his own home, he continues with the surrounding ones when he's finished, and asks around where he can help in the market area and the like as well. He has to keep busy, and for once, his job is not the way to do it.

A lot of people seem to have stayed behind in Wyver, which isn't helping to cheer him up - but that makes it even better when he sees a familiar face. His own instantly lights up in response, his moral dilemma forgotten.]

Ana! It's good to see you!

[nanamari]

Atsushi! [ Ana sets her work down and pulls him into a hug as soon as he's close enough. There are some downsides to moving to Wyver, and leaving friends behind is definitely one of them. She'll still come back as much as she can, but she won't be able to see him as often. ]

You look tired. [ She pulls back to study his face. ] Are you working too hard again?

[gekkajuu]

[Easy physical contact is still something he's not really used to, but that just makes him appreciate it all the more, his heart swelling at the hug (which he returns... very carefully).

He is tired, but he's still all set to deny it. When she continues with the too-accurate observations, however, he just doesn't have the heart anymore.]

I haven't actually worked... Not at my job, that is. [It might almost be interpreted as him taking it easy - but that is clearly not the case. Even apart from the exhaustion, he may or may not be tigerpussyfooting around something.] A lot of the city still needs a great deal of work done so that people can go back to living here the way they used to. I've been trying to do my share.

I need healing.

[granularity]

[ The thing of it is, he's not really sure about the rules when it comes to vigilantes in his new world. But the fact of the matter is that Sand doesn't know any other way of life but to walk the shadows, protect the innocent, scare the wicked into a different way of life.

And when he sees Ana in trouble, well... that's pretty much exactly the sort of thing he's doing this for.

The vine against the building are swallowed by the wall, which releases the hold around her. The gun near her feet, on the other hand, lifts up on a small pillar near her. ]

[nanamari]

[ As soon as the vines release her, Ana gasps for breath. The man is fast, or he wouldn't have gotten a hold of her in the first place, but while he goes for her rifle she she immediately grabs for her sidearm. The sleep dart hits him in the shoulder, and he drops like a rock.

It's only then that Ana lifts her rifle from the pillar and slings it back over her shoulder. The man on the ground lets out a loud snore. He'll continue sleeping for a few more minutes, as long as nothing hurts him in that time. ]

...Thanks for the assist. [ She pats the... pillar. Just in case the words don't quite get across. She has no idea what just saved her ass, so she's a little bemused and oxygen deprived, but genuinely grateful none the less. ]

I need healing

[panzersoldat]

[ Reinhardt hasn't gone back to Olympia yet. He has his promise. He will if Tracer goes. He had promised he'd help and look after the young Brit, but honestly, Reinhardt prefers it here. He might hate the heat, but there's a lot he likes here. He likes the fighting and the competitive nature of these people. He adores the Dragon nursery. Plus Ana and Jack are here. They don't need him. He knows that. They'd made it perfectly clear that they can survive without a tank. Yet he stays and he's glad he did because as he's making through the streets, getting the hang of this riding thing, he sees it.

He sees her.

Ana.

Ana is in trouble.

There is an intelligible war cry that she should probably know very well, but instead of the familiar clang clang of armored feet, there is the thunder of horse's hooves.

Reinhardt comes slamming behind into the mage, a knight in gleaming armor on a white stallion. ]

YOU WILL RELEASE HER AT ONCE! [ If the man is even conscious from getting bowled over by such a huge man on an even bigger animal. ]

[nanamari]

[ Ana isn't certain the man is alive after what just happened. The vines go slack instantly, leaving her to cough until she catches her breath enough to extricate herself. Reinhardt certainly knows how to make an entrance. Every gang member for miles is going to know that he's here, but with the way people operate around here, she's expecting them to scatter rather than try to rescue their comrade.

She hears a groan from the unconscious man on the ground, who she steps over on her way to Reinhardt and his horse. She gives the creature a wide breadth so she can come around the side and pat Reinhardt's leg - the only part of him she can reach. ]

Thank you again, old friend.

[ She's never going to understand this thing with men and horses. Just because they can't get a car doesn't mean she understands wanting ride an extremely anxious couch. ]

Bail you out

[heraldsdawn]

[ This was definitely a situation where a fellow hero was definitely in over his head. Three on one. He had managed to dispatch with two of them but he was definitely out of breath. He holds a staff in one hand and a glowing, golden sword of energy in the other, clearly looking out of breath. These criminals weren't just basic thugs. A few of them had magic of their own. Fire and ice made deadly combinations when used the right way. It's too bad they weren't in his favour.

His gaze looks quickly between each one trying to keep an eye on all of them. But, that's the problem at being out numbered. There's always someone coming at you from behind with a knife.]

[nanamari]

[ Ana has been watching the fight from a nearby rooftop, hunkered down nearly flat with her rifle. Most often, her intervention isn't needed, and this is a strictly observational exercise. It's useful for familiarizing herself with the capabilities of people she has no understanding of - the kind who wield magic, for instance.

It soon becomes clear that the man who'd stepped in to stop everything is becoming fatigued, and may be in real danger. She doesn't like to intervene when it's unexpected. It's too easy to distract someone at a bad moment, or cause some other unintended side effect, but the risk involved with not doing anything at all is rapidly becoming far worse than the chance of an accident.

Ana makes a snap decision. She checks their positioning then angles her rifle away to account for wind. She doesn't shoot any if the attackers. Three of her darts hit the man in the center of it all, dissipating into a fine golden shimmer on impact. The nanomachines will spread instantly, healing the damage he's already taken and restoring some of his stamina.

The man with the knife is the only one who sees this, but even as he whips his head around Ana has loaded different ammunition into her rifle. He gets a shot of something far less beneficial from her, and immediately sinks to his knees, gasping in pain. The knife drops from his hand.

She doesn't expect the magic-user to hear her but she says: ] I've got you. Keep going.

i'll bail you out.

[godwins]

[ Despite the promise of every kind of action, Olympia's Red Light District wasn't the most glamorous beat. After patrolling here for a couple weeks, both before and after he came down with that awful hyper-flu. Most of the time, it's just escorting the folks who get a little too stewed home safe, but every now and again he has to glare at someone who's trying to take advantage of someone else.

Tonight, it's different. This time, it's an armed robbery, with four masked thugs trying to high tail it out of one of the casinos. Bucky's already taken care of one of them, but the other three are storming through a crowded street, pushing away anything in their way. ]

Get down! [ He yells after them, clad in his black uniform. He's been booking it flat-out on the paving stones for six blocks now, and he hasn't had a clear shot in that whole time. ]

[nanamari]

[ Ana doesn't mind a few quiet nights. Most of her work involves silent observation and the gathering of useful intelligence from a distance, but she's hardly the kind of person who can see a dangerous situation in progress and not step in to intervene. She's not on a rooftop this time - she hears the shouting from the corner where she's stopped to buy a late night snack. At first she thinks it might be a few rowdy drunks, but the first man who shoves his way clear of the crowd is clearly armed, and two more follow close behind.

Ana reacts instinctively. She drops into a crouch with her rifle braced against her shoulder. Despite the shoving and the heavy foot traffic, her world narrows to a fine point. Ana pulls the trigger. One of the men drops suddenly as if his knee has given out from under him, staggering into his friend. She fires again. The needle ricochets off the edge of a decorative belt buckle and angles up to and hit the last runner in the arm. She registers a black uniform on a fourth runner - a guard, Bucky - and switches her grip on her rifle. Thanks to the enhancements Jack has shared with her, she's just this side of inhumanly fast, which is enough to bring the butt of her rifle to bare against the back of a thief's head.

She's trusting Bucky to handle the other two. Her shots won't kill easily, but they hurt almost as badly as regular bullets do, which should stagger them long enough for him to catch up. ]

[ closed ] for jack

[nanamari]

[ Ana feels every bit her age as she steps through the front door of their safehouse. Her head hurts as much as the rest of her, and her armor is chafing on newly formed bruises. She's home later than usual, so she's a little surprised to find Jack awake and cleaning out his gun. Maybe he couldn't sleep either.

She puts her hand on his shoulder as she passes him, by way of greeting, and goes to hang up her gun and strip off her armor. She's moving a little stiffly, but she's more tired than anything else. ]

Can you put on some tea?

[personalwar]

[ Ana's home later than usual, and that's reason enough for Jack to be up late. He didn't have that much trouble living alone, but now that they're sharing a space again, he's aware of her habits -- when she's here and when she's not. When Ana deviates from that, he notices. It hadn't been long enough for him to send her a concerned text, but he does glance up as soon as she enters.

It doesn't take him long to realize that something's wrong. Nothing too dramatic, but she hadn't just been out late taking an easy stroll around town, had she?

At her request, he abandons what he was doing and goes to light a fire so that he can warm up some water. ]

What happened?

I need healing

[verflair]

[ X’rhun doesn’t do the vigilante thing quite to the scope that Ana does, but he’s an old hat at tracking criminals and lending his blade to those in need. And right now, it seems that the person in need is one of his fellow refugees. He knows he face from the network in the wake of the attacks, and there was something about her own views that resonated strongly with his own.

As Ana struggles against the vines binding her, she suddenly gets an assist in the form of half a dozen swords of white light shooting down from a nearby rooftop. They zip past the man and put a quick stop to his monologuing as they embed themselves in the wall, severing the vines holding Ana hostage.

Orange light then pools around the man’s feet, holding him firmly in place no matter how much he would like to flee, as X’rhun hops down from his place on the roof to come up behind the criminal. ]

Not so much fun when you’re in her place is it?

[ And to Ana, ]

Are you all right?

[nanamari]

[ Apparently everyone here knows how to make an entrance - not that she's complaining.

She can barely move or focus enough to see exactly how it happens, but the moment she's free she drops down into a crouch to grab her rifle and point it at the criminal. She's still coughing and trying to catch her breath even then, so it takes a moment to register that the man is already immobile and the situation is under control.

She lowers her weapon, allowing herself the time to take a few full breaths, and nods at the man's question. ]

I'll live. [ She pushes herself back to her feet, hooks her rifle over her shoulder, and comes over to shake hands with her rescuer. ] Thank you.

bail you out.

[tutorb]

[ Petty theft is rampant enough, but when you spend your days as a large, incredibly valuable looking crystal with no means of self defense? It's like flies to goddamned honey. ]

[ Of course, she usually finds herself in the company of some refugee or another, gracious enough to heft her around from place to place, but even they could fall victim to cutpurses and sheer negligence. Such as now; the orb is being ferretted away down a side street, stuffed bulkily beneath a man's coat and casting an angry green glow at his feet. She had tried all manner of hooting and hollering down more populated avenues, but without a body to tie to the voice, snaring the attention of any potential rescuer had been next to impossible. ]

[ But that doesn't mean she's going to let him rest easy in the alleyway. Now, without the din of the crowd and muffling bodies, her voice is free to echo up to the rooftops. ]

I will not ask again—as if this was ever a request to begin with—you will unhand me this instant. Unhand me, or suffer the consequences! Unhand me—!

[ To which he replies with a low, amused what are you gonna do about it? And, well... There really isn't much she can do, here, besides her caterwauling. Who would even want to buy a polished rock that screams all the time? Come on, man. ]

[nanamari]

[ What's that, in that man's jacket? Is it a bird? Is it a fairy? No, it's... a rock.

A talking rock.

Ana pulls away from her scope for a moment, rubs her eye, and then looks through it again. The man has taken the rock out to yell at it about shutting up but. It's definitely a rock. A fancy, glowing, very pretty and obviously magical rock.

She considers just setting her rifle down and searching 'early symptoms of dementia' on her phone, instead of engaging with whatever fresh strangeness this is, but - someone in need of help isn't something she's ever known how to ignore.

She considers her options. Anything too surprising risks the rock-person falling and potentially shattering, so she'll have to do it the upfront way. She grabs her gear and ducks back into the building, keeping an ear out for indignant yelling - which makes her targets far easier to track when she has no direct line of sight. She jumps down from a second floor window and lands gracefully, her sidearm raised the second she's standing again.

Her knees hate her so much but she has an intimidating mask to hide her flinch, and the thief is more interested in the gun she has pointed at him. ]

Put it down and back away. I won't ask you twice.

Heal up

[ayes]

[After everything that's happened, even with the hardships ahead... it's kind of nice to be back in the place where she's set down her roots. Besides, her sewing machine is here.

Also, a cooking set! Despite the food rationing right now, it's nice to have a full set of pots and pans and knives, which she'd been sent as a gift. She's actually walking home, arms full of cooking equipment, when she spots a familiar face.] Oh! Miss Ana!

[nanamari]

[ Ana sets her work down as soon as she sees You and comes over to ruffle her hair. ]

Would you like a hand with all of that?

another need healing

[ghettobatman]

[Well, she isn't alone -- and the gloating man is in for more than he bargained for. Hark, from the skies, from... wherever... comes a man dressed up in all black (like an idiot), mask obscuring his face and parkouring to the rescue. While the criminal's concerning himself with crushing her against the building -- Matt has the element of surprise on his side, and he swings in, hitting the criminal hard and knocking him down.]

[It's not enough to incapacitate him -- but as the man yells and hits the ground, hard, it gives Ana an opportunity to break free without him controlling the vines]

no healing only bruises for avocados

[nanamari]

[ She feels the give on the vines as another person enters the fray, and the distraction is all she needs to rip herself free of their hold. If the strength it takes is just this side of superhuman, it's because Ana Amari is ripped. Ana Amari is shredded. She's also magically powers-married to a super soldier, and she's really appreciating that perk right now.

She drops down and reaches for her rifle immediately, though she's barely had a moment to suck in a full breath. Having to navigate two bodies in motion isn't too challenging for her even now, and she manages to get a shot off - hopefully before the criminal can recuperate enough to draw on his power again. A single dart won't do any lasting damage, but it'll hurt enough to hinder the criminal and give her would-be rescuer more of an advantage. ]

heal up

[shashka]

[ well, wasn't this a surprise? Ocelot is doing his part for Olympia, just as any "guard" might. of course, he didn't feel any particular loyalty towards them. but that was hardly a problem in the long run, now was it?

DD, though well-behaved enough, is sniffing her tentatively, almost as if to ask for a pet. ]

I wasn't expecting to see you back here again.

[ still, he supposes it's admirable. something that you might expect from someone whose hobbies include "vigilante justice". ]

[nanamari]

Well officer, I can't afford a gym membership on my pension, so here I am.

[ She sets down the stack of wood she's been hauling like it doesn't weigh much at all. Sharing Jack's strength has been pretty useful, and she's taking full advantage of it. When she's done dusting off her hands, she holds one out for DD to sniff.

She's served her time with the tracker and she's done her community work to make up for the carriage incident. She's here because she can't sit idly by and watch people trying to pick through the wreckage of their homes.

If people are still angry, she's dealt with worse pubic scorn for far less reason. ]

What did you expect?

here i am again 😉 (post-gala)

[personalwar]

[ It's been a quiet night in Jack and Ana's small apartment in Wyver, not that Jack particularly minds. Most everyone has gone to the Outpost for the gala, Ana included. She hadn't pressured him to come along, though he knows she would have liked his company. If he has any guilt, it's that he wasn't willing to put up with the party for Ana's sake, but he knows she'll be fine on her own. She's made plenty of friends here.

He doesn't have much to do when most of the city has shut down, so he stays in, working imprints into their rug as he paces around in search of something to keep him busy. (You can only clean guns so many times.) When all else fails, he has his phone, though all there is to do on the network is read through people's replies to each other and makes mental notes.

Eventually he hears someone approaching the door and he stands instantly, moving over to open it for Ana before she has to dig for her keys. She's still in that dress she'd found at the market, and Jack can't help but look her over once more before he nods in greeting. ]

Have fun?

[ He's already got some tea ready. ]

gross

[nanamari]

[ Ana looks up at him, framed in the doorway. The smell of tea wafts out of the apartment and Ana catches herself thinking it's good to be home. She squeezes his shoulder as she moves past him, an old habit.

She feels a little badly for leaving him here - for not pushing him to go or not staying in with him - but she knows that either of those options would have made them both miserable. Jack would have felt bad for being the reason she stayed and, after everything, Ana can't bring herself to push him into a party. She had invited him and left the option open. It's up to him to meet her halfway where he can. ]

It was nice. No surprises. [ No violent ones anyway.

She lets her hair down from the elaborate style it had been pinned into, shaking it out over her shoulders. ] I saved you a spot on my dance card.