capeandcowllogs | crime never sleeps

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crime never sleeps

WHO: Mami Tomoe (

muskettear) and WHOEVER
WHERE: Around the City, patrolling
WHEN: Evening to late night
WARNINGS: nothing?
SUMMARY: Mami works off her feelings of frustration and guilt in the most productive way possible - which means vigilantism, which means fighting crime with a lot of muskets and ribbons because a magical girl's powers are not the most subtle thing.
FORMAT: Para or quick; I'll match you!

Mami Tomoe was...not angry, but at the very least frustrated. This was not an uncommon thing for girls her age.

What was uncommon, though, was that Mami Tomoe was a magical girl, and thus had an unusual outlet for stress - as well as unusual sources of stress. She had nobody to talk to, no mentor figure she could rely on; Kyoko wasn't even talking to her (not that she could blame the other girl) and Sayaka looked up to her.

So, instead, she went out, and practically looked for trouble - but that was okay. She could handle it. Magical girls were made to handle more dangerous foes than muggers, after all - and she hated it, knowing what Kyuubey had done; what he had made them into.

She had no way of politely venting, so instead she let her abilities do the talking - and she could be found wandering the streets alone untransformed, or bounding over rooftops in her outfit, patrolling.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Being Batwoman was the moment lately that Max felt most free. It was very simple out on the streets. You went after the bad guys, the bad guys went after you, the less bruises and the criminals in jail you wound up with the closer you'd come to winning.

That was why she'd more or less picked a fight with a six person gang working on a drug deal rather than call for back up first. She was fine. She could totally handle this by herself, it was just going to take work and she might wind up with some bad bruises.

Right? ]

[ If the six person gang had been all muscled thugs, it probably would have turned out better, but most of them were armed with guns.

Sure, shooting in enclosed spaces rarely ended well for anybody involved, but with bullets ricocheting around someone was bound to get hurt.

As well-armed as they are (with one actually starting to call for backup), they're still surprised when one of their number abruptly disappears into the rafters of the warehouse, trussed up with yellow ribbon. She's learned, through trial and error, that since her powers are flashy but not immediately powerful, she's better off with a more subtle approach. ]

[ If you're going in over your head, do it in style. She's pretty sure that's someone's motto out there somewhere, she can probably grab it for a little while, right?

The ribbon thing, though, that's definitely new. In fact she has absolutely no idea where it came from, which gives her a moment of slightly rattled pause before she takes advantage of their surprise, plants herself in the middle to make shooting more of a problem for them as she works.

But the ribbon thing really wouldn't go amiss if it happened again. At all. ]

[ She balances lightly on the rafters above the fight and extends a ribbon down, quickly; it snaps onto another thug's ankle and trips him up. This one is bigger, so she sends down another couple of ribbons - they're magic, but it was better safe than sorry, and she didn't want to drop him - to snatch him up before he can do any damage with his fists.

He's heavy, though, so she swings the ribbons and tosses him into a bunch of crates near the back, knocking him unconscious. Bullets pepper the rafters as one of them thinks to aim upwards, and there's a flash of gold up above as she quickly jumps away. ]

[ The distraction afforded by them looking up enables her space and a moment of relative calm to aim batarangs, knocking two guns out of hands and slamming into a third to disrupt his aim. Whoever this mysterious helper is, she doesn't want them getting hurt in the process.

That's three down, and suddenly it's looking a lot more simple. This shouldn't take too long at all, really. ]

[ She jumps down, then, landing surprisingly lightly (her fall slowed by more of those ribbons and abruptly broken by landing on the largest of the three left) and she does a flip off him in a graceful (and very well practiced) fashion.

Being a magical girl had perks, and among them was a body in peak physical condition. Acrobatics, athletics - all of that could be performed, and augmented further by magical power.

She lands, a hand snapping out, fingers splayed as she further concusses the man she'd landed on - a ribbon strikes him in the head a few times until he falls over, and then she keeps her distance.

She'd studied to fight Witches. Now she studied and practiced to fight human opponents. ]

[ The appearance of someone she can watch and predict movements from slightly more is nice, even if she looks really young. Too young for this. (That's hypocritical and she knows it, but she can't help it.)

And that's a really fascinating style of fighting, but it doesn't distract her from her chosen targets, a swift kick to one's knee crippling him long enough for a stunning blow to the head, the second laid low when he tries to rush her from the back.

She's keeping an eye out for the third one, but she rather thinks this unknown girl can get him on her own. Even if she looks too young. ]

[ She is - but what choice did she have? It was become a magical girl or die.

She might as well do something useful with it, since there's no Witches to fight in the City.

The man gets up, attempting to charge her in his dazed state, and she summons a musket from nowhere - and deftly applies the blunt end between his eyes, which knocks him out.

That seems to be everything, and now they're left with six men in varying states of unconsciousness. ]

It's a good thing they didn't get to use their guns too much... [ It could have gone worse, but right now she's fairly happy with the results. ]

[ Summoning a - what is that? Some kind of gun, she guesses, but she doesn't recognize what type it is at all. It must be too old for her to know it, which is sort of weird.

But not too weird for her to think this whole exercise had gone quite well, in the end. Which was good considering where she'd started from. ]

Definitely a good thing. I'm armored, though. [ Looking her over more thoroughly and calmly now. The outfit looks almost familiar in some way. ] Thanks for the assist.

[ She can't form anything more complex than a musket; she's tried. Then again, the guns serve her well enough when she can make unlimited amounts of them.

She curtsies, politely. ] It wasn't any trouble at all. I'm glad to help.

[ She does look politely curious, though, at the mention of armour - no superheroes or crimefighters in her world, after all, not really - but she doesn't say anything. ]

[ Unlimited amounts of anything sound vastly helpful.

The curtsy is at once kind of weird and kind of cute, and Max smiles just a little through the mask. ]

You're polite. I'm Batwoman. Good to meet you.

[ She tries not to stare, but the costume is so different from the ones she's used to. It's sleek, black and obviously made for these kinds of outings. ]

Ah...I try to be. [ She smiles, suddenly feeling nervous in the face of this woman who seems much more experienced than her (she is older and she'd taken on those six men without really hesitating; she must have known what she was doing). ] It's nice to meet you. My name is Tomoe Mami.

[ Hand made for these kinds of outings, in fact. ]

No codename? [ No mask, either. She's not sure if that just means different set ups between worlds or someone who's just getting into vigilanteism. Either way, she doesn't really need to do the vanishing into the night thing. ]

[ She looks startled. ] Am I supposed to have one? I didn't really know that... [ though she's like one step away from it what with the fancy attack names and everything

she looks a little embarrassed actually ] I'm sorry. I'm a little new to this, still.

It's not a supposed to thing. [ Considering. So new to this was the right guess after all. ] Most people just think it's safer. Nobody knows who you really are.

No need to apologize.

Ah, I see...I'm just not used to fighting people, that's all. [ There's no point in having a 'secret identity' if you do all your work in secret anyway. Any civilian that stumbled into a Witch's barrier wouldn't really remember anything later, or write it off as a dream. ]

If I could ask -- how long have you been doing this..?

Over a year. [ Just barely, but her timeline to others still has to include imaginary time doing this at home. ]

But you're used to fighting, it looks kind of like.

[ She looks down for a moment, shuffling her feet in apparent shyness before she masters her own nervousness and fear and looks up again. ]

...I have to be careful, though. I could easily kill someone with a shot... [ She summons a musket, to demonstrate, and fires it at a stack of crates.

When it hits, it splinters most of them effectively, leaving a smoking mark in the floor. ]

Back home, I used to fight monsters. 'Witches', that generated negative emotions in an area of influence. They could cause people to commit suicide.

They're much stronger than ordinary people. [ she's reminded, uncomfortably, of how strong Gisela was. ] So I have to be careful.

[ oh that was - effective, yes. wow. kind of really effective, no wonder she hadn't been shooting anyone. but she was clearly concerned about killing people, so that's good to know. ]

And you want to keep fighting criminals here?

[Shinji had been putting off leaving his apartment for as long as he possibly could. With the events of the last few month stuck firmly in the front of his mind, it was difficult to force himself to go anywhere, but starving to death didn't seem like it would be a fun time.

So his plan was to take a quick trip to the nearest convenience store - at night to limit the amount of people he'd have to interact with - then grab the bare necessities and head back. It was a solid plan, and so far it was working.

It's just too bad he's too focused on getting back home and his many other problems to notice the group of shady punks following behind him.

As he cuts through a dark alley to get home.

He's really lost in thought, okay?]

[ she recognises shinji from the network, so it only takes a moment for her to realise the people following him - into a dark alley, no less - mean nothing but trouble.

So she follows them, untransformed still. ]

What are you doing? [ It probably looks ridiculous; a fifteen year old girl in a school uniform, confronting a bunch of punks who have probably done this a lot of times before.

As if to illustrate this, one of them takes one look at her and bursts out laughing. She doesn't move. ]

Eh-?

[The girl's voice is enough to pull him out of Deep Thought/Self-Pity Time, and he suddenly notices the people following him. This is almost enough to make him want to run, but instead he stumbles back a little, watching.

He isn't worried about Mami. He's met enough dangerous teenage girls to know better.]

[ One of the punks makes a move towards her, voice whiny: 'stay out of it, little girl, this ain't your business'

and then there's a flash of light as she transforms, blinding them momentarily and ruining their night vision, and she trips up the man nearest to her with a ribbon and starts to move. ]

Edited (icon change BT) 2012-11-30 23:52 (UTC)

[Okay, ribbons were not what he was expecting - though in hindsight, maybe he should have - and he takes advantage of the thugs being distracted to run off to the side.

And watch, because this is crazy.]

[ She produces muskets from seemingly nowhere, using them to bat away makeshift clubs or knock them on the head, and soon enough they run; they weren't expecting trouble, especially not like this. ]

Ah, Shinji-san...I'm sorry I frightened you like that. [ She looks apologetic. ] Are you all right?

[ it was already dark by the time kanaya left the city lights office for the weekend. there was certainly more she'd like to be able to do, and she might even consider coming back in tomorrow morning, but the commute had been getting on her nerves. navigating a large city like this is far easier when one can manipulate space, and being without the ability for the first time in a year takes a lot of compensation. the thing that bugs her the most is how much time she spends traveling, time she could better allocate to the million and one other things she needs to take care of before sleeping tonight.

being human, really unexceptionally human, wasn't all it's cracked up to be. like how the streetlamps were the only source of light for her walk, that's just going to be weird no matter how she looks at it. and it really is very dark.

she's entirely too absorbed in her little bout of species-related dismorphia to pay any attention whatsoever to her surroundings. she's not use to being physically vulnerable, she doesn't know to think about how dangerous this walk could be. ]

[ People are restless. Some of those people are out to cause trouble, though there's more of them lately, stirred up by the import bloodbath.

So a human girl, walking alone, seems like an easy target for a mugger who's down on his luck, and Kanaya will likely not notice that the man is following her.

Unfortunately for him, someone else has noticed from her current position on the rooftops, and she gently lets herself down by ribbons and moves to follow the man. He's moving faster than she expected, but that's fine; she can catch up. ]

[ the streets are still pretty full for this time of night. it is friday, after all, and the city is never completely empty, not in manhattan. it can be easy to pass unnoticed in that kind of traffic, if one isn't looking for the signs. if one has no reason no think she should be.

she even catches a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye as she turns a corner, but she doesn't think much of it. she's hoping no one else in the house will be upset that she's late to getting dinner ready, running down in her head what she has on hand, what would be a good option to run with tonight, whether she'll have to pick anything up from the market. maybe she's pulled out an ipad to check the notes she'd made on the subject.

and all the while, he's closing the distance between them. easy prey, he could probably get at least something if he just made off with the tablet. ]

[ He's taking full advantage of the fact that she's distracted. On any other night, he'd have that advantage to snatch and run.

This is not any other night, though, and as he catches up, reaches out, ribbons muffle his sudden, alarmed cry as he's dragged away from Kanaya. ]

I hope you weren't trying to take advantage of someone who just wants to get home. [ She's standing over his firmly entangled form with a musket in hand (it's more for show than anything - she'd never shoot a human being with this high-powered weapon - but he doesn't know that) ] Right?

[ A muffled sound that's probably agreement. She lets him go, lets the ribbons unwind, and points the musket at him to send him on his way before she walks over to Kanaya. ]

Ah, sorry about that, Maryam-san... [ She sounds apologetic, demure. ] I'd noticed he'd been following you.

[ she turns around at the sound of the scuffle, watching with surprise as mami takes down her would-be attacker. once mami's done and walks up to her, she's just staring with large eyes and a wide frown. ]

Oh, um. I...suppose I hadn't. [ she furrows her brow and runs a hand through her hair, embarrassed. she was supposed to be to be a hunter of sorts, wasn't she? well, maybe that was never exactly true, but she's not supposed to be the one who's hunted. ] You're owed some gratitude for that, of course.

It's no problem at all. [ She curtsies politely.

She does kind of notice something, though. ] Ah, Maryam-san...

Are you always...ah, human? Like this?

More often than I'd like. [ she frowns. sure, she's had a year and a half to get used to it, but she's never completely liked it. and it's only worse lately, knowing she's trapped this way. ] Normally, I would be able to resume a more comfortable form under the proper conditions, but...recent events have only complicated that.

[ but there are more important things going on, like whatever's going on with mami's outfit, and the way she just came out of nowhere and disarmed a dude with a ribbon that kanaya is almost sure was magic. ] Were you...on some kind of hunt of your own just now?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

crime never sleeps

hey heyyy

8)!!

c:

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