[closed] → your eyes are open but you can't see.

[agrat]

Who: Steph & Lea, later Benny.
What: Two militiamen come calling; will a stranger interfere?
Where: Aspic.
When: Dusk.
Warnings: Police violence; TBA.

Melinda Xol is a young Xenian woman with blue skin and huge dark blue eyes, with multiple pupils that are scattered across the iris like black stars. She is smaller than most humans (but tops off at about five feet tall), with little cultural need for clothing, as her people are typically of the ocean, but she moved here to Aspic when she found a job she liked. She smiles easily and is friends with everyone in her neighborhood; it might be a little naive, she tells her parents, in a place like this, but she trusts them.

That trust is nowhere to be found when she's pulled out of the shop where she works, quailing and raising her voice as she earnestly asks for some explanation ("Please, just tell me what I'm supposed to have done wrong! Please, aren't you listening to me?"). Illegal stelanmancy is the reason given, as Melinda works in a beat-down old antiques shop, and she cries out when one of the two militia officers twists her arm in order to try to quiet her down. Don't make a scene, or it'll be worse for your friends. They don't want an incident like what happened after a previous raid. In accordance with that command from their higher officers, they are dressed inconspicuously, but everybody in Baedal is aware of what that kind of purposeful walk means; it's the movement of men whose actions are empowered by the state, and they know it, too.

It is still pretty apparent that she is trembling like a leaf as they guide her toward their silent carriage, located just down the street. Their hands grip her elbows so hard it must hurt--her bones are more fragile than a human's, and she bruises easily. The militiamen are armed with modified phaser guns and batons, and although they are not prone to open carry, when the wind moves a certain way against their unbuttoned black coats, their lethal accessories become apparent.

Comments

[controlledvariable]

It's the cry that catches her attention (it always is), as she walks back from picking up some supplies at a little chemist in Aspic. She doesn't even think before moving towards the sound; she's one street over and as she runs through an adjoining alleyway, she's jumps up to catch the ledge of a balcony and hauls herself up to the rooftop.

The gable roof makes life significantly more difficult, but she makes it to the top before they've reached the carriage and she takes in the scene with sharp eyes and a sharper scowl. Honestly, it wouldn't matter how guilty the woman is, their treatment of her alone is enough to call for intervention. She slips her backpack off one shoulder, bringing it around to the side so that she can get to the small arsenal she almost always carries.

She doesn't have long to react, and her options are limited - engaging them directly will get her killed - but as her hands close around an explosive batarang an idea occurs to her. It is, essentially, a grenade, just slightly less powerful than militiary standard. It's more smoke than fire.

Which is what happens. The batarang curves through the air, embedding itself into the carriage just in front of the back wheel and it explodes while the militiamen and their captive are about ten feet away. It blows the wheel off completely, and takes a decent chunk out of the side of the carriage, startling the horses (but not actually harming them).

Run, she thinks at the young Xenian woman, as smoke spreads out from the site of the explosion, Please run.

[agrat]

The young woman sways in shock, tumbling backwards as the militiamen accompanying her move forward, separating her from them. She doesn't run yet, but she's disoriented from the sudden explosion, and clearly rather petrified. One of the militiamen adjusts the set of his blaster, scanning the surrounding areas--and then the rooftops--for their mysterious assailant. These people aren't simple flunkies, and they're trained to be observant, so it doesn't take long for him to pinpoint the source of the blast.

"Get them," he orders, "I'll hold onto the suspect."

But the suspect, the petite Xenian girl with the blue skin and starry eyes, has scrambled backward into a shadowy alleyway. She isn't feeling hopeful about her chances, but she can use the explosion as an excuse, maybe, if (when) she is caught. There isn't really anywhere she can go, but she takes off, anyway.

Meanwhile, the other militia officer, trim and quick, is taking off in the direction of the rooftops. He doesn't just run, either--he bounds, as though his body isn't quite as heavy as a normal person's, giving him lighter footsteps and increased speed.

[controlledvariable]

"Smart move, Brown," Steph mutters to herself as she watches the scene unfold for a few seconds before deciding that she probably needs to run in the other direction really fast. Quick as she can, she stuffs two batarangs in her left pocket (no time to get specific ones, she'll just have to see what they do when it comes to it) and a handful of shuriken into the right. It results in a cut on her hand from the sharp edges, but she ignores it in favour of putting her backpack on right and letting gravity do it's work.

It's a controlled slide down the roof, in that she doesn't slip all the way off the edge, but rather springs at the last moment to throw herself across the space between the building she's on and the one across from it. Her fingers find the edge of that roof, and the fact it's flat makes it easier for her to pull herself and sprint across to the other side. Once there, she drops off the edge onto a balcony, then to the roof of a parked carriage, then finally to the ground where she makes a sharp right and takes off at a run.

If she can get to a crowded area - the El Train station would be best - she'll have a better chance of losing him.