[Open] A Little Stroll Never Hurt No One

[superoverachiever]

Characters: Ava Ayala and OPEN
Date: Late February
Location: Metal Sector
Situation: Ava wants to see the outfits, and maybe the gangs, of the Metal Sector
Warnings/Rating: Light Violence

After putting in a few hours at work, Ava's decided to take the day and familiarize herself with the part of Keeliai she's been put in. If she's going to work in textiles, it doesn't hurt to take some time and just take in what both the locals and the foreigners are wearing. She'll give a smile and a wave to most Foreigners she passes, particularly if they catch her staring at their outfits.

She also has a second form of recon in mind. She wants a little firsthand experience with the gangs around here. She'll try to spot them off the street, and keep an eye out for any shady activity. Theoretically it's just to gather intel, but she's been itching for some action. She has a hard time not jumping in when she sees someone in trouble, and while she is trying to avoid making herself a target, she's not trying very hard.

Comments

[backwordscompatible]

Zatanna had little interest in the gangs today. She'd spent far too much time trying to hung down people lately, and even more time fighting and hiding. For once, she just wanted a peaceful day to herself. Time to not think.

(Though, that wan't to say she wouldn't eye the occasional potential thread with extreme prejudice. If those morons even think about spoiling her day off, she wouldn't hesitate to take it out on all of them.)

She had never been quite so obsessed as some of the girls at her private school back home, but even she could appreciate the value of a well-accessorized outfit. Particularly if it leaned towards the costume label. Her non-obsession led her in search of one of those "vintage" stores. Old School. Rugged. Most of the outerwear looked a few sizes too big, but that was part of the draw.

It was there she ran into a young girl, maybe a couple years older than her. One she couldn't remember seeing around before.

"Hey." Shrugging her bag over her shoulder, she tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear as she approached. "Sorry to bother you, but I don't suppose you would happen to know which block that one handmade...oh, what's it called, 'couture'?...where that shop is, would you?"

[superoverachiever]

"Hi," She smiles at Zatanna. She has a good dress sense for sure. "I have a pretty good idea. If you don't mind the company, I could show you." She could really use some company herself. Life on the Helicarrier (or with Peter's Aunt May) just did not get as quiet as things were in Keeliai most of the time. And she wasn't exactly sure how to go about making friends.

But shopping sounds like a good start.

[backwordscompatible]

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

She hadn't really been looking for a partner for the day. She had initiated conversation, though, and it seemed outright rude to turn down potentially pleasant company for the time being. Who knows? This could turn out to be fun.

[superoverachiever]

She offers Zatanna a hand to shake. "Great. I'm Ava Ayala."

"I'm from New York. Or at least one of them."

[backwordscompatible]

Well, that was...interesting.

"Zatanna Zatara." She accepted the hand with more than a hint of amusement. "Also from a New York."

[superoverachiever]

"How about that." She smiles and starts walking in what she's fairly confident is the right direction. "So what are you in the market for?"

[backwordscompatible]

"A new jacket. My suite can be a bit drafty sometimes, so the bigger, the better." Preferably something she could get lost in. Over-sized outerwear was the best when it came to comfort, and she wasn't kidding about the draft.

[idkmybffpyramid]

Guess who has two thumbs and has been dying to throw down since he arrived?

That's right, it's Reno.

He's been in an awful mood and pretending that's not the case has made his mood even worse, so it's a good thing he found out about the gangs around and about. The great thing about street thugs is most of them are dense, easily provoked, and no one really cares if you rough them up a bit. Perfect for working out all that bottled aggression.

The thing he'd forgotten to account for though, is that the kedan are tougher and faster than the kind of folk he's used to fighting and, while he's pretty confident he can still take the group rounding on him, he's growing increasingly aware he won't be walking away from this as untouched as he'd like.

[superoverachiever]

Ava hears the clamor and is on quick alert. When she gets close to where she thinks the fighting is, she ducks into an alley, throws on her costume and stashes her purse in an out of the way nook. It's all very practiced and smooth.

As White Tiger, she leaps up to the top of a building and across rooftops until she spots Reno and the kedan. "Need some help?" She calls down. It's almost conversational.

[idkmybffpyramid]

He's a bit busy trying not to get punched in the face to respond straight away. It's kind of a crash course in kedan physiology, he manages to get in a blow with his baton to one of them that should have busted a couple of ribs, but as it happens? Shapeshifters don't have to worry about things like leaving their bones where people can get at.

He makes a noise that could be roughly translated to, 'this is ridiculous', but he takes the moment where none of them are within arm's reach to call back to the stranger on the roof, equally as conversational, "I wouldn't say no to some company."

[superoverachiever]

Ava leaps down into the fray, a kick targeted at what she decides is a tough looking kedan. She's not sure whether to go all out yet -- this is her first fight since arriving here, and while she's not adverse to banging people up, she's not looking to maim anyone. "What'd you do?" she asks as she pushes away from her target. It's not especially accusatory, but Reno looks pretty tough to have been picked for a random mugging.

[idkmybffpyramid]

"Don't think they like foreigners too much around here." Especially not foreigners who goad them into fights with disparaging remarks about their competence and/or families, but that's neither here nor there.

He shifts his focus once he's aware of her on the ground fighting, she seems a bit young, but it's hard to tell be sure with just her voice and size to go by. Besides, she looks like she can hold her own, smartest thing to do in that case is probably to split the difference. Reno gives the gang a quick once over and goes for one who looks like one of the tougher dudes in the gang, figuring the rest'll probably disperse once their heavy hitters are taken care of.

[superoverachiever]

"I got that impression!" And the impression that there's something more to this story, but she's kind of busy at the moment. She exchanges a few blows with the closest kedan, then jumps and changes opponents. Knocking out the heavy hitters is great, but she wants it known that she could take these guys all on her own. Except, you know, Reno's here so he could help too.

If he watches her during the fight, he may see that her strength and speed are preternaturally exceptional. She won't be throwing cars or catching bullets, but her physical limits are well beyond what should be the maximum for any human, much less one of her size and apparent age.

[idkmybffpyramid]

He's keeping an eye on her. Well, sort of. A peripheral eye, if you will. The dude who just clocked him in the jaw is taking up a lot of his attention right now, but it's hard not to pay attention to her, assessing her the same way he would SOLDIER recruits. She's tough and fast, clearly superhuman or augmented or something. What's more interesting is that she really seems to want a make a point of how much tougher she is than these guys - Reno himself swinging between obfuscating his capability, his usual instinct when someone he isn't familiar with is around, and joining her in making an example of these guys.

Reno opts for letting her take the lead on this, backing her up as soon as he's finished off the guy he's dealing with with a feint and a blow across the back of his head that catches him off guard and seems to put him down for the minute.

[wallcrawler]

It was pure coincidence that Pete was even in the area today, and even more so that he should run into Ava. He probably wouldn't have if it weren't for the inclination toward oversharing the kedan had a tendency for. He'd very nearly had to force his way out of a nearby florist's shop after being trapped with a story about how the owner's great grandfather had come up with no less than a thousand and one different uses for the wildflowers native to Tu Vishan (well, more or less native, anyway). Of course, when leaving under the premise of being "late for work" didn't quite work and the elderly shopkeeper started to follow him out the door to continue the conversation, Pete had to take off down the street as if he was really running late. Once he'd reached the end of a block, he took refuge around the corner of a building selling various luxury items, hoping it would be enough to spare him further harassment. it was only once he saw Ava across the street that he dared break cover.

"Ava!" Only after shouting did he stop to think maybe it wasn't terribly safe to do so, but a quick peek around the corner was enough to confirm that the florist had either remained in her shop, or already returned to it. And with the looming threat of death by family anecdotes now gone, he was able to hurry across the street to join her. Judging from how his satchel was bulging, it was apparent he'd been doing a little shopping of his own. "Decided to explore the Metal Sector a little more, or just passing the time?"

[superoverachiever]

Definitely not going around actively looking to pick a fight with gangs! Not this girl. "Pete!" Please have a hug Spiderbro.

"I was just shopping a little. I'm looking for inspiration to make clothes. What's up with you?"

[wallcrawler]

Well if she insists, he guesses a hug is okay. But that's mostly because he's already used to them, thanks to sporting a nice 2:1 ratio of girl to boy friends back home, and they're pretty touchy. So you get your own teeny spider hug back, Ava.

"Trying to do a little research while I've got the chance, but it's not going so well. Not a lot of books here written in English, and even fewer about botany. Anthropology's not much easier, but Professor Craig's at least understanding about it."

Not that Ava's likely to have any idea what the heck he's talking about, of course. Well, mostly. She seemed pretty smart, so he wouldn't put it past her to figure out why he's looking into botany all of a sudden. He was starting to run low on web packs, and the local plant life was looking to be the most likely way of making more, considering this place didn't exactly have a Spidey-Mart yet. Or was likely to get one in the near future.

[superoverachiever]

This is good. Ava will help him stay accustomed to these things.

"Anthropology? Wow." Not that she doesn't see the use, she's just still kind of amazed by a Peter who can take this initiative without it blowing up in his face.

And then on to the chemistry thing. She totally sees your game there Spiderbro. "You can just do experiments though, right? I mean, even they use totally different symbols it's not like the reactions will be different."

"Is it?"

[withoutaworld]

Rikki doesn't exactly stick out like a sore thumb - she's taken to wearing clothes at least based on local styles when she's not patrolling, but nothing can convince her to wear local shoes instead of the ones she came with. The bright yellow boots with a faintly metallic ring when they hit the ground... yeah, those do stick out.

Rikki's on her way home from work when she spots the girl - pretty obviously a foreigner, even if not one she recognizes - and lifts her hand in a wave. It's always nice meeting people around her age here.

[superoverachiever]

Ava waves back and heads over. She has nothing but time to kill in this city. It takes a second to realize she recognizes Rikki from her network intro, and another one to remind herself that 'hi I'm White Tiger' might not be the correct introduction here.

"Hey! I'm Ava."

[withoutaworld]

"Hi! I'm Rikki." She holds out her hand to shake - which... is maybe not a normal greeting for teenage girls, but kind of one of those things you pick up when you spend so much time trying to be like Cap. "You live around here?"

[superoverachiever]

It's not quite normal, but Ava doesn't mind formal. She shakes Rikki's hand gently. "In the Metal Sector, yeah. I'm pretty new, I just got here a few weeks ago..." Not long enough to have properly acclimated to life in Keelia or even to be sure that that was possible.

[withoutaworld]

"Then welcome to Keeliai, I guess. Not that most people really want to be here, but..." She grins, and shrugs a little.

"I live in this sector too, and I've been here from the start, so... if you need help finding anything or whatever..."

[superoverachiever]

"Thanks. If you know how to find a way home, that'd be great." Sometimes, Ava is a little too straightforward with her humor. It occurs even to her as soon she says it. At least she smiles to show what she was going for.

[withoutaworld]

Rikki laughs, shaking her head. "If anyone's figured that one out, they haven't shared with the rest of us."