Summary:Eve encounters Cold. Log Info:Storyteller: N/A |
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Some clients have weird needs.
For example, August Vanderwesthuizen demanded his garden be in just the right state by six o'clock in the morning for visitors. His estate, a rather large home in rural upstate New York, takes quite a bit of work to maintain. Even if Eve's cheating shamelessly with her ability to manipulate plants it still requires her to lay her naked eye on them to make sure it turns out properly.
And that is why she's knelt down, spade in hand, planting some additional seeds to help cover up a small gap she'd recently detected in the hedgerows of the estate. No doubt an animal had chewed through, as animals frequently do, and thus the maze needed appropriate repairs. No problem.
It's fortunate that Eve never needs to sleep.
People with big, ridiculous names were often the types begging to be robbed. It was something standard, sometimes. There were also those nights that a girl simply had to get away from it all and run solo. Vander-whatever his name was, had been a face and name Lena has been studying for some time. Casing, watching, waiting. Tonight was the night.
The small mark in the hedge wasn't exaclty made by an animal, but at least it was no longer needed and shouldn't be a hassle for Eve.
Against the calm of night is something else out there, lingering and moving through the darkness. It was swift, near silent, and quickly moving closer to the home.
Huh. That's odd.
Eve's attention snaps in the direction of Snart. She can't see her, of course, but she can feel her nearby. That's odd. There's no one out in this part of the estate at this hour. The Vanderwesthuizens are asleep at this hour and, well… old.
She turns in that direction, now, and begins to push her way over there.
"Who's there?" asks the little Goth. No doubt much to Snart's costernation. A lot of costernation.
A voice? At this hour? The sound of it pulls Cold up short, forcing her to cease her movements and press up along a line of hedge. Inhaling, exhaling, she swallows and looks out toward nothing in particular through her silver visor. Gun up and at the ready, she turns her head to the side and listens, waits. She sure as hell doesn't answer.
A side step, and then another, she turns and keeps moving. This was unexpected but that's how you do this game; you adjust.
Well. The lack of answer is fairly suspicious to Eve.
"I know you're there," she says, more forcefully now, "so you might as well say something. Do you need help?"
Eve's winding her way way through the hedges. Sure, she could simply part them and make her way through, but that's giving away the game a little too easily and it's not something she's overly fond of doing. "Damn college kids," she mutters, a bit more loudly. Perhaps deliberately so.
Help? Blinking at that request it starts to feed into her system that this perons is…kind. Her movements do not slow down, her legs carrying her forward so that she can keep to the clock in her mind. She knew how long this would take, should take. The comment about a college kid causes her to scoff to herself, smiling and smirking under the shadow of her fluffy hood. Whoever was speaking, another young woman perhaps, was not allowing her to go on her merry way. She was giving chase.
Pulling to the side of another hedge bend, she settles there and counts, lips moving as she listens attentively. Still, she gives no answer.
"Mmn," says Eve.
The hedges /would/ be a useful way to approach the house out from under the cover of the otherwise pretty useful security system that Vanderwesthuizen has.
What's worse for Snart's timetable, though, is that Eve isn't stopping her approach — and she seems to know the maze pretty dang well… not to mention a general idea of where Snart is within it even as she's doing her level best to hide.
She's got her cel phone out, the flashlight activated as the otherwise unthreatened goth begins to pick up her pace. "Oi!"
She wasn't stopping, so this was an issue. With her counting down, a shift in security would be happening soon. That window was closing, causing the Ice Queen to mutter a swear under her breath. The light, however, was useful. Now she could see where Eve was coming from. In a weird way, it was like checking the field of vision an enemy NPC had in some stealth video game. At any moment, the one tracking her would probably have an exclimation point above her head.
She had to end it, and when she was there, close enough, Snart pulls out of cover. Pivoting in place, she levels her gun in the goth's direction, her own dark lips pursing up a dimple-cheeked smirk. Her attire is dark, save for the smooth silver-blue of her parka and the fluff around its hood and sleeve cuffs. The gun hums, three lines of energy connecting and dancing withing its triangular barrel. "Stop right there. You don't want to come any closer. Best thing for you would be to turn around, walk away."
"Gah! Don't DO th-," says Eve with a start, nearly jumping out of her skin at the sudden movement. The words do, however, wind up dying in her throat when her eyes lock on the fancy looking gun that's being pointed in her direction. She fumbles with her flash light and stumbles back a step. "Okay, okay! Uhm! Whoa. Who're you? The Parka Warrior?" SOme crack jokes when nervous. Eve is no exception, apparently, even as her eyes stay locked on the gun. The way just about anyone's would.
"Not exactly, but it does look cool, I think." Puns. She has them. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not in the practice of hurting unless I /have/ to. So, turn around and don't make my finger slip on the trigger." For now, her gloved hand is waiting, resting on the trigger's guard. "You go that way," she motions behind Eve, " and I'll go this way." She motions back behind herself. "Deal?"
"I mean, I guess so? I mean, the weather is getting a little warmer for parkas but you do you! I'm not going to criticize the fashion choices of someone who has a gun pointed at me." Which she just kinda did, of course. "Uhm, that way?" She points over her shoulder. "Okay, uh. Sure."
See, one of the realities is that Eve has control over plants. Which means the hedgerows behind Snart are reaching oiut to GRAB HER. "Or, you know, I can assume you're up to no good."
"I'm aways up to no good." Snart keeps her smirk, her finger slipping on the trigger and pressing down. The girl didn't move back as she asked, after all. At least she did ask. Brilliant and bright, the beam shoots out in a solid line, aiming for Eve specifically. The air around her crackles and pops as the temperature drops drastically. Frost dusts the greener around the pair standing between two walls of flora.
The green around herself? She didn't notice that.
"Hrk," says Eve when she's struck. She's fast. Faster than she should be. She was preparing to move at the instaneous moment of fire, but it's just a bit too fast for her, too well placed, and strikes her anyway.
She freezes in place. Unfortunately for Snart, the plants are still on the move, thorny vines that have no right to be there trying to pull her right into the hedgerow like she's suddenly in some very different kind of horror movie.
Lena Snart growls and finds herself unmoving. Her finger still on the trigger, drilling out that chill across Eve. The grip was snug and she could feel a bite of the thorns pricking against her face and against her plating. The beam ceases, the normal darkness of night returning as that blinding display is over. For now, they're at an impass. One stuck in vines, the other chilled almost to the core. "Sneaky, sneaky…I like that."
Eve, of course, can't move. Can't talk. Can't really do much of anything except think about how much this sucks. Which it does. It really frigging sucks. She does not want to get shot by that thing eveeeeer again, that's for sure.
There may be a bit of a glare in her eyes.
"Oh don't look at me like that. I warned you, remember that." Snart huffs out from her spot tangled up within the vines. "You let me down, I'll thaw you out. Otherwise…you'll be waiting on the sun." Chuckling, she sighs. "Y'know, you make me miss the lug. I should give him a hug when I get home."
Eve is skeptical. It's not hard to sense and she has good reason to be. Still, she has plenty of tricks up her sleeves. The vines slooooowly untangle from around the Parka Warrior. Of course, there's some thorns left in them and it's probably not a happy thing.
And then she waits.
Lena Snart slips down and sighs, giving a shiver and shake, trying to toss out as many thorns as she can. Some will stay, no doubt, but she'll take care of those later. "Thanks, doll." She croons, striding closer to Eve, giving her the once over from behind her visor. Twisting some knobs on her gun, she points it in the goth's direction and fires it off. It's a mist, now, gentle and gradually warming. It's not warm itself, but it does thaw her out. After all, Cold was a woman of her word.
"…don't call me 'doll'," mutters Eve — though she could certainly be said to LOOK like one with that all that gothy makeup and whatever. Thankfully, it's not a creepy one. She's only saying that, of course, as she gives herself a vigorous shake off. "GAaaaaaaaaaaah! What WAS that?!" She points at the gun. POINTS. "I do not like that. At all."
"This? Jadis. I love her." She smiles at the gun and cradles it against herself. "That trick you did was nifty. I'm assuming that was you, anyway." A glance behind herself and toward the home, she makes a soft 'hmph' sound and then looks back in Eve's direction. "You…live here? Work here?"
"No, actually the grounds are haunted," remarks Eve, deadpan. "I was trying to warn you."
She's probably being sarcastic. Probably.
"I just do the hedges." She gestures at them vaguely. "And I assume you were here to…?" She glances over at the house.
"Ooooh, ghost sass. I like it." Lena muses, chuckling and starting to circle Eve curiously. "You /do/ do the hedges, and well at that." Her? "Oh, I was going to rob the place blind, but…I'm reconsidering it." Silent now, smiling, she's now with her back toward the direction to exit the estate grounds.
"Yeah. I'd advise reconsidering doing anytthing like that. Like I said. Haunted hedges." Eve circles with her, honestly, not liking the idea of letting the other woman be anywhere near her, let alone behind her. She watches her, or at least tries to, keepign an eye right on her.
"Ancient curse, you know."
"Fun." Her nose twitches up with mock enthusiasm. Resting the gun on her shoulder, she steps back and then turns. "Well, fun's fun, Demi, but I'll be on my way. "You're doing a great job. I'd talk to your boss if that is your boss over in that building. You deserve a raise." Calm and smooth, her steps start taking her away from the hedge maze, and the direction of the house. She seems to be honestly departing the area.
"'Demi'? What is this, the 90s again?" asks Eve, folding her arms across her chest. "Skedaddle," she informs Parka Warrior. "Don't let me catch you lurking around here again." Fortunately, the Parka Warrior doesn't know that sshe won't be here most nights… presumably.