Des heures s'étaient déjà écoulées à la lumière de ce qui était autrefois un grand bâtiment, animé et occupé, maintenant réduit à rien de plus qu'une autre coquille abandonnée de poussière et de décomposition dans cette ville. Les heures passèrent avec une gargouille silencieuse, gardant une surveillance dans l'ombre et l'obscurité croissante de l'entrepôt, ne se déplaçant jamais pour donner sa position comme la nuit s'installait. Les heures passaient avec un regard gris-bleu ne s'éloignait jamais de l'édifice tout aussi décrépit en face d'elle, le regard noirci des sentinelles ne s'affaiblissant jamais.
Pour être honnête Zoey, les muscles devenaient assez raides. La jeune femme a résisté à l'envie de rouler les épaules sous le capuche chaud afin de soulager la douleur qui s'y accumule, silencieusement – et assez amèrement – en se souvenant des leçons que son père lui avait données lors d'un de leurs tout premiers voyages de chasse. Les proies bougent, les prédateurs attendent. Zoey avait appris la leçon de patience que le premier voyage, particulièrement quand elle était trop excitée de voir son premier cerf et de l'avoir dispersé quand elle a déplacé des positions pour obtenir un meilleur tir plutôt que d'attendre qu'il se déplace dans sa ligne de feu. Son père avait ri, l'avait clapée sur le dos et lui avait dit la prochaine fois – elle y allait assez tôt.
Et Zoey était devenu un prédateur.
Cependant, elle n'a jamais admis à quel point elle est venue à boulonner comme ce même chevreuil dit à l'instant le ping de son téléphone a alerté Zoey à un nouveau courriel, et un coup d'oeil rapide lui a presque laissé tomber le téléphone. Quelqu'un l'avait découvert. Plus que découvert – un autre justicier, Ditch, semblait connaître des choses qu'ils ne devraient pas! C'était suffisant pour qu'elle veuille juste emballer ses affaires et disparaître comme les ombres qu'elle contrôlait au soleil levant, mais quelque chose a arrêté Zoey. Quelque chose qu'elle connaissait. Un besoin. Peut-être que Zoey n'était pas tout soleil et arc-en-ciel, et la pensée d'Umbra envoyait un frisson d'effroi droit à son estomac – et pas seulement à ce qu'il avait déjà fait. Ce serait si facile de disparaître, elle avait l'argent, mais...
Inutile de dire juste avant le coucher du soleil Reaper avait déjà trouvé Racket Avenue et sorti l'entrepôt désigné 4315. Un premier scoutisme rapide et prudent n'a révélé qu'une seule balise à l'intérieur, apparemment stationnaire, mais il restait encore du temps. Il était tentant d'entrer et de les confronter tout de suite, mais les mots du passé échouèrent une fois de plus dans sa tête, ce qui poussa Reaper à s'écarter du toit d'un entrepôt juste à côté, avec une vue claire de l'entrée séparée. C'est là qu'elle s'est installée, entraînée et alerte alors que la nuit commençait à s'installer et que leur point de rencontre était attendu. À mesure que le temps passait, son ombre semblait s'essouffler, les vrilles de la fumée noire courbaient autour de ses jambes et de ses figures accroupies, mais la balise à l'intérieur ne semblait pas bouger du tout. Le peu de lumière se répandant dans la rue à partir de l'espace libre dans les portes semblait cependant s'allumer et danser à certains moments, alors que minuit s'approchait d'aller à des éclairs réguliers et rythmiques. C'est parti, c'est parti.
Si c'était un piège, le seul danger était de s'endormir.
La première activité a eu lieu peu avant minuit, rendant les muscles de Reapers tendus alors que ses yeux suivaient la figure qui s'approchait. Bien sûr Zoey connaissait d'autres justiciers dans la ville, au moins un peu, et ses sourcils sillonnaient en voyant exactement qui c'était. Un petit bug de foudre semblait, et tenant la position vers le haut près du toit si elle le sentait correctement – la proximité des deux balises a commencé à se fondre ensemble. Quel moment étrange de poser une embuscade, à peine vingt minutes avant l'heure de la réunion. Peut-être qu'ils étaient en état de choc et d'appréhension?
Zoey a résisté à l'envie de sniffer sa propre blague.
Vingt minutes d'indécision passèrent rapidement, et c'est alors que d'autres commencèrent à apparaître. La seconde se déplace lentement, gracieusement avec des doigts tracés le long du mur. Le troisième est prudent, mais courageux. Et une autre balise, le propriétaire invisible, rampe contre le toit avant de rejoindre la masse de taches sombres sur le plancher de l'entrepôt. Quand le bug de foudre a finalement considéré de rejoindre les autres Reaper avait décidé assez de temps avait passé, et il était temps de les rejoindre. Il semblait que Ditch cherchait plus qu'un autre justicier avec un thème de squelette, et suivait avec leurs mots pour arrêter Umbra. Au moins, pour essayer de les arrêter.
Se levant de sa position accroupie Reaper a pris un bref moment pour rouler son dos, les muscles se déchirant sous la capuche alors qu'elle se tenait debout. Puis ses épaules se sont assouplies en avant et un calme détendu a pris le dessus avant qu'elle ne recule, le mur solide de l'évent industriel derrière elle agissant comme une surface liquide quand elle s'est déplacée dans l'ombre. De l'autre côté d'elle, elle sort rapidement de l'ombre à côté de la porte de sa cible, s'infiltrant aussi discrètement que possible.
Ditch savait un peu de tension. Une plate-forme suspendue au-dessus d'une scène qui semblait s'effondrer avec suffisamment de poids, la source des lumières clignotantes apparentes dans l'air. Et les autres, tout simplement debout autour d'attendre d'être traité? Peut-être était-elle plus impatiente qu'elle ne le pensait, mais Reaper était plus qu'une servante attendant d'être reconnue une fois qu'elle avait finalement fait son déménagement. Considérant qu'elle n'était pas allée loin dans l'auditorium en premier lieu, il était simple de s'enfoncer simplement dans son ombre et de disparaître une fois de plus sans plus qu'un quasi-growl de frustration pour les autres, et réapparaître à sa cible.
La plate-forme était rouillée et instable, Reaper pouvait dire que d'un coup d'oeil, de sorte qu'elle était prudente avec ses pas quand elle se déplaçait de l'obscurité du mur de l'entrepôt, jetée des grands rideaux, et presque occasionnellement déplacée à côté de Ditch. Les ombres semblaient s'accrocher à elle brièvement comme du goudron, s'essuyant bientôt comme de la fumée sur une brise à mesure qu'ils disparaissaient. Reaper a incliné la tête un peu vers le bas pour regarder le masque du squelette, son propre visage couvert par la balaclava – à l'exception de ses yeux, pas de couleur ni de blancs distinguables des orbes noires. Sous le tissu, l'un de ses sourcils rouges soulevait invisible, une question silencieuse et défiait tout en un.
Name
Zoey KasimirQuote
--Alias
ReaperAge
23Gender
FemaleFamily
Father . Mother, passed. Distant family otherwise.Occupation
University student.Appearance
Standing at 6’1’’ Zoey is a rather tall woman, but thankfully isn’t so thin as to appear sickly due to her active lifestyle, leaving a fair amount of muscle packed onto her body. Her red hair is such a light shade that it almost appears to be orange, the strands falling straight down to her mid back, though more often than not she has bangs falling into her face. Said face has rather elegant, if harsh looking features made up of sharp, hard lines with high cheekbones and brows near constantly furrowed above her grey-blue eyes. Sadly this all adds up to Zoey having a natural ‘resting bitch face’, often appearing to be judging everything about you with a single glance.
Due to her upbringing nothing she wears makes her more approachable either, her casual wear often consisting of slacks and button up shirts or high brand sleeveless tops, and sunglasses she probably spent too much on. Zoey probably doesn’t even own a pair of jeans.
Well… except one pair. Reaper’s vigilante costume is made purely to be as non-conspicuous as possible, made up of simple loose jeans, gloves, and an oversized hoodie, all in black to match the theme of course. The only thing that really makes it stand out at all in a crowd is that if anyone glanced beneath the hood Reaper is always wearing a full head balaclava, the only openings being two eye holes – though even then her eyes are constantly blacked over anyway. No skin is on show, and due to the size of the hoodie it helps hide her gender as well.Method of Operation
Zoey is a vicious thing, and an equally dirty fighter. Since she’s often in mid to close combat she doesn’t hesitate to use cheap tricks to seal a victory, and often relies on surprise and brute strength to end a confrontation before it can truly begin. Due to the latter she isn’t highly known, though there are definitely enough whispers in the streets to gain attention. Thankfully no one seems to realize she’s a woman yet, between trying not to talk in costume and often slouching to further hide her features, which additionally puts less emphasis on her height.
Though, if it’s ever publicly found out that Reaper is a female she has so many cheesy lines ready to go.Personality
Zoey is rather bitter and sarcastic, despite trying to appear more elegant than she is. Even with her efforts to be aloof and untouchable she can be quick to fluster or anger if the right buttons are pressed, and will lash out. She’s pessimistic, and at times with her biting attitude can be a bit of a bully. Truth be told it’s rather accidental though, as Zoey is too preoccupied with her own problems to care about harassing others. She’s taken to finding distractions as well and can easily focus on something completely off topic, such as thinking ‘what would I say to this mugger if I did wear a spandex superhero costume?’ while completely jumping him.
Also, since she’s had everything provided for her Zoey is a bit loose with money. She knows every dollar counts, but what’s a bit here and there?Superpower
Zoey is for all intents and purposes a darkness elemental. The main part of being this elemental is that she can sense the same darkness in others; however no one is pure sunshine and rainbows so it acts more like a sixth sense of ‘beacons’ to people, excluding young children. In large cities it’s like being surrounded by a sea of these beacons all melding together into a gelatinous blob, only the particularly large ones such as murderers standing out in any capacity, and with concentration she can ‘separate’ those beacons approximately a block around her to pick out locations in the overall mass.
Were it only this Zoey might have her hands full with vigilante work, but thankfully that rather useless if constant part of her abilities isn’t what makes her a threat. Zoey’s specialization is the ability to solidify shadows to create things as needed, her ‘signature’ being claws made of darkness – stronger than her grip and farther than her reach. However she can also form them into other things, such as barriers that would be too weak to do more than slow a bullet but would solidly stop a body if she’s fast enough. Her father as another example could use a shadow as thin as a needle to perform minute details his hands were too large for. In terms of shadows Zoey can also perform a ‘shadowstep’ of short distances by stepping into or forming a large enough shadow to disappear into them to another. Obviously this power set is most useful at night when there’s less light sending her power source scurrying, but its’ not impossible to use them in the sunshine and light – just weaker. Even her own shadow can be used to an extent.
The last useful piece of her powers is that when concentrating, particularly in the heat of battle, Zoey feels no pain – which isn’t always a good thing as she’s as delicate as a normal human. Only her own logic at seeing her wounds would let her know when the time to retreat is, and leaves her paranoid of her back in particular.
Visually, as an elemental darkness tends to react around her. Sometimes her shadow tends to ‘wisp’ little tendrils of smoky black up and curl around her legs when she’s idle, or her eyes can be darkened to hide their color.Skills
Zoey learned sambo martial arts when she was younger, though never really put it to any real world use until recently. She does however keep quite fit, frequenting gyms or jogging through the streets. Aside from that due to hunting trips she’s quite patient when it comes to waiting for ‘prey’, and knows some trapping techniques as well as how to handle a rifle.
Zoey also has the fantastic ability to laugh at her own jokes and not feel self-conscious about it.Equipment
Mace – Yep, a bottle of ordinary mace. Zoey tends to forget about it since she’s so reliant upon her powers however.
First Aid Kit, including a mirror! – Because Zoey can’t feel pain until a scuffle is already over she always comes prepared in case she misses any deeper wounds, hiding a small first aid kit within the confines of her hoodie. It comes with a small make-up mirror stashed inside to check the extent of damage to her back when necessary. It’s better than wondering later on ‘why does my shoulder blade feel like dust?’Biography
As the first and only child to the Kasimir family Zoey was the pride of her parents’ life, and with their social status never had to want for anything. While both her parents came from upper class families their fortune truly came from her father, a talented surgeon who was rather highly sought after. He had a near hundred percent survivability on his performances, even the more dangerous ones, due to the least kept secret in his medical ward – Dr. Kasimir wasn’t a normal human.
It was within days after her birth that it became apparent Zoey took after her father, and in more than just his sharp features. He was of course overjoyed and Zoey started learning even before she could walk to use her powers, identical to his. Her mother was often playfully exasperated with her father, but for years they were a happy family unit. It was only when Zoey started school did she start to realize her life wasn’t perfect. She was six when the exasperation was no longer playful, and the affectionate whispers her parents shared with upturned lips turned to harsh accusations and clenched teeth. Though they held on as long as they could to their marriage, at least for the sake of their daughter, the escalating disgust was coming to its very inevitable conclusion.
Yet it never came to that, but Zoey feverently wished that it did.
It was around when the ‘divorce’ word was finally being vocalized that the route was violently derailed. An accident happened – Zoey’s mother had been out shopping when, out on the streets, she kneeled down to pick something up and lost her balance, falling in the path of an incoming vehicle. She didn’t even make it to her husband’s operating table. While Dr. Kasimir was briefly looked at due to their known impending divorce, it was obvious he wasn’t a part of it – the accident was even caught on surveillance camera.
Following her mother’s subsequent funeral Zoey withdrew into herself, much to her father’s concern. It’s what prompted him to dismiss a good portion of their staff and quit his job to fall back on their savings to spend more time at home with his little joy, his work no longer centerfold to his day. He taught her more about her powers over the years, immersed himself even in her school and taught her all about how important image was. When she was older they began having annual hunting trips where Zoey was taught how to track, to trap and most importantly just get to spend some time with her only parent. The hunting was scary at first, but as a darkness elemental as well her father had a distinctive beacon to her, which only became more pronounced after her mother’s death.
When it came time for her to start high school Dr. Kasimir finally returned to being a surgeon, though he signed Zoey up for sambo martial arts as well. His worry knew no bounds, he wanted his little girl to be able to take care of herself. He even got her to carry mace – something she let him know she found useless. They had powers, Dad. But he insisted, and she relented. Yet as his hours at work once more grew and Zoey grew more confident in her prowess is when the ideas started. Vigilantism. What better way to also use her abilities for good, like the man she looked up to? Her grades were decent, but definitely not enough to follow in his footsteps and be a surgeon or anything. It was a whimsical and surprisingly optimistic thought, and before long Zoey found herself sneaking out and beginning to foil purse snatchers and muggings in the underbelly of their city. Well, what few there were anyway – Zoey lived in a good neighbourhood in a good city. She found herself getting more and more into it despite a lack of activity, soon looking through back logs of crimes by sneaking into the local sleepy precinct via her shadowstep and going through cold cases.
It was going through these that she came across the box – Kasimir, A.. Her mother. Figuring at first someone filed it wrong it still sent an ache through Zoey, and it was morbid curiosity that had her slowly taking the box and opening it. It was there, scrawled in the pages of an old notebook that Zoey found out why this box was in cold cases. Turns out it was a misfile due to some loose notes scrawled at the top, yet one in particular stuck out to her.
‘On video victim appears to have been yanked forward’.
It was such a small thing. Obviously it went no where, there was no one around to yank her forward – it was even on video so the half-hearted scribble was discarded. On video. A video sitting in the box, dusty and unseen for years. Something Zoey never wanted to see in her life if she could help it. And one, stupid, mistaken note had her taking it out to see for herself.
As soon as the video started Zoey knew it was a bad idea, but like a train wreck couldn’t tear her eyes away. When her mother kneeled on the sidewalk to pick up her dropped wallet Zoey knew exactly what was coming and finally averted her gaze from watching her mother’s expression on the grainy video as she pitched forward. That’s how Zoey saw it.
Rewind. Watch. Rewind. Watch. Zoom in – the grain stayed but so did the darkening pixels around her mother’s wrist in the old surveillance video. As Zoey’s mother grabbed onto the wallet that had fallen just off the sidewalk something barely seen wrapped around her wrist, and from the motion of her body pulled her forward. It was such a tiny detail, it was no wonder no one picked up on it – most would probably even dismiss it as bad picture quality. It was impossible for anyone to have pulled her forward after all.
Anyone except someone who had the ability to solidify shadows.
Denial set in quickly, and as quick as Zoey could shove everything back together and back in place she was out of the precinct – and out of the city. The constant shadow stepping had her exhausted but she ended up in the grounds her father took her to every year. Hours after the sun went down he found her, and despite all the denial, the rationalization, as soon as Zoey saw him it came pouring out. A slew of vile words, accusations, he lied to her, but most of all one burning question.
“Why?! What was the point?! What – did you want to bang another woman? She was your wife! Was it money? She was going to divorce your crazy ass and take half of your precious fortune-“
“She was going to take you away from me.”
No denial. No softening. Just a simple fact that took the wind from Zoey’s sails and left her gaping at him. What do you even say to that? What can you say to that? There wasn’t a happy ending to this tale. He had asked her what he could do to fix this, to make her happy – and she told him nothing would make this okay. So Dr. Kasimir did the last thing he could, and gave his daughter justice. The next morning he had turned himself in, admitting to what and how he murdered his wife. There was only one thing he was adamant about – he was the only one in the family with these abilities.
Unable to stay in her family home with all the bittersweet and corrupted memories Zoey found herself applying for university across the country and subsequently moving on getting acceptance. As the new head of the Kasimir family it was easy after all. For a few years she kept her head down, didn’t show her powers and almost grew to resent them. More than that she grew to resent this damn, corrupted city with its rampant crime and she grew to resent the rush she got the first time she stepped in to help someone again.
It’s what Zoey always wanted, after all.
Nearing the end of her degree Zoey is finally back into vigilantism. She couldn’t stay away from it in this city. Here though there’s no precinct trawls needed, as Reaper finds crime whenever they go looking. Subtlety is needed, of course – who else in this world is a known darkness elemental? Confidentiality is key.
Which is why Zoey finds herself considering outright bolting from the city as her mouse hovered over the delete button of her email, looking at this message from the infamous Ditch. Why risk her identity? Why risk anything when it’d be so easy to pick up and leave?
Well, maybe it was time to redeem the darkened path.Theme Song
Money - Mystery SkullsRelationships
None currently.Extra
We’re not normal, that’s for sure.