C'est un grain de dents. Un frisson s'est abattu sur sa colonne vertébrale. Plus que tout un mauvais goût construit dans la bouche de Zoey, un arrière-goût amer à une expérience qu'elle n'a jamais voulu rencontrer à nouveau.
Un autre élément de l'obscurité. Comme c'est... malheureux. La description donnée par Ditch avait les yeux de Reaper, se rétrécissant, un soie courant à travers son corps. Bien que leur élément puisse être le même, il a semblé que la manipulation d'Umbrie a couru une veine différente de celle de sa famille. C'est douloureux. Brutal. Certainement pas quelque chose pour construire une carrière qui aide les autres.
Mais ce n'était pas quelque chose de s'attarder. Reaper a donné à Ditch le respect de tenir son regard alors que leur futur «chef» parlait, en écartant son histoire au reste d'entre eux. Sous le masque ses lèvres pressées ensemble, invisibles de la matière sombre, mais ses yeux n'ont jamais fléchi. Reaper connaissait la perte d'un parent arraché de votre vie; deux parents de différentes façons. La vengeance était peut-être l'un des combustibles les plus brillants pour ceux de cette entreprise, et quelque chose qu'elle pouvait comprendre. Il a allumé un feu sous ceux déjà brûlés, les exhortant à aller plus lumineux et plus chaud jusqu'à ce qu'il n'y ait plus que des cendres.
C'était difficile de dire à quel stade était Ditch.
Alors que Ditch tirait son regard loin Reaper s'inclina la tête brièvement en reconnaissance, une reconnaissance silencieuse de la question répondue. Elle n'a pas regretté de le demander, car une telle chose a dû être exposée de peur que le doute ne fâche. Si c'était mieux d'arracher le bandage rapidement Reaper ne pouvait pas dire, mais elle avait obtenu ses réponses et était retombée à la contemplation tranquille alors que ses yeux rugissaient le groupe une fois de plus. Il faut dire la vérité, une petite douleur de se sentir installé dans la fosse de son estomac, un mélange de culpabilité et de tristesse que Reaper n'avait pas envie de laisser s'installer. Malgré cette conviction, son ombre continua à s'envoler, s'élevant plus haut et se fronçant au sujet de ses jambes croisées accrochées au-dessus de la scène alors qu'elles réagissaient à son émotion.
Les autres l'avaient assez bien pris. Ils semblaient accepter l'histoire de Ditchs et désireux de bouger – certains manifestaient plus d'enthousiasme dans le cas de Graffiti. Mais celui avec le masque argenté a posé Reaper sur le bord. Leur balise – et celle des bugs de foudre – étaient légèrement coupées des autres, juste assez pour qu'elle ait eu du mal à s'y fondre. Plus grand, plus foncé, plus intimidant. La balise de quelqu'un qui a les mains ne serait plus propre. Lorsque le masque argenté parlait Reaper se concentrait sur eux intensément, un froncement rampant les coins de ses lèvres vers le bas à leur demande. Innocent assez, mais comment était sûre Ditch de ces autres?
Néanmoins, Reaper a montré de la grâce en donnant un petit arc de sa tête à être présenté à la salle, bien qu'elle était plus concentrée dans ce qu'elle est sûre que tout le monde était – leurs... coéquipiers. C'est bizarre à dire.
Reaper a presque commenté Ditch a laissé tomber son changement alors que l'autre fille a installé l'ordinateur portable, mais a rejeté les quelques centaines de dollars comme sans importance. Elle ne les récupérerait pas du sol sale non plus. Au lieu de cela, Reaper a finalement glissé de la scène à prowl autour et obtenir un meilleur regard sur l'écran, coïncidemment près du masque argenté, sa croisant ses bras sans un mot comme les images clignotées par. Scarlet Shifter et Wall Walker. Elle en avait entendu parler – qui n'avait pas fait cette affaire? Le plan de Ditch, cependant, avait son curling sur les lèvres d'une manière presque sauvage.
Un criminel était un criminel, peu importe les raisons. Si la situation n'était pas si terrible, elle serait tentée de prendre son propre châtiment de leur chair. Comme c'était... si Umbra était si puissante que les alliés seraient une grève contre. Reaper n'avait pas à l'aimer, cependant, et se brouillait presque silencieusement dans la désapprobation.
Un soupir sur le côté de Reaper's avait son regard sur lui, regardant la petite fille à côté d'elle. Une femme pâle de ce qu'elle pouvait voir, avec un masque de corbeaux qui a failli engloutir son identité, quelque chose que Reaper pouvait apprécier. Il lui a fallu un moment pour comprendre pourquoi la fille semblait ennuyée, mais un coup d'oeil à la canne a eu son souvenir de regarder Ravens Tale entrer dans le jeu d'auditorium avant elle, canne tapotant le long du sol. Vraiment? Elle avait oublié. Cette petite présentation était sans doute moins qu'utile pour elle, même si, espérons-le, Ditch savait ce qu'elle faisait pour l'inviter. Sinon, ce serait vraiment un cas de l'aveugle conduisant l'aveugle.
Avec un fil de ses doigts ombres enroulées dans une petite boule à sa paume, Reaper commence à bouger et façonner l'ombre. De petits objets comme celui-ci étaient plus son père finesse, avec Reaper ayant la force brute et la férocité emballés dans son cadre. Ce qui a pris sa décision aussi.
Reaper a dit simplement sans regarder vers le haut, une fois de plus le fait que les mots venaient de ses lèvres sous le masque étrange et étranger. Il n'était pas aussi étrange qu'avant, comme dans ses paumes la forme a commencé à prendre forme. Une barre solide comme base, à partir de là de plus petites frappes se rassemblant à travers elle et se multipliant...
Voilà. Dans les mains de Reaper, essuyer doucement maintenant une forme solidifiée de marque Umbra. Elle a failli s'emparer de la main de Raven Tale, mais s'est arrêtée à la dernière seconde, en se rappelant à quel point certaines de ces personnes pouvaient être dangereuses. Au lieu de cela, elle a baissé sa voix, déjà silencieuse, pour parler à l'autre justicier.
C'était tout ce qu'elle a dit, prenant l'ombre solidifiée dans sa paume pour la presser contre Raven Tale. Elle s'est retirée du contact rapidement pour laisser l'autre femme prendre ou rejeter l'offrande, croisant une fois de plus ses bras pour regarder la procédure. C'était... plus calme sans bug de foudre, bien que beaucoup étaient encore rigués. Graffiti en particulier était impatient, bien que les autres allaient plus loin dans le plan aussi.
Quant à Reaper? Elle avait juste mal à la tête. Elle pouvait déjà voir les fils qui traverseraient dans un projet ciblé comme capturer le prédateur de l'apex Scarlet Shifter. Espérons qu'ils aient trouvé du travail avant qu'ils n'aillent tous faire leurs propres choses.
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.