2013.04.28 - The Most Dangerous Game

Madripoor by day was a bit dingy, made all the more notable by the tropical sunshine that beat down and leeched the colors out of buildings. The heavy dirt, all the more notable as the ocean air wore down the paint in the less prosperous side of the city. 
At night, though, it was less notable, as various would-be street merchants took to the street, using the cooler air to hawk merchandise of all sorts, from food to cheap trinkets, setting up pachinko machines, ring tosses, goldfish-catching tanks, and other little 'games' to draw money away from the various residents, all underneath jury-rigged strings of light bulbs that would remain up until curfew hours forced them to shut down. 
On his own for a while, with Contact tending to her bar and Domino still in the States, 'William Bard', otherwise known as Roy Harper, agent of SHIELD, was roaming the street, munching on a frog leg-on-a-stick (hey, it wasn't -that- bad... tasted like chicken) and clutching a large teddy bear for Lian. The nerve, they'd -banned- him from all the ring-tossing games, imagine that... 
 
There was no specific stand placement for Anastasia, the only thing truly heard was a high pitched moment of her voice coming over the bustle as one of her guards is ushered away after a prompt smack of what was in his hand being slapped away to skid across the ground. 
 
"I told you I don't eat the carcasses from this place!" A stray dog ran up, grabbing that morsel and running off, her eyes narrowed behind the glasses as she watched it go with the large meaty limb in its maw. "..If only it knew it was cannibalizing..." 
 
If it was not for the tantrum her attire is eye-catching enough, black pants clung and contoured dead-man's curves in their latex like shine, high heeled sandals lacing in crosses up to her calves in a red stretch of color against the shining darkness. A shining black bra-like top covers her chest, beneath the red gauzy fall of the sheer top that hung loosely, to cut through for air if there is any breeze to be had in this humid death trap. Her hair is done up, held off her neck save for the few spires that have fallen free. 
 
Ana stands alone, but it is not hard to miss the open display of arms she carries, at least in one aspect of silver stiletto's strapped around thighs, the metallic glean catching in stolen light of the stands.
It -was- a relaxing atmosphere, and Roy was only too pleased to go along with it. Clutching the large bear, dressed up in a Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts, he'd stand out well enough in the crowd, but nowhere to the extent that -that- figure cutting a swath through the crowd did. 
The frog leg is completed quickly, and the remains tossed into a nearby trash canister. 
Doing a quick check of his hair, Roy approaches, a crooked half-grin crossing his grizzled unshaven features. "Hey, it's the lady with the killer bod," Roy says, bringing two fingers to his brow in a small salute, having himself a bit of fun with wordplay on more levels than one. 
 
It did not seem to take more then a heartbeat of Roy's approach before a guard steps in and if not the mountainous shadowing presence, the breath down one's spine could be felt by Roy. Ana to his front, that man to his back only one corner of blood huen lips twitches into a remnant of a smile that died before it is even formed. 
 
"Go away." 
 
Two simply stated words, but not to Roy. Her gaze skips from him and his prized bit of stuffing to the burly body guard of her surmounting militia. For a moment he looks pleased... Until he realizes it is to him, that smug look quickly wiped off his face. 
 
"But I was told..." He states, stumbling over his words. 
 
"To obey me. Now. Go. Away." She states, and only once he is turning and mixing into the crowd (not truly gone, but nowhere too close to be noticed), does she look back at Roy a fingertip touching over that bears plastic nose with an audible *tick* of her fingernail's graze. "Here to complete your collection?"
The ginger agent, who'd been braced to be escorted away from the brunette's presence, blinks, jaw dropping slightly, before recovering with elan and flashing a roguish grin at Ana. "Well, no, I just figured I'd play a little around here." Motioning around the night market, Roy quirks a grin. "Wouldn't have expected to see you here. Good to see you're letting down your hair, for once." 
Roy's eyes rove down a bit, then back at the Baroness's face, grinning. "You here to start a collection or something?" A heartbeat later, Roy adds, "Oh hell, whatever you're here for, let's just take a walk... you ever try one of those mango drinks?" 
Ana sniffs, her own dry attempt at a laugh coming and going on that one simple and near whispered gesture. Not even the bear is safe from her menacing touch, but for now she leaves it in one piece and stop pressing the buttons of a stuffed creature to zero her sights in on one of the very banes of her existence in Madripoor. 
 
Roy's inquiry on 'collection' is what births a shark-like grin on Ana's façade, turning to keep walking. "The drinks? No, about the only think I trust on this speck of waste is the fruit, but I have little option but to when it comes down to it." 
 
Pausing in her talking she stops to pick up a piece of jewelry at a stand, a black serpent necklace, boasting lapis from the salesman, her touch and keen eyes testing for its true quality. "As I am sure you are only here for the mango's and carnival toys. Your timing is too... Perfect."
Given that most things -here- were really cheap trinkets, it was highly unlikely that necklace was worth anything.
No, the real gem here might be the Baroness herself, and the salesman is only too happy to try and peddle multiple things, hawking them as cheaply as possible, his attention shifting from the woman to the man falling in step next to her. "Buy something for your lady?" 
"Uh, nah," Roy dismisses the notion with a wave of his hand, as though sweeping away a bothersome fly. Then it's time to address Baroness's chest... er, face. "I'm told that I'm a complete and utter jinx. I just have spectacularly bad timing."
A crooked half-grin forms on his face. "Wasn't here for you, although now that I know, I'm not gonna complain one bit." 
Reaching for a simple necklace made of rough lapis lazuli stones, Roy considers it. "You have a problem with it?" 
"I don't buy that." Ana states in regards to his timing, still holding the necklace that seems to be on a wire that made that stone serpents body roll like it's live mirror, over her fingers and between, that stroke over the stone in a lovers-like manner, twisting it up and around to simply fall back where it began - clutched like a meaningless trinket. The vendor, for the moment, is ignored and treated nigh unto non-existent. 
 
"Did you know cobras are the only snake that can control when it does or does not release its venom, also the only ones known to remember those that have crossed it - and begrudge them?" A slight smile then as innuendo is given no true meaning as she stares at the necklace and sets it back upon the table. 
 
"Your bad luck could come from the fact that your eyes lie about intent and you surely will find no luck in my company." Without looking at him she turns from the vendor and glances back only with the inquiry.. 
 
"So where are these drinks?"
Returning the lapis lazuli necklace back to the table, Roy nods towards the disappointed salesman, before turning to follow the Baroness, motioning towards another stall, which seems to be set up with a juicer, a blender, an ice machine, and multiple mangoes. "Over there," he says, the master of the obvious. 
Walking along, Roy picks up the conversation from where it'd left off. "Oh I don't know. I think my eyes are pretty clear about intent. You're probably -right- about not having luck in your company, but you know... if I were to say you're a booby trap, I wouldn't be lying -one- bit. I just haven't decided whether it's worth it to trigger it or not." 
"/Are/ they now?" Ana states, her voice changing from that apathetic monotone to bearing -something- in its backdrop that only yearns to have a daggers edge to it, her footing then attempting to shift, almost as if in a tango with Roy, circling in the shift of heeled footfalls to re-direct them towards the mango stand. If she manages to get him to turn towards her in that circling space will not allow for him to turn back, and if he is as smart as he tries to cover up, he wouldn't turn his back on her anyway. 
 
Baroness' front will nearly press to his, but there is the factor of that large bear held betwixt that her hand rises up to press splayed palm across its face, in that dangerous dance she is backing him up to that stand - step by step - until his back is pressed against it and they are both brought to a halt.
Roy follows along in the serpentine dance, noticing too late that Ana has moved in a certain position to back him up, the bear caught between a rock and a soft place. 
There's a brief moment of 'what the hell' caught in Roy's eyes, before the smirk crosses his face again, Roy's eyes glinting with amusement and challenge. Lifting his hands so that the only thing keeping the distance from shortening is the bear, Roy brings up his empty hands. "I think my intent's pretty clear. I should be more worried about yours, eh, miss...?" Oh, Roy was playing coy, at least, knowing -her- name after having to review dossiers, but... it was all part of the Game. 
Ana has no concern of who knows her name, she is not a secret in most places, and due to that her record is easily ran into like a brick wall topped in barbed wire and broken glass. A know terrorist, a mercenary not-for-hire; but hiring. The vendor stops in cleaning a blender to look up with a start as Roy's form slightly impacting it shakes the rickety booth, inquiring if they would like to order with a curious gaze. 
 
Fingers sunk into the face of the bear, not tearing stitches, or removing parts, but that small bit of force is being applied to /press it down/, not even casting a glance to the vendor as her other hand comes up with Roy's, two fingers held up. "Dva." A simple order for two just before her hand drops, slithering down her side... 
 
"You can keep calling me Miss.." She states with an encroaching smile that drips its own warning amongst the invitation, that hand that had dropped snapping back up beside Roy's face, tossing the mango peddler money haphazardly. ".. William.."
The bear drops precariously, placed just -so- that the booby trap becomes -far- more apparent. Certainly not a bear trap anymore, but laying bare far too much. Far too inviting, especially for a man like Roy Harper.
And Roy wasn't exactly -one- to back down from this sort of situation, as he brings one arm down, resting fingers lightly against the Baroness's waist, a crooked half-grin at the bearback protection separating the two of them. 
Flashing an engaging smile as if to say 'bring it on', ignoring the vendor's open-mouthed goggling, Roy closes the distance, over the bear and not -quite- engaging the trap, and murmurs, "You do know that saying about keeping your friends close, and your enemies closer?" 
 
The touch draws yet another movement, Ana's lips twitch right at the corners, one rising upward further then the other. A marionette's strings tugged, pulling her façade into a reaction that is smoothly mechanical, aching for perfection beneath that the rest of her body moves to create. 
 
The gap between them that remained a fleeting memory by the plush prize dropping -lower-, the veil undone for the warped dance that came in plays on words - words that belied what bodies portrayed for those too indulgent on the sight to pay any true attention. 
 
Roy's lean forward is met with her own, one that leaves only a simple intake of her breath to close between them, but not /pushing/ to engage. No, only reciprocation as that hand that had splayed across the bears face rises, pressing in a slow smear upward across Roy's chest, fingers spread until his shoulder is reached, hooking over it... 
"That is a test of boundaries.." Accented vocals on poisonous lips, all the while, even as drinks are slid onto the small platform, they get no notice.
It might gratify Ana to notice that she -could- read Roy's eyes very well, see the conflict between Reason and Lust warring between his eyes. But if this was a battle, Roy wasn't going to retreat, simply holding his ground, bringing his other hand down to the waist, encircling her waist and pulling her closer... was it just in time to keep the bear from slipping down further? 
Roy's lips -almost- brushes Ana's, so close she can practically feel his lips curve, eyes fixed on hers. A glint of mischief dance in his blue-green eyes, as Roy runs one hand up Ana's back, coming to a stop, resting between her shoulder blades. "So are we here to negotiate boundaries, like good little allies, or are we going to keep breaching them? Because I got to tell you, this whole notion of keeping your enemies closer is looking better all the time."
That arm encircling her waist and tugging Ana in has a breath heaved out, a bare brush of an exhale that could be /felt/ against his lips that she can sense turning, warping with his own emotion and play upon words that come to pass like a breeze.. A breath of fresh air that cannot be found between them with the rising heat as well as that alarm that is being duly ignored - in part. 
 
"Allies?" She utters, that ending sound almost like a hiss of breath pulled between her teeth, her head tilting back to bring that gaze from behind glasses to his, her lower lip a bare brush upon his, one that could have been a figment.. 
 
The hand on his shoulder that had remained now bears to slide /back/, curling in that serpentine coil across his shoulders and then upward, drawing nails along the nape of his neck - a bad feeling, that sensation of /warning/- before they curl into his hair, clutching and tugging his head back if he does not resist. That space the bear kept between them breached as heeled feet stepped over it, molding her body to the front of his in a crush that leaves no breath between them. 
 
Now if he did not move the next sensation would come swiftly on the glint of a blade pulled from that thigh strap. The flash of the dagger and it is lodged beside him but close, enough to embed flesh, split it as well as the shirt he wears and enter the wood of the booth with a hollow sound, pinning him there by his own wound and shirt if he did not move fast enough. 
 
"I can change your mind." She states, a single finger rising from the hilt of the blade to press between her lips and his, tapping just before she turns, taking her drink and heading for the crowd.
Baroness was speaking earlier of intent showing in the eyes, and there was just -that- flash of warning that Roy caught, enough that as soon as the bear is dropping, leaving him bare of protection, he's already twisting, cloth tearing, a thin line of blood left behind where the tip of the blade sliced. The shirt pinned to the wood booth, Roy watches the woman go, his eyes shifting from her back to the sway of her hips, before he calls out, "So, you'd rather -not- be closer?" in a small smirk. 
Taking the drink, and starting to drink, Roy gradually becomes aware of the mango drink vendor's gap-mouthed gaze. 
"What? She totally hates me," Roy says. "Nothin' you haven't seen before." 
Category:Log