retired open post // will still tag in if threads are ongoing!

[exastris_scientia]

1. pick a character and tag them in the subject line.
2. post pictures, starters, whatevs
3. profit!

Comments

<3!

[blowncovers]

[The whisper of the tightening bow string was enough to alert her, an incongruent sound amongst the hum of the mechanics struggling to keep the helicarrier aloft with the damage it's sustained. She ducks behind cover, her wrist gauntlets humming to life.

Clint Barton: sharpshooter, threat level higher at range. In close quarters, she could overpower him.

She vaults the railing as the arrow is released, sliding under it to swing herself back up behind him.

(Part of her, in the back of her mind, struggles against the trance Loki has put her in. It doesn't slow her down in the slightest.)

She presses the attack. Win conditions for this engagement: stay close, make herself a difficult target. Keep moving. Don't let him draw. Don't let him fire.

She doesn't say a word, barely makes a sound at all that isn't the rustle of fabric and the tamp of boots hitting the deck plating. Her eyes are focused on him--eerie, almost glowing ice blue instead of their normal calm green.

She isn't pulling her punches, and her taser gauntlets are active. The first swing is wild, electricity crackling from her wrist to ground in the metal of the railing.]

[nested]

[ Clint wants to pull his punches. He wants to take her out in a way that will put her in the infirmary and not six feet under. But he's spoken with Loki, he's heard his plans, and he knows what she will do if he fails to stop her. She is his best friend, and if she dies, here, by his hand, he will regret it for the rest of his life.

But he won't let her become a threat to his family. He can't.

He may not be able to draw his bow, but he has other weapons. A knife, for instance, which he pulls out, and leans back in a crouch, waiting for an opening. ]

Snap out of it, Nat. [ Terse. Cold. Commanding. ]

[blowncovers]

[He should know, were she in her right mind, she'd tell him to do what he had to do. This wasn't the first time they'd stared each other down--she'd told him the same then, too. It had ended with her following him back to SHIELD.]

My mind is clear.

[She sounds detached--almost disassociated, like she does after a bad mission. Like she did all the time, when she first came to SHIELD. She has the same flatness to her voice that Clint had helped coax her out of with movie nights and long conversations years ago. Her head tilts, like she's trying to get a read on him in the dark.]

Walk away, Barton. I have a mission. You aren't it.

[She doesn't want to fight you if she doesn't have to. It's not expedient, and an unnecessary risk.]