Don't Step on the Cracks{OPEN}

[diamond]

Jinx stood in the middle of the room, munching on the last bits of popcorn that remained in the bag. It was only a few kernals, but she still wanted to finish it. And fast, because the cup of soda in her hand was making her hands really cold.

People walked past her, staring as if they had seen their role model. Oh, that was right, people probably still thought she was a Titan. A small shiver of disgust raced up her spine at the thought. God, she had to get out of here before someone asked her autograph!

Going towards the door, she tossed the empty popcorn bag in the trash and proceeded to guzzle down her soda as she exited the movie theater. Yes, Jinx had went to the movies. She had the spare cash and, well, she was bored, after all. Anything to remove the boredom. The movie she saw wasn't that bad. She had watched a comedy about a guy with bad luck. Hehe, wonder why she chose it? She had enjoyed herself a little bit, criticizing the movie in her head as she had watched it. She could have wrote a whole critique on it, to be honest. The sad thing was that she forgot the title already. Oh well, one thing stuck in her head that made her smile.

She finished up the soda and tossed the cup into the next nearest trash can. Jinx had contemplated just tossing the cup on the ground but, hey, might as well be a bit eco-conscious. Besides, New York City was already trashed up enough.

The pink haired girl continued to walk down the sidewalk, heading back to her small apartment. Turning up a street, one that she had heard held a quicker route back home, she smiled. The walkway was riddled with cracks, making her smile. She gracefully evaded each and every one of them. There weren't many others out at the moment. She was actually rather alone, besides a guy that was walking towards her. He seemed to be trying to evade each crack as well but when he was but a yard away, he tripped and his foot hit the cracks. Jinx smiled.

"Step on a crack, break your mothers back," she whispered loud enough for him to hear her as she passed him. The guy stopped but she kept going. Maybe she shouldn't head home quite yet. A bit of fun might be called for, now.

[echidna]

Truth was, Jynx had never really been alone, at least since around noon. It'd taken The Broodmother a great deal of doing to find Jynx, but that wasn't a lick because she was hard to spot - looking at her even second hand through the eyes of one of her opal beetles, she was painfully obvious. Pink hair... a distinct, gothic-feel type of outfit, that... unmistakable sorcerous knack in glowing eyes... The girl might as well have been waving a flag that said "LOOKATMELOL" and wearing pink and white polka dots at a funeral.

That entertaining mental image aside, an Opal beetle, from above the eyeline, had its eyes dead set upon the girl. It was not alone - Several such forms fluttered and surrounded her, all out of eyeline, all out of sight and silent to the girl's ears, but she was covered from several angles by the strange white beetles. On the third floor of an apartment building, a biologist was studying one such beetle, thinking he'd discovered some new species... not too far from the truth, but Eliza largely ignored him. At least... the beetle did, chewing introspectively upon a leaf.

[diamond]

Jinx grinned innocently at the man, throwing him a wink before she turned around and began to skip away. She was still avoiding each and every crack as if it would kill her to even touch one. She knew, of course, that they will do nothing at all to her... but that was besides the point, now wasn't it?

She felt a bit better than she had a few days ago. She skipped, nothing on her mind at all... That is, until she thought she felt someone watching her. Was she just going paranoid? Or was someone really watching her? Shaking it off, she continued forward, not really knowing where she was headed. Should she head home? Or maybe stay out here. She didn't know... the didn't care, though, so it all worked out.

But she still had the distinct feeling that she was being watched. Blinking, she stopped, looking around. "All right, who's out there?" she never noticed the bugs... but she also never would think that they were the culprits.

[echidna]

Eliza wasn't sure how best to approach Jinx. After all, they'd never been introduced, and she was going to come at the girl from an unexpected angle. She didn't want to come at her as just a minion of Slade, it wasn't exactly the truth - she, after all, was more than what she did for a living, more than her apprenticeship under the Sensei to end all teachers. Truth was, she'd arrived only shortly before Jinx called out into the night to reveal who was talking to her.

Eliza smiled. This girl had good senses! The bugs, in concert, flared their wings and made a buzzing noise, flitting from cover to become obvious. In their way, they were adorable - they were big beetles! They didn't get close, didn't move toward her in any way, but as their hulls flashed with opalescent light in the streetlamps, it was obvious these turtle sized creatures were far from normal.

They buzzed, and a pale, feminine hand outstretched into the winter night, as if to beckon them, a sleeve dangling off of the arm, an elegant, though strange garnment that didn't look like it made much sense as simple clothing. Was it made of... leather? No, it didn't shine, it had to be kevlar or something like that - it was thick, strange looking.

The insects buzzed upward, and landed upon the arm and in the lap of the girl it belonged to. The design of her clothing, closer to armor, likely would look familiar to Jinx.

"Oh, just me, Jinx" Her voice called down, and she dropped to street level from some ten feet, dusting herself off. She wasn't terribly close - anyone who knew Jinx's powers as well as she did knew better - but she was within thirty feet, leveling her gaze as long platinum hair spilled around her shoulders.

When she stood straight, the silvery-white haired girl, around Jinx's age, let her sleeves droop again, their too-long fabric concealing her hands beneath them. At her hip, bound and fastened in plain view, was a sword in an ornate sheathe.

Eliza smiled cheerfully to the ex-titan, her eyes and expression reflecting gray in the streetlight, the turtle-sized insects milling about around her, crawling down her sleeves. It wouldn't be obvious, but they were keeping eyes in every direction, moving in such a way that nothing got missed, for that was their purpose. One landed on her head and tried to decide if Mother's hair was edible. It most definately wasn't, but it chewed anyhow in affection.

"Name's Eliza, Jinx - I'm the student of a... friend of yours, see... I was wondering if we could talk?" She offered, sounding quite friendly, actually, despite the decidedly... otherworldly quality to her, difficult to put a finger on.

"I know a good place to get some pizza~"

[diamond]

The sound of buzzing wings became prevalent... wings? Wings meant bugs, right? As she looked around, she tried to spot the bugs yet could seem to see them at all. Where were they? They were rather irritating, their sound too high pitched for her liking. The noise actually hurt her ears to be quite honest.

"Oh, just me, Jinx."

Jinx heard the voice, it was rather unfamiliar to her and yet, at the same time, she thought that she might have heard it somewhere before. Then some lady landed somewhat in front of her. By the hair, she would have thought that the girl was an adult of some sorts... but she didn't seem to have the 'air' of an adult. Or a goodie, either. "And you would be who?" she asked, staring at the girl. There were bugs all around her, making Jinx a bit sick. Bugs... were crawling... on the girl. Nicole's eye twitched once at the sight of all of the bugs, but she soon shook them off as the girl gave her a name. Eliza? That name didn't sound familiar in the least. And what friend? She had no friends... not anymore. None that she knew of. All her 'friends' thought her traitor. Well, she didn't trust this girl, but she had to hear what she had to say. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I know a good place to get some pizza!"

Pizza? At the sound of the name of the greasy food, her stomach grumbled slightly. She hadn't eaten any real food that day. Just popcorn and soda. "Pizza? I guess pizza would be nice. I haven't really eaten all day, anyway," she cooed, a small smile crossing her lips.

[echidna]

This Eliza girl, she smiled when Jinx agreed to at least the pizza. She did indeed know a place, doing a little spin to about-face, the long sleeves twirling with her and lagging slightly behind in an almost playful manner, the girl taking ginger steps between the cracks of the sidewalk, shooting a little smile at Jinx over her shoulder - an invitation to follow as the bugs fluttered off into the periphery. Now that Jinx knew what they looked like... god they were everywhere. Every building had two or three clinging to the side. One was being inspected by a cautious alleycat unsure of what it was, circling faster than the creature could follow... and through it all came the quite-distinct sensation that she was being watched.

As they walked, in the periphery, always just out of sight, there were a couple hulking shadows, alien in the poor streetlight and recumbent darkness of the new york night life. They were silent, but they moved with the pair, always keeping a great deal of distance, like they knew just where to watch from, where Jinx wasn't looking and where Eliza was going. All with the most carefree, casual air imaginable from the girl leading her.

The quiet was deafening. People hurried home for the cold and the possibility of zombie attack - it was a pandemic, after all - but there weren't even any straggling homeless, police, or... well, anyone. Just her, the bugs on the edges of Jinx's vision, and the shadows creeping just barely within the skirtings of perception, dissapearing as soon as she looked at them.

Eliza broke the akward snow-crunching night-paved silence with a drop in pace to fall in line with Jinx. She didn't seem like the... "bad" type... but she most certainly wasn't an incredibly good person, either - some people give that vibe - the 'good person with terrible powers and a purpose' vibe. Perhaps this was the most dangerous kind of villain of all - because an evil person will gloat, make their prey suffer for some sick amusement... but a good person will kill without a word.

She hummed, just softly as she walked, a genuine smile on her face as their footprints in the newfallen snow trailed behind them. After a long moment, Eliza looked to Nicole, her big gray eyes searching the pink-haired ex-titan a bit. The Broodmother knew that conversation would probably help... you know, small talk - it puts people at ease. Nothing probing. Definitely nothing probing.

"So what kind of pizza do you like?" she asked, tipping her head a little bit as she waited for the answer.

"The place we're going is owned by a friend of mine - he owns a butchery, old-style, and his wife makes the dough herself." she began, eyes flashing with a bit of... joy! "A little... old-world, I know, but it kicks some kind of ass, I swear." Clean. No bait, no deception. Clean.