Play Time (Stitch, The Broodmother, Open)

[johnseever]

[/size][/right][/ul]

[/size][/ul]

[echidna]

Eliza Gaian, aka the Broodmother, was a busy lady - she had her nose buried in a manga visual novel - Fruits Basket, to be specific, so, quite unusually for her, she... bumped into someone! She'd learned early on in her apprenticeship that dallying about was a bad plan, so she'd been moving at some speed. Combine that with the fact she'd been concentrating on the exploits of Tohru Honda rather than on the Brood, and it wasn't hard to imagine the results! Slade would have torn her a new one if he'd known!

So picture this - boy meets girl, at speed. POW! She blindsided him at a full-on brisk walk like a cruise missile, and sent them both pavementward, her book flying from her hands as she cried out in surprise and just managed to surpress an urge to kick out as they fell.

[johnseever]

[/color] he says to her as he stands up and offers his hand to her. "Are you ok?" he asks her as he stands there and once she accepts his hand, if she does, Terry will get her book and hand it to her.

Terry himself is wearing a brown and white jacket, with a black shirt under the jacket. A pair of dark gray pants adorn his legs and a pair of black shoes protect his feet. He also carries a reddish-brown backpack with him. Additionally, he stands about 5'11" with short black hair and ice blue eyes.

[/size][/ul]

[echidna]

Eliza was completely flustered, and she felt sore now from both the impact with the larger teen and the subsequent collision with the ground. To top it off, people were staring at them for all of five seconds, and she'd completely dropped her guard. That was dreadful for a girl who had to live with Slade's training for over a year. Unlike batman, Slade was a cold hard piece of work, and he ran her into the ground for the slightest reason, had no qualms about hurting her - a good chance to practice her magic- and was about as merciful as a lit cigarette to the eye. All very, very good reasons for her to be completely speechless and wide-eyed with discomforted dread for a moment as Terry... apologised, stood, offered her a hand, asking her if she was okay.

She didn't know what to say! She looked from his hand to his face and saw nothing but honest, gentlemanly concern there. She was unable to control herself! She blushed, took his hand, and stood with his help. Then, he handed her her book. She found words flying to her mouth without reaching her brain first - a meek

"Thank you, sorry... I wasn't paying attention." She said, and brushed her hair from her face. The Broodmother part of her brain was telling her to break off at this point, but the young woman bit, the bit that had been reading the shoujo comic, took said comic back from him gently, spartakicked the Broodmother part of her brain into a deathpit, and took the reigns again.

"Thank you... um... do you want to..." she gulped nervously "... get a coffee or something? I should make it up to you..." she said, and the Brood, largely consisting of a lot of young males, cheered raucously in her mind. Terry they approved of, she found with some surprise - odd, that. The analytical part of her saw his broad shoulders, his athletic build, his polite manner and thought 'oh dear...'

[johnseever]

[/color] he says to her simply as he gestures towards the mall. "I think there might be a shop in the mall that sells coffee," he adds as he looks around. "Considering I have never been to New York before, so I have no idea where anything is located, except for the Empire State Building," he mentions in passing.

Looking over at Elisa, he asks her "Sorry, I forgot my manners," he comments. "Terry McGinnis," he says to her as he thinks for a moment on something before looking around again at the people in New York and how busy they were.[/size][/ul]

[echidna]

Eliza wasn't sure to react at first that he'd agreed so easily when her brain caught up to the rest of her - what would Slade think? Bugger that for a game of soldiers! She was not a machine! Again the rest of her overrode the bit that was Slade's apprentice, and she beamed, eyes searching Terry's face for a moment or two. He went on to comment about how he was new in town, and she filed that under interesting for now.

"I come here sometimes for... incense mostly, but I know a good place..." she said with careful honesty, and opened her messenger bag. Several pairs of curious black eyes stared up at her in wonder, and she stuffed her manga book beneath the Opal Beetle inside's body as It made a very, very soft chittering sound and nipped her gently, but the gentle creature didn't object as she shut her bag over it again, content in the darkness near it's mother's hip.

Eliza again smiled, more confidently this time. After all, now was coffee time! She took his comment about his poor manners in stride as she began leading him towards the food court. He introduced himself, name and all, and she flashed him a smile over her shoulder.

"Nice to meet you, Terry - I'm Eliza" she replied simply, and took him between a few tables to a crowded coffee shop, displaying rows of sweets and fine confectionary delights, an assortment of flavoring oils, and all sorts of things as the silvery-blonde haired girl queued and turned to the polite young man, looking him over again.

Really he was quite handsome - in good shape, cute-faced and boyish, no older than her even if he outsized her by several inches and twenty pounds or so of muscle. Everything, right down to his unique design of jacket to his sharp-cut hair was handsome, and though she'd never had an eye for boys before, she automatically felt the old pang that she didn't belong, that she didn't have the right to have a coffee with him.

"Hey, you want something or what?" a voice peeved to her right, and she turned to the clerk, who had a look of a long day about him, his eyes tired and posture saying "I hate my job, somebody please just shoot me now". She happened to know this man was a local DJ - a small time guy, really, but he worked hard as far as she knew - and the only reason she knew that was because he kept one of her beetles as a pet. This was a good man, gentle to her child - he treated it like a beloved pet and lavished it with affection, and Eliza felt compelled to brighten his day a bit.

"Hey, you're DJ Laser, aren't you?" she said, and he blinked in surprise. "That was a killer show, saturday night! I loved it." she continued, and he brightened up considerably. "When's your next show?" next saturday at three in the morning - well off the circuit for most people. He repeated this to her sans the last part - he'd been pissed about that, she knew, and she smiled like she'd just heard it for the first time.

"Hey, I'll be there. Can I get... a monster assault, and a couple cappuchinos - chai, and-" she looked to Terry inquisitively, seeking his flavor of choice. Whatever his choice, Eliza insisted on paying, and tipped the beleaguered DJ five bucks. Tables weren't hard to find this time of day, so Eliza simply picked one out of the way a bit so as few people as possible could rest their eyes on her as possible - it was an old habit, and it died hard.

[glenn]

It was amazingly a rare day off for Kaitlyn. Sitting in the coffee shop in the mall, several bags full of clothing at her feet, it was indeed a rare day for the cold intellectual women to enjoy herself like a normal person, a normal human being that didn't have to kill for her paycheck; but she did have to kill for her paychecks and that was the one thing she couldn't escape in this world. But she didn't really care, she took a day off when work was....slow, to put it bluntly and as she sat int he back relatively secluded, sipping her cup of green tea, the smell of ginger and lemon wafting from the cup and giving a pleasantly tangy spicy smell as she worked on what normal people would work on; taxes, bills and rent for an apartment.

But even she had the compulsion to check on the contracts, check to see if there was anything worth noting, anything worth checking on in the future. There wasn't much there but of course, the buzz of information from mercenary to mercenary was lively as usual; bragging rights and what not from contracts and jobs. But there was one thing that really caught her attention, someone was using her name, her alias and her title, the ghost of new jersey. She gave the words a long indignant stare, annoyance showing clearly in her eyes but not on her face, never on her face. That was the reason she was so hard to read at times, a real tried and true stoic. But deep down inside, she made a mental tick on a list. Plagiarism, both of her own deeds and her name were...sadly, unforgivable.

Whoever it was, was certainly brave or foolhardy but nonetheless she had to rectify this misuse of her name as she took another sip of her tea, closed down the browser and looked up, eyes settling like electric knives on the two new arrivals in that little coffee shop. It wasn't like they were obvious, or stood out, since most people from high school came into the shop but Kaitlyn had at least one quirk where she just had to make mental notes of everyone and anyone, that she saw more or less being an assassin for so long, one erred on the side of caution in case one or more people here became an unlucky target for a hit or a job; a contract, if you want to put a slightly more innocent spin on it.

But taking another sip of her tea, she looked around her surroundings again, took a nibble of the previously untouched cranberry oatcake and went back to working on her projects, bills and taxes again. A boring, unassuming thing but still, every now and then she glanced up at the two of them, blue eyes settling upon Eliza for a scant second than lingering upon terry for another scant second, taking in his appearance, from his chiseled, angular jaw to the sharply cut hair, down to the unique stylization of his jacket and his slightly broad shoulders. He was handsome as some would say, stood out with a slight hint of athleticism; a jock by school standards.

However the girl with her platinum blonde hair stood out more or less like he did. She was beautiful, looked intelligent, polite, a grade a valedictorian. It was typical for some but Kaitlyn being Kaitlyn, paid more attention to them, eyes glancing up every now and then from her work as she made brief, concise profiles of them in word pad, dipping between this and that, bills and her assassin instincts. Made sure to keep it on the down low however, make it not as obvious as one would expect, she was good at that, blending in with the background. But still, she had this weird gut feeling about the girl, as if there was more to her than this.

(Bleh a post!)

[johnseever]

[/color] he states as he thinks. "Actually, never had one before. I usually drink regular coffee. However I'll try what the lady is having," he adds as he smiles and listens.

"What kind of music do you play?" he asks as he thinks and ponders. "If I am able to, I'll come as well to the show," he adds as he looked around and listened to the various conversations and people here. He spoted someone over int he corner, working on something, but paid it no mind, as she would stop and look off, off in thought before going back to work.

Terry had done some sports in high school, but he is not a jock, although he can pass for one, thanks mainly to the training he has received from Bruce Wayne and the numerous rogues that he has acquired as his time as the Bat. As the drinks are placed on the counter, Terry nods to Eliza on the paying part, and picks up the drinks in his hands and looks, "Where would be a good place to sit?" he asks as he studies the layout that he can see to find an open place to sit.
[/size][/ul]

[echidna]

Eliza took her seat at the table she'd chosen for them and slid her chair forward a bit. The chai smelled good - it was good, in fact, the smell of it soaking her palette as she took a gentle sip of it, enjoying the frothy, pleasant warmth of it as it trickled through the 'caution its hot' hole in the lid. She... well, chai was a treat. She'd done what she set out to do yesterday. It had been important, it had been difficult, and it was done. Thank whatever you like, it was done.

Eliza wasn't given to thinking overmuch about the past, but perhaps it was time to reflect a bit. She'd just made the raveners a race, and this was... huge, to say the least. What would the future hold for her? Once or twice she'd entertained the thought of expanding her domains, pushing out of The Maw into the world around her a bit more - but things were tense as it was with the mob and the underworld element that took roost in this city's undercrofts and attics. She had to...

She was being watched. The feeling stole over her that somebody was looking at her, and opening her senses to the brood revealed that his was so. She didn't need to look 'round - it was plain as day that a woman was... writing things, and watching her. Well, that was disconcerting, wasn't it? She didn't intend it, but her face went kind of stony. She had children here - she always had someone near her... pretty much whether she wanted there to be or not. Her sons were protective--- no, very protective of their mother, but that was their nature and she accepted this about them in a very mother-y sort of way.

So, what was this person doing? It was but the work of a moment for her gifted children to move around invisibly. She was... well, mostly she was doing her bills, but she was looking up at them occasionally, them - out of a crowd of people, she was watching them. Again, very disconcerting... but she knew what to do about that, didn't she?

Watch her back. The sensation of being watched - like, minutely examined, of many eyes being trained upon you, it was uncomfortable for normal people. For a sneaky type? Like being an ant underneath a magnifying glass. She was good looking - athletic, fit, curly-haired and... well, to be honest Stitch reminded her of Slade a good deal. Every motion was somehow... concise. It wasn't something that a person could fake or try to do - it was unintentional, a result of living life in such a way that she saw truly awful things on almost a daily basis. Those eyes told a story, and it wasn't one that would make it on a middle school teacher's required reading list. Eliza's expression relaxed, and she took another sip of her tea.

"So... where are you from?" she asked Terry - it was a safe enough question, she felt - most people didn't see a harm in it.

[glenn]

The watcher was being watched, how quaint. The feeling of eyes on her was not lost within the her ruminations, within her meditations of future situations and encounters, mental preparations as she mentally ticked off what she would have to stock up on; plants and herbs, venomous compounds, explosives, ect. But she remained calm, kept herself cool, it was the one thing she knew best since losing your cool got you dead and fast and as she took a sip from her green tea, took another bite of her raspberry oatcake Kaitlyn looked down at her university report and typed a few more things into it, things relating to primarily criminal law; Fatal and Personal offenses; assault and battery, murder, rape, involuntary manslaughter, manslaughter. The list itself went on and on as she made little footnotes about upcoming exams and how several of these were going to be rather important parts of the exam.

Quietly, she looked up again, glanced sideways from the two new arrivals to stare at the sign on the window; Buy two tazo green teas, get the third for free. She thought on it for a moment and shrugged. She was running low on her teas and that was a tempting offer since not many people drank it, either they didn't like the taste of something that was made out of entirely 100% fair trade ingredients or the fact that it was the ginger that didn't appeal to them. It was their loss. But that girl intrigued her, if only because she herself had felt eyes on herself, moments after she began to watch them.

"Never knew new york to be so slow, especially during rush hour. Guess all the fun happens at night, actually, now would be a good time to look into those reports of something called old helljaws." She mumbled softly, took another bite of her oat cake and cracked open her laptop, brought up google and began surfing through webpage after webpage, all the reports were pretty much the same; gruesome, violent and bloody. But the strangest thing out of them all however? Not a single body was to be found, it was like they were just eaten whole, from hats to shoes. Couple that with the recent subway disappearances and well, that sounded like something worth checking through the tor projects network. But not here, maybe when she got back home at the very least where it was safe.

But still, there was something weird going on in new york and that morbid curiosity of hers was slowly clicking the switches and grinding it's gears as it slowly rumbled to life as a small spark of electricity squirmed across her flesh before disappearing into her tank top. Mentally she slowly began to let the persona of Stitch, of the Jersey ghost bubble up and anyone in tune would very much notice that there was a creeping miasma around her, a certain intoxicating air of danger as if she was mentally preparing herself for the kill, the violence, the deceit, the sheer brutality of what her job entailed. It was all in the eyes really, those eyes of her's were the key into her soul, into her thoughts and they radiated with the beginnings of a storm, intense and violent. She was most definitely someone that was capable of cleaning up the human trash as she was at cooking a pan of brownies in her kitchen.

But still, she kept looking, kept on checking out Eliza and Terry. They were the most interesting people in the shop where she was surrounded by snobbish hipsters, goths and green peace hippies. They stuck out like a sore thumb and well, that was what interested her the most. The fact that they stuck out and this time, she made it plainly obvious she was watching them. Rather, she just waved them over to take a seat, curious to hear about them. After all, she'd rather listen to some high schoolers go on about their lives than how the nearby hipster whinged on and on about how he liked something before it was mainstream or the goth two tables down had a soul as bleak and as dark as the night sky. Or worst of all, the hippies. Now, she didn't have anything against them but that stuff didn't interest her, it was....weird and not the least bit annoying and maybe those two could give her some ideas - even rumors would do! - about this helljaws thing and the local disappearances.

These were the things that interested her, stories and fables and legends. Even rumors piqued her interest, because after all all these things have a basis in truth and deep down that's one of the things that mattered. The truth. "You two can come over, I won't bite. I Promise."

[johnseever]

Terry smiled as he thought on how to answer this. He could say he is from twenty-eight years in the future, but that would cause a lot of headaches and too many questions. Looking at the seat next to the lady who said she would not bite, caused Terry to think more on other things in here, like exits, number of people, objects to use as weapons or protection, etc.

"I'm from Gotham," he says to her as he waits for her to sit down first. "Well, before my parents divorced. I've grown up mainly in Washington, on the west coast. I just recently returned back to Gotham, after my father's death," he says to her as he takes a drink of his cappuchino. He knows that what he said is a lie, but it is the only thing he could come up with. Since it is hard to explain a guy fromt he future being in the past and what knowledge he has that could help or harm people. As he looks at Eliza, he ponders a moment as he glaces at Stitch, before he asks Eliza; "How about you? Where you from?"

[echidna]

Eliza gave a moment before she responded to Terry's comment. She'd seen his eyes flick to the exits and around the room on reflex when Stitch invited them over, and as a sensitive person, psychically, she couldn't blame him. This woman was not only a killer, but a professional one, and living by Slade's rules and operating at his side had taught her to tell the difference... but she wasnt a catholic schoolgirl, either... at least not anymore... and she interpreted the invitation as a kind of... thrown glove. A subtle gesture from one paranoid bitch to another. But Eliza was good at this game, wasn't she?

She smiled at Terry. "I'm from Jersey. I grew up around here in the tricities. I live here... have for oh, maybe a bit over a year?" She said, knowing full well that this was well after Old Helljaws appeared. She knew something about what people said. They confused this... Jersey Ghost with Old Helljaws because they both, frankly, were very clean kills considering the gore and lack of evidence. Her sons accomplished this by devouring the prey unlucky enough to get lost in the wrong place or see the wrong thing. This... Jersey Ghost character was a... professional assassin.

Something clicked in Eliza's head, and she casually stood, taking her cup of chai. She grinned at Terry and motioned. The human bit, the part that was whining about meeting a superassassin on her freetime, was good at being unassuming and controlling her expressions and thoughts, and the part that watched her parents get eaten, that was loyal to Slade made self-control a fine art... so her own 'killer's aura' was a thing that, like a talon, extended only when it needed to. When Eliza walked up to Stitch's table, smiling at her, she was just a college student.

Alright... she thought How good are you, Miss Jersey Ghost...?

"Hello!" She chirped, and the feeling of being watched by many eyes fled as the girl took a seat beside Stitch. "I'm Eliza" she said, and motioned to Terry "And this is Terry."

[glenn]

Kaitlyn watched unblinkingly as Eliza was the first to move to her table, eyes fixed onto the girl, but moving away after a moment and back to her tea as she picked it up and took another sip. The girl didn't have the air of an assassin but Eliza had been doing this job for as long as she could remember, she had other ways of telling if someone was normal or if someone was.... more than they wanted to appear. Even she couldn't hide it sometimes, the way you moved, the way you gauged the distance between yourself and a door, how eyes wandered over the prime cut areas for a blade or a poisoned dart. But at that moment the miasma receded, withdrawing back and vanishing, like a dagger that tasted blood.

"A pleasure to meet you Eliza," she glanced over at terry and blinked a few times before nodding softly, "and you as well Terry." Another sip of her tea, then another nibble of her oatcake as she looked between the two of them, "it's a pleasure to meet you both and incidentally, you seemed like rather sociable conversationalists as opposed to....well, everyone else here," she yawned softly, a look of boredom plainly showing in her eyes, the otherwise lively electric blue hue of her eyes toning down a notch, dulling as if she was exhausted. "Can either you tell me about some old rumors that have been persisting for a year or two, about someone called old helljaws? You see, I'm a fan of urban legends, rumors and....ghost stories, as they've gotten to be a bit of a hobby of mine and I can't seem to find many pertaining towards this person in particular."

She looked towards Eliza again, this time showing more interest in her for the fact that she had lived in Jersey or maybe, still does and is here studying at one of the local universities. That thought passed through Kaitlyn's mind as she picked up and took another sip of her tea, closing down her laptop and pulled out a small notepad and a pencil, flipping the front open, displaying an asinine level of notes, cramming the first page as she flipped through it again and again, each page as crammed full of notes and points of interest from various textbooks as the last all neat and tidy, all as tiny as tiny could be; she was orderly about her work, one had to give her credit on this!

And on she flipped, at least fifteen pages into the notepad till she found an empty page and looked at them both, but stared at Eliza in particular, directing her questions towards the girl. "Could you provide me with any information, about any rumors you may have heard about this... hell jaws as I am assuming that you have heard any legends or rumors since that is your home city," she stared at the girl with those same dull, tired eyes, the eyes of someone who just wanted to just get what she needed doing done, go home, and get some much needed rest. "Please?"

[johnseever]

blinking as he nodded in turn, Terry listened, "Old Helljaws?" he asks with a confused look and a few blinking of his eyes. Looks like I get to learn more about this it seems, he thinks as he takes a drink of his cap, "I have never heard of this Helljaws or this Jersey Ghost or whatever it is called, so I cannot help you any there," he states simply as he is telling the truth.

Pulling out his cellphone, Terry use the internet feature on it and does some looking on his own about Helljaws and The Jersey Ghost as he sits and listens to the conversation. Looks like Batman will be out tonight as well looking for both of these guys crosses his mind. But for now, he thinks and listens as he was not planning on using this time to gather information, but to relax and have a nice conversation with someone who will be possibly a close friend.

[echidna]

Eliza took a sip of her Chai, taking her sweet time to enjoy it as this woman greeted her and completely failed to introduce herself. She took note of that, but didn't press the issue. She was pretty sure she knew who this was she was talking to... and she wanted to know about Old Helljaws, did she? Well, Eliza knew more than anyone on the face of the earth... as if she would betray her sons to this person? Yeah. Right. And Terry was taking an interest too, wasn't he? That was interesting...

It was... a hell of a story people told. It was like a mother reading the newspapers for signs of her son's exploits - she made it her business to know this kind of thing. She nodded, her hair flicking a little.

"Mhm! I know a bit - did a paper on that story once." She nodded, and set her cup down.

"He's... supposed to be a monster or a serial killer or something - some people think he's not the Jersey Ghost, but I think he is - I mean... there's like no evidence after his kills except buckets of blood, right?" she said in a conspiratorial tone, nose wrinkling as she smiled. This was a serious jab at the Jersey Ghost's proprietary professionalism - any hired killer would want people to know that if there's legends about them, that THEY are different from some other bugger. Who wouldn't? She made no indication she was poking fun, but she did watch Stitch's face at that point.

"No bodies, no gore... just blood, missing people and property damage. Supposedly-" she held up a finger to make a point "He lives here in New York in the old subway system tunnels on the northeast edge of town - tons of disappearing people down there... people call it The Maw" she said. That bit of information pained her to share... but she had to do something about this. If the Jersey Ghost was really interested in it, it might be worth giving her a show, giving her a demonstration that you just don't fuck with the brood if you know what's good for you. This was her town, dammit.

And Terry... well, she'd see what he was made of. If he was a pancake with good instincts... she'd see to it he came to no harm.

She grinned mischeviously at them both, like someone divulging a really closely guarded secret and leaned forward.

"If you guys want... I know where the Maw is, supposedly" she whispered. "I took pictures for my report, but I couldn't get in very far." Bait planted, she picked up her cup and sipped it again, sitting straight once more. That accomplished, she seemed to have a concern, tilting her head curiously at Stitch.

"I've got to know though... I mean... that's a strange story... why do you wanna know?" she asked, girl and monster watching Stitch's face as one.