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[for Kenzi] faces, familiar and otherwise
Jun. 2nd, 2014 02:24 pmIf Alex were paying better attention she would say she woke up feeling off this morning, but as she's been feeling off in a variety of ways since before she showed up in Darrow, she blames it on a lack of caffeine and sleep. She grabs her first cup of coffee at home to drink on Seymour's walk, but once the puppy has run out all the energy he'd built up over the night, and she's taken him home, she's too antsy to stay in the apartment.
So she dresses for a run, but decides to get another coffee beforehand. Preston isn't at the Coffee Bean when she goes in, but most of the staff know her by now anyway and a large almond milk latte with an extra shot is ready for her about the same time she gets to the counter to pay... and in theory to order, but they've already handled that with little more than significant looks while the guy in front of her waffled on what to get.
Coffee in hand, Alex heads out the door, pausing to hold it for the person coming toward it without really looking at them. It's a nice enough day, maybe the sunshine will do something about whatever it is that's bugging her today. And once she's properly caffeinated, she can get in that run. Ten miles or so sounds good this morning.
So she dresses for a run, but decides to get another coffee beforehand. Preston isn't at the Coffee Bean when she goes in, but most of the staff know her by now anyway and a large almond milk latte with an extra shot is ready for her about the same time she gets to the counter to pay... and in theory to order, but they've already handled that with little more than significant looks while the guy in front of her waffled on what to get.
Coffee in hand, Alex heads out the door, pausing to hold it for the person coming toward it without really looking at them. It's a nice enough day, maybe the sunshine will do something about whatever it is that's bugging her today. And once she's properly caffeinated, she can get in that run. Ten miles or so sounds good this morning.
[for Molokov] and Mother Russia
Apr. 13th, 2014 12:02 amAlex has had nightmares for as long as she can remember. No, that's not true. She had the occasional nightmare as a kid, just like everybody, but the real nightmares started the night a Division strike team came after her family, killed her father, and burned her house down.
But lately, they have been getting worse.
When she can't sleep, she patrols or scours what passes for the internet in Darrow looking for clues, something, anything that will lead to a way out. And she thinks every barista in the city knows her face by now - not great for opsec, but excellent for her caffeine intake. On top of that, she has a cover to maintain, so she needs to be out and about sometimes doing normal stuff, while keeping an eye and ear out for anything that might be useful or where she can help.
Today she's in a coffee shop, almond milk latte extra shot within easy reach, scrolling through a message board dedicated to the late Tiffany Charlotte and Todd Chad. The ramblings of their crazed fans - yes, Amanda, that's redundant - are giving her a headache, but it doesn't make sense how devoted so many Darrowites are to the dead celebrities, and Alex thinks there has to be something else going on there, if she can just ferret out what.
Taking a slow sip of her coffee, Alex rubs her forehead as she sets down the cup, muttering to herself in Russian, "These people are out of their minds."
But lately, they have been getting worse.
When she can't sleep, she patrols or scours what passes for the internet in Darrow looking for clues, something, anything that will lead to a way out. And she thinks every barista in the city knows her face by now - not great for opsec, but excellent for her caffeine intake. On top of that, she has a cover to maintain, so she needs to be out and about sometimes doing normal stuff, while keeping an eye and ear out for anything that might be useful or where she can help.
Today she's in a coffee shop, almond milk latte extra shot within easy reach, scrolling through a message board dedicated to the late Tiffany Charlotte and Todd Chad. The ramblings of their crazed fans - yes, Amanda, that's redundant - are giving her a headache, but it doesn't make sense how devoted so many Darrowites are to the dead celebrities, and Alex thinks there has to be something else going on there, if she can just ferret out what.
Taking a slow sip of her coffee, Alex rubs her forehead as she sets down the cup, muttering to herself in Russian, "These people are out of their minds."
[locked to Nikita] catching up
Sep. 30th, 2012 04:54 pmAlex wouldn't say it was like old times, too much had happened for life to ever go back to the way it had been, but training with Nikita was something she had missed, even if she hadn't realized how much until they had found each other in the madness known as Tabula Rasa. Having her partner with her for their daily run, pushing each other further and faster - it was more than just familiar.
Their run and the cool down that followed had led them to a usually deserted stretch of beach. Alex stretched out on her towel, letting the sun bake into her muscles while the ocean breeze dried the sweat from the run, and grinned over at Nikita.
"Better than a Division treadmill any day."
Their run and the cool down that followed had led them to a usually deserted stretch of beach. Alex stretched out on her towel, letting the sun bake into her muscles while the ocean breeze dried the sweat from the run, and grinned over at Nikita.
"Better than a Division treadmill any day."
I will always find you
Sep. 19th, 2012 10:35 amThe message Alex had left on the bulletin board had taken a little thought. Enough to let Nikita - if it really was her, and who else could it be? - know she was here and all right, but not enough to give away intel to anyone else who might be curious. In the end, she'd decided on something simple, knowing Nikita would recognize the message and the handwriting.
A tropical island was a big one-eighty from a Russian forest, but her father's lessons from so long ago stuck with her, and Alex made herself at home in the jungle, not yet trusting the island or its residents enough to stay at the Compound or in one of the many huts scattered around the island. During the day, she combined exploring the island with looking for Nikita. Kate had given her enough to start from, key landmarks and areas, but she needed to fill in the details for herself.
One day soon she was going to have to check out dinosaur territory, because whatever was being hidden there was something she needed to know about, and she had to wonder who would possibly believe it was actually dinosaurs. But for now, its boundary was the starting point for her search. If Nikita really was here, she would be thinking like Alex, so the greatest chance of them finding each other was away from the more populated areas.
If it helped keep Alex from running into anyone who knew the Annie who looked just like her that Kate had warned her about, even better.
Nikita,
Chill, sensei. I got this.
~ A
A tropical island was a big one-eighty from a Russian forest, but her father's lessons from so long ago stuck with her, and Alex made herself at home in the jungle, not yet trusting the island or its residents enough to stay at the Compound or in one of the many huts scattered around the island. During the day, she combined exploring the island with looking for Nikita. Kate had given her enough to start from, key landmarks and areas, but she needed to fill in the details for herself.
One day soon she was going to have to check out dinosaur territory, because whatever was being hidden there was something she needed to know about, and she had to wonder who would possibly believe it was actually dinosaurs. But for now, its boundary was the starting point for her search. If Nikita really was here, she would be thinking like Alex, so the greatest chance of them finding each other was away from the more populated areas.
If it helped keep Alex from running into anyone who knew the Annie who looked just like her that Kate had warned her about, even better.
[locked to Kate] Not in Division Anymore
Sep. 17th, 2012 02:00 pmAlex flinches when Roan's bullet deflects off the reinforced laminate plastic of Percy's former cage. Of course Division, and more importantly Amanda, wouldn't trust anything less than bullet-resistant material for a cell meant to hold the one man Amanda had to fear above all others after her coup. But still, Alex flinches. It's instinctive, staring down the barrel of a gun, knowing the man with his finger squeezing the trigger is not just a Division-trained assassin, but a Cleaner, Percy's Cleaner, at least as dangerous of any of the Guardians, and right this moment, pissed as hell at Alex for stopping Percy's plan before all of Division was dead.
Roan fires, but Alex is safe, and trapped within the cage. He would probably go in search of a way to get to her, finish the job, but he leaves, and Alex thinks he probably has more important things to do. Like rescue Percy now the job's gone FUBAR and Nikita and Michael are the more immediate threat. Alex's heart is pounding in her chest, and she doesn't have time for that, not right now. She focuses on her breathing, Amanda's lessons coming too easily to mind. Slow, even breaths, get her heart rate down; she doesn't need the candle flame as a focus. If Birkhoff's still talking over comms, Alex doesn't notice, quieting her mind as much as her body. She needs to find a way out.
She's so focused, she doesn't notice the sound of the silo's elevator until after it stops, and by then, Amanda is there in front of her, taunting her from the other side of the cage door. That's calming too, but like a shock of cold water in the way she has to keep her wits whenever she's dealing with Amanda.
Amanda's hand is on the keypad – oh, thank god, Alex is getting out of there – when the world shifts and twists, and then nothing makes sense.
No sign of Amanda, and instead of sitting at the bottom of an abandoned missile silo, Percy's cage is surrounded by jungle.
Have to think, have to think. Amanda. It has to be Amanda. Alex stays calm, easier now than it probably should be; she thinks she's been through this before. It has to be Amanda, drugging her again. If Alex is smart, if she keeps her head, and thinks before she speaks, she'll be all right. Nikita and Michael, Birkhoff and Sean, she has to keep them safe. No names. Nothing that would give them away. It's thoughts of her team that reminds Alex about the earbud. If she's right, and this is a hallucination, the real earbud is gone and won't do her any good.
But.
But she's gotta do something, and if there's a chance, even the smallest chance in the world this isn't one of Amanda's tricks, Alex has to try, has to reach out.
"I thought the terminator was going to get me that time." She keeps her voice light, calling back to her and Birkhoff teasing before she deactivated the poison gas, trusting if he's there, he'll answer, and hoping she'll be able to tell the difference if none of this is real. But there's no answer. No Birkhoff on the other end of the comms to tell her just how lucky she was to have his genius on her side. No Amanda twisting words and prying at her psyche. No Nikita, who she wants to see most of all, even if this is all a dream, because the Nikita in her head is just as protective as the one in the world, and Alex could use that about now, when all she can hear are jungle birds and maybe, if she's not mistaken, distant waves breaking along a shore.
Alex is alone.
Just sitting here isn't going to help anybody, though, and Alex has always been more comfortable doing something rather than waiting for someone else to come and rescue her, even when she needed the rescue. She tries the door - still locked, and she kicks it in a moment of frustration, a grey scuffmark marring the clear plastic.
She knows there can't be anything in this bare bones cell to help get the door open or Percy would have found and used it before going to such devious extremes to make his escape. Okay, so he probably would have. Sometimes Percy was devious just because he was an asshole who wanted to show off all the ways he was better than someone else. But she has something Percy didn't, and while she'd rather have Birkhoff chattering away in her ear while he hacked the lock codes, or Nikita there in front of her working on finding another way, for the moment, she'd make do with the multitool in her pocket. She gets to work, on the door, on the connections between the walls, trying to find a weak point, something she can exploit to make a way out of here.
Roan fires, but Alex is safe, and trapped within the cage. He would probably go in search of a way to get to her, finish the job, but he leaves, and Alex thinks he probably has more important things to do. Like rescue Percy now the job's gone FUBAR and Nikita and Michael are the more immediate threat. Alex's heart is pounding in her chest, and she doesn't have time for that, not right now. She focuses on her breathing, Amanda's lessons coming too easily to mind. Slow, even breaths, get her heart rate down; she doesn't need the candle flame as a focus. If Birkhoff's still talking over comms, Alex doesn't notice, quieting her mind as much as her body. She needs to find a way out.
She's so focused, she doesn't notice the sound of the silo's elevator until after it stops, and by then, Amanda is there in front of her, taunting her from the other side of the cage door. That's calming too, but like a shock of cold water in the way she has to keep her wits whenever she's dealing with Amanda.
Amanda's hand is on the keypad – oh, thank god, Alex is getting out of there – when the world shifts and twists, and then nothing makes sense.
No sign of Amanda, and instead of sitting at the bottom of an abandoned missile silo, Percy's cage is surrounded by jungle.
Have to think, have to think. Amanda. It has to be Amanda. Alex stays calm, easier now than it probably should be; she thinks she's been through this before. It has to be Amanda, drugging her again. If Alex is smart, if she keeps her head, and thinks before she speaks, she'll be all right. Nikita and Michael, Birkhoff and Sean, she has to keep them safe. No names. Nothing that would give them away. It's thoughts of her team that reminds Alex about the earbud. If she's right, and this is a hallucination, the real earbud is gone and won't do her any good.
But.
But she's gotta do something, and if there's a chance, even the smallest chance in the world this isn't one of Amanda's tricks, Alex has to try, has to reach out.
"I thought the terminator was going to get me that time." She keeps her voice light, calling back to her and Birkhoff teasing before she deactivated the poison gas, trusting if he's there, he'll answer, and hoping she'll be able to tell the difference if none of this is real. But there's no answer. No Birkhoff on the other end of the comms to tell her just how lucky she was to have his genius on her side. No Amanda twisting words and prying at her psyche. No Nikita, who she wants to see most of all, even if this is all a dream, because the Nikita in her head is just as protective as the one in the world, and Alex could use that about now, when all she can hear are jungle birds and maybe, if she's not mistaken, distant waves breaking along a shore.
Alex is alone.
Just sitting here isn't going to help anybody, though, and Alex has always been more comfortable doing something rather than waiting for someone else to come and rescue her, even when she needed the rescue. She tries the door - still locked, and she kicks it in a moment of frustration, a grey scuffmark marring the clear plastic.
She knows there can't be anything in this bare bones cell to help get the door open or Percy would have found and used it before going to such devious extremes to make his escape. Okay, so he probably would have. Sometimes Percy was devious just because he was an asshole who wanted to show off all the ways he was better than someone else. But she has something Percy didn't, and while she'd rather have Birkhoff chattering away in her ear while he hacked the lock codes, or Nikita there in front of her working on finding another way, for the moment, she'd make do with the multitool in her pocket. She gets to work, on the door, on the connections between the walls, trying to find a weak point, something she can exploit to make a way out of here.
