am i making something worthwhile // general action

[adamantined]

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my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[adamantined]

[Locking up around three in the morning isn't exactly something that Claire is unfamiliar with. Although she doesn't typically have to, there's some small amount of experience in dealing with both Peter and Caspian being indisposed thanks to curses. The responsibility of closing up the Blue Light doesn't always fall to her, but it has enough in the past that she has a system to it by now: check that all the chairs are up off of the floor, make sure all the bathroom stalls are empty, do one last sweep of the liquor cage, and shut off all of the lights before locking the door behind her

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[makinghoscroak]

[All her caution gains is time because eventually, once they're a block away from the establishment, a clicking sound begins following Claire Bennet in the dark. Shira has found himself a pair of shoes that he must admittedly concede fare a whole lot better than his sandals. They don't have heels though okay?

It's just unfortunate that Shira himself has hair like virgin snow. A modern world would call it ironic but the man doesn't come from any such place. His white hair is natural and a testament to his own madness; he made it so.]

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[adamantined]

[On a scale of one to ten, the clicking of footsteps behind her falls somewhere around or below a four. She's started the trek back to her apartment alone enough to understand that actually completing the trip without once hearing someone moving around behind or ahead of her is more concerning than the reverse. Now, though, the footsteps that trail along aren't as casual as is normal, and that draws and holds her attention, forcing her to stop

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[makinghoscroak]

Surprise.

[Shira's voice is casual, almost lazy, which only further complicates the situation because it betrays his blinding speed. He's not superhuman, hardly, but he's physically adept as all men of his station and employ are molded to be. Some people call it savage the way the government cultivates strength to its fullest potential in human beings only to exploit it for money. What they found in Shira was gold; he doesn't care much as long as he has a roof, some food, and some fun.

From one click to the next he's already lunging for Claire. No means to break the skin just yet. He'll have to drag her into the darkest shadows first. He won't be disturbed when in the company of someone beautiful, even if she is a white-skinned, blue-eyed, blonde-haired barbarian.]

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[adamantined]

[She could have run. It's the loudest thought racing through her mind once the confusion clears enough for her to realize what's happening. She could have run. She's faster than most people expect her to be, and although she's been told in the past that she runs like a girl, although she has a certain specialty for standing between the door and the battering ram, Claire has a distinct talent for putting as much distance between herself and a visible threat as possible. The problem with this particular threat is that she hadn't been able to identify it as an actual one until her brain was already muddled over and the only clear thought was the most useless one: she could have run

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[makinghoscroak]

Calm down.

[Shira replies, using his own weight to pin her to the nearest solid object. A wall, a dumpster, the beauty of this modern world is how everything is made of stone or steel. Everything is made to last. No more straw walls or wooden slats, this suits him. The screaming does not.

Oh he loves the noise, that much is true, but it's counterproductive to his purpose. Shit man he hasn't even gotten started yet. Shira puts his knee towards her pelvis to better gain the advantage. Then without warning that vicious bone arm comes flying out to stab her. Just through her shoulder though, nowhere vital. She's more valuable to him alive than that Nathan was. At least for a couple more minutes.]

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[adamantined]

[Calm is an understatement. Or possibly an overstatement. Claire doesn't calm, but she does freeze, tense all the way up to the roots of her hair, knuckles bent so that her fingernails bite into her palms with dull pressure. Her mouth presses into a fine line, if only because it's obvious that he might prefer she scream. In direct contrast, she keeps her eyes open, wide green searching for an out, for an opportunity to put anything that she has learned into practical application, for a chance to knee him so hard in the balls that future generations feel the damage it leaves.]

Get off.

[It's desperate. Having been here before in no way prepares her for the potential horror of it happening again. There is no room in her mind for anything other than escape, survival, and though flashes of that night in Odessa layer in front of her vision now, creating dual realities - humid air, the hard wall, damp grass, heavy hands - reality grounds itself with pinprick accuracy as soon as she feels that knee pinning her, slams down a second time

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[makinghoscroak]

[What? No pain? No cries for the sting or the agony? Fucking weird, this girl. Fucking brilliant too. Shira is simultaneously angered and enchanted.]

You don't feel a thing? [His smile falters. Then his eyes brighten.] You don't feel a thing!

[Her struggling however vicious continues not to faze him. Shira has no superhuman trait like Claire does, he just grins and bears the pain her twisting sends shooting up his shoulder. He's too enraptured by this discovery. What should he do next? Cut her up? Rip out her tongue? Oh shit if he pins her down just right he could test her out all night and day. He's getting hard just thinking about it.]

Let's see what you're made of.

[This time he moves with her twisting that wrenches his bone arm from her body. He quickly cracks the elbow end of his stump towards her face, eye for an eye and all. Those nails have done a number on Shira's mug too but he doesn't seem to care. Whether or not the elbow connects he's coming after her again, this time to tackle and send them both to the ground.

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[adamantined]

[Claire is anticipating a hard fall, but getting to the ground is more a series of steps than it is an immediate impact. The crack of his elbow toward her face leaves her momentarily disoriented, but it's either her regeneration or her adrenaline that allows her to focus again almost immediately. Her fingers grip Shira's shoulders with enough strength that she's able to use it for leverage, twisting around and getting her legs off of the ground with a scrape of her heels against pavement

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[makinghoscroak]

[The kick to his thigh hits a nerve, making the muscle go numb for a moment but in doing so it prepares his stomach for the other blow. His muscles tense to receive it, Shira's just fucking lucky she's not wearing stilettos or else he'd have a hole in his belly. All in all though he still has no plans to let her go, not even when she's beating into his fucking head with a fist that feels like a meat tenderizer. He'll have dark vibrant bruising there later. Sweat and saliva flick with every impact.]

Fuck--tight-assed--fiesty bitch!

[It's a complaint and a compliment rolled into one. He's still digging his fingers deep into her when he slides that bone arm under fabric, up a skirt, up a blouse, whatever she's wearing to tear it open. Until she lands a particularly hard blow, enough to make Shira's head sound a crack as he rolls to one side. Distance gained, time to get the sword out.]

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[adamantined]

[Breathing hard and heavy in her ears, drowned out only by the sound of her pulse pounding there as well, Claire bolts as he falls to the side, scrambling with palms and knees to her feet, tiny pebbles and clumps of rolled dirt sticking to her palms with sweat and damp from the pavement. Her cardigan has torn, buttons popping crazy, one getting caught in the creases of her palm, but the cami underneath sports a rip like a tear in the skin. This one doesn't heal, but she doesn't have time to stop and check for any other damage, on her feet and moving to make a break for it, back the way she came.

Claire makes it a point not to look over her shoulder, not wanting to waste the amount of time it will take to turn her head around, focus her eyes to cut through the poor lighting, process what's coming for her and react accordingly. Instead, she breathes - ]

Shit.

[ - without the seconds to wonder why. She's running, and Building 12 seems an impossible distance with the shriek of a blade being drawn, but she runs.]

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[makinghoscroak]

[Shira shakes his head to get out the bells ringing in it. She packs a fucking hard punch, this girl. As far as he's concerned it only means he has to keep pursuing her because her body promises to be a worthy challenge, which translates to a lot of fucking fun. Shira storms after her with serrated sword drawn. From the right angle it'd look like a great horror film, the bloodied co-ed running from a stalking messed up freak. If only Shira had a taste for the movies.]

Bad girl.

[Stalking turns into a swift run and what he lacks in catching up those precious few steps he makes up for with the extension of his sword. He means to slice through the tendons at the backs of her ankles. Make her fall, then he can start sawing through her foot.]

my ears, my eyes, my brain is slowly busting, black smoke, red sky

[adamantined]

[Even Sylar would have disengaged by now, choosing instead to fall back and reassess his options, catch her unawares another time. Catch her unawares in her own bedroom. Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, that's all that she can think of right now: Sylar looming in her doorway, pinning her to the wall, to the table, opening her head to look inside as if it was nothing more than the top half of a piece of fruit. She had thought that after that experience nothing would have been able to compare, but right now, in this moment, Shira gaining ground and bearing down on her is vying for a spot in her countdown.

That still doesn't explain why he's chasing after her at all. The idea that this is all being done for fun, for some kind of sport, doesn't occur to her, refuses to register. There has to be a reason, something she's done, something she's said. Claire doesn't make it a point to go around insulting people, and the comments she's exchanged over the Network haven't warranted this sort of a reaction since Sylar was here, since before