(Untitled)

[systmadmin]

Who: CLU and Toshiko
Where: Level 1
When: Dated to a little after 7pm on Sunday (11/13).
Warnings: Violence, death

Comments

[hopeless_hacker]

Toshiko was tired. Since Rinzler's graduation she had found it hard to focus - she was the sort of person who was just fine when she had something at the centre of her life she could consider her job, but without it everything started spinning away in all directions. Her life at the moment was just a sleep-work cycle, going from the engine room to her cabin with interludes for food only if she was really thinking about it. She had acknowledged she was spending too much time on the Grid, but until it was something other than a guilty secret she was never going to address that.

Her cabin had once just opened with a lock and key but when given the opportunity she had bulked things up a little. She pressed her thumb against a biometric scanner, and a mechanism snapped back to expose the lock; she turned the key and pushed the door open, stepping over the threshold.

[systmadmin]

The moment the door opened, CLU quickly moved forward and knocked the door closed behind him. His mask closed around his face; not to conceal his identity, particularly, but for the protection it provided.

At the same time, and in one fluid motion, his arm wrapped tight around Toshiko's neck, and he used his momentum to slam her head hard against the nearest surface in an attempt to disorient her.

[hopeless_hacker]

By the time she was over the shock, her head was slammed against the wall; everything wobbled on its axis for a moment and she saw stars. Weakened by the blow and working only on impulse, she grabbed at the arm around her neck with one hand and jabbed her other elbow back towards her attacker's ribs, but she didn't have the leverage for it to be effective.

[systmadmin]

The jab connected with his ribs, but weakly. CLU tore her hand away from his arm and twisted it harshly behind her back, then locked his foot around her ankle and threw his weight forward and down in attempt to slam her to the ground.

[hopeless_hacker]

Tosh went down hard and fast, barely able to use her free hand to brace herself so that the impact didn't break her nose. She resisted the urge to reach for the gun holstered under her shoulder - with her attacker's entire weight on top of her, it would be impossible to draw, never mind aim and fire - and instead twisted her head around to get a look at her attacker. If he was going to kill her then she'd make damn sure she knew who had done it.

[systmadmin]

CLU kept her arm firmly pressed against her back, his fingers digging into her skin, his weight keeping her pinned beneath him.

As she turned her head to look at him, he buried his free hand into her hair and kept her head fixed there. Then the mask around his face deactivated, melting away to reveal the the smirk on his lips, the violent energy in his face. He bent down slightly--enough to lock his cold blue eyes with hers--and spoke in a low and icy tone. "So you know." It didn't matter much to him that she knew who had attacked her; in fact, all the better.

[hopeless_hacker]

A lot of things flowed through her mind at once. It was almost a relief that her attacker was someone with an actual grudge against her; better that than the sort of random unmotivated violence that would have left her nervous about walking the halls by herself.

With his arm still a bar against her throat, she could feel herself running short on oxygen; her head was swimming. He was stronger than her and he had every conceivable advantage; if he wanted to kill her there was no way she wasn't going to die.

So she smiled.

"Are you really this threatened by me?"

[systmadmin]

Her provocation merely deepened his smirk and caused a faint amusement to line the features of his face. Instead of a verbal response, CLU shifted so that his hold around her neck tightened further and choked the breath from her throat, crushing her airways.

He'd had the ability to shorten this affair, to end her life quickly and wordlessly with his disc. But instead he'd wanted to make sure that it'd be more drawn out than that, that she understood his point about her unwanted interference.

And until she completely stopped breathing, he wouldn't release her.

[hopeless_hacker]

When his arm tightened, the reaction was immediate; she could feel herself going numb, her vision going white at the edges. In the last few moments pure impulse took over and she thrashed, grabbing at his arm, but she was already too far gone to put any strength into it. Consciousness slipped away from her, and in a few more minutes so would everything else.

[systmadmin]

CLU continued to squeeze hard as he held her down during her struggle, then leaned forward to hiss into her ear moments before she completely passed out. "You interfered. This is the consequence, User."

Some minutes after she'd gone limp--and after he'd made sure that she was totally gone--CLU unwrapped his arm from around Tosh's neck, untangled himself from her, then heaved himself to his feet. He felt vibrant, gratified.

His gaze swept around the room, first, then landed back on her. She was a Warden, which meant she'd possibly have weapons stashed in here somewhere. But after a swift search of her room produced nothing particularly useful, CLU stepped over her lifeless body and headed for the door to leave.