9981/Evening Waters

Evening Waters
Date of Scene:	10 November 2019
Location:	West Farms, The Bronx
Synopsis:	Two raptors of different types cross paths with one another by the bay. Simple conversation takes place.
Cast of Characters:	Venandi, Sowa

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Venandi has posed:
    The dock was quiet in the late evening hours. There was not much in the way of traffic, be it foot, car, or even boat. At this hour, most people have gone home for the evening and the Raptor Ninja knows how to move to be unseen from any security or even cameras.

Or at least, those who don't have the greatest of keen eyes, which by most standards, people don't. ... Most anyways, expect for those special few.

    The Jurassic mutant stands on the edge of the dock, she has over her form a hooded cloak. While it does a good job to hide most of her form, her tail can't help but peek out at the bottom. Her raptor gold eyes stare out over the water, almost with some sense of sorrow in them; Perhaps even loneliness.

Her thoughts far from the space around her, but elsewhere, the only thing she does from time to time is sniff the air, but even then, the natural predator isn't feeling very predatory.

Sowa has posed:
    She'd been pulled out into the field to go scope out some suspected terrorists, but the whole thing had been a goose chase really. Not that our favorite sniper was in a terrible rush to clock out for the night, not like she had anywhere else to be really.

    She lingers on for a spell, before something catches her eye. More accurately it catches the eye of Czerny, her faithful mechanical raven. It may not be terribly intelligent, but it detects a differential. Thermal mass, color spectrum expression, and well of course Venandi's tail doesn't help. It detects a difference, and wheels about in the air. Sweeping low and fast over the water to get a better look at Venandi.

    To all but the sharpest of eyes, Czerny may well be invisible. Under a predator's scrutiny however, the shape registers quite clearly. At a glance you'd mistake it for a Raven sure, but it's far too angular to be the real thing. It's gaze too fixed, it's flight too silent for a Raven nevermind the fact that they don't usually go flying about at night.

Venandi has posed:
    At first, the mutant raptor doesn't notice the bird, but as it continues to move past and she inhales the ocean air; The scent says all. It was NOT normal.

The smell is what gets her attention, before her eyes at last train on the mechanical bird. This causes her eyes to narrow as she follows it, only slightly moving her head. The lips of her muzzle sneer back to display those rows of sharp teeth.

    Her stance shifts slightly. More defensive, on the ready to be attacked by the unknown, perhaps even by the strange device of a raven moving by.

Her movements though are not wasted, they are steady, sure... patient. Her gaze does not move frantic, cautiously yes, but calm still. Venandi sniffs the air once more, now trying to see if she can pick up any other scents that might be off. That do not fit here in this quiet place.

Sowa has posed:
    The Raven turns, flapping as it claws back it's altitude out over the water. It makes slow ascending orbits, but always out to sea. A subtle distraction for it's owner, surely.

    Sowa moves slowly, exiting the shadows ever so silently. Her own cloak, well it's more of a poncho, slowly shifting from midnight black into a collection of grey shapes. Slowly she eases her rifle down, letting it quietly take it's slung weight across her chest. It too a collection of semi-transparent wonder materials and golden titanium nitride, not the sort've thing you can walk in and buy.

    The first sound she makes is the shutters on those hyperspectral goggles, snapping open with the faintest of amber hues to study Venandi in detail for a few mute moments. Then a casual cough, and a -knock- -knock- delivered to the stock of her rifle. "Evening there, everything alright?"

Venandi has posed:
    She can pick up the new scent, but the breeze carries many, making it hard for Venandi to detect any presence near and yet, something else is out there. It was not clear to what, till the cough and the knocking of the weapon.

This causes the Velociraptor humanoid to cant her head slightly, before making a low, rumbling sound. She moves her head over so slightly, along with her body to look at the woman who speaks to her. Those golden eyes peer at her, glancing her head to toe, then back again. Analyzing her and how much of a threat this woman is.

There is a long moment of silence, nostrils flare slightly, before she looks away, but her stance does not change. "Is that contraption yours?" She asks a question to a question, but never answering what Berna asked. "Curious thing."

Sowa has posed:
    A left arm extends from under that poncho, exposing the dagger sheathed along her forearm for a moment. Then the Raven swoops in for a landing, touching down and peering about with stiff -almost- avian curiosity. "Czerny is his name, though it's more a partnership than anything. Mechanical or otherwise, you can't make a slave of a Raptor."And a moment more, before she tosses the bird into the air and off he goes. "Originally he was an Owl, because I am an owl. Nice neat theme, hm? Unfortunately people shoot at Owls in some places, so you could think of him as a Mechanical owl in Raven's Disguise I suppose?"

    She moves foreward slowly, silent upon those fancy sneaking boots. She's very much not your typical off the rack sort've paramilitary type, and she moves like a knife so yes. Sowa is potentially very dangerous, but she hardly seems amped for a fight. "A friend of mine made him for me, been with me for awhile now. Seen the world a few times over, but we've never quite seen anyone exactly like you."

    One hand lifting to touch those owlish goggles, snapping the shutters closed and hinging the whole apparatus up to expose her eyes below. Her face is hidden below behind a shemagh and a tight fitting sort've "Ninja" mask, so not quite revealing her identity. "I'm not exactly standard issue myself, most of it's on the inside though. Can't imagine it's easy to be so different, here of all places."

Venandi has posed:
    Venandi listens to the woman's words. There was an oddness to them, it causes her to tilt her head, but to at last fully turn her attention as Berna moves in closer. Her posture was not at ease, but she was not showing any signs of a aggression either.

As Berna speaks, she observes both her and Czerny. Her eyes go to watch both, back and forth for a bit, till her eyes fully focus on the woman. "It sounds you have an interesting life. You and... your friend." She says calmly, still questioning the woman before in all but words.

"I am what I am, be it different in the eyes of you humans, is little of my concern." She admits with a minor head cant. "Though you approach with no fear. Very well-trained. So, I must ask... Why?"

Sowa has posed:
    "If we're to fight, we'd have fought I would think. We still could I suppose, but seems like whomever won it'd be a question of who dies first."Gloved hands vanish under that poncho to tug at her chest rig and resettle her gear, gaze sweeping past to eye the water for a moment.

    "I've got rations, and coffee if you wanna grab a bite and talk."Theres a shrug there, offered almost as an explanation unto itself. "I mean it's rations or I go warm up a frozen Pizza at home, and I'll confess I'm getting pretty sick of Pizza. Sides, always better to dine on the tax payer's dollar right?"

Venandi has posed:
    Venandi snorts gently and goes to look off at the water. ".. You humans have strange ways of talking.' She than sighs softly, "And yes, if I saw you as prey, I would have attacked. But you are not my prey nor do I believe my alpha desires you to be so." She tilts her head in thought to that, as if weighing if this woman /was/ someone Shredder would want dead or not.

With a gentle clicking sound in her throat, she shakes her head of such a thought, before looking back to Berna. "I do not eat your food. I hunt for mine. Cooking destroys the meat, though I know you humans have weak constitutions to such ideas." She almost cracks a smirk on the edge of that prehistoric face of hers. "When I was small, they tried to make me /eat/ like them, but they realized quickly that I would never /be/ them."

"I am a hunter, that is my nature." She looks to Berna, judging her once more. "... It seems you are a hunter too. Given you said you are an Owl. Owls hunt. Perhaps you should do that instead of your rations and... Pizza." The word almost seems to disgust the dino-mutant.

    As her eyes go back to the ocean as well, she asks Berna a simple question. "Is it only your curiousity that has brought you to talk to me?"

Sowa has posed:
    "Eaten plenty of meat raw, thats before you count the bugs, snakes and lizards."Theres a slow blink there, offered as flatly as English permits. "A soldier and a predator, we're more alike then not perhaps then. "Rations though are not food, their value is immaterial. Rations shared between soldiers of different banners, goes back to the written word. Though I'm hardly one to speak against breaking traditions."

    "And -the- Owl, not just any."Berna slides towards the pier's edge to glance over into the water, before nodding. "All snipers have names, some fitting and some not. "The Tiger" for example deserves his name entirely, "The Fox" however does not."And from under that poncho, out comes a thermos. Theres another glance around, before she plops down right there without another moment of hesitation.

    Carefully she sets that rifle aside and with care rolls that helmet foreward, taking care to delicately unplug the multitude of wires plumbed into the base of her skull. Then it's time for the thermos, which she pours into it's own little cup carefully. "I'm a sniper, so of course curiosity brought me to talk to you. You were an aberration in the pattern, and thus worthy of investigation. Most of the kids I teach these days don't have the curiosity for the work unfortunately, but I do."

Venandi has posed:
    Venandi continues to listen and ahs softly at some of the explanation, starting to understand, at least, some part of this strange human female before her. Her eyes return to the water and off into the distance, seeming to ease her stance ever-so-slightly once Berna sits down.

"curiosity teaches. Without curiosity, one can not grow or learn. If a hunter does not learn, then they will not survive long." She says with some thought in her words. "As for an aberration... I am one."

Her eyes then look up to the sky. "There is no other like me. I am not human, but a predator given human like structure. I do not even know if I have siblings and if I do... If they would even know me. Accept me. They may see me as not them either." Those reptilian eyes close, a hidden pain in her voice. "I have my pack, but they are not like me. I have my alpha, but he too, is not like me."

    Her eyes open once more and she looks to Berna, seeming to pull herself out of her own dark thoughts. "But, they are still my pack. He is still my alpha. I will serve and follow them to my death." She then looks away once more. "For family is family, no matter the species."

Sowa has posed:
    "Aberration is how any predator detects a weakness within the herd, not so different for a Sniper. Men can feel their deaths coming, they often act out of the norm as a result. Makes it easier to find them, to cut their strings. Without curiosity though..."Carefully coffee is poured, and sipped under the privacy that poncho's hood affords her.

    "Theres none others like you, but that doesn't have anything to do with species. Humans all seem the same to you, because you view them externally. What you're seeing is herd camouflage, same as a Zebra. It's important to remember every Zebra has different stripes, but it's easy to forget that when you view them from afar."THeres a ghost of a smile there "We need to get you some zoology texts, you'd benefit from the context I think."

    "I follow orders issued by humans myself, though I'm not one. I'm something else, the technical term for that is "Aggressive mimicry" by the by."And a little shrug again as she sips her coffee. "I won't throw shade at anyone's flag, but make sure you're fighting under the right one. It's easy and feels necessary to invest in our leadership, but our prowess means that their worth deserves double the scrutiny. I've seen the other side once before, I know what waits for Predators like us."

Venandi has posed:
    While her face points to the ocean, her eyes do look to Berna. There is a long silence, as if rolling over what the woman has said. When she does speak up, she says it with a soft hmph at the lead of her words, "I know of a Zebra. I have read on many of the animals that now roam this world. I have seen video documentaries on them as well... and hunted some animals for their meat."

She closes her eyes and inhales deeply. "A hunter must know her prey, if she is to hunt well. To assume anything, is dangerous, as that assumption can get you killed." She then fully looks to Berna. "So yes, all humans look alike to me, but I know that humans are not alike in their behaviors. Some are braver, some are cowards. Some... are just plain idiotic." She muses over that.

"But yes, at a distance... Like the Zebra, they do all look the same to me. I just observe, as you do as a Sniper, looking for the one I've been sent to find. Watching their movements, waiting for that moment to strike." She raises her hand and grips it closed.

    Berna might notice the armor on her arm is a fashioned one of leather and metal. She has two fingers and a thumb, with long claws on the end.

Once she lowers her hand though, it is hidden once more. "However, I should go now. I will be needed for the hunt soon and I do not wish to make my alpha wait."

Sowa has posed:
    "Then fair weather, and fat lambs to you. "She sips her coffee mutely, and well whatever she missed Czerny likely hasn't. "It's important to keep the lines of communication open for things like us, though I doubt you're the cellphone type?"She slides pauses again to dig about in her chest rig, before tossing Venandi a small plastic box with some sort of shaded lense on one end. "If you need to get ahold of me, put it on a roof top at night. Push the button, and I'm liable to see it. Keep in mind, it may take me a few hours yeah?"

    She doesn't rise mind you, but at least she lifts her little cup of coffee. "Could be worse you know, we could have to -work- for a living."

Venandi has posed:
    Venandi catches the device, she gives it a look over in a curious fashion. Her tail twitches gently, but she seems to accept the device. "If I do desire company, perhaps I will."

As she goes to move away, she looks back once more at Berna. "... Venandi. They call me Venandi." Her eyes soften only for a moment. "Till next time, Owl." She then leaps up onto a light-pole, before pushing off to vanish behind a few crates. Returning back into the shadows once more.