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10.08.2015
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Zoharin Cross. Sand ability. Recently kidnapped. Twin sister to Taner Cross. Child of Aaliyah. Intelligence.
And apparently, she could play the piano.
Venus had crossed off a single name on her list, having spoken with one other, and planned to find Bee eventually. The others, she wanted to read up on first. Zora had such an interesting name... She was one of the first.
The Intel specialist had wandered until she found the room with the piano, assuming the girl would be there.
She had been spending a lot of time here lately, since she hadn't brought her keyboard from home. As Venus found herself closing in on the common area, she would hear the girl before she sees her, turning out a somber melody on the keys.
Following the music wasn't a challenge. She entered the common room without a noise and stood there for a while, just watching the girl play. She thought she knew the music, but she could have been mistaken.
In fact, she probably was.
Still, in was a nice sound to listen to. She didn't bother interrupting it, waiting until the song came to an end to speak up from her place mostly hidden.
"Agent Cross? Beautiful playing."
She would approach, and nothing - not the seven obsidian knives on her belt or the boots she wore, nor the heart in her chest - made even the slightest of noise. She offered a smile, instead.
Zora is typically a very alert person, but when it comes to music, she has the tendency to zone out a little. As such, she's not too surprised when the woman sneaks up on her, at least after the initial jump and mis-stroke on the keys, at least.
"O-oh!" She'd say, looking over in the woman's direction. "Sorry I didn't..."
She furrows her brow at the new arrival. "You're very quiet."
"Thank you," she'll say, somewhat demurely. "I'm not sure, to be honest. Some old track I found when I was younger. A... goal to aspire to, if you will."
"All due respect, Agent, a lot of Junior Agents are punks with powers who think they're hot shit because of them," she'll say, standing up from the piano bench.
"And that sounds way more interesting than dumbbells in the pants," she'll say, finally a bit of a grin cracking her lips.
Venus actually laughed at that. The mixture of formality and casual conversation, the truth behind the statement, it's delivery... She loved it.
She might actually get along with this one.
"Unlike most trainers who might work with you on strictly defending yourself, I am a bit more focused on getting in and out of a situation, undetected and victorious. As Intelligence, we should be fully aware of the situations we get into, on our own as well as with the others on the field with us."
She offered the girl a smile, a genuine one this time, and placed her hand on her hip, cocking it out. The blades bounced slightly but remained completely silent.
"For example. My standard first question. Without looking now, how many blades do I have on my belt?"
A look of surprise touched the woman's face. That confidence.
"Explain your answer."
There were seven visible obsidian blades, but... there were other blades, just around her belt, and if she saw even one of those... she would have successfully impressed her.
She'll glance down towards her belt once more. "But any agent worth their salt knows better than to have all their cards on the table, so to speak. So I wagered you have a hidden blade on your belt as well. Something small on the inside, maybe."
She looks down a little more. "That's disregarding the boot-knives, too, though."
« Last Edit: Dec 11, 2015 1:40:27 GMT -6 by Zora Cross »
"I keep the seven on my belt, but the rest on my legs, in my boots and..." Just for show, because she liked her, she held an arm up then thrust it down, and a blade slid out of its holster and down, where she grabbed the hilt. "In my sleeves."
Holding it up, she showed the glittering obsidian blade, a porous metal that could easily be soaked in poisons, to the agent.
"Your mother taught you well. I think we will get along just fine."
"I don't think she wanted us to be here in the first place, but since we insisted on going, she made damn sure we went prepared."
She tilted her head slightly as she took in the blade's craftsmanship. "I guess that explains the sleeves on the outfit," she remarks, at length, with a shy, if not slightly challenging, smile.
"It's easier to creep in darkness if you're not pale," she said simply. Her skin, what little of it could be seen, showed how rarely she was in the sun. "Being quiet" silent "does no good when people can still SEE you."
Of course, she had a solution for that, as well, but she wasn't here to show herself off.
"An individual with extraordinary abilities has a responsibility to utilize those abilities towards a greater good," she says, almost a little too practiced.
"My... brother was the more insistent one," she'll admit, at length. She doesn't speak of this often, but there's a comfortableness with Agent Campbell, and she DID show Zora her knife, after all.
"So you came for your brother," she said, rolling up her sleeve with one hand. Zora would see another, identical knife on the other side of her arm, strapped in by a pressure release contraption. She replaced her knife, flushed against her skin, and rolled her sleeve down.
"Taner Cross, correct?" She had done her research. The Cross siblings had so many mysteries floating around them... Their father's name was redacted from their files, they didn't seem to have much reason to be at Paradigm... and Zora, in particular, looked like she might not want to be there in the first place.
That smile. There was something deeper, there. Something that Zora wasn't telling her. With Jack still fresh on her mind, and what he had said... Could it be? A brow cocked.
"What's broken Aaliyah's heart?" She asked, but made no move to comfort the girl. She looked so much more like her mother, but... those eyes.
Her fingers twitched towards her phone, wondering if she could access files, or if there were any files to access. "Your father, I'm assuming? His passing... It must have hurt her."
Of course, she was bluffing, but telling that Venus Campbell was bluffing was almost impossible. There was a reason she was a spy.