Li Hua (whorrior) wrote in oh_marvelous, @ 2011-02-16 16:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | z: om1: !complete, z: om1: affiliation: young avengers, z: om1: character: cassie lang, z: om1: location: new york, z: om1: past character: billy kaplan, z: om1: past character: li hua |
Partisan
Characters: Tiger's Beautiful Daughter, Stature and Wiccan.
Setting: Late night, Manhattan, probably your neighbourhood.
Content: A bit o' violence.
Summary: Just a lady making a living.
In some societies, it was law that a woman be tortured and killed if suspected of an adulterous relationship. Men are rarely susceptible to these punishments. In New York state, adultery is grounds for fault-divorce, which is viewed as being egalitarian and humanitarian. No one is given special favour because of their sex. No one except the man who entered into the relationship with his born privilege, and would leave it with his privilege intact. His wife, who had likely given up her career to raise his children, had long ago consolidated their support network and bank accounts, and become wholly dependent on him who could earn more and deny culpability in running the household because of that inherent privilege, would suddenly have nothing. Egalitarian.
"General." Li Hua turned her head, opening her eyes slowly with a long, deep breath to draw herself gently out of her meditation. Her current host stood in the darkened doorway, wearing a black turtleneck and slacks, running shoes and cotton gloves. "I'm sorry to interupt," she said, and Li Hua smiled, inviting her closer.
"Could you braid my hair?" Li Hua asked.
Every woman who joined their cause had something to teach Tiger's Daughter and her new family in exchange for their support and the training they could give to her. All of them learned to meditate, though not all of them embraced it. All of them learned not to defend themselves, not to 'travel in groups', not to 'watch their drinks', but to fight. Some of the women learned to pick locks.
Lucy hadn't learned any of this yet. Tonight, she said, she was taking her two boys to a motel. She wouldn't be at home, she said. Her husband could have the whole stinking house to himself.
Dressed all in black, the Daughter's of Tyranny slipped silently into their sister's dark home, only the yellow glow from the streetlight illuminating the linoleum floor of the kitchen. Tiger's Beautiful Daughter followed, barefoot, the gold of her mask glinting in the sick light as she glanced around, listening. With wordless instruction, three of the women followed her into an unlit hallway to a half closed door that Tiger's Daughter pushed through without hesitation. She cut a straight, silent line across the bedroom floor, her presence only announced when she stepped up onto the mattress and it creaked in protest, the sound and movement eliciting a grunt of surprise from the bed that turned into a quickly suppressed shriek when the light was switched on. Two of Tiger's sisters detained their anticipated guest, while Tiger herself stood over Lucy's husband, one foot on his chest and spear balanced between his eyes.
"Wh-who are--?!"
The sweating hands that gripped Tiger's ankle in panic tensed for a fleeting second, gripping harder to cling to life before going limp. She moved slowly then, the quick strike that left her spear protruding from the dog's seeping eye socket incongruous with the way she slowly released the shaft and let it balance as she stepped away.
The woman her allies held was sobbing against the gag of their hands, held up by a grip on her hair and her arm, eyes squeezed closed and unable to face what she didn't understand. "What about your crime, against your sister?" Tiger asked as she stepped off the bed, the last bounce shuddering through the mattress to overbalance the spear and bring it to fall, twisting the man's head with it. The weeping woman made noises of protest, I don't know what you're talking about, I don't have a sister, and when the Daughters took their hands away from her face they were smeared with spit and snot. Tiger's quick strike came again, cracking the woman's neck and making her fall into a dead weight, only her eyes flickering with life.
"Take anything that looks valuable," Tiger's Beautiful Daughter instructed. "Sell it, trade it, whatever you need to do. Be generous; remember, we have two more sisters who need help paying for their rehabilitation treatments." The women dispersed, and Li Hua retraced her steps calmly out the door where she scrubbed the blood from her toes with the snow.