Never let them see you cry

Safety is an illusion. Everything you have can be taken. Everything. Independent Selina Kyle/Catwoman Semi-exclusive Comic-verse, pre New 52 Canon Divergent Please read the OOC information {Formerly 'youneverlookdeeper'} "We are not afraid of the dark -- We come alive in it. We are thrilled by it."

[nothingyouownissafe]

iaculatmortuis

Floyd grinned, leaning against the alley wall and twirling his Glock between two fingers. Catwoman was a notorious presence in Gotham City. To the criminal underworld, she was almost as famous as the Bat. And that’s what Floyd was here about. You didn’t become the World’s Greatest Marksman without having a good eye. Floyd noticed things. That’s how he knew Catwoman would know where the Batman was now..

“You seen your loony boyfriend around lately, Kitty Cat?”

The irritation she passed to Floyd was genuine. Lips pursed. Eyes narrowed. “No one ever just comes to see me anymore. It’s enough to make a girl feel unwanted.”

Examining her claws with the most exaggerated air of boredom she could muster, she addressed his question. “Do I look like his personal secretary? And that’s ex-boyfriend, Floyd. And please, don’t think about the whole boring ‘kidnap the girl to get the guy’ angle. It’s been tried, and trust me, they all lived to regret it.”

She glanced to one side. “Well. Most of them did.”

[nothingyouownissafe]

gothamsmyth

“–i have some bad news for you, catwoman.”

“the ride’s going to be one-way.”

A playful twist to crimson lips. “Now now, don’t tease a girl with a good time, Batman. We’ve just met.” Selina walked backwards along the edge of the roof, eyes half closing behind her goggles as she scanned around for an escape route. Horizontal... or vertical?

[nothingyouownissafe]

adrenalinesaint

Rude. No, hey, you haven’t overdosed or glad to see your liver hasn’t failed yet? Well. Fair enough.

“Thanks. It’s kind of part of the job description.”

“I think you even look skinnier than usual. Do you eat? Do you want to eat?” The Catwoman tugged her goggles off her head and pushed her cowl back. “I’ve had a crap night and I could go for a burger.”

[nothingyouownissafe]

     Tony’s eyes rake over her out of habit, lips curling faintly at the corners as he eyes what she’s wearing. She looks GOOD, and she knows she looks good. Something he can always appreciate; self confidence.

     His eyes rake up slowly, admittedly lingering on her cleavage, before he meets her gaze with a charming smile. His fingers curl around her own, and he gives her hand a quick shake before he gestures to the seat across from his own at his desk.

    “Not a problem at all,” He hadn’t arranged this meeting, but so far he’s not complaining. Compared to the board member he’d met with this morning, she knocks it outta the park. “Can I get you a drink or anything?”

     He has no idea what it is they’re meeting to talk about, honestly. But that’s nothing new– he goes into most of his meetings with no idea what the hell is happening, and just wings it until he can pick up a clue as to just what’s happening. This is no different. He’s just got a more pleasant person to study and work out. Or, at least, on the SURFACE she is. She could be anyone for all he knows. A paranoia that never goes away.

“No thank you. I would prefer to get right down to business, Mister Stark.” She clipped the ‘k’ of his name quite sharply, rolling the rest of it along her tongue. Selina played many games, and often at the same time. Small hints of each one surfaced at different moments, like colours reflecting off the facets of a diamond. How her prey - um. Conversational partner responded helped her decide which mask to show them.

Seductive and suave? Or assertive?

Slipping into the latter, Selina lowered her lashes and brought forth a veil of barely-restrained-irritation-hidden-behind-a-smile. “I apologise for the deliberate vagueness of my meeting with you. As far as your books are concerned it’s a discussion about an investment. So if anyone asks.” Her fingers flicked in a ‘do what you will’ gesture. “But what I want to talk about is the fact that within the next few days there will be a theft at one of your facilities, of something you’ve called ‘XR8-385′. Which I assume is a code designation.”

[nothingyouownissafe]

gothamsmadking      

He has no reason to lie about this. He lies when he needs to lie, but other than that he’s an open book. Why would he POSSIBLY need to lie when he has nothing to fear from her. She can threaten all she likes, but they both know she wouldn’t ever come at HIM directly. Not after last time.

    “Sounds glorious,” He tilts his head as he watches that look of recognition spread across her features, and admittedly he’s curious. If it IS a copy cat, it’s both flattering and ANNOYING. And he’ll have to kill them, rather brutally, for having the cheek.

    “Who d’ya think it is?” He questions, crossing one leg over the other where he remains casually draped across his favorite couch in the club. She’s onto something, he can see that clever little mind of hers ticking away, and he hates being left out of the loop. If she doesn’t fill him in soon, he might just have to throw something sharp at her head if she doesn’t snap out of it soon and get to the explaining part. Joker isn’t a patient man, not at all, and CERTAINLY not when it comes to situations like this.

Selina knew she was instantly on thin ice. If she told Joker the wrong thing, he would be furious. But if she told him nothing at all, he would be equally furious. Devil’s in the details, though.

“It’s an old trick,” she hedged, eyes narrowed. “Back when Gotham was less about masks and more about general mayhem. Back before the Bat. All that territory was still taken up, as you’d know. So if you wanted your own space, you had to empty someone else’s.”

Selina fixed Joker with a stare. “Starting a turf war is pretty standard fare. But between a thief and, well. You? Makes me wonder whose territory it is they want.” Dropping her chin into that coy pose, Selina leaned forward, bracing both hands on the table between them. “So tell me, Joker. You had anything stolen these last few weeks?”

[nothingyouownissafe]

Both Selina and I are a bit confused. ._. I think we missed something.

[nothingyouownissafe]

She was not one to pine. Not only because it wasn’t her style, but because it was a dangerous thing to do in a world populated by creatures that made your very thoughts unsafe. Lingering affection or emotion, or simply ruminating too often could spell one’s undoing.

But she couldn’t help herself. Not really. Sometimes the pain just became too much. Fingers digging deep into her chest until she was choking on shards of glass that tasted so much like tears and gin and tonic. Normally it was around Christmas, when she watched Gotham-dwelling mothers walk hand-in-hand with their small treasures. Sometimes it was her birthday, when she saw balloons, or gifts, or spied a party through a window.

Tonight it was just simple loneliness.

These thoughts were dangerous, she knew. But only for her. Helena was safe. Far away from her mother. Nothing could be torn from Selina, no truth that would reveal where her child was, because Selina herself did not know. She didn’t know the faces or names of the people that now called her child their own. She did not know where they had taken her.

The not knowing was torture in and of itself. She didn’t know if Helena was happy. If she was being treated well. How was she doing in school? Was she safe? Was she warm at night in her bed, sleeping soundly? Was she afraid of the dark?

Was she even still alive?

One of those fingers buried deeper in Selina’s heart, a stab of fear the likes of which she had never truly felt. Not fear for herself. No. Nothing could make her feel this. Not even her care for anyone else she had known or loved.

Not even her own sister.

Selina blinked. The world came rushing back. She glanced over one shoulder, pulling her eyes away from the nocturnal visitations of parents and children to the upper class shopping districts of Gotham to the shadowy shape over her shoulder.

“What do you want?”

[nothingyouownissafe]

Going to sleep. like for a starter when i wake up

[nothingyouownissafe]

@ferrumheros

Selina givin u the judgy eyes

[independentmasterlist]

Reblog if you're a dc roleplayer

And you will be added to the list.

[nothingyouownissafe]

ferrumheros     

“Shake a tree,” He hums, tapping a fingertip against the tablet for a moment, before he withdraws the thumb drive and tucks it away into his pocket. He’s going to have to do something about this sooner rather than later– he can’t just let people get away with misusing his equipment like that. He’s already got a bad enough reputation.

    “I’ll have to get on this. This Waller woman sounds like a total asshole.” He scratches lightly at the stubble that lines his jaw, pursing his lips in annoyance, before he looks up at her. Well, his mood is definitely shifted. Definitely no longer in randy teenager mode.

    “So, were you in town anyway, or did you come all the way here just to help out a friend? Because I’ve gotta say, that’s worth the last slice of quiche.” He grins, sliding the plate toward her as he rises up from the stool to stretch lazily. “I’m gonna plug this into the computer in the workshop and get JARVIS to start running through it. Are you sticking around? Or are you shooting off..?” He’s hoping she’s staying for at least a little while. Since, you know, she’d turned up and completely switched the course of his evening.

    “You’re welcome to stay the night, if you’d like.” He adds over his shoulder, heading for his workshop. “I’ll be right back, though– make yourself comfortable.” She has clothes, here. At this point, she basically has a second home here. And neither had ever really acknowledged it.

“Fair word of warning, Tony.” She called him ‘Tony’ only when she really wanted him to pay attention. “Waller is the kind of woman who would be willing to kill even Tony Stark if he got in her way, and she could get away with it.” She held his gaze for emphasis as she spoke, not a lick of impishness or playfulness in her eyes or her voice. “Do not fuck with this woman lightly.”

And then it was over, and Selina was turning away, warning delivered, back to your regularly scheduled program. “Oh, Stark. You’d love it if I told you I came all this way just to see you. Which maybe I did. Or maybe I didn’t! A girl’s gotta keep an air of mystery, after all. “I’ll stick around. Schedule’s clear for the foreseeable future.”

Selina made her way toward the hallway, where he had her own private bedroom. Not that she used it often, since she usually just crashed in his bed whenever she stayed over. “In that case, I’ll get changed. Imagine the scandal if more people knew the Catwoman was crashing with Iron Man. Hilarious.”

[nothingyouownissafe]

@iaculatmortuis

“Y’know you have a sense about you. It’s like a red-hot poker boring between your ribs.” She knows better than to play with him. Acrobatics or no, he’ll still shoot her in the heart from around a corner if he’s set up right. “But the fact that I’m still alive makes me think you don’t have a contract on me. So what do you want?”

[nothingyouownissafe]

ferrumheros  

“This is true. I’ll be more careful.” He won’t. They both know it. But he’s shooting her a grin as she addresses JARVIS, who’s always watching. Snorting under his breath, he turns his eyes back to the screen when she circles around to stand behind him.

    “I owe you a lot, huh? I’ll work on that one day.” He shoots her a quick wink over his shoulder, before he swipes through the information on the drive. This is inconvenient. This isvery inconvenient. And this woman doesn’t exactly sound like she’s just going to give him back his stuff because he asks. He’s going to have to TAKE it back.

    “Waller… I’ve heard that name,” He muses, reading over just what she’s gotten her grubby little hands on. “I’ll have to track this deal. See who authorized it. I’m going to have to get rid of whoever is leaking my products to people I’ve not authorized.” He authorizes every single business transaction, to avoid shit like this happening. Luckily for him, though, the woman won’t really have a lot to hold over his head. He doesn’t have a secret identity. The public knows everything about him. He’s going to get his shit back. “How do I get in contact with her? It’s probably best to ask at LEAST once, before I just go and take it all back.”

Selina was quiet for a long time, considering the options of shaking Amanda Waller out of her tree. Closing her eyes, she tapped one claw against her lips, sighing. She could hit up some of the Gotham Rogues. One of them would know where to find Waller. She could also ask Batman, but that would definitely cause a flurry of unwanted questions.

She could also go find out for herself... But that was dangerous. Going after Waller tended to make Waller go after you, and that woman was nothing if not a sociopath with a government pass. Selina had heard horror stories about Waller, and she was damn sure every single one of them was God’s honest truth.

As Godless as the woman herself was.

“I dunno,” she finally said, chuckling. “You’re Tony Stark. You’ve got direct ties to the Avengers Initiative or whatever it’s called. S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m betting all of my nine lives that they have something to do with Waller somewhere. Go shake a tree.”

Selina, though, would go see what she could find out. Not that Stark needed to know. She did dangerous enough stuff, but Waller? Waller was a whole ‘nother game...

[nothingyouownissafe]

ferrumheros    

       “Hey, I don’t lie-lie. I never say that it’s anything more than a quick fling. They know that, people just want to sleep with celebrities.” Shrugging his shoulders, he stretches tired limbs and tugs his tie from around his neck to toss it onto the counter.

    “Okay, yeah, she’s definitely mad about it.” He admits, casting a quick glance over at the door, before he laughs and turns his head to look back at her. “She’ll survive, I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

     He chuckles at her question, and he’s about to answer when she reaches into her cleavage. Admittedly, his eyes linger - because hey, he’s a man who’s still in ‘nearly got laid’ mode - but he blinks and glances down at the drive that’s set in front of him. Humming low in his throat, he reaches for the drive and turns it over in his hand, pursing his lips. Why can’t people just leave his shirt alone? Taking a sip of his coffee, he tilts his head up to look at her, and can feel a small smile pulling at his own lips at the satisfied expression on her face. “Thank you, Selina. Honestly.” He pops a piece of quiche into his mouth and reaches across for one of the many tablets that are scattered throughout his pent house to plug in the drive. “Looks like i’m going to have to do some returns, huh? Think a good old fashioned product recall would work?”

“Two words for you, Stark. ‘Bunny’. ‘Boiler.’ A woman can sign up for one thing - or man I guess - then open a can of batshit crazy on you and start boiling, I dunno. Jarvis or something.” Selina lifted a hand, finger pointed. “Don’t, Jarvis. I know you can’t be boiled.”

She returned her attention to Stark and chuckled. “You’re most welcome, darling. I’ll just add it to the long list of things you owe me.” She walked around the counter to stand behind Stark, peering at the screen. “And that would depend on whether or not this is a full product, or just schematics they stole from you. I didn’t look, honestly. I just saw ‘Stark Industries’.”

Crossing her arms, Selina looked off to one side, scowling. “Amanda Waller is in charge of that Argus bullshit, from what I heard. Not a nice lady, and she gets what she wants. I can respect that. It’s how she gets what she wants that I don’t like. Just watch yourself if she comes after you, Stark. The woman’s made a career out of making people do what she wants them to do.” For once there was genuine concern in Selina’s voice. She hadn’t had much personal time with Waller, but she had heard a lot about her. It was enough to make even the Catwoman cautious.

[nothingyouownissafe]

    “I know, I’ve got a good eye.” He stretches, scratching his fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck as they head for the kitchen. He can hear the woman shouting, possibly on the phone to a friend, but he ignores it in order to focus on grabbing some mugs.

    “Kinda promised her we’d go to France,” He pulls a face, pouring coffee into the two mugs, and slides one across to her. “She’s probably mad about it. I’ll send her some flowers or something.” If he can remember her damn name… Holly? No.

    “I’ve got some left,” He nods, raising his voice over the slam of the front door, and steps over to the fridge to grab the plate. He joins her a moment later, their coffees and the plate of quiche sitting between them as he sits on a bar stool off to her left. “So, what’s up?”

“You keep treating girls like this, I’m just gonna laugh when it bites you in the ass, Stark. You hear me? Laugh.” Honestly though, these women were dime a dozen. Stark always seemed to find the ones that wanted to bone the billionaire, or bone the superhero. At least he wasn’t breaking some poor woman’s heart who honestly thought she loved him.

“Probably mad about it,” Selina grinned at the slam of the door. “Probably definitely. But hey, at least she won’t be whining about you not calling her.” Selina picked up a fork and immediately began slicing into one of the quiches, scooping up some of the deliciousness on the tines.

"Does something need to be up for me to be here?” Selina smirked, but then sobered. Reaching into her cleavage she removed a thumb drive and dropped it on the counter between them. “You got a bit of a leak inside Stark Industries. Or something’s going on. I did a job with-slash-for Batman and found a bit of dirt inside one of the more shady operations going out of Gotham. Argus. You heard of them? They like to take Gotham crazies and make them into shock troopers. And they’ve got your tech to do it, apparently.” Selina propped her elbow up on the counter, looking literally like the cat that ate the canary. “Batman doesn’t know I have that, by the way.”

[ferrumheros]

@nothingyouownissafe

     ‘Who the fuck is that?!’

      Tony’s eyes dart up to his bedroom door as the woman next to him jolts, understandably mad that there’s a smoking hot woman in a leather cat suit leaning against the door frame. Tony’s lips purse, and he shoots Selina a look that clearly reads ‘really? now?’ as… Beth? … Georgie? whatever her name is, grips his tie and makes him look at her. 

     “– So, as lovely as you are, play time is over.” He cuts her off as she starts out the ‘is this your fucking girlfriend’ speech, awkwardly extracting himself from under her, and just starts walking toward Selina as he expertly dodges a plimsole that’s tossed at his head and ducks through the door way. “There’ll be a car out front!” He calls, ducking another shoe that comes through the door way, and heads for the kitchen. 

     “You want coffee, Selina?” 

[nothingyouownissafe]

“You sure know how to find ‘em.” Selina caught the second shoe that came out of the bedroom without really looking at it, tossing it back toward the woman. “You’ll need that.” With a bright grin, she sashayed after Stark, her combat boots nearly soundless on his expensive flooring.

“I think she’s a bit upset for a one-night-stand kind of thing. You didn’t get yourself caught up in another Fatal Attraction problem, did you? Because I told you the last one I cleaned up was just that. The last one.”

Hopping up to perch her backside onto the counter, she pulled off her gloves and stretched, eyes closing as she rolled her bones beneath her skin. “Coffee sounds good. And maybe those little expensive quiches that Pepper got you, if you have any left.”

[ferrumheros]

            MAYBE I AM JUST A PASTEBOARD PLAYBOY