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"Yes?" comes the distracted reply, the man giving it glancing back over his shoulder, the car he'd been lifting up still held up easily with one hand. He knew it was a risk using his ability out in the open like this, but when he saw the crash happen right in front of him, four totaled vehicles, screaming, he'd stopped thinking logically. Instinct took over.

He sizes up the man addressing him quickly -- he doesn't seem hostile or threatening, but his utter calm in the chaos around them is disconcerting. Davis doesn't know what to make of it yet. He hasn't sat the car back down yet, and isn't quite sure why.

"Does someone else need help? I can help them too, but I need to get this guy clear first."

An urgent nod towards the pinned bystander, staring up at the both of them in glassy-eyed shock. He'd counted on the man being too out of it to remember the face of the guy who lifted the car off him. He hadn't counted on this... whoever this new guy is.

The acrid smell of smoke assaults his nostrils. Burning plastic. Polyester. Kilgrave had watched the car in front of him go spinning like a piece from a board game, knocked about by a petulant child. Now the flames were eagerly licking the outside of the vehicle, threatening to overwhelm its occupant.

Kilgrave had watched the EMTs arrive, too. Watched the singular focus of one individual, who'd just lifted the frame of the car like it was made of LEGOs. Recognition -- blessed, familiar -- washed over him like a wave.

He dips his hands into his pockets. Casual bystander. The reliable witness, if later culled by TV news reporters.

"By all means...."

he indicates the wreckage with a curt nod.

Davis nods, relieved to get the okay even as another part of his mind wonders why he's even wasting time with this guy, he's not hurt. With practiced dexterity he pulls the man underneath to safety, tossing the car aside like something made out of styrofoam and packing peanuts. It's a sharp contrast to the way he handles his patient, sitting up in gingerly, hands probing for internal injuries.

He doesn't look back, but he can feel the other man is still here. Still watching him. Probably working up the nerve to ask him how he just did that. Maybe if he's busy he won't have as much time to think about it.

"Do you want to help me?" Daring to look back over his shoulder now, and sure enough, Mr. Calm's still here. "I have to get a tourniquet on this guy's leg and I could use a hand."

Kilgrave watches while the Epic Rescue ensues: the man saved, checked for internal bleeding, the car -- the car -- tossed aside like it weighed nothing. Kilgrave watches as the mangled vehicle winds up flipped beside the median, like it's a piece of cardboard. This development, more than the condition of the vehicle's occupant, seizes Kilgrave's attention. He swivels his focus toward the EMT. His question receives the requisite loft of eyebrow --

"No."

He's being honest. He actually has no interest in helping. In fact, he takes a step back, if only to preserve the integrity of his black Oxford dresses.

"You're more than capable. Obviously. Save the day." As he steps forward, resting a hand on the still-smoking edifice of the vehicle that the EMT has shifted. Very interesting.

Damn it. Almost to the time limit, and freedom had been within reach. Kilgrave's mind control has its limitations, but he knows what they are just as well as she does. Her jaw clenches slightly, the only sign of her disappointment that she's able to show, and then her feet come to an abrupt halt. Jessica Jones should know by now she won't be getting away, not by any means she currently has.

But stop he says, so stop she does. Right there, as if it were her own idea all along.

Kilgrave crosses the remaining distance between them, snagging her elbow with two sharp fingers. His breath is a fog of gin and olives. They've been inside of one of New York's hottest night spots for the last few hours, lost in a thrall of dance and drink, and Kilgrave has only just suggested that they retire to their hotel suite.

Jessica had been nowhere to be found.

"Where were you going? I told you to stay." The hooked fingers travel up the curve of her arm to her cheek, forcibly turning her attention toward him. "Why weren't you listening to me?"

[Nikki stops and glances back to see if it was her he was talking to.]

Me?

You.

[ The corners of Kilgrave's mouth turn up. ]

Turn around. Let me get a good look at you.

[An expression of indignation crosses her face as she turns to fully face him.] Excuse me?

Striking. [ In the wake of the benefit of a full review. ] You've got a big of panache, don't you? Something special, just beneath the surface? Like knows like, and all.

...Do I know you?

No. But you'd like to.

You think very highly of yourself. Who are you?

I'm whoever you'd like me to be.

So either a prostitute or actor then? [She glances around.] Look this is cute but I don't really want to be on your youtube channel, sugar. I was on my way somewhere.

Davis shrugs off the blunt refusal and gets back to work -- he hadn't really needed the man's help, it just would have been nice to get him busy and focused on something other than what he just saw. Clearly that's not going to happen. What does he want? Is he going to out him, right here in front of everyone? No, he would have done that by now. Blackmail doesn't seem likely, not with the way the guy's dressed, and squeezing him would be like squeezing a rock anyway.

He'd carry the guy on the ground over to the ambulances right now, ordinarily, but something's telling him he needs to get things squared away with Mr. Calm right here and right now. Getting up, wiping his hands on his pants, he turns to face the other man, stepping just out of earshot of his patient.

"Listen. I know what that looked like, but it's not..." Lying doesn't come naturally to him, even with all the practice he's had lately. "It was just an adrenaline boost, that's all. You know, like the moms you hear about in the news who panic and lift cars off their kids. That's all that was. I'll probably be laid up for a week when I get home."

[ Prostitute? Actor? Is what he does that much removed from those professions? To make someone believe what they want to believe, simply by suggestion? Of course, there are some pretty powerful pheromones in place here. Advantages that actors don't have that would slay at the box office.

Kilgrave smiles. A sight which unsettles some. ]

I'm sure you were.

Someone of your...unique capabilities...must have absolutely oodles of preoccupations.

Kiglrave nods, playing along. His expression is absolute empathy. "And that's what I'll tell the news crews," he says, indicating the distant wail of sirens and the inevitable grind of television vans and satellite uplinks. There's a moment that passes between them -- unique to unique -- that translates to one giant wink. Sure your ability to heave that two ton car into the air was the product of an adrenaline rush. Sure you look like a suburbanite mom who hefts her minivan off her three screaming kids when the car in the oncoming lane spills their Big Gulp into heir lap.

Sure.

"Just an adrenaline boost," he repeats. "You'll want to baby those arms after today. Lifting a Nissan really takes it out of a guy. For a couple of days."

[It wasn't so much his smile that unsettles her. She gets hit on all the time. At least this guy was reasonably good looking with an accent. It was the way he used past tense with such confidence that put her on edge. If he were just another telepath, like her or her brother, she had defenses for that but his power was new and at least some small part of her must have known she was already fucked even if it was taking the rest of her brain a little longer to catch up.]

Seriously, Pickle, I'm not interested in what you're selling so you can move along. [And she really did mean to turn and walk away but instead she just stood there.]

[ A nudge, something preternatural about this one. Kilgrave's interest sniffs ahead like a hunting dog. ]

Oh, but I think you are.

[ Like knows like, as he's always said. And there's something...instinctual...in the way that a person of Kilgrave's unique talents can recognize someone of the same. As if there's a mark, a transparent dye, cast across the faces of the extraordinary. And this particular creature -- with her excess of confidence and delicate bone structure -- has more power than anyone he's encountered recently. ]

You're unique. Like me. Aren't you?

[And like that she was. Though even if he hadn't basically just told her to be interested, she already would have been the moment he commented on a mutual uniqueness. She was prepared for him to pitch some seedy home movie situation. She hadn't been prepared for that.]

Unique? You have abilities?

You show me yours...

[ And for once that innuendo has more than just a superficial meaning. Kilgrave's power lies in his practically limitless ability to influence the will of others; simply by suggestion -- by mere flippant will -- he can compel others to do his bidding.

He sets his back molars on top of one another, his grin expansive. ]

What are you, then? Telepath? Telekine? There's a power to you; something that clings to your skin. I can sense it.

[She nods and moves closer to him, staring at him with intense interest.] Telekinetic. Telepathic. Trans-empathy. [Her hand reaches for his and the moment her skin makes contact with his, she starts pouring pleasure into him. Not just warm and fuzzy feelings but the sweetest, purest ecstasy in existence. A little more and he'd have the most intense orgasm of his life right there on the street. A lot more and she could make his heart explode in his chest.] They call me Bliss.

((To the game: http://miss-bliss.dreamwidth.org/960.html))

Edited 2016-04-02 03:53 (UTC)

[ Warmth floods his veins, causing him to rock forward on the balls of his feet and close his eyes, momentarily lost in the power she's transferring through his veins. It's enough to distract him through her introduction which, for a man of Kilgrave's infinite control, is truly saying something.

The pleasure he feels is enough to eclipse anything he's felt before. When she finally lets go, it takes Kilgrave's pupils a fill twenty seconds to dilate to normal again.

He's impressed. He conquers the feeling by smoothing down the edges of his plum tie and flashing a tight smile in her direction. ]

Remarkable.

Thank you. [She smiles back.] What can you do?

I'm the most interesting man in the world. [ Which, given the benefit of the viral load in his veins -- thanks, Mummy and Daddy -- immediately latches on to the prefrontal cortex of her brain, the seat of truth. Once there, it embeds itself as a fact. Not only that, it wiggles through the rest of her conscious mind and languishes there: he truly is the most interesting man in the world, all of a sudden, without exception. ]

[Daisy immediately stops speaking to Fitz over comm and turns to face the stranger.]

...Can I help you?

[Nikki laughs a little bit but he was interesting. He was incredibly interesting and all thoughts of her previous plans were gone.] Shouldn't you be in a Dos Equis commercial?

[ a twinge in her mind is reflected in how her gaze narrows on her task, the book in her hands, and she has to read the sentence twice. her stare jerks up at him -- ] No. [ and goes back down, as a part of her remains unsettled. ]

Edited (1st impression 2nd chance or is it) 2016-04-02 22:43 (UTC)

"Ow!" It does hurt, and the protest is weakened on her lips by the powerful control he exerts over her. Were they on a level playing field, were he not able to completely force her to do exactly as he wishes, Jessica Jones would have long since thrown Kilgrave from the roof of a very tall building. The desire to do it burns in her fingers on a regular basis. And she almost had it tonight.

Almost - but not.

"The music was so loud, I didn't hear you." There, truth - if not the exact truth he might have been after. Jessica still has enough presence of her own mind to fight back, if she chooses her moment. This one she had picked carefully.

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There's actually a game that goes with this if you are interested.

Brilliant. XD

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