Intimidation was never my strong point, like I'd said.
Maybe because I've been beyond the point it would have been useful at for a bit too long. Or because I'm too bloody impatient.
Back in my ghost in the machine days, I didn't much have to worry about intimidating anyone. It was doing the opposite that took effort.
In the Shito body, it was just a half-measure I didn't bother with much. Nine times out of ten, breaking something is more likely to get through to somebody than any threats.
Plus, there was the fact that I'd gotten the AT, as in Absolute Terror, Field down pat. Projective empathy is dead useful. Maybe not exactly for intimidation, but it's dead useful for scaring the shit out of people. Hence the name.
When Juliet and I skidded into that alley, having picked up the pace after one particularly loud shriek ...
... the situation we stumbled into was glaringly obvious.
Several guys, one girl that was being pressed against the wall by one of said guys. Said assailant was also doing his best to cop as many feels as he could, while the hand that wasn't busy with that was waving a knife around well in the girl's personal space.
It didn't take a genius to see where this was going, even without empathy ...
... and that was when I recognized the girl.
If I'd been angry an instant before that ...
We hadn't been very subtle in approaching, so the toughs were starting to turn.
I let them have a solid kick of raw animal terror with a capital T, and I think I was in a worse mood than I'd realized since it wasn't entirely controlled. I heard Juliet break stride for a moment.
Only for a moment, though.
Two of the toughs soiled themselves, the others, including knife-guy, froze in place like very small mice before a very large snake.
I snipped off the projection before it got further out of control and bleed onto their intended victim. It had been enough, anyway ...
Enough for me to step up behind knife-guy and yank him and his little toy away from the girl, via shirt collar and belt.
I did the most expedient thing I could think of at the moment and tossed the guy into his nearest compatriot. I think I broke something on either of them. Maybe both.
This body is stronger than it looks, simply because the brain hasn't put limiters on how big a percentage of its muscles I can actually use.
Which was when they shook the effects of that brief Field pulse off, and ...
... let's just say that between myself and Juliet's brass knuckles, there were very many broken bones in that alley that night.
Next: conversation in transition. smackdown commences, though in a different way.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm