middaeg | may open log + catchall

Entry tags:

may open log + catchall

Who: A2 (

abandonware) & open (fourth wall characters welcome)
When: All throughout May!
Where: Errywhere
What: Quest pickups! Monster changes! A2 trying to figure out the purpose of a love letter!
Warnings: Some body horror (irt monster changes), A2 overall just being herself.

i. v is very very, extra-ordinary (quest - beauty underneath)

[Having avoided the greater part of the city, as much as she was able, anyway, she is nonetheless moved by a desire to do something. Anything. Culling the infected in the woods only did so much. They did not move like machines, which was of some interest. But even she could only kill for so long before boredom moved her.

The acceptance of this particular task had been by chance and Pod's suggestion, and currently, A2 is frowning down at the letter she's been given, which has the sweet smell of freshly-cut flowers. It irritates her nose, though she can recall a time where this was not the case.

She sneezes. Rubs at her nose. Then she looks up at Pod, expectant.]

Well? You got any ideas where this woman is this time?

Unknown.

Why can't he give this to her himself? What's the point of this, anyway? This is the third one this week.

[Her griping continues on into her task. Perhaps you too, have been asked to deliver all these weird, lovey-dovey letters? Or she's flagged you down with a, "Hey, you," to enlist your directional help?

Or she's just passed the letters off to you with no explanation because they bother her nose.

Despite her overall aura of disrespect, all of the letters are intact, the wax seal still in place. Huh.]

ii. there are two wolves inside of you (quest - noise complaint)

[There's a woman, slight of build, oddly-dressed at a distance, carrying two swords that look larger than her on her back, and she's banging on a resident's door like she intends to punch a hole in it.]

Hey! Roman!

[Does she know this guy? Anyway. Her voice is sharp and irritated.] I told you about this shit last night — cut it out!

[The howling coming from the second story window pauses, then begins again in earnest. A2 claps her hands over her ears, and there's something strange in her voice when she speaks up again, something low and guttural.]

That's it. Get down here right now so I can kick your ass!

[Uh-oh.]

iii. another fetch quest where the gang is given a philosophical conundrum (quest - refugee request)

[The refugees she's been saddled with this week are a kid and his baby brother, both of them hardly cut out to protect themselves, even though the boy had insisted that he needed no escort to and from his job at market. A2 had followed behind him anyway, silent and imposing, and by the time night falls on the third night, he's opened up. He chatters endlessly as they walk, and A2 listens, though it does not seem like she's doing much listening at all.

Her teeth hurt, is why.

They've hurt for days, for weeks — the boy had given her a length of licorice stick when he'd found this out, wanting to help, and she'd gnawed it down to splinters but hadn't bothered asking for another one. They hurt so much she can feel it in her temples, and so she — ever-vigilant — does not notice when the boy falls out of her field of view.

Instead she is focused on bringing a hand to her mouth, and spitting something out into her palm. The incisor, porcelain and perfect, glitters bright white in a clot of blood.]

What the—

[She studies this, quietly and dully horrified, and finally thinks to look up.]

Kid?

[Where had he gone?]

Shit. Kid!

[There's something in the distance — a cry of alarm, and this time, A2 only spits out her second lost tooth of the day out without losing her pace as she runs toward the sound.]

iv. wildcard

[A2 mostly frequents the woods, where she hunts both Cwyld-infected creatures, and (as the month progresses), wild game! Occasionally she will be seen skulking around doing odd jobs for various people (without the expectation of reward), because she's a marshmallow deep down inside. For this month she will be losing most of her normal robot teeth (???) and getting a replacement set of terrifying cat teeth. She will also be gaining a sense of hunger, increased sight, smell and (especially) hearing, and during the full moon will be especially erratic, so anyone who wants to throw down with her crazy overpowered metal ass is free to do so! If you have any questions or want to do anything else, feel free to hmu on plurk @ godsibb, or contact me via pm.]

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[The full moon is a complicated time for a lot of monsters and witches. The wash of the moon is powerful and heightens all sorts of monsters nerves and witches magic. But somehow it seems to be stronger this month. That even Sora, who has many powerful witch bonds, is effected by how much it pulls this month. Sora is out upon the streets of the city with an itch under his skin he can't quite scratch. His long rabbit-like ears are pointed and listening and his yellow eyes are sharp glowing gems. His claws have gotten longer and the his legs feel full of energy like he wants to run run run.

The puca scampers through the streets and when he happens upon any sort of carnivorous monster he can't help but feel the need to watch them. Maybe a little push and tease would teach monsters like that that they can't just run around and do whatever they want. They would never be able to catch a rabbit as fast as Sora. Never.]

Hey you! Lady!

[Sora shouts from his spot on top of a piece of stone fencing. There's a playful and daring smile on his lips as he sneers.]

What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?

[The moon casts shafts of silvery light down through a thicket of densely packed trees, and A2 is distracted by a squirming rabbit captured beneath her boot. She is about to bring her sword down to finish the work, when the voice distracts her, makes her turn in its direction. The terrified animal wriggles away and disappears into the brush, and she curses under her breath.

For a moment she regards the creature before her with unnerving silence. A boy, his features somewhat familiar to her (had she met another boy like this, who looked like him?), but her mind is too fuzzy now to make the connection. She's too restless and hungry to feel anything but irritated at the intrusion.]

What do you want?

[The words come out gruff, and muddled, like she has something in her mouth and is trying to speak around it.]

[Sora is watching her quite carefully. His yellow eyes trained on her as he watches her movements. There is someone else in this world that looks incredibly similar to Sora and it's ever more apparent with the way that Sora's now-yellow eyes glow in the flicker of the moon. And he just barely catches sight of that scampering snack she had with a low noise in the back of his throat.]

Maybe I want you to pick on someone your own size.

[Carnivourous monsters... Part of him knows that they have to eat too but do they have to be so brutal about it? It makes him want to annoy this one even further. If he can waste this one's time then that's less time snacking on the innocent creatures around here. And that's a win in his book.]

That's funny.

[A2's gaze flickers to her meal before it disappears into the brush, before she returns her attention to the boy. Her eyes glow like strange, silver lamplight in the gloom.] Don't see anyone my own size around here.

[There is a machine floating near her, small and rectangular, and it speaks at this: the tone mechanical and without intonation.]

This is not recommended.

[A2 gives it a sharp look, then returns her attention to the boy.] Run on home, brat. Wouldn't want you to get hurt.

[Sora's ears do swivel in interest when he sees that floating little machine. He's curious about it but it seems to be on her side so he decides that right now might not be the best time to go asking all sorts of questions about the cute little flying robot.

Instead Sora hops down from his spot on the fence he's been sitting on with gentle ease. He lands and puts his hands on his hips. For a rabbit, which is most definitely a prey animal, he's rather courageous.]

Then maybe you should leave rabbits like that alone!

[Go home, carnivore! Go home!]

[Courageous was certainly a word for it. If A2 were in her right state of mind, she would dismiss this foolhardiness outright, walk away from it rather than feed into it. But the moon has her restless, and very, very irritated.

The rabbits and deer and other small, scuttling creatures were no challenge to her. Not as an android, and certainly not when she was like this. But this boy might give her a worthy chase, is the thought that takes root in her mind, warped by animal instinct.

A2 straightens to her full height, lifts her chin. Underneath the pallor of moonlight, she looks strangely pale and ghostlike, a strange and unnatural shape in the dark.]

Oh yeah? [Her voice has an edge to it now, something odd. Something guttural.] Maybe I'll chase you instead.

A2— [Pod interjects, but she waves it off.]

You've got five seconds! [She calls across the clearing.] I'll even give you a head start!

[When she straightens is when Sora stares at her with his nerves bristling. His fingers twitch and his ears swivel to listen to every single thing she might or might not be doing. His yellow eyes glow with sharpness in the darkness. She's somehow pretty and dangerous looking at the same time.]

Like you could ever catch me-!

[Sora knows this is dangerous. But he's too riled up from the gaze of the moon. Irritated and jumpy and wanting to run. As soon as she warns him Sora does leap backwards even though he thinks get doesn't need that five-second head start.

He's is already off with a sprint down the rickety old road.]

Catch me if you can, meat eater!

[Sephiroth’s will is steel. Forged through a lifetime of militant training, and tempered through war and combat that came all too naturally, very little can challenge it, and even less can cause it to falter. It’s more than mere pride and stubbornness — just a part that’s always been hammered into his bones — though perhaps the argument could be made that both of these things still play a role in his unwillingness to bend.

Yet this month’s full moon is a force of equal strength, so prevalent that its influence feels thick, omnipresent, pressing itself into his body and shifting his form further into avian territory to accommodate it. Even his mind feels touched— No, his mind is clear and listless and eager, and every nerve is absolutely alive with a primal awareness. Every shift in the branches, every shudder of leaves as the breeze whistles past, every hint of every movement underfoot. He wants to be a part of it; he thinks of how satisfying it would be to hear prey skittering in the underbrush, darting away a second too late, caught under his shadow cast by the moon, then pinned under his weight, or going slack under his blade— No.

There’s no challenge in that.

There’s no challenge in much of anything, even with nerves alight as they are, singing for it. Especially from the small prey found in the depths of a forest’s nighttime shadows. They’re weak, soft, and easily broken.

Disappointment has no time to settle. Hidden on his perch, obscured by thick leaves and balanced in the V-shape of two branches sprouting from the tree’s base, he hears something else. Something running, crushing fallen forest detritus underfoot. A young antlered animal, graceful and lithe, leaps over a fallen log beneath him. It disappears into the distance, swallowed whole by a thick copse of foliage on the edge of the clearing. A second noise follows, and these footsteps are decidedly human-esque. A hunter?

Instead, a familiar figure trails after it. He remembers her, the android, and Sephiroth wonders if she had been giving chase to that creature, if she’d find any satisfaction in downing it such a simple thing. This thought elicits an amused hum from him, so low that it might have just been the wind.

It gives away his hiding spot, regardless.]

You’ve lost your prey.

[Look up through the branches, and there he is. Just a dark form with sharp green eyes that glow, and a glint of silver when the moonlight falls against his hair — and his blade.]

Are you hunting out of necessity? Or boredom?

Edited 2020-05-10 19:42 (UTC)

[On Earth, every day had dragged, the passage of time bleeding along the edges as the monotony of fighting had become the thing which she'd centered herself around. Later, her single minded obsession with seeking her own death had been set off course by 2B's own, but still. There had always been endless battle, underneath the empty backdrop of a sky that never changed, landscapes she had traveled and knew by heart.

This new world, she's found, had been overwhelming in its differences, and so she'd sought out monotonous familiarity: the infected animals and plant life here moved differently from the machines, from the other androids, true. But it was battle — a hunt — and so this was a comfort to her. When the moon had cut across the sky like a bright, new coin, this desire to seek out the challenge that hunting for prey, had become an itch under her skin. She'd been stalking the deer for the better part of an hour for that reason — toying with it, letting it run into the brush before she followed, unhurried. This entertains her until she reaches the clearing, and the sound overhead is what instead captures her attention.

She glances up, sharply, her eyes an eerie silver in the dark, the pupils blown wide. When she recognizes the figure, the stiffness of her posture relaxes some.]

Haven't lost it. Giving it a head start.

[... She sighs, then. Huffs, really.]

Bored. I guess. I already ate.

[a pause.]

You?

[It’s a welcome answer. Sephiroth cannot see the appeal in pursuing a simple-minded herbivore through the darkened trees. The novelty was sure to wear off through repetition alone, ending only with an unsatisfying kill that would leave one wanting. Instead, professing to boredom left an opportunity open for him to consider, remembering their prior conversation under a meteorite-laden sky. Her experience with battle, built for combat.]

Looking for something to hold my interest.

[Staving off boredom, too, in his own way, but with methods potentially more bellicose while under the thrall of a full moon.

The branches shudder under his feet, bowing before righting themselves again as Sephiroth leaps and descends from his spot nestled in the tree. He lands quietly for a man of his size, and as he stands before her, planks of moonlight fall across his form, better illuminating his changes.

Feathers spread along his exposed upper half, black and glossy, lain snug against the contours of musculature. They extend across his torso, exist in organized patches around his shoulders, and are thickest though unseen across his back.

And more prevalently, the protrusion of overlarge wings that extend from near his shoulder blades, the largest of these feathers nearly long enough to sweep the ground.]

Maybe you’d qualify. I’m more of a challenge than frightened game.

[A2's only concession when he lands, so oddly lightfooted that he scarcely makes any noise, even with her sharpened senses, is to step back a fraction. This is more to give him space rather than any sense of apprehension, as her thoughts run contrary to this. Instead she weighs the possibility of the challenge he's presented in her head.

YoRHa programming would make her leery of this, of challenging a human rather than bending at the knee to one. But the full moon has overriden programmed reservations and the automatic impulse to serve, and instead one pale eyebrow arches up:]

Hm.

[She takes measure of his changes, her eyes sharp even in the low, silver-tinted moonlight.]

Oh, I bet you are.

[Beside her, Pod makes its own observations, and affords her a warning.]

Alert: this human falls outside of previously observed parameters for the species. Caution is recommended.

[A2 brushes it aside and saunters forward, unhurried and catlike, lifting her chin.] Good. Then he won't break. Just stay out of the way.

[She addresses Sephiroth, now.] I'll take your challenge.

Edited 2020-05-16 01:22 (UTC)

[Were his mind more cogent, rational thinking not so distilled under the touch of the moon, Pod’s warning might have struck a strange chord in him, (this human falls outside of previously observed parameters for the species) highlighting a known truth that occasionally echoes wrongly all the same. But as things are, Sephiroth doesn’t care; he's unshackled from inhibition. He’s glad to watch A2 brush the warning aside and dismiss caution for the sake of a fight, glad she's agreed to help scratch an itch that refuses to abate.

And if she’s any good, maybe she’d even sate it enough to provide genuine, lasting entertainment.

Only one way to find out, only one way to judge for himself. Sephiroth grins a crescent-shaped smile, taking a step back only to fall into his usual battle-ready stance. Moonlight slides across the curve of Masamune’s downward-facing blade, raised above his left shoulder, its point gleaming in her direction. His wings appear to flare with subtle anticipation.]

Good. Then impress me, if you think you can.

[Soundwave has gotten around to have his avatar generator to run with this world's magical energy instead of the usual fuel. As much as he prefers to be in his actual mechanical form, it is somewhat of an annoyance, given that this world is not accommodated for his species specifically (and being asked 'what are you' for the hundredth time). That's why he has an avatar for this. To most, the young girl may look 'real' like any living person in this town, unassuming and harmless, but as solid as she may be, she is still a hardlight holographic body.

The Cybertronian walks down the street, sensors still calibrating to this new form, mindless of his surrounding, when he's suddenly stopped by someone shoving a letter to the avatar's person, eyes wide and surprised.]

Huh?

[Blinking, she looks up to the taller android, eyes blinking while at the same time feeling some sort of recognition from her. Feels like she's seen this AI somewhere...Then her eyes return to the letter.]

What is... this? A letter?

[Even with the letter held at something of a distance, the pungent scent of flowers emanating from it makes A2 want to rub at her nose.

The question makes her almost roll her eyes — wasn't it obvious? — but instead she sighs, in a put out sort of way, puts a hand on her hip. For now, she has not noted anything unusual about the person in front of her, which was likely for the best.]

Yeah. Some stupid love letter to a woman. Lost track of her, and the perfume's making my nose hurt. You take it.

[Likely for the best, even as Soundwave doesn't realize it himself.

Confusion quickly turns to disgust, when the pungent smell from the letter hits the young girl's nose. Her nose scrunched as her head leans away from the letter. Well, that answers the olfactory senses are working at least. Regardless of how offensive the smell is, she takes the letter from A2 while her other hand is placed over her nose to block off the smell, seemingly accepted this task that was shoved onto her.

A love letter? Soundwave has heard it's one of the tasks in the city...]

Given up on your task, huh... Do I get compensation for doing your job?

[Her expression, already vaguely irritated, downturns into a full-on frown.]

I'm not giving up. I've done this twice already. You get compensation for that letter. None of the others.

Alright...

[Welp, she finally understands she's getting dragged into this now. Though the smell is really making the nose itchy... Not really want to keep it out in the open at all times, Soundwave slides it under her hoodie, into a pocket, and zips it up.]

Whoever thought this much perfume was necessary is an idiot. So... who is this woman we're looking for?

He thinks it attracts her. [A scoff follows this. She had little knowledge of courting, humans or others, but she had her doubts. The woman did not seem to care for the letters, when A2 lingered long enough to watch her open them.

At least she could focus past the smell of roses now.] Hell if I know what that guy's thinking.

It's a woman we're looking for. Dark hair, blue eyes. She's usually around this district. [Her explanation given, both she and Pod walk ahead.] Keep up.

[Even though Soundwave wasn't human and lack any love experience whatsoever, she wouldn't even think to put this much scent to a letter. If anything, she would think people would shun it the moment the scent offended their nose. Oh well. The scent shouldn't bother them now as they look for the 'lucky' lady around the district.

Soundwave follows after the two walks ahead, catching up until she's side-by-side with them, eyes briefly on the floating droid. Mm. Interesting little contraption she got there.]

... Have you ever done this before, Miss? Love letter and stuff. Matchmaking.

[Soundwave asks idly. If she was going to stay here, she should improve her social skills. Making idle conversation about the subject should be an okay first step, right?]

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may open log + catchall

wildcard i hope this is okay!

it's fantastic!

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full moon!! :eyes: lmk if i need to change it!

it's great!!

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i

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