middaeg | July Quests and Catch-All [OPEN]

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July Quests and Catch-All [OPEN]

Who: Berserker (Cú Chulainn Alter) and you!
When: Throughout July
Where: Through the city
What: Quests and other things!
Warnings: Some threads are NSFW!

[ 1. Sew and Tell ]

[ While Berserker can't help with the magical parts of upgrading the shop, he is strong. He's doing any grunt labor asked of him, lifting things, moving heavy objects, and holding people up to reach things. You need something carried? He's your ~~dragon~~ man.

He finishes a task to take a small break to stretch. He looks over to a coworker (or customer, he doesn't care to know the difference) and tilts his head slightly. ]

Is there something you need me for?

[ 2. Out of the City ]

[ There's a lull in the activity of the day and Berserker takes a moment to rest. He slumps down against a tree, his spear Gae Bolg resting against his shoulder. He's only doing this because he knows he's good at it -- fighting and killing is boring and routine. A sound catches his attention and he grabs his spear without getting up. ]

Do I need to stand up or did you just trip?

[ He's a jerk, sorry. ]

[ 3. Wildcard ]

[ Got an idea? Did we plot something already? Drop me a starter or PM me here or on discord at glitzkrieg#0673! ]

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Stretching makes me more effective at work.

[ She's not here to argue about it, but Lex also likes making sure her point is clear. A few seconds longer and she drops her leg, switching to the other. ]

Hopefully they figure out the magic side of things soon. Staying busy is preferable.

Then learn to do it on your own.

[ A real charmer, this one.

He finally takes an actual look at Lex. ]

What are you? [ YOU CAN'T JUST ASK PEOPLE THAT, BERSERKER. ] I haven't seen anything like you before.

[ This is what happens when you isolate yourself, you jerk. ]

Someone learning how to use talons.

[ It's said a bit flatly, but once she's done stretching that leg and lets it drop, she shrugs. ]

Chimera, as far as I can figure. Lots of variety.

You're not good at it yet.

[ He generally expects those kind of reactions to his bluntness. Berserker isn't the kind of person to sugarcoat or soften anything or even be remotely considerate. ]

Hm...Interesting to meet creatures I'm used to killing. [ Or turning into one. ] Has it been painful for you, too?

Not anything past ripping into things with them, no.

[ She's getting there, at least. There's an amused snort at 'creatures I'm used to killing', a faint nod of agreement. ]

Very. [ There's a little grimace as she rolls her shoulders. ] My bones are infused with metal. It's making this... interesting.

[ Okay, now he's interested. That's not something he's heard of before. Bodies augmented with magecraft, sure, but not metal. He tilts his head slightly. ]

Why do you have metal in your bones? Was that your idea?

Yeah, it was my idea. [ And it had been a good one, out in the wasteland, when she hadn't been changing into a monster. ]

It's to keep them from breaking in combat or in traps. Considering the number of ruins I crawl through back home, it keeps me from fucking them up if the floor gives way, too.

[ He can understand strengthening one's body for survival. Practical. It makes enough sense to him not to question it. ]

Did you expect to die before it became a problem for you?

[ That's ... certainly a question. ]

Yes.

[ At least he's not the only one who can be blunt. ]

I wasn't exactly planning on changing into a monster or growing anymore, and the life expectancy where I'm from is pretty low. A metal skeleton wouldn't stop a shot to the heart or a slit throat or radiation poisoning.

[ Alter or not, Cú Chulainn lived a very short life. Consequences were never considered, each battle could've been his last. That sort of existence suited him just fine. He could appreciate the shortsightedness of her choice -- she wasn't supposed to live long enough for it to be a problem. ]

As I thought. [ He shrugs. ] I died young and never considered my actions beyond if they'd benefit me immediately.

[ Right, something's been forgotten in all this. ]

What's your name? You can call me Berserker.

[ There's a brief, confused blink. ]

You look good for a dead man.

[ But then again, this place was magic. Why wouldn't someone dead be here? Hadn't she been on death's door when she arrived, too? ]

I'm Lex.

[ Explaining the concept of Heroic Spirits isn't something he really wants to me, much less that he never actually existed. Alter Servants were an impossibility. ]

I'm the memory of someone who once lived long ago given human form. I'm not "dead" nor am I really alive. [ Well, he is now with his mortal body and all. ] I was a familiar summoned for a mage to use.

[ He's one of the few Heroic Spirits who's okay with that and accepts himself for what he is. It's complicated, sorry. ]

You were just human before coming here, right?

[ That makes her pause, looking him up and down. ]

Magic, [ she sighs, shaking her head. ] It isn't much of a thing back home, and I'm kind of glad about that.

[ Because seriously, the fuck. ]

Other than the skeleton and the cyborg parts and any radiation-based mutations, yes.

[ He's glad she didn't ask anymore questions, mostly because he's not interested in answering them. It was a weird existence. ]

Isn't much? Does it exist at all?

[ At least he's not a mage! Mage families are fucked up in his world! ]

You're adaptable for a human. Most aren't that good at surviving. [ Finding out what's useful about a person so he can make use of them. He's terrible, okay? ] Do you pride yourself on your survivability?

I'm not sure. [ It's said slowly, like she isn't certain about that, either. Isn't sure or doesn't want to admit it? ] I saw... something, once. A book that drew a man to a building with a strange obelisk in the basement, that changed him.

[ She shakes her head. ]

But that's the extent of it. If there's more, it was well-hidden before the Great War and possibly dead after it.

[ If magic was powerful and abundant enough to stop the bombs, she thinks someone would have tried. ]

I don't know if I'd pride myself on it. If I don't survive, I'm dead. I do what I can to keep that from happening.

He quirks an eyebrow at the story. Certainly beyond the ordinary.

Hm...Did it bother you to witness such a thing?

[ Not that he cares -- he's bored and idly trying to find something to pry at here. Berserker's expression shifts a little bit at her response to his question. He knows about survival and doing what's needed; that's the reason he's as cold as he is. So much was given up in the name of strength just to survive.

He doesn't want to admit how much he can relate, so he sits in silence for a moment. ]

... I understand that much. Forced to survive by any means necessary.

[ Did it bother her? It had been creepy, sure. But in the end, he'd been another ghoul. It hadn't been the vault that had pumped hallucinogens into her system, hadn't been watching her father die. All things considered, it hadn't actually been terrible in comparison to other things. ]

Not much more than most other things I've had to deal with.

[ Any means necessary. She had survived, and that had been what had mattered. ]

Of course, now we're in a city surrounded by incoming infection. That's slightly harder to fight off.

[ It's not as though Berserker particularly cared about her story, it's just a way to pass the time. He would've been content to sit in silence, but so many people rarely are. It's as though people don't like to be alone with their thoughts for longer than they have to be. ]

Don't touch infected things or let them bite you. Kill them before they can reach you. If you're good enough at surviving what you've been through, this should be no different.

[ His thinking is so starkly black and white, relating to others can be difficult. ]

It'll be a bigger pain in the ass when [ not if, when ] more of it gets inside the wall. Plants can be infected, too... breathing in infected pollen will get people.

[ It's musing, more than anything else. Lex has thought about her options, has a few ideas. It'll be rough, but not impossible. ]

Infected water doesn't seem to look too different, either.

When it happens, it happens.

[ He doesn't seem terribly concerned. ]

The infection can be dealt with in its early stages. Don't be an idiot if you think you're infected or came into contact with the infection.

[ For someone as stubborn as he is, it's kind of a surprise that he takes this so seriously when he's normally content to let an injury slide and go untreated. ]

It's relying on other people not to be idiots that's going to suck. I trust most of them about as far as I can throw them.

[ Her claws flex idly, as if in demonstration of possibly throwing them. ]

Some of the houses in the Haven were empty - someone came in, infected, and they cleared the whole place out. The Coven exploded, right in the same spot they take the infected to treat them.

[ That much they agreed on. Berserker relied on as few people as possible -- it kept the disappointment to a minimum that way. ]

I'm aware. [ He shrugs. ] What other option is there, then, what's given to us right now?

[ It's more of a rhetorical question than one he wants an answer to. ]

Don't keep infected patients in the city, for one.

[ Rhetorical or not, it's something that's been bothering her. She understands keeping them in a place where they can treat them, but inside the city? Inside the wall? Not so much. ]

And where else would they keep them? There's a risk of further infection leaving them outside the wall...It puts the people taking care of them in worse danger. You risk losing those who can handle it to the infection.

[ How did work small talk turn into this...? Right, he's incapable of small talk. ]

You make a second wall, or another barrier. A staging area. Something that sill protects those working, but if something does happen, protects the rest of the city.

[ It's not like she's too much better. ]

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