it's been a couple of days, bork, where is this IC at, i'm itching man
Firecracker_
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BellBottomBlues
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4 yrs ago
if you have ever gone grocery shopping and just left your empty cart in the middle of a parking spot or just out in the lot, please die. die.
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I call these people friends.
4 yrs ago
alright, now what are you all thankful for?
4 yrs ago
i got like half a 6-pack in the fridge...who tryna go halfsies
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hello, my name is cordell
Most Recent Posts
I actually crazy interested, this is the first Fallout RP that's actually caught my interest, but I'm already in two advanced RPs and have a hard enough time juggling one, so I will be watching this very closely.
In
𝔽𝕦𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖 - Cyberpunk Political Intrigue Roleplay
→
4 yrs ago
Forum: Advanced Roleplay
”Mister Choi, I just don’t think it’s a good idea. There’s too many ways it could go wrong.”
From across a screen table playing a silent news stream, Choi’s consultant was giving the office’s owner a hard stare. The ticker across the screen read about a tense, yet still peaceful demonstration underway in No Man’s Land, which was currently throwing a wrench in many well laid plans. The awkward silence was finally broken.
”I’m not disagreeing with you. I can see how bad it looks.” Choi pointed a wagging finger at the screen, the same finger which then minimized the news stream and brought up an encoded message that took a moment to be translated.”But, read this. ‘No change in retrieval point.’ I can’t do anything, my hands are tied. APEX isn’t budging on this one.”
”What, are they stupid? They’re the ones who designated this contract as “Maximum Risk”, but now they refuse to give us another spot to meet up? How does that make any sense?” The young man’s voice was full of incredulity. Running his hands through his hair, he leaned back in his chair, taking a deep breath that was cut short when it caught the scratchy end of one of Choi’s long e-cigarette drags.
”Come on, use your head. You know how things like these usually end up, don’t you? Have you ever seen any protests or demonstrations in this city remain peaceful all the way through? APEX isn’t sending us anywhere else because they don’t have anywhere else. Everything they have this side of South City is probably headed for No Man’s Land right now.”
The young man gave a deep, obviously frustrated exhale from his nose, turning his chair away from the news stream to face the fish tank behind him. The aquarium was vast, taking up a considerable space in front of the wall, and was immaculately clean, with dozens of beautiful small artificial fish swimming around amongst the tall stalks of vibrant and colorful vegetation. As he watched, one of the tank's only two organic inhabitants, a small sea snail, emerged from his small plastic pineapple house. As soon as the mollusk bared his bright crimson shell, though, his opposition emerged, too. Carrying an electric blue shell, the second snail made a beeline across the bottom of the tank to attack his adversary. In a sort of choreographed dance, the fish of the tank formed gangs on either side of the fishtank, all attacking and defending each other and their various snail lords. Sei watched intently, before the entire ordeal reminded him of the conversation he’d just been having.
”And what about security? None of your other heavy hitters want this fucking contract. You send the Tin Can Man out there alone, this is bound to right down the drain.”
C’mon, Sei! Give your boy a little more faith than that!” As Olex finally entered the room, Sei’s eyes nearly snapped their own connective nerves with the speed which they rolled to the back of his head.”What is it exactly that Sei doesn’t think ol’ Tin Can Man can handle, by the way?”
Choi only barely turned to face Olex, and tossed a small, electronically locked box down at the table. It could fit in the palm of one’s hand, yet looked as if it would require high-grade explosives to open without the proper biometrics. A lingering sense of concern and discomfort remained on his face as he spoke, his voice thick with consternation.
”APEX job, maximum security. They wanted something delivered to their R&D office in the GCZ, but now look. They’ve got themselves another one of the Reclaim’s famous ‘peaceful protests’. We asked for a different pickup, but they’ve denied it. It’s either we do it now, or in about another 2 hours we will be considered ‘In Possession of Illegally Obtained Documents belonging to APEX CORPS.’ and we will pay dearly for holding onto the intel. Rusto and Gin are already out on jobs on the other side of town and the rest of our friends don’t want to take it, they say that ‘the money’s not worth the risk’. Cowards.” To cap off the tirade, Choi immediately took a deep drag, and almost as immediately began coughing violently, stepping aside while his guards worriedly began to try and calm the man down.
”I’ll do it.
Sai’s eyes instantly shot open with surprise. ”What?
”I said I’ll do it. Just give the intel and I’ll run it. I don’t need backup for some peaceful protests. I’ll get there and make it out before anything even has the slightest chance of going bad.” Olex tried to greet the men’s surprised faces with a signature grin, but a quick read of the room made the smile feel a bit inappropriate.
Sai simply scoffed and buried his face right back into his palms. A shining sign of confidence from the young man. Choi’s face twisted a bit, showing off a few wrinkles that had begun to mar his once youthful face. He crossed his arms, the concern in his look was obvious. The years of running his office were always fraught with stress and frustration. Bad deals and failed contracts, dead couriers and plentiful enemies, Tencho Choi’s job was definitely one that needed a sweet retirement plan. Given APEX’s input, though, there wouldn’t be much to retire from. The rock and the hard place were growing more and more uncomfortable by the second.
”Don’t be foolish, Oleksandr. You of all people should know that it’s stupid to take these kinds of jobs on your own. We’ll just talk to Re-”
”And you should know that it’s even more stupid to tests APEX’s patience. As bad of an idea this is, and as much as we all know I shouldn’t be doing this, I think we also all know this is the only choice we have.”
”We could at least try and wait for Rusto or Gin. You need some sort of support, my boy. Sending you alone would be foolhardy, to say the very least.”
A furrowed brow on Olex’s face was all Choi needed to see to understand his frustration. It mirrored Choi’s own weariness. Both men understood the situation they were in, and they knew Choi was simply trying to find every excuse they had to buy them time. There were no other choices left, and with a deep breath inhale and exhale, Olex let Choi know that he was done with the stalling.
”Just let me take the job, Choi. I can handle myself, we know that. Worst possible outcome, I die. No biggie.” Sei had finally broke his stare from the aquarium to face Olex and Choi, sneering at the Tin Can Man’s flippant bravado.
”It’s his funeral, Tench, just let hi-”
”I don’t recall asking you a goddamn thing, boy. And it’s ‘Mister Choi’ to you. You watch your tongue or it will be cut from your mouth.”
Even in his later years, the owner of the office maintained the fierce passion that kept him alive up until that point. The youngest man in the room had just spoken out of turn, a mistake he knew better to make. He simply sat up straight, giving a silent nod coupled with a hard gulp. There was no need to further test Choi’s patience. It took a moment for the boy to find the courage to look his elder in the face, but was surprised to find that Choi hadn’t done the same. His gaze was still locked on Olex, who at this point was examining the small secure box Choi had placed on the table.
The clear respect that Choi held for Olex gave Sei a burning in his stomach. Since he was a young adult. Sei Chen had been Tench Choi’s right hand man. Paperwork, enforcer bribery, network hacking, Sei did it all. All the tin can man had done was walk up and ask for a job, and within months, he was one of Choi’s few shining stars. Yet, Sei was still simply regarded as an errand boy, Choi’s servant that did the small work that the elder was busy to be bothered with. Youth had convinced him that one day he’d earn the same respect, all it would take was more hard work and time dedicated to the office. He hadn’t the maturity yet to realize that Choi only truly respected those whom he considered to be of equal ambition and ability. Those willing to just do small tasks or easy work were convenient. Simply only convenient. Robotic eyes and cerebral cyberware didn’t cloud Choi’s natural ability to read people, and while Olex had yet to find his way into his own place of power, it was clear he had a drive that those born from the Reclaim lacked.
”You haven’t much time left to get going, Oleksandr.”
---
To Olex’s dismay but not so much his surprise, the mob forming in the streets of the GCZ was much larger and more restless than it was when he’d last looked at the news broadcast. Almost the entire street was filled, with the area immediately in front of the APEX facility almost completely cut off by a dense frontline of protesters. Even behind him, more people were seemingly pouring in from side streets and alleyways. The mood was souring more and more by the second, as those new arrivals weren’t shy to bump and push Olex aside as they joined the larger mass of people. His pace slowed, and he began to slow sink deeper and deeper in the hostile crowd, their loud chants and intermingling speaking slowly turning into an incomprehensible cacophony. Scanning the surrounding street, Olex’ eye caught something.
Olex’s head tilted to the side a bit as he noticed Stella across the street, having to steal glances as more people carrying picket signs and rocks filled every available space around him. He turned his view just ahead of himself to make sure he wasn’t going to run right into someone, but his gaze always returned to Stella. Finally, his curiosity gripped him. What would a jog across the street hurt? Of course, it was easier said than done as the area was very quickly filling up, droves and droves of more people filing in at a surprising pace. Even with the allure of the B - A - R sign, the amount of shoulder checks and dirty looks Olex was getting was whittling down on his desire to finish his trip across the street. A slight poke in his ribs reminded him of the small metal box that he had stuffed in a pocket holding tight to his torso. Something nagged at him, the clear voice of Choi in the back of his head. As enticing and curious as the bizarre bar stand was, Olex knew better than to stray off this course this time.
Pivoting on his heel, Olex’s body tensed up as his return to the correct path was greeted with a harsh, intense heat washing over his face and chest. He relaxed slightly from the jolt, and his opening eyes were greeted to a spectacular wave of flames, the orangish-red wisps of which flowed off the wall and flirted dangerously from the crowd. With a face twisted in surprise,a shaky hand shot under his shirt, pulling it at a snail’s pace from its place under his arm, keeping it low past his waist once it was free. More molotovs were being drawn from the crowd, with the dull drone of the crowd slowly growing into a harsh growl. Aggressive in both their movements and their shouting, Olex could see the door guards tense up, and a cold flash of adrenaline shocked his gut, as he knew that it could only go south from this point. He’d lost his chance at trying to get in the building unharmed, now, he was desperate to get as far away from the muzzles of their weapons as quickly as possible.
---
Heads and hair all blended together, a sea of vibrant greens and blues, opposing the dull browns and blacks. Below the heads, it seemed to be a sea of chrome. For some, it was obvious that the allure of being more machine than man had taken ahold, as little flesh was left to be seen. Other bodies told more visually downtrodden stories, with many in the crowd carrying miserably outdated and badly maintained cyberware. Bare wires, little in the way of support or protections, open and rusted joints that could barely move in any direction, let alone the two they were meant. Proctor felt strangely at home, seeing that he wasn’t the only one with augments that had seen better days. Many faces in the crowd wore looks of fear and confusion, similar to the look that Proctor carried at that very moment.
Having just emerged from a secluded alleyway, the congealed mass of people overtaking the Baolei clinic was overwhelming at first. Muscles in Proctor’s body contracted and relaxed, as he intended to shield his eyes from the light, but it took a few notable moments before his arm would finally move and block out the garish colors and shine. Tired eyes surrounded by dark circles squinted his pupils adjusted to the scene.
Behind Proctor, in the layer of dust on the ground that was usual for the Reclaim, was a deep and jagged line, leading all the way up to where his right foot was resting. The elder grimaced as he tried his best to coax the stiffness out of his joints, but it was really just a robotic reaction more than anything. There was no way to massage cramps from metal legs, nor were there any cheap or easy ways to get his limbs operating any faster than they already were, short of Neurosynth. Pulsing, dull pain was still radiating from his legs, and Proctor soon enough just shut his eyes, grimacing at the intense throbbing that washed over most of his body from his legs up.
Where was he? What reason did he have to be here?
Murky stupor drove its way past the concentration he held on the pain, and momentarily washed most of the thought from his mind. Proctor’s eyes returned to the crowd, and for a moment it looked completely alien. Subtle anxiety set in as he realized he had no clue where he was at. Everyone in the crowd seemed to be facing away from him, so he obviously wasn’t the draw. But what was? Why did the crowd happen to all be chromed up looking maniacs? Was Proctor also about to join the crowd of chromed up maniacs?
Even through the back of their skulls, Proctor felt the prying eyes of the crowd poke and prod him. In and out of his pockets, searing their stares into his eyes. The crowd of machines need not face him to surveil him. To Proctor, the street fell silent, and everyone that had gathered outside of the temple waited for his next move. The air was thick with an electric and bristling energy that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
A commotion of loud conversation and stunned passerbys shocked Proctor awake. Very quickly, his mind was flooded once again with precious memories, a sense of relief washing over him. The pulse of pain in his body had calmed, and he finally felt comfortable enough to start moving. Pulling his leg forward, it was slow to move but did actually work, if not still a bit stiff. Proctor finally joined the crowd, trying to take peeks at the front of the temple, where the monks seemed to be addressing everyone. What they said mattered little to Proctor, he simply scanned for anything that looked like Neurosynth. The monk kept taking glances behind him, and gave hand motions for those closest to him to calm down, but what seemed to be going on in the temple was unclear to Proctor, who had slowly begun to wriggle his way into the thicker parts of the crowd, desperate to get his hands on some neurosynth as quickly as possible. He didn’t have any concentration left to try and figure out what was being said around him, the crowd was silent as far as he could tell.
The hunt for his artificial clarity was on.
looks like im 6 minutes late to the party lol, fuck. oh well, hope you guys still enjoy my app!
Shade.
Heat.
Shade.
Heat.
Focusing almost entirely on trying to maintain his walking pace, Olex’s walk from the Central Square was adding up to be even weirder than his the time he actually spent there. The original crowd had dispersed, but now amongst the people vacating the Square were a few outliers. They were dressed better than the average Citizen
In
𝔽𝕦𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖 - Cyberpunk Political Intrigue Roleplay
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4 yrs ago
Forum: Advanced Roleplay
Even the clouds must’ve felt the energy emanating from the Reclaim, as they had almost entirely cleared from the sky, bathing the Zone in a radiant sunshine that it wasn’t used to seeing. Even the gloomy muted browns and greens seemed bright and energetic as hundreds of people flooded Central Square, all clamoring to get a look at the mayoral candidates all arriving ahead of the debates. The whole ordeal seemed to be draped in an edge of nervousness, a strange unsettledness that permeated the crowd, including Oleksandr. With a rigid face and observant eyes, the usually laid back courier was shuffling past various attendees, far from the Debate Stage on the other side of the Square. While his mind was occupied on the run in with the Tinmen, his eyes were busy scanning the crowd, himself also curious to get a view of the candidates.
The imposing crowd posed little more than a tightly packed sea of anxiety and frustration, as the quickest way to Reina’s Brothel was through Central Square, but before he knew it, Olex had been swept into the dense mass of wannabe pundits and outspoken radicals. Extremities made of tungsten and superalloys made shouldering your way through a crowd much easier, as most people would rather clear the way rather than get a hard elbow in the side. That being said, the sore spot in Olex’s torso still thudded in dull pain with every stray bump.
A potent mixture of dread, solar heat, and the stuffiness of a large and densely packed crowd made whatever skin Olex still had began to sweat, soaking into his clothing and making for a thoroughly uncomfortable walk through the crowd. Even though his better senses told him he probably had little to worry about, he couldn’t help but give everyone he passed a hard look up and down. Just like he had in the streets before he was ambushed, he scanned for gleaming arms and legs, or large elaborate emblems, anything that would signal an approaching danger. The voice in one side of his head told him that the people who hunted them knew better than to make anything so obvious, but the opposing voice insisted that no chances be taken. Half measures led to full failures, no one knew that better than Olex. So, he continued to survey everything he could, even gazing up at the rooftops from time to time.
The sea of people finally split, Olex finally found the perfect spot to take a rest. Right next to a rusty and dilapidated food cart still in use, was a small plastic lawn chair. The small blue throne sat right in the path of the smoke wafting away from the open grill, and it’s previous owner seemed to have just vacated it to follow their friends away to a different part of the Square. The spot was shady, but it was still crowded, with an overwhelming aura of grease, body odor, and smoke, the trifecta of olfactory heaven. Before another other bum could claim the seat, Olex plopped himself down, forcing his nose into his sleeve in a vain attempt to take a breath without taking in a lung full of the foul smoke that was drifting right by his head.
Ugh, the food was so much better in Vegas. I mean, Vegas was better than most places, but this place blows at an even higher echelon.
---
Like a crowd of peasants before medieval nobility, the citizens in the square split and made way for the dark black luxury car that slowly coasted as close to the main building in the square as it could, before it’s brakes creaked to a stop. Chewing on his fresh hotdog from the nearby cart, Olex watched as his target slid out of the car, the very first in what would become a line of them, one after the other. Gatch stepped out of his car, casting a glance over the crowd that didn’t land on any of them, as it went right through everyone. With a fraudulent smile, and a tug to straighten his lavish suit, his stare was eventually cast upon the building that was to hold the rest of the candidates once they arrived. The courier’s eyes were glued on Gatch as he sauntered through the rabble, ignoring the various jeers and insults from the crowd, his bodyguards giving their own mean scowls at the audience members that dared to speak up.
Dao Chen arrived next, splitting the crowd with his own presence and the group of subdued monks that clung closely around him. Instead of Chen’s surroundings, Olex’s gaze was focused on the monk’s augments, which looked much more advanced and cutting edge than most that Olex’d ever seen. His arms possessed a luster that rivaled the shiniest limbs amongst the Tinmen that Olex had served with. Stoic and hard to read in the face, with stern and measured movements as he walked through the crowd, it seemed otherworldly. If Gatch represented the iron-fisted corporate presence in the Reclaim, Dao represented one of the city’s most peculiar and enigmatic orders.
Faren followed, but Olex couldn’t keep a good bead on him, on account of his eyes rolling upwards so hard he could almost see the inside of his skull.
Serena Petrukov, the face of the Pirate Party, was the only remaining candidate that caught his attention, with her confident stride and column of equally confident representatives behind her. Something about their attendance felt illicit, taboo even. You’d never catch people having face to face conversations about their support of the Pirate Party, but to Olex, it felt like almost an underground uprising. Something that no one had to speak about, but everyone felt. At least, that’s what he hoped, inwardly.
Olex’s eyes followed her as she entered the hotel, with her Party behind her, and after Samsara, it was over. Introductions were over, and it was going to be a bit before the debates actually began. As the crowd began to die down, their appetite sated by trying to get a look at whatever candidate they’d traveled out to the Square for, Olex found himself stuck to his seat.
Olex paid less attention to the crowd around him, and finally took the time to look over his arms. He realized he hadn’t checked them for damage, and was dismayed to find that the sleeves of his shirt had been shredded. He felt a sting in his stomach, and quickly pulled up his sleeves to find that they had, in fact, gotten scratched in the scuffle. Rolling his eyes and letting back a heaving sign, he began to wipe away some of the shredded fabric from his left arm, revealing deep scratches that revealed a silver luster under his gunmetal black finish. Part of him wanted to cry, even though he knew to get so emotional over such frivolities was foolish.
The damage to his arms had completely gotten his attention, so much so that when a stranger approached him and began speaking, it was almost as if he’d woken up from a deep dream. He reflexively reached for his gun, but upon realizing the person in front of his was not a threat, he tried his best to calm down before anyone got scared.
"Hello! I am S'venia, a journalist with the South City Blues. How's your day going?"
Olex simply stared at her for a moment, dumbfounded at the sudden question. The most obvious thing of her appearance was the bright blue hair that she put much effort in. Going down, he next noticed the intense orange glow of her eyes, and the set of hexagons along the side of her face. Nothing unique stood out about her clothing, but Olex quickly averted her eyes from her figure, not wanting to give a bad first impression.
S'venia paused her approach as the man reached for something before composing himself. A weapon? Perhaps, she thought as she shifted her weight onto her back leg, the reclaim was a place where the ne'er-do-wells of society came together in some despicable mess. He could have enemies. She did, and so did ninety percent of the people packed into this square. She shifted her focus seconds after the man's eyes lowered. The impeccable metal arms bore numerous gouges, ornate, and stylish as they were. For a second, she admired the designs, but soon realized they were not perfect. Her eyes spotted a few gorges that were not alike. Scratches. S'venia pondered the sight for a second before she returned her gaze to the man. A fight was had recently. For a brief moment, she considered the story itself but dragged herself back to reality as she remembered the nature of her world. While the sleeves were tattered, so were the people. She briefly wondered what could do that to metal but paused.
As the man returned his gaze upward, so too did S'venia return hers.
”Uh, it’s certainly been quite the day so far, how about yourself?”
"Quite the day indeed," S'venia paused as she flashed another trademark smile. "I've been recording the candidates and their supporters all day and needless to say it's been," she paused as she lowered her head, shaking it as she did. "Needless to say, it's been an adventure." She paused as she raised her focus back to the man in front of her. "Come now, Enigma," she paused as she pointed towards her drone, "care for an interview?" She paused as she smiled once more as she spread her arms out wide. "Promise, easy questions."
Olex had been locked in eye contact, barely registering what the woman in front of him was saying, until she pointed up towards something. He broke his stare, eyes darting up to catch a glimpse of a small hovering drone, camera pointed clearly at him. His brow furrowed, and his heart nearly jumped out of his chest.
”Uh, are you broadcasting on the news or something?” He followed his words with a chuckle and contorted his face in the most haphazardly normal smirk he could muster, regretting ever deciding to sit down and take a lunch break.
"We're not live if that's what your asking," she paused as a notification signaled its existence with a beep. "One second," S'venia responded as she pulled out her device. It was a text from Del. She hadn't spoken to her in a few days, so she figured she was reaching out to say hey. When she read the message, her eyes shot open for a few seconds before they squinted, and she brought her device close to her face.
>>> "ℍ𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕠. 𝕀𝕥'𝕤 𝕞𝕖…”
>>> "𝕀 𝕄 𝕘𝕠𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝟚 𝔻𝕀𝔼…”
>>> “ℙ𝕝𝕫 𝕨𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕖 𝕞𝟛 𝕒 𝕨𝟙𝕝𝕝…”
>>>...
On the one hand, S'venia believed the text to be accurate. Her breathing became more rapid, her pupils dilated and her hand started a quick but noticeable shake. On the other hand, S'venia remembered who she was speaking to, and her flair for the dramatic. Her breathing shallowed, and her hand lost its shake. S'venia pondered her next course of action before she responded.
>>> "ℍ𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕠 𝕞𝕖,”
>>> "𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕠𝕜𝕒𝕪?”
>>> “𝕆𝕣 𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕀 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕞𝕪 𝕔𝕣𝕚𝕞𝕖-𝕗𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕝𝕚𝕗𝕖 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦? 𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕀 𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕪 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕓𝕒𝕣 𝕠𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖?”
>>>...
S'venia pondered the message before she sent it back. If she were dying, then S'venia wouldn't have gotten the message. On the one hand, Delilah liked to run rough and maybe in trouble. On the other, she was still Delilah. "Sorry," she finally returned her focus to the man, "a friend may be in trouble," she paused as she lowered her glasses back down from her forehead, "raincheck on the interview?"
Olex’s smirk had slowly faded as the woman in front of him seemed to be distracted and she broke her gaze from him. Of course, the rush of adrenaline that had sent a shock through his stomach had subsided, but he still felt unease. The small camera drone was still pointed at him. He was still surrounded by a large and difficult to read crowd. There were at least two unsavory characters in the Reclaim that he didn’t really want to run across again.
”Uh, sure, yeah! I’ll do that interview later! One hundred percent. I hope your friend is alright, I have to get going now.” Through a smile, Olex made his best attempt to end the conversation and began standing up from the bench, ready to start the speediest fast walk of his life away from the strange woman.
S'venia waved as the enigma walked at a sprinters pace to get away from the area. This enigma only further piqued her curiosity. He looked uncomfortable before, but his desire to get away confirmed a suspicion. He had a story to tell and one that he did not want to share. He did not want to be seen. As he filtered into the crowd, S'venia flashed another smile. "Be seeing you, Enigma."
"Join the party," S'venia spoke, and her drone listened. Her drone rose at a rapid pace joining the chorus of drones above the square. "Track gait," she paused, "keep tracking until he walks normal and track gait again." She would need to find him again, and her drone would be a most useful tool for that.
Olex froze in place, and like an animal staring into the lights of the vehicle that would shortly kill it, his eyes bore into the small gleam he could see radiating from the blanket of shade over the ally, before muttering a series of expletives and reaching inside his shirt for his gun. His fingers wrapped around the grip of his pistol, whitening his knuckles with the force, but as he pulled the gun out, one of the silhouettes had bounded forward, and the glint of a polished cybernetic hand shined in Olex’s eyes, with the augment taking full grip of his wrist, pushing it against his chest, and the shadow’s face only half illuminated by the beam of light. The force pushed Olex into a wall in the alley, away from the crowd that was already drawing to the commotion, and made it difficult to breathe as he struggled with the force from the assailant’s brute power. He responded in kind, his left hand going straight for the assailant’s neck, with his right arm snapping taught as the dueling motors of either augment roared against the other’s force, the whining creak of metal rubbing against metal bouncing off the surrounding brick walls. Punctuating the fight with a deafening pang, the assailant’s hand caught Olex’s before he could get his vice grip on their neck. It was only as he began trying to crank his wrist to point his pistol, even with his arm pinned to stomach, that he slowly became cognizant of the assailant yelling his name, and it slowly became more and more perceivable until he was looking straight up at the half-lit face of the would be assassin.
”Don’t, Asahi! Don’t shoot, it’s me!” A woman’s voice rasped as her dark brown, wide eyes stared into Olex’s own blue ones.
Olex continued to struggle for a bit longer, feeling his own arm whir as his grip loosened, having almost crushed the gun in his hand. It took a moment, but the familiar voice combined with the use of an old nickname made him snap out of his craze, and fully observe the details of the face in front of him.
”Wha- Who the fuck? Is that you, Grail?” His voice was incredulous, but he craned his neck backwards to get a more complete look at the woman’s face, and it indeed was one he hadn’t seen in a long time. In an instant, he could recognize the small star tattoo at the corner of her forehead, the shrapnel scar across the left side of her face. It was Grail, coined so after the “Holy Grail”, in reference to her ornate and beautiful engravings with inlaid gold she kept so immaculately clean, covering all her augments, which, now that he was paying attention, Olex could see still shining brightly in the small ray of light that hit them. Her eyes looked scared almost, but he knew the woman that currently had him pinned to a wall seldom ever felt actual fear.
”Yes! Yes, it’s me, Oleksandr. Just calm down, we aren’t here to hurt you. Let go of the gun, and I’ll ease up on you, alright? Put it away.”
Us?
Finally breaking his eye contact with Grail, he shifted his view over her shoulder, and could see a much younger man, with a crazed look in his eyes, his one solid black arm of gunmetal and titanium training a gun on Olex’s head. He could tell, had the young man’s arm still been made of flesh and bone, it’d be shaking violently, with a look on his face that was that of a fish out of water.
Grail felt the tension in Olex’s arms release, and she relaxed in kind, looking up at his face to see that he still hadn’t looked away from the young man behind them, and she craned her head to look behind her. Light flooded her eyes, and through squinted eyelids, she could make out the form of her partner, who was still pointing his pistol at the man in front of her.
”Put the gun down, kid!”
The young man hadn’t broken his stare with Olex either, and hadn’t even moved since the scuffle had begun. Slowly, Olex began to bring his hand to Grail’s shoulder, and gave her a gentle push away from him, to his side, so that nothing stood between him and the young Tinman. He took a step forward, and the young man responded by taking a step backwards, gunarm still jutting forward, finger on the trigger. Grail began to protest, but Olex hushed her, and put his arm up to keep her from getting in between.
Another step forward, another step back, the pair of men maintained their icy cold stares, the young man’s pupils having contracted nearly to the size of pinheads as his eyes were stuck wide open. With every step, Olex and the man moved forward and backward respectively, until the man was now the one with a back against the wall. All the while, Grail had been more and more aggressively telling the two men to calm down, while also trying to clear the small crowd that was watching from the end of the alley.
With the gun still jutting out between the two men, Olex finally took a step too close, and the young man’s entire body tensed in reaction. Grail noticed, but in the few scant moments it took for her to begin yelling and bounding forward to try to get between the two men, Olex’s hand flew up from his side, violently and sharply slapping the weapon from the man’s hand. The crash of metal on metal made the few remaining spectator’s jump, and then they further fled as the handgun found it’s flightpath right through the middle of the crowd, crashing into a crimson brick wall across the street, breaking into a few pieces. The last of the crowd finally scattered, leaving Grail to finally jump between the two men. Even as she gave Olex stern shoves to try and create distance, he had gotten a tight grip on the young man’s wrist, who now fought hard to try and wrestle away his one robotic hand.
”When you’re this close, you never just keep your hand out! Bring it in close to the body!” He yelled angrily over Grail’s protests. Finally, he let go of the young man’s wrist, and was sent a considerable distance back by the powerful force of Grail’s advanced augments.
”Asahi, fuck off, and chill out!” Grail exclaimed as she finally separated the two men, then turned to the young man. Surprisingly, she gave the man a slap across the face, seemingly waking him from his stupor as he finally looked down and acknowledged her.
”And you! The next time I give you a direct order, you will listen, you understand that? You fuckin’ hear me?”
As Olex watched the woman grab the man by his face, and turn his eyes into his, Olex had finally noticed how small the man was in comparison. Not only was the man considerably young, but he was also of smaller stature, looking almost like a terrified child being disciplined by Grail.
”Y-Yes ma’am.” The young man quietly muttered.
Seemingly in unison, the group all took a deep breath collecting themselves, and before it seemed like the two Tinmen were ready to continue, Olex spoke up.
”Alright, what do you two want? Finally come to take me out, or what? I know you’ve been following me for years, how and why did you finally find me?” Olex demanded, rubbing the sore area on his torso, red and tender from having two metal hands forced into it.
”No, Olex, look… We’re not here to kill you. We’re looking for one of ours that’s gone AWOL. His last known location was here, in the Reclaim. We’ve been here for almost two weeks, looking for leads wherever we could, damn near a door knocking campaign.”
Olex interjected. ”Why look for him yourselves? Why not just hire some P.I firm? People around here aren’t exactly eager and willing to help out Tinmen.”
Grail let out an exasperated sigh. ”Look, technically, he’s not supposed to be here. Tight-lip contract, top secret bullshit. APEX-”
The young man quickly interrupted, taking a step forward. “Ma’am! You can’t just tell hi-”
Grail simply hushed the young man by putting her hand in front of his face, giving another sigh, giving his protests some thought, and realizing he was probably right.
”Look. Long story short, it’s a confidential contract, but he stopped responding to communications. He’s been radio silent for too long, and we want to keep this as quiet as possible. We were acting like we were just looking for a lost friend, but once people finally started talking about a man with shiny, fancy cybernetics, it ended up being you they’d seen around, not our man” She took a moment to compose herself further before she continued.
”The guys have talked about you here and there for a while now, Olex. How you just vanished, how you got cut off by your family. After we heard that they’d sent the Hounds after you, we all figured you were dead. But now, here you are. We go looking for our man and find you instead. For someone on the run, you’re actually not that hard to find after all, pal.”
Olex scoffed, looking over his wrist for any sort of scuffs or dents, then looked up. ”Yeah, well, after eleven years, I figured either you guys had given up at this point. Either that or I’d shaken you. Either way, you guys aren’t here to kill me apparently, so I guess it’s worked out this far. What exactly is it that you want from me?”
It took a few moments before Grail began to speak again, as she simply looked Olex up and down, a strange sense of weariness and nostalgia washing over her.
”I guess I just wanted to see an old friend, is all. It’s hard to believe it’s really you. You were just a kid the last time I saw you, and I thought for sure you were dead, but yet, here you are. After all these years.”
”Yeah, that’s real nice. Real, real nice. How do I know you aren’t going to go blab to your fucking CO as soon as you get back? I know you were always a lapdog for command, and yeah, you didn’t find your man this time, but you sure did find something else.”
”What, no love for an old war buddy, Asahi? It’s like that?” Grail smirked, a mixture of surprise and disappointment in her voice.
”I never liked you in the first place, Grail. You were a cunt, always playing junkyard dog for command over the smallest shit. A sniveling little shit who never had the balls to stand up for herself, only brave enough to bully the young ones. Now, here you are, a decade later and you’re still a pain in my ass.”
Grail simply sneered, as the younger man walked past her, trying his best to put a look of intimidation on his face as he confronted Olex.
”What about you, asshole? How do we walk away from this whole thing knowing you won’t tell anyone what happened here?”
”Who the fuck am I going to tell? I work for a grey market intelligence courier in the middle of shit town. I’m not exactly popular with the enforcers. If you two stop walking around the Reclaim like moron out-of-towners, asking where your big, shiny metalfuck friend is, maybe it’ll all stay under wraps, you ever thought of that? I’ve got more at stake here, tell me why I shouldn’t leave you both dead in this alley.”
”Because you can’t.” Grail growled, pushing the barrel of the pistol she’d drawn in a flash up to Olex’s head.
”Disregarding the fact that you don’t have the ability nor talent to kill my partner or I, there’s nothing in this for either of us to kill each other. You kill us, that’s the Hounds right on your trail again, and this time they will find you. We kill you, that’s the Enforcers and and your little buddies at the office on our asses. Not that it’d be a big deal, but that’s a lot more trouble than it’s worth when we’re trying to find someone in this shithole city. So how’s about we both agree to keep our mouths shut and go on our merry ways, huh?”
With tense fists and eyes full of hate, Olex stared down Grail, taking everything she’d said into consideration. He didn’t like it, but the two parties seemed to be at an impasse, with neither having anything to gain from violence, even if every impulse in his body screamed for him to kill them, like a crazed group of spectators thirsting for blood. His chest rose and fell, and he finally craned his neck to the side, moving his head out of the way of the gun.
”Fine. Fuck off.”
”Don’t, Asahi! Don’t shoot, it’s me!” A woman’s voice rasped as her dark brown, wide eyes stared into Olex’s own blue ones.
Olex continued to struggle for a bit longer, feeling his own arm whir as his grip loosened, having almost crushed the gun in his hand. It took a moment, but the familiar voice combined with the use of an old nickname made him snap out of his craze, and fully observe the details of the face in front of him.
”Wha- Who the fuck? Is that you, Grail?” His voice was incredulous, but he craned his neck backwards to get a more complete look at the woman’s face, and it indeed was one he hadn’t seen in a long time. In an instant, he could recognize the small star tattoo at the corner of her forehead, the shrapnel scar across the left side of her face. It was Grail, coined so after the “Holy Grail”, in reference to her ornate and beautiful engravings with inlaid gold she kept so immaculately clean, covering all her augments, which, now that he was paying attention, Olex could see still shining brightly in the small ray of light that hit them. Her eyes looked scared almost, but he knew the woman that currently had him pinned to a wall seldom ever felt actual fear.
”Yes! Yes, it’s me, Oleksandr. Just calm down, we aren’t here to hurt you. Let go of the gun, and I’ll ease up on you, alright? Put it away.”
Us?
Finally breaking his eye contact with Grail, he shifted his view over her shoulder, and could see a much younger man, with a crazed look in his eyes, his one solid black arm of gunmetal and titanium training a gun on Olex’s head. He could tell, had the young man’s arm still been made of flesh and bone, it’d be shaking violently, with a look on his face that was that of a fish out of water.
Grail felt the tension in Olex’s arms release, and she relaxed in kind, looking up at his face to see that he still hadn’t looked away from the young man behind them, and she craned her head to look behind her. Light flooded her eyes, and through squinted eyelids, she could make out the form of her partner, who was still pointing his pistol at the man in front of her.
”Put the gun down, kid!”
The young man hadn’t broken his stare with Olex either, and hadn’t even moved since the scuffle had begun. Slowly, Olex began to bring his hand to Grail’s shoulder, and gave her a gentle push away from him, to his side, so that nothing stood between him and the young Tinman. He took a step forward, and the young man responded by taking a step backwards, gunarm still jutting forward, finger on the trigger. Grail began to protest, but Olex hushed her, and put his arm up to keep her from getting in between.
Another step forward, another step back, the pair of men maintained their icy cold stares, the young man’s pupils having contracted nearly to the size of pinheads as his eyes were stuck wide open. With every step, Olex and the man moved forward and backward respectively, until the man was now the one with a back against the wall. All the while, Grail had been more and more aggressively telling the two men to calm down, while also trying to clear the small crowd that was watching from the end of the alley.
With the gun still jutting out between the two men, Olex finally took a step too close, and the young man’s entire body tensed in reaction. Grail noticed, but in the few scant moments it took for her to begin yelling and bounding forward to try to get between the two men, Olex’s hand flew up from his side, violently and sharply slapping the weapon from the man’s hand. The crash of metal on metal made the few remaining spectator’s jump, and then they further fled as the handgun found it’s flightpath right through the middle of the crowd, crashing into a crimson brick wall across the street, breaking into a few pieces. The last of the crowd finally scattered, leaving Grail to finally jump between the two men. Even as she gave Olex stern shoves to try and create distance, he had gotten a tight grip on the young man’s wrist, who now fought hard to try and wrestle away his one robotic hand.
”When you’re this close, you never just keep your hand out! Bring it in close to the body!” He yelled angrily over Grail’s protests. Finally, he let go of the young man’s wrist, and was sent a considerable distance back by the powerful force of Grail’s advanced augments.
”Asahi, fuck off, and chill out!” Grail exclaimed as she finally separated the two men, then turned to the young man. Surprisingly, she gave the man a slap across the face, seemingly waking him from his stupor as he finally looked down and acknowledged her.
”And you! The next time I give you a direct order, you will listen, you understand that? You fuckin’ hear me?”
As Olex watched the woman grab the man by his face, and turn his eyes into his, Olex had finally noticed how small the man was in comparison. Not only was the man considerably young, but he was also of smaller stature, looking almost like a terrified child being disciplined by Grail.
”Y-Yes ma’am.” The young man quietly muttered.
Seemingly in unison, the group all took a deep breath collecting themselves, and before it seemed like the two Tinmen were ready to continue, Olex spoke up.
”Alright, what do you two want? Finally come to take me out, or what? I know you’ve been following me for years, how and why did you finally find me?” Olex demanded, rubbing the sore area on his torso, red and tender from having two metal hands forced into it.
”No, Olex, look… We’re not here to kill you. We’re looking for one of ours that’s gone AWOL. His last known location was here, in the Reclaim. We’ve been here for almost two weeks, looking for leads wherever we could, damn near a door knocking campaign.”
Olex interjected. ”Why look for him yourselves? Why not just hire some P.I firm? People around here aren’t exactly eager and willing to help out Tinmen.”
Grail let out an exasperated sigh. ”Look, technically, he’s not supposed to be here. Tight-lip contract, top secret bullshit. APEX-”
The young man quickly interrupted, taking a step forward. “Ma’am! You can’t just tell hi-”
Grail simply hushed the young man by putting her hand in front of his face, giving another sigh, giving his protests some thought, and realizing he was probably right.
”Look. Long story short, it’s a confidential contract, but he stopped responding to communications. He’s been radio silent for too long, and we want to keep this as quiet as possible. We were acting like we were just looking for a lost friend, but once people finally started talking about a man with shiny, fancy cybernetics, it ended up being you they’d seen around, not our man” She took a moment to compose herself further before she continued.
”The guys have talked about you here and there for a while now, Olex. How you just vanished, how you got cut off by your family. After we heard that they’d sent the Hounds after you, we all figured you were dead. But now, here you are. We go looking for our man and find you instead. For someone on the run, you’re actually not that hard to find after all, pal.”
Olex scoffed, looking over his wrist for any sort of scuffs or dents, then looked up. ”Yeah, well, after eleven years, I figured either you guys had given up at this point. Either that or I’d shaken you. Either way, you guys aren’t here to kill me apparently, so I guess it’s worked out this far. What exactly is it that you want from me?”
It took a few moments before Grail began to speak again, as she simply looked Olex up and down, a strange sense of weariness and nostalgia washing over her.
”I guess I just wanted to see an old friend, is all. It’s hard to believe it’s really you. You were just a kid the last time I saw you, and I thought for sure you were dead, but yet, here you are. After all these years.”
”Yeah, that’s real nice. Real, real nice. How do I know you aren’t going to go blab to your fucking CO as soon as you get back? I know you were always a lapdog for command, and yeah, you didn’t find your man this time, but you sure did find something else.”
”What, no love for an old war buddy, Asahi? It’s like that?” Grail smirked, a mixture of surprise and disappointment in her voice.
”I never liked you in the first place, Grail. You were a cunt, always playing junkyard dog for command over the smallest shit. A sniveling little shit who never had the balls to stand up for herself, only brave enough to bully the young ones. Now, here you are, a decade later and you’re still a pain in my ass.”
Grail simply sneered, as the younger man walked past her, trying his best to put a look of intimidation on his face as he confronted Olex.
”What about you, asshole? How do we walk away from this whole thing knowing you won’t tell anyone what happened here?”
”Who the fuck am I going to tell? I work for a grey market intelligence courier in the middle of shit town. I’m not exactly popular with the enforcers. If you two stop walking around the Reclaim like moron out-of-towners, asking where your big, shiny metalfuck friend is, maybe it’ll all stay under wraps, you ever thought of that? I’ve got more at stake here, tell me why I shouldn’t leave you both dead in this alley.”
”Because you can’t.” Grail growled, pushing the barrel of the pistol she’d drawn in a flash up to Olex’s head.
”Disregarding the fact that you don’t have the ability nor talent to kill my partner or I, there’s nothing in this for either of us to kill each other. You kill us, that’s the Hounds right on your trail again, and this time they will find you. We kill you, that’s the Enforcers and and your little buddies at the office on our asses. Not that it’d be a big deal, but that’s a lot more trouble than it’s worth when we’re trying to find someone in this shithole city. So how’s about we both agree to keep our mouths shut and go on our merry ways, huh?”
With tense fists and eyes full of hate, Olex stared down Grail, taking everything she’d said into consideration. He didn’t like it, but the two parties seemed to be at an impasse, with neither having anything to gain from violence, even if every impulse in his body screamed for him to kill them, like a crazed group of spectators thirsting for blood. His chest rose and fell, and he finally craned his neck to the side, moving his head out of the way of the gun.
”Fine. Fuck off.”
In
𝔽𝕦𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖 - Cyberpunk Political Intrigue Roleplay
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4 yrs ago
Forum: Advanced Roleplay
Torrid and pungent, Olex’s walk to the office was just as stressful and bothersome as it usually was. Prying eyes jutting from the shade of busted in building fronts, hustling streetjacks giving anyone that lingered too long an expecting stare, and all sorts of unsavory and uncouth characters littered across the streets. He always felt on edge in the streets, amongst the cutthroats and urchins, but he still maintained a confident stride, knowing that the closer he got to his office, the more the crowd would thin out. Compared to the surrounding decrepit and dusty shells of buildings, the Courier Office was sparkling clean and well-maintained. Always a few tough-looking types hanging around the entrance to ward off any potential blowhards trying to get their hands on any juicy bits they could.
Giving the group of intimidators a familiar nod, Olex walked past them, gliding through the front door of the office, the cold rush of conditioned air chilling his slightly sweaty skin. Directly inside the entrance was the general cantina, where the different couriers would go to take breaks and socialize with one another, some coming in from working, others waiting for contracts to open up for them. Olex flashed a smirk at a few familiar faces as they waved at him, and he continued along the side of the cantina towards a set of metal stairs leading to a small hallway. The door on the far end of the hallway led to the contractor’s office, a small room with a single desk and window, well-lit but usually hazy with e-cigarette smoke. Lining the walls were various safes and cabinets, with the office’s owner, Choi, sitting with his feet propped up on his desk, with his two heavily armed bodyguards leaning against the wall behind him.
Even having been an employee in good standing for some time now, the guards still greeted Olex with the same suspicious glares they met everyone else with. As he fully entered the office, the guards stood up off the wall, and stiffened their grips on their weapons. Raising a gleaming metal hand to give a half-hearted salute, Olex greeted the room in his usual bright manner, not paying heed to the presence of the guards.
”Morning, gents. How’s the day looking, Mister Choi?” He said with his signature smirk.
”Oleksandr! Good morning, my boy! Something strange has come up regarding you.” Olex’s brow furrowed inquisitively, and he stayed silent to allow Choi to continue.”I had two Tinmen pay me a visit earlier, looking for ‘an old comrade’ they said. I didn’t mention your name, of course, but when I asked who they were looking for exactly, it wasn’t you, oddly enough. They instead were looking for a ‘Gerbil’, but when I told them I didn’t know him, they seemed disappointed. Then, all of a sudden, they asked about you. I guess they could tell by the surprise on my face that I knew you, but when I mentioned a price, they got sour quick. You know Tinmen, they hate to haggle, so once I started tossing numbers out, they found their way out fast.”
Olex’s face had gone pale. His chest rose as he took a shaky breath, in and out. Choi noticed, and took his own heavy sigh himself. Olex remained silent, his mind failing to find the words as it was racing with a thousand thoughts. Choi took the moment to speak back up.
”Look, I don’t know what kind of ghosts you have chasing you, but if you need help, you know you can come to us. You’re one of the best guys we have, and I’d hate to lose you to some asshole headhunters that can’t let go of the past.” Olex’s gaze just pointed off into space, his tongue still just idly milling about in his mouth, with the silence deafening everyone in the room.
”I...I don’t think they’re out for me. They wouldn’t give me hints like this if they were. If it was really headhunters, they wouldn’t be asking my employer questions. That being said, this is all still strange. I don’t know who the other guy they’re looking for is, so I can only hope it’s just chance that they know I’m here. But, I can handle myself. I appreciate the offer but I think this may be a matter I need to handle myself.”
Choi raised an eyebrow as he mulled over what Olex had just told him. After a few moments, his stare at Olex broke, as he leaned downwards and started opening the safe under his desk. Opening the door and shuffling around a few papers and files, he drew a manila folder with the name “Maia” written across one side.
”Alright, if you don’t want us getting mixed up in this, that’s your choice, but, I still need you to work. This contract is low security, but good pay. Some yuppie stuck in rehab wants to send his prostitute girlfriend a love letter, but they’re monitoring all his communications. Just get this to Reina’s Whorehouse downtown, and I’ll wire you the payment.”
Olex silently nodded and stepped forward to take the envelope from Choi’s hand, but when he gripped and pulled, the envelope stayed put. It took a moment, but he looked up to meet the concerned look that Choi was giving him as he held tight on the envelope.
”The offer still stands, my boy. Take care of yourself.”
Olex stared blankly for a moment or two before he gave a weary smile, giving a few weak nods and muttering a few thanks before the envelope was released, and Olex slid the envelope into a larger pocket on the carrier under his shirt. He turned for the door, grabbing the knob, but turned back to the three men and quietly offered one last “Thanks.” before exiting the office.
He rushed down the stairs and out the front door of the office, stopping mid-step, just outside on the front step, looking around the now slightly busier street. People milled about in every direction, and Olex scanned as many as he could, looking for electronic eyes or gleaming new augments, any sign of an undercover Tinman he could find. With every person he eyed, though, it became apparent that none of them were his pursuers. If two Tinmen bounty hunters were after him, Olex couldn’t count out any brazen plan to kill him. He wouldn’t be surprised if there was a sniper team on the rooftops, and he quickly scanned all the surrounding buildings for such as soon as the thought came to him. Taking a deep breath and shaking his head, Olex stepped off the stoop, mixing into the crowd and starting his trip to Reina’s Whorehouse.
Paranoia began to wrap itself around his mind, like a snake around a field mouse, and Olex’s eyes couldn’t help but dart around at all the fellow people in the street, scanning arms and legs, faces and chest for any sort of shiny metal or gleaming insignias. Every few minutes his eyes would float upwards to scan rooftops, but none of it ever amounted to anything. It had been more than a decade since he’d been expelled from the Tinmen, he knew that he had a few ghosts on his trail shortly after he left the Seaboard, but he never believed they could still be pursuing him after so many years had passed. Nor did he believe that they’d even be able to find his trial after all the traveling and aliases over the years. It all came as a head rush, and it overwhelmed him to the point that he nearly didn’t see the two figures standing in the shadows staring at him as he walked down the street.
Olex froze in place, and like an animal staring into the lights of the vehicle that would shortly kill it, his eyes bore into the small gleam he could see radiating from the blanket of shade over the alley before muttering a series of expletives and reaching inside his shirt for his gun. His fingers wrapped around the grip of his pistol. Whitening his knuckles, he began to pull the gun at the same moment one of the shadows bounded forward. Olex’s eyes caught the glint of a cybernetic arm as it grabbed his wrist and crushed it into his chest. Lit only by a scant beam of light, half of the assailant’s face was revealed to him.
Olex was forced into a wall , away from the crowd that was already drawing to the commotion. It was difficult to breathe as he struggled with the assailant’s brute power, but he responded in kind, his left hand going straight for the assailant’s neck, with his right arm snapping taught as the dueling motors of either augment roared against the other’s force. The whining creak of metal rubbing against metal bounced off the surrounding brick walls. Punctuating the fight with a deafening pang, Olex’s hand was stopped before he could get his vice grip on the assailant’s neck. It was only as he began trying to crank his wrist to point his pistol, even with his arm pinned to stomach, that he slowly became cognizant of the assailant yelling his name, and it slowly became more and more perceivable until he was looking straight up at the half-lit face of the would be assassin.
”Don’t, Asahi! Don’t shoot! It’s me!” A woman’s voice rasped as her dark brown, wide eyes stared into Olex’s own blue ones.
Roaring motors and whirring servos continued to whine from Olex’s struggle for a few more moments, but began to quiet down as he started calming down. It took a moment, but the familiar voice combined with the use of an old nickname made him snap out of his craze, and fully observe the details of the face in front of him.
”Wha- Who the fuck? Is that you, Grail?” His voice was incredulous, but he craned his neck backwards to get a more complete look at the woman’s face, and it indeed was one he hadn’t seen in a long time. He recognized the small star tattoo at the corner of her forehead, the shrapnel scar across the left side of her face. It was Grail, coined so after the “Holy Grail”, in reference to her ornate and beautiful engravings with inlaid gold she kept so immaculately clean covering all her augments. Now that his mind was clearer and he was paying attention, Olex could see their resplendent glow. Her eyes looked scared almost but he knew the woman that currently had him pinned to a wall seldom ever felt actual fear.
”Yes! Yes, it’s me, Oleksandr. Just calm down, we aren’t here to hurt you. Let go of the gun, and I’ll ease up on you, alright? Put it away.”
We?
A much younger man, with a crazed look in his eyes, one solid black arm of gunmetal and titanium training a gun on Olex’s head from the other side of the alley as Olex. Had the young man’s arm still been made of flesh and bone, it’d be shaking violently, with a look on his face that was that of a fish out of water.
Grail felt the tension in Olex’s arms release, and she relaxed in kind, looking up at his face to see that he still hadn’t looked away from the young man behind them, and she craned her head to look behind her. Light flooded her eyes, and through squinted eyelids, she could make out the form of her partner, who was still pointing his pistol at the man in front of her.
”Put the gun down, kid!”
The young man hadn’t broken his stare with Olex either or even moved since the scuffle had begun. Olex began to bring his hand to Grail’s shoulder, and gave her a gentle push away from him, to his side, so that nothing stood between him and the young Tinman. He took a step forward. The young man responded by taking a step backwards. Gunarm still jutting forward, his finger flirted with the trigger. Grail began to protest, but Olex hushed her, and put his arm up to keep her from getting in between.
Another step forward. Another step back. The pair of men maintained their icy cold stares. The young man’s pupils had contracted nearly to the size of pinheads as his eyelids were stuck wide open. With every step, Olex and the man moved forward and backward respectively, until the man was now the one with a back against the wall. All the while, Grail had been more and more aggressively telling the two men to calm down, while also trying to clear the small crowd that was watching from the end of the alley.
Olex finally took a step too close, and the young man’s entire body tensed in reaction. Grail noticed, but in the few scant moments it took for her to begin yelling and bounding forward to try to get between the two men, Olex’s hand flew up from his side, violently and sharply slapping the weapon from the man’s hand. The crash of metal on metal made the few remaining spectator’s jump, and then they further fled as the handgun found it’s flightpath right through the middle of the crowd, crashing into a crimson brick wall across the street, breaking into a few pieces. The last of the crowd finally scattered, leaving Grail to finally jump between the two men. Even as she gave Olex stern shoves to try and create distance, he had gotten a tight grip on the young man’s wrist, who now fought hard to try and wrestle away his one robotic hand.
”When you’re this close, you never just keep your hand out! Bring it in close to the body!” He roard over Grail’s protests. Finally, he let go of the young man’s wrist, and was sent a considerable distance back by the powerful force of Grail’s advanced augments.
”Asahi, fuck off, and chill out!” Grail exclaimed as she finally separated the two men, then turned to the young man. Surprisingly, she gave the man a slap across the face, seemingly waking him from his stupor as he finally looked down and acknowledged her.
”And you! The next time I give you a direct order, you will listen, you understand that? You fuckin’ hear me?”
Grail grabbed the young man by his face, and turned his eyes into hers. Olex had finally noticed the difference in size between the two. Not only was the man considerably younger, but he was also of smaller stature, looking almost like a terrified child being disciplined by Grail.
”Y-Yes ma’am.” The young man quietly muttered.
The group all took a deep breath collecting themselves in unison, and before it seemed like the two Tinmen were ready to continue, Olex spoke up.
”Alright, what do you two want? Finally come to take me out, or what? I know you’ve been following me for years, how and why did you finally find me?” Olex demanded, rubbing the sore area on his torso, red and tender from having two metal hands forced into it.
”No, Olex, look… We’re not here to kill you. We’re looking for one of ours that’s gone AWOL. His last known location was here, in the Reclaim. We’ve been here for almost two weeks, looking for leads wherever we could, damn near a door knocking campaign.”
”Why look for him yourselves? Why not just hire some P.I firm? People around here aren’t exactly eager and willing to help out Tinmen.”
A tired look on Grail’s face matched the exasperated tone of her voice.”Look, technically, he’s not supposed to be here. Tight-lip contract, top secret bullshit. APEX-”
A third voice interjected. “Ma’am! You can’t just tell hi-”
Grail simply hushed the young man by putting her hand in front of his face, giving another sigh, giving his protests some thought, and realizing he was probably right.
”Look. Long story short, it’s a confidential contract, but he stopped responding to communications. He’s been radio silent for too long, and we want to keep this as quiet as possible. We were acting like we were just looking for a lost friend, but once people finally started talking about a man with shiny, fancy cybernetics, it ended up being you they’d seen around, not our man.” She took a moment to compose herself further before she continued.
”The guys have talked about you here and there for a while now, Olex. How you just vanished, how you got cut off by your family. After we heard that they’d sent the Hounds after you, we all figured you were dead. But now, here you are. We go looking for our man and find you instead. For someone on the run, you’re actually not that hard to find after all, pal.”
Olex scoffed, looking over his wrist for any sort of scuffs or dents, then looked up. ”Yeah, well, after eleven years, I figured either you guys had given up at this point. Either that or I’d shaken you. Either way, you guys aren’t here to kill me apparently, so I guess it’s worked out this far. What exactly is it that you want from me?”
It took a few moments before Grail spoke again, as a mixture of weariness and nostalgia washed over her. It felt faintly like when a parent and child had spent some time apart from each other, with both parties having grown older and more distant with the passage of time. Except, up until a few days ago, she assumed the man in front of her was dead. A ghost of a far away past, an important character from a chapter in her life she’d long buried with more memories of battle and death.
Nothing felt nearly as sentimental for Olex. For years, he’d dreaded the next day he’d have to come face to face with another Tinman, the ghosts of his version of the past were much more real and haunting. Always trailing behind him, hiding around corners, observing from just outside his peripheral. No matter how far he ran, or how deeply he hid, the oppressive weight of their presence always overshadowed his own. Just like when he’d first seen an old girlfriend in the Duat, seeing the familiar face of the walking exemplification of everything he hated about the young man he used to be was a harsh and uncomfortable reawakening.
”I guess I just wanted to see an old friend, is all. It’s hard to believe it’s really you. You were just a kid the last time I saw you, and I thought for sure you were dead, but yet, here you are. After all these years.”
”Yeah, that’s real nice. Real, real nice. How do I know you aren’t going to go blab to your fucking CO as soon as you get back? I knew you were always a lapdog for command. Yeah, you didn’t find your man this time, but you sure did find something else.”
”What, no love for an old war buddy, Asahi? It’s like that?” Grail smirked, a combination of surprise and disappointment in her voice.
”I never liked you in the first place, Grail. You were a cunt, always playing junkyard dog for command over the smallest things. A sniveling little shit who never had the balls to stand up for herself, only brave enough to bully the greenies. Now, here you are, a decade later, and you’re still a pain in my ass.”
Grail simply sneered, as the younger man walked past her, trying his best to put a look of intimidation on his face as he confronted Olex.
”What about you, asshole? How do we walk away from this whole thing knowing you won’t tell anyone what happened here?”
”Who the fuck am I gonna tell? I work for a grey market intelligence courier in the middle of shit town. I’m not exactly popular with the enforcers. If you two stop walking around the Reclaim like moron out-of-towners, asking where your big, shiny metalfuck friend is, maybe it’ll all stay under wraps, you ever thought of that? I’ve got more at stake here, tell me why I shouldn’t leave you both dead in this alley.”
”Because you can’t.” Grail pushed the barrel of the pistol she’d drawn in a flash up to Olex’s head.
”Disregarding the fact that you don’t have the ability nor talent to kill my partner or I, there’s nothing in this for either of us to kill each other. You kill us, that’s the Hounds right on your trail again, and this time they will find you. We kill you, that’s the Enforcers and and your little buddies at the office on our asses. Not that it’d be a big deal, but that’s a lot more trouble than it’s worth when we’re trying to find someone in this shithole city. So how’s about we both agree to keep our mouths shut and go on our merry ways, huh?”
With tense fists and eyes full of hate, Olex stared down Grail, taking everything she’d said into consideration. He didn’t like it, but the two parties seemed to be at an impasse, with neither having anything to gain from violence, even if every impulse in his body screamed for him to kill them, like a crazed group of spectators thirsting for blood. His chest rose and fell, and he finally craned his neck to the side, moving his head out of the way of the gun.
”Fine. Fuck off.”
---
In
𝔽𝕦𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪: 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝔾𝕒𝕞𝕖 - Cyberpunk Political Intrigue Roleplay
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4 yrs ago
Forum: Advanced Roleplay
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