meri

Scum and Villainy - Plentiful Bounty

Watching the bot surrender to Quintus’s pack, Silas can’t help a stab of guilt. It was easy enough to drown in the thrill of pursuit, but this thing—and it is a thing, he reminds himself—pulls pity straight to the surface. Especially with the way it goes limp. If he hadn’t seen it take a bullet, he’d think that leg would snap. Malnourished. Calcium-deficient. Not that robots drink fucking milk. Get it together.

He tunes back into the moment at hand, vaguely grateful he missed whatever the others were bantering about while he studied Cho. The tail end is concerning enough. A money pot, indeed. Given its successful capture, he doubts there will be any contention over his call not to shoot the bot, but… well, if it isn’t valuable, that was a stupid decision. Could’ve jeopardized the bounty. All for what, a few extra creds? Somehow that’s still more reasonable than the truth. He thought he’d wrung out his last dregs of empathy a long damn time ago. Not something you can really afford as a doctor. Doctor. Ha. Like he has a degree.

Collapsing his medkit, Silas samples the truck smoke. Doesn’t smell as bad as your average smog, to be honest. Just close enough to a campfire to excuse its strength. Strength that’ll wrench security over here in no time. Waving the miasma from his face, he huffs a laugh at Quintus’s request. “I’m sure our star pilot can handle it,” Silas says dryly. The noodle truck spits an ember in protest.

As said pilot makes her way over, Silas stands and nods at Quintus’s pack. “Want me to carry that for you? Sleeping Beauty here will be plenty to lug around as is.” He scans the haze. “That is, if we can find someplace to lug him to.”

OOC

Silas rolls a 2 and a 3 to find an escape route. Yikes.

I Am Thou: A Persona/SMT Inspired Story

Thank you for making the post! I'm totally fine with that since Katherine's trying to keep a low profile. Sorry for going MIA.

I Am Thou: A Persona/SMT Inspired Story

Katherine

Katherine returns the nod Amaranthe—pretty name—gave her. Watching her stride confidently through the door, she relaxes slightly. That she can keep a level head in such a bizarre situation is reassuring. Again, Katherine finds herself wanting to follow suit—whether this is a dream or not, there’s no use worrying. Might as well find out what’s going on so she can freak out about it more specifically. Awesome.

Stepping into the next room, she immediately notes the two figures flanking the man. Guards? Soldiers? They’re certainly not strengthening her resolution not to panic. At least her fellow prisoners share this sentiment. Their demands flurry against the cold blue of the war room. She keeps her mouth shut. Anything she could add would be redundant. Better to let the others take the blame if this strange man finds their questions disrespectful.

Scum and Villainy - Plentiful Bounty

@Penny I drew Molly! Love how you've been writing her, the fortune cookie was a great bit of characterization :)

Microfiction & Poetry contest #13 - voting and feedback

I vote for number 4, "Luck". I found the descriptions to be vivid and interesting, and the use of "Lucky 13" as a name for a ship to be really creative. Great job all!

Scum and Villainy - Plentiful Bounty

“Is there a doctor in the house?”

Crouching beside their fallen target, Silas shoots Molly a look. “I’ve got it. Maybe take a stab at—”

The ur-bot takes off. Damn it. He was going to nudge her towards the fire she started, given it’s crackling louder than her cookie wrapper, but they can’t afford to let that bot go. Regret prickles in his stomach. Why did he tell him not to shoot? Ijin knows what he’s doing. Fortunately, he doesn’t stop now—another perfect shot sings over their heads and stops the escape before it’s really even begun. Silas whistles appreciatively. Hard to say if Ijin has learned that particular kind of human communication, though, so he adds, “Nice shot. Someone wanna grab that?” Gesturing absently in the direction of the bot, he turns his attention to the crumpled Cho-Tyrek.

He’s well-lit, at least. Fire is more generous with its light than the anemic neons. He ought to do something about that if it’s not a raging inferno by the time he’s done with Cho. Rolling him onto his back, Silas notes the unnatural bend of his arm, most likely broken in his landing sprawl—dislocated, if he was lucky. More pressing is the matter of his pulse. He plucks a dart from Cho’s carotid artery and its twin from his ulnar artery. It’s something of a broken record at this point, but the thought skips again: Ijin’s aim is uncanny. Hell, he must have as good a grasp of the human body as Silas to make shots like these. He knows little of the sniper’s training aside from its basis in faith—it occurs to him to ask about it. Later. Silas presses two fingers just below Cho’s jaw to gauge his pulse. It’s bound to be sluggish given the sedatives, but he’ll take that over nothing. The pressure forces blood from the tiny prick on Cho’s neck, nearly invisible against the dark stretch of his tattoo. With his other hand, Silas pulls out his medkit in case the injuries from the crash are more severe than they initially appear.

OOC

Silas rolls two fives to Study Cho-Tyrek's condition. Wasn't quite sure whether to use Study or Doctor, but I figure the former fits better since he's inspecting someone rather than actively treating them.

I Am Thou: A Persona/SMT Inspired Story

Katherine

Of course it's not a dream. Of course it's not. When you're dreaming, you accept whatever nonsense the unconscious cooks up, you don't think to yourself, ‘oh, what a dream this is’. Delusion is reassuring, though. She studies the man's face with a resentment she knows is unfair. Still, it rankles her—the ease of his statement, the ease with which he opens the door. She barely caught a glimpse of the first person to go through. This isn't a dream, so how do they charge into the unknown with such confidence? What the hell is going on?

Standing, Katherine tugs at the hem of her sweatshirt. At least she still has something from home. Her mind veers to the alternative—if she woke up wearing different clothes, what could have happened during the vulnerability of sleep—and she wrenches it back on course. Focus. There’s only two other people left in the room. The man hasn’t said a word since she awoke. At least he seems appropriately confused. His heavy brow settles like sediment over his eyes. She steps up beside the woman who fell, trying not to startle her. Looking between the two, Katherine says, “Okay. Um. We may not know what’s happening, but we’ve got to stay calm.” She hooks her thumbs in her pockets. “I’m Kathy. Hey.”

I Am Thou: A Persona/SMT Inspired Story

Katherine

She’s a light sleeper. She likes to blame it on her mattress. Too bad it’s on the lam. Left her with this slab of pure miracle—a nice enough parting gift, but a poor substitute for the excuse. Insomnia isn’t exactly what she’d call it, because she doesn’t exactly call it anything. If she doesn’t get enough sleep, that’s her problem. No use complaining, and if anyone asks, well, it’s the mattress. Really ought to get a new one. Wish granted. Christ.

A footstep plucks her from her delirious thoughts in an instant. It comes from somewhere across the room—what room—what—she opens her eyes and is greeted with an utterly unfamiliar sight. Slats locking snugly into the sides of a frame, the underside of a quilted mattress—again the mattress—not—where—

A shout. Panicked, putting forth some word, some phrase that escapes her half-awareness. She freezes. Every muscle locks, but not quite as tight as those slats, and she can’t take her eyes off of them. And she can’t look, and she can’t—oh, this has got to be some sort of nightmare, or dream, really, because somebody falls right past her from on high or something, and that’s too silly to be a real nightmare. Hysteria bubbles around her teeth. She swallows a laugh. Maybe if she just lies here and pretends not to exist, she won’t. She can wake up on her shitty mattress and pull a citizen’s arrest on it. Vigilante justice sounds great. Stomp it right into the curb. Ha! The fallen angel or whatever curses really loudly. Maybe this is a fun dream.

“...just a dream. Chill out.”

Right. Just a dream. Chill, she’s so chill. She rolls over and sits up. Across the room, two others have also awakened. Blue mist swirls vaguely across her focus before she flicks it back to the closest figure. Clearly strong, but not actively threatening. She doesn’t seem to have noticed Katherine yet. Everything is fine. This is totally a dream. It is. “Yeah, man,” she says casually. See, she doesn’t sound afraid. She’s fine. She’s fine. “Chill out.”

Scum and Villainy - Plentiful Bounty

For a moment, Silas thinks they may have killed Cho-Tyrek altogether. Grease smoke smears the scene near oblivion—it's only the faint glow of a lavender halo that suggests their mark survived. The bot is tugging at Cho's crumpled form with an insistence uncharacteristic of its kind. Unless the crash seriously screwed up its sensors, it should know it's got no chance moving him anywhere. It's strangely… emotional. The desperate dregs of hope.

You have to leave him behind. There's no saving him.

Taking the stairs down two at a time, Silas shakes the thought from his head. Comms crackle to life in its place—Ijin, ready to put a round right in the center of that halo. Practically target practice, not that he needs it. “Hold your fire,” says Silas. “We don't know for certain there's a bounty. It's more valuable intact.”

Jogging towards the crash, he continues, “Molly, Quintus, I'm headed your way. Tell me you were wearing seatbelts.”

Scum and Villainy - Plentiful Bounty

@merisorry I should have let you post first

@Penny

Nah, it's fine! We don't have to stick to a strict order. I'm pretty busy with midterms rn anyway, so I probably won't have a response up until Saturday. No reason to delay you from posting when you've got antics to share :)