He kinda looks like a boat made of hate.

[wrathfulkhan]

Characters: Gene, Jackie, Alex, Miles, Aly, and YOOOOUU!!
Date: July
Location: Keeliai et al
Situation: Everything. All the things. All of them.
Warnings/Rating: Will be added as necessary.

A. [Gene] | throughout Keeliai | throughout July | open
Gene has decided to take it upon himself to be Public Relations for the KPD in the aftermath of the cultist attack. Why? Because he has no regard for his own sanity. He can be seen talking to kedan; some of them at least respect that he's in the Guild of Justice and Arbitration.

Someone please come save him from his own bad decisions.

B. [Jackie] | the Golden Koi | throughout July | open
Jackie's trying to run the Koi as best he can these days. He's still sad - his heart hurts because Brigid is gone - but he knows he has to press on. People leave here, and sometimes they come back, but he's not going to count on it.

C. [Alex] | Water Sector | throughout July | open
Alex may be part of the Foreigners Guild now, but that doesn't mean he's not involved with the city. On the contrary. He's more than willing to talk to the kedan, joke with them, and haggle. He spends a lot of time in the Water Sector; it reminds him of what he considers home, in a way. He'd spent a lot of time in the Far East, after all, and while Keeliai as a whole reminded him of it, the Water Sector did most of all.

They'd always called him bright and diplomatic, and honestly, the Foreigners could use a shot in the arm of diplomacy right now.

Of course, he's not without his own agenda. The cultist attack had been terrible, but it had also taught him some things about their tactics and their motivations (even if the culprits had had nothing of use to say). He's making careful note of everything everyone says, every little twitch and turn of phrase, looking for something incriminating.

D. [Miles] | throughout Keeliai | throughout July | open
Hell. Goddamn. Fire.

Going home had maybe been the worst choice Miles could have made, and he'd made more than his fair share of shitty choices. Because now? Now he was truly a human-shaped abomination of science. And even more of a murderer than he had been, to boot. So he's trying to look chipper - overly so. In fact, it's downright unusual, considering how single-minded he'd been about the cultists before. Now it's obvious that he has something else entirely on his mind.

E. [Aly] | throughout Keeliai | throughout July | open
Aly, meanwhile, has been taking to Keeliai like a fish to water (pardon). She's in a place where things stay put so she's going to keep learning the city. It's been a few months, but that doesn't mean she's going to stop scouring the area...and maybe climbing things she shouldn't.

F. [Gene] | House Spicy Iron Dragon | July 10 | closed to Tony
Once again, Gene's on the roof.

He was glad he'd made it easily-accessible; it was a quiet spot for him to think, and it also let him be alone. Him being on the roof was a sort of signal for that, that he needed to clear his mind. But sometimes it also meant that he needed to talk and wasn't sure how. As usual, he'd be the last one to know which one of those it was.

G. [Aly] | Fire Sector | July 7 | closed to Valdis
Aly's on a building. She likes to be tall.

Also, it kind of makes her feel like Batman, especially in the middle of the night when things are lit only by the fire fountains. She doesn't crouch, cowled like the man-bat, but sits on the corner of a roof, her foot dangling, watching people walk by.

H. [Gene] | Healers' Guild | July 3 | closed to Raine
This ka thing wouldn't get off of his mind, so Gene figured he'd consult someone else about it. He knew for sure that Raine had one, so when he has the time, he goes to the Guild, requests to speak to her, and waits, suddenly nervous. Pepper might soften what she says to him out of affection, but Raine will tell him things bluntly.

---

Hit me up at Chatvert if you want another starter!

Comments

D

[lasergrenades]

Things with Miles have, uh, escalated since he decided to visit Milyn, which makes getting the Walrider under control a high priority. There aren't many options there except to practice, despite the dangers, but Pepper has plenty of options for defense and can probably draw him further away from the city should he get really, truly unruly.

She meets him outside the city in the Rescue armor, the Duelist gauntlet and her deck already in hand. It'll be a balance to hold the right Spells and Traps without using too much of her own energy; Vee is there, too, visible but not threatening.

"Ready to give this a try?"

[upshore]

'Escalated' is a nice word for it.

Miles has been outside the city often, running at night, wanting to scream and cry and punch the wall until his hands bleed. It was for nothing. It had all been for nothing, and he was a murderer.

So he's standing out here across from Pepper, looking unusually serious. "Yeah. If we can't get this thing out of me at least I can keep from killing anyone else."

[lasergrenades]

"You're also not alone. There's plenty of people on this turtle who can be backup plans," she reminds him, tugging the Duelist gauntlet on. Pepper had spent a little time picking some useful cards for this kind of endeavor, but she doesn't draw on the magic yet.

"Alright. Do you know how to activate the Walrider or do I need to make you angry?"

[upshore]

"What, like a freakin' SWAT team? Only I turned the last one who tried to kill me into V-8," he points out.

Then he looks down at his hands. "I can...try." He really doesn't want to let himself lose control, because if he chooses to, then what if he can't come back from it? He liked killing Blaire, at least. He doesn't want to think about what that might make him.

[lasergrenades]

"The last one didn't have anyone who could use magic," Pepper counters. "Or who literally couldn't die. Or who really knew what they were dealing with. You'll have a harder time kicking our butts."

She raises her gloved hand, holding a card between her fingers. "Give it a whirl. I've got like five containment protocols ready to go."

[upshore]

"All things being equal, I'd rather not find out firsthand," Miles mutters.

He eyes the card. Sure, she's told him about it, and he's seen Vee fight, but he's still skeptical. "Okay. I'll...I'll try. But don't hold back."

He closes his eyes, exhales, flexes his fingers, and...lets go.

It hurts; he grits his teeth, trying not to make a sound. It's the same pins-and-needles feeling from before, pins-and-needles times a hundred, times a thousand. But the Walrider starts to rise up out of him like smoke, the nanites surrounding him in a dark cloud, looking like gnats. He's shaking; he feels like he's dissociating, his head is in two places at once. He's both the Miles in his body and the Miles who's the slowly-growing cloud of nanites, and it's making him dizzy.

[lasergrenades]

"Trust me, I won't." She'll flatten him in the time it takes to trigger the trap. Or at least halt the attack.

Pepper tenses when the Walrider starts to emerge. Miles being able to summon or release it so easily is almost as unnerving as what it actually looks like, but at the same time it means she doesn't have to beat him up to draw it out. Vee shifts warily.

"Talk to me, Miles. Tell me what's happening."

[upshore]

If Pepper thinks it's unnerving to see, it's unnerving Miles even more. He shouldn't be able to do this this easily. He shouldn't be able to do it at all. But he's the nanites now. He's the host. And they're swarming around him like flies. He's both himself and the nanites; his consciousness is in both, and he knows it's going to give him the worst fucking headache in existence when this is over.

"This hurts like shit," he says through gritted teeth. At least he's himself, still. For however long that lasts.

[lasergrenades]

"Okay," she replies, for lack of anything better to say. Pain isn't good, although it might help keep him present, she isn't sure. Pepper exhaled slowly, the card tingling against her fingers. "Alright. Do you want to try directing it or pulling it back?"

He'd probably only be able to do this a few times - Pepper remembers how the Walrider seemed to exhaust him when Miles had attacked her before.

[upshore]

Miles really, really wants to pull it back. It's the worst thing he's ever felt, and that includes having his fingers chopped off and being shot essentially to death - and it makes him, the him that's still human, want to puke. He probably will when this is over.

"Here we go," he growls, and closes his eyes.

But he doesn't stop seeing.

He can tell where things are; it's like normal vision and x-ray and infrared all at once. He can see Pepper's human form and her armor and her bones and blood and organs, and all he has to do is change how he looks at her, like adjusting the focus on a microscope. A perfect weapon; a targeting system that can detect any flaw, find any weak point, and infiltrate and destroy it.

He'd seen this before; he'd seen the man he'd deemed as no threat and saved, and he'd seen Jeremy Blaire, recognized Blaire, and picked him up and tossed him around before seeing these weak points and exactly how to become part of them.

Two things cannot occupy the same place, and the Walrider is stronger than human cells.

The realization that he can juice Pepper just as easily as he'd juiced Blaire shocks him so much the nanites drop; he looks like himself again, still surrounded by some nanites in a thin haze, and stumbles backwards, his hand over his mouth.

[lasergrenades]

There's not much Pepper can do except watch and wait and hope things don't get wildly out of control. Just because she has plans to stop him doesn't mean she wants to use them.

It looks, for the moment, like Miles is able to withdraw the Walrider reasonably well. They're still visible, but they're no longer the sizable, person-shaped swarm as he staggers back. She takes a step forward and hesitates. There's no way of knowing what's going through his head or what he's seeing, even if the horror in his expression says a lot.

"Good; see, you can do this," Pepper assures him as evenly as possible. "You've got this. You're doing great. Just keep going."

[upshore]

He takes another deep breath and tries again.

It's easier this time, which is frightening, even more so than the fact that he's currently surrounded by a cloud of nanomachines.

"Be careful," he says, and pushes the swarm towards her.

[lasergrenades]

"Wasn't planning on being anything else," Pepper replies a bit distantly, watching the swarm carefully.

She tenses even more as it approaches her, but she doesn't run nor move to activate the card effect. Vee has already proven to be a reliable distraction, so if Miles loses control then Pepper ought to have enough time before the swarm can turn any attention on her.

For today, it might be best if they don't force him into a fight. That can be another day of practice. "Do you just... think and it moves?"

[upshore]

Miles nods at the question - which he both hears and feels, the sound in the air disturbing the nanites (like a snake hears? he thinks), before realizing that she doesn't have the advantage of being a hellish abomination of science with perceptive powers beyond the ken of mortal man.

"Yeah," he says aloud. "It's...kind of like a limb, but a really big, scattered one, if that makes sense."

[lasergrenades]

"I can-- sort of imagine," Pepper answers, trying to figure out exactly where to look. "Maybe a little like piloting the armor remotely. Or holding a shadow creature summon."

That's the closest comparison she thinks she can make. The summons, especially at first, felt a lot like she was in two places at once, but at least their form was solid.

"You're doing really well," she adds, encouraging.