A Troubled Soldier 01

[theriflespiral]

I: Delivery to Elysium
Elysium-the-city was far larger than Natalia had first assumed. Not that this was a problem for her-- a day or two among the rooftops, and she would know this place as well as anyone who lived here.

For now, though, she was momentarily relying on a map she kept carefully tucked away, and an address on a box with a memorized order form (and countersign, and counter-countersign, easily handwaved).

Being a delivery girl was hardly a novel cover, but it was precisely because such things were ubiquitous that it was easy to slip into the role as she came around the service entrance. Add perhaps a touch of bitter expression at the cold-- she didn't even have to try for that one-- and things would, hopefully, work just fine.


II: Blames Her Tools (Vault)
Natalia, after spending the better part of a day hitting targets from as extreme a range as the Vault could afford, was now overhauling her rifle, first cleaning the inside of the barrel with a cloth and a cleaning rod, and then disassembling it, screw by painstaking screw.

The casings were drying on a separate cloth nearby, with the scent of soap and water, waiting for an oven to finish getting up to the proper temperature.

It took up an entire gunsmith's bench, between the disassembly and the casings waiting for annealing and rolling and fitting and loading, but there was something to it. A peace, in an artisan's craft.

She looked at the tool rack above her and clicked her tongue.

She would have to go hunting for that particular tool.

Okay. Smooth hair. Stand properly. Act like you're supposed to be here.

Time to go among the other workbenches. Or workshops, if she had to.


III: Wildcard
Bug Natalia because she looks suspicious or because you need something.

Comments

Re: II: Vault and Tools

[theriflespiral]

Natalia nods. She takes the time to taste each thing on its own, but seems to prefer mashing them together into a slightly undifferentiated mess once she's done that. "-- There's a certain dwarf I could recommend as well, if you are ever out among Flotsam."

She didn't forget the advice Senshi gave about the gifts, and she wouldn't forget about him, either. "The Milk Run does excellent work. Perhaps it is just the cold and the hunger talking, but for a certainty, it was a meal I wished to linger over."

Re: II: Vault and Tools

[harlequinchimera]

Oki was smiling, but looking a bit less serious and more thoughtful. "A certain dwarf, eh? I think I know who you mean, a gentleman who appreciates fresh fish, as it turns out." A soft, but quite warm chuckle.

"Cold and hunger can make hardtack and salted meat seem like a feast, it's true. Though the cold does not affect me in quite the same way, but hunger, oh yes." She laughs softly, leans back a bit. "Very much yes. Be it after a long op spent in the nest or a march and swim, or even just after a long night of listening, Natalia-san... The meal that follows is what begins restoring our strength, I'd say."

She looked fully towards Natalia then, both eyes, very different as they were, and she gave a slight characteristic flap of both wings.

"We are a very different pair in a very many ways, you and I. But I am beginning to see a kindred spirit in you, I think. And if this is so," she pointedly tapped a nail on the table before continuing, "then I am glad that both of us are here, on this side of the range."

She quietly resumed her meal, having said her piece.

Re: II: Vault and Tools

[theriflespiral]

"Agreed. To have you on the other end of the scope, Oki..." She shook her head. "The thought already feels strange."

On the one hand, to meet someone who understands is a powerful thing.

On the other hand-- she desires to test her skills, even against someone as self-assured and strong in her craft as Oki. Why?

She struggled to remember what it was she was trying to prove.

Something... Important.

But buried under ice and snow.

She continued her meal in silence.

Re: II: Vault and Tools

[harlequinchimera]

She tilts her head and sighs, "It does feel strange - and I... am not in any great hurry to be running counter against you, Natalia, truly. No. I... do not want it on my mind." She rubbed one of her cheeks, eyes closed, and spoke again, softly. "Tis a cold place."

She did not plan to make enemies out of allies, not again, not like this. She ate more of her food, chewing thoughtfully.

She kept it hidden, but the thought did stay on her mind long enough for her to speak.

"We are predators," she said softly. "I think we take the measure of each other, as befits each of our natures, for our natures have sustained us. understanding that instrument within is important and for people like us..." She paused long, looking at a wall sidelong for many long, silent moments.

When she looked back, her eyes were very bright and focused on Natalia and she gave a small smile, her tone soft, understated but clear, and she nodded a little for emphasis.

"It's unavoidable."

She tilted her head, resting her head on her left fist, looking towards the other sniper while she thoughtfully chewed.

"I would raise a toast to that, if I had the sense to bring something along to drink, honestly."

Re: II: Vault and Tools

[theriflespiral]

"Fuck it, I'll spring for the grog to this." The emphasis on 'fuck it' is the most emotion she's shown the entire conversation. It shows in how she rubs her arms after she says it, and continues, "What'll you have?"

And while Oki responds to this, Natalia will think a little harder about what she said.

Re: II: Vault and Tools

[harlequinchimera]

Oki's eyeridges raised and she gave a warmer smile and a chuckle. "Strong beer will suit me fine."

She leaned forward, places both of her elbows on the table before her, resting her chin on folded fingers, watching now intently and with more than a small glint of humor in her eyes.

Re: II: Vault and Tools

[theriflespiral]

She returns with a strong beer, and some form of heated punch that reeks of whatever alcohol the commissary added to it-- Ale, perhaps, by the smell, aided by apples, oranges, cinnamon and clove-- rise up from the heated drink, which she keeps her hands and warms them with.

Until, at last, she stares at her drink, and raises the glass, and says, "To your health, to our fangs, and..."

Her teeth begin to chatter, and she barely gets out, "t-t-to all-l-l the people who we ss-s-s-s-houldn't have had to bury."

She still waits, shivering, for Oki's response.

Re: II: Vault and Tools

[harlequinchimera]

Oki rose, taking the strong beer in a hand and meeting Natalia's eyes with a smile. She sniffed a bit, taking in the nose of the drink, the mixture of spice, citrus and fruit making her smile a bit more.

She raises her glass too, smiling a bit wider, though her look softens measurably. She reaches out then, her hands large and her fingers long - and would gently put one of her hands alongside Natalia's, if she could, a concerned, even maternal sort of gesture and she responds.

"To your health and fangs, and to all those gone before, till sea swallows all," she says softly. She would release the very-gentle grip she had taken, after merely a moment and withdraw, looking a touch uncomfortable.

"Apologies," she said, with a nod of respect.

Was there color near the bold white spots under the chimera's eyes?

Re: II: Vault and Tools

[theriflespiral]

Natalia's hands are like ice, her teeth only not chattering during Oki's return through brute force, and she downs a good few mouthfuls of the heated wassail in a quick moment. Her hand does not leave Oki's, until Oki pulls her hand away. "Till sea swallows all," she answers at last.

"It is hardly your fault," she says, mouth still faintly steaming. "I have been... having trouble, of late. Nothing I cannot handle, but..."

More and more often in the run-up to the mission, things peeking out from under the ice, only to be swiftly buried, or if she goes looking, for herself to get colder and colder.

Who made her forget these things? Set such a command? And why?

More memories, buried in the ice. "... I would be lying if i said it did not worry me, just a little."

Re: II: Vault and Tools

[harlequinchimera]

Oki's gaze was direct for a moment, sharp. She tilted her head and her color returned to normal. "You're very cold, and your reaction says that this is not your normal state of things."

She settled back into her chair, sipping from her mug a bit. "Nothing you cannot handle, but the mission worries you. Well, worry is... natural. Fear is a part of us all, Natalia." She looked over, warmly. "It comes down to training how your mind works with worry, and that..."

She paused, looking over at the still-shivering Natalia and gave a somber look and a slow nod. "That's one of the biggest challenges. Please, relax if you can."

She looked thoughtfully at Natalia for a long moment. "I confess, your temperature has me considering... shooing you off to the baths or the like, Natalia - hypothermia and frostbite are mighty foes, indeed."

Natalia Gains Sickness II

[theriflespiral]

"This is why the hot drink. I am learning the rules as I go, but I learned a few days ago that hot drinks can stop an acute episode like that one." Ah, that is what worries her.

"Still... It has..." Her brows knot. "It has never been this bad before."

"... Before..." And there it's slipped away again. She hums.

Re: Natalia Gains Sickness II

[harlequinchimera]

She nodded a bit and smiled. "So, you sometimes grow very deep cold and it seems tied to your recall of memories." She seemed to relax, at least marginally. "I have seen what too much cold can do firsthand, it's almost as fast and silent a killer as you and I are - it can be a very good tool in your arsenal on some missions, if you can keep yourself safe from it." She chuckled a bit and raised her mug. "Each of us has things we must do to be who we are, and that's not just part of the discipline."

"And things that come with being us." She pointedly tapped her own left temple, near the orbit of her left eye. The eye was a different color from the right and if one happened to look closer, it would be pretty obviously artificial.

Re: Natalia Gains Sickness II

[theriflespiral]

"Not... just memories. I can recall many things about my past. But if you ask me how I feel about them, or how I feel now..." She shakes her head. "Buried, or if they come up... avalanched."

Natalia looks, and then, blinks. "An impressive bit of hardware, though gaining it cannot have been pleasant. But it is you now, I think you mean to say."

Re: Natalia Gains Sickness II

[harlequinchimera]

She nods, slowly, looking thoughtful again. "Cold, as if immersed in ice and snow."

She tapped the orbit of her left eye again. "This? A correction of a deficit from my6 birth - the real difficulty was the calibration and the training that went with its use."

She shrugged. "I do not remember the implantation specifically."

Re: Natalia Gains Sickness II

[theriflespiral]

Natalia nods, both to the naming of her malady, and to the eye.

The eye especially made an irritating amount of sense. The worst part of any new tool is always all the training that goes with it. "-- Any issues with maintenance? I-- can't claim to be prostheticdoc, but at least I can try to ask around if it's needed."

Re: Natalia Gains Sickness II

[harlequinchimera]

Oki gave a warm, surprisingly bright and toothy smile to the question.

She had had many reactions to the sight and knowledge of the eye, ranging from outright disgust and anger to dismissal. Curiosity of this kind was rare. "Thus far, no. It will not be due for a charge for... decades. I avoid putting my eyes in the line of fire for obvious reasons. And well," She actually laughed softly. "A round that hits my eye is going to cause me more trouble than just damaging the circuitry."

Re: Natalia Gains Sickness II

[theriflespiral]

Her brow knots for a moment, hearing 'decades'. An atomic battery, maybe? Or some form of technology she's not aware of? An interesting thing to ask later; sufficient to the task to say, "Back home we had similar, but not nearly so 'painless'," and shrug, to indicate that this was the reason she had asked.

She did, however, have a similar soft smile in place at Oki's gallows humor.

Re: Natalia Gains Sickness II

[harlequinchimera]

Oki tilts her head and she chuckles a bit. "I mean, I am a tough sort of monstrosity, but they used anesthesia for the first implant."

She clasped her mug and let out a soft, but remarkably feminine laugh.

"I think tonight, I may have made a friend, for I have certainly found a colleague."

She raised it, then drained it - fast.

One swallow and a muffled burp later and she leaned back in her chair, head once again tilted, but her eyes on Natalia.

"Would it be rude to ask - how long has this been your profession?"

Re: Natalia Gains Sickness II

[theriflespiral]

"May I keep such esteem in the future," she replies, raising her own and finishing it. She's far more on the back foot than she lets on, and sets the empty cup of wassail down a little too heavily.

"As for how long? eh.... About a year, before--" here, again, she taps her neck. "Then, after, from about three months ago, aboard the Mad Archer, then the Hand to Mouth, for as long as we kept her."