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

[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."