003 Video/text @SERENE

[sereneflame]

[For the last week Serene has been completely missing but now here she is, sitting on her bed and grinning widely. Her formally pale face is now deeply tanned, far more than those few weeks on Zeta-12 could have left her, and her bare, paler shoulders look more firmly muscled than before]

Am I dreaming or am I here? [If your character speaks Persian well, she'll sound like she has an atrocious accent. If your character isn't fluent they likely have no idea what she's just said.

She laughs, rubs her face]

I hope I'm speaking a language most of you understand, but who knows what you strange earth-humen speak. Hold on!

[Her eyes narrow in concentration and text slowly appears on screen]

Hello! I am Serene Charlord, a newly arrived yet not a new recruit. It has been near two years since I have walked these halls but I see this place is as strange and chaotic as I recall.

Are there any here who still remember me? I hope so, for I have spent the last two years hitting my forehead as I think of questions I should have asked about your realities while I still had the chance. I am not sure what power has drawn me back here again, but I would not be surprised if it was the force of my curiosity.

[By the time she comes to the end of that text she's biting the tip of her tongue between her teeth. She considers her words and shrugs, grinning again]

There! Now I have covered everyone. Hello, my old friends and enemies. I look forward to meeting you again.

Comments

[ofobedience]

That's right, but not in the same way as you're likely to understand it. I'm a genetically engineered weapon. A hound of war, if you will.

[sereneflame]

[She shrugs]

I can understand a little, for I was bred to specification as well in an attempt to retain my family's lineage.

[She cocks her head then, curious]

Have you ever tried out any lines of work other than warcraft? I found that it was so very easy to get trapped in thinking there was only one path for me to follow.

[ofobedience]

[What to say to that? He's not sure that it's something he can explain, that he can adequately put into words. He doesn't work for Angelika Einstürzen-- the Below is a part of him and he is a part of it, be belongs down there and he's owned as surely as any gun or sword belongs to the one who holds it. There is no considering another line of work, because he is that line of work, he's a product of it. There is nothing else for him-- not as he sees it.

So he just smiles a thin-lipped smile. Decides not to try.]

No, I haven't. There is only one path for me.

[sereneflame]

[Well, she shan't push if he's giving her that sort of smile, not until she gets to know him better again]

Did you miss me? I have been told I wasn't gone for long, but I hope you felt a little absence when I didn't come to interrupt your routine all week

[ofobedience]

I just assumed you had better things to do with your time.

[It's better than saying he didn't notice, isn't it? He can be tactful when he feels like it.]

[sereneflame]

[The tact works and she smiles brightly at him]

I remember being fascinated by you despite telling myself frequently I shouldn't go anywhere near you. You grew on me.

[ofobedience]

[Well, that catches him off guard, and for just a fraction of a moment his confusion shows on his face, but it's a 'blink and you'll miss it' kind of thing. Perhaps she'll notice, perhaps she won't. Almost immediately, his expression returns to something smooth and slick and vaguely sardonic.]

Come, now. You can't mean to say that you missed the company if a dirty predator.

[sereneflame]

I have learnt that not all carnivores, nor omnivores who choose to indulge in flesh are 'predators' per se.

My closest friend of the last few years was a lizardman who had a taste for tiny little fish. He was the most off-putting person I'd ever met in my life at first, yet he showed compassion to a depth I never thought a flesh-eater could possess. That dirty carnivore humbled me.

[ofobedience]

Ha ha. Well. I'm afraid I'd probably disappoint you in that respect. I don't know anything about compassion.

[sereneflame]

[She props her cheek on her chin for a moment, grinning fondly at him]

You say that, but I remember the care and gentleness you showed to Lily on our journey.

Sometimes you remind me of how I used to be when I was twelve.

[ofobedience]

[He'll gloss over that first part, the shape of Lily's absence still raw as a wound for him, and he's unwilling to admit even to himself that there'd been something there, some level of genuine attachment.]

I was following our objective. Nothing more, nothing less.

And I'm not sure how I ought to feel about being likened to a child.

[sereneflame]

If I had free reign to choose your emotions I'd choose you to be flattered by any comparison to me.

[She shoots him a sharp grin at that, tossing her hair in an overblown mimicry of arrogance]

But honestly, I do not mean that as an insult

[ofobedience]

[He smiles a sly sliding smile, huffs out a sound that's indicative of amusement.]

Then how do you mean it?

[sereneflame]

[She shrugs]

It means that I recognise that brittle mask you wear... but this is no conversation for a reunion. Giovanni, let me meet you! I wish to see you in the flesh once more!

[ofobedience]

[The words slide into him like a knife between the ribs, and behind the ridiculous ALASTAIR glasses his eyes faintly narrow. She's changing the topic almost as soon as she brings it up though, and for now at least he's happy to do the same.]

It's rather poor timing, isn't it? Face to face, you won't be able to understand a thing I say.

[sereneflame]

We can get around that!

We can still type and display our words without sending them to the network. Meet with me, I have missed you!

[ofobedience]

[In all honesty he finds her enthusiasm a little hard to grasp. It's unfathomable really-- he recalls, of course, what she'd said to him back on Zeta-12, isn't likely to forget it any time soon, but her attitude still strikes him as...well. Strange. It's not so very long ago that she seemed to revile him, after all.

Still. Playing exterminator can get boring for even a predator like him, and they have time to kill before their next mission is handed down to them, so--]

You must be incredibly bored. But if you insist. Where can I find you?

[sereneflame]

In my room on the ground floor, avoiding those insects.

Here, I will show you.

[She goes to her door and steps out into the hall, showing the view in both directions with her bracelet before showing the view of her door. A bug hisses from one side and she skittles back in]

I am not dealing with those creatures until I have a meal in my belly and have caught up with my old friends

action?

[ofobedience]

[He takes in the view, recognises the part of the castle she appears to be broadcasting from, gives a nod.]

And I suppose I could take a break from dealing with them. It becomes monotonous after a while. I'll be with your shortly.

[The image cuts out, and it only takes him a little longer than one might expect to reach her room. Killing the bugs may be a monotonous task, but he still pauses to dispatch any of the vile creatures he comes across on his way to her. As such, when he knocks on her door, his uniform is a little blood-smeared, skin still vaguely smoking from the wounds he endured on his little journey.]

action!

[sereneflame]

[When she opens the door and looks down on him her eyes widen at those smoking spots of blood on him.]

I forgot you were shorter than me.

[But there's still an atmosphere about him. She opens her door and lets him in, pulling up her wrist keyboard to type]

You are shorter than I remember! But you still so very much the same.

Can I touch you without you grabbing my hand?

[ofobedience]

[She opens the door and her voice comes in a collection of incomprehensible words that have his head tilting slightly to one side, lips curled in a sharp little smile despite his lack of understanding.

Then the typed-out words appear, and he laughs a short clipped laugh, shrugs his shoulders. He never gives much thought to his height, and after all, two of the most influential women in his life are taller than he. It seems fitting.

Her request strikes him as strange, though-- outside of the twins, it's been the longest time since someone else touched him in a situation other than battle or to serve some specific function]

I suppose that depends on how you intend to touch me.

[sereneflame]

[She taps away quickly and shows him her screen]

I intend to hug you because I have missed you. Don't break any part of me!

[She gives him a moment to read that and then moves in, her arms open and ready to catch him about his shoulders]

[ofobedience]

[It's a fair concern-- throwing herself at him unexpectedly may well have resulted in just that.

As it stands, he has time to read the words before she's moving towards him, and in line with her request he refrains from lashing out, doesn't catch hold of her or push her away. Instead he stands there stiffly, back straight and muscles pulled taught beneath the skin, doing nothing to reciprocate the gesture]

[sereneflame]

[She expected the stiffness, so she simply wraps her arms about him and squeezes him tight for a moment, leaning her cheek on his hair as she murmurs]

I was so shocked that I missed you, but here I am.

[She lets him go and pats his shoulders as she steps out of his personal bubble again]

There, you did not suffer too terribly in my arms, did you? Come and sit down!

[She goes and sits on her low bed, gesturing to the seat at the desk and at the mattress beside her, letting him choose where he's most comfortable]

[ofobedience]

Das kann ich nicht nachvollziehen.

[And yes that applies to whatever she just said to him, but more than that, it's her behaviour he can't understand. Standing there with her arms around him and her face pressed close, it leaves him with a vague unsettled feeling that he can't fully comprehend.

She moves away though, and it's true that he didn't suffer, only felt some nameless feeling that left him ill at ease. He moves to take a seat at the desk, though, maintains a facade of cool collectedness despite the small unsettled sensation that runs like fingers across his Spine.]

I suppose not.