brain damage

     ⚘ The odd helmet (or mask?) obscuring the stranger’s face (presuming they even had one) certainly doesn’t help Margaretha in gauging his reaction to her signaling. Did he see her? Does he understand what she’s saying? Will he keep still? It’s at this moment that the young woman wishes she could read the stranger’s mind, if only to quell her own anxiousness and worries.

     Fortunately, it seems that some of what she has signaled has reached the other, as evidenced by his silent response. For a moment in her terror, the dancer squints slightly at the stranger in attempts to decipher the meaning behind his movements. Does he.. Want to come to where she is? Well, that had been her plan all along; to guide him to safety, but…

     ‘Wait!’

     Shooting up both of her hands in a ‘stop’ motion, Margaretha’s hazel optics widen for a moment as her gaze locks onto the monster nearby the other. While it hasn’t turned around, it has promptly stopped within its tracks… Which, frankly, worries the young woman. Watching it closely, she leaves her hands up for the time being in hopes that the stranger will abide by her caution.

     After a few moments, however, the monster begins to walk along once more, causing the dancer to shoot a look back over at the stranger. While she places an index finger over her lips in order to sign for the other to be quiet, she uses her other hand to make the motion for him to quickly come over to her side.

     ‘Quick, quick! Be quiet!’

For a wild moment Simon teeters on the edge of pushing forward into a dead sprint. After all, he was fast. He had outrun or outsnuck every monster that had tried to take a bite out of him. One more could surely be evaded, and he did not stop to consider the chance that these monsters might be a touch faster or smarter then the ones back home. 

His boot catches on the floor as he began step forward, stopped only by sight of her out held hands. Shit! Thrusting a hand out he hit his shoulder on the wall and hunched over whilst biting back a grunt of pain. 

Dimly he notices that the footsteps had stilled, leaving only the hollow, unspoken fear that the monster knew he was there. Simon reached up and pressed a hand to the bottom of his faceplate as if it would stifle his panicked gasps.

A fairly normal reaction, honestly. She gives him a moment to process whatever nerves he might have.

“I suppose you could say that, it’s the easiest conclusion to work with at least.”

For easier than explaining the full extent of things, especially when she hadn’t even been asked. “There’s strange things out there, though many are hard to see.” How aware she was of uttering a possibly cryptic statement was impossible to discern from her flat features as she glanced down at the pad in her hands.

“Excellent, thank you. Payment will be in Dust. Could I have your name? Please follow me onto the bus when you’re ready.”

Still readjusting to vampires being a real, physical thing, Simon nodded at her words even as they suggested there might be more to it then ‘sucks blood, burns in sunlight’ angle. Asking out on the street would be rude though he curiosity burned bright as the blue WAU nodes on his suit.

Stupidly, he wondered if she was gonna bite his neck to extract the blood then did a minor shake of the head to clear those thoughts. It’d be way too unsanitary.

“Oh, I see. Er– in that case, perhaps the Stars have done you a favor by bringing you back? In any case, I do hope that your readjustment to living here again is going smoothly.”

“We’ve had a few rather difficult ones lately. Some sort of outside organization attacked the island a while ago, and if they hadn’t been so willing to kill us all, I think many residents would have partnered with them against the Stars. It’s possible the Stars realized that rebellion isn’t necessarily as impossible as it seems.”

It’s difficult to tell whether this person is mechanical or organic (or perhaps a mixture of both?), but his exterior seems more than capable of protecting fragile circuitry and vulnerable organic tissue alike. In short, it seems as though he could handle himself well on these mysterious islands or on a boat between them, he simply lacks interest in doing so. 

At least this new experiment won’t end up hurting him if he gets accidentally transported out of the city.

“I haven’t decided yet. Water and sand aren’t particularly good for my frame– they both have a way of getting into even the smallest of transformation seams, unfortunately– but… well, one of the worst parts about being imprisoned in Spirale is the fact that we’ll have eventually seen and done everything that the city has to offer. I think I might visit Nommin just for the change of scenery. If you’re in need of any company, I certainly wouldn’t mind going with you, although I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to ‘roughing it.’“

“That sounds awful.” It really did. Isola had always been fraught with absurd or even downright terrifying events, that was nothing new. For there to be some sort of in faction fighting... Well, he didn’t even know how to process that. Mostly, he felt nervous. Simon sucks in a breath and tries to keep a lid on it, folding his arms across his chest.

(Later he would wonder from where outside this organization had come from, having failed to formulate the question in the moment).

At mention of company he brightens, shoulders relaxing and arms dropping to his side. 

“My nature know how is pretty rusty and mostly for humans. It....might be hard to make a shelter for a, um, guy your height but not impossible.” Granted, the lean-to-shelters he had built as a kid had only been for overnight camping in the backyard with sleeping bags and an electric wind up lamp. They still very much counted or so he told himself. “Oh, ‘scuse me. Forgot to introduce myself. My name’s Simon Jarrett.” 

DENIAL.

“Oh? You were here before? I believe I’ve met a few other residents in your same situation; I’m deeply sorry that you find yourself stuck in the city a second time.”

“This is certainly the most I’ve ever seen of them. It’s interesting that they’re allowing us to observe them like this– they even offered their names this time. I wonder if they’re trying to reach out, or be more personable?” Perhaps after seeing so many residents side with NULL during the last “event,” the Stars are attempting now to humanize themselves and endear themselves to their captives? Or maybe they simply share that basic desire that’s so very common among sentient lifeforms: the desire to be seen and understood.

“I’m not quite sure I understand the reference. But I agree– perhaps some of us could use it as a kind of… vacation? Do you think you’ll go explore there?”

“Thanks?” The blatant sympathy has the same tone as the condolences he received after people learned about his brain bleed. Coming from this guy (robot?), it sounds genuine however. “To be honest Isola is tons better then where I, uh, come from. Even with all,” he waved his hand at his phone, indicating the virtual tickets on screen, “all this.”

Simon is still trying to wrap his mind about the existence of these so called Stars, wondering if they were always there pulling the strings. And what the hell was a NULL? Staring off into the middle distance, he jolts at the question, optics flicking back to Rung. “What? Sorry, I don’t, I wasn’t here for the last event.” Where had he been? The question won’t leave his mind. He forces it down to answer this robot’s question, tapping his face plate.

Bold what consistently applies. Italicize situational, not always. Cross out what definitely never applies.

DOES YOUR MUSE, WHILE FIGHTING …

fight honorably / fight dirty / prefer close-quarters / prefer range / chat during / go silent / low pain tolerance / high pain tolerance / attack in bursts / attack steadily / go for the kill / aim to disarm / fight defensively / strike first / provoke easily / provoke their opponent / tease / get visibly frustrated / shout while attacking / use strategy / focus on their battle / experience conflicting thoughts during battle / rush in recklessly / try to read their opponent before fighting / fight wildly / fight calmly / apathetically / fight with anger / fight with excitement /  fight because they have to / fight because they want to / fight without regard to wounds / run away when wounded / hide wounds / take a blow to protect another / prefer a blade / prefer a gun / prefer a bow / prefer a shield / prefer a spear / prefer a personalized weapon / prefer magic or spells / prefer brawling / their greatest weakness is physical / their greatest weakness is mental / their greatest weakness is emotional / transform for battle / fight as they appear / rely on strength / rely on speed / use everything they have / hide their full potential / exhaust quickly / high stamina / doubt their strength / proceed with caution / behave arrogantly / brag after landing a hit / belittle their abilities / use psychological tactics / use brute strength / avoid civilians / strike down civilians / damage surroundings / avoid damaging surroundings / signature fighting style / making it up as they go / mastered skillset / learning their skillset / fancy footwork / sloppy footwork / messy fighter / elegant fighter / accept defeat / refuse defeat / beg for mercy / compliment their opponent / insult their opponent / use unnecessary movements / move efficiently / barely move / prefer to dodge / prefer to block / defend their blindside / has no blindside / use all available advantages / strictly use one main method / play around / hold back / fight ruthlessly / show mercy / wait for opponent to be ready / strike when opponent isn’t ready / fear death / fear pain / fear killing / has PTSD / avoids fighting / has lost a fight / has won a fight / has killed / refuses to kill / wants to die standing / would succumb slowly

“A first time for everything. It wouldn’t be much, and only a small sample to begin with.” It was a very human gesture, she thought when he tapped on the glass in the interim between words. But at this point it was no surprise to see the most humanity from those you might not expect to.

“No, it’s going to me. It’s something of a dietary requirement.” No use not being honest.

He... He couldn’t have heard that correctly. For her?

Doing a double take at this silver haired women who couldn’t, now that he looked, been more than 20 and had a literally starry look to her eyes. Now, the list of strange things Simon had been exposed to had grown quite a bit so his brain only mildly balks at the obvious conclusion.

“Oh now, I don’t think that’s true at all dear. Personally I think you’re the most fascinating person I’ve seen here today, if you don’t mind me saying.”

She tried her best to give a warm, welcoming smile, and her best was well practised. A brush was lifted near the canvas but she paused. 

“Of course, I won’t if you’re not willing. But like I said I can pay you for your time I…” She paused and then glanced at her phone. “Well, it won’t take too long regardless.”

“So, what do you say? If you tell me some of your interests I can try to include a little something in the background perhaps.”

Fascinating was a polite way to describe his appearance and he, well, it made him feel a bit better to be honest. “Ok, if it won’t take too long. My name’s Simon, by the way.” Stupid as it was her compliment convinced him to stay, arms scrambling for some manner of refined pose only to fall to his side with a dejected flop. 

“Haha, I feel like I’m in one of those weird foreign film movies except, well, Isola isn’t really a vacation.” He raises a hand to rub the back of his head before remembering he was being drawn and lowers it just as quickly. Still he fidgets, boots shuffling in the dirt and rubbing his thumb in circles at the base of his index finger. “I... I like space. Not the math stuff. Mostly just the, the concept. Um.”