#mutagn

Day 26 Mutagen

unfortunately, dio's way harder to argue with than his brothers -- probably why they've sent him in instead. standing isn't strenuous, surely, and so stand he does. hiding the way his face twists as his knee locks up is harder than standing was, and he can tell by dio's face that he wasn't very successful at either. "i can't not train. my body's already wrecked, i can't lose the muscle memory too." even the healed parts of him are stiff; he used to fight without even thinking, but now he has to account for the tightness in his joints with every move.

"no trouble!" he looks over usagi's shoulder at his brothers, who are...not causing trouble, exactly. causing mayhem. causing noise. but not trouble. he lowers his voice; if anything will get them started, it's leo telling them not to start things. "listen, they're...a lot. but they're great fighters, and we're a great team. try not to let the ninja thing color your view of them too much. i mean, i'm a ninja, and you respect me, right?"

"you're fine! you're fine," he says, louder than he means in his insistence. "i was awake anyways." that's true, but even if he weren't, he would've waken up the second dio's ringtone started blaring. he likes being the person that dio calls period, never mind when it happens -- and he likes being the person that dio calls at the times you can't expect anyone to answer. he holds the phone between his shoulder and ear, busies his hands with a pencil and paper. "what's, um, what's going on? are you okay?"

it takes him a moment to respond to this, even -- it's just one of those days. sleep came even slower than it usually does, his fingers are buzzing with caffeine jitters or restlessness or his most recent electrocution, and he's got a headache. that last one, he's attributing to his brothers, but the first two are all on him. he presses his fingers into his temples, breathes in and out like mikey's always telling him to do. it doesn't relieve the pain, but it does the tension. "long day. but i like listening to you talk." true, not that it's ever stopped him from talking before.

there's enough space already, but he moves over anyways, leaving a wide gap for dio to settle into. "we don't both need to freeze. i'll be in soon." dio sits anyways, not surprisingly, and joins leo in watching empty branches sway. "we used to look for where he hid our christmas gifts every year, but we never found it." he wishes he knew. every day, he thinks of another question he didn't get to ask.

Best Ability: Intelligence Grum was born with enormous intelligence, which is the signature trait of all Utrom. But they also put their intelligence into practical use by enhancing and repairing Technodromes and other machines. While their big strength lies not necessarily in science, they have very vast engineering knowledge. They look at something and understand very quickly how it works and how to fix or enhance it. Worst Ability: Strength Don't get me wrong here, Grum's Charisma points are terribly low and close to a tie with Strength. But at the end of the day, they are definitely brains over brawns. Their bite is painful and so are slaps with their tentacles, but they can't really accumulate the strength to fight effectively without any external help. And under the right circumstances, their charisma is likely to improve.

in many ways, dating dio feels a lot like when they first met. the heart-racing, stuttering, tripping over himself of it all. better now, though. nowadays, it's like driving in new hampshire, going eighty on empty roads, drifting into tight curves -- the weightless feeling of being totally out of control and totally invincible. it's an instability he doesn't think he'll ever get used to. which means he needs to pick it apart. "right." he pauses. opens his mouth. closes it. opens it again. "like, no one, though? are you sure?"