Hello ! This is an ask/rp account specifically made for my ( @savancey ) ace attorney ocs!
There is no set timeline for these specific ocs, although I will generally default to around AA4 and Dual Destinies.
MEET THE CAST . . (So far.)
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".. Can I help you?" - Sam Mackenzie
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Sam Mackenzie, a reporter for a rather obscure magazine. Formerly a worker who cut huge blocks of ice, he has since changed. (And.. probably, not for the better.)
He goes by He/Him, although generally doesn't care for pronouns.
He's also in his twenties, apparently, standing at a height of about 6'1", or 185 cm tall.
He's got a knack for making others uncomfortable. Oops?
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...!
"Hello, world!"
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Vaz, a sentient.. hologram?
It was originally designed by a scientist whom is now currently dead. It's not real sure how it came to be, but rolls with it anyway. Vaz tends to be pretty positive, despite lacking the capability to do most things, like touch or eat.
It appears to be around thirty.
It can turn itself off as a stress response, albiet temporarily.
It seems fond of scientists.
"Good to meet you! ... You'll have to wait for an autograph, fufu." - Akumu Owkame
~
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Nsfw toward the mod is not allowed.
Akumu Owkame, a semi-famous racecar driver for a team called the White Wolves. He's generally seen smiling as he goes about. He seems especially fond of sweet foods.
He is 6'4", and is about 27 years old, although he looks barely 20.
He has a slight Japanese accent but does well to cover it up. He usually slips up when he's upset in some way.
♡~
Asks and roleplay are always open unless specified otherwise!
Nsfw toward the ocs are fine( but don't be weird(??). Weird NSFW asks will not be answered, and instead deleted.
Mod's ocs are not to be used without permission ! (Just ask first)
".. Eh? ... Oh well. You probably have a reason to take them, I.. think. Dunno how people will refer to me, though."
( Gotta figure something out.. )
[ ... seems a little bothered, but is otherwise fine. ]
-
"...."
(..Nice.)
[ Sam doesn't seem very pleased with that, but at the same time also appears to not care. ]
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"What-?! Hey, .. !.. ..?! Eh? .. need those! How will.. .. ngh.. Akumu's, glorious fans refer to.. to.. Akumu! Surely.. surely not by name! Not every singuru taim—!!"
(.. hate this!!! Wahaahaha... T.T)
[ Poor Akumu got every pronoun of .. er, Akumu's, stolen, since Akumu generally went by any and all.. Akumu is definitely panicked, to say the least. Akumu doesn't seem very pleased to speak in 3rd person.. and Akumu's accent even broke out a bit. Akumu also looks like Akumu might cry. You see why Akumu wants Akumu's pronouns back? That's.. a lot of Akumu's name. Eugh. Terrible to read. Poor Akumu. ]
ongoing rp chain with @surging-eyes-seeing-through
(I dunno how to link parts, but this is part 3)
"..Yeah. and.. I can change my height if needed. This size is most efficient and I can maintain it indefinitely, unlike larger sizes. But I don't need to be big to cook."
[Vaz shrugs. It sways a little, back and forth.]
"There's also plenty of stuff i can cook at my size anyway. Minus.. anything that requires toasters. I tend to accidentally break them somehow."
[It leaned back before hopping laggily onto the floor, landing in silence.]
"And I refuse to fry things. Grease makes me feel icky, even if it just goes right through me."
"...Well, thankfully, I don't have a fryer. I do have a toaster, but... if I really wanted toast, that's easy enough to make myself."
[Apollo hoisted himself back to his feet, giving a half-hearted stretch as he kept an eye on Vaz. After rubbing his eyes, ridding them of some of the last bits of sadness from earlier, he turned towards the doorway.]
"Though... ah. Don't feel like you need to cook for me, really." [An awkward glance was shot to the side.] "You are basically a stranger... I don't want to rope you into anything like this, you know? I just think it's impolite."
[It.. sort of copied Apollo, stretching. Although an action like that would be unnecessary for a hologram.]
"..I mean, I am already technically 'roped in' since my signals are still jammed."
[Vaz let his arms drop to his sides, before crossing them the way a parent would, shifting it's weight to the left. It's tone of voice was a bit more serious now.]
"..I assume you've at least done your dishes so you can eat? I'm pretty sure you were cleaning when I arrived... albeit most of your housing is still a mess."
[It shot a curious glance to an awfully messy stack of mail, the small pile located just off the foot of the bed, slightly hidden under some misplaced laundry. Some of it was simply junk mail, and.. one, brightly colored, was from the WAA members. Vaz stared for a moment at the colorful packaging of the letter, before returning it's quizzical gaze to Apollo.]
"I mean... sure, yeah. I can do it myself." [He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, before continuing.] "...And, that's right. signals... I can try to figure out what it'd be that's keeping you here, since I doubt you want to be stuck here forever. I just wouldn't know where to start, really."
[He had watched as Vaz stretched, raising a brow momentarily before his face returned to its usual neutral look. At the note regarding the state of his apartment, his expression shifted again, his eyes diverting as his mouth pulled back into an awkward half-smile.]
"Okay, well... I have at least one set of clean dishes, I know that."
[Speaking nothing of all of the dirty ones.]
"I've, you know. Just started, ah... getting my shit together, I guess you could say. I'm still catching up."
[Even talking about this to the equivalent of a little computer, it made Apollo thoroughly embarrassed. Even as he tried not to show it, his ears had gone red, the man partially trying to distract himself by bending down and plucking the colorful letter off the pile.
He should've opened it the moment he got it. He knew that. But, he just... hadn't felt like it. Better late than never, right? He thought to himself, as the envelope was idly torn open.]
[The letter was a loving mess. Inside was one of those stupid, cheesy, yet heartfelt "get-well-soon" cards. Written in it were a couple of words of encouragement. Even Klavier had written something—even though it was written exactly how he talks, albiet a bit messy.. Trucy'd drawn a little smiley face where she'd written, 'Get better fast, 'polly!' And, written by that was a curt get better soon, signed off by Phoenix. Athena simply had doodled a stickman with a hat of flowers. (..Juniper, maybe?) ]
[..Klavier's looked as though he'd been hesitant to write. But it was written somewhat neat enough to be legible, the letters scrawled out upon the page to form "Herr Forehead, " followed by an oddly large empty space, "..get better soon, ja?"]
[The letter itself was decorated everywhere someone had not written. Decorated in stickers, specifically, and abstract marker doodling. Probably something Trucy did, considering most of the stickers were magic related. A corner of the upper left seemed slightly damaged by.. drops of water, and had been covered up with more stickers. It looked a bit crinkled there comparing to the rest of it. Someone probably missed Apollo.]
[The packaging Apollo had torn off fell to the ground with a slight 'clink' sound, heavier than paper. It was then that a small object rolled out of the damaged packaging. It.. didn't seem to belong in the package, nor have anything to do with the WAA. Vaz seemed intrigued. The object was shaped like an average D-20, but instead of numbers there was a teeny timer on one side and the rest of the sides had odd holes closed by some sorts of mesh. It was blue, the mesh black.]
"Yeah.. ah..?"
[It was beeping. A quiet, yet awful, noise.]
"...That's.. familiar.."
[..Vaz obviously didn't like that noise, visibly tense. It vaguely reminded it of something. It.. couldn't quite put it's finger on it, however.]
[For a brief moment, Apollo's eyes were able to scan the letter, a variety of emotions flashing across his face. He knew everyone cared, he really did, but seeing it all written plainly before him... it almost brought a tear to his eye.
Well, it did.
But he wiped it away as quick as he could. Being non-functional was embarrassing enough... He didn't need to be crying in front of the hologram, too.
Clay may have been his best friend, not something easily replaced, but... having so many others who cared about him, despite all his flaws... it made him rather thankful. It also, admittedly, made him feel rather bad for his utter lack of communication this last week...
Before he could kick himself for such inaction, however, the little object was noticed. Well, he had seen it when it fell, but only focused on it now. From his much higher vantage point, the item looked much more like a simple die, with some sort of odd patterning. The beeping could still be heard, but even something so blatant didn't tip him off.
He hadn't heard anything of the sort before his... recent experience, anyways.]
"...Mm? What's that?"
[Still holding the letter and envelope on one hand, he bent over as much as he could manage to get a better look. A few details came into clearer view, being the holes and the little timer.
A timer? That was what it was, clearly. A timer, and beeping?
His brows furrowed, expression tightening.
No, it... no, he was overreacting. It couldn't be that. It couldn't be.]
[Vaz studies the little thing for a moment longer. A flash of uncertainty causes him to frown.]
"..I.. no, wait a minute.. this.."
[ Vaz started glitching, and a few moments later vanished entirely. The ticking continued. Vaz returned. It seemed.. highly disturbed, visibly trembling(?). It's tone of voice was shocked, somewhat panicked.]
"..Dr. Crescent, you need to leave, something's wr-ong with the a. a. a. air."
[It repeated the word air a few more times before the words faded into an uncomfortable white noise.]
...
[..Vaz had then turned itself off, leaving a strange, darkened patch of air where it'd been glowing moments before.]
[The little die like thing kept beeping. It counted down from 2 minutes. There was a teensy label on it, just above the timer.]
It read, in cutesy lettering,
"Goodnight, Justice. <3"
[It didn't seem like it had just began the countdown. In fact, the little timer showed the original time it'd been set to count down from, which read '1hr, 20mins'. The screen upon which the timer set was dull. It had plenty of scratching on it, like it had been smacked, or ground, against something.]
The air? The air. He sucked in a breath, eyes glancing beck to the object. He stared blankly to it, much too many seconds passing... what did it say, now?
1:00.
One minute.
What was he doing? Now wasn't the time to panic. Standing here like a deer in headlights was only going to get him hurt.
It wasn't like he could dispose of this casually. He needed it out. And far from this building, preferably. He didn't know what it was going to do, anyways. He didn't want to think about it.
...Ah, that's it. A window. Throw it out. Who cared if it hurt someone on the street, all he could think about was self-preservation at this point.
The little object was grabbed off the floor, little care given to the action. Whichever window was nearest to him was just about ran towards, with the man immediately trying to wrestle it open.
If one had ever attempted to open a window in an old building, they would understand his struggle. A solid grip and strength were needed to do so, two things that Apollo was somewhat lacking in at the moment. The little 'die' (a rather fitting name) was set on the sill as he grappled with the window itself, ignoring the aches in his arms the attempts were causing. At least the chill of the outdoors was seeping through, numbing it all to some degree.
[ It beeped again before the screen darkened so that the timer couldn't be seen. It was replaced by a low-res webcam. Someone wanted him dead, and someone was watching him right now. ]
"You're being slow, J-Justice. "
[The person watching him apparently could talk through the little device. They had a stutter, and sounded like that of a young man. Due to the dark screen and low resolution, his face couldn't be made out, though some basic details could be. He had shorter, dark hair. He was also obviously smiling, head resting on his palm, watching.]
[He didn't swear often, really, despite having been through enough in his life to justify doing such a thing. But this... The duress of the situation was getting to him. The little chime, that... that was the breaking point.
And the webcam? It just added to it all.]
"Shut up!", he hissed through his teeth, voice filled with a nervous aggression. "Is... is this necessary?! Really?! Was... sending this thing to me not enough?!"
[His voice cracked, hands faltering for a moment. No, he couldn't get distracted. The person's second line, he forced himself to ignore it, focusing back on the window.
A blast of cold air his his hands, spilling down and over his feet. With a desperate pull, the window went up, clicking into place.
For a moment, he felt relief. But then... the screen. He forgot about the screen.
Muttering curses in both English and some other, much less common language, it was grabbed as well, taking much less strength to wrestle open. But it still took time. Time that he wasn't keeping track of.
As long as he was able, he would keep at it, though.
The screen wasn't lifted that much. But there was enough of a space for the stupid object to be thrown out through. So he grabbed it off the sill in a tight fist, and went to throw it as hard as his battered arm could possibly allow.]
[The person laughed at Apollo. After it'd been tossed out the window, the device landed outside. The timer had been at a staggering 10 seconds before it was tossed. The timer let out a few more beeps before stopping, although it was no longer audible. Some kind of coloured dust came out of the little device, floating upwards. A couple of birds fell out of the nearby tree. The birdsong in the area was silenced. A concerned passerby noticed, walking over. And they fell, too.]
[..It'd been some sort of compressed poison gas bomb. An extremely potent one. A little beep alerted Apollo to a miniature screen on a nearby desk, the person from before staring at him, grinning. It was still too dark and low resolution to tell whom he was.]
"..Glad to s..see you're doing well. You're that astronaut's b-buddy? What was his name.. T..Terran? Ooh, t-that poor guy. Phantom really sent em o-off, heheh."
[He paused, taking a sip of something from a large cup.]
"..Too bad Mr. Phantom is im..p..prisoned now. He woulda been proud, eheh. Ahem."
[The voice was a lot more clearer through this mini-screen's speakers. It sounded that of someone who was no older than 16. It carried a sort of monotone note every time he spoke.]
[It would've been nice to relax the moment the little bomb went flying out the window. No more danger, right?
But his panic... his panic only continued, the man becoming much more aware of it once his focus fell away from the window. When had his heart started beating this quickly? When had his hands started shaking? Was his vision always this dark and unfocused?
He gripped the windowsill and leaned heavily against it, taking in a few choppy breaths as a pained look came upon his face. All of his injuries seemed to burn in unison, the memory of their creation echoing in his mind. It had been an explosion, not poison. But even then, his mind was locked on the thought. He couldn't help it.
The dead birds, the person, they weren't even acknowledged. His brain refused their presence, for the sake of his own sanity.
The sudden noise and voice from his desk did break Apollo's mental loop, making him stumble to face the source, a tight scowl appearing on his face.
"Shut up!", he exclaimed, with little delay. The voice that carried the words shook with strain, but carried a great upset intensity within it. "Don't... talk about him so... so carelessly!"
Even after nearly dying, his first thought was to defend Clay's memory. It wasn't a very surprising action for him, admittedly.
But, the time would come to face the current situation.
"...What do you want with me. What do you want with me?! You... you sick piece of... ugh!"
He stumbled over himself, verbally, as he swayed slightly on his feet. The fact he was still standing at all was a miracle, really, with how utterly sheet-white he looked.
"..p-piece of what, Justice? Eheh. What I want with you.. I dunno. I'm a bit angry. Maybe r-revenge for Mr. Phantom?"
[He tapped on the webcam, adjusting it.]
"..Since Phantom got that loser scientist and your b-buddy Terran, I-I assumed I might as well just finish off the t-trio, yeah? Too bad that little robot bastard freaked out. You'd p-probably be t-twitching on the floor right now."
[The person twirled in their chair.]
"Didn't e-even think you'd have that 'thing', though. Little bastard makes my job harder t-than it already is.. sigh... but, ah, riiight. I h-hear you were bombed recently. How was that? Eheheh."
"...What, is it suddenly my fault that he screwed up?!" Apollo grit his teeth, breath catching in his throat before he continued. "Maybe he shouldn't have gotten so careless!"
Apollo's eyelid twitched before his expression calmed slightly, his gaze losing focus for a moment. On top of everything else, his fury was only straining him more, a wave of dizziness throwing him off for a moment. With nothing better to do, he let himself fall to his knees, giving himself a long moment to recuperate his strength. Thankfully, lowering himself did help, as did the cold air pouring through the window.
It did not remove his anger, however.
Once his mental sharpness had returned, Apollo stared up towards the image, scowling deeply.
"I've... cheated death so many times, did you... really think this would work?"
It almost did. He was keenly aware of that.
"...You failed. How does that feel?"
Strong words for someone kneeling crumpled on the floor, nearly hyperventilating in panic.
At the mention of the bombing, he cringed, giving a silent scowl to the silhouette. His diverted eyes indicated his discomfort with it being brought up well enough.
"Yeah, I'll admit you cheated death o-once again. Heheh. It almost worked. W-wish it did. ...but.."
"You l-look a little un-n..nerved, buddy. Did I u-upset you? Ehe. Poooor little J-Justice. All worked u-up. I admit, you're n-not really at fault.. heh. You're real weak-m..minded though. It's laughable."
[Vaz reappeared, the weird little void replaced by a bright, albiet patchy, glow. It stared at Apollo.]
"..Cres-no, Apollo. You're oka..y?"
[It worriedly stared for a bit longer at Apollo before he noticed the screen. It tensed.]
"..."
[It didn't vanish again, although it was visibly terrified.]
"If... I really was weak-minded, I would've given up on everything a long time ago. I'm... stronger than you, you... failure of a murderer."
[While he spat out the insult, Apollo's bandaged fingers pressed onto the floor, palms flat against it as he kept himself steady. He was certainly tenacious. Or perhaps, did not know when to stop. Most likely, a combination of both.
His uneven fury was interrupted by the flickering of light, eyes darting over as his expression relaxed. The hologram... right, he had almost forgotten. His mind was too frazzled to keep the day's events in order, really.]
"I'm... fine.", he managed to mutter out, a rather obvious lie. He was, however, at least clearly alive.
Once Vaz' attention went to the screen, Apollo's did as well, expression pulling into a tense frown.
What a situation he had found himself in. Holograms, poison, and his own potential murderer. It... It was exhausting, to even simply think about.
[He slow-clapped. His voice was laced with sarcasm.]
"Failure of a murderer, hm? You sound like my f-father. Failure this, failure that. It's a-annoying, really."
[While he spoke Vaz quietly walked over to Apollo. It kept it's gaze on the screen.]
"I'd chat w-with you longer, but.. the p-police are on their way to your h-house. Byebye, Justice. <3"
[The screen turned off and then set itself aflame. It was harmless, though, only leaving a pile of black ash and burning a small hole into the desk it sat on. The flame died almost as soon as it had started.
.. He'd burned the evidence of himself. And probably was the one who called the police. Distantly there were sirens.]
"..Apollo.. we.. should go.. hide, or.. something."
Apollo continued to stare at the spot where the screen had been, a vacant, exhausted look in his eyes. He just wanted to crawl into a corner and pass out, dealing with more was... it was wearing him rather thin, mentally.
"There's... this apartment is tiny. There's nowhere to hide."
His bed had space underneath, sure. But that was painfully obvious. The singular closet was also likely a poor option.
There was one idea, though. He just didn't know how well he could commit to it... this adrenaline rush could only last so long, couldn't it?
"...The sirens, they're... close, but not here. I... I bet I could still run."
[It vanished before becoming a lot larger, about 5'2".]
"..Come on, then."
[It held out a hand to Apollo.]
"I.. um, there was supposed to be an event at the mall nearby. We can get there in time, lots of people to hide in the crowd. Or um, somewhere else."
[Vaz was worried. It knew that the outdoor cameras would have picked up Apollo tossing the poison bomb outside his window.]
"..I also know of a bar underground, near the subway station. It's usually rather empty, except for the server-person and a few customers. They won't kick me out, but.. I don't exactly blend in outside. I'll have to hide in your jacket or something.. um.. I can shut off the cameras temporarily.. let me.. uh."
[It tentatively walked over to the nearest wire. The lights flickered as it touched it, but then came back on. All cameras in a 3 mile radius had become unresponsive.]
Apollo watched Vaz grow in size, an exhausted look in his eyes. It was unbelievable, still, but everything really was. Everything always was.
Why couldn't his life be normal for once?
He reached up, taking the offered hand with a huff before he hoisted himself to his feet.
"Um... an event, right. Blending in... I... god, I look distinctive, don't I? I'll..."
He, after a moment of thought, reached up and just, messed the hell out of his hair. It was a mess, didn't look good at all. But... it certainly made him look less like himself. The jacket, as well, was thrown off, a red buttoned coat grabbed from the back of a chair. He did wear it around, but... less often than his usual outfit, and it was less unique than the GYAXA jacket.
He felt bad leaving it behind. But, it would do little more than cause him more issues, at the moment.
"I have some pockets, just... I don't know. You seem like you have a better handle on this situation than I do!"
He hoped the hologram did. Because... he sure didn't, himself.
[It muttered robotically, mostly to itself. It didn't seem to believe that it did, but it didn't deny it (for Apollo's sake.) It stood still, thinking, before turning to Apollo.]
"Right, let's head out."
[It stayed the same size, staying firmly close to Apollo, apparently worried about the other. It moved further after it kept looking after Apollo, and eventually they'd made it into an alleyway, not too far from the apartment but just enough to where the police would have to search for them in case they arrived.]
"I'll give you a.. er, hold on."
[It summoned a sort of small map, with a red dot in between a few buildings a fair distance away.]
"That's the place. The mall is a little risky, so.. I have decided we will not go there. I'll get in one of your pockets,"
[It changed back to usual size and managed to crawl up and into one of Apollo's pockets.]
"..and.. all we have to do for now, I think, would be head to the bar-place. I'll figure out more on the situation on our way there."
[A police car whizzed by at the exit of the alley, but it thankfully wasn't one of the ones that had been heading to Apollo's apartment. Vaz had tensed but then relaxed when it'd seen it.]
"We shall depart, then."
[The camera in the alleyway was off. Vaz had done it's thing well, it seems.]
"If you would prefer the event at the mall though.."
[It trailed off. A blue dot appeared on the map, at a mall complex nearby.]
\\Appearance rn... I hope my 5 pixel tall attempt at remembering Vaz is sufficient lmao
"...Great. I'll just... I think I know where that is. The street, anyways."
While the mall was more familiar to him, having been there once or twice before... he seemed to trust Vaz' judgment for now. With his mind remaining frazzled by the complex series of events that had just occurred, he didn't trust himself to make too many hard decisions at the moment, anyways.
After making an extra effort to muss up his hair, Apollo started to walk, focusing intently on his pace. Was he going too fast? Walking too stiffly? Were the police looking for him, or just going to the scene? His hand went to his bracelet, not as a reaction, but simply out of nervousness.
Knowing generally the direction he was going, Apollo seemed to walk without much thought, only diverting his course to keep himself to side streets. Sure, he looked different than usual, but still distinctive, and keeping out of sight as much as possible was for the best.
Occasionally, he would glance down at his pocket, checking Vaz. Even if he couldn't see the hologram, it was done, anyways.
His destination didn't change, at all. The bar's location was neared, gradually.
[It said nothing as they traveled, eventually arriving at a stairway, with a few signs nearby advertising a.. bar, THE bar, as well as other places to go.]
"It's just down here."
[Down the stairs was 2 doors, one of them the bar, the other apparently a staff room. The bar door was unlocked, and it opened without even a creak. Inside was a dimly lit bar-room, occupied by two.. three people, including the bartender. The bartender gave Apollo a once-over, eyebrow raised quizzically, but went back to wiping down the bar.]
"We.. you can lie low here."
[The bartender's head turned at the sound of Vaz's little robotic voice.]
"..Good to see you again."
[He said nothing else regarding Vaz. Vaz hadn't even been really visible, considering he was haphazardly tucked into Apollo's pocket.]
"..Over here, sit on the cushioned long-chair.."
[It guided Apollo to a table with a plush sofa, against the back wall. The entire bar was suprisingly.. fancy, for a place that didn't seem to have many customers. The black wallpaper had an odd texture, flecks of the print reflecting the dim lighting of the modern-style chandelier surrounded by abstract, triangular wood sculptures hanging from the ceiling. There was a few framed photos of unrecognized musicians, and some colorful bottles with lights placed inside, purely decorative.]
[The two that were in the bar with Apollo and Vaz were silent, and had appeared to ignore them. One was a man and the other a woman. They looked related.]
"Well then. you okay?"
[Vaz questioned Apollo quietly once he'd settled on the sofa, getting out of his pocket and managing to hop onto the table, sitting so it's legs dangled off the edge. The bartender kept his eye on them. It was usual behaviour, since generally you'd expect visitors to buy a drink.]
To say the least, Apollo was way, way out of his league, here.
To be frank, he barely even went to bars in the first place. But this? This was... way more... more everything. Fancier, high-end, whatever. Everything exuded a sense of expensive exclusivity. He certainly didn't belong. Had the mall been that bad of an idea, really?
After getting over that crisis, he glanced around, taking in as much of his surroundings that he deemed important. Which wasn't much, aside from the people present. The comment towards him (or Vaz, really) had been unnerving, but considering no one seemed to heavily mind the hologram's presence, he decided to not care for now.
Relaxing back into the chair with a resigned sigh, Apollo took a glance down at Vaz, scrunching his face up a little.
"Well...", he muttered quietly, "...I... guess I'm okay. Physically. But, I'm just... what is this, exactly?"
"What is.. ah. I don't really know, to be honest. Dr. Crescent took me here a few times, and that's all I know about it really."
"..and. About how long we should hide.."
[It took a few moments.]
"For a while here, but only temporarily.. and maybe a week elsewhere. Unless you want to go to the police, where you'll probably interrogated. And put on trial.. but. I don't know what.. that guy is planning."
[Vaz shivered. It was clear they didn't like that poison bomber.]
"Anyway. You thirsty or anything? They sell non-alcoholic liquids here, if you'd like one. I'd buy one myself... but, eh, you know. And.. I.. also sort of would like to not be stared at by the server-guy."
[It shrugged, fiddling with a lemon-flavoured salt shaker. It seemed to be used to put around the rim of drinks. The lid had a sort of glittery texture on it, which Vaz seemed to like.]
"...Doesn't really seem like the kind of place a scientist would hang out in. But... I guess I didn't know the guy, so I can't say much."
He fiddled with his bandages, staring down at the table in front of him, just past Vaz. At the idea of hiding out, the fidgeting intensified, his lip idly bit.
"A week... Alright. I... I have my phone with me, so I could maybe contact some friends, see if they're willing to keep me, uh. out of sight. I'm sure they'd understand..."
They might. They probably would. Enough weird things had happened, why would getting framed for this be any different?
At the idea of getting a drink, Apollo paused, before shaking his head. "I'd rather not spend anything right now. I mean, I don't know how long I'll be stuck like this, so, you know."
He was also, admittedly, too nervous to stomach much at the moment.
"Those two are regulars here. Siblings, actually. Uh.. their names.. are Dess and Triss."
[It turned to glance at the bartender.]
"The server-dude is a guy named Cesar Trea."
[Vaz turned back to Apollo.]
"They're not bad people."
[It set the salt shaker down, with a sigh.]
"ahem, ..So you've got friends that will house you for a bit?"
[It asked, with a slightly tilted head. Vaz seemed somewhat eager to change the subject. Vaz had completely ignored what Apollo had said about a scientist hanging out here, so it probably just didn't want to talk about Dr. Crescent.]
ongoing rp chain with @surging-eyes-seeing-through
(I dunno how to link parts, but this is part 3)
"..Yeah. and.. I can change my height if needed. This size is most efficient and I can maintain it indefinitely, unlike larger sizes. But I don't need to be big to cook."
[Vaz shrugs. It sways a little, back and forth.]
"There's also plenty of stuff i can cook at my size anyway. Minus.. anything that requires toasters. I tend to accidentally break them somehow."
[It leaned back before hopping laggily onto the floor, landing in silence.]
"And I refuse to fry things. Grease makes me feel icky, even if it just goes right through me."
"...Well, thankfully, I don't have a fryer. I do have a toaster, but... if I really wanted toast, that's easy enough to make myself."
[Apollo hoisted himself back to his feet, giving a half-hearted stretch as he kept an eye on Vaz. After rubbing his eyes, ridding them of some of the last bits of sadness from earlier, he turned towards the doorway.]
"Though... ah. Don't feel like you need to cook for me, really." [An awkward glance was shot to the side.] "You are basically a stranger... I don't want to rope you into anything like this, you know? I just think it's impolite."
[It.. sort of copied Apollo, stretching. Although an action like that would be unnecessary for a hologram.]
"..I mean, I am already technically 'roped in' since my signals are still jammed."
[Vaz let his arms drop to his sides, before crossing them the way a parent would, shifting it's weight to the left. It's tone of voice was a bit more serious now.]
"..I assume you've at least done your dishes so you can eat? I'm pretty sure you were cleaning when I arrived... albeit most of your housing is still a mess."
[It shot a curious glance to an awfully messy stack of mail, the small pile located just off the foot of the bed, slightly hidden under some misplaced laundry. Some of it was simply junk mail, and.. one, brightly colored, was from the WAA members. Vaz stared for a moment at the colorful packaging of the letter, before returning it's quizzical gaze to Apollo.]
"I mean... sure, yeah. I can do it myself." [He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, before continuing.] "...And, that's right. signals... I can try to figure out what it'd be that's keeping you here, since I doubt you want to be stuck here forever. I just wouldn't know where to start, really."
[He had watched as Vaz stretched, raising a brow momentarily before his face returned to its usual neutral look. At the note regarding the state of his apartment, his expression shifted again, his eyes diverting as his mouth pulled back into an awkward half-smile.]
"Okay, well... I have at least one set of clean dishes, I know that."
[Speaking nothing of all of the dirty ones.]
"I've, you know. Just started, ah... getting my shit together, I guess you could say. I'm still catching up."
[Even talking about this to the equivalent of a little computer, it made Apollo thoroughly embarrassed. Even as he tried not to show it, his ears had gone red, the man partially trying to distract himself by bending down and plucking the colorful letter off the pile.
He should've opened it the moment he got it. He knew that. But, he just... hadn't felt like it. Better late than never, right? He thought to himself, as the envelope was idly torn open.]
[The letter was a loving mess. Inside was one of those stupid, cheesy, yet heartfelt "get-well-soon" cards. Written in it were a couple of words of encouragement. Even Klavier had written something—even though it was written exactly how he talks, albiet a bit messy.. Trucy'd drawn a little smiley face where she'd written, 'Get better fast, 'polly!' And, written by that was a curt get better soon, signed off by Phoenix. Athena simply had doodled a stickman with a hat of flowers. (..Juniper, maybe?) ]
[..Klavier's looked as though he'd been hesitant to write. But it was written somewhat neat enough to be legible, the letters scrawled out upon the page to form "Herr Forehead, " followed by an oddly large empty space, "..get better soon, ja?"]
[The letter itself was decorated everywhere someone had not written. Decorated in stickers, specifically, and abstract marker doodling. Probably something Trucy did, considering most of the stickers were magic related. A corner of the upper left seemed slightly damaged by.. drops of water, and had been covered up with more stickers. It looked a bit crinkled there comparing to the rest of it. Someone probably missed Apollo.]
[The packaging Apollo had torn off fell to the ground with a slight 'clink' sound, heavier than paper. It was then that a small object rolled out of the damaged packaging. It.. didn't seem to belong in the package, nor have anything to do with the WAA. Vaz seemed intrigued. The object was shaped like an average D-20, but instead of numbers there was a teeny timer on one side and the rest of the sides had odd holes closed by some sorts of mesh. It was blue, the mesh black.]
"Yeah.. ah..?"
[It was beeping. A quiet, yet awful, noise.]
"...That's.. familiar.."
[..Vaz obviously didn't like that noise, visibly tense. It vaguely reminded it of something. It.. couldn't quite put it's finger on it, however.]
[For a brief moment, Apollo's eyes were able to scan the letter, a variety of emotions flashing across his face. He knew everyone cared, he really did, but seeing it all written plainly before him... it almost brought a tear to his eye.
Well, it did.
But he wiped it away as quick as he could. Being non-functional was embarrassing enough... He didn't need to be crying in front of the hologram, too.
Clay may have been his best friend, not something easily replaced, but... having so many others who cared about him, despite all his flaws... it made him rather thankful. It also, admittedly, made him feel rather bad for his utter lack of communication this last week...
Before he could kick himself for such inaction, however, the little object was noticed. Well, he had seen it when it fell, but only focused on it now. From his much higher vantage point, the item looked much more like a simple die, with some sort of odd patterning. The beeping could still be heard, but even something so blatant didn't tip him off.
He hadn't heard anything of the sort before his... recent experience, anyways.]
"...Mm? What's that?"
[Still holding the letter and envelope on one hand, he bent over as much as he could manage to get a better look. A few details came into clearer view, being the holes and the little timer.
A timer? That was what it was, clearly. A timer, and beeping?
His brows furrowed, expression tightening.
No, it... no, he was overreacting. It couldn't be that. It couldn't be.]
[Vaz studies the little thing for a moment longer. A flash of uncertainty causes him to frown.]
"..I.. no, wait a minute.. this.."
[ Vaz started glitching, and a few moments later vanished entirely. The ticking continued. Vaz returned. It seemed.. highly disturbed, visibly trembling(?). It's tone of voice was shocked, somewhat panicked.]
"..Dr. Crescent, you need to leave, something's wr-ong with the a. a. a. air."
[It repeated the word air a few more times before the words faded into an uncomfortable white noise.]
...
[..Vaz had then turned itself off, leaving a strange, darkened patch of air where it'd been glowing moments before.]
[The little die like thing kept beeping. It counted down from 2 minutes. There was a teensy label on it, just above the timer.]
It read, in cutesy lettering,
"Goodnight, Justice. <3"
[It didn't seem like it had just began the countdown. In fact, the little timer showed the original time it'd been set to count down from, which read '1hr, 20mins'. The screen upon which the timer set was dull. It had plenty of scratching on it, like it had been smacked, or ground, against something.]
The air? The air. He sucked in a breath, eyes glancing beck to the object. He stared blankly to it, much too many seconds passing... what did it say, now?
1:00.
One minute.
What was he doing? Now wasn't the time to panic. Standing here like a deer in headlights was only going to get him hurt.
It wasn't like he could dispose of this casually. He needed it out. And far from this building, preferably. He didn't know what it was going to do, anyways. He didn't want to think about it.
...Ah, that's it. A window. Throw it out. Who cared if it hurt someone on the street, all he could think about was self-preservation at this point.
The little object was grabbed off the floor, little care given to the action. Whichever window was nearest to him was just about ran towards, with the man immediately trying to wrestle it open.
If one had ever attempted to open a window in an old building, they would understand his struggle. A solid grip and strength were needed to do so, two things that Apollo was somewhat lacking in at the moment. The little 'die' (a rather fitting name) was set on the sill as he grappled with the window itself, ignoring the aches in his arms the attempts were causing. At least the chill of the outdoors was seeping through, numbing it all to some degree.
[ It beeped again before the screen darkened so that the timer couldn't be seen. It was replaced by a low-res webcam. Someone wanted him dead, and someone was watching him right now. ]
"You're being slow, J-Justice. "
[The person watching him apparently could talk through the little device. They had a stutter, and sounded like that of a young man. Due to the dark screen and low resolution, his face couldn't be made out, though some basic details could be. He had shorter, dark hair. He was also obviously smiling, head resting on his palm, watching.]
[He didn't swear often, really, despite having been through enough in his life to justify doing such a thing. But this... The duress of the situation was getting to him. The little chime, that... that was the breaking point.
And the webcam? It just added to it all.]
"Shut up!", he hissed through his teeth, voice filled with a nervous aggression. "Is... is this necessary?! Really?! Was... sending this thing to me not enough?!"
[His voice cracked, hands faltering for a moment. No, he couldn't get distracted. The person's second line, he forced himself to ignore it, focusing back on the window.
A blast of cold air his his hands, spilling down and over his feet. With a desperate pull, the window went up, clicking into place.
For a moment, he felt relief. But then... the screen. He forgot about the screen.
Muttering curses in both English and some other, much less common language, it was grabbed as well, taking much less strength to wrestle open. But it still took time. Time that he wasn't keeping track of.
As long as he was able, he would keep at it, though.
The screen wasn't lifted that much. But there was enough of a space for the stupid object to be thrown out through. So he grabbed it off the sill in a tight fist, and went to throw it as hard as his battered arm could possibly allow.]
[The person laughed at Apollo. After it'd been tossed out the window, the device landed outside. The timer had been at a staggering 10 seconds before it was tossed. The timer let out a few more beeps before stopping, although it was no longer audible. Some kind of coloured dust came out of the little device, floating upwards. A couple of birds fell out of the nearby tree. The birdsong in the area was silenced. A concerned passerby noticed, walking over. And they fell, too.]
[..It'd been some sort of compressed poison gas bomb. An extremely potent one. A little beep alerted Apollo to a miniature screen on a nearby desk, the person from before staring at him, grinning. It was still too dark and low resolution to tell whom he was.]
"..Glad to s..see you're doing well. You're that astronaut's b-buddy? What was his name.. T..Terran? Ooh, t-that poor guy. Phantom really sent em o-off, heheh."
[He paused, taking a sip of something from a large cup.]
"..Too bad Mr. Phantom is im..p..prisoned now. He woulda been proud, eheh. Ahem."
[The voice was a lot more clearer through this mini-screen's speakers. It sounded that of someone who was no older than 16. It carried a sort of monotone note every time he spoke.]
[It would've been nice to relax the moment the little bomb went flying out the window. No more danger, right?
But his panic... his panic only continued, the man becoming much more aware of it once his focus fell away from the window. When had his heart started beating this quickly? When had his hands started shaking? Was his vision always this dark and unfocused?
He gripped the windowsill and leaned heavily against it, taking in a few choppy breaths as a pained look came upon his face. All of his injuries seemed to burn in unison, the memory of their creation echoing in his mind. It had been an explosion, not poison. But even then, his mind was locked on the thought. He couldn't help it.
The dead birds, the person, they weren't even acknowledged. His brain refused their presence, for the sake of his own sanity.
The sudden noise and voice from his desk did break Apollo's mental loop, making him stumble to face the source, a tight scowl appearing on his face.
"Shut up!", he exclaimed, with little delay. The voice that carried the words shook with strain, but carried a great upset intensity within it. "Don't... talk about him so... so carelessly!"
Even after nearly dying, his first thought was to defend Clay's memory. It wasn't a very surprising action for him, admittedly.
But, the time would come to face the current situation.
"...What do you want with me. What do you want with me?! You... you sick piece of... ugh!"
He stumbled over himself, verbally, as he swayed slightly on his feet. The fact he was still standing at all was a miracle, really, with how utterly sheet-white he looked.
"..p-piece of what, Justice? Eheh. What I want with you.. I dunno. I'm a bit angry. Maybe r-revenge for Mr. Phantom?"
[He tapped on the webcam, adjusting it.]
"..Since Phantom got that loser scientist and your b-buddy Terran, I-I assumed I might as well just finish off the t-trio, yeah? Too bad that little robot bastard freaked out. You'd p-probably be t-twitching on the floor right now."
[The person twirled in their chair.]
"Didn't e-even think you'd have that 'thing', though. Little bastard makes my job harder t-than it already is.. sigh... but, ah, riiight. I h-hear you were bombed recently. How was that? Eheheh."
"...What, is it suddenly my fault that he screwed up?!" Apollo grit his teeth, breath catching in his throat before he continued. "Maybe he shouldn't have gotten so careless!"
Apollo's eyelid twitched before his expression calmed slightly, his gaze losing focus for a moment. On top of everything else, his fury was only straining him more, a wave of dizziness throwing him off for a moment. With nothing better to do, he let himself fall to his knees, giving himself a long moment to recuperate his strength. Thankfully, lowering himself did help, as did the cold air pouring through the window.
It did not remove his anger, however.
Once his mental sharpness had returned, Apollo stared up towards the image, scowling deeply.
"I've... cheated death so many times, did you... really think this would work?"
It almost did. He was keenly aware of that.
"...You failed. How does that feel?"
Strong words for someone kneeling crumpled on the floor, nearly hyperventilating in panic.
At the mention of the bombing, he cringed, giving a silent scowl to the silhouette. His diverted eyes indicated his discomfort with it being brought up well enough.
"Yeah, I'll admit you cheated death o-once again. Heheh. It almost worked. W-wish it did. ...but.."
"You l-look a little un-n..nerved, buddy. Did I u-upset you? Ehe. Poooor little J-Justice. All worked u-up. I admit, you're n-not really at fault.. heh. You're real weak-m..minded though. It's laughable."
[Vaz reappeared, the weird little void replaced by a bright, albiet patchy, glow. It stared at Apollo.]
"..Cres-no, Apollo. You're oka..y?"
[It worriedly stared for a bit longer at Apollo before he noticed the screen. It tensed.]
"..."
[It didn't vanish again, although it was visibly terrified.]
"If... I really was weak-minded, I would've given up on everything a long time ago. I'm... stronger than you, you... failure of a murderer."
[While he spat out the insult, Apollo's bandaged fingers pressed onto the floor, palms flat against it as he kept himself steady. He was certainly tenacious. Or perhaps, did not know when to stop. Most likely, a combination of both.
His uneven fury was interrupted by the flickering of light, eyes darting over as his expression relaxed. The hologram... right, he had almost forgotten. His mind was too frazzled to keep the day's events in order, really.]
"I'm... fine.", he managed to mutter out, a rather obvious lie. He was, however, at least clearly alive.
Once Vaz' attention went to the screen, Apollo's did as well, expression pulling into a tense frown.
What a situation he had found himself in. Holograms, poison, and his own potential murderer. It... It was exhausting, to even simply think about.
[He slow-clapped. His voice was laced with sarcasm.]
"Failure of a murderer, hm? You sound like my f-father. Failure this, failure that. It's a-annoying, really."
[While he spoke Vaz quietly walked over to Apollo. It kept it's gaze on the screen.]
"I'd chat w-with you longer, but.. the p-police are on their way to your h-house. Byebye, Justice. <3"
[The screen turned off and then set itself aflame. It was harmless, though, only leaving a pile of black ash and burning a small hole into the desk it sat on. The flame died almost as soon as it had started.
.. He'd burned the evidence of himself. And probably was the one who called the police. Distantly there were sirens.]
"..Apollo.. we.. should go.. hide, or.. something."
Apollo continued to stare at the spot where the screen had been, a vacant, exhausted look in his eyes. He just wanted to crawl into a corner and pass out, dealing with more was... it was wearing him rather thin, mentally.
"There's... this apartment is tiny. There's nowhere to hide."
His bed had space underneath, sure. But that was painfully obvious. The singular closet was also likely a poor option.
There was one idea, though. He just didn't know how well he could commit to it... this adrenaline rush could only last so long, couldn't it?
"...The sirens, they're... close, but not here. I... I bet I could still run."
[It vanished before becoming a lot larger, about 5'2".]
"..Come on, then."
[It held out a hand to Apollo.]
"I.. um, there was supposed to be an event at the mall nearby. We can get there in time, lots of people to hide in the crowd. Or um, somewhere else."
[Vaz was worried. It knew that the outdoor cameras would have picked up Apollo tossing the poison bomb outside his window.]
"..I also know of a bar underground, near the subway station. It's usually rather empty, except for the server-person and a few customers. They won't kick me out, but.. I don't exactly blend in outside. I'll have to hide in your jacket or something.. um.. I can shut off the cameras temporarily.. let me.. uh."
[It tentatively walked over to the nearest wire. The lights flickered as it touched it, but then came back on. All cameras in a 3 mile radius had become unresponsive.]
Apollo watched Vaz grow in size, an exhausted look in his eyes. It was unbelievable, still, but everything really was. Everything always was.
Why couldn't his life be normal for once?
He reached up, taking the offered hand with a huff before he hoisted himself to his feet.
"Um... an event, right. Blending in... I... god, I look distinctive, don't I? I'll..."
He, after a moment of thought, reached up and just, messed the hell out of his hair. It was a mess, didn't look good at all. But... it certainly made him look less like himself. The jacket, as well, was thrown off, a red buttoned coat grabbed from the back of a chair. He did wear it around, but... less often than his usual outfit, and it was less unique than the GYAXA jacket.
He felt bad leaving it behind. But, it would do little more than cause him more issues, at the moment.
"I have some pockets, just... I don't know. You seem like you have a better handle on this situation than I do!"
He hoped the hologram did. Because... he sure didn't, himself.
[It muttered robotically, mostly to itself. It didn't seem to believe that it did, but it didn't deny it (for Apollo's sake.) It stood still, thinking, before turning to Apollo.]
"Right, let's head out."
[It stayed the same size, staying firmly close to Apollo, apparently worried about the other. It moved further after it kept looking after Apollo, and eventually they'd made it into an alleyway, not too far from the apartment but just enough to where the police would have to search for them in case they arrived.]
"I'll give you a.. er, hold on."
[It summoned a sort of small map, with a red dot in between a few buildings a fair distance away.]
"That's the place. The mall is a little risky, so.. I have decided we will not go there. I'll get in one of your pockets,"
[It changed back to usual size and managed to crawl up and into one of Apollo's pockets.]
"..and.. all we have to do for now, I think, would be head to the bar-place. I'll figure out more on the situation on our way there."
[A police car whizzed by at the exit of the alley, but it thankfully wasn't one of the ones that had been heading to Apollo's apartment. Vaz had tensed but then relaxed when it'd seen it.]
"We shall depart, then."
[The camera in the alleyway was off. Vaz had done it's thing well, it seems.]
"If you would prefer the event at the mall though.."
[It trailed off. A blue dot appeared on the map, at a mall complex nearby.]
\\Appearance rn... I hope my 5 pixel tall attempt at remembering Vaz is sufficient lmao
"...Great. I'll just... I think I know where that is. The street, anyways."
While the mall was more familiar to him, having been there once or twice before... he seemed to trust Vaz' judgment for now. With his mind remaining frazzled by the complex series of events that had just occurred, he didn't trust himself to make too many hard decisions at the moment, anyways.
After making an extra effort to muss up his hair, Apollo started to walk, focusing intently on his pace. Was he going too fast? Walking too stiffly? Were the police looking for him, or just going to the scene? His hand went to his bracelet, not as a reaction, but simply out of nervousness.
Knowing generally the direction he was going, Apollo seemed to walk without much thought, only diverting his course to keep himself to side streets. Sure, he looked different than usual, but still distinctive, and keeping out of sight as much as possible was for the best.
Occasionally, he would glance down at his pocket, checking Vaz. Even if he couldn't see the hologram, it was done, anyways.
His destination didn't change, at all. The bar's location was neared, gradually.
[It said nothing as they traveled, eventually arriving at a stairway, with a few signs nearby advertising a.. bar, THE bar, as well as other places to go.]
"It's just down here."
[Down the stairs was 2 doors, one of them the bar, the other apparently a staff room. The bar door was unlocked, and it opened without even a creak. Inside was a dimly lit bar-room, occupied by two.. three people, including the bartender. The bartender gave Apollo a once-over, eyebrow raised quizzically, but went back to wiping down the bar.]
"We.. you can lie low here."
[The bartender's head turned at the sound of Vaz's little robotic voice.]
"..Good to see you again."
[He said nothing else regarding Vaz. Vaz hadn't even been really visible, considering he was haphazardly tucked into Apollo's pocket.]
"..Over here, sit on the cushioned long-chair.."
[It guided Apollo to a table with a plush sofa, against the back wall. The entire bar was suprisingly.. fancy, for a place that didn't seem to have many customers. The black wallpaper had an odd texture, flecks of the print reflecting the dim lighting of the modern-style chandelier surrounded by abstract, triangular wood sculptures hanging from the ceiling. There was a few framed photos of unrecognized musicians, and some colorful bottles with lights placed inside, purely decorative.]
[The two that were in the bar with Apollo and Vaz were silent, and had appeared to ignore them. One was a man and the other a woman. They looked related.]
"Well then. you okay?"
[Vaz questioned Apollo quietly once he'd settled on the sofa, getting out of his pocket and managing to hop onto the table, sitting so it's legs dangled off the edge. The bartender kept his eye on them. It was usual behaviour, since generally you'd expect visitors to buy a drink.]
To say the least, Apollo was way, way out of his league, here.
To be frank, he barely even went to bars in the first place. But this? This was... way more... more everything. Fancier, high-end, whatever. Everything exuded a sense of expensive exclusivity. He certainly didn't belong. Had the mall been that bad of an idea, really?
After getting over that crisis, he glanced around, taking in as much of his surroundings that he deemed important. Which wasn't much, aside from the people present. The comment towards him (or Vaz, really) had been unnerving, but considering no one seemed to heavily mind the hologram's presence, he decided to not care for now.
Relaxing back into the chair with a resigned sigh, Apollo took a glance down at Vaz, scrunching his face up a little.
"Well...", he muttered quietly, "...I... guess I'm okay. Physically. But, I'm just... what is this, exactly?"
"What is.. ah. I don't really know, to be honest. Dr. Crescent took me here a few times, and that's all I know about it really."
"..and. About how long we should hide.."
[It took a few moments.]
"For a while here, but only temporarily.. and maybe a week elsewhere. Unless you want to go to the police, where you'll probably interrogated. And put on trial.. but. I don't know what.. that guy is planning."
[Vaz shivered. It was clear they didn't like that poison bomber.]
"Anyway. You thirsty or anything? They sell non-alcoholic liquids here, if you'd like one. I'd buy one myself... but, eh, you know. And.. I.. also sort of would like to not be stared at by the server-guy."
[It shrugged, fiddling with a lemon-flavoured salt shaker. It seemed to be used to put around the rim of drinks. The lid had a sort of glittery texture on it, which Vaz seemed to like.]
ongoing rp chain with @surging-eyes-seeing-through
(I dunno how to link parts, but this is part 3)
"..Yeah. and.. I can change my height if needed. This size is most efficient and I can maintain it indefinitely, unlike larger sizes. But I don't need to be big to cook."
[Vaz shrugs. It sways a little, back and forth.]
"There's also plenty of stuff i can cook at my size anyway. Minus.. anything that requires toasters. I tend to accidentally break them somehow."
[It leaned back before hopping laggily onto the floor, landing in silence.]
"And I refuse to fry things. Grease makes me feel icky, even if it just goes right through me."
"...Well, thankfully, I don't have a fryer. I do have a toaster, but... if I really wanted toast, that's easy enough to make myself."
[Apollo hoisted himself back to his feet, giving a half-hearted stretch as he kept an eye on Vaz. After rubbing his eyes, ridding them of some of the last bits of sadness from earlier, he turned towards the doorway.]
"Though... ah. Don't feel like you need to cook for me, really." [An awkward glance was shot to the side.] "You are basically a stranger... I don't want to rope you into anything like this, you know? I just think it's impolite."
[It.. sort of copied Apollo, stretching. Although an action like that would be unnecessary for a hologram.]
"..I mean, I am already technically 'roped in' since my signals are still jammed."
[Vaz let his arms drop to his sides, before crossing them the way a parent would, shifting it's weight to the left. It's tone of voice was a bit more serious now.]
"..I assume you've at least done your dishes so you can eat? I'm pretty sure you were cleaning when I arrived... albeit most of your housing is still a mess."
[It shot a curious glance to an awfully messy stack of mail, the small pile located just off the foot of the bed, slightly hidden under some misplaced laundry. Some of it was simply junk mail, and.. one, brightly colored, was from the WAA members. Vaz stared for a moment at the colorful packaging of the letter, before returning it's quizzical gaze to Apollo.]
"I mean... sure, yeah. I can do it myself." [He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, before continuing.] "...And, that's right. signals... I can try to figure out what it'd be that's keeping you here, since I doubt you want to be stuck here forever. I just wouldn't know where to start, really."
[He had watched as Vaz stretched, raising a brow momentarily before his face returned to its usual neutral look. At the note regarding the state of his apartment, his expression shifted again, his eyes diverting as his mouth pulled back into an awkward half-smile.]
"Okay, well... I have at least one set of clean dishes, I know that."
[Speaking nothing of all of the dirty ones.]
"I've, you know. Just started, ah... getting my shit together, I guess you could say. I'm still catching up."
[Even talking about this to the equivalent of a little computer, it made Apollo thoroughly embarrassed. Even as he tried not to show it, his ears had gone red, the man partially trying to distract himself by bending down and plucking the colorful letter off the pile.
He should've opened it the moment he got it. He knew that. But, he just... hadn't felt like it. Better late than never, right? He thought to himself, as the envelope was idly torn open.]
[The letter was a loving mess. Inside was one of those stupid, cheesy, yet heartfelt "get-well-soon" cards. Written in it were a couple of words of encouragement. Even Klavier had written something—even though it was written exactly how he talks, albiet a bit messy.. Trucy'd drawn a little smiley face where she'd written, 'Get better fast, 'polly!' And, written by that was a curt get better soon, signed off by Phoenix. Athena simply had doodled a stickman with a hat of flowers. (..Juniper, maybe?) ]
[..Klavier's looked as though he'd been hesitant to write. But it was written somewhat neat enough to be legible, the letters scrawled out upon the page to form "Herr Forehead, " followed by an oddly large empty space, "..get better soon, ja?"]
[The letter itself was decorated everywhere someone had not written. Decorated in stickers, specifically, and abstract marker doodling. Probably something Trucy did, considering most of the stickers were magic related. A corner of the upper left seemed slightly damaged by.. drops of water, and had been covered up with more stickers. It looked a bit crinkled there comparing to the rest of it. Someone probably missed Apollo.]
[The packaging Apollo had torn off fell to the ground with a slight 'clink' sound, heavier than paper. It was then that a small object rolled out of the damaged packaging. It.. didn't seem to belong in the package, nor have anything to do with the WAA. Vaz seemed intrigued. The object was shaped like an average D-20, but instead of numbers there was a teeny timer on one side and the rest of the sides had odd holes closed by some sorts of mesh. It was blue, the mesh black.]
"Yeah.. ah..?"
[It was beeping. A quiet, yet awful, noise.]
"...That's.. familiar.."
[..Vaz obviously didn't like that noise, visibly tense. It vaguely reminded it of something. It.. couldn't quite put it's finger on it, however.]
[For a brief moment, Apollo's eyes were able to scan the letter, a variety of emotions flashing across his face. He knew everyone cared, he really did, but seeing it all written plainly before him... it almost brought a tear to his eye.
Well, it did.
But he wiped it away as quick as he could. Being non-functional was embarrassing enough... He didn't need to be crying in front of the hologram, too.
Clay may have been his best friend, not something easily replaced, but... having so many others who cared about him, despite all his flaws... it made him rather thankful. It also, admittedly, made him feel rather bad for his utter lack of communication this last week...
Before he could kick himself for such inaction, however, the little object was noticed. Well, he had seen it when it fell, but only focused on it now. From his much higher vantage point, the item looked much more like a simple die, with some sort of odd patterning. The beeping could still be heard, but even something so blatant didn't tip him off.
He hadn't heard anything of the sort before his... recent experience, anyways.]
"...Mm? What's that?"
[Still holding the letter and envelope on one hand, he bent over as much as he could manage to get a better look. A few details came into clearer view, being the holes and the little timer.
A timer? That was what it was, clearly. A timer, and beeping?
His brows furrowed, expression tightening.
No, it... no, he was overreacting. It couldn't be that. It couldn't be.]
[Vaz studies the little thing for a moment longer. A flash of uncertainty causes him to frown.]
"..I.. no, wait a minute.. this.."
[ Vaz started glitching, and a few moments later vanished entirely. The ticking continued. Vaz returned. It seemed.. highly disturbed, visibly trembling(?). It's tone of voice was shocked, somewhat panicked.]
"..Dr. Crescent, you need to leave, something's wr-ong with the a. a. a. air."
[It repeated the word air a few more times before the words faded into an uncomfortable white noise.]
...
[..Vaz had then turned itself off, leaving a strange, darkened patch of air where it'd been glowing moments before.]
[The little die like thing kept beeping. It counted down from 2 minutes. There was a teensy label on it, just above the timer.]
It read, in cutesy lettering,
"Goodnight, Justice. <3"
[It didn't seem like it had just began the countdown. In fact, the little timer showed the original time it'd been set to count down from, which read '1hr, 20mins'. The screen upon which the timer set was dull. It had plenty of scratching on it, like it had been smacked, or ground, against something.]
The air? The air. He sucked in a breath, eyes glancing beck to the object. He stared blankly to it, much too many seconds passing... what did it say, now?
1:00.
One minute.
What was he doing? Now wasn't the time to panic. Standing here like a deer in headlights was only going to get him hurt.
It wasn't like he could dispose of this casually. He needed it out. And far from this building, preferably. He didn't know what it was going to do, anyways. He didn't want to think about it.
...Ah, that's it. A window. Throw it out. Who cared if it hurt someone on the street, all he could think about was self-preservation at this point.
The little object was grabbed off the floor, little care given to the action. Whichever window was nearest to him was just about ran towards, with the man immediately trying to wrestle it open.
If one had ever attempted to open a window in an old building, they would understand his struggle. A solid grip and strength were needed to do so, two things that Apollo was somewhat lacking in at the moment. The little 'die' (a rather fitting name) was set on the sill as he grappled with the window itself, ignoring the aches in his arms the attempts were causing. At least the chill of the outdoors was seeping through, numbing it all to some degree.
[ It beeped again before the screen darkened so that the timer couldn't be seen. It was replaced by a low-res webcam. Someone wanted him dead, and someone was watching him right now. ]
"You're being slow, J-Justice. "
[The person watching him apparently could talk through the little device. They had a stutter, and sounded like that of a young man. Due to the dark screen and low resolution, his face couldn't be made out, though some basic details could be. He had shorter, dark hair. He was also obviously smiling, head resting on his palm, watching.]
[He didn't swear often, really, despite having been through enough in his life to justify doing such a thing. But this... The duress of the situation was getting to him. The little chime, that... that was the breaking point.
And the webcam? It just added to it all.]
"Shut up!", he hissed through his teeth, voice filled with a nervous aggression. "Is... is this necessary?! Really?! Was... sending this thing to me not enough?!"
[His voice cracked, hands faltering for a moment. No, he couldn't get distracted. The person's second line, he forced himself to ignore it, focusing back on the window.
A blast of cold air his his hands, spilling down and over his feet. With a desperate pull, the window went up, clicking into place.
For a moment, he felt relief. But then... the screen. He forgot about the screen.
Muttering curses in both English and some other, much less common language, it was grabbed as well, taking much less strength to wrestle open. But it still took time. Time that he wasn't keeping track of.
As long as he was able, he would keep at it, though.
The screen wasn't lifted that much. But there was enough of a space for the stupid object to be thrown out through. So he grabbed it off the sill in a tight fist, and went to throw it as hard as his battered arm could possibly allow.]
[The person laughed at Apollo. After it'd been tossed out the window, the device landed outside. The timer had been at a staggering 10 seconds before it was tossed. The timer let out a few more beeps before stopping, although it was no longer audible. Some kind of coloured dust came out of the little device, floating upwards. A couple of birds fell out of the nearby tree. The birdsong in the area was silenced. A concerned passerby noticed, walking over. And they fell, too.]
[..It'd been some sort of compressed poison gas bomb. An extremely potent one. A little beep alerted Apollo to a miniature screen on a nearby desk, the person from before staring at him, grinning. It was still too dark and low resolution to tell whom he was.]
"..Glad to s..see you're doing well. You're that astronaut's b-buddy? What was his name.. T..Terran? Ooh, t-that poor guy. Phantom really sent em o-off, heheh."
[He paused, taking a sip of something from a large cup.]
"..Too bad Mr. Phantom is im..p..prisoned now. He woulda been proud, eheh. Ahem."
[The voice was a lot more clearer through this mini-screen's speakers. It sounded that of someone who was no older than 16. It carried a sort of monotone note every time he spoke.]
[It would've been nice to relax the moment the little bomb went flying out the window. No more danger, right?
But his panic... his panic only continued, the man becoming much more aware of it once his focus fell away from the window. When had his heart started beating this quickly? When had his hands started shaking? Was his vision always this dark and unfocused?
He gripped the windowsill and leaned heavily against it, taking in a few choppy breaths as a pained look came upon his face. All of his injuries seemed to burn in unison, the memory of their creation echoing in his mind. It had been an explosion, not poison. But even then, his mind was locked on the thought. He couldn't help it.
The dead birds, the person, they weren't even acknowledged. His brain refused their presence, for the sake of his own sanity.
The sudden noise and voice from his desk did break Apollo's mental loop, making him stumble to face the source, a tight scowl appearing on his face.
"Shut up!", he exclaimed, with little delay. The voice that carried the words shook with strain, but carried a great upset intensity within it. "Don't... talk about him so... so carelessly!"
Even after nearly dying, his first thought was to defend Clay's memory. It wasn't a very surprising action for him, admittedly.
But, the time would come to face the current situation.
"...What do you want with me. What do you want with me?! You... you sick piece of... ugh!"
He stumbled over himself, verbally, as he swayed slightly on his feet. The fact he was still standing at all was a miracle, really, with how utterly sheet-white he looked.
"..p-piece of what, Justice? Eheh. What I want with you.. I dunno. I'm a bit angry. Maybe r-revenge for Mr. Phantom?"
[He tapped on the webcam, adjusting it.]
"..Since Phantom got that loser scientist and your b-buddy Terran, I-I assumed I might as well just finish off the t-trio, yeah? Too bad that little robot bastard freaked out. You'd p-probably be t-twitching on the floor right now."
[The person twirled in their chair.]
"Didn't e-even think you'd have that 'thing', though. Little bastard makes my job harder t-than it already is.. sigh... but, ah, riiight. I h-hear you were bombed recently. How was that? Eheheh."
"...What, is it suddenly my fault that he screwed up?!" Apollo grit his teeth, breath catching in his throat before he continued. "Maybe he shouldn't have gotten so careless!"
Apollo's eyelid twitched before his expression calmed slightly, his gaze losing focus for a moment. On top of everything else, his fury was only straining him more, a wave of dizziness throwing him off for a moment. With nothing better to do, he let himself fall to his knees, giving himself a long moment to recuperate his strength. Thankfully, lowering himself did help, as did the cold air pouring through the window.
It did not remove his anger, however.
Once his mental sharpness had returned, Apollo stared up towards the image, scowling deeply.
"I've... cheated death so many times, did you... really think this would work?"
It almost did. He was keenly aware of that.
"...You failed. How does that feel?"
Strong words for someone kneeling crumpled on the floor, nearly hyperventilating in panic.
At the mention of the bombing, he cringed, giving a silent scowl to the silhouette. His diverted eyes indicated his discomfort with it being brought up well enough.
"Yeah, I'll admit you cheated death o-once again. Heheh. It almost worked. W-wish it did. ...but.."
"You l-look a little un-n..nerved, buddy. Did I u-upset you? Ehe. Poooor little J-Justice. All worked u-up. I admit, you're n-not really at fault.. heh. You're real weak-m..minded though. It's laughable."
[Vaz reappeared, the weird little void replaced by a bright, albiet patchy, glow. It stared at Apollo.]
"..Cres-no, Apollo. You're oka..y?"
[It worriedly stared for a bit longer at Apollo before he noticed the screen. It tensed.]
"..."
[It didn't vanish again, although it was visibly terrified.]
"If... I really was weak-minded, I would've given up on everything a long time ago. I'm... stronger than you, you... failure of a murderer."
[While he spat out the insult, Apollo's bandaged fingers pressed onto the floor, palms flat against it as he kept himself steady. He was certainly tenacious. Or perhaps, did not know when to stop. Most likely, a combination of both.
His uneven fury was interrupted by the flickering of light, eyes darting over as his expression relaxed. The hologram... right, he had almost forgotten. His mind was too frazzled to keep the day's events in order, really.]
"I'm... fine.", he managed to mutter out, a rather obvious lie. He was, however, at least clearly alive.
Once Vaz' attention went to the screen, Apollo's did as well, expression pulling into a tense frown.
What a situation he had found himself in. Holograms, poison, and his own potential murderer. It... It was exhausting, to even simply think about.
[He slow-clapped. His voice was laced with sarcasm.]
"Failure of a murderer, hm? You sound like my f-father. Failure this, failure that. It's a-annoying, really."
[While he spoke Vaz quietly walked over to Apollo. It kept it's gaze on the screen.]
"I'd chat w-with you longer, but.. the p-police are on their way to your h-house. Byebye, Justice. <3"
[The screen turned off and then set itself aflame. It was harmless, though, only leaving a pile of black ash and burning a small hole into the desk it sat on. The flame died almost as soon as it had started.
.. He'd burned the evidence of himself. And probably was the one who called the police. Distantly there were sirens.]
"..Apollo.. we.. should go.. hide, or.. something."
Apollo continued to stare at the spot where the screen had been, a vacant, exhausted look in his eyes. He just wanted to crawl into a corner and pass out, dealing with more was... it was wearing him rather thin, mentally.
"There's... this apartment is tiny. There's nowhere to hide."
His bed had space underneath, sure. But that was painfully obvious. The singular closet was also likely a poor option.
There was one idea, though. He just didn't know how well he could commit to it... this adrenaline rush could only last so long, couldn't it?
"...The sirens, they're... close, but not here. I... I bet I could still run."
[It vanished before becoming a lot larger, about 5'2".]
"..Come on, then."
[It held out a hand to Apollo.]
"I.. um, there was supposed to be an event at the mall nearby. We can get there in time, lots of people to hide in the crowd. Or um, somewhere else."
[Vaz was worried. It knew that the outdoor cameras would have picked up Apollo tossing the poison bomb outside his window.]
"..I also know of a bar underground, near the subway station. It's usually rather empty, except for the server-person and a few customers. They won't kick me out, but.. I don't exactly blend in outside. I'll have to hide in your jacket or something.. um.. I can shut off the cameras temporarily.. let me.. uh."
[It tentatively walked over to the nearest wire. The lights flickered as it touched it, but then came back on. All cameras in a 3 mile radius had become unresponsive.]
Apollo watched Vaz grow in size, an exhausted look in his eyes. It was unbelievable, still, but everything really was. Everything always was.
Why couldn't his life be normal for once?
He reached up, taking the offered hand with a huff before he hoisted himself to his feet.
"Um... an event, right. Blending in... I... god, I look distinctive, don't I? I'll..."
He, after a moment of thought, reached up and just, messed the hell out of his hair. It was a mess, didn't look good at all. But... it certainly made him look less like himself. The jacket, as well, was thrown off, a red buttoned coat grabbed from the back of a chair. He did wear it around, but... less often than his usual outfit, and it was less unique than the GYAXA jacket.
He felt bad leaving it behind. But, it would do little more than cause him more issues, at the moment.
"I have some pockets, just... I don't know. You seem like you have a better handle on this situation than I do!"
He hoped the hologram did. Because... he sure didn't, himself.
[It muttered robotically, mostly to itself. It didn't seem to believe that it did, but it didn't deny it (for Apollo's sake.) It stood still, thinking, before turning to Apollo.]
"Right, let's head out."
[It stayed the same size, staying firmly close to Apollo, apparently worried about the other. It moved further after it kept looking after Apollo, and eventually they'd made it into an alleyway, not too far from the apartment but just enough to where the police would have to search for them in case they arrived.]
"I'll give you a.. er, hold on."
[It summoned a sort of small map, with a red dot in between a few buildings a fair distance away.]
"That's the place. The mall is a little risky, so.. I have decided we will not go there. I'll get in one of your pockets,"
[It changed back to usual size and managed to crawl up and into one of Apollo's pockets.]
"..and.. all we have to do for now, I think, would be head to the bar-place. I'll figure out more on the situation on our way there."
[A police car whizzed by at the exit of the alley, but it thankfully wasn't one of the ones that had been heading to Apollo's apartment. Vaz had tensed but then relaxed when it'd seen it.]
"We shall depart, then."
[The camera in the alleyway was off. Vaz had done it's thing well, it seems.]
"If you would prefer the event at the mall though.."
[It trailed off. A blue dot appeared on the map, at a mall complex nearby.]
\\Appearance rn... I hope my 5 pixel tall attempt at remembering Vaz is sufficient lmao
"...Great. I'll just... I think I know where that is. The street, anyways."
While the mall was more familiar to him, having been there once or twice before... he seemed to trust Vaz' judgment for now. With his mind remaining frazzled by the complex series of events that had just occurred, he didn't trust himself to make too many hard decisions at the moment, anyways.
After making an extra effort to muss up his hair, Apollo started to walk, focusing intently on his pace. Was he going too fast? Walking too stiffly? Were the police looking for him, or just going to the scene? His hand went to his bracelet, not as a reaction, but simply out of nervousness.
Knowing generally the direction he was going, Apollo seemed to walk without much thought, only diverting his course to keep himself to side streets. Sure, he looked different than usual, but still distinctive, and keeping out of sight as much as possible was for the best.
Occasionally, he would glance down at his pocket, checking Vaz. Even if he couldn't see the hologram, it was done, anyways.
His destination didn't change, at all. The bar's location was neared, gradually.
[It said nothing as they traveled, eventually arriving at a stairway, with a few signs nearby advertising a.. bar, THE bar, as well as other places to go.]
"It's just down here."
[Down the stairs was 2 doors, one of them the bar, the other apparently a staff room. The bar door was unlocked, and it opened without even a creak. Inside was a dimly lit bar-room, occupied by two.. three people, including the bartender. The bartender gave Apollo a once-over, eyebrow raised quizzically, but went back to wiping down the bar.]
"We.. you can lie low here."
[The bartender's head turned at the sound of Vaz's little robotic voice.]
"..Good to see you again."
[He said nothing else regarding Vaz. Vaz hadn't even been really visible, considering he was haphazardly tucked into Apollo's pocket.]
"..Over here, sit on the cushioned long-chair.."
[It guided Apollo to a table with a plush sofa, against the back wall. The entire bar was suprisingly.. fancy, for a place that didn't seem to have many customers. The black wallpaper had an odd texture, flecks of the print reflecting the dim lighting of the modern-style chandelier surrounded by abstract, triangular wood sculptures hanging from the ceiling. There was a few framed photos of unrecognized musicians, and some colorful bottles with lights placed inside, purely decorative.]
[The two that were in the bar with Apollo and Vaz were silent, and had appeared to ignore them. One was a man and the other a woman. They looked related.]
"Well then. you okay?"
[Vaz questioned Apollo quietly once he'd settled on the sofa, getting out of his pocket and managing to hop onto the table, sitting so it's legs dangled off the edge. The bartender kept his eye on them. It was usual behaviour, since generally you'd expect visitors to buy a drink.]
ongoing rp chain with @surging-eyes-seeing-through
(I dunno how to link parts, but this is part 3)
"..Yeah. and.. I can change my height if needed. This size is most efficient and I can maintain it indefinitely, unlike larger sizes. But I don't need to be big to cook."
[Vaz shrugs. It sways a little, back and forth.]
"There's also plenty of stuff i can cook at my size anyway. Minus.. anything that requires toasters. I tend to accidentally break them somehow."
[It leaned back before hopping laggily onto the floor, landing in silence.]
"And I refuse to fry things. Grease makes me feel icky, even if it just goes right through me."
"...Well, thankfully, I don't have a fryer. I do have a toaster, but... if I really wanted toast, that's easy enough to make myself."
[Apollo hoisted himself back to his feet, giving a half-hearted stretch as he kept an eye on Vaz. After rubbing his eyes, ridding them of some of the last bits of sadness from earlier, he turned towards the doorway.]
"Though... ah. Don't feel like you need to cook for me, really." [An awkward glance was shot to the side.] "You are basically a stranger... I don't want to rope you into anything like this, you know? I just think it's impolite."
[It.. sort of copied Apollo, stretching. Although an action like that would be unnecessary for a hologram.]
"..I mean, I am already technically 'roped in' since my signals are still jammed."
[Vaz let his arms drop to his sides, before crossing them the way a parent would, shifting it's weight to the left. It's tone of voice was a bit more serious now.]
"..I assume you've at least done your dishes so you can eat? I'm pretty sure you were cleaning when I arrived... albeit most of your housing is still a mess."
[It shot a curious glance to an awfully messy stack of mail, the small pile located just off the foot of the bed, slightly hidden under some misplaced laundry. Some of it was simply junk mail, and.. one, brightly colored, was from the WAA members. Vaz stared for a moment at the colorful packaging of the letter, before returning it's quizzical gaze to Apollo.]
"I mean... sure, yeah. I can do it myself." [He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, before continuing.] "...And, that's right. signals... I can try to figure out what it'd be that's keeping you here, since I doubt you want to be stuck here forever. I just wouldn't know where to start, really."
[He had watched as Vaz stretched, raising a brow momentarily before his face returned to its usual neutral look. At the note regarding the state of his apartment, his expression shifted again, his eyes diverting as his mouth pulled back into an awkward half-smile.]
"Okay, well... I have at least one set of clean dishes, I know that."
[Speaking nothing of all of the dirty ones.]
"I've, you know. Just started, ah... getting my shit together, I guess you could say. I'm still catching up."
[Even talking about this to the equivalent of a little computer, it made Apollo thoroughly embarrassed. Even as he tried not to show it, his ears had gone red, the man partially trying to distract himself by bending down and plucking the colorful letter off the pile.
He should've opened it the moment he got it. He knew that. But, he just... hadn't felt like it. Better late than never, right? He thought to himself, as the envelope was idly torn open.]
[The letter was a loving mess. Inside was one of those stupid, cheesy, yet heartfelt "get-well-soon" cards. Written in it were a couple of words of encouragement. Even Klavier had written something—even though it was written exactly how he talks, albiet a bit messy.. Trucy'd drawn a little smiley face where she'd written, 'Get better fast, 'polly!' And, written by that was a curt get better soon, signed off by Phoenix. Athena simply had doodled a stickman with a hat of flowers. (..Juniper, maybe?) ]
[..Klavier's looked as though he'd been hesitant to write. But it was written somewhat neat enough to be legible, the letters scrawled out upon the page to form "Herr Forehead, " followed by an oddly large empty space, "..get better soon, ja?"]
[The letter itself was decorated everywhere someone had not written. Decorated in stickers, specifically, and abstract marker doodling. Probably something Trucy did, considering most of the stickers were magic related. A corner of the upper left seemed slightly damaged by.. drops of water, and had been covered up with more stickers. It looked a bit crinkled there comparing to the rest of it. Someone probably missed Apollo.]
[The packaging Apollo had torn off fell to the ground with a slight 'clink' sound, heavier than paper. It was then that a small object rolled out of the damaged packaging. It.. didn't seem to belong in the package, nor have anything to do with the WAA. Vaz seemed intrigued. The object was shaped like an average D-20, but instead of numbers there was a teeny timer on one side and the rest of the sides had odd holes closed by some sorts of mesh. It was blue, the mesh black.]
"Yeah.. ah..?"
[It was beeping. A quiet, yet awful, noise.]
"...That's.. familiar.."
[..Vaz obviously didn't like that noise, visibly tense. It vaguely reminded it of something. It.. couldn't quite put it's finger on it, however.]
[For a brief moment, Apollo's eyes were able to scan the letter, a variety of emotions flashing across his face. He knew everyone cared, he really did, but seeing it all written plainly before him... it almost brought a tear to his eye.
Well, it did.
But he wiped it away as quick as he could. Being non-functional was embarrassing enough... He didn't need to be crying in front of the hologram, too.
Clay may have been his best friend, not something easily replaced, but... having so many others who cared about him, despite all his flaws... it made him rather thankful. It also, admittedly, made him feel rather bad for his utter lack of communication this last week...
Before he could kick himself for such inaction, however, the little object was noticed. Well, he had seen it when it fell, but only focused on it now. From his much higher vantage point, the item looked much more like a simple die, with some sort of odd patterning. The beeping could still be heard, but even something so blatant didn't tip him off.
He hadn't heard anything of the sort before his... recent experience, anyways.]
"...Mm? What's that?"
[Still holding the letter and envelope on one hand, he bent over as much as he could manage to get a better look. A few details came into clearer view, being the holes and the little timer.
A timer? That was what it was, clearly. A timer, and beeping?
His brows furrowed, expression tightening.
No, it... no, he was overreacting. It couldn't be that. It couldn't be.]
[Vaz studies the little thing for a moment longer. A flash of uncertainty causes him to frown.]
"..I.. no, wait a minute.. this.."
[ Vaz started glitching, and a few moments later vanished entirely. The ticking continued. Vaz returned. It seemed.. highly disturbed, visibly trembling(?). It's tone of voice was shocked, somewhat panicked.]
"..Dr. Crescent, you need to leave, something's wr-ong with the a. a. a. air."
[It repeated the word air a few more times before the words faded into an uncomfortable white noise.]
...
[..Vaz had then turned itself off, leaving a strange, darkened patch of air where it'd been glowing moments before.]
[The little die like thing kept beeping. It counted down from 2 minutes. There was a teensy label on it, just above the timer.]
It read, in cutesy lettering,
"Goodnight, Justice. <3"
[It didn't seem like it had just began the countdown. In fact, the little timer showed the original time it'd been set to count down from, which read '1hr, 20mins'. The screen upon which the timer set was dull. It had plenty of scratching on it, like it had been smacked, or ground, against something.]
The air? The air. He sucked in a breath, eyes glancing beck to the object. He stared blankly to it, much too many seconds passing... what did it say, now?
1:00.
One minute.
What was he doing? Now wasn't the time to panic. Standing here like a deer in headlights was only going to get him hurt.
It wasn't like he could dispose of this casually. He needed it out. And far from this building, preferably. He didn't know what it was going to do, anyways. He didn't want to think about it.
...Ah, that's it. A window. Throw it out. Who cared if it hurt someone on the street, all he could think about was self-preservation at this point.
The little object was grabbed off the floor, little care given to the action. Whichever window was nearest to him was just about ran towards, with the man immediately trying to wrestle it open.
If one had ever attempted to open a window in an old building, they would understand his struggle. A solid grip and strength were needed to do so, two things that Apollo was somewhat lacking in at the moment. The little 'die' (a rather fitting name) was set on the sill as he grappled with the window itself, ignoring the aches in his arms the attempts were causing. At least the chill of the outdoors was seeping through, numbing it all to some degree.
[ It beeped again before the screen darkened so that the timer couldn't be seen. It was replaced by a low-res webcam. Someone wanted him dead, and someone was watching him right now. ]
"You're being slow, J-Justice. "
[The person watching him apparently could talk through the little device. They had a stutter, and sounded like that of a young man. Due to the dark screen and low resolution, his face couldn't be made out, though some basic details could be. He had shorter, dark hair. He was also obviously smiling, head resting on his palm, watching.]
[He didn't swear often, really, despite having been through enough in his life to justify doing such a thing. But this... The duress of the situation was getting to him. The little chime, that... that was the breaking point.
And the webcam? It just added to it all.]
"Shut up!", he hissed through his teeth, voice filled with a nervous aggression. "Is... is this necessary?! Really?! Was... sending this thing to me not enough?!"
[His voice cracked, hands faltering for a moment. No, he couldn't get distracted. The person's second line, he forced himself to ignore it, focusing back on the window.
A blast of cold air his his hands, spilling down and over his feet. With a desperate pull, the window went up, clicking into place.
For a moment, he felt relief. But then... the screen. He forgot about the screen.
Muttering curses in both English and some other, much less common language, it was grabbed as well, taking much less strength to wrestle open. But it still took time. Time that he wasn't keeping track of.
As long as he was able, he would keep at it, though.
The screen wasn't lifted that much. But there was enough of a space for the stupid object to be thrown out through. So he grabbed it off the sill in a tight fist, and went to throw it as hard as his battered arm could possibly allow.]
[The person laughed at Apollo. After it'd been tossed out the window, the device landed outside. The timer had been at a staggering 10 seconds before it was tossed. The timer let out a few more beeps before stopping, although it was no longer audible. Some kind of coloured dust came out of the little device, floating upwards. A couple of birds fell out of the nearby tree. The birdsong in the area was silenced. A concerned passerby noticed, walking over. And they fell, too.]
[..It'd been some sort of compressed poison gas bomb. An extremely potent one. A little beep alerted Apollo to a miniature screen on a nearby desk, the person from before staring at him, grinning. It was still too dark and low resolution to tell whom he was.]
"..Glad to s..see you're doing well. You're that astronaut's b-buddy? What was his name.. T..Terran? Ooh, t-that poor guy. Phantom really sent em o-off, heheh."
[He paused, taking a sip of something from a large cup.]
"..Too bad Mr. Phantom is im..p..prisoned now. He woulda been proud, eheh. Ahem."
[The voice was a lot more clearer through this mini-screen's speakers. It sounded that of someone who was no older than 16. It carried a sort of monotone note every time he spoke.]
[It would've been nice to relax the moment the little bomb went flying out the window. No more danger, right?
But his panic... his panic only continued, the man becoming much more aware of it once his focus fell away from the window. When had his heart started beating this quickly? When had his hands started shaking? Was his vision always this dark and unfocused?
He gripped the windowsill and leaned heavily against it, taking in a few choppy breaths as a pained look came upon his face. All of his injuries seemed to burn in unison, the memory of their creation echoing in his mind. It had been an explosion, not poison. But even then, his mind was locked on the thought. He couldn't help it.
The dead birds, the person, they weren't even acknowledged. His brain refused their presence, for the sake of his own sanity.
The sudden noise and voice from his desk did break Apollo's mental loop, making him stumble to face the source, a tight scowl appearing on his face.
"Shut up!", he exclaimed, with little delay. The voice that carried the words shook with strain, but carried a great upset intensity within it. "Don't... talk about him so... so carelessly!"
Even after nearly dying, his first thought was to defend Clay's memory. It wasn't a very surprising action for him, admittedly.
But, the time would come to face the current situation.
"...What do you want with me. What do you want with me?! You... you sick piece of... ugh!"
He stumbled over himself, verbally, as he swayed slightly on his feet. The fact he was still standing at all was a miracle, really, with how utterly sheet-white he looked.
"..p-piece of what, Justice? Eheh. What I want with you.. I dunno. I'm a bit angry. Maybe r-revenge for Mr. Phantom?"
[He tapped on the webcam, adjusting it.]
"..Since Phantom got that loser scientist and your b-buddy Terran, I-I assumed I might as well just finish off the t-trio, yeah? Too bad that little robot bastard freaked out. You'd p-probably be t-twitching on the floor right now."
[The person twirled in their chair.]
"Didn't e-even think you'd have that 'thing', though. Little bastard makes my job harder t-than it already is.. sigh... but, ah, riiight. I h-hear you were bombed recently. How was that? Eheheh."
"...What, is it suddenly my fault that he screwed up?!" Apollo grit his teeth, breath catching in his throat before he continued. "Maybe he shouldn't have gotten so careless!"
Apollo's eyelid twitched before his expression calmed slightly, his gaze losing focus for a moment. On top of everything else, his fury was only straining him more, a wave of dizziness throwing him off for a moment. With nothing better to do, he let himself fall to his knees, giving himself a long moment to recuperate his strength. Thankfully, lowering himself did help, as did the cold air pouring through the window.
It did not remove his anger, however.
Once his mental sharpness had returned, Apollo stared up towards the image, scowling deeply.
"I've... cheated death so many times, did you... really think this would work?"
It almost did. He was keenly aware of that.
"...You failed. How does that feel?"
Strong words for someone kneeling crumpled on the floor, nearly hyperventilating in panic.
At the mention of the bombing, he cringed, giving a silent scowl to the silhouette. His diverted eyes indicated his discomfort with it being brought up well enough.
"Yeah, I'll admit you cheated death o-once again. Heheh. It almost worked. W-wish it did. ...but.."
"You l-look a little un-n..nerved, buddy. Did I u-upset you? Ehe. Poooor little J-Justice. All worked u-up. I admit, you're n-not really at fault.. heh. You're real weak-m..minded though. It's laughable."
[Vaz reappeared, the weird little void replaced by a bright, albiet patchy, glow. It stared at Apollo.]
"..Cres-no, Apollo. You're oka..y?"
[It worriedly stared for a bit longer at Apollo before he noticed the screen. It tensed.]
"..."
[It didn't vanish again, although it was visibly terrified.]
"If... I really was weak-minded, I would've given up on everything a long time ago. I'm... stronger than you, you... failure of a murderer."
[While he spat out the insult, Apollo's bandaged fingers pressed onto the floor, palms flat against it as he kept himself steady. He was certainly tenacious. Or perhaps, did not know when to stop. Most likely, a combination of both.
His uneven fury was interrupted by the flickering of light, eyes darting over as his expression relaxed. The hologram... right, he had almost forgotten. His mind was too frazzled to keep the day's events in order, really.]
"I'm... fine.", he managed to mutter out, a rather obvious lie. He was, however, at least clearly alive.
Once Vaz' attention went to the screen, Apollo's did as well, expression pulling into a tense frown.
What a situation he had found himself in. Holograms, poison, and his own potential murderer. It... It was exhausting, to even simply think about.
[He slow-clapped. His voice was laced with sarcasm.]
"Failure of a murderer, hm? You sound like my f-father. Failure this, failure that. It's a-annoying, really."
[While he spoke Vaz quietly walked over to Apollo. It kept it's gaze on the screen.]
"I'd chat w-with you longer, but.. the p-police are on their way to your h-house. Byebye, Justice. <3"
[The screen turned off and then set itself aflame. It was harmless, though, only leaving a pile of black ash and burning a small hole into the desk it sat on. The flame died almost as soon as it had started.
.. He'd burned the evidence of himself. And probably was the one who called the police. Distantly there were sirens.]
"..Apollo.. we.. should go.. hide, or.. something."
Apollo continued to stare at the spot where the screen had been, a vacant, exhausted look in his eyes. He just wanted to crawl into a corner and pass out, dealing with more was... it was wearing him rather thin, mentally.
"There's... this apartment is tiny. There's nowhere to hide."
His bed had space underneath, sure. But that was painfully obvious. The singular closet was also likely a poor option.
There was one idea, though. He just didn't know how well he could commit to it... this adrenaline rush could only last so long, couldn't it?
"...The sirens, they're... close, but not here. I... I bet I could still run."
[It vanished before becoming a lot larger, about 5'2".]
"..Come on, then."
[It held out a hand to Apollo.]
"I.. um, there was supposed to be an event at the mall nearby. We can get there in time, lots of people to hide in the crowd. Or um, somewhere else."
[Vaz was worried. It knew that the outdoor cameras would have picked up Apollo tossing the poison bomb outside his window.]
"..I also know of a bar underground, near the subway station. It's usually rather empty, except for the server-person and a few customers. They won't kick me out, but.. I don't exactly blend in outside. I'll have to hide in your jacket or something.. um.. I can shut off the cameras temporarily.. let me.. uh."
[It tentatively walked over to the nearest wire. The lights flickered as it touched it, but then came back on. All cameras in a 3 mile radius had become unresponsive.]
Apollo watched Vaz grow in size, an exhausted look in his eyes. It was unbelievable, still, but everything really was. Everything always was.
Why couldn't his life be normal for once?
He reached up, taking the offered hand with a huff before he hoisted himself to his feet.
"Um... an event, right. Blending in... I... god, I look distinctive, don't I? I'll..."
He, after a moment of thought, reached up and just, messed the hell out of his hair. It was a mess, didn't look good at all. But... it certainly made him look less like himself. The jacket, as well, was thrown off, a red buttoned coat grabbed from the back of a chair. He did wear it around, but... less often than his usual outfit, and it was less unique than the GYAXA jacket.
He felt bad leaving it behind. But, it would do little more than cause him more issues, at the moment.
"I have some pockets, just... I don't know. You seem like you have a better handle on this situation than I do!"
He hoped the hologram did. Because... he sure didn't, himself.
[It muttered robotically, mostly to itself. It didn't seem to believe that it did, but it didn't deny it (for Apollo's sake.) It stood still, thinking, before turning to Apollo.]
"Right, let's head out."
[It stayed the same size, staying firmly close to Apollo, apparently worried about the other. It moved further after it kept looking after Apollo, and eventually they'd made it into an alleyway, not too far from the apartment but just enough to where the police would have to search for them in case they arrived.]
"I'll give you a.. er, hold on."
[It summoned a sort of small map, with a red dot in between a few buildings a fair distance away.]
"That's the place. The mall is a little risky, so.. I have decided we will not go there. I'll get in one of your pockets,"
[It changed back to usual size and managed to crawl up and into one of Apollo's pockets.]
"..and.. all we have to do for now, I think, would be head to the bar-place. I'll figure out more on the situation on our way there."
[A police car whizzed by at the exit of the alley, but it thankfully wasn't one of the ones that had been heading to Apollo's apartment. Vaz had tensed but then relaxed when it'd seen it.]
"We shall depart, then."
[The camera in the alleyway was off. Vaz had done it's thing well, it seems.]
"If you would prefer the event at the mall though.."
[It trailed off. A blue dot appeared on the map, at a mall complex nearby.]
ongoing rp chain with @surging-eyes-seeing-through
(I dunno how to link parts, but this is part 3)
"..Yeah. and.. I can change my height if needed. This size is most efficient and I can maintain it indefinitely, unlike larger sizes. But I don't need to be big to cook."
[Vaz shrugs. It sways a little, back and forth.]
"There's also plenty of stuff i can cook at my size anyway. Minus.. anything that requires toasters. I tend to accidentally break them somehow."
[It leaned back before hopping laggily onto the floor, landing in silence.]
"And I refuse to fry things. Grease makes me feel icky, even if it just goes right through me."
"...Well, thankfully, I don't have a fryer. I do have a toaster, but... if I really wanted toast, that's easy enough to make myself."
[Apollo hoisted himself back to his feet, giving a half-hearted stretch as he kept an eye on Vaz. After rubbing his eyes, ridding them of some of the last bits of sadness from earlier, he turned towards the doorway.]
"Though... ah. Don't feel like you need to cook for me, really." [An awkward glance was shot to the side.] "You are basically a stranger... I don't want to rope you into anything like this, you know? I just think it's impolite."
[It.. sort of copied Apollo, stretching. Although an action like that would be unnecessary for a hologram.]
"..I mean, I am already technically 'roped in' since my signals are still jammed."
[Vaz let his arms drop to his sides, before crossing them the way a parent would, shifting it's weight to the left. It's tone of voice was a bit more serious now.]
"..I assume you've at least done your dishes so you can eat? I'm pretty sure you were cleaning when I arrived... albeit most of your housing is still a mess."
[It shot a curious glance to an awfully messy stack of mail, the small pile located just off the foot of the bed, slightly hidden under some misplaced laundry. Some of it was simply junk mail, and.. one, brightly colored, was from the WAA members. Vaz stared for a moment at the colorful packaging of the letter, before returning it's quizzical gaze to Apollo.]
"I mean... sure, yeah. I can do it myself." [He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, before continuing.] "...And, that's right. signals... I can try to figure out what it'd be that's keeping you here, since I doubt you want to be stuck here forever. I just wouldn't know where to start, really."
[He had watched as Vaz stretched, raising a brow momentarily before his face returned to its usual neutral look. At the note regarding the state of his apartment, his expression shifted again, his eyes diverting as his mouth pulled back into an awkward half-smile.]
"Okay, well... I have at least one set of clean dishes, I know that."
[Speaking nothing of all of the dirty ones.]
"I've, you know. Just started, ah... getting my shit together, I guess you could say. I'm still catching up."
[Even talking about this to the equivalent of a little computer, it made Apollo thoroughly embarrassed. Even as he tried not to show it, his ears had gone red, the man partially trying to distract himself by bending down and plucking the colorful letter off the pile.
He should've opened it the moment he got it. He knew that. But, he just... hadn't felt like it. Better late than never, right? He thought to himself, as the envelope was idly torn open.]
[The letter was a loving mess. Inside was one of those stupid, cheesy, yet heartfelt "get-well-soon" cards. Written in it were a couple of words of encouragement. Even Klavier had written something—even though it was written exactly how he talks, albiet a bit messy.. Trucy'd drawn a little smiley face where she'd written, 'Get better fast, 'polly!' And, written by that was a curt get better soon, signed off by Phoenix. Athena simply had doodled a stickman with a hat of flowers. (..Juniper, maybe?) ]
[..Klavier's looked as though he'd been hesitant to write. But it was written somewhat neat enough to be legible, the letters scrawled out upon the page to form "Herr Forehead, " followed by an oddly large empty space, "..get better soon, ja?"]
[The letter itself was decorated everywhere someone had not written. Decorated in stickers, specifically, and abstract marker doodling. Probably something Trucy did, considering most of the stickers were magic related. A corner of the upper left seemed slightly damaged by.. drops of water, and had been covered up with more stickers. It looked a bit crinkled there comparing to the rest of it. Someone probably missed Apollo.]
[The packaging Apollo had torn off fell to the ground with a slight 'clink' sound, heavier than paper. It was then that a small object rolled out of the damaged packaging. It.. didn't seem to belong in the package, nor have anything to do with the WAA. Vaz seemed intrigued. The object was shaped like an average D-20, but instead of numbers there was a teeny timer on one side and the rest of the sides had odd holes closed by some sorts of mesh. It was blue, the mesh black.]
"Yeah.. ah..?"
[It was beeping. A quiet, yet awful, noise.]
"...That's.. familiar.."
[..Vaz obviously didn't like that noise, visibly tense. It vaguely reminded it of something. It.. couldn't quite put it's finger on it, however.]
[For a brief moment, Apollo's eyes were able to scan the letter, a variety of emotions flashing across his face. He knew everyone cared, he really did, but seeing it all written plainly before him... it almost brought a tear to his eye.
Well, it did.
But he wiped it away as quick as he could. Being non-functional was embarrassing enough... He didn't need to be crying in front of the hologram, too.
Clay may have been his best friend, not something easily replaced, but... having so many others who cared about him, despite all his flaws... it made him rather thankful. It also, admittedly, made him feel rather bad for his utter lack of communication this last week...
Before he could kick himself for such inaction, however, the little object was noticed. Well, he had seen it when it fell, but only focused on it now. From his much higher vantage point, the item looked much more like a simple die, with some sort of odd patterning. The beeping could still be heard, but even something so blatant didn't tip him off.
He hadn't heard anything of the sort before his... recent experience, anyways.]
"...Mm? What's that?"
[Still holding the letter and envelope on one hand, he bent over as much as he could manage to get a better look. A few details came into clearer view, being the holes and the little timer.
A timer? That was what it was, clearly. A timer, and beeping?
His brows furrowed, expression tightening.
No, it... no, he was overreacting. It couldn't be that. It couldn't be.]
[Vaz studies the little thing for a moment longer. A flash of uncertainty causes him to frown.]
"..I.. no, wait a minute.. this.."
[ Vaz started glitching, and a few moments later vanished entirely. The ticking continued. Vaz returned. It seemed.. highly disturbed, visibly trembling(?). It's tone of voice was shocked, somewhat panicked.]
"..Dr. Crescent, you need to leave, something's wr-ong with the a. a. a. air."
[It repeated the word air a few more times before the words faded into an uncomfortable white noise.]
...
[..Vaz had then turned itself off, leaving a strange, darkened patch of air where it'd been glowing moments before.]
[The little die like thing kept beeping. It counted down from 2 minutes. There was a teensy label on it, just above the timer.]
It read, in cutesy lettering,
"Goodnight, Justice. <3"
[It didn't seem like it had just began the countdown. In fact, the little timer showed the original time it'd been set to count down from, which read '1hr, 20mins'. The screen upon which the timer set was dull. It had plenty of scratching on it, like it had been smacked, or ground, against something.]
The air? The air. He sucked in a breath, eyes glancing beck to the object. He stared blankly to it, much too many seconds passing... what did it say, now?
1:00.
One minute.
What was he doing? Now wasn't the time to panic. Standing here like a deer in headlights was only going to get him hurt.
It wasn't like he could dispose of this casually. He needed it out. And far from this building, preferably. He didn't know what it was going to do, anyways. He didn't want to think about it.
...Ah, that's it. A window. Throw it out. Who cared if it hurt someone on the street, all he could think about was self-preservation at this point.
The little object was grabbed off the floor, little care given to the action. Whichever window was nearest to him was just about ran towards, with the man immediately trying to wrestle it open.
If one had ever attempted to open a window in an old building, they would understand his struggle. A solid grip and strength were needed to do so, two things that Apollo was somewhat lacking in at the moment. The little 'die' (a rather fitting name) was set on the sill as he grappled with the window itself, ignoring the aches in his arms the attempts were causing. At least the chill of the outdoors was seeping through, numbing it all to some degree.
[ It beeped again before the screen darkened so that the timer couldn't be seen. It was replaced by a low-res webcam. Someone wanted him dead, and someone was watching him right now. ]
"You're being slow, J-Justice. "
[The person watching him apparently could talk through the little device. They had a stutter, and sounded like that of a young man. Due to the dark screen and low resolution, his face couldn't be made out, though some basic details could be. He had shorter, dark hair. He was also obviously smiling, head resting on his palm, watching.]
[He didn't swear often, really, despite having been through enough in his life to justify doing such a thing. But this... The duress of the situation was getting to him. The little chime, that... that was the breaking point.
And the webcam? It just added to it all.]
"Shut up!", he hissed through his teeth, voice filled with a nervous aggression. "Is... is this necessary?! Really?! Was... sending this thing to me not enough?!"
[His voice cracked, hands faltering for a moment. No, he couldn't get distracted. The person's second line, he forced himself to ignore it, focusing back on the window.
A blast of cold air his his hands, spilling down and over his feet. With a desperate pull, the window went up, clicking into place.
For a moment, he felt relief. But then... the screen. He forgot about the screen.
Muttering curses in both English and some other, much less common language, it was grabbed as well, taking much less strength to wrestle open. But it still took time. Time that he wasn't keeping track of.
As long as he was able, he would keep at it, though.
The screen wasn't lifted that much. But there was enough of a space for the stupid object to be thrown out through. So he grabbed it off the sill in a tight fist, and went to throw it as hard as his battered arm could possibly allow.]
[The person laughed at Apollo. After it'd been tossed out the window, the device landed outside. The timer had been at a staggering 10 seconds before it was tossed. The timer let out a few more beeps before stopping, although it was no longer audible. Some kind of coloured dust came out of the little device, floating upwards. A couple of birds fell out of the nearby tree. The birdsong in the area was silenced. A concerned passerby noticed, walking over. And they fell, too.]
[..It'd been some sort of compressed poison gas bomb. An extremely potent one. A little beep alerted Apollo to a miniature screen on a nearby desk, the person from before staring at him, grinning. It was still too dark and low resolution to tell whom he was.]
"..Glad to s..see you're doing well. You're that astronaut's b-buddy? What was his name.. T..Terran? Ooh, t-that poor guy. Phantom really sent em o-off, heheh."
[He paused, taking a sip of something from a large cup.]
"..Too bad Mr. Phantom is im..p..prisoned now. He woulda been proud, eheh. Ahem."
[The voice was a lot more clearer through this mini-screen's speakers. It sounded that of someone who was no older than 16. It carried a sort of monotone note every time he spoke.]
[It would've been nice to relax the moment the little bomb went flying out the window. No more danger, right?
But his panic... his panic only continued, the man becoming much more aware of it once his focus fell away from the window. When had his heart started beating this quickly? When had his hands started shaking? Was his vision always this dark and unfocused?
He gripped the windowsill and leaned heavily against it, taking in a few choppy breaths as a pained look came upon his face. All of his injuries seemed to burn in unison, the memory of their creation echoing in his mind. It had been an explosion, not poison. But even then, his mind was locked on the thought. He couldn't help it.
The dead birds, the person, they weren't even acknowledged. His brain refused their presence, for the sake of his own sanity.
The sudden noise and voice from his desk did break Apollo's mental loop, making him stumble to face the source, a tight scowl appearing on his face.
"Shut up!", he exclaimed, with little delay. The voice that carried the words shook with strain, but carried a great upset intensity within it. "Don't... talk about him so... so carelessly!"
Even after nearly dying, his first thought was to defend Clay's memory. It wasn't a very surprising action for him, admittedly.
But, the time would come to face the current situation.
"...What do you want with me. What do you want with me?! You... you sick piece of... ugh!"
He stumbled over himself, verbally, as he swayed slightly on his feet. The fact he was still standing at all was a miracle, really, with how utterly sheet-white he looked.
"..p-piece of what, Justice? Eheh. What I want with you.. I dunno. I'm a bit angry. Maybe r-revenge for Mr. Phantom?"
[He tapped on the webcam, adjusting it.]
"..Since Phantom got that loser scientist and your b-buddy Terran, I-I assumed I might as well just finish off the t-trio, yeah? Too bad that little robot bastard freaked out. You'd p-probably be t-twitching on the floor right now."
[The person twirled in their chair.]
"Didn't e-even think you'd have that 'thing', though. Little bastard makes my job harder t-than it already is.. sigh... but, ah, riiight. I h-hear you were bombed recently. How was that? Eheheh."
"...What, is it suddenly my fault that he screwed up?!" Apollo grit his teeth, breath catching in his throat before he continued. "Maybe he shouldn't have gotten so careless!"
Apollo's eyelid twitched before his expression calmed slightly, his gaze losing focus for a moment. On top of everything else, his fury was only straining him more, a wave of dizziness throwing him off for a moment. With nothing better to do, he let himself fall to his knees, giving himself a long moment to recuperate his strength. Thankfully, lowering himself did help, as did the cold air pouring through the window.
It did not remove his anger, however.
Once his mental sharpness had returned, Apollo stared up towards the image, scowling deeply.
"I've... cheated death so many times, did you... really think this would work?"
It almost did. He was keenly aware of that.
"...You failed. How does that feel?"
Strong words for someone kneeling crumpled on the floor, nearly hyperventilating in panic.
At the mention of the bombing, he cringed, giving a silent scowl to the silhouette. His diverted eyes indicated his discomfort with it being brought up well enough.
"Yeah, I'll admit you cheated death o-once again. Heheh. It almost worked. W-wish it did. ...but.."
"You l-look a little un-n..nerved, buddy. Did I u-upset you? Ehe. Poooor little J-Justice. All worked u-up. I admit, you're n-not really at fault.. heh. You're real weak-m..minded though. It's laughable."
[Vaz reappeared, the weird little void replaced by a bright, albiet patchy, glow. It stared at Apollo.]
"..Cres-no, Apollo. You're oka..y?"
[It worriedly stared for a bit longer at Apollo before he noticed the screen. It tensed.]
"..."
[It didn't vanish again, although it was visibly terrified.]
"If... I really was weak-minded, I would've given up on everything a long time ago. I'm... stronger than you, you... failure of a murderer."
[While he spat out the insult, Apollo's bandaged fingers pressed onto the floor, palms flat against it as he kept himself steady. He was certainly tenacious. Or perhaps, did not know when to stop. Most likely, a combination of both.
His uneven fury was interrupted by the flickering of light, eyes darting over as his expression relaxed. The hologram... right, he had almost forgotten. His mind was too frazzled to keep the day's events in order, really.]
"I'm... fine.", he managed to mutter out, a rather obvious lie. He was, however, at least clearly alive.
Once Vaz' attention went to the screen, Apollo's did as well, expression pulling into a tense frown.
What a situation he had found himself in. Holograms, poison, and his own potential murderer. It... It was exhausting, to even simply think about.
[He slow-clapped. His voice was laced with sarcasm.]
"Failure of a murderer, hm? You sound like my f-father. Failure this, failure that. It's a-annoying, really."
[While he spoke Vaz quietly walked over to Apollo. It kept it's gaze on the screen.]
"I'd chat w-with you longer, but.. the p-police are on their way to your h-house. Byebye, Justice. <3"
[The screen turned off and then set itself aflame. It was harmless, though, only leaving a pile of black ash and burning a small hole into the desk it sat on. The flame died almost as soon as it had started.
.. He'd burned the evidence of himself. And probably was the one who called the police. Distantly there were sirens.]
"..Apollo.. we.. should go.. hide, or.. something."
Apollo continued to stare at the spot where the screen had been, a vacant, exhausted look in his eyes. He just wanted to crawl into a corner and pass out, dealing with more was... it was wearing him rather thin, mentally.
"There's... this apartment is tiny. There's nowhere to hide."
His bed had space underneath, sure. But that was painfully obvious. The singular closet was also likely a poor option.
There was one idea, though. He just didn't know how well he could commit to it... this adrenaline rush could only last so long, couldn't it?
"...The sirens, they're... close, but not here. I... I bet I could still run."
[It vanished before becoming a lot larger, about 5'2".]
"..Come on, then."
[It held out a hand to Apollo.]
"I.. um, there was supposed to be an event at the mall nearby. We can get there in time, lots of people to hide in the crowd. Or um, somewhere else."
[Vaz was worried. It knew that the outdoor cameras would have picked up Apollo tossing the poison bomb outside his window.]
"..I also know of a bar underground, near the subway station. It's usually rather empty, except for the server-person and a few customers. They won't kick me out, but.. I don't exactly blend in outside. I'll have to hide in your jacket or something.. um.. I can shut off the cameras temporarily.. let me.. uh."
[It tentatively walked over to the nearest wire. The lights flickered as it touched it, but then came back on. All cameras in a 3 mile radius had become unresponsive.]
ongoing rp chain with @surging-eyes-seeing-through
(I dunno how to link parts, but this is part 3)
"..Yeah. and.. I can change my height if needed. This size is most efficient and I can maintain it indefinitely, unlike larger sizes. But I don't need to be big to cook."
[Vaz shrugs. It sways a little, back and forth.]
"There's also plenty of stuff i can cook at my size anyway. Minus.. anything that requires toasters. I tend to accidentally break them somehow."
[It leaned back before hopping laggily onto the floor, landing in silence.]
"And I refuse to fry things. Grease makes me feel icky, even if it just goes right through me."
"...Well, thankfully, I don't have a fryer. I do have a toaster, but... if I really wanted toast, that's easy enough to make myself."
[Apollo hoisted himself back to his feet, giving a half-hearted stretch as he kept an eye on Vaz. After rubbing his eyes, ridding them of some of the last bits of sadness from earlier, he turned towards the doorway.]
"Though... ah. Don't feel like you need to cook for me, really." [An awkward glance was shot to the side.] "You are basically a stranger... I don't want to rope you into anything like this, you know? I just think it's impolite."
[It.. sort of copied Apollo, stretching. Although an action like that would be unnecessary for a hologram.]
"..I mean, I am already technically 'roped in' since my signals are still jammed."
[Vaz let his arms drop to his sides, before crossing them the way a parent would, shifting it's weight to the left. It's tone of voice was a bit more serious now.]
"..I assume you've at least done your dishes so you can eat? I'm pretty sure you were cleaning when I arrived... albeit most of your housing is still a mess."
[It shot a curious glance to an awfully messy stack of mail, the small pile located just off the foot of the bed, slightly hidden under some misplaced laundry. Some of it was simply junk mail, and.. one, brightly colored, was from the WAA members. Vaz stared for a moment at the colorful packaging of the letter, before returning it's quizzical gaze to Apollo.]
"I mean... sure, yeah. I can do it myself." [He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, before continuing.] "...And, that's right. signals... I can try to figure out what it'd be that's keeping you here, since I doubt you want to be stuck here forever. I just wouldn't know where to start, really."
[He had watched as Vaz stretched, raising a brow momentarily before his face returned to its usual neutral look. At the note regarding the state of his apartment, his expression shifted again, his eyes diverting as his mouth pulled back into an awkward half-smile.]
"Okay, well... I have at least one set of clean dishes, I know that."
[Speaking nothing of all of the dirty ones.]
"I've, you know. Just started, ah... getting my shit together, I guess you could say. I'm still catching up."
[Even talking about this to the equivalent of a little computer, it made Apollo thoroughly embarrassed. Even as he tried not to show it, his ears had gone red, the man partially trying to distract himself by bending down and plucking the colorful letter off the pile.
He should've opened it the moment he got it. He knew that. But, he just... hadn't felt like it. Better late than never, right? He thought to himself, as the envelope was idly torn open.]
[The letter was a loving mess. Inside was one of those stupid, cheesy, yet heartfelt "get-well-soon" cards. Written in it were a couple of words of encouragement. Even Klavier had written something—even though it was written exactly how he talks, albiet a bit messy.. Trucy'd drawn a little smiley face where she'd written, 'Get better fast, 'polly!' And, written by that was a curt get better soon, signed off by Phoenix. Athena simply had doodled a stickman with a hat of flowers. (..Juniper, maybe?) ]
[..Klavier's looked as though he'd been hesitant to write. But it was written somewhat neat enough to be legible, the letters scrawled out upon the page to form "Herr Forehead, " followed by an oddly large empty space, "..get better soon, ja?"]
[The letter itself was decorated everywhere someone had not written. Decorated in stickers, specifically, and abstract marker doodling. Probably something Trucy did, considering most of the stickers were magic related. A corner of the upper left seemed slightly damaged by.. drops of water, and had been covered up with more stickers. It looked a bit crinkled there comparing to the rest of it. Someone probably missed Apollo.]
[The packaging Apollo had torn off fell to the ground with a slight 'clink' sound, heavier than paper. It was then that a small object rolled out of the damaged packaging. It.. didn't seem to belong in the package, nor have anything to do with the WAA. Vaz seemed intrigued. The object was shaped like an average D-20, but instead of numbers there was a teeny timer on one side and the rest of the sides had odd holes closed by some sorts of mesh. It was blue, the mesh black.]
"Yeah.. ah..?"
[It was beeping. A quiet, yet awful, noise.]
"...That's.. familiar.."
[..Vaz obviously didn't like that noise, visibly tense. It vaguely reminded it of something. It.. couldn't quite put it's finger on it, however.]
[For a brief moment, Apollo's eyes were able to scan the letter, a variety of emotions flashing across his face. He knew everyone cared, he really did, but seeing it all written plainly before him... it almost brought a tear to his eye.
Well, it did.
But he wiped it away as quick as he could. Being non-functional was embarrassing enough... He didn't need to be crying in front of the hologram, too.
Clay may have been his best friend, not something easily replaced, but... having so many others who cared about him, despite all his flaws... it made him rather thankful. It also, admittedly, made him feel rather bad for his utter lack of communication this last week...
Before he could kick himself for such inaction, however, the little object was noticed. Well, he had seen it when it fell, but only focused on it now. From his much higher vantage point, the item looked much more like a simple die, with some sort of odd patterning. The beeping could still be heard, but even something so blatant didn't tip him off.
He hadn't heard anything of the sort before his... recent experience, anyways.]
"...Mm? What's that?"
[Still holding the letter and envelope on one hand, he bent over as much as he could manage to get a better look. A few details came into clearer view, being the holes and the little timer.
A timer? That was what it was, clearly. A timer, and beeping?
His brows furrowed, expression tightening.
No, it... no, he was overreacting. It couldn't be that. It couldn't be.]
[Vaz studies the little thing for a moment longer. A flash of uncertainty causes him to frown.]
"..I.. no, wait a minute.. this.."
[ Vaz started glitching, and a few moments later vanished entirely. The ticking continued. Vaz returned. It seemed.. highly disturbed, visibly trembling(?). It's tone of voice was shocked, somewhat panicked.]
"..Dr. Crescent, you need to leave, something's wr-ong with the a. a. a. air."
[It repeated the word air a few more times before the words faded into an uncomfortable white noise.]
...
[..Vaz had then turned itself off, leaving a strange, darkened patch of air where it'd been glowing moments before.]
[The little die like thing kept beeping. It counted down from 2 minutes. There was a teensy label on it, just above the timer.]
It read, in cutesy lettering,
"Goodnight, Justice. <3"
[It didn't seem like it had just began the countdown. In fact, the little timer showed the original time it'd been set to count down from, which read '1hr, 20mins'. The screen upon which the timer set was dull. It had plenty of scratching on it, like it had been smacked, or ground, against something.]
The air? The air. He sucked in a breath, eyes glancing beck to the object. He stared blankly to it, much too many seconds passing... what did it say, now?
1:00.
One minute.
What was he doing? Now wasn't the time to panic. Standing here like a deer in headlights was only going to get him hurt.
It wasn't like he could dispose of this casually. He needed it out. And far from this building, preferably. He didn't know what it was going to do, anyways. He didn't want to think about it.
...Ah, that's it. A window. Throw it out. Who cared if it hurt someone on the street, all he could think about was self-preservation at this point.
The little object was grabbed off the floor, little care given to the action. Whichever window was nearest to him was just about ran towards, with the man immediately trying to wrestle it open.
If one had ever attempted to open a window in an old building, they would understand his struggle. A solid grip and strength were needed to do so, two things that Apollo was somewhat lacking in at the moment. The little 'die' (a rather fitting name) was set on the sill as he grappled with the window itself, ignoring the aches in his arms the attempts were causing. At least the chill of the outdoors was seeping through, numbing it all to some degree.
[ It beeped again before the screen darkened so that the timer couldn't be seen. It was replaced by a low-res webcam. Someone wanted him dead, and someone was watching him right now. ]
"You're being slow, J-Justice. "
[The person watching him apparently could talk through the little device. They had a stutter, and sounded like that of a young man. Due to the dark screen and low resolution, his face couldn't be made out, though some basic details could be. He had shorter, dark hair. He was also obviously smiling, head resting on his palm, watching.]
[He didn't swear often, really, despite having been through enough in his life to justify doing such a thing. But this... The duress of the situation was getting to him. The little chime, that... that was the breaking point.
And the webcam? It just added to it all.]
"Shut up!", he hissed through his teeth, voice filled with a nervous aggression. "Is... is this necessary?! Really?! Was... sending this thing to me not enough?!"
[His voice cracked, hands faltering for a moment. No, he couldn't get distracted. The person's second line, he forced himself to ignore it, focusing back on the window.
A blast of cold air his his hands, spilling down and over his feet. With a desperate pull, the window went up, clicking into place.
For a moment, he felt relief. But then... the screen. He forgot about the screen.
Muttering curses in both English and some other, much less common language, it was grabbed as well, taking much less strength to wrestle open. But it still took time. Time that he wasn't keeping track of.
As long as he was able, he would keep at it, though.
The screen wasn't lifted that much. But there was enough of a space for the stupid object to be thrown out through. So he grabbed it off the sill in a tight fist, and went to throw it as hard as his battered arm could possibly allow.]
[The person laughed at Apollo. After it'd been tossed out the window, the device landed outside. The timer had been at a staggering 10 seconds before it was tossed. The timer let out a few more beeps before stopping, although it was no longer audible. Some kind of coloured dust came out of the little device, floating upwards. A couple of birds fell out of the nearby tree. The birdsong in the area was silenced. A concerned passerby noticed, walking over. And they fell, too.]
[..It'd been some sort of compressed poison gas bomb. An extremely potent one. A little beep alerted Apollo to a miniature screen on a nearby desk, the person from before staring at him, grinning. It was still too dark and low resolution to tell whom he was.]
"..Glad to s..see you're doing well. You're that astronaut's b-buddy? What was his name.. T..Terran? Ooh, t-that poor guy. Phantom really sent em o-off, heheh."
[He paused, taking a sip of something from a large cup.]
"..Too bad Mr. Phantom is im..p..prisoned now. He woulda been proud, eheh. Ahem."
[The voice was a lot more clearer through this mini-screen's speakers. It sounded that of someone who was no older than 16. It carried a sort of monotone note every time he spoke.]
[It would've been nice to relax the moment the little bomb went flying out the window. No more danger, right?
But his panic... his panic only continued, the man becoming much more aware of it once his focus fell away from the window. When had his heart started beating this quickly? When had his hands started shaking? Was his vision always this dark and unfocused?
He gripped the windowsill and leaned heavily against it, taking in a few choppy breaths as a pained look came upon his face. All of his injuries seemed to burn in unison, the memory of their creation echoing in his mind. It had been an explosion, not poison. But even then, his mind was locked on the thought. He couldn't help it.
The dead birds, the person, they weren't even acknowledged. His brain refused their presence, for the sake of his own sanity.
The sudden noise and voice from his desk did break Apollo's mental loop, making him stumble to face the source, a tight scowl appearing on his face.
"Shut up!", he exclaimed, with little delay. The voice that carried the words shook with strain, but carried a great upset intensity within it. "Don't... talk about him so... so carelessly!"
Even after nearly dying, his first thought was to defend Clay's memory. It wasn't a very surprising action for him, admittedly.
But, the time would come to face the current situation.
"...What do you want with me. What do you want with me?! You... you sick piece of... ugh!"
He stumbled over himself, verbally, as he swayed slightly on his feet. The fact he was still standing at all was a miracle, really, with how utterly sheet-white he looked.
"..p-piece of what, Justice? Eheh. What I want with you.. I dunno. I'm a bit angry. Maybe r-revenge for Mr. Phantom?"
[He tapped on the webcam, adjusting it.]
"..Since Phantom got that loser scientist and your b-buddy Terran, I-I assumed I might as well just finish off the t-trio, yeah? Too bad that little robot bastard freaked out. You'd p-probably be t-twitching on the floor right now."
[The person twirled in their chair.]
"Didn't e-even think you'd have that 'thing', though. Little bastard makes my job harder t-than it already is.. sigh... but, ah, riiight. I h-hear you were bombed recently. How was that? Eheheh."
"...What, is it suddenly my fault that he screwed up?!" Apollo grit his teeth, breath catching in his throat before he continued. "Maybe he shouldn't have gotten so careless!"
Apollo's eyelid twitched before his expression calmed slightly, his gaze losing focus for a moment. On top of everything else, his fury was only straining him more, a wave of dizziness throwing him off for a moment. With nothing better to do, he let himself fall to his knees, giving himself a long moment to recuperate his strength. Thankfully, lowering himself did help, as did the cold air pouring through the window.
It did not remove his anger, however.
Once his mental sharpness had returned, Apollo stared up towards the image, scowling deeply.
"I've... cheated death so many times, did you... really think this would work?"
It almost did. He was keenly aware of that.
"...You failed. How does that feel?"
Strong words for someone kneeling crumpled on the floor, nearly hyperventilating in panic.
At the mention of the bombing, he cringed, giving a silent scowl to the silhouette. His diverted eyes indicated his discomfort with it being brought up well enough.
"Yeah, I'll admit you cheated death o-once again. Heheh. It almost worked. W-wish it did. ...but.."
"You l-look a little un-n..nerved, buddy. Did I u-upset you? Ehe. Poooor little J-Justice. All worked u-up. I admit, you're n-not really at fault.. heh. You're real weak-m..minded though. It's laughable."
[Vaz reappeared, the weird little void replaced by a bright, albiet patchy, glow. It stared at Apollo.]
"..Cres-no, Apollo. You're oka..y?"
[It worriedly stared for a bit longer at Apollo before he noticed the screen. It tensed.]
"..."
[It didn't vanish again, although it was visibly terrified.]
"If... I really was weak-minded, I would've given up on everything a long time ago. I'm... stronger than you, you... failure of a murderer."
[While he spat out the insult, Apollo's bandaged fingers pressed onto the floor, palms flat against it as he kept himself steady. He was certainly tenacious. Or perhaps, did not know when to stop. Most likely, a combination of both.
His uneven fury was interrupted by the flickering of light, eyes darting over as his expression relaxed. The hologram... right, he had almost forgotten. His mind was too frazzled to keep the day's events in order, really.]
"I'm... fine.", he managed to mutter out, a rather obvious lie. He was, however, at least clearly alive.
Once Vaz' attention went to the screen, Apollo's did as well, expression pulling into a tense frown.
What a situation he had found himself in. Holograms, poison, and his own potential murderer. It... It was exhausting, to even simply think about.
[He slow-clapped. His voice was laced with sarcasm.]
"Failure of a murderer, hm? You sound like my f-father. Failure this, failure that. It's a-annoying, really."
[While he spoke Vaz quietly walked over to Apollo. It kept it's gaze on the screen.]
"I'd chat w-with you longer, but.. the p-police are on their way to your h-house. Byebye, Justice. <3"
[The screen turned off and then set itself aflame. It was harmless, though, only leaving a pile of black ash and burning a small hole into the desk it sat on. The flame died almost as soon as it had started.
.. He'd burned the evidence of himself. And probably was the one who called the police. Distantly there were sirens.]
"..Apollo.. we.. should go.. hide, or.. something."
ongoing rp chain with @surging-eyes-seeing-through
(I dunno how to link parts, but this is part 3)
"..Yeah. and.. I can change my height if needed. This size is most efficient and I can maintain it indefinitely, unlike larger sizes. But I don't need to be big to cook."
[Vaz shrugs. It sways a little, back and forth.]
"There's also plenty of stuff i can cook at my size anyway. Minus.. anything that requires toasters. I tend to accidentally break them somehow."
[It leaned back before hopping laggily onto the floor, landing in silence.]
"And I refuse to fry things. Grease makes me feel icky, even if it just goes right through me."
"...Well, thankfully, I don't have a fryer. I do have a toaster, but... if I really wanted toast, that's easy enough to make myself."
[Apollo hoisted himself back to his feet, giving a half-hearted stretch as he kept an eye on Vaz. After rubbing his eyes, ridding them of some of the last bits of sadness from earlier, he turned towards the doorway.]
"Though... ah. Don't feel like you need to cook for me, really." [An awkward glance was shot to the side.] "You are basically a stranger... I don't want to rope you into anything like this, you know? I just think it's impolite."
[It.. sort of copied Apollo, stretching. Although an action like that would be unnecessary for a hologram.]
"..I mean, I am already technically 'roped in' since my signals are still jammed."
[Vaz let his arms drop to his sides, before crossing them the way a parent would, shifting it's weight to the left. It's tone of voice was a bit more serious now.]
"..I assume you've at least done your dishes so you can eat? I'm pretty sure you were cleaning when I arrived... albeit most of your housing is still a mess."
[It shot a curious glance to an awfully messy stack of mail, the small pile located just off the foot of the bed, slightly hidden under some misplaced laundry. Some of it was simply junk mail, and.. one, brightly colored, was from the WAA members. Vaz stared for a moment at the colorful packaging of the letter, before returning it's quizzical gaze to Apollo.]
"I mean... sure, yeah. I can do it myself." [He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, before continuing.] "...And, that's right. signals... I can try to figure out what it'd be that's keeping you here, since I doubt you want to be stuck here forever. I just wouldn't know where to start, really."
[He had watched as Vaz stretched, raising a brow momentarily before his face returned to its usual neutral look. At the note regarding the state of his apartment, his expression shifted again, his eyes diverting as his mouth pulled back into an awkward half-smile.]
"Okay, well... I have at least one set of clean dishes, I know that."
[Speaking nothing of all of the dirty ones.]
"I've, you know. Just started, ah... getting my shit together, I guess you could say. I'm still catching up."
[Even talking about this to the equivalent of a little computer, it made Apollo thoroughly embarrassed. Even as he tried not to show it, his ears had gone red, the man partially trying to distract himself by bending down and plucking the colorful letter off the pile.
He should've opened it the moment he got it. He knew that. But, he just... hadn't felt like it. Better late than never, right? He thought to himself, as the envelope was idly torn open.]
[The letter was a loving mess. Inside was one of those stupid, cheesy, yet heartfelt "get-well-soon" cards. Written in it were a couple of words of encouragement. Even Klavier had written something—even though it was written exactly how he talks, albiet a bit messy.. Trucy'd drawn a little smiley face where she'd written, 'Get better fast, 'polly!' And, written by that was a curt get better soon, signed off by Phoenix. Athena simply had doodled a stickman with a hat of flowers. (..Juniper, maybe?) ]
[..Klavier's looked as though he'd been hesitant to write. But it was written somewhat neat enough to be legible, the letters scrawled out upon the page to form "Herr Forehead, " followed by an oddly large empty space, "..get better soon, ja?"]
[The letter itself was decorated everywhere someone had not written. Decorated in stickers, specifically, and abstract marker doodling. Probably something Trucy did, considering most of the stickers were magic related. A corner of the upper left seemed slightly damaged by.. drops of water, and had been covered up with more stickers. It looked a bit crinkled there comparing to the rest of it. Someone probably missed Apollo.]
[The packaging Apollo had torn off fell to the ground with a slight 'clink' sound, heavier than paper. It was then that a small object rolled out of the damaged packaging. It.. didn't seem to belong in the package, nor have anything to do with the WAA. Vaz seemed intrigued. The object was shaped like an average D-20, but instead of numbers there was a teeny timer on one side and the rest of the sides had odd holes closed by some sorts of mesh. It was blue, the mesh black.]
"Yeah.. ah..?"
[It was beeping. A quiet, yet awful, noise.]
"...That's.. familiar.."
[..Vaz obviously didn't like that noise, visibly tense. It vaguely reminded it of something. It.. couldn't quite put it's finger on it, however.]
[For a brief moment, Apollo's eyes were able to scan the letter, a variety of emotions flashing across his face. He knew everyone cared, he really did, but seeing it all written plainly before him... it almost brought a tear to his eye.
Well, it did.
But he wiped it away as quick as he could. Being non-functional was embarrassing enough... He didn't need to be crying in front of the hologram, too.
Clay may have been his best friend, not something easily replaced, but... having so many others who cared about him, despite all his flaws... it made him rather thankful. It also, admittedly, made him feel rather bad for his utter lack of communication this last week...
Before he could kick himself for such inaction, however, the little object was noticed. Well, he had seen it when it fell, but only focused on it now. From his much higher vantage point, the item looked much more like a simple die, with some sort of odd patterning. The beeping could still be heard, but even something so blatant didn't tip him off.
He hadn't heard anything of the sort before his... recent experience, anyways.]
"...Mm? What's that?"
[Still holding the letter and envelope on one hand, he bent over as much as he could manage to get a better look. A few details came into clearer view, being the holes and the little timer.
A timer? That was what it was, clearly. A timer, and beeping?
His brows furrowed, expression tightening.
No, it... no, he was overreacting. It couldn't be that. It couldn't be.]
[Vaz studies the little thing for a moment longer. A flash of uncertainty causes him to frown.]
"..I.. no, wait a minute.. this.."
[ Vaz started glitching, and a few moments later vanished entirely. The ticking continued. Vaz returned. It seemed.. highly disturbed, visibly trembling(?). It's tone of voice was shocked, somewhat panicked.]
"..Dr. Crescent, you need to leave, something's wr-ong with the a. a. a. air."
[It repeated the word air a few more times before the words faded into an uncomfortable white noise.]
...
[..Vaz had then turned itself off, leaving a strange, darkened patch of air where it'd been glowing moments before.]
[The little die like thing kept beeping. It counted down from 2 minutes. There was a teensy label on it, just above the timer.]
It read, in cutesy lettering,
"Goodnight, Justice. <3"
[It didn't seem like it had just began the countdown. In fact, the little timer showed the original time it'd been set to count down from, which read '1hr, 20mins'. The screen upon which the timer set was dull. It had plenty of scratching on it, like it had been smacked, or ground, against something.]
The air? The air. He sucked in a breath, eyes glancing beck to the object. He stared blankly to it, much too many seconds passing... what did it say, now?
1:00.
One minute.
What was he doing? Now wasn't the time to panic. Standing here like a deer in headlights was only going to get him hurt.
It wasn't like he could dispose of this casually. He needed it out. And far from this building, preferably. He didn't know what it was going to do, anyways. He didn't want to think about it.
...Ah, that's it. A window. Throw it out. Who cared if it hurt someone on the street, all he could think about was self-preservation at this point.
The little object was grabbed off the floor, little care given to the action. Whichever window was nearest to him was just about ran towards, with the man immediately trying to wrestle it open.
If one had ever attempted to open a window in an old building, they would understand his struggle. A solid grip and strength were needed to do so, two things that Apollo was somewhat lacking in at the moment. The little 'die' (a rather fitting name) was set on the sill as he grappled with the window itself, ignoring the aches in his arms the attempts were causing. At least the chill of the outdoors was seeping through, numbing it all to some degree.
[ It beeped again before the screen darkened so that the timer couldn't be seen. It was replaced by a low-res webcam. Someone wanted him dead, and someone was watching him right now. ]
"You're being slow, J-Justice. "
[The person watching him apparently could talk through the little device. They had a stutter, and sounded like that of a young man. Due to the dark screen and low resolution, his face couldn't be made out, though some basic details could be. He had shorter, dark hair. He was also obviously smiling, head resting on his palm, watching.]
[He didn't swear often, really, despite having been through enough in his life to justify doing such a thing. But this... The duress of the situation was getting to him. The little chime, that... that was the breaking point.
And the webcam? It just added to it all.]
"Shut up!", he hissed through his teeth, voice filled with a nervous aggression. "Is... is this necessary?! Really?! Was... sending this thing to me not enough?!"
[His voice cracked, hands faltering for a moment. No, he couldn't get distracted. The person's second line, he forced himself to ignore it, focusing back on the window.
A blast of cold air his his hands, spilling down and over his feet. With a desperate pull, the window went up, clicking into place.
For a moment, he felt relief. But then... the screen. He forgot about the screen.
Muttering curses in both English and some other, much less common language, it was grabbed as well, taking much less strength to wrestle open. But it still took time. Time that he wasn't keeping track of.
As long as he was able, he would keep at it, though.
The screen wasn't lifted that much. But there was enough of a space for the stupid object to be thrown out through. So he grabbed it off the sill in a tight fist, and went to throw it as hard as his battered arm could possibly allow.]
[The person laughed at Apollo. After it'd been tossed out the window, the device landed outside. The timer had been at a staggering 10 seconds before it was tossed. The timer let out a few more beeps before stopping, although it was no longer audible. Some kind of coloured dust came out of the little device, floating upwards. A couple of birds fell out of the nearby tree. The birdsong in the area was silenced. A concerned passerby noticed, walking over. And they fell, too.]
[..It'd been some sort of compressed poison gas bomb. An extremely potent one. A little beep alerted Apollo to a miniature screen on a nearby desk, the person from before staring at him, grinning. It was still too dark and low resolution to tell whom he was.]
"..Glad to s..see you're doing well. You're that astronaut's b-buddy? What was his name.. T..Terran? Ooh, t-that poor guy. Phantom really sent em o-off, heheh."
[He paused, taking a sip of something from a large cup.]
"..Too bad Mr. Phantom is im..p..prisoned now. He woulda been proud, eheh. Ahem."
[The voice was a lot more clearer through this mini-screen's speakers. It sounded that of someone who was no older than 16. It carried a sort of monotone note every time he spoke.]
[It would've been nice to relax the moment the little bomb went flying out the window. No more danger, right?
But his panic... his panic only continued, the man becoming much more aware of it once his focus fell away from the window. When had his heart started beating this quickly? When had his hands started shaking? Was his vision always this dark and unfocused?
He gripped the windowsill and leaned heavily against it, taking in a few choppy breaths as a pained look came upon his face. All of his injuries seemed to burn in unison, the memory of their creation echoing in his mind. It had been an explosion, not poison. But even then, his mind was locked on the thought. He couldn't help it.
The dead birds, the person, they weren't even acknowledged. His brain refused their presence, for the sake of his own sanity.
The sudden noise and voice from his desk did break Apollo's mental loop, making him stumble to face the source, a tight scowl appearing on his face.
"Shut up!", he exclaimed, with little delay. The voice that carried the words shook with strain, but carried a great upset intensity within it. "Don't... talk about him so... so carelessly!"
Even after nearly dying, his first thought was to defend Clay's memory. It wasn't a very surprising action for him, admittedly.
But, the time would come to face the current situation.
"...What do you want with me. What do you want with me?! You... you sick piece of... ugh!"
He stumbled over himself, verbally, as he swayed slightly on his feet. The fact he was still standing at all was a miracle, really, with how utterly sheet-white he looked.
"..p-piece of what, Justice? Eheh. What I want with you.. I dunno. I'm a bit angry. Maybe r-revenge for Mr. Phantom?"
[He tapped on the webcam, adjusting it.]
"..Since Phantom got that loser scientist and your b-buddy Terran, I-I assumed I might as well just finish off the t-trio, yeah? Too bad that little robot bastard freaked out. You'd p-probably be t-twitching on the floor right now."
[The person twirled in their chair.]
"Didn't e-even think you'd have that 'thing', though. Little bastard makes my job harder t-than it already is.. sigh... but, ah, riiight. I h-hear you were bombed recently. How was that? Eheheh."
"...What, is it suddenly my fault that he screwed up?!" Apollo grit his teeth, breath catching in his throat before he continued. "Maybe he shouldn't have gotten so careless!"
Apollo's eyelid twitched before his expression calmed slightly, his gaze losing focus for a moment. On top of everything else, his fury was only straining him more, a wave of dizziness throwing him off for a moment. With nothing better to do, he let himself fall to his knees, giving himself a long moment to recuperate his strength. Thankfully, lowering himself did help, as did the cold air pouring through the window.
It did not remove his anger, however.
Once his mental sharpness had returned, Apollo stared up towards the image, scowling deeply.
"I've... cheated death so many times, did you... really think this would work?"
It almost did. He was keenly aware of that.
"...You failed. How does that feel?"
Strong words for someone kneeling crumpled on the floor, nearly hyperventilating in panic.
At the mention of the bombing, he cringed, giving a silent scowl to the silhouette. His diverted eyes indicated his discomfort with it being brought up well enough.
"Yeah, I'll admit you cheated death o-once again. Heheh. It almost worked. W-wish it did. ...but.."
"You l-look a little un-n..nerved, buddy. Did I u-upset you? Ehe. Poooor little J-Justice. All worked u-up. I admit, you're n-not really at fault.. heh. You're real weak-m..minded though. It's laughable."
[Vaz reappeared, the weird little void replaced by a bright, albiet patchy, glow. It stared at Apollo.]
"..Cres-no, Apollo. You're oka..y?"
[It worriedly stared for a bit longer at Apollo before he noticed the screen. It tensed.]
"..."
[It didn't vanish again, although it was visibly terrified.]
ongoing rp chain with @surging-eyes-seeing-through
(I dunno how to link parts, but this is part 3)
"..Yeah. and.. I can change my height if needed. This size is most efficient and I can maintain it indefinitely, unlike larger sizes. But I don't need to be big to cook."
[Vaz shrugs. It sways a little, back and forth.]
"There's also plenty of stuff i can cook at my size anyway. Minus.. anything that requires toasters. I tend to accidentally break them somehow."
[It leaned back before hopping laggily onto the floor, landing in silence.]
"And I refuse to fry things. Grease makes me feel icky, even if it just goes right through me."
"...Well, thankfully, I don't have a fryer. I do have a toaster, but... if I really wanted toast, that's easy enough to make myself."
[Apollo hoisted himself back to his feet, giving a half-hearted stretch as he kept an eye on Vaz. After rubbing his eyes, ridding them of some of the last bits of sadness from earlier, he turned towards the doorway.]
"Though... ah. Don't feel like you need to cook for me, really." [An awkward glance was shot to the side.] "You are basically a stranger... I don't want to rope you into anything like this, you know? I just think it's impolite."
[It.. sort of copied Apollo, stretching. Although an action like that would be unnecessary for a hologram.]
"..I mean, I am already technically 'roped in' since my signals are still jammed."
[Vaz let his arms drop to his sides, before crossing them the way a parent would, shifting it's weight to the left. It's tone of voice was a bit more serious now.]
"..I assume you've at least done your dishes so you can eat? I'm pretty sure you were cleaning when I arrived... albeit most of your housing is still a mess."
[It shot a curious glance to an awfully messy stack of mail, the small pile located just off the foot of the bed, slightly hidden under some misplaced laundry. Some of it was simply junk mail, and.. one, brightly colored, was from the WAA members. Vaz stared for a moment at the colorful packaging of the letter, before returning it's quizzical gaze to Apollo.]
"I mean... sure, yeah. I can do it myself." [He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, before continuing.] "...And, that's right. signals... I can try to figure out what it'd be that's keeping you here, since I doubt you want to be stuck here forever. I just wouldn't know where to start, really."
[He had watched as Vaz stretched, raising a brow momentarily before his face returned to its usual neutral look. At the note regarding the state of his apartment, his expression shifted again, his eyes diverting as his mouth pulled back into an awkward half-smile.]
"Okay, well... I have at least one set of clean dishes, I know that."
[Speaking nothing of all of the dirty ones.]
"I've, you know. Just started, ah... getting my shit together, I guess you could say. I'm still catching up."
[Even talking about this to the equivalent of a little computer, it made Apollo thoroughly embarrassed. Even as he tried not to show it, his ears had gone red, the man partially trying to distract himself by bending down and plucking the colorful letter off the pile.
He should've opened it the moment he got it. He knew that. But, he just... hadn't felt like it. Better late than never, right? He thought to himself, as the envelope was idly torn open.]
[The letter was a loving mess. Inside was one of those stupid, cheesy, yet heartfelt "get-well-soon" cards. Written in it were a couple of words of encouragement. Even Klavier had written something—even though it was written exactly how he talks, albiet a bit messy.. Trucy'd drawn a little smiley face where she'd written, 'Get better fast, 'polly!' And, written by that was a curt get better soon, signed off by Phoenix. Athena simply had doodled a stickman with a hat of flowers. (..Juniper, maybe?) ]
[..Klavier's looked as though he'd been hesitant to write. But it was written somewhat neat enough to be legible, the letters scrawled out upon the page to form "Herr Forehead, " followed by an oddly large empty space, "..get better soon, ja?"]
[The letter itself was decorated everywhere someone had not written. Decorated in stickers, specifically, and abstract marker doodling. Probably something Trucy did, considering most of the stickers were magic related. A corner of the upper left seemed slightly damaged by.. drops of water, and had been covered up with more stickers. It looked a bit crinkled there comparing to the rest of it. Someone probably missed Apollo.]
[The packaging Apollo had torn off fell to the ground with a slight 'clink' sound, heavier than paper. It was then that a small object rolled out of the damaged packaging. It.. didn't seem to belong in the package, nor have anything to do with the WAA. Vaz seemed intrigued. The object was shaped like an average D-20, but instead of numbers there was a teeny timer on one side and the rest of the sides had odd holes closed by some sorts of mesh. It was blue, the mesh black.]
"Yeah.. ah..?"
[It was beeping. A quiet, yet awful, noise.]
"...That's.. familiar.."
[..Vaz obviously didn't like that noise, visibly tense. It vaguely reminded it of something. It.. couldn't quite put it's finger on it, however.]
[For a brief moment, Apollo's eyes were able to scan the letter, a variety of emotions flashing across his face. He knew everyone cared, he really did, but seeing it all written plainly before him... it almost brought a tear to his eye.
Well, it did.
But he wiped it away as quick as he could. Being non-functional was embarrassing enough... He didn't need to be crying in front of the hologram, too.
Clay may have been his best friend, not something easily replaced, but... having so many others who cared about him, despite all his flaws... it made him rather thankful. It also, admittedly, made him feel rather bad for his utter lack of communication this last week...
Before he could kick himself for such inaction, however, the little object was noticed. Well, he had seen it when it fell, but only focused on it now. From his much higher vantage point, the item looked much more like a simple die, with some sort of odd patterning. The beeping could still be heard, but even something so blatant didn't tip him off.
He hadn't heard anything of the sort before his... recent experience, anyways.]
"...Mm? What's that?"
[Still holding the letter and envelope on one hand, he bent over as much as he could manage to get a better look. A few details came into clearer view, being the holes and the little timer.
A timer? That was what it was, clearly. A timer, and beeping?
His brows furrowed, expression tightening.
No, it... no, he was overreacting. It couldn't be that. It couldn't be.]
[Vaz studies the little thing for a moment longer. A flash of uncertainty causes him to frown.]
"..I.. no, wait a minute.. this.."
[ Vaz started glitching, and a few moments later vanished entirely. The ticking continued. Vaz returned. It seemed.. highly disturbed, visibly trembling(?). It's tone of voice was shocked, somewhat panicked.]
"..Dr. Crescent, you need to leave, something's wr-ong with the a. a. a. air."
[It repeated the word air a few more times before the words faded into an uncomfortable white noise.]
...
[..Vaz had then turned itself off, leaving a strange, darkened patch of air where it'd been glowing moments before.]
[The little die like thing kept beeping. It counted down from 2 minutes. There was a teensy label on it, just above the timer.]
It read, in cutesy lettering,
"Goodnight, Justice. <3"
[It didn't seem like it had just began the countdown. In fact, the little timer showed the original time it'd been set to count down from, which read '1hr, 20mins'. The screen upon which the timer set was dull. It had plenty of scratching on it, like it had been smacked, or ground, against something.]
The air? The air. He sucked in a breath, eyes glancing beck to the object. He stared blankly to it, much too many seconds passing... what did it say, now?
1:00.
One minute.
What was he doing? Now wasn't the time to panic. Standing here like a deer in headlights was only going to get him hurt.
It wasn't like he could dispose of this casually. He needed it out. And far from this building, preferably. He didn't know what it was going to do, anyways. He didn't want to think about it.
...Ah, that's it. A window. Throw it out. Who cared if it hurt someone on the street, all he could think about was self-preservation at this point.
The little object was grabbed off the floor, little care given to the action. Whichever window was nearest to him was just about ran towards, with the man immediately trying to wrestle it open.
If one had ever attempted to open a window in an old building, they would understand his struggle. A solid grip and strength were needed to do so, two things that Apollo was somewhat lacking in at the moment. The little 'die' (a rather fitting name) was set on the sill as he grappled with the window itself, ignoring the aches in his arms the attempts were causing. At least the chill of the outdoors was seeping through, numbing it all to some degree.
[ It beeped again before the screen darkened so that the timer couldn't be seen. It was replaced by a low-res webcam. Someone wanted him dead, and someone was watching him right now. ]
"You're being slow, J-Justice. "
[The person watching him apparently could talk through the little device. They had a stutter, and sounded like that of a young man. Due to the dark screen and low resolution, his face couldn't be made out, though some basic details could be. He had shorter, dark hair. He was also obviously smiling, head resting on his palm, watching.]
[He didn't swear often, really, despite having been through enough in his life to justify doing such a thing. But this... The duress of the situation was getting to him. The little chime, that... that was the breaking point.
And the webcam? It just added to it all.]
"Shut up!", he hissed through his teeth, voice filled with a nervous aggression. "Is... is this necessary?! Really?! Was... sending this thing to me not enough?!"
[His voice cracked, hands faltering for a moment. No, he couldn't get distracted. The person's second line, he forced himself to ignore it, focusing back on the window.
A blast of cold air his his hands, spilling down and over his feet. With a desperate pull, the window went up, clicking into place.
For a moment, he felt relief. But then... the screen. He forgot about the screen.
Muttering curses in both English and some other, much less common language, it was grabbed as well, taking much less strength to wrestle open. But it still took time. Time that he wasn't keeping track of.
As long as he was able, he would keep at it, though.
The screen wasn't lifted that much. But there was enough of a space for the stupid object to be thrown out through. So he grabbed it off the sill in a tight fist, and went to throw it as hard as his battered arm could possibly allow.]
[The person laughed at Apollo. After it'd been tossed out the window, the device landed outside. The timer had been at a staggering 10 seconds before it was tossed. The timer let out a few more beeps before stopping, although it was no longer audible. Some kind of coloured dust came out of the little device, floating upwards. A couple of birds fell out of the nearby tree. The birdsong in the area was silenced. A concerned passerby noticed, walking over. And they fell, too.]
[..It'd been some sort of compressed poison gas bomb. An extremely potent one. A little beep alerted Apollo to a miniature screen on a nearby desk, the person from before staring at him, grinning. It was still too dark and low resolution to tell whom he was.]
"..Glad to s..see you're doing well. You're that astronaut's b-buddy? What was his name.. T..Terran? Ooh, t-that poor guy. Phantom really sent em o-off, heheh."
[He paused, taking a sip of something from a large cup.]
"..Too bad Mr. Phantom is im..p..prisoned now. He woulda been proud, eheh. Ahem."
[The voice was a lot more clearer through this mini-screen's speakers. It sounded that of someone who was no older than 16. It carried a sort of monotone note every time he spoke.]
[It would've been nice to relax the moment the little bomb went flying out the window. No more danger, right?
But his panic... his panic only continued, the man becoming much more aware of it once his focus fell away from the window. When had his heart started beating this quickly? When had his hands started shaking? Was his vision always this dark and unfocused?
He gripped the windowsill and leaned heavily against it, taking in a few choppy breaths as a pained look came upon his face. All of his injuries seemed to burn in unison, the memory of their creation echoing in his mind. It had been an explosion, not poison. But even then, his mind was locked on the thought. He couldn't help it.
The dead birds, the person, they weren't even acknowledged. His brain refused their presence, for the sake of his own sanity.
The sudden noise and voice from his desk did break Apollo's mental loop, making him stumble to face the source, a tight scowl appearing on his face.
"Shut up!", he exclaimed, with little delay. The voice that carried the words shook with strain, but carried a great upset intensity within it. "Don't... talk about him so... so carelessly!"
Even after nearly dying, his first thought was to defend Clay's memory. It wasn't a very surprising action for him, admittedly.
But, the time would come to face the current situation.
"...What do you want with me. What do you want with me?! You... you sick piece of... ugh!"
He stumbled over himself, verbally, as he swayed slightly on his feet. The fact he was still standing at all was a miracle, really, with how utterly sheet-white he looked.
"..p-piece of what, Justice? Eheh. What I want with you.. I dunno. I'm a bit angry. Maybe r-revenge for Mr. Phantom?"
[He tapped on the webcam, adjusting it.]
"..Since Phantom got that loser scientist and your b-buddy Terran, I-I assumed I might as well just finish off the t-trio, yeah? Too bad that little robot bastard freaked out. You'd p-probably be t-twitching on the floor right now."
[The person twirled in their chair.]
"Didn't e-even think you'd have that 'thing', though. Little bastard makes my job harder t-than it already is.. sigh... but, ah, riiight. I h-hear you were bombed recently. How was that? Eheheh."
ongoing rp chain with @surging-eyes-seeing-through
(I dunno how to link parts, but this is part 3)
"..Yeah. and.. I can change my height if needed. This size is most efficient and I can maintain it indefinitely, unlike larger sizes. But I don't need to be big to cook."
[Vaz shrugs. It sways a little, back and forth.]
"There's also plenty of stuff i can cook at my size anyway. Minus.. anything that requires toasters. I tend to accidentally break them somehow."
[It leaned back before hopping laggily onto the floor, landing in silence.]
"And I refuse to fry things. Grease makes me feel icky, even if it just goes right through me."
"...Well, thankfully, I don't have a fryer. I do have a toaster, but... if I really wanted toast, that's easy enough to make myself."
[Apollo hoisted himself back to his feet, giving a half-hearted stretch as he kept an eye on Vaz. After rubbing his eyes, ridding them of some of the last bits of sadness from earlier, he turned towards the doorway.]
"Though... ah. Don't feel like you need to cook for me, really." [An awkward glance was shot to the side.] "You are basically a stranger... I don't want to rope you into anything like this, you know? I just think it's impolite."
[It.. sort of copied Apollo, stretching. Although an action like that would be unnecessary for a hologram.]
"..I mean, I am already technically 'roped in' since my signals are still jammed."
[Vaz let his arms drop to his sides, before crossing them the way a parent would, shifting it's weight to the left. It's tone of voice was a bit more serious now.]
"..I assume you've at least done your dishes so you can eat? I'm pretty sure you were cleaning when I arrived... albeit most of your housing is still a mess."
[It shot a curious glance to an awfully messy stack of mail, the small pile located just off the foot of the bed, slightly hidden under some misplaced laundry. Some of it was simply junk mail, and.. one, brightly colored, was from the WAA members. Vaz stared for a moment at the colorful packaging of the letter, before returning it's quizzical gaze to Apollo.]
"I mean... sure, yeah. I can do it myself." [He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, before continuing.] "...And, that's right. signals... I can try to figure out what it'd be that's keeping you here, since I doubt you want to be stuck here forever. I just wouldn't know where to start, really."
[He had watched as Vaz stretched, raising a brow momentarily before his face returned to its usual neutral look. At the note regarding the state of his apartment, his expression shifted again, his eyes diverting as his mouth pulled back into an awkward half-smile.]
"Okay, well... I have at least one set of clean dishes, I know that."
[Speaking nothing of all of the dirty ones.]
"I've, you know. Just started, ah... getting my shit together, I guess you could say. I'm still catching up."
[Even talking about this to the equivalent of a little computer, it made Apollo thoroughly embarrassed. Even as he tried not to show it, his ears had gone red, the man partially trying to distract himself by bending down and plucking the colorful letter off the pile.
He should've opened it the moment he got it. He knew that. But, he just... hadn't felt like it. Better late than never, right? He thought to himself, as the envelope was idly torn open.]
[The letter was a loving mess. Inside was one of those stupid, cheesy, yet heartfelt "get-well-soon" cards. Written in it were a couple of words of encouragement. Even Klavier had written something—even though it was written exactly how he talks, albiet a bit messy.. Trucy'd drawn a little smiley face where she'd written, 'Get better fast, 'polly!' And, written by that was a curt get better soon, signed off by Phoenix. Athena simply had doodled a stickman with a hat of flowers. (..Juniper, maybe?) ]
[..Klavier's looked as though he'd been hesitant to write. But it was written somewhat neat enough to be legible, the letters scrawled out upon the page to form "Herr Forehead, " followed by an oddly large empty space, "..get better soon, ja?"]
[The letter itself was decorated everywhere someone had not written. Decorated in stickers, specifically, and abstract marker doodling. Probably something Trucy did, considering most of the stickers were magic related. A corner of the upper left seemed slightly damaged by.. drops of water, and had been covered up with more stickers. It looked a bit crinkled there comparing to the rest of it. Someone probably missed Apollo.]
[The packaging Apollo had torn off fell to the ground with a slight 'clink' sound, heavier than paper. It was then that a small object rolled out of the damaged packaging. It.. didn't seem to belong in the package, nor have anything to do with the WAA. Vaz seemed intrigued. The object was shaped like an average D-20, but instead of numbers there was a teeny timer on one side and the rest of the sides had odd holes closed by some sorts of mesh. It was blue, the mesh black.]
"Yeah.. ah..?"
[It was beeping. A quiet, yet awful, noise.]
"...That's.. familiar.."
[..Vaz obviously didn't like that noise, visibly tense. It vaguely reminded it of something. It.. couldn't quite put it's finger on it, however.]
[For a brief moment, Apollo's eyes were able to scan the letter, a variety of emotions flashing across his face. He knew everyone cared, he really did, but seeing it all written plainly before him... it almost brought a tear to his eye.
Well, it did.
But he wiped it away as quick as he could. Being non-functional was embarrassing enough... He didn't need to be crying in front of the hologram, too.
Clay may have been his best friend, not something easily replaced, but... having so many others who cared about him, despite all his flaws... it made him rather thankful. It also, admittedly, made him feel rather bad for his utter lack of communication this last week...
Before he could kick himself for such inaction, however, the little object was noticed. Well, he had seen it when it fell, but only focused on it now. From his much higher vantage point, the item looked much more like a simple die, with some sort of odd patterning. The beeping could still be heard, but even something so blatant didn't tip him off.
He hadn't heard anything of the sort before his... recent experience, anyways.]
"...Mm? What's that?"
[Still holding the letter and envelope on one hand, he bent over as much as he could manage to get a better look. A few details came into clearer view, being the holes and the little timer.
A timer? That was what it was, clearly. A timer, and beeping?
His brows furrowed, expression tightening.
No, it... no, he was overreacting. It couldn't be that. It couldn't be.]
[Vaz studies the little thing for a moment longer. A flash of uncertainty causes him to frown.]
"..I.. no, wait a minute.. this.."
[ Vaz started glitching, and a few moments later vanished entirely. The ticking continued. Vaz returned. It seemed.. highly disturbed, visibly trembling(?). It's tone of voice was shocked, somewhat panicked.]
"..Dr. Crescent, you need to leave, something's wr-ong with the a. a. a. air."
[It repeated the word air a few more times before the words faded into an uncomfortable white noise.]
...
[..Vaz had then turned itself off, leaving a strange, darkened patch of air where it'd been glowing moments before.]
[The little die like thing kept beeping. It counted down from 2 minutes. There was a teensy label on it, just above the timer.]
It read, in cutesy lettering,
"Goodnight, Justice. <3"
[It didn't seem like it had just began the countdown. In fact, the little timer showed the original time it'd been set to count down from, which read '1hr, 20mins'. The screen upon which the timer set was dull. It had plenty of scratching on it, like it had been smacked, or ground, against something.]
The air? The air. He sucked in a breath, eyes glancing beck to the object. He stared blankly to it, much too many seconds passing... what did it say, now?
1:00.
One minute.
What was he doing? Now wasn't the time to panic. Standing here like a deer in headlights was only going to get him hurt.
It wasn't like he could dispose of this casually. He needed it out. And far from this building, preferably. He didn't know what it was going to do, anyways. He didn't want to think about it.
...Ah, that's it. A window. Throw it out. Who cared if it hurt someone on the street, all he could think about was self-preservation at this point.
The little object was grabbed off the floor, little care given to the action. Whichever window was nearest to him was just about ran towards, with the man immediately trying to wrestle it open.
If one had ever attempted to open a window in an old building, they would understand his struggle. A solid grip and strength were needed to do so, two things that Apollo was somewhat lacking in at the moment. The little 'die' (a rather fitting name) was set on the sill as he grappled with the window itself, ignoring the aches in his arms the attempts were causing. At least the chill of the outdoors was seeping through, numbing it all to some degree.
[ It beeped again before the screen darkened so that the timer couldn't be seen. It was replaced by a low-res webcam. Someone wanted him dead, and someone was watching him right now. ]
"You're being slow, J-Justice. "
[The person watching him apparently could talk through the little device. They had a stutter, and sounded like that of a young man. Due to the dark screen and low resolution, his face couldn't be made out, though some basic details could be. He had shorter, dark hair. He was also obviously smiling, head resting on his palm, watching.]
[He didn't swear often, really, despite having been through enough in his life to justify doing such a thing. But this... The duress of the situation was getting to him. The little chime, that... that was the breaking point.
And the webcam? It just added to it all.]
"Shut up!", he hissed through his teeth, voice filled with a nervous aggression. "Is... is this necessary?! Really?! Was... sending this thing to me not enough?!"
[His voice cracked, hands faltering for a moment. No, he couldn't get distracted. The person's second line, he forced himself to ignore it, focusing back on the window.
A blast of cold air his his hands, spilling down and over his feet. With a desperate pull, the window went up, clicking into place.
For a moment, he felt relief. But then... the screen. He forgot about the screen.
Muttering curses in both English and some other, much less common language, it was grabbed as well, taking much less strength to wrestle open. But it still took time. Time that he wasn't keeping track of.
As long as he was able, he would keep at it, though.
The screen wasn't lifted that much. But there was enough of a space for the stupid object to be thrown out through. So he grabbed it off the sill in a tight fist, and went to throw it as hard as his battered arm could possibly allow.]
[The person laughed at Apollo. After it'd been tossed out the window, the device landed outside. The timer had been at a staggering 10 seconds before it was tossed. The timer let out a few more beeps before stopping, although it was no longer audible. Some kind of coloured dust came out of the little device, floating upwards. A couple of birds fell out of the nearby tree. The birdsong in the area was silenced. A concerned passerby noticed, walking over. And they fell, too.]
[..It'd been some sort of compressed poison gas bomb. An extremely potent one. A little beep alerted Apollo to a miniature screen on a nearby desk, the person from before staring at him, grinning. It was still too dark and low resolution to tell whom he was.]
"..Glad to s..see you're doing well. You're that astronaut's b-buddy? What was his name.. T..Terran? Ooh, t-that poor guy. Phantom really sent em o-off, heheh."
[He paused, taking a sip of something from a large cup.]
"..Too bad Mr. Phantom is im..p..prisoned now. He woulda been proud, eheh. Ahem."
[The voice was a lot more clearer through this mini-screen's speakers. It sounded that of someone who was no older than 16. It carried a sort of monotone note every time he spoke.]
ongoing rp chain with @surging-eyes-seeing-through
(I dunno how to link parts, but this is part 3)
"..Yeah. and.. I can change my height if needed. This size is most efficient and I can maintain it indefinitely, unlike larger sizes. But I don't need to be big to cook."
[Vaz shrugs. It sways a little, back and forth.]
"There's also plenty of stuff i can cook at my size anyway. Minus.. anything that requires toasters. I tend to accidentally break them somehow."
[It leaned back before hopping laggily onto the floor, landing in silence.]
"And I refuse to fry things. Grease makes me feel icky, even if it just goes right through me."
"...Well, thankfully, I don't have a fryer. I do have a toaster, but... if I really wanted toast, that's easy enough to make myself."
[Apollo hoisted himself back to his feet, giving a half-hearted stretch as he kept an eye on Vaz. After rubbing his eyes, ridding them of some of the last bits of sadness from earlier, he turned towards the doorway.]
"Though... ah. Don't feel like you need to cook for me, really." [An awkward glance was shot to the side.] "You are basically a stranger... I don't want to rope you into anything like this, you know? I just think it's impolite."
[It.. sort of copied Apollo, stretching. Although an action like that would be unnecessary for a hologram.]
"..I mean, I am already technically 'roped in' since my signals are still jammed."
[Vaz let his arms drop to his sides, before crossing them the way a parent would, shifting it's weight to the left. It's tone of voice was a bit more serious now.]
"..I assume you've at least done your dishes so you can eat? I'm pretty sure you were cleaning when I arrived... albeit most of your housing is still a mess."
[It shot a curious glance to an awfully messy stack of mail, the small pile located just off the foot of the bed, slightly hidden under some misplaced laundry. Some of it was simply junk mail, and.. one, brightly colored, was from the WAA members. Vaz stared for a moment at the colorful packaging of the letter, before returning it's quizzical gaze to Apollo.]
"I mean... sure, yeah. I can do it myself." [He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, before continuing.] "...And, that's right. signals... I can try to figure out what it'd be that's keeping you here, since I doubt you want to be stuck here forever. I just wouldn't know where to start, really."
[He had watched as Vaz stretched, raising a brow momentarily before his face returned to its usual neutral look. At the note regarding the state of his apartment, his expression shifted again, his eyes diverting as his mouth pulled back into an awkward half-smile.]
"Okay, well... I have at least one set of clean dishes, I know that."
[Speaking nothing of all of the dirty ones.]
"I've, you know. Just started, ah... getting my shit together, I guess you could say. I'm still catching up."
[Even talking about this to the equivalent of a little computer, it made Apollo thoroughly embarrassed. Even as he tried not to show it, his ears had gone red, the man partially trying to distract himself by bending down and plucking the colorful letter off the pile.
He should've opened it the moment he got it. He knew that. But, he just... hadn't felt like it. Better late than never, right? He thought to himself, as the envelope was idly torn open.]
[The letter was a loving mess. Inside was one of those stupid, cheesy, yet heartfelt "get-well-soon" cards. Written in it were a couple of words of encouragement. Even Klavier had written something—even though it was written exactly how he talks, albiet a bit messy.. Trucy'd drawn a little smiley face where she'd written, 'Get better fast, 'polly!' And, written by that was a curt get better soon, signed off by Phoenix. Athena simply had doodled a stickman with a hat of flowers. (..Juniper, maybe?) ]
[..Klavier's looked as though he'd been hesitant to write. But it was written somewhat neat enough to be legible, the letters scrawled out upon the page to form "Herr Forehead, " followed by an oddly large empty space, "..get better soon, ja?"]
[The letter itself was decorated everywhere someone had not written. Decorated in stickers, specifically, and abstract marker doodling. Probably something Trucy did, considering most of the stickers were magic related. A corner of the upper left seemed slightly damaged by.. drops of water, and had been covered up with more stickers. It looked a bit crinkled there comparing to the rest of it. Someone probably missed Apollo.]
[The packaging Apollo had torn off fell to the ground with a slight 'clink' sound, heavier than paper. It was then that a small object rolled out of the damaged packaging. It.. didn't seem to belong in the package, nor have anything to do with the WAA. Vaz seemed intrigued. The object was shaped like an average D-20, but instead of numbers there was a teeny timer on one side and the rest of the sides had odd holes closed by some sorts of mesh. It was blue, the mesh black.]
"Yeah.. ah..?"
[It was beeping. A quiet, yet awful, noise.]
"...That's.. familiar.."
[..Vaz obviously didn't like that noise, visibly tense. It vaguely reminded it of something. It.. couldn't quite put it's finger on it, however.]
[For a brief moment, Apollo's eyes were able to scan the letter, a variety of emotions flashing across his face. He knew everyone cared, he really did, but seeing it all written plainly before him... it almost brought a tear to his eye.
Well, it did.
But he wiped it away as quick as he could. Being non-functional was embarrassing enough... He didn't need to be crying in front of the hologram, too.
Clay may have been his best friend, not something easily replaced, but... having so many others who cared about him, despite all his flaws... it made him rather thankful. It also, admittedly, made him feel rather bad for his utter lack of communication this last week...
Before he could kick himself for such inaction, however, the little object was noticed. Well, he had seen it when it fell, but only focused on it now. From his much higher vantage point, the item looked much more like a simple die, with some sort of odd patterning. The beeping could still be heard, but even something so blatant didn't tip him off.
He hadn't heard anything of the sort before his... recent experience, anyways.]
"...Mm? What's that?"
[Still holding the letter and envelope on one hand, he bent over as much as he could manage to get a better look. A few details came into clearer view, being the holes and the little timer.
A timer? That was what it was, clearly. A timer, and beeping?
His brows furrowed, expression tightening.
No, it... no, he was overreacting. It couldn't be that. It couldn't be.]
[Vaz studies the little thing for a moment longer. A flash of uncertainty causes him to frown.]
"..I.. no, wait a minute.. this.."
[ Vaz started glitching, and a few moments later vanished entirely. The ticking continued. Vaz returned. It seemed.. highly disturbed, visibly trembling(?). It's tone of voice was shocked, somewhat panicked.]
"..Dr. Crescent, you need to leave, something's wr-ong with the a. a. a. air."
[It repeated the word air a few more times before the words faded into an uncomfortable white noise.]
...
[..Vaz had then turned itself off, leaving a strange, darkened patch of air where it'd been glowing moments before.]
[The little die like thing kept beeping. It counted down from 2 minutes. There was a teensy label on it, just above the timer.]
It read, in cutesy lettering,
"Goodnight, Justice. <3"
[It didn't seem like it had just began the countdown. In fact, the little timer showed the original time it'd been set to count down from, which read '1hr, 20mins'. The screen upon which the timer set was dull. It had plenty of scratching on it, like it had been smacked, or ground, against something.]
The air? The air. He sucked in a breath, eyes glancing beck to the object. He stared blankly to it, much too many seconds passing... what did it say, now?
1:00.
One minute.
What was he doing? Now wasn't the time to panic. Standing here like a deer in headlights was only going to get him hurt.
It wasn't like he could dispose of this casually. He needed it out. And far from this building, preferably. He didn't know what it was going to do, anyways. He didn't want to think about it.
...Ah, that's it. A window. Throw it out. Who cared if it hurt someone on the street, all he could think about was self-preservation at this point.
The little object was grabbed off the floor, little care given to the action. Whichever window was nearest to him was just about ran towards, with the man immediately trying to wrestle it open.
If one had ever attempted to open a window in an old building, they would understand his struggle. A solid grip and strength were needed to do so, two things that Apollo was somewhat lacking in at the moment. The little 'die' (a rather fitting name) was set on the sill as he grappled with the window itself, ignoring the aches in his arms the attempts were causing. At least the chill of the outdoors was seeping through, numbing it all to some degree.
[ It beeped again before the screen darkened so that the timer couldn't be seen. It was replaced by a low-res webcam. Someone wanted him dead, and someone was watching him right now. ]
"You're being slow, J-Justice. "
[The person watching him apparently could talk through the little device. They had a stutter, and sounded like that of a young man. Due to the dark screen and low resolution, his face couldn't be made out, though some basic details could be. He had shorter, dark hair. He was also obviously smiling, head resting on his palm, watching.]
ongoing rp chain with @surging-eyes-seeing-through
(I dunno how to link parts, but this is part 3)
"..Yeah. and.. I can change my height if needed. This size is most efficient and I can maintain it indefinitely, unlike larger sizes. But I don't need to be big to cook."
[Vaz shrugs. It sways a little, back and forth.]
"There's also plenty of stuff i can cook at my size anyway. Minus.. anything that requires toasters. I tend to accidentally break them somehow."
[It leaned back before hopping laggily onto the floor, landing in silence.]
"And I refuse to fry things. Grease makes me feel icky, even if it just goes right through me."
"...Well, thankfully, I don't have a fryer. I do have a toaster, but... if I really wanted toast, that's easy enough to make myself."
[Apollo hoisted himself back to his feet, giving a half-hearted stretch as he kept an eye on Vaz. After rubbing his eyes, ridding them of some of the last bits of sadness from earlier, he turned towards the doorway.]
"Though... ah. Don't feel like you need to cook for me, really." [An awkward glance was shot to the side.] "You are basically a stranger... I don't want to rope you into anything like this, you know? I just think it's impolite."
[It.. sort of copied Apollo, stretching. Although an action like that would be unnecessary for a hologram.]
"..I mean, I am already technically 'roped in' since my signals are still jammed."
[Vaz let his arms drop to his sides, before crossing them the way a parent would, shifting it's weight to the left. It's tone of voice was a bit more serious now.]
"..I assume you've at least done your dishes so you can eat? I'm pretty sure you were cleaning when I arrived... albeit most of your housing is still a mess."
[It shot a curious glance to an awfully messy stack of mail, the small pile located just off the foot of the bed, slightly hidden under some misplaced laundry. Some of it was simply junk mail, and.. one, brightly colored, was from the WAA members. Vaz stared for a moment at the colorful packaging of the letter, before returning it's quizzical gaze to Apollo.]
"I mean... sure, yeah. I can do it myself." [He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, before continuing.] "...And, that's right. signals... I can try to figure out what it'd be that's keeping you here, since I doubt you want to be stuck here forever. I just wouldn't know where to start, really."
[He had watched as Vaz stretched, raising a brow momentarily before his face returned to its usual neutral look. At the note regarding the state of his apartment, his expression shifted again, his eyes diverting as his mouth pulled back into an awkward half-smile.]
"Okay, well... I have at least one set of clean dishes, I know that."
[Speaking nothing of all of the dirty ones.]
"I've, you know. Just started, ah... getting my shit together, I guess you could say. I'm still catching up."
[Even talking about this to the equivalent of a little computer, it made Apollo thoroughly embarrassed. Even as he tried not to show it, his ears had gone red, the man partially trying to distract himself by bending down and plucking the colorful letter off the pile.
He should've opened it the moment he got it. He knew that. But, he just... hadn't felt like it. Better late than never, right? He thought to himself, as the envelope was idly torn open.]
[The letter was a loving mess. Inside was one of those stupid, cheesy, yet heartfelt "get-well-soon" cards. Written in it were a couple of words of encouragement. Even Klavier had written something—even though it was written exactly how he talks, albiet a bit messy.. Trucy'd drawn a little smiley face where she'd written, 'Get better fast, 'polly!' And, written by that was a curt get better soon, signed off by Phoenix. Athena simply had doodled a stickman with a hat of flowers. (..Juniper, maybe?) ]
[..Klavier's looked as though he'd been hesitant to write. But it was written somewhat neat enough to be legible, the letters scrawled out upon the page to form "Herr Forehead, " followed by an oddly large empty space, "..get better soon, ja?"]
[The letter itself was decorated everywhere someone had not written. Decorated in stickers, specifically, and abstract marker doodling. Probably something Trucy did, considering most of the stickers were magic related. A corner of the upper left seemed slightly damaged by.. drops of water, and had been covered up with more stickers. It looked a bit crinkled there comparing to the rest of it. Someone probably missed Apollo.]
[The packaging Apollo had torn off fell to the ground with a slight 'clink' sound, heavier than paper. It was then that a small object rolled out of the damaged packaging. It.. didn't seem to belong in the package, nor have anything to do with the WAA. Vaz seemed intrigued. The object was shaped like an average D-20, but instead of numbers there was a teeny timer on one side and the rest of the sides had odd holes closed by some sorts of mesh. It was blue, the mesh black.]
"Yeah.. ah..?"
[It was beeping. A quiet, yet awful, noise.]
"...That's.. familiar.."
[..Vaz obviously didn't like that noise, visibly tense. It vaguely reminded it of something. It.. couldn't quite put it's finger on it, however.]
[For a brief moment, Apollo's eyes were able to scan the letter, a variety of emotions flashing across his face. He knew everyone cared, he really did, but seeing it all written plainly before him... it almost brought a tear to his eye.
Well, it did.
But he wiped it away as quick as he could. Being non-functional was embarrassing enough... He didn't need to be crying in front of the hologram, too.
Clay may have been his best friend, not something easily replaced, but... having so many others who cared about him, despite all his flaws... it made him rather thankful. It also, admittedly, made him feel rather bad for his utter lack of communication this last week...
Before he could kick himself for such inaction, however, the little object was noticed. Well, he had seen it when it fell, but only focused on it now. From his much higher vantage point, the item looked much more like a simple die, with some sort of odd patterning. The beeping could still be heard, but even something so blatant didn't tip him off.
He hadn't heard anything of the sort before his... recent experience, anyways.]
"...Mm? What's that?"
[Still holding the letter and envelope on one hand, he bent over as much as he could manage to get a better look. A few details came into clearer view, being the holes and the little timer.
A timer? That was what it was, clearly. A timer, and beeping?
His brows furrowed, expression tightening.
No, it... no, he was overreacting. It couldn't be that. It couldn't be.]
[Vaz studies the little thing for a moment longer. A flash of uncertainty causes him to frown.]
"..I.. no, wait a minute.. this.."
[ Vaz started glitching, and a few moments later vanished entirely. The ticking continued. Vaz returned. It seemed.. highly disturbed, visibly trembling(?). It's tone of voice was shocked, somewhat panicked.]
"..Dr. Crescent, you need to leave, something's wr-ong with the a. a. a. air."
[It repeated the word air a few more times before the words faded into an uncomfortable white noise.]
...
[..Vaz had then turned itself off, leaving a strange, darkened patch of air where it'd been glowing moments before.]
[The little die like thing kept beeping. It counted down from 2 minutes. There was a teensy label on it, just above the timer.]
It read, in cutesy lettering,
"Goodnight, Justice. <3"
[It didn't seem like it had just began the countdown. In fact, the little timer showed the original time it'd been set to count down from, which read '1hr, 20mins'. The screen upon which the timer set was dull. It had plenty of scratching on it, like it had been smacked, or ground, against something.]
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