Epsilon - Church

"Do you know where it is?" Certainly, he could find the place, but it's easier to know, isn't it? Delta wasn't intending to wait for an answer- it the answer was no, they could amend that, but as it stood, he had at least a little faith in Church's ability to appraise his own situation.

Turning, he continued the walk that Church had interrupted- the migration to the spring that had become a bit of a community spot, for better or worse. At least the people here were generally kind; rough around the edges, maybe a little rowdy for his tastes, but generally not mean-spirited. It did make the public space more palatable.

"Yeah, I'll meet you there." There's only so many springs he was talking about, right?

That being said, it took him a good 20 minutes to get dressed properly and actually track Delta down at the right place. Turns out he went to the wrong spring first. Second time's the charm?

"Whew, okay, I'm here," he announced, trotting over to Delta--or the edge of the spring, if he was already swimming. "That was a hell of a walk, Christ..."

"Not a proper pool, no. A few decent natural springs, though- and one that's tested low enough for residual radiation to be deemed safe to swim in." So... They wouldn't be alone, most likely- sorry Church.

"I can wait nearby if you need to retrieve proper swim attire." Delta was actually... Already in his. It's just that he'd made sure to get a good shirt that could pass casually, if you didn't look too closely. Surprise.

"That works too." Still better than the fucking ocean. Church didn't even want to think about what crazy shit lived in Chorus' seas.

He paused, looking down at himself. Oh, right. Huh, Delta had his swim trunks on, how did he miss that-

"Yeah, uh, I should probably... deal with that. I'll meet you there?"

"I have a firm grasp of the basics." He wasn't about to drown, but he wasn't exactly elegant, either. Despite his desire to maintain a level of integrity, learning new things, unfortunately, could only be accomplished through an amateur stage; he'd have to embarrass himself a little.

"Though I have found orientation underwater to be more difficult than I would have initially assumed." Something about the liquid messing with the inner ear...? He wasn't entirely certain that that's how his own balance worked, but that was his understanding of the human confusion on the matter, so it was likely a similar enough phenomenon.

"Yeah, it's a little weird, but maybe you just need some goggles," Church said with a shrug. "If you can see what's going on, it's a lot easier to orient yourself. Unless you're in the middle of the ocean, I guess..."

He paused, squinting.

"I'm gonna go ahead and assume that's not your plan, though. Is there even a pool around here?"

"There is a non-zero probability that he believes we're naturally drawn to one another by proxy of our origin." And, frankly, anecdotal evidence didn't point far away from that thought, did it? The possibility of confirmation bias only made it a more plausible concept- but it's not like Delta had been in the man's head recently.

"... Would you like to join me? I've recently opted to learn how to swim." Really, that just seemed like a useful skill, more than anything- but he found boredom was prone to get to him faster than anything else, without the constant risk of danger. AI are optimized for high activity- and, frankly, he was struggling for that constant stimulation. It wasn't a problem he'd imagined himself having, but, in retrospect, it made sense.

Church didn't bother to hide the roll of his eyes.

"That'd be fuckin' stupid."

Plausible, maybe, but still stupid. What was this, a comedy web series? Don't answer that.

"Sure, why not? That's probably a good life skill to have now that you have lungs." Or a close enough equivalent. "Are you, like... just starting, or have you had some practice already? Do I need to play lifeguard?"

Facial expressions were still new to him, on a technical level, but he had studied them- of course he had- and how to effectively communicate with them; if he was to be the proud owner of a face, after all, he should know how to use it. He isn't to blame for the people around him assuming he won't so much as raise an eyebrow from time to time, is he?

"It was the best word for the meaning I was attempting to convey." Your choice of compliments is confusing him, Church.

"I am beginning to believe that you are holding me here for a more insidious reason than communication, however. I do have a very skilled former intelligence officer to avoid."

"I can think of a few words that would have done the trick with a couple less syllables, but you do you, my guy."

Really, he hadn't had nearly enough time in the past to tease Delta for being so formal, so he had to make up for it now. Sorry, bud, this is called brotherly love.

"I promise I don't have any ulterior motives beyond what I've already told you," he insisted, raising his hands. "I mean... well, shit, I guess York could have followed me?"

pvremichigan

The woman dashes through the trees, jumping off of anything in her path to gain momentum. The cries get louder, and seemingly come from above. Her eyes start to trail the canopies of the trees, hoping to locate that sound she knew all too well. The cries paused for a moment before the sound of rustling from tree to tree approached her. Once the thing was in sight, her heart dropped.

"No..."

The blue under her cloth seemed to shine brighter. Her voice was nearly a whisper.

"Go. GO you need to g o..."

Ody, her faithful Odogaron, merely cocked his head at the command. He tried to forcefully nuzzle his snout under her hand, but his head shot up to listen for the footsteps approaching.

"No no no FUCK!"

She can't let this damn rider know. They've pissed each other off enough, he might tell the guild for all she knows. She's not permitted to even HAVE a kinship stone anymore...

Mich's heart breaks as she reaches for her weapon. She wouldn't hurt him... But she had to make it seem compelling.

Mich raises the switch axe after retrieving it from her back, yelling out as she swings it down beside Ody, trying to make it seem like she missed. The monstie's body swerved and curled out of the way, nimble as ever. The poor thing was confused, but not threatened. Not until someone else approached.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, KID, THIS AIN'T YOUR FIGHT!"

#pvremichigan #Verse: Raptor Boy

What the hell, how'd she get ahead of him--wait, what?

Church wasn't an idiot (most of the time); as he and Sparks broke through the trees and spotted Mich yet again, he immediately clocked the Odogaron--a monster that very much shouldn't be here--for what it was: a monstie. Maybe he saw the saddle, maybe he just felt something in his own Kinship Stone, maybe Sparks recognized the situation and he simply picked up on it, but ultimately, it didn't matter.

"Whoa, hey, what the hell are you doing?!" he shouted, his Gendrome skidding to a stop. "Isn't that YOUR monstie?!"

He could only assume as much, because the alternative--that she was going after some mysterious Rider's monstie for no reason--was much worse.

Please allow him the grace to look just a little befuddled by that assertion, one eyebrow raised as he leaned onto his right leg, notably away from Epsilon as if to appraise him once again. Where had he gotten that idea? Delta could certainly see the benefit of artistic pursuit, but he would hardly consider himself the 'artsy type', as Church had so eloquently phrased it.

Of course, he had dabbled somewhat, so perhaps Epsilon wasn't as off the mark as Delta would have appraised him to be; he surprised himself more than he cared to admit, these days.

"What about my countenance purveys an inclination toward the arts, dare I ask?"

After a moment, Church's face broke out into a shit-eating grin.

"Nothing, honestly, but your reaction was so very, very worth it."

He wasn't used to Delta... emoting. It was fun to see how he reacted to things now. Was that weird? It was probably weird. Whatever, they were from the same... brain, or something, who cared.

"Also, very good use of the word 'countenance,' dude."

pvremichigan

His yelling snapped her out of her daze, the world that was hums and buzzing quickly yanked back into reality. The birds chirped, the wind blew... And fearful tension thickened the air. One could choke on it if they bathed in it long enough.

"Demons. My own."

That choice of words weighed heavy between them. This must've been so confusing for Church. But he deserved to know. He was being hunted too.

"I don't know how they got here. Something's wrong..."

"D-Demons... Church I haven't been completely open with you. I've been to hell. Twice. T-There was never a good time to bring it up. It wasn't a walk in the park either. Forget what you know about me and what I can handle, that place is far worse than you think. I couldn't handle it. T-The first time, I lost my soul. 10 years later I had to go back and get it back and these fuckers showed up to try to keep me there forever. Church I was there for months... Fucking months. These things are no joke. If I or any of my kind can't beat them, I don't know who else could."

"The veil between hell and earth might be weak, they might still be hunting me down after all this time..."

Her head looked around, trying to identify their surroundings.

"The house shhhhoouldn't be too far from here. We need to stay quiet and stay low. My scent is on both of us, technically, so we gotta be quick. There's no masking it."

Silence between them prior be damned, he was in danger because her past mistakes will never stop haunting her. Even now she still suffers the consequences of her own actions. Even now she puts loved ones in danger.

Even now she barely learns.

So she starts running. To the house.

Like always.

Well, that was a lot to unpack all at once, wasn't it?

"That was a fucking demon?" he said, almost not believing his own words. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

No, that wasn't Mich's sense of humor, that was for sure. She was either delusional, or demons were real--and he was inclined to believe her. Unfortunately. Jesus fucking Christ... oh, fuck, was he real too? Is he gonna have to go read the damn Bible and take it seriously? Did being Jewish have anything to do with--

No, no, focus, Church, you can deal with this bombshell later. Especially since Mich is already running.

"Fuckin'--wait up!" he shouted, sprinting after her with a wheeze. Barely had enough time to catch his breath.

#pvremichigan

"I don't want him to dial it back. If he's wringing his hands this much over the whole ordeal, then he needs the exercise, no?" Mental exercise in this case, sure, but still.

"If it appeases you, though, you can tell him that I'm being deliberately difficult because he's failed to disguise the fact that he's tracking me. At least, to effectively do so. I'm sure he would have had more success with a less aware target." Delta had always had a bit of a way of showing York up from time to time. It was hardly deliberate; he saw his job as being to shore up the man's shortcomings. It just so happened that his shortcomings, in this case, were less a lack of skill and more a side effect of being unable to embed himself in digital code. Limitations of physical medium, really.

"Can't even tell me a hobby, huh?"

Yeah, that'd just be too easy, and Delta was surprisingly stubborn when he wanted to be. York might appreciate the feedback, though--he was almost as competitive as Carolina was. Almost.

"Just saying, you seem like the artsy type.