Council of Rhakotis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
specialcollections) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
librarycardedooc2022-04-01 10:00 pm
specialcollections) wrote in librarycardedooc2022-04-01 10:00 pm
Entry tags:
TEST DRIVE
TDM
SCOUTING - WHO'S THAT VILLAIN
It says something for the time that the walls of the pyramids are still gleaming, new and bright and shining, sanded impossibly sleek. They're a glimmering temptation for tomb robbers, but for the moment they're safe and well guarded. The Nile is more blessed and lush than it would be in later years, though not quite as fertile as it would have been a century earlier.
Something is supposed to happen tonight, though, and the Library has no idea what. Just that it's supposed to happen on this night. That in the morning, the massive tombs will be reduced to rubble, that the Sphinx will be little more than assorted boulders, that bodies will fill the desert. Something will continue hunting the world and shattering all of the holy relics and religious iconography that connects mankind to their gods and the next life. For someone technologically minded? Not a big deal. But a huge one when someone with a particularly blessed soul needs to be born in another 4,500 years and won't have the power to fight the threat that they need to.
If someone can catch the moment when things might turn, either return for help or stop it themselves, they can save not just the lives of those in the Pharoh's domain. They just need to know exactly what and when. It could be another time traveler stopping a threat at its source. It could be some sort of hellish force lashing back against the gods. It just needs to be stopped.
Something is supposed to happen tonight, though, and the Library has no idea what. Just that it's supposed to happen on this night. That in the morning, the massive tombs will be reduced to rubble, that the Sphinx will be little more than assorted boulders, that bodies will fill the desert. Something will continue hunting the world and shattering all of the holy relics and religious iconography that connects mankind to their gods and the next life. For someone technologically minded? Not a big deal. But a huge one when someone with a particularly blessed soul needs to be born in another 4,500 years and won't have the power to fight the threat that they need to.
If someone can catch the moment when things might turn, either return for help or stop it themselves, they can save not just the lives of those in the Pharoh's domain. They just need to know exactly what and when. It could be another time traveler stopping a threat at its source. It could be some sort of hellish force lashing back against the gods. It just needs to be stopped.
SALVAGE - A GOOD BOY
What was once a mighty secretive organization on an alien world has failed in its protective duties. Facilities with rows and rows of protective cells now lay derelict. In this one building in particular, some doors are torn off their hinges. Bodies can be found in various positions of anguish. Something, or a variety of somethings, scoured this world clean of the dominant sapient life and as a last-ditch effort to save what they could the people of this complex loosed every captive creature and being that they were keeping, and they still didn't manage to reach them all.
But in this building there's a very special computer, one with a predictive nature. There are any number of exceptional relics here that could be brought back to Alexandria, and they'd love them all, but the researchers would especially like to add this computer to enhance their powers of prediction to get the most accurate results with the most certainty possible.
Problem is that there are a lot of special access cards, many locked doors, and a few nigh-on-indestructible monsters between here and there. Such a small little thing might not be such a simple task to retrieve, especially in a building that seems specifically made of materials to inhibit teleportation (can't let certain subjects get loose, after all).
But in this building there's a very special computer, one with a predictive nature. There are any number of exceptional relics here that could be brought back to Alexandria, and they'd love them all, but the researchers would especially like to add this computer to enhance their powers of prediction to get the most accurate results with the most certainty possible.
Problem is that there are a lot of special access cards, many locked doors, and a few nigh-on-indestructible monsters between here and there. Such a small little thing might not be such a simple task to retrieve, especially in a building that seems specifically made of materials to inhibit teleportation (can't let certain subjects get loose, after all).
COURSE CORRECTION - BROKEN ENGLISH
There is an outcome that can't be avoided in this particular path. London is burning, people are dying, the streets are filled with carnage in one man's ceaseless search for war. Blimps travel overhead, spouting tinny German down upon panicked civilians as literally monstrous nazi soldiers attack the streets.
The sky is filled with zeppelins, and planes drop bombs in a throwback to the old war from decades before. In another universe with similar souls, this would be playing out differently. An exceptional team of monster hunters would be stopping this disaster, teaming up and with noble sacrifices eventually stopping the onslaught. But in this universe there is no noble sacrifices, no loyal soldiers to secret organizations built into the world to run out and prove themselves, no religious warriors ready to exact holy deeds.
There are just monsters. Vampires, werewolves, and clumsily made cyborgs are ready to use their various skills to go find what the planes and zeppelins overhead cannot. This needs to be stopped by a team of sufficient skill and strength to do so.
The sky is filled with zeppelins, and planes drop bombs in a throwback to the old war from decades before. In another universe with similar souls, this would be playing out differently. An exceptional team of monster hunters would be stopping this disaster, teaming up and with noble sacrifices eventually stopping the onslaught. But in this universe there is no noble sacrifices, no loyal soldiers to secret organizations built into the world to run out and prove themselves, no religious warriors ready to exact holy deeds.
There are just monsters. Vampires, werewolves, and clumsily made cyborgs are ready to use their various skills to go find what the planes and zeppelins overhead cannot. This needs to be stopped by a team of sufficient skill and strength to do so.
DOMESTIC - HOME SWEET HOME
Because Alexandria was pretty much built off refugees from different worlds, there's a wonderful mix of species and races and foods and types of construction in the civilian portions of the city, the areas that aren't part of the massive library. Unfortunately, some people do still carry old hate with them and fights do still break out. People do still have their very natural flaws.
A particularly rough fight, in true dramatic movie fashion, led to a bunch of sales carts in an open market being crashed in.
If you want your fair share of groceries, some of the vendors are letting people take some, or are making them simple dishes of food, if they help them clean up in the aftermath of the brawl.
A particularly rough fight, in true dramatic movie fashion, led to a bunch of sales carts in an open market being crashed in.
If you want your fair share of groceries, some of the vendors are letting people take some, or are making them simple dishes of food, if they help them clean up in the aftermath of the brawl.
R&D - MAGICAL DESIGN
Everyone's heard of the stereotypical crystal ball, and there is a healthy collection of them in the library. Unfortunately most of them operate via magic, and in magical aversive worlds this doesn't give course correctors and scouts much time for caution if they need to check their pathing. So the Library is putting the R&D department to the unique task of creating a completely digital version.
This may involve converting it to magitek first, or careful trial and error in a testing room, or just losing sleep over design attempts while a magical orb stares you in the face.
Whatever is the case, it's now your assignment to help in the creation of a device that can provide glimpses a few days into the future using this relic as a base. Try not to break it. Getting them is expensive and troublesome.
This may involve converting it to magitek first, or careful trial and error in a testing room, or just losing sleep over design attempts while a magical orb stares you in the face.
Whatever is the case, it's now your assignment to help in the creation of a device that can provide glimpses a few days into the future using this relic as a base. Try not to break it. Getting them is expensive and troublesome.
Yondu Udonta | MCU (VoidTreckers CRAU)
This, though? Much more up his alley. What he trained for, and dare he say it gave him more of a tangible sense of accomplishment at the end when he could hold an item in his hands. But these kinds of missions never came easy, especially when its after something important enough to predict the future, and the previous caretakers/developers/whoever the hell these folks were went through all this trouble to keep their items safe.
He peels an aging corpse away from a console, letting it slump with a thud to the floor as he pushes its chair away and starts to scroll through a holographic map. Half the doors marked 'BREACH' in flashing red, the rest of the walls and doors glowing in a dim, pleasant blue. He clicks each room, reading the contents of what it once held. Each with its own set of dangers, and some with their own special rules of how to avoid them.
This one here? Wear a gas mask around it because it exudes a gas that makes you forget. This one here? It can't touch you or you would be turned to stone. That one there- if you're not looking at it, it can attack you, possess your body, and leave you a corpse when it finds someone else to attack while still wearing you as a suit. Killing the body will just turn it loose to jump to a new host freely. It's just then that he hears very fast sprinting down the hall.
Yondu reels in place to face the door, just in time to see a person standing there. He can even see the labcoat they're wearing drift to a rest after that tireless, freakish run. And it's looking at him. The thing seems to be still alive though whatever person lived in that skinsuit is gone now. It's just a vehicle for whatever is inside. And Yondu, keeping his eyes on it, slowwwly tries to make his way around it and out the door. As long as he's watching it? It's not moving.
Okay, what was this about this being more up his alley again?
Security comes quick, unsurprisingly, and while he has the urge to rubberneck he also doesn't give the slightest of fucks why two people are fighting. It happens, right? Who is he to brandish some kind of moral justification. Punch a bitch in the face if it suits you! Maybe they deserved it. Maybe they're from a universe where shit didn't happen. Then someone can deal with the consequences.
He's about to move on with his day when a woman that looks like she has at least twenty years on him struggles to pick up some neon gourds as he's walking past. He would have kept going to a kabob place, thinking of the last meal that Zenos shared with him in the back of his mind. And, honestly, it's the weight of those more recent experiences that makes him stop and help start picking up the fruit.
Never mind a few of them are embarrassingly phallic. So someone might roll up on him holding a neon dick gourd and scowling at it disapprovingly.
salvage -- assuming enough cr she knows yondu's on her side lmfao
This place was almost, almost in her wheelhouse. Creepy as fuck building? Check. Lots of corpses? Check, even if they usually weren't corpses until after she left. Lots of tech everywhere? Check. High-security building? Iffy but she's done it before. Supernatural fuck all the rules bullshit? Definitely out of her wheelhouse. Klepping a computer sounded super easy and she definitely didn't review any materials regarding this place before getting here but now that boots were on the ground she realized that perhaps she sould have brushed up on the specifics of everything. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, didn't.
Alena was looking for anything useful at this point and she thought that there was a room nearby that included a map, information on the inmates (or whatever you called these things), and perhaps even a clue to where the computer they were looking for was at. Her eyes locked on a figure in a doorway with a lab coat and she slowed her pace. It was focused on something or someone else, it seemed, and she slowly started to pass by the door quietly to avoid drawing its attention.
She stopped when she saw Yondu inside the room and her eyes narrowed slightly and she tilted her head as if to ask what was going on. Surely he could hear her thumb the safety on her gun and cock it even if she didn't raise the weapon towards the figure between them.
no subject
He shakes his head frantically as he hears the gun cock, realizing what she has in mind. Nope. Nope nope nope.
He points from his eyes to the "man", or what used to be a man, without taking his gaze off him. Makes a 'pew pew' fingerguns with his fingers. Shakes his head again and makes a cutthroat motion, before pointing between himself and loosely at her (because he can't look at her). God, he wishes he'd taken up that hand signal stuff from that Amaya lady 'cause if they were anything similar then he'd not be in this dire of a situation, and he cannot look away to write something down.
Hopefully she keeps her eyes on the meatpuppet. In the meantime he does what he planned, before his eyes start to sting he moves around the door, very carefully not touching the creature, and walking backwards toward a decontamination door. He motions at her frantically to come with him. He's not sure that it can open doors but he knows if they should both make the mistake of simultaneously blinking, with how fast it moves it'd easily gain a good twenty feet in a split second.
no subject
She watched his charades with brows knotting together in frustration. If she couldn't shoot the motherfucker then what's the point? How were they supposed to deal with all of this shit if they couldn't fight it? What was more frustrating was she couldn't even ask - it was clear that Yondu was keeping his eyes glued to this thing for some reason or another and he couldn't look at her signing. Trying to talk was more effort than it was worth, she felt, and these things had such ridiculous rules that it was possible that sound was what would set this thing off.
All she can do at this moment is mirror what Yondu was doing -- it was clear that he knew something about this thing that she didn't. She focused her gaze on the figure and noted the way it seemed to track Yondu's movements. Something about the way it moved was unnatural and eerie, not that she could put a finger on what exactly about it was so unnerving. Perhaps it was the way it just stood there and watched while the pair of them stared back at it - surely something that was actively hostile would do something or have done something by now?
She silently fell in line with Yondu at his beckoning, backing up toward the decon door with him. Alena stared on at the thing as they backed up with an unwavering gaze. If she knew specifically she had to keep this thing under her gaze constantly she would stop blinking altogether - mechanical eyes don't need the same care real ones did - but it was such an ingrained habit she didn't think about it.
The safety to her gun goes back on and she puts it away and her hands formed fists - the thing seemed content to stay where it was at the moment but if she couldn't shoot the thing she could surely hit it if it made a move while Yondu fucked around with the door. She didn't have gorilla arms or any big knucks but she still knew how to throw a punch that'd make any (normal) person think twice. She jerked her head towards the door to tell Yondu to do whatever he needed, she would keep an eye on the thing watching them.
no subject
It's not out of kindness, or benevolence, or the blind idealism to do good. It's self-interest. This thing is more dangerous dead than alive- but then again, there are a few things in this building like that. Or things they flat out can't kill.
He'll explain it when their asses are marginally safer. There was nothing saying that thing couldn't read or understand speech, even if it wasn't talking.
He manages to feel his hand over the card reader, figure out where to swipe, and has to try three different cards before it opens up and lets them back into it. He doesn't take his eyes away from it.
Once the metal door slides shut he's already running to the other one, trying to get his card out and through it before whatever it is finishes doing what it wants to on the other side.
"It moves bodies if ya kill it. Only way to stop it is by bein' able to look at it. When it's in someone, you can look at it. So that poor bastard's gotta stay that way."
He can hear the thing on the other side of the door and he wants out of the decontamination area as quickly as possible. Or at least out of the way for now. Who the hell knows if it's smart enough to find its way around but he has no doubt he'll do his best to.
no subject
It made her wonder why the fuck it bothered with staring them down at all. There was no way in hell the two of them could possibly hope to fend the thing off so what was it waiting for?
She didn't dare blink after this display, though. It seemed to be content with watching them for as long as they watched it (for whatever reason) so she wasn't about to take her eyes off the thing as she backed herself up so that her back pressed against the same door that Yondu was pinned on. She just about flinched at the way the door ground its way open. She backed her way through that door and kept her eyes locked on that hellish corpse. It wasn't until that door closed between them and it that she bothered to blink again.
The explanation made sense and she understood why Yondu didn't want her to shoot it. It made her rather uneasy to think that if she had shot it then Yondu or herself could have been the next puppet for that thing to pilot. This place was a lot more dangerous than she'd initially thought and this fact was just now hitting her.
While the thing had its way with the door and while Yondu fucked around with the next card reader Alena looked over the mechanism of the door that they'd just come through. It seemed like many of the things trapped here were relatively intelligent from what she had seen. Just because this thing hadn't opened the door yet could only mean that the corpse it was wearing lost its access card before they'd reached this predicament. She ripped the faceplate off of the card scanner and started to trace parts of the board and some of the wires with her fingers as her eyes lit up with blue light as she scanned the component. She knew what she was looking for but she wanted to be very certain she was looking at the correct thing. She knew if she shorted the wrong circuit the door would open rather than depower in a locked state and that made her just nervous enough to hesitate.
no subject
Still, they needed to get that damn computer. He needs the money and the leeway that kind of travel would give him.
"I'd love to blow this place up when we get done here, but I think I'm seein' why that thing needed to be rounded up and held. I ain't gonna go out of my way to mess with it, but I think we need to consider tryin' to pen it up."
Somewhere. Hard to do if it was intelligent, which he's guessing is the case. Smart enough to find its way around. But Yondu has enough of a decent bone in his body, developed from too much time around some good hearted kids, that he doesn't want this thing out and about.
no subject
She glanced back to Yondu when he started talking, then shifted back to her work. Not that it lasted for long. Her work slowed then stopped after Yondu suggested trapping the thing somewhere and she paused for a long moment before she stood and faced him, first trying sign language.
You crazy? Pen it up?
She shook her head in heavy disagreement. Her next signs were sharp and fast to accentuate her disbelief at his suggestion.
Where? How?
no subject
And while he is being vaguely altruistic, he adds. "...But that's an afterthought. I'm fine with not dealin' with this damn thing if it stays away from us." It just, you know... might not stay away from them.
Doing the right thing is, sometimes, an act of general self-interest and not just a strong do-gooder desire.
no subject
It wasn't lost on Alena that if they trapped this thing then they could walk more freely in this cursed place. While it was easy enough to deal with this thing right now she could only imagine what a nightmare it would turn into if they found anything else that was the same level of threat but required them to stop staring at the thing they'd just gotten away from.
I have augments that make me harder to kill and if things go bad they will heighten my reflexes and reaction.
She paused, then her eyes came into focus on Yondu.
Difficult. Not impossible. Okay.
She returned back to her work and it wasn't long before she put two wires together and the door started to pull itself open with an effort.
what's for lumch
..Better not to think of him. He presses a hand to his locket briefly and moves on. Plenty of time to prepare for the next search, wherever he ends up. It's all things, clues to ages past. Records of a few triumphs of civilizations, but mostly tragedies and losses. Boy, is he familiar with that last one.
All of these Deep Thoughts are interrupted by a few gourds rolling in front of his feet. He barely avoids tripping over them, stumbles back. Sighs. Might as well round them up.
"Not the most conveniently shaped foods in the world," he murmurs softly.
Going with a "oh hey it's you" scenario
"Holy hell!" He says the moment he lays on him.
But then? Then he remembers. "You know me, kid?" Sorry, Seto, everyone is a kid to him. But the tone is expectant enough to betray that, yeah, Yondu should know him. And even in this place he knows there can be duplicates. But god, god he's like the goddamn universe to cut him one break and give him someone back. He didn't want to be like this. He didn't want to be alone.
The little old shopkeeper is about to interfere, though, reclaim their wares gently from Yondu's arms to go with the ones that have already been retrieved.
all good!
Seto takes a moment to place his own gourds back with the others before facing the man. Yes, he knows him. Seto had heard about the phenomenon of former passengers' ghosts drifting in small clumps and landing in the same place before, but to witness it was a surprise after all this time.
"...yeah, Yondu, it's me. I must've disappeared shortly after you. Did anyone else you know land here?"
Just about everyone Yondu had been close to had disappeared at the same time he did...if the drifting really did occur in clumps, maybe some of them made it. He could hope.
no subject
But Seto was married, right? He's not got the heart to ask him if his man's here. The answer being 'no' is just more tragedy for them. But that's kinda the point of this place. To give people their second chances.
Maybe he'll get 'im back. They were important enough to their world.
"We should go somewhere an' figure out where we are with this. Last thing I remember was a mission where we had to deal with some birds an' some voidtears. Made it back to the train. Barely had time to get situated. Next thing I knew I was in a big ol' library without my SCA."
He thought it was that wierd being again. Or that he was dreaming. It took a librarian guiding him out and another solid week before he realized he wasn't going to be just waiting for a Ministry pick-up. No Anan to call. No train rescue. But him? The worst he had to deal with was losing his daughters, Soldat. Bad enough, but he had some hope that like him they ended up somewhere.
Didn't have a ring on his finger like Kaiba did.
no subject
"I don't know if getting close to those void tears induced mass destabilization, but we lost far more people than usual that platform. The Ministry called us again, and I tried to carry on the work you left..but looks like my time was finally up."
Game over. He sighed deeply and fell into step, more than willing to head somewhere to think. But before he does that, he turns to give Yondu the smallest of smiles, and reaches up to briefly pat his arm. It's an awkward movement, he's still adjusting to that kind of thing, but he's trying.
"I was worried...but I'm glad you're not dust."
no subject
"Yeah, I mean, I ain't give up, but I've had to change my approach." He starts to walk, but then four steps in realizes that he's still holding a dick gourd, and decides he doesn't want to be holding a dick gourd so he runs back to put it not-in-his-hands and into the appropriate dick gourd spot. Then he jogs back over to Kaiba with an and we'll never speak of this again look.
"Remember V? Dunno if you met 'im, but real smart. Loved the guy. But he got booted off too an' didn't end up here. So I appealed to change some shit. Made a good case that he was valuable to the course of some timelines. So they're gonna let me go after 'im.
"Pretty much I ain't givin' up, even if I have to fuck off to someone's world and make things so they go good for 'em." Or brute forces a timeline where the train doesn't grab them, or there's definitely a body to fall back on. Something. He can't do it for everybody, wouldn't even want to, but he can for a few folks.
"...Also I been runnin' some booze outa some worlds but what else is new. I need the money."
Siobahn "Cherry" Chereshei | XIV non-WOL OC | VT CRAU
Home Sweet Home
"Oh, woops! No, it's my bad. I was in the way," he says politely, before shifting the handle to one bag to his mouth and stooping to refill the dropped one.
"Hanhhe hhughr hugh yuff," he says around the handle in his mouth as if she might be able to understand it. He's still getting the hang of this place himself. He'd not wanted to engage in universe saving antics again, but he saw the chance that maybe, just maybe, there could be a way to save his friend and that'd be worth trying if he could.
Maybe not, but that means Cherry is faced with a big awkward boy planning on trying out some alien food dishes again. So chances are? Food could be had.
omg what a great username for him
"No, no, really, I should have been watching," she insisted gently but her voice faded into poorly-stifled giggles as he tried to speak through the bag in his mouth. She straightened up and offered him his things back with a cheerful smile on her face. "I don't know what you just said but here you go!"
She wasn't intimidated by his size to begin with but his own awkwardness helped to diffuse some of her own embarrassment. There was no excuse for her having run into him and he was polite to try to blame himself but she knew it was her fault - she'd been so distracted now that there was a level of normalcy on the street and she had been content with taking her time to meander and watch.
It was deleted but it was too perfect not to get.
He notices, though, that she looks a little like a Galra mixed with a human. It's not at all surprising, though, considering all the species around. It's just such a specific mix he's a little pleasantly reminded of home. Even reminded of Keith (he lucked out with looking more human than not).
"I was just grabbing some things for dinner. I wanted to try a couple of new recipes." And Cherry might be the one who is hungry, but Hunk's stomach complains loudly immediately. As if it's a separate entity demanding why it hasn't been fed yet.
we love to see it
She finally took more notice of just how big he was, and he looked a bit like a hyur - or maybe a small roegadyn? It was hard to say - she couldn't know she'd ever specifically seen how big a roegadyn might be as a teenager so she couldn't definitively know which he was but there was comfort in it either way. She'd seen some rather strange people here and some level of familiarity was always nice.
"Oh! You cook then? I like to cook too, my, uh, da--mentor?" It was clear she wanted to use another word. "Taught me a bunch about how to cook before I left and I mean I'm not as good as him but I like to think I'm okay!" Her tail was starting to sway excitedly. "What were you going to try to make?" She'd seen some of his ingredients, sure, but cuisine was so varied here and, well, everywhere.
no subject
Though the way that she says that, uncertain of "dad" or "mentor" from the sound of it (could be a different issue, but that's how he reads it). But... well, he knows what it's like to miss your family. He's lucky when it comes to that. Maybe she's not as much.
"Would you want to help me try out the recipe? I mean, unless you've got somewhere else to be." It only seems polite to ask, in case she is lonely and needs a friendly face (if a new face).
no subject
"I don't have anywhere I need to be - I was just going to go home and make dinner myself," not that she particularly had much to work with, only what she had been carrying. She's made worse work.
"I'd love to help! It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to really cook! Where I was from before here we had really set and strict ingredients each month and there's only so many ways you can really cook the same things, you know? It got really boring halfway through." The first half of the month was always fun, though - trying to figure out the creative ways one could change things up to make something interesting each day. It was a good exercise even if it got boring.
She was very clearly eager and ready to follow Hunk to wherever it was he was planning to cook. If Cherry was ever taught about strangers she sure didn't show it.
no subject
Not to mention she's someone his age. And he's always happy to work with more teenagers, considering how many military guys had been talking down to him in the months before coming here. How often he had to prove his value as a competent fighter despite never having asked to be the paladin of the Yellow Lion.
Just another kid wanting to hang out!
Besides, there's an easy way to fix being a stranger. "I'm Hunk, by the way!" He says as he heads through the open air market. "I don't live too far from here. Man, I like challenges but yeah, it'd get really tiring to try and work with the same set of ingredients all the time."
no subject
"I'm Siobahn Chereshei, but everyone calls me Cherry!" It's never once occurred to her that the people called her Cherry because she introduced herself like that.
"Even if you lived far away that'd be okay - I'm used to walking!" She fell in step with him as they went along and she shrugged as she continued on the topic of cooking.
"It was but each month was a new set of ingredients and that was exciting for a while. Having to come up with new things from the same things was a lot better than trying to work with rations or trying to figure out how to cook in the field when I forgot spices."
no subject
"That's great! At least you don't have to worry about the roads being busy here. Or take into account the big differences in vehicles. That's been pretty wild." He loves being a mechanic almost as much as cooking.
"I had to do a lot of that when I was with Voltron. Making the most of what we had? I might have accidentally made light-magnifying lenses out of crystal powder when I was trying to make cookies once. At least these ingredients I can be WAY more sure of." He laughs off that mistake. They'd saved the day, right? Useful good cookies.
Uchiha Sasuke ; Naruto ; CRAU from like... so many places it's unreal
Sasuke was used to chaos. Ever since Yuuko, those many years ago, ever since he gained this power. At first it had been him searching for something, anything, who knew what--a reason, a purpose, when so much had collapsed on him. Penance, too, perhaps. It may still be penance that drives him, but the Uchiha no longer seeks places that require aid. Those places seek him.
And, true as anything, he's called to another. Dropped right into the midst of devastation. Mismatched eyes observe the scene below from the crumbled decays of what once was a full building. Putrid air hardly fit to breathe. Smoke so thick it makes day look like night. Languages he doesn't understand, cries and pleas.
It's nothing he's never seen before but it is a particularly extreme clusterfuck of madness. He doesn't spend too long watching, just enough to grasp the situation a little further. The most important and immediate action Sasuke takes is handling civilians. Darting off with lightning speed, he seeks those caught up in everything on the street pushing them right through a portal without even a word.
They can deal with the whole 'what the fuck,' and 'who the fuck are you' thing later.
And a Werewolf AU
It's fucked up but it's driving him in the fight, snarling and tearing these half-baked undead. He's not fully transformed but he's got his fangs showing and his claws out, and as Sasuke is helping a human away the werewolf mauls a faked up vampire that was thinking of going after them himself.
After tearing a chunk out of his throat and shaking with all the force of a feral hound, he drops the body and swipes his messy mouth with the back of his hand.
"I guess fuckin' nazi scum vampires were somethin' I was gonna find sooner or later," he grumbles. What a goddamn universe.
no subject
But after he's cleared out a good chunk of civilians from their nearby and soon to be flattened hideout, he pauses for a moment just to... take in the absolute chaos. It is... just pure madness. There are people, already, that he just couldn't get to in time. And of course, now he's a target. So, since it seems link Hank is on the same side at the moment, Sasuke's just going to grab the guy and teleport out of the way of an incoming bomb. Thank him later.
"This language," they landed not far from the action. Easy to re-engage. Gives another vantage point for quick analysis. Hard to... determine what, hold on a moment.
Sasuke turns his head toward the other man, those mismatched eyes still burning brightly in the smoke, "is this just an extermination?" His accent is quite thick, but understandable. "I don't understand what they're saying."
no subject
"Pretty much. But hey, don't dish it out if you can't take it." He isn't that worried, obviously. Not even all that fazed over the idea that he might have had some charred bits a few minutes ago- Yeah, shit hurts, but the good part of being a werewolf now is he can hold up to people fuckin' with him.
"Some guy made a bunch of fake-ass vampires. All this is to bait someone in particular out of hiding. Who knows who. Just some standard European fuckwit with daddy issues they turned to an ethno grudge, I'm guessing."
He unstraps a crossbow from his back. He'll have to retrieve the bolts but it's better than wasting bullets.
He really wishes his own Japanese monster hunting buddy were here, even if he'd be making shitty dog jokes at him the whole time.
no subject
"Then I suppose we find this," a break, eyes shift toward Hank, "'fuckwit'." Very descriptive language there. It even pulls the smallest smirk from the corner of Sasuke's lips. "You are fine on the ground?" He can take overhead, then.
no subject
The ground work, that is. He's just hoping none of these low-ranking fuckers have silver bullets. Doesn't seem like it so far, but it's a concern. "Remember, we just gotta make room for the heroes of this world to do their thing!" he calls. 'Heroes'. Other monsters, that is. Just like in his. If they let the people that should win actually win, then the timeline has a better chance of staying solid. But of course, there's always the chance that it could still go wrong 'cause assholes are assholes and the 'good guys'? Still assholes. "Unless the idiots really fuck it up."
Using his cross-bow he starts shooting vampires coming at him. Or... are they ghouls? These are different monster laws than he's used to. They're fucking disgusting, whatever they are. Being nazis is bad enough. Being poorly designed on top of it?
sucrose | genshin impact
This is not Sucrose's area of expertise. Not... Not at all. She feels incredibly out of her depth -- Not only does she have no experience with divination, but she doesn't have any experience with digital anything. To be honest, she's still wrapping her head around the concept of computers. W-Working with them...? It's beyond her.
But the general concept behind this project won't leave her alone. It's fascinating. Trying to reproduce the effects of magic so that people without magic can use it... It's only natural for such a thing to draw and hold the attention of someone from Teyvat. The gap between what an ordinary person can do and what a person with a Vision can do is insurmountable. To be able to close that gap... It would be literally world-changing. It would be like flying in the face of the gods.
Sure, it's not like that's really a problem she's thought about trying to solve herself before, and, sure, it's unclear if this project will help her understand how to go about solving it... And, sure, she still doesn't belong on this assignment...
But! The point is! She wants to try anyway. It's a good opportunity to learn, if nothing else.
...
Besides... She would have to figure out who to ask for a reassignment, and then the procedures for it... And. Well. That... sounds even scarier.
Sucrose sighs into her book, her long ears sagging. Computer Science for Dummies, the cover says. It's helpful... but... "I really wish this had a different title."
no subject
"Just because someone needs refinement to an aspect of knowledges shouldn't label them as a 'dummy', not that it's a nice thing to call someone anyway. I've met some people that aren't experts in conventionally complex subjects but have admirable emotional intelligence or strategic skill. Is there one of the 2.5 unit laser guides over there? I can't find mine."
She drags herself out of the box she'd just ransacked, hair carrying her body a few feet of the ground as if the extra height would give her an observational advantage.
no subject
But, as for Entrapta's question...
"I... ah... I... d-don't know... what a l-laser guide is. S-So I don't know if there is one... Sorry..."
no subject
"AHA found it!" She's finally snatches up the device she needs it. But then extends one of those long, undulating pigtails over to Sucrose.
"Can I see that book for a moment?" She has an idea.
no subject
Sucrose slips her bookmark (it's fairly plain, but the top of it is cut as such to look like cat ears) into place before closing it, and then she holds it out for Entrapta...'s hair... to take. (Those moving pigtails are still fascinating. B-But it's rude to ask to experiment on someone's hair.)
no subject
Mostly measurements.
"Old Ones tech is great for crystal conversation because it's made to work with computerized technology. I've seen many worlds though where the crystal isn't a component of operation, it's a way to implement visuals. I wonder what causes the crystals in those worlds to be so ineffectual- I mean, that has to be the cause, right?"
no subject
Which she's now talking about, so Sucrose sets the book aside for now -- she's got her place saved already, after all -- and comes over to watch what Entrapta is doing. Even if she still doesn't really understand much about computers... It's clear that Entrapta is wanting her engagement, so she'll try her best.
"M-Maybe it's the type of crystal? If the Old Ones had access to a kind of crystal unique to where they're from... That isn't available in other worlds."
no subject
And amidst this rambling she scratches her scalp with her own hair. Probably a wierd kind of thing to see for most people. Though Entrapta has casually noted that with her ears, Sucrose could easily pass for someone from her world, possibly one of the Beastfolk.
"Much of the technology here is on a level beyond my comprehension as well," which is disappointing for her. But! "I can still lend my expertise in crystal analysis and hope that it unlocks some potential use."
no subject
As Sucrose gets used to the way Entrapta talks, though, the more she finds that there's a lot familiarity in those fast words. She reminds her a little of Mr. Albedo, but she can also almost see... herself in there, somehow. It's hard to quantify, so she doesn't want to say that for certain. But that's the feeling she gets.
"My own focus is in bio-alchemy. So m-most of my experience with crystals is in using ores as transformative ingredients. But where I'm from, everything operates on the principle of elemental energy. The only people who utilize and see it are those who have been acknowledged by the gods and given a Vision." Sucrose extends one pointer finger and touches it to her own Anemo Vision, which she's using as a pin for her fluffy black scarf. The Vision glows in soft pulses in time with her breathing. "They aren't truly crystals, but when you talk about the sooth-sayer orb containing mystical energy in its geometry, that's what it makes me think of."
no subject
"I would love to see the particular specs on that if you have any. I know that people claim that magic isn't quantifiable but there's no reason that instruments can't be developed to make it. After all if some life forms possess or develop sensory capabilities to detect it then it should be able to be measured through artificial means."
Though that has her thinking- are there particular receptors in soothsayers that make the orb more accessible? The sudden derailment of the conversation by her own thoughts becomes evident on her face as she scratches her chin with a lock of her hair.
no subject
no subject
"They have devices specifically for measuring thaumaturgy here! I'm so excited. Do you know anything that can blow up? Not here, of course. There's a lot of technical equipment and itty bitty pieces and the sprinklers already went off early this work..."
But what girl doesn't like measuring an incredible power output.
no subject
It's an important distinction. There are many, many, many things that blow up, but what kind of blowing up matters. Given the context, Sucrose thinks Entrapta probably means specifically in relation to Visions, but... W-With this kind of thing, it's good to get clarification.
"There are quite a few things on Teyvat that explode, and all of them have to do with elemental energy... Which would give us a baseline to compare other forms of energy to." As she speaks, she's conceptualizing the plan for herself. "A-Although, if you want to observe my Vision in action, we don't necessarily need something that blows up. Just a safe space for me to use it."
no subject
"...What flavor of cupcake do you like?" She needs to check that before she procedes with this very important topic.
"We can have tiny food and smoothies and do experiments!"