#humanxcreated

[ncwblue]

PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

@humanxcreated sent: "I have to congratulate you for being happy, because you deserve it."

"Don't patronize me."

He hadn't intended to laugh. It wasn't even really a laugh; more like a chuckle, one he already wished he could take back now that Delta was talking to him. Analyzing him. Why couldn't these damn AI mind their own business? "I've never seen more incompetent soldiers," Wash muttered, watching Church shout at Caboose as if he were frustrated with a child. It reminded him of himself, bickering with York or North like they were all children. The brothers he never had.

Wash hated that. "My nephew could follow orders better and he's four." Well, he was four. How long has it been now? God, that kid must have been in high school now. "There's nothing to be happy about. It shouldn't take this long to track down one man."

[perpetualxfire]

"A calculated risk? By who? Delta? You realize how biased he is, right?" She ignored Delta's objection in the background; Delta might be logic, but Delta was an imperfect copy of the same Logic that determined that bringing back her dead mother was possible.

No, there wasn't an elevator here to launch him up, but even then it was because she hadn't had time for that conversation.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up. That match was sloppy; you can do better." And so could she - it wasn't exactly her best showing, either. She huffed, moving to the side to prepare a solvent that dissolved this stuff with decent efficacy.

"I'm not gonna pretend I wasn't making a calculated risk by working with her. But the Director was committing war crimes, and by that point... I mean, I'd had enough of the Project's bullshit. After everything he put me through, put you through? I wasn't about to let that slide."

Honestly, York had seen this conversation coming. Carolina didn't exactly have an elevator to kick him up after their fight this time, after all.

"But for what it's worth, I'm sorry I didn't wait longer. I should've known you'd be okay. Honestly, if Tex hadn't come to me, I probably wouldn't have budged."

[perpetualxfire]

(hey I'm spending most of my day paying attention to one (1) glowy boi over on @humanxcreated if anybody's interested.)

[intangiblexambitions]

tag drop and length test

✮ “It’s too late for that, York! This ship is going down. Eta’s been keeping track, and I bet Delta could have told you the probability of your missile strike bringing us down, if he didn’t already. People are going to die. We can decide, right here, right now, what we’re going to do about it.”

   If she’d just moved him out of the way and gone to Tex, she wouldn’t have had this option. But this time, it was more important than Tex. This was the end of the project as they knew it, and they could decide how it went down, but they needed to be on the same page, and fast.

   “The Alpha will be fine a moment longer. You can either help me, or get out of my way.” Because somehow she doubted that there was active harm being done during an attack - even supposing what he was implying was true. She didn’t want to believe it, but she had to entertain the possibility.

[abitofafatass]

"See? You sound like an ass! Emmmmmpppp-ah!" Grif kept his voice hushed, just for Wash's ears. "Even Simmons says it correctly, and he has some of the dumbest ways of saying things that I've ever heard."

Grif dourly watched as the pair began their preparations. It seemed they meant to go through with the 'violence before talking' cliche. "Action Romcom" was almost as bad a genre as the ordinary version.

"I guess I should have brought a whistle," he grumbled as he hauled his bulk up and out the door to the beach. "The last thing I refereed for was Kai's 5th-grade soccer team. I could throw a sandwich at you guys if you need a yellow card thrown at you."

@ncwblue

Delta would listen to both conversations without input - at least until Carolina ducked behind her curtain to change. It was a measure of modesty that he imagined was mostly for Grif - the Mother of Invention hadn't cared much for modesty in the designs of its locker rooms.

"Based on the scan we performed earlier with the healing unit, areas to avoid if you want to keep this match friendly include the base of her prosthetic and anywhere along the back of her torso; it appears she has a still-healing plasma wound on her back. It should theoretically be causing her pain every time she raises her arms." He was amazed it hadn't come up before now, honestly - but then, he also hadn't seen her raise her arms significantly except to remove her helmet.

"The addition of the lockdown paint actually tilts the odds somewhat in your favor. That is, without a proper up to date analysis of her move set." Not that his old analysis had been particularly favorable to her.

"Would you like me to provide assistance during this match?"

@groundedxdreamer

[perpetualxfire]

(Delta's over on humanxcreated (a side blog) and I think I'm actually in a delta mood so have at I guess)

[perpetualxfire]

 (alright, queue’d four replies today, should start coming out on monday; for any not aware, Lina posts every weekday at 6:30pm us central time, and at 5:30pm MWF; for a full schedule of all of my blogs (and their urls) look under the cut!)

 (You can find Ashley (my hc for lina’s sister; an old hc that’s optional to this blog but not to that one) at frostedxflower, Tali at amongststardust, tex at memoryxbane, lopez at automataxapatico, and delta at humanxcreated; Ash, Lopez, and Delta are all sideblogs so they won’t follow back but you can always poke around!)

[perpetualxfire]

 (alright so. um. over the next week I’m going to be working on queue’ing up replies and resetting my thread tracker; I’ll be dropping a lot of threads from the tracker b/c tbh sometimes you just have to reset. In a few days here, if we had a thread together and you think I dropped it, it should be listed on the dropped threads tab of the tracker, so you can check that, and contact me if you want it active again. I’ll also be posting starter calls on all of my blogs here soon - including the side blogs @automataxapatico, @humanxcreated, and @frostedxflower, as well as the standalone blog @memoryxbane.)

[perpetualxfire]

"Don't you get it? Tex was the problem. But to everybody else I was just jealous, I had something to prove, a chip on my shoulder- If I'd told you the truth, everybody would have thought I'd lost it." And he'd gone with her.

"I needed people to back me up, but he undermined me at every step. He was self destructing and bringing everybody else down with him and the only thing I could do was watch." Just like she always had. There'd never been anything she could do to help her father. It never should have been her job in the first place.

"You told me I could trust you, but you never once trusted me."

Ow, yep, that was about what he expected. Damn, didn't even flinch from the shotgun. York was giving a token effort to struggle free from the lockdown paint as he toppled backwards again, but it was all for naught. He tried to crane his neck to look up at her.

"I didn't think you were ever going to wake up," he said quietly. "I sat by your side for days, waiting for something to change, and it didn't. When Tex told me the truth of what had happened, I decided I needed to avenge you by bringing the Director to justice."

He paused, sighed, and let his head fall back into the sand.

"But I guess I fucked up on both accounts there, huh?"

[perpetualxfire]

She might be on bottom, but she definitely had the advantage here - one arm was 'trapped', the other was focused on the gun, and his leg positioning wasn't doing him any favors. She'd let him have the shotgun back, pulling her right arm down and shoving his left shoulder to force him to roll. Given his lack of stabilization, that should be easy, and her right leg, pressed hard against his chest, would be able to join the push, while she kicked her left up and around to prevent him from moving his right by hooking it behind the knee.

He'd have a hard time finding the space or leverage with one arm to fire back with the shotgun, especially since he was holding the barrel, and as soon as he was off of her, she had space to roll away and push herself upright by shoving at the sandy ground hard. Fortunately, it absorbed the blow of falling pretty decently; unfortunately, it also ate the force of her shove, forcing her to kick a leg forward under herself lest she fall right back down. As soon as she was on her feet, though, she pulled a sidearm, aimed directly at the downed man, who would have a hard time getting up while still holding his weapon.

@groundedxdreamer

Normally, York would at least try to lean out of the way, but with a shotgun at this range? There wasn't much point. Good thing these weren't live rounds, or he'd be down an arm. As it was, the lockdown paint slug slammed into his armored shoulder and trapped it in the paint, severely limiting his mobility and halting his punch in its tracks.

Instead, he went with Carolina's plan, letting her pull him towards her and pushing forward with his legs. He led with his 'injured' shoulder, throwing all of his weight into the shove and forcibly taking his opponent to the ground with him. With her trapped beneath him, he was able to use his good arm to grab the shotgun barrel and keep it pointed well away from the rest of him.

It was a bit of an awkward position, honestly, but the last thing he needed was Carolina to be pointing a gun at him any longer than she already was.

@perpetualxfire

[perpetualxfire]

That tracked. It wasn't the best maneuver on her part, and his response gave her a good idea of his reaction time. They'd still have to test the waters with each other for a while. This did leave her in an exceptionally compromised position, but with weapon in hand she was quick to flip it around and fire somewhere around his left shoulder, since that's the arm he was raising to follow up with. It didn't matter how accurate the shot was so much as that it landed

Fortunately, her left hand was her dominant hand, so the reversed grip actually served to her benefit. Unfortunately, her balance was completely compromised - her only hope to recover it, assuming the shot landed, would be to take him down with her. Since he had such a firm grip on her leg, she could use his own strength against him, raising her right leg so that her knee would strike him as she was yanked his way, and hopefully her weight with the blow would bring him down under her.

@groundedxdreamer

Really, stealing the shotgun already? Well, okay, that was the obvious move--it gave him a massive advantage, after all. Still, very rude. But York wasn't so attached to the weapon to risk taking another hit in the middle of this, especially since Carolina was so exposed.

He took the risk, letting go of the gun and hooking one arm under her outstretched leg so that he could yank her forward and off-balance before trying to deliver a punch to her solar plexus. Worst case scenario, he could at least grapple her, pull her off her feet, and pin her to the ground. That was the idea, anyway.

@perpetualxfire

[perpetualxfire]

Read him like a book. If gunfire made her flinch, she wouldn't have made it far in this line of work at all - but maybe stray fire wasn't the best idea. The others should be far enough away, at least.

Her right palm made contact with the weapon as he pivoted to point it her way, pushing up hard with her planted (right) foot to back up the motion, stabilizing with her left as she rose up. Technically this did create an opening, but he'd have to release his weapon to take advantage of it, and she'd gladly hold onto it if he did.

She was a little off balance after this maneuver, though, and if he opted not to release his weapon to take advantage of the opening, she'd remedy that with a firm shove with her left foot to his chest into a back-hand spring. It was a little flashy, but she always had been, and it gave her space to readjust her footing; hopefully he'd be off-balance enough for her to recover and rebound.

@groundedxdreamer

"Fair enough." He wasn't planning on being an asshole about this, after all.

York did, indeed, pivot to follow Carolina's movement once the spar began. She was, as usual, blindingly fast--time certainly hadn't slowed her down all that much--and he turned on one foot to raise the shotgun.

Of course, he knew she'd probably try to block it, so he fired a premature shot near her as he moved, just in case the unexpected maneuver took her off-balance and gave him a chance to properly aim at her. Even at extremely close range, he should be able to at least nail a limb, even he wouldn't be able to hit the center mass.

@perpetualxfire

[perpetualxfire]

"We are way past the era of official formats. You can start however you deem most beneficial, outside of pointed at me with finger on trigger." Even then, she could probably handle it, but it wasn't exactly sporting.

Delta started his countdown (though not without a long look at the two of them, first - some attitude on this one today) and Carolina rolled her shoulders to loosen up a little bit. She might not be as nimble as she had been in the project, but she liked to think she'd found ways to make up for that.

She began with an evasive move, a leap forward and to the left into a somersault. That maneuver took a lot of strength to pull off without any starting momentum, but she had a lot of practice at it, fortunately. Exiting the somersault balanced on her right (prosthetic) leg and stopping her momentum by extending her other in front of her, she pivoted and pushed up with a palm-strike where the kidney should be - a weak spot that could put a lot of hurt, assuming he didn't react quickly. She was anticipating him pivoting to follow her movement, though, and would be ready to shove the shotgun away instead if it came to it.

@groundedxdreamer

"You heard the lady, D."

Delta may not be at his best right now, but he'd have no problem just making a countdown for them. He took a position across from Carolina, feet firmly planted in the sand and hands raised up a bit, shotgun held loosely in front of him.

"Of course I can. We starting with guns, or should I put this away?"

@perpetualxfire

[perpetualxfire]

Carolina pulled her helmet on as soon as he emerged from the hut, nodding curtly.

"Delta, can you start the match?" Best when a third party does it. She took her stance, rolling her shoulders to keep herself loose before taking a front facing stance, on her toes, one foot in front of the other and her weight shifted forward, ready for mobility. Her arms were raised, a typically position meant to protect the core, and her hands were in loose fists. Staying on the move was her typical tactic, after all.

"Hope you can talk while you work."

@groundedxdreamer

"I don't want you hurting yourself," York stated and made his way back to his parked ship to grab his shotgun. "If you think you can help without doing that, by all means. It'll even the playing field a bit."

Even with the lockdown paint, he wasn't confident in his ability to beat Carolina in a spar--but he'd make her work for her win, and that would be satisfying enough for him. But, hey, it had been a few years; maybe things would be different this time. He wouldn't bet money on it, though.

Once York had grabbed his gun and loaded it with a proper set of paint shells, he began the walk back down to Carolina's hut. Fortunately, it wasn't a long walk, and after that it was easy enough for him to get his armor back on--god forbid he got shot with lockdown paint without any protection.

"Alright, I think it's safe to say that I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

@perpetualxfire

[perpetualxfire]

Fortunately, she changed pretty fast. Unfortunately, Delta was right - lifting her arms did pull a little more on that wound than she'd have liked. Still, snug clothes were the way to go if she was going to armor up - anything else would bunch up, pinch, and chafe. The undersuit was really the worst part; securing the seals was something she had a lot of practice with, but it required some practiced maneuvers that hurt.

After a bit, she'd make her way outside, though, armored up, helmet resting on her hip thanks to the support of an arm. York had to walk back anyway, right? And he'd have to armor up as well. Dropping her helmet somewhat unceremoniously on the sand (top down, of course) she started working on swapping her ammo out, working diligently.

She was confident in her work - she'd tested it thoroughly - but the thought of a proper spar... Well, she'd be lying if she said she weren't excited. She'd always loved to show off, and York was one of the only people who'd ever been able to truly keep up with her. Even if there was some baggage in this one, she could stop the dumb grin on her face. Was she pissed? A little. Was she emotionally stable? Not really. But she was genuinely excited.

@humanxcreated

Wash rolls his eyes, debating on whether or not to follow through with his threat to hit Grif. He inevitably decides against it, mostly because they needed Grif around to ensure this went semi-smoothly. It was unlikely either York or Carolina would get carried away with this little spar, but with her previous injuries and the stinging lockdown paint being in play Wash couldn't help but worry.

"Unsanitary and unnecessary. Just... shout or something."

Perhaps it was the stress, but Wash was desperate for a change in subject. He had only met Grif's sister once, and while he couldn't say he knew her well (certainly had no intention of doing so) based on that initial meeting she certainly didn't seem like the sporty type. Maybe it came with a story.

"Kaikaina played soccer?" he asked, following the simulation trooper out onto the beach. (Wash wasn't sure how much more of the less-than-subtle flirting he could take, and the further away he was from the stressor before shit hit the fan the better.)

@perpetualxfire

[perpetualxfire]

"It's a lot easier to clean in the ocean than it was with the toolkits we had back on the MoI, believe me. I've tested." Self-imposed lockdown paint wasn't something she'd imagined herself doing, but here she was. "I assume you still have a shotgun? The morning's events are still a little foggy, sorry if I've forgotten you carrying it. If you don't, though, the only other one in the immediate area I'd have to get over its owner's cold dead body, and frankly, I'm not liking my odds there."

That was a joke.

Carolina chatted while she worked, dodging behind her little hut and rooting around for a minute before coming back with a box of shotgun shells- presumably of the lockdown paint variety.

"Fortunately for you, shotgun ammo is easier than most ammo to make, so it was the subject of most of my initial tests. I'll be pretty limited on ammo, comparatively." As soon as York took the ammo from her - assuming he did - she would duck into her hut and close the curtain that served as her front door so she could actually get dressed and armor up. Sweats weren't actually that comfortable under armor, contrary to popular belief, and she'd been wearing them all day - even during her armored jog earlier.

@humanxcreated

The lockdown paint. Washington's mind might have nearly forgotten about it, but his body certainly hadn't. He could practically feel muscles tightening with tension and ache at the mere resurfacing memory of it all.

I wouldn't know. It's not so bad if you don't let it hit you.

Carolina's previous smugness over it all nearly earns a laugh out of him. Perhaps it would if he hadn't remembered how the rest of that day went. A small part of him might have been surprised that she would subject York to that again, but Maine and Wyoming weren't here. Nobody would be out for blood (probably). There wouldn't be any legitimate weapons used.

Besides, if she went through the trouble of figuring out how to make the dam stuff, Wash was certain she was eager to use it on someone. Better York than me.

Wash nearly chokes on his food as Grif mutters the word ' emp '. "Do not start that shit again," he grumbles between coughs. At that time he thought it might have been the frustration of the situation (and the agonizing pain of being shot in the shoulder on top of it) that made him so annoyed at the computer also saying ' emp ', but hearing it out of Grif's mouth again all these years proved him wrong. "It's grammatically incorrect and I will hit you."

@perpetualxfire