[week of the 46th]

[circumspector]

CHARACTERS: Angel & You!
WHERE: Bearings, Around Concordia
WHEN: From 45 until whenever really.
SUMMARY: Just doing things around the Bearings, tech stuff, lion stuff, angry video gaming. If you want to do something different, just drop me a message, or just go ahead with whatever takes your fancy.
WARNINGS: None to be thought of yet, apart from Borderlands as normal, copious attempts at swearing but failing miserably at them.

360 no scope heatshot

[ She's plugged in yet again. Which is probably done better sitting up? But she doesn't exactly have to use her hands, and nor is she. There's two sets of cords that are snaking around the common room floor, looping discreetly to dodge the coffee table, and follow them from the screen long enough and they reach her head. Plugged in directly to her skull where the metal grates are flipped open to expose the internal ports. The black wire settled that little bit into it seems, her skull. Sure, she's got one hell of a wifi signal, but why bother when she can just plug it straight? Better response time between her brain and her very serious work she is totally doing - ]

Come on, come on, there's like five minutes left in the level.

[ - or not. Where her legs are hooked over the back of the couch and her heads tilted up and backwards to look at the screen. She's playing video games, something with lots of running and shooting and heavy amounts of simulated violence. With her brain, because why the hell not? That's totally a legitimate use of her brain powers, clearly. Well, she seems to be enthralled in it, anyway. Short and shirts and bare feet fiddling over the back of the couch where she's hooked in, she's definitely comfortable right now. Aw how sweet, she's playing with other people too, isn't that nice - ]

6U4RD14N4N631 LOSES.

VICTORY TO YOURMAMA11115.

[ Yeah, never mind. ]

That's bullsh- bull - something!

[ Her upside down face scrunches up in concentration, she doesn't like losing, well, she can handle it, but not at the one thing she's supposed to be the best at, at least. ]

YOURMAMA11115> @6U4RD14N4N631 srry u sukk
YOURMAMA11115> Guess I am just beetar
YOURMAMA11115> come bak wwhen ur up 2 my lvl

[ The words flash up brightly on the screen, flashing big and bold and her face scrunches up, head turning back to the screen to face it properly like she can't quite believe it. Frowning still, letters start typing back in reply without her even moving off the couch. Well maybe that's over with. ]

6U4RD14N4N631> @YOURMAMA11115 rematch or stfu

[ Or not. ]

how to train your lion

[ Up on the roof, Angel takes her lion out to really move around for the first time. After spend whenever she could first - learning how to pull it apart and then put it together just to make sure she knew how it worked, then changing the original wiring to something she preferred, then again to remove oh - certain things, like kill switches, uses of force, and then making sure that absolutely no one could activate it but herself. Then there'd been the pointless customising if only to do nothing but making it look pretty where her fiddling had ruined its paint job.

But it does have a name, now, written in black block printed letters on its side: ᴀɴᴅʀᴏᴄʟᴇs.

But it's done for now. Making sure the lion answers to her, and wordlessly. It's AI as is perfectly serviceable, adjusted bit by bit so her mind didn't destroy it just from a brush, rather, it's weaved with her own. The same bright glow in its eyes as in hers when she's up on the roof. Bright blue and white, shining brightly. Her markings as ever, glowing down her exposed arm. ]

Well, you did alright walking up here with me. [ Good start? Good start. ] Okay, let's see how you go with the basics first...

[ It's big enough beside her, easily come up to her chest height. Her fingers wave, calculated expression as she watches it move. Knitted together brows as it walks where she bids it. There's a strength to its movements. Timed right. Good, she hadn't messed up those calibrations either, the next breath comes easier.

Soundless, just a thought and intention, her fingers curl to gesture it forward as she steps back. Letting it walk one step, then another. It's metallic tail flicking back and forth around its legs. Not quite as smooth as a real one, the little metal plates sliding perfectly as they were designed to. She keeps walking back. Fingers still held up, but she keeps her normal sphere of white light out of it - didn't know who was watching, didn't want to risk anything.

It gets faster until she's moving in a long stride, backwards jog and Androcles is keeping up with her easily at a steady trot. It's long steps are easily keeping up with her shorter ones.

Riiiight up until she forgets that running backwards is a stupid idea, and she drips over an uneven crack in the floor and falls flat on her butt. The lion stops, and nervously, it begins to press in close with its nose into her hair, checking if she's alright. ]

smol tries to be somewhat less smol

[ After that, however, and at any point, she is attempting her best with her training outside of just Lexa and Ren's encouragement. Because if Parker's hitting had taught her anything, it was that she didn't like being caught off guard like that. She refused to just sulk over it, either.

Instead, she forced herself through the motions. The same repetitions: strikes, blocks, staff in hand and her lion sitting nearby, - she's growing attached to it - but just with its head in its pause in an idle pose for now. She just keeps pushing herself - clumsily, but still, consistently, through it. Inevitable that she messes up, of course, cursing to herself in a cut off kind of way. Motherducking skag sucking son of a - witch.

If she finds company however, she'd rather it be participating than just being watched be - not very good at it. So she smiles, waving hello: ] Hey, did you want to join? Promise it's impossible for me to hit you, trust me.

Comments

[circumspector]

[ The lion comes back to her, uninjured for the most part, if heavily dented, favouring its front leg. It presses its face into the top of her leg, looking for concern for its state and obediently, she gives it. Her fingers running across its metal head with her unmarked hand. As soft as she ever touches anything.

So she gives her what she wants, she looks up at her, eyes that are bright - no, not just that they are blue. But they are bright a light behind them that's seeing into something in the dark. She wants something honest then fine. What she is, in all honesty, everything else - it has only ever been this. She will die because of this, she will live because of this. ]

Then one performer to another? To hell with me, if that's what you want. Stop punishing them for making the same choice you did, for choosing to fight. Not because they're your brood. But they're stuck here just like you. One of them is a kid. It's cruel just so you can protect yourself. You're hurting them, and worse than that, you're making them weaker, and it won't save you the guilt when they die and you could have done something.

[ Don't kill the guard. If there's more proof that she's concerned about the well-being of others, then Angel doesn't know it. ] Or at least, it didn't save me any.

[ Maybe that's why she can't stand her. No, they're not the same, but they are so similar. Parker - and the denial, the refusal, the pain that they suffer together when they want to.

The hole in her chest that has never been filled since the day he died. ]

[unfavoured]

[ The sudden flicker of light in her eyes doesn't quite catch her off guard as it confirms previous suspicions. Parker grimaces an unamused smile, lips parting slightly as she keeps her eyes on her. It doesn't matter where you come from. Someone gives you some shitty super power and suddenly you're all above everyone-- if you ask her, of course.

It doesn't surprise her that Angel is one of them.

Parker tilts her head, slight frown. A performer. She doesn't say anything, but her expression should be enough: she definitely is not one. She shows her fangs, bares her teeth, turns her knuckles. It doesn't alleviate as her words go on and she ends up actually tugging at the corner of her lips in a mockness of a smile, crossing her arms over her chest with her hip slightly to the side. ]

Didn't you just say we didn't have to talk anymore? [ Parker says at the end of her words, riding on the last one. Not brusque or shouting, but in clear rejection of her assessment with an unwavering expression of neutrality - of wry boredom. ] Do you actually believe the bullshit that comes out of your mouth? Does it make you feel better if you do?

And they're not my brood. [ She says the word with disgust, disdain. They are an imposition. She made a decision she regrets, true, and she doesn't blame anyone but herself for it - even if everyone seems to believe otherwise, although she never once said any of them are to blame for her being here, and she would never. The only people she would blame, beside herself, are the two assholes everyone seems to want to become best friends with up above somewhere in the spaceship. ] They're not my responsibility. Much less anyone I care for. I don't care if there's a kid. But I get it. You need someone to blame on. Whatever.

[ She's so used to it by now that it doesn't phase her. Everyone likes to speak shit about her in her back, she knows, she doesn't need a connection for that, but it doesn't affect her. On the other hand, Parker keeps to herself. If she has a problem with someone, she tells them to their face. She doesn't hold back her punches (metaphorically and literally, apparently). She doesn't go out of her way to talk shit and warn people of others. Everyone else has decided she's the villain for slamming on the breaks on this insanity. Parker doesn't care to object to it. Whatever makes them feel better. She is done with these people and their inability to see how crazy all of this is. ]

Do whatever you want. Just don't forget that whatever you think you have that connects you to these people, it's not yours. It doesn't come from them. It comes from something they did to you. But, you know what, believe whatever you want to. It's your right to be wrong.

[ It might be the longest she has spoken so far. And it seems she has had enough, as Parker walks over to the edge of the building, back turned to Angel, eyes looking for a path to follow. ]

Go run back to one of your idiots. I'm sure they'll listen to you.

[circumspector]

[ Too tired for this, her eyes roll, her body shifts. The lion curls around her legs, patient, waiting.

Because she's supposed to try, isn't she? Even if this understanding comes from a mouth full of barbs. Hissing through the back of her teeth in ugliness. Flat, clinical behind the eyes her head tilts, the black hair sweeping back to expose more of her face. The hard set of her mouth as her teeth worry. ]

Was it a paradise where you came from? Is that why you act like we're so much less than you?

[unfavoured]

[ Parker is still looking over to the edge when Angel speaks. She walks a little to the side, a critical expression in her face. It doesn't seem that she even listens to what Angel has to say. She stops in a seemingly random spot. ]

Do I?

[ Parker looks over her shoulder with slightly narrowed eyes, lip thin. She doesn't seem bothered by her words-- she isn't, not at all. The less they know about her, the better. Clearly everyone has decided she is the villain in this story. She doesn't mind being the monster most people are looking for. She has long learnt people need monsters.

Monsters however, tend to help people see the truth. ]

Does it matter?

[circumspector]

[ She leans down like she isn't watching her still, to her lion. Coming down nose to nose with it, sweeping up its neck in framing set hands it eagerly presses back, against her cheek, her neck, seeking affection that she readily bestows. ]

Up until you stop blaming the rest of us for the fact you said yes like the rest of us? Yeah. You're risking our lives, with your pointless vendetta.

[unfavoured]

[ Her expression doesn't change as she keeps her eyes on her. All she does is tilt her head slightly, quick narrowing of her eyes, before arching her eyebrows in some small amount of condescension. ]

You people enjoy your own lies, don't you?

[ She wonders, really, where did all these people ever heard her blaming them for anything other than being sheep to a will that is not their own. She wonders where they get these ideas that she finds herself a victim. Not that she tends to convey her emotions very well, a rock might do a better job-- but she supposes the blind will not see what they can't.

Parker stops looking at her then, climbing on to the edge of the building. She reaches down then, with her hands, gripping at it before pushing her legs up - slowly. An effort for it, even if she makes it look smooth, but her muscles strain slightly, though her arms keep (mostly) still. ]

If any of you dies, it's just because you're stupid enough to play in to their games without any strategy. [ She walks on her hands closer to the edge. ] Don't discard your guilt on others.

[ And there's only a split second of her before she pushes herself on her arms, up, and then back, free-falling (or so it seems) to the floor below. ]