( mostly open log ) how much damage can hosts do in 2 hours

[vocalis]

CHARACTERS: Aoba Seragaki and YOU
WHERE: Avera 9
WHEN: Day 164
SUMMARY: Scavenging a crash site, running out of meds, and how not to deal with the loss of a brood member
WARNINGS: Death, violence, brain damage, possibly more... (will edit)


Day 164 - let's talk about fight club (cw: death)

[ The last day of the mission. While other hosts are out trading what's left of their salvage, Aoba is confined to the small rented room Steve was so kind to share with him. The curtains are drawn to block out what little light is being cast through low-hanging storm clouds outside. He's been out of medication for near forty-eight hours, and it is taking its toll in the form of a vicious migraine. He was so close, but failed to ration the pills Cathaway pointedly warned him to save.

Nothing helps. Not music, not darkness, not holding still or curling up and counting measured breaths. Through the dim light his vision flashes red with veins and his heart beats loud and echoing in his ears. At times he sleeps, in short intervals before the pain takes another stab and wakes him again, as if it had it's own agenda. In those waking moments, when the throbbing subsides just enough for him to think, he worries of not making it to the docks in time.

And then, just hours before they are meant to gather and return to the station, Parker. Aoba feels the connection severed from him like a hot blade cutting through a limb. It makes him gasp and coil tighter in on himself, and a scream comes up as a collection of short, strained choking sounds trapped in his throat. Suddenly the pain he'd been in during these final hours is paled in comparison to this new sensation. It is loss, it is guilt, it is anger, it is disconnection, everything and nothing and it is too much. His eyes roll back and Aoba gives in to the pain, going limp and motionless where he lies.

That is the last Aoba remembers of Avera 9. At least, the Aoba most other hosts know. The Aoba that walks out of the Minte inn moments later, bag slung over his shoulder with eyes alert and brighter than before, is not the same nice boy. He moves quickly though the misting rain, ducking into the nearest alley to ask the first person he finds something a little more than suspicious- ]

I'm looking for Rhyl Lolk. [ Said with some difficulty, what a dumb name. But where Aoba heard it in passing and pushed it from his memory, he had remembered. If this alleged fighting circle he'd heard whispers about was anything like Rhyme, he wanted in. It'd been so long since Sly Blue participated in a proper fight, and with aching sense of loss hanging over him, he feels as though he has nothing left to lose. ]

C'mon, I don't have long. It'll be worth the while... that's a promise.

[ His overly conspicuous head of bright blue can be seen going deeper into the winding back alleys, following a hooded Bari as they go straight for the first fighting ring he can join. Follow him or join him, but don't try to stop him. ]

Wildcard

(( There’s still two days between to work with - if there's anything you'd like to do with Aoba, let's plot or just go for it! ))

Comments

[circumspector]

[ She's jittery, this is exciting, and she'd watched others, and very, very tentatively tried to work out how to do it herself. That was sort of the same right? She knew the physics of driving, that definitely had to count. It couldn't be much different to the simulations she'd run.

Which that's hit the ignition, then his the fuel source hard to get, but she could do what she wanted in simulations, there's something else to gripping tightly with both hands on a rumbling engine that makes her arms go numb with vibration. The hard kick that puts it into gear. The rumble that goes through her body and the wind as it hits her in the face where she speeds up faster than she means but -- ]

Actually, I've never been outside before!

[ Shouts it over her shoulder against the roar of the air that rushes past them. Because this is clearly the time to tell him. She leans forward, pressing her body in closer to the speeder, head down, eyes up and focuses on keeping them from crashing. ]

[vocalis]

[ He's jittery too, but for a very different reason. He'd just gotten on the back of the bike with a novice driver? And one that's... what?! ]

You've never-?!

[ That couldn't be possible. She'd at least been outside since... since they got here! But before that? She's bluffing, she has to be, and yet Aoba senses no humor from her other than her adventurous enjoyment. ]

How can that be true?!

[ When she hits the gas to go faster, he suddenly wishes they'd spent the last of their credits on a couple of helmets. ]

[circumspector]

[ She's so happy and giddy. Gripping on for dear life to the speeder and her hair being pushed out of her face for once. ]

Well -- [ hard to have subtle conversations like this. Probably for the best, he hopefully will be too concerned with her driving. ] -- Not since I was a little girl, anyway.

[ He could just put it down to space, hopefully. She doesn't want to have this conversation particularly, not now, not ever if she can help it. Just gets used to gripping through the vibration of the engine that rumbles underneath them. This wasn't so bad, right? ]