( open )

[overclocking]

Date & Time: Several days after the necromorph outbreak
Location: A VR room
Characters: Chrono + Rosette + open!
Summary: Lil bit of coping in-between zombie apocalypses and civil wars, nbd
Warnings: None! KEVIN AND BREAK
Notes: Feel free to tag around also! ♥


[ Chrono doesn't bother to close the door when he finally decides to try one of these rooms for himself. Something about the last few days (weeks) (months) has left him unwilling to stay in enclosed spaces too long, with no obvious path of exist. Too much like a lab or an undead-lined hallway.

But these concerns slowly melt away as he sets about instructing the AI, and the room gives way to a place that isn't a room at all.

Mountains rise up in the distance, framing a blue, clear sky, and a faint breeze rustles the treetops of a thick Michigan forest. Birdcalls ride that wind, and the air smells cleaner, fresher, than any moon base could reasonably boast. Where the blanket of trees ends, a large, glassy lake gleams in the sunlight. He takes care with this part—instructs the AI to make the water a temperature a bit too low to be entirely comfortable for swimming, knowing full well that this won't actually be a deterrent. But it wouldn't be right, otherwise.

He takes his time strolling from one familiar landmark to the next, having the computer make adjustments as necessary. He doesn't miss details, either; for all the times that Rosette brought him to this very place, his eyes had missed nothing. They were wide and all-absorbing, like someone who had been born anew and was discovering the world for the first time.

(Likely because, in all honesty, he had been.)

He stops once he circles back around to the open door—a black silhouette hanging oddly in the landscape, and the only giveaway that none of this is real. It's here that he surveys the scene as a whole, the sum of all its little memory-parts. ]

Perfect.

[ Well. There's still a thing or two missing. ]

... Almost.

Comments

[soul_sister]

[It is the MOST DELICIOUS PLAN. She sits down crosslegged in the grass.]

Yeah... when you go on missions, you have to write down what happened, why, who was there, how much things cost. It's a real pain.

[velveteened]

( he follows, looking pretty pleased at the prospect )

Missions...what kind of place did you work for, Rosette?

( he hadn't thought to connect her status as a contractor with an organization that may be like pandora, but in his frame of reference illegal contractors don't exactly get to. )

[soul_sister]

The Magdalene Order... it's a militarized branch of the church specializing in hunting demons, ghosts, spirits, that sort of thing.

1/2

[velveteened]

( militarized church...

he almost asks if there'd be more contractors, but of course not; she's said already that it's rare in their world for someone to contract with a demon, and in an organization that hunts demons — )

So then, ( slowly, and after a pause.

so then it must be hard for her in a place like that, and for chrono potentially, and so then no wonder she was so pleased to hear about another contractor. there's being alone and there's being set apart, and of course he of all people would know the difference. )

[velveteened]

( doesn't miss a beat — )

No wonder you were so prepared for the zombies!

[soul_sister]

Those weren't proper zombies! I've FOUGHT zombies before. These were something else...

My weapons didn't effect them right.

[velveteened]

Really? What were they like?

( "proper zombies," he means, and takes the moment to bite into a scone. )

[soul_sister]

[She takes an appreciative gulp of the tea.]

Mmm. They're basically dried corpses, sometimes multiple corpses bound together with leather. Sometimes they're augmented, but in general they're just reanimated by spiritual rites or demonic arts. [She tilts her hand. It could go either way. And takes a bite of her scone.]

Way uglier and they smell worse.

[velveteened]

( slo......wly swallows, wow that's creepy. )

Then, how would you fight something like that?

[soul_sister]

The metal in my bullets are infused with holy water and alchemized silver. They do a really good job on the undead.

[velveteened]

You shoot them?

( he can just imagine gil's reaction to that, useless as bullets are on chains unless you're aiming at the contractor )

[soul_sister]

Mm! The shot itself doesn't do much, but the power packed into the bullet rips pretty big holes. Most of the time, a couple Sacred or one well placed Gospel finishes just about any job.

[velveteened]

( really is a church with names like that, he thinks, and he chuckles as he helps himself to some tea. )

So no matter what, you're prepared.

( and it's something to rely on before — whatever invoking quite entails for her. )

[soul_sister]

[She nods, brightly. There's no doubt that, without them, she and Oz would have never met at all.]

What about you?

[velveteened]

Me?

( he pauses, teacup held mid-air. )

[soul_sister]

How do you fight? You really don't look like the close combat type... but you were surprised at guns too...

[velveteened]

...just that.

( "the contract."

he starts to raise his free hand in an old habit before dropping it, remembering it may well be meaningless to her. there's a quiet huff of breath )

I never had any reason to before contracting, and we don't have things like that.

[soul_sister]

[But he does have SOME reason to fight. Especially here... and if that's the way, every move he makes brings him that much closer...]

Do you want to learn?

[velveteened]

( only a chain can fight a chain, he'd almost said, but that doesn't account for getting close to a year here; and bringing up things that only require explanation (honesty) still don't come easily. )

I've been working on it. But I'm not very good.

( practicing his skills with a sword with break, both at home and here except when busy with the — everything; but there's being decent with a blade and being able to fight for one's life with one. he might've looked into it sooner after seeing how useless he can be without b rabbit, but it's — been hard to think about. )

[soul_sister]

[So, he really did have nothing he could rely on... just that. The teacup hides most of her expression, but it's sunny when she sets it back on the saucer.]

I'll meet you here tomorrow, if you want. They have a range simulator that someone's already build.

[velveteened]

A range simulator?

( not that it's so hard to guess what she means, really, but for all that he can be exceedingly perceptive about a lot of things, people wanting to help him isn't one. )

[soul_sister]

Mm! We can try a couple different types... And there are weapons out there that can take down what normal bullets can't. Having something else gives you more time... I've managed four years now... That's four more than average.

More importantly, when it knocks you down [She holds a hand over her chest. There's need to explain what it is.] you're not out of the fight.

1/2

[velveteened]

( that's four more than average she says, and it's a reminder; for all that he's had reason to believe the people of this world have no business meddling with contracts (for all that the ue's done and tried to do), the initiative's given him so much more time by slowing down the countdown. it took months to get to six (as just one invocation on his return was able to do), and at six it's stayed for many more months that it would (will) in reveil. if they hadn't, with how much he's used it here, it might have already...

(her gesture is so familiar, mirrored, that he doesn't think to question it.)

he hadn't considered it, though, all of the ways in which even familiar weaponry might be able to do more here, and even — the suggestion in principle isn't an unfamiliar one, don't be so reliant on your chain when the contract is like that, but coming from her...

he nods. )

[velveteened]

Ah, Gil should come too. He'd be interested in learning something like this.

( and also he might have an actual heart attack if he heard about oz doing so without him after the fact. )

[soul_sister]

Mmm! I met him a little while ago. He's more than welcome.