"Hey, uhh..."
His sight gradually faded in from black at the sound of the voice: a wingless draconian, the black-scaled being's yellow eyes barely level with his own, despite the speaker standing at full height of nearly two meters. The slate-gray, overtunic-like robe he stood clad in didn't really seem to fit to him, though that could've been just the contrast to the cool, bluish-gray of the large hangar's metalplastic structure.
"...you awake?"
His voice, however, was decidedly not dissociate by contrast, carrying neither hiss nor growl, and may well have belonged to the average, middle-aged human male. Bereft of undertones grumbling or guttural, his tone stood instead clear and sharp, with a confident, commanding presence behind it.
I am now.
Most people knew him as the frightful presence they ascribed his name to; the Dark Dragon. Vyachslav knew him as Ken. Just Ken. Vyachslav also knew him well capable of perceiving his own soundless 'voice' - a direct sending of thought from one mind to another. A form of telepathy, if one would. It was a good thing too, for Vyachslav had no vocal cords. He couldn't have spoken a word even if he'd wanted to.
"Oh..." Ken glanced to the side, seeming uncomfortable. With him, Vyachslav couldn't really tell, the draconian's surgical alterations not permitting broadcast of his surface thoughts as was typical with most people, "Sorry. It's...I can't really tell with you. Lack of eyelids, you know."
I do. And don't worry. It's probably time to get up anyway.
Ken's head fell away from his view as Vyachslav rose, the long, almost skeletal, black-lustered frame of what a human may have called a pseudodragon stretching to his full height; just over twenty meters from the partially pterodactyl-like head with those unblinking, pupilless, burning-orange eyes to the somewhat curved tridactyl arrangement of claw-toes that formed most of his plantigrade feet.
Briefly stretching his single pair of long, lanky arms to loosen their joints, Vyachslav then let himself down on the large claws of his four-fingered hands and performed a like stretch of his tail, the length of the fifth appendage measuring nearly him all over again, though sans the legs.
So, what did you want to talk to me about? Or did...what is that?
Ken couldn't help but grin sheepishly upon noting the curious tilt of Vyachslav's long head, the metallic, immobile visage unable to express any such notions by shifting of the ridge-like facial features. Even the lipless mouth possessed only a simply articulated jaw, large, dagger-like teeth bare in perpetuity.
"Oh, that?" the draconian asked rhetorically with a glance at what he held by the silver, mechanical tail that curled over his shoulder: the robotic velociraptor that hung behind his back, looking like it had run into something decidedly unpleasant and disliking of machines, "I was just taking that to Vern. I...seem to have broken it."
Nooo, ya think? Dare I even ask where you got that?
"I know a guy." Ken returned with a light smirk, placing the machine down beside him. He already felt more at ease now, even before his large conversation partner lowered himself to the floor sideways, supporting his torso by flat-laid elbows, tail curled partially about, to gain a conversational relation that wasn't quite so stark in the vertical.
"But..." his expression became a little more uncertain, "What I wanted to talk to you about...not really sure how to say this..."
Then just say it how it's in your mind.
"What's it like?"
Vyachslav's head rose a bit. The draconian imagined he saw a blink in his eyes.
Pardon?
"What's it like?" Ken repeated, trying to find words, "I mean...being you. One of you. I know that to you I'm the outsider around here, but to me...well, you are. Acid, Vern, Allen, them I met long ago already. I don't know you. I don't know your brother."
What about the Doc and his brothers?
"That's..." Ken sought words again, looking about for a place to sit or something to the like. Unfortunately, the hangar Vyachslav slept in had been designed to house fightercraft, not provide a rest area, "...different. They...well, they..."
Live on a planet.
The draconian thought a moment, then confirmed with a nod, "Exactly. You two, your whole people, live in space. It feels kind of weird to admit it, being everywhere that I have, but I've never met anyone else who does that. I mean, I know the basic physics behind it, but just the lifestyle itself is..."
Vyachslav interrupted with the motion of a hand. His unmoving visage seemed to smile.
I understand. You want to know what it feels like. What it means to not have to be in a contained atmosphere, like a spaceship, or even a shield, always separated by that barrier you can't pass - but actually a part of space itself. Well, to be perfectly honest: much as you feel when you're in water.
"Water?"
Water. I don't need to tell you that space isn't as empty as it looks. There's all kinds of things around - flows, currents, streams - just like water.
"Huh...water. Strange. I would've thought more like air?"
Water. Air is much too thin in comparison. No, liquid water, that's an acceptable analogy. Or ammonia, but in that you'd freeze.
This now really caught Ken's attention, "You mean it's not cold?"
I wouldn't know. I don't have a sense of hot and cold like you do. I register temperature, and heat transferred in and out of my body, but that's about it. Or do you really think I could go from vacuum to the surface of a sun and back if I had the same temperature sense as you?
"Now that I think about it, I guess not." Ken couldn't help but shrug, "So...do you really eat suns then?"
Not per se. Just the coronal plasma. And sometimes a little bit of surface, if we don't expect to eat for a good while. But even a whole flight couldn't take significant mass from even the smallest stars. I hope that doesn't offend you.
"Me?" the draconian was taken aback, "No. Why would you think so?"
Aren't stars considered holy in Drokar religion? I thought the belief that all things are born from the stars was the reason your people built the world-ships in the first place - to be close to them. Or did I misinterpret something there?
Ken couldn't help but smile, "No, yes, and yes. We do consider stars the source of all life, and therefore sacred, but I think you've spent too much time around humans lately. No Drokar would ever be angry about someone making contact with something sacred to use it to fulfill its purpose: in this case, to further life. No, that's the whole point of a star. That's why we consider them as we do. Though it does bring me to a question: why coronal plasma?"
Hydrogen metabolism. Where you use oxygen, we use hydrogen, and since we don't breathe, personally I think taking in plasma is a very efficient way.
"You don't store it as plasma though, do you?"
Of course not. The converters take care of that, just like if I were to eat a rock, just in the reverse direction.
"You eat rocks?"
We'll eat anything. Matter is matter. True enough, just taking energy directly from radiation works fine too, but I find actually eating something is a much more satisfying way of taking in energy.
"I bet you do." Ken grinned at the 'food is good' implication, something he very much believed as well. From one moment to another, however, his expression became quite solemn once more, and he looked intently at his conversation partner, "Big V...is that any different now?"
I don't understand.
"To before. I mean now that you're a cyborg. Having machines replace what your body used to do. You know, eating, feeling things..."
Flying?
"...yes."
I don't really know how to answer that. I've never noticed much of a difference. I know that part of what I take in nowadays is stored in the plasma fuel cell for my reactor, but even that I don't consciously notice. It's just something my body does now.
"You really don't feel any different than before?"
Well, being able to tuck away my wings completely is doubtlessly a nice addition. I can sleep very comfortably on my back now if I want to. But I suspect you mean more the wings themselves. The way they fly.
"I do." Ken gave a nod, licking his lips, and looked between Vyachslav and his reflection in the hangar floor, "See, for a long time I didn't want anything to do with prosthetics. I found the idea of stabbing machines into me...creepy. And gross. Actually, I still do. But...ever since Groul lost his arm and tail and we had to replace those with cybernetics for the time being...I'm not so sure anymore. Especially now that Acid explained to me how to make wings out of energy...you know, not completely metal or something. Wings that I wouldn't have to get an engine shoved up my...ahem..."
Vyachslav rose again though only into his usual hunched-forward stance.
I see. In that case - I still don't know how I could actually describe it to you, but I have a feeling I know a way to get you just the answer you're looking for.
He stepped - or mayhap waddled would have been more accurate; Vyachslav's feet were designed for perching, like a bird's, not walking upon flat ground - to the blast door that led to the ship's interior, and with one extended fingertip carefully and precisely manipulated the holographic keypad next to it.
A curt warning echoed through the hangar, a hollow drawn-out quack to signal caution at the opening exterior hangar gates in the vessel's hull. Of course, the stretched-in secondary shield prevented depressurization, though it did free the view to the twinkling points of light in the blackness outside. Ken almost didn't notice Vyachslav's large hand next to his person until he 'spoke' again.
Turn on your pressure suit and then hang on tight. Since I can't tell you what it's like...I'm going to show you...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Void Noir glanced behind her at the, until recently, frazzled student. The girl seemed to be holding together pretty well, for someone who'd just seen a fair chunk of her classmates almost devoured.
"You alright, there?"
The girl blinked and gazed up at Void with a lost expression. Moments ticked by between the two, the only change occurring as Void quirked a brow, debating on how fast she could go fetch a paramedic.
"I...yes. I'm. Yes. Fine."
Void didn't even bother masking her disbelief on that answer, "You don't say?"
"I am. Honest."
With a shrug, Void turned her attention back to the campus - or what was left of it. She could already hear the ranting and raving to be had over this latest bit of property damage. Why don't these multidimensional monsters ever just cross over for a game of Yahtzee?
"Um...ma'am? I was just wondering..." The girl appeared at a loss for words, or was trying to choose them carefully. Never a good sign when someone had a question.
"So long as its nothing icky, ask away."
"Well, what's it like?"
Void blinked. Then blinked again. Hands at her hips, she looked down again (Do people not think that even super heroes can get stiff necks? Sheeesh.), "Be more vague, please?"
"Erm...I was just wondering, you see. Because tons of you heroes do it, and I figured it can't be that bad if-"
"Whoa, whoa. You're having a wonderfully riveting conversation with yourself there. What's the question for me?"
The student looked a bit embarrassed to have been caught babbling, "Right. I was just curious as to what it's like...to run around in that get up..."
What?"....You're serious."
There was another heartbeats of silence. "Uh..yes?"
Void bit at her lower lip in contemplation. She'd never really put much thought into her costume - aside from colour, that is. It was obviously not uncomfortable, else she'd have changed the design in a split second. And it was rather...snug. Okay, so she looked like a some sort of latex dominatrix, but there were plenty of other heroes in equally questionable gear. She re-focused on the fidgeting student before her.
"It's breezy."
[ QUOTE ]
"It's breezy."
[/ QUOTE ]
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Genius! 
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
That was great. "Its breezy"
Brillant! I have to clean my screen now. Really have got to stop drinking and um...Foruming? New word?
Self-Proclaimed Number one Fanboi of the RP Forums and it's writers.
Me: How about "Zeus, The Pimp God"?
A friend: It'd be too hard to dress him up like a bull
The bright glow of Frostbowe's Blazing Arrow slowly spread through the Herder's brown, verdant body. It began to crumble, falling apart in a heap of ashes when Frostbowe turned to the hostage. The sunlight pierced through his blue shades, revealing the somber tone in his eyes. He could not stay long.
"Was that the last of them?"
The young woman remained remained still, as if waiting for reassurance, waiting for the ok to run back home. She looked up at the hero's face, hidden behind the darkness of his shades.
"I...I, think so."
"Don't worry. I deal with the Devouring Earth a lot, if there aren't anymore you'll be fine."
Her reassurance had come. The woman got up, but still stared at Frostbowe. From the first time she saw a hero, she had always wanted to ask him a question. She had never been this close to one before, let alone saved by one. It may have been her only chance, but she was silent. Frostbowe was getting anxious; the Devouring Earth were a strong and copious enemy; he didn't have time to chit chat with hostages.
"There's a ferry passing by. They'll see you from the beach if you hurry."
His work done, Frostbowe turned away, holsted his bow, and began to walk off. The woman remained on the grass, her heartbeat increasing, telling her to move, telling her to stop her rescuer. She couldn't just let him walk away.
"Hold on a sec!"
Frostbowe looked over his shoulder. The woman was running towards him now, her frilled skirt blowing in the wind.
"The beach is that way."
"No, no. I need to ask you something."
"...Yes?"
"Well...um, what's it like? Flying, I mean."
The light wasn't on Frostbowe's face anymore. The woman could not see his eyes widen behind the blue shades. He was genuinely surprised the citizen asked such a thoughtful question. Flying? He never thought of it before, and now this woman wanted him to give a profound description of the feelings he felt when soaring the skies.
"Well...."
Her face lit up with curiosity; after all this time, she had gotten close enough to a hero to ask her question, and now it would be fulfilled by her rescuer. Frostbowe wasn't sure how to give his answer, but he did so with honesty and certitude.
"I can't fly."
Yeah, fly she definitely couldn't. But that was okay. That's what parachutes were for. Or in this case, a parasail. In fact, it made the descent toward the impressively large, and very modern-looking yacht in the bay of that crescent-shaped tropical island down there little more than a walk in the park, a direct landing on the beige-white ship so very easy.
Maybe a little too easy.
She could struggle all she wanted, but it was already too late. Before she knew it, she'd ended up in the rear deck's pool.
A grumble of bubbles came to the surface, disguising curses under their benevolent veil, followed by her balaclava-covered head and of course the pair of high-tech goggles. True, the sun smiled from high in the sky, but they served other purposes than just night vision too. It was too bad that descent trajectory tracking wasn't one of them.
Thus she may have been wet, but at least she was here. Having already unclasped the now-useless chute, she lifted the goggles from her eyes, letting the emerald-green irises in that small slit of Caucasian skin take in her surroundings unobscured, seeking her target.
She found him at the edge of the pool, sleeping in a lounge chair: a tall, lanky, 'humanoid reptilian' (though she'd never call him that to his face; he plain-old hated that term, about on par with 'anthropomorphic', which he could stand even less) who didn't have much resemblance to either of those roots. Verily, compared to the general picture, he was pretty damn weird indeed. While his hide was deep-green, it hadn't a hint of a scale, instead carrying a tough, leathery texture, and though his feet carried claws, they were plantigrade, and held them in the same manner as his fingers: in the fashion of nails, not full components of their respective digits.
Still, the head and tail were at least comparatively similar, resembling those of a Velociraptor - or was it Deinonychus? Whatever - his mouth filled with a myriad of razor-sharp teeth. He wore a pair of light-gray swim shorts, an open shirt hued in Prussian blue, and of course the black digital watch on his left wrist. A thick book with a title she couldn't read had been propped over what she knew were ice-gray, slitted eyes, now closed in the shade of the literary work.
He was her target. The one she'd come for. The wearer of the fictional name Acid Zero.
Quietly as she could, the woman pulled herself from the pool and onto the smooth wood of the deck, the skintight soles of her sneak suit making barely a sound despite the dripping water. Good thing this garb would at least dry quickly. She didn't really like the idea of feeling like she was in a wetsuit all day.
Gradually, cautiously, she crept closer in near-total silence, stealthily drawing her field knife from the sheath wrapped to her left upper leg: a fulcrum bayonet. Slowly, carefully, the blade crept closer to the rhythmically rising and falling chest of the reptilian, glinting in the sun above the exposed hide between the thrown-back seams of the shirt.
"Don't."
She froze, then pulled away at the sound of the reptilian's voice; a voice that stood clear as any human's, and could've come from just about any man in his early twenties. To be sure, to a layman that tone didn't fit the tooth-filled maw that had uttered it at all.
"Don't." he said again in the same curt, casual, almost bored manner as she moved closer again, only to pull away once more and repeat the approach another time.
"Don't." the reptilian spoke again, and over did she take the procedure of knife back, knife in.
"Doooon't." this time he picked up the book and looked to her intently, though she didn't let this bother her, going through the motion just one more time and causing him to mutter, "Now you're just trying to annoy me, aren't you?"
She didn't reply, just pulling down her balaclava to smile, and then he spoke again, this time with pleading eyes, "Do you really have to stab me?"
"Oh, come on you." she pouted back, hands on her hips, "It doesn't even hurt you. You barely even feel it."
"Lies and untruths." he sat up with a pout, swung his legs over the side of the lounge chair and crossed his arms, looking away with closed eyes, "It hurts me on the inside. You know I'm a very sensitive individu-nyah...!"
"Quit it. Quit it. Quit it. Quit it." he protested rapidly against her present action, namely poking him in the side repetitively with the tip of her knife. The reptilian's hide did not break, but still he twitched back a bit each time, "Seriously Mel, stop that already."
The woman couldn't help but giggle, slipping the knife back where it belonged, "Yes, very sensitive as in very ticklish. Sorry, but you're just too much fun to torture."
"Pffff." he exhaled sharply toward her, scratching the side of his abdomen lower abdomen, "I don't know what ever possessed me to tell you that. So, anyway - what do the Knights of Malta want me dead for now? Seems like every month they come up with something different."
"Oh, I'm not here for them." she now completely removed the balaclava, letting her wavy, auburn hair fall to just above her shoulders. She picked up a towel from the lounge chair next to his and began to dry it, "I'm here for you."
"Ohh, really now?" he grinned back seductively, moving chose to her, then moved back with an expression of mock disappointment, "Then I am terribly saddened my dear, but I am already in an ongoing relationship. I am afraid your urges toward my person will just have to-"
The next second, he had the wet towel in his face.
"Fair enough, hah hah." the reptilian laughed, smirking maliciously at her reddened face once he'd removed the cloth, "Sorry, but you're just too much fun to torture."
She scowled back at the reptilian, causing him to add a chuckle.
"So, back to my question..." he then wanted to know, but the trail of wet footprints from the pool caught his attention first, and he looked at it quite incredulously as it consumed his mind for the time being, "Did you come out of the pool? Why would you...you know what, on second thought, I'm not going to ask. You people are weird enough as-is."
"Hey, you're the one with water on top of a ship that's already in water."
"Like I said." the reptilian presented his open palms along with another grin, "You people are weird enough as-is. It's not my boat. I'm just stealing it."
"Figuratively or actually?"
"A bit of both." he shrugged nonchalantly, "Kind of playing watchdog for the bad guys and their mercs from Tomb Raider. Only they couldn't afford mercs, so I said what the heck, I'm not doing anything important right now. And in case you're wondering, they're all on the island."
"Good." this time, she was the one to smile, and wryly so, "Because what I want to know from you can stay between us. So, what's up with you and dragons lately?"
He raised his head back somewhat, confused, "Huh?"
"For about half a year now, everything you get involved with seems to involves dragons in one way or another." the woman folded her hands before her, "You know I've read your log. So what's going on? Dragons on the brain or something?"
"Heh." he smirked back, "Sort of. It's a long story. But why do you want to know? Aren't you supposed to be completely loyal to the Knights or something? Doesn't seem to me like-"
"I want to know what it's like."
The quick, frank nature of her answer took him aback, and he couldn't help but inquire, "I beg your pardon?"
"I want to know what it's like." she repeated, "I want to know what it's like to be around them, be with them. I want to know what they're like."
The reptilian considered this a moment, wagging a finger toward her, "They sent you to kill Hotaka, didn't they? Yeah, after the garbage on the cruise ship, it's that they'd do. Let me guess: he talked you out of it, and now you've gotten attached to him. But you're not sure. You want to know more."
The woman nodded.
"Hm." his head gave a bob to the side, "Okay. Let me tell you a story then. Actually, it started more than a year back, when I ran into the Dark Dragon again."
"That's Ken, right?"
"Right. I know, 'Ken the Dark Dragon'. Trust me, it sounds a lot more intimidating in Lemurian. But anyway - you already know what happened there, but what happened after is the real deal. See, we hadn't been seeing eye-to-eye for a good long while then, but when he saw me acting like him...well, it broke a hole into that wall he'd built around himself. After that, well, I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but somehow I think I brought him around to my view. Not that I wasn't entirely not-trying to, it just..."
"...happened very different from what you expected."
"Right." he gave another nod at her completion, "So then, with Ken, I met Groul and Arek, basically his command crew. There's also Balkor Tars, but he's a Haluu, and thus has squat to do with me having dragons on the brain."
"Wait." she interrupted with an outstretched hand, not quite connecting one end to the other here, "So why didn't your log really start with dragons a lot until last summer? Or did that all just take that long?"
"Oh no." the reptilian smiled again, "It's just that last summer was when I met Jade."
"Jade?"
"Jade." he gave another nod, "Jade Blackwind. Guy, by the way. Well, guy turned into robot by mad crazyperson four hundred years ago, and of course on a planet X-thousand light years away, but anyway. Real nice guy. Diiiidn't used to be, but he turned it around just in time...before he got shot and the whole robot thing happened. Well, we became pretty good friends. He kind of can't die now, which really pulls him down a lot because where he's from the Terminator thing happened and everybody's dead..."
"You think I'm kinddin' ya." he couldn't help but grin at her skeptical expression, "Nope, all happened. No, they didn't call it Skynet, and there's more to it of course, but with me being in my state and him in his, we just kind of connected. Oh, we spent hours just talking about everything and nothing, and eventually he directly shared his memories with me. Well, in those I found that he'd met his double once."
"Double? As in twin?"
"Sort of. Parallel universe. So I wanted to meet him too. Decided to revive my dark gate project, go find out where this guy spooked about. In doing that, I crashed into Poseidon."
The woman raised an eyebrow, "Greek god of the sea or another dragon?"
"Neither." the reptilian smirked in response, "He's a griffin. From a place called Lanerbalan. And wouldn't you know it, that was exactly the place where I'd find Babe."
"Who's Babe?"
"Oh, right. Jade's double. Yeah, you think Jade was bad, try being named that. Anyway...oh, right..."
He suddenly stood, motioning for her to come with him to the glass-walled superstructure of the boat, "C'mon, I've got a picture. Anyway, along with him I met everybody else they hang out with, including James, Pik, Kia, Sarah, Bill, Shaun, Gareth, and another Ace - and that was before Babe introduced me to Teivos. But that's another story. Here, this way."
She followed the reptilian through the luxuriously furnished main living area, which more resembled a party room than anything else, and down into the ship to one of the staterooms that lay along one corridor or another. The reptilian entered first, and began to rummage about in the suitcase on the bed, which looked decidedly untouched. Then again, she knew he didn't much like sleeping in places like this, probably heading to the island each night to seek out a tree.
She couldn't help but sigh. Acid sure was a strange one. Briefly, she wondered about this girlfriend of his he always lauded so for her viciousness. She had to be some piece of work to put up with that.
"Ah, there we are." he finally produced what he'd been looking for, showing her the contents of the sizeable picture frame, "Good thing I didn't have a chance to unpack after I got back, huh? Anyway, that's mostly the band and then some. Yes, I said band. They play rock. Really well, too."
"All of them?" she questioned with uncertainty, sliding a finger over the glass, "They look almost...human. They even dress like us."
"No, not all of them." the reptilian shook his head, "And yeah, they do, don't they? Not quite the wild, claw-you-apart beats you tend to imagine, huh?"
She didn't reply, merely watching as he explained moving the assembled individuals, "The orange one with the white throat there. With the unicorn horn? That's Bill. Doctor Bill - which is creepy because I already knew one of those before."
"Hm." she nodded absent-mindedly. If not for the glasses, and lab coat, she wouldn't have been able to tell. For a doctor, he had a surprisingly well-built physique.
"The big green one in the leather jacket, that's Player, also known as 'James, no'...he can be a real handful...the hand-sized one on his shoulder is Johnny, and no, he's fully grown, just a really small species...that one with the really long black hair and the massive sweater is Babe..."
"It's paint." he added after noting the confused stare from her, having expected something silver and/or metallic instead of the velvet-brown face there, "He used to be a Mountain dragon, and his head still looks a lot like he did. The parts that are missing missing, Sarah - that's the Tornado there...er, the white one with the black hair and the big gray stripe on her face...see the black on the back of her wings? The one wearing the lab apron and the T-shirt covered in binary code. Yeah, her - just paints on. They're married, by the way."
The reptilian couldn't help but burst out laughing at just how big her eyes got at that, staring blankly at the picture, and before either knew it, he was already rolling on the bed.
"You're just going to keep springing this junk on me like this, aren't you?" she finally scowled his way, earning but an innocent grin as he sat back up.
"Yyyup." he added, then moved to the edge again as she sat down as well, "Okay, where were we? Oh yeah. The other Mountain there, that's Kia. She's with the red one without the wings there, that's Pik. He's an amphibian, hence the spiky fin on his head there..."
"Actually, that's something I'm a little unclear on." she interrupted, moving her finger along the glass, "Okay, so some having no wings I get...I assume um, Babe there doesn't because..."
"Oh no, his just fold up and store." the reptilian interjected with a lax shrug, "Robot thing."
"Okay..." she continued, "So why do they all have hair then? Except for that big one there? And why do the woman have...well..."
"Jugs?" the reptilian couldn't resist, grinning devilishly as he became a tad red again, "Geez, you Americans. Especially you. You need to get out more. But to answer your question: I ain't got a flippin' clue. Oh, and don't think you're alone there. That took me a good while to get past, and you know how I am. Heck, I've met people that look like spidersquids, and with those I didn't have any problems whatsoever. Personally, I eventually just kicked it under the collective 'dragons are shape shifters' and left it at that. As long as I don't start growing boobs, I'm perfectly fine with them."
She raised an eyebrow at that, wanting to know, "Where did that come from?"
"You don't want to know." the reptilian gave her a sideways glance, "All I'm going to say is it involved a little pink reploid, a pencil, the number seven, and waaay too much room for a mind to wander."
"I see..." she nodded slowly, sensing she should probably switch subjects, "So who are the griffins then? Poseidon..."
"Yeh, he's the brown one with the red hair. The gray one in the death metal T-shirt, that's Ace. Yes, so he has my nickname. It's pretty common. And no, nothing happened to his wings or anything. He's just the wingless variety. Let's see, did I miss anybody...oh yeah, the purple one's Anna. She's Bill's wife, and together with Sarah his voice of reason. It's just too bad that the voice of insanity in his own head is a good deal louder."
She turned to him with a suspicious look, "How so?"
"Oh, he's a bit of a mad scientist." the reptilian shrugged innocently, "Which I had nothing to do with. That spaghetti machine was a vicious killer long before I ever got near it."
"Riiight..."
"It's true." he insisted with crossed arms, but quickly returned to normal, "Between you and me, I might have made a suggestion here and there, but trust me, this guy's as unstable as they come. He dumps liquid oxygen on the barbecue to make the steaks grill faster. And don't even get me started on the carrot rocket."
"I'll take your word for it." the woman replied in a curt manner after a few moments of silence, and handed the picture back to him, "So...that's who you spend a lot of time with these days, hm?"
"Now and then." he retorted, standing up and placing the frame back where he'd found it, "Usually when the guys are doing stuff over in Andromeda and I get bored here. So yeah, with their crazy plus mine, of course I've got dragons on the brain, heh. Aaand I haven't even told you half the story yet."
"Oh?" she wanted to know, having noted him digging through the suitcase for something else now, "So what's the rest?"
"Oh now, that would be telling." the reptilian grinned devilishly as he produced from the suitcase a clunky, oversized gun that bore striking resemblance to an assault bot's plasma cannon arm - but with a lot more stuff on it, like some manner of bazooka gone mad, "Besides, it wouldn't answer your question of what it's like to be with them. So...pack your bags and hold on, Dorothy. Because Kansas...is going bye-bye..."
((Wow, this got a bit long, haha. My bad. Well, still hope you enjoyed. 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
So I came up with this amusing idea for a thread. You know how we all run around pretending to be superheroes and aliens and robots and stuff? I was wondering how we'd look from somebody else's perspective, someone not as gifted in the superpower department, you might say.
Thus: What's it like...? A thread for little vignette things where our figments of imagination try to describe what it's like being them. Do it IC with some normal Joe asking your fire-slinging mutant what it's like to breathe fire or maybe OOC with a real-life average Joe asking your heroine what it's like having to fight in spandex all the time. I dunno, there has to be something you guys want to tell or elaborate about with your characters. I know I like too.
To start things off I asked one of the most contemplated questions in human history to somebody who's not human at all and, hopefully, provides a new and interesting answer.
************
So whats it like to fly?
Toy Dispenser paused in the middle of tightening a bolt on an arm he was working on. The colorful android seemed to blink as he turned to face his questioner, a new recruit who was looking for some protection from the Hellions and fit a good psyche profile.
Technically I dont fly, I just fall in whichever direction I feel like, he retorted, giving up the arm once he saw the expression on her face. Her profile was right, she was going to be a handful.
You know what I mean, she said wryly, hopping up on Toys worktable and resting one sneakered foot on the opposite knee. You might just be a colorblind robot but youre the only flier in this gang wholl talk to me. So talk!
Toy tilted his head to the side before rolling it in exasperation. Motioning for her to follow, he maneuvered around a half-disassembled Mekman he hadnt gotten around to cleaning up yet and went to check on some experiments he had left running. Not that he couldnt check on their progress digitally, he just liked seeing them first-hand if he had the chance.
First of all: Im an android, not a robot. Get that straight and I wont sick Mini Bot on you, he said as the former Hellion smiled smugly and hopped off the table to follow him. She made sure not to touch anything though, which made her smarter than average and seem as though she called him a robot just to annoy him. Women. Secondly: Im an android. I dont feel or experience things like squishy people do. Why dont you just wait till Gen Nine gets back?
Cause hes a creepy [censored] Paragon Protector, she said with a heavy mock shiver. He was kinda cool at the meeting, but the way he keeps wearing that blank yellow mask Ergh
Pausing again, Toy slowly turned towards her and pointed at his equally blank, if off-white shaded, faceplate. He then noticed out of the corner of his eye that the refined ghost-slayer laser test was having issues again and turned to adjust some settings while the girl gathered her thoughts.
Right Walked into that one she mumbled, idly with a lock of black hair as she looked around. This was Toys section of the base and things werent generally set up for ease of human understanding. No labels, for one thing, and stuff was scattered about seemingly at random. Not to mention the small swarm of ubiquitous spider drones running around over almost everything, tending to mundane tasks like cleaning, moving stuff about, and monitoring the devices Toy didnt have the time to attend too at the moment. The mastermind was also busy peering intently into what seemed for all intents and purposes to be a high tech filing cabinet with buttons and some panels on it.
Totally, he replied after a moment. But as to your question I dont exactly know.
This lost her and she blinked for a moment, stuffing one hand into a pocket in her jeans as the other kept playing with her hair.
You dont know? How can you not know how you feel about something you do all the time?
Ive never really though about it, for one, Toy shot back, turning to look her full on. And the problem is that Ive done it all the time. It started out devoid of a lot of meaning that a young mutant or aspiring inventor might put in it. Its simply another thing I can do thats kinda fun.
Whys it fun, then? she asked, grasping at what straws were to be had. If you do it all the time like you said, why isnt it boring?
Well Toy said before he lifted a few feet up off the floor and started slowly floating around the room, orienting himself on her and avoiding the various large containers or esoteric pillars without looking. When youre flying, youre pretty much looking down on everything else except for other fliers, tall buildings, and the sky itself. It gives a feeling of superiority, of ascension, of I look down on you just as the gods once did. But even while youre feeling this about the people down below, you have to look up too. And its only really when youre a couple thousand feet in the air that you really start thinking about how far we have to go.
Pacing in a rough circle around the middle of the workshop, avoiding such things as a perfect working replica of the head of a velociraptor, a couple laden tables, and a folding chair, the girl frowned a bit at Toys answer.
So You go on a power trip then start wondering about how to conquer the rest of the galaxy? she asked with a smirk, one eyebrow slowly curving upwards.
Toy snorted, a short burst of static, and landed next to a table occupied by what looked like a small chemistry set, a small collection of ancient swords, and an AK-47 missing its barrel. He talked a bit more as he moved the items about, forming most of them on one side of the table and placing individual things scattered about the other half.
You go up high enough and once you get past, or never have, the whole joy of flight thing, you start thinking with a new perspective to suit your, well, new perspective, he said, chuckling, rapping one blue gauntleted fist on the table. Imagine all the stuff is civilization and the empty table is just empty space. Seems kinda empty right? Clearly demarcated at least?
Beckoning her over, he put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her down with him as he crouched, putting himself at eye level with all the tables in the room.
Now look around you? See stuff all over the place and cant really tell where it isnt, right? Thats the difference. You look at the world from a normal perspective and all you see is what weve changed, what weve built and done. Get up a bit higher and not only do you see all that, but you see where we havent changed, where we have yet to go. Now imagine going up even higher, into orbit. Youd see even more places we havent gone. Then up higher to see the whole solar system. Cant see very much of us any more, can you?
Patting her on the back, Toy hopped up and scooted over to pick up the dinosaur head she had passed. He figured now was a good time to re-unite it with its body. The android left the newest member of LMOUSVEV alone to chew what he said over, she looked like shed handle the thought food fairly well. Itd certainly agree with her profile.
Now where did I store those robotic velociraptors? Toy mumbled to himself as he slipped out of the room.
OOC: So yeah, go wild folks! Or not. I dunno if people will like this or not, but I haven't slept in a while and I finally got enough energy to write something, so I'm satisfied from this whole venture.
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.