Re: The Gradual Massacre (GBS2G4) [Round 3: Las Orbitas]
10-02-2010, 12:17 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by MrGuy.
Holly winced, her thoughts racing faster than ever before, as the shot rang out. So this is it. My last moments were wasted on looking for the very person who made them so. Figures. She detected the faint scent of gunpowder, which she supposed made enough sense. Worse to be killed quickly by someone you love, or slowly by someone you hate? I should have stuck with Countess, taken her up on her offer. At least with her I was on my guard. I knew she couldn't be trusted. Hell, maybe I could've even fooled her into thinking she'd...
Dimensions shifted, and Holly—only half-aware of what was going on, still lost in her thoughts—barely noticed the Controller’s voice reverberating in the air around her, not becoming fully conscious of the fact that she was still alive until she had already been whisked off to a far-off corner of Las Orbitas (subsequently collapsing on the ground again), and upon realizing this was considerably surprised. The elf blinked, then patted her head and chest, looking for wounds that weren't there. I'm... not dead? She shakily stood up, looking down through the window at the planet beneath her, amazed at the device that could take people into space. Somebody else must have died. Probably Countess' doing. Never thought I'd be grateful to her, of all people. She paused as something clicked in her brain, returning her thoughts to Aic. She really was using me? I can't... if she thought what she felt was still fake, then she had to be... Holly clutched her forehead and her vision flickered; what few dim stars distinguished themselves in the infinite void disappeared for a brief moment, meaningless as anything or anyone else. Was it really all a lie? I was feeling real love for the first time, and she was treating me like a puppet? I mean... I did do the book thing, but... Holly's legs buckled, and she let out a small grunt of pain. I can't believe it... I was... I thought something genuine had come out of it... maybe I wasn't made for real love. She fell to the ground, returning tears flanked by a torrent of liquid emanating directly from her palms as she desperately attempted to flush out the emotions. And then, the ultimate insult... she decided I wasn't worthy even as a tool...
Holly's eyes suddenly glimmered and the pain withdrew. She climbed up once again, wiping the tears from her face. She was ready to throw me away, like... like trash! After I spent all that time trying to find her! She stared down at the puddle, which had started to bubble and steam, boiling away, and she scowled. Buried deep in the back of her mind, a realization bloomed: she'd done the same, done worse, and done so countless times, maybe this was her comeuppance-- but her conscious mind was fixated on thoughts of revenge, unable to process the guilt desperately trying to fling itself to the forefront.
The elf raised a hand to her chin and chuckled. "Maybe you were right after all, Acacia," she absentmindedly vocalized. The puddle had long since vaporized, and her irrepressible rage flowed out to the surroundings, scorching the ground, but despite feeling so angry all she could do was laugh. "Perhaps, hahaha, perhaps I can't, heh, can't... can't take the rain away." Her gray eyes briefly flickered red, and she began stumbling out of the observation deck, her laugh getting louder as she set off in its direction. "B-but... hee hee... I can sure as hell make it, hahahahaha, WORSE!" Holly trailed her hand against a titanium wall as her mad giggling died down, melting the surface, though the shielding protected anything more than a few centimeters deep. She would see to it that a storm gathered, and quickly.
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“No, no, I’m telling you, the shielding should hold up fine in 12-A. It’s sector 12-F that’s the source of the discrepancy.”
“You’re talkin’ out your ass again, Steve. 12-F was too important. We put an extra layer of shielding on her, remember?”
“Yeah, Janet, but in case you forgot, 12-F is also where the raiders tended to attack.” The engineer sighed, rubbing his alleged beard which could probably be outdone by a 12-year-old, though others were too kind to mention it. “You know, when this place was actually useful to someone.”
“God, you’re so nihilistic lately. You should be happy you got this job, with how much it pays. After this, none of us’ll ever need to work again.” The woman tilted her head back, shuffling her myriad braids into yet another configuration. “Course, I don’t plan to retire. But maybe I’ll do somethin’ else. I really wanted to be an architect, you know. Or a sculptor. Lot more fun.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, we all—wait, what the hell is that?” A hissing noise emanated from down the hall as a female figure clad in a blue-and-red dress that lovingly exposed her intimate bits trodded down the hall, the air around her rippling as if she was but a mirage. “Hey, lady! This place doesn’t take tourists anymore! We’re supposed t—“
The man quickly found his neck grasped by Holly, unable to scream in pain from the scalding it was enduring. “Give me that map.” Janet quickly tossed it to Holly, who caught it in her right hand, rerouting the “heat vent” through her left. She dropped Steve to the ground, where he collapsed, clutching desperately at his throat. His companion responded. “Who the hell are you, and what are you doing this for?” Holly responded with a smirk that hid the true turbulence beneath her.
“Just a heartbroken girl, ma’am. Thanks for the map.” She trodded off, consulting the map for the various areas Aic, or Acacia, or whoever she was now, might be. “Let’s see... purple is cargo holds, blue is observation decks, green is living quarters, red is... com-pyoo-ter archival/security centers? The hell are those?” She crumpled up the map and shoved it irritatedly in her pack. Well, security might be what I need. Maybe it’ll help me find someone. She set off for Sector 10-D, one of the many red squares that had been highlighted on the map. As she trudged through the halls in search of the botanist, she came across still more engineers—most of whom either ignored her, pulled the “no tourists anymore” crap on her with the same response (or, in a couple cases, a comparatively merciful kick between the legs), or were struck speechless by the highly unexpected sight of an elf melting walls simply by her presence.
After a while, she came across Algernon (in sector 8-A). She shrugged and decided that she might as well get her other plan in motion, just so that she had a slightly larger chance of one of the two people making her life hell dying. She headed into the room and gave a short wave; Algernon responded with a small "eep" upon noticing her presence. Holly simply rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you, you pathetic, blubbering ball of pork. Here." She whipped out the book she'd taken notes in, On the Origin of Species. Scientific tome-- useless, as far as she was concerned, for Pathomancy-- and laid them on the ground.
"There. Between that, and this--" she launched a chunk of her resolve (plenty to spare, she felt) at the object of her scorn-- "you can kill that damn self-made golem. I took notes on what she's made of, should help you think of something to take her down. Now go make yourself useful as more than worm food for once." She snapped off an only mostly sarcastic salute before continuing on the warpath. If he somehow screws this up but doesn't die as a result, I'm killing him next. Only five minutes later did she realize that Arnold had somehow been with him. She paused, thought it over a bit, decided that explanation was stupid, thought it over some more, decided that perhaps the first explanation wasn’t so bad, then shrugged and moved on. Doesn’t really matter in the long run what that knight’s deal is, so long as he isn’t planning to kill me. She briefly mulled over the whole “Aic situation.” Bitch betraying me like that... she knows just as well as anyone that book wore off long ago. But it doesn’t matter anymore. If she’s going to try to kill me, then I can reciprocate easily. She smiled madly again. Without her incentive, there’s nothing stopping me from killing them both. That Acacia’s finally getting what she deserves.
Holly winced, her thoughts racing faster than ever before, as the shot rang out. So this is it. My last moments were wasted on looking for the very person who made them so. Figures. She detected the faint scent of gunpowder, which she supposed made enough sense. Worse to be killed quickly by someone you love, or slowly by someone you hate? I should have stuck with Countess, taken her up on her offer. At least with her I was on my guard. I knew she couldn't be trusted. Hell, maybe I could've even fooled her into thinking she'd...
Dimensions shifted, and Holly—only half-aware of what was going on, still lost in her thoughts—barely noticed the Controller’s voice reverberating in the air around her, not becoming fully conscious of the fact that she was still alive until she had already been whisked off to a far-off corner of Las Orbitas (subsequently collapsing on the ground again), and upon realizing this was considerably surprised. The elf blinked, then patted her head and chest, looking for wounds that weren't there. I'm... not dead? She shakily stood up, looking down through the window at the planet beneath her, amazed at the device that could take people into space. Somebody else must have died. Probably Countess' doing. Never thought I'd be grateful to her, of all people. She paused as something clicked in her brain, returning her thoughts to Aic. She really was using me? I can't... if she thought what she felt was still fake, then she had to be... Holly clutched her forehead and her vision flickered; what few dim stars distinguished themselves in the infinite void disappeared for a brief moment, meaningless as anything or anyone else. Was it really all a lie? I was feeling real love for the first time, and she was treating me like a puppet? I mean... I did do the book thing, but... Holly's legs buckled, and she let out a small grunt of pain. I can't believe it... I was... I thought something genuine had come out of it... maybe I wasn't made for real love. She fell to the ground, returning tears flanked by a torrent of liquid emanating directly from her palms as she desperately attempted to flush out the emotions. And then, the ultimate insult... she decided I wasn't worthy even as a tool...
Holly's eyes suddenly glimmered and the pain withdrew. She climbed up once again, wiping the tears from her face. She was ready to throw me away, like... like trash! After I spent all that time trying to find her! She stared down at the puddle, which had started to bubble and steam, boiling away, and she scowled. Buried deep in the back of her mind, a realization bloomed: she'd done the same, done worse, and done so countless times, maybe this was her comeuppance-- but her conscious mind was fixated on thoughts of revenge, unable to process the guilt desperately trying to fling itself to the forefront.
The elf raised a hand to her chin and chuckled. "Maybe you were right after all, Acacia," she absentmindedly vocalized. The puddle had long since vaporized, and her irrepressible rage flowed out to the surroundings, scorching the ground, but despite feeling so angry all she could do was laugh. "Perhaps, hahaha, perhaps I can't, heh, can't... can't take the rain away." Her gray eyes briefly flickered red, and she began stumbling out of the observation deck, her laugh getting louder as she set off in its direction. "B-but... hee hee... I can sure as hell make it, hahahahaha, WORSE!" Holly trailed her hand against a titanium wall as her mad giggling died down, melting the surface, though the shielding protected anything more than a few centimeters deep. She would see to it that a storm gathered, and quickly.
---------------------------------------------
“No, no, I’m telling you, the shielding should hold up fine in 12-A. It’s sector 12-F that’s the source of the discrepancy.”
“You’re talkin’ out your ass again, Steve. 12-F was too important. We put an extra layer of shielding on her, remember?”
“Yeah, Janet, but in case you forgot, 12-F is also where the raiders tended to attack.” The engineer sighed, rubbing his alleged beard which could probably be outdone by a 12-year-old, though others were too kind to mention it. “You know, when this place was actually useful to someone.”
“God, you’re so nihilistic lately. You should be happy you got this job, with how much it pays. After this, none of us’ll ever need to work again.” The woman tilted her head back, shuffling her myriad braids into yet another configuration. “Course, I don’t plan to retire. But maybe I’ll do somethin’ else. I really wanted to be an architect, you know. Or a sculptor. Lot more fun.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, we all—wait, what the hell is that?” A hissing noise emanated from down the hall as a female figure clad in a blue-and-red dress that lovingly exposed her intimate bits trodded down the hall, the air around her rippling as if she was but a mirage. “Hey, lady! This place doesn’t take tourists anymore! We’re supposed t—“
The man quickly found his neck grasped by Holly, unable to scream in pain from the scalding it was enduring. “Give me that map.” Janet quickly tossed it to Holly, who caught it in her right hand, rerouting the “heat vent” through her left. She dropped Steve to the ground, where he collapsed, clutching desperately at his throat. His companion responded. “Who the hell are you, and what are you doing this for?” Holly responded with a smirk that hid the true turbulence beneath her.
“Just a heartbroken girl, ma’am. Thanks for the map.” She trodded off, consulting the map for the various areas Aic, or Acacia, or whoever she was now, might be. “Let’s see... purple is cargo holds, blue is observation decks, green is living quarters, red is... com-pyoo-ter archival/security centers? The hell are those?” She crumpled up the map and shoved it irritatedly in her pack. Well, security might be what I need. Maybe it’ll help me find someone. She set off for Sector 10-D, one of the many red squares that had been highlighted on the map. As she trudged through the halls in search of the botanist, she came across still more engineers—most of whom either ignored her, pulled the “no tourists anymore” crap on her with the same response (or, in a couple cases, a comparatively merciful kick between the legs), or were struck speechless by the highly unexpected sight of an elf melting walls simply by her presence.
After a while, she came across Algernon (in sector 8-A). She shrugged and decided that she might as well get her other plan in motion, just so that she had a slightly larger chance of one of the two people making her life hell dying. She headed into the room and gave a short wave; Algernon responded with a small "eep" upon noticing her presence. Holly simply rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you, you pathetic, blubbering ball of pork. Here." She whipped out the book she'd taken notes in, On the Origin of Species. Scientific tome-- useless, as far as she was concerned, for Pathomancy-- and laid them on the ground.
"There. Between that, and this--" she launched a chunk of her resolve (plenty to spare, she felt) at the object of her scorn-- "you can kill that damn self-made golem. I took notes on what she's made of, should help you think of something to take her down. Now go make yourself useful as more than worm food for once." She snapped off an only mostly sarcastic salute before continuing on the warpath. If he somehow screws this up but doesn't die as a result, I'm killing him next. Only five minutes later did she realize that Arnold had somehow been with him. She paused, thought it over a bit, decided that explanation was stupid, thought it over some more, decided that perhaps the first explanation wasn’t so bad, then shrugged and moved on. Doesn’t really matter in the long run what that knight’s deal is, so long as he isn’t planning to kill me. She briefly mulled over the whole “Aic situation.” Bitch betraying me like that... she knows just as well as anyone that book wore off long ago. But it doesn’t matter anymore. If she’s going to try to kill me, then I can reciprocate easily. She smiled madly again. Without her incentive, there’s nothing stopping me from killing them both. That Acacia’s finally getting what she deserves.