Re: The Gradual Massacre (GBS2G4) [Round 3: Las Orbitas]
11-14-2010, 06:00 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by whoosh!.
The recoil kicked the gun back towards Aic just as the world began to wildly spin and the light began to fade. Words echoed listlessly round her skull, but she was barely aware of it. She was numb. That was all. And only slightly confused, if you ignored the utter bewilderment her general apathy managed to dull. And if you paid little heed to the roaring supernova of regret shuddering through her deadened mind.
Because Holly was dead.
She had been the one to pull the trigger on the gun.
A choked gasp escaped her lips, and the pistol dropped with a dancing clatter she could feel through the floor. Aic stared ahead, dazed, at the rectangle of light presented before her. A door. A chance. And with the current state her head was in, she’d just be about willing to take anything that was presented to her.
The explosion still pounding through her blood, Aic grasped the door handle and stepped out into the sterile light of the metallic corridor.
Welcome to fabulous Las Orbitas.
The hum of the ship was comforting, companionable. Acacia swung to her right, running a hand over the bright surface. Each step was measured, slow. Somehow, she could hardly believe that she was the one who stood breathing and thinking in this quiet place, and Holly was the one sprawled in a pool of her own blood.
She shuddered, and pulled off the executioner’s hood. It shouldn’t matter. She shouldn’t care. She’d killed the elf for a reason. Aic paused, and swallowed. But still she was plagued, burning with the question that would never be dismissed: “What if…?”
The ship creaked somberly in reply, setting off a ghostly groan throughout the soulless corridors that eventually faded into the distance. In its wake came the comforting rhythm of human footfall, all of which fell unheard by the botanist. Her personal silence was occupied only by the questions that she feared would never leave her.
All of which only served to make the appearance of another all the more surprising.
He appeared in the spot where Aic’s gaze rested at the end of hall, allowing the illusion to fall into place that she had been waiting for him. Their eyes met, and a brief bolt of surprise was shared. And, predictably, the moment was broken by averted eyes and general awkwardness. Which was fortunately avoided by the mysterious man (dressed rather casually, in something rather resembling a white jumpsuit) actually looking at Aic.
“Oh,” he said. The noise came out quite apologetic, but it was ultimately simply surprised.
“Ah!” He added after what was undoubtedly a very sage moment of thought.
The display would have appeared unusual to even those capable of hearing. Aic decided that this wasn’t going to clear itself up by introducing complex things like complete sentences to the mix, so she kept her silence a little longer.
“You’re a medic, right? The white coat and metal collar outfit? Thank God you’re here, we’ve got an issue. We were sure it was just a basic job, but we didn’t realise…” He hesitated, and Aic seized the chance to bring some clarification to the garbled matter at hand.
“An issue? What happened?”
“Well,” he fidgeted on the spot, sparing a furtive glance for the blank corridors behind him. “It’s not exactly an issue, per se, what with the recent laws being passed, but…” His face darkened. “It’s definitely not good stuff. Not with Quad involved.”
The sentence left an uneasy quiet behind. Aic, however, simply frowned. This answer wasn’t proved as concise as she’d hoped. Unfortunately, this expression only set the man off for another chunk of rambling.
“Yeah, you know how bad that stuff can be for people. It might be fine if you’re some hotshot living it large among the stars, but it’s no good in someone who’s meant to dismantling a goddamn ship. This is no small fry. Sure, it’s no HMS Celestial, but it’s not just some dinghy either. Elena said-“
Aic held up a hand, silencing the deluge. “I understand,” she said despite not having the slightest clue what was being said to her. “Where is this problem?”
“Ah!” He said. (Aic’s heart immediately sank, fortunately under unfounded fears.) “It’s in the cargo hold. You’ve probably just arrived, so I’ll give you some directions. Even people who lived here their whole lives got hopelessly lost in this labyrinth without a good map.”
She nodded, smiled, and got away from the verbal grip of the babbling man as soon as she was able. Fortunately, she managed to leave with the directions to the cargo hold. And many wondrous things could be found in such a place of crated possibilities. Hopes. Dreams. Big guns.
As soon as the chatty man was far behind, she broke into a run. Her boots had been lost somewhere along the way, so her feet slapped against the metal, each stride a sting and a joy entwined. It felt good just to embrace speed for the sake of itself. It was pure. It was free of the messy intrigue and fear and regret of a death match.
The corridors wound on, and the directions ran out. Aic slowed to jog which in turn ground to a halt, leaving her standing before two bland doors. They bore a multitude of scratches and scars, a solemn and unseen testament to the years of badly handled cargo that had passed through them. They looked so dejected that she was almost loathe to slide them open, but she quickly lost interest once the interior of the room was revealed.
It was, quite simply, vast. Once it had probably heaved with the demands of an entire city. Now, instead, only a few isolated crates huddled in the centre. They must have been large, industrial things, but in such a gargantuan place they looked positively miniscule. Aic hesitated and stayed at the doors.
It looked empty. But from what the earlier man had said, this was not the case.
Someone was hiding. Somewhere.
Now her previously wild strides were replaced with slow, calculated movements. Her breathing slowed until it was barely perceptible, even to her. And despite this, her eyes darted with rapid intensity around the room. Nothing moved. Nothing changed. She loathed it.
The stillness only served to feed the irrational terror that quietly strangled her sense, the paranoia that set her mind ablaze, all trapped within the suffocating silence of her skull. Aic would have freely murdered for a sound, any sound at all, to confirm that something was there.
Instead, the crates drew closer, and nothing happened.
Stifling a scream, Aic padded around the pile to the left. She leant around, desperate for a sight of whoever was hiding in this otherwise empty room. Just… emptiness. She dared to take a few more steps, until almost the entirety of the back of the huge crates was in view.
Nothing.
And then something grabbed her shoulder.
Panic flared up, and Aic scrabbled for her pistol. Her fingertips brushed against thin air, reminding her that the gun was long gone, lost somewhere in the dark. In lieu of that option she tore herself free and staggered backwards to face the person in hiding.
Another white jumpsuit stood before her, surprised. He hesitantly met her glare.
“Sorry. I was calling you for ages back there. You didn’t say a thing, so I wanted to see if you were ok.” His face twitched involuntarily, and he shot a nervous glance over to the huge doors. He didn’t wait for her to reply.
“You’re a medic, right? Why’re you up here? Did they send you? I swear, I haven’t been taking no Quad and even if I was-”
He froze, panicked, staring with real intensity at the scientist. “You can’t tell them. I’m fine, just a bad patch, and- no, no, you can’t!”
Aic was slammed against one the crates before she could react, and in the dazed and breathless seconds that followed she was dragged before something white and blurred and she was scared, so scared-
The insane man whispered in her ear, tickling the skin, but she couldn’t hear a thing. She scrabbled at the floor, at him, at anything that was even vaguely solid, but the situation still trapped her like Aic was cast in iron. Her head and heard thudded, fit to explode.
“Please,” she croaked. “I don’t understand. What…”
He shook Aic and pushed her towards the white blur. She forced her eyes to focus, and to blink away the tears of confusion. The sight of the lines of white powder did little to allay her panic. In fact, they worked very much for the opposite effect as the little facts about what was going trickled into place. Quad was some kind of drug. Something mysterious, something awful, and this man was just a crazy addict in its thrall. And now he wanted her to try it too, for some unfathomable reason. Left with no option and no other way out, she swallowed her pride.
And screamed.
Outside the hazy fear of her mind, she was dimly aware of it being far more machine than man in its sound. A metallic screech was far more terrible than any cry of harpy or hell, and more than sufficient to force the addict to drop her. Aic scrambled away, drunkenly climbing to her feet and turning to face her recent captor. The light on the white surfaces of the room hastened a skull splitting headache, but she ignored it. All she knew was that she wanted this person dead, and all the more for the fear his he so blandly exhibited. She spat on the ground and stared, waiting.
“I-I’m sorry. Please don’t tell. Just – just take the Quad. Do you know how much that stuff is worth? They might have legalized it, but the legal companies… they haven’t set it all up yet. Illegal stuff’s the only stuff you can get your hands on that the moment,” he gabbled, rigid with terror born of his uncertainty as to what exactly Aic was. “I know you’re a Medic… ‘least, you look like one, but this stuff is good. Real good. I can swear on that. Look.”
He started to turn, but froze again at the violent twitch in Aic’s face. He whimpered slightly. Biting her tongue in her attempts to withhold her volatile rage (at least for now), Aic smoothly side-stepped over to those pale lines on the mirror’s surface. She crouched, her eyes never leaving the pathetic excuse for a man. She snarled as he attempted to leave for a second time, then lowered her eyes to inspect the drug.
Three carefully laid lines of blazing white were visible, exacerbated by the harsh lighting of the warehouse. The mirror’s reflection looked almost dull in comparison. She touched the closestline. It moved, just like any other fine powder would. But the more she stared, the more the insane urge rose inside her. Aic had never touched drugs, not with the apocalypse bringing an almost definite end to the industry. Perhaps…? Surely, just the one try couldn’t make you an addict?
She didn’t even notice the white jumpsuited man had fled as she reached for the conveniently placed rolled up slip of paper he’d left behind. Her hands were shaking, but she wasn’t entirely sure which of her emotions were responsible anymore: the fear, the disgust, the excitement.
A small breath to brace herself, and Aic snorted her first line of Quad.
The recoil kicked the gun back towards Aic just as the world began to wildly spin and the light began to fade. Words echoed listlessly round her skull, but she was barely aware of it. She was numb. That was all. And only slightly confused, if you ignored the utter bewilderment her general apathy managed to dull. And if you paid little heed to the roaring supernova of regret shuddering through her deadened mind.
Because Holly was dead.
She had been the one to pull the trigger on the gun.
A choked gasp escaped her lips, and the pistol dropped with a dancing clatter she could feel through the floor. Aic stared ahead, dazed, at the rectangle of light presented before her. A door. A chance. And with the current state her head was in, she’d just be about willing to take anything that was presented to her.
The explosion still pounding through her blood, Aic grasped the door handle and stepped out into the sterile light of the metallic corridor.
Welcome to fabulous Las Orbitas.
The hum of the ship was comforting, companionable. Acacia swung to her right, running a hand over the bright surface. Each step was measured, slow. Somehow, she could hardly believe that she was the one who stood breathing and thinking in this quiet place, and Holly was the one sprawled in a pool of her own blood.
She shuddered, and pulled off the executioner’s hood. It shouldn’t matter. She shouldn’t care. She’d killed the elf for a reason. Aic paused, and swallowed. But still she was plagued, burning with the question that would never be dismissed: “What if…?”
The ship creaked somberly in reply, setting off a ghostly groan throughout the soulless corridors that eventually faded into the distance. In its wake came the comforting rhythm of human footfall, all of which fell unheard by the botanist. Her personal silence was occupied only by the questions that she feared would never leave her.
All of which only served to make the appearance of another all the more surprising.
He appeared in the spot where Aic’s gaze rested at the end of hall, allowing the illusion to fall into place that she had been waiting for him. Their eyes met, and a brief bolt of surprise was shared. And, predictably, the moment was broken by averted eyes and general awkwardness. Which was fortunately avoided by the mysterious man (dressed rather casually, in something rather resembling a white jumpsuit) actually looking at Aic.
“Oh,” he said. The noise came out quite apologetic, but it was ultimately simply surprised.
“Ah!” He added after what was undoubtedly a very sage moment of thought.
The display would have appeared unusual to even those capable of hearing. Aic decided that this wasn’t going to clear itself up by introducing complex things like complete sentences to the mix, so she kept her silence a little longer.
“You’re a medic, right? The white coat and metal collar outfit? Thank God you’re here, we’ve got an issue. We were sure it was just a basic job, but we didn’t realise…” He hesitated, and Aic seized the chance to bring some clarification to the garbled matter at hand.
“An issue? What happened?”
“Well,” he fidgeted on the spot, sparing a furtive glance for the blank corridors behind him. “It’s not exactly an issue, per se, what with the recent laws being passed, but…” His face darkened. “It’s definitely not good stuff. Not with Quad involved.”
The sentence left an uneasy quiet behind. Aic, however, simply frowned. This answer wasn’t proved as concise as she’d hoped. Unfortunately, this expression only set the man off for another chunk of rambling.
“Yeah, you know how bad that stuff can be for people. It might be fine if you’re some hotshot living it large among the stars, but it’s no good in someone who’s meant to dismantling a goddamn ship. This is no small fry. Sure, it’s no HMS Celestial, but it’s not just some dinghy either. Elena said-“
Aic held up a hand, silencing the deluge. “I understand,” she said despite not having the slightest clue what was being said to her. “Where is this problem?”
“Ah!” He said. (Aic’s heart immediately sank, fortunately under unfounded fears.) “It’s in the cargo hold. You’ve probably just arrived, so I’ll give you some directions. Even people who lived here their whole lives got hopelessly lost in this labyrinth without a good map.”
She nodded, smiled, and got away from the verbal grip of the babbling man as soon as she was able. Fortunately, she managed to leave with the directions to the cargo hold. And many wondrous things could be found in such a place of crated possibilities. Hopes. Dreams. Big guns.
As soon as the chatty man was far behind, she broke into a run. Her boots had been lost somewhere along the way, so her feet slapped against the metal, each stride a sting and a joy entwined. It felt good just to embrace speed for the sake of itself. It was pure. It was free of the messy intrigue and fear and regret of a death match.
The corridors wound on, and the directions ran out. Aic slowed to jog which in turn ground to a halt, leaving her standing before two bland doors. They bore a multitude of scratches and scars, a solemn and unseen testament to the years of badly handled cargo that had passed through them. They looked so dejected that she was almost loathe to slide them open, but she quickly lost interest once the interior of the room was revealed.
It was, quite simply, vast. Once it had probably heaved with the demands of an entire city. Now, instead, only a few isolated crates huddled in the centre. They must have been large, industrial things, but in such a gargantuan place they looked positively miniscule. Aic hesitated and stayed at the doors.
It looked empty. But from what the earlier man had said, this was not the case.
Someone was hiding. Somewhere.
Now her previously wild strides were replaced with slow, calculated movements. Her breathing slowed until it was barely perceptible, even to her. And despite this, her eyes darted with rapid intensity around the room. Nothing moved. Nothing changed. She loathed it.
The stillness only served to feed the irrational terror that quietly strangled her sense, the paranoia that set her mind ablaze, all trapped within the suffocating silence of her skull. Aic would have freely murdered for a sound, any sound at all, to confirm that something was there.
Instead, the crates drew closer, and nothing happened.
Stifling a scream, Aic padded around the pile to the left. She leant around, desperate for a sight of whoever was hiding in this otherwise empty room. Just… emptiness. She dared to take a few more steps, until almost the entirety of the back of the huge crates was in view.
Nothing.
And then something grabbed her shoulder.
Panic flared up, and Aic scrabbled for her pistol. Her fingertips brushed against thin air, reminding her that the gun was long gone, lost somewhere in the dark. In lieu of that option she tore herself free and staggered backwards to face the person in hiding.
Another white jumpsuit stood before her, surprised. He hesitantly met her glare.
“Sorry. I was calling you for ages back there. You didn’t say a thing, so I wanted to see if you were ok.” His face twitched involuntarily, and he shot a nervous glance over to the huge doors. He didn’t wait for her to reply.
“You’re a medic, right? Why’re you up here? Did they send you? I swear, I haven’t been taking no Quad and even if I was-”
He froze, panicked, staring with real intensity at the scientist. “You can’t tell them. I’m fine, just a bad patch, and- no, no, you can’t!”
Aic was slammed against one the crates before she could react, and in the dazed and breathless seconds that followed she was dragged before something white and blurred and she was scared, so scared-
The insane man whispered in her ear, tickling the skin, but she couldn’t hear a thing. She scrabbled at the floor, at him, at anything that was even vaguely solid, but the situation still trapped her like Aic was cast in iron. Her head and heard thudded, fit to explode.
“Please,” she croaked. “I don’t understand. What…”
He shook Aic and pushed her towards the white blur. She forced her eyes to focus, and to blink away the tears of confusion. The sight of the lines of white powder did little to allay her panic. In fact, they worked very much for the opposite effect as the little facts about what was going trickled into place. Quad was some kind of drug. Something mysterious, something awful, and this man was just a crazy addict in its thrall. And now he wanted her to try it too, for some unfathomable reason. Left with no option and no other way out, she swallowed her pride.
And screamed.
Outside the hazy fear of her mind, she was dimly aware of it being far more machine than man in its sound. A metallic screech was far more terrible than any cry of harpy or hell, and more than sufficient to force the addict to drop her. Aic scrambled away, drunkenly climbing to her feet and turning to face her recent captor. The light on the white surfaces of the room hastened a skull splitting headache, but she ignored it. All she knew was that she wanted this person dead, and all the more for the fear his he so blandly exhibited. She spat on the ground and stared, waiting.
“I-I’m sorry. Please don’t tell. Just – just take the Quad. Do you know how much that stuff is worth? They might have legalized it, but the legal companies… they haven’t set it all up yet. Illegal stuff’s the only stuff you can get your hands on that the moment,” he gabbled, rigid with terror born of his uncertainty as to what exactly Aic was. “I know you’re a Medic… ‘least, you look like one, but this stuff is good. Real good. I can swear on that. Look.”
He started to turn, but froze again at the violent twitch in Aic’s face. He whimpered slightly. Biting her tongue in her attempts to withhold her volatile rage (at least for now), Aic smoothly side-stepped over to those pale lines on the mirror’s surface. She crouched, her eyes never leaving the pathetic excuse for a man. She snarled as he attempted to leave for a second time, then lowered her eyes to inspect the drug.
Three carefully laid lines of blazing white were visible, exacerbated by the harsh lighting of the warehouse. The mirror’s reflection looked almost dull in comparison. She touched the closestline. It moved, just like any other fine powder would. But the more she stared, the more the insane urge rose inside her. Aic had never touched drugs, not with the apocalypse bringing an almost definite end to the industry. Perhaps…? Surely, just the one try couldn’t make you an addict?
She didn’t even notice the white jumpsuited man had fled as she reached for the conveniently placed rolled up slip of paper he’d left behind. Her hands were shaking, but she wasn’t entirely sure which of her emotions were responsible anymore: the fear, the disgust, the excitement.
A small breath to brace herself, and Aic snorted her first line of Quad.