Futuristic Old Universes | Main Thread

[Mr.Issimo]

Character: Zacharias d'Arabesque (Zander Besk)
Location: the Saint Antonia
Interacting with: CAGA

He just barely heard the mechanical sound of the robot's motion over his own blood rushing in his ears. It appeared to be moving slowly, almost lazily, with no sense of urgency to its movements. For a moment, Zach managed to be nearly insulted by that.

He saw the tip of its forbidding pistol slide into view, then the joint where it inserted into the robot's body. And once Zach caught the slightest glimpse of its red optic sensor, he overcame his impulse to get away, get away! and lunged forward, pens in hand.

For a moment, he felt suspended in air and suspended in time, just before the chaos of violence came literally crashing down upon him.

Using the momentum of his flight, with his left hand he slammed the butt of his taser into the body of the pistol, hearing the scream and snap of overburdened metal finally caving as the joint collapsed from the impact. The nose of the weapon now pointed forlornly at the floor, stuck in position. With his right hand Zach went for the robot's primary optic sensor, the tip of his blade skittering against the black-red surface, scratching it like a cat abjectly at the window. He had, perhaps fatally, underestimated the strength of the glass.

For, with the understanding settled like a lead weight in his gut, Zach realized that he had rendered himself completely open to counterattack.

 

[DemonicLillies]

Character: CAGA
Location: The Saint Antonia
Interacting With: Zacharias d'Arabesque (Zander Besk)

Without even turning to face him, the robot used the elbow of its functional arm to throw him to floor, then quickly clamping down on one of his legs with its foot. The foot seemed to be as dexterous as its hands, easily grabbing his leg and holding it down. Certain that he was down for the count, it turned its head to look down at him.

"Combat models are built to last. Their bodies may appear to rust but their armour is just as sturdy. While older combat models were armoured with steel, slowing them down, the newer, sleeker model is fitted with carbon fiber, making them light and sleek. If unequipped, even one combat model is a formidable opponent." CAGA had always felt that there was some joy in reciting its sales pitch when it had someone in its clutches, remind them of just how indestructible it is.

The broken arm was annoying, but shouldn't matter too much. In fact, the collapse of the joint may have simply strengthened its armour. The arm was one of the few weak points in the combat model, they had to have areas with weaker armour so they could have complete control of their arms. However, now that this arm had jammed itself into position, the weak point was no longer as weak, meaning Zach had one less place to hit.

 

[elytra]

Character: Polaroid
Location: The Ilston Market
Interacting With: Raker

Polaroid looked to be searching through the piles of things left behind in the rush, looking at things before tossing them aside. They seemed to pay attention to attention to Raker at first, more focused on the task at hand, but when he finished talking, they finally looked up, tossing a part up in down in their hand. As before, their movements were fluid, and held a rather mischievously gleeful feeling about them. They stood up straight to face Raker completely, either not recognizing them or not caring.

"Oh, wonderful! I need an extra hand. Or two! Maybe 4! 5, if someone around here can spare it! Be a dear and dig around in this pile, I'm looking for some wires to tear apart! Oh, and something wooden to prop up. I already have the tools I need for this, but the materials are evading me, it seems." They said, hands moving about as they spoke, while still somehow managing to toss and catch the item while doing so "No need for weapons. I'll have us more than covered with that. Hope you're alright stealth-wise, though. I'm not sure how many they've got on that ship of theirs!"



Character: Markus Gray
Location: The Greenfly
Interacting With: The Crew of the Greenfly, Alexander

Markus listened to the keeper carefully, letting his attention drift to see what Daniel was doing only for a moment before looking back. If the ship had docked before and nothing happened, then it was doubtful anything would. No one would know the drop off schedule but the keeper and the ship completing the task, and there was a low chance of a ship like that being used for an organized crime operation. If they were that desperate? Well, they wouldn't be that difficult to take care of. He followed behind the keeper, figuring that the others would either follow or begin transporting items, like Daniel was.

" 'Fraid that violence isn't the only thing you got to worry over, keeper." He replied, taking in the area around them, under the assumption he would never see the inside of a lighthouse again "With a ship that badly damaged? Who knows what could be on it. Person could've been diseased or something. 'Sides, now you have one less docking area. Might not be a problem now, but could be in the future. You should find out who, or what, is on there, sooner rather than later." He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly "Better to be safe than not."

 

[Error 420]

Yashi
Illston
DemonicLillies elytra

Yashi began her systematic hunt, and that began with finding the right tools for the job. A kiss on the cheek rarely impressed a pirate captain, so a more aggressive strategy was called for. Perhaps a friendly neighborhood space captain could be of assistance?

Behind Polaroid she appeared. "Need an extra four arms, you say? What can I do you for, cap?"

She hoped that Polaroid had forgotten the way their last interaction ended.

 

[DemonicLillies]

Character: Raker
Location: Ilston Market
Interacting With: Polaroid, Yashi

"A-alright I can do that! On the stealth front... I might be able to help. You see I'm... well I'm a shapeshifter, I can change up my shape to adapt to different environment. If we could say, jump a pirate and capture them, I could perhaps.. steal their shape, infiltrate the ship. That's just an idea though." He explained, already sorting the things into neat piles, ordered by what he thought their uses were. "I-I'm Ethan by the way. Ethan Winters."

It didn't take long for Raker to sort a lot of the pile into separate ordered piles. They were ordered by colour and then by assumed uses. He hadn't really been looking for what they needed, but thought it shouldn't be too hard now.

"I didn't find what we need, mostly because I wasn't looking, but it shouldn't be too hard now!" He smiled, satisfied with his work.

 

[Mr.Issimo]

Character: Zacharias d'Arabesque (Zander Besk)
Location: the Saint Antonia
Interacting with: CAGA

Zach thrashed and writhed, trying in vain to free his leg from the robot's grasp. It just stared at him with --if it could have facial expressions-- an air of humor. It evidently thought Zach done for, and, increasingly, so did he. He had already thrown his knife, to little effect; it now lay, returned to pen form, on the other side of the hallway. The bot slowly began menacingly pulling Zach towards it by his leg, dragging his struggling form across the floor. He felt about as potent as a log doomed to the fireplace.

But then, his motions in conjunction with his lower angle of vision caused a glimmer of gleaming copper to catch his eye. It was located on the bottom of the bot's leg joint, completely invisible to someone with a higher vantage point. Those exposed wires, unlike the rest of the bot's seemingly impenetrable carbon-fiber body, would conduct a current. And if if they could conduct a current, then... he might have one last chance.

He waited for the best moment to strike. Then, giving no warning, he suddenly surged forward, thrusting his taser up and into the clump of wires. He expected some sort of seizure, as one would expect in humans, or at least sparks and explosions, but the bot just froze, suspended in motion, and slowly collapsed to the floor. The red light in its optic sensor blinked once, twice, three times, then went dead.

The relief hit Zach like a physical blow. His breath still coming in short fast bursts, he shuffled backwards to the wall, where he curled his knees to his chest and let his head fall into his arms, waiting for the tremors to abate.

 

[DemonicLillies]

Character: CAGA
Location: The Saint Antonia
Interacting With: Zacharias d'Arabesque (Zander Besk)

A couple of moments passed, before CAGAs optic light slowly flickered to life. Using only its legs, it managed to raise itself up off the ground, slowly making its way towards Zach.

"Impressive stunt, very impressive." Its voice flickered around more than usual, still recovering from the shock. "You know, it's been a long time since I tested the ol turret. Maybe I'll give it a look now, doesn't that sound fun?"

It reached Zach, its hand shooting down towards him, grabbing him by the neck. It raised him up so they were at eyes level. The two of them were so close that the turret was almost touching Zach's head.

"Moment of truth!" Its voice sounded chipper, almost excited. There was a loud clank, followed by another and then one more. "Well... that was anticlimactic. No matter, guess we'll just have to go with plan b!"

It raised him up higher, until his feet were no longer touching the ground. Slowly, it tightened its grip, making it harder for him to breathe.

"I've read that humans don't do so well without being able to breathe, but I've never trusted books so I think I'll test it for myself. Maybe I'll keep count, see just how long it takes!" It held him in place, showing no signs of moving any time soon.

 

[Mr.Issimo]

Character: Zacharias d'Arabesque (Zander Besk)
Location: the Saint Antonia
Interacting with: CAGA

Just when Zach thought that he was in the clear, that he was safe, that his attacker was gone forever, he heard the robot's voice again like a call from the depths of nightmares manifested in the waking world: "Impressive stunt, very impressive." With his head in his arms he hadn't even noticed the bot getting up nor rising to its full stature, its red eye gleaming at him maliciously, its voice grating across his senses. Before he had time to get away, the bot whipped its appendage out and seized him by the throat, lifting him up against the wall and pinning him there. Zach got a taste of the horrible pressure against his trachea before he managed to get his footing, his hands scrabbling at and then fiercely gripping the robot's where the appendage came into contact with his skin.

The bot activated its artillery, the turret coming to life with a loud clank. The black, soulless eye of its muzzle stared blankly at him. Zach made futile attempts to wriggle away but felt his heart sink to his knees; the realization of the absolute inescapability of his situation hit him like a ton of lead. He closed his eyes.

But then, instead of hearing the blast that would precede oblivion, he heard another clank. And another. The robot thoughtlessly deactivated the dysfunctional weapon, not feeling the intense significance the object held in Zach's eye, and shoved its prey higher up against the wall.

Zach suddenly felt the full weight of his body fall on his windpipe and jugular. His feet kicked against the wall, struggling to find any sort of purchase, and the slender muscles in his arms bulged with the effort to hold himself up. The pressure was simply too intense; he could feel the blood in his head accumulating, getting backed up, having nowhere to go. The throbbing of his heartbeat pounded in his ears; his face pulsed with it. The crushing vacuum of his lungs made him feel like thorns were growing out of his ribs. He was certain that his eyes were about to explode.

"7...8...9...10..." he heard, as if from a long way off.

He saw the black specks begin to waltz their way across his vision, but he refused to go yet; there was still one question he had to ask. One more thing he had to know. He gave one last mighty pull up on the robot's arm to momentarily ever so slightly relieve the pressure on his throat. "...How..." he managed to get out, though it likely would have been more conducive to comprehension for someone to simply read his lips than attempt to decipher the horrible strangled noise that had escaped from them. How did you come back?

Then the blackness hit him like a slap in the face, and the last thing he felt was the smack of his hands falling limply against the wall.