Rise in Revolution (Chapter Thirty-Seven)
Jul. 5th, 2016 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanadin posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
saladloveOn another note, sometimes the cut makes the spacing weird, as evidenced below. Sorry. It's stupid and I can't fix it.
Chapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
World map: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Kaldri
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Scion
Xela’s computer setup, Sector SOV. March 26, 2272. Time instance 842N.
Xela spun around in her chair reluctantly when someone knocked on the door. It was a few hours after sunset and she hadn’t been expecting to be disturbed at this late hour, but she supposed that cyborgs didn’t need much sleep and didn’t care about what time it was.
“Come in!”
The door practically slammed open, showing an exasperated cyborg on the other side with Scott and Clash in tow. “Look after them, will you?”
Xela blinked a few times. “What?”
“Look, okay, they don’t do shit and keep making excuses to not help out around here. I caught them in IAL just fucking around when they are needed in SOV.” Scott grinned sheepishly from behind the cyborg and Clash wouldn’t look directly at anyone.
“What does that have to do with me?” Xela demanded.
“Just...look after them, okay? See if you can do anything useful with them. I’m sick and tired of following them around and trying to make them do shit!”
“I’m not a babysitter!”
“Yeah, well, Tanadin told me to just find someone responsible to look after them until she was awake enough to talk to them.” Clash shifted nervously in response to that.
“Okay, okay. I’m glad you think I’m responsible because that means I do a good job of faking. Go get some sleep or something.”
The cyborg mumbled something under his breath, practically shoved Clash and Scott into the room, and shut the door behind him.
Xela raised an eyebrow at them. “Bullshitting to get out of doing stuff you don’t want to do?”
Scott nodded. “Yep.”
“Nice.” Xela turned back to the terminal and resumed what she was doing.
A relatively silent half hour passed, with only the sound of Xela’s fingers on the keys and the mumbling of Clash and Scott punctuated occasionally by quiet laughter. Eventually they fell silent and Xela worked for another eleven minutes before Scott spoke up.
“So...you’re a vampire?”
“Yep.” Xela stopped typing.
“How does that work, exactly? Like, how did you become a vampire?”
Xela turned in her chair to look at him. “A vampire bit me and injected me with the venom contained in our fangs.”
“Why?”
“I asked him to.”
“Oh, neat. Could you do that for me?”
Xela stared at him as Clash made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a caw of surprise and concern. “Scott, what are you doing?!”
Scott glanced at him. “No, it’s fine, I got this.” He looked back at Xela. “Could you?”
“I...could,” Xela said carefully. “Why would you want to be a vampire? There’s a lot of downsides that I feel would affect your life negatively.”
“You don’t seem to be suffering.”
“You and I lead different lives!” Xela protested. “I never went outside anyway! As a newly fledged vampire you couldn’t be in the sun for more than a couple of minutes before becoming severely burned!”
Scott shrugged. “Sunscreen. Lots of sunscreen.”
“Sunscreen doesn’t work.”
“I’ll figure something out.”
“You’ll be more flammable. You’re dating a phoenix.”
“He can make his flames not burn,” Scott reasoned.
Xela mumbled something under her breath, conceded the point. “Scott, vampirism isn’t something to take on lightly. You should consider it for months, if not years, before-”
“Yeah, okay, but we don’t have time for that. You need more people that can hold their own against cyborgs, and vampires can do that a lot better than a normal human can, right? They get faster and stronger and better reflexes.”
Xela nodded slowly, realizing that he was right. “You have a point. As much as I hate to say it, you’ve got a damn good point. We need everyone we can get and if you’re willing to volunteer, well...we can’t really afford to turn you away.”
“Plus I get to live for like, forever, and get cool fangs and freaky eyes.”
“Also perks,” Xela conceded. “I don’t regret becoming a vampire but I know others who have. Are you sure this is something you want to do?”
“Scott, hang on, let’s think about this,” Clash put in, voice rising somewhat in desperation. “Being a vampire is a really permanent and restricting thing, are you sure this would work out for you?”
“Yeah man. I’ve been looking for ways to become immortal for a long time, it’s all good.”
“...If you say so. If this is what you want, go for it.” Scott grinned at him in response.
Xela glanced between them and a realization clicked in her mind. He doesn’t want Clash to have to outlive him. A slight smile pulled at the corners of her mouth and she nodded slightly, making up her mind.
“If you really want to become a vampire- if you’re sure, with no doubt in your mind- I’ll turn you.”
“Great. Let’s do it.” Scott got to his feet, Xela following suit. “So, how does this work?”
“Well, as barbaric as it is, I have to bite you. Preferably somewhere where the venom will get circulated fast.”
“This is just an excuse to bite my neck, isn’t it?”
“If I was at all interested in you, it might be, but since I’m not, no. It’s just the best spot.”
Clash crossed his arms and drummed his fingers anxiously, twitching and caught between watching them carefully and not wanting to look.
“There’s no going back,” Xela warned. “You are completely certain that you want to be a vampire?”
“Yep.”
“That’s not fucking reassuring. You make it sound so casual.”
“Xela, I treat everything like it’s casual.”
“That’s true,” she muttered. “At least if half the stories I’ve heard about you are true.”
“What? People have been telling stories about me? Like what?”
“Nothing important.”
“Come on, I need to kn- ow.” Xela interrupted him by baring her fangs and sinking them into his neck. She resisted the instinctual urge to start draining his blood and instead released the venom into his bloodstream, remembering with a chill how it had felt to have it racing through her veins less than two hundred years ago.
She drew back once she felt she had been there for a sufficient amount of time, noting that Clash had jumped to his feet the moment that Scott had expressed he was in pain.
“Woah. That’s...woah.”
“You’ll start to feel dizzy soon and pass out momentarily.”
“What? No.” Scott didn’t seem to notice that he was visibly swaying. “I won’t pass out. I’m fi…” He went limp as he lost consciousness and Clash reacted first, darting forward to catch him and keep him from hitting the floor.
“Will he be okay?” the phoenix asked, worried.
“He’ll be fine,” Xela assured. “He won’t wake up until tomorrow night, probably, but he’s perfectly safe. We just need to give him time to start changing is all. Let’s find somewhere to put him where he won’t be disturbed. If he wanted an excuse to get out of anything tomorrow, well, he’s got it.”
~~~
Xela turned her chair around as she heard a soft groan from Scott, who was lying down on a soft something that Xela had a cyborg bring in and put on the floor. Clash immediately looked up and took his hand. He hadn’t left the new vampire’s side since he had passed out, a fact that Xela had found sweet if a bit infuriating when it came to her personal space.
“Scott?” Clash whispered quietly.
Scott grumbled something under his breath and sat up, blinking open his eyes. Clash’s sharp intake of breath got Scott’s attention, and even Xela was surprised by the change in his eyes. His usually brown irises had dramatically changed into a bright, vibrant green, not quite glowing but looking like they really wanted to, similar to Xela’s teal eyes.
“Hey. What’s wrong?”
“Your eyes,” Xela supplied when Clash didn’t say anything. “They’ve turned green.”
“Green? Neat! Where’s a mirror?”
“First, how are you feeling? Dizzy at all? Weakness in your limbs?”
“Nope. I feel fine. Just kinda tingly.”
“Good. Try standing up.”
Scott jumped to his feet, blinking a few times in surprise at the speed of his action. “Woah.”
“You’ll get used to it. For awhile you’re going to be running into things and breaking random objects until you figure out how to control your strength. Don’t hold anything valuable.”
“Sorry, Clash, guess I can’t hold your hand.”
“Scooter!”
Scott laughed at his protest. “I’m kidding. I don’t think I can hurt you.”
“You most certainly can!” Xela warned. “So watch yourself!”
“It’ll be fine! So, when do I get fangs?”
“They’ll grow in over the course of a week.”
“That’s great.” Scott grinned. “I’m so fucking ready for this.”
“You say that, and yet…” Xela crossed her arms. “There’s a lot of dangers when one is a vampire. There’s the sun, of course, but in addition to that…”
~~~
Emma leaned against a wall, her mind spinning and the darkness of the night allowing her to wander freely with no questions and no pestering.
Why did Cataclysm see me in his fate?
The question had been burning in her mind ever since they had spoken in the alley, and she still had no answers. He had mentioned something roughly equating to their fates being intertwined, and while she wasn’t sure what that meant, she had an idea that she absolutely refused to entertain.
I barely know the guy. Besides, me helping his destiny along could mean anything. It doesn’t have to be something romantic or whatever. She tried to shake off the thoughts of what he had said to no avail, casting her eyes around to find something else to focus on and frowning when they locked on Kyir.
She’d been seeing him a lot today, she realized. Here and there, around corners and leaning on walls, just barely in sight. If he’d been following her…
Well. There was one way to find out.
Emma took her weight off the wall and continued walking, turning into an alley and slipping behind some boxes as soon as she could, holding still and barely daring to breathe as she listened.
A silent minute passed before soft footsteps could be heard. She peeked out from behind the boxes and growled, standing up and making Kyir yelp in surprise.
“Why are you following me?” she demanded, crossing her arms and glaring.
“I’m not following you. Why the fuck would I be following you?” Kyir shot back.
“I don’t know, you tell me! I’ve been seeing you everywhere today and then you followed me down here for no apparent reason!”
“I’m a busy guy and pretty fucking noticeable! Doesn’t mean I’m fucking following you!”
“Oh, yeah? Then where were you going?”
“Just now?”
“Yes.”
“I, um...well, I...I don’t have to explain myself to you, hold on!” Kyir glared at her and crossed his arms as well. “It’s none of your business!”
“It is my business because you keep following me!”
“Look, Cataclysm wanted me to keep an eye on you, alright? I might just be taking his request a little too literally!”
Emma froze. “Cataclysm...wanted you to make sure I was alright?”
“Well, yeah. If you die he’s probably fucked. He worries about people a lot and I offered to keep an eye on you. He’s only got one, he can only look after so many people at once.”
Emma frowned at him. “That was a mean joke.”
“Yeah, probably, but he jokes about my scar so it’s all good. If you tried that, though, you’d be the one with a scar.”
“Noted.”
“So are you done interrogating me?”
“Are you done following me?”
Kyir shrugged. “For now.” Without waiting for a response to his original question, he turned and left.
Emma watched him go, growling quietly and kicking at a box.
She didn’t need someone to keep an eye on her! And she certainly didn’t need Kyir making sure she didn’t get into trouble. She could get herself out of trouble.
Well. Usually. She flashed back to the final fight she was in back in ASQ before throwing it in her mental garbage bin. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. She left the alley and continued walking down the street, letting the streetlamps guide her way.
She glanced behind her a few times, but Kyir was either gone or had gotten better at sneaking in the past three minutes. She pushed all thoughts of him from her mind and went back to pondering why the Mirror had showed her to Cataclysm, still coming up with nothing.
She figured she’d find out eventually, and she wasn’t sure if that was a moment to look forward to or dread.
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Date: 2016-07-05 07:42 pm (UTC)Eheheheh, puns c:
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Date: 2016-07-05 07:45 pm (UTC)Puns abound!
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Date: 2016-07-05 07:44 pm (UTC)“He can make his flames not burn,” Scott reasoned.
Scott this really doesn't seem like a good idea.....
Xela mumbled something under her breath, conceded the point. “Scott, vampirism isn’t something to take on lightly. You should consider it for months, if not years, before-”
“Yeah, okay, but we don’t have time for that. You need more people that can hold their own against cyborgs, and vampires can do that a lot better than a normal human can, right? They get faster and stronger and better reflexes.”
Xela nodded slowly, realizing that he was right. “You have a point. As much as I hate to say it, you’ve got a damn good point. We need everyone we can get and if you’re willing to volunteer, well...we can’t really afford to turn you away.”
*raises hand* But it Xela makes lots of fledgling vampires, that limits them to only being able to battle inside buildings or at night right?
“He’ll be fine,” Xela assured. “He won’t wake up until tomorrow night, probably, but he’s perfectly safe. We just need to give him time to start changing is all. Let’s find somewhere to put him where he won’t be disturbed. If he wanted an excuse to get out of anything tomorrow, well, he’s got it.”
Welp, Scott now has an ironclad excuse to shirk work. "Nope can't move that stuff about outside, I'll burn."
“You’ll get used to it. For awhile you’re going to be running into things and breaking random objects until you figure out how to control your strength. Don’t hold anything valuable.”
“Sorry, Clash, guess I can’t hold your hand.”
Aww no hugs at the moment either then. Or Scott's liable to crush Clash to death, which results in fireball rebirth and burned up Scott......
“Why are you following me?” she demanded, crossing her arms and glaring.
“I’m not following you. Why the fuck would I be following you?” Kyir shot back.
“I don’t know, you tell me! I’ve been seeing you everywhere today and then you followed me down here for no apparent reason!”
“I’m a busy guy and pretty fucking noticeable! Doesn’t mean I’m fucking following you!”
“Oh, yeah? Then where were you going?”
“Just now?”
“Yes.”
“I, um...well, I...I don’t have to explain myself to you, hold on!” Kyir glared at her and crossed his arms as well. “It’s none of your business!”
“It is my business because you keep following me!”
I love this exchange :D
Emma froze. “Cataclysm...wanted you to make sure I was alright?”
“Well, yeah. If you die he’s probably fucked. He worries about people a lot and I offered to keep an eye on you. He’s only got one, he can only look after so many people at once.”
Emma frowned at him. “That was a mean joke.”
“Yeah, probably, but he jokes about my scar so it’s all good. If you tried that, though, you’d be the one with a scar.”
“Noted.”
This exchange is even better though XD
Don't joke about Kyir's eye unless you're Cataclysm.
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Date: 2016-07-05 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-07-06 01:32 am (UTC)lol
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Date: 2016-07-06 06:44 pm (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-07-07 06:15 am (UTC)lol.
-Scott
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Date: 2016-07-07 08:48 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-07-07 12:30 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-07-07 09:53 pm (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-07-08 09:11 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-07-08 09:18 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: 2016-07-09 01:07 pm (UTC)