Traveling through the desert for not yet fully known last resort recon purposes, Siva and her faithful stalker, Red, cross paths with an unusual stranger. For some reason, Red does not like her one bit, and Siva finds this annoying as she has it in mind to get all three of them safely out of the desert.
EXP Awarded[]
Luciela Argentum - 300 EXP (This introduction of a character was done through intersecting two plots cleverly/coincidentally. The play of the character itself established a perfect pacing for the roleplay itself and it established many details as well as lack of details of the character itself, somewhat ideas for what themes are to come from the character.)
Siva Mako - 300 EXP (The intersection of plots was made highly possible due to Siva's plans and intentions as she traveled through the desert. Every one of her actions in the desert, rescuing Luciela, and showing irritation towards Red was thoroughly explained with character revelations and interesting new quirks.)
Red - 300 EXP (Red is shown in the best light, jealous Red.)
Roleplay[]
A silver haired lightly dressed woman staggers across a number of dunes lining the desert. Her eyebrows are furrowed as she tries to desperately maintain her footing across the loose sand. It ends up for naught however as she curses, taking a tumble all the way down to the bottom of the dune, sand flying up all around her, some of it ending up in her mouth. After a second, she stands up, spitting out the sand as well as shaking out her hair. Chances are that it would require further inspection. But that was the least of her concerns as the deer faunus locked her single red eye on the goal before her. Shade Academy.
In the distance, the harsh sound of a motor could be heard. It was accompanied by a slight disturbance in the sand. If one looked closely enough, one might see a small dune buggy making its way across the desert. The vehicle was weighed down by a few tanks of gasoline, and some other supplies as well. It was apparently packed for a long journey.
In the cab of the buggy was a woman with skin so pale it could very well be counted as gray. She had some odd, almost tribal markings on her face, and was dressed moderately lightly in brown garments with blue and black trim. A metallic device rested on her right hip.
The woman operated the controls of the desert vehicle moderately well, but with an apparent lack of skill as she made her way across the desert. The closest parallel she had was a normal automobile, but those didn't usually go in sand, now, did they? 'i'm starting to wonder if this is worth the trouble,' the woman thought as she wrestled with the buggy's controls to get up a somewhat steeper dune.
Luciela looked over at the vehicle zipping around the dunes, her self directed irritation multiplying. "God if I had half a damn brain something like that would have occurred to me." She berated herself as she continued onward to the capital, her forehead beaded with sweat. She wasn't too concerned. For whatever reason, she knew the sentient flower nestled in where her right eye was would never let her die. Perhaps she'd never learn why, but oh well.
It had been extremely difficult to track Siva's moments and calculate her intentions that day. For the most part, Red has gotten all her plans down in his mind with his ability to see into the future from probability equations alone. Therefore, he saw this event coming and for a few days disappeared from sight entirely from Siva so she wouldn't detect his presence as he sunk into with the gear of the automobile he knew she'd have ready for this. Although during his disappearance he was a little sad not be be closely directly following his target, he already knew where she would be at any point due to his ability to calculate her next step basically out of computation skills, so all he had to do was plug in the numbers and know exactly where she is at any point in time. As if he had a tracking device on her, but it was alllll numbers xp
Red felt a little nauseous if he was going to be completely honest. He knew what this trip would entail and he knew it would hardly be tolerable since he couldn't stand the heat being from the utmost northern region of Atlas himself and where he was previously situated was hidden in one the more harsher colder and stormy regions. Therefore the heat and movement was simply very nauseating and also considering he has not fully healed from his recent electrocution, his physical body was somewhat weak to the point where he was fighting to pass out by calculating more numbers in his head.
June, his trustworthy AI picked up on another presence close by and made an alert noise. He quickly scrambled to shut June off before Siva would notice.
The gray-skinned woman took a drink from a water bottle sitting on the floor of the vehicle as she finally reached the top of the sand dune. She took her foot off the gas and braked when she was sure the buggy was stable, and put it in park to take a moment to observe her surroundings. As usual, nothing but sand, sand, and more sand, far as the eye could see. The only thing that stood out against the endless sea of brown was Vacuo, which from here was naught more than a speck. Well, Vacuo and the humanoid figure she saw out the corner of her eye...wait, what?!
The woman turned to see the figure better, then used her electricity-based telekinesis to scan the surroundings, putting more effort into the outer edges. There was some interference from the sand, but nonetheless, it was a humanoid, and they seemed to be struggling. The woman, not being without morals and knowing this individual would likely not make it to the capital before running out of supplies, put the buggy back in drive and made a sharp turn in the direction of the humanoid. She was grateful she'd brought so much extra gas.
Luciela wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, for what little good it did. She really had not thought this through too well. Her mouth was so dry a scorpion could have nested in it. Her energy was ebbing as she flopped over again, not at all by accident this time around. "This heat...makes me actually miss Atlas…”
Near passing out himself, he felt the shift in Siva's original course and cursed slightly to himself. This was exactly why he didn't like Siva interacting with anyone she wouldn't normally. It through off his very defined calculations with some unpredictability he didn't like. Not that Siva normally interacted with anyone but... It still irritated him!
Red begrudgingly redid his calculations in his head to accommodate to this new figure, a woman and a faunus he predicted and definitely a foreigner to trek out like this without a care or thought to the environment.
Usually he'd jump for joy for new data to compute, but for some odd reason he had grown attached to the simple relationship he had with Siva. Not that it was a relationship, but keeping a stability had somehow became important to him which is why he got threatened (not jealous!!!) when those two ram girl faunuses got in the way of her. If Red wasn't going to allow himself to get in Siva's way, he wasn't going to let anyone else either!
...
He threw up in the vehicle.
The woman thought she heard an awful noise over the buggy's engine, but dismissed it; she knew the desert could do things to a person. She was getting close to the individual; now she could make out some feminine features, as well as what looked like a pair of horns on her head.
'Hope she's more amiable than that ram I tried talking to,' the woman thought. If things went similarly to that meeting, the rest of the venture in the dunes would be even less pleasant, which would be a bit of a feat.
As she approached the female, she called out, in a somewhat raspy voice: "HEY!"
Luciela raised a hand feebly, remaining otherwise unmoving, managing to muster up the most sad sounding hey in response.
Groaning, Red got even sicker, wrenching even further to the point where all the numbers seemed jumbled as he desperately tried to concentrate on only how much longer to the faunus figure and how much longer his sickness would last. Physically he knew he would pass out, but for some reason was able to hold on. As the vehicle stopped, he was able to calm down significantly.
The smell wasn't horrific but it'd be embarrassing.. when he was found. Nothing to really do about it. He sighed, there was no way around it, he took off his jacket then shirt and carefully tied it into a knot to keep the mess in and not affecting his appearance.
Now that the mess was gone, there was no way to get around his embarrassment over his chest size... or lack of it which was notable due to his small-size accommodating undergarments. This was the exact reason why he was always confused for a tomboy girl whenever anyone would unsuccessfully approach him even though he was trying to only be comfortable. It felt awkward but there was no way around getting caught and he needed less suffocation and oxygen despite it being dry.
Trying to at least somewhat remain hidden, he hoped that Siva would be too busy to notice him nimbly try and jump over to the side of the vehicle outside it.
Instead he landed in front of Siva and the deer woman. Wow... he really was light-headed from the heat.
...
Freezing slightly, he instead gave a familiar by now wave to Siva accompanied by a goofy smile.
The woman heard the awful noise again, louder this time. She knew by now that there must have been something else at play here. For now, though, she focused on the girl, who looked very weak. The woman exited the vehicle and walked to her side. "Don't tell me you tried to cross the desert with that few supplies," she said. "Do you WANT a slow and painful death?"
Her sense of smell, which was above average due to her shark DNA, then picked up something awful. She'd smelled it in the dirtiest of bars, and it was always unmistakable: the smell of vomit. And unfortunately, it was coming from the back of her buggy. She turned to the vehicle, and saw that same red-clad figure who'd been following her all over sticking out of the trunk, giving her a goofy wave. The figure was also shirtless, revealing small breasts. Perhaps most noteworthy, however, were the odd, tree-like scars crisscrossing the figure's skin. 'Must be from the night we met,' she thought. The woman couldn't help but facepalm at the sight of the shirtless individual. She muttered a curse into her hand.
"Body fluid clean-up kit," she called to the figure. "It's back there somewhere." In reality, it was just sawdust and some disinfectant spray, but it worked wonders for this sort of situation. The woman turned back to the girl and said, "Stay with me now. I'll let you hitch a ride to the city with me. I'm done out here anyway. Might not be comfortable, but it beats walking."
"I thought I could make it across the desert quicker, I guess I wasn't very smart about this." Luciela slowly rises, her eye was hazy, and she was shaking ever so slightly.
Red was smiling wide, it looked like had the cloud 9 face since he seemed to be rather happy about something, which considering the blazing desert climate could have only been about his target, Siva, or more promiscuously, him being shirtless around her. So, the expression looked goofily inappropriate in an obnoxious way.
Actually, Red was smiling becauae he finally finished putting the numbers through in his head and had mentally calculated very important details about Siva due to a couple of her reactions. While any information was essential, this in particular was definitely a key element into unlocking her identity. You go, Red!
Also the heat caused him to feel very fast as if he were to instantly pass out.
So, the smile and giddy happy light headed look definitely seemed like it looked like... he was implying a couple things~ but he was too lightheaded to think much about other than numbers.
Otherwise he'd be a little more alert about this horned faunus with the odd appearance.
Actually.... Red slightly snapped out of it to get a better look at the unique woman and his eyes widened, obviously in the fact that he was instantly able to compute who this was and nearly ever single piece of data discoverable about her.
Not thinking too straight, Red took a very drastic measure and stupidly so as well. He grabbes Siva's arm and tried to guide her back to the vehicle to abandon the woman "explain not. To drive." His speech disorder caused it to be difficult to verbally convey his preoccupations but he was still trying to get her to leave through physical action.
"Thinking of leaving me stranded huh?" Luciela fixed the individual with a steely one eyed glare. Despite the broken English, the faunus understood the person's intent all too well. "You can try that of course. But just know. I am very very persistent, and I can say that certain demons will most definitely come back to bite you."
She was breathing heavily from the heat, but she still remained standing upright. It seemed as if she was driven by a supernatural force. One that only she was privy to.
The woman was puzzled by her stalker's reaction. She'd thought that they would be at least somewhat compassionate, but this didn't seem to be the case. Her expression showed her confusion. She pulled her arm out of the figure's grasp and said, "Contrary to popular belief, I have my morals. And leaving her out here to die goes against them."
She walked back over to the girl and, physically supporting her, led her back to the buggy. "Come on," the woman said. "Let's get you taken care of. Don't worry; I've got more than enough for everyone." While some might certainly believe the woman was out of her mind to do such a thing, she was truthfully perfectly sane; she just thought leaving someone to die alone in the desert wasn't the best thing to do.
The woman, having some knowledge on psychology and biology, knew that she should try to keep the girl awake. Based on what she'd heard, conversation seemed to work most of the time. "So. You have a name?" she asked.
"My name is Luciela Argentum, of Atlas." She replied quietly. At least someone had a sense of compassion. Luciela practically melted into the seat, her one eye taking on an unfocused quality as she retreated deep into her own thoughts. Her aim was to make it to Shade to begin the next chapter of her story. No longer would she just be the child of two military researchers. She would carve out her own identity.
He should have honestly known that Siva would object and he would have almost been ready for it if it weren't for the heat sickness!!!!!!!
But this...... this.... THIS WAS NOT TOLERABLE.
BUT RED YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO KNOW HOW TO ACCOMMODATE FOR ANY VARIABLE THAT IS TO BE THROWN IN. BUT RED YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO KNOW SIVA BETTER THAN THIS. BUT RED WHY HAVEN'T YOU GOTTEN ANY ATTENTION FOR ALL YOUR CAREFUL WORK. BUT RED YOUR SEMBLANCE CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH WITH ALL THE WORK. BUT RED YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO WORK LIKE A SUPER COMPUTER. BUT RED YOU ARE STILL HUMAN. BUT RED, THERE IS ALSO JUNE, ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU PROGRAMMED HER FOR, TO HELP FILL IN SOME GAPS?!!!!
Seething beyond belief, he dropped all consideration to Siva and merely felt jealous that she was receiving attention for doing nothing but being an "idiot" when he was being one of the smartest people in the world and hadn't gotten attention!!!!!!!!! Mind cloudy, he activated Sylph his magnetic guns partially just enough to be annoying and noticeable and also meanwhile was wedging himself a little too close between the two as he had joined them of course refusing to be left behind or put in the back despite his previous patience. All he ever had was patience.
Blatantly rolling his eyes at Luciela's introduction, he murmured something softly to himself though it was only numbers it sounded like a cursed growl. This was because he felt only insulted by this girl and everything she said and was calculatedly (by some equations based) probably feeling/thinking. It was annoying to be told what he already knew by someone like this. His face was as red as he was Red.
The woman's expression became one of mild irritation, though it concealed the majority of her current mood. In reality, she was somewhat disgusted with her stalker. Were they THAT self-centered?! Without so much as a gesture, she used her Semblance to cancel out the electricity powering the guns, thereby neutralizing the threat they represented. She then used her Semblance to move the figure out from the intruding position. "You'll get yours soon enough," she said to the figure in a low growl.
For the moment, the woman focused on the girl, who had revealed her name to be Luciela. She hesitated for a moment before saying anything else. "Siva," she said quietly. She immediately cursed herself inwardly. Why had she just revealed her name to a total stranger?! That was practically suicidal in her line of work! Was she that desperate for a friend?!
Oh well. Too late now. "Let's get you some water," Siva said. She reached into her supplies and pulled out a canteen, which was filled with the life-giving liquid, and handed it to Luciela. "Take it slow now," she said. "Go too fast, and it could hurt more than help."
Siva then went back to her supplies and, after a moment, pulled out a bottle of pills to help the red-clad figure's stomach. "Here," she said, sounding somewhat bitter as she threw the bottle to the figure. "Take two of these. Should keep you from making even more of a mess. And I still expect you to clean up after yourself." While she was grateful of what they'd done earlier, she was currently feeling annoyed at them. 'I still don't know their name,' she thought. "What do I call you, anyway?" Siva asked the red-clad figure. "If you don't tell me, I'll make up a name for you, and I can't guarantee you'll like it."
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Ah.
He was going to get more riled up from Siva's actions to neutralize his weapon and about to do even worse before.......
Red sighed.
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It wasn't that he heard the whisper, heard her say her name. The noise of the wind and softness of the whisper made this impossible........
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MARETU ft. 初音ミク "Disillusioned" うみたがり (English Subtitles)
This song DEFINITELY depicts Red's feelings on Siva. Red himself is Japanese and has a speech disorder. This song is written in Japanese but sounds like gibberish to most native speakers because it relies on the feeling of the words rather than the way they connect. Although a little harder to follow the translation, I think you can get a feel of what Red feels about Siva in it :3
At the end of the night they had met, Red knew her name.
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At the meeting with the faunus girls and all his little tricks without ever glancing at any documentation on her, Red knew her name even more.
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At the endearing moment in the bar, Red knew her name more than before as well.
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At the moment when he was in the buggy and when Siva's reactions with finding him confirmed many previous known facts for him based on computation, Red knew her name to its entirety.
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But..... it was all theoretical still. Numbers always were theoretical... He had this whole time failed to notice the importance of the confirmation. He could "know" everything in the world there is to ever know about Siva Mako, but he would never KNOW until it was confirmed in the actual by her.
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He had taken their relationship as comfortably slow as possible, giving the perfect amount of space, giving the perfect amount of closeness, doing everything right out of pure consideration for her.
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What did that work even mean if it meant not being able to see her express her emotions directly with him, and others experience it more and that his companionship could not match the actions of others who Siva could actually get close to when he took actions to simply make it comfortable. Siva did not ask him for help, she asked a ram-faunus. Siva did not tell him her name vocally, she told Luciela... And it happened right in front of him....
.....
Putting a hand to his face so that he would stop expressing his hurt so much, he let the bottle of pills hit him, not really processing it quite yet. About to lean over to pick it up to alleviate the physical illness, he flinched slightly at hearing Siva speak to him after she had given a little bit of care to the woman he expressed blatant distrust for.
With a slight pause, he somehow did answer, his voice sounding for once clear as if he could speak normally and his voice sounded less segmented and more fluid showing that it was indeed something pleasant to listen to if he would only be able to use it more often. Although it got slightly muffled by the vehicle sounds and wind, a simple "Red" was heard.
This was because he could speak fluently when his semblance shut off.
As Luciela idly downed the water bit by bit, she could slowly feel her faculties returning. Her mental acuity had returned and her limbs started to feel like their normal weight. No longer did her head feel like it was going to split nor her stomach staging a full scale rebellion to use a turn of phrase. She looked at Siva out of the corner of her eye, and simply responded with a "Thank you." She was still going to hold these individuals at an arms length until she understood all the angles. But she had a good feeling about Siva at least, for she had stopped to help Luciela when it mattered most.
Siva was somewhat shocked that she'd gotten an answer to her question. "Well, thank you for telling me Red," she replied. She turned to Luciela gave her a curt "You're welcome" before turning her attention to the desert around them. She briefly noticed that something sounded wrong with Red, but her more immediate concern was on survival; the three of them, isolated in the middle of the sands as they were made for a rather large, appetizing target for not only Grimm, but humans as well.
She briefly ran some numbers in her head. She'd packed a lot of supplies, sure, but between the three of them they'd go by pretty quickly. She turned back to the buggy and began looking for something. "Where's that map," she muttered. She needed to get them to the nearest settlement, and fast. "Are you capable of fighting?" she asked Luciela and Red, though between the physical ailments of both she doubted it.
"I think I have energy in me now that I can fight at least." Using her semblance at this current juncture would be risky, but no one but her needed to know that. "Do you expect there to be some trouble?" Luciela asked, raising an eyebrow.
Red nodded when he heard the response back to him. Still miserable at no longer being able to predict or measure for anything, he resolved by straining to listen to both Siva and Luciela rather than simply knowing based on an equation of some sort of probability vision then just hardly listening for the confirmation.
Therefore he heard Siva's slight mutter and pulled up the map instantly for her since even though he couldn't calculate anything, he already had the information of where her things were from stalking.
After waiting for Luciela to finish speaking, he opened his mouth again, dysphoric about the feeling of speaking but yet still saying, "I am capable of fighting. Currently my semblance which is probability vision or sight in numbers is not functioning and will probably not reactivate for some time. But, I have basic strength with my electromagnetic gun, Sylph. Probably not as near as past uses you've seen. I'm less sick also and can endure a decent amount more, I believe," he said honesty but tried to be neutral. His voice tone showed he was upset anyway. He then turned to Luciela, "I expected trouble," he said, but purposefully keeping it vague.
Siva took the map from Red, giving a brief "Thank you" in return. She took a compass from her pocket and began plotting their course. "Yes, I do expect trouble, especially with three of us in the middle of the desert," she said. "We make an appetizing target, and it's much easier to stay alive if the two of you can defend at least somewhat."
With their course plotted, Siva turned to Luciela and Red. "There's only one seat, of course, and I'll be using it for driving. There should be enough hand- and footholds for the two of you to hold on as we go; I'll do my best to go smoothly but I can't make any promises. We need to move soon, so I suggest you get yourselves sorted before some Grimm decide we'd make a good snack." Her tone was one of urgency, and understandably so; it wasn't just Grimm she was worried about.
Red slightly rolled his eyes, "I already knew this," he said in a bitter attitude. Then he decided to try and be more helpful, "Precautions may not be necessary. June has a small range but may be able to help in detecting some unnecessary enemies out here. Not as good at computing as I usually would he but June can at least give me or us a part of my semblance back," he said, a little calmer and his voice soft sounding and sincere.
"Well alright then," Siva said as she set her map on the buggy's dash, with her compass next to it. She sat down in the cab and strapped in. "Red, get that set up. It'll allow me to focus more on driving this thing. We don't want you two falling off."
She checked her course once again. "We won't be able to get to Vacuo straight away," she said. "We'll need to stop for supplies first. Don't worry, I'll take care of that. But either way, we need to move NOW."
Red quickly got June to work and rapidly updated everyone, "Looks like we won't be avoiding any attacks unfortunately. There is a monstrous collision of several different types of Grimm in an northeasterly intersection 50 miles ahead approximately but we can avoid the worst of it by taking a west direction for 170 miles then turning until we meet a diagonal path to Vacuo. Of course, this will take an extra 5 hours of normal driving time then going back around even more time before finally able to get back on track towards Vacuo. Our supplies may not last us that long but fuel will if we accelerate very slowly and not stop the vehicle under any circumstances, you hear me, Siva? That way its certain we will make it with fuel. But driving slower will add 3/4th of the time it'll normally take to Vacuo after adding the half day trek to go around the monster collision. Again. It's a problem of supplies or meeting up with a swarm. Though we will technically survive some time after we exhaust those supplies, probably 2 days at the very most. Exhaustion will render us unable to defend ourselves from Grimm attack even if its not as bad as the collision 50 miles ahead in the way of us and Vacuo." He said this honestly. He may not be a supercomputer anymore. But he was still far beyond human intelligence in terms of intellect. Also, he knew Siva had told Luciela her name anyway which is why he said it even though it was never stated to him. He swallowed bitterness at that thought.
Luciela had zoned out Red's ramblings, save for the numbers. The rest of the details were either irrelevant or exceedingly obvious. As such, she was far more focused in the potentiality of a Grimm attack. She had to bring her A game, which meant zoning out all potential distractions. She'd have to act on instinct.
It was practically no question for Siva. She was working on a limited time frame, and she'd prepared for Grimm attacks. Luckily, she hadn't needed to use any of her supplies yet. "I'll take my chances with the swarm," she said. "I've had my fair share of fights. What's one more?" She double-checked her course and made sure everything was secure. "If there's nothing else," she said, "it's time to go."
"Think that might be best.'' Luciela had her sword drawn just to be on the safe side. The omnipresent creatures of Grimm were unpredictable to say the least, so she was keeping her guard up. And, obviously, keeping a cool head. She had had quite a few brushes with death prior to now. It had all started to run together for her where it had begun, and where it ended. All the same, dwelling on the past did no good.
Red shook his head, "There is no way to judge what is the best decision. I normally can judge it very well, but without my semblance there is just no way to tell what is the best course of action to take," he said with certainty in regards to Luciela but then turned to Siva, "But you know I will follow you anyway."
Screenshots[]
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