((OOC: Backdated to the same evening as this post; therefore, before this post.))
Sofia. Are you there?
[Alex's voice is a monotone; it's the flat, resigned dread of someone preparing to go into battle, driven only by a reluctance to admit that the odds are hopeless.]
[He hasn't lowered his hand, and though he's talking to her, his eyes are fixed on the plantsicle. He steps forwards, reaches down, pushes against one of the leaves - it snaps in two.]
Oh wow.
[Alex's face, his voice, his whole posture show a marked change from the dead demeanour he was putting across earlier. His shoulders are straight, his body occasionally twinging with odd pains that feel like the snap of electricity, more like a trophy than a drawback. His expression is focused, and more than a little awed. When he speaks, it's not the monotone of a condemned prisoner; it shudders with life. He can do this. He really feels like he can do this.]
...I wouldn't have minded living where you come from.
[Non-committal smile aaaand that's as much as she can say without launching into a long-winded speech littered with quotes from her own book. But no, no, now's not the right time, so let's just move on to some basic maintenance routine.]
Now, the derivative of ADAM used to fuel this little trick is called EVE. You use EVE whenever you use your ability, so you will need to-
[Three slightly smaller injectors filled with a blue liquid are quickly produced from the cupboard and put on Alex's desk.]
-replenish your supply eventually. Coffee and cigarettes will provide the same effect, although to a lesser degree.
If you wish to practice your aim I can leave you more, but for defence this amount should suffice perfectly for now.
[ACTION] Oh, please. I've seen you with those buckets of Kentucky Fried Chums.
[...Alex's future looks as full of needles as a hedgehog is of spines. He's not sure how he feels about that. He's not getting any cravings yet, but he guesses they'll kick in sooner or later, a lot like the coffee ones do around 3am. Whatever, he can handle that.
It's worth it. He actually feels confidence, like he's gotten a second wind. Glancing from the EVE hypos to Lamb:]
I can grab them out the closet myself, can't I?
[His eyes are dragged back to his hands. He can't help fiddling with them. Like a kid playing with his new braces, he keeps running his thumb along the protruding shards of ice, feeling his skin stick to them, the cold coming off them in waves. The frosty skin around them is tender and a little swollen.]
...Hope it doesn't hurt as much the second time.
[ACTION] THOSE WERE ONLY FRIEND-SHAPED VEGGIE STICKS, I SWEAR!
I heard it gives people trouble when they request items they had no knowledge of prior to their arrival in Wonderland, but perhaps that is just a rumour. If it works, please, do help yourself.
[She hopes it doesn't She'd like to keep an eye on his intake for now.]
[No, wait, he can't open closet doors with his hands like this. For a nasty moment, he realises that he doesn't even know if he can get rid of the icicles. They came out of his hand, so he focuses on pulling them back inside, putting the power away - and they oblige, snapping back into his hand with a bone-deep ache and a noise like a sword being drawn.
He shakes his hands out. The frost is gone too - they're back to normal. Only pinpricks of white remain on his skin to show where the ice stabbed out and withdrew.]
Wow.
[He heads to the wardrobe and pulls it open, reaches inside - and pulls out a thin, modern hypodermic syringe, full of something dull and blue that clearly isn't EVE.]
...Oh.
[ACTION] OF COURSE YOU'D SAY THAT, PLANT MURDERER!!
[This narration doesn't like the way that narration is laughing. 8|]
Doc who?
[He takes the EVE, nodding slowly, and dumps the other syringe into the bin with a sense of faint annoyance that he couldn't pull the right thing out. He knows Sofia means well and all, but he's not amazingly keen to be reliant on any one person.
At least he's got a buffer supply and a bit of a backup plan.]
...Yeah.
Am I watching the EVE too, or is it just the ADAM I need to regulate?
Yeah. [He only hesitates slightly before saying it, because there are a couple people who aren't bad but whom he doesn't relish the idea of sticking together with. But hey, the sentiment makes sense, theoretically.
And he's pretty glad that she's still talking about them sticking together, even after that one incident that he still feels bad about.
Then he asks, as it suddenly occurs to him:] Wait, what's with the Bible names?
[You're not a very sociable narration, are you? While you answer that, have Lamb shrug non-committally. She can't imagine why that would be an important, after all they're just]
Brand names, hardly extraordinary, although fitting for a city thought of as Paradise.
[Eh, he was just curious. Thought it seemed a bit random to name superpower drugs after the first humans. Or - maybe not random, but subtle.]
Fair enough.
[He chnks the ice out again, just out of his right hand this time, just to see if he can do it one-handed. It's delightfully easy, just like flexing a muscle he never had before; but he does hiss sharply at the not-wholly-dulled pain of the damn things stabbing out.]
What was it like?
[He looks at Sofia curiously, fiddling with the ice again with his left thumb.]
[Wet? No, Lamb supposes it's about time she coughs up something more substantial. Well, slightly more substantial at least.]
Rapture was a city built at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. It was one man's vision of Paradise, a metropolis with no Gods or Kings.
[She is of course quoting those last words, but there is an audible hint of mockery and disdain in her voice... which quickly fades and turns into melancholy.]
It had such genius, such... potential.
[ACTION] where doin this bro. where makin this hapen.
Oh, hardly anything unusual. [There's that bitterness again.] Greed. Poverty. War. The city's potential was endless, yet everybody sought to harvest it all for himself alone... and so Rapture fell.
[It gets better after the fall, but if she started explaining that she might also have to mention how she failed and ended up dying, and isn't it nicer to end the narrative on a more cheerful note?]
I suppose it takes looking past all that to see that the city was brilliant. Science, art, everything taken to heights nobody had ever seen on the surface.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
[ACTION] CHEER UP! THINK OF THE PLANT ICE-CREAM!
[He hasn't lowered his hand, and though he's talking to her, his eyes are fixed on the plantsicle. He steps forwards, reaches down, pushes against one of the leaves - it snaps in two.]
Oh wow.
[Alex's face, his voice, his whole posture show a marked change from the dead demeanour he was putting across earlier. His shoulders are straight, his body occasionally twinging with odd pains that feel like the snap of electricity, more like a trophy than a drawback. His expression is focused, and more than a little awed. When he speaks, it's not the monotone of a condemned prisoner; it shudders with life. He can do this. He really feels like he can do this.]
...I wouldn't have minded living where you come from.
[ACTION] I WON'T EAT MY BEST FRIEND! NOT AGAIN!
[Non-committal smile aaaand that's as much as she can say without launching into a long-winded speech littered with quotes from her own book. But no, no, now's not the right time, so let's just move on to some basic maintenance routine.]
Now, the derivative of ADAM used to fuel this little trick is called EVE. You use EVE whenever you use your ability, so you will need to-
[Three slightly smaller injectors filled with a blue liquid are quickly produced from the cupboard and put on Alex's desk.]
-replenish your supply eventually. Coffee and cigarettes will provide the same effect, although to a lesser degree.
If you wish to practice your aim I can leave you more, but for defence this amount should suffice perfectly for now.
[ACTION] Oh, please. I've seen you with those buckets of Kentucky Fried Chums.
It's worth it. He actually feels confidence, like he's gotten a second wind. Glancing from the EVE hypos to Lamb:]
I can grab them out the closet myself, can't I?
[His eyes are dragged back to his hands. He can't help fiddling with them. Like a kid playing with his new braces, he keeps running his thumb along the protruding shards of ice, feeling his skin stick to them, the cold coming off them in waves. The frosty skin around them is tender and a little swollen.]
...Hope it doesn't hurt as much the second time.
[ACTION] THOSE WERE ONLY FRIEND-SHAPED VEGGIE STICKS, I SWEAR!
[~SMILE~]
I heard it gives people trouble when they request items they had no knowledge of prior to their arrival in Wonderland, but perhaps that is just a rumour. If it works, please, do help yourself.
[She hopes it doesn't She'd like to keep an eye on his intake for now.]
[ACTION] VEGGIE STICKS DON'T SCREAM LIKE THAT.
[No, wait, he can't open closet doors with his hands like this. For a nasty moment, he realises that he doesn't even know if he can get rid of the icicles. They came out of his hand, so he focuses on pulling them back inside, putting the power away - and they oblige, snapping back into his hand with a bone-deep ache and a noise like a sword being drawn.
He shakes his hands out. The frost is gone too - they're back to normal. Only pinpricks of white remain on his skin to show where the ice stabbed out and withdrew.]
Wow.
[He heads to the wardrobe and pulls it open, reaches inside - and pulls out a thin, modern hypodermic syringe, full of something dull and blue that clearly isn't EVE.]
...Oh.
[ACTION] OF COURSE YOU'D SAY THAT, PLANT MURDERER!!
No. No, that may pass inspection in Doc Hollcroft's product line, but I cannot recommend it to you with good conscience.
[*internal victory pose*]
If you are interested I believe the vendors behind the mansion offer a broader selection than your furniture, but-
*external pulling out of another ~GENUINE EVE INJECTOR~ and handing it to Alex with a smile*]
-why purchase what you can have for free?
[ACTION] STOP TRYING TO PASS THE BLAME!
Doc who?
[He takes the EVE, nodding slowly, and dumps the other syringe into the bin with a sense of faint annoyance that he couldn't pull the right thing out. He knows Sofia means well and all, but he's not amazingly keen to be reliant on any one person.
At least he's got a buffer supply and a bit of a backup plan.]
...Yeah.
Am I watching the EVE too, or is it just the ADAM I need to regulate?
[ACTION] NEVER! *POINTS FINGER OF BLAME AT YOU*
EVE is a processed form of ADAM. Its concentration is much lower, but you would be wise to make do with as little as possible.
[ACTION] ...I read that as "nevar". I've been internetting too hard. :(
[He won't be able to spam attacks, then. Better get a tennis ball and start working on his aim.
He looks at Lamb with undisguised gratitude.]
You might've saved my ass, you know.
[ACTION] 01010010010011110100011001001100010000110100111101010000010101000100010101010010
Wonderland is a challenge of its own. The people here at least should stick together.
[The good people at least, you know, the ones like us who don't go around assaulting other people.]
[ACTION] 001110110101111100111011
Yeah. [He only hesitates slightly before saying it, because there are a couple people who aren't bad but whom he doesn't relish the idea of sticking together with. But hey, the sentiment makes sense, theoretically.
And he's pretty glad that she's still talking about them sticking together, even after that one incident that he still feels bad about.
Then he asks, as it suddenly occurs to him:] Wait, what's with the Bible names?
[ACTION] 001010100110010001100101011100100111000000101010
Brand names, hardly extraordinary, although fitting for a city thought of as Paradise.
[ACTION] 0100100001110101011100100111001000101110
Fair enough.
[He chnks the ice out again, just out of his right hand this time, just to see if he can do it one-handed. It's delightfully easy, just like flexing a muscle he never had before; but he does hiss sharply at the not-wholly-dulled pain of the damn things stabbing out.]
What was it like?
[He looks at Sofia curiously, fiddling with the ice again with his left thumb.]
Where you come from? It sounds pretty awesome.
[ACTION] 010001000111010101110010011100100111001001110010
Rapture was a city built at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. It was one man's vision of Paradise, a metropolis with no Gods or Kings.
[She is of course quoting those last words, but there is an audible hint of mockery and disdain in her voice... which quickly fades and turns into melancholy.]
It had such genius, such... potential.
[ACTION] where doin this bro. where makin this hapen.
What happened?
[ACTION] I have no more subject line to spare.
[It gets better after the fall, but if she started explaining that she might also have to mention how she failed and ended up dying, and isn't it nicer to end the narrative on a more cheerful note?]
I suppose it takes looking past all that to see that the city was brilliant. Science, art, everything taken to heights nobody had ever seen on the surface.