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 Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 4:26 pm
She would touch his chest, and it would be soft, real, not a machine. As were at least most of his right leg and the whole of his left leg. Bits and pieces here and there would seem machine-like, but he was still mostly human.
"She'll take a second to get to speed, but once she does, she'll fly fast. Remember, when we go up, tuck down," he grinned back to her, then faced forward.
The bike lurched forward for a moment, then steadily began to pick up speed- almost like a rollercoaster getting up a hill and to speed- but when it did, it was obvious that this hulking machinery could get up to some decent speeds. With what little of the city he had seen, he figured the ground zero of this to be opposite of where that whistling had been coming fr-
He realized the whistling had stopped before they went, but it didn't quite register with much impact until he had thought about it. Quinn could kick himself.
"Did you notice that whistling sound, and that it stopped?" he called back, slowing the machine down.
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Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:52 am
Her fingers sunk into flesh, and parts of metal. He was a mix of the two. Keira had met one person that had his fleshy part exchanged for electronic, and robotic parts. Being human in battle wasn't enough to keep up with the sorts of things that hung out in places like this city.
Keira was looking for a collar that would allow her to achieve that higher state of mental being that would push her over the edge of transition. She both loathed herself, and enjoyed the freedom that she felt being separated from the pack. But it super sucked being lonely. She could tolerate a lot more than her brethren, since she was the runt of the litter. Stunted growth, and development.
The alpha had told her that the longer she survived, the more that she would adapt to the world around her. Genetically. She didn't feel any different, but she reasoned that it was because the changes were gradual. As with all living things, you really didn't know what you were capable of until your survival was put to the test.
She clung to him easily enough, still afraid that she would break him despite his additional metal parts. She flicked an ear back and forth to listen for the whistling sound that had been a constant irritant a few moments ago.
"It's stopped. Any way to find out where it was coming from?" she asked.
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Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:36 am
"Well," he began, cut off by a loud roar from the engine momentarily.
"WELL." he paused for a moment, then continued when there was no sound. "Your ears are better than mine, no doubt!"
He motioned for her to hang on tight, then hesitated before swerving around hard, coming to a stop for a brief second, the bike nearly toppled over on it's side. As the engine roared, as if wounded or stung by something very annoying, it defiantly charged in the opposite direction, getting up to speed much faster.
"I know the direction, if you can focus on remembering the sound we may be able to pin point exactly where it was, right?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:18 pm
The engine roared, bringing into question whether or not it was an extension of himself, or was indeed a machine. Or maybe a separate sentient entity. Keira eyed it speculatively.
She caught the warning to hang onto him, which she obliged him with. She wanted very much to stay intact for as long as possible. She could heal and regrow parts of herself, but it was a painful process.
Keira tapped him twice on the shoulder, and pointed in the direction that all the ghouls had been going towards.
"There!! It was in that direction." she yelled, loud enough to be heard over the roar of the engine.
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Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:13 pm
Rubbing the side of the vehicle almost soothingly, as a parent coddling their child, there would be some truth to what she said. He had created Betsy from scratch. In the void left by his own children and his ex-wife being gone, he had turned to his inventing. In point of fact, Betsy's engine was the inspiration for his left hand, perhaps the most innovative piece of machinery he had ever created.
His hand was biomechanical, after all. And while the engine in Betsy was a somewhat gas powered engine with some modifications and other things, the design of the electronics and all of the pipes and hoses and everything was modeled after a biological creature. It was meticulous, ornate, beautiful to behold when she was opened up. And while she couldn't think, she sure had a mind of her own.
She was his baby, his child, one that he could repair and fix when they were hurt, one that he could take with him wherever he went, one that never had to die...never had to leave him.
Quinn lifted his hand up to rev the engine again, and the bike jutted forward in the direction she had mentioned. Swerving through buildings and over rubble and around mauled skeletal remains, spots of ash where a facade of a human shadow could be seen incinerated in place, in time, a reminder of the savagery of Consciousness- not just Humanity, who could be so cruel themselves, but of all beings that were made of flesh and bone and could judge and believe in things.
He realized for a moment a small pattern in the formation of the ghouls now.
"They were in a semicircle, a crescent shape..." he paused, biting his lip in thought for a moment.
"No, not a crescent, but almost. It's almost like they were marching towards a point, which is why so many of the side streets were clear... a bit haphazard of a march, but that's why I didn't notice it at the time." Quinn sighed, this was getting eerie. "We should find the source they were half-marching towards. I have a feeling that's where we'll find where the source was," he said, then turned his head towards her. He spoke a tad ominously, out of necessity.
"I'm getting a wee worried, lass."
(we have some disparate scheduling going on here, haha.)
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Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 3:22 pm
Did his left hand know what his right hand was doing? Keira had heard that expression in larger groups to depict the structure of power in a 'civilized' setting. Honestly, she felt that it would be much better if they were part of a pack. At least that way a decision would be made with little to no fuss involved in the decision making process.
Red tape. A politician's play ground, an honest man's thorn in his side, and to Keira it was something that was outside of the boundaries of the world that she lived in. But it was an integral part of this world. Don't talk to that person, this person will get upset. Don't do anything with that person, these people will take offense. Too many rules that everyone seemed to already know, that she ran a foul of due to her lack of experience.
Quinn's attachment to his motorcycle transcended logic. This vehicle was a substitution for something that was missing in his life. She could understand being attached to something that would never die, or leave you. She had thought that the perfect companion for her would be mechanical in nature. No emotions fluttering around to muck things up.
Clear cut lines.
"I'm getting a wee worried, lass."
Keira felt a moment of anxiety. A hand went to her stomach, and she was sure that it hadn't been making obnoxious noises. She frowned slightly. Was he worried that she was going to eat him?
"I'm not going to eat you." she said, wanting to clear that bit of worry out of the way off the bat. There was enough around them in the form of mystery to suss out without his being anxious over her eating habits.
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Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 3:27 pm
Quinn let out a loud laugh, not sure if she was making a joke or if she was actually serious. After a moment of pause, he glanced behind himself to her, "No, no, I mean with the present situation, ghouls and what not."
The stupid grin returned to his face, glad for having had the chance to laugh after this little excursion into town. He had been constantly on edge, taking caution with everything he did, despite his sometimes goofiness-- this time, it was full on laughter, not some vain substitution for the real thing to try and ease his mind.
"I'm afraid if you try to eat me now, it might not end well for ye, considering the speed we're going'n'all."
They were approaching where she directed him to go.
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Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:55 pm
Keira thought that for a human he was rather pleasant. The only other humans that she had encountered were bent on removing her head. Not much to go on with regards to generalizing to the rest of the species.
She looked too deeply into things.
She nodded to his assumption that it was not in her best interest to eat him while they were traveling so fast. She knew that she would survive the fall, but it would hurt like hell. She had fallen off a very tall building. She was told that these buildings scraped the sky. They did come to points.
Why would they scrape the sky? Was it alive too, and had an itchy spot that needed to be placated.. or else? That was a sound reasoning. She would ask Quinn about that sometime.
If they lived that long.
She held onto Quinn tighter, in case he wanted to dump her off the bike. She could see the ash falling around them in slow motion. A morbid rainfall of the remains of things that had been destroyed. She found that idea to be sad.
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Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 6:55 pm
He would have to check himself for throat and lung cancer when he got home. This mess was a serious damper on any breathing he was doing, but what could one do but grin and bear it?
As they approached, they would get closer to more ghouls, and he would slow down a little to be ready for anything. Most ignored them, some couldn't keep up. But there always was the chance for a surprisingly swift dead creature.
"Feh, zombies! Aye, they're a mess," he spoke to himself. Reaching down, he attached a rifle to himself via a small rope, checked his other supplies, and satisfied he was fully armed in case of surprise, he held on to the bars again.
((We'll probably need to get The Hanging Man after your next post since I'm not sure what exactly we would encounter.))
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Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:06 pm
Keira had seen the mindless masses before. Usually the sight of fresh meat would perk them up, and send them running. But this group seemed distracted, the attempts to chase them half hearted.
If they decided to turn on them as one, then things would get interesting.
"Is it ghouls that bite you, and turn you into one of them?" she asked in a hushed tone, keeping an eye out for that straggler that always could creep up on you.
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Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:54 pm
That was an odd question, but perhaps a justified one. Were these 'zombies' in the Romero sense? Or were these ghouls, just the raised corpses of the undead who yearned for flesh? After all, traditionally, ghouls are a creation of the Middle East, where they are al-ghul (the ghoul) or ghoul (ghouleh feminine, ghilan plural), and aren't really so much undead as Jinn sired by Iblis with the power to shapeshift into an animal or the one's they devour. Westernized versions of the ghoul turn it into a more zombie-like undead corpse, but that still raised the question of whether or not they could turn a person into one of-
Overthinking. That's what he was good at.
Shaking away the quizzical look on his face, Quinn got a tad embarassed and shook his head again.
"No, lass, methinks not."
Hopefully.
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