xenamorph | Morph #3: The Struggle. [Action/Video]

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Morph #3: The Struggle. [Action/Video]

[As weird as it was staying in Spock's guest bedroom, they were polite enough. Still, she really didn't spend much time there.

At first, she'd spent a lot of time just flying around, but it didn't really ease the tension. Something was missing. She was having trouble sleeping. She had so many nightmares, she lost track of which ones were which, and she'd wake up in the middle of the night, screaming into her pillow.

And then she'd fly again.

It wasn't enough.

Something is missing.]

[Video]

"So, um. Can anybody show me how to program that... battledome thing? And what else do you people do to entertain yourself around here."

[She stops for a moment, staring blankly at the camera as visions of violence and blood fill her head, before she blinks and snaps out of it.]

"Uh. So, if anybody could help me out on either end, I'd appreciate it."

[Action]

[She's going to be at the battledome today, trying to figure out how to make it work. She needs to...

Something. She's looking for something. She's not sure what.]

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[Saori steps inside and looks around, nodding approvingly. It's a nice little place, really. Nice indeed.

The only thing that really looks out of step is...well...the girl herself.

New Feather, she guesses.]

Miss, are you alright? Homesick?

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just..."

[She shakes her head. Pity. Pity wasn't acceptable. Pull it together, Rachel. You're fearless, remember?

She smiles and turns back toward Saori.]

"Don't worry about it, it's dumb."

[Saori shakes her head, hands on her hips. The girl's body is tenser than a coiled spring. She's in need of something. Something more than home.

A tension in her body that Saori knows all to well, thanks to spending time with the God of War.]

Surely you didn't come out to the Battle Dome to make a copy of your home. Not on a cold day like this. Do you want to train? Become stronger? Fight? There's no reason to hide that, if it's what you want. Come, I'll show you more advanced controls.

[The very reasons Saori was here. And there's a hint of scorn to her voice that's somewhat thinly veiled.

[For a minute, Rachel just freezes. Stares.

How did she know?

'There's something pretty dark inside of you, Rachel.'

What's the answer? What's the answer supposed to be?

The images of violence sweep through her again, and she feels her heart rate accelerating. No. That's not the right answer. That's-

'You, Rachel, you love it. It’s what makes you so brave. It’s what makes you so dangerous. I don’t know what will happen to you if it all ends someday.'

She blinks. Tries to get her breathing, her heart rate, under control. There was no threat here. No Controllers waiting to pounce. She could talk. She could be honest. This was a place full of crazy. She should fit right in, right?

'Rachel, do you feel the adrenaline rush of murderous desire?'

No. She'd been over this. She'd already had this little psychomachia of insanity with Crayak. She wasn't like that. She'd turned away from the violence. She was better than that. She wasn't a monster.

She doesn't think you're a monster.

That couldn't be the answer. She wasn't like that.

Except you are.

She tries to keep the anxiety and stress from her voice.]

"Yeah. Yeah, maybe some combat training wouldn't hurt."

[Well THAT wasn't the reaction Saori expected at all. She stops short and offers the girl a quizzical look.]

Very well. What...sorts of things are you used to fighting? And how?

"Well..."

[Okay, here it went. Time to see just how crazy she really was.]

"... Aliens. I turn into animals to fight aliens."

Oh? Well, would you like to fight aliens? Or something new?

[Saori shrugs, mildly. That isn't even the strangest thing she's experienced in her own world. How might this girl react to the idea of speaking to a woman who's true shape was twelve feet tall, made of lightning and clouds, and could claim to be a divine being?]

[...

This place really is crazy.]

"I heard something about these Third Party guys that want to kill us all, is there any way we could simulate them?"

Of course.

[She heads back outside and beckons the girl to follow.]

We'll use a different setting though, your house is too nice to have assaulted.

Oh, my name is Saori. What's yours?

"Rachel. Uh, Berenson."

[She follows Saori out of the room, though to tell the truth, she has zero attachment at this point. She doesn't think she's going to be going back to it.]

"So is the combat simulation dangerous?"

Nice to meet you then, Rachel.

[She sets up a copy of the farm in Luceti, right down to the shed]

No, not particularly. You might get some bruises, but it can't kill you.

"Oh, good."

[So she can come here as often as she wants. No injury. No danger. Just as much steam to let off as she wants.

Perfect.]

"You might want to look away when I morph, it's pretty gross to watch."

Oh, I'm sure I've seen much, much worse.

[Strange child...]

"Alright, but I warned you. Fire this thing up. Let's do it."

[And with that, she begins shrugging off outer layers of clothing, revealing skintight ones underneath.]

Edited 2013-02-04 18:49 (UTC)

[Saori sets up a scenario that's pretty basic. A field covered in undead Ashigaru warriors, with a red sky.

She ignores the girl and strides into the simulator with a bow drawn and her sword now visible at her waist.]

[A few moments later, she's joined inside the simulator by, of all things, a fully-grown grizzly bear.]

-Bring it.-

[Saori shrugs her shoulders, stretches her shoulders and strides forward, the ashigaru warriors stepping up to meet them]

They'll start when we charge.

-Sounds good to me.-

[And charge she does, hundreds of pounds of grizzly muscle and flesh moving with startling speed to take on the new enemy.]

[Saori draws her sword and rushes forward as well, heralded by a gale of wind that sweeps before her.

The ashigaru rush right back, meeting the bear and wind in a crash of bodies, air, and metal.]

[This. She had missed this. She had needed this. The part of her that had tried to deny the urge was gone, and now there was just her, the adrenaline, and the feeling of enemies crushed beneath her. The flesh of the simulated enemies was bitter, putrid, and repulsive, but it may as well have been ambrosia in her current mindset, because the sheer heady rush of power it represented was so sweet. She was savage and feral, and she shrugged off the weapons as they bit into her hide, going for the heads and necks of the enemies with her jaws and her massive limbs

She didn't realize it, but in her mind, and in thought-speak, she was laughing, a triumphant, gleeful laugh. Yes. This was who she was. This was what she was meant to be.]

[Saori darted forward, ignoring the bear and setting to work with her sword, blade flashing in the bright sunlight. Ashigaru fell, shredded and bloody, blue-black ichor spraying all over the ground even as she slipped aside.]

[For her part, Rachel seems to be loving this maybe a little too much. She scarcely even notices as the field begins to clear and the bodies begin to stack, still slashing and ripping with almost feral viciousness at the enemies.]

[After a while, Saori takes a step back and watches Rachel go to town. That's...not what she'd expected. The...berserk anger there.]

[It takes Rachel a moment to notice that she's being stared at, as her laughter dies down, and only then does she realize exactly what just happened.

She reels back from the body she's mauling- long since stopped moving, now only a body for her to vent her rage on- and quickly begins demorphing.]

[Saori just watches, hands on her hips as she waits]

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