Get you Gone

[cityship]

The meeting is over, the teams have been assigned, the plans have been laid out. It's time to get weapons.

It's time to wish each other luck, and say goodbyes--with the hope that they're only "good bye for now"s.

It's about to get very hairy from here on out.

Comments

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"That might be the case," Roxie concedes, and that relaxes her a little, as the topic shifts away from her perceived inadequacies. "I've heard many stories of things that have languished for ages before being found by their destined holders."

Roxie's eyes follow Arha's fingertips. Something about her suggests she knows every detail of how it works—even if she wouldn't be able to quite explain properly.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"One does know know of such things until they have found their place," Arha said, flicking the belt from the grasping tentacles of the oct-o-pooze into her other hand. It was a great deal of intent, but with a split mind, Arha could manage it well. She took but a moment to flick her sheathed knife into her other hand as well and then secure it to her cloth belt. The empty space where her other blade had been felt odd, but it had gone with Luke and thus she felt better for it.

The oct-o-pooze was beginning to feel better on her arm as the moments passed.

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"Try re-shaping it," Roxie suggests. "Make it into a sword. The arms can all panel together..." She gestures loosely.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

Arha saw it in her mind, then, this oct-o-pooze sword--the way it should be. The idea of it came in the flick of her wrist, a twist of her mind, a reshaping. The eagerness of it solidified the phantom limb feeling until she could feel exactly what she wanted. Flick. The arms aligned, snapping out, a sword-like extension of her own body. Arha delighted in the response time, pleased that it had done what she asked.

She held it up, studying its angles for a moment and then moved in an intricate series of katas. Block, block, parry, thrust, spin, block. The oct-o-pooze sword flowed with her, wielded with grace and confidence. Yes. She did like this thing.

It felt...right.

She swung back into place before Roxie, her face flushed as she grinned.

"It feels natural," Arha said.

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"How about a shield?"

Roxie is—curious, is not quite the word. And not quite prideful, but it's something in-between the two. Even if she's not using it, that's her work, or enough that she'd feel comfortable claiming it as such; she turned a ruined mess back into a working, beautiful artifact.

And a little jealousy joins the emotions creeping in at the edges of her face.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

There.

A flash of insight, of something that could be a fan-like shield, one with a bit of curve on the ends to deflect outward and up. There was a rustle of metal, a shing!, and then there it was; a fan-like, interlocked shield that would do well enough to protect Arha herself and a patient.

Good oct-o-pooze, she thought. It was light, but she knew it would hold--it, like Arha herself, was deceptively strong. She could feel it in the metal and in the way it held fast to her arm.

"This will be good for protection," Arha mused and let the shield drop. The tentacles flashed back, winding themselves around her arm and over her hand like a gauntlet. "Especially should I need it to shield a patient while I stabilize them."

She nodded to Roxie.

"This is a beautifully done job," Arha said, her voice warm. "You have repaired it in the best way."

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

And that defuses most of it, all at once, though the pride wells up a little stronger.

"You'll have to feed it," Roxie says. "Precious metals if it gets damaged, bones or coral if we can ever get any... and it'll take some fresh blood every so often to stay healthy over the long term."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Such as it should be," Arha said with a nod. "All good things have a price to bear. If it needs blood, I hope it shall take mine without qualms. I am most worried about about damage, as I know little about how to obtain such things at present--save perhaps in the Sensorium. I have to wonder if that may work."

Her expression shifted to curiosity.

"I suppose I shall see about such things as they arise, but it may take what it needs. I shall be mindful to take care of it."

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

"I don't think bullets would hurt it, but I haven't tested enough to be sure of much past that," Roxie says. "You might be able to use some of the extra stuff from the armory nobody's ever going to use, but I don't know if there's anything with a high enough precious metal content for that to be efficient."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"I will have to see what is available, then," Arha said. "As it can be difficult to find metals of a high enough caliber, perhaps I may be able to ask Stacy, at some point, about such. The other alternative would be an off-world excursion, assuming wherever we stop is some place with access. I wish to be prepared."