trans_9 | Emo Corner: Open for Business!

Ever since the last podpop, there seemed to be a new addition to the obs deck. Nearly once a day, a certain brunette could be found huddled on one of the meatcouches and staring sadly in the general direction that all new arrivals came from.

She didn't know why she was still clinging to this.

Ophelia had explored the ship a little, but a combination of overwhelming unfamiliarity and a nagging feeling always drew her back to the same place on the obs deck to wait. She knew Eddie wasn't here, because he would have made his presence known by now if he was. She hadn't seen anyone else she knew yet, either. From what she had gathered, though, she knew there was a good chance all of her loved ones (and Lita) were in those... pod things, like she had been, and the ship seemed to let them out erratically. She also knew that they came from that huge cavern to this huge room.

What she didn't know was how often the ship let them out. She was pretty sure it wasn't every day, or even every week, since it seemed like a big event to the people who were already awake. But maybe there were some stragglers? Maybe today there would be more?

Maybe she was fooling herself because she didn't want to consider the alternative.

((OOC NOTE: Hi there. I meant to post this forever ago, but RL happened. So this can be bendytimed to any time since the last podpop I guess. 8D))

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Zetta lifted an eyebrow, but having lapsed into an internal monologue, was unaware of the fact.

No power? Or rather, lost power? That was possible -- and it implied she'd had more in the past. But there was still something inherent in her. Had she been more badass once upon a time? Was she losing mana, like -- like NO ONE ZETTA HAD EVER HEARD OF OR POSSIBLY SOMEONE THAT WAS DEAD TO HIM.

No, that didn't make sense. Maybe --

"Terminology!" he said out loud. "That's it! Power, Ophelia, means... you can do something your average muckity-muck level-one human can't do. It doesn't seem to be abnormal here. I met a girl who could fly not long ago. That's power. It doesn't have to be Overlord-level to be useful."

Huh. Maybe it wasn't terminology. Maybe she didn't recognize whatever her power was as unique. Maybe everyone on her world had it. Zetta appraised her again, thoughtfully. He had a sense that if he named her power to her she'd grow suspicious and distrustful -- since he was guessing the ability to read status screens wasn't particularly common outside of the netherworlds.

Why couldn't it have been? This whole business would be so much easier if people could just check his level, mana power, and title!

"Okay, let's attack this from behind and decrease its miss percentage. What ARE your skills? What do you do, and what do you call it?"

Ophelia continued to watch the book curiously as it thought to itself and aloud. It was starting to amuse her.

"I am a warrior." She said when it finally started saying things she could understand again. "I've spent my entire life fighting for the freedom of my people. Is that what you meant?"

She could deal if all he could sense was that she was a fighter, and nothing about magic songs, or building cars, or commanding armies.

No, no, it's listed pretty overtly on her status screen: Power of Rock.

But he's still not certain if she's just beating around the bush or is sincerely clueless. If he wasn't a book, or she were a more equal foe, he'd have challenged her to a battle about two iterations of this conversation ago. But hey: no sense pissing off the reasonably capable woman.

"You know what, we'll run with that. So, a lifetime warrior, huh?" Zetta sounded at least a little respectful. Anyone who said that (and seemed reasonably truthful about it) was worth at least a little regard, no matter their absolute power level. "Freeing your people? If it helps, you can think of this as more of the same. I'd like to see what you can do."

Zetta is the sort of guy you can't really take seriously even if he's in the middle of a fight with you. It's not because he's a book... it's because he's the sort of guy who'd get his soul confined to a book in the first place.

Damn.

"The whole point of freeing my people was so we wouldn't have to do this again. At least, not so soon." Ophelia said, then raised an eyebrow at the book's request. "Show you what I can do? Here? Now?"

Of course it had to be immensely powerful if it really was an overlord, but she couldn't believe that herself against a book would at all be a fair fight.

"That's how it goes, when you're awesome," Zetta said with an affectation of boredom, and arrogance that was in no way affected. "If you're not out there finding asses to kick, you get found at home by people who want to kick your ass. Still beats being walked all over because you got nothin', right?"

Wait... why was she eyeing him like that? She didn't mean...! "H-hey! Not on ME!" Damn! It's good that she recognizes she can't beat a freakin' Overlord, but why would I wanna get beaten?! "In general! We'll find a combat dummy or something if you need one to really show off. I'm interested in seeing your weapons, moves, speed and power. So far," he continued, a little more calmly, "I haven't found a lot of people who really knew how to fight."

"I guess..." Ophelia wasn't entirely convinced. She would have been happy to never fight again, but unfortunately fate had other plans.

"Oh. All right, then. If we find a place to practice, I'd be glad to show you what I'm capable of." She said. "I find it hard to believe you haven't met many warriors, though. Aren't we all here to fight a war?"

"Hyaa ha ha ha! Excellent!" At least Zetta was easy to please, right? She might not want to fight, but given its presumed inevitability in Zetta's eyes, he certainly planned to enjoy it when it came.

"As for warriors, I'm saying literal in-your-face kidney-carvin' ass-kickers. Sure, everyone has a role to play, but some are medics, some are supports, some are artillery. All well and good, but I was beginning to think we lacked a front line."

Zetta... actually sounded just a little bit more regretful than he intended, there. After all, where else would he normally be but that front line?

"Well, now you've found one." Ophelia said, though she wasn't so sure about the kidney-carving bit. She did catch the change in the book's tone. "Does that not please you?"

"Not please me? I'm thrilled! About time we got some muscle in this group," Zetta said, back to normal. "But you'd be surprised how much you miss things like arms when you lose 'em."

Ophelia studied the book curiously. "Is there any way for you to, um, not be a book anymore?"

She hadn't considered it until then, but it probably wasn't the most convenient form to take.

Well that's the understatement of the year, and this is coming from Zetta. The book just gave her a kind-of-wry look, then drew back to its bold bluster once again. "My body was lost along with my Netherworld. So when I get my Netherworld back, my body should come back to normal too."

"O-oh. I'm so sorry." Ophelia said sheepishly. She figured it had been a sensitive subject, but she hadn't considered that. "I guess I'm better off than I thought." She had hands, for starters.

"Sorry?" The book hadn't even considered someone might feel that way. (It certainly hadn't been a common thread in his other interactions.) "Nothing to be sorry about. Sure, it sucks. But I'm not going to feel sorry for myself." There's a moment pause before the next sentence came out in something of a roar. "I'm going to MAKE the creatures responsible for this curse the cruel evolutionary forces that gave them the ability to feel pain! And then I am going to get my damn body and my damn Netherworld back!"

He gnashed his teeth in a really overblown display of furor for a moment, but since the Ohm weren't here to wail on and Ophelia hadn't been the one to make him mad, he calmed down fairly quickly.

"Better to be angry than mopey," Zetta said. "Better to DO something about the damn problem. There's nothing the damn Ohm or anything can throw at me that I can't handle."

Zetta let that sentence hang for a moment before he muttered, "Even if I have to get some help for the whole 'arms' thing."

Emo Corner: Open for Business!

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