Encounter in two Parts

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

Early that day, one might find Philip in the Narumi, sleeping on his things. He held a marker in his hands and from it, there was a single line scrawled over the whole of his whiteboards:

"The Cake is a Lie."

He hadn't been GlaDOSed recently. So the point of it was puzzling.


Later on, someone might find him sitting at the river, throwing sticks into it from the loose gravel. Come bother him?

Comments

[thisclinchesit]

Unfortunately, Shoutarou hasn't been around long enough, or talked to enough people to know the source of this phrase, so he's currently looking at any books that may be lying open to see if somehow, Philip stumbled across a cookbook.

"Somedays, I don't know what to do with you, partner," he mumbled while shaking his head.

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

Philip groaned and shifted in his sleeping position, before blearily blinking his eyes and rousing his head. He yawned mightily. "Good--yawn--morning, Shoutarou."

[thisclinchesit]

"Hey," was all the answer he got at first while Shou was rooting around in the books, but it's not long before curiosity gets the better of him. "...have you been researching baked goods?"

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"...? No I was researching candy." He looked over at the whiteboard in confusion. Sure enough there were various candy formulas everywhere but the big writing obscured some of it.

[thisclinchesit]

"...huh." Shoutarou moved some books around--oh, there's his chair. He plops down in it, looking rather perplexed for a bit before he speaks again. "You holding up okay after that Animo guy got in here?"

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"A little sore, but otherwise all right," admitted Philip. "I wasn't expecting a blindside, and the sheer oddity threw me off guard for a brief moment. Apparently that's all he needed to get into the Gaia Memories."

[thisclinchesit]

He wasn't going to bring them up, but given the way the conversation had drifted, it seemed to have been an inevitability. A faint sigh left him as he leaned back, rubbing his face down. "That's good... And... Odd as it seems, I'm thinking we should perhaps take up Hoshi's suggestion about storing them at Sasami's house."

There's a slight pause before he speaks again. "Because we got damn lucky this time."

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

Philip made a noise in agreement. "I think you may be right," said Philip. "As much as I'd hate to keep them anywhere else, this proves something new about the dangerous goods we're storing."

[thisclinchesit]

Well. Given how adamant Philip had been about the experiments, Shoutarou was rather happy to see that Philip was quick to agree on this. Rather unfortunate way of coming to said agreement, but still.

"I'll see about getting Hoshi to go with me and talk with Sasami about it here soon, then."

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"All right," said Philip, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "Sorry I haven't gotten much sleep in a while."

[dragonlordbight]

Below the rivers surface something had been swimming, something quite large indeed, and that something had been drawn to the sound of sticks hitting the water's surface. That particular something would turn out to be the immense Bronze dragon that often swam through the river, his large head leaving the surface of the water as he drew closer, far enough out that he hoped not to startle the one by the waters edge too greatly.

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

Philip noticed him, the Bronze hard to miss. His eyes widened as his hand shot to his mouth in his customary pose. "So incredible!" he breathed. He had heard they had a dragon aboard the ship, but had never encountered him yet.

"I take it you are intelligent?" he asked, noting the body language of the massive being.

[dragonlordbight]

Crucible watched the human's reaction with an impassive expression for a moment, a hint of amusement filtering into his expression though as he drifted closer. Humans did always have so many different reactions to one such as he, be it fear, awe, curiosity or in rare cases indifference.

Was he intelligent? Such a statement could well have had him eaten had he been one of his water dwelling evil chromatic counter parts, such as it was a rumble of a chuckle echoed deeply, "Quite so," he replied off handedly as he took a few steps up the bank of the river, the extent of his size becoming more evident.

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"How interesting!" exclaimed Philip as he watched Crucible pull himself out of the water. "Apologies if I've made any slight but you are just magnificent! I would have many questions later on but for now, you are what they call a dragon, is that correct?"

[dragonlordbight]

Compliments of that sort he certainly did not mind, he was a dragon after all, "Do not worry yourself," he reassured before dipping his head everso slightly to his question, "It is indeed, I am a Bronze dragon of Krynn," he answered with clear pride as he finished lifting himself out of the water.

"You may call me Crucible,"

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"A pleasure to meet you. I'm Philip," replied Philip, nodding as he admired the way the water dripped from his scales, giving him that shine.

"Krynn is your homeland then. I must admit I'm interested to hear about it."

[darknight-ren.livejournal.com]

Ren brought his bike to a stop at the river, seeing Philip looking distracted. He really wasn't the type to say "I told you so" when Philip was in such a bad situation, so he got off and walked over.

"Just got back from medbay," he said. "Looks like the only two who were hurt didn't fight the Dopant."

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"Shouldn't you be resting then?" inquired Philip, tossing another stick into the waters edge to look up at Ren.

"Mmm. That does make me feel a little better."

[darknight-ren.livejournal.com]

"Physical therapy," Ren explained, walking much more steadily on his injured leg. "Decided to check in after I was done."

He gave Philip a critical look. "You haven't been sleeping."

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"Ah. That explains it." said Philip.

He chuckled mirthlessly. "Is it so easy to notice?" Other than the more-than-rumpled appearance he had.

[darknight-ren.livejournal.com]

"You've been waking up in the middle of the night," Ren pointed out. "When you sleep at Atori, at least."

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

He nodded. "I just haven't slept very well since the head injury. I've gotten it looked at though."

[darknight-ren.livejournal.com]

"And they said it was all right?" Ren pressed.

[memory-hax.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. I'll be having disturbed sleep for a bit if I roll over wrong but other than that..." He shrugged. "Painful still but I'll live. There's no damage."

[darknight-ren.livejournal.com]

"Good," Ren answered. "The last thing we need is for you to be out long." Maybe it wasn't the nicest thing he could say, but he was never good about showing his concern around people--not when he had to keep everything in and survive.

"But we still have to do something about the Gaia Memories."