deadliestviper | 010 VIDEO LIST FIVE

Current Mood: infuriated

[Here you have an image of a grim-looking woman dressed in yellow, her dour demeanor in stark contrast to the cartoonish world behind her. Her face is stony, body language carefully controlled, but her eyes are strangely bright and furious, hinting at a storm surging away in her brain.]

What the fuck is wrong with everyone?! Are your brains really that fucking fragile, or were you all always this crazy and just showing it off now? [Her eyes narrow into slits, her hand worked into a fist so tight her knuckles have gone white.] God damn it. This is pathetic. All of you. I hope you've got the decency to be humiliated, you goddamn weak fucks.

Blonsky and Dracula snapped like rubber bands. I'm making my way back to the Barge, so you fuckers are on your own.

[She reaches forward to turn off the feed, but stops her hand at the last second.] If you've gone the slightest bit native, here's a little advice. You try fucking with me, and I will make the most nightmarish tortures your sad little queen's ever doled out look as innocuous as a child's skinned knee.

You've been warned. Come and find me, motherfuckers.

[Click.]

OOC: Beatrix can be found trying to find her way back to the Barge, a little more lost than she'd like to admit. None of this has helped her sanity at all, so if you choose to contact or run across her, you're likely in for some abuse.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

deadliestviper

[A command? It's been a long time since she'd obeyed one of those, and she does not have time for this. Beatrix glowers briefly at the screen before striding forward in what she's pretty sure is the direction to the Barge. The camera shakes and bounces as she walks, showing glimpses of the weapon in her opposite hand.]

Stay out of my way. This isn't up for discussion.

From:

warisart

[Ben doesn't give orders; he's not the unit sergeant, he's not a Manticore commander, he's not a warden. He was a leader once, though, and he's capable of making very strong suggestions.

Of course, he hadn't really been expecting it to work, because no one ever listens to him. Not anymore. Not that he's particularly fazed by the glare, either, and he forces his shoulders down, straightens his neck, and tries again.]

No, it won't be, if they catch you. Discipline. They'll lock you away again.

From:

deadliestviper

If.

From:

warisart

Yes, if you continue as you are, they will catch you. If you do not, there's a chance that they won't.

From:

deadliestviper

I'll roll the dice and take my chances. It's not as if I have anything to lose.

From:

warisart

That's not true. You do, you... They...

Fine. I'm coming out there, then.

From:

deadliestviper

And how the hell are you going to find me? You don't know where I am! I don't know where I am.

From:

warisart

If I have to manage, I'll manage. [He's already moving, looking warily around where he is and almost slinking along as he goes. His voice lowers ever so slightly.]

Describe your position.

From:

deadliestviper

Yeah, good luck. I'm in a forest of grass with no discernible landmarks and no vantages for reconnaissance. Every once in a while I pass a rock.

From:

warisart

I don't need luck. I scored very high marks in urban survival tactics including tracking and map-plotting.

[He pauses at a hallway junction, shaking his head like one might if a fly were trying to land in one's ear, hesitating. Then:]

Do you have faith in the Blue Lady?

From:

deadliestviper

Then if you can get me back to the Barge I'll owe you one.

[She stops in her tracks and stares at the communicator, making a face.] Who? Don't crack up on me.

From:

warisart

[Inwardly, Ben frowns, discouraged; but then he'd already known, hadn't he? He needs to find her quickly, or guide her in.

Outwardly he nods and acts as though nothing happened, creeping out into the hallway that will take him to the rear hatch, currently largely unused while everyone works to repair the hull.]

I'm trying. But you can't attack anyone, or you'll bring them down on your head before I can find you.

From:

deadliestviper

[He drops the Blue Lady thing (had Ben been watching Pinocchio?), so she won't press. But in every sense of the word, B is very lost. Were she thinking clearly she would stay where she was and wait for him, but at this point she's hardly thinking at all.]

No I won't. They haven't done anything yet.

From:

warisart

[He won't bring it up again by choice; it's a flaw he must keep hidden. There's no escaping where he is now, and they mustn't know.

As for thinking, Ben is plenty capable.]

It will be easier for me to catch up of you don't move around. Wait for me.

[He hesitates again, then presses his lips together briefly.]

They'll do whatever they want, but don't give them an excuse. [This seriously, then as seriously:] I have to go. I'll call you again when I'm out.

From:

deadliestviper

[He won't bring it up, but she might. Clearly unused to taking orders from someone younger than herself, B huffs before grudgingly nodding her consent.] Okay. Okay, all right, I'll wait, but if anyone else finds me I will not be responsible.

From:

warisart

Try. [It's not a command, though it's neither a plea; he doesn't waste time after, either, but kills the connection and steals up the last stairwell to the exit point he's already chosen in his mental map of the Barge.

What ensues is exactly what he'd been afraid of; this world is insane, the people in it are insane, and Ben understands none of it. The fact that this is not an unfamiliar state of existence for him is an edge, though, allowing him to remain detached and effective where others might be deterred by the lack of logic. That doesn't mean he could explain any more than anyone else, alternating between attempting to execute a standard searching grid pattern and relying on his newly returned abilities to find any sign of his tentative ally, how he finally finds himself in the branches of a tree, slightly dizzy with the height and the brilliant neon green of its leaves and the heady perfume coming off its bark, and looks out on a landscape that matches what he was seeing in the communicator.

And moreover, when he focuses his eyes out into the center of it as far as he can, there's a figure. He drops down out of the tree and, the hand-axe he'd taken from one of the group of guards that tried to stop him, sets off at a measured run to close the distance.]

From:

deadliestviper

[The time goes by slowly – B thinks. She cooperated with Ben insofar as she stayed where she was, wandering no more than a few yards either way. She told herself it was to stretch her legs, but truthfully it was patrolling. The place is mostly quiet, but now and then she catches what sounds like voices on the wind.

They're far in the distance and she can't discern at first what they say, but she doesn't like the sound of it. Not once since acquiring it has she dropped her halberd, and it's in her hands and at the ready when she hears Ben approach.]

Who's there?

From:

warisart

[Ben can't quite account for how strong the relief is when he's close enough to identify that it's Kiddo; she's alone, and appears impatient. If she's moved it hasn't been far, then, and he doesn't think about that right now so much as he focuses on the way she's holding the weapon like she means to use it at the slightest provocation, the half-hunted cast to her eyes. It's familiar though not in her, and he's careful to approach with his own grip loose and ineffective on his weapon, openly and with his free hand also in plain sight. His eyes stay on her face.]

X5-493, ma'am. Just Ben. [He hesitates, coming to a stop a few feet from her, out of range of her polearm but within easy conversing distance so long as she doesn't look like attacking or bolting. His voice is steadier when he speaks - not the blank, featureless neutrality that normally characterizes him, but actual steadiness.] Are you injured?

From:

deadliestviper

[He approaches like an ally, not an enemy. That's enough to make Beatrix relax her stance, at least somewhat. The weapon's still at the ready but she straightens up, rolls her shoulders back and takes a breath to steady her nerves.]

Ben. All right. It hasn't got to you, has it? [She shakes her head to clear it, blinks.] No, nothing bad.

From:

warisart

Has what gotten to me?

[Ben, too, straightens up a bit and lets his hands fall back towards his sides when he sees that she's relaxing; he chances to move closer, tilting his head as he tries to confirm her assessment of her physical condition. Priority number one is making certain she can move if they have to; damage control is next before they decided where to move to, but he's content to stay here for now.

There are worse places to regroup, after all.]

Have you... injured anyone else?

From:

deadliestviper

It. Here. This place. Has it gotten to you?

[She hisses the question. Whatever "it" does exactly, clearly it's begun to affect her. Her concentration is already weakening, paranoia clouding more of her bewildered mind, and the panicky helplessness makes her feel all the more trapped. But Ben's here. Ben is trained, Ben is capable, her ally, and she sure as hell needed an all right now.]

Are you going to ditch me if I say yes?

From:

warisart

No, ma'am - I retain all of my faculties as previously represented. I... believe you are not as fortunate.

[He knows it's getting to her - he would still be safely back aboard the Barge if he hadn't seen her transmission, noticed her uncharacteristic distress. He knows better than to try to take the weapon from her - she hasn't progressed to the point he feels particularly threatened as long as she recognizes him - and doesn't hesitate to answer he second question.]

No. But if you've been involved in an altercation with someone from the ship, we need to plan for the consequences.

From:

deadliestviper

[She turns slowly to him and pointedly slams the staff into the ground, glaring like a wolf growling over a scrap of meat.] I'm doing just fine, thank you.

What consequences? What are they going to do, lock me up for a couple days?

From:

warisart

Okay.

[Ben, for his part, doesn't move. He neither retreats nor advances, glancing down at where the staff has settled and back up at her hostile expression.]

Maybe. Maybe not. I'd rather not find out, if there's something we can do about it before they do.