Sorry, I've been a little busy lately and to make it possibly worse, I'm going to a friends cabin tomorrow and might not have Internet till tuesday. So if I don't post for a while, that's why. And if I'm gone just make up whatever you want for my character, I really don't mind. When the man pulled me up I was immediately shocked by the force he used. I rocketed up and for a very confusing split second my feet were of the ground leaving me a little stupefied after my feet touched the ground again. And in this moment my vision returned in time to see the stranger impossibly shifting through the swamp with inhuman speed. It was clear that this was no stranger I knew but most certainly strange. I knew what it was, I'd heard of one before. The stories of their horror and weaponized fear had spread quickly through the Metro and left it's dubious seed in every mind. Most people didn't believe such horror tales from the northeast, but I did. You could sense it in the vibes of the stories, see the aura change around the speaker. But what gave it away most, was the taste. At VDNKh the main game was tea. Always was, always will be. Good tea too! My favourite in fact. Enough so to notice when it vanished from trader stalls and wandering merchants. Most "people" can't afford this tea enough to know when it ceases to arrive and those that can are usually to busy to care for it themselves. But I put the pieces together. Black leather skinned, long armed, emense strengthened, mind fucking, big eyed monsters with a courage shattering screech. Those were the details I was told anyway. But this creature was none of those. It stared at me and I at it, much the same as the mutant and I had observed one another long ago. And although my lungs burned with fire and my sinuses dripped with acid all I could do was stare at the beautiful being looking back at me. It was perfect for this world. Sleek and complete it was like the flawless curves of a woman's body. No extra bits tearing through the flesh or unfinished mutations retching from the host here. No, this was whole and complete. A wonder for nature to show to the world in awe for it has created a masterpiece to put mankind to shame. It was a creature that I wanted to have a long conversation with. Over some tea perhaps. Now that I knew he wasn't interested in slaying me in this moment I gave into my screaming body. Slowly approaching my gas mask which lay next to my Uzi I picked it up and replaced the filter with a dry, plastic bag sealed one in my back pack. All while keeping my eyes glued on the dark one as much as I could. Stretching the corrupting rubber of the mask back onto my face I once again saw the world through the filtered eyes of mankind's virus. But at least I could breathe again. I hated that I could. I was a product of this virus and perhaps even a virus in of myself. But this creature gave me hope that we weren't the last creation to see this world and in this new found hope I gained the courage to push my Uzi into the mud and filth where it belonged. It disappeared under my boot with a bubbly ooze. And staring still into the eyes of the dark one I stood dripping wet. I felt baptized in a way. And for my first action in this refreshed life I chose not to mechanically kill this creature. But rather extend my hand out to it once more and see if it could lift me up any higher.
Read your reply. I love it, haha. And alright. Still gotta wait for Ska and Darkness, so it shouldn't be a huge problem. College is starting back up for me, though, so I might also have an activity drop because of classes.
Finally I'm not the only one The pain slowly eased and I let myself drop onto my side again, followed by a roll onto my stomach. I placed my palms against the dirt and pushed myself up onto my feet, as well as I could. I could see the stranger, just standing there, soaking wet by the swamp and the ferry that now was upside down. He was just staring straight forward, at nothing. I looked around myself before I walked over to him in a decent pace. Then, he raised his arm and held out his hand toward the tall grass, or bushes, or whatever it was. Getting closer to him, I could suddenly see what he was aiming his hand at. I was a bit behind him, so I couldn't see it very clear, but I thought I knew what it was. Long and slender, with dark skin and long arms. Almost the same shape as a human, standing in between the overgrowth. What I had heard, was that the Dark Ones used the simpler mutants as a tool, sending them onto stations. Just like with Exhibition. I didn't know wether to believe it or not, but I realized that, despite the silence of the swamp, we had just been attacked by a flying beast. And then this creature reveals itself with its creepy stare. I reached for any weapon on my backpack, but realized it was gone. I did the only thing I could, and pulled out the USP Match from my leg-holster, and aimed it at the creature. But I held my fire. I had heard stories of what happened to the rest of the guards in exhibition, after they had defeated the simple mutants. I remembered it by heart: "Ten soldiers, trained in combat. Their bodies broken, their minds gone". I wanted to see what this one did, and so I decided to wait, and see, despite the fear I had that it might devour our minds.
The struggle could still be heard but to a lesser extent. Maybe backpacks may have washed up. A definite chance at finding good equipment. I stood up and made my way into the mist around the deeper section of the swamp. My senses were switched on as the scary bird thing could still be heard. I saw two figures standing up and something on the ground appearing out of the mist. I went down onto one knee, sinking into the ground. Bugger. I aimed my rifle at them. I didn't kill humans but these people didn't know that. 'Excuse me?' I said quietly. What was that? Say it with more venom. 'Everyone on the ground or I'll put you on the ground' I was a master of speech.
Ok, so if I understood it correctly, your character has approached us and yelled out that last sentence? We're gonna have to give Aaron the chance to come back and react.
Back from my trip. My moment at enlightenment had been ended by the strangers arrival and aggression. At that moment where things might advance for once in this frozen image of pity man had to once again muscle in and take charge of fate. My hand was still stretched out towards the horizon when he blurted out the usual stuff. I'd heard them so many times and hated the words. I've never had to kill a mutant on the surface before and I stand proud at that statement, but men are abominations I'll put down anytime, and who can say the world has been hurt by it. But now, with the advantage on the strangers side I was forced to leave my life in his faith and judgement, something else I hated leaving to men. I didn't look to the stranger nor did I wave my hands in the sky like protocol said. Rather I fell to my knees, gave up on the rules of the weak really. Always seemed strange to me that there could be a standard procedure for subduing someone. "Don't move! Drop your weapons! Hands in the air or I'll shoot!". Such a pathetic instinct we've come to learn. I chose not to look at the stranger because I already know what I'll see. A monster, big and scary, the scariest of all the other monsters around. And I don't like monsters, they scare me. It's funny how I call these men strangers. We know each other so well.
Not knowing wether to keep my aim on whatever I was having my aim on, or to defend myself against a new intruder, became a tough choice. In the end, I knew that if the gruesome rumors I had heard were true, we wouldn't stand any chance either way if the mutant attacked us. I quickly turned around, to aim the pistol towards where I heard the voice from, hoping that the mutant would calm down when seeing this as a sign of rechoosing my actions, now with less agressiveness towards it. At the same time, perhaps I'd get a good shot at the stranger, or at least aim in that direction. But just when I thought I had him in the sights of my HK USP Match, my arm got something that reminded me of a powerful cramp, but I simultaneously felt that it was something else than just that, way beyond it. In pure instinct to protect my arm from the sudden pain, I pulled it up into the air, pulled it towards me and opened my hand, losing the grip on the firearm. I fell back onto my back, holding my right arm with my left hand against my chest to contain the pain. What was causing this? The pistol landed somewhere right in front of the man that had accompanied me for the last hours and travelled across the swamp with me.
The appearance of a third human took my by surprise. And this one didn't look nearly as hospitable. As a matter of fact, he was hovering somewhere between the yellow and red zones. Given that he was threatening my only two chances at liaison, I was ready to do something if he so much as twitched the finger holding his trigger, I would jam his gun. If he tried anything after that, I'd twist him into a knot. I was suspicious enough that violent men existed amongst their ranks. Both the dazzlingly green human and his companion had been subdued by this nearing-shades-of-red verbal assaulter. I felt that the only way I could act was to deliver a telepathic intervention. But, before doing so, I intended to inform the green man of this plan. He seemed the most trustworthy and indeed, least likely to break under the strain. Concentrating, I addressed him directly: Can you hear me? I will attempt to intervene. I was thinking, since my character can use telepathy, maybe I would colour it a specific way? That way you could tell that the telepathic speech is only to be heard by a particular person?
I relaxed once I watched one man fall to his knees and the thing on the ground moved a bit before stopping. The third.... human? Stood standing. He or she was bloody tall and unarmed by the looks of it and his or her silhouette was like no human I'd ever seen, none of the chunky gear, the weapons or the obvious shape of a gas mask. Not mine to question why but no one threatened me, no one wanted a fight at the present moment and I was happy. I didn't kill people, I'd loot them till the world ended.... again but I never put them in a position where they could be looted. My rifle dipped and I strode forward. I was in my element in Moscow. The only place I felt I wasn't ostracized. In the tunnels, the people could see through my fake accent and worked out I was from the west. It didn't make me friends but up here, nothing tried to hide the fact it was out to get me. 'Hello there, sorry for the greeting, wanted to make sure you wouldn't shoot m while I still had the upper hand'
The rising tension suddenly dropped from the top of the sky covered in nuclear clouds, to the bottom of the murky swamps, when the man lowered his rifle and stepped forward, apologizing his previous hostility. The pain was easing, and I looked up at him. A man with an overcoat, dirty white shirt, fingerless gloves, army boots, an old gas mask and a helmet.
I thought we were waiting for covalent. Either way I've still been very busy lately, but I'll twy. Everything in the whole world seemed to disappear when the dark one spoke to me. Not in words, but thoughts, implanted in my brain through impossible telepathy. It was a soothing surprise. Like jumping in a cold lake only to feel that it's stunningly warm and inviting. A numb feeling wraps my brain as it speaks to me. It wants to help. To help a human, how unexpected and thought provoking. What does it want? What could it possibly expect to receive from us but harm and fear. And more pressing, what does this new stranger want? Does he not see the rarity before him underneath his veil of greed and loot? I look back to the dark one and throw my thoughts at him in attempt. "He doesn't understand".
Got you covered. The man's response sounded garbled (this was likely his first attempt at a telepathic response), but I could comprehend it. "He doesn't understand." This confirmed my suspicions; the newcomer certainly wasn't looking for polite conversation. His weapon certainly posed a great threat at this distance. And if he could already see me, there would certainly be a fight on our hands. I had no intention of engaging without a clear danger, however. Penetrating his mind was out of the question. In fact, that would likely cause him to open fire. This was a very dangerous situation. As surreptitiously as I could, I edged back into the tall grass, trying to decrease my visibility. This I did in a split-second dash so as not to be noticed by the dangerous human controlling the current situation. From this vantage point, I projected my mind once again to the man with the benevolent aura: You must try and urge him to relent. If worst comes to worst, I'll jam his weapon or remove it from his hands entirely. But try.
The humanoid thing moved with impossible speed and its position was only known due to the rustling of the grass, the one on his knees still wasn't facing me and the thing on the ground which turned out to be a man was staring at me. I offered a hand to him as I said to the man on his knees "I'm not here to harm, just to test the waters and what's over there?" I said looking past the man to humanoid in the grass
I looked suspiciously at his hand for a brief moment before I huddled back a bit and quickly got on my feet on my own, turning down the offer to be helped up. My backpack was gone with three of my weapons, whilst my fourth and last was lying in front of the man that had accompanied me. I turned my eyes towards it in clear and obvious lust to reach for it, but could I be faster than the reaction, triggerfinger, and bullets, of the man opposed to us?
A friendly face on the surface, I never thought those two would mix. This man was friendly, but foolish to let his guard down to surface dwellers, especially after threatening them at gunpoint. I could already see my distant companion heart bound towards his pistol which lay at my knees. I stood up slowly and held the pistol in my hands admiring it before replying to the newcomer, "It would seem you've just blundered into an amazing union of species. It would be very wise to leave weapons out of it lest you taint the moment... That being you see has just put itself at great risk showing itself here, to us. It's intelligence seems far beyond our own, and it doesn't want to harm anything. He's spoken to me only just a moment ago, through thought. Skipping the lies of tounge it speaks and listens right from the soul, brilliant. Can you here it? Can you feel its warm presence?".
