hellburger | (no subject)

Current Location: Industrial District, The Nexus

Entry tags:

ixis naugus

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Kazuhira Miller leans against a brick wall covered in the illegible remains of old wheatpaste posters, layered with a smattering of graffiti. With the exception of his bright yellow scarf, his uniform looks entirely at home among the coveralls and drab work clothes of the Industrial District's labor force. Workers representing various species wander past on the way to work sites and factories while others huddle together to eat lunch or enjoy a smoke break.

Miller looks down at his watch compulsively, only to be reminded once again that it stopped the moment he set foot in the Nexus. He sighs, pulls a Rite in the Rain notebook out of his breast pocket, and flips through pages covered in copious notes while he waits for a certain Mobian magus to appear.

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His ear quirks in Kaz's direction when he hears that voice, whirling around and crouching low, hissing again. And drooling. He really is acting like a corner animal and it's kind of disconcerting? Given his grand and snooty behaviour otherwise when he's in the Nexus. Or just in control.

"HHHHSSSS! Tricked! Trapped! I follow you nowhere! That's what caused all this in the first place! I know how you work! Where are the rest!?" Naugus looks around frantically, searching the trees and vines for any sign of a gun barrel, a glint of metal, a masked human face.

Kaz is momentarily taken aback by the drooling and body language. His movements become even slower, more deliberate, as if he's dealing with an angry apex predator.

"And what's the alternative? Skulk around in the jungle for the rest of your days? Show up in blurry tabloid photographs? Snail -- you know, that woman you attacked -- she's got the key. C'mon big guy. Let's head back." Miller reaches out a hand and makes a coaxing motion. Easy does it.

"Trap me here and I'll-...I'll sink myself into the core of your world! I'll shift the plates and send your cities crumbling! I will crush you all! I will turn the elements against your entire civilization of you even think for a moment that I'm your beast to capture!"

Funny how his fear of being caged and treated as an odd animal is making him behave like one.

Miller forces a laugh. "That sounds like a helluva lot of work. For what? You'll be trapped on a planet you just trashed. Great idea. Brilliant."

He lets out a long exhale. "Look. Nobody said anything about capturing you. I've got a lot more important things to deal with than your paranoid bullshit, Naugus."

He hisses something that sounds remotely like, 'anything for revenge', but instead looks...momentarily like he's calming down? Taking a few deep breaths? Maybe things are finally de-escalating.

At least that's what can be thought up until Naugus locks eyes with Kaz...and then suddenly darts back into that cape of his, slipping into its dark folds like it somehow hid a portal within it. In a display of completely bizarre physics that kind of are confusing to witness, said cape soon folds in on itself, following the owner, and vanishes.

Somewhere else in the jungle, back near the portal that he had created, Naugus bursts from the shadows beneath a tree, hissing and making a grab for Snail's gun.

"For fuck's sake!" Just when Kaz thought he was making headway. He lowers his stance and grabs the knife strapped at his ankle, unsure if the mage is still in the vicinity. "Naugus! Naugus!"

"Some kind of cloaking device? Orders, sir?" his radio crackles. He raises his hand for silence, knife at the ready and watching the ground cover for any signs of disturbance. Even if Naugus is invisible, he's probably still stomping and raging. There's nothing, though. What the hell.

While Kaz and the rest of the patrol are thus occupied with tracking the vanished mage, Snail is continues to have an awful day. Already on edge, she recovers quickly from the sudden reappearance of the thing and reflexively steps back -- towards those two portal trees, as it happens.

She winces; the fall from earlier either sprained or fractured her ankle. One hand keeps her gun raised, the other fumbles for her radio. "C-commandante! El monstruo esta aquí!"

"Shit! Keep him busy. We're on our way back," Miller's voice responds.

"Do NOT shoot me again. Why did you shoot me at ALL!?" He at least doesn't seem to be intent on hurting or hurtling Snail again. Just suddenly seems to have it in his head that she's the one who'll determine if this was a planned, attempted ambush or not.

Glaring at her angrily, rather than try anything violent or rash, Naugus hunkers down and remembers, oh right, he is shot, huh. And he's got some distance between him and the other soldiers now. Might as well deal with that. And by dealing with it, that means using his crab claw to try and pinch out the slugs left lodged in him. It's messy work and he continues to shoot angry looks at Snail because she caused this. Clearly.

"Well?! Do you even understand me? Me comprenez-vous? Pourquoi avez-vous tuer!" Might as well try other languages. Like these savages know Mercian, though.

"I shot you because you attacked me," she spits back in accented English. She's not only pissed at this weird creature, in the back of her mind she knows she'll probably get an earful from Miller later. Maybe even get stuck cleaning the hair out of shower drains for a few weeks. "You don't want to get shot again? Then don't give me another reason to do it."

Snail keeps her gun raised and adjusts her weight off of her injured leg. She watches Naugus' attempt at surgery with a grimace. "Dios mío ... You shouldn't do that."

"You already had your gun pointed at me! What was I to think! An Overlander already armed and ready is one who's already decided to kill! Your race is not to be trusted back home and not here either, clearly." Digging into his own bullethole'd collarbone doesn't seem to be working, but not for lack of trying. He grunts and switches to a finger instead. That's thinner and more dexterous, right? Just dig on in there.

"I'm sure your leader will somehow make this all my fault."

"Mira, I don't even know what you are. I'm just doing my job." She turns her head to talk into her radio. "Commandante, the thing has calmed down, but he's trying to perform surgery on himself. Should I try to stop him?"

"He can wait for a medic, or he can hurt himself all he likes. Entirely up to him." She shrugs at Miller's response, but continues to keep her eyes trained on Naugus.

"You should wait. You're making it worse."

If nothing else, this whole adventure is demonstration to Kaz how mercurial Naugus can be. Going from his usual pompous self to hissing monster and then off to being an old grump. An old, bleeding grump.

"Oh, and you're concerned now? For me, the thing?" He flicks his hand in irritation, splattering drops of red across the leaves underfoot. "Tell me the real plan. The one where I wind up in a prison or a cage, for the scientific curiosity or simple amusement of your leader."

"Master Miller could want you alive. Don't need you bleeding out on my watch after all this trouble."

Snail snorts derisively at the mention of conspiracy. "Haven't heard any plans, but who knows? Maybe El Jefe wants to start a private zoo."

Even with all this casual conversation, the barrel of her gun doesn't drop an inch.

"ENOUGH! The only reason I haven't set your insides on fire is because I just want to leave this miserable pit you call a planet and try to forget there's entire worlds overrun with your filthy, violent species!" Wow, touchy.

At some point, Naugus angrily looks to his right, perhaps watching for more mystery soldiers arriving...and spots the tranq dart sticking out of his shoulder.

"And this!? Really!?" He points at it incredulously.

"Feel sleepy yet?" she asks, ignoring the strange threat. Snail wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't. There's a lot of meat on that guy. "You might need a few more before those put you under."

A couple of mystery soldiers do arrive after a few more uncomfortable moments. Iguana stomps in through the bushes, head down with the effort of carrying Antelope on his back. He exhales sharply, looks up to see who Snail is speaking to, and the sight of the "target" throws him off balance. He accidentally lets his burned comrade tumble to the ground in the haste to draw his gun. Antelope cries out in pain and rolls onto his side.

"Easy, Iguana," Snail cautions, palm raised. "Master Miller's on his way back with the rest. How's Antelope?"

Iguana doesn't answer immediately -- he needs to take stock of the strange situation -- but he trusts Snail's calm tone. "He'll live, but won't be winning any beauty contests. Lots of burns. There's some shrapnel in his side from discharged rounds. Got the wounds wrapped up tight, though."

"Master Miller. Master of what, I ask!? Inciting gun violence, apparently." Naugus is far more content to just complain about his situation and everyone else's part in it rather than listen to the worries revolving around the guy who got toasted.

He also reaches up and yanks out that dart, tossing it ill-temperedly at Snail's feet. Here, take back your garbage. His tail thumps once or twice in equally foul mood.

Snail snorts. "More or less. 'Gun violence' is part of our business."

She tunes into her radio again. "Comandante, Iguana and Antelope have arrived. Target is still mostly cooperative."

"Good. Almost to your location," Miller responds.

Iguana shoots Naugus another suspicious look, before returning his attention to his injured comrade. He's careful not to turn his back on the mage while he checks over the wound dressings and helps him into a more comfortable position. Once this is done, the gun gets raised again.

"Target! Always a thing, or creature or target! I have a name, same as you. Oh, except not; you're all just named after various types of Mobians." At one point of Iguana's furtive, untrusting glances, Naugus bares his many teeth and clicks them. Snap snap.

"Is 'Master' Miller getting here anytime soon? I have half a mind to just relieve you of those ugly dark glasses and head back myself. You can have him."

Snail rolls her eyes and doesn't bother indulging the mage with any kind of response. She's equally tired of this whole, bizarre situation.

As everything calms, the jungle has similarly settled back into normalcy; insects begin to buzz again and birds chatter in the branches.

The last three soldiers finally materialize through the shadowy brush, followed shortly by Miller. His hair and face are damp with moisture -- a mix of sweat and the jungle's condensed humidity. He sighs sharply, annoyed.

"So. You finally get that out of your system, Naugus?" Kaz's eyes light on the aviators hooked to the front of Snail's uniform and wastes no time reclaiming them. A quick polish with his scarf and they're back on his face. "What a fucking fiasco."

"You said nothing of soldiers pointing guns at me waiting on the other side! What was I to think!? I made clear I don't trust your species and here exactly is why! Such a sight back home would have meant certain death and you don't so easily unlearn the reaction to escape or attack first! Surely a career soldier of all people would understand that!"

He's super quick to get right on the angry explanation, jumping back up to his boots and pointing accusingly at Miller as his tail lashes in anger. He's also got a good deal more blood running down his chest (what's visible behind his beard, anyway) thanks to digging at wounds like a big dummy.

Miller waves off Naugus' outrage, trying to look like he's fully in control of the situation. No telling what's going through his soldiers' heads after participating in this whole ordeal. "You think I was planning this? You should be thankful I didn't have you drop me in Colombia. Could be dealing with the cartels."

He gets an eyeful of the mage's wound and grimaces. "Jesus. Snail wasn't kidding. You really did a number on your shoulder. For future reference, it's better to leave the slugs in there until you can find a surgeon.

"I'd offer you a medic, but something makes me think you don't want to stick around." He paces over to the portal trees, expecting Naugus to follow.

"Knowing your medics, they'd sooner fill me with more bits of metal than cure me." He turns and hisses one more time for good measure at the soldiers gathered before following Kaz, his hand covering the bullet hole in his shoulder.

"What's their fate, then? They've seen evidence of the Nexus and the existence of non-Overlanders. Please tell me you'll have them all up against the wall before they day is through. I would sleep so much more better with that thought."

"The knowledge that things like you exist is more than enough punishment, Naugus." Miller clamps a hand on Naugus' shoulder -- the one that isn't covered in gore -- and steers him to the portal. He turns to address his underlings, "Wait for me here. No radio contact with Mother Base until you've been debriefed."

The MSF unit responds affirmatively, even as they continue to wear expressions of mixed confusion and curiosity. There comes a murmur of hushed expletives as their commander and the mage pass between the trees and blink out of existence.

"Thing! Always thing! Can't even give me the dignity of calling me a person or a man, can you?" Yeah, he's definitely stuck on this particular point. "Next thing I hear, you'll be instructing your bloodthirsty soldiers to shoot anything that steps through that portal that doesn't wear dark glasses and an unfortunate haircut."

Back in the Nexus once again, Naugus continues to grump as he peeks at his wound, lifting his hand to do so, then pressing it back down. "Are we quite done here?"

"Chalk it up to a flaw in our language. 'Person' and 'man' usually imply 'human' to us Overlanders. Come up with a more comfortable word, and maybe I'll use it."

Passing through the portal drops them back into the Nexus' bitter chill and Miller can't stifle a sharp inhale. Fucking winter. "We're done. You don't want my help and I don't feel guilty enough to keep insisting. Besides, I've got to get back ASAP and do some damage control. Thanks for that."

"Comfortable w-...Just say person! I'm a person! I'm a sentient creature with ideas and ambitions! I'm no beast! Agh, we are quite through, you and I! Here. One last courtesy and only because I said I would."

A stomp of one foot and the circle of conjuration crunches downwards a good several inches into the concrete. A swipe of the hand and it's covered by a sheet of stone, smooth and imperceptible as an interruption to the flooring other than the grain of it going a different direction than the rest. And that's only if you look close.

"I'll find someone else to take these little bits of death out of my hide, don't worry your head over it." Naugus snorts and stalks back towards the door leading out of this warehouse. Hopefully not to dig at the wound himself some more.

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hellburger - 2016-03-24 05:58 (UTC) - Expand

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