Brave Galaxy is set in a world loosely based on Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail and Eden’s Zero. It is a PG-13 or so rated space fantasy RP, and uses a combination of character statistics, which can be acquired via roleplaying and events, and creative freedom to help direct players’ characters. While there is a main storyline, which can be found in the events section, characters are free to interact with others and their environment however they see fit.
Explore the galaxy. Overcome the obstacles in your path. Shape the future of humanity.
Jak gripped her ISC badge tightly, and in a flash of light, Jak found her clothes to have been replaced by something entirely different. The uniform was pressed impeccably, the defensive systems of the ISC uniform being dormant, for the time. While Jak could surely requisition some sort of transport, if needed, it was far from her mind. As far as she was concerned, hitching a ride was just par for the course, and while she wasn't about to use ISC resources, there was no harm in using her rank as a bargaining chip to convince a crew to allow her passage on their ship. After all, having a member of the Security Commission on board your vessel practically guaranteed you safety in your journey... at least, in theory. And that was good enough for many, especially with a few credits thrown into the mix. And with that thought in mind, Jak had approached one of the larger ships which was transporting cargo to a planet near to where Jak normally operated.
It didn't take long to find the ship's captain, Lorne. Took even less time to convince him to let Jak come aboard. Still, the Nostromo was a cargo ship, and while there was plenty of space, it was designed for a skeleton crew, with quarters to match. While initially, Lorne had taken this to be a deal-breaker, Jak found it perfect. After all, she had spent many of her formative years learning to smuggle herself across the galaxy. A few days sleeping on the ground was nothing compared to spending that same time hiding in vents and under floor panels. So, Jak agreed, settled with Lorne, and left him (or more accurately, his crew) to continue loading cargo onto his ship in peace.
The next day, they took to the skies. According to their itinerary, they'd arrive in just under a week, though until then, most of the crew wouldn't have anything to do but wait... wait, and be ready for battle in case the ship was attacked by pirates. And as such, everyone found themselves spending their time sitting around in the mess hall table, shooting the shit, playing cards and generally just... waiting for something interesting to happen.
Galen was a nice enough guy: bit of a bruiser, crass at times, but seemed to have a fairly good head on his shoulders... even if it was practically empty. He seemed to be attached to Lucca at the hip. It was pretty clear they were a couple, and Lucca definitely wore the pants in the relationship, despite Galen towering over her by almost a foot and a half. And last of the crew was Drake, a smarmy, sarcastic prick that Jak had to resist punching on at least three occasions on the first day of their journey. Meanwhile, Lorne mostly kept to himself, squirreling himself away in his quarters at any point where he wasn't needed on the deck. “So, Luc,” Jak finally asked,“What kinda cargo you haulin' anyways?”
“Aw, fuck if I know. We just stuff from all sorts. Most of it's just trade goods, but we also have some stuff on contract, too.”
“Contract, eh? Anything... shifty?”
Lucca laughed, “Well officer, it's mostly just hard drugs! Seriously, now. You really think we'd have contraband and cop on the same ship, kid?”
“Hey, I gotta do my job, too, ain't I?” Jak snapped back, “Y'all could just be the dumbest crooks in the galaxy, fer all I know!”
That.... was the last conversation that felt normal aboard the Nostromo. The next day, they would be awoken by the sound of alarms. Panic. But nothing except clear skies and silent corridors. Everything seemed to be a false alarm, but Lorne didn't believe that. He had come back from the cargo hold with a grim expression on his face.
“I... I didn't know.”
And with that, he collapsed on the floor, a pool of blood spilling out from beneath his corpse.
Keeping track of the name of each planet Rome set food upon was a futile attempt in all honesty. He wasn't an idiot by any means, but it was more like there was a problem with the conversion of short-term memory into long term. At least, that was what that human had told him... hm, the doctor! At least, that was what Rome believed he had called himself, before he had eaten his head. So he was wandering the streets in an attempt to clear his head in order to figure out what to do next. "What do you think we should do?" Rome asked the poor woman he had kind of just cornered out of nowhere. It was menacingly, he just needed someone to help him think, so he had stopped the nearest person. Tapping the tip of the closed parasol in his hand against the heel of his boot, Rome mused as the woman sobbed hysterically out of sheer terror.
Realizing that his whole 'being a living Nightmare' was having an intensely bad impact on the human, Rome was considering if he should just leave her alone. On the other side, she reeked of fear, which was incredibly sweet, and delicious. He suppose he could take her with him, but then the local enforcers of order would come for him. Killing people was easy, but if he just took a human, that would definitely slow him down. Then again, a snack was always nice to have on hand. If her fear dried up, then he could just eat her head. His large white orbs suddenly blinked in surprise as he realized that the woman was holding some kind of small screen up to him to look at, while sobbing uncontrollably. The orbs narrowed into two white lines of light as he looked closer at the screen. It was a picture of a bunch of ships sitting together, like a starport. "We thank you for your suggestion," Rome said as his eyes opened fully. Swinging the red parasol up, he popped it open and began walking once more. Leaving the woman to finally collapse on the ground, openly weeping into her arms as her body balled up. This interaction would go on to severely scar her for the rest of her life.
That had been about a day ago. In the night, Rome had slipped onto a cargo ship, and hid within the ventilation shaft. It was a tight squeeze, but Rome was narrow, though tall. Cramped dark places didn't really bother him anyway, it gave him time to think. Besides he was never really alone, the remnants of his mother and father's consciousnesses continued to linger within his own. Though he could not say he was particularly fond of talking to them. It was quite annoying when they started trying to push him around to do things their way. Though, like the petulant child he was, Rome shirked them at every turn. Their advice falling only on deaf ears at all times. However, in this instance, they were strangely quiet, this made it easier to ear the moving abouts of the crew. There was only a handful of them on board, and they seemed to be fairly normal. Their levels of fear were within the averagely low level that most humans carried with them. Rome was fairly certain the fear that all humans carried with them was the constant subconscious acknowledgement of their impending morality. Which the mass void thought was a fairly humours thing to be afraid of, but to each their own.
Rome was honestly enjoying his time in the ventilation shaft above the cargo bay, well, until all the noise below him. There was a moment of shouting and... snarling? The sounds of a struggle and then, shuffling, and what Rome could have sworn to be tapping. Pulling his body across the vent, he peered through the grate to observe what was happening. All he caught was a shadow at the far end of the cargo bay just before it disappeared behind some large crates. Taking a moment to make sure the coast was clear before popping the grate and pulling himself out, gently dropping himself down, crouching with the fall to keep from drawing attention of whatever was in the room with him. There was the sign of a struggle, different bits of cargo knocked over and pushed around, with a little bit of blood splattered on the floor. It was quite curious to Rome, was this a conflict between two humans? If so they did it wrong. Both of them were still alive.
Well, they were in mid-flight so there wasn't much any of the crew could do about him being on the ship, so tracking down the bleeding victim wouldn't cause Rome any problems. It didn't take long to catch up to him, but as Rome peered around the corner he had already missed the fall, and was currently staring at a corpse... How boring was that? There was nothing fun about a thing like that. However, there seemed to be other people there as well. The black void of his face rips in half in a large smile the would spread, literally, ear to ear. Well, if he had ears. This smile increasingly horrifying due to the multiple rows of jagged teeth. "What game are you play? We want to play too."
Jak was upon him in a matter of moments, but it was too little, too late. Lorne was dead before he even hit the ground; the healing magicks which Jak carried on her person was far from capable of reviving the dearly departed. She didn't even get a chance to look over the body before a moving shadow caught her eye. She was on her feet before she even confirmed the movement, her training ushering her to create space between herself and any potential threat. Her hand on her weapon, Jak finally stared down the creature which had made itself known.
The crew weren't like her. They weren't soldiers. They weren't cursed. They didn't have experience dealing with demons, magic, and creatures of malice. All of them were terrified, in their own way... but not Jak. Even as Drake scrambled back through the halls behind them, trying to flee from the shadow monster, Jak wasn't afraid. Cautious. Curious. But fear had long ago been trained out of her by not just the ISC, or even the Bundeswehr, but her family's own sadistic training, meant to create the cream of the criminal crop, and remind them, from a young age, what becomes of those who are ruled by fear.
As the creature's mouth spread open, Jak held her ground, one hand before her in a warding gesture, her eyes locking with the bright orbs above the creature's gaping maw. A voice came from the creature, eliciting a response from those who still watched the interaction, their fear deepened by the childlike demeanor of the monstrosity before them.
"What game are you play? We want to play too."
Jak's hand rested on her weapon, her reply measured and firm. "Second Lieutenant Jacqueline Moreau-Rousseau, ISC: Peacekeeping Division. State your name and intention."
From somewhere behind her, Jak could hear Drake's voice ringing out, loudly arguing for Jak to forgo procedure and 'put the monster down.' But, Jak couldn't do that. Whatever this thing was, be it demon, or monster or fey, it was at least intelligent enough to communicate. And if it was the reason that Lorne lie dead, then it would answer for its crimes. But, it wasn't a mindless animal. This shadow, whatever it might be, was, at worst, a criminal. But for now, it was a suspect. And until she learned more, she would treat it as such. Her hand still on her weapon, Jak continued to stare down the creature before her.
"Are you responsible for this man's injuries?" she probed further, her eyes training on the bright white orbs, trying to discern the meaning behind their gaze.
Following the woman's words, the others fell into silence. Fearfully eyeing the dark entity the was peering from around the corner. Slowly, his smile faded from his face-like void as the darkness... well, have you ever seen two pools of ink on a page slowly merge together, overtaking the white of the page until there was nothing but the now singular pool of black. That was what it looked like as his teeth were overtaken back into the darkness of his head as he simply stared at the one that had spoken to him. Without an actual face, determining what was going through that alien mind of his was pretty much impossible for an observer to achieve. However, if one was able to discern what he was thinking in this moment, they would find themselves quickly disappointed. At first, Rome was simply confused. Why didn't the human answer his question? And why was she asking for his name? Was that whole thing her name? Why was it so long? That was stupid, she was stupid. This confusion was quickly replaced with a staggering amount of agitation. Not only was this human being ridiculous, but something amongst her babble had registered with him.
Peacekeeping.
He had heard it used before on a few planets. It was a phrase used by the enforcers of order that upheld the laws of their petty little societies. He could feel his mother's disgust radiating from the deep corners of his mind. Chaos was a core piece of what he was. It would not be too far as to call Rome and such enforcers natural enemies. It was for that fact, that Rome avoided them. While most of them were fairly weak, there was no reason to risk extermination. Although, that really hadn't stopped him from attacking someone before properly gauging them. That had changed a good amount since Leo had discovered him, and then quite easily subdued him. A lot had changed from imprinting onto Leo actually. Like a catalyst to jumpstart his evolution, at least on a psychological level. Although those changes had not developed very far. However, it was far enough along to keep Rome from just lunging at the people like once may have at least.
Looking down at the corpse again, Rome frowned, or would've frowned it he had a normal mouth. "We did not do this. We were resting when we heard a great noise. All that we saw was a shadow duck away behind the garbage that is in the big room," Rome was obviously talking about the cargo-bay, and the garbage was the cargo that was being hauled. Rome found the death of this human rather distasteful. Whatever killed him did so without fighting him... or eating him. "We would never waste a human like that. Heads are tasty only while they are alive after all. That thing is not interesting at all," As he spoke, he pointed at the man's body, not at all hiding his distaste for it. Rome had a problem with corpses. Not because they were simply dead, but once a being ceases to live, it is nothing more than a thing to it that is just taking up space. No respect for the dead, because they are just that, dead. A corpse was simply a collection of matter that ceased to be animated by the very energies that Rome enjoys eating.
Rome stepped around the corner, finally giving a full view of his six foot, seven inch tall self. His body was abnormally narrow, with his limbs and torso obviously a bit longer than they should be for his proportions. He wore a pair of black boots, with a pair of black slack tucked into them. A long white coat covers his torso with two tails, and a high collar on it. Both hands covered in gloves, and in his right hand he held a red parasol. The ship was obviously not built for someone as tall as he was, since as he stepped closer, he had to duck down when he passed through the doorway. "Your name is too long. You should have a shorter name like us! For we are Rome," As he finished speaking, his eyes suddenly shifted from white light to blue as a secondary voice emanates from his form... well, more correctly, the voice echoed in the other's head.
"You dishonor yourself madame! Remove your hand from the vicinity of your weapon!" Suddenly Rome's hand whipped out in front of him as he pointed at Jak, "Second Lieutenant Jacqueline Moreau-Rousseau apologize to my son for your rudeness, promptly!" As soon as the words left him, Rome's hand dropped and the light of his eyes returned to white.
Post by fairchild.txt on Nov 10, 2020 13:07:21 GMT
Jak wasn't sure what she had expected. But it was definitely not this. When he was still in the shadows, the hunched shape had seemed both somehow both more and less threatening than when it stepped into the light and fully revealed itself. The bright colors contrasted against its shadowy body were now evident in the light, the fact it would even have such things hinting at an intelligence, however limited it might actually be. But the things it had to say about human life were... not exactly promising. Heads were only tasty when they were alive? Definitely not an ideal thing to say, when trying to convince others not to attack you, that's for sure. Still, if what it said was true, this creature was innocent of Lorne's murder. But it was just as likely that this was purely by circumstance, rather than any respect for life, law or morality.
She motioned for the others to back away, her eyes never leaving the demon which called itself "Rome", her hand still hovering a hair's breadth away from her sword. She stared up into its eyes, refusing to back down. It moved suddenly, its hand reaching toward Jak, causing the officer to draw her weapon, not willing to take orders from such a creature. However, as she did, she realized that Rome had not been reaching for Jacqueline, but pointing at her, accusatorily, the voice ringing through Jak's mind, clearly distinct from the one who had spoke before.
"Second Lieutenant Jacqueline Moreau-Rousseau apologize to my son for your rudeness, promptly!" As soon as the words escaped its maw, the creature's hand dropped and the light of his eyes returned to white.
But for the moment, Jak could only scowl.
"I will not apologize for treating a criminal as such. You are trespassing on this ship. Surrender now, and submit yourself to capture."
The blade was drawn, but the effect had not been activated. After all, to Jak, it seemed that Rome was, itself, made of shadows. Who's to say whether the dark magicks of the blade would even have an effect on it. Hell, it might even be capable of absorbing that magic, to strengthen its form. And since she had no way of gauging its strength, she needed to avoid any possible avenues for the creature to gain an advantage.
"I hope to settle this peacefully, Rome." Jak continued, "For the crew of this ship, myself, and even you."
"But if you seek to harm those under my charge, I will not hesitate to cut you down."
((OoC: OOF~ Their relationship is... not getting off to a great start. But Jak's doing her best to protect the crew, first and foremost. I just hope that Rome's got some self-preservation on his mind. Otherwise things are about to get messy.))
last edited Nov 10, 2020 13:07:41 GMT by fairchild.txt
Having snapped from his father's brief control, Rome found himself undistracted by anything, giving him a moment of great clarity of what was going on around him. Because of this, he was able to notice something rather strange going on in the room that they all occupied. Unfortunately for the humans in the room, they could not simply follow where his eyes were looking, thanks to them just being two large orbs of light. If he had any kind of pupil to speak of, then they would all now that his focus was on the ventilation shaft above them, from which the sound of a light scratching could be heard. However, because Jak and everyone else in the room were so hyper-focused on Rome's presence, none of them had taken any notice of the sound of claws on metal above them. In retrospect, it probably did not help that aside from Rome himself, no one else was even remotely aware that there was a second entity on board. This was something that Rome could have easily remedied by simply telling Jak and the others what he had seen back in the cargo bay, with actual detail instead of just being vague about it all.
Bringing his attention back down, Rome began to actually process what was being said to him. A criminal? Their established system of rules that maintained their peace in society meant nothing to him. He was not human, nor was he a part of any society. As the holder of the Thirteenth Crown, Rome was a being of chaos, and to stay true to what was suppose to be his nature meant complete rejection of forms of order. Also, why would he surrender? It wasn't like he was going to kill anyone, there was no need for it right now unless he was attacked. "Why would we give ourselves to you? We do not adhere to you illusions of order, and go where we please" He said, tapping his parasol against the side of his boot absent-mindedly. "If we wanted to kill anyone, we would have done so from the beginning, before you were alerted to our presence. We are not stupid, simply young," From his tone, one could almost say he sounded like he was offended. Like, she thought he didn't know how to be a proper predator. He would have waited until everyone had been sleeping, most likely on the second night, and then kill them one by one before they woke.
Her remark about wanting to end things peacefully kind of irked him a bit though. His father whispered to him, and so he could kind of understand why she wished this. She was an enforcer, so to allow others to fall would be a disgrace on her. Although, he hoped she wasn't going to take it too hard, because if this thing in the vents thought anywhere near the same lines as himself as an apex, then Rome was very aware of what was about to happen. The sound of the scratching from within the vent had ceased just at the grate... That had been a few minutes now. Rome could almost feel his own body flexing in reflection to how the unknown entity would most likely be readying its own body. "We believe that you should probably be dealing with that instead of worrying about us," Rome simply pointing past Jak just a fraction of a moment before the grate was torn off the vent and a black blur shot down, impaling through the human called Drake's back, bursting from his chest. Then, after just giving a moment for everyone to try to process what was happening, the appendage retracted back into the vent, dragging Drake in after it, breaking his body as it was bent, and snapped at strange angles as he was forced into the narrow space from behind.
"It did it," Rome piped up far too soon, while the crew was screaming in horror, scrambling to flee from the opening in the vent. Blood painting the floor, dripping from the vent, with bits of clothing and some flesh, hanging from the edges that were broken from the force of the creature. Rome was, unsurprisingly, unaffected by the events that had just transpired. Although, it did make him want to play with the creature. It was certain to be some fun.
Post by fairchild.txt on Nov 20, 2020 17:20:46 GMT
Jak's eyes were practically rolling into the back of her head. The old "Agent of Chaos" monologue: she'd heard it a fair bit. One of the perks that come with being a cop in a family of crooks. She'd heard it all before. Grand musings about destiny, and birthright, and the natural state of the galaxy. And not once had it rooted in her mind as anything but a flight of fancy from someone who just wanted to justify whatever horrible thing they were planning on this week. And if she hadn't been so concerned with judging Rome's philosophy, or so distrustful of the creature who was making no moves to attack any of them... she would have realized how quiet it had become.
The sound had been omnipresent before, or rather, it had seemed to be. Ever since the alarms went off, the sound of scratching in the vents had been there. Jak had simply dismissed it. Figuring the sound owed itself to a bent fan blade, scraping against a duct... or a rat or other pest scurrying along the interior of the ship. But she didn't notice something very important: no matter where she went, the sound followed. That was, until Jak made her way back to the common room to meet with the others, only picking up again a few moments before Lorne collapsed before them.
And in the silence, Jak should have known. Should have realized the danger. Should have connected the dots. The creature had been hunting her. Almost as long as she had been awake. And she would have realized long before. Or even in the moments before the creature struck... if only she had not been so careless. If only she hadn't allowed herself to tunnel-vision onto what she assumed to be the threat. Rome's finger pointed behind her, and in a flash, all this popped into her head. Whatever the creature was indicating, it was all Jak's fault. She had allowed it to happen.
The clanging of metal being forced outward drew all their attention away from Rome. Drake was sucked into the vent almost immediately, Jak spinning on a dime and training her weapon. She crouched low, trying to get a bead on the monster, but finding nothing. She could see the light fade from Drake's eyes, his spine snapping as he crumpled into the vent, twisting the opening by sheer force as blood sprayed out from the open passage. Watching the opening, Jak couldn't see any further movement, though chunks of meat clung limply to bent metal, ripped apart by the force of Drake's egress.
Jak jerked her head to one side, indicating for the remaining crew to get up against one wall, away from the other vents and passageways which lead into the common area. The sound of scraping metal had started up again, paired with the sound of banging and scraping. No doubt Drake's body was harder to move with stealthily. Or perhaps now that it had a meal, the monster was simply less concerned with stealth. Jak checked what little she could see before turning back to the remaining crew. Galen seemed to be taking it the worst, still massive despite being curled into a defensive ball, cowering away from the site of Drake's end. Lucca, meanwhile, did her best to comfort him, though it was clear from the look in her eyes that she had only false hope to share; she had seen a lot in her day, but nothing so bleak as this.
Jak stood before the pair of them, a determined look in her eye as she handed her revolver to Lucca, who took it without much hesitation. Whether she intended it to be used on the monster or themselves, for a moment, Lucca was unsure. But Jak, herself said nothing, that same grim expression plastered across her face as she looked down on the couple. Galen felt a hand on his shoulder as Jak began to speak for the first time since the attack.
"Alright, Rome. You said you saw this thing, right?" Jak probed, her back toward the shadow creature, "So how about this. I'll pay your way. Wherever you wanna go, I'll make it happen. And you'll be going in comfort."
"And in exchange, you'll tell me everything you know about that fucker. And you'll find out how I would keep my promise from earlier."
As she spoke, a flash of light flared out and Jak's attire began to change, new armor materializing onto her body piece by piece. Black underclothes covered by white padded armor and blue pauldrons covered her body. Clunky gauntlets rest at her sides, both hands balled into fists next to paired canisters featuring a red cross insignia. And finally, a visor materialized, covering her head in a protective helmet, her features almost completely obscured, other than her mouth, curled into a furious scowl. As she spoke, she drew the sword which had materialized on her back, turning away from the crew and back to her new, temporary ally, appealing to whatever goal it sought to reach, if that meant assuaging herself of the personal responsibility she felt for Drake's death.
"Because that FUCKER seeks to harm my charges," she snarled, "So I will not hesistate to CUT. IT. DOWN!" ((OoC: Jak has gone off the deep end. And now, she is ready to fuck shit up. She's wearing her not only her H.A.M.M.R. Armor, but also the Gauntlets, as well as her A-Class fucking DEATHBLADE, and two canisters of healing cocoa!))
last edited Nov 20, 2020 17:23:41 GMT by fairchild.txt
As the gory events unfolded before him, Rome found himself the only one not reacting with a very... loud reaction. The humans that were alive to witness the horrific evisceration of their compatriot, begin to scream and cower in fear at the site of the blood drenched open grate in the ceiling. The flood of such intense fear was near approaching incredibly intoxicating levels, the entire room just swimming in it. If Rome had been starving, this moment alone would have kept him well fed for days. Though that implied that Rome was capable of starvation, which simply wasn't true. However, this fact did not take away from what was happening right now.
Death and viscera was just another part of just another day for Rome. What was it that humans said? All in a day's hard work. Unlike the others, Jak's reaction was not one of fear, but more one of anger. She had called these people her "charge" before. He hadn't really thought about what it meant the first time. Perhaps she was responsible for them? That would make sense, and Rome would probably already have a full understanding of this if he had bothered to fully pay attention to anything the woman was saying to him. Of course that would include now, though this time around he was paying far more attention.
Her offer was not a bad one for Rome, though considering he knew close to nothing about the predatory that was now loose in the ship, he did feel concerned that after telling her what he knew, she would go back on the deal. Then they would be right back to where they started, with the added bonus of Rome being enraged. In this situation, even without his father muttering in his non-existent ear, that he needed to put forward his own offer.
"We will tell you what we know, and assist you in hunting the creature," Rome moved closer the the grate as he talked, staring at it, "However, in exchange we want you to help us find and return to someone whom we have become separated from." Raising his red parasol, poking at a piece of flesh that was dangling from the now serrated metal edges of the opening. "There is no need for fear of the beast. The human it took would be for its meal. After all, it has grown at an exponential rate, and will probably be feasting for quite some time." At least, that was what Rome had done after his birth into this universe. Of course his birth was exponentially more unusual.
last edited Nov 24, 2020 14:30:17 GMT by Mortifero
"Sure. Whatever." she conceded, "You help me take tha' thing down, I'll do what I can."
The gears were turning in Jak's head. She knew what had to be done. She just didn't know where it could be done. So, she turned back to Lucca, an authoritative edge on her voice that offered no room for debate.
"What we need is a choke point: one way in. one way out. Electronic lock. Restricted ventways."
However, it wasn't Lucca who actually spoke up, but Galen. "The armory."
It only made sense they had an armory, she supposed. After all, they were a trade ship, which means they were prime targets for any roving bands of assholes looking to score an easy payday. She highly doubted that whatever peashooters they were packing would be capable of taking that thing down... but she really only needed it as a staging ground. For all she cared, they could have used a broom closet, if it fit her stipulations. Ventways would be restricted, to avoid any stowaways from sneaking into the weapon stores. And an electronic lock would ensure that no one could enter, other than approved personnel.
"Right. Let's get movin'. If Rome's right, that thing is probably growin' more dang'rous as we speak."
The sound of boots on metal was suddenly deafening: each resounding step a potential beacon to draw the monster directly towards them. But, at this point, Jak was otherwise silent, her mind fully focused on listening for any noises outside of their footfalls. Occasionally, a sound would reverberate through the ventilation ducts, an echoing reminder of the beast which would have them all for lunch. Minutes felt like hours, but when they finally came to keypad embedded in the wall, Jak could feel something akin to relief.
"He..." Lucca started, "Drake was a bastard... but he didn't deserve to go like that... no one does."
Rather than respond, Jak could only find herself grinding her teeth. Whatever Lucca may or may not have been implying, Jak took it personally. Instead of addressing it, she focused on the task at hand: keeping the remaining crew safe. She motioned to the door, beckoning Galen to punch in the access code so they could survey the room. No vents, but clearly there was airflow, if only slight, air seeping through along the cableways and under the grates in the floor. Not even enough room for a human to pass, let alone whatever the hell that monster was. No way for it to get in, other than that door. It was perfect.
"I need you two to stay in the back." Jak ordered, and immediately, the pair acquiesced to her command.
However, when they turned back to face her, they found Jak and Rome standing outside the room. The pair only had a moment to react before the door closed. Followed a second later by the sound of twisting metal, shattering glass and sparking electronics. Outside, Jak's H.A.M.M.R. fist was wedged through the control pad. And with a quick jerking motion, she withdrew it, tearing out several wires and components in the process. No way that door was opening now. At least, not without a plasma torch and about half an hour of work.
{Spoiler}[Rank 5]: H.A.M.M.R. Fist charges with concussive force, delivering a shockwave with each punch that lands. This effect does instances of [SEVERE] damage each strike and continues for up to four (4) posts. (Cooldown: 2 posts)
last edited Nov 25, 2020 2:52:55 GMT by fairchild.txt
So it was in agreeance. Rome would eat this predator and in exchange, Jak would assist him in his search for Leo. This was promising, and it pleased Rome greatly. Unlike the humans, he felt no fear, or rage, in this moment. Because of this, he was by far the most cleared headed of them all, but he was not one for plans. So when it can to what to do next, for Rome it was easy to decide: Follow Jak's lead and that sounded like meaning that they were going to the armory of the ship. If Rome was remembering correctly that was a place where they kept weapons. While he never used them, Rome was fully aware that a great many humans rely on weaponry to help them survive. They were resourceful in their instinctual need to continue existing, though Rome did not have this need. His body could give him what he needed to survive. Even though he was young, his prowess as an apex predator would be apparent to anyone that got a good view of him in action.
As the group began to move through the ship, Jak on high alert for any sign of the creature that had killed one of her own, but Rome was far more relaxed, simply looking around as he followed the band of humans through the vessel. While it looked like he was simply bored with have his large white gaze kind of just glided over everything around him, in truth he was taking in the details of the ship. If they were going to go after the creature, Rome needed to have a decent understanding of the what the layout of the ship was. In other words, he was rapidly learning, absorbing what he could with what little he had access to. The ship's halls were very limiting, perhaps just more than two people wide, yet high enough for Rome to not need to worry about hitting his head on something, that was until they had to cross the threshold of doorway. At that point, hunching over some was definitely required. He would be able to turn and move fairly well if he had to fight, but with it being so enclosed, avoiding wide attacks would be incredibly difficult if they got stuck trying to take this thing on in the halls.
Although, trying to look about the ship as they walked, Rome found himself having a somewhat difficult actually focusing. The surviving crew reeked of various kinds of fear, and it was fogging his head a bit. Clear thinking was already hard enough for Rome with his parents in his head, but this was making it far more difficult. Of course, this was to a short-termed problem. It was not too long before they came onto, what Rome assumed to be, the armory. The two others entered, Rome tossed the man hsi red parasol, just moments before Jak decimated the door's controls, thus sealing the two inside. "We were born to hunt those in the dark," Rome's face splitting open to reveal his rows of teeth as he attempt to emulate a human's smile. He was quite giddy at finally being able to do what he did best, kill things. "We believe we should go to where the first human was attacked." Without waiting for Jak to response, Rome aboutfaced, and began heading back the way that they had came, without seemingly any care about the creature that could be lurking anywhere in the ship. It would take a short bit, but it wouldn't take too long.
After a few minutes in silence, while traversing the halls, Rome finally spoke up, "We have a question! Why is it you choose order?" Looking back to Jak, "Chaos is true freedom, Order exists to control and restrict. Look at how it is making you feel now." When Rome had met Leo, he hadn't really got a chance to actually talk to him. Then again, Leo was also more like Rome than Jak was, this opposing viewpoint to prove to be a great moment to learn, and maybe grow. Thinking about things was usually Rome's thing, but being around Jak was making him question things, and realizing how little he understood.
last edited Dec 16, 2020 16:31:18 GMT by Mortifero