The Keepers
Posts 357
Power Level 31
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Post by Geata on Feb 1, 2017 12:51:54 GMT -7
Back in the olden days of his natural, birth-given body, Geata really didn't put much thought into how to handle combat strategy. In most everything that wasn't a dragon fight, he thought he could simply react and eventually people got tired of dealing with it. If the situation called for a more proactive approach, be it that he was fighting a dragon or the rare occurrence that he couldn't afford to simply wait out other supers in order to achieve his goal, he was more at a loss of what the best course of action was but was still able to wing it. It seemed to work most of the time, so he hadn't felt the need to change.
However, dying seemed to be something that changed one's perspective on many things. Nothing really drove the fragility of life home quite like feeling yours slowly ebb away when you were perfectly fine just moments before. And with that newfound understanding of the ease with which a person could end up dead, Geata was very concerned about his ability to protect the people important to him. Things were far too likely to go horribly wrong and cost someone their life if he wasn't focusing and taking fights seriously. For that, he needed practice and training. And, though he likely wasn't the absolute best option for what was required, Blue Jay was a safe and willing training partner.
Was it not for his revelation, Geata'd likely not have even considered actually trying to figure out offensive capabilities of his power. The two things that he was aware of - dropping objects through portals and potentially making them fast enough to splatter a person like a bug on a windshield, or skipping the middle man and just using portals on the person directly - were horribly grisly enough that he really didn't want to think about what else he could do. But it wasn't about what he wanted, as much as he wished it was otherwise. It was about what he could do when a situation called for it, and he needed some way to fight back that most people could survive with minimal trauma.
Geata made sure to be at the boarding house early in the morning, before any of the tenants usually woke up as far as he remembered. He couldn't remember if there had been a time designated for when they were heading out or not, and it wasn't as though he had many more pressing concerns anyway to tend to at the moment. That was, in truth, part of the reason why he was so easily convinced to go along with Blue Jay's idea. It was also why he could stand to wait in the common room for however long it took for his friend to get up and ready. As such, he went to take a seat towards the far corner of the room and patiently waited for the arrival of his training partner.
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Pandaemonium
Posts 343
Power Level 30
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Post by Blue Jay on Feb 2, 2017 19:39:49 GMT -7
Blue Jay no longer slept at night. Night was when the docks lit up and the city shut down. The police shot less as they spotted their targets less often, and civilians were less perturbed about the figures they could not make out in the darkness. From the time the sun set to the time it rose, he could more easily go about his business, and the more insidious of the super community went about theirs. He would be there when someone decided it was a good idea to blow up houses. He would also be first in line when City Hall opened to get his needed paperwork, or remind the latest person he needed her signature before the coffee kicked in and she had enough energy to shoo him away. Early mornings had become his afternoons and were devoted to civilian matters, research at the library, and occasionally left overs from Aurora he hadn’t or couldn’t get done during the night. Then he caught his 7:30 history class, came home, and went to bed. The ‘nine to five shift’ had become synonymous with his recommended eight hours of sleep.
He’d adjusted fairly easily - likely due to the lack of people he commonly interacted with and connections to normal society, he knew but wasn’t sure if he wanted to admit yet - but the one thing that still liked to put its food out to trip him was the date. The calendar date changed about halfway through his day, so when people said ‘tomorrow’ they could be talking about the chunk before he went to bed or the chunk after he got some sleep, rather than the singular period of time usually following the next time one woke up. It played tricks with his head and was one of two main reasons he was startled to see Geata when he walked out of the kitchen.
He’d come in by way of through the wall, directly into the kitchen. Harder for any suspicious neighbour with darkvision to spot, less walking for him. It was time for dinner but not time to cook, so he’d grabbed one of the glass containers of leftover pasta and nuked it while he located the cheese. The last and only time he’d tried to take a bowl upstairs with him via teleportation, he broke the bowl and got chicken noodle soup and glass all over the floor, and had since learned to go on foot. Hot tupperware on a rag, mask hanging around his neck, fork in the other hand and jabbing at a meatball, he was ready to find his laptop and write some friendly emails reminding certain government officials that he needed their signature, please. Those seemed to cause a more positive response than showing up at this time of day.
The other cause of alarm was due to that he was used to being the only one up at this hour in a non-zombie state. When he caught an unusual figure at an unusual hour in the back of the room out of the corner of his eye, he assumed first ‘ghost’, followed by ‘robber’, and responded with a jump and a yelp. Quickly realizing that if Geata had come here to rob them he would’ve already done it and been on his way, he settled down, paced towards his friend, and tried to put a finger on what the thing nagging him in the back of his mind was.
“Shoot, we’re doing that today, today, aren’t we?” He said, his tone doing nothing to hide that he’d forgotten the time.
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The Keepers
Posts 357
Power Level 31
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Post by Geata on Feb 7, 2017 20:43:25 GMT -7
Geata stiffened when he heard a yelp come from behind him. There wasn't a single person in the house who should have any reason to be concerned with an unexpected visitor, so it seemed likely that whoever it was wasn't supposed to be there. Geata spun around, preparing for a possible fight, just to see that the unknown person was actually Blue Jay. He quickly decided that it would be best not to question the sound of definite surprise and possible fear, and instead simply tried to puzzle it out on his own.
He offered a wave that would hopefully help put Jay at ease before noticing the food. Slightly concerned, Geata wondered if his friend was getting a considerably late midnight snack or, judging by how awake he seemed at the late hour, if he was holding a late night dinner. Struggling somewhat to avoid mentally asking himself why he couldn't seem to make friends with people with normal sleeping habits, Geata was glad that Jay started a hopefully relatively normal conversation.
"Yeah, that was today," Geata said quietly, not wanting to risk disturbing any light sleepers. "You still up for it? I'm good with rescheduling if you need."
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Pandaemonium
Posts 343
Power Level 30
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Post by Blue Jay on Feb 8, 2017 22:45:29 GMT -7
Upon the realization that obligations would have him elsewhere than dinner, he began eating dinner as quickly as he could twirl pasta on a fork. Chewing was only as important as was needed to not choke, and by the time Geata finished, he’d finished off a third and growing of the tupperware.
“No, no, now’s great.” He said through the food. “I just forgot it was,” he paused to pull out his phone, “Saturday. Yeah, Saturday.”
Absently, he wondered what Geata was doing up at such a late hour. Not sleeping due to being metal seemed the most likely answer, but it still begged the question of what he was doing here, waiting around in the back of the room like he was the warm sort of grim reaper, sitting about friendly-like for the last few hours before his reason for being here was due. He guessed not sleeping gave someone a third more of a day to kill, and the seats here were pretty comfy.
Two thirds of the pasta eaten, he was content to call that enough calories for now. Placing the container on the arm of the closest chair and hovering over it a moment to make sure it wouldn’t fall, he wiped the sauce from his mouth and turned back to Geata.
“I just got back from my evening business, so I’m all set.” He motioned to the sword over his shoulder and the grand total of required items with his thumb. “You got a place in mind?”
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The Keepers
Posts 357
Power Level 31
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Post by Geata on Feb 14, 2017 12:42:25 GMT -7
Geata nodded slightly, paying only minimal attention to Jay shoveling his grub down his gullet. "Yeah, it's Saturday," he said, slightly concerned. "You doing alright? I doubt it's a good sign if you can't keep track of the day. Speaking from personal experience... Early diagnosis is that you're either in need of a break or needing to stop taking as many breaks. That being said, understand that I am by no means a properly licensed shrink and therefore probably have no clue of what I'm saying." He punctuated with a thumbs up before moving on.
"Given the little amount that I've played around with my powers since they've decided to get stronger, and how you completely demolished a couple buildings back when we accidently robbed that jewelry store; I'd say it'd probably be best if it isn't anywhere near civilization in general." He doubted Jay wanted a repeat of the last time he got shot at, and Geata certainly didn't want to risk the downsides of people being around super powers that could easily maim or worse. "Other than that, I've got no clue, really."
Besides the locale, though, he felt something else needed addressed. "If you don't mind my asking, by the way, what are you doing up? It's either really early or really late, depending. Don't tell me that you're able to go without sleep thanks to some power mumbo jumbo concerning your natural abilities," he chuckled. Considering what he knew of his friends' sleeping habits that he was privy to, the odds of Jay's being potentially out of wack and being anything but a sign of something bad were slim. "You doing alright, Kasty? Anything you need a hand with or something of the sort?"
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Pandaemonium
Posts 343
Power Level 30
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Post by Blue Jay on Apr 7, 2017 21:26:05 GMT -7
Blue Jay blinked at Geata’s question. The urge to get all teary-eyed and give the ‘no one’s ever asked me if I’m alright’ line came to mind. Definitely not accurate, but it had been a good hunk of time since he’d been the one asked that question rather than the other way around. Enough so that his response was delayed and came out a little bit startled. “Yeah, I think I’m fine. Been better, but I’ve been a whole lot worse too. Right now I’m just… coasting, I guess.” He shrugged.
“And that’s my question for you, too. I got approached by that Scary Lady person and she said you were under an unhealthy amount of stress. After she blew up some houses, like that’s not stress inducing.” He grumbled. “But,” he glanced back towards the stairs leading to the bedrooms above, and his voice quieted, “here’s probably not the best place and best time to get into that.”
Putting on a smile, “No, but see, through days of practice and mediation, I’ve discovered I no longer need to eat, sleep, or blink more than once a day due to the way my power interacts with my cells.” He said sarcastically. “Actually, this is about dinner time for me.” He pulled out his phone again to double check the time. “I mean, technically, it’s really early, but anyway-”
A couple of taps brought up Google Maps. “Actually I, uh, think I might know of a place.” He said slowly, part due to the phone’s lag while he attempted to navigate the map, part due to hesitation in admitting the location. After a fair bit of zooming and scrolling, he centered the small lake out in the Hallows in the frame and offered the phone out to Geata to see or take.
“I don’t think we’ll bother or be bothered by anyone there. Though it does look a little different than the map.” He chuckled embarrassedly. Mostly just slightly more cut up; the lake, specifically, had gained a large slice-like scar from its east to west coast, and the nearby tree line had lost a couple of its trunks. At least the large gash on the trail on the way up meant they weren’t likely to stumble into any hikers.
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The Keepers
Posts 357
Power Level 31
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Post by Geata on Apr 9, 2017 15:21:50 GMT -7
Geata hardly noticed the pause before Blue Jay gave his answer. He knew Jay knew that he could always come to him if he needed to talk. If he hadn't figured that out yet, then Geata honestly doubted that outright saying it would do any good anyway. He was only so capable of making the obvious clear, after all. The answer given put him at ease, slightly, though. It didn't sound like total bullshit meant to deflect the question, even if it still deflected the question. The brain in a bot nodded in understanding as he considered his answer.
"Oh, I'm fine," he said quietly with no small amount of sarcasm, though there was a certain lack of any hostility in his voice. "My girlfriend and I are part of an evil organization bent on world domination; she's not above murdering people; my two closest friends consist of a guy who I'm fairly suspicious may still be dealing with fallout from finding out he's really got powers and apparently can't die, and a girl who's most easily described as a 'trust fund anarchist-slash-terrorist-slash-dictator'; another friend of mine is on a potential kill list from a creepy telepath lady who now seems to be mentally stalking and/or profiling me as well; if one of the world domination people didn't lie, I've got the power to destroy the entire world at my fingertips; that same particular Keeper is an all around terrible influence for another person that I care about, who allegedly hates me and certainly doesn't seem to act otherwise; oh, and I'm brain walking around in an admittedly well made tin can. I'm totally swell, no reason to be stressed at all," he finished, chuckling tiredly. "Honestly, though, I'm fine, probably. I haven't had a mental breakdown yet, and, after all, what're the odds that things are going to get worse after all this?"
The news that the Scary Lady was blowing up houses was certainly concerning, but Geata agreed with Jay that they weren't at the best place to discuss that. In depth conversations about the specifics of Jay's powers were likely the same way. The location of their training grounds, though, was something that he didn't have any issues giving away. On the off chance that anyone was awake and around that would be tempted to try and attack, between the two of them, the odds seemed likely to be in their favor.
Taking the phone, Geata looked at the map for a few moments before nodding to himself. "Yeah, this'll work," he said thoughtfully before turning his attention back to Jay. "Doesn't look the same, you say? You go out there often?"
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Pandaemonium
Posts 343
Power Level 30
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Post by Blue Jay on Apr 11, 2017 13:23:18 GMT -7
So life was fine and Scary Lady was wrong, Blue Jay thought sarcastically. The decline of Emerald City property values was due to turn around any day now. None of this was particularly new information, but Blue Jay’s brow became increasingly knotted as Geata listed the reasons he wasn’t quite willing to believe his friend’s final conclusion. The added ‘probably’ didn’t help.
“Above zero.” Blue Jay chuckled hurriedly, half expecting the light fixture to come crashing down, or the windows to explode inwards, or for someone to come crashing in through a wall so as to prove counter to Geata’s point. “The world’s gotten really creative in its torture methods since superpowers came into the mix. And I kinda think having a mental breakdown is a little past a healthy threshold for what’s ‘fine’. But then again, this is all just a normal part of becoming an adult, right? No big deal.” He said, his voice thick with irony.
Oddly, though, there was some comfort in knowing Geata was concerned about him (and that he was considered a close friend). Even if the fact that he could neither fully confirm nor deny Geata’s suspicions was an equal and opposite concern raised therein.
The location offered a fine (although likely temporary, he was getting the sense) change in topic.. “Once. No,” he hesitated, “twice.” With about a month in between, if he was remembering correctly. “I don’t know the area really well, but I do know it’s out of the way and not police car accessible.” He offered cheerfully. “Anyway, I’m ready to go whenever. You providing transportation or should I go grab my bus pass?”
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