[WORLD ONE | UVI ATTACK]

[spellbindmods]

Who: The Uvi and coven members
Where: In and around the city land of Aimintas
When: Day 32 & 33
Open/Closed: Open to All

For coven members who haven't been in Aimintas very long, the panic of the Palai the past few days may seem like overkill. The day goes by rather quietly and Aimintas looks like a ghost town throughout the morning and most of the afternoon. Not one Palai can be seen, with shops closed and the roads virtually empty, aside from coven members. It isn't until the sky is turning a nice shade of pink that things begin. Observant people who may be gazing up at the ocean will see the very small dots in the sky that begin to approach at a very quick speed. If you're outside, you may get to see the Uvi up close -- but perhaps not for very long. The Uvi have rubbery bones, and they hit the dirt in a curled up position, unrolling themselves and leaping up on long, scaled legs. The shortest Uvi might come in at five feet tall, but most range from six to seven. They're lithe and gilled -- you may think they want to rely on stealth, but the sound coming out of their gills is very loud and raspy. There's no way you can't hear them coming as the ominous and rapid noise follows them everywhere. Some of them are walking around empty handed, eyes scanning and striding up to buildings, banging on the outside and observing the inside of the house as much as they possibly can. Others are carrying large, bleached tools made of fish bone and teeth. Some look like long blades, while others look like long axes. These are used for cutting into doors and other violent tasks they feel the need to complete. A ▢ If your character is wandering the streets, whether of their own ignorance or because they're part of the team trying to protect/negotiate with the Palai, they're very likely to run into one of the Uvi. While left to their own devices they'll only be focused on sniffing out Palai, but they're committed to going after anything they see alive and moving. If your character confronts the Uvi, they better be prepared for an attack. B ▢ Alternatively, maybe your character is caught outside and ill-equipped to handle the Uvi. Running is an option! ...But they better be able to run fast. Maybe your character gets lucky enough to run into someone who can help them, but they'd best hope they find each other fast. C ▢ Your character may also be committed to love and justice, fighting the forces of evil with good. It's very unlikely that Palai blood goes unspilled tonight, but your character may be able to prevent it as much as possible. Just be warned: if they confront the Uvi who are trying to break into a Palai house, they're going to be in for a fight. D ▢ Other characters may already be hiding, whether in the coven house or with Palai in their own homes. They'll hear the Uvi's harsh, gasping breathing before they see them, but if they do hear that raspy noise, they'd better be quick thinkers. Whether the Uvi visiting turns into a brawl or a blood bath, eventually the Uvi will return to the ocean with Palai bodies in tow. At around 4 AM, the Uvi begin to shriek, some making noises that are too high pitched for most ears to hear. From the sky, large flying fish descend from the sky and find their masters. The Palai are hoisted onto the back of these creatures and they take off, flying back into the ocean. E ▢ If your character is committed to defeating the Uvi, they may want to try and target the large fish they'll be flying out of. It's possible to kill them in the air, but watch where they fall. They're incredibly large -- larger than the sharks and bigger fish that have fallen out of the sky before. They can also be killed on the ground, but you'll also have to do with their protective Uvi owners. F ▢ Maybe your character is more into the idea of following the Uvi back home. It's possible! Once the Uvi breach the ocean, they swim fast through the dark water for miles and miles. The journey is treacherous, and some may stop the trek to attack in the water where they're more at home. If your character makes it to their lair, they'll find that it's a dense wad of seaweed that stays static in the ocean. The Uvi are used to the toxicity of the leaves, but trying to enter means touching these leaves that leave large, skin-melting welts as they grow and burst. G ▢ Wildcard! How will your character handle this violent and volatile situation.

Comments

[deem]

[9S does glance down at those hands, though he feels like Jude ought to have a melee weapon if he intends to fight up close. It'd be safer, coming from the perspective of a unit like himself]

...Are your hands damaged?

[Excuse him, because he's never seen calluses before]

i think i was spelling callus wrong this entire time up until this tag

[talim]

Huh?

[ oh. the calluses. jude squints down at them — he'd forgotten they were even there in the first place. they used to bother him. ]

Oh. Those are just calluses. They're toughened areas of the skin in response to friction and other things. They aren't harmful. Just sort of there.

it's not something we commonly use, seems to me

[deem]

[He takes in this explanation quietly, watching those hands still yet.

Don't mind him when he lifts his free hand to catch one of Jude's, just to run a gloved thumb over his knuckles]

So that's what they look like, huh...

[So many things are difficult to picture for himself, when they only exist in archives. That contact is brief, something he relinquishes after a moment, having observed and recorded this new information]

[talim]

[ jude doesn't mind the contact at all; rather, he finds it oddly comforting. despite his friends' support and encouragement, he's still a bit self-conscious about those calluses. ]

I never realized you'd be so interested in them.

[deem]

Well, I am a Scanner after all.

[Though he supposes this probably doesn't mean terribly much to Jude, so it bears explanation]

We're um...naturally curious, I guess?

[talim]

I've been meaning to ask about it for awhile, but... being a Scanner means that you and 2B are vastly different models, correct?

[deem]

That's a way of putting it. We're designed for different tasks.

[And he's just going to skirt around this subject a little because he doesn't want to deceive Jude, but anything he might say about Battlers isn't quite accurate to 2B. She's much stronger.

It's one of the things that tipped him off to her role, in point of fact]

[talim]

So when you say that you weren't designed for combat, the opposite is true when it comes to 2B, but gathering data is your area of expertise? Does that mean 2B is unable to process information as quickly and efficiently as you do?

Huh. I guess I never looked at either of you very differently...

[deem]

[9S is hesitant to put it that way, and it shows in the frown that tugs at his lips]

2B is just as capable of sizing up and defeating an opponent as anyone else. Better than most others, in fact. [Look he...he's a fan of his self-claimed family, okay] But she isn't made for hacking like I am, and there are certain things that are better left to me, I guess.

[talim]

You... don't sound so sure of yourself.

[ jude is getting more and more used to the self-deprecation that seems to radiate from 9s' entire being.

it isn't something he wants to get used to. ]

[deem]

I know what I am, and I know what I can do.

[9S can say those words firmly enough, and yet a certain melancholy seeps in, and with it, its own implication.

I also know what I couldn't do]

[talim]

Nines...

[ a heavy sigh. a sad one. ]

I can't speak for you, but... whatever it is you were built to do, you know I think you're more than that. I know I'll just be repeating myself, but I'll repeat myself as many times as I have to. That's what friends are for.

[deem]

[Ah, he's troubled him with this, hasn't he?]

I'm fine. [The filthiest of lies, but frankly...he's better than he has been in what feels like an eternity, ever since the succession of losses he was left to contend with, steadily stripped of purpose until there was nothing but vengeance and the promise of death to follow] YoRHa unit types are indicated by the letters in our designation, just for reference. S for Scanner, B for Battler. The numerical value's a bit more specific, since there are plenty of S-types but they're not all model 9.

[Yep, smoothing that sad away with infodump, true to form]

[talim]

[ ... ]

Are you just going to change the subject every time I try to talk to you about it?

[deem]

I don't know what I'm supposed to say to things like that.

[If he's being entirely plain about it.

Not to mention, the fact remains that Jude doesn't know the reasons for which 9S faults himself. They're things he isn't intent on sharing, shameful as he finds a great many of them. Those that he doesn't are simply burdensome to others, he's sure of that]

[talim]

There's nothing you're supposed to say. This isn't a pop quiz.

[ he sighs again, running a hand through his tousled hair. should he press the issue, or should he drop it and go back to the task at hand?

well... who says he can't do both? ]

Come here, Nines. Just walk with me.

[deem]

[9S almost admits that he doesn't know what a pop quiz is supposed to be, but he decides against it.

Instead, he ducks under another fallen beam toward a room they haven't yet examined]

I should take point, just in case. [Although he already has anyway-] I can't help the civilians like you can.

[talim]

[ jude allows 9s to take point without objecton, but he still shakes his head. ]

Shielding them and fighting off the Uvi is helping them just as much. You're doing more than your share of the work here. Give yourself some credit.

[ the room seems deserted, and much like the rest of the place they've explored, it's both dark and silent. jude's still on his toes, of course, but if 9s thinks the conversation is finished, well... that's unfortunate. ]

Listen. What I meant is that there's no right answer. All I want is to hear how you really feel. Deep down, deep inside — you.

You've been going on and on about doing what you're programmed to do, but... look at it this way. What about me? Were you programmed to make friends? You have so many different opportunities waiting for you. So many things to explore.

[deem]

[How he really feels...

That's actually quite the disturbing thought to entertain. Perhaps one person had known the truth to that, and had exacted as much from him by force. 9S will never forget that experience, violating as it was.

What Jude suggests of course is nothing at all like that. Even so, there has never been a time when 9S could be entirely honest about how he felt. Not about the things that mattered]

Funny thing about that... [Making friends. He starts, only to cut himself off. 2B had to befriend him, and it was a job. One she grew to hate, but nevertheless, it was something her unit type was programmed to do. But his knowledge of this is something he hasn't even made 2B aware of, lest he cause her more pain. And so instead-] Emotions are prohibited to YoRHa.

[It's not funny at all, is it?]

[talim]

Prohibited?

[ 9s has told him a lot of strange things about his life as an android living in a world so different from all that jude knows. things that have surprised him, shocked him, bewildered him. but this? this is on another level. ]

... Prohibited by who, exactly? Because last I checked, emotions don't have an on/off button.

[deem]

By Command.

[Not that Command exists anymore, but they're nevertheless designed with an inherent sense that their emotions are something they're supposed to control and tamp down. It's why he's grappled with a private shame for a long time, because his feelings are as strong as they are conflicted.

The guilt he feels for this, both the negative emotions he wishes he didn't have and the fact that he can't control it when he's supposed to, lingers with him still]

Ask 2B and she'll tell you the same... She's just better at adhering to it than I am.

[Not that he considers that a good thing, and there's something vaguely pained in his tone, though it might easily be overlooked. 2B's private suffering weighs heavy on his mind, but he doesn't have the first idea how to approach that.

Because he's the reason for it all]

[talim]

Command.

[ he repeats, blankly. jude clearly doesn't get it. doesn't understand in the slightest. doesn't want to understand. he's perceptive enough to hear the pain in 9s' tone, see it in the downward curve of his lips, and the extent of the effort 9s is puttng into trying to bury it is enough to make jude's chest ache. ]

I don't care what this Command of yours says. Emotions are nothing to be reprimanded for. Emotions are necessary. Without emotions, we'd all just be nothing but empty shells. You're smart, 9S. Kind. There's no reason to berate yourself over feeling things. That's just insane.

[ they're still close enough to touch, and jude, with his ever-present desire to comfort, grasps 9s' gloved hand with his callused palm and gives it a gentle squeeze of reassurance. his tone softens when he speaks again. ]

9S. I know there are things we can't see eye-to-eye on. I get it. By your standards, I'm nothing but an ignorant outsider. Perhaps that's the truth.

But...

[ jude begins to peel 9s' glove off. the soft skin of his hand is warmer than jude thought it'd be. ]

Can you trust me on this one thing?

[deem]

[By now, 9S is forming the impression that humans seek contact. It's something that he can understand, in his own way, but he nevertheless finds it strange when he's on the receiving end. What he initiates he can excuse as intellectual curiosity, learning something he might share with other androids should he ever see them again, and that makes it simpler.

Jude, he thinks, has no such rationale to adopt. Perhaps he's curious as to whether androids are actually warm or not, but he doubts it. Especially when he seems so terribly insistent about this subject.

Not when, it seems to him, Jude is trying so hard to make him look at things in human terms. It's as kind as it is wrong, and his awareness of his inferiority thrums its way through his thought circuits]

It isn't that you're ignorant. [He couldn't agree with such a deprecating thing...when it's directed at a human. When it's directed at Jude, who has only ever been kind to him, even if it's too much] But I'm not the same as you. I can't be, and that's never bothered me.

[All that had troubled him was the yawning void in the wake of fighting for a cause he'd believed in since he was first brought online]

I don't know why you don't understand that.

[Which is to say, trusting and believing are quite different]

[talim]

[ with 9s' glove discarded, jude absentmindedly brushes his fingers over his knuckles in a soothing gesture. he lets himself marvel at just how soft an android's skin is before looking right at him. they'd be locking eyes if 9s wasn't wearing those goggles of his. jude wishes he'd remove them every once in awhile. ]

I do understand our objective differences. I do.

[ he rubs slow circles into 9s' palm with his thumb. ]

But I also understand the myriad things we share, and I don't know why you don't understand where I'm coming from, either. If you didn't have emotions...

[ jude pauses, casting his eyes down toward the ground and halting the movement of his hand. ]

... then we'd never be having this conversation, would we? Perhaps we never would have even met. There's no doubt we wouldn't have befriended one another.

And I value your friendship, Nines. I'm glad I have someone I can trust to back me up here with me.

[deem]

[It's a curious thing, the way Jude touches his hand. 9S isn't sure if it's intended to comfort one of them, and if so, which of them it's really meant for. He remains still, if only because of that uncertainty. Thinking in terms of how a human would respond to this gesture doesn't sit right with him, and yet, he has no other frame of reference to draw on.

Jude's hands are rougher than his, he notes. There was only so much he could gauge while wearing his gloves, but having worn them nigh-constantly, it's strange to be without one now. Maybe it's wrong, direct contact like this.

After all, if the data he was shown in the Tower was right, then... Wouldn't he be unfit? If a vital component of his was made with parts from the enemy of mankind, then...

He violently shoves the thought aside. It's not something he wants to be. Not something he wants to believe]

I didn't say that I don't feel, but...I'm not supposed to.

[Maybe he would've been more effective if he didn't, but as he'd learned despite trying so hard to deny it, even machines had the capacity for emotions]

And it seems to me that you're more concerned than necessary.