WEEK FOUR

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (4)

monday - thursday (33) survivors Sunday's trial was only mere hours ago, but you find yourself faced with a new week on The Pygmalion. When you awaken, you will find the ship restored to its previous state, all areas interfered with during the murder looking mostly the same as they did before. Along with this, it appears there are new areas opened on the ship. It seems you have more exploring to do. The robot in the cafeteria has prepared another breakfast of various foods. (OOC: Please submit your murder proposals by 9 PM EST Tuesday.) taken list profiles private conversations setting rulebook murder proposals ENTER COMMAND_

Comments

[chiseler]

[Hello space-elf. Luke winds up grinning as he looks down from his place on the shelf. He's precariously balanced on a couple of things to get a boost in height and let's just hope the shelves don't fall over...]

Because Roxy brought up a good idea and I have nothing else to do. Can't I pretend to be a useful member of society? [Read as: "I'm probably vaguely traumatized and this is a lot better than hiding in my room until the robots drag me out."]

[thanatosincarnate]

{ You know Luke if you just asked him, he could hold you up by his own hands. Okay, no that was ridiculous. }

Right now what you're doing doesn't seem to be 'pretending' at doing something useful. I assume it's for a good reason.

{ ... }

What else convinced you to follow up on her idea? Besides not having anything else to.

[chiseler]

[And then he'd parkour into the vents and never come back probably. But he shrugs.]

Most everything I do is for a good reason. [Even if maybe it's a wrong one, but he's convinced himself he has good reasoning most of the time. At least he doesn't have to try and sugarcoat what he wants to say around Arumat.] Something's using the vents to get around the ship. I'd rather know all of our options before we're sneaked up on.

[thanatosincarnate]

{ Luke no. }

Thought so.

{ Sugarcoating is something Arumat doesn't engage in at all -- well, he tried like one time and it failed. Naturally, he appreciates it when someone doesn't do so to him.

At Luke's explanation, he'll nod. }

Some kind of creature that AL-2955 knows about. Even if that AI acts oblivious -- she is "all-seeing".

Either way, it's best not to go it alone. If you see anything in there, pull out and I'll be able to kill it in one blow.

{ He does kinda carry around his scythe now almost everywhere he goes. }

[chiseler]

[Look someday Luke will tell Arumat about his "kids" and he'll know why Luke sometimes sugarcoats things. Still, Arumat's a grown man (and older than he is.) So this should be fine.]

A creature or a person. I'm not sure yet. [Judging by what they found in the kitchen though he's leaning more toward monster, yeah.] ...Alice said she didn't know the cafeteria doors were blocked off. Seems a little weird for an all-seeing AI. [He looks back up at the vent and then back at the scythe curiously...and also a little warily. (His history with scythes is a little...eh.)] How's it work?

[thanatosincarnate]

Convenient for her to say that.

{ He trusts the AI little -- he has his reasons. Most of which are obvious, honestly. }

I swing it and cut through my enemies before they realize what's happening.

{ He'd spin it around or give it a demonstration in here, but uh. There's a reason he doesn't... which should also be obvious. }

[chiseler]

[...well that's mildly terrifying, thanks Arumat.]

...yeah, we'll use that as back-up if we need to. We found a lot of blood in the vents but pretty sure that was just Todd's. I'd be surprised if anything was actually living in here full-time.

[thanatosincarnate]

{ One day someone will be running their mouth, annoying the shit out of him after trial, and then bam, ninja-scythe'd. Okay though, not really. Probably. }

I wouldn't. If only because we know so little about this spacecraft.

{ Honestly, after the Grigori, Arumat's learned how to not be ... too surprised at near-impossible revelations. }

Maybe it's more than one creature hiding around here, if that were true.

[chiseler]

Guess that's possible. [And he still doesn't seem too...terribly...bothered.] Can't say I know a lot about what kind of monsters could survive in space. But it kinda sounds like you might.

[thanatosincarnate]

I do. I'm sure you've dealt with tenacious monsters on your end -- granted not in space.

{ Like, fighting monsters on worlds and space is normal to him, so. It'd be weird to him if he heard of someone who has never seen a monster irl. }

There are just some that can cling to life when you think it shouldn't be possible.

[chiseler]

[And Luke's from a world where people don't even believe in monsters so this is great.]

Yeah, you could say that. [He's fought a lot of monsters dude, they p much stalked him for a while.] How do you kill the ones that won't die?

[thanatosincarnate]

Usually for the ones who keep reappearing no matter how many times you defeat them, there's a leader or source that can be struck down and killed -- then the rest fall like any other.

{ What types of battles were you fighting, Luke? Besides the one where you got kicked off a cliff. }

Have any experiences to share?

[chiseler]

[...yeah he could buy that. It's sort of how the Battle of Manhattan went down, too.]

That depends. What do you really qualify as sharing? I could probably tell you a couple of things about monsters back home.

[thanatosincarnate]

Anything that could come to mind -- or maybe a moment of triumph against a seemingly impossible fight against monsters.

{ It's been awhile since Arumat's listened to someone share a story of anything. Probably not since Crowe. }

I'm not particularly picky.

[chiseler]

[What a question. He's silent for a moment, thinking back over his long-short life.]

Ever hear of a thing called Greek Fire?

[thanatosincarnate]

...No. Mind elucidating?

{ He'll be paying close attention now. }

[chiseler]

[How to explain…]

I kinda told you about this, but when I was a kid Thalia and I were on our own and on the run. We didn't really have much except each other so we stuck together. One day, Thalia found a goat. It sounds weird, I know, but the goat was kinda destined to find her, I think. Led us to this mansion in Richmond that we broke into and we ended up meeting this guy…name was Hal. [He frowns lightly at the mention of Hal, actually. It's a long and complicated story.]

Hal was cursed to stay inside a house with these monsters called leucrotae. Big ugly things with a lion's body and red fur, hooves like a horse and kind of a cross between a horse and a wolf, really. They have the ability to imitate people's voices. That's how a leucrota lures prey to it. Hal was cursed to have the leucrotae imitate his voice since he no longer had his and he was used to bring people into the house for the leucrotae to feed on.

So…Thalia and I thought about it and wanted to break Hal's curse and free him from the house. Leucrotae are strong, can't exactly be hurt by any sort of metal and considering Thalia had a spear and I had a golf club at the time, those options were out. They're very smart monsters, so we had to be clever about it. …and by clever I mean I browsed the internet for a while and--[…no, he's not going to elaborate on why he thought about the Greek fire.]--came up with the idea to make Greek fire. It's made with chemicals basically and Thalia could use her lightning as a catalyst to light it up. The problem with Greek fire is that it's one of the most dangerous magical substances in history. Not a lot of people even know the recipe because of that. It's a fire that's so dangerous it can be turned into bombs and it can burn underwater. It was the perfect weapon to use against the leucrotae. The only problem was that once the fire starts, it burns without stopping…Thalia and I barely made it out alive. But we got what we came for and then some. [It's a very, very small scope of events, something that needs more explanation, but that's all Arumat's going to get.]

Fighting monsters was pretty old by the time I was a teenager. But that time required skill and maybe a little bit of luck.

[thanatosincarnate]

{ Arumat begins to listen to Luke's story, with more rapt attention than he would to most telling their own tale. He had asked for this after all, and his golden eyes narrow slightly as his interest rises slightly, particularly about the part with the Greek fire.

When Luke finally finishes, Arumat will nod at the man's last words there -- but there is a slight, nagging curiosity at the back of his mind that prompts him into inquiry.}

What about Hal? I assume he made it out alive as well, free from his curse after you burned down the building?

[chiseler]

[There's a heavy frown following.]

...wish I could say that. But the leucrotae needed to be distracted so Thalia and I could escape. Hal's the one who broke open the jar of greek fire so that we could get out of there. And like I said, once the fire stops it burns everything in its path. We wouldn't have made it out without him.