Masa con Papas: Proxy's Memory

[ThreadLurkingComorant]

THE WITCH Part 2.
(THE ELEVENTH READING)

CW: None



  

After a moment, Platino’s smile fades back to the tired face from earlier.


Charon: Welcome back.

Manzana: Mm… if you don’t mind I’d like to scoot outside for a little air, you mind?

Opera: Charon?

Charon: That’s fine. Outside?

Manzana: Outside. Have a lot of thoughts and a plenty to discuss.. and a good amount of apologizing while I’m at it.

Charon: Mm… Geezer didn’t seem mad.

Manzana: That… makes me a little annoyed I’ll be honest? But that’s something to talk about with him.

Manzana starts toward the entrance, you follow behind.

She walks out of the hidden nook your building’s in and toward the railing at the edge of the boardwalk. She fixates on the moon for a long moment before letting out a big sigh. You join her.

Manzana: You know, I didn’t think I’d get caught up in something like this today but I had an omen appear earlier.

Charon: An omen?

Mananza: A messenger showed up and warned me something was coming. I’m guessing you know what that something is?

Charon: I do… mostly anyway.

Manzana: So spill the details, why should I care? Pitch it to me,

Charon: We’re about to attempt a heist on a cult relic that found itself in the hands of an auction, a relic that can potentially compromise the lives of everyone.

Manzana: And that is?

Charon: Immortal flesh, a body that contains the secret to living forever and a powerful one at that.

Manzana: Like a philosopher’s stone?

Charon: Mm…

Manzana: What makes you so sure this is real?

Charon: Witnessed it in action myself, thing is a nightmare in the hands of anyone. It’s laced with massive amounts of fiendish materials which…

Manzana: Which allows it to inherit the traits, right.

Charon: You familiar with the concept?

Manzana: There’s been studies before and I’ve been able to get my hands on logs but it’s not exactly easy to find enough pieces of a fiend, let alone an entire one willing to give up their body to science.

Charon: This one had access to hundreds.

Manzana gives you the side eye.

Manzana: That’s really unlikely, the resources needed to track fiends down at all with how rare they can be? You’d need funding from a god.

Charon: They had access to something worse. Angels.

Manzana:... I really don't want to believe something like this but go on.

Charon: Angels tend to abduct things from everywhere across time and space, they’re envoys of reality. This angel was hyper fixated on certain things and one of which happened to be fiends.

Manzana: Like an eldritch horror collecting vampires…

Charon: Essentially, yes. The cult managed to gather fiends and recruit or collect them for their bodies. The cult operated under giving fiend based augmentations or entire bodies to those in its highest positions and offering pseudo immortality… but the leader wanted more and grafted many onto one form.

Manzana: Huh…

Charon: It’s a ton to follow but everyone in that room fought to prevent operations from going full scale and is willing to fight one last time to prevent a revival of such.

Manzana: And that body is truly immortal?

Charon: We killed it in every way we possibly could and it’d heal up consistently. Only way to stop it is to rip out the soul of the pilot and destroy it so that nothing is left inside.

Manzana: So what’d you do with it?

Charon: Bury it in the abyss with most of the cult’s relics we deemed too dangerous but… someone managed to find a way in and dig it up… and if they dug up the body? They probably found other things just as awful in there. We need to confirm what they have and destroy every piece.

Manzana: You just left it in the hole?

Charon: In fairness it was a pretty obscure spot.. More than likely was rediscovered by accident. The whole place was in a private realm of sorts.

Manzana: Angel pockets.

Charon: Mm, you familiar?

Manzana: Of course I am, angels have a tendency to create little pockets in between existence where they just store things they find interesting and keep them for later. They then tend to spit those people and places back out wherever they happen to be but… it doesn’t sound like the angel ever did.

Charon: Because the angel is dead.

Manzana: Did the cult kill it?

Charon: No, I did..

She gives you a smirk.

Charon: Why are you looking at me like that?

Manzana: Because there’s no way, you’re green as hell and it shows.

Charon: Green…?

Manzana: Your gear and your posture. You’re wearing old lost tech that wouldn’t stand a chance against modern knight gear and your stance is way too casual. You should have your guard up, you don’t know me.

Manzana: Tell me, what kind of rigging does that arm have?

Charon: It’s a alloy designed to minimize how much impact I take when guarding and-

Manzana: That’s where I have to stop you, right now modern metal work for knighting gear is based around parry tech. If you can’t put someone in disadvantage for slamming into you, it’s not worth it. With something like that most attackers can stick in your face pretty easily.

Charon: Maybe that’s what I want.

Manzana: Then you’re a fool, nobody wants to be fighting at point blank. Everyone’s got claws or massive strength or acid or something that makes CQC miserable. It’s good for sporting sure but you need to be the scariest person around to justify that. You practically need a acual death touch to justify it.

Charon: I have my reasons for it. I have a discharge to parry with anyway.

Manzana: Discharge?

Charon: Circular Discharging.

You hold out your arm to her, she takes a closer look.

Charon: Cast a spark and then suck the shreds out of a living creature on impact. It’s a low energy cost for high reward.

Manzana: But the range is pretty low, no?

Charon: It is.

Manzana: Then how do you plan to confirm anything off that?

Charon: I carry a scythe on the field, one that I can keep hidden on my person quite easily.

Manzana: And you have it on you?

Charon: Of course I do.

You pull our your weapon and hand it over.

Manzana: That’s cute actually…. I like it.

Charon: Cute?

Manzana: The retro aesthetic but with a sleekness to it the railing guard, the sturdy parry friendly shell….  There is a problem however….

Manzana: A scythe feature would be a tad flimsy since it’d have to unfold, no? Unless it’s motorized which has its own issues but would at least get field work done fast enough..

Charon: Motorized…

Manzana: You’ve never done that?

Charon: Not on something this compact.

She looks at you smugly. You can’t help but wince.

Manzana: Tell you what, I’ll take up the job and show you what a real rig looks like.

Charon: A real rig…

Manzana: Like no offense, your work looks clean and you’ve got a pretty good sense of aesthetic but I’m gonna show you how to really get the job done.

Charon: You that good?

Manzana: Mmhmm. I’ll bring my stuff in tomorrow. I wanna talk to Geezer first and make sure everyone’s in the clear but… consider it done. You’re my apprentice now.

Manzana: Besides, Platino would be happy to get the chance to hang out more I think.

Charon: Thank you…?

Manzana: Don’t, I’m gonna make you work til you cough blood.

Manzana: I'm in.

You didn’t ask for this.