Night 48: M61-M70 Hallway

[doneinthree]

Kirk looked up as he always did when the intercom came on during dinner, as if it would be that easy to catch a glimpse of the man who presided over their captivity, and did so with such glee. CM-US trials. Without meaning to, he glanced at Admiral ZEX at those words, and away again when "re-trials" were mentioned. What did that mean? It wasn't

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[wantsyourzex]

Huh. This wasn't exactly what ZEX had been expecting... Sechs was extending his wartime metaphor so far that it was difficult to see it as anything else. Did Sechs think they were actually going to discuss combat techniques tonight? If that was the case, then things just got somewhat more complicated...

Although hardly hopeless. ZEX would just have to adjust his approach a little. Sechs was still touching him, after all, and that was something. Even if it was a bit rougher than he was used to for this sort of thing, it wasn't painful by any means. This was a situation that he could surely turn in his favor, if he was careful.

"Very impressive!" ZEX said, and he leaned in a little closer towards him. "Such a shame that your human body has such limitations... it'd be useful to have such an impressive skill at your disposal. As for myself, I am likewise hindered by my human body, but for the sake of our discussion..."

He trailed a hand along Sechs' thigh for a moment before settling it around his waist. "VUX anatomy is quite different than that of humans..." ZEX kept his voice low and suggestive. "We can exert a great deal more pressure with our arms than with yours. For example, a soft human midsection such as this..." And if Sechs would let him, ZEX would be all too happy to draw him closer. "It would be very easy for me to crush it, if I had my normal arms..."

Close proximity to humans always tended to cloud his thoughts, and ZEX probably couldn't have stopped smiling if he'd tried. "For VUX, our grip is very important... once we've latched on to something, we're not inclined to let them go." Certainly not now, and ZEX kept his voice low. Surely Sechs had to have some idea of what he had in mind now.

[sixth_attack]

Despite the chill in his spine and the possibility of the drug throwing another illusion at Sechs, the Replica felt himself warm up a little with pride at ZEX's praise. "It sure is!" he answered with a small return of his smirk, "It's a hell of a shame that we're stuck in these boring-ass bodies!"

Blinking, Sechs froze slightly when he felt a hand caress its way from his thigh and up to his waist. Ah right! ZEX was going for the hands-on approach! Sechs knew he could learn pretty quickly from that! Relaxing a little, the former android's heart rate picked up a little as a battle-hungry smile crawled over his lips. This outta be good...!

"That so?" Sechs recalled the drawing ZEX showed him during their first encounter. "So your arms must be a hell lot more flexible and built up with more muscle than a regular human's, huh?" Geeze, imagine all the sorts of attacks and abilities that an arm unrestricted by bones could pull off! It would be pretty refreshing to duel someone with a whole new set of weaknesses and strengths like that! "You VUX must have lots of ways of using those arms!"

Wait... Soft?! Sechs wasn't soft! Oh, wait... Sechs glanced down at his aforementioned midsection and frowned slightly at it. Alright, compared to his former body, it was soft... but not soft, soft! Thankfully most of the muscular structure from the Fizziroy body translated into his human one.

Gazing back towards ZEX, the Replica made no qualms about the admiral's grip. As he felt himself pulled closer to ZEX, Sechs anxiously waited to witness an incredible alien technique that he himself could use in battle...

...And so far nothing seemed to be happening yet -- except for the fact that ZEX was talking all weird again! Yeesh! What was up with that? Sechs could understand him just fine before! With a small, quizzical frown emerging on his face, Sechs tilted his head slightly like a dog trying hard to understand some bizarre sound. ...Huh. It was probably just another VUX thing again...

With his arms still crossed over his chest, Sechs shot another challenging grin at the shorter, one-eyed man. Blissfully oblivious to what the leering admiral had in mind, Sechs thought he could smell a possible spar coming up. His yellow eyes hungrily watched for the former VUX's next move. "So what would you do next once you've got a good grip on your target?"

[wantsyourzex]

"It really can be frustrating at times," ZEX said. "Really, I feel more at home admiring a human than being one... but I suppose there's not much that can be done about that now, not until we find a way to return us to our natural forms."

Sechs certainly seemed receptive so far! Although apparently still convinced that they were meant to be sparring. Well, if it meant that ZEX could touch him without getting shoved off, all the better, although the situation could change once Sechs realized what ZEX actually had in mind. "Hee! Hee! Hee! Yes, we're very flexible... one of the things that took some time getting used to was how rigid humans could be." It was difficult to remind himself to try a slow approach when he was actually holding a human, and his voice could not have been more blatantly suggestive if he'd tried. "You can't bend quite like we can, although your hands have their own uses..."

While ZEX did have some self-control, he was hard pressed to attempt it while he had a human in his embrace. Sechs was right here! Right here! How could he resist? No one could resist temptation that strong, he was sure of it. No one could fault him for lapsing just a little, could they? And if he kept up their pretense...

"Mmmm, let's see..." Had ZEX understood the gesture, he might have licked his lips. "Human anatomy differs from our own, of course..." And if he lied about his own VUX body, there was no way that Sechs would ever know. He kept one hand around him, and moved the other to... explore his chest. What was a little groping between friends? "You have this cage of bone here... no doubt to protect your insides. Our bones are a bit more flexible... if I had my natural arms, I could potentially exert enough pressure here to shatter your rigid bones into pieces." He squeezed Sechs a little to emphasize his point; squeezing something was such a comforting gesture for him. Something that translated well enough between their species.

"And there's your beautiful neck..." ZEX was rapidly getting lost in his own fantasies, and he moved his hand wrap his fingers around Sech's neck. "So flexible and thick... it's stunning. We don't quite have the same range of movement as you do... the same muscle structure, covered with your smooth, hairless skin..." A moment to break himself out of his reverent fantasy. "It'd certainly make an easy weakpoint..."

It was getting difficult for him to focus on the "sparring" part of their supposed interaction... but with all this human flesh to touch, how was he supposed to focus?

[sixth_attack]

As ZEX continued his strangely spoken explanation over their anatomies, Sechs' excitement was starting to override his tiny supply of patience. "C'mon... Show me a special move already!" he impatiently thought to himself like a kid anxiously waiting to be let loose in a playground. "Hurry up! I don't have all night--"

A slight twitch on the end of Sechs' lips emerged when ZEX's fingers groped their way around his breast plate and over his rib cage. It was something he couldn't recall ever feeling before, and he couldn't help but cringe a little from the funny sensation. Strangely, there wasn't any pain or damage, but it was enough to make him nearly squirm on the spot. It got even worse when ZEX squeezed him, forcing out a soft grunt that almost turned into a chortle. Sechs clamped his jaws shut to keep a cap on that bizarre reaction. Dammit, what was wrong with him? He couldn't let something weird like that distract him... Stupid organic body...!

Yet before Sechs could contemplate if he had just witnessed some sort of VUX technique that attacked a target's nervous system, ZEX's hand was already crawling up to Sechs' neck. Now Sechs was at a total loss for words as he felt his mind hit another unexpected speed bump. "Beautiful neck"?! "Smooth, hairless skin"?! What was going on here...?!

"My... my neck?" was all Sechs could murmur as his folded arms began to slacken away from his torso. A wave of goosebumps, which was for once not caused by the drug, went over his skin. He had been expecting something a bit more... rough and combative. Not whatever the heck this was! "Um..."

As Sechs continued to closely watch ZEX's every move, worry became mixed within his muddled mind. Was ZEX finally going to perform a technique around his neck? But if ZEX's fingers crept any closer to his spine, Sechs was sure the admiral would feel the drug's icy presence emanating through his skin. Sechs didn't want ZEX asking any questions about what came about after the experiment he was forced through yet, not when there was still the possibility of learning from the VUX. Crap, what to do... what to do...?!

Now those alarms that had been pestering Sechs before were starting to make some sense... Was ZEX trying to get at something other than combat? But what could that be? Frowning, Sechs' brain scrambled to compute the unforeseen direction that evening had suddenly taken. It wasn't making any sense to him...!

Wait... Maybe ZEX was just psyching Sechs out, to see if he was worthy of learning a sacred VUX skill before he would share it with him! Yeah... that outta be it! They were here to talk about combat in the first place after all!

...Right?

[wantsyourzex]

Sechs didn't move away from him, or tell him to stop, which he took as encouragement to keep on doing exactly what he was doing. He so rarely had an opportunity to feel a human without them panicking or rebuffing him! He was going to take advantage of it while he had the chance. Sechs even made a soft sound when he squeezed him, although he couldn't quite identify what it was. Surely Sechs simply wanted him to continue. Why wouldn't he?

"Yes, your beautiful neck..." It was so hard to remember the pretense they'd established for this contact, especially when he was this close to him. "So supple... so vulnerable..." Humans were such an alluring mix of fragility and strength. ZEX leaned in closer towards him, close enough to breathe on his neck. "Mmmmm... you're so hard to-"

Something sharp struck his face, a thin line across his cheek and ZEX jerked back automatically with an irritated grunt. Peering into the darkness, he caught a glimpse of one of those Things before it vanished into nothing again, and he raised the hand he'd had around Sechs to touch his cheek. Ugh! Stupid pests! He'd been right in the middle of something! Of all the terrible timing...

It stung, but there wasn't much he could do about it now. He could ignore it, especially if he had a human to distract him. Speaking of which, ZEX turned his attention back to Sechs, hoping that the mood that had been building hadn't been shattered completely by that most unwelcome intrusion.

"Ah, my apologies." ZEX stuck his tongue out for a moment, to try and investigate the scratch on his cheek, before he remembered he did not have his VUX tongue anymore and retracted it. Bah! "Something... distracted me. Nothing to worry about." He moved to embrace Sechs again. "Now, where were we?"

[sixth_attack]

Hoo boy... If this wasn't the strangest way for a fighter to engage battle with another, Sechs didn't know what was!

"Uh... Um..." Sechs' was brain skipping like a slow computer, and feeling ZEX's breath wafting over his neck wasn't helping much either. Dammit, his face was getting hot again! "Wha... What are you talking about?!"

There was a sudden movement in the darkness and a quiet grunt from the former VUX. Immediately Sechs' tumbled thoughts snapped back into clarity as he quickly moved his head to spot the danger, expecting to find an intruder in the room or even those damn shadows out to harass him, but he found nothing but the started admiral sitting beside him. Frowning, Sechs tried to ponder over the ever-increasingly bizarre situation. What just caused ZEX to jerk back like that? It was tough to tell in the darkness, but was that a thin line over ZEX's cheek there? That wasn't there before, was it?

Something else caught Sechs' eye, and it was weirder than the first thing he noticed. ZEX was... sticking his tongue out? Before the perturbed Replica could ask what the heck was going on, ZEX was already back to hugging him like a hungry squid wrapping itself around a particularly scrumptious meal. Another muffled grunt escaped the baffled android.

"Alright. That does it!" This had gone too far from what Sechs had in mind. It was finally starting to dawn on him that ZEX wasn't exactly talking about battles anymore. And the way he was hugging Sechs reminded him a tad too much of how a certain pair of twins used to treat him... No more playing around! He needed to get to the bottom of this now!

"Where were we?" Sechs echoed inside the tight embrace, "I'll tell ya where we were..."

Squirming out of the VUX's hold, Sechs grabbed the admiral's arms, and with a brutish "rah!", pushed him back-first upon the bed. He then stood up off the bed and slouched over the admiral with one hand pinning him down by the shoulder. "Or at least where we're supposed to be!" he growled with a suspicious frown, "I thought we were sharing some combat moves, but I don't get what you've just been talking about! What are you really trying to get at here, huh?"

[wantsyourzex]

Just when he'd been getting Sechs to that flustered state that made humans so impressionable, things had to take a turn for the worse. Those cursed... Things! Whatever they were they'd ruined his plans, and the worst part was that he really had no recourse against them. Ugh.

From the tone in his voice, Sechs didn't exactly sound pleased, which was something ZEX planned to soothe before things got turned around on him. He made a brief startled sound when Sechs grabbed him (humans could move awfully fast when properly motivated, apparently), and didn't have the leverage to really resist when he pushed him down. For a moment, he hoped that maybe it was just a prelude to some kind of human sexual activity (with all he knew about the process, anything could really be a prelude to sexual activity), but the look on Sechs' face didn't seem very promising.

Humans made no sense sometimes! What had he done to offend Sechs? Nothing! Just touched him a little, and who didn't like being touched? Honestly. ZEX held up his hands in what he hoped was a placating gesture. "Really now, there's no need for violence! I had no intention of hurting you, I assure you." His instinctual defense when a human was acting irrationally; humans had always been afraid of him when he was a VUX after all, or disgusted by him. "I thought we were sharing some techniques... I just thought there'd be no harm in exploring a different... set of them at the same time. I thought you were aware that's what I had in mind?" Blinking at him. "Surely we haven't been miscommunicating this whole time, have we? A shame if that's the case, but certainly something that can easily be cleared up, don't you think?"

Chances didn't seem good that they'd resume where they'd left off, but he didn't want to lose Sechs already. He'd liked what he'd felt of him, after all.

[sixth_attack]

Sechs withdrew his hand from ZEX's shoulder and took a tentative step back. "What?!" he blurted out as his scowl evaporated into wide-eyed bewilderment, "'Another set of them'? But I thought..."

Feeling stupider by the second, Sechs could almost feel the gears in his brain heavily crank against the wrench the night had suddenly thrown into his head. Growling to himself, Sechs looked away from the admiral as he visibly struggled to process what just happened. So all this time it wasn't just about battling, and more about that annoying, lovey-dovey stuff that he never bothered to learn much of during his two years alive?! Not only was that a heck of a disappointment, but a big ass embarrassment for him as well!

Failing to keep up his confident composure within his dizzying confusion, Sechs returned his glare towards ZEX. "I didn't come here for that! Who... Who do you take me for, huh?" A flare of anger in his voice (hopefully) hid the embarrassment that glowed on his face, "I'm not stupid!"

Dammit! How could he have been so... so dumb?! Alita would have understood the former VUX's intentions a long time ago! Hell, even Elf and Zwölf would have gotten the hint, and those two combined didn't make up much in the smart department! It had been happening right under his nose and he barely got a whiff of it! This was far from what Sechs had bargained for! ZEX was supposed to be an ally, someone who Sechs could learn from! Now the flustered Replica was at a complete loss at what to do with him! Right then he wanted nothing more but to get out of there and find a chance to clear his head...

As his brain reached overloaded levels, the drug suddenly made its presence known with a terrible mimicry of his laughter that gradually grew in volume inside his mind. Wincing, Sechs clutched into the side of his scalp as he lost what remained of his focus. This was all too much at once for him!

"Argh...! Screw this!" Forgetting his original plans for the night, Sechs grabbed his flash light and axe and stomped out of the room with a snarl.

[Stomping off to here.]