The heart may freeze, or it can burn

[quorrious]

Who: Quorra and you!
Where: Near the Sea
When: recently!
Warnings: currently none

Comments

[threat_detected]

The Sea of Simulation. In another lifetime, there were a whole host of memories attached to this place. Forgotten things that burned, and needled deep in his code.
Abraxas had been avoiding the Sea entirely just for that reason. He didn't want to remember, didn't want to think about any of it...but it's a twisted sort of self-flagellation that compels him closer, and closer. And, after several circuits of the last sector before the shoreline, Abraxas finally saw it.

After all the cycles of his long peaceful rest, it was still here...and still as tainted to the core as he was.

A part of him wanted to loathe the shore, and turn away from it forever, but another part flared with confused, and painful hope that the leaden death of the Sea - of home - might be somehow able to destroy him.
Thus, the bright yellow stain of light under the surface begins to glow brighter, and brighter, as it's source seems to be drawing closer to Quorra's perch.

Like a beacon the young ISO stood out in Abraxas' scans. He was soaked in the toxic Sea, and slowly emerging to stand waist deep - in full armor, plus cloak and mask - just off shore from where Quorra sat.
The Pain. The Pain was gnawing hungrily at Abraxas, joining with the hiss of something very close to kin between the poisoned Sea, and the malicious viral code twisting through Abraxas' core. Liquid sluiced off cracked, glowing circuits to raise vapor from the sickly yellow lines.

Must spread. Must spread the Pain to have a hope of finding relief.

[quorrious]

It was the sound more than the movement that drew Quorra's attention outward again, though the movement was part of it as well. She opened her eyes slowly, not entirely sure what to expect, but poised, ready all the same.

Whatever she'd been expecting, Abraxas wasn't it, and she surged to her feet, looking startled. Abraxas (aside from the actual virus in the Sea itself) was one of the few things that still scared her. Clu just made her wary, as did any of the Rinzlers. The fact that there were multiple Rinzlers worried her, but it didn't really scare her.

This... this was like finding out that the monster in your closet was real, by coming face to face with it unexpectedly. She knew who he was, or, rather, who he'd been, but she couldn't be sure if any of Jalen still remained. So she stood, frozen for a moment, before a quiet: "You." Managed to escape.