"troubled times, caught between confusions and pain"

[notglitching]

Who: Tronzler Rinzler and you.
What: Glitchy sometimes-blue program going around being crazy and/or helpful.
Where: All over.
When: "Friendly Reminder" days 2 onwards. 2-3 preferred unless plotted otherwise. Specify in your tag?
Warnings: Rinzler. (...mindrape, mental/physical trauma, violence, blood (not his), general CRAZY.)

Comments

day 3

[screamsup]

Sean had to land at some point, so he does, a little more skilled this time since all of the fighting had left him on edge and alert. His surroundings weren't exactly what he wanted them to be -- skeletal hands and arachnids. The screaming kept them away for the most part, but the skeletal hands were more difficult to get rid of. He could only run from them, always keeping a large distance between him and the hand.

When he notices Rinzler, he tenses up, even more so than he had been already. The last time he saw him, the thing slashed his chest, and he didn't want any more of that. He doesn't want to be noticed by him, but it's almost impossible with the way things are. Anyone that is a human is automatically found in a sea of monsters crawling and snaking their way along the roads and alleys.

\o/

[notglitching]

While the program's physical condition is actually better than it's been for the last week, Rinzler's processing is still drowning in malfunction. The crackle of error and reprimand and failure are almost baseline now, an internal stutter of conflict and mistake to replace the harsh rattle of noise this place's night took away.

That might be why the user doesn't catch his notice-not until the program's almost on top of him, anyway. The figure's glancing up from street level, an eerily familiar position that has Rinzler blocking auditory function immediately. He's not sure if the user can still make that noise at night, but he doesn't want to find out.

A faint glimmer of white catches his attention, and the helmet tilts in the direction of the figure as it backs away. There. A long strand, nearly transparent, blocking the road. And more. Rinzler's unfamiliar with nearly every creature or construct he's encountered here, but this shape is easily identifiable. Net. Web. Trap.

An orange disk flashes forward, past the user-warning-as

[screamsup]

Sean jumps away from the orange disk -- he doesn't want any part of that. he turns around to see where it goes, and -- oh. The net? So Rinzler was using his disks to protect himself. It made sense, but he had thought that Rinzler was going to attack him again.

Spiders were never a favorite of Sean, and neither were giant spiders. Not that he feared them, he just didn't fancy them. The fact that Rinzler was going after it instead of himself was surprising. What was that even about? Didn't he want to hurt Sean, hurt Quorra? He doesn't want to say anything because of it. He just wants to watch, to pay attention, to make sure he doesn't get distracted.

[notglitching]

The user gets-not a wide berth. While Rinzler wasn't looking for a fight (this time), this one really hadn't seemed such a threat. The program does have the presence of mind to jump over the other rather than just plowing through him. Given the state of his processing, that takes more consideration than it should.

A hand snaps up (lines incongruously blue) to catch the disk as it returns. The program eyes the web. Large. Massive. But with no visible inhabitant. After a moment, he strikes out, disk slashing at one of the thicker strands. Much to Rinzler's annoyance, it bends-not sticking to his weapon, but not cutting either. Not so easily, at least. The vibrations travel up, fant ripples spreading through the entirety of the web. Good. It should at least draw the creature's attention.

[screamsup]

"What are you doing?" Sean almost demands this from Rinzler. If the monster didn't already notice him, it was going to notice him now. That's fantastic. He did not want to deal with anything more than he already had to. At the very least, Rinzler could defend himself and it wasn't one of those horrible horror movies that had people investigating things with no means of defense.

The thing is, Sean didn't want to defend himself a creature that large. He only knew that they got dazed for a few moments before snapping their attention back to him. It was a horrible realization.

[notglitching]

Rinzler half jerks around at the 'sound'-hadn't he already blocked aural function?-before recalling the Teneka. He'd cut off his own output there after the first accidental use, but the other's projections were still 'audible'. The helmet tips from the user to the web. Did the other really think it wouldn't have attacked regardless? It wasn't like he had to stick around. At least this way, the program would know where it was-

Impact. Quick, sudden-how could something that large get that close undetected? Rinzler notes, vaguely, that he should probably devote more resources to sensors.

The creature slams into him from behind, two long appendages striking the program, digging in as he hit the ground hard. One breaks through his outer code, voxels fracturing and splitting partway up the program's back-not deep, but enough to damage. Rinzler squirms, twists back to slice out, disk severing the tips of the appendages that pinned him. It's still right above. With six other legs. And... a large mouth

[screamsup]

Sean is good at acting quick -- it's one of the reasons why he thought he was chosen to be a part of the X-Men. He looks around for a quick weapon, finding a stray metal bar under a nearby, broken, street lamp. He may not be good at hand to hand combat, but he was pretty damned good at hitting things.

He doesn't know why he does it, actually. Perhaps because he can't bare to see anyone die while he was watching it all happen. So he runs at the creature, raising the bar and mashing it down across the arachnid's so-called face. The impact was hard and quick, but the strength of the creature's body was enough recoil for Sean to stumble backwards.

Screeching, the arachnid skitters backwards, off of Rinzler. Breathing rather hard and inwardly panicking, Sean glances to Rinzler. "Um -- you're okay, right?"

[notglitching]

Rinzler's turning, twisting, drawing in as best he can to avert the mandibles as they slam down beside him. His disks interpose, but this is a terrible angle for battle-between its limbs and mouthparts, the creature has far more weapons here than him. He's faster-much faster-but maneuvering is near impossible between the fence of bladed legs.

Then there's... an impact. Rinzler angles his helmet, stares up in mild bemusement at the user with his makeshift weapon. Unexpected. Both in action and skill. He'd expected the user to leave. (Users always leave.) But this was... helpful.

The thing backs away, and Rinzler wastes no time flipping upward to land on his feet. The user gets a glance of reassessment, a short nod in answer and acknowledgment, and the program's in motion. One disk flings out to sever a chunk of the creature's jaws as Rinzler steps off an adjacent wall, launching up for height as he comes down to strike at the segmented connection between body and head.

[screamsup]

Sean doesn't want to go after it again, let alone get in Rinzler's way. He obviously was able to handle himself now, but it still didn't mean that he couldn't watch him. As long as Rinzler wasn't attacking him, Sean thought that his skill was amazing. He hadn't ever seen anyone fight like him before.

He certainly hadn't thought of beheading the creature, but he probably wouldn't have been able to anyway, with a metal bar he could only hit it. Still, he was impressed by how fast the other was.

"So, you're okay, then. Right?"

[notglitching]

Helpful or not, answering the user's questions isn't at the top of Rinzler's priority queue. Not at this exact moment, anyway. The creature's scuttling back into its web when the program lands atop the thick shell of its back. One hand grabs at the thick filaments of hair to grip tightly, the other flashes down, disk stabbing at what passes for the thing's neck.

Somewhere between clinging rigidly in place as the thing flails and tries to throw him and striking down (again and again-this creature was huge), a spike of satisfaction runs through Rinzler's processing. Flailing or not, this tactic works much better-none of the creatures weapons seem designed to aim upwards. He hacks down, slices at the joint as it twists to the side-and the creature's head drops to roll across the ground

[screamsup]

"Just um, try not to kill me next time, okay?" He's not talking about what happened just now, no, he's talking about earlier. He's talking about the gash that was healing itself nicely on his chest. It wasn't too bad, but it was bad enough.

He shifts his weight nervously, eying Rinzler suspiciously. He doesn't trust him, not one bit, but at least he hadn't attacked him. If he had to deal with his disks again, he wouldn't be happy. Either way, at least he didn't have to worry about Rinzler defending himself anymore.

[notglitching]

The helmet comes up slightly to angle toward the user in an almost amused gesture before twisting back to refocus on the clinging web. He hadn't been the target. And really, Rinzler wouldn't have bothered attacking if the other hadn't made himself a threat first.

Still. Rinzler owes him will remember this knows how to negate the user's attacks. No reason to target him in the future.

...

Unless he's told to.

The helmet dips faintly, then jerks to the side. You can go now. Really. He's going to be here a while perfectly fine, thanks anyway.