XENOSAGA 0: Die fröhliche Wissenschaft -- 3/?? -- COMPLETE
[BROWN TESTAMENT] Mr. Wilhelm, the Zohar of Chaos and Order’s location has been traced to the American Embassy in Pretoria, ::the Brown Testament reported.
This room was not surrounded by space; while it was still a very luxurious office, there were thirsty trees and beautiful bodies of water outside of the large and crisp windows. The office appeared to be located in one of the Vector buildings surrounding the Zohar excavation site, considering the fact that the Zohar was right there in the far distance. It was currently being assessed by a large gathering of scientists.::
It appeared only for a second. ::His eyes drifted down to the Compass in the corner of Wilhelm’s desk. It was completely immobile.:: ‘He’ may be playing with us. Shall I send reinforcements?
[ROMEO] ::The elevator stopped.:: You couldn't think of anything cooler than 'chaos'? ::Romeo stepped out of the elevator, into the completely quiet, completely linear hall. There were no doors or rooms to the sides. They had two choices: go back to the elevator, or go forward to the single door at the very end of the hallway. Clearly, Romeo had chosen the single door.::
[CHAOS] A friend of... that voice?
[WILHELM] ::Though it was a luxurious office, it had some very important changes to make it acclimate with the hot, dry, and generally underpowered region. It wasn't easy to air condition this many stand-alone buildings, so most of them simply weren't. In typical giving philanthropist fashion, Wilhelm's office was exempt from most electrically powered modern necessities: there were fans where there would have been vents, oil lamps where there would have been crystal light fixtures.
Even he was dressed differently--he was dressed for a safari, for a chase-'em-until-they're-dead kind of hunt that Europeans had enjoyed back in the day. The safari hat upon his head was tilted just enough to allow his uneven white bangs to layer across his face per usual. His back was to the Brown Testament and the unresponding Compass as he looked at the Zohar in the distance.::
I've learned it is so much easier to give them what they want and then wait for them to fumble with it out in the open.
[CHAOS] --And I didn't think of it, it was just there. Like a song you can't get out of your head. ::chaos looked down this long empty hallway with a mixture of curiosity and fear.:: U-DO might've called me it too. I dunno. He said a bunch of crap about God or whatever trying to "derive order from chaos" and failing at it. Do you know what that means at all?
[WILHELM] But you suggest that 'he' may be playing with us. I find this interesting. Let him think we're his string.
::On the walls of his office were various mounted heads of rare beasts that Wilhelm had presumably hunted and killed at one point. There was one empty setting, but the tiny brass plaque beneath it was illegible.::
While we play with him instead.
[ROMEO] I know that the 'people' U-DO hangs around tend to be really, really good liars. ::Romeo opened the door at the end of the hallway. It led onto the roof!
And right there, parked on the middle of the roof, was a damn space ship. These kinds of crafts weren't exactly available to the public--even the rich and famous couldn't spare the money to purchase a private craft of this sort. And yet there it was, staring both chaos and Romeo in the face. Romeo unhooked his keys from his belt and approached the ship's side door. The craft must have been double the size of a bus.:: You don't get space sick, do you?
::Romeo slipped his goggles right over his sunglasses; they clicked onto one another. They had obviously been custom-created. Romeo pulled the side door open, but he didn't enter. He stared at chaos, and then after a few awkward seconds, he motioned to the passenger's seat.:: You getting in or not?
[BROWN TESTAMENT] Yes, Sir. --And the Zohar? It’s currently being disconnected from its base. The Wave Containment Rings arrived about an hour ago. Will we be moving it to one of the hangars, or..?
[CHAOS] ::chaos shielded his eyes from the sunlight, but he was used to it by now. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the shiny craft that was sitting atop the roof, and when they did, he stopped walking.:: You've got to be kidding me.
[WILHELM] ::Wilhelm revealed a folder he had been holding in front of him. This he carelessly tossed onto his desk, but none of its contents spilled out, believe it or not.:: It has been brought to my attention that an institute of computer science in Toronto, Canada, believes it can analyze the Zohar.
::The top sheet inside the folder slid out smoothly, revealing one name cleanly typed upon it: Grimoire Verum.::
[CHAOS] ::The space craft's shocking presence here didn't prevent him from approaching it, because it did look totally badass. For being an amnesiac, chaos still appreciated big, shiny machines. He touched the outside of the craft and nearly burnt his fingers, because its surface was made to reflect all forms of radiation in order to stabilize the core's heat. He sucked on his forefinger as he looked from the exterior to Romeo, and then his eyes narrowed again.::
No, really. You're all knight in shining armor here, but something doesn't add up. Maybe it's the spaceship or your charming goggles, I don't know, but I want something better to go on than I'll die sooner rather than later. Is that really too much to ask for?
[BROWN TESTAMENT] Very well. We will secure the Institute immediately.
[WILHELM] Have the Words been successfully extracted as well?
[ROMEO] You're being hunted down by Satan. ::Romeo reached out, took chaos' hand, and pulled him up to the passenger's seat. It was impossible to tell whether he was being sarcastic or not, because his eyes were completely hidden, and his voice held no distinguishing factors.:: Get the fuck in. This isn't a date.
[BROWN TESTAMENT] .. I’m afraid the extraction of the Words will be more difficult than originally anticipated. Several of our translators attempted to decipher the Zohar while it was not under Wave Containment--... ::The Brown Testament’s face was squirming from under that mask.::
Their bodies.. were torn inside out.
[WILHELM] Those fools. ::Wilhelm didn't sound affected in the least.::
[CHAOS] H-Hey! ::chaos had no choice but to enter the craft, which he probably would have hopped into anyway, given enough time and deliberation on his current lot in life. With few to no memories, no money, some blood-stained clothes, and no shoes, he really had nothing else to turn back around and go home to.::
What the hell do you mean, 'Satan'? ::The placement of those words was not lost on him; he couldn't even suppress his smile, which was very amused. Here was something he really did remember: Biblical allegories! YES! Heaven and hell, and sisters getting their father drunk enough to fuck him senseless, and lots of blood and gore, and all sorts of fun stuff. If only the Bible had had a human incarnation: he wouldn't have needed a callous ally like Romeo.::
[WILHELM] This is unfortunate. No matter. In all due time, things will flow together as the Compass says they will. ::... but at the moment, the Compass was dark and unmoving.::
[CHAOS] Don't have to get so crazy about it--I'm in, I'm in. Serious business and all that.
[ROMEO] Eighteen my ass. ::Romeo had hopped into the pilot's seat from the other side of the craft, and he slammed his side door shut. Looking in chaos' direction, he noticed that his side door was still open.:: Close it--just pull it in while holding the red button right there. Make sure it's locked; engine won't start up if she's not airtight.
::Between the pilot and passenger's seat was a hallway leading into the middle and back of the craft. While it wasn't the roomiest ship ever, it was definitely capable of housing Romeo. There was a very small kitchen back there connected to a square that could be considered a living room, one of the doors led to a bathroom, another to a bedroom.
The dashboard revealed a lot of Romeo's hobbies: half-smoked and scrunched cigarettes, condoms, what appeared to be a very old and stale bagel, and perhaps most revealing--a sniper rifle. Not exactly the most discreet place to put something like that, but then again, Romeo wasn't exactly the most discreet guy around town.::
If you're gonna puke, bathroom's in the back there. Put on your seat belt.
Today, kid.
[WILHELM] Oh, and one more thing, David.
[CHAOS] ::chaos was tempted to stick his tongue out at Romeo before he realized that that didn't correspond to a young adult's behavior at all. And just how old was this Romeo guy anyway? chaos wasn't impressed.:: You don't have to explain it. I know allllll about these things. ::Though that sounded like childish bravado, it was true: chaos knew. He had no trouble closing the door, securing it perfectly, and then buckling his seat belt. It took a few seconds for him to realize it was kind of weird that he knew his way around this ship, especially since he had never seen it before in his life and it was doubtful that anyone else had either.
As his eyes crossed the dashboard, absorbing all of the decorations there, he began to ask,:: So how'd no one no... ::Sniper rifle.::
[WILHELM] Take care of the infected remains of the translators properly. I don't want to see any more unfortunate incidents arise.
[CHAOS] ::Now he was nervously looking at Romeo, and if Romeo looked at him, he looked down at his seat belt and decided not to mouth off until they weren't in such a confined space with powerful weaponry nearby. OH GOD THIS GUY REALLY WAS GOING TO KILL HIM::
[ROMEO] No one what? ::According to the craft registration information on the visor right above Romeo's head, he was 26. He also looked a little happier in the picture. A citizen of Canada, apparently--Toronto. Strange, considering they were on the American Embassy.
The ground beneath them suddenly uplifted; Romeo had become immune to the sinking stomach feeling over the years, but chaos had probably never felt anything like it in his life. Well, actually, scratch that; it was very similar to the pain chaos had felt when Romeo had kicked him in the stomach and side.:: Once we get in the stratosphere you can go in the back and eat or watch TV or do whatever the hell you want. --Don't try to get up now, though. Not until the ship's leveled.
::It wasn't very apparent just how fast the ship was going unless you looked out the windows. The clouds were passing by so fast that it was difficult to see them at all; it was all one big blur of blue and white.:: We've got a five or six hour trip ahead of us.
::Though the ship was tilting upwards, Romeo denied his own advice and unbuckled his seatbelt. He stood up and squeezed himself through the pilot seats.:: I gotta take a piss; don't let us crash.
[BROWN TESTAMENT] That is not an issue. All casualties-including those that were ‘removed’ during the Zohar’s advent-have been recycled into Kenya’s food supply. It’s amazing what the poor will eat, provided they get to survive another day. They strive to live on, aware that their very existence is what brings their nation into famine and disease. Overpopulation-the ultimate oxymoron. Instinct versus nature.
Proof that their ‘God’ is an imperfect one.
[CHAOS] No one... I mean, how come no one noticed your sweet ride on the roof of the United States Embassy? ::It had been easy enough to discern their location just by looking around at all of the signs, if not the forms that he had spent two grueling hours filling out. If Romeo were here to prevent a more untimely death or whatever, then he had failed in saving his hand, which was sort of cramping up now. He stretched his fingers out as he thought about that, and anything else he was about to say or ask was cut off by the ship's launch sequence. The way he paled wasn't a good sign. He pushed his head back against his seat and tried not to look out the windows at all, where the streaming blue and white would probably make him feel even more ill. His esophagus was stretching and he could feel that. It was a horrible sensation.::
[WILHELM] It will never cease to amaze me that even the degenerate and the starving have the capacity to engage in intercourse. ::Wilhelm spoke on this subject as though it were any other subject, like the weather today or if Brown Testament would like to go to the beach with him and eat sandwiches.
The scientists clustered around the Zohar, though far more educated and affluent, were no better than any of the other damned souls on this planet.::
Humans.
[CHAOS] ... y-yeah. ::chaos looked anxiously away from Romeo, who wanted to go tinkle, to the controls.:: I totally got this.
[ROMEO] ::An orange light went solid on Wilhelm's intercom. An untraceable call? How familiar.::
[BROWN TESTAMENT] Hmph, ::the Brown Testament commented as he stared at the intercom through the very dark holes that hid his eyes.:: It appears ‘he’ isn’t giving up.
[WILHELM] ::Wilhelm turned around to face his intercom, revealing his very impassive expression. There was a deep brown riding crop propped up against his shoulder, which he moved from the left to the right when he saw the orange indicator. It was the sort of thing he would have used to beat the living shit out of a horse to make it run faster across the savannah in pursuit of prey.::
The more words, the more revealed. I consider this a gift. ::He stepped forward far enough to open the comm link with a touch of his riding crop.::
Hi.
[ROMEO] How you doing, babe? ::Romeo's tongue wrapped around the one of the miniature Zohar's horizontal hands. He was staring at himself in the mirror with his cellphone in his free hand. The taste of metal and copper drove him up the wall.::
35%. I'm being generous. I could kill him right now, you know. He's strapped down--got my Heckler right in front of his face. Clock is ticking. ::Romeo's eyes drifted away from the Zohar and to his own bright orange eyes.:: Tick, tock, tick, tock. Blowing Yeshua's brains out with a fucking Glock.
::Romeo took the Zohar out of his mouth and wiped the saliva off on his shirt. He pocketed it--the closer it was to his body, the more immune Romeo was to the Compass of Order's sight.::
It's all I want, Wilhelm. 35% of Vector--you know you can't spend all that money on your own. All those resources.
[WILHELM] Oh, I am fantastic. The weather is very nice today. ::Wilhelm must have been made out of steel, because he didn't move an inch. The only movement belonged to his blood red eyes, which lifted in the direction of the Compass of Order and Chaos.
It had been a long time since the device had stopped working for him when Yeshua wasn't in its presence, which confirmed the reality of the second Zohar's acquisition. Tricky tricky, Yeshua, creating the Compass' other half. It was like he had known all along, and perhaps he had.::
Mr. Montague, I assume you're very familiar with Vector Industries' policy to not negotiate with terrorists. ::There was a pause here.:: I need to know where you are going with him.
::His eyes moved up to the Brown Testament now, but his gaze was unreadable, as it tended to be.::
[BROWN TESTAMENT] ::The Brown Testament was clearly displeased, but he dared not say a word. While Wilhelm found humans’ lives trivial and did not concern himself with the struggle between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, he DID care about one thing above all in this world: the state of his ‘other’, Yeshua. The Brown Testament had heard more than an earful over these thousands of years, and he was not looking forward to another lecture regarding this.::
[ROMEO] Are you worried? Wilhelm? ::Pause.:: Are you worried? Are you there--
::GUNSHOT. It roared over the intercom, and it also roared into the space ship's cockpit. Romeo had a silencer on most of his firearms, but he obviously wanted Wilhelm to hear that one. Romeo tilted his handgun away from the bathroom mirror, which he had just shattered into pieces with a bullet.::
We're going to the Institute. I assume you have business there? Don't let me down, Wilhelm. He's cute, but he doesn't need to be alive to get fucked.
::The connection was cancelled. Romeo clasped his cellphone shut and looked up.::
[WILHELM] ::David hadn't read the fine print when he became a Testament, because there was plenty of room in a deal with the Devil to listen to the Devil's bitching. And oh, how much pent-up frustration and angst there was for Wilhelm to rant about! It was like the Testaments were his LiveJournal, how quaint was that.::
Mr. Montague--
[CHAOS] Holy SHIT.
::chaos imagined the bullet--yes, he definitely knew that was a gunshot!--piercing the outer hull of the craft and depressurizing the entire thing in an instant. What would it feel like, suffocating that way? He unbuckled his belt as hastily as he could, and once he was fairly sure that there were no fleshing red WARNINGS on the dashboard, he headed back toward the rear of the craft. Man, it didn't help that he felt pretty queasy, even at their increased altitude; his ears kept popping.::
Monta... gue? ::That was his name, right? He couldn't recall ever hearing the guy's first name, which made him realize that this was some foolhardy expedition. He didn't even know where they were going, much less what this guy's name was!:: Where are you? ::Gee, that kind of sounded familiar.
And speaking of sounds, he heard the tinkling of the bathroom's broken glass.::
[WILHELM] I see. Thank you for that pro tip. ::BLAM. A dark, psychedelic energy imploded the fucking intercom. Pieces flew every which way, but Wilhelm's expression--impassive--never changed. One piece narrowly missed hitting him.::
Oh my. ::His inflection was outright dead.:: I should have warned him not to touch a single hair on Yeshua's head or else face consequences more dire than anything Shakespeare might have dreamt. Silly me.
::He picked up the folder and extended it to the Brown Testament.:: Prepare my flight.
[BROWN TESTAMENT] ::The Brown Testament had stumbled back and shielded his face as a few pieces of plastic and metal flew across the room. He very quickly resumed his upright position, but took a step back when Wilhelm’s hand stretched out to him. Phew. Just a folder. The Brown Testament's slightly shaky hand reached out and snatched the folder.::
Y-Yes, Wilhelm. ::He immediately left the room.::
[ROMEO] ::The bathroom door was wide open, and chaos closed in just in time to see Romeo pulling up his pants. He side-eyed chaos and smirked.::
The name's Romeo.
::Okay, so why had Romeo taken off his shirt and shot his own bathroom mirror just to pee? He wasn't even attempting to hide what he had done: the gun was still smoking, settled right on the bathroom sink. Another piece of glass fell from the mirror, into the sink.
Romeo stepped out of the bathroom and wrapped an arm around chaos' shoulder.:: Do you like snow, chaos? We're gonna make a pit stop in New York; get you some new threads, okay? Don't want you to freeze your ass off in Toronto. ::He also didn't want chaos to take part in Toronto's clothing selection, because it was arguably worse than entering hypothermia. Romeo closed the bathroom door with his free hand and then looked into chaos' eyes.:: How's that sound?
[WILHELM] ::Wilhelm finally breathed out.:: I'm getting too old for this.
[CHAOS] ::chaos stared. He wasn't sure where to look, or where was appropriate for looking. On one side was the fractured, sparking remains of the bathroom mirror; Romeo was kaleidoscopic in it as he moved. Beneath the mirror was the gun responsible for the shot heard round the world. To the front was Romeo, shirtless, and chaos' eyes dipped.::
Romeo. Romeo Montague? ::The smile that crossed his paled face this time was incredulous--and scared. He looked back up and felt that completely gaping chasm in his mind receive something new: Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's work adapted from a narrative poem entitled The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet.:: Did you get beat up a lot when you were a kid or...
::He breathed in when Romeo draped an arm around him. So yeah, being cooped up in spaceship with a total psycho: he thought he might be able to write his own story from just that premise. He wet his lips unconsciously. Orange eyes? Talk about exotic.:: what.
.. what? ::Blink.:: I've never seen snow. ::Another blink, this one slower. Romeo would probably notice with the way he was staring that chaos was pretty warm, though he didn't look feverish anymore. Maybe a little pale.::
Your eyes are weird.
[ROMEO] ::The smirk fell off of Romeo's face. He charged and slammed chaos into the wall. His hands reached up to chaos' neck. The scene blacked out.::
This room was not surrounded by space; while it was still a very luxurious office, there were thirsty trees and beautiful bodies of water outside of the large and crisp windows. The office appeared to be located in one of the Vector buildings surrounding the Zohar excavation site, considering the fact that the Zohar was right there in the far distance. It was currently being assessed by a large gathering of scientists.::
It appeared only for a second. ::His eyes drifted down to the Compass in the corner of Wilhelm’s desk. It was completely immobile.:: ‘He’ may be playing with us. Shall I send reinforcements?
[ROMEO] ::The elevator stopped.:: You couldn't think of anything cooler than 'chaos'? ::Romeo stepped out of the elevator, into the completely quiet, completely linear hall. There were no doors or rooms to the sides. They had two choices: go back to the elevator, or go forward to the single door at the very end of the hallway. Clearly, Romeo had chosen the single door.::
[CHAOS] A friend of... that voice?
[WILHELM] ::Though it was a luxurious office, it had some very important changes to make it acclimate with the hot, dry, and generally underpowered region. It wasn't easy to air condition this many stand-alone buildings, so most of them simply weren't. In typical giving philanthropist fashion, Wilhelm's office was exempt from most electrically powered modern necessities: there were fans where there would have been vents, oil lamps where there would have been crystal light fixtures.
Even he was dressed differently--he was dressed for a safari, for a chase-'em-until-they're-dead kind of hunt that Europeans had enjoyed back in the day. The safari hat upon his head was tilted just enough to allow his uneven white bangs to layer across his face per usual. His back was to the Brown Testament and the unresponding Compass as he looked at the Zohar in the distance.::
I've learned it is so much easier to give them what they want and then wait for them to fumble with it out in the open.
[CHAOS] --And I didn't think of it, it was just there. Like a song you can't get out of your head. ::chaos looked down this long empty hallway with a mixture of curiosity and fear.:: U-DO might've called me it too. I dunno. He said a bunch of crap about God or whatever trying to "derive order from chaos" and failing at it. Do you know what that means at all?
[WILHELM] But you suggest that 'he' may be playing with us. I find this interesting. Let him think we're his string.
::On the walls of his office were various mounted heads of rare beasts that Wilhelm had presumably hunted and killed at one point. There was one empty setting, but the tiny brass plaque beneath it was illegible.::
While we play with him instead.
[ROMEO] I know that the 'people' U-DO hangs around tend to be really, really good liars. ::Romeo opened the door at the end of the hallway. It led onto the roof!
And right there, parked on the middle of the roof, was a damn space ship. These kinds of crafts weren't exactly available to the public--even the rich and famous couldn't spare the money to purchase a private craft of this sort. And yet there it was, staring both chaos and Romeo in the face. Romeo unhooked his keys from his belt and approached the ship's side door. The craft must have been double the size of a bus.:: You don't get space sick, do you?
::Romeo slipped his goggles right over his sunglasses; they clicked onto one another. They had obviously been custom-created. Romeo pulled the side door open, but he didn't enter. He stared at chaos, and then after a few awkward seconds, he motioned to the passenger's seat.:: You getting in or not?
[BROWN TESTAMENT] Yes, Sir. --And the Zohar? It’s currently being disconnected from its base. The Wave Containment Rings arrived about an hour ago. Will we be moving it to one of the hangars, or..?
[CHAOS] ::chaos shielded his eyes from the sunlight, but he was used to it by now. It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the shiny craft that was sitting atop the roof, and when they did, he stopped walking.:: You've got to be kidding me.
[WILHELM] ::Wilhelm revealed a folder he had been holding in front of him. This he carelessly tossed onto his desk, but none of its contents spilled out, believe it or not.:: It has been brought to my attention that an institute of computer science in Toronto, Canada, believes it can analyze the Zohar.
::The top sheet inside the folder slid out smoothly, revealing one name cleanly typed upon it: Grimoire Verum.::
[CHAOS] ::The space craft's shocking presence here didn't prevent him from approaching it, because it did look totally badass. For being an amnesiac, chaos still appreciated big, shiny machines. He touched the outside of the craft and nearly burnt his fingers, because its surface was made to reflect all forms of radiation in order to stabilize the core's heat. He sucked on his forefinger as he looked from the exterior to Romeo, and then his eyes narrowed again.::
No, really. You're all knight in shining armor here, but something doesn't add up. Maybe it's the spaceship or your charming goggles, I don't know, but I want something better to go on than I'll die sooner rather than later. Is that really too much to ask for?
[BROWN TESTAMENT] Very well. We will secure the Institute immediately.
[WILHELM] Have the Words been successfully extracted as well?
[ROMEO] You're being hunted down by Satan. ::Romeo reached out, took chaos' hand, and pulled him up to the passenger's seat. It was impossible to tell whether he was being sarcastic or not, because his eyes were completely hidden, and his voice held no distinguishing factors.:: Get the fuck in. This isn't a date.
[BROWN TESTAMENT] .. I’m afraid the extraction of the Words will be more difficult than originally anticipated. Several of our translators attempted to decipher the Zohar while it was not under Wave Containment--... ::The Brown Testament’s face was squirming from under that mask.::
Their bodies.. were torn inside out.
[WILHELM] Those fools. ::Wilhelm didn't sound affected in the least.::
[CHAOS] H-Hey! ::chaos had no choice but to enter the craft, which he probably would have hopped into anyway, given enough time and deliberation on his current lot in life. With few to no memories, no money, some blood-stained clothes, and no shoes, he really had nothing else to turn back around and go home to.::
What the hell do you mean, 'Satan'? ::The placement of those words was not lost on him; he couldn't even suppress his smile, which was very amused. Here was something he really did remember: Biblical allegories! YES! Heaven and hell, and sisters getting their father drunk enough to fuck him senseless, and lots of blood and gore, and all sorts of fun stuff. If only the Bible had had a human incarnation: he wouldn't have needed a callous ally like Romeo.::
[WILHELM] This is unfortunate. No matter. In all due time, things will flow together as the Compass says they will. ::... but at the moment, the Compass was dark and unmoving.::
[CHAOS] Don't have to get so crazy about it--I'm in, I'm in. Serious business and all that.
[ROMEO] Eighteen my ass. ::Romeo had hopped into the pilot's seat from the other side of the craft, and he slammed his side door shut. Looking in chaos' direction, he noticed that his side door was still open.:: Close it--just pull it in while holding the red button right there. Make sure it's locked; engine won't start up if she's not airtight.
::Between the pilot and passenger's seat was a hallway leading into the middle and back of the craft. While it wasn't the roomiest ship ever, it was definitely capable of housing Romeo. There was a very small kitchen back there connected to a square that could be considered a living room, one of the doors led to a bathroom, another to a bedroom.
The dashboard revealed a lot of Romeo's hobbies: half-smoked and scrunched cigarettes, condoms, what appeared to be a very old and stale bagel, and perhaps most revealing--a sniper rifle. Not exactly the most discreet place to put something like that, but then again, Romeo wasn't exactly the most discreet guy around town.::
If you're gonna puke, bathroom's in the back there. Put on your seat belt.
Today, kid.
[WILHELM] Oh, and one more thing, David.
[CHAOS] ::chaos was tempted to stick his tongue out at Romeo before he realized that that didn't correspond to a young adult's behavior at all. And just how old was this Romeo guy anyway? chaos wasn't impressed.:: You don't have to explain it. I know allllll about these things. ::Though that sounded like childish bravado, it was true: chaos knew. He had no trouble closing the door, securing it perfectly, and then buckling his seat belt. It took a few seconds for him to realize it was kind of weird that he knew his way around this ship, especially since he had never seen it before in his life and it was doubtful that anyone else had either.
As his eyes crossed the dashboard, absorbing all of the decorations there, he began to ask,:: So how'd no one no... ::Sniper rifle.::
[WILHELM] Take care of the infected remains of the translators properly. I don't want to see any more unfortunate incidents arise.
[CHAOS] ::Now he was nervously looking at Romeo, and if Romeo looked at him, he looked down at his seat belt and decided not to mouth off until they weren't in such a confined space with powerful weaponry nearby. OH GOD THIS GUY REALLY WAS GOING TO KILL HIM::
[ROMEO] No one what? ::According to the craft registration information on the visor right above Romeo's head, he was 26. He also looked a little happier in the picture. A citizen of Canada, apparently--Toronto. Strange, considering they were on the American Embassy.
The ground beneath them suddenly uplifted; Romeo had become immune to the sinking stomach feeling over the years, but chaos had probably never felt anything like it in his life. Well, actually, scratch that; it was very similar to the pain chaos had felt when Romeo had kicked him in the stomach and side.:: Once we get in the stratosphere you can go in the back and eat or watch TV or do whatever the hell you want. --Don't try to get up now, though. Not until the ship's leveled.
::It wasn't very apparent just how fast the ship was going unless you looked out the windows. The clouds were passing by so fast that it was difficult to see them at all; it was all one big blur of blue and white.:: We've got a five or six hour trip ahead of us.
::Though the ship was tilting upwards, Romeo denied his own advice and unbuckled his seatbelt. He stood up and squeezed himself through the pilot seats.:: I gotta take a piss; don't let us crash.
[BROWN TESTAMENT] That is not an issue. All casualties-including those that were ‘removed’ during the Zohar’s advent-have been recycled into Kenya’s food supply. It’s amazing what the poor will eat, provided they get to survive another day. They strive to live on, aware that their very existence is what brings their nation into famine and disease. Overpopulation-the ultimate oxymoron. Instinct versus nature.
Proof that their ‘God’ is an imperfect one.
[CHAOS] No one... I mean, how come no one noticed your sweet ride on the roof of the United States Embassy? ::It had been easy enough to discern their location just by looking around at all of the signs, if not the forms that he had spent two grueling hours filling out. If Romeo were here to prevent a more untimely death or whatever, then he had failed in saving his hand, which was sort of cramping up now. He stretched his fingers out as he thought about that, and anything else he was about to say or ask was cut off by the ship's launch sequence. The way he paled wasn't a good sign. He pushed his head back against his seat and tried not to look out the windows at all, where the streaming blue and white would probably make him feel even more ill. His esophagus was stretching and he could feel that. It was a horrible sensation.::
[WILHELM] It will never cease to amaze me that even the degenerate and the starving have the capacity to engage in intercourse. ::Wilhelm spoke on this subject as though it were any other subject, like the weather today or if Brown Testament would like to go to the beach with him and eat sandwiches.
The scientists clustered around the Zohar, though far more educated and affluent, were no better than any of the other damned souls on this planet.::
Humans.
[CHAOS] ... y-yeah. ::chaos looked anxiously away from Romeo, who wanted to go tinkle, to the controls.:: I totally got this.
[ROMEO] ::An orange light went solid on Wilhelm's intercom. An untraceable call? How familiar.::
[BROWN TESTAMENT] Hmph, ::the Brown Testament commented as he stared at the intercom through the very dark holes that hid his eyes.:: It appears ‘he’ isn’t giving up.
[WILHELM] ::Wilhelm turned around to face his intercom, revealing his very impassive expression. There was a deep brown riding crop propped up against his shoulder, which he moved from the left to the right when he saw the orange indicator. It was the sort of thing he would have used to beat the living shit out of a horse to make it run faster across the savannah in pursuit of prey.::
The more words, the more revealed. I consider this a gift. ::He stepped forward far enough to open the comm link with a touch of his riding crop.::
Hi.
[ROMEO] How you doing, babe? ::Romeo's tongue wrapped around the one of the miniature Zohar's horizontal hands. He was staring at himself in the mirror with his cellphone in his free hand. The taste of metal and copper drove him up the wall.::
35%. I'm being generous. I could kill him right now, you know. He's strapped down--got my Heckler right in front of his face. Clock is ticking. ::Romeo's eyes drifted away from the Zohar and to his own bright orange eyes.:: Tick, tock, tick, tock. Blowing Yeshua's brains out with a fucking Glock.
::Romeo took the Zohar out of his mouth and wiped the saliva off on his shirt. He pocketed it--the closer it was to his body, the more immune Romeo was to the Compass of Order's sight.::
It's all I want, Wilhelm. 35% of Vector--you know you can't spend all that money on your own. All those resources.
[WILHELM] Oh, I am fantastic. The weather is very nice today. ::Wilhelm must have been made out of steel, because he didn't move an inch. The only movement belonged to his blood red eyes, which lifted in the direction of the Compass of Order and Chaos.
It had been a long time since the device had stopped working for him when Yeshua wasn't in its presence, which confirmed the reality of the second Zohar's acquisition. Tricky tricky, Yeshua, creating the Compass' other half. It was like he had known all along, and perhaps he had.::
Mr. Montague, I assume you're very familiar with Vector Industries' policy to not negotiate with terrorists. ::There was a pause here.:: I need to know where you are going with him.
::His eyes moved up to the Brown Testament now, but his gaze was unreadable, as it tended to be.::
[BROWN TESTAMENT] ::The Brown Testament was clearly displeased, but he dared not say a word. While Wilhelm found humans’ lives trivial and did not concern himself with the struggle between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, he DID care about one thing above all in this world: the state of his ‘other’, Yeshua. The Brown Testament had heard more than an earful over these thousands of years, and he was not looking forward to another lecture regarding this.::
[ROMEO] Are you worried? Wilhelm? ::Pause.:: Are you worried? Are you there--
::GUNSHOT. It roared over the intercom, and it also roared into the space ship's cockpit. Romeo had a silencer on most of his firearms, but he obviously wanted Wilhelm to hear that one. Romeo tilted his handgun away from the bathroom mirror, which he had just shattered into pieces with a bullet.::
We're going to the Institute. I assume you have business there? Don't let me down, Wilhelm. He's cute, but he doesn't need to be alive to get fucked.
::The connection was cancelled. Romeo clasped his cellphone shut and looked up.::
[WILHELM] ::David hadn't read the fine print when he became a Testament, because there was plenty of room in a deal with the Devil to listen to the Devil's bitching. And oh, how much pent-up frustration and angst there was for Wilhelm to rant about! It was like the Testaments were his LiveJournal, how quaint was that.::
Mr. Montague--
[CHAOS] Holy SHIT.
::chaos imagined the bullet--yes, he definitely knew that was a gunshot!--piercing the outer hull of the craft and depressurizing the entire thing in an instant. What would it feel like, suffocating that way? He unbuckled his belt as hastily as he could, and once he was fairly sure that there were no fleshing red WARNINGS on the dashboard, he headed back toward the rear of the craft. Man, it didn't help that he felt pretty queasy, even at their increased altitude; his ears kept popping.::
Monta... gue? ::That was his name, right? He couldn't recall ever hearing the guy's first name, which made him realize that this was some foolhardy expedition. He didn't even know where they were going, much less what this guy's name was!:: Where are you? ::Gee, that kind of sounded familiar.
And speaking of sounds, he heard the tinkling of the bathroom's broken glass.::
[WILHELM] I see. Thank you for that pro tip. ::BLAM. A dark, psychedelic energy imploded the fucking intercom. Pieces flew every which way, but Wilhelm's expression--impassive--never changed. One piece narrowly missed hitting him.::
Oh my. ::His inflection was outright dead.:: I should have warned him not to touch a single hair on Yeshua's head or else face consequences more dire than anything Shakespeare might have dreamt. Silly me.
::He picked up the folder and extended it to the Brown Testament.:: Prepare my flight.
[BROWN TESTAMENT] ::The Brown Testament had stumbled back and shielded his face as a few pieces of plastic and metal flew across the room. He very quickly resumed his upright position, but took a step back when Wilhelm’s hand stretched out to him. Phew. Just a folder. The Brown Testament's slightly shaky hand reached out and snatched the folder.::
Y-Yes, Wilhelm. ::He immediately left the room.::
[ROMEO] ::The bathroom door was wide open, and chaos closed in just in time to see Romeo pulling up his pants. He side-eyed chaos and smirked.::
The name's Romeo.
::Okay, so why had Romeo taken off his shirt and shot his own bathroom mirror just to pee? He wasn't even attempting to hide what he had done: the gun was still smoking, settled right on the bathroom sink. Another piece of glass fell from the mirror, into the sink.
Romeo stepped out of the bathroom and wrapped an arm around chaos' shoulder.:: Do you like snow, chaos? We're gonna make a pit stop in New York; get you some new threads, okay? Don't want you to freeze your ass off in Toronto. ::He also didn't want chaos to take part in Toronto's clothing selection, because it was arguably worse than entering hypothermia. Romeo closed the bathroom door with his free hand and then looked into chaos' eyes.:: How's that sound?
[WILHELM] ::Wilhelm finally breathed out.:: I'm getting too old for this.
[CHAOS] ::chaos stared. He wasn't sure where to look, or where was appropriate for looking. On one side was the fractured, sparking remains of the bathroom mirror; Romeo was kaleidoscopic in it as he moved. Beneath the mirror was the gun responsible for the shot heard round the world. To the front was Romeo, shirtless, and chaos' eyes dipped.::
Romeo. Romeo Montague? ::The smile that crossed his paled face this time was incredulous--and scared. He looked back up and felt that completely gaping chasm in his mind receive something new: Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's work adapted from a narrative poem entitled The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet.:: Did you get beat up a lot when you were a kid or...
::He breathed in when Romeo draped an arm around him. So yeah, being cooped up in spaceship with a total psycho: he thought he might be able to write his own story from just that premise. He wet his lips unconsciously. Orange eyes? Talk about exotic.:: what.
.. what? ::Blink.:: I've never seen snow. ::Another blink, this one slower. Romeo would probably notice with the way he was staring that chaos was pretty warm, though he didn't look feverish anymore. Maybe a little pale.::
Your eyes are weird.
[ROMEO] ::The smirk fell off of Romeo's face. He charged and slammed chaos into the wall. His hands reached up to chaos' neck. The scene blacked out.::