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Post by Kalaboo on Jan 23, 2021 0:10:57 GMT -6
Kalabas sat with himself for company, or rather the meat he had once resided, now stuffed with enough circuits and butcher wire to look like a different beast altogether. He had rescued the corpse machine from some would-be revolutionaries, who had thought it possible to bring back the dead with finagled and cursed algorithms. It was a much too silly, much too violent use for a body, more so his own. Still, having found the metal and organ fusion inhabited by a something, he decided to let it grow and flourish. Under the tutelage of the previous tenant, Kalabot was to learn and enjoy trivialities Kalabas had denied himself and others. Silly little things like fatty foods, sightseeing and Earth. To the best of his ability Kalabas would also try to give Kalabot a life, or as close to one a dead man could give to a misshapen effigy of himself.
"Read the news?" Kalabas sprawled on the picnic towel, watching the moon rise. Snow became ice around him, only to then melt with the heat Kalabot exuded. Something about overclocking? The ghost had never been any good with machines. But in Kalabot's silence he could read his own thoughts echo, insofar as the automaton had never attacked him. At the moment Kalabot was placing, putting away, and placing again a set of cutlery, giving no signs that he was listening... Which was fine, a child needn't always listen.
"Curious, yes." he squinted, putting names to glaring constellations distorted into prancing animals by human astronomers. He had dreamt of conquering them all, once. "I wouldn't call it malaise, not really... More like, peace. Fleeting, yes, but so was this war."
He drummed his fingers on the picnic cloth, getting some satisfying crunches of snow. Kalabot slipped a fork between his fingers, which he kept.
"Thank you."
He rolled up to his feet, crouching to face the machine man, trading the fork for a napkin to clean Kalabot's foggy red visor. "Be a dear and warm some soda, you'll see that Earth is too small for any duo not to become a trio."
Kalabot gave a thumbs-up, and did as he was ordered. Therein lied the problem, he obeyed too easily to Kalabas' demand. And what if the Duke had a flight of madness, would he obey? Kalabas returned to stargazing.
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Post by Miru on Jan 23, 2021 22:29:39 GMT -6
Thread PL: 40,000
"..." Miru hummed silently to herself as she clambered up the steep and slick slopes of Frappe. The seemingly constant snowstorm that settled over top the mountain seemed to only grow worse the further she got, and while the girl was hardly one to put any stock in superstition, this was certainly hella annoying. The biting chill, howling winds, and pelting hail may have driven off regular folks from trying to get too high up but weather conditions were mostly a nonfactor for her. Not to toot any horns, but Miru considered herself to be pretty darn strong by Earthling standards... though not that it meant much compared to a lot of Super people running about with power in the millions. Oh well. Not like any of that was her concern anyway. Now then, when it came to concerns one was sure to pop up - why was Miru trying to ascend Mt. Frappe in her regular gear (sunglasses and all) in the midst of the wintry season? Training was part of it to a degree, and it wasn't like she could sense energy at all, so therein her true goal came to fruition: finding a mythical piece of frozen water.
On this mountain near the peak was a big chunk of crystal blue ice that supposedly would never ever melt. If she could just get a piece of that... voila! Permanent ice cube in the summer. Her drinks were always way too hot in the Southern Summers, even when liberally applied with ice which then melted and watered her beverage down. A whole cavalcade of disasters to be sure. Shaking her head free from a fresh coating of powdered snow once again, the human finally made tangible progress when she found herself near the top. Through the cloying clouds and drifts of snowfall, the moon shone brightly overhead. Oh yes. Perhaps doing a cold climb at night wasn't the greatest idea either, hm. Well whatever the case she was close to her goal by now, certainly. Whether it might not exist was a tangible topic that had crossed her mind many a time, though that bridge would be burned when it came time to set it ablaze. Finally taking off her sunglasses to give them a proper wipe down, Miru could now see just enough to realize that she wasn't exactly alone. Some weird sorta-ethereal dude was chilling with a Frankenstein's Monster tier meat puppet. It was overtly grotesque in all manners of the word... "Neat."
With little hesitation, Miru approached the apparent duo and cleared her throat before speaking. "Hey mister. You a mountain spirit or something? Ah, wait, you don't need to answer. I came up here looking for something, ya see. Nevermelt Ice as they call it. Looks like ice but has like a bluer tint to it, I guess. You seen something like that around here?"
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Post by Kalaboo on Jan 23, 2021 23:43:21 GMT -6
The thin air of the mountain crest carried too easily the sweet vapours of Hetap© Cranberry Storm©, fuming from the pot Kalabot at once stirred and heated with a metal finger. Kalabas, on the other hand, was flipping through a photobook, studying the spectres that had let themselves be seen, philosophizing on the thrill of being caught and the irrational need to be acknowledged. Wouldn't it be wonderful, to be the obsession of another? Kalabas had a glass placed on top of his forehead, which his pale skin creased around as he returned to mince that last thought. Wanting to be obsessed over was even more stupid than being the one obsessing, and the ghost was much too tired to do anything of the sort ever again. No, his passions and hatreds were to flourish and wilt naturally, rather than made to fit some grandiose narrative of destiny and birthright.
He removed the glass with a loud pop, acknowledging the earthling with a razor smile. The teeth arranged themselves into the round-crowned squares Kalabas saw on Miru, and he cursed himself for forgetting. Being alive was a distant memory, and perhaps with time he would forgive these lapses.
"Hello." he answered despondent, nodding at Kalabot as he waved at no-one in particular. Just as they had practiced, somewhat... The human was looking for Nevermelt Ice, which reminded the ghost of someone. "I have never heard it called by that name, but I know of a blueish ice. Magical, I think, or perhaps an emanation of ki... Arcosians lend themselves well to both."
"Perhaps you will find some of it in the hollow core of this mountain. A battle took place there some time ago, and the arcosian did cast some impressive icicles..."
Kalabot, who still sat cross-legged, offered a spoonful of molten Cranberry Storm© to Miru. Kalabas guided the patchwork hand to let the soda spill into the glass, which Kalabot kept filling one brusque spoonful at a time.
"I could guide you there. Maybe it'd help me recall that battle." Kalabot took the glass and threw it at Miru.
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Post by Miru on Jan 24, 2021 0:13:39 GMT -6
A chef ghost of sorts it seemed. Miru wasn't quite familiar with the scent of Hetap whatsoever, that applied doubly so to whatever homebrewed concoction this phantom had seen fit to create. At least he acknowledged her pleasantly enough, with the odd puppet corpse reacting in its own way. In a sense the two looked vaguely similar, though the spectral nature of a ghost and the extensive bodily modifications of a husk made it hard to connect them together with any sort of certainty. Then again the nature of their very being was of little concern to the Earthling. That was private business and far from knowledge she'd go seeking for out of strangers. Strange strangers, no less, though perhaps to them Miru was the odd one here. Her sunglasses were tucked neatly into her neckpiece, pale gray eyes looking over Kalabas curiously as he worked and toiled.
"Magic ice, is it...?" Her lips and brow drew together in thought. While the very idea was ludicrous, Miru still wasn't one to directly believe in straight magic. Getting confirmation that this seemingly impossible ice may exist was certainly exciting, and a specter like this surely had no reason to lie. "Arcosians are the Aliens that transform a lot and change their body around, right? I've never actually seen one in person." Though the stigma of them generally being evil was prevalent in Earthling society to those aware of higher powers, Miru preferred to see such things firsthand before coming to any sort of meaningful conclusion. He then went on to mention something regarding a previous battle on the mountain, with an Arcosian casting magic to form such impressive ice in the first place. "I've heard talk of some great battle in this area about a year ago... Including it being the cause of the chasm that came to be near Frappe. To think that such a scar on the planet was formed in an instant by a single person..."
His sweet smelling brew had apparently finished given the sudden toss of a near full glass at her. She hardly reacted to the motion, a single hand rising to catch the vessel with little worry as the liquid sloshed within the confines of it's prison. She dipped a lone finger in, unfazed by the boiling temperature and tasting the drink in small dosage before thinking about taking a whole sip. It was sweet yet bitter at the same time, an aftertaste of cranberry lingering on her tongue. Murmuring an appreciation for it, Miru took a full and unadulterated sip before responding. "That would be appreciated. Is it possible to reach the mountain core from here or must we descend?"
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Post by Kalaboo on Jan 27, 2021 1:01:42 GMT -6
Kalabas gave a quizzical smile, meanwhile Kalabot's rotten-stare remained as faded and unfocused as ever. Who could possibly divine the thoughts of such a ramshackle?
"Arcosians are the aliens that transform a lot, yes." and could anyone in this day and age fault them for that? Every blooded fighter had at some point willed their body into something else, and the noble did feel nostalgic for when he could turn into an oozaru. Shaping his wraith-like form did not feel the same, bereft as he was of squelchy bits... He wondered, once again unwillingly, bitterly, how it was like to be a cobweb of nerves and neurons encased in soft wet meat set unto a cage of hard bone. And draped in skin all over? Sounded luxuriant.
"Capsule the refreshments." he commanded Kalabot, both mirroring a lofty gait. The ghost appeared more aloof than the carcass, despite the attempt at a smile. As he talked, the cyborg was rifling through a picnic basket.
"This mountain is hollow, more of a facade than a foundation. Or an egg, I suppose." a mote of ki fell from Kalabas' finger, cratering the mountain slightly at his feet. A dark hole tore open, seemingly bottomless, wide enough for a living person to fall and keep falling for an eternity. He hovered over it as a precaution.
"My theory is that the tendrils were unfocused, rather than aimed all at the core of the planet." he rubbed his chin in the manner of his scholarly uncle, "Perhaps reconstituted it would have been successful, or maybe it was the sundering that coalesced such... dark energies. In any case, can you fly?"
Kalabot jumped into the hole. Kalabas firmly but sternly pulled him back. Something about the saiyan's childish obsession with a good death and the machine's self-destruct mechanism had gelled well.
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