Dane-gerous

IC: Falh - Zakaz, Outside Navu's Place Space shifted. Falh's weight shifted, boots pushing down in order to stop himself from toppling over. He frantically glanced around. What had happened? Had he...done that? It felt like he had, but how? Was this the power that the demon had grafted on him with that... That thing. It still clung to him. Falh leaned against the outside of Navu's hut, retching. Nothing came out.

i think i have to bear the responsibility of implying skakdi babies existed i'm not sorry, though.

IC: Vent - Zakaz, The Tunnels "...mmmfff...." The Tiokaha shifted, stirring a bit.

IC: Mega - Zakaz, Metru-Koro "Yeah, darlin'. We're here. I ain't exactly sure who's in charge here, though. Might gotta ask around." And with that, the Matoran shouldered her rifle and got out of the van, beginning to approach the village. OOC: @ZippyWharrgarbl @A-tak-nid Also open to interaction

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Hangar Okay, so they did have a booster each. The lineup was interesting. Fighting alongside a Sangheili, whilst she would have preferred to have been allowed to work with Artur solely, would be interesting. Perhaps even riveting. But she saw that look that Vali and Nik exchanged. That wasn't just a friendly tease. Spartan Markov had been given the green stamp to come on this mission by whoever up top, so Julia wasn't afraid of foul play on the mission, not one bit. But tension is a strong entity. Tension leads to distrust, and distrust leads to mistakes. And mistakes... She didn't finish the line of thought. All of them were professionals. Julia would just have to trust that her two other squadmates would play nice with each other. The Spartan-III returned a helmeted nod to Nik, before shaking her head at Myra's question for other questions. As far as Julia was concerned, she was ready to blast off. OOC: @Pteronura Brasiliensis @Krayzikk @Vezok's Friend

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Hangar That one took a minute. It was only a groan a few seconds or so afterwards that indicated that she got the pun. They were somehow getting worse, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. Other than immediate disappointment, of course. "Just for that, I hope they put you on my rear gunner spot. Don't worry, they gave us implants for motion sickness." They most certainly did not. OOC: @Pteronura Brasiliensis

IC: Falh - Zakaz, Navu's Place He felt sick. Were the symptoms back? His breathing sped up as he stared at the creature on his shoulder. Then, without warning, there was an odd sound akin to that of something blasting at incredible speeds, before Falh's form instantaneously warped in shape and seemingly vanished. The room was apparently empty, then. OOC: @Eyru

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Hangar "I know, right." She muttered, in response to Taylor. The situation had seemingly cooled. Artur had taken the hint. The stragglers were coming into the fold, finally. Myra would probably begin laying things out in proper. She kept her eyes on Taylor, something about his demeanour worried her. Hopefully he didn't suspect anything. She looked toward the boosters that'd carry them toward the Kig-Yar threat. There's one for each of us, right?

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Hangar The realisation of what Artur just admitted sent Julia's elbow to dig lightly into Artur's side. "He's joking. I know, his sense of humour is awful." She covered, keeping a calm tone. Artur was bridging the line between asocial and downright dangerous in conversation topics. She knew he didn't mean it, but the last thing she wanted was to discover her partner had been taken away by ONI spooks and given a terrible cover story to ink up the obvious fact that he'd babbled. She wasn't sure she could live with herself if that happened.

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Hangar There was a muted laugh from Julia, at Vali's response, and Artur's further reply. From her attitude thus far, he probably wasn't wrong.

IC: Mega - Zakaz, Metru-Koro "If those monsters come back, it'll be this darn place they'll try and bust up." Mega tried to explain. "Reckon warnin' em about what happened to my place is as good an idea as I'm thinkin' right now." And, of course, Triage was here. She smiled briefly at a stray thought. OOC: @ZippyWharrgarbl @A-tak-nid

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Hangar "Respecting boundaries helps too, Alice." Julia's voice came out, a firmness to the modulated sentence. It wasn't threatening, but it was concise. Her yellow visor withheld any expression. She looked Vali up and down, still fascinated by the fact a Sangheili would be serving with them. She'd only briefly interacted with Sangheili, but their technology intrigued her. She was almost tempted to ask to see her energy sword, as she saw it clipped to her thigh. But, again, boundaries. OOC: @Snelly @The UltimoScorp @Pteronura Brasiliensis @sunflower @Vezok's Friend

IC: Mega And The Gang - Zakaz, Metru-Koro After a long, somewhat quiet ride, a lightning streaked van soon began to approach Metru-Koro. Mega's eyes widened at the size of the place. She hadn't reckoned something so big could be built in just a week. OOC: @ZippyWharrgarbl @A-tak-nid (and anyone else that wants to interact with this cluster####)

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Corridor (Nearby Hangar) She stopped with him, looking him where his eyes should be. There was a pang of guilt at bringing that up so offhandedly, but he wasn't wrong. Spartan lives were forfeited in exchange for what little peace humanity could afford. Childhoods bought with rescinded emotional maturity. But they were who they were. The most Julia could do was keep herself and her partner together enough to be able to continue to save lives. "Yeah. Of course." An invisible, small smile. "Come on. Let's go catch up with Myra." OOC: @Pteronura Brasiliensis

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Corridor (En-Route To Hangar) "Well, you saw her gear, right?" She looked back again. "Atypical, even for this fireteam. I don't think explosives specialists care much about making noise, at any rate." A beat, as they approached the hangar. "She survived, though, didn't she? That's more than most of our lot can say." She glanced over to Artur. OOC: @Pteronura Brasiliensis

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Armory (Towards The Hangar) Julia visibly shuddered for a brief second, unsettled by the AI's voice on the loud speaker. She'd forgotten Alice could do that. Artur crawled back, to her relief. There was a slightly more respectful nod to the other Spartans as she too left the Armory, an eye on the other Spartan-III for a moment before. She was sure she had some stories to share, if they ever had the opportunity. "Disengaging is a skill you've yet to fully master, Artur." Julia chuckled, a little modulated under the helmet. "I'll cover for you next time. That yellow one was Alpha company, by the way, if you hadn't noticed. Thought I would have noticed that in the crew log..." Admittedly, many of her and Artur's breed were covered in black ink. There likely wouldn't have been much to read other than assurance that her skillset was very much verified by whoever gave her the stamp to go. OOC: @Pteronura Brasiliensis

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Armory The bigger Spartan seemed to be jokingly grilling Spartan Munroe, who'd greeted her before, but also had his hands around the rifle Artur was inspecting for a moment. Artur seemed to be engaging in conversation fine enough, but she knew how he was. She sighed. The Spartan-III sometimes wondered if she needed one of those grapple devices so she could periodically pull her partner away. For now, she leaned against the doorway, patiently waiting for him to wrap his conversation up. If her eyes were visible she'd have given him the "Please wrap up the conversation with your old friend that I don't know and you just met again in the store whilst looking for flour, honey." look. Another rolled up, cheerily pulling out a SPNKr rocket launcher and various other explosive items. Her demeanour was different. There was experience there, for sure. The tag on the locker said A-313, didn't it? An eyebrow raised beneath the CQB helmet. An Alpha company Spartan. OOC: @Pteronura Brasiliensis @Krayzikk @FarflungWanderer

IC: Falh - Zakaz, Navu's Place (As Promised) Something wasn't right. The wriggling, the endless wriggling. It had just been a vision, a trick of Tuakana's power. But it continued on his own flesh. He looked down to his shoulder. A bright red, and yellowish slug clung to his otherwise untainted armour. It wriggled but stayed put, grafted to him. "What...? What is this?" He asked, in a whispered tone. "What have you done to me, demon?" OOC: @Eyru @Toru Nui

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Armory She looked to Artur, clipping her SMG to her back mag-holster. "Let's follow. Use the carbine, by the way." The navy and gunmetal Spartan said, before beginning to walk off, looking back to see if Artur-G013 would actually follow instead of stressing over primaries for an hour. OOC: @Pteronura Brasiliensis

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Armory She felt very lucky that her visor prevented Myra from seeing her expression at all, at that last pun.

IC: Mega - Zakaz, The Van "Metru-Koro." She said, before sitting in the driver's seat and beginning to drive in the direction she thought Metru-Koro was. OOC: @ZippyWharrgarbl @A-tak-nid we rollin'

IC: Mega and Zsann - Zakaz, The Wastes (On The Road Again) And with that, the two other passengers climbed on board again. Mega felt a pang of guilt of making Yaushe drive constantly, but there was truly little else they could do. OOC: @A-tak-nid @ZippyWharrgarbl (bunnying done with permission)

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Armory The Spartan allowed herself a sensible chuckle at Artur's rebuke of her awful joke, before nodding to Myra, both in greeting and in response to Artur's question. "Sure is." Julia folded her arms, gesturing with one hand to Artur-G013. "My partner had some questions about the approach here. Do you want us to stick close?" OOC: @Vezok's Friend @Pteronura Brasiliensis

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Armory She looked back, her helmet hiding her expression but the audible sigh from behind the yellow visor could probably lead Artur to hazard a guess at her visible reaction. "I want you to know if that happens, it'll be entirely your level of competence at fault." Julia replied, experimentally checking the sights on her M20-S. "You'll be fine." She added the last bit quickly, as at least some reassurance. Julia knew Artur well enough to know that, whilst it wasn't that he was particularly anxious about, he suffered from pre-battle nerves just as much as everyone else did. It helped, just as his terrible jokes helped her in a small way. "...Those Kig-Yar'll have a crushing defeat to swallow." An invisible smirk. OOC: @Pteronura Brasiliensis

IC: Julia-G101 - Madrigal Armory No matter how many times Julia slipped on her armour, the pre-mission anticipation never truly left. She'd learned, between missions, about a particular style of acting that some Old Earth actors used. Instead of using facial expressions purely, many would create characters based on masks with certain exaggerated emotions or feelings. They'd stare at a mask with a grumpy frown and momentarily recreate that expression and feeling in their head before turning to the audience, mask donned. And then they'd be that person, for however long the play would last. Like a persona. Julia stared at her helmet, almost amused at the idea of her and her fellow Spartans being like actors in a play. Each of their helmets representing their individual personas and roles. She'd told Artur of the idea, once, and he'd found that particularly funny. Hearing poorly written Greek tragedy recited back to you whilst you're midway through ducking Insurrection goons was the exact opposite of funny, though. The thought dissipated as she slipped on her CQB headpiece, numerous mechanisms clicking into place. She breathed in deep, reaching for her M6H2 and checking the ammo in the magazine for a final time. Three times was better than one. Her silenced magnum clipped to her magnetic slot on her thigh as she gripped her sub-machine gun tight, inspecting it idly. Anticipation was good. It was only when anticipation turned to fear that she should worry. OOC: Open to interaction briefly before the mission begins.