Personification Life - IC Part VIII [open]

[Torsiedelle]

I wouldn't care, but interesting. You obviously know my only experience as a Fairy." Natiya shrugged, looking off to the corner of the room. Despite how tough she really appeared, that night still made her cringe, having two of her appendages amputated without even anesthesia. The most painful and scarring moment of her life, and Tora was bragging about how fun it was to be a Fairy . . .

"Please stop talking." She requested. "At least about that. I still remember the scars."

--

Bran and Rylli were still waiting back as the others in the group started clearing out some traps (Or so they thought). It was all a bit confusing, and all they wanted to do was get to the raptors.

"Oh, um...sorry."

Torii inhaled and sat up a little straighter. Things felt awkward in here...she probably shouldn't have brought that up. She felt really bad about not talking about it, though....maybe there was something else she could bring up?

"What if I let you cut of my wings? Or- um...what if we had some better experiences as fairies? Or um, you don't wanna talk about it, so, um..I mean.....never mind...um....so, you have a boyfriend?"

[The New Velociraptor Empire]

The "lumberjack" bots continued to ignore the group, but seemed that they weren't cutting down trees either, just stuck and plagued with errors.

The boxers were left unharmed, nothing noticed with the low static over the intercoms. The large red metal toolbox seemed to be connected to the chair by floss. In small letters in the back, out of sight from the others it read "Contents: 1x Automated Sentry Turret" Apparently this was the only line of defense past the door in this room. However, the room appeared to be a hemisphere (well, it was spherical, only half of it was filled with soil) of metal with inactive lights attached to the upper portions by mechanical apparatuses, providing artificial light and water to this forest.

The trail of footprints led to a source of light deeper in the woods.

(OOC: my error. I misread "room" and didn't comment on the forest."

Hans had thought it was a shadow by a baseboard. His handler amended that to the shadow under a fern frond.

"Hey, Klaus, the box contains an automatic sentry turret. There's floss connected to it."

He squinted at the floss to see if it was taunt or lax. Would it be set off by vibrations, for example? Or would disturbing the chair cause the floss to tighten and activate the weapon. He carefully poked his nose from the shadow, expecting the weird bots to go after him. The smell was nice, and the air felt good on his scales. Yes, a raptor-friendly place. He could enjoy it but he worried that the rest of the party, unaccustomed to using raptor senses, might fuddle through it.

"Hey, Klaus, when our new headquarters are finished, can we add a forest to the entry? I like this."

Minerva face-palmed again - Klaus wondered how she was managing to pull off the gesture so perfectly. He made eye contact with Hans. "Tell me what else you see."

He turned to address the group. "As you heard, there's a trap. Let's see if we can diffuse it. Hans will tell us how it's set up."

The taut length of floss would trigger the trap if it moved more than an inch in either direction. The minty tripwire entered the box through a crevice next to the unclasped latch that would normally keep any normal toolbox closed during transport. However, if one looked closely at the edges and along the bottom, the sides of the box were not a singular pice of metal, nor was it welded together, the "toolbox" was held together by an internal mechanism.

The Nurse"Lumberjack"-bots remained passive in their broken state. The intercoms static varied as the massive lights far above flickered to life. Revealing in large letters vertically arranged on the interior metal dome of the forest room, "CONSERVATORY 7" in big bold letters.

[Primordial Luxa]

Arthur ordered foie gras with mustard seeds and green onions in duck jus for the introductory course. He offered to open the bottle, much to the displeasure of the waiter whose sole job was opening bottles of wine.

"Although, I shouldn't have said that. It's all government work. I'm just a consultant. They don't quite understand human psychology, so they made me to help." Arthur explained as he poured Insidious a glass.

"It may be as exciting as technical lab work, but it's rewarding in it's own way." he added.

After pouring himself a glass, he sniffed and took a sip.

The wine has smooth texture with edges accented by an almond tang, the whole drink has a strange flesh like quality to it that Insidious was sure the raptor would enjoy and she sampled her own before replying. "Indeed so...are their any future projects your working on?" she said inquisitively interested in learn more about the man Raptor she was considering sleeping with. "You mentioned psychiatric work but that seems too mundane for you"

[The BranRiech]

"Nah, it's fine. I'd rather not. My wings would probably still be gone, ya' think?" Natiya asked, somewhat saddedned at her next question. Aleki. The one she was still holding out for, the one she wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life with. He was still gone, off fighting a war. "Yeah, Aleki's his name. He works for Swith's husband. He's not around right now, I miss him dearly."

--

"Icing? And wait, what are we making, before we go any further?" Rachelle asked, cocking her head slightly to the side as she tried remembering the ingredients to a cake, which were strikingly similar, if she read the kid's cookbook right that one time. "Yeah, dad's teaching me to take things apart, and fix them! He took a part out of our toaster once, and asked me to find out what was wrong. He said I did a good job, and then we both fixed it together!"

Rachelle was obviously quite proud of that.

--

"What do you see?"

Bran's question, was naturally directed at the people, or raptors, at the head of the group. He was getting tired of doing nothing, and he was to see if he could help with anything. Besides, the raptors were reliant on technology, something Bran worked wonders with taking apart and or fixing safely.

[Urran]

Yoshi chuckled. "We're making cupcakes for Tora's birthday My Dear. Now, i did take apart the mixer and I did make sure that it wouldn't work. Have fun." he said, passing it back to her. He used another one to mix the ingredients for the cream-cheese icing together. As for Rachelle's mixer, he had simply removed the copper coil from the motor.

[Torsiedelle]

"Oh, Aleki? I think I met him once.", Tora said. "I'm sorry for your "loss", if that helps. I know what it's like to have someone ya love go away, or not being able to see them for a long time."

......

"Conservatory seven.", Katya mumbled. How strange. The tripwire and the gun? How would they get past that?

"Um...couldn't we just step over the tripwire?", She asked. "Or, go under it? Burn it?"

[Urran]

"A trip wire? How crude." Tieria remarked, he folded his arms and stood just a few feet away from the others. He was back to being his typical, anti-social self. He was contemplating using Bran as a meat shield if anything went wrong. He kept his senses tuned for any sign of electronic equipment he could use.

[The New Velociraptor Empire]

"A trip wire? How crude." Tieria remarked, he folded his arms and stood just a few feet away from the others. He was back to being his typical, anti-social self. He was contemplating using Bran as a meat shield if anything went wrong. He kept his senses tuned for any sign of electronic equipment he could use.

Even with the communications knocked out, most of the electronics were protected by Tele-Kill Alloy. The exotic light wight metal was physically weak ans not that dense, but it stopped telepathy and technopathy like a brick wall stopping a bike. However, one of the Nurse"Lumberjack"-Bots that was armed with a fire axe was vulnerable. Although, taking control may or may not have been a good idea given the unreliability of Raptor-tech.

[Swith Witherward]

The taut length of floss would trigger the trap if it moved more than an inch in either direction. The minty tripwire entered the box through a crevice next to the unclasped latch that would normally keep any normal toolbox closed during transport. However, if one looked closely at the edges and along the bottom, the sides of the box were not a singular pice of metal, nor was it welded together, the "toolbox" was held together by an internal mechanism.

The Nurse"Lumberjack"-bots remained passive in their broken state. The intercoms static varied as the massive lights far above flickered to life. Revealing in large letters vertically arranged on the interior metal dome of the forest room, "CONSERVATORY 7" in big bold letters.

"What do you see?"

Bran's question, was naturally directed at the people, or raptors, at the head of the group. He was getting tired of doing nothing, and he was to see if he could help with anything. Besides, the raptors were reliant on technology, something Bran worked wonders with taking apart and or fixing safely.

"It's a rigged device," Hans shouted back. He gave a description of what he'd observed.

Minerva huffed. "It won't do to just stand around. Klaus, push Bran to Hans and he can pop out under the leaf and defuse the damn thing.”

Klaus raised an eyebrow eye ridge at her and she raised one back at him and smiled. “Well, honestly, we might as well put the lad to work, Klaus. Hans? Come and get him. And be careful. There could be mutant experiments in there.”

Hans nodded and Klaus’ claw latched on to Bran’s snout. He pushed him downward into his shadow with all the effort of trying to stuff a square peg in a round hole. Luckily, Hans was able to grasp his ankles and yank him through.

Two raptor snouts emerged from under the fern frond a moment later. Hans quietly described what he’d seen and pointed to the device, floss and so on. “Think you can diffuse it? Come with me. Oh, and you’ll need this!” He handed Bran a spork.

Hans stepped into the middle of the clearing first, prepared to take an ass whooping for Bran’s sake if it meant giving Bran enough time to work.

“Stand back, people,” Minerva said. “If it goes off, I don’t want to spend a lot of time sorting out which body parts belong to what raptors.”

[The BranRiech]

Rachelle looked at Yoshi, unamused as she quickly dug through a nearby drawer, finding a screw-driver. She then, just as quickly, dismantled the outer plastic shell. Of course she noticed what was wrong, the coil was missing! "Give it back." She demanded, with a determined grin. They needed it for the cupcakes, obviously.

--

"Yeah, he should be safe, but I'm always worried." Natiya murmured. This wasn't the best thing to talk about either, and she'd rather talk about fairies, even though that wasn't preferable.

"Ya' know? Maybe I will take you up on that offer sometime."

--

Bran, who was wholly unprepared for being shoved (And pulled) through a shadow, looked at the tripwire and the the device connected to it. Booby-traps weren't usually his cup of tea, but they usually used some simple mechanical devices to make them work, the simpler the better, he usually found. But these were the raptors, their version of "Simple" Could mean advanced rocket science.

"Lemme' get a look at it. I can do it." He nodded to Hans, right next to him.

[Tiltjuice]

"You taste like pork," Hans swung his snout around to look at her. "Pigs and humans have things in common, but you are not a pig. You've actually very pretty. Your eyes are pretty."

He raised his lip into a raptor smile and licked her face again.

"Oh~", Katya mumbled with a blush. "Why, um...thank you, sir. I feel pretty now..."

Now, she didn't really care whether she was licked or not. She was already covered in saliva, and the nice raptor had complimented her. She felt good about herself again, and was still haply about having taken down the door.

"Thank you!", She told Albert. "Oh, and....please don't eat me. I'm too young to die..."

"You're also too pretty to die," put in Luce, who was resting his big raptor head on top of Katya's head.

"That's my line," Dora snarked, lightheartedly. She poked Luce in the side.

Behind the three of them, Chrys was content to wait, singing an odd mix of old Cutting Crew singles intermingled with Celtic drinking songs. She watched the others carefully, as she didn't like the idea of cleaning up a mishmash of raptor body parts either. Nor explaining to the boss how mortals that she was supposed to watch out for ended up ex-mortals, in a bad way.

[The New Velociraptor Empire]

Bran, who was wholly unprepared for being shoved (And pulled) through a shadow, looked at the tripwire and the the device connected to it. Booby-traps weren't usually his cup of tea, but they usually used some simple mechanical devices to make them work, the simpler the better, he usually found. But these were the raptors, their version of "Simple" Could mean advanced rocket science.

"Lemme' get a look at it. I can do it." He nodded to Hans, right next to him.

As stated before (but with a few added details), the taut length of floss would trigger the trap if the chair moved more than an inch forwards or backwards. The minty tripwire entered the "toolbox" through a crevice next to the unclasped latch that would normally keep any normal toolbox closed shut during transport. However, if one looked closely at the edges and along the bottom, the sides of the box were not a singular piece of metal, nor was it welded together, the "toolbox" was held together by an unseen internal mechanism. If one attempted to lift it (which would surely set it off) they would find it quite heavy, but manageable under raptor strength.

[Urran]

Yoshi giggled and handed the coil to Rachelle. She was too cute. "Do you know how to put it back in?"

[New Aksarben]

"You taste like pork," Hans swung his snout around to look at her. "Pigs and humans have things in common, but you are not a pig. You've actually very pretty. Your eyes are pretty."

He raised his lip into a raptor smile and licked her face again.

"Oh~", Katya mumbled with a blush. "Why, um...thank you, sir. I feel pretty now..."

Now, she didn't really care whether she was licked or not. She was already covered in saliva, and the nice raptor had complimented her. She felt good about herself again, and was still haply about having taken down the door.

"Thank you!", She told Albert. "Oh, and....please don't eat me. I'm too young to die..."

"Why would I eat you? It would basically be cannibalism, anyway." Albert said, looking into the raptor house while idly tapping his claws on the porch. "I'm also not that hungry right now..... Well, I may be a bit hungry, but that doesn't mean I'd eat a person. Especially someone I know." Albert then gave a grin and started poking Katya's shoulder with a claw over and over. He wanted to follow the theme of messing with her, honestly. It seemed kind of fun, and it was hilarious how two of the raptors kept licking Katya's head for some odd reason. So Albert had decided to start poking her with a claw. Not hard enough to actually hurt her of course, but more than enough to bother her.

The raptor-personification peered back into the raptor house for a moment to make sure nothing else dangerous was going on in there. But so far it seemed like all was calm except for the strange robots going around with axes. He was almost tempted to just go inside and wander around for a while in what looked like a very nice place to wander. After all, the forest inside the house reminded him of Naxia, a province of his home that was covered in magnificent forest. Albert loved to wander around them regularly, to relax in the tranquility of the heavy forest. But Albert was content to wait outside until told otherwise. He was a soldier after all.

Albert tilted his head over in the direction of Chrys when her singing caught his attention. "Hey, you are.... Chrys, right? It is very difficult to tell who everyone is, honestly...." His gaze drifted around the assembled raptors before getting back to his point. "I remember talking to you a long time ago about sparing, I believe. Either you or one of the other conservators...." Albert tapped his chin with a claw as he thought for a moment. "Anyway, I think it would be interesting to try that sometime. Spar that is. Preferably after we have been changed back to human. Oh, and that singing is very interesting.... Are you singing anything in particular?"

[Torsiedelle]

"Awesome!", Torii replied. "She do ya wanna do it? I got my TF gun from Mr. Nikanor in my room right now! Some nice bonding time with it would do us well, ya know!"

Hearing Yoshi and Rachelle in the other room, Torii giggled and went to pick up her beer. She was excited for birthday cupcakes.

.....

"Well, I am a very pretty girl.", Katya said to Luce and Dora.

"Wait, what am I suddenly a lollipop or a pet now!?", She asked when Albert joined in the playing with her. "Why am I the only human?"

[The New Velociraptor Empire]

The wine has smooth texture with edges accented by an almond tang, the whole drink has a strange flesh like quality to it that Insidious was sure the raptor would enjoy and she sampled her own before replying. "Indeed so...are their any future projects your working on?" she said inquisitively interested in learn more about the man Raptor she was considering sleeping with. "You mentioned psychiatric work but that seems too mundane for you"

Arthur savored the wine, enjoying the new taste. He took note of the vintage and vineyard for future reference. After taking another sip he contemplated his answer, trying to think of what he would be allowed to say without spilling need to know information.

"Yes, I work mostly experimental and criminal psychology. Mostly how people react to situations like this and how to deal with them with minimal casualties. The fun part is experimenting with human perception, I once convinced this guy that he was an octopus that was only impersonating himself. He was quite fun to watch flopping around the lab until I had to snap him out of it." Arthur said with a chuckle.

He cut off a slice of foie gras and dipped it in the duck jus before taking a bite. He maintained a calm sophisticated composure, suppressing his savage instincts for the time being.

"Can I ask you what happened with the cursed axe? I seem to not be able to remember what happened after I made the heavy-duty tranquilizer." Arthur asked. It was the last time he worked with Insidious, but his current explanation for that night reasoned that he had neglected to properly seal the flask, and he ended up inhaling some of the fumes.

[Primordial Luxa]

The wine has smooth texture with edges accented by an almond tang, the whole drink has a strange flesh like quality to it that Insidious was sure the raptor would enjoy and she sampled her own before replying. "Indeed so...are their any future projects your working on?" she said inquisitively interested in learn more about the man Raptor she was considering sleeping with. "You mentioned psychiatric work but that seems too mundane for you"

Arthur savored the wine, enjoying the new taste. He took note of the vintage and vineyard for future reference. After taking another sip he contemplated his answer, trying to think of what he would be allowed to say without spilling need to know information.

"Yes, I work mostly experimental and criminal psychology. Mostly how people react to situations like this and how to deal with them with minimal casualties. The fun part is experimenting with human perception, I once convinced this guy that he was an octopus that was only impersonating himself. He was quite fun to watch flopping around the lab until I had to snap him out of it." Arthur said with a chuckle.

He cut off a slice of foie gras and dipped it in the duck jus before taking a bite. He maintained a calm sophisticated composure, suppressing his savage instincts for the time being.

"Can I ask you what happened with the cursed axe? I seem to not be able to remember what happened after I made the heavy-duty tranquilizer." Arthur asked. It was the last time he worked with Insidious, but his current explanation for that night reasoned that he had neglected to properly seal the flask, and he ended up inhaling some of the fumes.

She nodded as he talked savoring her fish while he spoke and considering the many applications of his field. She openly snickered at his comment about the octopus and subconscious wonder what an indent crisis like that would feel like. She perked up when asked about the axe saying “We sent it to RADICAL for safe keeping after we ran a few weeks’ worth of tests. They gave us a fair amount of money for it. We did the same thing with some of the other artifacts but we kept that shell that your friends found.”

[Tiltjuice]

"Insecure about not being one of the raptor master race?" Dora grinned a raptor-y grin, and then poked Katya with the tip of her tail. "Come on, something's happening. Let's go and watch, but not too close. And...do me a favor and stand behind me, will you?" She hoped Katya would take the hint - it would shield her from any blast effect, as well as get Chrys' tongue off her face and head, before she crossed closer to the bomb disposal team.

"Sparring would be good!" Chrys said in her usual light and happy tone. "I'm surprised you don't remember me. Do I need to tackle you again?" She sounded gleeful at this prospect, and her little arms waved excitedly.

"As for what I'm singing...don't you recognize it?" she said first in Galatian Celtic, then in Latin. "My mother's people gave the Romans some trouble, I think." She smiled widely.

[The BranRiech]

Deciding on concentrating only on the trap, leaving Hans to take care of the bots nearby, Bran crept (As well as a raptor could, which was surprisingly well) over to the box and panned his eyes over it. The latch looked to be the key to solving this, and he near-instantly deduced that he'd need to move the latch ever so slightly so to not activate the bomb, or what he assumed to be a bomb.

His hand, a true master's hand, inched forward and got to work, reminded of the days of old, fitting volatile Soviet-era missiles onto equally volatile fighter jets and bombers. It required absolute concentration, and any distractions at this point could prove fatal, or very, very painful for him and others near him.

Rylli, who was watching, received a confident, glowing grin from Bran as he started working to defuse the trap.

--

"Well, maybe in a little bit, but I want to be Human first before I try anything like that. So we could do it tomorrow or something. Gawd, that's like going camping as a teambuilding activity or something." Natiya chuckled, snorting at the idea.

--

"Yeah, I got it."

After a few seconds of tinkering, then another minute of screwing the casing back together, the whisk was ready to go, and she handed it back to Yoshi so they may continue with the cupcakes, hopefully without any serious mechanical failures.

[The New Velociraptor Empire]

Deciding on concentrating only on the trap, leaving Hans to take care of the bots nearby, Bran crept (As well as a raptor could, which was surprisingly well) over to the box and panned his eyes over it. The latch looked to be the key to solving this, and he near-instantly deduced that he'd need to move the latch ever so slightly so to not activate the bomb, or what he assumed to be a bomb.

His hand, a true master's hand, inched forward and got to work, reminded of the days of old, fitting volatile Soviet-era missiles onto equally volatile fighter jets and bombers. It required absolute concentration, and any distractions at this point could prove fatal, or very, very painful for him and others near him.

Rylli, who was watching, received a confident, glowing grin from Bran as he started working to defuse the trap.

The latch was secured without incident. Although a sensitive trap, the Automated Sentry Turret was designed to be mobile and reusable. The lid firmly grasped onto the floss, securing it in place, allowing the chair attached to be removed without lethal repercussions. However, carelessly jerking of the floss would result in an unexpected effect.

This had taken far longer than the all powerful being that manipulates the strings would have liked. Seeing as this was a rather simple singular trap and the more complicated things were still awaiting. It was safe to say that they were "Safe" to enter. The point being, "safe" was a relative term when dealing with raptor technology of course.

[Cerillium]

Deciding on concentrating only on the trap, leaving Hans to take care of the bots nearby, Bran crept (As well as a raptor could, which was surprisingly well) over to the box and panned his eyes over it. The latch looked to be the key to solving this, and he near-instantly deduced that he'd need to move the latch ever so slightly so to not activate the bomb, or what he assumed to be a bomb.

His hand, a true master's hand, inched forward and got to work, reminded of the days of old, fitting volatile Soviet-era missiles onto equally volatile fighter jets and bombers. It required absolute concentration, and any distractions at this point could prove fatal, or very, very painful for him and others near him.

Rylli, who was watching, received a confident, glowing grin from Bran as he started working to defuse the trap.

The latch was secured without incident. Although a sensitive trap, the Automated Sentry Turret was designed to be mobile and reusable. The lid firmly grasped onto the floss, securing it in place, allowing the chair attached to be removed without lethal repercussions. However, carelessly jerking of the floss would result in an unexpected effect.

This had taken far longer than the all powerful being that manipulates the strings would have liked. Seeing as this was a rather simple singular trap and the more complicated things were still awaiting. It was safe to say that they were "Safe" to enter. The point being, "safe" was a relative term when dealing with raptor technology of course.

Klaus chuckled as Hans carefully moved the chair to let the others in. It had been an excellent learning experience for those unaccustomed to dealing with such things. He swept off his officer's hat and bowed to the house itself. After all, should something dire ever happen to the group - on a weekend later that month, perhaps - they had gained a few skills needed for staying alive.

Hans offered Bran a "high-three" (since there weren't enough fingers to make five) and patiently waited for everyone to climb over the mess.

[Urran]

Yoshi smiled at the raptor chick. "That one's for you Rachelle chan. I have my own, just mix all that stuff together while I pour my batter into these molds." He began pouring the batter into a pan with multiple cups dented into it. The oven was already heated up and he slid the pan in and closed the door. He'd already mixed the icing too and put it in the fridge to cool.

[Torsiedelle]

Katya noddd and ran over to take cover behind Dora. "How nice of her.", She thought of her partner's gesture. Katya loved manners like that.

...

"Ya, maybe tomorrow."

Well, that was settled. Torii was enjoying herself now, though things still seemed a bit awkward. She was warming up to Natiya again, though. She was trying to think of small topics to break he tension, though.

"Okay, we be fairies tomorrow? You'll still have wings!"

[Urran]

Tieria watched as Bran worked to disarm the trap. He was using a spork? Why did he find that funny? Curse this raptor brain, he had a few choice words for NVE when he found him. He rolled his eyes at Katya and the Conservators. He just didn't get it.

Meanwhile, a blacked out Kia Sorento sat opposite of the building. One street over, there was a blacked out Honda Civic.

[Swith Witherward]

"Girl Scout Mafia?" Thomas asked.

Pete shook his head. "Naw, too short."

"Secret robotic agents built by that bug guy from a galaxy far, far away?"

"Naw, not his style." Pete lazily scratched at the thatch of hair under his cap.

"Delicious breakfast treat fortified with five essential vitamins and minerals?"

"Now there's a possibility!" Pete stopped scratching and returned his attention to the Honda Civic. "But, whoever they are, they're so fucking obviously NOT up to no good that it's pitiful."

Pete fitted a single-stage HEAT RPG into his trusty RPG-7. Less than 50 meters, no crosswind. He hefted the thing and backed up a little so the end wouldn't stick out of the mailbox shadow on the brick building next to the car.


Meanwhile, a homeless man sifted through the Building's garbage bin. His search for breakfast wasn't turning up a single thing, or even anything recyclable. He shrugged and shuffled over to the Kia Sorento. Popular American cars stuck out like a sore thumb in foreign countries, especially Korean ones. It was the equivalent of driving a Maybach down the streets of Mayberry.


"Whelp, here we go," Pete said from his vantage point. Thomas dug through his pocket and pulled out a spork.