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Post by miokalia on Dec 15, 2010 3:39:41 GMT -5
(((This thread involves KZ and Miokalia)))
Andertol's small, boxy little Tatra moved along the winding mountain roads in a fashion which definately could not be described as "sporty". Itka advised him to just rent something, but he was much too focused on this vision of his that had been bothering him so much lately.
"Do you even know where this lake is?", asked Itka, "I mean at first you thought this was at Macquerie, but then you found out that it looked nothing like the one you supposedly saw. I think it's possible you made the place up."
"I told you. I don't know if I'm going to have another chance. I have to resolve this.", Andertol said, "It's Lake Roja, I know it. It's the only lake with a lodge with that balcony on it that I saw, according to google maps at least. I need to do this."
"I don't know if these mountain towns are even going to have tdarocel, or even accept our papery dollery-doo Karat money for that manner. They probably only have gas"
Andertol said irritatedly: "Then if we get stranded and somehow are unable to communicate, and somehow run out of deochal, then I guess we'll have gas for lunch."
Itka glowered at him and said, "I think I liked you better before you went to Aluez. Now that we're the same, you seem to think you can eat anything."
"This is it", Andertol said as he neared the end of the dirt road, "I see another car here so there must be someone else nearby. Do I look okay? I'm not all discombobulated am I?"
"It's KZ", she replied, "Things like us are not that unusual of a sight around here." As they exited the vehicle, she added, "I bet you would feel pretty silly if, hypothetically, whomever that car belongs to is someone you knew, and you ran into them and they saw you like this."
But Andertol was already making his way to the lodge at the edge of the lake. Specifically to the deck overlooking the lake. The one he saw during one of his "sessions" with K24.
The tables and chairs were a memory artifact, the real deck was mostly empty. But the lighting was the same, and the lake was the same.
He ran to the edge of it and looked down. He couldn't see it very well, so he tried to peek down closer, turning his head to the side. He nearly fell in, but barely caught himself. Now he was awkwardly balanced with his bare, metal claw clamped against the railing.
That's when he heard someone behind him say, "I don't think you can fish here." He saw that it was a wolf or a fox of some kind with a rifle (not aimed at him, just on hand) and wearing nothing except a speedo.
It took a minute for Andertol to go through the rolodex of his mind and realize that this was someone familiar.
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Post by Killer Zoids on Dec 18, 2010 14:30:54 GMT -5
"So you two must be the ones freaking out the guests. You know, its a 30 foot drop to the rocks down there... I don't think you'd make it. "
He slung the rifle onto his back and reached over the railing and with Itka's help, pulled Andertol up.
"He's not all there is he?", mentioned the fox, looking at Itka.
Andertol stood back up, looking in shambles and hadn't totally realized who this was. It was clear Itka knew and she wasn't going to stand there and make the fox try to get Andertol to figure it out.
"Geneec!" she exclaimed. "Itka! Andertol! How are you guys doing!?" as he leaped up to give her a hug. "Wow, its been sooo long!" He paused a moment, and looked around, noticing a few other Kazian vacationers were looking at them, puzzled and frightened.
He talked a bit quieter, "I've heard some news about him disappearing and getting messed up. You know, there's rumors that he's dead, this probably isn't the kind of place we should go and make it known who you two are..."
Geneec guided the two off the main deck to a staircase which lead to the waters edge below. "Come, I'll take you to my cabin. It's quiet there and has a great view of the lake.. and its not a 30 foot drop if you decide to go swimming. Got a couple others I'd like you to meet."
The cabin was nestled lakeside, about a mile from the lodge. It was secluded by the sort of trails where they mark the path by colored dots on trees; different colors meant different trails. Outside was a small dock, extending into the water about 20 feet. The cabin was of A-frame construction, two levels inside, the opening of the A was all glass and faced the valley lake, where the sun was setting.
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Post by miokalia on Dec 20, 2010 0:14:29 GMT -5
"'Sup with the rifle?", asked Andertol while trying to re-tension the reel in his arm after dangling from the balcony.
"'Sup with your mouth?", asked Geneec.
"Is it really that noticible?", he asked. This caused Andertol to close his mouth and very conspicuously try to open it as little as possible.
He looked back out at the lake and gave off a long pneumatic sigh.
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Post by Killer Zoids on Dec 20, 2010 19:18:39 GMT -5
Geneec put the rifle in a cabinet and then walked over to the kitchen and poured some coffee for himself. There was an uncomfortable silence, he could feel it. "You guys want something? I got plenty of snacks, drinks.. oh and there's probably some dchal or something out in the boat shed."
Itka looked over at Geneec in the kitchen, "Maybe in a couple minutes." Andertol was transfixed on nothing standing on the deck. "This is a nice place, I imagine it must be really tough to find areas like this in KZ unspoiled by urban sprawl," Itka continued.
"Yeah, we've got this cabin on a timeshare, its like us and maybe 2 other families, so we can pretty much come down here whenever. Kit really wanted to see the lake, he wouldn't stop talking about it, drawing pictures.. Funny thing too, he's never even been here before.. well.. maybe once," said Geneec, holding his belly. "He and Rincon are out on the lake probably."
"Do you see the troller boat on the dock?" He asked Andertol and walked up to stand next to him, leaning his forearms on the rail, holding the mug.
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Post by miokalia on Dec 22, 2010 1:05:07 GMT -5
"The lake's not as deep as I remember", he said.
"Good, it looks like you've decided to talk", said Itka, "Pardon him, as I'm sure you've heard plenty of rumors about what happened to him. Many of them are not true but the truth is still fairly strange in it's own regard."
Andertol went back inside to use the restroom while Itka remained on the deck with Geneec.
"He's in an awkward place right now. It doesn't help that the first thing that Qualt did when he got back was try to pull information out of him. To the point where it was absurd and nearly killed him again.", she said. She got quieter and continued, "I got him out of the office, and he got into this weird obcession over a vision he saw while he was out of it. I suppose it's better than being back home though. If anything, getting him away from Qualt will be good for him.
I guess you've probably inferred some of what happened. On an odd note: he does still eat though. Old habits die hard.
Although lately it's been mostly rocks, paperclips and clothes-hangers. Which is fairly atypical.
He eats a lot of rocks for some reason."
She paused a moment and thought that maybe that wasn't too good of a thing to say after he had left to use the restroom.
"Not that your facilities are in any danger. That aspect of him is still quite normal"
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Post by Killer Zoids on Dec 22, 2010 20:48:42 GMT -5
Geneec chucked. "I hope not quartzite! There's a huge crystal on display at the lodge, pretty neat. I've found a couple of nice ones too, I think this area used to be hot springs or something, probably millions of years ago when these mountains were forming. But gees, rocks into turds.. that's gotta be marketable somehow!"
Itka looked at Geneec funny.
Geneec went over to the mantle and grabbed a pair of binoculars and spied out over the lake. After a moment, he interjected, "Ahh! Looks like they're on their way back. Here have a peek.." He was offering the binoculars to Itka but stopped after it became apparent she was binocularing on her own.
"Telephoto huh? I gotta get that.. I know an integrafur guy..."
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Post by miokalia on Dec 22, 2010 20:54:01 GMT -5
"Sorta.", she said as she tried to track the bouncing, blurry image of the boat. At this distance the zoom wasn't all that great but she wasn't about to say that to Geneec. "I guess that's what Andy is now", she said, "I guess he counts as an integrafur, for now."
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Post by Killer Zoids on Dec 24, 2010 18:57:23 GMT -5
Rincon and Kit were tying off at the doc. Kit had on a life jacket and over-sized sun glasses. Rincon had on an outback hat, two lines of blue sun block across his cheeks, and a fishing vest. Geneec, excited, came back inside and bounded to the dock, but was stopped when he fell over, his left leg collapsing on him.
"Damn!" Geneec exclaimed, "freakin' eh." Itka came over to Geneec to help him up.
"Is that supposed to bend like that??" She asked, somewhat horrified by the contortion of his leg. "Maybe you shouldn't move.."
"Naw, naw, its fine. I just need to be more careful... Huuuupp" He grabbed the counter top next to the door and helped himself up. He grabbed onto his hip for a moment and then continued out to the dock. "Grab Andy will ya?"
Itka waited for Andertol at the top of the stairs leading down to the dock. She watched Kit run up to Geneec who picked him up and spun him in the air a few times, the two laughing and carrying on. She got a better view of Kit from her spot at the door, and was startled by what it appeared he looked like.
"Andy Andy... you're not going to believe this," Itka said. "Hmm?" he said as he approached.
Kit was just a runt, being just 6 years old. He resembled Geneec, but had a stiffer tail and more stalky build like Rincon. His fur was very shaggy and patchy, but underneath was it was quite obvious he wasn't just a fox or dinosaur. His dark-colored steel muzzle glinted in the sun for a moment when the light was just right.
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Post by miokalia on Dec 24, 2010 23:29:20 GMT -5
"Weird, I never would have guessed", Andertol said, "Which one do you think it is?"
"Hard to say.", Itka said.
"All those years ago, I had no idea one of them was, you know...", Andertol said.
"Yeah that's the funny thing about it. I didn't know either.", she said.
They watched for a moment longer and Itka said, "We haven't been able to make this work yet."
"It's my fault. It's because of core chemistry. I'm sorry.", Andertol said discreetly.
"Not necessarily. Lots of EM26s and EM49s reproduce successfully all the time.", she said, "Although it might just be that you're body is still at a severe Magnite deficit."
"Well maybe I could take care of that while I'm up here. Let's discuss later, they're coming.", said Andertol
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Post by Killer Zoids on Dec 26, 2010 0:13:34 GMT -5
Geneec put Kit on his shoulders and Rincon grabbed a cooler from the boat and lugged it up the stairs back to the cabin.
"Kitaro, these are important people from Miokalia, say hi"
Kit hid his face behind Geneec's foxy ears. "He's shy, but trust me he'll be all over you guys. Specially you, Itka. Seems he's attracted to shiny stuff."
Rincon finally made it up the stairs, "Uugghh.." putting down the cooler and sliding it out of the way.
"Oh wow! Ander! Itka!" His eyes lit up "wow haven't seen you two since... ..oh wow, since just before Kitaro was born."
Geneec put Kit down, who proceeded to play with some matchbox cars from under the couch. "Hey buddy, you wanna grilled cheese?" Geneec ruffled the fur on Kit's head, and then looked up "How bout you guys? Soda, beers?" He shook his rump to make his tail wag and then walked over to the counter to make the sandwich for his boy.
"We'll have a good ol' fish fry tonight. Kit and I caught a nice salmon and a couple rainbow trout," said Rincon, who joined Geneec at the counter with a soft tap on Geneec's rear. "How you guys been doing? We've been pretty off-the-political-scene since Kitaro was born."
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Post by miokalia on Dec 26, 2010 23:58:12 GMT -5
"You're not missing much then", Andy said, "There's not really anything going on. At least nothing that can be helped.
Aluez got highjacked by a cyber attack, ASE is now fracturing and choking on it's own military complex after the loss of it's Emporer, Aatuylva is trying to fast-track a biological and nuclear eschaton...", Andy drank some beer and then continued, "And basically there isn't anything that can be done to help it with any reasonable effectiveness. Basically: this is the norm and I have the worst job in the world."
Itka paraphrased, "We're trying to get out of politics, basically. Although it's very hard because of certain expectations that are placed upon Andy.
And with recent events, it has become considerably more difficult."
She then stared at Andertol for a moment as if to say, "Shut up before you destroy the present kid's innocence."
He continued, "But you know. I have to stay in. I have to make sure that people like all of us here have someplace to be. I can't just leave that to Qualt.
Oh, speaking of. The ex-apparateur, Blinn, or should I say, Irving-Blinn, sends his regards.
He's a Koenig Wolf now apparently, although I'm not sure why or how that happened..."
Itka kicked him very subtley.
"Hahaha yeah isn't that weird. Yeah Andy let's talk about that detail with Irving-Blinn a little bit later.
Pardon him, we had a very long trip and all."
Then she glared at him for not being able to make appropriate conversation. And almost starting to talk about bizarre private details about Blinn without realizing it.
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Post by Killer Zoids on Dec 28, 2010 21:30:08 GMT -5
"Koenig Wolf huh? That's pretty cool..." Geneec said. He decided food could wait a while and sat down on a couch.
He helped his leg move into a comfortable position and noticed Andertol had been watching him intently since he came inside.
"You're curious about Kits zoidish qualities..."
Andertol moved closer to the edge of the couch he was sitting on. "Indeed. And you... seem different too Geneec..."
"Last time we met in Capital I was the same fox as I am now.
It was actually years before that where I stopped being totally myself. I was on a then-classified mission piloting a Command Wolf in the western desert. I was scouting for sleeper zoids to remove the fur-made AI controllers, and free them. I stumbled into a desert gang's territory tracking a Guysack. Well, alone, I was quickly out numbered by the gangs Rev Raptors and stolen Liger Zeros. My command wolf didn't even have more than an AZ 100mm shock cannon.
Well, I was able to take out a few of the enemy zoids before my Command Wolf suffered a critical command system freeze and I was left helpless. One of the LZs decided leaving me stranded in a crippled zoid in the middle of the f'ing desert wasn't enough, and he decided to finish me off. The zoid bit straight down on the canopy, shattering it, and the fang basically caught me right here." He pointed at the center of his chest, making the shape of the fang with his paws.
"I should be dead." He covered his eyes a bit "..but for some reason the fang lodged in the command wolf's head and the liger and the rest of the gang split.
In what I thought were my last moments of life, I saw a wild Shadow Fox zoid appear out of the mountains and approached.
An organoid beam flew from it and landed above me and I passed out.
It must have been a few days I was unconscious. Practically bled out completely... But I did wake up... in a cave. It was dark and there were these massive orange-glowing eyes around me. At least two sets. Im pretty sure one was the shadow fox and the other had to be the organoid.
It hit me suddenly, 'Oh my god, I can't feel half of my body' and I reached out to grab where I knew the tooth had sliced me. I didn't feel the empty space I expected, but there was a cold metal unfamiliarness where my torso was supposed to be. After that I think I passed out again."
Andertol's jaw had dropped like it was back at the lodge. Itka's was as well, except it looked right on her.
"Oh gosh, sorry guys. Its a f***ed up story..."
"No no, continue" Andertol said intrigued.
"Okay then. Anyway, when I finally came to, I sat up. Not sure how, but I did. There was light coming through the roof of the cave and I could see what I became. From the point where the Liger tooth cut me in half I was organoid. It was the Shadow Fox type organoid, none the less. I could tell from the stabliziers on my feet paws and the gold gyro covers on my joints.
It took me a few minutes to figure out how to make these new pieces of me move. I guess it was like... trying to remember how to wag your tail or walk.
After some time, I was up and walking around, the organoid and the Shadow Fox were no where around. My shredded and bloody clothes were in a pile nearby with my other belongings, I gathered my dog-tags and wallet, glasses, and watch."
He paused for a moment.
"My lower half was also in the cave... I hadn't eaten in a while but somehow I managed to throw up... Let me tell you, it's REALLY weird to see your own perfect tail, still wearing the ribbon you tied to it, lying across a room lifeless and stained red..."
He sighed and flicked his tail and looked at it.
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Post by miokalia on Dec 29, 2010 1:12:51 GMT -5
Andertol said, "Neither of us had any idea. I don't even know what to say".
Itka knew that Andertol probably didn't actually know what to say, so she continued, "So my guess is that it's spread since then. Since you said it was just half your body. But, as evidenced, it looks like you've got the core too." She tried to lighten the mood some and said, "Rincon, don't worry, we're not all plotting against you in secret zoic android teletext"
Without any explanation, Andertol very quietly took a pillow and put it atop his head. Although he couldn't figure out why he needed to do that.
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Post by Killer Zoids on Dec 29, 2010 1:51:58 GMT -5
Geneec reached for a pillow and balanced it atop his head as well and cracked a smile at Itka.
"My heart was replaced by the organoid core. I believe that's what allowed Kitaro to be conceived. Well, that and the fact that after the ordeal, I was certainly not physically male any more. The organoid itself was more of a female, from the feelings I got about my new body. Well.. thats unfair. I don't think they're really as clear cut as male and female, but there are male and female *roles*. From what I can tell, a zoid would sense me as the female role."
Itka looked at Geneec, and his ridiculous pillow on his head. "So what about the um.. " she pointed toward his crotch area, covered by the usual kazian dress ".. and your fur and stuff?"
"After I got back to base and then later back to life, I found myself outcast. Killer Zoids was a much different place 15 years ago, I had to take steps or else go live with a traveling freakshow. So, to obscure my zoic anthroid side, I underwent a procedure to regrow skin and fur, and re-part some of the organoid bits to fit more of a normal look of a fox. I still have the feet claws and stabilizers, which were refitted, among other things. That's basically why I still *look* like a fox, and *resemble* a guy.
It was good for a while, but recently, after having Kitaro actually, I started feeling weaker, and having trouble being as bouncy as I was all those years ago. My guess is my core gave some of itself to create my son, and the usual mechanical regeneration process slowed down or stopped.
Who knows, it might even be just that I never actually addressed cravings for zoid magnite. Maybe it's sunlight even. The skin and fur keeps light off my organoid parts..."
Geneec took Rincon's paw. "You're the first people I've ever told about this apart from Rin. He found out when I became pregnant. Haha, I remember him saying 'Woah woah woah.. last I checked you were a dude, aaand we did it, but you're pregnant??' and then having that derpy 'huh' face for a week." He snickered.
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Post by miokalia on Dec 29, 2010 23:50:01 GMT -5
Itka looked down and said, "You should have said something sooner. Not that it's too late or anything. The architecture of these things is fairly resilient." She looked up again and said, "Considering that you haven't ever addressed the cravings, it's no wonder you feel sick or brittle. A supply of magnite is needed for the core to produce the resources it needs to do it's maintainence processes. It doesn't take much: but it is so important. It contains the building blocks for the pseudobiological assembly of components. Much like how protein is important for organic creatures to build cells...
But being someone who used to de-sleeperize wild zoids, this probably makes sense."
She looked at Andertol for a second and almost wanted to call "time out" and start discussing something in Kohtohkhan with him, but decided that would be rude.
Andertol obliviously said, "It must be really hard to resist the magnite cravings. I mean: I can't even come close to resisting it. I can't even stop myself from eating rocks!", and then kinda quietly he added, "And it's really weird because rose quartz tastes like lemon to me and that makes no sense at all"
Itka sighed and said, "I'm sorry, but there are aspects to your situation which I probably don't understand. I've always been something like this, so I don't know. But..." She then elbowed Andertol and told him, "I just realized something, Andertol, you need to go to the bathroom right now, I almost forgot, I saw you eat charcoal briquets out there while you were scooping up rocks! Go now before it's too late!"
Andertol was convinced of this and hastily made it to the bathroom. This was good, because she needed to have some way to talk with him privately, and if they did it with both of them here, the pauses and Andertol's inexperienced and very audible reactions to teletext messages would be rude and or weird.
With Andertol safely on the toilet, Itka started teletexting him: "Stay in the bathroom and don't make a sound. I need to talk to you and I couldn't do it with us sitting next to eachother. This is important."
"So... what... just happened then?"
"I think Geneec managed to, quite amazingly, resist the cravings of magnite for all this time because he knew that it was the only way to keep his Core from spreading and 'completing' the integration. He resisted eating magnite so he could fit-in. And it's very tragic and alarming because that very thing: resisting the magnite: is killing him.
"So why is he still doing it?"
"Because he's trying to hold on to what's left of himself. You heard him. He saw half of his dismembered body in that cave. That kinda fucks a person up, you know."
"So why doesn't he just do what he needs to survive and eat the damn magnite lol?"
"Don't use "lol" in a serious MBTL conversation, it's *really* kinda inappropriate."
"sorry"
"Because I imagine that's a lot easier said than done. You never got to see yourself dismembered. You just woke up a genosaurer one day. Geneec experienced a great deal more visceral pain and didn't have Mr. K24 to mindfuck/guide him through the process. He did it the hard way, alone, with unknown critters putting things inside him. He didn't have the white room and the doppelganger to tell him everything was going to be fine if he just holds on. The poor thing is lucky to be alive, and I can't blame him for being weird about it."
"I have to save him. I have to get magnite in him, whatever it takes."
"no. NO. no. Stop. You can't force him into it. It's his choice, and really, considering the incredible, heroic amount of willpower he showed over the past 15 years, I highly doubt you could force him to do anything. Not to mention that would make you a dick."
"Yeah, but at least he'd be alive"
"Not necessarily."
"Ok, Itka. What the hell do we do? I can't just sit by and watch Geneec wither away like this. He has a Kit, he owes it to his offspring to be there for him."
"Precisely. It took almost all of the magnite that was in him to produce that Kit. As evidenced by the Kit clearly being fully integrated. He's right about that taking a piece of him. Now he has to acquire more of it."
"or he'll die?"
"I'm no doctor, but I've been kicked around a lot, had limbs compromised, leaked fluids and even had a hunk of metal rammed into my mouth cannon (during operation). I know the importance of magnite and how we heal.
Geneec appears to have already lost connectivity to his tail, and seems to be loosing it to his leg. This is a cascading integration failure. If he doesn't eat magnite soon, he won't live long enough to see his Kit's next birthday."
"Itka, what do we do?"
"You should talk to Rincon about this. I'm sure he probably knows some of it, but he needs to hear it from something like him."
Andertol opened the door and came back to the living room, saying "That's some good poopin'". This caused Itka to throw him an intense, condemning glare. She said, "Jesus tapdancing Christ. You know I thought after he came back from his incident up north, there might be a chance that he would have a personality change but clearly: that was not so. Probably a good thing too."
Andy gave a short head-tilt and grin and then sat again, "So, Geneec. I've never been good at being indirect, so let's get down to brass-tax here:"
Itka punched him quietly. "Not appropriate in front of the kit"
Andertol contined, "You seem to understand something I don't about the pillow thing. It's really hard to explain, but recently I've developed this bizarre instinct to want to have something riding me. Even if it's a pillow. It's like I'm uncomfortable without it. I don't know, maybe you know about that. Maybe you don't. I have not eliminated the possibility that I might be completely insane or perhaps this model which I seem to be now is a breed which is severely inbred or something lol"
Itka texted him again: "You're rambling. Also FYI: neither Malych nor Zoids can inbreed."
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