All these roads steer me wrong

[archea]

Who: Archer & Tex and maybe L?
When: Night of the 13th
Where: Tex's condo
What: Talk about Tex's situation, Archer's secrets, maybe some deal brokering.
Warnings: none yet, will add them if they come up


[ Archer's actually a lot closer than she told Tex, but the whole "let's go into someone's house for something you're not completely sure you want to talk about" isn't really her cup of tea. The fact she's still very much a worn-out, cotton candy headed teen who's apparently pretty damn unsuited to deal with strangers isn't doing wonders for her confidence. So what could've been an afternoon visit turns into an early-night visit, because somehow mucking about the place for hours on end is going to help her somehow?

Eventually it gets to the point she's either going to do it or go away, so Archer musters whatever confidence she has within her and gets to the house (which has the wrong number?) and knocks the door while very pointedly ignoring the feeling like the people in there aren't really big on strangers. That seems to be a recurring theme in this planet, as far as Archer can tell.

Never mind the chick singing/sighing under her breath. ]

Leeeeeet's just get this over wiiiiiith ♪♫♪♫

[ Knock knock. ]

Comments

[a_shadow]

She'd told Ryuuzaki about the intended visit and what they'd be discussing, and then had been left waiting for some time for the woman to arrive. She'd understood that it wasn't going to be long, so she's a little peeved the knock takes so long to come. Still, she suppresses her annoyance when she opens the door; she does know it's possible for people to get discouraged by the fact that the wrong name is on the greeting, and that the wrong house number is on the mat. That's rather the point.

"Hey."

There's no questioning whether this was the person she was waiting on, even though she didn't bother to get the woman's name. Tex motions for her to follow her inside. Once the door is closed behind them, Tex motions towards the man sitting inside. "I'm Tex. This is Ryuuzaki. Sit down and tell us about yourself."

[archea]

They really need to get the right numbers.

Archer seems to be about to say something... but she's quickly led inside, so the words end up hanging right in front of her for a moment, then she huffs and decides it's not worth the effort. Once inside, she turns to nod at the guy there, perhaps a bit stiffly. "He-hello."

Yes this is going great. Archer sits down, now really stiffly and tries to get her shit in order. She wanted to help, she came all the way here, she's doing this, dammit. She'll feel good about this later (or she won't, she can't think about it right now).

"Well, I'm Archer. And I can do this."

By this, Archer lifts a hand, air condensing over her opened palm to form a perfect sphere of water. A moment later, the water starts shining from the inside until it's a tennis ball sized sphere of liquid light. It's pretty damn cool, alright. "But in like, larger amounts. I'm not sure how to explain what this is, but if you drink it it'll heal you, completely. If you put it in a wound it'll close really fast, if you bathe in the stuff you'll basically regenerate your everything, all the time. I once saw how someone who had been hurt really, really badly get dunked into a well of this and rise up minutes later like it hadn't even happened."

Archer looks up and shrugs. "Keeping your body in good conditions should be pretty easy in comparison."

She's going to pause here to breathe.

[ryuuzaki]

L is not especially thrilled that Tex has invited someone over on short notice -- invited someone over at all, to be honest. There's a reason for all the misdirection about exactly whose house it is, but the reason is vaguely justifiable paranoia.

Still, he nods at the girl's greeting; he's vaguely pleasant without being overtly friendly, a thin, wiry man around thirty with a thatch of dark hair and wide grey eyes. He sits on the long sofa with one of his legs bent at the knee, the foot on the cushion near his bottom, his elbow resting on his knee, and the other leg stretched out in front of him with the foot on the coffee table. There's a pot of coffee on a tray on the table, sugar and cream, some cups and saucers, a few little cookies.

But the entire visit begins without much preamble, and as the water begins to form and is joined by the light, his head tilts with interest. If it is what she says and not just a horrible scam -- a scam would involve significant risk to this girl unless she also has other, more destructive abilities, so he mentally files it as less likely -- then it has many other applications other than the one she's proposing. That in itself is interesting.

"How long have you been able to do this?" Archer doesn't look very old, and she'd arrived so quickly that he hasn't had a chance to dig into her network history.

[a_shadow]

Tex had taken her seat between the two others, and when Archer begins, it seems that she's nervous, or perhaps a little reticent. But the evidence of what she claims she can do is pretty apparent.

Tex is definitely intrigued. This does appear to be some magical sort of ability, but of course there has to be a better explanation than that. She glances over at Ryuuzaki when he makes his inquiry, then leans in to reach toward the little sphere—reaches to put her fingers in through the center of it, and listens for the answer.

[archea]

"A bit over a year." She looks at L for a moment; this is a guy that actually looks, she thinks. It's a good quality, if rare. It's also slightly unnerving when used on her. Archer isn't fond of the spotlight, she's far too comfy in the back where people ignore or underestimate her.

She lets Tex put her fingers through the sphere. The first thing she'll feel is warmth, and then a small surge of wellness that extends from her fingers to the rest of her body, as if the light itself was crawling into her fingers. "People usually start channeling an element way earlier, so I'm a bad example. Nobody else can enhance an element with light anyway." Always the odd one out.

"If you bring me a glass I can actually pour you some. The effects are almost instantaneous."

[ryuuzaki]

So, not a lifelong ability -- but an ability that is relatively common where Archer comes from. Maybe inborn, maybe not. He'll find out more about that later. If he hadn't had experience with seeing this sort of thing in the years since he'd been pulled from his original world, he'd be covertly astounded by it now, and more inclined to look for a trick.

"What about one of the coffee cups?"

He gestures in the direction of the table with his long pale hand, without moving his arm from his knee.

[a_shadow]

Tex withdraws her hand and rubs her fingertips together. This is something altogether different. She doesn't want to be too eager or too optimistic, but if she could keep the body in stasis in a pool of this stuff, it would eliminate the whole raft of problems she's having.

"How long do the effects last?" Tex asks then. "I mean, after this stuff is made. What's the expiration date?"

[archea]

Archer nods and once that Tex has removed her hand she moves her hand softly. The ball floats towards a cup and slowly settles itself into it, filling it fully.

Leaning back, she arches and eyebrow at the question. "The healing is permanent, of course. The water itself will lose its qualities with use. A tub of it might last months if used at intervals. Left unperturbed... I know of a spring of the stuff that's been around for centuries and it's still completely drinkable and usable. A cup will take care of the simplest ailments; you will probably need an entire bottle to properly heal everything. You also won't sleep for two days, more or less, but don't worry, it won't affect you like sleep deprivation would."

Archer shrugs,discomfort becoming a bit more evident. "As I said, I'm the first person in centuries to be able to use light to enhance other elements. The applications are... well. Even back home I was told to be careful with who knew about it."

[ryuuzaki]

L is careful to keep his expression neutral, but interested; he's able to hide that he's also a little unsettled by what he's being told.

"Negative affects, apart from the insomnia... are there any?"

This seems like it could also be useful to him, but it sounds too good to be true... and he wonders what, if anything, the girl wants or needs.

"Including to you."

[a_shadow]

She wants this. More than anything. She wants this to work out and make it possible for her to continue to play both sides of the human vs. artificial divide. But she's not going to show that she's eager, or really even that she cares that much. So she doesn't reach for the cup, even though she wants to down the cup of liquid and then jump away from her body, so she can test how things feel when she returns. If they decide to give it a try, she'll have her chance to do that. Instead, she tilts her head slightly and studies Archer, watches her as she waits for a response.

She does have her own questions. "What sort of rate would you charge for a supply of this? Surely you know how valuable people would find this stuff." It always comes down to money, for Tex—she tends to assume everyone is acquisitive as she is, and she has no reason to believe Archer would supply this stuff out of the kindness of her heart.

[archea]

Archer opens and closes her mouth several times before grunting. "This is really complicated to explain, but there aren't negative effects. Like at all. You're going to need to try it to understand, because it's really difficult to describe." Sure, anything can be abused and there is a reason she and the Heralds wanted to keep the production and consumption of such enhanced water limited and under wraps, but beyond that the water itself has no negative repercussions. She didn't think someone would immediately accept it anyway.

"It's puts a toll on me, of course. If I tried to enhance an entire lake in one go I would probably melt my brain in the process. Larger bodies of water take more time and several, um, sessions, you could call them." She waves a hand, not knowing what else to add. Tex's question hits another subject she's not certain how to approach, though.

She goes silent for a couple of minutes before replying. "As I mentioned, I want to help. Now that you know you're probably aware that if I went public with this I would both be on a position of making a lot of money, but also faced with what could be called a moral imperative to provide this as openly as possible. Many would even think that putting a prize to something like this would be wrong and I'm partial to agree. I don't care about money, but I can't just give up my life for the sake of helping everyone all the time. It's probably a bit selfish of me, I know."

Archer has been gradually leaning forward, so when she stops talking her elbows are resting on her knees and her hair has fallen like a pink curtain around her face, covering it. "Truth to be told, I don't know what I want in return. I've never needed money before and I don't plan to start now and I'd rather make friends because who I am and not what I can provide others with. I mean, as long as I know you're not going to use your robot body to go on a murdering spree..."

[a_shadow]

Tex is a bit skeptical when Archer says she doesn't need any compensation—she wants to do this for Tex out of the goodness of her heart? There's got to be a catch. There's always some desire for material gain in a person's mind, whether it comes at the outset, or later. So Tex files that little tidbit away—they'll have to find a way of equitably compensating her so she doesn't hold later needs over their heads. Especially when it's something that taxes her physically.

Then Archer finishes her statement. Tex is careful to vet the jobs she takes in her mercenary business, so killing in that capacity doesn't equate to murder in her mind, but she knows it may in Archer's. She looks at Archer thoughtfully, processing this. If she reveals what she does for a living outright, it will probably lead to an outright rejection. And she feels the desire for this to work out strongly, like a knot in her stomach. So she tries to find the way to smooth it over, to make it sound more palatable than it is.

"I work security," she says in return. "I go up against criminals and thieves on a regular basis. I aim to incapacitate and get them into prison, but once in a while, things go sideways."