synflux | ( open ) may catch-all!

WHO: Lae'zel and you!
WHAT: Driving school, asking for hugs to get something to download, etc.
WHERE: Around base and the city!
WHEN: Early May
WARNINGS: None!

I. traffic school

[ It might be easy to assume that due to Lae'zel's hardass, soldier like mentality, that she might think sitting down to study might be a waste of her time... but that can't be farther from the truth. For a few days at the beginning of May, the only thing she seems to be doing in communal areas is read — a closer look would tell you that she's studying traffic laws. Very seriously.

Also of note is that she goes out of her way to print out materials, or find materials that are printed... because she hates using the implant. As a result, some of these traffic rules might be out of date, more akin to the 2020s than the 2300's. It's fine. She gathers up her flashcards and taps them in order on the table pointedly at you, bringing the index cards closer like they're about to peeked at. ]

Did you need something, or do you simply lack the common sense not to stare at others?

[ she's very busy learning that green means go right now!! ]

II. your uber is here

[ After getting sufficient lessons in traffic rules, Lae'zel can be found out in the city with her brand new motorbike at her side — glistening red and spotless. Has she given it a nice polish on her own? Why yes, yes she has.

Unluckily for you, you happen to be leaving the base just as she's about to go for another test drive. ]

You. [ Yes, you!! She tilts her chin at you, as if beckoning you along. ] You will aid me in testing controlling this vehicle with two people on it.

[ Yeah... she is no longer asking 🔫 There's a practical reason for this, because she thinks there'll be plenty of instances where she'll need to drive two people during missions. But you'll get something out of it: ]

In return, I'll take you where you need to go. You're leaving to go somewhere, yes?

[ Maybe you need a ride to work? To a restaurant? To a store? Lae'zel will get you there!! Maybe. ]

III. huggin time

[ sometimes you download the style upgrade, and it won't finish unless you hug someone.... but also, sometimes you don't really know what a """hug""" is even supposed to be. The implant explains it to her (it's an embrace of some kind??), but not in great detail.

Maybe you and Lae'zel were about to hit up the training room together, or maybe you're simply at the cafeteria enjoying a meal together — but she seems very distracted, her eyes lit up from numerous attempts to try to block the pop up from her implant. Hissed through her sharp teeth: ]

Tsk'va!

[ She curses in her native tongue, brow twitching. Unprompted, without ever explaining what she's going through: ]

Give me a hug. Quickly, just get it over with.

[ WHATEVER THAT MEANS ]

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[ Her chin tilts up, eyeing him curiously. ]

The weight of the vehicle with two people on it — the force needed to turn sharply. How the motorcycle accelerates with added weight on it.

[ She answers seriously, but her eyes look scrutinizing, almost smug. ]

One of the greatest honors for githyanki is to become a kith'rak — a knight who rides a red dragon. [ this is why her bike is red, okay, she's a horsegirl but for dragons ] All these and more are the type of exercises needed to be deemed worthy and capable of maneuvering one.

[ She intends to apply all the safety precautions and seriousness of dragon riding to learning how to ride a bike... because Lae'zel takes most things very seriously like that, almost to a comedic sense. Still, the cocky, almost taunting glint in her eye never quite fades. ]

If you are overly concerned for your safety or doubting my ability, speak now.

[ Oh. That's awfully detailed, which in and of itself is reassuring. She's clearly thought this over, and even if she ends up being a terrible driver, at least he'll know what he's dying for. Just kidding, he's never known her to settle for anything but the best, so no doubt she'll push herself to be the best with her motorcycle before too long. ]

I'm concerned for my safety only in that human bodies are awfully squishy.

[ He's been in enough fights to know. ]

But sure, I'll help out. Just give me a minute to get my helmet. [ Or rather, get his helmet delivered to him via his drone. He flashes her a quick smile, mostly teeth and not a lot of humor. ] Less to clean up that way in case something goes terribly wrong.

Chk. Is that the way you should speak to me, implying doubt? If an accident were to happen that caused your head to crack like an egg on the pavement, why, no one would know what caused it.

[ Her morbid and vaguely threatening way of talking is practically a form of endearment, so there's little true malice behind the words — just lofty, flippant, and casual sharpness. It's different enough from her truly cutting words for it to be discernible that she's not serious about purposefully sending him to an early grave.

For the time being, though, she simply puts her helmet on, silver and polished. ]

I wouldn't clean in it up anyway. It'd be a waste for the birds.

Reduced to bird food, I see….

[ He's so touched that she would just leave his corpse out for every critter in a 100 foot radius to feast upon. (/j) But thankfully it doesn't take long for a small blue and pink hummingbird to swing by and drop a helmet - red and black - into his waiting hands. He pops it on easily, and then it's time for him to swing onto the back of her motorcycle and lift his hands to—

Hm. Wait a minute. ]

I won't get my hands cut off for grabbing onto you like this, will I?

[ He doesn't think so, but better safe than sorry…. ]

[ That makes her smirk a little beneath her helmet — perhaps unsurprisingly, it makes her pleased to elicit this kind of tentativeness out of others. His words are different than those of the people on Toril, who assumed the worst and most barbaric of her. No — this is a question that comes from courtesy, not prejudice, she thinks. ]

Perhaps if I thought less of you.

[ She jokes, looking back at him over her shoulder. See, she even indirectly said she thinks highly of him, she's growing?? But with that said, she settles her hands on the handlebars, revving the motorcycle up — though, not taking off until his hands are settled at her waist. Earnestly, almost overly earnestly, because Lae'zel is surprisingly straightforward and true, beneath the cutting edges: ]

But you've proven yourself to me. Cutting hands like yours off would be a waste.

[ Well, now that he's ensured safety of life and limb, let him just finish clambering onto her bike at the rear, settling his arms loosely around her waist. (They'll tighten once she gets going, but for now he doesn't want to overstep.) ]

True. I wouldn't have been able to hug you the other day if you'd lopped off my arms. [ Speaking of: ] What was that all about anyway?

[ She's probably turned back to get the bike going, but there's a quizzical lift to his brows as he looks ahead. Lae'zel had never struck him as a particularly affectionate person. If anything, he would have expected a punch to his shoulder strong enough to knock him off-balance. ]

[ She makes an audible, irritated chk at the topic of the hugging getting brought back up again, turning them onto the road, but not yet revving the engine enough so that they cannot hear each other. ]

It's that damn implant.

[ Yeah, she's still mad... even though it ended up working out fine, she's still embarrassed it had to happen at all. And forever suspicious of the implant demanding things of them to function. ]

It wouldn't download something until I did it. Personally, I question the reliability of engineers which would compel their users to perform tasks in exchange for device operation — it's madness.

[ so what if it was only a hug... next day it could be something WAY WORSE!! ]

[ Ah, the implants. It's always the implanta. He's really beginning to find them to be more trouble than they're worth the longer he's forced to endure them, but it's not as though he has any other choice unless he wants to risk giving himself brain damage.

He sighs, shaking his head. ]

You're not wrong. But it's not as though we have an alternative.

[ Unless....? He pitches his voice louder over the hum of the engine. ]

Unless you've finally found a way to safely remove them?

[ Doubtful, because surely she would have been boasting about it by now. ]

Not yet.

[ but_maybe_someday_conch_from_spongebob.mp3

She, too, speaks over the engine, setting her jaw with sternness behind her helmet. ]

If LILITH controls the majority of resources, then they are likely to quash any attempt to develop a removal process.

[ Why else put these machines in their heads unless they really want them there, after all.... in her mind, they definitely want to prevent Outsiders tampering with it. ]

A way to remove it must be invented ourselves in secret, if we seek freedom from it.

Sounds like it's time to start holding some secret meetings then.

[ He's mostly joking, because as things stand they lack the resources to do anything more than simply talk about their woes. But if something were to arise, spearheaded by someone else….well, he wouldn't be opposed to sitting in and contributing what little he can.

But that's a topic for another day. Right now, they have other matters to attend to. ]

Ready to go?

[ With his helmet securely fastened and his arms firm around her, he sure is. And she's never going to get the results of her experiments if they keep sitting around like this. ]

( open ) may catch-all!

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