albinomilksnake | OPEN RP PART II: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

I prefer "just in time". [And he wastes no time in crossing the room to help Aeryn onto her back, gathering the sweaty, wild mass of her hair behind her and retrieving the suit's hood to reattach at the neck.]

I apologize. I should have left you with more of my share. [Impossible. Because in truth, Scorpius needed a clear head for his mission and a single arn's distraction from the task due to inadequate cooling might have spelled disaster for them both.]

[She helps where she can, which equates to not at all: sweat slick across her skin under the mask, feeling a thousand degrees too hot to think under its insulated surface. If she could, she'd point out how he's obviously lying - as it stands, her breathing hitches; she pants through the edges of her teeth, unfocused eyes fixed elsewhere.]

[Callous a creature though Scorpius may be, he would not wish heat delirium on any Sebacean, even his worst of enemies. And now, to see this one so close to the brink of the Living Death, he feels...something he cannot qualify. But it is accompanied by urgency enough that in a fraction of the time it would normally take him to fit her with the newly formulated coolant, it is done.

He steps back from the platform to allow her space to breathe, his own exertion evident in the subtly quicker rise and fall of his chest, in his barely parted lips and teeth. ]

Pilot, reduce the temperature of this chamber as low as Moya can withstand.

[That she maintains consciousness is a miracle. It's the barest, thinnest sense of the word: eyes centimeters short of shutting entirely, the rise and fall of her chest shallow as anything for nearly a quarter of an arn. After that, Aeryn sleeps. Without pain or noticeable struggling, and it lasts long enough that when she finally does come out of it, disorientation takes control of her senses. Makes the process abrupt and unfocused.]

Scorpius--

[Scorpius is present when Aeryn wakes, assessing her temperature and waiting patiently for her mind to push through the thinning haze of heat holding her captive in a delirious fever.

He places a hand on her forehead, dissuading her from making any abrupt movements.]

I am here. And so, miraculously, are you.

[She settles under the weight of his palm, muscles going slack almost instantaneously. It's a relief to see him there, alive and unscathed with coolant pressed to her own skin.

He'd gambled and succeeded, and part of her-- the rapidly recovering part-- needs to know how he'd managed it at all.] Miraculously is right.

I thought I was hallucinating you at first.

A more logical assumption than that I'd succeeded, I expect. How are you feeling now? [Her readings have stabilized considerably. The room has become so cold that bits of frost stick to her lashes, each of their respective breaths a spidery cloud on the air, and the Scarran in him howls with discomfort. Now that she is recovering, however, he orders the temperature back up by several degrees.]

[Aeryn nods out her answer, inhaling one last, deep breath of comfortably frigid air. He needs a more controlled temperature scale; she knows it. Grants him that courtesy without complaint.

She owes him that much.]

Were you able to get enough? [Supplies. Coolant rods. Everything.]

For the foreseeable future, yes. [If needed they can live on the supplies he has acquired for well into the next cycle. But with the necessities secured, his plans have grown beyond mere survival.]

By the way. Were you aware [There is space enough to sit on the platform beside Aeryn, and so he does, sliding up and perching lightly at its edge.] that you have a sizable bounty on your head?

[She tenses up instinctively, even knowing full well that Scorpius wouldn't turn on her over it. That the two of them are alike in their exiled solitude.

In their heat delirium.

But it doesn't stop her from looking apprehensive about the subject itself.]

I had no idea I was that famous.

Only to the Lukythians. And, of course, to every bounty hunter in the Uncharted Territories. [The notion that Scorpius can be tempted by a bounty of any size is laughable, of course. What he intends is only to coax the truth from her.]

[A difficult thing to coax, given the circumstances. Aeryn glances away, setting her eyes on the console at the opposite end of the room.] You already know what I have to say about this, Scorpius.

Edited 2014-06-25 07:20 (UTC)

What you have to say is not enough. [Her gaze may retreat to the far side of the chamber, but his eyes never leave her face.] The more you tell me, the better informed I will be in confronting those responsible for your illness. The less you tell me, the greater risk I take. [The Lukythians likely expect she is dead by now, the bounty withstanding on principle. This may play to their advantage.]

This isn't your fight. [There's a sharpness to it; she works to sit up for the sake of fixing him with a pointed, challenging sort of stare. It's the most she can do to keep him from actually making good on his promises to put an end to what she'd started.]

I know that doesn't mean much to you but it does to me.

[He does not stop Aeryn from rising. She's far enough out of danger that a bit of mild exertion will not harm her.

Though his voice is mild as always, it carries a growling undercurrent that brooks no argument.]

It is my fight if I wish it to be.

[Her expression sours by degrees: no, she's well aware of what he's capable of doing and what she isn't. If he chooses not to listen, Aeryn's options will be-- are likely already-- limited.

So for a change she's blunt. Honest.]

I gave my word.

Then I don't need to know why you did it. [The Lukythians had taken care to use the word "assassin". He doubts the hit was anything if not professional, and he can, he supposes, respect her wishes to keep her clients' identity a secret.] Only the particulars of who's chasing you.

So what, you can hunt them down and finish what I started for me? No. No, I don't think so. [Much as she respects him-- much as she appreciates all he's done for her-- one former Peacekeeper isn't a match for all this. Not even one as resourceful as him.]

Brute force may not be necessary. We can negotiate. [Scorpius knows very well that while not guaranteed, bloodshed is to be expected. This is not a crime these people are likely to forgive or forget.] Winning a battle is not always a matter of guns and numbers.

You might not like their terms. [Or, more accurately,she probably won't like their terms. But it's a sign of how uneasy she is-- another sign of how powerless she is at the moment-- and Aeryn cuts herself off from dwelling on it for too long despite the sincere uneasiness seeping into the bottom line of this conversation.

She doesn't want to fight him. On any of this.]

We will not know until we ask. [Their arguing over the matter further is pointless. While he respects Aeryn more and more by every solar day they spend together, he cannot respect her foolish rejection of his help.

He slips back off the platform and onto his feet.] As I said: I will communicate with them with or without your information.

[It's a long steady set of silence that hangs between them, before Aeryn sets her eyes off elsewhere and finally speaks up. Much as she's grateful for what he's done, and much as she respects him for it, she gave her word, and that honor is the only thing she has left.]

Then you'll have to do without.

OPEN RP PART II: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

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