albinomilksnake | OPEN RP PART II: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

[Its been a few months now since their arrival, and though he's made plenty of enemies in that time period, Jack has more than enough ammunition to keep him going.

Ammunition in groveling subjects, but also firepower.

The peninsula is dark and dreary even on the best of days, but in a way that even Jack can't bring himself to appreciate. Where Pandora was arid, this place was soaked deep enough that your nice boots sank straight through mud every time you stepped outside. As a result, Jack did not go outside much. He didn't need to anyway, until the fog hit. He's already gone through the majority of his changes, and perhaps the most annoying of them all was his enhanced need to horde valuables.

He doesn't entertain company often for this reason, except for one. His method of contacting her is via an unfortunate nightmare hallucination in the dead of night.]

Look, this isn't freakin' twenty questions, alright? I don't have time to argue, just get your ass back here. Now.

[He's called Nisha after an attempted lifting of said horde. Fending off the attackers hadn't been difficult, but without his usual methods at his disposal, Jack has become frail when taken by surprise. When she finally does join him, she'll notice his glowing tattooed arm is covered in blood.

Unfortunately, at least half of it is his own.]

[The hallucination's a pain. Honestly, getting sleep when her nights are filled with werewolf everything is a hard damn bargain. It was great at first when it was just teeth and eridium claws but the shifting and the hunting and the damn shedding are getting old. Fast.

So no, she's not in the best of moods when a late night nesting session is actually working in her favor and is then suddenly shaken down by Jack, but-- whatever. It wouldn't be the first crisis he's called her in a fuss about and it sure as hell wouldn't be the last.

Though the blood she spots when she finally turns up might have her briefly rethinking that.] Jesus, Jack.

You go toe-to-toe with a goddamn kaijuu or what? [And she's not-- worried exactly. Death is a sure fire thing on Pandora. She's been waiting for her own to hit ever since her mom sure as hell did, but this isn't Pandora. This is somewhere else entirely and the only souvenir from home to go along with it is him.

God, he'd better not be bleeding out on her.]

Let me see. [Which, despite the unusual sincerity in her tone, isn't a request; she's already moving to lift his injured arm for the sake of feeling it out.]

Ha ha ha, hilarious--

[His voice breaks when she lifts his arm and he flinches. Its easy to see what the problem is up close. Someone had obviously interrupted his feeding and attacked him, judging by the large swipes in his upper arm and the few missing spikes from the elbow region. His typically yellow skin has morphed into an angry red near the injury sites.

The tattoo immediately starts to glow purple and the blood on his arm begins to boil angrily, but through a gritting of teeth, Jack forces himself to relax enough to keep himself from attacking her out of reflex. What isn't calm is his tone, the typical tantruming cry of Handsome Jack only heard when he's at the height of frustration.]

Don't--do that!

Edited (lets try this again with less typos because moving bus) 2015-03-09 15:46 (UTC)

[Wouldn't bother her if he did lash out; she can take it - or at least she figures she can, given their history. Either way, Nisha's not quick to let go, eyes flicking off to survey the damage to their shared stockpile. If any.] Stop whining, you need to get patched up before you bleed out.

[Cyber-face had let her keep his stock of medical supplies. Guy wasn't useless in a fight but hunting without a conscience generally went better, so it wasn't often that she called him up for the sake of punching down a little order into the locals. Didn't stop him from fussing over her scrapes, so if whoever pounced Jack didn't want anything more than that, there ought to be enough nearby to fix his wounds.]

Shut the hell up.

[Its said through gritted teeth, growled out furiously through obvious pain. Judging by the scene, the scorched floor and a few pieces of melted gold, Jack had chased off whatever it was with magic but not without losses. His injuries were both emotional and physical, which leaves him on a hairpin trigger.

He's trying to keep from hurting his accomplice, but its clear that if she tugs much more, he's likely going to lose it. His pride can't take much more of a beating today.

That wasn't even speaking on the fact that he had been interrupted in the middle of feeding, which meant he was still starving. The injures are unreachable without making his hideous headache even worse, and so he's stuck relying on Nisha.]

Shut up and fix it. God damn it!

[Normally she'd offer up additional commentary for his snarling (she'd be lying if she didn't admit a fondness for those tantrums) but there's a certain unhinged, panicked urgency beneath everything else that doesn't run parallel to their usual scenarios.

He doesn't get this badly injured on her watch.

So instead she lets go. Falls back on her heels, turns to pick through the mess to find bindings and iodine. Not a fun time-- and given that the stuff burns like hell only for sterilization and not instant healing-- odds are this'll be the literal worst time for him.] Deep breaths, champ. This is gonna hurt.

A lot. [She soaks the rag through, feeling the chemical burn across her scuffed up fingertips. Doesn't wince, doesn't suck in a breath to get through it, just takes hold of his arm where the wounds are sunk in deep and presses the rag overtop of it. It's pain that keeps her grounded. Keeps her focused on holding him and not on tracking down the person responsible for shaking him up to his core.]

[Jack's pain tolerance is very high, but that doesn't mean he enjoys it when it does happen. Not when it doesn't come with the adrenaline of nearly dying. No, this is the pain of failure, the kind of pain he hates. And he's so angry that in spite of her warning, he still howls furiously and clenches a fist. His skin goes from yellow to beat red across his whole body, the tattoo glows a bright violet and pulses against the pressure Nisha is attempting to apply.

He can't control his anger when being assaulted by pain, and it translates into the elemental magic he still hasn't quite mastered.]

I'm gonna kill them. I'm gonna drag their faces across moldy bricks and shove them into sand, and then I'm going to set them on fire over and over and over again.

[The blood on his arm is boiling off into the air, and his skin is hot to the touch. He's a horrid patient.]

[The burn-- even through the glove covering one of her palms-- is something she can tolerate. The rag? Not so much. Meaning it's close to catching when she yanks it lose and drops it to the floor with a shake.] --the hell.

[Its a shame iodine is flammable. It means that the wound literally cauterizes when his skin gets too hot in a quick burst of flame as the liquid evaporates right off his skin. It hurts, its the worst, and there's not a damn thing he can do about it. Unfortunately, cauterization doesn't help the wound on the elbow where the spikes are missing, as when he bends it the wound simply cracks open and begins to bleed again.

He's sweating, he's furious, and he doesn't know how to calm his own temper down. He just keeps repeating through clenched teeth, wheezing through his own pain..]

I'm gonna kill them. Its gonna be so good, god its gonna be good--hrgh.

[He forces his glowing hand down on his leg and forces himself to hold still. Cooling down, though...that's harder than it looks.]

[Losing your humanity's kind of a weird deal from the get go. She knows that - rolls with it without complaint because damn if it isn't badass more often than not - but chemical reactions to charged magic and a temper that's too unfocused to keep any of this either focused or more of a help than a hindrance is all over her head. He might be trying to rein it in, but the bloody cracks aren't a good sign, and no bandage is going to stick to a goddamn living stovetop.]

Hey-- [Nisha takes hold of his jaw, scorched fingers screaming in protest at the heated metal of his hinges as she pulls his attention forcefully towards her. Sharp teeth set, stare fixed.] focus, Jack.

I might love that temper of yours on the regular but if you don't get it under control, you're going to die one hell of a lot faster than they are. And pretty as you are when you're hurt, watching you die's not exactly my kink.

[There's a translation there under all of that; one Nisha isn't about to voice.] Get. it. together.

[Its no small task. He can feel flesh melting in a way that's almost soothing, but its not near enough to calm the angry hammering in his chest. He wants to kill, he had been so ready to kill before he was attacked when he was weak. Nothing hit Jack harder than people who took advantage of his weakest moments, nothing made him angrier than those kind of people--monsters, heathens, friggen bandits.

His bones crack audibly as he turns his head to try and pull his jaw out of her hand, for no other reason than to continue pouting. It seems to have done the job, as his skin starts to smoke while his internal temperature cools down. Suddenly, he's quite tired alongside the dull burn down his entire left side.]

[He gets his freedom once she sees that slow, steady stream of smoke; the fresh blisters on her fingertips don't interfere with the way she tugs loose long strips of sterile binding, or the work that's spent tightly wrapping charred injuries under singed clothes.

It takes more than a few quick minutes, but she's quiet for once as she goes about it - waits till he's settled and patched up to turn the knife at her hip to the burns on her hands. Cut, drain, sterilize with iodine and wrap. Easiest process in the world, and one she's got down pat by now.]

[It hadn't taken either of them long to realize that Jack had too much power at his disposal for him to handle, at least in the realm of magic. He was too easily flattered, too easily angered, and too quick to pull the trigger. Fire was a dangerous weapon in his hands. It was his greatest asset and also his greatest enemy.

There's no complaints from him as Nisha goes about tending to them both. His arm has even gone a bit limp, and the color is slowly draining out of his skin.]

That's gonna sting for a while.

[His voice is gravelly, but its there.]

Hope so. [Though whether it's a directed at his injuries or hers isn't exactly clear. Gold eyes flick up to meet his, then arc down along the bandages-- the glowing tattoos that run parallel.]

You gonna tell me who 'they' are and what the hell happened to you? [The coldness in her tone isn't indifference: anger's stuck in her throat like bile, and despite the lack of a tripwire temper like Jack's, someone screwing with what's hers comes with the promise of retaliation.

Always.]

[He opens and closes his fist. Fire is the easiest element to summon, but its also the hardest to control. Trying to turn the fire of his anger to ice cold indifference is proving to be a challenge.

So eventually, he sets his hand down and looks to Nisha. His response is a rasped grunt.]

Lured a few chumps. Got followed by a manticore. Some coward snuck up on me and took off after I set their tail on fire. We're not talking about it.

[And that's the end of that. He turned his back, and he was an idiot for doing so. His new form came with as many challenges as it did power.]

Edited (i cant believe it took me this long to realize i confused chimera for manticore.....) 2015-03-11 06:37 (UTC)

Except for the part where we are, yeah. [Back turning doesn't mean anything to her: Nisha isn't dropping it any time soon, but how much he gives her to work with determines how long she'll be spending tracking the cowards down.

Less would be great.] You have any run-ins with them before? Recognize 'em from somewhere?

Who died and gave you my job? That's a trick question.

[Jack very stubbornly pushes himself to his feet and shambles toward the pile of materials. Its without hesitation that Jack climbs up the side to stretch out across it.

It doesn't help his headache.]

God, I have the worst headache.

[She watches him go, one brow arched lazily under the brim of her hat. Doesn't get to wear it all that much (hard to keep it in place on a hunt with sharp ears getting in the way) but for the moment it's intact - is until she pulls it loose and drops it over his face while casually passing by.] Get some rest, then.

I got places to be.

[And people to kill, more importantly.]

Wh--hey! Get your ass back over here!

[He sits up and flinches, grasping at air a bit helplessly. Aside from the fact that he hurts and doesn't want to leave his pile, he doesn't want Nisha taking his revenge from him.

So he goes limp on the pile and starts to whine dramatically:]

Nishaaaaaa......come on.

[It's the whine that stops her dead in her tracks just a few steps off, chin tilted back over her shoulder for the sake of catching his limp, faltering fingers pawing sadly at the air.

Aw. Look at that.]

Not gonna work, Handsome. You got a headache, remember?

[He scrabbles just a little to try and pull her back toward him, but doesn't put in any extra effort. He's the wounded one, after all.

But that doesn't stop his fingertips from growing warm again.]

Come on kitten you're not supposed to leave, that's not how it goes.

[Awkwardly, he scoops up her hat and places it on his head in an attempt to charm her back toward him.]

Also you have hat hair.

[Those cold, gold eyes watch him impassively for a beat longer. She's ice in the face of that charming display; frigid steel and hardened lines-- hardened lines with mussed up hair.

Which is exactly why she cracks the unwanted edge of a smile at the sight of him under the shade of his hat, attention flicking off briefly in a bid at ignoring it.

Just before she caves, edging back into reaching distance and tugging the brim down over his right eyebrow.]

So do you.

Maybe...

[Jack leaves the hat there for a few moments, but the second he feels Nisha return to him, he pushes it up to show her his cheesy, toothy smile.]

But fortunately for you, I'm still handsome as hell. Even with the hair.

[He tugs her weakly with his uninjured arm.]

Fix it for me, sweetheart.

[Stupid, beautiful, handsome bastard.

Nisha briefly eyes his stockpile, trying to judge how well it'll hold under shared weight. Given that it hasn't dropped him to the floor, it seems sturdy enough. And honestly, monster changes or not, having a hoard of valuables is pretty routine for Jack - maybe a lot more money, but enh, details.

So there's only a brief pause as she settles down beside him: hat removed, hair smoothed back carefully-- soothingly-- with her fingertips.] Only if you're up to returning the favor.

[Much better. He lounges in her lap once she takes the hat off, and once she runs her fingers through his hair. He purrs and leans into her hand shamelessly.]

Oh I'll fix more than that, babe.

[His fingers come up to rub across her chin, running across the vein he knows sits there.]

YOLOOOOOO

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