ataraxionlogs | 02. I'm a soldier and a poet [closed]

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02. I'm a soldier and a poet [closed]

CHARACTERS: William Tsang, Brad Colbert, Pietro Maximoff, As Well As Severus Snape and Kate Bishop Hopefully
LOCATION: Various
WARNINGS: PG-13 probably cursing, low-level HTH combat/violence
SUMMARY: One strike team assembles for Commander Shepard's ~~ill-fated~~ safari into the distant regions of the Tranquility; a recruitment and training montage.
NOTES: Various assumptions were made in the construction of this post. Let me know if I botched it either via IM or Plurk and I will right it out. Also, feel free to split/start into other threads!

Xenobiology/Genetics Department (Snape, Colbert, & Kate if she fancies it)

This is Severus Snape.

[Severus Snape is probably not hoping to see much of anybody on a good day, and on a bad day, he probably has no preferences with regard to William Tsang at all, having conveniently forgotten that the trifling and vulgar young medic exists. Unfortunately, said medic seems to have found his way to the good Professor's place of employment on this day. He has with him a few others, including: one very tall, lean blonde man with a facial expression that would make wind-blasted granite look personable.] Mr. Snape, Sargeant Colbert.

Mr. Snape ought to be our comms bloke so I can go inna field. [This surprising display of assertiveness is probably even more shocking, if you think about the fact he would have hacked a private communication to acquire this information.

William Tsang nonetheless presses on, looking only a little furtive as he glances at the quiet workspace of the department. Possibly wondering if he can actually turn himself back, if Snape transforms him into something unimaginable, or heal if Snape summons an anvil onto his head.] I've got no doubt what he can do is loads better than my half-arsed mucking 'round with basic electronics, eivver. I'm sure Commander Shepard will unnastan' this arrangement if you sign off.

[It's probably difficult to tell which person you is. William thinks better than to smile, linking his hands behind his back, as if standing to attention right now might convince anybody that he'd been staying in line before.]

Rec Rooms, various training facilities (Kate, Brad, Pietro, & Mr. Snape)

[Afterward, they are only one man short.

They get to training anyway. Colbert's expectations come without the ceremony of threats or formal discourse about appropriate military conduct, but they aren't difficult to parse. The Rec Rooms have about everything that they need for basic fitness, and it becomes routine spectacle: William trailing comfortably behind Brad and Kate as they burn down the lanes of the track at a flat run.

Between their other responsibilities, there are hours of hand-to-hand and ranged training where Brad explains about the judicious application of an elbow in realistic combat situations, and Kate kills so much paper with the arrows she can reuse that they run out of range for her to try, and there necessarily follows a conversation about expanding her supply. In the weight training, William tends to sneak in more opportunities to spot so he doesn't have to lift as much. Brad is demonstrating about arterial shots with a rubber knife on a dummy, one day, when the rubber actually breaks through the plastic chassis, and Brad shrugs, because If you're that close to a manticore, you're probably dead, anyway. We're going to practice firing from cover. Who knows how to program the holodeck? William turns himself into a bulletproof shield, once. Brad asks about poop.

Of course, there's reprieve, too. Sleep-deprivation and going without are realistic challenges for any operation, but until then, staying in good condition is part of conditioning.

It's over a fry of canned protein and vegetable, reasonably seasoned, that talk starts of testing communications. The particular lounge they've taken has an ambient green light, a subtropical mural embossed into the glass walls, minimalistically sleek furniture. It's close to the rec room, mostly.] If there was a way we could dip into a deadzone quick, [William points out.] I recently came into a Roomba, actually, but 'is top pace is less'n a mile an hour.

[On cue, there's a tread in the doorway.]

OOC note: I'm so sure that I've gotten some logistics/assumptions wrong that it isn't even funny, especially with regard to transparency about powers, and trying to finagle the chronology of recruitment and job reassignments (e.g., William was originally comms). Please let me know what to fix.

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Professor.

[ At the first 'Mr Snape', when he's introduced to Colbert, who gets a small nod. He repeats himself, ] Professor. [ at the next interval. The look he's giving William is not quite one that could curdle milk, but one that suggests he's imagining this human personification of an over-excited Labrador puppy scraping dead blood slugs out of every second-year cauldron for two weeks worth of detention. It's an emotion somewhere between 'shut up or I'm going to magic your mouth off' and 'the mundanity is putting me to sleep, someone get me a coffee and some aspirin'.

Yes. ]

It will have to be the arrangement, [ he says after William is finally quiet oh my god, ] because I am not suited for field work.

[ Which is kind of a lie, but as he will never consent to doing field work, it's also kind of not. ]

[ Kate makes a reasonably fitting sentinel beside Brad with her hair pulled back in a severe tail, arms crossed against her chest, face stonewall grave. She takes in this new (proposed) addition to their makeshift team with a gaze that's both flat and keenly observant, unaffected by William's enthusiastic recommendation. She's decided to take this seriously. When it comes to teams, she generally does.

She speaks first, which shouldn't be surprising, and her tone matches her expression. ]

Professor of what?

Alchemy and potion-making. I teach at the UK's only school for sorcery and am a head of house there.

[ His sharp gaze ticks over to Kate when he speaks. He knows those words mean nothing to anyone gathered here, but he says them seriously anyway. Severus will not shy away from what he is to avoid reactions from ignorant muggles - and if anyone feels like laughing, he'll be more than happy to demonstrate. In his own way. ]

( brad is introduced to a mr snape who promptly snaps a professor, and that in combination with the expression on his face earns a raised eyebrow from brad. )

Professor of what?

( a professor likely isn't suited for field work, brad will accept that much. in fact, he would be hard pressed to believe that any professor of anything could do the kind of thing brad's trained to do. a professor of alchemy and potion-making, though — that just seems ridiculous.

but he's tasked with making this group of people a semi-coherent unit, capable of working together on a recon mission. he's going to bite down on his own sarcastic comment at least to some extent. )

[ Dark eyes fix on Brad next. For a moment he's quiet, expression closed and inscrutable. Watching. Then he says, quietly, ]

I have never heard of any kind of field mission or exercise in which an operative, much less the lead operative, cannot hear. Are you very certain you're fit for duty?

( brad doesn't laugh, but one corner of his mouth curls up, a smile that could be sardonic or genuinely pleased.

his voice, when he speaks, is a lazy drawl. ) Aw, cute. I'd ask if your bite is as bad as your bark, but we're not here to measure dicks, we're here to get this fucking mission rolling, so tell me what you can do and I'll see about Tsang's request.

[ His expression does not change, neither impressed nor ruffled. ]

I can operate your communications, [ a word he uses as if he thinks it's rudimentary and a little pitiable ] and provide you with backup methods to do so should the network fail. Which it will.

[ A fact, judging by every other account possible, and something they should all anticipate. ]

I can also arrange it so that you may carry with you ten times the amount of supplies you would be able to bring otherwise.

[ Kate is less skeptical and more curious about this school of witchcraft and wizardry than Brad, which should really be surprising. She holds off on questions while the boys poke at each other, observing with mild boredom until it's time to lift a brow at Snape's offers/assurances. ]

That sounds useful. [ Is not a particularly useful statement itself, but hey at least it's not antagonistic. ] So this is the traditional wands and magic words and Merlin turning people into frogs by a bubbling cauldron sort of witchcraft?

Yes.

[ That's it that's the reply.

Despite his attitude, Severus is not feeling particularly combative - otherwise he might do some interrogation back. He knows that muggles think they're well equipped to do a variety of things, but to him, guns and armor are akin to childrens toys. He's not sure if he even wants to know, actually, if any of them are capable of anything besides being injured. The answer is probably no. ]

He made me a mutant bucket once, [says William, who is infinitely helpful in these matters, clearly, of course, this is evidence of that. He glances sidelong at Brad, abruptly remembering their initial encounter, following the mentioned demonstration of magic.] You probably recall.

[He is trying not to look too pleased, which only fails because of the obvious comparisons: nobody else looks pleased, assuming that the slight chink that appeared in Brad's murder face does not count. That's okay. He can be the only one being altogether without irony or sarcasm in this particular situation. His own experiences have encompassed enough folkish magic and military attitudes that neither bother him.]

Does this backup plan mean you'd be fucking wif our comm devices extra, or is there some ovver way?

I remember the mutant bucket. ( that is said completely dryly, barely a twitch to acknowledge the utter ridiculousness of that statement. he does remember the mutant bucket; he didn't much care for it.

he remains focused on snape. ) What back up methods of communication?

( the network will fail, brad is equally convinced of that. no plan survives first contact, and even if they do not make any contact with anyone during this mission, things will go wrong.

it's always safest to assume that. )

[ If Severus is bothered by either the description of his semi-conscious kneejerk reaction to nearly being puked on, or the skeptical reception of it, there's no trace in him. Explaining that kind of magic to Colbert is obviously not worth the oxygen, so he's not going to waste their collective time. ]

I'm working on a modified version of an enchanted mirror, [ he says simply. Severus takes what looks like a slightly beat up tin cigarette case from a pocket, and from inside of it withdraws two palm-sized, rough-edged pieces of broken mirror - courtesy of a bathroom mirror on a deserted floor. Sorry, TQ.

(The cigarette case itself doesn't look big enough to have held them, but that's a conversation for a few minutes from now. )

He hands one piece to Brad, and the other to William - he'd go with Kate, since she seems less of a total dick, but it's clear he needs to prove functionality to the team leader and he thinks Tsang might implode with nervous energy if he doesn't get to poke something. ]

Speak the name of the holder of the opposite piece into the mirror, and it will show them to you. You may talk through it as if it were the video function on those devices.

[ Go on, muggles, give it a try. It'll work. ]

Edited 2014-04-20 17:40 (UTC)

[William's hands pop up, greedily, meerkat-quick. He takes the piece of mirror carefully, if not as carefully as he probably should, tacking down the unevenly serrated edges with the flats of his thumbs. He peers down into his own reflection with instant curiosity, refrains from doing something so obvious as wave at himself, but the surreptitious wiggle of his eyebrows is probably not as surreptitious as he had intended.

GUYS GUESS WHAT IT'S A PIECE OF MIRROR. Having verified this, William looks up again. His attention strays toward Severus' cigarette case, that the mirrors had been conjured out of. One magic at a time, William. Stepping a little closer to Kate so that she can crane her head over if she likes, he holds the mirror away from himself, approximately the altitude of his face.]

Sargeant Brad Colbert, [he says, optimistically.]

( brad takes the other piece of the mirror. he's sceptical, yeah, but he's seen enough shit that he wouldn't have believed possible in his time on the tranquility that he's not overly sceptical.

before, he would have called bullshit instead of giving it a go. now, he takes three steps away, turning his back to the group and looking at the mirror. ) William Tsang. ( perhaps unsurprisingly, william's face shows in the mirror. brad raises an eyebrow at him. ) Someone looks excited.

( be more of a puppy, william, he dares you.

his words are spoken quietly enough that william and kate should not have been able to make them out due to the distance. )

In my defense, it's pretty fucking brilliant, [William tells the mirror. If his eyebrows got any further up they'd take leave of the roof of his head. His abilities can't do this; can't do anything approaching this, confined as they are to his physical person in every important way, give or take the amorphous and indistinct context of dreams.

For a moment, Brad gets a good view of the small pores in the bridge of William's nose and the blinky blink of his eyes, down to the fine veins in the whites of his eyes, a vague gust of translucent condensation when the metamorph exhales. The next, William pulls the mirror back to a more sensible distance, grinning hugely. He turns to offer the shard to Kate, even as he looks at Snape from over the top of it.] Top fucking sail, man.

'S the connection hold if we switch between speakers?

Yes. Once it's open the connection will remain open until you're finished. Right now those are set to go dormant again when the person who initiated it says 'goodbye'.

[ Severus doesn't seem surprised or even pleased that it's working. He knew it would. #kanyeshrug ]

The ones I'm working on for a finalized version will be on pieces of reflective steel, and not glass. [ For obvious reasons. ] The ship does interfere with magic, but as this is not powered by the ship itself like the communication network is, there may be a chance of it lasting longer.

[ His voice is not particularly hopeful. It really is only a chance, and nothing more. He's perfectly aware of that. ]

At present, the spell is permitting any two parties to use them. I may retool it to have one fixed end, as to streamline the spell and make it more stable. A hard line instead of an unfocused one.

Good to have a back-up option.

( brad gives a nod, striding back to the little group, the piece of mirror still in his hand. the only thing it's reflecting and transmitting, in this moment, is the cloth of his jump suit. ) How are you on working with the network, while it's up?

( can you code? or is brad going to have to try and cobble up some sort of encryption for them to use? )

Functional. A young woman who is supposedly an expert has been assigned to me to ensure I don't inadvertently ruin anything.

[ Severus does not bother pointing out that, essentially, it's him or no one. There is not a backup option for any squad; volunteers have been thin on the ground. ]

All right, then.

( that there are no alternatives does not mean that brad is willing to accept bad choices. there's always the alternative of not going at all, and while brad would hate that option because he's finally been presented with an opportunity for a real recon mission, he isn't going to walk in with a team that can't handle it. )

Welcome to the team, prof.

Well, magic mirrors. [ Kate replies to Brad's soft words through the connection, glancing aside at William's excitement with milder amusement. ] They are pretty cool.

[ While not in any danger of bubbling over the 'cool' seems genuine, Kate flashing Snape a bit of a smile before leans in to look as William initially takes the shard. As he passes it to her she looks back to Snape again to check, even as she's already taking hold. Oh hey Brad. She gives a little wave to the Marine in the looking glass but too late, as it turns into a view of his jumpsuit and she passes the device back to its creator. ]

Can you make one for each of us, or are we limited to two?

[ The look Severus gives Brad at his approval is neither pleased nor resentful. It just is. He's difficult to read-- beyond his default flat, mild disdain for all living things. ]

I've yet to decide. [ Absent, but honest. ] There's an impracticality to too many small objects that can be misplaced or used as beacons to powers that may sense magic, but obvious problems may arise in the event you are separated from each other.

Three to distribute among us, one for you.

[ it's not quite a demand; consider it a very strong suggestion. that way, they will be able to communicate via snape when they split up.

brad has no intention of letting the group split into anything smaller than teams of two, with the possible exception of sending an individual scout ahead, possibly himself.

that means two teams of two with one mirror each, snape with one, and one mirror to pass around whenever necessary. ]

( one thing becomes almost immediately apparent: it is going to take a lot of effort to turn this group into a unit capable of going on a recon mission. they won't ever satisfy brad's standard, but then most marine units don't satisfy brad's standards, so that is arguably not something they should strive for.

they only need to be good enough to survive, for now.

brad already knows kate and her fighting style. william he knows as well, though he looks considerably less green around the gills now than he had post-jump. at least the kid is military, even if he's a medic. he's familiar with how things work.

snape is an unknown variable, but he will run communications and not be with them in the field. that's an arrangement brad is none too happy with because he's used to having his rto by his side ( having ray by his side ), but he can make do.

pietro is the one brad worries about the most. )

Where did you get the Roomba?

( they are going to have to test communications, figure out how things are going to hold up, but brad is more concerned with figuring out how to make their unit an actual unit that will survive if they're cut off from everything, so his question is somewhat absent-minded.

he's watching pietro. )

To be honest, I'm not sure, [William admits, but he is more distracted than honest; mostly, he's twisted around in his seat almost corkscrew, trying to get a proper look at the young man who just showed up. His brow digs down low over his eye, then lifts in what is unmistakably recognition.]

Maximoff, [he says, by way of greeting. It's a strange force of habit, recently reawakened, but hanging out with military always gets him using surnames again. He finishes turning around in his seat, the heel of one sneaker still hanging off the lower bar of his stool, his other foot anchoring him to the floor. He regards the other man with interest, and no surprise at all. They'd established only a few days ago, that they had both gone into Engineering. Pietro, voluntarily.

This sort of bugfuck seems consistent with signing up for this.] Oy.

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02. I'm a soldier and a poet [closed]

FIRST ONE

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( 2ND )

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