lastofthefirst: Literally The Only Picture Of Her In Existence (Default)
lastofthefirst ([personal profile] lastofthefirst) wrote in [community profile] ph_logs2023-11-18 05:46 pm

And it feels like the weight is too much to carry [November Open]

Who: Vika and YOU
What: November Open
When: TAKE A WILD FUCKING GUESS BUDDY
Where: Around Town, Edge of Town, The Mine(tm), Oak & Iron
Warnings: Existential horror, chronic (robot) illness, Vika's kind of a bitch



In the final cut [People Watching]

One might find one's Vika out around town. She doesn't do things like eat or sleep or, you know, most of the reasons Pumpkin Hollow has to socialize, and yet here she is! At the Oak & Iron, hanging out near the Forges, even at the Library, kinda just looking at the various people around with an unusual amount of animation for her. While Vika does indeed check out some books at the library (all of them about clockmaking), for the most part she's kinda just observing and click-click-click-clicking away. If your character is particularly fashionable you might even get approached; she's got some clothing questions, you see. Otherwise, well, that's on you.

In the final scene [Edge of Town]

Maybe it's the noise - a strange, reverberating pulse - that gets your attention near the edge of town. Maybe it's the ice. The source is obvious enough once you get there, though: Vika is practicing. Her weapon arm has changed since she got here, and one of the big ways it's changed is that it now has a utility built in. The frozen blasts it fires leave behind patches of thick ice, and she's running herself through her paces with remarkable agility. Those overlarge legs on her body push her into swift dashes extended by the ice, and she's not shy at all in using the blasts from her weapon to freeze over the surface of the river in chunks she can land on and then leap from. For all that Vika is a lurching zombie, this is as alive as she's ever looked here in town, with a fluidity that might be unbelievable if you've seen her before.

The animals have wisely left this area, but there's a first come first served opportunity to assign this robot a Pokemon brave enough to be near this...

There's a final girl [Oak & Iron]

Vika doesn't eat, but she does need to be wound. She's slowly coming to peace with the idea that it's going to be a team effort even if she does get a hand installed, and it's...

...Weirdly nice? In any event. So here she is, taking up table space and blissfully unaware that this is rude behavior because nobody on the staff is gonna be the first person to tell the gun-armed zombie robot that she needs to buy something or leave. Help a bitch out before she starves to death, would you?

And you know that she should be screaming [The Mines]

Pretty sure Vika is the only PC miner in the game so this prompt exists literally just in case there's plot down in the hole here. Her job has, thankfully, provided her with tools she can put on her arm while on the clock, as well as a dedicated partner; Mika (yeah, we're going with that) doesn't need to swing the pickaxe at all, instead loading the cart since Vika, y'know, fucking can't.

Wildcard

Come at me
thelatechrisfreeman: (hidden (PB))

In the final scene

[personal profile] thelatechrisfreeman 2023-11-19 12:31 am (UTC)(link)
Chris is indeed watching Vika as she practices with her modified gun, and Rowan the Phantump has accompanied them. When Vika leaps from ice floe to shore, Rowan gives a cheer and claps their little hands with glee.

Chris waves after that, since the noise will definitely get her attention. "That's amazing, Vika!"
thelatechrisfreeman: (in color (PB))

[personal profile] thelatechrisfreeman 2023-11-19 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh, you can pick them up? Yes, Rowan is one of the new kind of ghosts in Lockwood Forest, and we made friends a while back!"

Rowan basically looks like a tree stump with glowing red eyes, suspended in a black mist. And it's floating next to Chris and watching Vika with curiosity.

Chris continues, "There's a lot of different kinds... big and small. Lots of people have made new friends with them."
thelatechrisfreeman: (fallen (vertigo))

[personal profile] thelatechrisfreeman 2023-11-19 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Um, yes." Chris takes a few steps closer, looking worried. "Are you all right?"

Beat.

"Oh! Maybe you're from a world where the spirits of the dead don't linger. Like Dr. Watson."
thelatechrisfreeman: (reaper (PB))

[personal profile] thelatechrisfreeman 2023-11-19 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
"But the ghosts are still here, bound to the physical world. That isn't release." Chris lightly rests a hand on Rowan's head. "The subtle realms beyond, I assume, would be closer to a release. And even then, the world doesn't like to let us go."
maltesefalcon: (perception check)

People Watching

[personal profile] maltesefalcon 2023-11-19 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
The birdman cometh!

Cerrit notices Vika doing peoplewatching near the forges, and he can't help but be curious. He makes his approach from an alley behind two buildings, specifically trying to slip right up beside her in the stealthy way a level 14 rogue is capable of.

"What exactly is it you're looking at, when you're watching them?"
maltesefalcon: (regal eagle)

[personal profile] maltesefalcon 2023-11-19 07:12 am (UTC)(link)
"Huh. You're well-armed, aren't you?"

...Cerrit, now is not the time to pun at the hair-triggered robot girl.
maltesefalcon: (Default)

[personal profile] maltesefalcon 2023-11-19 07:22 am (UTC)(link)
Cerrit, in his arrival shirt with holes slashed in the back for wings, pants cut mid-calf and cuffed and his bare-ass bird feet out for all to see, gives her a sympathetic look.

"Because there are assumptions about how clothing works inherent to the fashion industry here, and you don't fit the standard template."
maltesefalcon: (sightwarden)

[personal profile] maltesefalcon 2023-11-19 07:31 am (UTC)(link)
"Leathers would have the same problem, but slower." Cerrit clicks his beak. Which is a bit like grinding one's teeth as well, or biting on a lower lip. "Is it the functionality of clothing you're envying, or the potential for self-expression through ornamentation?"
maltesefalcon: (pinch)

[personal profile] maltesefalcon 2023-11-19 07:40 am (UTC)(link)
"Self-expression through ornamentation. Like I said. Occasionally an indicator of social status or belonging to a particular group--like military uniforms, or cultural dress or fancy fucking formal gowns that shift color in the lights and fit your form perfectly because they were tailored for you this morning and mean to show off how absolutely stunning and magically perfect you are."

...Shhhh, he doesn't have a lot of feelings about Patia and Laerryn and their dresses, not at all.
maltesefalcon: (cloak)

[personal profile] maltesefalcon 2023-11-19 07:48 am (UTC)(link)
"I'd say not, but again, I know being isolated from all of your own kind and viewed like you might belong in some sort of zoo or something. I've already accepted your people-y-ness, for whatever worth that carries. Hard to hold this kind of conversation with someone who's not people."
maltesefalcon: (crested)

[personal profile] maltesefalcon 2023-11-19 08:04 am (UTC)(link)
"And with the talons, neither shoes nor gloves are a thing that happen. I shred right through them. And the feet are important for landing, of course, so leaving them uncovered is fine."

For certain values of fine.

"I'm Cerrit. It's good to meet you, Vika."
maltesefalcon: (perception check)

[personal profile] maltesefalcon 2023-11-19 08:09 am (UTC)(link)
"Would you want a similar one? Or something different, new, that you chose for yourself?" He glances at the one she currently has. "I think I saw a seamstress shop in town."
maltesefalcon: (pinch)

[personal profile] maltesefalcon 2023-11-19 08:14 am (UTC)(link)
"Want it plain? You miss it because it was yours." Simplest answer, but he bets it's also true on some level.

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