8FOLD/ACRA: Orphans of Mars: To Bell The Cat # 4

[Andrew Perron]

Held off on replying to this one for a while, haven't I? Onward!

On 7/4/2014 10:57 AM, Tom Russell wrote:
<snip>
>     "There wasn't a trail to begin with," says Danalee. "That's the
> problem with beam pistols, Quasha. Give me a dagger and a throat to
> slit any day. Bug with a beam, the wound is cauterized instantly. It
> may never cease to burn, but it also never bleeds, and never leaves a
> trail."
>     "I'm not overly fond of them myself," says Quasha. She touches the
> patch over her eye.

I bet I know someone who is. Or will be, in millions of years

>     Ress screams and throws herself back, landing in the dirt. "Don't touch me!"
>     Nerrine pulls back her hands and steps away.
>     "What are you doing?" says Ress.
>     "She was worried," says Petara. "You've been standing there,
> crying, for over a minute now."

GEE IT'S ALMOST AS IF SOMEONE DID SOMETHING SHITTY TO HER HUH >:/ LIKE 
SOMEBODY FUCKED HER UP A BIT

>     "It's a dangerous if," says Ress. "Too dangerous. In my opinion,
> Imperatrix. Anyone you send on this mission, you send to certain
> death, and certain failure. Life is the word you have chosen for us.
> So please, do not send anyone on this mission."

That is very good council.

>     Nerrine takes her leave. Petara continues her gardening, silently.
> And Ress dwells on her performance. Shoddy work. Certainly not in her
> usual form. But it's Nerrine that's the problem, not Ress. Once
> Nerrine is removed, Ress will once more be operating at the height of
> her considerable powers.

Ah, my.

> The only
> one Nerrine can count on, the only one she's ever counted on, is
> herself.

Ah, my.

>     But she's saying it, and not doing it. And that's because she wants
> to be here. "Rub my shoulders," says Ress. "I didn't ask, I was
> telling you. My word is the law."
>     "Yes, Imperatrix," says Kellin with a roll of her eyes. She grips
> Ress's shoulders in her hands.
>     "Imperatrix Ress," says Ress. "I like the sound of that, don't you?"

NERRINE HAS FALLEN I NOW LEAD THE DAUGHTERS OF MARS *maniacal Chris Latta laugh*

>     The falling creature stops falling in mid-air, instead soaring over
> her head. The pteranodon bears itself upwards with another screech.
>     "Bitches of shit!" sputters Nerrine. "It swims through the sky!"
> Like the creatures in children's stories. The dragons.

...have they not seen any flying animals before this? o.o There wouldn't be 
birds yet... or bats... and I guess insects are different. Huh. Okay. I guess 
this is reasonable, then.

>     But it's not charging. It has dropped down behind the corpse, and
> is now taking aloft again, flying not towards Nerrine, but away from
> her.
>     In its claws, it clutches something.
>     The tracker.

D'oh!

> "Friend Quasha, would you stand downwind, please?"
>     Quasha balks. "My scent is of sweat and battle. The true and
> glorious stench of a true Daughter, as sweet to the nostrils as blood
> is to the tongue."
>     "Are you finished?"
>     "...Yes."
>     "Now stand downwind."

Heeheehee

>     "Her life might be measured in minutes, in hours, or in days," says
> Danalee. "Given the age of the tech she was wearing, I doubt even she
> knows. That makes her, as Lask sensed, desperate and impatient. And
> thus far, far more dangerous. Too dangerous to wait."

Looks like it's time to make an attack on Titan. u.u

> Nerrine tracks the pteranodon. It's not easy; it doesn't break
> branches underfoot and doesn't cease its flight to piss.

A seagull is bad enough, but--!

> Ress watches her sister-lover sleep. There's something oddly
> satisfying about it. It's not that her scheme worked; her schemes
> always work, and especially where her idiot sister is concerned. Her
> favorite and most predictable puppet. Not so much a sister as an
> extension of her own will.
>     For some reason, this reflection is troubling, and she finds
> herself unable to look at Kellin. Or maybe it's not that at all, but
> that she can't bear the thought of Kellin looking at her. At seeing
> her. At knowing her for what she really is. Because if Kellin knew,
> wouldn't she pull away from Ress? Wouldn't she hate her? And Ress
> couldn't bear that.
>     But why? Why would it matter to Ress if Kellin should hate her?

  I just want to take you all and HUG you.

>     But the hope is false. He does not fly but fall. His wing is
> broken. And though none of the harem would have such a pathetic mate,
> the thief will not suffer his rival to live. Soon, the battle is
> rejoined, and finished.
>     Only the thief rises into the moonlight. Arrow-winged,
> resplendently-crested, tested in battle. He lights upon the rock where
> he had left his prize. The rock is there, but the prize is not.

Very interesting.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, onward.