Owen Corley (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cypher_can_fly) wrote2020-06-21 12:05 pm
cypher_can_fly) wrote2020-06-21 12:05 pm
Entry tags:
Shadowmark, Bastion, Several Days Later
Coming up with the terrible plan had taken all of fifteen minutes.
Actually executing it... had been harder, especially with Becca getting called back in to do meaningless training routines half the time. But they'd gotten it done. She had several free hours, a Javelin to use, and Owen...
"Do you want to start explaining to the authorities why their star Cypher is disobeying orders and cruising her way to a burnout?" Owen asked. "Come on! Take the time off!" He beamed. "You know you want to..."
The Cypher - Mykala - sighed, eyed him, sighed again, shook her head, and finally slid out of the amplifier. "I guess a few more hours of sleep wouldn't be too bad," she admitted.
Owen gave her a thumbs-up, the stolen Cypher leathers crinkling under the motion. It was a weird, tactile feeling. He kind of liked it. "I promise you I won't crank call any other cities," he said.
"You better not," she muttered. Then she was gone.
Owen took a deep, steadying breath. He put his hand down on the seat of the amplifier chair. It had been a long time since he'd been in one, and the ones at Bronwyn had been second-hand. Not nearly as nice as this. He slid into the seat quietly, taking a moment to adjust to the way it pressed against his back, hovered above his head. The control panel in front of him. The bend of the footrests.
"Okay," he said, as he plugged in. "Now to find Becca..."
Being in an amplifier was like nothing else. It felt like being so much more of yourself, all at once; it also felt a lot like being stretched like stale taffy that had sat on a dusty shelf for too long.
It was dizzying. It was exhilarating. It was-- ooh, a tree, swaying in the wind. Ooh, wind, coming in from the southeast, south, carrying a multitude of pollen. Temperature, 25 degrees. 26 degrees. 23 degrees, down in the air above the river, fish, Shaper relic, Shaper relic, Skorpion--!
No one at Fandom had ever really asked Owen what being a Cypher was like. Not even Nina. He wasn't sure how he'd describe it either, to be a Cypher in an amplifier chair, at once aware of the wide world around him and all the details in it. A mind without the gift would have snapped; Owen's flowed naturally with the current.
And found her.
Becca? Can you hear me?
"Loud and clear, Owen."
He could hear her too. Feel her, her body snug inside that Javelin armor. He reached out to her, touched her mind, filtering the glut of information into simple symbols. Things she could grasp.
She was feeling the thrill, same as he was. It amplified his own excitement, feeling that running through her.
"Owen?"
Oh, right.
You're still quite a whiles away from our target. I'll find them for you, he promised, letting his mind waft out to the wind, touching gently upon flora and fauna and terrible Shaper beasts. A small group of Arcanists had gone out several days ago, and they still hadn't returned. But the Freelancers in Shadowmark had been too busy to worry about them.
But Owen and Becca, they had all the time in the world.
There. Out well beyond those mountains. Are you up for a long fly?
"Are you kidding me?" Becca laughed, and it rumbled through him. "Feels like I haven't gotten to stretch those muscles in months!"
Then let's go for it, come on! Show me how fast you can go!
After weeks of being stuck inside his own head, inside his dorm room, he was finally free, far away, blasting through the blue sky. The amplifier chair and the room it stood in were gone. They weren't real.
She was. The Javelin was. And the feeling and the sense of her missiles flying through the air, striking true, doing real damage to the Skorpions below-- that was the truest thing there was.
[[ establishy ]]
Actually executing it... had been harder, especially with Becca getting called back in to do meaningless training routines half the time. But they'd gotten it done. She had several free hours, a Javelin to use, and Owen...
"Do you want to start explaining to the authorities why their star Cypher is disobeying orders and cruising her way to a burnout?" Owen asked. "Come on! Take the time off!" He beamed. "You know you want to..."
The Cypher - Mykala - sighed, eyed him, sighed again, shook her head, and finally slid out of the amplifier. "I guess a few more hours of sleep wouldn't be too bad," she admitted.
Owen gave her a thumbs-up, the stolen Cypher leathers crinkling under the motion. It was a weird, tactile feeling. He kind of liked it. "I promise you I won't crank call any other cities," he said.
"You better not," she muttered. Then she was gone.
Owen took a deep, steadying breath. He put his hand down on the seat of the amplifier chair. It had been a long time since he'd been in one, and the ones at Bronwyn had been second-hand. Not nearly as nice as this. He slid into the seat quietly, taking a moment to adjust to the way it pressed against his back, hovered above his head. The control panel in front of him. The bend of the footrests.
"Okay," he said, as he plugged in. "Now to find Becca..."
Being in an amplifier was like nothing else. It felt like being so much more of yourself, all at once; it also felt a lot like being stretched like stale taffy that had sat on a dusty shelf for too long.
It was dizzying. It was exhilarating. It was-- ooh, a tree, swaying in the wind. Ooh, wind, coming in from the southeast, south, carrying a multitude of pollen. Temperature, 25 degrees. 26 degrees. 23 degrees, down in the air above the river, fish, Shaper relic, Shaper relic, Skorpion--!
No one at Fandom had ever really asked Owen what being a Cypher was like. Not even Nina. He wasn't sure how he'd describe it either, to be a Cypher in an amplifier chair, at once aware of the wide world around him and all the details in it. A mind without the gift would have snapped; Owen's flowed naturally with the current.
And found her.
Becca? Can you hear me?
"Loud and clear, Owen."
He could hear her too. Feel her, her body snug inside that Javelin armor. He reached out to her, touched her mind, filtering the glut of information into simple symbols. Things she could grasp.
She was feeling the thrill, same as he was. It amplified his own excitement, feeling that running through her.
"Owen?"
Oh, right.
You're still quite a whiles away from our target. I'll find them for you, he promised, letting his mind waft out to the wind, touching gently upon flora and fauna and terrible Shaper beasts. A small group of Arcanists had gone out several days ago, and they still hadn't returned. But the Freelancers in Shadowmark had been too busy to worry about them.
But Owen and Becca, they had all the time in the world.
There. Out well beyond those mountains. Are you up for a long fly?
"Are you kidding me?" Becca laughed, and it rumbled through him. "Feels like I haven't gotten to stretch those muscles in months!"
Then let's go for it, come on! Show me how fast you can go!
After weeks of being stuck inside his own head, inside his dorm room, he was finally free, far away, blasting through the blue sky. The amplifier chair and the room it stood in were gone. They weren't real.
She was. The Javelin was. And the feeling and the sense of her missiles flying through the air, striking true, doing real damage to the Skorpions below-- that was the truest thing there was.
[[ establishy ]]