Back out in the streets (Orion, open)

[sephiroth]

Initially, the excuse was a supplies run; just fetching some things for the ship. Of course, once Shiru was down there, restocking was shoved to the 'get around to eventually' category. He'd taken to wandering around almost aimlessly through the streets, stopping wherever caught his interest, tossing and catching an apple in his left hand. His right arm was still bandaged, and therefore not used; that hand was just shoved into one of his pockets.

It was good to get out, now and then. Still strange to find himself now without his sword, but that was something he just had to get over. He had another weapon, which he kept telling himself was better, anyway. Lily had needed a weapon. It had been a good decision.

Ah, well.

((I don't seem to have any good starting point, or the ability to post well.))

[poseidon]

Orion E23, in his Oversuit, roamed the afternoon streets of Twilight Town. It was a peculiar world, namely it's apparent property to remain twilight all day. Perhaps that was where it got it's name. It was a nice little place, he had to admit, and he would've liked to stay... if he wasn't on a mission.

Orion was now gathering supplies and information. He needed provisions, but the fact that he was wearing his large oversuit among many regularly-dressed people made things difficult. He had taken to instead asking people who didn't stare fearfully or confused at him what they knew. It worked well so far, since he had learned that not many Heartless could be found here.

Though, there seemed to be an abundance of creatures known as Nobodies. Orion hadn't encountered one of these creatures yet, so he hadn't a chance to study one. Were they like Heartless- with a single mission- or were they more sophisticated beings, like humans or machines?

From what I've compiled, Orion, they seem to be connected to the Heartless, somehow, said the computer within Orion's suit.

"How so?" he asked. That computer could be vague, sometimes.

Well, they're elusive, and seem to operate on less-than-primal instincts, but still act as though they are commanded by a higher power, it told him.

"You got that from, 'they're white and about this tall?'"

You've got to listen to other conversations, Orion, not just your own, the computer berated him. Orion shrugged, believing he didn't need to be taking orders from a computer.

Unfortunately, he hadn't watched where he was going, and bumped into someone on the street. The computer scolded him, while Orion helped the person up with his non-cannon arm.

"I'm very sorry, sir..." he said politely.

[sephiroth]

Shiru yelped in surprise, easily knocked to the ground. He hadn't been paying any attention to his immediate surroundings...

Pain shot through his arm as he used it to catch himself; that wasn't better than just taking the fall. Quickly, he glanced up to see what had knocked into him, prepared for the worst. There were enemies here, now and then. Less in the populated areas, but it wasn't unheard of--

-- and ended up staring wide-eyed for a moment at what looked very much like a robot offering him an arm. Without thinking, he swung his good arm up, caught the offered arm, and pulled himself up, then continued unabashedly staring. Either he hit the ground harder than he thought, or this was someone who looked like he'd walked straight out of one of the sidescrollers that Shiru played back before his world died.

"Yeah. Sure. No problem," he replied vaguely, everything else forgotten. He didn't seem afraid; far from it. Somewhere between shock, fascination and awe described it far better. Even after he'd dropped his arm, he didn't move away, but just continued to stand there, gaping like an idiot at the large ... being in front of him.

"So you're... a robot?"

[poseidon]

Orion cocked his head questioningly, but was rudely reminded by his computer friend that he looked like one. The oversuit, Orion. "Oh, right. No, I'm not a robot. This is sort of an exoskeleton. I have flesh and blood and bones, like you," he said. "I hope you do, anyways." He added that last part as an attempt for light humor.

He absent-mindedly swing his arms to and fro awkwardly. It was awkward because the arm with a cannon on the end was heavier, and thus swung with more momentum. Actually, it looked quite odd. He'd prefer to take it off and look human, but Heartless or the strange Nobodies could attack at any moment.

((Sorry, post length fail.))

[colonelaro]

(Still open? need a place to play Plato. )

[sephiroth]

((Ask the other as well; I'm fine with it. Sorry for the delay. Not long on this end either.))

It took a few moments for that to truly sink in. Still, he didn't seem deterred in the slightest by that, nor even disappointed. A robotic oversuit was just as acceptable as a robot, in his mind. As long as it was friendly, that is.

"So it's like armor?" He took a while to continue staring before following up with the inevitable conclusion.

"Can it shoot lasers?"

[poseidon]

((No problem here, Aro. ))

Orion thought for a moment. He consulted the voice in his head. He actually chuckled at the sentence, due to it's irony. "Hey- would the photon beams be classified as lasers?" he asked it. Of course- they both use intensified light energy to superheat an object and to- the voice started. Orion cut it off.

"In laymans terms, yes. I can charge it and shoot it. I can also shoot missiles," he told the stranger. "Oh," he said. He was normally polite, but the strange circumstances made him forget his manners. "I'm Orion, Project Photon Suit version E23. Orion, for short. I'm sure the whole power suit thing would be complicated if you had to say it in a pinch."--

[sephiroth]

This clearly was the coolest thing Shiru had encountered in a while. He couldn't quite believe he was seeing this. Yet why not? All sorts of other things existed. Why not power suits?

"Oh, man." He'd officially forgotten everything else he was supposed to be doing, and was completely unlikely to remember it now. There was just so much now that he suddenly had to know about that power suit. Could anyone wear it? (Can I try?) Did it have a jetpack? How many missiles? Of course, first thing came first.

"I'm Crow. Er..." That didn't have the ring to it that the other had. "Shiru Kitamura, captain of the [insert name here]." That was better, at least, and he spoke with no small amount of pride at the mention of his warship, despite, or possibly somewhat because of, its silly name. "Call me whatever, everyone else does."

Best day ever, in his opinion.

[poseidon]

Orion smiled and nodded within his suit. Interesting name. "Shiru Kitamura. A pleasure to make your acquaintance," he said politely. "The [insert name here]? That's an interesting name- for a Gummi ship, I assume," he noted. The fact that he introduced himself as a captain made Orion assume that there were others on board his ship. And while Orion didn't mind socializing, he was on a mission. He was here to get information on the Heartless. Maybe Shiru knew something.

You should ask him about the Heartless, the computer suggested, voicing Orion's thoughts. "I'm getting there," Orion told it, somewhat annoyed. That computer could get extremely irritating. Not being human, it always felt the need to be on duty. Well, Orion, being human and all, felt the need to have some friends. And he would, whether the computer liked it or not.

"So- any other questions about the suit?" he asked Shiru. He wanted to make sure Shiru didn't fear it for some reason. You never knew with people from worlds other than his.

[sephiroth]

At the mention of the Gummi ship's odd name, Shiru looked almost embarrassed for a moment. That passed quickly enough. "Yeah, it's a Gummi ship."

There was a question he probably shouldn't have asked. Even though Shiru knew fully well how to maturely act his age, he didn't always see a reason to. The same questions he was wondering before he didn't bother to hold back now. After all, Orion had asked, right?

"You bet! Like... does it have thrusters or a jetpack or anything? Can it fly? Does it have a readout inside? If it just you who can wear it, or anyone? Can I try it?" And so on for a while. At this point, it could be safely said that the only thing Shiru was was extremely curious about it. 'Geeking out' may be a better term than that. "Ooh, what about reflexes? Is it any good at martial arts? What powers it? Oh, man, that thing's cool. Does it--"

He could probably continue to ask these, almost unconcerned entirely with actually getting an answer. He seemed instead more focused on asking anything he thought of in rapid succession, seeing how long it took for Orion to cut him off.

[poseidon]

Orion smiled at all of Shiru's questions. It was funny to see someone so surprised about the suit. Especially because since he got here, all he got were confused or dirty looks. Never excitement comparable to that of a five-year-old kid. This was actually flattering to Orion.

"Wait! Lemme answer some of those for you. Thrusters or a jetpack are some of the only things this suit doesn't have. The helmet's visor has a readout of things like internal temperature, damage percentages, elevation, and even time. I can also set it to infrared and night-vision. And as far as wearing it- it's not very stranger-friendly. Like I said before, it's a project, and having someone else use the suit wouldn't make the data consistent, so the machines made it to perfectly fit me, sorry.

"Yes, it does increase my reflexes, but it's only as good at martial arts as I am, which isn't too much. I mean, I know a little, but..." he trailed off. He never passed the martial arts training course, but that apparently didn't disqualify him from getting the suit.

Turning the questions back on Shiru, he spoke: "So, where are you from? What do you do? How'd you learn to do it? How'd you hurt your arm?" Orion did this much like Shiru had done- in quick succession, allowing no answers in between. He wasn't being rude, just joking around.

[sephiroth]

Shiru listened to every single word as though his life depended on it. It was pretty clear he didn't see robo-suits every day, though a lot of the comic books he read back home had them. This was literally one of his dreams come true, and he wasn't missing a second of it.

When Orion steered the conversation - or question-answer session, to more properly term it - back on Shiru, the young man just grinned broadly. "Really good question." That was all he was getting from him in regards to origin. "Pretty much all I do now is fight Heartless and go on quests. Kinda surreal. I took martial arts for years before getting here, so that's how. And I hurt my arm because--" What could he say, because his partner did something stupid, and endangered them both? Because he wasn't paying attention to the fight as much as he was paying attention to trying to rescue her? "--uh, because I fight Heartless," he finished after only a brief pause.

Nope, no problem. Mistakes happened, right? Injuries were totally part of the whole fighting deal. "You eaten yet?" he added, shifting the topic yet again. Poor topic. It had no idea what it was supposed to be any more.

[poseidon]

Orion considered it for a moment. Before he could think, the voice in his helmet spoke. You know, your hunger levels are getting kind of high. Maybe you should eat with him- if you must socialize, at least multitask, it said. Orion narrowed his eyebrows and deactivated the program containing the voice. Luckily, he had caught up on enough while in programming classes.

In the meantime, Orion grasped his helmet and pulled it off, revealing messy dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and a slightly flushed face, due to the heat. "Glad to be out of that thing," he said. "Anyways, I haven't eaten yet today, so I guess I am. Know any good places around here?" he asked Shiru.

In his mind were more questions about Shiru, notably about the Heartless. As soon as he answered and they started to travel to any place, he would ask the boy, "So you fight heartless? With what? I know that Heartless can only be defeated using certain weapons- my cannon uses photons, light, to hurt the heartless."

[sephiroth]

"Sure!" And with that, he started off, a few steps. "I'll cover. It's kinda a small place, but the food's great."

He'd continued, leading the way as though he'd known the town for years. Which wasn't that inaccurate... At the questions Orion had, Shiru shrugged easily. Good question; Heartless weren't always the easiest to take down. "Was using a sword until recently. It's kinda a long story. Ever hear of keyblades?"

Lately, Shiru had not bothered being discreet about it. Those who didn't need to know already did know, even before he got the thing, and he didn't see any reason to hide it. Did less harm than good to be open about it. Besides, what was he going to fear?

[poseidon]

Orion tried to walk next to Shiru as he led the way to the place. Hopefully it was good, since Orion hadn't had a half-decent meal in weeks. Mainly supplementary vitamins and minerals to keep him breathing. Not that he wasn't thankful for them, but a guy's gotta get a good steak once in a while.

"Keyblades?" Orion asked. "I don't think I have." This could be a lead. Was it some kind of special weapon? Because of Heartlesses' vulnerability to light, it would have to be good. And the name made it seem more important, for sure. Maybe Shiru would show it to him...

((Sorry, another short post. ))