explosivecombat | 02x. [Action - Fourth Wall Event]

02x. [Action - Fourth Wall Event]

[It's been a surprisingly explosion-free few days.

It's not that Kimblee doesn't enjoy having his alchemy back, as he certainly does. However, he doesn't have a proper outlet for it (..."proper") and there's that battle recently, odd and dreamlike and just kind of hovering on the outer edges of his memory - he suspects it wasn't quite a dream and there's been more than enough evidence to back that up, but really, there's not much to be done about it.

So he's restless as hell. Restless as hell is never a good thing.

Today he's got Ayanami out with him, and they appear to be exchanging blows; whether encouraging this with something that's actively tried to kill him in the past is a good idea or not is apparently of no consequence to him today, since he seems to be having a grand old time either way - the shocks she's sending at him are being countered with sharp snaps of his hands coming together and whips of energy detonating in midair when they connect with the electricity, and the explosions are loud and he isn't flinching at them in the least, and the look in his eyes is getting manic.]

Again - come now, you can do better than that!

[That's about the point when Ayanami decides to prove that she can, in fact, do better than that; she waits until the next time he fires off one of those explosive currents and promptly Mirror Coats him, and he's suddenly very, very grateful that getting kicked out of Johto for a month and a half seems to have done wonders for his spine because holy shit, nothing like having an explosion rebounded at you for double the damage, getting the hell out of the way is probably prudent.

But then the air clears and Kimblee is laughing like this is the greatest damn thing he's ever seen, and he's looking a bit of a mess but hey, at least he's happy, even if he's probably deaf as hell after that - ]

That's more like it; absolutely beautiful!

[...right. Well, either way, he doesn't seem to mind.]

[OOC: He can be run into just about anywhere because Johto is, as usual for these things, completely on the blink; he's going to be a bit...um, excited no matter where you happen to run into him because yay alchemy, but you are more than welcome to put him where you want him - he'll be ending up in Goldenrod after the event, however, so he'll definitely be there at some point!]

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[Oh, there we go.]

We could steal one, you know. I think I know where we could.

...Maybe you could steal one...

Need I remind you that I can't drive? I'd need you to do it.

Then maybe it's not such a good idea...

[The "I'll get caught" is so palpable it need not even be said.]

You'll be fine; I won't let you be arrested if you're not.

[It's not even "I'll break you out"; it's "I won't allow it in the first place."]

Come on.

[...Sir. ♥]

O-Okay.

[Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.]

There's an organization that I've had a bit of a dispute with for some time; I'm sure they won't mind if we borrow one of their vehicles for a while.

[The place he leads her to isn't terribly far, once they're off the route; the Team Rocket base in Goldenrod has always had its fair share of motorized transportation, even if Kimblee has never been allowed near any of it (and for good reason, given that he's never learned how to drive and so all land vehicles are out, and the one time he's been in a helicopter his first act was to scare the hell out of everyone by gripping the top of the door, stepping down onto the landing skid and leaning out as far as humanly possible in order to look at the ground zooming past below him); if he's going to be honest, he doesn't even know what a motorcycle is, not really. It's never been explained to him and it's not like there are that many around; he just sort of...hopes there's one in there now.

Welcome to the motor pool, Carmen.]

[What gives her away, then, is her brisk intake of breath at the sight of the polished metal and glittering chrome; there's more here than just motorcycles, there's vans and garbage trucks and helicopters, and what matters is that it all moves and to see it all laid out there before her just makes it look like it's all ripe for the taking.

For a minute, though, she's hesitant, and that's because she doesn't see the pod of motorcycles at first; for a second there's that nagging doubt that he might've misled her somehow (because of course he wouldn't be wrong, she's the one that's wrong, or just stupid), and she's going to come out of this all the worse for it. But then she peers around and she spots them, and she almost can't manage to stay in place rather than running over to examine them at full tilt.

She does, however, stay in place, and looks at him with the eagerness of a puppy waiting to be let off its lead to go play in the park.]

They're beautiful...

Well, are you going to steal one, or are you just going to look at them?

[He pauses, and he doesn't even bother to look at her because he can just sense the impending falter and the "...steal...one...?" pitched up like a question at the end, and he continues before she can even start because if she's going there he doesn't want to hear it.]

Go ahead.

Edited 2013-11-28 08:31 (UTC)

[And again, for a minute she just sort of quivers there like a leaf in the wind, evidently processing the direction and trying to collect some semblance of the nerve to proceed with acting on it, and then like a bowstring pulled too tight, it snaps; one minute she's there and the next she's off and running, and she's already got her target picked out and when she gets there she's looking it over like an eager child on Christmas — running gloved fingertips over the handlebars, examining every inch of the body, barely daring to believe that she can (and she's going to) make off with this.

To her credit, though, hotwiring the thing goes fast, and the rumbling growl of the engine coming to life is enough to make her breath quicken.]

I've got it!

[Yes, just...announce that to the whole motor pool, dear.]

[Kimblee does have to admit curiosity with regards to what she's doing with the hotwiring; he knows better than to hover (because really, he hates it when people hover and he's prideful enough about what he does to be mistaken for a Homunculus, so he can just imagine how well hovering will go over with Captain Confidence and her bike) but he takes his sweet time in approaching while she's over there appreciating the thing. He supposes it's nice; he really wouldn't know, but he can tell that at the very least it's aesthetically pleasing, and the noise it makes when it starts up is satisfying.]

So you do - well done.

[The roar of the bike (and admittedly, the apparent success of getting the thing started in the first place) is doing a fair bit for her confidence at this point, but she still looks like she's fighting the urge to cringe as he comes over — probably because she's reading the leisurely approach as an appraisal of her handiwork, and of course she expects to fail, or if she's lucky, to have actually managed to do something right (with a requisite implied "for once" tacked onto the end).

But when he speaks, a fleeting flash of emotion passes through her eyes for the second time that day — this time tipped in the positive direction. For a second, it seems, the praise has made her come alive; unfortunately, like its predecessor, as quickly as it happens, it dissipates.

She nods a little, poised like she's waiting for her next round of orders, and probably quietly memorizing the sound of his words so she'll be able to recall and hold on to them later.]

D...Do you still want me to drive, or...?

[He slides his hands into his pockets while he studies her, though his expression doesn't flicker any.]

Would you like to?

[...Is...is this a trick question, or...

:|a ]

Y...es...?

Then what's stopping you?

Well, you...didn't tell me what to do with it yet.

You would know better than I would.

[And sure enough, that just kind of stalls her out a minute, because. Um.]

W-Well...

[Okay, so that means she's probably going to need a...plan...]

I...guess we should get it out of the motor pool first.

[OBLIGATORY IMPLICIT QUESTION MARK.]

[...wow really]

That sounds like a good start, yes.

[WHAT IS INITIATIVE IS THAT SOMETHING YOU EAT.]

This one will seat two, so...

[So get on.

...

Please?

When you, um.

Feel like it.]

[...Oh. Um.

...

You know, he really did not think this part through, did he.]

Ah...right, of course.

[Just. Uh. Let him do that, then.

...he's going to die.]

[PROBABLY.]

No, like this.

[LOOK MAN SHE'S JUST GOING TO...rearrange you here because wow it's like you've never seen a motorcycle before, much less how to ride backseat on one.]

All right. Hold on!

[VROOM VROOM. Once all seems reasonably secure, she slams the throttle, guns the engine, and takes off for the exit — thankfully, with a lot more confidence and apparent aptitude than she's been otherwise displaying all day.]

[NYOOOM.

He was admittedly a little bemused when she repositions him there, but she really doesn't have to worry about the whole "holding on" thing in the end, given how firmly he grabs onto her once that thing actually starts moving; that said, however, he's refraining from flat-out clinging and he finds himself kind of glancing down next to the bike for the sake of watching the speed with which the ground is going by. And then he just kind of tips his head back, and this is exhilarating, and vaguely it occurs to him that if they get into an argument with a stationary object the object is probably going to win, but for the time being he just kind of laughs a little and makes a mental note that if he can remember all this tomorrow, somebody in that base is going to be teaching him how to drive one of these things eventually, may god have mercy on whomever it ends up being.]

[They're going along at a pretty fair clip through the motor pool and out onto the main drag, but once they hit the open highway, it's like something finally clicks within Carmen; goodness knows there's a lot out there that she isn't good at, and she fails often and repeatedly at most everything she tries, but this is about more than just the speed and the wind whipping in her face — it's the fact that when she's driving, she's in control, and there are no walls and bars and raised voices to keep her contained. She has a vehicle under her and controls in her hands and all the road in the world to make her own, and he'd said she'd be going back someday (back to prison, back to Mason) and it's finally sunk in that even if she is, she'd better enjoy this while it lasts.

If they die here, it's not going to be because they've crashed; it'll be because she's pushed this machine so far past the limits of physics that it's surrendered to inevitability and just plain blown up beneath them.

Faster, faster. Bluebirds fly over the rainbow, but she can fly over land, and she will.]

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02x. [Action - Fourth Wall Event]

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