magisteriaexe | the dream i left behind was never real [ open ]

✘ ⸻ augment ascension

[ Already equipped with a whole host of cybernetic enhancement -- mono-wire attachments, a cyberdeck, a deepdive port, and EMP threading -- Lucy would have said that she wasn't in the market for more. She had what she needed to do her job, and she didn't want to run the risk of getting too much cyberware and wrecking her fucking brain.

But then she'd gotten the invitation to test out the newly invented Symphogenics, and her interest had caught on one enhancement in particular. The installment had been quick and easy, and now Lucy's outfitted with vents on the bottom half of her palms. When inactive, they're merely subtle lines in her skin. She's assured they'll look far more impressive when she activates them.

In one of the testing grounds of the Starlight Apex, Lucy gazes across the obstacle course. Looks like a whole variety pack of balance beams, climbing walls, and everything else she could think of.

From a glance at the person next to her, Lucy can't tell what they got. It'll probably be obvious soon enough. ]

Hope you're happy with your choice, 'cause I'm about to leave your ass in the dust.

[ Ah, the very rare smug Lucy is making an appearance. ]

Edited 2024-10-07 03:31 (UTC)

It's good to see her confident, and smiling. In her element. Excited. After the bathhouse, well...probably best to just leave it there. And be careful in the future asking Lucy anything about the moon. That's clearly a no-go subject. Even a Berserker can tell that much.

Musashi has opted for more modern athletic wear. This is a race after all, the kimono's not going to cut it. And they show off her toned body quite well. She's not augmented, but she is a Servant, and Lucy-chan has seen how fast she can be. Augmented or no, this is still anyone's race.

Musashi meets Lucy's grin with one of her own while she performs a cross-arm stretch. "Ohohoho, such confidence! I like it!" If anything it's energizing her to really bring her all.

"Don't disappoint me, Lucy-chan." She dares with a wink.

After storming out of the bathhouse, Lucy had felt unbearably childish. No, she'd felt unbearably childish while storming out of the bathhouse, like she'd astral projected outside of her body and couldn't bear the sheer embarrassment of her reddened eyes or her quivering bottom lip. She'd had no choice but to commit to the action anyway, and when she'd gone home she'd just researched the Magisteria version of BrainDances and did her best to not think about it.

Musashi had returned her vape. Of course she had. A cute little note saying sorry, as if Musashi had any idea what needed to be apologized for, and her stupid vape sitting on her doorstep.

Lucy had rehearsed a hundred ways to go back to Musashi and explain herself, but the knowledge that she'd have to be vulnerable held her back. Almost crying in front of her in the bathhouse had been bad enough; she's nowhere close to being strong enough to share important things with Musashi. How can she look her in the eye and tell her that she doesn't even know how David died? That when she closes her eyes at night, she runs scenarios endlessly in her mind, trying to calculate what specific damage had finally ended him? Wondering on a loop if he'd even been coherent at the end, if Smasher had blown his brains out or shot him in the heart or bled him to death. She can't comprehend the scope of explaining this to Musashi.

So here she is. Pretending it never happened. Smiling smugly over at Musashi like she never ran from a bathhouse with her broken heart in her shaking hands.

She can keep this up, right?

"Just try to keep up."

It comes out cocky and assured and with no trembling at all; a win in her books. So Lucy sets off at a run, just regular old running at first, heading toward the first part of the obstacle course, a climbing wall dotted with handholds and divots.

Edited 2024-10-11 01:22 (UTC)

Musashi had wondered if she should say anything, the next time she saw Lucy (despite what happened at the bath house, it never crossed her mind they wouldn't see each other again), if she should ask how she was doing, if she was all right, or try apologizing in person. No, Musashi didn't know exactly what it was that had triggered Lucy so badly, but it was obviously deeply personal, and Musashi had unknowingly trodden into it. It was enough to know that doing so had hurt Lucy. There was some kind of deep pain associated with her trip to the Moon, and it wasn't Musashi's place to ask about.

But she knew she wanted to be the person Lucy could talk about such things to. And...there as a part of her that hoped maybe Lucy would, once they met again.

But...it seems they just won't talk about it instead. It's fine. As long as Lucy is okay, that's what matters. It's fine. They're fine.

Lucy runs, and Musashi chases after her, ignoring the yearning that her heart feels not just to catch her, but to never let her go either. To be the person for Lucy she knows she wants to be, and thinks Lucy wants her to be as well. They haven't taken that step because...well. It doesn't matter.

The chase is exhilarating in its own right.

Of course, Lucy knows how fast Musashi is, and Musashi knows she knows that. But to keep things interesting, Musashi doesn't go all out, matching Lucy's jog that keeps them just abreast of each other as they approach the rock wall.

"Whoo! Gets that blood pumping, eh, Lucy-chan?" Musashi calls as they approach the first obstacle. Rather than leaping at the handholds, Musashi just crouches down, and pushes off.

The jump takes her to the very top of the wall. Looking down, Musashi lowers herself into a sitting position, letting her legs dangle over the edge, and she grins at Lucy, starting her ascent.

"Take your time! The breeze is nice up here!"

It's a little showboaty. It's a lot showboaty. But it'll push Lucy to go harder, faster, really push things with those neat little gadgets she's been gifted.

They'll always have the chase.

Once again, Lucy is reminded that she doesn't actually know the full extent of Musashi's prowess. She saw that movie, in which the grizzled male version of her was super badass and did crazy things with a sword, but the movie had never shown him scale a tall climbing wall in a single leap.

She doesn't let the surprise show on her face. She just keeps at her run, and when she's close enough to the climbing wall that she thinks she'll make it, she flings her arms behind her, palms down to the ground, and fires up her new accessories. Symphogenic enhancement: Icarus, v1.02. She hopes the name is meant to be inspiring, and not ironic.

The slots on her palms flick open, the burning white-purple of her Bios and the orange of the cyberwar glowing, and she's flung into the air. Short range flight, the brochure had said, a maximum of five seconds-- but five seconds can be a long time when you're in the air being propelled at speed. Lucy has just enough time to wink at Musashi as she clears the wall and soars right over.

...She hadn't meant to soar over it. She'd meant to land on the top, but had aimed wrong, and now she's coming down hard on the other side. Lucy disengages the cyberware, and tucks and rolls -- oof, she'll feel those bruises later -- and comes up running, determined, making her way toward the next obstacle, a series of poles to jump on top of and over.

Musashi can only stare, wide-eyed and grinning as Lucy goes sailing past her over the wall and giving her that cheeky little wink. It's not the most graceful landing she's ever seen, but Lucy hits the ground running, with no hesitation.

It takes a few seconds for Musashi to stop watching over her shoulder admiration and remember this is still a race.

She hops backwards off the wall, lands on her feet, and then pushes backwards, in a series of long hops to close the distance, just as Lucy reaches the poles.

"That was a nice move, Lucy-chan! Show me some more!" Musashi dares as she passes the Edgerunner and jumps onto the first pole, beginning the process of hopping along. Her feet are barely touching the tips as she jumps from pole to pole with incredible precision. It takes only a few seconds before she's already halfway across.

"I think you've got enough nice moves of your own!" Lucy calls back.

She only gives the field of poles the briefest thought of dismay before she's engaging. It doesn't seem smart to use her new cyberware here; the tops of the poles are small, and she has little enough control in flight as it is, there's no way she'd be able to aim right. But Musashi is already halfway across in the time it takes Lucy to look at the obstacle, and if she does this manually, she's not catching up.

She tries nonetheless, hopping from one pole to the next. She's light enough on her feet, but this is a kind of gymnastics that she never trained for, so she's not fast enough. Not nearly fast enough for her tastes.

Lucy grits her teeth, tells herself to suck it up, and fires up the cyberware again. Palms back, level to the ground. It'll be a while before she develops the instinctual feel for angle and velocity, but she's here to train. There's no time like the present.

The cyberware gives her a kick forward and up, but she's wobbly in the air as she tries to aim for a pole halfway down the field. Lucy touches down with one foot, too close to the side, arms pinwheeling as she tries to keep her balance, nowhere else to set her other foot, and has to awkwardly jump to another pole. She shoots a look at Musashi, a fierce don't you dare laugh, before she tries again. At this point, she's just keeping up with Musashi, but in her book, that's a pretty fucking good accomplishment.

Musashi stops halfway across the poles and flashes Lucy a wink and a smile of her own. "Charmer."

The flirtatious comment gives her an excellent view of Lucy engaging the Cyberware again, lifting up, aiming downwards, nearly falling, but stopping herself. She's just watching with interest and a smile as Lucy glares at her, then rises to her feet.

"You're getting the hang of it, though! Think we're halfway through though, so if you wanna win, you better figure the rest out quick." Then a few more hops brings her to the other end of the poles, and she's sprinting down the platform.

At the other end, a thin walkway-barely that even, extends over a steep drop, requiring careful balance and coordination. That would be bad enough...except for the swinging cylinders at regular intervals that threaten to knock an incautious soul off. At least they're cushioned. And worse, in the middle, the path actually breaks. One has to jump, not a long way, but still perilous when one has to keep their balance, and not be knocked off by the swaying pillar placed uncomfortably close to the other side.

Musashi stops, and sinks to her haunches, resting her chin in her hand thoughtfully. "Ohhhhh, this looks tricky. If your timing is off by even a second..." She extends her hands, mimes someone walking with one hand, then slamming into it with her other, causing her to mime being thrown off and down below. She blows a raspberry to simulate hitting the ground.

"It'd take a lot of control. Tricky, tricky..." She continues, but in a sing-song sort of way that's just daring Lucy to push through it.

The first few obstacles were pretty basic, but this one looks like something off of those gladiator shows Lucy sees on newscasts all the time. In Night City, they come with vats of acid and flamethrowers hot enough to melt people, and waivers everyone has to sign so their family won't sue if they die.

In Magisteria, though, that steep drop probably does have a net at the bottom, or a drone to catch you, or something. Companies here wouldn't play death sports, which is a little weird, but... nice, actually.

Still, Lucy catches herself squinting at the swinging pillars and wondering if they're swinging hard enough to break all her bones or something.

She shoots Musashi and all her playful teasing a look, determined. She knows she will never be the kind of fighter that Musashi is, or even like Maine and Dorio were. She knows her place is with the tech side, the background support, the hacker behind the scenes getting shit done while her brawnier companions mow down the enemy. But she'd like to get more agile, hence, the new cybergear.

"Right. Piece of cake. See you on the other space, samurai," she drawls, and starts making her way across.

Lucy watches for a second, gaze swaying back and forth, considering the timing of the swaying pillars. There-- and there-- if she goes now-- she takes off running, narrowly avoiding the first few swinging pillars. The fourth clips her on her shoulder, sending her staggering, but she narrowly manages to avoid a fall by activating her new cybergear as a balance boost on one side. She stops to weigh up the timing of the final pillar before the long gap, grits her teeth, and sails across with a jump, only barely missing the pillar on the other side. She wishes she could look behind her -- she'd love to know how Musashi is doing with this.

Now that's a look of determination if ever Musashi saw one! Lucy-chan's good and fired up now. It suits her. It definitely suits her.

"You got this, Lucy-chan."

As the Edgerunner takes off, Musashi sits back and just watches her go, clearing the first few pillars with style. When she can't quite avoid the fourth, Musashi begins to rise in alarm that maybe Lucy got nailed, but some quick thinking with the cybergear saves her and Musashi pumps her fist in excitement. Good, Lucy-chan, good!

It's not until Lucy clears the jump that Musashi rises fully, takes a breath, and proceeds to breeze through the pillars, making speed to catch up. It's not like she's particularly worried about hitting the pillars, not with her excellent reaction times and speed.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise as Musashi's approaching the jump, having just cleared the last pillar with time to spare when...

It catches her foot, and Musashi is knocked rather off-balance. "—!"

The bar goes sailing past her vision, but her arm shoots out in time and her hand manages to wrap around in the nick of time and grab hold. With one arm she hangs suspended over the drop.

She likes being a Berserker, but sometimes the recklessness that comes with it, does get her in the odd bit of trouble.

"My, my! It seems I timed that badly."

Musashi makes everything she does look so effortless, but strangely, Lucy has never found herself feeling jealous over it. She admires Musashi's grace, and often thinks of the lifetimes that it have must have taken to hone such skills, but never jealousy.

(Mostly, she just looks at Musashi's arm muscles a lot.)

But even Musashi can make mistakes, it seems, and before Lucy's disbelieving eyes, one of the swinging pillars clips her foot and sends her staggering. Lucy's there before she can think, dropping down to her knees to grab Musashi's arm, and extend her other hand out for Musashi to take hold of.

"Clumsy," she chides, and it's probably the wrong time to feel so fond she could burst with it, but there it is. "I guess even the world's greatest swordswoman gets caught out sometimes, huh?"

"Well, I am a Berserker too." Musashi replies with a cheerful wink. as the Netrunner extends her hand. "I leap before I look." Usually that's not meant so literally.

She takes Lucy's hand and begins to clamber up back onto the platorm. After a moment they're both standing together, Musashi's breath a little more ragged than usual. She's not out of breath, but Lucy is...stunning. Hard not to be taken in by the way she's looking at her.

"Thanks for coming back, Lucy-chan. Want a five-second head start? You did give up a lead advantage to help me." With that implant and the way she's been moving, Lucy could easily put some distance, distance she'll need. She knows how fast Musashi is.

If Lucy could stay in this moment--

It's a dumb wish. But for the moment, everything feels peaceful. Nothing exists outside of this track and Musashi's cheeky wink, the pleasant burn of exertion in her muscles and the wind gently whipping past them. Lucy feels a kind of stillness that she hasn't experienced in a long time, something eminently calming.

But, of course. They have a race to get back to.

Musashi's offer has her laughing, and before Musashi can even think to take it back, Lucy's blowing her a kiss and whirling, setting off at a dead sprint. "So generous, Musashi-chan!" she calls back playfully.

The next obstacle is deceptively simple: a constantly spinning log that they have to make their way over. It's stupidly long, too, a good twenty meters from start to finish. Lucy figures the best way to approach it is keeping light on her feet but staying fast, and though she has to windmill her arms out for balance, her approach works well enough in the first half.

Musashi can't resist miming clasping the kiss to her chest and swooning a bit, and not entirely affected. The flirting comes easily, and it was cute as hell. Almost like the bath house never happened. Like there aren't heavy things still between them.

Almost.

But after all is said and done it's closer to ten seconds before Musashi resumes her pursuit. "Here I come, Lucy-chan! Better be ready!"

Interesting! Lose your balance on this and it's all over. No saving her from any falls here. So as Lucy approaches the midsection, Musashi pauses, takes a breath, centers herself...and steps into the log.

Balance is key when you're a swordsman. Musashi always liked to forgo armour; too bulky and hard to move in. Had to stay light, had to home her speed without sacrificing control. Had to learn to keep balance. One false step in battle, one errant slip, and it could all be over in an instant.

Musashi has a VERY good sense of balance. Where Lucy must pinwheel to stay upright, Musashi practically strolls. A shame Lucy has to keep her attention ahead of her or Musashi might feel tempted to work her hips a bit more. Ah well.

She's making up the distance quickly.

Edited 2024-12-30 03:50 (UTC)

Ugh, Musashi is so frustratingly good at everything!

Lucy doesn't have eyes in the back of her head (yet, though that might be a useful augment, or maybe just a personal drone like the Bursterfly but with a camera attached), but she can feel Musashi getting closer and closer. Lucy's balance is okay, but nothing she's got can help with something like this -- her new short-range flight implants could get her over faster, but landing on the rotating log would be way too tricky without a lot of practice. So, all she can do is continue to make her way, slow and steady.

By the time they reach solid ground, Musashi is just one step behind her. The finish line is in sight, just a short sprint in the distance, no more obstacles.

Lucy takes off, throwing one palm behind her to give her an initial speed boost, face set in determination as she runs.

Musashi hops down off the log and, ahhhh, here they are at last. The home stretch lies before them. No tricks, no obstacles...just whoever can cross it the fastest wins. Lucy is determined to claim that victory as no sooner has Musashi stepped off, then she's gone, rocketing herself forward, and giving herself a speed boost.

Well, time to see what she can really do. Musashi won't do her the disservice of giving this anything other than her all. She breaks into a sprint, her strides covering long distances, even with the speed boost Lucy is getting. Soon, they're in a dead heat, and the finish line is approaching.

"Time to...see what you're...really made of...Lucy-chan." Musashi says, eyes forward, between gulps of air as she pushes herself for one last burst of speed...

And begins to pull just ahead of Lucy...

Cursing under her breath, Lucy pushes another burst of her implant behind her, but it's still not enough to let her overtake Musashi. On her own, with no chrome, she knows she wouldn't be a match, not even close. With chrome, she might just be able to win this thing, if she's creative.

Her legs are starting to burn, lungs are starting to strain, but this is where Lucy really excels; pushed down to the wire, everything on the line.

A wild burst of inspiration has her eyeing up a pillar next to the finish line, and she throws out one hand, Spider-Man style. She knows how to turn her wrist so that the cutting edge of her mono-wire doesn't slice through the pillar but just wraps around it, and when she intiates the withdrawal of the wire back into its container on her wrist, it pulls her forward instead--

Just fast enough for her to cross the finish line a split-second before Musashi does.

Lucy stumbles to a stop, the mono-wire slipping loose from the pillar and pooling on the ground as she leans over, hands braced on her knees, as she catches her breath.

"Fuck, you're tough to beat," she swears. "I'm going to ache for days."

Musashi sees the monowire thread around the pillar out of the corner of her eye, but doesn't grasp Lucy's plan. Is she trying to bring it down, hope to gain a crucial split-second of surprise to take the oh there she goes.

It's a photo-finish, but Musashi knows the second Lucy pulls ahead by that crucial few inches that she's lost. And she's just fine with that. She would never have disrespected her friend by giving it anything less than her all, but still...

Musashi would have been disappointed if she'd won. She does find that she's never been happier to lose, though. Not like this.

As Lucy struggles to catch her breath, Musashi just laughs. She's sweating, and breathing hard, but not bent over the way Lucy is. "Sure will! Revel in them, Lucy-chan. Every single one is a sign of a victory well and truly earned."

Kiss her.

The thought enters Musashi's brain, slipping in like a treacherous serpent, and coiling there at the base of her skull. Kiss her. She won. You want to. She wants you to. Kiss her.

The impulse is so strong as Lucy catches her breath and stands back up, Musashi almost leans forward to do it. It would be so easy to cup her chin, turn her head slightly, lean in and...

No. You shouldn't ask me that.

But the memory of Lucy rising out of the bath and walking away is strong, even now. They're both pretending that it never happened, but Musashi remembers all too well what happened when she pushed too far. If it happens again, then maybe next time Lucy won't come back, and Musashi...well. The thought bothers her quite a bit. It's reason enough for any sane person not to follow through.

If that person were not also a Berserker, that is.

"Well, a victory like that ought to be commemorated don't you think?" She asks brightly, then dips in and kisses Lucy...on the cheek. Her EX-rank Madness Enhancement means she compromises and settles for a gesture of affection that could be seen as platonic...if both parties were intent on seeing it that way.

"You're really cool, you know that, Lucy-chan?"

The kiss on the cheek comes as a surprise, and--

More than a little guilt, actually. Fuck, Musashi's being so nice to her. And Lucy was a shithead to Musashi back at that bath house.

"You're pretty nova yourself, samurai," she drawls with a small, satisfied smile. She never thought she'd actually be able to beat Musashi, but somehow she managed, through a combination of luck and stubbornness and chrome. But soon enough, it gives way to a sigh, and even as she straightens up to stand properly, Lucy ducks her head, fringe shading her eyes. "And..."

Just say it, Lucy. Be fucking brave. This has been lingering on her mind the entire race, a point of friction interrupting their usual dynamic.

"I'm sorry," she finally says. "For being an asshole in the baths. You didn't deserve that."

Fuck, she doesn't know how to even begin to explain why she acted like that, though. Musashi had smiled at her and asked Lucy to take her to the moon, and it was like something had shattered a little further inside of Lucy, leaving her unable to do anything other than leave. Those broken fragments have been grinding around inside her for nearly two years now, and the wounds just keep getting worse.

She wishes she knew how to get better.

"I can't... tell you why I acted like that," she admits. "But it was a dick move."

"Ahahahaha, I do have my moments every now and then." Musashi laughs with a cock flick of her side-bag. "But this moment is all yours."

She looks back in curiosity when Lucy hesitates, and when the apology comes, her eyes go a bit wider. It's not that Lucy apologizing is surprising, Musashi knows her not to be a callous person, but whatever it was that she'd inadvertently tapped into, whatever pain or trauma Lucy is carrying is clearly a deep one, and one Musashi would have left untouched if that was how the other woman wanted to play it. Maybe it wasn't the smart or healthy thing, but if the alternative was to push Lucy away, well.

So when it comes, an acknowledgement of what happened in the bath house, even if she can't bring herself to explain why, it's...a gesture Musashi knows Lucy wouldn't extend to a lot of people. Maybe she's the only person Lucy would allow herself to be even this small amount of vulnerable to.

She reaches down and takes Lucy's hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. "It's okay, Lucy-chan. I was...afraid I might have screwed things up that night. I'm a lot more at ease now, so thank you." She gives Lucy another cheeky wink.

"Hey. Chooms for life, you and me. That's a fact."

"No. To sound like a fucking cliche, it wasn't you. It was me. It was..."

Lucy trails off. Her mind is a hectic jumble, thoughts crashing into each other as she struggles to come up with something to say. She knows she can't tell Musashi everything yet. But should she come up with something, at least a little bit, to give her? Should she keep it vague? If she hints at it, will that come off like she wants Musashi to try to pry?

She's not ready for that. She knows she's not. All those memories are a jagged bundle that keep digging deeper and causing even worse wounds, and if she tries to pry them loose now, she's not sure she'll be able to staunch the bleeding. She's made it this by desperately suppressing everything.

"Just dealing with my own shit," is what she settles on, apologetic. "Shouldn't have gotten any on you, though."

But Musashi's declaration wrestles a smile from her, and she gently squeezes Musashi's hand.

"Chooms for life." And then: "I think you should buy me a drink for winning that race. Maybe a few."

the dream i left behind was never real [ open ]

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