[ hey, i'm not synthetica ]

[bombsheltered]

Who: Milly and Raiden
Where: Downtown L.A.
When: SOMETIME THIS WEEK
What: Milly fights a monster and gets in over her head. CYBORG TEAM-UP
Warnings: cyborg emotions???

Milly doesn't know where the monster came from. It's huge, more than twice her height, and dripping water -- gushing it at points, through what look like vent-like gills all over its body -- but if it came from the shoreline it must've had a long way to travel to get all the way to the city uninterrupted. It's hideous, with bluish, gnashing teeth, long and needlelike, bulbous eyes and Milly would swear those are wings on its back, stumpy little batlike wings that don't seem to do much more than twitch uselessly as it swings at her with wicked claws. Whatever it is, it's ugly, and Milly had been on patrol when she'd nearly flown straight into it in the middle of downtown, its huge taloned feet causing a four-lane traffic jam.

"Hey, ugly! Get lost!!" Milly's voice rings out as she sails through the air, first forward to punch it right in its face...and with alarming speed it reaches up and swats at her effortlessly, knocking her aside and sending her into an uneven spiral through the air. Milly manages to catch herself midair before she crashes headlong through a building, but before she can get back on the rebound, the monster's cornering her, its ugly eye turned on her for vengeance. It reaches out with its wet, clawed hand and snatches her right out of the air and oof -- it's got one hell of a grip. Milly squirms desperately in its grasp but it's so slimy she can't even get any leverage out of it.

"Hey! Let me go! Ugh!!"

She's starting to think she might have gotten in a little over her head here. If she could only reach her phone, she could call for backup -- Neku or Teddy or even Cynthia -- but the thing seems fairly intent on keeping its grip, looking intent about crushing her. Luckily, the reinforced cybernetic structure of her body means she's harder to crush, but it's still not looking too good right about now. Super strength doesn't mean a whole lot if you can hardly even move.

Comments

[cyborged]

In the span of about half a second, Raiden's expression undergoes a lot of changes. He's not really surprised by the question - he never is - but there is a moment of simultaneous offense and extreme discomfort before he settles on a sort of disconnected acceptance that he's having this conversation.

He takes another moment to think on how to word his response, having never actually spoken about what happened in anything other than an official capacity, and there is the worry that Milly will ask about more than that.

"TRIDENT happened," he finally says after some hesitation. There's a venomous edge to the way he says it, but he manages to wrangle his tone into something a little softer and closer to sympathetic when he speaks again, echoing Milly's statement. "I'm still getting used to it."

[bombsheltered]

This conversation is weird and uncomfortable and it feels sorely out of place, but it's the most at ease Milly's felt during this whole encounter. "So you are..." she starts, but her throat tightens around the word before it can get out, and she has to swallow past it. "You're like me."

She doesn't look so apprehensive now, but there's a hint of the crushing sympathy she feels. It was bad enough to have it happen at all, but to suffer at the hands of TRIDENT, too? Milly can't imagine why, and she wouldn't dare ask. But even as she rocks back and forth on her heels indecisively, she can't push down all of her curiosity. She's never met anyone like her before.

"How long...?"

[cyborged]

He raises an eyebrow that the comment that he's like her; it's not just the arm then. Moreover, the implication that she didn't have much of a say in it. He's a bit curious - if it's more than just the surprise gun, she's far too confident in her abilities (and, more to the point, good at hiding it,) for it to be a recent thing, and Milly already looks pretty young.

Contrary to popular belief, though, Raiden does have some tact and a few social graces, so he knows better than to ask her about her own situation. Especially this early into a conversation. Instead he gives some thought to the best way to answer her questions - trying to find the best balance between 'honest' and 'avoiding the issue' so that it doesn't seem as though he's dodging as much of the topic as he actually is. (Being detained in a TRIDENT facility for a year just isn't a topic he wants to broach on a first conversation with a stranger, is all. Or anyone for that matter.)

"I've been back about three months." Obscure it with the truth, brilliant. Expert spy tactics. Snake would be proud.

[bombsheltered]

Milly's never met another cyborg, though, and while it's something she's always kept close to her chest -- she's never even liked discussing it with her father -- she finds herself wanting to share something with Raiden. Common ground isn't something she'd ever thought she'd find in this aspect of her life. It's why she's spent so much effort and time trying to find other ways to fit in.

Three months...god, that must be hard. Milly's so used to it she hardly remembers what it's like to have a natural body anymore; he must still be adjusting. And after being held by TRIDENT... Milly lowers her gaze a little, mostly as a gesture of respect for what she presumes must have been an awful lot of suffering, but she teeters on the balls of her feet for a moment before she steps a little closer.

"That's not a very long time," she acknowledges quietly. "I've been like this since I was seven... It takes some getting used to, I know. I was knocking stuff off tables for months..." She trails off, though, realizing that maybe Raiden doesn't really want to talk about this. "Um -- sorry. I just...thanks. Thank you."

[cyborged]

Raiden's expression softens into something almost fond at her comments, appreciating Milly's efforts. He's come across the odd person with a prosthetic arm or bionic eye over the years, but nothing remotely as extensive as what he has. As far as he can tell, it's pretty rare, and even if he was the talking type, it's not as though there's anyone around who'd really get it.

Judging by how she reacted to... Well, almost everything, he'd assume the case is similar for Milly too.

"It's the strength," he replies after some hesitation, "that's been the hardest thing to adjust to." He drops his gaze to the ground, not out of embarrassment - not entirely - but rather that it's easier to think about if he's not watching for a reaction, "I've destroyed quite a few doors since I came back."

[bombsheltered]

Milly's expression brightens hopefully, though shyly -- this is about as shy as she's ever been, it's not really in her wheelhouse to hold back, but...being a cyborg is different. She's always been alone in that. To discover that she isn't...it isn't something she's ever really thought would happen.

"I know what you mean," she says, with a tiny, self-conscious smile. "I can't even tell you how many glasses I broke the first few years..."