Setting
It is a place of horrid death, and endless danger. Living souls dare not venture here, for even if their mortal shell should return from the Mists of Duskus, the soul shall not ever escape its dark grip.
The sun hung lazily in the sky, signaling it had to be about noon despite the cloud cover, and if Luis looked down at his Pip-Boy 3000, or any of the thirty-five old world watches on his left arm, he'd realize he was right. Instead he trudged on, his massive boots crunching bone, and small rocks alike with each thudding stomp. He kept his neck craned back, the Nightkin's beady eyes fixated on the clouds above.
Namely the ones obscuring Origin's sun. Just the thought of the giant glowing ball made his skin itch. He didn't realize it but his giant blue hands came up to scratch at his throat.
There were no eyes here but his, and Chip's, but he could still feel it all around. Maybe monsters, maybe people, maybe rats. It didn't matter, he felt the eyes, eyes from everywhere, eyes behind each wasteland hill. His blood began to boil, and roil, anxiety was building up like an atomic bomb inside of him. "Nnnnnnnrhhhhggg.." The massive blue mutant sighed a little as he took another step. His huge, veiny arms flexed, and buldged in frustration.
"NOTHING HERE!" He howled, the brute lashing out, and kicking a nearby boulder. Which sent it flying down the steep hillside with extreme vigor. It smashed against another one, reducing both to dust with a crack like thunder.
"WE BEEN WALKING FOR HOURS, CHIP!" The giant turned to his left, eyes rapidly scanning about for his companion. It took him a moment to realize, and a true wave of distress crept into his savage voice. Stopping dead, head snapping left, and right as he scanned around, there was no one, no Chip, not people, no monsters.
"CHIP?" He almost shrieked, his skin stopped itching, but his heart thundered.
Getting rather worked up, he spun ran in a circle calling for Chip until he started to get dizy - it was quite a site.
At a towering ten and a half feet, and weighing in just shy of a thousand pounds, the gigantic slab of unholy muscle, and gristle was the last thing you'd expect to be spinning around. Then again he was wearing a large amount of glass. Actual, honest glass. Each arm was lined with watches, faces polished to shine. His legs had large, still framed accent mirrors from an abandoned diner simply taped to them, and over his chest-guard was a massive clock.
Whenever he caught a beam I direct sunlight, it shot around like a disco ball.
He grabbed his head with both hands as he swayed to a stop, a rather noisey process. He tried to be concerned, but was far too woozy, really. "Ch...Chip. Oh Go-*urp*-ooohhhh...Chip.." His peeled back lips curled as best they could as the Nightkin stumbled forward, a tree-trunk like arm searching for support.
"I don't feel so goo-" Luis heaved a little. "Good, Chip..Don't feel." He threw himself down at the top of the little barren hill hevd been on, oofing loudly. "Walking for hourrrrrrsssss, no things here. Bossy fleshman say scout, me scout.." He opened his eyes, the world still spinning a lot. At least the clouds made the outside less itchy now, they fully blocked the sun. The big angry eye was gone for now.
"But for how long.." He closed his eyes again, rubbing his temples. He stared into the sky, picking out shapes in the clouds. A dead Brahmin here, a slaughtered caravan there, a stealthboy or two. He always say stealthboys, but after awhile even that couldn't hold his attention. He was supposed to protect doggie in "RE-CON", and here he had lost her. He pushed himself up with a grunt, no longer dizzy.
However he had lost any landmarks back to the camp he had seen. Again, alarming. "Chip know way, but no Chip.."
The part of Duskus the three had been transported into was something of a lucky break. A seemingly endless barren plains, dusty hill after dusty hill filling the horizon until it looked like an ocean. Their ghoulish leader had been quick to send the two off for "Recon", whatever the hell that was, while I set up camp.
And there hadn't even been any humans, or Radscorpions thump yet, it was turning into a real disappointment.
That was the idea, anyway. Right now her focus seemed set on the funny round skull rolling down the hill. Boredom had set in hours ago when she realized she couldnāt smell or hear anything for miles and had only gotten worse under the constant, mind-numbing combination of bland dust, dull wind, and the frustrated noises of her companion. Content that they had scouted the area as well as they could hope to, she had taken to dropping the skull on the foot of a steep hill and chasing it as it rolled down. It also tasted faintly of mushrooms, so that was plus.
The fun came to a halt when the skull finally broke against a rock, leaving the nightsalker to try and locate her friend. They had done their job. The ghoul would complain about coming back with so little info, but sheād probably just tell Luis to lie about it. She liked Luis. He gave her the good bits, tossed the skull for her, even tried to give her a bath once. She made a point to keep by him (or at least know where he was), which wasnāt too hard. He was really easy to spot.
Balancing on her hind legs, her serpentine neck swiveled about. It didnāt take long to pick out the glimmer of a metric ton of glass on a distant hill. She took off, rattle going with her swaying tail. She loved running. Itās what she was made for, coursing the burnt-out flats of the Mojave and chasing down prey. She hadnāt done that in a while and she found herself hoping for a gecko to pop out for her to chase. A radscorpion, maybe? Sheād take a radroach, even. Anything. Maybe she could spook the ghoul into running away from her....
Trotting beside her friend, Chip flicked her tongue out, mutated brain filling with the combo of tastes and smells that lit up their travels like a neon road. She gave a hissing yip to spur on her worried friend. She knew the way.
He made a decision that day that heād kick that desk job off to the wayside. And heād return to what had made him happy, or at least close enough to it. Sure, he didnāt run around beating up bad guys like his doppelganger did. He didnāt soar through the skies punching Gods and Dragons in the face. And he surely didnāt skip around slicing tanks in two with his fancy sword, because thatās totally a trope thing to do; heās not about that life. Instead, he took up something a bit more interesting. Something that somehow hearkened back to his single digit days, and something that had managed to get him in all of the wrong types of trouble from the start. Adventuring. Only in this case, it came in a more professional sort of light.
An expeditionist, he acted as a guide for individuals seeking travels to dangerous, foreign, places. Be it Terra, or any other planet. Of course, the planets that werenāt Terra, he asked for arranged passage to. It net him a good pay, satiated his appetite for adventure and danger, and seemed to rebuild some meaning to his life. He could go without the climactic, decisive, battles that held the fate of the macroverse in hand, but he did need some sort of stimulation to feel as if he held some sort of purpose, and a purpose all his own and not something mirroring that of his elder iteration. A sense of self-identity, and not the identity of someone else; himself. Call it convoluted, one couldnāt argue the fact.
And so with that pursuit becoming a reality, he now found himself in the midst of the continent of Duskus upon the planet Origin. But he found himself alone on this venture. He hadnāt been a guide for too long, perhaps a few years, give or take, but with it came tales from all abound. Duskus had proven to be a very prime topic in recent time, with many tales speaking of woe and loss. Rather than lead an expedition into uncharted territory, that seemingly changed on whim, he decided to venture out on his own to experience it firsthand and make an educated decision as to whether or not heād put innocent lives in danger in such a manner. If he couldnāt handle it alone, then a band of mundane folk would only make matters worse. Heād not have any deaths weighing on his conscience.
A dense fog lingered all around, seemingly pitched obsidian, and he couldnāt tell if it were day or night, but keen senses seemed to help him. Unparalleled eyesight and acute sense of smell proved great assets to the double-blood. Partially Saiyan, and partially Youkai, of the Tanuki variety, he had access to a phenomenal assortment of abilities and advantages others didnāt. It worked out well, most times.
āUgh. The things I do for lunkheads whoāve never been on an odyssey before.ā He murmured. āI canāt believe the impression I got from them.ā He continued, talking to himself if only to help calm his nerves. āLike...as if theyād only been on one or two before trying to tackle something as ridiculous as this. Of all things!ā He grumbled aloud, managing to hook his foot in a rogue tree root. As he stumbled forward, he tried to scramble to catch something but amidst the fog, despite all the help his senses offered, there could be no cure for his clumsy nature. Instead he tumbled over and managed to slide off of the edge of an outcropping. Nigh instantly he vaulted down into a boulder, before richochetting to the side. Somersaulting down the remaining embankment, he came to a halt only at the bottom by way of a tree. With his forehead, respectively.
āAck! For the love of all things sane!ā He cried out, only to fall silent. Wails and rabid cries then echoed within the distance, some nearer than others, and he couldnāt help but mentally curse his, still very present, immature streaks. Instinctively, he made his way up into the tree with a rather adept leap upward. Grasping at one branch, he hefted himself up to the next, and then the next, until he managed to put a great distance betwixt himself and the ground below. Roughly two thirds of the way up the tree should suffice, or so he thought. Enough distance to put distance betwixt his scent and whatever creatures could be below, but also just enough distance to avoid being snatched by any flying critters that could skim the canopy of the forest.
āFine mess you put yourself in, pal. All your might and prowess, and even some of these abominations can give you a run for your moneyā¦ā He murmured, taking a moment to glance down at a clean tear through the side of his attire. A laceration from the previous evening seemed to have been nearly finished knitting itself shut, but the fact that heād even garnered such proved the volatile, high risk, nature of the situation heād put himself in.
Truly only a fool would wander into such a place unprepared, especially if a Saiyan-Youkai found himself bruised and battered at the hands of the creatures present.
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