MERC XIX: Toss a Coin to your Goblin

[Morty]

[Dipsnig's Office]

Well. That's... good? Or awkward? Hard to say which. He needs to keep his professional poker face on, either way.

"I believe I can make an educated guess." He picks up the "summary of assets" folder and starts rifling through it. "I'll need to go through it properly, but it looks like you've more than earned your membership. Especially if the size of the other folder reflects the difficulty in acquiring it."

[Ironsmith]

[Dipsnig's Office]

Rose shrugs slightly. "No big deal. Solid week's work, that's all."

Unsurprisingly, Rose is well-versed in the art of telling the unvarnished truth and a boldfaced lie with the same sentence.

She flicks open the "Associates" file, which is practically empty, save for an enhanced version of the photo of Raven's whiteboard. "...Bit sad, really, isn't it?" She mutters, letting slip just what's on her mind.

[Morty]

[Dipsnig's Office]

"'Sad' is one word I would use," Dipsnig says diplomatically. "I didn't expect that. Maybe I should have, Skyside being Skyside. And the Nexus being the Nexus. Still, this information might help us re-establish a foothold up there. This Raven might have more potential for trouble than we realized."

[Ironsmith]

[Dipsnig's Office]

"Doubtful, on both counts." Rose replies with a shrug. "As far as I can tell, Ebondark is still pretty small-time. Not exactly a power player in Skyside's politics... she's basically just a psycho with a garage, if an abnormally ambitious one. If we went up there without knowing about her, we wouldn't be much worse off. Unless you're planning to either recruit her or excise her for a foothold." Her tone is more or less neutral, but her expression makes it clear she's apprehensive about either idea; both operations would result in Raven getting hurt at this point.

[Morty]

[Dipsnig's Office]

"You'd be surprised what can be accomplished with a garage and sufficient detachment from reality, here in the Nexus," Dipsnig observes in a half-joking tone. "I'll read your reports and arrive at my own assessment. For now, get some rest. And welcome to MERC. We'll have your membership paperwork ready in short order."

[Ironsmith]

[Dipsnig's Office => Sleeping Quarters] (Open Scene)

Rose nods and exits. At this point, she's too tired to really celebrate her membership; that was probably going to wait until she's had some proper rest. She'll make her way to an unoccupied room and just kind of plop down on the bed; she's too beat down to bother with a sleeping pod. After a few hours of light dozing, she'll get on up and flick through her little black book for a name she hasn't crossed off yet. Which would be anyone but Fayyaad at this point. Though she wouldn't mind running into him again, either, for a little stress relief.

[Morty]

[Sleeping Quarters]

Fayyaad doesn't appear to currently be present in the base. Rose might hear Olvisin's voice a few corridors away, though. The goblin's voice is quite strong for someone her size (that seems to be a trait of the species).

[Ironsmith]

[Sleeping Quarters]

Rose frowns. Olvisin seems like the obvious person to track down, then. Maybe not quite as... exciting as a certain tiefling who seemed to have a flair for putting the "romance" in "pyromancer", but good company of a different sort. And besides, maybe she should take it a little easy anyway. Last time she got in bed with someone, she tried to exsanguinate Rose almost immediately after.

Not that Rose was just going to avoid beds forever now. She just... well, she needs a break, that's all.

Rose gets up and makes her way down the corridor to wherever Olvisin's hanging out, looking to see why she's causing so much racket.

[Morty]

[Sleeping Quarters]

The racket appears to be produced by Olvisin and another goblin, a small and skinny (even by goblin standards) man. The two don't appear to be arguing or fighting, as such... just a spirited discussion in a language Rose won't recognize. The subject appears to be a large card Olvisin is pushing, filled with a variety of metal and plastic parts. The other goblin takes a part from the cart (it appears to be an electrical plug of some kind) and departs just as Rose rounds the corner. Olvisin's ears flick towards her and she turns to face her.

"Oh, hi Rose. I see you're back."

The goblin has changed in one significant way - her arms are now metal, rather than the regular flesh-and-blood pair Rose observed the last time they met.

[Ironsmith]

[Sleeping Quarters]

"Oh, hi~!" Rose croons. "How are you doing, miss... um..." She stops and frowns. "Hold on, I know this one. Patronymic, starts with an O... I want to say Odison? No, wait, there was an l in there somewhere- Oldis- Olvison!" She grins. "Did I get that right? Please tell me I got that right. It'd be just a bit embarrassing if I didn't."

"Anyway, I was actually on my way up to the gym... training area, whatever you guys call it. Out for a workout, in essence. I was hoping to bump into a partner on the way there. Unless you're busy? Or, ah, just not interested." Rose glances over Olvisin's robotic arms. "Pumping iron might be slightly redundant at this point."

[Morty]

[Sleeping Quarters]

Olvisin listens to Rose with equal parts consternation and amusement.

"Olvisin. I don't know what a patronymic is, but I'm pretty sure it's not one. I'm not busy, as such. This is just scrap I'm salvaging." She grins toothily and flexes her metal arms. "They don't need exercise anymore, but I do need to keep getting used to them. They're great, aren't they? I just got them recently." There's something odd in how she talks about them. Like they're way more than just an upgrade.

[Ironsmith]

[Sleeping Quarters]

"Yeah, they're something else all right." Rose agrees, watching Olvisin show off her new cybernetic parts. Judging from the way Olvisin talked about them, Rose would put better-than-even odds on her having gotten them voluntarily, as opposed to as emergency replacements for traumatically severed limbs. That was good; Olvisin probably wouldn't mind too much staring if that were the case.

Rose smiles and makes a "follow me" gesture with her hand, heading toward the training area. "So, what's the lift capacity on those beauties? Hundred kilos? More, less?"

[Morty]

[Sleeping Quarters]

"I'm not sure. I haven't really stress-tested them yet," Olvisin admits as she follows along. "I'm still getting used to them. Besides, cybernetic arms can only do so much about being goblin-sized. I can lift a lot more than I used to, though, that's for sure."

[Ironsmith]

[Sleeping Quarters => Training Room]

Rose smiles. If she were still hanging out with Raven, this is where she would point out that the enhanced strength that comes with these limbs would have a lot of non-combat applications... especially if they crossed the threshold of being able to lift a hundred and forty some-odd pound human being, wink wink nudge nudge.

But there's no need for that kind of talk now. "You know what? I bet I can still beat ya in deadlifting." She teases encouragingly.

[Morty]

[Sleeping Quarters => Training Room]

"Hah! You're on. Although... you're not really much bigger than a goblin," Olvisin points out. "I know I'm going to be able to switch to bigger guns with those. And work on machines without worrying about something slicing off a finger. Upsides all around, really."

[Ironsmith]

[Training Room]

Rose smiles and holds open the door for Olvisin. "Yeah, certainly sounds like it." She attempts to agree. Her own opinion on cybernetics is... rather different, but she's not about to tell Olvisin that. She doesn't want to ruin the gobliness's enthusiasm.

"So, anyway." Rose begins, walking past the crew installing a new rope wall and heading for a set of barbells near the back of the room. "Why don't you go first? Show me what you can do."

[Meowmai]

Spoiler

Show

[Stationary Skirt Success]

Magtok may have said kneel out loud this time, but Reina was prepared for it! In her efforts to pin down her skirt to prevent a repeat of the patented Pania skirt flip Reina had pinned down her clothes by kneeling on them! You can't be forced to do what you're already doing. Mwahaha, Reina has discovered the secret to countering this psychic nonsens- WHOA!

Reina admittedly didn't expect people to start being flung around and her tail poofs up as she sways a little on the balance beam she's made her home on. She clings to it tighter and calms down as Pania picks herself back up. She seems... ok. Alive. That's a good start.

"Everything ok?" She asks the room, including both Magtok and Pania in her question. No one ever said that progress wasn't going to be painful.

Terrifying Tumble Through The Training Terrain

Magtok scarcely has time to cradle his head with his arms before he's bouncing against the training mat, his entire body flung like a stone skipping across the surface of a lake. His momentum doesn't seem to be fading until it halts all at once, with him slamming into a wall and collapsing on the ground beside it. The elbow of his left arm makes a grotesque popping sound upon impact, as if some internal mechanism was destroyed by his violent crash, and his forearm bends in a manner wholly alien to the humanoid design it was meant to emulate.

"Woo!"

Not that any of this seems to matter to our cyborg. After dusting himself off and standing back up, he does a little cheer and strides back towards where he was standing before the psionic storm, unconcerned with the way Pania threw him across the room like one of the tennis balls Dipsnig's wolves probably play with. Maybe he's right to be so nonchalant about it, though, because the arm is roughly a quarter of the way done repairing itself by the time he's back in position, some new automated function snapping it back into place and restoring it to working order before everyone's very eyes. Wow, that's a really neat piece of new tech Mag's got there or a very convincing hologram meant to dissuade any attempts to talk him out of this project. The cyborg being the way he is, either possibility is just as likely as the other.

"That wasn't quite perfect, too raw and unfocused, but there's potential. We can make this work, we just need to find the right path, put all the puzzle pieces together in the right place," he says optimistically, ignoring the dull pain in his hip when he walks. That's not anything to worry about, that's just getting old, probably. We weren't even thrown through a window this time; it's fiiiine.

[Painful Psychic Progress]

"Yeah... Yeah I'm fine." Pania lied. It wasn't exactly hard to tell just how much of a filthy lie that was as well- as the words were spoke between heavy breaths, and the warrior was swaying and stumbling on the spot. Her whole body ached and her head felt like someone had taken an axe to her skull. But she didn't want to quite. Didn't want to stop for a break. Because the rush of power she felt when she pushed back against the psychic influence intrigued her. What else could she do if she pushed herself far beyond her limits? "Alright then, so what next? How do we... make this work, as you put it?"

[Morty]

[Training Room]

"Now as I said, those arms don't actually help that much with lifting," Olvisin admits when they reach the training room. "I didn't have anything else replaced... yet." She starts putting some weights on the barbells. Sounds like she's starting off with 20 kilograms.

[Reinholdt]

[Thrusting Tenuous Theories]

"Right..." Well Reina wasn't going to deny Pania her pride. Not yet anyways.

"It's probably pretty simple. We do the same thing again and again until you can resist on command without the same amount of effort shown. And understand how you did it. Because if you can't and that was just a fluke special to you, it's not going to be good enough. Honestly... we should montage the whole process because it'll cut down the budget." And saving money is making money! That's just the MERC way.

"Honestly, it seemed pretty emotional based. So if you, a psychic, can hone your emotions to use them to resist this command, than we, the plebs, can do something similar, if less effective. All we have to do is get the heroes to get really, really mad or annoyed every time Magtok speaks and Prime will have no power over them." She smirks at the cyborg.

"Should be easy."

[Ironsmith]

[Training Room]

"Now as I said, those arms don't actually help that much with lifting," Olvisin admits when they reach the training room. "I didn't have anything else replaced... yet." She starts putting some weights on the barbells. Sounds like she's starting off with 20 kilograms.

[Training Room]

"I know. That's how I still stand a chance." Rose replies with a shrug, matching Olvisin for now. On a good day, she can get up close to 50 kg... not an especially impressive amount for a woman her size, given some amount of training, but a fair bit more than is expected of her civilian counterparts. She eyes the gobliness and begins lifting in sync with her, vaguely wondering if fatigue is going to be an issue for Olvisin... by the logic presented, she's using muscles other than the ones replaced with cybernetic mechanisms, so there should still be calories expended, right? Probably much less than Rose, though. She briefly considers egging Olvisin on further, to compete in longevity as well as absolute weight lifted, but decides against it; this is a friendly contest at most, no need to be too competitive.

[Morty]

[Training Room]

It seems that, whether cybernetics play a part or not, Olvisin is tougher than she looks and able to keep going for some time. She glances over to Rose after a while.

"You're better than I expected. Did you train for this in... spy school? Or wherever you learned to do what you do."

[Ironsmith]

[Training Area]

"Oh, yeah." Rose replies casually; she's not feeling much strain just yet, either. "ARC Academy. Montreal campus." She pauses just long enough to get the weight up away from her chest. "They have certain minimum requirements before a prospective agent can be certified for field work. Being able to bench three-quarters of your body weight is one of them." She grins. "Good metric, I think. Ensures you either get strong or slim down. Bit of both in my case." She grunts a little as the barbell goes up again. "Pairs nicely with the mandatory six months of martial arts training, too. I'm not exactly a fighter by our standards, but it helps to not be in a situation where any Jack and Jane can beat you in fisticuffs."

[Morty]

[Training Area]

"I didn't really have any formal training," Olvisin says as she keeps pumping. "I just... picked things up. All the institutions back home that could teach me combat or tech are pretty closed-off. You need to be born well to get there or grease the right palms. Martial arts aren't my thing, though. I can throw a punch, that's it. My brother is the one with the hammer."

[Ironsmith]

[Training Area]

"Lady, you throw a punch with one of those, you won't need technique." Rose points out with a grin, sitting up just long enough to add another four kilograms to her weights. "...Sucks to hear about your, uh, situation back home, though. Do you still want any training in martial arts or anything like that?" She asks, lifting the barbell up again. "I'm not the best teacher, but I can't be worse than nothing, right?"

[Morty]

[Training Area]

Olvisin pauses her exercise as she thinks about it.

"...I don't know. Maybe I should, now that my arms are stronger? I've always relied on my guns. And some grenades. But I could punch above my weight class now. Literally."

[Lord Magtok]

I Hope You Meant Trusting

[Thrusting Tenuous Theories]

"All we have to do is get the heroes to get really, really mad or annoyed every time Magtok speaks and Prime will have no power over them." She smirks at the cyborg.

"Should be easy."

Magtok isn't sure how to respond to that. His usual answer is to scowl and say something even more snarky back, but we're trying to make up for a lack of professionalism earlier, keep Pania in the dark regarding the duo's muddled past, and figure out a way into this catgirl's pants.

"Wenomir has never felt so powerful," he finally answers weakly, after a moment or two of just looking back at Reina, struggling to find an appropriate response.

"Reina's got it, though. It should be like working out, right? Just using the same muscles over and over in a controlled environment until they adapt and grow stronger, except this time the muscle is your brain." That is how the plebs work out, right? Magtok's never been inside a gym in any of his lives, not even once.

[Ironsmith]

[Training Area]

Olvisin pauses her exercise as she thinks about it.

"...I don't know. Maybe I should, now that my arms are stronger? I've always relied on my guns. And some grenades. But I could punch above my weight class now. Literally."

[Training Area]

Rose shrugs. "Good way to make life boring, relying on the same tools for everything." She says, heaving the weight up. "Even if you don't want to pick it up for practical reasons, let's be honest, throwing people onto training mats is just fun." She grins at Olvisin. "Getting thrown isn't too bad, either. At least not if you do it right."

[Morty]

[Training Area]

Olvisin grins back toothily as she gets back to lifting.

"Depends on who's doing the throwing. Being thrown by some people can be pretty tempting. But you're right. There's no good reason not to at least try learning a new thing."

[Ironsmith]

[Training Area]

"Yeah. I mean, you'd want to avoid someone like, say, Krayger. Dude could really mess you up without trying too hard. I'm thinking more like Luuvat or whatever his name was." Rose chuckles, but abruptly cuts herself off. "...I mean, it's not, like, a sexual thing or anything. There just is something oddly satisfying and or thrilling about it. Like going down a steep slope on a roller coaster, you know? You're a little helpless, but it's all gonna be okay." She strains under her weights, more from trying to explain her position than the exercise. "You get to just sort of enjoy the ride. Maybe not the mentality you'd want in the field, but here, it's all good fun."

[Morty]

[Training Area]

Olvisin considers this for a moment, then nods.

"Pretty sure Krayger could swing me around like a club and not even get winded. I'd toss Luuvat around like a ragdoll, though. Kuvesh is the one who swings a mean hammer. Don't worry, I can't keep track of them either sometimes. I get that it's not what you meant, but I have been with people bigger than me. Like the guy who introduced me to the surgeon who gave me those arms."