Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

[bc56]

Codebreaker's Home
"You are attempting to build tolerance to this condition?" An apt, if slightly off base, explanation. a seems to consider. "And by doing so, you improve your abilities in other similar tasks?"

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"Y-yes?" Codebreaker seems very confused by this line of questioning.
"You said that I ought to go back to doing tasks to alter my geometries. So I'm doing that. Isn't this what you thought I should do?"

[bc56]

Codebreaker's Home
"I understand now. I did not understand the expenditure of resources necessary must be reached over an extended chronological period." a replies. "Are you able to continue for the amount necessary to elicit change?"

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"Boss, change requires that I do this basically every day for months. It's not a one and done kind of thing." Codebreaker gasps. He makes one more lap around the pool but flops onto the side afterwards, clearly too winded to continue.

[bc56]

Codebreaker's Home
"That does not answer my question." a replies. There's a sense of concern. a seems to believe that there's something wrong that Codebreaker isn't telling them.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"Then what is your question?" Codebreaker exclaims, raising his voice for the first time.
"I've been doing this. It's hard. You don't even understand how much worse it used to be. This is after I've been working on this since the summer." he insists.

[bc56]

Codebreaker's Home
"That," a answers cryptically, "answers my question." They grow quiet for a while, thinking. Codebreaker can feel them turning numbers over in the back of his mind.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

Codebreaker pulls himself up and starts drying himself off. It's a slow process.
"Boss? Hello? What's going on up there?"

[bc56]

Codebreaker's Home
"Merely processing. Carry on with your business." a falls back into thinking for a time.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

This is rather worrying but CB really doesn't have any ability to press further. He goes over to his little drying booth and gets himself dried off. Once that's done he heads over to the kitchen (not bothering to change into real clothes since no one else is home) and goes to make himself lunch.
Perhaps he's being a bit cruel, but he goes out of his way to use the best meat he has in his fridge to make his lunch, entirely to prove the point to his patron.
"For the record, this is why it's hard." he mumbles as he takes a bite. The intense flavor resulting from his enhanced sense of taste might shed some light on the problem he and his predecessor face(d).

[bc56]

Codebreaker's Home
At the sensation of taste, a retreats further into the recessed of Codebreaker's mind and becomes even more silent. They seem more than just uncomfortable, but unwell. This probably does nothing to ease Codebreaker's unease either.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

Codebreaker stops. He might have gone a little far but it's not like he could have avoided eating long-term.
"Um. Boss? You okay? Hello?" he asks shakily.

[bc56]

Codebreaker's Home
Not a word. a seems to have gone dormant. The silence is deafening.
At least they're still there and haven't vanished, they just aren't responding.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"Oh, okay. Just collect your data, then." Codebreaker shakes his head. He doesn't know what's going on with his patron. He doesn't know if they approve or disapprove of what he showed them. He doesn't know if they think he'll be able to keep up exercising or just end up getting bigger. This whole experience has been confusing.
Codebreaker takes a deep breath and tries to do some of that meditation stuff he's never really been able to get into. Just slowly breathe, try to reach into his mind and see if he can't sense his poor patron. He has, of course, no idea what he's doing.

[bc56]

Codebreaker's Home
A very faint trickle of awareness starts finding its way into Codebreaker's mind. It starts out small, a sense of edges and surfaces around him, then begins to grow.

Some have theorized that the universe we perceive is entirely in our minds, and there is no outside world. Codebreaker will soon realize that while there is, in fact, an outside world, it is also in his mind. With concentration, he may be able to alter it like a dream... But he'd better be careful not to let his mind wander...

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker’s Home

Well, that’s…something. Codebreaker tries not to let it distract him, but it does. His mind is swimming in so many ways. He does his best to just go about something normal. He goes to find himself fresh clothes. At the bottom of the drawer he comes across a pair of shorts that are too big even for him. Are they too big for him, or is he too small for them? The first of course, but he’s feeling philosophical. As he tries to get an outfit together, he muses that perhaps this is something he could change, if it were part of the dream…

[bc56]

Codebreaker's Home
Is Codebreaker sure those shorts don't fit? From this angle, they look about the right size.
What's the difference between perception and reality anyway? Changing the size of something is perhaps the easiest use of these new powers; one just has to very briefly forget about depth perception.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

Codebreaker puts the shorts on with a rather puzzled expression, trundling over to a mirror. He doesn't seem to have gotten bigger, so that's a relief. Though he does want to quickly make sure he hasn't started glowing or something. He does at this point notice the change to his eyes which happened a while ago without his notice. Perhaps as a suggested he could try to tone down the enhancements to his senses so he could filter out all this light and noise?
He also stares at his own belly in the mirror and considers if he could adjust his own self. No, that's terribly risky. He could just as easily kill himself. It's very tempting of course, but he should just focus on other things for now. Like his senses.

[bc56]

Codebreaker's Home
Dimming Codebreaker's senses works, but possibly not in the way he thinks. If he doesn't cut himself off quickly, he'll soon find himself blind and deaf, with only the supernatural sense of things around him to reveal his surroundings in perfect detail. It is both disorienting and completely orienting at the same time.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

He might have perfect knowledge of his surroundings, but he still can't hear anything or perceive color. He doesn't bump into anything but that's a small upside to this strange situation he's in. He desperately tries to reel everything in so he's back to mortal senses. He would very much like to get things back to mortal settings before he finds himself some faceless spirit entity (would he be blue and red too, or purple?).
Somewhere, his patron would probably be laughing at them if they could.

[bc56]

Codebreaker's Home
Codebreaker's thought of being a disembodied spirit causes his form to waver, which is probably enough to give him the frightened energy to pull his senses back. His vision swims into a blurry mess, his hearing becomes a discordant cacophony. A little more concentration will bring them back to something close to normal, but maybe not exactly.
And a wouldn't be laughing at him. They don't have a sense of humor at all.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

Codebreaker manages to pull himself back to some semblance of normality, even if it's still back to his usual over-enhanced senses. He lets out a mighty sigh, rubbing his belly in the mirror. He is himself. His usual glowing-eyed, huge and overly round self. He pulls his middle up to get a feel of how solid his form is to confirm that he is indeed an entirely solid mortal being.
He makes a loud and obnoxious mental complaint about all of this even if he knows a isn't listening. This is more than you just dump on a person!

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
Long ago there was a civilization here. Now there are only empty buildings, once beautiful marble edifices, now home to vast amounts of marine life.
There's a flash of blue light and a high-pitched whine, followed by a shockwave that flattens a large circle of terrain. Lying on its back in the center of the blast is a somewhat humanoid mech with slender limbs, painted dark green with bright orange striping.
Inside, its pilot groans and stirs. "Computer... Pilot medical diagnostic."
"Minor internal bleeding and nervous system disruption consistent with minor misjump-induced injury. Fractured rib and bruising consistent with blunt-force trauma."
"Right. Structural integrity diagnostic."
"Minor armor damage. Internal structure holding. Warning: high external pressure. Recommendation: Avoid further armor damage."
"Thanks. Location?"
"Underwater, estimated depth 230 meters. Unknown planet."
"Open comms channel, normal frequencies...
Diablo to Argo, do you copy?
Diablo to Almoner, do you copy?
Diablo to Herringbone, do you copy?
Diablo to Cynic, do you copy?"
...
"No response. Computer, calculate probability that Dr. Murad's device failed."
"Calculating... Estimated failure chance roughly 18.63%"

Spoiler: Reference Image

Show

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

"...This still doesn't seem right."

Owena sighs as Kyrie voices this sentiment for the umpteenth time. "Uncle, we've talked about this. You can't sulk forever, it's not good for you."

"Well, yes, but-"

"No buts." Owena pokes her uncle firmly in the chest. "You, sir, are here to have fun, with your friend, like you should have been doing this whole time. You're never going to feel all right cooped up in that house with just your thoughts." Her expression softens and she gives him a reassuring smile. "Besides, Siana's fine. She swings by every now and then to help me in the kitchen. She doesn't want you sitting around feeling bad about never seeing her, either." She stands up straight, arms pressed against her back. "So tenet five, sir!"

Kyrie gives her a reluctant smile and copies her pose. "Tenet five." He agrees, tilting up his chin stiffly.

"That's the ticket." Owena smiles and rings Codebreaker's doorbell, stepping back so her uncle is front and center.


[Undersea Ruin]

After waiting who knows how long, the pilot will be greeted by a human-sized shape on the radar, approaching slowly. A diver out salvaging items that have fallen out of the sky and into the sea, coming to investigate the newest blip on his own radar. He's not sure what he expected to find, but a (functional?) mecha was not it.

The diver swims closer, looking over the mech and attemtping to assess the damage, as well as work out the logistics of bringing it to the surface.

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
"Well then. Let's find out where we are." The pilot leans forward to take the controls.

The mech suddenly lurches to life, arms moving backwards to push it back to its feet. Its radar activates, possibly overwhelming the divers' smaller one.
"Plot a path through these structures leading to higher ground."
"Calculating..."

[Ironsmith]

[Undersea Ruin]

Well, that answered both questions insofar as they were relevant.

The diver, being as close as he is, sees no choice but to grab ahold of the mech and hang on for dear life as it attempts to surface. Failing to do so would likely see him tossed around in its wake, if not bludgeoned to death by its passing. Just as long as it doesn't hit the medium duty cargo vessel he's operating out of, this should still be fine.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker’s Home

Codebreaker opens the door and immediately steps forward to pull Kyrie into a hug.
”Kyrie! How’s my favorite wary wolf?” CB tried to make greeting Kyrie with alliteration a thing but he has quickly run out of words. He’s also kept trying to hug his friend despite knowing that Kyrie gets uncomfortable when attention is drawn to his figure which inevitably happens when their middles get pressed together.
CB has been trying to work on that. Definitely no projecting or self validation being worked into helping his friend be okay with being cursed with forever large waistbands. Nope.
”You doing okay, buddy?” CB asks. He appears to be wearing his sunglasses and actually buttoned his shirt, two things he basically never does at home. And there might be something that’s harder to pin down, as if his proportions are very slightly off.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Fortunately, if there's one person who can hug Kyrie without calling attention to his oversized stomach, it's Codebreaker with his even-more-oversized stomach. Equally fortunately, recieving hugs still brings back pleasant memories for the wolf-knight; his fellows at battle-school were known to express affection similarly. What Codebreaker might find less pleasant is that Kyrie's maintained his upper arm strength and prefers squeezes to pats on the back.

"Well met, Codebreaker." Kyrie replies with a forced chuckle. Like his wayward niece, Kyrie takes issue with lying outright about his state of mind, but he's perfectly happy to give the impression that he doesn't especially need to lean on Codebreaker just this moment. "I see you've been busy."

He means that literally, of course. The first thing that comes to mind when he notices a certain off-ness to Codebreaker's proportions is that he's redoubled his attempts at eating healthily and exercising; and for once, obtained tangible results.

Owena smirks and slips past Codebreaker into the house. "You boys have fun. I'll go ahead and get the snacks ready."

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker’s Home

CB doesn’t mind being squeezed. He considers himself very huggable. It’s one thing being a giant canid is good for.
”Oh uh, yeah. Sure.” says Codebreaker who has no idea what Kyrie is referring to.
”Come in. What did you want to do first? I found this nice wine I think you can drink if you’d like to try it.” he offers.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

"So early in the evening? That sounds like an excuse to try it yourself." Kyrie jokes, following Codebreaker inside. "Which is as sincere an endorsement as can be made. I'll gladly have some."

Not that it would matter too much; as Kyrie learned early on arriving in the Nexus, he's basically incapable of getting drunk. The one reason he might prefer wine over other drinks is if it still has an abnormal amount of yeast in it (or some unrelated still-living additive). Still, if Codebreaker is offering it as a host, it'd be rude for him to refuse it as a guest.