013. action. closed.

[strikeraid]

Who: Skyler (strikeraid), Harper (duette), mmmaybe Dallen (decelerate), Chuck (swissarmyjesus), and Danny (gogoghostpowers)
When: Today, 02/17, around 4 pm; then today, 02/17, later in the evening; then tomorrow, 02/18, right after school.
Where: In order: Somewhere in the Business District, then somewhere in the Dead District, then like... at school or something I'M GONNA ROLL WITH IT
What: Someone tries to kill him (by accident), he tracks down a certain Key, he tries to kill someone (on purpose).

[ Someone is having a very busy Monday and Tuesday. Let us count the ways. ]

[ closed to Harper (for now!) ]

[ After a long, hard day of school, followed directly by a few hours of scrubbing dicks off the wall, Skyler is almost done with his day. Except he isn't, of course; he still has Blood Key shit to do today and he isn't about to give Helene no for an answer. He does need to make a stop at home, though, and the last buses have already left, so here he is, makin his way downtown cutting through a quieter part of the Business District on his way home. He is not expecting to meet anyone, and he isn't trying to catch anyone's eye. All he wants to do is get home. Seriously.

Nothing in his life ever happens that smoothly, unfortunately! ]

[ / closed to Harper ]

[ closed to Chuck ]

[ After weeks of searching, he thinks he's got the right guy. He's been looking for a new guy, he knows, someone who's been on the ball and stayed in fairly good standing with his fellow Keys. He's even friendly, which is weird enough among the Keys, but so far it appears he's been doing nothing but making himself friends with his timely warnings. Things have probably been pretty cozy for him.

Well, that's enough complimentary bullshit. After all, his fellow Keys did end up leading right towards him in a roundabout way, traveling backward from contact to contact until he reached the right cell, and then the right people within the cell. He follows the alley between the two abandoned buildings down, the other teen's back coming into view. This is the third person from the group he's questioned, and he's got the line of questions down to an art.

He walks towards the guy. He doesn't know his name, so he just calls out to him in a low, gruff voice, a part of his Key disguise. ]

Hey, you. Got a minute?

[ / closed to Chuck ]

[ closed to Danny ]

[ Skyler is stalking Danny after school on Tuesday. I repeat, he is taking his books and jamming them all in his locker, then sitting at the door he knows Danny uses to leave the school, waiting for him to come by. Suspicious? Maybe, but he's pretty sure Danny isn't expecting what's coming next. WHAT DO ]

[ / closed to Danny ]

Comments

[strikeraid]

And we were doing a hell of a job keeping our shit under wraps until you came along. [ He ditches the stupid voice and lowers it to an undertone when Chuck mentions the thing; clearly they were both on the same page, here. ] Now I'm wondering how everyone and their literal fucking mothers know that it's more than your sad self when it comes to us on the Network. Unless I got you to blame for that, too?

[swissarmyjesus]

[Wow, way to lay on the questioning. Chuck is definitely not terribly pleased with the accusations being lobbed at him here.]

No way. I didn't even know there were other Keys on the network until today! Everyone else must be...I don't know, jumping to conclusions or something.

[strikeraid]

[ Skyler is pretty pissed about this, ok. It was bad enough keeping this all a secret. He rubs his eyes with his hand, dropping it down as he continues. ]

Okay. Say I believe you on that. You still blew a part of our cover, either way. We wanna know if you're planning on pulling any more shit like that. [ "We" is kind of a strong word for just him and Helene, but Helene's worth a couple of guys and an attack dog on her own as far as Skyler's concerned. ]

[swissarmyjesus]

You think I would do that after they went on a murderous rampage for us? No way, I got a pretty good idea of what's going on here after that. I'm not an idiot.

[strikeraid]

Could've fooled us. [ ... Skyler sighs. ] I'm not here to fuck you up. Just sayin'. We're trying to stay together, make sure all of the Keys get out of this shit alive. If you're in, good, if you're not, whatever, just don't pull anything big without letting the rest of us know.

[swissarmyjesus]

No. No, I'm in. I trust the Keys a lot more than these nutjobs. [He pulls his phone out of his pocket and waves it around as a demonstration.] I want to help them out--just in case there are any more psychos who plan on killing us off.

[He sounds a lot less confident now, and a lot more worried. And honestly, he's a little scared. He didn't anticipate murder, especially not by people with superpowers.]

[strikeraid]

For the record, the Network wasn't like this before. We've got an upswing in crazies nowadays.

[ Skyler takes his phone out again. ] Name and phone number. I need to give you both of mine. [ And once he texts his number to Chuck, he's going to give Chuck the rundown. There are rules to this shit. B( ]

[swissarmyjesus]

Great. Good to know that I shouldn't expect killing sprees once a month, at least. Unless they're so crazy that they actually do start doing that.

[Chuck pulls out his own phone once he gets Skyler's text. He quickly adds Skyler's info and then responds with to the text with his own phone number.]

So. What now?

[strikeraid]

To be honest, I don't know what to expect out of them anymore. There are so many of us that one of us is bound to go trigger happy. Hell, it might end up being one of us. [ He shrugs. Skyler genuinely doesn't think it could happen to him, but crazier shit has happened. ]

I give you the rundown. [ Skyler shoves his phone back into his pocket. ] First of all, you're not a douchebag, so I'm gonna tell Helene you're still alive - that's Hellbird, just sayin', she's my group leader - and she may or may not get a hold of you. Depends on how much of a shit she gives. [ Skyler reaches back and scratches his neck. ] Don't give her shit, okay? She could literally kill you.

[swissarmyjesus]

It better not be. I don't even want to think about how much carnage could come out of that. [And it kind of bothers him that Skyler doesn't seem to think it's any more urgent or disturbing than anything else.]

Hellbird, could kill me, got it. Is she in on this whole "network" thing too? [Did he just use air quotes? Yes he did. Chuck absolutely just used air quotes.]

[strikeraid]

[ ........... he is going to ignore those airquotes, unless he can bounce that back in a semi-ironic manner that will come off as a poor attempt at flattery (not on purpose). ]Yeah, she is. And it could happen. if I were you, I'd start making sure my other dude had his shit together.

Anyway, no telling the other people on the network about us. Don't tell anyone. Especially other Keys. if you've already leaked the network to your guys... [ Skyler shrugs. ] Your funeral. Keep us out of it, though. We're trying to keep it quiet.

[swissarmyjesus]

Don't worry, I haven't. Mostly because by the time I figured out that the network wasn't a Key thing, I'd already figured out the groups aren't exactly keen on each other.

[strikeraid]

Welcome to Key life, I guess. [ It's weird, welcoming a newbie when he was only two months a member himself. ]

I'm serious, though. We're pretty sure that the Keys are getting the cybernetics done by Thunder Corp, who are also hunting down the Network people. Meaning that if word gets out about us in the Keys, the wrong person could hear it and rat us out. You know how fast word travels. [ He'd better, anyway. ] If you're gonna play hero and save your team from other network people, make sure you're the only Key around. [ ... SIGH. Fine. ] If you need your ass pulled from something really bad, go ahead and text me. I'm around most of the time.

[swissarmyjesus]

[Ah yes, the permission to text--that is the true definition of friendship nowadays, isn't it? Chuck really does appreciate how tight-knit and willing to help all the Keys are with each other, even if they can be kinda surly about it.]

Yikes--didn't know that part about Thunder Corp. Good to know, though. About the cybernetics and the backup, I mean. Thanks.

[strikeraid]

[ The Keys Skyler are used to are the type to just laugh you you land ass backwards in something embarrassing... But yeah, they'll pick you up afterward. Skyler isn't as convinced about them as Chuck is, but he does consider the Blood Keys a closer community to him than the network. He understands how they think. ]

It's just putting together the shit the network's figured out and what we know. All they've got are guesses. We know that we don't really know anything. [ He shrugs at the thanks. Hey, they're kind of in this thing together, now. ]

Anyway, that's everything I've got. [ ... ] Unless you got questions? Or if you actually wanna go through the blood pact. Hellbird told me to but... [ SHRUGS AGAIN. ]

[swissarmyjesus]

[He was going to say something else, but.]

Wait--blood pact?

[strikeraid]

[ In response, Skyler reaches into his pocket and draws out a utility knife. ]

I didn't trust her. She didn't trust me. We had to make a deal. [ He pushes the blade out of its handle. ] If you don't, don't worry, I'll make sure you're in the loop. But if you do... [ He shrugs. ] Maybe you'll get in on some actual planning. Have a say in whatever we're doing. I know it'll get Hellbird's attention.

[ He looks back up from the knife and makes eye contact with Chuck. ] So what'll it be?

[swissarmyjesus]

[He's pretty sure he understands what's being said between the lines here: the only way to gain Skyler's (and this weird Hellbird lady's) trust is to go through with the blood pact.

The thought of it is pretty unnerving, but...how bad could a blood pact possibly be? It's probably just more dramatic than it sounds, surely no demons will come crawling out of the earth. Plus, the thought of being able to team up and take on this network junk with a few other Keys makes it less scary and daunting. And besides...Chuck hasn't been able to trust anyone else with this stuff, either, so if he earns their trust, then they earn his.

And he'd really appreciate being able to trust someone here.]

I'll do it. But make sure that knife's sterilized first--I don't want to get any kind of infection off of it.

[strikeraid]

[ ... Really. Skyler just aims a flat look at him, retracts the blade, and tosses it over. ]

I changed the blade before I got here. Just stick your thumb and give it back. [ YA BIG WEENIE. ]

[swissarmyjesus]

[Eh, good enough.

He catches the knife and releases the blade. Chuck hesitates for a moment, but then presses the edge up against his thumb until it draws blood. Then he hands the knife back, holding it out with the blade pointed towards Skyler.]

Alright, you obviously know how this is supposed to work. I've got a bloody thumb--what now?

[strikeraid]

[ ... What a newbie. Skyler shakes his head, taking the knife back, sliding the blade out a little farther, and slicing into his own thumb. Phew. Okay. He pulls the blade back in and pockets the knife, watching the trickle of blood travel into his palm and smearing it a little with his other hand. He sticks his bloody hand out to shake. ]

We shake on it. You tell me what you want, I tell you what I want. We agree not to fuck each other up. We tell each other what we'll do if one of us does fuck it up. [ See? No big deal. ]

[swissarmyjesus]

[He looks down at Skyler's hand and considers his words carefully before taking the open gesture with his own bloody hand.]

Alright, then I'll start. Here's what I want--being kept in the loop for everything. And I mean both Key stuff and network stuff--everything. Neither of these comes with an owner's manual, and I have a hard time figuring out which things go with which gig. I don't want to screw it up again if I can avoid it.

[strikeraid]

[ Skyler inclines his head. He can help him with that, if anything; he's been around longer than Helene and he has the best odds out of all three of them of keeping all of this straight. God help them. ]

Anything else?

[swissarmyjesus]

...Actually, yeah.

You watch my back, I watch yours. That way, no one runs into trouble.

[or at least, they shouldn't in theory.]

[strikeraid]

[ ... A small smile appears on Skyler's face for the first time. ]

We're all in the same boat, right?