un: plushiewarrior | VIDEO (in which alex sends a really powerful radio signal into the night)

[reincarnesiac]

( The wind's too loud to hear anything at first, catching the earpiece at exactly the wrong angle. Then Alex waves, smiling with that glassy eyed look that significantly tipsy people can end up wearing. It's dark behind her, but anyone very, very familiar with the skyscraper rooftops in Nova City will recognize she's on one of them. )

Hiii! Oh, it is... so not as cold up here as I expected!

( She laughs a little, throwing her hands up into the air and stumbling forward to likewise toss her arms around part of a metal structure, possibly a radio tower. Alex rests her head on it, her laughter trailing off as she smiles, a little bittersweet. )

I wanted to send a message. A big one! A big... message. So I thought, what if you had a lot... I mean a lot of power behind a radio signal? Won't that do something? We just want to be heard...

( Her eyes close, and it doesn't seem like she's doing anything. Then the tower starts to hum, lighting up with a soft sort of glow under her hands. Anyone tuned into its frequency will hear a humming too, almost like static feedback, that starts to sound more like a heartbeat. Hers. Then a clearer message with that beating in the background: Echo. Come in, Echo.

Then it really starts to glow, until the whole radio tower is a beacon of light. There is no way for the tower to handle that much energy for long. Alex's brow furrows as she's swallowed by the light, the overpowered radio signal shooting up a moment later, all the light abruptly going out as it fizzles upward, a misleading manifestation of what went without being visible to most eyes. Alex is left clinging to a partially melted structure, pushing herself away to stand, swaying. )

... Did that... oh. I don't... feel so good...

( Which is when she goes boneless, dropping out of frame to hit the rooftop in a muffled thud, close to passing out. Luckily her earpiece is still recording! ... About four feet higher than her current head level. Enjoy your scene of a warped radio tower and the otherwise unremarkable rooftop, Etraya. )

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[shadowsincryo]

[He picks up a sandwich and takes a bite. He can remember the whole thing like it was yesterday.] We entered. At the time, there had been reports of activity from a few things we didn’t want getting their hands on a possible Ruin machine factory.

It would have shattered the peace we have had compared to other nations. If Grand Master Varka and our older knights were still around it wouldn’t have been a problem either. As it was. I made the call. It was routine for a while. We determined it wasn’t a factory. However.

[The rest of his sandwich is gone. He picks up a mug. He takes a swig.] A lot of ruins have defenses. We accidentally tripped one of them while we were deep inside. It wasn’t ruin guards. It was automated defenses and I didn’t think.

I acted. I had never used magic that fast and that much at once. It was a thick ice dome that blocked anything coming at us. But I wasn’t seeing anything. Magic spent that fast makes you feel light headed.

Draining too much like that is…I was dizzy. I had never used so much even in previous fights. I hadn’t needed to. That’s of course when the ruin guard in that area woke up. It was recognized I couldn’t move on my own.

They pulled me into a side area and again. I sealed it with ice. Ruin Guardians are set to patrol a specific area…usually. We got lucky. [He takes a sip of his cocoa.] Which is a good thing. I had saved their lives. We would have been done if it had pursued. Instead. The men got a rest and I passed out. My ice remains unless I die. It was a decent barrier.

[backtostart]

[ So, in the end, this was entirely his call. Hindsight really is clearer than being in the moment... Setsu sips at their cocoa as they listen, and eventually grabs a packet of dried fruit snacks to go with it.

They can't really blame him, here. Those weren't the wisest choices, but when he really gave his all, beyond even his own limits...Setsu can't make themself criticize him.

He saved a lot of people. As captain, he had to think of their survival and his own. That's probably what he was thinking of when he wasn't thinking and created that first barrier, Setsu guesses. How drained was he when he chose to create a second barrier after the first one left him disoriented? They imagine him collapsing, like Alex had.

With a powerful enemy nearby, unable to protect himself or his subordinates, unable to even remain conscious... They were all really lucky that the guard didn't pursue them. A "decent barrier" is still only a barrier, so...

Setsu still feels uneasy. ]

So you completely drained yourself...? Was sleep even enough to recover from something like that?

[shadowsincryo]

[There's an embarrassed little pause; he sips his cocoa to hide it.] No. My fellow captain came to our aid. She is my superior now, and was my senior then. Her magic is a supportive wind.

She, another captain, and her squad dealt with the Ruin Guard and the defenses. They found us, and I woke up in the church healing ward. [Embarrassing.]

[backtostart]

[ Setsu exhales a sigh of relief, finally leaning back in their chair. ]

Then you made it back okay? You said before that you'd need at least three "Genshin" to deal with something like that, right? In that case, it's good that she came for you...

[ Maybe Setsu is too used to seeing the worst case scenario, but they can't help but be grateful that someone came for him - and his men - before anything worse could happen. If he can be embarrassed about it, they hope it really wasn't much worse.

Focusing on all of that is probably even more embarrassing, though. ]

How was your recovery?

[shadowsincryo]

[This time, he laughs. It is a lot less embarrassing to talk about magic burn. He reaches for another sandwich.] Slower than I like. It’s like having a hangover while you feel too weak to do much about it.

You sleep a lot. I was assigned light duties and desk work once I was well enough to move. It took about two days to get to that. A week to be back on field duty. Two weeks before I was back to normal.

[He snorts,] Because of it, I practice daily. Now, I can throw up a shield like that without draining myself. I did that twice when Verso and I met in the arena. I can do far more than that these days. Dragons have much higher reserves.

Think of it as I’m used to a river to budget. Now I have a deep ocean. And judging but how melted that tower is. Alex has deep reserves too.

Healing fixes the body and only the body. Best thing for her is a lot of naps and big meals.

[backtostart]

[ ... Yeah, that sounds like a really boring recovery process. Setsu finally starts on their baggie of dried fruit, thinking that they, too, would train daily after being out for so long, and they nod in sympathy—though it's still there, in the back of their mind, that it's not simply the long recovery process that made Kaeya work harder. There wasn't any part of that they imagine he wants to re-experience, so he had to become stronger. Strong enough that he could do the same tasks that knocked him out before with ease. All of that was like a hard-learned lesson that Kaeya took seriously. The process of practicing daily was probably exhausting in its own right...

It's easier to just think that he's strong now. If their positions were reversed, Setsu would prefer that. And he is strong now. The extent of Kaeya's power back then can't be compared to now...or even to the Kaeya from before the two of them met.

(They wonder if it's weird, that the limits he worked hard to train before were overshadowed in an instant when he became a dragon. Then he had something entirely new to learn and practice instead...)

Kaeya's last comments derail that train of thought expertly, however, and the faraway look in their eyes is gone again, blinked out of existence. Alex's magic(?) reserves are on par with that of Kaeya as a dragon? Setsu pauses mid-chew as they try to comprehend that. It's a dizzying thought, actually. Dragons are mythical beings, so for Alex to be similar, what's going on with her?

Setsu finishes the food in their mouth before trying to talk again. ]

Right, I'll make sure she gets rest and eats well in order to recover... [ and carry her home, if she'll be bedridden for days? ] I hope that her recovery goes as smoothly; I don't think anything can make her take it easy for a full three weeks.

[ They take a sip of cocoa, considering. ] How is your training going these days? Are you still practicing daily?

[shadowsincryo]

Oh, of course. [He leans back in his chair and drinks more cocoa.] You can’t let the skills get rusty. And now I have so much more to practice.

And a wonderful training ground for it. [He polishes off another sandwich.] My training is going quite well. Thankfully some of it is easier than I thought it would be.

Some of it…a little harder. But the challenge makes it fun. [He eyes the dark chocolate pastry. It smells minty. He reaches out and snags it. One bite. He sighs. Yes, mint. Perfect.] It fills some of the time while we’re waiting.

[backtostart]

[ In the back of their mind, Setsu thinks that it was wise of the bots to bring such a large volume of food, as they finally grab a sandwich for themself. ]

Yeah... I can get that. A challenge makes practice feel more worthwhile. Even more so now with the different things you can experiment with. [ The tone of their voice is almost nostalgic - and less tense than it was just a moment ago. They start in on their sandwich, thinking... ]

Waiting? Waiting for what?

[ ?? He can't mean while Alex recovers? ]

[shadowsincryo]

Next mission. Cooling my heels between them just isn’t in me. [He takes another bite of the pastry. He is almost full. The pastry is just so nice and perfect. He would have to try to recreate it some time.] What kind of practice are you used to?

[backtostart]

[ Right, missions... With those looming, who can be idle? They nod in understanding, then take a bite of their sandwich as they consider his question. ]

Well... For a while now, it's mostly been physical conditioning. [ They sound a little embarrassed to admit that. ] Back before...all this, I used to go over our weapon and agility courses in my free time, but it's been a while now... When we were on Earth, Alex actually invited me to a shooting range to try the firearms she could make out of energy. It was really fun...and she really showed me up, hehe. So I need to work on that more, whenever I can.

[ After that initial embarrassment, their voice is actually bright as they munch away at their sandwich. ]

As it is, I was at least able to acquire a knife on Earth, so I'll be adding that to my regimen now, along with working on the magic thing. Since I know the risk of overusing things like that now, I'll be careful to pace myself. But that's been a nice challenge for me, too.