Seeing Double

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Characters: Abel Nightroad, Cain Knightlord, and YOU!
Setting: Hallways around the tower
Format: Either, will copy what you do
Summary: Cain and Abel go in search of answers. Potentially violently.
Warnings: Bad language, possible violence (with permission, of course).
Notes: Both twins will reply to each commenter, so please wait for both terranicidal and terranities to reply <3

Cain wasn't sure what he was seeing as they moved into the corridors; from the tone of the letter he had expected a post-apocalyptic scenario, not this well-maintained building they were in.

Perhaps this was a check-point for the simulation and they wouldn't go any further until they had unlocked its secrets and learned their mission objective. He had to admit that it unnerved him not to know the end goal to strive for, it made it harder for him to achieve the desired result in a swift time, thus ending this uncomfortable situation and allowing him to return back to his life, such as it was, and his duties.

He possibly would have remained in the room he had awoken in for a while longer had he been alone, pondered what could be happening and strategised all the various ways it could turn out. But he hadn't been alone, of course, and to let Abel wander off alone was a disaster waiting to happen.

So anyone walking down the hallways (of any level, they have been exploring), might see two very identical twins walking along, the only difference in their hair colour and the look of murder the silver-haired one is wearing.

[ooc: Open to all, and we'd love to meet everyone. However, Abel is prone to violence, so there's a permissions post here for all your lovely violence needs.]

Comments

[terranicidal.livejournal.com]

The moment Ankh's hand were stretching in an aggressive manner toward his brother's person, Abel was shifting away from the console as if with a sixth sense, eyes snapping to the stranger's face. There was an unforgiving cold, a sharp protective and possessive intensity -- and a sense of disbelief for the audacity demonstrated by such a seemingly innocent act.

It was rather fluid and quick -- faster than a normal human was capable; one moment he was at the console, the next he was beside Ankh and gripping the hand that dared touch his twin in a just short of crushing grip, his eyes boring holes into those of the other man.

"Give me an excuse to kill you," he says, his voice deceptively quiet and calm as he applies more pressure to those digits trapped in his own. "I'll wipe out this entire tower. Is that provocation enough...?"

[terranities.livejournal.com]

As soon as he felt the flick to his forehead, he knew what would happen within the next heartbeat, nothing to be done about it. Sure enough, his own personal guard dog was 'dealing' with the problem.

It was odd, the combination of disgust at the violence and an almost twisted satisfaction from Abel's protectiveness.

"Nobody will be getting killed. Step away, Commander."

[handpuppeeet.livejournal.com]

The action had caught Ankh completely off guard, and the next thing he knew there was a debilitating pain in his right hand, causing him to hunch his shoulders in recoil and let out a breathless gasp in pain.

"Heh...not bad...." He sounded obviously in pain, but nevertheless spoke calmly. "Go ahead; try wiping out this tower.... I'd like to see you try."

He winced again, but was smirking regardless; the arm that was currently being crushed now appeared to be plated in some kind of red armor with black material underneath, and two small, plastic-esque wings in red and black on his forearm. For the most part, it just seemed to make his hand bulkier, although Ankh did seem to be trying to wrench free.

[terranicidal.livejournal.com]

Abel ignores his brother's demand -- insubordination, perhaps, but he had never been particularly good at following orders, whether they'd come from his twin or otherwise. His grip over Ankh's hand -- now curiously armored; oh, this has caught his attention -- only increases, and he grips his wrist as well with the other hand, keeping the stranger's arm still as he examines this anomaly.

"So, you're a combat type," he remarks almost languidly, looking at the plating with lazy curiosity, starting to apply more pressure to his knuckles -- enough to make bone creak, if the armor hadn't been applied. "It'd be in your best interest not to tempt me to violence. Or do you have a death wish...?"

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Stepping forwards to lay a hand over Abel's where it was crushing the program's arm, he leaned in to make sure his eyes made contact with their identical mirror.

"I said stop, Abel. Please."

If he was a combat type, as it seemed he was from the odd armour appearing out of nowhere, then antagonising him wasn't going to lead anywhere good.

[handpuppeeet.livejournal.com]

Combat type? Was that part of whatever stupid simulation they thought they were in? Of course Ankh didn't have much time to consider that, given that his arm was now restrained twicefold, and the pain was every increasing. He flinched again when the pressure increased, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to continue talking.

He gave a sidelong glance at the blonde man when the new hand arrived. He sure as hell didn't want this guy to be saving his ass, but he had no way of breaking free, even with abandoning the officer's body.

He turned his attention back to the man with his arm in a vice grip. The smirk was gone, but the words sure kept up. "You can try if you want, but you can't kill me. This isn't even my own body," he said simply, gritting his teeth.

[terranicidal.livejournal.com]

Not even his own body? This reached him above even his own interest over the curiously armored hand, and Abel's brow arches further. His brother's efforts to cease and desist were falling on deaf ears.

Was this a member of the science and research laboratories interacting with them through another program? Or perhaps a fellow member of the UNASF, also in the simulation?

"What are you doing here?"

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Cain was equally intrigued by the statement, wondering exactly what could be meant by that. Not even his own body? Technically that could be true of any program, none had a real body, they were all just bits of binary strung together in a specific order.

But that had the ring of meaning something different, and so he turned his attention from trying to stop Abel from doing something needlessly violent, to the strange man in front of them.

"What do you mean, that's not your own body?"

[handpuppeeet.livejournal.com]

Well that certainly got their attention. Ankh couldn't help but smirk at this. There was a slight tick of his tongue as he looked at Abel in annoyance. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Ankh opened his mouth to answer and then remember oh wait his hand still frikkin' hurt. He didn't want to abandon the officer, but at this rate it was a better alternative than letting the hand get broken. So, he wrenched his body downward, and instead of loosing his arm from Abel's grip, his body seemed to fall out of the armored hand like it was a glove and collapsed to the ground, falling immediately unconscious while hair turned into a normal, straight brown cut.

When he spoke again, it was coming from the now disembodied arm rather than the body and almost had an echo quality to it. "Exactly what it sounds like, idiot," He finally spat out an answer. Sure it was a lot more inconvenient being a floating arm, but for once his Greeed senses came in handy to dull the pain.

[terranicidal.livejournal.com]

--What in the name of...

Abel's fingers twitched, grip loosening out of sheer incredulity and shock as the body was altered -- the hand, now... possessed? What the hell is-- this?

The surprise is naked on his face as he fumbles his assault on the offending appendage.

[terranities.livejournal.com]

The look of surprise was mirrored on Cain's own face, eyes opening impossibly wide as he stared at the talking arm.

This... had to be a program, nothing like this existed in reality, although the purpose to it was still a complete mystery.

"Drop it and step back, Abel."

[handpuppeeet.livejournal.com]

If Ankh still had a proper face, he'd no doubt be smirking even more right now. Abel would find it very easy to to obey Cain's command, because when Abel fumbled his grip, Ankh used it as an opportunity to wrench himself free.

"About damn time," He scoffed, flicking his fingers. The arm was now floating freely in the air, its fingers pointed at the two men as if watching them. "This is my real body," He added, curling his fingers as if gesturing to himself.

[terranicidal.livejournal.com]

Abel takes a small step back as he finds his grip on the... arm... relinquished, nudging his brother a tad back with him in subservience to his request.

"--what the hell is going on, Cain...?"

Is he... seeing this, too...?

[terranities.livejournal.com]

That question was an excellent one, though it was one he didn't exactly have an answer for. Eyes flicking between Abel and that disembodied arm, he gave a minute shrug to indicate he had no idea.

"...it must be a glitch."

[handpuppeeet.livejournal.com]

"Hey! Don't talk as if I'm not here!" Ankh yelled, pointing at them accusingly. Not that he wasn't used to that reaction when he was in this state; humans really were pretty predictable.

"Listen up; I'm no glitch," He stated, his wrist making a small circular motion as he spoke. "Nor am I some 'combat type.' I'm what's known as a Greeed, and you can't kill me."

[terranicidal.livejournal.com]

A glitch...?

He looks wary, on his guard; perhaps this program was unstable and that's why none of it seemed to make any comprehensible sense compared to those that had come before it. This simulation was... strange, to say the very least.

The Commander favors silence, simply observing this oddity with caution and skepticism. What the hell are they supposed to do with this...

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Cain found his eyes fixated on the disembodied arm, the way it moved as though still attached to something and the odd echo of the voice belonging to it.

There was no doubt in his mind that it was a glitch; but if it believed that it was a 'Greeed', then perhaps finding out more would shed some light to their mission.

"What is a Greeed?"

[handpuppeeet.livejournal.com]

"A being made 800 years ago from pure desire," Ankh stated, making a bit of a flourish with his fingers; or at least as much of a flourish as you could make when you were just an arm.

"My normal body's not made of flesh and blood, but that," He pointed down at the unconscious body on the floor that he had abandoned, "is the body I've been using out of convenience. So next time don't go trying to break my damn hand off!" He...turned? to look at Cain again, flicking his fingers out of him as he shouted.

1/2

[terranicidal.livejournal.com]

...Is this for real? He's beginning to wonder if, perhaps, he's merely unconscious and in a drunken stupor rather than being subjected to some kind of strange simulation, because this is all utterly nonsensical and completely ridiculous...

[terranicidal.livejournal.com]

--But after that last... indignant flick of fingers, Abel simply can't handle it any more.

"This is... so stupid," he chuckles dryly, palming face with his hand. "I can't even take it seriously anymore..."

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Cain is inclined to agree; any reservations he had held that this might be reality had long gone, this was odd in a way that even a glitch in programming didn't properly explain.

"Come on, Abel, let's go. We're not going to learn anything of use here."

[handpuppeeet.livejournal.com]

Ankh...stared? Probably would have stared at Abel for a moment if he had had eyes. His wrist rolled a bit in what could probably be synonymous with rolling hiss eyes. Ankh flew over to the unconscious body on the ground and moved back onto the body's right arm, the hair immediately changing back to curly blonde as opposed to the brown as his eyes shot open and he hopped back up to his feet.

"Heh; good luck with your 'simulation' then; I wonder how long until they catch you for disobeying the rules." He held the wrist of his injured hand and chuckled a bit, turning back to the monitors.

[terranicidal.livejournal.com]

"That's it? You're seriously going to leave it at that?"

He tries not to show the unease he has in the situation watching this... strange display of 'possession' again, keeping his outward expression dispassionate and unamused -- but inwardly, Abel is disquieted and curious. What the hell is going on here? He can't get his head around this at all; it makes utterly no sense to him -- and he is a man who enjoys understanding his situation.

[terranities.livejournal.com]

Leaving something half-finished or unexplored is uncharacteristic for Cain, and he doesn't plan on it here. But logic dictates that if this... thing was relevant to their mission, then they would not simply be allowed to walk away.

It was a bluff, so to speak; they would leave and no doubt come across Ankh again soon, or something would prevent them leaving now. It was a way to try and force the hand (pun not intended) of those in charge, trying to get them to reveal more than they had planned.

"Mm, that's right. There's no reason for us to stay here, lets go."

[handpuppeeet.livejournal.com]

Ankh let out a chuckle and looked over his shoulder at Abel. "That's it."

The smirk broadened when Cain seemed to decide that were leaving, and he turned back to look at the monitor. He wasn't sure how useful either of them were, but damn if they weren't fun to mess with. Plus it was payback for how much his hand friggin' hurt right now.