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etrayalogs2026-05-22 10:18 am
etrayamods) wrote in etrayalogs2026-05-22 10:18 am
Entry tags:
- !mission log,
- !npc: scylla,
- atla: toph beifong,
- batman wfa: jason todd,
- final fantasy vii-r: vincent valentine,
- final fantasy x-2: paine,
- jl gods and monsters: kirk langstrom,
- monster pulse: julie greathouse,
- my hero academia: izuku "deku" midoriya,
- original: knife,
- original: tristan,
- pathologic 3: daniil dankovsky,
- person of interest: harold finch,
- persona 3-r: junpei iori,
- resident evil 2: claire redfield,
- to be hero x: yang cheng (e-soul),
- vox machina: vax'ildan vessar
Mission 015 Log
Mission Summary
Genre: Dystopian / Horror
Premise: Echo can no longer detect what's happening in Pollux, and sends Etrayans to investigate. In Pollux, cut off from contact with Aurora and unable to return until whatever's causing the interference is removed, the Etrayans find things have really gone to hell...
Tone: Intense, heavy, and serious.
Objectives: Determine what's happening in Pollux and install a new A.I. if necessary.
We have no need of other worlds
Arrival
The Etrayans arrive in an uninhabited apartment complex, layered with dust and echoingly empty. The layout is often odd in places in ways that might normally be humorous -- a toilet in the kitchen, one unit with five closets side-by-side off of a single main room -- but now take on an almost sinister, unnerving cast. Nothing seems to make sense in this building.
There's remnants of there being residents once in the more livable layouts, but even that has some strangeness to it: identical baskets of men's hygiene supplies left in every unit, inhabited or not; half-eaten meals abandoned in a hurry, rotting on dining tables; or robots that look much like Etraya's companion bots slumped over in place, crumpled on the floor like puppets with cut strings. There's some supplies to be found and scavenged, and it's empty enough that it's a safe place to start.
Exploring the City
Or they can head outside into the central green space of the city, an unsettling lumpy mound looming in the middle of it off in the distance. The park is bordered on all sides by gleaming metal buildings that tower overhead, all in similar states of disrepair from the one they'd just exited.
Pretty quickly, they'll accomplish one of their primary objectives: discovering what happened to Castor. There's a human man wandering the fringes of the park, scouting for disabled bots that he, under great duress, is trying to repair. The enforcers leave him alone -- they know who he is -- and he can be approached and spoken with.
Maybe he has some answers. Or maybe the other Polluxians left around the city do.
Either way, Castor has become a full, organic human through magical means, and it's obvious they're going to need to install that new A.I. after all. Before long, a base camp is established by the Etrayans in a nearby pod-style hotel, and the mission is underway in earnest.
Dead as Dead
Approaching the mound in the center of the park, characters will come to the creeping realization that it is a pile of corpses, some of them recognizable on inspection. The bodies have been dragged there and left on display as a taunt and a threat. They've been killed in a variety of ways, most of them gruesome but some subtle. In all cases, their souls have been pulled out and obliterated, leaving them completely incapable of resurrection or reanimation.
There's evidence here and there that some Polluxians might have approached to try to take some for proper burials, but the corpse pile is as much bait as it is anything else -- the enforcers and undead regularly stop by on their patrols to check if someone's lingering.
Opposition
Those roaming the city will encounter two types of opposition.
Enforcers are former Polluxians who have either willingly signed on to be part of the new regime or have been coerced into doing so to keep themselves or their loved ones from the fate on display in the park. They come in the full array of possible characters who can be recruited by Echo.
The undead that assist them as minions are not the shambling idiots common in media: they're bodies animated by some other force, the original soul pulled out but left intact, hovering beside the victim to those that can sense its presence.
All of them, to a one, smile widely, a fierce grin belying their joy at their tasks. Though they have no superhuman strengths, they also feel no pain, and if cut off at the knees they will pull themselves with fingertips across the floor to continue to seek their targets, thrilled all the while.
These dead, too, can be recognized as castmates -- or perhaps as another version of yourself -- but if you speak their name out loud to them, perhaps in shock or perhaps to plead, they slump lifeless to the ground, the thread to their soul cut. It soon becomes obvious that this is one source of the corpses in the pile. Laying them to true rest will take something more than talking or violence.
The Etrayans arrive in an uninhabited apartment complex, layered with dust and echoingly empty. The layout is often odd in places in ways that might normally be humorous -- a toilet in the kitchen, one unit with five closets side-by-side off of a single main room -- but now take on an almost sinister, unnerving cast. Nothing seems to make sense in this building.
There's remnants of there being residents once in the more livable layouts, but even that has some strangeness to it: identical baskets of men's hygiene supplies left in every unit, inhabited or not; half-eaten meals abandoned in a hurry, rotting on dining tables; or robots that look much like Etraya's companion bots slumped over in place, crumpled on the floor like puppets with cut strings. There's some supplies to be found and scavenged, and it's empty enough that it's a safe place to start.
Exploring the City
Or they can head outside into the central green space of the city, an unsettling lumpy mound looming in the middle of it off in the distance. The park is bordered on all sides by gleaming metal buildings that tower overhead, all in similar states of disrepair from the one they'd just exited.
Pretty quickly, they'll accomplish one of their primary objectives: discovering what happened to Castor. There's a human man wandering the fringes of the park, scouting for disabled bots that he, under great duress, is trying to repair. The enforcers leave him alone -- they know who he is -- and he can be approached and spoken with.
Maybe he has some answers. Or maybe the other Polluxians left around the city do.
Either way, Castor has become a full, organic human through magical means, and it's obvious they're going to need to install that new A.I. after all. Before long, a base camp is established by the Etrayans in a nearby pod-style hotel, and the mission is underway in earnest.
Dead as Dead
Approaching the mound in the center of the park, characters will come to the creeping realization that it is a pile of corpses, some of them recognizable on inspection. The bodies have been dragged there and left on display as a taunt and a threat. They've been killed in a variety of ways, most of them gruesome but some subtle. In all cases, their souls have been pulled out and obliterated, leaving them completely incapable of resurrection or reanimation.
There's evidence here and there that some Polluxians might have approached to try to take some for proper burials, but the corpse pile is as much bait as it is anything else -- the enforcers and undead regularly stop by on their patrols to check if someone's lingering.
Opposition
Those roaming the city will encounter two types of opposition.
Enforcers are former Polluxians who have either willingly signed on to be part of the new regime or have been coerced into doing so to keep themselves or their loved ones from the fate on display in the park. They come in the full array of possible characters who can be recruited by Echo.
The undead that assist them as minions are not the shambling idiots common in media: they're bodies animated by some other force, the original soul pulled out but left intact, hovering beside the victim to those that can sense its presence.
All of them, to a one, smile widely, a fierce grin belying their joy at their tasks. Though they have no superhuman strengths, they also feel no pain, and if cut off at the knees they will pull themselves with fingertips across the floor to continue to seek their targets, thrilled all the while.
These dead, too, can be recognized as castmates -- or perhaps as another version of yourself -- but if you speak their name out loud to them, perhaps in shock or perhaps to plead, they slump lifeless to the ground, the thread to their soul cut. It soon becomes obvious that this is one source of the corpses in the pile. Laying them to true rest will take something more than talking or violence.
This is another lie
The Tower
The other source of corpses in the park is the magically hidden tower, and those that sneak in or are captured and brought inside will find that out. Characters can be forced into becoming either contestants or enforcers in a series of macabre games, and their role can switch round to round. Note: players are welcome to make up their own game scenarios. Those listed below are provided as starting points and ideas.
For contestants, they will experience complete power nerfing, but those that win make their way up one level in the tower, game by game. Maybe eventually they'll see what's at the top, if they ever make it that far. Those that lose can die, face mutilation, or some other consequence like reliving their worst memory in real-time.
For enforcers, keeping the contestants in line and running the games might earn them the goodwill of the person running the show. They can be as creative as they'd like with how to keep things running; by no means does death need to be the only possible penalty. Or maybe if they act out, trying to help contestants when they shouldn't be, they'd attract their ire...
The other source of corpses in the park is the magically hidden tower, and those that sneak in or are captured and brought inside will find that out. Characters can be forced into becoming either contestants or enforcers in a series of macabre games, and their role can switch round to round. Note: players are welcome to make up their own game scenarios. Those listed below are provided as starting points and ideas.
For contestants, they will experience complete power nerfing, but those that win make their way up one level in the tower, game by game. Maybe eventually they'll see what's at the top, if they ever make it that far. Those that lose can die, face mutilation, or some other consequence like reliving their worst memory in real-time.
For enforcers, keeping the contestants in line and running the games might earn them the goodwill of the person running the show. They can be as creative as they'd like with how to keep things running; by no means does death need to be the only possible penalty. Or maybe if they act out, trying to help contestants when they shouldn't be, they'd attract their ire...
Game Ideas
Blindman's Bluff: One person is blindfolded and must find and tag another player. The blindman has shoes, whereas everyone else has had theirs confiscated. The floor is covered in glass.
Duck, Duck, Viper: This game is set up like an ordinary game of Duck, Duck, Goose with one notable addition to the fox, ducks and geese. One player amongst you will be a Viper, holding a knife. Should the Fox accidentally select the Viper as a Goose, the Viper will then chase the Fox around the circle and attempt to stab them. The Viper wins if they are successful in this.
Tortilla Game: Both contestants put water in their mouths. Take turns slapping one another with a variety of objects on the table to try to either make them laugh or induce pain and spit all the water. The objects are: a tortilla, a table tennis paddle, a deflated soccer ball, a ruler, your own open palm.
Red Light, Green Light: Classic! The giant robot turns its head alternatingly between the tree and the field. When the robot is looking at the tree, run towards the finish line. When the robot’s head is facing the field, stop and so not move! Under penalty of being shot, but not necessarily to death.
Sardines in a Can: One person is “it” and has to find the sardines. Everyone else runs and hides. If you pick the same spot as someone, you must either be making noise the entire time, or stab one other. Try not to be found by the hungry fisherman -- a guard with a gun.
Inchworm: One person must get on the other’s shoulders. The top person can only use their arms, the bottom can only use their legs. Scale a ladder as a chamber fills with water. Only one person is allowed to leave the exit, or both people must lose a hand or a foot.
Duck, Duck, Viper: This game is set up like an ordinary game of Duck, Duck, Goose with one notable addition to the fox, ducks and geese. One player amongst you will be a Viper, holding a knife. Should the Fox accidentally select the Viper as a Goose, the Viper will then chase the Fox around the circle and attempt to stab them. The Viper wins if they are successful in this.
Tortilla Game: Both contestants put water in their mouths. Take turns slapping one another with a variety of objects on the table to try to either make them laugh or induce pain and spit all the water. The objects are: a tortilla, a table tennis paddle, a deflated soccer ball, a ruler, your own open palm.
Red Light, Green Light: Classic! The giant robot turns its head alternatingly between the tree and the field. When the robot is looking at the tree, run towards the finish line. When the robot’s head is facing the field, stop and so not move! Under penalty of being shot, but not necessarily to death.
Sardines in a Can: One person is “it” and has to find the sardines. Everyone else runs and hides. If you pick the same spot as someone, you must either be making noise the entire time, or stab one other. Try not to be found by the hungry fisherman -- a guard with a gun.
Inchworm: One person must get on the other’s shoulders. The top person can only use their arms, the bottom can only use their legs. Scale a ladder as a chamber fills with water. Only one person is allowed to leave the exit, or both people must lose a hand or a foot.
... We need mirrors
Museum of Multidimensional Art
Searching through the city will eventually yield the location of the server farm: the special collections section of the Museum of Multidimensional Art. Castor might not know how to care for living beings (including himself, now) but he appreciates their creations, and the museum is an elaborate, sprawling structure with myriad exhibits.
The building itself is a vision of modern architecture, an art piece of its own, and the slanted doors open into a wide foyer with an arching thirty foot ceiling. From it is suspended a wire sculpture, each piece arranged separately so that standing from different positions in the foyer creates a different visual impression from each angle. Is that a bird, or a whale, or a baby? The overall effect is something like cloud-watching with wires.
Other pieces on display vary widely with examples from across every dimension, such as a framed photograph of a dress that some might see as blue and black, others white and gold, and other interesting exhibits. There are, of course, plenty done in more traditional mediums, but even those tend to be experimental in some way.
Special Collections
Special collections is located in the basement levels beneath the museum. An elevator provides access to those with either a keycard or the abilities to hack past the security system, and then characters are presented with a massive open-air chain-link framework serving as a gated wall, protected by its own locks. These no keycard will pass, and must be dismantled with other means.
Beyond is, at first, actual art. Several levels have nothing but vertical slide-out racks containing carefully preserved paintings and other works, and one must wander past them to encounter the final door before multiple floors of stairs that descend to the server farm. It's impossible to miss the transition, as the final door is a chambered air-lock they must pass through into a space fully devoid of air.
Heart of a City
Similar to Aurora's server floors for those who've been there, there's an additional sub-basement level with machinery for constructing companion bots, the equipment non-functional and utterly silent in the vacuum. Without air to carry vibrations, sound is impossible -- hopefully, anyone pursuing this has another way to communicate.
One more level down is a massive white-walled cavern, the stairs simply ending, cutting off abruptly above a pool of cool blue liquid stretching out before them. Bulky inert vines of mixed organic and inorganic matter wind across the ceiling and down the walls toward the liquid.
Set in a wall to the side of the stair's landing is a more conventional computer terminal, and a place to key in commands. A softly blinking red light indicates emergency. Opening the briefcase Aurora had provided with the associated keychip reveals not a hard drive but a mechanical seed resembling the winding vines.
Booting up the terminal will prompt a series of questions, and for those with enough computer knowledge to move through them, ultimately, instructions: throw the seed into the pool.
Searching through the city will eventually yield the location of the server farm: the special collections section of the Museum of Multidimensional Art. Castor might not know how to care for living beings (including himself, now) but he appreciates their creations, and the museum is an elaborate, sprawling structure with myriad exhibits.
The building itself is a vision of modern architecture, an art piece of its own, and the slanted doors open into a wide foyer with an arching thirty foot ceiling. From it is suspended a wire sculpture, each piece arranged separately so that standing from different positions in the foyer creates a different visual impression from each angle. Is that a bird, or a whale, or a baby? The overall effect is something like cloud-watching with wires.
Other pieces on display vary widely with examples from across every dimension, such as a framed photograph of a dress that some might see as blue and black, others white and gold, and other interesting exhibits. There are, of course, plenty done in more traditional mediums, but even those tend to be experimental in some way.
Special Collections
Special collections is located in the basement levels beneath the museum. An elevator provides access to those with either a keycard or the abilities to hack past the security system, and then characters are presented with a massive open-air chain-link framework serving as a gated wall, protected by its own locks. These no keycard will pass, and must be dismantled with other means.
Beyond is, at first, actual art. Several levels have nothing but vertical slide-out racks containing carefully preserved paintings and other works, and one must wander past them to encounter the final door before multiple floors of stairs that descend to the server farm. It's impossible to miss the transition, as the final door is a chambered air-lock they must pass through into a space fully devoid of air.
Heart of a City
Similar to Aurora's server floors for those who've been there, there's an additional sub-basement level with machinery for constructing companion bots, the equipment non-functional and utterly silent in the vacuum. Without air to carry vibrations, sound is impossible -- hopefully, anyone pursuing this has another way to communicate.
One more level down is a massive white-walled cavern, the stairs simply ending, cutting off abruptly above a pool of cool blue liquid stretching out before them. Bulky inert vines of mixed organic and inorganic matter wind across the ceiling and down the walls toward the liquid.
Set in a wall to the side of the stair's landing is a more conventional computer terminal, and a place to key in commands. A softly blinking red light indicates emergency. Opening the briefcase Aurora had provided with the associated keychip reveals not a hard drive but a mechanical seed resembling the winding vines.
Booting up the terminal will prompt a series of questions, and for those with enough computer knowledge to move through them, ultimately, instructions: throw the seed into the pool.
❬ MISSION NOTES ❭
📌 — Please make sure to use the major events comment thread specifically to announce character actions that have a significant impact on the mission outcome or other characters. In this mission, the outcome will be largely determined based on events reported here. Please also report if your character dies while in Pollux.
📌 — This is a meta-plot heavy mission with opt-in heavy / intense content. It will last until there is enough IC activity to determine how it ends. The mission wrap-up post will summarize actions taken by characters and what the ultimate outcome is.
📌 — For all questions relating to this mission, please refer to the mission queries comment on this post. Other questions can be directed to the FAQ.
📌 — This is a meta-plot heavy mission with opt-in heavy / intense content. It will last until there is enough IC activity to determine how it ends. The mission wrap-up post will summarize actions taken by characters and what the ultimate outcome is.
📌 — For all questions relating to this mission, please refer to the mission queries comment on this post. Other questions can be directed to the FAQ.
no subject
You are like a child asking to lick the spoon... [All except one strip is placed on the bun. That last one, Vergil brings to Nero in spite of his mild admonishment.] Would you like some ice for your hand?
no subject
[Nero takes the bacon with a victorious grin, immediately putting it in his mouth. Truth be told, he's fucking starving. That burger is gonna be an endangered species here in a moment.
It occurs to him that actually, this is probably an explanation why he's having a hard time getting healed up or getting his powers to listen to him-- on top of needing the practice. Being hungry never helps.]
Yes please. You got anything for my face? Paper bag, maybe?
no subject
Perhaps your uncle has a pair of sunglasses or an obnoxious hat to distract from it that you may borrow until it heals.
[He takes one of the clean rags for cleaning the kitchen before walking over to the freezer and gathering up some ice, bringing the little bundle over to Nero.]
no subject
Which honestly, he still hopes is sooner than later.
He gratefully accepts the bundle of ice, adjusting it a little bit and then setting it against the back of his left hand knuckles. Both of his hands are jacked up, he's sure, but he'd rather prioritize his dominant hand to start with.
He regards the throbbing sensation with a hum, and decides to ask what's on his mind.]
How do you focus on something? Clear your mind and all of that. You're always so good at it.
no subject
Practice, like most things, [he says, at first. Although Vergil recognizes it to not be a particularly instructive.] When I was a boy, I often had a difficult time with my thoughts racing around.
[It's not something that should come as a revelation to Nero. Vergil's tendency to spiral can still sometimes go beyond his ability to independently cope with it, after all. But it was certainly worse as a child, and especially when he didn't know of any way of managing it whatsoever beyond an emotional outburst.]
It made it challenging to sometimes fall asleep or calm down if I was upset. Mother taught me to narrow my focus on something in the room with me. If I thought of anything unrelated to whatever it was I was focused on, I was to set it aside and try to notice something new about whatever I was observing until nothing else came to mind.
We used the stuffed animal I slept with the first time, although she was talking me through it the entire time. [So, Vergil's attention was arguably split between the toy and his mother's voice, but the outcome was the same.] I no longer need a physical object in the room to accomplish the same thing now, but that was how Mother got me started.
no subject
If it's something I'm interested in, like music or a project, I can focus real good. But if not, it's like bouncing a ball off a wall, going all over the place.
[He gazes at the ice pack on his hand and decides to try with that. The physical throbbing sensation is already drawing his attention quite well, so maybe that will be easy to focus on.]
no subject
[Vergil turns off the burner, transferring the patties to the bun in a neat stack and adding the finishing touches of a slice of tomato and some pickles. He comes around to the other side of the kitchen island, placing the burger on its plate more directly in front of Nero. Vergil places a hand carefully on Nero's shoulder.]
Eat up. If you're still hungry, there are some fruits and vegetables in the fridge or some jerky in the cabinet next to the refrigerator.
[He gives Nero's shoulder a light squeeze before ruffling his hair affectionately and stepping away to contend with cleaning up the small amount of mess made in pursuit of the burger now in front of Nero.]
no subject
Hungry as he is, he'd much rather focus on that burger. When Vergil delivers him the plate and a hair ruffle, he reaches back to bump his elbow against him in an affectionate little nudge.]
Thanks, Chef Dad. You're the best. [Cornball as it gets, but hey... check this fucking burger out. Bacon and everything, and it looks amazing.
Maneuvering the burger into his wounded hands takes some effort, but he will not be defeated by something as petty as broken bones. Practically unhinging his jaw, he takes a massive bite of the burger and sighs approvingly.]
Gah da, da. [His mouth is full.]
no subject
[Vergil glances back at Nero from by the sink with the dishes. He has a slight, quiet smile undermining any admonishment about Nero's table manners.]
...I am glad you like it, though.
[He knows what Nero said in spite of the mouthful of burger inhibiting his ability to enunciate properly, but Vergil arguably wouldn't need to with that much enthusiasm in Nero's tone. And he is pleased Nero likes it enough to forego manners to say as much.]
no subject
[There's a few moments of peaceful quiet as Nero chows down. When did Vergil get so good at cooking a burger? There's an art to making the outside brown enough without overcooking the inside or drying it out, and he's mastered it at some point.
It's difficult with his injuries but Nero's so hungry he still manages to down the burger in an alarming amount of time. There's not a crumb nor a sesame seed left on his plate a few minutes later when he washes the last of it down with a few glugs of his beer. Then a quiet, satisfied burp (covered by the back of his hand.)]
Saved the best one for last just for me.
[There. Now that the black hole in his stomach is plugged and he's not starving to death he can think about literally anything else.]
no subject
Only the best for you, child.
[He thinks Nero is laying it on a little thick, but he is not about to start complaining about it. Vergil accepts the praise for a burger well done (heh) without any further remark on the matter one way or another.]
Should I still be concerned that I might find a chunk of the kitchen island missing when I turn around again, or are you feeling satisfied for now?
no subject
[And he doesn't. So the kitchen island is probably safe for now.
Nero recovers the bag of ice from where he set it aside, giving it a press to his other knuckles to try and soothe them. It's funny. He referred to the black hole a minute ago, but it really is like there was something missing. Something totally drained out of him in the fight that is now sitting in his stomach, waiting to be digested.]
Now let's see about this focusing thing.
no subject
[He remains meditative like this as he gives the sink a quick clean and rinses out the sponge before replacing it in its holder. Vergil only directs his attention back to Nero once his hands are washed and dried, the kitchen now officially closed.]
no subject
This little fiddly direction though? He's not used to that. Though by the time Vergil has finished with the dishes, Nero feels like he's making some good progress. He's called up that feeling that comes with his power, the warm tingling sort of energy, and managed to direct it into a specific place. Instead of the proverbial moving his limbs, now he's trying to move a finger. Four fingers, rolling along his left knuckles from his pinky to his index finger. One, two, three, four-]
Ow.
[It's a sensation like his knuckles popping, accompanied by a little swell of power that Vergil will likely notice. And similar to popping knuckles, it doesn't hurt so much as it briefly acts like it's going to hurt, then releases like a good stretch.]
Fuck.
[He blinks and stares at his left hand, then shakes it out. The swelling has gone down, the bruises are fading, and the bones don't hurt anymore.]
Fucking shit, what the fuck...
no subject
[As Nero swears a bit, Vergil hums thoughtfully before answering the question. Or at least providing his theory as to "what the fuck" just happened.]
It would appear your healing ability works not too dissimilar after all. If I had to speculate, it was already working without your awareness as you were coming into contact with the pavement. What damage you sustained is likely minor compared to what it should have been for that reason. [Whatever extent of Nero's increased durability in that form probably could not fully account for scraping against pavement at that speed and with that much force.] But because you threw everything you had into the attack in the first place, you needed a bit of food and rest before being able to access it again.
[Vergil tips his head a little. He doesn't believe Nero has specific control over his healing factor so much as he is beginning to learn how to draw on smaller amounts of his demonic power instead of the entire well.]
Have you ever tried only transforming part of yourself?
[He means on purpose, of course. Not as he had as a teenager, which was more akin to a chick becoming stuck in its shell than a demonstration of control.]
no subject
He just needed some purple orbsNero nods vaguely at Vergil's explanation. He won't pretend to know that much about demon shit, which is why he asks his father in the first place, but that makes as much sense as anything. His power was diminished after the fight and he needed to refuel before he could expect it to work at all. If he keeps practicing with these small bursts of power, maybe he'll learn to use it more efficiently.
Like. Silver Bullet-ing into an armored goon and grinding his most-of-him into a paste on the pavement is going to take a lot of power regardless, but you know. Efficiently in other ways.]
Is that a thing? I mean, I tried pretty fuckin' hard to un-weird my arm, back in the day. [Which doesn't count, because he was absolutely clueless and by no means in control of powers he didn't even realize he had.]
But no, not really. I'm kind of an all-in kind of guy.
no subject
I am able to do it, [he says although sans any sort of demonstration lest he be accused of showing off as Nero sometimes mumbles and grumbles under his breath.] And I would assume your uncle would be capable to as well.
[Even if Dante has never actually tried to do it, he's had enough time and grown in other ways with his own demonic power that Vergil doesn't doubt Dante would be able to master it quickly at this point.]
It stands to reason you should be able to given that. Perhaps it is something for you to practice after you've had a chance to recover and once we return to Etraya. It may allow you to sharpen and hone other abilities further.
[Such as any mirage weapons or projectiles he might manifest. Not that there aren't many instances where Nero's general approach isn't warranted, but there may be other times where a bit more restraint and conserving some of his energy will serve him better. He has a good enough sense to know the difference of when to use which approach, after all. He just needs the practice and technique to make it happen.]
no subject
He moves the ice pack over to his right hand, pressing his knuckles into it. He'll try fixing that in a moment.]
Show me? [He gestures at Vergil with his head.] I wanna see how you do it.
no subject
[Only Vergil could perhaps be so matter-of-fact when being provided with an opportunity to show off. At least in this family where a little bit of theatricality tends to go a long way in terms of showing off. Vergil, however, possesses a little more restraint, and ultimately sees it more as Nero having the opportunity to learn than it is showing anything off per se.]
[Taking a step away from the sink, Vergil turns to provide Nero with enough of a view to see the whole process. Or, at least, what amount of process there is to be seen. Nero will likely sense the small surge of demonic energy from Vergil as he manifests his tail, the start of it forming in the same spot it ought to be and much the same way were he to fully transform the rest of himself.]
I do not imagine it to be too dissimilar to how you manifest your wings.