telepathy/action; terraforming and venom powders

[inject]

A; telepathy

Sounds like it might be worthwhile using those terraforming guns to further protect the base from this upcoming hurricane. I've made some plans for ditches and dykes to break up the surrounding landscape. It'll take some time to do, and many hands make light work. I'm looking for people to assist me in doing this.

[ The entire message was delivered in a brisk, no-nonsense sort of tone. Valentine swiped some diagrams this way and that, deleting and raising other troughs and peaks from her design to see what might be best, even as she spoke. ]

I'd suggest three of us, each taking one of the seagliders. If we find any useful minerals while terraforming we can stock the base. [ And there's a faint, withering sort of amusement in her tone now: ] And if we find any more discarded jewellery, well, apparently someone on the base has a use for it. We can take that too.

B; action

[ Valentine can be found hard at work in the labs. She's currently using one of the scanners on a compound of Rabbitray venom and Gasopod enzymes. She didn't seem too thrilled with the experiment, expecting it to be bust. But who knew? A lot of great scientific discoveries had come from something like that.

She also had a small amount of crash powder waiting for her use. If you came close... ]

Don't touch that. [ Her voice was terse. ] I don't have much left.

((There is now a mission thread for this!))

Comments

a;

[splinten]

I'm in.

Discarded jewellery is just what we need.

[It really isn't. But terraforming is, and he's down for that.]

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Glad to know you have the same priorities.

[ The sarcasm of telepathy. Can it be felt? ]

Two should be enough, unless you want to bring a friend. We have another seaglide.

[splinten]

I don't know if any of my friends would be safe around you.

[Valentine, you're so scary. ...Not that Dirk is remotely scared of Valentine. Maybe he means it as a compliment somehow.]

Maybe your home decorator should take the third spot.

[That sounds like Comedy Gold.]

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[ WHY.

She sucked in a deep breath. ]

Sure. Why not.

You're babysitting him this time.

HELLO

[showybusiness]

[ A robot voice chips in, excitedly: ]

Ohhhhh, is Dirk coming with us? He's fun! And has pony figurines!

DAMMIT

[inject]

[ Deliver her from glam, amen. ]

I didn't realise you were coming at all.

[splinten]

Fuck yeah. We should keep an eye out for any pony-shaped coral while we're working.

[Dirk is not babysitting Mettaton. He would rather calmly watch Mettaton go loose, and occasionally punch any sharks that are rude to him.]

[inject]

Outstanding. I hope there's an entire reef shaped like horses.

[ She mocked and now she was suffering for it. Oh well. ]

[Action] | hopefully this is okay :'D

[bonomial]

[Don's been doing a lot of work with the Shell Sub mk. II near the labs. When he's working, it's easy for him to get into a groove and forget that others are around, so he's not as alert as he normally would be. He's also not currently working: crouching down was getting tiring, and Don wanted to limber up his legs. What better way to do that than exercise?

With the room mostly empty right now, save a droid or two scurrying around, there's plenty of floor space; Don is taking advantage of that right now, doing repetitions of one of his favourite kata: a bo kata. Spinning the staff like an extension of his wrists and arms, jabbing it forward to strike at invisible Foot ninja... he is very much in the zone right now. Even dodging around the droids isn't throwing him off. Splinter would be proud.

It's for precisely these reasons that he does not notice Valentine. Sure, he hears people around, but he's pretty sure that's just Dirk, or Roderic, or someone else who frequents the labs; anyway, he hasn't had any troubles with the people in the base yet, so why worry too much? Alas.]

hell yes

[inject]

[ You didn't get to become nearly thirty in Lab ZERO without knowing when someone like you was around. Now perhaps Donatello wasn't a scientist-ninja-double-agent-supersolider, and maybe he had the heart of gold shining bright and unearthed from under the dross of scepticism and necessity, but Valentine knew they actually had a bit in common. He was definitely at least the first two, and likely had the strength of the last one. So she had a bit of interest in him.

So when he took his bo staff out in the labs and began to practise his kata with it, she didn't snap at him to stop. In fact, she leaned up from her work and watched him. Avidly.

It wasn't just that she loved anything to do with eastern asian styles of fighting. He also moved the staff in a way that made her think achingly of Patty and her IV Pole. That meant that his form was perfect. His spacial awareness, when you considered the drones, was excellent.

When you considered her... well, she was good at being absolutely still. So he got a pass on that one. A pass, but not flying colours.

She applauded in slow, deliberate claps when he reached the end of the set. ]

Not bad.

yay!

[bonomial]

[Don tries not to startle at the sound of Valentine's voice. He'd let his guard down again, too used to other people's presence around him now... a grave oversight. He makes sure his expression doesn't show his shock when he turns around.]

Thanks. I try to keep in top form.

[Not quite a lie, but he hasn't been doing the best job of this in Iniidae. There isn't any point in covering up what he was doing, either, so...]

You recognize this? [A faint gesture, at... well, himself. Hopefully her answer will let Don know just how much he should be worrying.]

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[ She was tempted to respond with a sarcastic Yes, we've met before, but decided not to be a pain. She did gave a small smile and a dip of her head. ]

Yes. Ninjitsu. Bo kata. I prefer a naginata to a staff, but they're both serviceable.

[bonomial]

[Don doesn't know if he should be worried or impressed.] Is that part of the training they give at your medical school?

[Nervous joke. Probably inappropriate.]

[inject]

[ She arched a brow, her smile obvious even under the surgical mask. ]

You'd be surprised at what skills you need when you go into medicine.

[ Especially medicine in the field provided by Lab ZERO. ]

[bonomial]

[Man, and he thought he was the only doctor around who'd been trained in the fine art of ninja butt-kicking. It's so weird seeing Valentine smile like that.]

Heh... sure sounds like it. [He knows he should be worried - this is a prime weak spot - but he can't help but be curious.]

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I suppose it's tit for tat, isn't it?

[ She reached a hand down her shirt front to draw out her scalpels. How they stayed in there without hurting her is a mystery for the ages. True Lab ZERO training. ]

Might as well show you what I can do.

[ Or at least a small bit of it. ]

[bonomial]

[Amusing choice of words considering where those scalpels came from...

Don respectfully backs off a little to give Valentine room. All the fights with Bishop, Stockman, the Shredder and Karai... they remind him of how dangerous his foes could be. He never got the chance to stand there and study their techniques.

The fact that she's willing to show him, though... either it's some kind of trap, or this is genuine.

He's not sure how to feel, if it's really the latter.]

Hajime.

[inject]

[ Hajime. Reminded her of Hallow. Valentine gave a wistful smile that vanished in a blink.

Turning in a sharp arc, she threw her scalpels in a fan towards the interior wall. The scalpels sailed through the air and embedded themselves in a heart-shaped pattern.

A Dead Cross slammed its way into the middle of it.

Her motion was smooth and easy, and the throw of the latter might make Don think that she'd been trained in shurikenjutsu. The Dead Cross was essentially a hira-shuriken, after all. ]

[bonomial]

[Whoa. Valentine is not messing around.

Even before the scalpels thud against the wall, Don has calculated the likely angle of their strike - but he has to admit, those wrist motions are impeccable. The scalpels are almost perfectly perpendicular to the wall; if that had been an opponent's eyes, they would've hit dead-on.

He's especially impressed by the heavy Dead Cross piercing the wall in the centre. Something that asymmetrical has to be hard to aim with.]

... Nice.

[He'd whistle, but that seems a little over the top.]

[inject]

I'm good at what I do.

[ Unfortunately, now there were dents on that wall. She sighed, lifting up the Builder and assinging the proper tools to reinforce the wall. She tugged her weapons out and stowed them away for safe keeping. Never knew what you could reuse! ]

[bonomial]

[He's almost nervous to approach, but eventually Don steps up to analyze the wall himself. The dents remind him of the walls in the Lair during one of Mikey's not-too-rare slip-ups with the 'chuks.]

No need to worry about these. The drones will patch the holes up. [Indeed, one of the drones is already wobbling its curious way over.]

[inject]

[ No point to her having the tool she'd just picked up, then. Valentine tossed it down without much issue. ]

Aim isn't my only speciality of course... but a lady has to keep some secrets.

[bonomial]

[He almost smirks at that.]

I think we all do. [Don steps aside to let the drone pass him, where it immediately begins to reconstruct the dented wall.] It gets tougher to pull it off in such a cramped space, though.

[He may or may not still be berating himself a little for being caught.]

[inject]

I've considered trying it on the island... but I have a feeling I need to adapt to the water more, first.

[ She needed to, after all. Not much underwater fighting was done in the business of Lab Zero, after all. Oh, some - there were Dagonians back home, after all - but not much. She felt irritatingly lacking. ]

The base is more than adequate in the meantime.

[bonomial]

Maybe we'll eventually get some kind of dojo space. For the moment I want to focus on finishing my latest project, but new rooms are always good.

[Don can't help but wonder where Valentine does her training, now. He's never actually seen her do it... Is she just co-opting some of the hallway, or using one of the rooms that's less frequented?]

[inject]

And what project would that be?

[ Call her interested. Science and ninjitsu! Donatello was a turtle after her own heart. ]

[bonomial]

[Trying not to brag, or even show his excitement much, but it's just too cool and he smiles a little more than he intended anyway:]

Nothing too big - only a submarine.

She's going to be equipped for deeper dives and be able to be patched into the database networks, and I'm making sure she's got a means of defending herself. [Because he is not stupid enough to expect that Reapers, or some other nastiness, won't come calling.]

[inject]

[ She seemed impressed. ] Is that so? It's about time the base had one.

[ ... Staying closer to home and exploiting the resources there to make way from terraforming was best, but... ]

If you need any assistance with it, I could make some time.

[bonomial]

I've got it covered, but you're welcome to come check it out if you're interested. The whole base is gonna be using it, anyway, so you may as well get comfortable with the sub while she's being built. [He's still smiling. This is one of the few moments where Don really looks like the "teen" part of his age.]