The Random Scenario Meme 3.0

[emeraldfields]

THE RANDOM SCENARIO MEME 3.0


- Post your character, name, and series in the subject. Include any preferences as well.
- Go to RNG and enter 1-6 for a scene type, and 1-20 for a scene to play out.

TYPE OF SCENE.
① Action → Gun fights, bar brawls, fights to the death are all possible scenarios.
② Angst → Characters suffer emotionally or physically from relationships breaking up, death, injury, etc. Hurt and comfort themes are included.
③ Crack → Genderswaps, super powers, sudden compulsions are all possible outcomes.
④ Fluff → Something that is devoid of angst. It's light-hearted and might have the overtone of romance.
⑤ Gen → General fun, things that didn't fit in the other categories.
⑥ Sex → First times, kinks, even dubcon are all possible themes of sex related scenarios.
⑦ Your choice → Think of your own scenario, choose one of the above or make a combo even!

ACTION.
① Zombies → It's the zombie apocalypse, lock and load!
② Bar brawl → You had one too many drinks, said something wrong, and now you're being asked to take it outside.
③ Chase → You're caught in a high speed chase.
④ Gun fight → You're caught in a big shoot-out.
⑤ Fight with a friend → You're fighting with a friend, all out.
⑥ Interrogation → You're being interrogated for some offense you've done.
⑦ Aliens → Aliens are attacking and you're not going to take your probe laying down!
⑧ Final battle → This is it. The battle that will end all the fighting for you. Will you win? Will you get that peace you want?
⑨ Training → You're not actually fighting, just training for the inevitable.
⑩ No hope → You know this fight has no hope. It's not going to end well for anyone involved, but you can't turn away.
⑪ Sneaking in → You're stealing a diamond or sneaking in to kick some bad guy butt, but whatever it is, you have to practice stealth.
⑫ Blue wire → You're faced with a bomb that needs to be disarmed.
⑬ Fight for honor → You've been disgraced or someone you care about has, so it's time to fight for honour.
⑭ Showdown → Time for a cowboy-style showdown. Whoever draws the fastest wins.
⑮ War → You're caught in the middle of a war here. Remember to keep your chin up and keeping fighting.
⑯ Apocalypse → The apocalypse finally happened and now you're left to scavenge and fight for whatever is left.
⑰ Sabotage → It's time to sabotage someone's plan! How is entirely up to you. Do you set up a bomb in their toilet? Do you double cross them at the last minute?
⑱ Big damn hero → You know you have to handle this one alone, so that means disarming or knocking unconscious the person who wants to join you.
⑲ Fight club → You know the rules... you're in an underground fighting ring and you're fighting with all you've got.
⑳ Threaten → You've just been sent here to rough them up a little, threaten them into behaving.

ANGST.
① Injury / illness → Your character has become injured or ill! To what extent is the mun's choice.
② Last moments → You character has been gravely injured and this is their last chance to say their last words.
③ Depression → Your character is depressed, what actions they take is up to the mun.
④ Betrayed → You character has been betrayed by the other. How do they react?
⑤ Tortured → Your character is being tortured and needs rescuing or at least a sympathetic ear to help him through it.
⑥ Jealousy → Your character is feeling jealous and must deal with it, how will they do it?
⑦ Breakup! → This relationship has gone as far as it can, it's time to breakup.
⑧ Broken → For whatever reason, the character is broken, mentally or or physically.
⑨ Fight → You can't even be in the same room as your friend or lover without arguing anymore.
⑩ Lost → You lost the biggest fight of your life and now all you can do is try to pick up the pieces.
⑪ Worst nightmare → Whatever you fear the most is now real or maybe you're just trapped in a dream together, but whatever it is, it feels too real.
⑫ Addicted → You're addicted to something, alcohol, drugs, sex, whatever. It's destroying your life and you can't do anything to stop it.
⑬ Hurt you → You're being forced to hurt someone you love either by betraying them or even being forced to shout things you don't mean. It's for their own good in the end though.
⑭ Separation → You were forced to leave this person for their own safety and while you've been miserable without them, you really didn't mean to run into them again... maybe it was by accident or you were watching them from afar this whole time.
⑮ Becoming a monster → You are slowly changing, becoming a monster: vampire, zombie, demon, something you can't recover from and no-one can help you.
⑯ Frozen → You are entirely helpless, frozen, to stop some kind of disaster.
⑰ Prison → You were very bad and now it's time to pay the price by turning yourself in or maybe the law just finally caught up to you.
⑱ Fear → You're not sure why, but you are suddenly terrified and you can't deal with it. You need help.
⑲ Hated → You are now hated by the person you loved the most.
⑳ Down and out → You're living on the streets, you've hit rock bottom, and you don't know what to do.

CRACK.
① Sexswap → Uh-oh, you're suddenly the opposite sex!
② Forced confessions → No matter what it is and no matter how hard you resist, you're going to be compelled to spill some deep dark secret!
③ Mind-reading → You've suddenly got the ability to read minds!
④ Animal → You're suddenly part animal or transformed into an animal!
⑤ Awkward pick-up lines → You're compelled to use bad pickup lines on whoever is closest!
⑥ Back in School / Graduated → You're suddenly back in school! Or if you were already in it, you've aged and long since graduated!
⑦ Vampires, werewolves, and zombies, oh my! → You're suddenly a vampire, werewolf, or zombie! Maybe even a demon or a devil, whatever creepy crawly you can think of. What do you do now?
⑧ Ghost → You're suddenly a ghost or at least invisible. What are you going to do with this new ability?
⑨ Awkward conversations → So did you just fart or what? Any conversation goes, as long as it's embarrassing and awkward.
⑩ Crossdressing → For whatever reason, you're suddenly dressed in clothes of the opposite sex.
⑪ Suddenly naked → Oops! Your clothes are suddenly gone.
⑫ Suddenly a kid → You're a kid again! Have fun with that second childhood.
⑬ Fortune cookie → You've suddenly received a note with something that will happen in the future, either precise or vague.
⑭ Super power → And suddenly you're like Superman! Any power goes.
⑮ Bodyswap → Somehow you've changed bodies with the other person.
⑯ Back in time → Somehow, you wound up in the past again. Do you try to correct something or just sit and wait for time to jump? Maybe it jumps to various points in your life or maybe you actually think you're back in the day. Have fun, run wild with the idea!
⑰ To the future → Is it everything you've dreamed? Is it horrible? Whatever happens, you're here to witness what happens to you in the future. Either you take the place of your future self or you're just there to watch. Might cause some confusion if people start seeing double though...
⑱ Angels, mermaids, and fairies! → You're not necessary something dark or evil. You're just something different. How do you deal?
⑲ Locked in a closet → For some reason, you're locked up in a closet with someone else. Do you make nice and try to figure your way out or what?
⑳ Finger trap → You're caught in a Chinese finger trap... with somebody else! You can't figure out how to get loose either... have fun with that.

FLUFF.
① Cuddling → For whatever reason, characters feel like being close and cuddling.
② Pillow talk → After the main event, characters are up for some pillow talk.
③ Celebration → Anniversary or some other big event is taking place and characters want to celebrate!
④ Love confession → Someone has finally decided to confess their love and today is the day!
⑤ Appreciation → You feel the need to show appreciation for that person closest to you, even if it's just a pat on the back.
⑥ Apologies → You made a mistake and now it's time to make it up in some way you know the other can't refuse!
⑦ Get back together → Why did you break up again exactly? Whatever the reason, it was a huge mistake and you both know you can work through it.
⑧ Date night → You've planned for a wonderful night together and you can't wait to get it started.
⑨ Family → You've either found out you're pregnant or you've already got that addition to your family.
⑩ Marriage → You're just about to get hitched or maybe you're enjoying your honeymoon. Maybe you've been together for years now! Whatever the case, it's time for that next big step.
⑪ Meeting again → It's time for that happy reunion finally!
⑫ Love at first sight → For whatever reason, you are now insanely in love with the first person you set eyes on.
⑬ Flirtation → You can't resist to do a little bit of harmless flirtation all of a sudden.
⑭ In the snow → Look outside! It's a winter wonderland, so why not go out and play in it?
⑮ Engagement → You've planned it all out and now it's time to finally pop the question.
⑯ Friendly games → You've set up the game station or board games for a friendly competition!
⑰ Gift → Time to give that special someone a gift just because.
⑱ Recovery → You're taking care of someone who's just recovered from some illness or injury.
⑲ Healing → Time to help mend that someone who's been through hell and back.
⑳ Better than ever → You've finally got everything you've ever wanted here. What is your ideal life and who does it include?

GEN.
① Nice meeting you → It's your first time meeting this person! You bumped into each other on the street, in a bar, at work... whatever!
② Drinks → You're out for drinks! Or just chilling at home with some beers. Wherever!
③ Lost → You're lost and you kind of need help finding your way to where you're going. A little help with directions?
④ Costume party → You're at a costume party, both of you are wearing masks. Do you keep the anonymity or take it off and see whose company you've been enjoying?
⑤ Wrong number → Oops, actually you didn't mean to call that person...
⑥ Drunk → You're already drunk! Drunk dialing, stumbling into someone, showing up unexpected... what type of drunk are you anyway? Aggressive, loving, happy? How does the other react?
⑦ Old friends → you haven't seen this person in a long time!
⑧ Rivals → you're suddenly rivals! Or maybe you have been all along...
⑨ Problems → you've got a problem with each other, just got in a huge fight, whatever. Try to work it out!
⑩ What are your intentions... → This person? They're dating a close friend, family member, etc. You need to find out if they're going to hurt them! Or you need to discuss your friend/family's dating choice.
⑪ I saw you → you saw the other person doing something bad and you need to confront them about it.
⑫ Sorry but no → the other person has feelings that you just don't share. They don't necessarily have to be romantic... maybe you just don't agree with their sudden desire to quit their job and start a business making tiny, fuzzy teddy bears.
⑬ My hero → you need to tell this person how much they mean to you. They've been your best friend or your role model your whole life and they need to know.
⑭ Enabler → you're enabling the other (or each other) to do something bad, really bad. Addiction, stealing, killing, or just any other self-destructive behavior.
⑮ Cooking → Time for an impromptu cooking lesson!
⑯ Oh, sure, I remember you... → It's that awkward moment when someone comes up and seems to know you, but you have no idea who they even are!
⑰ Rescue! → One of you was in trouble, but you came to the rescue!
⑱ Boss → One of you works under the other. Is your relationship good? Are you scheming things? Or do you hate each other?
⑲ Perfect crime → You and the other person have just pulled off the perfect crime... or you're planning to! What are you doing? The heist of the century, an assassination?
⑳ Movies → movie night! Maybe it's a sleepover. Whichever the case, it's time to eat a lot and have fun.

SEX.
① First time → it's your first time together or your first time ever! Enjoy the awkward times!
② Bondage → You and your partner decide to experiment a little with ropes or handcuffs or whatever you'd like to tie your partner up with.
③ Rough / Aggressive → Your characters want it rough.
④ Romantic → Slow and gentle, meaningful, that's how characters want it.
⑤ Dubcon → Character A wants Character B and it doesn't really matter if Character B wants it as bad or not.
⑥ In public → Characters feel like taking a risk and doing it in a public place.
⑦ Roleplay → Naughty nurse fetish? Pirate kink? You and your partner decide to try it out now!
⑧ Healing → You've both fought hard or gone through a rough time and it's time to get some R&R in.
⑨ Last time → This is the last time you're going to this because you're breaking up or maybe your lover is running off to sacrifice their lives in some heroic way. The possibilities are endless, but you better make this one count.
⑩ No strings attached → You're just friends with benefits. Nothing wrong with that, right?
⑪ Anonymous → You met in a restroom or bar, any location of your choosing, but you don't even know each other's names.
⑫ Toys → You're eager to try something new, so why not toys?
⑬ Aphrodisiacs → You've been slipped a strong aphrodisiac somehow and now you absolutely cannot control yourself.
⑭ Show → You're putting on a show by either doing it right in the club or filming it for a bunch of people.
⑮ Ménage à trois → It's time for that threesome you've always dreamed of.
⑯ Non-penetrative → Frottage, handjobs, whatever you want to try out.
⑰ Controlled → You are under mind control and must do whatever your lover asks of you.
⑱ Hate sex → It's not just rough or aggressive, you absolutely cannot stand each other.
⑲ Extreme → Fisting, knife play, whatever you can think of so long as it tests the boundaries.
⑳ Fantasy → This is just a fantasy, a dream, and you know it, but what is your ideal fantasy and how willing is your partner?

Comments

[alterplex]

Curiously, it's the coil of a rising inferno that lends clarity to 'Big Boss's' objective. War is akin to religion in that it absolves the soul for as long as one maintains oneself to it. The smell of fire and the panic that surrounds it is every bit as calming to Venom as the confines of a confessional. He is here to make his sins known, and once he steps out of this hell, it's back to the daily grind.

He bypasses the carcass of what used to be a man, half of his body strewn in bits and the other as a new layer against peeling stucco. Eli's voice is small, frightened, and it hastens his steps.

"Leave the hostage. You can't take him." Their target has no name yet, and thus, is lower on the ladder of importance than the small girl with her sunken eyes. Eli. She is already within the ranks of people that Venom doesn't want to afford to lose. "Listen for the helicopter, and move as fast as you can in the opposite direction."

As for him? Well. He's meant to survive, and that's what he'll do. The pilfered grenade launcher sits comfortably along one shoulderblade, digging a bruise into his scarred skin as he runs for an optimal location, the heels of combat boots bracing in moist jungle dirt.

"I'm taking the choppers down," he announces, as if it's simple as that. Perhaps it is, to a man who resigns himself to the banality of destruction. Another flurry of missiles rain onto the far end of a nearby warehouse, sending it alight and simultaneously alerting Venom of the enemy helicopter's position. Carbon-black cutting through ash-gray; it's all so impersonal, these metal cages acting as monstrous deterrences.

Venom's first shot blasts the behemoth to the side, skewing the trajectory of its path long enough for Venom to reload, dispense with another volley, and send the vehicle screaming through the air to its eventual destruction. The ground rattles with the impact, and Venom can feel the ends of his hair singe from secondhand heat.

[vakna]

She affirms his decision to leave the scientist to his ingenuity and tries to save her skin by using her own. She makes for the low compound wall but the Indonesian seizes her leg as she clambers over the divide and both figures tumble onto the mud slicked earth. The man, understandably puzzled by the abrupt change in his rescuer's directive tussles with an irate Eli while the so-called gunship takes aim.

A barrage of bullets lashes the ground like a serrated whip and when the plume of dirty smoke lifts from her vision she is still holding fast to the scientist's wrist, as to cast him aside, but when her eyes climb his forearm there is no longer a body attached to the limb. The helicopter's assault had made paste of its quarry. She drops the limb and sifts through the gore until she exhumes a briefcase from the remains. She sprints past a gallery of men in white and orange hazmat suits who must have fled from the warehouse for fear of being incinerated with their product.

The impact of Venom's first shot upsets the gunner's grip on the controls and a stray missile sets a nearby patch of jungle alight, the fauna taking to the air; she sees a bird in flames barrel through the sky like a comet. When she emerges before Snake it is after a frenzied dash though the dancing flames. The girl holds out her arm rigidly and proffers her commander the intel.

"I have his briefcase," she says. "I have have briefcase." Her tone is moderated but she seems unable to stop repeating the phrase. "I have...."

[alterplex]

"—Eli!"

His voice cuts through her broken repetition, lifting the proverbial needle from the record. She is unsteady on her feet, mechanical, and Venom wastes his precious time to scoop her into the crook of his arm, to press her bloodied, singed form to him. Somewhere on the other side, Miller furiously radios in with status updates and demands for information. Contained within his speech is an 'I told you so', or a less juvenile permutation of it.

It doesn't matter. This storm has to be weathered, and lectures can come later. Relieving his charge of her briefcase, Venom pulls her thin shoulders from him with a steady hand. The world collapses around them, but he remains a constant.

"We're getting out of here." Obvious, but with conviction. No room for doubt. "Can you run?"

A rhetorical question, considering that they need their feet. Something whistles above them, heralding the approach of a second enemy helicopter hovering in wait for the wreckage of its fallen brethren to clear. It doesn't give them much time to act.

Without asking for Eli's answer, Venom takes her hand and sprints to the side. Ladders unfurl down from the sky where they'd been moments before, and heavily-armed soldiers drop to the ground in neat rows.

[vakna]

"What's wrong?" she asks with knitted brows.

In such singular frame of mind she cannot fathom Venom's "unprofessional" conduct (is he shielding her from harm?), her body limp and malleable within his brace as though the slightest force will bend her any which way despite her awesome strength. She cocks her head and peers at him quizzically because, after all, in her mind she had made her declaration just once. To reiterate it twice, three times, would simply be irrational.

Released she rubs at her cheeks with her palms to clear away the grime and vestiges of the ex-hostage's gray matter, etc., and rights her footing on uneven ground. Epinephrine weaves a current through her frame and stabilizes her like a neurological prosthetic. What came of the suitcase? Did he retrieve it from her? Did she do well?

She starts to nod when she is swept away, her head swivels and she glimpses ladders descend eerily from a sky flashing epileptic white. Out of sight Eli flattens herself against the bole of a great tree and seizes Big Boss's wrist so that it him who is anchored to her strength and not the other way around. Power and powerlessness, slave and master — a whisper in her thoughts, the same.

"Boss, there's only jungle ahead." The growth too dense to permit safe landing whereas the extraction point is beyond the column of armored troops.

"I'm going to kill them. Those big guys. But I can't do it alone."

[alterplex]

His grip slicks with acrid remains of something that used to be human, and the more they wade through mud and grime, the less human he has to feel. If she doesn't understand the way she skips and refrains like a nursery rhyme with one too many stanzas, Venom doesn't comment on it; they have more pressing matters at hand, like the thunder that runs along the ground in the form of footsteps and artillery.

Wild animals scream in the thickets of the jungle. Victims, all of them. How many years will it take to repair the cocaine-burnt wasteland that they're leaving behind?

A useless thought, as Venom feels his limb pull by the socket in a grip from a small hand. The incongruity of Eli's power will always blindside him— he blinks ash out of his eye and rolls the shock out of his sinews.

"You're going to kill them." He echoes. The simple terms sound discordant, but he accepts them as an inevitability. A day ago, that steady voice inquired into pedestrian things like Venom Snake's choice in music: today, they condemn an entire legion to death.

That's life.

"Fine." Is there any other acceptable answer? He knows well enough that gentle morality is a shallow grave. None of the men training their scopes on them, fixing them with the swamp-green focus of their thermals, will give them a second thought. There are more shadows approaching, and Venom hefts his rifle against his chest, dislodging Eli from him in the process. "I'll be the bait."

[vakna]

She looks out at the ambulatory shapes like those of some primordial bog-men wading through the tall grasses. Their hardware tells of the scale of their assignment which, coupled with the helicopters, is tantamount to total cleansing. They burn man and beast, let the inferno torch even the neatly packaged agent of their enmity. She and Venom witness not a territorial conflict but the erasure of an organization by a superior force. They are outmatched in every respect save individual power and Eli, having no illusions of invulnerability, cannot forecast her victory to him. Only that she intends to kill. She is mum for doubt is contagious. If he frets over her his bullet might miss.

She disarms and turns her cheek from the mercenary that her face is obscured. Her shoulder blades touch and separate in a patently discomforting motion and the girl clenches and unwinds her fists once, twice — till her bones shift. Her head pivots his way slightly, tentatively, and she speaks, with passable clarity even, through a mouth disfigured by greatly elongated teeth:

"I'm sorry it's this way."

Her claws split the bark of the tree as she seizes hold of the trunk and leaps into the canopy. She aims to ambush the hunters one by one, prioritizing those closest to Big Boss first; nobody else can have him.

[alterplex]

The planes of Eli's body shift, tectonic plates under a calm surface of skin. Her rumble is an earthquake, and her eloquence between the jagged ends of her teeth cool Venom's blood, like silt settling on the bottom of the ocean.

There's nothing to say to her apology. They can be sorry later, huddled in the comfortable dispassion of a helicopter ironically named.

She bounds forward through the trees, and strikes upon one of the ambling soldiers heading the chase. He's overconfident, drunk on a perceived victory, and doesn't expect the small shadow falling from the canopy to be anything but an animal caught in the crossfire. An unfortunate bird, perhaps.

It's only when he finds his gaze shifting backwards with his torso still faced front, that he realizes his neck's done a full 180. Eli's initial assault is uncompromising and unforgiving, eliciting a string of confused curses in several foreign tongues. The dissonant presence of such a small stature dispatching flesh from bone dulls an otherwise primordial 'fight' response— Venom takes advantage of their enemies' hesitation to pick away at the ranks, one by one, with bullets to skull.

One younger recruit gathers enough courage to lunge at Eli with his machete drawn, blade glinting orange-red in the fire that still rages on behind him.

[vakna]

Is her apology reserved for him, another, or the general state of things? The simplest of statements become the most variegated under scrutiny, but this is no time for dismantling her stance, if she in fact has a stance. The world is an enigma and their botched attempt to retrieve the man confirms it to be so. Nothing is a given, except perhaps the temporarily of events and that of the flesh. One day they'll surely die, yes, the contest of arms will unmake them, but there is yet living to be done. All they have is now.

She spits the unrecognizable remains of a victim's nose into the shuddering leaves. His insistence on body armor has exposed him to such cruelty, although Eli does not particularly care for his pain. Her viciousness merely illustrates the vast disconnect between her treatment of Big Boss and of those who are not Big Boss.

She wheels her head about and entombs her gaze in the eyes of her young assailant. The otherworldly vision arrests his charge, stops him in his tracks. Burning timber and immobility, irregular bursts of gunfire. Eli rises with limbs in repose and regards the boy slowly, who in turn haltingly lowers his machete — whereupon Eli walks up to him and kills him.

While striking out against the last of the gunmen her claw is caught in reinforced Kevlar and won't pry free. He throws a solid right hook to her face and puerile teeth litter the ground. But her fangs endure. She clambers upon him and attacks his neck just as Venom's well-placed shot perforates his heart, and both collapse.

once again, so sorry for the delay...!

[alterplex]

Here they are, stranded in a wasteland of their own making, with only a suitcase covered in viscera to show for their efforts. It's pathetically small, these victories, but Venom will have to take them as they are.

The fruits of their half-completed mission hefted in his bionic, smoking rifle dangling tautly at his side, Venom trots through a field of broken limbs and lacerated flesh to bend by Eli's side. Pebbles of white dot around her like diamonds; he's reminded of the folklore of the kind youngest sibling who dropped jewels from her lips with each good word spoken.

In this case, perhaps she's paid for each death with her broken teeth. If so, Venom should have every bone in his body broken. Equivalent exchange.

"Eli," is what he finally says, breathing in the sulfur-thickness of the air. "We need to leave. Come on."

His practicality nearly borders on callous— where is his softness to compensate for the hell he's thrown her into?— but the furrows along his hard-cut expression speak to a melancholy that he doesn't articulate, and the quiet hand that tries to pry the smaller figure from the still-twitching corpse feel for any breaks in her body, and injuries that he'll have to be mindful of as he carries her through this warzone.

[vakna]

Her concern is for her performance, as physical strife, after all, is an old friend. Pain a familiar visitant that comes and goes much like any reoccurring symptom. While one cannot exactly grow accustomed to impromptu dentistry of this kind they can accept it. She pulls the deadman aside and reclaims her footing with the help of her boss, though she will not meet his gaze while rivulets yet stream down her battered lip. In fact she cannot but smile; not so "pretty" now.

Understandably she is short on confirmations for she can only respond with an incoherent jumble of words like an idiot, and her dignity is all that she has — so no response, merely the tacit nod and the turning away of the face as they head for extraction. Only the bruising on her hands and he, the sole surviving witness, can attest to her abnormalities. Those that are visible to the naked eye.

Flames tear through the compound and yet their return is marked by silence from her end. The weight of failure overshadowing it all.

[alterplex]

They push through unfriendly thickets and leave the screaming wreckage of their previous destination behind, with only the irregular pulse of radio static in their earpieces to serenade them. Somewhere far away is the sound of a friendly vehicle cutting worried circles through fogged, desolate sky— 'Pequod' lists landmarks in a disjointed poem, interspersing descriptions with positions on the face of a clock. Some kind of intricate, demented code: green, three-pronged tree, canyon face, two o'clock approaching three o'clock.

Venom doesn't offer to hold Eli's hand throughout. They come upon the lowered platform of their chopper after a short eternity of scampering, and it's only when the suitcase slicked in gore is loaded onto their extraction vessel that Venom offers his scuffed glove for her to hold, to hoist her up and onto safety before him.

His face is obscured by ash and blood, a far less miserable state than his companion's, but the translucent blue of his single eye attempts to gauge her condition: is she upset? Weary? Detached?

Does she care at all? Where are her priorities?

His only concern is her wellbeing; they've weathered another storm, but her potential emotional injuries alongside her physical are more pressing.

[vakna]

Her hair dances frenziedly as the helicopter descends and it occurs to her that she too should have it tied during future excursions. Or maybe not, the place beside him she had clearly delineated in her thoughts has become compromised. She does not want the suitcase opened lest it contain mere articles of clothing, nothing of use, nothing to solidify her usefulness to Ocelot and Miller and in consequence to Big Boss. A strange irony is at play: she is fixated on his officers' verdict because it may devalue her in Venom's eyes, while Venom is in fact anxious about her here and now; she has value yet—troubled by her performance—she cannot see it.

His hand guides her in though she embarks without effort and when she inhales past her lips her teeth are newly made, if bloodied, as if she's been eating raw meat. His skills as a man of medicine however are still of use. Perhaps his worries are so poignant because it is in his character to heal the wounded.

She sits on the cabin floor with her palms at her sides and her expression anonymous.

"The hostage is dead. Everyone is dead," she says. "I killed a kid." The burning aftermath, squared in cinematically by the cabin, looks like an extract from some brutal Vietnam war epic. "I have nothing to say for myself."

[alterplex]

Her survival is testament enough to her tenacity, but Venom is well aware that the others will have words to say if Eli's baseline is mere survival. The suitcase is light, yet the heavy lock that bolts its faces shut promises at least some degree of importance with regard to its contents; the combination is a mystery, one that can be cracked given the right implements.

That code will be strummed under capable fingers in due time. Venom refrains from touching Eli with the heated metal of his prosthetic (more than once he's burned himself on those scalding fingers, a lesson in trial and error), and instead brushes his covered fingers along the length of her jaw, scouring for damage done after the blunt force of knuckle to face.

"No."

She speaks, and the drag of her words seem to leave a corresponding trail of smoke as they pull away from the mess they've made. The brevity of Venom's response is an attempt to cut through it, to sever the umbilical cord of her thoughts.

"Intel didn't see this coming. None of us were prepared."

His thumb slips over her freshly-grown incisors, slicking enamel with red. The fibers of his gloves catch along the flat of her teeth, and he works carefully to dislodge them.

"What are you really worried about?"

[vakna]

Her eyelid flicks shut when his glove touches on a tender area yet he can observe the bruising pale before him, gradually becoming uniform with her complexion in contempt of natural law. Her wounds readily mend but her tolerance for pain is not an occult boon; experience had fortified her mind much like it did his but for all her resistance she still feels the full brunt of the blow, reverberating between her temples, now a distant gong.

Eli coolly opens her jaws for the cleansing as though it is their custom, par for the course, when in fact the gesture is unprecedented. She gives him licence because he can stomach her bloody sight without trepidation but there is no discounting that the action is psychologically satisfying to her. It is essentially grooming.

What worries her? She could grow indignant, claim her conscience is further muddied by her handiwork, but it would be an untruth uttered in self-defence.

"I have no proof that I'm of use." Merely a difficult mouth to feed. "I ..." the puerile lines of her face harden and her gaze roams without rest "... wanted to be 'needed' ..." she looks to the mercenary, this war-machine whose's intimidating frame blocks out the moon's light "... like I need you."

[alterplex]

Eventually his gestures move towards practicality, touch relinquished in search of water and handtowel. He comes back to her, and the subsequent swipe of damp cloth over soiled cheeks is as religious as a saint washing the feet of his apostle. Nothing quite as absolving, but the ritualism of it stands in the methodological and reverent workings of callused fingers.

Her skin is clean under the layer of anonymous blood. A part of him wonders if he should offer his slicked fingers as sustenance, but that feels far too much like telling a human to feed off of the ground using their tongue.

He sits up, understanding that the response he's been given lacks the shroud of posturing, and feels a breeze of relief at her candor. It floats in comparison to the heavy reality of Eli's worries, the all-encompassing need to prove one's utility.

"...Being able to kill doesn't prove your use." If ever Venom understood how to pad his words so that the impact of them didn't rattle bone, he's also learned that the dampening rarely makes things easier. The crevasses of his scars darken, but they crease in a way that speaks to weariness more strongly than austerity. Like a man who knows that this sentiment, like many of his sentiments, are as hypocritical as his own life. "I'm not here to play judge or jury."

A tip of his head, in silent questioning: what makes you think that you're starting out in the negatives, needing to work your way up?

[vakna]

Her want to establish concrete proof of her worth is admittedly conducive to her survival. She is securing her position with her employers. The staff will inevitably broach the subject of foster care if she does not legitimize her tenure on Mother Base as a dependable asset. Her desire, however, precedes her relationship with Big Boss. Those that came before were equally used by her as she was used by them. It is ... a tenable policy. Her role under Big Boss is a departure from the dynamics of predation that defined her civilian life, but her Darwinian concept of human relationships is unchanged.

Her tongue inches to taste life of its own volition, fanning her lips to imbibe nameless blood and what little remains of the very hostage she tried to save (before Snake is rid of it). The liquid injects giddy reds into her black mood, regardless of her emotional consent, so she is two-tone.

She smiles as a push of the cloth pivots her chin. "There's blood on your face.... You don't care." He is speckled with the stuff of veins and his indifference to it is hyperreal. "It's not blood, it's red." Her smile reveals a trace of enamel. "Jean-Luc Godard."

Eli takes his face in hands. As though in parody of his ministrations. Why do you fret instead of reprimanding me for leaving your side? She sidles near on her knees and places her tongue, warm, against his upright scar, and still holding of his face, begins to slowly lap blood from the crevice.

[alterplex]

The ichor that Venom wears on his face, on his hands, is a reminder to himself of the monstrosity of his missions. Lest he forget, a notion which seems ludicrous by now; he never will, not even when his footsteps echo heroic on the hard surface of their base and his soldiers round around him to gaze, open-mouthed, at the wars their boss continues to weather. He only absolves himself of his filth in that compartmentalized excuse for a shower, boxed in with nothing but his breaths to keep him company. Away from the aural and visual litany of the everyday.

Eli looks to him for proof of her utility, but Venom seeks the same from an unknown entity. Sometimes he thinks he can see his shadow double when the sun hits the sky just so, but it's a fleeting malaise. Like blue butterflies and haphazard peace symbols graffiti-sprayed on heated metal. It seems hypocritical of him, of all people, to ascribe an arbitrary value to her efforts— how does he begin to quantify her when he can barely do the same for himself?

Naturally, he has no words to punish her for her emptyhandedness. He rests his jaw along her small palm, eerily docile for a man who flaunts his demon's horn, and only widens his eye a fraction in bemusement as he feels an equally small tongue brush from his cheek up to fog-blue.

"...Eli." His palms brace on her shoulder, but there's no force behind them; they only rest like sediment, and his jaw tips when her mouth gets too close to his only remaining source of vision.

The question he doesn't articulate is, of course, are you hungry?

[vakna]

Wherever he may turn he will encounter men and women who wish to explore ulterior motives at his expense. They hope that coming in contact with the infamous will unlock a door to self-knowledge which was denied to them in life by ill fortune, environment or poor company. They yearn for a star to light their way and neglect to acknowledge that he is too a man at sea, who must daily ponder and calibrate his course without a star of his own, his guiding light. He has need of angels. When sympathizers and sycophants retire from the table and the royal halls are emptied the great sit alone. None know them like solitude.

The chaos below nourished her well but hunger isn't necessarily an ache in one's gut. Maybe that's what he fears. She shoulders his weight without listing, just her neck when her tongue finally wets his brow. She draws back and reconsiders the mercenary, yet not in anticipation of a reaction. Her slight fingers carefully pitch his head a millimeter to the left then right like those of an antiquarian.

"Is it wrong?" Who has more warrant to pass judgement on her conduct than him? Eli floats closer, her motions dreamlike but ever possessed, and removes two or three perceived droplets from his scarred lip with a measured lap of her tongue. "My ... answer."

[alterplex]

She inspects him, and he feels comfortable in that scrutiny, in the maneuver of fingers to skin. Even the warmth of her is fine to him, her breathing just above the lining of his lips before they dip to close the distance.

That's when he finally uses palms to shoulder to draw her back, before Eli's tongue can breach the seams of his mouth.

"I'm not ascribing a use to your existence."

His thumb brushes along her thin collarbone, brows canyoned in contemplation and pieced-together perspective. Somewhere behind him, the pilot turns on the radio so that he doesn't hear the hushed tones of their conversation— muted synthesizers drone like a dirge, groaning just above Venom's voice.

"Do you think I'd put a bullet in your head, otherwise?"

[vakna]

When she is moved her head bobs as though in agreement, but she'd like to differ. An accomplice acquired by happenstance is still an accomplice. Cautioned as his judgement was he let the girl subscribe to his cause and hence recognized utility. In working toward a common goal their existences are intertwined.

"You already have."

It is his officers, she thinks, that must reconcile with the actuality of his decision. On the other hand, her enrollment in the fold is a flimsy vindication for doing what he did not hire her to do. There are still rules particular to an individual, but does she breach them? He humors her so-called misbehavior only to correct it piecemeal, which incrementally deepens her confusion.

Pensive she watches her collar rise under his thumb with her delayed, inaudible breathing. "No, you wouldn't, because you're complicated." The pilot's courtesy elicits a knowing if a touch contrite smile from the girl. "A bullet from a gun would say it all."

She takes his hand in hers and hooks her fingers in his glove and removes it without breaking eye contact or so much a blink. She settles his naked palm upon a triangle of skin where her collar had come unzipped, holds it, then guides his hand back of her own accord.

"You don't want to touch me, but hesitate and do. Have I forced your hand...?"

[alterplex]

Her freedom wouldn't be hard-won: if she ever had the inclination to leave, Venom would personally make sure that Eli be carted out of Mother Base, but circumstances are rarely so cut-and-dry. Choices are like dreams, oft-contemplated but hard-won.

The comment of him being complicated erodes at Venom's features. His hand on her skin is furnace-warm, blood roiling hot under the placid exterior of his physical shell.

"Not as complicated as you think."

His gaze flickers out of the window, still soot-gray from residual fire. It's a zero-sum game he plays, despite the nature of his character; there's self-deprecation wracked in his tone as bare fingers curl inwards to his callused palm.

"No." For the question of whether or not she forces him to recall the tangibility of the people around him, he only has a shake of his head to spare. "—Just not used to people seeking it out."

[vakna]

She rolls her eyes at his humility. A simple man would commit to his homeland without complaint yet he willfully abandoned his national ties, or so the stories go. The colorful narratives one might not-so-accidently overhear on a nightly excursion agree, at least, on his defection. It follows that Venom's ideas are diametric to the state — the entire world perhaps. Can such a man be called uncomplicated, or else, sane? How far removed is his venture in the Seychelles from that of a cult leader withdrawing into the jungles of South America with his well-armed surrogate family?

She is too quick on the trigger: "Then, why do I ..." Eli's voice ebbs mid-sentence, eyebrows crease, the question has become a sort of epiphany about her mental preoccupation and thus herself "... think about you?" Her eyes fall like setting suns — an impression rendered by their feline luminosity, then regard him again, swiftly.

"Why not?" she chirps, and placing a hand upon the breast of his suit leans in as if to topple him with her diminutive frame, although she does not possess a fraction of his mass. Her elbow bends and her chest — flat, unsurprisingly — is stopped by his. "You are very sexy."

[alterplex]

The cloth that Venom is cut from deserves the credit for warped seams and haphazard stitching, really. Consider a government that grooms maladjusted young men to fight for king and country on solo missions that breed sociopathy: it's the reason for Venom's blasé attitude towards his current predicament.

Eli's not-quite subtle expression of exasperation goes rogue by her own volition, interrupted by a revelation and a question that Venom perhaps anticipated but didn't expect to be articulated so distinctly. Her attachment to him is something that needs to be unpacked, layer by layer. Venom blinks through the dried refuse of blood that cling to his lashes, providing him with minimal clarity but just a sliver of time.

"...It'll pass."

The platitude is, in a word, groan-inducing. Teachings of a lazy parent. Karma strikes back at Venom swiftly for this lame excuse for an explanation, lashing out with Eli's followup observation of his would-be sexiness.

The 50-something looks at a loss, for a single fleeting breath.

"Don't tell me you heard people talking about that."

[vakna]

Eli has no quarrel with Snake's unsentimental attitude toward politically sanctioned villainy. The right to kill is historically exercised by the mighty hence his autonomy is an embarrassment to the nations; he does not work his deathly magic for them. The mercenary is immoral by virtue of independence.

Would she have done the same in his skin? A sociopath can thrive neath the clandestine wings of the secret services, and she can assail a stranger without remorse. She will seldom feel anything before and after the deed though she is loath to admit to it.

Pass, he says, like a fever or set unit of time. It is not so much that the sentiment is cliché to her ear as it is decisively pessimistic, yet can she rightfully argue that affection is not ephemeral when personal experience had taught her to expect, nay, foreknow the extinction of feeling? While men had sworn undying love for her before, Big Boss had discovered the girl alone.

"Noo," she intonates then rolls her lips shut, yet her gaze dances as though cruelly savoring his bemusement. Perhaps timelessness has rearranged her aesthetics but she isn't exaggerating one bit.

"All of you ... are infatuated with masculinity. They didn't say it, only thought it."

Eli lists as if depleted and lays her small cranium on his shoulder, a brief reprieve before her lips close over his ear and start to suckle softly on the cartilage. "But I mean it, through and through." The squelch of saliva is a little obscene, but so what.

She murmurs something indistinct to Venom under her breath, in Swedish.

[alterplex]

All of you. The distinction between the exclusive 'you' and the ostensibly-royal 'you' is often blurred when Eli speaks. Does she refer to mankind as a whole (excluding herself cleverly from it), or the sad reality of poorly-socialized outcasts? Or is there really a difference between those two categories at all?

Venom sighs like a man defeated, the proverbial white flag billowing between his exhales. Bob Dylan plays softly over the radio behind them, interrupted occasionally by static that their pilot smooths over with clever hands. All we are is dust in the wind, the speakers sing. Outside, in the fickle atmosphere of the jungle, rain starts pattering in staccato over the body of their vehicle. Wetness outside, wetness inside.

Rough, careful hands dislodge Eli from his ear, and reposition her more sturdily against his bloodstained shoulder.

"...Is that your native language?"

Again, he maneuvers the topic away from some perceived focus on himself, to the whispered undertones of a language that he can't recall if he's ever learned.