Shadow of Blue

[data transmission -- to X (_megaman_x, via the Nexus)]

2008-11-14T07:34:06Z

X, if you aren't busy can I meet you in the Nexus or somewhere?

There's all kinds of eggs now -- I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised -- and since you have a lizard already I figured I could check and see if you want some of the eggs?

Let me know what you'd like to do, okay?


Xiao

Roaming a park in Reality Vanish --

2008-10-13T08:31:17Z

It was, annoyingly, starting to be too late in the season for Xiao to be grubbing around on RV's beaches. Or, at least, to get away with said grubbing without having any number of people be less than thrilled when he got home again --

Not my fault I don't have the insulation. Mmf; it won't hurt me ...

-- but at least the parks were still interesting. Maybe even moreso, with the leaves turning colours and all the critters running around and getting ready for the snow to hit. Once Chryses had settled down on his shoulders, gleaming gold, the birds had calmed down.

For a bit he'd been content to follow around a few songbirds and feed them with the seeds he'd brought (now forgotten on a nearby bench, the bag mobbed by little bodies); now he was pulling rosehips from a nearby bush and wondering if the birds could eat those too.

In the Nexus, roaming about

2008-05-16T03:57:35Z

Go figure, this place actually being useful ...

Sometimes it seemed like Xiao always wound up in the Nexus looking for one thing or another.

At least this time he had a purpose; comm. and HUD headset in place, he was scanning though the local network for more information on firelizards as Chryses clambered over his shoulders and hung, trilling, from his ponytail.

He wasn't daft enough to have the visor tinted opaque, however, and kept close attention on his surroundings as he padded through the more active (and network-laced) portions of the Nexus.

In the Nexus : [glimmer in the mind's eye]

2008-05-10T12:59:40Z

Back in the Nexus again; there was just too much going on at home for Xiao to feel comfortable.

Or useful, for that matter -- unless he was staying with Harpuia, maybe, but Harpuia slept most of the time while his internals regenerated from the nanite damage. Xiao's inexperience dropped him into the category of 'tagalong' (if you asked him, anyway) and he didn't like that one bit. Neither did he like the spectre of yet another day of schooling.

Luckily, Xiao had had an answer for all of the above. Nexus time! More precisely, time for Nexus-hopping portals to get to that forest world with all the bees. Bees were fascinating, and watching them flit around and over and in their hives was a good way to kill some time. Filching a bit of honeycomb didn't hurt either ...

Unfortunately, that particular portal had shifted somewhat from the location he was used to, moving further into the 'wilds' of the Nexus. Xiao padded through the trees and moss and sandy patches -- either a lake was nearby, or a beach -- to find his portal when a flutter of activity caught his eye.

What --?

There was an awful lot of commotion over to his left, in a sandy spot filled with ferns and a few trees. Curious now, Xiao started off in the direction of the rustling and squeaking ... and wondered whether he was going to find a nest of baby ducks having some serious issues. What he found was a nest, certainly -- but no duck was a scant few inches long, with long neck and tail and delicate membraneous wings.

Fluttering of green and blue and brown and bronze surrounded him as, startled and fascinated, he sat down next to the nest and the tiny creatures whirled away -- or scrambled, their wings not quite dry, or teleported clear out of sight. A good tree-quarters of the clutch or better had already hatched, the little creatures squeaking and creeling as they disappeared into the ferns or chased down the odd bug trundling through the sands -- or turned on each other, ravenous.

No!

"Stop it!"

Horrified, Xiao snatched a fern-frond and waved it through the fair of hatchlings in an attempt to drive them away from each other. Creeling, a handful fled; the remainder ignored him and resumed their display of intended cannibalism.

An egg -- one of three or four -- cracked open, a little blue body uncurling and already creeling its hunger; Xiao reached for it to try and keep the hatchling from its fellows, but the little creature winked out even as he scooped up the shell.

Damn it --!

Trying again, he reached for an unbroken egg as two more -- blue and bronze -- cracked. The mottled shell fissured and fell away in his hands, revealing a tiny body, glittering gold, that craned its tiny wedge-shaped head up at him with a creel both piteous and demanding. Tiny eyes like burning red rubies whirled, looking at the Xiao ... and then the fighting hatchlings.

"Don't! I'll feed you if you want it, but don't do that!"

The little golden creature creeled at him again, and Xiao felt the distinct pang of hunger and curiosity -- but especially hunger. The strange-yet-familiar sensation registered almost instantly.

Like Zero. It's like Zero.

"I'll protect you from them, I won't let them go after you. Here --"

Reinforcing his words by trying to feel at the hatchling, Xiao dug into pockets and subspace to pull out a variety of small nibbly tidbits and energy-bars. Quickly sorting out the meaty protein ones, he offered one to the little flit --

"I know it's not perfect but it's better than the alternative, believe me ..."

-- and promptly had his hand pounced on with a hungry squeak.

Suppressing a squeak of his own and squelching the thought of how tiny claws in flesh hurt like little points of fire, Xiao broke off smaller bits with his free hand to feed to the little creature before it tried to choke itself on the bar (or one of his fingers) by accident.

By the time the little gold had gorged, calmed, and finally seemed likely to sleep clinging to his sleeve, the rest of the clutch had died or fled. Feeling a pang at the little bodies scattered about, Xiao weighed his options.

Eventually he settled on nestling his hatchling in a little neck-sling made from his ponytail wrap, and then burying the little corpses in the sand before heading home to consult with X and Zero.

at the Tree of the World

2007-03-26T12:18:48Z

I still think it's weird there's hardly any security ...

or maybe they don't care anymore.

On yet another stealthy foray back to his own world, Xiao had taken it into his head to slip away from Phantom yet again -- it was strange staying in Chronias tower now, and stranger in the 0th's domain with the should-be-dead Zero sleeping.

Besides, he'd run into that X in Reality Vanish again; and there had been sharp words, and confusing arguments, and a lot of really weird things.

So here he was, having eeled his way to the base of the Tree in a part of Neo-Arcadia where no one ever went; and he spilled out his frustrations to the unmoving azure form wired and clenched into the Yggdrasil's roots ...

waking the dead ... [rp post]

2007-02-23T04:20:39Z

Well, there it was. He'd been putting it off -- that thing was creepy! -- but now Phantom had already cornered him once.

Granted, Xiao had managed to convince the Shadowlord that he wasn't getting himself in any danger, and needed to see the world before he could govern it; but that wasn't going to work forever. He needed to straighten out Phantom's mind, and he needed to understand what he found.

This 'Zero'. Rockman's heard of him too.

No time like the present ...

And thus Xiao found himself at Proto's door again, and knocking.

Reality Vanish, and recuperating

2006-12-23T12:31:40Z

Xiao had succeeded in finding his way to Reality Vanish after an extended round-robin meander from the Nexus to Rockman's wooded world and back again, with a few stealthy trips back to Neo-Arcadia in between.

Somehow he hadn't been caught yet, but he figured it was just a matter of time ...

And there had been such a massive forest in Reality Vanish! He'd had to go look despite himself. On the good side, he met a human boy named Dekao -- on the bad side, they had been swarmed by feral metools and he'd been injured rather impressively. Despite this, he got dekao on the route back to his own home and wandered back to find the rest of the mets.

On his second trip towards the ruins Xiao encountered Rockman, and the pair returned to Rockman's home -- where mending was undertaken, and a long and interesting conversation was had, including the possibility of staying in Reality Vanish and / or taking political science classes.

Not willing to risk Proto's ire, Xiao parted ways after exchanging commcodes with Rockman, and headed back to the forest-world to nest and let his autorepair do its work while he considered what to do.

If all else failed, he could see what could be found in the Nexus, after all ...

blue_rebirth @ 2006-12-08T14:29:00

2006-12-08T18:29:07Z

Nexus-roaming was proving to be something enlightening, indeed. A question about something called a Holy Hand Grenade (which now seemed even more unlikely), lead to some interesting encounters.

One person claimed that there were no more mechaniloids or repliroids, and got very agitated over some parts of their discussion. This was annoying, but somehting Xiaos was slowly coming to expect.

But he also ran into Rock again, who showed him a truly living world.

Xiao stayed there for quite some time, just -- looking.

It was important that the Council never find out about that world, oh yes.

[nattering around the Nexus]

2006-12-05T11:48:55Z

Such a strange place! Xiao had never imagined there could be so many different creatures -- so many different organic creatures, in any case.

Certainly there had been more fauna on Earth once (as Harpuia was known to bemoan the loss of), but never so much sentient life.

It was ... interesting. And pleasantly unusual.

Before continuing through to whatever other worlds this Nexus might offer passage to, he decided to lurk about and see what he could see.

This was so much preferable to being confined in the tower in Chronias District, oh yes.

[entered into a lightfield data-pad]

2006-12-05T11:40:21Z

Slipping away from the Council was surprisingly easy. Dodging Phantom -- that was more difficult, but I managed it. I want to see, damn it all.

Strange, though; the teleport-pad took me to a place called the Nexus, and it's apparently another world, another universe altogether. I met someone there who took exception to how I should be dealing with things, but it seems to have fallen out fine.

And he knows of X -- two Xs, even.

I want to know more about this different-worlds phenomenon.

Well, this is going to be even more illuminating that I'd thought ...