I: Pyre - Tumblr Posts
pyrecoren:
date: august 25th, afternoon location: somewhere in the desert status: open to all
As the hours passed, the walk only seemed to get longer. It seemed that for Pyre, everything was going wrong. Glancing around at the crew, trudging beside him, he knew that it would be impossibly for him to hate any one of them. But now, it was hard to feel that when every conversation was leaving him feeling more terrible than the last. For now, it would be best to just let them all be. To complete his mission, as should have always been his first (and only) priority.
But then, he glanced to his left. A few yards ahead, one of the crew had fallen, and seemed to be struggling with getting their bag back together. No one else around them seemed to notice, and Pyre sighed, quickening his pace to meet them.
“Hey,” he approached them, leaning down to grab some of the items that had fallen into the sand. This was a part of his job, he told himself. He couldn’t let someone fall behind. It didn’t matter who they were; taking care of the crew was what he had signed up to do. There didn’t have to be any emotions about it. “Let me help you with that.”
Slumped shoulders and sweat-soaked brows littered the mismatched crowd slowly moving across the unforgivable desert, marching to a broken beat of an unbalanced war drum. Despite the early hour of their mission, DATA could see the weariness of the heavy heat slowly seeping beneath the thin cotton sheltering the sensitive skin of the organics and hybrid crewmembers. They would likely leave this planet with souvenirs of stinging sunburns and mischievous sand, somehow finding its way into any vulnerable crevice. DATA, however, would find little familiarity in their grievances.
Escaping the suffering heat by nature alone, DATA was content to walk beside his fellow friends and bear the heaviest of packs. His steel frame, unlike humans, did not bend beneath the combined stress of the desert sun and abundant supplies. Or so he thought. His knee, a mechanical joint only just repaired weeks earlier in a routine inspection by his creator, suddenly gave in to the persuasion of gravity, buckling beneath the heavy weight he dared to hold.
Confusion invaded his gaze as he stared down at the crooked limb and alerts of the limb’s defection filed his vision. Bracing his own hands against the coarse grains encasing the landscape, DATA prepared to push himself back to his feet by determination alone. The sudden emergence of friendly cadence relieved any insecurity surrounding the uncooperative joint still stubbornly sitting in the sand despite his initial efforts.
“Thank you, Pyre.” Granting him a polite smile, customary to those who had obtained some achievement of friendship, DATA allowed him to assist him without argument. Without the obtrusive weight on his back, DATA was able to manipulate his weight to rest on the functioning leg as he straightened back up to a standing position. Once secure on the still shaky limb he would have to ask Theon to look at, a reluctant action that would only happen in the aftermath of a hesitant apology; DATA held out his hand to once again take the pack he had been assigned to carry.
pyrecoren:
date and location: august 26th, the east side status: closed for @curiouscalculations
At ten minutes into the mission, Pyre knew he was going to have trouble concentrating, and it wasn’t going to be as simple and easy as he imagined. Between the constant stream of unnecessary banter in his ears–much of it rudely directed at him, and the confusion of the group he was sure he was supposed to be a part of leading, nothing seemed to be going well. Of course, their instructions were unclear. Scope it out, take things that look valuable. Directions, sure, but Pyre definitely preferred going in with a detailed plan. At least they had the armor on; it made him feel a little more secure.
“Shit,” Pyre jumped at the sight of someone coming up out of the corner of his eye. Of course, it was DATA, and Pyre was sure he had a smile on his face behind the mask. DATA wasn’t the worst out of the crew–he didn’t have the capability to hate Pyre, after all, but still, everything bad that had happened to Pyre in the past two days seemed to go back to the night DATA found Pyre in the galley.
“DATA, not now. We need to concentrate,” Pyre mumbled, straightening up. He was not interested in dealing with DATA, not now, not when so much relied on him not to be at all distracted.
The mission, DATA knew, was most likely going to end in failure. Limited knowledge in every aspect necessary for their success would not allow them to gain any advantage. Although they had yet to run into any other alien life, the reading of his armor’s sensors when paired with his own analytics showed that the building was not unoccupied. Whether their company was opposed to their presence would determine the probability of their survival. The only hope they could hold was that of minimal damage, both from the resulting anger of the benefactor and the likely injuries that would develop as a consequence of the possibly hostile environment they found themselves in.
The strained voice heard over the comms halted the friendly greeting sitting on the tip of his tongue. Swallowing the cordial words with a sinking feeling in his gut, DATA moved his covered gaze away from the man he thought was quickly becoming a friend to survey the hallway of the facility. “My apologies,” he said, his voice short over the buzzing background static ringing through his ear.
Bringing up the limited blueprints provided prior to their arrival, DATA searched for some way to be useful for the quasi-leader of their mission. “If we continue down this hallway, we should approach a juncture that will allow us to continue to the West Wing: our desired destination.”