[M&M2e] Red Sands Chronicles

[jkason]

Brian Shaughnessy

As Deezy's mecha lowers the crucifix to the ground, Brian rushes over, pulls out his knife, and begins to cut the man free.

before the melted mutant could do anything, Seif simply cut him down as he strode through. The desert man stopped within striking range of Shaughnessy, his blue eyes hard as ever...

"What - are - you?"

He stops a moment, his grip in his knife tightening. He makes no move, however, other than to clench his jaw. Then he starts cutting the leather straps again as he says, "My name is Brian Shaughnessy. Some people can fix gadgets easy as cutting bread, some can find their way through the desert in the dark well as full daylight. I move heat around when I concentrate right. If that means you have to treat me like one of those ghosts, go for it, but at least let me get this man free of what they did to him before you show everyone more of your special talent for killing."

 

[Binder Fred]

With a metallic ring and a meaty *chunk*, the tip of Seif's left sword impacted deep into the wood right between the young man's hands, severing the leather cord he was working on. "You are no longer a child, Shaughnessy. The time for explanations is now."

 

[jkason]

Brian Shaughnessy

With a metallic ring and a meaty *chunk*, the tip of Seif's left sword impacted deep into the wood right between the young man's hands, severing the leather cord he was working on. "You are no longer a child, Shaughnessy. The time for explanations is now."

Brian whirls as he stands, and the temperature in the immediate area is now palpably warmer with the rise in the young man's anger.

"What do you want me to explain?" he says. "The world is full of heat. I see it, and I can move it around the way most people can shovel sand. Concentrate it in one spot and things catch fire; force it to disperse and things freeze.

"The Ottoman pulls blood out of these Ghosts with a wave of his hand and you don't blink twice. I've done nothing but help this excursion since I signed on, and you know it. So, tell me, what is it that has you so upset: my 'secret,' or that it took your brilliant tactical mind so long to discover it?"

 

[Binder Fred]

"Sorcerors I have worked with before, idiot boy," answered Seif -- the frost in his stance tightening down, hardening with each attempt to make him loose control (And then red, nothing but red). "Mutants are not masters of themselves. They are madness, fear, and pain. And every child of every tribe knows in his heart that normal ones are the worst: a whiff of aether, a shadow on the sun, and their sanity shatters, becomes-" the skin around his eyes tensed up with all too personal memory "-something else." He focused back to the present: "You told me not to hate you, Shaughnessy. *You* believe you are a mutant, don't you?"

Brian noticed his right arm pulling back the slightest bit.

 

[Shayuri]

There was a creak and a groan from overhead, and a rounded piece of battered metal slowly lowered onto the back edge of Seif's sword, pressing down with the strength of hydraulics and its own weight to keep Seif from lifting it, or pulling it free.

"Don't hurt him," echoed Deezy's voice from the belly of the Beast looming overhead. "He hasn't done anything. IF something happens, and he loses control, THEN we'll stop him. He deserves that chance though."

 

[Binder Fred]

The desert man briefly looked up, eyes narrowed, to where he imagined Klatta to be: "Ticking bombs should be disarmed."

His gaze turned back down. He didn't try to wrench his sword free -- but then he still had its twin grasped firmly in his dominant hand.

[sblock=OOC]I'm going to guess that Deezy is pressing down on the still-extended sinister sword, the one that cut through the leather between Brian's hands?[/sblock]

 

[Shayuri]

(Yessir!)

"He's not a bomb," Deezy said gently...or as gently as blaring loudspeakers could be. "He's a man. You don't kill someone for what they MIGHT do. Everyone knows that. Everyone's dangerous. Heck, I could push the wrong button, overload the reactor and take out everything within a kilometer of here. None of us knows what the future has for us. You can't judge someone on that."

 

[Binder Fred]

"He's not a man, he's a mutant. Aren't you, Shaughnessy?"

 

[Relique du Madde]

The crucified man slowly regained consciousness as the group spoke amongst themselves. After a moment his low calm voice could be heard, "The Great Spirit recognizes even the most monstrous of the mutants as his child because even he knows that little separates man from monster and animal from man. So no matter what, we are all his children, no matter how hated, feared, or despised one maybe."

 

[jkason]

Brian Shaughnessy

Brian found himself relieved and grateful for Deezy stepping in and standing up for him. Though it didn't seem to be doing much good with Seif, the fact that someone he'd only recently met showed trust in him relaxed his own grim tension. The temperature in the area regularized as Brian regained control of himself.

"He's not a man, he's a mutant. Aren't you, Shaughnessy?"

Brian was about to fall into another comeback when the man they had saved spoke. The young man sighed, then, clearly exhausted both physically and emotionally.

"My mother said our family has always had these kinds of gifts, back even before colonization," he said calmly, slowly. "I had a great great grandfather who apparently predicted the migration up here; even named most of the cities. My aunt can force anybody she meets to tell her only the truth, and my mother could read the history of an object just by touching it. There's a second cousin I'm told can move objects with his thoughts, but other than her and me, usually our gifts don't have such ... physical manifestations.

"So, no, I'm not a mutant, but I also can't point you to the spellbook that I learned this from or the tech that makes this possible. And 'idiot boy,' I may be, but I'm smart enough to know that, without those things, most folks will believe whatever they want or need to believe, so keeping quiet about it seems the best way to stay alive."