ataraxion | [003: Video]

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[003: Video]

[When the video feed starts up, Laughing Beauty looks to the camera nervously, still unsure if making this kind of request was the best to do publicly. But what choice did she have? LB knew she couldn't do this herself.]

Hey, uh -- heheheh -- hi.

[Yes, this was already getting off to a smooth start. LB gives the camera an awkward smile, before continuing.]

There's a lot of people here who can fix things... right? So, if anyone had any spare time, I was wondering if they wanted to try to fix-- [She swivels her communicator around, in a blur, until it focuses on a broken down, unoccupied Octopus Suit. With it occasionally sparking and one of it's tentacles broken apart, it's certainly seen better days, to say the least.]

I, uh... [The camera focuses on her face, deep in thought as she tries to think of a convincing lie as to how her suit got broken in the first place. After a while, however, she glances away from the camera.] Ah, fuck it, I broke it in a fight. But it's okay! Heehee! I... don't think I'll have to worry about that person anymore.

[Which is her roundabout way of saying that she hadn't seen Zer0, since after the fight, and she was pretty sure she killed him (even if that wasn't actually the case). It was a little sad, because he seemed like someone she could be friends with, but it seemed that wasn't the case. Regardless, she's not admitting to anything.

As she scratches her head and generally looks uncomfortable, it might be easy to tell that she's possibly hiding something.]

A-anyway, I'm not sure what I can offer anyone in return, but I guess we can discuss that later.

[After that, she had intended to turn her communicator off, but there was another burning question on her mind, lately. For this inquiry, she hesitates even longer, before finally spitting it out.]

Also... does anyone know if the masks give you any power or benefits? Hahaha? For a while, I had a bad feeling about them, but lately? I've been wondering if maybe I've been thinking of things in the wrong way.

[LB positions her deceptively cute mask next to her face, mimicking the expression with a smile.]

Besides, I'm no stranger to wearing things that are unsettling.

But - ah - that's all, I guess. Eeheeheeheehee... thanks in advance.

[[I've got it planned out for Peter Parker to fix the suit, but people are still welcome to inquire about it!]]

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LB it is, good to meetcha.

Name's Mordecai. As for bein' a vault hunter, well. I guess I shouldn't say we're all that good, 'cause there's always new kids comin' in to try and make a name for themselves, and dyin' left and right. But me and Lilith and Zer0 and a few others actually know what we're doing. These aliens, the Eridians, lived a long time ago, and on a buncha planets they sealed up these huge monsters for some reason. We still don't know why these things are out there in the universe in the first place, but the prisons the Eridians made, we call Vaults. Lotta times, there's other good stuff hidden away in there as well. So we go around, tracking these things down, find ways into 'em, then kill whatever alien freak is lurking inside. For profit.

It's nice to meet you too, Mordecai.

[She flashes a brief smile, before staring at him quizzically as he explained his story to her. Wow, that was a lot to take in.]

It's kind of like the soldiers and PMCs, from my world. There really isn't any "good" or "bad" side anywhere.

But, heheh, you guys are more or less treasure hunters? It sounds exciting, at the very least.

Treasure hunters, bounty hunters, mercenaries for hire... It all comes with the job. [He grins.] That, plus we've spent a lotta time defending some of the towns on Pandora, which is the planet we all met on. So throw in a dash of celebrity on toppa everything else.

Damn... that sounds like a lot to do, all at once. Hahaha -- I was just more or less a mercenary of war for hire, specializing in guerrilla warfare. But because I was kind of the face of that particular PMC, I suppose I was a sort of celebrity too. [Had an entire magazine dedicated to her unit, even.] But from the sounds of it, your fame was probably a little more well deserved.

Eh, well. Some people'd disagree. But when you're in that kinda business, you'll always make a few enemies.

It's only natural in anything that requires any degree of fighting, I suppose. Heheheh -- so what kind of treasures did you guys manage to obtain anyway?

[She pauses, remembering a word she learned from a troll she spoke to earlier.] Was it "swag"?

Heh, well, not what I'd call it. Lotta guns, lotta cash, from less-fortunate explorers that get eaten by stuff we've killed. But in the case of the vaults themselves, it's been a little different from what we expected. First one gave us jack shit, or so we thought, but it turned out the aftereffects took a while to show up. Uh, an' explaining all that'd take ages, though I can do that if you're really that interested.

Second vault, though, that one gave us a map from the Eridians to other vaults around the universe. Ends up they went everywhere, locking things up. So now the question is how many can we get to before we get too old? [He laughs, shaking his head.] I'll prob'ly be doing this 'til it kills me, but at least it's more exciting than anything else I could be doing.

Well, guns are always nice, in our kind of work, I suppose. Eeheeheehee -- and I'd like to hear it someday, though I won't press you about it now. [a beat passes.] I always find that other worlds are more appealing, or at least more interesting than the one I came from anyway.

But, from my understanding, all of these "vaults" just had tools to defeating other enemies, yes? Hahaha? If so, why dedicate your entire life to it?

Well, the payoff is huge, since a lotta the guns we get I don't want, but they sell real well to gun dealers. An'... I dunno, I kinda like the thought that I'm making the universe better, I guess. Eridians locked away these monster things a long time ago. Maybe they couldn't get rid of 'em for good for some reason, but we can. Better than waiting for them to find a way out so they can kill everyone.

The challenge is the main thing, though. I'm sure you know about the thrill you get from killing a challenging opponent. The skill that's involved, an' all that. There's nothing like it. [He smiles, though he is seriously disappointed at the lack of opportunities for such a thing here, and it's audible in his voice. Going around killing shipmates for fun wouldn't exactly be taken well by most everyone.]

If you're looking for a challenge, I guess I can understand, on that aspect. Hahaha -- sometimes it gets a little dull around here though, in terms of that. But making the universe better? I don't know... it just seems like that would be a really daunting task?

[But after a moment, she smirks, shrugging.] But maybe that just ties in with the whole challenge thing.

Yeah, well, that part's not really the main goal, like I said. Just a nice warm fuzzy feeling to go along with the cash and adrenaline. It's too big a task for someone to do within a single lifetime, so it's not like I'm out there tryin' to clear the whole universe up, just a few parts at a time. The regular people in town, though, it makes 'em appreciate what we're doing. I don't see anything wrong with that.

A sort of peace of mind, then? [Because see, now that? That was something she could relate with.]

There's nothing wrong with it, I suppose. Hahaha -- I just wouldn't want to go risking my life, if I didn't think that there was something beneficial I'd get, in return.

But if those townspeople mean something to you, I suppose I could understand.

Well yeah, if there wasn't something I'd get in return, I'd be doin' something else. I got into it for the money and the guns and that part's been well worth the effort.

Heheh, I suppose so. But what kind of weaponry do you get anyway? Hopefully something pretty "swag", if you're basically trying to save humanity.

I'm tellin' ya, I'm not trying to save humanity, it's just a side-effect. [He grins, though. He'll take recognition for something that impressive-sounding, sure, why not.]

I come across pretty much everything you can imagine. I keep the sniper rifles and revolvers for myself, though. The good ones, anyway. There's a lotta shit out there.

Well, to stay alive then, but "saving humanity" sounds a little more impressive, haha.

I guess, if you travel all over for all of that. But you don't get anything revolutionary? Like say... laser guns or some other crazy thing like that?

Yeah, there's alien weapons, and there's weapons the gun companies make using that technology now that we have the means to do it, but I've never really run across one I wanted to keep. The Eridian stuff is pretty powerful, but it fires slow. I'm a big fan of tech guns, though, which probably qualify for the kinda thing you're thinking of, but those are normal, in the time I'm from. Fire exploding bullets, or bullets that also electrocute when they hit, stuff like that.

Stuff like what you're talking about only really seems possible through our suits and maybe through different kinds of bombs.

Either way, wars around your planet must be especially vicious, with tech like that.

Don't think there's been a real war on Artemis in a while, unless you count the gangs, but every planet's got those. Pandora, though, that place is where I was before I got here. And it's pretty rough. No law, just a bunch of mega-corporations all with their own private armies fighting with each other for control of the place, an' with their imported slave labor now just a bunch of psychotic inbred bandits that shoot anyone on sight... Yeah, it's a hell of a place. If you can survive there, you can live anywhere. Been there five years now.

No wars... [It was hard to imagine, a world without wars. Even if she had been on the Tranquility, for four months, and it had been relatively peaceful, it was also a pretty small contained place.] But it still doesn't sound too appealing with so many PMCs battling it out -- haha -- in that regard, it sounds not too far off from the place I was from.

Wouldn't be appealing to most people, no. But it means there's a lotta money being thrown around by the big players an' it's not real hard to get in on it if you live long enough and know where to point your gun. Still, I'm ready for somethin' else. Can't stand bein' in one place for too long.

In either case, good luck getting whatever it is you search for.

Heeheeheehee... I know that sometimes what you really desire for isn't always the most easy to obtain.

Yeah, that's for damn sure. Thanks, I guess.

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[003: Video]

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