Post by Delilah A. Black on Oct 17, 2013 11:02:34 GMT -8
Originally, I was going to post all of the stuff Delilah has done in one fell swoop in a different thread. Now that there's a new thread approaching in which shit will need to be done, and I have to post one of the things I've been working on for nearly a year in order to make it viable. I can answer any questions, because, inevitably, some stuff will get left out because there are unrelated events that happen between these that make for a lack of continuity. Just ask a specific question, and I'll answer.
September 2012
Gone.
They were gone. Kiyoshi, Stu, 'Unfettered'. Dead, defected and missing. The battle for the Crow's survival had left her scarred, dreaming constantly, even while awake. It wasn't the death and destruction she had witnessed, she was used to that...it was seeing Kiyoshi's brains and blood spatter against the ground, pattering the ground like rain. Smelling the coppery tang of his blood, hearing the whumpf of his lifeless body hitting the ground immediately after.
It was losing 'Unfettered', her oldest and closest friend, her mentor, the man she would follow into hell without so much as a glance backward. He was her raison d'etre, and that was what made Stu leave. Or so she thought, they hadn't discussed anything. One morning, he was simply...gone. It was hearing Oliver cry in his room in his sleep every night since his father had left, since he had realized "Herr Patchy" was missing. It was seeing Marcus coated in Kiyoshi's blood, the mourning cries of all the soldiers who had sworn their fealty to him.
Sure, Crows had more than survived. 'Teal' was back, and they had barely suffered any casualties, save for the Zero's. And she knew 'Unfettered' was safe, somewhere, though she did not know where or how long he would be there or who he was with. In her mind, unless she knew those details and could see he was well for herself, he was still missing.
Delilah sat in the dark of her apartment, crouching in shadow with her back to the wall and a glass of the Crow-made vodka in her hand. It was strong stuff, if flavourless. She still wore the new Uniform 'Teal' had Talon make for her, for Kiyoshi's funeral, which had wrapped up hours before. Still reeling. Still mourning.
The raven haired woman took another sip of the clear alcohol and rubbed her tear stained face with an oil blackened hand. How long would it be before she was gone? Or someone else she cared about died? Oliver? Marcus? Lucien? She had already thought 'Teal' had died, had grieved for him and everything after the bombs had fallen. It seemed so hopeless and inevitable. If there was one thing Delilah knew well, it was the business and finality of death. And she knew her turn was approaching quickly, especially as long as she stayed in a dangerous situation.
But...she couldn't bear to think of it. Losing everyone she ever cared about, especially 'Unfettered', was too heart wrenching, too maddening to consider. But she knew it was a possibility. And what would happen to the Crows if she were to die for whatever reason? To Oliver? The World?
After a moment of staring vacantly into the clear glass, Delilah downed the last of it and set it down with a loud thunk, getting to her feet. No. She couldn't allow the land and people she loved to not be defended in her absence, whether she was alive or not. Her drink hazed mind drifted to the plans for David's Christmas present. Extrapolate. Simplify.
...She needed to test the theory first. David's present would need to be as complicated and intricate as possible. The ultimate test of her abilities...and then she could narrow it down, see what worked, make it basic.
Her mind whirling, she stumbled off to the work desk of her garage to work on theory and design. And to test the most vital piece of this puzzle;
Her Qi.
December 2012
Delilah sat behind her desk, hands shaking violently in pain as her Qi receeded into her skin. She watched it pool on the desk, studying with tear filled eyes, hoping, waiting.
It evaporated.
The mechanic cried out in frustration and slammed her hands down hard on the table, making all her tools jump. WHAT WAS IT? What was she missing? It had worked when she did it with the clock-work dragon. What did she do then that she wasn't doing now?
With an aggravated sigh, Delilah leaned back in her chair and pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes. Okay. Breathe. What were the properties of her Qi?
It came from her body.
How did she manipulate it?
With thought. Or with instinct; her Qi usually reacted to danger or her anger, often of it's own accord. Resistant to electricity. Armour or spikes. Liquid like when on her skin. Affected her density, which could shift on que. Permated down to the bone, not affecting marrow or the inside of the brain; coating it instead. Which is why, if she had the misfortune of breaking a peice of her Qi off, it hurt like a mother fucker.
Fuck, it hurt to break her Qi from her body. It was worse than any stab wound she had ever recieved, even the ones that had hit her right in the bone.
Realization dawned on her and she slowly lowered her hands, wide eyed. "Oh."
Delilah leaned forward again, eager this time as she formed a thin, needle like protrusion from the tip of her finger. This time, she purposefully layered it on top of her skin and pulled part of her flesh up with it. Steadying herself, she picked up the bowie knife she used to crack the Qi from her body and let it hover for a moment.
God, this was going to hurt.
She brought the knife down, and she barely managed to stifle her scream of pain. Cradling her now bleeding finger to her chest, the raven haired woman slowly opened her eyes, lookung for her Qi.
A small bubble of silver liquid had formed around the small chunk of bloody skin she had cut off the end of her finger. Minutes passed, and still the Qi did not evaporate.
Delilah grinned. She had her missing piece, at last.
February 2013
Tireless months of experimentation had led the mechanic to numerous conclusions about her Qi. Not only was it inexorably tied to her body, it could only exist outside of her body with a peice of herself. The size of the peice was not relative to how much was cut off, or bled from her body; it just shifted density to make up for the lack of area to cover. Another very important factor was that her Qi grew back. It always replaced itself, in the same way that blood in the body is replaced even when lost in considerable amounts. As long as not all of it was hacked off at the same time, it wouldn't take forever to grow back. The only drawback was the excruciating pain of the Qi being cut from her body.
Which is why she surmised the Qi was so protective, hovering across bits of her flesh and blood like a shell of a sort. It also reacted violently when threatened; to Delilah, it seemed her Qi was trying to protect it's wounded host, and reacted based on her instinct. If it was bonded to an inanimate object as well, it defended that object as though it were Delilah; she had tricked her Qi into thinking objects were her.
The Qi bonded better to flesh than it did to blood, but blood provided a wider surface area for it to travel across. Her Qi also tried to wrangle the blood against the peice of flesh as much as humanly possible as well. The extrapolation of her ideas, adding her Qi to foreign objects, was currently aiding in the defense of the the Crow territory; underground, in the border walls, on the sides of buildings, her Qi was infused into hollow crevaces, to be triggered only when there was danger. Unfortunetly, the Qi was rather indiscriminate; if it was a Crow solider attacking a wall for example, the wall could very well spear him in the face and kill him then and there. Thusly, she had given orders to cordon off certain areas, or provide a more narrow passage to avoid triggering such traps. If the Crows were assaulted again, an order would be given to draw back from certain areas, and stand on their fringe. Her Qi would do the work from there. There was a large portion of her qi infused in these areas; Delilah estimated that by now, she had removed almost all of the original sources of her Qi at least twice.
But that was just defense; she had an idea for offense, but had yet to implement it's prototype.
Now, she was simplifying. Making small, little things, like jewelery that was not only infused with her blood and flesh, but her Qi as well. The idea behind these was to be a portable means of defense, only triggered when the wearer (or the necklace) was in life-threatening danger, or when exceedingly angry.
She had even taken care to infuse parts of her Qi along places in her new Valkyrie armour. This way, she didn't run the risk of potentially breaking her armour, even though she had pulled pieces from it to combine with her flesh in the jewlery she was making. So far, though, the simplified construction was limited to trinkets; jewelery and pins. Stuff that could be worn, and was stylish.
She already had Cain's design in mind, and had made something special for about a third of the people she didn't want to see die, ever, in her lifetime, hence why she included tiny pieces of her Valkyrie armour...armour that could heal the mortally wounded and renew them, if only a handful of times.
Once she was done this, she would begin construction of her offensive strategy.
April 2013
The offensive idea had turned out to be much more simplistic than either of the ventures she had put in place earlier in the year. Delilah had devised a similar system to how Crow territory was defended, except it was in portable form.
Thin boards of 4 x 6 plywood were to be glued together with a combination of her blood and flesh, with her Qi melded in between. When the plate was stepped on, the Qi would take that as an attack on the flesh it was protecting and would explode outward, spiking all over the wood at the target that had assaulted it.
No one would think twice about running across a board of meaningless plywood.
The plan was to make at least five hundred of these, to form a front line of sorts. This allowed the feild to be as wide or as long as humanly possible. This, like the other Qi traps she had floating around Crow territory and around certain necks in Long Beach, was not a static creation of a spike. The Qi would jab out, receed, and then jab out again so long as the threat remained, like a wasp.
...which was a perfect name, now that she thought of it. Wasp Boards.
The mechanic leaned back in her chair, smiling tiredly. Her work wasn't yet done, but she had enough fail safes in place to put her mind at ease. Almost.
There was still one idea that was still forming in her head. One that centered around the little trinkets she had given to the people she cared about most. In case if she ever died...
Nodding to herself, the raven haired First bent forward again and picked up her pencil, starting on her final Qi related project.
All she needed was a catalyst.
