002 | video/action

[commandertoolbelt]

[ Man, does Leo ever look irritated when his face shows up on the network this time. And rattled; he's just woken up after trying to hack the machine, missing something very important to him. ]

Okay! I get it! Don't touch the machine, don't hack the machine - even if that's literally a gods-given ability of yours - just don't do anything with the machine. I get it! Now can someone -

[ The camera suddenly goes nuts, and there's a loud thunk as it hits the floor. Leo curses in Greek, and you can see his hand as he struggles to pick the thing back up. It takes about a minute, and a few poor excuses for attempts that end up with it clattering to the floor yet again, before he manages to keep it in his hands (yes, plural) without dropping it. He lets out his breath in a huff before continuing. ]

Can someone please explain how a machine can take away your sense of touch? Because this isn't funny! I mean, on the one hand, I can't feel pain anymore than I can anything else, so I'm practically the next best thing to invincible right now. But how do I get it back? I need that.

[ action ]

[ No, seriously, this isn't funny at all. He's walking back from where he found the machine just fine - thank the gods this place doesn't have much in the way of steps, or that could be a disaster - but everything else is pretty much a no-go. Someone probably got a good laugh of his attempt to hail the network, but this is actually the worst thing ever. He can't feel, can't taste, can't even tell if he's on fire unless he happens to be looking in the right place. And every now and then, out of sheer frustration, he does catch fire, and if Leo catches it, he has to just stop and breathe for a moment.

If you have something breakable, you might want to keep it away from him until further notice. And it looks like his power over mechanics is null with his sense of touch, too, so you might catch him sulking as he trails his hand along the wall, trying to sense the mechanics that make the walls move or something in the rooms he passes, or anything at all. When he isn't doing that, he'll be glaring at the phone when it isn't casually falling out of his hands like the floor is the love of its life, alternately trying to sense the workings inside of it or to set it on fire.

If this isn't Tartarus or something, he must have at least gotten thrown into the Underworld, because Leo is pretty sure this must be what the Fields of Punishment are like. ]

Comments

[ video ]

[noblexcompanion]

[ Really, kid? Really? Why does no one ever listen to the incredibly loud mouthy ginger? It's not like they can't hear her, so why does no one pay attention to her words?

She rolls her eyes. ]

Didn't I warn you to stay away from the sentient machine that gets pissed off easily? Didn't I warn you it would punish you?

[commandertoolbelt]

[ He scowls. You are not making this any better, Donna. ]

You don't get it. It should've worked! I should've been able to get into it. [ If anyone could have, it should've been him. And now he doesn't even have his Spidey senses for machinery. Fuck his life. ]

[noblexcompanion]

[ Well maybe he should've listened to her then! She warned him bad things would happen. She warned him specifically not to mess with the machine because bad things would happen!

Men! ]

You're not the first one to try and fail. Plenty of other geniuses have tried before you!

As for the touch thing... Be careful in the shower. That water gets pretty hot. [ Donna learned the hard way how easy it is to scald yourself when you can't feel the temperature of the water. Her skin was a blistery mess for awhile. Good times! ]

[commandertoolbelt]

I never said I was genius. [ Even if his siblings say he is; Archimedes was another son of Hephaestus, and he was a genius if there ever was one. Leo will never live up to that. ] But I should have been able to do something.

The heat won’t bother me, [ he says dismissively. Or did she miss the part where he set himself on fire against those blobs? ]

[noblexcompanion]

That machine is more powerful than any of us here. It's just the way it is.

[ Hey! He could be some kind of fire alien that spurts fire but who's to say such fire aliens can withstand hot water? The universe is vast. Strange things exist. He could be one of them.

Don't judge her. ]

Also. Stay away from sharp knives.

[commandertoolbelt]

I'm a mechanic, [ he says stubbornly. ] Any other day, I can sense machines or mechanisms through walls - I've even made a lock move before without even seeing it! One machine is nothing. But I can't even sense it anymore.

[ He doesn't think you get it, Donna. Even if he could feel anything, not being able to sense things like normal... It's like part of who he is has been stolen.

He sighs. ] Guess it's a good thing I always stuck to fire and hammers. [ Thank the gods he's never relied on swords or knives or whatever in a fight. With his luck, that would be a complete disaster. ]

[noblexcompanion]

[ She gets it. Her best mate lost his timey-whimey senses for awhile. She wanted to throttle him for most of that time. But then, she'd gotten to experience just how overwhelming those timey-whimey senses were and when she stopped it was pretty darn quiet. ]

You'll have to hope it's temporary and hope the machine takes pity on you and gives back what it stole. Just... try not to piss it off any more!

[commandertoolbelt]

[ He's kind of nursing the thought that it was just a fluke, and he messed something up. How that works, exactly, hasn't quite registered, but that's not his problem right now. ]

Yeah, right. Am I supposed to, like, apologize to it or something?

[noblexcompanion]

[ Don't go getting any more bright ideas, kid. Next time the whole place might pay for his stupidity. ]

Couldn't hurt. Try baking it some cookies...

[Video]

[narcissistictendencies]

[The face on screen is squinting judgingly at you, kid. Okay, so at one point, Tony really had been considering tinkering with the Machine himself. Because, hey, that what he does. He tinkers and he gets himself in trouble. He really should write a self-help book titled 'Bad Life Decisions of a Mechanic' so people knew what not to do in day to day life. Fortunately, someone else beat him to the punch, lest that would be another lesson to add to his book.]

Not sure I'll be much help in that area, kid, but what exactly did you do?

[commandertoolbelt]

I tried to hack into it. [ And if anyone should have been able to do it, it should have been him. ]

[narcissistictendencies]

Yeah, I kinda got that part. [His frown deepens, but he doesn't sass off more than that just yet. He was mostly curious just what he was trying to gain from hacking it. Information? Their freedom? Or if he had a specific goal in mind at all.]

Okay, well, I've noticed when I tend to royally tick off the Machine, the consequences gradually disappear on their own after I start... behaving again. But I haven't tried anything that stupid. [Yet. Because he'd been about to. But he really isn't going to mention that now.]

[commandertoolbelt]

About the only thing I could do now is set the place on fire, and I'm not planning on that, so. [ Then again, his control over the Blessing is imperfect at best. It could still happen. ]

And it wasn't stupid, [ Leo argues. ] I can usually get into any machine I want, no problem. Now I can't even sense them.

(I apologise for Tony.)

[narcissistictendencies]

Yeah, let's not do that. I don't see any fire exits lying around.

[He continued to pin the video feed with a look.] So can I, kid. Mine may not be a--what did you call it--'Gods-given ability', but there's very little I can't do. This thing has the power to bend us to its will--I think--and you go poking at it with a stick?

[Hypocrite, much Tony? But something catches his attention and he eases off a bit. Curiosity getting the better of him.]

Sense them? ...you literally mean a Gods-given ability, don't you?

and I for Leo.

[commandertoolbelt]

What else was I supposed to do? Things like this don't fix themselves, and there's kind of some important stuff going on back home. You know, the apocalypse and all.

[ He's normally not this vitriolic, but losing his power shook him pretty deeply. Leo's method of coping? Lashing out. ]

No, I mean I made a deal with the devil, [ he says impatiently. Since coming here, he's lost all sense of caring who he tells about his divine heritage; there doesn't seem to be a point to it. ] Of course I mean it literally. [ Or did you miss the part where he actually said it was literally passed down to him by a god? ]

[narcissistictendencies]

Yeah? You think I want to be here, kid? I may not have an apocalypse on my hands, but I was kind of in the middle of trying to stop a national crisis while trying not to get myself killed by fire-breathing veterans. You aren't the only one with something important to do back home.

[Don't worry about it, Leo. Tony seems to invoke that kind of reaction from most people. But Tony raises an eyebrow at the deal with the devil comment, because since he arrived, he'd been informed that's a thing here. Crossroads demons or something.]

I deal with over dramatic aliens who think they're Gods on a day-to-day basis. You'll have to excuse my scepticism.

[But he gives Leo a more critical once-over.] Okay kid, look. I'm not a biologist, but if you want me to take a look, I have equipment in my lab. I'm working with microcomputers, but they might be able to help.

[commandertoolbelt]

I never said I was! But excuse me for trying to take care of that.

[ He'd love to get home, especially if it means breaking everyone else out of this place in the process. Everyone he's talked to so far has something they should be doing wherever they're from, but Leo isn't the type to sit around and wait for a way out to plop into his lap. ]

Yeah, well, the gods are pretty overdramatic. I haven't met one yet who doesn't belong in the crazy bin, especially with the Romans marching on our camp. [ They can't hear him saying that, can they? He hopes not. And screw your skepticism. ] My dad is Hephaestus. So yeah, dealing with machines is literally a gods-given thing.

[ ...Though he can't help but be interested in Tony's suggestion - though maybe not the suggestion itself. His eyes light up with curiosity. ] Microcomputers? What kind of stuff are you doing with them?

[ That basically translates to "yes". ]

[action]

[blackmagus]

[It's not every day that Fortescue meets someone else who can light themselves on fire. At home, pyromancers are fairly common, as far as magic users go. Learning to control flame is one of the early stages of warlock training. Most move beyond it, but some find an affinity. Fortescue's strength is as a voidcaller, working with the shadows, but like all other users, she touches two Planes. Being able to light yourself on fire is a useful skill, she's learned. She's trained herself away from all her other lesser skills as a warlock, but that one she's kept.

Of course, when you can't control it, it's annoying as hell, and it wrecks clothes.

Fortescue turns in Leo's direction with a frown, as he drops his phone for what sounds like the upteenth time. The black cat riding on her shoulders eyes the teenager with curiosity.]

Are you all right, there, darling?

[Stupid question, and her slightly apologetic expression says as much, but someone needs to get it out of the way. So she can get to the part where maybe she can help him. Because she very clearly remembers the time when she accidentally lit her parents' drapes on fire.]

[commandertoolbelt]

[ Leo looks up with a frown, still struggling to pick the phone back up. ]

Do I look alright to you?

[ Okay, maybe that's a little rude. But he has other things to worry about - namely, that he can't focus long enough to figure out how to pick this stupid thing up without being able to actually feel it, or controlling the Blessing so he doesn't scorch his clothes any more than he already has so far. And with the machine angry at him, it's doubtful that he could convince it to give him a change of clothes. ]

[blackmagus]

You look quite stressed.

[She gives him a wry, little smile. It's not a situation that is easily weathered with grace, and she doesn't mind any rudeness in the comment. She had to put up with far worse during the war. From her own colleagues, even. Ivy Chance had had the under-fire manners of a savage beast.]

What happened?

[Fortescue certainly doesn't seem bothered by any flame she sees, although Jazz looks more and more wary by the second.]

[commandertoolbelt]

[ He finally manages to pick up the phone, and breathes a sigh. It won't be long before he drops it again, but hopefully this time he'll actually be able to shove it in a pocket before then.

Fiddling with a flap on his tool belt, Leo watches his movements intently while he answers. ] It took my sense of touch. [ And his machine senses - he can't even feel the workings of the phone in his hand. ]

[blackmagus]

Ah. [No need to ask who 'it' was. The it who watched and controlled them all.] I had that happen to me a few weeks ago.

[And it had driven her completely bonkers. Suddenly this whole situation makes complete sense.]

Not fun, to say the least. But I'm afraid that limits the options for getting over it.

[The machine isn't going to give them anything readily that will negate the 'purpose' this serves.]

[commandertoolbelt]

[ Leo stops, looking up at her with something akin to concern in his eyes. ]

What do you mean it "limits the options"?

[blackmagus]

[She tries to smile as reassuringly as she can, given what's happened. It's pretty reassuring, but this is a tough situation.]

The machine gives back what it takes. But... it might take some time. When I had my ability to feel taken away, it didn't come back for a week.

[commandertoolbelt]

Oh my gods, [ he groans, rolling his head back in frustration. ] How am I supposed to do anything like this?