outsiderslogs | merc killin'

Entry tags:

merc killin'

who. the eclipse initiates.
what. merc killin’
where. various locations on omega.
when. various times this week.
warnings. Murder, likely blood and gore.

The Eclipse initiates won’t find they’re given too much in the way of direction when they’re given the information on their targets. Eclipse doesn't care how they do it, as long as they get it done, in the end. The biggest rule is to make sure they don’t get caught, and that it can’t be traced back to the initiates.

The would-be mercenaries are given some very basic information and cut loose. Complete the kills within the week, and come back with proof.

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"I mean, come on, who's going to suspect the stupid pizza boy, right?" Marco can certainly come up with better ways to get this done, but most of them involve not being on Omega to begin with and remaining a mediocre junior high student in a world with no crazy alien bullshit. Failing that, this is his next best bet.

"I've got every single high score ranking on every House of the Dead machine within fifty miles of San Diego."

"A zapper and a real gun aren't the same," Arthur says dryly, but it is a good basis for the gun that he can use. Plus, he can use it to show Marco how to fire a gun.

He turns to get the gun he bought recently in prep for assassinating Liani.

"I won't get into the fancier options on the gun, but I'll show you how to aim, sight and fire, and how to put the safety on and off."

"Whatever works, dude. I just need to be able to point and click at someone, not field-strip it and write you a repair manual."

Marco shrugs. People have been telling him video games were a complete waste of time and wouldn't give him any applicable real-world skills for his entire life; all he's hoping now is that what they said about how he'd be desensitized to violence and murder would turn out to be true.

So far, so good. His moral alarm bells haven't started screaming at him yet.

"You sure? It could come in handy," Arthur says with a wry expression on his face. Still, he takes out the pistol - the one he bought to kill Liani with - and starts showing Marco the basics. He doesn't let him fire in the apartment, but he does warn that there will be some recoil.

Once Marco tells him his target should be hitting the bar, they go to lie in wait.

"Good luck," Arthur offers before going to wait around the corner, pretending to be a loiterer examining his omni-tool.

Maybe someday in the distant future, Marco will care about being able to take care of a gun, but this isn't even his gun, and he's decided he just needs to know the bare minimum to get the job done.

He tails his target for a few blocks, until they get a little bit out of the way of the main foot traffic around Afterlife. He knows the path to take, and sprints ahead by a block so that he can plant himself near the alleyway he picked out earlier. The pistol's hot at his side.

It's over quickly because Marco doesn't let himself get psyched out about it: flip open his omni-tool to pull up a map, pester the tipsy Patrick for directions, turn down the alleyway and walk a few steps, get confused again and ask Patrick to look over the map, bring up the gun and press it against the side of his head while Patrick leans down, pull the trigger and splatter brain chunks all over the wall.

Marco's mostly focused on the recoil he was warned about. The gun almost jumps from his hand; he yelps at the noise and stumbles backwards a few steps, but the job is already finished. Patrick's body is on the ground, and in the eerie silence following the gunshot, Marco catches sight of the mess he just made and promptly pukes cold pizza all over the street.

There's not much to be done. He's not helping Marco with his lost kid cover, and Patrick - well, the merc takes the bait beautifully. It helps that he's drunk and not exactly a bad person. He's just the target.

Marco yelps at the same time the gun fires, and then there's silence before there's the distinct sound of someone losing their lunch. Arthur wants to be comforting but there's bigger problems now.

He rounds the corner he was around and is greeted by the side of a corpse with a missing chunk of head, a mess, and Marco.

He doesn't ask if Marco's okay. He's not. Instead he goes over to pull the gun out of Marco's hand.

"You're gonna be fine," he says, his voice steady. "Take the video once I'm out of here. I'll be nearby if you run into trouble." And he'll be watching for the post.

Part of the reason Marco asked for backup, beyond just wanting an extra set of eyes around, was that it was the only way he knew to plan for the unpredictable state of his mind right after the hit. And as it turns out, all he needs to snap out of his unblinking stare at the thing he just did is someone else to tell him what to do.

He nods and lets Arthur take the gun away from him---he's on the verge of dropping it anyway---then takes the next few moments to gather his wits. He's not going to open his mouth again for a couple of minutes, or else he might start hurling again.

Arthur watches Marco a moment longer, wanting to do something - rest a hand on his back maybe, but he knows what the kid thinks of him so he thinks better of it.

"Good luck," he says finally, before turning, tucking the gun into his armor and heading away - though not too far. Time to let Marco deal with the rest of this, even if Arthur wasn't sure that was smart.

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merc killin'

now accepting applications for beta testers

ooh mememe

feel free to skip training montage and cut straight to kill?

sure!

marco puking the first time he sees real-life gore is totally canon

8(

the most effective way to make marco shut up is apparently to let him kill someone

a useful if troublesome fact to know!