dog$

Draft.

DF-N-8808

19311124 01:16:02

She kept her hands crossed and felt her body shiver under the jacket, but when she heard the door creak open upstairs, she fixated upon the stairwell and waited to hear the knock upon the hardwood floor. It came - two quarters and two eighths in a quick staccato. Tap-tap-ta-tap. Unhurried foosteps echoed through the empty house and approached the doorway. Ridgeland then opened the door and shuffled down the stairs at a slightly quicker pace. Cicero smiled at him when he reached the basement floor. In response, he nodded and stood still with his arms crossed at the wrists over his waist. The pose did little to conceal that he was supporting something beneath his overcoat.
"Hi Tony."
"Hey." He met her eyes for a brief moment, then nodded to the black velour box which was near the hand that Cicero was using to lean upon the table. "That's it?"
"Oh, yes."
"Good. Whenever you're ready." After saying that, he reached underneath his coat and pulled a glass flask out, which he gently placed upon the table. The vial was cylindrical and roughly the size of a normal wine bottle; Cicero guessed it to be the standard quart in volume. The liquid inside had a dull grey color and cast a strong reflection from the overhead light. Without knowing it was liquid, it could have been mistaken for a solid metal, as it didn't exhibit any visible motion as he set the flask upon the table, nor did it coat the sides like water or oil as he bumped his hunched body against the edge of the table to reach for the drain pan by his feet.
Cicero wondered if he would have offered to assist in the blood letting, but figured that he was gauging her response to the task to form a snap judgment about her toughness, and also figured that he wouldn't feel particularly comfortable in making the offer. She was right on both counts, and it didn't matter because she was prepared to do this regardless. She quickly removed her jacket, draped it over the table, then procured the syringe from the kit box. With the wrist turned up and resting upon the table, she flexed some fingers on her left hand in a pensive twitch before performing the injection. The needle was put into position in the fold of her forearm. Her eyes clenched shut and chest stiffened in a held breath as she pushed the needle through the skin. Luckily, she found a vein in the first attempt and the red liquid filled the vial as she pulled the plunger away. The needle was removed when the blood met the black line marked as 50. Ridgeland used a handkerchief to remove dust from the drain pan, then poured the liquid metal from the flask into it once she was done drawing the blood out from her body. She removed the plunger from the vial and quickly poured the blood over the metal. Though the reaction was subdued, the metal did bubble with an audible fizz as the red blood dissipated throughout the material. After a few seconds, the liquid metal resumed its initial shape and otherwise shown no alteration. Ridgeland then repeated the instruction which he told her last week.
"Picture it changing slowly. Very slowly. A circle becoming a diamond, and growing from there."
Cicero nodded and delicately placed the palm of her right hand upon the surface of the metal. It seemed faintly warm. Her vision was set solely on her hand as she strained in thinking of a simple perfect circle. An O. A perfectly round O. A black O over a field of white nothing. She felt her hand begin to rise in elevation as the metal started to pull away from the edges of the pan and gravitate towards the center of her hand, as if there was a source of gravity coming from her palm. Within a moment, the metal formed a raised dome under her hand, resembling a ball of bread dough.
"Good. Diamond."
She nodded and closed her eyes to further facilitate concentration. The smoothness of the metal started to become more coarse, and the height of the metal didn't seem to change. A pointed edge felt like it was forming under the center of her palm.
"One diamond. One. Flat." His tone was both forceful and somber. "One flat diamond."
She took deeper breaths and leaned forward as the edge slowly melted away from her palm. Her hand was just above the surface of the pan, and the metal underneath formed an oblique linear box within the pan.
"Good. Good. Now - the point."
A corner of the metallic box melted out of its perpendicular angle and became more acute. The edge grew more elongated as the angle narrowed, until it stopped when it found some resistance in the wall of the container. Cicero narrowed her eyes and visualized the point forming a sharp V. After a few breaths, the force of the liquid metal forced the narrow point to slice through the drain pan wall. Ridgeland smiled.
"Good."

Extra Mode. The Usual.

Code:

			EX% & Rank	EX.p/f	pg.gr.gd.bd.pr		combo	nc	onc	%+ 	date
ristaccia @		51.99 C		1515.F	556.403.304.69.262	0102				2012-06-18T00:58:48:162Z
					0013-				0041-

genesis @		47.55 C		2104.F	754.596.444.122.516	0098				2012-06-18T01:02:27:282Z
					0085-				0006+

miru key way @		64.88 B		1940.F	751.438.136.76.211	0117	1495	0909	064.46	2012-06-18T01:06:52:439Z
			02.08+		0062+	30+2+37-4+9-		0000+				2012-05-08T01:49:37:911Z

stars retuned by hal @	71.71 A		1676.F	653.370.115.23.120	0114	1232	0875	040.80	2012-06-18T01:10:54:679Z
			09.50+		0143+	114+85-47-3+1+		0011-				2012-04-12T01:32:04:113Z

CaptivAte~裁き~ @	51.13 C		1538.F	564.410.295.85.385	0066				2012-06-18T01:15:09:111Z
					0106-				0021-

acque minerali @	58.00 B		1848.F	712.424.237.73.339	0124	1593	0685	132.55	2012-06-18T01:18:21:327Z
			08.48+		0270+	151+32-111-5-40+	0030-				2012-05-27T03:26:07:923Z

honey @			58.46 B		1520.F	548.424.219.26.156	0086				2012-06-18T01:24:17:327Z
					0101-				0004+

gentle action @		56.42 B		1370.F	501.368.213.16.194	0058	1214	0736	064.94	2012-06-18T01:27:29:922Z
			00.66+		0016+	6+4+11-18-5+		0000+				2012-05-23T00:37:31:236Z

entrance @		59.72 B		1517.F	550.417.209.17.128	0094				2012-06-18T01:30:45:705Z
					0136-				0042-

golden horn @		59.49 B		1015.P	380.255.180.2.67	0114	0853	0853	0	2012-06-18T01:33:41:678Z
			00.12+		0002+	1+0+18+1+22-		0068+				2012-03-30T03:07:44:026Z

clione @		54.83 C		1598.F	578.442.275.49.237	0162	1457	1010	044.25	2012-06-18T01:38:09:083Z
			01.51+		0044+	18+8+17-6-6-		0063+				2012-04-08T23:54:02:217Z

sense 2007 @		49.43 C		1840.F	655.530.425.67.382	0092	1861	1474	026.25	2012-06-18T01:41:56:939Z
			00.64+		0024+	7-38+4+12-11+		0001+				2012-06-06T00:13:04:240Z

crossroad @		66.62 B		1687.F	650.387.131.16.155	0125				2012-06-18T01:45:56:117Z
					0177-				0091-

snake stick @		33.84 D		1507.F	515.477.473.170.1012	0041				2012-06-18T01:48:44:949Z
					0071-				0032-

cyber force @		30.45 E		1393.F	446.501.685.329.969	0020				2012-06-18T02:01:05:627Z
					0471-				0018-

cyber force		37.56 D		1718.F	575.568.589.278.847	0044				2012-06-18T02:04:18:313Z
					0146-				0006+

First reflex was to flush Miru Key Way, primarily out of instinct in regard to the song's quality; but then I remembered that I had last played the normal chart of it in warmup and not the EX. Good thing I let it ride, in as much as getting a plus. Maybe some day I'll get Stars Retuned because the last twenty measures or so aren't too bad, but the middle of it is terrible in any formation. I'm not too surprised by the severe drop for Cyber Force but I did want to replay it just to refresh myself on how the chart looks in LB here. As bad as it is, LR definitely made it worse. Glad to have Golden Horn put down. Overall a pretty good day.