Character Hike

It can feel the dying thing in the pits of its stomach. It's irritating. With a slight jostle, it burps the dying thing upwards from the pit of its stomach, dislodging it.

A deep, inexplicable shudder ran through the earth and into the water, pushing the pilot close enough to the shore on a surge of good fortune. He pulled himself away from the water and sat shivering. He was not human. His clothes were indistinclty Victorian in style. His face was half-obscured by a bronze plumeless battle helmet and a pair of round, red goggles. His mouth and jaw were angular and bulged slightly, as if they were holding in a few teeth too many. His legs were one joint too long, in the manner of a horse or a frog. He was wet. He was miserable. His name was Jack.

"Sure I would like to come along." said Theris. "It is always interesting to find other travelers. Each one has many tales to tell of events few eyes have ever seen."

Looking up at the mountains he spied a speck slowly moving along the frozen ice caps. It seemed so insignificant from such a distance, yet it was so captivating that Theris squinted at the figure. Is that someone coming?

Bus or not to bus? Meanwhile dormiebo.

edited 2nd Oct '10 10:59:25 PM by EldritchBlueRose

KSPAM and Dae Brayk: Uh, what's going on with your characters?

It's Nidhogg. I'm planning on introducing another human character that has something to do with said beasty.

Since Eos was not using her binoculars to look at the lake anymore, the round thing falling into the water could have been passed off as a beach ball. Even though that passed under her radar, professionalism demanded that she politely decline the offer to hike.

Closer inspection of the "person" with her binoculars revealed him not to be human-looking at all. Eos stuck a hand into her pack, fishing around for her bridle.

"So there is one here," she remarked.

edited 2nd Oct '10 11:29:08 PM by Leradny

Und jetzt ich werde schlafen. (Off to bed)

Gant looked at the lake without turning his head, eyes locking on the motion and the left one magnifying his gaze. My, what an interesting construct that was. Oddly shaped, and possibly inhuman. Probably came for him, but there was no need to fight yet.

"I take it you saw it as well," he says casually to the woman. "That thing landing in the lake. Looks interesting, doesn't it?"

A spacecraft crash-landed in the lake, the pilot (Jack, my character) couldn't swim, and the conciousness inhabiting the mountains (Nigehog, KSPAM's character) pushed Jack out of the lake. As far as I can guess, at least.

Jack emptied his goggles of water to find a human woman approaching him. She looked...determined. Jack coughed and edged away from her slightly. "Hullo." he said, with a nearly-cockney accent and long, pointed teeth.

edited 2nd Oct '10 11:45:12 PM by DaeBrayk

Oh, okay! Alas, it is my bedtime after this post.

"I did," Eos replied to Gant before hearing a strange voice say hello to her.

Hmm. Kelpies didn't usually talk, much less in a Cockney accent. And this one wasn't even trying to lure her into the lake. Erring on the safe side, Eos took out her towel instead and headed over, then stayed a good five feet away from the strange... being and tossed it at him.

"There. Dry yourself off with that." She watched him narrowly, wondering if he could, and about what would happen if he couldn't.

edited 2nd Oct '10 11:33:24 PM by Leradny

A thin tendril of tongue flicked through his teeth. "Thanks."

Perhaps she had yet to notice his feet?

His tongue flicked again. A nervous tendancy of his, to seem the most alien when he most wanted not to. Still, she was only watching him. He stood, rubbed the towel across his helmet, and offered it back to the woman, knowing that his clothes would take much longer to dry.

Also goin' to bed.

edited 2nd Oct '10 11:45:59 PM by DaeBrayk

The meat-bag lumbers down the soft ground of the slope. It can still feel the men-things crawling on its skin. It clenches the meat-bag's fist in both frustration and excitement. The skin strains and bursts, the meat-bag's blood soaking into the ground.

It could find them. As for what happened then, who could say?

Ibbis hurriedly jammed the cargo truck into the largest free spot he could find and despite seeing that he was over the line on the right side of the stall, didn't rightly care.

Yeah, good luck towing this thing, he thought as he wrenched down on the door handle and shouldered the creaking door wide open. It would've hit the car beside him, but only if the trucks cab wasn't as high up from the ground as it was. He didn't bother locking it, and let teh faded olive drab door swing shut with a rattle to latch.

he checked he commlink and frowned at the indicated time: He was late. The others would've gone off without him, and he would be forced to hurry to catch them, as opposed to enjoying the scenery. And as opposed to meeting his contact for the data drop he was making for Len.

Ibbis had berated Len mercilessly for making him do the actual data-cash exchamge.

"Primitive world," he had said. "They ignore that the Alliance and the rest of the 'Verse is even here."

"Not my problem, man. C'mon, I'm giving you ten percent for your troubles. And the ship'll be fine. Diana's got it all under wraps and the local military here won't even notice a thing. Won't take you more than a few hours."

"I got to take the truck. The hover skiff will look totally out of place here."

"Eh, you'll get a lot of heard-turning if you take the skiff..."

"I don't want any attention, Len. Go in, meet your contact, and get out. I'm not here to do any sight-seeing, okay?"

Ibbis reflected back on that last conversation, as he started up the trail, battered tan duster flowing behind him, before he buttoned it, briefly exposing the brown leather duty belt underneath, holstered revolver briefly visible. The scenery was nice, he supposed, a far cry from Ezra, but not too dissimilar to the mountainous regions of Regina. He stepped up his pace and could already feel his shins protest the lengthened stride.

Got to hurry, gorram it...

After getting her towel back Eos decided to be thorough and tapped at the helmet once or twice, not hard enough to make a loud sound with the tips of her fingers. Seeing that it was dry, she folded her towel back into her backpack with a shrug. If he'd wanted to eat her, he would have done it by now.

"Right. I know it's a bit of a long shot since you were drowning, but did you see any strange horses while you were under?"

Tap. Tap.

Had that been... a greeting? He reached out and tapped the woman's head in response. As for strange horses...well, that didn't make any sense at all. Maybe they weren't even speaking the same dialect of Human. "I didn't see anything." he said, at a level of truthfullness acceptable to most humans. Non-literal truthfullness. He hadn't seen anything of importance.

Someone arrived, then, in a vehicle. The vehicle and the person were not of remarkable appearance, but of remarkable smell. It came to Jack on the wind and made his tongue flick and his mind reel. He knew that smell. He coughed again and turned back to the woman. "Have you lost your horses, then?"

Gant has stayed further up the slope, watching the two interact. He doesn't need to be any closer to see what is happening, but he can tell that there is something about to happen. first, someone new had pulled up, carrying a revolver. Not much of a threat, but interesting.

And here was this construct, multi-jointed legs, serpentine tongue. Or maybe not a construct, but something else bio-engineered from a human template. It certainly acted with enough strangeness to have been pulled from a lab. Approaching it would be more interesting.

Walking further down the slope, he approaches the two, not making any gesture that could be misinterpreted. "Who are you?" he asks the newcomer. his hands are in lain view, and he stands a respectable distance back, waiting for an answer.

When the being mimicked her action Eos decided he was harmless and answered, "I haven't lost any horses, I was just looking for one. But thank you anyway." It occurred to her that she hadn't introduced herself or asked for one, and also that she didn't know what this newcomer was besides vaguely reptilian. "My name is Eos Whitford. Who—and if I may ask, what—are you?"

"I'm... you'd call it...a demon from the sky. People call me Jack. Sometimes demon, sometimes Jack. I'm not...not really sure what I am. Hello, though. I'm never evil on purpose." he looked at the approaching man, also seeking identification. "You..." You do not smell human. You do not smell right. Jack looked away. "Hello also."

edited 3rd Oct '10 2:46:43 PM by DaeBrayk

Loki was exhausted, and had come to the conclusion that escaping was neither as fun nor as cool as she had first imagined it to be.

She paused for a moment to give her lungs a break, and scratched miserably at the broken shackle on her wrist before covering it back up with her jacket sleeve.

Wide open space didn't really mean freedom - it meant nowhere to hide and too many damn people wandering about in the way who might ask questions. Escape was difficult, but there was no other option. Besides, these tourists didn't know who she was or what she had done, so they were no threat.

Perhaps she should try to think of this as a vacation more than a life/death thing. Yeah. She needed a vacation. And so the young girl composed herself and decided that rather than lingering about in the foliage, it might look less suspicious to join the path.

Another smell reached Jack—a sharp, urgent smell. "Excuse me, I have to...go over there." he said hurridly, and left. He climbed up the steep ridge, akwardly to any human eye, but not at all clumsily, and pulled himself onto the hiking trail. There was a human girl walking along it, sweaty, exhausted, fear not in her eyes but in her heart and on her skin.

"You are..." Jack faltered and clamped his jaws down on his uncooperative tongue. He also tried, unsucessfully, to talk without showing his teeth and stand without showing his legs. "You are in danger?"

Bus

Theris had been standing there thinking about what to do next, when he suddenly looked up and saw the figure coming down the mountain at a fast rate. Dammit if I get spotted by him I would be a goner for sure! thought Theris. He glanced around before he ran into the woods, hoping that he wasn't being followed.

When Rainar dug out of the pile of snow he checked to make sure he still had all of his gear. Falling down the side of the mountain was not part of his plan, and anything was lost his chances of survival would be slimmer. Luckily his weapons and camping equipment were still secure, but most of Rainar's food was lost. He needed to get more if he wanted to keep searching for the Hand of Bieres.

Luckily there was a large building nearby, which he could probably go to get food. Rainar walked down the path he saw a group of people on the hiking trail. He looked up at them and said, "Hello my name is Rainar. How are you this evening?"

Rainar noticed that it was nearly dark, and there were at least three of them. He felt his hand move near his sword. These people may just be enjoying a night hike, but Rainar felt it was always safe to use some caution at night.

Desero brevi tempori. Spero.

Jack left hurriedly, leaving Eos free to turn towards the newcomer. A quick scan revealed Rainar to be tired and edgy as well as slightly worse for wear, and for some strange reason he had a sword on him. He probably wasn't another soldier from her division, as she would have recognized him or his name on sight and swords weren't the weapons for a kelpie, anyway.

"My name is Eos, sir. Are you... lost?"

"Forsooth!" Raki blurts alongside Eos. An immaculately clad guy, with a sword? (Looks like Conan the Barbarian.) He has seen plenty enough here, first the serpentine tongue from Jack, and then all manners of peculiarities from new arrivals. Is there a Cosplay festival happening here? He didn't hear of such.

But if he did, he would certainly have dressed up too, clad in some macho-looking gear from the action films he'd seen and enjoyed. Oh well, he can very well make up for it with force-of-personality. It's getting dark now — the sky of lushous magenta and fading blue begins to twinkle with stars.

The backdrop of the brooding woods a few steps ahead seems to suit the barbarian especially in his introduction.

"Has ye come to savour the sights as well?" Raki bellows, puffing his chest out and getting along with the make-believe mood. Then reverting to his normal timid voice, "My name's Raki." And to himself, "What an awesome festival you're all having.. man, I'm feeling kinda left out."

edited 3rd Oct '10 8:12:36 PM by QQQQQ

"Then why not join in the festivities?"

The voice belonged to a tall man clad in a dark suit. His hair was raven black, still young, but his dull blue eyes gave the impression of innumerable years. He was carrying a small cooler in one hand and a picnic basket in the other.

"Oh, so sorry to just barge in like this. My name is Anthony M. Scott." the man said as he sat down. "You see, I'm here on a business venture, but I just couldn't help but stop and visit this place. And do you blame me?"

He opened the cooler, removing a bottle of champagne. "The beauty of this place... It's astounding." said Anthony, with a sliver of a tear wetting his eyes.

"Hmm.." Raki pensively eyes the drinks amongst ice in the cooler and his thirsts well up all the sudden. He's brought a bottle of water, but that seems tepid in the face of Mr Scott's oasis. Then Raki finds himself making a notioning gesture, yearning towards the cooler.

Ohh.. he can't help himself. So he brings himself to ask, "You don't mind if you could share some with us? I'm parched!"

Raki has this gut feeling he'll say "Yes!" in kind return. All the mystic signs in the astrology tables must point at and tip the balance of wills on this very occasion.. just for his sake. How selfish of him to think so. Okay, his and Eos' sake, is that more fair?

edited 3rd Oct '10 8:49:24 PM by QQQQQ

Even though there aren't any kelpies around, Eos is still on duty. Which isn't saying much, as she has been on duty since the moment she was accepted into the Magical Suppression Division when she was eighteen. She casts a neutral eye at the cooler full of champagne and looks away, instead taking a drink of water from her thermos.