Rotgut, Cabin One
By this point, Rotgut’s laughing fit was starting to wind down. The zombie, eyes screwed shut and head slowly shaking back and forth as a few phlegmy chuckles left her lips, slapped her knee.A loud, mulchy [crack!]note split the air as her hand bent sharply back at the wrist. As it slipped down the side of her leg the hand went limp, and a second later her gauntlet slowly slid off, clattering to the floor. Slowly Rotgut opened her eyes and looked at the grey stump of her right wrist, with its protruding bones and dangling lengths of torn thread and leathery sinew.
She gave a crooked smile. “Well, shit.”
Then she took in the panel of green light floating in the air, and the fact that things were apparently under way.
Her smile disappeared. Right, time to get serious.
She picked up the fallen gauntlet, tucking it into her armpit (and leaving Sturm on the floor) as she straightened up. Then she [folded her arms]note and leaned back against the cabin wall, fixing the Little Blue Shit with a neutral expression. Her gaunt cheeks were still stained with oily tear tracks.
“Well kid, if you want me to keep laughing you’ve got to keep me entertained.” She cocked her head to the side, the feathers of her hat casting slashes of shadow across her face. “Tell us about your flowery friend. And no fainting this time.” She bared her teeth in something akin to a grin. “That bit’s getting old.”
The Danse Macabre CodexKalea - Cabin 1
+I shouldn't have let him keep talking. That 'sure' would have been enough for us to proceed.+
Osana replied with the mental equivalent of a shrug. There wasn't much to add to that.
Still, Claudia had expressed a wish to be cooperative, where her florally themed boyfriend had not, so that was something. Tacit acquiescence was sufficient for their purposes.
Magicaloid wouldn't be pleased about it, but was that really so great a price to pay?
"Thank you Claudia," said Kalea with unfeigned gratitude, as she took Claudia's hand in her own. "I'm happy at least some here are willing to take steps to ensure their credibility."
With those words Kalea's caste mark, a black disc, appeared on her forehead. As her eyes flared green, glyphs and characters of the same dark colour appeared around her, spelling out the terms of the oath sworn in the archaic script of the Old Realm. The strands of fate bound themselves around Claudia's soul, and instinctively she would feel the terms pressing on her.
+Maybe this is for the best. You did notice how the boy-+
+Cut her off? Yes, I did actually.+
"Don't worry Claudia, we'll return to the matter of Petunia in but a moment."
Edited by joergenjetsam on Jul 3rd 2019 at 4:43:38 AM
Conception is sin Birth is pain Life is toil Death is inevitableKayne took the galactagralkertalkers reverently and hooked them onto her belt. "Thanks!" she said, wide-eyed. "Don't worry about the design, I can streamline them."
"We'd best be going to the main event," suggested Moko.
"Right you are," responded Kayne. "Until we meet again in a bit!" She waved to Rufus and Mama Jupiter and began walking to the cabins.
Edited by JumpingFruit on Jul 3rd 2019 at 5:18:10 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.Cabin One
Magicaloid still had more questions than answers about why, exactly, there was a little girl in here, but there would be time to ask about that later; for now, as she strolled up to the glowing green rectangle hovering in the air, she internally debated whether or not the girl was actually some sort of ship-based AI, or a robot, or heck, maybe even a ghost. I mean, that girl over there is obviously a zombie, so why not, right? She thought to herself, dipping her fingers carefully into the screen’s surface like a well of paints, giving the flat plane a few experimental flicks to see how the lines formed under her touch, before dispelling it all with a shuffling of her hand like dispersing a reflection in a shallow puddle. Yeah, probably better than a marker. “Okay, I think it’s about time to—”
Magicaloid turned around in time at the exact right moment catch Kalea’s arcane symbols flickering away like extinguishing fireflies, and Magicaloid’s plastic-forged eyes widened in abject disbelief. Stalking forward before she could get a handle on her servos, she stopped just before Kalea with her posture steeped at a sharp angle towards the sorceress, her slight frame vibrating with a less-than-slight anger while her artificial teeth ground together in time with the balling of her fists. “You like oaths? How about, if our cooperating witness dies because you can’t follow simple instructions, you’ll get to answer to me.” The words echoed, both in the small room and within the metallic confines of her head spires, before a harsh clattering sound drew Magicaloid’s attention to the side. Her posture, gaze, and rage all abruptly flattened once she saw the zombie woman’s exposed hand dangling and swaying on her exposed, sinewy wrist, feeling her metal lip curl in what probably should’ve been an impossible motion even while an imagined smell of the display colored the back of her throat. “You… might want to use some Cure-All for that.” She said, trying not to let her obvious disgust slip out, and failing completely, before finding that she was now too grossed out to be properly worked up. “Whatever, let’s just—I’m just going to start.” She said, throwing up her hands in exasperation while she turned around, before lobbing a finger in Claudia’s direction as she moved past the waitress. “For now, just… don’t say anything else unless you have to. For safety’s sake.”
Coming to a stop in front of the screen, Magicaloid rolled first one shoulder, then the other, bringing them in close to either cheek as she attempted to visualize the best way to bring recent events to light. “I think we should start… here.” She said, and with a pair of swift swipes near the bottom of the square, she quickly assembled an X shape. “‘Station X’, we’ll call it. This is where it all began, the thing we in the bar were all hired to find out more about. Andy—that rock girl, sleeping it off in the other room—used to live here, before she was taken, and now she can’t remember anything about it.” Scrawling the locale’s new name beneath it with brusque swipes of her finger, she then traced a line up a ways, before sweeping it to the side, up, around, and back again, to create a rectangle—in which she promptly placed the word ‘Maken’. “After she was broken up, kidnapped, and taken from wherever to here, she ended up in a place known as ‘Old Maken’s Shop of Mysteries’. From there—” Magicaloid traced her finger to the right, before stopping another ways away and tracing out yet another rectangle, this time with ‘Rufus’ in the center. “Rufus—that bull guy, who we also left in the other room—found Andy somewhere in all the shelves of junk, deciding that she would work better for him than in… other places.” Magicaloid cleared her throat awkwardly rather than elaborate, and continued onward. “After that, he offered a reward up for anyone that thought they could find out anything more about her past, or where she came from, and so I and a bunch of other guys in the Egress Eternal at the time went over to Old Maken’s to check things out. It… didn’t go great.”
“Now, some of this stuff I wasn’t strictly there for, but I got it second-hand from my traveling partner, Kaguya, and I trust her to get her facts straight. And we got separated at all because when we got to Old Maken’s, it didn’t take him much time at all to send us on not one, but two separate wild goose chases, directing me and some of the others to a strip club known as Mama Jupiter's. But, not before dropping a name that most of you are probably familiar with by now: The Red Ring. Kaguya and that elephant guy, Girimehakala, the one reduced to a talking head, stayed behind to talk with Maken about what he knew regarding Andy. Now, I’ll actually start with Mama Jupiter's, both because I was actually there, and because it’s the most relevant to the two other people here in this room.” Magicaloid spared a pointed glance toward Begonia at that, before flashing a gentler one at Claudia, and then turned back to the board and used a skipping motion to create a dotted line standing in for the party’s movement from Rufus’s to Old Maken’s, and then Old Maken’s to Mama Jupiter’s. “The two main things that happened, in order, are this: under coercion and due to false promises from a third party, only a few minutes after we got there Claudia pulled out a weapon and shot Mama Jupiter, very nearly killing her.” Pausing halfway through writing ‘Mama Jupiter’ with her finger, Magicaloid cocked her head contemplatively. “I’m not really sure how she survived that, but, y’know, I’m glad she did.” She said, turning to the side and flashing what she hoped was a guilt-relieving thumbs-up coupled with an uneasy smile in Claudia’s direction. “In any case, we stopped her from doing that, but in the process we had to rough her up just a little. And then, this guy—” She said, jerking one of her bulbous head-spikes in Begonia’s direction, “—over here, just strolls on in and offers everyone an enormous—I mean, there’s money, and then there’s money, and hoo boy, was there money—ahem. Basically, he bribed everyone there in the bar to kill our group and bring him Andy. But then they all died instead, soooooooo, that’s that.” Bobbing her head from one side to the other somewhat awkwardly while she finished up a pair of lines for both Begonia and Claudia—sticking out a short ways from the Mama Jupiter rectangle—Magicaloid took a step back, gesturing at everything that she’d written so far. “So, what you should be thinking right about now is, that’s all a little too convenient. Maken sends us somewhere, only to get jumped the minute we get there? Can’t be a coincidence. Right?” Magicaloid tapped the side of her finger knowingly against her forehead. “The good news, and the bad news, is that it’s not.”
“The thing of it is, Old Maken wasn’t just a self-made businessman; he was also working for two entirely separate organizations, one of whom didn’t know anything about the other. The first one you already know about—The Red Ring, slave-trader to the stars. All of the stars.” Tracing out a ‘The Red Ring’ rectangle a short ways above and to the side of Old Maken’s, she then tapped her finger against the space off of the Maken rectangle’s other corner. “But the second one, I didn’t hear a lot of discussion of in there. As far as I can tell, it’s some kind of multidimensional corporation more dedicated to selling stuff than buying people. At least, that’s the hope. It’s called…” She trailed off, tracing out the name ‘Artifacts Inc.’ into the newest box. “But kicker is, Old Maken was never really working for The Red Ring at all. Artifacts Inc. got to him way before that, and persuaded him to be an inside man so he could get back at The Red Ring for what they did to…” Magicaloid paused, her finger still over the surface of the glowing rectangle, the light reflecting strangely off of her pink-sheathed eyes. “…for what they did to his wife and kid.” Magicaloid sucked in a smooth breath, let it out, and then turned to face the others. “We’ll never find out what that is though, because only minutes after he said all this, they killed him. He killed him; some sort of monster named Stutter-Step Jack that I never really got to meet, and I’m not sorry about that.” Finishing off his name with an abrupt swipe of her finger, Magicaloid then stared into the tapestry of events that she’d assembled, nodding her head once. “But this tells us something, too. One of these guys—” She said, drawing fresh lines between either of the competing organizations and Stutter-Step Jack’s rectangle between them, “—must have sent him in as damage control, to keep Maken from blabbing about their secrets. Now…” Magicaloid leaned up on her toes, absent-mindedly scrawling the word ‘Hired?’ above either of the lines connecting the organizations to Stutter-Step Jack. “The most obvious candidate would be The Red Ring here, considering everything else that they’ve done just in general, but Rufus was under the impression that Artifacts Inc. double-crossed him instead, leaving him out to pasture when he couldn’t make good on his promises anymore. A solid theory, except—” She said, suddenly cleaving a line through the middle of the ‘Hired?’ on the Artifacts Inc. side, “—I learned later, from Kaguya herself, that the only reason she could defend herself against Jack, much less ask enough of the right kinds of questions to get Jack to attack in the first place, is because she kept finding herself goaded by a series of objects with Artifact Inc.’s symbol, something like an eye with a bunch of chains on it instead of veins. I understand cutting somebody loose because they’re not worth the trouble to keep them around, but doesn’t that all seem like a lot of work to set somebody up when you could just kill them at any time?”
Magicaloid let out a fresh sigh, turning to face the room and almost leaning backward into the screen for support, only catching herself at the last minute before she accidentally smudged her array of deductions. “In the end, Artifacts Inc. might’ve been just a little bit heartless, letting us fight for our lives after starting a fight that they couldn’t finish, but they were still the only ones around actively opposing a slave-trading ring, who are the kind of people who would send someone like Jack to kill a mostly-defenseless old man. In fact, the only thing they might really be guilty of is thinking that The Red Ring wasn’t crazy enough to send someone who—” Magicaloid stopped, hand hovering over the screen, not really sure how or where to put anything that could explain what happened next. “…The Red Ring clearly don’t believe in failure,” she started again, “so much so that they’d send in someone capable of…” Magicaloid sighed in frustration, and threw her arms up before they came slapping back down again helplessly. “When Stutter-Step Jack died, he took all of Dive with him. I don’t know how, but we can all guess at the why. However!” Magicaloid said, instantly brightening while she swept her finger past her face, revealing a grin in its wake. “We don’t need to know either way, because absolutely none of this matters.” She spread her hand flat, trailing it down to indicate almost everything that she’d drawn on the right side of the board so far. “All of this, the corporate espionage, the interdimensional subterfuge—it has nothing to do with us. It was going on long before we got here, and it’ll probably still be going even after we have the Orb of Origen in our back pocket. No, if you want to figure out the mystery, who Andy is and where she comes from, look no further than over here, at Mama Jupiter’s. Because—and this one admittedly took me a little while to figure out—not everything is as it seems.”
“Here’s the first thing to remember, something Kaguya figured out a little bit later; Old Maken wasn’t just in the employment of these two, he was also under surveillance by the both of them. However The Red Ring did it is anyone’s guess, but after using one of Rufus’s tools, I found an orb with the same symbol that I mentioned earlier, hidden behind Maken’s desk. If any of you feel like having a chat, I left with Kayne in her hat a moment ago.” She said, waving a distracted hand out the door and toward the hall. “But, more to the point, it means that as soon as we were sent to Mama Jupiter’s, The Red Ring would’ve been able to send someone to intercept us, the same way they sent Stutter-Step Jack to take out Maken right after he confessed.” She said, tracing a new, solid line bridging The Red Ring and Mama Jupiter’s—before bouncing her finger over the space right around the center of the line. “Or at least, that’s what it looks like at first. But I have a theory; one that only comes together when you have all the facts. For example,” she said, turning and uncurling a hand to spread out her arm and gesture at Begonia, “take Begonia here. Consider that, instead of attacking us directly, he had to bribe all of Mama Jupiter’s—with someone else’s money, no doubt—to come down on us, and to do all of his dirty work for him. Compare that to Stutter-Step Jack—someone who’s basically an assassin strapped to a nuclear dead man’s switch. If you could use one, why would you use the other? Do they really seem on the same scale to you?” She then turned to Claudia. “And then there's Claudia. However good she did at trying to kill Mama Jupiter, what part of it was supposed to help trap Andy? How was Mama Jupiter in the way, at all? And if she had nothing to do any of this, what are the chances that she would get attacked seconds after we showed up?” Raising both hands at once, she gestured to both of their guests at the same time, though her gaze was firmly locked on Begonia. “Finally, and this is something that I didn’t really appreciate at the time, but it all comes down to Begonia’s choice of words in the heat of the moment—‘my boss’ this, ‘my boss’ that. Your boss owns Andy, isn’t that right, Begonia?” She asked rhetorically, already turning around to definitively trace out a new box, intercepting the previously-straight line connecting The Red Ring to Mama Jupiter’s. “Your boss, singular. A new player, someone who’s been there alllll along, who we never thought to consider before. We’ll call them—The Buyer.”
“Think about it like this,” the magical robot girl continued, turning back around and hefting either of her hands flat out to either side like contrasting halves on a scale, “that there was a period of time after Andy was delivered,” she said, dipping one hand, sending the other higher, “but before Rufus found her,” she continued, letting the higher hand dip and the lower hand raise until they were level again, “where The Red Ring’s operation was working as planned, and select people came in to Old Maken’s knowing that it was the newest and hottest place to get exotic slaves for cheap. What if one of these people saw Andy, paid just an incredible amount of money for her,” she said, stealing another glance in Begonia’s direction, “only to up and find her gone when they come to collect? Whisked away by Old Maken at the last second, to one of the only two other people in all of Dive who could keep her safe? They’d have no other choice but to sit on their hands, stewing in their own juices, until one day they get a call—from The Red Ring, letting them know that their purchase has been spotted, but that they’re not willing to supply any of their own guys to do anything about it. But that’s not a problem, because The Buyer has Begonia on his side. Begonia—and Petunia.” Magicaloid turned and smiled in Claudia’s direction, before arraying a new set of boxes in the corner corresponding with Claudia’s deal with the devil. “Claudia actually already told me, like she told you, about how Petunia approached her and promised to use the Orb of Origen to bring her family back. But just like Mad Jack Stutter-Step, it actually has nothing to do with Andy—what it does, is give us a valuable clue, the thing we’ll use to crack this whole mystery wide open. Because, to be frank, just knowing that there is a buyer doesn’t do us any favors when it comes to tracking them down, and with Dive in the wind, there’s not a lot left when it comes to finding evidence. But Claudia’s assassination of Mama Jupiter is part of a different game. Something that was planned out ages before we got there, and was probably only set off after we arrived because The Buyer was panicking that all of his plans were about to go to waste. It tells us that this is someone who has a reason to want her dead. I would take it one step further, and say that they’re probably even local. That means, they’re in one of three places right now; first, they’re dead, having gotten sucked through a tiny hole, along with the rest of Dive; second, they happened to be outside of the dimension by chance, and wherever they are now, we’ll probably never find it; or third, and this is what I’m banking on, they were in town just like we were, and had to evacuate when the void opened up. Meaning,” she turned to thrust her writing finger definitively down the hall, and to the set of doors leading into the bar beyond, “they’re somewhere right in that room.”
Magicaloid felt her shoulders sag and her arm fall as she finally came to the end, a wave of exhaustion pouring out now that everything was all out into the open.
Alright, now comes the hard part. Magicaloid thought to herself, rolling up her metaphorical robotic sleeves as she approached Claudia, with all of the delicacy of handling a butterfly pinned to a corkboard. “Now, don’t strain yourself or anything, but I need to ask you that one question that I was talking about earlier.” Throwing another dirty look in Kalea’s general direction, she attempted to gently lean down and grasp one of Claudia’s hands from underneath. “If you feel like it won’t trigger… whatever it is that she did to you, I need you to tell me, to the best of your knowledge, who in Dive would benefit the most from Mama Jupiter’s death?” She would attempt to gently grasp Claudia’s hand, an excitable gleam sparkling in her eye. “Chances are, they’re the one we’re looking for. The one who knows the most about Andy, along with everything else that’s been going on.”
Edited by Uncandescent on Jul 9th 2019 at 2:48:32 PM
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~Kalea - Cabin 1
+Instructions? Osana, did we ever agree to follow the directions of this one?+
+No, as you well know.+
Well, she couldn't rightly fault the metal midget her fury in this instance. She had knowingly exposed her friend to danger despite any and all protests. She could only smile apologetically and prepare to defend her actions.
But there was no need for that. Magicaloid, it seemed, had issues concerning her attention span, changing focus first to Rotgut and then to expound on her own views about their situation.
The briefing Kalea found quite helpful in truth. Magicaloid saw fit to sketch out her points, providing a visual aid for her explanation. Her speculation appeared sensible, though Kalea did not know the facts well enough to interject. Assuming that the Buyer was here on the ship with them seemed a tad optimistic, but it was the only scenario they could interact with meaningfully, so Kalea was willing to accept the premise.
After all that from Magicaloid, the time to pose the question to Claudia had finally come. Kalea herself gave a tired sigh as the Claudia tried to tiptoe around the oath, apparently having forgotten some of the conditions.
"Unless Claudia knows absolutely nothing relevant to your question," she said sadly to Magicaloid, a solemn look on her face. "then keeping silent now would mean transgressing against the terms of the oath as surely as a false statement would. Remember, she has sworn to answer our questions truthfully, and to omit nothing."
Edited by joergenjetsam on Jul 12th 2019 at 3:26:27 AM
Conception is sin Birth is pain Life is toil Death is inevitable Rotgut, Cabin One
“Thanks for your concern, doll.” Rotgut’s tone was neutral as she glanced at the doll, but she reached up with her good hand and pulled down her lower left eyelid at the word ‘concern’. “But all this needs is needle and thread.” The zombie held up what remained of her right arm. The hem of her blue-and-yellow sleeve—and the flesh of the stump—slid down a little, exposing more of her broken radius and ulna. The bones had snapped off just before where they met the carpals, turning their ends into jagged spikes.
She turned her attention back to the Little Blue Shit and opened her mouth, but before she could say a word the doll launched into a lengthy explanation of things, complete with a diagram. Grimacing, she shot a glance at Begonia and mouthed “Don’t think I’ve forgotten you.” Then she settled herself against the wall once more and listened.
As explanations went, the doll’s was… serviceable. Some of it was stuff she didn’t know, some of it was stuff that had already come up back at the campfire, and a lot of it was speculation. Too much speculation, really, but that seemed inevitable given how out of depth everyone seemed to be in this situation.
As she listened, Rotgut picked up her disembodied gauntlet by its fingers and shook it until gravity did its work. Her severed hand slowly slid out, landing on the crook of her arm with a plop. She dropped the gauntlet then and held the hand up to its stump, examining the breaks in the bones with a critical eye. Didn’t seem to be any missing slivers or splinters as far as she could tell, but it was far from a clean break. She’d have to be careful with this.
“This would be a lot easier if it’d been any other body part,” she muttered. “It’s always the fucking hands…”
Sighing, she turned and leaned hard into the wall, trapping forearm and severed hand between the wall and her breastplate. With her good hand she reached into her pouch and pulled out a curved surgical needle that was already attached to a length of fine thread. And without further ado, she began to suture her wrist back together, quickly and deftly. Every now and then she stopped, carefully lifting her arm up to bite through the thread and then re-thread the needle with her teeth, then just as carefully reposition and start up again.
Roughly eight or nine minutes later, well past the point when the doll had admitted (to Rotgut’s annoyance) that most of what she’d said up until that point had been a waste of time, the slipped the needle and its remaining length of thread back into her pouch and stepped away from the wall. the sutures seemed to be holding, and though the line where her flesh had parted as the hand came away from her arm was clearly visible, the torn halves of her skin were held close enough together for that not to matter. Her blood vessels remained un-joined, but then blood hadn’t pumped through Rotgut’s veins in years, so that didn’t matter either.
The bone was all that mattered. She could feel it, in a dim sort of way, as the split edges ground ever so slightly against one another.
It was time to fix that.
Rotgut willed the fingers of her right hand to flex. They did so, albeit stiffly, even though muscles and ligaments remained unconnected. She nodded to herself. It would do.
She flexed the fingers of both hands. Made her expression neutral. Inhaled, and focused.
The zombie felt a faint tingle in her head, a sensation which traveled down her spin as intent focused will and turned to power. That tingle of power coursed along her collar bones and down her arms, and as she lifted up her forearms, both hands—one gauntleted, the other bare, dead flesh—flew open. Sigils of glowing light formed in the air above her palms, large enough to fill them: in the left gauntlet, a three-part golden figure of two canted Ls bracketing a caret
; in the right hand, two chevrons which faced each other but didn’t quite meet to form an X
.
Rotgut brought her hands closer together. As the two sigils drew nearer to one another, their glow grew brighter—and with a brief flash, they merged into a single, complementary whole.
She moved her left hand, and the conjoined sigils moved with it. The topaz light sank into the dead flesh of her right harm just before armoured palm touched necrotic skin. There came a soft crackling sound, faintly muffled, and she could feel it as the edges of broken bone began to join, knit, and fuse together, becoming a single whole much like the sigils themselves.
The light faded. She lowered her left arm and gave an experimental roll of her wrist. Smooth, almost perfect. She flexed her fingers, one at a time and all at once. The stiffness from a moment ago was gone, the movements as fluid and natural as it was possible to be for a walking stiff.
She nodded to herself with a half-smile. Still got it.
By this point, Kalea and the doll—what was her name again? “Magical Loyd”?—had moved on to questioning Claudia. Rotgut didn’t bother to interject: they could rake the dumb bitch over the coals as much as they liked. Instead she looked once more at Begonia, and to the little girl that had ended any chance of the Little Blue Shit having kids.
The zombie folded her arms and cocked her head to the side. “So… who are you, little girl, and how do you fit into all this?”
Edited by SullenFrog on Jul 12th 2019 at 10:11:46 AM
The Danse Macabre CodexKaguya blushed immediately, and held a hand up to cover her improper mouth. "Why yes, I might indeed need a set of replacement clothes," she said to the American.
As if that wasn't plainly obvious.
"Whatever aid you might lend me in that, I appreciate it with all of my heart."
For the moment, Kaguya devised a stopgap measure: she'd just wear one of the blankets over herself, wrapping up like it was a cold winter day next to the television. Now that Kaguya had activated Maximum Comfy Mode, she was able to catch up to the plot fast enough to see Magicaloid's extremely detailed explanation despite not being posted for in eons.
"I will tell you this, Magicaloid: I feel as if my day would've gone much better had I not met Stutterstep. Your estimation is correct in the matter," she said to Makoto in the middle of it, once the man of the hour was brought up.
At the end of it all, Kaguya was left with a look of shock barely protruding up from her usual proper serenity. Partially through the amount of work that Magicaloid already put into all of this while she was listening to lute songs and thinking about clothes, and to a lesser degree of her revelation at the end of it all: the killer Buyer was inside the ship!
What horrors...well, what horrors would they inflict upon him the moment they found him? If they were already flicking people in the face and binding them with a charm just because they had the misfortune of falling asleep, the Buyer was going to be eviscerated as slowly as possible.
The thought disgusted and excited Kaguya, but she knew to save that for when they could do it.
She stood by the rest as they prepared to sink their teeth into Claudia's testimony, not having much to add but probably looking very intimidating in her blanketed form.
Καλο
Antiphates considered the teenager for a moment, then lifted his hand. He opened his mouth to say something, brows already unknitting, when the metal doll whizzed in, then promptly whizzed back out, blabbering about money and making strange gestures. The king stared after it in blinking silence. He looked ceilingward for a moment, wheels turning in his head, and his foot tapping idly to the croaky march sung by the Colonel.
It was then that Rufus dragged out his new devices. Antiphades squinted at them skeptically, wincing at every further permutation of the equally new word. Thankfully, enough details got through that he nodded. Then, as the devices were walking away, he decided to follow them. So with a parting nod to Rufus, he did. He finally spoke then.
"This Midas sounds like a place where much gold is exchanged. I pray it is at a lesser cost than that to its namesake. These strange figurines of yours enable us to…talk over distance? How are they controlled? Our place of arrival sounds large if we require such things."
Edited by Colonial1.1 on Jul 19th 2019 at 12:19:20 PM
"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."Ruffling around in her pack for a good while since most of the garb that she had sort of really didn't cover up all that much as one would like, Lumisa soon found something worth trying on. It was pink much like what Kaguya wore though beyond that it was decidedly made with much less taste than the finely fabric threads the runaway moon princess wore. Still, the old adage of 'better than nothing' still applied and the adventurer wordlessly pushed her [[ somewhat garish mockery of a kimono on over to the royal to appraise...
And probably dismiss as utter fashion reject trash.
Only the fact that she was an ingrained pack rat due to the dangers of the dungeon had prevented herself from throwing out that piece of cultural fusion abomination then and there and now she had to lower her reputation by lending it out. Still, it was the lesser evil compared to other options so while still painful, it would hurt her reputation the least overall.
Kayne & Moko
"They do indeed allow us to talk over long distances," Kayne affirmed, slowing down to walk behind the giant. "But if you want to know how they work, well, uh..."
"Now's not exactly the best time," said Moko hastily, hearing the sounds of Magicaloid's theory come echoing down the hallway.
"Sounds are like...waves or vibrations. They travel through mediums like air quite easily. Some frequencies of sounds can't be heard, but can be sent to receivers coded to pick them up and translate them to something that can be heard. These things have senders and receivers to do exactly that," the girl explained briefly. "But sounds are complicated. Ask me later if you'd like more de...tails..." Several mutedly contemplative noises hummed from under and behind Antiphates as Kayne trailed off—they had arrived at their destination.
"Do you want to...enter the room first?" she gestured for Antiphates to enter the impromptu interrogation room. "I dunno how these etiquette things work..." Kayne scratched the back of her head in curiosity.
Edited by JumpingFruit on Jul 21st 2019 at 5:50:14 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.Kindred - Cabin One
"Words words words." Wolf grumbled under his breath. His attention span was not nearly long enough to take in the confusing conversation taking place.
Lamb, conversely, followed Makoto's train of thought closely. She was not one for detective work, but she did see a potential connection that would help. "This... 'Buyer' met Petunia, and Petunia met Claudia. Is it possible, then, that the other flower, the Petunia, is aboard the ship as well?"
Edited by kagescorpionakki on Jul 27th 2019 at 10:24:44 AM
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?Cabin One
"Who in Dive?" parroted Claudia, staring at the chart in clear dismay. "I... I don't know. Maybe me. I didn't want to kill Mama, I just felt so homesick, and Petunia said he'd let me go home. Oh, stars, the Red Ring? I didn't think this would be so... so big."
"Hah! There's no way Petunia's here," said Begonia, sounding anything but certain. "If he was, then..."
The boy paused, then drained rapidly of color.
"Oh no," he said. "I need to get off this ship."
"Oh, yes," said the little girl, sounding thoroughly bored with the whole situation, up to and including Rotgut's impromptu arm surgery. "Finally, someone asks the important question."
"Excuse me, little miss, I mean girlie, I mean ma'am," said Begonia. "Is there any possible way that you could help me to the nearest escape pod?"
"My name," said the little girl, throwing a contemptuous glance at Begonia, "is Egress Eternity Eupepsia 'Ey."
There was a general silence at this.
"Is what?" squeaked Begonia.
"Egress Eternity Eupepsia 'Ey."
"I-"
"The 'Ey is short for Fey. I chose it myself. And I don't fit into anything. If anything, you're all fitting into me."
"Uh-"
"Oh, shut it. It's a reference to an ancient culture that none of you could possibly have heard of, so don't fret your little brain. My superiors call me Gressie, but as none of you qualify for that position, you shall call me 'little girl', 'mistress,' or 'you.'"
"But that doesn't..."
"Or use my name. My full name."
Begonia stood up, stared wildly at the door, looked at all the people between him and the door, then sat back down.
"Alright, Egress Eternity Eupepsia 'Ey. I'm going to tell you everything I know about Petunia in four steps. Number one: he's an extremely dangerous ESPer. Number two: he's an extremely dangerous ESPer. Number three: I'm serious, he has a Master's Degree in Psychic Magic on top of his natural abilities. He's really bad. Real bad news."
"I'd be more worried," said Gressie, "but I don't have a brain. Not a real one, at least. What's the fourth one?"
Begonia glanced around, bit his little finger, then took a deep breath.
"Of course he's on the ship," he grinned. "Dummies."
The little girl's eyes flashed electric green. Four targeting lasers swung straight into Begonia's forehead, courtesy of the security cameras - which were now sporting rather unfriendly nozzles.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" sang Begonia. "Look where we're headed, bridge-brain! Recall!"
Even as Begonia vanished, Gressie's face screwed up in pain. The entire ship jolted, as if slamming into water. Claudia shrieked and tumbled into the wall with a smack. The fixtures groaned and creaked.
"Bits!" swore the little girl. "He got us! You lot, Party, whatever they call you... get to the Mess, now! It's the..."
A screech, a painful static squawk, and a pulse of blue light. The cameras slumped. Makoto's hard-drawn diagram winked out of existence. Gressie froze mid-sentence and turned ash-gray, down to the whites of her eyes. She looked about as real as a sand painting. The lights flickered, then died completely, throwing everything into blackness. Only Wolf's light remained.
"ATTENTION, ALL PASSENGERS. YOU ARE TRESPASSING ON MIDAS ROOMSPACE. DISPLAY YOUR PASS OR SURRENDER ALL UNSIGNED GOODS IMMEDIATELY. I REPEAT: YOU'RE TRESPASSING ON MIDAS ROOMSPACE. DISPLAY YOUR PASS. OR SURRENDER ALL UNSIGNED GOODS IMMEDIATELY."
It was a male voice, amplified by some remarkable means. It was coming from the mess.
"GOT IT? I WANNA GO HOME."
Officers' Mess
The stowaways and erstwhile customers of the Forever And A Day were no strangers to strange things, but even they were lost for words.
For one thing, there were actual stars outside. For another thing, the ship had stopped moving and all the lights were off. And for the third thing...
"Oh, great," said Addward very quietly. "Lalafell, I need you to place me inside your blouse, now. Or your bag. Whichever's more discreet."
The man in the center of the room put down his megaphone, tapped the bright copper dome he had clamped to the floor, and peered straight at them. The dome began to give off a bright glow, before restoring the light to normal levels.
His belt was tan, with a bright gold M for a buckle. His aviators were impenetrable, with silver sides and orange lenses. His uniform was beige, looking for all the world like a guard outfit from a bad movie about mall cops, and stuck out slightly at the sides. His moustache was red and of great mass, taking up approximately a quarter of his lower face.
His bare calves were hairy, and of impressive girth. On his chest was a tag stamped 'John Gerald Jr.'
"Excuse me, small tuber," said John Gerald Jr. "Is that an Automagic Teller Marten I see there?"
His hands were empty, but his belt was not. In it were various items of rather dubious appearance. He took a step forwards.
"I'm going to have to see some ID. And paperwork. Sorry."
Edited by troydenite on Jul 28th 2019 at 1:13:26 AM
Rotgut, Cabin One
‘Egress Eternity Eupepsia Ay’? Rotgut stared blankly at the little girl. What kind of ridiculous name—
Fey.
Gressie.
Ah. The zombie’s blank stare became a grimace. The name made a sickening amount of sense now: the little girl was some kind of Folk spirit bound to the ship. And the name was one of those stupid pseudonyms the little fuckers always used when dealing with mortals.
Frigging fairies. What the hell did ‘eupepsia’ even mean, anyway? Probably some Greek bullshit, by the sound of it…
The two masked animal spirits showed up then: guess the discussion about Kayne’s hat must’ve wrapped up. Rotgut threw a nod their way when they tried steering the conversation back to Begonia’s partner Petunia, and if nothing else the Little Blue Shit seemed ready to talk.
But as he began repeating [the same point]note over and over, Rotgut frowned. Something wasn’t right here. Slowly, surreptitiously, she dropped a hand to the hilt of her katzbalger.
Then the brat grinned.
“ Oh, you little Scheißkerl.”
She whipped her hat off her head and threw it at Begonia’s face. Then she lunged, her sword keening as it left its scabbard. The blade flashed through a tight, controlled slash...
A slash which cut nothing but air, as the floor suddenly shook and the boy vanished a split-second before the killing edge could meet his neck.
“Damn it,” Rotgut spat.
Then Gressie went inert, and the lights went out with a shrill noise.
“Damn it!”
Well at least Rotgut could take some solace in the fact that her hat had probably blinded the Little Blue Shit. If nothing else, the baggy fabric and feathers would disorient him for a bit.
Unless…
She felt around on the bed.
Nope. The hat was still here.
“Well, fuck,” she sighed.
The zombie sheathed her sword as a man’s voice blared down the corridors.
“Alright, if anybody trips over some metal gauntlets or a halberd on the way out, those are mine.” She paused, putting her hat back on. “And the next time we catch that son of a werewolf, let’s make sure he can’t magick himself away like that.”
The Danse Macabre CodexAndradite - Cabin 2
There was an alarmingly drawn-out creak as Andy sat down on her bunk, the gem yawning and stretching before flopping unceremoniously down on her valiantly struggling bed...
Only to raise her head with a dismayed and confused expression as the ship jolted and rocked, a voice booming through the halls.
"Auwwghh... what's going ooooonnn... it's too dark for this..."
Once again marshaling the dregs of her strength, she reached down to the floor where she had dumped her satchel, pulling it closer so she could clumsily rummage through it by feel.
"Lamp... where did I..."
Kyxe – Cabin 2
Annnd it was dark now. Apparently. She could hear a voice over the speaker system, but the lingering grogginess from her interrupted snooze rendered the words incomprehensible. The rellan blinked rapidly before sitting up in a manner too smooth for a regular humanoid—and inclined her head at Andratite, carefully slipping herself out from her own berth and padding her way over to her.
She wasn't sure when she'd entered into this cabin to rest, but sometime after the threat of kneecapping she must have decided she'd had enough.
“Do you require assistance?”
She didn't seem to catch on to the fact that she looked quite disturbing under her own generated light; her unnaturally large eyes emanating a bright white light and casting sharp shadows across her face. But her tone seemed subdued and nonthreatening, at least. Though the contrast might have made it worse if anything.
Even the latent glow of her internal plasma might have been enough to inadvertently assist the living gem. Not that Kyxe had even noticed the latter's predicament yet, of course.
borkKindred - Cabin One > Mess
So this 'Petunia' was a master of twisting the mind. Normally such abilities would be useless on the twin specters of death, but bound into mortal shells as they were - as they always had to be, when travelling outside their home plane of existence - she assumed they would be susceptible. Hunting him might prove more difficult than Lamb expected.
And then the lights went out.
"It's dark, Lamb." Wolf noted. The room was cast in blackness but for the unearthly light that perpetually spilled from beneath the Kindred's respective masks.
"Yes. Though it does not seem to be the doing of the Petunia." Lamb turned, and Wolf followed her gaze towards the door, his ears twitching at the amplified voice. "Troubling, nonetheless. Move quick, Dear Wolf."
The clop-clop of hooves followed the vanishing of the mask-lights towards the Mess. Even without the light of their eyes, Lamb's sharp eyes would have found the way, and Wolf could navigate by scent alone.
"There he is!" Wolf exclaimed, entering the Mess just as the lights turned back on. Leaping over the crowd, the man asking for ID - John, though Wolf did not bother to read his nametag as wolves cannot read - would have a half second to react before a shadow-canine the size of a horse tackled him, intending to pin the man to the floor under Wolf's great dark bulk.
From the door, Lamb drew her bow, prepared to shoot John's hand should he reach for a potential weapon.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?Kayne & Moko—Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Fire
"Oh...scheisse! Excuse me," Kayne said to Antiphates before running after Lamb and Wolf. She'd witnessed the whole debacle from the doorway, and now sorely regretted rescuing Begonia. She drew her vibro-blade from her boot and turned it on. Its vibrating produced a soft light that was just enough to see by. She held it gingerly, as it was also hot. The better to cut with, after all.
"Where's Rufus when you need him?" lamented Moko irritably.
"Lamb. Wolf. That's definitely not Begonia. He's too...stout and hearty to be that stick," she said, a bit out of breath from running into the mess hall. "I think we were teleported us into Midas! Literally! But I dunno if that stupid blue scrapling's still on the ship."
Kayne let out a deep HHHhhhhhhhngh as she sighed heavily. "Just...get off him so we can explain. Most markets have laws and such..."
Edited by JumpingFruit on Aug 4th 2019 at 3:44:49 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.Kaguya held up the kimono-chapparal combination up into the light for further scrutiny, trying to angle her fingers in the way that afforded the least risk of the dried blood flaking off onto it. She seemed to spend a good, long time considering it...
...Well, to be honest it could've been worse. The hat would have to go immediately, as she simply wasn't into headwear. However, the rest could be...serviceable. The chaps and the low cut of the upper half made her worry about impropriety, but it was probably better off than looking like a murder victim (because she was).
Soon enough, a quick hidden costume change later, Kaguya now looked like she was fresh out of the most confused theme bar in the world. The feeling of pants was a rare one for her...an unwelcome one.
"I thank you, foreign miss! It's...absolutely an improvement over my previous situation. I can tell that it is a sturdy wear, and will serve me well for...the rest of this trip! I thank you!"
Just as she said that, the power started to dim, and she was thrown into all but total darkness that colored her previous comment in a new light.
Also, bad things were happening. Bad things not related to the little, far-more-approachable-than-usual Klabautermann, apparently, as people started to make their way for the door to deal with whoever was shouting at them.
At this point, Kaguya was kind of getting lost as her tiny princess brain was being overwhelmed with stimuli, so she followed after them...
"OW"
Not before stubbing her toe on something hard, heavy and unstationary. Considering she still had toes to use underneath her fancy socks, it probably wasn't the halberd, so she fumbled around in the dark until she grabbed something metallic and ran after Rotgut with a cry of "I found one of them! Please hold!"
Νύχτα
Antiphates blinked thoughtfully at Kayne's explanation, then held up a hand once they reached the cabin doorway.
"We shall stand guard instead. Your deference is seen, however."
And so the giant Greek listened with his arms folded across his chest. He listened for a long time, yet more new words flying past his mind. Several times, his eyes flicked to the living corpse as she tended to her wounds with thread and magic. At another, they flicked to Kalea, then to Claudia, before narrowing as they went back to Kalea. His expression began to grow impatient as the metal doll began to reach its point. As it did, he shifted his stance so as to make moving back down the corridor easier, hands now at his sides. Perhaps the next interrogation would bear proper fruit.
The little girl spoke now, and at her name, Antiphates's eyes widened an increment. Then his brow furrowed at "Ευπεπσια." Why…? Speculation soon vanished into irrelevance as the boy's manner abruptly changed. Antephates reached for his spear… and the boy was gone. The lights went out. A low, rumbling growl filled the dark, followed by the sound of shifting flesh and metal, and punctuated by a deep sniffing.
Antephates arrived in the Mess at the same time as Wolf, his strides outpacing the inventor with ease. Wolf's first inclination that he was there would be his voice, quieter than before.
"Dog…"
His next indication would be a massive hand gently falling onto the back of his head, its ring and index fingers spaced dangerously close to Wolf's eyes. That hand's grip quickly tightened, and pulled the strange creature's head back. Were Wolf to struggle, that grip would threaten to tear out his fur.
"That is not our quarry. Emissary, for your sake, remain quiet a moment…"
Antiphates turned his head back to look at Kayne. In the light of her blade, his eyes gleamed like that of some jungle cat at night.
"Produce the prisoner's cloak if you still have it. Our hound needs his scent."
Edited by Colonial1.1 on Aug 16th 2019 at 9:46:19 AM
"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke.""Right on! I used his cloak to seal the Rift earlier and gave him back his scrolls so he could clear rubble out of this ship's way..." Kayne pulled out a neatly folded packet of papers from where it was stuck in her belt. "But I still have his benefits. Perhaps he might want them back later, so please keep them intact if you can..."
"Hope is not lost!" cheered Moko as Kayne handed the packet to Antiphates.
Edited by JumpingFruit on Aug 10th 2019 at 8:46:25 AM
I wear the skin of the Elder Things, having come unto my own.Egress Eternal - Making a Mess in the Mess
Wolf growled, turning on the giant man, jaws opening in preparation to bite, only for Lamb to interject.
"Yes, it seems this man is not the flower." She lowered her bow. "Apologies, sir. We fear a dangerous criminal may be on this ship, and Wolf often charges without thinking. Wolf, release him. We may have the scent of the one we seek."
"Fine." Wolf allowed himself to be pulled away, and instead turned towards the offered papers, sniffing them energetically, taking in the subtle scents attached to them. "There are many scents that fill this box. But I never lose a chase.''
Wolf began moving back and forth in Antiphates's grip, sniffing the air to try and determine if any of the scents on the paper belonged to someone still on the ship.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?Officers' Mess
"A pleasure, Addward. I wasn't expecting anyone to recognize what I am here. Least someone didn't try to purchase me. I'd have been absolutely tamping! And besides, you and a whittret look nothing alike!" Biscuits sympathized. He did look a bit like a whittret, but to point that out would have been very rude, and Biscuits wasn't about all that.
"Well, it sounds like you gave him what he had coming. Sorry you had to see one of our less savory folk, Addward." Biscuits said before opening a pocket on the side of her backpack and carefully withdrawing her small leather coin purse.
"Actually, I do need to exchange some gil, thank you very much. Do you happen to know the-"
Before the diminutive damsel could finish her question, the enormous man at the center of the mess blared his demands for papers and identification louder than Biscuits felt necessary.
The moment it was over, Addward's quiet plea set her in motion: If this 'John Gerald Jr.' was going to be requesting papers, he'd be searching bags, almost certainly. She couldn't hide her marten friend there, so that left her blouse as the alternative. Quick as a blink, Biscuits snatched Addward from his seat and stuffed him down front, safely hidden between blouse and smallclothes. Unpleasant and ticklish though it was for her, she was confident she'd been too quick to be caught.
And when she spotted a large wolf suddenly tackle John Gerald Jr. to the ground, she was even more confident she'd been too quick to be caught, but was less confident about his odds of survival. In a flash, Biscuits' sword was in her hand, its runes shining with fire as she prepared to set the blade aflame. However, just before she could pounce into action, the wolf was suddenly restrained with one hand from an absolute ogre of a man, towering above the rest of them. His voice seemed to shake the room with its calm strength, and a beastman girl appeared by the wolf's side to urge it to stand down.
The three knew each other, but the giant man held it back by the head and called it 'Dog'; not something a companion would call another, especially as the wolf could apparently talk. It was more likely the beastman girl and wolf were better acquainted.
Biscuits undid the magic of her sword just as quick as she'd drawn it, glad to have not had to use it so early into her expedition, before the proper exploration had even begun. Instead, she gave John Gerald Jr. the space he needed to get back to his feet. She'd have offered him a hand, but seeing as he was more than twice her height, that wouldn't have done him much good.
"Are you alright? Not the nicest way to start things off, it wasn't. Take your time getting up, and when you're ready, I have my identification and papers right here. I'm afraid I don't know what an 'automatic teller marten' is, sir, but I'll have those out for you now in a minute." Biscuits lied glibly, opening yet another side pocket in her backpack. The key to proper pack management is to know where everything is at a moment's notice, don't you know? From out of said pocket, she retrieved three crisp envelops, each of which was carefully opened. The wolf's sudden attack could work to her advantage, she figured.
"Here you are, sir. The first of these is a letter from the Sultana of Ul'Dah herself, Nanamo Ul Namo, authorizing the Immortal Blades Grand Company to embark on an expedition into the Mausoleum. The second is a letter from the Immortal Blades, acknowledging that for the duration of this expedition, the Wellwick Wailers free mercenary company have been hired to act on their behalf. And finally, the third is my membership card to the Wellwick Wailers, which includes a drawn portrait of myself, identifying me as Beatrice Dollarhide. I think you'll find everything is in order, sir."
All of this was said with clear, practiced confidence that Biscuits was certain would keep her above suspicion. This was not the first time she'd had to enter the arena of bureaucracy, and it wouldn't be the last. Addward wasn't making it easy, however. Even her years of training and professional demeanor were being tested by the ticklish tube of fur squirming inside her blouse. She just hoped John Gerald Jr. would deem her above-board and leave soon so she could dislodge her furry friend posthaste.
Edited by DoctorThunder on Aug 14th 2019 at 11:04:36 AM
"It is no trouble. I only wish I had better on hand." Taking the hat that was not donned to stuff back in her pack, the adventurer voiced a quiet apology towards the princess that was already of mixed feelings towards her fusion outfit... before the lights turned off and all were thrown into inky darkness.
"It is best to wait for your eyes to adapt to the darkness unless you have some manner of generating light on hand. It'll help with not stumbling into things." Giving some friendly advice even as she reached for palmed a revolver into a loose carry grip, the blonde half-crouched down before padding forward with cautious movements that while slow were meant to muffle the sound of her footsteps.
With her vision having already taken to the much dimmer surroundings with the ease of one who explored the bowels of the earth without needing to carry torches or flashlights due to familial ninjutsu training, the hyper-Americanized blonde simply got ready to unload lead towards anything that was of obviously hostile nature.
Egress Eternal, Hallway
Even from the other cabin across the hall, Lang could hear Egress Eternity Eupepsia 'Ey's curse and order to get to the Mess, and as Andy fumbled around for her lamp, the bard rushed out of the room and down the hallway. In darkness as he was, however, he didn't see the indistinct form of the person in front of him until he was already colliding bodily with them.
"Oh, er, sorry!" Ling Ya offered to the unfortunate victim of his master's haste, "You alright there, friend?"
GM: AGOG S4 & F/WC RP; Co-GM: TABA, SOTR, UUA RP; Sub-GM: TTS RP. I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire.

White Room
"Haha! Get in line, she says! Oh, I like your spirit."
"Answer the question, Rufus," said Mama Jupiter. "Where are we going?"
Rufus scratched the back of his head. His blue eye glowed and flickered.
"Well, from what Gressie tells me, we should be headed to Midas."
"Midas?" asked Mama Jupiter, face taut in disbelief. "That's the last place you want to be."
"Ah," grinned Rufus. "But it does have a good market."
Mama Jupiter visibly debated the merits of caring more than she already did.
"The whole thing's a market, good or not," she grumbled at last. "Do what you want."
"See," said Rufus, turning to the others by way of explanation, "old Darlene here is concerned with a little story I told her back on Dive, which may or may not have been true. A tale of my privateer days... but enough about me! Rest assured, Little Miss Kayne: your tab is paid in full and then some. I'll have Addward reimburse you for the difference, once we get back to the furry lump."
"If you can find what you're looking for," said Mama Jupiter, "Midas has the best merchants on the Sixth Floor. Possibly further down, as well."
"Definitely further down," supplied Rufus. "You do have to find what you're looking for, though. Make a list. Which reminds me..."
He fished in his coat-pocket and removed three black lumps. They looked like toys in his great furry fingers, but their construction was solid and almost comically serious. On the face of each was two buttons, a screen and a speckled grille.
"Walkie-talkies," said Mama Jupiter.
"Not just any walkie-talkies, Darlene. These here are galactic-grade walkie-talkies! Galactagralkertalkers!"
"Which means...?"
"That they work at any given point on a galactic scale, of course. What else would a galactagralkertalker do?"
Mama Jupiter put her hands on her hips.
"And you couldn't get ones with better designs?"
"Oh, no," said Rufus, "those are the galactaclustagralkertalkers. Much less affordable."
Mama Jupiter sighed.
"Since there are only three of them," she said to the group, "you'd do best to split them up between you. And the others, when they come back. Who wants to be a a leader here?"
Cabin One
At Makoto's request for a marker, the little girl rolled her eyes, stepped over Begonia and punched the console on the side of the wall. The ceiling light flickered, shuddered, and then spat out a glowing screen, etched on the air in bright electric green.
"Markers are so last millennium," she huffed. "Draw on it with your finger, or, I dunno... your thick steel head?"
Begonia snickered, only to be smacked in the face by a thunderous glance.
"You'd better talk, girly-boy!"
"S-Sure!" said Begonia, with some confidence. "As long as there's no oaths, I'll tell you what you want to know. Nothing that'll incriminate me, of course, not that I was at fault to begin with. Or at all."
"That's a first," said the little girl. "You were a lot limper before."
"Hahahahaoh..."
"I'll talk," said Claudia, hands pressed tightly on her knees. "There's not much else. I already told you everything I know. About Petunia..."
"While we're on that subject," interrupted Begonia hurriedly, "I feel like I should explain about Andradite. Have you ever heard of seeing-stones?"
He waited expectantly, only to be met with a snuffling snort.
"Uh, please stop laughing, Miss Zombie Ma'am. But don't bite me, either. Actually, you know what? You can keep laughing. Please?"
Officers' Mess
"Addward," said Addward, clearly not in the habit of giving long-winded introductions. "I thought I knew those ears - you're a Lalafell, aren't you? The last time I ran into one of your kind, he tried to purchase me. Called me - and I quote - 'a perfect stand-in for a Whittret.' Hah! I almost bit him there and then! Whittret! Whittret?"
The marten snapped his jaws in a brief spasm of rage, then ran in a circle to cool himself down.
"Yes, I was quite pleased to see his credit rating go," he continued. "I hope you won't make the same mistake. I have dignity, you know. Do you know how hard it is to take a charter exam without thumbs? Oogh!"
He ran in another circle.
"Anyway, Dollarhide, if you've got any gil that needs changing, you know what to do. I can't guarantee you'll get your credits at once because of this whole stinking mess we're in, but you do have to understand that it's completely out of my paws. Or jaws."
Addward seemed quite talkative, all things considered. Perhaps it was the effect of having someone to talk to.
Edited by troydenite on Jul 3rd 2019 at 2:34:41 AM