Wild ARMs: Group 3, Chapter 1, Bringing up the Past

[Krylo]

A few of the people stopped to stare as the Zoa priestess entered the bustling metropolis of Adelhyde--the capital of the kingdom by the same name--but whether it was her they stared at or the child who stood near by, with his scars, could be anyone's guess. Both were enough of a rarity.

In her hands she held a small piece of paper which read, "Excavation Team Requires Drifters--5000 Gella reward," along with instructions on where to find the team's workshop in the city.

The message was rather vague, but with that kind of pay it seemed likely that they had hit on something dangerous in the ruins they were excavating. However, that kind of money couldn't be turned down so easily.

(OOC: Sith and Mes, I'd like it very much if you were either together with a similiar message, or both had one.)

[Sithdarth]

Dwane wandered aimlessly into town with Melane in tow. While Dwane glittered in the sun, his armor catching and reflecting even the smallest amount of light, his campanion Melane truely shined. There are beautiful people in the world and then there are people that are so absolutely beautiful they can steal breath with a look. Then there was Melane some might say beauty incarnate, even through the grime of travel.

In his hand Dwane carried a tattered piece of paper that he had obviously folded and handled many times. Its print was still barely legiable, "Excavation Team Requires Drifters--5000 Gella reward," along with directions to a place to meet potential employers. Turning a corner Dwane made to follow the directions Melane still following closely.

[Mesden]

"Not too far, Dwane." Melane said with a nice pat, showing some sort of friendliness to the fellow traveler.

After a bit of walking, odd looks coming to the duo from all places, they made it to their destination.

(Krylo, you explain what it's like. You crazy GM you.)

[CelesJessa]

Keira Ildri strode through the streets of Adelhyde, occasionally glancing to her side where the young child Gad walked. She had crossed paths with the child a few weeks ago and once she saw his many scars and found out that he was mute, she knew she had to take him with her. Since then, she had grown fond of him and was rather protective of the child. Her eyes glanced across Gad's widebrimmed hat which drooped down and hid his face from the frequent stares the two would get.

"5000 Gella reward huh?" She muttered to herself, looking at the slip of paper in her hand. Most of the money would just go into their reserve money fund, since Keira didn't often buy anything of value for herself since she was always travelling, but she did want to try and buy Gad some goggles, or at least better-fitting glasses. The ones he had now always seemed to be slipping down his nose, and in such a dangerous world, he couldn't afford to have them fall off and get broken.

"This must be the place." She said outloud as they finally reached where the flier told them was their destination.

[Krylo]

The building they came to appeared to be a large brick warehouse with a few great chimneys pumping black soot and smoke into the sky above. A pair of great steel inlaid doors sat in the center of the building with a small bronze plaque to the side which read "Offices of Meister Istvan," obviously an ARMs meister.

Beyond the thick steel doors was a place of chaos and sound. Hammers could be heard smashing into metal, as could the roars of fire and various shouts. All the sounds one might expect to here from the combination of an old fashioned gunsmithy and a blacksmith tied all up into one.

On the papers it specifically said to seek Geoffrey Istvan, apparently the owner of this building, and--most likely--the man in charge of this excavation.

(OOC: I didn't want to go too far, because I want to let you guys decide if one of you got there first/got up to the office, or if you arrived at the same time and met each other there, or what.

Anyway, the offices are up a staircase to the right of the entrance, Geoffrey will be there looking over some paperwork. You can either deduct that is where he is, or ask one of the various apprentice ARMs Meisters or laborers, and they'll tell you)

[Mesden]

"Well, this is the place." Melane said in a slight huff, tapping Dwane on the chest before walking in.

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

Gad no longer bothered to look around the gritty streets of Adelhyde. He was mostly left alone and generally to weary to be bothered being paranoid. Besides that, most of that job had been taken over by Keira, a drifter who had become quite protective of Gad for reasons he couldn't quite fathom. But he knew better than to ask questions of such things... if that had been possible.

Instead, Gad merely stared forward beneath the shady brim of his sanguine hat, letting the blur of the world above his glasses-frames relax his eyes. He let his mind wander, as he often liked, stopping only a few moments to make sure of the steady footsteps of Keira continued insistently beside him.

The same thoughts as always rolled around in his mind, like pebbles in the ocean tide, but this pointless introspection was cut short by the outside world, as it inevitably had to be.

"This must be the place." It was the quick, soft lilt of his companion; Gad looked up and around a bit confusedly before his eyes came to the building, a great, broad one that belched smoke in reserved effort. It seemed to Gad oddly familiar, but much did and he payed it no heed; he simply looked back, up at Keira, gave a quick nod, and proceeded into the workshop.

The essentia was a bit more active than the untroubled, brick facade but there was little energy here, either. At least, less than Gad had expected. There was, however, the inkling of a pulled-in energy, like the feel of a deadly cat about to pounce encapsulated in a calm statue, but in this case, it was within two people just inside the building. Drifters, obviously strong ones. One huge, encased in steel; the other virtually shining with resplendant elegance. This was, at least, what Gad could see of them without looking to their faces. Drifters, at least, strong drifters, ,were never a thing to be trifled with.

Gad made a point to avoid drawing real attention to himself and merely stepped to the side of the door, hoping Keira was right behind him.

[Sithdarth]

Dwane noticed quick furtive movement by the door and turned his head quickly to find its source. Finding only a small, and well cloaked, child he started to turn back when he caught a glimps of the preistess in the doorway. Not wanting to be totally disrespectful he gave her a nod. However, he was slightly aprehensive that she could sense the taint of the abomination on him.

He still couldn't remember why he was tainted or really anything about it. That wasn't important at the moment though. What was important is the competition, or perhaps the help, that just walked through the door. He nudged Melane slightly to get her attention and motioned at the door with his head.

[Mesden]

"Hm?" Melane caught the gesture and noticed Keira and Gad.

"What about 'em, Dwane?" she said with a soft whisper, making sure it wouldn't attract anyone.

[Sithdarth]

Dwan whispered back, "Well considering why we are here I think its safe to assume they share our reason. The reward is sizeable." Dwane snuck another glance at the door checking to see if he had attracted the attention of the new arrivals.

[Mesden]

"Help's always good. But one's a little kid and I don't know about the other. Let's just find the guy who runs this place."

She gave Dwane a reassuring pat on the chest before moving around to find someone. With a courteous nod she asked the nearby apprentice, "Could you tell us where Mr. Istvan is?"

The young man, a bit awed that she had approached and asked him that, pointed towards the staircase ahead, albeit, a bit shaky-handed

"Thank you." she said with a bright smile before walking forward, waving her hand as a gesture for Dwane.

[Sithdarth]

Dwane followed his companion dutefully as they went up to see Istvan. On the way up the stairs he had to make a concerted effort not to stare at Melane's butt. Mostly because it was eye level but partly because he didn't want to appear rude to any that might be watching.

[Krylo]

At the top of the stairwell a door stood slightly ajar, swinging open easily and soundlessly at the touch of Melane's hand, revealing the room beyond the portal.

There were lines of cabinets meant to hold important papers along the back wall, but most observers would wonder if they were ever used as anything more than shelf-space, as various maps, blueprints, dioramas, and notes were strewn about the room, seemingly at random. Some hung from the walls, others piled on top of the cabinets, and others yet across the floor. It seemed that the inside of the cabinets was the only place which lacked papers.

Near the center of the room was a desk facing toward the door with a somewhat aged man hunched over it, pouring over various papers. It was impossible to tell what they were from the doorway, but he seemed quite interested in them, moving back and forth from one paper to the other and scribbling little notes.

After a second he spoke, without bothering to look up, his gruff voice seeming to come out of nowhere, "Well, what is it?"

[Mesden]

"This." Melane stated with a slight finality in her tone, slipping the tattered paper towards him.

[Krylo]

When Melane moved closer, she could see that what Geoffrey seemed to be looking over were actually hand drawn maps of some sort of building, which he seemed to be editing slightly here and there before she had interrupted him.

His eyes moved over the paper and then up to her. For just a moment a look of awe came over him before he quickly moved his eyes back down to the desk, to avoid gazing at her too long.

"Ah, yes, the job... I need a few able bodies to assist my men in navigating a recent excavation. We've located some long buried ruins, but it seems that some kind of creature has taken up residence in them. That is not the kind of work for simple excavators. I require extermination of the beast, and for you to assist my men in exploration of the caverns, in case there are any other creatures below. The pay is five thousand gella per creature."

[CelesJessa]

Keira and Gad made their way through the building until they reached the door of Mr. Geoffrey Isvan. He had just finished telling the people already inside about the job when Keira approached the door.

"That's what we are here for as well, Mr. Isvan." He voice rang out into the room as Keira politely tapped on the door, then stepped inside.

[Krylo]

"Excellent," Geoffrey said simply, still not bothering to look up. "Be here at five A.M. tomorrow morning to leave with the rest of the expedition. You are free until then."

The man obviously didn't care about the drifters nearly as much as the various papers he was looking through, and seemed to simply cease taking notice of them, waiting for them to let themselvs out.

[CelesJessa]

"Oh." Keira seemed momentarily suprised at the sudden acceptance. She expected there to be some sort of interview but it wasn't that suprising, a lot of employers seemed to just employ people at random for dangerous jobs-if they are inept and die, they don't have to pay them the reward. "Thank you sir." She said then stepped out of the room.

[Mesden]

"Well, Dwane, I guess that's all we needed to know." Melane said as she made her way to the stairs.

"You, miss. Could you tell me your name? As we're apparently co-workers now." she said, stopping right beside Keira.

[CelesJessa]

Keira stopped at the girl's voice and looked back.

"My name is Keira Ildri." She smiled pleasently and held out her hand for Melane to shake, "And what is your name?"

[Mesden]

She took the hand and gave a polite shake, "Melane. And this is my travelling cohort Dwane."

Her other hand gestured over to the large man behind her.

[CelesJessa]

Keira stared at Dwane for a second, unable to shake a strange feeling she was getting from him. It felt as if there was some sort of bad aura around him. However she also got the same feeling from her little companion, so she smiled pleasently at Dwane and nodded her head, "Pleased to meet you too Sir Dwain."

[Sithdarth]

"No need for the Sir, Miss Ildri," Dwane extoled. "Nice to meet you in any case. Sounds like we may need a little help if he's willing to pay that much." Not wanting to be totally impolite he bowed slightly to the priestess.

[Krylo]

(OOC: If there aren't any more posts, I'll fast forward to the next morning tomorrow upon waking up.)

[CelesJessa]

(OOC: I'll post. heh ^^ )

Keira nodded at Gwane then looked at their two new companions, "Since we seem to be coworkers for the moment, shall we all head to the inn." She thought for a moment "unless you two have other plans, then Gad and I will head for the inn ourselves."

[Mesden]

"Fine by me. I've got little else to do." She said with a bright smile.

Edit: We go to the god damn inn and sleep together, Krylo.

Edit 2: ((OOC: FINE! Lemme do everything you bunch of slackers...))

As the day came, Melane was already awake and ready to leave. She had made sure that Dwane was too before setting off to their destination.

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

Gad awoke somewhat slowly, liberating a long, hushed, raspy yawn that built up within him. He lay there for a bit, amid the cotton sheets, his crimson hat pushed up over his face -- he was unsure of where he had picked up that habbit. The sound of gentle bustle of the day just starting, muffled by the inn wall, seemed to incessently urge Gad up; though he never quite liked waking, he succumbed to it and sat up, pushing his hat back and over his short, straw hair.

Stretching a little, Gad looked over at his companion who was still sleeping soundly, her head burried in her pillow. He gave Kiera a half-hearted shove and slid from the bed onto the wooden floor, where he slowly, lethargicly slid into his chain vest and small coat. Slipping into his boots, spectacles on, Gad worked to fasten his holster and belt as he walked out the door, glancing back for the abject lack of other sounds. Kiera hadn't moved an inch.

There was an unusually loud 'thwap' as Gad smacked Kiera over the head with his hat, the sturdy leather band just atop the brim doing more damage than one would expect. This proved to be enough to awaken the priestess who half hoisted herself up to look at Gad. He proceeded to snap in her face and motion for her to follow him as he replaced his hat and walked from the room.

He didn't relish the thought of being late for their job.

[Sithdarth]

Dwane followed in a groggy half awake stumble that had all the appearence of a drunk. Once or twice it looked very much like he was going down but he always seemed to recover just in time. Dwane wasn't really a morning person but he'd get over that soon enough. They had a job to do after all; although maybe there would be a wagon he could ride in and sleep while on the way to the excavation.

[CelesJessa]

Keira groaned as she rolled out of bed. She was used to travelling on her own so her body was used to waking up at her own leasure; waking up at this time of the morning was a bit of a task for the priestess. Acting more like a zombie, she stumbled around and got ready for the day ahead, twisting her impossibly long hair into her trademark braid, then paying a visit at the wash basin, where she splashed some water on her face, attempting to wake herself up. When she finally left the room behind Gad, she was her normal, perky self.

"Ah, ready to go?" She said as she caught up with Gad, then looked around, "where are the others?"

[Krylo]

(OOC: I'm in the mood to post for once so I'm going to, if you want to make a few more retroactive posts about getting together, that's fine by me)

When the drifters arrived at the workshop various workers, men and women both, who looked nothing if not like miners. Many wore simple white tank tops and jeans--a rarity in those days, kept purely to miners and other workers with jobs that were harsh on ones clothing, and were busy loading pick-axes and various types of explosives into multiple horse drawn carts.

Six strong men came through a larger door from the warehouse, lugging a large gun along which looked to weigh more than all of them combined. With a mighty heave they placed it upon one of the carts, the wood groaning in protest, and began bolting it down.

"Ah, you must be the drifters the old man hired to accompany us," a voice came from behind them. When they turned the man was revealed to be a younger man in his twenties, whose eyes seemed transfixed upon Melane, "Though I am ashamed to be forced to put you in the line of danger, I am afraid that the men are quite terrified of the beasts."

[Mesden]

"Well," Melane said, pushing up to the speaking man, "Maybe they'll find a bit of bravery with us here, hm?" her voice was intentionally silky and had a note of heaviness to it. Her body had gotten rather close to the miner, enough to get a half decent feel of her curves without even using his hand.

Playing men was her job and she was hoping to have a near escort of miner bodyguards soon.

[Krylo]

The man blushed a bit and there was an obvious struggle within him to maintain his composure which in the end he won, though barely, "I am sure that a woman such as yourself can motivate my men for many great things, miss..." his voice trailed off, hoping to get her name.

[Sithdarth]

"Her name is Melane," Dwane butted in, "and yes she is certainly inspiring." Dwane gave the man an awkward wink that probably scared the poor fellow more than it set him at ease.

Turning to Melane he continued, "You might want to wait till we get there. I wouldn't want anyone dropping dead from a heart attack. I might end up carrying something heavy and unpleasent. That and you tend to forget about that sort of thing while trudging through the wastes."

[Mesden]

"Heavy and unpleasant?" she whispered back, a small glee in her voice, "There's an ambiguity there, Dwane." she said with a teasing giggle.

"But, you're right, I'll save it until it's needed. But..." She turned over to the man she was just 'playing with' and pecked a small kiss on his cheel, "That's for you." she said, finishing with a wink before turning back towards Dwane, "Hey, I had to make him feel a little better after that wink of yours." her voice a whisper throughout her talk with her cohort as to not alert the miner/s.

Edit: Then everyone went to the goddamn mines, yo.

[Krylo]

A little more time passed uneventfully as the miners finished loading up their equipment and the drifters were shown to the back of a wagon with a few miners--most of whom failed to avoid being noticed looking at Melane.

After that, it was not long before they set off through the cobbled streets and out of Adelhyde, and the rare greenery that surrounded it, until the wheels of the carts began to kick up the wasteland dust once more.

It was not long before they arrived at the excavation site, which was an exceptionally large opening in a nearby mountain face. Many railroad tracks lead into the main opening as well as various smaller mine shafts about it. The miners immediately went to work loading up railroad carts with their equipment.

They didn't need the drifters quite yet.

[Sithdarth]

Dwane hopped out of wagon rather carelessly causing it to bounce a little and making the footing for those still inside a little unsteady. He hadn't been paying much attention to his surrondings on the way up. Now as he stopped and looked carefully he was rather taken aback by the giant gapping hole carved into the mountain. While he wasn't as sensitive as other Baskar Dwane knew that such disregard for the planet must have caused much disruption in this place.

Apparently, they had been called here to help make it worse. It didn't matter though the world was mostly dead anyway. To survive meant doing things one might not normally do. Dwane often wondered what sorts of things he did during that period of time he could never remember. The only clue to that was of course the taint he had somehow picked up. It was that taint more than anything that had permanently seperated him from his people. Not that he much cared about them anymore. Still it would be nice if he could go home at least once.

Suddenly coming back to himself Dwane swung around towards the cart. Not wanting to be rude he offered to help Melane and the two new drifters off the wagon.

[Mesden]

"Thank you, Dwane." Melane cooed with the ever resplendant smile, taking his hand and lowering off the cart.

"Well, here we are."

[CelesJessa]

"Thank you." Keira nodded politely at Dwane as he helped her down. She frowned at the cave, feeling the natural disturbance of the earth there more than Dwane. She felt uneasy being near the cave, but she agreed to do the job and she couldn't back out now.

"I guess we have some time until they need us."

[Mesden]

"I guess so!" Melane chirped, stretching out a bit, "A little down time never hurt anyone!"

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

Gad hopped off the wagon quickly and surveyed the dusty mine-face, eyes meandering after the falcate waves of dust that frittered across the arid earth on puffs of wind. "Like sails," the thought came to Gad, unbidden. The sun was a bit higher in the sky now, and starting to bring the area to the terrible heat it was prone to. It was about this time Gad was thankful for his hat; he might have been thankful for the breeze to had it not stung at his eyes.

Looking back at his companions, Gad found them in light conversation with one another... this was, generally, not one of Gad's strong suits. Instead, he turned away, back towards the hole in the earth. With his left hand securing his hat, Gad drifted towards the mine's rocky exterior and found himself a place free from the wind. Leaning back against the warm rock face, Gad took this moment to rest his eyes a bit and try not to think about what might lie in store for them.

[Sithdarth]

Just as Gad got settled there was suddenly a great shadow cast over him. It was as if all light had suddenly been eatin by the void. Dwane towered over Gad for a bit before bending over.

Dwane stayed face to face with Gad for a second before looking back at Keira. While still bent low to Gad's eye level Dwane called to Keira, "Little fellow doesn't talk much does he?" His question finished Dwane gave Gad a light poke to the upper arm. Just to see if the little guy was still awake.

[CelesJessa]

"I don't think he can talk." Keira said, glancing over in their direction. "He hasn't spoken a word since I met him." She shrugged, "But it doesn't really matter, he manages to get his point across when he needs to."

[Mesden]

"He can't talk?" a sudden sympathy came to Melane's voice at the prospect.

With a more than quick step, Melane was now ducked right in front of Gad, eyes a bit wide in condolence, glancing at the maimed, mute child before giving him a quick and gentle hug, as if apologizing for something.