Skyside 6: Return of the Cheddar

[billtodamax]

Groundtown

Mimi snatches the copper (and rock) from the cloak, scurrying back to her desk and putting it all into a lockbox which she swiftly re-locks before hiding the key again. Quickly, before the cloak can change its mind. Nigel - having eventually decided that he didn't need another alembic - walks up to the desk with a small vial of white powder. And I'll grab this, thanks. He says, setting down a small pile of assorted bills, which Mimi similarly snatches up. More later. The dwarves are stingy. She tells him once the money is sorted. Nigel gives her an awkward smile and a wave. Thanks. He turns to the cloak. Are you um... are you sorted? I guess they're here together? Sure.

[Arron Oberon]

Groundtown

"Yes I'm stitched and sorted!"

The cloak floats there waiting for Nigel to leave.

[billtodamax]

Groundtown

Sweet, good. He says, heading outside. Uh... I'm gonna go back... home. He tells the cloak with a sidelong glance. It seems he doesn't really know how to continue. Are you um... are you gonna be ok? He asks, nervously.

[Arron Oberon]

[Groundtown]

"Yes I will, I might try getting to the big floating city, Maybe it's unalive like me and that's why it floats"

The cloak tilts upward as it holds the door open beckoning Nigel out.

[billtodamax]

Groundtown

Nigel walks through with a Thanks before looking around at the street. Seems clear. Best of luck out there, uh, cloak. He says with a wave before starting off down the street.

[Arron Oberon]

[Groundtown]

The cloak wanders off to collect rocks.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Jinn's Emporium]

The both Jinn's clap their hands together. "Yes, yes... that will do." The speaker of the two declare. "So what do you wish to commission? Please, don't be shy. We are willing to work on anything. The more unique, the better."

[Jinn's Emporium]

"My specimens...they have many values. But individually, each one is not enough. I seek to combine them to create something more potent." The be-suited individual replies. "Your chamber- it is secure, yes? It would be best, perhaps, to release them in there? See what you are working with, what they could become."

[Shadowcaller]

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

It's difficult to tell, but the way Telly tilts her head ever so slightly, she seems to have raised her eyebrow. "Butler, I'm afraid a businesswoman such as myself can't abide to that philosophy. The nature of this city has an unfortunate tendency to eat those who do alive. If something is free, then everyone will want it until you have nothing left to give." She explains before turning to Anri.

"A deal you say?" She suddenly smiles. "Well, let me start out by telling you that being 'the best' warlock this city has to offer means that I have plenty of ways to summon beings that can grant me minor wishes such as yourself. Not to mention that I can buy all the books I want. However, tell me more about your true form. How exactly has it come to be that you can grant wishes, however minor? Not exactly a common trait by any stretch of the definition."

[Jinn's Emporium]

The two Jinn's starts rubbing their hands together. "By all means, go ahead. I would love to see what you'll have me work with." The left one remarks. The right one already moving over to the observer deck to the display room.

[Reinholdt]

[Tellysandra's Manse]

Butler frowns, a rather rare sight from him showing that he disagrees but is professional enough not to say so out loud. "Of course ma'am," he says, taking one step back so as to remain to the side while Anri and Tellysandra work out the details of their exchange.

[Deathkeeper]

Tellysandra's Manse]

Anri stares straight. She would argue the point about the wishes, but decides it's not the battle to fight right now.
"My normal shape looked similar to this, though without the drow traits, which I believe were added for effect. I did have an arachnid prosthetic thanks to some madman who tested his machinery on me. Anyway, my family is descended from a very powerful djinni. A researcher attempted to bolster the strength of my blood, which is how I got my powers, and these." she explains, flicking one of her horns.
"That is, I believe, the joke that the demon is playing. My powers are fueling this ridiculous golem's machinery. I grant wishes, but only wishes for booze and parlor tricks."

[Lord Magtok]

Parks and Reanimation

"H-hey, it's not like you wouldn't be useful without it as-is," Fidelia points out after a brief moment. "I-I mean, I know you can't really make the best of it now, but all that medical training means you can probably help out somehow, right? At least until you can learn some new way to beat up bad guys." She seems to have mostly calmed down; her tears have dried, and her breathing is only a little ragged now. Snuggling up against the ghoul, she idly reaches a hand to try and pat Romero, a happy little shiver running through her as Jenette strokes her hair.

"B-besides, even if they did try to kick you out of VIGIL... I'd sure as hell help you fight to stay," she assures, tilting her head to give Jenette a reassuring look - though it might end up looking more affectionate than reassuring, admittedly.

"I think they hired a combat medic not too long ago. One of Magtok's daughters," Jenette points out, wrinkling her nose at the thought of being outdone by some washed-up celebrity's spoiled brat. Yes, you read that right, Blanche is one of the cyborg's, obviously. Caelynn and Blanche reappeared in the Nexus roughly around the same time that Magtok did, and the tabloids did a small feature on the cyborg and Blanche's mom being seen together. Not a front page sort of thing, since the cyborg is old news, but there was quite a bit of chatter about it on certain parts of the internet. Clearly, Magtok and Caelynn had run away from the Nexus together to raise their illegitimate lovechild, and only returned home once their daughter was old enough to fend for herself and act as Magtok's spy in VIGIL. It makes perfect sense, see?

In fact, Jenette should probably mention her theory to Cessie next time she's visiting VIGIL. It's just a theory right now, and Jenette hasn't actually met Blanche yet, but if that catgirl is a mole trying to sabotage the entire organization, well...I'd definitely want to know about that if I were Ms. Mithar, don't you agree? We'll add it to the to-do list along with martial arts training from Calm Reed.

"Y'know what would be cool? Being able to just switch from being ghoul to human. Like The Hulk, but less chunky. All of the advantages, none of the downsides. I don't know if there's actually a way to do that, since even trying to find a cure is crazy-difficult. Maybe if we had a friendly genie who grants wishes that aren't terrible," she muses, remembering that Witch Which's Wish Shop in Mallside her mom always quickly pulled her away from when they went shopping. 'It's just a scam, Jen. If you had anything worth as much as what you wished for, you could just sell it somewhere and then we could go buy your wish,' she'd say. 'You'll get tired of your Tickle Me Butler doll in a month, but your fingers will be gone forever.'

[Shadowcaller]

[Tellysandra's Manse]

The archwarlock folds her hands as she hears out Anri's answer. "So it's this current body of yours you want to get rid of? Since I can fix that. In exchange, you just said you'd be willing to serve me for a while in exchange, is that still true? Since I have a proposal that can work out to our mutual benefit. You swear yourself to me, body and soul, for a month and I will undo everything that has been done to you and pay you for your work. We can work out the exact details once the month is over but I pay my employees well."

[Deathkeeper]

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

Anri wavers, some measure of relief showing even through her artificial face.
”If all you ask is my service and my body, then you shall have them. But if you are being literal in regards to the part about my soul, I would ask why. After all, only a fool sells their soul with such little information. Or perhaps...lend, in this case.” She’s mostly sure Tellysandra was being metaphorical but one has to be careful with demons and warlocks. She would rather not lend out her soul and get it back covered in demon ichor or corrupted with magics.

[Arkhosia]

Parks and Reanimation

"Oh, so they do hire for those sortsa roles then! Well, uh, that's good." Fidelia seems to miss the aspect that might be worrying Jenette about it; the fear that the spot is filled, and they can't take any more healing faculty. Which seems like a foolish assumption, to be honest - VIGIL's a big organization! It has all sorts of PCs and NPCs running around, going on dangerous missions, risking life and limb... surely they'll always have demand for more folks capable of stitching the idiots up after their latest act of foolhardy bravado leaves a good-sized hole in them.

"What, um, what about a pact or something? Y'know, like all those holy knight types like to make. Borrow the strength sometimes instead of, like, cursing yourself with it, I guess."

[Shadowcaller]

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

"Oh, you poor dear. That's just a formality actually. To undo your curse I will need temporary ownership of your soul as it has attached itself to it. Souls are quite easily to aquire, should I want to, however so it's not like I would have any use of yours if you fear I plan to take it. Besides, our deal is to return you to the state you were in before the curse, yes? No permanent damage or will be done to you or your soul, and what would I gain from needlessly torturing you, hm?" The archwarlock smiles.

[Deathkeeper]

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

Anri stares at the arch-warlock, her expression as it always is.
”Yes, I suppose that is our deal. I will be loathe to return to having that prosthesis, but I loathe this far, far more.” She stops and looks again.
”This is better than that grinning sidhe.” At least when this inevitably goes horrible, she will likely be able to understand why Tellysandra is doing it, as opposed to the alien motivations of the fae.
”I suppose we have a deal, then.”

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row Spaceport]

"Then make my questions feel natural. Like coming from a close friend. You're the psyker, come up with something." Minerva orders before she moves over and gestures to the foreman. "May I and... Zee, have a word with you? In private." See? She even remembered Zee's name which somehow wasn't psyker or heretic.

Tempest Row Spaceport

"We're private here, aren't we? Nobody's gonna overhear. I can't go too far from the shuttle, it's my responsibility to make sure everything's loaded in the right order and in the right places." He doesn't particularly want to leave the protection of the rotary cannon, even for a Sister of Battle. In fact, especially for a Sister of Battle; he's aware of the differences between the Imperial Truth and the scripture used by the Cult. They might be trying to lure him away to put a boltshell in his skull.

Maybe her name should be Heretic McPsykerson? Or Pysker McHeretic?

Regardless!

While Minerva is making her request, Zee does her thing. It's all pretty subtle, really. She just needs to be close enough and make visual contact to begin manipulations. And what she tries to do? Well, quite simply she attempts to alter the bald man's emotional memory with respect to his relationship with Minerva. In place of suspicion? Trust. In place of fear? Calm. Simply nudge the emotional responses associated with Minerva toward the positive. Should all go well, Minerva should be viewed as a close, trusted friend to be heeded and protected rather than a potential enemy that will but a bolter round through his head for holding heretical views.

All of this only takes a few moments. And Zee is pretty well equipped for dealing with mental states that supply impetus for actions. That's what determination is, after all.

Hopefully there isn't some kind of psychic bear-trap inside the guy's mind. She's pretty good at working around that sort of thing. Biological information is just as tangible to her as a tangerine might be to someone else. And something that's all spikey and chompy is hard to miss.

Zee gives a nod to Minerva. Keep going. Keep asking.

[Earl of Purple]

[Tempest Row Spaceport]

Minerva's eyes narrows. "If I said it was for your ears only, then I meant it. Knowledge is by its very nature heretical and I don't wish to poison more ears than needed with it. Do you understand?" She asks forcefully.

"...I guess I have no choice, then. Fine." He waves at the Sentinel until the driver leans out of the side and cuts the engine. "These ladies want to chat somewhere 'private'. Don't panic, and let Zedex know, willya? Don't want him getting too nervous with that meat-ventilator of his, yeah?" The driver nods, sticks a hand out with an upraised thumb, and goes onto the Sentinel's built-in voxcaster to call up to the guy on the shuttle. The overseer himself doesn't have one; given that the device used by the cannoneer is a large, heavy device resting by his feet, where he can hear it but doesn't have to carry it, there's a good reason for that.

[bc56]

Tempest Row Market
Open Plot

A stand has sprung up here overnight, a black tent with a large iron sign outside, declaring.

We Buy:
Unusual Devices
Strange Technology
Mechanical Curiosities
Widgets and Gadgets
Open this week only!

Inside, the tent is staffed by a pair of cyborgs. At a desk just inside the entrance is a woman with long green hair. Her left eye is replaced by a cluster of sensors, veins of metal are visible just under her skin, and a pair of articulated mechanical tentacles come out from beneath her arms and move languidly of their own accord. She's clad in an unadorned, tight-fitting black dress, which reveals lumps in other places where more implants are. In the back is the other cyborg, a shirtless dwarf, working with crates full of the miscellaneous technology they've purchased so far. The back of his head and neck is covered with metal plating, and thick black cables run from it, are entwined into his beard, and then connect to ports on his chest. In addition, his left arm below the elbow is replaced with a sturdy pneumatic pincer, which he's currently using to move iron crates as large as he is one handed. When visitors enter, the female cyborg looks up at them and smiles. Although the gesture is correct, there doesn't seem to be any warmth or emotion behind it. "Good day. How can I help you?" Her voice similarly is without inflection.

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row Market

The stand attracts the attention of two people. The first is a tall man, about twenty-five, wearing a tattered and ill-fitting old suit, missing the tie. One of the sleeves of his trousers is ripped off at the knee, and a replacement tube of much coarser cloth has been sewn on in replacement. On his head is a baseball cap. He's got blue eyes, and his skin is tanned by the sun. Behind him is a much younger girl, without the tan but she looks enough like him that she's probably his sister. She's probably fifteen or sixteen. She's barefoot, and holds a tattered red piece of cloth tight about her, and over her head. Her legs are bare, at least from the knee down. She's much cleaner than her brother. The man will hustle the girl into the tent, looking around behind him desperately before following.

Inside, the girl looks around as the man gulps. "You buy technology? Good, good. I've, uh, got something to sell you." the girl drops the cloth; she's wearing a clean black two-piece swimsuit, and a collar about her neck with several devices built into it- a tracker, an electronic lock with finger-print reader, and several other things. They're mostly useless right now, as the battery's been removed, but the lock needs electricity to open it- and that would turn on the tracker, most likely. "I'll sell you the collar if you can take it off without hurting my sister." He puts his hand in the pocket of the suit jacket, and pulls out a red tube as thick as his thumb and twice as long. "This is the battery. I'll sell you this, as well. But I'd like money for it." He doesn't care too much how much; he's got most of what he needs to get himself and his sister as far from Skyside as possible, but all the time she's wearing the collar she's clearly an escaped slave, and that's risky.

[bc56]

Tempest Row Market

Upon seeing the collar, the woman's face flashes with real emotion, a look of suppressed hatred, followed by curiosity. "Fascinating. Come closer." She beckons to the girl, as her tentacles reach out, sprouting articulated metal claws which gently latch onto the collar. The woman's artificial eyes look over the device intently.

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row Market

The girl shrinks away when she notices the glance of hate, but goes when beckoned. No matter how scary, this is her best chance at freedom. She gulps and shivers as the collar is handled by the tentacles, but her brother reaches out to hold her hand and she calms down.

The collar's reasonably simple; designed first of all to be hard-wearing and difficult to disable. The battery was only removed because the brother was able to break into the battery compartment. Second design consideration is to make it cheap, which is why most of it is aluminium, rather than something stronger for the same amount of corrosion resistance. The padding around the neck is also quite cheap, just soft enough to make it reasonably comfortable for long periods of time. The tracker is a small radio, which emits a beep on a specific frequency that the girl's erstwhile owner could use to track her down, except without a battery it's useless. There's an electronic lock that would require power to try opening, though it also has a small number-pad for a code to open it; she doesn't know the code, as the lock and buttons are located at the back of her neck. The hinge is at the front, and could possibly be broken- though the screws used in its construction are an unusual design, requiring a screwdriver the right size and with a triangular head. Or a tool that might be able to mimic such a thing.

[bc56]

Tempest Row Market

The hate wasn't directed at the girl, but at the collar, although that may have not been noticable.

"Be still." The tentacle deploys a tiny cutting laser and begins carefully slicing the panel around the lock open. In this procedure, expediency is being sacrificed in order to keep the device mostly intact and easily repaired. Broken tech is not nearly as valuable.

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row Market

The girl's used to being the target of a lot of different looks, stares and emotions, and right now she's feeling particularly vulnerable and scared. The look of hate was misinterpreted, though she realises now it was probably the collar that was the target.

The laser cuts into the aluminium easily, and the soon-to-be-ex-slave holds as still as she can to let the laser do its work in revealing the mechanism of electromagnets that draw the bolts back to open the collar. Also visible is the circuitry of the radio, which would alert the slavers as to where she is if power is reintroduced to the circuit.

[bc56]

Tempest Row Market

The woman turns to the dwarf in the back. "Horst, could you take a look at this?" The reply comes equally monotonously. "Aye, Alyss." He trundles up to the front of the stand. Hydraulics in his legs initiate, increasing his height so he can peer into the mechanism. "I think I can work with this." His beard hairs suddenly animate like snakes and lunge into the opening in the collar.

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row Market

The girl starts when the dwarf's hydraulic legs mean he's suddenly taller than her, but is quite quick to calm down. The dwarf's beard interferes with the collar's circuits, disconnecting the radio transmitter, providing power to the electromagnetic locking system and bypassing the print reader to unlock the collar, which immediately opens and falls off the girl's neck. She reaches up to rub her neck, and tilts her head, amazed that it's finally off.

Her brother smiles and bows, taking off his hat as he does. "Thank you, oh thank you! Will you buy the battery, too? I've got no other technology on me, nothing I can spare losing." In one of his pockets is a pocket watch, which he is using to make sure he doesn't miss his ride off the flying city.

[bc56]

Tempest Row Market

A ghost of a smile passes across the cyborg woman's face as the dwarf's articulated beard removes the collar. She holds out a bag of coins. "For both items." The coins are hexagonal, and made from magnetic iron, so they clump together. It's a little more than the collar is worth.

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row Market

Not only is it more than he was expecting, it's more than most fences would take- if you can even find a fence willing to deal in stuff stolen from the Guild. There's a reason why the Street of Slavers is one of the safest for ostentatious displays of wealth. The girl picks up her cloth and holds it tight about her again, whilst her brother smiles and takes the bag of coins, slipping it in his pocket. "Thank you, both of you. It's really, really appreciated." And with that, they leave the stall. They'll stop a short distance away, buying some trainers with their newfound funds- now she's no longer barefoot, they can move faster, as they head towards the smuggler's balloon that's going to hopefully take them far from Skyside.

[bc56]

Tempest Row Market

The stand remains open, if anyone else wishes to sell anything.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tempest Row Spaceport]

Minerva won't say anything else until they are well away from the others so that they might speak in private. Once they are, she will turn to address him. "I've heard of... divine beings that offer salvation to those willing to surrender themselves to them and you seem to bear their mark. Is this in any way true? And if so, how may we contact these beings?"
It's at this moment she suddenly takes off her helmet.
Her features are somewhat unusual. Some might believe she's simply voidborn but there might be more to it than even that.

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

"Excellent. Find yourself somewhere to stay then, there should be several guest rooms to choose from nearby. Butler can show you around. Or you could always stay and finish watching these clips with me first, they're hilarious and also educational for people such as yourself." Tellysandra gestures at the big screen, smiling at Anri.