Seaside 6: Six at the Beach

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker’s Home

CB nods and motions Kyrie inside. The place is as well-kept as ever.
”We can crack that open with supper. For now, relax. What have you been up to? Still slaving away at that tavern?”
Kyrie’s job doesn’t seem that stressful actually. It’s just sad that his condition means he has to go straight home when his shift is done. He doesn’t get to enjoy his equivalent of night life.

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
The mech isn't that big. Certainly not tall enough to hit the ship up above it.

"What's that up there?"
"Detected buoyant aquatic vessel, configuration unknown." "So a boat. Weapons?" "None detected." "Contact them, any frequencies..." The message goes out via typical radio channels. "Hello? I need some directions."

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

"I'd hardly call it 'slaving'. Most of my days are spent simply watching the guests. We still have a few problem customers; I'm not entirely certain why we keep letting them back in. But even they have, for the most part, learned to avoid drawing my ire." Kyrie takes a seat on the couch and lets out a content sigh. "Apart from that, I've been looking into taking up woodcarving. Something Arthfael and I can do together on the long days." He sighs and shakes his head. "Assuming he's willing to cooperate, that is. He's been rather distant lately."

[Undersea Ruin]

The mech will recieve a reply almost immediately; they have a fairly robust communication system up there.

"This is the MTS Elster automated communique system. Please state the name of your vessel, your location, and if you require any assitance, the nature of your emergency." A monotone feminine voice replies calmly.

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
"I'm piloting an SDR-5K Spider class BattleMech, and I am directly below you." The pilot is a bit displeased that all he got was an automated, non-sentient computer. It would be so much easier to talk to a person.

The hitchhiking diver is at the moment unnoticed.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

CB decides not to comment that the kids becoming distant seems to be a pattern. They're teenagers, and Siana's situation is (mostly) not his fault.
"What do you think your first project will be? Something to get him interested.."If they want Arthfael to be interested they'll need something edgy.

[Ironsmith]

Undersea Ruin
"I'm piloting an SDR-5K Spider class BattleMech, and I am directly below you." The pilot is a bit displeased that all he got was an automated, non-sentient computer. It would be so much easier to talk to a person.

The hitchhiking diver is at the moment unnoticed.

[Undersea Ruin]

"That class of vessel is not in our database." The automated voice helpfully informs her. "One moment. I will patch you through to the captain."

CONNECTING...

"You are connected."

"Um... hello there." Comes a new voice; masculine and somewhat uncertain. "Is this the tank I'm riding on right now? If so, hi. Um... how are you doing?"

Codebreaker's Home

CB decides not to comment that the kids becoming distant seems to be a pattern. They're teenagers, and Siana's situation is (mostly) not his fault.
"What do you think your first project will be? Something to get him interested.."If they want Arthfael to be interested they'll need something edgy.

[Codebreaker's Home]

"My first project will likely be an ornament of some form. I doubt I will be able to make anything functional just yet." Kyrie replies evenly. "Our first project... that I'm less certain of. I only know I should not lead him into it while I myself am blind." He smirks a little. "And I know a few things he will not want. A practice sword, for instance. I would have given my right arm for such a present at his age, but he is fervently disinterested in such an item."

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

CB ponders things that could be made out of wood that Arthfael would be interested in.
"How about a music stand or an instrument stand or something? He plays an instrument right?" CB is entirely sure that he does but Arthfael doesn't talk to him enough to know which one it is. Music seems to be something he's passionate about at least.

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
The mech pilot is a him, not a her. Easy mistake to make though, it's difficult to see into the cockpit of a huge war machine.

"Green and orange, about 200 meters underwater, and below a ship called the MTS Elster? That's right, but calling a BattleMech a tank is really disrespectful." The pilot doesn't seem too put off by it. "I seem to be lost, could you tell me where I am?"

[Ironsmith]

Codebreaker's Home

CB ponders things that could be made out of wood that Arthfael would be interested in.
"How about a music stand or an instrument stand or something? He plays an instrument right?" CB is entirely sure that he does but Arthfael doesn't talk to him enough to know which one it is. Music seems to be something he's passionate about at least.

[Codebreaker's Home]

"He has a pan flute, yes." Kyrie confirms. "One of the few proper Maesdan relics in our household. The boy takes it with him wherever he goes." He strokes his chin in thought. "Perhaps a music stand would be appropriate... but then, we would need to also have proper sheet music, and someone would have to teach him how to read it..."

Apparently, Arthfael's more of the "play from intuition" type.

"But that is a topic for another day." Kyrie shrugs. "How do you fare these days?"

Undersea Ruin
The mech pilot is a him, not a her. Easy mistake to make though, it's difficult to see into the cockpit of a huge war machine.

"Green and orange, about 200 meters underwater, and below a ship called the MTS Elster? That's right, but calling a BattleMech a tank is really disrespectful." The pilot doesn't seem too put off by it. "I seem to be lost, could you tell me where I am?"

[Undersea Ruin]

"About two hundred meters below the Elster." The diver replies unhelpfully, with a little chuckle. "Nah, but seriously, you're about three miles off the Ebony Coast, and you'd be heading in the right direction if you're trying to get to shore. My crew and I might be able to give you a lift, if you're willing to pay for the trouble. At least then you'll be getting back to a proper town."

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
"Or I could just shoot your ship until it sinks," The pilot replies with a joking tone. It really is just a joke. The ship is out of range of the Spider's weapons. "Relax, I'll set up a funds transfer once I'm on solid ground."

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

Codebreaker smiles...squirms...and immediately blurts out the truth he attempted to hide when he came in.
"I have been trying to show my patron how mortals work. I think I scared them off a bit. They haven't said anything to me in a while. They just dropped some magic in my lap and poof." CB throws up his paw-like hands in frustration.

[Ironsmith]

Undersea Ruin
"Or I could just shoot your ship until it sinks," The pilot replies with a joking tone. It really is just a joke. The ship is out of range of the Spider's weapons. "Relax, I'll set up a funds transfer once I'm on solid ground."

[Undersea Ruin]

"Yeah, ha, that would simplify matters, wouldn't it?" The diver jokes. "Nah, but really, don't do that. The guy I work for is pretty ruthless. He'd have your intestines strung out from here to Skyside if you blew up any of his stuff. Two out of ten, would not recommend, ha." The diver makes a little slash-across-the-throat gesture with his finger, but isn't too certain if the mech pilot actually sees it. "Can you get to the surface yourself, or should I have my Gals drop you a tow line?"

Codebreaker's Home

Codebreaker smiles...squirms...and immediately blurts out the truth he attempted to hide when he came in.
"I have been trying to show my patron how mortals work. I think I scared them off a bit. They haven't said anything to me in a while. They just dropped some magic in my lap and poof." CB throws up his paw-like hands in frustration.

[Codebreaker's Home]

"Oh. That's... that's quite a change." Kyrie grimaces, not entirely sure how to respond to that. How exactly does one go about explaining mortality to a spirit? That's got to be like trying to explain color to a blind man. "How has that been going, then? Using magic. It takes some getting used to, does it not?"

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
"I've dealt with ruthless people before. My boss would not take kindly to one of his employees getting hurt, if you catch my drift." He considers. "If all you're going to do is pick up my 'Mech and carry me to shore, I can get there myself." The implication is that he doesn't trust this diver to not engage in funny business, because even if his commander would wreak terrible vengeance on anyone who hurt his subordinates, he still doesn't want to die.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"Ugh! It's too darn easy to turn on! Every time I think about something a different color or size or even think the word Fat things keep happening!" Codebreaker grumbles. And indeed, as he says these things the couches briefly flashes a different color, becomes a few inches wider, and CB's belly bulges before slowly sinking back to about the size it was before.
"It goes off every time I get a mental image of anything! I'm only safe because you guys are immune." He's had his suspicions about that for a while, but the fact that nothing's happened yet proves it.

[Ironsmith]

Undersea Ruin
"I've dealt with ruthless people before. My boss would not take kindly to one of his employees getting hurt, if you catch my drift." He considers. "If all you're going to do is pick up my 'Mech and carry me to shore, I can get there myself." The implication is that he doesn't trust this diver to not engage in funny business, because even if his commander would wreak terrible vengeance on anyone who hurt his subordinates, he still doesn't want to die.

[Undersea Ruin]

"Now, now, I meant no offense, sir." The diver replies, giving what would be a reassuring smile if his mask and the cockpit weren't in the way. "We get some shady characters around here sometimes. We've found it's better to be upfront about the consequences of any serious damages. Saves us a lot of repair effort and time."

"Anyway, I think you misunderstood. I'm not offering to bring you to land. I'm offering to bring you to town. As in, a location containing an eatery, repair facilities, entertainment, fellow humans, all the things you can't guarantee you'll find on a random stretch of beach, if you take my meaning." The diver shrugs. "All I ask in return is a minimal amount of compensation in U-cryp, or maybe a tidbit from this thing's data core if you can't get to your account. It's only courteous."

Codebreaker's Home

"Ugh! It's too darn easy to turn on! Every time I think about something a different color or size or even think the word Fat things keep happening!" Codebreaker grumbles. And indeed, as he says these things the couches briefly flashes a different color, becomes a few inches wider, and CB's belly bulges before slowly sinking back to about the size it was before.
"It goes off every time I get a mental image of anything! I'm only safe because you guys are immune." He's had his suspicions about that for a while, but the fact that nothing's happened yet proves it.

[Codebreaker's Home]

"...Oh." Kyrie says again. That's quite a bit different from what he'd come to expect of magic. More abstract, more powerful. No wonder Codebreaker's having trouble with it. He doesn't even know how to approach the problem, or the full implications of it. Though one idea comes to mind.

"...I take it that means we aren't playing cards tonight."

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

Codebreaker shakes his head.
"We can certainly try. So far I haven't been able to do anything super complex so it's not like I could cheat. Complex patterns are out. If I could do something that complicated I'd have tried to give myself muscles already."
Alas, it is not to be. Not that he'd even know what to do with them.

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
"U-crypt? I don't have any of your backwater local currency, it's C-Bills only. If you really want some of my combat logs instead I can transfer those over." Why would the computer have any valuable information on it? It's a war machine... And the actual secrets that are on there aren't ones the pilot is going to mention, nor would they be useful to these people, he suspects. "If we can work out some arrangement, I'll take your offer."

[Ironsmith]

Codebreaker's Home

Codebreaker shakes his head.
"We can certainly try. So far I haven't been able to do anything super complex so it's not like I could cheat. Complex patterns are out. If I could do something that complicated I'd have tried to give myself muscles already."
Alas, it is not to be. Not that he'd even know what to do with them.

[Codebreaker's Home]

"Oh." Comes the bemused reply a third time. "Well, then. By all means." Kyrie reaches into his pocket and produces a deck of tarot cards; brand-new, still in their packaging. It looks like he's sprung for a fancy set; hopefully, Codebreaker's new powers won't mess them up. As he cuts through the plastic wrap and starts shuffling the cards together, Owena comes back into the room with a tray of sliced vegetables and a pair of dips; one looks to be peanut butter, and the other is moving too much to be appealing.

"You two playing Catch The Fool?" Owena asks, taking a third seat. "Deal me in."

"Now, Owena, you're still a bit young to be-"

"Playing with valueless poker chips and no buy-in? I don't see a problem here." She gives Codebreaker a little wink. "Besides, if it keeps my uncle from getting cleaned out, I'd call it a familial duty."

"...Ye of little faith." Kyrie mutters sardonically, flicking out cards into four piles; three for the players, one to "burn".

Undersea Ruin
"U-crypt? I don't have any of your backwater local currency, it's C-Bills only. If you really want some of my combat logs instead I can transfer those over." Why would the computer have any valuable information on it? It's a war machine... And the actual secrets that are on there aren't ones the pilot is going to mention, nor would they be useful to these people, he suspects. "If we can work out some arrangement, I'll take your offer."

[Undersea Ruin]

"Since we're such good friends and all, I'll let that backwater comment pass and just say we've got a deal." The diver replies, tapping his watch and glancing up at the boat. "Combat logs for the last... oh, thirty days sounds about right. Should be worth a coin or two."

The diver looks up as a series of hooks descend from the boat, on the end of a number of steel cables. The diver begins attaching them to the mech, humming to himself, before realizing he has a better idea of what to ask for.

"Actually, you've got to have at least a little culture in there, right?" The man asks. "How about some music? Five minutes' worth should be as valuable as those logs. And easier to move, too."

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
"Watch the paint job! It took days to fix it after the last fight." That's a joke. "Five minutes of music? I can do that, easy. You've got yourself a deal."

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker’s Home

Codebreaker nods approvingly.
”I see you solved that little puzzle of mine.” CB had told Kyrie that they could never play poker due to it including numbers. Which coincidentally is one way his predecessor won his fortune. Not that CB knows that. But using tarot cards without numbers sidesteps the issue.
”So what do we do here?” he asks.

[Ironsmith]

Undersea Ruin
"Watch the paint job! It took days to fix it after the last fight." That's a joke. "Five minutes of music? I can do that, easy. You've got yourself a deal."

[Undersea Ruin]

"Good, good." The diver chuckles, tapping his watch again, prompting the cables to start pulling up the mech. "...It occurs to me, I never introduced myself properly, did I? The name's Duffle. Arin Duffle. What's yours?"

Codebreaker’s Home

Codebreaker nods approvingly.
”I see you solved that little puzzle of mine.” CB had told Kyrie that they could never play poker due to it including numbers. Which coincidentally is one way his predecessor won his fortune. Not that CB knows that. But using tarot cards without numbers sidesteps the issue.
”So what do we do here?” he asks.

[Codebreaker's Home]

Owena smiles and patiently explains the rules to Codebreaker; "Catch the Fool" is a game about bluffing and logic, but one wherein the actual enumeration on the cards doesn't matter except to distinguish them from each other (much like suits already do). Each player selects a number of cards from their hand and puts them face-down on the table, then alternate between placing wagers and making statements about the state of the table as a whole (i.e. "Kyrie has a trump card", "there are no Knights on the table", "I have three pentacle cards", et cetera). The round ends after three wagers from each player, or when someone refuses to make another wager, at which point the cards are flipped and the round goes to whoever had the most true statements (except for whoever has The Fool, who gets points for false statements instead), with ties being given to whoever gave the more improbable answers ("Kyrie has a seven of cups" beats "Kyrie has a seven" beats "Kyrie has cups").

In other words, this is going to play out more based on how well Codebreaker can tell a lie and tell when he's being lied to than his ability to count the cards (though that's definitely going to help).

Owena takes the initiative on this, quietly chipping in that she doesn't have any trump cards, before immediately making small talk as a distraction. "So... that whole numbers thing hasn't gotten worse since a, has it?" She prompts.

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
"Reed Trajkovski, but most people call me Diablo." Diablo introduces himself. "My baby doesn't really have a name, but you can call her Spider and she won't complain." He's talking about the mech.

[Ironsmith]

[Undersea Ruin]

"Diablo it is." The diver smirks as the mech's top is pulled out over the surface of the water, prompting him to stand and direct the efforts of the ship's crane toward setting the massive machine on the deck of the boat. It doesn't rake him long; his crew seems to know what they're doing, and there's not much of a gap in the conversation between coming up and when the mech is set down and securely tied to keep it from falling off the ship.

"So, Diablo, what brings you to this part of the Nexus?" Duffle asks, shuffling off his mask.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

Codebreaker smiles at Owena.
"The sum of the numbers on Kyrie's cards is twelve." he promises her.
"All of my senses got overtuned, but I can tweak it a little. I can also just turn off my senses and rely on their sort of...spirit-senses. But it's weird and I like using my eyes for things, frankly." The spirit sense does deprive him of information enough to keep him from influencing things to some extent, as stressful as using it exclusively is.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Kyrie looks down at his cards, back up at Codebreaker, and down at his cards again, looking a little dumbfounded. He should have expected something like this, knowing Codebreaker and why he's named that, but it's still a surprise.

He recovers reasonably quickly, though. "Codebreaker has more face cards than I do." He says bluntly, tossing in a few of his chips.

"Does he, now?" Owena smirks. "Then I'm going to guess he has more swords than wands."

"Hm." Kyrie frowns. "So what is that actually like, then? Those spirit senses, I mean."

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
Diablo decides this is a good time to start hiding the truth. He can say things that are close enough to it. But the fact that he doesn't intend to be here? Definitely not going to bring that up. "I'm looking for someone. Three someones, technically. Other MechWarriors."

[Ironsmith]

[Undersea Ruin]

"I see." Duffle replies, nodding to himself. "So you have a ship of your own, then? Maybe we can contact them and drop you off. Or were you down there because it sank?"

[bc56]

Undersea Ruin
"Not here. I took a sort of jump device to get here. My targets should be somewhere nearby." Diablo tries to play it down. While jump drives are common where he comes from, one that could fit into a 'Mech is unheard of. Fancy toys is a benefit of working with some genius scientists and technicians, as well as being part of a well-respected mercenary company who can demand them as payment or loot them from their targets.

[Deathkeeper]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Kyrie looks down at his cards, back up at Codebreaker, and down at his cards again, looking a little dumbfounded. He should have expected something like this, knowing Codebreaker and why he's named that, but it's still a surprise.

He recovers reasonably quickly, though. "Codebreaker has more face cards than I do." He says bluntly, tossing in a few of his chips.

"Does he, now?" Owena smirks. "Then I'm going to guess he has more swords than wands."

"Hm." Kyrie frowns. "So what is that actually like, then? Those spirit senses, I mean."

Codebreaker's Home

"Mm. And Owena has two face cards." CB states as he clicks his claws on the table.
"Imagine having perfect knowledge of where everything around you is without seeing or hearing it. It's just information that exists in your mind. It's very disorienting." he explains. He's tried to avoid using it if he can.

[Ironsmith]

Undersea Ruin
"Not here. I took a sort of jump device to get here. My targets should be somewhere nearby." Diablo tries to play it down. While jump drives are common where he comes from, one that could fit into a 'Mech is unheard of. Fancy toys is a benefit of working with some genius scientists and technicians, as well as being part of a well-respected mercenary company who can demand them as payment or loot them from their targets.

[Undersea Ruin => Elster]

"A jump device?" Duffle asks, a note of alarm in his voice. He's seen those, too, but the implications are very different where he comes from. "...Not that it's any of my business, but how on earth did you come across one? We've been looking for a q-space tether for years now and we've turned up squat. Where did you get a full-on jump drive?!"

Codebreaker's Home

"Mm. And Owena has two face cards." CB states as he clicks his claws on the table.
"Imagine having perfect knowledge of where everything around you is without seeing or hearing it. It's just information that exists in your mind. It's very disorienting." he explains. He's tried to avoid using it if he can.

[Codebreaker's Home]

"Ah. So it's sort of like intuition, then?" Owena prompts. "I don't see how that could be disorienting. Kinda the opposite, really. Never lose your keys again."

"One of those face cards is a Knight." Kyrie adds quietly.

"Is not!"

"Is that your play?"

Owena frowns and looks at her cards again. "...You know what? Yes. I don't have one Knight in my hand."