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"I'd take that for a no" the agent says deadpan, holster in his guns. "well then, mr magic man, you got a spell to find out where we are? If not, unless anyone else has a better idea, I say we pick a random direction perhaps south or in the direction of those mountains, and just keep going till we find some kind of town"
"So... you're cold, then? Warmer to the north where I'm from. Doesn't get much warmer without sailing for about a week or so, though." Gray looked him over. The suit was clearly breezy then, because it covered the majority of his body. Poor design, that.
He looked at the cat as he flopped around like a demon possessed, eyebrow lofted. "I'm no doctor, but I'm fair certain that ain't normal." When the fire started, he eyed his waterskin and rolled his eyes... just taking a few steps back. The lynx had the right idea. He just kept moving away, pace by pace, not turning his back... tail still flicking back and forth.
"Not cold yet, but I would prefer to keep it that way," he quips
He then frowns "though you being from another hemisphere is... Worrysome"
Scath moves off another 20 or 30 feet when the creature arrives.
"What're ya backin away fer? He's not gonna hurt ya. And no, e's not a demon. An e's not a monster. He's just a big softy, e is."
He rubs under his chin and the orange beasty rolls over in response. The catfolk rubs up and down on his belly.
Nova kept watching as the others talked and tripped each other, she wasn't able to trust any of them but she didn't have much in the way of options as they were the only information she had at the time.
"South or no we do need a town or at least someone that knows where we are."
"Just not particularly interested in being the feature piece in the next misunderstanding's all." He kept a fair amount of distance from the two. "Guy on my ship could do that. He didn't do the whole... seizure thing... just kinda concentrated for a bit. The thing was right evil, if you ask me."
"Well, Bear is made from my dreams as a gift from the wee folk. So, I can't very well bring him here while I'm awake, now can I? But, the downside is, if I'm asleep er unconscious, he gets pulled back to my dreams."
He explains and then turns to Nova.
"And that, me loverly lass, is why Bear is here."
He smiles.
"C'mon Bear, less take a look around."
He lifts his arms and the lazy chimera clambers up and picks up the catfolk.
With him in his arms, he beats his wings and takes to the air.
They climb to a reasonable distance and they both take a look around.
He draws the wooden stick from his quiver and twists it a bit, resulting in both wooden ends popping open to reveal glass lenses. He looks in one end and surveys the landscape through his traveler's any tool spyglass.
Hecate glanced up slightly, then around. "...North." she mused, fixing her position. This was a time when satellite uplinks would be handy, but they hadn't built that into this generation of armor. Sad, that, but what could you do? She did, however, give their... scout... the opportunity to look around and come back, even if her hand was twitching towards just shooting. Half this group seemed outright primitive, and the other half was still somewhat ignorant... but at least they didn't seem like outright terrible people, odd body mods or not. So there was that.
"I speak a few languages, but this one seems to be one that you recognize. It does not seem that anyone else understands this language, except for maybe the smaller cat creature that appears to be responding to what I'm saying. I do not undertand the language that the rest of you are speaking however. During the war, I was called the hunter, but I'm assuming that none of you are from where I am."
The armored being approaches and speaks to Pierce, his voice still low and gravelly. As people being reacting to the shimmering in the air, the armored being will take to flight, his backpack and jets in the souls of his boots using some sort of fire as the propulsion system. He will fly quickly towards the disturbance, looking for the attacker that he clearly can't see.
Pierce shouts after him, hands cupped around his mouth
"It seems there is something hidden in the sky. I am looking for it, as it probably works for whatever brought us here. If I can't find it, i'll climb higher and see if I can find spot anything of note."
Roy drops down and Bear holds him with his legs and tail. He hands up the spyglass to Bear.
"See what ya cin see, Bear."
Roy's +8 if scent applies
Bear's
Nova watched as the two spoke in a language she was unfamiliar with as she tried to decide her next action, seeing as the others had a much better ability to scout than her she would wait for now until she had a better route of action.
At some point when speaking the gunslinger points to Hecate.
Bear and Roy descend once more.
He stows the any tool in his quiver as they sink bit by bit.
They land with Roy on his feet. Bear goes to all fours and then flops back onto the ground lethargically. Anyone watching their descent may notice that Roy wears his kilt in true fashion,
"Di'na look like much up ther. Coul'na see over tha mountins. Anyone got any ideas, now?"
He sits down on the ground and leans against Bear's large flank as he waits for other people to make decisions.
"Like I said, go south, and reach the mountains so we can have a bit of a look see"
Well, he didn't seem like he was pointing as a signal to attack... though Hecate did flick the safety of her pistol back off, just to be completely sure. One couldn't be too cautious when they were in a strange place, surrounded by people who still thought cat mods were cool. Geez, those were so six months ago...
"Did you see any rivers or other sources of water?" Hecate asked Roy. "Following those is most likely to lead us to some kind of settlement."
"I'm afraid not, M'lady. Nothing but this ring a mountains, far as thu eye cin see. E's got it right sayin ta just pick a way and go fer it, in this cat's most humble of opinions."
He gives a charming smile and puts his paws behind his head.
Bear snuffs through his nose.
"Well you should've said that before."
Roy pats Bear on his belly.
"E says there is a river. Over in that way."
He points the way if the river.
"That'd a good bet."
Scath bores of watching the dumb two-legs do nothing, and quietly slips away into the grasses.
He then makes a giant circle around the group, sniffing the ground and looking for scents and trails.
Without waiting, Hecate started walking, heading towards where Roy indicated the river could be found. "Best to travel as best we can and conserve whatever rations are available." she said. Goodness knew it was unlikely anything would happen if they just stood around forever - and she was definitely the type to take the initiative on an issue.
"Sounds good to me. Speaking of rations, I've got none." he shrugs. "Like I said. Alleyway. Who carries rations in a city?"
He follows after the gunslinger, letting her take point, as it were.
Gray watched the stupid fourlegs wander off into the grass.
"Right then."
He hops up.
"Right, Bear, up ya go."
He gently pulls Bear's head up and he rises.
"Off we go."
Bear folds his wings in and Roy climbs up onto his back.
They follow the gunslinger at a leisurely pace.
Nova made no attempt to hide but she followed the others quietly, she was lost and confused at the very least she would have water if she followed them.
Roy lays on his back on Bear's back with his hands behind his head and his legs crossed.
"So, M'lady."
He addresses Nova.
"If I'm Roy and he's Bear, who does that make you?"
He smiles charmingly.
Nova's face was covered with a mask but her eyes were cold.
"Please refer to me as Nova and nothing else. She tried to make it clear she was expressing her dislike of the term M'lady.
"You know, I once knew a young lady, went by Malady. Great chirurgeon, most of the folks she worked on didn't even need to disassemble furniture to walk proper afterwards. A right fine job she did most of the time. 'Less she didn't like you. Then she typically earned her name." His tail was still swishing slightly, but it was more measured now that they were moving, and he was less annoyed.
"Well, now I know. Nover it is then. Not heard a name like that a'fore. Well, not fer a person. May have heard it from one of the wee folk, but they'd go by five others, n' any name a'tall if ya got a coin in yer hand. So, where ya from, then?"
He seems to have quite a few stories to tell about "the wee folk."
He looks forward upside down at Grey.
"Ya don't say? How tall was she?"
Gray held his hand to about his shoulder's height, indicating around five and a half feet tall. "About so."
"Guess not, then. Lass I knew along those lines was around yay."
He holds up both paws, indicating about 5 inches.
Gray just smirked, his tail returning to a typical balancing act with the rest of his body as he continued to move after the apparent leader.
"I'm from an area called The Spoke, currently in a bad time and in need of me. Have you heard anything of it?"
Landing to conserve fuel, Damian waited until the others were preoccupied, then proceeded to refuel his rocket pack.
"I just wanted to be sure, also to test my [objects] and make sure they were working correctly. Seems like they are."
After refueling, Damian would follow along and listen to their converstation, making notes so that he could start learning their language.
"I'm afraid I h'v not. I try ta stay away from bad times."
"I've heard of many establishments going by that name, but no areas, just restraunts, clothing shops, an amusement park, that sort of thing,"
"There was a little town on the ocean by the river, went by the name Broken Spoke a few leagues north from Iliver. Named cause the only reason anyone ever stopped there was because they broke down from the poor roads. Didn't ever see much reason to stop in, though. Heard they had a fine tannery up and runnin in the recent years. So definitely not bad times compared to what it was. Won't be long til The Traders pull them into the fold, now'at they've got some usefulness. So roads, docks, 'n all that." He shrugs, but when he says The Traders, it's said with no small amount of dissatisfaction. The name clearly has more meaning to him than just the words themselves.
Hecate listened as she walked, but didn't add her opinion to the discussion. She was far too busy learning about the others - what they said about their homes was quite informative, and she was filing it away in her mind for future reference. None of them had mentioned the interesting things in life - bio-mods, syn-gear, implant processors, layer-lens... odd, that. They were all from totally backwards places, then? Well, civilians could do whatever, she supposed. For now, she continued walking, staying on the alert for both wildlife and signs of the river.
The man in the suit looks to his fellow gunslinger "you implied you were some kind of servicewoman, might I ask what branch?"
"You may ask." Hecate said. She waited for a few moments before speaking again. "...That was a joke. I come from an Army family, and followed the family tradition when I first enlisted. I have always preferred ground combat to other forms - enemies are not always obliging enough to fly up and be shot out of the sky by our aircraft." Not that she'd complain if they were.
"Sometimes the enamies of the state aren't even so kind as to waltz onto the battlefield, they must be located first, bribes must be made, contacts buttered up, or tortured as need be, a gentle touch a it were, but then I suppose we must oblige the army give them a nice easy target to shoot at" he says grinning cheekily.
"But of course." Hecate said, not missing a beat. "After all, people who can't shoot straight need jobs, too. Besides, it would be too easy if we did everything ourselves. Our enemies can't challenge us, so we have to make the challenges ourselves or we'd get too bored." Some things never changed - and she was okay with that.
If Scath finds nothing of interest on his patrol, he'll sneak around in front of the strange group and get about 150 ft in front of them, and continue forward, stealthing and sniffing.
If he comes across food he'll also do a little quick hunting.
Ear flick. Fickle Moon... why are you doing this to me? Not one, not two, but -three- soldiers? Perhaps more, if Mask is military in some way...
"Wait. Air?" the privateer asked, head tilted. "I'd heard of The Traders making forays into skyships, but I thought that was all just... talk. And certainly not for public consumption..."
And worse, it seems as though she's a member of The Traders. And that she's drinking from their goblet to boot. The tip of his tail went back to twitching side-to-side. Torture, grandstanding, picking fights with the defenseless... these folk were beginning to remind him of his old crew. He didn't like being neckdeep in Trader Lingo much, either.
Hecate looked at Morrison for a few moments. "...You poor thing." she said, honestly sympathetic. "It's just basic science. We've been in the air for hundreds of years, after all. I'm much more interested in the high-altitude refueling projects they've got going on... asteroid mining's going to be great once they're done getting it all set up." She glanced upwards, looking for the distinctive traces of aircraft that had passed overhead, and continued heading towards the water.
"Oh, so yer squadies got some pegasus, do they? Keeping them fed tis'nt hard. Just need one a them rings slipped on somers an they kin fly fer ours."
He thinks for a moment.
"What in the green blazes is an asteroid? Ya soldiers an yer crazy talk... Don't care for soldiers, usually..."
He furrows his intense, Scottish eyebrows along with a smirk.
hundreads of years, sure if you count derrigibles, though it had been even longer with magical flight, though as any magic, that's a state secret, and asteroid mining's barely in the theory stage, hardly more practical than doodles
"Don't be so condescending, not everyone has the luck to live in an enlightened nation, and some enjoy the quaint, quiet life away from the thrum of the city"