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Edged Horizon

Chad took another sip of the golden drink. He focused intently on the horizon and on the distinct sweet taste of the alcoholic beverage, doing his best to ignore a certain individual above traipsing about the airship’s old wooden mast. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wished the mast would come down; then he would have one less problem to deal with.

The sounds of footsteps on the creaking wooden deck alerted Chad that somebody else had come on deck. Without turning around, he hazarded a guess that it was Lyra, but he was wrong. Turning around and leaning back onto the railing, he faced Rilolia, who seemed to be ill in some manner. He presumed it was airsickness. He offered her a mint in his pocket as he reciprocated her greeting, giving a shrug at her comment.

“I don’t think it takes a shrink to see how messed up Yazu is,” commented Chad. Rilolia’s question wasn’t particularly one for inducing calm, but he decided to humor her question. “I’m sure many people hold some sort of grudge against her. But she has no sense of economics or common sense. She appeared on my boat, broke my things, broke laws, and assumed I would accommodate her like a self-centered, spoiled brat. Worst of all, she had the gall to call me something along the lines of ‘a greedy imposter of a captain.’ There’s only so much a man’s dignity can take under fire from such insanity. Needless to say, we share a very intimate relationship.”

Another large sip of scotch went down his throat. Just thinking about Yazu made his blood boil, but his mildly pissed off state-of-mind soon changed to one of confusion as an ace of clubs fluttered onto deck, quickly transforming into a person-- A person that asked for one Rilolia Lorchais, who was standing next right next to him.

“Ah—Yes, I believe the person you are looking for is right in front of you.” Chad gestured towards Rilolia, standing beside him.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about this new development.

Edged Horizon

It was a bit unusual to be on a vessel and not be in charge, but for Chad, it was a bit liberating in a way. Without anything to have to look after and a vast blue sky and deep blue ocean beneath, the voyage was actually quite relaxing if he ignored Yazu’s antics aboard the ship.

Leaning on the side of a rusted bit of railing, the merchant captain sipped from a small glass of scotch. There were only a few clouds in the distance, breaking over the horizon where blue met blue. Puffs of uneven black steam rose over the jury-rigged airship. Moko no doubt was working the hired engineer to his limits in keeping the engine running. With the help of the obnoxiously loud man from the Harbor Company, Chad and Moko had put together a team to repair and crew the derelict ship in record time.

Surprisingly enough, the 150 meter long flying vessel was quite an accommodating ship, with a large mess hall, sightseeing module, and state rooms that in its heyday would have been quite luxurious. None of the fancy stately upholstery remained, but some decent furnishings were acquired that would tide them over for the trip. With the engine running to a respectable specification, it would be a less than a day until they reached Astopol… and hell. Chad wished the voyage would take a little bit longer.

As Chad sipped his beloved vintage scotch above deck, Lyra was in the mess hall, attempting to do what she did best. She was having a mighty hard time of reading, however, for several of the portholes in the room were missing their glass panes. The vortex of violent wind this created was unsuitable for reading, however comfortable the chairs and couches were in the room. Unfortunately for Lyra, there was no other place for her to be; anywhere aft of the mess hall, black soot and steam from the misfiring engines filled the rooms with smoke and cancer; the state rooms’ lighting had failed, so it was only really useful for sleep; and forward of the airship was even windier than this room with all the holes in the hull. For perhaps the first time in her life, Lyra was not a happy camper. Shielding her book from the wind with an awkwardly placed elbow, she turned a page with a frown. At least they would get to do something interesting enough soon enough...

Edged Horizon

Well fuck.

☄For Divine Entertainment☄

That really wasn’t much information to go by. Anybody could tell her that it was large and slow or fast and small; broad descriptions like that were useless. Charging in knowing nothing but generalities was tantamount to suicide. Did the reconnaissance teams have only that to say?

Lyna rolled Tobie forward on his wheels before plopping down on him with a small clank. The bot beeped in displeasure at being abused as a makeshift stool but otherwise did nothing else. She hadn’t initially wanted to speak up too much, but she and the others clearly needed a bit more to go on.

“So, how does this behemoth act? Does it pick a target and focus on it ‘til it’s dead, or is it easily distractible? There should be at least some information about how it attacks. I mean, I’m confident enough in defending myself, but I’d throw our success into doubt if we’re going in blind like this with all these vague statements.”

☄For Divine Entertainment☄

<_<

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GG.

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Traitor.

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Nao pls.

☄For Divine Entertainment☄

It's 2:15AM. The day has ended long ago, Rodey.

☄For Divine Entertainment☄

The Donaieth capital was as smoggy as ever. As much as Lyna reveled in the nation’s innovation and industrial prowess, she loathed the technological capital of the world for its immense pollution. She had always stood by that staying a day in the capital was akin to “smoking ten cigarettes a day for an entire month.” Inhaling deeply through a handkerchief she pressed up to her face, she made her way through the dirty streets of the capital, flanked by a visibly struggling Tobie. In preparation for leaving her home, she had crammed the majority of her tools and a small portion of her personal effects into the little mech. She had exceeded the designs of her own compression algorithm in the tool-bot by nearly an order of magnitude, and it weighed nearly 500 pounds, double the weight its little motors and bearings were rated for. She resolved to add a more powerful drive to her little retainer as soon as she could; Lyna was using a large portion of her energy in just keeping the overweight bot moving alongside her. Exerting significant energy unnecessarily in such a manner would not do.

The strange pair of struggling robot and vampiric inventor didn’t go unnoticed in town. Lyna felt consciously aware of staring eyes as she made her way down a large avenue. She was not unknown to them either; she was at the heart of the major scandal two years prior where she was involved in that ‘accident.’ While Lyna still had the good reputation as a quality engineer that she had before the incident, she was fully aware that some people likely resented her for what had happened, even if she wasn’t directly to blame. As a precaution against any unnecessarily attention, she hurried on to the famed engineer Rhys’ workshop where she had been advised to go.

By the time Lyna reached the aforementioned establishment, there were already a few people outside of the building. She hurried on ahead into the building ignoring the others; if they were there for the same thing, she would have time to greet them later. She found Rhys by the door. She’d never talked to the boy personally, but she seen him at demonstrations and other engineering events before she moved. He was engaged with a familiar looking individual; the person before him was a vampire that was well known for her antics in the quarantine zone. She herself had gotten mixed up in one of them, but it wasn’t anything that she held against Fortuna. Pushing the faltering robot through the door with her foot, she said hello to Fortuna before producing a folded document for the young engineer.

“I don’t know about little Fortuna here, but I haven’t seen any fliers. It seems a certain General thought I would be interested, however, and he was right.” She produced the letter of recommendation from her cousin with an awkward smile. It was a bit unnecessary and a little embarrassing to hand over, but it had saved her from a lot of hassle traveling through the capital.

“Is this everybody?”