Expendable

How do i say this... howdy?

Greetings and salutations, Athos. Who doesn't like dragons? At least from a distance.

Let’s Try This Again!

Welcome back, callmedia. Hope you have a great time here.

Hi everyone

Greetings and salutations, SeaMirror. Welcome to the guild. I hope you enjoy your time here with us.

excited to be here!!

Greetings and salutations, funnyrumham. I must admit my posts tend to be a bit long as I tend to populate with scenes and locations as I go.

Pariah

Remy darted across the street and grabbed the sign post, panting hard as he glanced behind him, but there was no sign of Nkiruka. He'd gone maybe a block, but he needed food, now. Turning, there was the corner entrance of the Blue Seal Pharmacy, one of the few bodegas that wasn't a giant vending machine. The owner didn't like street kids coming in, and definitely wouldn't like the state he was in, but there was little choice.

Hauling out one of the c-notes Harry had pressed on him earlier, he stepped inside and immediately caught the eye of the owner behind his protective plastic shield.

"Get out!" Saul Henderson thunders, getting off his stool and grabbing his bat. "Out right now, you hooligan, or I'm calling the cops!"
"I've got money!" Remy cries out, crumpling down to the floor while holding the bill aloft. "Please mister, I'm hurt, I'm hungry, and I need a place to hide from some perv."

Saul pauses, taking in the boy's face starting to purple, his messed up clothes, and the bill. "Perv?"
"He just came up to me in the street, I was just walking towards the fire, told me he wanted to hire me...!" the boy wept. "I think he'd been watching me for a while. I was afraid he...."
"He do that to your face? You want me to call the cops?" Saul gruffly relented, putting the bat back under the counter and glancing back at the other patrons.
"So some bot comes and hauls me off to child services?" Remy shook his head. "Please sir, I just need some food."

Shelves under the counter held various candy bars, Remy leaned over and grabbed two energy bars, then put the bill on the counter. Issac looks down at it, then looked up, "That's not going to last long. Jimmy! Fetch this kid a sandwich and a carton of milk."

There was some rustling in the back, then a young man wearing an everwhite-tee and an apron appeared with a foot long cold cut sub and a carton of milk. He whistled when he saw Remy on the floor, kneeling down while Remy was chewing on one of the bars. "Damn, boy, who gave you that?"
"Truckers," Remy managed, gulping it down. "They caught me dumpster diving outside the Watershed, one of them gave me this." He gratefully took the milk out of Jimmy's hand and got it open, drinking it down.
"Maybe you should see a doc..."
"No!" Remy sputtered, milk dripping down his chin. "They'll call child services to come and get me! You don't know, mister, it's not safe in there. I'm better out here."
"Saul, this kid's gonna need more than a sandwich...."
"Please, I'll be fine!" Remy said, pushing himself up.

"Show him to the back," Saul sighs waving at the doors in the back corner. "Get him cleaned up a bit and let him eat his sandwich while he warms up. I promise, no cops."

Jimmy offered his hand, and the boy crammed the other bar into his pocket and let Jimmy lead him to the store room.

Dorothy, one of the shop's graying regulars, came up as Saul was ringing up Remy's purchase. "You're not going to charge him for that, are you?"
"Don't worry," Saul said, "This time I'm giving him the employee and desperate kid discount."
"Well, I want to pay for sandwich," Dorothy insisted, reaching into her purse.
"Dorothy, it is not necessary, I assure you," he smiles thinly.
"Well, what about some soap and some washing tabs? He's got to keep clean!"
"Yes, that's fine. Could someone fetch me those?"

A young man and his date pushed through, putting a bar of soap and a box of washing tabs on the counter.
"Thank you young man," Dorothy smiled, giving his girlfriend and approving look as they slip out the door.

"John," the girlfriend said when they were outside, "Are we going to leave that boy there like that?"
"I'm already dialing," he replied, holding up his phone.

"Thank you for calling the New Haven Police Department," the voice menu announced. "If this is an emergency, please press 9. If you wish to report a homicide, please press 1..."

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

J'eon sighs as he put down his bowl and spoon. His simple meal of stewed mashed grains with a dash of liquor he had picked up in Ertiseda was now a warm lump in his first stomach that was slowly spreading.

The small pit fire cast was little more than embers now and well-screened from the road, the cart and camp hidden under a few boughs of leaves from prying eyes. Not that he expected company on this rather desolate track that would take him by a few of the farms. If he was lucky, he might find the very thing he sought....

It appeared suddenly, a fireball of light launched to the heavens, its brilliance robbing him of his night vision so that all he could see was splotches of color that burned and blurred, so he buried his face in his hands, massaging them. All around him, even the tiniest of insects were still, but when he looks up, he could see the fireflies had risen, like sparks from a massive fire, all around, giving tribute the only way they could to the brightest light this night.

"What was that?" he asks, in a voice as soft as a whisper as he continued looking in the direction of the light, but it did not rise skyward again. There was a faint glow in that direction, miles ahead. Without taking his eyes off the spot, his right foreleg rakes the dirt back into the pit, extinguishing the flames.

Whoever had sent that light aloft had announced their presence for miles, there was no need to announce himself. If it repeated, he might have to think someone was in distress...

Pariah

Remy nods and waves at Jimi. Glancing towards the street that the three truckers went, he turns in the opposite direction towards the back alley that ran behind the bar, leaving Jimi behind. As he rounds the corner, he took a couple of steps past it, then pauses to lean against the vibrating wall of the Watershed, rubbing his aching cheek.

Please don't let it be a fracture, he winces as he gingerly pressed on the bone. The ache became sharper, but his cheek bone didn't budge. He sighs with relief.

A couple of pain killers would be nice, but the drug store would want an ID for anything stronger than baby aspirin. And buying it so close to the alley might be trouble....

Remy pushes himself off of the wall and glances around, then heads up the alley towards downtown. Food and meds was going to have to wait while he got away from the alley. Slipping his hands into his pockets, he began rolling up the bills a few at a time in the one pocket and sliding them through a small hole in the fabric so they'd slip between the liner and the shell.

That was lucky. Guy must have been gambling, Remy nods to himself. Or going gambling. If it was legit, they'd use their banking app. So they're not likely to call the cops...

He pauses for a moment to glance at the burned out preschool yard through the broken wall. They just had to put up those D-Corp princesses on a mural. And instead of threatening to sue, they had a couple of those troopers with the big ears on their helmets raid the place. Pity, it looked nice.

By the time he reached the end of the alley, he could hear the sirens and the bright flickering lights somewhere ahead. Some sort of opening? Not another disaster 3D?! Did they pay for the trucks to show up or did someone trip a fire alarm?

Well, it might be fun to watch, Remy decides, heading towards the burning labs.

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

J'eon of Mythadia

Name: J'eon of Mythadia

Species: The Glen

Appearance: This male Glen puts you in mind of an unstoppable machine. He has narrow olive-green eyes. He has a muscular wide-chested build, and a network of old, dark flogging scars on his upper and middle back. His hide appears creamy yellow or gold, depending on the light. He has hollow cheeks and wide feet, with a long dark scar crossing his cheek below his right eye.

His wardrobe is practical, a dark brown leather cuirass peppered with small burns over his upper torso and bronze pips along the shoulders. A medallion of the Mythadia Blacksmith Guild is over his first stomach - an anvil with a six pointed star of a master craftsman over it, flanked by a hammer on the right and a sword on the left. His upper arms bear a studded leather rerebrace, while his lower arms wear a darkened leather vambrace peppered with small burns. Each leg wears leather greaves, with the front pair peppered once again with small burns. A wide leather belt bears two leather pouches in front, with leather gloves tucked behind them, his favorite hammer on his right, while on his left he carries a long kukri blade, with two smaller blades and a small iron hook for cleaning his hooves. Each hoof has an iron shoe on it.

While traveling, he wears a leather chamfron with small iron plates & bronze pips over his face, leather paulroons, and has a cart with harness that he can strap himself into.

Leaves on the left, right, and back sides of the cart can be pulled up and slot into ironwork straps underneath. It carries under canvas a traveling forge (in the back), an anvil, a box with his tools and a leather apron, a locked iron-bound chest (key is on a cord hanging on his neck), a box holding two blankets (one quilted with straps) wrapped in oilcloth and ropes, a tripod with a small cooking pot, barrels holding charcoal, iron blanks, water, and grain. Oarlocks on the right arm of the cart hold a long spear.

Augmentations: N/A

Magical affiliation: Heat domain - able to manipulate thermal energy.

Occupation: Blacksmith

Key skills: Blacksmith, Engineering, Wilderness survival.

Backstory: J'eon was born into the Dark Ash clan, a nomadic group that assisted settlements with planting, harvesting, and various services they lacked before heading back to Dark Ash Vale, their wintering grounds. F'eon, J'eon's father, was the backsmith for the clan and its unofficial leader. He spent much of the winter months mining for ores that he would then smelt into the old forge into the refined metal blanks he needed, or into various impliments he could sell. J'eon watched and learned beside his father, marveling at how he called up the flame.

They were raided by bandits, his father ran through by one of his own swords. What happened to J'avra, his mother, he didn't see. He was chained up with the other survivors and eventually sold to a miller in the west, who chained him to one of the poles to turn the millwheel along with the other slaves - simple brute labor. One can still see the shackle gauls on his wrists when he takes his vambraces off. When he got out of line, they'd flog him. In his sixteen summer, the miller's daughters began to pay him close attention with strangely hungry eyes and giggles. When the overseer reported their attentions to the miller, he had the young muscular buck unchained and hauled to the flogging post. It was during that flogging that the Fire came to him.

With the burning of the miller's place, J'eon along with the other Glen made their way back east, eventually finding themselves in Mythadia once more. It wasn't long after that he found himself the oldest apprentice in the blacksmith guild, but he was quickly initiated into the innermost secrets once they realized he could call forth the flame. It was here he learned the riddle of iron and steel.

Once he became a master, he took to the road in a cart he build to hold his traveling forge and his tools. Word of his craft spread beyond the borders of Mythadia, and he found himself traveling out of the kingdom, called forth to build weapons, craft armor and chains, even called to repair waterwheels and windmills. Slave mills, however, tended to go up in flames. Nor was he particularly soft on bandits or slavers.

Jack Ryan Mallory

Name: Jack Ryan Mallory, Commander (Ret) USSF
Species: Human (Age: 42)
Appearance:
This man makes you think of an inhuman statue. He has deep-set gray eyes. His fine, straight, midnight black hair is worn in the military Ivy League style (longer than a crew cut, hair in front can be swept to the side, with a tapered block in back. He is tall and has a masculine build. His skin is deeply-tanned. He has a large mouth. His wardrobe is a bit odd.

Wardrobe

His garment bag came on the plane with him, and held a nice tailored black suit (two pants), a dress shirt, three silk ties, a khaki safari jacket with cargo pants, two leather belts, and a nice pair of black dress shoes in their own protective shoe bags.

However, his checked-in bag did not come on the flight, so he had to scavenge from the local stores for toiletries and other clothing. He's got some novelty underwear, a lot of black socks, handkerchiefs, a couple of plain white t-shirts (which are easy to pick out from the colorful ones), three plain coveralls, a pair of jeans, navy jogging suit with two reflective stripes down the sides, workout shorts, sneakers, and a very garish Norwegian Hawaiian shirt.

His ceremonial sword and gun were shipped to the embassy in a diplomatic pouch, the company made arrangements for him to bring them aboard.

Currently wearing a navy blue BioPlas bodysuit under his olive drab flight suit, polished black boots, and a utility belt with a holstered 9mm pistol & magazine pouch holding two magazines on the right, while the left holds an insulated multi-tool in a sheath. His left breast pocket contains his personal comm, with two slots on the left sleeve for a multi-surface pen and a black penlight.

His right breast pocket contains a challenge coin from the Secretary of the Space Force, a comb and two PlastiPatches.

His front right pocket holds an electric Ziplo lighter, while his left has fingernail clippers with file.

gear

BioPlas Body Suit

In the event of pressure loss, the suit will deploy self-sealing hood and gloves to turn it into a light vacuum suit. Internal oxygen supply suitable for four hour operation, can be extended with external connection to oxygen canisters or hose. Interface allows it to be programmed with artwork or to merge with another BioPlas suit. Lives off of body heat / sweat of wearer, requires a battery for storage, usually build into the storage egg container.

IdentCard

Jack Ryan Mallory, USSF (Retired)

Comm

Ruggedized short-range personal communications device / pocket computer. Can act as a remote interface for some equipment.

Penlight

Small pen-size device that acts as a flashlight.

Multi-surface Pen

Pen that writes on wood, glass, metal from -150° to 400°, works in Zero G and vaccum. Blue felt tip.

Multi-tool

Standard commercial multi-tool with Jack Mallory engraved on the insulated handles.

PlastiPatches

6x6 inch bandage, good for sealing moderate wounds or patching punchures in the hull or spacesuit.

Augmentations:

Health Monitor

This implant monitors the subject's vital signs - temperature, pulse, blood pressure, blood sugar, alcohol level, oxygen saturation, respiration, basic statistics, etc. Pressing on the left inner wrist brings up the eSkin display tattooed there. This is programmed to send wireless reports to a monitoring computer.

Recorder Implant

This implant hooks into the optic and auditory nerves, broadcasting a short range transmission to a monitoring computer of everything they see and hear. All recordings have to be accessed via the computer.

Magical affiliation: None

Occupation: Executive Officer

Key skills: Pilot, Navigator, Engineer.

Personality: Crisp and professional, he has a notorious poker face. He is very tidy, never a hair or a thread out of place. While he vapes, he prefers smoking a pipe, with either a whiskey or cherry tobacco. One would never suspect he had two bottles of 12-year-old single malt whiskey in his locker.

Backstory:
Attended the Space Academy in Colorado, in the top quarter of his class. Volunteered for the recoding implant.
First tour was aboard the USS Comet, a salvage ship that collected old satellites and lost items from low Earth orbit for orbital processing.

Briefly returned to the Academy as a guest lecturer to talk about his experences in orbital salvage operations, and he got married in a whirlwind romance to Jackie.

Second tour was aboard the USS Fox, supply runs to Mars and the Belt. Commendation for the Ceres Rescue operation. While serving out his rotation as the junior engineer, discovered a few of the recycling gang had put together a still for brewing moonshine. He kicked it apart, tore into them as being some of the few people on board who knew how to distill and yet managed to build their homemade rig wrong.

During his Earth tour, incident with the Flat Earth Church, but his recording of the encountered showed he had restrained himself and it was the Flat Earthers who had struck the first blow. Turned out one of them was a former boyfriend of his wife.

Shipped to the Aries Lunar Base for his lunar tour. Received commendations for his work, but there was another incident where a video surfaced of him escorting a wealthy and flirty female tourist. His wife, sick of the long separations already, filed for divorce.

Heartbreak tour with the Pournelle on a solar patrol of the system. Was not directly involved with the Jupiter mission, worked in an advisory capacity. Left the service after that, only to get hired by the company as X.O. for the Jotunheim.

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

<Snipped quote by Expendable>

Hey, thank you for writing up this character. Elite is responsible for the native civilisations so will let him have the final say, but I really like your sheet and don't see any issues myself.

There are no limits on characters, as long as you are active enough to service them all where required. Did you have any other characters in mind?

@Catharyn

You're welcome! I was thinking of bringing in a human, an unintended stow-away.

<Snipped quote by Expendable>

I have to say, I rather like this character. Low key, I was hoping someone would be interested in making a Glen. Being centaur-like, I can imagine plenty of ways that simple, biomechanical difference would influence both their society, and day-to-day life.

I do have to compliment you on your description of him. You can paint a picture better than I can, and everything you described about him makes sense to me. All of his armor does seem practical as something he could equip himself without assistance, even if it took a bit of work. The greaves on the rear legs might be hard, but doable with some effort.

@EliteCommander

The small hook for cleaning his hooves doubles for undoing the greaves, and work with a lot of effort to put them back on again. If he throws a rear shoe, he'll need another blacksmith to take care of it.

Your character's background checks out, and I can give you plenty of leeway with what you want your character's clan to have been like. On the whole, Mythadia and Acanata originated from a mix of Glen clans that came together to resist the Kolodon Empire, so they have a mix of cultural backgrounds. Generally, the Glen loathe strict restrictions, so I imagine nomadic clans would not be uncommon. Though, they do still have static cities and towns (The capital of Mythadia is actually the largest city in KA).

Overall, I am perfectly happy to accept the character as-is.

@EliteCommander

Thank you.

If you need any more information to start off, I can give you some more detail on the area around where Kareet and Shirik currently are (which is near to the future crash site of the Jotunheim). Broadly speaking, it is a fairly remote area. There is a road leading down from some smaller settlements in Mythadia into the Ascendancy that passes through the area, but it is a minor trade route. It is around the border of the Ascendancy and Mythadia, which is also a border between the mountains and the plains. The area is settled, but it is pretty far from the more civilized parts of those two nations. Imagine it a bit like the "wild west", in that respect. Towns are mostly responsible for protecting and governing themselves. There are also known to be dangerous creatures in the area.

@EliteCommander

One reason to have the spear. J'eon is likely after some raw ore, especially meteoric iron if it's available and more likely to be found in the mountains. The cart is able to go off-road, assuming the forest isn't too dense or the trail too rocky.

The Eye of the Needle (where Fantasy and Sci-fi collide)

@Catharyn & @EliteCommander - A submission for you to consider. Also, is there a limit on characters?

J'eon of Mythadia

Name: J'eon of Mythadia

Species: The Glen

Appearance: This male Glen puts you in mind of an unstoppable machine. He has narrow olive-green eyes. He has a muscular wide-chested build, and a network of old, dark flogging scars on his upper and middle back. His hide appears creamy yellow or gold, depending on the light. He has hollow cheeks and wide feet, with a long dark scar crossing his cheek below his right eye.

His wardrobe is practical, a dark brown leather cuirass peppered with small burns over his upper torso and bronze pips along the shoulders. A medallion of the Mythadia Blacksmith Guild is over his first stomach - an anvil with a six pointed star of a master craftsman over it, flanked by a hammer on the right and a sword on the left. His upper arms bear a studded leather rerebrace, while his lower arms wear a darkened leather vambrace peppered with small burns. Each leg wears leather greaves, with the front pair peppered once again with small burns. A wide leather belt bears two leather pouches in front, with leather gloves tucked behind them, his favorite hammer on his right, while on his left he carries a long kukri blade, with two smaller blades and a small iron hook for cleaning his hooves. Each hoof has an iron shoe on it.

While traveling, he wears a leather chamfron with small iron plates & bronze pips over his face, leather paulroons, and has a cart with harness that he can strap himself into.

Leaves on the left, right, and back sides of the cart can be pulled up and slot into ironwork straps underneath. It carries under canvas a traveling forge (in the back), an anvil, a box with his tools and a leather apron, a locked iron-bound chest (key is on a cord hanging on his neck), a box holding two blankets (one quilted with straps) wrapped in oilcloth and ropes, a tripod with a small cooking pot, barrels holding charcoal, iron blanks, water, and grain. Oarlocks on the right arm of the cart hold a long spear.

Augmentations: N/A

Magical affiliation: Heat domain - able to manipulate thermal energy.

Occupation: Blacksmith

Key skills: Blacksmith, Engineering, Wilderness survival.

Backstory: J'eon was born into the Dark Ash clan, a nomadic group that assisted settlements with planting, harvesting, and various services they lacked before heading back to Dark Ash Vale, their wintering grounds. F'eon, J'eon's father, was the backsmith for the clan and its unofficial leader. He spent much of the winter months mining for ores that he would then smelt into the old forge into the refined metal blanks he needed, or into various impliments he could sell. J'eon watched and learned beside his father, marveling at how he called up the flame.

They were raided by bandits, his father ran through by one of his own swords. What happened to J'avra, his mother, he didn't see. He was chained up with the other survivors and eventually sold to a miller in the west, who chained him to one of the poles to turn the millwheel along with the other slaves - simple brute labor. One can still see the shackle gauls on his wrists when he takes his vambraces off. When he got out of line, they'd flog him. In his sixteen summer, the miller's daughters began to pay him close attention with strangely hungry eyes and giggles. When the overseer reported their attentions to the miller, he had the young muscular buck unchained and hauled to the flogging post. It was during that flogging that the Fire came to him.

With the burning of the miller's place, J'eon along with the other Glen made their way back east, eventually finding themselves in Mythadia once more. It wasn't long after that he found himself the oldest apprentice in the blacksmith guild, but he was quickly initiated into the innermost secrets once they realized he could call forth the flame. It was here he learned the riddle of iron and steel.

Once he became a master, he took to the road in a cart he build to hold his traveling forge and his tools. Word of his craft spread beyond the borders of Mythadia, and he found himself traveling out of the kingdom, called forth to build weapons, craft armor and chains, even called to repair waterwheels and windmills. Slave mills, however, tended to go up in flames. Nor was he particularly soft on bandits or slavers.