FrankenDaughter

Posting About Posting About Posting 2 Still Posting About Posting About

I'm going to miss Magical Insurrection. Pour some Fourties, ya'll.

Allaria - Classical Fantasy Ch. 5 - Recruit the Shadowwald!

Phinuphus Tahnqin

-=On The Nature Of Rivers=-

"...ish nothing more than for you to be successful and that is why this chance meeting plagues me." Phinuphus froze in his tracks, watching Rripp loom over Szazah as he sat stinking with drink and a sudden despair. A couple of men bumped into him, but then wisely made their way past him like rounding a tree trunk that had simply appeared. Phinuphus just watched, listening, his gaze inscrutable. Cheed was waiting for him outside. It seemed he'd be waiting longer.

"In truth, I would have wished for another to tell you, but as it were I happened upon you first. Do not fear, I trust that you assembled a most capable team of warriors and the like to undertake this quest. For instance that guard that once plied his craft in the great kingdom of Bhornbadim, or Tarnbadir, or whatever fangled name the dwarves scrounged up. He is a steadfast ally, one you should be proud to have. And that Reed fellow, strong, yes?"

Blow after blow, each of them low and well placed, and easy to land on a man in his cups. Old stories, told again and again. Phinuphus huffed with a cold fury. Szazah stood, too heavy to sit with shame or too sullen to lcare to counter. Too much drink. Aliyah was right about one thing.

Phinuphus' manner was written plainly enough that his stare had drawn the attention of q number of onlookers. Ot fostered a silence that slowly spread around the tent as everyone watched Szazah make his way out. The man was oblivious, as was Rripp, rather well into his own spirits. Everyone turned their heads to look at Phinuphus, who silently began to step as if on queue to take the seat Szazah had, moving the chair aside and plenting his haunches firmly on the ground.

Rripp looked up slowly, his disdain as apparently as a fish could make it for a mammal. No niceties for the river rat.

"Healer Tahnqin!" A wet slap of fish against the man's side as he moistened himself. A loathsome necessity. "You are not yet with your companions at the gate. A pity. Szazah has exciting news for all of you."

"Yes," Phinuphus spoke coldly. His voice projected throghout the Alehouse, drawing Rripp's attention to the silence around them, the eyes of every off-duty man and woman in the place, all of them watching their small table. "You did not speak quietly. I believe I have done the sums." Loud, but Phinuphus at least seemed in good humor. Someone near the bar tittered. One of Rripp's eyeballs jiggled slightly as it searched for whomever laughed.

"It is a shame, really. But the man really must stay on with the small council until he has... recovered. You understand, I trust?" RRipp's voice had quieted to something more fitting for two persons in a crowded room full of drink, but it didn't serve to really invite anyone else to speak. Least of all Phinuphus, who bit noisily into a raw onion and chewed each bite deliberately, watching the fish. It was not like Rripp to not take command of the situation. The man was more drunk than Phinuphus had guessed.

"You think so?" The capybkin asked through a mouthful of onion flesh.

"Certainly. You have seen it yourself." Rripp leaned in, lower ing his voice further but managing more a stage whisper than anything else. "He's far too drunk for such a journey. What is broken can be mended, but it needs time." Rripp still seemed oblivious to his indescretion. It was not as though he needed much. Their party would be gone in a couple of hours regardless of where Szazah was.

"I am reminded of one of our stories, Lord Dripood," Phinuphus began, taking the tone of oratory. It was not terribly uncommon for the hulking man to do, as often pulling scripture from the bottom of a cup as from the evening stars in the sky. But some onlookers noticed a queer glint in the Capybkin's eye. It was the sort of look he got when dealing with a patient that thought they knew better about how to heal themselves.

It was a tired look.

"Have you heard the story of great Nalfgyr?"

"I confess that I--," Rripp seemed to want to rise and leave, but he could not speak another word before Phinuphus almost shouted over him.

"--No, I thought you night not have. It is a queer tale told mostly by my kin. But we heard it first from a Deeptonne many generations ago that came far inland to spread the glory of Our Shark, Anomandaris." Rripp's scowl deepened as a couple of Minotaur sitting at a table nearby smiled, one of them stifling a giggle. It was often Phinuphus' way to speak to other beastkin about their god by referring to him as "Our Bull," or "Our Cobra." It was the first time anyone had heard Phinuphus refer to Anomandaris when speaking to Rripp as anything other than "Our Lionfish."

It was an angry look.

"Deeptonne, like the sharks they were born from, are a vicious lot. They fight as hard as any Dragonoid, and are as peerless hunters in the sea as a Raksha in the forest or a Gatorman in a marsh. But they do not share the vices of soft-skins as you and I do." Phinuphus paused to gulp a mouthful of ale, and took a small bite of onion before he continued. "They do not fuck for the fun of it. They do not dice or smoke. And they do not drink. But they do walk. And their legs lead just as often to misfortune as our own."

"When our kind were young, we saw the world youngly," Phinuphus stood as he began telling the story. He was prone to gesticulation and pacing as he spoke, theatrics learned from his own childhood. It always served to entertain while he taught with what words he knew, speaking to many places far less civilized than this. "Mountains had stood under countless moons and been seen to fall by countless manlings before we saw the first ones that stand today. Oceans stirred and slept and stormed with depth, were rode upon by untold numbers of ships of all sizes before the first Carpie stood upon sand and declared that things were far too dry outside of them." A few laughs. "And Rivers ran for my ancestors to mate in and for fish to swim down and snakes to lurk beneath and for man to plow his fields beside long before the first of my people took to the plow beside them."

"So it was that the first Deeptonne pack found a bay, tasted fresh water, and found it far too comfortable. For a shark lives a life of pain, yours or theirs, and sees little of worth in between. But all things wander, and many things change. So it was that a small pack of Deeptonne found a sweetness in freshwater that the sea lacked. For manlings have always faught. Elf, man, dwarf, all soft-skins fight, and many of them fight over rivers. And a river can run red, a taste packed with blood that the sea can thin far too quickly to entice--salt far too thoroughly for it to please."

"This small pack came to land, with His seed giving them air to breath, treading riverbanks with fervor and finding soft-skins to hunt and kill no less deadly than their prey in the waters they called home. And, too, they found like-minded men and women and spoke and talked and founded a village and made families. But always they hunted, for they lived lives of pain, yours or theirs, and saw little of worth in between."

"And so it was that they were feared, for their skin that could sting and their fury that could roil across the land and their noses that could follow from one beach to the other were pointed and mean. Deeptonne raided and walked, as they still do in the sea today. But, on land, they found our vices. They found dice and gambling and play, and they moved to other villages and made other families. But they always hunted, for like sharks they live lives of pain, yours or theirs, and see little of worth in between."

"Their games were cruel, their hunts were long, and they were hated as no other of our kind has been, so out of place. Anomandaris lifted not a paw or fin or claw, for he knew in The Fullness what fear could breed. Deeptonne were hunted in turn as their nature stood true no matter how soft they grew. And they persevered because their lives, like sharks, were lives of pain, yours or theirs, and little of worth was in between."

"So in time they scattered as once they'd spawned, their numbers thinning as their time grew long. Their hearts were sick, their minds frail, poisoned by the follies of games and ale. Their blood was thin, and the sweetness turned bitter, the sweet that had brought them here. And the sea called."

While Phinuphus told his tale, he had paced and gestured with his massive arms and roused every heart in the room. Cheed had stepped isnide and was leaning against a wall. No one had had a drink in the minutes he'd told the tale. Phinuphus now stopped to take a quaff. No one else lifted a finger, moved a muscle. Phinuphus sat, affecting the exhaustion if a people he had never met. Heads peering through windows seemed to sag with that same weariness.

"The sea called in the quiet, when the full moon shone, twinkling in wide rivers and hinting where to go. The fish called, trout and bass and minnow," he made the term sound loathsome as slugs, "running up and down every year with news of the sea's majesty. And so it was that packs of Deeptonne began to take to rivers, as all find their way to the sea eventually. But the Deeptonne, returning, found their skills wanting. They no longer had the strength to swim in the sea's swift currents, or the noses to find game, or the minds to trick orca, dolphin, or merrow. So soft, so limp with the joys of a life on land... that not even their Deeptonne brothers and sisters of the sea recognized them."

"And so it was that they were hunted and killed, their weaknesses not even fit to fill the bellies of their family. For a shark's life must be one of pain... ours or theirs..." and Phinuphus gazed steadily at Rripp, who sat motionless and far more sober than he'd been when the tale began, "... and for them there is little of worth in between."

There was no applause. Phinuphus let the moments after his story bloom with a pregnant, odious disdain for nothing in particular. He stood from his seat on the ground and walked steadily for the door, pausing for a brief moment to help Cheed up onto his shoulders. The capybkin did not look back, slamming the door behind him with a loud bang, and making steadily for the north gate. Inside the Alehouse men and women looked between one another and Rripp, struggling to parse the story that had just been left there, ending like a body tossed into stream.

Cheed was silent for a while as they continued through the camp.

"Life is a river." The boy said.

"It is, young man. Let us find our shark before he grows too soft."

Summary: Phinuphus overhears Rripp's command that Szazah is not to go meet The Shadowwold. He clearly has other ideas.

Distress Signal: Bandits Attacking a Mercenary Ship

Lachesniv

@Superservo27@Pumpkinbot

"{You should start soon, before the pilot gets back.}"

"Indeed. It will be good for you to meet Bohah." The door leading deeper into Nilam's vessel opened presently. LAchesniv dropped his hand and proceeded deeper into the Pozo Negro, not looking back to see if Breeze was following. "It probably won't need you to feed your language through that translator, at least."

It did not take long for the android to find its way to the engineering area of the ship, given its size. Lachesniv's magnetic field hoisted his guns along as it and Breeze meandered. Lachesniv was not... talkative? It was responsive though, and not just to things Breeze might've said. It seemed to mirror her latent anxiety about their situation physically. Ot pointed out turns before the pair came to them and used its thrusters to help her navigate the vessel more quick.y

When they finally arrived, Lachesniv set busily to interacting with a large object encased in dense, opaque alloys and reflective glasses. Lachesniv seemed more animated now than at any other time, and extended his hand into a pixture that seemed to be a power coupling of some sort. Breeze could see his hand appearing to disintigrate before her eyes, giving way to a matching plug as the android interfaced with the power supply of the ship.

Lachesniv looked up from his task, watching Breeze.

"Bohah is also the dominant force between our two halves, and is far more perceptive than I am. In truth, it can not be said that you and I have met yet. That said... I am eager to meet you, {Floats-In-Breeze}." It did an excellent imitation of her language, albeit with the limitations of the android's tinny monotone.

With that, the four optical lenses of the android went dark. There was no sign in the engineering room that anything was happening, save that Lachesniv's magnetic field had obviously gone dark--his weapons were beginning to drift with latent air currents from the ship's ventelation system. Breeze seemed to be alone for now.

Pozo Negro's Internal Systems

Everything appears to be stable. Unless the Pozo Negro's power distribution systems are going to display some weird oopsiedaisy protocols, Lachesniv-Bohah will be active in my next post.

Distress Signal: Bandits Attacking a Mercenary Ship

seems crowded given the original intent of the thread.

@Pumpkinbot

The 1st Magic Insurrection [NEW/ACCEPTING]

Indeed.

Distress Signal: Bandits Attacking a Mercenary Ship

@superservo27

So, I'd like to be aware of how easy/difficult it will be for Lachesniv to navigate your ship. Is DIANTO going to obstruct its progress every step of the way locking doors that Lachesniv needs to manually override/blast through, or do you think it'd be a smoother process? DIANTO might even concur with Lachesniv's verbalized assessment of the ship's capabilities and assist, for all I know. I just don't want to take too many liberties with your asset.

Distress Signal: Bandits Attacking a Mercenary Ship

Lachesniv

@Pumpkinbot@superservo27

"My analysis of this ship's internal systems indicates a less than one per--," Lachesniv broke off, raising its free hand to its chin very deliberately and leaning intently at nothing. "I apologize. Our Mind... the means by which our form of life achieves true sentience is through internal discourse. Individually, Bohah and I are virtually intelligent. As our creators put it, Bohah is the ruminator; myself, the instigator. Without an accord we can not be said to be sentient."

Lachesniv looked up from its thoughts towards Breeze again, its lenses pointed directly at her eyes. She could make out the tiny pinpricks of light for the first time. Perhaps sinister. Perhaps innocent. Certainly not expressive.

"I do not intend to drain the ship's power supply. I mean siphon a small portion to begin a feedback process. At the end of that," Lachesniv turned its attention to a terminal by the door leading deeper into the vessel, palming it, "I can return what power I have drained, my internal systems will be restored and Bohah will be awake. We will be whole."

Distress Signal: Bandits Attacking a Mercenary Ship

Pretty much the two pairs of characters are operating in separate continuities until an event links the story again.

Distress Signal: Bandits Attacking a Mercenary Ship

Lachesniv

@Pumpkinbot

"I am afraid." Lachesniv repeated, nodding faintly. It turned to survey the ship in detail, its head-plate lenses flickering momentarily. A faint whine filled their room for a couple of seconds while Lachesniv explained itself. "I am not designed to function actively without our Mind for extended periods of time. I was alone for just under a cycle before our chassis shut down. This is not a state I expected to be in when we began to reactivate. I do not want to make any mistakes to endanger us; I am not as well equipped to interact with sentient beings and communities as our Mind is."

Lachesniv kicked up its air thrusters, propelling itself toward a door leading farther into the ship. It anchored itself against the door with its palm. "However I must satisfy reactivation protocols. I must access this vessel's power capacitor. Would you like to keep me company?"

The android turned bodily to watch her, its free-floating arsenal slowly drifting toward it with the same field that kept it affixed to the door. Its lenses flickered again.

"We can share our bad feelings with one another. I for one am concerned that I will have to defend us regardless of whether I am able to reactivate our Mind."

targeted scans-assuming the Pozo Negro's hull can be penetrated

The chassis itself is made of numerous rare metals worth a small fortune, but the whole certainly exceeds the sum of its parts. The power capacitor and integrated reservoirs keeping it running are worth more than any of the ships in this present astronomical unit of space. If the sensors sweeping Lachesniv-Bohah are sophisticated enough, they will detect a disproportionately large subspace wake coming from the Pozo Negro. This is caused by the folded space housing Lachesniv-Bohah's mind.

The 1st Magic Insurrection [NEW/ACCEPTING]

If we're basically pulling up I'd like that to be stated clearly at this point. Want to prospect for a new RP but not 'til this one's ToD'd.