Patches (Open RP)

"Yeah Patches. Not sure if that was the name it originally had or not. but This world if you want to call it that is a patchwork of bits and pieces of other Worlds. Your .. city landed right in one of the meanest patches. Used to be part of a world called Rauk got these nasty Machines flying about. They don't bother us Elves but they do target humans and some other beings that used to call this realm home."

"I guess they just don't identify us as targets. We do try to help the remaining Humans from Rauk and have some hiding in our forest realm but we keep that aid low profile so the Machines won't catch on. Not that there much we can do."

"On top of that to the south east is a plain where a highly predatory creature known as the Ger'shil live. They won't care what you are if they can kill and eat you chances are they will. Or capture you and force you to be a slave worker."

He looks over at Paxtera "First thing first we got to warn all the humans in your city to get out of sight. The biggest threat right now is the Machines."

Jade momentarily regarded Paxtera with a 'no duh' look, the nature of his thoughts much the same. He wanted details of why this particular place was so horrid, not be presented with the obvious and sweeping generalities. Fortunately, the elf provided those before he said something stupid.

Or rather, unfortunately.

Rauk...

The velvet-brown tone of his synthoskin's tiny scales became just a bit paler, and his eyes stared at and through Lazardarus' own, into unseen space. Had he still had hearts, both would've skipped a few beats right now. Even without, however, the effects were duly physical.

System failure.

He gave a blink, only now noticing his breathing came labored, nervous.

Oh man...okay, calm down. He said world. Not city. Rauk's just a name. It can be a common name...right? Right? Oh please let Rauk be able to be a common name. Machines are everywhere too. Doesn't mean...anything. Right? Oh please don't let it mean anything. Pleasepleasepleaseplease...

"Um...question." the metal Dragon licked his lips thrice, a severe phantom dryness in his mouth, "You said Rauk. That...that's a planet, right? That's not...the name of this city. Right...?"

Trisys didn't answer the last of Ildela's comment. It was a statement thus did not require a response, though the tattered wings and vivid scaring was testament enough of abuse from hands of previous Masters.

Ildela's question did get a quieter, almost prophetic confirmation: "I am to make wishes come true." The caveat being Be careful what you wish for, you WILL get it.

The older woman replied, breaking off a tension building in Trisys before it could reach perceptible levels. Not an EarthMother? How to answer the return question without a point of reference?

The satyr sat very still for many moments, as if churning the simple three-letter request. Finally Trisys attempted to explain her erroneous conclusion. "Paxtera, you are mother. Ildela and Kethara are daughters. All are same image. Ildela form shaped to expectations..."

Trisys trailed off, swallowing. It may appear to the females that she was nervous about how they received her words. In actuality she was being distracted by a shift in emotional clime.

Until now the prevailing emotion was confusion. Where it gave way was replaced by alarm, the greatest in her Master. It strongly affected her, mostly because she existed in an almost constant state of fear herself. Only two things weakened her more.

Master’s order to interact with the women kept her eyes on them. Her ears, however, flicked backwards and stayed there, straining for every word. True, most of what was being said was as impossible for her to grasp as the ominous thundering clouds outside. That didn't stop her from trying to hear it all.

Paxtera's answer was... nebulous; leading to more questions than comprehension. Trisys got a taste of the confusion others often felt whenever she spoke. It was one of the reasons each previous Master eventually ended up ordering her to invisible silence.

If Trisys was capable jealousy, it would have flared up at Kathara being free to solicit Jade. As it was, Trisys only was attentive to Master's response.

Ildela's question needed no vocal answer; she perceived things without needing more than an affirmative gaze from the satyr's smoky-amber eyes. Hers a negative: Ildela was no more an EarthChild than Paxtera was EarthMother.

Trisys felt something. Something new, unknown. An emptiness or an absence. The closest sensation she knew was hunger, and so clutched her arms around her abdomen defensively.

It was not an uncommon experience for most. For Trisys it was the first time she had had a possibility of being with someone of a like understanding. Only a possibility, true, and only a moment. Still enough for an introduction to loneliness.

Paxtera's attention, like Kathara's, became focused elsewhere enough to imply an end of conversation. That only left Ildela, whom had asked the previous topic to end. Trisys didn't know enough to fulfill the other part of the command to do things with the three look-alikes - just sitting here hardly sufficed - so was again left with talking.

What to ask?

Well, introductions had been made, that was done. Trisys had already stated her purpose. Most everyone else had already too. Lazardarus stated a mission to present information on this changeover place Patches and secure trade with those he found. Validating truth was meant to be an ability of Trisys, but she was not evolved enough yet. Experience would have to prove his integrity. Master was not to be questioned, only observed and obeyed. Kathara with Paxtera in not so many words stated they were here for Ildela. What about Ildela?

"Why," the pause as she collected the simple words may have at first implied Trisys was questioning the reason Ildela was not an EarthChild, though the followup words clarified, "are you here?"

((Pst - Jade said he gave permission for Trisys to speak and 'do things' with them. It wasn't a command. Though I guess if you want, she can keep interpreting it as one, that's cool.))

I just know that place out there was Rauk...

...place out there was Rauk...

...was Rauk...

Lazardarus' words reverberated in the metal Dragon's head like the thrum of a bell slammed with a maul. The final barrier, the last flimsy wall of denial he'd shored up in an attempt to disbelieve it came crashing down. As did he. However, his fashion was a bit gentler - a stagger back that turned into a pair of steps due to the automation that kept his balance, followed by contact with and his back sliding down a wall until he ended up a sorry-looking, energy-less heap, uncaring in which way his legs and tail had contorted as he looked toward the ceiling with expressionless eyes.

Why? Why?!

He didn't know. He didn't know why he was back. But he knew he was back. He couldn't deny it anymore. But why? Hadn't he spent enough time alone? Hadn't those long, long years of all that crushing loneliness meant anything? No...he didn't want to be alone again. It hurt. It hurt too much. All the pain, all the suffering, all alone again without anyone around to...to...

No.

The realization brought his eyes back into focus, and the sensors slowly passed their pupils through the room. Gradually, bit by bit, the expression of shock and despair upon his face became a smile. A weak, dumb-looking smile that someone who felt very foolish might wear, but still a smile.

And then Jade began to laugh.

It started as a mere chuckle, but soon reached normal volume, though its manner had a hint of the psychotic to it, like the metal Dragon had just gone crazy. Who knew - perhaps he had. He didn't. And he didn't really care.

Because he wasn't alone.

There were people right here, right in front of him. There was all of Paragon City (well, maybe not all of, but still) right behind him. What was he afraid of? What was he afraid of?! It was stupid. He couldn't believe how dumb he'd been. All this time, all this fear...for nothing. His home was here. His heart was here. He didn't need to be afraid anymore.

"I don't know." he answered Kethara with a disturbed-looking smile and a single cluck of laughter, "I don't know. But...I think I will be. Yeah. I think I will be..."

((Exactly. Part of Master is that things are either a command to be followed or information to prepare for future orders. Otherwise it is over her head. Not right, neither necessarily wrong. It simply is the only way of life Trisys has known.))

More fear; that she well understood. But that was not all. That same strange hunger - only a twinge within her - surged from Master. Equine ears flicked as Trisys wondered what it was.

There wasn't long to wonder, for it was replaced by laughter. A laughter that caused those same ears to lay so flat in alarm they were lost amid her pale lavender mane.

She knew that laugh. In her experience it was a reckless-inducing madness. Recklessness which gave the illusion of indestructibility. It was the source of most of her scars. Trisys shrank from it with an involuntary shiver.

He looked at Jade as the laughter rose. Moving to a spot he settled down sitting crossed legged and seemed to slip into a trance his eyes closing as he starts singing. His voice takes on a strange note a combo of both vocal and instrumental sound.

""I am no king, and I am no lord.
And I am no soldier at arms," said he.
"I am none but a harper, and a very poor harper
That has come hither to wed with thee."

"If you were a lord, you should be my lord.
And the same if you were a thief," said she.
"And if you are a harper, you should be my harper,
For it makes no matter to me, to me,
For it makes no matter to me.

"But what if it prove that I am no harper?
That I lied for your love most monstrously?"
"Why then I'll teach you to play and sing,
For I dearly love a good harp," said she."

As the song ended he opened his eyes. "Now these War Walls remind me of another city farther north that has something called shields. They weren't bad to begin with but as supplies ran out they started raiding other locations. Even if your War Walls keep the Machines out they still need to be some order and such set up so you won't end up suffering."

"Nice song." Jade remarked with a smiling nod as he stood again, brushing some of the dust and grit from his pants that had collected on there by now, "Prefer rock myself, but nice. And yeah, what she said. Paragon as a whole should be okay...once they know what's going on, anyway. I'll forward this to Dr. Keyes. Hes a lot smarter than me, so he'll know how to set things up to keep trouble down."

Databurst sent. Databurst received.

The metal Dragon shook his head vigorously a moment, as if to chase something from it, "Erg...that still always feels weird. Anyway, um...I guess we should be looking for a way back home then, but I don't have any idea where to start. So uh, Lazardarus? You guys need any help with this stuff you were talking about...?"

It wasn't that Trisys was trying to ignore Ildela time and again, returning questions or statements with silence. Previously it had been because of the survival need to establish a Master. Besides, she was not naturally inquisitive for her training was to be a passive follower. Now Trisys was too overwhelmed by the hint of madness to pursue further avenues of conversation.

Music is a universal connector, even moreso than the translation built into Patches. What the meaning or purpose of the words Lazardarus sang, Trisys understood not. The harmonics were enough to still her shivers. Otherwise she remained in her defensive hunch.

Master was talking again, but there were still no new commands discerned. That he had apparently regained his calm comforted Trisys not at all. Fear and madness were not so easily conquered, only buried beneath the surface where they could fester into something worse.

"Certainly got a knack for the dramatic. You should fit in quite well 'ere." The Captain remarked. He had lit another pipe and was studying Tafari with great interest.

Smith, quivering like a jellyfish, followed the pair as they wended their way through uneventful jungle. The air was filled with buzzing noises, hoots, calls and rustling. The Captain kept a cool watch whilst Smith jumped at every noise. It was as if the man wasn't really used to this place.

The trio reached the edge of the jungle in a few minutes, which made no sense consdering its apparent size from the starting point at the beach. The Captain seemed perfectly well and healthy whereas Smith was red-faced and out of breath.

The Captain pointed upwards to the hut on top of the mountain. Perspectives changed and shifted, although it could have easily been a trick of the light. The hut stood atop the rock and, from the edge, Gramma Perkins waved to them with a tea tray in her hand.

"Coo eee!" She called down. "You took your time. Now hurry on up here! I have portents to divulge."

(With Permission from AP...)

"It looks like your stooge there needs to get some shape." Tafari noted of Smith to the Captain. "A little something that can only be gained through the use of comedic negative reinforcement...And a really tall mountain doesn't hurt either. Let's go."

The Captain felt his feet lift off the ground, and a sudden tightness at the back of his collar. Then his vision blurred, and it appeared as if he was rushing through the air up the mountainside at insane speed...And then they were at the top. Tafari put him down and dusted off his hands.

"DAMN I love being me." He said, looking off the top of the mountain and hocking a wad of spit over it. He then looked down at Smith, his focused sight allowing him to see him easily. (The altered perceptual range of the mountain helped.)

"HAVE A NICE TIME WALKING ALLLLLLLLL THE WAY UP HERE!" He shouted down.

Outside the Gre'shil started moving rising up and shaking the dust and dirt off them. One of the Gre'shil moved to the pack leader "Krill is hurt... Dirt no good in wounds evil spirits will sicken blood."

Krill the Pack leader looked down to his now caked wounds a mix of the dust and his own blood clotting. "Spirits won't hurt yet... Find water and wash soon. Perhaps in new place." Krill looked to Paragon "Yes new place must have water..."

With that he moved and the others of the pack came after him. A few looking to the wounds of their leader and wondered was it worth exploring the new place.

Almost as suddenly as it'd sprung up, the dust storm outside appeared to be subsiding. Paxtera kept her barrier up a while longer, until she was sure the storm was in fact over. "Storm's clearing", she told the others, gesturing out into the now actually visible street. "Keth, stay here with your sister. We are going to go find one of these Machines and see for ourselves how dangerous they truly are." With that, assuming nothing stopped her, she set off to do precisely that. Lifting into the air, she flew in no particular direction other than not back to Paragon, settling at about treetop level and searching for machines of any description. Since she didn't know what they looked like.

------------

"And of course I get left behind here while she goes and does all the fun stuff", Kethara complained, eliciting a laugh from Ildela. She glared at her sister.

"Sorry", Ildela apologised. "Just, she used to do the exact same with me, before she disappeared. Amusing to hear that some things never change." She smiled, and after a while Kethara did too.

"Still annoying though, not being allowed to go out and do all the fun stuff", she replied. Ildela nodded her agreement. Both of them seemed unconcerned that Trisys was ignoring them. Indeed, they seemed to be all but ignoring her too. Most likely because she did nothing to draw attention to herself, so naturally their attention went elsewhere.

"Hey, hold-!" Jade gave a shout to Paxtera, stretching a hand and taking a step in her direction, but she was already gone, "...on."

He lowered his arm again, looking fairly nonplussed, and turned to Ildela and Kethara with the characteristic look of 'is she always like that?' in his eyes. He opted not to say it out loud, though.

"Well." he said instead and ran a hand through the back of his hair, feeling a little awkward, not to mention a lack of direction. Lazardarus had remained silent in response to his question, and he didn't want to push the man into answering if he didn't want to, and Trisys was still in her defensive hunch.

What a situation.

"Uhm...you guys want to get some...pizza?" was about the first thing that came to mind in his mental search for icebreakers, speaking to the whole group, but giving the focus to Trisys in an effort to let her understand this was a choice, not a command, "I know a place over on Bronze Way that's pretty good. Well, I don't know that it's good, but, um, people say it is. That is, I've been there, but I...oh good grief...nevermind. It's good. I think."

Of course, as these things tended to go, that was the moment his sensors picked up the approach of the Gre'shil. Not having any idea just what those things his HUD labeled 'contact' with an attached number actually were however (though the echoes did convey their approximate size), the metal Dragon's response was but turning his head in their direction with a, "Huh. I guess there's more people coming. Want to go say hello?"

Meanwhile, Paxtera's search didn't turn up much. Sure, she found some wrecked machines scattered about here and there - specifically of the hunter-killer aircraft variety, though the shut-down Harvester half-embedded in a building by the side of a road wasn't to be missed - but if she wanted to find working examples, she'd have to journey deep into the Desert. For the moment at least, there weren't any that prowled Rauk...

"Well I still have my task to do. Nothing much I just ... oh well Take me to your leader. And what is a Pizza?"

Lazadarus looked at the door where Paxtera was. "Sorry to say this about your mother but she's reckless. Those Machines aren't something to take lightly. Not to mention kind of annoying that she had to see that they are a risk herself. Like she don't trust the word of an elf."

The Gre'shil watched as Paxtera flew out of the building. They looked among themselves. "Glow prey?" one of the smaller pack hunters asked. Krill tilted his head "Do not know... we look perhaps find glowing birds nest."

So the pack headed for the building Krill in front.

Would she want? Trisys hesitantly looked over at Master as he stumbled through the offer of pizza, unable to believe her desires were being solicited. Yet in spite of the incredulous prospect, it was clear enough Jade was making an effort to include her.

What did she... want?

She needed her Token. She needed a Master. But want? Trisys had always been told what she wanted, not asked. It was an incredible gift, almost as much so as the brief magnificent Dragon form earlier. Except she didn't know what to do with it.

Trisys didn't not want pizza, so that was close enough to a decision to prompt a quiet, "Yes, Master." Though her response was likely lost when his attention was called to the Gre'shil, or taken as an affirmation to meeting them.

Either way, Trisys unfolded to stand in her customary position slightly behind and to one side of Jade. There was still a deep-sated unease. At this point she had no idea if it was residual disorientation from the changeover to Patches, being away from Paragon's home soil, adjustment to a new Master, roller coaster emotional clime, the hunt hunger of the approaching group, all together, or something else entirely.

Trisys filtered the air around her of the residual dust let through when Paxtera dropped her barrier. Purifying air and water to be free of contaminates was one of her most basic attributes, done constantly unless ordered otherwise. The resulting bubble was almost visible in the stirred dust, extending in a couple yards radius.

Jade gave a shrug to Kethara's question, honestly having no idea. That the focus of his mind was presently elsewhere - on Trisys, to be exact - didn't really help. The uneasy vibes coming off her were practically palpable. He'd have to do something about that. Maybe take her to...

Quote:

Originally Posted by RottenLuck "PREY! ATTACK"

The metal Dragon's head snapped toward the Gre'shil, the shout consuming his attention. Okay, so much for that question. Jade's eyes narrowed as they approached, the optics and other sensory mechanisms beneath the synthetic white membranes sweeping their scans over the approaching dinosaur-like bipeds, causing his pupils to glow red.

Morphology - Unknown
Bioform 21629 matches 72/74 parameters
Primary material content:
- Carbon
- Hydrogen
- Oxygen
- Nitrogen_
|
Offensive capabilities:
- Claws, kps rating 1125
- Teeth, kps rating 3119_
|
Threat: Minimal

Jade blinked in reflex. This was attacking a bunch of superheroes? That couldn't end well. For them, that was. Yeah, he didn't want that. Maybe they could be reasoned with. They spoke, after all - well, one of them did, so the metal Dragon assumed the others could as well. Moreover, judging from Lazardarus' actions, they seemed to respond to music, both of which were obvious indicators of intelligence. Jade smirked with a glance to the elf as the lead reptilian froze up in the song's effect. A controller. Nice. Those were always good to have along.

Guess I better play tank then.

"Stop!" he yelled forcefully at the approaching Gre'shil, deploying his wings again to make himself look even bigger than he already was - considering he stood at over 2.4 meters, that was saying something - as he stepped between them and the bulk of the others, stretching the palm of a clawed hand toward them, "I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to!"

Meanwhile, closest Harvester to Paragon City (the one Lazardarus had encountered earlier) lazily roved its way across the rocky wasteland of the Desert, course due northwest. It was roughly an hour from Paragon City though, so Paxtera would have to fly quite a ways and get very lucky to find it at all...