Null's Game

[Idran1701]

"What of my earlier question; what if the danger never passes? Is she to stay in the Green indefinitely, then?"

[Visavis]

"Course I'm up for it! I'm not gonna turn down a once-in-a-lifetime chance, I'd have to be dumber than hot snow!" Rasmus grinned, belying his suspicion that there might be something a little sinister to the request. It could be dealt with later, if true. At that moment, who would turn down Trask Icehammer?

[Oleai]

Oleai would.

She blew more fur out of her line of sight. "I need to trim this. Hmmm..." She stood again, holding onto the doorframe and letting it swing her around the corner more into sight of Autumn and Kyrie, "Stray's a sweetheart, I wanna keep her around. But maybe put a little bell on her so we know where she is? You know we did that with my littlest sister? So precious. Oh. Excuse me."

They were still talking. Oleai just kindof went off on that.

[AlwaysAPrice]

Red straightened out of her slouch against the wall and stood with her arms akimbo and chest puffed, facing Autumn.

On the one hand, she'd just gotten her first lead on what she was after and didn't want it to grow cold. As far as Red had ever seen or heard, Nekana had a marked preference for more intimate weapons. It was unlikely the guns would remain in their possession if a buyer could be found. ...though this Toshi didn't sound like a very conventional Nekana. On the other, she was being offered the role and associated awesome title of WARBRINGER by Autumn. She could repay Amber's debt (earning a favor for herself), call herself WARBRINGER, and maybe do something more significant than scare off poachers to repay the Green for the hospitality it had shown her and Spitter in recent years.

Also, WARBRINGER.

"Like y'said, you've found your new Warbringer then. 'm called the Red Rider, by the way, on the off chance you ain't heard of me. I specialize in bringing it, just tell me what you need. 'n' hey--" Red looked to Kyrie. "Look, even Spitter thinks the pipsqueak's adorable, but you people ain't got a monopoly on honor. If a Dryad tells you she'll take care of something or someone, she's gonna, along with her Arbitors and everyone in her tribe. And as for every other Green elf, well they're already the only damn decent people on Kinsera," she paused to spout a half-sincere "No offense." to, well, everyone. "But any of 'em that don't respect her word still have a lot more sense than to risk Autumn's wrath. 'sides, the Green's got tons of scratching posts."

[Idran1701]

"...mmph." Kyrie takes another deep breath, letting it out slowly. She pulls herself straight, holding herself as steady as possible and speaking with an even, slightly haughty tone, belied by the droop to her tail and the glances she keeps making back to Stray. "...all right. With the way we'll need to be dividing our attention between the Null Group and the revenants, you're...you're right; it would be better for her sake to have someone to focus on her protection. Autumn, you can...you can take her on a trial basis. You can keep watch on her on my behalf for one month, and...then I'll come to check on her, to see how well she's been treated and taught. Does this seem...fair to you?"

[Shinigori V2]

Autumn folds her hands again, her face even. "I accept your deal, Nekana, though with one alteration." She looks slightly towards Stray again, then back. "Come after two weeks, not one month."

She turned again towards Red, nodding. "It's not a final decision--Yet. You'll have to prove yourself, though if Amber had faith in you, I suspect you'll do fine. I'll have one of my Arbitors contact you when I have something substantial for you; for now you're free to do as you will."

[Idran1701]

"I...yes, that seems a reasonable compromise." With a light nod, she stands from the wall, granting Autumn a small bow. "And...when will you be departing, then?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Tomorrow." Autumn says simply. "You'll need to keep her the night while my Arbitors make preparations. Is that acceptable?"

---

Trask grins back, standing from the table and dwarfing everyone else in the room- Rasmus included. "Settled, then! Good lad!" He bellows a laugh, clapping Rasmus's shoulders. "Ya know where my forge is, right boy? Just bring 'em past when you get one to cooperate. Good start would be the Talonguard or Whelpguard in the city, or maybe that Airship crew. I heard they ran into the Solitaire not too long ago!"

[Idran1701]

"Entirely, yes. I'm glad we could end on an equitable arrangement, Autumn." And with another slight bow, she steps out of the room, back into the main area of the store near Stray.

[Visavis]

"You can rely on me!" Rasmus grins again, then continues, "I should tell the group." He pauses briefly, then asks, "Should I tell them?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Tell them whatever you'd like, boy!" Trask says, bellowing a laugh once again. He makes for exit of the establishment, motioning for his guard. "Lads! We're leavin'!"

Autumn looks over to her own companions, nodding to them. "We will be off, too. I have plans to make." Her Arbitors stand, and she nods once more to Red and Kyrie, before leaving herself.

Both the twins take this chance to yawn obnoxiously loud. "We better get goin', too. Gramps is up way past his bedtime. Gotta bounce!" They both grab the old man by the hands, dragging him out, as well. Though he at least gives a pleasant 'nice to have met you' as he leaves!

And conveniently, the group is now alone in Greenskin's Machines, with both greenskins still accessable if needed, as well as the airship crew in the back room who...Came for some reason.

[Idran1701]

Heading to Stray, Kyrie gently ruffles her, smiling with a hesitant cast to her eyes. She glances between her and Oleai, pausing for just a moment before speaking to the two of them. "We've been rushed so long, we ought to relax a bit before pushing on with the investigation, mm? I'm sure there's some sort of park nearby; why don't we take a few hours for a break?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Oh...Okay!" Stray says, seeming a little conflicted about going back out in the open. "That sounds good."

The door to the workroom in the back opens, and Rhyme steps out. She smiles slightly at the group, then to Stray. "Stray, hon, 'fore y'all go out, why don'tcha let me help get some clean bandages on you an' get ya proper covered?"

Stray looks down at her bandages again with a slight frown. "Oh...Yeah, that's probably a good idea..."

Rhyme steps through, taking Stray's hand and guiding her through yet another door, this one seeming to lead to the part of the shop the Greenskins actually live in. She turns , nodding to Kyrie. "Just gimme a few an' I'll have 'er all ready for ya, arright?"

[Idran1701]

Kyrie nods to Rhyme, smiling as she gives Stray's shoulder a squeeze before Rhyme leads her in back. "Thank you, Rhyme; there's no rush. And I greatly appreciate it. Stray, I'll be waiting right here, and then we'll head out. All right?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Okay!" Stray says, before being ushered off.

Meanwhile, in the workshop door, Isol has taken the spot Rhyme occupied just a moment ago, leaning with her shoulder against the doorframe. Even with her mask covering the lower part of her face, her red eyes make it pretty clear she's sneering at the group.

"Just in case ya forgot," Calamity calls from the back, "Isol just wants t'remind ya she hates each and every one of you. Don't take it too hard though, she hates EveryonOW."

"Stop squirming." The elder Greenskin says. "Or you'll get more than a tiny ding in your gears."

[Idran1701]

While Stray's being taken care of, Kyrie glances past Isol into the workroom, not even giving her a second look. "What's the problem, Calamity? Did something happen?"

[Shinigori V2]

Kyrie looks into the back room, and immediately notices that Calamity is strapped into a large ring, with her arms secured to the side and her legs firmly beneath. The entire contraption has her rotated nearly ninety degrees so she's nearly facing the ground, allowing Greenskin easy access to her back.

And her back is where the interesting stuff is! A large, smooth, molded plate that makes up her back has been removed between her neck, shoulders, and the odd...Pants that Clockwork wear. With the plate gone, a large tangle of gears is revealed, impossibly complex and yet seeming to be in perfect working order.

"The good Doc here dinged a gear." Calamity says bluntly. "He's been doin' this for years, y'think he'd be better at it."

"It's a pleasure to see you too, Gauss." Greenskin says. "Slips happen. Grow up."

[Kelne]

Sana likewise directed her attention to the workshop at Calamity's exclamation, taking in the scene with every indication of interest, "Say, do you mind if I sit in and observe?" she asked, "It never hurts to brush up on technique."

Triya was a bit surprised at this pronouncement, "I didn't know you had to brush up on that kind of thing," she said, "I thought if you needed to, you could just... Well, snap your fingers."

Sana chuckled, "I could, but we all have our little hobbies, and besides, I find it really helps to know what I'm doing when it comes to clockwork."

[Idran1701]

Kyrie starts at the sight, never having seen the innards of a Clockwork before. Not entirely sure how one reacts in a situation like this, she decides to keep quiet on the matter, doing her best not to stare.

"So...Calamity, I was wondering. Do you know anything about the Nekana Clockwork that Red mentioned? I can't imagine there are that many Clockwork around here, are there?"

[Shinigori V2]

"I don't mind." Greenskin says, delicately pulling out a tiny broken gear, holding it up to an alchemist's light. "But she might."

Kallamity makes a dismissive noise as Sana sits, indicating it's probably alright. "Clockwork Cats?" She asks in return. "Out here? Nadda. Y'ain't gonna see 'em due to Nekana honor sayin' we're all dirty an' shameful an' all that junk. I've seen a couple in Pendulum, though."

As Calamity talks, Isol moves back into the workroom, putting herself defensively between Kyrie and Calamity.

Clockwork Specialty:

Spoiler:

Pendulum: Rumored to be the City of Clockwork, founded and run by Clockwork looking for equality. Non-Clockwork are supposedly not welcome.

[Idran1701]

She nods, about to reply before Isol interposes herself between the two. She frowns, speaking up to her with a furrowed brow. "Can I help you, Isol?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Isol is very defensive of little Calamity." Greenskin says quietly, working to replace the broken gear he removed a moment before. "She and Rhyme nearly cut my hands off the first time I did repairs."

"'m not little!" Calamity snaps, though she's restrained from doing much else.

"Mm." Greenskin says evenly, leaning back in to replace the gear. "No, of course not. You're only four feet tall and have the relative build of a plank, but you're not little."

[Visavis]

Rasmus stares at Calamity's inner workings. Then he stares some more. After a bit more staring, he glances around, as though checking the reaction of the others to the sight, and finally asks, "How does that hurt, if you're all gears and stuff?"

[Idran1701]

Kyrie looks Isol in the eyes, nodding just a bit. "I can understand that. But I'm not here to hurt her, Isol. I'm just talking."

Stepping a bit to the side, she looks back to Calamity. You don't know anything about the job that Red mentioned, then? Nothing about a Clockwork Tiger's Eye Nekana pulling jobs here in the city?"

[Shinigori V2]

"It's gears, but she still feels it." Greenskin says. "She's not just numb."

"Tiger's Eye? I dunno the clans." Calamity says. "Did you get suit colors? It could be Gearteeth, she does any job that pays. Or, there's another, who you better hope it's not...Or, could be my sister, but she doesn't do that sorta junk, so probably not."

Greenskin The Younger's tail sways slightly as she thinks. "Speaking of them..." She says quietly, frowning. However, she's cut off by a soft but pointed look by Isol, and a very subtle shake of the head.

[Idran1701]

"Mm...Red didn't mention suit colors, but I can ask her."

Slipping out of the workroom for a short bit, Kyrie heads over to wherever Red might still be in the building. "Sorry to interrupt, but I had to ask; did you happen to hear what colors that clockwork Nekana you mentioned had?"

[AlwaysAPrice]

Like everyone else, Red was gawking at Calamity's hole.

Rather than draw the Clockwork's pissy attention by speaking, she shrugged at Kyrie then pointed back to Greenskin Jr., who'd dug up the report for her.

[Shinigori V2]

"Blue on black." Greenskin Junior says, handing her father a spanner.

"Blue on black?" Calamity confirms. "Y'all're screwed."

[Idran1701]

Kyrie doesn't outwardly react at Calamity's comment, but inwardly, she sighs, hoping that she's just exaggerating the issue. "Who is she, then? What do you know about her?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Well, Gearteeth is red on black, and the other Mekana's colors are silver and gunmetal, so you're dealing with Mercury. She's sorta an experiment someone tried t'run once t'see some stuff about how we work. Gotta give 'em credit, they just threw a Device onta a kid that needed one, rather than makin' a new cripple. Anyway, she was trained by someone t' be able to..."

Calamity stops and thinks for a second. "Who Clockwork are and what we look like, 's'really dependent on how we see ourselves in our heads, y'know? Mercury, she's th' same. But they took that crazy Nekana focus, and used it to train her t' be able to change that. From what I've heard, she can change 'erself inta a little Mekana kitten, or a full grown Mekana ninja, or anythin' in between, just by tappin' inta diff'rent aspects of 'erself. Y'ain't gonna catch Mercury unless she wants t'be found. There ain't such things as shapeshifters, but she's th' closest yer gonna get- Just locked into a Clockwork body."

[Oleai]

(( I was on vacation for the last 10 days, apologies! ))

Oleai, who had been quietly observing until Kyrie approached her speaking of a break, was now standing watch over Stray while the others lingered to observe the Clockwork woman's maintenance. She rocked on her feet, back and forth, "I told you. See? Shapeshifter. Or something like it maybe, but still!"

She wore a cocky little grin and her ears waggled, she could provide insight too! All these shadowmen and women with their secrets ought to pay more attention to what's in front of 'em.

Ohh, maybe that's my job!

"I wonder what kind of parks exist in a city like this.. It's so smokey." She mused, still only half in the conversation and half wondering at nature. She needed to be re-focused on the task!

[Idran1701]

With a light smile and a laugh, Kyrie looks back to Oleai, glad to see her already back in good spirits. "All right, I suppose you were. Mostly. Do you think she might be involved with Null, then?", she asks Calamity.

At Oleai's question, Kyrie glances up towards one of the windows, noting the darker clouds hanging above. "Mm...I hadn't thought of that. I'm sure they can't be too bad, though; they'd have to have put them far from the worst of it, wouldn't they?"

[Kelne]

"It sounds as if she'd be very difficult to track down," Triya remarked, "To the point where it might be easier to get hold of something she wants and let her track you down." She wasn't feeling any motivation to go after Mercury. It was Red who wanted the guns, after all, but she was okay with talking things through. "I suppose your first step would be to figure out why Mercury hit the caravan. Whether there was something in it she wanted, or she was acting under somebody's direction, you'd have a lead either way," she suggested to Red, "But I think you might want to take a step back and ask if it's really worth all that trouble for the sake of these guns. Are they really that special?"

[Visavis]

"Guns are boring," Rasmus interjects, "You should get a sword or an axe or something."

[AlwaysAPrice]

Red perked up and got a plotting glint in her eye as she considered the Partian's idea of luring the Mekana in. She looked to the younger Greenskin. "Hey yeah, have you heard about this crew hitting anyone else on the roads? Maybe they're after something specific, but if they're just opportunists I can work with that." When Triya suggested the guns might not be worth the trouble, however, she whipped her head round to glare. Her teeth gritted as she forced herself to not fly off the handle -- she still needed the Greenskins to help her trace how the guns wound up in their shop after all, so it wouldn't do to make a scene, and pissing off a Djinn's master probably wouldn't help her in the long run either. Finally, Red responded evenly, "Yeah. They really are."

[Shinigori V2]

"They are amazing guns." The elder Greenskin says, holding a damaged gear up to a magnifier. "Obsidium barrels, pure gold inlay, Greenwood stock...Quite exquisite pieces. Anyway, parks. Parks are all over the city, though the smoke you see is actually steam to keep the city warm. The foundries are beneath us, with a separate exhaust tunnel to channel the smoke and soot away."

"Mercury was prolly trained by the Nulls, yeah." Calamity says. "A spy that can disguise 'erself as a Mekana kitten when she ain't assassinatin' people? Nobody notices normal Kittens, let alone ones that're the dregs of the city. Just guessin', though. All I can say is that she ain't one'ah mine."

Greenskin The Younger frowns. "Calamity...Your brother was here last week."

The Elder greenskin sighs heavily, as Isol quickly sits by Calamity, placing her hand on the Clockwork girl's cheek. "What?" Greenskin says defensively. "She's got a right to know, Dah."

"...Why?" Calamity just squeaks quietly.

[Idran1701]

"Makes sense; I can see why she'd be useful to them. She wouldn't be the first kit to do some spy work on the side," she adds with a slight smile.

At the exchange with the dragonkin, Kyrie just frowns, glancing about. "I...think I've missed something here. Is something wrong with her brother?"

[Shinigori V2]

Greenskin slides his chair back, cleaning his tools and grabbing some replacement parts as Isol angles herself to Calamity's front, brushing some of the clockwork's blue hair out of her face and putting her hands comfortingly on the sides of the girl's face. It's likely odd, seeing Calamity break so suddenly, and Isol soften and take a comforting role despite her normally icy demeanor.

"Calamity is part of a series." Greenskin says. "An Alchemist experiment with Clockwork, taking eleven orphaned children and replacing bits with prosthetics to see if what part they replaced made a difference in the abilities of the Clockwork they'd become. As it turns out, it does."

"Calamity's got a Clockwork heart. I mean, her heart was the bit they replace with Clockwork." Greenskin Junior butts in.

"Right. The power output of her heart is astronomical." Greenskin the Older nods. "But that's neither here nor there. The important thing is that one of her oldest brothers, Glory, turned out to not be..." He stops, considering his words. "...Stable."

"He killed the other two Oldest and harvested them for parts to improve himself." Junior says.

"You're not s'posed t'help him!" Calamity shouts suddenly.

"We have no choice." Greenskin says with a frown. "We're obligated to help any damaged Clockwork."

Junior sighs. "Yeah. I would've preferred to let him rust, but if we don't help, we can lose our permits."

"You're NOT s'posed t'HELP HIM!" Calamity shouts again, as Isol tries to calm her down again.

[Kelne]

"I don't know about letting him rust," Sana said, "But code of conduct or not, surely, in light of what he did, you're not obligated to just turn him loose after fixing him up." She was wearing a decidedly ticked off expression. Downright thunderous, in fact.

"Erm, Sana?" Triya asked worriedly, having been drawn back by the shouting.

"Relax, youngster. I'm not going to do anything precipitous. Well, probably not, anyway," Sana added judiciously, "I'm just getting the facts."

[Shinigori V2]

"We're not all imbued with godlike powers." Junior says, despite Greenskin holding his hand up to try and stop her. "When a Clockwork Pinnacle says they're leaving? They're leaving. Especially when they've got Alchemical Metals in their composition."

"She may not know how to control her mouth, but she's right." Senior adds. "Glory is not ordinary Clockwork, and the addition of Power and Faith's parts has only made him stronger. Trying to detain him would take up a chunk of the Talonguard and likely destroy a small chunk of the city."