A Grande Adventure

Her face went red. She felt she should slap herself again. "Th-that's very sweet of you to say, Saen." Said the young woman blushing heavily. 'He has so many good traits. Sigh. Why couldn't we have met under more peaceful circumstances?...Then I could snog his brains out without fear of being killed while in the act of it. Ah well. I'll take what time I can get for now.' With that she leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Consider yourself forgiven." Corveta stated as she drew back a little and winked at him.

Saen turned so red it seemed to glow in the darkness. "uh-uh I uh-" He stammered trying to find the words. "I -uh- Thank you!" A silly grin on his face and his eyes wide and screaming 'I love you~'

"Oh, nothing," Persephone answered, "just checking to see if I can spot the port. No sign yet."
By now the shadows cast by the trees made the forest floor almost completely black, despite a faint blue glow remaining in the sky. It was approaching the point where it was difficult to see details on the ground, including possible traps like slug-girl trails or some clever fairy's tripwires. The lantern illuminated a few meters around the group, so progress continued albeit at a slow pace.
Persephone then noticed Dargo pricking up his ears and Gildor attempting to converse with him about it. She listened carefully to the ambient noise while waiting for a response. Her fingers tensed slightly, ready as always to snatch her pistol and blow up anything that might jump out at her.

(Ack! Thanks, Para, for posting that bit about Dargo I didn't even see it! >.- Was in a few too many windows. )

Dargo was so happy he could have kissed the elf. "Finally! Somebody who can understand! I heard metal! Grinding metal and smelled something weird...Like smoke or oil. It sounds like Powered Battle Gear like my master uses only louder. Do you know what it is? Should I get a frost blast ready again?" Asked Dargo enjoying his new found bond with the elf. He wondered if he could do this with Taikhaku. It'd be neat to thank her properly instead of kissing her.

Richard: "You are sure it was-" Richard tensed. He heard something too that sounded like crunching and grinding. Though unlike Dargo he remembered where he had heard if before. "- nothing. Well it certainly wasn't nothing. Heh heh. Was it, brothers??" He said addresing the darkness before them and at first he had no answer to his address but soon two large forms, about 50 feet high each and bulky, came trouncing through the foliage. Light streamed down from points on their shoulders and revealed little about their features. Then one spoke.

"Halt, not-brother of flesh. We know not you're name nor do you command steel as we do. So you can't be trusted yet. Make no false moves or we'll send you to a early grave...

"If there's enough to burry." Said a simular voice but with higher pitch.

Richard smirked and put away his bow. "Ah but you do know me...Kelly-"

The first form took a huge step backwards then suddenly produced a huge riffle with a bayonet on the end pointed at Richard's chest. If he was afraid he didn't seem to show it though. "How do you know that name? Speak, cur!"

For an answer Richard stated. "For the same reason I know you have birthmark just above your left breast in the shape of spiral, Colonel Kelly Cantrel of the Steel Brotherhood. Fighting legion for Port Star View." He leaned in nearly skewering himself on the blade if not for his armor which made a scratchy noise as the huge blade scrapped against it. That'd leave a mark.

(Now bear with me. I have never successfully described a mech. So I do hope these give you an idea. If not I'll do sketch of them or find a pic that looks close enough. This is the first of the mech pilots the second I'll introduce if this works out right. Since I'm now controlling potentially five characters at once. )

After Richard finished speaking of things he was sure to regret. Kelly, the mech's pilot, flipped the mech's low beams on and turned off her more powerful fog lights.This allowed the partyto see they were indeed steel and a bit beat up, but armed to the teeth with weapons and even had names on their chests. The lead big dark navy blue one was called "Kensha Hunter" and it's partner, green and cameo, was called "Fey Chaser". Kensha Hunter opened it's chest revealing a muscular handsome woman with shaved blonde hair that had been cut short and shaved along the back. her eyes were hid behind a visor that attached to the side of her chair which lifted up and revealed they were dark green like the foliage around them. She wore a jumpsuit with an emblem of a robotic figure standing along with another both crossing their riffles. She looked at each member of the group in turn, including Dargo, and snorted. "So these are the soldiers you went to get huh? They look worthless. I assume you want escort back to Star View, yes? Well it'll cost you this time, you snort nosed noble." Stated the mech pilot as she pulled the joy stick back and replaced the weapon on her back harness.

"Yeah," Gildor said, "you shuld probably get a frost blast rea-" The elf was cut off as two giant things came out of no-where. Gildor stood there, staring up at the things as they adressed Richard. He had never actually seen a mech before, and was in awe. The machines were massive and obviously powerful. "No wonder Humans are so strong if they can build things like this..." he mumbled under he breath.The mechs finally fully revealed themselves, giving Gildor an even better chance to examin them. He smirked at the name tags on each mech. "Impressive, but still human. What would we do without Humans?"

"Those things are human!?" Saen said astounded his bow drawn. He hadn't even heard of a mech before, to him they giant metal golems of some sort. When the people got out he still didn't believe them human some demon offspring was more like it. Richard seemed okay with them so he lowered his weapon.

"Boil in a pot," Taihaku answered quietly in reference to Gildor's question. She was disgusted by these sorts of things. Sure, they may be powerful and useful, and take skill to operate, but they also were very conspicuous, not to mention ungraceful. Then again, humans are somewhat weak, so they had a good reason for needing things like these with which to defend themselves. She would never use one herself though. She didn't know what position to take on these machines; she didn't want to short-change fellow warriors with the notion that their reliance on such weaponry was contemptible, but at the same time, she felt exactly so.

She simply stood by, waiting for Richard to give them their orders.

Richard tried not to laugh. "Dear Kelyl- Colonel Cantrel, I can pay if you like. As you know I'm offworld noble and have allot of Skevols." Said Richard.

Kelly honestly didn't trust Richard, but business was business. It was the Steel Brotherhood's Code of Honor to always offer safe transport and protect those who had the money to pay. 'We need to re-write that mantra.' She thought inwardly but motioned to her partner to take up covering the rear and then glanced at the others and their strange expressions before saying. fallow us. Stay close but not too close. I just finished buffing the last guy of my treads last monday. Oh and Rich the fee is four times the usual. Since , as you said, you can pay so much. Do we have a deal?" Afte rhe nodded she had her mech stand up and then returned to the controls the visor coming back down and took her side arm from her back harness before turning about face with more grace than you'd think Mech could possibly maneuver with then began to stomp along with grinding and whiring of mechanical gears and servomotors.

Fay Chaser's pilot said over her intercom. "Don't worry she's just in her menstrual cycle right now. I can smell it on her, but she's honorable and won't kill ya. By the way my name is Terry Janis, mech pilot Learner Class. I techinicaly am not a member of the Brotherhood till I complete my training. It's all Jedi-like, but with giant robots! How cool is that?!" Said the perky young mech pilot from behind her armored face, which didn't look that perky.

(Okay so I'm going to fast forward to the port town since walking through the jungle is boring when you have two highly powerful mechs to defeat anything that attacks your party I think. Also Nyaha I used something of yours so I included a link to them. Sorry I didn't think to aks before but I figured we're such good friends you won't mind after all you did tell me I could make one someday:

Spoiler:

)

The party had little trouble getting to the port. Nothing dared to challenge the two mechs with all their powerful weapons and the sheer size of the group traveling with them. When they did see it they saw the town was large, a little bigger than Safe Harbor but not as big as Chiotia. Though they don't get to see much more till the 100 foot tall gates open. Kelly has a breif chat with the guard on duty and gets them to open to reveal a large and open town made from scrap metal, though far from a shanty town the buildings were tall and most had smoke stacks with a odd colored smoke pouring out of them. They could see it streched out into a series of docks and had several boats, subs and other odd floating craft including some that look more suited for space travel than sailing. After escorting the party inside the gates they were closed and Finally Kelly got out of her mech along with the extremely long, spikey strawberry blonde haired Shakala (See spoiler). Unlike Colonel Kelly she wasn't dressed in uniform but a white tight fiting leathe tank top that left her midriff slightly exposed showing and leather lacks made from a thich animal hide, possibly Duiker or Kensha with blue accents painted. her eyes were bright green and slightly over sized. "Welcome to Port Star View, travelers!" She said to the group enthusiastically as Kelly accepted her payment from Richard.

Richard then smiled and addressed the group. "Well at last we've made it." He inhaled after speaking. "And it smells just a great as the last time I was here! Ha ha ha! Now we need to to see about that Captain I booked to take us across the river. Pardon me a moment." After his speach he entered a small building marked "The Busty Merwoman" Leaving the group with the pilots.

(You'll need to change a few things in your post to reflect the changes I made to them: https://felarya.forumotion.com/t2727p75-nyaha-s-various-ideas-and-contemplations#107353 Also thank you for posting that link and reminding me I needed to remove that deviation. XD)

(Ofcourse you changed them! XD The one time I decide to use a friend's race and they change it so I have to read all over again. Ah well nobody posted yet anyway. May have a pic of the city tomorow I found in my old folders while I was cleaning my home up. It'll show you what I sorta failed at describing. ^^ ; )

parameciumkid wrote:

Sorry I've been absent / not posting anything useful. I've been sick the past couple days, as those of you into whom I ran in the chatbox are aware. Will try and get my head back in the game tomorrow if I feel better.

(Hey no sweat bro. Take you time. It's just a game and I like playing it with you but if you need to rest. Rest. )

(You forgot to change the link, BTW.)

Taihaku looked around the city of steel. For its lack of polish or artistic architecture, the place was really quite marvellous to her. She couldn't see the smoke filling the air on account of it being night time, but had she seen it, she would not be impressed. Taihaku decided, as usual, to keep quiet and wait for someone to ask her a question or something else to happen.

Saen Kel the fifth was at a bit of a loss at what to do his leader leaving without giving him direction. He turned to Corveta and whispered to her. "Uh what should we do? And what are those people?" He said refering to the mech pilots. "Some sort of mages of metal? Why do they travel in metal golems?"

Gildor shook his head at Kelly and her lack of manners. Still, he was willing to forgive her, and followed her mech in silence. When they finally reached their destination, Gildor nearly choked. The city was made entirely out of metal, with no plant life in sight. That plus the horrible smell of smoke made the Elf want to gag. Fortunately he was able to keep control of himself, and even smiled. "This is a very interesting looking city. I have never been to one quite like it before."

(Ah thanks, Nyaha, and also thanks for reminding me it was night and we can't see the smoke. I got caught up in describing the city.)

Kelly snorted. "It's a dump, but it beats the wilderness. Also it's not "my city" as much as I'm payed to protect it. I only live here for a few months at a time then rotate to one of the more dangerous areas." Said the marine-wanna be after taking out some gum and popping it in and chewing.

Terry chimed in: "I live here though! Well I didn't always. I used to live on a little big island, but one day I was playing on a boat and got washed out to see." She gets a distant look as if remembering this very vividly. Almost as if she was there.

Dargo may not have been able to see the smoke, but he could smell it. It AND all the fishy smell all over the place. He made a whining noise at Taihaku then mentally told Gildor: 'I would trade Richard's kingdom for close pin.'

Corveta turned to Sean and smiled a little smile he could barely see in the semi-lit street. "Those aren't golems. They're mechanical suite of armor powered by Actinite or Fision or something. I don't know allot about them. Haven't you ever seen one before? Or ...Wait are you from a backwater planet or some sort of realm where technology and science haven't been discovered or don't exist?" She thought about that. Not a bad world really. High magic and science always causes problems. Some benefits but mostly problems.' Thought Corveta.

Soon Richard came out of the the pub swearing quite a bit and looking cross even in the half light. "Frakking frakkity frakk! He left! After promising he wouldn't take off until the moon had risen to it's height!" After fuming he turned then begin to catch his breath. "...I apologize for my lapse in my manners, though I hate to report that Captian Krako's and his ship have left us stranded and he took my money without completing the the arrangement, the pirate!" Richard crossed his arms and stared up at the stars. "We're stuck."

As Rich said this suddenly, in a alley not to far away, somebody struck a match and held it up to her pipe...with her talon! She was a human sized harpy but not much else could be made out about her. "I wouldn't say that, ye-" Before she could finish her sentence a street lamp came on. " Son of of@!*&# naga's @#!!" The harpy said to the street lamp. "I was trying to be &*#@ dark and mysterious! Which usually requires darkness to be done, you #$(&#$'n #$*@^!" After she finished shouting serious hapry level curse words ( that saved me having to make them up) the street lamp exploded with a flash of light, in which her dark hair and skin could be seen as well as something most harpie's don't wear: A shirt and pants! Along with a dagger at her belt, like she really needed it. After she was once again emerged in darkness and able to look quite mysterious she continued. "...Ah better. As I was saying: You need not worry, land lubber, as Captain Toreko has enough room for oh say-" She stopped and did a head count "-All of you and cheap passage too. Are you interested?" She asked the group.

Saen blushed. "Uh....would it be so bad if I was? Science is there, but mostly is unused especially for those uh suits things. Magic isn't even really used much. I hope you don't think less of me because of my humble realm.." Saen listened to the Harpy and decided he didn't like her much. She seemed far too informal, and shouting rather offensive though those words were not used in his home.
"I'm not sure..." he answered the harpy it wasn't his Quest to lead.

Gildor smirked at Dargo's comment. "You and me both Dargo. You should be aware that my spell is not permanent, and will not last that much longer. Though I can easily cast another one, and possibly include Taihaku." When the harpy popped out of no-where the Elf was visibly surprised. "A harpy captain? I would have thought that your wings would make you want to avoid water."

"Ah, so that is what they were talking about," Taihaku thought as she finally smelled the smoke in the air. The city was a grand accomplishment to be sure, but at what price? She couldn't say she was a fan.

Hearing Dargo's noises, the frosty neko kneeled down and held out her arms. She'd gladly cover Dargo's nose for him if he'd let her.

Should Dargo allow her to carry him, she'd afterwards rise up to her feet and turn her attention towards the overly-dramatic individual offering them transport. She understood that it was harpy custom to talk the way they did, but it didn't make her like it any more. She considered if she could provide the group an alternative - perhaps an ice flow on which they can traverse the river?

To Persephone, the somewhat steampunk looking port town struck home rather nostalgically. The way she had been carrying herself, before reserved and thoughtful, transformed into wide-eyed excitement. There were so many different ships docked here, even some that appeared to be spacecraft, all in varying levels of sophistication between medieval and industrial-age and incorporating varying levels of magic. She was mature enough not to run off by herself squealing and attempt to visit every single little nook and cranny, but all the same knew she would relish any opportunity to stay for a while and do some sightseeing or shopping.
For the moment, though, important quest-related matters demanded attention. Apparently the man who had been supposed to take the group across the river had reneged on his deal and abandoned them. Instead, a harpy utterly failing to look dramatic was offering them passage. In that, Persephone was interested.
"Is your ship armed?" If so, thought Persephone, there was a chance they could hunt down the renegade captain and grant Richard the pleasure of revenge. After all, there was always time for side quests...

The harpy glared at the elf and replied in sneer. "And I'd have thought with your smug mug, you mug, you'd want to avoid...Um...@&#%! I forgot what I was going to say...Ah anyway. I be not the captain, pretty boy, my Captain is Ibashi Toreko. A pointy eared freak just like you only more aragant and half better @&*#. Ha ha!" Said the Harpy. Then she turned to Persephone and nearly got in her face. Allowing her to see the criss-cross of scars on her face and the large breasts that nearly touched her own chest. "Our ship is the finest ship on the water, you flat chested bimbo! It has no need of powerful weapons when it's got a Cloaking Device, A Seer and member of Sisterhood of Aquriana, some of the finest Watermancers in the world. Now if you're done jabbering my ears off, I'll take you to the Captain. She's not far and you can see those sights you wanted, home sick little wench." Said the harpy as if reading Persephone's mind. "If you're interested."

Richard replied stepping between and pushing Persephone away from the Harpy. "We shall. Lead the way, you cravan ...'bird'" Said Richard with some menace in his voice, but a look into his eyes would tell any he had meant it in polite harpy-friendly way. The harpy blushed and then in coy voice said. "Rotten bit...carrion you are , sir. None too good at flattery I might say. Come. My Captain is toward the docks. Your little wench girl can do all the sight seeing she wants." With that she flapped and glided off down the street.

Corveta smilled. "It's not a bad thing to be from a backwater world, Saen. One of my dearest friend's is from a world argicultrual world. Lessie Tandigard. She's a mage like me, but unlike me she decided to stay at Negav and try to get a simple job as a shop keeper's assistant...I wanted more adventure. Heh." She got a sad look. If she had just stayed with Lessie she'd have not had to witness her friends being devoured. Then again she'd have not met Saen or got to see this city! A city made of metal and protected by mecha, mage and sailors. That made her smile a little. "Oh we seem to be moving. Come along Saen." Said the petite mage taking Saen's hand without realizing it and dragging him after Richard and the Harpy.

Dargo allowed Taihaku to cover his nose and gladly leaped into her arms. His furry tail giving a little wag, but not hitting her in the head with the club-like part. Then he mentally sent to the elf. "I would very, very, very much like to talk to her!...Uh...but...what if...what if I...Um ..." He trailed off not sure of why he suddenly felt so nervous.

Saen accepted the hand and followed her. He had really grown to like Corveta, coming to Felarya he expected many things. To find demons and evil wizards to slay! Perhaps governaments that needed his reform in order to find a better future. One of the last thing was woman that he would have feelings for. Saen held her hand giving it a slight squeeze to show his happiness. Normally he would have questioned about why she seemed sad, but she cheered up so fast and was holding his hand now! He wouldn't risk ruining the moment by bringing up sad memories.

Taihaku almost wanted to correct the harpy for saying "watermancers". She knew it should be "aquamancers", but she decided to stay silent, not really wanting to have to deal with a confrontation. As the group began moving again, she followed, keeping her fur-covered hand over Dargo's nose and carrying him gently. She hadn't planned to get attached to anyone over the course of this mission, but it seemed to her that she failed. She liked Dargo and wanted to keep him safe. She was, however, unaware of the fact that he and the elf had been communicating all this time.

Zee's eyes remained useful at night, as the others' aura replaced the natural light, illuminating his path and surroundings, also causing his eyes to glow in a variety of colours as his gaze shifted over them, and any other living being.

He looked upon the mechs with narrowed slits. Giant walking machines usually needed to go bang when he was confronted by one, though he greatly relaxed as he noticed nobody was killing anybody, though he trip to the port town was filled with tension.

His mood shifted as the overwhelming stench and looks of the town hit him, happy to be in a place a little like home. He was not bothered by the Harpy's language at all, since his best mate's dialect consisted mostly of threatening and telling someone how he was "gonna beat the shit outta you!" The quote made him snicker as he dawdled in the direction of the Harpy

((Some tiime this week I'm going to have to start revision for my science resits, so I can get myself up to an A. Because of that, I doubt I will be on again for another month at least, sorry))

Gildor chuckled to himself, both at Dargo and the Harpy. Being a traveler, Gildor was very interested in different cultures, and found Harpy culture to be particularly interesting. Though he had never really gotten the hang of the swearing required to speak their language. He followed the group, staying by Dargo and Taihaku, and shrugged at Dargo. "I'm sure she would enjoy conversing with you. And I highly doubt you would do anything to embarrass yourself. You're pretty smart Dargo, and you know your way around speech better then most creatures I've spoken with." The spell finally ended, making it impossible for Lucius to understand Dargo. The Elf knew it had happened, but continued to ask his question anyway. "Ohh, uh, the spell just ended, so I won't be able to understand you...Still, it you like, I could ask her if she wants to. Just nod or something...if you can understand me that is..."