2017-04-09: Buried Giant
- Log: Buried Giant
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Kahm Yugh
- Where: Adelyn Ranchlands
- Date: April 9th, 2017
- Summary: Following rumors of a 'buried giant', Kahm and Josie cross paths out in the wilderness.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Relic discoveries were a frustrating phenomenon to track, much less control. Indeed, ruins and relics from the old world dotted the surface with such frequency that it was wholly impractical for Gebler to police and control them even with their considerable resources. Thus, they often had to rely and local resources and word-of-mouth about such sites when they were uncovered, using their best judgment to determine what was worth investigating and what could be safely ignored.
Captain Kahm Yugh had been expending most of his time towards other efforts lately, but this particular incident seemed worth taking a look into, and it was close enough to his location anyways. Word was a local rancher had been chasing down a horse that escaped during a storm when he ran into a "metal giant" that had been half-buried in the ground.
After asking a few more pointed questions and direction under the alias of Marcus Rider, the Captain found his way to the site after roughly an hour of hiking and hoofing through underbrush of a local copse of forest. The "giant" was indeed hard to miss, the rusted white frame and armor poking from the side of a gully like a broken bone. "Landslide must've exposed it.." Kahm said, quietly and to himself.
He remained standing there, one hand on his hip while the other adjusted his wide-brimmed hat. Finding it was one thing, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it on his own. Deploying an excavation crew this far into Adlehyde was out of the question for their current operations, as well..
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
A lot has been forgotten in this world. Josephine would know this best of all, given her profession. Cities fall, get buried under the dust, and then are forgotten. Only the dedicated set forth to wrench fragments of the past back out into the daylight and attempt to set the record straight. A difficult prospect, especially when a person's also competing with so many others who don't care as much about the truth and just what they can get their hands on.
...Not that Josie herself is all that pure either, to be honest. But sometimes the truth has to take a brief backseat to paying the bills.
Today, the archaeologist is out here in earnest -- there'd been a rumor in town about a landslide, and about something unearthed as a result. It's win-win as far as she's concerned -- she can get out of town for a bit and get a look at the so-called 'giant' someone found, and if she's beaten to the punch, well that's /still/ a learning experience, especially regarding who's active around here.
Luckily, it's still there when she -- and Penelope -- finally arrive at the site. No signs of digging yet, which is good. It really isn't hard to miss.
Neither is that man, right over there.
"Hello there!" Josie waves a hand overhead where she stands, apparently attempting to get the man's attention. Approaching him with an easy, even stride, she comes to a stop just a few feet before him and rests a hand on her hip. Her gaze slides from him over to the distant half-buried 'giant'. "Guess I'm not the only one who heard about this, huh. Still, it looks like we're ahead of the rush."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Between the incident at Lahan and the ongoing cucco invasion, the flutter of wings puts Kahm just a bit on edge, his fingers instinctively crawling towards the sidearm at his hip until Penelope came into view just under the brim of his hat. 'Just a pigeon.' Kahm thought, his mental edge receding, 'And a lone one, at that.'
But not without a companion, it seems.
Kahm had not suspected he would be ahead of others for long, but to be ahead by so little was...inconvenient. Nonetheless, he greeted the new woman with a wave and a congenial expression. "Seems like it." He said, nodding to her assertion and pointing at the slope of the ground, "I was consider how best to inspect it, myself. The ground is still saturated from the rainwater, so it may still be a bit unstable."
What's more, he couldn't tell yet what kind of condition the machine was from their current vantage point. He'd need to get just a little closer for that. "Well, with the two of us here, we might as well cooperate." The man said, eyeing Josephine for any sort of gear, "We may not have much of a choice if want to get a closer look, anyways. I don't suppose you've any rope?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It's another good reason to be out and about -- even a somewhat lazy pigeon like Penelope needs to be able to stretch her wings. Out here has its dangers, but danger's just part of freedom.
The pigeon accordingly dips and dives about before settling on a fallen branch to preen.
Seems friendly enough, as far as Josie can be concerned. As she knows well, not everyone you meet out here can be a friend or ally. "It'd be best not to climb around on that slope, that's for sure," she agrees, glancing again at the 'giant'. "You know, that's one of the things that made sites in Aveh easier to handle... I didn't have to worry about a mudslide."
Josephine nods. "Sounds like a plan. I don't think I could lug this out of here on my lonesome if I tried!" The grin is bright but brief. Looking Kahm up and down, she extends her left hand towards him. "Josephine Lovelace. I'm an archaeologist. But, call me Josie, would you? It's a mouthful otherwise, and I'm not old enough yet for 'Ms. Lovelace'. How about you? What's your name?"
On the subject of rope, she tugs at the strap of her pack meaningfully. "I've got some, and some tools. Just the basics, though -- don't expect full expedition gear." She sighs a little over-dramatically, briefly closing her eyes. "There's only so much one woman can carry, you know. Still, let's have a look, shall we?" With that, she raises an arm and whistles once, sharply; Penelope alights on her forearm.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"No mudslides, but I've been through a nasty sandstorm or two out in Aveh myself." Kahm said, finding it easy enough to pepper the alias he presented to land dwellers with occasional truths. The woman's name and occupation were heard with nod and a mental note as to her motivations-it wasn't hard to figure out why she was out here. "Nice to meet you, Josie. I'm Marcus Rider." He said with an offered hand, "I work for the Smith and Luio Company out of Bledavik, so it looks like we're both coming from familiar territory."
Regarding the status of the rope, he shook his head and said, "No worries. I have about twenty five feet with my myself, so if we join them we ought to have a pretty reasonable line to help us get down there."
He'd go ahead and tie the end of his rope to a stump that looked reasonably sturdy, quirking his head when Penelope landed on Josephine's shoulder. "Ah, I thought that was your bird." He said, noting the relatively unfamiliar plumage, "You have her trained?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie pauses. "Well... yes, there were sandstorms. Those can get pretty bad." Her shoulders rise and fall in a shrug. "I suppose it evens out? Anyway. It's nice to meet you, Marcus." Her grip is firm, but hardly bone-crushing. "Smith and Luio, huh..." She tilts her head to one side. "That rings a bell. It's been a while since I was up that way, though." Quite a while, in fact.
"Oh, good. I was a little worried there, you know? I'll get it out."
Once settled, Penelope goes back to her grooming. "Oh, yes. This is Penelope. I raised her from a hatchling, so she's..."
Josephine pauses, looking over at Penelope. Penelope blinks once before setting about preening once more.
"...Well, she's reasonably obedient," Josie settles for, at significant length. "I'd let her be up here, but she'll probably sulk if I leave her behind again," she explains, kneeling to drop her pack. There's a few things in there which she removes and sets aside -- a chisel, a hammer, a beat-up mattock -- until she finds the coil of rope at the bottom. The various tools go back in her bag, which naturally goes back on her shoulder once she stands again. "She's a real pain when she's sulky. Anyway, heads up!" She tosses the length of rope over.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"Thanks." Kahm said, catching the rope and joining it to his end with a basic (bet secure!) slipknot, "It's been a while since I was up that way myself these days. My work keeps me plenty busy in Adlehyde right now."
Once secured, he through the rope down the side of the gully and gave it a few heavy tugs to ensure neither the trunk or knot would give, nodding to his satisfaction, "Okay, I think we're ready to go here."
He went ahead and took the dip first, carefully passing hand over hand and leaning out as he took tentative steps down the gully, the machine growing closer with each breath, "So what brought you over to Adlehyde anyways, if you don't mind my asking? Still plenty of excavations going on in Aveh, if that's what you're looking for."
As he came closer, Kahm's eyes narrowed at the exposed gear. It looked pretty worn down, the limb actuators were shot. It wasn't likely to be pilotable again without extensive refurbishing, and might be worth more as scrap instead-a good thing, as far as that went.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Probably just as well Kahm's doing the tying -- Josie's knots are notoriously disastrous.
"Makes sense. Anything interesting going on?" Presumedly /besides/ the giant half-buried thing in the slope they're currently heading down. She glances over as he says everything should be set. "--Oh, good. I'll be right after you."
After giving him the space he needs to make headway, she follows, taking hold of the rope with her left hand and carefully making her way down the incline. "Me? Well, there's the festival on, right?" she says, emphasizing those words as if the statement were the most natural decision to come upon. "Besides, I used to know someone in the area. I figured we could chat if we ran into each other, so it's win-win, right?"
Someone has to know about that thing she found. Actually, she should be more careful with that...
"Huh..." She pauses, about halfway again from where he currently stands on the slope, and squints. "That's a... Gear, right? ...I can't say I'm all that familiar with them." Is it recent, or older? She inches down about another couple of feet before pausing again. ...Nope, still can't tell. "I've heard some stories about older Gears found in ruins. Much like with a lot of older technology, it seems ancient civilizations really knew how to build machines." Josie shakes her head before slowly working her way further down. "It's a shame we've lost so much..."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
"There's always something interesting happening." Kahm commented absently as he took a more scrutinizing assessment of the gear once he get close, "Though in my case it's just investigating a few private matter for some clients. Nothing terribly exciting. I'm just here because it's uncomfortably close to one of their properties, and they're worried about trespassing."
Judging from the shape and lack of visible armament on the part that was exposed, he'd judge to be a worker gear of some sort. More good news. A relic of the Solaris-Shevat wars perhaps, but that was no more than a guess. "Ah right, the festival. That makes sense, with your profession and all." The man took a few tentative steps around the gear, putting on a curious expression, "Looks like a gear, yeah. I don't know much of them myself, but this one looks pretty worn down. Might have some valuable parts inside for trading and repair, though."
"Well, we're finding more of what's been lost every day, it feels like." He offered in an unusual beat of positivity, "I hear Bledavik is paying a high price to any diggers who find gears in good enough condition to be restored and used, but I don't think this one is in the running." He'd like to open up the cockpit and make sure the computer didn't have any accessible memory logs, but he couldn't do that with Josie here.
Instead, he places his hand on the machine's chassis, as if he were trying to have a moment of connection with the past or something. Invoking ether with subtlety, he ran a low electric current through the machine, just enough to fry out anything that might be left inside. A shame to lose an useful information, but better than letting it fall into enemy hands.
He places his hands back on his hips and shook his head, "Well, it's certainly not going anywhere." He turned his head to Josie, "By the way, your profession...you self-employed, by chance? Or do you work by contract?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Yeah, given the rumors circling about, I'd say they've got reason to worry. Someone was saying it was the skeleton of a metal giant." She smiles, a little lopsidedly. "I'll give it a day before someone says this is a golem, or something like that. Still, pretty amazing what a little rain can unearth!"
Working her way down to the bottom of the machine at last, she takes one moment to gaze up at it. "This does look pretty worn down, though. Huh, it's been a while since I've been this close to one..." Releasing her grip on the rope, she kneels down near a part of an exposed section of leg, and brushes off a bit of caked mud.
This part here looks corroded... and old. Quite old. The screw style here doesn't look familiar at all, and that's not just a matter of production variation.
Gears, she doesn't know, but she does know machine parts.
"It doesn't look new," she announces, after that moment's study, and glances up at him. "It's not using modern production standards. That much, I know." She stands up, then, with a slight 'oof'. "Anyway! Little by little, right? If nothing else, they'll pay for parts." A pause, where she looks at the Gear again. "Well, what's worth using, that is. I think it's been in the ground a little too long, and this mud isn't helping. Still, it's something."
She nods. "Yes, I think there was something like that," Josie says, wrinkling her brow. "It didn't really apply to me, though -- It wasn't what I was focusing on, and we never got lucky that way, so to speak." Her gaze rests on him for a moment as he seemingly reverently rests a hand on the machine. "Pretty amazing though, huh?" she comments, speaking (or so she thinks) to his action.
She nods, thumbing towards herself. "Self-employed. I used to do some work with other teams, but not lately. I'll take a contract if you're offering, though -- I'm mostly doing odd-jobs and one-of excavations these days."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm peered out of the corner of his eyes as Josie did her own study, silently curious just how much the woman understood what she was looking at.
"I'm sure it must've been something to behold back when it was new." He said, eyes gazing up the gear's lopsided torso. Metal giant indeed.
"I don't have any work for you right now, i'm afraid." He turned his eye towards the archaeologist, "But you never know what the future could bring. I find it useful to know people of multiple and varied talents in my line of work."
In any case, he dusted his hands off and begin to pull himself back up the rope, "Well, not that I haven't enjoyed our little meeting, but I think I've seen all I need to hear. I'll let my employer know what the 'metal giant' they were worried about actually is, and suggest setting up some helpful detours and signs around their property until the locals have taken their fill from this thing." Though they'd have to do it at their own risk-the ground around the gear was still a little dangerous.
"Take care, Miss Josie." He said, tipping his hat, "If you want to stay a bit longer, I can leave the rope. I have plenty more where that came from."