2017-09-15: With Open ARMs

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  • Log: With Open ARMs
  • Cast: Shalune Amira, Josephine Lovelace
  • Where: Wayside Village
  • Date: September 15th 2017
  • Summary: Josie meets up and has a chat with Shalune about recent events, and importantly, the possibility of the creation of an ARM using some unusual materials.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

The directions that Shalune provides to meet up with her are rather unusual; rather than pinpoint a location close to November City or Krosse, the pink-haired mechanic has instead sent some rather odd instructions - come to a canyon marked with an old tribal symbol, near to the Kislev-Aveh front, and then follow it. The girl isn't the sort to lie, at least, especially not when she adds 'trust me' to the end of her message...

... but it might still be a surprise when Josephine runs across a couple of watchtowers that mark the entrance to a village, a sign designating it as 'Wayside'. It's still very much in construction - not all of the dwellings are currently set up, some of them still being constructed by workteams - but there's a bar and a watering hole and a small shop, and some other amenities apparently on the way.

Speaking of the guards and the workteams... some of them are staffed by rather odd sorts. One of them has an arm missing, replaced by a large heavy goods claw of all things. Another has lost both their legs, replaced by accordion-like tubing. Every single one, in some fashion, seems to be odd or otherwise disabled - and yet, Big Shal moves through them with patience, a familiar pink-haired figure directing the golem to assist in the building works where its strength is needed.

At least until one of the guardsmen spots Josephine's approach, and hollers Shalune's name; that sends the girl jogging up, face and coat smeared with dirt here and there where she's been helping out more personally. "Ah, hey! Sorry to bring you all this way," she chimes, apparently as upbeat and cheerful as ever despite the odd location.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

There's no doubt about it -- Memory Cubes are incredibly handy.

Even if sometimes the direct way of getting a message to someone is better.

Still, that was an unusual spot the girl asked her to meet at, wasn't it, Josie had thought. If she didn't know better, she might have even thought it was suspicious.

...Well, not that the archaeologist is ever really unarmed anyway, particularly in this part of Ignas, but details, details.

Her initial request was simple enough: catch up, chat about the material remaining from Rephaim's arm, the fact that she'd like to borrow Shalune's skill with a project she has in mind...

"Huh."

Needless to say, though, Josie was certainly not expecting this. "You know," she comments to the bird perched on her shoulder, "I would have sworn there wasn't a village out here on the maps."

As if in answer, Penelope just closes her eyes.

The first thing she notices is the Golem.

The second thing she notices is that the inhabitants are a little bit... unusual. Slowly, Josie tilts her head to one side, her expression carefully blank.

Definitely not humans.

She's spotted, right around then, the yell causing the archaeologist to draw herself up.

But in the end, it's just benign. "--Kiddo! There you are." She waves a hand, as if to dismiss the apology. "I didn't know you were an architect, too. Building a town, are we?"

And for quite an interesting group of people, at that.

"So, how've you been? Keeping busy?"

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

Well, Shalune doesn't look coerced or hurt, at the very least - she's a little tired, perhaps, but that's probably understandable if she's been pitching in to help build the odd village, and in the end she's still trucking along as expected. With a glance over her shoulder, she rubs sheepishly at her hair. "Aw, naw-- this isn't anything I started up. Miss Riese started makin' it along with a bunch of her people, and they really helped the Caravan out when it was in a bit of a bind, so-- I mean, I figured this is the least I could do to help out a bit, especially when I heard they had a water purifier that needed some fixin' up."

She pauses, and gives the guardstower a wave as if to go 'it's okay', before turning back to Josephine. If she means Riesenlied, that would presumably make the creatures here Metal Demons? And yet, she seems terribly at ease in the village - which doesn't exactly seem like a military installation, to say the least.

"Ah, well-- we lost Lunie and Cyre for a while, but then we managed to find them again okay. We've kinda had some ups and downs, really, and it's been a matter of gettin' used to it... but we opened the CaraKin properly!" she exults, her arms up in a cheer. "It was really nice to actually get down to it and start runnin' the store, y'know?"

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

'Miss Riese'. It takes a few moments for the name -- the first time she's heard the Metal Demon referred to by that nickname in fact -- to click for Josie. Ahaa. Now, she understands. It'd seem her guess about the residents wasn't all that far off, even if her familiarity with Metal Demons is a little lacking.

But then, even the most unusual beastmen don't have the sort of physiology that would allow that particular patch. "Got it," Josie says, nodding once. "A water purifier, huh?" She rubs at her chin with her free hand. "So, what's the problem with it, or does it just need some repairs?" ...Machines are a bit of a hobby, even when they're not ancient relic machines.

"You're a pretty good kid, doing them a favor like that, you know?"

That's paired with a brief but bright grin.

Josie's a bit of an odd bird as far as humans go -- as long as Metal Demons don't mess with her, she doesn't bear them any ill will. Adlehyde wasn't her home. No one she loved died in the invasion. Her encounters with the Metal Demons were survival for survival's sake. But the inverse of that is 'that's how it is, now'.

As for the people she can see here though, this lot just looks like they're refugees or something. Not some invading army.

"...You lost 'em? Oh. Well, that's good." Here, Josie sort of halfway shrugs, palms up. "That's how it goes, though, right? You've got to take the good with the bad. The important part is, you guys made it this far. Right?" She nods, as if to coerce a similar agreement from Shalune. "Oh, yeah. How's Jay doing? I bet she's happy to get that thing up and running. Hmm, maybe I should see her about supplies sometime..."

Penelope fidgets on Josie's shoulder.

"...Though I probably need more funds first, huh."

She pauses for a moment. "Hey, speaking of..." things she needs funds for "You kids haven't used up the pieces of the Gear arm we collected, right?"

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

For a moment, Shalune rubs at her head. "No, I mean-- it was the least I could do, y'know? I dunno if you heard about all the crazy stuff that went down at the Temple, but--" even Shalune's enthusiasm takes something of a dive as she fidgets at her hair, biting her lip. "On the way out, we got attacked by Kislev. It was-- it really left us all hurting and confused, and having to fight other humans-- it hit Lunie really hard, and losing Lunie for a while hit Jay really hard. We needed a place to rest up, and they gave us one."

The coercion works, at least, and Shalune perks up slightly with a much quieter smile than usual. "... yeah. We're managing, bit by bit. Gettin' the CaraKin up and running has helped out a lot, y'know? Helped drag us back towards the 'normal', I guess you'd say," she adds, scratching at her head. "I mean, any time you need supplies, we're always there. Jay's a ridiculous softie, so you're probably gonna be fine regardless," she adds, one hand up at her mouth as if to mimic a surreptitious whisper without actually whispering.

She straightens, though, and looks towards one of the far mountains - where a cavern-like hole appears to have been dug into it. "Oh, I got the purifier working, mostly, it's just-- it's not that anything's wrong with it, but my stocks of scrap don't exactly tend to have a lot of fine-grade stainless steel, y'know?" she adds with another of those sheepish grins. "Sooner or later, it's gonna wear out again thanks to rust, so I've kinda earmarked the first job lot of decent metal I can make as goin' towards making some proper replacement parts."

The Rephaim's spare metal apparently dosn't count, but then Shalune's admitted in the past that she's still not sure how to actually work the metal properly. Perhaps that's why she smiles at the question, her eyebrows raising. "Ah-- yeah, more or less. I mean, I don't have 'em on me - they're mostly on the Yggdrasil - but I can always ask them to ship some out if need be. I keep some scraps around to poke at every so often, though. What's up?"

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"I heard a little bit." Lily hasn't elaborated -- yet -- but she does know that 1) various forces started bombing the place 2) her gods effectively appeared inside the temple 3)shenanigans apparently took place.

Including a very surprising -- but very good -- thing where Lily's concerned. Her mouth twists in a frown as Shalune seems almost like she wants to cry (...maybe) recounting the story, and plants a hand on her hip. "Seems like you guys had a bad time of it, huh..." A little bitterly, she smiles nonetheless. "Don't let it get you down though, okay, kiddo? And you pass that on to Jay and the rest, too -- you know the saying, right?"

Josie pauses, breaking into a grin before she continues. "If you get knocked down seven times, get up eight."

Which really just means she nods encouragingly when Shalune talks about what's been motivating them lately. "Yeah, see? That's what you've gotta do. As long as you're doing something, right? I know I sure can't stand it when I'm just sitting around..." That's when she usually gets into trouble, as a direct cause.

It'd probably be Lily's assessment, at least.

That earns Shalune a laugh. "Is she now?" Somehow, she's not too surprised, though. "Well, maybe I'll try and cut a deal sometime. The medicines she makes are some of the better ones... and not as expensive." Heal Berry paste is a killer to the wallet, especially out this way.

"Oh, so you did get it working-- oh." Josie's lips press thin, and she pulls a vaguely 'well of course' sort of knowing expression. The bane of machinery everywhere, inferior parts. "Yeah, that's gonna be rough... Well, I'll let you know if I come across anything I'm not using. No promises, though, kiddo."

Though probably if she did manage to make the parts she needs out of the strange alloy, it'd last forever.

"Yeah, yeah. I figured that part, it's not exactly portable, you know?" Josie says, waving a hand dismissively. "...Anyway, this is where you come in, if you're game. I'm thinking about using a a little of it to make some ARM parts, but I'll need some help." Beyond the aspect of 'working the metal', apparently--

"Though, it's not so much 'parts' as 'an ARM', now that I think about it. Well, same thing," she adds with a shrug. "If we can sort out that metal, I can tell you what you'll need to do. ...Call it a misspent youth, or something, but I'll need a pair of skilled hands for this."

Emphasis on the 'pair' and 'hands, plural' part.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

"... mm... I'm tryin'," Shalune admits. Rather than about to cry, it's more like her expression firms up in a way that doesn't really look all that good on her; her lips are in a thin line, her brow furrowed under her pink hair in... anger? "I've got a lot to sort out about what happened, I guess, but I'll-- just kinda work through it. I need to talk to Mr. Leon a bit about it, I think," she admits as her hand goes to the back of her head. At least the expression doesn't last long, especially when she lets out a breath.

"Ah, well, depending what you need, we've actually got a couple people that can help. Jay's better with curatives and stuff like that, but if you need somethin' fancy, Miss Matilda might be able to help a little better. She's a bit more-- um. Jay's the alchemist, she's the scientist, if you see what I mean? Jay does a lot more stuff by feel and recipe, she's workin' out all the underlyin' stuff."

"Ah, as for the purifier-- it'll be fine, I think. To be honest, I'm more interested in learnin' how they actually managed it. Miss Riese called it a 'qanat' or something, but it's not really a word I've come across." She's moving forwards, now, slowly leading Josephine into the village and towards what appears to be the bar. "Um, but geology was never exactly my thing, y'know?"

Josephine makes her offer, and it leaves Shalune blinking slightly as she considers that, frowning for a moment as she apparently takes it quite seriously. "We've-- we've probably got enough for something like that, yeah. I guess I'm more worried that we don't know exactly what goes into it, or whether that barrier thingo would disrupt something. Ah, on the other hand," the pink-haired mechanic adds as she brightens, "I mean, I'm always game to learn more 'bout it. An experiment never hurt," she decides with a bright smile.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

Or is it frustration, Josie reconsiders after a moment, furrowing her brow. Or anger?

Good. If she's mad or frustrated, it'll be a motivator to help her get out of her funk, she thinks. Despair's easier to get lost in -- Fengalon knows she's had a hell of a time with Lily and that. But something more fierce, on the other hand...

"Yeah. Think it over, or something. But don't think too long." Here, Josie waves a finger, as if to admonish. "Too much thinking, and you won't be able to move at all." Still, she shrugs. "Leon? Maybe he'll know something, huh? He's not bad, even if he's more reckless than I thought he was. Heh heh..."

Takes one to know one, maybe.

"Actually, I do know what I'll need, sooner or later. The salve she does up for burns is pretty helpful." Even if the burns in question are a bit old and beyond any actual healing, it can help when they start acting up again. "But who knows? Maybe I'll see what's what sometime. I'm interested what a researcher could brew up, now that I think of it."

Matilda, funny, she knew a girl by that name once... but it's not as if it's an uncommon name.

"Qanat, huh... Can't say I've heard that one before, either. Maybe it's some terminology Metal Demons use." She shrugs, following Shalune along. "To be honest, if it's not crystals or something buried in the rock, I can't say I know much either." It goes without saying, of course, that 'a bar' is probably the best place to lead Josie towards.

And make her pitch. "Not a big one. I think something I can use one-handed would be best. I have something I saw plans for once in mind, in fact." And if worse comes to worst, she can always shop around for the parts she can't make in November City (once they forget about the business with the horse) -- or get right even with Shalune's help. Nothing wrong with refitting an old ARM. "True, true..." she muses, at Shalune's concerns, looking almost thoughtful.

Only to brighten spontaneously. "Think of it like an adventure-- yeah, that's the ticket! We can always see what happens. Worst thing that happens, we end up with a working ARM."

Or it could explode, but that's not how you convince someone to help you tinker with mysteriously-sourced alloys.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

"A-ahaha," blurts Shalune, rubbing at her hair again as she scratches under the line of her bobble hat; she wanders into the bar as if she knows the place by heart, which might be true if she's been hanging around Wayside that much. It's not like the village is massive yet, after all. "No, it's more like-- um. I got given a Medium, but I can't really bring myself to use it. I'm kinda-- mad at them," she admits with a huff, but an easier one. "Anyway, I just kinda... realized I need to know more about what's goin' on with Kislev and Aveh, you know? So, Mr. Leon seemed the guy to ask."

"Oh, um! --if it's just the ointment, I've actually got some of that." Shalune always is the sort to keep a cache of medicine just in case, given the size of her bag. Not to mention-- well, the way in which Shalune grins in embarrassment and adds: "I burn myself a lot less these days, y'know?"

She places some scrap on the counter, together with some coins - and then nips behind the empty bar. Has she helped out here, too...? "Nawww..." she trails off, scratching at one cheek. "If anything, Miss Riese said the qanat was some old tribesy thing, some kinda way to get water out on the wastes? She's gotten pretty-- I mean, if you looked at her, she's gone super nomad. Mebbe that's part of it. These guys aren't really... very Metal Demonsy," she sums up in a rather Shalune manner.

At least she's not serving spirits, so much as-- water. True enough, it looks fresh and pure enough to drink, not to mention slightly chilled thanks to who knows what technology is back there. "Ah, hmm... if it's one-handed, then I guess we need to think about recoil most of all. Actually, Jay just gave me a new gunsmoke ARM they found? It's not like I need somethin' like that, so we can always try tinkering around. Maybe figure out a way to turn that barrier into a shock suppressor or somethin'." She pauses, and lights up just a little. "--yeah! I mean, directing the barrier is just a matter of alignin' the metal right, after all."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

Can't bring herself to use 'em, huh. Angry...?

Maybe she does need to ask Lily soon about what happened.

"Well, Leon's a good person to ask. It's just politics and war to me, and I only know Aveh's side of it. ...I'm not Aveh born and bred so it's not like I have a stake in this. It's just..." Josie grimaces. "War's war, I guess. Even I can't pretty it up."

There's a little bit of surprise. "Really? You sure about that?" Josie is, for lack of a better word, a bit non-plussed. "How about I pay you back a little, then? I've probably got at least half what the last batch cost me..." Though she'll also have to figure out exactly where she stashed her wallet this time.

It's a tribal way? "Hmm. Maybe," Josie comments, settling in at the bar as Shalune goes around back. "My mother was descended from one of the desert tribes, but..." She shrugs as if to say 'what can you do'. Penelope takes that opportunity to hop on down onto the counter. This is probably a little unclean. "Oh, and get her some water, would you?" She indicates with a turn of one hand towards the pigeon.

Josie's... a little bit disappointed that it's water for her, too.

But only a little bit. Water's life, out in the desert, and she did ride out all this way.

"Yeah, that'd be one of the problems. If the alloy weight transfers, that might help a little bit, but there'll still be a hell of kick with what I have in mind. Heh, guess I can't make it easy on you," she comments, before knocking back a bit of that water. "Having a base, though... that'll help a lot." She shifts, sitting up a bit straighter, and fidgets with her pockets. "...I wonder where my notebook wandered off to? This would be a good time to start some sketches..."

Only to lean against the counter again. "There'll be plenty of time later. Let's see, now, since it's got to be one-handed and a small arm..."

Because you really can only carry around so many rifles at a time.

Her dark eyes widen. "--Oh, that's a good one! Well, assuming we can get it to transfer right, but, hey, it's worth a shot. If you think we can do it, we can do it!"

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

At least Shalune opts to leave the topic behind; instead, she's perked up brightly at the suggestion of payment, immediately shaking her head. "Aw, naw. Don't worry about it," she instantly replies, bobbling to one end of the counter where her enormous pack is stashed away. "I mean, Jay gave me this lot for free. She knows I like keepin' this stuff to hand, you know? Drifters always seem to forget, so it's handy when you're on digs and stuff like that." A moment's digging produces a slim little pot of white; true enough, Jay's work through and through, down to the meticulous little logo.

Passing it over, Shalune grins brightly and just a little mischievously. "I think she's callin' it 'self-promotion'."

She slides it along the bar with a rattle, then disappears behind the wood to fish out a saucer, and fill that too. "I mean-- um. Miss Riese says she's not gonna be part of the war - and the way she says it, she's really believable, y'know? It really seems like everyone out here's pretty nice, just maybe kinda unused to dealin' with people."

Having set the birb up, she leans on the counter with both arms, tilting her head. "H-hmm... well, see, that stuff's pretty mysterious still, y'know? Rather than try to work it and break it apart, I'm thinking it'd be better just to use it to shore up an existin' gun, you know? Mod something, rather than make somethin' new. --not like we can't change the underlying ARM, I can do that easy-peasy, it's just I think it'd be better for there to be something to lie under," she explains - already fishing out a pad of paper.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"Really?" Not for the first time speaking to Shalune today, Josie looks rather nonplussed. And as before, she ultimately... shrugs. "Well, I can't complain about free. Thanks, kiddo. Maybe I should try getting on her freebie list too, huh?" And it's clear from this particular easy grin of hers that she's (mostly) joking about that.

There's no mistaking it as she palms the little pot. Jay's work, and nothing less than.

"You know," Josie says slowly, one pale eyebrow raised, "I think this is the beginning of a mercantile empire."

"Good on her, I think. Only fools want to go to war." Judging by the slightly sour look on Josie's face, she might have a few feelings about the conflict after all, despite her claims otherwise.

Or maybe just the people mixed up in it.

Penelope gets her water and sets to drinking it, a few small sips at a time.

"...You might have a point," she relents, still closing her eyes briefly as if she's received a wound when Shalune points out that using a 'base' of sorts is probably smarter since they won't really know what they're dealing with until they're dealing with it.

Her mentor always did say she kept trying to fly before even walking.

"...Yeah, probably," she relents in the end. "So, what did Jay have on hand? I recall coming across an ARM once with two separate barrels, a revolver-type. That's what I've been thinking about, if the alloy will let me do it."

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

"Ahaha," agrees Shalune with a wink. "Sure, but it's not like Jay would believe you. She's, um, kind of hard to compliment, you know?" she adds, in the most well-meaning manner possible. For a moment, the mechanic pauses as she takes in Josephine's response - and then leans forward a little to prod: "... y'know, maybe you should stay to speak with her. I know it's kind of hard to believe, but I felt a lot better after doin' that myself."

Otherwise, she settles back in one of the stools, pulling out a stub of a pencil to go with her pad of paper as she starts to draw. "Well, see, the one Jay got me is like this--..."