Return to the Southern Continent

[Alberich]

Too bad, thought Udo. Then again, travelling on their feet, it was just as well not to be carrying an extra rucksack full of illustrated thaumos. And anyway, he was feeling high enough where he was.

To Tamina's talk about the Ralkin, he only added, for Khoo's benefit - "And that's who we're chasing!" He gave a big grin. "Fight 'em to the death! 's like the bone-white demon legend...the only way to deal with 'em is to wipe 'em out!" If Khoo was really up for that, great. If not, well, one dude less on this mission wouldn't bother Udo. (Though if he'd been thinking about it, he'd been pretty badly wounded a couple of times while travelling with Jamie and Tamina - so maybe a fourth body to absorb enemy bullets wouldn't be such a bad thing at that.)

He only shook his head at the news from the crystal ball. Of course he'd like to join in the operation against whoever did that. But certain matters involving the nature of his discharge woudl make that problematic. So he'd just have to stick with the hot elf and the cute kobold. Anyway, if the enemies of Tsuiraku were bold enough to get hold of an airship and stupid enough to target a high-rise restaurant for a suicide mission...even Sergeant Orimoto would be smart enough (and mean enough, brr!) to finish 'em off single-handed.

Reiko served up the rice balls and whatever else was being ordered. She complimented Udo and Khoo on their pretty girl companions while still flirting overtly with them herself (some might wonder at a woman with her looks doing that, but Udo seemed to take it pretty well).

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina busied herself with the rice balls and shellfish as though she hadn't just eaten in the restaurant in the sky-city; kobolds were always prepared to go an extra meal. She accepted the waitresses flirting with politeness and good grace, finding herself thinking of the compliment Drusia had paid her earlier.

"So if you want to go to the Southern Continent, it looks like you can get there. But none of us are getting back up to the sky any time soon."

"Great!" She exclaimed, a little too loudly. "I mean I prefer the...uhh... warp gates." She pronounced the last two words with great care, but correctly, her language skills were improving rapidly since her immersion in a foreign culture.

"Should really get a new bow before we go from town." She added. "Lost my last one 'while back, sucked when bad men were shooting and couldn't shoot back. You wanting to come with us Ky... Khoo? Be dangerous, going after the bad men, doing it for just-us... ahh... justice, not the shinies. Oh! Like your ball by the way, very shiny!"

[Graybeard]

Khoo looked mildly green at Tamina's question, and it wasn't just because of his uncertainty about the rice ball on the plate in front of him. To be sure, it looked a bit suspect, mainly for its setting. On the other hand, anyone who grew up in a Tsuirakuan fishing village was likely to have eaten far worse. It was just that ... well, this "Be dangerous, going after the bad men, doing it for just-us... ahh... justice" declaration didn't do much to suggest that this outing was exactly his usual cup of tea.

On the other hand, why not try to bring the bad guys to "just-us"? He did have a certain sense of duty, after all. Besides ... what else was he going to be doing for a while? He extracted his crystal ball again. "Hang on a minute," he said, and again fired up Crystalnet. Moments later, he shut it down and put it away, pausing to think for a moment before he answered the kobold.

"Classes at Sashi Mu are suspended for all of this week and next," he said. "They're thinking of canceling the whole term. And I can't go back up right now ..." He thought some more and made a decision.

"Oh, well, what the hell. As long as bringing the bad guys to justice doesn't take more than two weeks."

[Alberich]

"Oh! Like your ball by the way, very shiny!"

She liked men with shiny balls? Sounded painful, but in a good cause..."You're not going to find bows around here," he said. "We don't use them. And if we did they wouldn't be made for paws..."

"Oh, well, what the hell. As long as bringing the bad guys to justice doesn't take more than two weeks."

That didn't seem to Udo like the kind of heroic dedication they needed. He was just about to launch into an improptu pep-talk when another customer entered the shop with a couple of friends. This man was about Udo's age, but shorter and fatter, and was talking nonstop to his bemused companion.

"So there I was, no shit, hand-to-hand with the last insurgent - but I had one advantage - I knew this group was devoted to autoerotic...Fujowhori?"

Udo's head snapped around. "Mako?"

The stranger strode up. "By the weave! You old tomcat!"

"You old billy goat!"

"You old ass bandit!"

"You old slushsbucket!"

"You old skunk!"

"You old snake!"

"You old pigfucker!"

"You old sheep-impregnator!"

Things were trending toward untoward violence when the newcomer suddenly spotted Udo's companions.

"Wha...? You're travelling with a...."

"Kobold!" interrupted Udo.

"And an..." - he gestured towards his ears -

"Yes, that's right, an elf."

"Like in those damn funnybooks you were always reading...?"

"You mean finest illustrated thaumo-fic..."

"Look! This is serious! What is this?"

"I told you! I live my own reality!" (That might be truer than Udo knew.)

"Only when you're on i-root!"

Udo spread his hands to indicate that his companions were really here - so was Mako "rooting" himself? Then he changed the subject before things could start getting nasty again.

"I take it you got out...?"

"Yeah, I'm a contractor now. Same old shit but twice the pay and they yell at my boss stedda me."

"Oh, wait, you know what I want to know..." Udo started to grin.

"Oh, yes, yes!" said Mako.

"Well, is it?"

"Yes!" The two broke out in laughter, then talked in unison. "They're still painting the white dot!" They howled. Udo's companions looked puzzled. Udo turned and started to explain through his mirthful tears.

"The...there was a couple of private ten, twelve years ago...they had to paint symbols on the flight line for the airship landings..." He gasped - choking back giggles.

Mako continued - "For punishment. So Udo there, he spills a bucket of white paint, and there's a big pool of it right where the mark shouldn't be. Impro...impro..." - he could barely keep his face half-straight..."improvising furiously, he decides to get the roller brush and turn the pool into a big white dot..." - the "dot" became a laughing fit...

Udo: "And so anyway, I painted all the symbols, plus the big white dot, no extra charge...and I'm almost wetting myself, but nobody notices..."

Mako: "And then three years later, I'm back on base, and what do I see...?"

Both together: "Fresh paint on the white dot!"

Udo took it up again. "That idiot Sergeant Orimoto, he was having the new recruits paint the white dot...had no idea what it was for...yes, Sergeant Orimoto, we'll paint the white dot, but what's it do...?"

At this point, Reiko, the shop-owner, cut in. "You know Sergeant-Major Orimoto?"

Udo's pale face went paler as he suddenly remembered another continent he needed to be on. "I'd love to stay and talk," he said, "but our quest awaits..."

[Graybeard]

Khoo raised an eyebrow at the "White Dot" discussion. "Really?" he said when the two men were done laughing. (Why had Udo stopped so abruptly? He wasn't sure he wanted to know.) "We used that flight line for unmanned tests on the glider. They told us the dot was so we had a target for the landings. Very straight-faced about it. I never knew ..." He didn't say, of course, that it had taken six months of flight tests before they could get the glider anywhere close to the dot. He also didn't say that he himself had never been on the base; his advisor had always insisted on doing the ground work. "Security," he had said, but Khoo had been suspicious for some time now that the "seamstresses" around the base might have had something to do with it.

Back to the point, he thought, as he brushed off a rather clumsy flirtation from the serving woman. "I don't think there's a warp gate on the Southern Continent yet. We're going to have to get to Kiyoka and take a ship or an airship. We can gate there, at least. Ready to go?" The rice ball really wasn't very good.

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina had watched Udo reuinting with his friend with interest, waving cheerfully at him as he noticed her. At Khoo's suggestion she held up a stalling hand.

"Just a sec'." Tamina disembowelled the last few shellfish (no cutlery needed) and stuffed them into her mouth with a 'nomming' sound.

"Kay!" She said, in muffled tones.

[Alberich]

"Ready to go?"

"Extremely!" said Udo, paying what he owed hastily with a heftier tip than the service really justified. (But he'd always found Reiko charming, as certain kinds of young men often did.)

[Graybeard]

"Okay," Khoo said. "Let me find the closest warp gate." He whipped out the crystal ball again; might as well get maximum use out of it now, because it probably wouldn't be good for much when they got to the Southern Continent.

A minute or two later, he looked up from the ball. "Hmmm. The closest domestic gate is that-a-way." He gestured. "Somewhere called Bapartotanu. I don't know anything about it, though. Shall we?"

[Drusia]

A meal and some very strange talk. I sit back and listen. And watch.

I watch how Tamina's flirtations with the waitress are prefunctory and polite. I watch how Tamina keeps glancing at me when she thinks I'm busy eating. Hmm. So, that's how things are.

"Just a sec'." Tamina disembowelled the last few shellfish (no cutlery needed) and stuffed them into her mouth with a 'nomming' sound.
"Kay!" She said, in muffled tones.

As she finishes her meal, I stand. As she says 'Kay,' I hold out my hand to her, offering to help her up.

It's the little things, sometimes.

-- Drusia

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina hurredly swallowed the last mouthful of her meal and accepted the elf's hand. She stood with a friendly smile that contained a trace of nervousness.

"Umm... thanks." She said, retrieving her hand and moving to follow the group. As Rieko's restuarant fell behind the kobold recalled something which had happened shortly after they made their hurried exit from the previous dining area. She turned to Drusia.

"Malacia... Dru? What's Malacia? Oh! Erm... mind me asking?"