Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

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Graybeard
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Re: Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

Post by Graybeard »

"I still don't like this," Khoo muttered, but it was too late now. The submarine hauled itself up onto the beach a hundred yards or so away, making a grinding noise. Moments later a small form emerged from its hatch with lengths of rope. These she secured to the vessel, then climbed down onto the beach to tie the other ends off to something immovable. The footing must not have been good, though; she slipped again, and again, and again.

Khoo facepalmed. "Yeah, that's Anna-Lisa, all right. Magically adept in a number of interesting ways, very forceful, actually pretty smart ... but a complete klutz. Excuse me for a minute." He started picking his way down to where the girl was falling into the surf yet again.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Tamina watched the woman falling over for the upteenth time and tried, unsuccessfully, to surpress a giggling fit.

"Hope she doesn't do that when she's throwing a fire-ball. Ha! Oh... actually that could be dangerous." She said, her voice suddenly growing nervous.

OOC I'll get the action rolling in town on my next post. Been swamped lately and, like a doofus, I volunteered to take an extra shift tomorrow. :( /OOC
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Graybeard
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Re: Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

Post by Graybeard »

When he got down to the shore, Khoo could see the problem: the rocks where Anna-Lisa was struggling to tie the boat up, with spectacular lack of success, were covered with slippery seaweed. Having grown up in a fishing village, Khoo knew exactly what that meant. Those rocks were submerged at high tide. That in turn meant that the tide was still out, which further meant that if they didn't get the thing tied up, it would be at risk of being swept out to sea when the tide came in ... and Anna-Lisa would be stranded here with them. With him. That gruesome possibility had to be avoided at all costs. He set to work securing the submarine.

When he was done, he asked the obvious question, even though the answer was equally obvious. "What brings you here, Anna-Lisa?"

She giggled. "You do, silly. Classes are starting up again at Shmoo next week, so I thought I should take you home."

Khoo sighed. "And exactly how do you propose to do that? There's only room in that thing for yourself." Once again, he knew what was coming, but he could no more deflect it than he could stop the charge of an Anuban swamp beast.

"Then we'll have to snuggle up real close, won't we?" she purred, and threw her arms around him, an experience Khoo (who was never averse to mixing metaphors) likened to being groped by a tentacle monster.
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Alberich
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Re: Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

Post by Alberich »

"Wow!" said Udo, who had struggled along behind him, and finally caught up a minute or so into the intimacies. "Boy, Khoo, you weren't kidding when you said what a total babe she was! No wonder you're always daydreaming about her! Going to introduce us?"

Hmph, so he'd begged to "please" help him "get away" from this cute girl who happened to be a kick-ass sorceress too? Okay, the kid was shy, but this was taking it too far. Good thing she was the forward type. That was how Udo liked them himself!
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Graybeard
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Re: Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

Post by Graybeard »

The next thirty seconds demonstrated that Khoo knew nothing about death magic, since if he had, he'd have used it on Udo.

He also wondered about the man's sanity, or at least, his vision. Anna-Lisa Po was nearly as tall as Khoo, skinny, with long, scraggly blonde hair that gave her the appearance of a walking broomstick. This, at least in Khoo's opinion, was actually an improvement on the first time he'd seen her. Like most of the girls at Sashi Mu, she'd had thaumatic dental surgery that, in her case, corrected an overbite. As importantly, she'd also been broken of the deplorable "fashion sense" -- Khoo could scarcely think of a more inappropriate misnomer -- that she'd picked up interning with Mesuinu Enterprises. She'd come back to school one year after the summer wearing an outfit that would have worked better on a barber pole. Apparently that, to the Mesuinus, had represented "conservative, business dress." Khoo shuddered every time he recalled that outfit.

He succeeded in freeing himself from the octopoidal embrace and cleared his throat. "Uh, sorry, Anna-Lisa, but I have to stay here a little while longer. I -- started a project with these people that involves my glider." That part at least was true, sort of. "I'll come home as soon as I'm done. Professor Takatsuka will understand."

Actually, he wasn't sure of that last part, to put it mildly. To be sure, his thesis advisor was more understanding than most of the Sashi Mu faculty. However, given a choice between explaining himself to the man -- and, of course, being cooped up with Anna-Lisa on the trans-oceanic ride home -- on the one hand, and participating in a fight to the death with uncertain allies on the other, there really wasn't a choice at all.
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Drusia
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Re: Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

Post by Drusia »

Tamina watched the woman falling over for the upteenth time and tried, unsuccessfully, to surpress a giggling fit.
"Hope she doesn't do that when she's throwing a fire-ball. Ha! Oh... actually that could be dangerous." She said, her voice suddenly growing nervous.


I nod. It's a good thing Waiter-kun said she was a friendly, or things might have gotten messy. Still, the Tsuirakuian technology looks sound. And potentially useful.

"Think we should try to recruit her?" I ask Tamina. Udo clearly wants to, Waiter-kun clearly doesn't want to, but neither of their opinions particularly matter. Tamina is the closest thing we have to a leader - it's her call.

-- Drusia
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"If she can help..." Tamina mused, then winced. "...it would be putting someone else in danger. Been asking too many people to help with enemies who aren't theirs, it would be selfish... but..." The kobold sighed and rubbed a hand against her forehead. "Should say hello first. Be polite."

The humanoid picked her way across the slippery stones with animal grace and waved a hand to the newcomer.

"Hi, you An-li-sa... Anne-lee-sha... umm... Khoo's friend? 'm Tamina, like your boat!"

.....

"Politics." The man said. "I never cared for it, never wanted to, but in this joyous work of mine it pays to keep a finger on the pulse of current events."

"You could always quit." A gruffer voice slurred in reply, a dull thud announcing he'd set something heavy on the bar they were leaning on. The object in question was a mug built for a much larger man, then again, the same could be said of most of the man's possessions.

The tavern in question was an unusual waterfront locale by the name of The Clark. It was unusual because less than a month ago the tavern had been sailing the seas, delivering commodities from place to place for entirely reasonable fees, or at least reasonable by the standards of Captain Rigby. The short man lifted his oversized Captain's hat and scatched the bald circle at the back of his head as the other replied.

"Well, it worked out well enough for you."

"I didn't have much of a choice."

"The money's too good for me to quit." Captain Moriarty shrugged, and sipped from a wine glass filled with a honey-coloured liquid. "At least if you're following the trade patterns."

"..and politics?"

"...and bloody politics."

The clink of the cups went through the room's only other occuptant like nails down a chalkboard.

OOC More coming later./OOC
Last edited by Jack Rothwell on February 11th, 2013, 4:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Alberich
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Re: Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

Post by Alberich »

"Uh, sorry, Anna-Lisa, but I have to stay here a little while longer. I -- started a project with these people that involves my glider."

Udo had been taking the opportunity to build Khoo up some more, in the hopes he'd help to overcome the waiter's shyness with girls. "Project? He's too modest! A grand adventure! He's a hero and he's been freeing the oppressed and trampling down tyrants! You've got a winner there for sure!"

Lacking all clothes sense himself, he was the last man alive to see any problems with Anna-lisa's dichromatic disaster, and he thought her scraggly scarecrow looks were kind of cute. Doubly so when she had the lovelight in her eyes as she obviously did for Khoo. No, it must be Khoo's fatal shyness that made him want to avoid this sweetheart, and anything Udo could do to help bring them together was two-fisted charity. Before he could be any more charitable, and store up treasure in Heaven, Tamina showed up to compliment the girl on her boat.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"So what's the word around town? Did Logan state what his policies were?"

"Not exactly." Moriarty replied. He'd been at the market district at opening time that morning, unloading the rest of the goods from The Curious Narwhal when a group of official-looking gentlemen had turned up in the company of the black-armored men who'd sprung up like weeds since his last trip to the Port. He described the scene to the diminutive bar-owner; the sound of the bell ringing, the silence which had fallen over the people present, the clear voice of Logan's man as he unrolled a fancily-embroidered scroll and made the announcement.

"He said that 'Brambrook is only the beginning' and that 'As our councilor, and with the support and goodwill of it's citizens, Lucas Logan will usher in a new age of peace and prosperity in the fine town of ours'." Moriarty sighed and looked into his glass. "Sounds like so much puff and blow to me."

"I don't know." Rigby replied, ham-fistedly bumping his heavy mug on the bar again. The napping woman made a noise which was somewhere between a grunt and a groan. "His company has done a lot for the town lately."

"All to get into the people's good books I'm sure."

"Well it's working." The short man shrugged. "It's working on me, the denizens from that shit-hole have more coin to throw around and some of it's making it's way here." He spared a nod at the woman. "That one works for Logan, and she's in here most nights with a full purse."

The person being discussed was currently sat at the table on the other side of the tavern with her head rested on her folded arms. Her face was obscured, but the tell-tale clothes of fur and leather, the tattoos snaking up her bare arms, and the mane of black hair plumed with bird feathers were enough for the handsome captain to deduce that she was clearly not from around these parts.

"She doesn't look like a 'company' sort of woman."

"No." Came a muffled reply. "And 'she' doesn't appreciate being talked about as if she isn't here."

"Sorry Myra." Rigby interjected, with nervous joviality. "I was bringing my friend up to speed."

"I need a refill." The woman grumbled without lifting her head.
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Graybeard
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Re: Port Lorrel- Puppet Masters

Post by Graybeard »

Anna-Lisa simply ignored Udo; she had interned for Mesuinu Enterprises long enough to recognize when someone was shoveling it with both hands. However, Tamina was a different story. "A catgirl!" she breathed. "I've heard all these wondrous stories about your people, but I've never actually met one! How exciting..."

By the Sea God's festering testicles, she's actually thinking of staying with us, thought Khoo, cringing. And she's supposed to be taking a year off to see the world, so she might even do it. He had the same reaction he'd had when he saw Anna-Lisa struggling to secure the submarine: this gruesome possibility had to be avoided at all costs. But how to do it? Aha. There was, as far as he knew, exactly one thing in the known world that Anna-Lisa had a completely irrational fear of ...

"I think you'll have all sorts of stories for her," he said to Tamina with a bonhomie that he didn't feel. "Maybe you can start with those magical creatures that you like so much-- what did you call them, 'Silka'? You know, sort of a big, magically modified mouse..."

He saw the girl's wide-open eyes turn from fangirlish worship to momentary horror, before flipping back to their giddy state. This might just work, he thought...
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