[Nexus] NO XIII: Do Clockwork Penguins Dream of Mechanical Fish?

[Murkus]

Front Door --> Main Room

Ordo pockets the money with a miserly grin, stepping aside and holding out his hand toward the inner base. "Be my guest."

After they make it inside, Ordo quickly shuts the cold out. He intends to keep an eye on Harnel and Cessie, but not a very close one. After all, NO doesn't have many enemies.

[Reinholdt]

Main Room

Harnel goes to step inside and looks around briefly, before looking at Ordo and waiting, clearly expecting him to give a descriptive tour of the place.

[Shadowcaller]

Main Room

"Thank you. So what do you do around here? You are mercenaries, correct?" The mage asks as she steps inside the main room.

[Murkus]

Main Room

"Oh, we're quite a bit more than that," Ordo explains, shoving his hands in his pockets. It should be clear that Ordo is planning no such tour, given that he doesn't even acknowledge the look Harnel is giving him. "We've done some weird stuff. You guys looking for mercenaries?" He glances between them, perhaps hoping for a job.

[Reinholdt]

Main Room

"Maybe." Harnel says, letting it linger. Gotta decide if they want NO doing anything.

He motions with his head for Cessie that they should go this way. Which Harnel then proceeds to do, exploring the base.

[Artemis97]

Originally Posted by Lost_Deep

Front Door - Drow

"Oh, I can tell him myself. I can even do so in your exact words. It's just that in my experience people have much preferred writing notes over entrusting me with that kind of information. I'm not sure why. If you are content with send a message through me, I will see to it that Dipsnig gets it as soon as possible."

Blast it all, this Nexus place keeps messing with all his expectations. This whole world is so annoying...

hmm.

CB-484 takes a moment to use his medical scanner on the Drow. This should give him an idea of Drow anatomy... so that this wasn't a complete waste of time. There is no outward evidence that the scanner is being used.

"Please do so." Bae'kiira asks. "Thank you." She adds, almost as an afterthought.

Drow are just elves with dark skin and pale hair. Their most unique trait would be their ability to see in the dark, thanks to being able to peer into the infrared spectrum. They also have some innate magical abilities, but I doubt that would show up in their physiology.

[Lost_Deep]

Front Door - Drow

"Good day."

CB will shut the door if the drow turn to leave. The information from the medical scan, while not all that useful, is another file of information on Drow, which will be analyzed to better understand elf anatomy.

[Shadowcaller]

Main Room

"We'll see. I'm mostly just here to learn." Cessie tells Ordo before she follows Harnel's lead, not really sure where they will end up. "Thanks for the help..." Even if it wasn't free and wasn't really help at all.

[Murkus]

Main Room

Ordo follows along after the two, keeping his distance, but not interfering. Someone has to keep an eye on them, after all!

It still has not crossed his mind that they might want a tour. Perhaps it has, and he simply doesn't care to be their guide.

[Reinholdt]

Based on the map, Harnel will start at the bottom right and work his way counter-clockwise around the base until something interesting happens.

[The Bushranger]

And now...

Somebody approaches NO!

Sneakily.

As in "dressed all in black with a black balaclava and dashing from one spot of cover to the next" sneaky.

[Gulaghar]

[Outside]

As the mysterious person sneaks up toward NO, she may be surprised to note that not only has she been noticed rather quickly, be she has been snuck up upon in turn.

An hand grasps her shoulder and tries to spin her around. "What do you think you're doing." The hand belongs to a none too impressed Kirk.

[Main Room]

The multitude of wasps that often lurk around the corners and ceilings of the base may have gone unnoticed up to this point by the touring visitors. But now they mill about and swarm before the two. In a moment a shimmer passes over them and in their place stands a regal looking woman. She even has the same fashion sense as Cessie.

"Newcomers I see?' Esjhter says, slowly looking between Harnel and Cessie. "But not here on business?"

[The Bushranger]

[Outside]

"EEP!"

The figure is spun around, the balaclava falling off... letting a set of red odango-style pigtails spill out, and a look of surprise on the face beneath them quickly turning to annoyance!

"...hey, I was being totally stealthy until you ruined it," Mikani protests in the face of reason and logic.

She does, to her credit, manage to avoid stamping her foot...

[Gulaghar]

[Outside]

"Stealthy? I could have seen you from a mile away blindfolded." The drow says, his tone condescending. "Who are you and why are you sneaking around here?"

[The Bushranger]

[Outside]

"I am the Druid Princess Mikani," the redhead states, pulling herself up to her full height (such as it is). "I was practicing my stealthiness. And, unless you want to have your hand surgically removed by my father, you'll remove it from my shoulder right now."

A beat.

"Oh, my father is Tobias Druid, and he'll surgically remove it at the spleen."

[Gulaghar]

[Outside]

"Will he now?" Kirk pulls down his shades to look over them at her. Is this kid for real? "Listen, kid. Go and play spy somewhere else with your little friends. We don't need little runts like you lurking around." He gives her shoulder a hard shove.

[The Bushranger]

[Outside]

The hard shove...does nothing!

And Mikani just glares back.
"How am I supposed to learn if I'm not allowed to?" she protests.
Glares!
GLAAAAAAAARES!

...wait, is that the Goswell Scowl?

[Gulaghar]

[Outside]

"I don't give a damn." Kirk says, seemingly unfazed by his shove accomplishing nothing. "Just get out of here and out of my hair."

[Shadowcaller]

[Main Room]

The sorceress stares at the woman curiously, was she a spirit? She knew a bit about spirits...

"We are just looking around. I'm new to this plane so Harnel here is offering me a guide to the nexus. Right now we are visiting every organization. It's quite interesting actually." She pauses and makes a short bow, "I'm Cessie by the way and not the one you're probably thinking of."

[Reinholdt]

[Main Room]

"Hello." Harnel says to Esther, ever so chattily. But Cessie covered most of it.

[Gulaghar]

[Main Room]

"The only other Cessie I am aware of is the council member, and I have never met her. There is little concern that I will become confused." Eshter says in her faintly buzzing voice. "You may call me Eshter. It is a pleasure to meet you." She offers a bow in return.

[Murkus]

Main Room

The two tourists may be left alone with the bug woman at this point, given that Esther makes Ordo extremely uncomfortable. He quickly moves back toward the employee lounge area, where he flops on one of the couches and commences lounging with a deep sigh.

[The Bushranger]

Originally Posted by Gulaghar

[Outside]

"I don't give a damn." Kirk says, seemingly unfazed by his shove accomplishing nothing. "Just get out of here and out of my hair."

Mikani huffs!
"Fine. But next time I'll be sneakier and you'll wake up with frogs in your pajamas!"
...really, a better threat would be a genderbending potion in his morning cuppa...

[Gulaghar]

[Outside]

"I'm shaking in my boots." The drow says flatly. He looks at her expectantly, waiting for her to start leaving so he can head inside. Way too cold out here to deal with this.

[The Bushranger]

[Outside]

Mikani rolls her eyes...then unfastens the brooch from her clearly store-bought ninja outfit.

Tosses it to the ground.

...where it unfurls into what looks not unlike a cross between Marty McFly's overboard and the Silver Surfer's preferred means of transportation.

She hops aboard the Windblade and lifts into the air to fly off!

[Gulaghar]

[Outside => Inside]

Kirk shakes his head and turns to head inside. Once in, he pauses for a moment to look at Cessie and Harnel. Well isn't that odd. Cessie doesn't look quite right, though. No use bothering with it, he's not going to stop and talk to them anyway. Because right now he needs to find Dena. He goes to do just that.

[Shadowcaller]

[Main Room]

Cessie smiles faintly, she liked Esther already. "Yes, it's nice to meet you Esther. Would you be so kind to tell me a bit about NO? You are mercenaries right?"

[Dena's Room]

As Kirk approaches the room he can hear two voices inside, one is Dena's and one is a deep male voice.

"Ha! That's 4-2 to me! I bet you didn't expect to have your ass kicked when you came here."

"*grumbles* Just keep playing woman..." The other voice replies.

As Kirk opens the door he will find Dena playing some sort of video game with a four foot tall dwarf with a big red beard woven into two braids. Despite the fact it's rather warm inside the room he's still wearing a full-plate armor He stares into the tv and keeps pressing his controller until he seem to notice Kirk entering.

"Hello there beautiful." The dwarf says with a toothy grin. Apparently he doesn't believe in proper dental care, or hygiene for that matter, he stinks. "Dena didn't told me she had such sexy friends."

The drow rolls her eyes, "He's a guy Lage."

"She's an elf, same thing." The dwarf who's name apparently is Lage insist. "All real men have beards or the scars to make up for it."

[Gulaghar]

[Dena's Room]

"Oh joy. A friend of Dena's I presume?" The drow says as he steps into the room. He manages to not wrinkle his nose at the smell. "I can guess why you to get along." He punctuates with a chuckle. "And while I might not have a beard or scars, I more than make up for it with my prowess." He glances briefly at Dena and gives her a wink.

[Main Room]

"That is correct. Our primary purpose is doing a variety of different kinds of jobs for those that would wish to purchase our talents. There is much we can offer, though we strictly forbid assassination contracts." Eshter explains.

[Shadowcaller]

[Dena's Room]

Lage stares at Kirk and then looks back at Dena, "I thought you weren't into women Dena." He says, looking rather surprised.

She laughs heartily at this. "You do realize that joke is going to get old eventually right?"

The dwarf grins, "As long elves exist, it will never get old."

Grinning at Kirk, still close to laughing. "This is Lage by the way, Lage this is Kirk. I think I already mentioned him at some point."

"Nice to meet ya Kirk." The dwarf says with a huge grin on his face, offering a sweaty hand to shake.

[Gulaghar]

[Dena's Room]

Kirk shakes his head. "Pleasure." He shakes the dwarf's hand, if a bit reluctantly. "I didn't realize that any of Dena's old friends were in the Nexus."