True. Claim the guns and make her carry them. The rest is TRASH.
+1 This is the way.
+1
((Lumping Dev and Cronos' votes together since they're asking for similar things. That ties it up with Zul's question, so I'll be having Alex ask both sets.))
Three six-shooters. Seventeen rounds between them. You wipe them off on your robes and return them to their holsters.
"Do... do you need that many?"
Of course! What sort of question is that? You'll need backups in case your weapons run dry, and what if you run into another poor unfortunate soul in need of a gun? Also, she'll be carrying them.
"...Okay but um, why?"
Because she could clearly use more. Though now that you think about it maybe you should test her knowledge, her trigger discipline certainly left a lot to be desired. Does she even know the make and model of these?
"N-no?"
Does she at least know what her own gun is?
"It's a um, Hanwei Single Action Peacemaker(?)"
And what about your guns?
"I-I don't know... they're intrinsics right?"
One out of six. Terrible, truly terrible. You shake your head.
"S-sorry I'm- wait... six? How did you get-
you're counting it like that?"
Of course! Why wouldn't you? It's more important to know about common guns, and by your observation those are more common!
Ada blinks, mulling over whether to argue the point. "D-do you know what they are then?"
You wave her off. That's besides the point, the point being that this information
she should know! She can't just coast along doing- ...actually what
does she do anyway? Besides picking fights with bandits?
"I didn't pick a fight with them! They ambushed me!"
Okay besides
getting ambushed by bandits what does she do?
"I'm a craftsperson."
What does she craft? Furniture? Ceramics? Guns?
"...H-how would I be a gunsmith?"
How would you know? Nepotism? Low standards?
"I make drones."
You weren't aware bees needed help with that.
"Wha- no, not those,
these." She gestures to the grubs.
So they're a type of expendable flying construct?
"Sort of, they're not all
this expendable. You can use them to scout and fight for you, a-also deliveries, I think my clan's trialing them for agriculture too.
I um, don't have the resources to make those though."
But she does have the skills? Well you suppose it would be your responsibility to help leverage those talents even if you don't completely get what they entail.
"They can also use guns."
Oh why didn't she say that to begin with? Now what was that about a clan?
"Oh um, I'm from the Nest."
You have no idea what that is. Where's that sit on the nobility totem pole? And more importantly, what do you get now that you're her suzerain?
"It's a comital clan and um
I don't know?"
Comital eh? That's pretty high up, granted she's clearly not a scion or anything, but clan ties still carry their own benefits, and even if you don't get extra benefits for vassalizing her you're sure it won't be too hard to at least attain parity in the eyes of others. Speaking of which, which chump's in charge of dealing with bandits?
"Uh... the sect?"
Sure they'll probably be called to deal with the problem, but who asks them to?
"A town?"
Not what you're asking. There's some sort of official in charge with this sort of thing isn't there? Making sure the woods aren't just absolutely lousy with bandits?
She stares blankly back at you. "Senior... could it be that you don't know where we are?"
Some backwater ass woods apparently. Does it matter?
"We're in the Inner Frontier."
You have no idea what that means, but the mention of a "frontier" is illuminating enough.
The salvage itself takes a little more time. Ada starts with the armor, tearing through the rear lining to find a flat box filled with shimmering rocks. Spirit stones. This must be what array's power source. She presses her bandaged hand into the container, you can tell whatever lies beneath the bandages isn't solid, not complete anyways, not with the way she's doing it. After a moment, she withdraws her hand. The stones are gone. She repeats the same process for the other armored vests, the spears go similarly only difference being the location of their power supply - housed in a cavity where the wooden shaft meets the steel head.
The remaining drones settle back inside the partitioned case and Ada swings it back onto her back, now with another three holsters in tow.
With that all sorted the two of you depart for the Tap District.
*** Sometime Later ***You're beginning to see it's called the Tap District. You haven't seen it yet, but you're beginning to understand at least why it's called a district, not a town, a village, or anything else.
See, the Tap District is a
district, a small sliver of a much larger city, a metropolis in fact. The Veiled City, an urban sprawl on a scale to rival or exceed even the greatest of capitals. Paper lanterns illuminate the night with strange sigils inscribed upon their square faces, buildings stack one upon the other two to three stories high capped with glazed tile roofs, vendors hawk their wares from carts lining the road. Skewers and umbrellas, trinkets and fine porcelains. This is not a main road. The main road is too dangerous. This is not even the heart of the city, you are in the outskirts. In the heart the buildings grow far taller, the crowds denser, and survival all the less certain.
There are crowds. There are always crowds. But there is no one in the crowd, no one but you and Ada. No one you can see anyhow.
That flows through the streets are not humans but multicolored smoke. Thick ever-shifting smoke, you can see shapes in it. People, always indistinct, how many are there in the crowd? What forms do they take? The details escape you, like wind slipping through your fingers. You see a transaction at a food cart, a wooden skewer charred on an open flame, nothing on the skewer, nothing on any of the skewers, but you cannot tell who made the transaction - there is no who, there is only the crowd. Ever-changing, ever-roiling, pouring through the streets, churning inside the buildings.
It is denser deeper in the city Ada explains. So dense you cannot see, so dense you need other senses, senses specialized for the city. So dense you could be swept away, carried away by the crowd, never to be seen again.
It's not trivial here either, visibility ain't the best and while your mobility isn't too impaired it's definitely an
unfamiliar sensation, sort of like walking against an indecisive wind, navigating through a crowd, and walking underwater all at once.
Your instincts tell you to climb, to head up one of the buildings. It'll be easier to see up there, more freedom of movement unconstrained by the street structure too. Ada is hesitant however, pointing upwards.
Up above, lazily drifting through the skies is a humanoid figure not so much attired so much as draped in fabric. You can't make out too much else from this angle. That a problem?
"If it sees us. We should be safe in the crowd."
Well maybe not - you think you can see something approaching. Something a little more solid. A new light shines in the distance, shining towards you, and closing in. You reach for your weapons.
"It's okay..." Ada holds out her hand and gives you what appears to be a censer. Looks strangely utilitarian though save for a strange dial and button at the top.
"Papers please" A whisper, spoken first by the newcomer, and then by all the crowd around them.
You can see it now, an
individual, a being that exists independent of the crowd. A mass of multicolored smoke taking the shape of a clerk with a paper lantern embedded in their head, a sigil traced upon it. Looking down, you can see that same sigil amongst others on the censer's dial.
Ada steps forwards, aligning her dial to the sigil and depressing the button. Something ignites within the censer, flames and smoke dancing unnaturally, some of the smoke pours from the censer, but only certain colors.
"They don't understand words" Ada explains. In other words, she's saying you can still talk freely.
Is it bad to defy these clerks?
She nods "They can't do much on their own. But if we try to run there will an immune response."
Like guards or something?
Another nod. "It can get very bad."
The checking process takes a fair amount of time, especially since the clerk has to check both of you, but you are able to still at least move during the check, just limiting your pace so it can keep up. Eventually its light extinguishes with a
"Thank you" and it glides past without further fuss.
Another light shines ahead.
"Papers please"Wait what? Is this normal?
"N-no, something's off!"
You step back and a blur of motion rushes through where you head was mere moments ago.
A fist of black smoke. You square off against your assailant and find yourself face to face with a hulking mass of indistinct human silhouettes twisted together into the shape of something reminiscent of a gorilla in shape. It is comprised entirely of smoke, and yet it seems more solid than the clerks still.
Oh and there's three more barrelling down upon you right now.
Four gorillas, all at fairly close range. Another clerk inbound that you'll need the censer for (taking up one hand) and which you'll be punished for if you spur.
> [] Rush for the clerk. Use your enhanced mobility to create a gap, you can gun down these assailants while you appease the clerk> [] Stand and fight. These chumps don't look too bad, you could take 'em> [] Brave the rooftops. This whole situation stinks, you'd rather take your chances with cloth-clad figure> [] (Write in)
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Topic: Turbulence (SG) - Storm, Web, Casket (Read 5628 times)