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[penguify]

Oh I see what you mean now, yes we might want to ask her about the origins of that name.

[Silleh Boy]

It was probably for the best that you got this all over and done with as soon as possible you told yourself, for you knew that Anne would probably be extremely irritated with Red already by this point. You didn't want to return to find Red cowering in a corner, asking why on earth you had thought that it was a smart idea to leave her with a machete for self defence.

You left the office of the guild master, following the man who had taken you this far back towards the entrance. He was excited, an immortal was a big thing for this guild it seemed. Hearing that you were going to join had him acting very talkative, telling you that he was going to keep an ear out for you incase the secretary at the desk when you returned hadn't been clued in.

You hardly managed to get a word in edgeways with this man, though you didn't mind in all honesty. You had a lot on your mind now, worries about the wisdom of what you were setting yourself up for and where the path you were treading would take you now.

As you stepped from the building, you took note that the fog had thinned a great deal, that you could see maybe half a mile now before everything was blanketed in white. You were almost dissapointed by this, as the fog added something to the journey. With everything shrouded in white as it had been, it was almost as if you were exploring a new city.

You made your way onwards, realising that you were going to have to cease work at Red's for the time being. This made you feel sad in a sense. The work may have been hard and taken a lot to keep atop of, but, you were going to miss dinner time there. You could have eaten the food that Red's wife prepared every day for a decade without growing tired of it.

You made your way over the bridge that split the city in two, striding across it as you passed a pair of men trying to fix the wheel on their cart. You knew how frustrating this was, yet you didn't stop to offer them assistance. You couldn't afford to stop for them.

You didn't trust Red and Anne not to try killing each other.

Red may have been large man, strong and experienced but he was no match for Anne. There was nothing he had that could possibly give him the edge over the rapid manner in what Anne's body recovered from damage inflicted upon it.

Your pace picked up as you started to jog down the river side street towards the pub, every footfall bringing you closer. Jogging wasn't fast enough. Your pace quickened further as you went from jogging to running, from running to a full blown sprint.

You could feel your heart beating heavily in your chest, the sound of your breathing reaching your ears as you started to pant. You could feel your muscles screaming for a moments respite as you pushed yourself onward, as you reached the outside of the pub in record time.

You stopped at the corner of the pub as you leaned against the wall of the building, panting as you caught your breath and attempted to compose yourself. You could hear bawdy music and drunken revellers, you could see a drunk passed out on the steps.

You weren't going to relax until you could see everything was fine with your own two eyes.

You wouldn't put it past the drunks to sit there drinking if something had happened, if Anne had killed Red and fled into the city. You approached the door expecting the worst, yet expecting such couldn't prepare you for the sight that greeted you.

Anne was carrying drinks between tables, cleaning up the empty bottles and tankards.

You couldn't hide your bewilderment as you made your way across the room to the bar, glancing at Anne as you did so. Red merely grinned as you turned to him, pointing at Anne in slack jawed amazement.

"She's a good lass, kid. 'ell of sharp tongue, but a good'un none th'less. I take it ye 'ave somethin' t'say o'importance though, aye?" Red's words had a sense of dread form in the pit of your stomach, knowing that things were going to change, that the routine you had been happy with would be no more. "M'wife'd appreciate an 'and with th'dinner one last time, ye know. Go 'elp her while ye find yer tongue, then we can sit down t'gether an' ye can spill th'news."

You nodded, heading toward the kitchen as you asked yourself, just how much of this were you going to honestly share with them, was it wise to ask about her name over dinner, or would it be better to wait until you had left the pub?


((I'll do my best to keep those pointers about my common mistakes and the like in mind. It'll take time to fix them given how the puctuation for one's an almost obsessive thing, but, at least I have something to work towards changing.))

[Toaster]

Tell him you got a job at the guild, but not much more.  Ask about her name later.

(Also, if you post in Firefox, it'll automatically highlight spelling errors in text boxes.)

[dragnar]

Tell him you got a job at the guild, but not much more.  Ask about her name later.

[penguify]

Tell him you got a job at the guild, but not much more.  Ask about her name later.

[RAM]

Aye, can't think of any reason to involve Red or his wife with the name issue, hopefully there will be an opportunity later. Offer to help out, but it would probably be best to get away from the bar before it becomes deserted. Attacking a crowded bar would be a bit too messy with automatons roaming the city, but just the four of us might be an inviting target, and the enlightened shouldn't have much interest in Red or his wife once we leave, threatening the friends of an immortal probably isn't a terribly effective tactic, most of them would have lost more than a few friends in their time... I have no issue with telling Red where we are going. He can write to us to arrange a meeting and we should be able to leave to see him easily enough. And the technomancers are not a particularly unlikely place for us to go, the enlightened could probably guess where we are regardless, it is mostly the large metallic folk who are compelling the change of address.

[Silleh Boy]

You felt bad about leaving on this note, about sitting down with one last meal before you moved on to the Technomancer's guild. In the days that you had been working here you had taken a great deal of the work load off Red's shoulders, kept the place cleaner than anybody could have dreamed of a rowdy pub like this looking. You picked up a stack of vegetables, almost paying no attention to what you were doing as you prepared them.

The steady sound of the knife cutting through vegetables and impacting against the cutting board filled your ears as you prepared them. As with the prior days you quickly and efficiently processed the vegetables, while Red's wife almost seemed to struggle to keep up with you.

Once the pots were filled with vegetables and meat you stepped back out.

You were just in time to see one of the patrons go further than was wise with Anne, reaching to grope her behind as she was bent over to clean one of the tables. She jumped in suprise, her face twisting to betray how disgusted and angry she was that this man had the nerve to touch her in such an unwelcome manner. She was about to twist around, to put this man in his place when she saw you were already moving rapidly towards the man.

The man knew he was in trouble, yet didn't wish to be go peacefully.

You could see drunken courage in his eyes as he pulled a small knife from his pocket, while Anne ducked out of the way as her expression betrayed her disgust at not being able to deal with this situation herself. She couldn't, for fear that she would reveal what she was. All it took was a cut and her inhuman nature would be revealed.

You on the other hand, would bleed red if injured and wouldn't visibly regenerate even though your injuries faded faster than a humans.

"Whatcha gonna do, boy?" The man sneered as he tossed his knife from hand to hand. His features were rough and weathered, his chin bore uneven stubble, his clothing was coarse and cheap. He was a nobody, likely little more than a farm hand. That didn't change things however, you had to deal with him without using lethal force.

As he tossed the knife from hand to hand, your own hand darted out, grasping the blade firmly as the suprised man looked down, struggling as he tried to free it from your grasp. You could feel the sting of that blade cutting into your palm lightly, yet what happened next had the man cry out in suprise. A sharp twist of your wrist snapped the brittle iron blade, before you cast it aside.

The man backed away fearfully now, lashing out blindly as he attempted to keep you away from him. It wasn't enough to save him from humiliation, you stepped forward as he overstretched his reach and drove your fist square into his face.

The man groaned as he crumpled to the floor, your hand grasping him by the collar. He put up no further resistance as you dragged him towards the door, before dropping him outside and stepping back in through the door.

Anne was clearly furious, yet doing her best to keep her voice from being heard by the majority of the people in the pub as she spoke with Red. You made your way over to the bar, catching that her anger was mostly over the fact they you had stepped in and denied her the chance to deal with him herself.

"I could not allow a man like that to treat a lady with such disrespect. I am sorry if you feel the need to object over this matter." Your words caused Anne to turn red, scowling as she did her best to look displeased. Off guard as she was, it wasn't very convincing. "You're welcome."

After wrapping a cloth about your injured hand you set about cleaning as you waited for dinner time to arrive, scrubbing the walls, the floors and the tables. You couldn't say you'd miss having to clean the floors constantly, though seeing your own blood on it made a change.

As dinner time arrived, Red brought out several plates of food, grabbed several bottles of beer and invited you and Anne to join him. Anne shot you a dirty look as you tried to pull her chair out for you, while Red chuckled. "Lad, she be an in'epen'ant woman," he paused to open his bottle of beer as he did so. "So, ye 'ave some bad news f'poor ol'Red then?"

You fiddled with the bottle before you as Anne sniffed at the food, paying no attention to you or Red for the time being as she started to sample everything cautiously. "Th'food not t'yer likin', Lass?" Red asked as he noticed this, though he got little more than a satisfied 'Mmm' in response.

"I wish I could stay here Red, to continue working here as you've been good to me. It is by my own ignorance that I have endangered Anne's life, however. If there were another way that I could ensure her safety without going to the length that I did, then I would have taken it. I have made a deal with the Technomancers to ensure her safety, in return for my services."

There was silence.

Anne looked up from the meal that she had been so engrossed in, conflicting emotions visible for a brief moment before she bowed her head and started to eat her meal again in silence. Red reached out, placing one hand on your shoulder as he did so. "Kid, I've 'eard that many o'ye kind are beyond carin' about the live o'others that they touch, as th'lives o'others are nothin' in comparison t'the time they'll live fer. I'm proud o'ye f'bein' man enough t'do th'right thing."

"What did you give them?" Anne asked in hushed tones as she looked up at you.

"I... I shall tell you later, Anne."

You looked down at the meal before you, feeling as if you had lost your appetite now. It hadn't felt so bad when you had made the deal with them, yet know you had to think about it, now you had to put it into words it wasn't as easy as you'd thought it would be to talk about it.

You sat through the rest of the meal in silence, doing your best not to meet Anne's gaze as she glanced your way occasionally, concern written across her features. When you had finished the meal you said your goodbyes to Red and his wife, saying you would visit when able.

With your goodbyes said and Anne in tow, you turned your back on the pub as you started on your way towards the Technomancers guild. The journey started in silence, with you wanting to ask Anne about her name, how she had come to be named Anxiety. You couldn't bring yourself to. It was her voice however, that snapped you from your reverie.

"What did you give them?"

"I told them everything I invented beneath their roof would be theirs, in return for your assured safety."

"I don't see what is so signifigant about that."

You laughed, shaking your head as you did so. She didn't see the signifigance of it, and you couldn't just leave her blissfully ignorant. She needed to understand the true nature of what you had done, to realise just what you intended to do.

"Think about it. I have seen the progress and the downfall of technology and tactics over the centuries, I have seen the rise and fall of nations. I have seen the progression of weapons from bow to firearm. I have never participated directly in such progress myself, I have always helped direct people to prosperity, not assisted in arming them with things to destroy themselves with."

You gazed at the river, wistfully wishing that you could dive into it, drift out to sea and never again see these shores.

"I plan to design weapons and armour, I will be doing that what I detest most. Providing people with the means to destroy each other more effectively. I need to design these things incase my only option is to use force with the Enlightened, to make them aware that it is more mutually beneficial for them to leave you be, than have me storm whatever hole they hide in and remove chunks from them on a daily basis."

Anne stood before you, arms outstretched as she glared at you sternly. Your expression of regret, of disgust and sorrow however had this stern look soften as she stepped toward you, raising one hand to brush it against your cheek. "Oh god... You're not lying, you compromised yourself for the sole sake of making things right."

"Could you help take my mind off this and tell me how you came to be given the name you bear?" You asked as you started to lead the way once more, while Anne sighed ever so slightly.

"My name was given to me by brother Pride, the current leader of the Enlightened. We are all named after aspects of the mind, emotion, thought and feeling. It is reflective of our philosophy that we are all part of a single body, that together we make an entire entity. They are just that though, names. They do not represent rank or ability in any manner, they are merely to promote a sense of unity."

You could that she was feeling isolated, vulnerable and alone.

She was no longer part of that body and she desperately wished she could simply return, as if nothing had ever happened. You felt pity, as she was likely willingly blind to what they were, knowing that she would live forever in return for her devotion.

You crossed the bridge in silence, travelling onward as you kept an eye out for machine men, incase they had as you suspected, some means to detect the Enlightened and as such would pose a threat to Anne. As the guild halls for the Clockworkers and Technomancers loomed ahead you swallowed nervously.

This was it then, this was where you were about to give yourself to them.

You were uncertain if you should be honest with them about Anne's nature or not, and for that matter, you were uncertain about exactly what you were going to start with when it came to designing things. How exactly were you going to handle all this?

[Toaster]

They don't need to know about her for now, but we need a good story if she's found out.  Let's improve a simple weapon first to impresses them, then focus on armor for minimizing casualties.

[Armok]

Seconded.

Also, can we kiss her now?

[Ochita]

No. Also stop posting creepy romance ideas 

[Armok]

No. Also stop posting creepy romance ideas 

Awwww. 

[rickvoid]

Armok, we already know that bodily fluid exchanges with this chick are a bad idea. We're not doing it. In every sense of the phrase.

I'm curious about the current level of weapons technology. How far along are we when it comes to firearms? Have double-action revolvers been invented? How about the gas-operated semi-automatic?

[maxicaxi]

They don't need to know about her for now, but we need a good story if she's found out.  Let's improve a simple weapon first to impresses them, then focus on armor for minimizing casualties.

[sonerohi]

I still think a double revolving shotgun with incendiary rounds is a sweet idea.

[dragnar]

They don't need to know about her for now, but we need a good story if she's found out.  Let's improve a simple weapon first to impresses them, then focus on armor for minimizing casualties.

This. Before we enter though, ask her if one of their order is named Love, or if the phrase "I am the one who makes you falter." means anything to her.

As for how to upgrade a weapon, how about creating some non-lethal ammunition for guns? Not only would it be better for use against people, it would allow us to capture some of the monsters to try and figure out where they come from.