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Lay my bones in neat little rows [open]

Started by Tegan, July 02, 2017, 07:33:14 AM

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Tegan

John Faraday thanked the carriage driver and tossed him what merge tip he could afford. He pulled his thick black coat about him against the bitter wind that blew through the streets and looked up at the familiar buildings of Uthlyn. He'd earnt some leave from the military where he served as a medic in battles he wasn't entirely sure he understood- Best not to question it, Just do as you're told. It'd seemed the rational choice at the time to continue working even after the mandatory enlistment period had been served, but maybe it was time to rethink some life choices... that was nearly two years ago.

In all honesty he wasn't really sure why he'd chosen to come back here rather than visiting his family but here he was, standing alone as all around him people moved with intent- with destination in mind. He had no such plan. There were friends he could visit; old artist's pads and bohemian squats where he could doubtlessly crash for as long as he wanted but he didn't feel ready to see them yet. He'd have to regale them with tales of battlefields he'd rather forget, stories of his dog like service to a crown who's motives he couldn't pin down with complete certainty. Faraday was not a fighter and while the blood and carnage of war did not bother him, seeing what monsters it made of men was haunting.

For a little while the doctor just stood, staring distantly at the tall looming collage tower and the rising moon that hung like a pale ghost in the blue sky behind it. He jumped when he thought he heard the sound of a musket firing behind him but it was only the carriage driver taking a large rock under one wheel. He suspected that the best thing for him to do now would be to go and get extraordinarily drunk. He toyed with the idea of visiting the brothel but- as it always had done even when he'd lived here- the rational, doctor part of his brain reminded him that he could do without a couple of sexually transmitted diseases, thank you very much.

He rummaged in his pockets for his pouch of tobacco and took a seat on a small ornate bench to roll himself a cigarette and try and shake the odd sense of confusion that had come over him since returning to the real world.

Wrathwyrm

A number of people moved from place to place with purpose, as stated, but one of them appeared to have stopped close by with a different purpose.  A young woman - brown-haired with kind of a faraway look in her eye - had come within the vicinity with...okay, it looked strange.  Think of a device that appeared to be a...a sort of reinforced pistol, crossing maybe a grapeshot with wheel-lock setup, that appeared to be attached to a length of rope and with a grappling hook inserted in the barrel.

She looked like adulthood had come only recently, that she might either be a student of the college or some daughter of the faculty.  How close to the truth that was, you can only guess by looking.  What was known was that this woman in common everyday clothing was here with this device, rope included, along with a sketchpad and writing utensil...presumably to test-fire a device which would allow her to easy-fire a rope up a wall and scale a building.

Now, what did this mean for John?  Well, probably nothing, unless he didn't mind his quiet disturbed...along with the quiet of anybody else in the area.  Because regardless of what the thing was obviously suppose to do, it was still a gun.  She had a reloading kit on her belt, for loading the black powder and all.  It was not going to be quiet.  Who let her have access to something like this, anyway?

Tegan

Faraday deftly folded the paper around the little shreds of tobacco and popped the thin white stick into his mouth. He rummaged first in his pocket, then in his scruffy leather satchel and then again in his pocket until he produced a matchbook and struck a spark to the end of his cigarette. He inhaled the first lungful of acrid smoke with a satisfied sigh, leaning back on the bench and letting his mind wander. Where could he find something stronger to smoke around here? What tavern should he visit first? For a brief moment he noticed the bleak and self-destructive direction of his initial thoughts but he dismissed it quickly. It was his first night in civilisation for a while, what was he expected to be thinking about if not getting completely twisted. Truth was he was sick of thinking about fighting and muskets and shoving young men's intestines back inside of them, he just wanted to drink until he couldn't think any more, was that so bad?

He knew that was a slippery slope that lead many men to their ruin but he was young and intelligent and that would never happen to him.

He released a plume of smoke into the air and watched the people coming and going. One woman in particular caught his attention. She looked fairly young, with brown hair and eyes and a very obvious intent to do... something.

The doctor tilted his head slowly, running his muddy eyes over the tools on her belt and the thing in her hand... it was a weapon. A cold sweaty feeling passed over him briefly as his mind muddled for what to do. Her intentions were unclear to him but one obvious potentiality was that she was about to start shooting people.

Faraday didn't consider himself to be brave by any standard (he was humble to the point of absurdity) but his instincts had been sharpened by the relentless paranoia of the battlefield. Maybe she was a mage spy? Maybe the weapon was some sort of magically modified musket designed for taking down buildings.

Without further hesitation he got to his feet and shoved his way through the passing crowds. When he got within a reasonable distance he dropped his cigarette (best not take any risks with that black powder) and threw himself towards the young woman, aiming to tackle her to the ground. It occurred to him as he hurtled through the air towards her that he might be about to do something completely inappropriate- she didn't look like a terrorist after all- but better to be safe than sorry and all that...

Wrathwyrm

Test eighteen, ready.

From the perspective of the young woman, nothing about this scene was unusual to her.  For the past couple of weeks, Katherine Bellows had been working on this gun, switching out parts and remaking he handle to accommodate them.  Pistol design parts were not always modular.  The thickness or the design of the barrel changes everything, to say nothing of the means of igniting the powder charge.  The wheel-lock made things much easier, and she thought the grape shot would be much better because it was the most cannon-like...at least until something better AND lighter could be made.

Yes, we are backing up a little, because there are a few important things of note to take in.  Many woman of Connlaoth - yes, even the students - wore dresses, for instance.  It was a bit strange to see one wearing pants, but this one was.  That alone stood out.  Then, there was that look in her eyes.  That was because she lived in a world unto herself which only came out to see this one when she had to.  She lived in math, engineering, creative designing...  She sometimes forgot to eat or to sleep.  This, ladies and gentlemen, was an inventor.  Or at least, her official title would be innovator, and her job technically engineer.

Why is this important?  Well, it is important to note that while Katherine - or Kate - is smart, highly-perceptive, and certainly looking physically fit...she was currently putting all of her faculties towards the calculation of trajectories for this creation of hers, the Grappler Gun.  People moving around were no obstacle or worry.  She was aiming far over their heads, as it was her intention to grapple and then climb the building.  However, this went umm...a bit wrong on impact.

Trajectory set. Fi-

"Ugh!"

Tackled from behind, the gun fired wrong and the grappling hook flew lower than it should.  Weirdly, it didn't sound like a normal gunshot, no doubt because the charge was ddifferent and the payload strange.  However, that wasn't important right now, as the two of them would hear the sound of another impact...

Dink!

...even as they hit the ground.  Faraday would find that the girl was now covering her head.  He'd have just about glimpsed the grappling hook fly out when he tackled the girl, the rope following after it.  Considering it hit a wall, did that mean it was...coming back?  Well, let's check the mind of the expert.

Rebound arc has a high probability of impacting the noggin.

Yup.

Tegan

He had moved fast, but not fast enough. The muffled boom of powder igniting and the whoosh of rope whizzing away into the air met his ears as he made contact with the young woman and took her sailing towards the hard cobbles below. He grabbed with one hand to pin her wrist to the ground and with the other to liberate the weapon but the woman had already dropped it and was covering her head. Faraday heard the 'ding' as the metal claw struck the side of a building and came sailing back through the air towards him. This all happened extraordinarily quickly and while his brain was sharp as a tack it was not a giant mathematical calculator and it took him a fraction of a second too long to figure out what was about to happen next. With an unmanly yelp he pressed himself down to the ground on top of the woman with little concern for crushing her temporarily.

For a moment he was cowering in a fox hole again, waiting for the dust of cannon blast to clear and wondering if this was it, or if he'd live to drag another mangled body away on a stretcher. 

By pure luck alone it was not a jagged claw that struck him but the flat hard front that made contact with his shoulder blade with a sickening crack. He cried out in pain and instinctively grabbed for his shoulder, rolling off of the woman and onto the ground with his teeth grit in agony, hissing a stream of impressively varied swear words. Knowing he wouldn't be able to grab the assailant if she chose to run he instead mustered the stones to confiscate the weapon, grabbing it from the ground and pulling the barrel of the weapon in close to his stomach to prevent her from taking it. He wanted to shout at her but he didn't have the breath between swearing and he certainly didn't have the enthusiasm to do anything other than lie down and suffer for a moment anyway. If the terrorist ran so be it, he figured he'd done his part.

Even now though there was a little part of his brain- that incessantly scientifically curios bit that tended to get him in trouble- that was wondering about the weapon and its intent. It hadn't exploded, or showered magic, and it certainly hadn't been aimed at any people... True it hurt enough but he got the impression that that might not have been its initial intention. He decided to reserve his judgement (on both the weapon, its handler and the medical condition of his shoulder) until the pain had subsided a little.

Wrathwyrm

Cobblestones were painful.  If it weren't for the fact that Kate had been acted upon by an exterior force as she had, it would be easy enough to catch herself or even roll with the forces involved.  Because of all the factors in play, she hit said cobblestones and pushed the unwelcome flash of pain through her system.  She could not - at that moment - make a movement to avoid the possible impact of the incoming grappling hook, so she'd covered her head.

The result was a bit more of a shock than she had anticipated.

The grappling hook hadn't hit her at all, but when it hit whoever had tackled her, the commotion he made her spring away from him as soon as he moved enough for her to scramble out from under him.  By this time, anyone who was still out here had certainly turned and noticed the sudden commotion, but she wasn't paying it any heed.  Kate was not seeing anything right now, eyes wide with terror and mind temporarily off the hook as she intinctively backed away from he swearing man.  It took her a moment to calm down and take in the scene before her.

No...  Dad is...dead.  It's okay...  He's not my dad...

Once she came to terms with this, she was on all-fours - and I mean hands and feet - moving back to him.  He had her gun for some reason.  Why was he holding her gun?  Why had he hit her in the first place?  He was the only one around who could have done it.  Everyone else was keeping a respectful distance.  Cautiously, she went over over to where he'd obviously been hit and ran a speed calculation through her head.  It was cause for concern.  The pain in her chest would be nothing compared to the impact velocity of her Grappler's end.  She'd calculated that such an impact might cause fractures.  Maybe he was lucky?  Who knows?

She was still trying to sort out what to do with him when a couple of campus guards came over.

"What's going on?  What happened to him?"

"I..."

"Speak up, girl!  The man is in pain!"

"I think he was hit by a rebound impact from my Grappler Gun."

"A what?  You mean a ricochet?"

"Yes...  A ricochet."

"Why's he holding your gun?"

"I don't know..."

And not knowing was distressing her more than the fact that he'd been injured during one of her tests.  These guards, it should be noted, were somewhat aware of her status.  They weren't to bend the rules for her, but they knew that her tenencies were a bit on the eccentric side.  They didn't know who the man was, of course.  He was a stranger to the area.  At the moment, the two of them were deciding between hauling him up to send him to the campus doctor's office or bringing them both to guard station to fully hash out just what happened here and why.

Tegan

He didn't pay any head to the girls panic for he was far too involved in his own circumstance. After a few moments of rolling around in agony the young doctor was able to collect his thoughts into some semblance of a stream of rational consciousness.  He sat up tentatively, still gripping the weapon in one hand and his injured shoulder in the other. The volley of swear words faded away as he looked around him, evidently dazed by the event and the coinciding rush of adrenaline that was now pumping through his veins.  A crowd had gathered, the inevitable circle of the nosy and curious drilling holes into his head with their intrusive gaze. He might have flushed a bright red at all the attention were his cheeks not already pink from exertion and pain.

His doleful brown eyes came finally to rest on the young girl who had- as far as he was concerned- been the cause of this whole mess. The fact that she was not running away but rather looking him over with some concern was enough to make him realise that he must have made a mistake.

Two guards trudged their way over and began to engage in casual conversation with the boyishly dressed girl. Faraday watched the conversation, his head moving from party to party as if observing a tennis match. The guards seemed to know her, and they certainly didn't seem concerned that she might be about to kill anyone. Faraday groaned to himself and cautiously attempted to rotate his shoulder.

It was probably about time he added his side of the story, he supposed.   

"I thought she was going to shoot someone with it." he pointed out to the guard when the conversation turned to the gun. The guard looked between Faraday and the young woman with an expression that stank of a sarcastic 'really?' as if he was the one at fault here for being a bad judge of character.

Faraday grit his teeth, a little pit of bitterness forming in his stomach. It'd seemed such a rational choice at the time and he didn't feel like he should have to justify himself for trying to do a good deed, but at the same time he didn't want to seem like a lunatic or a pervert who went around tackling young women for fun. He couldn't quite bring himself to explain the whole truth though, he didn't want people to think he was out for sympathy. Every adult here had served their time in military service, after all.

"Forgive me, it was my mistake. I guess guns just make me jumpy." He said with a forced smile, hoping this would be enough to dismiss the guards.

He looked down at the weapon in his hand, finally taking in the interesting design. Now that he had the time to look at it he could instantly recognise its intent. The claw like end must have been for grabbing onto things, and the rope for scaling.  Fantastic!

"does it work? It's for climbing buildings, right?" he asked, still squinting at the pain in his shoulder but happy to let it go for now in light of something more exciting. He supposed he ought to be thankful for the extra layer of muscle he'd developed on his broad shoulders from his time in the military. He suspected it was just badly bruised down to the bone, though a fractured rib was also not out of the question... He put the pistol base on the ground and pushed it towards her, indicating that she was welcome to take it back.  A little distance away he spotted the ember of his cigarette still burning in the dust and dragged himself over to it. Impervious to the judgemental gaze of the now dispersing crowd he returned it to his lips and sucked down a lungful of smoke thankfully.

"Did I hurt you?" He finally asked after a brief pause to enjoy his poison. Even though the pain in his shoulder was intense he still felt a certain duty to see to her before fixing himself with an inhuman dose of self-subscribed painkillers from his satchel.

Wrathwyrm

Well, we can't really fault a doctor for being more focused on his own injuries.  That sort of thing comes naturally.  The guards had given him that look because they knew the girl wasn't overtly violent...at least, not without reason.  Nothing they'd encountered thus far, at least.  The crowd, of course, had murmurs on the matter.  They were drawing their own conclusions, none of which seemed to even register on Kate.  If public opinion really mattered to her, she'd be wearing a dress like other Connlaothian women.  The guards, sensing that this was just a misunderstanding, urged them to move along.

Faraday, meanwhile, had asked about the gun...which immediately got her attention with a small smile.  Right where she was, she sat and composed herself with legs crossed - neverminding either of their conditions for the present moment - as she explained.

"It is for climbing buildings, or trees, or rockfaces.  Whatever you can sately latch it to, really.  The principle is that, given the correct amount of gunpowder, a cannon will successfully shoot anything you put into it in an effective way.  It came to me that you could try something similar with a gun, even though they were made to fire bullets.  The idea does work, but I've been having some trouble with the design."

She took the gun back, taking practically no notice of his crawl for a cigarette.

"The barrel to determine force, the frame for balance and control, the ignition, the hook, and the rope - I've gone through alot of designs to try and find the right combination.  This all works, but it's not enough.  It's not practical."

She was indeed trying to make it work, and work well.  However, she had a feeling that the design was not streamlined enough, and the rope was definitely cumbersome.  Now then!  Somewhere amidst this speech, which came out way better than her conversation with the guards, she had failed to register that she was a little short of breath, thanks to taking a dive onto the cobblestones without bracing herself or anything.  So, when Faraday asked, Kate looked genuinely confused for a second, then poked her ribs experimentally, wincing.

"Apparently."

Tegan


They must have looked an unusual pair, both sitting casually in the middle of the street like children as people went on about their business around them. Actually the pair probably had a great deal more in common than they realised at this point; perhaps intelligence, in its own way, breeds strangeness. John knew he had a tendency to come across as eccentric sometimes but after a while one stops caring about such things. He used to worry a lot about what people thought about him, but with age comes wisdom and the realisation that other people's opinions are but drops in the ocean.

When he mentioned the gun Faraday watched the girls face light up with obvious passion, watched the rest of the world fade into insignificance as she reeled of her information about her invention. He eyed it as she spoke, running the basics over in his mind as she explained it. It made sense to him but the logistics of making it work were far beyond his expertise.  She turned the gun over in her hands and Faraday was briefly reminded of a mother with a baby.

He pondered the predicament of practicality as he rummaged in his bag with one hand, wincing when he noted the shards of glass which had once been jars that now littered the bottom of it. His cigarette hung limply from his lips as he searched for something to ease his pain.

It was at this point- when the girl began poking herself in the ribs that he realised that she seemed a little... vague. Distant maybe. He wondered how much of her time she dedicated to creating grappling hooks and other such strange inventions. He didn't hold it against her.

The doctor found what he was looking for in his bag and extended his hand to the girl. In it was small metal tin filled with some dried root scrapings. "Take a small pinch, it will help with the pain." he said with a warm smile. Realising that he should probably clarify that he wasn't just a passing drug dealer he added, "I'm a doctor, it's griffon's root." and then, perhaps a little later than would have been ideal; "it tastes like crap though..."
Once she had taken or declined the offer he looked at what was left in the tin (considerably more than a small pinch), mused on the matter for a moment, and then poured the rest into his mouth with a face becoming of the unpleasant flavour.

"Did you think of using something else instead of rope? " he asked, grimacing as he forced himself to swallow the unprofessional dosage of griffon's root. The flavour was too much and he had to wash it down with a swig from his hip flask. To hell with it. It wasn't like he had a reputation to uphold.  "Maybe something like... uh... giant spider's web? I don't know," He shrugged dismissively of his own idea, shaking his head at the concept which must surely have sounded stupid to the bright young girl. He chastised himself for the input; he hated it when other people told him how to do his job.

Wrathwyrm

Upon being handed the tin full of...something, Kate looked it all over like its dimensions were as importat as its contents, which she only took once Faraday explained that he was a doctor.  However, her application was too late for her to consider the taste, and so she ended up making a face of disgust right as he was warning her.  She passed it back as she made efforts to swallow and waited for the root to take effect.  Kate's training wasn't in alchemy, so she had no knowledge on the subject of different plants or...

"Why's it called Griffon Root?"

For all she knew, it was the root of a plant that thrived in areas where Griffons squatted to do their business.  She didn't know.  It was outside of her knowledge base.  She'd never even seen a Griffon before.  Still, when Faraday brought up giant spider web, the girl blinked...and seemed to stare at nothing for a moment.  She was considering...

Spider webbing is very strong, stronger than rope.  Sticky, though.  Have to be pulled apart, refined, entwined...

Her expression became more one of deep thought as she leaned on her hands with her brow furrowed, running some scenarios and calculations in her head.  Then, out of nowhere...

"It could work.  You'd have to either grab a web and run or actually milk the spider...and spiders hate to be milked."

Not so much a dumb idea as...difficult to put into practice, but at least it showed promise.

Tegan

Faraday had not been expecting the young woman's question about the plant but when she spoke it his face lit up. Kate had her inventions and John had medicine and the plants from which they were derived.

He took moment to swill his mouth with whisky from his hip flask to clear the taste of the bitter root away as he rummaged with one hand in his pocket, cigarette poised between his teeth in absence of his fingers.  "it's really quite fascinating," he said out the corner of his mouth as he produced a dog eared notebook from his pocket, holding it low down in his injured appendage and flicking through it with his right hand. The pages were filled with meticulous sketches and near illegible handwriting detailing various plants and animals and the medicinal uses for their various parts. He found the page he was looking for and shoved it zealously towards the inventor.

The page depicted a small unassuming shrub type plant with large round flowers and jagged, gnarly looking seed pods. "See the seed pods are hard as rocks, but griffons love them. As far as we've observed they are the only creatures that eat them –maybe the only creatures with beak strong enough to crack them- and thus spread the seeds in their droppings, ding ding ding, we have a winner! "You mostly only find it on rocky outcrops near the eyries, and only the root it useful medically speaking- though the flowers do make a delicious tea..."
The Doctor took a moment read what else he had scrawled down about the plant, noting briefly the distant look in the inventor's eye as she ran his silly idea through the mental gauntlet. What followed was not the polite dismissal he'd expected, but rather a methodical breakdown of the potentiality of coming into possession of such an unusual thread. He pulled an uneasy face at the mental image of milking a giant spider.

"Are... you speaking from experience?" he questioned with curious scepticism, thumbing clumsily through the book for the half page on giant spiders. He hadn't written much down about them because he had never intended to come in close contact with one of the monsters. "well, apparently the hairs on their legs make good needles," he actually shuddered when he said that, imagining plundering the curled upside down corpse of a horse-sized spider, "and you can derive an antiseptic from their venom glands..."

He snapped the book shut and returned it to his pocket, taking one last drag from his cigarette which had collected a short stick of ash at it's tip before flicking it carelessly to the ground.
"Those things give me the creeps..." he added as he reached his hand round to prod at his injury, investigating the soreness before the medicine got a chance to numb it.  He wasn't entirely convinced the strange girl wasn't going to suggest they go off and find some of the arachnids. Gods knew there must be some smaller specimens hiding away in some abandoned collage buildings somewhere... It occurred to him then that he didn't even know the girls name seen ad they'd both become so engaged and distracted by their own subjects.
"John Faraday, by the way." he said, offering her a bright and cheerful grin as he extended his right hand towards her. 

Wrathwyrm

In answer to her question about roots, Kate found a notebook being handed to her by the man.  She blinked at this for a second.  It was a very detailed sketch of a flower - the Griffon Root, no doubt - with a few notes and pointers for personal reference.  Faraday began to explain as she looked it over with interest.  Yes, it appeared that they were bonding over injury and invention.  Stranger things have happened, but it took her mind completely off of the episode that she'd had when he tackled her.  More interestingly, it seemed more like the young woman's eyes were here and now, at least for the time being.  The more she engaged, the more it seemed she would be.

Kate had had no idea that there was a plant out there that Griffons ate whose seeds were basically dependent on the beast's spore to spread their seeds.  It was a bit disgusting and she sort of frowned at the fact, hoping whoever cultivates these plants gives them a good rinse before use.  The tea was interesting, though.  She doubted it had pain-killing properties too, but it might be interesting to try.  It might be possible to get some, at some point.

Still, shook her head as the man inquired as to her personally attempting to milk giant spiders.  She'd read that somewhere.  Katherine Bellows was a reader of journals and other scripts of other people's achievements and downfalls.  Things people did was of interest to her.  It allowed her to get a firmer grip on how to manage herself.  For instance, several years ago, she wouldn't have acknowledged the distaste people had for subjects - like giant spiders - but nowadays she was able to see it like everyone else.  Everybody hated giant spiders, barring only dangerous people.  The point is that she could have an actual and reliable conversation with people...mostly.

It's just that when the man introduced himself...well...John had been her father's name.  Well, Jonathan.  Some small and indescribable dread always reared whenever she was reminded of him, though.  She had to keep reminding herself that her father was dead, so that that part f her brain could cool down.  Right now, however, she sort of looked at his extended hand like there was something growing out of it.  It was only after a small delay that she took his hand.

"Katherine...umm...Kate Bellows."

It'd taken her years to talk to people like a normal person.  Even then, you have areas where she'll either talk your head off, say things that you will not understand but will be perfectly straightforward to you, or just clam up entirely.  John Faraday - whom, mentally, she was just calling Faraday - was sort of lucky.  He'd clobbered her, but she liked his interest in things.

Tegan

The young doctor had not seen the inner turmoil he had caused the girl when he'd tackled her to the ground but if he had he doubtlessly would have felt awful about it.  Despite an ever growing disregard for his own physical and mental health he cared a great deal for that of others. Naturally that was why he'd wanted to become a doctor in the first place- to help people. He'd always got a great deal of stick from his younger sister about being too much of a soft touch; about wanting to save every baby bird that fell from its nest when they were kids and generally being a complete pansy when it came to anything with even a suggestion of physical violence. He'd never been in a fight and he didn't intend to- not including the endless skirmishes with mage rebels during his conscription of course- but there was a big difference between firing the muskets and being the one patching up the holes and powder burns.

Still he could tell there was something odd about the girl. She was quiet- although he did have to keep in consideration that not everyone liked talking quite as much as he did- only shaking her head where others might have offered more information. When he introduced himself she looked at his extended hand like it was a snake that might suddenly leap out and bite her. Again he supposed he couldn't really hold that against her seen as only a few minutes earlier he'd been squishing her into the cobblestones, but it struck him as odd none the less.

"Kate Bellows," he repeated with a warm smile when she shook his hand, making an effort to commit it to his somewhat patchy memory. As silence fell the doctor absently ran his fingers through his scruffy brown hair and looked up at the buildings around them. "Say, it's a shame my shoulder's busted, I'd have loved to get a view of the city from up there." he said wistfully, gazing up at a the roof top where Kate's grappling hook should have been if he hadn't interfered.
In the distance he could hear the ruckus of the city and his mind turned to his original plan of drinking until he couldn't remember his own name. To be fair though the griffons root was starting to kick in which was almost as fun in its own way.  A normal dose would have no adverse effects but the large hit he'd taken was enough to make him feel weird and spaced out at the very least... Which was fine. The doctor was a connoisseur of feeling weird and spaced out. He enjoyed the feeling of relaxation, of mental insight or of blind confidence that came from drink and drugs. It was another one of those self-destructive tendencies that would have raised alarm bells if he saw it in a patient but that passed him by without concern.  No worries.
Of course he would never dare to be intoxicated if he had medical work to do- these bad habits weren't necessarily a problem- not yet, just a way to pass the time.
Sure, he still wanted to go and get wasted but there was no rush on that if he might be able to find somewhere to stay for free- the taverns would always be waiting and the wine would always be cheap. After a moment of consideration he then ventured to ask, "Hey, I don't suppose you know of anywhere I can crash for a couple of nights while I find somewhere more permanent? I just got back from service and I don't have anywhere to stay yet." he figured it was worth a shot; if you never ask then you'll never know. Looking up old friends was fine and all that, but he was still young and bold enough to favour the unknown. The world had not yet made him weary and cynical.


Wrathwyrm

"Yeah, I wanna go up there too.  It's gotta be peaceful, unless they start yelling at me. Jealous!"

But yeah, he couldn't hope to go to a rooftop right now.  He needed bones to knit and pain to go away before he was suitable for that kind of action.  They were both hurt.  Might as well call it a day, since the country didn't like magic.  Because you couldn't get magic, you couldn't get faster-healing healers when you needed them.  Faraday was a doctor.  He knew that.  Well anyway, Kate was still looking up at the tower when he asked if there was anywhere about he could stay.  Actually, he said he needed to 'crash', which she'd never heard before, but understood because of the context, at least.

This brought a thoughtful expression to her face, and then she began to look around, as if scanning.  Well, in a way, she was, remembering locations around here like they had labels setup in her brain.  She knew what this place was, so she was trying to think if any of them would be open to HIM, an outside medical practicioner.  The conclusion momentarily put a frown on her face.  Unless he felt like asking around for the next hour or spending that time heading to an inn further out, he was going to be a bit disappointed.

"This is a college campus.  You won't find much here, so..."

She suddenly somersaulted backwards onto her feet, then reached for the hand on his arm that wasn't injured, smiling at him.

"We've got room."

Well, this was getting curiouser and curiouser, was it not?

Tegan

((sorry I may be a little slower with posts from now on, but I'll aim for at least a couple a week ^^))
Faraday laughed brightly when the eccentric young woman spoke about being yelled at, mentally reprimanding himself for ruining a good opportunity with his brash actions. Yeah, in his time at the collage he'd had his fair share of verbal abuse for being in places he shouldn't have been, among other things. He'd sunk in with a liberal, bohemian crowd of art students and many of his tutors had not approved of his overly laidback attitude which then deemed unbecoming of a student of a 'real subject'. None of them could have denied his natural finesse for medicine though, especially in a city where magical healers were nowhere to be found.
Of course it was a subject which Faraday had thought long and hard about, and while he tried very hard not to harbour bad thoughts about anyone there was no way he could deny the bitterness he felt when he thought about magical healers. This was partially due to growing up in Connaloath of course, but there was some professional envy there too. It was cheating. He hoped one day to see more of the world but he knew that outside this country he was more or less redundant. Impotent. Who would pay a doctor to do what a healer could do effortlessly in seconds? 
John looked away from the tower and towards the brown haired girl as she pondered his question. He hadn't been expecting her know of anywhere so when she poke first he shrugged dismissively and was about to say it was no worry when the girl suddenly jumped to her feet in an impressive display of agility and offered for him to stay with her. His brief look of stunned amazement at her summersault dissolved into a broad grin.
"That would be fantastic, thank you!" he said, his mind instantly wandering to what awesome treasures and unique inventions her home might contain. He wondered if her room would be a hopeless disorganized mess like his would have been, or a neat mathematical blueprint with everything in its place. It could go either way.

He took her hand and allowed her to help him to his feet. The world spun pleasantly when he stood and he stumbled a little but managed to maintain his balance with a dazed smile. The pain in his shoulder was melting away into nothingness but he figured he ought to ask her to help him put it in a sling once they were at their destination.
"lead the way!"

Wrathwyrm

It's funny, but a number of professors didn't seem to think much of Kate's attitude and methods either.  However, they couldn't really DO anything about it.  She was how she was, sometimes to the exclusion of all other things.  It could be problematic at times, but they accept that she at least appeared to be a learned student.  As for her opinion on magic users...well...no one had really ever asked her, at length, mostly due to the fact that anything not entering her sphere of interest might not have any meaning for her.  Of course, Faraday might hate healers, but it is a fact that - apart from Connlaoth - that they weren't exactly accepted in Essyrn, either.  Not as in being against the law.  Only certain types of magic fit that profile.  But you see...if it isn't geomancy or divinations of some sort, Essyrn's reaction to magic is a decided 'Meh'.

Katherine grinned at his excited reaction as she helped him up.  She was lighter than him, but then her understanding of leverage and counterweighting allowed her to shift balances perfectly to get him to his feet.  She picked up her stuff and, as desired, led the way.  Where they were going was not in any particular direction of a campus residence.  A bit of walking around the campus shops, and they would soon come upon a fairly-sizable but awfully quiet building.  This was...  Kate lived in a manor.  It was a two-story building of brick and stone, likely reinforced somewhere in there by metal.  There were steps leading up to the double-doors, which put the first story windows out of normal reach.  This much was normal.  The exterior of this building appeared to be normal.  However, that perception was about to change...

She came to the doors up front and unlocked it with a key that'd been hanging around her neck, but under her shirt.  Then, she pulled out something that looked like it was for winding up clocks as she opened the double-door to reveal a metal single door.  This, she inserted the new key into and began winding until the sound of something locking in place was heard, followed by a gear-turning sound.  The door came open and Kate pushed on it to reveal a normal-sized room that acted as receiving hall.  It, at least, was apparently clean.  It was calm, wooden, tiled, and bore a pair of exits, stairs leading up on the right side, and the painting of a cannon on the back wall.  Once Faraday got in, she would be closing them again, revealing that the metal door slid metal bars neatly into pipes embedded into the wall.  Kate indicated the door for a moment.

"Mom and I built that.  She thought the locks were too weak, so we made a better one.  They gave us this because of her plumbing and cannon work."

A state-funded home?  They must've awarded it to her for a good reason.

Tegan

**SURPRISE! I'M NOT DEAD! :D **

It was a good thing the doctor had finished and disposed of yet another cigarette by the time they arrived at the manor because if he hadn't it certainly would have fallen from his lips as he stared up at the building with slack jawed amazement. hHe hadn't been expecting something so grand. Perhaps a student dorm or at best a small shared house. He blinked stupidly at the back of Kate's head as she fiddled with the key around her neck, wondering how on earth someone so young and unusual might be in possession of such a home.

The corners of his mouth twitched with half formed questions but his attention was swiftly stolen by the metallic clicking sounds of interior workings within the metal door. As they passed through them he touched his hand to one as if it might reveal its secrets through osmosis.
He drifted inside and watched as his new friend worked the mechanism closed again, a broad –if somewhat spaced out- grin spreading as he watched the bars slip into place. Fascinating! He felt simultaneously safe and a little trapped but the thought slipped from his softened mind like water from a duck as he spun in a slow, complete 360 degree turn to take in all of the room.  His eyes settled on the painting of the cannon at about the same time Kate mentioned the word. It made him feel twitchy and unpleasant so he decided not to look at it or think about the devastation he had seen them cause on the battlefield.

"it's Amazing" he said simply, eyes falling on the staircase. He was practically itching to see what other treasures the house might hold but he didn't dare be anything other than a polite house guest.

"uh, does your mother live here with you?" Faraday asked somewhat tentatively. He worried what the lady of the house might think about her daughter randomly bringing a hazy eyed stranger home with her, especially to such an exceptional and well-fortified building...

Wrathwyrm

[OOC: My god!]

The house itself didn't particularly fill Kate with pride.  It was just a place to live. and she could've been just fine in a smaller house or a campus residence, as Faraday considered.  Except...  Well, she'd have to be able to deal with living with someone in a small place, a stranger.  Her social skills were still somewhat in question, though she was trying.  Her visitor would probably find that this place had the usual rooms within it.  A sitting room, a library, dining room, kitchen, supply basement leading to the kitchen, bedrooms upstairs, an indoor lavatory, and...a dedicated workshop room, though he hadn't seen any of this yet.  The door on the left led to the dining room - which he could see - then the kitchen, and from there the basement.  The door on the right led to the sitting room - which he could also see right now - that had the two doors to the library and the workshop towards the back of the house.

For the moment, though, Kate was near the stairs because he was looking for a room to sleep in and all of those were upstairs, along with the lavatory.  She stopped when he asked his question.  She turned, but...seemed to hesitate, unsure if it was alright to answer that.  Not because of any embarrassment, though.  There was another reason, which had been out of her mind until just now, because her desire to help had flung it aside.  She did answer, though, deciding that Faraday was alright.

"She does live here...when she isn't called away on business, like now.  Mom is actually trying to patent my weapons, to help me with some additional money."

It wasn't likely to be the grappler gun.  That wasn't really a weapon.  She must've meant something else.  Probably wouldn't be a pleasant topic for Faraday, who hated war and killing.

Tegan

Faraday followed Kate as she headed for the stairs, ambling behind her and peering curiously into the partially open doors with an endearingly wide eyed fascination that may or may not have been at least partially drug-induced. It was a far cry from the dilapidated farm house he'd grown up in, or the cramped townhouse he'd squatted during his studies and it seemed to him the epitome of success. While he hadn't seen much of it yet he could guess from it's size and from nosily peering through the partially opened doors what calibre of home this was. It wasn't a great stretch of the imagination to assume there might be a workshop, maybe even a library! And if Kate's mother had been given the house partially in respect to her work with plumbing then it was a safe bet there might be an indoor lavatory too!

Without even realising he was doing it the doctor straightened his slouched posture and ran a hand through his scruffy hair, subconsciously feeling he ought to look a little less ragged in such a grand home. One day. One day, he hoped, he would own his own home with a practice and surgery downstairs and a neat little flat above. Maybe even a garden with greenhouse where he could grow his own plants! ah a man can dream!

His question seemed to catch her off guard and she hesitated before answering but there could have been any number of reasons for that. He was admittedly relieved that she wasn't there, though he couldn't pretend to agree with the fact that she was off patenting death and injury for profit. No. no he didn't approve of that at all but he wasn't about to start a moral debate with the lady who was offering him free lodging in her amazing home. Not yet anyway... Maybe after a few drinks.

He let it slide with a placid smile that didn't reveal more than a hint of his disapproval as he followed her up the stairs, running his hand along the polished banister. He didn't feel like silence was the right response either.  "you know they reckon indoor plumbing may be one of the greatest advancements for medicine in our time based on new theories about sanitation, so you'll have to give your mother my gratitude when she returns next" He said hazily, hoping he had tactfully diverted the conversation.

Wrathwyrm

"She didn't invent it, just refined it after looking at the designs.  I'll let her know, anyway."

She had also said 'There's something wrong with the action of handheld firearms.', which may or may not lead her to discover rifling.  The conversation about the advancement of weaponry VS not doing so was going to be an interesting conversation with Kate.  She...didn't really have a problem with them at all.  Her moral compass pointed towards people being responsible for things, not weapons.  Still, that conversation wasn't happening yet, and she didn't even make any special note about Farraday's expression.  It wasn't especially anything to her, so it wasn't exactly important.  At the top of the stairs, she pointed left...

"My room, mother's room."

...and then she pointed right.

"Guest rooms.  Also, the lavatory."

She then turned around to see if he had any questions.  It should be noted that the guest rooms and the main bedrooms were actually uniform in basic appearance.  They had a decent bed, dresser, mirror on dresser, professional desk, nightstand, lantern, etc.  It was in the case of the two rooms occupied by Katherine and her mother that things were different.  Both of them, for instance, had a number of books and papers lying around, some with diagrams and some with alot of written words on them or mathematical figures.  Myra Bellows' room also had a few labcoats hanging up and heavy-duty rubber gloves on the dresser.  Kate's room had parts and tools on the dresser, the desk, and the nightstand.  She tinkered in there.

She also hung one pair of her claw weapons in there, the older pair.  There was largely nothing in Connlaoth's standing army like them, and that was what Myra Bellows was patenting for her.

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