Author Topic: CDDA: Adventures in Cataclysm  (Read 33270 times)

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saltmummy626

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Re: CDDA: Adventures in Cataclysm
« Reply #5115 on: March 01, 2019, 10:49:23 pm »
[written by a big lizard, a skellyman, and a ball]

Walkerville as seen from outside appeared to be an almost medieval kind of palisaded village, except for the fairly modern houses whose roofs could be seen just over the wall. From the inside, it wasn't much different except that the air here thrummed with improvised electricity and the low buzz of the strange jury rigged street lights. Contrary to how it had been a couple weeks ago, Walkerville was now rather calm, leaving the large courtyard at the center of it all rather empty but not abandoned.

"That there is the armory, we mostly stash recovered weapons there. We don't usually take anything out of it, so I guess it's just storage." Hector said, pointing to one of the farms only concrete structures. "Quinn's trailer, though Quinn is gone now. Headed south I think."

Floyd nodded at that, Quinn had indeed headed south. "Aye, just about tore Nip's heart out when he made it clear he was going." He put in.

"Thankfully we have a doctor to tend to the place in his stead, and to kep watch of Quinn's collection. Evidently Helen's supposed to come by and help with storing most of his old artifacts and curios safely." he added, glancing back to Branches to check on her, before nearing the vehicle bay and garage.

To his surprise, he soon saw Nathaniel heading over to greet them, Lilith bounding along excitedly right behind him, though the tigress soon halted, quite clearly glowering at the homunculus. "Hey Nathaniel? What's going on? Just showing a newcomer around. Branches, meet Nathaniel and Lilith." Hector said.

"Huh. Pleased to meet you. I was going to say, you might want to check in with the center soon. They received a large group of people from up north, said a high number of defectors from God's Army. Supposed to keep us informed if anything goes sideways, but things seen quiet for now. Not much else coming in over radio."


In the meantime, Lilith dropped to all fours and advanced on the petite homunculus. The contrast of Lilith's rippling muscles to Branches slim frame made the both of them seem more than they were. The smell was the same, like turned dirt, wild flowers, and unburned ceramic. All the wild things that made up the homunculus, the little smells that creatures like Lilith and Mica could smell.

"thtupid one eyeth. I'm gonna kick you again." Lilith growled. Branches recoiled. Being kicked hadn't hurt so bad, but the crack it had made had taken time to fill in. Then though, Branches face twisted in a cocky scowl. Lilith had picked branches up and drop kicked her last time. If she tried it while the homunculus was firmly two feet, or even one foot, on the ground...

"Jesus Lil, what's that for? Don't be so unfriendly." Nathaniel chastised, tugging uselessly at Lilith's bulky shoulder. Lilith advanced, and he snagged her tail. Where trying to get her attention by pulling on her shoulder hadn't got a result, grabbing her tail certainly did. She spun on him and pounced predatorily, pulling her surprised swipe enough to avoid taking his head off and instead burying him under a ton of fur and flesh. Branches sighed and moved behind Hector for protection. Hector simply put a hand to his face, but smiled none the less.


Nathaniel was left mmphing and squirming in protest as a result, Hector trying not to crack up as he carefully stood between then two of them. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this...Lil, what's going on? Have you met her before?" he asked. Even being aware of her thefts, he still didn't know what she was nor the events that led to Lilith's sudden hostility.

Floyd likewise was a bit concerned as he stepped up, keeping a hand on Branches' shoulder calmly. Most like to pull her out of the way if things got heated again. "Y'said somethin' about the center?" he asked, Nathaniel trying to give a nod, Hector hmming a bit before he spoke up again. "If they need me I'll head over there immediately, otherwise I suppose we should continue keeping an eye on things here..."

"Thtupid clay baby." Lilith purred before head bumping Nathaniel back down when he tried to slide out from under her, "Lilth kicked thtupid one eyeth into the water and broke it." Her statement only confused things a little more. Clay? Broken? The new visitor didn't look like clay, and didn't appear to be broken. A little smirk crossed Branches lips and she stifled it. She considered challenging Lilith to try it again, but such a show of strength would only serve to make the tigress angry, make the men suspicious of her, and possibly tip off Sharlene. Instead, she switched to logic and innocence.

"I don't know what she means... I'm not broken, and I haven't met her before..." She said, moving a little further behind Hector and looking at Lilith over his shoulder with a bit of worry. Lilith narrowed her eyes and growled, but then seemed confused. Branches had been half the size then and completely devoid of gender characteristics. The one eyed creature had the same smell and the same face, but it was different too. She let Nathaniel loose and padded over suspiciously. In response, Branches cringed even closer to the knight. 'On top of being handsome,' she thought distractedly, 'he smells nice too.'

"Can't fool Lilth one eyeth, Lilth know." She menaced.

"You... You're just a big dumb kitty! You never kicked me, I'm not broken!" Branches huffed.

Lilith stared at Branches for a moment, then chuffed a little. "Thtupid. Lilth kick one eyeth later." She chuckled, Floyds grip on her shoulder loosened noticably then and Lilith circled back around again. "Nataleeeeee." She whined, leaving Branches on notice for now. The Homunculus had no doubt that Sharlene would still hear about the encounter later though. Unfortunately for her peace of mind, she clearly didn't know Lilith very well. In an hour or two, Lilith would have dismissed the encounter entirely until the next time they crossed paths.

"Yeah yeah, calm down Lil, we'll get going in a sec. It sounds like they've got things under control Hec, but like I said they thought it was important for us to be kept in the loop on this, just in case. Where are you guys going next? See Catnip?"

Hector, concerned and confused as he was, gave a little nod to Nathaniel as the man tried his best to juggle keeping Lilith from attacking the newcomer with not getting bowled over or dragged along by the tigress. "Yeah, might check on them later today just in case, but for now further introductions might be in order." he said, leading the way along for now.


Lilith watched them go for a bit and quickly lost interest in them, preferring to harass Nathaniel to continue what she saw as her job. She could bully the one eyed clay baby later. Maybe even lump it together with bullying the bug. Lilith gave Nathaniel a lazy satisfied look and imagined what it would be like to knock Mica and the clay babies heads together, and what sort of noise it would make.

Meanwhile, Branches got the grand tour. From the encounter with the tiger, they moved on to the cook shack. The simple structure still looked much like it had when they had moved into the farm. A moderately sized tool shed from the outside, the inside had taken on a decidedly non-toolshed smell. Kathrine's kitchen, Kathrine's domain where she ruled over all with an eye for perfection. Even Catnip wasn't exempt from the small maids shooing once she got started. It smelled heavenly inside.

"Kat's not here at the moment, I suppose she'll be around the cook shack a lot less now that she and Nip have got their own house now." Floyd mused. Hector Nodded and added, "Kathrine can do great things with very little, but the farm tries to keep her stocked with the best we can manage. A lot of times that means canned stuff and somehow she can make it work. Kat's a good chef."

Hector and Floyd extolled Kathrine's skill while sorting through a few of the snacks on a shelf, looking for something to tide Branches over if she wanted, and then there came a bump from under the cook shacks long prep table, and a pot jolted the the side. It slid across the shacks new wood floor and thumped into the side of the stove, then rebounded and made a slow beeline back towards the table.


"Medeina..." Floyd drawled. At that mention and the distinct sight of a certain inquisitive AI practically acting like a scuttling pest, Hector facepalmed, now acutely aware of what this meant. "This can't go well..." he mumbled, stepping forward.

The clattering and shuffling gave way to skittering of a machine trapped under a pot right up until Hector pinned the pot in place under a gauntleted hand, knowing full well that once Medeina caught sight of Branches she'd want to "examine" her thoroughly. Of course, what he didn't know was that such examination might yield anomalous results.


After a long pause, from the pot came a loud "bonk." As Medeina attempted one last try to dislodge the offending kitchenware by trying to push it up and off with a little hop. The proxy really wasn't built for that sort of thing though, so the effort was weak and only accomplished making Hector snort an unintentional laugh.

"Vison zero. Mobility zero. Ms. Price? Are you still there?" the robot asked. Floyd cocked an eye at Hector, but the knight shrugged. It seemed obvious what had happened, Sammy wasn't the sort to do something like this for fun. Mica maybe, but not Floyds girl. No, Medeina had probably got annoying or asked a particularly personal question, and Sammy had trapped the robot under Kathrine's biggest pot. The basin and a collection of cans scattered in one corner suggested she'd tried to weight it down.  "Ms. Minx? I'm under here Ms. Minx."

Hector slid one hand under the pot, and under the robot, and flipped the whole collection of things over. The small robot clonked against the bottom of the pot upside down like a turtle but unable to right itself due to the tight confines of her prison. "Hello Mr. Lowe!" She chirped. Her Camera swiveled and focused, clicking rapidly as the robot took and discarded a series of photographs. "And hello Mr. Price and Ms... Oh, Branches was it? I am glad to see that you are alright, though I believed you terminated in the recent kerfuffle at the center. I am glad to see that I was mistaken."


Floyd stared hard at the robot for a moment, "...What didja' say t'Sammy?" He drawled, somewhat confused as he facepalmed for a moment. "Y'really gotta stop askin' folks these kinda questions..."


"Huh. Yeah, what do you do to get Sammy riled u-" It was then that Hector stopped, glancing back at Branches confusedly, before looking back to Medeina. "...terminated? Alright. Explain what you were doing to Sammy first, then explain what you meant about a 'kerfuffle' at the center. They said there was an incident and that some of the locals from here and The Hall lent a hand, but not much else."


Medeina wriggled in the pot like a beetle stuck on it's back and refocused on Floyd. "Such questions are kept under utmost confidentiality Mr. Price. You know I can't go around sharing the details of collected data with just anyone, not even with a subjects father." She entoned administravely, then back to Hector again, "There was a brief conflict at the refugee center about two weeks ago while the Canadian forces and Smoke Marshal traders were visiting. The results were a lot of injuries but only two fatalities. An unknown woman and Ms. Branches. The unknown woman fired some form of energy weapon, and Branches seemed to have been disintigrated. Ms. D'eva-Dhoris requested Helen bury what was left."

Hector didn't recognize the name at first,  but then remembered the name on a pink slip he'd received in his forge. Illiana D'eva-Dhoris. Before Hector could ask for more details, Medeina kept going. "And you have even since managed to reproduce. A reproductive cycle so quick is unsurprising seeing how quickly you have matured since then."

Silence, absolute silence for many long moments. The only thing changing in the room was the color rising in the Homunculus's face. "I'm sorry, have I said something untoward?" Medeina said, "Have I made an assumption and the earthen men are not your offspring?" Branches shook her head vigorously.

"N-no, I make them out of clay..." She mumbled. Hector and Floyd had seen her command such a creature once already, so that at least nipped that in the bud before all this could get overly awkward, but still left the question of this supposed death to answer for. Hector expected something arcane, that being his main experience with things like this, but Floyd was a father and drew an entirely different conclusion.

"I'm so sorry. Why didn't you just tell us that she..." He asked, putting a hand to Branches shoulder. Hector wasn't certain what to say at this point. There was definitely suspicion, or at least curiosity and concern, but it was Floyd's reaction that halted any further attempt to pry any hidden truths out of the homunculus. Given her silence he started to find his suspicions wavering in favor of worry, and a hand carefully rested on her shoulder in turn, to offer what support he could.

"I wish I'd known..." Hector said, uncertain how to react. This strange woman, Illiana, was clearly up to some unknown trickery, but the few people who'd actually met with her had spoken little of her, other than a momentary whisper that she was behind an early glimmer of intel regarding a local scout's mission, that she knew in advanced it was compromised.

And then there was this madness involving the center, he was certain that Medeina was dismissing arcane happenings in her usual manner, but the true character of it was something he could only guess at. More importantly, he reasoned that no matter what the truth was, it likely hit close to home in a way that'd be uncomfortable to discuss.


And just like that, Branches had been dished up a way out. She couldn't help but feel bad about taking it though, the men were earnest and she could tell they really felt for her.

"I'll be okay..." She said simply. Hector and Floyd looked to each other with a bit of worry, but nodded. They knew where to take a sad girl in need of a good hug and a little friendliness. Catnip would be more than eager to meet with Branches, and Kathrine was a hug champion as well as a provider of treats.

"Alright," Floyd said decisively, "off to see Catnip and Kathrine then. I won't hear no buts about it. If anybody is gonna lift the mood, it's those two."
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