"Hey! You've reached Cayde, but either I'm busy or I'm busy. Either way, go ahead and leave a message...or don't. Obviously I won't get back to you if it's the latter."
Tommy said there was some kind of event on-ship that was like a storm, but milder. It didn't affect any non-Agrii but still incapacitated Ga Re somehow. You observed this?
[Similar to how the storms make all of the electronics stop working...maybe Tommy saw that happen and inferred a storm-like cause, but there's plenty of other reasons for why that could happen, especially in a fight.]
Do you know who the invaders were, and if they were the ones messing with the power?
[He can start the water boiling in the meantime, picking out a couple packs of ramen from the crate he'd more or less claimed from Echo some time back.]
[It's not precisely thirty minutes later when Dustin finally arrives at the Deep End, thanks to the deep snow hindering his path south, even on the more well-trodden main roads connecting his workshop to the Residential Towers, but it's close enough that he doesn't feel like Cayde will care. Dustin certainly doesn't. He's much more concerned about the opportunity for people to show up that he's not expecting, and then having to contend with them once he gets there.]
[Thankfully, when Dustin peeks his head through the front door, it looks just as empty as Cayde promised. He takes a moment to drink in the surroundings before slipping inside, shivering against his snow-dusted coat.]
[Thankfully it doesn't take THAT long for water to boil but it still takes an incredibly long time to Cayde, who likes to do more important things than watch water bubble.
At least by comparison the bar is warm, and the winds aren't so strong that they aren't pushing at the mattress that's stuffed into what looks like an enormous hole blown out of the hallway wall just outside of the bar. Funny, no damage to the outer wall of the bar itself unless one's sharp eye manages to notice the tiny hole in the hallway. It's right where the shoddy, crooked and very handmade dartboard hangs within the bar. Huh.
Cayde's at the pool table at the other end of the room, the click of his cue against the cueball and the ensuing clatter the only sound outside of whatever random oldies the karaoke machine's playing.
The room itself is subtly cast in a greenish-blue light that filters in from the large facing windows, where on the other side, strange creatures swim and drift in the waters of the strange lake that's formed between the nest of buildings over the years, an odd aquarium and an even odder backdrop to a bar.]
Oh hey, look who's here!
[The Exo looks up with a grin, setting the pool cue down to start heading back towards the bar counter. Colonel sits on the end stool, minding her own business.]
[Dustin doesn't answer immediately, nor does he look especially excited to be here. Too busy internalizing the interior of this place. Standard bar setup, large windows into the central lake - structurally dubious, but not nearly as much as the mattress-covered hole he noticed on the way over. His memory of the Tower's structure suggests that it should open up the side wall, but...huh. Dustin raises an eyebrow at the dartboard, then decides not to comment on it and slinks his way to the bar, towards the side furthest away from Colonel.]
Yeah, yeah. [He gives his coat one last brush off with his gloved hands before clambering onto a stool.] I'm late, weather fucking blows. Is the ramen ready?
[The Exo waves a hand. He's hardly complaining about how long it's taken, he's always glad to have company over and given the weather, it's been a little emptier these days.]
Should be, it's had some good time to soak.
[He ducks into the back room, coming out after a couple moments once he's gotten things transferred from pot to bowls. Plunking one bowl in front of Dustin with a pair of chopsticks that have obviously been hand-carved, Cayde settles himself into his usual spot behind the counter with a bowl of his own.]
Spicy's still not as spicy as my favorite place back home but guess I can't complain too much.
[Dustin critically studies the ramen - or maybe he's just letting his face hover over his bowl so the steam can defrost his nose and cheeks. Maybe it's a little bit of both. The smell of hot spices carries from this distance, too, which Dustin isn't going to protest. His sinuses could do with being flushed.]
Whatever works.
[The chopsticks almost don't. It's not that Dustin's never used chopsticks before, but rather, the ones his muscle memory is attuned for are...factory standard. These very much are not. He fumbles with them for a second, looking momentarily peeved, before his fingers untangle enough to pinch a clump of noodles.]
[Back to business.]
Alright, I'm here. Continue. [Dustin shovels a small, but still larger than desired, bundle of ramen noodles into his mouth.]
[He'd cooked two packs of ramen and only one and a half of the flavoring packs just in case spicy was too spicy. It's hard to gauge between people after all.
Cayde starts sifting noodles around with his chopsticks, pausing a moment to glance back at the kid.]
Huh?
...
...oh right!
The Graq! Only not the Graq. -I think they used to live in Sh'Ka from what I've seen of the architecture. Anyway!
See, it was all an elaborate setup and these poor guys were plucked off of their planet and dropped in the Agrii ship, armed with guns they didn't know how to use. They made for the most familiar thing to them, which happened to be some kinda in-ship greenhouse forest.
[Dustin watches Cayde with narrowed, intense and curious eyes, even as he starts more aggressively scarfing down his bowl of noodles. There's a bit of heat to them, but it's not unpleasant enough to slow him down.]
So, non-spacefaring species similar to the Graq? [Said around a mouthful of ramen, which he pauses to finish chewing and swallowing before he continues.] What did they look like?
Sorry, that got a bit confusing. It was the Graq who were aboard the ship, but they weren't the ones who planned the whole thing. So far as I know, the Graq aren't spacefaring in general.
[He holds a hand out to invite his Ghost to join in. Sundance compiles in a shimmer of light, spinning her shell halves before she floats back to project a recorded clip of the Graq.
Short, more stocky in build but in terms of size far more closer to average humans than the skinny, tall, limby Agrii. That'd explain why the clothes in Sh'Ka suited people more than the ones here in Temba. They had gruff, doglike faces, and their language was all grunts and growls, although with the Communication point, Dustin could probably make out that they were saying something about a rock bird.]
[Dustin lets out a small, frustrated huff at Cayde's roundabout storytelling methods, but the moment passes quickly. Sundance's demonstration drags his attention away at once, enough to get him to stop eating for a few seconds, even, so that he can hear what the projection is saying over the sound of his slurping.]
...Rock...bird? The ship, I would guess. [Dustin tilts his head slightly, like a dog hearing a whistle.] If they weren't spacefaring, then...what were they doing on Agra 10? There's no way the population in Sh'Ka didn't know about space travel - the city has a spaceship hangar. Unless it - or the connections to Temba - weren't built concurrently...
[Dustin cuts himself off only because he's scooped another clump of ramen into his mouth, chewing pensively while the gears in his brain churn behind his eyes.]
Oh, no, that was a literal bird. That eats rocks. Think that was when Tony and I were asking about the local wildlife. We wrangled one of those things you know. She's probably still aboard the Agrii ship.
[He pauses to finally enjoy a mouthful of noodles himself. It's a bit hard eating noodles when you have no lips so he has to jerk his head up to make sure it all goes past his jaws.]
Good question, right? Makes you wonder if even the Agrii were actually native to this place or if they were both transplanted for some reason or another. I don't think Sh'Ka was built by the Graq. You've been there, right? You can tell their handiwork from other buildings.
They build things from rock, use their spit to melt it down and form it.
[He holds up a finger before pulling out a knife, setting it on the counter. It's one solid piece and a bit weighty, some eight inches in length. Definitely handcrafted, but the shaping is smoother in some areas, a slightly different texture.]
It's how they make their tools too. I'm pretty sure that's why there's a giant quarry in Sh'Ka, since rock was their main material to work with.
[--is all Dustin can manage at first, because while Cayde was talking, he's polished off all of the noodle parts of his meal and is in the process of guzzling the broth out of his bowl, as much for the sustenance as he is for the warmth. He places the empty dish and his chopsticks back down on the counter with a soft clatter and quickly wipes his mouth (and his now slightly runny nose) on the back of a coat sleeve.]
--Yeah, I gathered. [Dustin turns his attention to the knife. He glances up once at Cayde, as if silently asking permission, then gently leans forward to get a better look at it from all angles.] The stoneworking methods present in the ruins suggested a sort of active melding rather than carving or casting, although the fact that the rock shows minimal signs of metamorphosis from the process is still odd. A property of the local bedrock or their spit, maybe.
[With formal permission given, Dustin picks up the stone knife like he's handling a precious artifact, turns it over once in his hands to weigh it and see the underside, then sets it back on the counter and pushes it towards Cayde. That's all he needs.]
[But as mentioned - sidetrack.]
Right. Do you know who was doing the shooting? What they wanted?
[Cayde gives the knife a little spin, watching it twirl on the counter a few rotations.]
No. Well, theoretically it's the Atroma who pulled the trigger and set everything up. See, the entire Agrii crew was missing from their homeship when we got there, except for Ga Re, and we had no idea where any of them had gone to.
The two 'enemy' ships had some Graq aboard to continue to try selling the whole thing of invaders. Thankfully our guys weren't just twiddling their thumbs while we were out scouting the Agrii ship and looking for Ga Re. Some of 'em managed to sneak aboard the other ships, and plus we got our scans running. Found all the Agrii that were missing- they'd been transported to the other ships.
Could've been real bad if we just decided to open fire right back, see?
[Dustin nods along, his eyes periodically flickering back to the spinning knife as its movement distracts his attention. Still, he doesn't seem so sidetracked that he doesn't follow Cayde's story.]
Yeah, I get it. [Kind of nasty, actually, if this is the last population of the Agrii left - essentially setting them up for extinction. Dustin's pensive expression turns into a troubled frown.] What evidence do we have to suggest that the Atroma were responsible?
[He's heard this name before, but it's only ever been just that: A name. "The real enemy" with nothing concrete to back it up. He's inclined to believe that a third party is involved in all of this, he's just not sure who it should be, or why.]
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deal_me_in
no subject
Date: 2023-03-02 08:47 pm (UTC)It didn't affect any non-Agrii but still incapacitated Ga Re somehow.
You observed this?
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Date: 2023-03-03 05:26 am (UTC)we were all kinda split up
someone had invaded the agrii ship and off-loaded everyone except ga re.
some of us stayed by the ships and got controls working in the docking bay
we went to check out the bridge and another team went looking for ga re
oh wait there was
the power was flucchu
flu
fritzing out at one point. enemy ships opened fire on us but we got the shields up before then
no subject
Date: 2023-03-03 05:01 pm (UTC)[Similar to how the storms make all of the electronics stop working...maybe Tommy saw that happen and inferred a storm-like cause, but there's plenty of other reasons for why that could happen, especially in a fight.]
Do you know who the invaders were, and if they were the ones messing with the power?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-03 06:04 pm (UTC)hey you know how hard it is typing with gloves and no keyboard
swing by the bar
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Date: 2023-03-05 01:48 am (UTC)Do I have to?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-05 06:19 am (UTC)i can get some instant ramen prepped
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Date: 2023-03-06 03:11 pm (UTC)Is anyone else there right now?
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Date: 2023-03-06 05:19 pm (UTC)you a spicy ramen kinda guy or non?
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Date: 2023-03-08 10:05 pm (UTC)Good.
Don't care, as long as it's edible.
Be there in 30.
[Already on the way, battling snow in the interest of intel and food.]
no subject
Date: 2023-03-08 10:29 pm (UTC)[He can start the water boiling in the meantime, picking out a couple packs of ramen from the crate he'd more or less claimed from Echo some time back.]
-> action
Date: 2023-03-10 04:10 pm (UTC)[Thankfully, when Dustin peeks his head through the front door, it looks just as empty as Cayde promised. He takes a moment to drink in the surroundings before slipping inside, shivering against his snow-dusted coat.]
no subject
Date: 2023-03-11 06:48 am (UTC)At least by comparison the bar is warm, and the winds aren't so strong that they aren't pushing at the mattress that's stuffed into what looks like an enormous hole blown out of the hallway wall just outside of the bar. Funny, no damage to the outer wall of the bar itself unless one's sharp eye manages to notice the tiny hole in the hallway. It's right where the shoddy, crooked and very handmade dartboard hangs within the bar. Huh.
Cayde's at the pool table at the other end of the room, the click of his cue against the cueball and the ensuing clatter the only sound outside of whatever random oldies the karaoke machine's playing.
The room itself is subtly cast in a greenish-blue light that filters in from the large facing windows, where on the other side, strange creatures swim and drift in the waters of the strange lake that's formed between the nest of buildings over the years, an odd aquarium and an even odder backdrop to a bar.]
Oh hey, look who's here!
[The Exo looks up with a grin, setting the pool cue down to start heading back towards the bar counter. Colonel sits on the end stool, minding her own business.]
no subject
Date: 2023-03-12 07:21 pm (UTC)Yeah, yeah. [He gives his coat one last brush off with his gloved hands before clambering onto a stool.] I'm late, weather fucking blows. Is the ramen ready?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-12 08:13 pm (UTC)Should be, it's had some good time to soak.
[He ducks into the back room, coming out after a couple moments once he's gotten things transferred from pot to bowls. Plunking one bowl in front of Dustin with a pair of chopsticks that have obviously been hand-carved, Cayde settles himself into his usual spot behind the counter with a bowl of his own.]
Spicy's still not as spicy as my favorite place back home but guess I can't complain too much.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-14 06:44 pm (UTC)Whatever works.
[The chopsticks almost don't. It's not that Dustin's never used chopsticks before, but rather, the ones his muscle memory is attuned for are...factory standard. These very much are not. He fumbles with them for a second, looking momentarily peeved, before his fingers untangle enough to pinch a clump of noodles.]
[Back to business.]
Alright, I'm here. Continue. [Dustin shovels a small, but still larger than desired, bundle of ramen noodles into his mouth.]
no subject
Date: 2023-03-15 04:12 am (UTC)Cayde starts sifting noodles around with his chopsticks, pausing a moment to glance back at the kid.]
Huh?
...
...oh right!
The Graq! Only not the Graq. -I think they used to live in Sh'Ka from what I've seen of the architecture. Anyway!
See, it was all an elaborate setup and these poor guys were plucked off of their planet and dropped in the Agrii ship, armed with guns they didn't know how to use. They made for the most familiar thing to them, which happened to be some kinda in-ship greenhouse forest.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-17 02:59 pm (UTC)So, non-spacefaring species similar to the Graq? [Said around a mouthful of ramen, which he pauses to finish chewing and swallowing before he continues.] What did they look like?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-17 05:01 pm (UTC)[He holds a hand out to invite his Ghost to join in. Sundance compiles in a shimmer of light, spinning her shell halves before she floats back to project a recorded clip of the Graq.
Short, more stocky in build but in terms of size far more closer to average humans than the skinny, tall, limby Agrii. That'd explain why the clothes in Sh'Ka suited people more than the ones here in Temba. They had gruff, doglike faces, and their language was all grunts and growls, although with the Communication point, Dustin could probably make out that they were saying something about a rock bird.]
no subject
Date: 2023-03-18 05:11 pm (UTC)...Rock...bird? The ship, I would guess. [Dustin tilts his head slightly, like a dog hearing a whistle.] If they weren't spacefaring, then...what were they doing on Agra 10? There's no way the population in Sh'Ka didn't know about space travel - the city has a spaceship hangar. Unless it - or the connections to Temba - weren't built concurrently...
[Dustin cuts himself off only because he's scooped another clump of ramen into his mouth, chewing pensively while the gears in his brain churn behind his eyes.]
no subject
Date: 2023-03-18 05:48 pm (UTC)Oh, no, that was a literal bird. That eats rocks. Think that was when Tony and I were asking about the local wildlife. We wrangled one of those things you know. She's probably still aboard the Agrii ship.
[He pauses to finally enjoy a mouthful of noodles himself. It's a bit hard eating noodles when you have no lips so he has to jerk his head up to make sure it all goes past his jaws.]
Good question, right? Makes you wonder if even the Agrii were actually native to this place or if they were both transplanted for some reason or another. I don't think Sh'Ka was built by the Graq. You've been there, right? You can tell their handiwork from other buildings.
They build things from rock, use their spit to melt it down and form it.
[He holds up a finger before pulling out a knife, setting it on the counter. It's one solid piece and a bit weighty, some eight inches in length. Definitely handcrafted, but the shaping is smoother in some areas, a slightly different texture.]
It's how they make their tools too. I'm pretty sure that's why there's a giant quarry in Sh'Ka, since rock was their main material to work with.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-20 03:11 pm (UTC)[--is all Dustin can manage at first, because while Cayde was talking, he's polished off all of the noodle parts of his meal and is in the process of guzzling the broth out of his bowl, as much for the sustenance as he is for the warmth. He places the empty dish and his chopsticks back down on the counter with a soft clatter and quickly wipes his mouth (and his now slightly runny nose) on the back of a coat sleeve.]
--Yeah, I gathered. [Dustin turns his attention to the knife. He glances up once at Cayde, as if silently asking permission, then gently leans forward to get a better look at it from all angles.] The stoneworking methods present in the ruins suggested a sort of active melding rather than carving or casting, although the fact that the rock shows minimal signs of metamorphosis from the process is still odd. A property of the local bedrock or their spit, maybe.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-20 05:53 pm (UTC)Yeah, that's what I figure. Why dig it out when you can melt it down and scoop it up?
Anyway, so yeah, Sh'Ka was a Graq city. I think Jon said they found some writing or something of theirs somewhere.
[He twirls a finger in the air.]
Sidetrack, we were talking about the ship getting shot at right?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-21 01:34 pm (UTC)[With formal permission given, Dustin picks up the stone knife like he's handling a precious artifact, turns it over once in his hands to weigh it and see the underside, then sets it back on the counter and pushes it towards Cayde. That's all he needs.]
[But as mentioned - sidetrack.]
Right. Do you know who was doing the shooting? What they wanted?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-21 05:54 pm (UTC)No. Well, theoretically it's the Atroma who pulled the trigger and set everything up. See, the entire Agrii crew was missing from their homeship when we got there, except for Ga Re, and we had no idea where any of them had gone to.
The two 'enemy' ships had some Graq aboard to continue to try selling the whole thing of invaders. Thankfully our guys weren't just twiddling their thumbs while we were out scouting the Agrii ship and looking for Ga Re. Some of 'em managed to sneak aboard the other ships, and plus we got our scans running. Found all the Agrii that were missing- they'd been transported to the other ships.
Could've been real bad if we just decided to open fire right back, see?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-22 03:10 pm (UTC)Yeah, I get it. [Kind of nasty, actually, if this is the last population of the Agrii left - essentially setting them up for extinction. Dustin's pensive expression turns into a troubled frown.] What evidence do we have to suggest that the Atroma were responsible?
[He's heard this name before, but it's only ever been just that: A name. "The real enemy" with nothing concrete to back it up. He's inclined to believe that a third party is involved in all of this, he's just not sure who it should be, or why.]
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