In the tall grass

[Faustus]

It begins.

Time, and her twin sisters of fate and destiny, are fickle creatures. The harder that you try to grab a firm hold of one, or the other or the other, the faster that they slip between your fingers. But if you sit back and let them pass you by, you'll end up old, dead, both or neither. Only in extreme cases where fortune intercedes does the last happen at all. But what many people don't seem to have the foresight to appreciate is that time, and time alone, is predictable. One second will always follow after another, after another, after another; wait long enough and you have an hour. A day. A year.

One hour, fifteen minutes, and forty-three seconds. The man delicately pulled the loose sleeve of his left arm up to his wrist to cover the watch. That's how long he has been waiting here, and with good reason. The man arrived one hour and seventeen minutes ahead of schedule, to make sure that everything was in place. He had gone through painstakingly precise measures to make sure that the machine was well oiled, the wheel round enough, and the path smooth enough.

He is dressed in the attire of a warrior. The loose fitting clothes of a swordsman, so that it will not stifle his bladed creativity, dressed in the cool, harsh tones of winter because he feels that one cannot forget that pain simultaneously precedes and follows beauty. He wears tinted glasses, to hide a golden gaze too piercing and disconcerting from the prying eyes surrounding him in the well kept tavern (the Lovely Giant). He carries two gloves with him, one that he now pulls tight over his left hand, the leather of the glove covering the tattoo there. Bold words in a straightforward font: In hoc signo vinces.

And he waits, eyes ever to the door.

[Julius Aldoid]

It’s a cold day. It is interesting, how I just shiver, and the chivalrous jump to my rescue. An odd notion, hardly egalitarian. Should I be insulted or gracious? Motive, intent, etc, etc, etc...

As part of my mind follows that train, the rest of me walks down the street. I socketed my eight spell but that was all. Trying to leave a small magical footprint as possible, not just so I draw little attention to myself as possible, but also just as a reaction to all this industry. The whole concept of civic planning such an after thought, hardly something we build. But that is just ethnic pride talking- it certain has its charm, and I know I have never seen anything like it. I take pictures as I walk, stopping to allow my camera to expose the film slide. I suppose I am quite the tourist, but it is my job- to document the Outland.

I can feel how untuned my engine is to this environment. Need to stop in, rest, and perhaps run some maintenance. It is all a lot to take in one go. Where to do so?

I socket a tour guide, a fairly young specter who informs me he was killed I a flood. A light touch is best, don’t want to damage him; goes crazy and just starts eating the other ghosts. It certainly has happened before.

I ask him where I could fine a place to rest, and he points out a bar. I unsocket my guide and walk off. He was an unnecessary risk, which means ‘not my kind’.

I wander inside, readjusting my frames as I walked in. Sun-spectacles are not an advantage indoors it seems. The light is always so bright though, so purposelessly direct. You figure that calm environments would be designed to look calm. The place is a rest station, but I only see a desert of endless sand. If I am going to have them on, my glasses are going to serve a utility.

I walk to the counter and say, “Pardon, I require water.” Barkeep eyes the tattoos on my wrists which lets me know he might think I am dangerous, what with most mistaking my imprisonment for a physical one. I am wearing a guardsman’s cloak two sizes too big, so it is likely he assumes I couple with one. I scan the expanse, noting the few people around.

Don’t need to note anything though, I remember all.

[Faustus]

He sees her the moment that she walks in, but pretends not to. She is the culmination of all his patience. Of all his waiting, and to see her saunter to the counter inspires such an intense notion of greed and desire within him, burning him up from the inside out, that if this man wasn't precisely who he was, the precariously built infrastructure of his plan would have crumbled to nothing then and there.

He sighs, exhausted from a long day of work. One glove is tossed to the table, and the other is pulled from his hand then flicked to join its brother. The tattoo, though no more resplendent than any other ink stained onto a flesh canvas, seemed glossier than it did moments ago to those few patrons that had seen him; seemed to draw their attention. He sighed again, louder this time, melodramatically, and stretched his back, pleased with the series of cracks that ring out through the tavern.

He walks to the counter with the swagger of a man drunk with pride. A cocksure gait that leaks a powerful confidence, but is charismatic and magnetic nonetheless. Arrogant? Sure. But one can tell by the slightly fanged smile that this arrogance was well earned. The man stands in front of the counter, close to the newly introduced woman with the sunglasses, and lowers his own shades an inch. His are not as dark, and they are blue, but he keeps them on though they seem to serve the same purpose.

"You heard the lady, right?" The man rapped three times on the counter in even-paced succession. "Water for her. Whiskey for me."

The tender wasted no time, not after he caught a look at what waited for him behind the barrier those glasses provided. The stranger pushed the glasses back up on the bridge of his nose and turned his attention towards the woman.

"You don't have any money to pay, do you? Just a guess, just sayin' yanno. You didn't say that you wanted to buy some water, just that ya needed it. Am I right?"

[Julius Aldoid]

I waited at the counter, and someone else looked to do me a favor. Beneath my own shades, I watched as his lowed and spooked the barkeep. Scary eyes? A gaze attack? Ran a reality check to see if there was any spells running in the background of the place, anything that might slip my perception as per proper Cartographic procedure. The machinations of the spell running, interlaced and triple encrypted scrys and scan spells running on rotating magical frequencies. Divination upon redundant and rechecking divination. Even asked the question as a strong caster to any observing higher beings. It took time to get all the way though. And I ran it for less then a second and made sure its package was encrypted too. I would run analysis on my own though, as thinking pulled very little magic power in return for a paltry amount of thought power.


But I digress, it is all just Cartographic habit. You train that every new door you walk through is hostile and every person you meet behind one is playing to the will of a aberrant being and that your senses are falling you constantly for your entire life, and the whole thing becomes second nature. I didn’t even notice I had done it till it was done.

I lifted my camera and photographed his face. The first time I had come close enough to someone for long enough to take the photo. Then again, there is always a dual purpose. But the primary one was really for the picture. An interesting face. Didn’t know that other people wore tinted spectacles as well.

“No, no money.”

I smelled an angle. Then I again, if you give the same hand to the griffters as the help, you never have to worry which ones are which.

The barkeep slid the water over the bar. I raised my glass. “In this sign, you shall conquer.” Didn't drink though. I smiled.

[Faustus]

The sword at the man's side thrummed with magical activity. Enchanted, and rightly so in a world like this. A crimson sphere tucked beneath his shirt glowered with abjurative ability. A transmutation aura leaked from his left hand. A faint, faint, faint aura surrounded the man too microscopic to even really matter. Other than that, nothing. Nothing except for a subtle, vague sense of still waters running deep.

When she whipped the camera around to him, the man moved with a serpent-like quickness and grace yet managed to reserve himself and refrained from being outlandish. The dark haired man whipped his head to the side while he simultaneously brought up his hand to stand guard between the camera lens and his face. The woman only managed to snag a rather detailed photograph of his hand.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, none of there here missy. I heard the stories. Friend told me about a shaman down by the marshes that has a box a lot like yours, and that it takes the souls of anything it manages to foot-a-graph. I won't hold it against you, but aim that somewhere else, will ya?"

The man knew that, in the deeper circles of the occult, the clear photograph of his hand would likely be enough to glean information about him, his practices, and perhaps even his future. But chiromancy was, at its core, a vague art; it was better for him that she snagged a photo of his hand instead of a clear picture of his face.

He rolled his shoulders, undoing the knots of tension that bunched up there, and slid back to his position in front of the counter. He seemed relax, to the average eye, but a person that knew what to look for could tell that the man was expectant. Not quite on edge, but aware. Ready to move again if she tried her mojo on him one more time. And this time, from the way he laid his hands on the counter top, a lone finger unconsciously aimed at his hip, where a sword hung.

"Don't let my guess get ta ya or nothin', I was trained to be good at that kinda thing. Noticing things, yanno? In the way people stand, the way they talk, where they look that kinda thing."

He picked up the glass before him, smaller than hers because liquor was more expensive, and downed the amber liquid in one burn.

"Oooo, it's the best burn I've ever felt. Heh, you speak latin missy? My pa gave me this the day right before I got shipped overseas to help out in a war effort. I never put much faith in it, but it seems to do me alright.

"You got a name?"

[Julius Aldoid]

I pulled the plate immediately. It was the most well detailed picture of the human hand in my collection. I pocketed the picture. Little bits of magic. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary. I let the back of my mind start hashing together all the little details. Didn’t have anything that quite fit just yet. Reality Check was fine. Guess I am not in a pocket universe made to an exactly replica of the real world where I shall live out my days. Not again at least.

Guess he just gave the guy a look. And he didn’t like pictures.

“You haven’t even bought me dinner yet Mister swordsman. And you’re a stranger, and my daddy doesn’t like me talking to strangers. Sides, you didn’t let me take a picture.”

Wasn't projecting anymore. The guy got me all ansy and ruined my flow.

“Tell you what, if you can out think a riddle, I shall tell you my name. Care to play?” I watched myself in the mirror, catching my reflection in my own glasses. Reflection of my reflection of my reflection of my reflection....

Socketed Empathic Vibe. Too much focus on one person, wanted to feel the state of the room, see what was shaking. Maybe there were people living their lives upstairs who had a whole bundle of feelings. How could humans feel anything at all? So many of them were lazy thinkers.

Socketed Electric Flesh. Maybe he was one of these rapists I had heard so much about. Cant be any great species to invent rape. A billion works of art and invention do not make up for inventing that. Then again, maybe that was their creator. I am not fond of their creator. Maybe they were devised in a chaotic system. Well then that explains rape.

I pondered, awaiting his reply.

[Faustus]

He watched her carefully behind the cool tint of his sunglasses, idly rubbing the tattoo stamped on the back of his hand with a bit of awe oozing from at her recognition of the words, his eyes mauling every detail that she had to offer. Word choice, tonality, stance, gestural behaviors, facial tics, ocular positioning and so on down the line. Though she couldn't see it, he studied her like an animal. Like a caged beast whose only purpose in this world was to amuse him, to give him the answers he searched for.

The man's nostrils flared and recognition swept over him like a saltwater wave. The magic rolling off of her now was sharper, more perverse, and told him that she was actively searching for something. He smacked his lips, feigning an interesting in savoring the noxious taste of the liquor he had ingested moments ago, and a taste stuck in the back of his throat. It tasted like empathy, reaching out in all directions.

"A riddle?" The man flagged the tender down and requested another glass of the same, fishing around in his pocket shortly thereafter and ponying up the fee, so that he didn't have to rely on good faith to get his drinks. While he waited for the shot, the man's brow furrowed in rumination, carefully weighting the benefits, the detriments, and the possibilities.

The shot arrived, he downed it as soon as it was in his hand, and his face screwed up as the burn worked its way down his throat. He then sighed contentedly.

"Alright, how about this. How about if I solve your riddle, I get your name AND I get to take you to dinner, hm? I figure two birds with one stone and all that."

[Julius Aldoid]

A half-hearted laugh slipped from me, to fast to stifle.

“Forgive, but I am afraid you’re not my type.” I slid my water over the counter. Didn’t need to be a seer to see where this conversation was stirring, and my own thoughts had put me off to begin with. Besides, A big stinky warrior who kills for money? For an interview perhaps, but I certainly wouldn’t wish to lead him on.

“I’ve just remembered, I have somewhere I need to be,” sliding from the counter, “thanks for the drink though.”

I still had to get all my prints filed, retune my engine, and draft up my reports, check that all my infusions are working right, and duplicate as many historical documents as I could. A whole ethnography of the Outland was a rather large venture. Not the largest material plane she had heard of, but it was still pretty big, and certainly more populated.

I drifted to the door, peering out, trying to derive where the nearest library might be given discernible landmarks.

[Faustus]

Not quite the response that he had been hoping for, but close enough to home to keep his hooks in. He eyed the glass as the nameless woman pushed it across the table, took note that it was just as full as it had been when she first got it. Maybe she wasn't the kind of girl to drink water. Maybe those loose clothes and those sunglasses were hiding more than she let on.

"Hey." Maybe she didn't hear him, or maybe his voice was too soft. The woman left the counter and began to the door; the man fished out another few coins from his pocket, slapped it on the table for the water, and left him a healthy tip.

"Hey!" He gathered up his things, ran his hand up and down his body to make sure that the vague shape of the items he should have on him were still there, and then rushed to the door with his hand grasping the scabbard beneath the hilt of his sword. He did not rush, not enough to allow the urgency of his gait be mistaken for hostility, but enough to get him to the door before she left the tavern completely.

"Don’t'cha think that's a wee bit presumptuous, lil miss? You've really only chatted me up for about, what, five minutes? Seven? You don't even know the kinda guy I am, much less if I'm your type!"

He leaned against the wall next to the door's entrance, ran a hand through disheveled strands of charcoal hair, and collected himself.

"You didn't even finish the riddle. And ya look lost. How about this – I know this town like the back of my hand. How about I take ya to wherever ya gotta go and on the way there I can show you that even a guy with a sword can be smart. Eh?"

[Julius Aldoid]

Broke from thoughts and found him right there as my locus became centered on what the hell was going on around me. Shrugging the bangs out of my eyes, now his words were getting interesting.

“Oh? And what fun would it be for me? Never lost, only wandering in the unexplored. And to what ends I wonder? Carting a lass around the city. As for type, unless you are secretly a woman, I am certain you don’t fit the criteria. Unless you are very open to being polymorphed my fine chum. Which is fine, I don’t judge.”

I winked at him. I was being caustic, but he seemed like tough stuff. Walked out of that place, looked around a bit. My movements were hyperbole, so everyone else on the street would know what I am up to as well..

“So are you coming?” I called into the bar. “I ain’t got no use for a backroom johnny, but I sure as hell could use an assistant for the day.” It was true. Needed thinking space. Also, a second set of eyes was always handy for the very-much illegal things I had planned to get me through the day. Sides, risk is a part of the job. If I had been worried about dying all the time, I wouldn’t have walked out the first door to the Outworld, not to mention the bar.

[Faustus]

The man smiled.

"Polymorphing is a little too steep for me. But I can still show you around the city if you'd like."

Still leaning against the wall, he toyed with the ends of his hair for a little while and waited for what he expected would come. When it did, when the woman turned away and asked for him, he smiled jovially to himself, pushed off the wall, and fell in step behind her.

"I'm no lackey, if that's what you mean, not unless you got the right price, yanno?" He rubbed his fingertips together in the universal sign for money and then quickly stuffed his hands back into his pockets. "But I'll be an assistant, sure. Assist you through the city, help you find what you need. I ain't got much nothing better ta do around here right now anyways, so it's a better use for my time.

"So what is it that you're looking for anyway? What kinda things about a city interested a woman like you, I just gotta know. Let me guess, it'll probably have to do something with information, right? You trying to find a library? A back alley oracle? I just gotta know."

[Julius Aldoid]

Might be due to my limited interactions, but it really was interesting to see what finite resources did to an otherwise fantastic model of life. High levels of self awareness, pattern recognition, and immense willpower if they trained themselves. Able to devise complex language, communicate abstract concepts, develop art, consider feelings. I suppose there is a reason the rector [Julius Aldoid] designed us so closely to humans, as we could have been a race of crystal spiders like the Velocipedes, but certainly if he had truly wanted peace, the unlimited resources of Artifacture and the Hinterlands would have ushered peace amongst these people. But perhaps not, for some of them may, just as the Lords of Madness and Deeper Beings may, simply desire power for their own sake. What a horrid creature humans would be if that were the case.

“The right price? You sell yourself short with that. And to get what? What is worth buying? And does a thing have value only if it can be bought? More importantly, define ‘value’.” Figured I would talk his ear off, for certainly if I am to spend time with him, I certainly am not going to do it for my own sake.

“ And you say ‘a woman like me’, and what exactly kind of woman would that be? If you flatter me I will walk Mr... I think I shall call you Colgate, as we are both sketchy with names. So Colgate, you will call me Tone, as we are doing business, and that is the way I do things. Don’t like how the ship is ran, you are more then welcome to bugger another woman- certainly someone must find you charming. And if my words hurt your feelings, you certainly can leave right now, because I especially have no use for the insecure.”

I had wandered into an alleyway, bits of trash lining the ground. Started scrounging around. “A library is the last place to look. I could go there. Read through every book they had. But as a friend used to say, ‘Was and Will Be is not Is, and Is is never better then Am.’ or was it ‘The Map is not The Territory?’ Either way Colgate, gotta go out for myself and see what needs to be seen. But first, Mommy has to make a tool to help in her job.”

A few rusty swords, a couple coins and I had enough to build a decent enough frame.

[Faustus]

"I'm sure I could take what you say as bordering somewhere near thought-provoking, if you had any idea what you were talking about. But you don't know the price, or the value, so if we're being honest with each other, you're just talking out your ass."

Though his words, offered in another tone, would have been undoubtedly incisive and unequivocally instigative, the amicable quality that outlined the contours of his words in the softest of velvet softened their impact. He was being playful, not mean. Insightful in a fashion, but vulgar enough to let his personality shine through.

Colgate found Tone to be a pleasant lady, for the most time, if one were to shear away the dominant undertones that she constantly loaded her language with. Chances are that this woman was one accustomed to serving under another, to some facility, and thus vented her repressed feelings by over-compensating for that very fact.

Yes, that's what his swagger told her. That she yearned for freedom.

"Bugger off, eh? Well I just might, if you keep treating me like a parasite. You're a fun lady to be around Tone, as much as I can say that knowing you for less than an hour, but you're not really so special that you need to start spouting off conditions like I'm some sort of love-sick puppy. If I don't like the way the ship is run, I'll make sure to jump, and I betcha I can do it all on my own like the big kid I am."

The man adjusted the sash that held his sword in place a bit. It had started to sag some, and as per warrior customs he needed to make sure that the hilt was in the exact place his right hand had been trained to reach for the past five years.

He followed her into one of the nameless alleyways littering the city. Colgate had heard this place described as Martin's kingdom, after some backalley oracle that made his way from Last Chance to Ignatz and claimed the underground as his dominion.

He eyed the frame behind the tinted glasses.

"Need any help with that?"

[Julius Aldoid]

I giggled at that. Talking out of my ass. He was a silly man. To think, people being able to vocalize through their colon. It was the silliest thing I had ever heard. Sure, you could make sounds with it if you ate the right things, but that was hardly what I would call language. And he even pushed back. Didn't need the vibesense to know that he was kidding. Yeah, I didn’t need to hold this one's hand. The last few assistants were hardly as durable. Then again, they didn't seem to pack half the latent magic. Which was odd, I would have figured everyone would be practically saturated to the gills with magic, just like back at home. But no, apparently many people didn't. A lovely question to investigate I am sure.

With a flick of my wrist, my wand jumped into my hand. “Nah, no help needed. Well, none besides what I can give to myself. Just make sure nobody is eyeballing us.”

I knew the plans to make one by heart, but I still chose to reinvent the engineering on it. I could see the shapes, floating infront of me. I thought about them changing shape, and they did, bending to my vision. To the rest of the world, I had been blinking, but to me, I had worked out the complete design. I wrote out the pattern for a fabrication spell, and let my magic do the work.

“So Colegate,” Turning to the man, “What is it you did before you started following me around?”

[Faustus]

"Nothing…in particular. No steady form of vocation. Or, at least what I'm trying to say is, I wasn't anything like a carpenter." Colgate took a few, measured steps back until he felt his back meet solid support. He brought one foot against the wall and crossed his arms.

"How about this, I'll define what I used to do by what I actually did. That sounds fair, I think. A lot of planning. A lot of it. I collected a lot of information. Tomes and tomes of it, Tone. Anything I could get my hands on, I did. I use the sword a lot. That's why I have it, of course. But I don't always use it in the way you might think."

He watched whatever Tone was building slowly taking shape. He said nothing for a few more moments of silence that stretched and stretched more and more to triple the quiescence. One look back, however, put to bed any doubt that he was still among them. His brow was slightly furrowed. Not the sign of potent rumination, but it was clear that the man was lost in thought.

"If I had to say a single word to bring all of the different aspects of my life together, I'd say: representative. I always represent something other than myself. Most of the time, that's other people. Or groups of people. But I think that leaves it all as a nice and tidy lump.

"What about you Tone. What did you do before you started being followed? Architect maybe?"

[Julius Aldoid]

‘Me?” My thoughts drifting “I’m an explorer. I am told to go somewhere, I go there, and then I come back and tell people what it is like.”

Behind me, the metal was rising into the air, heating and fusing, being mashed by unseen hands until it became a raw, forge-worthy melt. With a flick of my wrist, my wand slid back within my bracer. I removed the guardsman’s coat and tossed it directly at my ore, it being grabbed by another unseen force that brought it aside dissolve it to strands.

I was definitely going to need more materials if I wanted to get myself ready.

“So, what are you current plans Colegate? Were you planning to just follow the first dame you saw, or do you have other business ventures, other trades to ply? Or are you still representing someone?”

[Faustus]

As the metal began to rise, Colgate fixed his gaze on the now swirling, heating, mass. He appraised it in a critical and elegant manner, and if Tone fancied herself observant, she'd notice it in his eyes. Though the man didn't seem to give off much knowledge of the arcane arts, no halo of wisdom or a well of a deeper power, understanding was his tool. Like stars in the sky, the understanding of centuries flashed in his eyes.

"Just my own curiosity. Nothing to sell, nothing to lie about. No force greater than that. It's so simple a beginning I'm almost ashamed to admit it. I noticed your glasses. I haven't seen very much of them in Terrenus. And the man that gave me mine also gave me the impression that only a people from a land farther than I've dared to travel even bother with these things.

"Way I figure it, we just might have some connection."

The man shifted his stance, hand finding its place gripping his scabbard, and his right hand half-hanging out of his sleeve.

"And what about you? Before you started exploring in West Terrenus, what were you looking for?"

[Julius Aldoid]

The melt was forming up nicely. Not the purest of metals, but as it liquified midair, the less pure elements just slaked off leaving only the nice hard steel I would need for my creation. I thought about an infusion, but for now, only the forging of components was nessisary.

“I dunno. Are you nearsighted?”

The molten metal pored itself, forming into little ingots, each of which was pounding itself into little components. Sparks flew as unseen hammers rang upon the metals, it quite the cacophony.

“What? Oh.” I shouted over the sound, “Whatever I am told to. I look for things for others.”

The melt now dispersed, piece floating around to cool, it took but a flick of the wrist for it all to slide together. Five hundred separate pieces all sliding together with only a click into one sold piece.

It was a decent emitter, only the hilt of a much more insidiously humorous.

“Ok. stand back,” Reaching up for the blade.

Then I remembered- all the wool floating there. Had to think. A flick of the wrist, and the whole thing knit itself together, forming itself into a very large robe, which slid its way onto me. Now all I needed was a really nice hat, and I was in business.

I nicked the emitter and slid my wand into my bracer. I must have looked quite fetching.

“So, what is there to do in this fun little town?”

[Faustus]

The man lowered his specs and glanced at the heap of raw material that Tone was working at. He appraised it at a glance and gave her an approving nod.

"You have some very impressive craftsmanship Miss Tone. It's very precise, especially in regards to telekinetics. You've been practicing."

He left the wall with a shrug of his shoulders and his arms, which had been crossed during his critical examination of Tone's machinations, came to swing freely at his side. He moved closer to the self-shaping mass of metal and trinkets, giving it a wide enough berth as he walked a full circle around it.

He stood a good distance away when the woman took her sword and made her robe. Colgate looked at her the entire time, offering little more than a small smile.

"In town? Not much. There's a tavern, but Dougton is a sleepy little town. If you really want some excitement, burn down a couple of houses and cause a riot and you'll get to meet Dougton's PeaceKeeper but…I wouldn't really suggest it. You'd probably die."

His back faced the city limits.

"Outside of town though? The marsh is a little bit north of here, and it's pretty interesting. Lots of cockatrice's. They had a cleanup crew over there, but they didn't get to all of them. And uh…south of here, the Blue Hills. It's not as loud over there, you know not as many things to find prolly, but it's nice.

"What is that thing anyway?"

[Julius Aldoid]

Peacekeeper? In intriguing notion. Perhaps one could be seen. Still, seemed unlikely. That type of suff tends to be a venture in itself.

A good question was made.

“It is what magic should be Colegate.” and I fired the ignition.

It got cold in the alley for a moment, a burst of wind screaming in as the tides of the great flow bent their way though the device. Heavy gears grinded out of immense inertia, the machine’s foreign language confusing to the magic of this world.

I threw on my robe, a task made no more easy from the torrent I had kicked up.

The grind had shifted and now was a smooth hum and rising into something more pleasantly vocal. With a sudden kick, the device emitted a single, cyan tooth. Triangular in shape, it was hooking upwards, and quite quickly gave way to another. This process repeated, toothed blades rising from it until it reached four feet out and they suddenly turned and made their way back to the hilt, the backs of them fitted together like a crocodiles’ jaw. I then realized what I was going to call this device.

“It is called, a crocogator.”

The propagation of teeth slowly began to pick up from that mechanical churn to a devilish pace, it in harmony with the hum of the machine until the whole thing sung out like a chorus.

“And so our mission begins Colegate. We are to find the wonder of this world, so that we may prove this universe worthy.”

[Faustus]

"Is that what you're trying to do?"

Though Colgate was clearly impressed by the complexity of Tone's machine, and the assumed efficacy of its sharp, glowing edge, he said nothing on the subject. She proposed a much more interesting point of discussion and Colgate was rightly more comfortable speaking in a field that he knew something about rather than an object that he had never seen before in his life.

"Is that what you're doing? Well, I can help you find the wonders of the world. I know a couple of them right here in Terrenus, but something to prove the universe worthy? I think you're biting off a bit more than you can chew. It's there, I promise it is, but you'll spent centuries digging through mud and muck before you can get to it.

"Unless you're immortal and absolutely determined, I'd say you should just give up now. As a matter of fact, what you should do is ju-"

A shadow flit between them. Not so much a shadow, actually, as a hulking mass covered in darkness. In brushing by them, it pushed both Colgate and Tone with enough force to know a regular man not only off his feet, but to send him skidding along the ground a few feet. Colgate managed to hold his ground somehow; how Tone reacted was up to her. Aside from its strength, the mass was quick. In the time it took Colgate to get back his bearings and fully realize what just happened, the mass was already far in the distance.

"What on earth was that?"

My son! Please, please my son!

The voice drifted from the heart of the town, and after a short while the image of a woman desperately running towards Tone and Colgate soon made itself manifest. She could run no longer by the time she caught up to them, her lungs burning and aching, tears streaming down her cheeks freely.

Oh Gaia, oh no oh no! It took my son! That…that thing took my son! Please!

She gave them both despairing glances, her eyes falling to the sword that the man wore and the sword that the woman held.

Please, please oh please. Please, you have to help me…please.

Colgate shifted about uncomfortably and then looked towards Tone. He rest the decision in her hands.

[Julius Aldoid]

I admired the craftsmanship of my weapon. A fine blade indeed. Well, it was composed of many fine blades that were evoked and refreshed one at a time at such great speed so as to rip through anything that found its edge. Like a saw basically. Colegate was talking about impossiblity and boring things while I was transfigured by my creation.

Perhaps I don’t need to find wonder, I mearly have to create OH GREAT SPACE WHALE WHAT IS THAT?!?!

A slammed into the wall be hind, my blade sliding from my hands, striking the wall behind me. Its teeth found purchase in the cobble, but without a holder, merely clawed its way into the wall.

I looked down. It seemed to have tore my cloak.

A voice. Some woman crying.

It tore my cloak.

She was bawling about her child.

It tore... my cloak.

My cloak.

I shifted socketing, changing out all my others for Wendego, Flow, and Intract. Long story short, it was the difference between lighting the darkness with a candle and lighting the darkness with a brush fire. They are high power sockets, and demand a much more efficent system of intake, overspooling my internal co- well, lets just say that it brought all the engines to full.

Passing as a human was already hard when combine systems were active, but the jump in the viscosity of my aura definitely would peg me as quite aberrant to the prime material. Like little tendrils, able to be read like a book. Subtly wasn’t required though, my senses are hard to fool, and such a trade in advantage was more then adequate.

This is all the boring stuff though. All that heady technicals that you wouldn’t know if I didn’t say. I figure ya want to know though, helps to show that I am just not some mere machine.

It would take a few moments for things to kick in. I looked long down the alley.

“Lets go Colegate. We’re huntin’ munsters.”

[Faustus]

Oh thank Gaia! Oh thank the Triad!

The woman nearly shook with the relief that washed through her body. Up until that very moment, she had lost most of her hope. Most of it, if only because she knew of the efficacy of the urban rangers. But it would take her time to gallivant through town and find the proper kind of man and, though she was sure they would find her son, she was unsure whether they would find him in time.

May the Weaver bless your journey. If you find him, and I will pray every minute that you do, come and find me please. Diana, the Innkeeper of the Lovely Giant.

Colgate was unnerved by the woman's sudden deluge of gratitude, and it was clear in that moment that the man was not accustomed to such a thing

"Um, yeah sure. No problem lady, you just…go on back home or to your inn or whatever, and we'll come get you and tell you what we find. I hope we find your son too. This is kind of a tough thing to happen. How old is he? What's his name?"

The woman began to tear up.

He's…he's eight. His name is Nicholas…oh…my poor little Nicky!

The woman, sensing that she was no longer needed, whisked around as fresh tears were just beginning to gather at the ends of her eyes. She ran back to her tavern and Colgate turned to Tone.

"Well, that was something, wasn't it?"

Colgate turned and knelt on the ground. He ran his hands over the earth, fingers probing for secrets that his eyes could not grasp on to.

"We know it's big, and we know that it's fast. And we know that it kidnaps little children. I kind of want to say that the monster is probably intending on eating the child. I don't know why, but they usually do that, despite the fact that parents are bigger. More meat. Dunno, kids are probably tenderer."

Colgate reached into his pocket and pulled out a pouch. Opening it up, he perused through the materials and then removed a single herb that looked like a sprig of mint, but certainly didn't smell like it. Placing the pouch back into his pocket, Colgate crushed the sprig under his thumb and let its juices eke onto the ground.

A trail of footprints then blazed into existence, literally consumed by small flames and leading quite a ways away from the town.

"Oooooo…" Colgate's tone dripped with almost immature interest. He stood up, glancing at Tone as he clapped away the dirt and debris clinging to his knees. "Looks like we've got ourselves a beast of darkness. Nice little necro-child."