Geardirector

IC: Mar (Ko-Koro) I couldn't help but smile just a little bit as Siika made use of our best interrogation tool. I'd done the same thing with Karv before, just not with the extra helping of bait flavoring. I let Karv hear the signal he needed, and made sure nobody else did. Part of the whole mystique of our little duo was that Karv seemed to act on his own sometimes. If he had to take a bite... well, that wasn't off the table. Our quarry didn't seem to be having a great time, but then again, that was the idea. The fact that he was hearing the way Karv was obsessively sniffing him very well could only serve to make his day a lot less fun. "Get that thing off of me you degenerates. I'll talk" he eventually managed to gasp out, and Karv got the signal to back off. "Well?" He didn't give the most intelligible answer in the world, half occupied with spitting bait-mush out of his mouth and a curse or two, but I got the picture. "Alright, you can let him down now" I said to Siika. OOC: @Rahisaurus

IC: Salwa (Precipere) The party had arrived. I hadn't made any sort of attempt to make myself known, and it would stay that way for now. Outsiders were not common here, this entire event was unprecedented, and that made my spine tingle with anticipation of more unexpected things to happen. Never a good sign. For now, I stayed out of sight, but I made sure to stay awake and indoors. If I was needed, I'd be called for eventually.

IC: Salwa (Precipere) I had made about as many preparations as I could think of for what was about to come. Saying it like that wasn't one of them, though. Gatog was glad to see me, and that never got old. The Rock Steed had been pacing a lot while he was in his pen, I could tell by the fresh tracks made all over it. He would need activity again soon, he was definitely ready, more than I was at any rate. There was little sleep to be had, and I was awake early. I sat up for a while, one of my ancestral knifes held in one hand, for picking through the Thornax stew I held in the other. A foul breakfast if ever there was one, but it definitely woke me up. Offensive to the senses in the way few things I'd ever come across were. Dawn approached with a foreboding tone, the glare of the sun had often felt like the overbearing, expectant gaze of my forebears measuring my accomplishments. Now, of all days, that feeling was especially present. Ready or not, they would soon arrive.

IC: Ageru Tamachan (Sado, Imperial Gardens) "Yes, it was high time I found someone to give that a look." She answered quite matter-of-factly. A simple statement about that which could be uncontroversially agreed upon, she was very good with those. Tama weighed the token in her hand for a moment, mulling over what she'd be having. Actually having multiple choices was still a bit new for her... fish? No, she'd already had one herself just recently and she was very used to that. She ultimately settled on a bowl of the steaming broth that she saw one of the cooks serving. The inviting smell and warmth of something to hold in her limbs as she went to sleep on solid ground rather than in the saddle sounded ideal. OOC: @Mel

IC: Zelvin (Cave Near Mangaia) Zelvin nodded gratefully and helped herself to Drakkar's offer of a warm meal. Hospitality of this sort was rarely something Zelvin declined, and that included from people of Drakkar's severe calibre. She wasn't really in much danger at this point, she felt, because if Drakkar was interested in discussing the beyond, she'd be happy to oblige. The suspicious Matoran was welcome to join in as well, she figured. "Spiritual woes are indeed why I'm down here" Zelvin admitted, "I occasionally feel the urge to visit places of spiritual significance, and I'm not above including spots associated with the Dark one in that category" She'd had a visit to the Ta-Kini some time ago, and now she was slumming it in the tunnels underneath the Great Temple, either seemed to her like they were perfectly legitimate. "I hold out hope I might get the benefit of some favor rubbing off on me by conducting a pilgrimage now and then" OOC: @Snelly @ARROW404

IC: Ferron (Onu-Koro) "That's right. the Koro hands out some regular doses of the stuff now, pretty varied selection but it's not the most pleasant dining experience." "In fairness, it doesn't need to be. I could just absorb it through my hands in the old-fashioned way people used to prefer, and it would be about as effective." He exposited these small details as he secured his pack, and began walking out into the streets of the Koro again. "I'm not much of a cook myself, but some people realized there was good business in this new allowance that everybody gets now. So they figured, they could make money working with the ingredients people bring them to make something tastier out of it. I'm going to one of those" OOC: @Daniel the Finlander

IC: Vilda Mako (Ga-Koro) The cold I'd felt during my brief excursion to the region called 'Ko-Wahi' when I last went up there had not been easily forgotten. This time, I was going to come prepared. Under Pradhai's strong direction I made sure I was ready to wrap up warm the moment we reached the cold wastes. Kama was a trickier matter. For once, she would have to be satisfied with staying somewhere other than on my shoulder while she was travelling along with me. Not very spacious, being tucked into a smock I strapped to my chest with her head poking out, but she was gonna be warm and that was the point now. I thought for a moment about weapons. I still had my usual pair of Chakrams, meant for a Mindarm to swing around and cause some havoc. I had decided to peruse the shops I could find, and haggle my way to handing over some dragons as a novelty bargain for something that the locals said would be perfect as a throwable. Get it right and it comes back, they said. Alright, bamboo disks seemed like a reasonable way to get something reusable that I could fall back on if there was no need for lethal force. If there really was going to be some action, that might suit me just fine honestly. I took a seat and proceeded to plie Kama with some helpings of birdseed. OOC: @Keeper of Kraata @Mel @Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva)

IC: Salwa (Precipere) "Very well" I answered after some moments of silence. I could handle that, yeah, yeah no problem. Especially the warding off of suspicion part. "I'll go and get ready. Even if we can't reach Vulcanus to join the expedition, they will have to pass nearby to us just to get to Ferrum so we can meet them on the way if nothing else." OOC: @Nato G @Toru Nui

IC: Salwa (Precipere) "I just need us to be clear on our goals, Elder," I answered, "what are we hoping to gain and what do we need to expect. For now, it seems to me we're equipped to offer medical help and reconnaisance, between me and Xyde." OOC: @Nato G @Toru Nui

IC: Mar (Ko-Koro) Karv made it in after Siika, taking a seat next to where I was standing and fixing his eyes on the Matoran I held at bladepoint with his throat set to growl at the slightest provocation. I nodded as Siika confirmed what I had guessed upon getting a good look at him. This was somebody else besides the person we were looking for, but definitely someone connected to them. "Well, I guess you're just gonna have to tell us where they are, then" I said, directing it at the Matoran who glared back at us with something wild at the edge of his vision. "It'll be a cold day in Karzahni before I tell you anything" he growled, prompting me to look around us as the stark ice-blue walls and to listen for just a moment to the sound of the wind outside. "In my business, that's what we call a poor choice of words" I said with something like a wink, approximated with the shutter on my mask's scope. "I'm sure my partner here can persuade you to see things our way" OOC: @Rahisaurus

IC: Ageru Tamachan (Sado, Imperial Gardens) It turned out to be easier than Tama had expected to find someone available to do repairwork on her shoulderplate. Easier than she'd feared, at least. She had to leave it with them for some time, just so they would actually have time to get around to it in between all the other work they were swamped with. No surprise, weapons and armor depreciated quickly in the face of the Rahkshi. She rolled her shoulder, never quite comfortable when her armor didn't rest against it or anywhere else she wore it. Her swordarm needed to be as good as possible, it had gotten a lot of work recently. The amount of parries she'd been doing would have blunted any physical blade. The training yards that still stood nearby to the School of the Mind were not a place that Tama had assumed she would ever return to willingly, but here she was after all. It had a very different character now. Finding a sparring partner was easily done, and she could put her mind to getting some real practice done, no fuss about her style or affect. Everyone here had more important things to worry about. She cut the practice session short, delivered a bow to her partner, and went to meet with Hatchi. "Hello. I hope I didn't keep you waiting" she said as she arrived. OOC: @Mel

Speaking of stuff ongoing. @Mel@Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva)@Keeper of Kraata lmk who is planning to post next in Ga because Mako has little to add at the moment.

IC: Salwa (Precipere) "Ferrum has overshadowed much else that's happening," I admitted as I thought for a moment about what I could pull from my most recent scouting trips, "but the Bone Hunters are also on the move in a way I haven't seen before. I think they captured a survivor from Ferrum. The tournament in Tajun is still on schedule, however." That much I had at least gathered. In the end, it was something to say. I wasn't feeling too comfortable about saying much more, however. OOC: @Nato G @Toru Nui

IC: Mar (Ko-Koro) I winced with pain as Siika roared at the top of her lungs. I remembered to mutter something foul under my breath as I grabbed my crossbow. The moment of silence after the table flipped was used well. I knew there would be more noise coming. I signaled to Karv, directing him to cover the counter and the bartender. The Matoran tending it would hear a growl at the back of the Rahi's throat as it stared him down with teeth bared. He wasn't going anywhere. Clutching my weapon, I closed my eyes, breathed and focused. All this noise. It had to go somewhere, and I had already figured out where. As Siika threw a pair of Matoran over her with her legs, I could feel the crossbow I was holding start to hum gently, vibrating, almost buzzing with power as I hefted it ready to fire. I slipped past Siika and found the closed door to the back room. The person inside had caught the noise, but didn't react notably. Bar fights were presumably to be expected. A few squeezes of the trigger, and the wooden frame of the door leading to the back splintered apart. That woke him up, and he was on the move, but I could see him the whole way. I had long since learned to focus on whatever I was fighting with as a totem. To siphon off some of the sound that came towards me and lessen its strength to spare my ears. The room at the back was larger than I expected, more like a complete living space nestled into a small area right up against the edge of the city wall. I stepped inside, fixing on the Matoran hiding behind an upturned table, holding something in their hand. "You know I can hear you, right?" I asked, sounding a bit self-satisfied. "I'm counting on it" they answered, and next thing I knew I staggered back as my sight and my vision were assaulted at once, a loud and blinding flash - Stralix Powder! The power stored in my crossbow dissipated as my focus snapped. Amateur! I blinked through the spots in my vision as I saw him lunging at me, something long and sharp brandished in his hand. I made a split-second decision and grabbed my pistol. A diskette whirred from the barrel and struck the floor in front of him. More stralix powder ignited as I played it simple and safe, just repulsing all noise away from me and sending it all in his general direction. It was more than enough to halt him, he mimicked me a moment before in staggering backwards and in that moment I reached for my own blade. Now it was gathering ambient noise, as I traded a few parries with him. I was finding my focus again, and I swiped the air ahead of him, a blade of compressed sound launching from the blade to strike him and send him against the table he'd been covering behind moments before. Bladepoint at his neck put him out of commission. I sent a whistle to Karv to tell him to reach me, and then I sent another message to Siika. "I've got him" OOC: @Rahisaurus

IC: Ferron (Onu-Koro) "Well, we won't be sitting down to eat inside there, actually. There are better places for that nowadays" Ferron surmised. Ferron's Forge was, indeed, not the most glamouros sight as the two of them approached the building. The front that faced outwards looked like quite a traditional Onu-Matoran domed hut, just significantly scaled up for someone quite a bit larger than Ferron himself to get through. Even though Ferron was no longer a bulky Toa, his customers could be. At least Oliphko didn't have to bend down to make it inside. The storefront space met them at first as they went inside. A pretty significant stretch stood between that and the actual smithing station that stood against one of the walls, the pipes seen sticking out of Ferron's roof were connected here. Chimneys did not exist in Onu-Koro, here there were pipes, pipes everywhere bundled together and snaked up along the sides of the giant "bubble" the underground city sat in, and went through the roof. Ferron went past both of these and headed further back. At the end of the hut there was a corridor with steps led towards a lower section not visible from the outside. Ferron disappeared down there, and came back up with a backpack, heading back out towards the exit. "This is all I need from here, let's go" OOC: @Daniel the Finlander

IC: Mar (Ko-Koro) I accepted the cheap swill that Siika had covered without a moment's hesitation. It was just the sort of thing that I was all too used to subsisting on. Didn't really even think about as I started gulping it down. I had a lot of other stuff on my mind. A Sonics Elemental was always able to hear, of course, but with my mask being an Akaku, I also had an unparalelled ability to see. Especially with the unique upgrade I'd picked up during the business Renegade Tactical had been hired to assist Shaddix with. If there was anywhere I had a good opportunity to use my infrared, it was here, in a place so defined by temperature on one side of the scale, I imagined Ta-Wahi might be similar. It wasn't difficult to find what I was looking for. There were visible heat profiles somewhere in a space behind the counter, one that moved like a living being, about the right size... I switched to my familiar X-Ray for a moment, looking again. Indeed, the room was very dark. It would have been especially difficult for me to spot anything like that, probably a precaution they had thought of. I turned to Siika. Karv was sitting next to us with his own face swiveling back and forth in calm vigilance. "Alright..." I spoke up, after making sure our conversation would remain private, "I've seen someone. There's a back room here, somebody's hiding in there, looks to be a Matoran. "Do you feel comfortable making a bit of noise?" OOC: @Rahisaurus

IC: Ageru Tamachan (Sado, Imperial Gardens) "Yes that's acceptable. I can meet you over at the exit to the main complex" Tama answered, and she turned to head in a different direction without another word. She did also have a few things to take care of, like seeing a crystalsmith if she could find the means to procure their services. Her last dragons had been spent a while ago- She stopped, turning to look at Hatchi over her shoulder, "I'm... I bid you fair travels till then" Then she actually left. OOC: @Mel

IC: Salwa (Precipere) They didn't have to wait long, as I had run across our village like the jaws of a Vorox was snapping at my heels to make it back across towards Somok's hut. If there was one thing people never failed to say about me, it's that I was often headed somewhere, seemingly always on the way somewhere. It was quite true in a sense, in the sense that I often told people exactly that to get out of a conversation. It had become even easier now, everybody just accepted that the tribe's new head scout would surely be very busy, and I was not at all interested in contradicting them. I suppressed a panting breath as I made it inside, and approached Somok and Xyde where they were seated. "Thank you," I wheezed, "got a little bit held up" OOC: @Nato G @Toru Nui

IC: Ageru Tamachan (Sado, Imperial Gardens) She cast a glance back over her shoulder, her gaze resting with some approval at seeing her steed get acquianted with one of Hatchi's herd. It was an attractive thing to see, and she did appreacite the relatively open welcome Sarala had gotten on her in-frequent visists to the new den of the creatures. "Indeed, she's nearly back to her best, pristine self. The environment here is doing her a world of good" The same couldn't really be said for the Ageru Soulsword who was speaking. Her appearance had never been particularly glamorous, one that spoke of rough strength and living, and of lesser means to provide for life. One of her crystalline shoulderplates bore a noticeable web of cracks that spread from a point of impact. "I'm just looking to get something to eat, would you... would you care to join me?" she asked, hesitation very evident in her voice. OOC: @Mel

IC: Ferron (Onu-Koro) "I'm sure we could. How about you come with me back home, and we get something to eat, then we can have a moment to share some of that?" Ferron answered. The Turaga sounded quite animated by the suggestion, and took a moment to look around as they entered the Koro itself. The Highway led directly onto walkways that would lead them further into the Koro itself. Ferron's personal business was in the Koro's middle ring, nearby to residential areas. On their way to it, some place to find an eating stand or diner would be very doable. Ferron was not much of a cook or a breadwinner himself, but as a citizen of Onu-Koro some basic amount of such was now guaranteed to him through Nuparu's recent reforms. Some businesses had sprung up among the ever-enterprising Onu-Koronans offering to take the basic foodstuffs given in allowance to people and turn them into something more flavorful and filling than mere sustenance. Ferron had become a patron of one such establishment not too far from his forge. OOC: @Daniel the Finlander

IC: Mar (Ko-Koro) I chuckled a little bit at the Skakdi's observation. It was pretty accurate, and being a little bit shady was... well, it was just who I was. Had never been much of a saint, but also, well, having a good, stiff drink was just fine in the way I used to live. I had some sense of the kind of places that you might want to head in order to avoid attention, and Ko-Koro was a place I knew well. It wasn't home, not quite, but I had been here many times. "If there's going to be any shaking, I'm happy to let you have the honor" I assured Siika as I found a place that seemed a decent place to start. A drinking stand that was not too far from an exit to the city. OOC: @Rahisaurus

IC: Salwa (Precipere) Gatog was not in a good mood when I came to see him. The Tribe's other Beast Minders had gotten tired of trying to keep some sort of peace between him and the rest of our mounts, so he was not getting much, if any company whenever he had to stay in his den. That, in turn, made him anxious and ornery whenever I wasn't around. I stood at the den's fence with him poking his head over it to be within reach. He was at least glad to see me, but the fact that I couldn't be everywhere at once was really becoming a liability. I just wished I could have had somebody else to talk to about how you took care of these creatures... I would have to consider taking him out for a ride just to give him some movement in a bit, but for now I could leave him calmed down with having gotten a visit. My equipment was in as good a condition as I could hope to make it. It was time to get back and discuss with Somok. I headed in that direction. OOC: @Nato G @Toru Nui

IC: Zelvin (Mangaia) "Much obliged" Zelvin answered, keeping her mask primed as she walked to pass the Matoran. She wasn't convinced that this Matoran was who she appeared to be, she had appeared from behind dark, impenetrable shadows that had given Zelvin nothing to go on before the Matoran suddenly appeared, quite visible. No Matoran possessed such powers. She had her weapon present in her mind if it was needed, that would have to do as she approached the den further in where someone had invited them. Here, in the sparse light of the fire her sight had enough to work with, and she saw the large Toa and his victim unconscious against the wall. Well, she knew who had been screaming earlier. Dead? No, just passed out from pain. Zelvin raised an eyebrow for just a moment, for her own benefit, and then she politely heeded Drakkar's invitation and sat down by the fire. Her scythe rested across her lep, most of her wrapped in her cloak as she ruffled it to sit down. "Most kind" she remarked politely. Nothing was spared on the victim or the grim location. OOC: @ARROW404 @Snelly

IC: Vilda Mako (Ga-Koro Docks) "It's a good point," I remarked with a smile, "I'm not so married to my freedom to be a walking disaster I can't put it aside for a little bit" I had a moment to think about what it would actually take to do this. What sort of protection would I be able to provide? I wasn't quite as good as I once was, I had to admit that. My Kanohi had stopped working, my body just wasn't what it used to be, even as I worked to stay in shape. It was a tricky proposition, of the sort that I had been trained to see danger in at every turn. Well, maybe walking disaster wasn't so far away after all? OOC: @Mel @Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva)

IC: Krex (Fort Garsi Battle) It was at this point, that things changed a bit for the hopeful escapees. Krex didn't particularly appreciate the fact that her firepower had been blunted. She was running out of ways to be effective up on the wall. So it was to her eternal delight and to the presumed horror and dismay of the beaten enemy when they heard the whirr of an engine. Krex barreled out of the exit to the fort on two wheels, take a wide turn to avoid the torn-up and churned area of the battlefield that represented the successful defense. The speed of her bike would be more than enough to make up for that. "Get your scrawny asses out of here already, before I blast you all to the steps of Kino-Ur" she bellowed after skidding to a stop next to a mound, halfway obscured by it. She was weighing a grenade in her hand. OOC: @Smudge8 @Snelly @Mel @Visaru @ARROW404 @Techn0geist @Sparticus147 @Nato G Just an approach and a threat for now. Krex should be considered within reach, but slightly covered.