Pax RP

Markus hadn't planned on lowering the bow until he noticed the tendrils growing from Swixs back.

"Screw that."

He carefully lowered the bow, taking care to disarm it first, and slung it over his shoulder again. He didn't want to come across as unwilling to fight here, even if that was the truth, but he didn't want to aggravate anything that could do that. Experience told him things that could do that were not worth getting into fights with... not unless there was money involved.

"Forgive the hostility but the last time someone knew who I was without me knowing them either I ended up running around a crashed ship crawling with undead monstrosities and being sent here just as I was about to be cleaved in two by a... I dunno, some god damn super zombie or something!"

"Smooth" Markus thought to himself, a twinge of embarrassment flashing though his mind. "Look like a gibbering fool, that'll help." He turned to the masked character to address him.

"So you're the one who recognised me. Tell me how, that's all I want to know. Frankly if you were spying on me that wouldn't surprise me, if it's sheer coincidence... whatever."

"Just sheer coincidence, friend." He said, tilting his head to the side. "I saw you several days ago, speaking with one of the psiot's avatars."

Evil Swix looked from the masked being that had been so very helpful, to the mercenary who still had not given his name, and shrugged to herself. His paranoia should surely be soothed now? Though his babbling description of super zombies piqued her interest and she visibly perked up at that point, she was still ever reminded that she had a job to do and that was more important than talking about anything. Even though he had both disarmed and put the crossbow away she made a point to continue the dark tendrils growth, slowly twining them around her torso and then curling them over her arms until the points finally rested on the backs of her hands, looking like a pair of bizarre fashion accessories.

After a very pointed look at the mercenary,
ES then turned to the masked being and continued where they'd left off. "Their freshness isn't important, just the properties I listed off earlier. If this Audreius Deus plant was vicious enough to try to take you on, it will do perfectly"
'Better than perfect' she thought 'the nastier the ingredients, the better this will go'. Another pause, this time she was considering demanding he hand over the dried stalk so she needn't offer any compensation, but ultimately decided against it as he'd proven himself to be a great help already and she didn't really want to lose it by acting rashly. Best just to blurt it out and get it over with "What would you ask for this stalk of yours?" If push came to shove, she'd go looking for the dangerous plant herself, but if she could make some sort of deal with the other character and get it without having to fight it, all the better.

Markus wasn't best pleased to find the tendrils still kept growing, but tried to ignore it as best he could. Maybe it was involuntary. Maybe.

"Sorry to intrude, but I'm looking for a population centre with more... variety. This talk of war would be good for my sort of business, however I don't want to be seen taking sides. Having lots of different clients with different agendas would help me a lot. I don't suppose you could point me to whatever serves as a capital around here could you?"

This question was aimed more at the figure who'd seen him before. The woman had only just got here, she said so herself. He doubted she could give directions.

"My name is Markus by the way."

"I would ask nothing, lady. Or. . perhaps a favor." He said, reaching into the swathes around him. Dravlin drew out the stalk; It even looked sinister, with veins and serrated thorns, blackened as if from a fire.
"Not that I know what favor I'm talking about, but I suppose a spare favor would be useful when I need one. Especially from someone with such. . unique appendages." The look he gave her, despite being behind a veil, felt eerily like a leer.

"As for you, dear Markus, I would point you to the west. To that way is a large camp, which is quickly turning into a more permanent fixture. I've taken to calling it the Encampment. Most of the homes there were dug by a dragon, you know. Named. . Ember? Fire? Furnace, that was it. A rather proud and ornery beast. But aren't all dragons?"

"Bah, but I'm rambling. My name is Dravlin. Pleased to meet you, lady. Pleased to meet you, Markus." He said, with a quick bow to each of them.

Markus' eye twitched. He gave a weak smile.

"Of course it would be."

In his mind, Markus was stringing together a long list of foul obscenities. When he's calmed down a bit, he addressed Dravlin again.

"I don't suppose you've scouted the encampment lately? I have... a brief history with them..."

"The place is inhabited by adventurers." Dravlin said, somehow looking at Markus quizzically. "You could simply wear a mask and not be anything of note. It's quite populated, though, so even if you skipped any sort of disguise you might not be noticed."

Markus considered this fact. The place had grown, that was interesting to discover. Maybe he could lay low there, it wasn't as if he was being actively hunted down... probably.

"Interesting... thank you very much."

Once again, Markus considered his situation.

"In that case I'm heading over there. I'll be keeping to myself for a while, but that encampment is fertile ground for my line of work. Would you both care to join me, especially you Swix if you are new to the area."

Evil Swix stared at Dravlin after he got the stalk out, blinked once and stared again. She quite obviously wasn't used to people referring to her or her 'unique appendages' in the way Dravlin was, and didn't quite know how to react to it. Shrugging off the sense of unreality, the woman nodded as she took the wonderfully sinister looking stalk from him. "Okay" she said, stuffing the stalk in her red bag "I guess I owe you a favour then"

Luckily, he and the man who had finally introduced himself as Markus began to talk together, allowing her to further shake off the odd feeling thel being had left her with. That was until he mentioned Furnaces name, and her head snapped back to regarding them both with a much more interested expression. Luckily it was just after that that Dravlin introduced himself, so her sudden interest might be easily mistaken for taking note of that.

The place being populated by adventurers didn't seem all that important, but, she might get some more answers about the nativity of life there-if these two had none. And a little bit more knowledge of the area wouldn't hurt. But then, ES gave a longing look towards the more wild areas that she could see, she did have to find the glowing violet mushrooms... but she wasn't on too tough of a schedule, she could put that off for a bit.

The woman turned her attention from the forest back to Markus, the tendrils wrapped around her body giving the impression of slowly undulating. Well, they weren't going to be completely motionless were they? They were quite clearly alive. "Sure, I'll come with you to this capital" she said "I'd probably end up heading there later anyway, but going there with company in a strange place would definitely be better. I can do what I need to do later... So what's this about a war?" she said, rapidly changing the subject.

((If Dravlin decides to come along too, consider ES to be already walking with you when you go ))

"Sentient beings being sentient beings. I don't know much other than the few facts and many rumours going around. Seems to involve the other planet too however, so it's going to be big."

For whatever reason, Markus was pleased to be on Swixs good side... for now at least. He didn't know much about the war though, he didn't need to. Being a mercenary is easier if you don't know who you might be working for, who you might steal from, who you might kill.

Besides, the little he did know evaporated from his mind as the woman began undulating on the spot. A side effect of the tendrils he suspected. Didn't stop him feeling any less awkward about it.

"For gods sake Markus it's not been that long... has it?"

He turned away, trying not to let on his discomfort. He wasn't doing very well.

"S-so, um, yea it's this way. We'd better get going, I thinking it may be getting, erm, dark soon."

Without looking back he headed off in the direction of the encampment, shaking his head. Anyone listening very closely would hear him muttering something under his breath, but not well enough to hear it clearly. Something about pulling himself together.

"The war." Dravlin said, walking along. He seemed almost happy about this subject. "Basically, there was a meeting held, where the leaders of all significant forces met, to figure out exactly what to do with the 'new world' we have all landed on. The meeting was engineered to fail, so of course it failed. The war is the result." He explained, vaguely.

"Everything should be calm the next few days as everybody prepares, and then there will be a. . .what is it called. . a Blitzkrieg, I've heard it termed once. Lightning war. The winners will soon be evident, and then they will have primary control over the existing world. At least, that's what usually happens with new realms such as this. Sorry, I'm babbling."

((That made me lol Borg, loving Markus reactions XD))

ES stared at Markus back, wondering what had just caused him to move off so suddenly and start talking like he was. Sighing, the woman caught up with them as she listened to Dravlins vague explanation about the war between the forces. As she walked the tendrils seemed to melt, being absorbed back into her body until she looked like the fairly unremarkable human woman that had fallen through into the world not that long ago. She also looked uncannily happy to hear about this conflict happening, or that was due to happen. Yes, saving some of the things she had to do for later had proven to be a better decision than she'd thought.

"So" she spoke again "who are these factions that want to split up the world?" She didn't bother to ask why, because trying to take over a world was something she already understood relatively well. Usually a selfish creature, she glanced sideways at Markus and asked "and what sort of work do you do anyway, Markus?" she asked rather than showing him any concern.

Markus had composed himself for the most part by the time Swix had caught up to him.
"Ahem, well several factions are involved, but they've split off into two groups for the most part. There are the Psiots, who control a great deal of the forests, the Frostwalkers, Orks who have taken to Kata fairly quickly, and the Onyx Empire, a large group of people who were soldiers on their own world. Then you have the other group. The consist of the Hive, insectiod people with an affinity for technology, the Ordo Nata, a bunch of human scientists, and the Kurd, a small Kobold clan. There are other factions as well, but they've been staying neutral for now."

When he was asked about what he does, Markus was slightly taken aback. Was that a slight hint of concern in her voice?
"Nah... can't be. Maybe. No, definitely not. What the hell is wrong with me?!"
Keeping calm on the outside, Markus answered her question.
"Sometimes I'm a guard, sometimes I'm escorting goods, or people. Sometimes I'm scouting an area out, or rescuing someone."
Markus' tone got darker at this point.
"Sometimes I steal. Sometimes I'm capturing someone. Sometimes I even-"
Markus paused. His eyes seemed to glaze over a moment, his mind became distant. He then shook his head, and continued.
"-kill. Whatever I get paid for. I was even a doorman at a wedding once. There was a real danger of the bride getting poisoned or stabbed up, so I was there to help make sure it didn't happen. No pressure or anything."

The woman in the black dress simply listened, nodding slightly as they walked. So he was pretty much a goon for hire, a mercenary-although he didn't seem too happy about the last aspect of it. Oh well, she wasn't really one to judge anyone else on any moral basis. If that's what he did then no wonder he wanted a wider variety of people to be able to hire him.

"Sounds tough" she finally said, rather at a loss for anything else to bring up in the conversation. She spared a glance at the mysterious Dravlin and then shook her head, she had no more questions for him, either. Well, that wasn't entirely true, but they were a bit rude. 'What exactly are you and how in the world do you know so much?' came to mind in it's politest and not so polite forms. But she wasn't going to say that. Not yet anyway.

Well, there was one more little thing that was bugging her "This brief history of yours" she started "what happened? They're not going to try and attack you as soon as they recognise you are they? 'cause I got enough of that back home"
'And I'd like to know beforehand so I can do something this time' she thought, frowning slightly. Apart from CP, whom she wasn't yet sure what to make of other than that he irritated the hell out of her, she wasn't looking to make any new enemies just yet. No, she was sure she'd have plenty later.

Markus rolled his eyes at the question.

"I was one of the first at this encampment. Things were fine, until I was asked to baby sit a kid. The kid was fine, however on the way back to the camp I was attacked by some woman clad in blue. I managed to incapacitate my attacker and took them to the encampment with me, least they run off and cause more trouble."

His voice got very bitter at this point.

"Ungrateful bastards threw me out because she was very good at playing the poor damsel in distress. Was banished by that jumped up "leader", what was her name... Athena! Said I disgusted her. Admittedly it didn't help the brat I was supposed to be looking after ran off when I was distracted with the woman. Frankly I'm shocked they're still alive."

Markus was now in a foul mood again. He would have been just fine avoiding that damned place forever. Work trumped personal feelings however. And if Athena was still in charge he's have to keep his head down. Hey, maybe somebody would want her whacked. Wishes come true occasionally right?

"So yea, I may not be popular with the woman up top. And if it's the capital now there's probably a guard now... unless it's a glorified camp site."

It was really obvious at this point that Markus was forcing himself to go at this point. But he had to get money, bartering was out of the window at this point for the most part and as much as the Psiots were willing to help him, he felt bad sponging off of them. He'd just have to keep his head low and stay on the guards good side. It wasn't as if he was causing trouble regularly, they wouldn't be looking for him after all. He hoped.

((I'm sure you know this Tav but these are purely OC reactions, nothing about how I actually feel ))