You're not in Ketra anymore...(Open!)

[Anonymous]

Now that he had the hang of breathing again (suck air in, blow air out, suck air in, ugh the air here was so foul), his ears stopped popping and he was sure he was alone; he could start thinking.  What he needed right now was some sort of food (he looked longingly at the drying blood on his arm), some different clothing and information.  The last thing he was completely sure of was the explosion in Crowa's lab.

Why'd they have to fight in the lab... Shame on both of them.  Where ever the hells Villi was (it'd be lovely if he was in the hells) he hoped he was feeling every bit as foolish as he was now.  They were just asking for something to blow them up, but definitely not something that would teleport them off to some place.

Samari tried to think of a place in Ketra that could have had such rough stone floors and held so many wooden boxes.  No place came to mind.  Must not have been in Ketra.  Somewhere in Necromantia then?  That wasn't too bad, but he couldn't remember any part of Necromantia ever smelling quite like this.  And if he was in Necromantia, he should have been able to teleport back to Ketra.  It was the first thing he did once he woke up and realized he wasn't in the lab anymore.  All he got was a searing headache, and managed to teleport a scant three feet away, landing in a heap of curses.  That's when he realized he was gasping, his limbs were aching a little long for taking a simple spill and that his stomach was growling.

There was a sensation he hadn't felt in a long time.

He pushed himself up into a sitting position and leaned against one of the wooden boxes.  Which gave a little bit more than he expected it to.  Odd, he reached a hand behind him and dragged his nails down it.  Felt them catching and snagging.  What cheap wood.  Or maybe the explosion rattled his brain and made him think he was still alive.  Samari held the hand in front of his mouth, sighed, and bit his wrist.  Felt nothing but mostly blunt teeth and tasted a trace of the old, congealing blood that was already splattered on his hand.  He bit down harder, wriggled his jaw back and forth and came to the conclusion that he should probably stop biting himself, just in case someone happened to walk into the strange room.  It'd be a little hard to explain.  He wasn't even sure he believed it.

Samari let his hand drop into his lap and stared at the boxes.  Pirio Deluxe Home Computer: Online Gaming Model.  What?  He should have gotten up and tried to look for some way out of the building, but he had to see what was in those boxes.  Samari crawled toward the box, or rather the box closest to the ground, since they all had Pirio Deluxe Home Computer: Online Gaming Model written on them.  

He clawed the wood on the box, leaving little trails.  This was going to take too long, there had to be a faster way to get the damn thing open.  Samari propped himself up on his knees and punched the box.  It buckled but other than having the slightest of dents in it, didn't look much worse for wear.  What sort of wood buckled?  Pirio Deluxe Home Computer: Online Gaming Model must not have been very important if they held it in these flimsy boxes.

A snarl from his stomach ruined his interest in the box's contents.  Ugh... he'd forgotten just how uncomfortable and noisy food-hunger could be.  Samari stood slowly, balancing himself against a box of Pirio etc. and began brushing himself off.  Forget the jodhpur boots, they were old and broken in and he probably would have burned them if he didn't have to go rushing off to Crowa's rescue, needing a pair of good boots he wouldn't trip over himself in.  No amount of brushing could make them look halfway decent.  He gave his grey woolen slacks a few slaps.  They had a few blood splatters above the knee, the left leg was more a collection of wool ribbons than a pant leg and the other had a few long tears above his ankle.  His tunic wasn't too worse for wear, but it was more armor than clothing.  Stiff, boiled black leather that clung to his chest, with a tail that refused to bow to gravity, sleeveless so he could move his arms around a little better.  It probably had some blood on it, maybe a couple scrapes.  He felt his collar next, probing the puncture marks on the side.  They were deep, Villi had nearly bitten through the thing.  It made him feel a little better about being in the room with the Pirios, if he hadn't managed to wriggle free and put some distance between them (clumsily falling against one of Crowa's work tables and triggering the explosion in the process), Villi would have been sucking on his neck.

Failure at its finest.  Spending X many years avoiding a person while they were mortal and wanted to be bitten, only to get bitten yourself when the mortal becomes undead and his preferences shift.  If that had happened, the best he could hope for was that Villi finished him off completely... and, if he was lucky, kept his hands to himself.

In a way, not being bitten, but being here was a strange turn of luck.  Almost enough to be unlucky.  Villi had better have been scattered in bits around that lab, if he wasn't; Samari was sure Crowa's little chit would be able to kill him in his hopefully weakened state.  Good Riddance.  His stomach growled again and Samari nearly collapsed.

"Sssssusssh," he hissed, picking himself up and looking around for any sort of exit.  All he saw around him were more wooden boxes, but, when he looked up he saw- what in the hells?

There was a little sign on the wall just above the wooden boxes in front of him that said 'Exit'.

Insane.  At least it fit in with everything else.  Muttering how about how easily he could have jumped over the wooden boxes if he'd still been undead, Samari walked around the line of boxes.  Walked past two of them, in fact, before he got to the wall.  Underneath the sign that said 'Exit' there was a door.  A strange door.  It didn't have a doorknob.  Just this metal bar.  The door said 'Exit' too.  Samari wondered if it was a trap.  Only one way to find out.

Samari put both hands on the bar, lightly (taking them off quickly a few times before settling them down around the bar), and pushed.  The door needed a little oomph to get it open, but it swung open like any other door Samari ever encountered.  What was behind it was something Samari never encountered.  A wall... a building... that seemed to stretch up to sky.  It... gleamed and he could see people (people!) walking around a bunch of... stuff.  To either side of the building were more enormous, gleaming buildings.  He couldn't see if they had people inside them too, but they looked enough like the first building that he assumed they did.  Samari stepped out of the box-building, took a couple steps forward (his neck starting to hurt from looking up at the building) and sat down, simultaneously coughing and feeling his ears pop.

What the hells was this place?

[Anonymous]

"Lookit that," Maekon drawled, helpfully pointing out the that.  "Izzit a robber?"

Sunny didn't want to look at the that.  Maybe if she ignored the that long enough it would just disappear and she wouldn't have to deal with the that.  Dealing with that's wasn't... well actually it was in her line of work, just a part of it that she was never looking forward to confronting.  It was why she decided to take this post at All-mart.  Being a security guard at an All-mart was an easy way to make credits.  All she had to do was show up, make sure her uniform was on point and either walk around the store, stand at the exits in case one of the alarms went off, or patrol around the parking areas in a little scooter.  No one was supposed to steal from an All-mart.  It was like, moving out of Adeolis, it just didn't happen unless you were absolutely crazy.

Of course Ash had to look at what Maekon was looking at.  He was pretty gung-ho anyway though.  "Whazzat?  You see where 'e came from Mae-mae?"

"Yeah, from that place all the stuff's kept at."  Maekon took a long drag from her cigarette and put it out on the side of the building.

Sunny groaned, taking a little puff off her own cigarette, stupid Maekon.  If she was a proper security guard, instead of Ash's bored, jailbait girlfriend she would have known to appreciate a good smoke break.  Someone else would deal with it.  Who cared that they were a few minutes late, no one came out looking for them.  The rest of the guys had it covered.

"Think we should 'ave a look?" Ash asked, spinning his stun-club around and grinning.  "Might as well eh?  They ain't even movin', just starin' like a druggie."

"Might be dangerous," Sunny took a few puffs from her cigarette, hoping to remind Ash of why they were out there in the first place.  "Druggies ain't the most trusty sorts."

"Well, we need to break in these sticks sometime," Ash grinned.

Sunny scowled, he looked like a psycho.  What kind of person wanted to hit someone with a stun-club?  A psycho.  You'd have to be especially psycho to give up a good cigarette break just go see if you could beat someone with a stun-club.  Extra psycho.  "Don't waste that cig bitch, or I'll test my stick out on yerr ass."

"Bitch!" Maekon squeaked, stamping a platform boot and crossing her arms.   "You betta-" Ash put a hand down on her shoulder, which (thankfully) shut her yap.  "No one said we were gonna waste a cig, we can keep smokin'.  'Ow're they supposed to know we ain't supposed to smoke on duty?" Ash grinned, raised his eyebrows a couple times.

Sunny considered punching him in the face.  That would waste the cig... damn...  "Lead the way, o' hero of Adeolis.  I gotcher back."


Samari's neck was started to hurt from staring at the enormous building.  It would probably be a good time to stop staring at it and try finding something useful.  A nice thought, but he felt a little too overwhelmed to move.  If he was lucky, this was just a hallucination.  It didn't make enough sense for it to be real.  Buildings couldn't be made that tall or made out of glass.  The undead didn't just become mortal, just like no mortal just became undead.  He probably got a nose full of fumes after the explosion.

But... he wasn't breathing then.  

"I say we 'it 'em now and just drag 'em off somewhere.  Who really cares about people that rob All-mart?"

Samari tilted his head back down to the ground, turning it in the direction of that voice.  Three people were approaching him.  A man with sandy hair in a low ponytail wearing blue pants, a light blue button up shirt with all sorts of strange metal bits hanging off it, a black belt rippling with pouches and carrying a black stick that was either making a hissing sound as he moved or his ears were starting to make a different funny noise.  There was another man behind him, a little guy with short, curly blonde hair in the same outfit, only his stick was strapped to the belt.  At his side was... hells, a freak.  It looked like a young female wearing tall, fuzzy black boots with ridiculously high soles, a pleated navy blue skirt that barely got past her hips, a white shirt with some silver writing on it, fuzzy black gloves that went up to her elbows and a sleeveless, fuzzy black jacket that went down to her rib cage.  War paint was the most accurate description of the bright makeup smeared all over her face, she wore her long black hair in a ponytail on each side of her head and they were dripping with charms.  The hood of her jacket had bunny ears on it.  All three had what Samari guessed were cigarettes hanging from their mouths, but he'd never encountered any cigarettes that smelled that bad before.

"Good job hero.  You've given us up," The blonde man said in a very womanly voice.  He stepped in front of the pony-tailed man and turned around slightly to blow a puff of smoke in his face.  That's when Samari saw a slight curve on the 'man's blouse.  Great...  The pony-tailed man was probably female too, for all he knew.

The freak marched up to him with her hands on her hips and bent over, her skirt flipping up in the back ("Ugh, I think I'm gonna go blind now" the blonde female grumbled.) "Where you gonna rob All-Mart, druggie?"  She had one lip curled under the other, her teeth hanging over it like some sort of demon bunny.

Samari scooted backward, his ears popped again and the smoke from her cigarette itched in his throat.  If only her nose would start twitching, then he'd be sure this was some twisted illusion.  It would be just enough nonsensical-

"Fuck off Maekon," the other female said, walking past the other female and giving her a little shove toward the pony-tailed man.  The younger female began shouting, Samari ignored her and stared at the other one.

Sunny was usually nervous around other girls.  The more feminine they were, the more nervous she was.  She remembered reading somewhere that when something lacked something else it would try to suck it off something that had too much of it.  The nervousness was probably a side effect of her bland, non-girly self trying to suck girly prettiness off another, more pretty and girly, girl.  She had to be professional now, had to take control before Maekon made them all look bad or Ash started going all psycho-pow with the stun-club.  She tried to imagine what the druggie would look like in a couple years when the drugs would sap all the prettiness and hell the life out of her.  She took a deep breath and removed her scanner from it's pocket on her belt.  "Ma'am, give me yer right hand, please."

Samari blinked at the blonde female, looked down at his tunic, then back up at the blonde female.  He wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to give her his hand.  The hell would she do with it once she had it?  Besides, it had blood on it.  It would probably unnerve her.  He cowered a little when he heard the little freak pointing out the blood to the pony-tailed man.  There had to be a way he could get this female's attention off his hand long enough to get away.  Maybe...

"No."

"Scuse me?"

"No."

Sunny blinked.  Weren't people supposed to follow orders when they heard them?  It wasn't like she was asking the woman (she did have a bit of a deeper voice than she thought a woman that size would have, she thought she'd be a squeaker like Maekon) to do something perverted.  Just, give me your hand.  Simple.  Not perverted.  Other druggie shoplifters would give her their hands, no problem.  "Just gimmie yer hand.  I ain't gonna bite you.  Just need to do a scan."

A what?  Samari looked at the other two, the freak was giggling and the pony-tailed man was smirking.  "No."  He shook his head for emphasis.  The blonde female gave him a bug-eyes stare and then looked at the other two.  They, all toothy grins, looked at her. Samari pushed himself to his feet and ran, heading for the space between the enormous buildings, cursing his mortal slowness and his belly for choosing now to start rumbling again.

"'EY!"  

That must have been the pony-tailed man, it sounded like a man.  He could hear footsteps behind him.  Two sets, maybe the blonde female and the pony-tailed man.  He could hear the freak screeching "Get 'im Ash!! Wheee!"  Samari went into a full sprint, which still wasn't as fast as he could have gone as a vampire and tried to remember to breathe as he made a mad dash towards the space between the buildings.

[Anonymous]

Cook had finally talked Aidrian and the Captian into a much needed re-supply stop. Personally, he was absolutely sick and tired of trying to get around on a broken biomechanical leg. The parts were gummed up and he hadn't had anything he could use to replaced it. Somehow, All-mart became their stop of choice, though he'd had no say in the matter.

Grumbling to himself he hobbled his way out of the building, taking the back way out. He didn't really enjoy doing supply runs on earth. People tended to stare at his less than fully human appearance. He had a human enough face, though partly mechanical. He had two arms, three legs at the moment and many tenticles that were at the moment, supporting much of the weight over his malfunctioning leg. At times, it was hard to tell which parts were replaced, and others, entirely obvious. Most of his right side seemed to have been replaced and what remained was somewhat scarred.

Busy grumbling, he wasn't expecting anyone other than perhaps security to be in the back of the shopping area, so when Samari came flying around the corner, he very nearly fell over, several tenticles morphing out of his body to right his heavy form. "Hey, whats your hurry?" He asked sternly, his eye making a clicking noise as it focused on the guards not so far behind. "What'd you do?" It looked to him as if the thugs were a little over-zealous about the whole matter, but then he could never be sure. For all he knew this kid was wanted for murder and had robbed a government building or something equally foolish.

[Anonymous]

Corners were always good, if he could get around the one coming up and duck down another passageway before the trio caught up to him he'd be-

Where those tentacles?

It wasn't the best time to stare.  It really wasn't the best time to stare, but stare he did.  Samari actually forgot to stop running before he started staring and slipped, falling flat on his back, but still looked up at the... three legged, shiny (metal maybe?), tentacled man.  That was talking to him.  It was somewhat intelligent.  The wonders never ceased in this hallucination.

Samari sat up and reached a hand back to touch his hair (it had been in a bun, but now a few strands were hanging freely around his face, the actual bun was flattened) looking over his shoulder soon after.  "Being chased."

Tentacles' reply made his red eyes widen.  Definitely intelligent.  "I have no idea.  They... ah... want to see my hand for some reason-"  Samari tensed up suddenly and looked back over his shoulder, lifting his upper lip a little.


Ash was in full psycho mode now.  He'd been swinging the stun-club around ever since he started running.  If Sunny wasn't mistaken, he was also chanting something along the lines of 'gonna whack you good'.  Psycho.   Sunny was almost glad the druggie chick had collapsed.  Now Ash wouldn't have any reason to hit her with the stupid stick and Sunny could just scan her hand, giver her a warning and be done.

Or rather, she could do that if the druggie chick hadn't fallen next to a customer.  Damn, damn, damn.  Sunny skidded to a halt, holding a hand out to stop Ash from immediately running over and 'whacking 'er good'.  She hoped this customer wasn't the type that actually read rules and whatnot for various companies, so she wouldn't have to put her cig out...

"'Scuse us, sir.  Please step back from this suspect," Sunny pointed at the woman on the ground.  "Don't think she's dangerous, just a bit slippery.  Maybe high too."

Ash started swinging the stun-club around again.  The woman was staring at Ash's new buddy, then back at the cyborg and back and forth.

[Anonymous]

"Suspect in what?" Cook asked, shifting his shopping bag behind him where a small tentacle morphed out of his back and wrapped around it, leaving his hands free. To him, it looked like the three 'security guards' were likely to be far more trouble than the little person on the ground.

He reached down and hauled the fallen 'suspect' to his feet, but placed him slightly behind himself. He was eyeing the club-swinger. He knew the problem with the hand-chips. He didn't have one either, but then again, even if they did implant one, he had so much other mechanical what-not in his body, it tended not to work for very long..or his body absorbed it, one of the two.

"You there, would you put that stupid thing down? I don't believe that's a regulation weapon to begin with, and I highly doubt it's to be used for a simple, non-dangerous suspect." He was of course talking to Ash and referring to his stun-club.

He leaned back and gave Samari a tug forward just enough to give him a sniff. "Not high" He assured. "Confused, and scared half to death I'm sure."

His tentacles seemed to be keeping an eye on Samari. If he tried to run, chances were they would snare him and keep him with cook.

"What is it you intend to do to this one exactly?" He eyed Ash "Personally, I wouldn't hold the running against them. I would have run too if that thug came after me with a club."

[Anonymous]

Samari flinched when when he was grabbed, but had the sense to look up at who was grabbing him before wriggling or struggling to free himself.  It was the metal-tentacle guy, so Samari let himself be picked up, and stood when his feet were level with the ground.  He shifted a little further behind the man, once he let go.  

Sunny sighed.  This was getting too difficult too quick.  She was going to slap the taste out of Maekon's mouth once this was all over - and maybe steal her cigarette if she was smoking one.  Stupid kid.  "Robbin' All-mart.  Saw her stumblin' out of the warehouse.

"Yeah, Ash.  Damn!  Put that stick down!  Psycho!"  Sunny scowled at Ash, then glanced back at the cyborg and took a drag on her cigarette.  

Ash scowled and stopped swinging the stun-club around.  "It's in regs.  S'also mine, I can use it 'owever I please."

"Liar.  Sir, don't listen to him.  He's new and stupid."

Samari walked forward when he was tugged.  Never good to make the person trying to save you frustrated, at least not while those two (he didn't see the little freaky girl) were around.  He really didn't like the way the pony-tailed guy was watching him.  Wait... did the metal-tentacle man just sniff him.  Samari looked up at him, his expression just puzzled enough to confirm that he was, indeed, confused.

"Who you callin' a thug?" Ash seemed to bristle up somewhat.  "I'm a security guard!  I protect stuff from people that'd steal it!  No one 'as a-

Sunny clapped a hand over his mouth and scowled when she saw his cigarette tumble to the ground.  "Sir, my sorrys, he's new, stupid-like.  We just need to scan her hand there.  Didn't look like she stole anything, so she'd just a warnin' this time."

Samari sighed, it really wouldn't be appropriate to scream at the guard about getting his gender wrong.

[Anonymous]

Cook glanced down at the boy, pursing his lips a moment as he considered something. "Well, most people who don't live here don't have one of those things stuck in their hands. Simple stop for a resupply doesn't require them."

He looked up at Ash. He didn't like the thug, but for the most part, cook was ignoring him now that Sunny was keeping him from saying anything stupider than he already had. "Kid, you got your papers on you? or you leave them in the ship again?" He asked, glancing back at the scared one, but he hardly waited for an answer. "If you really want to have to type in all that information by hand, I'm sure the captain wouldn't mind if you followed us back to the ship and let him present his papers proper-like." Cook assured.

He normally didn't go out of his way to help others, but this kid just seemed to be in way more trouble than he deserved. He certainly wasn't a typical thief. they normally had been at it long enough that they knew how things worked, knew how to fight and get away. This kid just seemed...completley out of place. Besides, Cook needed a new assistant anyway, and this kid needed a way off the planet.

[Anonymous]

What did hands have to do with giving someone a warning not to steal?  For all he knew, a warning meant cutting off a finger or something similarly awful.  Pony-tailed man seemed eager enough to hurt another person for it to be possible.

Hold on... thing?  Stuck in his hand?  He was already supposed to have something in there?  Samari raised both eyebrows and tried to keep from staring at the metal-tentacle man's own hand.

Sunny wasn't pleased.  No chip required more work to find out who the subject was to make a profile of them.  Ugh... she was really going to have to strangle Maekon after this.  Wring that skinny neck and wring it good.  

Samari's eyebrows settled back down when metal-tentacle began talking about leaving some papers on a a ship.  Finally.  Something that wasn't strange.  He nodded when he was looked at.

The expression on Sunny's face slowly became ashen and horrified when the cyborg started talking about typing in the chick's information and worse - going back to their ship and waiting for them to get the papers which she'd have to type in right there.  Ugh... who knew how long that would take.  Ages.  Forever.  She wouldn't even get paid for overtime if she went, since she was still technically on break.  Fuck.That.

"No need sir.  I'm sure a warning'd be just as good."  She looked in the woman's direction and crossed her arms.  "Keep yer hands to yerself."

Ash looked dissapointed, but he finally scoffed and began stalking back to their alleyway.  Sunny followed soon after, her grumbling too soft for them to hear around the corner.

Samari walked out from behind the metal-tentacle man once he was sure the pony-tailed man and that woman were gone.  Even then, he peered down the alleyway so he could see them walking away.  Now completely satisfied that they were gone he turned around and bowed, sweeping his arms out to the side and holding his hands palm up once they were fully extended.  Once he was standing up straight again he crossed his arms and smiled a little.  "Thank you.  Mind if I borrow your ear for a moment?"

[Anonymous]

"You're welcome, and No, don't mind a bit, but let's get out of this alley. Cave man over there seems too likely to get bored again for my tastes" Cook pointed out. They needed to at least move to a new, less seen location with a better escape path. "You want to sit a spell and talk, or walk with me?" He'd give the boy the option. The poor kid had been scared half to death after all, it was reasonable for him to need a break, and heaven knew the cyborg himself never turned down a break, especially not with his leg acting up and parts needing replaced.

He headed off, shopping bag still held by a tenticle in his back. No matter what the Kid's answer, they still needed to go a little ways to make sure they were out of sight and earshot of the crazy security thugs, and if the kid decided he wanted to walk, the ship was also in that same direction.

[Anonymous]

Getting out of the alley was a splendid idea.  Though... Samari could barely focus on keeping his eyes on the metal man, they kept jumping all around his strange new surroundings.  There was no way he could concentrate if they were to walk anywhere.  He'd see something odd that would distract him.  He put a hand to his head and looked down at his boots.

"We should sit.  I'll probably break my neck looking at this city.  Is this even a city?  Or does it have some other name?"  The place was certainly much bigger than any city Samari ever saw.

Samari walked as close to the metal man as he could, his eyes traveling to the bag held in a tentacle.  That certainly was a weird fabric.  He'd have to ask- wait a moment.

"Speaking of names, I'm Samari Rilynund."

[Anonymous]

Cook nodded "Yep, it's a city. Aedolis is it's name...though the building you seemed to have come out of is simply All-mart, a store where you can buy just about anything you need."

Finding a more secure location, he came to a hault and settled back on tenticles that seemed to simply appear. "Name's Cook." He replied with a nod, extending his right hand. "You get youself in some trouble and wind up dumped here?" No one ended up in Aedolis without knowing where they were-- at least not for long.l

[Anonymous]

It was a little surprising that Aedolis could still be called a city.  To Samari it looked like a forest of buildings with all the animals replaced by people and other odd looking moving things (there always seemed to be several large, star-bright... things zipping around the sky).  

Samari jumped when the metal man stopped and spawned a few tentacles to sit on.  At least he, Cook, did a familiar surface dwelling gesture soon after he introduced himself.  For all he knew, people in this city licked each other's noses after they met each other.  Samari took Cook's hand lightly and moved his arm up and down.  Then his ears popped again and he nearly wobbled off his feet in the dizzy spell that followed, clinging tightly to Cook's hand and holding the other to his head.  Samari slowly lowered himself to the ground and loosened his grip on Cook's hand.

Then took a look at his blood crusted hand and grinned nervously.  "That was a different sort of trouble," he put both hands in his lap.  "Exactly how can someone be dumped somewhere?  Does it happen often in this city?"

[Anonymous]

As the boy tipped, Cook tried to help lower him to the ground. "Easy kid" He muttered. He wasn't about to kneel, he'd never get up again, especially with his mechanical leg being faulty at the moment. "Well, being dumped somewhere is fairly simple. Someone ends up with someone they don't like, or causes them too much trouble, and they just fly in something like those" He pointed to the zippy things around the sky. "And when they find someplace far enough away, they could simply dump them out of the ship and fly away. There are of course other ways to do it, and honestly Aedolis is a very strange choice for a dump since there are so many people...but then again, with all of their crazy laws, getting in trouble is very easy as you found out."

He lifted the kid's hand to examine the blood, turning the arm over and looking for wounds. "You have no idea how you got here?" He checked as his mechanical eye seemed to be busily scanning for injuries. Dizzies were not something he took lightly...after all, a set of the dizzies made the somewhat complicated process of staying balanced all the more difficult for him. He had too many things trying to keep his center to generally keep it while it was rapidly changing and making him sway. "What's the first thing you remember about this place?" Perhaps the kid was even beaten and was actually from Aedolis, but couldn't remember.

[Anonymous]

Samari made good on his omen about breaking his neck while looking around when he snapped his head upward to watch the zippy flying things.  People flew in those things?  Did they really 'dump' other people out from that high?

How did anyone live?  The people that lived around here were definitely made out of sterner stuff than what they made their crates out of.  Unless they weren't supposed to survive 'dumping', which is what he thought.  It sounded like a very elaborate and obvious way to murder someone.

Most of the blood on his hand was on his fingers, caked heavily under his nails, but there were streams of it down his palm and wrist.  His other hand had a few crusty ribbons of blood around the fingers and coiling down his arm too.  His right arm had a few streaks of dried blood down the bicep that looked like the blood from a wound, but there was no sign of injury.  There were a few splatters on his knees as well, but he didn't limp or try to keep them straightened.

When Cook began asking questions, Samari looked back down, easing his head down slowly since he nearly pulled a muscle looking up at the sky.  "I don't.  I couldn't even begin to guess why I'm here.  For all I know, I really did fall through the sky.  I only know one person that can fly... well could fly."  Samari paused then, wondering if there was some way Oris would be able to find him.  Probably not... it wouldn't have been that hard for him to ask about Thanatos, if Samari hadn't heard of Aedolis, there was a good chance Oris hadn't either.

The first thing Samari remembered from being the room with the Pirios, All-mart, was waking up in a panic, not teleporting somewhere familiar and realizing his was gasping for air while his stomach gnawed on itself and his head nearly exploded.  "I remember waking up that All-mart place and lost my head.  I wasn't exactly having a tea party before I ended up there."

[Anonymous]

Cook didn't really know what to make of the blood on the kids arms. Maybe he'd been in a fight and had been clawing at people, but in all honesty, Cook couldn't see how this kid could come out of a fight without having the snot beaten out of him. No, a fight didn't seem likely.

He followed the kid's gaze and then almost smiled at his comment about falling through the sky. "Normally they aren't very far off the ground when people are dumped-- unless they have a whole different goal." It was rather difficult to figure out where a body came from when the ship was simply zooming past at normal altitude, making no signs of slowing, lowering or otherwise drawing attention to itself.

"Alright then...first thing you remember is All-mart, that's a start I suppose." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "But you remember things before that?" That was good. He straightened slightly "Were you in a crate?" If so, things were starting to make a little bit more sense. If he was drugged and shipped, of course he wouldn't know where he was.

[Anonymous]

Oh... so dumping wasn't quite murder, just a clumsy way of getting rid of other people.  The best way to get rid of anyone was simply to murder them.  Though, living among surface dwellers, even the ones in Thanatos, taught him that murder simply wasn't the option most settled on when someone was too, well anything.  Too ambitious, too annoying, too stupid, too dangerous...  

If only he'd learned that lesson after meeting Villi.

For a moment, Samari wondered if he should pretend to have amnesia.  It'd be a lot easier for Cook to swallow then what really happened.  That would have been a lot easier if he hadn't mentioned Oris already.  Stupid Oris.  Samari reached up to touch his collar, sliding a finger over the gouges in it.  They weren't enormous, more like someone tried to punch through the leather with a large needle, twice, which was more or less what happened.  He nodded.  "The last thing I remember before waking up in... All-mart, was falling back into a table full of bottles-"  and exploding.  Samari wasn't sure about mentioning that last bit, sure it was more or less the most important detail, but that would lead to questions about why he was alive and whole.

He couldn't even answer those questions himself.  Well, the alive part, he was supposed to be whole.  He had good healing, emphasis on the had.  Now he would probably be stuck hurting forever if he so much as stubbed a toe.  Something that was the merest and most minor of injuries at the beginning of the evening, something more a danger to a shoe than his foot, would probably leave him hopping for a second while the initial sting faded away.  It was hard to keep from rolling his eyes at the potential indignity of it all.

"I was fighting.  My opponent grabbed me and once I got out of his grasp I fell into the table."  That was the short version.  Samari didn't think this would help Cook much.  It was probably a good time to start asking some questions himself, to try to make some sense out of all of this.

"Do you know where Necromantia is?  That's where I live, not where I was immediately before coming here, but I can find my way back there if you know where Necromantia is."

[Anonymous]

Cook considered this quite seriously for several moments, mechanical parts squeaking, tenticles getting restless and fidgeting. "I don't know where that is, but I am not the Navigator, nor the pilot. I keep everybody fed and sometimes help fix things. That's my job." Cook explained easily. "However, I know the navigator of the ship pretty well, if you like we can go back and talk to him, see about getting you headed back home." He offered. He didn't like this whole dumping business. A simple fight was no reason to drop a person off in a place where they didn't actually know how to survive. That was closer to murder then dumping in his opinion.

"Do you remember why you were fighting?" He was mostly trying to get a grasp on the kind of people they were dealing with-- or potentually dealing with anyway. More than once angry shiploads of people had caused trouble for them because they were unknowingly working for their rivals and had been hired to pick up something that they didn't want moved. He almost smiled at his own thoughts: He was glad Adrian wasn't aboard on this particular trip. That man always got annoyed when Cook did something like bring a lost person to the ship. It wasn't like Cook brought just anyone to the ship. He was pretty good at feeling out a person's intentions most of the time. This kid seemed nothing but confused and lost and in need of some serious directions and transportation.

[Anonymous]

What if he didn't know where Necromantia was?  Or that there was such a place called Necromantia?  Sure, he hadn't heard of a place called Aedolis before now, but he wasn't a sailor.  He did keep a variety of maps around his manse, for divination, but there wasn't one that showed this Aedolis place.  Samari watched Cook's tentacles fidget and tried to resist picking at the blood under his nails.  He was so hungry that he might just try eating it.  That wouldn't look good, whether Cook thought he was odd for eating dried blood or just thought he was chomping on his nails.

Cook didn't seem to know about Necromantia either, but did know someone that might.  Samari nodded when Cook mentioned going and talking to him.  "Yes, please.  My housekeeper will have a fit if I don't return."

Samari's eyebrows crossed slightly when he was asked for more information about the fight.  Maybe fighting for a certain reason got people out in Aedolis 'dumped'.  Or Cook was trying to feel out what sort of person he was.  "The one I was fighting was an... associate of mine.  He threatened my apprentice to lure me away from my home.  I suppose he was going to use my apprentice's life as a bargaining chip to get what he wanted from me.  I don't bargain with annoying insects.  I kill them."

[Anonymous]

Cook raised an eyebrow. He killed them? He'd been running terrified from rent-a-cops. Not a particularly convincing statement. "Well, let's see if we can get you home, but there will be no killing aboard the ship." He stated. "Especially since I'm bringing you aboard." They'd likely hold him responsible if the kid turned out to be a psycho. "Come on, on your feet. Ship's not so far off." Cook assured, rising to his feet, only to have his mechanical leg make a noise and a bolt pop out. "Grab that, would you?" He requested, giving the mechanical leg a smack to put it back in line. "I wish they'd quit upgrading. the newer ones just have more parts and break faster-- but they don't keep carrying the old ones." He'd probably just about rebuilt his leg more than once. He was pretty hard on the mechanical leg, partly because he was not a small man, and partly just the line of work he did.

A little less steady with his leg coming apart, he began a slow, lumbering walk towards the ship. "Bring the bolt and keep up" Cook requested. The kid didn't look old enough to him to have a house keeper, but then maybe he was one of those rich kids he'd heard about; parents never home, house keeper more nanny than housekeeper, life handed to him on a plate. Could be, made sense, and he could have been dumped to get at mommy and daddy. Seemed like a fitting enough Scenario. "You remember the last time you ate?" He was a cook, food was on his mind much of the time. If he wasn't eating, he was usually deciding on the next meal for the crew, or making a list of supplies to get at the next stop.

[Anonymous]

That eyebrow had to be doubt... or Cook was trying to imagine him killing someone.  That wasn't something he felt he needed to reassure Cook about.  Especially since he was going to try to get him back to Necromantia.  Samari wasn't constantly fighting the urge to kill people, he just had a few radical ideas when it came to improving a person's disposition.  Or got a little too hungry and carried away.  Now that he only had one reason to kill anything there wouldn't be any trouble.  He'd just have to hiss and bear it if there was anyone on their ship that would be a lot more pleasant with a knife in their chest.  "I can control myself," he said, realizing afterward how silly it must have sounded; especially if Cook was just humoring him.  Anything he tried to say afterward would just increase the inanity, so Samari put his hands on the ground to push himself to his feet-

-And jumped back a foot, his eyes widening when... something fell off Cook's leg!

He was definitely fearsome.  One to make people quake in their boots when he went walking by.  He wouldn't blame Cook for thinking he was an arrogant braggart after that.  First few moments in Aedolis aside, it'd been years since he startled in response to something.  Samari let out the breathe he'd been holding in and started to reach a hand out to fuss with the strands of hair that had come loose from his bun when Cook told him to grab the uhm thing.  He crawled over to it, picked it up gingerly and sprang to his feet.

Since Cook was talking, Samari tried to pay attention to what he was saying, rather than investigate the piece of metal in his hand.  It was hard for him to follow along though.  What did he mean by upgrading?  Or carrying old ones?  Did he mean legs?  Like the metal leg?  He stole a glance at Cook's strange looking bag before he started to walk after him.  Could a person just, buy one of these things?  Maybe there were people here who specialized in making metal body parts.  Maybe it was like Necromancy.  What sort of purpose did this little piece have?  Samari looked at it closely, narrowing his eyes.

The sound of Cook's voice snapped him out of his piece inspection.  He missed the first couple words, but got the general idea from the rest of them.  It'd been more than sixty years since he had anything widely thought of by the majority as food; and honest as it was, Cook would probably cuff him and demand that he be serious if he said it.  His last 'meal' would have to substitute for that last time he ate... not that it was much better.  "Yes, last evening."