[META PRP] Ghost in the Machine (Engrav + Flydra)

[Yamashii]

your effort to remain what you are is what limits you

 

[Yamashii]

It seemed she had finished her errand early. Flydra Dromen closed a door behind her and scanned the hallway. She still had some time before she was to regroup with her sirens at the mess hall to enjoy a meal together. Her appointments had been completed for the day. Perhaps she would roam the halls for a bit to scope out trolls with potential. Or trolls lacking it.

'Too short. Too hyper.' She tacked on these judgments in her head as she passed by people. What she needed to find were more trolls with specific blood colors to donate reserves that she could have on standby should anything happen to her friends. It was somewhat of a morbid hobby but Flydra had never cared much what others thought of her research and planning. Lorata funded it and that was all that mattered.

Quiet and lanky, a yellowblood walked up a flight of stairs and her eyes locked on to him. He had something peculiar. A prosthetic model she had never seen before...

"Stop. I would like to talk with you." She came to a halt in front of Engrav, blocking his path from going around her. "Your arm, where did you get that?"

Buzzwulf

 

[Buzzwulf]

Engrav's eye twitched.

He was just looking for Caiden out here. Hadn't found the stupid brownblood yet, and he was pretty sure he was getting into some kind of trouble. Maybe he'd be able to find something to eat, maybe track down a few more trolls on his list before they all took off into space. But he hadn't expected to just be stopped in the hall and inspected like a piece of meat.

He turned to the offender. Gave her a quick once over. Hair neat, white scientist's jacket, immaculately clean. Hunger in her eyes. For what? Everything about her screamed military scientist, the kind who sometimes confused medicine for vivisection. If they were different at all in military medicine. He didn't want to know.

But she had the most beautiful prosthetic he'd ever seen.

Automatically actuating, it glowed with several different... what were those, reservoirs? Did the damn thing hold liquid? It was clearly designed for her personally, by someone who'd known what they were doing. he could see from here that it was an immaculate piece of engineering, and it made him think twice.

The second thought was that Flydra was still trouble.

Engrav coughed. "Made it. What about yours?" Straight to business. No use trying to play games here. And if he played dumb, he didn't think he'd ever get a chance to look at that beautiful piece she was sporting. Not that he thought there was much of a shot anyway, but he could always hope.

yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

"I constructed this myself as well." She squinted and looked over Engrav's arm thoroughly, grabbing a hold of it to inspect it without asking. It was rougher than hers for sure but he had crafted it with meticulous care. The ball joint on the elbow was impressive and he had a good range of motion from what she could tell.

"This is impressive work. Are you a mechanic or a doctor?" Who was this person? It was wonderful to see a yellowblood with such vision in his work. It was so functional, even if it lacked any fashion to it. With the proper funding, perhaps this troll could go far.

With the right sponsor, perhaps it could promote Lorata's standing even further...

"Are you planning to work deeper in this field? I could introduce you to someone who could help you. You know of Lorata Gorgos, yes?" Of course he had, right? Everyone knew who her beloved princess was, yes?

Buzzwulf

 

[Buzzwulf]

Engrav jerked slightly as Flydra tugged on his prosthetic. The yellowblood's jaw set in a grim line, but he was determined not to show weakness, especially to military trolls.

Engrav squinted at the tealblood. He had absolutely no idea who Lorata Gorgos was. Sounded like some kind of sponsor. Engrav certainly wasn't going to turn down any offer to speak to someone that was interested in funding scientific inquiry, but he was very wary of offers out of nowhere, especially when he hadn't gotten a chance to do any background research. He considered for a moment as Flydra inspected his arm.

"I have absolutely no idea who Lorata Gorgos is." he finally said. "But I'd be happy to find out. Maybe sometime when we're not being fired into space."

He focused back on the tealblood's arm, now that she's leaned closer in. Now that he had a closer look, he could tell that the socketing was very exact. He wondered what sort of control system she was using. Did the military have some way of interfacing directly with nerve impulses yet, or were they still reading muscular impulses in the residual limb, like he was? The articulation of the finger joints would be able to tell him, if the prosthetic was sufficiently advanced. They would glide more smoothly, without the muscles of the bicep needing to be flexed in specific patterns. That would be very useful if he wanted to further customize his homemade limb.

"I'd call myself more of an engineer than either mechanic or doctor, honestly. I prefer to solve practical problems." He crossed his arms, hiding the prosthetic before she could suss out any of it's more... interesting modifications. "I don't believe I caught your name."

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

He didn't know who Lorata Gorgos was? Did he not watch television or something? Her name had been all over the Superstar sponsorship advertisements. Maybe he was some kind of hermit that lived in a cave she supposed. As long as he wasn't hostile to her perfect princess, she would let it slide. For now.

"Practical problems. Hmm." Flydra raised an eyebrow, looking the yellowblood up and down. She wondered if practical problems were behind the odd and noticeable fact that half of his body looked like it had been struck by lightning while the other half remained completely untouched. It was very strange to consider the possibilities behind the look.

"My name is Flydra Dromen. Doctor. And Public Liaison Lieutenant." She tacked her military title on at the end as an afterthought. She pulled out a JROTC pamphlet to give to him in case it encouraged him to take the plunge and join. Serving the Queen was one of the most rewarding tasks to take on in life after all. Why not start as early as possible?

"You aren't one of the enlisted, I see. Who are you?"

Buzzwulf

 

[Buzzwulf]

Engrav made a show of taking a pamphlet, giving it a cursory glance, and slipped into a pocket neatly. No sense in annoying anyone, even if he had absolutely no intention of joining the military anytime soon. He'd seen what that life was like, and he was pretty sure the military had no idea how to use trolls like him. He'd be better off burning the other half of his body, saving some time.

The yellowblood did a tiny bow, not mocking but perfunctory, prosthetic against his chest. "Good to meet you, Flydra. Engrav Setlar. Volunteer." he didn't know what possessed trolls to give him all these titles. Now he could narrow down what he knew of her and what she was likely going to want from him. He took in the labcoat and hair and manner of speech and figured she was essentially a military peon, looking for valuable stepping stones. She was also...

Well she was also kind of cute, actually.

He tamped down a flush. None of that. Flydra was clearly all business, and it wouldn't do at all to give her any levers she could pull.

"So, anything in particular I can do to help the military action? Besides my normal volunteer work, of course. I'm all about collaboration."

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

Maybe this boy could be of some special use to her. He clearly didn't mind taking some amount of risk, judging by his willingness to venture into space. Perhaps there were some things that volunteers could do that officers could not. She tapped her chin, crossing her other arm over her chest.

"You already know your role to fill out military squads. But there is one other thing you could do for me. Provided you are brave enough." One never knew with these lowbloods. Some of them were heroic like Scorpa. Others were pathetic like Mahmud. Which would Engrav turn out to be?

"I want you to collect samples of dead tissue from daywalkers you encounter on the ships. Do it discreetly." She badly wanted to analyze the bodies because they were so old. The ships were essentially sealed up tombs from sweeps ago. There had to be tons of data in them. She took his hands and smiled sweetly at him but there was something sinister in her eyes.

"You'll do it for me, won't you? Anything for the betterment of Alternia?"

Buzzwulf

 

[Buzzwulf]

Engrav mulled it over for just a second. Biologicals? Huh. Engrav wasn't particularly well versed in that niche of science, but he had a bit of a background. The good doctor was clearly working with the military, and it wouldn't have been a huge stretch for them to label any biological components found on the ship and send them back down to ground control, but it hadn't been one of the precepts of sending volunteers into space. Which meant that if Flydra wanted him to collect specimens for her, it was something just for her. Which meant that it was something the royalist forces probably wouldn't be happy with her doing.

Huh.

Engrav guessed that turned this less into a political calculation and into a more straightforward exchange of services. Engrav had no compunctions at all with taking a thing or two from the ships above, but he definitely wanted to know WHY. He also had to make sure that the royalist wasn't trying to entrap him in anything untoward, but something lingering behind her smile told him that she was frighteningly sincere. Engrav was intreged

"I'll tell you what. I'd be more than happy to find some samples from you, but I'd like a few assurances first." The yellowblood grinned back at the scientist, his grin anything but sweet. It slipped a little when she took his hand, but he plastered it back onto his face with a small show of effort and a tiny shudder. He REALLY needed to work on that.

Engrav wasn't interested in that "Betterment of Alternia" drek. Save that for the lightkeepers. He wanted to know what Flydra could do for HIM.

"In return, I want access to whatever data you happen to come up with from the samples. Fair is fair. I'll even give you whatever I happen to glean from the ship's subsystems in return, which seems like more than a fair bargain." Engrav's smile grew a little wider. "I'll even label all your samples with time of collection, specific specimen notes, and radiological samples of the surroundings. I think that should be more than enough data points for you to track down whatever it is you're looking for. You know. For the betterment of Alternia."

Yamashii

Engrav chooses lowblood option number three: shady as s**t.

 

[Yamashii]

"Sure, that seems reasonable." Flydra nodded, not entirely sure what Engrav was going to do with the data considering he was not interested in medical research. But if it was that important to him, she would play along. She wanted the data that badly for herself. And if he proved to be too much of a problem, she could always call upon the rest of the sirens. One yellowblood wouldn't be too difficult to destroy.

"I'd say we have a deal then, Engrav." She smiled quietly, satisfied with the terms. "Here, you can have this." She tore a small sheet of paper from a notebook with the address to her temporary quarters in the space tower. Somehow, it had seemed like a bad detail to list on her business cards.

"You can deliver the samples there. Do not bring them by my office." She wanted to be sure this deal stayed out of the public eye as much as possible. It was not exactly something that she thought others would approve of.

Buzzwulf

 

[Buzzwulf]

Interesting. Willing to compromise. That wasn't something Engrav had been expecting from the highblood. It was certainly something he could appreciate. Maybe even exploit, if given the opportunity. He shelved that for later. Engrav was pretty sure he was being underestimated again, but he was absolutely willing to capitalize on it.

He read the sheet quickly, memorizing the short address, then shoved it into his pocket. He'd have to do some reconnaissance later and make sure the meet wasn't an ambush, but he was optimistic about this chance meeting. Flydra seemed dangerous and intelligent, but Engrav was comfortable with being thought of as an underling. At least for the time being.

"Appreciate it." The yellowblood said, pulling his metal hand from the pocket of the vest and giving Flydra's prosthetic a quick shake. "I'll be sure to be around as soon as I have something for you and I feel like security has died down. Be seeing you around."

The yellowblood gave her a quick wave as he continued down the staircase, and wondered if he was going to have anything juicy to give the scientist, or if the ships would be empty and barren. Hopefully the former. Regardless, he was positive that Flydra wasn't a troll he'd want to meet in a dark alley somewhere.

Or on the other end of an imperial questioning table.

He shuddered just a bit.

Yamashii

FIN?