[Meta PRP] Sovereign Supply (Cerpin + Engrav)

[Buzzwulf]

A greatly fortuitous meeting.

 

[Buzzwulf]

Engrav needed a second. Too much stimulation here, too many trolls begging for attention, way too much shiny and needy and generally exhausting. He took a deep breath, held it in, released.

Too much food. That snack table was deadly.

Across the mass of troll bodies, he caught the eye of one of the trolls he'd been meaning to catch alone. He'd been mentioned to Engrav by their mutual friend as someone the yellowblood had to meet. He waved across the room, started to make his way over. Only bumped into one or two trolls on his way, which was better than usual.

Finally, he arrived at the Purpleblood's corner. The relaxed-looking troll was lounging against a pillar, looking bored. Engrav could sympathize, although he wasn't much one for lounging. "So." Engrav started, straightening up a bit, readjusting his vest. "It's good to meet you. Didn't really get a chance to chat before, troll to troll."

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

Cerpin nodded in greeting at Engrav as the other boy approached. He was an enigmatic fellow and the purpleblood didn't mind getting another chance to learn more about him. He wanted to pick at his brain, the other guy seemed fascinatingly smart and unconventional, even if a bit eccentric.

"I was just thinking it'd be good to see you again." Cerpin unfolded his arms from their position behind his head. "I was curious what your deal was. Why you signed up for this shebang." Would this guy turn out to be friend or foe? Tevini knew him which put some good points in his favor. But Cerpin knew better than to blindly trust him solely on that recommendation. Tevini's judgment was, well, a little odd sometimes.

"You interested in the stars? Or the ships?"

Buzzwulf

 

[Buzzwulf]

Cerpin's body language said casual. Relaxed. Engrav read into that, mimicked it just a little. Relaxed his back, his shoulders, hands fell into pockets. He was pretty sure the purpleblood was on guard. At least, he would have been. But maybe the purpleblood was just that carefree. Wasn't like he was gonna get culled anytime soon. Engrav slapped a smile on his face.

"I'm definitely here for the ships. You know there aren't any records on how a ship's navigator actually interfaces with the ship? How they fly them? We know that navigators have to be skilled psychics, but we don't actually know the process by which the tell the ship to go. Or at least..." he trailed off. "At least the general public doesn't. I suspect there's some kind of direct interface, and if that's true, then it could be really useful in all sorts of stuff."

The yellowblood held up his prosthetic.

"This, for instance. Not a huge fan of moving based on muscular impulse. I think there's some way to plug directly into a troll's thinkpan up there. That would help enormously with articulation, maybe even sensation if calibrated correctly." Engrav turned back in to Cerpin. Was the bored look his imagination?

"Well, I won't bore you with hypotheticals. We actually have another mutual friend. Caiden said if I had a chance, I should come say hi." He checked the purpleblood for reaction, eager to see the mask crack, if only for a second.

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

When Engrav launched into discussion about the specifics of ship navigation and interfacing, Cerpin's eyes flickered away from the yellowblood's face back to the snack table. It wasn't that the purpleblood didn't care about space travel, quite the opposite, but engineering and ship design was not his part to play in his space program. While he liked what Engrav was saying about connecting mind to ship somehow, Cerpin had no idea how to even start towards accomplishing such a thing. He nodded absentmindedly and made a mental note to push Tevini towards the guy to talk shop.

"Wait, Caiden?" The name snapped Cerpin back to attention and he looked straight back to Engrav's eyes. Was this a code signaling he was aware of and supportive of the rebellion? Or did he honestly just know Caiden socially? There was a moment of sincere interest and curiosity across Cerpin's face and he shifted to take Engrav's arm and pull him further into a corner of the room. The purpleblood didn't care much about protests from anyone he physically yanked around.

"Caiden's great. Are you two pretty close?" Then again, Caiden was friendly to everyone. It was hard to tell what differences there might be between 'close friendship' and 'acquaintanceship' with Caiden. He watched Engrav with relaxed posture but a tense scrutiny in his face.

Buzzwulf

 

[Buzzwulf]

Engrav stiffened a little as Cerpin took his arm and led him deeper into the shadows. He'd been expecting it just a little bit, but he certainly hadn't been looking forward to it. He made a little show of not being bothered by the contact, and leaned back against the wall, arms crossed. He was pretty sdure he had a good read on the purpleblood at this point. Confident, some might even say arrogant. He cared about his friends, but clearly wasn't above using them as the brunt of jokes if he could make himself seem witty. He was comfortable with contact, and Engrav suspected he would use that for leverage if he could. And he was in to something complicated. It could be anything, but hopefully it wasn't too unsavory. Cerpin wasn't going to space to sight-see, that was for sure. But whatever it was, the attention Engrav had gotten when he'd mentioned Caiden had focused the purpleblood like a laser beam.

Which meant Caiden was probably into it too. He didn't know how he felt about that. He wished Caiden had just told him. He didn't like secrets between the two of them. Engrav knew that Caiden just couldn't really say no to people.

That also meant that he had to move very carefully. If he was too suspicious, it might make make Caiden seem untrustworthy if he'd shared info that he shouldn't. Engrav could tell he'd stumbled onto something here. Cerpin was looking him right in the eye. He looked right back, giving him nothing.

"Caiden? We've met a couple times." Engrav shrugged, tried to seem uninterested. "We're not super close, but he's got interesting ideas. He's definitely one of those trolls everyone would like to get to know better, you know?"

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

Interesting ideas. Cerpin searched Engrav's expression with his eyes for any hint of emotion but the yellowblood had a strong poker face. Not a bad talent to have if you were going to loot and spy on a military mission like this. It did give Cerpin some hesitation to trust Engrav completely but not enough to write him off. Caiden had a tendency to attract oddballs but that bright hyperactive personality that ignored color castes also had a polarizing effect on trolls. Anyone that was willing to stick around him was likely sympathetic to the rebel cause or at least not opposed to it.

"Well any friend of Caiden's is a friend of mine. I look forward to working with you, Engrav." The purpleblood let go of the other boy and relaxed. They were on the same team for now and that was what mattered.

"You just let me know what you need and I'll find a way to get it to you." Cerpin gave Engrav a sly smile. He was not the info guy but rather a network guy. If Engrav was here for some kind of reason, they could probably help him out so long as he scratched their back too. And if Tevini knew him, that had to mean he was trustworthy. She tended to run away from people at the first sign of trouble.

"As for me, I just need a little help vanishing a few things here and there. You alright with that?" It was flat out theft and crime what they were planning to do but it didn't sound nearly as cool if he said it that way.

Buzzwulf

 

[Buzzwulf]

Engrav let out a breath he hadn't realized that he'd been holding. He pretended to think about Cerpin's offer for a second, although he'd made up his mind about this sort of thing the moment he'd stepped into thier little group. Of course he was gonna break a few rules. He was just gonna try to get a thing or two in return, first.

"Alright... I guess that's something I can manage. I don't know how well the military is gonna be checking our pods from space, but I can probably disappear a thing or two. I need to know some stuff though, clearly." Engrav knew exactly how well the military was going to be checking the pods. The answer was going to invariably be not well enough. "I don't wanna get caught with anything, obviously." The yellowbloods voice was barely more than a whisper at this point. "Do you have somewhere to stash this stuff? I can't carry it with me all the time."

Engrav tried to make himself relax, but couldn't quite get there. Reeling in the purpleblood was gonna be hard. He tried to play off the tension by glancing around. They WERE talking about stealing stuff from space, after all. "What stuff do you even need from the ships? Is it big?"

Yamashii

 

[Yamashii]

"You just worry about getting it to me. I'll handle the storage and transport to where it needs to go." Cerpin waved away the details as if they didn't matter. "As for what we're looking for, we want information. Blueprints, plans, anything about the ship builds." Smuggling materials would be a lot harder and he wasn't sure they'd be able to get much past the security in this place. He supposed they could still try though.

"If you can get your hands on any rare materials, I'd appreciate those too. Even if stuff doesn't look high quality or functional." The rebellion would take the scraps it could get. Their ships didn't have to be state of the art, just something that would work. One way or another, he would get Byakko up to that moon base.

And from there, everything would change.

Buzzwulf

 

[Buzzwulf]

Engrav crossed his hands over his face, pretended to think about it for a moment. Was Cerpin trying to convince Engrav that the logistics of the information handoff weren't important? Or was the purpleblood just so used to everything going his way that he refused to pay attention to simple things like information leakage or the possibility of bugs? Engrav wasn't sure, but he certainly wasn't willing to play with getting caught with any sensitive objects or info.

"Fine," the yellowblood said eventually. "I'll get you your info. Maybe some materials as well, if I can secret them away." He certainly wasn't going to be taking any risks for the purpleblood, but targets of opportunity... well, he would take what he could get in order to secure some actual funding. And given the confusion likely to be surrounding the launches, Engrav was willing to bet that security might be a little more lax than otherwise.

"I'm just... happy to help." The yellowblood's face split into a grin, and he extended his hand for another shake.

Yamashii

Sorry, you're gonna have to finish-post this one... Hopefully there's enough!

 

[Yamashii]

"Heh, the pleasure's all mine." Cerpin smirked back, taking the hand in his own to give it a hearty shake. Engrav was a hard troll to read but he seemed confident and capable. That was all the purpleblood really cared about. There would be ways to handle him if he turned out to be a spy or a plant. The rebellion wasn't going to get anywhere unless they made a few allies.

He was willing to bet on this guy.

"Looking forward to hearing from you. See ya around." He gave the other man a wink over his shoulder before heading off. There was work to be done and Engrav was inspiring him to get to it!

Buzzwulf

fin!