(Untitled)

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen meant to go back to her world last night, get on Shiphrah and Puah's back, and ride like hell after the people who raided the Republic of Dave. She has orders to track them down, get Dave away from them, and bring him back to his erstwhile Republic regardless of what's happened to him. She intends to obey those orders, too. One way or another

Comments

[crabbycustomer]

Karkat has been spending a lot of time in the forge lately; it's good to have his own private space again, and it's different from a room in the bar in a way he can't define. He is on his way into the bar, wearing a black corduroy jacket with some subtle red embroidery of his sign, when he makes a detour to watch the flaming sword.

(Unusual weapons are the usual, for the trolls, but that's pretty cool. And the body armor is worth a second look.)

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

If Karkat is any good at observation he'll note, after a bit, that the sword has some tubing coming out of the hilt. It's hard to track after that, since it appears to run along under the arm and out of sight- but considering that there's a good-sized, teardrop-shaped blue hunk of metal strapped to the wielder's back it's probably a fair bet that that's where the tubes go.

After a bit, Ellen stops, and the sword's flames go out. She reaches up and pushes the gold faceplate out of the way. "Hi, Karkat," she calls out. "How long have you been there?"

[crabbycustomer]

Oh, it's her.

He shrugs. "A WHILE. BODY ARMOR, HUH?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I usually wear body armor when I'm not at Milliways or inside the Megaton city walls," Ellen says with a shrug. "Heavy stuff, usually. I just recently got this suit- I used to have one just like it, but it got destroyed ages ago. This is a Crimson Dragoons stealth suit, something like two hundred years old."

[crabbycustomer]

"HUH," he says again.

Trolls don't usually go into body armor, even for their shock troops--it goes against the high casualty aesthetic the higbloods and seadwellers both encourage for their own disparate reasons--but it's an interesting thought.

But it probably couldn't do much against an omnipotent dog. Right?

"WHERE DID YOU GET IT?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I got this one from the Bar," Ellen says, "but the original one was locked up in a pre-War armory. I had to survive a virtual reality simulation of the battle in which the suit was originally captured before the door would unlock and let me have it."

(That's not exactly what the point of the sim was. And there was a lot of other stuff in that armory. And the sim wasn't even all that accurate thanks to a general who just couldn't stop meddling with the programmers' work. But... well, she did have to run through the sim, and the suit did come from the Anchorage campaign. so.)

[crabbycustomer]

"HUH," he says again. It's kind of troubling that the people whose worlds make the most sense to him are the ones who come from worlds other people would describe as post-apocalyptic; or maybe not. There is a definite fixation on the end of the world running through troll culture.

"WHAT DOES IT DO?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Protect against most forms of small arms fire, stand up reasonably well to automatic rifles and the occasional chaingun, offer moderate resistance against laser weapons- can't vouch for plasma- mute most of the sounds a wearer inevitably makes while moving, and when I engage the stealth mode-"

Fwoomp.

"Bends light around the wearer so that as long as they hold still and don't make a sound, they're effectively invisible," says the vaguely human-shaped distortion in the air where Ellen was. "The Crimson Dragoons were an elite sniper and infiltrator corps in the Red Chinese military. Hiding was kind of important for them."

[crabbycustomer]

Karkat blinks, impassively at the space where she used to be.

"THAT IS PRETTY COOL," he says. "WE NEVER WENT IN FOR STEALTH VERY MUCH." It strikes him as something their rogue ought to be interested in.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Fwoomp.

"There are devices that were developed by studying these suits that give an hour of effective invisibility," Ellen says now that she can be seen again. "We call them Stealth Boys. If you ever wanted a look at one, I can probably scrounge one up. Now that I have the suit, I don't need my supply as much. I've never worked out how to recharge them once they're spent, but I bet your alchemy or whatever could probably come up with a way, right?"

[crabbycustomer]

"YEAH, EITHER TO RECHARGE THEM OR COMBINE THEIR PROPERTIES WITH ANOTHER ITEM," he says, fusses fretfully with his messy hair. "SOMETHING LIKE THAT SOUNDS LIKE IT WOULD HAVE A PRETTY HEFTY GRIST COST, BUT I WOULD LOVE TO GET THE CODE FOR ONE OF THOSE THINGS, EVEN A SPENT ONE."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Not a problem," Ellen says. "The next time I get my hands on one, I'll pass it your way- oh, that reminds me, I know you liked the scorpions, but I've forgotten. Are large, tough-muscled, thick-skinned reptile parts on the list of things you'd be willing to trade for? There was a Deathclaw attack on my side of the door and I couldn't do much with the whole creature, but I got one of its hands hacked off, and I've heard rumors about attaching the things to braces or something and using them as clawed gauntlets."

[crabbycustomer]

His eyes widen. "YEAH, ABSOLUTELY, THAT WOULD BE PERFECT FOR A GIRL I KNOW, HER STRIFE SPECIBUS IS CLAWKIND. IT WILL PROBABLY BE EASIER TO ALCHEMIZE SOMETHING WITH THE CODE THAN FUCK AROUND WITH THE ACTUAL CLAW, BUT EITHER WAY I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE IT."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Not a problem," Ellen says. "I'm not really fond of close-quarters combat myself, so the hand should go to someone who can use it. Hang on-"

She's been practicing with the storage deck he gave her. It's seriously made matters a lot easier, what with having to lighten up her load to chase after Dave's kidnappers and all.

"There we are."

[crabbycustomer]

Karkat looks at it. "HAHA, THAT IS BEAUTIFUL. IT LOOKS LIKE A LUCKY TERROR LIZARD PAW FROM BACK HOME, HOLY SHIT. LET ME THINK OF WHAT I CAN TRADE FOR IT, WHAT KIND OF THINGS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR RIGHT NOW?"

Because anyone who survives a fight with a terror lizard and not only gets away, but gets to keep a paw, is one lucky motherfucker, that's why.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Makes perfect sense, given what Ellen's seen of deathclaws up close.

"I'm trying to run down some kidnappers," Ellen says, "and I'm traveling in unfamiliar country. If you have anything that improves night or low-light vision, or some form of liquid fuel that burns exceptionally hot-" She indicates the tank on her back. "Right now I'm powering this on vodka and butane and that's just not as effective as one might hope."