00 Around The Fire - Open Role Play

[Ndreare]

In the hushed wilderness under a star-speckled sky, a group of science fiction soldiers gather around flickering campfires, their silhouettes casting long shadows on the rugged terrain. Clad in futuristic armor and clutching advanced weaponry, these warriors appear as interstellar nomads, etching a moment of respite in their arduous journey.

The fires crackle and pop, as flames dance and cast a warm, glow against the cool blue of the star filled night. The soldiers, some seated and others standing, carry expressions of weariness tinged with resolve. Their faces are illuminated intermittently by the firelight, revealing a mix of determination and contemplation.

Around them, the wilderness stretches out, a mix of sparse vegetation and rocky ground. The inhospitable forest strangely serene under for the moment. The atmosphere holds a tense, charge as each is aware at any moment something could interupt the brief respit.

As you gather around the fires, sharing silent looks, nods and occational words there's an understanding among those gathered. So far none have been lost, but that does not mean the journey will be safe.


THIS IS AN OPEN RP AREA. PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELVES AND EARN A CONVICTION BY INTERACTING WITH EACH OTHER.

[Dara]

Firelight glinting off her mirrored shades, Dara strides towards the group encircling the fire. Tinny clinking identifies the cylinder she is carrying on one shoulder as being a metal… barrel of some sort. She slips catlike between the humans in the group, as they form the widest gap in the circle. Rolling the barrel down one arm and setting it on the ground, she eyes Dorn up and down for a moment. Then she turns her head toward Lumo and repeats the gesture, this time craning her neck up slightly more. “Hmmmph!” she mutters heading back toward the Smokeskipper that Drexler has been so anxious to modify. Some rummaging and a few metallic clunks later she returns with a second container over her opposite shoulder.

This time she elbows past Nyx in an affable way, muttering, “I didn’t believe you when you told me they let you choose your own clothes here!” Tiny servos in the Gladius Exoskeleton make muted noises in the silence around the campfire as she sets down the second barrel. With her other hand, she shoves an apparatus wrapped in copper wire and bearing a couple quartz crystals into the top of the container.

“When I passed through the… Barony of Hope I traded my old talisman to a… what do you call them?”
“A beer wizard… yes! I only wanted one… keg? Yes, but he insisted on giving me two… and this device for emptying them. He seemed very eager to make the deal. At any rate… this beverage he called Juicy Bits.” She taps a finger on the hastily painted markings on the side of the keg for emphasis.

“I find that name quite disturbing actually, but the bits he renders into the juice make it quite delicious. The bearded wizard told me the recipe came from a time before the return… er… the coming of the rifts.” Dara smiles proudly at her mastery of the lingo.

She begins filling the tin cup she carries around camp on her belt, and continues, “I do not know what lies ahead of us on the path, but I do remember the words of a… Savi… Sovi…Sovietski I once captured.”

Raising her cup, and beaming a wide grin, “Who does not take risks, does not drink champagne.”

[Miles RAD Radoslav]

Sitting a bit outside the circle of humans, Rad turns and spits the stick he was chewing out into the night, then pulls another from a pocket of his black fatigues and twirls it between his figures. "Can't say as I've ever had champagne. Back when I trained in Lazlo, there was a fellow there who claimed to have dropped through a Rift from the old days. A fighter, and a damn good one too. His old unit had a different motto, and we adopted it for ours - "Who Dares, Wins". He stands and makes his way to Dara, extending his hand. "Miles Radoslav, late of the 3rd Lazlo Black Watch Commandos, at your service."

[Nyx]

This time she elbows past Nyx in an affable way, muttering, “I didn’t believe you when you told me they let you choose your own clothes here!”

Nyx opens an eye at the nudge, slipping her earphones away from one gracefully pointed ear to hear what the Altaran says. A whisper of upbeat music can be heard coming from the headset before Nyx switches it off, the tranquil look on her face replaced with the more-familiar sneer, accentuated by her scars.

"Oh, just wait. They 'let' you wash them yourself, too." She wrinkles her nose in the direction of the over-sized dwarf. "If you're the sort that ever changes them."

Standing up, the lithe elf stretches, the matte carapace of her repurposed Dead Boy armor seeming to drink the light from the fire. The scars criss-crossing one side of her face are hard to miss, but do little to distract from her looks — though the hard glint in her eye serves as a warning to any would-be suitors.

"You were lucky to get out of Hope with nothing more than a couple of barrels of beer," she says to Dara, who is used to her moods. "Last time I was there I ended up gut-shot and indebted to a psychic healer who wanted to convert me to the one true way, or something. But that was ... years ago."

Staring off into the darkness, the elf can be seen muttering to herself, her thumbs absently stroking the grips of the massive pistols holstered at her waist. She abruptly smiles, the grin seeming plastered on her face through force of will. "A drink sounds good — who needs a mug if I fetch one from the transport?"

[Lumo]

An extremely large smoke ring wafts over to Dara, carrying with it a familiar skunky odor that would make it easy to recognize its origin. The giant six armed woman appeared to be trying her best not to stand out by sitting up against a protruding boulder with her legs up against her chest, but it was easy to see that she was clearly the largest target of the group even seated as she was. In her upper right hand appeared to be a long handled pipe that wafted a small line of the smoke into the air.

Somewhat bleary eyed looking and wearing a strange assortment of decorative ceremonial straps, furs, feathers, bones and jewelry, her attire did not do her any favors in the goal of going unnoticed as well.

“I would..” Came a soft voice laced with smoke from the large figure. “… Like to try. Unless you are going to drink it all.” The one called Lumo asked, as purple eyes drifted towards the barrels, where one so large as her might feasibly think that this was one persons portion of drink for the eve. Her other hands seemed to curiously beckon towards the odd objects before taking another long inhale from the pipe, slowly allowing the smoke to trickle out of her nose as she slowly rose to her feet, towering an easy 13 feet tall before sitting cross legged once more next to the barrels, pointing briefly towards their attachments.

“What is the wire and stone for? Does it pass… Current through it?” Where her expression became just a little more interested as she was moments away from touching the exposed metal. Though she paused a hair before doing so as an intense look of concentration washed over her features before looking downwards towards Miles, Dara and Nyx . “You already know, they all already know. But I am Lumo.” Came her much simpler introduction when compared to Miles, though in all fairness when you towered above all of the others, everyone quickly learned who you were by word of mouth before introductions became necessary.

[Drexler]

Another new face pproachs the fire from his vehicle with several bags, some long sticks, and a huge grin . "Greetings, teammates." he says exuberantly, extra emphasis on teammates. "It is so exciting to say that to people who are not fellow researchers! I'm Drexler Philborn your, well, researcher."

Moving closer to the fire he disgorges some of the contents of his bags. First are packs of some kind of tan cracker, then chocolate bars, and lastly marshmallows. Looking around himself a with a bit more awareness he speaks up some more. "Some of my fellows told me these were a tradition on missions." His impales some 'mallows on the sticks and looks to the rest of the team. They certainly were a bit rougher looking than he had fantasized the "fellowship" would be on his first big adventure. But most things he had seen since leaving Lazlo for the legion had been like that. That said it didn't mean those things had been bad, just not as he imagined and rather more an adventure for that. Grinning some more he continues "And while I am quite certain they meant for me to embarrass myself. I can't honestly think of anyone who doesn't like smores so silly or not..." The scientist holds the sticks out to his comrades.

[Dara]

Dara smiles and grasps Miles' hand, "Dara the Altara." Why does everyone smile when I introduce myself?

"Yes, I'm one of those." She looks around cautiously, then continues, "I used to serve the trade in Atlantis." She spits on the ground. "Lost my taste for being a part of that a while back. Just letting you all know now so it doesn't get in the way of us working together."

She looks around for a few moments, then begins taking mugs proferred by Nyx. Looking towards Lumo and placing a finger on the tap, "The wires and jewels conduct... your current. Just touch it and focus a bit of your mind into it..." foamy brew begins rushing out of the hose attached to the device. Dara then shifts to using both hands to pass mugs under the torrent, hastily handing them off to Lumo saying, "just pass those around to everyone."

"What I did learn from those barge monsters was a little bit about tactics... and that I'll never again be a slave to anyone...ever."
When the supply of mugs runs out, she grabs one of the mellows on a stick from Drexler. Sitting down and nearly touching the now flaming glob to her lips, she asks, "Are you supposed to eat them on fire?"

[Drexler]

When the supply of mugs runs out, she grabs one of the mellows on a stick from Drexler. Sitting down and examining the now flaming glob she asks, "Are you supposed to eat them on fire?"

Placing a bit of chocolate on a cracker Drexler nods towards it. Um, no. You'll want to blow the fire out then place it on the chocolate. Yup, like that, then we place another graham cracker on top, squeeze them together a bit and remove the stick. There we go, just like in wilderness scouts. A gooey sugar sandwich." His movements are not as confident as his voice, like maybe he more read about these wilderness scouts then actually attended.