Eh, Wot?

[RaeRae]

Rubble and slag!

The swearing of the Hammer echoed in the cavern, drawing the attention of her Anvilmates from their own duties. It took only a glance in her direction for them to realise what was wrong.

Shinelight. A Spade commented dully, squinting against it.

No slag, She rolled her eyes at the comment, Fetch Tozor.

The Spade was quick to scamper off, lest he earn more of her ire.

---

Eh wot? In the center of a gathering of Armadiggers, a much smaller male squinted up into the light that was pouring into the cave. Shinelight. He said, and the Hammer looked like she was very much about to strangle him.

Yes Tozor, shinelight. She scowled, Why?

The Throne looked between her and the light and then gave a shrug. Shouldn't be. He said simply, None o' the plans say it.

The Hammer looked like she was about to snap when an Auger put a hand on her shoulder, Easy Shyzor. He said gently, Perhaps we ought invest? He asked the group. There was some quiet murmuring amongst them, and finally Shyzor stepped up and slammed her body against the narrow opening, crumbling the rock around it. A few more knocks had widened the hole enough that she could fit through, and one by one the rest of the Anvil followed.

They stood at the top of mountain, looking down over a great lake. Or more accurately a caldera. One that most definitely shouldn't have been there based on all of the maps and scouting that Tozor had ensured was done before this whole digging project has begun.

Lookit this. One of them called out, his back to the lake and looking down the side of the mountain. Slowly the rest of the Anvil shuffled over and looked down. Running all down the side of the mountain were buildings, caves, mixings of structures haphazardly spread around.

It's awful. Shyzor said simply.

Very. Agreed a Chisel

Perhaps they'll pay us to fix it... Tozor contemplated.

And then the drums began to sound, calling those across the weyrd to the very top of it.

[RaeRae]

Armadiggers! Join, bribe them, have fun! My descs got eaten by the void somehow so I'll rewrite those and get them up as soon as possible.

[9/9]

Throne Tozi -- Geoff
Hammer Female Shy'tan -- Zebey
Pickaxe Male Kinara -- Tynis
Spade Male Kallune -- Nako
Spade Female Alenius -- Cyprena
Auger Male Denara -- Tynis
Auger Female Iaris -- Haelys
Chisel Male Nalris -- Haelys
Chisel Female Ainius -- Cyprena

A Soft Touch Throne, Tozor
Like many Thrones, Tozor is smart. He is, unfortunately not very fast. He is methodical and thorough, but these kinds of things take time, and for Tozor they seem to take even more time than they would for most people. Hopefully you have the patience to wait for him to put the pieces together. Of course, once he does put them together they're often in unexpected ways, or with a kind of efficiency that makes up for the amount of time that it took him to get there. However, no plan ever survives contact with reality, and though you'd expect him to struggle to adapt when things changed, once he's got his detailed plans all laid out he adapts rather quickly. Changing his plan to fit the new information, or even abandoning it in favour of taking full advantage of the new information. Plenty of brilliance if you're just willing to wait for it.

Like most Thrones he is small, and his plates are the same white shade and greasy, dusty feel as chalk. In fact he has a tendency to leave a trail of it wherever he goes. Not terribly stealthy, this one. You'll always know when he's had his hands in the cookie jar because the jar, and unfortunately some of the cookies, will be covered in a white dust. How he keeps it out of his dark grey eyes with his perpetually furrowed brow is anyone's guess.


No Time For This Hammer, Shyzor
With a little bit of a temper, she is a Hammer for want of a nail. She does not have the patience for dealing with things not going as planned, not working right, or otherwise messing up her groove. Always on the move towards the next project, she hates when anything slows her done. Her solution to this is often to just beat it into submission. The square peg doesn't fit in the round hole? That's because you're not hitting it hard enough, just give it here. And don't bother trying to point out how often she creates her own problems, that's just preposterous. Clearly if someone else hadn't messed it up first then her plan would have worked just fine and they wouldn't still be here arguing over it. Though she'll defer to a Throne's plan, that's their whole purpose after all, when that plan goes wrong she has a tendency to take it into her own claws rather than reassess.

Hammer's are big, and Shyzor is big even by the normal standards. Her sturdy plates are surprisingly pristine for how often she rams herself against things, a testament to just how hard they are. An almost sulfuric yellow tinged towards the edges with a rusty kind of red colour. Her gold-toned eyes are often squinted in frustration, and resting bitch face doesn't quite capture the permanent scowl that seems to be her default expression.


Clear the Way Pickaxe, Kinzor
Look he's got work to do, can we hurry this along so he can get back to it? A stoic workaholic this Pickaxe is, he doesn't have time for your emotional conflicts or drama, there's thing that need doing and he's going to do them, so if you could just sweep all that nonsense up out of his way that would be great. The line between work and play is very strict with this one, but when he does let himself off the clock he can be surprisingly caring and sympathetic. There's just a time and place for everything, and when he's working it's best to stay out of his way and let him get the job done. Though when it will be done is anyone's guess, considering he tends to be a bit of a perfectionist.

Most his plates are a dark black stone with a little bit of a oily feel to them, but laced through are shocks of some kind of pink quartz, creating an almost electric look across his back. He's slim, even by pickaxe standards, and somewhat on the lanky side. His eyes are a dark blue, and focused on his work as though he has blinders on.


Where To Begin Spade, Kalzor
You can't say he's not enthusiastic. He's plenty of that and then some, and he throws himself into his work with excited fervor, once he knows what it is. He's not the most self-motivated, however, despite getting rather listless when he doesn't have a project. But give him a little guidance? He'll be off and away before you can finish your sentence. A blessing and a curse considering that once he's started something he won't stop until it's done, and then he's right back to being listless and fishing for ideas on what he should be doing with himself. Careful what you complain about though, he might just take your off-handed comment about the squeaky step on your stairs to mean that you want to move the whole second story of your house onto the ground and do away with the stairs entirely.

Plates of pearlescent green protect this Armadigger from his work, almost looking like a mossy rock when he's all curled up. His jade eyes are darting about, constantly looking for the next big project.


Breaking New Ground Spade, Alezor
This Spade has so many ideas, and she'd love to tell you about them, and show where she got started on them and yet… somehow they never seem to get finished. Struck frequently by brilliant ideas that she just has to do right now, only for the project to languish because something else caught her eye. But heaven forbid you attempt to clean up one of her projects, because she was definitely still working on that and now you've totally messed up her groove. She's at least always good at being busy, but she definitely needs someone to help manage her or she'll never really get anything done, thriving in an Anvil but not generally doing very good at striking out on her own.

A smokey blue stone covers this girl, a petite Spade but not less efficient and breaking ground up and getting it moved out of the way. She's a thoughtful girl with deep blue eyes and usually a smile on her face as she goes about her work.


Quickdraw Auger, Denzor
Yeah that thing you said you were going to do? Already done, he finished it just a second ago. What do you mean you were going to do it differently? Well why didn't you say something sooner! You didn't know he was doing it? Preposterous, you shouldn't have asked him to do if you didn't want him to do it his way. Nevermind that you didn't even know that he was in the room when you mentioned that thing, it totally counts as asking him to do it. A quintessential Auger, he gets things done and he gets them done fast. Whether or not they're always done right is for someone else to decide. And forget about cleaning up after himself, that's someone else's job too. He has his niche in the work cycle and he fills it very well, but he's not so good at branching out into other tasks. He's not malicious about it, he definitely does try his best, it's just that it doesn't really occur to him. He's got very set thought patterns and good luck trying to get him to see things from another perspective.

A marbled, agate-like pattern covers his shell, deep purples and blues that fade out into gold tones along the edges and flecked throughout some of his larger plates. His eyes are flecked through with all sorts of colours, it's hard really to say what colour they are just like it's not easy to put an exactly colour on his plates, and his snuffling nose is always going a mile minute, a reflecting of what's going on in his brain.


Meant To Do That Auger, Iazor
You know that idea that you had? She totally had a thought on how to do it better and you should totally see it. What, no it wasn't completely on accident why would you say that? She absolutely planned this whole thing out and did it exactly on purpose as a surprise. You said you loved kinstugi art and that vase exactly anything important so she totally broke it on purpose to make this gift for you. It absolutely did not break while she was running through the house looking for her favourite pen, that's silly. Also those flowers weren't doing very good where they were so she moved them over there and not at all because she trampled half of them, those ones just didn't survive the shock of the move. Honestly, it's probably just dumb luck that most of her 'solutions' do actually end up working pretty well, evne if she caused those problems to begin with. But don't worry, she totally meant to do that and isn't it amazing?

A mottled rusty colour is splashed over her plates, with little peeks of blue seeming to come through, like she's covered in dry mud and it's really blue underneath. Of course being a solid plate that's just an illusion, but a quite effective one. Her light blue eyes are keen and her hands are quick and surprisingly agile.


Patience Is An Art Chisel, Nalzor
A Chisel's work is not measured in speed or volume, it is measured in delicacy and detail, and that kind of work requires patient. This Chisel in particular seems to have infinite patience, even when it's probably not very helpful. Being patient while waiting for paint to dry so you can put a different colour on top of it without them bleeding together? Good. Waiting two hours for the waiter to come back to your table and ask for your drink order? Probably not the best course of action. He's honestly too patient, to the point where he can very easy to forget because he doesn't speak up and remind you about anything. He'll just wait until you remember, and patter on about his life in the meantime. Nothing happens very fast with him, he really doesn't mind waiting for the world to come to him, but once given something to do rest assured that you won't have to wait on him. He won't rush it, but he'll do it efficiently and get it back to you as soon as it's done right.

Pretty pastels cover his hide, like sidewalk chalk on a canvas, but the hardness of it betrays it's gentle appearance. It's just as stiff and protecting as any digger, and you'd be hard-pressed to find something to scratch it with. He also does his best to keep it clean and groomed, and his soft, cream eyes and soft-spoken voice are a match for his infinite patience.


Exquisitely Enviable Chisel, Aizor
A true artist suffers for her work, and this Chisel will make sure you hear about it. All the cramps in her back from being at weird angles, and the pain in her wrists from work on such tiny details, and the way that her ankle just doesn't sit right for days because of the way she was resting her weight on it. Of course, her works is good, each creation is a masterpiece in it's own right, but you'll only get to see that if you can stand to be around her. Any time that she has an audience rest assured that she will make sure you know how difficult her life is. Forget that she throws herself into it, and if you can catch her working without being noticed she certainly puts herself in worse positions than she even complains about to make sure that it meets her standards. She's dedicated to her work, rest assured. She's just also loud about it.

A deep emerald green covers the crystalline plates of this beauty, though often marred by flecks of paint or films of dust from her most recent work. When she cleans up she's a delicate and prim thing, she's just normally a mess because of her work. A fact that she'll complain about plenty, even if she never seems to really do anything to prevent it from happening in the future. A busy worker she's always moving, always creating in some way, and the grander the project the more she throws herself into it.

[Geoff]

Streetlights sped by, blurs of light as he rocketed down the empty road. He was going way past the speed limit, but fuck it, everyone was locked inside during the quarantine and it was only by luck that he still hadn't figured out if 'twas cursed or blessed that as a med student he still had a pass to attend clinicals. Now that they were over, he was going the fuck home to sleep for the next ten years -- or at least next ten hours.

Humming to himself, not that he could hear it between the muffling effect of the helmet and the noise of a small engine over rough asphalt, Geoff leaned into a turn and wiped out on a skid of rocky dirt.

It took a moment for his head to re-adjust and get his bearings, and another moment to gather his limbs one by one and get up with an ache he was going to feel the next morning, jeans and jacket and helmet doing nothing to prevent road rash. Yanking off the helmet, he observed the scrape on its side in a slightly confused daze before squinting for who the fuck had the high beams on blinding him --

Deep inhale. Blink. Wooshing exhale.

This was not Avenue H Northeast at midnight.

He didn't know what it WAS, but it sure as shit wasn't that.

He swallowed and coughed dryly and then... oh forget it, he just set the helmet by the tire skids gouged in the ground and made a note to come back for his bike after looking around. He had a ringing in his head, oddly deep, like heavy bass, or uh, drums? Glancing over his shoulder, he reminded himself once more to come back for it, and started up the FUCKING MOUNTAIN because, well shit, he was exhausted and sore and it was the last thing he wanted to do, but he didn't have a better idea what to do. Maybe he'd fallen asleep at the wheel. Maybe this was a weird dream.

What other explanation was there for abruptly being on a mountain in the middle of nowhere during midday instead of downtown after dark, with no memory of how he got there?

Yeah. He was dreaming. He must've crashed into bed and not even remembered the trip home. Not the most unusual occurence.

Let's see how this plays out then.

"Hello?" he asked as he crested the mountain.

[Deleted]

For places to randomly end up, this wasn't the worst place he'd been. He had no real idea where he was, which...really? That was fine. Len generally had an idea of where he was at any given point, but this planet was just. Odd. And he was happy to just go with it. Maybe if he didn't know where he was, no one else would be able to find him.

So he was ghosting his old job. Sue him.

Walking around in the sunshine was far better than watching some poor sick, broken thing die. Comforting frantic, confused souls? He might be a bit over that.

(Len had to briefly wonder if this was some sort of mid-life crises. Could probably-immortal beings have mid-life crises? What was mid-life to something like him? Or possibly was this more along the lines of teenage rebellion? The world may never know.)

Hiking was providing entertaining and informative. There were definitely herbal plants to gather, for later. Because, you know what, he was here and he could help doctor these ridiculous people, and local plants were a good place to start.

Plant gathering wasn't on today's plan, however, even before the drums sounded. He had heard them before, though he hadn't bothered to try and figure out what was going on with them. There was a heck of a lot of things to try and figure out about this place, and only so much he wanted to deal with in a single day. But he was here, right now, almost to the top of the mountain, and...might as well?

It only took a few more minutes before he got there. Apparently not the first, as there were a bunch of....okay. He had no idea what he was looking at. "Hi." He offered, half distracted from the group as he spotted Geoff. Who looked like shit. Didn't have the look of death around him, which. Good. Because Len wasn't dealing with that when he hadn't been here a week yet.

"You alright?" He directed at the young man, forgoing any other greeting. Hellos were all well and good, but got them nowhere.

[Cyprena Sevenius]

“Another one over here.” Ren’s dual-toned voice called out as she swung her mug around cheerily. She laughed at a crude joke told at the end of the bar, setting her cup down for the bartender who refilled her, responding to her crooked mandibles and toothy smile with a nervous and uncomfortable one of his own. It was pretty clear that he, nor anyone else on most of this planet, had ever seen a Turian before, but somehow or another, the drinks that they kept pouring for her settled through her digestive system marvelously, even gave her a nice buzz. Or they had last night, when she had randomly stumbled onto this planet, guns and pack full of useful things and shiny objects luckily enough still on hand, with no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. So naturally, she bartered away some of her nicknacks, got herself an uncomfortable bed in a small room at an inn, then headed straight for the bar.

She had seen a lot of bizarre and weirdo aliens in her day, but this planet really seemed to be something else. With most of her tech not working (she’d figured it out later), she knew that the following morning she should figure and sort herself out. Or she could head back to the bar, where she sat currently. Her goods and her guns sat at her feet (like hell she was leaving her fancy tech at some basic ass inn), quite enjoying the quaint and charming old school vibes that she got from this entire place, all few blocks that she had experienced of it. It was like some of the humans she had known had always said, everyone loves nostalgia. That’s what this was, right? It would at least explain why her tech didn’t work.

As she got her full cup back, she heard the low, beating sound of drums and cocked her head. A primitive war signal? Some sort of simplified band? Somehow this planet had shown her both primitive and astoundingly not primitive things in the same breath.

“You should head to the mountains, check it out.” The bartender, all bald and beard said to her, still eyeing her warily. “Bring some of your gadgets, make some friends.” She didn’t know if he was speaking to her straight or using some sort of slang that she didn’t really understand, but an adventure being laid in front of her seemed like fate, which she definitely did not believe in. But at least it was an excuse to not have to fiddle with her gear and figure out where the hell she was.

So Ren was off after chugging half of her drink, with all of her personal belongings, heading to a mountain that he sort of pointed vaguely in the direction of that the drum beats were apparently referring to. But somehow, honestly, that all made sense to her, and she couldn’t understand why. Maybe it was the booze.

She was impressed by her ability to scale the mountain so easily when it had been a minute since she had been on duty, and also felt like a complete creep because she was definitely following some dude up the mountain (though to be fair, it seemed like he totally appeared out of nowhere, she hadn’t noticed him at all before). She did the sensible thing and waited for a few beats, making her appearance seem like a complete coincidence instead of some stalkerish behavior, which she had admitedly been accused of before. But that was a story for another day.

She had missed the initial greetings with her waiting, finally reaching the top of the mountain herself, encountering two humans (she assumed) and a group of...things. And a view, the views always seemed to add some fire into her blood. She loved being in space, but being down on new planets really was something else. She had no idea of the mess of the structures that were there, she wasn’t an architect, so she took it all in before turning her ambery eyes to the crowd.

“So, what do the drums mean?”

[RaeRae]

Hello! An orangish auger spoke up as Geoff crested the mountain and addressed them, distinctly cheerful. Their first customer! How exciting! Even if he did look a bit rough around the edges. Honestly some being just didn't have any protective shell at all, how did they survive?

Anvil Zor, Kinzor cut straight to the chase, gesturing to the whole group as a means of introduction, Pleasure to meet you. Another being crested the summit of the mountain, followed shortly by a third. The third one made the most sense to the diggers, a nice hardy shell about it to protect all the soft bits. That was how you kept efficiency up, none of this nonsense with being all squishy and breakable.

A marbled auger snuffled around Leonard's feet, investigating the man all the way up to his knees before looking him in the face. Are you here to barter? He asked, speaking quickly, 'Cause you sure seem like you need our services.

Now now, Tozor spoke slowly, rounding up the Auger out of Leonard's personal space and addressing the crunchy-looking alien's question. I do believe they mean that we are open for business, which is quite true. We can't help but notice your town is a bit in… disarray and seems to need some work. We would be happy to-

We want to fix it. Shyzor cut him off, already out of patience, And we want you to pay us to do it. Obviously. See how quickly things could be done if you would just cut to the chase and skip all this politeness nonsense?

[Geoff]

Uh.

Geoff swung his gaze from a bunch of rambunctious... pangolins? armadillos? to an ordinary looking guy, a wave of relief sinking his shoulders from where they'd crept up towards his ears.

"Yeah," he said, a bit out of it, blinking once hard to clear his thoughts. "I mean, it hurts, but I'll survive." He didn't have any broken ribs or concussion, after all, just some seriously torn up clothes and some road rash that stung but would've been a lot worse in a different outfit.

A couple things happened then, and all of them involved talking pangillos. Armadillins. Whatever. He shuffled a step back from Leonard as one of things sniffed him like a dog, not wanting the strange animals to get too close. And uh, and. Uh.

He stared at the alien. That was, no joke, an alien. Someone in really good cosplay, he'd never figure out where people got the time and money for that kind of make-up and props and everything. Still, why would they be wearing it in his messed up dream. He needed a drink.

"So not to be weird but you also hear the armadillos talking, right," he turned back to Leonard as nonchalantly as he could. Maybe he needed to never drink again. He should take up smoking. He was pretty sure he was going to take up smoking the moment he woke up. His nerves must have cracked at last.

[Zebey]

"They do that, here."

Zebey had heard the commotion from near the base of the mountain. Geoff's unfortunate crash was quite the commotion, but the drums sealed the deal. She had learned in the week or so that she'd been here what it generally meant. She has also, thankfully, found some locals that had explained some things to her. By the time she had reached where the others were gathered, the Armadiggers had already spoken. She had never seen them before. Silver eyes settled on them for a while, taking in their structure and general appearance. She appreciated Shyzor and her bluntness. Getting straight to the matter at hand left little room for bullshit.

The drow straightened and stepped forward to officially join the conversation. She regarded Leonard, only slightly recognizing him, and then Cyprena. She nodded to them both, before looking back to Geoff, up and down. "You look like shit." Great, Zebey, that's a brilliant way to make friends. A+. Her gaze moved past him to the Armadiggers- specifically Shyzor. "I'm not sure who has the ability to barter for payment to fix this place." Of all the people she had meant, none of them had mentioned or claimed to be any sort of leader. In fact, the whole area was pretty scattered, and only very small settlements were known to her. Nothing of any sort of permanence or size, like the ruined remains up here. It would be greatly beneficial to them to have it fixed. Did that make this rag tag group now in charge? That wouldn't make any sense. None of the people gathered here seemed to have any knowledge of this place, much like herself.

"But- how exactly do you intend to fix it?" They were weird looking creatures. How were they going to fix this huge of a project?

[Tynis]

 It had taken days for Tynis to even attempt to come to terms with Planet. Most of those hours had been spent in prayer and ritual to Duuara within his tiny inn room. He’d cleansed himself every day instead of once a week. He had meditated and communed with nature. Made generous offerings. And yet his deity remained silent and Planet had it’s own idea of responding. He’d obtained an odd assortment of objects at this point. A small pot of sweet-smelling lotion, a cable of some sort, a bright plastic thingamabob that played a song slightly off-key when you pressed the button. He hadn’t the heart to sell any of it and so placed it all on his altar. It had to be proof of some sort of higher power in this new world and so he would honor that power too.

 After days he decided that he must do something. And that something would be what he had always done. He would start a new temple here and continue some version of his work. With minimal supplies and a compass he set off to find a suitable place. Preferably one he would not have to build by hand because that sounded tedious.

 He had been on foot an hour when he heard the drums and turned to the mountain to investigate. There was already a small gathering. He recognized Zebey and Leonard but wasn’t sure if it warranted a friendly greeting. He nodded toward them and stepped closer to the group.

 “So what are we up to this fine day?” His smile twitched uncomfortably. He was trying really, really hard to be positive. He made sure to address the creatures as well. He still wasn't able to tell which ones were sentient and happy to communicate as such and which were no different than the beasts back home.

[Nakolune]

Once again, Husband was thrown to the wolves to babysit while Nako gallivanted off.

“What is it NOW?” He’d asked wearily, both children hanging off his legs in the middle of the town’s main shopping street.

“You should know the answer by now!” She waved him off, giddy with how the roles had reversed in this new world. No longer did she stay home with the kids day after day while he worked! She had the know-how and the where-with-it-all to navigate this world! Some might call it comeuppance, but really it wasn’t so terribly cruel; he was getting so much better with the kids with how much he was forced into the caretaking role.

Free to pursue her own interests, Nako trekked up the hill, a piece of paper grasped in her hands that she’d been working on. Sadly, she was also very out of shape. What started as a jaunty trek turned into a horrible slog, sweating profusely and frankly beginning to stink a little. The plans in her hand were beginning to smear just slightly, and the paper wrinkled in the humidity of her hand.

She was very much out of breath by the time she came over the final precipice, having earned a few bruises from falls, and cuts on her hands from grasping at rocks with her less than dry grip.

“I… got… the plans.” Nako managed to wheeze before sitting down and putting her head between her knees.

“A little… sweaty. Giant playhouse. Needs to be structurally… -wheeze- sound.”

Ok, breathe in and out, don’t pass out in front of the adorable-dillos.

[Cyprena Sevenius]

Ren adjusted her pack, looking at the low-to-the-ground creatures with a bemused expression on her face. Because that one human seemed shocked to see her, an expression that she had probably made herself a couple of times. She thought that her travels through space would show her a lot that was out there in the universe, but being teleported to this strange place showed her that she was very, very clearly mistaken.

She was also amused by the small clan of creatures. Straightforward little buggers, weren’t they. She liked that.

“Armadillos!” She called out. “That’s what they’re called, couldn’t think of the word.” She watched as a few others filtered in around her, her light amber eyes flicking from one being to another. A couple of, well, they didn’t seem quite human. Her attention was torn, she wasn’t really sure what sort of intel she wanted to try to pick apart first. But she settled for turning her attention to the beings making the demands, the armadillos.

Back on Palaven, back on anywhere in her own world, timeline, whatever it was, payment came through credits for the most part. Credits that were transfered through technology, which seemed to pretty clearly not exist in the same way here. Did this place still use physical currencies that had phased out so long ago?

Her mind worked quickly and she realized that wait, she didn’t care a lick what this town looked like. She didn’t really have any idea how long she’d be stuck here, sure, but architecture and sound building placements were not really on her list of high priorities. Payment, on the other hand…

“Who’s paying who?” She asked, watching as another human panted her way towards the group. She wasn’t really sure who was affiliated with who, assuming only that the armadillos were together. Humans she knew were certainly more complicated. “A rich Turian I am not, but I can pick stuff up, and put it back down.” She wanted to get in on this, because she was definitely lacking any sort of funds to eat or exist on this world. She could even use a hammer. She wasn’t sure what other primitive tools existed here, but she was pretty sure she could figure them out anyway. There were some things that you had to twist and rotate, right?

[Deleted]

Leonard was grateful that Geoff seemed....mostly alright. Because he was retired from the whole death-business. Not that he was about to explain that to the poor kid, or anyone else around here. Not anytime soon. Enough stressful things going on without explaining the whole 'I see dead people' thing. "Good. You feel dizzy, you let me know, you hear?" What was he gonna do if that happened? Eh. They'd cross that bridge if it came to it.

"...Yup." Len shot the curious looking creatures a look. "Though, where I came from, armadillos didn't quite look like that. Or talk." He couldn't remember any place that had something like them, but that's what made this place exciting. And, okay, he might be kinda-slightly-head-over-heels charmed already by them. He kept perfectly still when the handsome marbled auger sniffed at him. He was...mostly...confident he wasn't about to lose a leg to him. "I'm not sure I have anythin' good enough for your group." Len drawled, even as he took stock of the other people joining them. "I was just out for a walk." That was used as both an excuse for why he didn't have anything good with him, and as an answer to Tynis' question.

The village itself was charming, in Len's opinion, though he could agree that there were places that needed a face lift. And heck, Len himself had been considering putting his own home together. Maybe some sort of office-clinic type thing, too. Easier to have a place for sick people to come to him then him wandering around in hopes he'd find someone that needed help.

He eyed Nako's arrival with some vague concern. And, okay, so. Maybe a bigger building than he had envisioned. It'd been like ten minutes and there were at least two questionably not healthy people around him.

Zebey did have a fair point. Was there a leader of this village? He had his doubts. "I suppose we could try and help you find who owns what buildings, if that's what you're set on?" That seemed better than just, you know, agreeing to buy their time to fix up property that wasn't there own. Though Nako maybe had the right idea, having her own personal plans. And with appeared to be an influx of new people, there were probably many of them that would need help with building something.

"What kind of payment are you lookin' for?" He asked, looking towards the overly friendly Auger that had been up in his personal bubble. "Food, supplies, whatever passes for money in this place?" For all he knew, these guys were well above anything any of them could offer.

[Haelys Celtaris]

Haelys had been wandering the mountains before the drums ever sounded. Information she had gathered in town pointed her towards the underground system of Mount Gnerq. So far, her search had been fruitless.

"Anything over there?" Haelys shouted from the cavern she was searching.

No. Well...yes. Just...a lot of spiders. The Unicorn emerged with a spider the size of a football riding her. The smaller family members were dotted throughout her mane and tail. Haelys screamed. The spiders were offended.

She had already come across three-eyed children playing in soft sands and some sort of cult ritual with lots of flowers and crystals. After Marlene politely asked the spiders to go back home and apologized for the intrusion, the pair took a much-needed break.

A couple hikers happened to pass by as Haelys sat brooding on a rock. She immediately nabbed the opportunity to squeeze any information out of them.

"Excuse me—do you know where I can find a clan of builders around this area?"

The hikers were about to speak when the drums began.

"Well, by golly, you've got some luck today, Miss. There’s George and the drums. Sounds like they're callin' ya up to the top of Old Gnerq. Maybe you'll find what you’re lookin' for there." Then the hikers were on their way, leaving Haelys looking as baffled as ever. Who the hell was George and how did these people translate drum beats to directions? Well, she didn't have any other leads right now, so this was her best bet.

"You stay down here and keep searching. I'll inspect what mystery is at the top and come down later." The woman instructed the Garra. As she got back to her feet, adorned with dusty but stylish white boots, she scowled at the dirt smeared on her white dress. "Next on the list is to find a lady's maid because I am unfit to be washing these clothes every day."

You look lovely. That was a lie, but all Marlene wanted to do was cheer Haelys up, which was remarkably easy to do.

"Of course I do, Marlene." With a smug smirk, the Queen turned away to march up the mountain.

You might ask: how was Haelys the first on the mountain but the last to the reach the peak? Well, when you have everything done for you, you barely have to move. All the work is mental; the minions do the physical. This left Haelys with essentially no endurance or physical strength (aside from her magic). The only reason she had managed to walk so far on her first day on Planet was because she was feeding off of pure adrenaline and rage.

The woman adorned in white approached slowly, attempting to stifle her heavy breathing and forcing herself to stand up straight and tall even though she wanted to bend forward. She was surprisingly silent for a few moments, if only to control her breathing before she spoke.

"I am looking for builders. I am in need of a castle." She turned to look over the rounded lake surrounded by pitiful structures. "Not here. Somewhere more important. More...central." She had already been eyeing the inner edges of the Eastern Arbor—oh, how grand a castle would look looming over the Weyrd, peeking out through the trees!

Some familiar faces might note that this was now the second time Haelys had marched up and immediately made demands. At least her intentions were clear, which was not always the case.

[RaeRae]

Slowly more of the diggers pulled themselves away from staring at the architecture to pay more attention to the conversation. More people were cresting the mountain and they all had something to say. So much talking amongst tallfolk.

What's an armadillo? A quiet Chisel asked, eying Geoff with mild confusion.

Shyzor meanwhile was staring up at Zebey like she was completely stupid, didn't have the ability to barter. Preposterous. Everything could barter, a tree could probably barter but rest assured that Shyzor did not have the patience to barter with a tree. You're here, aint'ya? She asked bluntly, squinting at the elf. Shyz- Tozor started, but the Hammer cut him off, Go on, git! She shoo'd the Throne away, Make barter!

Even a Throne has to pick his battles sometimes, and the chalky fellow took the hint and backed away from Shyzor, turning instead to the strange one that crested the mountain and offered a polite greeting. Well we were working about a new cave system, you see, and for one reason or another we seem to have broken through here to the top of this mountain when there really shouldn't have been anything for many diglengths. He offered readily to Tynis, Place is a bit of a mess, isn't it? For as many words as the Throne had to say, his slow speech made it feel like about twice as much.

As Nako collapsed on the rock the plans she was holding were quite promptly pulled from her hands by an excitable ball of green, holding the paper close to squinty eyes as he looked the paper over. Then he set it down on rock and immediately pierced it with his claws, Oh. Well. He frowned, No soundness atall. Terrible playset. Was he talking about the paper, or the things drawn on it? Very good question.

You pay us. Kinzor explained to Cyprena. To say he was patient was not quite correct, but more along the lines of one trying to dumb down a very complex concept because the person they are speaking to is definitely not the target audience. We fix. He gestured to the ruins, Not just shuffle around. What good was picking things up and putting them down if you didn't do anything with them in the interim? Building materiels were meant to be built with that was the whole point. Not just dominoes to push around a table.

Yes. Was the eloquent response that Leonard got from the snuffling Auger around his feet as he asked about what was being paid with. Not caring who owns, not up to code. Who exactly set the code? That was a good question, but it seemed as far as Denzor was concerned they forfeited that ownership when they let it fall into such awful disrepair. Ownship was much less important than work, anyway.

Of all of the attendees so far, excepting Nako really, Haelys' seemed to get the greatest number of eyes drawn to her, though most of the diggers weren't quite so rude as to abandon their current conversational partners. A soft spoken chisel looked Haelys over with shielded curiosity. A castle? He asked, head cocked to the side. What kind of castle? A much more excitable digger chimed in.

[Haelys Celtaris]

When Haelys had approached the group and proposed her request, she didn't actually know who she was intending to speak to. The vague information she was armed with was that there was a certain clan of builders on this mountain. Apparently she had found them! Although, to be frank, she had not expected them to look the way that they did. The Queen inspected the armored, long-snouted creatures briefly. At the rate her short time on Planet was going, she was not shocked at all that they could speak. Well, mindspeak, as Marlene called it. Either way, Haelys did not hesitate for very long before snatching the opportunity to expand on her concept.

"A stone castle, of course—much stronger than wood. Although, other materials for additional support should be fine when used in modesty. I'm unsure of what types of stone are common around here, so that would be left to your discretion as long as it is aesthetically pleasing. The more gorgeous it is, the more it will be worth, naturally." She took a brief pause, glancing up to the sky as if imagining what could be. "There will be further discussions regarding what rooms are necessary, but the more, the merrier, they say. And of course it will need watchtowers and a strong center for my protection." Was she done? No, definitely not. But her voice grew quieter and she leaned in, attempting to speak softly enough so that the other humanoids could not hear. "And we cannot forget the underground system that will be important not only for an emergency escape route, but for secret prisons and a wine cellar."

There was more. Much more. For now, however, this was a general enough overview to paint a picture of Haelys' overall expectations. Given the opportunity, she would happily launch into the ideas for dining halls, meeting rooms, guest chambers, courtyards, and a standard dungeon. In the future, a moat would be ideal, but that could be pursued at a later time.

[Nakolune]

Nako flinched a bit when the paper was plucked from her fingers, blinking incredulously as she looked up to see a green-tinted Armadigger looking over her plans. She hadn’t anticipated someone taking her up on her plan so quickly… but then again maybe it was only to criticize her drawing.

“Oh… yeah. The drawing is a little rushed. I mean, I have a pretty good idea of what I want but I feel like a bit was lost in translation to paper. Architecture is not my specialty, I admit.” Sure, her pride was a tiny bit wounded, but these were the professionals. If there was anything in art school she learned, it was how to take a savage critique.

Nako sat down next to the Spade, grateful for the chance to sit and take a rest. She blew out a long, relieved breath once she got herself settled onto the dirt and stone. Oh geez, he didn’t seem too impressed by her drawing at all. It wasn’t the -worst- drawn thing in the world, but she definitely didn’t know how to draw something, or -build- something, structurally sound.

“Maybe more supports on the A-frame?” She suggested lamely, reaching out tentatively to fold a few tattered pieces of the paper down so that more of the plans were viewable. “You know.. now that I look at it, the angle of the slide looks a little impractical.”

[Cyprena Sevenius]

Ren was afraid of this. She looked at the Chisel who was explaining the situation, in simple terms, noticing as the other colored armadillos, whatever they were, as one of the humans (she assumed Leonard was a human) pointed out that earth armadillos were different, broke out into separate conversations. She tried to keep up with them as much as she could, though she was a bit rusty with gathering reconnaissance, but made sure to pay attention to the dark colored creature before her.

“How do we pay you, exactly?” She asked. She didn’t really care here or there about these particular structures, but she had some sense of duty to the public, or whatever. Whoever this public was. She didn’t bother pulling out her credits tech, because that wasn’t going to be it. Maybe it was gold? Some other metal? She didn’t feel the need to further question the Chisel’s explanation on fixing things. His dumbing down was completely acceptable, because she wouldn’t understand any of that anyway. “We fix” made perfect sense.

All eyes were focused then on, well, certainly someone. Ren was new around the block, relatively, and the first thought that came to Ren’s mind truly was, “princess”, even before the demands had escaped her pretty mouth. She was close, from the sounds of it, as Haelys began talking about building a castle[/b]. She looked at the things around them all, caves, buildings, rundown structures, and her mandibles pursed together, then turned her glowy eyes at the Chisel again.

“Fixing means making a castle, eh?” She said, with some wry amusement. She wasn’t sure how much a castle for the princess would be very helpful to the rest of them. Especially one with a...secret prison?

Wine cellar she’d accept, at least.

She wasn’t sure if she accepted the terms, but all of this chit chat was against her style. She itched to do. “So then, now what?”

[Geoff]

In ordinary circumstances, Geoff would've had something snide to say about 'tHeY dO tHaT hErE' but as it was, he simply accepted it with a single nod. Of course they did. Dream armadillins talk. Why not. As for looking like shit, he shrugged it off, figuratively speaking; he couldn't disagree with that at this particular moment, so what was there to say? He was talking to a bunch of small mammals, an alien, an elf, and a guy.

And a literal redskin. Was that racist? Dream Geoff didn't worry about it. The guy had actual factual red skin. He did glance down at himself briefly to check -- still very white. Normal white, not weird literal white. Just checking. Between Elf and Red. Maybe it wasn't cosplay, maybe it was a real alien, because, y'know, dreams.

That was when some maniac came screaming in about a giant playhouse.

He shuffled ever so slightly closer to Len, who was human and, most importantly, human.

And THEN some lady came in demanding a castle and a unicorn, and he was starting to feel like his dreams needed to stop having such a huge cast of characters, and also that his brain really was getting fried from sleepless nights if he was having such basic dreams as a princess with a unicorn and a castle and all this other malarkey.

Maybe he was dying and this was a fever dream.

A little bit overloaded by all the goings-on, he looked down at the armadillo asking him what an armadillo was, tuning out the other conversations.

"It's..." He held his hands out, bracketing about the length of a grown armadillo. "About this big, rolls into a ball, eats fruit and bugs, looks like you but if you were normal." A zoologist, he was not.

[Zebey]

There was a lot going on, and a lot of different conversations happening. Haelys appeared, suddenly- a woman Zebey had quickly memorized. Royalty was always a pain in the butt, and entitled, and caused problems, even if they weren't from the same place. The drow wasn't in the least bit surprised when she immediately brought up the subject of a castle. Were only royalty allowed to have castles? In this world did it even matter? A castle would be entirely too much fun to have. Especially when she mentioned watchtowers. The view one would have. Imagine how easy it would be to pick off intruders from a watch tower.

Maybe she could understand why royalty liked castles.

Shyzor's response caused a brow of hers to quirk. Even Leonard had agreed with her train of thought, but clearly these creatures did not give a care who was actually in charge. Though, the longer she was here, the more convinced she was that nobody was in charge. Everything was chaos. Which she enjoyed. She glanced around the area again. Imagine having the ability to craft the layout of the main town in the area. Which shops were there, how the roads would be made- Zebey and others involved would know the ins and outs like the backs of their hands. All escape routes, vantage points, weaknesses, all of it. No royalty- Zebey's eyes darted over to Haelys- would be able to fully take advantage of it because they wouldn't be as familiar. Even know, the Queen was conversing about her castle and ignoring what the creatures had actually come here for. It appeared Ren was the only other one still trying to focus on the town.

The slayer didn't like leadership, but this was an opportunity she couldn't pass up. She put herself into the discussion still centered around the town. "Fair. Alright, let's talk. Like she said," she gestured quickly to Cyprena, "How are you paid? Is it by building, per day? Will you work with us on plans and layout?" The elf was certain this place would be her home for a while, so if she had a voice in molding it, by the gods she was going to take it.

[Tynis]

Other people were certainly jabbering on excitedly about various things, but the Armadigger that addressed Tynis took his time and most of Tynis’ attention as he drawled out his words. Cave systems weren’t really of that much interest to him personally, but he nodded in a polite manner. “It certainly is a bit chaotic…” he agreeably murmured.

 He really didn’t know how he felt having a temple in an area that seemed like it might quickly be becoming some sort of centralized space. But with no particular building experience himself he certainly wasn’t going to sit on the sidelines and pass up the opportunity. They certainly spoke with confidence and that was close enough to expertise, right? “Well, if we can come to an agreement and draw up a fair contract I am myself looking for a respectable builder for an important project. I would like to offer my services to the locals but first I will need a temple. It doesn’t have to be large or overly ornate, but built with a purpose in mind and the respect it deserves.” His eyes glinted with sincerity as he scanned the area.

 As he finished his little proposition he caught the tail end of Haelys’ own plans. He salivated at the thought of a wine cellar. His own had been small but always well stocked. “Perhaps a small cellar would be a good idea as well. The garden, too, would need to be sizable but well fenced.” His mind swam with new possibilities and for the first time since arriving he truly felt like there might be something here for him… some roots to be placed.

 His heart sank, though, as he realized payment was on the table. He no longer had the resources he once did. Too sheepish to mention anything he left it up to the Armadiggers to announce their expectations.