Expendable

2100 ☢️ BADLAND REPUBLIC

Epsilon 9-00FF66 - "Nine"

Text Color: FF00FF
Location: Havenwood
Participants: Expendable - Nine, Nanny Jo.

---

"Ah, the young," Nanny Jo sighs, shaking her head in the torchlight. "A bit mad, he is. Or is he MAD?"
Nine turned to stare at Nanny Jo, her eyebrows furrowing. There was that strange emphasis the old woman used. "What do you mean?"
"I'm not... sure," she drawls, staring at the balcony Josiah had so recently occupied. "I just know it would be madness to try it."

After a long moment, Nanny Jo shook her head. "Anyway luv, you all set to go out with an expedition?"
"Am I ready to help pull my weight, you mean, Ma-am?"
"Land o' Goshen!" the old woman chuckled. "You sure have an interesting way to speak, child!"
"As do you," Nine replied. "I am in need of some supplies, even if I have to make them myself."
"To charge up your 'book'?"
"Yes, Ma-am."
"It's a strange thing to call a book, luv. It don't have any pages!"
"Pages take up too much room, so it just saves all the words."

Nanny Jo paused, her face knotting in confusion, then she pealed out in laughter. "Saves all the words! Oh my, child, that's cleverness, indeed!"

A World Building Exercise

I can probably contribute a few things to this. Are you planning on creating a sort of catalog of props and ships as well?

Some ideas that I've run into from time to time:

Most home worlds name themselves for their local word for "dirt" or variations of ("That Which Holds Our Roots" being one), which has lead to a lot of confusion. Interstellar travelers should know the hexadecimal catalog number for their system and world to avoid destination errors.

There are multiple Earths. Each started identical to the other, but have developed different cultures over time. Only a few of these Earths are aware of each other, most insisting they are the original. Each system has a gas giant. These multiple Earths are sometimes called Seed Worlds. Interstellar travelers should know the hexadecimal catalog number for their system and world to avoid destination errors.

Umbra Rose Condos

Qaymu

---

Bldg 1, Ventilation Ducts
@Dragonydas

---

Three gremlins were hard at work on a duct fan so they could get past the spinning blades. As they pounded, pried, and chewed, a curl of smoke drifted around a bend in the duct and curled around the first one.

The gremlin paused in the act of pounding on the motor casing, staring at the smoke, then looked up with a puzzled expression. "Hey, Moe!"
"What?"
"There's smoke here. See?"
"Of course there's smoke, Curly!" the dark haired gremlin replied, waving its arms about. "We're chewing electrial wires and motors! Other gremlins are doin' things in the kitchen! There's gonna be smoke!"

"Yeah, Curly!" the red-headed gremlin said, pausing chewing on the insulation on a wire. "Where there's smoke, there's fire!"
"Fire!" the bald Curly replied, horrified. "Nobody said there was going to be fire!"

"Relax, you moron!" Moe replied, holding onto the screwdriver he was trying to pry off the grill with. "We ain't going to burn the place much. Just enough to singe the joint a bit."
"A bit, a bit," Larry sang, clapping his paws together and spinning around as another tendril of smoke curled around him. He paused and looked down at it. "Hey, Moe, I don't think I like this smoke."
"You don't like smoke?! Why don't you like smoke?"
"My smoke has a head on it."

"Hey, mine does, too!" Curly exclaimed, pointing at a lump that had tiny burning embers like eyes.

A third tendril of smoke appeared, this time wrapping around Moe, who tried waving at it with his screwdriver.

"Shoo, shoo now," Moe said, but it wouldn't break apart - instead, it growled.

"Moe, is your smoke making noise?" Larry demanded nervously. "I don't think smoke should be making noise."
"I don't think this is just smoke."

The smoke suddenly wrapped itself tightly around the three gremlins and yanked them back down the vent, away from the duct fan as the three gremlins scream shrilly.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Qaymu, once more in his human form, appeared out of the bathroom while three golden glowing spheres followed in his wake as he made his way to the front desk.

"Put me down for three," the dragon smiled, puffing smoke on his pipe.

2100 ☢️ BADLAND REPUBLIC

Epsilon 9-00FF66 - "Nine"

Text Color: FF00FF
Location: Havenwood
Participants: @Mav99 - Maverick; Expendable - Nine, Nanny Jo.

---

"Thank you," Nine replied, the corners of her mouth ever so slightly drooping as she took in Maverick's appearance. "You don't look well, would you like to..."

"Nine!" screech Nanny Jo, sticking her head out of the curtain from her shelter and waving her cane. It had a strange "L" shape, with a separate room jutting outwards that her treatment room. "Nine! Come fetch the stew!"

"Excuse me," Nine said, glancing back at Maverick. "My supervisor needs me."

Trotting over, she accepted the oven mitts that Nanny Jo provided and stepped inside. An ancient pot-belly stove held a large pot of bubbling gravy, 'elephant meat', root vegetables, and a handful of herbs and spices that Nanny Jo had on hand.

"Just take that out and refill the pot, the lunch rush will be soon."
"Yes, Nanny Jo," Nine replied, slipping on the quilted oven mitts and carefully taking the heavy pot down, letting it sit on the stone floor before hoisting it up again and carrying it out holding the bail in her right hand. Raising it up to the lip of the half-empty cauldron, she carefully tipped the pot with her other gloved hand and watch carefully as the stew poured out.

Empire of the Clouds

---

Christina

Zeppelin #27, Gondola

---

"Cease what you are doing and inflate the ballonets," ordered the tinny voice coming out of the speaker tube. "We've taken on ballast. Keep us down till we can safely disconnect the cables and get the crew aboard."

Christina's head reared back as she frowned. Did they finally pick a captain?

"Then, we deflate the ballonets and dump the ballast and we should be able to ascend reasonably quickly."

"Bravo," the mechanic said into the horn, already making adjustments on the main panel. Studying the manuals had helped. "SÌ, I inflate ballonets. Capitano, use more hands here when more crew."

H3110!! ^u^

Greetings and salutations!

2100 ☢️ BADLAND REPUBLIC

Epsilon 9-00FF66 - "Nine"

Text Color: FF00FF
Location: Havenwood

---

Havenwood, noted Nine, was unlike the bunker. True, it was underground, at least away from that hot sun, but nobody here wanted to dissect her for being short.

And they all called her Nine because of the laser tattoos on her upper arms, instead of Epsilon 9-00FF66. Not that she saw any people dressed like her, in her faded servitor uniform, so she was unlikely to be confused with another.

But despite her planning, she'd left in such a rush that she hadn't completed her kit. She had body armor but no helmet to protect her head. No first aid kit. No winding or solar charger. Only three boxes of shells, and nothing in the way of trade goods - not even the ration bars. She wondered if she got the batch made with artificial sawdust?

Still, Nine could offer her labor, and that got her some outside world food. It didn't look much like what they would serve in the bunker, or even tasted like it, but the analyzer wand gave it a green light. If only she had one of those fancy armbands with the buttons like the Alphas or Betas had, then it could tell her what was in the bowls. But the bunker would be able to trace that.

If she was going to dream, a robotic mule would have been nice to carry everything as well - but the Alphas could order it recalled and take away her trade goods, if she had any, so instead she had this backpack to haul everything in. Weird how none of the literature had warned her how heavy the pack would get on her shoulders, or the osmosis canteen. At least Nine had a stick of sunscreen - and she'd found her way here.

But the outside world had its own threats, it seemed.

"Who are these 'New Republic' people?" she whispered to the person next to her. "Why do they kill people?"

Nine had killed before, but only when necessary. Did these New Republicans think they could simply get away with murder? Would that make them sociopaths?

The books she had read had suggested she could be a psychopath. If she had the opportunity, she should study these New Republicans from a healthy distance.

Umbra Rose Condos

<Snipped quote by Expendable>

So if Lilith picked up a lance and got on top of Eilidh's back, he'd be able to eat it safely? /joke

@Foster

Knights on horseback were the second form of food delivery service in the old days.

Umbra Rose Condos

I mean, nothing is stopping anyone from eating it.

Since everyone here is immortal, the worst that can happen is a mild upset stomach.

@Foster

Dragons aren't immortal, they're just very long lived. They're also not so vulnerable to knights waving lances on horseback.

Hidden Amongst Humans - Initial Thoughts

Umbra Rose Condos is like that, it's a safe haven for monsters living in the city.

There's a couple ways this could go.

Imagine a series of subway tunnels, connecting to various out-of-service subway stations or forgotten fallout shelters.
It would work really well if you're treating this as an underground railroad for monsters.

Perhaps there's a seedy-looking cafe or bookstore that has a secret door leading to a forgotten alley, like in Harry Potter. Or an alley that leads to a cluster of forgotten buildings that have been wiped off city maps.