Bergin emerges from his camper beside the shop and wanders out towards the fire ring - apparently having a late start for the day. The bearded guy is in his usual ensemble of jeans, t-shirt, workboots and the ever-present flannel as he wanders over towards the fire ring to check and see if it needs cleared out before the Gathering tonight. As the trio of peopele seem to be heading into the Stacks he calls to them with a half-smile on his face, "They've been fed so it should be safe...-ish."
Karmen pops her head up over the back of a car and boggles. "But, that goes against the laws of the universe! It is a fact universally acknowledge, that there is no such thing as just one cookie!" She drops back down into the stacks of wrecked cars, then whoops! "BINGO!" She pops back up, looking like a manic puppet with all the ducking and reappearing, visible only from the waist up. "What we got here, ladles and jellyspoons, is a '92 Explorer SUV! Now, before Miss Mary hits me with a spoon, I'd like to point out that the shell was different, but the interior components and fascia are absolutely identical to the Ranger. 100 the same thing. If your little lady complains, send her to me, and I'll take the beating. The Exlorer just made cosmetic improvements to the Ranger to make it more sci fi 90s schtick, but the actual design of the engineering is unchanged. You reckon that'll suit?" She then waves a wrench at Bergin. "Hello, sir! Sorry, I appear to be helping your customers. I can stop if you like!"
"The rats? That's good. Did you ever find out what was wrong with the waterbed of moss?" Zoe calls over, waving to Bergin. "Definitely sounds amazing. I'd love to see her wooden spoon ninjaness. I'd take two just to see it happen." Some prices are worth the experience.
Bryan glances over his shoulder at Bergin and then looks toward the Stacks, then from Zoe to Karmen and back again and he grins. "You can go with me to install it if you want. You'd probably get a real good look at my perfect butt while I was all bent over and doing manly things." He thinks about flexing, but that seems just a little too much. His gaze slips over to Karmen and he actually has to think about his answer there. "I'll take it for now and if I get beaten with a wooden spoon or she gives me that Look of Disappointment and she makes me cry, I'm coming after you." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a neat fold of cash, mostly ones. (Don't ask). "How much is it do you think?"
Bergin shakes his head and reaches up to itch at his beard a bit as Karmen asks him something. "Hell nah. If you can help them then go for it. Just be careful once you leave the main path." Killi's comment about the rats earns a nod and he shrugs in answer about the moss. "No idea. Haven't been able to find that place again."
The bearded lumbersexual spies Bryan pull out his wad of cash and shakes his head, "No charge for family bro..."
"Awesome!" The excessively perky Karmen vanishes again, and there are a variety of sounds that suggests someone doing something arcane and mysterious to one of the wrecks. Her voice floats out from her location. "If she needs anything else, this would be a good time so say so. The whole ass-end of this thing is a disaster. I think it got humped by a stegosaurus. But mostly, the engine is in good shape. A few bits too rusty to be much use, but I could salvage a lot of it, if she needs anything else. Manifold is good, and give me a couple of hours with it at the forge, the transmission would be good to go!" She is in her element, apparently. Giant person eating rats? She seems unconcerned.
Killigrew is lost in the car talk, watching as the cash is denied. "Bergin's good people like that." she says in a low voice - musn't let the Bergin hear. Though there isn't much she can do if he has really good hearing. "I don't know. As much as I want to go, I don't think I could handle all of the 'Is this your new girlfriend' and 'She needs to eat more' and 'Hips are too narrow, you could do better' type thigns grannies like that tend to go on about."
Bryan shakes his head at Bergin. "It isn't for family. I do yard work and stuff for a little old lady who isn't family. She's loaded. She can afford twenty bucks for a used radiator." He finds a couple of fives and peels them and a ten off and offers it out to Bergin. He turns toward Karmen again and reaches into his back pocket to pull out a little notebook and flips through it. "Radiator was the main thing this week. I haven't really gone through the whole thing. Miss Mary is picky about things. She said she bought it new and she's gonna drive that thing til one of 'em croaks." Then he just.. makes a huffy sound. "Okay, what did we feed and why can't we find the mossy place?" Curiosity. Killed the cat, they say. Then he's distracted by Killigrew and shakes his head, grinning. "She tells me all the time that I'm too young to NOT be single and I need to learn to live life and experience some things before I settle down. You'll love her. You should come. Both of you even. I'm supposed to be cleaning her house too, but goddamn, her cats hate me. She pays good."
As the group heads into the stacks, Bergin takes the man's money and turns to head back to give it to the lady who owns and runs the place. He's still mostly milling around the fire ring checking it out to see if it needs anything before the Gathering tonight.
Bryan moves along, letting Karmen do her thing so he doesn't have to. Like, he WOULD. He came out here ready to do whatever to get these parts off, but if Karmen the Bubbly Grease Monkey wants to do things, then he'll let her. This place makes him a little nervous, so when Killigrew wanders off, he turns to look in her direction.
There's treasures everywhere, and it's hard to rein in that kind of curiosity. Watching the triumphant Karmen, Killi applauds, then looks around and pokes her head around one of the corners. A pause, and she sneaks around the corner to go investigate. "Hey, Karmen! Come check this out! Might need to bring a torch!"
"Hang on!" Karmen scrambles gracelessly from her pit, and pops the radiator on the floor. Then she takes out her cellphone, activates the torch, and follows Killigrew. "Whatcha got down there, Spike? Tell me it's a hidden treasure? Holy Grail? Original Capri? DB Cooper?"
Karmen stands in the tunnel, positively quivering with acquisitive, nay - orgamsic even - delight! She hefts her wrench, and starts examining everything in a deeply intense, almost manic, manner. "How long has this been here? Why did nobody tell me? How much is it? It's big enough I could fit this out... oh. My. Gods... Spike, we're going to LIVE in this! LIVE IN IT!"
It's at that point that somewhere beyond the door that reads 'Dead Inside' a large thump can be heard. Not some metalic clank like two bits of machinery settling against each other or some random part falling against it but a dull, deliberate -thump-.
THUMP. Killigrew squeaks and falls back, dancing a few steps away from the thing. "Do you think, maybe, someone is inside?" she stammers, spooked. After all, this is not her first rodeo with the Stacks and their strange contents.
Bergin nods and wanders over towards a corner of the yard where some of the newer vehicles have been brought in but have yet to be stripped down. There's a fairly limited range of choices; everything from a few pickup trucks to a sports car and even a mini van. Different cylander counts, different ages, but all seem to have had their last legs and were consigned to the scrap yard to be converted into something useful.
"Did you want it delivered somewhere? I mean..." he glances towards her car and its condition and the idea of trying to put an engine or something into it would not be a pretty sight. "We can handle that kind of a thing if you'd like."
Tseo> Karmen is, however, mostly ignorant of things lurking. She's been around places like this her whole life. Rats do not concern her. Nor do doggies. "Inside? Maybe. It's probably just a rat or something. Maybe something shifted and fell down when we came in and shook it up." She examines the bulkhead and scratches her head, smearing a little more oil on her forehead. "This is strange. Someone actually sealed this up. Dead Inside? Yeah, well. That's a bit post-apocalyptic. See if we can open it up? Might be a cat trapped or something!"
"... sure?" Knowing Karmen is liable to do the opening anyway. Her foot kicks something and she bends to pick it up, opening the olive drab pouch and pulling out an old, old compass. "This is cool..."
...that doesn't point north...
Suddenly, Karmen darts into a shadow, behind some old crate in the old... crate. She comes up holding what looks like an honest to god pair of WWII bomber pilot goggles! "Slam your body down, and wind it all around! Come to momma! Look at these babies!" She snaps them on, and strikes a pose! "Whatcha think, Spike? A whole new look? Oh sweet..." She peers through the goggles at the compass. "Maybe there's some more stuff here? You know how much this gear is worth? There's got to be some more behind that bulkhead!"
Not north? That's weird. Turning, Zoe tries to figure out what direction the compass points, or if it's just.. broken. "I think we need a welder. Do you think you can do that? Or do you think you can do your thing and get it open?"
It's just a glance, a simple turn of his head and Bergin signals to one of the Boyz to head back to the shop and tell the kinfolk inside that they should be more aware of the woman in the yard. It's not a signal of danger more of alertness or awareness - something he can convey in just a glance and a shift in his body language. "Oh your granddad? That's kinda cool," the lumberjack of a guy comments in trying to make small talk. "I got mine up in Canada - that's where I'm from, originally. How about yourself?" Because now it's a matter of discovering who the woman's people might be.
"But if you're at the University then yeah, you wouldn't have room for anything too big so we'd have to find ya something a bit easier to play with." And for this, he slowly walks her over to a stack of smaller bits of automotive hardware that might entice her curiosity. "Something like these maybe?"
Whatever it is that Karmen might need to open the bulkhead remains unrevealed, as she starts to flail around for a panic-stricken moment, and then gets her balance again, and starts looking around intently, and beams. "Fuucccckkooooohhh!!! This is so fucking COOL! Oh man, you look badass in uniform!" She takes a few steps, wobbling a little. "This is like the weirdest trip ever!"
Turn this way. Turn that way. The needle keeps on at the bulkhead. "Interesting. Hey, Karmen, this..." She looks up from the compass towards the wobbling Stargazer kin, laughing. "Maybe the lenses just need to be cleaned off?"
With no warning whatsoever, Karmen HURLS herself at Zoe, which may result in them hitting the deck in a sprawling mess of arms and legs and other apendages! "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" She yells, and tries to smother her friend with her own torso. Which, given her nubility, might be enjoyable, if it were not for being in such a truly screwed up environment.
Katja says, "I'm from Indiana. Kleinberg. Oh! With a name like Berg, are you from a German family, too? Maybe that's it. My Granddad's name was /Thorsten/, can you imagine?" She laughs, turning her attention to the stripped, partially disassembled arrangement of parts. "See, this is cool," reaching out to pick up a gear assembly, hefting it somewhat awkwardly in her arms so that she can twist a cam and cause a connected pair of gears to spin. "I wonder if I could hook it up to a small electric motor for a demo..."
"Ack!" THUD. Killi goes down hard under Karmen, smacking her head on the inside of the bomber. The compass skitters a few feet away. "What! OW! What was that for!?" Trying to push the other kin off of her, she sits up and rubs the back of her head, then tries to find that cool old compass again. "Do you have any cutting torches?"
Bergin smiles, trying to play up the friendly helper vibe while speaking with Katja. "Yeah, originally. They moved like generations ago, probably after the war or something." The woman's grandfather's name draws his attention almost like a smack across the face and he takes a moment to consider that. "That's Norse..." he hesitates for a moment, "...I think. Kinda cool and yeah, you should be able to hook it up."
Bryan floats.. over the stacks, making a little grumpy huff sound. "Fucking finally. There was a face that wasn't a face. It was just car parts, but it was a fucking FACE. It WAS." DO NOT QUESTION THIS. Do NOT. Bryan touches down, as graceful as a ballerina and pulls a little pipe from his pocket. "And then I couldn't find my way out and I SWEAR you guys were RIGHT on the other side of the wall, but you weren't and then it pissed me off and...." He clears his throat. "I showed that not face who was boss, though." He lights up the pipe and takes a good long hit, offering it outward to whomever might want it, holding his breath as he works at calming himself down. WAY down. He's fine, though. No ones gonna die today. Probably.
Karmen rolls onto her back, and seems to be genuinely freaking out. With some difficulty, she manages to claw the goggles off her face, and while she does not drop them, she holds them at arm's length. "Brahmin's Butt, those things are fucked up! What the hell... what?" She sits up and looks at the bulkhead. "Well, duh, what sort of a question is that? If course I have cutting torches. Not with me, but you can bet Big and Beardy will have some here somewhere. And... whut?" She looks up at Bryan, who was.. flying? Or was it the goggles again? "What the HELL is going on?"
Killigrew looks at her hand, then rubs her head again. No blood. That's good. Grabbing the compass, she looks over as Bryan joins them. "The Stacks are weird. You should take Karmen and go get her cutting torch. I wanna see what's behind the bulkhead." she says, leaning to rap her knuckles on the steel.
No one wants a hit? Cool. More for Bryan for later. He licks his thumb and smooshes down the already cooling weed and tucks it back into his pocket and he holds out his hand to Karmen. "Want a ride back? It isn't nearly as weird from up there.." Bryan looks up. "Just take us a second." So this is kind of weird, yes, but Bryan spent three years trapped in the Umbra. This was par for the course there.
Karmen allows herself to be helped up to her feet. "Sorry about the pounce, Spike. I guess I got carried away. These things are weird. I put them on and I was right in a full blown air battle. Fighters and bombers and stuff. Cool, but... scary." She then looks over the bulkhead again. "Let's ask Bergin. If he'll give us the tools, I can crack this open in a couple of minutes. There's something weird here, for sure."
Dalibor is putzing around in the scrapyard proper, as he often does. And so he sees Bryan float/fly over the Stacks. Huh. That's different. And worth investigating. And so he does - wiping his hands on his jeans and walking into the Stacks, trying to track the floating Bryan to wherever he's going.
"Just, hurry back, yeah?" Being alone is that Stacks is like hanging a 'free food' sign on oneself. Still, the Fury kin gets to exploring the bulkhead, looking to see if there's a mouse sized hole somewhere she might be able to peek through. Or get in via.
Bryan looks back and forth between Killigrew and Karmen and frowns just a touch. "I don't know if I really like this or not. I don't think anyone needs to be ALONE in here. How about I go get the cutter, or we just hold off on this for another day." Options!
After several minutes of random twists and turns (and dead ends that require some backtracking), Dal finally spots the bomber. That seems... odd for a scrapyard in Prospect. Curiouser and cuiouser. And he closes in on the aircraft, finally beginning to clamber into the derelict.
Karmen raps on the bulkhead carefully. "Well... he might have a point. And I think Bergin might lend him the cutter more readily than me, as he hardly knows me. But why wait for another day? I mean, this will keep me awake all night! I really need to know what is in there. This old bird is a wonderful find, and if it can be properly fixed up, I am dead serious. I want to live in this thing! I bet I could find an out of the way spot at Serenity Grove. Put it down, do it up... it'd be a hell of a quirky home!"
Killigrew's fingers find some holes and she looks at them, lips pursing. "I think I can get small enough to stick my head in there and get a look. Then we can figure out if it's worth it to crack it open?" she says, straightening up, then pausing when she hears feet on the outside of the bomber. "Hello?!" calling out.
Bryan shakes his head at Killigrew. "Please don't. Let me get out there and bring the cutter, THEN you can and we can decide if we need to break in or not. I'm not the real bossy sort, but you're kinfolk and I'm Garou and the fact that I'm out here with you means that I'm responsible for you. I know it's stupid, but you're ALSO Black Fury and I do not want to have to go tell Alecto that one of her kinfolk got hurt while I flitted off to get a cutter. Will you just hold up five minutes while I go and come back?"
Karmen Sighs. "All right, all right! We'll wait until you get back!" She moves to rest a hand on Zoe's arm. "It'll only be a few minutes. And if you did go in there and it IS a wildcat, and it ate you, I'd never forgive myself! Besides, I need to work out what's safe here. If I cut the wrong place, the whole tub could come apart. It'll give me time to prep for cutting."
"Yeah, alright. There's definitely something in there, though." Zoe says, then brightens. "Dalibor? Oh good, now we're not alone while Bryan grabs the cutter." She says, reluctantly moving away from the sealed bulkhead, playing with the broken compass that only points at the bulkhead.
"Cool." He glances over toward the voice and calls out, with authoritay, "Over here. I'll be right back." He looks at Zoe and the playfulness falls out of his face and he's serious for a second or two. "I know you're a perfectly capable adult, but this is potentially dangerous. If something were to fall on you, it could kill you. Just.. WAIT for me to get back." And then he lifts up off the ground, superman style, and hustles over to get the thing he needs
Karmen watches Bryan go. And boggles a bit. "Can everyone please stop having superpowers until I get some, 'kay? Jeez. Way to give me an inferiority complex." SHe studies the bulkhead closely. "You know, if there's a powerful electromagnet in here, that could be why the compass is goofy. I am not sure why there would be one, though. But it's one answer." She taps the bulkhead, listening closely. "I hope there's no old war munitions in here. don;t want to blow up the yard when I start heating things up."
Dalibor follows the voice back into the plane. Luckily old school bombers really weren't that big, so it takes only a few moments to find the gang. "Hi." He greets simply as he looks around, "Interesting find. I had no idea the salvage yard had anything like this." His fingers gravitate towards some of the holes (bullet holes?) in the planes skin.
"I'll be good." Zoe promises, watching Bryan skip off to get them tools. Turning towards Karmen, she chuckles. "Yeah, but better we find it so it can be dealt with, than leave it alone to be found by someone that can't deal with it as well." She points out, greeting Dalibor with a warm smile while he plays with the bullet holes in the old skin of the plane. "Hey! Bryan went to grab a cutter so we can open that." She says, pointing at the sealed bulkhead, complete with dents and claw marks and ominous warning.
Karmen scratches her head, smearing the engine oil smears on her face a little more. "The question is, why was it sealed up in the first place? I can't see any structural reason for it. Sometimes it was done for dangerous substance leaks, but there shouldn't be any in a crate this old. I wish i knew what sort of bomber it was, I could pull up the specs on my phone. Give me a lot more information to work with. Somehow I think we're gong to find rats, and not hidden Nazi art, though."
Bryan floats back over the walls of metal and lands with that perfect grace again. He has something that looks like it might be a prop from one of the ghostbuster movies strapped to his back, hose and all. And a pair of goggles that will keep him from going blind. "Am I running this thing or are one of you doing it?" Dalibor gets a polite nod. Intros can wait, one supposes. "But whatever we're doing needs to be done pretty soon. I have patrol soon." He's okay with this. Really he is. Just fun cute adorable Bryan has been replaced with Cautious Kin Protecting Athro
Dalibor frowns as he reads the grafitti. "I think I have seen this movie. It starts with people yelling at screen for characters to not do stupid thing... and ends poorly for many characters." He looks around taking in the rough layout of a model of military bomber, that he's never been in, and tries to get a feel for what's behind that hatch. Bomb bay? Gun turret? One-way portal to Malfeas? He looks at Karmen. "If it were a hazardous material leak, it would not just be in civilian salvage yard, would it? Military would have secured somewhere, yes?" He hasn't seen any of the really weird shit in the Stacks yet, so everything is just stacks of old machinery and vehicles - right? Nothing weird and other worldly here. Nope.
"We heard a thump, but I think it was just something falling over." Killi says, backing away from the bulkhead and motioning towards Bryan. "Go ahead. Crack her open." Eager to see what's on the other side of the sealed hatch. "How are you doing today, Dalibor?"
Karmen turns and sees Bryan's gear, and starts to vibrate. She holds her hands out, stashing her wrench in her belt. "Give... GIVE!!!" She wants a proton pack! She wants to cross the streams! And... well, she wants to open the bulkhead. Given that she's fairly well qualified as a competent mechanic and engineer, she does have a point that she is perfectly capable. Also, finders keepers. The girls found it, it's their plane now! "I'm very familiar with the equipment, I mean."
Bryan snorts at Karmen and unslings the pack. "This weighs as much as you do. Come here." He makes a little spinny gesture at Karmen indicating she should turn around and if she does, he gets her suited up and plunks the goggles down over her head, probably not quite straight. "There. Now.. one rule... Be fucking careful." Could he just charge through here and see what the fuck is going on? Could he step into the Umbra? Could he ruin everyone's fun and pick them up like footballs and carry them out? Yup. But he's actually having fun here, folks.
Killigrew glances to the knife in Dalibor's and, then towards the way out. A brief touch to the Modi's elbow and she slips to stand behind him, to stay out of his way and give him some piece of mind.
Tseo> Karmen is suited up. She adjusts the goggles, and studies her target very carefully. "All right then. Mind your eyes, and stand back. Being hit by sparks or molten metal sucks ass, believe me! One small step for a chick, one giant leap for chick-kind..." And with that, she sets to work...
Bryan's gaze swings all around the area and he frowns just a touch. "Eh, fuck," he mutters quietly and looks Killigrew over a little more carefully, then back to Karmen and he struggles briefly with saying... something and just steps a little closer to Karmen. Yes, fire sucks. Whatever. He's gonna stand his ground, close enough to grab Karmen if he has to, or push her aside and murder things or whatever.
Karmen Seems to be doing well enough. She has decided not to cut out the lock, as the whole bulkhead has been welded shut, and the lock is not what keeps the door closed. It all looks fine at first, but after a little while, and a few of the welded areas cut open, she pulls the flame back, and peers inside. And frowns. She starts again, then pulls back again. "Um... well. That's not good. In fact, that's really freakin' bad." She turns and looks worried. "There was something flammable in there. I think I kinda just set the plane on fire. A tiny bit."
"Get back. Back." Bryan, on the other hand, is moving forward. He puts his hand on the side, fingers spread, palm pressed against the metal to feel for heat. "The area is too Wyld for all this shit," he mumbles and points at Dalibor. "Get behind him. I'll put out the fire." Mumble grumble. And something's happening too, probably. Maybe
She needs no second instruction. Karmen lowers the cutter, and turns the flame off, and gets the hell out of the way, as instructed. She can't help but look a little ashamed, but innocent, too. "Well, how was I supposed to know what was back there? Who makes a flammable airplane anyway? This never happened when I was working at the auto-shop! Mind you, we didn't get many planes in there. had a hang glider once though..." She then wisely shuts the hell up. Her talking is not going to make this better.
Bryan leans forward, putting his face to the new seam of the bulkhead, then jerks his head backwards and points in the general direction of out. "Motherfucking orcs or some shit. Wyld orcs. Out." Bryan is now in full Athro mode. "Back back back. There's some creature in there that was on fire and is now slightly soggy." He doesn't look MAD though. Just.. like.. he isn't high enough for this,r eal
"Wyld Orcs?" Killigrew blinks and then starts for the way out, stuffing the compass in her pocket. "Can they get out? If they get out, they have to be dealt with. Can't just... let them wander." she says, hesitating on the threshold and looking back.
Dalibor takes a moment to prep himself, invoking a handful of gifts for the potential influx of fiery death. And then Bryan yells something about... orcs? He brings up Ekser, his knife and waves the kin back. "Go!" The plan is to follow Bryan's orders - with a little interpretation of his own - kin first. He's a Modi - he's not scared of some... orcs? But orders are orders.
Karmen follows Zoe out, but can't help but peer back, still wearing the cutter mask. "Orcs? ORCS? Why did nobody tell me about orcs? Are there elves? Holy Cow, are there HOBBITS? What the... gah!" She fidgets and frowns more. "It's so damn tingly! LIke my skin is made of ants!"
To be fair, it doesn't look like BRYAN is planning on leaving. He squares up and tips his head a little to the side and then the other and there's a quiet little cracking sound as he does and he just.. gets.. bigger. The clothes shift with him and sort of meld in with his pale fur. He does not advance for a few seconds, waiting for everyone to get back out of the way. He's PRETTY sure that the girls aren't actually LEAVING, but he isn't going ot turn around and check either. Karmen's itchiness is unfortunate, but not something he can deal with right now and he steps forward again, jaming a couple of claws into the seam and preparing to /PULL/.
Karmen follows her friend, Still carrying the cutter, and grinding her teeth because of the itchies. And.. wait, raccoon? Nope, her brain is not working now. "Someone tell me this is a dream, because with those goggles, the orcs, and that trash panda, I am refusing to believe this is real." She comes to a halt and peers at the compass. "Still broke?"
Dalibor takes a spot just outside the plane. If Bryan comes hauling ass for the exit, he'll get the hell out of the way. If Bryan gets into a fight, he's going back in to get the Athro's back. And if something goes THROUGH Bryan? Well, hopefully he'll slow it just long enough for the girls to get away.
"Hang on a moment!" Karmen takes off the cutter mask, and drops it aside. She replaces it with the bomber goggles, working on a theory. A very loose theory, yes, but a theory all the same. She turns and studies the whole scene from outside the plane...
As Bry pulls back the door, the image of a stupidly huge, bat-like creature becomes visible within the shadowy confines of the rear of the plane. It's gonna get ya. But...it's not exactly moving. Its wings are out stretched - or so they would seem, the head is kinda tilted, maybe, and it could POUNCE AT ANY MOMENT. (roll per+alert)
Chases-the-Wind peers INTENTLY into the inside of the thing. Then there's a snort and Bryan shifts back to homid. "Well, what the everloving fuck? It's a goddamn parachute." Bryan huffs, probably a little aggitated, to say the least, but not Ragerifically so. "Too fucking long in the Umbra, Bry my Guy," he mutters to himself. "But! Hey, Karmen! Come take a look what you almost blew up!"
The compass is now pointing at the huge raccoon. "I'm starting to think 'broken' isn't the right word for it." Starting to follow the raccoon, Zoe pauses and looks back when there's an all clear instead of the sounds of a 'rou tearing things apart. She's not about to go inside, yet, but does move over next to Dalibor. "I think this compass is special."
Well, these developments are all extremely interesting, but Karmen is no longer registering them. She has fallen over. And given she is wearing the cutter still, that might be a problem. Also, she is flailing around like a complete maniac, and - just to add a little zest to things - starts shrieking like a demented banshee. Because that always helps.
Dalibor's eyes dart to Zoe briefly, before darying back to Bryan's confrontation. fetish knife is still out and ready for action. "Compass?" Right, he wasn't here for the beginning of this craziness. And then the screaming starts. He blinks and moves almost without thought. An Athro can probably deal with... whatever is in the plane. But Karmen's DOWN.
Changing direction, Zoe darts over to Karmen, trying to make a grab for the goggles. She's not very fast, or quick, and is quite likely to get smacked around more than she is to succeed in the grabbing.
Karmen is not too easy to subdue, with the flailing and the screaming, so it is possible she is going to end up thumping people. But removal of the goggles does occur. And it causes her to calm down. She lies on the ground, hyperventilating, shaking, and generally being a bit of a wreck. "Whu... whu... whatever you do.... DON'T PUT THOSE FUCKERS ON!!!"
Taking a couple of good slaps and an elbow in the process of getting the goggles away from Karmen, Zoe falls back, hugging the prize to her chest and looking up at Dalibor. "What happened, Karmen?"
Karmen struggles to rise, still breathing too fast, and shaking somewhat. "I... I... when I put them on. I was outside the plane.. And outside the plan, meant I was falling. Through the middle... middle..." She shudders hard. "Dogfight. Outside in dogfight. FALLING to my death. Falling... it was so real... So real. Don't wear them. They're insane!"
Dalibor exhales heavily. To Karmen he says softly. "Deep breath. Calm. Not hurt, yes?" He shoots Killi a questioning glance, before focusing on the downed Karmen again, offering her a hand up if she truly seems to be healthy. "Perhaps we should get cutting torch off?"
Lil sore, but more or less intact. Taking the hand up, she smiles to Dalibor. "Both of these things seem to be more than they look. I think we should give them to the crescent moons tonight and explain what we've found." Karmen gets a smile as well, trying to reassure the woman. "It was just a dream, sort of. You're alright."
Karmen takes a deep breath, and is grateful to be helped up. "Yes... yes. Let someone else work out what this is." She turns to present her back to Dalibor. "Get this thing off, yes please! Before it turns into a goddamned Unicorn or something! So... it was a parachute?" She peers back at the plane. "How the hell does a parachute become an orc?"
Dalibor helps Karmen out of the cutting torch gear and gently, oh so gently, puts it down. One disaster 'resolved', he jogs back to the plane and Bryan.
Once Karmen is untangled, Zoe offers her a hand and tries to help haul her up, then wraps an arm around her waist to help steady her. "Come on, let's go see. Bryan said it was all clear." Trying to latch onto Karmen's curiosity to get her thinking of something else.
Karmen is definitely encouraged. She slips her own arm around Zoe, and is led to have a look at the reality of the situation. Her curiosity was hard to remove, and even after such a horrible experience, she was perking up. "We got spooked by a parachute... heh. Also, I got to use a plasma torch. Cutting tools are AWESOME!"
So the "bat" isn't a bat. Someone has hung several layers of parachute silk over whatever's packed back there and as stuff was shifted (and burn) it only looks like some menacing, looming creature ready to kill you. However, one of the corners of the shroud has been burned away to reveal this: http://imgur.com/DPwz4ZS'
Dalibor moves through into the apparent bomb bay and CAREFULLY moves the parachute. He cautiously inspects the bombs (and the racks they're on), being careful to not even touch them.
The racks are unstable with one whole side shifting due a pair of curious people being all curious and stuff and shifting the weight inside the old wreck. That must have been the 'thump' heard earlier. There's probably two dozen of the 'presents' in here. All marked with the word 'dead' scratched on the cases.
Killigrew freezes, eyes going wide. "That's, that.. is it?" she snaps her jaw shut and opts for being quiet and very still.
Karmen also comes forwards to examine the boom-booms. Then she shivers. "That's exatly what it is, yes. But if the labels are right, they are deactivated. Now it makes more sense. Dead inside. As in, this is where the dead bombs have been stored. Of course, we do not assume." She brightens "Mind you, if they are dead, I wouldn't mind opening them up! All sorts of useful bits and bobs in these things..." She reaches her hand out, then stops. "No. We need someone to confirm they are safe. Not my field. I'm not experienced with explosives. Anybody we know who might be? Or do we call the government?"
Dalibor backs away slowly. Hopefully dead means that the bombs aren't aren't live munitions and isn't a prediction of their near futures. But then again, bomber crews were known to paint 'humorous' sayings on bombs before dropping them. So maybe 'dead' was just a lazy version of that. Either way... "We need EOD." He pauses. "Does Sept have EOD?" His old home Sept would have had several people that could handle the task, but a Get Sept under war conditions is very different from what he's seen in Prospect so far.
"I don't know. The Gathering is tonight, so maybe we can..." Zoe considers, thinking. "We'll need a way to mark the path to get back to here, so we don't get lost or take a wrong turn. We don't want to forget where this place is, if we put out word that we need an EOD person."
Karmen gnaws her lower lip, in thought. It's not always a good sign. She's in the 'having mad ideas' phase of her lunatic cycle, clearly. "If we can't get anyone, give me a little time with my laptop and toolkit, and I can probably learn how to disarm a second world war bomb. I'm a quick study. I like to think there's nothing I can't either repair or disassemble, and I'd hate to let the chance of certain death keep me from proving it. But we should probably tell Mr B. He might not take kindly to us flattening his business just because I can't keep my hands to myself." She takes her wrench from her belt. "But I am dead serious about making this place habitable. With the explosives removed and a little work, this could be a fantastic cottage."
Dalibor shakes his head. "I do not know much about military bombs, but pretty sure they have failsafe to prevent tampering." Again, this is assuming they're actual live munitions. But the thing that keeps bothering him is - why? Why keep the dead munitions in the plane when it's being scrapped? Why weld the bomb bay doors shut? He feels like he's missing something here. He looks to Killi. Does anyone have something to mark the turns in the Stacks? Spraypaint? Chalk? Anything?"
Killigrew hunts around and retrieves a bit of twisted metal, using it to mark a big 'X' on some more steal by vigorously scraping it against the other. "Think this could work. Or was can use the cutter." Zoe points out, then grins. "Bergin is gonna be like..." She makes a Grumpy Cat face. "But knowing it's here means we can help fix it." she says, chewing her lower lip in thought.
Karmen sighs at the pair. "Oh good grief, why is it only the engineering team who carry useful tools?" She plucks a sharpie from her back pocket. "Never go anywhere without one, seriously! Now if you can remember the way back OUT, I can mark our route. We'll try to find someone properly qualified to dispose of these. When they're gone, I'll see whether or not we can properly salvage and repair the fuselage. I know someone who lives on an old water plane. Has it parked in Boston harbour. Fully converted. I always loved it. Living in a converted bomber would be excessively cool, and we were just talking the other day about finding a new place, Spike."
SOMETHING went weird as fuck and Bryan somehow lost track of everyone. It took him a minute to settle his cute ass down and actually CONCENTRATE. Honing in on Killigrew's pure breed was the best bet. (Makes him want to sneeze, but in a ... sexy... way? Whatever. PROTECK!!!!!!) and Karmen's too, but her pure breed reminds him oldly of Star Anise and that's.. strange. But here he comes, homing in, but not flying, because shit is just too weird right now
Dalibor laughs softly. "Enginnering team carries because engineering team. No one ask why combat team carry knife."
"We could probably fit two bedrooms and a little kitchenette in the middle? Use a propeller to pump water and make some electricity. Could be fun." Killigrew says, watching Karmen start marking the path for them. "Thank you guys, for keeping us safe. When we bring the story to the gathering to share, I'll make sure they know you're both amazing."
