Faction Real Steel [Darkwire]

[Cartri Keswoll]

Location: Altier
Objective: Drink sorrows away
Tag: Brie Jaxx / Under Foot / Daiya / Junker Jonn / Hex / Cassus Akovin

"That maybe we would have more than a moment to get away.... that maybe they would investigate before they started blasting.

"Even if she did die they'd still find us. Fuck, we'd probably be in a worse position if you did somehow kill her!" Cartri boomed, his voicing raising a little more from the stupidity he was hearing. Valery dying would not only have the whole order on them but the galactic forces as well, with those two combined they definitely wouldn't last long "Which side we're on? you bombing the train was the reason they sent those bastards after us! did you not expect them to retaliate at all?!"

Upon speaking his truth on the Doc Hex surprised him by pulling out a knife. Cartri took a few steps back and was ready to act if she took a swipe at him, but upon looking at her face and body language it was clear she didn't plan on using it. At that moment, Cassus jumped between them and prevented Hex from having second thoughts. The ginger shot his cold blue eyes to the boy and sighed "I'd rather speak than do anything physical..." he grunted to Hex, knowing there was no way she planned on jabbing him anytime soon.

Looking back to Hex he shook his head at her "You had your chance to think over the consequences, yet you chose to ignore them"

With that Cartri causally raised his hands up and backed away from the pair, grabbing the drink he left on the table in the process "I hear you Cassus, I'll stop. However Hex, I'd suggest you fuck off and stay out of my sight for the rest of the day. I'm not going to let go of what just happened so lightly. Just count yourself lucky you didn't try and go the extra mile, else we'd be in a totally different situation right now" the teen said with his tone full of venom, his icy glare staring straight at Hex.

Downing the rest of his drink, he slammed the glass hard on the table and exited to the bot arena to clear his head.

Thank the stars he kept his cool

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

"You, good sir! You look like a betting man."

"You got that right," Jacen said with a grin. He paused, recalling what he had overheard from the blonde. Something about your favorite girl.

"Perhaps you'd be interested in the spread? I'm offering good odds on the gonk droid."

Glancing up at the list of contestants, he shook his head. "Nah. I'd like to place a bet on every female contestant. Make it... five hundred credits each."

He started to hand over his credit chit, only for someone to bump into him. He turned to face the person, and found it was the brunette from earlier.

"S-s..."

"No worries," he said, smiling reassuringly.

And then he smelled it. Blood. His gaze was drawn to the thin trickle of red on her upper lip, and his smile wavered. "You got a little, uh..." He tapped below his nose with a gloved finger, trying not to stare.

Daiya Cinder Under Foot​

 

[Hex]

Tag: Cinder Cyran Vaas Under Foot Daiya Brie Jaxx Cartri Keswoll

Location: Altier
Objective: Build a robot

Spoiler: Equipment

• Neon Lady suit
• ap-25i SIMP pistol
• 'Candles' Heavy particle blaster
• 'confetti' Rocket launcher
• Party Poppers (3 explosive, 3 gas)
• Dancer repulsor board
• Jade Void Amulet
• Dervish Knife

Spoiler: Hex dialogue colors

Poor Hex hears voices in her head

Hex speech to others
Hex speech to herself

Hexes inner voices
'...Neutral...'
'...Doubt...'
'...Anger...'
Coloured '.....' are also words that Hex can hear , but I decided not to write them to reduce clutter

​

Hex snarled at Cartri Keswoll as he continued his rant. "Yeah, I thought they'd retaliate, and yeah, maybe I should have expected their enforcers to start blasting people who had nothing to do with the attack right?"

She pushed a stool over as Cassus Akovin intervened in their argument and she spun her blade rapidly in her hand.

"We're all banged up here, and words are powerful enough to hurt. That's what you think, right, Cartri?"

'...A knife would be quicker...'

Hex grinned across the room and flipped the blade away into her pocket.

Just count yourself lucky you didn't try and go the extra mile, else we'd be in a totally different situation right now"

"That a threat? Be careful what you wish for Knuckles!" she nervously laughed as he left the room and grabbed her stuff, she was still shaking but she needed to get out of her and finished her bot, Cartri was stupid, this whole situation was stupid. "Sorry about that chit..." she said to her friends still in the room before running out the door. The group of them would hear Hex shouting profanities outside the door and into the distance.

Hex was beginning to get back into the mood for a bit of fun and she pushed her bot harder into the ring, who cared if it got trashed, she could build a billion more of these things and not even make a dent on the Altier scrap pile. The machine spun around and took another swipe at its target. Hex was sure she saw a hose pop loose as it overreached and she yanked back on the control.

As she saw another bot smash a chunk out of hers she instinctively reached for and armed a party popper, always ready to defend a friend.

'...now now girl!...'

Hex laughed to herself and continued the battle.

 

[Das]

Location: Altier | Objective: Real Steel | Soundtrack: Life Packs Punches

DAS' BOT-TRACKER​

-

://DROID_STATS ...

... UNiT iD > GLiTT3R
... SYSTEMS > 8/8
... MOOD > BLOODTHiRSTY

... CURRENT BiDS > UNKNOWN
... CUSTOMER SATiSFACTiON > WONDERFUL

... PROBABiLiTY OF SURViVAL > SLiM​

"Whooo!" Das screamed through her cupped hands, adrenaline pumping as her bot stepped across the arena. She knew the poor thing didn't truly stand a chance, but the dumb Hutt who 'commissioned' her talent was stupid enough to pay half up front. Considering it was enough to cover her room and a hot meal tonight after the battle, she couldn't care less about the rest of her payment. She was just here to enjoy the show.

Who knows, though? Cinder worked her weird-girl magic on GLiTT3R (affectionately named for the healthy splash of green paint Daiya adorned him with), so maybe he did stand a chance. Or at the very least, maybe he wouldn't be the first bot to be completely demolished.

GLiTT3R strode with about as much confidence as a half-rusted, glammed-up automaton could manage, and when it got in range of the other bots, he raised his clawed hand and brought it in for a pincer slice.

Das inched to the edge of her seat, roaring along with the crowd as she watched the piercing tip gleam in the Altieran sun before slashing downward against the other droids.

---

Tags: Cassus Akovin ; Cinder ; Cyran Vaas ; Daiya ; Hex ; Junker Jonn ​

---

 

[Daiya]

Daiya had been trying to ignore the looming presence since it stepped up to them, Denonite instincts kicking in. Like a con artist or panhandler on the streets, she knew better than to give them the attention to feed on. She knew he was there, she knew he knew she knew he was there, so she hoped he knew she was ignoring him on purpose. The young shadowrunner's eyes stayed stubbornly fixed on the Squib taking bets, with the hopes that the looming presence would find a new target to focus on.

For his part, Under Foot wasn't as naive as Cindy seemed. The teen smiled at the girl she had decided was her newest friend, flashing her a quick grin as she took the bottle from her. It felt oddly light in her hands, and she had a sneaking suspicion the Altieran vending machines were full of underfilled containers. Daiya didn't get time to enjoy what little there might be, though, as her eyes caught sight of the subtle gesture from the Squib.

"Oh!" Daiya's voice punctuated her surroundings with a sharp, startled sound, and her feet moved away from the Squib's counter. She glanced down, reaching up to her head as she did, hoping she looked properly mortified as the young shadowrunner activated the Darkwire tattoo on the top of her ear. It had taken some time to manage what came naturally to other shadowrunners, but now she could also use it as an augmented interface overlaid on the reality in front of her.

"Sorry about that."​

"It's whatever."

The teen accompanied it with a dismissive gesture, only too late realizing they weren't in the full tat-chat reality. She kept it going, twirling her hand over the bottle she held. It came to rest on the top of the bottle, playing with the cap as a fidget tool. Daiya watched with interest as the newcomer stepped up to Undie to make a bet, he didn't look like the betting type. His clothes seemed a little too nice, his figure a little too poised, even among her fellow shadowrunners. Dismissing it with a shrug, the teen pressed down to open the bottle she held.

Empty.

"I didn't want to risk saying something in front of the normie. Oh, and tell your friend not to go near the drink machine. I rigged it to just take credits."​

Daiya might have giggled at that if her mouth wasn't clamped down intentionally to stop herself.

"Yeah, I got the bottle part already. Normie looks a little out of place, too much sun in his eyes?"

Daiya leaned over to Cindy, her eyes drawn to the Altieran girl's flushed cheeks. They flicked over to the normie newcomer, then back again, and a smile grew on the teen's lips. She gave Cindy another nudge, pointing at the bottle and turning it upside down. "Looks like Altier got to it before you did."

"I can provide you with disrupters, spice, explosives... you think I can't also get you a drink? What would you like?"​

"Chin up, Cindy, I got this!" Daiya stepped back up to the counter after the normie newbie, giving him a closer look this time. He seemed distracted, and she took full advantage to size him up, close enough to smell him. She drew in a breath of something far more pleasant than anyone on this stars-forsaken planet had any right to be, and her nose wrinkled in response. Blinking her eyes, the teen gave her head a shake to clear it away. At least the Squib in front of her had an excuse for smelling off. "You got anything more refreshing than what was in the drink machine?"

Daiya upturned the bottle onto the counter, not even needing to flinch as its emptiness drained out.

"And whose your friend?"​

The last message on the screen made the teen glance around for Cindy again. A breath huffed through her nose to find the odd girl back with the newcomer. For someone from Altier, she didn't seem too savvy about strange types. Daiya's eyes wandered over her for a moment, wondering if the other girl had more weapons hidden on her than she expected, then her cavalier approach would make more sense.

"That's Cindy. I'm pretty sure she's about to get a pass made on her."

Daiya wasn't worried, she had a blaster in her satchel if her odd, new friend's cavalier approach got her in trouble. Come to think of it, the young shadowrunner was feeling pretty cavalier herself. "And I'll have whatever you're smoking."

Cinder Under Foot Jacen Nimdok​

 

[Brie Jaxx]

Location: Altier, The Arena
Objective: Watch the Games!
Tag: Under Foot , Cartri Keswoll , Junker Jonn , Yoroi Argosa, Hex , Cassus Akovin

​

"We should all take a moment to cool off. Maybe let these, uh, dumb robots take a wallop for us for the day. Hard to get patched up if we're cutting each other down." If the moment cooled, Cassus would try and lead Cartri away from the bar and over to a junk pile. There wasn't a lot of time left, but Cassus had a lot of leftover scraps he didn't end up using for Profit Prophets.

Cassus words was as true as their current situation all banged up on Altier. The only friends they had were eachother. They had hang around for long enough to push individual things aside for the good of Darkwire.

"I hear you Cassus, I'll stop. However Hex, I'd suggest you fuck off and stay out of my sight for the rest of the day. I'm not going to let go of what just happened so lightly. Just count yourself lucky you didn't try and go the extra mile, else we'd be in a totally different situation right now" the teen said with his tone full of venom, his icy glare staring straight at Hex.

Downing the rest of his drink, he slammed the glass hard on the table and exited to the bot arena to clear his head.

The tension between her friends were so high and the peace so fragile it could break and turn into disaster any nanosecond. Brie jumped again, slightly less visible, when Cartri slammed the glass down a second time and left the room in anger. This was going to be hard, so hard to fix.

Some time later, at the arena.

<You okay...? You guys can't be at eachothers throats if we are going to get up and onto our feet again... Just saying...''> Brie wrote to Cartri, sent it, and then continued with one for Hex.

<''You weren't going to stab him... right? The guy just went through a breakup... In the worst possible way... I'm sure he didn't mean half of it...> she wrote, hoping that them both could feel that she would be available if they wanted to vent and talk about what was happening.

"I owe a kiss from earlier," Cassus fulfilled his obligation and planted a quick one on her cheek.

Brie felt her cheeks heat up by the kiss from the one and only Cassus, the one and only guy that were on her mind every night.

''Th-...'' Brie begun, squirming on the spot reconsidering the comeback in her mind but ultimately let go for it. ''That was pretty disappointing, Cass... Still, I wouldn't want to take your focus from the contest...'' she continued with a chuckle and a wink at him, obviously teasing the bounty hunter tonight turned robot fighter, and gave him a sideways glance along with a smirk. That dirty blonde and blue eyed boy had captured her by a lovestorm ever since the party at Daiya's, or possibly even before that. Before Cassus could respond and along with a light titter, Brie wrapped an arm around his back and hugged him close. ''It's okay, I'll give you another chance tonight... Now, you think your robot is up for the competition?'' she finished and watched closely for the battle of the bots unfold beneath them.

 

[Cinder]

Cinder looked at the dark-haired boy and tried to process just what he was telling her. OH. That's when she realized. Turning away for a moment, she dabbed her nose with the over-sized sleeve of her shirt. It was plaid, so the red seemed to blend in.

She gave the bottle a bit of a shake. Yup, hers was mostly empty. Actually, she didn't want to know what was inside the drink bottle, but it probably wasn't fit to consume. At least she hadn't actually paid for it.

"Fizzy drink," Cinder said to the creature, Undie. "Please."

With the crowd of people around, Cinder seemed even more twitchy than she normally was. At that moment, she wished she was back with Das, tinkering on a bot. Those little times were the closest she had to feeling truly at ease.

But now, she just wanted to escape – especially now that people had noticed her there by Daiya's side.

Jacen Nimdok | Daiya | Under Foot

 

[Junker Jonn]

​

Location: Altier, Death Metal Arena
Tags: Hex | Cassus Akovin | Das
Bot Health: 4/7
Bot Target: Cassus Akovin 's bot

​

The little abomination that Junker had unleashed did not have a promising start in the arena. Trundling forward with a trill that promised terrifying violence in a small package, it attempted to lash out with all its various bolted-on weapons at once... and only succeeded in tripping itself up. Whirling saw arms knocked its blaster askew and interrupted the burst from its flamer, heating up its own servos to dangerous - but not quite damaging - levels. Junker couldn't help but burble a helpless, drunken laugh as all his poor design decisions crashed together.

The sound resembled nothing so much as a kazoo player letting out wild blasts of sound in between being strangled.

The little bot finally seemed to steady itself, starting to stabilize from its mad initial rush... but it had no time to catch its figurative breath. The whirling, knife-studded droid head on Profit's Prophets smacked into its bulky torso, gashing the chassis and exposing sparking wires beneath. Only a glancing hit, hardly enough to put the tanky little robo-beast down, but certainly enough to draw its ire. Jonn's junkbot turned toward Cassus's creation and trundled forward, its treads bringing it slowly but steadily into range of its whirling foe, seeking mechanical vengeance.

For a moment, the bot was locked on target, prepared to strike back at the bot that had wronged it. The charge indicator on the heavy blaster that poked out of its blade-scarred chassis flicked from red to green as it powered up, ready to unleash a mighty bolt against its enemy. The angle was perfect, and this time none of its other weapons would get in the way. Junker felt his heart rise as the barrel of the gun glowed blue, preparing a surge of pure justice to strike! Any second now. Aaaaaaaany second now. Wait, why wasn't the bolt... oh. Oh no.

With a loud zap-crack, the heavy blaster overloaded, blowing a smoking hole into the middle of the little metal abomination.

The droid reeled back, not quite taken out of the fight but certainly off-balance. It flailed its razor-arms wildly, enraged.

Junker hid his head in his hands. He deserved this, he supposed, for creating an abomination unto engineering.