Masters of Eothia 1-20

Cora looks at the others. "Oh, Garlic is gone again. Ok! So. Off we go? With our new cat?"

With her tail darting about Rosli will point at the full bottles of water "Do we get some of those since we're doing stuff for you?"

Barry responds with a growl. "You'll get yours, now get OUT!" He grabs his whip from his hip and cracks it no less than an inch from your wet little padded nose.

As they're shuffling out of the hut, Yasei glides up next to Rosli ever so gracefully and whispers "You'll have to excuse Barry, for he knows naught of grace and dignity.  Hi, I am Yasei no ōkiddo, pleased to meet you!"  She extends to you a hand that looks like it has never seen a day of work in her life.  Pampered, pristine, pale.  Matching the rest of her young physique.  As you shake it, though, you sense an unbelievable amount of strength behind her that surprises you.

”Ooh” Cora perked up, “Introductions! Duh, of course! Hello! I’m Cora.” she looks at her wrist, looking at the number. “Cora 2146 to be specific! Nice to meet you, *****cat!”

Cora is a beautiful, lean, athletic beauty. Her hair is dark brown in a ponytail, her eyes a pale blue, a shade not commonly found among humans. What is revealed through her clothing is a a riddle of bruises and scars from an age long past. Her skin is tan, her curves are feminine, her body tight - as if ages ago a military organization forged a deadly weapon. 

She smiles and has a different outlook on life contrary to what her physical clues reveal, and feels out of place here. You can tell by her mannerisms she didnt grow up here.

"Danica Galefist, a Lawbringer of the Citadel of the Moon and Stars. Pleased to meet you."

Danica has short, auburn hair held back by a red linen headband and green eys. Her figure is muscular, but not overly masculine, and she wears a hooded tunic and trousers of white linen and her hands and feet are wrapped red cloth. She moves with the efficient grace of a warrior, but her green eyes show empathy as well as determination.

You guys take Rosli to your rom in the large rock, located at the very top of the City of Rust. After a short while, Barry turns up.

he is wearing a shoulder guard made from an old tyre and some rusty spikes. It has a red off the shoulder half cape, with the insignia of a gauntlet fist pointing upwards. “Come on then.” He says gruffly.

He heads each if you further in to the rock. The red rock walls weave around coridors and are reenforced with metal frames throughout. The further you go in to the rock, the more metal you see until you finally come to a tall set of metal stairs, rivited in to the side of the rock wall. At the top of the stairs, is a heavy steel door. Barry pushes it open with a large screeee and walks in. “M’lord.” He says, dropping to one knee.

This room is large. It has a number of large tanks of water spread around the place. Free standing metal walls have been drilled in to the rock to seperate the room which have long dark red tattered flags with the same gauntlet fist displayed on them. A long window opening in the rock provides a view over the entire city.

Before you, a giant of a man walks forward. Clad in rusted plate armour, wearing a helmet like a welding mask with a thick green glass window where the eyes would be. He hauls a large hammer, which has some long containers and pipes attached to the length of the handle and small spouts near the head. A muffled, deep vader-like voice says:

“He-heeeeey, my lil’ troopers! Welcome! I’m papa Sledge! Heard you’re my lil’ team of expendables, eyyy!”

Coras smile faded. The throbbing headache came back, and she almost physically reeled from the pain. For a moment, a wave of disorientation overwhelmed her, and like waking from a dream, she looked around.

”Where..?“ she whispered, then noticed the large man. “Hells, what a DUMP this place is. ****, do you think that hammer’s large enough? Am I a prisoner? What is this place? Where am I..!?”

She started to get angry, her fight mode kicking in, she startled when she saw the others, and as her eyes fell on the redhead and the asian woman she gasped. Her eyes flashed in slow recognition, a sudden rushing flood of over two thousand year of memories to connect who those two people were. She stood there as if she couldn't believe her eyes, as if she was in a dream.

Dreams. 

The dreams. Of..what? She couldn't remember. A rush of fear, anger, and pain. And so much more. The asian and the redhead turned to look at her, one with concern, the other with curiosity - her eyebrow was raised. Cora started to pant now.

Yasei? Is that you? She wanted to say. She had been dead since ages past. The redhead looked like Nia, but..stronger, older. Once, a fellow adventurer turned romantic lover. Cora almost visibly choked as an overwhelming feeling of loss, love, death, and memories started to rush in again, and she opened her mouth to say something before her heart could explode in her chest from the heaving emotions she was now remembering.

But, then the headache went away and Cora turned back into what she was: nobody. 

“Hello!” she said, waving, to the large man, as if nothing had just happened.

"I think this one's errr, broken... I like it!" Sledge says.

"Yes m'lord, these are our recruits for the special mission." Barry says, still kneeling.

Cora simply kept smiling, like a good child being introduced to a respected elder. Her face wrinkled a bit a the word “broken”, but otherwise acted as if nothing happened.

Danica noticed that Cora seemed to momentarily, well she wasn't sure, but she silently moved so that Cora could feel her presence at her shoulder ready to back her up. Other than that she took in everything she could see and hear as she waited to find out what this 'mission' was.

Cora felt Dani slide up next to her. She turned her head as Sledge spoke, and gave her a warm smile as if saying hello, then listened to what he had to say.

"... Gee whiz, y'all a quiet lot, aren'tchya." Sledge says, walking around you, looking you up and down. "Yep! That'll do nicely! The dune should be loaded by now and you'll all leave tomorrow afternoon once it begins it's run... What? Nobody's told you what you're doing? You'll be escorting a large shipment of water down to my brother, Krum, in Arid. It's me last gesture of good will before our cities go to war, so I wanna send some.. expendable muscle with it to deliver it personally. Nobody rides the Dune due to it being too dangerous, but I'll tell ya what! If you can deliver this, and return alive, I may have some special treatment for you lot!"

FYI:

Rosli will stand behind the pack checking to see what's in the room, she will also observe the interactions between everyone.

24 perception

OOC: Dude looks cuddly AF.

"Oh!" Cora exclaimed excitedly. "An escort mission! Cool!"

Yasei: “Why do you give your brother such an expensive gift if you intend to kill him?  My friends and I are quite skillful, you will find. Perhaps we could be of better service to you than mere babysitters?”

"HAHAH! I like YOU!" Sledge laughs. "That may still be on the cards! When shit hits the fan, you'll be my go to gal!" He takes a moment and stands upright, clenches his fist and puts it on his heart. "But as a leader of these people... I would be remiss to not at least try ONE more attempt in saving the casualties of this war... After all, we all know the real reason for this war is because I was Daddy's favourite offspring." He resumes his normal stance. "If we can't regain peace and return to trading with Arid.. then I'll just have to take it by force... and YOU will be right by my side!"

OVER 2000 YEARS AGO

Cora Perkins sat in the passenger seat as Erik drove. It was about 2am in Los Angeles, and she didn't sleep well the night before. In fact, she didn't sleep at all. Over the centuries her body adapted to the deal she made with Hell and her body no longer needed sleep, it regenerated in it's own supernatural way and she discovered a long time ago sleep was no longer required. She stared facing front with a sour expression on her face, like she normally did, and said nothing. After a few moments she looked out the window and noticed how there were no people out on the streets in the middle of the night. After a few minutes of her staring out the window, Erik asked her a question, breaking the silence.

"How are you feeling?" he said.
Cora rolled her eyes, still looking outside. "Fine, thanks for your concern.."
Erik looked at her as he drove. "You don't look fine. You look..off color. Kinda pale."
Suddenly, Erik slammed on the breaks, looking back at the road. Both of them jolted at the sudden stop.
"THE ****?!" Cora yelled at him, and then looked forward, startled.
A homeless overweight woman with a cart full of trash looked annoyed at them, and gave them both the finger for nearly running her over in the dead of night on Sepulveda boulevard.
Erik raised his hand in an apology, and the homeless woman continued on her way.
"As I was saying.." Erik continued, "..you look pale."
Cora turned to him and shot him a withering look that would kill a houseplant. "Maybe that's because you're driving like a DICK." She screamed the last word. She looked at him angrily, and Erik laughed, and proceeded to continue to drive to the cemetery.
"We're almost there." He said. "I have no idea why you own a mortuary company anyways."

Cora got out of the car, Erik waiting for her to do whatever she did in the dead of night in a cemetery. She walked alone through the gates and all the way in the back were sets of tombstones. She pulled out her guns and out of respect set them aside so she could sit on her knees. She was quiet for a long time and fought back tears. On the tombstones were written names of people she knew. All she loved. Astrid. Chubby. Yasei. Borg. Ashley. Nia. Danica. Leon. Lythril. There were hundreds more. Hundreds. She had systematically and anonymously relocated her dead friends as the centuries went by. 

She put her hand on the one that said Chubby and she struggled to remember the decades they shared. She had etched dates on each stone for when her memory completely failed she would have at least something of a record. But as part of the curse of the deal from Hell, she had lived so long, and had so many lifetimes, the memories were all slowly leaving her mind, anyways, of WHO these people used to be.

Soon, all of these tombstones would be nothing but rocks with names. Nothing more.

"They are coming for me. Soon. I can feel it. Do you know how many years I've avoided this moment? I..I had Nim help me make a device. It's..it's going to take me someplace far away where Hell won't find me, but.." she choked on her words. "..i'll come back, ok? I'll come back and..tell you all how it went. I can..I can feel my mind slipping. I'm not..sharp anymore. I'm tired, and I hurt all the time. I wish I could join you all. I wish I could just end it all forever. I'm just so tired, and I don't want to do this anymore. I miss you all so very much. She cried. She slumped over and cried. Sniffing, she said, "Do you know what it's like living but not really living? Watching all of you die and I have to keep it with me over and over? I just don't know what to do anymore. I've had enough. I can't sleep. I can't focus. I'm completely broken. I'm so lost without all of you. Hell won't let me kill myself. I wish you all were here now. Please? Help me. Tell me what to do. Please?"

She held her head in silence, hoping someone would answer. After a while, she stood up and walked away.