Aphrodite Terra was not the best place for trade, or luxury living, no that was Ishtar Terra. They had the cooler high altitudes of the plateaus around the Maxwell Mountains. Aphrodite was big and beautiful but it was hot, sweetly, and full of danger... but it was the most interesting of places on Venus, the perfect place to get some one interested in Life magic, the Shade Realm of Life was some where in the wylds of Aphrodite Terra too.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:23, Tue 10 May 2016.

The life outside the cities was hostel though, life was so strong on venus the city had an air filtering force field for bacteria and walls that sprayed poisons 24/7 into a toxic moat to keep the plant life from overrunning the city.

Out side protective life magic and/or life support was needed, as well as an experienced guide, and firepower.

In the mean time it was interesting to see odd sights like people ridding on the back of raptors and hover crafts carrying mountains of dino meat to crafts to be shipped off to Ishtar. Though checking out butcher where the meat came from would probably be less interesting and more lunch turning.

The woman, the young man and the cat made a strange trio as they strode down the street. The woman stopped every few feet to get a closer look at something or point something out to her younger companion, who was clearly not as excited about their outing as she was. The cat stayed close to the pair, keeping an eye out on their surroundings- a little jittery even for a cat.

"There's no denying the power of life here," Edith proclaimed. "It's practically explosive!"

Donovan nodded dutifully, brushing away some of the ubiquitous insects.

Meanwhile, Paracelsus the cat was suspiciously examining a bit of ivy that had worked its way through the stone sidewalk. It was only a few inches tall, but its survival was a testament to the strength of life on the planet.

Paracelsus examined the ivy with his natural eye, then his cybernetic one, then both together. He batted it with a careful paw, then leaped to Edith's shoulder when it rebounded toward him.

"This is a dangerous place," he murmured into her ear. "That plant tried to kill me."

"Really?" Edith excitedly spun around. She assumed there were carnivorous plants on the planet, but hadn't seen any yet.

"This thing?" she asked Paracelsus, crouching down and looking dubiously at the bit of green.

"Of course it looks harmless to you," Paracelsus replied. "You are too big for it to attack."

"Mmmmm," Edith replied noncommittally, not at all convinced they were in immanent danger. "What do you think Donovan?"

The young man didn't bother to bend over. "It's a weed," he said flatly. "We're surrounded by them."

Taking this as a slight, Paracelsus turned her nose up at Donovan and got a better grip on Edith's shoulder. It was a better (and safer) vantage point to watch the street from.

"Ah, what about this?" Edith stopped at a market stall that featured large bluish-purple apples and something that was a cross between a carrot and an ear of corn. Her attention, however, was drawn to a tub of some kind of barley that were three times their normal size.

She grinned to herself as Donovan perked up and reached out to examine the grain. "This is Shiloh barley, but I've never seen it so big before. How do they do that?"

Delighted to find someone so interested in barley, the proprietor immediately started up a conversation with Donovan. As they talked about using hulled nitrates for soil enrichment and the special interaction of chemicals in the soil with those in the air, Edith was quickly lost. She backed out of the conversation. Edith would have preferred Donovan to be interested in the theoretical aspects of Life magic and its unusual attributes on this planet, but if she could coax him into studying something that would improve his beer-making, so be it.

Edith left the pair and went over to examine what looked like circular bananas.

Another person at the stands laughs a little. "He may not be so impressed when he finds out just how hard farming is here. It's much better to farm on Mars, but here... you can get some amazing results at the price of some amazing pains in your fucking ass." aparently having seen the thing with the weed. "Image that in a place where the ground under it isn't saturated in toxins. Image trying to keep plants from growing like the are out there, while not harming a particular plant you WANT to grow like that. Then there is the bugs and insect that help the plant... and the numerous rest that would just eat it, and yes there are mosquito's out there the size of ... well small white cats." He smirks.

Paracelsus the cat did not appreciate this new information, but remained silent.

Edith was interested, "Do you rely primarily on chemical means to keep things under control? You must be using some impressive mechanical equipment."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:50, Wed 11 May 2016.

"The Soil was saturated to start with and the city was built so that the outer wall spray sinks into the ground under the city to keep it that way. The wall's have a rail system with spray arms running along them. Most the bigger cities on Venus have some set up like it. Leaving by land is done buy tunnels with ether REALY thick walls or walls with an outer primium linning. The force field keeps bugs, flying creatures, and most all airborn bacteria out." He rubs the back of his head. "There are settlements and hunting camps with less but they usually have some strange magic hoo joo protecting them."

He sighed some taking a seat. "Don't make the mistake others do, this is an amazing planet but if you don't have the right protection even the bacteria in your own body can grow to strong, and it's rare but not unhurd of for unprotected individuals to develop minor mutations. Life magics are strong here, very strong, particularly closer you get to Thetis Rigio and it's valley where the Shade Ream is."

Edith considered the stranger's warning. She'd love to go out and explore, but without any Life magic, she'd never survive on her own. And while she could throw something together to help her, after their most recent fiasco, Edith had little left to work with. Hiring a team was out of the question.

"Is it actually worth it, then, to farm here? Is there any industry here or do you import everything?"

She paused, then added, "I don't suppose you know anyone looking for a tech- computers, engines, practically anything that doesn't have a pulse, I can fix."

In the mean time Donovan was learning about Life and Prime in an interesting way. The person didn't know much about the process but they knew that people would use life, spirit, and/or prime magics to enhance, awaken, and/or imbue into drugs special properties that would not otherwise be possible or at the very least incress potency.

For example while Olympus Gonge is hybridized with mushrooms, the cannabis sativa strain is particularly potent due to decades of magical instrument of primal energies and spiritual awkenment of the plants.  That and with out life magics it would never have hybridized with a mushroom... there not even in the same kingdom of species.

---

"For feeding people, no not really. But it's the some of the locals like it eat it, and the plants have interesting properties for industrial and medical uses. Mass food production as far as farms go is mostly done on Mars and Ganymede. But there is some profit in some foods as they have particularly pleasant and strong taists and can be sold as luxury items. So it is worth it, just tends to lean to particular clientele." He laughs some. "But I'm no expert on economy so eh... I just grow what sells the best usually, I just get curious too what there doing with it."

In response to the added question he thinks a bit and shrugs. "Honestly we have a fair amount of mechanics but not all can work on hyper-tech, if you can manage that you can probably find some work. Stuff wares down and brakes a lot around here. Your best bet for a job would be a hunting camp, but around here there arn't many hunters coming and going but there stuff gets broken the most. Dino's are big money, everyone likes to eat meat and you can't get much more from anything than a dino. Big meat means big smashing feet and the like though. No matter how well your prepared there is damage all the time and when damage happens life tends to get in there and cause more damage. So..... hum.... just look for stuff coming in from the tunnel with vines or moss growing over it, and hope they don't have a contract with a mechanic."

Edith kept half an ear on Donovan's discussion with the proprietor. If this was what it took to get him on track, she was fine with it. She wasn't one to dismiss the value of mind-altering drugs- as long as one didn't get carried away with them.

Meanwhile, she was happy to chat with the farmer about local goings-on. She asked him how the season was going and made small talk. Then she remembered one of the reasons she had come here. She couldn't actually buy the material now, but at least she could try to track it down.

"Do you know where I could find a local metallurgist?"

Oh yah you should check out: link to a message in this game

He rubbed the back of his neck "I can't say I do, mining tends to upset the local life and leads to attacks, the few there is are up in even colder mountains where the worst they have to worry about is large mammals. You might be able to find some mechanics that know a bit of metallurgy. Most the metal we get though comes from Hades on Mars, but there some that get it local or use the stuff from mars make alloys and magically or hyper-tech purified metals." He hums a bit.... "Wait wait... I think I hurd something about a Repuesto plant maybe that was just talk though that some one thought Repuesto would be easier to make on Venus I couldn't tell you." He shrugs "You might try the info sphere but a lot of people outside the citys don't really keep up with that." The guy was struggling to be helpfull but clearly wasn't very sure.

Edith flashed the farmer a delighted smile, "Thanks. I'll check that out. It's been great talking with you, but I don't want to keep you."

She checked on Donovan, who was still deep in conversation. Tapping him on the shoulder, Edith said, "I'm going to check up on something. Be back in about an hour."

Donovan nodded, more out of habit than anything else.

Edith waved to the vendor, then headed out to find the info sphere.

"He's going to get into trouble," Paracelsus said into her ear from his perch on Edith's shoulders.

"He'll be fine," she replied.

"He'll get in trouble," the cat replied confidently. "I'll bet you."

Edith signed, "I don't have much to bet right now."

"You still have some catnip," Paracelsus pointed out.

"Just a little."

"Enough."

"Ok. Fine. The catnip I have left."

As for mage drugs, the same prossess applies to making beer. Some magic used correctly can make the potency of beer stronger.

The info sphere is just like the net, she just needed to find a place she could access it freely. Most the mining seamed to take place at the highest peaks of the Maxwell Mountains, but there was some mining Ovdia Regio up the mountain some, that used this city to ship there metals. Looked like the best places for her to look for one would be a machine shop or the mining crews dock.

The dock sounded like a good place to get some information on both a job and a local metallurgist. Repuesto was also something to look into- it might help Donovan see link between Life and Matter.

Edith and Paracelsus made their way to the docks and started asking around.

Seams digging anywhere pisses off the local life, so they don't process the metals the same place they dig them up from. She gets some mixed info there, general idea being they probably shouldn't be doing it and at lest one person says if they want metal maybe they should try asking the planet/mountains for it first. Ether way there was a tunnel leading up to the smelting plant, it has a lift and only authorized individuals can use it. She could try hanging around there till the next shipment comes down.

Edith tried to determine if the local life didn't seem to like any construction work or farming going on or if it specifically didn't like digging up metal. She was familiar with the Gaia hypothesis, but didn't remember if it had ever been applied to other planets. If the planet had some kind of consciousness, that had a lot of implications for how it should be treated. Maybe Dononvan had some ideas about that.

Since she didn't have a better idea, Edith hung around and waited for the next shipment, chatting with whoever she ran into about local events.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:42, Sat 14 May 2016.

Some digging around the infosphere shows there is resistance to clearing land for construction and farming but not to much, but digging deeply for much of anything tends to cause all sorts of problems. Many people have no dought the planet is alive and not to happy what we did to Earth and that's why it's always trying to kill us. Others more along the lines it don't mind us here but don't want us to damage environments, and it's not that it's TRYING to kill us... it's just how life is on this world. Others think it's stupid to think the planet is alive and account it all to the energies of the planet, mining disrupts the balance of the planets energy much the way exstream magics/hypertech disrupt the stability of the pattern and the attacks are just the planets form of paradox. Then like the guy said there people who think the planet would be happy to supply us with metals if we just asked it.

Meanwhile Donovan is being tought the basics of the procedures but it's all a bit over his head.

Enhance Drugs - life 2, mater 2, prime 2
Create Mage Drugs - life 2-4, mater 2-4, prime 3

Distracted by her new questions about what kind of life the planet was, Edith wondered if there were any Tradition gatherings here. Verbeena would be most likely to have asked and found answers to her questions- and this was a prime planet for them to have settled on.

Edith did some research to see if there were any Etherites or Verbeena around, looking for organizations with key words or individuals whose work was a little too advanced to be just regular tech. More than ever, she wanted to see what the world was like outside the cities- the difficulty was finding a safe way to do it.

Paracelsus did not like the idea of the planet being alive. He was worried about cat-eating plants, a whole cat-eating planet was too much to deal with. He privately hoped Edith didn't find a way to go exploring.

Meanwhile, Donovan was eating up all the new ideas he was presented with. They might be over his head, but there were bits and pieces that could lead to new insights.

Donovan is suggested to find a copy of an old old book written by George Washington for some magic enhancements on drugs that can be pulled off with little to no magical tallent while it's growing. There are parts of it he could probably apply to grain and barely.

Paracelsus is less encouraged by the spirit chatter, he never been around wyld spirits like this... truly wild wyld spirits. The spirit chater was mostly nonsense images and primal felling. His death sense also saw way more life and death (outside the city) than anywhere he had ever been likely.

The net talked about Verbeena camps, but they didn't really let people know where they where and the blended in with the jungle to the point few found any of there camps accidentally. There was an Etherite expedition stress testing new life support systems, but they where quite a ways down and into the jungle.

Excited about the possibility of being able to actually *do* some magical enhancements instead of just study them or work on them the slow way, Donovan forgot that Edith was expecting him to stay at the store. Actually, he didn't forget as much as not worry about it. After the first time he had wandered off and it had taken several hours for Edith to track him down, she had done some kind of magic to his jacket that made it easy- or at least easier- for her to find him. Thanking the proprietor exuberantly, Donovan headed off in search of a bookstore.

OOC: Edith has sewn a lock of her own hair into the seam of Donovan's jacket.

Paracelsus put his paw down; he was not leaving the settlement. It was far too dangerous out there. In fact, he fully intended to ride around on Edith's shoulder instead of doing any exploring on his own.

"Besides, you were looking for a job and information about that metal, weren't you?," Paracelsus reminded Edith.

"I suppose. But maybe we can kill two birds with one stone," she replied.

"As long as cats don't get hurt in the process," Paracelsus grumbled.

Back on track, Edith returned to her original search.

Who uses books anymore?

Donovan went and spent the handful of killo-creds she left him to dive into the info sphere at the city center. He had to track down the file on the online equivalent of the sub-sub-sub basement of some run down old university library they don't use anymore sense they built a new one in the Central Colonial Government Library. It sucked....  However he was driven and found it quickly, and was able to download it to a data pad so he could log out and study it.

The book was mostly about the care of cannabis sativa, he though it was a billion dollar crop and put a loot into it before the cotton gin changed things. The founding fathers had a very strong interest in horticulture as a hobby, particularly cannabis and brewing and general drunkenly. Frankly they where his kinda of people likely. Most of it was stuff he could probably find quite early on his own, he pieneared several growing, trimming, and general caring methods for various plants along with the others. In particular there was some things on cannabis that might work with wheat and barely for trimming the plant as it grows to incurage mass seed growth, or mass bud growth, but little to none of the other. One was good for improving the crop with plenty of seeds for the next generation, and the other yeld.

But what most useful was information in using life/mater/prime to monitor the plants as they grew and use the information for picking and choosing which plants to use for the next generation. There was also hidden stuff involving entropy that could be used to aim for certen results and know what the to put into the soil before the plant needs it or before it would need to be used for the affects he would be looking for.... he barely noticed it, but managed to pick up on the code.


After waiting a while, and sounds making Paracelsus jump a few more times than ether of them cared for, the lift was hurd coming down the tunnel.

Donovan had a new-found respect for the founders of the old United States of America. He noted the names mentioned in Washington's book and decided to check them out further. He knew that they wrote a lot of letters and diaries back then and since they all seemed to be farmers, maybe they would have shared information and experimental results informally.

The problem was going to be getting Edith to put down some roots (so to speak) in order to try out these techniques. Donovan knew that she had been trying to find ways to get him more interested in his studies- it might be as simple as telling her about his discoveries. With a little luck, she'd find a job on the planet that would keep her busy for a little while.

That reminded him, Donovan had wanted to get some soil samples to try to figure out what it was about the planet that made it so fertile. At first he wanted pure, non-poisoned earth from outside the city, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that the dirt inside the settlement would be even better. That way he could study both the earth and the components of the planticide that inhibited them- letting him come at the question from two different directions.

On a new mission, Donovan headed off to find some soil samples.

Meanwhile, Paracelsus had moved from Edith's shoulders into her arms so she could pat him while they waited. He wasn't afraid- or at least he wouldn't admit it, but caution was simple common sense on this planet. All the life, death, and noise was disconcerting.

While Edith waited for the transport, she checked out the Help Wanted section. When the lift arrived, she started asking around about jobs and for someone who knew about metallurgy.

The man in charge of the smelting plant knew a good bit about metallurgy of course, and they where a little light handed but didn't suggest she work with them,the conditions arn't the safest. But they will let her come see for herself so she can talk to the guy, but they weren't going to let the cat come, they where quite sure he couldn't handle the heat. Though Edith is able to convene them she can keep them both cool and protect themselves with her tech/magic... that or they just got tired of listening to her explain how. lol

Donovan did find experimental horticulture was a hobby most the USA's founding fathers took an interest in, particularly the mason ones... seams every one of them took some time to play around with plants in the garden. Though he may be a little disappointed there interests on cannabis was not internally recreational, they found an ungodly amount of uses for hemp but like he saw before the cotton gen made most of those faster and cheaper to do with cotton, farmers where only interested in making money so....  However he did find they where unimaginably heavy drinkers. There was particularly a LOT about the way Monticello gardens where built. Jefferson and many of his friends seamed awful interested in the layout of the gardens and how they where built. There might be something of interest there if copies of the original blueprints, notes, or letters on such still existed some where.

Most likely the latter. Once she gets going, she can talk circles around people with a smile on her face.

Donovan made a note to look into Masonic symbols and codes. If the Founding Fathers were all Masons, Jefferson might have built the gardens based on those ideas, hiding clues in the architecture.

That road don't turn up much.... but the sons of ether (and a few older defunct groups) have masonic images in there crest.

When she gets to the facility, they weren't kidding... it was hot... the kinda hot that unless your fairly tough it's going to cause some serious health concerns. Poor kitty would be in the hospital if not for a bit of magic. The safety concerns where obvious... vats of molten metal moving about, a single drop would pass right though you weren't careful. One person lead you along a path that avoided getting anywhere near the vats as they moved and particularly as they pored, making it take a little longer, to get to the mans office. "This lady wanted to talk to you." he said and simply left.

The metallurgist just raised a brow looking over her. "You brought your cat?"

"To quickly prove a point," Edith replied. "I made a protective suit light enough, durable enough, and flexible enough for a cat. Your number one concern here is worker safety; I can improve your current protective wear significantly."

Paracelsus was not happy about the suit, but he knew it'd be much worse without it. Besides, if they were going to get off the planet, Edith needed a job. So he gracefully jumped to the man's desk and sat down, allowing the man to admire him....er... the suit.

He petted Paracelsus some. "We can't afford this kind of thing for everyone, and a lot of people would rather put up with the heat then ware a get up like this over there whole body. Now if you can make hyper-tech or perfected metals (no and not quite yet) then that's something." He hums looking over the cat. "Can this one do the whole death clock thing? ... er yah know... see when people are going to die?" People look different with death sense when there about to die.

making charms takes 3 prime
making artifacts take 4 prime
making perfected metal 5 mater and 3 or 4 prime

"Not yet," Edith replied. "but I'm getting there."

"I heard you might be hiring some people. I can fix practically anything that can be broken. And yeah, Paracelsus has been known to pick up on people in crisis."

He nods. "I could pay you to fix a few things but I don't want to put you in any danger, I couldn't afford you getting hurt. There are some hunting camps that would probably pay a lot to have some early warning to an ambush from some of critters out there... they are careful usually but most means of detecting creatures are a little unreliable with all the life energy out there, it's as hard as detecting when a dust/electrical storms going to hit on Mars. If some one is about to die odds are it means something is about to attack and they can go on the defense, having someone or something with that gift on hand is worth a fair amount."

Edith didn't need to see Paracelsus' twitching tail to know exactly how he felt about that idea. She might be able to convince him to go outside for a good reason, but acting as an early warning system in a place full of dangerous animals, aggressive plants, and wild spirits wasn't going to do it.

"I don't think he'd be very good at that kind of work," Edith explained.

"Besides," she added with a smile, "it would conflict with his 18 hour a day sleep schedule."

"Which reminds me, are you familiar with something called Ventalium."

"No I don't think I have, but a name like that I could have forgotten. That supose to be some kinda metal?" only asking because of the -lium in it.

"It might go by another name too. It has high electrical conductivity, but isn't economically viable to mine here."

"Are you talking Kypris? Green, kinda almost looks like it glows in the light? Chemically inert, can be drawn and beat? That shit is expensive as hell right now, practically zero natural sources and few people with the skill to make it. Unless you absolutely can't have any electricity turning into heat I would just look into other meta-materials. You would be lucky to pay less than 100kilo an ounce for Kypris. Your really better off checking with Hades for stuff like that though, that or Mus's if your in good with the Order. Most capable of that level of metallurgy come out of the Mus school with the odd name.... I think some one told me once it meant 'the accidental collage'" He said with a little big of a luagh. "Though I'm at a loss as how you could accidentally build a collage."

She may have actually gone to the Fors Collegis Meruris, but ether way she knows of it. The Order of Hermes built it as a fortress during war times.... they used it though to teach there most promising students in safety. The most promising students and best teachers all gathered together... when the war that brought about building the fortress ended and the military force left they kinda got left with the best collage in the solar system and the safest at that. lol
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:34, Wed 18 May 2016.

Edith remembered the Fors Collegis Meruris. It had been an unusual school; it had a military feel with the chaos of geniuses who were determined to do their own thing.

"Well, I'm sorry we couldn't do any business. Here are my contact details. I'd appreciate a call if anything comes up."

"Well I said I could pay you to fix a few things, not much to fix but I'll pay you 2kilo an hour and a bonus to anything you can improve on. I just can't have you working in any hazard area's."

Oh, she must have misunderstood the man.

"Fair enough. When can I start?"

"As soon as you like, we got an arch furnace that broke down a while back, you can do something like that you can probably fix that."

Said furnace was in bad shape, a power surge had hit the plant and it took the blunt of it. The blast melted out the bottom of the vat and molten metal spilt out over the furnace while the same time the surge blew out a grate many electrical caponates. She would have to use mater sphere to completely rebuild much of it.

Edith texted/emailed/whatever the equivalent is Donovan that she had a job and for him to bring over her toolbag. While she was waiting, Edith checked out the place looking for the supplies, tools, and equipment she'd need (or anything that just looked interesting).

After dropping off her gear, Donovan went off in search of a place to stay for the night. Then he started researching the local grain(ish) alcohol. Although he did a fair share of sampling, Donovan was smart enough not to get drunk.

Meanwhile, Edith found a comfortable place for Paracelsus- hopefully they were out of the dangerously hot environment. Then she went to work.

She manages a fairly ok hotel with what money they have left and trading a dram in for some money, Donovan blows the rest of it... find the local stuff mostly disapointing as there made from what ever they can get to make it. Don't get them wrong, for what it's made from it's good! But they could ready do better if they could afford to grow better tasting stuff. Everything is strong as hell though. He lasts longer than many would thought but he dose end up getting drunk despite his try not to. What he blows most the money on is a suggested honey meed. He didn't like to think about what kinda bee's this came from, the way they talked the hive was the size of a mountain.... shit.... but the meed made from there honey was absolutely divine, and expensive... so there goes all his money in short order.

How dose Edith approach the problem of the damaged arch furnace?

Edith started with a complete analysis of what could be salvaged and what needed to be redone, then determined what could be done just as easily with mundane skills and what required magic. Then she put together a list of all the components she needed and passed tthat along. The repairs fell into two areas- replacing and remolding the physical part of it and replacing the electrical components. Since she'd have to wait for the electrical parts, she started on the furnace itself. Whenever she needed to manipulate the shape of some material and had the necessary privacy, she usually changed it physically into molding clay and worked with it in that form, then changed it back. She worked on it one section at a time, using scrap metal and whatever raw material she had.

(no need for being alone besides it being easier when your alone regardless... though people would give an odd look as it's rare for people to be good tech and metatech workers and able to do magic as simple yet powerfull as turning metal to clay and reshaping it. Worse case people would be watching in fascination and get yelled at to get back to work.)

(also if curious the rolls arn't as bad as they look as you got bonuses for using magic to help skills and skills to help magic and back and forth with it, and taking time)

Well the metal melted over the machine had to be removed with magic, and the warping to it caused by the heat, finally the hole burnt through the bottom of the vat. Besides that magic only helped her find what was wrong, she was able to repair everything on her skill alone. This was the kinda thing she could take apart and put back together in her sleep, there was not a single part in the thing she didn't know what it was.

Even though the thing was good as scrap metal, she was able to fix it in only 5 hours. If she wanted to try and improve it though she could, the parts where old and she could alter them and make them better.

Quality was much more important than speed-she needed to impress her new boss. Besides, it was a matter of pride to make something she had repaired better than it had originally been. So she took her time, focusing on the connections and reinforcing typical weak areas. Meanwhile, Paracelsus took advantage of being someplace safe to get in some much-needed sleep.

There was a little dispute over working after they close up, but he had some work to do so he staied late, he wasn't going to let her work more than 10 hours though... but it only took 8 to bring it up to today standards, and a little better.

When they head out he hands her a 20kc credit chip. "I know it's not what you could make for this kinda work else where but it's all I can pay right now, if you want to work here at night bringing some of the other machines up to specks I could pay you more though... they could use the maintenance anyway and getting up to standards and upped production will make everyone happy."

Edith felt much better after improving the furnace. She took the pay happily- she didn't need tons of money, just enough to keep them alive until she figured out what their next move would be.

On the way home, Edith picked up a late dinner for the three of them.

She was none too happy to discover Donovan's condition when she finally made it to their temporary home.

He never tried to drink some one under the table before, and not with enhanced drinks, so no suprize there..... least he learned a lot in more than one way.

Donovan's discomfort- and Edith's anticipation of his misery the next day ameliorated her annoyance. For his part, Donovan immediately launched into a drunken, mostly coherent report of his investigations into local grain-based alcohol. He knew all was forgiven when she was drawn into his description and joined in with his speculations about the giant bees.

Paracelsus didn't care about what the others were discussing until he realized that the bees they were so interested in lived outside the city. From then on, he kept a careful ear out for any signs that they wanted to go see them.

When Edith told Donovan that she had found a job, he excitedly - and a bit disjointedly- began to tell her his plans to study the dirt inside the city. She didn't quite catch everything he intended to do, but it was in furtherance of his studies, so she approved.

They went to bed with new plans for the next day.

She was tired and didn't really put it together.... but both Paracelsus and Donovan could figure out one clear thing:

The price he paid for the drink.
The size of the hive.
What was known about normal sized bees/wasps and the like.....

Getting honey from that hive had to be one of the most ridiculously stupid and dangerous things to do on the whole planet unless you where very skilled and had VERY good gear to make them not notice them.

Paracelsus immediately filed "getting honey from giant bees" under "Things to not do".

Donovan began wondering how you'd go about avoiding giant bees- since killing them would destroy the source of the honey. Maybe there were bee pheromones that made you "look" like a bee or maybe you could use smoke or gas to put them to sleep.

Well it's more that fact of numbers.... lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and ..... to many bees.

A hive that size one would have to go with making themselves look like one of the bee's to them, make them unable to be seen by the bee's, or try smoking out a small segment.... that or dig into the hive from bellow. Not to many ways that wouldn't bring down a swarm of death.

Donovan idly wondered how bees could identify whether a bee was from a different hive. He assumed they must have a way of doing that; otherwise, one hive could just steal honey from another more easily than collecting pollen.

In the morning, Edith and Paracelsus went to work while Donovan began analyzing dirt from inside the city. Once he had some preliminary work done, he divided up the dirt and set it up under specific conditions starting with different amounts of water, sunlight, and air.

Anyalizing the soil took some time, 45 minutes for any result... would take 105 to get enough to get the jist of what was done, and an hour and a half to finish working it all out.

It was awful meticulous work due to his lack of skill in magic.

The data showed they used some kinda metatech poison to saturate and alter the soil to make it unable to sustain life for hundreds of years. What they spray on a daily basis is just a chemical that reacts to the poison, sustaining it's affect.... it is toxic in and of itself but it seams the main reason for it is to keep the soil barren.

Edith don't need to be to work till the plant shuts down and everything cools off enough to be safe (though still way to hot for poor paracelsus lol)

Edith slept most of the morning while Donovan worked. She knew that she could use magic to answer his questions in a fraction of the time, but the point of this was for him to learn the hard way so he could understand how it worked with magic.

When she got up, Edith started working on a comfortable place for Paracelsus while she worked. About the size of a large cat carrier, she incorporated elements from the suit so he would be comfortable without having to be stuck in the suit itself.

It wasn't to hard to make but he might find that a little demeaning, But it was not like there was much to see at the place she was going.

Donovan would have been done investigating the soil by the time she woke.

"What's your next step," Edith asked Donovan when he had explained what he had discovered so far.

"I've got samples under bright light, no light, damp conditions, dry conditions, plenty of air, and no air. I'll measure the amount of poison left in each sample every day to see how quickly it degrades and what conditions affect it," Donovan explained.

"I'm heading out to talk to some of the local farmers to find out how they keep weeds from destroying their crops. Maybe that will show something too."

"Sounds good," Edith said.

"Maybe I'll find out more about the bees too," he added.

Edith nodded noncommittally. She was curious about that herself.

After finishing her work on Paracelsus' climate-controlled carrier, she called him over. He walked around it, then inspected it carefully, sniffing every inch of it inside and out. Finally, he sat down in front of it.

"I don't like it."

Edith sighed, "What don't you like?"

"It's too enclosed."

"But that's the only way to keep you cool. It's either this or the suit."

"I don't like that either. I'll stay here while you work."

"Why didn't you tell me that's what you wanted earlier?"

"You didn't ask."

Edith wondered which of her companions would drive her insane first.

"Fine," she said. "Let's go out and look around some more."

Paracelsus was in favor of this as long as he got a shoulder ride.

Donovan finds little change but what there is seams to indicate darkness and moister is deluding it some, and heat/light seams to dry it out some. Ether exstream seams to help dry heat seams to be better but this planet is anything but dry, but under the city.... explains why they have the catalyst drain there. But the life energy seams to be the general cause for it denigrating away.

Local farmers have there various ways, but most are way over his head. Serious life magics and hypertech are involved that they explain that they are countering the affects of the planet on the stuff they are not growing. Likely would ask why not just replicate the affects some where else, and to that they say whats grown here with the energy poring from the shade realm is far better than anything that could be produced in an artificial life field. But still all the magic/tech leaves little profit outside of special medical/industrial uses and luxury foods, so that tends to be the only kinda stuff grown.

Not to many people know much about the bee's other than to avoid any area there was a hive for many miles.

As for goings on a hunting party from Manatum Tessera was on it's way in.... Edith and Paracelsus had never seen so much meat in there lives. You chop up a bronto and a few smaller creatures and it makes for a rather large shipment. It did bring to question what kinda energy field the transports had that keep them from rotting quickly due to rapid bacteria growth.

Donovan learned what he could and wrote down what he didn't understand- maybe it would make sense after he learned more. For the rest of the day, he worked on writing up his results. It would be a lot easier to just say "lack of light and increased moisture dilute the poison", but Edith had insisted that he write it up "properly". That meant using statistics to show significance, detailed information about lab conditions, and academic terms that had very specific meanings. Apparently, Etherites did a lot of writing.

Meanwhile, Edith and Paracelsus watched in amazement at the size of the dino and how they chopped it up so quickly. Edith asked one of workers how they slowed down the growth of bacteria.

They wouldn't give away to much, trade secretes and all, but they said they set up a field around the downed animal that did it and cut it up on the spot. Loading it onto the better care of the trucks as they cut it. The cutters are the ones to talk about such things as they are quite proud of the job they do, acting like the whole operation relies on there skill and speed. The longer they are there the more the meat is exposed to the elements, and the longer they are there the more likely they are attacked by predators or scavengers.  Of course this is rather the attitude with most the crew.

Gunners say no one would get anything done with out them they are the only ones that can take down the monsters and the only ones that protect them.
Mechanics say nothing would work with out them.
The spotters say they would get over run or never find anything with out them.
ect ect ect....

Generally most of them wanting a better cut for such a dangerous job.

None the lest it's interesting to hear there stories and see where most of the non-synthecated meat comes from.

Donovan will gain 4 trainning points by the time all this research is over.

Edith enjoyed hearing the stories and the good-natured one-upping from the dino hunters. After that, she and Paracelsus continued to explore the city. Edith wasn't looking for anything in particular- just whatever caught her eye.

Outside of the capital, and trade center, Venus wasn't much a popular place to live. Thus the city kinda had the air about it of a small colony, most people knew each other and the like, while it took on the air of a port when shipments like this came in. When she got here things where a bit calmer, it was only a group needing immediate repairs and the shipment down from the mountain didn't have much to do with the city as a whole. With the whole hunting party, besides a small crew left to watch the camp, coming in to the city things where a bit more lively.

People where inspecting the hull working with the hunters to bargain over the price, the mussel where dispersing to bars to drink and women to take to bed, engineers and quartermasters looking to fill the needs of the camp till the next hull. All the things once expected from a long hull trading crew coming into port was going on as the hunters came in from the jungle and the kinda things one expected of a military ship coming into port.... including the news of hunters who died out in the jungle.

It was kinda a sad thing there, but humans aren't ones to live on fish and vegetables there whole life. There were not many orchards or livestock fields on Mars due to the space they took up, and people just wanted good tasting meat.  Synthedic and meat from those big bugs on Mars just did not do it for most people if they could afford anything else.

There was a chance though Edith and Paracelsus got a taist of actual beef or the like once or twice with there teacher or eating with Donovan's parents or the like.... so she could probably understand to a point. Heck maybe she herself wouldn't eat synth meat if she had the chance. ^.^

That people risk there lives for good taisting food was an odd thing indeed though, but it's something that seams to incress the more civilization did... so maybe this was a good sign humanity had recovered from the last fall, at least in the CCG. (Central Colonial Government) Makes one wonder if people are risking there live for the money they get from selling luxury foods back on earth.

Edith had no trouble with synth-meat, but it couldn't match real meat. There was something about the consistency of it, the way it felt in the mouth that the synth stuff couldn't match. She once had a bite of something really expensive. It had seemed to melt in her mouth but retain that "meet feel". Still, as amazing as it had tasted, she wasn't about to risk her life to get some more.

To be fair, though, these people weren't risking their lives for meat, they were risking their lives for money in order to survive. Edith was sure that the actual hunters weren't getting paid in meat; they might eat it as often as Edith had. Instead, they were being paid a lot of money that they used to support families and live off of. It was the people who were buying the meat that were paying people to risk their lives- and that part was invisible to them.

She and Paracelsus eavesdropped in on the bargaining, chatted with some of the crew about their machines, and listened to the stories about the crews that had been lost. It was certainly dangerous out there.

They where talking about others they had lost too, from the sound of things seams most people getting killed are just because they weren't careful enough or some one messed up. This time it was a little bit of the later. They spent to long in an area trying to track down a nest for some very large eggs to sell, and didn't notice that a raptor pack had shown up in the area and picked up there trail. It was one that had apparently encountered human hunting packs before and waited till they could pick off one of them and dragged him off, they never saw them just the tracks they left behind. There not the smartest but damn they are smart, fast, and deadly pack hunters. The only reason they even knew they where under attack was there own raptors picked up on them, but not in time to do anything and chasing after them would have been dangerous....  So they where naturally a bit pissed off about it, rather would have hunted down the pack but they need the money and would put everyone's life in (even more) danger doing so.

There was talk maybe they should talk to other hunting groups and look into putting a bounty together, or see if they can get there supervisors to pay them to take them out. The guy buying off them suggested just catching and taming them, but they wanted them dead for obvious reasons.

While Edith was talking, Paracelsus took the opportunity to try to sneak a scrap of meat that had fallen off the trailer. He stalked it as if it was a living creature, then dashed out to grab it and get away. Safety was Edith's shoulder.

Meanwhile, Edith didn't think that training raptors was a good idea. It reminded her about stories of "tame" lions and leopards and other dangerous animals who had killed or mauled their keepers.

Edith tried to find out what kind of material and tools they were using to clear the ever-growing vegetation. It might be something interesting since it had to keep an edge for a long time and be very strong.

A good many of them took notice of the meat falling out but Paracelsus was able to just barely get away with a chunk of fatty meat that was lose enough to pull free from the rest. He almost got caught, one even looking under the trailer for him, but he made it. They had to have keen eyes out there, probably wasn't the best idea but it worked out for him this time.

They used magic or implants to control the 'tamed' raptors making sure they won't attack anyone. They make for good, fast, and smart mounts/trackers in the jungle. This particular group Edith could see the implants in the side of the animal's heads. Watching it seamed to let the animals understand English too (at least to a degree). The morality was questionable.

They typically seamed to have monofilement blades or vibro blades. One guy had what seamed to be a custom job that might have been both, a little more dangerous than useful perhaps and likely less effective than having one or the other, but one up man ship can lead to that sorta dumb thing.

OOC: Did the raptors understand English in the same sense that a dog would? Or do you mean they're smart enough to actually use it?

Edith felt Paracelsus' surge of triumph as he snatched the morsel of food out from under the watchful eyes of the hunters. He scarfed it down, then returned to Edith's shoulders where he proudly started cleaning himself. Edith was relieved; she didn't feel like getting into a fight over a bit of meat.

Edith chatted with the hunters about the weapons they preferred as she automatically looked for ways to improve them. She guessed that mono-filament machetes would be their best bet.

(an exstreamly smart/well trained dog)

The mono-filament ones seamed to be the best suited, they didn't need power like the vibroblade, but they where much more dangerous. Both could cut at the slightest of touches, but you couldn't turn the mono-filament edges off....

They weren't in any hurry to pay exstra for safty measures in the equipment department it seams, it was apparently up to each individual. There was one that spent exstra for something that covered the edge unless they where holding down on the handle, but the rest just had special sheaths for the blade.

Since she still had time before heading to work, Edith found out which bar the miners tended to hang out at and headed there. She was curious about what they were mining and especially the rumors about the land not wanting them to take the minerals.

Meanwhile, Donovan was looking up synonyms for "The results indicate" and "Therefore, one can assume".

They didn't talk about what they where mining nor any attacks, generally seamed to be avoiding talking about work to much till one person said they hurd that another mine got attacked by a dragon. After a bit this talk turned into a sorta argument over which bygone was the scariest. It comes down to the Umkovu and the Cockatrice, while others argued the two where to weak and easy to kill to be scary, they argued that what they did made them truly scary. The umkovu, the soul eater, and the cockatrice who knew the most foul of truths and bite would cause you to birth a new cockatrice from within your body.... and should the egg burst before that the most horridly painful of deaths awaited.

Edith was interested in hearing about the bygones. Were there many of them around? Did they ever attack/enter the city? Did they seem to target humans or was it a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

A few talk with her. "They are out there, more on this world than any other it seams."

"A lot more it seams when mining."

"Yah it riles them up something awful, I think the machines must have some kinda dog whistle like affect on them or something."

"That or the witches are right and there just protecting the planet."

"What ever, it's not like we are driving anything to exstention or anything, I got to get paied I could care less why or what is going on I long as some one keeps them out of the mines."

"Yah but Umkovu are in the mines... just waiting for a minning acident to happen so they can feed on your passing" he shivers some.

"Oh shut the hell up."

Not wanting to start a scare over which creatures were or weren't going to eat miners' souls, Edith and Paracelsus headed back home.

By this time, Donovan had a rough draft of his paper done. He and Edith sat down to review it and discuss which sections had to be strengthen or refocused. After that, Donovan worked on his paper more while Edith gathered some dirt and got to work on a project of her own. Paracelsus dug out a nest of blankets and took a nap.

Edith formed the dirt into spheres, then turned them into clay so she could work with them more easily. She turned each sphere into something that looked like a small hand grenade with a small handle and without a firing pin. She carved grooved patterns into each to make them look more like grenades- at least at first glance. When she was finished, she turned them into aluminum. A few were put into her jacket pocket and the rest into her bag.

She would have to waste an exstra 30 minutes or more to make it look right, otherwise it's only going to pass for a grenade from a distance, but that's likely all she's looking for.

Edith didn't have anything to do until work started and this was a chance to work on her sculpting ability, so she took her time and made the fake grenades look more like real ones. She didn't have anything specific in mind, but it was always nice to have something up your sleeve.

Paracelsus continued to nap and Dononvan continued to work on his report.

Probably a good thing Paracelsus was napping to, he probably would have fliped out hearing about the Umkovu. Not that they actually ate souls, but people believed what people believed. By the time the grenades where done it was close to the time she should head to work.

Edith picked up dinner for all three before going to work. She knew that Donovan would want to go out and either continue his "research" or just go and sample the nightlife. She didn't blame him- he had done more work today than over the past week. She gave him some pocket-money with a warning to not get drunk again.

After checking to make sure that Paracelsus didn't want to come along, Edith headed off to work. One nice thing about this job was that she had a chance to run into all kinds of different tech- and while she had a well-rounded history with machines, there were plenty of things in the universe that Edith had never seen. Maybe she'd see one of them tonight.

After looking around the building giving some of the machines more time to cool off she was quite disappointing, or many exsighted. This building has been around sense before the fall, and a supersizing amount of things had not been updated, it seams there policy has been a 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' one for quite some time. Then again before the fall places like this often relied on portals to Earth for parts so being cut off from earth it was a good policy to follow, but now Hadies was cracking out all the parts anyone could need there was no reason for it.

She worked out a work scedual for herself of what needed to be done and how she could do it in a little less than an hour, she could fix everything altering materials here or from the mine she was sure of it. She wanted to show off her skill as a willworker and she had her chance to update this place to modern equipment with out ordering out for parts!

Edith was excited about this new project. This would be a good chance to practice a new method of rewiring that she had been thinking about- and she rarely passed up a chance to show off her skills.

She carefully scheduled everything in order to keep downtime to a minimum, and checked with other night-employees to make sure she didn't interrupt their work. When there was time (which there usually wasn't), she was a detailed worker. So instead of her ramshackle throw-it-all-together and work out the details later method, Edith coded everything with standard symbols, used tried-and-tested techniques, and installed standard components. This way others could come along later and know what she had done and how to fix it.

Of course she used magic to make things easier- and delighted in doing so. She missed Paracelsus when she turned to say something to him after making a clever use of twist-ties and again when she fixed a compressor with a handful of sand, but disappointingly, the cat wasn't there to admire- or at least notice her ideas. When she was done with the mechanical aspects of it, Edith documented all the changes and left any new instructions with each machine. Finally, a copy of everything was left on her boss' chair.

Edith wondered if she might be putting herself out of a job, but put that thought aside. If this place needed so much updating, there were surely other companies out there that did as well. And she'd rather work at challenging jobs like this than the same-old, same-old.

Meanwhile, Dononvan set off on his new mission- food. Edith couldn't cook to save her life; she'd eat out every meal of the day. Donovan preferred real food - or as real as he could make it given the available supplies. Sometimes Donovan wondered if Edith only kept him around to feed her- given how much trouble he had gotten into in the past. Well, if that was the way of things, he'd keep cooking!

He started charming his way through the kitchens of the city, picking up herbs here and cooking tips there.

Paracelsus slept in.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:51, Wed 15 June 2016.

The boss seams pleased, no longer unsure of her, now quite impressed. He gives Edith another full 20kc chit to stay a bit and teach them how to use the new equipment and show up early to do so again for the night shift.

Edith was happy to show the employees how the new equipment worked. Some things would be easier, some faster, and some safer. All in all, she didn't see any downsides to it.

Meanwhile, Donovan had finished his evening out and returned home with some new herbs and some new ideas. He also picked up a shot of the honey liquor from the other night so he could study it in the morning.

Paracelsus continued to nap.

They only sold bottles, but he managed to talk them into giving him one that was already open for 5kc, maybe Edith wouldn't get pissed off. lol

The Mead was good though.

Using life magic Donovan only needed a little over an hour to figure out the make up of the mead, he could make his own though he would have to find a way to make something that could replace the honey or otherwise get some himself.

If he could get edith to help though they could make something to separate the honey out of it, making researching it much easier, it would completely ruin the mead they used, but beats having to go buy some in addition to the mead.

Donovan put together a cold supper for Edith in the hopes of appeasing her and convincing her to help him out. He figured he would wait until she woke up before asking for her help. Hopefully that would give him time to finalize his analysis of the mead and get him a few more brownie points.

(hehe and acutal brownies may help that too XD)

Edith with the late hour she went out at for work would have seen the spectical of the moon bridge opening to the south east of the city... like an all white (no a little silvery) rainbow arching across the heavens and shinning down into the jungle. Not to much a spectical in and of itself, but the damaged ship not much smaller than the moon bridge flying out of it in a tail spin sure as hell was.

It dropped low bellow her view though, along the tree tops bellow the mountains, out of view from behind the wall. Then the other half of the spectical came as the lights along a segment of the walls and all around the port shut down covering part of the city in darkness while the outline of the ship could just barely be made out flying in to land in one of the hangers, before the doors closed and the lights came back on.

She could tell the ship was damaged though, when she saw it came in she saw little hints of it: AEther 'bleeding off of it; hull breaches revealing internal lighting; the inconsistency of the beams from the ion-drive; and most ships did not have an asymmetrical/non-aerodynamic outline.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:04, Sat 18 June 2016.

That ship certainly was having an interesting time of it-and had come from an interesting place. One thing it clearly needed was a mechanic. Instead of going home, Edith decided to check the mysterious ship out. Maybe she could pick up some more work.

Edith barely caught sight of some rather odd people passing around a corner when she walked in. The bay in question was guarded and they stooped her. "I'm afraid the bay is closed for maintenance, one of the deliveries of the wall-toxins was spilled."

"I'm looking for the captain of the ship that just came in. There are a lot of repairs that need to be done."

"There is more damage to the bay, it's not safe to go in there, we have specialists that have to clean up such breaches before repairs can be done."

Edith knew he was full of shit. That was not a transport ship and it was leaking Eather not poisons. This along with the fact they shut down the lights as the ship came in made it rather clear that some one didn't want anyone to see what was inside that bay.

That made Edith even more curious about what was going on. Why was the ship being hidden? Did it have special cargo? Special passengers? Or maybe the ship itself was special.

"Ok. I still need to see the captain. Is he still on board?"

"Your not getting in here."

"Fine," Edith replied. "I'll find him another way."

Now even more curious about the ship, Edith headed to wherever cargo would be offloaded. Her first guess was that they were smuggling goods. She poked around a bit to see if she could figure out what-if anything- they were smuggling.

A side door of the hanger opened, and someone emerged into the loading area; he was tall, clad in something that looked like an armored space suit, and had a visored helmet on in the shape of a bird's beaked head. The stranger walked with self assured strides toward Edith, and as he grew closer it would be easier to see he had not only four arms but weapons enough for each. He didn't reach for any when he reached the woman, yet his tone when it came from his suit's speaker was hard and terse.

"I'm busy, so let me get right to the point; the official register says you're wrong about a ship being in that dock, there's no record of any transmission asking for clearance, and if you check you'll find the security footage of this conversation accidently got erased or the feed cut out for the exact amount of time I was here talking.

"You wanted to have a chat with me, you got your wish. But we don't need your services, since we don't exist, so buzz off. Or hang around in the public areas if you like playing Spy to your heart's content, but I can promise you I've been at this a lot longer than you. For example, did you really think after you made such a stink about getting to the ship, that we wouldn't check the cargo area too?"

Edith considered the 4-armed man; she had her answer, "I was just looking for work. I have no desire to get involved in whatever illegal thing you're doing here."

"I suggest that the next time this happens, you politely say, 'Thank you, but we're not hiring'. Threats just make people wonder what you're hiding. Being rude makes people want to return it in kind."

She turned to leave.

Raven gave a barking laugh.

"When I want your opinion..., no wait, that's never going to happen.

"Gee, you think I might make people mad treating them this way? Wow, I guess it's a good thing I've got all these weapons, and I was just using them for weight so I don't float into the sky.

"Thanks for that advice that nobody ever before you has ever said, here's some for you; go home, go to bed, wake up and go to work, live your boring normal life until you grow old and die. Because if you wrinkle up your nose at the thought of some crate of plasma blasters, or some drugs, or whatever else you count as illegal, I can tell you sure as I'm not officially here that you want no part of what's waiting on the inside of that hanger."

The splicer stays where he is, watching to make sure the woman actually leaves.

Edith didn't bother responding to the man; she didn't want anything to do with him. She didn't really need the job after all, and her curiosity about the ship had been assuaged.

It had been a long night and Edith was more than ready to get some sleep. She went home, nudged Paracelsus out of the middle of the bed, and went to sleep.

Satisfied, Raven returns to his ship.

Moving to another thread

Some one knocked at Ediths door rather late into the night.

Edith got up and blearily answered the door. Donovan woke up, but when Edith went to get up, he rolled over and went back to sleep.

There was a man outside "Hello, can we speak in private?"

Edith looked up and down the deserted street. "This seems pretty private. What did you want to talk about?"

"Tell me can you shape premium?" (she can but it is very very hard for her.)

"Yes, but it takes a great deal of work and is not always successful."

"I have a job offer, salvage mission, you stand to make a grate deal of money."

"Why don't you come in and we'll discuss terms," Edith suggested.

He smiles giving a nod and slides in quietly, once inside he spoke more. "The area is dangerous and the operation is barely legal, but I assure you it is, I can promise you will least make a quarter million creeds as a consultant alone but if you are able to help in acquiring any valuable parts or metals you stand to make a good bit more. Laws making taking any data or intact equipment iligal, but salvage laws are rather .... well lacking in the wilds, there is a lot one can legally take from a crashed ship so long as you make it there before the owners. Esenchaly anything of significant damage can be considered salvageable scrap one just take if no one else is there to lay claim to it."

Edith listened to the man and asked him a number of questions about what exactly they were going after, who he was and how much experience he had with salvage, how large the team was, the basic equipment they were going with, and when they were leaving. She also made it clear that she was only interested in working legal jobs.

"A ship designed to go into the Crown Storm to look for Baylor's Pleasure Dome... clearly things did not go well. What ever happened the thing came out of some form of FTL and slammed through demolitions hard before blowing life pods and crashing some where in the Artemus Mountains. The area is hard traveled and full of carnivores, so if you take the job you will meet up with a hunting party that will accompany you the whole way. But any ship built for the Storm is bound to have a grate deal of valuable material used in it's construction. The hunting party already brought back some from when they went to check for survivors, apparently the only survivor abandoned ship and lays no claim to it.... even if he dose setting up primary rites to clear out the area and scrap the ship would be exstreamly profitable. I won't be a part of this and I can't say what way this will go, but it will stay legal and hopefully make everyone a good deal of money."

Edith still wanted to know the answers to the rest of her questions as well as info about who was leading the expedition. If this man didn't know, she asked who she needed to talk to in order to find out.

"The hunting party will be leading the expedition. I work for the Tellus Northern Shipping Co. or more percicely a scrapping subsidiary. There is a strait in the Artemis Mountains to get to the ship, but it's sliding into the Artemis' Deep... it's well over a kilometer deep and full of some big nasty things.... we can get a large ship squeezed in there and load up a lot of scrap but it's not going to get there in time, we need people to go and try and secure the ship or least get the best goods off it before it slides down into the depths and becomes way more trouble than it's worth. Hopeful we can negotiate a contract to retrieve the data too, they will want that and if we can get there before them and it's in danger they are likely to pay a grate deal of money for that, Governor Moon is getting fairly desperate to make his electrical promise on finding that station they where looking for."

Edith asked a few questions about the equipment they were bringing with them and asked for certain items that would help stabilize the ship. Her only other question was when the party would be leaving.

In the meanwhile, Paracelsus had woken up and was listening to the conversation with his eyes closed. The only sign that he was awake was his tail agitatedly swishing back and forth. The thought of going into the cat-eating wilderness did not appeal to him at all.

"They will be leaving soon as the hunting party gets here, and you should bring what ever you think you need or may come in handy. Though I would defiantly bring any life support systems you may have unless you want to use what ever the hunting party provides. Most people don't last more than a few days outside the city with out one."

OOC: Is Edith going to be able to buy life support equipment for herself and the rest of the troupe with the money she has?

(Nothing good, no. But he did say they may be able to provide some... so probably best to see if you can get in contact and see about that.)

Edith realized that she didn't know the man's name or how to get in contact with him, so she asked for that information.

Then she asked for the contact information for whoever was leading the mission so she could find out about survival gear.

The man supplies the information. "Think about it, scavaging a ship this size thats this on the cunning edge is very profitable... and we only have to get one item from the ship, we just want you to flag the most valuable of things to try and get out encase we can't get a team there in time to secure the ship before it slides into the water. Also to assess the value that if it dose fall into the trench, if it's worth the trubble of scavenging after that. Securing it from hostiles or eleminating them is not an objective, just assess value and get something off the ship.... try and secure the ship from slidding into the water if possable or secure anything of high value. Top priorities, anything solid that can be iditifed as part of the ship, and the ships data stores."

Sounds prity standard for ships lost in deep space... she would have to look it up but it sounds like while Venus is a colony, un-collonized land counts as 'international waters' so to say... unlike other planets where the whole planet is considered part of the planets governmental control zone. Wouldn't be hard to understand why, enforcing laws in such savage lands would be near impossible.

Edith took down the information. She said goodbye to the man, then started planning. This was just the perfect job for her. It would bring in some money and would get her outside! Of course Paracelsus wouldn't like it.

She turned to see if the cat was paying attention. He had been curled up in a ball on her bed, his ears turned to listed in to the conversation.

"I hope you realize how dangerous it is out there." Paracelsus turned his head to consider Edith. "It's full of cat-eating monsters."

Edith nodded, "That's why you're not going."

Paracelsus perked up at this, offended. He might not like cat-eating jungles, but he was never left behind. "They are human-eating monsters out there too. How do you expect to survive without me to spot the monsters."

Edith shrugged, "You can't go. There aren't any cat-sized environmental suits."

"Besides," Donovan said. He had been listening quietly the whole time. "I'll be there."

"You're not going either," Edith interjected. "It's too dangerous."

The cat and apprentice stared at Edith with identical disbelieving expressions.

OOC: I'm assuming we're wearing some kind of suit to survive out there. If there's something I'm not thinking of that could protect Paracelsus, this conversation might go a bit differently.

There are but there a lot more of a pain than a suit is.

Regular monitoring of life signs.
Regular injections.
Respirator helps...

Life energy is crazy... so microorganisms grow like wildfire and many plants and stuff have toxic deffences.

So in addition to all the unpleasant things out there, you have to keep an eye on your health.

It's a lot easier to wear some form of life support so your not exposed to all that.

"Don't look at me like that," Edith replied.

Paracelsus began to swish his tail back and forth anxiously. "It's not a good idea to go alone."

Donovan nodded.

"I know," Edith replied. "But we don't have any choice. So stay here and I'll be back as soon as I can. Then we'll have enough money to think about our next step. Maybe it'll be time to head somewhere else for a while."

"Look, I need to get some sleep. We can argue about it more tomorrow."

Paracelsus grumbled, but moved aside when Edith came to bed. He settled down in the curve of her arm, tail still twitching. Meanwhile, Donovan was mentally making plans for continuing his earlier experiments.

***
The first thing next morning, Edith contacted the leader of the mission to find out about survival gear and when they would be heading out. She also made a list of the things she'd need.

They would be provided gear if they didn't have any, most where using some form of force field or suit though, they didn't know if they had suits that would fit though but they diffidently had a field unit.

"Good news!" Edith announced as she walked into their rental, carrying a bag of gear.

"You're not going," Paracelsus guessed hopefully from his spot in the sunlight on the window sill.

"Better! We all are." She pulled out a small force field unit and showed it to the cat and Donovan, who was sitting on his bed reading.

"You've got a regular suit," she said to the young man. "But you," she turned to Paracelsus, "have a force field. Come over and let me set it up for you."

Paracelsus stretched reluctantly, then made her way over to the bed where Edith was unpacking. She sniffed at it hesitantly, "Will it stop the monsters from eating me?"

"It'll help," Edith admitted.

The cat wasn't thrilled at the situation, but it was better than letting Edith go out into the dangerous forest all by herself so she stood still while Edith adjusted it to accommodate Paracelsus' size.

"There you go," Edith said, satisfied at last. "Try walking around in it."

Paracelsus took a few tentative steps, then jumped down from the bed to see what it could really do. She ran from one side of the room to the other, tried jumping back on the bed, and took a tentative swipe at a metal spring that was peeking out of Edith's bag.

"How does it feel?" Edith asked, pausing to make a few more alterations.

"Strange." Paracelsus replied. She tested it a bit, then wanted it removed.

Taking that as a positive response, Edith unpacked her bag and sat down to do some work. She had a schematic of the type of ship they were going after. She studied it looking for places where the most valuable items and metal would be, figuring out ways and supplies needed to stabilize it depending on how it had crashed and where it was, and familiarizing herself with the main workings. It wasn't likely, but maybe she could skip-fly it back. That would save time, money, and be safer.

After a few hours of working, she packed up her gear and got ready to head to work. "I need to show everyone how to use the new machinery," she said to Donovan. "I'll be back soon. What are you going to do?"

"Since I'm going too, I've got some things to get ready. I want to bring back some soil samples and see how they affect my experiment," Donovan replied.

Since landing on the planet where plants ate cats, Paracelsus had been traveling via Edith's shoulder. He took up his position and the pair headed to work.

(poor paracelsus)

<Nudge.>

Work was more exhausting than doing the actual hard work... they had a lot of questions for her. These people had been using the same equipment for a long long time and where not as trusting of the refurbished and updated equipment as the foreman was. This was dangerous work and if something went wrong they could be seriously hurt or killed after-all... and while the new machines MAY be safer, at least they knew what to expect from the old ones. The devil you know and all that. They had some healthy 'respect' for what a witch could do though and if they had any doughts of her engineering because of her gender they weren't saying anything. The world was backwards in ways but they had to deal with some rather powerfull witches protecting the local wyld life from time to time if they wondered into the wrong area's or did to much to disturb the planet.

Edith took her time going through the changes to the machines and the new procedures. She showed them the directions she had written up, explained how each change would benefit them, and had at least one person run through each procedure.

Meanwhile, Paracelsus dragged Edith's jacket into a quiet corner and made a nest of it. Machines like this ate cats so she decided to let discretion be the better part of valor and hid.

Paracelsus hoped they'd be leaving this planet soon. When living and non-living things all wanted to eat you, it was time to find a more friendly place.

Besides some painfully dumb questions from people who did't understand the machinery, just knew how to make it do what they needed it to do, it wasn't a big deal. Paracelsus in the meantime got some scares from very loud machiniery. x.x

After finishing work, Edith scooped up an uneasy Paracelsus and headed back to their room. On the way, she picked up dinner.

If I didn't say before cheapest stuff here is oversized fruit you can't really identify as anything, and dino meat. They don't have much in the way of veggies besides just leaves from plants that are particularly edible. Anything else is ether synthetic or expensive. The local veggies are a bit to much trubble to bother with for food unless there above ground and growing nearby.

The few veggies you can get are just chopped off chunks of it.

In her travels, Edith had always found it safer to go with local food so she picked up some dino meat and local fruits for dinner. She picked a variety of fruits in case Donovan wanted to do some research about them.

The fruit came chopped into small chunks, if he wanted research material best to buy it whole.

Edith gets contacted with all the information about when they where leaving and where, with the added information that apparently some diplomatic snob has rangled in some additions.

Edith promised Donovan that they could pick up some more fruit for his studies when they got back.

She wasn't happy to hear about hangers-on. They tended to be more trouble than they were worth. Hopefully this was just a couple of tourists; they were usually fairly easy to keep in line with talk of the dangers of the place. Heck, a few minutes with Paracelsus and they'd be running for the safety of the city.

When the time came to go, Edith packed up the supplies she had bought to deal with the ship and divided them between herself and Donovan. Paracelsus reluctantly allowed himself to be fitting with his force field, although if the truth was told, he was secretly relieved to have some protection against the many cat-eating dangers here.

You can/should join the main thread now. ^.^