With kitten in hand, Charing Bear descends the rooftop. "Where does this kitty go Alouette?" the native inquires in a quiet tone. He keeps the cat in his arm, allowing him control and allow it play without leaving him.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:13, Sat 24 July 2010.

The automaton addresses the cat first, to be sure they've got the right one:
"Dandelion?"

The cat gazes up at Alouette. Charging Bear can feel it tense a bit at the approach of the automaton. "Mew?" it says, apparently in reply to Alouette's question.

This seems to satisfy the clank - it straightens up (still gripping the ladder in one hand) and answers Charging Bear with confidence:
"Dandelion is un-lost in the home of Sal Robertson, 8 years old," it informs him, clearly having not the faintest where this is. "House on the edge of town past the laundry, The One With The Sunflower."

"Which direction out of town is that Alouette?" he asks.

There's a long, ticking pause.
"Not that way," it points churchwards, where it's just been. "A different way."

More ticking. "Perhaps Ambrose knows where the laundry lives, to determine direction."

Smiling as though he half-expected such an answer, Charging Bear says, "Perhaps we can return the ladder before we locate laundry and then the Robertson place."

Alouette processes this, looks at the ladder, then at the door.
"It can be done!" it declares. It even manages to get the ladder down and through the doorway without decking anyone, though heaven help anyone not paying attention in the gloom of the saloon beyond as it goes striding in.

The old coot who runs the bar is far from thrilled to see Aloueete again, and most of the patrons have filed out of the place by now.

"You done with the dang ol' ladder then man?" He says. "Good. Drop it and git and don't drag your dang ol' metal behind in here again you hear?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:17, Thu 22 July 2010.

 She sniffed a little, looking around for a moment, but nothing in particular. This suddenly struck her as a bit queer.

" You happen to identify the dead man on the horse? Seems to be a friend  the near dead Yankee by the water trough.. I guess you could patchin him up, if yer able. But his blood is weird.. It's like this dead man's, it's all.. Congealed like.. Almost black.."

In reply to The Stray (msg #114):

It was just as she expected, with the distant shouts and gunfire! So exciting!

But Katy was a little taken aback when Augustus suddenly dashed off without explanation, and peered briefly in the direction of the door to see if she could see what had caught his eye. With a frustrated shrug, she turned back to the barkeep.

"I'd like a room, please."

On the other hand, the absence of Augustus was like losing another chaperone. Once she'd got rid of her luggage, she'd investigate the town.

She felt a little disappointed when the sounds of shooting died down.

"Identify a headless corpse? Oh ho ho, how charmingly quaint." The man says, stepping out of the carriage. He takes off his overcoat and top hat, lays them on the seat of his conveyance, then rolls up his sleeves and goes to examine Danny in the trough. He pulls the boy out of it with some difficulty, then lays him flat on the ground and begins to examine him.

"Yes...I see what you mean. I suppose such a thickness of the blood would seem strange to those who haven't worked extensively around the sick and injured. It is a symptom of the later stages of consumption. What was this gentleman doing that warranted being stabbed, shot, and partly concussed, I wonder? Attempting to cough on you?" He gives Gangatsu a withering stare before continuing. "No, don't answer that. I frankly don't wish to know. All I can tell you is that you've done a remarkable job finishing what nature started. This boy does not have long to live. A few hours at best. I will do what I can to make his last hours on this earth comfortable, but then I shall have to consign him to Mr. Underhill."

He opens his bag and begins to work, cleaning the wounds with swabs of alcohol, stitching them closed with needle and thread, and anointing them with bandages. Once he's finished with these tasks, he motions to his driver, who springs out of the coach and grabs the boys torso while the doctor holds the feet. Together they start lifting him into the carriage, apparently intent on spiriting him away somewhere.

In reply to Katy Devon (msg #189):

"Of course! That will be $2 per night. We also serve meals to order...Dinner is at seven, and you can take spirits at the bar all day, though I can't imagine a lady such as yourself would be interested in that." He smiles charmingly at her. "So, what brings you to Blackthorn, miss...?" He pauses, waiting for a name to fill the gap.

The scientist steps back a bit, most of his attention still on the automaton in his thoughts...but curiousity begs the question: Why is an Indian climbing up on the roof?    Before he can begin to consider the possibilities, the machine again speaks.  "Spinning Man...  Hmmmm...  Oh!  No no, quite wrong," offers Augustus in return.  He slows his speech down and increases the volume, as for a child or foreigner, "My...name....is....AUG-US-TUS."  He then awaits the machine's response.  Fascinating!

By this point, the Indian has returned with...a kitten.  Augustus begins now to simply be confused.  Especially as he listens to the conversation about where the kitten should go.  He begins to inquire about it all, but is momentarily distracted by a wet hacking cough, which he covers with a handkerchief.  By the time he is done, the machine-man is walking into the saloon with the ladder.  At which point, he looks over to the Indian, "I am very confused, sah.  Very confused indeed."

In reply to Augustus Spotswood (msg #192):

Charging Bull smiles and slaps the new comer on the shoulder, "Don't worry so, I'm sure it will continue to make absolutely no sense." He looks to the tin-can angel, "Which way?"

To gangtsu, "No, he was dead when we found him.  Went after a local... character, Gabby."

"He went for a gun, doc.  Say, could you take a look at that headless fella?  Did he have comsumption as well?"

In reply to Roland Frost (msg #191):

"Katy... Brown."

At the last moment, Katy remembered not to give her real last name. People might come looking.

"Oh, I'm just visiting."

[Private to GM: If he's expecting to be paid in advance, Katy will pay for a week.]

The automaton obediently drops the ladder when asked and comes out, gently replacing Augustus' hat on his head (it hasn't occured to it that the bags might also be connected to him). "Self responds to 'Alouette', AUG-US-TUS," it informs him, assuming the pronunciation - kitten-worrying volume included - is correct, then looks at Charging Bear.

"Find Ambrose? Theory: Ambrose will know where laundry lives."

"Who's Ambrose?" the native son inquires of the angel.

The automaton clicks a couple of times, logging the extent of retrieval errors caused by alcohol.

"Doctor Ambrosius Botticelli Evans, late of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - last night, said 'From now on, my metallic friend, I would take it as a kindness if you referred to me as Ambrose.'"
It does a frighteningly accurate Evans impression.

"I missed his first man... alright, then to the Marshal's office then..." Charging Bear notes that he was just there before all the crazy gun play started.

In reply to Robert Micklethwait (msg #194):

The pair finish leveraging the boy into the carriage.

"A gun, you say? Hmm. Well, that would be a mitigating circumstance, I suppose." Ward says in response to Robert's explanation. He nods. "I will see what I can determine, though it is harder to diagnose such things from the dead without a microscope, as there are fewer symptoms to observe." He and his driver remover the corpse from the horse, and he begins his examination.

Eventually, he sighs, and stands. "Well, it's impossible for me to determine with absolute certainty what killed this man without further examination and more tools than I have access to. I can confidently state that he was decapitated after his death, and that he may have had a form of consumption prior to it, but the actual cause is obscure."

He looks at Robert, then cocks his head quizzically. "Tell me, have we met? You seem passingly familiar."

Roland nods, and accepts her payment for a week's stay. He arches an eyebrow at the slight hesitation, but does not comment except to say "Well, Miss Brown. Welcome to Blackthorn. It seems to be the time of year for visitors...we have quite a few new faces in town this week, which is something of an event. This is a quiet town..." He frowns. "Well, mostly quiet. I heard some gun fire not long ago, so there may have been some excitement after all."

[[name?]]

The self-declared angel heads off, looking back at it crosses the street to check Charging Bear (and Dandelion) are following, fingers pressed to the dent again and static-crackling a bit with the activity.

Gangatsu, Dr.Ward and his driver will see a golden, inhuman being bearing down on them, flashing bright a moment in the early afternoon sun (Mr.Mickelthwait will just see that the dang clank doesn't seem too messed up from being shot). Followed by a serious native fellow with a very small kitten.

"Howdy mule!" Alouette greets the first creature it meets, then seems about to step in on the knot of folk around the body, until static murmurs strong mid-step and it sees Danny's boots.

"Albatross!"

And on that note, I'm going to end this chapter. Resume posting on the thread "Chapter 4: Storm Clouds Rising ((IC))"