Warpland Fantasy

[Taria]

ScarNoVale

The trio marches on through the cool desert night with Mitch only giving out the occasional non-committal grunt and Crake responds, "I don't know, maybe the figured dumping a bunch people with potentially dangerous abilities right outside was a bad idea? We just get paid to transport, and I personally think it's kinder than just shooting them."

As the sun starts to come up and waves of heat distort the horizon, pauses between marching occur more and some canteens are passed out to everyone to drink from. In the distance you think you can spot something that looks like trees? But from what was explained there should still be a river to cross before you get to the forest. Either way it's still mostly in the direction you're heading in, and even Mitch seems curious to go check it out.

Kayin

it's been almost a week now since you've been stranded here at an oasis in the desert. You've manage to make something of a camp where there is plenty of fresh water, but the food is scarce and whatever rations you had managed to save up before are dwindling low. If it weren't for the odd lack of food and the threat of monsters whenever you stray to far alone at dark, this would be almost like a tropical vacation, but unfortunately the way you ended up here has left you with no idea of what direction to go next. You've made very little progress in exploring your perimeter due to the whole monster threat; ironic that a bunch of sharks wouldn't like the water, honestly. But today as you are scanning the ever-changing sands of your horizon you spot something noticeably different, you see what looks like several upright humanoids heading in your direction, no fins! It's impossible to tell if they've got anything else going on from this distance however.

[Kuragari]

What a twist her life had gone through. Before Kayin had been on the way to making it into the most prestigious place of learning in her city. She'd had friends, a good life, a nice family... And all it took was a small, minor change to turn that all upside down. She still couldn't really believe it, even if she after the better part of a week finally figured out what happened. That prank letter had been more than just a prank, but she hadn't wanted to believe that at first. To do something so mean... She'd never even considered something like that!

The rules on taint are stupid. She thought to herself as she rested her head against her knees. At the very least, minor taint shouldn't be grounds for suddenly just tossing someone out. She'd looked at her reflection in the waters of the oasis enough times now to think that the small mark of taint on her was such a small thing. She actually kind of liked it... though she could have gone without them changing colors when she got angry. Which she had done plenty of since being stranded out here at this small bit of green amongst the desert sands, where those weird... Sand Sharks all but practically prowled the perimeter. Left only with the clothes she'd been wearing when nabbed and what rations she was given.

She was beginning to wonder if this could perhaps wind up being the end of her, given that she had no means to defend herself and little ability to find food otherwise. She might be smart, but her options were seemingly beyond limited. Then she spotted figures in the distance. Her first instinct was to jump up and wave cheerily, but she froze partway up. They might not be friendly. They could be trouble, just like those who got her in this mess in the first place. But on the flipside... maybe they could be help? And well, at the very least... She felt it was wise to at least warn them of the potential trouble.

So, after a moment, Kayin finished pushing herself up and hurried in their direction. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she called out as loudly as she could, "Heeeeyyy! Ya might want to hurry over here! There's these... Weird Sand Shark things around here! They don't seem to like the water, so you'll be safe over here!"

[Soru]

Scarlet tilts her head a bit at that. "'Potentially dangerous abilities?' Um, I assume you mean skill sets maybe? Because if you're talking about our... condition, all I got out of it was a rabbit's tail." She said, unintentionally letting everyone know that her tail was not a part of the outfit but her actual body now. "And I think your laser gun thing makes you way more dangerous than I am even if I had all my old gear." She wonders if there was possibly another reason they were being escorted away but figured that neither of the two guard would know anything as they most likely only got paid to transport them like Mitch said.

After a while the temperature began to rise, the sun rising higher. Thankfully the guards were willing to share their water with them. Scarlet was a bit surprised they are even escorting them at all still as it didn't seem like they had any reason to continue doing so; their survival would be higher without having to pull the three of them along. As they continued to walk she noticed some trees ahead, but Scarlet remembers that the forest should be a day's walk so this couldn't be it... Then she began to hear a voice from that direction, Scarlet barely picking up on the words. "Hey, someone is over there.. Something about... sand sharks and water?"

[Lazy Kitsune]

Vale's grateful that the guards seem to at least care enough for their wellbeing to let them drink on this journey. Unless they happened to find a community or clean source of water soon after being released, these two might be the best source of water and protection the lot of them would have for a while. Perhaps it was a good thing that her plan failed so they were still with them, though in Vale's judgement having complete freedom of movement and control over the supplies from the jeep would have been worth losing a couple of extra bodies around. Especially if they could become a source of danger at any moment. That Mitch in particular seemed a little too on edge for Vale's comfort. Crake seems to care a little more and actually engages with the rest of them, but hardly in a manner that Vale would call friendly.

"I'm not even tainted. Not that that matters at this point. Or that you're likely to believe me." Vale grumbled, although she was thankful for the canteen when it was passed her way. Her concerns over water were coincidentally enough answered immediately, as over the shimmering horizon there seemed to be trees. And trees meant water.

Although more pressing than that was the figure that appeared on the horizon. A woman was actually yelling in their direction and drawing their attention towards her. Was that wise? From this distance she was difficult to make out, so she likely couldn't see the group to clearly either. See the women in chains and the armed guards escorting them. If she was out here, then she was likely tainted, and the guards wouldn't take too kindly to her presence. Especially if she wasn't bound and could potentially be armed herself.

"What's she doing? She might get herself shot doing that!" An ironic sentiment coming from Vale, given her own glancing wound from earlier.

[Taria]

Everyone

The larger group continues heading towards the oasis. At this point Kayin can now start to make out the faces and details of the travelers. Mitch, a sour looking redheaded male with short hair and loaded up with gear/supplies, continues trudging forward keeping a wary gaze on the new girl and his surroundings. Meanwhile Crake, a somewhat taller man wearing a gas mask for some reason starts to jog ahead exclaiming, "Alright, sweet! Fresh water."

For now everything seems calm, Mitch hunkers down in the shade aloofly separate from the group as he contemplates his situation and Crake is dipping his feet in the oasis waters as he refills his canteens. The oasis offers plenty of shaded areas with palms and low foliage all around and forms a large crescent moon shape. The only thing unpleasant about this place is the absolute lack of any fruit or wildlife.

[Kuragari]

Kayin continues to shout til they seem to be able to hear her, gesturing for them to hurry. "Sand shark things, big nasty things lots of teeth! They don't like the water, for some reason!" Was mostly what she shouted. Even when she noticed that two of the folks appeared armed and reminded her of the folks who dragged her out here and dumped her off, she decided to toss her wariness to the side for the time being. If she was being honest, she was just happy to see someone, anyone. A week alone in the wilderness wasn't as fun as some stories made it out to be.

She does keep her distance though not by much. No reason to antagonize anyone.

"This place is safe, at least from the sand sharks. If it wasn't for those things, I'd have probably left by now." She says to them as they reach the oasis. "I'm guessing some of you are tainted?" She asks as she gestures to the women, then snorts as she says, "I am as well, if the eyes didn't give it away immediately."

[jondude]

To Nova's mild surprise Crake actually deigns to speak to them when she asks her out loud question. It's a... well it's fair response she supposes. She had heard that warp taint could manifest in fantastical ways, but she had never seen that. In fact given the whole no exceptions exiling most city states did when it came to warp taint, odds are basically no one had. So far the ones with the greatest chance of seeing anyone like that was Mitch and Crake themselves rather then any of them. How's that for irony? Damn shame her own taint couldn't manifest itself in anything more useful then cat eyes. Her vision hadn't changed at all as far as she could tell, which sucked since seeing well in dark would've at least put the thinnest of silver linings on this whole disaster.

In any case, they all make awkward conversation as they go through the mercifully not too cold night and Nova learns minor things such as Scarlet's bunny tail was in fact real and Crake was definitely the more approachable of their two guards despite the constant wearing of his gas mask. The girl in the body suit seemed inclined to keep to herself, only insisting that was in fact taint free. She was a hard one to judge in Nova's opinion. She could be telling the truth, since it was not beyond reason for powerful people to disappear inconvenient people in any city state. Maybe she was someone's mistress who had became more trouble then they were worth? Maybe she was in denial and her warp taint was more subtle then her's and Scarlet's? Well that was her business Nova supposes. Maybe she'd open up in time.

Speaking of time they walk through the night, as the sun comes up it instantly starts to get hot. Mitch and Crake pass out canteens, a pleasant surprise to be sure that Nova doesn't complain about, and is just grateful these guys weren't absolute bastards. She spends most of the time after that playing glance catching games with them, occasionally catching one of them staring at her exposed right breast when they were checking up on them. Like most the immediately stop staring and look away, but it was a little amusing at least. Warp taint was definitely a decent defense when it came to them maybe thinking of taking advantage of them, but they could stare all they like.

Eventually they come across an oasis, when to everybody's surprise seems to have someone there. She warns of more sand sharks, and Nova is briefly worried that her yelling might draw them in, but it could be all sorts of things. Vibrations in the ground even, so there was no sense worrying about what she didn't know. They make the short trip over to the oasis, where Mitch goes to sit in the shade and Crake goes to fill his canteens as well as wade around in the water a little bit. Nova isn't sure how much she'd trust that water... but she had to admit it looked pretty nice and clear. Meanwhile the new girl approaches them, her warp taint quite apparent with her black and blue eyes. It was quite striking really, the dark black making her blue eyes almost look like they were glowing. "Uhh, yeah. Similar boat to yours actually.", Nova says, then point to her eye were now a golden amber color and slitted like a cats.

As Nova looks around a little more though she sees some signs of longer habitation, most notably a simple shelter. "Have you... been here long?", Nova asks the new girl, looking around the pool a little more. "Wow you look like they dragged out of some old world university or something. Guess they didn't you much time before they tossed you out either. I can sympathize with that. At least they gave you some stuff though. All I got was chains. I didn't even get these crummy rags until I was passed off to these guys.", Nova says, then realizes she hadn't introduced herself yet. "Um, I'm Nova by the way.". She almost introduced Scarlet too but... well she didn't want to presume the bunny girl wanted her name tossed around willy nilly. None of them really knew each other yet and Nova didn't want to get anyone's bad side. They'd have a better chance of surviving by sticking together after all.

[Kuragari]

"Unless I've missed something or my perception of time is changed... I've been out here a week." Kayin says after a moment. The woman's next words remind her of why she is out here, and for a moment the blue of her eyes shifts to a blazing red. She grits her teeth and snorts, "You're not that far off. I was on my way to an entrance exam. Didn't even realize what had happened until I saw my reflection." It takes a moment and a long sigh, but her eyes return to blue as she lets the anger go. As she eyes them up, her own cheeks flush just a bit as she takes in their state of dress, and the exposed right breast of the woman before her. She hadn't noticed their lack of covering clothes from a distance.

When the woman introduces herself, she extends her arm out and says, "Kayin. I uh, don't have a last name anymore. That was part of my whole being banished thing." Whether or not Nova shook her hand, Kayin gestured to the little bit of habitation as she said, "I don't have anymore rations, but if anyone wants to make use of the little shelter I got, feel free. Though uh, any chance it'd be okay if I tag along with the rest of you when you continue on to, wherever you're going?" She glances out beyond the edges of the oasis. "I'd uh, rather not starve here or get eaten by those sand sharks."

[Soru]

Arriving at the oasis Scarlet looks around it a bit while the two guards enjoy the water and shade and Nova introduces herself to the woman that called out to them. "I'm Scarlet." She introduced herself as she raises her bound hands to wave a bit. "Yeah, we ran into one on our way to the woods and it ate a good chunk of the jeep that was transporting us. Barely managed to kill it too... Though while I don't mind you travelling with us I think the guards get final say." She points to the two guards that have been escorting them. "Anyways, I'm going to drink up before we get moving again... Still a long walk to our destination." With that she walks over to the oasis and bends down to get a drink from it.

[jondude]

Nova is a little surprised when Kayin's eyes shift from blue to red and then back again, making her lean back a bit in surprise, but since Kayin hadn't cut her in half with uncontrollable laser eyes she figured that changing colors has just about the extent of her mutation. Seemingly cosmetic only, sort of like her and Scarlet. "A week? Wow uh... that sucks.", Nova replies, shaking the girl's offered hand as Scarlet introduces herself and explains their situation quickly. "That is a good point... I guess it sort of depends on them, but I can't imagine one more pretty girl would faze them too much.", Nova adds, referring to Mitch and Crake being the deciding factor. Mitch was pretty ornery after all so he could be a problem, and no one could really dispute him with his laser pistol.

With that said Nova downs the rest of her canteen and then approaches the pool of water to refill it, preferably a fair ways away from where Crake was currently soaking his feet. Once it was full she was half tempted to go in for a short dip though, after all if Kayin had been here for a week without issue certainly the water itself was safe. She thought better of it though, because she wasn't sure her rags could survive the weight of being water logged, and while skinny dipping might be fun to gauge other peoples reactions and personalities she also didn't want to show off the whole store so to speak.

[Kuragari]

"Nice to meet you Scarlet." Kayin replies, offering a wave to the bound woman. She noticed Nova's reaction and gave a nervous chuckle as she said, "Ah, when I get angry they turn red. Only thing special about them far as I know, heheh." Still both of their words about the guards got through to her and she nodded before turning and approaching the one who didn't seem as moody, the guy with his feet in the water.

"Excuse me, sir?" She began hesitantly. "Would it be alright if I came along with the rest of you when you're ready to leave this spot?" She wanted to try and make an offer of some sort to try and see if that would help... but well, there wasn't anything she could immediately think of she could offer. She'd survived so far, but that was because she was given rations before being dumped off here. Sure she was smart, but she wasn't sure how useful that'd be without anything else to add to it.

Well there's always... but she cut that thought off for now even as her cheeks turned a bit pink again.

[Taria]

Crake turns his head up towards Kayin as she approaches. from here two gouges in his back can be clearly seen, which he lightly nurses with some fresh water. Noticing the strangeness in her eyes, as he watches her, he gives a sigh and goes to remove his gas mask which has been hiding his appearing this entire time. Locks of dirty blond hair fall down around him, framing his boyish face. However, over his left eye is an unsightly scar or growth? It crowds the space around his eye socket enough to make one wonder if it causes him trouble seeing, until a closer inspection would reveal the milky whiteness of his pupil underneath, likely spelling significant, if no complete, blindness in his eye.

I don't want trouble with you if you don't want trouble with me. Hell I'll even save a bullet for you in case you turn into some kind of monster.

Crake emphasizes his grim humor with a wry smirk as he idly pats the shotgun strapped to his side.


Meanwhile Mitch continues fussing over his stuff over in his shady corner, having now pulled out some sort of mobile radio as he yells out call signs into the receiver and mutters curses between the periods of static.

[Kuragari]

Kayin's own eyes widen slightly, and for a brief moment, she wonders if this guy himself is also tainted given the growth or scar. But given his armed state, it could just as easily just be an injury from a fight or something. His words, even with his grim humor, makes her smile and laugh a bit. By the stars above, she had missed having people around.

"I don't want any trouble, though I do appreciate the thought. Since I've been out here a week though and not gotten claws or a tail, I think I'm good." She gives him an appreciative nod, then asks as she glances to his eye, "Battle injury?"

Her eyes briefly glance over to the other man as she catches the muttered curses. She can't tell what they specifically are, but he certainly doesn't sound like his mood is being improved any. "W-Will he be any trouble?" She asks after another moment as she places her hands behind her back and squirms nervously.

[Lazy Kitsune]

Much to Vale's surprise, the guards didn't respond with hostility to the new woman once they were all gathered together at the oasis. Especially after she went ahead and announced that she was tainted. Surely she could see that the two armed men were keeping them in chains, couldn't she? Sure, Vale was out of her restraints now, and Scarlet presumably still had the key to full unshackle the others once the right time presented itself, but to any outsider this can't look like a friendly group to approach. Was the stranger so lonely and desperate out here that she would openly approach and declare such details about herself so freely?

Whatever her reasons for approaching with them, it seems the guards were happy to let her mingle with their prisoners for now. Crake also didn't seem to worry about touching the water of the oasis. Given how worried she would be about becoming contaminated if she were in their position, she'd probably avoiding touching any water outside of the cities. As things were now, however, she might not ever see the inside of the city again. So it made sense that the others in a similar position to Vale would drink from the oasis freely. Vale herself couldn't fully bring herself to do so, instead kneeling by the water's edge and gazing into it's surface. Would a sip be enough to taint her? If she held out... managed to avoid changing... could she find a city out there somewhere that would let her in?

At the very least, according to the new woman, this place offered safety from the beasts that ruined the jeep in the first place. So this was a chance for them all to rest up. The others seemed to be mingling with the newcomer so she made her way over to be near them and introduce herself. "I'm Vale, if we're all sharing names. You sure you want to travel with us?" she gestures to the chains around the other two and then towards the guards. "We're not exactly in a balanced power dynamic right now. The redhead in particular seems to not like anyone even a little tainted."

Once again proving himself at least somewhat more empathetic than his partner, Crake seems to open to talking to Kayin. Perhaps there might be an avenue their to get him even more on our side, or at least willing to leave a weapon with us when we reach our destination. For now though, Vale leaves Crake and Kayin to discuss her joining the group among each other and instead moves over towards Nova, the woman who had wrestled the beast from earlier.

"You were pretty impressive earlier." she says, setting a hand on her hip before letting out a heavy sigh. "Actually, that's a bit of an understatement. You were really impressive earlier. Where did you learn to fight like that?" she glanced down towards Nova's chest and gestured quickly with her finger to the state of the other woman's top. "Need help fixing that up or is that completely ruined now?"

[Kuragari]

Glancing towards Vale, Kayin gave a hum to her question, then gestured about. "Stay in a safe place with no food and no means to get food, or travel with some strangers and get away from those sand sharks?" She did however take note of what Vale said as she glanced back towards the other guard, and let her nervous eyes return to that of man near them. She rather hoped the other guy wouldn't be a problem, as she had no desire to be stuck here in this place til she starved to death.

[jondude]

Nova kneels in the sand at the edge of the pool as she refills her canteen, not really trusting the rag skirt she was wearing to survive her doing a proper squat. As she drips her canteen into the water though she remains aware of what is happening around her. It was fortunate that Crake didn't seem to care to much about Kayin, though Mitch was still an unknown. Speaking of him, he seemed to be doing his best to ignore them all as he constantly tried to make calls over a radio that either didn't work, or had no one answering because maybe the rest of the convoy had been sacked by more sand sharks. Or they were just out of range. All very possible. No matter what it was though the effect was the same and Mitch hardly seemed pleased about it. Poor guy might be exiled by proxy at this rate. And the body suit girl introduced herself finally! Vale. A fairly easy to remember name she thinks.

Speaking of Vale though the woman comes her way, and opens up with compliment no less! Nova smiles a little, trying not to let her own vanity get to her head. She didn't need to put on a whole show out here after all and do her best to please a crowd. "Heh, thanks. I was actually a gladiator back in Thunder City where I'm from. I don't know if the other cities have anything similar, but basically I was taken in by a gladiator house when I was ten and taught to fight. When I was an adult though they... put me in a different circuit though. Much less likely to die, but still lots of fighting. I got pretty good at it too. Was in the top three for my circuit. Fought all sorts of things so I learned to be adaptive. Or so I like to think anyway.", Nova explains, not really seeing much need to hide anything about her past. When Vale points to her torn rag shirt though Nova just waves it off. "Eh, don't worry about it. I don't think there is anyway to fix it. I might be able to tear it up and make a bikini top out of it, but I think it provides more over all cover from the sun as it is now. Let the boys have their peaks for now. I'm kind of used to frequent wardrobe tearing and malfunctions during my matches anyway so it doesn't bother me too much. Maybe when we get to the woods though I can weave something a little better. I'm hardly an expert at it but is something I learned when I was younger... definitely been a while though."

With that said though Nova can't help but ask her own questions. "How about you? You've got an intense look to you that makes me think you've done some hard stuff, but uh... your clothes suggest otherwise.", Nova says, looking to the... access zipper on her suit and the way her areolas peaked just slightly into view. "Then again Scarlet is dressed similarly. Is it normal for cities to kick people out in sexy clothes? I got chained up and thrown to these guys bare ass naked. Pretty sure their boss gave me rags only so I wasn't a complete distraction."

[Soru]

Scarlet once she had her fill finds a place to sit and rest her legs for a bit. As she sits and rests she listens to the others having their conversations though she didn't say much for a while as she didn't have much to contribute. She looks at her shackled hands and wonders if now would be a good time to use the key she hid away. As she thinks of this she looks up at Nova and the other woman, who's name she learned to be Vale from when she was listening in, as Nova was asking about those clothes. "Let's just say that the guys that got me thrown out thought it would be really funny to dress me up as a bunny girl considering my new tail. Otherwise I had rags similar to yours before then." She tells them.

[Taria]

”Birth defect”

Crake replies matter-of-factly, “though most people wouldn’t know it any differently from warp taint, so I keep it covered up.” Crake takes a swig from his canteen as he pulls his legs from the water sitting with his knees up. As Kayin brings up his cohort he responds, “Who Mitch? He’s a bastard, but the most he’ll hurt are your feelings, so long as you don’t fuck with us.”

As if on cue, Mitch makes his way back to the rest of the group and starts talking at the whole of them while mainly facing Crake, “Word from the caravan is they ain’t turning around. Too many monster shits fucked them up and so they fucked right out; for now we’re on our own.” Mitch glances around at the girls warily. “I still got the shortest route, and I reckon it’ll be best to start heading that way around dusk if we don’t want to deal with the blistering heat.”

[Kuragari]

Kayin nods. "I can understand that." It was probably one reason he had this job, matter of fact. She idly wonders if its still something caused by warp taint, but pushes that thought aside since it doesn't really matter. Thankfully she gets an answer, and lets out a relieved sigh. "That's good to know. Thank you."

As Mitch comes over, Kayin looks between the two and asks, "If its not any trouble to ask, would either of you happen to have a bit of extra rations? What was given to me when I was dropped off here has ran out. Even a tiny bit would be appreciated." She wasn't going to press if there wasn't, just glad that she seemed like she'd be able to get out of here.

[Lazy Kitsune]

Nova seemed unbothered by showing skin. Which was a good thing, considering the fact that all of them seemed to be in for showing a lot of skin going forward with how little they had in the way of clothing and how unlikely it seemed they would find a change of outfit anytime soon. Vale's own unique attire came into question and she glanced warily down and the pornographic parody of her operative's attire with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah... I suppose I should be glad, in a weird way. Out of all the outfits I had been wearing prior to be exile, this was probably one of the more practical ones. And least humiliating." Vale considered a comment like that probably warranted an explanation. And it wasn't like she could land herself in more trouble from sharing her past. "Used to work espionage and information gathering back where I come from. Was pretty good at it too. Usually I didn't work in an outfit, but on the odd occasion I was assigned something a little more gritty than my usual undercover work I would wear an outfit not too different from this. Just... the zip would work and the design overall would be more practical and less... slutty. Then one day I crossed the wrong person. Got captured... spent a good while getting dressed up in whatever outfits they wanted me to wear while they tried to train me to be a good obedient pet. This one was one of their favourites. Eventually they figured out I was only pretending to play along so they quickly arranged things to have me exiled without much fanfare and sent me out of the city. These just happened to be what I was wearing when that happened."

"Well, there's no undoing any of that now. At least its good to be out here with someone who can clearly handle herself. I know how to fight, but I work better with my words. Not the best survival skill, but I'll try to make myself useful out here." Vale added, before turning her attention to Scarlet as she shared her own story behind her outfit.

"It really is just some weird joke to them. They stop thinking about us as people the moment they decide to exile us. Though for 'abominations' they don't want to touch, they sure do like to put us in sexy outfits."