Welcome to Gaia! ::

"HA!"

Lucian snorted to watch Maer maneuver about. He was normally the politest kid on the block. Fae was his mother after all. But between the glare, a far different cry from the normal 'idiots' who worshiped his father, and now this, Lucian found he couldn't help but laugh.

"You sure you can handle that, kid?" Kid, as if he had any room to talk. Lucian was only about 16 in appearance himself, although his face would always remain youthfully smooth.

"You're worse than me around my dad's forge." Or at least as bad as he used to be. He'd built the muscle working in Dante's forge. At least when he could convince him he could do the work. Not like he got to work the forge until recently, but eh. For clarification. Father was Enki, Dante was dad.

"I'm not a kid, I'll be fine."

He gathered himself again, and carefully avoided the wall, moving down the street, hoping that the bloody urchin would leave him well enough alone. His coat swirled out behind him as he picked up the pace to get back to the store.

Thoughts of the trouble Dante would be in now were growing in weight, as well as the sun sliding down the horizon. It was nearly dusk by the time he got back to the front door.

Trust...

It was something that had been thrown about all too easily lately. Like an oft wanted toy that has outlived its usefulness, and simply discarded for a newer, better, more shiny toy...

In the end, the two people who were fated to apparently always be at odds with one another due to their ancestry would have to work together.

And even then... what are the chances.

What will it take... to finally end it all?

The Murmillion never answered Athan.

How could he?

If the way to Victor was blocked by Alpha... then Vahn would need Athan. He would leave it to the bigger man, and hopefully...he would be able to stop all this madness...

"My place is in the commons... along the Outer City...past the Grove of Arvins. "

Even with those directions, Latent was still a big place-- but hopefully the two of them would be able to navigate the place.

Latent was currently in a state of general wariness and tightened security. Word of what was happening in Durem and Aekea had reached... and there were still the rumours of Barton not exactly being Barton anymore...

By the times Maer had returned to the shop Dante had already shooed off the delivery boy, and inspected the package for any hints that it might be dangerous. When he was convinced it wasn’t a threat he stashed it in the basement for investigation at a later time. That interruption handled, Dante returned to his improvised drafting table across from the forge. The large square of parchment was secured on all four sides by small-unrefined ingots of steel to keep the corners from rolling up and interrupting Dante’s work. Not that they had done much to prevent the delivery boy from disturbing him, but there is only so much you can ask of a set of steel blocks.

Dante’s sharpened piece of charcoal worked quickly across the parchment making the rough outlines of what was really just an overgrown flowchart, turbine icon here, a flow pipe drawing there, it was all very rough but you cant very well draw everything to specification without a rough idea of how it all came together, and that was where Dante was at this point. It was too early in the design to get into the ‘funner’ items of structural support and armor before you had a reliable means of locomotion. Truth be told it was surprisingly well drawn for what was a fancy flow chart but at least he now had a good idea of how many turbines and pipes he was going to need, and that was one piece of info he hadn’t had so well fleshed out till now.

The outside of the Shop would not look that different to Maer where he returned, the whitewashed masonry walls were stained with a few years of neglect and ash. The stained wood that acted as supports in the classic cottage style was weathered and dark. As much as the inside had improved, the outside still looked a bit run down. Smoke pouring from the chimneys at the rear of the shop added soot on the roof to the equation; and the old sign had been taken down leaving the sign post bare and lonely as it stock out from over the top of the doorway. The sun nearly gone over the horizon casts long shadows on the buildings sides making it seem even more run down in the fading light. The only apparent change was the Side yards gate, which got a new steel gate that made the side yard with its nine foot tall spike topped masonry wall seem fairly intimidating.

To be fair if it wasn’t for the fact that lights could bee seen coming through the windows on both floors one might assume the forge was still abandoned, though the installation of a new gate might end that rumor. Inside however was a different story entirely; since Dante was still waiting for Maers return and doubted many would approach such a long abandoned building without reason Dante had left the door closed, but unlocked. The main room and show room were now cleaned thoroughly, new light bulbs installed and both rooms shown bright and clean, though still quite empty. The Workroom and forge were clean and orderly, the only mess the result of Dantes tinkering earlier in the day, and were otherwise spotless.

Upstairs was in the state of a well kept dorm or hostel, with four comfortable but single beds with a small attached shower, the main sitting room with its adjacent kitchen was clean and stocked with everything but food. Overall the place was now livable, though Dante had no idea why he would need four bedrooms, to be fair however until he’d gone upstairs earlier in the day he was unaware there was any sort of living arrangements in the building. It was certainly a boon compared to sleeping next to the forge at night, an experience Dante knew intimately but was not terribly fond of… Such was the forge, and though it needed a bit of maintenance on the outside to look presentable it was fully functional.

He had no desire to keep a separate Showroom however and had already considered the possibility of expanding the workroom into that area which would increase the workrooms size by nearly fifty percent, an appreciable increase. He would need to inspect the building supports first to make sure he wasn’t tearing down one of the building main structural components.

((OOC: bah sucky post))

Athan had never expected an answer from the Murmillion. In truth, he was answering a question he had been asking himself the majority of their trip. He was glad that he had an excuse to answer it, but he wouldn't let Vahn know that.

The directions Athan had been given were almost useless. The big man had never traveled through or in Latent, so his knowledge of the city was extremely limited to the immediate area. Even if he were asked to backtrack he'd have a hard time.

A strange voice put Athan on edge the moment he heard Vahn's voice uttered. His head shot up, eyes scanned the throng of people, searching for a body approaching them. He was met with an equally unfamiliar face, and Athan's right hand shifted from Vahn's forearm to the hilt of the sword on his back.

"Who are you?"

Quick and to the point, Athan wasn't going to let this meeting get very far until he could be comfortable speaking to the elf. The man knowing Vahn wasn't much of a stretch, but Athan's own name was a warning sign. Sure, he had just competed on a national stage for one of Gaia's most televised tournaments, but these were dangerous times.

And for the first time in his life, Athan was erring on the side of caution.

"Reward?" Maer thought about the gold in his back pocket as he carefully picked up and placed all the tins back into the basket, all but the one that went down the stairs obviously. He carefully unhooked the scrolls from his back and placed them where Dante had directed.

Then he picked up the food basket and headed up the stairs, thinking about it. What if asking for that was too much? Obviously what he'd done for Dante was the same as he would have done for himself eventually anyway, once he'd offered his services to the council.

Nah, he didn't need paying...he looked at each bit of the food as he started to put it away, then looked at the kitchen.

A few minutes later Dante would hear loud bangs and the sound of cursing, followed by more loud bangs.

Upon entering the upstairs living quarters, he would find Maer's jacket slung over one of the chairs, and the boy, sleeves rolled up, setting about cleaning some of the food he'd brought in, and starting to cook.

Maer didn't turn around at the comment, just twirled a giant spoon round as greeting.

"He cooks, he cleans, he does Julian fries..." The oven beeped a few times and he opened it to check on it's contents, before closing the door again. He froze at the thunk behind him, though, and he didn't dare look, just in case his heart stopped. Sure it was strong, but it probably wasn't strong enough to take what Dante figured was "fair pay."

While the way the man spoke was very blunt indeed, Maer found himself more comfortable with that way of talking then he would have had lollipops and gumdrops dropped from Dante's lips. So, he answered, in just about the same manner. Terse, lightly sarcastic, and a bubbling pot of anger and stress.

"No home, lived in Aekea, refugee, remember? No family, apparently I was a tube kid, but there's no real proof of that. It'd make sense. S'why I look the way I do, act the way I do, and my magical alignment." Again the twirl of the spoon. "A bed'd be nice, but, and you'll excuse me for sayin, I'd like it for a little longer then a night. Consider my earnings, rent."

And he went back to cooking, humming, of all things, angrily.

Maer looked over his shoulder, almost managing to see how many zero's were on the bill that Dante put back into his pocket. Spare change... Shaking his head, he listened to the proposal, and then nodded.

"Yeah, I've been in worse situations then this. I'll be your assistant."

He reached up, got some dishes down and placed one in front of Dante and the other in front of himself. Then he carefully went about stirring the rice, adding chunks of meat to a frying pan.

The smell of toasted bread started to come from the oven, an inviting smell, that made the place seem a little more alive.

"You like anything specific? Or are you picky bout what you eat...shoulda asked 'fore I went out really, but I'll eat anything I got that you won't."

His purple eyes looked over his shoulder, "What are your plans as far as the commission go? I've got a paper the light magic guy gave me for a sign up form..."