The Wake Up Call

[Rasha Tailor]

It was that question, of all questions, that I hadn't really wanted to hear. I mean how do you go about a bad first meeting. 'Ah'll be! Ya'll be that thar kid that up an' want'd tah hire me out as a merc! An' ah downright talked ya off!' Not a great idea. Even if, well, I'd changed my mind. Not that it would have any impact here. So, what? Would I lie to him instead? I tucked my head in as I crossed my arms.

"Where ya from?"

Evading the question with a reasonable one of my own couldn't hurt.

[Viper]

? Did she just evade the question?

He was pretty sure she was attempting to dodge the question but at the moment he was in no conidition to be complaining or trying to figure it out. He had enough pains all over then to start stacking some mental ones too.

"I'm from Radical City, I use to run a speciality shop. I made special order stuff ranging from replica sword to some custom electronics."

He noticed that he was lacking his weapon for once. He turned to the old man as if wondering what happened to them.

"Wait... talking about electronics, what happened to my weapons?"

The old man gave a small sight as he pulled over a wooden basket from the other side of the table. He took it off the table so Viper could see into its contents. He could see clearly what was once his weapons was reduced to pieces of electronics two gloves. The frame was totaled to the point that the 'weapon' part was no longer connected to the glove part. The two blades were fine but the connectors and all the electronics seemed nothing more then a mess of wires and plating.

"These were my first too..."

Viper couldn't help but feel disappointed now. He made those weapons only a few months after training with Tia. It had a special meaning to him, something that could not be replaced by new ones. He knew however they were beyond repair. He would have to rebuild them from the core up, the amount of damage was beyond just 'restoring' it. He would have to replace everything except the blade section.

[Nokame]

*insert retardation here*

"oh? Is that what you think? Well it happened a long time ago when i saw this kid right? She was in the city walking had this ridiculious red hair and blonde hair combo. I was like... is that even real? Then i saw she was being followed by this taller ugly guy. He was very rough and unshaven. I wanted to tell her 'your boyfriend is very ugly i feel sorry for you...' but get this. That was her Dad!! Isn't that great?!"

He proclaimed and shouted as he continued walking. Heat stroke made things difficult to comprehend what is going on. Noka sort of regrets that he'd of worn gray before all this stupid madness happened. It reeked of vomit, and smoke. And a pinch of paint too from his painting adventures. He hadn't smoked in hours, he hadn't painted in hours. He was slowly going insane.

"So, i hear you are a painter Nokame? I can call you Nokame right?" He asked himself, "Oh yes, thats quite alright. Yeah i like to paint in my free time." He brushed his hair, some of it falling off as he did so. "Yeah? Oh, so what do you paint? Anything interesting?" He changes his voice slightly to make the assumption that he isn't talking to himself but of another person.
"I use to paint desert scapes but then i started to take photographs of people and paint them instead. Like that blonde, and some other folks too."

"Say, isn't that kind of Stalkerish Mr ophazen?"
"So what, i never get any money for it..." He rejected his own questionaires questions.
"So... uh... with the recent-re-re-re-re-re-re-attack, where living locations did you have lived by?" He began to twitch mentioning that "crisis" is still a bit tough on his psyche.
"We-We-we-" his voice getting a bit demented," -e-e-e-I live nowhere now. My house went kabooom, my moms, قطعة من الخراء."
"ذلك؟ وانا آسف لسماع ذلك."


He coughed hard ready to lose his composure by now though he was about a few meters away from the house. Anyone inside could here this racket of a conversation among two people by now. Or at least the end of it. He held his head and lied down on the hot sand. it was hot, his head hurt enough that he didn't care.

[Rasha Tailor]

I guess I couldn't blame him for his disappointment. Even though those thingamajiggers just looked too damned overcomplicated for a weapon, they were his. Can't beat artisan pride. It reminded me of my own missing weapon. I felt pretty guilty, actually. That sword had more or less been handed down to me. Sure, it was from my tutor of all people. It was an awkward story to tell. But even so, now it was out in the hands of that alien ruckus and I wasn't feeling might dandy about it. The idea just didn't sit well with me. Probably never would. But I wasn't about to march back into their hands after my tail just got saved.

And that was about when my thoughts got all banged up and broken. Why? I darned thought I could'a heard some strange talk outside. It made my right eye twitch. Just what in the hell was barreling around outside in the middle of the desert? Of course, same could be said for me. But I wasn't in the state of mind to consider that, my curiosity getting the better of me. It almost sounded like two people out there, but it was the same voice, which made me think whoever was out there was hallucinating or somethin'.

"Ah'll be back."

I headed out the front to investigate.

[Nokame]

Sand, everywhere, he ate sand, he licked sand he was sand.

"Mr Ophazen!!! Are you alright??" He begun to twitch voices. "Mr Ophazen??? Mr OPHAZEN?" at that moment he stopped. Was it a mental relapse, maybe he finally snapped but he went silent and lifeless on the sand

[Rasha Tailor]

[Moving on for now?]

I stepped out just in time for some ol' overdramatic show. Really. I can't have said I'da seen something more crazy than that there turtle or whatever it was in the sand. Somethin' with a hard shell strapped in for the ride. I slowly crept up to it and then around it 'til I could actually see it was all and nothing else but turtle. Some poor sucker who'da somehow in his dangdest dreams or nightmares gone and collected his carcass in the big, bad desert. And, unless I'da been imaginin' thangs, he'da been the one a'shoutin' out all them crazy thangs.

"Oi! Seems ya'll have a strangler in yur mist's."

I took a good grip of the hood of his mangled shell in both of my paws and yanked him up to a sitting position. Gawd darn it, this hunk of turtle was a load to carry. And my body was up and hollerin' at me 'Ya ain't all together in them bones yet, Chief!'.

"Gimme a darned hand here!"

[Viper]

[Sorry!]

Viper had attempted to move a bit after Rasha had left. He swung his feet out in front of the bed, only to find quicky that his legs were felt like cheese. He attempted to give a push off the bed but found his weight was too much for his legs at the moment.

"****..."

The old man shook his head at the sight.

"You won't be moving that soon. Its a bit early for you to be moving."

"Gimme a darned hand here!"

The old man stood up and headed outside wondering what was up.

"I'll be but a moment."

The old man noticed Rasha attempting to assist what appear to be a turtle. He quickened his pace over and started to help Rasha with the turtle. He surprisely was pretty fit for an old man as he was able to lift rather well.

"Another faintie it seems..."

He was very use to the desert, to the point which running into those who fainted was a bit 'common' for him.

[Nokame]

[Hes only like 110 something lbs ]
Air, sandy air. A collection of noise rang through this ones head. Still as limp as before his body molded into the position as he was held by the older gentlemen. It was rather faint, but a tiny trickle of breath could be heard released from this ones beak,

[Rasha Tailor]

I eyed the old man but decided not to ask. I kinda should'a known he'd be used to folks like this droppin' like flies in this big ol' desert. I helped him carry the big bag of bones for a turtle only part way before I just let off. He might'a been an odd thang to pull up but once ya had him, it was like carryin' a big sack o' tatters. I hurried my sorry behind back in the burrow. Hot sand an' even hotter sun just wasn't my thang. I'da already pulled a sweat by the time I made way back in the old man's shack.

The first thang I up and spotted was deja vu. 'nother poor sap had'a let himself on the floor. My body might'a been still burnin', but I headed over and gave him a lift back to bed. What'd I do tah be babysittin' anyways? I almost kinda chuckled to myself, but it was ill humor really.

"Ya best be stayin' put, chief."

[Viper]

"...I get it."

He really wanted to get moving again but as it was, his body was not going along with the idea.

The old man put the new comer down, right where Tia had been the last few nights. He swiftly got some water from a flask he had in the corner. He seemed to know what he was doing as he bought it over and opened the lid.

"It seems I'm going to need to do a water run sooner this month."

He used one hand to prop the travelers head up a bit and carefully put the tip of the flask to his month a pour a bit of water into the traveler's mouth.