Seekers

[bravenewmods]

"This is Union...?"

They stop outside the gates and exchange a glance. Moments later, the Warp Band network across Union switches on to broadcast a message, displaying two strangers, similar enough to be siblings apart from their stereotypical color schemes. The man in blue speaks first.

"You guys mind opening up? It's been a long trek; we can't all just align with Ponyta and gallop across a desert."

"Though I'll bet Ponyta are less grumpy to travel with than this guy. How about we introduce ourselves? I'm Maeve."

"Ceilto. We're here representing a group called the Seekers, from the branch up in Caldera. You guys hear anything about us yet?"

A short expectant pause before Maeve smiles. "No problem. I'll explain! What we do is seek out information about the old gods. You know, the ones that a lot of people worship or hate depending on who you are and where you're from. The ones who're in the legends, buuut other than that, we don't really know much about them. So! Our Boss wanted us to come here to do some digging."

"Yeah. You'll meet him sooner or later, but the Boss-man wants to start up a new chapter here if he can - heard you guys built your whole city on top of some old ruins."

Both of them look more enthused as the topic shifts to the Old City. "We don't know how deep you guys have gotten or how much you know, but we thought that maybe, just maybe, there might be some information down there. We want to help check it out!"

Ceilto holds up a finger. "We heard those Team Evolution nuts've been around already. If you're worried we're like them at all, don't be. We're interested in learning more about the old gods, not in catching them and rubbing on a Pokéball for three wishes. But you can kick us out anyway if you feel like it - long as you let us borrow your artifacts now and then."

He receives a sock in the shoulder for his troubles. "Arg, don't tell them to just kick us out when we haven't even gotten in! ...But yeah, those Team Evolution guys? Far from what we're here to do."

"We've got a few expeditions you might be interested in, too, since you guys've got some more tricks up your sleeves than the Calderans. Small groups, though - we don't need a hundred of you coming along with us and getting killed when you blunder around and collapse it on your heads."

"Oh good grief. Don't listen to him. We do have some favors to ask, but what we're asking for isn't that dangerous. No one is going to get killed. ...Probably."

The man grins mischievously. "Probably. ...Yep. ...Well, that's about all. We'll be by the gates if you've got any questions. ...As soon as someone lets us in, c'mon already."

"Maybe if you stopped acting like that, they will."

The conversation devolves into meaningless bickering before the Warp Band unceremoniously switches off.

((Respond as you please!  Thread jacking will likely occur.  Don't feel the need to wait for both characters to respond before you do; it will be in and out!))

Comments

[bnw_wighty_npcs]

You know about Sanctuary and Crescent, yeah? Most of that area's been claimed by Gigas now. We've got bases wherever it's convenient to have one - big ones in the cities, smaller ones out near interesting ruins.

We'll do what we can to help, sure. You guys have somewhere you store the stuff you dig up?

[ingoodhans]

Seems like Gigas just wants to keep expanding...

[ Yikes, once Gigas finds them they're all screwed, huh. Hans looks a bit worried, but he only lets a bit of it show. ]

Hmm, I'm afraid you'd have to ask one of our scholars about that. Perhaps someone from the university might know...?

[bnw_wighty_npcs]

...Huh.

You mean most of you don't even care that you're sitting on top of a city that dates back to the time of the calamity?

[Ceilto arches an eyebrow.]

[bnw_tara_npcs]

Still better than Gigas. Well.. once they let us in.

whoops reply to this one

[ingoodhans]

We have our beliefs that the city dates back to the days of the Savior, but most of us are content to go about our lives today, moving forward, rather than spend it all digging up fragments of the past, yes.

[ Don't you be archin' brows here, Hans just smiles right back. ]

The Old Gods brought about the calamity for a reason. While exploring the Old City isn't forbidden, you'd have to be short a few screws to go digging up the mistakes of the time before Union itself.

[ TRADITION........... TRADITION! ]

[bnw_wighty_npcs]

Huh...

I guess you're right. No point digging up the mistakes of the past to actually see what those mistakes were. Answers are for infidels who think maybe it's worthwhile to figure out exactly what happened instead of going by some garbled old stories; faith is all you need.

...Hey, I could make that into a song.

[bnw_tara_npcs]

Please don't. How about we just keep that in words and not add a horribly bad tune to them.

It will probably be impossible not to unearth past mistakes during our search but it is not our intention I assure you.

[bnw_wighty_npcs]

[Off faintly in the background]

All you need is faith... da da da da
Close your eyes, have faith - da da da da
Think of nothing but faaaaaa-ithhhhhh, faith is all you need.

[ingoodhans]

Do you always make a habit of mocking the people you're asking for help? I suppose I won't bother explaining just why we haven't explored the ruins all that much, if that's going to be your attitude.

[ That's for you, blue boy. But at least Maeve seems more reasonable. Hans addresses her this time. ]

I'm sure if you did dig something up, we could at least handle it now. Earlier this year, our technology was still pretty primitive, but the strides we've made since then are what put us on the map. We'd been looking outside for quite a bit, so looking in would sound sensible to anyone.

[bnw_tara_npcs]

Note to self: punch brother when he gets close enough for me to do so. Really, my best word of advice is to just ignore him.

How much of it did you find in the Old City? Technology is one of many things that can give us some insight. Like if the technology was hiding anything that they might have wanted to guard. Things like that.

[bnw_wighty_npcs]

Note to self: hug adorable little sister and remind her how proud I am of what a beautiful intelligent woman she's become.

And we're not exactly asking for help more than we're offering a trade. Establishing camp here means you'd have access to all the information the Seekers do.