thebastion | [OPEN!]

Entry tags:

[OPEN!]

Who: Rin + open mingling
Open: Open
When: Day 81, late evening after Bon and Rin get back with Tris and Briar
Where: The Bastion, near the Distillery
What: After returning with two new arrivals, Rin decides to break out some food and a table to mingle around so people can get to know each other. Meanwhile she's acting a little... spacier than usual.
Format: action
Warnings: None

[With two more new arrivals to the Bastion, Rin has gone to the trouble of setting up a small table just outside the Distillery kitchen, covered with a cloth and laid out with several different kinds of food.

There's not a lot of variety, since they're still running on finite resources, but there's enough there for everyone to have a good amount of food, especially since their two new survivors are probably hungry.

There's some grilled fish, steamed rice, corn and a few other vegetables and fruits, as well as some various drinks (no Spirits, though) take from the distillery itself.

Hopefully this will prompt a few people to mingle about and get to know their new neighbors.]

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[ He watched the boy, the unreadable mask and stiff, militaristic posture giving no hint to his personal feelings on the situation. The second question, directed at him for certain this time, fit well enough with the other for Kroenen to assume that yes, Briar had been addressing him before.

He stood a fraction taller, folded his hands behind his back, leather clothing creaking softly as he did. Shaking his head slowly the German tilted his head up a fraction, cocking it just so. Eyes behind dark glass roamed Briar even more critically, lingering on those hands, those vines.

He answered the young man's question with the head shake - no, he was not a mage - so he asked his own, tilting his head and flicking it in a nod towards Briar's vines. He wanted to know what that was all about. Anything to distract him from the inane gathering. ]

[He's not quite so rude as to ask what someone is. Plants he hasn't seen before on the other hand...

He smiles ruefully when Kroenen indicates his tattoos. They're still better for entering shops than the jail house tattoos had been, but they're really recognizable.]

I tattooed myself with vegetable dyes. They didn't stay how I made them. [As if to prove his point, the flowers on his left hand changed color, moving more like snakes than vines to wrap around each other.]

It's what I get for not thinking it through.

[Vegetable dyes and green magic make for interesting results, as his hands are proof of now.]

You've a lot of magic on you, for someone who isn't a mage.

[ Head tilting slowly, serpentine, the German steps a bit closer, leaning in to get a good, long look at those markings.

How fascinating, the people of this new Eden.

His head tilts left and right, stiff jerks, mechanical. Irritating. He rises again and rolls his right shoulder, aware of a grinding deep inside. Still not fixed, evidently. Good enough, however, to suffice.

At the comment about how much magic was lingering on him, Kroenen huffs a faint laugh, blandly amused. Holding his hands up, the German pulls each finger of his left hand glove, eventually peeling it off entirely to reveal the elegant construct beneath; a perfect replica of a hand capable of a full range of movement and controlled by delicate clockwork - a piece of art as much a functioning body part. ]

[The vines continue to move, the flowers changing to bright yellows, pinks, and oranges when Briar sees Kroenen's hand. He looks at him, gesturing to the replica.]

May I? [Look at it closer. Daj' would've loved to see this. The clockwork is different, but it does remind him of the living metal leg they'd made for Polyam a little. Maybe it's all the magic and how beautiful it is.]

[ A moment's stillness and thought, then a slow nod of acceptance. Normally he would have shown off, basked in the praise and moved on. Kroenen was a creature of ego. He enjoyed showing off, enjoyed being feared or admired. He was a great many things in his life, and he was the best at all of them. Or so he felt, at any rate. He enjoyed others looking upon him with awe, but at the same time he was a solitary creature. He hated dealing with social affairs, hated people in general, for the most part.
And yet in this place, with so few people and so little to give or receive in the way of social grace? Did he want to keep living the life he had, when everything to do with it was gone? The world before was not the world now. The new Eden was not meant to be the old world.
Perhaps he was not meant to be the old Kroenen?

Another slight nod and step forward, the hand is held out, inside turned up. He pulls his sleeve up enough to expose where the metal ends just past the wrist, connecting to deathly pale skin and brutal surgical scars.

Let the children of new Eden think what they would. This was no place for Nazis. ]

[He grins his thanks and blinks at the scars. They look more like they were done on purpose rather than an accident, like the rock slide, but it's not his business, so he'll keep his neb out of it.

He grabs the hand and, like inspecting any plant, looks it over carefully. After another look at Kroenen to make sure he doesn't mind, he starts pressing down on parts to see how the hand responds.

Daj' is the only one he knows who can make things like this, and her stuff isn't clockwork. Hers is metal infused with a ton of magic to make it act like a human limb.]

[ Overall, the hand is as much alive as the rest of Kroenen; granted, that wasn't saying much, but it twitched and flexed like any real hand.
Eventually the German sighed and pulled his hand away from Briar, only to twist it, a loud click resounding. Another twist and the hand came off entirely from the wrist, which was capped with a metal locking mechanism.
He held his hand out, offering it for further inspection. Better than being tugged about in a child's curiosity. That, and he was fairly certain the boy couldn't do more damage to him than had already been done. At least all the parts were available for his hand, and either he or Stein could no doubt put it back together with little effort. ]

[He isn't sure why he didn't expect it to be able to come off. That leg they made could, but he's still lets out a very quiet gasp when it's detached and offered back.

He smiles sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.]

Oh. Sorry. [He knows what it's like to have to hold your hands out for a long time because someone is curious. Happened all the time when he was entering shops, since those tattoos of his like to follow fingertips.

He takes it back but doesn't ever try taking it apart. He does send out some of his magic to try and see how it works a bit better. He has a little metal-magic in him after all.

It doesn't work though, and the tree they are next to tries running it's leaves over his arm to soothe the sense of failure he felt. He turns and talks to the tree again, still holding the hand but resting his free one on the trunk.]

I'm alright. Just thought maybe I had enough of her magic to see how it works. Guess not though...

[So he offers Kroenen his hand back. Having one hand has to suck.]

[ Taking the hand back and clicking it into place, Kroenen tilts his head, gaze drifting between the tree and the boy. Eyes roam down to the vines on his hands once more. Sudden realization dawns and the German chuckles faintly, a low rasp warbling past his respirator.
So the boy had been talking to the tree before after all? And here he was, twice the fool for it, having played child's toy and pulling off his own hand. What next, changing diapers?
Shaking his head and pulling his glove back on, the German folds his arms across his chest and tilts his head, watching Briar chat with plywood. Bit of a blow to the ego, really, when a stack of toothpicks is more interesting than you. ]

[It's a good thing Briar can't read other people's thoughts because the tree isn't plywood or a stack of toothpicks, thank you very much. Kroenen is plenty interesting; Briar just loves plants, and plants like him. If he hadn't starting talking to the tree at first, it might have moped until he told it he likes it. That's not fun for either of them. Without turning to face the German again, he realizes he really wants to know something.]

How long did it take to build that hand of yours? I'm Briar Moss, by the way. My mate and I just arrived.

[He did chuckle, so maybe he can talk after all, and just doesn't like to. Mate is slang for best friend. Maybe he'll have to explain that again...]

Von year. [ The soldier replied, heavily accented voice biting out past the respirator. He answered without hesitation. He didn't keep his ability to speak from anyone on purpose. He simply had nothing less to say and more to do, in most circumstances. It was, however, his first time speaking to anyone at all in public. And naturally, because someone was admiring his work. ]

I lost meine hand in an explosion. I built zis replacement mit von hand, in spare time. It vas trial und error. Ze first one vas mostly copper. A poor choice. Far too conductive. Zis von ist better.

[It takes him a moment to understand what Kroenen's saying through his accent. It's not really like any accent he's heard before. He blinks, turning to stare at him.]

A whole year? [After thinking about building a hand with just one, in spare time no less, it makes sense. Having only one hand must've slowed him down, and it'd taken weeks to make the leg for Polyam with all eight of them contributing.

Guess who doesn't have electricity.] Did lightning try hitting your hand or something? Back when it was copper.

Ah. Nein. It vas alvays causing shocks. Electricity jumping from sockets. Very irritating. Arcane arts und electricity share many paths. Zese markings? [ He taps his now gloved hand, indicating the delicate carvings that were on the mechanical hand. ] Zey help to mitigate ze static attraction. So between zis metal being less conductive und ze magic, no more shock.

[Hold on he has to think about this for a moment. Shocks from sockets...But that definitely doesn't sound like something that comes from eyes, so not eye sockets. Guess he has to ask.]

Sockets?

[He understands the bit about magic and metal making the shock go away, but what's 'electricity' and 'sockets'?]

[ Tilting his head slightly, Kroenen nods, understanding the differences in place and time, and perhaps even worlds entirely, could complicate translation. ]

Vere I come from, ve have harnessed ze power of electricity. Zat ist...energy around you zat comes from charged particles colliding in ze air. Like lightning. Ve have found a vay, vitout magic, to create a virtually endless supply of zis energy for use in powering many sings. In ze common building or household, zis energy ist usually tapped via sockets - holes full of vires in ze valls zat carry ze energy. Do you understand? Electricity ist like a constantly contained und portioned storm.

[Briar whistles softly at that.]

You should tell Coppercurls about that. If you know how to do it off of lightning, she'd probably be able to help.

[He won't call her over just yet. Calling her just because he said it's like a storm doesn't seem like a good enough reason for her. Sparking lightning probably wouldn't help anything.]

Perhaps I vill. [ Not likely. He has no idea who "coppercurls" happens to be, and he still intends to keep conversations to a minimum, until he's more comfortable with getting so chatty. He talked more to himself than to other people, so this was a bit of a trial on its own. Fortunately, he spotted Stein not too far off. ]

Ah, I see meine colleague. If you vill excuse me...I vill leave you to your chat vis ze tree. Guten tag. ,small>[ He offers a tight nod, then heads across the yard. ]

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