Scene #5115: Wormrider's Den

Owner	Pose
Orta	Some time, though not long, after the minor catastrophe that ensued following the malevolent warp-eye's appearance, the majority of people of Multiversal origin have left the village that the natives seem to refer to simply as 'the den'. The exception is the shipgirl who these oddly coloured and dressed people had so graciously welcomed into their equally odd homes atop an even more odd choice of real estate. After the panic has subsided, the children have been lead back indoors, most of the young men are now outside and patrolling, and the baleful eye is gone, Shigure is lead up the rickety-looking, but surprisingly hard ladder, up into the giant clay pot-looking building that seems to be a 'town hall' of sorts, through several layers of curtains, beads and hides that serve as the door. It is, of course, circular on the inside, but surprisingly large and spacious. As its multiple levels are accessed by ladders and ropes, there is no true ceiling, and so the center floor can be seen for quite a distance by many higher platforms. A number of oil burning lamps, made of organic materials but no less sophisticated for it, light the interior, which is heavily decorated with rugs, tapestries, silks, ornaments, and trophies, in a sort of nomadic mesoamerican mishmash of complex and bright designs. Quite a number of weapons and tools are still stowed away from the meeting, which count a number of respectably advanced items, such as homebrewed guns, indicating more of a lack of metal than lack of smarts. It's mostly empty of people now, though. Shigure is lead to an open area around a central kiln, ringed in benches and pillows, where the remains of a fire still provide cozy warmth. Aside from a couple of boys in masks, it's pretty much just her, Mobo, and the League girl who had shot her previously, curled up on the opposite side, with her arms around her knees.
Shigure	Shigure offered to help make sure the perimeter was secure, but the locals have that covered, and so she was ushered in to see the Chief. She's still wearing her rigging, the cannons stowed on her back, and the torpedo launchers locked in safe position. She's making sure she can react quickly in case something else happens, but also keeping her gear out of the way to not be directly, immediately threatening. She makes her way through the various curtains and towards the central kiln area, stopping and bowing politely at the waist to Mobo and the room in general. Shigure does eye Orta warily though. She still carries a scar from here last 'meeting' with the dragon-riding girl, but isn't here to hold a grudge nor seek revenge. No she's here to get information. "Please pardon my intrusion."
Orta	Orta looks to Shigure with possibly even less friendliness than the other way around. Against all of this village's culture gathered inside, she stands out even more sharply, by her dark and delicate code of dress, her pale skin and hair, and her distinctly more refined weapon, still latched to her hip. It's up to the village chief to break the silence, and he does so with a great storm of rustling and clattering as he yanks all the curtains shut, tosses off piles of gear, kicks someone else's stuff out of the way, cleans his feet on a small, coarse, rug, and chucks another belt of grenades over a hanging peg like a game of horse shoes, before finally removing his mask. "Intrusion? Of course it's no intrusion! I invited you inside! You are the great Mobo's guest, so remember that! Hahahaha!" With the mask off, he looks pretty much about as old as he sounds: eighteen or nineteen at the most. Aside from being green though, for his endomorphic physique, the guy is pretty much shredded, and projects the kind of character some barrel chested giant with a dwarven beard normally would when laughing. He emphatically drops to the floor somewhere between the two girls, folding his arms and positioning his legs lotus-style, where he looks over both of them several times, and finally squinting at Shigure with his fingers to his chin. "Orta, even your friends are beautiful! Hey! Miss! Would you want to become my wife?" Mobo comes straight out with it, in dead seriousness. Orta's sullen composure cracks briefly as she struggles down what might have been a laugh.
Shigure	Shigure regards Orta with an almost sullen expression. The expression of someone who has lost a lot in their lifetime, even though she looks no older than the other girl. As the Chief sits, Shigure kneels down, detatching her equipment and setting it beside her in a pile of metal... before nearly toppling over sideways at the sudden offer. Surprise crosses the brunette's face, blue eyes wide in shock at the brazenness of the question. "I-I'm... flattered, Most Honourable Chief Mobo, however I... cannot accept your proposal." she replies, stammering and shifting a little uncomfortable, as she sits in traditional japanese style, folded legs under her thighs together and hands folded into her lap. She glances between the other two. "Shall we... get to business? What can you tell me about the Eye?" she asks.
Orta	Mobo doesn't seem as if he's even taking Shigure's answer seriously. Even as she politely turns him down, he's hunching over with his chin in his hand, examining her with almost comical intensity, leaning over further and further with a steadily increasing "hmmmmmmmmmm", until something figuratively cracks, and Orta lets slip a helpless giggle. It sounds totally weird, purely for the fact that it sounds so natural, coming from such a morose and sullen girl. "Mobo, I think your other wives would have something to say about that." she practically coughs out. The boy seems satisfied with Orta's laughter as a consolation prize for Shigure's hand in marriage, proudly sitting back up straight, and folding his arms over his chest with a good-humoured smirk. "You're right! Though the great Mobo's heart is infinite, his time is not!" he says with a thump of his chest. "Don't worry though! For someone as beautiful as you, you'll find someone /nearly/ as great in no time!" He then follows with a round of hearty laughter. Eventually, the two get it out of their respective systems, and apparently having hazed Shigure enough, Mobo gets down to business. "What is there to tell? It appeared three weeks ago! All of a sudden, up on the rocks, like you saw! The baldors felt it coming, but noone had any idea until it opened up, just like that! You could tell instantly that it was watching! Thinking, even! It's an evil thing, so much that you can feel it." "It disappeared before our riders got to it, so I've had the men standing guard since. Every night, someone sees it in their dreams, and wakes the village up with their nightmares. Often the children. The animals can feel it around, but we can't see it. I forbid anyone go near the rocks, since I don't think it can move. The first time it was open, though, I saw Orta, and a Dragon! Different from before, but it was clearly her! So I bid the village wait, because I knew she would come back." Mobo scratches his cheek. "But, I think it new she would come back too, with others. That's the sort of thing it is. Don't ask me why; it just feels that way."
Shigure	Shigure nods, scribing down the information... using a tiny fairy sat on her shoulder. it's scribbling on a tiny sheet of paper as Mobo speaks. She doesn't seem taken aback by the hazing, either through stoicism or having become used to similar from her more energetic sister ships is hard to tell. "Can you tell me anything about these nightmares?" she asks after Mobo finishes speaking, remaining politely seated with her hands folded in her lap. "Anything at all could help us figure this creatures motives out, whether it is sapient or merely a beast of instinct, or something else." she looks to Orta and offers her a brief smile. Despite being enemies before, this village needs help and if the Paladins and the League can work together to do so, all the better. "I would have asked some of the villagers myself... however I believed it only proper I speak to you first, before seeming to harrass your citizens."
Orta	Mobo taps his knee in a way that barely suggests thoughtfulness, humming to himself for several seconds. "They're strange." he concludes. "It's easy to forget dreams, and most people are usually too scared to talk about them just after they happen. In all of the nightmares, noone can see anything. It's blackness, like being blind. Sometimes falling, for a really really long time, with nothing around you. Sometimes you even forget everything, so you're totally alone even in your mind. It's a nothingness that gets inside your head, where you're stranded and lost, and can't see or feel or hear anything. It's especially bad for the mothers and children." He then breaks character, ever so briefly, to glance near-reflexively back at Orta; a gesture that is simultaneously forgetful, mildly alarmed, and apologetic. Her stare in return only remains steely for an instant, before she just shakes her head subtly; barely enough to cause her cropped white hair to sway. "No. I haven't heard of this until now. There's no need to think of me." she responds softly; almost sheepishly. Her tone is less so when she speaks to Shigure, finally. "Why do you want to know this? What is it that you want? You can't make this village yours, even if the eye monster is here."
Shigure	Shigure nods to Mobo's explanation, "Thank you, Chieftain." Orta's confontational tone earns a quirked brow from the destroyer girl. "Contrary to opinions, the Paladins are a force for order and peace. We want to make sure this village can propser and grow free of malignant presence." she remarks. "I, want to see peace in this world. There has been far too much war. Too much conflict."
Orta	Orta doesn't seem to particularly trust the shipgirl's reply. Even though she clearly believes it, the girl across from her looks as if she'd made her mind up from the start, not to believe the words of someone who can deliver them so calmly. Her wary stare doesn't seem to be weighing Shigure's words or testing her tone, but reevaluating her as a potential threat on a much lower level. It becomes disappointingly apparent that the girl might not even really know what 'a force of order and peace' is supposed to be, just by that sullen look over her knees. "Fine. But you can't stay here." Mobo interjects immediately. "Orta! The decision of who can and cannot stay within the village lead by Mobo, falls to none other than the great Mobo himself! You can't say those things to our guests!" The girl only shoots him back a gaze that somehow just . . . painful to look at, as if he'd said something unbelievably vicious. Sadly, Mobo wilts immediately, outright cringing at the silent look. "S-so you're in luck that the village will be on night patrol today! That means nobody will go in or out! So, miss, you'd best get going before dark!" The boy jerks his head towards the door, grimacing in a pleading, 'I'll explain later' fashion.
Shigure	Shigure nods. She knows when she isn't wanted, and stands. Picking up her equipment and putting it back on. She bows to both of the others in the room, and turns to leave. "May you find victory on the dawn's horizon." she says, looking over her shoulder, looking at one, then the other. "Both of you." and then she's beyond the curtains.