An Open Mind - Initial Arc

by Shey Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:17 am

A practice/starting point thread with no prescribed plot or expected plan of action.

by Shey Mon Jun 18, 2012 4:46 am

The straining of steel wheels bearing thousands of tons of cargo rattled the girders of the roof above. The gears within the pillars churned with spite, remotely unhitching, turning, and moving trains as they were guided to their next destination and cars to be unloaded were docked in massive hydraulic columns that made the walls of that level of the Centrifuge. The machines were oblivious to the living world beneath them, spewing smoke and steam and snuffing out any trace of life. Not even the most desperate squatters lived this close to the bellows. Yet, another sound that did not belong to the machines or the trains longed to be heard. Heavy boots thudded on the metal ground, pacing impatiently.

A deep voice muttered aloud, "There's something to be said for punctuality..." He patted a pouch on his side, as if to be sure it was still there, and paced even faster. "How am I supposed to deliver shit to a no-show anyway. I should have known better. No sane soul will rendezvous at the bellows, and for good damn reason." He interrupted himself with a coughing fit and settled for squatting on his toes to escape the smoke, and his worn black coat dragged in the oil and soot on the ground. Trying to calm his nerves, he wondered if he was being set up, the deal-maker was merely late, or if something had happened to the fool. "Wonder if he's new to the slums..." ignoring the fact he knew not if his client was male or female (or human, for that matter). "No one breaks a deal down here. We are lawless, sure, but we're nothing if not good businessmen. I swear, there will be hell to pay." The bellows, trains, and hydraulic lifts deafened Sigma, and added to his agitation as much as it contributed to his fear of being ambushed. "I can't wait out here much longer..." he hissed through his teeth, peering around once more for anyone to hear his mumbling and come out to ease the tension.

by CaligoCat Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:05 pm

"Life, is a game of chance, if you do not stack the odds in your favor, you will always lose." Caligue thought as he clambered up the last level of supports on the underside of one of the main lower level train tracks that lead to his scrap harvesting spot.

Caligue leapt from one support to the next. He was climbing around under one of the train bridges going towards his usual harvest location. He has been making money by cutting off part of the steel supports once a week. He managed to use what he knew about construction techniques to find an area that wouldn’t weaken the overall structure enough to cause collapse.

Once he got to his usual harvest location he took his modified saw off his back. He had attached a machete-like curved handle to the saw and honed its edge and tip fine enough to fight with it like it was a sword. He straddled the I-beam and began to saw the little bit that was past where he could sit off. When he had almost sawed through it he tied a rope around it and stomped on it to make it fall. He tied the other end of the rope to him and clambered up towards the nearest train station.

by Shey Mon Jun 18, 2012 4:24 pm

A metallic clang echoed around Sigma, a sound apart from the perfectly measured clamor of the machines. He knew the machines never made mistakes, and nothing could have fell above him to make that sound. The entire centrifuge was rigid and strong, several layers holding everything apart, woven like mesh, only with foot-thick beams of reinforced steel. Nothing could possibly just fall...

Alert and on his feet, Sigma took cover at the edge of each pillar as he made his way towards the sound. He wondered who else would dare come this close to the bellows and for what ridiculous reason. As he rounded a corner and his eyes fell on a chunk of metal several yards away from him, he made the connection. This wasn't his buyer at all, but some desperate kid trying to reel in a buck on scrap. Two legs dangled 30 feet above the lump on the ground, connected by a frayed rope, and Sigma sighed and neared him cautiously, unsure if the young man knew he was there or not. He planted a foot on the block and shouted upwards, "Have you any plan to carry this thing, boy?!" He tried to kick it over, and it could have weighed more than a hundred pounds. Not too heavy a load to lift once, but to carry it at least the two miles necessary out of the bellows area to the nearest possible soul that might buy it, was a bit hard to imagine. He'd have to be some kind of beast to accomplish such a feat. "Hey!" Sigma shouted again, to earn his attention.

by CaligoCat Tue Jun 19, 2012 3:51 am

“Damn,” Caligue said quietly when the scrap fell. He began to climb down the framework for the train tracks when he froze. Someone had been nearby. "Have you any plan to carry this thing, boy?!" Caligue heard the person say. They were standing trying to push over the segment of I-beam Caligue had cut from the framework. “Hey!” the man said again. Caligue stood on the closest I-beam to the level the segment and the man was standing on and nervously placed his hand on the handle of his saw. He had modified it for protection, but this man was much larger than the bandits in the woods in the far corner of the country that Caligue came to the city from. “And if I do, what of it?” Caligue responded his voice shaky. He missed his bow right now. The merchant he usually sold the scrap to paid handsomely for his precious weapon.

by Shey Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:14 am

Just as Sigma eyed him reaching for his weapon, a smaller bellow in the ceiling nearest the young man reached it's threshold and hissed suddenly expelling a plume of steam. The boy flinched, but Sigma figured he might have well leaped out of his skin. Sigma laughed and crossed his arms over his chest, with one boot still planted on the metal as if to say it belonged to him. "Alright then, son, enlighten me! I've ran these streets for years and sold a lot of shit, but ain't no one been brave enough to cart chunks of the city. There's metal everywhere." He waves his arms to gesture to everything. "Whatever chump-change you're being offered won't help you survive. Earn some respect, instead! Why don't you put away that fancy toothpick before you hurt yourself and come down." Sigma took a step forward to sit on the I-Beam and wait, but never moved his gaze from the boy.

by CaligoCat Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:35 am

Caligue made the leap down from the I-beam, only having to bend his knees a little to absorb the impact. He was wary of this stranger and not sure of his intentions. “They typically give me about 5 dollars for a chunk this size.” He let out a half chuckle. “Besides, on the way there I can pick up about ten times that amount if I am lucky today.” Ironic considering I don’t believe in luck, he kept that thought to himself. “I have lived here almost a month and am making it fine, I just don’t have much but a hole-in-the-wall as an apartment.” Caligue waited nervously to see if the stranger had no intention on letting him run his normal routine for the day.

by Shey Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:52 am

Sigma laughed again. "You expected to get an apartment within these walls? I've lived here long as I can remember and make more money than you've seen in your life and still never owned a piece of property. And five dollars doesn't buy bread crumbs, these days. I told you, there's metal everywhere, and nobody needs it. You've gotta be making money some other way, or you wouldn't eat for long." On that thought, Sigma studied his lean frame with well-concealed concern, and changed the topic. "How did your bones not get picked clean traveling this deep in the city?" Sigma stood and turned on a heel, showing both trust and arrogance by exposing his back to a stranger. "I've been stood up out here today, and I am going home to grab a bite to eat. Carry on," he hollered, "But my door's always open." Sigma thought seriously about what he was opening himself up for. A scrappy outsider child has no place in this city... But he wasn't about to leave fresh bait here and have a child's death on his conscience.

by CaligoCat Tue Jun 19, 2012 5:03 am

Caligue relaxed when he found out the stranger didn’t feel him as a threat. He was also agitated with the unnecessary amount of scrutiny the man had put him under. “You want to see how I’ve made it?” he asked the man. “Because bread crumbs are far from what I’ve been eating. My lithe form is not by accident. I used to live in the ‘far woods’ or so I’ve heard people in the city call them.” Caligue paused for effect. “I survived there for five years alone. This steel jungle isn’t too different” Caligue turned back toward the framework for the train tracks. “good luck keeping up, if you’re half as curious as you act.”

by Shey Tue Jun 19, 2012 5:26 am

Sigma stopped, stunned that anyone would not only dare talk back to him, but refuse his gesture of open arms. Fixing his dark brown eyes on the fleeing figure, he shouted at the boy to come back--but was obviously unheard over the wailing of machinery, or ignored. Sigma pondered what he said, unsure of hidden meaning. He wanted to chuckle that the boy thought 'far woods' was a title, as the people here weren't so strange and the territory in America wasn't so unknown to deserve eerie nicknames. He assumed the boy was from one of the old states, perhaps Ohio, or as far as Pennsylvania. Not many places so near the capitol still bore enough lumber to earn the term forest or woods. Sigma's started to run after the boy, and wondered how old he was. "Five years ago..." Five years ago, Renegades took it upon themselves to slaughter people, convincing themselves they were aiding the military's cause to control the dying breed of Anima. Renegades would slaughter innocents like the Salem Witch Trials all over again. If you so much as had a cat in your home, it was grounds for suspicion, and some nut-job would beat down your door with the butt of a shotgun, and lives would end... Sigma wanted to pity him for whatever misfortune left him alone, and wanted to praise him for surviving, but couldn't let go of the fury the boy's defiance instilled in him now. He had a little scrap to put in it's place. Only, at full sprint on the ground, Sigma couldn't easily pace with the surprising acrobatics that distanced them. "So the kid's definitely fast..." he hissed between breaths.

by CaligoCat Tue Jun 19, 2012 5:34 am

Caligue stopped just before the train station and climbed down. Even though the climb down was a difficult process he still managed to be leaning against one of the support pylons before the stranger caught up with him. “You ready for the really tricky part.” Caligue mocked pointing up. There was a doorway just above one of the underground train tunnels. It was in between levels and seemingly out of place. “We have to climb to get there. Once we are up there let me do the talking, you are an outsider.”

by Shey Tue Jun 19, 2012 6:03 am

Irritated from being bullied by a runt, Sigma let his temper replace caution guide him forward. He wondered where the opening led, and how the boy was surviving the toxic air this close to the terminal's base and the cradle's core. He knew he was being mocked, but curiosity did indeed drive him forward to see what could possibly take him by surprise on his own turf. He grinned at the opportunity to climb however, and found it easier and more natural than running. He didn't know it, but he made it to the ledge below faster than the kid had. "So, runt, do you have a name or what? Much longer and you'll be burned forever in my mind as the scrawny-pain-in-the-ass!"

by CaligoCat Tue Jun 19, 2012 6:10 am

“Well, you’ll probably get called tall jackass anyway as far as I’m concerned, but my name is Caligue.” the boy said with a grin across his face. He opened the door that was not in a place for any door to be and it opened up to a wide expanse with hundreds of people in it. Caligue started across the room towards the back but stopped at a table with a few people gathered around it playing dice. He studied the table for a couple tosses then sat down. Leaving the stranger to just stand there awkwardly. “Cut me in.” Caligue said, getting a laugh from the people at the table.

by Shey Tue Jun 19, 2012 6:28 am

A blast of fresher air welcomed Sigma, and he closed the door behind him quickly to preserve it. Speechless, he dropped to a crouch immediately and surveyed the room, taking in every detail. Calling it a room was hardly appropriate. It was more like a network of wide halls whittled out of the framework with a floor pieced back together by skilled hands, but not by the same machines that constructed this city decades ago. Nobody in the Gallows could work the metal to build this place. In the very back of the room, cables, pipes, and pumps disappeared into the sides of an intricate pillar with an open entrance. A lift... Sigma tried to put two and two together. The link he'd been searching for was under his nose all along. These people were from the Factory, and managed to jack into the wall of the terminal's column. There was a whole town alive in here, that traveled freely between the Gallows and the Factory. Dim light's cast shadows beneath dirty faces and hollow eyes, although they all seemed younger from the joy of company. Several noisy fans served to ventilate the area. Many of the people wore heavier clothes and dirty uniforms not seen in the Gallows, simply confirming his observations. Time came back to him and he shook his head in disbelief, and pulled an empty stool a few feet away from a table to watch the people that ignored his presence, but delighted in Caligue's.

by CaligoCat Tue Jun 19, 2012 6:36 am

Caligue’s observational skills piqued. Within a matter of six rolls he concluded the best option to guess of the 72 options. And it was not the usual one. The facets in the dice were all carved out but for one side. The untrained eye quite possibly wouldn’t have caught on and would have continued guessing the lucky number seven. Caligue would not be fooled. “Snake eyes.” He called out. A brief and obviously stung look crossed the host’s face when he heard the number he weighted his dice for.

Caligue noted him transfer the dice into his sleeve as he shook them before he rolled. Caligue flinched. The host had a spare set of dice! He thought quietly to himself while on the outside keeping his composure. He let the dice fly. Of course with odds of only one to seventy two it was not the snake eyes the other dice were stacked for. The facets on the six side of his other dice pair had paint or something poured into them to make that side heavy. Leaving the one to appear. But these regular dice pair he threw once he was found out landed on the option that had an ninth of a chance of landed on it, came out as a seven.

The table cracked up, all but the stranger Caligue had met. “Better luck next time kid.” The host jeered and held his hand out for the five that Caligue wagered. “Now then, Mr. Host, would you like to tell these fine gentlemen how you’ve been cheating them out of their money, or should I explain it?” Caligue said in response, standing from his seat at the table.

The host eyed Caligue for a few second, and evidently not finding him much of a threat stood up, towering over the younger male. “Listen hear runt!” the host bellowed. “Don’t come hear and make empty threats because you are mad you lost your lunch mon...” That was as far as Caligue let him get. In one smooth motion he cut the sleeve of the host’s arm, stabbing his saw-blade into the table between where the two weighted die fell.

by Shey Tue Jun 19, 2012 5:06 pm

Sigma watched the whole exchange carefully. He knew the man was trying to cheat Caligue, but said nothing, curious if the kid was sharp enough to catch on by himself. Caligue called - and the man seemed to smile before the dice landed. As soon as the man reached for Caligue's money, he confronted him and Sigma froze completely still as a blade whistled across the table quick as a snake bite to slash open the man's sleeve. Two die fell to the table.

A murmur fell over the witnesses. One woman began to shout indignantly. A man slammed his fist down right next to Caligue and flipped the table and all it's contents across the floor. Something told Sigma that this man had been holding a lot of cards lately and the people were furious. It was one thing to gamble in these parts, and one thing to play against the grain, but no one blatantly cheated unless they wanted to die. Maybe they did in the Factory, but in the gallows, a living was too hard to earn to bank on false luck. Before the fallen die from the table stopped rolling across the floor, a man slipped from a shadowed corner and his arm slid effortless around the neck of the host, still sitting, stunned.

The new guy was incredibly tall, but lean as a wire, and dressed in a silky gray-green coat that stood out among the rags everyone else donned. "So what do you owe me then, Alec? You damn snake." He locked his arms around the mans throat and lifted him straight up out of his chair, and Alec's arms shot up to steady himself around the stranger's iron grasp.

"I don't owe you anything, Tyrcil!" he struggled to wheeze, and Sigma eyed Caligue gripping his blade anxiously, until the name triggered recognition with Sigma.

"Stop." Sigma said, his head hanging so not to make eye contact with the stranger. "Tyrcil?" His head snapped up and he glared in Sigma's direction, but Sigma still looked away. "Don't cause issue for yourself here, Tyrcil. let the kid have him."

Tyrcil let go in an instant and retreated to the corner as suddenly as he'd appeared, and Alec gasped and fell to his knees. There were plenty of people itching to get their hands on the fool, but they all waited, entranced by Tyrcil and expectant of Caligue. "All yours, runt."

by CaligoCat Wed Jun 20, 2012 3:48 am

Caligue eyed the audience. He knew the look in their faces well. He had seen it multiple times when he was hunting in the woods back home. “Alec, is it?” The fear in the man’s eyes was evident. He eyed the boy’s blade in terror, unsure if the boy had it in him to take a life. He nodded reluctantly. Caligue glanced around at the others waiting in anticipation around him, forcing Alec to look at the rage he had caused among the crowd. “You know what a pack of wolves does to easy prey after starving for a week?” Caligue chuckled a bit. “They devour it, even sometimes before they worry about finishing it off.” He paused to let it sink in and hung his saw to his back. “You have wronged all these people. I am just going to take what I won from my bet, and leave you to the wolves you’ve been starving for who knows how long.” There were murmurs of approval among the crowd as Caligue picked up the hundred or so the other men had bet against him and turned to walk away from him.

by Shey Thu Jun 21, 2012 6:30 pm

Sigma lurched to his feet and away from the throng of perhaps two dozen people, now shouting and descending on the cheat with fists and nails. This was an underworld of street justice.

"Caligue." Sigma walked alongside him now. He seemed like he wanted to say so much more, but paused and just remarked calmly, "That was a good thing you did." He walked quietly for a few minutes as the noise of the crowded hall faded, letting Caligue lead him down one of the hallways. Sigma cleared his throat, almost nervously. "You're handy with that," pointing vaguely to his saw-blade. "Use it responsibly. If you uh, ever need it sharpened or repaired, I know a guy." Caligue looked back at him for a moment and raised an eyebrow, as if to inquire, 'Are you trying to help me?' Sigma stopped and proffered his right hand. "I'm sorry son, I seem to have neglected my manners. My name is Sigma."

by CaligoCat Fri Jun 22, 2012 3:29 am

“Do I look like a businessman?” Caligue looked at the hand for a second, then chuckled taking it. “The blade is chipped, a couple teeth are missing too. I sharpen it myself, but don’t have the tools or money to fix it.” He looked away as if trying to remember something. “Sigma. Its a greek letter. The 18th I believe. It is also the number 200 in their number system. You of greek decent?” He made a passing gesture with his hand. “That really doesn’t matter.” He fingered the grip of his sawblade and looked at Sigma with a newfound interest. “You an Anima?” He asked.

by Shey Fri Jun 22, 2012 3:38 am

Sigma had a bit of chatter prepared to reply with until the last line slipped from Caligue's mouth. Outwardly, he showed nothing to betray his emotions. Ice ran down his spine none the less, and suddenly the presence of every person around him seemed too close, listening, and waiting for his answer. Caligue was too unpredictable, and too forward. He looked uninterested when he said a bit softer, "Why do you ask?"

by CaligoCat Fri Jun 22, 2012 3:54 am

“I have reasons to not want affiliated with Anima.” Caligue looked distant. Like he was somewhere, or sometime far away from here. “My reasons are my own and I would prefer to keep them that way. Please answer the question.”

by Shey Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:00 am

Sigma smiled warm-heartedly. "You'll have no issues with Anima here. I've only met a few willing to show themselves in this rat-hole, and they certainly don't like to show their faces this deep in the city. Anyway, I couldn't tell you where my blood came from. Don't know my parents. Besides, Sigma isn't my birth name." He winked at the boy. "Maybe in time, if your fortunate, you'll discover who I really am." Sigma paused and glanced back at the entrance far behind him. He was uneasy going so deep into unknown territory with a stranger, and the crowd grew thinner and thinner as they walked down the tunnel.

by CaligoCat Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:15 am

Caligue sighed in relief. “Well, I need to get back to my hole in the wall.” A forlorn look crossed his face. “I feel so claustrophobic in this city.” He began to remember a time when he could travel in the woods and hunt and feel the wind in his face. Here there was just the noise of generators and the heat blowing onto them from those constantly. He wanted to leave the city and never return, but something, something was holding him here.

by Shey Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:24 am

Sigma glanced around the tunnel and many nooks and crevices split open the walls and ceilings, some letting through steam, some light, some nothing but darkness and metallic grinding to greet an unlucky fellow how fell into it. He laughed and asked, "So which hole is yours, exactly?" Sigma pulled a small and unremarkable knife from his belt and tapped the handle repeatedly on the walls as he walked, testing it for hollow points out of curiosity. "So you're from the woods, right? Of course you're going to feel like a caged bird, here. Why bother? Especially this far in? You might not be a business man, but what business brings you here, anyway?" Sigma stopped when he found a hollow point in the wall where no crevice seemed to lead to, and tapped on it while he talked, bobbing up and down and looking around amusingly.

by CaligoCat Fri Jun 22, 2012 5:01 am

“I am hiding from a group of people.” Caligue tapped the hollow area in the wall in a very specific pattern and a hidden door slid open. “ Welcome to the hole in the wall I sleep in.” he said before stepping in. The room was just the size of a large closet. It had a jumble of cloth that looked like was infested with mice as a bed. There were small storage spaces cut into the wall, seemingly by Caligue’s saw-blade. He took the saw and strap off his back and hung it over his bed. “ I know it isn’t much, but it has me hidden pretty well.”

by Shey Fri Jun 22, 2012 5:11 am

The door startled Sigma and he slipped his knife away upon stepping forward again. He peered in the opening. A pattern of now bolt-less holes in the makeshift door's natural riveting filtered a tiny bit of light through, and presumably kept the air breathable. Smart. Hidden. "I'm impressed." He refused to step inside. "Well, you must plan on staying awhile." He patted the pouch on his side. "I've got a buyer to track down. Later, I could show you around my part of town a bit, and we'll go find the.... ah... gentlemen that might fix your tool. Interested in seeing my ugly mug again?"

by CaligoCat Fri Jun 22, 2012 5:16 am

“Hell no.” Caligue chuckled. “Joking. Sure will, tomorrow maybe?” Caligue didn’t even seem to notice Sigma leave he was so tired and getting ready to sleep.

by CaligoCat Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:27 am

Caligue was taken back to his familiar woods. The air was crisp and clean. He was approaching his favorite thinking spot, a clearing with a wonderful climbing rock in the center. Something was off though, there were no sounds, no animals chittering, and no leaves blowing in the wind. He stepped out into the clearing and came face to face with a black cougar. “Hello, Caligue.” the demon said. “My name is Astral, and I am your demon.” Caligue took a step back out of the clearing and the image faded.

Caligue awoke with a start to Sigma tapping on his secret home’s wall. “Damn, that dream again. Every time I have it it get further and further into it. The demon spoke this time. What could it mean?” he said to himself as he answered the door.

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