zenderael_rl | [Mal/Travis] - steampunk revolution

Tyrus, at that moment, was staring at his computer and reading his e-mails. He had made a small fortune off his mail order alchemy business; a little bit of a price hike on select potions had made profitable use of the people stricken by disease. If there was something morally questionable about this, it had not quite occurred to him. It was just the way business was done, as far as he was concerned. It meant that he spent a lot more time as Tyrus, lately, than Travis.

He was surprised when the mobile phone for Travis rang, because of that. He made certain to have two of everything; phones, e-mail addresses, forum accounts. Caution was how a fake identity was preserved. He picked it up and slid into Travis's accent naturally (in fact, he used it in general more and more, lately).

"Hey!" he said. "Mal! What're you up to, buddy?"

Mal continued to toy with things while waiting for Travis to answer, working on putting together a skeletal structure for one of the lizards. He stopped only once he heard Travis, setting the thing down on the table.

"Hey, Gates," he responded, using the name he'd given Travis to tease him for being a computer nerd. It was what Mal did. "Just tinkering. You busy?"

"Aw, thanks, Steve," he answered smoothly. He'd figured out the banter and exchanges early on. "Not super busy. What kind of tinkering are you doing?"

Tyrus's eyebrow raised. He had heard about Malachai becoming an alchemist. He wasn't really sure what sorts of things Mal might start making, but he had to admit to some curiosity. Earthers seemed to pick up on these things fast. The Khshathra had made a combat-ready construct faster than he would have ever expected.

"Construct lizards," he answered. "But I got a few bottles of drink that need to be drunk, if yer interested. Could use a break." The grin that followed was almost audible. "Could show you what I've been up to, too."

Mal liked to show off.

"Bringing good things to life, huh?" he asked, with a laugh. "Sure, I can't turn down a free drink. I'll be there in thirty."

He stood up and walked towards the closet as he spoke. He would need to change into Travis's clothes. He always felt more comfortable relaxing in Zenderean tunics and the like, but it wouldn't do to show up like that.

Mal snickered. It'd be interested to see how alchemy affected the electronics market, over time...

"Sure thing. Ring me if I don't hear ya through all the clattering." There was no clattering. He was just being a goof.

One day, perhaps, if he ever got his airship built... A flying lab would be awesome.

"Sure. Be over in a bit."

Tyrus changed into the polo shirt and jeans that he took to wearing as Travis. It was dressing up compared to the Travis of old, but he brushed it off as part of the changes that came after the car wreck. He always valued dressing well; a sharp, professional, and slightly expensive look went a long way. If he could get away with it, he would wear suits every day, but he knew better than that. Damned Earth fashion, being so fashionable.

He arrived at Mal's condo on time, carrying a sixteen ounce bottle of Coke Zero with him. He had it half-drank by the time he arrived and tapped it idly against the wall, before he knocked on the door.

Edited 2013-05-14 00:40 (UTC)

Mal had lost track of time, fiddling away with the bits of scrap metal he was using for the lizard's skeleton. The door startled him before he realized it was probably just Travis, and he got up from the desk he was working at to answer it, still holding the half-complete lizard skeleton in his hands. The thing had an actual bone structure made out of various bits of metal scrap, with movable joints, but still had no tail or head.

Mal's 'work' clothes consisted of black slacks and a grey t-shirt with his comic's logo printed on it, but his goggles rested on his head, as usual. They did, however, have a few additions - a series of lenses that he could fold out in front to magnify things when working with smaller details - that anyone who'd seen photos of him would know was new.

"Heya," he greeted as he stepped back to let Travis enter.

"Hey." Tyrus grinned; it was his Travis grin, the slightly more relaxed, slightly less commanding one that he practiced until it felt and looked natural. It was the first time had been here, but not the first time that Travis had, so he did a quick study without looking half as interested as he was. It wasn't so hard to fake; he looked down at the metal lizard skeleton in his hands with much more interest. "Now that is cool."

He nodded, cheerfully, and walked into the place. He looked around for a moment, before he looked back at Mal. The goggles were new, too, he realized. Tyrus had a similar pair, if one of more standard alchemical make that he bought. His old pair was back in the Nenakret.

"Okay, Dexter. Let's see this laboratory."

Mal held up the skeleton, and made it wave a half-finished foot at Travis, before lowering it to close the door. He pointed into the living room, where a table covered in potion ingredients and lab supplies sat across the room, up against the window. "Potion lab's there, 'cause I ran out of space in the office an' didn't wanna wind up spilling anything on my other work." Or his work computer.

Of course, potion stuff wasn't much different from what Zenderael alchemists did, outside of perhaps some of the equipment being a little more technologically inclined.

He turned and headed into the spare bedroom he used as an office. His work desk sat against one wall, with its top-notch computer and printer, along with file folders containing various finished and unfinished artwork. There was also much of his online business stored in the room, another desk and a few drawer units holding all the leather scraps, beads, wires, tools, and such.

The table under the window, which had been his drawing table, was now where he did all of his construct work. Most of what was there were smaller bits and pieces from various small appliances and old-school clocks, along with a pile of sketches, a few started projects, and boxes stacked under it that held bigger pieces.

And, despite how much stuff there was collected into the one room (it was a pretty big room, mind), it was all very well organized, much like the rest of the place. Everything seemed to have its place, the only things seeming out-of-place being the items he'd been using.

"So," he said, nodding to the table under the window. "Ain't much compared to before, but it's way cooler than the stuff I made before."

It looked like a standard issue potion set-up. Tyrus's was slightly more advanced, but he could turn to Upas for that. He converted an entire walk-in closet into a potion making station with some of the best equipment available. This still impressed him; he expected a half-assed chemistry set or something. Instead, it was clear, Malachai went to considerable effort to make something professional. He walked forward -- a quick glance at the computer and the sketching supplies -- and then looked down at the table.

He looked the sketches over and nodded his head. "It's awesome," he said. He did not want to go into details. He never came here before. It seemed safer to focus on what was genuinely new to both of them. He motioned at the sketch.

"What's this?" he said. "Some kind of engine?"

Mal moved to set the lizard structure down on the table, glancing at the sketch. "Oh, yeah, that's part of the airship design." He lifted the top sketch, then spread it along with a few others out over the table, overlaying the items he'd been working with. Nothing that would damage his sketches, at least. (Unlike the potion lab.)

They showed great detail in how the airship would be constructed, with heavy steampunk influence, at least in visible design. The engine and working parts, however, used no steam. Being a construct, it could recharge off of a chosen element, and being as it was designed to fly, he'd chosen wind.

Other sketches in the pile showed a clockwork horse he was working on, but he set that one aside to pull out a design for something smaller. A dragon, also wind element, that would be able to fly and function like a dragon of its size should, except that it was a construct.

He liked animals.

"Gonna work on this one this weekend," he said, holding up the dragon sketch. "Then the horse, probably. Be cool to have a construct to ride around, yeah?"

He knew about steampunk. Travis liked steampunk a little -- it had been part of Tyrus's original concept, making a "steampunk gangster," to use Travis's words -- though the aesthetic was close enough to alchemists' aesthetic on Zenderael to be hard to differentiate what he had memories of while he grew up. He looked down at the airship thoughtfully. It was actually a rather innovative idea, he thought. Something they should have tried already on Zenderael.

"That's awesome," he said, and even if the words were not ones he would use naturally, the awe and respect in his voice was. "This thing will be incredible if you can get it up. Let's see--ah, yeah."

He looked over the horse sketch next. He hadn't build a riding construct, but he had seen them and weighed ideas for a two-legged one before. He should get back to it. "I like it. You definitely got a thing for the animal designs, here, Doctor Doolittle." He grinned in Malachai's direction, before he looked back at the table. He studied the design for a moment.

He started seeing improvements. But could he suggest them, without giving himself away? Damn it. He had been careful with meeting Travis's friends one-on-one for a reason.

Mal's grin was so wide it threatened to split his face. He was a smug bastard when someone complimented his work, and to have a friend think this shit was as awesome as he did was pretty fucking cool.

"Yeah, what can I say? I'm an animal lover. Always thought up ideas for makin' robot animals in my comic. Now I can do it for real." It was pretty fucking amazing, in all honesty. Of course, the ideas from his comic wouldn't have worked with alchemy. Probably wouldn't work at all, actually, but they were fiction, so that didn't matter.

"Think the horse'll be the biggest challenge. You know, aside from the airship. That one's probably gonna take months just to get all the part it needs." It would take less time if he had his inheritance, but... That wasn't something he'd told Travis about, his father's death, and he didn't want to bring it up. "Gives me somethin' to work towards, though.

"Oh!" Mal glanced around, stepped to the door of the office, and peered out towards the living room. "Hey, Six! C'mere!" he called, glancing back to Travis to say, "You gotta see this."

A small... creature scurried out from under the couch and into the hall, stopping as it found itself in front of Mal. It was a completed construct - a six-inch clockwork scorpion, tail curled up so the stinger hovered over its back, a stinger that seemed to have some sort of altered welding tool in it.

Tyrus decided to let the improvements go. He saw no way to propose them without giving his cover away or at least having to introduce a new series of lies to make it work. It was how these things spun out of control.

It left him with a nagging sense of guilt, though.

The appearance of Six proved a ready distraction from those thoughts. He turns and looked at the little construct. As he looked over it, he knelt down to get a closer look. "Damn," he murmured softly. "This thing is off the hook!" He squinted at it. He took more detailed notes than he really could ever make as Travis. "What's this thing on its tail?"

More smug grinning. "Laser welder," Mal answered. "Kinda upgraded it a bit. You don't wanna piss him off or he might cut yer foot off." He might've been joking. It was hard to tell, sometimes.

"He's Six 'cause I made five others and didn't wanna give 'em all names til I could figure out what sort of naming scheme to go with. Three spiders, three scorpions, each with a different task, though they can all tidy up." Sometimes things fell off the table and rolled under the desk, or got lost in the corner. Having a little critter able to fetch them for him was rather useful.

"No shit," Tyrus said. He pulled his foot back a hair.

Then he looked up at Mal and nodded his head. "Makes sense. I thought maybe you were naming them after frakking Cylons," he said, with a chortle. He looked sideways at Mal, before he nodded. "What kind of constructs are they? Earth?"

It made the most sense, he thought. Letting them recharge in dirt would be simple enough.

"Shadow, actually. They recharge under the couch." Or wherever they could get under cover. Convenient, especially since it meant they kept out of the way much of the time.

He looked at the scorpion and made a 'shoo' gesture, telling it, "Thanks, that's all I need." Yes, he actually thanked the little laser-bot. It couldn't hurt.

When he looked back to Travis, he grinned. "Wanna hit the bottles, now?" he asked, starting for the kitchen.

"No shit! That's a good idea." Tyrus was impressed. He usually wrote off shadow constructs, but most of the ones he made were slightly too large for that purpose. He found keeping light off them was hard when they got bigger; he had never stopped to think about the naturally dark places, like underneath furniture. He would have to make a note for his business.

He grinned and started off after Mal. "Yeah, let's."

It was easier to be Travis with drunk people. Part of it involved taking an endurance potion before he got here, to make it harder for him to get drunk. It was a trick he learned with Upas.

The little scorpion scurried its way back across the living room and under the couch, tucking its tail down as it vanished back into the shadows. Mal grinned after it. That would never get old.

He went to the cupboard beside the fridge, where he stored his booze, and pulled out a bottle of spiced rum. "You tried any Zenderael booze, yet?" he asked, while pulling out two glasses from the upper cupboard. "Tried some of their ales. Weren't that great. 'Course it's only Everea stuff." He glanced to Travis and made his way to the living room. "Got a lead who might be able to get me some better stuff, if dmail ever starts up again." Or if the merge finishes, if that happened first, he supposed.

"A little, in one of the taverns. How could I not go to one, y'know? The opportunity was too rich to pass up." Tyrus grinned, then he stopped and leaned against the wall near the entrance to the kitchen. He crossed his arms. "It wasn't quite to my taste, though."

Travis's taste in liquor was awful, though. Tyrus still liked Earth booze better -- it was exotic and interesting, damn it. Of course, Zenderean alcohol reminded him of home.

Mal snickered, setting the glasses down to fill them. "Not cheap enough for ya?" he teased. College kids and their cheep beer. Mal could never understand it. "Last time I went to try one'a their ales, my instructor gave me Dragon's Breath." He snickered, lifting the glasses and holding one out towards Travis. "Shoulda seen the flames comin' outta that one!"

"Hey, you know me. Gotta save money somewhere, right?" he asked, laughing again. He shook his head, before he took his glass and clinked it against the other one. Tyrus looked down at the glass, then lifted it and took a long drink of it. "Not bad. Dragon's Breath, huh? Did you rename yourself Puff after it happened?"

He grinned. He could have asked if Malachai was okay, but it looked he was fine.

"You kidding? 'Captain Puff' just ain't got the same ring to it." He drank back some of his own, then went to sit on the couch.

"That was when I set up the potion lab, though," he continued, thumbing towards the lab setup on the table not far from the couch. "Grabbed a bunch of supplies, came back home and ordered what I couldn't get quick. Was able to mix up a bunch of fire resist potions, and some heals in case I needed 'em."

He gave Travis a wide grin. "You got any idea how surreal it is to have all this shit be real? Before, you just knew it was talk about some game. Not it's like... shit, man. You'll never know if what someone says is referrin' to a game or not, now."

Tyrus took a seat on the chair, taking another drink of the rum. He never liked to take shots of rum; he preferred to drink his liquor slowly. It also made it easier to control his intake of liquor and keep him sober for longer. He swirled the drink around, before he looked back up and peered over at Mal. He nodded to him. "That sounds like the good thing to do. It's..."

He looked around. He learned to fake this sentiment. It made it almost real in his head; to become truly amazed at Zenderael. He had to channel the amazement he felt at Earth to do that, but the end result was similar. He smiled, over the rim of his glass, and nodded his head. "Yeah," he said. "It's a big change to get used to. Makes you look at the world differently, too, you know? Seeing how people lived on the other world."

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