The young girl adjusted her hat as she sat on a bench outside of a rather busy store. It was always so boring going on these business trips; Larke was more interested in learning what it meant to have a constant home, and yet her father (who, unknown to her wasn't really her father) insisted she wasn't old enough to stay home on her own. Which was annoyning considering she was grown up enough to know how to make her own sandwiches!
She played a bit with her long brown hair as her amber eyes looked curiously at the large city around her. She was wearing a black dress, and obviously, looking to be around nine years old or so, she couldn't exactly touch the ground with her feet, so her legs kicked as well. what else was one to do with legs? Sit still? Psh. That was only for when adults told her to... which... was mostly her father so far, all things considered. "So boooored," Larke complained to herself. She hadn't even brought a toy to play with; she'd been assured the train would take them back in a few hours, and that this way she wouldn't leave yet another one behind forever. Carrying things the entire time was hard. "I wanna go home..." At least her father had new work. He'd been a scientist in Valland before she'd woken up from her illness she'd been told about, and now at last he'd found a place he wanted to stay and be a scientist again.
After a moment, Larke shook her head, her brown hair whipping back and forth under her oversized hat. She hopped up and adjusted her dress. There was no use in sitting around complaining! Maybe there were some windows to stare at fun things through, or some kids to say hi to. Well, if she could work up the courage to do that... Meh, at the very least running around was more fun than sitting still even if she'd been told to do so. "A little exploring can't hurt... right?"
Mooch looked around again, it was always better to be safe then sorry. Especially in moments like this. His sweat rolled down his neck up his face and formed a droplet across his forehead, which he quickly whipped away with his coat sleeve could have none of those possibly alerting anyone to his presence. He was already pushing the limits here doing this kind of thing in the late afternoon. However it was all he could do now that he had located that which he had been looking for, or at least one of the things he was after. An Aetheroscope, something he never thought he'd even hear of outside of Valland. Which meant that someone from Valland had come from Valland, and desired one for scientific purposes. Which worried Mooch greatly, there were reasons Valland became so powerful, and one of the primary reasons was their technological level.
He was here to acquire this Aetheroscope while he still could, it was changing hands today which was bad, it was hard enough to find, and it will be almost impossible to find it again if in the hands of someone who knew what it did. At least, for anyone besides for him. Hence why he was here to borrow it, without asking first. His harness clung tightly to his sides, he must've gained a few pounds recently, it was kind of hard to breathe. He would have to work on that.
He looked up, his up, other peoples down to see his steadfast companion keeping watch in the alleyway below him. A small ball of white fur, what many would call an Arctic Fox, not normally seen in this general area. It's tail curled around its body as it sat and looked up at Mooch, and gave a calm Yipping noise, its tail twitched as it waited.
Good all was clear, he sidled against the roof to the window, and he looked inside it his goggles reflecting the sunlight as he looked inside the building. Looked empty, but you could never be too careful. His finger slid up to their side and with a flick of a small switch they resonated with a small hum, refracting the light to allow him to see inside. He gave it a quick scan, one look left, one look right, again left, again right, okay maybe two or three scans.
Yep definately empty.
There was a yap from below, and a scuffle noise. Shit means someone had walked within visual range. Mooch hugged his body against the roof, making sure his body was contoured to hide himself from the alleyway itself, he believed in Ku, the little bugger always had his back since the day they met.
The interloper on their little scheme was a small girl, about the age of nine, with long brunette hair, she wore a nice large hat, as well as a curious and bored expression. The small fox walked up to the edge of the alleyway and stared up at the girl and gave her a small Yap in her direction, its ears upright as it sat down, its tail twitching at the tip side to side.
"Huh?" Larke was not even remotely trained in her dragon slayer abilities, nor was she fully aware her senses were better than normal. She'd been told she had sharp eyes and ears, and even a sharp nose on occasion, but she'd mostly argued that noses weren't sharp, because she'd been about seven at the time.
She did, however, hear and smell the fox before she looked to see it staring at her, the little ball of white fluff. "Puppy?" she asked herself. It looked very friendly. Slowly, gingerly, she moved closer to it, her arm stretching out very carefully. "No! You're a fox!" she realized after a moment. "I've never seen a white fox before~" she giggled. Her hand got to be about an inch from the fox's head before she stopped and looked directly towards where Mooch was hanging.
She had smelled him - a human man who was up high for some reason. It wasn't a dirty alleyway, as far as alleyways went, so his scent wasn't masked by trash or other funk. Her eyes went wide though. He was hiding for some reason, and Larke had been taught to be careful; she was also naturally sort of skiddish, unlike Kotone, who had learned quickly how much less intimidating people were than dragons.
Her first reaction, within about a second of smelling him, was to envelope herself and the fox in ball of quickly formed ice - not the best hiding place, but certainly safer than the alleyway itself. The ice unformed enough for a small eye to peek out. "W-who's there?" she asked. "What do you want?"
There as a moment in Mooch's life where he wished he actually had gone through with the idea to replace his heart as well as the majority of his human body parts with the Machinery he had made. He could feel her Aetheric Aura, which was weird, there were few things that left an impression on the area around them, especially big enough he could feel it from the entryway of the alley itself. It felt cold, smelt of ice and snow. That brought back memories particularly bad ones back in the northern fronts of the empire. Back when he hadn't designed the wall to keep the undead at bay, he could still remember the feel of the frost on his skin. He opened his eyes waiting for the signal for Ku that all was clear, but he knew this one was different from the rest. She would know he was here, and no amount of Fox related shenanigans would get him out of this one.
"W-whos there" Young, clear voice, familiar, decent pitch, would make an okay vocalist if she learned how to sing. Could probably do opra with some additional lung training at this young age. Or like most develop lung cancer, die from it, no signs of tuberculosis, that was good, no coughing either, meant she was healthy for a young person in a city. Means she was most likely from outside the city. Accent was thin, but still there, mild, faint traces, could still taste it on the s, and the wh sound, Vallish, from valland. Due to the pitch of her voice, her age was young, too young to remember the empire when it was grand. Means she wouldn't remember him, probably even better she wouldn't even know of his existence, she probably didn't remember the empire at all. Simply this place, Fiore. Fields, flowers, mountains, wooden boat planks from his unfortunate self smuggling aboard a valish pirate ship bound for Fiore, he could remember their taste, same as this kind of wood they used for the trim of these siding boards. He sighed, and removed the clip from his side, the clip holding his weight, approximately 170 to 180 pounds, light by all things considered. There was a moment about as long as his thoughts where he blinked, then lost his grip on whatever was holding him there, if anything was holding him there to begin with, he couldn't remember. It didn't matter now, nothing really mattered anyway. "What do you want?"
Then he was falling, there was a smash and a crash as he landed in one of the few garbage heaps in the alleyway. Granting himself mentally ten additional points for landing inside of a trashcan. Its lid flying off at a 64.5 Degree angle, bouncing off of a cobble stone he could still see. He estimated it would roll exactly 15 feet northwest. Directly to the entrance of the alleyway. If he could be further embarrassed by being smelt by a child, he would be, however he knew this child was either of War Tribe linage, or Dragon Slayer Linage, and had nothing to be embarrassed about.
The fox however was not to be content in its new found ice bubble of a home, and immediately looked around surprised, then went on the offensive. "OI you lil' gurl let me out out, unless you want them doll like toes of yo's getting nipped the yip off you get what I'm saying?" it snipped at her backing up against the ice bubble on all fours. Its violet eyes noticeable in the white orb, they were eerily slitted, like a cats. There was a huge crash noise, and then a much smaller one, along with the sound of metal rolling across stone, it ended with a small tap against the ice bubble by a metal object, and the fox stared at the bubble and yapped at it.
"its okay Ku, im okay, everything is...okay" Mooch said from inside his new found housing. As comfy as he could get within them. Nothing was okay, the Aetherscope was going to get away from him because a child interrupted, a child. Of all things that could have interrupted him, he expected it to be the 75% chance this alleyway was going to be hit with a meteorite. Maybe she was part of the divinities taking away the things he felt he deserved? What did that even prove? He knew that there had to be some format of higher power in existence, Ku proved that, or at least he figured Ku proved that. What with the fox being a mystical entity. Did Fiore have a divinity? Was their even religion here? He had yet to see anything resembling a major church or inscriptions of deities. Was this entire nation filled with people who didn't fear a god? No divine retribution amongst the mortals who claimed this land their own. Interesting, he would have to research that more later. In Valland there was no religion, the emperor felt that the only thing that need be feared was poor schooling, poor workmanship, a lack of self discipline, and chaos where there should be order. He missed the old emperor, not the child who masqueraded as his father. Sometimes he missed Valland, the schools and libraries were nice, there were no restricted sections.
Mooch tipped himself over and stood up immediately after saying those words and half assed like dusted himself off as he strode over to the small ice orb. Not maker magic, that was obvious, Maker magic forced ice into existence, allowing the creators to use whatever their minds could come up with as the shape. No this was more pure, it froze the very air around it, rendering the area cold, it froze the very water molecules in the shape its maker desired, or at least as close as it could to it. The drop in temperature was just perfect enough to freeze that solid half inch of water particles into ice, the inside of the orb was warm, as was the outside. Too accurate to be maker magic. So a tiny Ice Dragonslayer. That was impossible, Kotone Lazarus was the Ice Dragon Slayer, and while Kotone was skilled Mooch could tell from her stories and the way she manipulated her magic she was too brutish and idiotic to come up with such a purity in her ice. Less then 2%, near perfect, oh and her "Parental Figure" wouldn't get caught dead teaching another in this day and age. Where one would see a dragon and immediately attempt to kill it in retribution for the pain their kind caused. Mooch smiled at the ice sphere, he decided, he would tell her what he wanted, mostly because he knew she wasn't Kotone's kid, or anyone that she taught. Also mostly because he didn't really care.
"Well you see, i'm here for something that's not mine, which is inside this building." he pointed at the building he just fell off of. The building which just conveniently was the one she was waiting outside of. "Sadly, because you found me, i'm no longer able to acquire it." He sighed sitting on the ground by the wall.
Larke wasn't concerned with the loud banging noises. Primarily because the fox she'd instinctively tried to save started talking to her... angrily. She scooted back against the wall, wide-eyed, with a yelp that made a chihuahua seem rather tough. "Y-you can talk?" she had been taught how animals didn't talk, except for dragons and the like, and that she would most likely never meet any talking animals. That was scientists for you, always being real and not remembering the way kids dreamed. "I um, I'm sorry!" she stated. She was about to lower the ice wall when she heard the voice of the man. Well, she wasn't sure why she'd assumed man. He smelled like a lot of things. An inventor? One tho formerly smelled like a man? Or maybe she'd simply jumped to that conclusion because they were in a city and men were both scarier than women to her, and rather common.
The dome melted away, freeing the fox and leaving a young girl staring wide-eyed at a man who she found herself rather alramed by. "B-but... isn't stealing... wrong?" she asked. Was he a bad person? She'd been warned to be careful about bad people. Did that make the pet fox she'd almost patted on the head bad too? She eyed the creature before her large yellow eyes returned to Mooch. She stood up after a moment, brushing off her dress and picking up her hat that had fallen off, placing it firmly on her head. "I um, I was just exploring and I saw your talking fox and... um..." She squeezed her eyes shut, her small palms that were placed in front of her lap where she'd been smoothing out the dress following suit. "I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me! I was just looking for a place to play!"
"Stealing isn't bad when what you're stealing is a dangerous device used by potentially bad people to observe the most natural primal and thus potent format of the energy source we call magic, thus allowing them to possibly create and modify former technology to harness this power to allow them to create, shape, or reshape, the very fabric of nature and reality as we know it for their own personal gains without thinking about the other people involved or the harm it may do to the very planet itself." Mooch clarified to the little girl. "But over all, yes lil'one, it is bad to steal things, I'd give you a lollipop for being such a good girl, but uh." "Yo he be fresh out dawg" The fox yipped as it paced itself between Mooch's feet. "Yeah uuhh, what uhh what Ku said." Mooch commented pointing down at the fox, which stopped moving and sniffed the alleyway. "I be bout ta go peep if I can't find a Funky-baby ta snatch one from" with that the fox yipped twice and took off down the alley. "....Uhhhh......" Mooch stood there raising a hand like he tried to stop the small white fluffy blur.
"Well normally I wouldn't steal candy from a baby, but in hindsight I really should. Sugar isn't good for infants who are just growing in baby teeth...." He smiled at the girl. "Eh, whatever." He said dropping his hand and shrugging. "Weren't you also told never to talk to strangers? I assume you were." He said observing the obvious. "I guess its okay, I mean overall there's no where safer to be then....wait...." he stopped and stared at the ground.
He was forgetting something important right now, what was it?
Mooch started talking, and Larke... tried her best to listen. She didn't really understand. How could she? She actually started to wonder if adults would be able to follow what the man was saying. Mostly she heard something about babies, candy, stealing, and then the fox ran off to go find a baby's candy. Larke's head was spinning, and she really only caught something about how candy was bad for babies. "Uhm..." She blinked a few times, playing with the hem of her dress.
"Dad said to be careful around strangers..." she stated quietly. She was being careful! Honest! "And um, you can't get safer than where? Here? Why?" she was having a difficult time following Mooch, to be perfectly honest. She glanced around; the people weren't really paying attention to the alleyway, despite the commotion that had gone on earlier. "Scary looking alleyways don't seem that safe, you know..."
"Oh Right!" Mooch exclaimed remembering what he was forgetting that was important on this topic. "Young lady I am going to place my hands on your shoulders, do not be alarmed I am making no attempt to harm, kidnap, steal from, or affect you in anyway besides moving your presence." He said calmly and with a reassuring tone while raising his hands up beside his head and opening his palms towards her to reveal them to be empty. He then lightly placed his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her backwards while stepping forwards. "One, two, three, four, five....Eh better be safe then sorry now that the kids around." He counted the steps slowly, seven steps in total. "Kid promise me one thing, you'll never be stupid around fire. If theres one thing ive learned you cant grow back naturally its eyebrows. Can you imagine how silly i'd look without eyebrows? of course you can, you're young." He said smiling at her the entire time. He then turned and gestured towards the alleyway. "Behold the coincidental show that you're about to witness."
As he said this things started to happen. There was this immense hissing noise, and a smell that came with it, like burning stone, a musty smell, then with a crack and a flash of light like lightning a rock about the size of her smashed into the garbage pile where Mooch had lain earlier that very day. Then with a few more cracks, two more rocks impacted near the first, however none of them were big enough to harm the surrounding structures....
There was a momentary silence. "Hmm...Well, its lucky you came by when you did kid, those rocks are 13% bigger than I anticipated they would be, if it wasnt for you id prolly be goo." He said absolutely unshaken by the event, and looked at the girl with a stare that said he was being honest. "Thanks...uh...did you already mention your name? Because if you did I forgot it...sorry..." He looked at his small right hand, then brushed it against the hem of his shirt and offered it too her.
"Names Mooch, My friends call me Mooch, You can Call me Mooch" He introduced himself.
"Well... it's good to know you won't be doing any of those things..." She was trying to hold a conversation, but the truth was it seemed nearly impossible for Larke to do so. She was a child of slightly above average intelligence, and he was... what? A space alien? To her he certainly seemed like it. He pushed her back before making her promise not to be stupid around fire. "I don't like fire," she commented. "I like cold things bet-"
Before she finished her sentence, an odd smell crossed her sensitive nose, causing her to cover it right before a flash of light caused a rock to fall down into the garbage pile. She yelped, stumbling back a step or two. He had strange powers or something. He did say the thing was bigger than he thought it would be. "Um, you're welcome... I think..." The look on her face said she was both surprised and highly confused, though the second emotion had been growing steadily since Mooch arrived. "I'm Larke!" she told him as she grabbed the hem of her dress to do a small curtsy. "Why do you do so many strange things?"
“Because young larke, I unlike many other people out there, am trying to save lives everyday.” He looked at the young girl with a calm smile, the goggles being obscured on his forehead by his auburn bangs. With a turn there were a few clicking noises as his harness undid itself and fell to the ground next to him, then spontaneously caught on fire behind him after he kicked it away. “Now I have a question for you, have you ever wanted a fragment of a star that no one else could have?” He rubbed his palms together as he started to walk towards the alley way. “Because here is our chance to give you my young acquaintance a one of a kind gift that no one would ever have.”
He crouched near the still smoking rock in its crater in the ground and chuckled at it. He could make great things from this single rock, a sword, a weapon, possibly a gun that could fire the very stars. Or he could give this girl a magical piece of rare material that could potentially bolster her magic and prevent people from hunting her down and realizing what she is via Aetheric wavelengths.
Mooch's answer, as usual, made no sense to Larke. He was strange because he tried to save people every day? Her dad was a doctor and he wasn't so weird. Maybe it was people around here. She was new to Fiore after all... but then she'd been to enough place to know that people weren't so different just because they were from different countries. Maybe Mooch was just strange.
About the time she came to that conclusion, he was offering her an item of some sort. A space rock? "A star rock? Aren't stars gas?" she asked, tilting her head. "But still! Space is so cool! I'll take it!" she jumped up and down excitedly, taking the rock. She pulled out her gold necklace with the large fake gold adornment. It had a spot for her to keep things, and she placed it in there. "And now I'll never lose it!" she declared happily.
