TL:DR

[Shantotto]

Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX, hated the heat, his trenchcoat and fedora only made the heat even more unbearable. Still the promise of a paying job, as well as other compensation. This Banisher4lyfe fellow seemed to have a common fetish, talking to the man would be fun.

In the distance the golden walls of Nippur stood out against the rising sun making the effect awe inspiring at least to Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX. The architecture was far different than that of Hecate’s castle. His heart leapt as he thought about his silver haired Yandere.

The guards seemed to have some brand new strange cloth uniform. It was something his weeb sword would clearly have little trouble to cut through, still he knew he wouldn't need to worry about that. “Once they see my awesomeness, they won't help but give me the job.” He told himself as he stepped through the gates to Nippur, The town was awash in muck and filth, nothing less than Hecate's dungeon of course but still pretty bad. Without missing a step he headed to the grandest building in the area and walked up the marbled steps to the main gate where Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX was mey by two guards. Golden energy weapons blocked his path. “What is your business here?” Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX was asked.

“I responded to a posting about a job in IT. I am here for the interview.” Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX said as he flipped his fedora up.

The guards in the interesting cloth armor looked the weeb over, with scrutinizing eyes, They had seen enough strange people entering the throne room and they didn't want another weirdo barging in after seeing the likes of Shantotto and Warren Zimmer.

“The king is not in at the moment, What is the nature of your visit?” The guard asked keeping an eye on the boy’s oversized sword lest he pull it out.

Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX looked at the somewhat nervous guards with a smug look of satisfaction and a cocky grin. “I am not here to see your king, rather I am here to speak with the one know by the moniker Bannisher4lyfe…. Or something to that effect.” He said, not wanting to pull out his dataverse device just to double check an alias.

The guards laughed aloud upon hearing that. “ You mean Lord Victor!” One exclaimed aloud, his voice almost cheerful at the thought of seeing this weirdo confronting Victor the Banisher.

[Drake Oneir]

In dutiful fashion, the fresh guardsmen of Nippur led the young man through the rubbled and dusty streets of the city. Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX kept his eyes peeled and a hand on his sword the entire time. He had certainly heard of the devastation of the city...seen the pictures...but this young man of Coruscant was rapidly beginning to feel out of his element. These people didn't even look like they could afford a week's food, let alone a Dataverse connection. Still...it was the first legitimate job he had ever been offered, and custom body pillows didn't come cheap.

After about ten minute's walk from the gate, the small cadre finally arrived at what appeared to be a small combination garage and house. The two story building had a large attachment with wide-open garage doors, and inside, the flash of an arc welder threw thew the various, partial assemblies into sharp relief. The guards went away.

"Wait...here?" Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX asked, spinning around on his heels. But it was too late. The garishly festooned peacekeepers receded back into the milling crowds of midday. The swordsman had to assume this was the right place. After all, it was the most technology he'd seen focused in one spot within Nippur's walls. It would also be nice to get out of the desert sun. Trenchcoats and fedoras were probably going to for the evenings only, around here.

Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX stepped slowly over the threshold of the garage and called out.

"I am here for my interview. Lord Victor?" the man said, trying to peer around the hulk of a particularly flashy looking hoverbike.

"Oh. Right. My new troll friend." came a hoarse reply. The sharp buzzing of the torch faded away and a skinny looking, dark-skinned man popped out from behind the sleek vehicle. Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX quirked an eyebrow, seeing the man's deeply scarred face as he pulled the welding helmet away from his face.

"You're not Victor Wolfe." Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX muttered, glancing down at his Dataphone for quick reference. No. The images of Wolfe from DA15 certainly did not match this one-armed oddball.

"Nnno. Victor Wolfe is our PR guy. I'm Drake. The techie guy." the smuggler said, extending his hand slightly. Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX glanced down at the extended arm.

"Never heard of you."

Drake grinned in a markedly malicious fashion.

"Good."

[Shantotto]

Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX puzzled for a moment, his eyes glanced one again over the man before him, experience crossed his features as well as scars from what? Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX could not tell. There was also the fact that he had never heard of the guy “Drake it’s a pleasure.” He said as he shook the man’s only hand. There was traces of skepticism on Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX’s face as he released his grasp.

“So uh you a prime?” He found himself asking, knowing all too well that primes were capable of regenerating limbs, yet for all intents and purposes this man had only one.

Drake face twisted into an uncomfortable smile as he declined to answer the question instead posing the same question to Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX.

“Umm.” He replied taking the same route that he just had.

“So what is it that you do in here?” He said quickly changing the subject to something else. He found himself already feeling slightly awkward. “Don't look at the stumps don't look at the stumps” he thought to himself again and again.

“Skim the web, look for people worth trolling….protect the sanctity of new babylon, ya know all in a day's work.” Drakes raspy voice replied. “Mostly trolling through.” a snarky grin filled his features.

Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX chuckled almost forcefully, he knew he was making things awkward. “Where can I put my things?” he asked as he looked in the garage like structure for a clear area to set his body pillow and weeb sword on.

“Anywhere there's space for now.” the raspy voice replied as it once again ducked behind the sleek speeder bike. A burst of white light filled Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX’s eyes as the welder went off again. “Oh yeah, you might wanna close your eyes.” the voice said from behind the bike, a small laugh quickly followed after the late statement.

[Drake Oneir]

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes as the edgy, young Coruscant native milled around Drake's garage. He poked and prodded and various pieces of tech scattered around the half-dusted warehouse until finally coming upon what appeared to be a very cheap katana. Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX looked over his shoulder at Drake, still welding something up within the bowels of the fancy swoop bike. Shrugging, he picked the sword up and gave it an experimental swing. It was surprisingly heavy...not like the hand-crafted masterpiece of steel that was strapped to his back. Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX scoffed, in spite of himself. Was this Drake guy supposed to be a Prime? Impossible. He was building things with his bare hands hand. His equipment was junk.

"I'd be careful with that." came the smuggler's voice from across the maintenance bay. Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX turned to see Drake absently activating the arc welder in the air as he stooped, catlike, on a low stool. A ruse? Had Drake been watching him this whole time?

"I've practiced the blade. I know my way around cheap rat-pokers." Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX laughed, tossing the sword back onto the scrap-strewn table he had snatched it from.

"Hmm..." Drake uttered softly. He plucked a thin cigarette from his satchel bag and plugged it between his gnawed, chappy lips. A quick blast from the welder ignited it, while also destroying half the cig in the process. This really struck the weeb as not-actually-cool, and kind of a waste.

"Look at the sword's hilt. You see that red and green wiring at the bottom?" Drake said, flicking his cigarette onto the ground as it rapidly lit on fire. Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX raised an extremely handsome eyebrow and turned the katana over. Indeed, there were two small wires concealed beneath the cloth wrapping on the hilt.

"That's the fuse for the high explosives in that bitch. I could blow you to hell and back with the snap of my fingers if I wanted." Drake said cooly, trying to stamp out what was a rapidly growing oil fire. Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX moved to put the blade down.

"Ahp ahp!" the stringy man said, holding up his hand. Thumb and forefinger were pinched together, poised to follow through on Drake's destructive promise. Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX froze.

"Now listen, you managed to stick it hard to Warren Zimmer and I respect that. But out here, you're playing with the big kids. You step outta your league, you get double-dead, fast." Drake growled. The two locked eyes for several seconds, and it wasn't until the darling little weeb teen swallowed nervously that Drake put his hand down.

A massive explosion rocked the garage.











...from like six blocks away. Both men jumped in surprise, especially Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX. When he confirmed that he was still alive, he joined Drake at the curb to see a pillar of russet smoke rising to the west. The muted rattle of gunfire began to swell in earnest, and Drake patted Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX on the shoulder to bid him back into the workshop. Half-rusted garage doors, painted in a hue that may have once been blue-green, groaned and squeaked as they slowly lowered. The garage was soaked in chiaroscuro half-light for several seconds until dirty, orange overhead lamps flickered awake.

"That reminds me, Im'a need you to sign this injury liability release waiver." Drake said, smearing some loose papers around on his desk. He drew one of the oily parchment documents forth and slapped it down in front of Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX, along with a nearly dry Sharpie.

"How long you been a Prime?" the beautiful, angsty young man murmured as he glanced over the extremely dense legal wording.

"Like two days. How long you been crackin'?" Drake asked, stepping over to a small mini fridge. The contents of the refrigerator clinked and rattled as the cool door was opened. The smuggler withdrew two, mostly cold, beers and clapped one on the workbench Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX was leaning against.

"I dunno. My first real hack was like...some in-game gold on an old dataverse MMO. That was back before the whole Diablo thing in Coruscant." he said softly. Dry, gloved hands pushed the signed document back towards Drake, who glanced at it, and tore it in half with his teeth.

"Your real name, fam." Drake said sharply, slapping an exact replica down in front of Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX ...

[Shantotto]

Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX let out a pained sigh before writing down his real name. Dwight Goldstein.
"two days.." The young weeb thought with concern. Had he been left in the care of a madman?

In the dank orange glow of the lighting he finally massed the courage to ask. "What kind of madman makes his sword into a bomb!!!!" Concern dotted his brow as he stared at the grizzled man.

"The kind of man who prepares for every eventuality." the husky voice replied, taking a look at the document he had Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX sign.

"Goldstein eh? What kinda name is that? you some hotsy totsy boy from the high life of Coruscant? How did a boy like you come to a place like this." The man said nearly void of interest.

"It all started cause of a girl."Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX began and was instantly cut off by Drake. "Cut the shit, that's not the kind of shit I want to hear." the mans voice sounded sarcastic at best.
"What I mean to say is, tell me why you feel you could benefit Nippur."

Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX took a moment to think before offering his reply, a long drink from the bottle Drake had handed him. The bitter taste of cold beer filled his mouth as the liquid wend down his throat.

"You guys put the request up, not me. You brought me here to give me the job, if not then why am I wasting my time?" The weeb said with fire in his voice.

"Not bad" Drake replied "Looks like you arent a total slack jaw pushover." The man said as he pulled yet another smoke from his pack and lit it this time with a lighter. The lingering smell of smoke from the oil fire was quickly replaced by the sweet smell of burning tobacco.

"you got any more of those?" Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX asked hoping to get a taste of his first real cigarette.

[Shantotto]

Drake handed Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX a long thin smoke, offering him the same lighter he had used to light his own. Before finally speaking. “Aint much to do right now, is why im working on my speeder bike.” Drake said, taking a deep puff of his cigarette and hacking away as a cough racked his body. “Damn good shit.” he said with a smile across his scarred face.

“If ya been keeping up with the news, I’m sure you know Dante’s abyss is firing back up, That shit is gonna be fire. Why not take some time to go check it out. See if this love of your life shows up.” He said half jokingly.

Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX Nodded as he took a hit of the tobacco filled cancer stick resting between his fingers, smoke filled his lungs as he coughed violently. “Why the hell do people willingly smoke these!” he exclaimed as he put it out on the bottom of his boots.

“You'll see” Drake said knowingly as he took another hit. “By the way. You got the job” His course voice made it sound ominous. “I will call you if we get some work in the meantime.”

Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX nodded his head as he opened the door of the garage and headed out into the streets of nippur once again. The fires he had seen prior had seemed to have been put out, a small woman was leading a swordsman and a floating chair through the alleyway nearby. The sounds of engines roaring through the city seemed to fade as they grew farther and farther away.

Xx_Yandere_Lo♥er_xX smiled, he had a feeling he was going to have nothing short of a great time here in Nippur.