Sessions Worlds and Stuff

*Brutus was lazily playing with a new toy out in a nice patch of sun by his favorite pond next to the ship. Yes, life was good for the Lizard. He had a new toy, and so far the tiny noisy hot one had shown no interest in it, so he felt no need to hide it in his pond with the precious chewy pants supply. Infact, the new toy was so good....perhaps the tall one, and the strong one might praise him if he showed it to them. Yes that would be good*

*Stretching and standing up, brutus "toy" in mouth wandered up and into the ship to locate the tough Hobbes creature*

Hobbes was going over expense reports for the rodeo, balancing the budgetary end of things. Her mouth was pursed into a line as she looked for ways to shift money around in the most desirable way, and wouldn't have noticed Brutus except for the loud sound of his nails on the floor.

The break was welcome, though. Following Nietve and Swaije moving aboard the ship, it seemed like the workload had doubled for her. For all that Nietve and Swaije had given her, it seemed like she was still unable to catch a solid break.

As it would turn out, Nietve had functioned as a bodyguard of sorts in Yvicke's organization. Not one of Yvicke's personal bodyguards, unfortunately, but he'd been one of the go to people if something or someone of value was being moved. Primarily, weapons. It had given him a measure of insight into the workings of things.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Yvicke had realized exactly how much of an asset Nietve would be, and had rendered much of the information useless. He'd already been careful about scheduling shifting times and locations for his various enterprises, but it seems like most if not all of the warehouses and meeting places he had been using were now avoided altogether. Many of the people Nietve had been working with were already kept on a strict need to know basis, but even of those, the ones who had been closest to Nietve had been burned.

It was frustrating, but the result had been Hobbes doubling her efforts into digging up what she could. It was what much of her free time went into now; one way or another, she was determined to dig up another lead.

At the moment though, working so hard was doing her little favors. She scooted her chair back from the table to give Brutus her full attention. "Whatcha got there, Brutus?"

*Brutus hunkered down with his usual excited butt wiggles, and let forth one of his odd rasping cough/barking noises that he did. Before spitting his new prized toy into Hobbes' lap. A small round stone, black on the outside (although that could just be due too dampness from Brutus slobber), with silver etchings laced throughout it. The etching had gotten slightly scratched, but the clear shape of a hornless reptilian creature, surrounded by vines of some sort, was still very visible among the silvered markings*

Hobbes blinked at it, shifting the sunglasses she wore on her head down over her eyes out of habit. This didn't help her see it better in any sort of way, and she gave Brutus a confused look.

"Where did you get this?"

*Brutus rasped at them a bit in response, before promptly plopping on the floor and gently starting to chew on Hobbes' shoe, as they were still wearing it*

The leather of Hobbes' boots, already worn from general use and Brutus, tasted much different than his usual rocks.

"Ok Brutus." Hobbes smiled at him for a second before turning the rock over in their hand, looking at it with more concern.

They /could/ stand and go get Daxton with Brutus still chewing on the shoe, but Hobbes was rather fond of this pair. So instead, Hobbes rifled through their sylladex for a couple of seconds before finding a rock they thought Brutus might like. This one had cool white stripes on it, even if it was a pretty common river stone. Hobbes offered it to Brutus.

*Brutus stopped chewing on the boot, and raised his head up to Hobbes. Regarding both the new stone in their hand, and the one he had handed to them. Eyes swiveling back and fourth a bit between them. "His" stone was better for the chewing....but the other stone was a Hobbes gift. In the end after much inner debate, Brutus eventually accepted the Hobbes gift, despite the inferior mineral quality. After all Brutus wanted Hobbes to feel good about their gifts, and rejecting one might give Hobbes the wrong idea about future stones*

*taking his new rock, the lizard quickly scampered back outside to lay down near his pond with it*

Now freed, Hobbes stood and started looking for Daxton. She called for him, not really sure where he was at the moment. But she started with his office, figuring that was a good bet.

*Indeed it was as Daxton was infact in his office, sitting behind a computer monitor and looking over some of the recruits training information, deciding on whom deserved promotion and who needed more training before their next rank*

"Hey," Hobbes greeting him, coming over to sit on the edge of his desk. It seemed like her go to place to sit while in his office. "So uh, Brutus brought me something interesting."

"If it's another of Khamir's arms, just leave it on the desk and I'll make sure it get backs to him by this evening" *Daxton replied without even looking up from his work, eyes pouring over the screen. For some reason this batch of selections seemed more important to him than previous ones. Additionally he was also passing more of the recruits on to further training than he normally would*

Hobbes didn't make a habit of looking over purposefully looking over his shoulder so the numbers didn't matter much to them. However, how intent he seemed on it did. "It's something else," they said with a little shake of their head. "I think I might make taking dogmom on a walk in the jungle into a day trip, and I was thinking it might be nice for you to come with. Unless you've got something more important you're doing."

While Hobbes avoided knowing the details of enforcer affairs, she felt a little more comfortable inquiring this time because things surrounding his office had been a bit odd lately. It seemed like there was something up, something important, that he wasn't talking about. And Hobbes was impatient to know.

*Daxton rubbed his temples for a moment with a bit of a sigh, before dragging his eyes away from the screen in front of him to meet the gaze of his mate* "no...well yes it is important, but it can wait. I need a break anways....theres some choices among the results I need to think over before I make final submissions on the advancements. So, yeah. A walk sounds nice"

Hobbes gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze; it was admirable how much care and dedication Daxton had for the people who worked under him, even if it was an organization straight from hell. Then they hopped down and got the leash out of their sylladex.

Dogmom was always nearby these days, and of course had heard the word "walk". She was sitting at the door, and seeing Hobbes get up confirmed it. She stood up with her tail wagging excitedly, giving a happy borf before bounding over to the front door of the ship.

Hobbes snickered and followed the lusus, the fresh air and moonlight welcome.

*Daxton went and grabbed a leash for Brutus as well. Sure that when the Lizard saw dog-mom on hers, he would want to come as well*
"so what "did" the lizard bring you then anyways?"

"It's this," she said, handing him the rock Brutus had brought her. "And that etching on it... that's not Alternian. I've interacted with the natives here before, in a way... and I'm concerned that since the colony has expanded somewhat, they might view it as a threat."

Hobbes was pretty sure they'd mentioned before about the time that Damien had been attacked by them.

"huh" *Was Daxton's reply as he puzzled over the stone that had been handed to him* "You said the Lizard was the one that brought this to you? Do you think he just found it....or?"

"I... really don't know. It was something that I hoped to find out."

"very well....I'll admit, knowing the natives better could prove....beneficial. Still how do you plan on finding them? A stone isn't a lot to go on. I'd ask the Lizard to lead us....but it is Brutus, and we both know that Lizard is a few rounds short of a full clip. How would you get it through to him?"

"Bribe him with rocks? And hope to get lucky. When I've run into them with Damien before, they found us more than we found them... I'm hoping that if we go back to that same spot, we can find them again. Or they'll find us. If we're lucky, I'd like to talk to them about the colony and make sure that there won't be a problem. If nothing else, I want to know whether or not it's possible to communicate with them at all, and whether or not they're capable of being friendly.

"When I saw them before, it seemed like they had the same plant parasite that I had all that time ago... but their case of it seemed much more advanced. Regardless of how we find them, I need to know if they're a threat to the people here that I care about just by existing."