#baronyofthesilverwolf

Meanwhile...

As life and partying goes on outside, and Gwen wanders off to chat with a shadow, Zelda whacks at Thistle's hand, nearly missing it with a wrench. The same one that Thistle had so kindly fetched for her... and all the younger Nocker did was poke at a bolt that appeared to be on crooked.

"I thought you liked your fingers! Not gonna keep 'em if you touch the safety bolt without inhibiting the O2 recombinatrix!" Zelda snaps.

"Oi!"

"If it's that sensitive you should have a flippy-hatch over it..."

Cranky, "It doesn't even work anyways. The Oxy disperses too quickly to help and having it condensed is a blargin' explosion hazard, which gets Adler all up my ass."

"Oh, nooo, my workshop, the passers by, won't you think of the children?"

Thistle is quite sure that the poor friendly boggan does not have a falsetto quite like that.

Squinty face.

"Take a tip from me, twinkle - never let a male move in with you and think they can share your workspace. They start gettin' IDEAS. "

"Oh, lotsa fuss about explosions."

"AMIRIGHT?" Her eyes roll back to the heavens.

"...there a way to shunt the oxygen to Hammerspace?"

Squint. "Howzafuck you supposed to breath it there?"

"As pressure relief, an' then you bring it back?"

She GLARES at the device, a finger tapping.

"Like, the issue is that the container right now is only as big as it is on the outside, yeah?"

"Well, it's blippin' obvious when you put it THAT way. Maybe you ain't just got glitter between those ears. Fuck knows there's enough piercings in 'em to let any brains leach out." A compliment, or is it an insult? Both?

Snort-grin.

"I also pick up ham radio broadcasts."

The door is pounded on, then shoved open. "I'm coming in!" Briar announces, a polite request as those go from redcaps.

"Hi Briar."

"Jesus Crayon on a cracker." The wildling girl exclaims. "Looks like crayola vomit in here."

"Thank you!"

Citrine is off on a shelf, muttering and polishing her bits and pieces, not unlike an offended grooming cat. When Briar comes in, she retreats to a slightly HIGHER shelf and resumes her cleaning.

Zelda raises an impressively plumed brow at the kid. "Ain't nothing to chomp here, short snout."

Briar's own brow furrows, trying to decide if she should be offended. A shrug, and she points a finger at Thistle. "YOU."

"Me!"

"Yeah! I CHOOSE you."

"What, like a pokemon?"

"No, like." She scoffs, then juts out her chest a bit, proudly. "You didn't hear. Nadeen said that -I- get to lead the hunt against the Red Dead Cloudemption out there! And I pick YOU for my pack. You should be, like, honored and shit."

A sidelong glance at Zelda. "Sorry, you're old."

The grump splutters.

"The... what?"

A pause. "Do I get to set shit on fire?"

"And you're out of your goddamn mind!" Zelda snaps at the kid. "This is a level 4 catastrophe, not some pokemon battle."

Briar ignores her, as one must the ancient and outdated. "Maybe? But it's a fuckin' Cloud, you see? How the hell can I bite or stab a CLOUD? You got the brains and shit, figure out a way to make it die, or bring it to where I can reach it."

"I wanna see what clouds bleed!"

"So... smog monster?" A look between Briar and Zelda.

Zelda bits off a retort as she ponders this, eyeing her Smogsucker. Furrow furrow.

"Big-ass cloud snake swimming through the fire smog, about the length of a football field if Rosey ain't bluffin." Zelda comments. Sounding more intrigued then concerned. "Probably poisonous."

"Or venomous. Or both?"

"Well, I ain't the redcap, ain't gonna try to et it."

Briar GRINS. "I bet it tastes spicy."

"So, slippery and maybe made outta, like, thick air?"

Zelda nods. "If the particulates are thick enough, they might be combustable. Then again, that might start a firestorm."

"So we gotta find a way to contain it or... combust it?"

"Bitchin!" Briar breathes.

"Right, but Rocky does rain - so might counter a firestorm with water?"

"Yeah, she's got that pointy-ass boom stick. But she's out schmoozing with Nadeen's fav-o-rite guest right now." Dismissive.

"Yeah yeah, party."

"Dunno what she sees in fuckin' Wednesday Addams." Is this... jealousy?

"Oh, Lizbet's here?"

SCOWL.