There wasn't enough room in the cab of the truck for everyone so Corvayne offered to ride in the back. In doing so he found, despite the steady rain, he was more then happy to trade comfort for a little space and fresh air, nestled in the midst of all sorts of gear they looted. He could peer into the back window and see Hari looking out of the side window, clearly enjoying watching the scenery of an entirely new world. Mosh was looking glum on the other side of Wick. She put a hand on his shoulder.
He spared Mister I going out in the rain when they arrived back at the community center in Old Town. Hari was still in shock from the city and was sort of stumbling out of the car, Grunt offering a hand to steady her.
Wick looked around at Mister I's garage, then looked at the monk himself. “I think it's obvious. Mosh has to stay somewhere that other people won't bother him. The monastery is perfect for him...”
“Are you freaking kidding me? How am I going to get any action here?” Mosh had got his energy back fast.
Wick laughed. “I guess you have a really good reason to come back into the tower with us. Okay. So then, Hari either stays with me, or we give her a hat and have her live with Corvayne and Grunt.”
Corvayne thought about it. “I think she stays with you. I can help her learn the language but you're pretty close to Mosh here if she has an issue.”
Hari frowned. “What about what I want?”
Corvayne winced. “You are right. Sorry. Take what I say as a suggestion.”
The elf woman paused a moment. “I admit I don't have input besides I'd be happy to share a room with either of you. I just don't need you to make a call for me!”
Corvayne laughed. “Ok. Still, I should not speak for you before laying it out next time. Sorry. Wick should be leading the conversation anyway.”
Grunt poked Corvayne's shoulder and made hand motions and made finger walking motions. He pointed at himself and made typing motions.
Corvayne took a moment to get what he was offering. “So you would be okay with her taking over patrol and moving to do more paperwork?”
Grunt nodded, and made hand talking motions with one hand, then both hands.
“And have me teach her language? No offense to Miss Hari, but I'm not sure I'm ready to move in with someone to be honest. I'm more used to having quiet time to think about life. I mean, also, we don't have a spare bed.”
“I am not that... I mean... we wouldn't do that... it was...” Hari started stammering.
Wick nodded. “Oh yes! Good point. Corvayne probably would not appreciate her attacking him constantly.” Is THAT what she thinks the problem is? Well she was right. He was pretty sure she was right.
Grunt grunted and pointed to his sleeping bag, then mimed laying down to rest, then held up four fingers.
“You have four beds?”
Grunt nodded.
Corvayne felt like he had lost the conversation before it started. “And Wick, can she stay with you? Or did you not want that?”
“I do, actually. But I also think she'd get some of your first girlfriend shit out of your system and we need to help her learn Cascadian. You are the only person who understands her.”
Mister I laughed. “Corvayne and Hari should just move in with Wick! No reason to go over three mountains when you can walk between two.” He saw the old man's eyes glitter with mischief. So it was probably dirty in some way Corvayne didn't get.
Wick shook her head. “No way, I hate sharing my room with anyone. All right I made up my mind: Hari you're with Corvayne for now. I'll come visit daily anyway.”
The rest of the week left Corvayne exhausted. Hari was needy with his attention, both to help her learn Cascadian and also just dealing with her feeling lost. He couldn't blame her, as she was thrust into a completely different world. What did bother him was how she flip-flopped between being extremely reserved around other people around then would cling to him in private, holding his arm, sitting next to him if they were watching television, walking next to him when they did the rounds. Corvayne had privately hoped to keep her out of his bed as the thought of sleeping with someone who was so dependent on him was weird.
After the first morning where she started crying, he broke the letter of the rule if not the intent. Hari was having trouble sleeping alone. So Corvayne pushed their beds together and let her lay next to him. The first few nights this worked and she had slept fine. However, Corvayne had trouble finding time alone to... clear his thoughts. The spear dance didn't help, as Hari decided to try to learn it with him. Wick didn't help, as she brought Hari pajamas that for some reason were more distracting then the barmaid outfit she had been wearing before. The problem was also that he knew he could just ask Hari and she'd probably let him do whatever he wanted.
By Thursday afternoon Wick had noticed Corvayne seemed a little worn out.
“She keeping you up at night?” She said winking as they jogged around the warehouse along the inside of the little wall.
“Opposite of what you're thinking. I... don't like the idea of sleeping with other girls that much. I mean, I'm sleeping with her, but more like a body pillow then a...”
“Are you an idiot? Just fuck her. I mean, Grunt said you must be borrowing my eyeshadow.” She tapped the dark circles under her own eyes that Corvayne suspected were just makeup but he had come to find as attractive. He stood firm against those thick glasses, though. As they rounded the bend, Wick added, “That, or just take a nap and jerk off.”
He kept his eyes forward. “Can you not call me an idiot? I have pretty good reasons not to. Not the second suggestion, I managed to sneak away once.” Him saying that brought up how much he disliked Wick's most common euphemism for it. Polishing a spear was an important act of maintenance!
“That's so lame. I mean, before? You had good reasons. But she's an adult, she's going to be with us probably for a while, you are not taking advantage of her being too vulnerable, especially if it's right after Mosh is soothing her. Hari, at her most Hari, likes you. If your goal is me, I already like you as my main guy. I might throw you a bone after we jog.” She huffed a little, her pace lagging, then added. “You might have to do all the work. So... I got a question about Mosh. Do you think he counts as an alien?”
"Not really, because we knew he was a goblin, and he knew he was a goblin."
Wick kept running. "Oh. Well, I was thinking of sleeping with him."
Corvayne missed a step and had to stumble back into form. “What!? Why?”
“Corvayne. Don't you see it? He's a little green man. Alien sex! Look, you can come too!”
He rounded a bend a little ahead of her then slowed down. “I don't think it's a good idea... If I told you I was sleeping with someone to check a box, I think you'd also say that's not respecting the being I'm choosing to sleep with as an individual. I also don't like it.”
Wick bumped her shoulder into him as they jogged together. “You are so earnest it's hard sometimes to listen to you. It was a joke!"
Corvayne narrowed his eyes, suspecting it wasn't entirely a joke.
"Don't pout that's a compliment. C'mon let's jog to your room and I'll kick Hari out so we can take a 'nap'.”
Friday afternoon before the town meeting Corvayne woke up next to Hari. He had decided to kiss her while they were settling into bed the previous morning and she at first was very shy, acting surprised then blushing and thereby making Corvayne second guess himself until she kissed him back. Corvayne then followed her lead until she was asking him to talk dirty where he reached then went a little beyond his tolerance for swearing and his ability to pronounce extremely filthy phrases in elvish. Just as Wick had straightened him out the previous day and left him with a spring in his step, he did notice Hari looked much better rested that afternoon. They took a shower together and got dressed. She put on a pair of jeans and a hippy tie-dye long shirt on top of a hat to put her ears up into.
“It's really uncomfortable to pull them up and back.” Hari said as she followed him down the stairs to the warehouse floor.
Corvayne decided to be tactful. “I like them better when they are out, but you look pretty either way.”
Corvayne opened the door and was surprised to see Wick reaching out for the handle.
Wick didn't miss a beat, grabbing Corvayne instead. “We got a situation! My fans will have to stew... They'll get the canned version, we GOTTA burn rubber south.” She started tugging Corvayne's arm to drag him to the gate.
Corvayne allowed himself to be dragged along, noting she was so worked up she was acting like her stage persona. “Okay Wick, what's the situation?”
“UFO crash fifteen minutes ago! South part of Pinefall Peninsula.”
“Hello Wick.” Hari said in a stiff voice. Corvayne was pretty sure it was that she was speaking the local language.
Wick stopped dragging Corvayne and looked at Hari, perhaps finally noticing her. “Hah! Getting better! Cute shirt Hari. Cmon.”
Mister I already had the truck running. Corvayne as able to take a seat inside as Grunt was missing today. Mister I cheerily called out hello while Wick hollered at Hari to get in faster. Mosh was in the truck waiting and raised an eyebrow.
"Everything okay boss? You were looking at me weird."
Corvayne thought about it then gestured at Wick with his head. “Weird is the main theme of my life. How are you feeling?”
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Mosh shrugged, then smiled. “Better now that I'm outta that damn building. I've never been under house arrest before! So... Wick's all excited about a spaceship she can't identify. Must not be a very good one if it crashed!”
Wick turned around. “We don't get that much traffic, maybe one or two ships a week. An unauthorized or black book landing is still interesting to me.”
Mister I nodded along. “Or something non-secular! What if it's a divine object?”
Wick looked over at Mister I. “You think it's going to be an angel or something?”
“I just don't like defaulting to space craft. Having developed a basic rapport with Lythandies I'd like to start finding other members of a 'true' parthenon.”
Wick just kept on the track she was on. “What if it's a monolith? Did anyone pack some bones to throw at it?”
Hari whispered into Corvayne's ear. “What is Wick so excited about?”
“An unknown space ship crashed near us. Wick hopes it's something no one has ever seen before.” He thought about the irony of getting super excited for a ship when he could build her something just as nice if he wasn't under the restriction of never letting even a peep out about how to build a fold drive.
The clouds cleared up as they drove south. The road was situated right by the sound, giving everyone a great view of the water and pine covered hills of Crater Island. Smaller islands crowded the sandy banks with patches of forest.
Wick was in lecture mode, pulling out a map showing the complicated bands of sea and land that formed the area around Cascadia City. The peninsula jutted down about sixty miles before being cut off by the inlet that the first bridge he walked across spanned. Mister I had to stop for gas once, which caused Wick to be sputtering mad.
The monk just laughed. “That's the good news about a crash: it's not going anywhere anymore!”
“We could have stopped for gas on the way BACK from the tower.” Wick folded her arms while glaring at the monk outside the window.
She was proven somewhat right later when they reached the last road to her suspected crash site. Mister I saw the police cars blocking the road and did a U-Turn. Wick looked like she was going to crawl out the window. “Just say we are investigating! We have an alien here already!”
“You gotta stop calling me an alien. Goblins are everywhere lady!” Mosh looked over at Covayne to back him up.
Wick turned around, giving Mosh a cross look. “Don't ruin the allure of driving around with an alien to go find a UFO!” She turned back and focused on her map, holding it out to show Mister I something she was tapping. “You think we can drive on this logging trail over the pass?”
Mosh stuck his tongue out at Wick, then elbowed Corvayne. “Hey Corvayne, does this planet have any millers with open minded daughters?” Mosh made a hand motion that suggested ample endowments.
Up in the front seat, Mister I was laughing. “Miss Wick please. How long have you known me? I will get you there.”
After saying that they pulled off the road. They had only gone a mile back from the police blockade, parking on the gravel shoulder right near the sandy slope down into the waters. Mister I had walked around to the back of the truck bed and pulled out one of the large canvas bags he had secured back there, then pulled out an inflatable raft and pump, as well as a small boat engine.
“Wick you'll note I was prepared if the crash was not situated perfectly on land!” The monk said with a hint of Mirth.
“Fine, I'm sorry. I wanna see the crash real bad!” Wick was excited in the way that he thought only little kids got.
Corvayne folded his arms. “What's the angle?”
“Firstly, I DO like the paranormal. Second, we should take tech where we can find it. Magic and alien tech might even the odds a little if we have to fight the entire Collective.”
Corvayne nodded. Always be prepared for a fight. While thinking that, he pulled his spear out of the truck bed as well as the short blade of frost for Wick, the airfoil rapier for Hari, and a fire-breathing dagger for Mosh. Mister I passed on any arms. “I think my role here will be to stay with the boat.” He pulled out a fishing rod. Corvayne suspected this wasn't the first spontaneous trip into the woods he had undertaken for Wick, and that the monk probably had learned early on to take a fishing pole on these trips to skip any potential battles with supernatural monsters. Or to avoid a long walk through the rainy woods.
A few minutes of automated pumping later, they were out into the darkening water of the sound. The waves caught both the dusty blue of the sky as the last hints of day faded, as well as the black lines of the trees around them. The engine was fairly loud but so were the sounds of emergency vehicles coming up to the blocked area. Corvayne had started mentally reviewing police tactics in case it came to blows. He had learned a lot from watching television. For example, one key concept was to not fight a police officer taking cover behind a sports car or on a hover-bike.
The boat slid away from the blockade and Mister I steered them along the dark shore. There were crickets and the faint crackling of something burning. A chemical smell floated faintly in the air, edging out pine and sea. There was the crack of a rifle going off, then a cacophony of trees breaking. Corvayne could see something flashing odd colors in the woods across a large bay that diverted the road away from where they were steering. There were three low booms that scattered nesting birds and could be felt almost as much as they were heard.
Hari leaned over to Corvayne. “Can you tell me what we are fighting?”
Corvayne shrugged. “We don't know what we'll find. So no idea what we might be fighting.”
Wick was watching lights flashing ahead too. There was another deep thud and an explosion could be heard if not seen. “We try not to fight... we want to meet aliens not fight them.”
Mosh pointed forward. “Well Wick I got bad news, somebody else DID want to fight, and it sounds like the brought rocket launchers.”
Mister I guided the boat to a spot where something knocked over a large section of the woods, singed trees flanking the corridor of broken wood. Setting foot on the sandy ground, Corvayne turned to Wick. “It sounds like the military is fighting something. That or the alien has missiles... still wanna go in?”
“Explore carefully. Don't engage in fights. Observe... steal stuff.” Wick offered back. They stepped into the dark woods, chemical smell stronger as they followed broken trees. The woods were silent when there were not booming noises: everything else had decided that it was a great time to be somewhere else. With the sudden lack of lights or sounds of fighting, Corvayne couldn't blame Mister I deciding to skip this.
He crested a fallen log and saw a clearing ahead with a dirt crater, lit with erratic fires. There was what he assumed was the ship, a silvery orb nestled in a mound of disturbed dirt, rocks, and plant matter. The orb looked completely unharmed by the path it blasted through the woods. All around the crater were injured and possibly dead soldiers or police in tactical gear. From the patterns on the ground, Corvayne actually had an out loud laugh.
“Oh they tried to fire a rocket at a shield. What were they thinking?”
Wick had to tug Corvayne's arm. “You mean like sci-fi shields? Those don't exist.”
He rolled his eyes and clenched his glove, summoning a force buckler. “Even I have a small one.”
Wick blinked at the sudden light in the forest appearing. “Ok, well then, tell the rest of us what happened?”
“Crash came in from the trees. You said it was fifteen minutes before we left, so the soldiers here showed up from somewhere closer. They might have been tracking before it landed. I say landed because it looks intact. It landed and there was a welcoming party. Maybe they talked. I'm guessing that the injured ones were a pulse weapon given the colors we saw in the woods, and the ones who look shredded were the geniuses who fired rockets into a shield.”
Wick didn't argue with him on his assessment. “So... how would you fight shields?”
“EMP, or something with both momentum and mass. Blunt is good, piercing is bad, slashing blades tend to break on them. A big heavy sword works. It takes repetition. Explosions? You have a lot of impact over a large part of the shield, but most shields are reversing momentum. So you have a ton of shrapnel fire back, or some shields just reverse the momentum of the shell and that does it too. I also would guess Hari would give any shield user nightmares because she just teleports behind them inside the barrier... I think we want to stay away from the ship. There will be more troops on the way soon.” He looked at the group, outlined by the dim fires around them. “Can we head back to the boat? We should be looking for more colored lights, then we'll know where the target is.”
Wick had one of her devices out. “No gravity changes... Hari can you [Investigate]?”
Hari got it, and pointed at the ship. “Artifact tier. It is a starship, no other info.”
“Right. Back to the boat, get out on the water, look for lights. Tch. We didn't stand a chance.”
They heard voices coming through the brush and stepped back into the woods, backtracking to the boat. Mister I pulled in his line and they puttered out into the dark water. Corvayne navigated having the best night vision, first guiding them away from land to just keep an eye out for any unusual lights. No signs of aliens, or additional fights.
“Bah. How annoying is that? A UFO lands in our lap and we can't even go see it!”
Mister I guided the boat up to the bank near where his truck was parked.
Mosh groaned. “That was anti-climactic!”
Wick nodded as they started putting their stuff in the back of the pickup. “We did see an alien ship.” She didn't sound convincing.
Mosh sounded disappointed. “Yeah well, I was hoping it'd be an ARK and I'd be on my way home. If that's alien tech to you, I'm VERY sorry.”
“But I mean, that's it? Where's the confrontation? Where's the aliens?” Wick threw her hands up.
“Not in the trunk.” Corvayne helped pack the boat up and shrugged. “I mean, that's where real life differs from the books: we're probably never going to know what exactly happened here. We saw it, took some pictures-”
“FUCK!” Wick slammed the side of the truck then clutched her hand.
“Easy! She is a vintage truck!” Mister I waved his hands around.
“Corvayne! Your new job is to remind me to take goddamn pictures!”