"STEAM LONDON" Game Thread

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Is that why ye were after jen? I'm sure she knows alot more about it than me. And perhaps Ella could help as well." He gave a shrill whistle with two fingers. Scraps arrived with all the punctuality of a royal marine, reverted once more to his adorable, petite stature.
"Fetch Jen and Ella will ye, boy? There's a few bolts in it for ya!"
Scraps barked in reply and scittered off on paws made from spoons.
"If they can't do anythin' i could always give her a new body. Cain and Scraps are perfect examples."

[Stella Gaslight]

Sleep was elusive but hunger and thirst had found her and were being rather insistent that she tend to them.  Emma ungracefully untangled herself from Trip and plodded to the galley grumbling and groaning.  "George never let me do that again."

Angel watched as she stumbled in and flopped down on the bench beside her.  "Tea." Emma croaked out.

George smiled and shook his head. "Hair of the dog that bit you?"

"Give me tea now." she said in a tone that promised very bad things if it wasn't obeyed. 

Angel was very confused and looked closely in Emma's teacup there weren't any bits of Scraps in there at all unless you counted the spoon and Scraps didn't even have hair to begin with.  "Where is the dog hair?" She whispered to Cain.

[E.A. Claringbold]

She nodded and smiled, letting go of his hand.

 “Yes, yes it is.”

[Nigel Wetherby]

"It's an expression. 'Hair of the dog' means using more of the same thing that made you sick to make you better."
Angel looked terribly confused at the statement. Lesser constructs may have pulled themselves into a loop.
"It seems rather silly." Angel remarked thoughtfully.
"You do have a point. Maybe it's about mind over matter..." Cain rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he attemppted to grasp the idea of more of something helping, even though it was what made you sick. That was like curing a knife wound by cutting deeper!
"Miss Emma, i do not think that is a very good-"
Emma shot him a glare worse than any cold one.
"Never mind..." He squeaked.

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss reachedinto his possibles bag, somewhat painfully, and retrieved the Flask, with its barely two fingers-depth remnant of flammable liquor. He looked at Irene and said, "then let's drink to it." and unstoppered the flask, and handed it to her. "Just a sip, it'll etch your stomach otherwise. HE sipped after her and felt it burn all the way down. HE handed teh flask to the captain, adn he drank as well, then coughed, and looked at Dreyfuss reproachfully. "That's worse than the rotgut in the galley, Jaisen. Why do you go in for such horrible stuff?"
"It's actually primarily a weapon, Cap'n; it's perfect for starting little inconvenient blazes for the enemy."
"why not just let them drink it?"
All Three laughed.

"Speaking of the galley, " Dreyfuss said, "I need to go and rerfill this weapon. Would you fancy a cup of tea, Cousin?"
And thus, they went to the galley, and found Emma, George, Cain, and Angel.

[Stella Gaslight]

It had taken almost three pots of tea and four plates of cookies (Emma swore that Angel had eaten most of them but George knew otherwise but he didn't say a thing.  George can be very smart sometimes.) for Emma to feel human again.  "Hi Dreyfuss, Hi Irene lady. We are having dog tea."  Angel giggled at her own joke.

Emma just shook her head.  "Hello Angel said that Miss Frost had some papers I should see?"

[E.A. Claringbold]

She took the flask and looked at it warily. She wasn’t much of a drinker and from one experience, she had found out that she was not so good at holding it either. Taking a sip from the flask, she swallowed and felt the burning sensation run down her throat and into her stomach. Involuntarily she coughed and hacked, covering her mouth with her hand, face becoming flushed. Handing it back to him, she saw the Captain drink and comment about it so she knew it was not just her, though it was only her who was coughing.

“No- no tea, I’m fine, thank you,” she said as she followed the two into the gallery to meet up with the others.

Upon seeing Emma and Angel, a small smile graced her lips.

"Yes, here they are," she said as she handed the papers over. She pulled them out from her coat pocket and unfolded them before handing them to Emma.

[Stella Gaslight]

Emma looked at them half sleep at first but then her eyes popped open so quick George swore it should have been audible.  "Ooooh goodness this is delightful.  Did you know that the originally your tank was suposed to be a bit more powerful but the design was too costly to implement?  If I bribed you with ownership the final project could I keep a hold of these for a while?"

"Emma are you sure we can..."George started but Emma cut him off.

"Your father didn't give me any stipulations when he handed me that money.  I can build what I like, when I like."  She stuck her tongue out at him and then looked at Irene hopefully.   "So do we have a deal?'

[MWBailey]

"Dog tea? Sounds interesting. may I have a cup?" Dreyfuss asked.

Angel passed him a cup of the supposedly-canid beverage, and he sipped it as he watched Irene hand the pages to Miss Emma, and then Emma commented on making another, more POWERFUL TANK!??. HE kept his face neutral, and his hands steady, and he said "uh--" he had to cough once, then twice, to get rid of that annoyingly high-pitched squeak in the back of his throat, but he kept his hands steady. Oh Baccus's Butt, now there was tea on the floor, his hands weren't too steady after all; but his face, that was a rock of neutrality. um, why was everyone staring at him?
"Dreyfuss, why are you scowling like that?" George asked, an all-too-knowing and somewhat sympathetic look on his face...
Angel looked concerned and apologetic, and said, "Dreyfuss, it's OK, there's no dog in the tea, really."
"Oh, there isn't?" Dreyfuss asked, grasping at whatever straw he could get to salvage the situation.
"well, Tank God for that."

[E.A. Claringbold]

She looked at Emma with eyes wondering. A more powerful tank than her previous one which had been quite formidable. Her eyebrow arched and a mischievous like grin spread on her lips. She liked the sound of that alright.  Before she could say yes, Dreyfuss coughed. He did not seem too comfortable with the idea. When Angel told him there was no dog in the tea, Irene had to stifle a giggle. The tank had definitely made him uncomfortable. It was that much evident by his slip.

“We do have an accord on the condition that I am allowed to return to you for further modifications and additions to advance the tank in the future.”

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss cleared his throat. "Um. Any chance of putting a Descent Arrestor on the new tank? He asked, obviously trying very hard to be cooperative. Yes. That's what he was doing...

[Vancouver Air Privateer]

Elisha and Ella walked into the room, pouring themselves tea. Elisha felt exhausted. He realized he was probably still feeling the backlash from his near-death experience and surgery. But at least he knew that under pressure, he was still capable of fighting as well as ever.

"Ah. Ms. Frost is staying, I presume? That's good. Hopefully the tank is salvagable. If any help is needed with that, I'm glad to help."

He registered for the first time her face. It did not cause him to blink for a moment. He'd seen worse - his own body with it's missing limbs. And he was impressed that she made no attempt to cover it. Obviously a strong-willed person.

"Well...I guess we just make ourselves comfortable for a bit. I suppose you haven't met most of the crew...I'm Elisha and I think you already met Ella. And everyone here. I think Rowland is still in the engine room...the Captain's at the helm. Patrick's....busy at the moment but I'll assume his reputation precedes him."

He paused, looking at the empty biscuit plate.

"By the way - is anyone making dinner?"

[MWBailey]

"I was just thinking along those same lines myself, Elisha," Dreyfuss said. He walked over to the cold storage unit, and opened the door. "looks like there's part of a ham in here, a big soup bone, and a whole mess of vegetables. Ham 'n' Soup, anybody?"

[Stella Gaslight]

Emma clasped her hands together and licked her lips.  George had to wonder if this is the last thing a bit of candy saw before Angel pounced on it.  "Yes I insist I give the dear thing checkups from time to time."  She had made plenty of flying thing in the past but ground pounders were a different beast entirely and she couldn't wait to give them a try."Yup and a was also thinking of making a big coilgun like you little one.  That did work well right? I was a bit busy to see it in action much myself."

The idea of dinner set her tummy grumbling.  "But you are still hurt Dreyfuss Let me."

"No." George said cutting her off.

She pouted. "But I can.."

"No. We have had enough trouble for one day without you lighting the galley on fire or making something entirely inedible.  I will make some cornish pasties." Emma tried to pout some more but George's pasties were one of her favorite foods.  

"I can cut up the vegetables right?" She said with puppy dog eyes.

George sighed "If you must."

"Yay!" Emma looked far too happy to be welding a knife.

[MWBailey]

"Oh lordy, yes, the coilgun; I keep thinking of it as a carbine; its about the same size as the ones our marines used to be issued in the Marauders, like a long-barrelled Colt with a shoulder stock. Your coilgun hits a lot harder than they did, though, and the ammo capacity is phenomenal. Did you see how it was flashcooking those arbiters?"

"No, it's alright Miss Emma, its better for my middle and my mobility if I keep stirring around normally," Dreyfuss opined, "and anyway I dusted that zeppelin while I the wound was still 'wide open,' so to speak."

He got out the big cookpot, and put the bone in it, drew water up about 3/4 full, and started gathering the vegetables that Emma had already chopped and sliced. "Somebody else might want to do the salting," Dreyfuss said, "I love lots of salt, but I'm not everybody."

"Somebody please pass me about a fist-sized piece of that hamfat. Thanks, Miss Angel." he trimmed the gristle out of it and plopped the fat into thealready-bubbling pot.

[Stella Gaslight]

"I am glad it has worked well for you." Emma said sneaking a taste from the pot. "I want to make some more of them but I don't want to risk them falling in to the wrong hands either.  I don't want to create a new enemy while fighting this one."  Emma looked out in to the evening sky the sun was a red smudge in the distance and it was starting to snow. She looked at Angel who was telling Miss Frost a story and remembered something from her childhood.  Emma took a cooking pot with a handle and hung it outside the window.  Everyone gave her rather odd looks and shivered from the draft.  "I am making desert." She said with a grin.

[Nigel Wetherby]

Scraps skittered into the room like a dog posessed. His little canine mind zeroing in on Ella and Jen who were sitting side by side and seemed to be comparing tales of their own madly inventive (and substantially gung-ho) lovers. The contest was won by Jen's flash of a ring. Before she could gloat, scraps barked and whimpered uegently, waiting beside the door for the two.

Jen supposed it was important and stood up, placing her tea down, but keeping her cookie, feeling as if she needed the sugar to combat the residual traces of a hang-over that still lingered.

[ShredsnPatches]

"What is it, Patrick?" Jen asked as she stumped into the room. She had decided to go back for her tea after all, and clung to the enamel mug like it would save her from drowning. She noticed the prisoner.

"Oh. It's you. Weren't you trying to kill me earlier on?"

Jen became rather worse at filtering what she thought and said when hung over.

[Stella Gaslight]

Sweets came in doing her best to be cute as a button, not a small feat when one had tentacles.  It was also quite hard to look dignified when Angel made a happy noise and Sweets suddenly found herself lifted quite high in the air and then snuggled fiercely.  "Irene lady this is Sweets.  She may look like a monster but she isn't I promise."

One sat on the top of the ship watching the land below them.  He felt nether hunger or cold but there something nagging at him, a feeling of something he wished to go back to.  It was not something he was familiar with but is was surprisingly pleasant in it's own way.

[Rowland Elmstone]

A filthy Rowland came in and sat at the table. He had no idea of the battles that had been happening, but felt the ship rock a few times, and figured it would be best not to ask questions. He took out his handkerchief again and wiped his face. He nodded to everyone and removed a large coil from his pocket, dropping it on the table.

"I managed to salvage this from the sphere. It was lodged under the orb, making it expand much faster then normal. Ship should be fine now. I am doing some research on a piece of the sphere. Cutting it helped as well."

He nodded to Elisha and leaned back in his seat, undoing his tied just a bit.

[E.A. Claringbold]

At Elisha’s offer to help, she merely nodded and applied a word of gratitude. Names again. She attempted to paste their names firmly to a face; it would not do to forget them so easily.  Instead of helping out with the food, she was brought aside by Angel who told her stories from her childhood which she listened to intrigued. When she saw the tentacle being, her eyes widened in alarm and was about to draw her short sword again, but Angel took it up and embraced it with kilograms of love. Composing herself, she looked to Sweets and  gently touched a tentacle.

“Lovely to meet you Sweets.”

[Nigel Wetherby]

"He's been asking about diseases of the blood. I think it's why he was after you..." Patrick said thoughtfully.
"He doesn't seem evil like the others. He reminds me of Cadens, he has intentions, i think someone he knows is sick."
The young commodore stared amazed at the young man's deductive skills.

[Stella Gaslight]

Sweets butted her head against Irene making the universal rumbley noise that meant pet me more.  The snow was falling harder now ans bathing the ship in prolonged twilight and a swirl of white.  The pot was full of snow and Angel watched with confusion as Emma pulled milk, sugar and vanilla out if the cabinets humming. "What is she making?" Angel asked completely confused?  She had eaten snow before, it was not yummy in fact it had made her head hurt, so why would Emma get a whole bunch of it?

[MWBailey]

Groundlubbers call it "Iced cream," or "Ice cream," sometimes "Frozen custard," said Dreyfuss, taking out his fife and checking it for injury. HE had fallen a bit hard on that side a few times in the last few days, so he was a bit worried about it.He blew a few notes while he watched the soup pot boiling, making sure the soup didnt burn.

"Airshipmen, at least those of us in the underslungs, used to call it "cloud custard," Said Dreyfuss, "had to go 'way up to get the snow, at least in Texas; we'd go up and find an ice cloud and drag a sheet behind us, or spray water from the ship's ballast and make it snow on deck.We had to pile lots of it up in a cold chest, so there'd be some left unmelted when we got back down. some folks went too high, and went to sleep about the time they started to descend, and never woke up in time," he said, chuckling.
He blew a few bars of The Forked Deer just to be sure the fife was undamaged, then stopped, and was shocked at the outcry to keep playing...

[Stella Gaslight]

Angel watched as Emma mixed it all together.  It was like magic suddenly the cold wet stuff smelled good and when she tried a small bite Emma offered, it tasted good too.  Angel had decided cooking was magic, you could make pancakes out of powder and ice cream out of snow.  It was just like the stories in the fairy tale book. 

Angel watched in wonder as Dreyfuss coaxed music out of a bit of pipe.  She laughed and clapped at the sound, they all had to be magic there was no other way they could do such imposable things.