hellburger | (no subject)

Current Location: Industrial District, The Nexus

Entry tags:

ixis naugus

(no subject)

Kazuhira Miller leans against a brick wall covered in the illegible remains of old wheatpaste posters, layered with a smattering of graffiti. With the exception of his bright yellow scarf, his uniform looks entirely at home among the coveralls and drab work clothes of the Industrial District's labor force. Workers representing various species wander past on the way to work sites and factories while others huddle together to eat lunch or enjoy a smoke break.

Miller looks down at his watch compulsively, only to be reminded once again that it stopped the moment he set foot in the Nexus. He sighs, pulls a Rite in the Rain notebook out of his breast pocket, and flips through pages covered in copious notes while he waits for a certain Mobian magus to appear.

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And appear he does! A quick trip back to his tower after that rousing movie was concluded and he hurries his way through the shadows; this district offers plenty of them for him to get around. Ixis Naugus' ugly mug pops from the wall closest to Kaz from a slanted patch of darkness cast by a nearby floodlight.

"Homesick at last, hm?" he says loudly, maybe indeed hoping he'll startle the man. "Though I wonder why you'd want your portal hidden someplace as grimy and distant as this." He pulls himself free of the shadow, landing heavily onto his boots as he dusts himself off. "Paranoid someone will follow you home?"

Miller flips his notebook closed and slides it back into his pocket. If he's startled by Naugus' volume, he doesn't show it.

"Nah, this location is for practical purposes." He pushes himself off the wall to walk forward a few paces, then turns on his heel to take in the rest of the derelict warehouse to which it's connected. The upper third of the building is slotted with windows, at least half of which have been broken. This side of it boasts a couple of rusty, loading bay doors with burnt-out light fixtures over each. One of the doors has been rolled open, but little is visible beyond the shadowy forms of old machinery.

He claps his hands together. "Before we get down to business, I just have a few questions."

Naugus looks over the building when Kaz does, sneering slightly at the derelict state of things. What a dump. Though at the mention of questions, he looks back to the man with a wide, bright smile. Way too many teeth in that mouth.

"Yes! Of course. Ask away."

Kaz maintains his poker face, even if his lip is sorely tempted to curl in digust at the sight of that smile.

"First off, how does this work, exactly? What's there to stop just anyone from wandering through whenever they like?"

"Well, if that is a concern like I said it would be with you," he says with a raised finger and a pointed return to that comment about Kaz being paranoid, "I can always arrange there to be a keystone. Something that you keep on your person that will allow you to come and go only when you have it. Anyone else without it would find themselves ejected back on the same side they attempted to step through. And if you wished to bring people with you one way or another, they'd have to maintain contact with you to make it through."

A crab claw is extended and aims to tap its pincer on the bridge of the soldier's shades. Dink. "These might be an idea."

"So it uses a 'key', then. Fair enough." He oh-so-casually shifts his weight away from Naugus and turns his head to avoid the claw. "Next question: any limitations? In regards to size and what materials can pass through? Most portals are doors, right? What if the surrounding structure is compromised?"

Okay, more like a flood of questions. He's a cautious overlander, this one.

Naugus strokes his beard with his one hand as he considers his answers. "Limits? Size can be a little risky; make it too large and you run the possibility of it expanding on its own due to lower stability. But anything can be fastened to a single shape with the right finesse." Which is not how Naugus plays when it comes to magic, but he can do it. He just has to be asked to or care enough.

"If this horrible barn of metal and glass comes down, the portal will remain. It stands on its own, after all. Which is what you meant, right? If you're so worried about that, why not find someplace that doesn't look like it's about to rot apart any second now?!"

"I appreciate your concern, but I don't think it'll be an issue," he says curtly when his choice of site comes into question. He clasps his hands behind his back and takes a few more pacing steps.

"And your price? Still the same bargain? Surely you've got some fine print I can review!"

"Do I look like I deal in writing like some mincing lawyer? No, no, all I ask is we enter an agreement! That you'll not tamper with the portal on your own, end up maiming yourself in the process and then blame me for it. If something needs to change, you'll come to me rather than do anything foolish with powers you don't understand."

Naugus sweeps out his arm, saying with a 'pleasant' smile, "A simple handshake and little else! A fine exchange if there ever was one, don't you agree?"

After a long pause, Miller closes the distance between himself and the mage. "How 'bout you cut the crap, Naugus? Nobody does anything for free. Even charity work is done for the good PR."

He puts his arms akimbo and frowns. "But from what I've seen, you don't really care about your public image. So what are you getting out of this, exactly?"

Naugus puts on a faux offended expression, scandalized! "Why, simply the good feeling I get laying in bed, thinking back on all the kind things I've done for others trapped in the Nexus like myself! Would you suspect me of anything less, good sir?"

Miller laughs humorlessly at that. "I would, and I do!"

He crosses one arm under the other and chops the air with a flattened palm to emphasize his next point. "Look. I hate being in debt. I like to keep things clean. Let me pay you up-front for this. I can offer you services, resources, guns, intel, protection ... You name it, I can probably make it happen."

Naugus visibly shudders in disgust at some of the things listed. "Guns!? What do I care for your horrible technology? And protection is something I already have plenty of under my own power! But!"

He leans in, looking at Miller sidelong conspiratorially. "Let's say it just comes down to a favour in the future. Call in some manpower when I may need it for my affairs here in the Nexus. Does that sit all right with you? Clear terms, no unsaid tricks. Simple!"

Miller peers closely, silently at Naugus. He would still much rather all of this was in writing, but he gets the feeling there's no real way to enforce the stipulations of a contract in a place like this. "I can work with that. Of course, I'd appreciate proper forewarning and some briefing on your 'affairs', but consider it a deal."

He offers his hand.

"A deal is struck!" Naugus takes that hand energetically and firmly. And maybe it's just the grimy state of this Nexus region, the questionable streetlamps, but...did the lights just flicker and darken for a moment there? Was there a spark of red light in the mage's eyes for a fleeting second?

Regardless of that having been a trick of the eyes or not, Naugus soon withdraws his hand and turns on his heels, striding with purpose towards the warehouse. "I imagine you'll be wanting it inside this place then?"

The shake is returned with confident firmness. The electrical phenomenon doesn't escape Miller's notice, but all it gets is a frown and a mental note to have someone scope out the surrounding infrastructure for compromised wires.

He takes a few long strides to get ahead of Naugus, passing through the loading bay door and into the dusty shadows of the warehouse. The upper windows project grids of light onto the cluttered shapes of derelict equipment, crates, and cobwebs. He picks his way through this maze to a wall that divides the floor plan more or less in half. This is cut with an opening twice the size of one of the loading bays and flanked with steel sliding doors.

Kaz claps a hand on the frame of the door and turns to Naugus. "So! Can you work with this?"

Naugus watches the other man disappear into that maze of junk and decides to just circumnavigate that mess. Instead, the wizard hops up onto the top of the nearest piece of equipment and bounces his way from one surface to another with a little boost of air magic to get him across each gap he can't close on his own power. Finally, he thumps down heavily next to Kaz, looking over the doors in front of him.

"The whole thing as one large portal? And maintaining the doors, correct?" He shakes out hand and claw in preparation. "I believe I can manage this."

"Yes and yes," Miller confirms, stepping out of the way to cross his arms and lean against a stack of crates. "Assuming the thing can still be used as a normal door when necessary. Just a matter of not using the 'key', right?"

"Exactly! Though stepping through it without the keystone might be a little of a nasty sensation. But you'll get used to it, I'm sure. Now!" He claps hand and claw together, looking at Kaz with that big, toothy grin again. "What shall we use to tether the Nexus to your world? I assume this is going to your world, of course. I won't judge if that's not the case, of course. Your business is your own."

"Right, right." Miller is loathe to use Naugus' suggestion, but he's definitely not going to misplace his prized sunglasses. What better key? He pulls them off and hands them to the mage. "Just be careful with 'em. Sentimental value."

His brow furrows as he tries to work out the logistics of where the portal will connect. "My world. Costa Rica. How specific do you need me to get?"

"Of course. Certainly. And perhaps if you described this...'Costa Rica', I'd be able to make sure that that's where it leads. You've been there before, yes?"

As he talks, Naugus kneels down and starts to scrape sigils and circles into the dirty floor, the tip of his claw drawing furrows into the solid surface as if it were sand. The sunglasses get, for now, placed on his own brow for safe-keeping while he needs both hand and claw to work. Propped up there just on top of that bizarre horn of his.

Miller is happy to chatter while he watches Naugus work. "Costa Rica's on the Central American isthmus. Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the south. Lush and tropical. Exports lots of coffee. Goes great with some gallo pinto. My organization has an outpost on the coast -- the eastern side of the country, on the Caribbean Sea. Stop me if this is all jibberish."

"And hey -- is that stuff gonna be permanent?" His eyes narrow and he lifts his chin at the sigils. "I don't exactly want everyone and his mother to know there's a portal here."

"I'd highly recommend you not tamper with any of this. Cover it up if you have to. Break the runes, break the portal. If you'd like, I can just lower it into the earth when I'm done and cover it with a layer of stone? Safe and away from anything that could damage it."

He glances up at Kaz after finishing a second circle around the first, one ear quirking questioningly.

"Please do. I'll have personnel coming through and I don't think they'll be at ease with damn-near satanic-looking markings. Latin American recruits. Lots of Roman Catholics." Miller doesn't particularly expect Naugus to understand any of that. He's just making conversation at this point.

"You gonna have enough to go on? What else do you need from me?"

"Satanic? What does that even mean? Don't make up words. Are Roman Catholics some sub-breed of Overlander?" He scoffs either way, because man, so fussy about some runes! And here he's working so HARD on them! But he can't cut corners now anyway; one messed up line means a messed up portal.

"Oh, plenty. Plenty to work on. I assume you've had these with you when you've been to this Coastal Rico?" Naugus pulls off the glasses from behind his horn and looks them over before sliding them on. Just because he can. Whoa, it's dark! "Drawing the place from memories will be easier than having to look at a map and conjure coordinates."