Into The Ruins

[Moireii]

Despite their age and lack of proper maintenance, the ruins of Kaliroth stood imposingly high and expansive. From the nameless city built in their shadow they dwarfed even the most impressive structures, built in such a way modern technology couldn't truly hope to replicate anymore. That was exactly what made the ruins so valuable, though: populated mostly by technology completely lost to the modern era, just waiting to be retrieved.

The thought was just as daunting as the structures that stretched far past the horizon, when Octavia reminded herself that by the end of the day she would be part of that retrieval effort. That effort was shared by many of the large crowd gathered around the gates now.

It had become a sort of coming of age ceremony in the city: citizens would enter the ruins at the age of 20, and, if all went well, return with their own share of artifacts that would prove their worth and the worth of their family to the rest of the city. Though in Octavia's case the matter was more about reaffirming that worth. Just as much as it was the city's tradition to enter the ruins, porsperity in that field was a tradition of the Inas family l, and Octavia didn't intend on breaking that tradition.

Octavia fiddled with the artifact afixed to her belt, something she wasn't about to admit was becoming nervous habit. The object was a simple, ring-shaped thing that was made of a similar worn metal as the ruins' gates, and adorned with geometric grooves that once softly glowed blue, but were now dark and inactive.

It had become a sort of good luck charm throughout the generations. Immensely useful for survival in the ruins, but also had lasted abnormally long before finally breaking down some time after her father had been the first in generations to refuse to take it. He had claimed it was a simple fit of young rebellion which had prompted the choice, and it was one he now regret as he passed it on to his daughter. It no longer served a functional purpose, but was more of a sentimental gesture that Octavia wouldn't deny him.

She wouldn't be the only one by any stretch trying to fend for herself without something to start with. Those from less fortunate families, often looking for a chance at aristocracy by succeeding here had no choice but to enter Kaliroth empty handed, and plenty had survived the trip back. It was just a matter of not coming back empty handed from that point.

There was no sort of speech or formal announcement when the gate began to open, only the low groan of heavy hinges budging that called a tense silence from the crowd. Even as the first few people filed in there was no mad dash to get as far as possible as fast as possible. It was almost eerie to see, as any formalities and festivities leading up to it were long done and now all that remained was the realization from each person in the crowd what they would see in the coming years.

They had said goodbye to family already, and any friends who weren't also going, and they were preparing to to step into what amounted to lawless wilds in search of slowly dwindling relics of a labyrinth of a city populated only by hollow, ancient structures, and the occasional scavenger. The place was lawless and there was no guarantee of return. Yet each member of the crowd entered, doubtlessly each for their own reason. And once everyone had passed the gate it shut with a heavy and definitive clang.

 

[Peregrine]

The City of Scavengers was almost humming with excitement.

Last night, a drifter who had come to one of the taverns looking to trade for food had brought good news with him. He and his crew had been foraging near the edge of the unnamed City, the elite fortification of humanity that even the scavengers were forced to to treat with some measure of respect. However, their search had been interrupted when one of the City's gates had slowly begun to swing open, admitting a group of young adults into the Kaliroth ruins.

The scavengers were far from a united people. Most cared about little beyond their own interests. But if there was one thing they all had in common, it was their "appreciation" for the citydwellers. Why? Because the citydwellers always brought staggering amounts of supplies with them.

One citydweller could have weeks if not months worth of food on them, and some even carried relics. A lone citydweller was also almost always easier to take down than the strange monsters that stalked the streets of the ruins of Kaliroth. There were few among the scavengers who wouldn't take advantage of the situation if they caught sight of a citydweller wandering the ruin, and the newest entrants were always both the easiest and most rewarding targets.

Sterling couldn't bring himself to share their excitement. The dark haired young man was perched on the edge of a balcony, long legs swinging casually underneath him as he eavesdropped on the conversation between the scavengers who'd gathered below his feet. They were already talking about grouping up, as one of them casually boasted that he knew a path that the "newbloods" always took, and promised to split the loot with the others if they came along to help him take one down.

The scene Sterling was overlooking was a common occurrence in the Scavenger City. Alliances between scavengers were almost always tenuous and temporary, and when a group split up the only reliable way to find new people was to head there.

Few people were like Sterling, daring to roam the ruins without some form of company. There were far too many dangers located within the ruins that simply couldn't be handled by a lone person, unless they were supported by very powerful relics.

But, other than looking for a new crew, there was one other major reason people came to the Scavenger City: trade. That had been Sterling's reason as well. He normally didn't bother with scavenger trade. Most of the things they were selling could be found in large quantity out in the ruins, and Sterling, unlike many, was more than capable of living comfortably off what the ruins provided. However, an unfortunate encounter with a Metal Eater had left Sterling's scanner as nothing so much as scrap metal. He'd ended up having to trade three lesser relics for a new one.

The people below Sterling had apparently finished their negotiations. They shook on the deal, before turning to head towards the edge of the Scavenger City. Sterling dropped to the ground behind them only moments later. It was time for him to head out.

If he stuck around, hed almost inevitably wind up getting harrassed to join some other group, and experience had taught Sterling exactly how little he could trust other scavengers. Every single one of the last ten times Sterling had tried grouping up had ended in disaster for the young man. The things he carried on him were simply too useful, and too rare, for the other scavengers to think clearly about.

He also had no interest in ganging up against the citydwellers. Unlike the scavengers, Sterling didn't look at the citydwellers as easy prey. He was far more curious about them than anything. He'd heard stories of the Nameless City his whole life, and a part of him had always longed to see the world they'd created, a life that was supposed to mirror the majesty of the Ancients.

Sterling wasn't sure how many of the stories were true, but he had to believe they contained at least a few grains of truth. But he supposed that even the citydwellers, with their lives all but guaranteed within the City, couldn't bring themselves to resist the temptations that the Kaliroth ruins presented. Supposedly, that was the origin of the scavengers. Citydwellers who had been so enchanted by the mysteries and wonders of the ruins, they'd decided to never leave.

He couldn't help but find their decision foolish, if the legend was true. If so, they'd condemned their children to a life where they had to fight for every scrap, and fortune was often just a herald of a new disaster.

Sterling made it to the edge of the Scavenger City safely, and felt the faint hum that filled the city vanish. Visibly, the border between the Scavenger City and the ruins was impossible to distinguish, but everyone knew when they were still within the edges of the city. Long ago, the ancestor of the Scavenger Master had found a relic that nullified other relics, so long as they weren't exempted by the touch of specific runestones. The suppression of the relics was the reason the Scavenger City hadn't crumbled under disputes long ago, and the reason the Scavenger Master was able to hold his position, at least within the confines of his city.

Personally, Sterling found the feeling uncomfortable. Even his own special relic, a mysterious thing that had attached itself along the length of his spine, reacted to that field. He felt the headache that had formed at his temples fading as the Scavenger City drew further from him.

Out here, in the wilds of the Kaliroth ruins, Sterling was in his element. However much he might envy the citydwellers their easy life, this was his home.

 

[Moireii]

The gates separating ruins from city had closed but no one was really trapped. It existed more as a way of ensuring things that were meant to be in the ruins stayed there and anyone could have turned back at any time and been let through. That temptation lingered in the air and manifested in the form of people loitering just past the gates, faces set in uncertain expressions while many looked for familiar faces to cling to.



Octavia didn't wait up. She didn't necessarily consider herself much of a loner, but she hadn't come in here knowing anyone else, and this wasn't a setting that warranted blindly trusting strangers. Her parents had both recounted plenty about what the ruins were like: That even in disrepair it was possible to live off supplies found there, though it wasn't easy to do so, that it was good to get as far from the gate as quickly as possible, as most supplies from that area had been picked clean by generations of expedition, and that going alone was safer than going with strangers. Alone was hard, but at least you only had yourself to watch over. When strangers were involved it became impossible to say who was incompetent, who was desperate, and who was lying until it was often already too late.



She was one of the first few to venture out from the shadow of the gate and choose a path, with more regard to the fact that it lead towards the densest section of the city she could currently see. There would be more to search in that section- and while it may have been picked over the monolithic towers that looked all the more imposing when standing at their base implied plenty of room to still have leftover stores.



The artifact thumped against her leg with each step, and eventually the rhythm became irritating as Octavia stopped, removed it from her belt, and tucked it away inside her supply bag. In its current state it couldn't very well serve a purpose, so it may as well stay out of the way. She tucked it away behind two journals, her hand lingered on the older of the two, it's pages yellowed and its leather binding weathered. The other one was new and blank, and she had nothing to record just yet, so she would wait a while longer.



Her interest snapped back to her surroundings, though, as she heard shuffling in a nearby alley. Heavy footfalls that most definitely didn't sound human encroached and Octavia tensed, prepared to run at the first sign of something amiss. That something came in the form of a large mass of mechanical sinew that accumulated into some vaguely animalistic shape and marched on four leg-like protrusions out of the alley and into the street in front of her. It turned to her, leveling an eyeless and indifferent gaze at her, and its jaws creaked open rigidly to reveal metallic teeth. Octavia didn't need to see more than that, she just ran.

 

[Peregrine]

Sterling had quickly worked his way into the depths of the ruins. Kaliroth was huge, to the point that even he, a true drifter at heart, had never managed to find its edges. It circled around the Nameless City, butted up against the coast, and then extended inland apparently indefinitely. But there were certainly denser areas, where the ancients must have lived in much greater number. There the walls of the ruins stretched so far up into the sky that they got lost in the grey haze of the air, and sunlight might only touch the deepest parts of the alleys a few times a year.

Scavengers both loved and feared these "core" areas, drawn in by the temptation of relics left abandoned on the streets or within buildings, only to be swallowed alive by the ruins and never seen again. Sterling had been working his way towards the heart of the core area since he'd left the Scavenger City, winding up and down through the narrow, interconnected hallways of the middle levels of the building. All of the scavengers had long since learned it was safer to travel inside the buildings than outside them. There was always the risk of running afoul of some monster or contraption, no matter where you were, but at least the monsters inside of the buildings were smaller, and therefore easier to fight off if they turned aggressive.

With a careful sidestep, Sterling stepped onto the back of one of the monsters, which was slowly pushing its way through the floor of the building. It's spine jutted up on two sides, and Sterling grabbed on gently, afraid of accidentally alarming the creature and causing it to stop moving, submerge back into the floor, or split open its back and cause him to fall in. As he stared at the hard, metal tiles of its back, he felt a tingle racing up his spine, before faint blue lights began to appear along its length. The creature seemed to shiver slightly, before its pace sped up, pulling Sterling quickly along down the dark hallway.

He stepped off a few moments later, back onto still ground, and the blue light on the creature's back faded. It continued on down the hallway, slowly curving out of his view. Sterling knew if he waited here for only a few minutes another creature would show up, but right now he was eager to get back to the building he'd been exploring before the metal eater had appeared and ruined his scanner. He was convinced there was something buried under the floor there, and he wanted to see if he could dig it out before another monster showed up.

Walking with gentle steps across a fragile crystal walkway, Sterling was suddenly brought to a halt by the sound of footsteps and a metallic clattering coming from down one of the streets. He paused immediately, crouching into a smaller bundle while trying to conceal himself behind one of the metal supports. Whatever was coming down the alley, it sounded ground-bound, but he didn't really want it sending off some signal if it caught sight of him.

However, as he peeked around the corner, he suddenly caught sight of a young woman, hair disheveled and gasping for breath, racing down the alley. Behind her, a mechanical behemoth barreled after her, eyes almost glowing in the darkness. Sterling stood frozen in shock at the figure.

She was clearly not a scavenger. Most scavengers wore single piece suits, relics like clothing that were generally easily found in large numbers, and helped to keep the scavengers safe and comfortable in any environment. She, however, wore the styled threads that Sterling mostly found traded as novelties in the Scavenger city. However, what made it far more obvious that she wasn't a scavenger was the fact that she ran straight past an open doorway into the buildings, continuing down the street at top speed in Sterling's direction.

For a moment Sterling wavered, before eventually sighing to himself and pulling a stretchy rope out from the bag slung across his shoulders. He anchored one end of the rope into a metal support on the cracked crystal bridge, and pressed the other one against his back. A pair of gloves made from a similar material were placed on his hands a few moments later. Breathing slowly and deeply, Sterling timed the girl's and monster's approach, before flinging himself over the edge of the bridge.

He felt the rope stretching against his back, slowing his fall. He landed at the bottom of the alley with a thump, his knees bending to absorb the shock, before he threw himself at the woman who was racing past. His hands looped under her arms, before the tacky material on his gloves stuck to her chest. With a sharp jerk, the rope on his back compressed, sending them flying up towards the bridge again.

"You're fine," he told her, trying to keep his voice steady. He wouldn't be able to lift them back over the edge of the bridge until she relaxed and climbed up on her own. "Stop struggling. It can't get you up here, I promise."

 

[Moireii]

The creature moved slow, and adrenaline kept Octavia well ahead of it, but it's mechanical body made it unlikely to tire and Octavia didn't know the area well enough to lose it. Her mind raced, trying to figure something out, but most of her attention was diverted to dodging debris that had accumulated in the streets over centuries of neglect.

Then something lached on to her, and with a sharp tug she first thought she was falling- panic made it difficult to tell much of anything beyond she was moving in a way she very much hadn't been intending to- the abrupt movement pulled a startled cry from her, which turned into a struggle when she realized that she wasn't falling, but being pulled up.

It wasn't until a man's voice spoke behind her that she realized those were hands that she was feeling, and that she wasn't currently under attack. It was enough of a reassurance to stop her struggling, even if she's didn't fully relax just yet. She tried to look over her shoulder to see who it was that had just saved her, but the angle didn't really allow her a good look.

"What was that?" She finally breathed as she began to regain her composure. She looked down at the streets below as the creature continued it's charge, seemingly heedless that she was no longer in front of it. She still wore a bewildered look, further emphasized by the way her dark, curly hair had started to work its way out of the bun she had pinned in back into.

 

[Peregrine]

"Sweeper," Sterling grunted back, his words somewhat clipped. "And I'd be happy to tell you all about it once we're not dangling off the edge of a bridge."

Sterling twisted slightly, bringing up one of his legs and hooking it on one of the supports on the outside of the bridge. "Reach up," he instructed, even as he used his legs as a support to hoist her up towards the lip of the railing. "You're going to need to climb over on your own. I'll be right behind you."

As soon as the woman seemed to have a firm grip on the bridge Sterling tugged his hands twice, sharply, causing the sticky gloves to unseal from where they'd been keeping his arms locked around her chest. It set the girl free to climb over the railing to safety, but it also meant that his arms were no longer acting as a harness, keeping her securely in place.

Then again, Sterling decided, if she fell to her death attempting such a simple maneuver, it would probably be for the best. She'd be all but guaranteed to suffer a much, much more painful death elsewhere in the ruins if she couldn't even manage something so simple.

As soon as Octavia was over the edge, Sterling hauled himself up after her, executing the move with ease thanks to the help of the sticky gloves and the extra handhold provided by the rope. As soon as his feet were firmly planted on the crystal bridge again, Sterling set about the slightly more complicated process of removing the anchored rope from the bridge and his own back. If two quick tugs was all it took to unsecure that rope, he would likely have long since fallen to his death already.

All the same, he executed the required moves with the familiarity of long practice, and it took less than a minute before the rope was coiled back up inside his bag. Only at that point did he turn back to the woman he had just rescued.

"You are not going to last very long in Kaliroth," he told her, a faint trace of amusement in his voice. "If you can't figure out it's a good idea to go sideways if something big is chasing you down a street."

 

[Moireii]

Without further question, Octavia followed Sterling's direction as she climbed up. She may not have displayed the same skill that came with daily practice as he had, but she at least had the compentency to imply some level of practical training.

Even the nobility of the city had to earn their place, and for the vast majority that meant bringing something of value back from their own pilgrimage into Kaliroth. And regardless of wealth or status, those tripe were not without physical toil that anyone in their right mind would see fit to prepare well in advance for.

Octavia pulled herself up on to the ledge, and Sterling wasn't far behind her. She stepped back as he set to work detaching the rope, both out of respect for any concentration the process may have required, but also in interest over how the device worked. He finished, placing the rope back in his back and turning back to her. She was about to say something- thank him for saving her life at least, but he spoke up first.

The affronted look she gave him momentarily took over any gratitude she was about to express, though it was only about as serious as his jab at the unfortunate display he had seen from her just now.
"Well," her voice had that sort of guilty raise to it of someone who knew they didn't have an excuse, but was trying it anyway, "It would be hard to just assume that would work, given I've never seen anything like it before. But thank you, I'll keep that in mind next time I find one."

Grousing aside, she finally got a good look at the man who had saved her, and almost immediately her attention was pulled away from any injuries to her pride.

"You... aren't from the city, are you?" Her tone as she noted the strange fitted suit he wore was more a surprised observation than an accusation. She at least didn't recognize him from the crowd she had entered with, and he clearly knew enough about this place to have extensive experience, despite not looking all that much older than Octavia herself. Scavengers still existed, but then many of them had no reason to help out someone from the city. Either way he hardly seemed like he was intending to cause harm at the moment, so she wasn't intending to antagonize.

 

[Peregrine]

"From the city?" Sterling repeated, traces of humor still evident in his tone. "No, not even close. I suppose congratulations should be in order; judging by the look on your face, you've just had the pleasure of meeting your first scavenger."

He laughed again, clearly pleased with himself for the quip, before another thought suddenly seemed to occur to him. "Ah, don't worry. I'm a drifter, not a marauder, and don't have any particular interest in whatever dross you might be carrying with you. Though, I'd doubt you'll be so lucky again if you run into any others of my ilk, so don't go considering that the norm."

Sterling tightened the straps on his bag, double checking in the process that the pouch he'd pulled the rope from was properly closed. "As lovely as this has been," he concluded, offering a smile and a tilt of the head. "It is time for me to be on my way. Good finding and safe travels to you."

 

[Moireii]

"Oh," was Octavia's simple reply as he explained that he was, in fact, a scavenger. Her shocked and slightly wary expression made it clear that the simple reply was far more out of not knowing how to respond rather than lack of interest. He went on to explain that he had no interest in stealing from her, and she at least seemed less wary, at least.

It wasn't like she had much of interest for him to take anyway. She had brought supplies for survival of course, but a drifter so acclimated to the ruins probably had better ways of finding supplies than waiting for the yearly influx of people coming in from the city, or so she assumed. And aside from that all she had was an old journal and a broken artifact.

Either way it didn't matter much, because he was already getting ready to leave and that realization forced Octavia out of her musings.
"Wait!" She blurted out, almost before she had even actually thought about it,
"You said you would explain what that thing was." She gestured broadly over the ledge, where the Sweeper had passed by moments ago. It wasn't really the biggest and most pressing question she had, and if what he said about the other scavengers was true then she likely wouldn't get a chance to ask most of them for a long time, if at all. Still, he had said that, even if it was most likely just to get her to shut up and climb.

 

[Peregrine]

Sterling came to a halt at Octavia's cry, turning around with one brow quirked and another smile playing on the edges of his lips. He couldn't really blame her for calling him back, as she quickly picked out an excuse to keep him from vanishing. Scavengers weren't the only ones who liked to travel in groups. From what Sterling knew, most of the citydwellers did as well. Although a lone person might be able to hide from the various monstrosities that roamed the ruins better than a group, there were far too many odd situations and strange locations, where a person might end up trapped forever if they didn't have someone to pull them out of the fire.

He couldn't help but wonder how she'd ended up on her own, so quickly after coming to the city. She didn't look like someone who had recently lost companions, so maybe she had simply been like Sterling, willing to risk the dangers of the city by himself if it meant he didn't have to deal with untrustworthy people. Either his saving her life landed him firmly in the category of 'trustworthy', or a brush with death had changed her opinion.

"Not keen on finding yourself alone in the ruins again?" he called out with a casual cheerfulness that said he wasn't the least bit bothered by her reluctance. "That's fine, but we need to keep moving. Sweepers aren't the only thing that roam the alleys, and many of them aren't as easy to escape." He beckoned her up next to him, before setting off again, aiming for the building on the other side of the crystal bridge.

"Sweepers are scavengers," he said. "They roam the city to devour the remains of other monsters, wounded or dead. But apparently something about us registers as 'dead' to them, because they'll come after us as eagerly as they'll chase down some sick monsters."

Sterling paused as they came to the end of the bridge, where nothing waited but an apparently solid wall. However, his hands ran along the edge of the crystal bridge, before there was a faint, electric hum, and the wall split down the middle to grant them access. Sterling stepped aside, allowing Octavia access first, before stepping up behind her. "They're fast and efficient, and it's quite the sight to watch them hunt other, wounded monsters. But the alleys are their territory, and they never go inside the buildings."

 

[Moireii]

Octavia frowned at Sterling's assumption. She really had only stopped him because she wanted answers, but now that she remembered that she was, in fact, alone here she wasn't exactly about to argue.Instead she followed after him as he explained just what that creature had been.

There had been plenty of stories of what was found in the ruins. It was only natural with how many people passed through with intent of bringing back as much of the ruins as possible, that they would also bring back stories too. Talk of monsters happened too, but only in such vague terms that one couldn't really prepare for it. Perhaps when she got the chance she would record that, now that she had personally experienced how little what she did know had prepared her for it. But that would have to wait for now.

"We knew coming in that there's monsters here," she noted out loud, "but very little about what they're like. It's hard to tell what stories about this place are exaggeration and what just is." She watched as Sterling opened a hidden doorway with the same practiced efficiency he had displayed while working with those artifacts, and made a mental note that it would be good to ask him that, too.

"We don't see anything like those monsters in the city. Where did they come from?"

 

[Peregrine]

"Really," Sterling queried as the young woman told him that the citydwellers didn't know much about the monsters that lived in the ruins. Then again, he supposed it wasn't that surprising if he thought about it. Inside their safe walls, protected by their mighty gates, the citydwellers didn't have to worry about monsters in their day to day lives. Only when they came out into the ruins would it matter, but that was a very limited window to collect information, and those who had the most important information would often end up paying with their lives for it.

The Scavengers, on the other hand, had to confront those changes on a daily basis. If a drifter didn't have the necessary knowledge to deal with a monster attack, they'd be dead long before they were able to make it to the next Scavenger City. Information about the monsters was one of the only thing that scavengers didn't object to sharing. You never knew when some random piece of information shared by someone might be the difference between life and death.

With the door to the crystal bridge once more sealed behind them, Sterling turned his attention to the room in front of them. It was thin and long, traveling along the edge of the building, glass windows allowing for a view of the streets outside. However, other than the two people and a couple empty pots, the place appeared deserted. Sterling turned to the left and started walking.

"Where did they come from?" Sterling repeated, glancing over his shoulder to cast a critical glance over the young woman. "They've been here. Many of them are physically a part of the ruins. I think the far better question might be 'where did your city come from'."

"What's your plan now, citydweller?"

 

[Moireii]

Where did your city come from? Octavia's face scrunched in confusion at the question.
"Where any other city comes from, I imagine." Despite the sureness of her phrasing, Octavia couldn't say that with complete confidence and she was sure the uncertainty had slipped into her tone in some way. They were well aware that civilization exited outside of their city and the parts of the ruins settled by scavengers, but they had very little contact with the outside world. She couldn't truly be sure about the specific histories of really any other place.

"It was founded by a man who spent his life researching these ruins, and built by his followers as a temporary settlement for any researchers. Eventually it grew into a real city over generations." She could at least be sure of that, history of the city was meticulously well-documented as it often factored into the research it had been founded on.

Even as she spoke she found herself preoccupied with the impossible architecture around her. Despite their best attempts to recreate Kaliroth's technology, it seemed they were a long way off from true replication of anything like these crystalline bridges that seemed to shift at one's mere presence. She turned her attention back to sterling at his next question.

"My plan is the same as always. I'll continue to see what I can find, whether it be artifacts I can bring back or information." She shrugged. True, her first experience was bad, but she had never assumed navigating the ruins would be easy, and it was hardly excuse enough to return empty-handed less than 24 hours in.

 

[Peregrine]

Sterling let out a faint, noncommittal hum at the girl's statement that it came from the same place as any other city. He'd seen a lot of the ruins, earned his tag as a drifter by visiting several scavenger cities, but he'd never seen anything like the Unnamed City before.

All the same, he wasn't particularly inclined to disagree with her. It wasn't as though his question, or her reply, had been anything more than idle conversation. Where her city came from certainly didn't have any impact on Sterling, especially not when he couldn't even enter it.

He glanced back at her, one brow raised slightly. "That's not much of a plan," he replied teasingly. "It scant counts as guidelines. Plans usually contain details."