[Open] OH MAN! WHIZBANGS!

[axetrovert]

WHO: Karlach, OTA
WHAT: Arrivals, first meetings, misconceptions, research, and definitely hitting things.
WHEN: Throughout Firstfall
WHERE: Gallows, Various
NOTES: Let's cook with fire, baby.

Comments

[heirring]

"Me? Oh yes, perfectly well," spills in a rush out of her. And indeed she does seem quite all right as she hurries to disengage the grip of prosthetic hand's grip on the pull cable. Certainly there is no indication of further damage other than the smashed cabinet. The only mystery is what caused the damage to begin with; it certainly can't have been the hammer in its swinging lever.

"No, no, everything is quite all right. As intended, truly!" Wysteria throws down the cable and kicks it away. It has the air of a child guiltily hiding pieces of a broken dish under the edge of a rug.

She pushes some flyaway bits of hair back behind one ear and then the other, determined to appear entirely unconcerned over the shattered detritus a few feet away. Puts on a rictus smile. Ha ha ha hello yes this is perfectly normal, and only afterward considers—

"Wait. Who are you, precisely?"

[axetrovert]

Brightly, as she straightens: "Aces."

Karlach's no great shakes at contraptions, but the source seems obvious enough. Whether it originated from the hammer-contraption or the shield-type bit is still up in the air, but the acrid scent making her hazard a guess that it was a kind of shockwave. She's smelled similar things on the battlefield, fighting alongside mages.

It bodes well! Sort of!

She's just going to step round behind the hammer-contraption, just in case.

"Karlach. Joined up just this morning." Karlach lowers her hand, but twists her wrist to show the flames licking along her palm.

"I'd shake, but I'd hate to put your hand out of commission."

[heirring]

Wysteria pivots amenably around to continue facing the Qunari as she takes her track around the rotating device. She also begins to unbuckle the flimsy little fanned circle from her other arm, and what becomes quickly apparent by the quality of her left limb's movement is that it is in fact doubly good that Karlach isn't looking to burn off her right hand. Apparently, it's the only one the young woman is still in possession of.

"I see. That's very— it is a pleasure to make your acquaintence, Miss Karlach. My name is Madame Wysteria DE Foncé. It's very good of you to join up with us. You will of course be with the Forces division, I imagine." Most Qunari she has known, Loxley excepting, have been rather large and strapping and very suited to that sort of work.

"Are you a mage, then? Not a Rifter. Unless you have green in your other hand, or somewhere else on your person."

[axetrovert]

The dichotomy of the slightly-coming-undone hair and the briskness of the young woman's attitude, along with the prosthetic arm and the immediate recovery from the state she was in paints something of a picture of who she's dealing with.

"Well met, Madame."

Madame. Maker, they look close to the same age.

Karlach takes one step back to make sure she's not getting in the way of Madame De Foncé pathing round her device, nodding eagerly.

"Forces," she agrees, "No magic, no anchors. Just an axe and a bit of experimental mage shittery." Karlach reaches up to knock on the front of her chest to illustrate. "I was hoping someone in research might be able to take a look."

[heirring]

Wysteria's attention lowers to the burning light in the Qunari woman's chest—and then bounces briskly back up to her face, skittering somewhere around the shoulder region, and then finally returning to that arcane glow.

"I see," she says. "Yes, I suppose that would be good cause to— I'm sorry, what sort of experimental mage"—airquote, just the two fingers—"'shittery' exactly?"

The little fan shaped circle finally is pried from off her prosthetic arm. She snaps it shut with a flick of the wrist, setting the delicate arrangement of flimsy plates absently on top of the hammer swinging device. For a moment, she seems to be on the verge of forgetting about the smashed cabinet and the crushed glass and whatever foul things are presently leeching out of vials and into the workroom floor.

[axetrovert]

From the look of things, this woman has access to the lab and is actively experimenting in here, and Karlach knows she has to start somewhere.

So why do the words die on her tongue when she opens her mouth to try to begin to explain?

Like she always does, Karlach powers on through. No time for the thoughts to creep in if you outrun them.

"I've got a lyrium device ticking away in here, instead of a heart," she explains, gesturing to her chest. "Normally, it runs itself well enough. But I haven't had a tune-up in ages, and I can feel it going into serious overdrive. Would like to get that sorted."