Team Shift Happens
Team Information and Story Start
When Janne from Team Hillbilly Rollers wandered over, before he’d even spoken, Rukari said, “Vuri ada ahd nevuri marin,” without even looking to see who was there.
Malavera shook his head and sighed. “That’s one of his traditional greetings. It means, roughly, ‘Strong wind and calm water.’ Rukari’s people have a strong sailing culture, from what he’s said to me.”
After Janne asked how they were doing, Malavera chuckled. “We’re doing okay, at least,” Malavera said, the now-very-dull aviation snips still in his hand, with a pile of 1/8 inch steel plate pieces sitting nearby. “Going to need to get a new set of these, though. I ruined them.”
“I told this zaruki those not meant to cut thick sheet, he cut thick sheet anyway,” Rukari said, still paying attention to the pieces of steel he was welding together with the oxyacetylene torch.
Malavera looked to Janne and gave a light shrug. “English is, well, definitely not his first language,” he said, handing Rukari another piece of the sheet-metal engine-mount puzzle.
“Still know more than you,” Rukari grumbled. “Can speak Valraad, Therys, Gand, Old Gand, Cruka, Sirpens, ahd Anglass.”
Malavera stared at Rukari, slightly stunned that the Valraadi knew seven languages. “Shit. I guessed that he knew eight,” Malavera said.
“My xelthila, my mother in this tongue, she taught me that knowing what others say when they think you not understand their words, that is important. Were I to become Vilzahir, I would have needed that. As one of the Vyrzadoburi, it was still a useful talent,” Rukari replied.
Malavera smiled. “He’s the son of the Valraadi Empress. He became essentially special forces,” Rukari explained to Janne. “Vyrzadoburi translates out to ‘Violent walkers of death.’ I’ve never asked about his history in battle, but it’s probably impressive.”
Rukari set the welding torch down for a moment, looked Janne in the eyes for a brief moment, the dark orange in his eyes briefly reflecting the sunlight with an otherworldly cat-like glow, just before he said, “I have seen battle, yes. 247 successful missions.”
(Note, Rukari’s way of saying numbers is different, he would say each number in sequence, so “two-four-seven” instead of "two hundred forty seven.)
“What counted as successful, then?” Malavera asked.
“I was not seen, not heard, the target either captured or dead,” Rukari said, before finishing the welds on the engine mount. “You need put in rubber,” Rukari then said, looking to Malavera.
Malavera nodded. “Guess I’m probably the only one here who can,” he said.
Rukari put out the torch and put it back in the holder on the welding cart, rummaged in his pockets for an old, well-worn wood-and-brass pipe and his pipe tobacco, packed the pipe and lit it using the same sparker he used to light the torch earlier. After exhaling a long breath of smoke, Rukari gave a grimace and shrugged off his leather jacket, revealing the dark gray shirt underneath, his shining brass tags, and a bit more of his dark gray fur with black stripes. “Not know how you handle this heat,” Rukari grumbled. “Snow better.”
“He’s from a very cold climate,” Malavera explained. He then turned to Rukari. “Go smoke that somewhere else, the fumes are making me light headed.”
Rukari merely glared at Malavera and blew smoke in his general direction instead. Malavera scowled, scooped up the motor mounts, grabbed the rubber bushings to put inside them, and moved upwind of Rukari’s tobacco smoke.
Kaylie wandered over, leaving Kayden near the Australians as she saw the group standing around near the welding cart. “So, what’s going on?” she asked, stepping so that the sunlight stopped reflecting off of her chrome left arm into Janne’s face. “Sorry,” she said.
Malavera nodded toward Janne, then said to Kaylie, “He’s from the team with the checkered-up Saarland. We’ve got some reindeer jerky and some beers from them in the back of the Bricksley. Rukari welded up these brackets, and I’m trying,” Malavera paused for a brief moment as he popped the rubber engine mount bushing into place, “to put the bushings into them.”
Kaylie nodded, then headed over to the car, returning with three bottles of beer. She handed one to Rukari and one to Malavera, before rummaging in her pockets for a bottle opener.
Rukari stuck the claw of his right thumb under the rim of the cap and popped it off before taking a long drink from the bottle.
Malavera, meanwhile, just twisted off the non-twist-off cap and, like Rukari, let the cap fall to the ground. He took a sip, smiled, and said to Janne, “This is good beer.”
Kaylie scowled as she couldn’t find her bottle opener, extended the titanium claws on her mechanical left hand, and twisted the bottle with her right, cutting through the glass until she was able to pop the cap of the bottle free, complete with the rim of the glass bottle still inside it. “Damned show-offs,” Kaylie grumbled, taking a swig of the beer and tossing her cap to the ground as well.
OOC: @Knugcab Yeah, I know, you said ‘cans’ and I had them opening bottles, but, to be fair, none of them would have done well with cans. It wrote better this way.
Edit: @AndiD if you want to have your team notice the littering of bottle caps, one of which has glass still in it, feel free.
@interior Figured it made sense that Rukari and Malavera would be quick about making brackets. Rukari is, after all, good with a welding torch, and Malavera definitely ruined a set of aviation snips cutting good thick metal to make some brackets.
