Meet and Greet

"So Grimwald...Walder...Tell me a little bit about yourself. You seem like a man who's got a story or two, and since only twenty out of our crew of thirty have come by, we've still got plenty of time to kill." said Dmitry.

Walder sat with Dmitry and his teammates, the men and women of the Bell Men free company. He sat with them in the lounge area of the coffee, making conversation instead of just head out once he'd showed his face like most others would do, because he really didn't have anywhere he needed to be heading to.

His reasons for sticking around might have also had something to do with the fact, that while Walder had indeed experienced many things in his past life, this was his first time being a regular member of a guild like the heroes guild.

This was one situation where the eons old Walder was actually just as green as your average youth. He naturally wouldn't be all that savvy about the etiquette for what to do during these kinds of meet and greets.

He'd watched enough senior folk come by, chat for a few minutes, and then head back out to do something else with their day, to know that leaving was an option. However it'd taken slightly too long for him to pick up on that, and now he was in an awkward situation where, even if he'd wanted to leave he'd be unsure of how to do so without coming off as rude.

Fortunately, Dmitry and his pals were amiable folk, and if they minded the nineteen year old's presence, they certainly didn't show it. Which was part of the problem.

If they'd been impatient to see him off, unfriendly, or rude, Walder would have known what to do. In his first life, after he'd "left,"or rather after he'd purged the cult he'd spent his days not being wanted by anybody. Until he'd turned fifty, the only time a large amount of people 'wanted' him around was after they'd seen his face on a bounty board.

Which is to say, that Grimwald Alexander Cerveny was someone who knew how to smoothly extricate himself from an area when his presence was unwanted. He didn't however know how to do so, when people were fine with him just kind of hanging out...That was something he didn't really have experience with.

Even at his mother's home in Bellerose, and in the Cerveny clan's main estate, he'd never really clicked with most rest of the family. Which meant he never really had an opportunity to pick up those skills.

Since he was stuck for the time being, Walder figured he might as well try and enjoy himself. He thought about Dmitry's question then tried to supply an answer. Choosing to be as truthful as possible while not giving away anything more than would be wise.

"Stories? Hm...I guess everyone has a few, but I don't think I have any stories you'd interest in hearing...I moved to Odillia from Roseheart just a couple months ago...Then I joined the guild and here I am."

"Odillia from Roseheart, hm...Wait, isn't Roseheart city in Bellerose, all the way over in the Red-Jericho system?! That's quite a trip. See anything interesting while on your way here?" said Harold Wu, the dvergr with a scholarly appearance.

"Mhm...Not really, I mostly just stayed inside the ship. Doing my own thing." said Walder. Feeling slightly bad as he saw the Dvergr look disappointed by his answer.

While he still held romantic notions when it came to the exploration of new 'worlds', lands, and cultures. Walder had done enough exploration, and in depth observation of space itself, and the space-time continuum, that it was just sort of part of the background for him.

The stellar void was like an old frenemy and due to his familiarity with it, he just sort of took it for granted. The stars sang in his blood, and the void lived in his bones, he'd literally watched a new universe be born. If he was still losing his mind over merely flying through the cosmos after all he'd seen and done, Walder never be able to get anything done.

"Ah...Well…. How was life in Roseheart then?" asked Dmitry. Aware that the mood in the group was about to turn weird.

"Warm mostly. Bellerose is pretty tropical as far as garden worlds go, and its place in the system's goldilocks region is still slightly too close to the Red-Jericho system's sun. So yeah, life in Roseheart was hot. Though that did mean there were a lot of water parks, and beach resorts, and the like...that was fun." said Walder.

"Oh, careful, start with that topic and you'll get Kate started too...she used to be a competitive swimmer, you know?" said Harold. Seeming to have recovered from his earlier disappointment.

"Hm? Really now? Well that's interesting? Which circuit?" asked Walder. Glad for the topic change.

"Blue Nebula...It's where Rebecca and I met." said the therian. Her voice soft and low. Her ears twitching slightly.

"Hm? Who's Rebecca?" said Walder.

"Domino's sister….She recently passed, but she was one of our closest friends." said Dmitry.

There was a moment of silence as everyone let the statement lie, then the conversation soon resumed. With Walder and the Bell Men talking affably while last remaining members of the team came in to follow the custom of showing their faces, so both sides could decide how much they'd be trusting the other.

An hour and a half went by and Walder ended up sticking around long enough, to see the twenty-eight member of the party come and go.

"Well, we've been here jawing your ear off, we might as well actually do something meaningful with the time since you seem to be the somewhat reliable sort...How about you tell us a little about 'Grimwald the guildsman,' so we can get a sense of where you'd fit on the team?" said Dmitry. Whilst sipping the last of his espresso.

"Alright,...speaking in terms of combat experience, I don't really have much that I can point you to. I do have some formal training but I've just started as a guildsman so I don't really have any achievements yet...I 'did' successfully complete a job on Nabrok, but that's nothing to write home about."

"Huh, well that's okay...You're only what...19? 20? It'd be weird if you had too many kills under your belt at this age….How about powers though? Can you do anything interesting?" said Dmitry.

"Uh...I don't know? I don't think I've got anything interesting going on. I've got some moderate serum enhancement and some nanite-based cybernetic augmentation. In terms of inborn powers I'm just a savant with a little extras attached…" said Walder.

"A savant you say? Are you broad or narrow?" said Harold. His eyes gleaming with interest.

His question referred to the breadth of savant's knowledge. While all savants tended to be limited according to genre. A narrow savant knew about one subject in a genre, and a broad savant would know about multiple subjects within a genre.

Though ultimately the magnitude of savants powers was decided by how deep their knowledge was, a broad savant could apply there knowledge in multiple fields and myriad ways, and a narrow savant would generally be something of a one trick pony.

A weak 'narrow' savant could be mistaken for an ordinary person who fell under the normal use of the word. On the other end of the spectrum there had been powerful narrow savants who'd been able to do miraculous things with improbable materials. Which was why there were planets in the galaxy whose cities were still powered with cogs and steam, and there were medical centers that saved lives through the serving of sandwiches instead of using operations and conventional medicine.

A weak 'broad' savant wouldn't be recognized as a savant as all, and would instead be mistaken for an ordinary, non-super, genius, or quick study. On the other hand, it would not be incorrect to say that the current Msara Galactic Government was built with the efforts of the most powerful amongst the broad savants. The best amongst them were often captains of industry and brilliant mad scientists all rolled into one package.

They were frightening in the extreme, capable of things that went beyond the realm of common sense. Achieving landmark feats that would take their mortal peers multiple decades to even begin to be able to understand, not to mention matching those feats.

"Er...Well, I don't know. I just build things, its not like I ever bothered to get tested. My schtick seems to be quantum mechanics and rocket technology but I seem to be able to parlay that into a lot of fields...so"

"Broad then...impressive. Mind if I ask, how what kind of fields you can apply your knowledge to?" said Harold.

"Hm, I can make a ship, I can make robots...like I said I mostly make machines. But I can also bioscience, I can create custom compounds, I know a little bit about architecture and...well I made this gun." said Walder. Summoning a pistol out of storage and putting it on the table. To the discomfort of a few non-guild patrons who'd been in the shop and paying attention. The staff not reacting because this 'was' a shop often frequented by heroes guild members and it wasn't too uncommon for someone to unthinkingly reveal a weapon they'd been concealing.

"You mind if I…" asked Harold. His voiced hushed.

"Uh, go ahead." said Walder.

The dvergr pulled what could only be described as a shifting, green lensed techno-monocle from one of his pockets and then began to scrutinize the weapon. Mumbling beneath his breath while his expression oscillated back and forth between being a smile and being a frown.

Christian, the erlking, leaned forwards as well, a slight frown on his face.

"Hmm...While it makes sense to use quantum mechanics for creating the warp drives in ships, I'm not sure how one applies quantum mechanics to the manufacture of weapons." said the green-skinned man.

"Ah, well, that's a funny thing actually, once you're able to directly influence the flow of matter and energy at the subatomic level, and understand the principles that guide the forces at play, there's quite a lot you can do…" said Walder. Scratching his cheek, and chuckling awkwardly.

"This is bloody beautiful…" said Harold. Still scrutinizing the handgun. His scholarly air being replaced by passionate awe of a man who'd spent decades alone on an island and then found themselves in the presence of a great beauty.

"You mentioned something about having extras attached to your powers?" said Dmitry.

"Oh, right...So, apparently my savant knowledge comes with an ability to directly affect probability in my surroundings...I can't really turn it off...so it's not really much of a power but I can sort of control it and point it in a direction sometimes, to create good RNG for my allies and myself, and bad RNG for my enemies." said Walder.

Deciding to continue being honest about his powers because this was a world where odd creatures like himself were commonplace, but also deciding to understate the effects of what he could do, because at best it'd sound like he was bragging and at worst it'd be inviting trouble.

"...RNG?" said Dmitry. His eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"Random Number Generation...Which here refers to probability of certain things happening in games, like item drops, critical hits, and random enemy encounters." said Christian. Still looking over the handgun with Harold.

"Ah...well, that sounds cool. As for myself, I have a little military experience and ran with a corporate security group, under a clan, for a while…. That's actually where I met Rosa and Harold... I'm good with guns and hand-to-hand. I've got about as much serum enhancement and cybernetic augmentation as you'd expect for someone who's fought for a world government as an employee of a clan private military company (PMC). Now that I'm with the guild though, I've decided to try my hand at being a mixologist…."

"Oh, neat...how's that going for you?" said Walder.

During his youth he'd done a fair amount of research on his new world and the "mixologists' were just odd enough as a group to ensure that they fell under his scrutiny.

A Mixologist was someone who instead of relying on normal weapons, would instead rely on temporary serum based powers. They took gene stabilizers to avoid unwanted mutations, and took physiological boosters reduce the chance of any harmful effects arise, and then would be able to use relatively cheap temporary serums to be as versatile a fighting unit as possible.

"It's going alright...I still keep a shotgun close at hand, just in case something goes wrong or I can't juice up in time, but for the most part its been fun playing around with different powers.

Dmitry finished talking, then there was a lull, that was followed by Walder and the Bell Men turning their attention to Kate who startled as she realized that they'd all been looking at her.

"Huh? Oh, right...I guess it's my turn. So like Harold said, I used to be an athlete. I competed in a bunch of things, swimming, running, biking, parkour-relay races, competitive martial arts...that sort of thing.It was kind of fabulous…. Then some 'stuff' happened, and I ended up needing a change of career...Luckily, or luckily, my homeworld's world government has this policy where everyone has to go serve in military for three years after they turn 17...and I'd already gone through my mandatory service period so I knew how to handle a gun, and how to handle myself so I joined the guild...I knew D because he was Becca's friend so I joined up with the Bell Men. I don't really have any powers per se, just some basic serum enhancement and a mid-level healing factor. So that's it for me...your turn Harold." said Kate.

"...." There was no response from Harold who was still examining Walder's pistol.

"Yo, Harold! You're up, explain what you can do for our new friend here." said Kate. Elbowing the stocky man.

Harold jolted and sat up straight looking lost for a second.

"Huh, what are we doing now?"

"We're sharing what we're capable for so we can operate better as a team." said Dmitry.

"Oh, cool...So, I think Dmitry already mentioned that I used to be part of PMC, so I know how not to shoot my own foot off...Er, I'm not really much of a combat guy though. This actually isn't even my real job, working for the guild is just a side-hustle. I'm actually a mechanic, I run a shop in the city come hit me up if you ever need your ride fixed. Since most people tend to go to the bigger establishments, I run with the Bell Men to make ends meet...Like I said, I can fight if I have to, but I generally just hang back. I do repairs, I work on the team's tech and weapons….Powers wise, I'm pretty much a regular guy, though as dude from a high gravity world I'm naturally a bit sturdier. I also have a couple cybernetic implants. Nothing too fancy, just some stuff in my knees from back in the day when I used to do orbital parachute jump in the Air Force, and an arm that turns into a cannon, because of course I do, Papa Wu didn't raise no fools. If your lose your arm and have to get a prosthesis always for the cannon arm. They're a pain to reload, but for some reason no one ever sees it coming.." said Harold. Speaking quickly and returning his attention to the firearm on the table.

Rosa spoke up next, hands on her knees, her voice surprising light and musical for a woman who looked like she could hip check an APC (armored personnel carrier).

"...I guess its my turn next. Well, my name is Rosa. I'm an Aries. My favorite color is red. I like to weightlift...I come from a military family, and basically, I've been fighting either publicly, or privately, for most of my life. I did a brief stint in MMA...and I was born super strong, with the serums I ended up taking later making me even stronger. Though I don't really get to use that very much because I'm actually the team's explosive expert." said Rosa.

Walder blinked and then nodded sensing an odd sort of kinship with the woman, because they were both people with powers that they generally didn't get to use very often.

Christian looked up from what he was doing and then spoke.

"....I'm a stealth specialist. When I don't want to be seen. I'm not."

After speaking with extreme brevity the erlking man returned to inspecting the weapon with his dvergr friend. The rest of the group was left to sit in suspense for a half moment till they finally realized that the man was actually done talking.

The last person to speak was Domino, who was the youngest member of the team. She blushed her bluish-gray skin darkening under everyone's gaze.

"Nhn....I basically in military school. I know how to shoot and I'm a little psychic…"

"Psychic how? See the future, and read minds psychic, or control things with your mind psychic?" asked Walder.

"Er, it's sort of a split, my species is naturally psionic and what we can actually do sort of varies...I eventually realized that I was good at moving things with my mind, and I was especially good at controlling things that are in motion, so shooting is almost point-and-click for me." said Domino.

"That's pretty nifty, so how did you end up joining the Bell Men?" asked Walder.

"Well, military school costs money and when my sister died that money stopped coming, I wasn't smart enough to get any of the scholarship, so the school gave me the boot. And when the school gave me boot, D and Kate were there to help me out." said Domino. Shrugging and frowning, looking plainly uncomfortable.

"Ah, that's rough." said Walder. Catching the girl's awkwardness and feeling similarly uncomfortable.

"...S'okay. It's all in the past in anyway." said the flustered teenager.

With everyone having shared a little about what they could do, Walder and the Bell Men were able to begin making plans for how he'd fit in with the team. Their talks were more in-depth and involved than those the team would have with its other members.

Walder enjoyed himself, feeling reminded of the early days of the uprising he and his people organized during the more light-hearted days of his former-life. Remembering the years when he'd felt optimistic about his universe's future, before he knew exactly what it would take to save them from the hungry dark. Walder and the Bell Men continued to plan, and shoot-the-breeze till the final member of the mission party finally came.

As the final member of the party finally came and went, the Bell Men began to excuse themselves, with Walder leaving shortly after Harold had returned his pistol him.