<You see Gnosis>
Gnosis stands at perhaps 5'7", with short, messy red hair. His skin is
fairly pale and his features are angular. His eyes are a bright green, and
slightly odd-looking. He wears simple, loose clothing in black, and a
glaive is tied to his back by a leather harness. His expression is
generally one of annoyance.

<You see Broctree>
Broctree’s appearance would strike one as rather plain. He appeared to be just
a normal traveler: Pack full of traveling rations shared company with his
sleeping bag upon his back, both covered by the full length dark green cloak.
He wore just a basic light green tunic, offset by the dark blue trousers. Grey
eyes viewed the world with a certain cynicism, often through a misplaced lock of
brown hair. His only other item of note would be the full length staff,
obviously used as a walking stick. One would guess from the way he carried,
however, that he was accustomed to using it for other matters as well.



Shrike - Loading Dock

On the south end of Shrike, a metal and wood dock has been constructed
for the loading and unloading of goods. Barges loaded with food and other
necessities arrive from time to time, and leave with medicines, mechanical
goods, and other products of the city.

Gnosis, Maverick is here.

A woman at the end of the dock loads people onto the ferry.

Broctree the Ancient is here.

Gnosis is leaning against a wall, arms crossed, smirking faintly. A faint amount
of blood is splattered on his armguards.

Broctree is almost humming as he steps off the barge, his plain-looking staff
used as it was supposed to be: As a walking stick. The Hylian took a moment to
close his eyes and focus before opening them again and examining the room. The
lady (possibly cowering in the corner) is noted, then so is Gnosis. Broctree
remained outwardly calm, although he tensed inside. "Ahh, Gnosis. How are you?"
Notice is made of the blood.



Gnosis looks over at Broctree, smiling faintly. "Ah, you're the one who found me
before, aren't you? I'm fine, thank you~."


Broctree takes a step forward, staff held in usual position. "Good to hear. I
take it you're over your spells, hmm? Although, I would guess otherwise, gauging
by the blood running off of you." He nods slowly.



Gnosis laughs faintly. "I've abandoned the facade, if that's what you mean.
There never was a cute little anti-Reploid Gnosis."


Broctree raises an eyebrow briefly, taking a few more steps, ending just out of
arm's reach. "Really now? So what kind of Gnosis are you, hmmm? Anti-something,
it seems. Something that bleeds?" Head shakes, almost making a tut-tut sound.





Gnosis smiles brightly. "Dingdingding, you're entirely correct~. If you want to
know the full story, I'd be happy to tell you~!"


Broctree nods slowly, grey eyes taking on a noticeable glint. "Really now? By
all means, do enlighten me. I always like hearing stories." He remains calm,
pose shifting slightly as he puts his weight more fully upon the staff.



Gnosis stretches, smirking at nothing. "I was a Maverick from the get go. No
Viral infection - I'm Maverick-made. Specifically, I'm an infiltrator." He
studies his hand. "Human in appearance, human in behavior, even human in
memory... building trust until o



Gnosis says (OOC) '^one day I'd break through and take down as much as I
could."'


Broctree hrms softly, narrowed eyes never leaving Gnosis' face. "Really now? I
seem to notice a distinct lack of smoldering buildings, so I assume you simply
slew anyone handy and then moved on?" Oddly calm for talking to a killer. Well.


Gnosis smiles faintly. "I'm still not sure what to do next, you see. I wasn't
supposed to get through this early. So I'm keeping my destruction small-scale.
Mostly, just those who know I'm a Reploid or a murder." He nods at the ticket
woman. "Which means both you and she are dead.”

Broctree shakes his head faintly. "Such a shame. I was hoping there was more,
but at least you're not some crass berserker. Not much better, but oh well." One
might notice his left hand, the free one; twitch ever so slightly while he
talked.


As Broctree finished his comment, the fingers gave a -snap-, cueing his next
move. Upon the snap, a brilliantly bright light exploded -just- in front of
Gnosis' eyes. Reploid he may be, but a Flash to the eyes is still going to buy
some time.



Gnosis staggers back, putting his arm in front of his eyes. Yeah, he's bad off.
He gropingly reaches for the pole arm across his back, managing to grab and
ready it.





Broctree doesn't even bother with such niceties as 'fair play' or 'knight's
honor'. His staff sweeps down and forward, aiming to knock the feet out from
under Gno. He then moved to circle around to put himself between Gno and the
lady; muttering under his breath.



Gnosis manages to jump over the sweeping blow in time before lunging at
Broctree, pole arm-first. He's still smirking heavily.


Broctree grunts, staff swinging over and down in an attempt to lodge the blade
into the ground or some such. He released his spell mid swing, head turning ever
so briefly to nod at the lady. A barrier would shimmer about her.




Gnosis manages to stop his stroke mid-swing, but he does stumble, leaving him
off balance for a moment.



The lady, like any good innocent bystander should, is trying to run away. Since
Gnosis is between her and the Shrike mainland, she runs onto the ferry and
starts yelling at the captain to take off early this time. (Eternion)


Broctree does the natural thing, following the block with a face hit, the end of
his staff opposite the glaive being closet. He didn't have much backswing, but
as Gnosis could account to, being hit with Broc's staff is rarely fun.



Gnosis is indeed hit, slamming backwards into the ground. He doesn't even try to
stand. "...I'm willing to negotiate surrender."


Broctree, for once, doesn't give into the urge to smirk. He simply stands, tip
of his staff hovering above Gno's face. "Negotiate? What terms do you think you
can fly by me, outside of 'total'?" Eyes remain narrowed. He wasn't even
breathing hard, as quick as that was.’



Gnosis laughs, calm in the face of the danger. "Well, what does total surrender
entail, exactly?"


Broctree humphs. "As much as I'd like say 'Shut Up and Shut Down', I get the
feeling it won't fly. So I'll settle for you leaving that glaive where it is,
and getting up -slowly-, facing away from me."



Gnosis puts down the glaive, standing and stretching slightly as he does. He
does, in fact, face away from Broctree. "Well?"



Broctree nods slowly. "Good boy. Now, we're going to go for a walk. The Monotoli
Building isn't far from here. I'm sure they'll have a way for me to get ahold of
someone with a big enough cell, yes? Walk slow, and remember my staff will be
right next to your head the whole time.” His staff does indeed move to hover to
the right of Gno’s face. Rawr.

Gnosis nods and begins to calmly walk forwards. He can deal with this all later,
he's sure.

Broctree would prod our odd Maverick forward, having him pause just inside the
front doors. Gno's glaive has been left upon the dock. Alas and alack. He
motions Gno forward to the desk, radiating calmness.


You say 'Pardon me, miss. May I barrow your phone? I need to call the police."'



The receptionist shrugs and lets you have the phone. (Stop making Eternion do
all the work!)



Gnosis just stays where he is, smirking faintly.



Broctree checks with the receptionist briefly to get the phone number, then
calls. *Ring, Ring* "Hrm, yes. This is the Shrike Police station, correct? Good,
good. Have you had a report or two about some missing, maybe murdered scientists
over at the labs?"



Broctree gives a brief nod. "Yes, well. I believe I have the person who
committed said crime. Could you do me a favor and send someone out here?
Preferably several strong someones." The cop acknowledges and hangs up. *wait
wait*




Broctree is, of course, keeping a close eye on Gno, having herded him over to
one side while waiting. Rawr.



Eventually, a squad car drives up without much fanfare. A few cops approach
you. (Eternion hates you.)



Broctree idly waves them over, motioning towards Gnosis. "Greetings officer.
Name's Broctree, fellow over there calls himself Gnosis. You want to hear all
the details now, I assume?" (Look on the bright side: It's RP!!)



The cop takes the donut out of his mouth for a moment. "Yeah." He then puts
said donut back to free both his hands for writing. (Eternion)







You say ‘Some time back, mayhap a week or so ago, I had encountered our friend
here out in the mountains north of Cosmo. Seemed to be one of the new ones, just
fell into the Cleft. I dusted him off, took to a village I knew, tried to
explain to him where he was and all.’

You say 'He seemed to take it a little rough, like most new guys do. But the
next day, he wasn't there when I woke up. I went huntin for him, and ran across
him. Seemed he'd gone mad or some such, waving a sharp-bladed glaive around and
cursing.'

The cop records this stuff on his notepad. The secretary complains about the
cop making crumbs. (Eternion)
Gnosis smiles again. "I disagree with being mad, but otherwise that's all
accurate."

You say 'I had a quick conversation with him about what was wrong, and he
mentioned something about wanting to kill things. I told him not to, and he
proceeded to attack me.'

You say ‘Naturally, I defended myself, using the staff you see here. I managed
to knock him out, or the Reploid equivalent thereof. I decided to take pity on
him, and haul his sorry chassis to the Nakajama labs. Heard they had a thing for
fixing Reploids that broke or went berserk. I had left them there, with a rather
large payment.’

Broctree sighed before continuing. "Not too long ago, maybe 3-4 days, I heard a
rumor about some murders or some such at the Labs in Shrike. I put two and two
together, and came here to check it out.


You say ‘Upon my arrival at the docks, I was met by our silent friend, who
hailed me. I went up to him, and he said, I try to quote, "I was Maverick from
the start." Of course, I was interested in how exactly he had managed to keep
from killing people in the village.’

You say 'Turns out his 'maverick-ness' was buried or something, only recently
coming out. I asked him why he hadn’t already attempted to level the town, like
other Mavericks I'd heard about.'

You say 'He said something about 'coming out' too soon, so he was trying to keep
it quiet, killing only those who knew. At which point he motioned towards myself
and the ticket lady at dock and said "Of course, this means you're both dead."'

You say 'Having experienced him attacking me without cause before; and gauging
from the blood on his arms that he had attacked others, I made the choice to
strike first in an effort to protect the nearby civilian. After a brief
struggle, he surrounded.'

Gnosis laughs. "Didn't want to get too damaged..."

You say 'I left his glaive upon the docks, and prodded him here where I used the
phone. You know the rest.'

The cop shrugs and gets out some handcuffs. The donut, at this point, has been
fully consumed. (Eternion)

Broctree coughs briefly. "Admittedly, I'm not up to snuff with the latest police
abilities, but I've heard rumors of that you folks might be able to match the
blood on his arms with any possible remains. I would suggest that prior to
cleaning him or whatever.”

You say 'Is there anything else I can help you with, officer?'

"Just give us your contact information so we can call you for the trial."
(Eternion)

Broctree nods, giving the name of some (random) hotel. "I have a prior
reservation for room (#), but it might be too early. If it's taken right now,
I'll be sure to let you know."
You say 'Oh. Be sure to put him in one -hell- of a cell.'

The cop handcuffs Gnosis, leads him to the squad car, and drives off (with the
other cops, of course) to the jail-place, mumbling something about stopping to
buy another donut along the way. (Eternion)

The receptionist fixes her gaze on you. "You're not leaving until you clean up
the crumbs your friend left on the floor. The broom's over there." (Eternion)

Broctree watches them drive away silently, shrugging briefly. ‘Ah well. Least
this time, should anything happen, I'll be in town.’ With this, he would sweep
up the crumbs, leave the Rec a nice 5-gold tip for the trouble, and walk off
towards the (Random) hotel. Tally-ho!





Much thanks to Eternion, who Arctic and I forced to play NPCs, against his will.
Good job, Eter!