#tinkeringskaven

[heliinx]

“Helll…innxxx…hel…IINXXX!” A garbled, seemingly pained voice would screech from a far squeaker, if she even had access to one after all these months.

“W…wwwh..aaat…the FUCK-fuuu…appended?!” It’d screech again, a familiar deep and artificial voice attempting to force as much sound through the device as possible.

That gives her quite a spook; the sound of a ratman she honestly thought was dead and gone. She didn't even remember grabbing the Farsqueaker if she was honest, scrabbling for the device amid what she had hidden in her robes.

"...Xeenq?" Yes, there was no other ratkin who sounded like that. "Thought you were dead-dead." A pause, then Heliinx would answer his question. Not right away though....how to phrase it....how to frame it?

" Clan Reave is in hand-paws of my treacherous brother-spawn. I am...touring the world."

Touring. Yes. Not driven out and lost.

" Surprise you still live-breathe."

@tinkering-skaven

[weeping-gospels]

[ Cont. ]

This one has a temper. Eesh, and she thought she had a temper.

More and more the rat spoke, more degradation and ridicule, more insults, more show of dominance she could care less for. The lesser her patience became, the more the veil between humanity and the demented deceased grew all the more thinner. Deep breaths were drawn in through her nostrils as the shaman slowly rose to her feet upon watching his display of a threat — to herself, the Keep, and everyone around her. And that wasn’t going to fucking fly. At all.

SHOW THIS REPLACEABLE PIECE OF CHARRED METAL WHO’S IN CHARGE. THIS IS O U R KEEP. THIS IS A S A N C T U A R Y FOR THE DAMNED. AND WE’LL BE D A M N E D IF SOME PATHETIC MOUSE TARNISHES IT.

Fangs poked out from her snarled lips, shaking her head vigorously to rid of the beast’s inner monologue. No, there’s no point in going haywire and destroying our own Keep. Remember how long it took to repair everything the last time? We had to ask Clan Moulder for help because we took down an entire wall. Deep breaths, Betty. Don’t waste your time on insignificant words.

“ Just so you know, mutt…I’m part of the undead. Killing me isn’t as easy as zapping me with warp lightning when I’ve already died before and came back better than before. And I will find you. “

But it wasn’t aimed toward her anymore. Gasping sharply as the blast decimated the nearest clan rat, Betty froze. The screaming, writhing, the black blood, the terror, the musk of fear, the ashes…no chance of revival. It reminded her of Ethali’s Moon. Another has died in front of her, leaving her powerless and pitiful. How vulnerable. She should have known. Tears bloomed in her eyes before she could halt that as well, pouring down her face out of fury and depression. Hands balled into white - knuckled fists and blood vessels erupted in her eyes from the wailing within, the ashy green clouded by nothing but crimson RAGE.

CARNAGE. TYRANNY. RID OF THE MORSEL AND LEAVE NO REMAINS.

All at once, the transformation process occurred and sped up far beyond her control. With a blackened mind, Betty’s rational conscience was shoved into the beast’s open cage and slammed shut, the monster within tearing through all barriers to expose itself to the world. Her spine arched painfully, bones cracking and thinning to give way to a grotesque, snake - like body that slithered out a few extra feet. Vampiric ears shot forth and twitched with life, digits elongated and swollen into talon - like claws that slammed into the floorboards below. Her jaw unhinged to reveal rows of razor sharp teeth concluded with twin fangs, bloodshot eyes wide with MADNESS, targeting the mech of a rat in front of her.

“ I’VE BEEN NOTHING BUT PATIENT WITH YOU, YOU SLIMY TICK. YOU DISRUPT MY INNER PEACE, DISRESPECT ME IN MY OWN KEEP, THEN K I L L AN INNOCENT LIFE. YOU WANT TO TANGO? LET’S FUCKING T A N G O IN H E L L ! “

The deep, gravely voice shrieked, her body lurching forwards — not at him, but in a protective stance over the remaining skaven. With eyes still locked into Xeenq’s every move, the Dhampir’s head sharply cocked to the side with a nauseating CRUNCH, a language in tongues whisking out from drooling lips. Her magic sparked, swallowing the skaven and herself whole with a forcefield of green. With that in place, Betty twisted her head around to face the cowering rats,

“ IF YOU WANT A BETTER CHANCE AT SURVIVAL I SUGGEST YOU EXIT THROUGH THE DOOR BEHIND US. THE BARRIER WILL HOLD OFF ANY ROUNDS FOR NOW. IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, G O . N O W . “

@tinkering-skaven

[rhesus-skavative]

“ROT!” A familiar, tinny but LOUD voice would roar, and then from the dark Xeenq Ironback would emerge, his usually optimized armored battered and scratched.

“Been calling-seeking for your opinions-thoughts, but you’ve been gone-away! Had to rely on fool-idiots who take-snatch without thought-care!” Xeenq would complain with a lashing tail, metal jaws gnashing agitatedly.

Xeenq would stumble upon Rotrisk head planting on a near wall as if he's trying to meld his head into it. But no... He's just trying to relieve his headache by applying pressure to it, hearing the metal grinding of that metalic body of his wasn't making it any better. His hunches bunched up as his fur prickled before taking the time to put on his customer service mask. Turning to look up atmetallic the contraption glaring down at him

"Rot needed to be away, Did not-not want personal problems-annoyances to bleed into work-dealings." He scanned the armor, noticing the damage, tilting his head to give a quick glance from side to side. "What in great horned rat's name you been kill-fighting??"

[heliinx]

👫 For: Xeenq

Despite what she says, Heliinx is actually very interested in Skryre Arts (some of it anyway), but she has appearances to maintain. Whenever Xeenq had taken up residence in the Raze territory for his projects, Heliinx would always find reasons to linger around and watch. "Forgetting" stuff and whatsuch.

She's been torn between utilizing Xeenq's services and killing him every since the nonsense with the daemons. One one paw, he's very useful...on the other he knows a lot about her more heretical desires. Heliinx blames him for the interest in daemons in the first place.

Yes, she has drawn a suspiciously detailed picture of a naked Bloodthirster with only the barest hints of anatomical labelling to make it not straight up daemon porn. Xeenq has seen it and could use it as blackmail if he wanted. If he can scratch off those labels convincingly enough.

Tikrik likes Xeenq, on a base physical level, but hates him as a rival tiker-rat. He doesn't know the outer shell Xeenq wears isn't, well...the real him.

[heliinx]

“⚔️” Fight Team Up Meme

From, Xeenq Ironback

Send “⚔️” and I will describe how I think our muses would team up in a fight | Accepting!

Heliinx has fought with a technorat before. After all, her brother is a Skryre rat and they’ve weaselled their way out of their fair share of tough places. So Xeenq wouldn’t be a total mystery to her. They would almost definitely be leading from the back, in classic skaven fashion. But not too close to him. Whatever Xeenq says about his technology’s feasiblity, everyone knows that tinker-rat tech is just as likely to kill the wielder as the target.

So, she’ll be giving him a wide, WIDE birth. Since he is a Warlock-Engineer, meaning he’ll likely be using ruinous magic, Heliinx would be calling on her seldom used spells of plague.

Grey Seers despite Tinker-rats and while Heliinx personally doesn’t care that much (she’s had plenty of time to get over it with Tikrik and thinks the Horned Rat is kinda dumb anyway), she does have appearances to keep up. Therefore, any failures in battle get blamed on the “heretical ratman” aka Xeenq himself.

@tinkering-skaven

[heliinx]

continued from here @tinkering-skaven

No reason-intention? She doesn’t believe that and her smirk says as much.

“It is not good-smart to lie to a grey seer, Clanlord Xeenq.” She chides him with a wave of her claw, raising a curious brow.

“What-what trouble have you gotten yourself into-to?”

[heliinx]

@tinkering-skaven

The Clanlord had arranged a meeting with this clan...Gizwat she believed it was called? But as expected, the duty of bloodshed in Lustria was more interesting to the enigmatic leader. Inviir had no diplomatic talent, Tikrik and Glutt were nose deep in their latest experiments...

As usual, the important matters of the clan fell to Heliinx herself. Honestly, what would this clan do without her? She rolled her eyes, and cast a glance around at what she’d arrived with. The meeting was to be at a nuetral, open area, to dissaude assassins.

However, Heliinx made sure to have Espik secret away...just in case the forces she’d arrived with weren’t a deterrent. Nearest to her flanks were her albino guard, and flanking them were the burly, black stormvermin surrounded themselves by a few retinues of their fattest clanrats.

Heliinx kept her eyes peeled. There was always the possibility that this meeting had been a set-up...

[rhesus-skavative]

@tinkering-skaven​  X

​Still trying to hide the ‘tissues’, he knows a sick-weak skaven might not be the best to have around, he doesn’t wanna be eats-eats to any ratmen.  Though... Rot do sound pretty stuffy- “Of course! Busy-working  tinkering on new gadgets, writing down plans for such projects yes-yes!~” He’s trying to act casual but very much failing. “What.. What brings-guides the great Xeenq back to the workshop???”

[rhesus-skavative]

“How goes business-labor comrade-colleague?” A familiar, deep voice would drawl, the source revealing itself as Xeenq slinked into Rot’s sight, having decided to come personally visit.

Rot was preoccupied with cleaning his nose with discarded research papers and torn blueprints. The sound of Xeenq's voice made them jump a couple inches or maybe at least a foot up! Shooked! He turned around with papers behind his back and tail sweeping the scraps of snot torn blueprints out of sight. "Aha- Eehehe! aha! Business-labor goes well, yes-yes! Went on patrol in flesh-lands, find-scavenged many weapons! MHM!~"

[heliinx]

“Better-greater than Thanquol’s? Why, I wonder-pounder what he’d say-squeak on that if he heard-caught it….oh glorious-powerful Greyseer.” Xeenq would say with a teasing chitter.

A tease...or a threat? Heliinx dials herself down just in case.

" Thanquol is fool-meat. Am not-not afraid of him or his bonebeast."

[rhesus-skavative]

“Grey-things say-squeak the strangest-oddest of things, yes-yes? I have a theory-hunch about that, but even I, Xeenq Ironback, require-need more data-statistics. Do watch-monitor your back-rear around these creatures…” Xeenq would warn over the Far-Squeaker.

For the love of-... He knew something smelt off about that anon's request! This gray thing could've sent him and his team into certain doom!! He speaks-chitters right into the far-squeaker back. "Many thanks, Great Xeenq! Perhaps gray-thing was seeking revenge for me eat-eating their kin. Though I'll still remain-keep ears perked for any intel for that... Item? If worth snatch-steal would let Xeenq know-know. If has info please squeak-tell, every bit counts!" @tinkering-skaven

[heliinx]

Opinion on traits for: Xeenq Ironback!

((Lmao, he of course wouldn’t ask for it but this looks fun.))

" Seems smart-smart. Would like more-more if he knew his place: beneath-neath me."

[heliinx]

Despite herself, Heliinx couldn't help but be intrigued by the Skryre machines. Just a baseline curiousity any beast would have about something it had never seen before, even if the she-rat kept it mostly contained and hid the rest under a moue of distaste.

The noise of the capsules causes her to instinctively step away. Whatever a tinker-rat might crow about himself, there was one thing the denizens of the under-empire knew for sure and that was that Skryre technology had a bad habit of exploding randomly.

The she-rat dabbled in machinery herself...by which she meant she bullied Tikrik into helping her with a project or two in the past and maybe picked up some basic tricks of the trade for herself. But the beings before her were not the work of some novice, clearly. They Killer-Cullers were, altogether, much more intimidating than even a Mutated Rat Ogre. Heliinx found herself wondering what a Lizardman based subject would look like....

She had thought she was recieved literal blades, but actual beasts were more than welcome. A grin split her face. Suddenly she didn't quite miss those warptokens.

"Pleasure-pleasure doing business with your master, robot-thing."

She had date with a certain Warpstone Mine located in the Badlands.

“Transaction complete, activating Culler-Units C-1, C-2, and C-3. Please take the supplied Control Cog. As they are prototypes, due make note of things they need improvement in and send to Gizwat representatives.” The thing crackled, taking the warp tokens into its claw and then depositing them into a port on its chassis.

Meanwhile, the three drill capsules would hiss as they opened, steam flowing out as their glass casings would slide apart. A silence would fall across the area, until it was pierced by what sounded like gears turning and engines revving. Then, three hideous abominations would slowly exit from the capsules, these stiffly moving Skryre creations unfolding their long limbs with a slowly growing smooth grace.

Once they came into full view, their metal claws digging into the earth as they shambled from their containers, it became abundantly clear that these were the butchered corpses of starved rat ogres, limbs, organs, and other assorted body parts being replaced with metal and wires, humming engines shuddering on their wiry backs.

Speaking of their limbs, they were Blader weapons that seemed able to rend flesh and bone quite easily, but capable of more delicate manipulation of tools and objects that would be normally impossible for creatures of their size.

Their faces each were covered in clobbered together masks, blotted into the flesh in order to secure a mass of wires and mechanisms shoved into the craniums of each beast. Their artificial eyes held an uncanny resemblance to Xeenq’s own as they stared at Heliinx, their moments now resembling stealthy predators more so than shoddy machines, padding ever closer to inspect their new operator.

Xeenq’s small drone would approach Hellinx with a device, multiple buttons on it labeled with simple phrases along with Xeenq’s icon.

“Do enjoy your new assets, the Lord-Master will be interested in any suggestions or complaints you have.”

[heliinx]

"Fine-fine." Heliinx grumbled and shoved her good paw into her pocket. Rinki watched the strange thing for any sign of threat, unblinking and intense. At last, Heliinx produced a satchel from her robes and dumbed the required warp tokens into her paw. That left her with less than a third left and she scowled at the lack.

" Here. Now give-give killer-culler!"

“Payment is required first.” It would respond, and in a slow janky motion, it would hold up one of its clawed talons, and wait.

“The Lord-Master must be compensated for his services.” The things voice was completely artificial, and it’s grasp of the Skaven tongue was strange at best.

[heliinx]

Heliinx would sit under her Lizardman for shade, the hot Badlands sun beating down on the pair of them. Rinki wasn't bothered, but Heliinx was not built for elements, not really. The day was dying into night and by that time, she had begun pacing, growing restless and impatient.

Damn tinker-thing, he is probably forcing-making me wait on purpose!

She kicked out her paw, struck the solid figure that was Rinki's body, and prompted yelped a squeak. Turning hateful eyes his way, only the timely arrival of what she assumed to be Xeenq's forces saved the lizardman from the consequences his obvious insolence (how dare he be where she kicked out. Fool-idiot!). Abandoning her plans to zap him, Heliinx hid behind the Sun Blood instead, watching the contraption come up through the earth, followed by several more.

Skryre rats and their metal-things, I swear-swear.

That was no rat, but it smelled like Xeenq at least. After a moment of trying to process what it was, the she-rat again grew impatient.

"Well-well? My order, metal-thing?"

“As you command-wish Greyseeeeer.” Xeenq’s voice drawled, before it cut out into static noise. After that, hours would pass, and the sun would drift lazily through the sky as the wait for the tinker rat configured.

It would’ve become night, with the sounds of the evening wildlife filling the area of which Hellinx had chosen to hide, when a grinding, scraping sound could be heard. The ground rumbled as something closed in on the Greyseer’s location, until suddenly a drill erupted from the earth, dirt falling away from the device as it traveled upward, belching green smoke as it thrust towards the sky.

The shuddering didn’t cease however as two more drills pierced the ground, their spinning instruments slowing as they finally reached their location. Each of the three contraptions were large, and appeared to be containing burly packages within their cylindrical bodies. But just as their engines died, a smaller roar could be heard, and a forty smaller drill burst upward through the dirt, and when it hooked into the surrounding foliage with steel prong, the door on its side would open.

Green mist wafted from the entrance, and out of its compartment would step a strange metallic creature, it’s form absent of any organic features. The shuddering individual looked around with a single glowing emerald ‘eye’ before spotting Hellinx, and bowing slightly.