The team (Logan, Aziza, Motoko, Hashir, the gargoyle, Lena) went outside, during the day. Egil was really uncomfortable at the thought of possibly getting sighted, but they really needed to figure out the artifacts from the bazaar.
It seemed like a waste to risk being public enemy #1, without checking the goods.
Egil looked around. They were on the edge of a forest here. He sent clockworks to the northern and southern edges of the building site to keep watch for anyone getting a little *too* curious.
He looked down at Lena, who seemed to have that 'distant stare,' which meant she was deep in thought. "How are you holding up?"
She looked up at him. "What's going to happen if a demon sees an artifact they like?"
"Well... if nobody else wants it, they can have it. Otherwise, we need to figure out how to best use it."
"Aren't you afraid they'll turn it against you?"
She was still mainly seeing the differences, much like other humans did. "Would you trust a human?" Egil asked.
"Well... yeah, but they aren't... you know."
"Did you know that Hashir and the gargoyle are in a relationship? Look..." He pointed. "...They're holding hands."
"Really?" Lena responded in shock.
"You might want to ask Hashir's thoughts on the matter. Im sure he can gush to you for hours on it. I only got a glimpse of the implications from the gargoyle, but their connection is pretty strong."
"The gargoyle doesn't say much."
"Ive heard him speak. I imagine his English is about as good as my French."
"They're both 'hes?'"
"Yeah."
"You're ok with all this?"
Egil laughed. "You've heard my story. ...well, the grand origin story at least." He exaggerated the words to sound more theatrical. "I have much bigger concerns than what happens behind closed doors, between consenting adults.
I think, once you get to know them, you'll realize there are far more similarities than differences."
"But, you're still pretty new to them as well." Lena retorted.
"Then let's fix that."
A clockwork demon up ended a cloth bag of artifacts onto the grass.
Egil carried the mask in his hand. It, like the other items, had magic patterns installed on them. It might be possible to figure out each item's use by studying the pattern, but it was generally faster to just use them and see what happened.
Motoko was perhaps the most confident. She quickly snapped up a rope.
Egil stepped up to the front alongside the demons, crossing his arms and watching.
The kitsune dropped what appeared to be a dart. Egil had vaguely heard of this type of weapon when looking into concealables. The skill requirement was a bit...
The kitsune said... something. Aziza piped up. "She wants to know if she can test it on a clockwork."
"Yeah, I imagine we can expend a few for this exercise." Egil responded, while motioning for a clockwork to take up a position in front of the fox girl.
The robot stood there, dead still. Motoko coiled the rope around her arm, doing a wide spin, which ended with the load 'PANG!' off the clockwork's chest plate. Using the moment of the dart flying back, she 'windmilled' her arms, retracting it, and causing it to fly at the target again.
