#luey

Another of the mechanical short men moved forward, his voice carrying the same pattern of clicks but came out in a more refined and proper cadence to it's monotone.  "Forgive my brother, he is a bit rough around the edges.  But I assure you Captain Candell, we are quite skilled and very familiar with the workings of your vessel.  We would happy to serve here for proper passage and boarding until we reach the conclusion of our contract."

The third one sat motionless, his bronze body still as a statue as it stared ahead with blank metal slots for eyes as the 'brother's spoke for the trio.

The hero for hire, now apparently the spelljammer captain reached up to rub at his bearded jaw as he took in the odd figures.  Zexx had seen a lot of weird creatures and peoples in his lifetime, some not quite as dissimilar to these gnomes but it was never easy not to stare.

The proper gnome was Huey, no last names yet as they had not given them but it was a point yet to ask about them.  His face was sculpted of bronze, all one color and highly polished but for a few scuffs here and there.  His body was set with rivets and strips of metal to resemble clothes, from the overalls to the pointed hat on his head to the pair of rounded spectacles resting on a large nose over an even large copper mustache.  Clockwork was an understatement with the being.

Gruff gnome was Luey, but he seemed to cast off the idea of being a bronze clockwork gnome his skin and body painted with an odd grey metal paint.  The pointed hat was also missing replaced with a black bowler hat shape that been sculpted over his skull, the paint black and fresh.  Beneath the bowler grey painted ears stuck out like sore thumbs to match a similarly sized nose of Huey's and large handlebar mustache of the same color as his 'brother's.  Where Huey shaped his metal frame to form clothes, Luey had opted for true clothes with a grey sweater and leather pouch laden tool belt strapped to his chest.  A desperate attempt to be more human?  A memory of life as a creature of flesh and blood?  Or a clever disguise to slip among the rest of the breathing world?

Frank was the least refined of the three.  A thick kettle body supported by spindly legs to match the same kind of arms ended in exaggerated appendages to thin bicep and thighs.  His head a rounded almost viking-esche helmet that rather than the horns of the Vrykul were two small thin steam pipes, though no smoke or steam poured from them.  Yet.  Frank was silent as the dead painted eyes inside the helmet that stared ahead, the though he might have once spoke was diminished by the smashed in haphazardly replaced grate where a mouth might have been.  Despite being perhaps the more chewed up of the three, it was also the biggest standing twice the width and almost half a foot taller to the other three foot pair.

Zexx sighed again as he mulled over their request, muttering softly under his breath.  "Three kobolds in a trench-coat."

"No, Captain," Huey responded in his proper and almost cheerful voice.  "Autognomes or Clockwork as some like to refer to us."

"Get it right, meatbag," grumbled Luey as it folded his arms over his chest.

A frown would now cross the human's face as he slowly stood up from his stool to look down on the three, though none backed down from him as they looked up in quiet apprehension of his decision.  "Why us though?  Why do you wanna sail with me an my family?  What would we have to offer you?  I've got little to no coin."

"Coin is not our greatest concern," Huey replied again as he took a step forward, adding direction as he spoke with his hands.  "We are in the business of knowledge and adventure to further our endeavors of the Collective Information Analyticals or CIA as for thicker tongues."

"The CIA?"  Zexx tilted his head.

A whirl and soft jet of steam would flit from beneath Luey's mustache as he shook his head.  "Look, we know about yer kid."

Gen.  A pang of fear gripped the hero's heart as he felt his hand already sliding to his hip and the hilt of his short sword.

Huey threw his hands up as fast Luey was reaching to his own tool-belt for something heavy to defend the brothers.  "No sir, we mean no harm.  We wish to help him.  Study him.  And learn from him!"

"Study him?  He's just a kid."

"A remarkable human, a blending of the flesh and metal.  Something uncommon for our worlds but not impossible.  At least we had only rumors of it," Huey continued as he now shifted between his Luey and Zexx.  "It is from the ancient times and the first builders who brought our great world to life.  I believe we may learn more about origins and perhaps our people's creation from studying his body."

A whirl of gears would shift to Luey and then back to Zexx as Huey looked up at the human again.  "I also believe through the right amount of study we may even be able to improve upon his life as is.  There are many things to this place that we know you are unfamiliar.  We are familiar.  We can help each other."

Zexx continued to frown before he slowly lowered his hand from the pommel of his sword.  "How can you help him?"