3917/Ripsaw

Ripsaw
Date of Scene:	07 April 2016
Location:	Temporal Wastes
Synopsis:	Hoshi, Ren, and an awful, terrible, horrible not good at all adventure in time travel.
Cast of Characters:	165, 901

---

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    A Union base on the borderline of the Temporal Wastes.

    "Now," Ren says, standing outside of a sort of mechanism that looks a bit like a warpgate, but also a bit like the loading breech of a cannon. "Sometimes, worlds that come into the multiverse sort of don't entirely get it right first time."

    "The way I've had it explained to me," he continues, looking at the electric blue of the energy bubble that's growing in size in front of them, "Is kind of like stepping in the door, but getting your coat stuck on part of the door frame. You've got to hold very still and get someone else to unhook you, or you'll tear your coat and then you're kind of sad."

    "Now, that anology is complete nonsense, of course. It bears absolutely no similarity to what we're about to do, but it's a lie we can understand."

    "So, Amakasu," he continues, folding his hands behind him, moving from the balls of his feet to the tips of his toes and back-forth. "I'm going to go on an exciting adventure in space and time, do you wanna come with me?"

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Now, when someone calls you and tells you they've got something important going on in this Multiverse, Hoshi's kind of gotten into a strange way of thinking. It either involved fights with scary things, duels for whatever reason people duel around here for, or just flat-out mystical weirdness. So, of course, she always come prepared.

    Once Hoshi was out of the warpgate and had joined Ren, she tries to spend a moment to figure out if Ren was hurt, had he been attacked... The words die on her tongue as Ren begins "explaining" about the strange vision happening in front of her. She slowly blinks, then sets Ren with the classic 'frown and folded arms' business.

    "I thought you'd gotten hurt somehow, man." She grumbles for a moment. "And why would you use ana anology that doesn't make sense?... Don't answer that. I don't mind helping out, of course, but, uh..." She motions between herself and the hazy energy bubble. "I'm not entirely sure what that even /is/... So if you don't mind, what exactly are we doing here? Do I need my sword?"

    ... She has it with her anyway, of course, currently holding up her hair in it's smaller form. She's trying to figure out if she should be expecting danger, or not.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    "No, not really. I just signed up for an interesting mission and I thought you'd like to see something new. I mean, it's not every day you get to go rummaging around in the temporal wastes, is it?"

    "It's one of the most interesting parts of the multiverse, after all. Time is completely cuckoo, here! Even more unpredictable than anywhere else!"

    He shouldn't be as pleased about this as he should be, considering.

    "Okay, so. Here's the situation. Somewhere in the wastes right now is a world that has a bizarre build-up of... artrons or chronotons, time energy basically. Nobody can figure out why it's there from just looking from the outside, but if we go inside and figure out how to safely unhook the coat, then it might settle into a less volatile stable part of the multiverse. And that'll be thanks to us!"

    "There might be danger, there might not. Only one way to find out, you know?"

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    A quick look around brings both an amazed look to her eyes and a shiver down Hoshi's spine. The juxtaposition of rainbow colors over absolute waste is pretty disconcerting... "Honestly not sure if I'd want to go walking around here every day, personally," she admits. "I guess it looks kinda cool, though... We aren't going to get lost in time somewhere, right?"

    It'd be a shame if she ended up becoming the Japanese version of Rip Van Winkle and missed her finals, y'know!

    Falling silent to listen to Ren's explanation of what the issue was, Hoshi nods along... Though the thought does still creep up into her mind about how exactly they intend to figure out these things, or do anything about it. Time wasn't exactly her strong point, after all. Maybe they'd think of something inside. Eventually, she nods firmly.

    "I'm still not sure what exactly I can do here, but sure. I'll help out. Seriously hoping we don't end up stumbling into German fairy-tale times, though." It'd be just her luck.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    "You're here as my buddy! Buddy system," Ren explains, nearing the source of the temporal aperture into where they need to go. "It means if I were to go by myself and something horrible killed me, nobody would be around to drag me back. But since there's two of us... well, in any case, one of us probably won't get killed, so it's irrelevant. Moving on!"

    He's bad at this sorta thing sometimes. Ren rolls a botch on his socialize roll.

    A few steps more, and...

    We are now in the human colony of New Staffordshire, year 2003.

    Population: who knows?

    Welcome to everyone's nightmare in the 1990s about what life in the 2000s was going to be like.

    Welcome to an industrial wasteland of the purest sort: Made of corrugated iron, security fences and barb wire, liberally filled with dirty metal doors and disused oil barrels, flashing hazard lights, and bubbling green water.

    Welcome to an empty city, covered in a film of dust, surrounded in shadows, seemingly very underpopulated and with a slate gray smoggy sky filled with a mesh of interlinked, skyscraping, acid-rain-etched buildings.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0khcX_DJjw
    Un-finale - Robyn Miller
    Myst - 1993

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Yeah, he really did. The more he talks, the higher her left brow raises as she scowls over at him. "Neither of us are going to die if Rosamond or I have anything to say about it." It's hard to disagree with a giant Persona with a big sword, after all. "You really need to work on your pep talks." Anyway, yes. Moving on! Moving... Hoshi flinches to a stop just as she's about to touch it, but grumbles quietly to herself and pushes through anyway.

    It's the smell that strikes her first, actually. Alberichstadt is a pretty clean place, after all. This place really isn't. The taste of smog and smell of pollution make her grimance and cover her nose immediately. "Ugh... Well, this is a really bad way to start this off. What /happened/ here, anyway?"

    Nobody seems to be around... Hoshi starts moving about cautiously, trying to keep her steps as quiet as possible as she looks around this ruined vista. "So... what are the odds that someone is going to come up and kindly explain what the /crap/?" Probably pretty low.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    "Yes, as far as explanations go that was not one of my best, but did you remember the coat anology?" Ren asks. "Now THAT was a good one, I think that one was delivered very well."

    It's all he can do to distract both of them from the fact that they've seemingly walked into an industrial pit of miserable oblivion, you've got to keep your spirits up in these kind of situations... no, Ren doesn't believe it either. He gives the panorama in front of them the most baleful look as he just dares a tattered newspaper to flutter by in the wind in front of them.

    "...what happened here, indeed?" Ren echoes. "I guess we're going to have to find out."

So, with an open canvas in front of you and a seemingly empty swathe of city, what would you do when you needed to gather information? Ren takes a walk forward, trying to look for the best place to begin. You could practically start anywhere.

    It doesn't seem as if anyone's around to give you suggestions.

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Ren's mention of the analogy again gets a long-suffering sigh. Not going there.

    All in all, it was a mess. This place obviously needed a /lot/ of fixing, but that was something that neither Hoshi nor Ren could actually do. Environmental distruction to this level was probably a complete death sentence for this world. "Or suicide," she mumbles quietly under her breath. If only the Paris Comission could see this.

    Help obviously wasn't going to come to them here; eventually the kendo girl relaxes her careful stride somewhat and starts going downstairs to exit the building and go onto the street. And she tries really hard to make sure she doesn't touch anything. Who knows what sorts of oils or contaminants cover this place? Eugh.

    Once she's out on the street, she cups her hands around her mouth and starts calling out. "HEY! Is anyone alive here!? HELLO?" Really not the best idea if there are hostiles here, but so far it doesn't look like there's even a hint of a person down here...

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Everything is rather disgustingly grimy, and aside from the disturbingly glubbling water a lot of things seem dried-up and a bit rusty and generally settled.

    Have you ever walked through a city at that exact sort of 2-3am time where it's very dark and very, very, /very/ quiet, and it's actually kind of surreal how a place that is supposed to be full of people is not only completely empty, it's also /oppressively/ silent? Like, you don't even hear the sound of cars in the very far-off distance? And you go, I walked through this road earlier today, this is just so unlike how reality is supposed to be it's hard to believe?

    That's how this feels right now, basically.

    On the horizon, just after the last echo of Hoshi's question fades away, a skyscraper cracks in two and falls. It's so far away that it sort of sounds like a twig snapping under your foot.

    Ren, meanwhile, is actually looking- just as sour as before- over a newspaper as he trails behind her. It's dated 1999 and there are definitely no headlines about an approaching cataclysm, at least.

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Another shiver crawls up Hoshi's spine and along her arms, like pins and needles gently pricking at her skin. "This is so stupidly creepy," she mutters quietly under her breath. Watching a skyscraper suddenly come crashing down--and only barely hearing it--makes it all the worse. It's enough that she reaches up to take her hairtie out of her hair and let it shift into sword form. Just in case.

    Hoshi takes some steps over to a nearby building across the street and tries to peer through anything that might let her look inside. She almost tries to go inside, but pauses and looks over to Ren. "Hey, uh... We probably shouldn't split up... and we should probably figure out a plan. This isn't looking so hot for anything... like, at all."

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    By sheer, interesting coincidence, Hoshi has managed to look into the window of one of the only buildings that seems to have not just one, but two computers in it! And a skeleton at the desk, which is staring back at her as soon as she cleans off the window.

    It's also helpful that she clearly instructs Ren not to wander off, because that's exactly what he was doing, being half-way up a scaffolding when she calls him out.

    Just bash the door open, no-one's going to care. If you can find it in yourself to start pressing buttons on the keyboard, the computers are Power Macs with an assortment of Usenet posts in their cache.

    Ren goes over to one of them, switches it on and begins doing... stuff. "I'm going to see if I can figure out if there's a way to narrow down where that temporal energy disturbance is coming from," he explains. "If I can find some sort of abnormal power record in the city, we might have a lead." Interesting that most of the power grid is still operational despite the place being pretty abandoned and dead, huh?

    So, what will you search for today?

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Lucky Hoshi! She managed to find something useful... and something creepy. Creepy enough that when she first focuses on the computers and skeleton, she steps back quickly with a small hiss and grips the handle of her sword. "Of course I find the dead people," she mutters darkly. At least Ren wasn't going off on his own. Using those computers will probably be their only chance of getting info.

    So Hoshi steps grimly in front of the door and kicks the damn thing open. Thank goodness for supernatural strength. THe inside, dust yand disgusting, makes her cover her nose with her forearm again. She follows Ren to the computers and watches as he taps away. "This place looks like it's been trashed for a super long time," she mumbles quietly. Not knowing what exactly she should be doing, Hoshi eventually decides to find a place where she can watch the front door and keep an eye on Ren's progress. "I dunno, man... even if we fix the time stuff, what the hell are we going to do about all of... this?" She waves her hand around. "Pretty sure we don't have the ability to reverse pollution this bad."

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
"It never fails to impress me when you just... go through solid metal doors like that," he mentions idly, waving the dust cloud away. "There's something you didn't think you'd be able to do last year, I'm sure."
    Inside...

    "Well," Ren replies, his face lit by the white glow from the screen, "...one thing at a time, I suppose. I think if we had to choose between dropping or folding or whatever, more industrial pollution into Techno-Urbania or letting a dangerous buildup of weird time energy build up, I'd go with the problem that's evitably solveable instead of the alternative..."

    Having satisfied her desire a skeleton is not going to jump out at them, Hoshi will also be able to search the computer for some... disturbing news. She'll find out that although the actual overall industrial build of the colony is its own set of problems, connected to an overall complicated set of political and practical problems related to the history of this world that are kind of irrelevant to this story, the actual /pollution/ massively spiked over the period of several weeks or even days before everyone stopped updating the internet forever. The cause was seemingly some sort of roaming massive natural disaster which was ravaging the human population and causing massive swathes of death, seemingly a secondary element to building-shattering, widespread destruction.

    After some minutes of searching Ren discovers a location they can head to next, seemingly the place where this energy buildup is.

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    It was pretty cool, wasn't it? Shame how it ended up coming about, though. "I'll admit it's pretty helpful. Kinda wish I was stronger sometimes, though." Y'know, like in times when they're seemingly in pollution hell.

    Her searches on the internet doesn't make the situation any happier, either. The fact that she literally can't find anything dated after some of these particular dates carries horrifying implications. Eventually, she mumbles quietly to Ren.

    "... I think the world is just... dead. The whole world..."

    Eventually Ren might makea discovery... Hoshi can't stand to look at her computer past a certain point. "Let's hope something can be fixed... What'd you find?"

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Not a pleasant thought by any stretch of the imagination. Something or someone, some sort of unbelievable disaster, caused overwhelming pollution and destruction in such a short space of time that it wiped out the human population of New Staffordshire, and this is what remains four years later.

    But...

    "I've got a very clever hunch about a very, very, very dangerous gamble and a very big maybe that maybe, just maybe, there could still be hope, Amakasu..."

    That's what Ren says before he grabs her by the hand and takes off out of the building, and on reflection it's not clear if he did it before or after the whole thing started shaking.

    Because that looks distinctly like a rather big, unpleasant storm building and rumbling and rolling towards the part of the city that they're in, and there's shaking and metal-creaking sounds and white, yellow and red flashes of light on the horizon, and...


    And it's just as well, perhaps, that they're making their way towards a rather heavy building with one floor below ground and the rest beneath, moving past the barbed wire fence, entering the hazard-striped doors, forcing open the blast shutters and moving down the corrugated metal staircase into a heavily built basement of a building, filled with...

    Filled with an electrical blue glow, and the chug of a generator, and cables lining every floor leading a marked path for someone to follow.

    A marked path that leads to a room, a room filled with active machinery, and whirring things and pipes and glass, and a dozen computers clustered together, and -

    And a man, or so it seems, a man who was once fat but is now more like an empty balloon, with a red complexion and strands of hair on his head, and wire-rimmed glasses and a mechanical eye, and far, far too many wires connecting him into the desk he's sat at.

    "Oh, thank goodness, I thought someone would never get here. Oh, but where are my manners? My name is Kelman..."

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Really, this is one of the things that Hoshi kind of wishes she could walk away from. It was a horrible, awful place they'd stumbled into. She said she would help, though... Even if Ren's way of explaining how this is going to work doesn't really inspire her with much confidence. "Maybe we should see if there's someone in the Union who knows how this time stuff works before we--hey!"

    Suddenly, they were running, with Ren pulling her along. At first she tries to pull away, look around, find out what was happening... Then she saw it. The storm. Then she was running just as fast as Ren was, and she even changes her sword back into a hairtie so she can go as fast as possible.

    Along paths, into buildings, behind blast doors--when they were finally safe from the environmental death that was closing in on them, Hoshi let out a gasp of relief and slumps down along one of the walls. "Gaaah... What /makes/ a thing like that!?" So much for contact, either, all considered... And now they can't leave!

    The sound of another person's voice causes her to jump slightly and look around... and then look down at the floor with a grimace. That was a pretty bad sight. "Ergh... Uh... H-hi, man. It's good to see that there's someone still alive around here..." Even if it doesn't look like much of a life.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Before we did the whole 'go underground' thing?
    Ren does, nonetheless, take a moment to look at the approaching storm and go...

    "An entirely reasonable suggestion! Yes. When we've got a moment and we're not running from imminent danger, we could definitely try it!"

    Presuming that he's the person being asked Hoshi's question of 'what makes that', Kelman looks thoughtful for a moment.

    "Alive, yes, in a manner of speaking. I'm glad you made it here... presumably, you may have seen that force of destruction above ground. The eye of that storm of pollution and demolition is a creature called Ripsaw... and that means we don't have much time."

    He gestures with his head to a doorway behind him, and begins feverishly working on his keyboards. "I had... hoped that a survivor would be able to find my laboratory, you see. What I have behind me is a time machine... something, I had hoped might be able to stop all of this."

    "It can supercharge you with time particles that will send you, for a limited time, back /four years/ into the past."

    "That's the source of the time disturbance?" Ren wonders out loud.

    "I was able to find the place where that horrendous machine was being built, but..."

    The ceiling begins to crack and shake. "If I send you back into the past, you must destroy Ripsaw before it can be activated and destroy the population of this world...!"

A crack begins to appear in the ceiling, and though it there can be seen...

    A colossal machine, a giant which defies description. Hazard-striped and constructed out of industrial metal, it has lamplike eyes and enormously oversized drills and blades on the end of its limbs. It makes a hideous roaring sound, emitting terrible black smog!
    "You must hurry into the time machine! It's almost here!"

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Well... This was a hell of a way to get introduced. Still, she really... really has a hard time looking up at him. Still, she keeps listening as he explains what they had just run into.

    "Ripsaw? Seriously? Whoever made a robot named 'Ripsaw' should've expected something bad to happen." And keep happening from the looks of things. "Judging by how scared you sound... we aren't safe here. What the hell should we do?"

    Time machine. Hoshi groans and rubs her face. "Ugh... Go figure. What if we can't stop it?"

    ... Actually, the answer is pretty clear what will happen.

    Suddenly, the sound of of the ceiling tearing off takes up all of her attention. Looking up, the monstrous robot above her holds her gaze... And then Hoshi starts running again. "Jeez--let's go, Ren!"

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu says, "Holy crap that thing's HUGE!"

<X-Union-Chatter> 7 Hoshi Amakasu uhhh.... "Ren, I'm not really sure about all this time travel stuff. Don't you think we should make sure it's okay firs--" CRASH!

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "..."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "Er.."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "No time to think it through, unfortunately!"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "Time travel.."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu says, "Wha--hey, don't grab my arm! Whoa, whoa--!"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "Spot of bother in the temporal wa-"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "What in the nine worlds is going on?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka crash! KABOOM

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "...Well then. How is the greenhouse Yunomi?"

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    When the alternative is being crushed by the apocalyptic civilization-ending pollution death robot, then yes, we will certainly jump in the untested time machine. Won't we? Yes, we sure will.

    What follows is what might be best described as a real rollercoaster ride, past all sorts of twists and turns and phenomena and loops and inversions and months in reverse!

    At some point, there is a bright and spectacular strobing flash, and when the feeling of intense G-forces and motion stop...

    Well, Hoshi's going to find herself by herself, first off. And second, she's not where either of them left- the time machine's not anywhere to be found, either. She's on a metal floor or platform of some kind, in a small room with a metal door. There's a generic generator behind her and various pistons and whirly things lining the walls, but there doesn't seem to be anything /important/ here, necessarily.

    Her radio still works fine, though.

    "Amakasu? Can you hear me?" Ren asks. "It looks like that didn't quite work out right. I made it through, but I got separated from you. Looks like we might have to explore on our own after all."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "Amakasu? Can you hear me? It looks like that didn't quite work out right. I made it through, but I got separated from you. Looks like we might have to explore on our own after all."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "...incidentally, I hope it's not April 24AU for anyone listening."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu quietly, "This is a bad idea..."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler says, "Nevermind about the /greenhouse/. Time travel is freaking dangerous if you don't have something to shield you from temporal radi.. ah.. energies... I think... last time I did I turned into a box of donuts, it was a while back."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "...."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "I've...been through time but ah...only the once."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler says, "I was young and terrified and traveling with a madman in a blue box."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "A blue box?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler says, "Blue box."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "Interesting."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "I went through the world tree"

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler says, "Ask Harry what he remembers about The Doctors."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "That's the second time strange blue boxes have come up in conversations I've been in."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "Riva and Wuyin call it Agartha"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "Anyway... not sure if we have an awful lot of choice, unfortunately. We've only got a limited amount of... charge, I suppose, that's keeping us in the past. Spending time meeting up might waste"

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu says, "At least you guys are still here and it's not 24AU."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "Yes, as I recall whatever time travel happens in the wastes only counts for the wastes. You know, like getting married in Las Vegas."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu says, "Time travel is freaking confusing."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "So is Las Vegas."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler curiously "Are you in Las Vegas?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "Sadly, I think I'd prefer to be there right now. No, we're in ... well. The New Staffordshire of 1999, I suppose, compared to the New Staffordshire of 2003 which was a polluted wasteland full of dead folks."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler says, "I'm not famil... oh."

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
     So, Hoshi has some reservations. The fact that this dude was apparently waiting for them reeks of some destiny stuff that wouldn't make any sense, because her and Tanaka were both from different worlds entirely. Going back in time to essentially abort whatever the big monster thing was before it ever got made. She's pretty sure she's watched at least some movies that had time travel that said this was probably not the best plan. So, she ends up voicing her problems over the radio.

    Then all the horrifying monster roaring, arm-grabbing thing happened, and she was inside the time machine anyway.

    Hoshi ends up hanging on to whatever she could for dear life, her eyes clenched shut as time slipped away from her. She ends up having to grit her teeth to stop from yelling as they went.

    When she opens her eyes, she's suddenly by herself. Hoshi whirls around quickly looking for the machine, or Ren. Tanaka. Nobody's there. THe comforting sound of voices from the Union bands in her bluetooth does a little better to help her relax, though. "It looks that way," she concedes to him. "Don't do anything silly, alright? I don't want to think about what might happen if anyone here knows what's going on."

    She's still holding her sword! So that's nice. She of course morphs it back to it's hairtie form before she tries for the door and tries to peek through it cautiously before she heads out.

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu says, "I guess if we can stop someone from making a murder machine, we can also stop that from happening."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu says, "... I've watched too many time travel movies to be comfortable with this. What if we, like... Cause a paradox? Or something."

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Well, if someone else had survived long enough to find the time machine before them, rest assured they wouldn't be able to do this anywhere near as awesome as we're going to. We definitely hit 88 miles an hour back then, so logically some serious shit is about the ensue.

    Well, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is, we definitely made it back to the past before Ripsaw was activated.

    The bad news? Well, uh. Say hello to Ripsaw.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poDs6Jno_-w
    chw">Supplementary Lessons For the Unlucky
    Masafumi Takada - Danganronpa
    Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc - 2010</span>

    You're on the ground floor of what seems to be a massive open-plan factory. The gargantuan mechanical kaiju is boxed in by the four walls around you, surrounded by a massive haze of mechanical platforms. It's near completion, but not so much that there are several large segments of it with exposed, significant-looking power points. You know they're important because they're cycling between glowing red-white-green, anything that glows red is probably a vulnerable power core.

    Lots of platforms, giant cranes, pulleys, robotic arms, waldos... you know what to do.

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Staren says, "Hmm. I haven't dealt with time travel in the wastes. That might be better than time travel elsewhere where you're liable to trap yourself in a time loop or something."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "I don't know. Can you /make/ time paradoxes in the Wastes?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Staren says, "Not sure what happens in the wastes. If you cause a paradox elsewhere... you end up in a dead timeline. Or so I'm told. In the main timeline, a time traveller will show up to kick your ass and stop you from creating a paradox in the first place."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "It's all just a big patch of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff here."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Nasrin chipperly "If you meet one named Jack, do not engage him, he's a weapon of mass seduction."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Nasrin says, "OOC Mis"

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler chipperly "If you meet one named Jack, do not engage him, he's a weapon of mass seduction."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Staren says, "...Do you mean 'destruction'?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler says, "Nope."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu says, "... Dude what?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "Noted."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler says, "Look, you run into some very interesting people when you live with a Time Lord."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu says, "Well, nobody's come yet..." Long pause. "... I found the murder machine."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "Excellent!"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga coughs. "A weapon of mass...seduction?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler says, "I'll explain later, I'm on the edge of my seat listening to the murder machine madness."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Inga says, "Aha"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "I don't have any experience with time travel, really. So I'm in the feeling-out process here."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu says, "... Are you actually interested in this, Miss Yunomi?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Staren says, "WHat's this about a murder machine?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "You remember all the roaring and running this started out with?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler says, "I am. I don't get out of Ravnica much these days."

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu mutters, "Probably better described as a mass murder machine."

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
     Trying to peer through the door doesn't do Hoshi much good, so eventually she pushes her way in. "Annd found it," she grunts quietly to herself. Glances are sent all over the room to see if there was any people around... The sheer amount of machinery around makes it hard to tell if anyone is around. When it seems safe enough, she will eventually step out further into the room.

    The whole thing is one giant, pretty intimidating mess. "So... I guess I'm just going to wreak it?" Not exactly sounding too pumped about it. That said, Hoshi does recognize what this could possibly do for this world if she just... ends it now. So, out comes her sword again, and she focuses into herself, feeling Rosamond responding to her thoughts. "Okay... Okay. We can do this if we work together." Pause. "I really really hope nobody's in here. I don't want to be a time criminal."

    "PERSONA!" She cries, and with the crash of glass Rosamond appears, sword unsheathed and ready. Hoshi starts running for one of the platforms closer to the beast; Rosamond, meanwhile, starts causing a path of destruction as she flies straight for the incomplete Ripsaw, her blade lashing out to rend and crush whatever came within her reach. Once she's close to one of the glowing red pieces, she starts spinning like a top in mid-air until her sword crashes into it.

    Hoshi has to content herself with kicking things out of the way, mostly.

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Staren says, "Roaring and running...?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "Because it found us! It probably got pretty good at finding living people after killing all of the rest of them. But now we're in the past! To fix things!"

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler says, "Noble!"

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Dude, you are the time police. Well, in theory anyway. We're the Union, which is like being universe police, except this is an adventure in time, not space, so it stands to reason that... y'know.

    Elsewhere:

    "Right, okay, good to meet you, now you're probably wondering 'how did he penetrate my fortress of doom' or something, I'm sorry, that's an overgeneralization and it's not one I can really answer because I don't have any real way of proving it," Ren explains to a withered, villainous-looking person who's probably worse off now than Kelman was after years of not eating. He's not Kelman, though, he's got a lot more liver spots and cybernetic eyes. Well, two more, which is probably as many as you can have when you're a person. Anyway.

For Hoshi and Rosamond, each of them has their own set of problems- for Hoshi, it's the fact that yes, somewhere someone has noticed her on security camera, and therefore they're rapidly doing their best to try and make things difficult for her as far as 'moving around' goes. Any platform she's on is going to be moving back and forth to try and shake her off, the mechanical arms trying to whack her with their broadside or just grab her and try to snip an arm or a leg off.

     Rosamond's problems are in a way also Hoshi's because they're the same being, but they're a lot more explictly dangerous because, well, whoever isn't getting paid enough for this doesn't KNOW, they just know a dangerous flying humanoid thing with a sword is hacking up the quancilliary knee and electron cannon power generator core. So they're repurposing rivet guns and pressurized water metal-cutters to desperately blast at her.

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Well, low and behold. Suddenly there was a big party going on in this room, and absolutely nobody liked who had just walked in. The first rumbles of the platform she's standing on make her stop and look around curiously; that changes to desperately grabbing ahold of a railing to stop herself from tumbling off. One of the mechanical arms comes flying for her face, but she ducks it and dives for the next platform as hers starts shifting toward it.

    "Whoa! Hey, stop! I'm trying to save your lives!" After so much hope, she was still going to be on a shitlist for this. One of the robotic arms ends up slamming agianst her side, drawing a pained grunt. She has to grab hold to keep from being swept off, but she strikes out with her sword and damages one of the joints before it dumps her.

    Rosamond's cloaked form doesn't seem to move as rivets strike against her and tear through her cloak, but Hoshi can certainly feel them pelting on her chest. When someone tries to turn the water laser on her, though, she immediately zooms straight up towards the roof, then spins her sword and points it down at the machine. Golden prayer scrolls and talismans appear all around the mechanical monster--some not so far from the people down below. Each begin to burn brightly where they are until finally exploding with violent Light magic.

    Thankfully, Hoshi's not exactly a magical powerhouse. The intent was to scare off the people down below, not butcher them.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
At some point, Ren manages to sit down on a keyboard in just the right way as to put the really crusty old guy on speakerphone.

    "Well, Mr. Huss. Can I call you Mr. Huss? It just strikes me as strange that you don't seem to have a real reason behind this."
    "Many people claim to seek meaning in life, 'Mister Brown'. But the truth is, there is no such thing. This is just the most logical extension of that concept."
    "Really? Because it looks like a giant robot monster to me."

    It's not entirely just for the sake of exposition- Ren knows that while the people at the controls can't hear Hoshi's protests, they can hear this loud and clear, so he's trying the old engineered public confession on this old fossil.

    Unfortunately, because they can't hear Hoshi's protests for now, the people in the factory are going to keep trying to kill her. You know what they say: you can please all of the people some of the time, you can please some of the people all of the time, but a hot rivet in the eye'll always make your head explode.

    So hey, watch out for that! You're going to have to make sure you get off of that damaged robo-arm before it goes completely vertical and there's nothing to really grip on to. At this height it'll probably just be uncomfortable if you fall on the floor, but pretty soon they're probably going to start turning on the flamethrowers they use to clear out rats and vagrants and then you'll really be in trouble. In fact, they're turning them on right now. Climb for it!

    Thankfully for Rosamond, she's got the flying ability to bypass almost all of this dungeon at once. Such a gamebreaker. While this means she can fly all the way up to the top of Ripsaw and potentially look for the primary spinal signal coordinator (which is still just a big flashing power core on the outside anyway), and while it does mean she's thankfully far enough away to avoid human retaliation when she sets off a variety of light bombs hither and thither to disable the human-armed offense...

    There are going to be hovering drones up here with gun arms (for getting rid of bats, naturally?) that generally classify anything moving and not attached to a wall as an annoying interference. So they'll be getting in her way while Hoshi tries to take out the next point of failure!

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu says, "/Why are there flamethrowers on the floor/?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Ren Tanaka says, "Is this a rhetorical question, or a philosophical one?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [LC] Raylene Dunwich says, "I will answer with another question."

<X-Union-Chatter> [LC] Raylene Dunwich says, "Are there flamethrower racks nearby?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Yunomi Stadler says, "Maybe subfloor fuel line construction was cheaper?"

<X-Union-Chatter> [7] Hoshi Amakasu says, "No, these crazy people built them into the stupid floor to shoot out!"

<X-Union-Chatter> [LC] Raylene Dunwich says, "Oh."

<X-Union-Chatter> [A] Nasrin says, "Sounds to be an active day all around."

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Once Hoshi starts hearing Tanaka through the radio, she's glad that he's here and still okay. Of course, she also really wishes that they could've just come together, trashed the thing, and left without saying a word. Too bad for them.

    And too bad for Hoshi, when jets of flame erupt not so far from her feet, and several rivets plant themselves right next to her face. "Why are there flamethrowers on the floor!? Who designed this place?!" Thankfully, she's a Persona User. Super strength and stuff comes with the territory. So, with a little inspiration she's able to scramble back up and go on her way, to another platform that leads to a crane that will take her to the top of the beast.

    That's when some of the rivets smack into her side, just as she's starting to need to carefully balance. That's also when Rosamond ends up getting surrounded by gun drones. The Persona is able to use the slab of metal she uses as a sword to block a good number of the bullets, some get through, making Hoshi twitch and shudder with pain. It all ends up sending her over the side, only just able to catch herself with one hand.

    The strain of holding Rosamond out for so long is getting to be too much. Hoshi releases her hold, and the Persona begins to quickly fade into blue mist. She grits her teeth; her sword changes into a hairtie again, letting her use both hands to quickly hand-over-hand this bastard. Once she's over one of the glowing red bits, she drops and forms her sword, trying to stab through... whatever this thing was.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    You never know! He could be having force lightning shot at him right now. He might have to strangle this old guy to death with a bicycle chain. When was the last time you strangled someone to death with a bicycle chain, could you cut it?

    Well, at least it doesn't sound like there's any lightning in the background as Ren asks:

    "So you're a nihilist?"
    "Perhaps I just wanted the perspective that would have come from being a giant in a small world?"
    "Is this a rhetorical question, or a philosophical one?"
    "Literal!"
    "Ohhhh... that's a twist."

    Hoshi's getting shot at! That's not good! On the other hand, this is having some interesting consequences, one being that the people doing the shooting- already somewhat guilty at their having to try and kill what seems to be a strange teenager with a sword- if anything have their perturbances multiplied when they actually HIT her and it doesn't really DO much, because now she's gone from 'strange kid' to 'unnatural human-shaped instrument of destruction'. Several people decide to give up and run at this anyway!

    Especially when she uses her superhuman abilities to scale a platform or two, then a crane in a trice, leaving another of Ripsaw's power cores close at 'hand'.

    And because she's able to go from strength to strength when it comes to smashing it, more of the workers decide to give up and run in fear, which leaves their waldos unmanned... long story short, out-of-control rivet guns end up wildly firing and taking out another of the ... we'll just call them power cores.

    There's enough of Ripsaw that isn't finished yet that Hoshi can see there's a relative path right into the middle of the monster, with one remaining central device she could shut down if she dives down in there. Just a couple exposed electrical conduits, running-but-idle sets of gears, and a couple sets of damaged panels that are slamming open and closed and crushing anything between them when they do so.

    Easy, right?

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    People were mercifully not shooting at Hoshi anymore, so that was nice. Them fleeing is a godsend to a girl who had a couple rivets jammed into her torso that were oozing blood onto her clothes. Once again, she's reminded that if she wasn't who she was, she'd probably be dead right now. That said, they still freaking /hurt/.

    Tanaka is keeping the guy rambling on about whatever subject they'd gotten on--did he really design this thing to hop in himself? Where the hell is the investment return on that?--leaving Hoshi to put this thing to bed. Of course, that's going to be difficult, considering what's before her.

    A big scowl comes to the teen's face. Clearly these people didn't know how to run a business or make a functioning robot. Thankfully, she still has some supernatural aid.

    So she dives into the belly of the beast. She ends up having to climb around like a monkey to get over the electrical conduits, and a bit of her hair gets singed for the effort. The gears are a little more troublesome; eventually Hoshi grunts, "C'mon, Rosamond!" The Persona appears again, in a rather silly hunched position to even be able to fit, and grabs ahold of the geras long enough for Hoshi to slip through and let Rosamond fade.

    The next one ends up leaving her stumped for a bit as the panels crashed together in front of her. Eventually, she starts noticing a slightly-erratic pattern. Once she feels she's got the feel of it, she ends up diving forward to try and make it through, only jst managing the last one and tripping badly enough to fall flat on her back.

    "Agh.... guuh... I hate this plate," she pants.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
"I will transfer my own mind out of this worn-out defect, fusing what I have discovered to be a soul to it! All of the mechanical shortcomings will be filled in by MY PURE WILL! I will become the force of annihilation! I will embody the senseless principle of destruction, laying waste to countless lives! And for what purpose? None! If anything, spite! I will wallow in it! I will create the largest, greatest war machine in history and use it for nothing but wanton slaughter!"
    "No, no. I don't think you're going to, really."
    "And why? Are you going to stop me?"
    "No, I'm just going to keep you busy..."

    Outside, equipment goes out of control and the flamethrowers accidentally light up some fuel lines, the building starts to shake and electrical fuses explode. Computers and important computer-controlled equipment, and potentially say cybernetic life support, electrifies and overloads.

    The final power core is there in front of Hoshi, although it's surrounded by some out-of-place machinery with vaugely asian-looking iconography embossed onto it, made of odd green metal and with rice paper scrolls. It's all impossible to read, and potentially irrelevant. Pity Ren's not here to recognize it, huh? Takuya went to all of this trouble making something he'd recognize, too.

Hoshi Amakasu (901) has posed:
    Hoshi needs a few seconds to catch her breath once she's finally made it to the end. The loud, clanking machines make it almost impossible to focus now; at least she's still mobile, she probably couldn't summon Rosamond at this point.

    She's up on her feet, her brows furrowed at all the weird iconography down here. It's nothing she can read, and there's nothing that's really saying that she was going to kill the timeline or anything, so... She steps forward grimly and lifts her sword point-down above her head, and just starts stabbing the thing as hard and as viciously as she can. "Stupid... murder robot!"

    Once she's done, she starts trying to scramble her way back out. Who knows if this thing will self-destruct or something?

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Look at it this way, Hoshi, although hopefully not as you're stabbing it because that thing's going to start glowing and crackling unpleasantly after you rupture the glassy centre- you've definitely just saved civilization, so that' something, right?

    Step away quickly, though! Exploding may indeed be imminent! In fact, as you squirm out of the overloading robot, you'll find that exploding is imminent no matter which way you go.

    A blast of metal and masonry blows out a wall some distance away, in one of the control rooms attached to a building wall. It's bad news for old men, presuming they survived previous implications- as a guy in a batsuit once said, I'm not going to kill you, but I just don't have to save you- as Ren can be seen making a running jump out of the room he was in, swinging off a drone and landing next to Hoshi. Stupid exalted tricks, landing from so high up safely, mutter mutter.

    There's fire above, fire below, and fire all around. Congrats Hoshi! EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE.

    Fortunatelt, when he gets up, he's starting to... sparkle? Hoshi is, too.

    "Looks like we made it just in time, Amakasu. Like he said... limited charge. We're going to get pulled back to the present day. Let's hope it looks better than when we left, eh?"

    There's more sparkles! And then ... well, imagine the previous rollercoaster feeling in spirit, but the track completely disappears halfway through, and there's some falling, and it's all in reverse...

    When Ren and Hoshi stop moving again, they're somewhere else again. It's New Staffordshire, and it looks... sort of like what it did before, but only because total redevelopment of the city skyline can't even happen in four years even if a lot can be done.

    The city looks rather different, though! There are clear(er) skies, glass and chrome buildings going up, plus things like... trees! And flowers! And trees and flowers placed and built in harmony with new glass and chrome buildings, and asthetic redevelopment, and most important of all PEOPLE! Lots and lots of wonderful living people, going about their normal lives, all of them looking pretty happy. Off in the distance you can even see Kelman too, looking a lot healthier and happier.

    HOSHI AND REN MADE A GOOD FUTURE