3792/Amber Fields of Grain

Amber Fields of Grain
Date of Scene:	11 February 2016
Location:	Planetary Plains
Synopsis:	A meeting in an idyllic town. Will and Nozomi hang out, and he asks questions about the GIANT ROBOT TIGER.
Cast of Characters:	William Pauwel, 342

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William Pauwel has posed:
    The town of Gale is a rather idyllic community in the sense that it's maybe only ten percent town, with the rest being made up of empty, rolling prairie or gently sweeping farmland. Off in the distance, stretching from earth into the clouds, is the silhouette of a great tower, surrounded by only somewhat less massive scaffolds that give it an appearance not unlike the bottom half of a Christmas tree.

     It's a great canvas of green grass and amber-gold grain, with little houses that pop up amidst the many farmlands surrounding a much denser community that surrounds what at first glance appears to be a hill. On closer examination, one might conclude that most hills do not have smoke-stacks sticking out of them. They certainly do not have a great hollow center bored right down the middle.

    Will has called Nozomi out for a little visit to this sleepy little agrarian community, right to the very edge of town where civilization meets the fringes of a small ocean of wheat. It seems that the building in particular is... some kind of barn-machineshop hybrid. Or maybe it was a barn, but traded (most of) its cattle out for a garage full of scrap metal, spare parts, and approximately one (1) working motorcycle. An unassuming but not badly sized house rises nearby, alongside a pair of grain silos.

Will is... Just a little bit of a country bumpkin, but that's probably to be expected at this point.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    It's Nozomi's first time coming out to a strange, (relatively) new world in the Multiverse without friends like the Flotilla to give her some confidence and stability; or at least her first time in a long while. She's gotten so used to having someone fighty and protective like Psyber or Biteblade around that coming out somewhere with only Taiga to accompany her is a little daunting. But Will wanted to visit with her! Or... something about shares. Also Taiga. He was interested in Taiga.

    So here she is, riding in on a sleek black robotic tiger who makes a good pace from the nearest warp gate. If nothing else, Gale is pretty enough that she temporarily forgets the whole 'about to probably be surrounded by strangers or something' thing. They just don't have open prairie like this in Japan. It's like a frozen ocean of grass. She's distracted enough that she doesn't go back to 'slightly nervous' until Taiga strolls up to the barnshop, slowing down from an easy run to a casual feline strut. "These are the coordinates, Nozomi," he declares simply - purposely loud enough to be heard.

William Pauwel has posed:
    When you're an engineer-adventurer with a passion for some of the shootier varieties of machines, something like TAIGA is a natural point of interest. It isn't everyday that you run into a super-robot cat capable of shooting MAGICAL POWER ORBS, after all. Heck, robots that have a setting that isn't 'beep boop destroy all humans' is kind of a novelty around this part of the world. Sure enough, TAIGA's arrival does draw wary looks from some of the nearby townsfolk.

Curiously, many of them have artificial limbs. Curious, that.

    As if sensing either the presence of such a fine piece of machinery or possibly smelling Nozomi's underlying aura of terror, something begins to move inside the barnshop. There's a rattling of wheels and shifting metal before Will pops his head out from the corner of the door. "Well howdy," he calls over with a grin and a wave of a wrench, "I was just tunin' up the old iron horse."

    Will strolls out, tucking the tool back into a strap on his belt. It jangles there alongside a whole host of different screwdrivers, ratchets and other hand-tools. "Glad t' see y'all found your way over. Haven't had a look 'round town yet, have ya?"

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    When Nozomi finally slides off his back, Taiga turns to give the townspeople a direct look. "Hello." Cat staring contest.

    "Ah, hi," Nozomi greets. The nervousness is there in her voice, but she has at least met Will previously, so it's not as bad as it could be. His choice of words proves confusing for a second or two before it clicks. "Iron...? ...o-oh! Oh, the... the motorcycle." Folding her hands in front of herself, she shakes her head in response to his question. "No, I haven't. I... I don't really explore much... o-on my own, I mean. With other people there, it's not so bad, I guess..." The robo-tiger turns his head towards Will, and adds, "It was relatively simple to find. You have a good location here."

William Pauwel has posed:
    Taiga's predisposition towards simple greetings instead of immediate initiation of hostilities (and all the lasers that would follow) seem to satisfy most of the townsfolk. The ones that it doesn't are largely dissuaded from getting into a staring contest with a robot. That is a very good way to end up being laser beam eye'd.

Fortunately, Will knows better.

    "Yeah! The Mistral. Been tuning her for years now, after grandpa got done with 'er." After a brief stint with his father. Wherever he is, now. "Anyway, maybe after we get done here, I can give y'all the grand tour." There's a sense that this might amount to leading them into the town square and then pointing to all of the two or three particularly interesting landmarks in the area.

Gale's pretty sleepy, culturally.

It IS pretty, though.

    "It's a good town," Will nods to Taiga, "Grams and grandpa were here when it got started. Laid the first bricks to the homestead themselves. 'Course, I'm not home too often these days, but I decided that there ain't anywhere safer than here for our takin's. Got yer stuff inside whenever you want it."

"But, uh," he sniffs, rubbing under his nose, "I did wanna take a look at yer stuff quick, Taiga. Might gimme some ideas as to what to do with the Solano."

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Taiga comes to his feet with a surprisingly feline streeeeetch, the soft sound of whirring servos accompanying it briefly. "You understand, of course, that I cannot allow any exploration within my chassis. But as you have already seen my combat performance, concealing at least that from you would be pointless." He begins lazily striding into Will's workshop, assuming that any demonstrations or examinations will happen there.

    Nozomi looks between the TIGER and the explorer, a little puzzled, before deciding to just... move on with the conversation. "I... don't really know what all I'm entitled to. I was... I kind of just came along, because Biteblade and the others thought I should."

William Pauwel has posed:
it's like they took a cat and made it a robot.

    Is that really how they built Taiga? Did they distill the purest feline essence and infuse it into a tiger-shaped robot for maximum cattitude? It's probably all classified, but Will can dream.

    "Oh, well sure," Will answers with an easy smile. "I ain't about to go stealing all'a your secrets. That's not how we do things 'round these parts." He leads Taiga over towards the rest of his tools, not far from the aforementioned motorcycle. Mistral is quite literally in pieces right now, though-- or at least, part of its motor is. It looks like Will's doing some pretty in-depth work. "Just tell me where to open whatever you think I'm allowed to poke 'round. Might want to see how yer energy accumulators work fer those guns."

    Will begins picking through his tools as Nozomi speaks, and gingerly wipes his wrench clean as he answers. "What're you talking about? There's no way we'd've taken out that Guardian without you an' Taiga. You deserve a share of the takin's just as much as anyone else."

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Taiga pauses in mid-stride, in that way that cats do - when they have spotted prey, when they have locked eyes with a potential threat, in any situation where they are surprised and need to assess. "I... apologize, I believe I have been unclear. I can demonstrate functionality to you quite readily. Perhaps even explain some of the basics of it. But allowing someone who is not aligned with the Union or the JSDF access beneath my armor plating in any area is, unfortunately, off-limits. I am not personally bothered by it, but it is forbidden within my programming."

    Nozomi bites her lip briefly. It's one of those moments where she's reminded that Taiga is not his own robot, and neither she nor he have the right to make up their mind who to trust with regards to him. But at the very least, she's flattered that she's considered instrumental to their victory, and it shows. "A-ah, well... there were... there were strong people there, I'm sure you could have..." Fidget fidget. "...a-anyway... I guess if you insist..."

William Pauwel has posed:
    "Oh, well uh," Will rubs nervously at the nape of his neck. There's a slight, disappointed off-keyedness to his voice and the slight dimming of his sparkle in his eyes. It's like someone laid out a piece of pie and then snatched it away just before he could dig into it. "I was kind of hopin' to get a better idea of how yer energy weapons work at, er, a technical level." He pats at the rather oversized weapon at his hip for emphaisis, "This thing's got some problems, and we've sort of hit a wall with it, you know? Ah well. Ain't your fault, so don't you worry."

That just means that he'll have to get this Jay-Ess-Dee-Eff group to give him access, or something! That can't be that hard, can it?

C...can it?

    Will heaves his shoulders in a mild shrug, then, as he makes his way towards a nearby tarp. It comes away with a bit of a flutter and nowhere near as much dust as what one might expect from this kind of thing. "Well, even if there were a bunch of strong folk around," INCLUDING A DRAGON, "T'wasn't an easy fight. I told grandpa about it, and he said he'd only seen something that big once, and he was runnin' from it." Will steps aside, revealing a surprisingly well-organized pile of miscellaneous archaeotech. He picks one chunk in particular off the rest and turns it over in his hands, "Picked this bunch out for y'all. I tried to split things up as even as I could so there'd be no hard feelin's, but this sorta thing inn't exactly a science."

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    "At the very least," Taiga replies, "I can provide a basic explination in that, as the core principles are well-known in the Multiverse. My cannons draw charge from my power core, utilizing some of it to power a military-grade ionized particle generator. The remainder is then infused directly into the shot in a specialized intermix chamber, effectively enchanting the standard 'energy weapon' projectile and rendering it much more effective against spiritual entities, enchanted defenses, and so on." He lifts a paw, flexing talons. "Similar energy is infused into my claws. It keeps them exceptionally sharp without need for outside sharpening. Curious."

    Nozomi takes a few steps over, pausing in a brief hesitation before reaching out to carefully take whatever this odd thing is that Will is offering. "I... I don't know what it is, but... thank you. I'm kind of used to it... not knowing what things are, I mean." She does hang around the Flotilla a lot.

William Pauwel has posed:
    Will gives Taiga a very, very long look. You can almost hear the gears in his head turning, right up until the point where the tiger-machine gets to 'enchantment.' That's about when Will blinks a couple times and cants his head awkwardly to one side, "Uh. I think I maybe followed a lot of that, but I don't know nothing about 'enchanting' or anything like that. Sounds pretty similar to what the Solano does, except s' got a bunch of juryrigged parts that don't all match, so the capacitance ain't the best, an' it likes t' overheat a lot."

    Will flashes a brief grin as he hands over the MYSTERIOUS PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY. He also hefts over a small bag of... stuff. If Nozomi looks inside, she'd find it full of various bits of metal and ceramic. "Ah shoot, I'm sure y'all'll figure 'em out. We don't know what this stuff does either, so we're all in the same wagon! Maybe you can give 'em to them jay-ess-dee-eff folks?"

    "Gotta bring the rest their share of the loot too," he says with a thoughtful hum. "Ah, well, they'll come when they come. So uh..." Will sniffs, rubbing furtively at the bridge of his nose, "Say miss Nozomi, how d'you feel about pie?"

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Taiga rumbles, finally deciding to simply lie down. "Enchantment can have different meanings. But at its most basic, it is the infusion of magical power into an object or location to create a lingering effect. Armor which turns away common weapons. A sword which can pierce that armor. A bow which sets its arrows alight. A forest that leads astray any who wander into it. Or, in my case, energy shots which are capable of interacting with magical defenses just as they would natural or technological ones. The means by which I enchant my projectiles is not as efficient as if the cannons themselves were to be enchanted, but it allows me greater flexibility. I can dial my output freely."

    Nozomi takes the tech, and also the bag, looking over all of it curiously; especially fiddling with the MYSTERY GIZMO to see if she can suss out what it does. She's actually curious enough to forget her nervousness; and also curious enough to forget where she is for a few moments, for that matter. She seems almost surprised when Will speaks up to offer pie. "E-eh? Pie?" A glimmer of hope finds its way into those eyes of hers. "It depends what kind, but... I usually like it a lot."

William Pauwel has posed:
    "Well," Will scratches at his chin, "It does sound pretty neat, s'pecially that... forest one. How's that one even work? I'm not so sure about the... magical... bit, though. I mean, 've never really heard of anyone using that kind've stuff outside fairy tales, you know?" Says the guy who's carrying around a miniature plasma cannon, but there is a noticable lack of anything overtly supernatural native to this particular stretch of the multiverse. Must just be one of those worlds. "Kinda sounds like you've got some kind of... Energy-matter doohicky thing going on. Rumors heartell something like that might be lying 'round... somewhere."

Somewhere.

"Nobody's ever found anything that amazin' yet though," Will gives a light chuckle. If they did find an actual energy-matter converter, most Chasers would probably be out of a job, so maybe it's good that they haven't dug one up yet!

Beat.

    The bit of tech in Nozomi's hand seems awfully stubborn about its true purpose. But she can spy a couple of conduits that look like they're meant to receive some kind of power, and one face is open, leading down into a hollow inner chamber lined with some manner of crystalline paneling. How mysterious! "Y-yeah," Will nods, reaching back around to undo the latches securing the toolbelt around his waist. "Grams had some of her special custard pie in the oven, so if you wanted any...?"

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Taiga makes an amused snort. "'Fairy tales' are precisely what I was created to hunt. It is to the consternation of my superiors that most of them simply wish to be left alone, and reports to the contrary are generally the result of human hysteria." He lays his head on his paw. "In most worlds, magic cannot be analyzed or quantified by science. It is a conceptual force woven into reality that operates on different rules. There are exceptions in individual worlds, of course. And there is an old saying about sufficiently-advanced technology being indistinguishable."

    Nozomi is curious, but aside from briefly poking at the inner chamber, she is not so desperate to figure out what it does that she'll hook it up to Taiga or anything like that. She decides to set it in the bag for now, and take all of it back to the Union for analysis. If any of it's good, she'll probably donate it to the JSDF. More importantly, pie. It's probably the first time Will's seen her eyes truly light up. "Yeah, I think I would." Nod nod. And she didn't even stammer or stumble.

William Pauwel has posed:
    "Nnmm, I guess there're some things 'round here that're pretty unbelievable," Will answers the giant robotic tiger, who is now looking every bit like a cat who found a conveniently placed sunbeam. "Like the turkeys and their kin. But it kind've sounds like yer bossmen need t' learn t' pick their fights better. Iff'n something's not causin' a ruckus, then it's best t' let sleeping wolves lie, right?"

Nevermind that 'wolves' in this particular scenario may not at all resemble actual wolves very much. They might have horrible envenomated quills, or something equally awful.

Or laser breath.

    Under only slightly closer inspection, there does seem to be some kind of trackball on one side of the device that locks in place when depressed. A control, perhaps!? Will blinks at Nozomi's sudden sweet-induced cheer. His eyes dart shyly away, and he suddenly seems interested in staring at something that is definitely out in the fields, really, honestly. He scratches at his cheek, "Ahah, well, good! Uh."

Get it together, Pauwel.

    "Well, maybe iff'n you wanna come inside an' have somethin' to drink with that pie, I think we've got some tea too." Yes, this is a good plan, nothing can possibly go wrong, "An' after I can show you 'round town, or you can tell me 'bout this world you come from, or something?"

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    "Ah, I'd like that!" Nozomi replies, bowing gratefully. Taiga finally sees fit to climb to his feet again, adding an amused, "Generally, we do let sleeping wolves lie. There are just certain superior officers who share the public's distrust of the supernatural, and show disappointment whenever we return from a deployment that was resolved peacefully. We once received a frantic call about a yuki-onna beguiling the neighborhood youth, for example..." He is quite fine with going on at length about that particular story - or others that William cares to ask, for that matter. He's a cat. Attention is good.