Scene #5072: We Didn't Start The Fire

Owner	Pose
Samantha Middleton	The scorched wood is already pretty scorched. You'd think people would be more careful about fire safety! The panicked call for help said something about a sudden and intense blaze from an unknown artifact, no doubt bringing lots of emergency responders running, and maybe some Elites to investigate! It turns out to be pretty dull. Some loon was using an incendiary grenade as a hammer in a flour mill. So the whole town went up in smoke and the survivors - which there are plenty of except for the dolt using the grenade as a tool - have to go to the nearby village to crowd out the annoyed people there. It turns out to be pretty orderly, so the whole panic was a false alarm. Tragic, but hardly world-ending. A large number are now clustering under tents and tarps to shield themselves from the drizzle that's starting, and the sun is going down. That's why the largest cluster is making sounds of annoyance that the lights aren't on yet! Or weren't. The grumbles have barely started when the finicky, ancient-looking gnerator roars to life at last, causing the lights to sputter on. And, from behind the generator, a slender teenage girl wobbles out, coughs out a bit of smoke, and runs a gleaming metal hand through her mussed, soot-covered hair after the obvious jolt she's gotten. "Fixed it!"
Corona Arclite	Still leaves the question of where he got a fire grenade in the first place, but seeing as the idiot already Darwin'ed himself from the gene pool, a moot point. Dealing with the aftermath of his stupidity leaving a large number of people without homes was more important, anyways. So instead of fighting fires they had to see about getting these folks some shelter for the night. Not that Corona minds having shown up only to not fight fires, this was a bit more down her trail anyways. Fortunately tents aren't hard to come by, or to set up. Just shove some poles into some tarps and there you go, and Corona is pretty sure she's got some tarps and other scraps in the back of her work truck. Would be a little easier to find if it wasn't starting to get dar-- -- Oh there's the lights coming on. Nevermind. With better illumination Corona finds the pile of tarps under some spare gears, shoving the latter out of the way with a foot so she can pick up the former and toss them out to waiting people. "Go'on, cover yerselves up." Then goes back to rummaging. Next on the list, a source of heat. That's not going to go out with the rain. Or start more fires.
Taro	There are times that Taro can only shake his head at the ineptitude and profound lack of wisdom in others. Some seem to survive only because one god or another seems to have favored them. This particular dolt seems to have not beaten the odds in a rather spectacular fashion, though thankfully he managed to not take too many with him in the process of doing so. His priest's collar and cassock was likely enough to get him to the factory regardless of his other alliances, and if his opinion was asked, he would have insisted that the entire gounds be evacuated. Structural engineering is not his specialty, but it's clear that whatever was left of the buildings after the fire are likely to collapse. Vanity would have made him wipe the soot and fire-baked flour from his face after scouting the remains of the building where the fire started, but streaks of both still cling to his cassock when he comes down to the village. He's not going to complain about the rain - it should help put out any embers that might have been missed. Strange, that it's dark, don't these people have electricity? No, wait, the lights are flickering on now. He tilts his head, then decides to head in the direction of the generator. As loud as it is, it shouldn't be hard to find. "It sounds like it needs an overhaul," he remarks to himself.
Samantha Middleton	The village has electricity, but it wasn't equipped to handle this many refugees. Inns and houses are packed full, and while the place is low tech, it isn't so low tech as to not have electricity. Thus the generator! Which Samantha just fixed. "Yeah it's pretty old, Father," she says with a wave of the mechanical hand. "It'll work until they can ship something in that works better I guess. Just needed a little love." Meanwhile Corona is doing stuff! Samantha doesn't really care what, because she got distracted by fox. Fox tail. Blink blink. "I've never seen a fox before. I mean outside books. " Yes, she's a little new to the Multiverse.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa had never been to the scorched woods before and she head about some sort of artifact? Given the call for help?She were soon beaming in from the Bluenose and appearing in a pillar of light, She wasn't expecting combat thankfully and was making for the crowd but it seems she was late to the party as someone else had already handled it and she was feeling more than a bit sheepish at this and it as ehe arrives. "It seems that I wasn't needed after ... oh hey Corona? Need a hand there?" Maybe Kotone isn't as uneeded as she thought she might be?
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite peeks up over the old metal tinderbox she managed to push to the end of the truck bed. "Good timin' Koto, grab that edge and guide it down. We can use it to keep a fire in the camp for the night an' not worry 'bout it gettin' outta control." Said fox tail flicks back and forth a few times as she guides the tinderbox over the edge, then glances sideways in the direction of the new voice. "Much less one's that walk uprawht an' talk Ah reckon." She sounds more amused by it than anything.
Taro	Taro arches his eyebrows slightly at the woman mechanic when he gets his first good look at her, but then gives her a deep nod. "Mm. So I see..." He notices her sudden distraction, and turns around to look in that direction. "Ah. That would be Ms. Arclite. We've worked together before. The young lady who's just joined us would be Ms. Yamakawa, I believe." He turns his head back again. "And I am Taro Dasiho. A pleasure. And you are, Miss...?"
Samantha Middleton	It's not like she's unaware such things exist, but hearing and seeing are two different things! "Yep! Pretty neat~" Sam claps her hands together... which works surprisingly well, considering one of them is metal. Precision engineering? But then she's meeting everyone and giving Taro a quick smile. "Oh, huh. Me? Samantha. Samantha Middleton. I was just nearby so Michelle and I decided to help out. She took the airship over to the next town to see if there was anything she could haul."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is glad to be helping out Corona with this and looks to Taro and the other woman whose come to help. she looks to Taroa nd her. "Kotone Yamakawa good to meet you." She seems She looked to Taro for a moment and then back to Samantha she grins a bit. "Good to meet you Samantha! So I figure between all of us we can solve this, I have some hardware on my ship if we need more gear for this."
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite's ears flare up against the sides of her stetson at the clapping. Or more so the fact that the sound is partially metallic. Though she waits until the tinderbox is on the ground before getting too distracted. Once it's out she picks up a couple more odds and ends and then jumps out of the truck herself. Though her attention is fixed mostly on the teen now. "That's quite the arm ya got there missy. Build it yerself?"
Taro	"Miss Middleton." Taro gives her another nod, introductions concluded. "An airship, you said? Interesting...I hope the rain will not cause her any trouble?" Corona saves him the trouble of asking the possibly awkward question about Samantha's arm, and he's interested enough in the answer to hold off asking any others. Also, Kotone seems more than willing to help Corona lug around everything she's taken out of the bed of her truck, and thus he doesn't ask if she needs more help.
Samantha Middleton	"Hello, Kotone~" Samantha is polite in her tone, but manners like formal ones are... not hers. "Yeah it looks like it's mostly under control I guess. If we can get them a nice fire to warm up with, that'll be that. You need some help with that?" She turns and calls out, "FIDO GET OVER HERE!" A large, clunky-looking being thuds out from around the corner, about nine or ten feet tall and obviously mechanical and steam in tech. It waddles over with surprising speed, while Samantha looks at her arm. "Um... yeah. I lost my old one." As in her original prosthetic or the flesh and blood one. "Makes it a lot easier to work. People here don't seem to care." She gestures at the town. Taro gets a quick answer, "Nah, rain won't do anything unless it's a big storm. It's pretty sturdy. I used the engines from my dad's old one."
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite opens her mouth as if to say they can probably manage, but then 'Fido' comes trundling through to pick up the tinderbox and carrying it over to the camp. "Well now don't that beat all. Sure makes it easier on the heavy liftin' part!" Not exactly the sort of name she's give a clockwork mech, but it ain't hers so not really her place to say anything. So instead the fox turns to the cab of her truck. "Hey, Hopalong, come out here!" The hissing of smoke from a furnace heating up can be heard, then the opposite cab door opens and slams shut. A few moments after the steampunk construct hops around the back corner, for the most part looking like a mechanical rabbit save the deer-like antlers of brass and chrome piping atop it's head. "Go dig a small trench for it to set that metal box in. Just some firebreak for extra precaution. This folks' had enough fire problems." The steampunk jackalope hops ahead at the command, and starts digging out the shallow hole for the fire pit with it's hydraulic arms and shovel-like forepaws.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa seems to have no issues moving any of the items, it seems like they weigh almost nothing to her. She whistles as she she works and takes sight of Samantha as she does her thing as well she takes a look at the limb for a moment. "Interesting prosthetic you have there. There's always people who don't take well to it, right? I get called ... a Doll on and off because of how I am mostly prosthetic. I'd not take it too hard." She keeps working with orona as she helps her friend get to work. "Still Steam punk... a few years ago I'd laugh and call it fiction, funny how that goes, doesn't it Corona?"
Taro	Taro's eyebrows arch again as he first hears, then sees, then smells one large mechanical creature as it comes around the corner. Dog? Something that seems to serve the same function as one, possibly. Regardless of what it's modeled after, he can say that it -is- intriguing. His gaze follows Fido as the mechanical being struts past, though he continues speaking to Samantha. "I've seen something similar before. Automail, it's called. I take it then that you're from a family of engineers?" He's not intentionally ignoring Corona or Kotone. But since they seem to know what they're doing (or at least Corona knows what she's doing and Kotone is following), he might just get in the way by trying to assist.
Samantha Middleton	"Automail? Never heard of it," Samantha replies, making a motion toward Fido to help guide the bot. "Sorry I gotta keep an eye on him. He's not really smart or anything, he can just carry stuff." AI is apparently not one of this girl's specialties. To Kotone, "Ah... not really a problem back home, but sometimes people look at me funny. I guess because I'm so young? We had them back in my world, they were just kinda rare. I was the only one in town who could make them, but we had a merchant with an arm that came by sometimes. Never met someone so lifelike though! That's some quality work!" Hopalong gets a long look. "Huh. Maybe we should trade notes sometime!" Always helpful? "Eh... my parents were adventurers, sort of, but they knew their way around a workshop. They died a long time ago though. I'm just doing my part while I look for Miss Blakely."
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite gives a shrug in response. "Don't sweat it. Took me a long time to find the right combination of calculatin' gears and springs to do more than just take orders. Hopalong's... kinda special. Ah got help from some offworld friends figgerin' that out." Though when the topic of dead parents comes up her mood sombers a little, tail curling behind her instead of flicking about like before. "Y'too, huh? Muh folks died in a crash. Sabahtage cuz some dirty bloke got jealous of father's scientific prolification." Hopalong digs out the shallow trench, then hops out of the way of Fido and Kotone to get the tinderbox-turned-firepit into place.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa Says "Sounds way different han back home for me, everyone ther's too eager to scoop their brains out into a body like mine." She makes a bit of a face a this as she keeps on working ith Corons and she moves to get the tinderbox into place. "Good thinking there, and ... I admit seeing the after effects of what happened...it ws insane the day the station went up."
Taro	Taro follows along. "Analogue, I assume?" he half asks, half states, gesturing toward Fido. "I admit my knowledge of clockworks and automail is limited. The machines I work with may follow some of the same general principles," he gives a small shrug, "but the components and design are rather different." Since following Fido and Samantha means moving closer to where Corona and Kotone are, he gets a better look at the tinderbox in a trench. "Will this produce enough heat to keep warm?" The subject of dead parents goes unremarked upon. It's hard to compare what one has never had to lose.
Samantha Middleton	"Huh? Um... s-something like that," Samantha replies regarding parents in a very badly-hidden discomfort. The way she scratches her head with her arm though... it's definitely more precise than most masters would make. If she actually made it herself, there's something weird going on with how she can build it to such specifications. For now she lets Corona handle the fire stuff, because that is something that Corona seems to know about. She just guides Fido. "Analogue? Uh... most of him, yeah. My world does have electronics and transistors. Most people think that's weird when I tell them? I dunno why. I mostly use them in my radios, that's kind of my hobby."
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite gestures at the tinderbox in the trench. "Normally this is part of what produces the heat fer runnin' a steam engine's boiler, Ah reckon bein' warm enough ain't gonna be a problem." Pause. Vage headtilt. "Not like these folks got much other options, either." With the other hand she unlatchs the matter manipulator from her belt, flicks through the inventory, and dumps out some wood and coal into the tinderbox. "Okay Hopalong, light it up!" The construct sticks his head in the tinderbox's opening and lets out a blast of hot fumes from his own furnace via 'breathing' it out his mouth. A few sparks catch the tinder and coal and that's all it needs to get going. He pulls his head out and Corona swings the grate shut. "There we go." She gives the manipulator a gunslinger twirl before recatching it on her toolbelt.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is fine working with Taro and Corona here with helo from Samantha this is a small problem on the multiveral stage sure, but it's not small thing at all and there's where the detail of stuff like this often gets missed by the supermen of the world. She works away and she steps back as hopalong gets to work. "Hopefullly this will work out, right?"
Taro	"It's likely because transistors are a solid, if arbitrary, benchmark in technological advancement," Taro replies to Samantha. "Though people tend to forget that just because a breakthrough is made, it does not mean that every invention is immediately using them. Histories tend to gloss over such things." He simply gives a nod in answer to Corona's explanation. That it's more than adequate as a heating source is going to be proven rather quickly, with a trickle of heat already building after Hopalong tights the fuel. Them he gets a faraway look in his eyes, followed by a faint frown. "Someone else has need of me, it seems. If you'll excuse me...?"
Samantha Middleton	"Huh..." Samantha nods, then looks a little puzzled as Taro just wanders off. "Oh. Okay. Nice to meet you, Mister Daisho!" Whew. Now that the priest is gone, she doesn't have to mind her manners quite as much! That's something, at least. "Yeah this should be fine. Hey Fido, come back," she calls out. The clunking automaton waddles back toward her... though up close it makes it much clearer that Fido is heavily-armed with guns and the like. "Well... it looks like they're all set for a while as soon as this is finished. And it looks like Michelle is coming back anyway. We should hang out sometime, compare notes." To Kotone or Corona? Maybe both...
Corona Arclite	Corona Arclite tosses some of the other stuff she didn't use back into the truck. Though why use the truck when she's got the manipulator? Habit, mostly. And the manipulator doesn't do so well with some of the bigger machinery she's got to haul from time to time. "Sure thing kiddo. Might learn a thing or two."