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Metamorph One	The somewhat outlanding premise of 'terraforming Callisto, yes that Callisto, the second largest moon of Jupiter; no this is a normal Callisto' looks a lot less fantastic than you would expect when you lay your eyes on it, which counterintuitively makes it feel more fantastic by induction.     An artificial Warpgate, in Applied Ontology's recognizable style of lunar white plastic ceramics with neon orange stencils and citron green accent marks, opens up directly under a pitch black sky, and the slightly stuffy warmth of climate controlled air tells you that you're actually indoors better than the faint slivers of slight you can see caught in some of the angles of the glass dome that must be over your heads.     The performative effect of glowing futurustic whiteness and sleek VIP automation in the building surrounds you is achieved by carefully layering Concord promotional banners and private luxury vedor furnishings and carpets over panels and mechanisms that would otherwise still exude traces of toyetic charm. The 'reception hall' (as pretentiously named by the signs) isn't exactly big, amounting to a circular lobby surrounding the Warpgate platform, with a single exit hatch door by a curved front desk, flanked by projector televisions, soft couches, exotic indoor plants, and two curved sets of stairs down to the basement level, where there is a bar and a handful of meeting rooms away from the view of space, but the effect is exotic in a calculatedly breathtaking way.     With all the lights on inside, you can't see anything but Jupiter in the sky overhead. Once you give your name to one of the two women at the desk and step outside, the glittering brush strokes of the Milky Way appear as if by magic, punctuated by two bright moons in syzygy. It's so much at once that you'd wonder why anyone would want it filtered by the dome up the steps just behind you, if it weren't for the fact that the running lights glaring outdoors should obviously still prevent you from seeing them here, too.     You don't need a suit, and to prove the point, they didn't provide one. You can guess that it has something to do with the neon orange marker lights spaced far off in the distance, easily visible at the lip of an oddly ring-layered crater, with yourselves at the bottom. A flat, long-rectancular building nearby serves as a garage for wheeled vehicles and a tiny engineering bay for a couple of flying drones, with a row of semicircular storage units on the other side of it, blocking it from the reception hall's view. A monitoring tower of a mere three storeys flanks it instead, making a triangle with a company branded building (dome, with four offshoot corridors and cube-shaped mystery rooms at the end) which seems to serve as some sort of demo hall that you have no business in right now. Besides that, it's hexagonal-patterned white playground rubber-topped walkways between buildings, winding around weird-looking rocks and stranger formations of dusty, mineral-streaked ice, and one eighth earth gravity.     Which is pretty sick, all things considered. It's probably not good for you to stay outside all day, but look how high you can jump! Your own terminal velocity couldn't even kill you! Just really hurt!
Metamorph One	--------     You're so obviously not the intended clientele here, but it doesn't really matter. The men and women in suits and robes have been here for a while, and they've already trickled out to every other building, test site, and underground meeting room. The staff of Applied Ontology are easy to identify for the colour scheme, either wearing engineering suits for the tech jobs or panderingly sci-fi fashion for everything else. The fourth generation 'subjects' (now officially termed 'students') are easy to identify for all of them being a decade younger than the staff at minimum, even without colours.     You've also clearly arrived late into the party, so to speak. Whatever greeting ceremonies went on have already concluded, or are between rotations. The snazzy vision statement was a while ago, and muted clips are still left on repeat across the screens. Eager students of the bright future are already far afield, attentively guiding and demonstrating for their assigned sponsor groups, showing no signs of them being the sixth such groups of the day.     No one really pays any mind to you. You're clients on the thinnest of technicalities, and everybody knows it. Elara and Dianna are much too old to be demoing for anyone here today, but there wasn't a stipulation put in place to say who can and who can't, so they used it; Elara a little earlier, requesting Petra first, then Dianna a little after, requesting Persephone after a delay. The remainer came after being lightly pestered to fill 'a group', scattershot through contacts they know, halfway hoping nobody snapped them up anyways.     You're flagged down near the garage building, where boys and girls in snazzy jumpsuits steer nervously clear, and staff at work mostly just give you a casual wave or a point in the right direction. A section of the vehicle bay has been less passive-than-aggressively taken up with the sleek four-legged hull of METAMORPH-1, allowing Dianna to sit six feet off the ground with the canopy popped, sitting halfway inside and wearing less than half of the engineering staff's uniform accoutrement, and Elara to hover around a wheelie rack of backpack-shaped devices (AO branded) as if she were guarding a group's luggage at the airport.     Far from the theatrical invitation to 'Witness the fourth great revolution after fire, the wheel, and mathetics', it kind of seems like you got the spare invites because . . .     The vibes are kind of off. And yours are probably better.     "Oh. Hello. No troubles at the gate, right? Thanks for taking the time. If you stick around until the end, I'll get us all something to commemorate. My treat. I promise."     "Unless you break something. You're allowed to decline the demo, but I'm not supposed to decline letting you touch it; so just, be normal. Pick up one of the backpack sets; I'm getting itchy just sitting here."
Ember	So, somehow, Ember got his hands on one of these invites.  It's hard to say how or why, but he's here on a moon, far from home, and it's orbiting a massive planet whose size absolutely obliterates his sense of scale.  He was only here to represent the Watch kinda sorta, but now he's stepping outside the building with the Warpgate and is absolutely blown away by the view.   He wasn't impressed with the inside of the building; the artificialness of it all grated on him the wrong way.  But out here..?  It's literally breathtaking.  It also requires him to get used to the lower gravity; he feels so light compared to Earth's standard gravity.  He follows the hexagonal-patterned walkways, which are also pretty neat.  The rocks are... well, alien.   Walking to the garage building, Ember ignores the various suits.  Sure, he's not the intended client, but he also doesn't have to show much regard for the people in suits either.  It's not like they're funding him or anything!  He's more interested in the alien moon, and of course, the light from the Milky Way above.   "No trouble," Ember says, the spell breaking long enough for him to greet the two who invited them here.  "My name is Ember, by the way. Nice to meet you both," he says politely.  "So what is this demo?" he looks around for the 'backpack sets' Elara talked about.
Persephone Kore	Persephone steps through, filling the entryway in a heartbeat with that coaxingly warm psychic tug of mine! Probably a fair chunk of Callisto, too. For a second she thinks she's in space, and her hair drifts lazily as if in zero-G; then she realizes she's not, and it falls straight again. "Oh! Ahaha. ... You can come through, doctor! I don't even need to keep the air in.")] "Are you very sure, Persephone?" "If you're hearing me with your ears, there's air, doctor." "... I suppose so. Well, alright." To the receptionists: "Persephone Kore. And Doctor Jocelyn Carpathia." "I can still introduce myself, you know." "You can, but you were looking at the bar, doctor."      Phony says 'doctor' in the reassuring tone that someone else might say 'mother' to a frail parent, and yet they could only barely look less alike. They're both human; they're both women; they both like sweaters. That's it. Jocelyn Carpathia-- you know what *I* look like already!-- is small, sharp, and old, with graying-blonde hair that's grayer at the tips, and a pale freckled face.      Her baggy sweater half-hides her habitual hunch, and her eyes and mouth are set in a perpetual look of fretful slight dissatisfaction. She sticks by Persephone's side. "I just... doesn't it seem very 'Earthy' here?" Carpathia says, not far from the garage. "Ahaha. Maybe more than us? Less than most other places." "A bar. I just don't know that it's a good environment to--" "The world isn't perfect yet, doctor. They've done their best, and their hearts turned out really beautiful. In some ways they've done more than us. Be gentle." "... Hhhhah. Alright. It's still a shame we missed the speeches..." "I think that was the point?" "Hm? Why would it be?"      I notice you flagging me down immediately, of course-- Hey! It's been so long!!-- but Jocelyn takes a second to notice Persephone's stopped walking, and follow her gaze.      "Dianna! Elara! Of course I'd take the time," Persephone gushes. "Ahaha, wow, you're so pretty!" And somehow she means 'all three of you', and not just 'both'.      She looks back at Carpathia, then at Dianna and Elara again, with a slightly apologetic smile. Is she asking if Carpathia's... welcome? She was invited to the event to listen to speeches; she wasn't invited to hang out.      But Carpathia doesn't notice. Instead, with a wary displeasure that isn't directed at them, she asks: "Young ladies. Why aren't you supposed to decline? Isn't that machine yours?"
Regulus	Actually how did Regulus get an invitation here? Well she has met some people from Sapient Heuristics and helped solve a meltdown at the Motherlobe and has gotten kidnapped by Petra a few times so maybe between all that she has managed to end up on an invitee list. Of course, this is--really--Regulus's first time in space. Oh sure she's been to other worlds before and this is a world but that's not exactly the same thing because those other worlds weren't Callisto, a moon of Jupiter, a planet which is part of her own solar system. It doesn't read as space to Regulus if you just go through a Warpgate and it's some place she's never heard of before and might not exist within her own universe since it's part of some whole other universe that doesn't have the planet Jupiter on it. So she's pretty excited. If a little nervous. A lot of people made SPACE sounds super scary lately, enough within Regulus's sightline that she was starting to worry that space had a whoooole shitload of incredibly terrifying and horifying problems. But this place seems like it could be nice. Maybe there won't even be one soul annihilator or soulforge or skeleton carrier or bone decoupler. But once Regulus is present, she still feels weirdly startled by the VIP setting. Not that Regulus is against being treated like a VIP, but she hasn't even started up her radio station yet--it feels weird getting this treatment before she even put out a single show! And sure, all those special VIP trappings aren't for her, but it's still weird to be this close to it. She thinks Lilian would probably rag on her if she acted too offput by it though and not wanting to be made fun of by Lilian Rook is an actually powerful motivator for Regulus sometimes and with all that talk about taking the value of your labor seriously, Regulus decides that she oughta present a confident front. So while she's in her rocking outfit, shades and captain cap and all, and she's grinning invincibly, she's doing her best to project a bit of cocky suave energy so that she can come across as someone who wasn't accidentally invited. Even if she might have been. She's not really sure about that one yet. She's more worried about Ember than herself anyway. She glances at him periodically as if expecting him to yell 'SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS' and jump some poor sap at any moment. She DOES notice that maybe all this setup wasn't really for her--or THEM even--anyway. Which makes her wonder if there's a different plan for people like her and Ember and whomever else is showing up late anyway. She follows along as directed largely because she's still getting her bearings too much to, effectively, Stay On The Grass. Regulus settles to get a feel for the vibes here before doing anything crazy. "Oh, uh, nah, no problem. Honestly the easiest introduction I've had before to a place like this ever. But man, I never thought I'd get to be on Mars let alone Callisto. And I'm not even in some bulky suit about it, even! How'd you manage that?" ''Unless you break something.'' Regulus quickly shoves her hands into her pocket, just KNOWING, just KNOWING that if she is careless for even one moment... Her stress level increases knowing that there's things that she could break by touching. She reaches out for a backpack after she's told to, like she's handling a nuclear warhead. "I'm Regulus, hey." She's still smiling though, especially once she gets that backpack on without it collapsing into dust upon touch.
Regulus	''Persephone Kore.'' Regulus's head snaps towards her and her eyes widen. Dylan did not express that, wow, gosh, golly, did her hair forget they had gravity for a moment there? What the fuck?? Wait, she's supposed to like not think judgey right? Regulus doesn't think she was being judgey, more shocked and startled than judgey, but it's best to be on the safe side so instead she starts doing her best to think about a chicken doing The Twist in her head. She smiles bigly at Phony. "Hey, I'm Regulus, you're uh--a friend of Dylan's right?"
Natsuki Nuki	Earlier, Natsuki had been working in her hater tower, annoyed and going over reports on a chunky laptop with her heels up on her desk, sunk into office chair. The spill of her tail had fallen besides her chair, wicked serpent dozing while she engaged with the subtler evils of generally accepted accounting principles. While weighing purchases she knew she wouldn't weigh or work herself, her e-mail had lit up with a far more interesting lead from the Concord channels. Someone desperate for a party. --- Now, a platinum blonde-white haired Osakan woman wearing huge designer sunglasses approaches the reception desk several notes past 'fashionably late' to the event. Moving in sharp white pants with black heeled boots and black belt, riding just low enough that her black serpent tail escapes the askew back of her black silk shirt and above her belt. With the drape and escape of roughly half of the black shirt breaking out from the smart white jacket, it's the flash of gold necklaces about her neck that fills the interior of distressed collar and open top buttons. Knowing she's dazzling and so farming a little aura at reception with her thumbs hooked just so along her beltline, quietly interested in the 'why' of being so far away from the rest of what seems to be the party, Natsuki gives a long look at who's coming late before following in behind to check in. "Natsuki Nuki, Concord Partner." She introduces, feeling welcome enough at an 'internal' event and expecting to just flash her card or her teeth and smile for concierge service. She almost gets it! She's just not the right billionaire genius for this enterprise, though, diverting almost perpendicular from the students leading the late beginnings of their demonstrations like an open campus day as faculty and not visitor. Seen through that eye, Natsuki isn't completely against ducking into the district where people seem to do work for her invitation, thumbs hooked into pockets as she follows the flagging down with a casually slouched sway of approach. All the motion fails to translate into the hovering turn-forward of red-eyed serpent tail, switching sides as Natsuki approaches from behind Ember and the young man to retain its gaze - not quite a glare - at Diana and Elara. Natsuki, for her own part, sideeyes Persephone and her pet science mom when Carpathia starts asking good questions. Weren't the girls... Partners too? Broadly of the same general class as her? Wait, wasn't this a party? "Oii~" Natsuki begins, hailing with a flutter of birdsong-affected bluntness. "Are the backpacks *fun*? Or at least cool? Because..." She smirks. "I don't think flying around's our problems." She speaks for Ember because Ember seems eminently speakable-for to Natsuki's snap estimation.
Petra Soroka	Petra, kind of, genuinely, does not want to be here at all. Like, she can't say *no*, because the fact that Elara talks to her at all is way more than she deserves, and rather than fully cutting ties with her former home, she chose to be permanently indebted to them instead. The sheer audacity that Petra would have to have in order to refuse to visit the orbit of Jupiter at Elara's request would be frankly unbelievable.     But also, wow, she doesn't want to be here. Dianna doesn't want to be around her and she doesn't really want to be around Persephone and Elara's not going to expend any effort on making it easier for her and even the one sort-of-friend she has in attendance isn't exactly jumping at the chance to soothe her nerves. It feels not totally dissimilar to how she was paraded around in front of the kids of the lab for her apology, but in front of fucking investors instead.     It's not like she can be resentful about it, though. Just weird and stiff and skittish.     Petra is wearing a washed-out and sized-up linen shirt, sleeves loosely rolled up to her elbows, with a simple blouse and pants besides. She might be standing near the garage rather than approaching from the warpgate like the rest of you, but she's not wearing anything that signifies her as anything besides an offworld Elite; maybe just a bit more polite and professionally dressed than her usual slutty tomboy terror. She's awkwardly fidgeting with the locket hanging around her neck, standing near no one in particular, and she doesn't move to greet the arrivals first.     Instead, it's a fourth girl, dressed more like the students buzzing around the compound than Elara and Dianna are. She's got curly brown hair that bounces in the low gravity and a warm complexion, freckles and green eyes. Her outfit-- or uniform, maybe, sort of-- is glossy white sci-fi, with sleek grey leggings. She's got on a shiny puffer jacket, cropped at her ribcage, with highlighter orange stripes on the elbows and bulky sneakers velcroed with green, and there's a collection of esoteric wood and brass trinket bracelets around her wrist, which don't match the rest of her vibe at all.     She's chatting with Elara, arms crossed and slouching over one leg, until she spots the Elites and hurries to adjust her posture. "Oh, hi! Welcome to Callisto! I hope you didn't find anything too difficult on the way." It's a tiny bit forced.     She goes on, taking a little breath and tilting her head so that the lessened gravity passively floats her hair out of her face. "I'm Valerie Kasxita, by the way. We'll be showing off some of the new steps we've taken in tech, here in the Jovian sphere." "Dianna! Elara! Of course I'd take the time,"     Valerie's eyes widen, and she practically jumps-- both feet definitely leave the ground for a moment-- to address Phony and Carpathia. "Oh! Ah! Hi! Persephone, right? Um, what am I saying, of course you're who you are. It's so nice to meet you, actually; I'm Val."     Petra must do something, literally anything besides awkwardly linger. Her even more awkward decision, which feels safest to her at the moment, is to greet Regulus specifically by raising one hand out of her pocket and meekly saying, "Hey."
Timespace Riders	If there is someone in the world who minds toyetic charm less than Sougo Tokiwa, he either knows them or would very much like to meet them. He and Woz step through the warpgate, all smiles. Sougo wears a loose-fitting coral button-up with a lemon neckerchief tied loose. He complements these with an ash grey peacoat and a pair of cyan slacks, offset by off-white ankle boots. His retainer wears the same snap-button overcoat and scarf ensemble that he seemingly always does. Past the reception area, Woz takes a deep breath of air, much more confidently and unreservedly than Sougo.     "What a remarkable feat of engineering," he marvels, arms thrown wide.     "Wow...!" Sougo laughs, rubbing the back of his head. "I thought it'd be, like, different, somehow..." He blinks, then... "Hey, Woz, do you *feel* any different?"     "Indeed, sire. Gravity is not as--"     "Uwohh!" Sougo, who had opted to test it himself before Woz's answer had come, finds himself propelled by his own jump much farther into the air than he had anticipated, culminating in a clumsy landing.     Woz purses his lips. "You have made a mess of your outfit, sire," he says chidingly. -----     At the garage, most of the planetary dust has been cleared from Sougo's outfit. No troubles at the gate, right? Thanks for taking the time.     "Nope!" Sougo beams, shaking his head emphatically. "Thanks for having us, and good to see you two again! The receptionists were really nice, and everybody else was busy on delegation duty. You know how it is."     Woz offers Elara and Diana a bow at the waist, hand over heart.     They both take a pack, although Sougo seems just as interested in what's parked here. "I don't think I've ever asked you about this," Sougo says to Dianna, gesturing to METAMORPH-1. "What's it mean to you?"
Regulus	Regulus has brought a backpack of her own too, by the by, so that means she has to take that backpack off first and set it on the floor off to the side somewhere. She feels a little worried about the backpack she has taken off. There's records sort of half hanging out of it. ''Natsuki Nuki, Concord Partner.'' "Team Timekeeper!" Regulus adds, quickly, because apparently she forgot to include that as part of her normal introduction. And after her chiding of Sonetto too. But if she keeps reminding herself to do it, surely it will become second nature eventually about it. ''Oh it's Petra!'' Regulus smiles and throws Petra a wave, and then hesitates a little bti since something does seem off, and she might not have said anything if Petra didn't greet her first. "Hey Petra," She says, trying to smile despite Petra seeming 'off' to her perception. "It's good to see you." She tries to think about something to talk about that won't make Petra seem more uncomfortable. "Have you checked the tech out already? How much 'wow' should I prep myself for?" Then she turns to look to Valerie Kasxita, but if Regulus has heard the name before it doesn't crop up to the top of her memory just now. "Hey Val, good to see you too. I love checking out far out tech." Of course the fact that she was able to step out on this planet and not immediately die is also far out to Regulus but everybody is treating it as so normal and Regulus grimaces as Sougo and more relevantly Woz arrive, but man it's been like ten thousand years even if it stood out at hte time, let it go Regulus.
Timespace Riders	I'm Val.     "Hi! I'm Sougo. This is my retainer Woz."     "Felicitations, Val."     Petra is here, but... she's being pretty quiet! That draws Sougo's attention enough for him to pull out his old Faizphone and tap-tap-tap a quick text-message vibe check. everything ok? u look like smth is bothering u     He waits for a while to check it again even if she responds right away. This affords him the opportunity to wave exuberantly at some of his other friends.     "Hi, Natsuki! Hi Phony! Hi Dr. Carpathia!"
Natsuki Nuki	'You have made a mess of your outfit, sire,' 'Hi, Natsuki! Hi Phony! Hi Dr. Carpathia!' Now appreciating a man slightly askew himself, Natsuki gives Sougo a lightly grinning appraisal, leaning to pluck a bit at Sougo's collar and huyu-huyu giggle nod. "You're right. He has made a mess of it. Still looking fine, though!" She praises, before returning to the more open matter than hitting on her Demon King mentor. That he was the 'senior' in the relationship was regularly lost on outside observers, but the Concord regularly paired up older members with newer ones. 'I hope you didn't find anything too difficult on the way.' Natsuki's fingers lift from pockets to lightly brush away the air by her face, retaining smile off from Sougo to address Valerie. "No problems at all." Natsuki returns, accepting the effortful smoothing in the spirit it was given. There was no flaws to report for face-saving promises. She could rest easy. "So it's a tech demo, then? So they *are* toys." She looks between Valerie and the 'backpacks' again. The glance away carries eyes to Petra, standing alone, and Natsuki gives another side-eye to Petra, expecting an immediate and kind of jump-up and failing to see something more than... meekness? Was this that highminded upstart who kept trying to rival her? As her evil serpent sways to glare-gaze at Petra, the look Natsuki wears is a faintly incredulous 'what *happened* to you?' at the drop of her sunglasses down her nose.
Metamorph One	'My name is Ember, by the way. Nice to meet you both.'     'I'm Regulus, hey.'     "Elara Steloj." "Dianna Neniu."     'Dianna! Elara!'     "Persephone!" It doesn't take even half a genius to figure out whose idea this was. Dianna drops her calibration kit immediately into the cockpit seat, swinging her legs out and leaping down the six foot side in a fall that takes a second and a half to complete. "Wow, the Doctor too? That's crazy. I didn't really think you'd . . ." She has a way of making a trail-off sound like a punctuation mark, for everybody's benefit, when she touches the back of her neck, glances at the machine behind her, and allows herself an oddly bittersweet smirk. "Yeah. Ours and nobody else's. This is kinda complicated to explain. El?" "I was just waiting~" Elara says, warm-toned and smilingly patient. "It's great to see you too, Phony, Jocelyn. I'm sorry if you're disappointed for only being invited late, but I don't think it would go over well if we came across as riding on Sapient Heuristics' coattails. You're more popular than you think."     'Are the backpacks *fun*? Or at least cool? Because...'     "Well, our clients certainly seem to think so." Elara says, enthusiastic in everything except her smile. Operating a foot lever and pulling a pneumatic extension up top allows the luggage brick to fold into a two-by-three pnel double-sided peg rack, used for transporting a dozen objects that are each the size an underfilled school backpack, and hang from it with webs of nylon harness straps and carbon fibre buckles. "After all, they're the fruit of ten long years of research, built on another ten before that. They're the 'zero-point-nine' version models of the Variable Paradigm Trigger technology the Concord is interested in."     'So what is this demo?'     'Why aren't you supposed to decline? Isn't that machine yours?'     'I don't think I've ever asked you about this. What's it mean to you?'     Dianna starts handing them out before people have even finished asking. Tossing them, really, in a way that could be dangerous if they weren't one eighth the weight right now. Each one appears to be a very hefty suite of electronics(?) in tightly sandwiched layers underneath the white compound casing. "Val can show you how to put them on if you get stuck." she says, leaving the webbing that firmly fixed one to someone's back, with a little semi-detachable contact meant to sit flush against the back of the neck, to someone relatively trustworthy.     Elara laughs very lightly when Carpathia asks. "I'm afraid the event is going on all week, Jocelyn. We didn't actually sign up. We have lives of our own by now. But we at least wanted to see it on the first day, and we can't technically invite anyone unless we agree to demo like the others, so there you have it!" "Was my call to bring Metamorph. I'm gonna go stir crazy without it. The VPTs are fine, but I think people should get to see what they're missing too." Dianna looks at Sougo a little oddly.     "Don't tell anyone I'm saying this, but Angkasa funds a few projects on the side with the VPT money, and I they're more interesting. Metamorph is kind of a fork of the old project that the VPT is built on. So it means that we can still do what we signed up for all that time ago, because we still believe in it."
Metamorph One	'And I'm not even in some bulky suit about it, even! How'd you manage that?'     She makes a little self-satisfied huff, tossing the short, messy ponytail she tied before mucking around with the engine. "Solved tech back on Io. Twenty years back." "Actually, we just brought them over here and borrowed a vector net from the Concord to keep the air inside. They convert vacuum into breathable atmosphere by diffusing particle mass into low-pressure zones and sublimating from solid-state bonds. It'd take years to make the whole moon breathable, though. It took days just to set this up."     "Kinda weird to doll up Callisto with Iorite." Dianna says, a little complicated, glancing at Elara, who is already watchng. "I know there's no point in making the young kids reinvent the wheel, but it's still kinda . . . We made it and we named it after home, you know?" She glances right past Petra, as if she isn't even there, and says, "Sorry Val." for uncertain reasons. "I think it's a good thing. They should be able to lean on us while showing the world the new things they can do as the next generation. And They didn't change the name."
Persephone Kore	For apparently no reason, Persephone giggles in Regulus's direction earlier-- no, you don't have to do all that! It's really cute you tried, though!      The words aren't words, but they're a little tug on the fabric of the world, maybe-palpable to your heart. I wouldn't be surprised! It's a good heart. "Ahaha, you know, this might be the first time anyone's met me as 'Dylan's friend'? It's kind of fun! Nice to meet you too, Dylan's friend," she says with a pat-pat to the top of her cap. "Persephone, don't touch strangers," says Doctor Carpathia, as if she were eight years old. "Yes, doctor," Persephone says, not intending to stop.      ----      It'd be kinder, possibly, for Persephone to pretend that she doesn't notice Petra on the fringes. But Phony is smart about some things and stupid about others. She greets the awkwardly fringe-hugging girl with a smile like seeing your school-project butterfly hatch, and waves at shoulder-level, and--      "You seem a little better. I'm really, really glad. Is space being kind to you?" She lingers, for a warm moment.      ...      But, her attention's always being tugged at this-way and that. Valerie's next. "Awww, it's great to meet you, Val! I'm Phony." A nickname for a nickname-- it's fair, right? "Eyeh asher eyeh," Carpathia says distantly, but Phony doesn't notice.      "Are you one of the junior subjects- I mean, students? Aw, but Dianna and Elara must like you a lot. And what are those! I want to see," she insists gently, moving in and holding out her hand like she expects to be offered Val's wrist. Charms! Gimme!!
Metamorph One	'So it's a tech demo, then? So they *are* toys.'     Dianna twists her lips in a frown, but busies herself with letting down her hair instead, leaving Elara to answer by cue. "Well, I think they are," she says, just slightly possessively, "But our investors wouldn't like hearing that, hahaha! They're serious tools, seriously representing the serious future of a serious Multiverse!" Once the backpacks are distributed, the startup sequence for them involves a weird little neural tingle up and down the spine, as if there were a big flickering sci-fi scanner sweeping up and down, and ten neon orange 'control rods' popping out of designated slots in the back, glowing the same colour as the markers in the distance.     "You can play with them if you want. Or not! It's fine either way, you know." "It's just kind of a young crowd. Or an old crowd." Dianna says, instantly conveying something very specific by being thirty. "So." "Thank you for coming, by the way, Petra." Elara says, friendly enough, and explaining no more of the weird context than before.     "Once the tingling stops and the pylons disengage, you want the control trigger mounted to the right side." Elara continues, indicating where a pleasantly soft-textured plasticky grip with a chunky metal core is attached to each unit. It is somehow, in your hand, exactly like the handlebar of a bicycle, or the hilt of a kitchen knife, or the grip of a flashlight, or a screwdriver; it is like all the little tools that you use every day, ambiguous yet familiar and friendly in its ergonomic feel.     If you fidget with it a little, you find that almost every part of it has a button, switch, trigger, or clicky contact, underneath subtly compartmentalized sections of the grippy surface. If you squeeze it, you can even feel a vertical contact running down the entire center. Though it initially appears wireless, you can see a thin thread of light connecting it to the backpack.     "And that's all! They gave it the VPT name because the point of the technology is supposed to be a kind of every-tool." "Ur-tool." "Mhm. Like all the kinds you think you should be able to find, but don't exist." "Like playing pretend with invisible doodads you made up; not having to learn how to use the stopgap we made out of steel." "Um, don't repeat that to the investors though, please?" "I'm right though." "You are."
Petra Soroka	"Are the backpacks *fun*? Or at least cool?"     Natsuki eases Petra's tension a little bit, for her familiarity and also a certain other factor, and she greets her with a barely vocalized 'yo' and a wiggle of her hand. At the question, Petra hesitates but doesn't say anything, and Val responds promptly with a dash of service worker pep.     "The *backpacks* are actually a big part of what we're showing off today, so yes, they're very cool. They're known as the Variable Paradigm Trigger, which, uh... well, you're here to see Elara and Dianna, so I'll back off on that unless you don't mind me getting this part over with." Halfway through, she shifts tonally from chatting up Natsuki to glancing towards Elara. "What's it mean to you?"     What a fascinatingly loaded question! Petra's eyes immediately flick towards the Metamorph, and Val's immediately go towards Petra, and they incidentally lock gazes midway through, freeze, and then both awkwardly giggle. Petra's hand has been on her little compact mirror pendant almost constantly when it hasn't been wandering to cross arms over her chest or hide away in her pocket, and she pulls it off over her head and shuffles over to Val.     As if continuing a conversation that clearly wasn't happening earlier, Petra pops the mirror open with her thumb and tilts it towards Val, letting the weird opalescent reflective surface catch the bright lights around the crater. The back and forth is quiet and out of the way, a little bit 'talking in the back of a classroom'. "Oh, yeah, so this is it. I mean, I can't show you now, but like, in a bit. And there's Qetra too-- yeah, vampire-ass situation, it's crazy, right? It's impossible to take pictures of her." > u look like smth is bothering u     Surreptitiously checking her phone when it buzzes just makes it seem even more like Petra is trying to avoid attention in the back of a classroom. > ah that's bc i am a parasitic blight on the solar system and defy every valiant attempt to put me out of my misery > no but for real i'm fine i just don't wanna make anyone mad "Have you checked the tech out already? How much 'wow' should I prep myself for?"     "Ah--" Every question is so difficult! This is exactly why Petra would rather be anywhere else right now! She looks helpless towards Elara for a moment like a puppy being led away by the vet, then shakes her head at Regulus. "Um, well, not this tech specifically. It looks totally different from the VPT prototypes I, er, saw."     The lie-by-omission only lasts a skin-crawling segment of a minute before Petra trundles forwards to bluntly clarify, "Used, I mean. I've never used these modern VPTs. They're, um, fun, though."
Petra Soroka	"Is space being kind to you?"     Petra sighs out slowly, relaxing each segment of muscles one by one in a ritualistic little practice. Last time Phony was around Petra, there was a constant, if somewhat muted, sting and itch from her outwards-turned psychic impenetrability. Now, there's no hint of it at all to a casual psychic touch.     "... Hi, Phony. I'm a lot better." She swallows, slow to respond. "Um, thanks. It's always been kind to me, anyways." That's not really true, stated without qualifications, but it's true enough to say now. "Are you one of the junior subjects- I mean, students?"     Val's smile at meeting Phony doesn't get any lesser, but as honest as it is about her excitement, it can't hide the complicated, forlorn filter that question adds to it. She holds out her wrist to examine like it's not even a question, chattering as she does.     "Oh, I've been here my whole life. I'm just helping out with the work here to do my part, just like everyone else! I mean, in a certain light, this is what we're all working towards at home."     Phony's actually seen similar charms once before, if she remembers the transient psychic image of Petra whose skull was plastered on the side of a building inside her mindscape. They're cute little carved beads of wood, or faded brass ornaments, imprinted with the vibe of being 'old' but entirely nonspecific to anything on Earth. No one section of the bracelets are the same as any other, with coin-shaped things threaded through, or little polished rocks, or things like that.     "I made them! A long, long time ago now, but aren't they so cute? I really really love your hair, by the way. You really are kind of a princess, just like everyone says."
Metamorph One	'Eyeh asher eyeh'     For some reason, Dianna laughs.     'Are you one of the junior subjects- I mean, students? Aw, but Dianna and Elara must like you a lot.'     "We do!" "Yeah. Val's second generation though, not fourth. Just clarifying." "Third, actually. And we don't talk about generations, remember?" "We already talked about everything else." "Di . . ." "Fine. I know." She clicks her tongue and repeats 'Jovian sphere' in a sort of vicariously offended way.     'And what are those! I want to see'     It takes Elara just a second to realize Phony doesn't mean the VPTs. With a troubled-relieved laugh, she focuses her gaze on Carpathia, and says, "You can think of it as a kind of sister project to your work, Jocelyn." If you want to. Please? "We had working versions years ago, but they only work for people with already developed psychic ability; the special children, you know? And we can't help everyone unless they work for everyone. So the bulk is to amplify everyone's latent ability to the point they can get the same benefit." She opens the hip pouch on one side of the belt fastening her reflective inner-lining diamond quilt coat, and pats a much smaller, purse-sized version inside, lightly curved to fit her hip.     Dianna starts to stalk off, then slowly orbits back once the pressure differential between 'this' and 'the suits' shifts at a distance. "The terraforming of Io took decades, and thousands of interested people helping out along the way. We're hoping to prove how far the project has come by getting Callisto to the same place inside of five years." "The sequel project. Built on ten years of the Eidolon project. So everyone can do it."     Elara can't really do anything but brush past right now. "The idea is that the control trigger is really just an expressive prop. The technology works by using the homuncular neural map-- the human capacity to integrate tools as 'an extension of the body'-- to infer the existence of an imaginary extension that's accomplishing exactly what you want, and back-processing to procedurally generate a psychokinetic process or mechanism based on the psychic feedback of the user."     "It's play-pretend. That's the good part. You have to play with a big imaginary shovel to dig up dirt and you have to take it seriously and believe in it, and that's why they have the kids doing it and the execs aren't trying it themselves. Which is good by the way." "Um. Hence 'variable paradigm trigger'. It triggers a variation in the psychic paradigm to address every issue. An alternative to teaching people the cognitive framework for their own, personally expressive psychic abilities, by letting them express it with the universal drive to use tools."
Regulus	Oh my god Regulus doesn't know how to spell those last names. Unbeknownst to Regulus, she is also spelling Dianna mentally with one n instead of two so she's at least a little incorrect there too. Is it Steloy? Neneyu? Regulus decides to note in whatever she ends up telling Vertin about what went on here that she didn't ask about spelling and wasn't about to embarass herself by asking for clarification in front of all these people. She assumes Metamorph is the ... mech? Uh. Hm. Okay, they say it was a project so probably yeah. Cool, getting to know the situation. ''Solved tech back on Io. Twenty years back.'' "Daaang, what year was that?" Regulus is presently from the 1910s but she always has difficulty keeping track of the future and modern years especially as it gets past the 1900-1999 range. That's like so far in the future. That's grandma to dead grandma regulus range. ''We made it and we named it after home, you know?'' "Well New York was named after York all the way over in England so it's probably fine to bring some home with you." Then Regulus frowns, thinking about if New York was really ''fine''. But she ultimately decides it's probabyl still fine in this case because it's a space moon colony. ''No, you don't ahve to do all that! It's really cute you tried, though!'' Oh thanks Regulus Regulus thinks to Regulus before realizing that it wasn't Regulus telling her these things from her heart but it was someone else's heart or anything so she gets a little crosseyed and she tries her best to stop thinking about the chicken doing the twist in her head and she's kind of struggling about that so she tries to think about Phony instead and now it's Phony doing the twist in Regulus's head which, actually, is enough of an improvement that Regulus leaves that running for a while. ''Persephone, don't touch strangers.'' "Um it's okay, sometimes Vertin pats my head like this too." Regulus says, stumbling over her words a little because this is her first Phonying. "I'm also known as Regulus." She adds. Star Antimony Regulus shivers visibly as the weird tingle begins and she looks around until she spots the control trigger. She grabs at it with her grabby hands and ends up pushing a whole bunch of buttons. She then looks down at the thread of light, eyes widening, and just says, "What? Every tool? That's crazy, how did you manage that, there's so many highly specific tools out there that are like a milimeter of difference between them but are still so huge when building anything--" She's gushing. ''Used, I mean. I've never used those modern VPTs.'' "Well you are one of the best engineers I know." Regulus says. "I'm glad you're getting a chance to try out the new version." She hopes that she's making things better rather than worse, it's kind of hard to tell when she doesn't know what the initial issue is in the first place.
Regulus	''It's play-pretend.'' "Oh it's like a toy for getting used to using a variety of tools?" That might explain why it might not need all the specificity and granulity of real tools. Regulus takes a deep breath. She closes her eyes. She imagines the shovel in her hand. She imagines that it is real. An imaginary shovel being real isn't so hard for Regulus to think about, and taking it seriously is even easier because she's desperate and fascinated to see how exactly all this works. She imagines the shovel because it's what she was told to imagine, and she looks around a bit as if she were gazing for a patch of dirt as she squeezes vaguely at the control stick and tries to sort of make a gesture like she's digging there. She doesn't care one lick about looking silly. This is learning. This is tools. No wonder they were worried about her breaking something she kind of wants to dig into this thing's guts.
Metamorph One	'They're known as the Variable Paradigm Trigger, which, uh... well, you're here to see Elara and Dianna, so I'll back off on that unless you don't mind me getting this part over with.'     Dianna puffs and waves her hand. "It's totally cool." Elara resumes the same tone she was chatting with Val with before, as seamlessly as if nobody had ever showed up. "Only if you're sure! You're going to be stuck doing this for at least a couple of days, aren't you? You're being really nice by keeping us company, so you should just do what you want!" "Yeah. Thanks. If you wanna blow off to a crater corner nobody else is using then you can hitch a ride." She fondly baps the smooth leg of the Metamorph exo at her side. That ain't going anywhere.
Metamorph One	'Daaang, what year was that?'     "Fourteen AU." Dianna says, unhelpfully helpful. Elara doesn't correct.     'Well New York was named after York all the way over in England so it's probably fine to bring some home with you.'     She narrows her eyes, looking slightly disgusted on impulse. "Bad comparison." she says, borderline forgiving. For now.     'What? Every tool? That's crazy, how did you manage that, there's so many highly specific tools out there that are like a milimeter of difference between them but are still so huge when building anything--'     Elara looks slightly relieved by Regulus' enthusiasm. "Don't ask me! I'm just psychic, not an engineer!" she laughs. "Angkasa is going to be coming back up from a meeting shortly, though! If you want to ask her." "Doctor from the old project." Dianna clarifies. "Kind of inherited the new one by being a decent human being and still caring." "About the future." "Yeah that too."     'Oh it's like a toy for getting used to using a variety of tools?'     "It's a toy that replaces tools. Because toys are better."     Her tone is testy-defensive, but Dianna smiles a little when Regulus immediately goes to trying it.     And the feeling is like a little trickle of fizzy water from the contact pad at her neck, down her spine, soda-popping at each place a rod is, which twist-locks into place in a short wave of motion, and thrums warm against her back. The control grip tilts by itself in her grip, adjusting its weight and center of balance by some haptic feedback motion as the wire glows solid. Then it feels so strangely real she could put her other hand where she expects the rest of the shovel grip to be. She can, actually, because it projects a 'beam' of telekinetic repulsion that lets her do so.     Except instead of having to feel the weight and resistance of all that dust and ice and frozen mud and rock, she feels a clump of toyetic 'weight' pulling down the end of the control grip, and sees a hunk of it separate cleanly from the ground, in a way that leave a spade-shaped indentation. The mild, fizzy prickle on her nerves is the only sign that she's doing anything instead of the machine, levitating her big ol' shovelful with 'her mind' for her, and reinforcing its SHOVEL, HAND-OPERATED, PSYCHOKINETIC WEDGE AND LIFT paradigm by making her feel like she's holding one. It seems to work better once she's handled it for a little while, becoming a comfortably familiar 'phantom limb'.     Ignore the fact that the backpack would be annoyingly heavy in Earth gravity though. And a little warm, to say the least.
Regulus	Regulus flinches. "Aggh I thought it as I said it." She forgave herself too early!! Oh no they are psychic so they know she forgave herself too soon maybe. She failed a social roll again! fuck! "Oh fab, I will." Regulus decides focusing on the toy tools at hand might be a good idea because her enthusiasm for these sorts of things and for space ideas usually succeeds where her Londoner ass fails. "Well, I... am glad people who care about the future are around here. Even if I'm from the past." She manages not to sigh about this because cool items!!! At the mention of it being a toy that replaces tools because tools are better, Regulus's eyes widen like her mind just got blown wide open. It's like Dylan! They have so many fascinating ideas out there in space. and not all of them are horrifying, how could she forget that?? She's so sorry, Dylan, forgive her! "That's such a marvy idea, I hadn't even considered that before, that's incredible..." Her thoughts are all bundled up with ideas on toyetic tools for the work she's most often engaged on: fixing broken shit. And as one might expect from a kid with a toy, Regulus realizes with keen self-understanding that she's just dying to have something like this. She thinks tool before toy but that's because tool and toy to her aren't really all that different in her alchemical soul. She has totally forgotten about Earth gravity in the moment. "It digs!" Regulus exclaims happily and promptly runs around digging holes all over the place like she's just figured out what shovels are for the first time. "Yoooo!"
Natsuki Nuki	Natsuki hadn't been clear on what sort of meeting she was having, having followed the invitation of a fellow, but had expected a party. There was an atmosphere, like 'party', that had been diverged from - a sort of vibe that was going on but their little gang seemed to have diverted from the champagne-and-service sort of event for a different kind of showing. The comments that Diana and Elara make regarding having to do certain things to invite people for the event, the active air of a tech demo, even the explaining of the number of years spent on the project... Fuck. Natsuki is playing shark tank impress-me and the angle's not right at all. All the forced smiles turn to a sour curling while the Japanese woman lifts her hand and dips her chin to tap up the lenses of her sunglasses at the bridge, and pauses there. "I'll admit I'm not the audience." She rolls to, peeling off sunglasses with a pinch of fingers and a flick-in of the arms to tuck the folded frames into the neck of her shirt to hang. Without looking at the tossed backpack, Natsuki's other arm rises to grab it, her tail's eyes following it in the air instead, considering the straps and situation of it and gamely starting to remove her jacket to get the pack on. Catching the looking at Sougo - at 'what people are missing', and the Metamorph, interest finally wins out over sourness. 'Well, I think they are,' "Let me guess. *You* want to demo something sharper than these proof of concept pieces. I'm curious why you think they're toys..." Though Natsuki's curiosity is quickly explained, at least broadly, by the pitch afterwards, of use and usage of the VPTs. Special, for the special-less. ""It's a dream with impact," Natsuki begins, lifting doodad-wand linked with light line and brushing it back against her hair like it's any other hairbrush she has while talking. "If you really wanted to sell it, you'd be talking about the use in mechanical applications or precision tasks, but you're not. So now there's a question." Natsuki looks left, right, smirks, and rolls shoulders back while half-shrugging out with VPT wand. "What *do* you want to talk about? If this is just the cherry and you want to sell the whole cheesecake." She hits it hard, too, 'cheese-keiki'.
Timespace Riders	Sougo and Woz help each other with their backpacks, having gotten the idea after seeing the webbing and the contact. The VPTs are fine, but I think people should get to see what they're missing too.     Sougo returns Dianna's odd look with a warm smile. "I'd, um, really like to hear your thoughts on what people are missing. I mean, I know what they're missing, but... Like, this is..."     Sougo grips the handle. "I've never held it before, but it feels just like my bike. Is that because of what it's made out of, or because of this?" He nods backwards, most likely indicating the contact at the back of his neck.     "Is Metamorph like that, too, for you? Did it feel familiar from the first time you sat in it, or... what does it feel like, to you? Does it feel like *you?*" > no but for real i'm fine i just don't wanna make anyone mad     Outside, another Sougo, sans-backpack, texts Petra, hidden out of sight of the garage interior, leaned up against the wall and frowning thoughtfully as he peers down at the message. The Faizphone's clock displays a time well beyond the socially-acceptable time to leave a message on read, but when Petra receives the message it's not that long after. After sending it, the Sougo outside smiles.     u must rly like every1 here and what they r trying 2 do. i think they will be glad they invited u i believe in u!!     "This is most charming," says Woz fondly, taken to pressing buttons and disturbing greebles experimentally from the moment his hands discovered them. Sougo's clothes are whisked free of moon dust by his ministrations on the controls, his wrist flicking as if he held a feather duster. It's a toy that replaces tools. Because toys are better.     Both Kamen Riders smile at Dianna. Daaang, what year was that? Fourteen AU.     "That would be approximately nineteen years from this point in time, and..." Woz furrows his brow at Regulus, before it lifts in mild surprise. "One hundred and sixteen from your... *current* point of temporal origin."
Natsuki Nuki	'The *backpacks* are actually a big part of what we're showing off today, so yes, they're very cool.' "I mean, I'm here?" Natsuki offers back, feeling yanked back by the journey she took to get back to her point in the conversation. "Pop off, if you want? If this is what's being sold to the investors, then maybe understanding it will help me too." She reasons, chewing on bottom lip for a moment in thought after speaking and then not chasing the feeling with anything else. Petra being fizzles and without crackle was a different kind of enervating to Natsuki, who lacked someone to run her game off of and rapidly ran dry of her usual well of interactive interest. Code-switching, the brushing of her hair straightens out the fall of her lengths of white-blonde, and leaves her a lightly-lidded sort of calmer, outwardly more disinterested or reserved after her aggressive opener. Val looks to Elara. Natsuki does too, the second admonition of 'toy' getting a more-curious look, matching words to a different pattern. Sougo and Woz getting it and grinning along vexes and frustrates Natsuki further, twisting her faintly in her binding feeling of misunderstanding more. Why did they get it? Was she supposed to know? Her attention drops to the object, while her tail turns about to invert and look (upside) down at the backpack she wears, glaring at the hot piece of technology as it glared at everything.
Petra Soroka	"Val can show you how to put them on if you get stuck."     "Yeah, just let me know! They can be a little bit tricky, but it'll click soon enough."     Val does idly walk circles around the group to make herself immediately available for anyone struggling, but she's not actually paying that much attention. If someone needs her, they'll have to say so, because she's not really locked on in the sales pitch at the moment. "Thank you for coming, by the way, Petra."     "I, er-- no problem, of course. Do you--" Petra fumbles for a second, trying to not invoke Dianna's ire but also not wanting to be paralytically insecure and useless. "Want me to try one on too? For the demonstration?"     Val snickers and points a finger at her, hand on her hip. "Well, it's very serious business, so only if you're frowning the whole time! Which you're already close enough to doing. Come on, it's not really so bad." "Yeah. Val's second generation though, not fourth. Just clarifying."     Val laughs it off, but the way that her automatic idle gesture misses the clothes that she's wearing, hands swiping through empty space just below the bottom of the cutoff jacket, really makes it seem like she's out of her element a bit. Still, fond enough to be upbeat. "Almost no one's keeping count anymore, so it's just true that I'm junior to you." "You're being really nice by keeping us company, so you should just do what you want!"     "I don't really mind at all. It's a different crowd! Actually, if anything, I need to get my head screwed on straight, and spending time with you'll help a lot for that." Val chatters, leaning forwards against the cart that all the VPTs are stacked up on. A little mischeviously, she adds, "I might totally need to blow off steam anyways after, though, if there's time."
Petra Soroka	Meanwhile, Petra is actually struggling a bit with the VPT. "It's so big..." She burbles to herself, shrugging the backpack on with a little wobble. Thinking about it like the Eggpack though, complete with the weight, the external controls, and the grip, makes it suddenly a lot easier for her to manage.     Suddenly, reminded by the weight of the backpack, she turns to Val excitedly, and points towards Regulus. "Regulus is the girl I sent the cube after."     Val gasps, looks towards Regulus, and then bursts out laughing much more genuinely than she did before. "Wow, I only *just* finally processed that you're all *friends*! That's so sweet! Then we don't really need to treat this like a usual demo at all, do we?"     Petra considers, then waves her hand, "Natsuki's really the only one who cares so much about the image, and she cares more about the vibe anyways. Er, not that I can speak for everyone." "Bad comparison."     "So-- um, I know what you mean, but--" Val's upwards spike of cheer gives Petra the confidence to address Dianna, or at least to start the sentence, and then struggle through the brick wall of reluctance by force. "Regulus is kind of cracked. She says 'Oh my Lennon' instead of 'Oh my God'. She's got some whole new vibe about her entire conception of the country, it's awesome." "I'm just psychic, not an engineer!"     "Um-- I'm an engineer but I'm not your engineer." Petra snorts to herself when explaining to Regulus, covering up her mouth with her hand. "But you're thinking a lot about 'mechanical' engineering, when that's not really put at issue here. Like, um, you don't intuitively feel the different bit sizes of a drill when you're using it, you just know the shape and direction and recoil of the hole. Instead, it's more like the, uh, millimeters of different engineering involved in the intuitive effort of making a hole in a sheet of metal, versus making a hole in a--" Wincing, she finishes the sentence, "... person."
Persephone Kore	"I'm a lot better."      "Ahaha, I can tell! You feel nice." Does she? I think so!! There's lots of ways of feeling.      "It's always been kind to me, anyways."      When did it start having always been kind? "Then I hope it'll keep succeeding at having room for you," Persephone says, which isn't really what Petra said at all. "Maybe it's gotten better, too! You should come over and find out."      She said it a long long time ago, so she doesn't think she has to say it again: that 'space' has to grow to hold every last person, Petra included, or it was never any good at all.      Jocelyn wouldn't recognize Petra in the least; she's still wrapped up with Dianna and Elara. Her jaw works side to side uneasily when they elaborate on 'tech demos' and 'allowed to make invitations'; her hands open and close, as if she has the impulse to straighten out somebody in charge about this, but knows she really can't.      Eventually, on popularity and overshadowing... "I'm very sorry," she says, sincerely. "I never meant to bring more attention to our work than necessary. Earth's attention means trouble, you might know better than me."      Jocelyn means 'our work' expansively. Hers and yours, and everyone working to bring about that Fourth Wonder.      But Phony's talking to Val, now; her fingers turn over the wrist-charms, never tugging on their strand, but touching and examining each one like a jeweler. Between that and the talk of generations: "Awww, haha, I'm sorry!! You know, maybe I was hoping you were like me. I'm not quite the oldest at S-H, and I'm not quite the one who joined first, either."      "I really really love these, though. And I think Petra does too! You know, I have things from when I was little, but none I can wear...? Ahaha, I should've been thinking ahead~." Real wood, but I don't think it came from any tree, did it? And real coins but not for buying or selling. Or, make-believe, but in a way that's better than real...      After letting go of the bracelet, she beams with her eyes smiled almost saintly-shut, fingers at the corner of her mouth. "It's always so strange coming here. It's like extended family? I feel like I've known Dianna and Elara for longer than I have. I think I'll feel that way about you too."      Jocelyn, in the background, eyes the VPTs with... well, with admiration; they're all the parts of AO she doesn't have complaints about, but when Jocelyn reaches out to touch one of the backpacks with one of her frail-looking hands, Jocelyn hesitates with a look almost like guilt.      "I thought it'd be nice for her to get out. Especially for her to see A-O, and all of this, and you a little," Persephone says, with her voice a little lowered. But she's not really... us. She's less us than Petra, or even Woz or Sougo or Natsuki. If you want her to go... well, sometimes I do too. Carpathia can occupy herself with everything else. Only after staring absently for a moment does Persephone realize: "... Did you want to try a VPT on, doctor?" "I-- I don't think I should. That's all." "It's not like that. This is different. And for everyone, right now; not for everyone later." But Carpathia doesn't answer for a second, and her hand falls away.
Natsuki Nuki	'Natsuki's really the only one who cares so much about the image, and she cares more about the vibe anyways.' "Image of what, Petra?" Natsuki asks, eyebrow risen into a high arc. "I do, but what's the image to manage here?" In a garage! "I thought this was social or networking when I came, but I don't think anyone wants this to be a pitch meeting." She assures. Petra gets a little scoff, all special for her. "And you feel comfortable, mopey as you are, speaking for me? Statements, much?"
Metamorph One	'That's such a marvy idea, I hadn't even considered that before, that's incredible...'     "It is." Elara says, not-insincerely at all, though only slightly fondly. "It's hard to imagine, for me, I admit. It's . . . the previous project, at our predecessor company, relied on us having psychic potential in the first place. So once you've developed it, the VPT just feels like an extension, not totally groundbreaking." she says, with just a little bit of a sigh. "I'm glad you like it, though. We wouldn't be here if we didn't believe in its potential."     'It digs!'     "It does!" she smiles. "People are getting very interested in it now. Construction, repair, emergency medicine, travel, outdoors survival, disaster recovery and rescue, and scientific surveying. We have a strict no-weaponry policy, though." "Ours can do that though. No point restricting it."     'I'll admit I'm not the audience.'     Dianna laughs, monosyllabic in the back of her throat, then gets a little closer to the group again. "Yeah I didn't think so. You've already got your own thing going on. And this stuff is mostly for people who don't." she says. "The lessons learned by the few, exported for the benefit of the many. You know how it is. Twenty years of hard struggle turns into quality of life for everyone."     'Let me guess. *You* want to demo something sharper than these proof of concept pieces.'     "I wouldn't mind." she says, mysteriously, but not for much reason. Elara doesn't stop her. They don't have that kind of relationship. They have a better one.     '     'What *do* you want to talk about? If this is just the cherry and you want to sell the whole cheesecake.'     'I'd, um, really like to hear your thoughts on what people are missing. I mean, I know what they're missing, but... Like, this is...'     "I think the Eidolon project was better." Dianna says, matter-of-factly. "More ambitious. The dream we wanted to share instead of just the one that was feasible, you know? Angkasa was on that project too. She took over when the Instrumentality Project turned into Applied Ontology because she wanted to keep it alive. The VPT stuff is only a distillation of it. A taste for the people who aren't ready for the real thing; which is everyone." A trace of bitterness. A trace of pride.     "It wasn't wearable back then. Not just tools, either. To send people into space, into the reaches of the Multiverse, to let them make a life anywhere in the world and make the world everything they wanted, we were dreaming of extensions of self that were whole new bodies; not just tools. Ways of exploring and interacting and playing and building that were totally different. Like . . ." Finally, she actually tracks her eyes to Petra, and gestures offhandedly. "The Beauty of Ash. You've seen it, right? It's ours. That's the dream that's taken the back seat, now. People want to be like us, but they don't want the real thing. They want to convenience that makes them feel like one of us." She doesn't clarify what 'us' means, now.     'Want me to try one on too? For the demonstration?'     "Sure. Might as well pitch in. You're third gen." Which makes her just one step closer to 'the real thing' than the kids they've dressed up to show off.
Metamorph One	'Almost no one's keeping count anymore, so it's just true that I'm junior to you.'     "I am." Dianna says. "They just don't want to keep track because talking about the projects they weren't there for makes them squirmy and weird. If you don't remind them sometimes, they'll try to push it all out of mind; forget what we all learned together so they can feel like it's their brave new frontier. I'm not just being mean, either. They're only hurting themselves in the end."     'It's a different crowd! Actually, if anything, I need to get my head screwed on straight, and spending time with you'll help a lot for that.'     Elara smiles, with just a little pang of excess sympathy. "You're welcome by any time, you know. You know where the apartment is in Grand Dorado. Angkasa has her hands full already, and she'd want you to live a little."     'I might totally need to blow off steam anyways after, though, if there's time.'     "Nice. I'll take you out for a round after."     'Regulus is kind of cracked. She says 'Oh my Lennon' instead of 'Oh my God'. She's got some whole new vibe about her entire conception of the country, it's awesome.'     Dianna blinks. "What like the Beatles?" Elara looks oddly proud of this, like on the verge of wiggly clapping. "Man if they exported punk music instead of racism when they were building it, America might be worth a shit." Wrong genre though.     'I'm very sorry, I never meant to bring more attention to our work than necessary.     "It's fine! Really!" Elara says, and tries her very best to mean it. "You deserved to succeed, and those kids deserved to be happy too! How can I think anything except that you're great people when Phony is right here with us?" She means that more. It's a way of neatly dodging anything she doesn't. "Trying to cast a bigger net, builda bigger house, for more unwanted kids; it costs more. Everyone knew that, and everyone accepted it. Having to sell our logo a little is just something we have to do for now. 'Home' didn't go away."     'It's always so strange coming here. It's like extended family? I feel like I've known Dianna and Elara for longer than I have.'     "I'm kind of glad you feel that way." "It makes me happy to know it's a feeling we share. We were thinking about you guys too, you know."     'I-- I don't think I should. That's all.'     Dianna and Elara look at each other. "I'm going to tell Angkasa you're here, if that's alright. It's probably been years since you talked face to face, right? She'd love to." "Seriously. You don't have to touch the thing, but I don't want you to feel like you owe us something and go away feeling worse. You don't. You weren't that kind of lucky, and you're not the least ungrateful."
Regulus	''Construction, repair, emergency medicine.'' "Emergency medicine?" Regulus asks. "Like a compress or... something else?" She shrugs a little at the mention of 'no weaponry'. "Prefer it that way." She agrees. She's a pacifist! If she's going to like a weapon it'll be for it's technical design not for it's weapon design. "Eidolon project?" Regulus asks. "What's that?" Oh god what if they already said and she was too busy digging holes to notice. She's going to dig another hole though just to make sure the memory sticks too deeply into her soul to remove. ''What like the Beatles?''' "Yeah, like the Beatles! Though I wouldn't call Beatles punk, they're more pop rock--" Regulus says, sighing fondly at the idea of America being ruled by the heart behind Beatles music. Such a beautiful dream.
Natsuki Nuki	'You've already got your own thing going on.' "Oh, so so very guilty." Natsuki returns, throat aflutter with faint birdsong chuckling. That, at least, was funny to her, the sharpness of her teeth only adding to the humor as her light sighing afterwards shows them at a more relaxed grin. "And this one doesn't curl like rainmist or fall like a mudslide." She contemplates, uncurling all but thumb and index finger from the control-wand and wafting a dark grey mist curling from her fingers exactly as premised as if she steamed with a stormhead's aura when not holding some internal breath. Finally, with the device fully explained, and a little grinning 'call me, then?' hook of interest cast with eyes and mouthed words in a room full of psychics, the sotto voice of intent, and Natsuki continues as she comes to a brighter thought. "With it all laid out, I think, you're being too hard on this thing you've made." Natsuki observes, having put her mind to the treasure she is touching and having formed feelings about it despite all reluctances. Now that it was something she had touched and held and manipulated a little and oozed into it she didn't want to just let it go. She had oozed into it! Figuratively. "There's a whole revolution in tools you've just put out, and even if it pays for the rest of it, that's something that's interesting. Even if you can offer an infinite height of possibility, not everyone will *get* there. If you've got..." 'The Beauty of Ash' is hard to encapsulate in words. Natsuki had seen it in passing - she understood what was being talked about without grasping the deeper meaning. "Space foreigner-" She doesn't fumble so much as use several extra words to really emphasize and talk around 'space foreigner' like 'alien from another country, which is outer space'. "-shape-bodies, that's maybe even a some-people operation out of the community. You can *make* a community that's all people like that, but not from a cold stop." After a few beats, Natsuki lifts a thumb to curl back and tap her chains and collar beneath. "I just get bigger and sharper the other way." The thumb becomes a playful claw, though her nails do seem very sharp for a moment as she makes the motion. "But maybe I'd like being a shape?" A look to Petra. Go ahead. Explain to the demon kaiju lady what being a shape is like, glass fragments girl. Define your worldexperience, now!! Tech demo time, mopey! Natsuki remains on Petra long enough to fully imply she expects Petra to launch into a deeper explanation, but eventually winds back to Dianna, who Natsuki continues relaxing towards. "Do you want ambitious for 'everyone', or do you want real ambition? It seems like the latter, if you're far past what you're trying to be proud of now. You're *actually* proud of other things!" Huyu-huyu. "It makes sense!" A far cooler dream was side-lined for dream shovels. Space foreigner shapes! Natsuki knew what she'd financially back, given a chance: All of it, though she was missing first refusal in the angel round for the attractions put on by Dianna and Elara. 'Nice. I'll take you out for a round after.' And damn, they were kind of sick with it too? "If the Dorado's a little too public for you, my club in Osaka also serves all the drinks worth drinking."
Persephone Kore	Persephone squeezes up alongside Dianna-- on the opposite side from Elara, of course, I wouldn't want to get between you, ahaha-- and leans comfortably, watching the broader wash of interactions from a bit to the side.      "Ahaha, of course I feel that way? Don't be silly," Persephone says, so comfortably situated she's almost a little sleepy. She's still got to watch Carpathia like she's an anxious old Yorkie at a dog park, though. "I ought to bring Marc and Dylan by? They ask about you! Or maybe you could just come visit..."      "I want to try a backpack too, you know? Once everyone else has. I know it's nothing special to you! But, you know... the Queen in Veils is a less fancy kind of toy. And I'd like to know a little better how it's always felt for you."      "How can I think anything except that you're great people when Phony is right here with us?"      "Trying to cast a bigger net, build a bigger house, for more unwanted kids..."      Carpathia's back is mostly turned as she looks at the remaining VPTs, but the sliver of her face that Elara can see is scrunched in a difficult way. "I've heard it hasn't been easy for you," she finally says when the wrinkles ease a little, "but you're still as kind as I could ask for. Haha... one way or another, the future will be in good hands."      Not 'is', but 'will be'.      "Angkasa. It would've been five- no, sev... it can't have been ten years? Oh, no. Hahh, she's going to ask what's happened to me," Carpathia half-laughs. "Please. Do let her know, if it's no trouble. I'll just..."      Carpathia anxiously looks back to Dianna, and Elara, and Val, and even on some subconscious instinct Petra, and... "Doctor. Just put it on," Persephone says, smiling patiently. "Alright. Alright, but it's been too long since I played with toys," she sighs, and dons the rig. Her body shivers with the neck-contact; she experiments with the wand, failing to picture anything with confidence, and waving it 'through' her hand for a moment.      "Doctor..." Persephone reproaches. That's all it takes for Carpathia to sigh again, step outside of the garage, focus earnestly just to prove Persephone wrong, and try to nudge the bare Callisto earth with her imaginary tool.      It makes little rake-furrows, like in a zen rock garden. Carpathia blinks, straightens up slightly, and then relaxes with a laugh-like sigh, and rakes another little furrow to start on her swirling patterns. "Ahaha. I told you, Doctor." "I know, I know. There's no point in me being Moses." "Moses? I've heard she's nice." "Oh, never mind. I'll be right here when Angkasa comes looking, alright?"      A quiet moment passes, before Persephone says:      "I think, Natsuki... the hard part is they've done something amazing and special, but the amazingness and specialness isn't for them?" Her finger taps her lips as her eyes wander.      "And the people they care about most, and fought the most for, aren't the ones who get the most good from it. It's everyone else who does. So that's a little hard, even though it's a cool and good thing. And so they want us to tell them they did a great job, a little?" And you did!!! "But they also want us to get it, as the people who don't quite need it." And I do.      "Is it like that, Dianna? Elara?"
Metamorph One	'Emergency medicine? Like a compress or... something else?'     "Don't know if you've ever had to do field surgery, but the things we do to human bodies to keep them alive are brutal and wrong." Dianna says, blandly. "We have to cut them open to get at the problem, wrench things around, jam foreign objects in there, then puncture and sew it back up. Psychokinetic fidelity is a lot gentler and heals a lot cleaner. And yeah, you can stanch a wound too, but you can clear a blocked airway without breaking their ribs with a Heimlich; same goes for CPR."     'Eidolon project?'     Dianna, having already mentioned the Beauty of Ash, fondly slaps the leg of her toyetic-lunar four-legged walker craft instead, snazzy paintjob offset with the sticker-like stencils on the stretches of pure white, and tiny manipulator arms under the low front 'head'. "Psychoframes. An entire 'rest of you' that amplifies your psychic potential in every single direction, so you navigate the entire world with your will and wishes. The major leagues."     'With it all laid out, I think, you're being too hard on this thing you've made.'     "Sorry if we are. It's just . . . been a time." Elara says. She looks to Dianna, for a second, then strangely decides to spare her the rest on her own. "We grew up here, you know? Back when there weren't that many, nobody else wanted us. We all believed in something similar, but still different than this. Something we thought was bigger and more revolutionary, back when it was hard going, and a lot of people . . . paid for it." She forces a smile. "The students aren't bad kids. Not at all. And I'd never want them to have to face the problems the program struggled through back in the day. But sometimes it's hard to shake the feeling that we spilled our blood for that home and still shrunk our dreams in the end anyways. We burned bright, but the world is heavy, and sooner or later, we just have to live our lives. We're human too."     'You can *make* a community that's all people like that, but not from a cold stop.'     "Some day, yeah. Like it used to be." Dianna says, quietly. "Don't know who."     'Do you want ambitious for 'everyone', or do you want real ambition? It seems like the latter, if you're far past what you're trying to be proud of now.'     "Yeah." The utterance feels somehow complicated in its simplicity.     'If the Dorado's a little too public for you, my club in Osaka also serves all the drinks worth drinking.     "Oh! That's very nice of you!" "I better see a special rate for Partners, though." For whatever reason, she says it very calmly. It's probably Persephone on her other side; a less familiar but equally warm weight.     'I ought to bring Marc and Dylan by? They ask about you!'     "Absolutely! I'd love that!" "Me too. It'd be easier that way."     'I want to try a backpack too, you know? Once everyone else has. I know it's nothing special to you! But, you know... the Queen in Veils is a less fancy kind of toy. And I'd like to know a little better how it's always felt for you.'     Elara hands her one! "Just be careful it doesn't explode from your almighty aura." Dianna jokes.     'I've heard it hasn't been easy for you, but you're still as kind as I could ask for. Haha... one way or another, the future will be in good hands.'     "Sometimes I'd still like to be a little kinder." says Elara, rubbing her arm. "Sometimes I want to be a little meaner." says Dianna. "Thanks though."
Metamorph One	'Oh, no. Hahh, she's going to ask what's happened to me,'     'Oh, never mind. I'll be right here when Angkasa comes looking, alright?'     "Mm~? Is she going to ask how you got so old, or ask who your doctor is~?" Elara says, glancing at her hair. "I'll pass it along." Dianna says, and finallysmiles.     'Is it like that, Dianna? Elara?'     "I'm glad I don't have to explain that. To you of all people, Phony." "I'm kind of surprised I don't."
Petra Soroka	"Image of what, Petra?"     "Like, you know!"     Petra protests, trying to find the words to describe what seemed so obvious to her to Natsuki. With no one else at all having possible context for what she means, Petra gestures at Val's whole outfit ensemble. "*That* image!" Then, too focused on it not to comment directly to Val, "I've *literally* never seen you wear anything close to that. That's *crazy*. Is the bodysuit mandatory, or is it flair?"     "Ahaha, it's the whole look! We all got told to coordinate! I've got such a busy week upcoming, I'll have you know, so you have to be nice to me. And it makes my tits look awesome, so there."     "Okay-- well-- er-- I just mean, Natsuki, that you're interested in what's actually on display, not just the trappings. No one here needs to be tricked into swooning over tech." <When did it start having always been kind?>     Petra giggles weakly, turning her face away from Phony. The telepathy, such as it is, goes unremarked on, but not repelled. "I'm still not exactly welcome back. And I'm not trying to be either. It's just that, um, the making room has to be mutual."     Petra remembers the line too, and she's not quite so optimistic to believe that the lofty goal of being able to include 'Petra' has been achieved. That Petra from back then would have died before even reconnecting this much with space, and it's only that what Petra is changed enough that she could reach out her own hand first. She tugs at the elaborate wooden pendant around her neck, hooking her index finger through the cord.     "Um, I dunno if Dylan or Marc said anything, but the Beauty of Ash's actually in here. Qetra helps me carry it." "I'm not quite the oldest at S-H, and I'm not quite the one who joined first, either."     "Wow, really? For some reason I'd assumed you must've been first, but..." Val's got no issue with the physical contact at all, and her melancholy doesn't linger long either. "No, the reason's just because of how impressive Dianna and Elara are, haha! It's not that complicated." "It's always so strange coming here. It's like extended family?"     Val sighs, pleasantly soothed by Phony's presence. "Maybe it is. I remember hearing about you for the first time, so maybe it's my turn to help catch you up so we're equal?"
Petra Soroka	"I think the Eidolon project was better."     "Yeah...." Val, who'd been quiet throughout most of the talk of 'what they're missing', speaks up when she's completed her lazy little circuit around the Elites, hanging out by the base of the Metamorph. "It's not like I don't miss Telestic Footfall every now and then. The VPT's small in comparison."     Literally so, apparently, when showing the one that isn't designed for non-psychic use. The one she fishes out of the pocket of her puffy jacket is more like Sougo's belt than the backpack, and clips onto her waist just about the same way. A clicky switch and button turns it on, and then her telekinesis splits a nearby rock into a hundred tiny even pieces while lifting it up, spinning them in a spherical orbit around her hand.     "But I can't hate a success just because it's less-impossible. That's not really what anyone wants to hear, but it's still nice. Anytime I think about what I don't have, I think about what I do, instead, and it's really a lot." She's only half trying to convince herself; the argument's long been decided anyways.     Small heatless flames consume the rock chunks as an idle motion, transmuting them into a rainbow of random sparkly colors, which she drops through her fingers to the ground below. "And there's so much time in the future to do everything else." "I'm not just being mean, either. They're only hurting themselves in the end."     Val wasn't exactly always on great terms with the generation above her either. There's a lingering sense-- probably the reason why she and Petra got along back then like they did-- that she's always just a little bit included in 'they', and not quite as firmly in 'we'. She and Petra fought over it once. But there's much less of a gap between 23 and 30 than there is between 17 and 24.     "Yeah. It does sort of suck, that we have to cater to it at all. But I can imagine 'us' all being together in forty years, and I can't imagine the bad actors sticking around that long; even if 'together' changes a bit."     Val makes a little smile to herself, self-consciously amused at how easily the topics lead into each other. "... So I'll see about stopping by on one of my weekends?" "The Beauty of Ash. You've seen it, right?"     "Yeah, I mean, not to brag--" Petra tone is more like 'bragging on behalf of a friend' rather than her own accomplishments, with how easily and shamelessly she leaps towards saying it. "--But the Beauty of Ash is kind of the best thing ever. I could never really vibe with the whole concept of the VPT, even though it makes sense. Like, how's it really even 'an extension to your body' if it's not even really engaging your body?"
Petra Soroka	When given permission, Petra takes the funny little grip of the VPT in her hand, experimentally prodding at all the tactile tools on it. When she's satisfied, she turns towards the outside field at the bottom of the crater, and makes a small gesture with the grip. In an instant, a furrow is clawed into the rock like a knife parting clay, gouging a trench a hundred feet long. She yelps, and presses several switches on its side at once like a piano, and a dozen invisible telekinetic forces shovel the churned moon-rock back into place.     "Ack-- wow, I *so* misestimated the calibration on this. Oh god." She doesn't notice until a little bit later, but the blobule of Silver floating around her has been physically manifesting the psychic tools of her imagination, gesturing at the air in miniature to mimic the actions she's done with the VPT. A disconnected storm of small Silver tendrils sweep at nothing while their psychic companions refill the crevice she dug, and when one brushes against Petra, she notices that she was accidentally duplicating her output.     "Oh, hm. I guess I-- kind of came around in a roundabout way, maybe."     Petra splits off the Silver, causing it to lose tension and soften, but with that image in mind, she uses the VPT again to more finely tuned result. Over the span of a minute, she uses it to make a breeze, then to form bubbles in the air, then flattens and briefly superheats the area she dug up until it turns into a glassy plane of contiguous smooth rock.     Having forgotten herself a little bit, she giggles while messing around. "This is kinda fun, actually." "But maybe I'd like being a shape?"     "I can't really shit on tools," Petra babbles, while bending the air into lenses to project a mirror image of the Milky Way on the moon's surface. "But I gotta say, the Beauty of Ash is--"     Petra flinches and flickers, shucking off the VPT in a blink that both places it on the ground and herself a step away. "Ow--! it got *so* hot. That's reasonable, though. I guess that's good to know. Um, anyways, big upside of the Beauty of Ash, Natsuki, is that I can tackle people." That's number one!!! The single most important thing! "Well, and tons of stuff, but it's so much easier to show."     Thoughtfully, after tidying up the VPT, Petra adds, "You know, I heard from Matilda that they got a dog collar that turns dogs big and evil. If you ate that, you'd probably get a shape, and I *know* what you're about."