Multiverse Crisis MUSH - User contributions [en]

6257/Techno-Wizard Introduction

2018-12-25T04:42:50Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2018/12/23 |Location=Bar & Grill at the End of the Multiverse |Synopsis=A bunch of people get hungry and end up at the Bar & Grill. Reyes meets peo..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/12/23
|Location=Bar & Grill at the End of the Multiverse
|Synopsis=A bunch of people get hungry and end up at the Bar & Grill. Reyes meets people. Discussion turns to the subject of Staren's hometown and its noninterventionist policies.
|Cast of Characters=42, 6857, 994, 954, 7
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren has been so busy working on something or other that he forgot to eat! Not feeling like making a sandwich or waiting the hour or more it would take to print out a meal, he's come to the Bar & Grill for an extremely late supper. At the moment he's sitting at a table by himself, eating spoonfulls of some kind of meat-and-potato stew.     Randomly, he finds himself wondering if the Glitch have an alien counterpart to potatoes or not. 

:'''{{#var:6857|Reyes (6857)}} has posed:'''     Not long ago, after getting embroiled in the Paladins introduction radio stuff, after a long session of working on a new gadget, Reyes is STARVING. Possibly even a little hangry. So he turned around towards the workshop door, hands in his jacket pockets with his goggles down, strolled on through...     And, somehow or another, finds himself roaming into the same dining hall as Staren.     The young man freezes right where he stands, going straight as an arrow. Like a robot, he looks left, right, up, down... then straight.     Finally, shaking freakishly, he brings both hands to his goggles and lifts them, revealing blue eyes that are as wide with out-of-place shock as one can get.     "The hell...? Did a rift open in the door...?" The man might be heard murmuring. Or perhaps lip-read.     Nervously, he wanders beyond the doorway and into the hall, maneuvering around a few tables and looking INCREDIBLY lost and disoriented all the while.     After a few seconds, he snaps those goggles back into place. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' While even she could not deny that she needed time to recover from the extreme battle with the Steel Titan, Athela wasn't really the sort to just lay in a bed until she was better. That, and despite being a native of the coast and knowing her family meant well she could only take fish stew for so long. So instead she went looking for a dietary variation. As long as she stayed out of trouble it should be fine, right? It's pretty obvious she's not up to standard just walking into the B&G@EotMV. She had the cloak but none of her usual armor. Just a simple tunic and leggings, enough to keep her bandages and bruises covered. Though her sword is still tucked into her belt, because it will be hell and high water before she doesn't have that on her person. Though once she gets to the menu she starts to wonder if this was such a good idea. None of these dishes make any sense to her. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's ears perk up at Reyes' words. "It's the Bar & Grill..." Before he can say more on the subject though, his face turns to look at Reyes... and his eyes are drawn to that jacket. "...Are you a techno-wizard?" He sounds surprised. Obviously people from his Earth get around the Multiverse, but he doesn't run into them much.     Also, Athela is here! After he last saw her pretty badly hurt just a few days ago! "Hey there. Feeling better?" He then looks back to Reyes, but one ear turns towards Athela. 

:'''{{#var:6857|Reyes (6857)}} has posed:'''     "The where?" Reyes, utterly lost, turns to follow the voice and finds himself looking straight at Staren. Is that recognition there? No. At first it's confusion. But then a narrowing of the eyes. Fierce and intense. A smidge of INTENSE CONCENTRATION that's over in a moment and then recognition. Lips part as if the man's going to say something, but several seconds pass in awkward silence. He slowly withdraws his hands from his pockets and steps to the side to take a look at the other person moving about...     And has to struggle not to jawdrop. "A knight...? A girl knight?" More murmuring to himself, though since she's closer, Athela would have no trouble hearing. Reyes sounds a bit awed. Whether that's because of 'girl', 'knight', 'either', or 'both' is hard to tell at a glance though.     The young man rapidly shakes his head though to clear it. Then answers Staren. "Yeah, that's right. The name's Reyes. ... You probably don't know me. But I saw your face in Castle Refuge's news a few times... Staren?" 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Athela's attention is drawn from trying to interpret the menu by hearing a somewhat familiar voice. As in its familiar but she's use to hearing Staren through whatever method he speaks from his mechanical devices rather than in person. "In comparison to being almost dead, yes," she replies, absently running a hand back through her hair. Then turns towards Reyes at his small outburst of surprise and regards him for a moment. One could be insulted, but she's dealt with the Multiverse long enough to accept one thing or another of her presence being odd to others. All it really does is indicate he's 'new' to things, and she remembers being in that position at one point. "You two are from the same realm?", she asks as she turns back to Staren again. She was going to ask if they knew each other, but had to adjust when the guy already voiced a negative to that on his own. A pause, and then she rubs her head again. "... And do you know what best to get off this 'menu'?" A somewhat hapless gesture. "None of these meals are familiar to me." 

:'''{{#var:954|Count Kord (954)}} has posed:'''     Kord doesn't need to eat.     That's why it's strange to see him step through the door. Well... step might be putting it mildly. The door he slips through bulges around him as it takes on the vague shape of the great castle doors he uses for his home, the big Pokemon, standing about twenty feet tall, ambles through, careless of the foot traffic. When he spots Staren talking to someone, he wanders over and stops nearby, seating himself up and puffing up his 'feathers.' He sniffs in and makes a comfortable rumbling noise, and digs in a satchel he has strapped to his body so he can carry things around.     "I will be paying for the food," he announces to the gathered group. "You're welcome."     Besides that comment, he seems content to sit around, being a big ole bird-dragon. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren quirks an eyebrow at Reyes's long pause, but hey, maybe the guy has a brain computer and is looking something up. He looks mildly surprised at the young man's words. "Castle Refuge has heard of /me/? Good things, I hope." He looks back to Athela. "Yes. He's from... mm... another settlement."     He glances between Athela and the menu. "...Ah! I see." He pulls a tablet from his bag and shows pictures of the animals the meat comes from: "Chicken. Beef. Pork. Does that help a little?" He's sure there are similar pokemon, although he can only think of tauros off the top of his head.     And hey, Kord is here too! "Count. Good to see you." He nods a greeting. 

:'''{{#var:6857|Reyes (6857)}} has posed:'''     It takes a bit for Reyes to realize he might be being a bit overly rude to Athela. He subsequently sidesteps away from her to give her some more space. "Huh, cool." Is his end verdict on her presence! Although... then he's given something NEW to deal with. A shadow's cast through the doorway. A mighty shadow.     Kord's shadow.     The Techno-Wizard's swiftly shuffling out of that thing's way, moving to seat himself at the same table as Staren - although he does briefly wait for Staren to raise an objection before pulling out the chair and seating himself.     "It wasn't lambasting you or anything. So, I guess?" Is his non-commital answer.     Although it might be expected from someone of this profession, this young man doesn't seem too terribly comfortable with socializing. Still, he grabs a spare menu... and looks at Kord.     "... I don't know you... are you sure?"     He then asks Staren, "Do they take universal, black, or NG creds here? Wherever 'here' is. I haven't eaten in twenty hours... I think."     Once more he looks towards Kord. "Can I ask... who and what are you?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone looked normal enough though her hair was a teal or cyan colour and she was weing a sleeveless long jacket with right pants boots and a shirt on under the jacket. She hears someone say Staren, and she'll home in on that as she spots whom she presume as Reyes who seems to be BSODing at the idea of a Dame for a moment she'll look at him for a moment. "Reyes I preusme?" Kotone looks human enough but there's something strange about here and if one looked at her eyes those would scream artfiacal, very high quality but clearly artfical and as she moves her head the pluggs on the back of her neck might be visable she pauses. "Staren, Count Corde, Dame Valemore." Shje'll interject "They take about anything for the most part." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren tilts his head slightly at being told that 'well, it wasn't lambasting you.' "Hmh." It's still weird to think he could be on the news, but of course, he's a public figure now. At Reyes's question about money, he nods. "Yeah. I wish people wouldn't call the Coalition's money 'universal', ugh. Hmm, there's a thought, I wonder if some innovation in currency technology could displace it?"     And now Kotone's here! Staren gives her a curious look, "Kotone! You know him?" 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' "Ah!" Athela grabs the tablet and peers at it. Once she's got a visual reference it becomes much easier to make sense of things. "Much help, thank you." She'd bow on gratitude, but that would aggrivate her sore ribs. And then there's -that- voice. Though it's not until Athela turns enough to look towards the source to get a real surprise, seeing Kord in his true form. Which, as intimidating as it is... is also kind of silly, sitting there admist a resturaunt. "Count. It's... interesting to see you out so... natural," she finally decides on, not wanting to really start some sort of scene. "And generous, thank you." And another more familiar face arrives. "Miss Yamakawa, hello." 

:'''{{#var:954|Count Kord (954)}} has posed:'''     Kord leeeeans in to get a close look at Reyes, his great big monstrous eye fixated on him for several seconds. Then he lifts his head and says, imperiously, "I am Count Kord of Dragoni, of the lands of Bayern, and Partner of the Concord. Brood of the great death god. That is, I am one of such beings, a Yveltal. A Pokemon." And then he says, "Yes, I am sure. Do not question my generosity," as if clearly offended that he would do anything but be grateful. He looks to Staren, and nods in his direction once.     Athela's comment gets him to briefly squint at her. No reply. Just... squiiint. 

:'''{{#var:6857|Reyes (6857)}} has posed:'''     Welp. Reyes DID ask. But the answer that Count Kord gives is more than a little intimidating. It leaves Reyes just kind of rudely staring, frozen up. After a good five seconds, he swallows, reaches up... and adjusts his goggles using both index and middle fingers of his right hand.     That's the second time someone introduced themselves by a string of intimidating titles.     "I'm just Reyes the Techno-Wizard. ... So, thanks." Granted, most people would probably run screaming from a thing that looked like Kord.     And with Kotone getting near... the young man flinches, shoulders bunching up. He recovers swiftly though, nodding quietly to Kotone as he examines her. His eyes move with analytical intensity, widening behind the goggles. Goggles that he quickly raises to his forehead, as if he might trust clear vision better for her.     "These cybernetics... how did anyone manage to pack so much power into such a sleek form? Everything's beautifully miniaturized...!" Once again he's faced with a case of AW, though this time it's gaping at Kotone. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren gives a friendly nod in response to Athela's thanks. He doesn't bother taking the tablet back. He can always fabricate more!     Now he looks between Reyes and Kotone as a series of questions and realizations hit. "What are you talking about? We have similar stuff on our world, have you never seen the specs for an infiltration model? ...Wait, how'd you tell just by LOOKING? ...Ah, right. Techno-wizard." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "Kinda he's a new co worker I came to say hello." "Good to meet you in the flesh Reyes how are .... you?" She blings several times at him for a moment as he brings up her prosetics for a moment. "Micro machines or what you might call nanites play a part in that and I'm more into vechile than shells. There were several serious decades of conflict that pushed the technology's development which started just a bit before I was born, the third and fouth world wars were ... interesting times. In the way you want to curse someone to live in interesting times, way." 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' At this point Athela has gone back to ordering something to eat and isn't paying attention to Kord's squinting gaze, or the general aura of creepiness he has around him. It's an effect he has, just on being what he is, and she's determined to not let it bother her. Her stomach has started to rumble for something other than fish so her attention is back on the menu, and finally decides on a basket of chicken drumsticks. That and the other three are talking about cyborgs and stuff. Still a bizarre thing to deal with even after having met several by this point. 

:'''{{#var:6857|Reyes (6857)}} has posed:'''     Upon realizing that they serve basically ANYTHING here, Reyes decides to settle on the local variety of pizza. After all, if there's leftovers, he can drag them back with him and not worry about food for a few days.     Kotone's explanation to things gets the young man frowning though. A world war 3 and 4? "... That's two other worlds where things went awry, besides mine-- ours." Disappointing and disheartening, really.     He turns to face down Staren with a somewhat critical eye. "Guess I haven't. But I don't think it'd look like this!"     "... Guess you wouldn't need to eat much with a body like that." He points out to Kotone. "... Did you really come here just for me..?" An eyebrow's quirked in some amazement. That's hard to believe.     A few moments pass. He glances between Kotone and Staren. "... Ah. The Lazlo friend you mentioned. It's Staren?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren doesn't mean to ignore Athela or Kord, but the discussion does interest him. Sometimes an ear briefly rotates towards them.     "Co-worker? Ah. Congrats on joining the Paladins." He glances back to Kotone. "Funnily enough, they're usually known as micromachines or microbots or something on our world too. Never really developed nanotech for anything besides medical use, and it's hella expensive."     He shrugs to Reyes at the mention of world wars. "Her Earth's got way more infrastructure left, though I understand a few places didn't fare well." He nods at the mention of Lazlo, as well.     "So... is you joining the Paladins a personal thing, or is the Tomorrow Legion doing outreach to other worlds now?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa looks to him for a moment and says "Actually I do need to eat a little and I do so to remind myself I'm still human." She grins widely "I can never get fat now." She gets an amused look she also shrugs. "Some good cam out of it Japan develed technology that can clean up Fallout and radio active waste. So we're not some nuclear hell world at least." She looks to Staren for a moment nodding. "They are huge buiness here medical, farming, mechanical." 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' That's okay if she's somewhat ignored at the moment, the conversation has gone to topics very much over Athela's head. She does slide the tablet back to Staren though. Would be rude to not return it to the owner. "So many different worlds... yet things like War and Innovation remain constants in some way." 

:'''{{#var:6857|Reyes (6857)}} has posed:'''     "The Legion's been trying to gain Commonwealth attention and support to help restore some order, security, and quality of life to North America. Me joining the Paladins is all about that." Reyes answers clearly... if a bit vaguely, at the same time. An uncomfortable topic?     "I'm surprised Lazlo isn't doing the same. But they try to stay out of anything and everything... can't blame 'em, though." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren listens intently. An alliance between The Tomorrow Legion and the Commonwealth? Good to know about.     As Reyes mentions his home city-state's insistance on staying out of everything, Staren looks away, awkwardly. He is not exactly proud of Lazlo's repeated inaction.     "...I'm not in charge of Lazlo. But I've helped others on my own, and with the Union, and with the League, and with the Concord." 

:'''{{#var:954|Count Kord (954)}} has posed:'''     "Cowardly," Kord comments, on the subject of Lazlo. He lifts his nose and closes his eyes haughtily. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa Says "There's a whole lot of Purging to be done, to borrow a phase from a friend of mine. I heard there's still some remants of the Canada and the US is there, Quebec out lived us all there from what I hear and well the CS sound a hell of a lot like the Empire of America back home." She looks over to Athela for a moment. "It really does, seem that way." 

:'''{{#var:6857|Reyes (6857)}} has posed:'''     On that note? Reyes glances over at Kord. His brow furrows slightly. And he folds his arms. "It's a tiny city of mages, who want to promote magic, education, and tolerance of others caught between two technological nations who hate magic and aliens. I'm told the reason they don't take action is to avoid being seen as a threat and pounced by both sides." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren hangs his head at Kord's words.     After an awkward moment, he looks back at Reyes and adds. "Lazlo doesn't help directly. But because of it, people who do have a safe place to find support and resupply. To find others of like mind. And where the next generation of heroes can learn about magic and technology in safety. It's less active... less direct then I'd like, but Lazlo clearly has an /indirect/ influence on making the world better. Lazlo didn't send the self-defense force to Tolkeen. But many citizens /did/ fight. And Lazlo was there to take in refugees after. ...Perhaps that is Plato and Thomm's plan." 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Athela Valemore huffs softly to herself. "On one hand one cannot blame them for putting concern for their own first... on the other, the excluding helping and getting help entirely seems... short sighted." Then Reyes chimes in. "... Though that perhaps is also a significant reason. "Trapped between the sleeping Ursaring and the hungry Salamence, wanting to disturb neither." 

:'''{{#var:954|Count Kord (954)}} has posed:'''     Kord considers their words. He opens one eye to look at Reyes, puffing a sigh of annoyance at the correction. But it's further explained, and so he gives it some thought. "That is not inaction," he points out, "They are simply using their resources wisely. By leaving their borders open to travellers, they allow the lifeblood of change to flow through their roads and taverns. They aren't 'staying out of it,' they are simply avoiding being overt." Largely a rehash of what was said. "A clever country is more powerful than a direct country, no matter its size." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa looks to Reyes for a moment as she listens and nods. "If they want to be agressively neutral it's their right, and Reyes you should see my bike I designed later." She grins a bit at him "We were going to talk shop, right?" 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Athela Valemore ruffles a hand through her hair. "Perhaps I was a bit brash on my 'no help or helping' remark." That's a little awkward... but hey, her food is here. Distraction! Athela promptly chows in on a drumstick if only to keep herself from saying something else awkwardly bad for a bit. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's spirits seem lifted by Kord's commentary! He smiles and shakes his head at Athela. "It's alright. Certainly, it's a complaint many people in my world have made... So much so that a bunch of people went and founded New Lazlo." Staren rests his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand. "Although, for all the talking the people of New Lazlo do, they never seem to /do/ anything either... But, as you say," he turns to Kord. "perhaps getting people to do all that talking, and the kind of thinking that leads to it, is more action than it seems." 

:'''{{#var:6857|Reyes (6857)}} has posed:'''     "I wouldn't know. Certainly don't know enough about statecraft. I work with machines." Reyes firmly states towards Kord and Staren, bunching up his shoulders into a shrug. He does nod quickly at Kotone's proposal though! "Motorcycles you said, wasn't it? Your world doesn't have hovercycles?" 
}}

Archived: RIFTS-1

2018-11-16T02:38:39Z

Staren:

{{CastPage
|Desc=300 years ago it was a golden age; Humanity was poised to leave its birth world behind for what lay beyond the solar system. But that was not to be... a nuclear exchange by two third world nations on the summer solstice brought about something no one save a handful had guessed: Magic returned with a vengeance and the world as it was known ended.

But humanity did not die that day. It fought back as best it could and now the remains of Earth's natives slowly work to reclaim their world but they are no longer alone. Aliens, demons and other beings prowl the Earth, and now both science and magic of amazing sorts can be found in this changed world -- but can humanity overcome its oldest problem? The urge to hate, fear and destroy that which is different?

A longer summary of the theme, as well as a map of eastern North America and more information on Lazlo specifically, is available '''[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aQhozwvNDnmye0cTCEm-EWp35hmyLvfvqSMq6WrIuXY here]'''.
|Cat=Themes
}}
==Time==
As of AU 26, on RIFTS-1 Earth it is 120 PA by the common calendar, or 2406 AD by the old calendar.

==Metaplot==
'''(Where the theme is compared to canon)'''

The Coalition v Tolkeen war and the secession of Free Quebec happened on time, with Tolkeen being destroyed. Despite dire prophecies, the Mechanoids have not appeared, and the Xiticix are not yet approaching the point of becoming overwhelming within the next few years (they have not spread further presently than they had in canon around 105 PA -- they first appeared a few years later or were slower to spread for some reason.)

The New German Republic has largely driven the gargoyles back, and is preparing for a final push to finish them off.

For the most part, RIFTS Earth is not largely changed by unification with the Multiverse -- it was already part of a multiverse, after all! However, warpgates are easier to use than dimensional rifts, and some enterprising explorers and traders have started to spread some Multiversal technology to the more advanced settlements, primarily better computers. Settlements are hesitant to adopt nanotechnology and advanced AI large-scale due to stories of causing an apocalypse on another world, but don't really care about individual use of such things. Adventurers get their hands on all sorts of things, of course, and as long as they're not committing crimes with them, any settlement already friendly to adventurers doesn't care that much what they're carrying.

We have yet to give much thought to what's happened in the 11 years since the current canon timeline.

==Warpgates==
This is just a list of warpgates that have been established in RP so far. There are surely others!

Lake Ontario gate - About 33 miles east of Lazlo, near modern-day Bowmanville. A trading town has sprung up around it, loosely affiliated with Lazlo, with a road connection (and public transport) to Lazlo itself.

Federation of Magic gate - Somewhere in Federation of Magic territory, hidden from the outside by magic.

New German Republic gate - There is at least one gate in the forests of Germany, which is currently a warzone.

==Timeline==
'''2098 AD''' - The Coming of the RIFTS, beginning of the Three-Hundred Year Dark Age

'''2287 AD / 1 PA''' (Post-Apocalypse) - Founding of the Coalition States from the union of Chi-Town (Illinois), Iron Heart (Sudbury), and Quebec. Over the next century, the PA calendar becomes the de facto calendar in North America and the states of Missouri and Lone Star (part of former Texas) join.

'''2387 AD / 101 PA / AU7''' - Approximate end of the Three-Hundred Year Dark Age.

'''???''' Unification of RIFTS Earth Americas in the Vast Marshes. (The rest of the Megaverse unifies elsewhere in the Multiverse)

'''2392 AD / 106 PA / AU12''' - Free Quebec attempts to secede from the Coalition States -- CS Civil War begins, CS-Tolkeen war begins

'''2394 AD / 108 PA / AU14''' - Free Quebec gains independence

'''2395 AD / 109 PA / AU15''' - Sorcerer’s Revenge. CS-Tolkeen war ends with Tolkeen’s destruction. El Dorado (Arkansas) joins the Coalition States.

'''2399 AD / 113 PA / AU19''' - (April) The Oblivion Orb causes RIFTS Earth (and its solar system) to recombine in the Void - Space-Time Storms.

'''2404 AD / 118 PA / AU24''' - The NGR warpgate appears. The NGR accepts nonhumans into its military, becoming slightly more accepting of them, and rebuffs the Gargoyle offense, but doesn't quite finish them. The gargoyles in Germany are left divided, waiting for a new leader to rise and unite them against humanity.

'''2406 AD / 120 PA / AU26''' - Present Day

Archived: RIFTS-1

2018-11-16T02:37:38Z

Staren:

{{CastPage
|Desc=300 years ago it was a golden age; Humanity was poised to leave its birth world behind for what lay beyond the solar system. But that was not to be... a nuclear exchange by two third world nations on the summer solstice brought about something no one save a handful had guessed: Magic returned with a vengeance and the world as it was known ended.

But humanity did not die that day. It fought back as best it could and now the remains of Earth's natives slowly work to reclaim their world but they are no longer alone. Aliens, demons and other beings prowl the Earth, and now both science and magic of amazing sorts can be found in this changed world -- but can humanity overcome its oldest problem? The urge to hate, fear and destroy that which is different?

A longer summary of the theme, as well as a map of eastern North America and more information on Lazlo specifically, is available '''[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aQhozwvNDnmye0cTCEm-EWp35hmyLvfvqSMq6WrIuXY here]'''.
|Cat=Themes
}}
==Time==
As of AU 26, on RIFTS-1 Earth it is 120 PA by the common calendar, or 2406 AD by the old calendar.

==Metaplot==
'''(Where the theme is compared to canon)'''

The Coalition v Tolkeen war and the secession of Free Quebec happened on time, with Tolkeen being destroyed. Despite dire prophecies, the Mechanoids have not appeared, and the Xiticix are not yet approaching the point of becoming overwhelming within the next few years (they have not spread further presently than they had in canon around 105 PA -- they first appeared a few years later or were slower to spread for some reason.)

The New German Republic has largely driven the gargoyles back, and is preparing for a final push to finish them off.

For the most part, RIFTS Earth is not largely changed by unification with the Multiverse -- it was already part of a multiverse, after all! However, warpgates are easier to use than dimensional rifts, and some enterprising explorers and traders have started to spread some Multiversal technology to the more advanced settlements, primarily better computers. Settlements are hesitant to adopt nanotechnology and advanced AI large-scale due to stories of causing an apocalypse on another world, but don't really care about individual use of such things. Adventurers get their hands on all sorts of things, of course, and as long as they're not committing crimes with them, any settlement already friendly to adventurers doesn't care that much what they're carrying.

We have yet to give much thought to what's happened in the 9 years since the current canon timeline.

==Warpgates==
This is just a list of warpgates that have been established in RP so far. There are surely others!

Lake Ontario gate - About 33 miles east of Lazlo, near modern-day Bowmanville. A trading town has sprung up around it, loosely affiliated with Lazlo, with a road connection (and public transport) to Lazlo itself.

Federation of Magic gate - Somewhere in Federation of Magic territory, hidden from the outside by magic.

New German Republic gate - There is at least one gate in the forests of Germany, which is currently a warzone.

==Timeline==
'''2098 AD''' - The Coming of the RIFTS, beginning of the Three-Hundred Year Dark Age

'''2287 AD / 1 PA''' (Post-Apocalypse) - Founding of the Coalition States from the union of Chi-Town (Illinois), Iron Heart (Sudbury), and Quebec. Over the next century, the PA calendar becomes the de facto calendar in North America and the states of Missouri and Lone Star (part of former Texas) join.

'''2387 AD / 101 PA / AU7''' - Approximate end of the Three-Hundred Year Dark Age.

'''???''' Unification of RIFTS Earth Americas in the Vast Marshes. (The rest of the Megaverse unifies elsewhere in the Multiverse)

'''2392 AD / 106 PA / AU12''' - Free Quebec attempts to secede from the Coalition States -- CS Civil War begins, CS-Tolkeen war begins

'''2394 AD / 108 PA / AU14''' - Free Quebec gains independence

'''2395 AD / 109 PA / AU15''' - Sorcerer’s Revenge. CS-Tolkeen war ends with Tolkeen’s destruction. El Dorado (Arkansas) joins the Coalition States.

'''2399 AD / 113 PA / AU19''' - (April) The Oblivion Orb causes RIFTS Earth (and its solar system) to recombine in the Void - Space-Time Storms.

'''2404 AD / 118 PA / AU24''' - The NGR warpgate appears. The NGR accepts nonhumans into its military, becoming slightly more accepting of them, and rebuffs the Gargoyle offense, but doesn't quite finish them. The gargoyles in Germany are left divided, waiting for a new leader to rise and unite them against humanity.

'''2406 AD / 120 PA / AU26''' - Present Day

Archived: RIFTS-1

2018-11-16T02:09:04Z

Staren: Updated a bit

{{CastPage
|Desc=300 years ago it was a golden age; Humanity was poised to leave its birth world behind for what lay beyond the solar system. But that was not to be... a nuclear exchange by two third world nations on the summer solstice brought about something no one save a handful had guessed: Magic returned with a vengeance and the world as it was known ended.

But humanity did not die that day. It fought back as best it could and now the remains of Earth's natives slowly work to reclaim their world but they are no longer alone. Aliens, demons and other beings prowl the Earth, and now both science and magic of amazing sorts can be found in this changed world -- but can humanity overcome its oldest problem? The urge to hate, fear and destroy that which is different?

A longer summary of the theme, as well as a map of eastern North America and more information on Lazlo specifically, is available '''[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aQhozwvNDnmye0cTCEm-EWp35hmyLvfvqSMq6WrIuXY here]'''.
|Cat=Themes
}}
==Time==
As of AU 26, on RIFTS-1 Earth it is 120 PA by the common calendar, or 2406 AD by the old calendar.

==Metaplot==
'''(Where the theme is compared to canon)'''

The Coalition v Tolkeen war and the secession of Free Quebec happened on time, with Tolkeen being destroyed. Despite dire prophecies, the Mechanoids have not appeared, and the Xiticix are not yet approaching the point of becoming overwhelming within the next few years (they have not spread further presently than they had in canon around 105 PA -- they first appeared a few years later or were slower to spread for some reason.)

The New German Republic has largely driven the gargoyles back, and is preparing for a final push to finish them off.

For the most part, RIFTS Earth is not largely changed by unification with the Multiverse -- it was already part of a multiverse, after all! However, warpgates are easier to use than dimensional rifts, and some enterprising explorers and traders have started to spread some Multiversal technology to the more advanced settlements, primarily better computers. Settlements are hesitant to adopt nanotechnology and advanced AI large-scale due to stories of causing an apocalypse on another world, but don't really care about individual use of such things. Adventurers get their hands on all sorts of things, of course, and as long as they're not committing crimes with them, any settlement already friendly to adventurers doesn't care that much what they're carrying.

We have yet to give much thought to what's happened in the 9 years since the current canon timeline.

==Warpgates==
This is just a list of warpgates that have been established in RP so far. There are surely others!

Lake Ontario gate - About 33 miles east of Lazlo, near modern-day Bowmanville. A trading town has sprung up around it, loosely affiliated with Lazlo, with a road connection (and public transport) to Lazlo itself.

Federation of Magic gate - Somewhere in Federation of Magic territory, hidden from the outside by magic.

New German Republic gate - There is at least one gate in the forests of Germany, which is currently a warzone.

==Timeline==
'''2098 AD''' - The Coming of the RIFTS, beginning of the Three-Hundred Year Dark Age

'''2287 AD / 1 PA''' (Post-Apocalypse) - Founding of the Coalition States from the union of Chi-Town (Chicago), Iron Heart (Sudbury), and Quebec. Over the next century, the PA calendar becomes the de facto calendar in North America and the states of Missouri and Lone Star (part of former Texas) join.

'''2387 AD / 101 PA / AU7''' - Approximate end of the Three-Hundred Year Dark Age.

'''???''' Unification of RIFTS Earth Americas in the Vast Marshes. (The rest of the Megaverse unifies elsewhere in the Multiverse)

'''2392 AD / 106 PA / AU12''' - Free Quebec attempts to secede from the Coalition States -- CS Civil War begins, CS-Tolkeen war begins

'''2394 AD / 108 PA / AU14''' - Free Quebec gains independence

'''2395 AD / 109 PA / AU15''' - Sorcerer’s Revenge. CS-Tolkeen war ends with Tolkeen’s destruction. El Dorado (Arkansas) joins the Coalition States.

'''2399 AD / 113 PA / AU19''' - (April) The Oblivion Orb causes RIFTS Earth (and its solar system) to recombine in the Void - Space-Time Storms.

'''2404 AD / 118 PA / AU24''' - The NGR warpgate appears. The NGR accepts nonhumans into its military, becoming slightly more accepting of them, and rebuffs the Gargoyle offense, but doesn't quite finish them. The gargoyles in Germany are left divided, waiting for a new leader to rise and unite them against humanity.

'''2406 AD / 120 PA / AU26''' - Present Day

6127/RIFTS: The Garnet Town Gambit Part 3

2018-11-08T08:19:58Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2018/11/07 |Location=RIFTS Earth - Garnet Town |Synopsis=The party returns to Garnet Town with the freed prisoners. The town has a decision to make..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/11/07
|Location=RIFTS Earth - Garnet Town
|Synopsis=The party returns to Garnet Town with the freed prisoners. The town has a decision to make... and one last loose end to wrap up.
|Cast of Characters=42, 6736, 6404, 19
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     A crowd gathers on the other side of the wall as you approach Garnet Town with the rescued hostages. A cheer rings out as they recognize their loved ones, and the rescued townsfolk surge forward with glad cries. In moments, the entire town seems to be celebrating.     Lithari limps forward quickly with tears in her eyes and embraces your group, one by one. "Thank you. Thank you, I don't know what else I can say but... you've done us a great service, one we'll never forget."     Lithari holds up her hands for silence and the crowd slowly quietens down. "It's time we made a decision, as a town, about our future. These good people..." She gestures towards your group, "...have given us a chance to determine our own destiny."     The discussion begins. It is clear people were leaning towards the Federation of Magic, even if Symon was kind of slimy... but as soon as that's brought up, the rescued prisoners (and no doubt the heroes) are quick to point out that Symon was responsible for the kidnappings. Many people are infuriated, but the faces of those who think a little faster fall. They know that means that Free Quebec is their only option.     "But these fine folk have presented us with another option..." Lithari (and no doubt Gideon) describe the potential arrangement with Griffon&Kryuger for the town's defense. Many of them are happy to go along with it just because the heroes saved the town, but even clearer heads can see it's a pretty good arrangement. 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     Ryouma are Oryou, predictably, are together as ever - perhaps Oryou seems a bit clingier than usual - and settle to the side when folks gather, because once the talks get rolling, he expects Gideon will take his rightful place up front and sell people on the deal.     Perhaps the only lingering thing in his mind regarding the matter is whether the Federation should be let off the hook or not. What happened was, by a dozen different measures, pretty unacceptable. But it might be that pursuing due justice would just cause the town harm if the Federation is the type to lash out.     They certainly are the type to kidnap and borderline torture people to gain resources.     Well, one thing at a time. Let's see what the town decides to do next, first. 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     Krys accepts the hugs with a kind of flat, dour, but secretly glad expression. Clover mostly just looks flustered. Gideon looks especially, proud, patting Lithari on the back, and then puffing out his chest with a self-satisfied hm-hmmm~ when she goes back.     When it comes time for the townsfolk to decide, Gideon is quick to make his pitch in more general, layman's terms. Striking up a brisk, professional tone, he begins giving a borderline presentation, using visual props from a handheld holopad to break down the contract on offer, using his well-honed public speaking techniques, especially intentionally appealing to the townsfolk's sense of vulnerability and having been done wrong by the major factions already vying for them.     The deal encompasses an immediate posting of several of G&K's mid-range T-Doll echelons equipped for heavy hunting as a standing defense force of Garnet, provided for on the city's budget, and regularly checked up on and maintained by an engineering team from G&K every three months. This much is easy, since the T-Dolls only require a regular amount of human food and parts and ammo the town can either produce themselves or cheaply order the components for. At the same time, G&K will be dispatching a security consultancy team to assess the town's situational needs and begin training and arming a standing militia from its own citizens, recalling the T-Dolls when said militia reaches a sufficient strength. Obviously, they're also offering good deals on military equipment, static and man-portable, though they aren't obligated to exclusively buy G&K if they prefer a local brand.     The rates for the contract are very low; high enough to be a significant investment, but easily met without anyone going hungry on Garnet's budget, once it's up and running again. The contract involves a 10 year exclusivity deal, where Garnet is signed on to not move to competitors for that time, though it's extremely unlikely they would be able to afford to anyways, or even really want to. G&K charges no tariffs or taxes or takes any kind of sovereignty or stake in political or civil affairs in Garnet. The contract can be renegotiated annually as Garnet's situation develops, whereupon an ideally larger and wealthier independent town would be desirous of purchasing additional services when they feel they need and can afford them. Otherwise, G&K essentially provides a flat guarantee of dealing with any and all hostile elements outside of a serious national declaration of war, and doesn't claim any kind of injury insurance or damage deposit, given that T-Dolls are essentially immortal and cheap to fix up. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     A question hangs in the air among the brighter townsfolk. What does this company get out of this, can they really provide things that cheap? And doubtless that will be discussed in the future, when today's events fade into memory.     But right now...     Was there ever any doubt? The town wholeheartedly approves of the plan -- Lithari's decision is but a formality. Still, as she announces that they will work with the fine folks at Griffon & Kryuger to secure the town's defense, a cheer goes up and the town begins to celebrate! ...until a brilliant light flares up to the Northeast. The townsfolk gasp or cry out in horror.     "It's the nexus point." Lithari says, her face showing an expression of shock. "A Rift is opening!"      

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Dan had sent the surviving merc to his fate. Gil putting him down might have been kinder, given he will be tried and made a very noisy example of to the entire region. He's here today cleaned up and honestly putting down the demons have left him in good spirits. The Federation of magic operative has been exposed too. He was shockingly not being smug about this. Showing a hint of his fairly long experience out in the multiverse at large. "So that's the deal your offering them? Seems your PMC's a pretty big fish in the sector then. Though there is the small matter of the ... Oh hell the Nexus." This comes a few seconds before the light show starts and Dan's already heading for the door. "Make your choice as you will, but I'm a hunter of demons and I think we call all agree on they have to go, oui?" With that he's making for his machine and suiting up there's stuff to hunt as regardless of what he is? He's as headstrong as any Glitterboy Pilot out there. 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     As it becomes clear the pitch has the townsfolk sold, Gideon moves to wrapping it up. Questions about G&K's stake in it are easily assuaged with the matter of the exclusivity contract, and that he believes Garnet is poised to become a major regional hub within the next decade if able to secure its independence, whereupon G&K will be in a prime position to meet all of the town's private security needs as a big name trading town without any competition. It's a profit in the long term thing. Never mind that he'd dropped his rates a good 20% because he likes to impress pretty ladies.     The flare of light and cries of 'nexus point' and 'rift' are less than helpful, but he understands as much that it is bad, and it'll look even worse if he walks out on it after just wrapping up his pitch and overwhelmingly winning the vote. "Looks like we're at it again today girls. Check your weapons and ammo." "I'm fine here." "The same, but I hope nothing really big is waiting for us. I used up most of my grenades." "It was a little overkill I suppose. Oh well, we'll manage."     The helicopter isn't going to come in on such short notice, and it's a bad idea to fly it into a completely unknown hot zone involving a pillar of magical light visible from afar anyways. The group takes it on foot, after Gideon makes a show of casually sauntering off to defend Garnet for the second time in one day in order to look cool. 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     The nexus? A rift?     So like those... Warp Gate things, then?     Everyone is obviously agitated, so it can't be anything good. Ryouma adjusts his hat, and motions for Oryou to go on ahead. She nodnods and flies off, while Ryouma follows after Gideon on-foot.     Oryou won't be going too far ahead, just high and far enough to get a look at what's going on and report back, so the group has a bit more of an advantage going in. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     On foot... although, maybe everyone could hold onto the Glitterboy. It's pretty strong.     Heading towards the distant glow takes the party across the river and to some ruins; what might've once been a few blocks of suburbia three centuries ago are nothing but half-collapsed walls and roofs. Rock walls rise up to either side, the result of the ancient earthquake that hit this area when the rifts came.     Through the ruins, they can see the canyon walls seeming to rise... and between them...     The nexus point lies at a rocky plain in the shadow of a short ridge. The blue-white energies of two ley lines intersect here, the junction almost blindingly bright as a dimensional portal begins to bridge our world with another reality. Sinister looking flames and sinuous shadows can be glimpsed in between the Rift's outer edges. Not far from the opening Rift, Symon the Seer stands in a triumphant pose, his hands glowing with energy linking him to the Riftclearly he is responsible for this phenomenon.     "If I can't have the town, no one will!" He cries out. "Gar'Thul! By the contract between us, I call you now!"     At that moment, a great demon begins to step through the Rift. Sixteen feet tall, clad in pointed black armor, with large horns and cloven-hooved feet and a giant flaming greatsword, and two points of blazing hellfire glowing behind the eyeslit of its helm. 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Maya says "It's likely a massive thing with tentaceles which have fangs that drip acid which will do horrible things to your soul." He does not sound like he's joking either he sounds like he's being dead serious to the T-doll." He's in the glitterboy now and is making for the Nexus. The mage is ranting, oh lord he's ranting, Dan deploys rapidly, the boom gun swings into place. He levels it he doe snot say a thing and pulls the trigger not targeting the demon but the mage. After all, he might call in more, at the very least it should make them keep their head down as a boomgun shot is fired right for him. "Can it." << Keep the Demon contained but take out the mage before he brings in anything else he's pacted.>> Dan's supernatural evil senses are going /crazy/ right now too. 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     Oh, a giant demon.     No, more importantly, that's Symon.     "Ah, I suppose that takes care of my lingering concern," Ryouma muses out loud. Indeed if they send him home with a few bruises, he should learn his lesson and leave this place alone. That's how that works, right?     The demon might make that problematic.     "You think he's pacted with more than one giant demon?" Ryouma asks Dan, because that seems like useful info to have.     "Oryou doesn't care how many he brings, she'll just have to kill all of them," Ryouma's partner notes. He shakes his head.     "One step at a time, Oryou. We should--" Ryouma is stopped by Oryou placing a finger on his mouth.     "Oryou is tired of doing things Ryouma's way. Ryouma should do things Oryou's way every once in a while too," she says.     "Ah... of course, you're right. Go ahead, Oryou," Ryouma says, beaming his best smile. Oryou blushes.     "R-Right, well, Oryou didn't mean... that it had to be right now," she says, fidgeting.     "No, no. Go ahead Oryou. Please stop that man from summoning more things," Ryouma says, reaching for his revolver.     Oryou nods, takes back to the skies... and then beelines towards Symon like a comet. A flaming, woman-shaped comet in a school uniform with entirely too much hair, but a comet, surely. 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     Gideon looks up, and up, and up at the demon. His face is an expressionless mask, for it can't afford to be anything else. This is absolutely not what he signed on for, and yet what he'd signed on the dotted line for just now. He finds himself thoroughly wishing he'd brought a full dummy linked echelon for this. "Looks like you were a few points off." he says to Dan, taking several slow steps backwards. "But close enough." he says, deciding he'd rather not be jauntily close to this one. Two T-Dolls aren't going to be enough to bodyguard him like this, and Krys is already checking to make sure he's out of the way.     "I don't believe it . . ." "I guess that just proves what we assumed: you can't trust anyone aggressively pushing an allegiance, especially not here." "You think we can do this?" "Does it matter? We have to try either way. We're T-Dolls. This is our purpose. We can't leave humans to do it on their own." "True, but-"     The shooting has already started. This time Gideon has to get behind some old urban wreckage and pull out his range earmuffs to try and deal with the obnoxious sonic blast of the Glitterboy's Boom Gun. Krys and Clover break on milliseconds of reaction time, splitting up and booking it to their own position. Krys guns as she runs, keeping an eerily perfect level strafe as she goes, the gun axis of her upper body smoothly adjusting with the level and bounce of terrain and vigorous motion so that her SMG is practically a laser, stitching forty, eighty, one hundred and twenty rounds across the demon's armour with armour-piercing overpressured rounds, accurately probing for weaknesses. Clover hops several old fire escapes and crumbling stairs to a high vantage point, popping her scope cap, taking a knee, bracing, and dropping multiple three round bursts of heavy explosive rounds straight through the demon's visor slit, aiming to blind him with aimbot-grade sharpshooting. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Everyone knows that if you see a wizard standing around monologuing, it means he's got a forcefield up. The usual solution to this problem is to wait for an opening.     But there's another solution:     More dakka.     Deprived of the brodkil and Strickland's mech to take hits for him, Symon's defensive spells are all on their own. The one-two punch of the Boom Gun and a magic comet girl break through it, Oryou tackling him to the ground albeit with a fraction of the intended force.     He doesn't beg for mercy -- instead, he shouts, "Gar'thul! Protect me!" and starts casting a spell.     The demon's got troubles of its own, though. With the interruption, the rift is starting to shrink around it. The T-Dolls' weapons... their careful attack patterns find weaknesses in the armor, but with their computerized eyes they can see how the flesh underneath isn't nearly as hurt as it should be by the impacts. Worse, it immediately starts healing!     Still, after seeing his shifter buddy get nearly pounded flat in seconds, Gar'Thul is thinking that maybe this ISN'T the place and time to go on a rampage across the mortal realm. With a roar more of annoyance than challenge, it swings that flaming sword at Oryou, trying to knock her away so it can grab Symon and pull him back to hell through the rift. 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' <<Always assume the worst when fighting mages, magic retuends fo this world and allowed the demon plagues to hit it.>> Well Symon and the demon would find Dan openin fire and so far taking most of the shots that might come his way honestly. That power suit of his is quite sturdy. Now with the demon turning it's attention to it's pacting mage? He will lay down fire on it as that makes more sense. If anything major is going to happen it's going to be up to the others to pull it off though he is laying down some serious fire at the demon. Which also happen to be U-rounds... 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     "Minimal damage." "Ugh, it's even sturdier than the ones before! Even its eyes!" "Cease full firepower maneuvers. Conserve ammunition. We don't know we have the portable firepower to be dealing with this." Gideon orders, before switching over. "So, you wouldn't happen to have any of those U-round things on hand?" Gideon asks Dan, over the radio since he wouldn't be heard out loud, but in a way that indicates he is grimly not expecting a yes.     "So what exactly are we supposed to do? Do we run now?" "Forget that! I'm not leaving those people behind!" Clover exclaims. Reaching to the back of her tactical harness, she unsnaps one of those things that always seems to work no matter how high the power levels escalate: a flashbang grenade. With an Olympic pitch from her high position, she hurls it straight into Gar'Thul's face, easily able to nail the same helmet slot she had with her bullets; even in the case it's too narrow for a cylindrical grenade to go through, it'd still be obnoxiously close, flashing straight in his eyes and banging mostly internally into a metallic, full-head helmet. Seeing the flaming sword, Krys mutters "Probably not all that concerned about fire if it's something really from hell.", her hand hovering back and away from her remaining incendiaries.     "Swap over to Symon." Gideon suddenly commands. "We have heavier hitters for the target I'm now classifying as mechanized. Consider it a tank, screening for armoured infantry behind. It can keep the others at bay, but it's not going to be able to leap in front of bullets all that quickly. Flank from two sides, so he can't stand there and bodyblock. Drop bombs for good measure."     Both T-Dolls pause only for a moment before flashing their confirmation signals. Krys continues sprinting, leaping up the ridge in a few deft bounds, getting directly behind Symon and Gar-Thul. Clover takes a running jump off her chosen decaying rooftop, hopping buildings until she can get four o'clock to Krys's twelve. From there, Krys begins laying down a thick curtain of suppressive fire, pounding Symon's barrier with literal pounds of more standard lead cores, wearing away at it with brute force and rattling the guy inside with hundreds of blunt impacts. Clover sights on him from the opposite side and loads the deadlier, piercing ammo, firing at his head with punchier, high velocity shots. When he looks her way, a second flashbang comes down, clinking straight to his feet. The second he's distracted by just about anything, Krys firebombs him from behind. 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     A giant flaming sword comes down for Oryou. She lets go of Symon to focus all of her efforts on the demon. The blade stops between her hands, the woman putting all of her strength into holding it in place.     Even as it burns her hands, she doesn't budge - and more importantly, she won't let Gar'thul budge, either. Her hair lashes out like bindings made of shadows, seeking to sap magical energy, root in place, and generally weaken, all the while her hands remain occupied with that massive blade so that it doesn't go anywhere, either.     "Oryou will keep him occupied," she tells Gideon, his Dolls, and Dan. "Get the annoying pest."     Ryouma, of course, doesn't let his wife do ALL the work. A magically charged shot from his revolver seeks to peg the demon in the eye, to make his life harder when it comes to dealing with the dragon in human trappings. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     A lot of things happen. Oryou CATCHES the giant sword. The demon's surprise is hard to read through its helm, and it starts trying to force her away... and then a whole lot of things happen.     Ryouma's shot hits it in the eye, and actually hurts it like you'd /expect/ a bullet to. Is magic the answer?     Dan blasts it with depleted uranium flechettes. They don't damage it as much as a boom gun should, but the wounds don't immediately regenerate.     The T-Dolls get a flash grenade into its face and turn their weapons on its contractor.     Blinded and actually hurt, Gar'thul roars in pain! Halfway between worlds, instead of stepping fully out onto Earth, it tries to withdraw to whatever hell it's come from. Faced with Oryou's strength, it even lets go of the sword, just trying to get away rather than stay so the mortals can wear it down and finish it off.     Symon doesn't even get that chance to escape, the demon unable to even see him to grab him. The teleportation spell is interrupted by bullets, and he can't make a concentration check with his brains splattered all over the ground courtesy of Clover.     If Oryou's hair holds him in place enough, the closing rift cuts off Gar'thul's arm and leg. Less debilitating than it sounds, for a regenerator. Otherwise, the demon pulls back into the rift and lets it close.     All is still again. And Oryou got a giant flaming sword!     Symon won't be troubling any more towns. 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     Gideon whistles as Oryou actually wrestles the giant demon to a standstill. Even if he is only partially summoned, it's an impressive feat, and especially for a waifu of that size. Clover and Krys take care of business exactly like he'd expect with Symon, and he steps out of cover with a satisfied dusting off of his hands, as if the job of tactical command were somehow manual labour. "Excellent work ladies!" he says, generally, pretty cavalier about having just indirectly put a bunch of HV rounds through a guy's skull.     An eye to the giant flaming sword. "Do you have any plans for that thing? We could probably cart it back to Garnet and see if they can sell it or use it for some magic voodo or what have you, but I can't accurately tell what it's worth. At the very least, it'll make an impressive trophy, and inspire further consumer confidence in our services." When the T-Dolls start coming back, Gideon takes a deep breath, and then actually turns to shake Ryouma's hand, thanking him for his cooperation, though he's more glowing with the praise on Oryou, and then Krys and Clover. Dan just kinda gets an acknowledging salute and one of those dude nods. 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Maya looks at Oryou and grunts a bit. "Whelp that will slow it down for a bit." SHe looks to the sword for a moment. "Make sure it's not cursed but I'd personally dispose of it." He'd being tactful for someone form his nation he also pauses for a moment. "Given the town has made it's choice I'll have my men withdraw shortly. One other thing Mr. Kaspar? I suggest you find a copy of some ot the local advanturing sorts monster hunting manuals. Anything from old myths tends to be real here." 
}}

6149/A Meeting With Mercy

2018-11-05T23:12:35Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2018/11/05 |Location=SSC Stranger Than Fiction |Synopsis=Mercy talks to Staren about immortality and those who seek to share it with others. |Cast..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/11/05
|Location=SSC Stranger Than Fiction
|Synopsis=Mercy talks to Staren about immortality and those who seek to share it with others.
|Cast of Characters=42, 1159
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Once Mercy confirms she's ready to beam up, there's a sensation of moving very fast and then-- Hub - SSC Stranger than Fiction (Location #0) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------     The walls, floor, and ceiling of the Stranger than Fiction's lower deck are covered with a facade that makes the structure look as if it are constructed of large stone bricks. The 'hub' room is about 25x15' across and about 7 1/3 feet tall. The teleporter pad is in the fore-starboard corner, the doorway to the lab is in the center of the fore wall, and the doorway to manufacturing is in the center of the aft wall. A spiral staircase to storage and the residential deck is in the aft-port corner. Through thick transparisteel windows, you can see space outside. Large storage cupboards are against the walls here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------     Staren is standing with his back against some of the lockers, hands folded behind his back. When Mercy appears on the teleport pad, he smiles and extends a hand, "Welcome! So, what is it you wanted to talk about? Did you want to, ah, see the facilities" he gestures towards one door "or talk over tea or something?" he gestures towards the stairs. 

:'''{{#var:1159|Mercy (1159)}} has posed:''' Mercy is all down for fast transportation. She'd love to stop flying on airplanes, you know. Once she gets to a safe enough spot, she waits and then-- well, that's not home. She checks for ruby slippers, before looking up at Staren and grinning at him.      "Good afternoon, Staren. I'm sorry we didn't get to chat much last night, but - I would absolutely love to see some of the technology, especially the medical stuff you have access too. I haven't really- heard of a lot of people that do have that resurrection capability, so..."      Mercy is wearing a labcoat again, but this one's open, revealing the charcoal slacks and white blouse under it. Still the nametag - same hospital designation as the one from before.      "How are you doing?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "I'm alright! I mean, it's always nice to see someone take an interest in this stuff. Far too many think death is necessary, or what gives life meaning, or they don't believe that /aging/ can be stopped and imagine being a sessile, shrunken and wrinkly bag of bones after a couple of centuries. Or they're worried their friends will die before them, as if we wouldn't happily give immortality to /everyone/... well, you've heard it all before, right?"     Staren leads her forward into the next room. 1. Science Lab This large room is a curious juxtoposition -- high-tech lighting and computers, with furnishings that look fresh from the middle ages. In addition to various tools for physical measurement and chemical analysis, computers and access ports here allow one to make use of the erchius particle accelerator built into the ship. Equipment from transhuman space is close to the door along the port wall, including a photocopier-sized nanofabber, a healing vat, an ego bridge, and a couple of synths hidden inside storage lockers. Stairs heading upward and aftward are against the starboard wall, allowing access both to an upper level of the laboratory and to the living area. The lab is approximately 40x15', with the partial second floor about 7 1/3' up.     Staren stops by a device fairly close to the door, a stand holding an oblong, person-sized pod in it with some kind of sensor ring that can move along the top part of the pod. "So, just to be clear from the start... I didn't invent any of this. I found a world where people were eager to share knowledge, and accepted it. And the key to using it for resurrection is scanning the brain and digitizing the mind, then writing it back into an organic brain or a robot body or what have you. For aging... well, obviously, robot bodies won't age, but even for organics, regular treatments with nanotechnology" he raps his knuckles on the person-sized tube next to other device, "will keep the body in its physical prime. The genetically engineered bodies they use on that world may not age past maturity, I'm not sure -- since they had this technology, I don't think anyone there has been away from a healing vat or bodyswapping long enough to really put it to the test, but I understand that they can even regenerate limbs, slowly."     Staren looks from the tube to Mercy and scratches the back of his head. "So, uh... that's the big stuff, I guess. I didn't make it but I want to share it." 

:'''{{#var:1159|Mercy (1159)}} has posed:'''      "Death isn't fair to the children that I see in the pediatric ward, nor is it fair to the people who find themselves with a curse of their own bodies creating things they can't work against." Mercy says, soberly. "I'm in my late thirties-" Which is odd, since she looks like she's early twenties at the best- "And I've been doing medical work since I was a teen. It's not... it's not that we're trying to stop them, or..."      Mercy grasps for the words.      "It's not that we're trying to stop the cycle, we're just trying to do the best we can. There are people I know that don't want the immortality; but they do want to live healthy lives. Who am I to disagree with what they believe?"      Mercy follows Staren into the next room, whistling faintly at the supplies and the tubes. She places her hand on one, leaning in faintly to peer at the tube itself. "I don't have stuff like this. I have... nanotechnology, yes. It's very, very, specialized nanotechnology, and only myself and a couple of others-" She frowns- "Know how to utilize it. I'm trying my best to do what I can.... for everyone." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     It's not that odd. In a few more years, people may start to notice the same age discrepancy in Staren.     Staren listens, his ears turning to follow Mercy, nodding at the end of her speech. "Of course... if after living for, say, eighty, ninety, a hundred healthy years, they never get around to deciding 'Okay, I've had enough, I want to die now', well..." He shrugs.     Then sighs and holds a hand to the side of his head. "Geeze, I make it sound almost sinister. But if we give them lives worth living, why wouldn't they want to keep living them? Still, it's ultimately their choice, as you say."     Staren begins to pace. "Two things prevent me from just spreading these all over the Multiverse right away... One, that the technology can be misused /terribly/ -- trapping a digitized mind in simulated torture forever is just the tip of the iceberg -- and two, society has some problems accepting it yet."     He's frowning at those thoughts, staring off into the distance, but then he smiles and looks at her again, scratching the back of his head. "So, what did you want to talk about?" 

:'''{{#var:1159|Mercy (1159)}} has posed:'''      Mercy shakes her head. "It's ... religious things, sometimes. Those that believe in reincarnation, and the like - they don't want the immortality, because it ... stops the cycle, so to say. Most of the time, though, those that we can't fix, because they're so far gone into the pain their bodies gave them... that's what hurts."      Angela tilts her head as he mentions trapping a mind. "I- Tomoe had mentioned something about that. A-- death game? How often do things like that, occur in this ... multiverse? How long do we have until someone uses this technology like this?"      "How many people don't trust you, due to the tech you have on hands?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods. "I suppose it would stop the cycle in places like Creation. But if a soul goes to a new person with no memories or anything of the person it was before, how's it any different in practice from regular death and birth? And then there's afterlives. I guess then it depends on how attached you are to the world. If you're, like, a hermit who doesn't want to interact with anyone still in the living world, hey, why not?"     Staren starts pacing again. "How often? Hmm... one, two, three... to six I guess, depending on how and what you count, over the past dozen years. Maybe seven with the current state of their world? It's... weird. There's a school on Afterus for people who expect to be in death games one day, but that's got some kind of... time loop prophecy thing going on. I've met some of the students. One was smart enough to accept my help and my tools. She'll make an excellent leader to her group if she ever /does/ get trapped in a death game."     "How long do we have until this is misused? I mean... it must've, already, on the world it came from. There organized crime does things like intercept transmissions of people across the solar system and put copies to work as slaves while the original is none the wiser. And if a truly /competant/ villain put this to use on a world somewhere, news wouldn't /get out/, would it?"     Staren stops and taps his chin thoughtfully. "How many distrust me specifically due to this? Maybe one thinks it sounds too creepy? I mean, I'm sure there's conspiracy theorists out there who think all kinds of things, but I can't worry about the opinions of every single person in the Multiverse. They aren't getting out there /doing/ things, are they?"     Staren shakes his head. "No, most distrust of me is less about the specific technology and more about the whole... manner. Looking to repurpose technology or magic that was used for evil for good ends. Not caring if it 'sounds shady'. And of course, the general idealogical differences the Concord has with others -- I'd rather not let the law hold us back from making lives better, and I'm not eager to tear down mostly-functioning systems with some problems to save some people if it will only hurt others." 

:'''{{#var:1159|Mercy (1159)}} has posed:'''      Mercy watches Staren pace around. The blonde's face is tired but thoughtful. She finally takes a seat on the ground next to the tank, her gaze focusing on the tank itself rather than him. At his last comments about the law, she laughs, a little.      "Aye, I operate outside of the law as 'Mercy'. Angela Zeigler has a perfectly reasonable lawful job at a Swiss hospital." The former Overwatch agent remarks, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I know, I know- a doctor Paladin, who breaks the law. Funny, isn't it?"      "I had meant more distrust in general, but... yes, you've confirmed it's basically the same as to what I, Ana.... Moira-" Angela practically spits the last name- "Get when we use our nanotechnology. It's not pretty, bringing someone back to life, but do it we do, and without regard to what others think." Mercy tilts her head back.      "Damn." She finally says, after a moment of silence from her. "This many worlds and we're still stuck on the basics." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren briefly gestures to the chairs a little forwards in the lab.     "It's not that weird. The Paladins know some laws are no good, and your world's got robot racism something fierce, albeit not entirely unjustified." There's a brief flash of concern over his face as she mentions Overwatch. Crud. The Concord's ended up backing Talon in that fight, so far.     Staren sighs, and clasps his hands behind his back. "Well... I guess that's human nature. On many worlds death's been inevitable for a million years. Possibly many million. People are going to be slow to accept that can change and we're not just selling snake oil. Plus, accepting us would mean accepting that a whole bunch of people -- more every day -- died for no reason. Human nature. But..."     Staren smiles as he starts pacing again. "There's some good news! One, the Concord's viability as a faction demonstrates that powerful people are beginning to recognize, if not immortality tech specifically, that we can make progress seeking out technology and magic that 'looks shady' and putting it to our own ends. And two, I've got a plan..."     Staren stops, then paces more rapidly. "I build a robot dragon. Fearsome, but not actually TOO tough or deadly. Spread the word on some world, that a dragon's got the secret to eternal life. Heroes will come to slay it, and when they do, in its 'lair' they'll find machines with instructions, to help them gather the dead and terminally ill and digitize their minds, bringing them back to a massive server. An afterlife, and one that they can use VR to communicate with any time. And see, it won't be so suspicious when it's hard-earned and not free -- they had to slay a dragon, after all!"     "As the world's technology advances, and they get used to digital heaven being a thing, 'dead' people still being around and being part of life more and more as technology advances, one day it won't seem too strange to just, not die in the first place, and to let the dead in heaven out in robot bodies or clones or whatever. When they want. People can then go in and out freely, of course..."     Staren stops and smiles at her for a moment, then his expression falls a bit. "Of course, we're talking a frustratingly long timeframe -- WE may be immortal, but so many more will die while the experiment is being carried out -- and on top of that, there's still all sorts of implementation questions. How to govern digital heaven, for one, to make sure that noone can take control and turn it into hell, nor that an exiled criminal can track down the server and blow it up. And of course, there's the ethical issues of doing this. I've been dragging my feet, hoping answers would become clear to these things, but so far, no..."     He stops and hangs his head, then looks at her. "What do you think?" 

:'''{{#var:1159|Mercy (1159)}} has posed:'''      "It's still weird."      Mercy looks at the chairs, back at Staren, shrugs. She seems to find something fascinating with the tank and seems disinclined to move from where she's at, even as she leans back, palms on the ground. She watches him thoughtfully give out his plan, one eyebrow lifting when he says 'build a robot dragon', then the second one joins the other at the use of virtual reality. Both eyebrows stay up at least until he asks his question.      "Medicine is a funny thing. Here, take this herb. Drink this oil. We're going to look at your bones with this machine. Here, take this combinations of herbs and oils. Science is doing it's best to try to get us out of the old ages, but nanotech is still a new thing on my world, much less many others that probably are much less... technologically inclined than mine; or yours."      See: Ponyville.      "It could work. But why would people trust whatever the dragon left behind? How many dragons would it take to spread the technology across the world? One dragon in one place means even slower spreading, not to mention how many worlds there are in the multiverse. One world will take-- centuries. Multiple.."      Mercy shakes her head. "It's a start, but it's not strong enough." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Medicine is a funny thing. "Before I got ahold of this technology and didn't need to see doctors anymore, I trusted them. I mean I still do, I just haven't-- I mean it doesn't matter anymore. Yeah, maybe the workings of how you're healing me are a little strange and esoteric, but I talk about how a robot works and it's the same. If we can't trust anyone to know their stuff..." Staren shrugs. "But, again, human nature works against us. Some people don't trust what they personally don't understand, and you'd think attrition would fix that, but if people couldn't survive and multiply without doctors there wouldn't have been any to become doctors in the first place."     Staren nods at her assessment. "They'll trust it because they're greedy and hopeful. When you get a magic sword from a dragon hoard, most people go cool, I'm using this now, not taking it to a series of wizards to check it for curses and to check for /hidden/ curses that are designed to be easy to miss. Other than that, I agree entirely. I hope that a better plan will come soon. On the other hand, the longer I wait to start this because I'm hoping for something better... What if it never does?" he shrugs.     "Do you have any ideas?" 

:'''{{#var:1159|Mercy (1159)}} has posed:'''      "Yeah, and most people do trust doctors. Most." Mercy says, biting her bottom lip. "Nature is a funny thing for humans: Most people are generally trustworthy, at least until someone or something does something to wrong them or warp their own perceptions. Some people don't trust stuff they get, and others are 'hey I never get sick why do I need to see a doctor' kind of tough-guy brainset. It's... we've been working on conception for millenia, more than likely."      "I don't... I don't know. I never thought about those outside of who I could get too on my world, and to be frank, I'm not -- I'm not sure anything I could do on my world would help, since the omnics are making anything robotic hard to trust in the view of the people. Technology is tricky that way..."      "... but let me help you, in any way I can, for this is something across factions." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "We've been working on conception since before we had intelligence," Staren observes dryly. "That's why people who don't trust doctors manage to exist in the first place."     Staren tilts his head. "The Omnics are? I thought it was whoever was behind them, using them. Possibly multiple whoevers, since I understand there have been three different attack patterns?"     Staren nods, and smiles. "Of course! I'll keep you in mind, and you keep me in mind, and we'll see if we can help eachother. Do you have any particular ideas about how to help? Also, you should talk to Kotone Yamakawa about joining Daedalus, it's our little... cross-factional organization for... Perhaps not spreading immortality and resurrection specifically, but this mindset of getting help and information to people regardless of factions and other ideals, without profit."     He scratches his head. "Ah, it hasn't really been that active lately, but you never know, maybe one day it'll pick up. Plus, we've got interest in a planetary colony and a moonbase! So, you can check those out." 

:'''{{#var:1159|Mercy (1159)}} has posed:'''      "It's not that the Omnics themselves are bad-" Mercy hastens to explain- "But after having technology fix itself and create things for war, even though now there are peaceable Omnics who wish for harmony between Omnic and Human - needless to say things are a little bit strained on my world. The war is-- the war is a bad thing. No one knows quite who or what or anything is in regards to them. It's not really..."      She struggles for words. "The lack of information is frightening."      A inhale, then a slow exhale. "Kotone Yamakawa - yes, I heard that name before, she's a fellow Paladin. I'll reach out to her." Mercy pushes herself back to her feet, glancing at her watch. "I thank you for the show of technology and the talk, Staren - it's nice to speak to people about these things. I need to get back to work, however."      She chuckles. "Breaks never long enough on twelve hour shifts." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods. "You're welcome to talk any time! And you know..." He tilts his head towards the devices against the wall, "A break can be longer in time-accelerated simulspace. It takes 10 minutes to scan your brain and an hour to put you back into it, though. I, uh, I'm not saying come here, I mean, I can have the gear made for you so you can keep it at home, if you want." 

:'''{{#var:1159|Mercy (1159)}} has posed:'''      "Oh, please forward me that information and gear- I'd appreciate it. Might mean I'll drink less coffee." Mercy's tone is so very wry. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Will do!" Staren smiles. "It was nice talking to you, Dr. Ziegler!"     After a moment, he realizes she doesn't know how to work the teleporter and moves to help her beam back down. 
}}

6116/RIFTS: The Garnet Town Gambit (Part 2)

2018-10-25T04:40:00Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2018/10/24 |Location=RIFTS Earth - Garnet Town |Synopsis=Having tracked down the brodkil camp, our heroes slay the demons, save the prisoners, enco..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/10/24
|Location=RIFTS Earth - Garnet Town
|Synopsis=Having tracked down the brodkil camp, our heroes slay the demons, save the prisoners, encounter a human collaborator, and learn who was truly behind the attacks.
|Cast of Characters=42, 19, 6666, 6736, 1099, 6386, 6404
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The party is off! Dan's glitterboy power armor and Kupot's motorcycle can follow along under the chopper, once he's retrieved it.     Heading east, the river bends to run north-south, and following it south for a bit, the party comes to a place on the river where there's more of those 'rewilded farmland' clearings on each side. The clearing to the east side is bordered by a cliff of a couple dozen feet or so, where an earthquake hit the area 300 years ago. A couple dozen tents are clustered on the east end of the clearing, and there's a campfire with a handful of brodkil gathered around it. They are cybernetically enhanced, most with at least one extra arm. One of them has two! Enhanced optical sensors can pick up that in the side of the cliff there's a cave, with a wooden grating on it. And people on the other side. Hmm.     The power signature is in the river. It... it couldn't actually be a nuclear river sub, right?     When the brodkil realize an actual honest to god /helicopter/ is here, they know something weird is going on -- barely anyone uses helicopters anymore -- and weirdness means adventurers, and adventurers mean trouble! They start mobilizing, scrambling from around the fire and in their tents to grab weapons. Brodkil: http://riftsimcn.weebly.com/uploads/5/6/8/7/56872659/brodkil2.jpg     And when a freaking /glitterboy/ comes through the trees, the source of the power reading finally reveals itself: A dark shape surfaces in the water, and then starts to walk onto the shore. A giant robot, 30' tall and painted black, with obvious missile racks on its shoulders and a belly energy turret. The robot looks like it is a mercenary vehicle, with several battle scars and old, weathered insignia. A stylized capital "S" has been marked on the right leg. Dan is going to have his hands full. Forager battlebot: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8d/49/f9/8d49f978ce7c287567c48b9ed6249eb1.jpg 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Before they headed out? Dan would hand out hearing protection either high-end earplugs or something else to any of his allies of the day that would take them. If they didn't well that was on them, Dan had climbed into hulking silver powered armour with a massive gun on the back and clearly a stabilization system to use it. Curiously on the side of the weapon was painted the english word Longshot, Father back one might notice faded letters that read NEMA. He's also been singing a song about plucking the feathers of a very chipper sparrow too, all of which in French but hey the multiverse so you can understand it. That was before they got ready for the ambush though and he comes crashing out of the trees, he brings up his right arm and fires some sort of light ion weapon in it causing a sizzling crackling bolt of energy to go flying at the enemy machine. "THIS PLANET IS MANKIND's, DEMON! BACK TO THE HELL THAT SPAWNED YOU ALL!." He's not using the big gun just yet as his machine gets on the move. There is a conviction in his voice. He's been at this a long time from the sounds of it. <<I'll keep the Mecha busy, you put those demons in the ground.>> 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' One does not mistake the guttural growl of the Slepnir for engine trouble. The deep rumbling growl rolls into a throaty roar as the motorcycle thunders along through the wasteland towards the clearing and the river. Kupot's optics zero onto the cave on the cliff. The massive motorcycle takes the long way around the clearing, only for the bike to tilt and skid a full 180 across the final stretch to come to rest in front of the cave. The moogle street sam nimbly slides off the motorcycle and onto the ground, looking at the wooden grating. He has not drawn either weapon or made a threatening motion towards the machine or brodkil. It is their impetus and theirs alone to die. 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     Demons and a giant robot. Hoorah.     Ryouma looks down from the helicopter he hitched a ride on, and Oryou finishes chewing on the frog she'd been eating the entire time. She glances up when Ryouma laughs nervously.     "That's more than I expected," he says.     "It looks like scrap," Oryou notes.     "Well, it could be trouble, even so," Ryouma answers.     "Should Oryou go handle it?" she asks.     "No, no. Let it draw all the attention, we have to rescue the prisoners. Ah, speaking of that... can you draw THAT attention?" Ryouma asks of his partner.     Oryou nodnods, and hops out of the chopper.     There's an intentional CRASH as Oryou slams into the ground in the center of the brodkils' camp. This young woman in a black school uniform looks entirely too bored for someone who just did a pseudo-superhero landing.     She makes up for it by pulling a fist back and delivering a punch to the nearest demon. No pulled punches here. The ground cracks under her feet from the pressure alone.     "Oryou hopes you all ate well, because she's going to eat you all now," she says. 

:'''{{#var:1099|Gilgamesh (1099)}} has posed:'''      The King of Heroes goes where he pleases.      Things like 'sovereign boundaries' or 'world allegiances' or 'common sense' don't apply to Gilgamesh. He is as strong as a star from Heaven, a primordial being from an age when such things didn't exist, when the common sense of mankind was strong and vibrant and the human race was small and mighty, when even killing a slave for no reason was a foolish act. And though he laments openly the world as it has become, the broken world full of too many people, too many machines, and too much suffering, he still finds some joy in wandering and exploring, some pleasure in adventure. For adventure is a vice he has always held, and likely always will.      Plus, it gets him out of the office, and gives his mortal advisors a chance to figure out how to best do damage control on their rambunctious and hysterically dangerous King.      At the moment, he's been wandering around in this strange place. There is a familiarity to its patchwork, a feeling not unlike the Age of the Gods, when the mythical realms touched the mortal. There is a pulse to it not unlike that age, where mana flowed freely and power was easy to come by.      So he's been wandering, following one of those ley lines out of distinct curiosity. The King goes where he pleases, after all. He's been walking it along the river, occasionally casting a glance up at the sky, but otherwise generally keeping his presence at a down-low not because he feels like he has to but because he hasn't particularly needed to do anything. He's literally just following the ley lines, playing with a cell phone, and waiting for something to happen.      And then something happens. The King stumbles into the middle of the camp. The brodkil mobilize. The mech comes pouring out of the water, rising like a monster. This is a conflict.      The King laughs, and tosses his phone over his shoulder, and steps forward, walking casually through the arming camp like he doesn't even give a shit. "Splendid!" The King holds out his arms, "I had expected some minor entertainment on my walk! How pleasant that even here, the world knows its sovereign's will! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"      Gilgamesh strides right past the mobilizing soldiers and stops on the edge of the water. There's a glint in his eye as he watches the thing rise, a glint of recognition.      "Ha, so it's one of these toys, is it." The Glitterboy runs forward to meet the mech, and the King steps slightly to the side as they collide. "I think I have one of these as well!" 

:'''{{#var:1099|Gilgamesh (1099)}} has posed:'''      The King of Heroes raises his hand, an imperious sneer on his lips. "Your King has decided to grace you with this pleasure! Look upon it, mongrels, and bow down!"      He snaps his fingers.      A massive golden ripple opens beneath him. The King starts laughing as an enormous grey hand lifts him from within the Gate. A gold-crowned machine, vast, grey, red, and round, with a gold belt and gold studs, rises from the ripple. The King stands upon its hand, laughing wildly, his red eyes looking down at the world with that deep disdain. The machine rises to a full thirty feet, bulky and heavy-looking, pushing aside trees as it makes room for itself. Finally, as the King's hand goes to his head, his laughter redoubled, the machine opens its face, and deposits him within it.      Gilgamesh lands. He's no longer wearing his coat and sweater. As he lands in the cockpit, he's wearing what might as well be gold spandex, with a red belt, red scarf, red goggles, and red lines. His arms uncross, and he raises a finger.      "WAKE UP!"      The finger slams against the button, and the machine lets out a mighty roar and charges forward towards the mech, swinging ancient Babylonian fists with all force for the face.      "This looks like fun!" He calls over the loudspeaker, "I think I'll play with you for a while, mongrels! Be amazed! Be in awe! And be thankful! The one who will kill you is me, the King of Heroes!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     There are people behind the grating. Mostly humans, but a few elves -- or whatever Von and Lithani are -- and dwarves. Most of them move back away from the grating in alarm, but then an elderly dwarf shuffles up to look out at Kupot with piercing eyes. "Are you here to help us?" And then he looks alarmed. "Behind you!"     The four-armed brodkil, larger than the others, is using his four arms to hold two guns. One looks like some kind of energy rifle, and the other... is a boxy affair that he's having to steady as it seems to charge for a split second and then release a superheated fireball that tends to engulf and burn whatever poor unfortunate it hits right at Kupot! "Fresh meat!" The creature shouts. The dwarf hits the deck and the prisoners dive out of the way for fear in case the shot goes into the cave! 

:'''{{#var:6386|Note (6386)}} has posed:'''     Much earlier, a certain girl had wanted to reply to this Syndicate posting by Garnet Town. And she'd done done her very best! Flew from a warp gate that was a few hundred miles from the location!     ... And then the skies turned bluish, her sense of direction was totally jolted, and she found herself over the open ocean in the middle of a storm.     It's been a WILD RIDE since then.     And so as the party approaches the Brodkil base...     "... aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Note is flying in like a humanoid rocket, her face twisted in the kind of frustration that no girl should EVER have to deal with. The face that suggests there's going to be HELL TO PAY.     But then she spots a campfire down below and a bunch of people (Brodkil or not) down below and does the first thing that comes natural to her.     She swoops down at the far edge of camp and SLAM-lands with a big eruption of dirt - none of which falls on her, given the swirling Ki aura.     When it settles down, the youth raises her arms and shouts at the top of her lungs, "I have FLOWN ACROSS THE WORLD THREE TIMES AND MISSED WHERE I'M GOING! I'm looking for Garnet Town! Do you guys know where it is?!"     This happens... just about as the camp breaks into all kinds of turmoil and the inhabitants start going for weapons. Huh, there's a noisy helicopter overhead, isn't there?     Note decides to look up at it. Her tail strikes at the air a few times as if showing her agitation at the situation. 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' Kupot nods the ancient dwarf ma...wo....person. "Kupo." He says in the simplest affirmation. The moogle can see it long before the alarm is shouted. The surprise and fear in the dwarf's face is enough to get Kupot to rapidly turn around. But no weapon is drawn yet. He has no trouble with these thugs. He is not particularly worried. "Stop." It responds with a fireball. Balls. There are many things in this world the moogle can slash out of the air. Flamethrowers are not one of them. He twists to stand in front of the cave, dead center, and with a silver sheen and the sound of cutting air, the sword flicks out in front of him, darting in a quick circle. Then again. Then again. The vacuum draws the fireball out of the air, preventing it from moving PAST Kupot, and instead, moving fully into Kupot. The flames engulf him entirely briefly. When they past, his fur has burned black on one side of his face. His straw hat is half consumed. And his jacket has a large burn on the front. Kupot sticks the sword tip first into the ground, taking a moment to remove his jacket and the hat, revealing the sleeveless shirt and black pants underneath. His hand grips the sword again and wrests it free, pointing the chisel point at the beast. "If your soul returns to your master, kupo. Tell it I am coming." Then he bursts off the ground in a forceful jump, rocketing towards the four armed brodkill with a single cross slash that comes with its own sonic boom. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     A voice comes back over the radio. <"Demon? Geeze, is that really how glitterboys talk? Cool your jets, man, I'm just here for a paycheck. That'll make a nice salvage bonus, though!"> The ion gun's impact is visible as a patch of paint is stripped clean off and the metal looks like something started to eat it away. The covers on the forager's missile racks flip open -- this one's been refitted for minimissiles for close-range engagements -- and lets loose with a salvo of them at Dan's machine. They don't home like Staren's, though, flying in a straight line and exploding just short of the distance to Dan's mech into lances of weaponized physics!     And then GREAT KING BURIKI DAIOH RISES OUT OF THE GROUND. <"What the hell?!"> The pilot can feel that something is wrong here. He frantically tries to dodge, but the forager is more of a 'walking tank' than an agile mobile suit -- it manages to at least take the hit partway to the side, and get sent spinning -- struggling to return a punch of its own with one of those three-fingered hands while keeping the robot upright. <"What is that thing?!">     Meanwhile, in the camp...     Oryou lands and punches one. It manages to avoid instant death this time -- it has some cybernetic plating on its chest, and is sent tumbling over the ground instead of straight into a tree. The other five brodkil scattered around the camp divide their attention between Oryou and Note (who is lumped in with the adventurers because of her timing), a chorus of PEW PEW laser rifles echoing around the camp as lances of deadly light cris-cross this way and that! 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     Though the helicopter is ostensibly a military transport, the pilot isn't being paid for hot insertion (metaphorically; he gets paid a lot) and what kind of anti-air the brodkil have access to is still a huge unknown, thus the west side of the river is their stop. Gideon stays on board, high above the battlefield and out of weapons range, where he can keep track of things from an aerial perspective, while Clover and Krysanthe absail partway and then jump the difference, immediately rushing to cover.     This time there aren't any questions from, or deliberations between, the T-Dolls. They know what they're here to do by now; their commander's discussion with Garnet's mayor and the information gathered therefrom was plenty clear enough. Both safeties come off, eyes forward, fingers inside the trigger guard. The banter stops.     "Confirming the VIPs are inside the cave. The door is *not* bulletproof. Watch your line of fire. Hold the west bank; they don't have a defensible position that necessitates crossing the water. Move in once nothing red is breathing." "Acknowledged." "Copy that, Commander."     The two T-Dolls open up from rocky positions along the riverbank where the terraforming done by the previous earthquake gives them plenty of thick rises and crags to work with. They don't do Hollywood-style shooting; both of them expose only their weapons and eyes to take shots, and use three and five round bursts, staggering with each other. The difference comes from the way their guns crack like bolts of lightning this time, having a completely different sound profile from the standard ammunition of earlier. HV/APCR --literally itty bitty tank penetrators-- are the munition of choice for putting clusters of bullets in brodkil heads and chests, double and triple tapping between them to ensure hitting as many vital organs as possible.     There's also the fact that neither one covers the other to reload. The stream of fire is absolutely constant. Magazines are swapped out seamlessly in the interval between bursts. Tracers never stray more than a few centimetres from the target point. Their lines of fire cross in perfect synchronization back and forth across the camp, lighting up the closest targets that aren't sensible enough to get behind some really thick rocks and pumping them full of tungsten until they drop. They don't call targets to each other, but never accidentally hit the same one, and both of them maintain constant awareness of the enemy front line with only minimal instruction. Just the two of them have the coverage and firepower of a dozen squads of crack infantry already. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Agor, the four-armed Brodkil laughs as Kupot is engulfed in flame. The few prisoners daring to look wince...     And then the laughter stops, and the winces turn to looks of amazement. He's alive?! The moogle rushes him. One of the hands holding the rifle draws a vibro-sword and tries to block, but Kupot's strike presses it back into his own skin! Sparks and blood shoot out as his chest is cut into, but ironically the damage from his own blade is less than what Kupot's would've done if he hadn't blocked. The demon looks shocked and surprised, though, and clearly sees this as a serious fight now. It drops the rifle to free up a hand to try and grab Kupot's sword arm with its superior reach so it can bring its weapons to bear on him less-molested. It lets out a half-mechanical growl.     The T-Dolls methodical shots from across the river are completely unexpected while the brodkil have their focus on Kupot, Oryou, and Note. They cry out as they take bullets, but most remain standing. The one Oryou punched is shot through the head as he tries to get back up, and falls still. Two of the brodkil run for cover behind trees, firing wildly back at the T-dolls. 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     Well, Oryou's job is to distract the demons, so it's working. Focused gunfire certainly seems to faze her more easily than the spray shots of last time, too. The crackle of energy blasting her and even scorching her lightly is flashy, though the woman remains completely still even in the hair of shots.     Her shadow stretches along the ground and grows to a tremendous size. It's not a human shadow - it's clearly some kind of very large dragon, or snake. Whatever it is, it's got a gaping, hungry maw, and feels entirely too present for just a shadow.     Oryou's hair launches in every direction, trying to tangle up or otherwise maim the brodkils firing at her so liberally. Those she can manage to grab fully, she'll drag to herself, and for a moment it'll look like the ground parts ways into pure darkness, from which a serpent's massive jaw emerges to consume the poor demon.     For the ones luckier than that, her hair is just really nasty, sharp, and corrosive.     Ryouma, for his part, jumps out of the chopper once the T-Dolls begin their assault. He seems to intend to land by the cave, and to slip inside amidst the chaos. 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Dan can put a lot aside to go demon hunting, he'd worked with the Union and even the Confeds in the past to hunt them, a certain police Kitten was also involved. Gilgamesh is a Demi-God in the local viewpoint. He doesn't like that sort at all, but thankfully for everyone, there are Brodekill to deal with right now as his family has for centuries been? Demons first. Still he called the USA-G10 a toy, they called it a /toy. Right now he's got another robot to deal with. Then the guy summons a robot, it was Megaverse and this was Wednesday on Earth. He focused to continue the fight. Missiles it had to be missiles. Had it been lasers? He'd laugh them off like Gil would the point of view of anyone else who is not him. Missiles? That's where his machine has some issues, still the level of armouring this machine has it pretty nuts as it comes out of the fire. When Gil does his wonderful diversion for him. Dan moves quickly the pylon system kicks in, there is a sound akin to the pylons for a Terran siege tank deploying as they drive into the earth and the massive gun levels into place. The huge weapon locks into place as he feels he opens fire, not a full salvor yet but there is a massive sonic boom and the shockwave will wash over the combat zone, anyone without protected hearing might be having a bad day and any glass is going to have a bad dead as the round is fired at Mach 5 right or the robot while it's directed. 

:'''{{#var:6386|Note (6386)}} has posed:'''     "Uhhh..." The chaos in the camp just gets worse and worse! And Note's stuck in the thick of it. Although she begins to look around in heavy confusion - far from someone who's actually going to attack anyone - when the Brodkil warriors level weapons at her... she stares right back at them. Yeah, she's ready to fight.     She's ALWAYS ready to fight.     "What's WRONG with you people?! FINE, but don't blame me for beating you within an inch of your lives. I'm REALLY pissed off right now!" PEW PEW lasers fly at her and Note--     Note extends her hands at them. Hands that faintly glow in said laser light--     *SPANG SPANG SPOOOOOING!!*     On impact, the blasts she guards against go flying awkwardly every which way, diverted around her. No, this doesn't make any sort of sense, but that's what happens.     But in the exchange... shots that came in from the side, which she couldn't sense because LASERS, catch her in a blind spot. Huge holes are burned into her clothes, scorching straight through to her flesh and leaving a nasty burn while also bowling her over!     "Huuah!" Slapping a hand to the ground, she flips to her feet and now GROWLS out her rage at the cyborgs. A pouty look of growing FURY's on her face. The peak of childishness!     Angrily, she aims a hand at one of the Brodkil, thumb up and index finger out in the childish gun gesture!     And then, the offending finger erupts with blue-white light, a thick beam lashing out in return. Pure Ki bolts fly for the Brodkil! Some are aimed at weapons, others more at the center of mass. But she quickly drops the gun gesture and instead just fires blasts from her palms. Dozens of them.     Hundreds of them. At basically EVERYTHING that has a weapon and isn't Oryou. 

:'''{{#var:1099|Gilgamesh (1099)}} has posed:'''      The Great Tin King takes a fist across the face. Its metal head spins. Its arms wobble slightly as it tries to regain its balance. It fails. The massive robot hits the ground with a *whud*, kicking up a storm of dust and knocking aside yet more trees. Inside, Gilgamesh is shaken around furiously by an overeager special effects budget. His head swings forwards, narrowly avoiding hitting it on the console by the skin of his teeth. His fingers grip the controls a bit tighter.      "Ha ha ha ha ha! Just one of my many toys, mongrel! I admit, it's been some time since I got to use it. Aren't you flattered? Or perhaps afraid! After all, this Great Tin King of mine cannot be stopped! Not only is it a mighty Noble Phantasm, but each weapon installed is one as well!" He sounds like a particularly maniacal toy collector. "No, for your foolish ears, I'll simplify! It's a magic weapon made of other magic weapons! Even its accessories are magic! The Sky Wonder, the Oceania Cracker, the Iron Bull Chariot, the Dragon Hammer! Don't they all sound so magnificent? Maybe if you live long enough to be worth it, I'll even get to show off one of them! But I doubt it!"      Gilgamesh crosses his arms. "So bow down! Accept your defeat! But don't do it too quickly - I want you to struggle! I want to enjoy my Great Tin King!"      There's a surge of mana in the air. The ley line twitches as Gilgamesh dumps power into the Great Tin King. Its red eyes light up. It stands, raising its arms like a power lifter, letting out another mighty GAOOOOO roar that shakes the trees and the earth around it. Across the cockpit, various images light up, green lights flaring with OK! underneath ancient cuneform letters. Gilgamesh laughs. His hands go through his hair, slicking it back into its spiked standing-up form.      "Let's begin with one of my favorite toys!"      "ITS NAME IS!"      The shout echoes through the forest. ITS NAME IS! ITS NAME IS! ITS NAME IS! ITS NAME IS!      "UTU! PAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWNCH!"      The magic gathers in the Great Tin King's right fist. Its left hand slams down on its right wrist. There is a thunderous explosion as lightning and fire and sky meet as one, and a fist filled with divine justice comes roaring forth. How is it guiding itself? How will it return to the Great Tin King?      Magic. That's how. 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' The katana scabbard comes up with the other hand, using the front of it like a pole to push the palm back and continue the movement. His hand lets go of the scabbard, leaving it in the temporary care of the brodkil. Kupot is still utilizing the same jump air time, pushing himself off the scabbard to get himself an additional bit of height and bring himself up into the sky. He has the height. He has the high ground. And he's going to fucking use it. The katana comes up. The katana tries straight down towards the top of the brodkill's head. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     With their leader occupied with Kupot, the five other brodkil find themselves occupied with four other targets.     It is chaos. One of the demons screams as it's eaten by a dragon shadow. The others scream as tendrils corrode them and ki shots burn them and send them stumbling. One charges Oryou with a scream, firing its laser and using its third arm to swing a vibroblade as it closes in. Another dives for cover behind the torn remains of their tents, making him a little harder to see before he pops into view and tries to quickly snipe Note again.     Agor grunts as the scabbard hits one of his hands. He fires the gun again, but it only hits the ground as Kupot leaps off his own scabbard to come down in a vertical chop! Having so many arms continues to give Agor a second chance, though -- his own blade swings up and pushes the katana to the side enough that it 'only' rends a nasty cut down the length of the cyber-arm holding the scabbard, which jerks and drops it, sparking. Agor roars defiance and tries to hit Kupot on the backswing and step back, keeping that plasma cannon trained on the moogle!     Ryouma finds that the grating is wedged into the doorway good -- looks like the brodkil just force it in and out of place. It's wood, does he have anything to cut it with? The dwarf looks up at him and slowly rises to his feet. "Who are you people? Are you here to rescue us?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Meanwhile, on the shore, a robot battle rages on! The famous boom gun's signature sound echoes across the battlefield, and the impact of hypersonic shards of metal is seen as a bunch of holes as if from a massive shotgun suddenly appearing in the Forager's armor -- it pitches forward from the force of it, right into Gilgamesh's ANCIENT BABYLONIAN ROCKET PUNCH. There's the CLANG of the forager's plating ringing from the impact, and the screech of bending and tearing metal as it leaves a great big fist impact in its side. Something inside starts smoking.     <"What the hell IS that thing?!"> the pilot finds himself /more afraid of something else/ despite a glitter boy on the field. He turns the upper torso towards Buriki Daioh and lets fly with a large salvo of the same missiles, desperately hoping the super robot has fragile internals beneath that armor for the HEAT warheads to tear into. Backing away towards the trees, he turns the belly-turret towards the glitterboy, returning Dan's earlier ion insult to try and eat away a bit of that shiny armor with blasts of high-velocity charged particles! 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' The moogle is on the downward arc when the backswing comes. Thankfully, when it hits his flesh, it doesn't go through like butter. Oh yes, there is a decidedly unpleasant CRUNCH from within, but when Kupot lands, the blood is minimized and it reveals his torso has a dermal layer of armor underneath, the flesh around it pulled back to show the flexible dark metal weave underneath. The moogle staggers when he reaches the ground and takes a moment to vomit onto the ground. Slowly, he pushes himself back up to his feet. He draws the wakazashi too. Swinging his arms across each other, he flings them both at Agor, at shoulder level. 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     It's an odd contrast. On one hand you have the big, golden, glorious machine from ancient times putting on a lightshow that screams divine and holy. Then on the ground you have a young woman with absurdly long hair spreading pitch blackness everywhere and... eating people, for a lack of better terms. Or at least dragging them into her shadows. The distinction may be moot.     One brave demon tries to fight the dragon with three arms. He's actually threatening, Oryou decides, or perhaps observes.     One arm is used to shield herself from the blast, letting it roll off her skin and school uniform. It keeps charging and closing in. Her hair lashes out.     It tries to wrap around the brodkil's legs and arms, to drag it closer to Oryou while eliminating its attack vectors. Her eyes gleam ominously pink and red.     And she goes for the neck, with her mouth.     It's rare Ryouma doesn't supervise her, so she's going to cut loose a bit. Blood tastes almost as good as frogs, besides. Though, demon blood, probably not.     Ryouma, meanwhile, smiles and nods, unsheathing his katana to slice the gate open. "I'm going to need you all to be very fast, and very, very careful. Is there anyone among you who can't run? It'd be safer to wait here if so, I can stand guard." Ryouma's not about to split the hostages if some can't go anywhere. 

:'''{{#var:6386|Note (6386)}} has posed:'''     Despite all of the devastation that apparently SEVERAL people are laying into these beastly cyborgs, they're still kicking! Note barely pays any attention at all to the approach of Kupot and the machinations of Oryou because, frankly, it's hard to spend that kind of time in the middle of a fight.     What WEIRD timing it is for others to want to bring these jerks down, huh?     She's quickly realized that she can't sense these things too well. They're almost more machine than flesh, and that makes their signatures fainter than they should be. But now that she's ready to deal with that... she's just standing there, focused, waiting...     Waiting for one to move on her!     And so she spins around and KICKS the laser with all of her Ki-bolstered might! The results--     Well. Her aim was a little off. Instead of deflecting the shot with little harm done, she manages to cause it to skim off her foot and BURN HER OTHER FOOT. "YOWwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww-ow-ow-owwwww!" Note stumbles to the ground, rolling in agony. In a few seconds though, the pain's died down, and she rises with her ruined boot in hand.     "Hrrrrrghhhh....!" Vengeance is blazing in her eyes.     And as she tightens that angry gaze, those eyes shift from black... to GREEN.     With a resounding kiai that rips a layer of dirt from the surroundings, she digs deep into her power and finds that tingly golden restlessness deep within.     Just like that, her blazing white-clear aura swirls wildly, and then bursts into a fresh blaze of GOLDEN LIGHT. Smooth black hair, bound into a ponytail or not, rises skyward and shifts into golden spiky formations.     Before the dust's even settled, she comes flying through it, still clutching that ruined boot. Up, up into the air she climbs, a good thirty feet! And there...     THERE, she spins the boot in her arm super-fast. It blurs like a propeller plane!     And then she just... releases it.     The boot comes literally THUNDERING down, its passage slowed only a little by a roaring rush of wind filling the wake it leaves behind!     That wrecked boot just became a projectile of the most fearsome sort. All the worse, because that boot weighed fifty pounds to begin with!     And it now bears down on the Brodkil sniper! 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The demon is only slightly surprised to see Kupot's a cyborg too. "Guh! Heh, heh. You're a good fight, little one. I'm glad I took this--URK'     One sword goes through its chest, just under where the plating stops. The other goes through the cyborg arm holding the sword, shorting it out. The demon tries to say something, but all that comes from its mouth is a gurgle and some blood. With its dying breath, it pulls the trigger, launching another fireball, and then falls over dead. 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     The helicopter, far back as it is, still rattles from the hypersonic boom that passes through it, causing the cockpit screen to clatter and the wind to blow back Gideon's jacket. "Christ- who rated that thing?! I can't tell if they had too *much* budget or no budget at all! God damn that thing is ugly too! No wonder this place is overrun with big red men and little green ones; there can't be a single decent contractor for a thousand miles!" He looks to be about to say something about the other giant robot in play, but frankly after about thirty seconds of watching Gilgamesh in action, he has absolutely no idea what to make of it.     High powered laser fire comes streaming back at Clover and Krysanthe on the riverbank, but they've chosen their positions well. Their target profiles are way too small, and their movements are lightning fast. Beams cause rock to explode in glowing shards all around where they might've been a moment ago, none making a connection. Clover ducks her head and sprints through a spray of red hot shrapnel, shifting to a new position that hasn't been blown to pieces and returning fire. Krysanthe leaps down a tier of the cliff, tumbling into a narrow ravine as rock dust falls on her from above. "Let's switch to saturation fire. Center mass isn't doing much." "Agreed. Start tracking north and I'll converge with you halfway down the bank." "Focusing on one target a time should work."     The two begin a steady firing advance from there, hustling low through full cover, then dumping entire magazines in the brief caps between outcroppings, disappearing for lengths of time only to emerge for a second and put thirty plus rounds in a single target, riddling brodkil selected by laser designator with dozens of heavy penetrators to the skull, racking up scores of moving headshots like a pair of- well they sort of are aimbots. Gideon designates a point where the terrain turns into a steep gravel slope straight to the river's edge, where the two end up only just far enough away from one another to not be begging for a grenade, sending a steady cascade spent brass jingling down the gradient into the water. 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Dan can't fault the enemy for targeting Gil over him, also his magic senses are screaming in his ear at Gil, he's not hat a reding like that since the fight with the mass of demons at the end of the Free Quebec and CS war. He keeps ling up another shot. He can't move much, but Dan can make that machine weave like Neo at times, this is one of those time as he evades the worst of the shot by shifting his machine' torso and upper body about. Gil has drawn a lot of fire and given him time to get a full salvo loaded up and her smirks a bit. He lines up his shot he's going for the machine's legs he intends to leg it. "We are the past, we are the future, we are destruction incarnate!" An old saying belonging to longtime Glitterboy pilots. He opens fire not once, not twice but four times. Two shots to each of the machine's legs intending to bring it down and down hard. Ya, he's hot-blooded what else is new with this guy. BGM Knights of Cydoina https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sBOsh-vyI 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' Kupot, swordless, can only hold up both arms in a defensive X in front of his face. It ripples around him, and the sharp intake of breath from the pain makes him BREATHE plasma. Pain sears through his entire body, burning his lungs, burning off armor, burning off fur and flesh. The fire consumes him entirely as the leader drops dead. As smoke rolls out from the explosion, a small hand grasps the katana and pries it from the corpses. A single orange stone on the pommel glitters. The burned and wounded figure of Kupot, flesh burned away in a few places to reveal the metal weave underneath, blood dripping from his mouth, turns his cracked optic gaze to the robot. The HUD flickers, gauging height, weight. The orange suddenly blazes to light. "Heroes of kupo. Lend me your strength. Lend me the greatest of all strengths." LEGENIA: BACK BREAKER A final bursts of speed from his weakened body pushes the moogle towards the robot. He makes a tackle for the back mid section of the robot, his strength suddenly great enough to push it over! And with a mighty yank, aim to shatter it over his shoulders, and hurl it off. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The elderly dwarf steps back. He looks up at Ryouma with thanks, but also worry. The other prisoners start whispering about escaping, but also concern for those who are old, or slow, or not fit to run for whatever reason. "Thank you, young man, but they haven't been feeding us... I don't think they were planning on keeping us alive much longer..." Still, looking out at the battlefield? They might be able to escape into the forest to the south and hide there... then again, maybe they're safer in the cave.     Oryou bites down on metal. This particular brodkil has subdermal plating on his neck! Lucky for him. He hisses defiance, and his cybernetic arm strains against the tentacle-hair, trying to dig that vibro-sword into the woman...     Note, meanwhile, delivers a super saiyan kick to a demon's head. The results are, uh... messy. That demon isn't going to be hurting anyone anymore.     Meanwhile, the demons playing cover shooter with the T-dolls seem to be doing sort of okay, until they pop up, fire, and one of them just gets riddled with bullets all over. Amazingly, he's still moving, slowly, revealed to be especially heavily cyberized. Still, a slower target probably isn't long for this world anyway... 

:'''{{#var:1099|Gilgamesh (1099)}} has posed:'''      "Hah!" Gilgamesh crosses his arms in the cockpit, a smug smirk across his face. "Fool! Don't you listen? This is the Great Tin King! The ancient tin engine that humankind dreamed up long ago! And your missiles are no use against this! Bel! SHAAAADE!"      The Great Tin King thrusts its hand forward to meet the missiles.      Nothing happens. The missiles soar past the hand, smashing into the giant, ancient weapon. The super robot falls backwards, magical pulses leaking out of the cracks across its body like light. Gilgamesh is thrown around violently in the cockpit until he smashes his head on the controls. Blood rolls down his forehead, trickling past his eye. He lets out a sharp breath, his eye twitching furiously as the Great Tin King goes dark.      Gilgamesh smashes his hand on the console. "Damn! What fool took out the Bel Shade?! That's the ultimate defensive technique! The shield of the god himself!"      SEPIA-TONED FLASHBACK      Gilgamesh whistles cheerfully. "What will I ever need a shield for?" He wonders idly as he works on the tin machine that is the prototype of Talos, the Golem, the Brazen Head, Palladium, and all other wonderous statues and machines of history, "The Great Tin King is invincible! I'll just remove it to make room for something flashier."      RIGHT NOW      Gilgamesh licks some of the divine blood from his face. "Well, no matter. Wake up, Tin King! This is no time to sleep!"      Silence.      Gilgamesh smacks the console. "Hey! Your King commands you! Awaken, Tin King!"      Darkness.      "HEY!" Gilgamesh's aura flares with light, "I SAID WAKE UP! KEEP SLEEPING ON THE JOB, AND I'LL DISMANTLE YOU FOR PARTS FOR THE VIMANA!" 

:'''{{#var:1099|Gilgamesh (1099)}} has posed:'''      GAOOOOOO.      The Great Tin King's eyes blaze to life. It rises, magic leaking from its chest as it does so. Gilgamesh crosses his arms in the cockpit as the lights come back on. Music starts playing in the distance. He ignores it. "That's what I thought. And speaking of the Vimana..."      Gilgamesh snaps his fingers.      The Vimana, the vast golden throne, just sort of *appears* out of thin air, swooping around beyond the Great Tin King. The Tin King's back detaches and vanishes into a new golden ripple as Vimana swings down. Gilgamesh punches his fist into his palm, a wide, eager grin on his face. "Let's go! Docking Mode!"      CH-CHACK!      CH-CHACK!      CH-CHACK!      The Vimana gets a full minute-long sequence as it locks into the Great Tin King, becoming a wide, golden-green pair of wings. Power surges through the Great Tin King as they combine. Gilgamesh throws back his head and laughs, running his fingers through his slicked-back hair.      "What do you think of that, mongrels?! The Great Tin King can even equip something like that! I admit, you hit it pretty hard, but that's over with! Prepare yourselves for my finishing technique! Now that I've equipped a Booster Unit, there's no stopping me!"      Gilgamesh stands up in the cockpit. His foot plants against the cuneform letters. He swings his finger outwards. "Hear me, you mongrels who trample my land, you maggots who writhe across the world with ambitions of mediocrity, you worthless peons whose mere existence is mine to do with as I please! I am the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh! You've put up a good fight, but this is the end! Taste my King's Justice!" 

:'''{{#var:1099|Gilgamesh (1099)}} has posed:'''      He flops down in the golden throne. He cracks his knuckles. He grabs the controls. His hand swings backwards. He hammers it against a series of cuneform.      A golden key emerges.      The word APPROVED flashes above the cockpit.      "This is it! The Heaven-Soaring Great Tin King's strongest attack!"      Golden light flows from the Vimana into the cuneform emblem on the Great Tin King's chest. Power radiates outwards like the sun. Music starts to play. The Great Tin King takes a stance. Gilgamesh raises his hands to the sky, clicking his wrists together. "Take this! My word is Anu!"      "ONE!" The letter A flashes.      "ON!" The letter N flares in golden light.      HIGH!" The letter U completes the three, burning against a darkened sky.      Gilgamesh throws his hands forward. "MARDUUUUUK! BREAKERRRRRRRRRRRR!"      The three letters merge into the cuneform. Golden fire lights the emblem.      The fire explodes outwards as the Heavens-Soaring Great Tin King throws its arms backwards. A beam of destructive force that splits the sky and the sea alike, carving a path to victory! The Noble Phantasm that sits in the chest of the Great Tin King, drawn forth by the power of the chariot of the gods!      The Marduk Breaker, unleashed! 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     The demon stabs Oryou.     Black blood spills.     She grits her teeth, actually visibly angry now. "You hurt Oryou." Not just hurt, either. Hurt badly! Painfully.     "You hurt Oryou," she repeats, quaking.     She lashes out. Her hair goes berserk, slicing and dicing rather than corroding. Blue-black flames shoot out of her mouth and nostrills, no longer content to just eat the demon but instead trying to fry him alive. And her hands reach out, to remove the brodkil's offending limbs (or at least, two of the three arms) by just grabbing, digging in, and yanking. It's violent! And not at all lady-like.     Ryouma, meanwhile, simply says: "Alright, everyone to the back of the cave in case they come over here. The fight probably won't last much longer from the sounds of it, so let's make sure nothing happens to any of you in the next five minutes. We'll be taking you all back to where you belong, and those without a home can stay in Garnet Town."     He turns to stand guard, though seems worried for a moment, his link to Oryou letting him know she's hurt. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     MEANWHILE, the giant robot fight rages on! Dan, Kupot, and Gilgamesh come together in a stunning combination attack! The boom gun tearing into the legs, it starts to fall, right into Kupot's grasp as cyborg moogle superstrength hurls it through some trees and crashing to the ground, where Gilgamesh -- after a seemingly minute-long sequence of equipping the prototype of GOD SCRANDER and every flight pack in existance, fires the prototype of BREAST FIRE and every super robot beam in existence!     Most of the front armor melts away, and partway into the internals, exposing a wide swath of bare, half-slagged metal. The belly turret is melted to uselessness. <"I surrender! I SURRENDER!"> The pilot's voice comes over the radio, panicked. <"No job is worth my life! I'll leave you alone!"> Sensors can detect the fire control radar shutting down.     That leaves the brodkil fighting Oryou and the T-Dolls... 

:'''{{#var:1099|Gilgamesh (1099)}} has posed:'''      Gilgamesh climbs out of the Great Tin King. He's still dressed in his ridiculous gold spandex, red goggles, red belt, and red scarf. He steps off the vast machine as it vanishes into a golden ripple, swallowed up by the power of the Gate of Babylon. The King walks forward, licking his lips. "Surrender?" He says.      "Who in the world said that you were allowed to surrender?"      "Mongrel, you damaged my invincible Great Tin King. Your missiles damaged one of my priceless treasures." Gilgamesh rolls his hand in the air as he walks. "Not to mention, you're clearly a criminal. What else would you be doing out here in these woods but hiding from those who would bring justice to you? Were you hoping, perhaps, that you were bowing to a merciful king?"      "How unfortunate. Surrender!" Gilgamesh chuckles, "If you wanted something like that you should've bent the knee the moment my Great Tin King arrived on the battlefield."      Gilgamesh holds a hand up to his face. Golden ripples extrude outwards behind him. His smile becomes a sneer. "I told you that you would taste the king's justice, mongrel."      "Your life isn't worth enough for me to spare it. It's barely worth enough for me to dirty all these treasures with your filthy blood, but the denial of your continued existence is a pleasure all its own."      The King licks his lips. "I enjoy crushing bugs."      Gilgamesh flicks his fingers forward, and releases the barrage of magical weaponry directly into the cockpit. 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     "I'm getting tired of this. Their only mechanized unit is down and Sakamoto has the VIPs. Krys, Clover, clean this mess up." "I was waiting for you to say that." "Huh?"     The T-Dolls engaging in the actual shootout with the enemies with guns, steadily overwhelming the brodkil with sheer concentration and coordination of fire, even if there are only two of them, leave a brief break in the shooting. Clover puts her back to her cover just as a burst of lasers takes the top completely off of it, throwing up her rifle to shield the back of her head from the spalling glass. Krys meanwhile is busy unwrapping an entire belt of canisters from a tactical clasp, each one cylindrical, black, and marked with a flame icon. Pulling the entire string of pins at once with her teeth, she spins it twice for momentum, and then uses it like a sling to hurl half a dozen grenades across the entire river, scattering into the enemy camp like a MOAB, and then blowing up, also like a MOAB.     It's an indiscriminate carpet bombing of ridiculously intense incendiary bombing. No napalm or white phosphorous here; these blow up like miniature fuel-air bombs, and spray a ferociously burning fine mist all over absolutely everything. She's careful enough to not put Oryou or Note directly in the blast zone, but it's definitely danger close, and the normally taciturn T-Doll seems to take a certain pleasure in doing it. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     In the cave, the dwarf nods, turns around, and makes 'move back' gestures at the group of prisoners, who do so before he takes shelter himself. "Without homes? Did they blow up part of Garnet Town?" someone asks, concerned. Seems they're all from there.     Oryou rips the brodkil limb from limb and cuts the pieces into smaller pieces. Small, nonthreatening pieces who will never hurt anyone again.     Explosive force has a 'chunky salsa' effect on the two brodkil that were in a shootout with the T-dolls, leaving behind only blood-soaked pieces of warped metal. 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' Kupot gets the robot off his shoulders with a grunt, sagging tiredly. He has only his one sword at the time, and his wounds are mounting up. Cybernetics can only do so much for so long. The magic within them is draining. He looks up, seeing Gilgamesh come forward. He can already guess what is going on. "I kupo the surrender," he says to the man, and moves. His katana glimmers with light, chi sheathing it in power. His steps are slow, but even slowed, his sword moves blindingly fast, taking down one magic weapon. Then another. A third. A fourth slams into his shoulder. A fifth sails away. Kupot flexes backwards onto the cockpit, and allows the last three to simply bury themselves into his body, blood spurting up from his mouth. "It is kupo... worth to spare." 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     "Ah, no! I just didn't want to assume you were all from there. That makes things much easier if so!" Ryouma says, and then takes a few moments to handle something over radio, evidently. He's left in quite a good mood, although that could be from the fact he can sense Oryou resolved her situation.     "Alright, it seems like the fighting's over. Those of you who can move, help those who can't. If someone seems injured, leave them there and raise your hand, we don't want to risk making it worse by moving them."     Ryouma trusts most of these people can follow simple instructions, and they can start pondering how to ship all of them home, if they can't all fit in the chopper.     As for Oryou, she snarks angrily at what's left of the demon, stomping on a piece as a matter of venting. She finds her way back to Ryouma eventually, at least. 

:'''{{#var:1099|Gilgamesh (1099)}} has posed:'''      The little fuzzy white thing intercepts the Gate of Babylon. It knocks aside some of the weapons, but the sheer rain of death is too much; it finds itself impaled. Gilgamesh's face makes a /tch/ sound as he watches his deathblow intercepted. He snaps his fingers, ceasing the rain of the Gate. He checks with the Paladins briefly to confirm that, no, Kupot is not a member of the Paladins. Ryouma asks him for mercy. He makes it a request. Gilgamesh, as he walks towards the robot, pulls a gold coin out of the air. On one side is an image of Ishtar. On the other is an image of Gilgamesh. He flips the coin in the air, pouring a bit of magical power into it.      Of course it's a Noble Phantasm.      It lands. Power ripples outwards. Gilgamesh holds it up. Tails. Fine, he tells Ryouma. He'll honor that request, but only because he finds Ryouma's wife so appealing. And he'll expect a heavy toll later.      That said, he strides up to the robot. With a few short hops, he's on the cockpit. He looks down at Kupot.      The ridiculous spandex melts away, replaced by his swirling black coat, his turtleneck, his beige pants. His hair falls back down to its normal position as he leans over the fallen moogle.      "Congratulations, you little worm," Gilgamesh says with a broad smile that certainly doesn't match his red eyes, "One of my compatriots has pleaded with me to spare your life. Ordinarily, I'd simply skewer you and be done with it, but apparently you've made some friends among the Paladins that I happen to like. Isn't that lucky?"      "But," the King purses his lips, "You don't get to simply leave without a lesson in what it means to defy the King's justice."      Gilgamesh's foot comes down on Kupot's stomach, pressing down against the little fuzzy thing's belly. He grabs one of the swords, and, with an immense amount of pleasure, rips it free, enough to do some more damage in the process. The look on his face is the look of a child tormenting an anthill as the sword melts into gold sparkles. "I am the King. That means that all that is is my property."      He leans forward, putting all his weight on his foot, and rips another sword free. "When someone challenges the King, when someone as worthless as that man in that iron shell damages my property, it's my right to do what I please with him. He's my property, too."      Gilgamesh grinds his heel against Kupot's stomach as he tears the third sword out. "And the next time you decide to get in my way, remember these wounds, and make sure you tell any friends of yours who might make the same mistake of the agonies the King will inflict upon those who cross him."      With that, Gilgamesh kicks Kupot along the top of the cockpit, then looks down at the surrendered man. A sword appears in the air, hanging there like an executioner's blade, before Gilgamesh looks over at Kupot. Then he looks down at the pilot.      He snaps his fingers, and the executioner's blade vanishes. "Hmph. Little cretin took all the fun out of killing you. Now I've simply got a bad taste in my mouth. I suppose you get to live. You'd best thank your benefactor when it wakes up, mongrel."      With that, the King hops down into the camp. 

:'''{{#var:6386|Note (6386)}} has posed:'''     Holy crap the camp just got MESSY AS HELL!     Note goes flailing up into the skies over it, tail dangling in the air as she seems to be 'seated' in the air at a weird angle while BOMBS FALL ALL OVER THE PLACE!     "What the heck did I just barge into...?!" She doesn't seem too terribly worried about all the violence. These people were jerks who tried to kill her out of nowhere, after all. But the sight of all the robots and explosions scattered about the place has her more than a little worried that she's stumbled into something Really Dangerous.     So she flies higher and higher until she's way too high to worry about the carpet bombing, and waits for things down there to calm down!     Maybe someone there knows where Garnet Town is. 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' Kupot struggles to bring up a last word against the King, but wind is knocked out of him. His stomach is not quite the soft underbelly one might expect, but enough pressure still brings pain, cutting out whatever quip he might have had with a sharp hiss of pain. The hiss turns into a sharp painful cry as the blade is jostled free. Sparks and blood are freed from the wound. The second blade and Kupot bites down on his anguish and pain as another gush of blood wells out from the wound. The final blade yanks out from Kupot's arm, pulling it up slightly, but the moogle keeps his mouth firm, sounding only a grimace. It is hard to tell if Kupot is awake, as his eyes are completely covered, only the lifeless HUD staring back up at Gilgamesh, but it is the kick that sends him rolling over the robot and into unconsciousness. 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Dan "Oh we're going to have words with you back in Quebec city as I have a lot of questions about your employers..." Cue some very surprised French words out of Dan's mouth as Gil gets out and meanwhile his sense magic sense are going /nuts/. This whole thing makes him reconsider his people's stance on recruiting PSI Stalkers, seeing a display like that. He'll retract the pylons and move in but it looks like he's going to have a corpse, not someone to interrogate then Kupot jumps in. F His machine moves in now it's head looking at Gil, he will be having that man flagged by his nation's armed forces, but he's not going to pick a fight right now. "Get Kupot a medic..." His machine's head turns to the cockpit. "As for you we're going to have a little chat back in Quebec city and I hope you learned never to make a deal with a demon." This has been one hell of a day he sighs. "Well at least Staren didn't show up." 

:'''{{#var:6386|Note (6386)}} has posed:'''     It's not over yet for a certain Glitter Boy pilot! As he turns to leave... Note swoops in. Specifically...     She lowers down in front of him, while upside-down. This means the first thing that enters his view would be the spiky golden hair, and the aura that continues to blaze for a few more seconds.     As soon as she comes to a stop though - with arms folded across her chest as imposingly as a shorty like her can manage - the Super Saiyan transformation dies away. Her hair and eyes return to normal. Which which means now view is full of smooth black hair.     Up above, her tail keeps swishing around idly.     "Hey you in the sparklebot! I'm looking for Garnet Town. They wanted help with something! And I'm sick of doing laps around the whole planet! Do you know where it is...?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Strickland is a man reconsidering his life choices. He took a contract to defend demons from retaliation for raiding a town. He knew there would be adventurers. It was a risk he took. And then adventurers happened. With a freaking super robot. And now Gilgamesh happens. The cockpit's exposed -- inside is a middle-aged man with short black hair with a hint of grey and wrinkles, wearing one of the styles of body armor that's common here, with a mix of soft and hard armor. He looks suitably terrified when Gilgamesh denies the surrender and crosses his arms in front of his face reflexively...     ...And then a tiny moogle saves him, even taking swords through its body for him.     The pilot looks at the fallen moogle. "Hey, are you alive? Look, if you live through this, I'll do anything I can to help you get out of here..." Not that there's much he can do with his very livelihood smoking wreckage around him. The 20 million credits of mecha is far from totaled, but it's not going anywhere in its current state.     And then the glitter boy says he's under arrest, and his face falls. He takes a breath, then looks up at Dan and tries one more time: "Look. The guy in the robe said he needed someone to back up some other mercenaries in case adventurers came after them. I knew it wasn't a nice job, but that's all I know. I don't know what you think is going on here, but... the brodkil have been raiding the town and I've been keeping an eye out for anyone who's gonna make trouble for them. That's it." He holds up his hands in a surrender gesture. There's a laser pistol holstered at his hip, but come on, he's not THAT stupid. "We are far away from Free Quebec, but you're the one with the working power armor, so what happens now?"     The rescued prisoners may be in various stages of hunger, but they can walk. It may take them a couple hours to walk back to town, helping eachother. Less if the slowest ones get a chopper ride.     The dwarf introduces himself as Duncan, the town doctor -- the other prisoners seem to see him as sort of a leader. He explains that he was among the first taken, and he saw the robed figure commanding the Brodkil then.     The dwarf and the pilot's accounts agree on a robed man with purple skin -- they couldn't see his face, but they could see his hands.     The description of the robe matches Symon's. 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Dan just turn his armour's head for a moment. "They needed help with these salvers being taken out, looks like you have an unexpected payday." Dan is on edge, off-world Elites he's managed to avoid running into them for years and now there's a pile of them here. "So we'll be heading back there, I'll make sure you get a cut and failing that you get mine. I wasn't here for the money." Once Kupot may be foolish but a Deebee merc like that is better to keep alive then the worst ones out there right? As for any Remaining Brodekill Dan's going to once that merc is secured? He's going to to make sure they are dead by beheading them with his vibro blade should it be needed. A mortal merc is one thing demons? You kill them. 
}}

6111/RIFTS: The Garnet Town Gambit (Part 1)

2018-10-20T05:24:25Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2018/10/19 |Location=Garnet Town, RIFTS Earth |Synopsis=Answering a call for help, our heroes find a small town suffering from demonic raiders and..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/10/19
|Location=Garnet Town, RIFTS Earth
|Synopsis=Answering a call for help, our heroes find a small town suffering from demonic raiders and caught between two factions offering help with strings attached.
|Cast of Characters=42, 6736, 6666, 411, 6404, 19
|Tinyplot=RIFTS side stories
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:''' RIFTS EARTH - October 19, 120 Post Apocalypse (2406 AD)     Heading east from The Relic (Hamilton, Ontario, which looks refreshingly like a modern Earth city except that here and there it's as if chunks of the city just disappeared and new construction has taken its place) the setting quickly goes from 'future magitech Earth' to 'post-apocalyptic'. There are a few small fishing and trading villages. Niagara falls, once a great tourist destination, is just a big waterfall notable to scholars for having once been a tourist destination, during the Golden Age. The world is too dangerous for tourists now. The ruins of Buffalo are a hiding place for bandits and lake pirates -- pass through quickly.     After that, other than the road the party is following, the signs of civilization are all but gone. Occasionally there are some overgrown, half-collapsed walls, or a large clearing where the forest has had three hundred years to reclaim farmland. The road itself is dirt with the occasional patch of crumbling asphalt. There's only even a dirt road because of the occasional traveler headed to the Dinosaur Swamp far to the south. This is the eastern edge of the Domain of Man.     As the party approaches the town's location, they hear running water up ahead, and a wooden bridge comes into sight -- and there's a cry of "HEEEEELP!"     A dirt path runs along the opposite bank, and a young human is running for his life from a group of 5 large (about 8' tall,) red-skinned humanoids carrying energy rifles. One points at the boy and growls "No witnesses!" Curiously, they seem to be chasing and trying to grab him rather than shooting him, but the boy doesn't seem particularly relieved by this! 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     "How long are we going to wander? Oryou's hungry," a floating woman complains, floating just off to the side and slightly behind a man in a white Japanese navy unicorm, donning a white-brimmed hat in lieu of an officer's cap.     "Ahah... as long as my legs will hold out," Ryouma laughs. "If I don't, I'm afraid I'm going to have to go pay the Mage's Association a visit. If I'm far enough and something comes up, I can justify not doing it," he says.     "That's unlike Ryouma," Oryou notes. "Being dishonest to the World itself," she also adds.     "Ah... I prefer to think of it as being tactical."     "Well, whatever Rouma wants to call it, Oryou thinks it's dumb," she says, bluntly.     "Yeah... it's pretty stupid, isn't it?" Ryouma laughs awkwardly.     His luck is working out, though.     From cityscape to swamps, and now cries of help and a distant town. He runs in the direction of the cries for help, and Oryou floats behind him, looking as distant and disconnected as usual.     Oh, large people. With guns! Future guns.     "Ah, everyone, please stop and explain yourselves!" He won't stop the boy from running behind him for cover, but Ryouma draws no weapons, relying on words first. He doesn't even have any weapons visible right now! 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' The Man at the Watch points out. "GO!" HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLP It is a universal cry. A need. A demand. And everyone knows. Everyone knows, there is a single response to it. A universal response across all worlds. As if summoned by that cry itself, the Slepnir thunders into view. It roars loud enough to shake teeth in the back of your head. It consumes the land with little fear of marauders, dragons, magical energy fluxes. The length of a full car and nearly as long, tipped with a snarling horse head, it stops at the one side of the river. The rider, a three foot tall moogle in jacket and straw hat, somersaults from the driver's seat to land in front of the boy and the men. "Stop, kupo." Kupot holds out one arm, palm up. "Leave this kupo alone." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     'Please stop and explain yourselves!'     Demons do not stop and explain themselves, at least not unless absolutely forced to. The one furthest in the back of the pack does stop to take aim with his rifle as Ryouma crosses the bridge. The rifle makes a dramatic PEW PEW noise as as it fires beams of intense light (even if Ryouma dodges, the effect of the weapon is clear -- missed shots explode chunks of splinters out of the trees on the northern bank.)     A moogle on a motorcycle rides across the bridge and stops in front of the group. He gets a close look at the boy -- not human, pointy ears and eyes like sapphires -- who runs past him. The brodkil in front is surprised at the abrupt appearence of a would-be savior for his target, but doesn't seem to assume small and fluffy means harmless -- flashing a toothy grin, he reaches behind his back and draws forth a sword, which emits the telltale high-frequency whine of a vibroblade. He motions for the others to keep chasing the boy, and steps forward to swing at the moogle! 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Although she was here to answer a different call for help (one in the form of a flyer asking for assistance) Twilight Sparkle hears the more immediate call as she is making her way toward the town in question. Her ears perk before her horn glows and in a flash of purple and white she disappears, only to reappear a moment later between the boy and his pursuers. "What is going on?" she asks even as she puts up a translucent purple barrier on the bridge to try and stop the strange red people from continuing after the boy. "I am Twilight Sparkle of the Paladins. Whatever the problem is, I am sure we can solve it amicably without harm on either side!" 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     Guns are pointed. It's a good thing Ryouma's other half is much more inclined to turn hostile than he is, or he'd really not make it far. Oryou is between Ryouma and the brodkil before the first shots go off, and when they do, they... well, they certainly explode on her, or scorch, or... make her float backwards a bit? Neither clothes nor skin seem to be that much worse off for the wear.     "Ah... why do they never stop when asked?" Ryouma bemoans.     "Why does Ryouma never learn?" Oryou answers back.     His answer is a stiffled laugh, a conceding gesture.     Well, with that, the pair puts themselves between the running boy and the brodkil. Ryouma's weapons materialize out of wisps of blue mana, a sheathed katana hanging from his waist and a holstered revolver just next to it. A gloved hand takes the revolver, and he lines a shot for one of the back brodkils, a shot of glimmering blue light accompanying the bullet, aimed for thing's own rifle.     Oryou, for her part, establishes dominance over her end of the bridge. That is to say she winds a punch back, and then swings forward towards one of the approaching brodkils.     Inconveniently, a barrier goes up.     Oryou just punches harder. She risks shattering the barrier outright for the sake of reaching her opponent, but her resistance to magic might let her through without disrupting it. 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' Kupot takes a look at the boy. Elf? Not something he hasn't seen before. The brodkill stops and, either doesn't understand, or prefers blood. "Don't." Kupot says once. The blade comes out and forward. At the same time, the motorcycle shifts slightly, as if its kickstand were noooot quite center, and the radio clicks on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwBKjK7Xik0 The response doesn't come when the blade is drawn, or even the step forward. Those large insectile eye cybernetics just stare at the brodkill until it actually starts the swing. Then the return motion starts. A white blur, then the blade comes up to catch the vibroblade, turn it, while the other hand windmills with it. A wakazashi to cleanly slice through the hand holding the blade at the wrist in unison with the parry. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Three are still trying to chase the boy when Twilight puts up a barrier and teleports in behind it. One starts trying to cut through the barrier with his own vibro-sword. "Stupid psi-pony. We's PAID to do harm! And we LIKE it!"     The one shooting at Ryouma shots, "Shut up!" to his compatriot, just before the rifle's blown out of his hands. "Agh!" And then he... vanishes?     Of the other two chasing the boy, one gets punched by Oryou and is shoved into a tree by the force. There's a CRACK and he collapses, lifeless.     The last stalks along the barrier, trying to find the end of it so he can go around it. 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     Ah, that fluffy white thing is adorable, Ryouma thinks. And a killing machine, but, mostly, adorable.     As Oryou replaces part of a tree with a body, Ryouma winces. "Ah... Oryou, please, we don't know what's going on yet," he tries to argue, just as his wife turns to the brodkil trying to find his way around the barrier and to the boy.     "Ah. You heard Ryouma. Oryou can't kill you," she warns. That's probably not very reassuring, because her hair suddenly slithers like snakes and lances out like sharp, corrosive shadows to remove both of the brodkil's arms, and scorch the wounds closed with the same stroke.     Ryouma adjusts the hat on his head somberly as he reconsiders how to word these requests in the future. 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight winces as her barrier is attacked, and a slight crack forms in it. It isn't a large barrier, so finding the end isn't too hard. Twilight Sparkle kind of stares as one of the creatures says they are paid to do harm. "W-..what?"      She looks pretty angry after that. And as soon as the one feeling along the barrier finds the edge of it...he also finds a strong beam of purple magic aimed at his belly. It is more of a punch than a laser, intended to blast him back. "That is despicable! Who pays for people to harm others? And who takes those payments and enjoys their work?!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The one at the barrier just laughs at the apparent absurdity of these questions. He's a demon. A minor one, but still supernatural evil enfleshed. He has no context for why anyone would want to NOT hurt people. As the barrier cracks, he starts trying to wedge his sword into it and put his strength and weight into cutting the barrier open.     The one that was sneaking around gets blasted, and stumbles back. Wait, can psi-ponies do that? He's not actually sure. What he is sure is that that didn't actually hurt him, and his laser rifle hurts most things. He draws it -- and Oryou slices his arms off with burning hair-tendrils, but is kind enough to cauterize the wounds so he'll live. He screams and drops to his knees, then vanishes.     Mystic senses or just noticing when branches are disturbed and twigs are stepped on, seems to indicate that the invisible ones are fleeing.     The boy hides behind the motorcycle, watching and cheering as the brodkil are defeated. 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     "Commander." "Yes?" "I've been looking at this request posting." "And?" "It barely pays anything. What could you possibly be planning?" "Not something so different from that time on Remnant. You know how these war-torn and barbarian-savaged places are! That, and Clover desperately needs some life experience. "E-excuse me? I can handle myself you know." "Correction. The commander means you need experience with the way the Commander does things."     Gideon Kaspar of G&K private military and security consultancy services wouldn't be caught dead beating feet on a dusty nowhere road on the way to a swamp. More accurately, he wouldn't be caught dead making T-Dolls (at least his) do something so tedious, exhausting, and ignoble. There are people for this kind of thing, and one is flying a company helicopter over the action by what amounts to probable coincidence when it unfolds.     "You'd be surprised!" Gideon calls down, perched irresponsibly close to the open bay doors of the descending helicopter as if begging for an FPS game opening to happen. "If people didn't pay other people to hurt other /other/ people, then how would anyone get along? 'People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf'. Ever heard that one? I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't; it's a little out of date, considering how passé rough men are these days."     Apparently, Gideon has no issues taking a short cable ladder out of a hovering helicopter and stepping into the middle of a potential gunfight while wearing a stylish red military jacket over an expensive three piece suit, and at least one of the two armed women around him reacts to this as if it's normal. Krysanthe simply falls the whole way without reservation, landing heavily without bending her knees, and snapping her submachine gun to its ready position. Clover remains crouched on the edge of the helicopter bay, rifle up, but only watching.     ". . . well? What are you waiting for?" "Huh?" "Light them up!" "But they're retreating, aren't they?" "So they'll run in a straight line. Now's the time to make sure they don't rally and come back for more." "Affirmative. There is only a very slight delay before rapid three round bursts of gunfire go cracking from the hovering air vehicle, stringing one after the other without pause. Invisible or not, the first sign of a snapped twig is immediately zoned in on and made the recipient of a dozen high velocity, high tech bullets from a high vantage.     "What's your bet?" "Half." "I say she hits three quarters of them." 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     Everything went better than expected.     Mostly.     Now air support is here, gunfire raining on both the retreating demons and the remaining one. Can't ask for a cleaner operation.     Ryouma walks onto the bridge, headed for the motorcycle, Kupot, and the boy, putting his best friendly smile on.     "Sorry, do you mind explaining what we just barged into? And why they just... disappeared?" They don't seem to be around anymore, but Ryouma's not exactly equipped with supersenses to know better with.     Oryou for her part wanders over back to Ryouma's side, looking down at the cowering boy. "Can Oryou eat this one, then?"     "Oryou no," Ryouma answers.     She looks down, dejected. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     One of the brodkil just challenged a wandering cyber-samurai to a swordfight. Kupot is ready -- a blade snaps through the air, and the brodkil is disarmed, or dis-handed, at any rate. The boy by the motorcycle is pleasantly surprised by the song that's started -- "Ohohoh-WOAH!" he seems pretty impressed by Kupot's handiwork! There is shock on the brodkil's face, and it too decides to go invisible and bug out.     The one trying to break through the forcefield is shot. A few bullets won't take it down, at least not unless fired at the head, maybe. As it turns and starts to raise its gun, though, it realizes that it's now all alone, and also goes invisible and heads for the river.     Those two can only hope a rushing river is enough to confuse the T-Dolls' sensors. Clover's shots get the legs of the others, slowing them and making them easier to shoot. They reappear when dead.     All is quiet for a moment, except for the sound of 'Kung-Fu Fighting' playing from the motorcyle, and the kid's cheering, and the rushing of the river. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Now that everyone's got a close look at him, it's clear the boy isn't human after all. He has pointed ears like an elf, and his blue eyes have no visible iris or sclera, as if round blue sapphires fill his eye sockets. He's wearing a colorful blue-green sleeveless jacket over plain dark coveralls. "That was amazing! You were all" he mimes shooting, and punching, and slashing. "and they were all 'augh' and 'argh' and..."     His accent sounds vaguely british, of all things. "I'm grateful, of course, for the rescue! I'm so lucky you showed up when you did!" He points to the south. "I live in Garnet Town, it's not far from here. We've been under attack by these things for days! They say they're with the Black Market. People keep goin' missing since they showed up..." he hangs his head.     Then the boy perks up and makes a 'follow me' gesture. "You guys should come back to town with me! Me mum's the mayor, she'll want to meet you!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Garnet Town is several minutes' walk away, but with the party's vehicles, it may not even be that long. Von will enthusiastically answer questions along the way.     The town is built along the banks of the river, using the swift and deep river flow to their advantage with a water-wheel mill. The settlement is picturesque, composed of buildings made from local woods in a somewhat faerie-tale style, very "old world" in their construction. Of all things, it kind of reminds Twilight of Ponyville's architecture, but sized for humans. However, there are signs of technology as well--a nuclear generator near the center of town and electrical wires strung up between some of the buildings. All in all, the town doesn't look like one that's been struggling or having difficulty just getting by.     However, the newest addition to the town isnt quite so pretty. A low wall around four feet high surrounds the settlement, made primarily of sandbags and mud. There are scorch marks here and there where some of the sandbags have been burned away, and there's damage to some of the building walls facing the outside of town. A pair of men--farmers, based on their attire--stand watch near a makeshift gate.     One of them is carrying an unloaded rifle. The other has his finger in the trigger guard and looks like he's going to accidentally shoot someone or something at any second.     Those with magic senses can detect a leyline running east-west some distance to the south.     A woman hurriedly approaches your group as you approach the center of town. She looks to be in her late thirties, with wavy brown hair and purple, amethyst-colored eyes. Her pointed ears, her eyes, and her facial features all indicate a close relation with Von. The woman is limping, assisted by a crutch she holds under one arm. Her leg looks to be wounded and has been awkwardly bandaged.     "Von! Youre safe!" She shares the same accent too. Her voice is filled with a mingling of concern and relief. Von runs towards the woman, "Mom!" Soon, the two embrace. The woman lifts her head with tears glistening in her eyes to regard the party. "My name is Lithari, strangers. You have my gratitude for bringing my son home safely. I am the Mayor of Garnet Town, and you are welcome to our hospitality."     Von begins eagerly recounting the fight where the heroes saved his life already embellishing it with the impression that everything was even awesomer than it was.     Once his tale is over, she smiles, asks him to go home, and then continues talking to the party. "The Brodkil say theyre with the Black Market. They've attacked our town a few times, but mostly theyve been taking people prisoner. Anyone they can find outside the walls." Lithari motions to her hastily-bandaged leg. "I tried to follow them the last time they raided us, but I got hit during the fighting." 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' In a twin move, Kupot swipes the swords to the right, flicking blood away from himself. He then sheathes them both. A moment to surveil the area, turning his head slowly about, before he settles on the boy. "I hope you are kupo." A smile creeps onto his face at the recreation. "Only because it was necessary." He turns nods towards the others. One of which is a...shudder...horse. As 'Boy' leads them off, he pulls out the keychain from the motorcycle. It has three keys and a little chocobo dongle. He nods to the woman, "So you need someone to kupo them." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     So you need someone to kupo them.     "...I'm sorry?" Lithari tilts her head and gives Kupot a confused look. 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' Kupot elucidates. "To." pause. "Stop." Pause. "Kupo." Pause. nine ten 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     Ryouma follows, gladly; which means Oryou follows, perhaps less gladly or enthusiasticly though. Seeing something so rudimentary in what seemed to be a more advanced world surprises Ryouma somewhat, but not in a bad way. It's kind of nice to see that the old ways are never really lost or forgotten even when newer, better ones come along.     But there's technology present too, so it also shows a certain adaptive spirit. Newer rifles, too; certainly not fitting the settlement, but evidently needed.     He listens to the mayor's story, and nods slowly. "I believe he means to say you need someone to stop this Black Market. It'd be rather selfish of us to decline, I'd think. Ah, perhaps... perhaps you might help us understand why they need people, though?"     Ryouma's guessing slaves.     Oryou's guessing food. 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight wasn't sure if the creatures were being banished by losing their rifles or not, but the footprints and broken twigs make it clear that it is just an invisibility of some kind. She makes a mental note of it and is about to blast the one attacking her shield when she hears Gideon. "Wait! You can't shoot people who are running away!"      Twilight's horn glows and this time her shield is between Gideon's people and the fleeing brodkil. "You again?" she huffs at them. "I'm sorry, but I won't allow any unnecessary killing while I'm around."      Twilight then follows after the others and smiles warmly to the happy mother. "We were happy to help." she says as they are thanked. "I am Twilight Sparkle of the Paladins, and I will help any way I can."      Twilight giggles and smiles as the young boy recounts the battle. As Mayor Lithari explains a bit Twilight considers. She blinks at Kupot's suggestion, then nods. "We should try to find out who is paying these brodkil and stop them. Otherwise these attacks are unlikely to stop." she says. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Oh." Lithani nods to the moogle. "Yes, please!" she starts to plead, then looks to Ryouma and stares for a second or two at the woman floating beside him, but eh, so someone can fly, she doesn't need to freak out about that. She shakes her head. "They mostly sneak weapons, armor, and supplies past the Coalition. People..." she sighs. "I fear perhaps they've taken up slavery. Selling our people to the Splugorth..." she looks like she's envisioning something very unpleasant. "If you can bring our people back, I'd be grateful. I don't know how I could repay you." 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' To those going to the mayor would find someone else is there clad in heavy black and white body armour which has quite a few spikes on its shoulders and forearms but it's no raider sort it looks new heavy and the sort that could take a light vehicle weapon fire from the looks of it. (OOC The armour https://riftsimcn.weebly.com/uploads/5/6/8/7/56872659/8640561_orig.jpg ) "Madame Mayor, these demons I have extensive experience with they won't stop coming, Garnet needs fully armed and trained soldiers to protect it. They won't stop coming with the nearby nexus you could get demon hordes, aliens, things from the wider Megaverse." The man has a French Canadian accent. "Speaking of the Megaverse at large." He tilts his head a bit looking Kupot over for a moment. "Colonel Dan O'niel, of the Free Quebec." He looks the group over and Twilight just gets a you have to be kidding me look for half a second. "They are deamon they will keep this up pay or no pay. They want one thing to kill all mortals. These sorts of thing hav ebeen infesting this owrld for centuries and are arguably worse than magic." 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' Kupot's eyes flash briefly as information about this ancient multiverse rolls through. He turns his head towards the man, and that smile leaves his face. That looks like Coalition armor. The Splugorth doesn't actually register on his thing, but his internal computers can make it phonetic. 86% chance of anything with a name structure like that being awful and possibly beyond the powers of time and space. "What is required to kupo this nexus?" 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     "Hmmm." "Is something the-" "You need to switch ammunition." "They're a lot tougher than they look aren't they?" "Ah. Will the . . . armour-piercing composite/rigid work?" "Let's try it. Krys, ditch the hollow points and sub in the carbide P++. We should be running an anti-android load, so only keep two magazines and one explosive for anti-personnel purposes." "Understood." "Okay." Some shuffling of equipment goes on, wherein Clover and Krysanthe toss things back and forth up and down from the helicopter, exchanging magazines and fastening things to carry points, but eventually the former drops down as well, and the craft moves to a proper landing space to conserve fuel.     Gideon, meanwhile, gives one of those excessively friendly back pats to Von. "Excellent! That happens to be right on our way you know! Not only were we lucky enough to run into you just in time, but we're even going in the same direction!" He laughs. "And talking to the mayor is right up there on my priority list. I knew I picked a good time to set out." "Is that why we departed thirty two minutes late?" "Isn't that obvious?"     Gideon makes some time for introductions, albeit Ryouma is the only one he can actually offer to shake hands with. When they actually arrive at the village however, Gideon's first response to Lithari is a showy western-style bow, smoothly flicking out a business card from the standing gesture, and transferring it in the same motion as an enthusiastic ambush handshake. "A pleasure to meet you! Now I'm even more glad we ran into your son when we did; if it weren't for him, I'd be here asking a beautiful young lady where to find the mayor!" And then his eyes flicker over her shoulder, his smile briefly becoming strangely cold without changing in the slightest. "Instead, I'll have to ask you to take that man's gun away until the words 'trigger discipline' are tattooed into his forehead. Preferably backwards, so he can read them in the mirror."     Krysanthe smoothly pushes into view, picking up at precisely the right time. "You needn't worry. We happen to have business here, and so will be staying a short while. If you wouldn't mind, we'd like to know what the Black Market is, so that we are informed as to what we're up against. Any further intelligence you can provide would be appreciated." Gideon just snaps his fingers when the local Vader shows up, pointing in his direction. "Precisely! He's exactly right! Of course we've saved your son once, but who can guaranteed someone will wander along just in the nick of time a second time? Or a third? Heroes are all well and good for saving the day, but if you're looking to save future generations, you need something more substantial than a passing, altruistic stranger's short-lived fancy. I'm here on behalf of Griffin&Kryuger PMC to discuss just that, actually. I'd hate to see a lovely little community like this get hung out to dry once the knights in shining armour have moved on, you know."     His eyes slide to O'niel, then slide to Twilight Sparkle, then slide back. "You'll be glad you have me." he says, after a long pause. Clover tries to be slightly more helpful in regards to Kupot. "I think it's a kind of contextual cue? The word means what the rest of the sentence suggests. Like "you know". I think." 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     "I couldn't possibly refuse to help," Ryouma simply answers, because what else is there to say? But then there's someone else, in heavy armor and with quite a commanding tone. He seems to know what he's talking about to. Two, if we count Gideon.     Which we should, because Gideon also carries that military mind with him. Ryouma shakes his head and introduces himself briefly, because it's only polite. "Ryouma Sakamoto, and this is my partner," he says, and Oryou beams a V-sign with one hand to confirm.     Then the Free Quebec commander. Ryouma nods, agreeing with Gideon's assessment. "Unless there's a good reason to refuse the offer, if these people are offering to protect your settlement and it isn't a net loss for you, it'd be wise to accept. None of us can be here twenty-four seven, and you can't live within these walls forever."     Well, maybe they CAN, he doesn't know what kind of setup they have to produce food and water. They do have a river though, so one of those shouldn't be an issue.     Ammunition does run out, though. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The mayor is slightly taken aback by the dramatic bow -- she's a mayor, not royalty -- but she does seem to appreciate the flattery. She smiles back as they shake hands, and then reads the business card just as Dan approaches.     Lithari gets a 'oh boy, here we go again' expression on her face when Dan speaks up. And looks a bit disappointed that Gideon seems to be making his own pitch that she join his group/ After his explanation she sighs and turns to the party"So you see, things here in Garnet Town are a bit more complicated than they appear." She frowns thoughtfully. "He's not wrong about the nexus point, though. We need some way to defend ourselves if a Rift were to open and let out something horrible." She seems surprised at Kupot's suggestion. "/Neutralize/ the nexus? I... I guess they managed it in Lazlo, but we don't have those kinds of resources! I suppose powerful mages might be able to close rifts shortly after they open, but to remove the threat completely..." she shakes her head. "I have no idea how."     She looks between Gideon and Twilight. "While I am very grateful for what you've done to save my son, I have to tell you this settlement is my responsibility, one I take very seriously. I wont be swayed into allying Garnet Town with the 'Paladins' or 'Griffon&Kryuger' or any other."     "You haven't heard of the Black Market? I guess you are new to Earth, then... they're an organization of mercenaries and merchants active across most of the continent. The name may sound ominous, but everyone but the Coalition does business with them. Kidnapping people en masse, though, that's new."     To Ryouma's question, she answers: "I said we're not allying with anyone." Although something flickers across her face, like maybe she's starting to have to consider it. "What he didn't tell you is that Free Quebec would kick all the d-bees -- nonhumans -- out of town. Even if the rest of the town would be safe, how can we just leave our home?"     A quick glance at the townspeople going about their business or who've stopped to watch the exchange indicates a proportion of about half human, half a mix of other things like elves and dwarves. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     As the subject of the nexus point comes up, a robed figure emerges from a side street. "Indeed, it is a troubling thought!" The figure pulls down its hood, revealing a saturnine male face, his brow adorned with two prominent horns. You've seen others of this species in the coastal towns on the way here. Despite their appearance, noone seems to act like they're demons or anything. The robed figure smiles. "I am Symon, a representative of the Federation of Magic." Symon's robes are adorned with several arcane sigils, and a pouch on his belt bears a glowing rune shaped out of bronze.     "Lithari, the nexus point is a danger to this entire region... as are these horrid Black Market enforcers." Symon waves a hand at the makeshift barrier serving as the town's defensive wall. "My Lord Dunscon offers you protection. Elementals to guard you, golems to till your fields. You'd have all the freedom you wished under the Federation's benevolence."     Lithari nods, an expression of strained patience on her face. "I understand, Symon, you mentioned the same thing yesterday." 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     "Oh."     Ryouma eyes the commander disapprovingly.     "A heavy toll. You would need abandon all non-humans to ensure the safety of humans. An issue indeed," Ryouma says, until ANOTHER figure appears.     He's starting to get a good picture now.     "Ah, and what would the Federation of Magic expect in return, praytell?" he decides to ask right now, while Symon is speaking.     Oryou appears to have wandered off towards the river at some point, bored of the political games. She is looking for frogs. Come on, river, don't let her down. (You don't have to GM frog-fishing.) 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Symon falters a bit at Ryouma's question, like maybe there's something at least a little uncomfortable about the truth. "Well... it is a /mutual/ arrangement. We're the /Federation/ of Magic, after all." He sighs. "The worst-case scenario is that if the Coalition States start another war with us, we will of course expect a properous town to send food and able-bodied men and women to the war effort..." he makes a sweeping gesture, then brings his hands to his chest. "But it would be to protect all of us! It's no different than when we'd ask people from other cities to come here and protect you if you're under attack! Working together, we all prosper!" 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     "Sakamoto . . ." Gideon turns that one over for a few seconds, looking the guy up and down. "Japanese, right? I recognize some of the getup. Navy? Forgive me, it's been a while! Hahaha!" He nods with evident satisfaction when Oryou introduces herself, touching his chin with an appraising look. "And a man of fine taste as well." The last shake involved is especially firm. "Good work." he says.     He takes over pretty quickly from there though. "Don't be absurd! I wouldn't dream of demanding some kind of 'alliance' from your lovely town! In the first place, that isn't what G&K's business is anyways!" He makes motions at the card for the 'security consultancy' part. "One of our many services is providing the training, equipment, facilities, and strategic guidance necessary for an organization, such as your village here, to achieve independence, self-sufficiency, safety and peace of mind for all of its citizens. Leading experts in the industry! It's especially necessary for small communities like these, which aren't covered under the umbrella of a national military service, and which can't afford to permanently contract a private army, or worse, mercenaries."      Though he already looks perfectly in his element discussing business with a pretty lady, Gideon's tack becomes smoothly self-assured when Symon appears. He /instantly/ sees exactly how this is going to work. It's an absolutely classic situation. "My goal here, if you'll allow me, is to see to resolving the present situation, and then leave your wonderful town in its own, capable, adequately armed and trained, hands. Compensation is entirely negotiable of course --I wouldn't dream of asking anything up front, considering your current circumstances. Something so obvious as saving a woman's son is just common decency. Consider dealing with this 'Black Market' problem my demo pitch." 

:'''{{#var:6666|Kupot (6666)}} has posed:''' Kupot turns his gaze towards Gideon. It's hard to glare when your eyes are completely blocked. However, Kupot doesn't have the power to blockade this place. Does the Watch? "We can cover the nexus, kupo. And... convince kupo not to bother this place anymore." "I will kupo this for free." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Symon glances over Gideon and Ryouma and Dan. "I would enjoy discussing this at length another time, Mayor." He turns to leave, if others don't stop him.     Lithari takes a deep breath and turns to Gideon. "Now you can see what we're up against. Quebec, the Federation, the Black Market... and our town's caught in the middle." She seems to consider Gideon's offer more promising though. "Training us to defend ourselves... and then leaving us alone?" She sounds hopeful.     The Mayor looks at the group steadily. "You've proven yourselves as capable warriors when you rescued my son. So I have a request for you. I want you to locate where the Black Market is keeping my people and set them free. If you can bring them all back to town safely, I'll..."     Lithari's voice breaks, then she visibly steels herself and continues. "We'll all be very grateful. I cant offer you any money, and I can't promise to put the towns future in your hands. Im asking you to do this for me, as a personal favor." She smiles, relieved, at Kupot's agreement. 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     "Ah, it wasn't much work. I found her on a mountain one day, it was an accident." A fortunate one, really. Ryouma laughs. "Navy, yes. A fair long time ago, but I'm getting acclimated to the era slowly."     He wishes he could return those observations, but Gideon's getup isn't quite like anything he's seen. He could be air force, special ops, maybe regular army given his company.     It helps that Gideon's offer is a dozen times better than either the Federation's or Free Quebec's.     "Miss mayor, if I might? Commander Kaspar's offer here seems entirely to your advantage. I understand wanting to conserve your autonomy and way of life, and it sounds to me like neither Free Quebec nor the Federation will let you keep them. Answering now isn't necessary, I'm sure, but you should consider it strongly. Offers like these don't present themselves often."     Well, that's Gideon's job to finish selling his pitch, but Ryouma's impressed so far. As for the remaining matter... "Of course. We'll give the Black Market a few arguments to stop targetting your town, and then bring back any captives we can find. I don't need a fee, either."     Oryou would point out, if she was still about, that this is why they can't afford frog legs every day.     But she's probably managed to find some nice, big, weird megaversal frog right now, so she's not going to complain.     "There is one thing I'm curious about. What if we find other captives who have nowhere to go back to? Would you mind taking them in?" 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Dan now seems to be taking a moment to size the guys up. "If we knew we would have destroyed all of them long ago. It's a wild dream but turning off the nexus points would turn Earth back into a paradise." He looks to the Mayor for a moment and then to Gideon for a moment as he looks at them. "U-Round works well on demons and other supernatural keeps them from regenerating if you have them." He looks to Gideon for a moment "An off-world PMC? So a sales pitch still not a bad one." Gideon and his people seem human so that's a plus in their favour from his worldview. Not that he knows the terrible truth about Gideon's girls yet. He looks to the Mayor "I am not a cruel man I would personally have my unit escort anyone who had to leave to the nearest warp gate or to a safe point to get to Lazlo. I don't make the rules on that I'm a monster hunter mostly." Dan eyes the new guy and he just narrows his eyes at them. "Tch, the Federation traffic in Shifters the sort who let demons like the one who just hit here in the world and worse things." Oh ya there's a feud here very old one between the remaining tech powers and the Fed Magic. "It was the Fed MAgic that went to burn Chi-Town to the /ground/ and destroyed its great library of old world information in the process." 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     Considering he's just snubbed multiple aggressive/sleazy-looking competitors and immediately gotten lady mayor to pass them over and apparently strongly consider his offer, Gideon is in a pretty good mood. It is the kind of mood wherein he then starts showing off to prove how much the better man he is than the beta losers he is screwing out of their cut. His parting smile to Symon is a purely professional and courteous 'don't let the door hit your ass on the way out'.     "G&K claims no sovereignty rights, that's for certain. Ideally, I'd like to arrange something where a representative checks in on a set period to see that you're doing fine, ensure the continued quality of our services, and renegotiate for anything you might need. You see the idea, right? By investing here, your town is kept safe, and remains an independent intermediate territory between other nations, which means your town grows, becomes bigger and better off, and contracts further services from us, and so on and so forth. It's clearly in our best interests to see Garnet stay independent, and grow and flourish as a community, and I'm of the opinion that a clear economic interest is always more reliable than a promise."     At some nebulous point, Gideon has laughed and said "Then you have fantastically good fortune my friend!" to Ryouma, then at a later point "And a good head on your shoulders! I like your style." He pulls his hands out of his pockets and shrugs in the 'hey look, all the experienced vets in the room agree' way.     Ryouma's question is a good one. O'Niel apparently has his own offer. "That'd certainly make life easier. If at all possible, situating further civilians to help Garnet back on its feet after losing some good people would be a benefit, but there's no sense leaving anyone behind, is there? If you're offering to take care of it, then who am I to decline?"     "If I might ask, what exactly are U-rounds? Those sound like they're very necessary here, so I'd like to be as prepared as possible." "That, of course!" Gideon gets halfway through the motions of reaching for a chequebook and then stops. "Whoever manufactures them --do they take cash, credit, or cheque?" "More importantly, is it alright if I shoot any more daemons we see?" "Unless someone says no and gives a good reason in the next sixty seconds, I don't see why not." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Will they take in additional kidnapees? Lithani hadn't thought of that. "I'm sure we can find a place for a few people, but if this turns out to be some sort of huge operation..." She's not sure what, if then. Could the demons have kidnapped a whole other village? More? it's a troubling thought.     She nods at Gideon's explanation of the principles of business. "We may not be a big city, but with our people back we could easily have enough surplus food to trade."     "Weapons, around here? I'd have said the Black Market, but... maybe Northern Gun? They're a ways away, but traders sometimes come by..." Of course, such things would be easily available back in the more populated area they came from     Can we just shoot any demons we see? "Please do." Lithani replies. She's certainly had enough of the Brodkil. 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Dan look to Gideon for a moment. "Oh sorry about that local slang for Depleted Uranium rounds." 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     "Seems reasonable. It'd be harsh to ask you to shoulder more refugees than you can handle. One hopes their operations aren't too massive," Ryouma answers.     As for plans...     "Ah, do you have a map of the area I can borrow?"     He lacks the means to detect fancy installations, but give him a map, information, and a pen, and he'll be your man for making plans.     "Ah, if needed, I suppose Oryou could fly up until she sees anything out of the ordinary, but I'm afraid if they're hiding in the trees or have any sort of cover, that won't be much use." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "A map? There's not much out here, I'm afraid." The mayor draws the sideways U shape of the river in the dirt with her crutch, "here's the river," then adds in the dirt road -- coming south, crossing the river, following it to the town's location, then going south and crossing the river after its bend "the road... We're here." She makes an X at garnet town's location. "There's some ruins out that way," she indicates off to the west and northwest, "and that's about it."     Of course, anyone with high tech and a connection to a modern earth can grab geographical data of what this area looked like 400 years ago. 

:'''{{#var:6404|Gideon Kaspar (6404)}} has posed:'''     "I've never been to America until now, but a map should be easy to-" "Commander? Sorry about interrupting, but my radiation scanners are picking up a beta particle trail consistent with a nuclear vehicle crossing through our eastern sensor quadrant, north-south bound." "Like a nuclear sub?" "Probably just a nuclear truck . . . i-if that kind of thing is possible." Gideon looks to O'Niel with plainly evident 'Is it?' written on his face.     "I'll call the pilot. We're never lucky when it comes to timing, so we shouldn't let this slip." "We were lucky just an hour ago!" Quickly enough, Krys has the company chopper inbound again, a bit more of a distance from the gates. Neither she nor Gideon question the capabilities of one of 16Lab's secret 'ANTI-RAIN' models. Gideon offers to let whoever hop right on in, before it takes off to follow the signature. 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Dan looks to Gideoin for a moment "Pretty common way to power things cars, ATVs, trucks, Power Armors, homestead Micro nuclear reactors and batteris are pretty common power sources." He looks to them for a moment tiling his heads. "Scanners, wait you a borg, miss?" 

:'''{{#var:6736|Ryouma Sakamoto (6736)}} has posed:'''     Wait are they leaving RIGHT NOW?     Ryouma scrambles to follow, giving the mayor a polite nod on his way out. He whistles for Oryou to regroup with him, and when she emerges from wherever she had been, there's half of a frog sticking out of her mouth and another in her arms trying to wriggle free.     Both get onboard the chopper, and Oryou even makes an effort not to ruin it with her hair, though no promises on not getting frog juices everywhere.     She offers to share her snack with Ryouma, but he politely declines. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The party is off! Dan's glitterboy power armor can run along under the chopper, once he's retrieved it.     Heading east, the river bends to run north-south, and following it south for a bit, the party comes to a place on the river where there's more of those 'rewilded farmland' clearings on each side. The clearing to the east side is bordered by a cliff of a couple dozen feet or so, where an earthquake hit the area 300 years ago. A couple dozen tents are clustered on the east end of the clearing, and there's a campfire with a handful of brodkil gathered around it. They are cybernetically enhanced, most with at least one extra arm. Enhanced optical sensors can pick up that in the side of the cliff there's a cave, with a wooden grating on it. And people on the other side. Hmm.     The power signature is in the river. It... it couldn't actually be a nuclear river sub, right?     When the brodkil realize an actual honest to god /helicopter/ is here, they know trouble is coming and start mobilizing, picking up their guns and such.     And when a freaking /glitterboy/ comes through the trees, the source of the power reading finally reveals itself: A dark shape surfaces in the water, and then starts to walk onto the shore. A giant robot, 30' tall and painted black, with obvious missile racks on its shoulders and a belly energy turret. The robot looks like it is a mercenary vehicle, with several battle scars and old, weathered insignia. A stylized capital "S" has been marked on the right leg.     Everyone knows not to use lasers on a glitterboy, so it wastes no time putting those missiles to use. Dan is going to have his hands full.     Forager battlebot: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8d/49/f9/8d49f978ce7c287567c48b9ed6249eb1.jpg 
}}

6104/At least I Have Chicken... Wait, No I Don't, Let's Get Some Chicken

2018-10-12T04:56:24Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2018/10/11 |Location=New Bowmanville, RIFTS Earth |Synopsis=Staren and Seifer are tasked to buy chicken. Concorders tag along for a grocery trip, a..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/10/11
|Location=New Bowmanville, RIFTS Earth
|Synopsis=Staren and Seifer are tasked to buy chicken. Concorders tag along for a grocery trip, and run into some friends. Nyrinel and Inga win hearts and minds for creepy magic.
|Cast of Characters=42, 1086, 6739, 6726, 525, 6704, 7
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:''' <X-Concord-Chatter> 3 Count Kord says, "Staren, go get some chicken." <X-Concord-Chatter> 4 Tamamo no Mae says, "Staren, go get more chicken." <X-Concord-Chatter> 4 Seifer Almasy says, "Ugh, dammit. Hang on, man, I'll get a wheelchair or somethin', I'm sure the Moon Cell can do it. Don't feel right makin' you do her work." <X-Concord-Chatter> 4 Staren says, "I was just gonna send a robot." <X-Concord-Chatter> 4 Seifer Almasy says, "Ha ha yeah like hell you are." <X-Concord-Chatter> 4 Seifer Almasy says, "Yeah you're not sendin' a robot with a checklist. C'mon."     Staren sighs, and thinks out the logistics of this. He can't just go to AMATERASU's food court, they want raw meat to cook. What's relatively nearby in the warpgate network? His world is, but he doesn't want to go all the way to Lazlo... Wait a second. he doesn't have to.     Staren gets up from his desk, walks through the kitchen, down the spiral stairs, and it could almost seem to be the inside of a house if the windows didn't all provde a nice view of SPACE. He steps onto the teleport pad, steps out into the moonbase, and with some slow, loping strides, enters the warpgate.     Coming out of the warpgate, today's shoppers step into NEW BOWMANVILLE, the trading town that's sprung up around it. At a glance, it looks pretty modern, having been constructed in the last decade around the gate where there was nothing but open farmland before. It's a cool night, in the fifties farenheit, and two things stand out:     1. The people around are a mix from all over the multiverse. Humans are the largest minority, but the rest are countless species, everything from plantpeople to tentacled aliens and what not. There's a noticeable number of people going about armed and armored -- adventurers here to buy supplies.     2. The sky is lit up by something like a giant, electric-blue aurora that starts at the ground and goes up like a mile.     Staren waits for everyone to arrive and then starts looking around. "Okay, supermarket, supermarket... there's gotta be one here, people LIVE here."     Surveying the local storefronts, it's an eclectic mix. There are perhaps more adventurer supply stores -- survival gear, guns, and armor -- than most are used to. Also a lot of traders, importers, exporters and such -- the area around the gate is a trade hub, after all. Other than that it's a pretty normal modern mix. Sooner or later they'll come to a supermarket. 

:'''{{#var:1086|Seifer Almasy (1086)}} has posed:'''      Seifer Almasy is in a wheelchair.      This is because, about a week and change ago, he put himself in a Very Risky Situation to protect his Most Important Person. It hurt. A lot. He pulled it off and protected both her and his life, but it still hurt. So he's now in a wheelchair, covered in bandages, being pushed by a weird-looking machine-program-y-thing. He's still got Hyperion in his lap, because of course he does, and he's still wearing his white coat with the red crosses on the sleeves, because of course he is. He's got the smell of medical supplies lingering around him at the moment, which is, again, not surprising, if he's been bandaged up and basically immobile for that long.      The truth is, he's mostly just kinda stir-crazy. Being bored out of his mind with Caster is nice, but not being bored out of his mind is better. Not being bored out of his mind with Caster would be best, but since she's busy, he might as well go get stuff for her. Going alone is dangerous. Going in a big group, though, that's fine.      The sheer number of Weird-Looking People puts him off, but that's fine. He'll adapt. He does his best not to stare at them, or the sky, as the drone pushes him onwards.      "So you don't *actually* know if there's a market here," Seifer says to Staren in that 'Seifer's-not-impressed-with-your-train-of-logic' voice he does so well. 

:'''{{#var:6739|Nie Li (6739)}} has posed:'''     Although he's just a normal human at a glance, Nie Li might well stand out for his unusual outfit. Something of far east tastes, and not at all contemporary - or what could be considered contemporary for a dimensional melting pot, anyways.     His first reaction upon stepping out of the warp gate is an amount of wide-eyed, curious awe. Though he doesn't just stand there like a kid - he leaps off to the side to not block the way.     So much strange architecture. So many strange BEINGS walking the streets. And that power tingling his senses... "This place is teeming with heavenly energy! It's so dense, anyone can see it!" He gasps, as if this is an incomparably priceless treasure to come across.     At this point he becomes torn. The benefits of finding a secluded area to cultivate this power, versus checking out this Supermarket place. Decisions, decisions!     For now, though, he decides to stick with this impromptu factional outing and trail along with Staren. When Seifer arrives the boy looks over his shoulder, placing the voice quickly. And... the method of getting around. He can't help but wince a little at how laid up Seifer really is. "Whether one's here or not, it was well worth coming here. This place is a great find! Cultivating here will immensely help my growth." Whatever the hell THAT means.     With a kind and friendly, if casual tone, he asides to Seifer, "Is it broken bones or something else that keeps you down? If your body's... clogged by something, perhaps I can help. Broken bones will have to mend on their own, though." 

:'''{{#var:6726|Nyrinel (6726)}} has posed:''' Nyrinel is staring at the ley line. It's not really a surprise. It's huge, glowing, chock full of magic and super impressive. She's never seen anything quite like it -- or, no... no, she has, but it was contained to a singular location. This seems to run off towards the horizon. Never-ending. It's beautiful. It's... A huge distraction. She hustles to catch up to Seifer and Staren as they move through the town, picking her way past the weird people around with the ease of someone who grew up in a city. The weird weapons and armor keep drawing her eye, and it makes her look like a tourist with all the rubber-necking. She kind of is. "Everywhere has to have some place to barter for food, right?" Nyrinel ceases her wide-eyed gawking long enough to look at Seifer's condition. "You look like you got run over by a carriage. Did you lack a proper healer wherever you went? You should have called me." Nie Li keeps getting the suspicious side-eye from the elf. "Broken bones are no trouble if you know your craft," she says, with no small amount of pride. 

:'''{{#var:1086|Seifer Almasy (1086)}} has posed:'''      "Caster's been taking care of me fine," Seifer tells Nyrinel, "An' that 'My Room' thing on the Moon Cell has healing properties. Just took a lotta damage. I took a Noble Phantasm to the face and bounced it back on its user to protect her durin' the last Fest."      "Thanks for the offer, though."      He shrugs at Li. "It's fine. Just took a ton of damage all at once, that's all."      He's also doing the tourist thing a little. 

:'''{{#var:525|Inga (525)}} has posed:''' This is not usually where Inga would come to do her shopping. These days, she doesn't leave Dun Realtai very often. When she did come to do shopping she couldn't do in Dun Realtai, this still wouldn't be where she would normally go. But, alas, there are things she is craving she can't get there, and thus she's had to venture out. Probably good for her anyway. So she's carefully strolling down the street where the group is gathering, her walking stick in one hand working to off-set her limp a bit, an empty woven basket resting in the crook of her elbow on the other. She's dressed in her viking age best, a blue wool dress pinned at the shoulder with silver brooches over a white linen underdress, a light cloak thrown over her shoulders. The long white braid of her hair hangs over one shoulder. She's been in the multiverse for a while now, but some of the beings she sees here still give her pause. She begins to wonder if she will be able to find the relatively mundane things she needs at the moment here. Though, maybe there's a merchant that might have some of the stranger things she's in the market for. The energy of the leyline hums through her in a familiar sort of way, however, putting her a little more at ease. At least if something happens to her, she knows she won't have to go far. And it is beautiful. She wonders what world this is? While wondering, she spots a familiar profile and tilts her head curiously. She approaches. "Hello Staren," she greets, looking to the small group that seems to be assembling. She recognizes Seifer as well, though its been a long time and she's not so sure he'd remember her. As she can't help but overhear talk of broken bones, she blinks. "Indeed, broken bones are not so difficult normally--certain breaks are obviously more tricky to heal using...what I would deem conventional methods," she nods in agreement with Nyrinel. Magically, it's usually a piece of cake. 

:'''{{#var:6704|Solty Revant (6704)}} has posed:'''      Part shopping, part exploring, another unusual-looking person is wandering about the area. With green hair done up in a style that looks like it should be impossible and pointed furry ears like two green cones sticking out sideways on her head, Solty Revant is pretty visible no matter where she goes. And if that wasn't enough, her outfit is pretty unusual as well. She doesn't really have a list, she is just out shopping for a gift and wanted to see another world.      But, seeing Seifer in a wheelchair is enough to draw her over, and her ears perk a bit as she catches the conversation. "Mr. Seifer!" she calls out as she approaches, raising a hand to wave to him, but when she gets closer she blinks a few times. "Wow...you really do look like you were run over by a carriage. Are you alright?" she says, then pauses. "...what's a carriage? Is that like a car?"      Although Solty looks mostly like a normal human, anyone with special senses or scanners would be able to tell something is unusual about her. And while Seifer is the primary person she addresses since she met him before she still takes the time to bow politely to each person in the group with him before smiling and introducing herself. "Hello. My name is Solty Revant. It's nice to meet all of you!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "I usually just pass through!" Staren retorts. "But I figured why drive all the way over there," he points west, parallel to the line, although there's nothing to see with buildings in the way, "when there's gotta be something here? Sorry I can't just check google maps on my phone, they don't have that kind of global standard... Hmm, maybe..." His eyes focus somewhere else, but while he's fiddling with the computer, more people keep showing up, including one unexpected. "Inga? What're you doing here?" Not accusatory, just surprised. It's not really her sort of place... Then again, with all the farms around, maybe she's helping one of them?     And then Solty runs over. Staren looks between her and Seifer. "Uhhh... you two know eachother?"     The place where they've all stopped is, conveniently, in front of a grocery store. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Shopping and she's always heard there were interesting bits of hardware and tech on Staren's world so why not though she wasn't quite ready to see the ruins of the SkyDome and CN Tower though, she had her little you blew it up, you hosers, moment. It's just by chance she's come here. Kotone in her stealth gear body suit to given its Staren's homeworld like hell she's not going there armed. She's been looking for gear and debating over some Wilks or Iron Gun gear the Wilks get her attention though. "Mmm I should get one of these for Shen and Valen to play with." She'll pick up the laser pistol and rifle and shove them into her MM unit. Then she sees Staren, Solty and Seiger whom she bounces over to. "Staren! Solty! Seifer!" 

:'''{{#var:1086|Seifer Almasy (1086)}} has posed:'''      Seifer does not remember Inga.      It's not personal. Seifer doesn't remember a lot of people. It's not something he advertises. He holds up a hand at Solty and says, "Hey," and that would lead one to believe that he remembers her, but in truth, her name's gone, too. Names are one of the first things to go.      "I split a big sword beam with my gunblade to protect Caster, then I turned it back on the guy usin' it," he says to Solty, "Hurt like hell, but I'll be OK. Mostly we're out on an errand for Caster. Gettin' some chicken for whatever the hell a katsu is." He shrugs and nods at Kotone. "Hey."      "I know a lotta cute girls," Seifer says to Staren. 

:'''{{#var:525|Inga (525)}} has posed:''' Inga looks over toward the grocery store, blinking in surprise. Oh, that's just what she needed. "Well, that is fortuitous," she comments, before looking back toward Staren. "I needed to go shopping for a few things I cannot get in Dun Realtai. Decided to try a different neighborhood," she replies. "Are you....all out shopping together?" she asks. Does the Concord have group shopping field trips? Inga looks to Solty, who introduces herself. Inga flashes a quick, polite smile. "A pleasure to meet you. I am Inga Freyjasdottir," she replies. She looks to all the others she isn't acquianted with and nods to them as well, so she doesn't need to repeat herself. Seeing no recognition from Seifer, she resists the urge to roll her eyes. People. Kotone though, is familar. "Kotone, it has been a long time," she says with a sheepish smile--expecting she might get yelled at for falling off the face of the multiverse for a while. 

:'''{{#var:6726|Nyrinel (6726)}} has posed:''' Nyrinel frowns slightly at Seifer's insistence that He'll Be Fine, but doesn't press the subject. She doesn't do that sort of wound-banishment for free, anyway, and he doesn't seem like the type to like being indebted to basically anyone. Inga at least knows what's up; she flashes her a brief smile and inclines her head in a professional courtesy sort of way. Solty gets a once-over. Something strikes Nyrinel as off about her. She does introduce herself though: "Nyrinel, of House Syneri. A carriage is... what is a car?" Blink, blink. She idly tucks a stray hair back behind her horn-ridge and one ear, gently touching what looks like a white pin with a tiny bird skull affixed to the end. Her eyes sliiide towards the storefront... Nyrinel all but presses herself to the glass to peer inside. It's... a lot more than she's used to. "Woah." 

:'''{{#var:6704|Solty Revant (6704)}} has posed:'''      Solty blinks before blushing a bit. She's a cute girl? She smiles a bit shyly before giggling. She naturally assumes Seifer remembers her thanks to his greeting and his comment. Staren speaks up and she nods. "We met in..." She suddenly looks uncomfortable. "...well...it wasn't a good place. It was full of some kind of acid and I had to leave because I told Roy I wouldn't get in trouble while I was out. It was a mess because it was my first time outside my world and Roy was so worried already, so when I got back he thought he was right and tried to get me to stay in the apartment forever." She shakes her head and sighs. "But I can't do that, can I? There's so much to see, and I can help people!" She gives a determined double fist pump.      Kotone greets her and Solty smiles happily before giving Kotone a hug. "Kotone! It's so good to see you! How have you been?"      She bows to Inga as well, though looks surprised to meet a grown up who is shorter than her. Still, she smiles warmly to her, and to Nyrinel as well. When asked what cars are, Solty is happy to answer! "Cars are big machines that can be driven around a town to get you to places, and they can usually carry other people. I'm not entirely sure how they work, but I know they have some kind of engine." She pauses. "Does everyone keep their radios so loud that you can't hear anything? Roy turns his up every time we have to go somewhere. It makes it really hard to talk to him!"      Judging by how talkative the young green-haired girl is, that might be the idea. 

:'''{{#var:6739|Nie Li (6739)}} has posed:'''     There's a LOT of people here who seem to know each other. Nie Li's not familiar with any of them, and while he's hardly afraid to introduce himself, he's decided to stay back and observe some of the socializing - listening and watching - to better grasp the local customs, such as they are.     Boy are they quite different from what he's used to. A lot more bluntness everywhere!     The boy adopts a deeply thoughtful look that one would rarely if ever see on a thirteen-year-old, and folds his arms while facing the group. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Kotone! Fancy meeting you here!" Staren smiles and waves back. To Inga, he replies, "Not all of us, but it seems we all ended up here..."     He looks between Solty and Nyrinel. His ears perk up and turn behind him at the distinct sound of a heavy vehicle's pneumatic breaks. He turns and points. "A car is like that but smaller, for fewer people." He points down the block to where a bus is dropping off passengers. "A carriage is a wheeled enclosure people ride in that's pulled by animals."     He claps his hands together. "Shall we see about the chicken?" Not that he's trying to exclude anyone. It's a fairly modern supermarket, not that different from 20th century. Sliding automatic doors, shopping carts. The tech to do it all automatically exists in theory, but here they still have human -- or other species -- cashiers. Produce, dairy, meat, deli, bread, snacks, and so on, they have it all. There /are/ a lot of farms around here to source from, so there's plenty fresh. There's also the occasional weird thing that's come through the gate, or how the most expensive item in the seafood section is 'lake monster'...     Perhaps the most obvious difference to people from Earth is the lack of a bazillion brand-name selections. There isn't a whole America, let alone world, full of brands -- There are three big cities in the local trade area, plus whatever comes by hovertrain from Northern Gun (the upper Michigan peninsula). So brands include more local mom-and-pop stuff. And there's a lower proportion in general, of processed food and snacks and stuff, though it's still there.     "Wow, a lot of people here today... are you all shopping for groceries too?" Staren asks idly as he waits for the group to come in and sees whether they indeed go for the meat section or end up going after something else. 

:'''{{#var:525|Inga (525)}} has posed:''' "Ugh, cars. Cars are unpleasant," she remarks, then smiles sympathetically toward Nyrinel. "It is very overwhelming at first, isn't it?" she says. "It still overwhelming, honestly." Inga's eye is drawn toward the bird-skull pin and her mouth forms a small o of admiration. "Oh, that is a beautiful pin," she remarks. It's just her style. She regrets leaving all but one talisman behind today--her ever-present necklace with the hammer shaped pendant. She had a number of very nice skulls. She smiles to the decidely perky Solty, chuckling quietly. Must be nice to have energy like that. Inga glances toward Nie Li, who has been fairly quiet, and nods to him. "And you are?" she asks. She looks back to Staren and shrugs. "Yes, I suppose we should. Are you familiar with the area Staren? There's a few things I need that I will not find in a super market I'd like to look into purchasing," she asks, following him toward the meat section. 

:'''{{#var:1086|Seifer Almasy (1086)}} has posed:'''      "Lots of chicken, twenty millimeter diameter sheep casings, five pounds of ground beef," Seifer says to Staren when he says 'shall we see about.' "I'm sure she'll want some other stuff, too, so we'll just see if she needs anything else."      Solty recounts how they met, and Seifer nods. "Yeah that place is pretty miserable."      Seifer's never been in a supermarket before, exactly, but he's been in a large-scale cafeteria, and it's basically the same thing. Rather than being overwhelmed like everybody else, this time, Seifer actually seems sort of at home. This is probably a subtle hint for Staren, who's always kind of curious about Seifer's world, that Seifer's world is at least *reasonably* modern.      Seifer whacks Staren on the back. "Pretty generous of you to pay for all this stuff. Man, what's /sea monster/ even taste like? Do they do free samples or whatever?" 

:'''{{#var:6739|Nie Li (6739)}} has posed:'''     Somehow able to realize that question was for him even when he wasn't looking at Inga, Nie Li turns her way and offers a child's smile. "Nie Li! I came out here to see the sights with my new allies. And yourself, miss?"     He doesn't just stay there though. He follows on with Staren into the store, still distracted by the urge to Cultivate and do something with this amazingly abundant energy.     But then.... the well-stocked shelves assault him with their great variety of foods. He's left gaping a bit at this after entering!     "This... is a store?" It's not like any store he's seen before. 

:'''{{#var:6704|Solty Revant (6704)}} has posed:'''      With so much noise around and super hearing, Solty just naturally overlooks Nie Li. But, when Inga mentions him Solty blinks before looking over and offers a friendly wave. "New worlds are so amazing, aren't they? So many things that are different, yet things that are also the same!" she says cheerfully. When asked about shopping, Solty shakes her head. "I actually was just exploring a bit while looking for a gift for Roy. His birthday is coming up and I want to get him something good so he might not be so grumpy. But...we still don't know each other that well. I'm not sure what to get him.      Solty isn't surprised by the lack of different brands. Her world is really just one city, and most of the shops are street vendors. 

:'''{{#var:6726|Nyrinel (6726)}} has posed:''' Nyrinel stops peering at the selection from outside long enough to see a bus. She blinks a few times, then nods. "Ah! I see. That is..." She trails off. It's actually a little bit unnerving, but only because she doesn't understand precisely how it works. She's seen animated conveyances before, but there's usually a necromantic component driving it all. That's... a lot of metal. "Yes," she sighs at Inga, "it is. I think I prefer the forest, or at least a... a... /quieter/ city." Nyrinel brightens visibly at the compliment. "Thank you! You are the first person to say so since I made it. Everyone else always has so many reasons to be bothered by it. Throwing away perfectly good bones...!" She shakes her head. Then she starts to look around. There's an awful lot of... an awful lot. She doesn't touch anything; she's just... taking it all in. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods to Inga, "Depending on what you're looking for, we can probably find a lot here."     Pretty generous of you to pay for all this stuff.     Staren's eyes widen slightly and there's a brief conversation on the radio. Years ago, Staren would have firmly insisted he never agreed to pay for anything, but now he can see the bit of social capital it would cost. He predicts that a few hundred credits is more than reasonable, but doesn't want to seem stingy, so he offers Tamamo a thousand. She freaking /doubles/ it. At least it's a two thousand credit lesson, and not a two hundred thousand credit lesson. Staren reaches under his coat to pull a wallet from his pants, and picks out a pair of black cards. They look like credit cards, but they're all-black, and have no visible magnetic strip or 'chip', the technology all hidden inside. Looking closely, one can see the number 1000 standing out in shiny finish vs the matte finish of the rest of the card.     Staren hands them to Seifer. "Here's your budget."     He then takes a moment to catch up on what else Seifer even said. "I dunno... and I doubt it, you probably have to cook it first. But you can get some if you want to try it."     Staren turns to Nie Li. "Yeah. You put all the stuff you want in a basket, then you pay for it over there." He points to the row of cashiers. 

:'''{{#var:525|Inga (525)}} has posed:''' She smiles at Nie Li. "Inga," she tells him. "You have just joined with the Concord then? Are you new to the multiverse?" she asks, selecting some sausages and adding them to the basket on her arm. She can't get too many things, she wouldn't be able to carry it all. "Mmm, the 'supermarket' is well named. You can get almost anything you need in a supermarket. The animals a pre-slaughtered and cut up for your convenience--you need not even be involved. Strange isn't it?" she remarks. Inga looks toward the 'sea monster' and purses her lips. "Fishy, I imagine," she answers Seifer. "You could probably ask for a sample," she adds with a shrug. Inga looks back to Nyrinel, brightening. "I am used to that reaction as well--I most of my talismans and charms at home. Bones are some of the best material for crafting talismans," she says, obviously more than happy to talk shop, hoping she's found someone she has things in common with. "I agree, cities like this can be very overwhelming. You must visit Dun Realtai--that is where I have made my home now. Beautiful country, a fairly quiet village, land-spirits that are more or less ameniable," she explains, picking through the market's selction of fresh herbs. There's a few exotic offerings she keen to try. At Staren's comment, she looks back to him. "I'm looking for bones--femurs specifically. I need to mend my bone fence and femurs are so difficult to come by." 

:'''{{#var:1086|Seifer Almasy (1086)}} has posed:'''      Seifer takes his two thousand and grins at Staren. "Sorry, man. She's kind of a handfull. I'll pay you back later." He says it in the way that clearly means he's fond of her handfull status and not upset by it, but he's also the kind of guy who dislikes being in debt. He counts out the money and gets himself wheeled up to get stuff. Sea monster does, in fact, go into his Handicap Cart (he has to have one right now, it's fine), as well as the ground beef, the sheep casings, and plenty of chicken. All in all he comes well under two thousand credits, and hands Staren back the rest, because Seifer is neither a picky eater nor a particularly outrageous shopper. The only thing that might stand out is some flavored breads of the type popular in Japanese schools, and those he only got a few of.      "Here."      "So are these usually so many, uh..." He looks around. "...aliens?"      He shrugs at Inga. "I'm just gonna buy some. Chances are Caster can cook it up and make it taste good. If not, hey, I'll have learned that I don't wanna eat sea monster. Not much of a cook myself. Honestly not much of an eater myself. Mostly just ate what the cafeteria was serving." 

:'''{{#var:6704|Solty Revant (6704)}} has posed:'''      "You guys use...bones to make things...?" Solty asks much more quietly than usual. She isn't sure why, but that unnerves her a bit. She doesn't dwell on it long though. It makes a certain sort of sense when she thinks about it. "Hmm...what else do you do with bones? Bury them? Throw them away? At least they are getting used for something if you make something out of them. But...I'm not sure I would wear them. That seems...um..." She doesn't finish that as she realizes it would probably be rude. And she still shivers a bit at the idea of a bone fence. She looks at Nyrinel's pin again, then decides silently that such fashion just isn't her thing before moving on.      Sea monster sounds interesting, but she isn't sure. "Hmm...Roy probably wouldn't want any, but...Rose might. She seems to like unusual things." So, Solty asks for some of the sea monster. Then she looks around some more, following after the others as they go. "...what would a Hunter like...maybe some armor...do they have that here?" she says as she looks around at the various shelves.      When Staren hands Seifer some money, Solty's ears perk before she smiles. "That's nice of you!" Since they presumably don't have tactical armor of any kind at a supermarket, she pays for her monster meat as well and continues to follow the others. 

:'''{{#var:1086|Seifer Almasy (1086)}} has posed:'''      "My wife bullied him into giving me a budget," Seifer tells Solty, "'swhy I'm paying him back. I don't like bein' in debt to anybody." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa grins at Inga. "It's been a while I hope you're well, Inga. It's kinda strange to see Toronto like this I have to admit." She grins at Seifer and also looks to Solty for a moment grinning still. "I'm doing well been on a few missions for the Paladins and generally kept busy by my other work." She takes note of Nie Li for a moment but does not think too much of it for the moment. He might just be a local. "Came to shop for some hardware, maybe even see if there's any good new hardware to plug into my body here." she looks to Nyrinel for a moment tol;ting her head a bit. "Oh chicken like actual Chikcen?" She walks in plotting to get some shopping done as she's here. 

:'''{{#var:6704|Solty Revant (6704)}} has posed:'''      Solty blinks in surprise. "Oh, I see. That wasn't so nice." she says, her ears drooping a bit. Then she blinks. "Wait...you're married?" She considers a moment more. "...to...Miss Caster?" She smiles brightly. "That's nice! You two seem to get along very well!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks like the subject Inga brought up is an awkward one. He lowers his voice. "Ah... necromancy is generally frowned upon around here. Too many bad associations, even if it has legitimate uses. I bet Nyrinel knows where to hook you up, though." As an afterthought, he says less softly, stroking his chin. "Actually, I guess just using a bone for a talisman isn't /that/ connected to it. More of a general mystical thing. Might be able to find something at some kind of magic supply store. But Nyrinel might be a better source, all the same. I imagine for making such fences you need quantity."     Staren's eyebrows raise in surprise and he looks appreciative as Seifer says he'll pay him back. He's not THAT hard up for money yet, but it's the principle of the thing -- so Seifer wasn't /really/ trying to get free money out of him after all. He nods.     Staren's own purchase is just some ground beef. He didn't need to go shopping at the moment, but hey, may as well take the opportunity for fresh hamburgers or that meat/noodle thing he knows how to cook.     "Lake monster." Staren softly corrects, multiple times. It's not a sea, and he doesn't want Seifer to be disappointed because lake monster doesn't taste like sea monster or somesuch.     At the question, Staren scratches the back of his head. "Yeah. This is..." he pulls a tablet from his pocket, displays a map of the great lakes region, and traces a rough 200-mile semicircle with his fingertip -- from Detroit, to halfway between Toronto and Sudbury, to halfway between Toronto and Ottawa, with lakes Erie and Ontario serving as the southeastern border. "This is one of the few places where nonhumans and magic users are totally accepted, and is relatively far away from the places they /aren't/, and is prosperous and protected enough for places like this" he waves a hand at the supermarket around them "to exist, and of course the warpgate is right here, so... anyway, that makes it a great place for anyone to settle, regardless of their species."     To Solty, he notes, "I know we passed like two armorers on the way here..." 

:'''{{#var:6739|Nie Li (6739)}} has posed:'''     Nie Li nods to Staren's explanation, but his attention's largely on Inga for the moment. "It's not as though my home city has no stores in it... but most of the time, one asks the storekeeper for a thing. They're not all... arranged for the taking. Nothing truly valuable..." The sheer variety of this place though, is hard to get over. He's mostly just staring at the shelves as he begins to browse.... 

:'''{{#var:525|Inga (525)}} has posed:''' To Solty, Inga nods. "Yes, bones are used for many things...why waste them if they can be used?" she asks. She doesn't expect her to understand the use of bones in magic. She understands many find this distasteful--just as they do her blood magic. Usually, they only complain a little when it is being used to help keep them alive though. Inga nods to Kotone. "Indeed it has. I'm....well enough," she says. There's a distinct pause, but she shrugs and looks back to her shopping and prior conversations. To Staren, she blinks. "It is not necromancy--it is a bone fence. You know, the very thing I have used to protect many people who would otherwise have been turned to zombies or horrible fishmen," she replies. "I need only a small quantity, for repairs. Bones are best for their magical quality, but they do not keep forever," she explains. She's moved on from herbs and is selecting some fruit that's now out of season for home. "It is very strange when you are used to more limited offerings. Look at this. Oranges. I'd never tasted one before. They only grow in climated that are warm most of the year--right next to apples, the only thing that is in season in Dun Realtai just now." 

:'''{{#var:6726|Nyrinel (6726)}} has posed:''' Nyrinel ends up with an armful of fruit as she passes by it. She seems content to carry it around instead of going back for a basket. "There is nothing wrong with wearing bone," says the elf girl wearing a bunch of it in the form of body armor. Seriously, it's kind of a theme for her. "I know a great many people who will wear leather, but for some reason are off-put by using another part! It is an excellent medium for holding enchantments. Also, when it is worked properly, it can be very pretty." She minutely adjusts the pin again. "The skull is a little much I suppose, but I needed something that spoke or sang to use instead of a 'phone.'" "Femurs are good for weapon-making. I do not think I know how to make this bone fence you are talking about, but I most certainly know some amount of necromancy." She does not keep her voice down. "I am not a necroman/cer/, though. I am a cleric of the Eternal Elements. It is /totally/ different." Nod! She looks to Inga, asiding, "I am still looking for a place to source materials that are not foreign battlefields, but if I find one, I will be certain to tell you. I need some pieces for a teapot I am making." 

:'''{{#var:1086|Seifer Almasy (1086)}} has posed:'''      "Yeah, to Caster," Seifer confirms at Solty, "She's great. And, yeah, we get along real well." He's got a bit of smile on his face. He apparently does, in fact, mean it. He's...a guy who goes head-first in all ways, apparently.      "And it's weird, right?! Wearin' an' makin' stuff out of people is weird. 'snot just me, right?" He looks at Solty for confirmation, then looks at Inga and Nyrinel and shakes his head. "I mean come on, drinkin' out of a teapot made of some dude is just weird. Clothes are one thing, I can kinda get clothes. But I couldn't eat off a guy's skull. I can't believe there's two people out here who'd do that."      Seifer shrugs. "Ehn, I've gone down this road before. Although, seriously, why /don't/ you just use a phone?" 

:'''{{#var:6704|Solty Revant (6704)}} has posed:'''      "What sort of work do you actually do anyway, Miss Kotone?" Solty asks when the subject comes up. "Are you a Hunter, too? Roy has been a hunter for a long time, but he was really surprised when you hacked into that guy. Apparently Resemble stuff doesn't have wireless communication built in and you've caused a bit of an investigation into how it was possible for you to hack him. So far they haven't been able to find the devices in the Resemble equipment that allowed you to do that."      Staren corrects her and Solty looks a bit sheepish. "Ah, sorry. Lake monster." she says, then hmms. "I will have to go check one of these armorers. But, it has to be light. Roy likes to be able to move quickly and quietly."      Solty nods lightly to Inga, then blinks at the point Nyrinel makes before she puts a fist to her chin in thought. "That...is unusual. I wonder why that is?" she says quietly. Even she, a pre-programmed being, has that preconception. She takes a closer look at Nyrinel's clothing and accessories....probably too close a look, since she definitely invades Nyrinel's personal space. Just before she jumps back. "Out of people?!" she exclaims as Seifer says that. She looks quite horrified by the idea of products made out of people. 

:'''{{#var:525|Inga (525)}} has posed:''' Inga nods in agreement with Nyrinel. "Indeed, it seems a bit silly to happily use leather and then scoff at bone," she says, shaking her head. She nods also to Nyrinel's quiet aside, giving her a look that implies she would be interested if and when she does find a reliable source. To Seifer, she rolls her eyes. "I did not say it needed to be people--most of my talismans are animal," she says, then taps a finger to her chin. "I think the exception is my finger bones--those are human. But he very much deserved it," she adds, reaching over to try a free sample. It's not lake monster. Just cookies. "I do not have a phone either. I did for a time, but it kept...breaking..." she says, trailing off and reaching to her earing, a pearl. That's her phone, essentially. She shakes her head after a moment, and eats the cookie. "When did you marry Seifer? Suppose I missed the wedding." She probably wouldn't have been invited anyway. 

:'''{{#var:1086|Seifer Almasy (1086)}} has posed:'''      "Like a month ago. It's...complicated." Seifer holds up his left hand, and there's the signature, twisting red of Command Spells on the back. They're twined around his hand sort of like a fingerless glove, a big red *crest* just...there. "Caster's my Servant. I agreed to be her Master for...a buncha reasons. But she calls me her Husband, and, honestly, I like her. So...y'know. Worse things in the world than having a foxy wife."      "Like actually a fox," he adds, making a motion with his fingers, "Like she's got tails and ears and shit. It's cute."      "We haven't had a wedding yet. I promised her we would, though, so we could show up that damn red empress." Seifer leans back in the wheelchair as the drone gives an amusing thumbs-up motion, then a thumbs-down at the 'red empress.' "A big festival of some kind once we've got more people livin' on Moon Cell. I dunno, probably some fightin' stuff. Haven't really thought about it. Everybody'll be invited, though. Knowin' Caster she wouldn't have it any other way."      "An', hey, look, I ain't got a problem with animal bones an' crap, I just feel weird about makin' stuff outta dudes." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     A few people in earshot look over at the skull-bedecked girl saying the word 'necromancer' and find somewhere else to be. People are people, even near the city that espouses tolerance, it seems.     To Inga, he replies, "I know, but talking about bone magic... Not /everyone/ here knows the difference. We might find something at a magic supply store, though." Oranges! "Well, globalization /is/ one of the reasons that people like such worlds. Although I'm not sure those oranges are actually from /this/ dimension. Unless they were grown with magic."     Wearing clothes made out of people? "Ehh... I think maybe there's something to it, for mages. Magic and life are connected in a lot of worlds. Here, battlemages prefer armor made from the hides or chitin of supernatural beasts. What kinds of power might you get from a /person/, if they were willing? It's not often looked into, but there's potential for magic there, I'm sure."     His ears turn to catch Seifer talking about his future wedding. "You're deliberately trying to show up Nero? That's, uh... that's gonna be quite a wedding."     He's not sure whether he should be near, to see it, or far, to keep away from whatever chaos Nero vs Tamamo results in. 

:'''{{#var:525|Inga (525)}} has posed:''' Inga's eyebrows rise. "A month. Ah...well...congratulations," she says. It's a bit of a bizarre story, but if he says he's married, well, good enough. He has some kind of symbol of the thing, even if there wasn't a wedding yet. That counts. "Who is the red empress?" she inquires. Her basket is full, and thus she is done shopping. It's all she can carry, and she's tired. She looks a bit enviously at Seifer's wheeled chair. Inga nods to Staren. "I understand, I'll talk no more of it then," she says. She hasn't even gotten into blood magic, goodness. 

:'''{{#var:6726|Nyrinel (6726)}} has posed:''' "Because I have no idea what that is," Nyrinel mumbles about phones, "and it has gotten to the point that it is sort of embarrassing to ask." Nyrinel's outfit is a big, loose robe in off-white over mail that looks like a mix of blue-dyed scales and bone-white slats made to mimic ('mimic'?) a spinal column from some long-backed beast, curling up her back, over her shoulder and spreading down her chest. There's bits of bone reinforcement from foot to waist, and even the pins in her braid seem to be made of the stuff. "Human remains are plentiful when my people are fighting a war for survival against them," Nyrinel states frankly. "Further, the Elements demand sacrifice and appeasement, and creating things from them is one way to provide it. When I create art, I venerate Bone." She eyes the backs of the people kind of giving her a wide berth, but just kind of 'humph's and moves on. "...besides," she adds, a little more soberly, "having what's left of you turned to something that will help your family and your people when you have passed is the only chance many elves have for some measure of eternal life." 

:'''{{#var:1086|Seifer Almasy (1086)}} has posed:'''      Seifer holds out his phone for Nyrinel to see. Then he takes the money back from Staren and holds it out to her. "Here. Take the rest of this and go buy yourself a phone. I'll pay him back. It's a shitload more convenient than a talkin' goddamn bird skull."      "'s still weird, but I can see all that from your perspective." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren feels a little bit bad now for messing up one of Inga's conversation topics.     But there's a lot of other stuff going on to respond to! He compresses the tablet down to a smartphone shape. "It's a communications device!" he exposits to Nyrinel. "From 'telephone', 'far sound', once portable ones become affordable on a world, they get pretty popular. And a lot of worlds figure, well, since you're always carrying it anyway, may as well make it do more stuff, so it becomes an all-purpose personal device, which you can use not only to talk to people but also to send pictures, or look up information, or play games, or listen to music. So, uh, that's a phone."     He hangs his head slightly when she brings up her species' lifespan. "We still need to do those experiments." he comments, softly and somberly. 

:'''{{#var:525|Inga (525)}} has posed:''' Inga nods to Nyrinel. "Yes, that makes a great deal of sense to me," she replies. "I have used the bones of the people who lost the battle in order to protect the loved ones they left behind. If it were me, I would be pleased my bones were put the that purpose," she adds, finding somewhere to sit. She sighs, glad to get off her feet for a bit. She places her basket down and places both hands on her walking stick--which is also a talisman, carved all over with runes and staves. It's okay Staren, she's capable of talking about non-creepy things, honest! "I prefer this...pearl thing I have. I could seem to manage a phone." 

:'''{{#var:6704|Solty Revant (6704)}} has posed:'''      Solty listens to all of this, then squirms a bit in discomfort. It makes a sort of sense, but...she doesn't think she'll ever agree with the use of human bones in anything other than proper burial. But, phones! "Roy keeps a phone with him, but he doesn't use it much except to call Miss Miranda about Hunter stuff. I have one, too!" She pulls out a phone that would be old by most world's standards, a black flip phone. She opens it and shows it to Nyrinel and Inga and anyone else who wants to see. 

:'''{{#var:6726|Nyrinel (6726)}} has posed:''' Nyrinel looks at Solty and Seifer's phones quizzically, and then listens to Staren's explanation. It's a bit reluctantly, but she takes the money. "This is... er..." She looks kind of conflicted. Then, heaving a sigh, she turns around and... heads back towards the front of the store? She comes back a moment later with a basket with her fruit in it. She hustles and bustles a little, moving lightly on her feet and quickly from place to place. She ends up coming back with an almost comically large leg of meat, holding it by the bone. She points it at Seifer like a scepter or a sword and clears her throat. Her free hand (the basket is set at her feet) is held with her palm facing him. "Flesh, feast upon thy imperfections. Blood, drink deeply of thy impurities. Bone, crack and crumble 'til thou art mended anew. Spirit, know thine own shape, and bind it to this the broken whole." Nyrinel touches the leg of meat she's holding with her free hand and pulls something like wispy white light out of it, then touches the light to Seifer's brow. It's warm. The light vanishes the instant it makes contact with him, briefly illuminating his injured body. The leg she's holding immediately crumbles to dust. 

:'''{{#var:1086|Seifer Almasy (1086)}} has posed:'''      Nyrinel heals him.      It's good healing. It's powerful magic. There's not enough there to fully heal him of his wounds, but there is enough there to let him stand. He stands up out of the wheelchair, a little bit shaky since he hasn't used his legs in about a week, and almost immediately stumbles. Then he rights himself. He has an incredible sense of balance, considering; most people probably would've fallen.      "Damn."      "OK, that's pretty handy." 

:'''{{#var:525|Inga (525)}} has posed:''' Inga lets out a small laugh to Solty, looking at her phone. "Who is this Roy you keep mentioning?" she has to ask. She's sure she'll have more questions. Then Nyrinel gets her rapt attention once she returns with a large leg of meat and begins to, obviously, cast a spell. As she is aiming it at Seifer, Inga presumes this is one of her healing spells, likely to mend bone. "Oohh...that is fascinating," she says, then moves over to examine Seifer more closely to see the effects of the spell. She will get in her personal space without a second thought, as only healers and creeps do. "That is good work," she nods to Nyrinel. "I generally use blood in my healing," she says. "They would not appreciate the use of it in the store however--but I believe Seifer has been on the recieving end of my healing before," she says with a smile. He's not likely to have forgotten having shimmery blood thrown at him that heals him. 

:'''{{#var:6704|Solty Revant (6704)}} has posed:'''      Solty isn't sure she likes the poem, but her eyes get as big as saucers at the display of healing magic and she lets out a rising 'oooooh!'. "That's amazing!" Somehow using bones to make talismans is weird but using a ham hock to heal someone isn't as much. "You're all b-" she starts to say, then Seifer stumbles and she instinctively moves to catch him. And with speed like hers it is nearly instantaneous. Even though it turns out he doesn't need her help he ends up with it anyway. "Well...mostly better I guess." Solty says with a giggle. She lets Seifer go, then smiles to Inga. "Roy is...well, he's...my dad I guess. He adopted me, but it hasn't felt right to call him dad yet. I tried once and he got kind of mad. See...his real daughter died in the Blast Fall about 10 years ago, and he lost his wife during childbirth so...he's still very touchy about it. But, I know he cares about me because he lets me stay with him and doesn't like me to be in danger!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren heads off to get Seifer some local fish, because the poor man has never tasted /salmon/, for crying out loud!     And then... Dramatic healing! Noone finds /that/ offputting here. There's some impressed 'ooo's from bystanders, and one human couple nearing middle age dares to approach. The man's arm and hand are in a cast, and he looks hopeful, but also too proud to ask the obvious. The woman elbows him. "Oh come on, Roger, ask! ...Fine." She looks back to Nyrinel. "Please, can you heal Roger? He had an accident fixing the tractor and, and we can't afford cybernetics..." 

:'''{{#var:6726|Nyrinel (6726)}} has posed:''' "I told you you should have said something," Nyrinel says, lightly poking Seifer in the ribs. Really lightly. She doesn't want to test that balance. Fortunately, Solty moves lightning-quick to prevent him from having to deal with falling on his butt. Inga takes a look, and Nyrinel looks proud of the assessment. "I have had a lot of practice, but I usually have to use lesser spells faster. Blood..." She shifts a touch nervously from foot to foot. "Blood is -- where I am from, Blood, the Element, is dangerous and corruptive. I have seen a Priest of Blood cleanse mortal wounds by anointing them in his own blood and simply wiping it away like dust off a slate, but that sort of control is very hard to come by. I have not had nearly enough practice to do something like that safely. It would take... /years/." She says it like someone else would say 'decades.' The bystanders kind of like that. Nyrinel goes from proud to nervous to shy in short order. She blinks at the request, and looks kind of awkwardly towards the rest of their little gathering. "Umm... I... I suppose I could. It will take a little bit longer, but, uh..." She isn't sure if she should be asking for compensation on this world. The credits she got handed are probably enough, right? That's how it works back home. She extends her hand, gesturing for the injured limb. Once she's got it, she cradles it in one arm and brushes it with the other, humming a gentle tune and shedding the same light along it with every touch. It'll take about a minute or so whereas Seifer's took only a moment, but she isn't using a ham to do it this time, and is maybe trying not to be so dramatic. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa Says "that's good, to hear." She notes to Inga before she goes back to her own She'll look over to Solty and says "Well before the multiverse? A mechanic I focus on vechile resoration old cars, convrting old cars to run on modern engines. I also make custom jobs too when I get orders I make a line of bikes that has been a modest success in the multivese." 

:'''{{#var:1086|Seifer Almasy (1086)}} has posed:'''      Solty moves to help catch him. Seifer waves her off after she's grabbed him; he's fine. Well, 'fine', he's still in some pain, but he can *walk* again, and that's good enough for him. Nyrinel elbowing him in the ribs notably gets a reaction - not a pained one, but rather, as she goes to do it, his hand comes up with Hyperion in it to block her with the hilt, and it's actually shocking that he manages to stop himself as fast as he does. Seifer is *crazy* good at what he does.      He's also leaning on the handicapped cart. He gestures for the drone to take it, and the drone obediently does so, moving up to the register to scan and pay for Seifer. Seifer stretches a little. "Damn, OK. That's good. Thanks. You didn't have to but I appreciate it anyway." 

:'''{{#var:6739|Nie Li (6739)}} has posed:'''     Where has Nie Li been this entire time?     Where indeed?     It turns out, not far. He's found a corner of the supermarket with a coffee machine and some chairs, and decided to hang out here to sate the one curiosity of his that can't, AT ALL, be sated by looking at the shelves.     This seems to have resulted in him sitting in a quarter lotus position on the floor, and...     And he's glowing a brilliant blue-white. Or rather, it would seem that the glow is from the ley line energy that pervades the area being concentrated and focused around him and swirling and vanishing through his skin, his nostrils... well, basically just being sucked into him period. In huge quantities. The absorbtion rate is actually enough to form a noticeable focal point on spiritual senses, as vast amounts of energy are drawn in accretion-disk style and simply VANISH into the man who's become something like a black hole for them. He does radiate some power of his own, and it's slowly getting stronger. Bit by bit...     next to him is a basket full of some foodstuffs of the sort that are simple to cook. Mostly packaged meats. And some produce. He hasn't grabbed anything packaged or canned because it's too unfamiliar at the moment! 

:'''{{#var:525|Inga (525)}} has posed:''' Inga nods at Solty's explaination. "Family is family even if blood does not link you," she replies, flashing a soft smile. Having had no blood family of her own, she believes this strongly. Inga looks toward the approaching couple, then to Nyrinel. "I could help them," she offers. They'd better be careful though, or there will soon be a line. As Nyrinel moves to help the man, Inga steps toward them as well. She could help things along, and also demonstrate her blood magic. If she gets thrown out of the supermarket, whatever at this point. She's is too interested to see how their magics would interact. Inga pulls the small knife from her belt and slices into her own palm as if she were cutting a bit of fabric. Blood wells, but is quickly directed toward the man's hand in a fine, shimmering mist that surrounds him like an aura, speeding up the healing process. Combined with Nyrinel, hopefully they will have him healed quickly. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The hope is bright on the pair's faces, and the man lets her take his arm. Under the cast it's mangled. They certainly don't complain that it's taking longer, and the tension has the other bystanders on the edge of their proverbial seats. Staren comes back and watches it finish. Noone complains about Inga's use of her own blood for an obvious good purpose. Roger gives a quietly surprised "Ah." as the magic flows through him.     When the healers are done, Roger realizes the cast is kind of in the way now. Staren has the solution to that -- he pulls back his sleeves and the silver wristbands extrude tiny saws to cut through until the cast can be pulled apart. Roger looks at his hand, turning his forearm and wrist one way and another and wriggling his fingers. He looks from his hands to Nyrinel and Inga. "Thank you. ...Is... is there anything we can give you?" 

:'''{{#var:6704|Solty Revant (6704)}} has posed:'''      Solty watches in facination again as Nyrinel heals the man is healed. "You can just...heal people as much as you want?" she asks, amazed. Then Inga joins in the healing, and while blood is also a bit unnerving even when it is being used to heal she can't help watching. And the man seems fully healed when they are done! "Oh my goodness! If people had this power in my world they wouldn't have to use Resemble any more!" she says cheerfully.      She blinks at the strange gathering of energy, then looks toward Nie Li. She tilts her head in curiousity. She makes her way toward him. "What are you doing?" she asks, reaching out experimentally to poke at the energy lines flowing into him. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Most of the attention Nie Li attracts is brief. Sure, it's /weird/, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything so they get bored and go about their business. A couple of people do stop to watch for longer, though. One is a girl with purple skin and small horns on her forehead in obvious mage robes, the other a man dressed like a WW1 fighter pilot. "Where is it all /going/?" she muses, and he pulls his goggles over his eyes and looks at Nie Li. "He can't possibly hold that much, can he? Excuse me, but what are you doing?" he asks, curiously. 

:'''{{#var:6739|Nie Li (6739)}} has posed:'''     "Hm?" Nie Li opens his eyes, the glow fading slowly as he ceases.. whatever he's doing. The thick energy surrounding him disperses back into the environment...     The question gets a blink or two at first. Then... he realizes they're really asking that seriously. "...Ah! You have never seen anyone Cultivating soul force before...? Um. To put it simply, it's a method to strengthen oneself by absorbing energy." Listeners may get the feeling this is the VERY simplified explanation, by his tone.     "There's so much around here, I simply had to see what would come of it!" And by the pleased look he has, they are Most Excellent Results.     Solty's Poke is... well, the energy he'd gathered was so dense that there's some tingles and a feeling of warmth. But it's just raw magical energy, not concentrated enough to hurt or really... do anything. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The mages seem satisfied with this explanation, nod, and, able to tell that the released energy is harmless, continue shopping. They're certainly used to the phenomenon of people from other worlds coming to Earth and finding it's full of magic power! 
}}

5895/Shrine of Adversity: Bones of Contention

2018-06-02T04:34:42Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2018/06/01 |Location=Shrine of Adversity |Synopsis=Septette and Penelope spar in the Shrine of Adversity. |Cast of Characters=632, 42, 6399 |pretty..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/06/01
|Location=Shrine of Adversity
|Synopsis=Septette and Penelope spar in the Shrine of Adversity.
|Cast of Characters=632, 42, 6399
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      The arena that Septette's created here is forebodingly simple. When Penelope enters the simulation, she'll find herself in a flat hexagonal expanse of soft gray metal, surrounded on all sides by sheer walls and enclosed above by a translucent humming force-dome. Scattered around the arena are polyhedral chunks of metal five to ten feet tall that look like abstracted wargame terrain designed by a depressed brutalist architect.      There are convenient seats just outside the force-dome for any spectators, but Septette herself is sitting cross-legged on one of the die-like metal boulders near the middle of the arena. A sun-bleached and ragged purple shawl is wrapped around her shoulders and a journal of some sort is in her lap, though she stops scribbling in it and stashes it in her satchel almost as soon as Penelope comes in.      "Glad you could make it. I prefer to go in blind, but do tell me if there are any rules or guidelines you'd prefer we adhere to. Otherwise, I'm ready when you are." She tosses the satchel up to the bleachers far above, but makes no motion to draw a weapon. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Pff, boring." Staren comments on the arena as he enters. "I know it's just a simulation so the looks don't really matter, but maybe you should take up art?" Then he smiles. "All the same, good to see you, Septette." He suddenly projects his wings, made of translucent orange energy like an insect's but more stylized. They buzz quietly as he flies up to the bleachers and takes a seat, then they disappear again. 

:'''{{#var:6399|Penelope Vasquez (6399)}} has posed:'''     The journey to the Shrine gives Penelope enough time to calm a little- collect herself, prepare herself for the fight promised ahead, even if it was founded upon cajoling between puns. She seems confident, casual- unimpressed by the grandeur of Grand Dorado, even if the sheer scale of the Shrine itself gives her pause on her way in. She weaves through visiting multiversal patrons with ease as she seeks out the training grounds, poking about until she finds the active scene Septette has set up. She steps into the zone with some caution, attempting to size up the five-foot-nothing woman as she stands.     Analysis: whole lotta nothing. Not human, despite looking like it, kinda. Confident about a fight, so tougher than she looks. Weapons hidden under that shawl, probably- but to call her on it is calling the kettle black, so the point is just filed away. The watcher is given a raised brow, before summarily ignored. Penelope shifts her legs, assuming a practiced, steady stance.     "I'd prefer we don't actually kill each other- being out of comission for a couple days is bad for my business. But otherwise, I'm game. Nice to meet you in the flesh, Sep. Let's go." A faint pulling of her fingers on a hand, enticing the smaller figure to charge. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      "It's not boring, Staren. It's good composition. A real artist knows not to distract from the center of attention with pointless frippery." Septette flips her hair with an exaggeratedly preening demeanor, then slides off the metal boulder. There's an unsettlingly loud CLANG when she hits the ground, despite gracefully bending her knees on impact- sounds like armored boots.      Her purple eyes briefly flicker a shade brighter as she gives Penelope a once-over. The wire and ampoule-collar say cyborg; the watchful caution and range-ambivalence say generalist operative. "No promises, but I'll do my best not to inflict anything too severe. I'll ask the same of you, of course." The way she adds that last part as an afterthought hints at a bit of genuine arrogance under the comedic facade.      Extrapolating from multiversal cyborg trends:      10% chance of exploitable thermal conductivity.      5% chance of poor cryo-tolerance.      15% chance of electromagnetic susceptibility.      The only warning Penelope gets is a slight shift in Septette's posture; she turns her left shoulder towards the enforcer and raises her elbow, pulling the shawl up like a matador's cloak. Then a bolt of coruscating yellow energy burns right through the fabric as if fired from a holdout pistol inside. Despite the awkward angle, it's aimed straight at Penelope's center mass! 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles when Penelope asks not to fight to the death. Is he glad she won't go that far, or just amused that anyone would think they're in danger of killing Septette?     Although, if this wasn't the Shrine, putting her back together after the attempt COULD be troublesome.     "No, it's not. Colors and patterns help us make sense of our environment and mentally model how it's laid out. Everything being one flat color, or poorly-chosen textures, can make it difficult, even if we DO have depth perception. It's like how you describe looking at video screens, you can make sense of it but it's harder..." Suddenly his eyes widen and his ears perk up. "Ohmigosh! We could use the Shrine to display videos for you! Although it's not practical for long-term use... hmm... and pinks still wouldn't work, magentas anyway..." 

:'''{{#var:6399|Penelope Vasquez (6399)}} has posed:'''     The game begins. Guns under there, of course! Just Penelope's specialty. Probably going to be something like attrition, actually closing the distance, but not an issue.     Of course, Penelope doesn't have quite enough time to actually think right this second- her body reacts on computer-assisted instinct, body twisting at blurring speed to draw the blade from her back. It comes free, over and down in a single smooth motion as her legs press, springing her off the spot. Not quite faster than a bullet, or in this case, a blast of electrical energy, but she's able to move her entire body in enough of a synchronized flow to change where the blast strikes- cracking across the blade shoved in the way. She moves with momentum, streaking from zero to blurring from the spot she was stood at, and behind one of the surely depression-inspired stones in the arena. Goggles are hurriedly pulled from a pocket and slapped over her forehead, and she peers through the rock, watching the attacker in the few seconds she has. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      The strangest thing about how Septette reacts to her opponent's augmented speed is the simple fact that she does. Despite Penelope's breakneck pace, she keeps her eyes locked on that dark blur right up until it vanishes behind a metal boulder! "Someone played a lot of dodgeball as a kid," she teases. "My pitching arm's rusty. You'll help me fix that, won't you?"      By the time Penelope puts on the goggles, Septette's already halfway closed the distance, powerwalking over with a kind of affected nonchalance. They do provide one distinct benefit, even so: the killbot doesn't know she's being watched, and she tips her hand a bit earlier than she'd intended to as a result.      Vasquez would be able to see her stop a couple of feet short of the boulder, pull back with her clawed metal fist, and then slam it into the polyhedron's flat face with herculean force. A fraction of a second later the entire boulder explodes into jagged spalling shrapnel from the force of the blow, threatening to rip into her!      When the dust settles, Septette wrings her hand with a slight grimace. "Right. Softer metal next time." 

:'''{{#var:6399|Penelope Vasquez (6399)}} has posed:'''     Thank god for wallhacking- Penelope is backing away from the stone as Septette approaches, perhaps expecting her to pick it up and wield it as a blunt instrument or something similar, but can only gasp in shock as the entire thing evaporates into flying shards. She pauses for the breath of a second- before tucking her head and turning her back to her opponent, as well as the shrapnel about to coat the entire arena.     The metal pounds against her rubber-like coat with a sound not unlike astoundingly heavy rain. They make small cuts here and there, a few are lodged, but many are flattened, as if they struck a stone face. Shards dig into the metal of the ground in a tinkling cacophany, bouncing and rattling. Vasquez doesn't stop in her turn. Never fight the momentum. She's facing front again in time to catch Sep shaking her hand out.     Robots don't need to shake their hands out. She's- she's playing it up. A more sound mind might take this as the moment to express something like fear, or shock, at the utter mismatch of a fight. Penelope hoots a cry of glee instead, rocketing towards the magitech golem with the speed of an oncomming semitruck.     She doesn't aim for a direct collision. Instead, a drive-by; a hand shoots towards her hip, drawing up the boxy weapon there, aiming it at speed. It looses off a volley of shrapnel nearly identical to that created by the boulder's explosion, except a concentrated stream. Quite honestly, it's unlikely to really damage something made of metal. But it's certain to shred cloth to nonexistance, showing the hitwoman exactly what she's up against. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren is brought out of his reverie by the sound of metal shattering. "Geeze!" Shards hit the forcedome, and he wonders just how much energy was required to get metal to DO that with a punch from one side. "Alright, come on, show us what you got!" He shouts to the newcomer as she draws a weapon and charges past Septette. A flechette thrower? He doesn't think that's a good choice, but it's not like he's shot Septette with a bunch of weapons to test... well okay, he DID do that but flechettes weren't one of them. He leans forward, curious to see if it might turn out to be more effective than expected. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      When Penelope avoided her electric fastball, Septette was impressed. Now that she's seemingly demonstrated downright precognitive reaction times, the little murderbot is worried. The hitwoman's injuries from the shrapnel look like chip damage, thanks to her alacrity and bulletproof coat. She needs to land something decisive before her observant adversary figures out too many of her tricks.      Again, the robot shows startling reaction times, even if her body can't quite keep up. The millisecond Vasquez starts to reach for her gun, Septette's already twisting to minimize her profile. As the trigger-finger tenses, she brings up her arm inside her shawl to protect her torso.      The shrapnel-blast catches her in the shoulder and chest with clinging, clanking echoes, tearing away the shawl to reveal a gruesome synthetic anatomy and ricocheting inside her hollow ribcage. Septette staggers immediately to mimic how the momentum would affect her if she weighed as much as an organic, pauses just long enough to emulate human reaction lag, and then widens her eyes in pain.      It isn't sandbagging; there's too much verisimilitude and practice in the act for that. Rather, she's trying to condition Penelope into treating her like a human combatant with human limitations.      The fact that she immediately picks up a boulder with one hand and heats it via some invisible mechanism to near-melting somewhat undercuts that. At least she's 'bleeding' black hydraulic fluid from a series of lacerations on her black muscle-like tubing.      "You're doing impossible things already," Septette says, her cheery tone conflicting with her evinced pain. "Keep it up, won't you?" A moment later, she hurls the red-hot boulder across the battlefield to explode in a spray of searing slag! 

:'''{{#var:6399|Penelope Vasquez (6399)}} has posed:'''     Penelope is experienced. She's been doing this for a while. Maybe not fighting adversaries at her paygrade, or in this case, significantly above it, very often- but she's no fool. Were she in Staren's position, an observer, it's not unlikely that 'this is a robot' would beat out ingrained instincts to treat apparent pain or injury as a victory. Unfortunately, her brain is washed in adrenaline and dopamine, and there's a silent cheer as the shotgun-like blast apparently staggars the superhumanly strong machine. It feels pain! Maybe she did need to shake out that hand. Maybe this isn't as unbalanced as she thought! Maybe she's the best. Penelope knows she's the best, who's she kidding.     As is usual, she keeps on running after the handcannon fires, head swiveling to stay locked to the opponent as she leaves her behind- running alongside the edge of the arena in a swooping circle, like increasingly deluded shark and prey. She maintains the breakneck speed as Septette heats and lifts the stone, but as she heaves to toss it- an adjustment of course. Obviously a warmachine like Sep would take trajectories into account when when tossing a rock, and were Penelope to stay her path, or even really be very near it, it's doubtless she'd be caught by the semimolten material.     She kicks the ground mid-step as the stone is in mid-flight, and launches directly into the sheer wall.     The hitwoman balls herself up to land at least one foot-first, which immediately has a spike push out of the jackboot's toe there. It digs into the metal. Shallowly, but enough to be at least a little secure. A push, slide out, hand up- glove sticks to the wall like it's glue. She clambers as high as she can in the brief moments she has available, before jumping. The stone explodes below, spraying molten steel and shattering metal in all directions- more horizontally, but enough vertically to prove that this was a stupid idea. She has her back facing the impact, smart- but bulletproof does not mean lavaproof. She screeches in pain- it's got to be genuine- as her trenchcoat and back are coated in burning splotches. She hits the ground ineligantly, rolling a few times before finding herself flat, facedown, an unmoving black lump on the ground. There's patches of melted material where she hit- the air is filled with the stink of a tire fire, with heady notes of flaming chemical factory. It doesn't look like Penelope is still burning, but there's holes in her armor, revealing skin and unitard beneath. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Heavy clanking footfalls slowly draw closer to Penelope, resounding through the arena like the tolling of an ominous bell. The undisguised racket of her movement and the inhuman design of her body contrast sharply with her lifelike rueful smile and the way her left arm hangs a little limp from her 'bleeding' shoulder. "Come on, Patty," she coaxes in a voice edged with synthetic pain. "Get up. We both know you're not done."      Goliath offensive, tetrahedral boulder. [Won't yield useful data.]      Kujura's Rejoinder, C6 to L1. [Overcommittal.]      Hypatia, NW variation. [Reveals abilities, but strong.]      Her knifelike fingers make a strange gesture, twitching slightly as crimson energy gathers at their tips. A moment later, a red circle appears on the ground directly under Penelope and pulses with an ominous glow- there's a noise distinctly like a flywheel spinning up. The circle's several feet across, but she is noticeably off-center, such that she's closer to the edge nearer Septette. In a second or two, it'll erupt in a pillar of flames tall enough to smash into the arena's forcefield ceiling- but she hardly expects Pen to sit there and take it.      Predicting forward roll into standing position. Commit.      Before Penelope has even begun to respond to the magic circle, Septette's already moving to attack where she thinks the assassin will be. She lunges forward, unfolds a hideous curved blade from her forearm, and swings hard a couple of feet in front of Penelope. If her prediction's off, it'll whiff completely- but if she's guessed right, Pen might be hard-pressed to respond in time! 

:'''{{#var:6399|Penelope Vasquez (6399)}} has posed:'''     The downed woman doesn't move as the killbot approaches- looking all the world like someone at least severely winded, perhaps dead. Which is likely what gave her up- it just seems plain wimpy to go down from burns, mitigated by more than one layer of protective clothing. She shifts marginally, lets out a groan, as she gets closer- but there's no movements like she's getting up. Until the magic does it's work, painting a target underneath the enforcer.     When you're given a sword and legs like a cheetah, one thing is drilled into your head. Close the distance. If you're against a normal man- close the distance. Perhaps you're up against someone with the same speed as you- close the distance, even if the connection is fleeting. Someone tougher. Close the distance and keep it closed. This is a largely unforseen instance of both, but the mantra is the same. Close the distance. And, graciously, Septette has done that for her.     In the same moment the red circle appears, Penelope disappears. Poof. Gone. Like a lightswitch has been flicked.     To be replaced by Penelope, in roughly the same position, but nowhere near the same posture- legs tensed instead of lax, hand gripping nearly-fallen blade instead of merely on it, half the little nodules on her neck empty and clear instead of filled. Eyes up and watching, instead of staring at the ground. She kicks forwards, aimed between Septette's legs, sword trailing just behind her arm. The swing clears her head and long body by inches.     Presumably, Septette has been able to get a decent look at Penelope's weapon over the battle. It's long, a little longer than half her own body. The blade curves into a hook on the end. That hook is out, hoping to catch the calf of a leg as the hitwoman sails between them. Where Septette made a prediction, this is a gamble. No matter the outcome, Penelope looks guaranteed to skid head-first into the ground in the arc of her launch. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      The whiplash-inducing recovery completely blindsides the killbot's predictions. She realizes almost instantly that her swing is going to go high, but there's just no time to course correct. Though she's been playing at human density, Septette's compact frame weighs as much as a car, and even her terrifying strength can't allow her to turn on a dime easily. She's essentially locked into the attack, even as she tracks Penelope diving between her legs.      That density serves her well in another capacity, however: toppling her is far more difficult than it would be with an ordinary person. The hooked sword's tip catches on the exposed hydraulic muscles of her calf, but it simply rips through them in a spray of black fluid rather than tripping her. That'll hurt her mobility later, but it does set up her counterattack!      There is nothing of Septette that does not contribute in some way to her capacity for violence- even something as ornamental and mundane as her hair. As Penelope's blade hits home, the fine carbon-metal fibers abruptly come alive. They writhe like a nest of snakes before twining together into a cohesive 'limb' that tries to wrap around the enforcer's ankle like a boa constrictor! If the bizarre grapple is successful, she'll try to flip Pen right over her head and slam her back into the ground- right into the raging pillar of fire.      Regardless of whether Penelope lands behind her or is successfully grabbed-and-flipped, however, Septette will immediately try to follow it up with an overhead slam using the blunt edge of her armblade. Catching someone as frighteningly agile as Penelope in a position of compromised mobility is a rare chance, and she intends to capitalize on it! 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren sees what Septette is trying to do as soon as he notices the positioning of the magic circle. Is Septette's magic even normally so telegraphed? But Penelope sees it to, and does something surprising! Staren winces as he sees Septette's calf sliced open. Even if she can surely function without it... and this is all going to be undone by the Shrine, anyway.     He's even more surprised when HER HAIR COMES ALIVE, though! "Since when can you do THAT?!"     He's about to hop on the radio and point out to her that allies need to communicate their abilities. As soon as he's done mentally rehearsing the line 'Once I had an ally leave me in the claws of a strong enemy because she thought I could teleport out of it, and the teleporter doesn't work that way!', though, he realizes before he even opens his mouth:     Septette knows this.     She's already done a cost-benefit analysis and determined that the risk that her allies might inadvertently reveal her capabilities to enemies, is more probabalistically damaging than the risk posed by an ally NOT knowing what she can do. It's Septette, after all. She's tough enough to take like 99.999% of things that will happen.     So instead he just doesn't say more on the subject. 

:'''{{#var:6399|Penelope Vasquez (6399)}} has posed:'''     As the black blood sprays against her passing legs, Penelope begins to laugh, a heavy, loud cackle- it's stopped only by the lurch in her diaphram as the boa-like hair-limb curls itself around her passing lower leg and cinches, halting her bolt with a rather sudden and jarring change of motion. She's heavier than her frame would suggest, much like the Yggdroid- not nearly as heavy, not by a long shot, but what should be a lanky skinny-minnie does not feel like one, even accounting for musculature.     She's helpless to resist the overhead throw, but she never stops working. Her pupils are dilated nearly to the point of crowding out her iris as she looks down at what has a hold on her. The un-grabbed leg swipes, once, twice- the blade sticking from the end of the boot slashing at the strands. Designed to dig into beyond-modern metals, it's eventually able to slash enough to loosen the grip- halfway through the throw. Penelope is launched nearly straight up. As she arcs, she is... vocal, for the first time in the fight. Very. A screeching, accented sing-song.     "Oooooooooohhhhh, neurodes, there's neurodes! There's branches of a great ash colored oceanwood and it's falling and the lights are sparking-"     She's reached the apex of the arc, and has adjusted, catlike, to track her quarry on her way down. At some point in the rise, an extra pair of arms appeared, branching from the ones that were already there. Coming together with another sword, slid out of the other. The first is poised to stab downwards. The second pair looks ready to swing, using that dreadful hook to catch whatever it can as she lands. "-but we're cutting them down, we're deforesting, they're falling, they're falling!" The last few words are a ragged yell, as she drops like a stone. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Penelope's attempts to free herself have the anticipated effect, though not in the expected fashion. As each individual strand reaches its breaking point it curls and whips away from the blade, letting go of her leg in the process. In aggregate, it looks like the tendril resists for a moment and then peels itself away, recoiling from the boot-blade like a living thing.      Neurodes? Ash oceanwoods? It takes a moment for her to rule out some kind of bizarre activation phrase or psychological warfare. Stimulant-induced cognitive impairment. Discard previous behavioral data; judgement likely affected. Predictive models have to go out- she's running strictly reactively here. Fortunately, leaping attacks are about as committal and telegraphed as one can get, even with an extra blade in the mix!      Septette raises her right leg as if to kick upwards, standing on her injured left. The first blade pierces cleanly through her raised arm with its downward thrust, wedging itself between her exoskeletal ulna and radius and gouging through the internal machinery. Her leg is positioned to ward off the second blade, angling to deflect it at a steep angle over her head like rain off a slanted roof.      More worrying than the defense is the fact that she's still able to support her entire weight on a leg that's had its motor systems ripped open. There's no visible mechanic behind its movement anymore, like a cartoon skeleton devoid of muscle.      "Sorry, Patty. But everything that goes up..." She cocks her other arm back, then throws a terrific haymaker- directly at the remaining glass ampoules on Penelope's collar! "-must come down." 

:'''{{#var:6399|Penelope Vasquez (6399)}} has posed:'''     Penelope's drug-induced brutality works as planned- the downward-facing blade impales itself into the machine. The second pair of arms, wielding the second blade- abruptly disappears, as it intersects with the upraised leg. She beams in rabid triumph as the sword locks into maimed machinery, unmoving in it's pinch between artificial bones. It falls, a little, tinged with open-mouth surprise as Septette continues to stare back at her, fully sturdy. Moreso when a yank can't free the sword. Unwilling to let go of the thing, she's forced to take the haymaker directly to the intended target.     There's a metal-on-skin slap and a crack of glass as the nodules are shattered by the force of the impact- her gloves keep grip on her blade, tearing it out of the robot to come with her and arresting what would likely send her flying to the side. She still is, but not for a great distance. She lands heavily on her back and arm as a miniscule amount of white liquid stains the ground where she was, the drug evaporating nearly as quickly as it puddles. The drug-fueled crazed look is gone as she looks back to Septette, replaced by what can only be identified as genuine emotional hurt- like a puppy that's been kicked. A lover who's seen their love go away. The expression is gone as quick as it came, morphed into anger.     Penelope knows and, based on the quantities, Sep can surmise, that those stimulants are not a high-dose thing. Designed for quick bursts of extra energy, to dance across a room in a singing of blades. She has precious few seconds before what's already in her system leaves it, and the pain from that punch- as well as the other burns and scrapes of battle- hits her in full force.     That's what her hindbrain processes, really. The frontal lobe wants more more more and is staring at the golem who took it. She screeches, "Mierda!" kicking backwards, arcing upright. Her arm shoots to the SMG at her hip- the flechette thrower was lost, somewhere. It's drawn up and fired off, a rata-tat stream of armor-piercing parabellum rounds as she attempts to backpeddle to her feet, aiming for the Giant Glowing Weak Point in Septette's chest. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Septette could already hazard a guess that those drug ampoules weren't a long-lasting thing- few substances with an onset that quick can be. Even as the blade tears free of her arm in a shower of sparks and dark fluid, worsening the pressure-bleeding, she's still reasonably sure that time is on her side: the comedown from stimulants that strong is likely to be brutal. Penelope's near-animalistic response to the ampoules' shattering only drives the point home further.      She has to hope that there'll be a comeuppance soon, at any rate, because she looks to be in considerably worse shape than Pen at the moment. With her hydraulic pressure plummeting from ongoing bleeding despite self-sealing, her movement is noticeably slowed and halting as she advances on her backpedaling opponent- a zombielike, paradoxically implacable limp that makes little effort to play up her humanity. "You'll get them back when it's over," she says in the sort of voice one might use to coax a dog back inside. "Just lie down and let me crush you, Patty."      In truth, she's hoping her words will stoke Penelope's resolve further- and she more than gets her wish when the enforcer opens fire on her reactor core, giving her a bit more than she was prepared to defend against. Unfortunately for Pen, you don't just leave a glowing power source wholly exposed unless it can more than take the punishment. That softball-sized bauble is easily the toughest part of Septette's entire body, and the bullets simply ricochet off or shatter against it, armor-piercing or no. The surrounding components and "organs" are not so lucky: the high-velocity shrapnel perforates them, bleeding her even further.      Septette's movements slow to a crawl, and then- for just a moment- they freeze. She's stuck like a statue as the muscle system finally drops below operational pressure. Lights dim, humming ceases. And then, somehow, she takes another step forward. And another. Purple-green light slithers under her exoskeleton, flickering through the gaps in the plates as she lifts her head once more. She lurches forward, hopefully closing the distance between them, and tries to stomp on Penelope's leg while leveling a deceptively quick slash at her side! 

:'''{{#var:6399|Penelope Vasquez (6399)}} has posed:'''     The machinegun unloads into the golem, shredding much of the material near the core. Penelope backsteps as Septette frontsteps, watching her warily, but you can almost see the comedown hitting her- color draining from an already pale face, pupils normalizing their shape. As the robot slows, and slows, Penelope stops, planting the blade's tip into the metal, leaning against the hilt. She pants, watching. Her limbs shudder like they're vibrating for a moment, grimacing as pain fades back in. When the construct finally stops moving, she lets her head hang, rubbing the back of a hand against her face.     And then it steps forwards again. She blinks, not believing it. By the time she's taking a second step, Penelope is pulling back- but at the speed of a normal woman, which is not nearly enough. She groans as foot-claw comes down onto boot, and the blade to her side is hampered, for a moment, by her coat- but with it's lost structural integrity from the earler molten bombardment, it pushes through, digging into her hip- solidifying it's place with a muffled grind of metal on metal.     She spent her energy on the damages earlier, and with no more uppers at her disposal, she can't power her way through. The slash knocks the wind out of her. The one in return, aimed at the leg pinning her foot to the ground, is more token than anything else. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      This is long past the point at which Septette would, in the real world, pull back and lick her wounds. To say that there's still fight in her would be an understatement, but every piece of her is a priceless and limited artifact. Anything beyond minor injuries is a theft from her existence, another replacement part lost from a limited and dwindling stock.      That is not true here. Neither pain, nor rational risk management, nor vestigial self-preservation holds her back. The slash across her leg is surprisingly effective: a crackle of purple-green energy tears across her shin along the path of the blade like ethereal blood drawn from invisible flesh, and the underlying metal groans and creaks as it's embrittled by the loss of its magic.      Even so, she doesn't flinch- now that the act is dropped, it seems like nothing short of death could cause that. Her face is masklike, placid; her eyes are brighter than ever, but lifeless and flat. It gives the impression that she really is a zombie- though more likely, she's just decided to drop the affective charade.      Septette's foot-talons dig into Penelope's leg as a second crimson magical circle materializes- this one under both of them, too broad to escape without first escaping the viselike grip. Given the fact that the first circle from several seconds earlier is still a sustained sky-piercing pillar of hellfire, the odds of her being able to safely facetank it are likely dim.      But it doesn't activate- not until Septette sees if her opponent still has any fight left. "I probably ought to be dead right now," she says conversationally, as if confessing some minor foible. "So I'd say you did great. Is there gonna be a round two, or are we calling it here?" 

:'''{{#var:6399|Penelope Vasquez (6399)}} has posed:'''     Penelope stifles another grunt as the talons dig further into her leg. The blade-carrying arm already raising for a second, firmer strike pauses at the top of it's arc as the spell circle appears. She's gritting her teeth, body tensing- maybe preparing for a parting blow- before the mask speaks again. The swordswoman blinks, nods- speaks a word. "Uncle."     The blade slowly finds it's way back into it's home at her back. Penelope's eyes remain locked to the glowing ones about a foot below. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      As the gunmetal-gray arena fades to a bland eggshell expanse, Septette's body reverts to its intact state as if her injuries were illusions melting away. Even her more-or-less annihilated shawl weaves itself back together, though she looks... tired? Is that an applicable term for an automaton? Depleted, somehow, at the least.      It isn't until she starts breathing again that it's obvious she ever stopped. A thousand miniscule habits of the living flow back into her demeanor, like blood into a limb after a tourniquet's removal. It's a little bit eerie, contrasted with what's under the shawl- like a really shitty puppet with a good puppeteer. She leaps up to grab her satchel from where it was thrown, then meanders back over to Penelope, handing her the dropped shrapnel-gun in the process.      "Like I said earlier. You did impossible things today. There are stars in the sky that can't burn a hair on my head, and you made me bleed with a pistol. ... I never get used to that." She seems a little bit sheepish at that last part, though given how ready she was to revert to emotionlessness earlier, it's hard to say what's genuine anymore. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren winces when he sees Penelope go for the Core. He doesn't expect it to be damaged, but what if something goes wrong?     It is educational to see how bullets directed at the core tend to tear into other components, though. Maybe Septette could wear armor, but what armor wouldn't fall to 'clothing damage' with what Septette would put it through? He watches, wordlessly, until the fight ends, nodding when it does, then picking up the satchel and handing it to Septette when he sees her going for it (Or briefly trying to and then giving her an apologetic shrug if it turns out to be super-heavy).     "So... what was the point of all that?" 

:'''{{#var:6399|Penelope Vasquez (6399)}} has posed:'''     Penelope steps away as the arena fades- rubbing the spot on her side which should be wide open, instead knitting back together without even a scar to remember it by, only a dull ache. A touch to her neck reveals the collar at her neck is whole once again as well- still topped up. She still looks a bit shaken; maybe aftershocks of her comedown, despite the arena's effects. More steady by the minute though, and smiling faintly once Septette is closer, though her eyes aren't very warm. At the question from the peanut gallery, she shrugs, looking to the bot, then the man. "Adrenaline rush?"     If she notices the 'life' ebbing back into the construct, she doesn't seem entirely put off by it. She extends a hand, for a shake, speaking a bit softer. "You... are a marathon, not a sprint. Very, very good. Penelope. Good to meet, Sep." It's very... formal, without real affect, like it's spoken from reflex. She smiles more earnestly, shaking out her other arm. "Feel all tingly. You good?" 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      A hand with knifelike fingers takes Penelope's hand and shakes, ever-so-carefully angling their edges to not brush against the skin- though by now, she doubts Pen would be seriously bothered by a papercut like that. "I'm not clear on what your job is, but I'm sure you're damn good at it. If you can make me bleed, you can handle most anything out here." She smiles- guileless, almost but not quite prideless- and folds her hands behind her back.      "Lots of reasons, Staren. But mostly- it's just fun. You ever play a 'clicker' game? That weird feeling you get when the numbers go up? That's fighting things, for me." She starts to head out, then pauses and reaches into her bag... and pulls out a tiny piece of broken tan-and-gray plastic.      She says a single syllable that doesn't translate as she walks out of the simulation, still peering into her satchel, but it shouldn't be hard to guess the gist. 
}}

5861/Eclipse Phase: Mind the WMDs (Part 2)

2018-05-25T08:19:15Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2018/05/24 |Location=TITAN Quarantine Zone - Mars - Transhuman Territory |Synopsis=After the smuggler who tried to sell a gray goo nanoswarm to the..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/05/24
|Location=TITAN Quarantine Zone - Mars - Transhuman Territory
|Synopsis=After the smuggler who tried to sell a gray goo nanoswarm to the highest bidder was taken into Paladin custody and revealed her source, the elusive client from last time has a new mission for the Elites: To brave the TITAN Quarantine Zone on Mars, confirm the smuggler's intel, and determine how to put a stop to this operation.
|Thanks=GMed by Staren
|Cast of Characters=672, 632, 7, 673, 596, 385, 518
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     After facing elites and nearly getting eaten by a nanoswarm, Gray Xu is easily intimidated into spilling her guts: She's a member of the Night Cartel, a criminal organization formed by the survivors of Earth's various mafias after the Fall. The Night Cartel has made a name for itself in racketeering, extortion, kidnapping, and slavery, and has recently branched out successfully to drugs and DRM-cracking. Gray Xu herself is a smuggler, helping zone stalkers get their finds out from under the nose of Martian hypercorps and into the hands of prospective buyers.     The TITANS didn't just ruin Earth: There are a number of space stations and parts of Luna and Mars that are full of hazards -- dormant nanoswarms, strains of the exsurgent virus, undiscriminating warbots, that sort of thing. The Titan Quarantine Zone on Mars contains not just TITAN artifacts, but also everything the people there left behind. Someone might pay a lot of money for a 'Zone Stalker' to illegally brave the quarantine and retrieve the stack of a family member, or a computer with important data on it, or some more material keepsake. Less charitably, this means taking the deceaseds' stuff and TITAN artifacts that people want to study, and selling it.     Gray Xu recently got a tip that TITAN activity (active warbots and such) had let up around Ebb 6, a Martian dome destroyed during the fall. Noone knows the inscrutible logic of the TITANs, but Gray Xu saw an opportunity and sent scavengers to see what they could find. Finding a bunker full of TITAN artifacts was an unexpected windfall -- Gray Xu and the Night Cartel stood to make a lot of money selling them.     In light of this information, the enigmatic patron from last time has a new mission for the party: Since approaching Ebb 6 (or any part of the TQZ) directly from space would draw too much attention, ground transport has been arranged from the Martian metropolis Elysium. They are to go to Ebb 6 and assess the site -- how much stuff is there, how much seems to have been removed, the extent of the Night Cartel scavenging operation, and what amount of force will be required to safely destroy the artifacts there. Orbital bombardment draws too much attention to be used unless it's absolutely necessary.     Anyone who comes early can go play tourist in Elysium for awhile (it's built into a canyon larger than any on Earth, with the top covered -- cheaper than a whole dome. A glamorous front hides a seedy underbelly, yadda yadda -- the strangest thing is that EVERYONE is pretty, Hollywood pretty), but at mission start time, provided coordinates lead the party to a garage-sized storage unit outside the canyon.     The storage unit contains: an electric truck big enough for all of them to fit comfortably with special tires and ample cargo space full sets of heated body armor and rebreathers so they can survive in the partially-terraformed Martian atmosphere enough flavored nutri-paste to make four 'meals' for everyone another set of ectos and glasses without the fake IDs this time an arachnoid (a meter-long robotic spider with 2 manipulator arms and 8 legs that can walk, jump, or deploy wheels and roll) modified for rolling over Martian sand a sampling of pistols, SMGs, and shredders a plasma rifle     ...and last but not least, a Desktop Cornucopia Machine, jailbroken and fully-stocked with everything but the radioactives. This device can nanofabricate anything it has the designs for in a matter of hours, and its digital storage is packed full of designs for everything from computers to clothing to surveillance gear to weapons and even synthetic morphs! This DCM is about the size of a fridge, so anything larger will have to be made in parts and assembled. There is room for it on the truck.     The gathered elites may have faster vehicles, but if they take the truck, it will take about 12 hours to reach Ebb 6 at 60 mph. Plenty of time to plan their approach and fab some toys (or one large and very complex toy.) 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George is here again, and though he's not taking the armor -- he's armored up again in his dark red powered hardsuit -- he IS definitely stocking up on those guns, particularly a shredder and a nice pistol. I mean, he has his own, and he spends the whole ride over tinkering and modding them to overclock them with insane Flotilla technologies, but he likes blending in in a lot of ways!     "Well, we got out of my comfort zone real fast." He says, while he fusses with a gun. "Not really that easy to work with the chaos distraction angle on something like this. I'm gonna have to leave more of this to you kids. Not a whole lot of art on sale over here, if you get what I mean. I'm planning on following whatever breach you guys can get, and improvising from there."     George isn't driving because of "cataracts". He can't be /that/ old! 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      No time for tourism here. Septette blinks into existence outside the storage unit with a quiet pop right on schedule, and immediately laser-focuses on the Desktop Cornucopia. It takes her a moment to figure out the controls, but once she does, she prints off some kind of highly-ergonomic durable keyboard, sits down, and starts typing at absurdly rapid speeds like an overcaffeinated hollywood hacker.      A few minutes later, she's kludged together a new blueprint for... a butchered EMP grenade? It's just an existing design with the built-in capacitor ripped out and an external spooling conductive wire attached like a yo-yo's string instead. She shows off a few tricks to George with one- walking the dog, cat's cradle combo'd into accidental thread-severing with knife-fingers- then pockets all three, leaving the design behind in the fabricator.      "I think that's about all I'm gonna want to carry. Who's our transport? No offense to Mars, but I'd rather not spend half a day getting down there if we can at all help it." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' So Kotone is late to the party on this operation but dear god she is here this time. She gets how serious this can be, she ahs been to earth, into the depths of what was once the capital of America. She has a damn good idea of the horror that could be let loose if they don't' track all of this stuff down and make sure it's handled. There may also be things to burn after all given the hazard that anything touched by the Titans poses. She was here early got to play tourist and have a bit of fun, even if she got some flak for people who caught on to her being a Steel Morph. She had fun with it tried some food. Took in a few sights, got some fun pictures. She does notice how pretty everyone is she actually doesn't stand out or maybe she does while she's there. She picks up a few odds and ends as gifts for family members such as Miho and Sasksi, but after that? She will be at the garage on time. She's quick to kit up, she'll make use of the offered local gear. She grabs the Plasma rifle too, that will be likely needed if they need to scourge something. "I have my ship in orbit, and I'm certain several others of us do as well Septette." She's also got something else on her neck a heavy duty dummy plug, in hopes of some added protection. She also muses it will be a hell of a test for the security systems Zwei upgraded her cyberbrain with some time ago too. "Didn't think I'd be going into another Titan infested zone after the last one." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     Rory's a little unhappy about this entire endeavor. She has yet to figure out exactly WHO is commissioning these missions (although, that they share some common interests is plain to see), and the fact that it involves TITAN technology and the black market is VERY troubling.     MOST problematic is, without knowing exactly what they'll find, she's been fretting about what to bring!     So, she's kind of had to bring EVERYTHING she can stuff in her knock-off Matter Manipulator, which is less than she's comfortable with.     A few EMP grenades. Her usual weapons. All sorts of scanning tools. And the usual odds and ends.     All while sleeved into her battle Morph, the feline Flexbot covered in hard mount points for weapons stored in the Matter Manipulator. Instead of spending a lot of time in Elysium roaming around, Rory mostly enjoyed herself by checking out all the local Mesh activities, so she's not had to bring anything more... personable.     Of course, anyone who had requests of her own manufacturing abilities for armor, weapons, scanners, medical gear, etc, it's been fulfilled - within what she can get discretely to the surface, anyways!     And now, she's eying the truck...     And Septette, who seems to have APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE!     "Spaceships are not discrete. Especially ones from off-world. We are here, presented with this truck, because it /is./" Is her answer to both Kotone AND Septette. 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     Zwei did this song and dance once before. Sort of. They were responsible for intervening in a song and dance of the TITAN variety in this world after someone close to them started fiddling with it. That means little explanation is really needed beyond who Gray Xu is and what the heck everyone was doing here last time. The rest all sort of falls into place.     They're also happy to take the truck for the minute, being efficient on the energy budget, less tight than the other day by far, but still worth eyeballing. This of course amounts to Weiss riding back in her practically painted on body armour (for lack of any way to take it off or apart, rather than lack of substantiality), with Asche waiting in the wings for warp deployment at the target zone. Anyone who feels like eating 'her share' of nutri-paste can have it, as well has 'her share' of air. She spends at least half an hour poking at the ectos, the ID tags, the arachnoid, the guns, and finally the Cornucopia Machine itself, examining their specifications and recording their details. It's a lot of that had been talked about incessantly before, but which Zwei only just gets its actual hands on now -at least one pair.     <<"You know that's actually not bad. Reeeeaally inefficient nano-payload delivery probably explains why this thing takes forever, but I'm genuinely kind of impressed at the level of materials efficiency and margin of error from vertex data, considering the level of hardware whoever built this had to work with.">> She finally concludes, patting the Cornucopia Machine. <<"Too bad about the lack of radioactives.">> she then says, pulling an honest to god stick of cut-down uranium fuel rod out of a hard case and snapping it in half with her teeth before eating it like a granola bar.     <<"Let's do a lot of simple, small stuff. Fibre optics, chaff packages, mini-transceivers, and probably whatever passes for an electromagnetic pulse package here. Imagine my eyes rolling: Eee-Em-Pee Grenades.">> She also takes /twooooo/ submachine guns and fabricates more ammo than is really reasonable to be carrying. <<"Oh right, uh, unless Rory wants to jam the 'bot, I guess I'll remote it if someone really thinks it's going to be useful?">> She waves brightly at Septette though.<<"Hey! Good to see you~ You know what we're doing if we see any of that Exsurgent junk, right?">> That probably sounds like a rhetorical, rather than 'don't answer out loud' question to anyone sane in the universe. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Septette grins and waves back at Weiss as she shoulders the entire fabricator as if it were a cool kid's skateboard. "Good to have you on board, too! It's nice to be on the same wavelength as someone." The Cornucopia machine is dumped in the back of the truck, along with a small chunk of amethyst-like crystals that's lit from within by a dim writhing light.      "I feel like we're already sacrificing some subtlety by my being here, Rors, but I won't rob you of your road trip if you're that intent on it. Almost want to see what it'd look like swarming with war machines, but..." She trails off with a silent nod in George's general direction. But squishies. 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     <<"For a certain definition of wavelength, miss black box~">> Weiss actually takes the opportunity to stick out her tongue (still just kinda blue-grey since she hasn't pigmented herself at all today) after finishing the rest of her uranium snack.     <<"Oh right. I started telling you before, but I've made some modifications to the TRANSIENCE fold concept. Good timing too. Through anchoring a set of spatial coordinates within Interdiction Field coverage and looping them through brane-five, I can do the full 'wormhole' concept and capture the energy investment from harvesting the spatial 'snapback' to recycle it, instead of just dumping a bunch of juice into blipping myself around. If you want, I can set up a couple of relay points to your pole stone, so we can leave the truck behind and out of danger!">> 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa sees that Zwei ahs arrived and grins a bit at both Weiss and Asche. "It's good to see you up and about again." Kotone has finished setting up her kit for whatever means they have to go. "If we need a driver and we do land I can drive." She notes to Rory. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The party sets off on a long road trip and queues stuff up in the nanofabricator! It takes hours, but EMP grenades and especially the various countermeasures Zwei devises can be fabbed in a fraction of the time the trip is going to take. It turns out that the martian atmosphere isn't much of a problem for the party, with most of them either being robots or having their own hardsuits. It's cold and thin and heavy on the CO2, but Kotone's and George's environmental systems can handle it.     Mars turns out to be pretty boring. Red desert as far as the eye can see. The strangest thing about this road trip is perhaps the lack of flora and fauna. There are no birds in the sky, no trees, not even grass. Or for those who are used to driving on highways, perhaps the oddest thing is actually the lack of a road.     It's enough that it almost seems like a normal sight when the truck approaches a large patch of shrubs. Oddly metallic shrubs surrounded by glittery clouds. Clouds which expand and approach the truck... Fortunately, the EMP grenades are ready by then, and work like a charm, rapidly turning the glittery clouds into just glitter that falls to the martian soil. The patch of... 'flora' isn't too wide, so the Truck can detour around the rest of it without appreciably adding to the travel time.     The party is doubtlessly more concerned when distant specks appear. Someone with the mobility to go check finds them to be a mix of normal-looking surveillance drones that were probably hacked by the TITANs, and... stranger-looking drones with jutting plates and spurs of unclear purpose ...Which don't seem to notice anyone scouting them out. Maybe they're malfunctioning?     An hour or so past the bushes(?), the truck drives over a hill and the few party members who HAVE adrenaline are about to get quite a rush:     Up ahead, a few tens of meters away, is a large machine, partially submerged in the martian dust. It shifts slightly, red dust beginning to slide off it before it stands up. Easily sixty feet tall standing, most of it is long, spindly legs (at scale -- still thicker than a human body) with a main body the size of a medium tank -- an irregular, rounded organic shape with spurs and booms of uncertain purpose extending out of it. Weapon mounts aren't immediately obvious, but it's probably armed and about to fire as it turns towards the truck. Speaking of arms, two long, flexible mechanical tentacles extend from its size, ready to grab anyone who gets too close.     As if that weren't bad enough, two vaguely dragonfly-looking bots take off from its body as it stands up, with legs ending in nasty claws or buzzsaws just the right size to grab someone's head and cut it off. They turn towards the truck and fly towards it -- if noone comes out for them to attack, they'll start trying to cut their way inside!      

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Rather than boarding the truck with the others, Yuna saw fit to 'drive' separately. Marina *is* riding in the truck, the better to keep an ear on conversations by proxy and because there isn't really much need for her directly. Erina and Elner are flying above the truck, keeping watch for anything anomalous and/or hostile along the way. And as for Yuna herself ... Well, 'driving' is kind of a misnomer, but Powered Form can keep up with 60 miles per hour pretty easily, so Yuna is just skimming along - sometimes alongside, sometimes behind, occasionally out in front - and ... well, trying to enjoy the scenery. It seems pretty desolate, though. As long as she keeps clear of the nanoswarms (which Elner is very actively scanning for, and warning Yuna away from), her Light Suit can easily keep her breathing comfortably in the conditions presented on Mars. Still, as that giant machine starts rising out of the sand ahead, Yuna veers around the truck in a wide arc before coming to a halt, priming her weapons. El-Line would be able to tackle the other machine without too much trouble, but summoning the Matrix Figure will take its toll on her energy reserves ... and if her allies are up to fighting a giant robot without giant robots of their own? She'd be more likely to get in their way - although tanking has its value too ... 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Now 'TITAN' was a new proper nouncronym that needed explaining (and it helpfully was) but there was something more grabbing about this whole thing for a quiet occupant of the large truck while the fabber went through its fabby thing. "Night Cartel." Yuuki murmurs, before glancing through her (postmodern) smartphone with renewed gusto. "That's not a normal name around here, is it? 'Night Cartel'? Do people just name their groups that? It seems really specific..." She makes big inquisitive puppydog eyes at people (extra big, because she's a trash shojou) who probably know better, before repeating it a few times. "Night Cartel... So, these scavengers got ahold of TITAN tech, which is super dangerous and inscrutable. And it comes in various forms, so..." She points at the large walker robot, and the two rippers. "...like that?" She asks, with the air of a detached student. Then, well, the other shoe drops. "Oh those aren't examples, they're coming right at us!" She finally realizes, shoving her phone in a pocket and starting to fix up her rebreather and figure out what she's going to do. Her scramble is almost languid, like she's putting the finishing touches on a tea set for guests, not recovering her personal weapon to fight for her life. "Daytime, fighting robots..." She yawns (not out of sarcasm) and claps her face. "No, no, this is what we're supposed to do! War face. Mean face! Seriousssss..." She councils herself as buzzsawbots threaten to tear neat holes in their car. Surely she has the straightest of priorities. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     "That is almost certainly the first time I have detected you COMPLIMENTING another world's technological achievements." Rory notes about Zwei's observations during the trip!     Another answer is aimed at Yuuki. "There are several criminal syndicates active in Transhuman Space. The Night Cartel is probably the simplest. Day and night cycles aren't so relevant anymore since we left Earth, so I am sure they use it for the symbolism."     During the trip, she explains, "Given Earth's fate, efforts to terraform Mars have been sped up dramatically. But there is only so much that you can do with a planet with a cooled core and not enough gravity to hold onto much of an atmosphere. Plus, Mars's iron-rich crust binds to any free oxygen in the air. The project's efficiency is abysmal. Why people insist on living in places like this instead of more comfortable Simulspaces... I do not understand."     She gets into HIGH ALERT during the few encounters, directing countermeasures and observing the externals. She has, during the trip, clamped a few Saucers onto the truck's outside to give her a better view of what's happening outside, and so...     "---DIVERGE!"     Since nobody else has made use of it, Rory decides to JAM the Arachnoid at this point, bringing it under the protection of her Personal Area Network and immediately loading up all of her combat protocols onto it. Her Flexbot idles near the Desktop Cornucopia Machine while the Arachnoid bolts out the door, grabbing whatever weapons are available! Which turns out to be SHREDDERS.     The Jammed Arachnoid swings up ATOP of the truck, sealing the doors behind it, and immediately opens fire on the Dragonfly bots, targeting their turbofan blades with spread fire! 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George does his best to avoid ditching the truck, suppressing the compulsion to take a flying leap out of and away from the biggest probable target for the thing. He's hoping that Kotone might keep their vehicle from being bombed into scrap so early into things. He flicks safeties and pops a panel, opening an erratic kind of fire, for what little that's worth, and immediately groans with frustration. "Cool, I kit out to fight normal dudes and instead we get metalocalypse nightmares. Thanks, mystery patron, maybe next time I want to toast bread you can give me a lighter." He mutters.     He's got no opposition to Mad Maxing this particular issue, though. As the awful drones start work on ways to cut their way inside, he pops his head -- and his shredder -- out of a nearby panel and unloads blasts, popping back inside and locking before the easy way in becomes one for the fireflies. He's hoping to play an absurd sort of whack-a-mole with these awful things to keep them from doing anything effective, and to make sure they get pumped full of spacefuture ammunition. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      "Oh, nice! Four-dimensional momentum harvesting. I'm impressed you managed to get the actual wormhole-opening so cheap." Septette lightly elbows Weiss in the side before climbing into the trailer and patting the seat next to her. "Here's another upside to your refinements: when I compliment your design, now you don't get to deflect onto your creators."      Septette disappears and rematerializes at multiple points during the trip, absent more often than not. Every time she pops back in, there are a few more tiny flecks of blood on her hands and smiling face. At one point, true to her word, she does offer George a ragged piece of what looks like raw monster fish to go with his flavored rations. It's probably safe. Probably.      The encounter with the nanoswarms goes relatively without incident thanks in small part to the ridiculous-looking EMP yo-yos, though Septette pauses to carefully sweep up some of the now-inert glittering dust into an empty glass vial and stuffs it back into her satchel. Research materials get! Surely Rory can't complain about scavenging from something that's dead. Surely.      By prescient foresight- or maybe just handy multiversal radio- she pops into the truck just in time for the second TITAN-machine encounter, and leaps out the back to land in a spray of red sand as the bipedal war-machine disgorges its drone payload. Her armblades deploy immediately and start to glow red-hot in anticipation of carving through armor. "Don't let the drones close! Melee-armed, neck targeting."      Septette herself chooses a different target: she sprints into close range with the bipedal robot as her right hand crackles and glows with an ominous electrical charge. "Hey buddy! Nobody ever told you two legs are a shit design?" Once in range, she unleashes a lightning-strike at the ground that transforms the sand under it into a spire of glass. The glass bubbles up and then cools supernaturally quickly, trapping its leg and ankle in the brittle stuff. That ought to immobilize it for just a split second-      Long enough for her to leap into the air and bring her searing armblade around in a wide arc, trying to embed it in the knee-joint! "Only I can make that look good!" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa is glad she has friends and allies along, who have a hell of a lot of firepower, given the machines that have just come back online? She's very happy they have the crew they do here. She keeps her hands on the wheel and she will keep things moving, so its' time for a pretty crazy chase. "Hang on!" she calls out as she now is going full-on Mad Max driving mode here. She knows Geroge is going to pull something. With Septette now moving out and going to do her damnest to blender the Titan bot? She has total faith in Septette to be able to handle things with that machine. She would note to Rory later, people like what they know, and not everyone takes to sim space well. That would have to wait though as Rory os jamming into the Archanoid now and she keeps driving along moving the truck in such a way she's not moving in a straight line and is not as easy of a target due to it 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The drones seem to ONLY have those buzzsaws, and no ranged weapons to speak of. The burst of flechettes from the arachnoid sends one crashing to the ground. It'll probably try to drag itself over to the tires or something, but it's no longer an immediate threat. The other one goes for George, making repeatedly popping out to shoot the warbot a tricky proposition. It digs its saws into the hinges, cutting the hatch open.     Curiously, despite what they've seen the TITANs can do, the warbot seems to be mostly limited to human-level technology. The scans Zwei senses include radar, T-rays, and lidar... and it seems to take note of Septette's signature and focus on her. Some of the spurs open up on the end and swivel around via unseen mechanisms, in other places small hatches open on the warbot. Septette's approach is faced with some kind of small beam cannon, a plasma bolt and -- much harder to dodge -- mini-missiles that detonate in massive superheated fireballs. Either it thinks it can melt the yggdroid, or 'melting' is its fallback strategy for something it doesn't know how to deal with. It's not crazy enough to melt itself, though, so once she's on the knee it tries to dislodge her with those tentacles. ...They seem to be more for manipulation and grabbing things than weapons, though -- they're just not strong enough to dislodge her as she starts cutting her way through the knee, something inside sparking. 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     <<"What? Have you never looked at an old car and gone 'Dang that's a really nice car'?">> Weiss says to Rory, dusting off her hands. <<"The weirdest part of this whole trip is how bleak ancient Mars is. All this dust is depressing. People want to live in the real world because the real world is worth living in. It's where they came from. It's home. It's where there are things to learn and do instead of just deciding how everything works. It's also less prone to getting deleted by anything short of vacuum decay.">> she finishes.     <<"Haha! I knew you'd appreciate it~">> she says to Septette, rocking slightly with the elbow nudge, certainly intentionally, and scooting over. <<"It's true, it's true! It turns out that not a lot of problems in the Multiverse get solved via trillions of drones and remote operated space armadas, so there was a lot of optimizing to do! Stripping out extraneous galactic-scale junk gives you a lot to work with day to day!">> Then, robot ambush happens. <<Don't need to be a genius to figure out TITANs probably didn't design that.>> ||Exsurgent involvement likely, then.|| <<Up to multi-task a little?>> ||Let us, I suppose.||     Just as Septette really gets stuck in with the robot, and very specifically, after she has properly encased and damaged its legs, the Martian air up above bends and tinges violet, and the massive shape of Asche appears in freefall, less than half the giant walker's height, but easily several times its mass. A short flare of boosters fire on descent, and the battle Armiger slams into the robot's top-heavy central mass at high speed as part of an aerial surprise takedown while it can't move. Ideally, it'd snap the thing off at the knees, with its feet glued to the sand by glass, and some blade damage from Septette.     Getting it to ground in any way results in Asche pinning it flat, joints rotating subtly to adopt a slightly bestial quadruped stance. Gigantic super-material claws plunge into its weapon mounts in knife-handed attacks, twisting and ripping machinery free and hurling it figurative miles away into the sand, focused on violently mutilating the machine while it is unable to stand.     Weiss sits pretty in the truck, swaying only aesthetically with Kotone's tight turns and swerves. Her focus is instead directed to one of the flying buzzsaw drones, beaming her scans right through the rover's chassis and apply Zero Interface Access to its core computer. She wants to get records of its date of manufacture, combat and repair history, company of registration, and then delete all its old data and reformat it to factory standard, for Reasons(tm). <<"Don't worry! These guys are always super serious! Serious enough for an extra person!">> she says consolingly to Yuuki in the meantime. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Upon Ashe's materializing, MORE WEAPONS swivel up to fire at him -- a rail-machinegun and a relatively dinky laser, but that's nowhere near enough kinetic energy to actually STOP him. There's a crash of metal as he slams into the body, and creaking as it starts to bend over... followed by a loud SNAP as the knee Septette's cutting breaks the rest of the way, and a crash of glass as the other leg is torn free, the warbot and Asche crashing down to the martian soil. It turns its weapons, sans the missile launcher but including a cutting torch, all on Asche but can't really stop him from ripping them out as long as he's willing to tank some hits.     The drone Weiss hacks... was made by the TITANs, so they didn't bother storing the kind of data humans might care about, but Weiss can work out that it dates from shortly after the Fall. As everything in it is deleted, it stops trying to kill George and just sits there, unmoving atop the truck.     The warbot, perhaps recognizing it's beaten, detonates its reserve of minimissiles, blasts tearing itself open and assaulting Asche with an explosive shockwave of plasma and electromagnetic pulse before it finally lies still and quiet in the sand. 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George manages to refrain from pulling to another hatch when the thing starts digging into the one he's right behind. He takes the moment to line up a shot perfectly, making sure to keep that trigger finger gently snug on the trigger. He counts softly on his breath. "Ten... Nine... eight... Seven... Six..." But no, he's miscounted. "FIVEFOURTHREETWOONE!" And... Then the hatch stops getting ripped open, and so he winds up fumbling his gun like a clown.     "Gah! Oh, dammit, that was you wasn't it?" He shoots a glance to Weiss, as he scrambles to get the gun back up. "Alright, well, good enough for me. That saw was a little too close for whack-a-mole anyway." Then he hears the explosion. "Oh. Oh! Kotone! Pedal on metal, please!" He'd rather not get trucktossed by the shockwave there, oh god. 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Yuuki is now quite interested in this conversation, as people hop out of the back of the party van, start swerving around, and cause her to grip on to the closest piece of wall (crunching it a little) to follow Weiss. "Y-yeah... I know." She agrees quietly. "Usually I'm in a management role. How /do/ you 'optimize' away an entire fleet of spaceships and trillions of... anything? Ok, most things. Even the logistics of 'a trillion' would be incredible..." Explosions and George shouting snap her back into attention. "I heard a 'boom'! Did we get it? It sounded like we got it. I just can't tell for certain." She taps her nose. "I can usually tell by the smell, but..." Yuuki stops to smile dorkily. "... robots?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' The giant warbot did a really good job of grabbing Yuna's attention; it's only a combination of the sound of gunfire and Elner reminding her privately that there are, in fact, *two* threats, not just one. Although by the time Yuna comes to her decision, "two" has been reduced very efficiently to "zero". The blonde's response to this turn of events is a mild look, a slight shrug to herself (largely concealed in her armor), and then she throttles back up to rejoin the truck. "Well, that was interesting," she remarks to her allies. "Are we likely to see many more of those - either of those - if we hang around long enough?" Erina just casually maneuvers from flying above the truck (where Elner remains, more or less) to cruising alongside Yuna. If they *do* run into anything else, that'll cut down on how long she needs to shift into Flight Form. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     "Robots." Affirms Rory's voice, coming from the otherwise motionless robot feline that's laying down next to her.     Outside, the Arachnoid switches into a less animate state, its motions being controlled by an AI coded by Rory. It clings to the truck side and enters a sentry mode!     "TITANs..." Rory's tone is distant and unsure now, strangely enough.     "So many questions. So much horror." 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      The beams and plasma bolts seem to pass right through Septette without any 'kick' of impact- in reality, boring holes through her shawl and skirting narrowly through the gaps in her skeletal anatomy as she twists precisely around them. The micromissiles aimed at her are each met with an intervening spike of glassed sand to intercept them and detonate them prematurely. The subsequent ammo explosion, however, allows her no such tactics.      'Melt it' is, in truth, an excellent fallback strategy. Mundane materials vary sharply in their strengths, toughness, and hardness, but relatively little in melting point. At a high enough temperature, everything vaporizes just fine. Almost everything.      In the fractions of a second before the fireball reaches her, Septette's bones are rimed in frost as her temperature plummets. A precisely-arranged fractal blossom of water ice surrounds her like a white cocoon. As the flames brush up against it, it sublimates into an expanding layer of protective vapor that pushes the brunt of the heat away!      When the miniature fogbank clears, Septette 'thaws' herself out with a series of uncomfortable metallic pings and rolls her shoulders to ensure that everything's still in place. "Blegh. Sore loser. Zwei, how're you holding up?" 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     Asche tanks the hits alright. He's good at doing that. Septette gets to peep some further redesigns as well, when the laser, railgun, and eventual missile blasts slam directly into him without deviating, but 'bleed out' on hit, spreading ripples of light coursing through the faint, tesselating 'sub-dermal' layer of his armour. Rather than blowing great big chunks out of him, the lasers leave cherry red splotches of overheated carbon, the railgun slugs fragment and slash shallow gouges across the angled plating, and though the final missile barrage lifts him off his feet and throws him several meters backwards, he comes away with a tapestry of scorches smoking off a thin layer of liquid carbon dioxide and vapourized perlite. Tiny boosters across his frame properly reorient himself and slow his fall to a neat landing, where he then slaps his chest as if dusting off a tuxedo (albeit a very burned one). ||"Situation handled."|| he rumbles, joints already rotated back to a 'humanoid' posture.     <<"Oh. You get rid of it.">> Weiss says conversationally to Yuuki. <<"I heavily reduced my mass communications and remote tactical operation capacity. Like, maybe it sounds impressive, but it ended up on the cutting room floor for a reason, y'know? Then I used the new space to fit more useful things in! Adventure modules!">> She then pops the hatch and climbs up on top of the truck, looking at the buzzsaw bot. Partly to test, but also partly just to show off, she twitches her fingers to little synchronized movements of the robot's limbs, miming the existence of imaginary puppet strings. She'll make it do a little dance too, if that dissuades someone from trying to blow up her captured toy.     She then turns around to Rory. <<"Naaah. These babies were built by TITANS, but way too long ago to have been a proprietary design.">> Asche continues. ||"They are most likely of pre-Fall human design, or close derivative, and simply manufactured within TITAN captured facilities to turn on mankind. I detect no significant cognitohazardous or reality-breach risk."|| Of course, what constitutes 'significant' might be misleading, but it's intended to be a reassurance. He then offers a weird, clawed thumbs up at Septette. ||"Superficial damage. You expended the majority of its ordnance. Revised Interdiction Field is operating at solid capacity."||     <<"Soooo, can we get this truck rolling again?">> Weiss interjects, slapping the side as if she expects it to giddy up like a horse. In fact, if Kotone doesn't step on the gas, she will outright jack the steering and accelerate the vehicle herself. <<"Also nobody touch my buzzbot! I have plans for it.">> 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Well the fight is going on pretty hard and fast it's not long before the Titan bots are fragged or down for the count hse's pleased with that and all she notes to Rory for a moment "Yes let's worry about the now and we can worry about Skynet's more terrifying cousins later!" She replies to Weiss as they bring up let's get moving again. "Don't need to tell me twice." She floors it as fast her cybernetic body to go and she won't take her foot off the gas. "Be careful then again your one of the few people who'd have a chance to learn something from it without becoming a cancer tree." She keeps her eyes on the path ahead it's time to get going pretty hard. 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Yuuki nods. "Oh no-no. I understand that. Like instead of having a big camera in the phone, you use a smaller one but have more space for memory and battery. That makes sense. I meant..." She moves a hand up, fingers splayed on the side of her head thoughtfully. "I meant the fleets and the drones and stuff. Are they still out there? Or did you recycle them? That's a lot of recycling?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The rest of the trip is pretty uneventful. They know to drive around the 'bushes' now, so it's pretty straight shooting. There's the occasional crater or more destroyed warbots, but no more excitement. Hopefully someone brought videogames or an audiobook or cool music or something.     Ebb 6 is a pretty small dome. if Rory looked it up, it was some outpost in the middle of nowhere where people could live in relative isolation, and during the fall it was overrun by TITAN warmachines, according to the last transmissions before it went dark.     A solid wall over a storey tall supports a dome of geodesic panels... or at least it did. Parts of the wall big enough to drive a truck through have collapsed on the northwest, west, east, and south sides, and most of the dome panels and part of the support frame have collapsed.     There are proper entry gates with airlocks on the north and southwest sides, but they're not working. Approximately two dozen small structures, rectangular or dome-shaped, are inside, with most showing signs of violent damage. The ground is littered with the bodies of those who fell in the fall. It doesn't look like the force that attacked here had headhunters. There IS some obvious new construction -- an access ramp for vehicles goes down below, and there's also a smaller hatch with a ladder. Both are positioned without regard for the buildings here, which seem to have been abruptly cut around the entrances. Careful observation or scouting sees evidence of seven people in Ruster morphs here -- red-skinned human variants genetically engineered to survive in the Martian atmosphere. Four of them are working with nonhumanoid robots to move containers -- some of which look like the cylinder that held the nanoswarm -- to a truck that's stashed in a ruined garage, while three of them are armored like soldiers and patrolling around. One of the soldiers is taking a smoke break, or trying to, muttering about crappy cigarettes if someone's hearing is good enough. All seven are carrying assault rifles.     So... Here they are. How will the party approach this? 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' The sight of those containers is enough to put *Elner* on edge, the little robo-faerie signaling Yuna. Rather than haring off to investigate, Yuna simply keeps pace with the truck, stopping where the vehicle stops. Similarly, it's Elner who blips away - not just flying, but teleporting here and there, trying to map the complex as quickly yet thoroughly as possible, and transmitting data back to Rory and Kotone for compilation and potential further analysis. If there are others in the group who can receive the relatively raw map data, Elner's sharing it with them as well. "So if we need to take them down," Yuna muses quietly, "we have to do it without damaging any of those containers or we risk having another cloud of nanomachines running around." She purses her lips, then nods to Erina; a pair of transformations ensue as Yuna shifts into Flight Form, combining with Erina and letting Jiina reassemble into her normal android form. Once the group's ready to move, Yuna can easily go airborne and attack from the sky. 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     Weiss gets back into the rover as it gets moving again. <<"Oh! That's the real joke: didn't get any! I was /supposed/ to, but- well, it's a long story. Suffice to say it was double useless and I'm happy enough to operate on my own now! Well, as much as 'on my own' can be said with two of me~">> She spends most of the trip tinkering with robot guts on the top of an erratically driven truck on a low-gravity planet covered in craters while making conversation with the cutest member of the brigade. Asche basically winds up 'jogging' in pursuit, being fairly efficient in Mars gravity, and more generally present to deal with further attacks.     First thing into the dome, Weiss draws a little from the dragonfly's battery to amplify her sensor range, scouting the dome for two things: active power supplies, and cortical stacks still present in any of the dead bodies. Upon spotting the rusters, she includes their cargo in her scanning itinerary, but doesn't go and talk to them. Asche, meanwhile, heads straight down that vehicle ramp. A hatch won't fit him anyways. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      As the truck pulls up to the ruined geodesic dome, Septette hops out of the still-moving vehicle, smooths out her damaged shawl with her hands, and materializes a handful of small spherical drones. They disperse to scout out the area, keeping a respectful distance from the Rusters and 'peeking' around corners- they don't have any stealth capabilities, but Septette's own alarming energy signature should drown them out on scans, and they might be mistaken for Headhunters at a good distance.      Specifically, after noting and sharing the positions of the Mafia Rusters, they quietly try to locate where the containers are coming from. There must be some kind of cache or stockpile deeper in; otherwise they wouldn't be bringing them out in such an orderly fashion.      "I'm going to make sure they don't have reinforcements or armed WMDs further inside. Still the best-equipped to deal with those," she says, patting her two remaining ridiculous EMP yo-yos. Then she trudges off away from the garage, deeper into the ruined dome.      Hopefully nobody follows. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The dead bodies still have their stacks! The gear the scavengers are using -- their own headcomputers and helper bots, and the computerized parts of their guns -- use batteries, except for their truck, which has a nuclear power supply just like the party's. Their cargo includes canisters that have some kind of small but non-degrading TITAN-tech power supplies and contain more nanoswarms, as well as drums of clearly human make filled with strange chemicals the TITANs synthesized for uncertain purpose. Actually, they have empty drums they're taking down and filling and bringing back up, so there must be some larger container down in the cache. 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George hops out of the truck, then clambers over towards the massive gaps in the dome, launching a grappling hook up to reel himself over. He peers over... And then exclaims. "Oh hey! New friends over here." Hopping over, he slips into cover, then approaches the group with the cylinders. Then he does something /incredibly/ silly and /incredibly/ stupid. He wanders right towards the group, pulls out what looks troublingly like a grenade, and clamps his his thumb onto its activation switch, making it emit a series of urgent beeps that introduce him abruptly.     "Hey there, guys! I'm sure you've heard about what's going on in those cans, and how weak their containment is. So before you get itchy trigger fingers, just remember that the TITANs probably put the front end of Roko's Basilisk into the nano-swarm that'd come out of those things." Then he pounds the clenched hand holding the deadswitch-grenade into its opposite, evoking a huge spark of light as his shock gloves go off. "So hey! I'm here for some interested parties who'd love to have you not putting nanohazards into circulation. Or maybe just taking them, I'm kinda improvising."     He squares up. "So, who here's that special blend of greedy /and/ hoping hard enough to not get ate by Roko's Basilisk that they're gonna gimmie a wrassle?" Unless the answer is surrendering, George doesn't even remotely care about their response to his absurd jokery, he's going to rush the four scavengers outside. He figures they'll realize they can't shoot him or crush him with those machines without setting the grenade off, and that his insane tactic means they have to wrestle it out of his hands in melee while carefully holding the deadswitch themselves.     A process hopefully dampened when George goes to just bean one on the head with the surprisingly substantial weight of an average grenade, still blaring its warning loudly. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     Sighting the removal team in progress, Rory decides to NOT approach, letting Zwei figure this out. As always, team operations that have grown this big, she predicts will devolve into chaos. So she unleashes a Gnat-style surveillance drone - the size of a fingernail - to go check out the distant truck and plant itself as a locator for later, if the gang manages to make a break for it somehow.     SHe doubts that will happen, though.     "It appears they're using this as a base of operations AND a source of loot.... but I cannot be sure. Do NOT damage ANY of the containers." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Chatter crosses the comms about their situations, bodies and other things. She keeps quiet as she's on the lookout for more trouble as she's keeping the truck moving till they reach the Dome which is their target. She takes a deep breath as she brings the machine to a halt some way out from the dome and it's a good thing too. There are people in Rustler Morphs and whelp that means people have beat them to the punch or they caught people right in the act of looting things here. She gets the data from Yuna and is pretty thankful for more material to work with. "Now how to deal with this." She has map data now which is useful she will be wise enough to get Septette is going in alone and let her do her thing. "I only have so many shots with the plasma rifle if we have things to burn rapidly, so yes let us not cause a breach." Sho knows what's in those containers, and there goes George and Kotone cloaks making use of her stealth to get in closer it might be better for her to get in close to start taking people down, while they are directed by the more noisy people in the party. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' George's gambit - while it's very likely to at least sort of neutralize those four - still draws a grimace from Yuna. She *wants* to give him some cover, just in case taking on four armed workers in hand-to-hand with only a grenade as a blunt weapon doesn't go as well as George clearly hopes it will. But then, that's why she went Flight Form. Yuna quickly and quietly takes to the air, initially angling *away* from the compound before swinging over it - specifically, lining up her shot from almost directly above George, high enough up that she (hopefully) didn't draw attention getting into position. Basically, if George turns out to need backup or cover fire, Yuna is going to open up on the bad guys from the *one* direction she can think of that minimizes the risk of damage to the nano-containers: almost straight above, with careful shots from the Matrix Divider. Of course, if the fight gets too close to the containers, she'd rather hold her fire - or swing down and engage in some judicious melee - than risk a stray shot ruining all of the group's hard work ... 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Sliding out of the truck as others recon the area, Yuuki starts stretching out, so by the time that George is walking out with gusto and confidence, she's no-hurry'ing behind his wake. While he does his schpiel - 'a joke too far' - she does a two-hand wave to the goonies and their robo-morphs. "George, I didn't know you also had one of those stack things! You... do have a stack, right? Oh, wait, secretly immortal?" Her eyes blink, slow and pointed. "... Extra-resistant to grenades?" She sighs deeply. "It'll kill you if it goes off, won't it?" A grimace. "It's like you're Zero but replacing all the 'too edgy' with 'too cool', gheez." She adds, before moving to get into the wrasslepile to try and keep the grenade in friendly hands. Because friendly fire -- wasn't! 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George, over the beeping, asides to Yuuki, "It'll totally kill me if it goes off!" He flicks one of the lights on the side of his flat red faceplate like a wink at her before he digs into the meat of the matter, which may yet turn out to be fistfighting Rusters. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The party decides not to opt for subtlety. Asche and Septette heading down the entry ramp get shouts of 'hey!' from a couple of the scavengers, who stop working to shoot at them, trying to hold their rifles steady on full-auto... although after a few seconds, once they see how ineffective that is, they show fear, look at eachother, and lower their weapons, backing away down the ramp. This operation's defense was secrecy rather than heavy weapons, and they're not prepared for people in heavy combat morphs. "Who are you?!" They don't want to further piss off an unknown attacker that might spare them, but they're ready to fight to the death if their attackers turn out to be soul traders or something.     All the others immediately react when Asche and Septette are noticed. George catches the guy on break and a dude carrying a nanoswarm canister. "Woah! Shit..." The solder readies his rifle but doesn't fire upon seeing the grenade. They don't react to the term 'Roko's Basilisk'. Only seed AI researchers even remember that idea now, certainly not these mafia goons. The guy carrying the canister hesitates, then bolts for the truck, making George chase him down and knock him out. The guy who was on break tries to grab the grenade away from him. This... does not really work, especially with Yuuki helping.     The two other soldiers abort their patrol to start moving towards George, but are hesitant to fire when they see he's close to one of the canisters (They're less worried about their buddy wrestling him -- he has a stack, after all.) "...What do you want?! Who are you people?!" one barks out, realizing they're at a stalemate.     The last scavenger was at the truck when things went down. He starts pulling it out of the garage to try and make a getaway.     None of them are aware of those flying or stealthed yet -- Yuna has a clear shot at the soldiers pointing guns at George.     Meanwhile, Asche and Septette can see, behind the scared scavengers... a large, rectangular room that still has several vats of mysterious chemicals in it, a lot more of those nanoswarm canisters, a number of dormant warbots, various completely unidentifiable items... and, according to Asche's sensors, one small antimatter bomb. 'Small' as in it will 'only' atomize the dome and maybe a little of the area outside it if it goes off. 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     While Weiss is busy doing work that will probably take a while, given the number of bodies and minimal number of drones (just one, working hard to bring her each severed head in sequence), Asche is strutting down the ramp right into the mess. Standing alongside Septette, they constitute the two most visually intimidating and exceptionally tanky members of the party, and can make a really good show of waltzing through gunfire with a bunch of dramatic sparks flying off them.     With George . . . being George, and a whole swarm of Elites piled on the rusters either directly doing things or 'on standby to help', Asche in fact walks past the entire smuggling op, bee-lining straight for the room in back, where the ridiculous pile of exotic ordnance is being kept. <<Well now, can't just leave that in their hands, can we?>> ||The scavengers, or that of the others?|| <<Both?>> ||Both.||     He has to crouch down to a sort of 'tripedal' posture to squeeze through, but gets himself in anyways, closely examining the items littered around. The warbots are obvious. Since Weiss has already identified the canisters, he can presume what is in those too. The signature of honest to god antimatter is unmistakable. It's mostly the vats where he doesn't know if it's worth taking them.     Regardless, he has a partner in crime with him. A close burst of fast communication with Septette ends with him taking a position in the center of the room, light starting to bend, space dragging in, and the surroundings bleeding a redshifted tinge as the room's wall to wall coordinates start looping through a higher dimension, like rolling a sheet of paper into a tube to touch one side to the opposite. The idea is to turn the whole compartment into a wormhole field, and dump it back next to the pole stone coordinates Septette had left at the truck, which she herself can easily warp to and from. Quite literally, they are stealing the inside of the room. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' It's the soldier who *didn't* call out who eats a concussive bolt of hard light from the Matrix Divider, lancing down out of the skies and knocking him for a good hard loop. It *should* be a knockout shot - but Yuna's firepower is gauged on the premise that her targets are about as durable as regular humans. Yuna shifts her aim and adjusts how much power she's putting into the next shot, based on how close to 'disabled' the first soldier has been left. "Just some friendly strangers passing through," she calls out, "who don't like nanomachine weapons getting spread around!" Then she pulls the trigger to knock out that second soldier, once he's had a moment to hear her answer to his question. And if the first soldier is still on his feet? Yuna takes a third shot to rectify that state of affairs, before turning her attention back to George's (and Yuuki's) immediate collection of problems. She holds her fire at this point, though, just ready to intervene again if the pair are in over their heads. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      For a brief moment as she regards the cowering Mafia goons, Septette hitches. It's just the slightest visible pause, like something's caught in her inner workings. It takes an alarmingly large amount of subjective time for her to decide, given they likely have stacks, that it's worth it in her ethical calculus to spare them instead of simplifying things.      "We're cleaning out your inventory. Drop the guns, up against the wall." She motions for them to move away from the ongoing Mexican Standoff, then drops a thick wall of magical ice across the entrance that the rest of the party used to enter the area- which should, hopefully, forestall everyone else from getting back to the truck, if only for a few moments.      A small arcane drone warps in to keep an eye on the subdued mooks (and will administer punitive zaps if they try to pick up their weapons again). Meanwhile, Septette herself winds an Ariadne's Thread around her fingers and begins to glow with a flickering actinic light. In a few moments, she'll warp back to the Pole Stone at the truck- along with, hopefully, the full contents of the cache. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The two scavengers in the cache obey Septette's command... and then only look MORE scared when they start /space-warping the room/. "TITANs!" "Please don't take our heads!" They do reach for their weapons in fear, only to end up tasered.     Well, that's ONE way to take care of the TITAN cache...     "Agh!" meanwhile, aboveground, the soldier Yuna shot IS knocked for a loop, but not out. He's armored and slightly tougher than a human... although he seems to be struggling to get his bearings. The second one is KOed, as is the first one if Yuna wants to be thorough. 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     "Ha hahahaHACHA!" George calls out, leaping forward and using the grenade like brass knuckles to try to smash the one bolting for the truck with a massive electrical discharge; he then tries to twist and sort of stylish swing off them to slam them into the ground while launching George himself feet-first towards the oncoming one on break, double-teaming both with Yuuki! He suffers not an inconsiderable bout of bruising and muscle strain from the wrassle efforts, but he comes out, hopefully, on top.     He lands heavily on his feet, then sort of skids and almost seems unbalanced before he lands in a position supporting himself on the cannister. "Man, I just explained it and the last guys gave me a wrassle! I gotta take the nanohazard stuff outta circulation. And, you know, whatever other doubleyou-em-dees you got cooking down there, somehow. Pretty much not here for much else!" He looks over to the truck escaping. "Just a sec, topside and my vampire friend will keep you friends handled."     There comes Yuna's chatter and fire, and George tries to slip away in the chaos towards that escaping enemy truck. George steps forward... Towards the front path of the truck, as if asking to get run over. He turns away from it, breathes deeply... Then he puts both his hands forward. Then he LEAPS high up into the air, tucks his feet forward, and tries to essentially zen-lean-slide his way through the front viewport, crash bodily through the window, and land directly in the driver's seat, ideally thoroughly smushing the driver therein directly into his seat such that he doesn't so much die as feel the closest any martian has ever felt to the experience of Jupiter. His forward-held hands should even wind up ending up exactly on the wheel of the truck if he judged it right. 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Yuuki isn't PRECISELY having the time of her life, but she is much much better than common street goons in a raw physical contest. Even if she was a relatively short, noodly eurojapanese girl! When you can casually huck around people like toys it's not hard to get an advantage in CQC. She robusts one of the goons meanacing George's back, and then realizes that George had a fantastic idea, but he wasn't holding the right thing in an iron grip! A super cool, iron grip shock tazer. Maneuvering one of the guards she can get her hands on, Yuuki aims a swift crack at their head to disable (or smash their skull in, if she misjudges how enhanced people are here), and then maneuvering her hand to grip around the base of his skull. "I'm done with this fight, sorry. You have little things in your heads, right? I'll just smash it if you don't stop. Please don't make me test that." She smiles at George. "Oh, that's a good goal. Why-" George stunt zen windodives like some sort of aciton movey with slow-mo camera shot in IMAX 3D, and Yuuki cannot help but just stare, watching him turn in the air. "So. Cool." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     Rory has not been idle all this time! She has instead launched a covert campaign of INFORMATION WARFARE, targeting the PANs of these workers in an attempt to get control of their gear and especialyl shut down their means of escape - the truck!     Sowing a little chaos on any tacnet they might be using by jamming it is also a good action of opportunity, as is killing any long range comms she can detect, but she's going to focus on cutting off any escape first.     It's a pretty quiet crusade given it's happening entirely over the Mesh, but perhaps the results might become obvious soon?! 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa is now making use of the chaos to get in and she has no idea whom these people really are. What Kotone does know is, they are trafficking in dangerous shit. Given stacks exist here if the worst happens, something can be done about it, right? She's got freezer foam ready as she moves to pounce on several of the soldiers, with it, she'll remain cloaked as she set it off aiming to keep this fast, no taunting, no jokes no nothing. She knows how serious this is, and how fast she needs to take people down. They need to get inside asap to clean out what is there. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Septette's already beginning to dematerialize, shimmering around the edges and glowing purple-green, when the two Rusters freak out and go for their weapons again. The drone summarily melts both of their guns after tasing them, but her tone changes to something... soft and soothing, oddly enough. "I'm sorry you're scared. You'll be okay, I promise. We're not going to take your heads." She kneels to get closer to one on the floor- and, perhaps, seem less intimidating. "Just stay right there, okay? Nobody here wants to hurt you."      And then she's gone with a quiet pop, and hits the ground running next to the truck! Superhuman strength helps her to load anything and everything interesting into their vehicle; primarily the unidentifiable oddities, but also the canisters of dormant nanoswarms and (ever-so-carefully) the antimatter bomb. "How's our exit strategy looking, Weiss? Can go and shore up things if we need more time; I think they're just about done in there!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Kotone freezer foams the guy trying to recover from Yuna's first shot, giving her a clear shot to knock him the rest of the way out. If they /weren't/ KOed, the guards would give George confused looks. The one that joined the wrastle is knocked to the ground -- Yuuki cracks him good in the head and he goes down and stays down.     George, meanwhile, runs into the path of the oncoming escaping truck. He can see the look in the driver's eyes as he considers trying to swerve around, then decides to ram the interloper... playing right into George's hands! Or, he would be if Rory didn't stop the truck.     The driver stares at George, and jams his foot futilely at the accelerator. He's just reaching for his gun when the tacnet goes down.     The other six are knocked out. He doesn't even have time to check that, though -- he can see three of his allies KOed in front of him, and the tacnet going down is the last straw. He holds his hands up in a surrender gesture.     Septette starts loading up the truck. It's not big enough to take everything, even if they use the mob's truck too. The vats of questionably-valuable chemicals and the warbots are just too inconveniently big -- the nanoswarms, some of the strange objects, and the antimatter bomb aren't a problem. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Now that the fighting is over, the vats of chemicals are of some interest to Elner - or rather, of some concern. They might be weapons-grade or they might just be ingredients or precursors, but either way, the robo-faerie takes a few moments to go around and scan the vats and barrels more closely, attempting to identify what this gang was handling. Yuna spends that time flitting around, making sure that the thugs are all accounted for (but that they're alive, or as close to it as human minds in robot bodies can be). 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The chemicals are complex, organic molecules. Precursors to something, but what? Part of some exsurgent lifeform? Or perhaps of some horrible poison for killing humans en-masse? They don't seem to be affecting anyone in their current state, at least     Seven thugs accounted for! These aren't robot bodies, actually, they're a variant of human genetically engineered to survive in the half-terraformed Martian atmosphere. The robots with them are simple AI-controlled servitors that were helping carry stuff. 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     Weiss seems to have about wrapped up with stack collecting in the time it'd taken everyone to fully lock down the situation regarding the smugglers, and for Zwei and Septette to irresponsibly lift all of the black market goods themselves. Asche winds up dumping most of the contents out of a blue-shifted warp in space, and then leaves it to Septette to grab items one by one and hop through her pole stone like a tireless, peppy little u-haul robot.     <<"Looks totally fine! I've been harvesting all the stacks on the side. No sense leaving them just lying around, right? Lift as much as you can, and we'll leave anything too inconvenient or not valuable enough to be worth bothering with the rest of the gang to bring back to our contractor and 'safely off the market'. Just make sure the antimatter and at least a few samples of nanos and chemicals are offloaded before we all come back to the truck. Asche is loading up too.">>     Indeed, Asche is. When you're that big, the size of items you can pocket in hammerspace increases somewhat. While in the cache, he makes sure to grab at least one warbot (in several pieces if necessary) and smaller tanks from the larger chemical vats. ||"My own folding field is more than enough to exfiltrate at moment's notice. Simply make certain that you have everything you desire."||     In essence, the two of them just spend as much time raiding the TITAN cache for as much stuff as they can, before everyone finishes up with the baddies, before warping back to the rover to carry the rest of the stuff out and fulfill the contract. Probably for study. Maybe. Some of it might wind up sold. Some of it might be used later. Who knows! 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     While trying to pack up the entire cache, Zwei is probably the first to notice radio signals from someone that isn't them or their captives.     The source is a drone, that approached from the same way they came. It's like a tiny helicopter rigged with a sniper railgun.     There's radio traffic between it and four stealthed, human-size somethings that are taking positions up behind some rocks outside the dome. (Scouting might notice another buggy nearby-ish, back the way the party came from).     They don't open fire.     As the drone flies over the dome, the radio signals suddenly raise in power, burning out their transmitters. It's encrypted, but it looks a lot like the signals between the warbot and the headhunters. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      "Stack-harvesting is much appreciated, Weiss. Better than leaving them here to rot, for sure. And Asche- I figure we'll all be ready to exfiltrate pretty soon, if the radio's any indication." There's no room to fit the whole vats into the truck, sure, but there's nothing stopping Septette from cracking open each of the containers and decanting some of the vile chemicals into glass bottles shaped impromptu from the Martian sand. Running Pole Stone hijack tally: several nanoswarm canisters, an antimatter bomb, the strange TITAN objects, small samples of the chemicals.      The deactivated warbots are left behind, scattered around the truck rather haphazardly. There doesn't seem to be much else her drones can do while waiting for the others to get back to the truck, so one of them simply traces a funny symbol in the sand around one of the heavy walker bots, easily twenty or thirty feet across. From above, it almost looks like a magic circle...      A few seconds later, Septette pops back in from the Pole Stone relay, leans out of the truck, and makes a funny gesture with her hand. There's a noise like thunder as electricity courses through the magic circle, abruptly shaping an explosion of glass that launches the entire TITAN warbot high into the sky- on a direct high-speed collision course with the small helicopter.      She silently holds out her hand to Weiss for a high-five. "And go fuck yourself too, little buddy." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     That was unexpected. The helicopterbot is smashed out of the sky. The four humans? move slightly, but it's hard to tell what they're doing with chameleon cloaks breaking up their outlines. Then one's head explodes. Or rather... their helmet does. It WAS a human in a survival suit, but now it's turning into something else. Something with a very big brainy growth and strange, fungal fringes, the human's mass rapidly transforming into something new. 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     With the inbound radio signatures, Zwei estimates that the jig is pretty much up. The expedition has been located, and a third party is interested in what they're doing, with most likely hostile intent. Between Zwei and Septette, they've lifted as much as they can, and the rover is basically stuffed with what they can bring back. That leaves them only with asset denial for the enemy, and expedient exfiltration.     Everything still left behind, Asche is exceedingly thorough with. Not content to simply smash things and leave behind the pieces (or potentially reactive chemicals or volatile nano-dust), he dips into battery reserves to get more satisfactory results. His right wrist opens up to expose the modular emitter of one of his integrated multi-weapons/omni-tools, and he begins torching the remaining stacks of tech with a sort of 'welding torch' arc of disintegrating energy, shredding the molecular bonds of even any dormant nano-swarms remaining, and leaving behind only toxic gases and fine powders of basic, periodic table elements, fit for a Cornucopia Machine more than a lab.     Weiss is the first to get back to the truck proper, cortical stacks safely stored, just in time for the show, and to give Septette a smooth, walk-by high five, captured drone in tow. She clambers into the back, but pops out of the top hatch, scanning the horizon to see if she can triangulate the recon team from their radio chatter, though she keeps one of her submachine guns down low for the moment. When she sees one of their heads just outright explode unprompted however, she keys her radio insistently, reporting to everyone who might still be faffing about in the dome. <<"Hey guys, hope you're done in there, because we should be going now!">> 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George is probably second-ish to get back to the truck, once that head explosion happened. "Wow! Okay, sheesh, I'll go then!" He calls out, turning away before the horrific fungal mass can construct a visually brain-rending spiral. He's not really the loot-focused one of the Flotilla, but he also doesn't really mind what Zwei is doing -- and historically they've always needed a little help on the side, so this will probably be a good opportunity for a lab-building contract later. He hops into the truck, holding the door for Yuuki, who has so far been a pretty cool vampire as far as vampires go, and focuses on getting away by way of equipping more of the guns and readying to help blast past the incoming perimeter. 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Yuuki threatened guys with other, knocked out guys, until it turned out that everyone was unconscious and all the important stuff was in the basement. That other people had already went to explore/secure/destroy! And she was just up here, holding onto the neck of some goon, like a dumb flatfoot. Dropping the insensate thug, she gasps in quiet horror, hands to her (rebreather shielded) mouth. "Oh no. I'm the muscle!" She laments, before dashing for the rover to hightail it out. "George, I feel so ashamed. I'm a bad director, if I'm just a big stupid thug the entire time... Ugh, the shame..." She grumbles, shaking some strange white pez into her hand and popping them into her mouth and chewing sourly. "I was so used to pretty monsters that needed to be hugged and or punched. I got complacent." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa si moving to hault hings up, she's very concerned about things here. There are war bots coming in more of them are coming nad now something else is going to get back to the truck with what people they have managd to load up. She'll be getting back to the drivers seat they need to get he hell out of here and she's not liking where things are going. There's not much she can do but she makes sure her plasma grenades are ready floor it out of here. "We got to go, oh we so got to go now!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Whatever the heck 'a person turning into a mushroom brain monster' is about, the party doesn't decide to stick around and find out. Two trucks speed away over the Martian sand! There's a tense moment when they see some approaching warbots, but now that you see them moving? It turns out they are not built for speed, so the truck can easily outrun them after a few moments of tensely dodging (or having the elites onboard counter) the weaponsfire.     With the cache looted or destroyed, whatever forces arrive here won't be able to make use of it. Mission accomplished? 
}}

5860/Eclipse Phase: Mind the WMDs (Part 1)

2018-05-17T05:49:29Z

Staren:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/05/16
|Location=Transhuman Territory: Scum Barge "Ecstatic Metamorphosis"
|Synopsis=An enigmatic client hires Multiversal elites to prevent a smuggler from selling an especially dangerous weapon. But what could be considered "especially dangerous" on a habitat with no real rules?
|Thanks=GMed by Staren
|Cast of Characters=632, 673, 290, 672, 385, 518
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The coordinates given lead the elites (probably aboard the Odyssey) to the scum barge Ecstatic Metamorphosis. It's a colony ship that was never quite completed or launched for its original mission -- after the Fall, the workers stayed around, more people looking for a home away from the control of the hypercorps, and it's now sort of a floating city in space, home to thousands of people. The massive cylinder is rotated fast enough to maintain 0.4g on the outer decks. There's other ships floating around, smaller habitats being towed, the occasional ship coming and going... It's a busy and thriving place!     The most convenient docking point is at the axis. There's no gravity here, and it's a fairly plain, metal corridor leading to intersections of other corridors. The influence of the scum is clear even here, though: There's graffiti all over, and the people passing by are... Honestly, most of them aren't THAT weird. But a significant percentage of passerby are dressed, if not bodymodded, to stand out, with everything from punk-like fashion to garish colors and hairstyles to cybernetic limbs. One person even has FOUR limbs. Others aren't even humanoid, robotic octopi and the like jetting around through the microgravity.     Given that it was designed as a colony ship, the Ecstatic Metamorphosis is a little roomier than most habs -- there are actually open spaces here and there, like a miniature park or a public meeting room that's currently been turned into a bar and dance club. (There are robots at the bar holding drinks. How does THAT work?)     While the elites are deciding how to go about their search, a drone like a large box with manipulator arms jets up to them and a compartment opens, containing belts and torcs with air tanks and blobs of some sort of material on them, and a tablet and pair of glasses for each of them. The tablet can be compressed to phone size or bent and worn as a bracelet -- the glasses allow them to see the AR tags that are everywhere -- advertisements, art (there's virtual graffiti too) -- and to check people's social media accounts. Notably, these ectos are themselves tagged with fake IDs, so that anyone checking the party will see that they appear to be normal visitors from this universe, although the pictures don't look like any of them. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Finally, a place where Septette won't look too out-of-place! Sure, there's still the unsettlingly Chernobyl-like magic signature oozing off of her, but with any luck these folks aren't Multiverse-savvy enough to have detectors for that yet. She's looking around with a practical yet rapturous expression, like a park ranger surveying the land, when the humble robot scoots up and prompts for her attention.      "Oh! Thank you very much. I don't need the oxygen, but... I..." She slowly trails off, dawning comprehension written on her face as it clicks that this particular robot probably isn't intelligent. Septette grabs the bracelet and glasses with a disgruntled harrumph, and throws herself into the task of figuring out how they work with the singlemindedness of someone who doesn't want to think about other things right now.      As soon as she does, a trio of small floating drones pop into existence around her and disperse, looking for any Obviously Shady Dealings (if one ignores that this whole place can be called shady). "Wonder where we're meant to start..." It's spoken aloud to nobody in particular, but maybe she's just embarrassed to address the robot again. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     indeed, anyone who wants a ride to the Ecstatic Metamorphosis is given one, courtesy of Rory's starship, the Cognizant Odyssey - which the Metamorphosis would be able to tell, is not a typical standard transport like its IFF says it is. It's now a hybrid of Starbound Flotilla technology and lacks any of the passenger or cargo booms, being a streamlined delta-shaped vessel covered in sensors and only a few weapons.     Rory's profile is public enough, and easily verifiable against the open Argonaut databases. This includes the fact that she's an AGI.     Hopefull this locale won't have a problem with that. Because she's sleeved into her well-featured Synthmorph, wearing the robes.     It was, oddly enough, designed to fit in amongst anything BUT Transhuman Society. Amongst the people that frequent the docking bay, Rory's bluenette appearance is startlingly tame and boring...     At being showered with an unusual deposit of gear, Rory has enough attention to spare for a frown. She scans the robot, the gear, the fake IDs, everything... and she wisely decides to ping everyone's Ectos with a request to establish secure VPN connections with her. 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' The coordinates were given, and Rebecca was one of the first aboard the Odyssey. Having no real way of traveling through space on her own, she decided to make use of whatever resources were available to her. While she's aboard the Odyssey, Rebecca is getting her weapons ready and throwing on her kevlar vest. She then prepares to dock with the colony ship while going over what she knows about it, even if it's not a whole lot. Once she makes her way onto the ship, Rebecca is slightly surprised by what she's seeing, but it's not that much. With her long time in the Multiverse, Rebecca's learned to expect nothing and be ready for anything. The various passersby don't even draw a second glance from Rebecca. It's all too common for her, although she, too, does wonder how the robots are having drinks. But that's for another time and another place. When the drone finally arrives, Rebecca is a little startled, but then goes over what's being offered to her. She frowns a little at the fake IDs, before attempting to find one that resembles her as much as possible, and even then that's easier said than done. She then takes an Ecto as well checks it out, getting a feel for how it works, before taking whatever gear she feels she needs. 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George knows plenty when it comes to this business. Low and slow, soft and simple. Today he's not come with his militarized, powered EVA hardsuit. This one's a simple softsuit over the vacsuit -- retro, even -- and it looks like George is hanging out as some kind of 50s-era spaceman. but the fashion sense and crimson accents are both modern and apolitical enough to make it seem like a stylish modern space-outfit more than a relic of his homeworld.     Today's tools are a simple collection. Well-hidden electro-shock gloves built to deliver varying levels of charge through the softsuit's hands, a simple telescoping baton in the back pocket, a hidden one-use knife he's slipped into the rims of those AR glasses, and George's own wits. "Well, probably not meant to start any particular place, Bones." George says, grinning and laughing. "This is the kinda thing I'm pretty familiar with. We start where we fit best." George hops onto Rory's VPN, drives his own little shuttle into docking position, and heads on inside.     First thing's first. Gotta get leads. George immediately starts scouring local chatrooms and networks, heading through older logs as much as he can, trying to identify well-established local cliques that would be socially disinclined to have strangers with more tense or sociopathic natural habits aboard. Not even the greatest disguise can fool human intuition and tribal instinct, and so the best place to start is to check in on public social media to see what their tensions have been about lately, while he heads through.     He's just gotta find a bunch of pretentious isolationists who overlap with pretentious pacifists, see if they've mentioned any contempt and sneering lately, and try to crossreference that with new arrivals. Then fire the data to Rory over VPN and get their friendly neighborhood AGI to heat-map probable social movements and give them a specific zone to start at.     All this done with apparently almost no introduction. George has seemingly done this sort of thing before. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' While Yuna's home world isn't exactly 'transhuman,' there's a somewhat familiar feeling about boarding the Ecstatic Metamorphosis. ... well, sort of familiar. Yuna's no stranger to microgravity or zero-G, and not needing to worry about monsters lurking around every other corner means she can relax a fair amount compared to most of the space stations she's visited in the Multiverse at large. On the other hand, the space stations she's been on back in her home reality - or the parts of it which exist as the Fraulein Sector in the Multiverse - don't usually have a criminal element where she'd need to worry about it. In any case, Yuna is outfitted in her Light Suit just in case things go south, and Elner is flitting along next to her as usual, monitoring their surroundings for anything that seems like it could be a source of concern. Yuna collects a belt, one of the respirator torcs, and a tablet/glasses set as well, experimenting a bit with both of them to figure out how they work - and how to make them do what she wants to; that much AR advertising makes her brain hurt, so she tries filtering those down as much as she can. Elner might be able to help with that, depending on the interface restrictions. Rory's VPN is joined in due course, to help coordinate, and once that's done, Yuna takes more of a look around the entry area. She doesn't have anything *close* to George's experience or expertise; the best she can do is look for empty spaces that stand out - you know, something that seems like regular passers-by are being warded away from, consciously or otherwise. 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' A dangerous mission into the depths of Weirdoland (well, it's not like a dimension where all the cats have human faces and make awful cat puns, so, maybe it's not truly Weirdoland) go, this one seems noble and just. Go in, stop the Mystery Weapon from the spaceship home, and then leave? Maybe catch a drink with the robots? It's tempting to flit off, for Yuuki Kuran, and dally here and there with all the new sights and experiences! But she remains resolute. Instead, she consults the details of her fake ID/social media presence, and frowns. "A food blog? But it's not really a good one... Maybe I'll update it with some pictures on my phone..." The slender-armed girl withdraws her smartphone from her pocket, starting to swipe and tap away, before frowning deeply. "Uhm... Hmm. Which network do I connect to? There's..." She starts swiping up... and up... and up... and up... "Maybe I'll just, uhm... not! And find out information the old fashioned way?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Septette's drones find all kinds of stuff that might be shady on one world or another. People selling small arms out in the open (that can't be what was meant though, can it?), people doing drugs, advertisements for houses of ill repute (although their repute actually seems to be pretty good), a genetically-engineered cat show... wait, that's probably not shady. There are certainly people who look at the drones suspiciously, and who act kind of suspicious, but noone's put any signs up advertising a one-of-a-kind WMD sale... Maybe it's invite-only?     Rory's scans reveal that the robot is hab maintenance automech #231, which is currently supposed to be cleaning the windows or something innocuous like that. Clearly a hacker has redirected it here to deliver things that their patron expected outsiders to need. Barring a question that the operator feels merits a response, it will depart back to its job shortly. The ectos and smart vacsuits all seem normal, and the fake IDs at least pass a cursory inspection, although closely digging into them, they don't have much history. The ectos are equipped with all the standard software -- whoever set them up expected you to use a VPN, it looks like.     Rebecca wearing obvious armor gets brief suspicious looks from passerby, but it doesn't seem to scare them off or attract the attention of whatever passes for police here.     The ectos are mostly operated by 'entoptics', the user reaching out and touching AR projections, including of keyboards and the like.     George fits right in! A lot of people are wearing light spacesuits. It IS a space station.     George's search is perhaps the most immediately enlightening: While there are certainly cliques with better standards of behavior, the ship as a whole seems to only eschew those who make trouble en masse, or engage in slavery. His search of logs and social media activity doesn't, alas, turn up anything so direct as complaints about WMD sales, but it DOES show him who on the station might know about such things. There are people with criminal ties all over -- Nearby, there are some at the bar and some at the cat show. He could also try to investigate every docked ship that's potentially shady, but even if he just searches the recent arrivals, that could take awhile. It needs a little narrowing down...     While there aren't actual monsters lurking around the corner, there is the occasional person who's made themselves look like a monster.     There are certainly some rooms that have KEEP OUT signs (some of which have been responded to with graffiti like 'MAKE ME'), and likewise some of the docked ships have guards standing around, but there's no ONE place that sticks out just yet...     Yuuki's phone might have trouble, but her ecto works AS a phone and does, indeed, work just fine for uploading photos, of food, cats, or otherwise! There are plenty of people she can start old-fashioned talking to!     Coincidentially, just as she thinks of awful cat worlds, someone floats past on their way to the cat show. The cat in their arms looks at her with an almost human face before they disappear down the corridor. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      'Map geotagged posts', he says. Septette starts walking towards the bar, her eyes flaring a slightly brighter purple as her view of the world slows to a near-halt. Colors fade away into monochrome, and then into blackness as her perception outpaces the rate of photons entering her eye, leaving her with only the memory of a list of countless blithering social media posts.      The memory's enough. Correlating the three-dimensional coordinates with her outside view of the barge, matching that with posted time and the backwards-extrapolated rotation of the O'Neill cylinder to reverse the distorting influence of its spin on locations, and recompiling a map is drudge work, little more.      A fraction of a second later, the world unfreezes as she says "Will do, Cap'n" over her radio. Now for the actually tricky part: recompiling her knowledge into a human-readable map. While she figures that out, she seats herself at a stool (in this gravity, she barely weighs more than a gorilla!) and orders... whatever the guy next to her is having.      Twenty seconds later, a crudely-drawn (yet accurate) 3D map of the social hotspots onboard the barge is splashed onto Rory's network. "How's that suit your purposes? Sorry I couldn't make it look prettier. Don't have the hang of this UI yet." 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' Yeah, Rebecca's wearing armor. Although calling it that seems like a bit of a stretch for her since it's just standard equipment for people like her. She doesn't mind the glances she's getting, since she's not causing any trouble for anyone so she figures she'll just keep to herself for the time being. It should be noted that Rebecca is rather fascinated by the AR projections that make the ectos work. "Just like that movie I saw recently," She says with a chuckle. "Kinda neat if you ask me." She isn't really paying much heed to those who look like monsters, whether or not it's intentional. She's just going along with everything. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' This is not going to be particularly easy, is it, thinks Yuna. The 'keep out' zones seem pretty clearly labeled - very nearly drawing attention at the same time as they attempt to deflect it, as illustrated by some of the rebuttal graffiti. And to be sure, the thought of letting the more experienced investigators do their thing *does* cross Yuna's mind - it certainly seems like George and Septette have a leg up on trying to narrow down where the arms dealer might be; Yuna's better suited to trying to take the dealer down (alive, importantly) if/when the dealer is identified and confronted. But Yuna keeps trying to figure out what approaches she could bring to the table that the others might not be thinking of. While she's racking her brain for ideas on that front, she takes a look at Septette's social-network map ... And frowns. Whoever they're looking for, he or she (or it, or they) will want to be findable by customers - but *not* necessarily by random people. "Elner," she says to her robo-faerie companion, "help correlate the social media map with the station's physical map, please?" 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George works through all the data he can, and gets Septette to handle everything he can't. Looking at the bar, he calls out to Septette over subvocalized communications, "Oh, sure! Thanks tons, Bones." And he strides towards and into the bar. Now to operate more finely. Area reconstruction -- matching selfies to different sides of the room -- and then correlating those to different regions of the bar, that should give him an idea of which kind of person sits where. Location-tagging on the posts he picked up and got organized by Septette should give him vague ideas about seating. Visible accounts, he follows her advice -- people with new arrivals, guarded nature, no geotagged posts -- and tries to narrow down to individuals. And then...     He orders a bunch of nonsense. First he tries for a Changeling Sting, then a Beepsky Smash, then a Lizard Wine, and then finally settles on something sane they actually serve here, before getting a good seat and trying to find someone meeting those conditions: Physically associating with the people he's found, but digitally distant from record. And, of course, starts hassling people the way an old man would at any bar like this. "Heya!" He says, taking a seat and trying to bother around. "How's stuff? You guys here for the art show, or the art show that isn't about those cats?" Cats are always a kind of art. Especially in a highly digital culture. "I've been real interested in getting a good look at all that sorta stuff." He's unbearably cheerful, and smoking conspicuously.     The smoke smells like a hospital. A subtle signature to the savvy that it's full of regenerative chemistry and not tobacco, that George is one of the capital-F Fun kinds of guys. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     IT doesn't take long for Rory to polish up the ramshackled UI pings that Septette cobbles together, and begins to run background checks and Mesh scans for haunts and other things of the individuals George is showing an interest in!     Unlike the others, Rory's digital actions seem to be happening without any triggering action whatsoever. She's not typing on any keyboards or looking at obvious floating displays. Things are just HAPPENING. Because, being an A.G.I. in a Synthmorph, she doesn't need such things to do her business!     Of course, she now has absolutely no idea how to proceed. George's intutiion is the best she has to work with here. However, she begins to also do Mesh searches for local computer system experts, and also tries to locate any other Argonauts who might be here and have any influence! 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' With her phone rendered incapable of connecting to the private, ritzy VPN by the mismatch of technology - one of an era where an open network is a blessing and the other, a terrible plastering curse upon every iota of wavespace, Yuuki Kuran is momentarily rendered totally useless. But she has an Ecto, which is SORT of like a phone (and a camera). While she gets to getting her social media on through the new interface, instead, she starts searching for the most popular Augmented Reality game on the Ecto... app... store. There's probably a zillion and some are super garish, but she's looking for something nice and local. The Ingress of Hab Garish Scum. There's gotta be one, because with this much focus on communal social pluggy-inny... I mean, come on. Unfortunately it may also load her ecto up with a crippling amount of malware, but c'est la vie. She follows behind George, who Knows What He's Doing, messing with her phone and taking instagram photos of his drinks and then a few selfies. It's important! To their cover! ... She is a dignified noble, not a dumb teenager. With the metadata from the app though, figuring out via process of elimination where's well-tread and where's randomly blocked off would be a cinch. Then it's just collating that with the group! So, while she waits, she asks the bartender: "Stop me if this is cliche: notice anything suspicious lately? I'm... an adventurer. I'd like... a quest? u h h h h... Hashtag real life tabletop?" She leans to George's ear. "Do they do hashtags here?" 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     "They do hashtags here, but I can't read some of them. The memes around this territory are really thoroughly baked." George whispers back to Yuuki, in a tone that's far too serious for the silliness he's saying. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Most of the party goes in on cross-referencing social media, metadata location tags, ship's logs, and public maps! All together, this indicates that there are a few ships that recently arrived, that noone's posted from (or that they scrubbed the metadata when they did), and that have guards. One even stands out as more heavily guarded, now that they're looking at just a few. It seems logical to conclude that one of these is the dealer, and the others are prospective buyers. So the question remains: Who can afford more guards: Someone looking to unload a weapon dangerous enough that their patron cares, or someone rich enough to BUY it?     Septette sits next to a humanoid robot without a face. The bartender glances at her, and passes her a 'drink' like the robot has. Her glasses' HUD briefly notes that her (fake ID's) rep has had a minor service pinged against it. The 'drink' is a sealed cup with blue liquid in it and a nonfunctional straw. An embedded chip inside the housing is emitting wireless signals. Sadly, it can't interface with her brain. The glasses give her an error message, complaining they have no way to run a 'narcoalgorithm', whatever that is.     A few seats over is someone whose head LOOKS like a tank with a brain in it but it's got to be a prop. It's atop a humanoid female body in a plain T-shirt and shorts over obvious robot limbs. "Hey, nice look!" A voice comes from a speaker somewhere on her chassis, as she makes a fingergun gesture at Septette. An AR winky emoji animation briefly appears over her head.     The bartender gives George a blank stare until he orders something they actually have. Of the two people next to him, one is a dark-haired man in a colorful tanktop and dark pants. Joint lines all over his body give the impression of something artificially put together, but maybe it's some kind of 3D tattoo? He does seem to be drinking an actual drink rather than the props the robots have. He just gives George a surly look. Next to him, though, is a young blond boy with slicked-back hair in a pinstripe suit. (checking his profile indicates that he's middle-aged, this body just looks like that. Also, one of the less-guarded newly docked ships belongs to him). "What do you know about an 'art show?' he asks, eying George suspiciously, like that's something he didn't want to hear from a stranger. Then he turns and looks at Yuuki. "I'm not an MMARG NPC, kid." He points at her glasses. "Yer skin's not configured right. Go bother somebody else." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Rory's search for fellow argonauts does turn up some people! Mostly folk cracking hypercorp software and blueprints, doing morph genetic engineering research and offering computer security consulting. None of them are mega-influential, but software pirate, biosculptor, and infosec specialist alike have mostly good space yelp reviews. 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' Rebecca looks over at the humanoid female with the brain atop her head and turns away in disgust before realizing it's just a prop. She seems to be taking a while to get used to her ecto. Once she's finally gotten the hang of it, Rebecca takes a seat near the others, attempting to look into more detail for any possible names that might be useful to her. She's only got a little information for the time being, but she's willing to use whatever she's got to see if there are any specific names that pop out. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Hey, someone LIKES the horrible blade-skeleton body! Or, at least, what they can see of it with the shawl and all. She reciprocates with two fingerguns, adding an extra for good measure since she can't figure out how to display emoji just yet. "Thanks! Has anyone ever told you that they like you for your brain?" She laughs, then knocks back the fake-drink and sets it down on the counter. Shush, glasses-warnings.      The peculiar reaction of the blonde neotenic catches her eye, though she makes little indication of the fact that she's keeping an eye on George's interactions besides suddenly going a bit quiet. Her silvery earfins twitch and angle to pick up the subtle aural cues of their respective tones in case things go south.      "Hey, kid," she says, waving at Yuuki before patting the seat beside her. "What game's that? Might be able to give you some help with it, depending." Anybody answering this call can probably handle themselves, pretensions otherwise aside, and at this rate it's a good idea to keep as many bodies in the bar as possible. 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     "Plenty of rare and exotic paints!" George says, spreading those hands wide. "The kinda masterpiece made out of all kinds of colors that are just too hard to find anywhere else, maybe with the kinds of brushes you sure don't get to buy these days." Rare elements crafted through unregulated printers, is what he's saying. "Huge fan of that kind of work. Sort of a connoisseur, a kind of curator! I used to manage plenty of collaborations and exhibitions back in the day. Most of my work was at the Letheia Corporation's artistic interests." Any quick Google will indicate that several Letheia space stations in Starbound space had their internal nuclear devices activated a few dozen years ago; the mining company in George's home galaxy was not one that managed to keep its opposition out of the headlines.     George speaks with the tone of a friendly art enthusiast and occasional exhibition curator, but he speaks more with the familiarity of someone who deals in this business with startling regularity and experience. And he's made sure nothing that he's saying could ever be construed as tipping his hand too much. "Nothing makes quite so much of an impression as a masterpiece on full display. Well, you know, just as long as it's the curator doing the presentation and not the painter or the dealer." And there's the implication that George is a "curator", and the kind who knows to keep "dealers" and "painters" from needing to take responsibility.     It's a little-known fact that George actually owns at least three paintings, inopportunely purchased at Moonfin's urging when he accidentally did this bit to actual artists and art dealers. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Ahahahahahahaha!" The girl with the art project for a head buckles over and laughs at Septette's joke. She emits a :) emoji and tells the bartender that Septette's next drink is on her.     The kid looks at George skeptically. A huge fan? "Are you now..." He checks George's profile, but assumes it's a fake. Searching for news of Letheia, though, makes the kid's eyes go wide. He thinks quickly. Then replies, with lowered voice: "Alright. In return for a finder's fee of... let's say 100,000 credits -- Multiverse credits -- You can have my appointment. I'll let them know to expect you." 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Yuuki Kuran is offended and pouty - and a little something else - for a few minutes, lost in a sea of Overbaked Memes. "There's nothing wrong with my skin..." She mutters, but is by and large deflected by people not playing along with her dalliences. It's rude. But George has this in the bag, so she follows along, resisting making mean faces at the bartender as they go. "Wow, George, I didn't know you were into art collection! I could..." She gets ready to launch into Actually Talking Real Art with him before the price comes up. "Is this a private gallery? Well, that's fine." Yuuki starts ticking off her fingers (giving away that she has little head for numbers, and also that she's a terrible no-computer-brain normie, reeee). "...I can cover that. A hundred? Escrow? Wire transfer? ...Unmarked small-denomination bills?" 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George taps away at ecto interfaces and handles a transmission of payment. "Art deals, am I right? Yeah, she handles my cash. How's six fifty ahead, and then the rest after, however all this goes down?" Though honestly, if Yuuki is going to be handling this, he won't mind the hundred thousand up front. No skin off his nose! "Love working with creative people." George says, giving a thumbs up. "Nobody in the universe like 'em. Glad to work with you." He gives a wink under those AR glasses and a quick fingergun. "I'm always punctual, you give me a time and a place and I'll give them some cash and a face." He takes a sip of his drink just to punctuate it; he feels satisfied about this exchange! 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      "Sorry, but I shouldn't have another," Septette gracefully protests. "Looks like I'll need to be heading out-" And then she's served anyway, so she shrugs and knocks it back. It'd be rude to return it at this point, wouldn't it? Now to disentangle herself from her new friend: she reaches into her pouch and pulls out a small amethyst prism, lit from within by a smoky fractal mote of light- like the filament of a lightbulb, if filaments were branched and wriggly.      She rolls it across the bar towards the braintank-gal like a die, then stands up. "Sorry to be so abrupt. Hope that can keep you entertained in my stead- figure out what makes it tick." It's a Pole Stone, a teleportation trinket! Without a paired crystal and magical talent it's not much practical use, but its composition and power source ought to be a real head-scratcher.      That social responsibility discharged, she slips into position behind George and Yuki, with the alert-yet-affectedly-casual demeanor of a Professional Bodyguard overseeing the exchange. It's a sight to behold, given that she's just short enough to have her line-of-sight blocked by George's shoulder. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     Rory is at a bit of a loss with this. Now she knows who's about.. and that information is filed away for later use if the group gets in oer their heads! But this leaves her usnure how to help pin down where anything STRANGE might be going on...     This is why AGIs still need human supervision from time to time, isn't it?     Rory rather stupidly just stands there, sifting through Mesh search data and ponderin her next move. If this was anything OTHEr than a Scum Barge she might have some idea of how to pinpoint nefarious behavior.     But... this is a SCUM BARGE. There's suspicious behavior EVERYWHERE. so how to separate the acceptable stuff from the unacceptable stuff?     With no other leads to go on, she begins a new covert search on radioactive materials availability and who is supposed to have control of them, hoping it will give her a lead for figuring out where anyone might hoep to steal any such materials FROM. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The kid blinks at Yuuki. He didn't suspect they were working together. So pretending to be an incompetent MMARGer was an act... well, whatever. He's actually surprised -- he didn't think this far ahead. How WILL he accept Multiversal money? "Um..." he thinks. "Wire transfer. Give me a moment."     Those monitoring the local mesh see a request for help establishing a multiversal bank account go up. It's claimed in seconds.                               --------------------                                   I think they found it. Just need to make a Multiversal bank account for some mob underling.     Good. I'll get it to someone who can do that.     I'll keep watching them.                               --------------------                                   The brain-for-a-head oohs, taking the mysterious object and 'looking' at it with her head, then cheerfully waves as Septette. "Thanks! I'll see you around!"     The boy considers George's offer. "Eighty up front." One way or another, a price is soon negotiated, and after several minutes, the boy gets back to them with a fresh account in some bank out in the Multiverse that specializes in anonymity.     He gives them a time and a place. It's the ship with the most guards, owned by a 'Grey Xu', and the meeting is a couple hours from now. A Couple Hours From Now, The Ship With The Most Guards     From the Ecstatic Metamorphosis's aft docking area, two gorilla uplifts in SWAT-level body armor and two slitheroids (robotic naga-form morphs) all carrying railpistols escort the group across the docking tether into a retrofitted ore freighter, where a woman with vaguely asian features wearing a silvery bodysuit greets them. "Welcome, most illustrious buyers!" She bows. "I'm sure you're eager to see what I have for sale, so if you'll just leave your weapons here and come back to the cargo bay, I can show you what's on offer..."     The security starts searching them for weapons and confiscating any that aren't built into someone's body. If they want to go in guns blazing, they'll need to do it while they still have guns... 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna legitimately doesn't have any weapons at all on her person. Neither does Elner, for that matter. Now, the Light Suit which Yuna is wearing *does* seem to give off a mild energy signature, but it's not really designed to work as a 'weapon' in the usual sense - there's just a low-level force field emanating from it to surround Yuna's body. (Or more accurately, the Light Suit itself seems to *be* some kind of energy field, on closer inspection.) Yuna submits to the search without argument, although if anyone's hands get too inquisitive, she *will* call them out on it. 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' They're searching for weapons and confiscating them... Oh damn... Rebecca came fully equipped so she knows she's in a bit of trouble once they find her weapons. Her Beretta, her MP5K, even her knife, all likely to be confiscated. The girl begins to sweat a little, but then realizes that it's better to go with it. She slowly unequips her weapons and readies them to be confiscated. Although there is a look of concern on the girl's face, as they might think she has other plans... 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George turns out his pockets for the search. That means letting go of his telescoping baton. It doesn't mean letting go of his electro-gloves. The shock gloves have their wiring systems deeply embedded in finely insulated layers using nanoporous fabric, and psychic charge generation. It just looks like engineering workwear. "I do love illustrious buying." George says, with a broad grin. "But boy, you really underestimated the eagerness part."     And with a single clean motion, he kicks the hand of whoever's holding the baton, intending to smash it out of their hands and get them disabled by the reflexive urge to grab for it instead of shoot him. This also ducks his upper body low, enough that he can lash out and wrap his gloves around the wrist of one of the nearer guards, electrifying them and trying to get at the pistol.     He doesn't bother waiting to try the pistol -- no doubt it's smart-locked -- and so instead he immediately whips it as hard as possible towards the one who took his baton, trying to smash him in the head, leap onto him, grab his baton, and bean him repeatedly in the neck until they're limp enough for George to grab their hand and force their own finger to pull the trigger on several shots at the remaining security.     Success or no, George intends to at least drive them into cover; ideally, it'll be enough for him to RUSH deeper into the ship where he can get at the goods themselves, and make sure there's no chance of escape! 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Septette's perfectly fine with the search, at first. Her pack contains a few weird trinkets, but the curved blades built into her body are rather quaint! There aren't even any guns or anything; it's like someone tried to build a bipedal killbot with only Medieval melee weapons. It's almost adorable, in the same way that an original Ford Model T is.      'Almost' is the operative word. She slips off her shawl to reveal a skeletal frame with a hollow ribcage, rolls her shoulders and then... there's a noise like a gunshot. She unfolds one of the blades on her arms and slashes towards a gorilla's neck at speeds high enough to create a brief white sonic vapor cone, following it up with a rib-crunching punch to the chest in case that fails to neatly decapitate.      "EVERYONE," she bellows, "WEAPONS OUT." The pulsing crimson core in her chest rises to an ominous glow as the blades on her other arm unfold into an uncanny murderous assemblage as she moves to her next target. The other Elites will likely have time to take out the other armed guards before she can do so, but if any slip through the cracks, Septette will be right there to finish the job. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Oh, they're going loud already? Yuna's not sure whether to disapprove of George's abrupt switch from 'sneaky' to 'fight our way in,' but she rolls with it - trying to grapple one of the guards who was searching her, and to take advantage of the microgravity to send him or her (or it) flying off towards a bulkhead. By the time she finishes twisting around and pushing off, her right hand has a pistol in it, bulky yet sleek. And then she starts squeezing off shots, not exactly laying down beamspam but trying to nail the majority of the guards with focused stunning hard-light bolts. As is usual for Yuna, none of them are going to be particularly injurious - her 'don't kill if it can be avoided' policy is in full force here. Once she's fairly confident that they can proceed without being further molested by the security they've passed through, she flies after George and the others. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Some people are willing to play along and give up their weapons. George is not.     They don't actually get around to taking everyone's weapons. There's four guards, and they start searching the others, but when one of the neo-gorillas grabs George's baton everything gets very chaotic, very quickly. These guards aren't trained agsinst robusting -- most of the time, combat around here consists of either dumping as many bullets/missiles into someone as quickly as possible, or running up and punching them with a shock glove before they can react. Robusting is the stuff of movies.     It IS a gorilla, though, so it takes a bit longer than George would like to get it to go limp, but in the meantime, railpistol shots fly everywhere -- they can't get a clear shot at him and the impulse not to risk shooting their buddy is strong, even if he DOES have a backup.     The other gorilla is neatly beheaded by Septette, in the middle of turning towards George Shenanigans.     That leaves the two slitheroids, and Gray Xu herself. She looks enraged, and has wordlessly grabbed a longarm off the wall, levelling it at George AND the gorilla and firing a cloud of diamondoid flechettes -- three clouds actually, it's on burst fire -- to try and give him AND the gorilla a few hundred superfluous ventilation holes. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Yuna tosses the slitheroid searching her in microgravity. It's able to reorient itself surprisingly quickly -- it's used to this body AND to microgravity -- but before it has time to fire its railpistol, it desperately tries to dodge her light bolts. Energy weapons are scary, and given what George and Septette just did, it has no idea Yuna's weapons are nonlethal. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     If anyone expects Rory to be walking in without some kind of plan, they're utterly crazy. Which is why she doesn't, in fact, intend to utterly disarm herself. Oh, she walks along with the group just the same, but the moment she's aboard this mysterious vessel she sets her HACKING endeavors into motion, seeking to stealthily sniff out and probe the local Mesh for any nodes she can use to slip into administration of the ship itself. This might not be so doable, depending onh ow it's setup, but any bit of control she can seize of the ship while remaining covert is a positive.     She isn't, actually, carrying anything besides a small shredder for self defense, nothing odd for the locale, but there's no telling what's hidden inside of her Synth, right?     OF course then Septette has to ask the question. The million credit question. And...     No sooner does she ask 'why?' then ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!     This takes Rory COMPLETELY by surprise! WHAT. WHAT WHAT WHAT, that wasn't a thing she expected!     The Bluenette dives for the nearest sort of cover, which might be behind someone else. Friend or foe, doesn't really matter. But since she hasn't yet surrendered her Shredder, she brings it out!     However, the Shredder is NOT what she's keen on using! Instead... she quietly continues operations on the Mesh, attempting to subvert the ship. ADDED to this, she begins bombarding the agents with all kinds of garbledeygook exploits to turn their AR against them and blast them with all sorts of phantom noise and imagery!     All without saying a word. At least, not from her mouth. Instead, a message goes over the VPN.     <Warning would be appreciated next time.> 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Hours of not getting anything done and being out of her depth is, in fact, pretty much par for an outing with Yuuki Kuran. The oddest part, for her, is that the normalcy of weirdness in this small slice of the world was downright confusing. It was almost sandpaper to her worldview, of denying her inner self, or at least keeping it under wraps. But they weren't here to re-align everyone's perceptions with the New Self. They were here for ""art"". At the door, Yuuki affects an airy smile, her expression hiding the deep thinking within her mind. >> 'I really have to think of something cool to say, don't I? But it should be cool, and not edgy-murdery. Getting patted down for weapons by the gorillas and George going full ham, leading off the others, and Septette's shout of WEAPONS OUT causes her to snap from her reverie, bringing up a hand to brush a bit of her hair behind her right ear as the gunshots start. Her stance is casual - dismissive - and the decapitation of the gorilla causes her eyes to glow with the spray of gore and the impacts from bullets into flesh. "Perhaps we'll paint the walls red..." She smirks, sweeping her hand out - and with it, a telekinetic crush-force aimed at the snakes in the back, presuming her allies would browbeat the Person With A Name into submission. Bullets impact her, causing 'spluts' of blood and the whumps of railgun rouns piercing flesh, but she barely reacts. "George, that was too edgy, wasn't it? It was the first thing that came to mind..." 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' Rebecca seizes the chaos in the moment to regain her weapons. She wastes no time in looking for cover, knowing that there's many possibilities about what she's up against. Regardless of whether or not she can find cover, she's going to try to take out Gray Xu. Or rather incapacitate the target. "You messed with the wrong group!" Rebecca yells out as she fires a couple of shots at Gray Xu, intending not to kill but to stun the target. She'd use her stun baton, but she doesn't want to get too close. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     With Rory's fast machine mind and up-to-date knowledge of zero-day exploits, she can actually get control of the ship surprisingly quickly! She had to try a lot of things to do it though. So, that's cameras, thruster control, tether and airlock control, the works...     Including the cargo manifest.     There is a canister in the cargo hold tagged 'TITAN nanoswarm'     There is now a convenient headless gorilla to hide behind while Rory considers the ramifications of this information. Clearly, experiences like this are what she's missed out on by joining the Paladins instead of getting recruited by Firewall. Enjoy your mental stress!     Gray Xu grunts in annoyance and starts to run for the cargo compartment while her muse fights Rory's AR illusions. The snakes are telekinetically and illusorily assaulted, and fire everywhere wildly until sustained crush force breaks their bodies. That's a lot of railgun slugs lodged in the hull. There may be some small holes and a distinct hissing noise by now, but really, that's not much of a concern compared to all the gunfire.     Gray Xu can't dodge while assaulted by illusions. That silver bodysuit of hers is strange -- Rebecca's shots splatter it apart like a fluid, revealing a dark grey bodysuit underneath that seems to resist the piercing effect of the bullets somewhat... but the arms dealer cries out in pain as she's sent tumbling in microgravity. She starts cursing in Mandarin. "You assholes! I'm an honest businesswoman!"     In all the chaos, some of that wild fire from the dying serpentoids ricochets back through the ship.     There's a loud BANG and Rory can see that item suddenly flagged as DAMAGED.     In the back of the ship, scintillating silver fog starts to spread across the cargo hold. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      The little murderbot takes a moment to glance at Yuuki's blatant injuries, showing an unreadable flat expression. Then her earfins twitch violently and her violet eyes spike in brightness. Tactical assessment: if anyone can't outpace the nanoswarm, it's George. He's the closest to the cargo compartment. She turns and sprints down the hallway after him quickly enough to gouge claw-marks into the metal.      "Squishy! Get out NOW. Right fucking-" She breaches into the cargo compartment by tearing through an internal wall, just in time to see the silvery fog spreading through the room. "NOW." She raises one hand to spew billowing clouds of partially-liquefying air at it in hopes of slowing it down through sheer cold, then grabs his wrist with the other! 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     The moment that people are OFF the ship, Rory ignores the ENTIRE safety procedure checklist and takes full control of the ship, forcing it to disengage docking clamp and FIRE THRUSTERS to take it AWAY from the ship - and ANYTHING ELSE first thing. And if she can maintain control of it long enough, she'll plot a course straight to the SUN with it...     She doesnt' trust anything LESS to be capable of totally obliterating one of THOSE horrible things! 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna gets into the cargo bay right about the moment at which that silvery mist starts spreading - and immediately turns around, heading back the way she came as fast as she can go, using a combination of pushing off from whatever architecture she can get and controled spurts from the null-G maneuvering belt she got on the way into the hub. At the same time, Elner is holding out of people's path of travel, monitoring the spread of the nanoswarm - and standing by to teleport to safety anyone who isn't out by the 29-second-mark that their mysterious benefactor laid down. If all of the Elites are safe with time to spare, Gray Xu will get teleported to safety as well - although in the businesswoman's case, 'safety' is going to include Paladin custody or something ... Assuming anyone in the group is *from* the Paladins. Yuna's not even sure of that, but as far as she's concerned, somebody needs to arrest the woman whose ship held the now-released WMD. 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     "Oh shhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIiit!" George shouts, immediately aborting his rush through cargo and pulling back. He's stumbling hard; the diamondoid flechettes had to go through the gorilla because George used him for cover (of course he would), and he wound up badly bruised through the armor of his softsuit. And then Septette comes smashing out of the nearby wall! "Oh shiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIwait no this is a good thing." He calls out, and then sort of goes limp when her big hand grabs his wrist and he gets yanked out! Stumbling and dashing as fast as his bruised body can take him.     Back out of the bay, down the ramps, out into the Barge, and sort of diving away from the clamps and systems of the dock as everything seals up and gets this ship outta here!! 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' Rebecca's primary goal is to get out of here right now, as all hell is breaking loose. But then she hears that Yuna has the businesswoman, and she decides to make a break for the cargo bay, hoping to take the woman into custody. Her legs guide her almost like they're on autopilot while her lungs are breathing as steadily as possible to avoid running out of air. When she finally arrives, Rebecca proceeds to handcuff the woman before guiding her back to the Odyssey where she got on. She makes sure that the woman is stable before placing her in a confined space while keeping an eye on her for the ride back. 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Yuuki's wounds have the strange effect of being 'bloodless' beyond the initial strike, and even the rail-spikes shot into the ground around (and through) her bear no viscera. As a giant, bulkhead-eating nanoswarm is released with a forboding name, and she's encouraged to hoof it, she nods firmly and starts zipping for the door. "My space-suit-y thing got all shot up, so I'd rather not get tossed into space!" She agrees. Is that how hardsuits work? Probably. "Geor-" Whoops, Septette has him, and the Paladins seem to be heading out in good pace. No worries, then! Except for how they accidentally almost* unleashed a nanoswarm on a populated area. (* Not fixed yet!) 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Septette skids to a halt back in the dock, lets go of George, and immediately steps several feet away from the rest of the party. She raises one finger, signaling for everyone else to stay away! A moment later, her frame crackles with coruscating electricity that causes the lights in the hangar and nearby sensitive electronics to flicker. She heats up until her whole body glows a dull red, then abruptly quenches again with a hiss and a billow of steam...      And then sighs, hands on her hips. "Emergency decontam complete. Mind if I do the same to you, George? You know, just as a precaution." She's wearing a shit-eating grin as she scoops her shawl and satchel up again, but takes a menacing step towards him all the same before cracking up with laughter. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The last people to get off the ship, if they glance back towards the cargo bay, catch a glimpse of the fog starting to move and begin eating the ship from the inside out. Rory has a great view from her cameras! A tendril of fog reaches for Gray Xu, but she's teleported to safety. Honestly, she's lucky that the Paladins will grab her before Firewall can. She might NOT wish the nanoswarm had eaten her! She tries to make a run for it, handcuffs or no, but George's shock gloves can subdue her easily enough.     From windows in the docking tether (and the habitat's external cameras, for the tech-savvy), they can see the ship undock and start to fly away from the station before, true to the mysterious voice's word, missiles fly into it from another ship and blow it up, before the firing ship high-tails it away. First conventional explosives break the hull into an expanding cloud of shrapnel, followed immediately by the distinctive fireballs of plasma missiles making sure to absolutely cook all of it before it can expand so much, leaving the pieces a singed, half-slagged ruin. That seems to have rendered the swarm inert -- the glittery cloud is no longer moving or cohering in any way.     The voice contacts them over their ectos, congratulating them for a job well done and promising more potential work when they've found out how Grey Xu obtained a TITAN artifact. As for payment... they can take credits, or ask for favors -- they're left with an anonymous mailbox they can send requests to.     It seems whoever hired them very much values their anonymity. 
}}

5860/Eclipse Phase: Mind the WMDs (Part 1)

2018-05-17T05:46:38Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2018/05/16 |Location=Transhuman Territory: Scum Barge "Ecstatic Metamorphosis" |Synopsis=An enigmatic client hires Multiversal elites to prevent a..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/05/16
|Location=Transhuman Territory: Scum Barge "Ecstatic Metamorphosis"
|Synopsis=An enigmatic client hires Multiversal elites to prevent a smuggler from selling an especially dangerous weapon. But what could be considered "especially dangerous" on a habitat with no real rules?
|Thanks=GMed by Staren
|Cast of Characters=632, 673, 290, 672, 385, 518
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The coordinates given lead the elites (probably aboard the Odyssey) to the scum barge Ecstatic Metamorphosis. It's a colony ship that was never quite completed or launched for its original mission -- after the Fall, the workers stayed around, more people looking for a home away from the control of the hypercorps, and it's now sort of a floating city in space, home to thousands of people. The massive cylinder is rotated fast enough to maintain 0.4g on the outer decks. There's other ships floating around, smaller habitats being towed, the occasional ship coming and going... It's a busy and thriving place!     The most convenient docking point is at the axis. There's no gravity here, and it's a fairly plain, metal corridor leading to intersections of other corridors. The influence of the scum is clear even here, though: There's graffiti all over, and the people passing by are... Honestly, most of them aren't THAT weird. But a significant percentage of passerby are dressed, if not bodymodded, to stand out, with everything from punk-like fashion to garish colors and hairstyles to cybernetic limbs. One person even has FOUR limbs. Others aren't even humanoid, robotic octopi and the like jetting around through the microgravity.     Given that it was designed as a colony ship, the Ecstatic Metamorphosis is a little roomier than most habs -- there are actually open spaces here and there, like a miniature park or a public meeting room that's currently been turned into a bar and dance club. (There are robots at the bar holding drinks. How does THAT work?)     While the elites are deciding how to go about their search, a drone like a large box with manipulator arms jets up to them and a compartment opens, containing belts and torcs with air tanks and blobs of some sort of material on them, and a tablet and pair of glasses for each of them. The tablet can be compressed to phone size or bent and worn as a bracelet -- the glasses allow them to see the AR tags that are everywhere -- advertisements, art (there's virtual graffiti too) -- and to check people's social media accounts. Notably, these ectos are themselves tagged with fake IDs, so that anyone checking the party will see that they appear to be normal visitors from this universe, although the pictures don't look like any of them. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Finally, a place where Septette won't look too out-of-place! Sure, there's still the unsettlingly Chernobyl-like magic signature oozing off of her, but with any luck these folks aren't Multiverse-savvy enough to have detectors for that yet. She's looking around with a practical yet rapturous expression, like a park ranger surveying the land, when the humble robot scoots up and prompts for her attention.      "Oh! Thank you very much. I don't need the oxygen, but... I..." She slowly trails off, dawning comprehension written on her face as it clicks that this particular robot probably isn't intelligent. Septette grabs the bracelet and glasses with a disgruntled harrumph, and throws herself into the task of figuring out how they work with the singlemindedness of someone who doesn't want to think about other things right now.      As soon as she does, a trio of small floating drones pop into existence around her and disperse, looking for any Obviously Shady Dealings (if one ignores that this whole place can be called shady). "Wonder where we're meant to start..." It's spoken aloud to nobody in particular, but maybe she's just embarrassed to address the robot again. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     indeed, anyone who wants a ride to the Ecstatic Metamorphosis is given one, courtesy of Rory's starship, the Cognizant Odyssey - which the Metamorphosis would be able to tell, is not a typical standard transport like its IFF says it is. It's now a hybrid of Starbound Flotilla technology and lacks any of the passenger or cargo booms, being a streamlined delta-shaped vessel covered in sensors and only a few weapons.     Rory's profile is public enough, and easily verifiable against the open Argonaut databases. This includes the fact that she's an AGI.     Hopefull this locale won't have a problem with that. Because she's sleeved into her well-featured Synthmorph, wearing the robes.     It was, oddly enough, designed to fit in amongst anything BUT Transhuman Society. Amongst the people that frequent the docking bay, Rory's bluenette appearance is startlingly tame and boring...     At being showered with an unusual deposit of gear, Rory has enough attention to spare for a frown. She scans the robot, the gear, the fake IDs, everything... and she wisely decides to ping everyone's Ectos with a request to establish secure VPN connections with her. 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' The coordinates were given, and Rebecca was one of the first aboard the Odyssey. Having no real way of traveling through space on her own, she decided to make use of whatever resources were available to her. While she's aboard the Odyssey, Rebecca is getting her weapons ready and throwing on her kevlar vest. She then prepares to dock with the colony ship while going over what she knows about it, even if it's not a whole lot. Once she makes her way onto the ship, Rebecca is slightly surprised by what she's seeing, but it's not that much. With her long time in the Multiverse, Rebecca's learned to expect nothing and be ready for anything. The various passersby don't even draw a second glance from Rebecca. It's all too common for her, although she, too, does wonder how the robots are having drinks. But that's for another time and another place. When the drone finally arrives, Rebecca is a little startled, but then goes over what's being offered to her. She frowns a little at the fake IDs, before attempting to find one that resembles her as much as possible, and even then that's easier said than done. She then takes an Ecto as well checks it out, getting a feel for how it works, before taking whatever gear she feels she needs. 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George knows plenty when it comes to this business. Low and slow, soft and simple. Today he's not come with his militarized, powered EVA hardsuit. This one's a simple softsuit over the vacsuit -- retro, even -- and it looks like George is hanging out as some kind of 50s-era spaceman. but the fashion sense and crimson accents are both modern and apolitical enough to make it seem like a stylish modern space-outfit more than a relic of his homeworld.     Today's tools are a simple collection. Well-hidden electro-shock gloves built to deliver varying levels of charge through the softsuit's hands, a simple telescoping baton in the back pocket, a hidden one-use knife he's slipped into the rims of those AR glasses, and George's own wits. "Well, probably not meant to start any particular place, Bones." George says, grinning and laughing. "This is the kinda thing I'm pretty familiar with. We start where we fit best." George hops onto Rory's VPN, drives his own little shuttle into docking position, and heads on inside.     First thing's first. Gotta get leads. George immediately starts scouring local chatrooms and networks, heading through older logs as much as he can, trying to identify well-established local cliques that would be socially disinclined to have strangers with more tense or sociopathic natural habits aboard. Not even the greatest disguise can fool human intuition and tribal instinct, and so the best place to start is to check in on public social media to see what their tensions have been about lately, while he heads through.     He's just gotta find a bunch of pretentious isolationists who overlap with pretentious pacifists, see if they've mentioned any contempt and sneering lately, and try to crossreference that with new arrivals. Then fire the data to Rory over VPN and get their friendly neighborhood AGI to heat-map probable social movements and give them a specific zone to start at.     All this done with apparently almost no introduction. George has seemingly done this sort of thing before. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' While Yuna's home world isn't exactly 'transhuman,' there's a somewhat familiar feeling about boarding the Ecstatic Metamorphosis. ... well, sort of familiar. Yuna's no stranger to microgravity or zero-G, and not needing to worry about monsters lurking around every other corner means she can relax a fair amount compared to most of the space stations she's visited in the Multiverse at large. On the other hand, the space stations she's been on back in her home reality - or the parts of it which exist as the Fraulein Sector in the Multiverse - don't usually have a criminal element where she'd need to worry about it. In any case, Yuna is outfitted in her Light Suit just in case things go south, and Elner is flitting along next to her as usual, monitoring their surroundings for anything that seems like it could be a source of concern. Yuna collects a belt, one of the respirator torcs, and a tablet/glasses set as well, experimenting a bit with both of them to figure out how they work - and how to make them do what she wants to; that much AR advertising makes her brain hurt, so she tries filtering those down as much as she can. Elner might be able to help with that, depending on the interface restrictions. Rory's VPN is joined in due course, to help coordinate, and once that's done, Yuna takes more of a look around the entry area. She doesn't have anything *close* to George's experience or expertise; the best she can do is look for empty spaces that stand out - you know, something that seems like regular passers-by are being warded away from, consciously or otherwise. 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' A dangerous mission into the depths of Weirdoland (well, it's not like a dimension where all the cats have human faces and make awful cat puns, so, maybe it's not truly Weirdoland) go, this one seems noble and just. Go in, stop the Mystery Weapon from the spaceship home, and then leave? Maybe catch a drink with the robots? It's tempting to flit off, for Yuuki Kuran, and dally here and there with all the new sights and experiences! But she remains resolute. Instead, she consults the details of her fake ID/social media presence, and frowns. "A food blog? But it's not really a good one... Maybe I'll update it with some pictures on my phone..." The slender-armed girl withdraws her smartphone from her pocket, starting to swipe and tap away, before frowning deeply. "Uhm... Hmm. Which network do I connect to? There's..." She starts swiping up... and up... and up... and up... "Maybe I'll just, uhm... not! And find out information the old fashioned way?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Septette's drones find all kinds of stuff that might be shady on one world or another. People selling small arms out in the open (that can't be what was meant though, can it?), people doing drugs, advertisements for houses of ill repute (although their repute actually seems to be pretty good), a genetically-engineered cat show... wait, that's probably not shady. There are certainly people who look at the drones suspiciously, and who act kind of suspicious, but noone's put any signs up advertising a one-of-a-kind WMD sale... Maybe it's invite-only?     Rory's scans reveal that the robot is hab maintenance automech #231, which is currently supposed to be cleaning the windows or something innocuous like that. Clearly a hacker has redirected it here to deliver things that their patron expected outsiders to need. Barring a question that the operator feels merits a response, it will depart back to its job shortly. The ectos and smart vacsuits all seem normal, and the fake IDs at least pass a cursory inspection, although closely digging into them, they don't have much history. The ectos are equipped with all the standard software -- whoever set them up expected you to use a VPN, it looks like.     Rebecca wearing obvious armor gets brief suspicious looks from passerby, but it doesn't seem to scare them off or attract the attention of whatever passes for police here.     The ectos are mostly operated by 'entoptics', the user reaching out and touching AR projections, including of keyboards and the like.     George fits right in! A lot of people are wearing light spacesuits. It IS a space station.     George's search is perhaps the most immediately enlightening: While there are certainly cliques with better standards of behavior, the ship as a whole seems to only eschew those who make trouble en masse, or engage in slavery. His search of logs and social media activity doesn't, alas, turn up anything so direct as complaints about WMD sales, but it DOES show him who on the station might know about such things. There are people with criminal ties all over -- Nearby, there are some at the bar and some at the cat show. He could also try to investigate every docked ship that's potentially shady, but even if he just searches the recent arrivals, that could take awhile. It needs a little narrowing down...     While there aren't actual monsters lurking around the corner, there is the occasional person who's made themselves look like a monster.     There are certainly some rooms that have KEEP OUT signs (some of which have been responded to with graffiti like 'MAKE ME'), and likewise some of the docked ships have guards standing around, but there's no ONE place that sticks out just yet...     Yuuki's phone might have trouble, but her ecto works AS a phone and does, indeed, work just fine for uploading photos, of food, cats, or otherwise! There are plenty of people she can start old-fashioned talking to!     Coincidentially, just as she thinks of awful cat worlds, someone floats past on their way to the cat show. The cat in their arms looks at her with an almost human face before they disappear down the corridor. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      'Map geotagged posts', he says. Septette starts walking towards the bar, her eyes flaring a slightly brighter purple as her view of the world slows to a near-halt. Colors fade away into monochrome, and then into blackness as her perception outpaces the rate of photons entering her eye, leaving her with only the memory of a list of countless blithering social media posts.      The memory's enough. Correlating the three-dimensional coordinates with her outside view of the barge, matching that with posted time and the backwards-extrapolated rotation of the O'Neill cylinder to reverse the distorting influence of its spin on locations, and recompiling a map is drudge work, little more.      A fraction of a second later, the world unfreezes as she says "Will do, Cap'n" over her radio. Now for the actually tricky part: recompiling her knowledge into a human-readable map. While she figures that out, she seats herself at a stool (in this gravity, she barely weighs more than a gorilla!) and orders... whatever the guy next to her is having.      Twenty seconds later, a crudely-drawn (yet accurate) 3D map of the social hotspots onboard the barge is splashed onto Rory's network. "How's that suit your purposes? Sorry I couldn't make it look prettier. Don't have the hang of this UI yet." 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' Yeah, Rebecca's wearing armor. Although calling it that seems like a bit of a stretch for her since it's just standard equipment for people like her. She doesn't mind the glances she's getting, since she's not causing any trouble for anyone so she figures she'll just keep to herself for the time being. It should be noted that Rebecca is rather fascinated by the AR projections that make the ectos work. "Just like that movie I saw recently," She says with a chuckle. "Kinda neat if you ask me." She isn't really paying much heed to those who look like monsters, whether or not it's intentional. She's just going along with everything. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' This is not going to be particularly easy, is it, thinks Yuna. The 'keep out' zones seem pretty clearly labeled - very nearly drawing attention at the same time as they attempt to deflect it, as illustrated by some of the rebuttal graffiti. And to be sure, the thought of letting the more experienced investigators do their thing *does* cross Yuna's mind - it certainly seems like George and Septette have a leg up on trying to narrow down where the arms dealer might be; Yuna's better suited to trying to take the dealer down (alive, importantly) if/when the dealer is identified and confronted. But Yuna keeps trying to figure out what approaches she could bring to the table that the others might not be thinking of. While she's racking her brain for ideas on that front, she takes a look at Septette's social-network map ... And frowns. Whoever they're looking for, he or she (or it, or they) will want to be findable by customers - but *not* necessarily by random people. "Elner," she says to her robo-faerie companion, "help correlate the social media map with the station's physical map, please?" 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George works through all the data he can, and gets Septette to handle everything he can't. Looking at the bar, he calls out to Septette over subvocalized communications, "Oh, sure! Thanks tons, Bones." And he strides towards and into the bar. Now to operate more finely. Area reconstruction -- matching selfies to different sides of the room -- and then correlating those to different regions of the bar, that should give him an idea of which kind of person sits where. Location-tagging on the posts he picked up and got organized by Septette should give him vague ideas about seating. Visible accounts, he follows her advice -- people with new arrivals, guarded nature, no geotagged posts -- and tries to narrow down to individuals. And then...     He orders a bunch of nonsense. First he tries for a Changeling Sting, then a Beepsky Smash, then a Lizard Wine, and then finally settles on something sane they actually serve here, before getting a good seat and trying to find someone meeting those conditions: Physically associating with the people he's found, but digitally distant from record. And, of course, starts hassling people the way an old man would at any bar like this. "Heya!" He says, taking a seat and trying to bother around. "How's stuff? You guys here for the art show, or the art show that isn't about those cats?" Cats are always a kind of art. Especially in a highly digital culture. "I've been real interested in getting a good look at all that sorta stuff." He's unbearably cheerful, and smoking conspicuously.     The smoke smells like a hospital. A subtle signature to the savvy that it's full of regenerative chemistry and not tobacco, that George is one of the capital-F Fun kinds of guys. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     IT doesn't take long for Rory to polish up the ramshackled UI pings that Septette cobbles together, and begins to run background checks and Mesh scans for haunts and other things of the individuals George is showing an interest in!     Unlike the others, Rory's digital actions seem to be happening without any triggering action whatsoever. She's not typing on any keyboards or looking at obvious floating displays. Things are just HAPPENING. Because, being an A.G.I. in a Synthmorph, she doesn't need such things to do her business!     Of course, she now has absolutely no idea how to proceed. George's intutiion is the best she has to work with here. However, she begins to also do Mesh searches for local computer system experts, and also tries to locate any other Argonauts who might be here and have any influence! 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' With her phone rendered incapable of connecting to the private, ritzy VPN by the mismatch of technology - one of an era where an open network is a blessing and the other, a terrible plastering curse upon every iota of wavespace, Yuuki Kuran is momentarily rendered totally useless. But she has an Ecto, which is SORT of like a phone (and a camera). While she gets to getting her social media on through the new interface, instead, she starts searching for the most popular Augmented Reality game on the Ecto... app... store. There's probably a zillion and some are super garish, but she's looking for something nice and local. The Ingress of Hab Garish Scum. There's gotta be one, because with this much focus on communal social pluggy-inny... I mean, come on. Unfortunately it may also load her ecto up with a crippling amount of malware, but c'est la vie. She follows behind George, who Knows What He's Doing, messing with her phone and taking instagram photos of his drinks and then a few selfies. It's important! To their cover! ... She is a dignified noble, not a dumb teenager. With the metadata from the app though, figuring out via process of elimination where's well-tread and where's randomly blocked off would be a cinch. Then it's just collating that with the group! So, while she waits, she asks the bartender: "Stop me if this is cliche: notice anything suspicious lately? I'm... an adventurer. I'd like... a quest? u h h h h... Hashtag real life tabletop?" She leans to George's ear. "Do they do hashtags here?" 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     "They do hashtags here, but I can't read some of them. The memes around this territory are really thoroughly baked." George whispers back to Yuuki, in a tone that's far too serious for the silliness he's saying. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Most of the party goes in on cross-referencing social media, metadata location tags, ship's logs, and public maps! All together, this indicates that there are a few ships that recently arrived, that noone's posted from (or that they scrubbed the metadata when they did), and that have guards. One even stands out as more heavily guarded, now that they're looking at just a few. It seems logical to conclude that one of these is the dealer, and the others are prospective buyers. So the question remains: Who can afford more guards: Someone looking to unload a weapon dangerous enough that their patron cares, or someone rich enough to BUY it?     Septette sits next to a humanoid robot without a face. The bartender glances at her, and passes her a 'drink' like the robot has. Her glasses' HUD briefly notes that her (fake ID's) rep has had a minor service pinged against it. The 'drink' is a sealed cup with blue liquid in it and a nonfunctional straw. An embedded chip inside the housing is emitting wireless signals. Sadly, it can't interface with her brain. The glasses give her an error message, complaining they have no way to run a 'narcoalgorithm', whatever that is.     A few seats over is someone whose head LOOKS like a tank with a brain in it but it's got to be a prop. It's atop a humanoid female body in a plain T-shirt and shorts over obvious robot limbs. "Hey, nice look!" A voice comes from a speaker somewhere on her chassis, as she makes a fingergun gesture at Septette. An AR winky emoji animation briefly appears over her head.     The bartender gives George a blank stare until he orders something they actually have. Of the two people next to him, one is a dark-haired man in a colorful tanktop and dark pants. Joint lines all over his body give the impression of something artificially put together, but maybe it's some kind of 3D tattoo? He does seem to be drinking an actual drink rather than the props the robots have. He just gives George a surly look. Next to him, though, is a young blond boy with slicked-back hair in a pinstripe suit. (checking his profile indicates that he's middle-aged, this body just looks like that. Also, one of the less-guarded newly docked ships belongs to him). "What do you know about an 'art show?' he asks, eying George suspiciously, like that's something he didn't want to hear from a stranger. Then he turns and looks at Yuuki. "I'm not an MMARG NPC, kid." He points at her glasses. "Yer skin's not configured right. Go bother somebody else." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Rory's search for fellow argonauts does turn up some people! Mostly folk cracking hypercorp software and blueprints, doing morph genetic engineering research and offering computer security consulting. None of them are mega-influential, but software pirate, biosculptor, and infosec specialist alike have mostly good space yelp reviews. 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' Rebecca looks over at the humanoid female with the brain atop her head and turns away in disgust before realizing it's just a prop. She seems to be taking a while to get used to her ecto. Once she's finally gotten the hang of it, Rebecca takes a seat near the others, attempting to look into more detail for any possible names that might be useful to her. She's only got a little information for the time being, but she's willing to use whatever she's got to see if there are any specific names that pop out. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Hey, someone LIKES the horrible blade-skeleton body! Or, at least, what they can see of it with the shawl and all. She reciprocates with two fingerguns, adding an extra for good measure since she can't figure out how to display emoji just yet. "Thanks! Has anyone ever told you that they like you for your brain?" She laughs, then knocks back the fake-drink and sets it down on the counter. Shush, glasses-warnings.      The peculiar reaction of the blonde neotenic catches her eye, though she makes little indication of the fact that she's keeping an eye on George's interactions besides suddenly going a bit quiet. Her silvery earfins twitch and angle to pick up the subtle aural cues of their respective tones in case things go south.      "Hey, kid," she says, waving at Yuuki before patting the seat beside her. "What game's that? Might be able to give you some help with it, depending." Anybody answering this call can probably handle themselves, pretensions otherwise aside, and at this rate it's a good idea to keep as many bodies in the bar as possible. 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     "Plenty of rare and exotic paints!" George says, spreading those hands wide. "The kinda masterpiece made out of all kinds of colors that are just too hard to find anywhere else, maybe with the kinds of brushes you sure don't get to buy these days." Rare elements crafted through unregulated printers, is what he's saying. "Huge fan of that kind of work. Sort of a connoisseur, a kind of curator! I used to manage plenty of collaborations and exhibitions back in the day. Most of my work was at the Letheia Corporation's artistic interests." Any quick Google will indicate that several Letheia space stations in Starbound space had their internal nuclear devices activated a few dozen years ago; the mining company in George's home galaxy was not one that managed to keep its opposition out of the headlines.     George speaks with the tone of a friendly art enthusiast and occasional exhibition curator, but he speaks more with the familiarity of someone who deals in this business with startling regularity and experience. And he's made sure nothing that he's saying could ever be construed as tipping his hand too much. "Nothing makes quite so much of an impression as a masterpiece on full display. Well, you know, just as long as it's the curator doing the presentation and not the painter or the dealer." And there's the implication that George is a "curator", and the kind who knows to keep "dealers" and "painters" from needing to take responsibility.     It's a little-known fact that George actually owns at least three paintings, inopportunely purchased at Moonfin's urging when he accidentally did this bit to actual artists and art dealers. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Ahahahahahahaha!" The girl with the art project for a head buckles over and laughs at Septette's joke. She emits a :) emoji and tells the bartender that Septette's next drink is on her.     The kid looks at George skeptically. A huge fan? "Are you now..." He checks George's profile, but assumes it's a fake. Searching for news of Letheia, though, makes the kid's eyes go wide. He thinks quickly. Then replies, with lowered voice: "Alright. In return for a finder's fee of... let's say 100,000 credits -- Multiverse credits -- You can have my appointment. I'll let them know to expect you." 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Yuuki Kuran is offended and pouty - and a little something else - for a few minutes, lost in a sea of Overbaked Memes. "There's nothing wrong with my skin..." She mutters, but is by and large deflected by people not playing along with her dalliences. It's rude. But George has this in the bag, so she follows along, resisting making mean faces at the bartender as they go. "Wow, George, I didn't know you were into art collection! I could..." She gets ready to launch into Actually Talking Real Art with him before the price comes up. "Is this a private gallery? Well, that's fine." Yuuki starts ticking off her fingers (giving away that she has little head for numbers, and also that she's a terrible no-computer-brain normie, reeee). "...I can cover that. A hundred? Escrow? Wire transfer? ...Unmarked small-denomination bills?" 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George taps away at ecto interfaces and handles a transmission of payment. "Art deals, am I right? Yeah, she handles my cash. How's six fifty ahead, and then the rest after, however all this goes down?" Though honestly, if Yuuki is going to be handling this, he won't mind the hundred thousand up front. No skin off his nose! "Love working with creative people." George says, giving a thumbs up. "Nobody in the universe like 'em. Glad to work with you." He gives a wink under those AR glasses and a quick fingergun. "I'm always punctual, you give me a time and a place and I'll give them some cash and a face." He takes a sip of his drink just to punctuate it; he feels satisfied about this exchange! 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      "Sorry, but I shouldn't have another," Septette gracefully protests. "Looks like I'll need to be heading out-" And then she's served anyway, so she shrugs and knocks it back. It'd be rude to return it at this point, wouldn't it? Now to disentangle herself from her new friend: she reaches into her pouch and pulls out a small amethyst prism, lit from within by a smoky fractal mote of light- like the filament of a lightbulb, if filaments were branched and wriggly.      She rolls it across the bar towards the braintank-gal like a die, then stands up. "Sorry to be so abrupt. Hope that can keep you entertained in my stead- figure out what makes it tick." It's a Pole Stone, a teleportation trinket! Without a paired crystal and magical talent it's not much practical use, but its composition and power source ought to be a real head-scratcher.      That social responsibility discharged, she slips into position behind George and Yuki, with the alert-yet-affectedly-casual demeanor of a Professional Bodyguard overseeing the exchange. It's a sight to behold, given that she's just short enough to have her line-of-sight blocked by George's shoulder. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     Rory is at a bit of a loss with this. Now she knows who's about.. and that information is filed away for later use if the group gets in oer their heads! But this leaves her usnure how to help pin down where anything STRANGE might be going on...     This is why AGIs still need human supervision from time to time, isn't it?     Rory rather stupidly just stands there, sifting through Mesh search data and ponderin her next move. If this was anything OTHEr than a Scum Barge she might have some idea of how to pinpoint nefarious behavior.     But... this is a SCUM BARGE. There's suspicious behavior EVERYWHERE. so how to separate the acceptable stuff from the unacceptable stuff?     With no other leads to go on, she begins a new covert search on radioactive materials availability and who is supposed to have control of them, hoping it will give her a lead for figuring out where anyone might hoep to steal any such materials FROM. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The kid blinks at Yuuki. He didn't suspect they were working together. So pretending to be an incompetent MMARGer was an act... well, whatever. He's actually surprised -- he didn't think this far ahead. How WILL he accept Multiversal money? "Um..." he thinks. "Wire transfer. Give me a moment."     Those monitoring the local mesh see a request for help establishing a multiversal bank account go up. It's claimed in seconds.                               --------------------                                   I think they found it. Just need to make a Multiversal bank account for some Triad underling.     Good. I'll get it to someone who can do that.     I'll keep watching them.                               --------------------                                   The brain-for-a-head oohs, taking the mysterious object and 'looking' at it with her head, then cheerfully waves as Septette. "Thanks! I'll see you around!"     The boy considers George's offer. "Eighty up front." One way or another, a price is soon negotiated, and after several minutes, the boy gets back to them with a fresh account in some bank out in the Multiverse that specializes in anonymity.     He gives them a time and a place. It's the ship with the most guards, owned by a 'Grey Xu', and the meeting is a couple hours from now. A Couple Hours From Now, The Ship With The Most Guards     From the Ecstatic Metamorphosis's aft docking area, two gorilla uplifts in SWAT-level body armor and two slitheroids (robotic naga-form morphs) all carrying railpistols escort the group across the docking tether into a retrofitted ore freighter, where a woman with vaguely asian features wearing a silvery bodysuit greets them. "Welcome, most illustrious buyers!" She bows. "I'm sure you're eager to see what I have for sale, so if you'll just leave your weapons here and come back to the cargo bay, I can show you what's on offer..."     The security starts searching them for weapons and confiscating any that aren't built into someone's body. If they want to go in guns blazing, they'll need to do it while they still have guns... 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna legitimately doesn't have any weapons at all on her person. Neither does Elner, for that matter. Now, the Light Suit which Yuna is wearing *does* seem to give off a mild energy signature, but it's not really designed to work as a 'weapon' in the usual sense - there's just a low-level force field emanating from it to surround Yuna's body. (Or more accurately, the Light Suit itself seems to *be* some kind of energy field, on closer inspection.) Yuna submits to the search without argument, although if anyone's hands get too inquisitive, she *will* call them out on it. 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' They're searching for weapons and confiscating them... Oh damn... Rebecca came fully equipped so she knows she's in a bit of trouble once they find her weapons. Her Beretta, her MP5K, even her knife, all likely to be confiscated. The girl begins to sweat a little, but then realizes that it's better to go with it. She slowly unequips her weapons and readies them to be confiscated. Although there is a look of concern on the girl's face, as they might think she has other plans... 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     George turns out his pockets for the search. That means letting go of his telescoping baton. It doesn't mean letting go of his electro-gloves. The shock gloves have their wiring systems deeply embedded in finely insulated layers using nanoporous fabric, and psychic charge generation. It just looks like engineering workwear. "I do love illustrious buying." George says, with a broad grin. "But boy, you really underestimated the eagerness part."     And with a single clean motion, he kicks the hand of whoever's holding the baton, intending to smash it out of their hands and get them disabled by the reflexive urge to grab for it instead of shoot him. This also ducks his upper body low, enough that he can lash out and wrap his gloves around the wrist of one of the nearer guards, electrifying them and trying to get at the pistol.     He doesn't bother waiting to try the pistol -- no doubt it's smart-locked -- and so instead he immediately whips it as hard as possible towards the one who took his baton, trying to smash him in the head, leap onto him, grab his baton, and bean him repeatedly in the neck until they're limp enough for George to grab their hand and force their own finger to pull the trigger on several shots at the remaining security.     Success or no, George intends to at least drive them into cover; ideally, it'll be enough for him to RUSH deeper into the ship where he can get at the goods themselves, and make sure there's no chance of escape! 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Septette's perfectly fine with the search, at first. Her pack contains a few weird trinkets, but the curved blades built into her body are rather quaint! There aren't even any guns or anything; it's like someone tried to build a bipedal killbot with only Medieval melee weapons. It's almost adorable, in the same way that an original Ford Model T is.      'Almost' is the operative word. She slips off her shawl to reveal a skeletal frame with a hollow ribcage, rolls her shoulders and then... there's a noise like a gunshot. She unfolds one of the blades on her arms and slashes towards a gorilla's neck at speeds high enough to create a brief white sonic vapor cone, following it up with a rib-crunching punch to the chest in case that fails to neatly decapitate.      "EVERYONE," she bellows, "WEAPONS OUT." The pulsing crimson core in her chest rises to an ominous glow as the blades on her other arm unfold into an uncanny murderous assemblage as she moves to her next target. The other Elites will likely have time to take out the other armed guards before she can do so, but if any slip through the cracks, Septette will be right there to finish the job. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Oh, they're going loud already? Yuna's not sure whether to disapprove of George's abrupt switch from 'sneaky' to 'fight our way in,' but she rolls with it - trying to grapple one of the guards who was searching her, and to take advantage of the microgravity to send him or her (or it) flying off towards a bulkhead. By the time she finishes twisting around and pushing off, her right hand has a pistol in it, bulky yet sleek. And then she starts squeezing off shots, not exactly laying down beamspam but trying to nail the majority of the guards with focused stunning hard-light bolts. As is usual for Yuna, none of them are going to be particularly injurious - her 'don't kill if it can be avoided' policy is in full force here. Once she's fairly confident that they can proceed without being further molested by the security they've passed through, she flies after George and the others. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Some people are willing to play along and give up their weapons. George is not.     They don't actually get around to taking everyone's weapons. There's four guards, and they start searching the others, but when one of the neo-gorillas grabs George's baton everything gets very chaotic, very quickly. These guards aren't trained agsinst robusting -- most of the time, combat around here consists of either dumping as many bullets/missiles into someone as quickly as possible, or running up and punching them with a shock glove before they can react. Robusting is the stuff of movies.     It IS a gorilla, though, so it takes a bit longer than George would like to get it to go limp, but in the meantime, railpistol shots fly everywhere -- they can't get a clear shot at him and the impulse not to risk shooting their buddy is strong, even if he DOES have a backup.     The other gorilla is neatly beheaded by Septette, in the middle of turning towards George Shenanigans.     That leaves the two slitheroids, and Gray Xu herself. She looks enraged, and has wordlessly grabbed a longarm off the wall, levelling it at George AND the gorilla and firing a cloud of diamondoid flechettes -- three clouds actually, it's on burst fire -- to try and give him AND the gorilla a few hundred superfluous ventilation holes. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Yuna tosses the slitheroid searching her in microgravity. It's able to reorient itself surprisingly quickly -- it's used to this body AND to microgravity -- but before it has time to fire its railpistol, it desperately tries to dodge her light bolts. Energy weapons are scary, and given what George and Septette just did, it has no idea Yuna's weapons are nonlethal. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     If anyone expects Rory to be walking in without some kind of plan, they're utterly crazy. Which is why she doesn't, in fact, intend to utterly disarm herself. Oh, she walks along with the group just the same, but the moment she's aboard this mysterious vessel she sets her HACKING endeavors into motion, seeking to stealthily sniff out and probe the local Mesh for any nodes she can use to slip into administration of the ship itself. This might not be so doable, depending onh ow it's setup, but any bit of control she can seize of the ship while remaining covert is a positive.     She isn't, actually, carrying anything besides a small shredder for self defense, nothing odd for the locale, but there's no telling what's hidden inside of her Synth, right?     OF course then Septette has to ask the question. The million credit question. And...     No sooner does she ask 'why?' then ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!     This takes Rory COMPLETELY by surprise! WHAT. WHAT WHAT WHAT, that wasn't a thing she expected!     The Bluenette dives for the nearest sort of cover, which might be behind someone else. Friend or foe, doesn't really matter. But since she hasn't yet surrendered her Shredder, she brings it out!     However, the Shredder is NOT what she's keen on using! Instead... she quietly continues operations on the Mesh, attempting to subvert the ship. ADDED to this, she begins bombarding the agents with all kinds of garbledeygook exploits to turn their AR against them and blast them with all sorts of phantom noise and imagery!     All without saying a word. At least, not from her mouth. Instead, a message goes over the VPN.     <Warning would be appreciated next time.> 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Hours of not getting anything done and being out of her depth is, in fact, pretty much par for an outing with Yuuki Kuran. The oddest part, for her, is that the normalcy of weirdness in this small slice of the world was downright confusing. It was almost sandpaper to her worldview, of denying her inner self, or at least keeping it under wraps. But they weren't here to re-align everyone's perceptions with the New Self. They were here for ""art"". At the door, Yuuki affects an airy smile, her expression hiding the deep thinking within her mind. >> 'I really have to think of something cool to say, don't I? But it should be cool, and not edgy-murdery. Getting patted down for weapons by the gorillas and George going full ham, leading off the others, and Septette's shout of WEAPONS OUT causes her to snap from her reverie, bringing up a hand to brush a bit of her hair behind her right ear as the gunshots start. Her stance is casual - dismissive - and the decapitation of the gorilla causes her eyes to glow with the spray of gore and the impacts from bullets into flesh. "Perhaps we'll paint the walls red..." She smirks, sweeping her hand out - and with it, a telekinetic crush-force aimed at the snakes in the back, presuming her allies would browbeat the Person With A Name into submission. Bullets impact her, causing 'spluts' of blood and the whumps of railgun rouns piercing flesh, but she barely reacts. "George, that was too edgy, wasn't it? It was the first thing that came to mind..." 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' Rebecca seizes the chaos in the moment to regain her weapons. She wastes no time in looking for cover, knowing that there's many possibilities about what she's up against. Regardless of whether or not she can find cover, she's going to try to take out Gray Xu. Or rather incapacitate the target. "You messed with the wrong group!" Rebecca yells out as she fires a couple of shots at Gray Xu, intending not to kill but to stun the target. She'd use her stun baton, but she doesn't want to get too close. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     With Rory's fast machine mind and up-to-date knowledge of zero-day exploits, she can actually get control of the ship surprisingly quickly! She had to try a lot of things to do it though. So, that's cameras, thruster control, tether and airlock control, the works...     Including the cargo manifest.     There is a canister in the cargo hold tagged 'TITAN nanoswarm'     There is now a convenient headless gorilla to hide behind while Rory considers the ramifications of this information. Clearly, experiences like this are what she's missed out on by joining the Paladins instead of getting recruited by Firewall. Enjoy your mental stress!     Gray Xu grunts in annoyance and starts to run for the cargo compartment while her muse fights Rory's AR illusions. The snakes are telekinetically and illusorily assaulted, and fire everywhere wildly until sustained crush force breaks their bodies. That's a lot of railgun slugs lodged in the hull. There may be some small holes and a distinct hissing noise by now, but really, that's not much of a concern compared to all the gunfire.     Gray Xu can't dodge while assaulted by illusions. That silver bodysuit of hers is strange -- Rebecca's shots splatter it apart like a fluid, revealing a dark grey bodysuit underneath that seems to resist the piercing effect of the bullets somewhat... but the arms dealer cries out in pain as she's sent tumbling in microgravity. She starts cursing in Mandarin. "You assholes! I'm an honest businesswoman!"     In all the chaos, some of that wild fire from the dying serpentoids ricochets back through the ship.     There's a loud BANG and Rory can see that item suddenly flagged as DAMAGED.     In the back of the ship, scintillating silver fog starts to spread across the cargo hold. 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      The little murderbot takes a moment to glance at Yuuki's blatant injuries, showing an unreadable flat expression. Then her earfins twitch violently and her violet eyes spike in brightness. Tactical assessment: if anyone can't outpace the nanoswarm, it's George. He's the closest to the cargo compartment. She turns and sprints down the hallway after him quickly enough to gouge claw-marks into the metal.      "Squishy! Get out NOW. Right fucking-" She breaches into the cargo compartment by tearing through an internal wall, just in time to see the silvery fog spreading through the room. "NOW." She raises one hand to spew billowing clouds of partially-liquefying air at it in hopes of slowing it down through sheer cold, then grabs his wrist with the other! 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:'''     The moment that people are OFF the ship, Rory ignores the ENTIRE safety procedure checklist and takes full control of the ship, forcing it to disengage docking clamp and FIRE THRUSTERS to take it AWAY from the ship - and ANYTHING ELSE first thing. And if she can maintain control of it long enough, she'll plot a course straight to the SUN with it...     She doesnt' trust anything LESS to be capable of totally obliterating one of THOSE horrible things! 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna gets into the cargo bay right about the moment at which that silvery mist starts spreading - and immediately turns around, heading back the way she came as fast as she can go, using a combination of pushing off from whatever architecture she can get and controled spurts from the null-G maneuvering belt she got on the way into the hub. At the same time, Elner is holding out of people's path of travel, monitoring the spread of the nanoswarm - and standing by to teleport to safety anyone who isn't out by the 29-second-mark that their mysterious benefactor laid down. If all of the Elites are safe with time to spare, Gray Xu will get teleported to safety as well - although in the businesswoman's case, 'safety' is going to include Paladin custody or something ... Assuming anyone in the group is *from* the Paladins. Yuna's not even sure of that, but as far as she's concerned, somebody needs to arrest the woman whose ship held the now-released WMD. 

:'''{{#var:672|Starbound Flotilla (672)}} has posed:'''     "Oh shhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIiit!" George shouts, immediately aborting his rush through cargo and pulling back. He's stumbling hard; the diamondoid flechettes had to go through the gorilla because George used him for cover (of course he would), and he wound up badly bruised through the armor of his softsuit. And then Septette comes smashing out of the nearby wall! "Oh shiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIwait no this is a good thing." He calls out, and then sort of goes limp when her big hand grabs his wrist and he gets yanked out! Stumbling and dashing as fast as his bruised body can take him.     Back out of the bay, down the ramps, out into the Barge, and sort of diving away from the clamps and systems of the dock as everything seals up and gets this ship outta here!! 

:'''{{#var:290|Rebecca Chambers (290)}} has posed:''' Rebecca's primary goal is to get out of here right now, as all hell is breaking loose. But then she hears that Yuna has the businesswoman, and she decides to make a break for the cargo bay, hoping to take the woman into custody. Her legs guide her almost like they're on autopilot while her lungs are breathing as steadily as possible to avoid running out of air. When she finally arrives, Rebecca proceeds to handcuff the woman before guiding her back to the Odyssey where she got on. She makes sure that the woman is stable before placing her in a confined space while keeping an eye on her for the ride back. 

:'''{{#var:518|Yuuki Kuran (518)}} has posed:''' Yuuki's wounds have the strange effect of being 'bloodless' beyond the initial strike, and even the rail-spikes shot into the ground around (and through) her bear no viscera. As a giant, bulkhead-eating nanoswarm is released with a forboding name, and she's encouraged to hoof it, she nods firmly and starts zipping for the door. "My space-suit-y thing got all shot up, so I'd rather not get tossed into space!" She agrees. Is that how hardsuits work? Probably. "Geor-" Whoops, Septette has him, and the Paladins seem to be heading out in good pace. No worries, then! Except for how they accidentally almost* unleashed a nanoswarm on a populated area. (* Not fixed yet!) 

:'''{{#var:632|Septette Arcubielle (632)}} has posed:'''      Septette skids to a halt back in the dock, lets go of George, and immediately steps several feet away from the rest of the party. She raises one finger, signaling for everyone else to stay away! A moment later, her frame crackles with coruscating electricity that causes the lights in the hangar and nearby sensitive electronics to flicker. She heats up until her whole body glows a dull red, then abruptly quenches again with a hiss and a billow of steam...      And then sighs, hands on her hips. "Emergency decontam complete. Mind if I do the same to you, George? You know, just as a precaution." She's wearing a shit-eating grin as she scoops her shawl and satchel up again, but takes a menacing step towards him all the same before cracking up with laughter. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The last people to get off the ship, if they glance back towards the cargo bay, catch a glimpse of the fog starting to move and begin eating the ship from the inside out. Rory has a great view from her cameras! A tendril of fog reaches for Gray Xu, but she's teleported to safety. Honestly, she's lucky that the Paladins will grab her before Firewall can. She might NOT wish the nanoswarm had eaten her! She tries to make a run for it, handcuffs or no, but George's shock gloves can subdue her easily enough.     From windows in the docking tether (and the habitat's external cameras, for the tech-savvy), they can see the ship undock and start to fly away from the station before, true to the mysterious voice's word, missiles fly into it from another ship and blow it up, before the firing ship high-tails it away. First conventional explosives break the hull into an expanding cloud of shrapnel, followed immediately by the distinctive fireballs of plasma missiles making sure to absolutely cook all of it before it can expand so much, leaving the pieces a singed, half-slagged ruin. That seems to have rendered the swarm inert -- the glittery cloud is no longer moving or cohering in any way.     The voice contacts them over their ectos, congratulating them for a job well done and promising more potential work when they've found out how Grey Xu obtained a TITAN artifact. As for payment... they can take credits, or ask for favors -- they're left with an anonymous mailbox they can send requests to.     It seems whoever hired them very much values their anonymity. 
}}

5815/Welcome to the Multiverse, ACT B3-114!

2018-04-21T03:21:42Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2018/04/20 |Location=Bar & Grill at the End of the Multiverse |Synopsis=Staren is having lunch when ACT B3-114 stumbles in. The Multiverse is expla..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/04/20
|Location=Bar & Grill at the End of the Multiverse
|Synopsis=Staren is having lunch when ACT B3-114 stumbles in. The Multiverse is explained and a whole bunch of people show up, including Zerrawn and Amy Rose, also new to the Multiverse.
|Cast of Characters=42, 6325, 6, 6336, 6320, 906, 1100, 1123, 215, 6258, 6322
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The 'exits' to the tunnel show all sorts of different places. Eventually, one shows the interior of the Bar and Grill, although that's not the only way to get here.     The local warpgate is a more typical, ringlike structure rather than the hidden portal on ACT's world. It's in a large alcove off to the side of the dining area. Staren is sitting at a table near the alcove eating a bowl of something with meat and veggies in it, staring into space while he chews. He's probably reading or watching something in augmented reality through his implants, but that doesn't show to anyone else. 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 slowly shuffles away from the door, fingers laced nervously in front of her. It's pretty obvious she's out of her element, contrasting with everyone else sitting down and going about their business. After a few moments, it dawns on her how much she sticks out, and she slides into a vacant chair quietly, hands migrating to her lap. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren glances over at ACT. He looks briefly alarmed, although then it occurs to him that maybe she just looks like that, or maybe she's an undead or something. If she was in distress she'd say something, right? He looks back to his food, but his ears turn to follow her. 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe is hungry she has had a band time of it and the towering woman that is known to the multivers as Tomoe enters int o the bar she takes notice pg Staren and moves to it down bedide him andx taps Staren on the shoulder. "Hey, whose the new one there?" 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 shuffles a little awkwardly in her seat. A waitress cheerily steps over to 114, and she jitters, startled. After a brief, quiet conversation, the waitress nods and steps off toward the kitchen. The tall woman scans the group, eyes briefly falling upon Tomoe. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren jumps at the tapping. "...Oh. Tomoe." He lowers his voice. "I don't know... I didn't want to be rude, what if she's an undead that just always looks starved? I think she just ordered someting rather than going 'oh my god what is this place' so maybe she's not new. It's not like we come here that often."     Staren takes a forkful of his food and chews for a moment.     "So, do you still get nourishment if you eat in your avatar form?" 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 's waitress returns shortly with a glass of water. The tall woman nods briefly in thanks, then grabs the cup in both hands and takes a long draw from it, coming up with a gasp for air. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren finally turns around. "Excuse me, but I haven't seen you around here before. I'm Staren, action researcher and Gifted of the Concord. Are you, uh... new here?" 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 's eyes train on Staren, staring for a few uncomfortable seconds. "Uh, y-...yeah, I am. I guess it's obvious, huh?" She lowers her head sheepishly. Her voice is meek and wispy, with a slight rasp to it. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren holds his hands out. "It's okay! And uh, not necessarily. I didn't want to be rude, but you do kinda look like you just wandered out of... some world without any food or water. On the other hand, you're not shouting 'Wow what is THIS place I was just in some totally different place how did I get here?'." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 takes a deep breath and lets out a deep sigh. "I'm kinda just thinking this is all some weird hallucination, o-or...or something. I walked through a -wall- and came here." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks. "A /wall/? That's new. Usually it's some kind of obvious gate or portal." He rubs his chin. "Although... maybe your world already had portals disguised as walls and you just didn't know... Anyway, what's your name? And do you need any help?" 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 lifts her gaze back up to Staren. She squints for a moment, stammers at his suggestion about portals, then sighs and shakes her head, long, brown hair swaying behind her. "I-I dunno. Maybe it's real, maybe it's fake, maybe i-it's...some simulation. Whatever. I-If it's real, I..." She hunches over a little and defensively curls her arms in. "I want food." 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe says "No idea there, I admit." she flats down someone for her own order and she tilts he head. "Pretty much, least far as I can tell there." She notes. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Geeze. That kinda existential doubt's gonna eat you up if you keep it up too long. You can probably get back to your world if you go back the way you came... But you should at least have a nice meal first." Staren flags down a waitress, opens his mouth, closes it, stares into space while googling for what to feed a starving person. "...Huh. Let's get some oatmeal with like, apple or banana slices and a meaty soup, then." The waitress goes to get that. Staren looks back to ACT.     "...What did you say your name was?" 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 opens her mouth, pauses, then shakes her head. "I didn't say my name," she says flatly. "A-And whatever this is here, I'd -rather- stay here, even if it -is- fake." She hunches over again, folding her arms above her lap. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "You're not /that/ out of it. Good. This," Staren stands up and spreads his arm in an expansive gesture, "is the Multiverse!" He glances around. "Well, this specifically is the 'Bar and Grill at the edge of the Multiverse', but I mean, if you just came from your world... and your most likely conclusion is dream or simulation..."     He starts pacing around the table. "...then presumably you haven't already been to other worlds. The Multiverse is like a great big hollow sphere. Unimaginably big." He stops by his seat, puts a tablet on the table, and draws on it with his finger. "There's this one big long landmass, many, many times bigger than all the combined surface area of Earth, or other planets for that matter, and pieces of various worlds 'unify' into it. We roughly divide it north south into regions by what sort of pattern the unifying worlds display. The Quilt, Fall, the Scorched Wood, etc. All around it is the Great Ocean. We suspect there are other landmasses out there, but the distance is so great, noone's ever made it to one and come back. But that's just since the Multiverse reshaped itself a year and a half ago-- sorry, I guess I'm getting ahead of myself."     He sits back down. "Up in space, planets and entire solar systems from other dimensions have appeared. Down below is like caverns and stuff, but if you go far enough down you also come out in space. It's weird. Of course, to cross this vast expanse, there's a network of warpgates... like that" he gestures at the gate in an alcove, "forming a network of tunnels connecting various places all over this sector. Well, colloquially, 'the Multiverse'. But I feel it's important to distinguish between the local part of the Multiverse we've observed, and the possible /other/ landmasses and collections of caves and planets that might be out there, across the great ocean. Scholars call this area 'Sector Zero', but I guess you don't really need to know that and is this too much information all at once?"     The waitress finally comes back to set two hot bowls of food and spoons before ACT. 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 's gray eyes follow Staren around as he talks and gesticulates and tries to explain the Multiverse to her. She's broken out of her daze by the clatter of bowls on the table. "Oh, uh...a-a bit too much, yeah..." She brushes a lock of hair out from her face. "So...it's...a bunch of different worlds...coming together t-to, uh...make...-this- world? I mean, s-so, is my planet, Earth, is that...um, here, or...?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Well," Staren considers how to answer that. "I mean... you came through a portal, you weren't just suddenly deposited wherever. Sometimes other worlds don't unify all in one /place/. People, cities, continents, they might end up scattered all over, even in different sectors. But they're /somewhere/. If it seems like 'just' a city unified, or a person unified without their world, the rest of the world is out there somewhere." He scratches his chin. "At least, that's how it was before. I suppose we don't know, now, until someone manages to confirm the existence of other sectors rather than an ocean covering the rest of the surface. But I don't see why that would have changed."     Staren blinks. "What was I...? right. Earth. So, your Earth might be one of the planets up in space, or it might be in pieces, city-sized to continent-sized, somewhere on the surface. At least whatever city you came from is probably in this sector. It must've happened pretty recently... even if you didn't have any contact from other worlds yet, people should have at least noticed the stars changing."     "There's a lot of Earths, though, so, to find news of yours, specifically, I'd need to know more about it. At the very least what year it is, and then we can kinda try to narrow it down. You might want to remember the path you took to get here... if you DO want to go back anytime soon." 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     The door to the Bar and Grill would open wide, and what would appear like a walking mass of darkness would enter in. The first thing noticible is the apparent aura of malice and rage eminating from him, and second would be the lightsaber marking him as a Force user. He finds a nearby empty table and simply watches everyone, amber eyes and face hidden underneath his black cloak. 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 just shakes her head at the question and drags a bowl of soup closer to her. Without even waiting for it to cool, shenslowly lifts the bowl up to her lips and starts to slurp from it, foregoing a spoon entirely. Her eyes briefly dart to the mass of darkness that enters, but she doesn't seem to pay him much mind. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks. "You don't even know what year it is? How do they tell time on your world?" He gently slides the tablet on the table to her. "You can have this, by the way. It works as a radio, and..." he then picks it up and demonstrates that it can collapse into a smartphone formfactor or expand to a tablet one, and can also curve around his arm like a bracelet. He then sets it back on the table. "And does a lot of other useful stuff... Although, if your world doesn't have a source of electrical power, its battery will only last about 4-20 days depending on how heavily you use it. Hmm..." 

:'''{{#var:6320|Hemlock (6320)}} has posed:''' If there was something Hemlock knew well, it was that information was best found at bars. Every adventurer knew this, and so, the journalist had arrived at the Bar and Grill to both get something to eat and get some leads on, well, anything. He was a tall human, brown eyes and short brown hair, wearing a coat and a newsboy cap. He came off kind of 'bland' looking overall, a plain person you normally wouldn't pay much attention to. Hemlock didn't know what anyone in the Multiverse looked like, but he did keep a good ear to voices, and heard one he recognized. Moving over to the bar to order 'house rum' and a bowl of whatever was freshest, he travelled in Staren's direction. His voice would be recognizable, though he does stare briefly at the collapsing and expanding tablet, blinking slightly owlishly. "Ah. What a small world. You are Staren, right? Hemlock." Manners normally mean you don't barge in on someone talking with a girl. Hemlock's manners have sort of deteroriated over the years. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person. You as well, miss." His eyes scan over her. Strange clothing, emaciated. Hm. Wonder why that is. "Are you sick?", the journalist would ask ACT B3-114, trying to satisfy his curiosity. 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Zerrawn watches the new arrival walk into the bar and right over to where Staren and the strange woman were sitting. Deciding that it made no real sense, nor any advantage for him to stay out of the conversation, he walked over. Taking a seat closer, he leans forward slightly. "I was wondering that myself. Though you...Staren, is it? You may be of help to me..." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 lowers her bowl from her face to take in a few gasps of air, then turns to Staren. "No, no, w-we have...like, dates and clocks and calendars, i-it's j--" She huffs. "I-It's complicated." She eyes the device she's given as it stretches and squashes and shrinks. "Oh. Uh, s-so just...music, then, or...?" She's distracted by the pair of men that come up separately, both asking for Staren. She blinks and goes quiet. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks and turns to Hemlock. "Oh. Good to finally meet you!" He extends a hand to shake. Then he's slightly taken aback at Zerrawn and his aura of menace. "Wondering... what? Yes, that's me. Who are you?"     "Way more than music. You can ask it how to use it later, though. Were you... like, already warped through time or something?" He eventually settles for looking at Zerrawn with one ear turned towards each of the others. 

:'''{{#var:906|Yang Xiao Long (906)}} has posed:'''     Yang strides into the bar like she owns the entire place. Straight up to the bar itself as she tucks her aviators into the breast pocket of her jacket. She leans on the counter, and says in a nonchalant way. "Strawberry sunrise. No ice." then, as the tender goes to make the drink, she chirps up again "Ooh! And one of those little umbrellas!" She then turns to look around at the gathering, leaning on the bar counter and trying to look like she belongs there. 

:'''{{#var:6320|Hemlock (6320)}} has posed:''' Well, this seems to have been a bit awry, as ACT B3-114 seems pretty nervous. Hemlock tips his hat to her. "My apologies if I offended you. You can calm down, miss. Though I understand if that man is frightening." There's a glance towards Zarrawn. "He's clearly suspicious." The aura of malice makes that sort of clear, though HEmlock's not sure what. Is he a demon lord? A man pretending to be a demon lord? One of the ancient fiends of Khyber? Who knows. Either way, Hemlock accepts the shake of Staren's hand carefully, before moving to sit at the bar with his rum and his macaroni and cheese, which is very fresh. He turns to Yang, especially as she looks at the gathering. "Hello. Are you watching because you want to join in, or because you want to eavesdrop? Both are understandable." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 shakes her head quietly at Staren's question, then briefly gazes up at Zerrawn...before averting her gaze down to the soup again. She sighs and lifts it to her lips, gulping down the probably still too hot liquid like she was starving...which she looks to have been. 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     "You can say that, yes. I'm familiar enough with the multiverse. What I seek is information about the people...more specifically what the three operating factions goals are." Zerrawn says, casting a glance towards Hemlock and the strange girl again. Then as Yang enters, he shifts to size her up, revealing the lightsaber on his belt to Staren and Helmock. But as for being called 'suspiscious', he grins lightly. "You may call me 'Lord Wrath'." 

:'''{{#var:906|Yang Xiao Long (906)}} has posed:'''     Yang glances over at Hemlock, grabs her drink as it's brought over then heads over to the group. "I was waiting for my drink, but thanks for the invitation. Yo. Name's Yang. Yang Xiao Long and I'm a Huntress. Probably never heard of me or know what a Huntress is, but that's why we meet and greet, yeah?" she gabbles, plunking herself in a seat, after turning it the wrong way around so she can lean on the backrest.     To anyone that can sense or pick up spiritual stuff, Yang is like a giant walking bonfire. But she seems affable enough. "So, sorry if y'all done this already, but can I can a 'round table of names for faces?" 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe has been here and quiet for the moment she seems to be really getting into her meal, she's a large woman over six feet in height she also has the build of someone who like does a lot of physical "Lord Wrath?" She tries to not ahem laugh at the name as it's up there with her having to go by the dark lady after all. She also sees Yang and grins. "Hey Yang meet my other face, well one of the three." She also looks to Act for a moment tiling her head a bit. "I'm Tomoe, the Iron Lily." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     With only one person directly addressing him, Staren can focus on Zerrawn's request. His eyes almost light up. Someone ASKED for exposition! He is happy to help, smiling. "Sure thing! Let's see... shall we start with the Paladins? They... may have some ties to the old Union, but the difference is, the Union didn't have any accountability and basically just kinda forced their view of good on everyone else. The Paladins still value freedom of the individual, but they answer to their member governments instead of claiming authority for being a bunch of self-proclaimed heroes."     Staren takes a breath. "Then there's the Watch. Um... Honestly, you should probably find someone from the other factions to give you their views. I don't like the leadership of the Watch, and that may bias my view. That said, their thing seems to be going wherever they percieve tyranny and opression, and beating it up so that the downtrodden can find their own way."     Another breath. "And then there's the Concord. Loosely tied to the old Confederacy, but instead of imposing law at any cost," he makes a distasteful faceful expression when he says that, "we have much more diverse goals, generally to make things 'better', although there's probably some disagreement on what counts as 'better'. We think the Union held itself back by focusing on restoring the status quo. The Multiverse is full of wondrous things, the previously-thought-impossible is now possible. Our resources -- uniquely-powered individuals and magic and technology gathered from countless worlds -- can be used to make things /better/ than they were before. Why save the dirt-farming peasants from the evil necromancer and then just LEAVE, when we could give them lives of modern convenience and comfort and allow them to be more productive? You get what I mean?" He looks up at Zerrawn, bright-eyed. 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 continues to demurely slurp at her soup. She winces briefly as her stomach lets out a pained groan, but continues, nonetheless. 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Zerrawn nods softly. He reaches up and finally removes his hood, revealing to all he was a Cathar, or humanoid feline. "Hmm....it seems that the Concord are most in line with the Sith Empire's goals. Very good...I will have to seek out their leadership and propose an alliance of sorts. After all...who better to represent the will of the Empire then the Emperor's Wrath himself?" He asks, mostly to himself but aloud nonetheless. With that, he casts a glance towards Tomoe. "Yes, Lord Wrath. Or 'Emperor's Wrath', if you wish." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren jumps in his seat. He turns the chair, ready to stand up facing Zerrawn if needed. "You're a SITH?!" He blinks. "I mean... um... Talk to Priscilla or Tanya or Kord... err... Okay, I'll be honest: I've only heard the Rebellion's side of the story. About how you're terrible tyrants and all. So what's your side? How are you making the galaxy /better/?" 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 jitters as Staren jumps to his feet, dropping the (mostly empty) bowl to the table with a clatter. She slinks down in her chair slightly and stares between the pair. 

:'''{{#var:6320|Hemlock (6320)}} has posed:''' "Nice to meet you. Wouldn't a huntress hunt?" Is all Hemlock responds to Yang, before turning to listen to the greater conversation about the factions, picking at his mac and cheese. "Lord Wrath or the 'Emperor's Wrath'. I must ask you, would you happen to be a demon in disguise? No ill intent, I'm just getting all the vibes of a secret demon lord." Hemlock asks him clearly, as he responds to Staren. "The Watch is also a secretive network, from everything I've found. Seems rather loose-knit, but the most trustworthy of the three. I considered signing up with it, but I can't trust them." Hemlock's hand suddenly moves to his side as Staren jumps in his seat, as if the journalist is grabbing something. "Calm. He's been very clear about his malevolence, so he's unlikely to start a fight, I believe. Otherwise, he'd be more subtle, or have already thrown a strike, wouldn't he?" Though it doesn't seem Hemlock /trusts/ Zarrawn either, and instead moves to ACT B3-114. "Miss, what is your name?" 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     "Rebellion? I think you have my empire confused with another. Our enemies are the Republic. I won't lie and say we aren't a bit cruel at times and in our methods. But we bring a kind of order to lawlessness that the Republic lacks. Where they would allow a contract killer to go free, we would bring them to swift, immidiate and...permanent justice. In addition, the Sith allow freedom whereas the Jedi would have you strip yourself of emotions, and become like a drone. You tell me if that is any way to live." 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe looks to Zerrawn and pauses at the mention of the term Sith, oh she knows that term and her sas just vanishes quite rapidlyu, lets not pick a fight. "The name mares more sense with what I know of the Sith though. Understood Lord Wrath." There might be a hint of fear somewhere in there if the Sith is paying attention, seems she knows of some sect of the Sith it seems. She also takes note of Hemlock as he arrives and is right bwside staren. "Also the people who run this place keep it open to eveyrone so long as we behave." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks again. "Well... You might need to work on that cruelty, but hopefully with the resources available you won't /need/ to be cruel anymore. But I think everyone can agree stripping yourself of emotions is..." he shivers. "Eugh. Anyway, talk to the Hand... err, the Hands are what we call the highest-ranking officers, second only to the First herself -- or to Priscilla, to have someone find if you're a good fit and sign up personally, or send diplomats to Grand Dorado if your government wants an alliance." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 continues to stare at the duo - now trio - talking about Lord Wrath, but her attention is caught by Hemlock's question. She opens her mouth to reply...then shuts it and bites into her lower lip. "I-It's...not important. Why?" 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Zerrawn grins at the mention of a fight, almost evilly. "I don't know, I could use a good scrap. It's been too long since I've been able to go into a good rage lately....but I'll play by the bar owner's rules. Wouldn't want to damage the place..." He says, before nodding to Staren. "Unlike the Inquisitors and Sorceror's, I'm a Warrior, trained in the arts of the Sith Juggernauts. We're the front-line, so to speak. So we are considerably less cruel then our counterparts. At least I am..." he says, casting his gaze to Tomoe again. "Hmm, it seems you've all met Sith before. Interesting..." 

:'''{{#var:6320|Hemlock (6320)}} has posed:''' "Because when two people meet, it's common courtesy to exchange names." Hemlock replies, flatly. "I am Hemlock, as I said before. I want to know who you are. Why would you hide your name? The thing that most comes to mind is that you're a monster from the darkest depths who bewitches anyone who hears your name. Is this accurate?" He taps on his glass of rum before taking a drink of it. "No offense, of course. I don't /hate/ horrible monsters if they're friendly enough." 

:'''{{#var:906|Yang Xiao Long (906)}} has posed:'''     "Huntresses, and Huntsmen for that matter, are trained to fight the Creatures of Grimm... and by extension other big nasty monsters cuz there's a lot of crossover in that field." replies Yang to Hemlock. "I'm from a world called Remnant." She then looks at 114, and offers a reassuring smile to the obviously skittish girl. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks a bit uneasy when Zerrawn says he's spoiling for a fight, then relaxes. Slightly. He shrugs at the comment about knowing the Sith. "Probably other versions of your world. Is Darth Vader in charge in yours? Maybe the sith are nicer under somebody else." He goes to get his bowl of food from the other table and bring it back to A-114's table, sitting down to eat again. "Anything else I can help with?" 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Zerrawn tilts his head slightly. "Darth Vader? I've not heard of any with that name. Though I would suspect the Revanchists to use some name like that." He says. But he quickly shrugs it off. "Is your communicator able to contact your superiors? Perhaps arrange a meeting?" 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 grabs her tablet-thing Staren gave her and holds it close to her in crossed arms, then scoots away from the table, chair scraping against the floor noisily. She shakes her head to Staren and mutters a quiet "N-No thank you," then turns her head to look at Hemlock, but just for a moment. She sighs and turns her gaze down to the floor. "Anomalo Cleared for Testing, benign, 3rd priority, ID number one hundred and fourteen." She exhales heavily. "J-Just...'one-fourteen' is fine." 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace saunters into the bar, looking around. "Oh, nice, tall doors..." she mutters cheerfully, her tail swishing behind her. She gives Staren, Yang, and anyone else she knows a wave on the way to the bar. Once there, she orders herself a drink and has a quiet word with the bartender that she'll pay for whatever he and... up to two people he's with have their next drink on her. She's not made of money after all, even if the bike business is going well. She finds herself a place to sit that's within easy people-watching range, but far enough away to allow folks their privacy, should they want it. Though, with those big radar-dish ears and her twitching antennae, it might just be the appearance of privacy... 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren points at Zerrawn. "Revan! There's a name I know! Although... it's been so long, I don't remember much. The creator of HK-47... What's she have to do with anything?"     He turns his head towards ACT. "Did the people who gave you that name kidnap and starve you?" 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 scowls lightly at Staren. "M-Maybe I'm...some kind of robot," she says flatly. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "I just watched you drink an entire bowl of soup." Staren replies. 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Again, Zerrawn can do nothing but blink towards Staren. "...Revan is a male, actually...There's a cult on Dromund Kaas that is convinced he was some kind of Messiah figure. Truth be told, no one really knows what happened to him. Just that he vanished some 300 years ago." 

:'''{{#var:6320|Hemlock (6320)}} has posed:''' Hemlock stares expectantly, waiting for a reply, and nod when she finally gives it. "I see. Interesting name you have there. Sounds like one given to you more than one you're born with. 114 is fine." The journalist turns his head to Staren. "Hm. I was about to ask what happened to her, myself. Where did you get that name?" Meanwhile, also talking to Yang, able to hold two conversations at once. "Sounds much like a ranger from my world, someone who hunts and works in the wilderness. I assume it's also a lot like an adventurer." Hemlock takes another drink of his rum. "The world I come from is Eberron, though I come from New Cyre, in the nation of Breland, specifically. Continent of Khorvaire." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114's shoulders sag, and her gaze turns down to her lap. "...I-I don't wanna talk about it," she mumbles aloud. "...'s rude, anyway," she says quieter. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren shrugs to Zerrawn. "Different versions of your world, see? ...Noone seems to be free right now but I've let them know. Do you have a radio they can call you on later?" He looks to Hemlock. "Eberron? Do they have magic artificers there?" 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Zerrawn nods to that. "I do. I'll leave my personal channel with you to pass along. I must ask though...are you a member of the Concord? If so, I do look forward to working with you in a professional manner...I am also curious as to your talents, Staren." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren thinks back. Was this guy here for his introduction? "Ah, I'm Staren, Gifted of the Concord. I study the multiverse and help solve problems and fight bad guys. I uh... look forward to finding out more about the Sith's ways." 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe Says "Yes I have some experianc, it's a big multiverse Lord Wrath." She looks to Hemlock for a moment and just peers. Certain thoughts of people like him pop into her mind an she's not sure what to do. "Or some people just want Privacy." She gets the Sith Lord wants a fight but she doesn't seem in the mood for a duel today. She also look over to Leyanne for a moment as she says "I know right, it's wonderful Leyanne!" 

:'''{{#var:6320|Hemlock (6320)}} has posed:''' "People who sit in a bar in a gathering and want privacy are hiding things." Hemlock responds to Tomoe, though he doesn't pressure 114. Instead, he turns over towards Staren. "Yes. House Cannith's artificiers are renowned far and wide for their work and the creation of the Warforged. Have you heard of Eberron?" 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace perks her ear a moment towards Staren, Zerrawn, and 114's conversation, grinning at Tomoe. "Mmhmm. I'm so used to cracking my head on doorframes, it's kinda nice to have a place with a door that I don't have to duck under." She chuckles. 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Zerrawn nods gently. "I see. Well, if you'd like, I am willing to allow you to examine the primary weapon of a sith, the lightsaber." He says, carefully moving and lifted the weapon from his belt with nothing but the force, though to those who are unaware it would look more like telekinesis. 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 slowly lifts her head up toward the Sith Lord, watching him float a weird, metal cylinder toward Staren. She blinks. "Wh-...I-If that's your weapon, why are you...giving it...to him? I-I mean, unless you have others, isn't that...d-dangerous?" She winces. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles at Hemlock. "I don't know about the warforged but what you told me, but I /do/ know artificers make the best magic bags!" He holds up the bag at his side. Scanning the enchantment with detect magic, arcane sight, or the like would reveal it to be a handy haversack built in the shape of a messenger bag instead of a backpack.     He lets the bag drop to hang by his side again and looks at Zerrawn, surprised. "I, um... thank you, but I'm not sure how much I can determine here... I mean, I wouldn't want to take it apart here if I'm not sure I can get it working again..." He does take it, gingerly, in his hands, looking it over to see what he can determine by visual inspection. 

:'''{{#var:6320|Hemlock (6320)}} has posed:''' Hemlock doesn't have any form of detect magic, but he does understand what Staren's saying, as he pulls out his own bag. It's a decent-sized pouch that opens up wide. "I know what you mean." He pulls out a fiddle that honestly shouldn't fit in there whatsoever, showing it briefly before putting it back in. "This one holds things larger than it should. It's called a bag of holding. I picked it up adventuring." 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Zerrawn smiles softly. "Don't worry. I can reassemble it. Just, if you do take it apart, don't damage the crystal. It's the core of the lightsaber, and provides the blade's color." he says. The cylander is rather normal, with power regulators and such. It's also quite clear where the ignition for the blade is, and which is the 'business end'. 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 sighs as Zerrawn ignores her advice. She squints at the paradoxically gigantic mouse lady across the room. "...Huh." She looks up at Hemlock. "You're sure this isn't some...weird hallucination, o-or...simulation, or something?" 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace blinks and realises she's been caught people-watching. She gives 114 a sheepish look and then tries to hide behind her drink. 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe looks at him for a moment "Never heard od there myself of Eberron that is." She looks back to Leyanne for a moment "Tell me about it I keep murding the door frames where I'm renting aroom back home. Even if I'm not there much these days." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks at the lightsaber. "I'm really tempted, but... at the lunch table, probably isn't the place. I'd love to get a look at it later, though. Here, you can see mine if you like." He hands the lightsaber back, then reaches down and unclips something similar from his belt. It's obviously the hilt for a lightsaber-like weapon, and there's a round, clear crystal on the end, and there's a switch to turn it on and off, but its inner workings are not at all apparent.     Staren looks at Hemlock pulling the instrument out of the bag and smiles. "This is a 'handy haversack', though I asked for a custom shape so it could hang at my side. It holds more than it should and whatever you reach in for is always on top!" 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 slides off her chair, standing to her full height, then mumbles quietly, "I-I'm gonna...go...stretch, o-or...something." She waves away from the group talking about whatever the heck a 'lightsaver' or whatever is, and shuffles toward the mouse lady. Her eyes seem transfixed on her ears. "Uh...h-hi. You're...a mouse?" 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace raises an eyebrow a moment, looking Tomoe up and down. "Man, how tall are folks were you come from? You'd fit through most human-sized doors in the 'verse I swear." A pause, a laugh. "I don't think I'd even fit through the doors." She listens to 114's approach, turning as she gets close. She nods. "I am! A Martian mouse, to be precise. I'm Tiny." She offers her right - organic - hand. 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Zerrawn accepts his saber back and looks over Starens. He takes it in his grip, and spins it around much akin to the way a practiced swordsman would with a new sword, while being careful not to accidentally activate it. "A good weapon. I admit if you had not mentioned another version of my world existing here, I would question about how similar in construction my saber and yours are. If we wind up working together, perhaps we can see how they would stand in a spar. Though....I should also warn you...We juggernauts are trained to harness rage and anger in our combat style and abilities." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114's eyes drop to Leyanne's face, then her extended arm, then the mechanical one. "Mars. Uh, right..." She slowly extends a bony hand and shakes the mouse's. "Y-You mean your -name- is 'Tiny', o-or...? I mean, you're...n-not really...um, small..." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren shakes his head. "I build weapons. I've never been formally taught to fight with this... In truth, getting that close to people usually results in me getting grabbed and bad things happening, so I try to stay away from enemies." He holds his coat open with one hand and pats his holstered laser pistol with the other. Then he smiles. "Good news! One of the Hands of the Concord has agreed to come talk to you. She'll be here any moment." 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace chuckles softly. "Mars, yes, fourth rock from the Sun." She grins. "Tiny's my nickname. Name's Leyanne Mace." She swishes her tail, sipping her drink happily. Her ear turns towards Staren a moment. One of the Hands of the Concord? Huh, she's never met the big players of the Concord before, this should be interesting. 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     "No shame in that, Staren. In a way, you remind me of my second-in-command, Malavai. More of a tactician then combat officer, but capable with a blaster." He says, then nodding again when he hears one of the hands was availible. "It seems that I owe you one, Staren. You have my thanks." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 shakes the mouse's hand weakly. "Huh. That's - I mean, I-I suppose I've met stranger people. Uh, n-not that you're strange! Uh, t-to your...people. Probably. I'm...j-just making things worse." She sighs and lowers her head. "Right. Sorry, I'm...n-not so good at this...talking...thing..." 

:'''{{#var:1123|Tanya Degurechaff (1123)}} has posed:'''     The Bar's door opens. On the other side, the cobbled streets of Paris, France. A tank rolls by, sporting the symbol of the Empire however briefly it is visible.     A tiny sprig of blonde hair obstructs the view, belonging to the head of an extraordinarily small girl in an equally extraordinarily meticulous uniform. Her peaked cap tucked under one arm, Major Tanya von Degurechaff enters the Bar & Grill at the End of the Multiverse. The door closes, and with it disappears the noise of Imperial-Occupied Paris. Blue eyes glance from one side to the other, before she makes her way to the familiar Staren and his unfamiliar companion. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles, "You're welcome." He holds his hand out for the beam saber back. When the door opens, his ears turn towards it, followed by the rest of his head. He smiles at the familiar face. Then looks back to Zerrawn and stands. "Zerrawn, Emperor's Wrath." He turns and holds a hand out towards Tanya. "Meet Major Tanya Degurechaff, Hand of the Concord. Major, this is Zerrawn, Lord of Wrath of the Sith." 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' The door opens and in walks a familiar sight (to the bartender and the staff anyway) into the bar itself. The crimson cape falling to her ankles, the brown hair with unique hair ornaments, that mole on her face... it's Iria, all right. Usually when she comes in, she seems to be in a rather grumpy mood, but today she seems a little less grumpy than she usually is. She takes a seat at the bar and places an order with the bartender, then looks around a little to see if there's anyone she knows. 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Zerrawn stands when Staren does, and offers a polite bow towards Tanya. "A pleasure, Major Degurechaff. Though Staren misspoke. 'Emperor's Wrath' is more of a formal title. It merely means I act with the authority of the Emperor. 'Lord Wrath' is what other sith lord's and Imperial officer's know me by." He explains, returning to his seat. 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe says "Depends where the height in the country I am currently living in has been historially shorter, the home is older so WHAM not ready for the giant lady from across the coean." She laughs. 

:'''{{#var:6258|Lemeza Kosugi (6258)}} has posed:'''     So, off in the corner with a half-eaten bowl of curry is a sleeping Lemeza. He'd been sleeping there the whole time the others have been chatting, but with the entry of a few more newcomers wakes up with a start. "AAH! Right, right, the expedition! I need to--" A quick look at his watch and he abruptly shifts mid-sentence, "--not oversleep here ever again. I'm late." A brief sigh, then he takes a moment to take stock of his surroundings and make sure he's still safe in the Bar. 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace chuckles "Ah it's cool. I'm unusually tall for my species - Mars is a low-gravity world, but I'm still at the limits of height before you start getting issues." She looks over her shoulder, doing a double-take as she spots the diminutive - but powerful - form of Tanya. "SHE's one of the Hands of the Concord? Huh, well makes sense. Heck of a lot of power in a small package with that one." She signals the bartender "Yo, first drink that the little... that the Major wants is on me, OK?" She turns back to 114 "Staren - that's that guy - and the Major were amongst a group who helped get Tomoe - that's the cute purple haired chick in the platemail - and I out of... of... hell I don't really know how to explain it other than someone else's death." She nods at TOmoe's words. "Fair enough. So like all the doors are at five foot three or something? Pretty much everywhere's like that for me, even back on Mars. My callsign was a fight between Tiny and Low Bridge, because of how often I cracked my head on the doorframe at boot camp. The drill sergeants were all taking bets on whether I'd remember to duck before I passed out of boot." 

:'''{{#var:6322|Amy Rose (6322)}} has posed:''' Amy Rose suddenly walks through the entrance. She looks around with a blink, "Well I didn't expect this!" She heads further in, not sure where to go at the moment. She looks behind her, "I hope Tails isn't mad about the um.. capsule if it got damaged." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 looks to the various people Tiny mentions in order, before turning back up to her. "Uh, I-I mean, I'm...pretty tall for, er, my kind, too, I-I guess. I mean, not...weirdly tall - not that -you are! - but, um...I dunno, tall enough?" She shrugs and lowers her bony butt onto a stool, folding her hands into her lap. "Tall enough to wish I-I didn't stand out as much, I guess." She huffs. 

:'''{{#var:1123|Tanya Degurechaff (1123)}} has posed:'''     "Staren," Tanya states in acknowledgement of the inventor. Her attention shifts to the Sith warrior, "So you, too, serve an Empire. That much we have in common." Lord Wrath, Count Kord. She allows a brief, smug look to cross her face as she considers it, "Zerrawn, then." With the introductions already settled by Staren, Tanya folds her arms behind her back. "I, too, carry a title as White Silver. Though the enemy has branded me the Devil of the Rhine. I can sense we've both got experience in warfare, as well, so I won't bore you with the details."     She glances towards Leyanne when the mouse expresses surprise at her station. Rather than address it, though, she just raises one hand at the bartender's direction, "It'll be cranberry juice." before she returns her attention to the Sith and scientist in her immediate vicinity.     "Now then," She busies herself with relocating a bar stool to the table Zerrawn has claimed. Sitting on it puts her at eye level with the much taller man, without getting too awkward, "I've been informed that you are interested in diplomacy." 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe says "Jeci got a raw deeal and ... it's strange I still remeber her life, clearly as my own." She notes to Leyanne for a moment. "I really want to nail the puppet master who maniplated the beings that kidnapped us in the first place." 

:'''{{#var:6322|Amy Rose (6322)}} has posed:''' Amy Rose finds an empty table and sits down, still unsure how she got here. She clicks a hand held radio, "Cream can you hear me? If you can tell Tails that I was teleported out of his capsule and I'm in a cafe or.. something.." She looks around, the radio emitting only static at the moment. 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace chuckles "Honey welcome to the Multiverse. You're probably what's known technically as an 'Elite'; those of us who are... shall we say, above the normal person in the street." She sips her drink - jack and coke - and then orders whatever 114 and Tomoe want. "We got dudes who stand almost as tall in their armour as me, we got people who can turn into fuckin' world war two battleships." sip. "They're a decent bunch of people. Pretty much everyone in here is an Elite of some sort." She looks at TOmoe, nodding. "Paird too. I remember her as clearly as I remember Annu. Clearer, really. It's... more personal. I want to learn to build rotorcraft so I can build her flying machine in memory of her, and I want to find and stop whoever's responsible for this. I... get the feeling it's part of something bigger, and... it feels like Mars is threatened. My Mars." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren supplements Tanya's prompt with, "Well, he's not a diplomat but don't our governments need to meet or something?"     One of his ears has turned towards Amy as she speaks, though. He looks over at her. "This is the Bar and Grill at the end of the Multiverse. It is a neutral, social meeting place." 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' Meanwhile, Iria hasn't spotted anyone she knows just yet, so she just sips her soda (she's not one to tie one on) and looks at the menu, trying to decide what she wants to eat. She's not especially hungry, so a light appetizer should satisfy her for the time being. Still, she keeps glancing around... 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     "In a fashion, yes. Particularly, I'd like to venture the idea of a possible alliance between the Concord and the Sith Empire." At Staren's words, he nods. "I'd imagine so, but on a more temporary basis, I can function with the Emperor's authority. So, if the Concord preferred a trial run before agreeing to anything, I would join on my own and act as a liason." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 squirms a bit in her seat. If/when asked what she wants, she simply shakes her head. "'Elite'...I-I dunno about that. I'm - I mean, I'm not strong, or...really smart, or...anything, s-so...I dunno about that." She lowers her gaze to her lap. 

:'''{{#var:6258|Lemeza Kosugi (6258)}} has posed:'''     "Ngh." Rubbing his eyes and getting his bearings, Lemeza finishes his quick scan of the room and rests his gaze on a new arrival: some pink hedgehog talking on a radio. Well... at least THIS one is sentient and not actively trying to kill him (yet). Possibly she's still getting used to the Multiverse? He extends a hand in greeting. "Lemeza Kosugi, archaeologist extraordinaire. I take it your world's only just ended up unified in this mess? Take it from me, it takes some getting used to, but... OH COME ON."     That reaction was provoked by a tall, emaciated corpse catching his eye. "Another undead? Though you look new as well. What ancient curse did /you/ befall?" A rather blunt and irritated question lobbed in 114's direction. 

:'''{{#var:6322|Amy Rose (6322)}} has posed:''' Amy Rose still does not hear anything from her radio. She sighs and looks around again, clicking the radio, "If anyone can hear me. I have no idea how I got here. But maybe I am getting a little thirsty.." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 jitters at the sharp "OH COME ON!" and stares over at Lemeza. "Wh-...Wh-What? I-I'm...I'm not cursed. At least, I-I don't think I am. I'm...um..." She trails off. Her gaze turns to Tiny, silently pleading for backup. 

:'''{{#var:6258|Lemeza Kosugi (6258)}} has posed:'''     Lemeza softens his tone rather quickly when he finds the apparently-not-undead is absolutely horrified. "Yikes. Sorry about that, it just seems every other Elite I meet is on their second or fifth life. That said, how are you alive exactly?" With that, he goes digging through his backpack, pulling out a thermos halfway before remembering just where he is. "Oh right. Two bowls of curry, please!" He motions to the waiter. Turning back to 114, he asks, "So, what kind of world do you come from?" 

:'''{{#var:1123|Tanya Degurechaff (1123)}} has posed:'''     "I represent the Concord in this endeavor," Tanya clarifies for Staren, "And if mister Zerrawn is brokering an agreement, than he represents his Empire's interests." She raises her hands, lacing her fingers together, "In this way, our governments have already interacted." She lowers her hands, returning her attention to the Sith Juggernaut, "My own Empire is also in an alliance with the Concord." Raising a hand, she rests it over her own chest, "My initial assignment to the Concord was part of the negotiations. A gesture of trust to facilitate our newfound codependence. I act as a liason between the Concord and the Empire." Hand shifting, she gestures, "This is a similar arrangement that I would offer to you. Facilitating the alliance as a liason between our organizations." 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace looks at 114. "You're also, I'd hazard a guess, not a normal human, either. Elite's a technical term for all of us... well, most of us are what your people would classify as anomalies. I'm an 8ft humanoid mouse... not just that but I'm a genuine, bonafide alien, and I'm half machine to put a cherry on top." This is all declared in a rough Cockney accent. She looks at Lemeza adding jovially, "Ease off 'er, mate, she's new to the Multiverse. Don't worry, she's got a pulse." SHe flicks her ears. "C'mon, 114 was it? Order yourself something to drink." 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe pauses for a moment "Wait wait, your an Annu vetran?!" She stares mouth haning open for a moment there were hardly anyleft alive or in sectort. She xclose her mouth for a moment and shakes her head a bit. "I get the feeling too, if my earth's threatnerd. Our options to defend our selves? Are prettuy bad news." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 sighs and slouches. "...No, I-I'm...not a normal human. And I-I don't want anything, I just had some soup." She pauses for a moment, then, "And I...uh, c-...nnf." She cuts herself off and bites into her lower lip. "I could get in trouble for...talking about this sort of stuff." 

:'''{{#var:6322|Amy Rose (6322)}} has posed:''' Amy Rose turns her attention to Staren now, "Huh? It's a.. bar and grill? In space?! How did I get in here? I was in a rocket propelled capsule, on my way to visit the next habitable planet, and then suddenly I found myself walking through the door here." 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     "That would be agreeable to me. It is my fondest hope that together, we can bring both of our respective enemies to heel, and make lives better. Though I have been finding that many know of the Sith before, and likely have negative conotations. While, if we're being fair, those are warrented feelings. It is my hope to perhaps offer a different view into our operations." Zerrawn says, folding his hands together as he speaks. "Though I also imagine my own training in harnessing my rage might prove an issue in certain situations." 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace nods to Tomoe. "Not many of us around nowadays." She sighs, sipping her drink. "It's what I like to call 'an embuggerance'. But I think our mysterious puppeteer might'a fucked up a bit. I reckon with our dreams, visions, whatever the fuck we had before we were caught, we've all been slipped pieces of a bigger puzzle. It's either a slip-up on the bastard's part, or a second layer to the trap." To 114, she nods. "Exactly, so here, at least in the wider multiverse you're an Elite. Elites come in all shapes and sizes, as you can see by just taking a look around. It won't take you very long to find something stranger than yourself, trust me on this. No matter how weird you are. Don't tell us anything that can get you in trouble, mind." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren turns to deal with Amy, though one ear is still turned towards Zerrawn and Tanya. "Rocket-propelled? Unless Mobius has some kind of companion planet, I don't think that would have worked in any timely manner... You'll need some kind of faster-than-light travel to reach other solar systems in the Multiverse without using the warpgates." He gestures towards an alcove with a gate in it."     "Umm," Staren scratches the back of his head. "Sometimes, people who are hungry end up here. It's quite the work of multiversal engineering, I still don't know how that effect was achieved. It's difficult to study." He smiles. "On the bright side, now you don't have to wait months, or years, or decades, or millenia to get wherever you were going! You can search for a gate to it!" 

:'''{{#var:1123|Tanya Degurechaff (1123)}} has posed:'''     "So long as you obtain favorable results," Tanya states in an even tone, "I have little reason to care how you go about obtaining them. It would be nothing short of hypocritical for me to raise concerns over a particularly effecient, no-mercy style of combat." She lets that hang in the air as she gathers and drinks her clear red juice. She did say she was known as the Devil of the Rhine. There well might be something more savage than this pressed, measured little girl is letting on.     "For now, I will have the papers drawn up and delivered to your superiors to make the agreement official." Eyes closing, she considers for a moment, then nods once, "Mm, yes. We reached an agreement quickly, but I see no reason to turn you down and you're already interested, so there is little convincing to be had in either direction."     That smug look returns, over her drink. It's rather satisfying when things go this smoothly. 

:'''{{#var:6258|Lemeza Kosugi (6258)}} has posed:'''     Lemeza winces at Tiny's admonishment. "Ngh... yeah, sorry about that one Leyanne. Knee jerk reaction." He casts a glance at the posted rules, frowning. "Hm, guess we can't spar here without getting thrown out. We should figure out a place and time that's more suitable, then, and preferably BEFORE your crazy stunt!" He then turns back to 114. "You're still literal skin and bones." The waiter delivers Lemeza's curry as requested, and he nudges one of the bowls toward 114. "Seriously, that can't be good for you." He pauses for a moment. "You'd get in trouble, with who? Whoever keeps denying you proper nourishment? I'd say that's a piss-poor reason to hold out on us. Especially since any one of us can give you safe haven indefinitely. 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Zerrawn grins softly as he hears Tanya's mention of not minding no-mercy styles. "It seems I may have found a kindred spirit." He says softly. But he nods. "I will alert the Dark Council, and we will have the documents signed and returned. I do look forward to our first operation together." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren turns back to Zerrawn. "/Really/? They call themselves 'The Dark Council'?" He sighs. 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114's hand clenches tighter on her knee, knuckles turning white. "I -know-!" she barks at Lezema, not bringing herself to look at him. "I-I'm not--I c-can't--I won't die on you. I-I promise. Alright? I'm--" She sighs and slouches once more, having seemed to quickly burn off what little steam she had. "I-I'm...fine. Alright?" 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace nods "Mmhmm, I got a shop in... one of the many variations of Hoonah Alaska. Add to that, from there the ship-people I was talking about are a short boat-ride away and I -dare- anyone to come looking for you through them lot." She laughs. "Admiral Nagato'd tell them to fuck right off if you needed shelter. She'd back it up with a cannon big enough to shoot me out of, too." Her grin at the words 'shoot me out of' os way too big. "That's just what I can do, and I'm... not exactly well-supported. Other folks around here have... shall we say, more resources, or one of the bigger governments backing 'em up. OK... I won't press." 

:'''{{#var:1123|Tanya Degurechaff (1123)}} has posed:'''     Tanya raises her glass, then, "To the Concord and both our Empires."     When Staren draws attention to the naming scheme, she closes her eyes, glass touching her lips, "What they call themselves is ultimately irrelevant, so long as they make thought out decisions to the management of their empire." Maybe they just think better with the lights off, for all she knows. 

:'''{{#var:6336|Zerrawn (6336)}} has posed:'''     Zerrawn grins again as he hears Tanya. He already thinks he's going to like her. "Yes, to the Concord, our Empires, and to strong allies." he says, raising up the glass of whiskey he somehow acquired when no one was looking. 

:'''{{#var:6322|Amy Rose (6322)}} has posed:''' Amy Rose blinks at Staren, "I'm not hungry though! I was just excited to meet all of the people I spoke to on my radio earlier today. I had a salad before I took off from my planet but I guess I'm getting thirsty." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren rolls his eyes. It is, as Tanya says, not really a mark against them, but why make more PR trouble for yourself? He raises his own glass, and then, after the toast, turns back to Amy and shrugs. "I said I don't know the details of how it works. Maybe that was enough. Maybe your desire to meet people triggered it. Who knows? Anyway, I'm Staren, we spoke on the radio, do you need any help with anything?" 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 continues to stare uncomfortably into her lap, hand slowly flexing, gripping her knee tightly, then releasing it over and over. 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace looks to 114 "So, if you don't mind... what's... honey, I can hear your pulse racing. There's no need to fear here. What's got you scared?" 

:'''{{#var:6322|Amy Rose (6322)}} has posed:''' Amy Rose blinks again, "Oh! I remember your voice now. My name is Amy! Amy Rose! I don't think I need any help since I seem to have found what I was looking for. I was just trying to find the people I spoke with and I did! At least one of you.. I am definitely not an official representative of my planet. But I do know someone who knows how to build space capsules which is how I got up here." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 closes her eyes and takes a deep, shuddery breath. She lowers her voice to a quiet murmur. "I-I'm scaring people by just...-b-being- here." 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace shakes her head "Honey, we're worried for you, not about you. Scaring people? Nah. Scariest person in the bar award probably goes to the 12 year old in the Major's uniform." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114's hand balls into a fist, and she thumps it weakly against her knee. "I don't -want- people to be worried for me! There's no reason a-anyone -has- t-...to be worried for me! I'm f-...I-I'm..." She sighs, tiring out quickly once again. "I-I'll live. Really." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren glances back at 114. "I don't think anybody here is scared of you. Even your oatmeal seems to have nothing to fear." He playfully jibes, regarding the bowl still sitting there.     To Amy: "One person built a space capsule that launched from the surface? That's quite a feat, unless Mobius has really low gravity... Still, even then. Is there anything more you wanted to know?" 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe looks over to Lemeza for a moment and grins a bit at him. "So your Luemza Kosugi, right?" She also looks to 114 for a moment and agrees wioth Lemeza's assessment. "You need anthing else" She nmotes to act. "No your not saring me, we're concerned." 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace blinks a little. "Oh, hey that's cool. If you're sure, I'll drop it. Just... you look like you really need to eat more." She sips her drink. "Still, if that's just how you are, it's cool." 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 squeezes her eyes shut and brings her hands to her head. After a few seconds, she shoves off her stool and stomps off toward the bathroom, roughly shoving the door open. 

:'''{{#var:6258|Lemeza Kosugi (6258)}} has posed:'''     Well, this was probably to be expected. Frail and weak would turn out to be scared, after all. "Hmm. Have you lived like that for a while, then?" Lemeza tries a new approach. "Are you /able/ to live like that for extended periods of time?" The tail end of that gets interrupted by 114's trip to the bathroom.     He turns his attention to Tomoe. "That I am. Best archaeologist this side of the Multiverse. You're Tomoe, yes? What can I do for ya?" 

:'''{{#var:1100|Leyanne Mace (1100)}} has posed:''' Leyanne Mace finishes her drink, double-taking as she catches sight of the clock. "Oh, crap, I got to get back to work." She stands. "Catch you later, Tomoe, Lemeza... can you give my apologies to 114? Thanks." And with that she heads off. 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:'''     114 sheepishly pushes open the bathroom door and shuffles out, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. She glances up at where Tiny was, then looks to Leyanne. "...Where'd Tiny go?" she asks weakly. 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe says "Your the sort of person I'd like to have on my phone given the life I lead. I tend to to crawling into all sorts of old places and I can also think of a place that might need someone with your skills though the risks are pretty hith there." she drinks at her drinks. She waves to Tiny as she heads off. She also watchs for a moment frowing at ACT not sure waht to do there. 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' Now having noticed Tomoe there, Iria gives a light wave and a smirk. "Hi there," She says to Tomoe, albeit without a smile. She's not being unfriendly, it's just there's something on her mind right now. Taking another sip of her soda, Iria rolls her eyes. "Where's my appetizer?" 

:'''{{#var:6258|Lemeza Kosugi (6258)}} has posed:'''     "Leyanne had to leave." Lemeza fills 114 in on the matter. "Anyway... hm. What's your name? I don't think you've told me yet."     Wait, what's this? A high-risk area that needs his talents? The professor turns his entire body dramatically to face Tomoe, crosses one leg over the other, folds his hands in front of his face, and utterly fails to contain an exceptionally excited grin. "You have my attention. Tell me more about this place."      

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 turns to Lemeza. "Huh? Oh, uh, j-just one-fourteen. That's...my...uh, name. I-I guess." She sighs as Lemeza picots and faces Tomoe, then just crawls back on top of her stool, eyeing her food someone had ordered for her. 

:'''{{#var:6325|ACT B3-114 (6325)}} has posed:''' ACT B3-114 sighs and slouches a bit in her seat. She glances briefly over to Lemeza, before returning her gaze to the curry on the table. "I'm...s-sorry for making a scene." 

:'''{{#var:6258|Lemeza Kosugi (6258)}} has posed:'''     THUDCLANK. That's the sound of Lemeza flopping over onto the counter next to his emptied bowl of curry, falling asleep in a curry-induced coma. Best not to disturb him. 
}}

5669/Potential Psychic Essence

2018-01-30T11:03:55Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2018/01/30 |Location=RIFTS Earth |Synopsis=Staren invites Miari to RIFTS Earth to discuss the similarities between Essence and PPE, and to see if h..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/01/30
|Location=RIFTS Earth
|Synopsis=Staren invites Miari to RIFTS Earth to discuss the similarities between Essence and PPE, and to see if he can interace with Creation's magitech. The discussion leads to magical cybernetics.
|Cast of Characters=42, 1129
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''                                      Earth!                                         The warpgate isn't actually IN Lazlo. It's about 30 miles to the east. What was once a small farming village has grown into a thriving trade town around it, though directly in front of and behind the gate is kept a clear path for some distance. There's a road connection to Lazlo, with busses that run on clean, magical energy. The town has various businesses catering to visitors -- from varyingly-luxurious hotels, to an interdimensional marketplace, to adventuring gear stores, restaurants and cafes for the hungry traveler... Although the MOST upscale stuff is in Lazlo. It's not THAT far of a trip, after all. The gate is far enough north of the lake that it's not visible unless you fly up some -- trees and buildings are in the way, and it's some distance yet.     Of course, given the night-time arrival... the most obvious sight is the leyline that runs through the town on its way to Lazlo, like an earthbound aurora glowing with electric-blue energy!     It's below-freezing at the moment, and snowing, but Staren doesn't look dressed quite so warmly as he should be, thanks to his magical warmth charm. He's waiting expectantly by the gate. 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' Miari wasn't sure what to expect when told to 'dress warmly,' so she emerges from the warpgate wearing...     An absolutely stunning and overly filled out, many, MANY layered outfit very similar to her normal kimono. Something that must be troublesome to don, but includes a wrappable hood of sorts. Much, MUCH more elaborate and cumbersome than most things one could wear in the cold, but...     Miari seems to have an incredibly anachronistic and outdated style of dress, even for Creation. This MIGHT have been popular during the Shogunate, the very height of winter fashion...     But she doesn't seem overly bothered by the cold even then. The fires of Hell burning in her heart will keep her fairly warm for a great while longer than most could last, though not forever.     After stepping through, Miari shifts off to the side to not block any other travelers, and turns her head left, right... she looks up, behind her... slowly turns around and around . Her eyes are wide and appreciative....     ".... Hm...!"     With a shimmer of emerald in her eyes, a THIRD glimmers upon her forehead - a baleful Third Eye sigil that might actually see and not just be her Caste Mark, burning with emerald flames as it is. "....HMMMMMM! Visible even to the naked eye... is this a Demesne?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Welcome!" Staren smiles and greets cheerfully. "I guess I shoulda been more specific, it's not THAT cold..." He has no idea about what's normal for Creation fashion outside Selendos.     The buildings are an eclectic mix -- some are or imitate the aesthetic of the farming village that was originally here, with concrete walls and tiled roofs. Others have a more urban aesthetic, and a few have that wacky 'alien/organic' aesthetic to them, the cultural taste of their builders no doubt. The residents are just as eclectic, though this is clearly a low-activity time for the town, there's the occasional person out and about on foot, car, or wingboard, and some businesses are still open.     "No, all leylines are like this on my planet. We don't have demesnes, but there IS a nexus -- where multiple laylines cross -- over there." He points westward. There's clearly more light over there from the city and the nexus, but at this distance you'd need enhanced vision to make out details or the pyramid itself. 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "Well, I'm not about to strip naked to put something else on." Miari jokes into the crisp air, her attention still largely focused on the way the entire REGION glows to her proper sight, not just the one ley line. Ambient energies, however diffuse outside the lines, are quite a thing here!     "Such power. It's practically tingling down my spine and out my nose!" The greenette announces with barely-contained excitement, doing her utmost to maintain professional composure instead of JUMPING UP AND DOWN IN GLEE like a part of her really wants to.     "Is this a date proper? A night on the town has an allure!" She merrily jests, while digging around in the folds of a sleeve...     "Ah, this.."     And she pulls out a golden gadget that very much looks like a smartphone.. minus the actual screen, in favor of a variety of crystal knobs of different shapes and sizes. Unlike most Earth engineering, the edges are even MORE rounded and a great deal of attention has gone into engraving prayers, well-wishes, and the ancient Old realm glyphs from a technician's dialect all over the Orichalcum case. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren sticks out his tongue at her comment about changing clothes. re: Magic tingling, "Yeah, you can see why the Splugorth and Xiticix and who knows who else we don't even KNOW about want to take over." Re: Date, "No, but I'd be happy to show you around all the same." As she pulls out the resplendant assistant, he huries over for a closer look. "Hmm. Around here, most devices, you push a button or something, and either it draws your power or fails to work. Is this more of a sort of will-it-to-happen deal?" 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "The who and what?" Miari blinks a few times without comprehending. That aside though, she cradles the little gadget in both hands... and gives a solid nod. "mmmhm."     Without seeming to DO anything, the device crackles to life with a surge of glowing power through the crystals. A Hologlyphic projector launches light and color upwards for a few feet, spreading out in a very wide cone to fill the air with a number of odd displays!     ... Sadly, it's all written in Old Realm in very technical terms, in some of the densest, most complicated diagrams and combinations that the First Age Solars could develop. The translation effect handles this weirdly. There are several possible translations for each of the symbols and their combinations and one has to mentally squint to try and figure out which one is most correct.     Such is what happens when a language is based on something more like poetic meanings, vague attachments and inferences, and is MEANT to contain lots of hidden sub-context.     The swirling display soon shifts into a colorful, highly abstracted map of Creation... except it's not even remotely accurate to the Creation map Staren's seen. A lot of cities are there which aren't there, and the whole thing is about two or even three times larger. The equivalent of a question mark flashes on the map's center, showing that it doesn't know WHERE it is in relation to the glowing points that are the Elemental Poles.     "It takes will and spirit to activate and control the basics, but once activated you can manipulate some of the glyphs and symbols with your fingers!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren waves a hand. "Various alien species. A devouring swarm of bugs and mercantile, conquering slavers respectively."     Staren nods, listening with interest and ecitement at the prospect of activating creation's magitech. The map... he's gotten a look at some maps of the larger Creations, but this is far more detailed! "I see..." He holds out his hands. "May I?"     If she deactivates it and hands it to him, he focuses on willing it to turn on again. 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "Oh." For some reason, 'devouring swarm of bugs' is less interesting when it's put that way. As if this is not terribly novel. But she's been in Hell, and that probably has a lot to do with it.     She hands it over without an argument. It deactivates upon leaving her hands... and...     She's watching with a bright, barely-restrained smile, leaning forward with hands on her knees..     Seems a little too innocent and pleasant to be from Hell, right?     It's very similar to activating a Techno-Wizard gadget. Focusing a few scraps of PPE into it, the device warms in his hand. Very UNLIKE many Techno-Wizard devices, this thing isn't just 'insert PPE, get effect.' It keeps that connection open, and it feels like the little pad of incredibly dense material (it's a bit heavier than it looks, until he attempts to give it life! then it's light as a feather) is an extension of his hand. A sort of phantom sensation. Its functions are keyed to his spirit.     The first thing that happens is quite unbidden. The little device projects a shadow-silhouette representation of Staren's body, and attempts to perform a medical diagnosis. A myriad of lines and points fill out from the touching palm, showing tamely circulating... glowing stuff through it. It's almost like veins, but not quite. Some of the centric points converge on vital organs, or trace out the basics of the skeleton, but others are placed at seemingly nonsensical locations.     The diagram seems to be having trouble analyzing whatever it's trying to do though.     A red crystal on the pad glows. Probably some kind of error message.     "... Huuuuuuummmmmmm.... iiiiinteresting..." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren gives a happy little gasp of surprise as it turns on. He did it! And it IS different from the (admittedly minor) TW devices he's had the chance to try! The way it suddenly gets light (how many ways could he use such functionality?) and its... he can /feel/ it, in a way he can't feel most machines. ut... then it's copying him? He looks briefly alarmed before he realizes it's some kind of medical scan. No, not medical...     "Those are my chakras, right? But what's the problem, is it because I'm half-human and it's locked to humans? Was it never supposed to work for god-bloods or ghost-bloods? Or are they different in a different way?" 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "It SHOULD handle God-Bloods... most of them. They're not all the same." Miari murmurs, attention drifting into Analysis Land as she ponders over this. A dainty finger rises up to scratch delicately at her chin in thought...     "Perhaps your biology, as you attest. Perhaps it's what's IN your Chakras... yes, that's what it maps. I can /usually/ pin down any medical problems studying them, but... no frame of reference, here. As I understand it, this world doesn't even operate on the same fundamental building blocks of matter and physics. Why WOULD it perfectly match up, even if there's similarities? But, it was similar enough to ACTIVATE the device... probably with some calibration. First Age Artifice like this can be very finnicky." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren ahs and snaps his fingers -- or at least makes a snapping gesture. He never did learn how to snap. "Ah. My cybernetics are probably blocking my chakras to some degree, even if they DO line up. It shrinks my already tiny essence pool and keeps me from drawing on external sources. I mean I bet there's a way around that with the right devices, but..." He waves the device a little. "Early days, yet. Is there any way to bypass this error, or is it unable to work further for me?" 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "focus on the device. Think 'time' at it. Well... don't just think it. Feel it. Run it down your arm and into the device. That part where you feel it connected to you, think 'time' there." MIari advises helpfully.     The chinscratching continues. "Cybernetics that disrupt Essence flows? I wonder. Ones made of the Magical Materials don't do this... not where I hail from." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren tries thinking 'time' and then imagining sending it down his arm. As if tapping the inside of the device with itself. /Time/.     "Well, as a discipline, techno-wizardry's only decades old. Maybe we just haven't discovered the magical materials yet. Or the right way to configure cybernetics. It's uh... I mean, they're both pretty demanding fields, and magic doesn't make humans immortal. Techno-Wizardry and cybernetics... each takes many years of study. There's not really gonna be much overlap. Those techno-wizards who HAVE branched out have mostly branched out into war machines. Bigger guns. Magitech power armor or giant battle-constructs. They don't need cybernetics, anyway -- there's spells for healing and regeneration, I think. Why spend a bunch of your life learning how to become a doctor too, the hard way?"     "So... yeah. I think before anyone here studies magical cybernetics, there's gonna need to be some other discoveries and breakthroughs. I mean... I've heard of people trying it, but... what's the phrase... they're still digging with a spoon, rather than inventing the shovel." 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "NOTHING makes humans immortal.... not while staying truly human." Miari grunts out begrudgingly. "Death is a one-way door. You can go beyond it to reincarnation, but never backwards to the life you had.... such is how I understand the world, anyways." She purses her lips a few times, but peers a bit more closely at Staren. "Saaaay though. You have some of these Cybernetics? Like what?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren tries and fails to not roll his eyes at her speech. Then he taps the side of his head. "I have one of these in my head. Lets me control it directly," he frowns slightly, "well, like I guess you can already do with essence-based technology but /we don't have that/." He pulls down the hood of his robe and peels a little flap of skin in the back of his neck back, revealing a data port. "Can plug into stuff too, but most things are wireless in the Multiverse these days." He lets the flap close and pulls his hood back up, then pulls up his right sleeve, revealing what at first looks to be a shiny chrome bracelet until you realize it's flush with his skin. It extrudes some small tools on thin spidery arms from its surface, which he waves before reabsorbing. "I also have some tiny machines in my bloodstream that will help repair me in case of injury, but that seldom comes up, thank goodness. It's not fast enough for combat use, anyway." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks. "...And of course there's also the thing making a copy of my brain at all times. It's about yay big at the base of my skull, here." He holds his fingers apart grape-size and taps the back of his neck. "You'll have to cut it out to get to it if I die, for obvious security reasons it can't be remotely accessed, or anyone trying to kill me might find a way to wipe it." 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "A copy of... the mind." Miari's eyes boggle wiiiiidely at this idea. "I've heard of attempts to do such things... copy memories and personality, put them in a regenerated body using Genesis-tech to make one just like the old. Plant the memories and personality in it... but it was never fully successful. There'd always be... SOMETHING wrong. Sometimes, something terribly wrong. To think someone perfected that approach... it's a bit disturbing."     ... Disturbing?     But even as she says that, her eyes ARE bright with curiosity.     "Hmmmm... all these things seem to be a very small percentage of your body. Perhaps five to ten percent at most. Yet it disrupts your Essence flows THAT much?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren rolls his eyes. "It no doubt would have been incredibly difficult, but I found a world where it was already done." He nods. "Not essence. Potential psychic energy. And yes, which is why I just theorized that perhaps it is because there just hasn't been time for my world to develope the discipline of magical cybernetics yet." He blinks. at a sudden realization. "...I need another look at a first-age library." 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "A First Age library." Miari frowns. "They're not that easy to come across. I can think of a few good candidates to go hunting, but it'll be the same case as with Denandsor. If someone hasn't raided it by now, it's because the danger is just that great. But the libraries in Great Forks's House of Learning are fairly comprehensive. What tidbits are you hunting for?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks. "Isn't it obvious? Cybernetics!" He holds his free hand out to his side, waving emphatically. "Creation had the entire First Age to develop ones that didn't interfere with Essence use! If it IS similar enough to PPE, that knowledge could advance my world by decades, maybe centuries, and open up a whole new field!" 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' ".........."     Miari gives Staren a vaguely disbelieving look and takes a few steps back. Giving him an almost dirty look for a moment, she inhales... exhales... raises her arms...     And her Anima crackles from both hands, nauseating lime green tongues of flame and light sizzling from her fingers and chakra points on her hands and in waves from her arm. It gathers in the air in front of her, forming into a ghostly diagram that begins as a simulacra of a human right arm. It fills in swiftly with a variety of strange constructs, an intricate array of springs and pulleys and what almost look like artificial muscle. The hands are delicate workings of the tiniest, exactingly precise pieces, but none of it seems to bear the genericness or angular machining of most Earth engineering. No two pieces are QUITE alike to one another, no matter where in the... greenprint... Staren looks.     Of course, soon the glyphs of Old Realm, dozens of lines of prayers and strange sorceries to connect the arm with the body's meridians and let spirit flow through its artificial Essence circuitry will probably need a bit of study before he can fully follow them. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren stares, curiously, then excitedly as he realizes what he's seeing! He looks close, and... is a bit frustrated by the lines of prayer and sorcery, but on the whole, still pretty delighted and impressed. "I didn't know you were a cyberneticist too!" He looks at her curiously. ".../Do/ you know this, or are you pulling from a remote database somehow?" he asks, innocently. 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "Exactly who do you think you are speaking to?" Miari states, though her tone has taken on a slightly different timbre, and dialect has shifted. There's a flicker of arrogance and pride in her eyes that wasn't there before, and she's holding her head high in a more dignified - if only SLIIIIIGHTLY snooty fashion.     "Who do you suppose helped invent the clockwork prosthetics? These sorceries took decades to perfect and refine. A pity they are so hard to come by, now."     In fact, her entire way of speaking has shifted. A feminine emphasis on soft and drawn out vowel-like sounds has given way to a more precise, clipped, harder sounding way of speech.     For the briefest of moments, Staren might wonder if he isn't looking into the face of an old, - no, an ANCIENT man indeed, with a wizened brow - but no, it's probably a trick of the light. One blink and the impression is gone, and it's just Miari there still looking the faintest bit indignant. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks for a moment, then shakes his head. "Right, sorry. I forgot for a moment that in your first life, you were a supernaturally-smart immortal who had lifetimes to learn multiple disciplines. ...Clockwork, really? Hmmm... Well, I'll see if I can get you some books about our kinds of magic and cybernetics, and maybe you can figure out where the problem is... Ooh, just imagine! A world where men and women of magic can benefit from cybernetics, and those benefitting from cybernetics aren't closed off from magic pursuits! And then, what wondrous magical enhancements might people get, once they can be combined? Ooh,"     Staren starts pacing about excitedly, "I don't know what the future holds but it's /awesome/!" 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "Clockwork." 'Miari' affirms. "Every piece designed exactingly for the recipient's body, preventing rejection or loss of ability. Growing a replacement arm was the easier art, once perfected... but these were originally developed to answer a question. 'Can it be done?'"     The lecturing is still taking place in the ancient voice, but warmth now enters it in place of the previous arrogance.     "... yes, it could be done, and so the future holds grand developments inde---"     Miari coughs, the grandiose look vanishing and she rapidly shakes her head as if to clear it.     "Erm, yes. AWESOME!" Miari tries to adopt the word, now back in the feminine dialect and her normal expression returned.     A faint blush comes to her cheeks. "... Why can't he keep quiet, my throat's not used to man-speech." The girl murmurs through a sigh.     She does sprout a smile moments later! "Hmmmm... we will need to try some things, won't we? What sort of materials would you call magical here, if anything? Something that conducts this... PPE as you call it... readily."     She gazes off into the distance, at... could she see the Pyramid, maybe? Or...     "Something out there appears to be channeling... compressing... regulating, this ley line? Something like a manse, perhaps?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren stops pacing and umms, "Well, it's not exactly a question of /magical/ material, as..." he starts pacing again. "Natural. When magic techno-wizard devices, gems are used to focus the energy, much like you use differently-aspected magical materials to shape the desired effect, you use different gems to achieve different effects." He reaches under his cloak and pulls out his amulet -- opal in an ornate silver setting. "One day, I'm going to use this to get telekinesis. Diamonds and emeralds store energy. I have some plans to use..." He stops and looks thoughtful, "nnh, was it technically a black garnet or an onyx? Anyway, I have a multiverse-enhanced gem that I think I can use to better make my golems with a little work. I forget what most gems do, off the top of my head... Anyway, you get the idea."     He starts pacing again. "Now, we can artificially MAKE gems. But they don't work. The going theory is that naturally-existing gems, they've laid in the earth for eons, soaked in its magical field, even back when that field was undetectable. Although, that part's just for the gems. A mage can't cast spells while covered in armor of manmade materials. You want good armor for a mage, you have to find some critter with comparably tough skin and kill it, and use that. Skin, scales, carapace, whatever."     "I suppose it's possible that we just haven't discovered the process to make arbitrary materials compatible with magic, but until we do, metal and plastic and ceramic and so-on don't mix well with magic, unless paired with gem-based devices to express it in very specific ways." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     After a moment, he realizes he forgot the other question. "Oh! And the pyramid atop the Tower of Learning," he turns and waves a hand at the distant city, "Has stabilized the nexus's dimensional rift and draws energy from it to produce electrical power for the whole city! It's one-of-a-kind, though I'm not sure about the exact magical details of why." 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "If there is ANY similarity with the geomancy I know... there are ways you can lay out the building so that the power flows harmoniously through it. Channeled and directed the way one would carefully design aquaducts and pipes so they do not build up pressure in the wrong places. Using resonant materials makes it easier..." Miari rubs at her chin now, eyes peering at the gems on display. She's also clearly hiding a bit of delight at the things For being able to rip any riches and luxury from Hell as she might wish, seeing gemstones is apparently still a delight!     "Hm. Following the pattern you just set down, I imagine the pyramid would have to be made of ancient stone. Unsure whether it would favor sedimentary or igneous, but ancient nonetheless... I shall have to acquire some jewels from Creation and we can compare them! And some other materials. But if the project is backed on using the Five Magical Materials, it would be... FAR from economical with just my efforts. I can only produce a trickle of Orichalcum in a month, you know. Gathering enough for an entire limb might take a season!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks. "The pyramid's not a lost secret, it's a modern work, but also a national secret. We wouldn't want our nation's enemies teleporting in and sabotaging it, after all. But there are people who know how it's done... but I don't think there's anywhere else with a powerful enough nexus in the area, so there's been no occasion to duplicate the feat." Beat. "...One of the more interesting rumors is that on the other end of the rift is the heart of a star, and we actually draw power from /that/. It does sound plausible, at least."     He looks... slightly less enthused when she points out the potential for a materials shortage. "Ah... yes, I suppose if entire limbs must be constructed of such material, it'd be difficult. I was thinking that perhaps knowing the principles by which you designed such things, you might have ideas about how to make things mostly of normal materials without messing up the magic. Still, there could be some use even for small implants, I'm sure. Isn't Jade easier to find in quantity, though? Or is it not good enough for cybernetics?" 

:'''{{#var:1129|Miari (1129)}} has posed:''' "... These crazy worlds where stars are just burning balls of gas nd have nothing to do with Fate." Miari huffs confoundedly, blinking wide-eyed as she ponders just how crazy THAT idea is.     "Sounds like the kind of insane act of hubris the First Age Solars would hop to. Ah.."     The topic changes back to the engineering quickly. "It might not be necessary to do ENTIRE limbs. Who knows what kind of compatability will arise when we try different things?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles. "Exactly!" He holds out the Resplendant Personal Assistant as if proposing a toast. Then waves his arm out towards the west to indicate limitless possibility. "Who knows? I look forward to finding out!" 
}}

Staren

2018-01-08T08:48:52Z

Staren: Fixed rank to hopefully show up properly as a Concord member

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Staren
|Color=#FF4C4C
|Char_id=42
|Img=
|FullName=Staren
|Gender=Male
|Species=Catboy (Human/Shapeshifter Hybrid)
|Theme=RIFTS-1
|Chartype=OC
|Function=SCIENCE!, Mecha Piloting
|Faction=Concord
|Rank=4-2 Gifted
|Ranktype=Member
|Groups=Daedalus Initiative, Gatecrashers Union, Die Reisende
|Quote="How does THAT work? I wonder if I can study it…"
|PAge=Mid 20s
|AAge=25
|Aging=Yes
|Height=5'8" / 173cm
|Weight=185 lbs / 84kg
|Hair=Brown
|Eyes=Blue
|Voice=
|Song=Plum Creek Rhythm Section - A Light, an Answer[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRew-b78ZFg]
|Profile=Staren is a prodigy engineer and pilot from the magitech city of Lazlo. He has the advanced computer and robotics knowledge of an expert decades his senior, and has now branched out into studying multiversal phenomena. Believing any problem can be overcome with sufficient application of knowledge and ingenuity, the young man dreams of a better future for all. Armed with tools of magic and technology to fight, he has survived over a decade in the Multiverse through care and preparedness belied by a tendency to speak before he thinks. Once naive about the world due to only learning from books, he's now seen the great wonders and horrors and /weirdness/ of the Multiverse and become somewhat jaded, though he is still anxious as ever to learn how it all works. However, the nuances of social interaction remain more mysterious to him than those of physics or magic, and this makes it difficult for him to form close bonds. To help his friends, though, he would move the Multiverse itself if he could find a way -- and his willingness to consider such extreme actions is one of the very things that tends to push others away. In the wake of the Union and Confederacy's fall, Staren is hopeful that there is plenty of good he can do in the Multiverse other than endless fighting...
|Powers=CYBERNETICS: Staren's body is improved by various cybernetics, including an advanced visual HUD, sensory enhancements, cyberjack (see assets), thought-controlled tool wristbands, and data storage designed to record and retain his every interaction. The computer components wired into his brain also store a vast library of useful programs useful for his day-to-day operations. All have been modified and enchanted to work alongside his shapeshifting.

MAGIC: Staren's cybernetics prevent his drawing on any external magic sources such as ley lines, but he still possesses enough minor, innate power to grant him a basic understanding of how magic functions in his world and beyond. He can recognize magic at work, even if he can't replicate it himself. His personal magical ability manifests primarily in his unique shapeshifting, and in the crystals he utilizes to elementally-align his personal forcefields and energy weapons (see assets).

DATAMANCY: Magic and technology are two very different forces in Staren's world, but he's found some ways of marrying the two disciplines. He can't cast spells, but he can design some programs allowing technological control of magical creations. This is how he remote controls his golems.

MINOR SHAPESHIFTER: Staren inherited some of his mother's talent for shapeshifting. He has three forms -- his normal cat-boy form, a human girl resembling his mother, and a housecat. He can change his hair and fur color, but seldom bothers. Oddly, his cybernetics do not interfere with this gift.

NANOTECHNOLOGY: Staren has adapted advanced nanotechnology from other worlds to his own purposes. His machines can create objects, speed healing of minor injuries, and flush out mundane poisons and illnesses. They're also responsible for the maintenance and function of his Cortical Stack, and for improving his overall physicality to peak levels. Fabrication -- a process that may take days to complete -- requires compatible blueprints, raw materials, and is limited to producing nothing larger than the average desk. Fabricated components up to this size may be assembled into larger finished products, such as mecha. (See related +flaws.)

DIVINE INSPIRATION: Staren's long-time best friend, Morg McGee, is a minor deity of madness and inspiration. While Staren typically refuses to accord deities any more respect than mortals, for some reason his faith in his friendship with Morg has given him a certain mental fortitude and flexibility he might not otherwise possess, enabling him to pursue solutions -- often bizarre or extreme -- in the face of even the most hopeless odds.
|Skills=TECHNOLOGICAL GENIUS: Staren has vast scientific and engineering knowledge, and absorbs new information like a sponge. He's adept at applying known practices to new situations, leading to swifter learning, mastery, and application of various unfamiliar technological subjects and skills. He's an excellent hacker, programmer, and engineer, capable of creating the kinds of basic AIs that operate his drones and mecha (see NPCs). He can repair and reverse engineer foreign technology if there is an existing base of familiarity, such as a teleporter similar in design to the type he uses. Magic remains a difficult subject for him, but he is confident in handling technology enhanced by magical properties and power sources, and has successfully applied his methodology for technology to the creation of his golems and potions, and to the learning of skill-based magics like potioncraft. (Consent may be required for reverse engineering.)

POTIONCRAFT: Basic alchemical formulas can equip Staren to mimic magical effects. Given a few days and the right ingredients, he can brew draughts equivalent to basic spells. (See +info Staren/Potions for details.)

GOLEMANCY: Staren has learned how to enchant basic, purpose-driven golems from any material approximating the desired mass and shape. The tutelage was acquired outside his world, and part of his teachings included figuring out how to work within the limits his cybernetics impose. Animation and enchantments may be cast on the fly from prepared sources such as scrolls and stones. (See +info Staren/Golemancy and NPCs for details.)
|Assets=POWER ARMOR: Staren's personal suit of armor grants tireless strength, enhanced endurance, and the use of heavy weapons such as his Mad Morg McGee .44 Annihilator (see Equipment). The suit can take extreme punishment before it fails, thanks mostly to its enhanced personal forcefields, and remains useful underwater, in low gravity, and in vacuum. Forcefields can sustain only a few hits before collapsing and needing to recharge. (PL 30)

CRYSTALS: Magic-powered crystals embedded in his Power Armor and mecha enable Staren to align his forcefields and beam weapons to particular elements like fire or ice. Doing this is neither instantaneous nor reactive, requiring a conscious action on his part. (Functions as +armor swaps.)

CYBERJACK: This dataport on the back of Staren's neck enables on-the-fly connection to many types of computer interfaces, wireless or otherwise. Data networks, databases, and other computer systems may be interacted with in full as if he was seated at a terminal. Security measures may foil his access. The cyberjack aids in remote control of his mecha, automatons, and drones (see NPCs), and can project his consciousness into cyberspace when the technology is accessible. It also functions as his radio.

CORTICAL STACK: A nigh-indestructible cybernetic implant that maintains a real-time snapshot of Staren's brain. If he dies, it can be surgically removed from his remains, and used to restore his mind inside a new body. Copies of his current snapshot are taken on a nightly basis in case he needs to restore from back-up (see flaws). Though this technology may inexplicably fail, so far it's been very reliable.

LABORATORY: Staren's lab is a huge underground facility located beneath his house in the city of Lazlo. It's stocked with most of the common supplies and resources he needs to fuel his various projects, and supports research as well as engineering. The lab is protected with laser and forcedome defenses. He has a separate smaller workshop in Lazlo, and another dedicated to magical research.

BODY DUPLICATES: Staren has several duplicates of his body stored in his laboratory in case his current body is destroyed. These may become conscious if loaded with the data stored in his Cortical Stack. Only one body may be operational at a time; the rest are kept suspended. An additional robotic body is available if needed (see +info Staren/Equipment).

TELEPORTER: One of Staren's personal devices, this teleporter requires exact coordinates and a few uninterrupted seconds to reach any destination up to 1000km away. Safeties prevent materializing into dangerous falls or into objects. May carry light loads of equipment or two or three additional people. His lab contains a one-way teleporter for more significant loads needing to travel distances up to 100x as far. (Consent may be required.)

STAR HAWK: Staren's primary personal mech is the 52-foot-tall S-5 "Star Hawk" Mark W. Equipped with various armaments -- including missiles, beam weapons, and forcefields -- it has additional facility in combat thanks to its free shifting between plane, humanoid, and hybrid modes. May be teleported from the lab or called to Staren's location via remote activation. Though the Star Hawk requires Staren to pilot it in combat, smaller and simpler mecha can be remote-controlled (see NPCs). (PL 32)

EQUIPMENT AND OTHER GEAR: Staren's acquired a large collection of on-world and Multiversal equipment and gadgetry useful in combat and beyond. See +info Staren/Equipment for details.
|NPCs=ABSTRACTUM: Staren has an Abstractum named Eureka who empowers him with a variety of concept-level abilities to enhance his scientific efforts. See the character Abstractum.Net for details.

GOLEMS: Purpose-driven creations animated through magical ritual, Staren's golems are basic in design, and possessing of varied intelligence. Size and appearance may range from "average humanoid" to "towering centipede monster." Golems can be enhanced with simple weapons, natural weapons (like claws), AI-controlled turrets, AI-controlled forcefield projectors, or sensory equipment. They do not operate in regions lacking ambient magic. (See Golemancy and +info for more details. PL up to 28.)

MECHA: Mecha smaller and simpler than the Star Hawk may be remote-controlled as support units on any field. These are equipped with missiles, beam weapons, and minor forcefields, and may transform into humanoid, plane, or hybrid mode. Only a few may be remote-controlled by Staren at any time, and if he's distracted, AI takes over that isn't nearly as responsive and flexible as something under direct control; "go here and shoot that" is only effective to a point. In an emergency, these can be teleported from his lab if his location is in range. (Up to PL 30.)

DRONES: Minor robotic creations programmed to fulfill a variety of basic functions. The most common are hovering camera drones deployed to provide additional situational awareness, or to scout new areas. These can interface with Staren's visual HUD to share their data. Other drone types include insect-sized recon drones, housekeepers, personal assistants, and repair drones capable of making basic repairs. These are never weaponized for a fight, though camera drones do have their advantages in combat. (No PL.)

AUTOMATONS: Spider-like by design, these acid-spitting mechanical automatons make up the majority of Staren's self-defense forces. Most keep to his lab in order to protect its contents, but multiple units can be deployed by the lab's teleporter to in-range locations so as to provide combat support in the field. Their AI is simple and coded mostly for recognizing friend from foe. (PL 24 - 26)
|Disadvantages=SOCIALLY AWKWARD: Staren has difficulty picking up on social cues and the feelings of others. He doesn't always recognize when a given social interaction is escalating into conflict. His tendency to ask too many questions can be irritating. These traits together make it very hard for him to establish lasting friendships, and for his allies to trust him with certain responsibilities. Past miscommunications and arguments have made it equally hard for Staren to be open and honest around his allies in turn.

PRINCIPLED: In addition to his overall awkwardness, Staren possesses staunch principles regarding transhumanism, death, and the need to discover the science behind every Multiversal phenomenon he encounters. These core beliefs may distract him from more important objectives, or lead him on time-wasting tangents that others find hard to follow.

SKEPTIC: Though he once believed in the general goodness of others, Staren has become a harsh skeptic. He's learned that it's not easy to redeem villains, and that he's rarely suited to the task; swift action is often the better solution compared to diplomacy. He's still capable of compassion, but he needs to be reminded of its importance by those who are closest to him. His skepticism also manifests as what others may perceive as an insulting disdain for religions, religious figures, and the capabilities of deities.

S.D.C. CREATURE: Caught outside his Power Armor or mecha, Staren is pretty average. He possesses no special traits that would improve his survival in a fight, aside from his nanotechnology and various equipment -- but that doesn't offer much! In other words, he's an easy, squishy target for his enemies. (PL 22 outside Power Armor/Star Hawk/Robot Body.)

ELUDES DEATH, BUT...: Staren is protected from an absolute death thanks to his Cortical Stack, but if his chip can't be recovered by his allies from the site of his demise, he'll have to recover from his nightly back-up instead, leading to the loss of any data, experiences, and memories accrued between the time of back-up and the time of death. Awakening in a new body can risk psychological trauma, too, and imparts several mental and physical penalties that usually wear off within a few days -- if he can awaken at all. There may come a time when his solution to mortality just...fails.

NANOTECHNOLOGY FLAWS: Nanotechnology is not compatible with all aspects of the Multiverse. It may have difficulty working with exotic materials, may be unable to fabricate certain objects even with blueprints, and healing vats and the like (see Equipment) may be unable to help someone, depending on their physiology. Nanotechnology is also susceptible to electronic interference, hacking, and other forms of outside technological manipulation.}}

==History==
Born in 93 PA (equivalent to 0 AU) to a dimensional traveler from 20th century Earth and a shapeshifting alien who abandoned her people's magical traditions to study science, Staren was raised in the Free City of Lazlo, city where humans and nonhumans of all kinds live in harmony as long as they can tolerate eachother, a bastion of knowledge, hope, and freedom in post-apocalyptic RIFTS Earth. In those early years, the family traveled often — before Unification, Staren's father would take them to other dimensions and to see his grandparents on the baseline Earth he'd originally come from. With access to myriad worlds, they were able to find cybernetics that were compatible with supernatural physiology and so Staren was enhanced, given the edge of a built-in computer that his parents would have loved to have.

Though little Staren inherited great intelligence, he grew up a loner, not by choice but due to great social awkwardness. His constant companions were stories, games, and academic knowledge. Stories told of simplified people, with well-explained motives and feelings he could follow and understand. Stories told of clear-cut villains and bright shining heroes, and he idealized the latter, taking to heart the tropes of good and its contrast to evil. The physical world and the world of numbers followed well-explained rules with definite truths and right answers, and he soaked up knowledge of math and science like a sponge. Games presented worlds following well-defined rules and used them to /tell/ stories, letting him use his mastery of such systems to feel like a hero, and would in time lead to actual piloting simulations.

After a few years of schooling led to misery due to altercations with the other children, Staren's father pulled him out of the system and homeschooled him — as a retired adventurer and part-time mechanic, he had ample resources to live in comfort with the necessary free time. Staren's academic talents proved that of a prodigy as learned as an expert decades his elder, and he developed a special interest in computers and automation. In time, this combined with his interests in simulated mecha piloting to lead to a focus on combat robotics, but Staren was poor at innovation. In addition, he was a certain kind of lazy — his father's resources, including a large 'laboratory' complex below the house (for the most part, a large storage area equipped with repair and assembly drones, computers, rooms for experiments, and compact fusion reactors) — allowed him to adapt to little physical work — in time, more and more of his improvements were implemented by drone rather than his own hands. Though he could repair machines to work better than they had before, and made improvements to the VF-1 Valkyrie design his father had obtained in another world, he was stumped when it came to developing something wholly new. Science and engineering followed steps — but what steps do you follow to 'invent something new'?

So the young boy's genius produced little. He took some classes with the Lazlo Defense Force, and to support his interest of heroically defending the city, his father trained him in Valkyrie piloting and, in perhaps Staren's greatest true 'invention' at the time, Staren developed new control software to interface between his headware and the robot, allowing him to control it as naturally as his own body. The resulting skill was undeniable, and before even reaching his mid-teens he was accepted as an LDF reserve member — although due to his specialty of mecha piloting, he was never called to work in the city, instead being sent to help fight monsters threatening the farms in the vicinity of Lazlo.

Some years after RIFTS Earth unified, Staren learned of the new multiverse and this great organization of heroes, the Union, that would even accept the help of underage allies like himself. And perhaps there, he would find friends he could relate to, rather than 'normal' teenagers and adults who just didn't get it. At the age of 14 in early 14 AU, He joined up and began meeting new people, some he could even feel friendly around, although at times his social awkwardness and belief that magically returning the dead to life was a good idea put people off. He hit it off well with his fellow mecha pilots in the Wings of Nemesis, and became a member of the Union's first-response mecha strike force.

The multiverse offered much to learn. Staren was aware of the basics of magic, of course, but had never gotten around to further study. He decided to change that, studying potion-brewing under the dragon Damien and golemancy under the great mage Iianor.

At last, in the Multiverse, Staren had friends. Maybe not really close friends, but people he could spend time with and talk to without annoying on a regular basis. He was even able to find someone who wasn't just friendly, but actually seemed to understand him: Morg McGee, undead 'mad' scientist. The mad genius even agreed with his views on raising the dead and had ways to do it! At last, he had someone besides his parents who he could talk to about anything and know he would be understood.

The Multiverse was a world of possibility, full of potential friends, something the lonely boy had been without all his life.

That changed with the death of his commander, Julian. The idea of reviving his fellow hero stuck in his mind, although the Union ordered him not to. He and Morg tried to communicate with Julian's spirit, as they believed only Julian himself should have final say over his own resurrection. Their fellow elites treated this as some sort of disgrace to Julian's memory, even while they themselves rejoiced at random static as some sort of communication from the dead. This behavior would drive a wedge between Staren and the Union that would shake his trust in the Union for years. Julian turning out to still be alive was a good thing, but no comfort on this matter.

Further misunderstanding worsened the rift between Staren and the Union, proving his fears justified again and again. In an attempt to be better understood and be helpful, he often spoke his train of thought out loud — thoughts and ideas that others, perhaps, thought his mention indicated serious intention to pursue them. Every misunderstanding reinforced the idea that the Union mistrusted his ways of thinking, and that it was only a matter of time before he crossed a line and was declared an outlaw. He sought to prove himself useful, but any praise and acceptance he recieved was not as loud as the voices condemning him.

Sure, he had a few 'friends', but aside from Morg, could he trust any of them to remain so if they ever comprehended what he really thought? Were they only friends because they hadn't heard him say the wrong thing yet? Of course, he couldn't ask them that, for in doing so he would probably turn them against him.

At last, Staren met another kindred spirit in the ex-Confederate Rewire. Taken in by his life story of only wanting to fix things and only joining the confederacy to rescue his friend Taro from the clutches of SHODAN, and finding a friend who did not reject his thoughts, they became fast friends. Or at least, Staren thought of it that way — in truth, the cold and calculating AI simply found him a useful ally for its plans. But Rewire had a problem — The Confederacy had damaged him, and he was going to go rampant. This seemingly unavoidable, Rewire sought to leave behind a legacy and to have friends prepared to destroy him when he finally lost it. Staren accepted this tragic duty, but preferred not to think about it. For now, he had a friend — and things had a way of working out in the multiverse. Good always prevailed, right?

Rewire's preparations for a legacy and lack of social understanding won him few friends and many enemies on both sides. This only further reinforced Staren's split with his supposed 'allies', although Optimus Prime won his eternal respect for offering to work together with Rewire, even though Rewire refused the given terms. Unfortunately, time was running out. Rewire began to go rampant. Staren developed weapons to kill his friend, but hoped there would yet be another way.

But things did not always end in happy endings in the multiverse. Another friend of Staren's, not as kindred a spirit as Morg or Rewire but at least someone he could spend time with, found that an earlier version of her own world had unified — one where her father had not yet perished. Staren made it a personal mission to save him. Investigation with his futuristic technology discovered that the man worked in the organized crime department of the police, and as the day of death approached, his original fate became clear. On the day, Staren hired a team of mercenaries and personally intervened — only for a Confederate to show up, mortally wound the man, and leave him in a coma for the rest of his days. Sometimes, there were no heroes. Sometimes there was only Staren, and without far, far more power than he currently had, he would not be enough.

Staren would not be enough to save Rewire, either. Post-rampancy, Rewire renamed himself Wireless and hatched a scheme to 'fix' everyone in the multiverse by uploading their brains to a simulation where he could /make/ them happy. Furthermore, the process was faulty, only capturing part of the subject's mind — and not enough to capture their soul. Wireless's attempt to save people was an act of mass murder that would have been mass mind control even if it had worked. Talks with Wireless revealed that his rampancy had made him lose all comprehension of the importance of right and wrong.

Staren helped kill his friend with weapons he developed.

Staren could not help friends. He could not help one of his /best/ friends. The war was endless and meaningless, and as far as Staren knew his 'allies' could turn on him at any moment. Not even bothering to officially resign, Staren alternated between spending time in Lazlo and exploring the far reaches of the local Sector.

Occasionally, Staren still listened to the Multiversal radio frequencies. They were sometimes entertaining, but sooner or later he was always reminded of the Union's attitude toward him. He found some understanding, at least, in the Thousand Dreamers. Friendly Dreamers were willing to listen and offer help, although none could turn Staren's situation around. Untamed Breeze heard him out and came to understand what he meant with his strangely-worded philosophies and ideas, at least.

In late AU19, Staren heard a voice on the radio that not only was not angered at his manner of speech and thought, but seemed to intuitively grasp what he was saying without reading for messages that weren't there, and who spoke honestly and frankly to him in turn. This was the voice of Twilight Sparkle, and seeking another friend that could actually understand him, who he didn't have to worry about accidentally offending or misunderstanding, Staren made increasingly frequent visits to Equestria. Friendly Dreamer Mortimer Balman had retired there, so Twilight wasn't the only friendly face.

In fact, almost all of the ponies of Ponyville seemed friendly. Staren had become an asocial shut-in in his own world — his mechanical and piloting skill were valued, but he earned few friends. And now, Staren was at last learning to avoid hot-button topics when talking to people. Combined with the Ponyvillians' naturally helpful and friendly disposition, the net effect was that the ponies were the first large group of people Staren met without pissing them off. This far outweighed the inconvenience of hooves and the low technology level, and Staren wanted to fit in and, somehow, to return this kindness to the first place that so warmly welcomed him.

He got his chance when Discord, incarnation of chaos, turned Equestria upside down (sometimes literally). His talents were ill-suited to sealing seemingly-invincible reality-warping beings, however — the most he could do was help prevent Discord from acquiring resources from the rest of the Multiverse. Only to see his knowledge and ethics prove useless to protect his new friend — cursed by Discord to believe her friends (in truth also cursed to behave against their natures) had turned against her her, Staren could do nothing to stop one of his most treasured friends from being forced to live the worst nightmare that had haunted him for so many years. Heroism had failed again, Staren had failed again, and completely and utterly heartbroken, turned away from the world.

But only a week later, he learned that Twilight and her friends, had been freed. Staren returned to the fight against Discord, but could only slow and delay the draconequus until the local heroes could reseal him. But this time, there /were/ heroes, and the day was saved.

Before Equestria could recover, the entire multiverse came under attack. Confederate Emperor Viridian Sunrise had done what he could not — unlocked the secrets of the multiverse and used its power to enact his own vision of the future, with power even the Union could not fight. Heroes volunteered for a suicide mission — Staren stayed behind, convinced there /had/ to be some sort of better, smarter plan.

Staren failed to innovate again. The corpses of longtime friends turned up, and he at last confronted the true meaning of death — He would never see them again. The model of the future in his head had to change to not include them. Shaken, he swore never to let this happen again — although it might well be academic if the Emperor was not stopped.

The corpses turned out to be a ploy — the elites on the suicide mission returned alive, the Emperor slain. The heroes /had/ triumphed after all, this time. Staren was relieved, but did not forget his promise. He planned to look for clues in the pieces of technology Wireless had left behind — he would restore the brain uploader, fix its faults, and in so doing unlock a way to conquer death.

Then a new world unified where brain uploading was commonplace and death, true death, was a scarce and horrifying thing rather than just another part of everyone's life. In fact, in this world immortality was seen as a basic right, and one of its denizens happily offered the gift to the Union. A completed, successful device was clearly superior to incomplete Wiretech, and Staren set to studying it, analyzing it to learn how it worked, making sure there was not a catch, no secret mind control programming hidden deep inside. Staren and his parents got their backups as soon as he was sure it was safe, began growing clones, and so claimed a form of limited immortality — Not perfect, not foolproof, but far better than nothing.

No others would accept this gift. One day, people would die again, for real. And he was still powerless to stop it.

But now, there were things he /could/ stop. Earth-1960 was infested with zombies, and a megalomaniacal AI was cloning mercenaries to take over the world's economy. And while helping put a stop to that, he learned of the plight of the gamers trapped in Sword Art Online. There, too, he could help.

Slowly, Staren was drawn out into the Multiverse again. There would not always be heroes, and he would continue to prepare for the day they failed to arrive, but in the meantime he would help them when they did.

And a few days before Christmas of 20 AU, everything changed. Psyber, Kimiko, and Himei, Unionites Staren had had occasional contact with but not really those he would have called friends, came forward to tell him that the Union did /not/ see him as a barely-this-side-of-ethical madman who would go too far any day now. The ones who had given Staren that impression were merely a particularly loud and vocal minority.

It was a Christmas present even he would never have dreamed of daring to ask for.

Though it was merely his perceptions that had changed, Staren found himself in a bright new Multiverse! It would take time to truly trust his allies again, but he didn't need to fear them so.

Things were looking up in 21 AU. Staren had immortality, he had the respect of his peers, he even had a girlfriend. He was helping others, and began to find phenomena in the multiverse that rewarded scientific exploration like the punchcard alchemy of Sburb. Halfway through the year, he decided to study the mysterious Abstractum and in so doing netted himself Eureka, the genre-shifting gauntlet of SCIENCE. Abstractum would prove a field highly responsive to scientific investigation, and between Eureka, Morg's divine inspiration for the construction of impossible devices (Staren's old friend had ascended to godhood many years prior), the nanotechnology that granted his immortality, and his wide assortment of other technology and magic gathered from across the worlds, Staren's confidence began to grow, confidence that he at last had the power to be a hero that could save the day when all other hope was lost.

Eldritch monstrosities from outside of reality coming to end the Multiverse? Yeah, we got this.

That all changed with the coming of the third month of 22 AU. Amongst the looming threat of the Abstractums' enemies, going back in time to finish a closed time loop, and the kidnapping of one of Staren's allies to turn her into a war machine, the dimensional rift over Ravnica, and the cosmic horrors that came out of it, had seemed like just one more crisis that would be dealt with handily in time.

And then Niv-Mizzet sacrificed his Planeswalker's Spark and disappeared through the rift, closing it behind him, never to return from the all-consuming Aether and almost certain doom.

And Staren could not save him.

Once again, tragedy occurred with no hero to step in and stop it. Nothing Staren could do would make it better, and the claims and excuses that 'there was nothing you could do' rung hollow in his ears, for such words would not return Niv-Mizzet to his friends and loved ones, and they would not stop the /next/ tragedy, whatever it would be.

Staren was not the hero that steps in and makes the world right when all hope is lost.

Not yet.

He still needed more power...

After that, Staren had been part of more successes than failures. He'd helped save worlds, and when called for (and perhaps also when not called for) had brought extreme force of arms to bear, even spending a week as a sleepless robot hunting the clones of the Slaughterhouse Nine, and constructing a protoabstractum superweapon so powerful it blew a wing off the Dragon of Calamity, a being of legendary and godlike power.

But after having allies mistake his brutal methods for bloodlust, and seeing a reminder that sometimes, talking ''can'' end conflicts and spare lives, Staren began to wonder if there was another path...

In late 24 AU, the Multiverse reshaped itself and the Union and Confederacy fell. With the endless war finally over, Staren could focus on improving the Multiverse rather than endless fighting. He joined the League of Progress, and later the Concord, finding their approach to the Multiverse suited him better than the Union ever did -- letting Elites turn their full abilities and resources towards improving the world, without hamstringing them by insisting on upholding the status quo. At long last, he's found a place in the Multiverse.

Now to solve its infinite problems...


[[Category:Daedalus Initiative]]
[[Category:Users.net]]
[[Category:Session 613]]
[[Category:Syndicate Network]]
[[Category:Gatecrashers Union]]
[[Category:Thousand Dreams]]
[[Category:M.E.T.A.L]]
[[Category:XCOM]]
[[Category:Die Reisende]]

Staren

2018-01-08T08:40:40Z

Staren: Long-overdue update.

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Staren
|Color=#FF4C4C
|Char_id=42
|Img=
|FullName=Staren
|Gender=Male
|Species=Catboy (Human/Shapeshifter Hybrid)
|Theme=RIFTS-1
|Chartype=OC
|Function=SCIENCE!, Mecha Piloting
|Faction=Concord
|Rank=Gifted
|Ranktype=Bright
|Groups=Daedalus Initiative, Gatecrashers Union, Die Reisende
|Quote="How does THAT work? I wonder if I can study it…"
|PAge=Mid 20s
|AAge=25
|Aging=Yes
|Height=5'8" / 173cm
|Weight=185 lbs / 84kg
|Hair=Brown
|Eyes=Blue
|Voice=
|Song=Plum Creek Rhythm Section - A Light, an Answer[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRew-b78ZFg]
|Profile=Staren is a prodigy engineer and pilot from the magitech city of Lazlo. He has the advanced computer and robotics knowledge of an expert decades his senior, and has now branched out into studying multiversal phenomena. Believing any problem can be overcome with sufficient application of knowledge and ingenuity, the young man dreams of a better future for all. Armed with tools of magic and technology to fight, he has survived over a decade in the Multiverse through care and preparedness belied by a tendency to speak before he thinks. Once naive about the world due to only learning from books, he's now seen the great wonders and horrors and /weirdness/ of the Multiverse and become somewhat jaded, though he is still anxious as ever to learn how it all works. However, the nuances of social interaction remain more mysterious to him than those of physics or magic, and this makes it difficult for him to form close bonds. To help his friends, though, he would move the Multiverse itself if he could find a way -- and his willingness to consider such extreme actions is one of the very things that tends to push others away. In the wake of the Union and Confederacy's fall, Staren is hopeful that there is plenty of good he can do in the Multiverse other than endless fighting...
|Powers=CYBERNETICS: Staren's body is improved by various cybernetics, including an advanced visual HUD, sensory enhancements, cyberjack (see assets), thought-controlled tool wristbands, and data storage designed to record and retain his every interaction. The computer components wired into his brain also store a vast library of useful programs useful for his day-to-day operations. All have been modified and enchanted to work alongside his shapeshifting.

MAGIC: Staren's cybernetics prevent his drawing on any external magic sources such as ley lines, but he still possesses enough minor, innate power to grant him a basic understanding of how magic functions in his world and beyond. He can recognize magic at work, even if he can't replicate it himself. His personal magical ability manifests primarily in his unique shapeshifting, and in the crystals he utilizes to elementally-align his personal forcefields and energy weapons (see assets).

DATAMANCY: Magic and technology are two very different forces in Staren's world, but he's found some ways of marrying the two disciplines. He can't cast spells, but he can design some programs allowing technological control of magical creations. This is how he remote controls his golems.

MINOR SHAPESHIFTER: Staren inherited some of his mother's talent for shapeshifting. He has three forms -- his normal cat-boy form, a human girl resembling his mother, and a housecat. He can change his hair and fur color, but seldom bothers. Oddly, his cybernetics do not interfere with this gift.

NANOTECHNOLOGY: Staren has adapted advanced nanotechnology from other worlds to his own purposes. His machines can create objects, speed healing of minor injuries, and flush out mundane poisons and illnesses. They're also responsible for the maintenance and function of his Cortical Stack, and for improving his overall physicality to peak levels. Fabrication -- a process that may take days to complete -- requires compatible blueprints, raw materials, and is limited to producing nothing larger than the average desk. Fabricated components up to this size may be assembled into larger finished products, such as mecha. (See related +flaws.)

DIVINE INSPIRATION: Staren's long-time best friend, Morg McGee, is a minor deity of madness and inspiration. While Staren typically refuses to accord deities any more respect than mortals, for some reason his faith in his friendship with Morg has given him a certain mental fortitude and flexibility he might not otherwise possess, enabling him to pursue solutions -- often bizarre or extreme -- in the face of even the most hopeless odds.
|Skills=TECHNOLOGICAL GENIUS: Staren has vast scientific and engineering knowledge, and absorbs new information like a sponge. He's adept at applying known practices to new situations, leading to swifter learning, mastery, and application of various unfamiliar technological subjects and skills. He's an excellent hacker, programmer, and engineer, capable of creating the kinds of basic AIs that operate his drones and mecha (see NPCs). He can repair and reverse engineer foreign technology if there is an existing base of familiarity, such as a teleporter similar in design to the type he uses. Magic remains a difficult subject for him, but he is confident in handling technology enhanced by magical properties and power sources, and has successfully applied his methodology for technology to the creation of his golems and potions, and to the learning of skill-based magics like potioncraft. (Consent may be required for reverse engineering.)

POTIONCRAFT: Basic alchemical formulas can equip Staren to mimic magical effects. Given a few days and the right ingredients, he can brew draughts equivalent to basic spells. (See +info Staren/Potions for details.)

GOLEMANCY: Staren has learned how to enchant basic, purpose-driven golems from any material approximating the desired mass and shape. The tutelage was acquired outside his world, and part of his teachings included figuring out how to work within the limits his cybernetics impose. Animation and enchantments may be cast on the fly from prepared sources such as scrolls and stones. (See +info Staren/Golemancy and NPCs for details.)
|Assets=POWER ARMOR: Staren's personal suit of armor grants tireless strength, enhanced endurance, and the use of heavy weapons such as his Mad Morg McGee .44 Annihilator (see Equipment). The suit can take extreme punishment before it fails, thanks mostly to its enhanced personal forcefields, and remains useful underwater, in low gravity, and in vacuum. Forcefields can sustain only a few hits before collapsing and needing to recharge. (PL 30)

CRYSTALS: Magic-powered crystals embedded in his Power Armor and mecha enable Staren to align his forcefields and beam weapons to particular elements like fire or ice. Doing this is neither instantaneous nor reactive, requiring a conscious action on his part. (Functions as +armor swaps.)

CYBERJACK: This dataport on the back of Staren's neck enables on-the-fly connection to many types of computer interfaces, wireless or otherwise. Data networks, databases, and other computer systems may be interacted with in full as if he was seated at a terminal. Security measures may foil his access. The cyberjack aids in remote control of his mecha, automatons, and drones (see NPCs), and can project his consciousness into cyberspace when the technology is accessible. It also functions as his radio.

CORTICAL STACK: A nigh-indestructible cybernetic implant that maintains a real-time snapshot of Staren's brain. If he dies, it can be surgically removed from his remains, and used to restore his mind inside a new body. Copies of his current snapshot are taken on a nightly basis in case he needs to restore from back-up (see flaws). Though this technology may inexplicably fail, so far it's been very reliable.

LABORATORY: Staren's lab is a huge underground facility located beneath his house in the city of Lazlo. It's stocked with most of the common supplies and resources he needs to fuel his various projects, and supports research as well as engineering. The lab is protected with laser and forcedome defenses. He has a separate smaller workshop in Lazlo, and another dedicated to magical research.

BODY DUPLICATES: Staren has several duplicates of his body stored in his laboratory in case his current body is destroyed. These may become conscious if loaded with the data stored in his Cortical Stack. Only one body may be operational at a time; the rest are kept suspended. An additional robotic body is available if needed (see +info Staren/Equipment).

TELEPORTER: One of Staren's personal devices, this teleporter requires exact coordinates and a few uninterrupted seconds to reach any destination up to 1000km away. Safeties prevent materializing into dangerous falls or into objects. May carry light loads of equipment or two or three additional people. His lab contains a one-way teleporter for more significant loads needing to travel distances up to 100x as far. (Consent may be required.)

STAR HAWK: Staren's primary personal mech is the 52-foot-tall S-5 "Star Hawk" Mark W. Equipped with various armaments -- including missiles, beam weapons, and forcefields -- it has additional facility in combat thanks to its free shifting between plane, humanoid, and hybrid modes. May be teleported from the lab or called to Staren's location via remote activation. Though the Star Hawk requires Staren to pilot it in combat, smaller and simpler mecha can be remote-controlled (see NPCs). (PL 32)

EQUIPMENT AND OTHER GEAR: Staren's acquired a large collection of on-world and Multiversal equipment and gadgetry useful in combat and beyond. See +info Staren/Equipment for details.
|NPCs=ABSTRACTUM: Staren has an Abstractum named Eureka who empowers him with a variety of concept-level abilities to enhance his scientific efforts. See the character Abstractum.Net for details.

GOLEMS: Purpose-driven creations animated through magical ritual, Staren's golems are basic in design, and possessing of varied intelligence. Size and appearance may range from "average humanoid" to "towering centipede monster." Golems can be enhanced with simple weapons, natural weapons (like claws), AI-controlled turrets, AI-controlled forcefield projectors, or sensory equipment. They do not operate in regions lacking ambient magic. (See Golemancy and +info for more details. PL up to 28.)

MECHA: Mecha smaller and simpler than the Star Hawk may be remote-controlled as support units on any field. These are equipped with missiles, beam weapons, and minor forcefields, and may transform into humanoid, plane, or hybrid mode. Only a few may be remote-controlled by Staren at any time, and if he's distracted, AI takes over that isn't nearly as responsive and flexible as something under direct control; "go here and shoot that" is only effective to a point. In an emergency, these can be teleported from his lab if his location is in range. (Up to PL 30.)

DRONES: Minor robotic creations programmed to fulfill a variety of basic functions. The most common are hovering camera drones deployed to provide additional situational awareness, or to scout new areas. These can interface with Staren's visual HUD to share their data. Other drone types include insect-sized recon drones, housekeepers, personal assistants, and repair drones capable of making basic repairs. These are never weaponized for a fight, though camera drones do have their advantages in combat. (No PL.)

AUTOMATONS: Spider-like by design, these acid-spitting mechanical automatons make up the majority of Staren's self-defense forces. Most keep to his lab in order to protect its contents, but multiple units can be deployed by the lab's teleporter to in-range locations so as to provide combat support in the field. Their AI is simple and coded mostly for recognizing friend from foe. (PL 24 - 26)
|Disadvantages=SOCIALLY AWKWARD: Staren has difficulty picking up on social cues and the feelings of others. He doesn't always recognize when a given social interaction is escalating into conflict. His tendency to ask too many questions can be irritating. These traits together make it very hard for him to establish lasting friendships, and for his allies to trust him with certain responsibilities. Past miscommunications and arguments have made it equally hard for Staren to be open and honest around his allies in turn.

PRINCIPLED: In addition to his overall awkwardness, Staren possesses staunch principles regarding transhumanism, death, and the need to discover the science behind every Multiversal phenomenon he encounters. These core beliefs may distract him from more important objectives, or lead him on time-wasting tangents that others find hard to follow.

SKEPTIC: Though he once believed in the general goodness of others, Staren has become a harsh skeptic. He's learned that it's not easy to redeem villains, and that he's rarely suited to the task; swift action is often the better solution compared to diplomacy. He's still capable of compassion, but he needs to be reminded of its importance by those who are closest to him. His skepticism also manifests as what others may perceive as an insulting disdain for religions, religious figures, and the capabilities of deities.

S.D.C. CREATURE: Caught outside his Power Armor or mecha, Staren is pretty average. He possesses no special traits that would improve his survival in a fight, aside from his nanotechnology and various equipment -- but that doesn't offer much! In other words, he's an easy, squishy target for his enemies. (PL 22 outside Power Armor/Star Hawk/Robot Body.)

ELUDES DEATH, BUT...: Staren is protected from an absolute death thanks to his Cortical Stack, but if his chip can't be recovered by his allies from the site of his demise, he'll have to recover from his nightly back-up instead, leading to the loss of any data, experiences, and memories accrued between the time of back-up and the time of death. Awakening in a new body can risk psychological trauma, too, and imparts several mental and physical penalties that usually wear off within a few days -- if he can awaken at all. There may come a time when his solution to mortality just...fails.

NANOTECHNOLOGY FLAWS: Nanotechnology is not compatible with all aspects of the Multiverse. It may have difficulty working with exotic materials, may be unable to fabricate certain objects even with blueprints, and healing vats and the like (see Equipment) may be unable to help someone, depending on their physiology. Nanotechnology is also susceptible to electronic interference, hacking, and other forms of outside technological manipulation.}}

==History==
Born in 93 PA (equivalent to 0 AU) to a dimensional traveler from 20th century Earth and a shapeshifting alien who abandoned her people's magical traditions to study science, Staren was raised in the Free City of Lazlo, city where humans and nonhumans of all kinds live in harmony as long as they can tolerate eachother, a bastion of knowledge, hope, and freedom in post-apocalyptic RIFTS Earth. In those early years, the family traveled often — before Unification, Staren's father would take them to other dimensions and to see his grandparents on the baseline Earth he'd originally come from. With access to myriad worlds, they were able to find cybernetics that were compatible with supernatural physiology and so Staren was enhanced, given the edge of a built-in computer that his parents would have loved to have.

Though little Staren inherited great intelligence, he grew up a loner, not by choice but due to great social awkwardness. His constant companions were stories, games, and academic knowledge. Stories told of simplified people, with well-explained motives and feelings he could follow and understand. Stories told of clear-cut villains and bright shining heroes, and he idealized the latter, taking to heart the tropes of good and its contrast to evil. The physical world and the world of numbers followed well-explained rules with definite truths and right answers, and he soaked up knowledge of math and science like a sponge. Games presented worlds following well-defined rules and used them to /tell/ stories, letting him use his mastery of such systems to feel like a hero, and would in time lead to actual piloting simulations.

After a few years of schooling led to misery due to altercations with the other children, Staren's father pulled him out of the system and homeschooled him — as a retired adventurer and part-time mechanic, he had ample resources to live in comfort with the necessary free time. Staren's academic talents proved that of a prodigy as learned as an expert decades his elder, and he developed a special interest in computers and automation. In time, this combined with his interests in simulated mecha piloting to lead to a focus on combat robotics, but Staren was poor at innovation. In addition, he was a certain kind of lazy — his father's resources, including a large 'laboratory' complex below the house (for the most part, a large storage area equipped with repair and assembly drones, computers, rooms for experiments, and compact fusion reactors) — allowed him to adapt to little physical work — in time, more and more of his improvements were implemented by drone rather than his own hands. Though he could repair machines to work better than they had before, and made improvements to the VF-1 Valkyrie design his father had obtained in another world, he was stumped when it came to developing something wholly new. Science and engineering followed steps — but what steps do you follow to 'invent something new'?

So the young boy's genius produced little. He took some classes with the Lazlo Defense Force, and to support his interest of heroically defending the city, his father trained him in Valkyrie piloting and, in perhaps Staren's greatest true 'invention' at the time, Staren developed new control software to interface between his headware and the robot, allowing him to control it as naturally as his own body. The resulting skill was undeniable, and before even reaching his mid-teens he was accepted as an LDF reserve member — although due to his specialty of mecha piloting, he was never called to work in the city, instead being sent to help fight monsters threatening the farms in the vicinity of Lazlo.

Some years after RIFTS Earth unified, Staren learned of the new multiverse and this great organization of heroes, the Union, that would even accept the help of underage allies like himself. And perhaps there, he would find friends he could relate to, rather than 'normal' teenagers and adults who just didn't get it. At the age of 14 in early 14 AU, He joined up and began meeting new people, some he could even feel friendly around, although at times his social awkwardness and belief that magically returning the dead to life was a good idea put people off. He hit it off well with his fellow mecha pilots in the Wings of Nemesis, and became a member of the Union's first-response mecha strike force.

The multiverse offered much to learn. Staren was aware of the basics of magic, of course, but had never gotten around to further study. He decided to change that, studying potion-brewing under the dragon Damien and golemancy under the great mage Iianor.

At last, in the Multiverse, Staren had friends. Maybe not really close friends, but people he could spend time with and talk to without annoying on a regular basis. He was even able to find someone who wasn't just friendly, but actually seemed to understand him: Morg McGee, undead 'mad' scientist. The mad genius even agreed with his views on raising the dead and had ways to do it! At last, he had someone besides his parents who he could talk to about anything and know he would be understood.

The Multiverse was a world of possibility, full of potential friends, something the lonely boy had been without all his life.

That changed with the death of his commander, Julian. The idea of reviving his fellow hero stuck in his mind, although the Union ordered him not to. He and Morg tried to communicate with Julian's spirit, as they believed only Julian himself should have final say over his own resurrection. Their fellow elites treated this as some sort of disgrace to Julian's memory, even while they themselves rejoiced at random static as some sort of communication from the dead. This behavior would drive a wedge between Staren and the Union that would shake his trust in the Union for years. Julian turning out to still be alive was a good thing, but no comfort on this matter.

Further misunderstanding worsened the rift between Staren and the Union, proving his fears justified again and again. In an attempt to be better understood and be helpful, he often spoke his train of thought out loud — thoughts and ideas that others, perhaps, thought his mention indicated serious intention to pursue them. Every misunderstanding reinforced the idea that the Union mistrusted his ways of thinking, and that it was only a matter of time before he crossed a line and was declared an outlaw. He sought to prove himself useful, but any praise and acceptance he recieved was not as loud as the voices condemning him.

Sure, he had a few 'friends', but aside from Morg, could he trust any of them to remain so if they ever comprehended what he really thought? Were they only friends because they hadn't heard him say the wrong thing yet? Of course, he couldn't ask them that, for in doing so he would probably turn them against him.

At last, Staren met another kindred spirit in the ex-Confederate Rewire. Taken in by his life story of only wanting to fix things and only joining the confederacy to rescue his friend Taro from the clutches of SHODAN, and finding a friend who did not reject his thoughts, they became fast friends. Or at least, Staren thought of it that way — in truth, the cold and calculating AI simply found him a useful ally for its plans. But Rewire had a problem — The Confederacy had damaged him, and he was going to go rampant. This seemingly unavoidable, Rewire sought to leave behind a legacy and to have friends prepared to destroy him when he finally lost it. Staren accepted this tragic duty, but preferred not to think about it. For now, he had a friend — and things had a way of working out in the multiverse. Good always prevailed, right?

Rewire's preparations for a legacy and lack of social understanding won him few friends and many enemies on both sides. This only further reinforced Staren's split with his supposed 'allies', although Optimus Prime won his eternal respect for offering to work together with Rewire, even though Rewire refused the given terms. Unfortunately, time was running out. Rewire began to go rampant. Staren developed weapons to kill his friend, but hoped there would yet be another way.

But things did not always end in happy endings in the multiverse. Another friend of Staren's, not as kindred a spirit as Morg or Rewire but at least someone he could spend time with, found that an earlier version of her own world had unified — one where her father had not yet perished. Staren made it a personal mission to save him. Investigation with his futuristic technology discovered that the man worked in the organized crime department of the police, and as the day of death approached, his original fate became clear. On the day, Staren hired a team of mercenaries and personally intervened — only for a Confederate to show up, mortally wound the man, and leave him in a coma for the rest of his days. Sometimes, there were no heroes. Sometimes there was only Staren, and without far, far more power than he currently had, he would not be enough.

Staren would not be enough to save Rewire, either. Post-rampancy, Rewire renamed himself Wireless and hatched a scheme to 'fix' everyone in the multiverse by uploading their brains to a simulation where he could /make/ them happy. Furthermore, the process was faulty, only capturing part of the subject's mind — and not enough to capture their soul. Wireless's attempt to save people was an act of mass murder that would have been mass mind control even if it had worked. Talks with Wireless revealed that his rampancy had made him lose all comprehension of the importance of right and wrong.

Staren helped kill his friend with weapons he developed.

Staren could not help friends. He could not help one of his /best/ friends. The war was endless and meaningless, and as far as Staren knew his 'allies' could turn on him at any moment. Not even bothering to officially resign, Staren alternated between spending time in Lazlo and exploring the far reaches of the local Sector.

Occasionally, Staren still listened to the Multiversal radio frequencies. They were sometimes entertaining, but sooner or later he was always reminded of the Union's attitude toward him. He found some understanding, at least, in the Thousand Dreamers. Friendly Dreamers were willing to listen and offer help, although none could turn Staren's situation around. Untamed Breeze heard him out and came to understand what he meant with his strangely-worded philosophies and ideas, at least.

In late AU19, Staren heard a voice on the radio that not only was not angered at his manner of speech and thought, but seemed to intuitively grasp what he was saying without reading for messages that weren't there, and who spoke honestly and frankly to him in turn. This was the voice of Twilight Sparkle, and seeking another friend that could actually understand him, who he didn't have to worry about accidentally offending or misunderstanding, Staren made increasingly frequent visits to Equestria. Friendly Dreamer Mortimer Balman had retired there, so Twilight wasn't the only friendly face.

In fact, almost all of the ponies of Ponyville seemed friendly. Staren had become an asocial shut-in in his own world — his mechanical and piloting skill were valued, but he earned few friends. And now, Staren was at last learning to avoid hot-button topics when talking to people. Combined with the Ponyvillians' naturally helpful and friendly disposition, the net effect was that the ponies were the first large group of people Staren met without pissing them off. This far outweighed the inconvenience of hooves and the low technology level, and Staren wanted to fit in and, somehow, to return this kindness to the first place that so warmly welcomed him.

He got his chance when Discord, incarnation of chaos, turned Equestria upside down (sometimes literally). His talents were ill-suited to sealing seemingly-invincible reality-warping beings, however — the most he could do was help prevent Discord from acquiring resources from the rest of the Multiverse. Only to see his knowledge and ethics prove useless to protect his new friend — cursed by Discord to believe her friends (in truth also cursed to behave against their natures) had turned against her her, Staren could do nothing to stop one of his most treasured friends from being forced to live the worst nightmare that had haunted him for so many years. Heroism had failed again, Staren had failed again, and completely and utterly heartbroken, turned away from the world.

But only a week later, he learned that Twilight and her friends, had been freed. Staren returned to the fight against Discord, but could only slow and delay the draconequus until the local heroes could reseal him. But this time, there /were/ heroes, and the day was saved.

Before Equestria could recover, the entire multiverse came under attack. Confederate Emperor Viridian Sunrise had done what he could not — unlocked the secrets of the multiverse and used its power to enact his own vision of the future, with power even the Union could not fight. Heroes volunteered for a suicide mission — Staren stayed behind, convinced there /had/ to be some sort of better, smarter plan.

Staren failed to innovate again. The corpses of longtime friends turned up, and he at last confronted the true meaning of death — He would never see them again. The model of the future in his head had to change to not include them. Shaken, he swore never to let this happen again — although it might well be academic if the Emperor was not stopped.

The corpses turned out to be a ploy — the elites on the suicide mission returned alive, the Emperor slain. The heroes /had/ triumphed after all, this time. Staren was relieved, but did not forget his promise. He planned to look for clues in the pieces of technology Wireless had left behind — he would restore the brain uploader, fix its faults, and in so doing unlock a way to conquer death.

Then a new world unified where brain uploading was commonplace and death, true death, was a scarce and horrifying thing rather than just another part of everyone's life. In fact, in this world immortality was seen as a basic right, and one of its denizens happily offered the gift to the Union. A completed, successful device was clearly superior to incomplete Wiretech, and Staren set to studying it, analyzing it to learn how it worked, making sure there was not a catch, no secret mind control programming hidden deep inside. Staren and his parents got their backups as soon as he was sure it was safe, began growing clones, and so claimed a form of limited immortality — Not perfect, not foolproof, but far better than nothing.

No others would accept this gift. One day, people would die again, for real. And he was still powerless to stop it.

But now, there were things he /could/ stop. Earth-1960 was infested with zombies, and a megalomaniacal AI was cloning mercenaries to take over the world's economy. And while helping put a stop to that, he learned of the plight of the gamers trapped in Sword Art Online. There, too, he could help.

Slowly, Staren was drawn out into the Multiverse again. There would not always be heroes, and he would continue to prepare for the day they failed to arrive, but in the meantime he would help them when they did.

And a few days before Christmas of 20 AU, everything changed. Psyber, Kimiko, and Himei, Unionites Staren had had occasional contact with but not really those he would have called friends, came forward to tell him that the Union did /not/ see him as a barely-this-side-of-ethical madman who would go too far any day now. The ones who had given Staren that impression were merely a particularly loud and vocal minority.

It was a Christmas present even he would never have dreamed of daring to ask for.

Though it was merely his perceptions that had changed, Staren found himself in a bright new Multiverse! It would take time to truly trust his allies again, but he didn't need to fear them so.

Things were looking up in 21 AU. Staren had immortality, he had the respect of his peers, he even had a girlfriend. He was helping others, and began to find phenomena in the multiverse that rewarded scientific exploration like the punchcard alchemy of Sburb. Halfway through the year, he decided to study the mysterious Abstractum and in so doing netted himself Eureka, the genre-shifting gauntlet of SCIENCE. Abstractum would prove a field highly responsive to scientific investigation, and between Eureka, Morg's divine inspiration for the construction of impossible devices (Staren's old friend had ascended to godhood many years prior), the nanotechnology that granted his immortality, and his wide assortment of other technology and magic gathered from across the worlds, Staren's confidence began to grow, confidence that he at last had the power to be a hero that could save the day when all other hope was lost.

Eldritch monstrosities from outside of reality coming to end the Multiverse? Yeah, we got this.

That all changed with the coming of the third month of 22 AU. Amongst the looming threat of the Abstractums' enemies, going back in time to finish a closed time loop, and the kidnapping of one of Staren's allies to turn her into a war machine, the dimensional rift over Ravnica, and the cosmic horrors that came out of it, had seemed like just one more crisis that would be dealt with handily in time.

And then Niv-Mizzet sacrificed his Planeswalker's Spark and disappeared through the rift, closing it behind him, never to return from the all-consuming Aether and almost certain doom.

And Staren could not save him.

Once again, tragedy occurred with no hero to step in and stop it. Nothing Staren could do would make it better, and the claims and excuses that 'there was nothing you could do' rung hollow in his ears, for such words would not return Niv-Mizzet to his friends and loved ones, and they would not stop the /next/ tragedy, whatever it would be.

Staren was not the hero that steps in and makes the world right when all hope is lost.

Not yet.

He still needed more power...

After that, Staren had been part of more successes than failures. He'd helped save worlds, and when called for (and perhaps also when not called for) had brought extreme force of arms to bear, even spending a week as a sleepless robot hunting the clones of the Slaughterhouse Nine, and constructing a protoabstractum superweapon so powerful it blew a wing off the Dragon of Calamity, a being of legendary and godlike power.

But after having allies mistake his brutal methods for bloodlust, and seeing a reminder that sometimes, talking ''can'' end conflicts and spare lives, Staren began to wonder if there was another path...

In late 24 AU, the Multiverse reshaped itself and the Union and Confederacy fell. With the endless war finally over, Staren could focus on improving the Multiverse rather than endless fighting. He joined the League of Progress, and later the Concord, finding their approach to the Multiverse suited him better than the Union ever did -- letting Elites turn their full abilities and resources towards improving the world, without hamstringing them by insisting on upholding the status quo. At long last, he's found a place in the Multiverse.

Now to solve its infinite problems...


[[Category:Daedalus Initiative]]
[[Category:Gatecrashers Union]]
[[Category:Die Reisende]]

Archived: RIFTS-1

2017-09-09T23:28:45Z

Staren: Noticed it was incomplete -- updated for a year's passing and finished it.

{{CastPage
|Desc=300 years ago it was a golden age; Humanity was poised to leave its birth world behind for what lay beyond the solar system. But that was not to be... a nuclear exchange by two third world nations on the summer solstice brought about something no one save a handful had guessed: Magic returned with a vengeance and the world as it was known ended.

But humanity did not die that day. It fought back as best it could and now the remains of Earth's natives slowly work to reclaim their world but they are no longer alone. Aliens, demons and other beings prowl the Earth, and now both science and magic of amazing sorts can be found in this changed world -- but can humanity overcome its oldest problem? The urge to hate, fear and destroy that which is different?

A longer summary of the theme, as well as a map of eastern North America and more information on Lazlo specifically, is available '''[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aQhozwvNDnmye0cTCEm-EWp35hmyLvfvqSMq6WrIuXY here]'''.
|Cat=Themes
}}
==Time==
As of AU 25, on RIFTS-1 Earth it is 119 PA by the common calendar, or 2405 AD by the old calendar.

==Metaplot==
'''(Where the theme is compared to canon)'''

The Coalition v Tolkeen war and the secession of Free Quebec happened on time, with Tolkeen being destroyed. Despite dire prophecies, the Mechanoids have not appeared, and the Xiticix are not yet approaching the point of becoming overwhelming within the next few years (they have not spread further presently than they had in canon around 105 PA -- they first appeared a few years later or were slower to spread for some reason.)

The New German Republic has largely driven the gargoyles back, and is preparing for a final push to finish them off.

For the most part, RIFTS Earth is not largely changed by unification with the Multiverse -- it was already part of a multiverse, after all! However, warpgates are easier to use than dimensional rifts, and some enterprising explorers and traders have started to spread some Multiversal technology to the more advanced settlements, primarily better computers. Settlements are hesitant to adopt nanotechnology and advanced AI large-scale due to stories of causing an apocalypse on another world, but don't really care about individual use of such things. Adventurers get their hands on all sorts of things, of course, and as long as they're not committing crimes with them, any settlement already friendly to adventurers doesn't care that much what they're carrying.

We have yet to give much thought to what's happened in the 9 years since the current canon timeline.

==Warpgates==
This is just a list of warpgates that have been established in RP so far. There are surely others!

Lazlo gate - About 33 miles east of Lazlo, near modern-day Bowmanville. It is observed but not locked down by locals, and a village has sprung up nearby to support travelers and traders, with a road connection (and public transport) to Lazlo itself.

Melissa's gate - Somewhere in Federation of Magic territory, hidden from the outside by magic.

Germany gate - There is at least one gate in the forests of Germany, which is currently a warzone.

==Timeline==
'''2098 AD''' - The Coming of the RIFTS, beginning of the Three-Hundred Year Dark Age

'''2287 AD / 1 PA''' (Post-Apocalypse) - Founding of the Coalition State of Chi-town. Over the next century, the PA calendar becomes the de facto calendar in North America.

'''2387 AD / 101 PA / AU7''' - Approximate end of the Three-Hundred Year Dark Age.

'''???''' Unification of RIFTS Earth Americas in the Vast Marshes. (The rest of the Megaverse unifies elsewhere in the Multiverse)

'''2392 AD / 106 PA / AU12''' - Free Quebec attempts to secede from the Coalition States -- CS Civil War begins, CS-Tolkeen war begins

'''2394 AD / 108 PA / AU14''' - Free Quebec gains independence

'''2395 AD / 109 PA / AU15''' - Sorcerer’s Revenge. CS-Tolkeen war ends with Tolkeen’s destruction.

'''2399 AD / 113 PA / AU19''' - (April) The Oblivion Orb causes RIFTS Earth (and solar system) to recombine in the Void - Space-Time Storms.

'''2404 AD / 118 PA / AU24''' - Present Day

5218/Welcome to Alfheim

2017-07-01T00:05:42Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2017/04/23 |Location=Alfheim Online <ALO> |Synopsis=Upon learning that video games are real and the VRMMO and RL worlds have merged, Kirito and oth..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2017/04/23
|Location=Alfheim Online <ALO>
|Synopsis=Upon learning that video games are real and the VRMMO and RL worlds have merged, Kirito and others go to Alfheim to investigate.
|Cast of Characters=1, 774, 6, 42, 631, 1094, 894
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:1|Kirito (1)}} has posed:''' Kirito has been marvelously unhelpful on the radio for a very good reason. He's an incredibly overwhelmed teenager with a million things running through his head. Being responsible and thoughtful about explaining things is rather hard to do.     Instead of talk, he sends his friends a message. <<I'll be in Sylvain.>>     Presumably, he doesn't mean the one in the game either.     As it turns out, there's an artificial Warp Gate in Sylvain, though its owner registration is unknown, along with all other information apart from connecting routes.     The warp gate opens into a flower garden park surrounded by trees. Sylvain is a very, very green city - a true emerald city, like from a certain old story. Smooth, rounded-top buildings reach for the heavens everywhere, with five towers reaching what might be over a kilometer up. Pleasant breezes fill the city of the Wind Fairies. It's night time, and so the city is lit by a pleasant glow from the buildings and hundreds of open windows.     KIRITO, THE BLACK SWORDSMAN steps through the warp gate and into the park. The youth cranes his neck and breathes deeply of the wind, which tickles and moves with a little more variety and richer smell than the virtual version.     His face is incredibly troubled... but, at the same time mystified.     "I... really don't know whether to be awed... or terrified." He half-hisses through his teeth, consternated in a way that he rarely voices to anyone.     Especially the little Pixie kneeling on his shoulder right now.     "I'm processing a lot of conflicting emotional data right now too, papa. What does it all mean?" 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     Of course Dorian's going to check this out. He's come to at least have SOMETHING like a stock in their world now. Besides, that wasn't just one world that went haywire. People felt it all over the Multiverse. He doesn't even bother changing into that modern attire he usually wears to places like this; he just heads there in his usual light leather armor and white cloak over it, staff slung by a strap on his back.     And when he gets there? Well, he's not going to be very articulate for a few moments. Not unless talking in Tevene counts, and it probably doesn't. "...''Fasta vass'', this... this is..." Yup. So very articulate, innee? Finally, though, he recovers. And clears his throat. This time he's a little more articulate. "Well. THIS is definitely something. I'm not sure what, but it's definitely... something."     He makes his way over to Kirito, though. "I take it this wasn't expected?" he asks. That much is clear from the look on Kirito's face. A look back to the city. "Do you have any clue what's going on?" he asks. 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Kirito isn't hte only one who is overwhelemd. Tomeo was in a bit odder of a situation, she'd mumbeld in her sleep and had triggered the transofrmation which she work up after. There was another soul just after him. Tomoe hte Iron Lily was looking damn right terrifed herself and a good deal over whelemed. The fauir taller normally composed Salamander Knight most of the Multiverse knew her as looked just freaked out. She was looking about for amoment at the pix for a moment. "What does it mean? We just ... something changed usand our world?! There's something out there with the power to do that!" She's flailing her arms at this point. "Kirito what the hell is going on I woke up like this!" She doesn't know how to feel right now her mind is racing with the same level of panic she felt the day she couldn't log off of SAO. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren beams down when he detects Kirito and Tomoe's signals below -- the red beam of light coalesces into the power-armored young man.     "...Huh." He puts his hands on his waist. "That sure does look like Sylvain." After a few seconds, he tries to bring up his inventory. Then tries with the other hand. "Huh. I got nothing, it's not like when we go to a VRMMO physically..."     He looks at the others. "So, where's the sylph questgiver? Maybe they have something to tell us. Wait, you WOKE UP as a salamander?" 

:'''{{#var:631|Reker (631)}} has posed:''' You know something they've probably never seen this close to the emerald city? Reker. The warp gate opens up, again directing someone through it, but what steps through is not anything that the world of Alfhiem has ever seen. Clad in his standard combat gear, rifle slung over his back and utility belt bristling with equipment and explosives, Reker looks about as anachronistic as you can get. He takes a moment to survey the surroundings, before he strolls up to Kirito and Tomoe, "So, kids. Anyone wanna let me know what in the blue hell is going on? 'cause don't get me wrong, this is kinda sweet, but at the same time, seriously, what the hell?" It's really odd to see him standing there in his GGO avatar in the middle of an ALO town, even for him. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     Mr. Parsons' car screeches through the warpgate. The big government-looking window-tinted black van actually dents when it tries to parallel park with several MMO market stalls. "FUCK!" He declares, as he slams the door open and practically tumbles out. THe expletive seems as much a reaction to the world as a reaction to almost tripping over himself.. He knows one person here. "Staren!" He calls out. "/It woke up!/" This declaration is made almost as if it were some kind of self-evident fact.     "It's awake now!! What was it like before? What's changed now?" He looks about ready to shake someone. Anyone, really. He might shake Staren. Or he might just shake whoever Staren's talking to, whoever looks the most well-informed. "What's it done now that it woke up?! What's different about the world right now? What isn't supposed to look like it does?!" Very articulate questions. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren is shaken. "What's awake? ...Can you detect AI minds? Is CARDINAL awake?" It's an educated guess. He looks at the sky. "...I'm not sure if that'd be good or bad..."     Then he realizes what Flamel just asked. "Are you SERIOUS?! ...Oh, right. This. This whole place isn't supposed to be here. It's a place from a videogame, and we're off the coast of japan right now. You can sense what... did this?" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August arrives a few minutes late, in a parka with a gun holstered to the side and a shard of mirror next to it. Staren will recognize this gun as his high-tech gun he left at the Shack. "Okay, so what the hell is this? From what I just overheard, I assume this place isn't usually a fantasyland. This is one of those VRMMOs, right? So why is it /here/?" The redhead takes a glance around, moving to talk to an NPC and ascertain how aware they are of what's going on, before moving back. "I assume this isn't a new patch?" 

:'''{{#var:1|Kirito (1)}} has posed:''' Kirito turns sloooowly to face Dorian, who he's having trouble recognizing in the flesh like this, given circumstances. The boy in black blinks a few times, mouth gaping open slightly in shock. Because, of COURSE he has no idea what on Earth is going on here, who the hell would? That's what his look of surprise seems to say here... and he's not very good at hiding it.     "Not a bit?" He offers rather helplessly.     A look of sympathy's aimed at Tomoe, though for some reason the barest hint of embarassment strikes his youthful face too. For only a brief moment. Because things got very hectic in the Kirigaya house recently...     He then regards Reker's presence, and is a bit disjointed indeed at seeing a GGO character over in Fairyland. That's kind of odd. "Well... I'll tell you my story, sure... what happened on your end? You found the Augma too?" Staren, Dorian, and Flamel all end up with a prompt following their vision soon after arrival. [Please Enter a Username:] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ There's an English-language touchscreen keyboard provided...     This isn't the only odd thing that happens. Here in the park, coming around one of the big trees... is a young woman in white-and-green flowing robes, with emerald hair and the pointy ears typical of a Sylph walks up. She actually has a name over her head. Karina [NPC] [?]     With both hands folded, she tentatively asks... "Um... pardon me for intruding, did all of you just come through the Teleport Gate?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren pulls from his bag... a blank CD in a jewel case, and a knife with what appears to be a soft, rolled-up blade. He holds them out to August. "Press the toggle button and the blade returns to normal shape and hardens. Press it again and you can roll it back up. And that's a good question, we're working on it. Oh, hey." S T A R E N _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _     And here's an NPC now! "No. I beamed down from space. What's going on?" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Well, the NPC seems as confused as he is, so probably not some patch to make it more lifelike. August is about to say something, and then he gets a prompt. "Ah, damn it, hardest part of video games." He takes a minute as the keyboard appears, before tapping on it, clearly. "TinSoldier" Once the name's been inputted, he reaches to actually take the stuff Staren's holding out. August grasps for the knife, testing it out before softening it and putting it away, and stares at the CD in the jewel case. "The hell is this?" He pockets it too, though. And then, there's another NPC, as shown by the tag 'NPC' over her head, which causes August to blink. "You mean the warpgate? Yeah, why?" 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe is also looking a bit embrassed her self at this pint. She looks at Renker for a moment and honestly she's happy to see him. She pauses looking over his avatar for a moment. She looks back and forth. "I just woke up like this so I don't even know." She looks flustered but seems glad she has friens here.. She look to Kirito for a moment. She then looks to the NPC for a moemnt tilting her head. "Yes, we just ... did who are you?" also this NPC sonded abit /different/. She also sees August woes with names. "Try it in another lanuage." she offers helpfully. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "It's a mirror." Staren says, in the exact same deadpan he just talked to the NPC with. 

:'''{{#var:631|Reker (631)}} has posed:''' "Yeah after I got forcibly logged out of GGO, I found that Augma thing on my nightstand. Put it on, did my usual start up and BOOM." He points at himself, "Instant GGO avatar." He looks over at the NPC nearby with the obvious quest marker over her head, hrming a bit, "I think, uh...Is that what I think it is?" He says, as he motions to Kirito and Tomoe, "Do we still have skills and stats?" He swipes his hand down and brings up his menu, "I'll be damned." He startrs swiping through menus, hmming a bit, "Wonder if I can summon my truck here." 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     "Hm. Didn't think so," Dorian replies, tilting his head. Though, that said, he hasn't offered a suggestion, either. Instead, with a dramatic eyeroll, he observes, "Always throwing these curveballs at you, this Multiverse. It can't just let you settle into a comfortable existence, can it?"     He is, however, interrupted mid-rant by the prompt. "What's this?" Fortunately he can read English. He blinks. Turns to look at Kirito again. And then scowls at something that seems to be in front of him. "Bloody thing is following me. What do they call this, where the words show up overlayed on the scenery?" Yes, he's played a game like that. "Well, since it wants a name so badly..." And what's he going to use? His own name, of course. D O R I A N _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _     Once he enters his name, he hopes the thing disappears. That's when he notices the NPC. He did come through the warpgate, so he nods. "I did, yes. The warpgate?" He looks back at it, to indicate that's what he's talking about. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Augmented reality." Staren supplies at Dorian's request for a term. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:''' [Please Enter a Username:] I l l u m i n a t i n e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _     Parsons isn't even touching the interface. Whatever he's doing is pure psychic. What he has to say is less coherent. "AI minds, human minds, I have no idea, but something just /woke up/ and it definitely wasn't human! It was /big/! HUGE!" He finally stops shaking Staren's shoulders and goes on to look at the others. "You!" He calls out. "Questions! Give answers. Are there any slumbering ancient gods? Sealed beings spoken of only in rarely-believed obscure tales? Old glowing meteors that fell to earth thousands of years ago that suspiciously look similar to brains?"     He's apparently throwing stuff at the wall at random to see what sticks. The NPC is mostly ignored, left for someone else to deal with them. He says what he knows, though. "Something woke up. Something world-scale! Something digital! A digital Gaia-mind breaking into cognition and self-awareness, do you understand? Does this make sense?" There's no clarification about the terms he's talking about. Gaia? Woke up? It's almost as likely that Mr. Parsons himself doesn't even know the full details about whatever it is he's rambling about. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren swears. "Something digital? If it is what I think it is, it used to be an artist AI." He looks at the NPC to see her reaction. "But, that other stuff you listed is all good to check for too." 

:'''{{#var:1|Kirito (1)}} has posed:''' All of the Usernames are fine. TinSoldier might be a little odd, but the system itself doesn't complain.     "O-oh, I'm sorry! There was an Earthquake just now, and I left my post!" Karina suddenly realizes, bowing deeply and scurrying back over towards the Warp gate. She straightens her dress to be a little more presentable, then smiles. "My name is Karina. Welcome to Sylvain, travelers. Capital of we Wind Fairies. Sylphs. It's rare to see Spriggans or Salamanders here... and I cannot say just when any... Midgardians, was it...?" She looks towards Reker, August, and Dorian there, smiling uncertainly and a bit apologetically. Staren, though, just gets a slightly puzzled look from her.     People might remember that in the Alfheim mythos, Aincrad is sometimes referred to as Midgard, as the NPC population of Aincrad is predominantly human.     Kirito replies airily and reassuringly, "I'm just a wandering swordsman out to see the world." As if to dissuade any worries about racial competition.     Kirito is definitely aware of all the eyes on him, but his shoulders are just tensing up more and more. It's pretty clear he wants to run away with so many eyes on him, but is stifling the urge like usual to keep his cool.     At the sudden BOMBARDMENT of questions, Karina's face turns rather exaggeratedly pressured and nervous. "Wh-what?! I-I'm just a guide here, sir! There... are many ancient spirits throughout the world, and unspeakable monsters. There are also tales of how Midgard was assembled and raised into the skies by twin Goddesses who wished to create a refuge for their besieged people... and they have not been seen since...?" She gulps, apparently rather freaked out by Flamel's Men In Black style of attire.     This. Is not. How NPCs of Alfheim. Behave. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren turns to the NPC, takes his helmet off and wiggles his ears. "I guess I'd better talk to Alicia Rue... wait, she's a PC. Who's in charge, here?" 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     Dorian looks in Staren's direction at the supplied term. "Ah, yes. Thank you," he offers, with surprising honesty.     In truth, Dorian is actually rather worried. Worlds do not merely RESTRUCTURE themselves, not to this degree, without severe consequences. He's worried about what this will do to the natural order of this world. But he does comment, "It isn't anything of my world, that's for certain. Nothing in Thedas is digital. Besides, if this WERE one of Thedas's Old Gods awakening, it would be significantly less pleasant... given the legend goes were sealed for trying to usurp the Maker's power. I haven't seen anything here with a maw larger than two Qunari standing atop each other's shoulders." A pause, and then he adds, all but grumbling, "Yet. Though I'd wager it's not far behind."     Dorian definitely notices the odd behavior from the NPC. But unlike Kirito, he doesn't at all dissuade the consideration of the existence of other races in this world. "I can assure you, I am completely human," he confirms. "Normal height, no pointed ears or freakish bug-eyes, no massive horns." Those are features of other races in his world, dwarf, elf, and Qunari, respectively. But he does seek to put the lady at ease. Or at least distract her from the massive weirdness. It's weird on both ends of things, but this NPC is the one with the information, so freaking her out is bad. Even if freaking her out shouldn't... actually be possible.     So instead he takes a step towards her, and bows politely. "Do forgive us, my lady," he says, speaking softly and as soothingly as he can make his voice sound. "But we're evidently as baffled about this as you are. Do you remember what happened before all this?" he asks. 

:'''{{#var:631|Reker (631)}} has posed:''' "Hold on I gotta try something." Reker moves away from Kirito and Tomoe a bit, so he has a lot of clear space, and then hits something on his menu. Digital data colesces around and forms into a large armored truck, "Yes! Hell yes, I can bust this thing out in ALO now." He pops open the door and climbs in, "Hell yeah, alright." He starts the engine and then leans out of the door, "Guys this is so cool." Unlike his compatriots, it seems that Reker is not extremely concerned with the strangeness, because he is too busy admiring the awesomeness. The whole world's a game now, right? That's awesome. 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe says "Karina I'm Tomoe..." She seems subdued a bit here for a moment she looks at the various people. Tomoe lookslike she's ready to full on space out as Karina gets verbally assaulted by Flammel and she moves to get closer to Flammel her eyes narrow a bit. "Ease up." There's a decent level of implication of her voice of or else.. 5R% She looks to the woman for a moment. "There... shouldn't no this is happening again. No not again...damn you Heathcliff..." Tomoe is not very emotionally stable right now, she looks like she's just going to pop if the pressure. 

:'''{{#var:1|Kirito (1)}} has posed:''' Karina recovers quickly when asked about Alicia Rue and the Sylph leader. Her demeanor straightens very quickly. Whoever thought of putting such a skittish girl into the role of greeter is either moe'tastic or a terrible employer...     "The beloved Lady Sakuya holds leadership of the Sylphs. If you look over at the Tower of the Wind -" She gestures with an open palm towards the biggest tower in the middle of the city... and then frowns. "... You'll know when she is available, because the Sylph flag will be flying." Which it currently isn't. She blinks a few times, thinking. "The Cait Sith leader, Alicia Rue, might be present. The two of them are good friends and allies."     Okay, so the PC leaders are still recognized as leaders.     Kirito's brow furrows as he considers this. Though the WHUNK of Reker's ride touching ground shakes him out of it... and has him staring. Yet more crazy things to be awed at!     He perks up at the question Dorian levvies. And of course, Karina answers with a respectful bow... "It was a very quiet night.. then the stars went out and the Earth shook. I could not help but wonder if it might mean the end of the world..." She jitters again, and the bow deepens. "My deepest apologies for abandoning my post. My only duty is to be there to greet visitors!" She sounds on the verge of tears over this muddle...     It's a frazzly night for EVERYONE here. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     Parsons doesn't bother talking with the NPC. He's in that mood he gets in, the one where he doesn't seem interested in talking to anyone but sources of information. Weird. He lets the others talk to her. Dorian Pavus looks like he's taking a very polite approach, Reker looks like he knows what he's doing even if what he's doing is sort of irrelevant, and Tomoe... uh... Maybe he can get to Tomoe's psyche later or something. Right now, he focuses on other things. Specifically, on Karina's mind.     His eyes flash open wide, and they glow brightly white under the sunglasses, for about five seconds. Inside Karina's mind, Parsons' immense psychic power sweeps through and checks its nooks and crannies. "Connections!" He calls out still in the real world. "Here! And here! And here! Holes filled with incoming data! Faint links! It's all artificial but it isn't /insubstantial/!" She looks stressed too. So while he's in here, he cleans out as much of the stress as he can with blasts of intense psychic energy all through the landscape. Weaker minds are easier to change, but easier to fix. And then, he slams back out of her mind and crashes back into his body.     "It's connections! Back to the gaia-class mind! Everything here is linked back to it!" He says. He grabs someone else, at random, to explain it. It might be a passerby. It's probably not Staren again, but it might be. Maybe it's Kirito. Probably not Tomoe, she's visibly having a bad time right now. But Parsons needs to shake someone while he says this. It's probably August Kohler. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' "I prefer the term 'human', thank you." August replies to Karina when called 'Midgardian'. He allows the others to continue talking to her, instead glancing around the various stalls. There's probably food - does it actually look edible? Plants, do they look, smell, feel real? Does water flow like real water? He's trying to figure out how close to 'life' this is, and after a quick investigation, walks back to the group to discuss going to check out something else. But he gets distracted. Because Flamel Parsons grabs him, starts shaking him, and shouting stuff he doesn't understand. "Woah, calm down, Parsons! Layman terms, the hell is a gaia-class mind and how is this tied to it?" 

:'''{{#var:631|Reker (631)}} has posed:''' Now that he has somewhere to go, Reker revs the engine on the truck, "You guys can stand around trying to find information, and I do appreciate it if you send me a mail with anything you find, but I'm gonna go experiment my own way!" He slams the door to the truck closed, throws it into gear and tears off, getting a bit of air off of one of the bridges as he drives out into the fields outside of the town. It's late, there's probably tons of monsters about, and he's in an armored truck. Should be a fun night for him as he experiments with his equipment on low level creatures. Deep down, is he a bit concerned? To some extent, probably, but it doesn't pay to let people see that. 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe looks at Flamel for a moment she just tries to bush it off for a moment. "... Right I think I get what your doing. Just bail out anyone you see get into trouble and don't piss off the locals. Some people might be damn crazy right now." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren gives Kirito a 'Huh, how about that' look at the reveal that the PC leaders are recognized. To August he explains, "In myth, Gaea is the spirit of Earth, a being made up of all the natural life on the planet, or connected to it anyway. On worlds where she's real, you probably don't want to mess up the ecosystem too much. So, a being that massive... Would be akin to your own world's collective unconscious."     Beat.     He gestures around. "/Something/ just made videogames real." Staren thinks a moment. "...I'm gonna check if any of the leaders are here yet." He teleports away. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     Dorian may not be strictly interested in women. But when there is a person in distress and that person could be a valuable ally later -- greeter might also mean she has the keys to, or information about, forbidden places. And if she's seen a lot, she has a lot of information. So when she seems on the verge of tears, Dorian steps closer and offers a pat on the shoulder, a commiserating gesture.     "There, there," he says quietly. "It's all right. One would think that, if the world violently flopped over on its back and had a temper tantrum, that would be a perfectly understandable reason to leave your post. Besides, it's night-time. I can't imagine many would be traveling at night. Particularly not tonight."     He looks in Tomoe's direction then, frowning a bit. Most of the events of what happened in Sword Art Online, Dorian only knows by anecdote. He knows it was horrible, but he wasn't THERE. So it's probably understandable he doesn't quite see why she's so upset. He does, however, have the grace to keep quiet about it. He sends a sympathetic look her way, though. "It's all right. I'm sure someone will figure out what's happened." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Eventually, Staren walks out of the warpgate. "Nobody's up yet, but interesting news: There's warpgates in all the capitals." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren tries the menu-summoning gesture again. The name he input is the same as his ALO account... 

:'''{{#var:1|Kirito (1)}} has posed:''' "You would be surprised, sir!" Karina replies hurriedly, still trying to de-stress - but a sudden blast from Flamel that leaves her blinking and a bit empty gazed for a few moments seems to accomplish quite a bit of that. She fidgets just once to straighten her dress and calms down as if nothing had happened, shoulders loosening and voice turning much calmer.     As if she just forgot she was even upset to begin with. "The Imps and Spriggans are nocturnal fairies, and there are always night owls among the other races. The post of greeter is a sacred duty and has been for millenia."     Awesomely enough, Staren finds that the menu does indeed come up. However, his version of it is far streamlined compared to the in-game version... and presumably slimmer than any of the native players. He has an options menu for some chat preferences, menu color and transparency, that sort of thing. There are options for party, guild, friends lists. He has a currency tracker, though not an actual inventory. He has a status window, though it only shows his name with no HP or MP bars. There's also Help, Maps, and other functions that have absolutely nothing to do with Staren As A Character. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Hm." Staren comments at the menu, then dismisses it for the moment. After someone asks if there's monsters around, he manifests what APPEAR to be cait sith wings and flies off towards the forest. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August glances at Staren, as he seems to be opening and looking at a menu like the others. He takes a second to think, and then realizes, glancing at Flamel. "Hey, let's try it too. We just gave usernames, didn't we?" With a gesture of his hand, he moves to check if his own window pops up. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     The abnormal speed at which the NPC calms down is noted by Dorian, but he doesn't call it out. It would only make her nervous again, and that's not what he's looking for. So instead he concentrates on her information. "Ah. Yes. I should have known that last bit. About the Imps, I mean." Though he doesn't elaborate on why.     Instead, he asks, "Why not let me escort you back to your post? We can talk more there." It might put her more at ease. And with a smile, he moves to offer an arm. She ca of course, decline. But he's putting on the charm here. Could serve him well later. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     After a few minutes, Staren teleports in again with a frenzy boar. There's scorch marks on it like it's been zapped with electricity.     "Monsters are real, guys."     He stands up, leaving the unconscious monster lying on the ground.     "So if we kill it, do you think we get a corpse, XP, or a meat item for crafting?" 

:'''{{#var:1|Kirito (1)}} has posed:''' August's effort is not in vain. He sees the same sort of menu that Staren does! So will anyone else who just entered a username, if they try.     Karina... actually starts to blush rather exagerratedly, in the same way that her previous nervousness was over-exaggerated. But she hides it with another bow. "Th-thank you but I'm already at my post. The Teleport Gate... is my post..." She seems rather confused at a FRENZY BOAR being dropped in from above on the group though. Still alive. And quivering. And goes quite pale. "H-k-... kyaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"     Lord, this Sylph girl's skittish. WHOOOOOSH, there she goes, running for the trees again.     "Uhhhh..." Kirito, too, seems puzzled by this development. He glances up, spots Staren... oh, yeah. Now it makes sense.     The Spriggan folds his arms.     The FRENZY BOAR, which has a completely grey Color Cursor to everyone here visible over its name, is significant only in the fact that it has an HP meter visible, unlike the NPC who just flew the coop. It grunts and snorts furiously, but doesn't seem capable of putting any strength in its legs. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     Flamel does the same little gesture there, probably popping up his own window. His limited non-expert psychic abilities, though, make it possible to interact with menu systems such as that with his mind! He busies himself with acclimating to the idea. But, for now, he's done his duty: Motivating the Gatecrashers to use this situation as a power-grab to become a powerful world-wide conspiracy in service to their agenda for mankind!     Which just so happens to mean 'heroically protect humanity in its time of need'. That part doesn't really matter to his strange MIB aesthetic, only to his moral sensibilities and Psychonaut ethics. 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe pauses for a moment "Kirito? I'm going to hook up with Klien and Angil and see how many people we can rouse. I'll also hit up Sinon to see if she can shake lose Palerider and Dyne." With that she turns for the gate and then pauses. "I'll be ... back soon." With tht she's gone. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren stands next to it, looking down at the creature. "That's really pathetic. We should put it out of its misery." he calls up the menu, and invites Kirito to his party (to see if Kirito gets xp or yrd.) When Kirito accepts, he draws his beam saber and slices through the boar's neck. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     Suddenly there is a boar being dropped on the ground from above. Dorian's not exactly skittish, but he knows to keep his wits about him. And usually things falling from the sky is a bad thing. So he jumps too, though it's to retrieve his staff rather than escape. Once he sees what's going on, he scowls. "''Kaffas'', Staren! A bit of warning next time, if you please!" he complains.     Sure the thing is unconscious but Dorian's not about to take any chances. He keeps his weapon at the ready, just in case it gets its second wind before they decide to put the beast out of his misery. 

:'''{{#var:1|Kirito (1)}} has posed:''' Kirito spots the party invite... and after a moment of consternation, reluctantly hits yes. Reluctant, because he's not even remotely sure HOW to behave in this situation and has been choosing to wallflower. But he focuses his attention...and draws his blade, to strike along with Staren with a dual slash.     And BAM, the weapons deplete the Frenzy Boar's HP almost instantly. It's a pathetic low level creature. Much like a Poring. The moment its HP depletes fully, the bar de-rezzes and vanishes. The entire creature glows a brilliant blue-white... then SHATTERS into a burst of colorful blue-green voxel-flakes and motes of white light that drift outwards and disperse into nothing.     Kirito glances down and spots a loot window. Half the creature's Yrd and and Weapon Skill points' worth, and 1x Frenzy Boar Bristles.     Staren gets a window that just contains a Yrd aware - the other half.     With a wet SQUISHPLOP, a fat hunk of prime cut meat cartoonishly hits the ground where the Frenzy Boar was. Its item name is 'Frenzy Boar Meat'. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren deactivates his blade and clips the hilt back to his armor, then kneels by the meat, pulling one of his gauntlets off. His armband produces a scalpel, which he slices a bit of the meat with, sets it aside, and then sprays with a spraycan from his armor. The scalpel retracts, he replaces the gauntlet, then stands and, drawing his matter manipulator, sucks the Slab o' Meat into his inventory for later conversion into stew. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     After awhile, Staren confirms, "The meat is real. I'll come back here tomorrow and give out free stew to celebrate." He smiles at the others. "The science, I mean. Not the danger to your world." 

:'''{{#var:1|Kirito (1)}} has posed:''' "Getting stabbed hurts." Kirito asides to Staren a few moments after hearing that, in a sort of dazed and still deep-in-thought tone. Because this is clearly the most intelligent statement ever made in this context. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren stares at Kirito for a moment. Then winces. It takes a few seconds, but he quickly realizes what Kirito did. "Glad you're okay. Battle healing?" 

:'''{{#var:1|Kirito (1)}} has posed:''' "Yeah." He answers just as distantly. "... So... I haven't tried to change back yet, but my menu has an option for it. Doesn't seem like there's a time limit on this form either. But taking damage hurts. That means, if someone reaches zero HP..." His increasingly grim words hang in the air, unfinished. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren thinks that over, then shrugs. "That's not an experiment I care to try."     Beat.     He hangs his head. "Someone will probably find out, sooner or later." 
}}

5318/Concord: Link Start

2017-06-17T05:55:00Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2017/06/16 |Location=Elysium Apex |Synopsis=After mentioning the possibility of setting up VR training simulations, Staren finds some of his allies..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2017/06/16
|Location=Elysium Apex
|Synopsis=After mentioning the possibility of setting up VR training simulations, Staren finds some of his allies unfamiliar with the concept and decides to teach them about FullDive.
|Cast of Characters=42, 278, 954, 6, 1103
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren has booked a conference room in the Apex -- Everyone who signed up is sent a card with the time and place, and those from outside the Concord are sent guest passes.     The conference room has had the table and chairs removed and replaced with comfy chairs you can lean back in. Staren paces at the front of the room. In one corner is a small computer tower with blinkenlights on it, connected to a few NerveGears resting on a table next to it. He greets people as they show up somewhat informally, ready to answer questions but waiting for everyone to show up before diving into things, so to speak. 

:'''{{#var:278|Bramble Patch (278)}} has posed:''' "Still don't know how I got wrangled into this," Bramble Patch grumbles, mostly to herself, as the mad gardener of Everfree trots into the reserved room. Pauses to look around, but it doesn't really look any different from any other meeting room from what she can tell. "Are you sure this is the right room?" Cupel sits up on her head, chittering in squirrel as he waves the card a few times. "Yeah yeah, fine. Let's just get this eggheaded stuff over with." 

:'''{{#var:954|Count Kord (954)}} has posed:'''     Kord shows up in some old-timey white button-up shirt and brown pants, with thick brown gloves, his Yveltal-like tail wiggling behind him in tune with his gait. He looks like a statuesque Romanian/Japanese man with bright red hair, a strong jaw, light and erratic stubble and eerie inhuman eyes. His normally wild hair is tied back with a few black bands to keep it out of the way. He cuts an imposing figure, but the very calm and measured approach he has does not even seem military. Just neutral.     He slides into a seat and clasps his hands in his lap, looking toward Staren with total silence. 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' There's a woman maybe in her early twenties with Staren she's got long red hair which is tied back she's weaing fairly conseratve outfit. Pant,s runners, a sporty top with a hood. she's also got green eyes and seems to be looking over everyone but the question is /whom/ is she? She ssems to be in good spirit. She seems to know Kord smehow by how he looks at him for a moment nd give him a nod. She looks over to Bramble and then to Staren but just leans back in her chair for the moment. She pauses for a moment to pull out a smart phone check something then pocket hte device. 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     There's a woman here. She may be familiar to some, if not by her look, than by the aura of intensity and madness that surrounds her. Blue hair and blue eyes, clad in a white coat-dress. She wanders on in, and doffs her hat to Staren and the others. "The Mad Magician, has arrived." she says, flourishing a bow before straightening up. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     'Are you sure this is the right room', Bramble asks. Staren looks at her, a bit astonished. "...I'm here, how could it /not/ be the right room?"     Staren blinks at the sight of Kord in meeting attire. Somehow he expected something... more medieval. He nods to each of the arrivals.     He claps his hands together once they're sat down. "Well!" He begins to pace. "Welcome everyone! The objective of this meeting is twofold... err, three-fold: First, to explain the idea of fully-immersive virtual reality to those unfamiliar with it, second, to give you a chance to experience it, and thirdly, to discuss how it might be useful for training purposes."     He stops briefly. "So, um. The idea. It'd help if you were already familiar with videogames, but you're not, so why even mention them. Um. One of the many uses of computers," he waves a hand at the box with the blinkenlights, "is to simulate worlds, at various degrees of accuracy. There are scientific and engineering purposes, like calculating the strain on various parts of a new building design before you build it, or entertainment purposes. Take, say, a board or card game. If you can represent the state of the game -- the positions of cards or pieces -- as numbers, the computer can model it."     "This in turn makes new games possible. Board games usually apply the rules in 'turns', but a computer can do it in a fraction of a second, making new kinds of games possible. A little guy on a screen jumps over obstacles on your command, you don't have to know the physics -- you just get a feel for how he moves. Thus, the video game. Virtual Reality is built on these concepts, with the addition of a revolutionary input and output method. Um... everyone following so far?" He looks around hopefully and a bit nervously. Not actually used to presenting. 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     "This sounds much like my entire state of existance. I am a program from within a computer system." Theurgus says at the presentation, arms folding over her chest. "Alea is also the DCC of Arcade, and she controls a whole host of interactive entertainments. I am familiar with the concept, even if others here are not." 

:'''{{#var:278|Bramble Patch (278)}} has posed:''' Bramble Patch emits a snort as she climbs up into a chair. "Don't get condensending, nerd boy. Equestria isn't -that- backwards." She flops back and crosses her forelimbs. "I know damn well what a vid-ye-oh ga-me is," she drags out in a mocking tone. Flashback to Bramble Patch trying to play an old fashioned looking arcade cabinet. Only for the 'game over' chime to play and she smacks her head against the screen a few times, then shouts something in frustration and backs up. Only for a rather young pony wearing a spinner beanie cap to pull up a stool to sit on and get up to play. Bramble is snickering behind her hoof at the thought of the foal running off crying when he fails .... only for her expression to go into a 'flat what' when the foal throws his hooves over his head and proclaims "New High Score!" and a crowd of nameless Background Ponies comes in to carry him off in victory. Bramble Patch turns her head to the side with a snort. "On second thought, I don't wanna talk about it." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Okay, so you've already got this down. Sorry, stay with me for just a moment..." Staren replies to Theurgus, and then to Bramble, "I know they have arcade games now but you hardly ever leave the forest, I couldn't be sure... And I'm not trying to imply any world is 'backwards'. Simply... specialized in different things. My world doesn't get along with eachother as well as Equestria does, and we don't have pokemon..." 

:'''{{#var:954|Count Kord (954)}} has posed:'''     Kord is staring at Staren blankly. He really has no idea what the scientific guy is talking about. The weird-eyed Count looks down at the indicated devices and back up with his brow knitted, still just as confused as before he said something. He slowly pivots his head to look at Bramble Patch though and frowns in a very... tired way from what she's saying.     "Do I need to understand the every detail of these devices in order to experience this 'virtual reality'?" Kord remarks, with more than a little exhaustion in his tone. "A swordsman need not know how to create a sword in order to use it. So..."     He makes a rolling motion with his hand, his brows lifting. "Tell me what I need, and let's get on with it." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's ears splay a bit at Kord's reaction. "I'm skipping over a /lot/ of technical details... But no, you can just put helmet on, be somewhere else..." he rallies, "but I'm trying to drive home the difference between a simulated world and the real world. That a simulated world is only as accurate and detailed as its creator makes it... and that it can also be intentionally unrealistic and abstract, if you desire. Not thinking of it that way can lead to people asking questions that make me go" he facepalms, "later."     "But, if you wish to get to the practical demonstration...." He starts passing out the NerveGears. One is adjusted for a pony-shaped head, and another has clear crystals on it. They aren't actually branded 'NerveGear' -- Tomoe would recognize that they're the 'Kanto Bootleg' design the Union made. Staren kept /some/ things.     "Put it on, get comfy, and say 'Link Start'!" He waves. "I'll see you on the other side."     After the basic startup sequence, people find themselves in a grassy field at dusk. Tomoe has a choice of avatars Staren's seen, everyone else gets avatars based on their real bodies. "I suppose you can think of this as a dreamworld of sorts. You won't accidentally move your real body while you're here, and nothing that happens here will affect your real body."     Time is accelerated, slightly. There's a warm breeze, and they can smell the grass as the sun finishes setting and moon and stars rise. The meeting area is still fairly bright, without making the stars hard to see. Staren's played with the lighting for effect, possibly.     He rezzes a table with a box of donuts and cups of tea, coffee, water, and fruit juice. "Which reminds me, here's the obligatory meeting refreshments. All the taste, and no calories." He smiles and starts pacing. "Of course, we can simulate more than just fields. Any place you'd like to go or can imagine... Normally, of course, you have to /create/ such a place, but there are some tools from Kirito's world that make it much easier, and I have tools that make it easy to copy real places I've seen." He sips one of the cups. "That's how I made the bodies you're using here, actually."     He sets the cup down. "I'm sure some of you are already seeing some potential uses. Simulate combat for troops without dying. Make a model of a site you need to steal something from, familiarize yourself with the layout from the inside rather than just maps. Plan your attacks. Any more questions so far?" 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe seems to be fairly chill and wolling to let Sstaren talk for the moment he's ding a decent job on it. She pauses for a momentand looks to STaren then to everyone else whom has come. The redhead is being quiet for the moment. She look to Brambled a bit concenred but doesn't seem intent to press it. "Just covering bases, right? Need to make sure everyone's on the same page." Cord might be able to place the voice after a moment. Shepauses looking at the Kanto boot leg for amoment. It's not long bfore she moves to get booted up and in and that's where tingsend as the avatar waiting there is of Tomoe The iron Lily and she's got a grin on her face. Though Tomoe is wearing far casuale clothing than the amror she normally does. "Welcome, hostile enviorment training. The US military uses it for that." 

:'''{{#var:954|Count Kord (954)}} has posed:'''     Despite Kord's impatience, he does listen to Staren and doesn't seem to fidget a lot or actively ignore what's being said to him. He nods at the word 'dreamworld' as it tells him what they are experiencing isn't strictly 'real' in the same sense as what they experience in the physical. He lifts the headset up and... watches the others to observe how they put it on, in a moment of inexperienced uncertainty, before following suit. He says "Link Start," but it's thickly accented. The headset gets the picture, though.     When he manifests as his avatar in the VR space, he looks around at the unreal qualities around him and seems more than a little startled by the difference in sensation and his sense of space when he rezzed in. He quickly grew accustomed to the experience, though, looking around with the thorough, grabby curiosity of a child. He picked up each object, especially the food, to examine it, he walked up to Staren to leeean in and inspect the details of his face and restrained, just barely, the urge to pull on his cheeks, and then steps away to peer up at the night sky.     He seems overwhelmed.     "This is nothing like a dream," he says aloud, though that fact seems to be AMAZING to him. 

:'''{{#var:278|Bramble Patch (278)}} has posed:''' Bramble Patch takes the device between her forehooves, turning it a bit to one side, then the other, then shrugging and plopping it on over her head. Making the curled portions of her mane stick out past the edges somewhat comically in look. "Cupel, make sure no one messes with me while I'm out or whatever happens." The squirrel salutes with a paw. Bramble lays back in the suprisingly comfy chair. "Link Start!" The 'other side' is actually rather comfortable in appearances. Or it would be, if things weren't a little awkward in trying to adjust to the sensation. About halfway into Staren's explaination there's a "Aaaack!" as a flailing teenager-like girl that happens to have the same color palette as Bramble Patch topples facefirst into the middle of the group. ".. Well, the grass feels real." Lifts up her head enough to spit some out. "Tastes real, too." She tries to get up, only to get partway and stumble, hitting the ground again. Settles on just rolling over. "Good grief, how do you people manage with only two legs?!" She's just assuming this is some kind of joke of Staren's part. Revenge for all the times she made fun of him and Twilight being nerds together or something. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks the same, but is wearing different clothes. There are no obvious tells that he's an avatar -- FullDive technology is pretty advanced! He blinks as Kord examines him. "Well... That's why I didn't just want to use analogies and metaphors. It's not exactly a dream, and it's not exactly another place, in the normal sense."     And then, Bramble gets the Equestria Girls experience. "Oh, whoops!" Staren says when he sees Bramble. "I, uh... I was experimenting with having CARDINAL extrapolate alternate appearances for players. For... something I'll get to later, and polymorph effects. I must've forgotten to unload a script... do you want me to change you back to a pony, or do you want to take this opportunity to see what being human's like?"     He looks around. "While we're here, any requests? Places to go, things to see, all that?" 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe waks up to try some of the food and she does see Count kord's amazed by it and she smiles at least the count is having a far better first day in this than she did. She simply start to munch onthe food for a moment and she looks to bramble for a moment laughing a little bit. "Totally I used to handle my junk food cravings like this." She can't do that so much anymorebut hey such is life. "Ha I have a few things to show up. "Well given the rigs were made for humands first, it took some people in Union R&D to figure out how to get it to work for other species." 

:'''{{#var:278|Bramble Patch (278)}} has posed:''' Bramble Patch does manage to get sitting up. Grabs a donut. And just holds it out at arm's length, wiggling her fingers a few times around the baked good. This felt... weird... yet it still felt like it was 'her' for the most part. She took a chomp out of the donut. Then peered at the hand again. Peered at the other hand as she curled it a few times. "Okay, I guess these are kinda useful. If you don't have magic. Still don't see why that lyrist is so obsessed about them though." 

:'''{{#var:954|Count Kord (954)}} has posed:'''     Kord waves off Staren's words and tells him, "It helped to say as much. It is as close to a dream as needed, and I know now that this is not 'real.'" Seems he has the basics of it, even if he doesn't understand the nuanced parts. He then steps up to sample the refreshments, discovering that it is essentially the same sensation as eating outside of VR. The experience has him completely stunned.     "... you could train a royal chef with this... or teach an apprentice a craft without tiring him out..."     Kord's starting to apply concepts he's familiar with to this. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles as Tomoe mentions another use. "I think Lyra just thinks humans are cool." he replies to Bramble.     Kord's with the program, and already suggesting more uses. "Exactly! I bet on Tomoe's world they train surgeons with this. Everything doesn't have to be about combat."     He begins to pace around. "Although, cooking might be hard to simulate. Lots of fiddly chemical reactions... Still, you could probably teach some parts of it."     "The other idea I wanted to mention, was allowing allies to come up with new strategies... As you can see," he waves a hand at Bramble, "In Virtual Reality you can be something you're not. You can be given powers you don't have, or your powers can be taken away." He throws a lightning bolt off to the side, with the sound and dynamic light muted somewhat so it isn't as startling. "You probably won't control them the same way," momentarily visible in front of him are buttons with icons indicating various spells and elements, "But you can /use/ them. Imagine a training exercise where you can swap powers with an ally. They might think of strategies to use your powers that wouldn't have occured to you, and vice versa. I understand Field Marshal Nanoha once ran such an exercise using the Union Holodeck, though I was on hiatus at the time and don't know how it turned out."     He claps his hands and rubs them together. "Well, I guess that pretty much wraps up what I wanted to say. Now it's Q&A and random demonstration time. Any questions? Anything you want to see?" 

:'''{{#var:278|Bramble Patch (278)}} has posed:''' Bramble Patch finally gets onto her feet and brushes herself off. "So it's kind of like that 'trot a mile in someone else's horseshoes' saying." She seems to be adjusting well enough to the being something she's typically not. Then again, she's at least been around humans and human-like people, so it's not entirely new to her. Other than the actually being part. "I guess it could have its uses." 

:'''{{#var:6|Tomoe (6)}} has posed:''' Tomoe thins about Kord's catching on to this she grins a little bit she tolt her head. "There's a few pilot programs sure for such. It's not perfect but it's still better than theroy right? Look the tech has a stigma since the death game and worse now ith what's happening it's starting to get it again." She drowns a bit but seems to pull out of it fast enough as she looks ove to Bramble for a moment. "Pretty much then again I'm more Tomoe as you see me now than the woman you saw at the confrence room. So what's it like having thumbs I have to ask?" 
}}

5288/Warp Iris: Nettled

2017-06-02T09:15:33Z

Staren:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2017/06/01
|Location=Equestria
|Synopsis=In the aftermath of the last encounter with the Warp Iris, Staren is reminded that an old friend may be able to help...
|Thanks=Mortimer
|Cast of Characters=42, 454, 993, 1113, 385
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Mort finds the two of them at the scene of a battle. There's an army nearby, and signs of a skirmish like scorched ground and severed bits of eldritch flesh and pools of ichor. They're resting on improvised beds -- Staren is trying to sleep on a blanket using his bag for a pillow, and grumbles impatiently when Mort asks for them to move instead of checking them there. He isn't much help, but doesn't provide much resistance either.     Once they come out the Equestrian warpgate, Dawn is ready to teleport the whole party from there to outside Canterlot General. She beams down with them in the body Staren built for her, which appears as a violet-haired female human in a plain black dress. She's also obtained simple lightweight wheelchairs for the two patients, though Staren's able to walk with help.     She lets Mort take point on interacting with locals, helping move Staren and Yuna wherever Mortimer directs. Elner hovering about as well. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      The difficulties of air-traffic in Equestria require that Mort picks Staren and Yuna up with his Thunderwolf rather than the van- too much risk of accident otherwise. Once he's ascertained their physical health, the two are loaded onto the massive beast and carted off to Equestria- Reder is left behind to study their battlesite and catalogue everything, he can be trusted to handle such tasks alone. Once through the gate, they're suddenly teleported?! The works of some 'Dawn' apparently? No idea who this is but that'll work, he supposes. Once they phase into Canterlot, Ulbrecht lays low so that the two patients can be transferred into wheelchairs.      Mortimer is already shouting for doctors and orderlies and explaining the situation to them as he goes along- Switchbait and Nettle are both there, providing additional information to wizardry specialists while the two new additions are hurried along- into the same room, so that they can be more easily monitored and observed. By the time Staren even realizes he's got an IV in his arm and is being loaded into a bed he'll probably see Mort filling out paperwork on the fly. Lots of noise, lots of commotion. At least, for the first ten or so minutes. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "I'm Staren's support AI." Dawn explains, when she notices Mort's confusion about who she is. "Mostly that means helping him look up things and alerting him to interesting news, but at times like this it is appropriate to contact allies and ensure his wishes are carried out."     Reder is radioed a copy of the video from the Star Hawk's cameras so he can see what happened.     "You don't need to do that..." Staren mutters when he notices them putting in an IV. "Just fix my head..." 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Princess Luna was not certain she could help, and even less sure what the subjects of this world might think of a two-legged version of their princess. But, she knew she had to help if she could.      Even more confusing (though perhaps less so to the ponies of this world), is that when Luna gets here...she is transformed from her usual self to a pony more befitting this Equestria. Now drawing only the attention the local Luna might normally draw, she makes her way to Canterlot General. Flying is the same as normal, but when she lands she tries to stand on two legs. It works for a few moments, but then with a bit of flailing and flapping she loses her balance and falls onto all fours. She blinks, then shakes her head at herself before making her way inside.      With her ethereal mane and tail flowing out behind her in an unseen breeze, Luna makes her way to the reception desk and asks to be directed to Staren and Mortimer. Once directed, she carefully canters her way there, whether Mortimer is still filling out papers or they have been taken to a room. "How might I help?" she asks once she finds them. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Mortimer gently puts a hoof on Staren's arm. "Easy, lad. Let them do their jobs. Dependin' on how bad y'are we may need to knock yer arse out a while. Relax, okay? Yer gonna be fine- ah, Ladyship. Good t'see ya here. I'm not a hunnerd percent sure yet m'self, but we should find out in a few moments, yea?" Dawn is given acknowledgement. "Ah, new AI then. Alright. Here's what I want you to do- I left Reder, my Wartortle, at the site I picked them up from. Be a good lass and go help him catalogue everything, yea? I'll call you if we need you."      While Mortimer is dealing with chatting and paperwork, Switchbait and Nettle begin coordinating with the doctors. Horns begin to glow as the unicorn doctors link their powers with the wraithly magic of the shuppet, arcs of psychic lightning dancing around them all while Switchbait gently creates a protective barrier around Yuna's mind. The shuppet disappears into Yuna's head. If they weren't in such poor shape it would be a fantastic light show. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Getting Staren's flightsuit and the skintight bodysuit worn underneath off is a problem in itself but eventually Mort can probably find a way to get it off. 'Just cut it off' doesn't work if tried because it's all armor.     Staren gives an annoyed grunt to Mort, but after thinking about it, to the degree he CAN think about it at the moment, being knocked out sounds nice actually. He's still grumpy all the same, though. He's convinced the hospital is overkill and Nettle just needs to do her thing, but then he's not in his right mind at the moment.     "I'll send a drone." Dawn answers. It doesn't seem to affect her ability to be 'here'. Noone's volunteering exposition as to how that works unless asked, though. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Several tense minutes pass as the psychic and the magicians work their powers. Nettle comes out of Yuna's head some ten minutes later, shuppeting, "<I suspect she shall be alright but her mind is in dire need of relaxation right now, all is jumbled and.. /Messy/. The doctors I am sure, have the skills needed to ease her slumber until such time as we can determine the full extent of damage.>" Her sock-like body shakes itself out, clearly ruffled by what she has seen in there. Switchbait flutters his wings a bit, resisting the urge to shake spores all over poor Yuna to help keep her out, "<Jolly good then. Let us move on to young master Staren's mind then, Goddesses willing he ought to be in at least slightly better shape. Master Balman, would you be so kind as to ensure that Staren remains still and in one position whilst we triage his mind?>"      Mortimer looks down at Staren, over at Dawn for a moment, then back to his butler. "Yeah, sure. Hit him with some Sleep Spores if yer afraid he might wake up. Nettle, don't be afraid to use Dream Eater if it will calm his mind a bit." Nettle nods and shuppets, "" Switch flutters over Staren, gently spreading small spores to encourage a good, deep slumber. "<That should keep him a while I suspect. Shall we, Nettle?>" "<After you, dear~>"      They begin with Switchbait gently prodding at Staren's mind with his own. Careful and cautious telepathic nudges, seeing what sort of stimulus response it will provoke.. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's eyes widen when he notices Luna. Right now, she looks like the local princess, and he's too out of it to connect the dots of the other Luna asking on the radio... "Your highness! I'm honored... I'd love to help you, but Nettle's gotta fix me first..."     When Dream Eater is mentioned, Staren says "I thought that was the idea..."     He winces and grunts in pain at the telepathic probing. It's sort of like if a clumsy giant picked him up to examine him and left hid body bruised and battered, but instead it was a psychic being handling his mind. There isn't the same kind of damage Yuna has -- his mind wasn't probed as deeply and it was only a relatively brief contact -- but like a body that can barely move because of soreness and pain, his mind can hardly think. 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      It seems as though despite her talents this might be beyond Luna's abilities. She can enter dreams and affect minds, but she can't actually heal minds. She can only guide others through the labyrinth of their own mind. So, her horn glows gently and she radiats a feeling of general comfort and soothing. Without knowing more about what happened, it is the best she can do for now.      When Staren notices her, she smiles to him. "Relax, Staren. I am here to help thee, not to seek thy help." she says as she tries to sooth his troubled mind. Sleep might be the best thing for him, but she isn't going to cast a spell like that if it isn't necessary. "Thou art safe now, as is thy friend. The people here seem to know what they are doing, but I am here to offer my powers if they are needed." This Luna might not have had positive experiences with Staren, but she doesn't think he's a bad person. She rests a hoof on his shoulder to try and add to the soothing aura she is radiating. 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer had been at her 'home', observing the night sky through a telescope in the cupola of her caboose, which she converted into a mini-observatory. She was surprised to see Luna of all ponies soaring through the sky at this hour when she would normally be performing her evening duties. She decided to continue to follow her flight path through the telescope, seeing that it was leading to Canterlot General Hospital. Was somepony injured there that she was visiting? Or one that was suffering from an affliction that she had specific knowledge on? Morbid curiosity got the better of her as she headed off in the direction of the hospital. Once she arrived there she became more on guard, knowing that in their last encounter there was some friction between them when she was forbidden to practice dream walking by Luna. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Switchbait clicks his mandibles a few times. "<His mind is not nearly in as bad of shape as madam Yuna's is.. It feels.. Beaten. Not /savaged/, but like an oversized child picked it up, and was rough with its new 'toy', and then tossed him aside when bored. Easy, now..>" Switchbait flutters some more sleep spores into Staren's face, and then gestures for Nettle. "<It is your turn my- relatively- good woman.>" Nettle giggles a bit, "<Such a gentleman~ let's see how he's going in there..>" Waiting for Staren to pass out, Nettle slowly wriggles herself past the physical plane and into the land of dreams, looking for a calm spot in Staren's mind to begin her ministrations. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Oh... you don't... have to..." Staren mutters. Surely the diarchs have something better to do than moral support.     "Izzat what happened..." Staren replies to Switchbait, and then gets knocked out. 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Luna is slightly disappointed that she is not needed, but she is used to that after 1000 years of being Celestia's sister. She just stands back and lets Nettle and Switchbait and the others do their work. She stops broadcasting her soothing field and steps outside the room. She stays where she can watch, but makes sure she is not in the way of the doctors and nurses.      No doubt, she would be quite visible if Dreamgazer asks where Luna went or looks around for Luna. Luna looks lost in thought by the time Dreamgazer arrives. 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer had to make up a story at the front desk about 'a patient that almost immediately arrived and might not be on the record just yet' and was permitted to go in further. She wandered about the corridors of the hospital until she had happened upon Staren's room, seeing Luna having just stepped outside of it. She seemed distracted, the look upon her face seeming as if she was lost in thought, pondering something heavy. The small Unicorn simply watched from a distance at the end of the hallway for a moment, figuring it wouldn't be a good idea to get too close if something was troubling her. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:''' THE LAND OF DREAMS THE LABORATORY, STAREN'S PARENTS' HOUSE, OUTSIDE LAZLO      Staren awakes inside the Ego Bridge. It's like a futuristic MRI machine. Once moved out of the machine, he sits up to be hugged by his parents and Twilight. "What happened..." he eventually asks, knowing that this situation means he's been restored from backup. He's shown the video on an AR-projected screen as Dawn explains that his mind was too damaged by contact with the Warp Iris.     Accepting this, he gets up and goes about his day. Chatting with Twilight as he designs a system which he runs by Eryl, involving a computer and a self-repairing nanoswarm hive with a supply of materials, that will keep itself running for a thousand years and then assemble a synthetic body with an AI -- using the muse base code but with a personality profile based on Staren's behavior -- to act as a herald for the Warp Iris and find friends who will welcome its return, in the event that Staren is not available. Who knows what will happen in a thousand years?     Except Staren isn't experiencing this. He's watching it, like a movie.     Staren stands in a dark room, up against one transparent wall through which he watches all this happening. He knows, somehow, that he is dead. Whatever comes after awaits -- that life belongs to someone else.     "It's time." A pale woman in a ridiculously elaborate, elegant gothic dress, carrying a scythe speaks up, behind him.     "But." he protests, looking between her and the 'screen'. Twilight is laughing at some funny comment the new Staren made.     "You don't have to worry about oblivion. You made a deal. Now you can come and live with us, and imagine whatever life you desire."     Staren ignores her. He leaves the room -- there's a door -- and enters a maze of hallways. But every door he finds brings him back to the dark room.     On the screen, Staren is on the radio with Eryl and the Daedalus Initiative, discussing the design. Ainsley agrees with the idea. Kotone seems surprised at the thought of planning a thousand years ahead but finds the plan agreeable. Rory has helpful comments about people who've made such plans on her own world.     "But I don't want... to just live in an imaginary world. I want /that/ life." Staren waves a hand at the screen.     "You could imagine that life."     "It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be like... just losing my memory." 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle floats through the aether of Thoughts, tiny pinpricks of ghostly lights the only indicator of her presence. Following the currents of Pathos, she eventually arrives to discover the core of Staren's Logos. The dream plays out in front of her and makes her body bristle into thorns. "<What is this...?>" She watches the 'new' Staren, being watched by the 'old' Staren. A horrid thought crosses her undead mind for a moment- the realization of what Staren IS and how he /functions/. Oh.. Oh that means doing a /lot/ of checking up on places, later. That will be.. Unpleasant. ..But no matter. For now, this.      Nettle floats down in a simulacrum of what she looked like in life. A pale human woman with very Eastern European features, in a long black dress. "Staren.. Over here, Staren.. Come away from them, over to me. You remember me, right?" The voice is the same but more 'alive' in a sense. More /comforting/, less of the usual sinister tones that Staren is used to hearing from Nettle. She sounds almost.. Motherly. Which may be disconcerting in and of itself. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "What is this?" Mizuki's agent asks, turning to look at Nettle. "Nettle?" Staren asks. "What are you doing here? Wait! Can I become a ghost?" He starts to rush over to her, then stops. "...No, it's pointless, there's already a me living my life." He starts to pace, thinking, then groans and stumbles. Hard to think... 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Luna's ears perk as she senses a troubled dream. It breaks her out of whatever thoughts she was having, and she takes an involuntary step forward. But, she holds herself back. This is not her world, and Staren's friends seem to have the situation in hand. Hoof. Whatever. She sighs softly and takes a look around. And notices Dreamgazer looking back at her. Luna offers a slight smile before she looks back into the room. She obviously doesn't know Dreamgazer.      She can't resist. Just watching won't hurt anything, right? Luna's horn glows softly and she gently pries into the mind of Staren. She sees all that he sees in there, then blinks at the sight of the ghostly woman. Luna isn't sure a deathly creature is the best choice, but Staren seems alright.      Luna gently motions Dreamgazer over with a hoof motion. "Art thou lost, little one?" she asks, her voice carrying a kind tone unlike the usual tone of her counterpart. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle lifts a brow at the thing which seems puzzled by her appearance. Wraithly tendrils slide out from her 'hair' and snake along the ground, before leaping up to wrap the dreamthing up and suck them into Nettle's 'belly' (for lack of a better word). As it is mere dreamstuff, it can no more resist her than the leaf can resist the storm winds. Once she has disposed of that aspect of the dream, she floats forward and gently scoops up Staren into a cold but gentle hug. "It's okay. You're not dead. This is merely a bad dream.." Behind her, where Staren can't see, vast numbers of tendrils have grown teeth and mouths and are steadily consuming the dream around them- like a thousand little tentacles made out of Langolier-mouths. "Everything's okay.. ...Do you want to tell me what happened, dear?" 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer wondered if she had been left wondering if Luna was there to keep an eye upon somebody in their dreams, but she could have done that back at the castle. It was rather confusing to Dreamgazer what her exact motive was for coming here. Just then she saw Luna turn in her direction, she had been spotted...but she had instead smiled to her instead of reacting in an entirely different fashion. When she spoke the tone of voice and the words she chose were beyond belief. Had she grown so busy that they had forgotten her prior encounter? Those who didn't know Dreamgazer had mistaken her for a filly on more than a few occasions due to her small size. She simply shook her head in response to Luna for the moment, heading closer but not getting too close as she decided to gauge any additional reactions before proceeding any further. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren and the dream figment look surprised. The video stops, because Staren's not paying attention to it.     "Are you... serious?" Staren asks Nettle. "You're not just trying to make me feel better, are you? Wait, no..." he looks lost in thought a moment. "Dawn did call you... call Mort... What... happened?" He tries to think. "You were... I mean Ulbrecht was carrying me... We teleported to a hospital... must be in Equestria..."     With a little prodding, he may realize what she meant, or may on his own once she's consumed enough mental pain for him to think more easily.     "Oh! It was the only way to save the, the other universe. People were attacking it, there wasn't time... I had to show it, that we could live in peace, and what would happen if it didn't... Letting it touch my mind was the only answer I could think of. Oh man, thanks!" He hugs Nettle. "I thought... I thought this might happen," he waves a hand to indicate the dream around them. "That I might die, I mean. But... one way or another, I'll survive. And I couldn't let Yuna's sacrifice be in vain." 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle nods. The dream is rapidly consumed, the less attention Staren pays to it. Until eventually there is naught but formless void around the two. It is cold, and quiet. "There you go.." One of the tendrils remains flitting around looking for stray bits of dream. Pretty tasty all things considered! Lots of angst, existential fear, personal sorrow, longing- pretty solid meal, really. Not that she was going to remind Staren that he was basically providing her a quality meal from a fancy restaurant (he'd probably start debating on whether or not Twilight should get jealous and oh heavens that would just take forever.) Instead, she had /other/ things for him to focus on in the Void of Thoughts-      "I promise, you're very much alive. So is Yuna, but her slumber will take much more work." Her body contorts into more of a hammock-like sheet to cradle him and give him a sense of 'grounding'- or more accurately, 'stability'. "A new arrival in the Multiverse, then? This thing that touched your minds.. Did you make any /deals/ with it? Agreements, contracts? Anything of that nature at all, aside from letting it take knowledge from you? This is important, dear heart, so think carefully.." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Nah, he wouldn't. Because their friendship is built on trust and understanding, not romcom tropes.     "This is a little weird." he comments as she turns into a hammock.     "I'm very careful about 'deals'." He gestures at where the dream figment was. "That was a very special case, to make sure I have somewhere to go if all my other plans fail. As for the... the Warp Iris, we didn't even reach the stage of proper diplomacy. We gave it information, and we barely had a chance to talk to it before everything got messed up. In the end, it decided to leave and come back in a thousand years, in hopes it will recieve a better reception then."     "...The idea on the screen... Making a herald for it... It should work. I'll probably do that when I wake up." 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Luna sighs softly at the caution. "I suppose at this point in this Equestrias history..." she mutters to herself. She then speaks in a normal voice again. "If thou art not lost, didst thou come looking for me? If thou hast a problem, I am afraid it may need to wait. So far I have not been needed, but the minds of these two have been attacked and my skills could be needed at any time." she says.      Still watching the dream, Luna is...well, when she realizes what Nettle is doing, Luna gasps. "That is not how one should handle a nightmare!" she suddenly exclaims, likely confusing any who aren't watching Staren's dreams. Luna blinks in surprise, then blushes a bit and covers her mouth self-consciously with a hoof before coughing lightly. "Ah...forgive me." she says to anyone who might be staring at her. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle nods a bit. "Good.. Your dream was, to say the least, a bit worrisome. I admit, sometimes it is hard to tell if you know better, but I am glad to know that you... ...Do." A brief pause in her voice and an eye twists away independent of the other eye. It's staring 'at' Luna. The ghost is aware she is being watched, now. The princess's pathos and disgust is palpable- in a literal sense, not even figurative- to Nettle, but she doesn't care too much right now. "Alright.. A thousand years, mm? Well, that gives us plenty of time to prepare, at least.. Now what do you mean by a 'herald', dear?" 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer could only make a guess out in left field that Luna's duties had been so numerous than she simply forgot that they had met. She nodded quietly at her explanation and simple settled in as she tucked her hooves beneath herself, much like a cat would when it is at rest, showing that she was not in any hurry nor was there any urgency on her part with whatever reason she sought Luna out. She was a little surprised when she saw her suddenly exclaim something, then quickly figures it must have been something going on in the dreams of whomever she was watching over. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Worrisome? Ah... because you're a ghost, and I'm cheating death in my own way?" He sits up in the hammock. "Oh, just something that will explain the situation to whoever's around then, in case I'm... well." He makes a much slighter gesture towards where the figment was. "Ooh, then I could tell it to come find me, and once I have contact with the outside world-- wait, no, I don't know where Mizuki's world is now. Damn." He frowns and crosses his arms.     "...Anyway, the Warp Iris isn't equipped for peaceful coexistance yet. They need to do something about that... aura of dread thing it has going on, and they'll need psychic experts on hand to make sure it doesn't accidentally hurt anyone. So... things will go better if anyone who might be willing to help it, knows what they're dealing with. Thus, a herald: A robot that will activate in the distant future and alert people that it's coming." 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle shakes her head. "Silly boy.. No, I was worried because I am.. Unsure of some things, now. But I will be sure of them soon enough. I'm cheating death too, after all." Warp Iris. The Master will be curious of this, indeed. "Aura of dread? Mmm, a solid defense... Ahh, so that's what your herald is? Clever boy. That should be most sufficient for such a task. Don't overthink things, for now. Relax.. ...For the time being, you will have no dreams. All will be as this, a void of thoughts. But that will pass in short order. In an hour's time- real time, not dream time- I shall have the Master waken you, and then you can try and rest properly, again. Until then.. I will stay here and keep you company." 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Luna blinks in surprise as Nettle reacts to her, but it makes sense. Dreamwalkers can sense each other, right? Although admittedly, Luna has not met any other than herself until now. Luna doesn't voice or even broadcast any apology for her reaction. Destroying a nightmare can potentially be as bad as letting it run freely if the core issues are not handled. But again, Nettle shows that she has some experience with this as she starts talking to Staren about what happened.      Luna looks to Dreamgazer again, then smiles softly. "Thou art quite the chatterbox, I see." she says, showing a bit of the sarcasm for which Luna is known. "Do not be shy. I shall not bite." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "That's kind of you." Staren replies, smiling.     "It's not a defense. It's just... part of how it is. Like a vampire that needs blood to live whether it wants to hurt anyone or not. It's an eldritch being from a very strange reality... it IS a reality, itself, somehow, and when it unified it became... this thing. But it seemed amenable to peaceful coexistance. It wants to learn things."     He leans back on the hammock, with his hands behind his head. "What are you unsure of?" 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer's expression had shifted from caution to one that seemed more at ease as she got closer to Luna before settling in again. No time like the present then to start things back on the right hoof once more. She had not been wearing her porter's uniform that she usually did, having left that at home. Though she did carry a small pouch around her neck that seemed to have something weighty tucked away inside of it. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle waves a hand dismissively. "Nothing important, now. My biggest concern was the veracity of your nightmare.. But it seems that you have made no such agreements or arrangements that it needs to be given too much thought." At least, not while here in the dreamscape. That was a concern for the lands of the living and waking.. 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Luna notices the pouch, but as it seems that things are under control here she decides that she should return to her own world. She breaks her link to Staren and Nettle and gives a smiles to Mortimer. "I cannot say I approve of her methods, but thy ghostly friend seems quite skilled. As such, I shall take my leave. If I am needed, I am but a call away." she says, then makes her way past Dreamgazer. "If we meet again, I hope thy feline will have released thy tongue." she says, smirking playfully.      The princess makes her way out of the hospital and heads back to her home. If anyone happens to be watching, they might be confused to see her head for the local warpgate rather than the castle. 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer figured she had resolved any business that had been come here to take care of. She was not sure if Luna would remember speaking to her later or not but this at least made her felt a little more comfortable with being in Canterlot at this time. She pulled herself to her hooves and trots back to the train station in order to get some rest. It turned out to be a rather interesting night, though more peculiar than interesting. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren ohs. "The dream was certainly... plausible. I don't know for sure what happens when I die. It may be that the me that died moves on, while another is brought back. Although..." Staren rubs his chin. "That would not be possible, if one's aura moves with one to the afterlife. Without it, it shouldn't be possible to revive me. But these are details that are very hard to be 100% certain of, empirically. As for her... I did make a contract with Mizuki, to go to her world when... IF I finally die for good. No other afterlife has been promised me by religion or custom, after all." 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Now Nettle looked /worried/. "Oh, dear.. ...Tell me- no. I am no expert on such things. When you awaken, I want you to speak with the Master on your contracts. Whether or not someone else has offered you an afterlife, such contracts.. Are dangerous, at best. Now perhaps, you will see why I worry for you. As for me.. Well, I shall have a look around, at places where you have fallen before. But for now I can feel that you are the same You that I have known for these years of Multiversal existence. No matter. No more overthinking. Relax.. It sounds odd to hear that in this place, perhaps, but you aren't quite there yet." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren crosses his arms. "It was a verbal agreement, and who knows if it still holds now that Mizuki is gone... But alright."     He tries to get comfortable and rest. At Nettle's affirmation of his continuity of self, he gives a small "Heh." before closing his eyes. 
}}

5288/Warp Iris: Nettled

2017-06-02T09:10:29Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2017/06/01 |Location=Equestria |Synopsis=In the aftermath of the last encounter with the Warp Iris, Staren is reminded that an old friend may be ab..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2017/06/01
|Location=Equestria
|Synopsis=In the aftermath of the last encounter with the Warp Iris, Staren is reminded that an old friend may be able to help...
|Thanks=Mortimer
|Cast of Characters=42, 454, 993, 1113, 385
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Mort finds the two of them at the scene of a battle. There's an army nearby, and signs of a skirmish like scorched ground and severed bits of eldritch flesh and pools of ichor. They're resting on improvised beds -- Staren is trying to sleep on a blanket using his bag for a pillow, and grumbles impatiently when Mort asks for them to move instead of checking them there. He isn't much help, but doesn't provide much resistance either.     Once they come out the Equestrian warpgate, Dawn is ready to teleport the whole party from there to outside Canterlot General. She beams down with them in the body Staren built for her, which appears as a violet-haired female human in a plain black dress. She's also obtained simple lightweight wheelchairs for the two patients, though Staren's able to walk with help.     She lets Mort take point on interacting with locals, helping move Staren and Yuna wherever Mortimer directs. Elner hovering about as well. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      The difficulties of air-traffic in Equestria require that Mort picks Staren and Yuna up with his Thunderwolf rather than the van- too much risk of accident otherwise. Once he's ascertained their physical health, the two are loaded onto the massive beast and carted off to Equestria- Reder is left behind to study their battlesite and catalogue everything, he can be trusted to handle such tasks alone. Once through the gate, they're suddenly teleported?! The works of some 'Dawn' apparently? No idea who this is but that'll work, he supposes. Once they phase into Canterlot, Ulbrecht lays low so that the two patients can be transferred into wheelchairs.      Mortimer is already shouting for doctors and orderlies and explaining the situation to them as he goes along- Switchbait and Nettle are both there, providing additional information to wizardry specialists while the two new additions are hurried along- into the same room, so that they can be more easily monitored and observed. By the time Staren even realizes he's got an IV in his arm and is being loaded into a bed he'll probably see Mort filling out paperwork on the fly. Lots of noise, lots of commotion. At least, for the first ten or so minutes. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "I'm Staren's support AI." Dawn explains, when she notices Mort's confusion about who she is. "Mostly that means helping him look up things and alerting him to interesting news, but at times like this it is appropriate to contact allies and ensure his wishes are carried out."     Reder is radioed a copy of the video from the Star Hawk's cameras so he can see what happened.     "You don't need to do that..." Staren mutters when he notices them putting in an IV. "Just fix my head..." 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Princess Luna was not certain she could help, and even less sure what the subjects of this world might think of a two-legged version of their princess. But, she knew she had to help if she could.      Even more confusing (though perhaps less so to the ponies of this world), is that when Luna gets here...she is transformed from her usual self to a pony more befitting this Equestria. Now drawing only the attention the local Luna might normally draw, she makes her way to Canterlot General. Flying is the same as normal, but when she lands she tries to stand on two legs. It works for a few moments, but then with a bit of flailing and flapping she loses her balance and falls onto all fours. She blinks, then shakes her head at herself before making her way inside.      With her ethereal mane and tail flowing out behind her in an unseen breeze, Luna makes her way to the reception desk and asks to be directed to Staren and Mortimer. Once directed, she carefully canters her way there, whether Mortimer is still filling out papers or they have been taken to a room. "How might I help?" she asks once she finds them. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Mortimer gently puts a hoof on Staren's arm. "Easy, lad. Let them do their jobs. Dependin' on how bad y'are we may need to knock yer arse out a while. Relax, okay? Yer gonna be fine- ah, Ladyship. Good t'see ya here. I'm not a hunnerd percent sure yet m'self, but we should find out in a few moments, yea?" Dawn is given acknowledgement. "Ah, new AI then. Alright. Here's what I want you to do- I left Reder, my Wartortle, at the site I picked them up from. Be a good lass and go help him catalogue everything, yea? I'll call you if we need you."      While Mortimer is dealing with chatting and paperwork, Switchbait and Nettle begin coordinating with the doctors. Horns begin to glow as the unicorn doctors link their powers with the wraithly magic of the shuppet, arcs of psychic lightning dancing around them all while Switchbait gently creates a protective barrier around Yuna's mind. The shuppet disappears into Yuna's head. If they weren't in such poor shape it would be a fantastic light show. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Getting Staren's flightsuit and the skintight bodysuit worn underneath off is a problem in itself but eventually Mort can probably find a way to get it off. 'Just cut it off' doesn't work if tried because it's all armor.     Staren gives an annoyed grunt to Mort, but after thinking about it, to the degree he CAN think about it at the moment, being knocked out sounds nice actually. He's still grumpy all the same, though. He's convinced the hospital is overkill and Nettle just needs to do her thing, but then he's not in his right mind at the moment.     "I'll send a drone." Dawn answers. It doesn't seem to affect her ability to be 'here', though. Noone's volunteering exposition as to how that works unless asked, though. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Several tense minutes pass as the psychic and the magicians work their powers. Nettle comes out of Yuna's head some ten minutes later, shuppeting, "<I suspect she shall be alright but her mind is in dire need of relaxation right now, all is jumbled and.. /Messy/. The doctors I am sure, have the skills needed to ease her slumber until such time as we can determine the full extent of damage.>" Her sock-like body shakes itself out, clearly ruffled by what she has seen in there. Switchbait flutters his wings a bit, resisting the urge to shake spores all over poor Yuna to help keep her out, "<Jolly good then. Let us move on to young master Staren's mind then, Goddesses willing he ought to be in at least slightly better shape. Master Balman, would you be so kind as to ensure that Staren remains still and in one position whilst we triage his mind?>"      Mortimer looks down at Staren, over at Dawn for a moment, then back to his butler. "Yeah, sure. Hit him with some Sleep Spores if yer afraid he might wake up. Nettle, don't be afraid to use Dream Eater if it will calm his mind a bit." Nettle nods and shuppets, "" Switch flutters over Staren, gently spreading small spores to encourage a good, deep slumber. "<That should keep him a while I suspect. Shall we, Nettle?>" "<After you, dear~>"      They begin with Switchbait gently prodding at Staren's mind with his own. Careful and cautious telepathic nudges, seeing what sort of stimulus response it will provoke.. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's eyes widen when he notices Luna. Right now, she looks like the local princess, and he's too out of it to connect the dots of the other Luna asking on the radio... "Your highness! I'm honored... I'd love to help you, but Nettle's gotta fix me first..."     When Dream Eater is mentioned, Staren says "I thought that was the idea..."     He winces and grunts in pain at the telepathic probing. It's sort of like if a clumsy giant picked him up to examine him and left hid body bruised and battered, but instead it was a psychic being handling his mind. There isn't the same kind of damage Yuna has -- his mind wasn't probed as deeply and it was only a relatively brief contact -- but like a body that can barely move because of soreness and pain, his mind can hardly think. 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      It seems as though despite her talents this might be beyond Luna's abilities. She can enter dreams and affect minds, but she can't actually heal minds. She can only guide others through the labyrinth of their own mind. So, her horn glows gently and she radiats a feeling of general comfort and soothing. Without knowing more about what happened, it is the best she can do for now.      When Staren notices her, she smiles to him. "Relax, Staren. I am here to help thee, not to seek thy help." she says as she tries to sooth his troubled mind. Sleep might be the best thing for him, but she isn't going to cast a spell like that if it isn't necessary. "Thou art safe now, as is thy friend. The people here seem to know what they are doing, but I am here to offer my powers if they are needed." This Luna might not have had positive experiences with Staren, but she doesn't think he's a bad person. She rests a hoof on his shoulder to try and add to the soothing aura she is radiating. 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer had been at her 'home', observing the night sky through a telescope in the cupola of her caboose, which she converted into a mini-observatory. She was surprised to see Luna of all ponies soaring through the sky at this hour when she would normally be performing her evening duties. She decided to continue to follow her flight path through the telescope, seeing that it was leading to Canterlot General Hospital. Was somepony injured there that she was visiting? Or one that was suffering from an affliction that she had specific knowledge on? Morbid curiosity got the better of her as she headed off in the direction of the hospital. Once she arrived there she became more on guard, knowing that in their last encounter there was some friction between them when she was forbidden to practice dream walking by Luna. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Switchbait clicks his mandibles a few times. "<His mind is not nearly in as bad of shape as madam Yuna's is.. It feels.. Beaten. Not /savaged/, but like an oversized child picked it up, and was rough with its new 'toy', and then tossed him aside when bored. Easy, now..>" Switchbait flutters some more sleep spores into Staren's face, and then gestures for Nettle. "<It is your turn my- relatively- good woman.>" Nettle giggles a bit, "<Such a gentleman~ let's see how he's going in there..>" Waiting for Staren to pass out, Nettle slowly wriggles herself past the physical plane and into the land of dreams, looking for a calm spot in Staren's mind to begin her ministrations. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Oh... you don't... have to..." Staren mutters. Surely the diarchs have something better to do than moral support.     "Izzat what happened..." Staren replies to Switchbait, and then gets knocked out. 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Luna is slightly disappointed that she is not needed, but she is used to that after 1000 years of being Celestia's sister. She just stands back and lets Nettle and Switchbait and the others do their work. She stops broadcasting her soothing field and steps outside the room. She stays where she can watch, but makes sure she is not in the way of the doctors and nurses.      No doubt, she would be quite visible if Dreamgazer asks where Luna went or looks around for Luna. Luna looks lost in thought by the time Dreamgazer arrives. 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer had to make up a story at the front desk about 'a patient that almost immediately arrived and might not be on the record just yet' and was permitted to go in further. She wandered about the corridors of the hospital until she had happened upon Staren's room, seeing Luna having just stepped outside of it. She seemed distracted, the look upon her face seeming as if she was lost in thought, pondering something heavy. The small Unicorn simply watched from a distance at the end of the hallway for a moment, figuring it wouldn't be a good idea to get too close if something was troubling her. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:''' THE LAND OF DREAMS THE LABORATORY, STAREN'S PARENTS' HOUSE, OUTSIDE LAZLO      Staren awakes inside the Ego Bridge. It's like a futuristic MRI machine. Once moved out of the machine, he sits up to be hugged by his parents and Twilight. "What happened..." he eventually asks, knowing that this situation means he's been restored from backup. He's shown the video on an AR-projected screen as Dawn explains that his mind was too damaged by contact with the Warp Iris.     Accepting this, he gets up and goes about his day. Chatting with Twilight as he designs a system which he runs by Eryl, involving a computer and a self-repairing nanoswarm hive with a supply of materials, that will keep itself running for a thousand years and then assemble a synthetic body with an AI -- using the muse base code but with a personality profile based on Staren's behavior -- to act as a herald for the Warp Iris and find friends who will welcome its return, in the event that Staren is not available. Who knows what will happen in a thousand years?     Except Staren isn't experiencing this. He's watching it, like a movie.     Staren stands in a dark room, up against one transparent wall through which he watches all this happening. He knows, somehow, that he is dead. Whatever comes after awaits -- that life belongs to someone else.     "It's time." A pale woman in a ridiculously elaborate, elegant gothic dress, carrying a scythe speaks up, behind him.     "But." he protests, looking between her and the 'screen'. Twilight is laughing at some funny comment the new Staren made.     "You don't have to worry about oblivion. You made a deal. Now you can come and live with us, and imagine whatever life you desire."     Staren ignores her. He leaves the room -- there's a door -- and enters a maze of hallways. But every door he finds brings him back to the dark room.     On the screen, Staren is on the radio with Eryl and the Daedalus Initiative, discussing the design. Ainsley agrees with the idea. Kotone seems surprised at the thought of planning a thousand years ahead but finds the plan agreeable. Rory has helpful comments about people who've made such plans on her own world.     "But I don't want... to just live in an imaginary world. I want /that/ life." Staren waves a hand at the screen.     "You could imagine that life."     "It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be like... just losing my memory." 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle floats through the aether of Thoughts, tiny pinpricks of ghostly lights the only indicator of her presence. Following the currents of Pathos, she eventually arrives to discover the core of Staren's Logos. The dream plays out in front of her and makes her body bristle into thorns. "<What is this...?>" She watches the 'new' Staren, being watched by the 'old' Staren. A horrid thought crosses her undead mind for a moment- the realization of what Staren IS and how he /functions/. Oh.. Oh that means doing a /lot/ of checking up on places, later. That will be.. Unpleasant. ..But no matter. For now, this.      Nettle floats down in a simulacrum of what she looked like in life. A pale human woman with very Eastern European features, in a long black dress. "Staren.. Over here, Staren.. Come away from them, over to me. You remember me, right?" The voice is the same but more 'alive' in a sense. More /comforting/, less of the usual sinister tones that Staren is used to hearing from Nettle. She sounds almost.. Motherly. Which may be disconcerting in and of itself. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "What is this?" Mizuki's agent asks, turning to look at Nettle. "Nettle?" Staren asks. "What are you doing here? Wait! Can I become a ghost?" He starts to rush over to her, then stops. "...No, it's pointless, there's already a me living my life." He starts to pace, thinking, then groans and stumbles. Hard to think... 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Luna's ears perk as she senses a troubled dream. It breaks her out of whatever thoughts she was having, and she takes an involuntary step forward. But, she holds herself back. This is not her world, and Staren's friends seem to have the situation in hand. Hoof. Whatever. She sighs softly and takes a look around. And notices Dreamgazer looking back at her. Luna offers a slight smile before she looks back into the room. She obviously doesn't know Dreamgazer.      She can't resist. Just watching won't hurt anything, right? Luna's horn glows softly and she gently pries into the mind of Staren. She sees all that he sees in there, then blinks at the sight of the ghostly woman. Luna isn't sure a deathly creature is the best choice, but Staren seems alright.      Luna gently motions Dreamgazer over with a hoof motion. "Art thou lost, little one?" she asks, her voice carrying a kind tone unlike the usual tone of her counterpart. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle lifts a brow at the thing which seems puzzled by her appearance. Wraithly tendrils slide out from her 'hair' and snake along the ground, before leaping up to wrap the dreamthing up and suck them into Nettle's 'belly' (for lack of a better word). As it is mere dreamstuff, it can no more resist her than the leaf can resist the storm winds. Once she has disposed of that aspect of the dream, she floats forward and gently scoops up Staren into a cold but gentle hug. "It's okay. You're not dead. This is merely a bad dream.." Behind her, where Staren can't see, vast numbers of tendrils have grown teeth and mouths and are steadily consuming the dream around them- like a thousand little tentacles made out of Langolier-mouths. "Everything's okay.. ...Do you want to tell me what happened, dear?" 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer wondered if she had been left wondering if Luna was there to keep an eye upon somebody in their dreams, but she could have done that back at the castle. It was rather confusing to Dreamgazer what her exact motive was for coming here. Just then she saw Luna turn in her direction, she had been spotted...but she had instead smiled to her instead of reacting in an entirely different fashion. When she spoke the tone of voice and the words she chose were beyond belief. Had she grown so busy that they had forgotten her prior encounter? Those who didn't know Dreamgazer had mistaken her for a filly on more than a few occasions due to her small size. She simply shook her head in response to Luna for the moment, heading closer but not getting too close as she decided to gauge any additional reactions before proceeding any further. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren and the dream figment look surprised. The video stops, because Staren's not paying attention to it.     "Are you... serious?" Staren asks Nettle. "You're not just trying to make me feel better, are you? Wait, no..." he looks lost in thought a moment. "Dawn did call you... call Mort... What... happened?" He tries to think. "You were... I mean Ulbrecht was carrying me... We teleported to a hospital... must be in Equestria..."     With a little prodding, he may realize what she meant, or may on his own once she's consumed enough mental pain for him to think more easily.     "Oh! It was the only way to save the, the other universe. People were attacking it, there wasn't time... I had to show it, that we could live in peace, and what would happen if it didn't... Letting it touch my mind was the only answer I could think of. Oh man, thanks!" He hugs Nettle. "I thought... I thought this might happen," he waves a hand to indicate the dream around them. "That I might die, I mean. But... one way or another, I'll survive. And I couldn't let Yuna's sacrifice be in vain." 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle nods. The dream is rapidly consumed, the less attention Staren pays to it. Until eventually there is naught but formless void around the two. It is cold, and quiet. "There you go.." One of the tendrils remains flitting around looking for stray bits of dream. Pretty tasty all things considered! Lots of angst, existential fear, personal sorrow, longing- pretty solid meal, really. Not that she was going to remind Staren that he was basically providing her a quality meal from a fancy restaurant (he'd probably start debating on whether or not Twilight should get jealous and oh heavens that would just take forever.) Instead, she had /other/ things for him to focus on in the Void of Thoughts-      "I promise, you're very much alive. So is Yuna, but her slumber will take much more work." Her body contorts into more of a hammock-like sheet to cradle him and give him a sense of 'grounding'- or more accurately, 'stability'. "A new arrival in the Multiverse, then? This thing that touched your minds.. Did you make any /deals/ with it? Agreements, contracts? Anything of that nature at all, aside from letting it take knowledge from you? This is important, dear heart, so think carefully.." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Nah, he wouldn't. Because their friendship is built on trust and understanding, not romcom tropes.     "This is a little weird." he comments as she turns into a hammock.     "I'm very careful about 'deals'." He gestures at where the dream figment was. "That was a very special case, to make sure I have somewhere to go if all my other plans fail. As for the... the Warp Iris, we didn't even reach the stage of proper diplomacy. We gave it information, and we barely had a chance to talk to it before everything got messed up. In the end, it decided to leave and come back in a thousand years, in hopes it will recieve a better reception then."     "...The idea on the screen... Making a herald for it... It should work. I'll probably do that when I wake up." 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Luna sighs softly at the caution. "I suppose at this point in this Equestrias history..." she mutters to herself. She then speaks in a normal voice again. "If thou art not lost, didst thou come looking for me? If thou hast a problem, I am afraid it may need to wait. So far I have not been needed, but the minds of these two have been attacked and my skills could be needed at any time." she says.      Still watching the dream, Luna is...well, when she realizes what Nettle is doing, Luna gasps. "That is not how one should handle a nightmare!" she suddenly exclaims, likely confusing any who aren't watching Staren's dreams. Luna blinks in surprise, then blushes a bit and covers her mouth self-consciously with a hoof before coughing lightly. "Ah...forgive me." she says to anyone who might be staring at her. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle nods a bit. "Good.. Your dream was, to say the least, a bit worrisome. I admit, sometimes it is hard to tell if you know better, but I am glad to know that you... ...Do." A brief pause in her voice and an eye twists away independent of the other eye. It's staring 'at' Luna. The ghost is aware she is being watched, now. The princess's pathos and disgust is palpable- in a literal sense, not even figurative- to Nettle, but she doesn't care too much right now. "Alright.. A thousand years, mm? Well, that gives us plenty of time to prepare, at least.. Now what do you mean by a 'herald', dear?" 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer could only make a guess out in left field that Luna's duties had been so numerous than she simply forgot that they had met. She nodded quietly at her explanation and simple settled in as she tucked her hooves beneath herself, much like a cat would when it is at rest, showing that she was not in any hurry nor was there any urgency on her part with whatever reason she sought Luna out. She was a little surprised when she saw her suddenly exclaim something, then quickly figures it must have been something going on in the dreams of whomever she was watching over. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Worrisome? Ah... because you're a ghost, and I'm cheating death in my own way?" He sits up in the hammock. "Oh, just something that will explain the situation to whoever's around then, in case I'm... well." He makes a much slighter gesture towards where the figment was. "Ooh, then I could tell it to come find me, and once I have contact with the outside world-- wait, no, I don't know where Mizuki's world is now. Damn." He frowns and crosses his arms.     "...Anyway, the Warp Iris isn't equipped for peaceful coexistance yet. They need to do something about that... aura of dread thing it has going on, and they'll need psychic experts on hand to make sure it doesn't accidentally hurt anyone. So... things will go better if anyone who might be willing to help it, knows what they're dealing with. Thus, a herald: A robot that will activate in the distant future and alert people that it's coming." 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle shakes her head. "Silly boy.. No, I was worried because I am.. Unsure of some things, now. But I will be sure of them soon enough. I'm cheating death too, after all." Warp Iris. The Master will be curious of this, indeed. "Aura of dread? Mmm, a solid defense... Ahh, so that's what your herald is? Clever boy. That should be most sufficient for such a task. Don't overthink things, for now. Relax.. ...For the time being, you will have no dreams. All will be as this, a void of thoughts. But that will pass in short order. In an hour's time- real time, not dream time- I shall have the Master waken you, and then you can try and rest properly, again. Until then.. I will stay here and keep you company." 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Luna blinks in surprise as Nettle reacts to her, but it makes sense. Dreamwalkers can sense each other, right? Although admittedly, Luna has not met any other than herself until now. Luna doesn't voice or even broadcast any apology for her reaction. Destroying a nightmare can potentially be as bad as letting it run freely if the core issues are not handled. But again, Nettle shows that she has some experience with this as she starts talking to Staren about what happened.      Luna looks to Dreamgazer again, then smiles softly. "Thou art quite the chatterbox, I see." she says, showing a bit of the sarcasm for which Luna is known. "Do not be shy. I shall not bite." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "That's kind of you." Staren replies, smiling.     "It's not a defense. It's just... part of how it is. Like a vampire that needs blood to live whether it wants to hurt anyone or not. It's an eldritch being from a very strange reality... it IS a reality, itself, somehow, and when it unified it became... this thing. But it seemed amenable to peaceful coexistance. It wants to learn things."     He leans back on the hammock, with his hands behind his head. "What are you unsure of?" 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer's expression had shifted from caution to one that seemed more at ease as she got closer to Luna before settling in again. No time like the present then to start things back on the right hoof once more. She had not been wearing her porter's uniform that she usually did, having left that at home. Though she did carry a small pouch around her neck that seemed to have something weighty tucked away inside of it. 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Nettle waves a hand dismissively. "Nothing important, now. My biggest concern was the veracity of your nightmare.. But it seems that you have made no such agreements or arrangements that it needs to be given too much thought." At least, not while here in the dreamscape. That was a concern for the lands of the living and waking.. 

:'''{{#var:993|Princess Luna (993)}} has posed:'''      Luna notices the pouch, but as it seems that things are under control here she decides that she should return to her own world. She breaks her link to Staren and Nettle and gives a smiles to Mortimer. "I cannot say I approve of her methods, but thy ghostly friend seems quite skilled. As such, I shall take my leave. If I am needed, I am but a call away." she says, then makes her way past Dreamgazer. "If we meet again, I hope thy feline will have released thy tongue." she says, smirking playfully.      The princess makes her way out of the hospital and heads back to her home. If anyone happens to be watching, they might be confused to see her head for the local warpgate rather than the castle. 

:'''{{#var:1113|Dreamgazer (1113)}} has posed:''' Dreamgazer figured she had resolved any business that had been come here to take care of. She was not sure if Luna would remember speaking to her later or not but this at least made her felt a little more comfortable with being in Canterlot at this time. She pulled herself to her hooves and trots back to the train station in order to get some rest. It turned out to be a rather interesting night, though more peculiar than interesting. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren ohs. "The dream was certainly... plausible. I don't know for sure what happens when I die. It may be that the me that died moves on, while another is brought back. Although..." Staren rubs his chin. "That would not be possible, if one's aura moves with one to the afterlife. Without it, it shouldn't be possible to revive me. But these are details that are very hard to be 100% certain of, empirically. As for her... I did make a contract with Mizuki, to go to her world when... IF I finally die for good. No other afterlife has been promised me by religion or custom, after all." 

:'''{{#var:454|Mortimer Balman (454)}} has posed:'''      Now Nettle looked /worried/. "Oh, dear.. ...Tell me- no. I am no expert on such things. When you awaken, I want you to speak with the Master on your contracts. Whether or not someone else has offered you an afterlife, such contracts.. Are dangerous, at best. Now perhaps, you will see why I worry for you. As for me.. Well, I shall have a look around, at places where you have fallen before. But for now I can feel that you are the same You that I have known for these years of Multiversal existence. No matter. No more overthinking. Relax.. It sounds odd to hear that in this place, perhaps, but you aren't quite there yet." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren crosses his arms. "It was a verbal agreement, and who knows if it still holds now that Mizuki is gone... But alright."     He tries to get comfortable and rest. At Nettle's affirmation of his continuity of self, he gives a small "Heh." before closing his eyes. 
}}

Opportunity (Staren)

2017-04-03T07:16:08Z

Staren: Fixed repetition of a line

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/11
|Location=Equestria
|Synopsis=In the wake of Njorun's fall, Staren knows what really matters to him. And in the next few days, the League sends an odd pair coached to recruit him...
|Cast of Characters=42
}}
<nowiki>Staren floats above the plateau full of refugees, sitting on the broom Belldandy gave him all those years ago, staring at the devestation wrought in Njorun's fall.

But what matters to him most, isn't here.

<<Beam me up.>> He transmits to Kotone and Slipbolt. <>

And he disappears in a beam of light.

He appears aboard the ship -- The aesthetic of some long-gone human empire, mixed with Kotone's own. He offers Kotone and Shacklebolt, her Glitch crewmember, curt nods as he steps off the teleportation pad and immediately sets a camera drone over it, which disappears in another beam of light.

For tense seconds, Staren waits. Blessedly, it isn't long enough for him to begin to seriously consider that she might be gone.

The drone reappears. The teleporters are still working. Staren steps onto the pad without further comment.

Staren is on his ship. He's immediately connected to external cameras. The planet is still there. He teleports down, in front of a house shaped like a tree. He can see her through the window, and sighs in relief before knocking on the door.</nowiki>

----

<nowiki>Staren skates along the path from Ponyville to the warpgate on hovershoes. He's retained his natural form today, it's just easier. And he's going to set out into space soon, but it would be good to check first what places are 'nearby' in the warpgate network -- whether they hold potential hazards that might attack Equestria, or well-connected hub worlds that might serve as a source of information, or other resources he can use. He sees two unicorns coming the other way and offers a friendly nod; they stop. "Staren, I presume?" One speaks. The pair are dressed in early 20th century garb, but he can't tell if that makes them offworlders or some of the locals that prefer to wear clothes. They look similar, save that one sports a moustache.

Staren comes to a stop, nodding and giving the pair a scrutinizing look. "Do I... know you?"

"Oh no, I don't think so! We've been sent here to talk to you about an... opportunity." Replies the cleanshaven one. The mustachioed one's horn glows, levitating a smartphone before him. It plays a video, of a man beginning an address: "People of the Multiverse, we stand in the wake of tremendous cataclysm..."

Staren nods and waves dismissively. "Yes, yes, I saw it on the Starknet. I've thought about talking to them soon. If you came all this way just to show me that, I'm afraid you're--"

"Ah, but there /is/ more to it than that, Staren." The first speaks up again, as the second puts the phone away before speaking in turn: "This is in the interest of full disclosure! The League knows you hate people decieving you, and doesn't want to tell a lie of omission." The first nods to the other, then turns to Staren and continues: "You see, the League attracts all kinds. People of many different... proclivities." "Philosophies." "Moral tendencies." "Attitudes and behaviors." "Ethical standards." Staren's eyes dart as the pair rapidly speak in turn. "And it would be a tragedy." "A /tragedy/." "If you were to walk in the front door, see something you don't like," "or some/one/," "and walk right back out again." "A waste of potential! A /waste/!" "So we're being up front with you! There will be people you most /certainly/ do not like in the League."

Staren blinks. "You're... here to /dissuade/ me?"

The moustachioed one shakes his head with a "Nnnonononono!" that sounds a bit like a whinny, while the other raises a forehoof. "Oh no, it's as I said /before/, we come to you with an /opportunity/! But that opportunity isn't just a /lab/, or a /research budget/. You see, the League /needs/ your influence! Those with... /ethical/, /moral/ concerns! Your presence" "Or that of others like you!" "Is /essential/ to the League's mission! Those of keen mind /and/ morals are needed to help the less..." "Morally focused?" "ethically concerned scientists find ways to conduct their experiments in more... palatable ways." "It's good for PR!"

Staren furrows his brow slightly and purses his lips in thought. Sensing they've nearly closed the sale, the first pony leans forward and continues: "Full disclosure once again! It's in our own self-interest. Not only because fewer people will invest if the League is seen as entirely lacking in morals... but it's in the interest of the mission, as well!" "Progress!" "Yes! /How/ can we achieve progress if noone trusts us? It's that, ah, that, ah," The first pony makes a circular motion with his forehoof. The second pony, with the moustache, looks at the smartphone. "Trolley problem." "Yes! The transplant version of the trolley problem. If doctors go around cutting one person up to save five more, then they end up unable to help anypony because everypony is afraid the doctors will cut them up! And that's not progress! All our hard work..." "Our blood, sweat, tears, and budgets!" "for naught!" "for /nothing/!" "It would be a tragedy." "/Tragedy./" "If the League sets out to improve the state of things and no one will accept its help! That's why we /need/ you. So, what do you say?" The first pony smiles and holds out a forehoof as if expecting a shake, or a bump. The second coughs, and levitates a piece of paper to Staren. "We /do/ have a message for you." The catboy reads it:

You've tried the hero thing. Fighting villain after villain without end, hoping your masters know what they're doing. But it didn't change the Multiverse. We're not asking you to stop; One less evil in the world is one less evil. But if you could put a little of your time into something greater to change the world, would you be willing to try a new approach?

They look at him, curiously, as his hand holding the note drops to his side.

"I'll think about it."

Staren walks past the pair, lost in thought.

They watch him go. "...Well, /that's/ gone better than some of our endeavors, at least." The cleanshaven unicorn turns to the other, who nods. "Certainly." "...So, did he want us to talk to the plant mare in the Everfree?" The moustachioed one gets out the smartphone again.</nowiki>

5121/The Mad Magician Comes To Call

2017-03-07T03:07:52Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2017/03/06 |Location=Beacon of Progress |Synopsis=Theurgus seeks out Flamel's bosses after talking to him. Instead, she meets Staren, Nine, and Rha..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2017/03/06
|Location=Beacon of Progress
|Synopsis=Theurgus seeks out Flamel's bosses after talking to him. Instead, she meets Staren, Nine, and Rhapsody.
|Cast of Characters=42, 1103, 325, 269
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The Beacon of Progress!     The land juts out into the ocean here, close to water level compared to the high cliffs behind it. The Tooth has long been carved into a tower and many rooms escavated inside -- the League's members certainly have ample ways of doing so!     Now, there's a decent amount of traffic coming and going, by land, air, and sea. Scientists, engineers and inventors, adventurers and mercenaries -- it takes all types to keep the League running, except the type that would fight against progress! Staren, at this particular moment, is outside where a few people are mingling around, as someone showing off a refinement in oven technology has used it to bake cookies. Mm, fresh, chocolate chip cookies. That's a good reason to come down from your ivory tower for a bit. 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     Click, click, click.     That's the sound of hard heelboots walking along the stone. The source comes into view a few moments later. A tallish woman, blue hair flowing in the light sea breeze as she holds her pointed hat down so it doesn't blow away. Blue eyes catch the site of the building, and a look of academic appreciation crosses her face. "Facinating. That such things could exist outside of the System..." She keeps walking, and finally the smell of cookies catches her nose.     Theurgus angles over, and with a lofted hand and a pleasant smile. "Greetings and salutations!" she offers as way of greeting. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's ears turn towards the newcomer, followed by his eyes. He looks her over, chewing a mouthful of cookie. While using his headcomputer to check if she's in the League's personnel file. And then to compare her voice to the one just heard on the radio. After an awkward moment of chewing, he swallows, and smiles a bit. "Hi. You're here to discuss... something about Parsons, I take it?" 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     Not far from the new marvel of baking technology, a mostly white and 'red headed' dragon is enjoying the sweetened results. Such baking needs to be documented! Though not so much by the guildmaster. There's a pair of magewrights nearby with clipboards drawing a lot of notes. Maybe some of the tech used for heating could be adapted! Who knows?     Seeing as she was the one to invite Theurgus to the Beacon, the sound of the magician's arrival earns both a wave and an offer of the deliciousness the new oven produced only a little while earlier. "Hello, there!" and then a cookie is presented. "Welcome to the Beacon! That.." A motion at Staren, "Is Staren, I'm Rhapsody Mizzet and .. well the rest can introduce themselves. Can we have your name, please?" 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     Theurgus nods, doffing her hat and bowing in a flourished sweep. "Theurgus, DCC of Diamond Drive of the System, The Mad Magician, at your service." she replies to Rhapsody, placing the hat back atop her head, before accepting the cookie. "I spoke with your colleague just yesterday. I recently reconnected with The System's hub after several terracycles offline. Reasons for this I will not go into."     She munches the cookie, nodding appreciatively. "Wonderful." she comments, before resuming. "We, discussed his knowledge of The Organization, a terrible threat not only to The System, but to this greater world as well. They have agents everywhere, far wider spread than I had originally feared." 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     The.. System. Huh. This sounds -fascinating- but something she'd have to ask about later. "Well met, Theurgus. I've actually worked with Agent Parsons on an occasion, very interesting man with some very unique talents. I can't say he spoke of this Organization you've mentioned, though. I'm sure we can help with it, though." 

:'''{{#var:269|No. 9 (269)}} has posed:'''     Nine is, here. It's probably better that he doesn't, that he isn't, but he is, and he does. Watch, that is. Big, hulking, ugly, oh so ugly... he's watching. With those ugly eery glowing eyes of his, watching. Nostrils flared, watching. Full paranoia mode, watching. And he's watching Theurgus with a deep and open suspicion, head low like some sort of animal and craning to every movement.     Staren oddly enough gets the strangest sort of helpless blinking glance, the big King Golem just looking sort of, lost, for a moment, before shaking his head out like some sort of beast, blinking, and returning his eyes to the guest. Perhaps someone isn't used to the new changeover yet.     There's a pause, a blink, and then snffsnffsnffsnffsnffsnff, another blink and Staren is getting sniffed. Huh. Chocolate chip, that's what he's smelling.     Huh.     But then he's back to scowling watchful hulking bodyguard monster thing again, and Staren's hair only slightly mussed. Lucky him, eh?     Rhapsody gets a quick glance, and a bit of a swallow. At least she's too small to swallow him whole. He's had entirely enough of that. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "DCC?" Staren echoes, not sure what the acronym is for. He listens with interest, giving Nine a curious look and smoothing his hair with his fingers after, nodding a quick greeting to Nine before looking back to Theurgus. Then as she mentions The Organization, he sort of... he doesn't actually, sigh, but his body language says 'Oh great, conspiracy theories'. He then straightens up and looks at her. "Parsons is a conspiracy nut. For all I know there may be a shadowy Organization on his world, but I doubt they could have the resources to establish a multiverse-wide network. Trust me, I tried to figure out how we could do the same with the Daedalus Initiative, to look for dangers that need investigating, but in practice all we can do is try to monitor a /tiny fraction/ of what goes on in the internets of some worlds. Even the new Factions can't have eyes everywhere."     Staren blinks. "Anyway, despite that, Parsons /is/ an expert on psychic and psychological phenomena and on diving into people's minds to help them. Oh! I'm Staren, a researcher for the League." He extends a hand to shake. "Although I'm not actually researching much at the moment... Been kind of taking it easy the past couple of months. It's been five years since I had last had a real break, so..." he shrugs. "But I'm looking for new research opportunities all the same! Um... I'm afraid I have absolutely no familiarity with your world, so, um... how can we help you?" 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     "Ah, Drive Core Controller. I suppose if you must be mundane, I am a 'Goddess'." Theurgus shrugs. "I dislike the term myself." She holds herself with an easy countenance, almost casual in fact. "Ah, this League is a haven for the learned? Facinating."     She regards Nine with a curious expression. "A facinating piece of engineering, if a bit crude around the edges." she comments, leaning in to inspect the Golem for a few moments.     Staren's comment about the Organization just earns him a suspicious glance... she steps back a half step, turns slightly away, then mutters something into a small marble she pulls from her pocket. 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     Drive core? While the Izzet Guildmaster isn't well versed on computer technology, she can at least reconigze it. This world is sounding more and more and MORE interesting. "Oh -wow-," she lets slip before she agrees with the woman's statement. "The League of Progress! All kinds of things are researched here about a number of things by a large contingent of people. It would take a while to go over everything, I'll admit.     A curious glance is given the DCC as she turns, "Ah, is everything okay? The world I'm from, I have to deal with a 'shadow organization' a LOT. So, if you need a way for us to prove our trust.. I'm sure we can do that." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren quirks a brow when she calls herself a 'goddess', but looks approving as she says she has distaste for the term. Then he frowns a bit as she comments on Nine. "He's a /person/." Staren points out, almost growling.     Staren sighs openly as Theurgus seems more concerned about The Organization. "So, you think I'm in with 'them' just because you talked to him first? Did he give you any actual evidence of this Organization? Is an Organization the best-fitting explanation for said evidence? Come on. You came to a haven for the learned, as you put it. Learned people... everything we've achieved, came from learning facts and truths, and using them to shape the world the way we wanted. ...I'm not saying I know for absolute sure there's no Organization. it just seems pretty unlikely that there's a Multiverse-wide threat noone's heard of but Parsons." 

:'''{{#var:269|No. 9 (269)}} has posed:'''     Nine's not meaning to be rude but the snort comes out kind of explosively and without intention behind it. "Not all of it." Yeah, he was snorting over the learned bit, not the goddess bit. He's met goddesses, just... it's not ever something he's going to be used to. "Some of us just protect th' folks what do th' thinkin." A headtip to Staren, a glance to Rhapsody. He doesn't really know her well enough.     Nine doesn't seem to mind the close up inspection, his raspy rattling cough low and somewhat reserved. "Y' should've seen me before they upgraded me." Ah, the Confederate cyberneticists. Blew anything out of the water from back home that's for sure.     But at the mutter the Golem stiffens, eyes narrowing, suddenly suspicious, body tensing if he has to suddenly move. 

:'''{{#var:269|No. 9 (269)}} has posed:'''     A glance to Staren, and he snorts. "Barely." It is technically true. 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     Theurgus puts the marble away, giving Staren a look, before she smiles. "That's how they operate." is all she says in response to the catboy scientist. Rhapsody earns a nod. "At least your mind is open... I have met far too many who only think of facts. Sometimes the facts can be clouded and foggy. 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     "Eh heh.. well, to be -fair-, the world I'm from? I have to deal with a fully existing shadowy organization that is constantly attempting to dismantle everything the guilds and my father worked to build. SO... I can understand trust issues if such an organization -may- exist, regardless of evidence. It may, it may not, but I'd reserve judgement until more information is available. SO.." she offers a small smile, "What can we do to help you, if you would -like- us to help?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     More eye-rolling. Staren opens his mouth to reply, then shakes his head. "You know what? I'm too old for this shit. I couldn't persuade you out of a wet paper bag, anyway. Good luck in your future endeavors, and maybe you'll find a place here if you have some useful skill. But demonstrating that skill will require /evidence/." He turns and goes to get another cookie.     He imagines how THIS conversation with Twilight is going to go:"You didn't have to be so rude. She's new to the Multiverse. She hasn't seen it all. Would /you/ know who to trust?" "I didn't really trust anyone besides Morg, until you." She sighs. "But think about that. When you were convinced the Union would turn on you at any moment... would you have believed someone you just met telling you they wouldn't?" Staren hangs his head.     Staren hangs his head in reality too, then turns around and walks back to Theurgus, standing up straight again. "I'm sorry. You have no reason to trust two random people you just met. Be as cautious as you feel you need to be... although I admit I'm not sure what we /can/ do for you, if you suspect I'm secretly an agent of this Organization, but I'm willing to at least listen." 

:'''{{#var:269|No. 9 (269)}} has posed:''' A low, raspy laugh. "I used t' be part a an organization. Parta, endin, everythin. Half illuminadi, half cult, but... aint, no, power behind it. Not fer sumthin like this. N' now it's all jest so much dust in th' wind, yannow? In th' big picture, aint a place for lil rough bits like us. Like a, small, flame. In th' face a it all, dun take much of a gust t' just blow it out."     A blink, then, headtip, "Sounds like what yer talkin bout s' a bit more of a ground-in thing, th' real deep stainin, frum th' way y'all'r talkin bout it."     A glance to Staren. He'll remember that he tried to defend him, to stand up for him.     There's a very distant whuuuuouummn... and then suddenly next to Nine is a slightly scrawnier figure to his hulking bulk done in red with a face mask, very similar however to his somewhat gangling wrongness. Nine's head turning, he blinks, rasping out, "Whut? I- okay." And then a nod to the others, and he turns. "I gotta go." A glance, and then a deep breath, and a clunky metallic hand is offered to Theurgus. "It was an honor miss Mad Goddess Ma'am, I must away with me. Now, know, if you harm anna a my guys over here while I'm out, I wun bat an eyelid at huntin you down n' extractin it long and painful outta yer hide, deific r' not, n' th' concequences be damned, hey? Alright you two, play nice wif 'er over ere n' Staren, dun you be rude, some a us ARE wif terrible organizations bent on death destruction n' chaos, alright? Jest cus we aint annamore dun mean we have a clear resume so t' speak." And with that he's striding away, metallic whirrs and clicks muffled and distant within him. 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     "I have evidence." Theurgus replies. "Though I originally came here to seek those of like mind. I seek wisdom and knowledge, regardless of the source. Anything to further my efforts to fight The Organization of course." she looks to Nine as he speaks and turns to leave, but says nothing in response. Facinating.     Rhapsody earns a look. It's an odd look to be sure. A mix of suspicion, pity, and understanding. "Let us hope The Organization does not contact your world until we are ready then." 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     "Agreed. I have enough to deal with there, a whole second organization would be unhelpful, I have no doubt of that. That aside, if you're looking for assistance, I'd be happy to help at the very least. If you'd like a tour, either here or of my operations in Ravnica, I'd be happy to oblige. I will note, though? I spend more of my time in Ravnica than here, so.." she takes on a rather sheepish look, "I'm not entirely familiar with the League's base here at the Beacon. I'm not sure if you know what 'taxes' are but for the first part of a year, they are the bane of my existence." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Why is she so convinced? Is she a conspiracy nut, or does she have actual evidence she refuses to share because she thinks they might be with the organization? Imaginary Twilight can only do so much. "Regarding finding help, I'm sorry but evidence would really help. Even if it seems like something others would discard or say is silly... If it can well be explained by the existence of this Organization... Honestly, I should have asked Flamel what information he has instead of... I... I'm not good with people, okay? But I'm happy to help if you can give me something to work with." 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     Theurgus eyes Staren curiously... and then with a flick of her left wrist as that arm lifts, she produces a dossier file... it looks like someone took the Folder symbol off a computer and made it a real world object. This is passed to Staren for his perusal. "That is a /copy/ of all the information I have gathered on the Organization's inner workings. They were contained to my Drive, but have rapidly expanded in the time it took to reestablish the System Bus connection. An insidious force."     The folder contains... an amazing amount of data, crossreferencing incidents withing Locus, the surrounding Drive Space, and more recently, similar incidents within the System Hub and other Drives, that she's been made aware of. All that within only a day or reconnecting. It's kind of astonishing.     Rhapsody earns a much more pleasant look. This one understands. This one knows. "This is why I sought out Mister Parsons or those he worked with. Assistance would be greatly appreciated. Though the other DCCs would likely be more immediately useful, only one seems to share my interest in knowledge and learning. The others ae barbaric and backward. Using force before thought." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren quirks a brow at the physical form of the 'folder' and starts looking through it. "...Okay then. I'll need time to look through this..." He does start reading it. 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     The Guildmaster imagines the file would be posted sooner or later, so she'd let the most analytical person she knows filter through the file that's offered up. All the tech talk is just that to her. Tech talk. She knows that it sounds like computer parts, but that's the extent of it. Not exactly -what- the words mean. While providing internet access to Ravnica is something the Izzet is -slowly- working toward, it is by no means a priority to a world ran more by magic then technology. Something she realizes she has to admit to.     "They sound awful, for what it is worth, Theurgus. I'll see about helping however I can, howeeeever, I have to admit that some of the terms you are using I don't understand. I kind of understand the innerworkings of a, .. um.. of your System but my world by no means works in the same way." She hesitates to say 'a computer' mostly because she isn't sure just how everything is perceived by the people of this System. She's willing to LEARN, no doubt, but to do that she has to make sure Theurgus realizes people outside the System may not know how it works. 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     Rhapsody's admission earns an odd reaction. Theurgus lifts the back of her hand up and covers her mouth, and starts to chuckle. "Kukukuku, wahahahaha!" it's the sound of someone who's not entirely there. Somewhere between Cloud Cuckoo and Wally's Wonderful. The laughter doesn't so much end as it fades away, the DCC beaming a brilliant smile. "I had thought as much just by looking at you. You come from a world steeped in magic, with technology being derived from that magic, instead of the other way around, correct?" she asks, though she seems to already know the answer.     "You would enjoy a stay in Locus. My Drive houses many works of arcane knowledge, eldritch tomes and other such things." She then comes to the point at hand, lifting her left arm and holding up a finger as if addressing a lecture. "A System Bus is the connection point between a Drive and the System Hub. It allows resources from the Hub to enter the Drive. Drive Space is just that. Open space. Locus itself sits on a series of floating islands above the Drive Base Partition, the 'Bottom of the world'. There are other uninhabited islands which are slowly being expanded into as our city grows." 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     At first, Rhapsody isn't sure what to make of the sudden laughter that is directed her way. In fact, it may be easy to see that if it had gone much longer, the guildmaster may have gotten a bit irritated. At least the wizard makes a REALLY good guess, and then moves on to explain a bit of how her world works. That calms things down in the dragon's mind.     "I think that may be a really good idea," she says first. A visit in trade for a visit? Certainly! Why not? "First? That's either a hell of a guess or you already know about Ravnica. Either way? Impressive. Second: I think I would! Magic in other worlds is always interesting, regardless of if it can be learned or not. It sounds like your world is really really interesting in how it works. I'm certainly curious, if nothing else. 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     "Well my Drive is dedicated to it. The others, not so much. Britannica is more about the mundane sort of literature, the other, younger Drives are about other things, these do not interest me." replies Theurgus. "As for magic... a demonstration is perhaps in order." She steps away, and with a flourish of her left hand, summons her weapon. A black metal staff with a large block at the head, inlaid with a pulsing gemstone. It cycles through various colours, then the woman turns, and points at an empty section of stone. The gem locks in a deep orange-red. "Burn in the mad fire!" A spark erupts from a point near a series of boulders, then explodes in a pillar of searing flame. 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     Well, Rhapsody would have said she believed her, but a moment later a boulder is set on fire. Impressive! No doubt of it, so the dragon gives a nod of approval. "Classic," she states, drawing on her red spellblade, "Little secret, there are five schools of magic in Ravnica. Six if you count artifacts. I actually have a bit of trouble with all except the red school, but.." the blade starts to crackle before its pointed outward and a thunderous bolt lances off of it and into a similarly sized bolder. It may not errupt into fire but the it's bright and pretty damn loud. "No reason to give up a weapon that was made for me." 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     Theurgus nods as Rhapsody explains. "There are five elements in the System. Fire. Wind. Lightning. Ice and Sound. I am capable of channeling and using them all, however I do not focus on a single one, unlike my peers." she replies, twirling the staff, and with a shift from orange-red to green, the flaming boulder is buffetted by gusts of wind, sending it carreening off the side of the outcrop, into the water where it steams and the fire goes out. 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     Another nod, "Very nice. My guild focuses on the Red and Blue schools, and one of our best members works with Green a lot, but beyond that we do not work with White or Black. I could go into a bit more detailed lesson, sometime, if you like. My guild, the Izzet, focus on maintaining Ravnica's utilities, but we are also the innovative center of Ravnica. I'm sure you'd get along with the magewrights very well." 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     "I believe so." replies Theurgus, dismissing her staff in a flurry of numbers and a flash of light. "An amazing accomplishment. I am certain if nothing else, your 'Izzet League' would benefit the Diamond Drive." 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     "I like to think so! The Izzet League, much like the League of Progress here, is all about innovation, invention, and making things better for those that they service. I would hope we can learn a lot from your world, while you learn a bit from us so we can help you out. We'll have to arrange the visits. I'm curious about your world, though you sound like you already know a lot about mine." The sword is sheathed and then the guildmaster turns back to Theurgus, hand extended. "If it hasn't already been said, welcome, if not back, to the multiverse. A lot has changed recently." 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     "We disconnected from The System before this Multiverse." replies Theurgus. "As for knowledge, merely suposition. I can read people, in my opinion, rather well." 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     Awkward moment, hand returns to her side. "Well I'm impressed, then," Rhapsody admits. "If you want, I can provide you my frequency as well as the band I give the folks I consider my allies that are outside the League of Progress. All you'd have to do then is reach out via that frequency. I -highly- trust everyone on the Izzet band, too." 

:'''{{#var:1103|Theurgus (1103)}} has posed:'''     Not skipping a beat, Theurgus folds her arms in front of her chest, chuckling softly. "Perhaps a good idea. You understand how The Organization works, even if on a smaller scale. So if you trust these people... I see no reason not to trust them either." she opens her eyes and looks at Rhapsody like a predator at prey, if only briefly. "I can see a very strong friendship, between Locus and Ravnica." and then she throws her head back, laughing. "Waaahahahahaha!" 

:'''{{#var:325|Rhapsody (325)}} has posed:'''     An actual head tilt is the dragon's first response, but her own arms fold a moment later. That gaze is met and is very telling that this dragon is no one's dinner ticket, nor would it ever be. Four previous massive events have happened and failed in Ravnica, after all. "I don't know about -all- of Ravnica, but the Izzet Sector, yes, I would agree." The laugh is ... mostly shrugged off for now. "You should speak with someone a little more important in the League of Progress. I think you'd get along with the rest of the group pretty well." 
}}

Opportunity (Staren)

2017-01-11T06:13:11Z

Staren: Fixed formatting.

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/11
|Location=Equestria
|Synopsis=In the wake of Njorun's fall, Staren knows what really matters to him. And in the next few days, the League sends an odd pair coached to recruit him...
|Cast of Characters=42
}}
<nowiki>Staren floats above the plateau full of refugees, sitting on the broom Belldandy gave him all those years ago, staring at the devestation wrought in Njorun's fall.

But what matters to him most, isn't here.

<<Beam me up.>> He transmits to Kotone and Slipbolt. <>

And he disappears in a beam of light.

He appears aboard the ship -- The aesthetic of some long-gone human empire, mixed with Kotone's own. He offers Kotone and Shacklebolt, her Glitch crewmember, curt nods as he steps off the teleportation pad and immediately sets a camera drone over it, which disappears in another beam of light.

For tense seconds, Staren waits. Blessedly, it isn't long enough for him to begin to seriously consider that she might be gone.

The drone reappears. The teleporters are still working. Staren steps onto the pad without further comment.

Staren is on his ship. He's immediately connected to external cameras. The planet is still there. He teleports down, in front of a house shaped like a tree. He can see her through the window, and sighs in relief before knocking on the door.</nowiki>

----

<nowiki>Staren skates along the path from Ponyville to the warpgate on hovershoes. He's retained his natural form today, it's just easier. And he's going to set out into space soon, but it would be good to check first what places are 'nearby' in the warpgate network -- whether they hold potential hazards that might attack Equestria, or well-connected hub worlds that might serve as a source of information, or other resources he can use. He sees two unicorns coming the other way and offers a friendly nod; they stop. "Staren, I presume?" One speaks. The pair are dressed in early 20th century garb, but he can't tell if that makes them offworlders or some of the locals that prefer to wear clothes. They look similar, save that one sports a moustache.

Staren comes to a stop, nodding and giving the pair a scrutinizing look. "Do I... know you?"

"Oh no, I don't think so! We've been sent here to talk to you about an... opportunity." Replies the cleanshaven one. The mustachioed one's horn glows, levitating a smartphone before him. It plays a video, of a man beginning an address: "People of the Multiverse, we stand in the wake of tremendous cataclysm..."

Staren nods and waves dismissively. "Yes, yes, I saw it on the Starknet. I've thought about talking to them soon. If you came all this way just to show me that, I'm afraid you're--"

"Ah, but there /is/ more to it than that, Staren."

"Ah, but there /is/ more to it than that, Staren." The first speaks up again, as the second puts the phone away before speaking in turn: "This is in the interest of full disclosure! The League knows you hate people decieving you, and doesn't want to tell a lie of omission." The first nods to the other, then turns to Staren and continues: "You see, the League attracts all kinds. People of many different... proclivities." "Philosophies." "Moral tendencies." "Attitudes and behaviors." "Ethical standards." Staren's eyes dart as the pair rapidly speak in turn. "And it would be a tragedy." "A /tragedy/." "If you were to walk in the front door, see something you don't like," "or some/one/," "and walk right back out again." "A waste of potential! A /waste/!" "So we're being up front with you! There will be people you most /certainly/ do not like in the League."

Staren blinks. "You're... here to /dissuade/ me?"

The moustachioed one shakes his head with a "Nnnonononono!" that sounds a bit like a whinny, while the other raises a forehoof. "Oh no, it's as I said /before/, we come to you with an /opportunity/! But that opportunity isn't just a /lab/, or a /research budget/. You see, the League /needs/ your influence! Those with... /ethical/, /moral/ concerns! Your presence" "Or that of others like you!" "Is /essential/ to the League's mission! Those of keen mind /and/ morals are needed to help the less..." "Morally focused?" "ethically concerned scientists find ways to conduct their experiments in more... palatable ways." "It's good for PR!"

Staren furrows his brow slightly and purses his lips in thought. Sensing they've nearly closed the sale, the first pony leans forward and continues: "Full disclosure once again! It's in our own self-interest. Not only because fewer people will invest if the League is seen as entirely lacking in morals... but it's in the interest of the mission, as well!" "Progress!" "Yes! /How/ can we achieve progress if noone trusts us? It's that, ah, that, ah," The first pony makes a circular motion with his forehoof. The second pony, with the moustache, looks at the smartphone. "Trolley problem." "Yes! The transplant version of the trolley problem. If doctors go around cutting one person up to save five more, then they end up unable to help anypony because everypony is afraid the doctors will cut them up! And that's not progress! All our hard work..." "Our blood, sweat, tears, and budgets!" "for naught!" "for /nothing/!" "It would be a tragedy." "/Tragedy./" "If the League sets out to improve the state of things and no one will accept its help! That's why we /need/ you. So, what do you say?" The first pony smiles and holds out a forehoof as if expecting a shake, or a bump. The second coughs, and levitates a piece of paper to Staren. "We /do/ have a message for you." The catboy reads it:

You've tried the hero thing. Fighting villain after villain without end, hoping your masters know what they're doing. But it didn't change the Multiverse. We're not asking you to stop; One less evil in the world is one less evil. But if you could put a little of your time into something greater to change the world, would you be willing to try a new approach?

They look at him, curiously, as his hand holding the note drops to his side.

"I'll think about it."

Staren walks past the pair, lost in thought.

They watch him go. "...Well, /that's/ gone better than some of our endeavors, at least." The cleanshaven unicorn turns to the other, who nods. "Certainly." "...So, did he want us to talk to the plant mare in the Everfree?" The moustachioed one gets out the smartphone again.</nowiki>

Opportunity (Staren)

2017-01-11T06:07:29Z

Staren: Initial posting. Ugh, formatting is messed up

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/11
|Location=Equestria
|Synopsis=In the wake of Njorun's fall, Staren knows what really matters to him. And in the next few days, the League sends an odd pair coached to recruit him...
|Cast of Characters=42
}}
Staren floats above the plateau full of refugees, sitting on the broom Belldandy gave him all those years ago, staring at the devestation wrought in Njorun's fall.

But what matters to him most, isn't here.

<<Beam me up.>> He transmits to Kotone and Slipbolt. <>

And he disappears in a beam of light.

He appears aboard the ship -- The aesthetic of some long-gone human empire, mixed with Kotone's own. He offers Kotone and Shacklebolt, her Glitch crewmember, curt nods as he steps off the teleportation pad and immediately sets a camera drone over it, which disappears in another beam of light.

For tense seconds, Staren waits. Blessedly, it isn't long enough for him to begin to seriously consider that she might be gone.

The drone reappears. The teleporters are still working. Staren steps onto the pad without further comment.

Staren is on his ship. He's immediately connected to external cameras. The planet is still there. He teleports down, in front of a house shaped like a tree. He can see her through the window, and sighs in relief before knocking on the door.

. . .

Staren skates along the path from Ponyville to the warpgate on hovershoes. He's retained his natural form today, it's just easier. And he's going to set out into space soon, but it would be good to check first what places are 'nearby' in the warpgate network -- whether they hold potential hazards that might attack Equestria, or well-connected hub worlds that might serve as a source of information, or other resources he can use. He sees two unicorns coming the other way and offers a friendly nod; they stop. "Staren, I presume?" One speaks. The pair are dressed in early 20th century garb, but he can't tell if that makes them offworlders or some of the locals that prefer to wear clothes. They look similar, save that one sports a moustache.

Staren comes to a stop, nodding and giving the pair a scrutinizing look. "Do I... know you?"

"Oh no, I don't think so! We've been sent here to talk to you about an... opportunity." Replies the cleanshaven one. The mustachioed one's horn glows, levitating a smartphone before him. It plays a video, of a man beginning an address: "People of the Multiverse, we stand in the wake of tremendous cataclysm..."

Staren nods and waves dismissively. "Yes, yes, I saw it on the Starknet. I've thought about talking to them soon. If you came all this way just to show me that, I'm afraid you're--"

"Ah, but there /is/ more to it than that, Staren."

"Ah, but there /is/ more to it than that, Staren." The first speaks up again, as the second puts the phone away before speaking in turn: "This is in the interest of full disclosure! The League knows you hate people decieving you, and doesn't want to tell a lie of omission." The first nods to the other, then turns to Staren and continues: "You see, the League attracts all kinds. People of many different... proclivities." "Philosophies." "Moral tendencies." "Attitudes and behaviors." "Ethical standards." Staren's eyes dart as the pair rapidly speak in turn. "And it would be a tragedy." "A /tragedy/." "If you were to walk in the front door, see something you don't like," "or some/one/," "and walk right back out again." "A waste of potential! A /waste/!" "So we're being up front with you! There will be people you most /certainly/ do not like in the League."

Staren blinks. "You're... here to /dissuade/ me?"

The moustachioed one shakes his head with a "Nnnonononono!" that sounds a bit like a whinny, while the other raises a forehoof. "Oh no, it's as I said /before/, we come to you with an /opportunity/! But that opportunity isn't just a /lab/, or a /research budget/. You see, the League /needs/ your influence! Those with... /ethical/, /moral/ concerns! Your presence" "Or that of others like you!" "Is /essential/ to the League's mission! Those of keen mind /and/ morals are needed to help the less..." "Morally focused?" "ethically concerned scientists find ways to conduct their experiments in more... palatable ways." "It's good for PR!"

Staren furrows his brow slightly and purses his lips in thought. Sensing they've nearly closed the sale, the first pony leans forward and continues: "Full disclosure once again! It's in our own self-interest. Not only because fewer people will invest if the League is seen as entirely lacking in morals... but it's in the interest of the mission, as well!" "Progress!" "Yes! /How/ can we achieve progress if noone trusts us? It's that, ah, that, ah," The first pony makes a circular motion with his forehoof. The second pony, with the moustache, looks at the smartphone. "Trolley problem." "Yes! The transplant version of the trolley problem. If doctors go around cutting one person up to save five more, then they end up unable to help anypony because everypony is afraid the doctors will cut them up! And that's not progress! All our hard work..." "Our blood, sweat, tears, and budgets!" "for naught!" "for /nothing/!" "It would be a tragedy." "/Tragedy./" "If the League sets out to improve the state of things and no one will accept its help! That's why we /need/ you. So, what do you say?" The first pony smiles and holds out a forehoof as if expecting a shake, or a bump. The second coughs, and levitates a piece of paper to Staren. "We /do/ have a message for you." The catboy reads it:

You've tried the hero thing. Fighting villain after villain without end, hoping your masters know what they're doing. But it didn't change the Multiverse. We're not asking you to stop; One less evil in the world is one less evil. But if you could put a little of your time into something greater to change the world, would you be willing to try a new approach?

They look at him, curiously, as his hand holding the note drops to his side.

"I'll think about it."

Staren walks past the pair, lost in thought.

They watch him go. "...Well, /that's/ gone better than some of our endeavors, at least." The cleanshaven unicorn turns to the other, who nods. "Certainly." "...So, did he want us to talk to the plant mare in the Everfree?" The moustachioed one gets out the smartphone again.

4795/SPACESHIP!

2016-11-18T21:47:17Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/11/17 |Location=Void - Super Solar System |Synopsis=Staren invites people to his ship. Sokka falls in love with future technology immediately...."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/11/17
|Location=Void - Super Solar System
|Synopsis=Staren invites people to his ship. Sokka falls in love with future technology immediately.
|Cast of Characters=42, 1076, 930, 947, 411, 7
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's decided to host a get-together at his place! The thing is, his place is a spaceship floating in orbit above Equestria. Sokka may require coaxing to get him to return through the warpgate, but shortly after he and Alden arrive, they're turned into beams of light and find themselves on the teleport pad. (Kotone can teleport over directly from her own ship, and Twilight has a device to remote-activate the teleporter from anywhere outside.) Hub - SSC Stranger than Fiction (Location #0) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------     The walls, floor, and ceiling of the Stranger than Fiction's lower deck are covered with a facade that makes the structure look as if it are constructed of large stone bricks. The 'hub' room is about 25x15' across and about 7 1/3 feet tall. The teleporter pad is in the fore-starboard corner, the doorway to the lab is in the center of the fore wall, and the doorway to manufacturing is in the center of the aft wall. A spiral staircase to storage and the residential deck is in the aft-port corner. Through thick transparisteel windows, you can see space outside. Large storage cupboards are against the walls here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------     Staren is leaning against the wall next to the port window with his hands in his coat pockets. As people arrive, he smiles and waves. "Hey, glad you could make it!" Twilight gets a hug, and then he turns to the others. "Welcome to my humble abode, the Science Space Castle 'Stranger Than Fiction'!" He waves his hand in a grand gesture to indicate the room around them.     Confirming they are indeed in space, outside the window one can see stars against the black, and if one moves close to the window they can see the planet Equestria below, looking much like any other earthlike planet, the nightside dotted with magical lights indicating centers of civilization like Manehattan and Canterlot. 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka had required a lot of coaxing to come into the mlp verse. After all, ponies. But, after a lot of sarcasm, grumbles and a healthy interest in wanting to see space, he did actually manage to make his way to the ship. And what a ship it was. Now that he was ON the ship, his eyes were practically glowing. He ran around a bit, poking, proding, trying to determine the use and function of EVERYTHING. Most infuriating part about it? His guesses about what things did half the time weren't wrong. He'd been spending a lot of time in the library and while he still only had a basic understanding of how these things worked, he was getting a general feel for things like gravity, orbit, all of that stuff. He was no rocket scientist, but he'd still end up annoying the rocket scientists with all kinds of strange questions. On top of that, it wasn't so bad. "So this entire thing is just science, right? Logical explanations for everything? None of that magic avatar spirit stuff, right?" He was completely okay with flying so long as it made sense. Then gasped when he saw the stars. "So... all the stars are giant orbs of fire... that's awesome. The fire nation would just loooove that." He was like a little kid sometimes. In a candy shop. 

:'''{{#var:930|Alden (930)}} has posed:''' Alden is actually familiar with the idea of being transformed into light (or raw data) to be sent somewhere else!, tho normally, that ends up being inside his D-Ark!, he never got to try transporting instantly like this!. He is certainly impressed, not quite familiar with sci fi things up to this level!. "It's a very, very nice place." he tells Staren, eyes open wide as the digimon slowly peeks through the window, glancing down at the planet, "Wow.".      He is also impressed at Sokka, who seems to know quite a bit of these things, "You know a lot!" he says, smiling to his friend, "I admit to know... very little of technology and stuff..." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren is impressed as Sokka displays knowledge of space! Someone's clearly been reading up! When he asks if this is just science, Staren responds, "Yeah! Uhhhhhhh, as long as you don't ask how the artificial gravity or FTL drive work. Those are basically magic. Some kind of psychic crystals I don't really understand, but they work!" He looks at the window, folding his hands behind his back. "Well... not your typical fire. Typical fire is a chemical process, where heat energy is released as things oxidize. Stars are nuclear, hydrogen and helium being compressed into such a small space that they form heavier elements in a reaction that releases tremendous energy! On a smaller scale, nuclear fusion is a common power source across the multiverse." 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka gives a little sqwee as he goes about, nodding. "Wow. Okay, I've heard of this nuclear power, but we don't have it where I'm from. However, there has been a lot of talk in some of the books about electrical power. Considering the number of lightning benders in my world, I've been considering trying to find if there's a way for us to harness that energy. I'm sure by now someone has tried starting to di it." He hummed and looked around, before glancing to Alden. "Huh? Oh, no. I really don't know that much yet. I've just been maxing out Toph's library card every chance I get and spending most of my time in the library. As a new member of the union I'm still, more or less, just sent on busy body work. But my free time I'm allowed to spend however I want. There's so many different sciences I can learn about here. It's amazing how many things I figuredo ut on my travels that turn out to be common knowledge in so many worlds. Submarines, blimps, the egg thing. Can you believe it? Here I thought blimps, the way the hot air works, was so amazing. But then you have the way planes themselves work! And then vessels that can go into SPACE! There's still so much to lear!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Ooh... I guess that'd be kind of like how they do it here, where magical equipment is powered by unicorns? I hope they can make it work, powering stuff sounds like a boring job."     Staren smiles a bit. "You read a lot, huh? You know, Twilight has a library..." he smiles more and claps his hands together at the sight of someone SO ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT LEARNING HOW STUFF WORKS, "and I'm happy to explain whatever you like!"     He looks away. "Ugh, so many people aren't interested and don't get it, you know? And they don't care. And they don't realize that the same principles by which you learn about, well, all this" he gestures to the walls of the ship, "apply to magic and stranger things too, you know?" He looks back to Sokka. 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka shuddered. "Ugh, tell me about it. And well, while the bending itself is magical, the lightning isn't. You see, it's made by the same principle that real lightning is made. It's just smaller and... likely as deadly. More directed. So it's still scientic." He sounds kind of proud of that. "None of that magical Avatar stuff just making it work somehow." He then perks up. "I know! Back home, everyone always treats all this stuff like it's unimportant. Like in the end, only the bending magic works. But you know what almost cost us the war? Air ships. Not flying bison or air benders. Air ships. Completely normal and non-magical air ships. And that's where the important stuff is. Not in using the magical stuff, but in finding non-magical ways to get things done. So, how does all this stuff work? If I remember corectly, it's a mix of speed and lesser gravity to keep aloft up here, right?" 

:'''{{#var:947|Eclipse (947)}} has posed:''' Eclipse seems a bit disoriented as she warps in. "Unusual feeling," she says, leaning against the wall as she gathers herself. "I wonder if this is what it's like for the eladrin." She looks about at those gathered. "Greetings, friends. I have heard that the hunt on which we embarked has reached a good ending, Staren," she adds, giving him a smile. "The bonds of friendship must have brought it about. I suppose I should visit Yunomi sometime. Someone who inspires such loyalty among her friends is special indeed." 

:'''{{#var:930|Alden (930)}} has posed:'''      Alden has... not much of a clue of whatever technical info Sokka is talking about, nor how most of hte things work!, but he is trying to pay attentino at least, perhaps in teh future he might need such information!. "I am very curious about how all this works, but I only know how to read, some first aid, taking care of plants and some basic math." he says with a chuckle, "I'll admit never had... a reason to learn more.". Then he adds "Perhaps I should... learn more of this and make it more common back at home.".      When Eclipse appears, he is happy to turn to face her and wave a few times, "Hi!". He wags his fluffy tail a few times, noticing the somewhat unusual details, "I'm Alden.". 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight rears up to give Staren a hug in return, then stands by to help greet visitors. She gives a warm smile and a friendly hoof-wave to each new person that appears in the teleporter. And might surprise someone with her being a cute little purple unicorn pony and all. She seems somewhat distracted, but smiles cheerfully as the others start talking.      "Knowing how and why something works is very important if you want to make innovations. Some people have the skill or talent to simply do something, but if you know how that thing was accomplished you can recreate it with much less effort." the purple pony adds to the conversation. Twilight likely knows much about how Staren's ship works, but doesn't want to spoil it for Sokka. Discovery is even more fun than being taught something! 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren turns to face Sokka again. "Well... magic shouldn't be underestimated. I used to make the mistake of thinking it wasn't worth studying when I was young just because not everyone could use it. That said... some types of magic are more amenable to study than others, and sometimes it's hard to make much progress." He nods at Twilight's words.     Staren smiles. "'All this stuff' is rather broad... But if you mean how we're staying so high up and not falling down? It's kind of like, if you swing a weight at the end of a string," he mimes doing so, "it goes around in a circle, right, even though the string is always pulling it towards your hand. Because it's moving so fast that it's only pulled a little before the angle of 'towards your hand' changes. Same deal here. Gravity is always pulling the ship 'down', but the ship is going so fast that 'down' keeps changing, and it will never hit the ground."     Staren nods to Eclipse, "Welcome! Yeah, Yunomi's a pretty friendly and caring person. Things haven't always gone well for her, but I'm glad to have her back and her name cleared!" 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka nods rapidly. "Of course. I wonder if we'll ever be able to do something like that. My world is just incredibly frustrating. We seemk to have all the proper way things SHOULD work, without magic and all that. Then we end up having things like flying bison and spirits and bending, all that weird magic stuff." He coughed. "yeahhhhh. I'm one of those... unable to magic sorts. I won't deny it can be a bit frustrating. I've learned to fake it often enough, though." He nodded. "So, changing which direction down is often enough... I wonder if you could make it so rather than you moving fast enough down changed, that you could make it so down changed often enough on its own..." It was obviously apparent even if he was pretty smart, he still lacked the basis of how all this worked and so he was going to end up having a LOT of weird ideas about it. 

:'''{{#var:947|Eclipse (947)}} has posed:''' Eclipse gives a surprisingly warm look to Alden as he greets her. "Hello, Alden," she says. "I am Eclipse, of the Den-of-Oaks clan," she answers his introduction. She attempts to follow Staren's explanation of orbits but is just left scratching her head. "I rarely have reason to leave the ground, let alone travel so far away from it," she says. "And yet... do you actually live out here?" she asks Staren. "So far from the living things of nature?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren uhhhhs, "I guess you could, but that's harder. Even some sort of magical anti-gravity system is going to require energy..." He scratches his head. "'Down' isn't just some... arbitrary thing. Gravity is a force between all objects with mass. The force of gravity between any two masses is directly proportional to each mass involved, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. So even though we're like 22,000 miles above the surface, the planet below us is /massive/. Like, thirteen trillion trillion pounds if you could somehow put it on a scale. So it's always pulling the ship down a little bit. In most planetary systems, if the worlds weren't always spinning around the sun, they'd all fall into it eventually. Don't ask me why that doesn't happen here," he scratches his head. "it's probably magic."     Staren looks back to Eclipse, and scratches his head. "Well... Part of it is, I'm 24, so I figured I should stop living with my parents. And I /had/ this ship which is big enough to live in. It's not really meant to land on the surface, though -- taking off and landing every time I need to fly it somewhere would be a huge expenditure of energy. Thanks to the teleporter, I can go down to the surface any time, to go grocery shopping or visit my girlfriend or go to the warpgate, so it's basically like living down there except I use a teleporter instead of a door."     He scratches his nose. "The teleporter is also linked to the AMATERASU moonbase and the AMALGAM colony owned by the Flotilla and Murasame Zaibatsu, so it's kind of like I live in three places at once." 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka nodded, rubbing his chin. "I see. See, you know, I always just assumed down was just... well... down. I mean, we knew the planet was round ages ago, but I never really understood the whole gravity thing. I figured it was all just... going down. But to imagine all those stars and other places have their own down is just mind boggling. I wonder how big our universe is supposed to be, too." His mind was racing as he pushed a random button. Because that's what he always did, just pushed buttons. He was very much a 'science through discoovery' type of person. "I wonder if my world would be capable of nuclear power. Or if it would be possible to gather the required power through the use of lightning energy..." 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight blinks at Sokka's reasoning, then giggles a bit. "I suppose you could look at it that way, but down never really changes. All down is is the direction parallel to whatever gravitational force is pulling you most strongly. It is very easy to recognize on a planet or other large celestial body, or in an artificial gravitational force like the one on this ship. If we were far enough away in a more primative spacecraft, we would be essentially weightless. We would be able to float between surfaces with very little effort, and would not be able to stand on a surface without some sort of help." she says.      When the subject of Equestria's gravity and lack of being destroyed by the sun comes up, Twilight giggles. "Staren, you know that the queens control our sun and moon. We may have followed a gravitational orbit if the queens once didn't control our sun. But now, they carefully control the sun and moon to ensure the optimal conditions for life on our world." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' It seems someone else is on board and here's Kotone she was rummaging about the back end of the ship and seem to be in a good mood as she arrives. "Hey sorry I'm a bit late, "Upa nd down is relative in space honestly Sokka! Oh hello Alden, Staren, Twilight!" She looks to Eclipse "You could say up is down short is long." She seme sveyr amused as the joins up with the rest of the group. "It's so big we can't figure out how big it was and even if we did we couldn't grasp it with our minds honestly. Hummm Lightning energy? If you have lightning you have electical power poential I'd wadger." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Pretty big." Staren starts explaining. "It's hard to be sure how big the universe is, because the speed of light is only so fast, but--" The button is on a storage locker. It opens. That particular locker contains a suit of armor (it looks like something a space SWAT officer might wear) and some guns. Staren stares at him a moment and then decides to keep an eye on him. "I don't know how powerful lightning benders are. Umm..." he stares into space. "Average bolt of lightning is about half a gigajoule... about the same as a large vehicle fusion reactor running for five seconds... umm..." he shakes his head. "I dunno, maybe. We'd have to test some of this lightning and see how powerful it is." he shrugs. "As for nuclear power... possibly? You need some trace elements and a way to harness the right kinds of hydrogen or helium for fusion... for fission, you want uranium or something similar. Maybe with modern equipment, you could detect it."     Staren nods to Twilight. "I could turn the artificial gravity off, if you want to see. Um, and I know the queens control it, but I mean, when they aren't actively moving the sun and moon, are they holding it in place? Or is there some natural force of the universe holding it in place until they move it again? I guess we'd have to ask. Though it might be something they do unconsciously and don't know about... Celestia had to sleep sometime, after all." 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka stares at it, nodding as he rubs his chin. "I see. Hey ,does this mean if we were to go outside, what would happen? Would we fall to the earth, or would we be drawn towards the ship itself?" He glanced to Staren. "Well, I could probably find a lightning bender easy enough. For science, at least. It seems to follow the same principles as actual lightning. If you get hit by it, you're likely to die and the techniques to counter it apparently work on normal lightning. But yeah, mostly the whole dying thing." He nodded matter of factly. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Kotone gets a nod in greeting. Staren umms, "It works out to be pretty relative. Since the force is proportional to your mass, but more force is needed to move... accelerate heavier objects. If you went outside, there would be an infinitesimally small pull between you and the ship -- relative to the ship, you'd seem to drift weightlessly. If you pushed off the ship towards Equestria, as you drifted closer to the planet you'd slowly be pulled down more and more until you fall into the atmosphere and burn up. If you pushed off /away/ from the planet, you'd drift further and further away until eventually you stop circling the planet and get flung out into space. Um, imagine if the person was pulling the string in, or letting the string out and then eventually running out of string. Although it's more like the string gets weaker and weaker and then fades to nothing, rather than someone letting go. If you pushed off to the side, you'd circle ahead of or behind the ship or go into your own orbit."     He strokes his chin. "I'm not sure exactly how much electricity is needed to kill a human. The bolts could well be weaker or stronger than natural ones." If Sokka peeks through the aft door, he sees: 6. Manufacturing/Workshop One of the largest rooms in the ship is devoted to manufacturing and a general open space for any project that requires it. Here is a large nanofabricator that could entirely enclose a large bed, as well as a few smaller cornucopia machines the tops of which double as workbenches, and a large squad of assembly robots. A section of the floor can rise up as a lift to Containment, which can also be reached by ladder. Approx. Dimensions: 40'x14'x14' 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka was suddenly completely distracted as he peeked into the aft room. His eyes glowed and... "Can... I?" With the go ahead he'd run into the room and start, well, with explanation start touching and modifying everything. It would take him a few minutes to figure out how everything worked... but only a few. Dang, he was a quick study. "Well, we should go ahead and try that, though. Like, if you have rope you'll be completely fine, right? Just attach yourself to the ship? And why would you burn up if you went back to the earth? Err, Equestria?" He puns. "Wait, is that planet a PUN? That's AWESOME!" 

:'''{{#var:947|Eclipse (947)}} has posed:''' "Giga... jewels?" Eclipse questions. "Aiyah, all your science-words are beyond my understanding," she says, looking a bit frustrated. "I did not come here to be taught such things!" She heads off to a different part of the room, trying to see if she can see for herself what went on here. Experiencing things for herself was always better than being lectured about it. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Unfortunately for Sokka, most of the manufacturing equipment is wirelessly controlled. When he finally finds a manual terminal, it boots up and asks for a password, because Staren doesn't want random enemies commandeering his own equipment if they board the ship. Staren wanders after him and holds out a pair of glasses. If Sokka puts them on...     OH GOSH     SO MANY BUTTONS     HOLOGRAPHIC INTERFACES EVERYWHERE     And also a young woman in a simple electric violet dress with long, curly electric violet hair. She smiles and tilts her head. "Hello! I'm Dawn, Staren's muse, a type of support AI!" The voice comes from speakers in the glasses. "Most nanofabricators, weapons, armor, and computers here respond to voice commands. Would you like to read a manual?"     Meanwhile, Eclipse has wandered into the 1. Science Lab This large room is a curious juxtoposition -- high-tech lighting and computers, with furnishings that look fresh from the middle ages. In addition to various tools for physical measurement and chemical analysis, computers and access ports here allow one to make use of the erchius particle accelerator built into the ship. Equipment from transhuman space is close to the door along the port wall, including a photocopier-sized nanofabber, a healing vat, an ego bridge (kind of like a compact MRI machine), and a couple of synths hidden inside storage lockers. Stairs heading upward and aftward are against the starboard wall, allowing access both to an upper level of the laboratory and to the living area. Forward from the lab is the cockpit. The lab is approximately 40x15', with the partial second floor about 7 1/3' up. 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka nodded, going through the interface and, well... "Hey, you're pretty cute. What's an AI? That some kind of alien thing?" And then, soon... "WAIT, WHAT?! You can MAKE intelligent creatures? That's AWESOME! How do you do that?" And then he disappeared into the world of programming. Which... he had about five different manuals open now, perusing them, going through and trying, and failing, to figure out how it worked. It was a bit too advaned. Even for him. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa looks over to Staren as she just falls in with eeryone else. She pauses at Eclipose heads off she can get how she might feel but she also knows somethings to experiance for one self? Could be fatal when dealing with space. She however does keep an eye on Sokka. "You know I have seen people's head explode at the concept of space, you seem to be catching on pretty fast. "A generations of work on develping the techology to do it, much how like say your world has got better with metal working over the ages, right? Programming things is much the same way. "We might want to start you off with a simple lanuage if your serious about trying to learn more about it Sokka." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Dawn smiles at the compliment. She explains that her intelligence isn't the same as a human's -- while she's programmed to interact with people and provide a face they can feel comfortable talking with, but she can't learn or grow. There are such AIs though, and he's referred to Rory White as an example of an 'Artificial General Intelligence'.     Nanoprogramming is hard. It's a mix of conventional programming along with CAD work and miniaturized materials engineering. Making basic plastic shapes is pretty easy, but that's about as far as he can get. "Perhaps it would be better to start with writing simple computer programs?" Dawn offers. 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka nodded. 'Well, I always knew there was something out here. My sword is made of space earth. I've always been a bit... sharp. Sure, teach me how this programming stuff works. I've never actually used one of you computer things before, this'll be fun." Okay, yeah, he had no idea how any of it was working. But, with proper tutalege, he'd start picking it up. In a few days he'd probably be able to actuall do it properly. "And this isn't so hard to grasp. I've been researching it a bit, it's all purely scientic and has logical reasons for why it works. So that's cool." 

:'''{{#var:947|Eclipse (947)}} has posed:''' Eclipse walks about the room, inspecting the various machines. Unlike Sokka, she doesn't go pushing any buttons just to see what happens, but at least tries to imagine what each thing might be for. Any writing wouldn't provide much help to her, given that she doesn't read. She does take a peek in a couple of the lockers, at least. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren also apologizes to Eclipse before she wanders off. "It's a unit for measuring energy. Um... sorry. I'm just so excited to see someone interested in this stuff!"     Then he goes to keep an eye on Sokka. "Yeah. I started programming when I was really little! You can have a computer to take home, if you want. Um, did you want anything to eat or something?" MEANWHILE:     Eclipse opens lockers. There's another suit of armor and guns... and then, well, remember when the roomdesc said 'a couple of synths'? That perhaps does not capture the full impact of opening lockers and finding BODIES: One is obviously robotic, looking something like https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1449025.jpg , and one looks like Dawn's holographic body. It's a machine under the synthskin of course, so it doesn't smell like a corpse, and it doesn't go pale when not in use, but they /are/ room-temperature cold. 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka nodded, humming as he tapped along. Then he froze. He turned to Staren and stared with stars in his eyes. "I... I can actually have one? Really?" he was on the verge of squealling like a school girl. Aaaaand there he went. "EEEEEEEEE!" His hands clasped into fists in front of him. "That is SO COOL!" "Oh, and yeah. Food would be good. Do you have any meat? Oh, wait, hold on!" And soon... "There, a nice well done steak! Will... be ready in... two hours. Oh." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks, a bit startled, then smiles. "I think everyone should be able to have a computer if they want! The Argonauts agree, and a lot of this is their technology..."     He smiles as Sokka has the initiative to order up a steak. "Yeah... You /can/ use these for food, but you have to order ahead of time. I keep some turkey and beef in the fridge. It's two floors up. MEANWHILE     There's also a body that looks like Staren. Yeah. It's probably mega-creepy. 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka eeeeees happily. "This is going to be awesome! yes, gimme! I can--" Then his stomach rumbled and he blushed. "E-err, right. I ummm, yes, food sounds good." He took off the glasses. "Bye, dawn!" He then stood up. "Okay, lead me to the beef!" Just ignore the poor turkey. He'd follow the guy, still talking about all of it as he went. "So, how did all this come to be? It's supposed to be electricity, all ones and zeros, right? That's what the ai said. But then you can make so many different things! I'm not sure how I feel about the weapons, though. Making a sword feels... it should be something you do by hand. When you forge your sword, you put your mind and body into it. I don't think it could get across if you just have it made that way." 

:'''{{#var:947|Eclipse (947)}} has posed:''' Eclipse steps back in surprise after opening the locker, but quickly picks up the lack of living, or dead, smell. "Dolls," she says, poking at the female synth. "Life-size dolls... why are they here, though? This is not a place for play of any kind." There's even one that looks like Staren himself. "The resemblance is... very good," she notes, baffled as to their purpose. Did Staren just have some weird hobbies? ...well, actually, she already knew that he did just by being here. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''          Staren nods, and looks back to him. "It's a bit hard to explain computers, but I can try over dinner. As for a sword... before you can press a button and get a sword, you have to put in a lot of work telling the computer exactly how it's going to be put together. All that knowledge you need to make the sword by hand is still important -- if the machine just cuts a sword shape out of metal, it won't be very good, right? Perhaps the body isn't involved, but you still have to put your mind into it. Once you create a program to make a sword, though, you could have the machine repeat the instructions for as many swords as you need. That said, nanofabrication usually isn't very efficient for mass production..."     As he comes back into the hub room, Eclipse has some odd questions. "They're spare bodies!" he calls out. "The girl one is so my support AI... it's kind of like a helpful spirit, it can possess it for tasks that need to be done in the physical world! Hey, do you want anything? I'm gonna make a burger for Sokka here." 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka nodded, listening to every word of it before nodding. "I see. That's... really fascinating. I look forward to learning all about this. You know, it's really awesome how much new technology there is out here now. I feel I could do anything! The technology on my planet was so limited, I swear. People just try to use bending for everything, so many people don't want to develop their own things. But you can do ANYTHING with the right ingenuity and hard work." He was looking so happy. "I wonder how much of this I'll be able to transfer back to my world? There's still so much to learn, I wish I had started years ago." 

:'''{{#var:947|Eclipse (947)}} has posed:''' "Spare bodies..." Eclipse mused. "So you have some means of... inhabiting them?" She supposed that would come in handy for him in dangerous situations. If she used such a thing, however, she would undoubtedly be severely weakened by the use of an unnatural form. "I will take a burger as well," she added to Staren as he offered food. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "You can store a lot of books on something like that just don't go too crazy. When it comes down to it Math's pretty crazy." She grins and looks between the rest of the people stil gathered here. "To also be fair? Bending has allowed a quicker understanding of many things related to how the world works. Still I get where your coming form on this and Sokka? Sounds like you might like to come see my garage, I build motorcyles and restore various cars and the like. You seen such things already, right?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "That's the spirit! I doubt much will catch on, alas... most people don't think like us... but you see what you can use!"     To Eclipse, Staren nods. "Yeah. Um..." he rubs the back of his neck. "I don't like talking about it on the radio, but that machine next to them can transfer minds, basically."     "Anyway, come on up!" he waves Eclipse over and heads up the stairs.     The second floor is the guest room. It's done up sort of like a rec room, with a fuzzy carpet and dark wood furnishings to go with the faux stone walls. There's a bed, a couch, a recliner, a vanity, a table, and flatscreen TVs on two of the walls.     The third (and top) floor landing has large windows on the port and starboard sides, a closed door to aft ("There's the bathroom." Staren comments). Through an archway, they can see: 3. Kitchen/Dining Room While the walls and furnishings maintain the medieval feel, the kitchen is supplemented with a modern refrigerator, microwave, stove, and sink. Dimensions:14x14x7.5'     Most of that room is taken up by a dining table surrounded by chairs. Another archway on the other side leads to a door and the stairs that go down to the lab.     Staren puts a pan on the stove, then goes to the fridge and pulls out chopped mushrooms and ground beef -- He shapes patties out of the beef, then puts them and the mushrooms in the pan and turns the stove on, before washing his hands.     "Computers. Hoo boy. The central conceit is that it turns out it's possible to make the universe do math for you. And then anything you can transform into a math problem, you can make the universe solve for you." He scratches his head. "Think about how you can use water to do work. Water at a higher level falls, and you can use a water wheel to harness it. Electricity has something called 'voltage', which is kind of similar. Um... Now, you know how a switch works, right? When you flip it on, you close the circuit... kind of like opening a dam to let the water flow. Well, it turns out you can make an electronic switch, called a transistor. Kind of like a dam that opens or closes depending on whether a second river is flowing by. You connect transistors together, and you get logic gates." He goes on to boolean logic, and how every other kind of gate can be made from NAND gates, and then the burgers are done. He serves them up with cheese and lets people choose condiments from ketchup, relish, and barbequeue sauce. Hetaren launches into an explanation of binary numbers. 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka was hanging on every word, sitting on one of the chairs, his eyes wide and filled with awe. His world had NOTHING like that! "Ugh, let me tell you about it. sometimes I swear, the people there don't even care about having clean water! I mean, it's clean water! Not nasty swamp water," he shook his head. "It should be the most basic thing. But nope." He followed along, listening to each word. Sure, a lot of it was lost on him, but he was at least trying to follow along. "Hey, this computer. Can you put this information on it? And how big will it be? Like, I've seen some really small ones and, frankly, they're pretty cool." He was going to get a tablet one day. And it was going to be the most awesome thing to him. Ever. 

:'''{{#var:947|Eclipse (947)}} has posed:''' Eclipse is too busy putting stuff on her burger, then eating it, to pay much attention to the computer discussion. "Good food," she comments with a pointed-toothed grin. "Thank you." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa is now leaning against a wall and she looks to Sokka for a moment. "...Your kidding me? Clean Water tends to be a thing most creatures who need it /want/. You wnat to know how much you can put on it? Depending on the model? You can hold up to likely a small libary's worth on one." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's ears perk up and he smiles to Eclipse, tailtip twitching. "Thank you!"     Then Staren looks at Sokka. "I don't know what other people will care about. It might be better to focus on certain things you care about... like computers. And sure, I can put loads of stuff on it. Heck, you know how radio lets you talk to other people across the multiverse? Computers can talk to other computers, too. It's called the internet. You can look stuff up... though not every world has computers connected to it." He goes back downstairs and comes back up with a big, transparent piece of plastic, about the size of a smartphone. "You can stretch it, to make it bigger," now it's a tablet, "or bend it to wear it like a bracelet." He collapses it and does so. Then makes it a tablet again and turns it on, handing it over. "Courtesy of the Argonauts. And they can hold a /lot/. You can fit a person on one of these, although, um, they'd worry about being dropped and broken, so don't."     Staren's expression suddenly brightens a bit more as he has a thought. "Hey, maybe you should join the Daedalus Initiative! Do you like solving problems?" 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka blinked and took it. He then wrapped it around his wrist, stretched it, folded it, wore it. his eyes were so wide and excited and he looked ready to squeal and there he went again. "Oh my gosh this is the most awesome thing EVER! And you just have these to give away? This is amazing! Do you think I could get one of those AI things, too? Can it talk to me? What kind of other stuff does it do?" Sokka was, sufficiently, impressed. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa looks over to Sokka for a moment as he responsd to Staren and the question about the Daedalus Initiative. She pauses for a moment as Sokka goes nuts about computers. "One thing at a time Sokka, learn how to use that computer first before you think about something like that. hough with Staren's question? Do you have an inters in study the multivese explore, learn new thing and see just what's out there and help people along the way?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks. "I... um... look up post-scarcity economics sometime. It's, uh... the Argonauts..." he smiles. "Yes, I can just give these away. Mass-producing them would be troublesome, but for elites? Especially someone who will clearly make so much of it. I was going to put a copy of Dawn on it to help explain things, but it comes with a simpler AI that can teach you how to use it. It also understands natural language voice commands... Um... here, you should keep these, too. Maybe you won't use 'em much, but they'll be handy when you can." He hands the glasses back again.     "It's a computer. It can do anything you can turn into a math problem, and it has a camera and microphone built in. Um... So, you can check news or references or watch books or read videos from around the multiverse, take pictures, record audio or video, play games, video call people, I mean, the sky's the limit really..."     There is too much information to fit through Staren's mouth at once! 

:'''{{#var:947|Eclipse (947)}} has posed:''' Eclipse ends up watching Sokka play with the device while she eats her burger. "A versatile thing," she comments. "Though a warden of nature like myself wouldn't have much use for it." At least none that she could think of. Kotone's description catches Eclipse's attention next. "Actually, I might like that myself. I may not know much of science or mathematics, but I do like to see the natural wonders of this Multiverse," she notes. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren comments to Eclipse, "Combined with an inertial navigation system, it could serve as a map that can show you where you are in relation to where you've been... although maybe you don't need one." 

:'''{{#var:1076|Sokka (1076)}} has posed:''' Sokka was already tapping away at it, having the time of his life. He'd almost forgotten his food. Almost. He chewed away, while going through all the information and... yeah, he was dead to the world now. He'd found new science. So, so much new science... 
}}

4353/A Lizard Talks With A Cat

2016-07-24T10:42:57Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/07/24 |Location=SSC Stranger Than Fiction |Synopsis=Ainsley comes over to talk with Staren. |Cast of Characters=42, 151 |pretty=yes }} {{Poses..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/07/24
|Location=SSC Stranger Than Fiction
|Synopsis=Ainsley comes over to talk with Staren.
|Cast of Characters=42, 151
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's waiting by the warpgate outside Ponyville. When Ainsley arrives, he nods in greeting, and beams them up to the ship.     The lower deck appears unchanged. When Staren leads Ainsley up the stairs, the former storage room has been stocked with furniture! The 20x15 foot space is now a carpeted room, with dark wooden furniture with autumn-colored upholstery. There's a couch, a coffee table, and some chairs, as well as a bed in one corner with a vanity and end table. "Take a seat, I'll be right with you."     A few moments later, he comes down with a large thermos, a squeezable honey dispenser, and a couple of mugs and spoons on a tray, setting it on the coffee table. "Tea? I made chamomile." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley gave Staren a small, cordial smile before they beamed up. The transition was unusually smooth for her, like her magic helped grease the teleportation just enough for her to be a second or two earlier than Staren. It probably wouldn't be noticeable on its own for either of them.     Ainsley settles into a seat with those soft movements Staren might be accustomed to. She patiently waits for him to return for the tea, and says the obligatory "Thank you~" before she starts preparing her tea. Sweet, sweet stuff.     "How's life among Equestria treating you, Staren?" she wonders at him, her voice soft while she settles back into her seat with her mug of tea, waiting for it to cool and enjoying the heat radiating into her cold-blooded fingers. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren pours tea and stirs some honey in before taking a seat across from her. "Well... Day-to-day? I spend most of my time here on the ship. When I leave it, though... Equestria is just a teleport away, as long as I'm orbiting it. As are AMATERASU and AMALGAM, thanks to the teleporter network. So it's like my 'neighborhood' is three places at once. I can get a lot of groceries in Equestria, but I have to go farther for fresh meat. Um..."     Staren looks thoughtful. "Equestria is nice and peaceful." He smiles, "Twilight treats me well, as always. Always a pleasure to spend time with her when I can."     He blows on his mug to cool it. "The ponies of Ponyville are pretty used to visitors now. They're a friendly bunch, but there's not a lot for me to do down there besides take walks, or eat at a restaurant as a pony. They have a club, but that's not really my thing. My life is out in the multiverse, and on the computer." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley listens with plenty of thought. She doesn't have much to say about what Staren is telling her. It's pretty normal, and it seems indicative of someone that feels comfortable.     "I want to ask you a serious question. Do you want to hear it?"     She has her pleasant demeanor despite the nature of her question. She waits to see if he's receptive first, watching his face, his eyes, her smile unwavering. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks. Thoughts rapid-fire through his head. A serious question. One that may require serious thought. /Is/ he ready? He probably is. What if the answer results in tripping over social things? Eh, Ainsley knows him.     He nods. 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     "This is going to get longwinded," Ainsley admits, looking down into the mug for a moment.     She looks up at Staren. "You're an engineer. A scientist. I've seen you working on things I could never dream about mastering, and you have so many tools at your disposal... You have technology, you have friends, you have a faction of allies, you even have ways to evade death that could be considered miraculous even by the standards of futuristic worlds."     "So... why don't you seem comfortable? I don't mean that you're stressed out, just that you have trouble accepting disagreements, and that you get so much anxiety, and then you get downtrodden about it..."     "Why don't you really seem... happy?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's ears rotate forward as Ainsley speaks. He tilts his head slightly at first. As she comes to the last couple of sentences, his ears splay and he looks down at the table.     He sets the mug down, then sits up, with his hands in his lap, looking straight at her. "That stuff is all wonderful, it's true. But..."He looks away briefly, "hmm... Well, there's multiple reasons. One is, for all the stuff I have, and all the power and resources... In the end, I have emotions like everyone else, and it hurts when I'm misunderstood by allies, or they think ill of me. It can't be more important to me than doing what I think is right, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. Although..." He slumps and looks down. "Maybe I'm starting to get used to it, finally."     He sighs, takes a deep breath, and straightens up again. "Second of all, I've learned that no matter what power and resources I have, I /can't/ assume it'll be enough. Because one day, I'll be in a situation, and someone will be hurt, lost, or killed, and... Maybe it's impossible. And it's not that I think I have to handle /everything/ myself. But I'm the only one I can personally make sure can handle more things. So... I've got to do more."     He sighs and leans back against the couch. "And I have ways to cheat death that should be miraculous, but I didn't get them for /myself/!" He throws up his hands, then drops them to his side. "That day when people's bodies showed up, I thought, I suddenly realized, that I'd never see those people again. Never talk to them. They were gone from my future, forever. That was when it really /hit/ me, what the death of a friend meant. And so I set out to make sure it wouldn't happen again. Days later, a way to do it fell into my lap, but..."     He sighs. "It's meaningless, if noone wants it. Yeah, people say I'll be a lonely immortal if all my friends die. No shit! That's why I want all of you to live too! But noone cares. At least Twilight's let me scan her, just in case. There might be dangers with doing more tests than that, to be certain. That's understandable. But it's not true for everyone. But in the end, I can't save people." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley watches and she keeps her patient smile. It might make her seem like a statue if not for the gentle signs of her breathing, and the strange shine to her eyes like there's always a bit of magic in them. Like her nature was not that of an ordinary mortal creature anymore. As Staren lets all of it out, leaving the baggage on the table for her to see, all the worries and fears he has that torture him day by day, she looks aside for a moment. She looks around the room after he's finished. He looks back to Staren.     "My life, and the Multiverse, has taught me a lot."     "Misunderstandings are normal. If we were meant to all understand each other, civilization would never have become so marvelously complex. If they think ill of you... there is little you can do about that besides try to approach it from a different angle. 'Did I word this too directly? Did I say something that made them upset without realizing it?' All I can say is that it's best to make an effort, to keep learning, to keep trying. And always be open."     A beat.     "You struggle with the religious and the arrogant, and I see that. But you must understand that each individual is their own. You must speak with them as if they don't know any other truth. Not like a child, or a savage, but someone that just lived a different life. You need to be as open to others as you can be, in this example and in others, or you will never reach this understanding you're looking for. This means that when people begin to get angry, or when you get angry, it may be time to slow down. To ask for a private discussion..."     She sips from her tea before she continues.     "The ways to avoid death... mmh." She closes her eyes for a second. "No one really wants to die." She opens her eyes. "But no one wants to live a life that has lasted so long that it has lost all meaning in itself, either," she tells Staren. "Stories have conclusions for a reason." She smirks, "Have you watched many good TV shows that just went on for way too long?" And then she gains a more somber tone, "Or have you seen those among your allies that HAVE lasted hundreds of years? I know one of them... It isn't pretty. Some get bogged down by an endless march of misfortune. They know they'll live long enough to grow to hate the people they love, or that they will start to see futility in the world around them."     She sips her tea again, and creases her brow, "This is going to sound rude, but you sound like a selfish person by nature. 'They will not trust this technology I know isn't dangerous,' that perspective is ignoring the fact that they don't really have to choose your method. You're not making the effort to see their side for what it is, you're just getting frustrated that they're choosing the path you're afraid they will choose. If people don't want to be saved, and you try to do it anyways, is it really saving them? Or are you just doing it to feel better about yourself?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Misunderstandings are normal. He nods. If we were meant to all understand eachother... he shrugs. "It still hurts, though."     When she gets to private discussions, he sighs and leans against the back of the couch. "I /know/, but I never remember when it matters. Talking to people differently... I need to work on."     He sits up. "All that stuff you said about the more /amazing/ parts of my life? There's enough of that in the Multiverse to fill /countless/ lifetimes. Some of our older allies are less well adjusted than others, but maybe it's a social thing. Maybe, if I can learn how to get along with people letter, I won't come to hate them!"     He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes a moment as she asks if he helps people for selfish reasons. He thinks, and he gets up, and walks behind the couch, and paces, with his hands folded behind his back.     "Morality. I want to understand it as much as anything else. More, if anything, because science and technology give me tools, but morality decides how I use those tools, what end goals I work towards. And so, I have thought about it. A lot. Tried to understand it. I have gut feelings, but I don't know exactly why. And sometimes, a situation gets complex and confusing and I don't /get/ a gut feeling. And so, I try to determine values. See how well they line up with my, my 'moral compass'. Saving people seems pretty simple. My gut's in no doubt about that. People's lives, and the state of those lives, are important. So saving them is good. Good... good is a morality word that means it's what you should do. Saving people is good. I should save people. So... I mean, it's the right thing to do. And the right thing to do is... the right thing to do." He stops pacing and looks at Ainsley. "Am I making any sense, here?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley gets closer to the root of it. She watches Staren pace, his struggle with simplifying morality, the idea that saving people is inherently good... or is it? She nods when he asks if she's making sense.     "You're a scientist. You think like one. 'Saving a person is good,' like it's a law that cannot be defied. A life has value as long as it exists, right?"     "I will use a tired example here. Bear with me."     She sets her mug down. "The Plain of Tales," she begins, "Already struck with a disaster, many of the people there didn't want to be saved, so crushed under the misfortune. And the problem was a single man. A man that, from the outside, saw everything as a challenge he had to surmount. To defeat it, he would prove to himself he was worthy. He hoped that he would find salvation in conquering, in taking, in showing his family he could be a King."     "But he never found it. He never looked beyond this one method, or saw that the value he placed in this family that would never accept him was destroying him. So he just let it destroy him. He became a monster. A /real/ monster."     "And in the end, when I found him, all he could accept was that he had to kill and to destroy. If I were to take him down, bring him to his knees, or just show him that he was wrong, it would be worse than killing him. If he was taught everything he knew was a lie... that he had killed all those people, hated all these people, thought of others no more than stepping stones for all those years... and it suddenly had no meaning, he would have nothing. He would be nothing."     "So I killed him."     "I remember standing there over him and thinking:"     "He was already dead, long before I struck him down. He wasn't a prince anymore. He was just... a force that created suffering that would never stop until someone stopped him. And the only thing that could give his life real value was to remember the lessons of his life and to tell it to others. I remember thinking that he had never met someone that had talked to him. I remember looking out into the edge of that scorched field, and thinking: We had done what we could. His soldiers would live. Some would grow dark, but others might learn from their mistakes."     "Good and evil are constructs people use to describe things far more complex than people are willing to accept. Killing is wrong, and what I did to that man was evil, and some part of me will always believe that. But what was done to his life was abominable. What he had to go through, to reach that point, was a suffering that couldn't be allowed to continue. Should I be detained, because I had murdered someone? Am I a hero, because I struck down an enemy in war time? Did I save lives? Did I damn my own soul?"     "The only true good is connecting with others. The only true evil is refusing to understand others, to grow angry when they won't accept you. That man had evil done to him. He had his connections turned against him. He was angry, he was hostile, and they feared him and refused to accept him. And so he only got worse."     "I accept you, Staren. I just ask that you accept others, too, okay? Even if they do just... insane things, all the time."     She has a mirthful smile at the end of that. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren makes an uncertain, "Mmmnnnnhhh..." noise when she says it's a law that can't be defied. "I'm a consequentialist, not a deontologist."     She tells her story.     "And that's /why/. You did the best you could, to help the most people. I was talking overly simplistic before. Of /course/ there are times when saving people isn't the best option." He starts pacing again. "/My/ morality, as best I can figure it, values... well, a lot of stuff. Life and health and quality of life and enjoyment and having and persuing dreams and being able to follow your own values, it's, it's too complex to boil down, that's sort of a general overview. Of /course/ his life had value, and his drive to challenge things, but he was making life worse for so many others. The future was better off without him. That's what it comes down to."     He stops for a moment, then looks at her. "Today, I talked to Peridot. She helped with the plot to assassinate Twilight. But she's reformed. She apologized to me, despite it clearly being incredibly awkward and embarassing to her, and... I think she meant it. She really is trying to do better now. Should I kill her because of what she did? Of course not! This is the /best/ result, for someone who was formerly a harm to others, of negative value to the universe... She's a positive value now. She's making the future /better/. I wish this could happen to /all/ my enemies. Every single one, it would be a better fate, for them, and for all the lives they'd touch in the future, if they reformed and started helping people. Better than rotting in jail. Better than death."     He leans against the couch, resting his hands on the back with his arms straight. "But it almost never happens. And so sometimes, we kill people. Because if we don't, they'll make the future worse, for so many others." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     "Right."     "You just aren't going to see that improvement in everyone. Some people enjoy the suffering of others. Some only find completion in the destruction of others. Some have put themselves down paths where they feel they have no other choice. Sometimes, they really do have no other choice, because someone or something else is pushing them that way. And that isn't your fault. You aren't failing to be good. Their choices don't stop the facts: You want people to be happy, to be good, to be safe. Even if you can sound like you will go off the deep end to me or to others, and believe me, it can get worrying... You are a good person. You have told me as much. You want people to understand you, and you want to understand others. That's important. It isn't perfect, and I cannot force you to be happy, but I can at least tell you that you're doing a good job so far. Keep trying, okay?"     Ainsley gathers her mug of tea to finish it off. "Remember that I will be around to listen to you if you get angry. Just... try to give it some thought, first. We can talk about whatever is bothering you, and I will always listen to you." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks. "...I know that I'm good. Even if the entire Union were screaming for my blood... if I did the right thing, that's more important than what others think of me." He walks around and sits down again, taking a sip of his tea. "My problem isn't with doing the right thing... Although, as I said, I have emotions same as everyone else, and your validation feels much more pleasant than if I had to weather your scorn... I don't doubt myself. I refine my understanding of morality, and maybe sometimes I make mistakes... But I think that on the whole, I'm going in the right direction. Never for a second have I feared that I'm evil..."     He hangs his head. "Though I wonder if I might be someday. After all, we can't trust children to know what's best. We have to guard them and keep them safe until they know better. And when I'm old and I look at impetuous young elites, and they tell me that fighting death is wrong..."     He looks up at Ainsley. "I worry that one day, I'll see them as foolish children and go against them for their own good." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley thinks on that for a moment.     "Age is no metric for wisdom, Staren. If you recognize that now, /right now/, that it's wrong to force them to accept that, then why would you do it in the future?"     "Would you just forget that their feelings are important and only accept your own truths?"     "It's a strange fear to have. To grow old and yet more ignorant. Because that's what that is." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "...Because I don't understand /why/ it's wrong. I'm in doubt. It might have something to do with the value of freedom, but that's an attempt to understand the metric other people are using. It's something I know I shouldn't do," He looks down at his drink, "because if I do, heroes will come kill me, and then I won't be able to help people anymore. That's what holds me back from a lot of things, now. I don't think I'll grow old and ignorant. I think one day, maybe I'll have enough power that I'll believe I can /win/." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     "Why do they want to come kill you?"     Ainsley smiles just as patiently as before. She looks like she expects some sort of answer. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's eyes start to water a bit as he looks down at his tea. "Because I did something they don't like. Something they don't understand. I told myself I would go against the entire Multiverse if I was right and they were wrong," his eyes water more. "Other people don't make what's right, wrong. But it hurts. It hurts, to be seen that way." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks away tears as he awaits her reply, and wipes his cheek with a finger. 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley watches Staren, her eyes focused keenly on his face, and she breathes a sigh through her nose. It does bother her to do this to him, but she wants to reach an understanding, and so... "You are right, in this hypothetical scenario, but so are they. And what ends up happening is that your 'right' disappears and theirs loses its true meaning," she makes a little 'poof' gesture with her fingers spreading out and her palm facing him, "And all the value of your life is lost because you tried to force it, and because they fought against it. The evil there, the 'wrong,' was because of the lack of understanding on both sides."     "It will hurt, but that's okay, alright?" She gets up from her seat, and moves over to give him a hug around the shoulders. Squeeeeze~     "It's okay." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     He gives her a curious look as she approaches... Oh. A hug. He recalls that he gave her a hug once, when she seemed to need it...     He leans into the hug, slightly. He's silent for a few seconds.     "...That's what the Union does. That's what heroes do. They judge that others are wrong, and force that morality on others by violent and forceful punishment if they have to. So why is it different for me to... to do this to allies? The only difference I see is that, well, they're potential /allies/, in some matters, so it's regrettable to turn them against me. Understanding..."     He hangs his head and closes his eyes. "I hope one day, I'll be better at it. But progress comes so slowly. Small steps and small lessons take years. It's a long and painful road." He opens his eyes. "Is there a better way I don't see?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley holds the hug for a moment longer, and then releases him. "No." She shrugs at him, looked momentarily pained. "This is pretty much it. You take your victories where you can get them and try not to trample the people you care about along the way." She breathes a sigh, washing cold-blooded breath over him as she gets some healthy conversational distance again. "Do you see me doing a lot of... violent and forceful punishment, these days?" she wonders at him, awkwardly rubbing the top of her head. "I used to, but..." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks at Ainsley. She's been so accepting. So understanding. Can he trust her completely, like he does Morg and Twilight?     He just has to tell her what he once considered doing. Part of his mind automatically starts solving for how to reach for a weapon covertly, in case the answer is wrong and she goes to tell the Union... No. He'd be discovered, anyway. And he could never bring himself to kill her. It would simply be the end, as she escapes. He could run. Hide. He trusted Twilight, but she proved herself again and again and again and again and again to a degree that astounded him and erased all doubt. That she would turn on him was unthinkable.     Is it really thinkable, that Ainsley would?     Oh wait, she was talking. Shit, play that back.     "I see. I suppose it could be worse. It would be maddening, if I did not have Twilight. Or you, apparently."     "I do not. You let others handle it. Just as I let others handle fights over target zones, and diplomatic matters... Either I think they are pointless in the long run, or I know I'm no good at them."     He tilts his head to one side. "Are you saying the reason you do not now is because you think it would be wrong? Because you'd be forcing your morality on others?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     "Mm-hmm."     "Communication is my Aspect, it's what I am, body, soul and mind. And communication doesn't work if one side," Ainsley gently touches the top of Staren's head with one finger, and then her own nose, as if it could be either of them, "Just refuses to connect. If I refuse to accept the 'right' of both my allies AND my enemies, I have failed my own purpose. Sounds impossible, right?"     "If that means accepting that others DO force their version of right on others, and that sometimes these situations can't be avoided, then that is what I have to do. And in the meantime... I do what I can to ensure that connections are made." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     How solid is his mental simulation? Consider someone else. Like Sakura Kinomoto. She'd never betray him. If he told her, what would she say?     'But you didn't actually do it, did you?'     That's what Twilight said, too.     Is it what Ainsley would say? Possibly. But she's intelligent and clever and cunning enough to lie for the safety of the world.     Is she? Could she really bring herself to do that? Maybe he should be looking at this from her side. Shit, this is really hard, but he needs to know, this once...     He's quiet for a long moment. Empathy. Be Ainsley. Put yourself in someone else's shoes.     'You didn't do it.'     That's obvious. But also a primed thought. No, what he needs to know is, if she decided he was wrong, could she bear to hurt him?     He's not sure, and while he's trying to figure it out she explains and it becomes clear he really doesn't know enough about what she is now.     "Mm. I don't know if I could live that way. Maybe if I were very tired. It feels like a moral failing.     He looks at her. "Why aren't you concerned? I've said that I would force my morality on others, and only fear of reprisal and being stopped prevents me from trying to force better lives, safety, health on people. Isn't that dangerous?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     It is hard to slip such a struggle past her. There's bound to be something in Staren's face that tells Ainsley that he's trying to say something important, but her nature refuses to pry into it unless it is just impossible to ignore.     "I am concerned, Staren. Why would I talk to you if I wasn't concerned? I just don't see it as a disaster, or that you're going to run off and turn into a mad scientist in an instant... I can see your pain and I'm here to tell you that I see it, and that I empathize."     "This is me being concerned," she says, lifting her brows and pointing at her own face. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Ugh, will this uncertainty drive him nuts? What about others, why doesn't it bother him that he doesn't trust them? Well, J. Random Unionite he knows he can't trust. They don't understand. What about people he's known for awhile?     Ugh, he's too tired. Or he burned his social neurons out trying to be Ainsley for a few moments.     He needs more friends. True friends. A lot of his misery is doubt and lack of trust, isn't it?     Despite himself, he smiles as she points at herself. Something about that was funny.     He stands and paces again. "For years, I lived knowing... knowing, that one day it would all end. I'd be misunderstood too far, the Union would declare me an outlaw, and I'd have to spend the rest of my life on the run. It was just an obvious fact of life, and I just hoped I could do as much good as possible before that day came."     He stops pacing. "That started to change four and a half years ago, but it took time for me to really stop believing in it as an inevitability. But maybe... I dunno. Maybe it never really leaves you. I can't completely trust people... because I fear one misstep..."     He sits back on the couch. "I've been out and about in the Multiverse for ten years. Who knows how much of that is precaution and care and healthy paranoia. The idea that it could all end so quickly sounds silly, from one little mistake... But one thing you didn't expect is all it takes. We still lose people sometimes. How do I know when and how to trust people?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley puffs another sigh. It's /exhausting/ to keep up with this, and so she finds a place to sit again and gently speaks to Staren some more.     "You can trust people that are honest with you, that won't hurt you just because they think you're wrong. Beyond that... even I struggle with that. Mostly I just try to be the person /other/ people can trust, or at least begin to, and just hope that no one tries to take advantage of me along the way." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks at her. Is he hurting /her/? She wants to be trustworthy.     Another true friend would be wonderful.     Be cautious. Ten years in the multiverse. You can always try again later, with more information. You're tired.     If the Union actually got upset, could he hide in Twilight's house until she talked them down? Could she talk them down? It would be terrible to impose that on someone he loves. But then, if it was a risk taken for friendship, wouldn't she want him to have tried?     He's already admitted that only fear of the stick stops him from doing 'right things'. Is anything really worse than that? Is he just paranoid, and many have passed the test without him even /thinking/ about it?     Auuuugh!     Staren holds his hands to his head for a moment, then takes a deep breath. Then takes a long sip of his tea. Cool enough to take a long sip of, now. Then he takes another deep breath.     "About four and a half years ago... Sorry, the number I should have said before was /three/ and a half, because this was a year before then... When I came back from my hiatus of no longer being able to stand the pointless fighting... I had an idea."     Stupid stupid reckless reckless but I can't take it anymore     "I believed it might be possible to de-unify a world. I thought I could find a way. And so I had a plan. If I could set up three of these devices, near Njorun, the Citadel, and in Equestria... Defending the former two with armies of constructs to hold elites off just long enough for them to activate... Then by cutting off the heads, so to speak, of the two greatest powers in the Multiverse, I could stop the war. I don't know how many would be hurt or killed in such a fight, but surely the lessening of pain and death in the future would have been immesurable. By being in Equestria when the third device goes off, I escape reprisal and retire somewhere peaceful. It's not like I could never go to other worlds again, anyway. I /know/ there are ways to do it outside the Multiverse."     He lowers his gaze. "I didn't seriously work on it. I was scared, and if I was found out and failed, defeated before I could pull it off, I'd cause a big fight and pain and death all for nothing. But... I made this plan. I considered it. You can see by how I can talk and explain it all now..." He looks back at Ainsley. What now?     Stupid. Reckless. You IDIOT! I'm so tired. I couldn't take it anymore. And you won't take anything anymore, if you screwed up. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "...In the end... even now... I know it would have been a right thing to do, if I could only pull it off. It wasn't realizing it was wrong that stopped me." He scratches his head. "If I somehow got the ability /to/ do it now... I don't know. I'd have to think about it." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley thought about it after Staren said it. Her face twisted into this deeply skeptical look, like she doubted something about his plan pretty strongly. She fluffed up her feathers for a moment. It wasn't disgust, or at least, she could still look him in the eyes after he said it.     "Putting aside how incredibly... reckless that is, you would..." She looks down at her fingers, and counts off on them, "You would have to fight forces we know keep the Multiverse in a certain 'shape,' things that people don't understand anymore. You would have to fight innumerable elites on both sides, most of which would not be merciful and would swiftly render all your plans useless... And, again, it's selfish. What part of the Multiverse is any different than how your own world worked before? No one you really care about would accept it."     "And even putting THAT aside, you would be ignoring the fact that this would turn you against everything on both sides. Boiling it down to such a simplistic solution wouldn't solve the problem at all. It would put it out of your sight and make it more complicated for everyone else to deal with and you can't tell me with everything you've said so far that you believe that's the 'right' outcome."     She shakes her head slowly. "I understand why you got to that point. I don't agree with it, but I understand. Again... you're a scientist, a problem solver, and it's enticing to just... simplify it. The fighting gets tiresome. The mistakes get too familiar after a while."     "I'm glad you didn't go through with it," she concludes. "As mad scientist plans go, though, it isn't as apocalyptic as it could've sounded. The way your face looked, I thought you were going to say something worse." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "The war couldn't continue on the scale it has, without the Union and Confederacy's headquarters... Although, I suppose back then, perhaps I had an inflated view of just /how/ much that would hinder the ability to wage war..." He runs a hand through his hair. "...You thought I was going to say something /worse/, and you still wanted to hear it and talk to me?"     He hangs his head for a moment, then looks back at her. "...Do you think I've misjudged the Union? That I could be a lot more trusting?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     "Dunno. I'm a weird case, and I know that most people would think you are a basket case," Ainsley tells Staren, shrugging at him, "So I couldn't say if you should trust your allies more. That's up to you to figure out. Maybe it'll help them accept you if you trust them in turn? It's worth an experiment, right?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles a little. So she thinks he /is/ right, to think that others would see him as crazy. That makes him feel less crazy. "I suppose. I'll have to think it over carefully. How to perform such an experiment. When I'm less tired." He stands and walks to a window. "Celestia's raised the sun already..."     He turns back to her. "Thank you," he smiles more, "That's a load off my mind, and friends I can really trust, at least in my current mindset, are few and precious. You are the third." 
}}

4330/Twilight Explains Social Stuff to a Robot

2016-07-17T09:09:17Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/07/17 |Location=Equestria |Synopsis=Staren goes to Twilight for advice after Yet Another Radio Blowup. Valentha comes along to help too. |Than..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/07/17
|Location=Equestria
|Synopsis=Staren goes to Twilight for advice after Yet Another Radio Blowup. Valentha comes along to help too.
|Thanks=Twilight, for scening so late.
|Cast of Characters=42, 411, 834
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's been making his way back during all this, eventually coming through the warpgate and beaming up immediately. During the conversation, he's making preparations for the transfer back to his own body, but... Things go poorly. Again. WHEN WILL HE LEARN.     He ends up changing clothes and beaming down just outside the library, concentrating to retain humanoid form. Fortunately, the restorative powers of the Round Drops have also patched up the damage to his synthetic skin and stuff, so he's not a bloody mess.     He knocks, quietly. "Twilight? It's me, I'm here." He says, somewhat softly and glumly. 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight was waiting at the door for Staren, and when she hears the knock she opens immediately. She smiles softly to Staren, then gives him a firm hug. "Hey. That sounded pretty rough. Are you going to be alright?" she says as she hugs him, then pulls him inside the library gently before closing the door. "What was all that about, anyway? I mean, I got much of it, but...who was the priest you kept talking about?" 

:'''{{#var:834|Valentha Summers (834)}} has posed:''' Space ripples and shimmers behind Staren about two seconds seconds after he's walked through the library's door and Twilight Sparkle closed. Well. Actually it's rippling and shimmering a telltale blue right in front of the door. The energies peacefully expand and coaelsce within a few seconds into the form of a... oh hey, it's Valentha Summers, and she's not a pony.     But she glances over her shoulder first thing and frowns at the open door. ".... ooops. That was open two seconds ago. So much for a dramatic entrance that isn't rude."     Giving twilight Sparkle a faintly chagrined - if lighthearted - look, the blonde in the aviator's garb bows deeply. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren hugs Twilight back gently, as if afraid he might break her, nuzzling her cheek. "I'll be alright after I talk to you." he replies softly.     Valentha teleports into the room. Staren looks at her, with...     Fear?     She's a dragon, but that's irrelevant. The social situation they're in... it is a conflict he's completely unprepared for, and all the technology in the world, all the armor, all the computers, can't protect him from emotional harm. He steps around Twilight as if instinctively hiding behind her, which probably looks silly as she's smaller than him, and when she drops back to all fours after the hug she's over a foot shorter.     Staren stares at her for a moment, then looks back to Twilight.     He explains: "After losing her family and being joined by Fairy, Lise was traveling to Wendel to seek advice from the high priest of the mana goddess there. Then she unified, and was unable to continue her quest for weeks. By randomly searching warpgates, she lucked out and finally found her home. Luna and Fiora and I... that is, an alternate version of Queen Luna... escorted her in case of monster attacks. When we finally met this priest, though... He just kept going on and on about how this couldn't be and his goddess wouldn't let such a thing happen. He didn't stop and get a hold of himself until we talked more. It wasn't like 'This can't be! But I guess it is. What you must do in this grave situation is blank' or anything like that. S-so I told him off, because Lise lost so much, and was clearly pinning all her hopes on, on getting useful advice, and, and instead we get this..."     He slumps and looks away. Looking like he kind of wants to say more, but can't decide on what, so he just glumly waits for someone else to speak. 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight lets out a surprised 'eep!' as Valentha appears so suddenly. "Huh. So, that is what others think when I teleport in." she says, then giggles a bit before she listens to Staren. She knows something is wrong when he hugs her so carefully and hides behind her from Valentha. And not the usual wrong, but the he is actually worried wrong.      She listens to Staren's story, her ears splaying back at the sadness in it. She rears up and hugs Staren around the neck again, and gives him a little nuzzle, then lowers back down to all fours again before looking to Valentha. "I'm sorry, but I don't think we have met. I am Twilight Sparkle, and this is the Books and Branches Library. I take it from Staren's expression that he knows you. Are you another friend of his?" she asks, then pauses. "Wait...your voice...were you one of the one's..um...debating strongly with Staren on the radio?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren leans into the hug. At the question he nods, "She's a friend." 

:'''{{#var:834|Valentha Summers (834)}} has posed:''' "And I spoke harshly and without full knowledge." Valentha Summers admits. "Friend and neighbor. Valentha Summers... you needn't look at me like THAT, Staren..." This Valentha Summers isn't the perky and chipper mechanist she usually appears to be. There's something far too serious and somber in her eyes tonight. "Hoped to hear what really happened..." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks... guilty. Worried that he's offended again.     "...However..." he adds, "I misjudged him, perhaps. Despite my rudeness, he was afterwards forthcoming with somewhat helpful information about the legends of Lise's world. And a denizen of the holy land, Fairy I mean, says the mana goddess really /is/ that powerful. Honestly, I'm hopeful but still skeptical, but... at this point, I'll play along and not publicly doubt the mana goddess, because I don't want to offend people /more/." He slumps again. "It didn't work." 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight smiles as she hears that. "Good. Understanding is a very important part of friendship. Without understanding, friendship falls apart." she says, then she looks to Staren again. "I think it might help if we saw your recording of the incident in question. It is hard to tell from just a recounting if your reaction was justified. But, there's another issue that came up."      Twilight's expression turns to one of slight worry. "You said that she did not have to worry because she wouldn't have to look for her brother if she found the sword, didn't you? It seems like you didn't realize why that might have upset Lise." She smiles just a bit after that. "I will use myself as a model, since that seems effective for you. If I had been captured by bandits that had seriously harmed my friends or family, was being held by them, and for some reason you couldn't get to me or even confirm that I was alright...would it relieve your worries to be told that if you completed a difficult quest, one that could take a very long time and during which you could not get an update on my condition at all, that I might be alright when you finally found me?" 

:'''{{#var:834|Valentha Summers (834)}} has posed:''' "... I see... somehow I thought..." Valentha smiles kindly to Twilight, but it's the smile of someone who's been outdone and is examiing themselves. She gestures a bit, channels a few fragments of magical power... and seats herself on a glowing, semi-solid lump suspended in the air... vaguely chair-shaped.     If she wanted to say something before, she's definitely not sure about it now. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods at the comment about the recording. He has it ready, of course... But Twilight has a question for him. He winces a bit at the described scenario, but remains resolute. "If this quest would free a goddess with more than enough power to free you and heal your family, a goddess I honestly and truly believed had such power, as much as I trust you? Of course."     Then his expression softens and he looks a bit sad. "...The possibility did occur to me, that her reaction is because she doesn't really believe either. But after everything that was said, I did not think anything good would result from voicing this concern on the radio." 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight's ears perk at Valentha's incomplete words, but as the dragon in human form takes a magical seat, Twilight turns back to Staren. "It isn't just that. Even if she believes with all her heart that her goddess can and will undo all the harm that has been done, something we know is very unlikely and she likely knows the same, it still means that either her brother is trapped and suffering right now...or is already dead. I know I would not want you suffering or dead for any amount of time, even if we had a god or goddess that could bring you back."      Twilight heads over to take a seat on the couch after that. "And, there is another possibility. That she has been so worried for so long that she doesn't want to get her hopes up. Or, as you mentioned, that she doesn't believe she is up to the task of saving her entire world." She pats the seat beside her for Staren, and motions for Valentha to move closer if she wishes. "And through her already tinted vision toward you, it may have sounded as though you were discounting her worries as trivial." 

:'''{{#var:834|Valentha Summers (834)}} has posed:''' "On the assumption there's no missing details there... the best thing to do may have been to show respect to the priest and be gentle in coaxing him from his... mania.... and reassure the girl you'll help with however she wants to proceed... leave debating the details until everyone has settled down... a light touch would have worked well, I'd have bet...."     Valentha sighs from her seat. "Well. I'm not going to barge in and lecture. This one... needs thinking." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren watches Twilight walk over to the couch. "Perhaps... but if she doesn't believe it, and is pretending, and everyone else on the radio is too, and I'm supposed to pretend too... except I'm also supposed to not really because it might hurt someone's feelings?" He shakes his head, then walks over to sit next to her. "How does anyone manage to navigate a social /minefield/ like that? ...Saving a world isn't /impossible/, I mean, it's quite doable actually, it's by no means /easy/ but I've actually lost count of how many I've helped save these past ten years."     He rubs his head, looking at Valentha, then back to Twilight. "I just want to know... how I could figure out what to do if a similar situation comes up again, and what to do /now/, to... to mitigate the damage of everyone on the radio seeing me this way, and most importantly, how to help her... i-if getting involved would even be constructive at all." He hangs his head and closes his eyes. "If navigating this situation is so beyond my ability that talking to Lise risks another explosive screwup, then maybe the best thing /I/ can do is stay out of it. The Union has ample heroes who seem to handle the situation naturally and who are quite able of helping her in whatever course of action she chooses." 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight watches Staren's recording of the meeting, then blinks at the end of it. "Um...Staren, I have to say, I think that your reaction stems from a misunderstanding. He said he did not believe it, true. But, he then immediately said it was terrible and that only the goddess herself could reverse such a tragedy. This implies that he -did- believe it, and was merely expressing his shock at hearing the news. Also, while it would be reasonable to assume he meant that the goddess may fix everything, I wouldn't say he thinks she will fix it. Only that she has the power, or that at least legends tell of her having such power. If she did create their world, then it would be possible, but we don't really have enough information to make any sort of judgement."      And...she facehoofs when Staren says to the priest 'Is all you do complain?' "Staren...this is probably what they were talking about. You have spoken to this man, a priest who is presumably highly respected in his country and someone that Lise believes can help her, a total of...what, a minute? And yet you ask if all he does is complain? I would say that is both very rude and very presumptuous. It seems as though you heard two things you did not like, and decided that this man would be of no help and did not deserve any kind of respect, and further you seem to assume he will be of no help without actually talking to him."      Twilight looks over at Staren, and offers a warm smile. "I think your difficulties in the Multiverse might be getting to you. The Staren I know gets all the facts he can before he makes a judgement rather than taking such a small sample of data before coming to a conclusion." 

:'''{{#var:834|Valentha Summers (834)}} has posed:''' "Yes, I am most DEFINITELY outmatched here." Valentha executes a strange little bow towards Twilight. Which isn't an easy feat to do in any kind of dignified fashion when you're sitting. She must have practice. "Did not need to come at all." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks interested and particularly attentive when Twilight identifies a misunderstanding. He looks thoughtful, then flinches slightly at her facehoofing.     Valentha just gets a curious, puzzled look before he looks back to Twilight. "I suppose I was impatient... and I considered his faith and outrageous statement of his goddess's abilities marks against him. It seemed likely that Lise had been misled... I guess, maybe I just need to wait more before speaking. Especially in such matters. I just... I just couldn't stand the thought that she'd put all her hopes on a charletan..." He rubs his head. "I guess learning a little more patience is just part of growing up, though. Elephants in rooms aren't usually going anywhere... I mean, if they did, it'd be good... and people can always be called out later. I just fear that in the heat of future moments, this lesson won't be remembered, like so many others. I'm not sure how to make sure it comes to mind when I'm about to lose my head... boy, if I could solve /that/ problem, most of my social difficulties would disappear, huh?" 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight giggles softly and nods, giving Staren a little hug again. "Yes. Patience is important in any situation. And not losing your head is even more important. I just hope that she will see that you were actually trying to look out for her. Maybe if you explain that you have met many charletans in your life and have seen good people hurt because of them, and sincerely apologize for discounting her priest and her beliefs, she will forgive you. But, you will have to be careful. Any more outbursts like that, or perceived belittling of her situation, and I doubt you will get another chance. I don't know much about the situation, but from her reactions I'd say she is in a fragile state. Support her as a new friend should. Offer advice, but unless she is doing something that will directly harm someone, just support her and let her know you just want to help."      She pats Staren on the shoulder gently. "And remember, shouting actually makes your message harder to understand. It puts people on the defensive and your intent is quickly lost in their perceptions and interpretations. A calm, rational tone and method will get you much farther in a discussion."      As it seems the matter is fairly well dealt with and it is rather late, Twilight nuzzles Staren gently. "I must get to bed. You are of course welcome to stay the night. And you, Valentha. There is plenty of space here. Goodnight to you both!" With that, Twilight heads upstairs to her bedroom. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren leans into the hug and listens. Twilight's frank that he could screw up irreperably on this one, and he looks concerned but accepting. He nods, flinching slightly at the comment about shouting. "R-right..." he nods again, and rubs his head.     At the nuzzle, he hugs her, patting her back. "Sleep well, Twilight. And thank you again."     He smiles. "I appreciate the offer, but this body doesn't sleep. I was about to get back to one that does, before all this..." he gestures vaguely, "...happened."     He nods to Valentha, "Goodnight." on his way out the door, then shuts it behind him, beaming up in a pillar of red-and-white light. 

:'''{{#var:834|Valentha Summers (834)}} has posed:''' "... Came here looking to try and instill some wisdom in Staren... think I had some instilled into me instead. What a turn of events!" Valentha again bows to Twilight... but her whole body flickers with blue energy. In a matter of moments... *BLIP!* She's gone. 
}}

4317/Taking Initiative

2016-07-14T15:53:36Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/07/13 |Location=SSC Stranger than Fiction |Synopsis=Staren calls a meeting of Daedalus Initiative members to come up with ideas for initial pr..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/07/13
|Location=SSC Stranger than Fiction
|Synopsis=Staren calls a meeting of Daedalus Initiative members to come up with ideas for initial projects.
|Cast of Characters=7, 42, 673
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:''' Hub - SSC Stranger than Fiction (Location #0) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------     The walls, floor, and ceiling of the Stranger than Fiction's lower deck are covered with a facade that makes the structure look as if it are constructed of large stone bricks. The 'hub' room is about 25x15' across and about 7 1/3 feet tall. The teleporter pad is in the fore-starboard corner, the doorway to the lab is in the center of the fore wall, and the doorway to manufacturing is in the center of the aft wall. A spiral staircase to storage and the residential deck is in the aft-port corner. Through thick transparisteel windows, you can see space outside. Large storage cupboards are against the walls here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------     Staren waits by the teleporter to welcome arrivals. Once everyone's assembled, he smiles and looks between them. "Welcome to the SSC Stranger than Fiction! My, uh, home now, I guess. Right this way..." He leads them up the stairs. The next floor up is a carpeted room, maybe 20x15 feet, with carpeting and dark wooden furniture with autumn-colored upholstery. There's a couch, a coffee table, and some chairs, as well as a bed in one corner. "Please, have a seat! So, I'm calling this meeting just to, like, get some ideas for initial projects for us, besides getting a base. See if anyone has any ideas, or maybe we need to just take stock of what we have and what we can do."     "Can I get any of your refreshments? Iced tea, soda, coffee, hot tea, various snacks?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Not necessary in my case." Chimes a blue-haired young woman who follows in after Staren and finds herself a seat. Rory's sleeved into her Synth today, as the occasion is too social for the rather inhuman-looking Flexbot.     "Well... one thing I believe is worth investing some resources is setting up a wider sensor network. Satellites and relays for example that can be largely automated for data collection. You can't study or respond to what you don't know about!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren hmms, holding a hand to his chin, supporting his elbow on his other arm. "A sensor network over the entire Multiverse? That's just too vast, though... Maybe we can get some around specific worlds, but... that seems too limited. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa knows the drill with the Flotilla's tech of ships and is long used to being beamed about, she formes on the pad, stepping off it and her clothing still rippling as it takes onthe shape of one of her newer but more commonly known outfits. She's taken quite a liking to smart clothing. "Evening Staren, Rory I had a few ideas as well..." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Hearing that, Staren looks to Kotone cheerfully. "Oh? Let's hear them..." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Naturally, but we won't even know where to prioritize until we start gathering data in the first place, will we?" Rory counters gently, then turns her head with clear interest in her eyes Kotone's way. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "Well one we might need to standariz kit for anyone who joins the group for field work but as for that? I'm thinking we need to take a hand to trolling the various datantworks of the multiverse in a more efficent way for information hunting. Which can help with leads, or even allow us to check findings. I'd be fairly good at that other things might be looking into designing equipment to suit our needs as well. I'm pretty sure I could talk Miho and Saski into being on board with this venture." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Bit of a catch-22, unless you've got an idea where we should start? /Although/... maybe preparing map missiles and satnets-in-cans to have some on hand when we need to study a world quickly might be helpful." He looks to Kotone. "Trawling everything that's going on? That sounds overly big too, I mean... can even an AGI keep up?" He looks back to Rory. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Better than most humans could, apart from very rare exceptions." Rory answers gracefully. "But we have limits. Technologies and techniques like forking certainly improve scope and scale, but have their own risks. The easiest way to handle massive amounts of data for anything that looks interesting is to have specialized AIs filter first so at least SOME attention is paid to data you can't get to yourself." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "That's an idea some surival gear, medical kit, that sort of thing honestly. I don't ever intend to fork, not after what happened to Miho and Saski." She looks to Starten for a moment. "Humm maybe not everything but work on improving what we can do right?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods. "Well... while I don't have /no/ experience in the area, I suspect the Argonauts know more about programming AIs than me. Maybe we could have them watch worls that see a lot of cross-world traffic, or something.     He looks to Kotone. "Survival gear... hmm... Some sort of standard stuff members can carry to be prepared for lots of situations? Or ones we're likely to see? That's a thought... We might come up with some weapons too. I mean, not to focus on that, but..." He walks over to a wall panel and opens a locker containing a vacsuit, smartskin, and SMG. "Stuff like this weapon specially-designed for in-ship combat... Having access to designs like that might be useful." He closes the locker. "Or stun guns, for people from worlds where those aren't as easily available." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "This sounds like a VERY promising endeavor!" And mentally, Rory notes for her Muse to keep this conversation in mind come third watch so she can get started on it. "Survival kits, exploration kits... medical kits.. a lot of things could be standardized." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "I'm thinking a standard general kit so we have something we can rapidluy make ready to use. It's not perfect but it's better than having no plan, right? Even if we don't produce it all we could at least have plans for what to fab, or buy. Also speaking of all this? I need to get a muse, I think at this rate. I can multitask but having something to help me deal with the data crunch would be nice." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods. "Well... Hmm. Smart vacsuit, nanobandages, multitool... stun weapon, foam grenades... A computer for anyone who hasn't got one... Hmm. Something like repair spray... Probably not so much, it'd mostly only work on our own stuff. Shame we can't give everyone medichines..." STaren muses to himself. "ANy other ideas, besides info-monitoring and kits?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "All sound like good suggestions. I'd suggest adding a Standard Muse to the list, but... many might find getting used to that very hard." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods. "Perhaps we could come up with a muse-like AI designed for more limited use. Like... keeping people apprised of developments within the group, findings of those who are combing the internets, and helping anyone to use any unfamiliar technology we adopt as standard or that's involved in a particular project." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "Some sort of rations, people still got to eat. Also I need to look into some of the mintance issues on my primary shell. It's good it's just? Given the power systems there's a reason I need to eat cyborg food and not just for fun.." Ko pauses for a moment with a bit of a blank look on her face and in that moment she loosk /very/ doll like. She shakes her head a bit however. "Still we got a lot of wok to do, right?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Not really muse-like, I guess." Staren adds, scratching his head. "I guess a lesser helper AI. Rations? I guess it's good to have something ready, but I can't help but wonder if someone /that/ concerned couldn't just take a food fabber. Or a maker." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Hrm. A simplified Muse. There could be a benefit in that." Rory agrees, thinking aloud. Her gaze has gone a bit glassy and anyone watching the Mesh can see she's doing increasingly rapid searches over the link to the Odyssey... 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "Not everyone uses such, nanotech has its flaws, keeping it simple sometimes is the best, the easiuer it is to maintain the better. That's why it's a surival kit." Kotone sighs a bit. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods. "I guess that's a point. Although, that doesn't mean we shouldn't have an anti-nanotech kit with guardian swarms." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles. "Well! That's a start. We've got a couple ideas for things to start on. Good meeting, and I'll talk to you guys more later." He yawns. "But, it's getting late... Um... you guys can see yourselves out, I'm gonna head to bed. Goodnight!" He heads up the spiral staircase to the top deck, which the ship map indicates contains the bathroom, kitchen/dining, and bedroom/office. He's not particularly concerned with Rory or Kotone poking around the ship if they choose, but he will note it if they do. 
}}

3352/Recuperation Operation

2016-02-04T09:15:25Z

Staren: Fixing typos and continuity error (RIFTS China's true state is unknown by outsiders)

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2015/11/08
|Location=Njorun Station - Medical
|Synopsis=Amakasu's in the medbay -- Staren demonstrates VR training, and talks about his homeland.
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=42, 901
|Tinyplot=
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Union Medical on Njorun Station. The mind-boggling size of the place would have likely shocked anyone who entered here for the first time--but sadly, not everyone who were brought through the doors to Medical was awake when it happened. Hoshi happened to be one of those people. Ren's fabulous fish had managed to give her some comfort, but the sheer exhaustion from that much combat with her Persona made sure she didn't wake up for many, many hours. By the time that Hoshi finally had awoken, much of the work on her body had been done.     Now Hoshi sat in one of the rooms of the recovery ward, fairly simple and nondescript despite it's fantastic location. Her chat with the people on the Union band had alleviated some of her boredom, but until Staren came up with the idea of testing her in VR, she was fairly convinced that she was going to be bored and trapped laying on a bed.     Now, however, she's sitting up eagerly and watching the door. She forces herself to stay still so she doesn't get any more random twinges of pain from her still-healing wounds, but it's clear that she's got a little energy to burn. Not being able to move sucked, but if this VR stuff was all it was cooked up to be... 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     It's been an unpleasant day. Sakura getting kidnapped, and feeling like he failed somehow because violence was required to solve the problem... But after everything he's seen, wasn't it foolishness to really hope otherwise...?     He welcomes the potential distraction from these thoughts, and it's true that he needs to test Amakasu's fighting style if he's to design a better weapon for her. So it is that he comes to be walking into the medbay carrying what looks like a sort of helmet (visual reference: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/sao/images/5/55/NerveGear_829.png/revision/latest?cb=20131225192958&path-prefix=es but with a microphone) in one hand. When he sees Amakasu he smiles and waves with his free hand, though he also looks concerned for her injuries. He approaches her, "How are you feeling?" 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     As soon as Staren appears, Hoshi's face splits into a grin, and she gingerly waves to him with her right hand. She can't really see the thoughts that are going through his head, but she's glad to see a familiar friendly place, especially in a place like this. Although that helmet was a bit much. She stifles a giggle as Staren comes to her bedside. "Good evening, Staren. Thanks for coming... And nice hat."     She settles back into the bed with a small, thankful sigh. "I'm alive. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be. I think the final tally was... Second degree burns on my back, a bullet through my right thigh and into my side--that must've been fun to get out--and a few stab wounds and cuts." Hoshi goes silent as she tries to think. "Did this happen because I have Rosamond? Or did something else happen?..." Her grin slowly comes back. "But I won, sort of. Against a woman like her. I can't help but feel kinda proud." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren lifts the helmet he's holding (He's not wearing one himself...) and looks at it. "Well, it was designed for function. Not like people in VR see you wearing it." He smiles, then listens to her recounting of damage done to her with a wince. "What do you mean, did it happen because of Rosamond? It looked like your summon certainly helped... And yeah," he smiles, "you won, although I hope most of your future victories don't leave you in this state." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi has to wonder if there is actually a way to wear it in VR. Maybe she'd check sometime. "I guess that makes sense. Where do you even get a thing like that, anyway?" The thought passes, and she frowns in concentration as she tries to explain what she means. "What I'm saying is... Before I had Rosamond, there's no way any human could have survived all of that, but I didn't feel that much stronger. That woman, too--she survived way more than any human should've been able to. Even after everything, we both still got back up and kept fighting..."     The mention of Hoshi's state gets her to cough a bit, blushing as she looks away. "Maybe I got a bit carried away. I lost it after she said she wanted to mind-wipe me for that stupid academy. There's no way I could just leave and let her think that kind of stuff is okay." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "While most of the time, elites get through situations that would kill anyone else because we're /just that good/, it does seem that there is another sort of power we have, that sort of... enforces our concept on the world. It /is/ most noticeable when avoiding death, because, after all," he leans towards her, "a vital part of your concept is that you are /alive/." He stands back up straight, gesturing with his free hand. "That's what powers the sword, actually. Its healing and shapeshifting properties. The power of aura makes ripples of a sort, and the sword is able to harness the energy of those ripples." He shrugs, "Eh... Trust me, I've been there. I've flipped out a couple of times when I found out the people I was tracking down were slavers... some have accused me of bloodlust." He looks sad briefly, then shrugs again. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi falls silent and listens to Staren's explaination, a small frown of concentration on her face. Thankfully the terms he uses are easy to understand and she's able to follow his train of logic. The idea of a concept, though... "It sounds just like the Mirror Forest. Concepts and stories that are suddenly powerful. Good thing the Forest doesn't extend out of our world." Yeesh. The idea of a connection, even an incorrect one, gives her shivers.     Yet another thing that she didn't know was how she was the one powering the sword. "Man, so we can actually harness our strength? You're a genius, Staren." Suddenly she's even more glad she came to Staren first for all of this. "You should be proud. The sword really saved my butt, y'know." No way she could've done it with just her bokken.     Her head tilts a bit when Staren mentions his run-in with slavers. Bloodlust... that didn't seem anything like the person she saw next to her. She reaches out to gently lay her hand against his arm. She can't find the words to say, but... "S-so... What are we going to do with the helmet, Staren? You said you could use the data for a better sword?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles at the compliment. "Thanks, but it's Dr. Burden's invention. I've only scratched the surface of how it works. But I hope making your next sword will be a learning opportunity." He blinks. "Ah, well... Remember how I said I didn't know exactly what it would do? We're going to pick things, I think, and to do that, I need to see how you fight and what would help. Also, I can show the recording to more experienced swordsmen and Abstractum experienced in helping them. That's all, not some kind of thing that automatically turns fight data into a better weapon, if that's what you were thinking..." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Just at the surface or not, Staren's intelligence has saved Hoshi's life. The kendo girl is willing to assist him in any way she can. "So we both win out of this? Cool. Now we really have to do this." She's starting to get pumped thinking about it. "So you intend to add ingredients for the next sword from watching me fight? I guess? That's what it sounds like." She coughs. "But I thought I had to agree to fight the Great Enemy before they'd let me touch one of those." She'd been reading through some of the things she'd been shown, but it was still extremely hazy. That part, however, was very clear. "Well, let's do it then. Are you going to hop in with me?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Ah," Staren clarifies, "You have to agree to fight Them to have a /true/ Abstractum made for you, and that would be automatic. It would be shaped by your concept and intrinsically know how to aid you. My plan is to ask existing Abstractum how they'd help a sword-user, then, if they're willing, use /mine/ to copy some of those functions and put them into a new sword."     Staren nods, handing her the NerveGear to put on her head, plugging one cable from it into the wall and another into a tablet. He sits by the bed, plugging another cable into the back of his neck and connecting it to the tablet. "When you're ready, lie back and say 'Link Start'." He watches her, waiting.     After the NerveGear is done booting, Amakasu finds herself standing in a valley in her kendo outfit, with her sword in sword form. A full moon lights it well, but if she looks closely, it's not /Earth's/ moon, nor are the stars in the right pattern. Staren's standing ahead of her, wearing a coat over leather armor. "Are you alright? I figured we'd keep it simple. Avatars based on us instead of some custom fantasy thing. Feels real, doesn't it? This is the entertainment technology of Kirito's, Asuna's, Tomoe's, Reker's and Yuuki's world, but it's got other uses too. But, you probably want to get started rather than listen to me exposit all day... Well, you might like that too, but it won't be much of a sparring match. Oh! Before we start, what do you want me to set the pain level to? Anything from 0% to 100%. Obviously, it makes sense to discourage you from getting hit, but there's no need to be mean about it." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi blinks, tilting her head. "Oh. So that's how it works." Then again, doesn't that mean that it'd be better to just agree, and get the real thing? A frown comes to her face, and she irritably shakes the thought free. That was something to do only if she fully understood the issue at hand and gave her full attention to solving that problem. It wasn't just some item she could take. "Alright... Well, let's hope they're willing. Until then, let's get started with the prep work." As soon as Staren hands her the helmet, she slips it on and tries to get comfortable. "Here's hoping my brain doesn't try to say I'm hurt while I'm in there, too... Link Start." Her eyes fall shut, and she feels herself being pulled, taken away...     When she opens her eyes, she slowly looks around and works on tensing and relaxing her muscles. Everything responded just like they would in real life! And so far, nothing hurt. Hoshi's face splits into a pleased grin, and she takes a moment to appreciate the environment and the alien sky. "Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine. This is awesome! Everything feels like I was really here. If I didn't know better, I'd think I was actually here..." She comes closer, drawing her sword to start giving some experimental swipes at the empty air. "You have to tell me where to get this. This is going to be Makoto's birthday gift." Then... pain simulation. That gets a nice annoyed look. She really wanted to tell him to leave it off, but... "I don't know, man. Uh... Let's say 50. I'd really like to not feel like I'm dying here, too." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "You can buy them from Kirito's world. I don't really have a name for it? The product you want is called an Amusphere. Of course... it's not much good without a subscription to a VRMMO, or a copy of the World Seed if you're a developer sort. Multiversal internet connections are available, but... Technology years ahead of your home is gonna be noticeable anyway, isn't it?"     At her comment about the pain level, Staren nods. "Seems fair. Obviously, you can ask to stop at any time. Oh, if you want to access the menu, just hold your hand up with index and middle finger extended, like so, and sweep it to the side like you're using a touch screen." If she tries it, there's what she'd expect from an RPG menu -- Status, Items, Skills, Logout, Social -- but Skills is greyed out and her only listed items are her sword and armor, already equipped. "This is... well, normally you'd use this to connect to a VRMMO. This is like, a small test world running on my tablet, just for this." He waves a hand in the air, "This only goes on like a kilometer or so in each direction, past that it's a skybox."     Then he looks at her with a more serious expression. "Are you ready?" 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Problem after problem, but none of them seem to put off Hoshi's resolve on the matter. She's apparently decided that this was her course of action. It's nice being rich. "Thankfully, my world's not entirely ignorant of the Multiverse. Governments and some corporations got the memo. It's not common knowledge yet, but probably given time..."     Hoshi does as indicated, more out of curiosity than anything. She's rewarded with seeing the menu pop up, which cases her to grin a bit before letting it drop again. "It's hard to believe a tablet has enough power to even power this much... Hey, do you think I can summon Rosamond here?" Probably not, but it'd be nice if she could. "We might need to do another test for that... I dunno. I'm ready whenever you are."     Hoshi moves closer to Staren until she's only a few feet away and settles into her standard stance, her blade out in front of her, knees bent lightly. "You're the challenger... Give us a count off." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks. "The tablet is using technology from /another/ world about a century and a half in your future, and which is notable for certain unusually high technological developments in that time." He shakes his head. "I don't know anything about Rosamond, so I didn't program her in. I guess that's a problem with the virtual test... If it's any consolation, normally /I'd/ be fighting with powered armor and energy weapons."     A few feet away? When she has a katana? Staren backs up some more. "Alright. On 'zero'. Three..." he drops into a basic martial arts stance, "Two... one..." his hands reach under his coat, "Zero!" He pulls out /two daggers/, charging in and then stepping to her left as he gets close, quarter-turning to put his left hand in block or parry position while trying to stab her in the side with his right.     If it connects cleanly enough to not glance off armor... The avatar doesn't quite respond like flesh, and Amakasu will notice a green bar at the top of her vision, a small chunk at the right side turning red and then shrinking away. If she looks at the 'wound', instead of blood there's just a weird, shifting glow. As if her body were made of glowing crystal and he just scraped a bit of paint off. Any pain is numbed somewhat, of course     If it doesn't connect... well, she'll see soon enough. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Bleh. That's right. Hoshi's still limited to thinking about the technology from her world, and even then she knew very little. Still, they really should find a way to share the technology. Who knows what kind of crazy stuff they could do... Maybe too much. She expected to not be able to summon her Persona, so she merely nods and rolls her shoulders, getting loose and ready for the fight.     Hoshi is completely still as Staren starts counting down, her eyes focused on Staren's torso and legs. The first movement always came from the legs and torso--and there it was. She wasn't quite expecting Staren to drag out a pair of daggers instead of a sword or something, but she holds her position as she waits for Staren to reach her. When he tries to go to for her open side, she pivots quickly on her right foot and brings her sword to bat the dagger away. She's expecting the second weapon, but it seems he has it in defense--so Hoshi decides to try putting her sword's superior size to use.     Once she's sure the blade won't hit her, Hoshi steps forward with her right foot as quickly as she can, extending her arms and flicking her wrists to whip the very tip of the blade towards Staren's face. He might be able to block it, but she's hoping her charge can put him on his back foot, at least. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods slightly as she parries the dagger. Then he sees what she's doing, leans back, and activates his wings... which leaves him confused for a split second as of course, nothing happens, so she catches him across the face. "Owwww! F***, didn't realize how much I'd come to rely on wings..." he quickly takes several steps backward and recovers his balance as he speaks. Now that he's wielding weapons, the left dagger is held up in front of his face, ready to to swing out and parry or block, while the right is lower by his side so he can quickly step forward to give it more reach and throw his weight into an attack if needed. "That's gonna mess me up..." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi is... slightly confused when she sees Staren not trying to dodge or parry out of the way, but it's too late to hold the blow, and it strikes. His retreat was what she was hoping for, but she doesn't persue for now. "Wait, I don't remember seeing you with wings. You mean on your armor, right?" Apparently he's still ready to go, at least. Slowly, Hoshi starts to circle Staren clockwise, drawing closer as she went. The way he was standing, he'd probably be able to parry her if she went in straight. Instead, she charges forward with her blade raised high to cut down, but instead of slicing pulls back and tries to stab towards Staren's torso. "Kia! C'mon, Staren, you got this!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren keeps turning to face her. "Protoabstractum item I made. Since I was off-balance, flying would let me move back without stumbling." he explains. And then she's attacking. His eyes narrow slightly. What's she trying... ah. He steps to the side and makes a clumsy parry attempt -- the angle's bad, though, and the stab hits him off-center. "Hrng! You should fight Kirito..." In a split-second, his eyes flicker over the upper half of her body. There.     Sword still in him, he steps FORWARD and desperately stabs both daggers at her vulnerable neck. Hopefully she wasn't expecting that!     He's supposed to be watching her technique, but he's fighting to win. He can't help it. He can always review the data later. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi grins a bit at Staren's ingenuity. Wings to help him stabilize if he's in a bad place, or even just move quickly on retreat or attack. "I get it. That's a good invention, man. Too bad you forgot to put 'em in!" Though her blade doesn't hit flush, she still manages to catch him, and she presses forward, hoping to end the fight right then. That being said... There are certain parts of a fight that she just doesn't understand yet. One of those being the concept of an all-or-nothing attack. With her sword stuck, Hoshi can't pull away without abandoning her sword, so she's left trying to block at least one dagger with her left hand while trying to duck the other blow.     One of the blades plunges into her wrist, and she lets out a hiss as she feels the pain bouncing around in her wrist. This becomes a pained yelp when the other dagger's edge scores her neck. "Gaah! Jeez, this still hurts a lot--!" Still, now both of them were caught in a situation where they couldn't move, so Hoshi decides to take the better of it. She rushes in, pushing her katan as hard as she could until she rammed her shoulder into Staren's chest, trying to push him back while she jerked her sword clear of his body. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Damn. Good reflexes." Staren comments as she stops the attack. He knows he's lost and it shows on his face. He has a sliver of health left, all she has to do is brutally twist the knife as she pulls it out... So he's surprised when she /doesn't/ do that and he's left stumbling back. "You should have... twisted the knife..." Though still holding his daggers, one hand is clutched over his 'wound'. He can still feel the pain. "No magic, no wings, no bag of tricks... I'm really out of my element..." he backs away, slowly, breathing heavily. And then... something. He steels himself, and his body telegraphs /something/ is coming, followed by a few rapid steps towards her before he /throws/ one of the daggers at her legs.     It's not even a good throw. If it actually hits point-first, it'll be luck, he doesn't know how to throw daggers.     ...Because that was a feint, and he crouches slightly and /pounces/, trying to tackle her to the ground and stab his remaining knife into her neck again! 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     ... Yeah, come to think of it, that probably would've been the better choice in this situation. The look on Hoshi's face indicates she's well aware of it, though. She can't really move her wrist very well at this point, VR simulation or no, so she's not really left with many options here. "Yeah... I'm kind of at my best in close quarters, too." Really, it's the only way she /can/ fight. Panting softly, she tries to watch for another telegraph--and there it was. She holds her sword firm, ready to take on another assault.     Except her eyes widen when she sees the dagger flying for her face. That wasn't really expected either, and she's not fast enough to block. Instead, it smacks into her face on the flat side, a nice big THUNK filling the air. She goes cross-eyed from the pain--and doesn't do much to prevent the rest of Staren's attack. She goes down with a groan, followed by a short scream when his other dagger pierces her neck. Health 0... Game over. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Her entire health bar turns red and slowly bleeds away over a couple of seconds. Then her avatar appears to shatter into quickly-fading triangles. YOU HAVE DIED GAME OVER     The message floats in front of her vision for a few seconds before she's punted to a sort of observer mode, standing where she was but unable to interact with anything but the menu, pain gone. Staren, meanwhile, is catching his breath on the ground before standing up without his daggers. Mentally entering admin commands into the simulation, he makes her 'real' again before smiling and offering a hand to shake, the other over his wound. "Good game." He grins awkwardly, "Although I think maybe we mostly learned that I am not a swordsman." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Really, Hoshi didn't need the health bar or the game over screen to tell her that she'd lost. The last blow was a killer, of course, and mentally Hoshi had to admonish herself. Being so used to kendo rings and rules really wasn't doing her any favors here. It's strange to see something telling her she'd died right in front of her own eyes, but soon she's back up--and back to 'life', allowed to move and interact again. Sheathing her sword, Hoshi goes to offer Staren a bow and a handshake. "That was really well fought. I totally wasn't expecting attacks like that." She grins a bit. "Hey, what you lack to become a swordsman is more than made up for with how smart you are, Staren. Don't worry about it so much. Aren't you going to reset, too?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Some of the 'game' behavior in the simulation is just World Seed defaults that Staren didn't change, but that probably wouldn't be obvious to Amakasu until later.     Staren smiles at the compliment, "Thanks!" then does so, his wounds disappearing. "I thought maybe you'd prefer a break after that match. I, uh... yeah, we both learned something, I guess. So what do you want to do now?" 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     A break? Hm. Hoshi glances around the area, but a thought occurs to her, and she blushes slightly when it strikes her. "Uh... I don't think I've actually eaten anything in awhile. IVs don't really count. So... Want to eat some bad Jell-o together and see who can finish first? I'm eating the rest of the food, though, I'm freaking starving." Well, this probably didn't count as a hang-out either, all considered, but at least she can hang out and talk with him. "Also, you should tell me about your world. You basically know everything I know about my world. It's only fair." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "You know, you can eat food in here too. All the taste and none of the calories." He seems to concentrate for a moment. Mentally communicating with CARDINAL to get whatever he wants set up.     And then they're in space, looking down at Earth at night, above North America. All the little lights of civilization. Staren begins his narration. "My world was just like other Earths, in the 20th century. In the 21st, we persued human enhancement. Cybernetics, mind-over-matter augmentation, chemical augmentation, the beginning of genetics... We could cure all peoples' ills, and make them better. Historians call this time the 'Golden Age' of humanity. And then someone realized, that making better people, meant making better soldiers. And everyone else realized it, too. It became an arms race. Military technology advanced like crazy. My world might not have advanced, humanlike AI, or nanomachines, or supercomputers that fit in your hand, but when it comes to weapons, we've got some of the best." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     That... Kind of defeats the purpose of eating, though, doesn't it? She's about to mention this, but instead she gasps as she suddenly finds herself being warped out into space. She had, of course, seen pictures, but now she was actually standing (floating?) above Earth. Even if this was only VR, she has a giddy little grin on her face as she turns to listen to Staren.     His initial description sounds like everything she could want her world to be. What she imagined when or if Multiversal technology got to her world. How many people could it help? Then, of course, came the darker side of advancement. The fear, the paranoia. The wars. Suddenly Hoshi finds herself feeling a little foolish, thinking so grandly about what could be without considering it's potential cost. Wasn't that what had gotten her into the Mirror Forest in the first place? "And you told me you fought, so I'm guessing the wars came, too. I'm sorry, Staren." Glancing out into the world again, Hoshi feels a tiny bit of pain in her heart. "I guess that's why you asked me if I really believed the world was a good place after everything. Really, it's probably not."     She comes a bit closer, offering him a small, wry smile. "I guess what that means to me, though, is that just because the world sucks, doesn't mean I have to follow the trend. We're allowed to choose how we respond to everything, right? So I want to choose another way." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren gives her a look that says she hasn't quite gotten it right, about his world. "...Lancer of Black had it right. The world is just... 'inhumane'. It's up to /people/ to make it better. That might sound bleak, but I don't think it's as bleak as it sounds. After all, people are all that gives the world meaning anyway. Otherwise it would just be..." He looks down at the planet. "Rocks, flying in curves."     He resumes his narration. "...one day, at the end of the 21st century, the cold war started to go hot. Historians have found reports of something starting in South America, but with what happened next, obviously, noone really got a chance to write down the details. Not like it really matters now." There's a flash of light in South America, and then the Earth shakes. The lights of civilization go out, as electric blue lines appear, criscrossing the planet. "Magic came back, and it came back /violently/. Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods... the release of energy was tremendous, not to mention the rising of Atlantis and Lemuria flooded coasts. But that wasn't enough. Where leylines cross, rifts opened up. Out came monsters and demons, as well as peaceful aliens ripped from their worlds and finding themselves just as lost and desperate as humanity. Legends speak of people with advanced robots and power armor trying to fight off the monsters and demons, people called the 'Neemans'... They might have been helpful aliens, but they also might have been what was left of the old military trying to help people. So began the 'Three hundred year dark age'. I'm telling you this from the perspective of North America. Something destroyed all the old communication sattelites, so what little contact we have with the rest of the world is from explorers. I'm sure they all have their own perspectives. China disappeared into a mist noone's ever come out of. The Germans hid underground to wait it all out. Who knows what else happened we /haven't/ heard of?" 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Was it bleak? Maybe awhile ago, she would have thought so. She'd have imagined herself alone, facing challenges that she had no idea how to solve. Now was a bit different. She had her own power, of course, but that wasn't as important as a group or a team ready to put in the work and face the challenges. "I follow you. Still, I'm not entirely wrong."     The next bit of explaination hits her, and a look of disquiet grows into small horror as she watches all of the lights blinking out, destroyed and ruined. She knows what that means. How many people were lost? The planet ravaged, monsters and demons and magic all thrown into a chaotic, messy blender with innocent people caught in the way. "The death of mankind. Cut us off from each other and suddenly we're so much weaker. Make sure we're fighting ourselves, too, just for that extra bit of irony... Goddamnit." It's rare for her to curse so openly. She takes a deep breath before she speaks again. "Is it still there?... How do you survive something like that?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks at her, then back at the planet. A few lights appear across North America. Nowhere near what it was before, but... lights at night, instead of none. "People fought the monsters to survive. Countless died. Many distrusted /all/ nonhumans, seeing no difference between aliens and demons. Others worked together with their new neighbors. Some aliens had knowledge of magic, and taught it to humans. Some humans, seeing it as the power that destroyed the world and could bring no good, or as power granted by demons to their thralls, eschewed magic and believed all practitioners of it were evil. About two hundred years after the apocalypse, the Coalition was founded by emperor Prosek, who had managed to obtain enough lost technology to build a walled city protected against the outside. He called it Chi-Town, and built it near the ruins of old Chicago. With his military might, he encouraged others to join him, forming the Coalition States. They claim to be the last hope for a humanity beset by demons on all sides. And to make sure no Coalition citizen can think or learn about any... /alternative/ points of view, literacy is kept to the elite, and education for all except those who really need it -- you know, the scientists and engineers working to improve the Coalition military -- is limited to propaganda." The tone in Staren's voice, and his expression, says what he thinks of /that/. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi nods slowly, watching the world progress along the timeline Staren describes. For all she knows of humanity, the various reactions sound right enough. With so many differing beliefs and likely few sensible people to try to lighten the blow, of course things went down that path. With an empire rising to conquer the ruins, they'd want their hegemony to be unchallenged. "It sounds almost exactly like a post-apocalypic movie. I take it that empire is still there? You look like you have a lot of hostility towards it--for good reason, of course." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks at her, nodding slightly, then decides to enhance the visuals a bit. They zoom down towards Chi-town and then it's day, as they hover in front of a great walled high-tech city. Guards in black armor with skull motifs man the gates, and the city is surrounded by tents and quickly-erected shacks filled with the poor and desperate waiting to get in. Then the view zooms back out again. "About half a century later, in the ruins of old Toronto by what in your time was called the Don river, a small community of mages formed, seeking to study magic and share knowledge with eachother in peace." The view zooms down again, depicting people meeting at the shore of the river in a ruined city. There's a definite 'robes and cloaks and gas masks' theme among several members, but there's some variety. All of it seems vaguely mystical, though. "In time, farming communities sprung up around it, offering the mages food in return for their protection from monsters and warlords." The scene changes, farmers giving food to mages and shaking hands with them, then mages flying and throwing fireballs and lightning at some kind of large monster. "It was a relationship that benefitted all."     "...Until one day, two dragons attacked." The scene changes, a modern farming community, then roars, people running and screaming as two great dragons torch the place with their breath, not caring who is caught in it. Defenders with laser rifles and body armor fight back, but seem unable to hurt the dragons and are quickly struck down.     The scene fast-forwards a bit. Fire and smoke all around as the dragons continue wreaking havoc. The dragons starting in on an unburned section of village, sending people fleeing when one mage walks in, against the tide. Staren starts to smile a bit. "The first mage to arrive was a man called Plato," the dragons turn to the man who then turns into a dragon himself and sets upon them, "an ancient dragon who had been living among them disguised as a human."     The scene escalated to a full two-on-one mini-kaiju fight through the burning villages, except dragons also call down magic. After a moment, the scene skips ahead to show dragon-Plato fallen, bloodied, barely breathing, at the feet of the two badly-injured dragons roaring in triumph. "Even Plato could not beat two of his own kind," And then fire and lightning and ice and lava and magic lights and everything rain out of the sky as hundreds of mages run up from the distance or fly down out of the sky, "But his struggle gave the mages time to organize. They gave it everything they had -- the community had never seen such power, as no monster before had required the mages to go all-out." The dragons don't go down easily. They fight back, and though the mages are protected by magic armor and energy shields, a few fall. Time skips forward. One of the dragons lay dead, and the other is at last flying off into the distance with roars of pain and anger. There's a cheer, and then the mages move to tend to their wounded. "When the battle finally ended, one dragon was dead and the other was driven off. Plato had already begun to recover, because, well, dragon." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Suddenly they were zooming forward towards the world, and Hoshi couldn't help but let out a little gasp as she feels her stomach twisting despite not actually moving. Sudden perspective changes were a bitch like that. She got to view what sort of grand world that this empire had set up--and what a bleak view it is. A scowl comes to her face as she watches the unwashed masses begging for relief, only to find there was nothing for them. Brutal bastards.     Then the perspective flips again, and Hoshi's looking at these men and mages striking their deal. Was it much better? "It's like Feudalism," she says quickly. "Like Japan used to be. Give the lord a portion of your yield and your body in war, and you have the lord's protection. I guess it's a pretty good system in a world like that..." And it seemed to work, to boot.     Another perspective shift, and... dragons!? "... Dude, your world has horrible luck," Hoshi mumbles as she watches the titanic battle unfold. She actually starts cheering a bit when Plato took the monsters on, goes quiet and fearful when he goes down--and follows it up with a whooping cheer as the dragons were driven away or killed. "And they won anyway..." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The scene skips ahead to much later in the day. A group of there must be like a thousand people approaching the ruins from what's left of the village. The camera zooms ahead to the mages in the ruins having a hushed argument, pointing at the distant horde. "That night, the villagers approached the wizards' enclave, and the mages prepared to leave. They feared the people would not accept a dragon, and that having seen the true power of magic, they might be considered just as monstrous." Staren sounds sad, but then he smiles warmly, tears coming to his eyes.     The villagers are smiling, cheering, shaking hands with the mages. "They gave the villagers too little credit. While the people were shocked by the revelation of what had been in their midst all this time, they also realized that with all that power, Plato and the mages could have easily left, or perhaps even struck a deal with the evil dragons. It was clear that the only reason they had risked their lives and fought was to protect /them/. The tense meeting became a celebration, both of their victory, and of the values of trust and understanding that allowed the community to thrive."     "The openness, acceptance, and honest pursuit of knowledge gained the Haven by the River a reputation, while the Coalition was busy with its first wars. By half a century after the Coalition's founding, the Haven had topped a hundred thousand inhabitants." The view now shows a large part of the ruins restored and filled with new construction. Mages and nonmages alike are gathered around a stage as men and women dressed like WWI fighter pilots fire a magitech gun at a target, cast magic into a vehicle to start it, and zap a generator with lightning to power a bunch of machines. "New research in magic and technology led to the creation of techno-wizardry, a fusion of the two that allowed magic, and the power of the leylines, to be used as an endless source of clean energy. In time, a massive techno-wizardry generator would be built around a rift, powering the entire city and surrounding communities. The city was named the Free City of Lazlo, after a 20th century scholar of magic who was ahead of his time."     The sun begins to set as the view pans over a city half the size of Toronto but more built-up, with a mix of architectural styles and a great pyramid-topped tower at the center. There are walls around the edges, and while there is new construction with its own walls to one side, it is /not/ surrounded by tents and shanty-towns. Gate guards of various species are present, but people are clearly getting through, even if they have to leave their giant robots and large guns at the guardhouses, people leaving are retrieving these things. The camera turns, after a moment, to show the lights of distant towns.     Staren smiles and turns to her. "And that's where I'm from. It's now been one hundred and seventeen years since the Coalition's establishment, or 2403 AD by Earth's old calendar, but... despite a world full of danger, Lazlo is a shining example of what you can do if you work together instead of being jerks to eachother. I trained to defend it, then joined the Union to see what more was out there. I didn't fight in any wars on my world, but I did used to be more active in the war between the Union and Confederacy. And..." He scratches the back of his neck, "You can see why I don't quite... why I have trouble understanding how shocked people really are by the Multiverse. It mostly just felt like the world got /bigger/." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     And thus Fuedalism grew into a prosperous city right in front of her eyes, an accepting and knowledgable place. The people entering and leaving make Hoshi gawk openly for their strangeness, and she's about to reach out to try to touch one of them, only to remember where she was. Her face goes red and she pulls her hand back, folding her arms tightly against her chest. Hands to yourself.     With all the exposition all wrapped up, Hoshi grins and gives him a small round of applause. "Thanks for the show, man. I'm grateful that you told me about your world." It does make sense why Staren wasn't so phased, but Hoshi can't really wrap her head around a lot of the things she'd run into thus far. This was a lot of stuff for a girl who up until recently had a completely normal, comfortable life. "It also explains how you're picking up this stuff so quickly. I'm really glad you're on our side." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles and bows. "Well, I've always been a quick learner. There are a couple others from my world involved in Multiversal events -- Melissa, a Coalition defector mercenary who works with the Confederacy, and Valentha Summers, a techno-wizard from Lazlo who recently joined the Union. ...Lazlo itself remains unaligned -- though it agrees with the Union's ideals, it doesn't want to get involved in Multiversal politics -- though I suspect if the Coalition ever did march to our door, we'd join the Union in a heartbeat." Staren stretches. "Well. I suppose we should go back to reality so you can eat now, huh?" 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Quick learner indeed. "You're probably a genius, y'know," Hoshi says with a snicker. He'd probably play it off, again, but Hoshi could understand him--at least, just a little bit more now. "If anything happens in your world, please let me know. I have the strength to help out your home if I have to--so why not let me, huh?"     The mention of food causes Hoshi to look down at her stomach guility. She couldn't really feel it here, but back in the world she's probably starving. "Yeah... The view's really cool, but I do need to get some energy back. I was serious about that Jell-o race, though." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles. "Thanks. I just wish it could solve more problems." He nods at the offer. "Food races aren't really my thing. Doesn't it defeat the point of enjoying the flavor? But, I guess I can give it a shot." He does the menu gesture. Amakasu can't see his menu, but his finger taps something and then hovers over an invisible button as he watches her, waiting for her to log out before he answers the Are You Sure? dialog Yes himself. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi gives a short bark of laughter. Enjoying the flavor? "I dunno, man. I've been to hospitals a couple times--the food is never really that great. The Jell-o most of all." Still, it's with a big grin on her face that she opens up her menu and selects to Log Out. Once again, she feels her consciousness being gently pulled away from this virtual realm, and when she's deposited back in her body and awake, the first thing she does is ask a passing nurse for some food. And thus the competition and small-time conversation continued, for a time. 

}}

3352/Recuperation Operation

2016-02-04T09:00:39Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2015/11/08 |Location=Njorun Station - Medical |Synopsis=Amakasu's in the medbay -- Staren demonstrates VR training, and talks about his homeland. |..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2015/11/08
|Location=Njorun Station - Medical
|Synopsis=Amakasu's in the medbay -- Staren demonstrates VR training, and talks about his homeland.
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=42, 901
|Tinyplot=
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Union Medical on Njorun Station. The mind-boggling size of the place would have likely shocked anyone who entered here for the first time--but sadly, not everyone who were brought through the doors to Medical was awake when it happened. Hoshi happened to be one of those people. Ren's fabulous fish had managed to give her some comfort, but the sheer exhaustion from that much combat with her Persona made sure she didn't wake up for many, many hours. By the time that Hoshi finally had awoken, much of the work on her body had been done.     Now Hoshi sat in one of the rooms of the recovery ward, fairly simple and nondescript despite it's fantastic location. Her chat with the people on the Union band had alleviated some of her boredom, but until Staren came up with the idea of testing her in VR, she was fairly convinced that she was going to be bored and trapped laying on a bed.     Now, however, she's sitting up eagerly and watching the door. She forces herself to stay still so she doesn't get any more random twinges of pain from her still-healing wounds, but it's clear that she's got a little energy to burn. Not being able to move sucked, but if this VR stuff was all it was cooked up to be... 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     It's been an unpleasant day. Sakura getting kidnapped, and feeling like he failed somehow because violence was required to solve the problem... But after everything he's seen, wasn't it foolishness to really hope otherwise...?     He welcomes the potential distraction from these thoughts, and it's true that he needs to test Amakasu's fighting style if he's to design a better weapon for her. So it is that he comes to be walking into the medbay carrying what looks like a sort of helmet (visual reference: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/sao/images/5/55/NerveGear_829.png/revision/latest?cb=20131225192958&path-prefix=es but with a microphone) in one hand. When he sees Amakasu he smiles and waves with his free hand, though he also looks concerned for her injuries. He approaches her, "How are you feeling?" 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     As soon as Staren appears, Hoshi's face splits into a grin, and she gingerly waves to him with her right hand. She can't really see the thoughts that are going through his head, but she's glad to see a familiar friendly place, especially in a place like this. Although that helmet was a bit much. She stifles a giggle as Staren comes to her bedside. "Good evening, Staren. Thanks for coming... And nice hat."     She settles back into the bed with a small, thankful sigh. "I'm alive. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be. I think the final tally was... Second degree burns on my back, a bullet through my right thigh and into my side--that must've been fun to get out--and a few stab wounds and cuts." Hoshi goes silent as she tries to think. "Did this happen because I have Rosamond? Or did something else happen?..." Her grin slowly comes back. "But I won, sort of. Against a woman like her. I can't help but feel kinda proud." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren lifts the helmet he's holding (He's not wearing one himself...) and looks at it. "Well, it was designed for function. Not like people in VR see you wearing it." He smiles, then listens to her recounting of damage done to her with a wince. "What do you mean, did it happen because of Rosamond? It looked like your summon certainly helped... And yeah," he smiles, "you won, although I hope most of your future victories don't leave you in this state." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi has to wonder if there is actually a way to wear it in VR. Maybe she'd check sometime. "I guess that makes sense. Where do you even get a thing like that, anyway?" The thought passes, and she frowns in concentration as she tries to explain what she means. "What I'm saying is... Before I had Rosamond, there's no way any human could have survived all of that, but I didn't feel that much stronger. That woman, too--she survived way more than any human should've been able to. Even after everything, we both still got back up and kept fighting..."     The mention of Hoshi's state gets her to cough a bit, blushing as she looks away. "Maybe I got a bit carried away. I lost it after she said she wanted to mind-wipe me for that stupid academy. There's no way I could just leave and let her think that kind of stuff is okay." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "While most of the time, elites get through situations that would kill anyone else because we're /just that good/, it does seem that there is another sort of power we have, that sort of... enforces our concept on the world. It /is/ most noticeable when avoiding death, because, after all," he leans towards her, "a vital part of your concept is that you are /alive/." He stands back up straight, gesturing with his free hand. "That's what powers the sword, actually. Its healing and shapeshifting properties. The power of aura makes ripples of a sort, and the sword is able to harness the energy of those ripples." He shrugs, "Eh... Trust me, I've been there. I've flipped out a couple of times when I found out the people I was tracking down were slavers... some have accused me of bloodlust." He looks sad briefly, then shrugs again. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi falls silent and listens to Staren's explaination, a small frown of concentration on her face. Thankfully the terms he uses are easy to understand and she's able to follow his train of logic. The idea of a concept, though... "It sounds just like the Mirror Forest. Concepts and stories that are suddenly powerful. Good thing the Forest doesn't extend out of our world." Yeesh. The idea of a connection, even an incorrect one, gives her shivers.     Yet another thing that she didn't know was how she was the one powering the sword. "Man, so we can actually harness our strength? You're a genius, Staren." Suddenly she's even more glad she came to Staren first for all of this. "You should be proud. The sword really saved my butt, y'know." No way she could've done it with just her bokken.     Her head tilts a bit when Staren mentions his run-in with slavers. Bloodlust... that didn't seem anything like the person she saw next to her. She reaches out to gently lay her hand against his arm. She can't find the words to say, but... "S-so... What are we going to do with the helmet, Staren? You said you could use the data for a better sword?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles at the compliment. "Thanks, but it's Dr. Burden's invention. I've only scratched the surface of how it works. But I hope making your next sword will be a learning opportunity." He blinks. "Ah, well... Remember how I said I didn't know exactly what it would do? We're going to pick things, I think, and to do that, I need to see how you fight and what would help. Also, I can show the recording to more experienced swordsmen and Abstractum experienced in helping them. That's all, not some kind of thing that automatically turns fight data into a better weapon, if that's what you were thinking..." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Just at the surface or not, Staren's intelligence has saved Hoshi's life. The kendo girl is willing to assist him in any way she can. "So we both win out of this? Cool. Now we really have to do this." She's starting to get pumped thinking about it. "So you intend to add ingredients for the next sword from watching me fight? I guess? That's what it sounds like." She coughs. "But I thought I had to agree to fight the Great Enemy before they'd let me touch one of those." She'd been reading through some of the things she'd been shown, but it was still extremely hazy. That part, however, was very clear. "Well, let's do it then. Are you going to hop in with me?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Ah," Staren clarifies, "You have to agree to fight Them to have a /true/ Abstractum made for you, and that would be automatic. It would be shaped by your concept and intrinsically know how to aid you. My plan is to ask existing Abstractum how they'd help a sword-user, then, if they're willing, use /mine/ to copy some of those functions and put them into a new sword."     Staren nods, handing her the NerveGear to put on her head, plugging one cable from it into the wall and another into a tablet. He sits by the bed, plugging another cable into the back of his neck and connecting it to the tablet. "When you're ready, lie back and say 'Link Start'." He watches her, waiting.     After the NerveGear is done booting, Amakasu finds herself standing in a valley in her kendo outfit, with her sword in sword form. A full moon lights it well, but if she looks closely, it's not /Earth's/ moon, nor are the stars in the right pattern. Staren's standing ahead of her, wearing a coat over leather armor. "Are you alright? I figured we'd keep it simple. Avatars based on us instead of some custom fantasy thing. Feels real, doesn't it? This is the entertainment technology of Kirito's, Asuna's, Tomoe's, Reker's and Yuuki's world, but it's got other uses too. But, you probably want to get started rather than listen to me exposit all day... Well, you might like that too, but it won't be much of a sparring match. Oh! Before we start, what do you want me to set the pain level to? Anything from 0% to 100%. Obviously, it makes sense to discourage you from getting hit, but there's no need to be mean about it." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi blinks, tilting her head. "Oh. So that's how it works." Then again, doesn't that mean that it'd be better to just agree, and get the real thing? A frown comes to her face, and she irritably shakes the thought free. That was something to do only if she fully understood the issue at hand and gave her full attention to solving that problem. It wasn't just some item she could take. "Alright... Well, let's hope they're willing. Until then, let's get started with the prep work." As soon as Staren hands her the helmet, she slips it on and tries to get comfortable. "Here's hoping my brain doesn't try to say I'm hurt while I'm in there, too... Link Start." Her eyes fall shut, and she feels herself being pulled, taken away...     When she opens her eyes, she slowly looks around and works on tensing and relaxing her muscles. Everything responded just like they would in real life! And so far, nothing hurt. Hoshi's face splits into a pleased grin, and she takes a moment to appreciate the environment and the alien sky. "Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine. This is awesome! Everything feels like I was really here. If I didn't know better, I'd think I was actually here..." She comes closer, drawing her sword to start giving some experimental swipes at the empty air. "You have to tell me where to get this. This is going to be Makoto's birthday gift." Then... pain simulation. That gets a nice annoyed look. She really wanted to tell him to leave it off, but... "I don't know, man. Uh... Let's say 50. I'd really like to not feel like I'm dying here, too." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "You can buy them from Kirito's world. I don't really have a name for it? The product you want is called an Amusphere. Of course... it's not much good without a subscription to a VRMMO, or a copy of the World Seed if you're a developer sort. Multiversal internet connections are available, but... Technology years ahead of your home is gonna be noticeable anyway, isn't it?"     At her comment about the pain level, Staren nods. "Seems fair. Obviously, you can ask to stop at any time. Oh, if you want to access the menu, just hold your hand up with index and middle finger extended, like so, and sweep it to the side like you're using a touch screen." If she tries it, there's what she'd expect from an RPG menu -- Status, Items, Skills, Logout, Social -- but Skills is greyed out and her only listed items are her sword and armor, already equipped. "This is... well, normally you'd use this to connect to a VRMMO. This is like, a small test world running on my tablet, just for this." He waves a hand in the air, "This only goes on like a kilometer or so in each direction, past that it's a skybox."     Then he looks at her with a more serious expression. "Are you ready?" 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Problem after problem, but none of them seem to put off Hoshi's resolve on the matter. She's apparently decided that this was her course of action. It's nice being rich. "Thankfully, my world's not entirely ignorant of the Multiverse. Governments and some corporations got the memo. It's not common knowledge yet, but probably given time..."     Hoshi does as indicated, more out of curiosity than anything. She's rewarded with seeing the menu pop up, which cases her to grin a bit before letting it drop again. "It's hard to believe a tablet has enough power to even power this much... Hey, do you think I can summon Rosamond here?" Probably not, but it'd be nice if she could. "We might need to do another test for that... I dunno. I'm ready whenever you are."     Hoshi moves closer to Staren until she's only a few feet away and settles into her standard stance, her blade out in front of her, knees bent lightly. "You're the challenger... Give us a count off." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks. "The tablet is using technology from /another/ world about a century and a half in your future, and which is notable for certain unusually high technological developments in that time." He shakes his head. "I don't know anything about Rosamond, so I didn't program her in. I guess that's a problem with the virtual test... If it's any consolation, normally /I'd/ be fighting with powered armor and energy weapons."     A few feet away? When she has a katana? Staren backs up some more. "Alright. On 'zero'. Three..." he drops into a basic martial arts stance, "Two... one..." his hands reach under his coat, "Zero!" He pulls out /two daggers/, charging in and then stepping to her left as he gets close, quarter-turning to put his left hand in block or parry position while trying to stab her in the side with his right.     If it connects cleanly enough to not glance off armor... The avatar doesn't quite respond like flesh, and Amakasu will notice a green bar at the top of her vision, a small chunk at the right side turning red and then shrinking away. If she looks at the 'wound', instead of blood there's just a weird, shifting glow. As if her body were made of glowing crystal and he just scraped a bit of paint off. Any pain is numbed somewhat, of course     If it doesn't connect... well, she'll see soon enough. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Bleh. That's right. Hoshi's still limited to thinking about the technology from her world, and even then she knew very little. Still, they really should find a way to share the technology. Who knows what kind of crazy stuff they could do... Maybe too much. She expected to not be able to summon her Persona, so she merely nods and rolls her shoulders, getting loose and ready for the fight.     Hoshi is completely still as Staren starts counting down, her eyes focused on Staren's torso and legs. The first movement always came from the legs and torso--and there it was. She wasn't quite expecting Staren to drag out a pair of daggers instead of a sword or something, but she holds her position as she waits for Staren to reach her. When he tries to go to for her open side, she pivots quickly on her right foot and brings her sword to bat the dagger away. She's expecting the second weapon, but it seems he has it in defense--so Hoshi decides to try putting her sword's superior size to use.     Once she's sure the blade won't hit her, Hoshi steps forward with her right foot as quickly as she can, extending her arms and flicking her wrists to whip the very tip of the blade towards Staren's face. He might be able to block it, but she's hoping her charge can put him on his back foot, at least. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods slightly as she parries the dagger. Then he sees what she's doing, leans back, and activates his wings... which leaves him confused for a split second as of course, nothing happens, so she catches him across the face. "Owwww! F***, didn't realize how much I'd come to rely on wings..." he quickly takes several steps backward and recovers his balance as he speaks. Now that he's wielding weapons, the left dagger is held up in front of his face, ready to to swing out and parry or block, while the right is lower by his side so he can quickly step forward to give it more reach and throw his weight into an attack if needed. "That's gonna mess me up..." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi is... slightly confused when she sees Staren not trying to dodge or parry out of the way, but it's too late to hold the blow, and it strikes. His retreat was what she was hoping for, but she doesn't persue for now. "Wait, I don't remember seeing you with wings. You mean on your armor, right?" Apparently he's still ready to go, at least. Slowly, Hoshi starts to circle Staren clockwise, drawing closer as she went. The way he was standing, he'd probably be able to parry her if she went in straight. Instead, she charges forward with her blade raised high to cut down, but instead of slicing pulls back and tries to stab towards Staren's torso. "Kia! C'mon, Staren, you got this!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren keeps turning to face her. "Protoabstractum item I made. Since I was off-balance, flying would let me move back without stumbling." he explains. And then she's attacking. His eyes narrow slightly. What's she trying... ah. He steps to the side and makes a clumsy parry attempt -- the angle's bad, though, and the stab hits him off-center. "Hrng! You should fight Kirito..." In a split-second, his eyes flicker over the upper half of her body. There.     Sword still in him, he steps FORWARD and desperately stabs both daggers at her vulnerable neck. Hopefully she wasn't expecting that!     He's supposed to be watching her technique, but he's fighting to win. He can't help it. He can always review the data later. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi grins a bit at Staren's ingenuity. Wings to help him stabilize if he's in a bad place, or even just move quickly on retreat or attack. "I get it. That's a good invention, man. Too bad you forgot to put 'em in!" Though her blade doesn't hit flush, she still manages to catch him, and she presses forward, hoping to end the fight right then. That being said... There are certain parts of a fight that she just doesn't understand yet. One of those being the concept of an all-or-nothing attack. With her sword stuck, Hoshi can't pull away without abandoning her sword, so she's left trying to block at least one dagger with her left hand while trying to duck the other blow.     One of the blades plunges into her wrist, and she lets out a hiss as she feels the pain bouncing around in her wrist. This becomes a pained yelp when the other dagger's edge scores her neck. "Gaah! Jeez, this still hurts a lot--!" Still, now both of them were caught in a situation where they couldn't move, so Hoshi decides to take the better of it. She rushes in, pushing her katan as hard as she could until she rammed her shoulder into Staren's chest, trying to push him back while she jerked her sword clear of his body. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Damn. Good reflexes." Staren comments as she stops the attack. He knows he's lost and it shows on his face. He has a sliver of health left, all she has to do is brutally twist the knife as she pulls it out... So he's surprised when she /doesn't/ do that and he's left stumbling back. "You should have... twisted the knife..." Though still holding his daggers, one hand is clutched over his 'wound'. He can still feel the pain. "No magic, no wings, no bag of tricks... I'm really out of my element..." he backs away, slowly, breathing heavily. And then... something. He steels himself, and his body telegraphs /something/ is coming, followed by a few rapid steps towards her before he /throws/ one of the daggers at her legs.     It's not even a good throw. If it actually hits point-first, it'll be luck, he doesn't know how to throw daggers.     ...Because that was a feint, and he crouches slightly and /pounces/, trying to tackle her to the ground and stab his remaining knife into her neck again! 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     ... Yeah, come to think of it, that probably would've been the better choice in this situation. The look on Hoshi's face indicates she's well aware of it, though. She can't really move her wrist very well at this point, VR simulation or no, so she's not really left with many options here. "Yeah... I'm kind of at my best in close quarters, too." Really, it's the only way she /can/ fight. Panting softly, she tries to watch for another telegraph--and there it was. She holds her sword firm, ready to take on another assault.     Except her eyes widen when she sees the dagger flying for her face. That wasn't really expected either, and she's not fast enough to block. Instead, it smacks into her face on the flat side, a nice big THUNK filling the air. She goes cross-eyed from the pain--and doesn't do much to prevent the rest of Staren's attack. She goes down with a groan, followed by a short scream when his other dagger pierces her neck. Health 0... Game over. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Her entire health bar turns red and slowly bleeds away over a couple of seconds. Then her avatar appears to shatter into quickly-fading triangles. YOU HAVE DIED GAME OVER     The message floats in front of her vision for a few seconds before she's punted to a sort of observer mode, standing where she was but unable to interact with anything but the menu, pain gone. Staren, meanwhile, is catching his breath on the ground before standing up without his daggers. Mentally entering admin commands into the simulation, he makes her 'real' again before smiling and offering a hand to shake, the other over his wound. "Good game." He grins awkwardly, "Although I think maybe we mostly learned that I am not a swordsman." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Really, Hoshi didn't need the health bar or the game over screen to tell her that she'd lost. The last blow was a killer, of course, and mentally Hoshi had to admonish herself. Being so used to kendo rings and rules really wasn't doing her any favors here. It's strange to see something telling her she'd died right in front of her own eyes, but soon she's back up--and back to 'life', allowed to move and interact again. Sheathing her sword, Hoshi goes to offer Staren a bow and a handshake. "That was really well fought. I totally wasn't expecting attacks like that." She grins a bit. "Hey, what you lack to become a swordsman is more than made up for with how smart you are, Staren. Don't worry about it so much. Aren't you going to reset, too?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Some of the 'game' behavior in the simulation is just World Seed defaults that Staren didn't change, but that probably wouldn't be obvious to Amakasu until later.     Staren smiles at the compliment, "Thanks!" then does so, his wounds disappearing. "I thought maybe you'd prefer a break after that match. I, uh... yeah, we both learned something, I guess. So what do you want to do now?" 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     A break? Hm. Hoshi glances around the area, but a thought occurs to her, and she blushes slightly when it strikes her. "Uh... I don't think I've actually eaten anything in awhile. IVs don't really count. So... Want to eat some bad Jell-o together and see who can finish first? I'm eating the rest of the food, though, I'm freaking starving." Well, this probably didn't count as a hang-out either, all considered, but at least she can hang out and talk with him. "Also, you should tell me about your world. You basically know everything I know about my world. It's only fair." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "You know, you can eat food in here too. All the taste and none of the calories." He seems to concentrate for a moment. Mentally communicating with CARDINAL to get whatever he wants set up.     And then they're in space, looking down at Earth at night, above North America. All the little lights of civilization. Staren begins his narration. "My world was just like other Earths, in the 20th century. In the 21st, we persued human enhancement. Cybernetics, mind-over-matter augmentation, chemical augmentation, the beginning of genetics... We could cure all peoples' ills, and make them better. Historians call this time the 'Golden Age' of humanity. And then someone realized, that making better people, meant making better soldiers. And everyone else realized it, too. It became an arms race. Military technology advanced like crazy. My world might not have advanced, humanlike AI, or nanomachines, or supercomputers that fit in your hand, but when it comes to weapons, we've got some of the best." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     That... Kind of defeats the purpose of eating, though, doesn't it? She's about to mention this, but instead she gasps as she suddenly finds herself being warped out into space. She had, of course, seen pictures, but now she was actually standing (floating?) above Earth. Even if this was only VR, she has a giddy little grin on her face as she turns to listen to Staren.     His initial description sounds like everything she could want her world to be. What she imagined when or if Multiversal technology got to her world. How many people could it help? Then, of course, came the darker side of advancement. The fear, the paranoia. The wars. Suddenly Hoshi finds herself feeling a little foolish, thinking so grandly about what could be without considering it's potential cost. Wasn't that what had gotten her into the Mirror Forest in the first place? "And you told me you fought, so I'm guessing the wars came, too. I'm sorry, Staren." Glancing out into the world again, Hoshi feels a tiny bit of pain in her heart. "I guess that's why you asked me if I really believed the world was a good place after everything. Really, it's probably not."     She comes a bit closer, offering him a small, wry smile. "I guess what that means to me, though, is that just because the world sucks, doesn't mean I have to follow the trend. We're allowed to choose how we respond to everything, right? So I want to choose another way." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren gives her a look that says she hasn't quite gotten it right, about his world. "...Lancer of Black had it right. The world is just... 'inhumane'. It's up to /people/ to make it better. That might sound bleak, but I don't think it's as bleak as it sounds. After all, people are all that gives the world meaning anyway. Otherwise it would just be..." He looks down at the planet. "Rocks, flying in curves."     He resumes his narration. "...one day, at the end of the 21st century, the cold war started to go hot. Historians have found reports of something starting in South America, but with what happened next, obviously, noone really got a chance to write down the details. Not like it really matters now." There's a flash of light in South America, and then the Earth shakes. The lights of civilization go out, as electric blue lines appear, criscrossing the planet. "Magic came back, and it came back /violently/. Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods... the release of energy was tremendous, not to mention the rising of Atlantis and Lemuria flooded coasts. But that wasn't enough. Where leylines cross, rifts opened up. Out came monsters and demons, as well as peaceful aliens ripped from their worlds and finding themselves just as lost and desperate as humanity. Legends speak of people with advanced robots and power armor trying to fight off the monsters and demons, people called the 'Neemans'... They might have been helpful aliens, but they also might have been what was left of the old military trying to help people. So began the 'Three hundred year dark age'. I'm telling you this from the perspective of North America. Something destroyed all the old communication sattelites, so what little contact we have with the rest of the world is from explorers. I'm sure they all have their own perspectives. The underworld merged with China. The Germans hid underground to wait it all out. Who knows what else happened we /haven't/ heard of?" 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Was it bleak? Maybe awhile ago, she would have thought so. She'd have imagined herself alone, facing challenges that she had no idea how to solve. Now was a bit different. She had her own power, of course, but that wasn't as important as a group or a team ready to put in the work and face the challenges. "I follow you. Still, I'm not entirely wrong."     The next bit of explaination hits her, and a look of disquiet grows into small horror as she watches all of the lights blinking out, destroyed and ruined. She knows what that means. How many people were lost? The planet ravaged, monsters and demons and magic all thrown into a chaotic, messy blender with innocent people caught in the way. "The death of mankind. Cut us off from each other and suddenly we're so much weaker. Make sure we're fighting ourselves, too, just for that extra bit of irony... Goddamnit." It's rare for her to curse so openly. She takes a deep breath before she speaks again. "Is it still there?... How do you survive something like that?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks at her, then back at the planet. A few lights appear across North America. Nowhere near what it was before, but... lights at night, instead of none. "People fought the monsters to survive. Countless died. Many distrusted /all/ nonhumans, seeing no difference between aliens and demons. Others worked together with their new neighbors. Some aliens had knowledge of magic, and taught it to humans. Some humans, seeing it asa the power that destroyed the world and could bring no good, or as power granted by demons to their thralls, eschewed magic and believed all practitioners of it were evil. About two hundred years after the apocalypse, the Coalition was founded by emperor Prosek, who had managed to obtain enough lost technology to build a walled city protected against the outside. He called it Chi-Town, and built it near the ruins of old Chicago. With his military might, he encouraged others to join him, forming the Coalition States. They claim to be the last hope for a humanity beset by demons on all sides. And to make sure no Coalition citizen can think or learn about any... /alternative/ points of view, literacy is kept to the elite, and education for all except those who really need it -- you know, the scientists and engineers working to improve the Coalition military -- is limited to propaganda." The tone in Staren's voice, and his expression, says what he thinks of /that/. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi nods slowly, watching the world progress along the timeline Staren describes. For all she knows of humanity, the various reactions sound right enough. With so many differing beliefs and likely few sensible people to try to lighten the blow, of course things went down that path. With an empire rising to conquer the ruins, they'd want their hegemony to be unchallenged. "It sounds almost exactly like a post-apocalypic movie. I take it that empire is still there? You look like you have a lot of hostility towards it--for good reason, of course." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks at her, nodding slightly, then decides to enhance the visuals a bit. They zoom down towards chi-town and then it's day, as they hover in front of a great walled high-tech city. Guards in black armor with skull motifs man the gates, and the city is surrounded by tents and quickly-erected shacks filled with the poor and desperate waiting to get in. Then the view zooms back out again. "About half a century later, in the ruins of old Toronto by what in your time was called the Don river, a small community of mages formed, seeking to study magic and share knowledge with eachother in peace." The view zooms down again, depicting people meeting at the shore of the river in a ruined city. There's a definite 'robes and cloaks and gas masks' theme among several members, but there's some variety. All of it seems vaguely mystical, though. "In time, farming communities sprung up around it, offering the mages food in return for their protection from monsters and warlords." The scene changes, farmers giving food to mages and shaking hands with them, then mages flying and throwing fireballs and lightning at some kind of large monster. "It was a relationship that benefitted all."     "...Until one day, two dragons attacked." The scene changes, a modern farming community, then roars, people running and screaming as two great dragons torch the place with their breath, not caring who is caught in it. Defenders with laser rifles and body armor fight back, but seem unable to hurt the dragons and are quickly struck down.     The scene fast-forwards a bit. Fire and smoke all around as the dragons continue wreaking havoc. The dragons starting in on an unburned section of village, sending people fleeing when one mage walks in, against the tide. Staren starts to smile a bit. "The first mage to arrive was a man called Plato," the dragons turn to the man who then turns into a dragon himself and sets upon them, "an ancient dragon who had been living among them disguised as a human."     The scene escalated to a full two-on-one mini-kaiju fight through the burning villages, except dragons also call down magic. After a moment, the scene skips ahead to show dragon-Plato fallen, bloodied, barely breathing, at the feet of the two badly-injured dragons roaring in triumph. "Even Plato could not beat two of his own kind," And then fire and lightning and ice and lava and magic lights and everything rain out of the sky as hundreds of mages run up from the distance or fly down out of the sky, "But his struggle gave the mages time to organize. They gave it everything they had -- the community had never seen such power, as no monster before had required the mages to go all-out." The dragons don't go down easily. They fight back, and though the mages are protected by magic armor and energy shields, a few fall. Time skips forward. One of the dragons lay dead, and the other is at last flying off into the distance with roars of pain and anger. There's a cheer, and then the mages move to tend to their wounded. "When the battle finally ended, one dragon was dead and the other was driven off. Plato had already begun to recover, because, well, dragon." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Suddenly they were zooming forward towards the world, and Hoshi couldn't help but let out a little gasp as she feels her stomach twisting despite not actually moving. Sudden perspective changes were a bitch like that. She got to view what sort of grand world that this empire had set up--and what a bleak view it is. A scowl comes to her face as she watches the unwashed masses begging for relief, only to find there was nothing for them. Brutal bastards.     Then the perspective flips again, and Hoshi's looking at these men and mages striking their deal. Was it much better? "It's like Feudalism," she says quickly. "Like Japan used to be. Give the lord a portion of your yield and your body in war, and you have the lord's protection. I guess it's a pretty good system in a world like that..." And it seemed to work, to boot.     Another perspective shift, and... dragons!? "... Dude, your world has horrible luck," Hoshi mumbles as she watches the titanic battle unfold. She actually starts cheering a bit when Plato took the monsters on, goes quiet and fearful when he goes down--and follows it up with a whooping cheer as the dragons were driven away or killed. "And they won anyway..." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     The scene skips ahead to much later in the day. A group of there must be like a thousand people approaching the ruins from what's left of the village. The camera zooms ahead to the mages in the ruins having a hushed argument, pointing at the distant horde. "That night, the villagers approached the wizards' enclave, and the mages prepared to leave. They feared the people would not accept a dragon, and that having seen the true power of magic, they might be considered just as monstrous." Staren sounds sad, but then he smiles warmly, tears coming to his eyes.     The villagers are smiling, cheering, shaking hands with the mages. "They gave the villagers too little credit. While the people were shocked by the revelation of what had been in their midst all this time, they also realized that with all that power, Plato and the mages could have easily left, or perhaps even struck a deal with the evil dragons. It was clear that the only reason they had risked their lives and fought was to protect /them/. The tense meeting became a celebration, both of their victory, and of the values of trust and understanding that allowed the community to thrive."     "The openness, acceptance, and honest pursuit of knowledge gained the Haven by the River a reputation, while the Coalition was busy with its first wars. By half a century after the Coalition's founding, the Haven had topped a hundred thousand inhabitants." The view now shows a large part of the ruins restored and filled with new construction. Mages and nonmages alike are gathered around a stage as men and women dressed like WWI fighter pilots fire a magitech gun at a target, cast magic into a vehicle to start it, and zap a generator with lightning to power a bunch of machines. "New research in magic and technology led to the creation of techno-wizardry, a fusion of the two that allowed magic, and the power of the leylines, to be used as an endless source of clean energy. In time, a massive techno-wizardry generator would be built around a rift, powering the entire city and surrounding communities. The city was named the Free City of Lazlo, after a 20th century scholar of magic who was ahead of his time."     The sun begins to set as the view pans over a city half the size of Toronto but more built-up, with a mix of architectural styles and a great pyramid-topped tower at the center. There are walls around the edges, and while there is new construction with its own walls to one side, it is /not/ surrounded by tents and shanty-towns. Gate guards of various species are present, but people are clearly getting through, even if they have to leave their giant robots and large guns at the guardhouses, people leaving are retrieving these things. The camera turns, after a moment, to show the lights of distant towns.     Staren smiles and turns to her. "And that's where I'm from. It's now been one hundred and seventeen years since the Coalition's establishment, or 2403 AD by Earth's old calendar, but... despite a world full of danger, Lazlo is a shining example of what you can do if you work together instead of being jerks to eachother. I trained to defend it, then joined the Union to see what more was out there. I didn't fight in any wars on my world, but I did used to be more active in the war between the Union and Confederacy. And..." He scratches the back of his neck, "You can see why I don't quite... why I have trouble understanding how shocked people really are by the Multiverse. It mostly just felt like the world got /bigger/." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     And thus Fuedalism grew into a prosperous city right in front of her eyes, an accepting and knowledgable place. The people entering and leaving make Hoshi gawk openly for their strangeness, and she's about to reach out to try to touch one of them, only to remember where she was. Her face goes red and she pulls her hand back, folding her arms tightly against her chest. Hands to yourself.     With all the exposition all wrapped up, Hoshi grins and gives him a small round of applause. "Thanks for the show, man. I'm grateful that you told me about your world." It does make sense why Staren wasn't so phased, but Hoshi can't really wrap her head around a lot of the things she'd run into thus far. This was a lot of stuff for a girl who up until recently had a completely normal, comfortable life. "It also explains how you're picking up this stuff so quickly. I'm really glad you're on our side." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles and bows. "Well, I've always been a quick learner. There are a couple others from my world involved in Multiversal events -- Melissa, a Coalition defector mercenary who works with the Confederacy, and Valentha Summers, a techno-wizard from Lazlo who recently joined the Union. ...Lazlo itself remains unaligned -- though they agrees with the Union's ideals, they doesn't want to get involved in Multiversal politics -- though I suspect if the Coalition ever did march to our door, we'd join the Union in a heartbeat." Staren stretches. "Well. I suppose we should go back to reality so you can eat now, huh?" 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Quick learner indeed. "You're probably a genius, y'know," Hoshi says with a snicker. He'd probably play it off, again, but Hoshi could understand him--at least, just a little bit more now. "If anything happens in your world, please let me know. I have the strength to help out your home if I have to--so why not let me, huh?"     The mention of food causes Hoshi to look down at her stomach guility. She couldn't really feel it here, but back in the world she's probably starving. "Yeah... The view's really cool, but I do need to get some energy back. I was serious about that Jell-o race, though." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles. "Thanks. I just wish it could solve more problems." He nods at the offer. "Food races aren't really my thing. Doesn't it defeat the point of enjoying the flavor? But, I guess I can give it a shot." He does the menu gesture. Amakasu can't see his menu, but his finger taps something and then hovers over an invisible button as he watches her, waiting for her to log out before he answers the Are You Sure? dialog Yes himself. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi gives a short bark of laughter. Enjoying the flavor? "I dunno, man. I've been to hospitals a couple times--the food is never really that great. The Jell-o most of all." Still, it's with a big grin on her face that she opens up her menu and selects to Log Out. Once again, she feels her consciousness being gently pulled away from this virtual realm, and when she's deposited back in her body and awake, the first thing she does is ask a passing nurse for some food. And thus the competition and small-time conversation continued, for a time. 

}}

3313/Abstract Swordsmithing

2016-02-04T08:55:02Z

Staren:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2015/11/02
|Location=The Homeworld
|Synopsis=Amakasu needs a sword that's easy to conceal. Staren knows where one can be made.
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=42, 901
|Tinyplot=
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:''' THE ABSTRACTUM HOMEWORLD     Staren idly paces around a short distance in front of the warpgate with his hands in his coat pockets. This place was deserted once, but now the Legacies populate it, making the HUB look quite busy, although they only seem to stop to talk to outsiders if the outsider initiates contact. Occasionally one catches Staren's eye and he watches them curiously as they walk by, particularly the ones with cybernetic augmentations. Since Hoshi's never seen him before, it won't seem notable that on his left hand is a brass-colored, segmented gauntlet, with a couple of armored plates on the back, five wires running from forearm to knuckles, and a blue crystal about where a watch face would be. The crystal eye is 'closed' right now though, giving no impression this is any more than a fancy gauntlet...     Once Hoshi arrives (He hasn't seen her, but he's seen her file and she's the only person he doesn't know coming...) Staren looks to her and smiles. "Hi! I'm Staren, researcher of problems for the Union." He steps forward to shake her hand. "And this..." he holds out his arms, "...is the Abstractum Homeworld. It's... um..." He scratches his chin, "How do I begin to explain... Um... Short version is, there's this great enemy out there, that seeks to be destroyed, and it will destroy anyone not up to the task. Abstractum are the greatest weapon system ever devised, as there are, collectively, dozens of Abstractum and their Users so far and our numbers, for the most part, only grow. We hope with them we can destroy the enemy. Time will tell. This facility, this world, exists to help us fight the enemy in a narrative context we can understand. It's... kinda complicated to go over all at once. If you're curious, I have some stuff you can read..."     "...But the short of it is, using the same technology that makes Abstractum, we can make you a sword with some really useful properties." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''      When Hoshi stepped through the warpgate on her home, she had no idea what to expect from the place she was going. So far even the most mundane things in the Multiverse had made her eyes go wide and her knees to go weak. By now, however, she was starting to get interested in the strangeness. It felt like a challenge, learning everything she could. So when she stepped out into the Abstractum Homeworld, she immediately froze to take in the whole sight. Slowly, a delighted grin crawls up her face. "Awwwesomeeee..." She says breathily. If only her old club members could see this!...     While she stood there dumbstruck, Staren got a chance to have a good look at her. Apparently, she'd run straight from the training ring at Headqarters. She was still wearing her kendo armor, bokken and katana from the armory held in her belt. As Staren approached and spoke, Hoshi's jarred from her wonders and blushes. "S-sorry! Mr. Staren, it's nice to meet you in person." She's about to give a formal bow, but instead takes the offered hand with a bemused smile, staying quiet to hear his explaination. As he continues, her face turns more solemn. The way he explains it... Well, it makes sense, at least. It's clear that there's waaay more involved in what was happening, but she could learn more when she needed to. "Thank you for taking the time to explain it. I'm grateful... And if I can figure out what's happening in the Forest, maybe I might be able to help out here, too. Just... need to think."     Then they got to the part she was interested in--the sword. The grin comes back to her face. "I'm so excited, man. What exactly do you think it could do?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     When Hoshi comments that she might be able to help out here, Staren gives a nervous smile and a half-shrug. "There are a few ways you can help. Two are commitments we can discuss if you want, but if you befriend anyone who has a node here," Staren gestures at the DOORS SO MANY DOORS, "helping them resolve the stories within is no different than helping them with any other endeavor."     Staren smiles at her enthusiasm, and starts walking through the Hub purposefully. "The sword we are making today? It will be a sword. It will look the way you wanted it to, it will be self-repairing, and it will be able to take an innocuous form. That's all there is to it. The sword I hope we can make in the future? Well, that, I'm not entirely sure, except that it will enhance your ability to fight. That's why it's an experiment, I don't know how it will turn out. Perhaps the blade will be supernaturally sharp. Maybe it will cut with more force than you swing with. Perhaps it will be able to block or parry blows too strong for you to do so, or straight-up form a magical barrier to protect you. I honestly don't know, I need to do more research and that means finding a swordsmen user and talking to their Abstractum," Staren taps the gauntlet, "when it isn't asleep. But basic attack and defense stuff like that is probably the most we can manage. Like I said, a fraction of the power and versatility of a true Abstractum."     As he talks, he weaves his way between the Legacies, until at last they leave the throng and step into the Red Wing. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Immediately Hoshi begins to follow, leaning over a bit to hear him better. "So, wait Is this like a game, then?" Beat. "That sounded really bad. I didnt mean it like that, but It sounds like youre telling me to do quests or something. Is it close?" She takes a moment to glance around nervously at all the doors. Is there one in every door?     Her attention snaps back to Staren after she shakes the thoughts out of her head. "A self-repairing sword? Oh man This is definitely a good way to start. If the rest can happen Well, I guess well see what you can come up with, huh?" She stops for a moment, glancing at the ground. "Uh Thank you for this. Im so grateful that youre willing to do this. I I thought, for awhile, that I would be by myself, dealing with this. Thank you."     She takes a deep breath and quickly dashes her hand across her eyes. Her grin comes back to her face, and she steps forward proudly. "Lets do science, then! Just so you know, though Im probably not going to understand anything that follows." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     When Hoshi asks if it's a game, Staren gives her a sort of awkward look, and scratches the back of his head. "It's complicated. I can't tell whether the nodes always existed and the Homeworld just connects to ones that suit us, or they're created on the spot. But the people inside, and their troubles, are real, even if time's a little weird. Yeah, all of the funny-looking doors go to nodes." Staren's face grows more serious. "You create a node, you're taking on the responsibility of fixing a small world. Succeed, and by defeating Pure-wielders, you cut off a little bit of the enemy. Fail, and... well, not enough people have completed nodes' stories for us to tell, but if enough of us fail, the enemy will invade parts of the Multiverse, instead of the nodes. I've seen pictures. They weren't pretty."     Staren smiles at her enthusiasm about the sword, and looks back at her as she thanks him and says she thought she would be alone. "You're welcome. I learn about stuff like this because I'm looking for ways to use it to help people. And... you're not alone, in the Union. There will be plenty of people willing to help you out, and I'm sure you'll help plenty of others, soon enough. I understand August already helped out in Paragon City. ...It's a superhero world."     In they go! "This... is the Red Wing. It's used for... um..." He looks at the machines. "Abstractum stuff, but there's a training simulator over there," he waves at the dojo-esque area, "And this..." he comes to the PROTO-ABSTRACTUM CRAFTING CHAMBERS, "...Looks like it was upgraded since I last messed with it. It used to be a big ol' box, but now... are these extradimensional spaces? Sweet. I guess we can make really big stuff now! I wonder if that means people could make a /car/ that turns into a pocket form? Or maybe..." He trails off into thought for a moment.     Then he catches himself. "Oh right! Anyway, this is how anyone can make protoabstractum. My Abstractum, Eureka," he taps the gauntlet again, "can also make them, but the process is different. We'll get to that if you wish. For practical use, though... You put objects in /here/ corresponding to what you want your creation to /do/, and objects over /here/ corresponding to what shapes you want it to take. Then you hit the big red button. It's pretty simple! Making an object that has convenient secondary forms, or a gun with infinite ammo, are the basic uses I've found so far, but with a little imagination, one can find other uses. Resizing armor to fit you. Making an all-in-one medical hypospray. Creating new objects! If you really want to know how it all works, I can try to explain." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi can't help but shiver at the description she's getting of this place. Taking responsibility... For all of this. For everything you chose. "That's... I can't believe it." Suddenly it seemed like Drachenblatt and the Forest were so far away now. "Thank you for explaining it. I'll remember all of this. I have to." His reassurances are given a nod and a grin. "Yeah. Like I have a team again. It's pretty awesome, having to start from the bottom and climb up again. Something new to achieve."     As they enter the room, Hoshi's breath is taken yet again. Jeeez! "Why is this place so awesome, man? Why can't my team be here! Makoto would have loved this!" Realizing she's gushing, she coughs and falls silent promptly, blushing at her outburst. Usually it took Roshomon to get her this excited. "S-sorry... I'm done. This is really cool." All of the strange forms and shapes--and a freaking ring! "... Can I hang out here?" Cough. "No, don't answer that. But... doesn't that all sound really simple? It can't be that simple." She snickers. "Sometimes I wish I was smart enough to understand how these things work. Hard enough to keep up my grades." She shrugs helplessly. "I'm curious, though. So... The shape I want it to take." Quickly, her hand darts into her belt and snags her spare hairtie. "Always keep one in case... Never thought it'd work so well here. And the thing I want it do is the sword?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "'Again?'" Staren cocks his head to the side and gives her a curious look, at the way she put it.     Staren grins. "This place is so awesome... well, partly because we put a lot of work into it, partly because /we're/ pretty awesome, I hope, and partly because... well, I'm not entirely sure how /all/ of it came to be." Staren's expression turns somber again, "The creator of the Abstractum, Dr. Burden, is not a very talkative man. And he has secrets, but... it's understandable. From what I know or can guess, were I in his position I would not be a happy man. I would not want to talk about my past."     Staren shrugs and answers her question anyway: "Sure." She can hang out here.     Staren scratches his head. "Abstractum technology is simple to use. But I'm still trying to understand how it all works. It's like magic, but more... well, abstract. It works on a conceptual level but somehow takes those concepts and makes them physical and real." Staren reaches into his bag and holds out... five sheets of paper stapled together, filled with text. "This is the sum of my knowledge that I've written down for others. You should probably read the first page. Homura wrote that bit. The rest..." he shrugs and gives a nervous grin. "I don't know if it's helped anyone yet."     Staren nods as Hoshi identifies where to put the sword and the hairtie. "Now, if you hit the button now, I'm not sure what we'd get. A hairtie that cuts things? Or maybe it wouldn't do anything. Note to self, try it later just to see what happens. But for /your/ sword..." Staren turns towards the door to the Hub. MEANWHILE     Since Hoshi identified the reference object she wanted, Dawn (Staren's support AI) and the nonsapient version of CARDINAL included with every copy of the World Seed have been hard at work looking at the source material and constructing a 3D model from reference images and best guesses. Since all they need is a single shape with no moving parts or complex properties, it's trivial for Dawn to convert this model into a format which can be given to a nanofabricator. A simple object like this, not too big, doesn't even take very long...     ...Which is how it is that a woman in a simple, dark dress and boots, with long electric violet hair and eyes then walks into the room, carrying the sword. Staren explains, "This is a household servant robot being remote-controlled by my support AI." The gynoid smiles and waves, a bit stiltedly, "Hello!", then waits patiently for a moment as Staren takes the sword. "This would probably be a terrible weapon. While it's sharp, the metal is not tempered steel, and has not been forged with the care required for such a thin blade to be used in combat. But it /looks/ good, doesn't it?" He grins, then looks at it uncertainly, "Although, I can't tell how it is different from any other katana."     Once that's been placed in the FORM compartment, Staren pulls one last object from his coat pocket. "Oh! I thought it would be good to throw this in." A folding pocket knife. "Never know when you might need a knife that /isn't/ a few feet long, right?" He puts that in too. "Ready? If you'd like to do the honors..." he waits for her to hit the button. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi shrugs. "I've been in kendo for a really long time. Middle school. I always managed to work my way up to captain--I just really wanted to be the best, y'know? And I loved my last club like family. When my parents brought me with them to Germany... I'm still not really over it. I miss them really bad. But I'm not going to contact them, because it's safer that they don't know about this stuff."     Slowly, she looks around the room again, taking all this new information in with the rest of the room in comparison. "What kind of person could make a thing like this?... He must be brilliant. I wonder... how people like me look to a person like that." A wry smile comes to her face, and she shakes her head quickly. "You're not allowed to tell me I can hang out here, 'cause I'd never go home. It's hard enough to keep up appearances as it is..." Realizing what she said, her gaze dims, and she lets out a tired sigh. "Guess I'm lying now. Man..."     Concepts... the whole idea was based on concepts. "Y'know, if you want to get metaphysical... Concept of what? I wonder if an idea can be a concept you can use. Or... an emotion! Kind of like..." She spins towards him, grinning widely. "A sword the speed of wind! Armor made out of love. That would be crazy!" Whether or not it's possible doesn't seem to matter. She's dreaming with her eyes open. "I swear, summer break, I'm coming here, busting the books. I'm learning the /crap/ out of this."     Her mind snaps her attention back to Staren. "I don't think anyone would really want a hairtie that cuts things..." That train of thought is stopped, watching as the 3D model is crafted. An excited grin comes to her face. It's like watching it being made piece by piece. "A sword made just for me..." Awhile ago, that would've been a difficult dream. Now she might actually get one, maybe one that can do amazing things!     "Can I be a hero?..." She whispers to herself, her hand reaching up to pull her locket out from under her gi. She holds it firmly in hand as she keeps watching.     A sly grin comes to Hoshi's face as the woman appears--beautiful. "A robo-maid cruising the place. Classy." With a snicker, she lifts her hand to wave in return. "Nice to meet you!" Turning to Staren, she gets a glimpse of the replica sword. He's right--it's kind of trash. But the blissful grin that comes to her face is an honest one. "You're right. It does. But that actually doesn't matter to me. No matter what, this is awesome. I just really like Kurosawa movies."     Her excitement is replaced by confusion. "A folding knife? Do you think that'll work too? How would that even work?" But it's in there... Her sword is right in front of her eyes, if in pieces. With a giddy giggle, she slowly reaches out and presses down on the button. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods at Hoshi's explanation about Kendo Club. Her muysings about what Burden would think of her get a shrug. When she gets down about lying, he puts a hand on her shoulder. "We're here for you. If you really want to tell people... hopefully one day you'll be able to. If they're truly your friends, they'll understand, right?" He smiles.     Staren smiles as she dreams of conceptual armaments. "Not quite like that. More like..." he scratches his head, "I'll try to explain better later."     (The nanofabrication process is shown to Hoshi on Staren's tablet when she asks about it.)     "Nice to meet you as well." Dawn's reply is simple and friendly, and then she leaves to head back to Staren's lab.     At last, Hoshi can PUSH THE BUTTON!     PROTOABSTRACTUM GENERATION     FORM: FAKE KAMBEI'S SWORD, POCKET KNIFE, HAIR TIE     FUNCTIONS ALLOCATED: *STANDARD SET: MANIFESTATION REGENERATION *FUNC 1: EDGED WEAPON     When the big red button is pushed, both chambers briefly and quickly scan their interiors, presumably for any sapient entities that it should not process. When this is done, both chambers abruptly slam shut with large blast doors, and the FORM chamber emits a lengthy hissing noise. After several seconds, during which the screen displays a rotating idle icon.     When the process completes, both chambers open, ejecting a high volume of a strange mist. The FUNCTION chamber is empty. In the FORM chamber lies Kambei's sword, looking much like it did before, except for the addition of a clear crystal somewhere in the hilt. The difference may not be immediately visible, but it's a real weapon now.     Also, if Hoshi holds it and attempts to make it change forms -- whether by verbal command, concentrating on the thought of willing it to change, or looking for a hidden catch or switch or something -- it will do so. The other forms similarly integrate clear crystals of some shape into their form somehow.     Staren just smiles wide, hands clasped behind his back, and watches Hoshi for her reaction. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi gives a hollow laugh. "I don't think that'd go well. My parents would freak out if they knew about half of this. ANd my friends... They can find the Multiverse safely. But they can't know anything about my life now. They need to be kept safe. That's what matters." Sadly, her plans and proposals didn't hold weight. She shrugs helplessly, grinning. "Would've been cool, though."     As soon as her hand hits the button, she's bouncing gently on her toes. The loud bang of the blast doors slamming shut actually causes her to squeak and jump a little. A blush comes to her face as she giggles nervously. The actual events of the matter was... a lot less exciting than she was expecting. No flashing lights--but hey, mist! Maybe trying to see the actual process is pointless? How would she see concepts?     When the mist clears and Hoshi is left staring at the sword, she hesitantly steps forward, examining the blade. The clear crystal sat capping the very end of the hilt. Clear as glass. She takes another slow step. It was her sword. A gift given to help her fight. Her sword. She dashes the last few feet forwards and takes up the sword carefully, a delighted grin on her face as she takes her standard stance. "A heavier than a bokken... It's all in different areas, too. Man, it's really different!" She pauses to focus--and suddenly the blade was retracting and sinking down. Hoshi gasps and nearly drops the sword when that happens, but manages to catch herself just in time.     Slowly, she turns around to face Staren. The blade elongates again, and she takes it up in both hands as she walks towards him. Quick as a flash, she dashes over to him and kneels down, holding the sword up to him across both her hands, reverently. "We need to bless it. Touch it to your forehead and pass it to me, please?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren watches her, her excitement is infectious. He does like bringing people happiness. And then--     He leans back slightly as she rushes over and... holds it out to him? "You want /me/ to bless it? Are you /sure/?" Upon insistance, he'll take it, "Well... I suppose making it was sort of an experiment... in that spirit..." holding the flat to his forehead. "In the name of madness and inspiration, I bless this blade. May it, uh... inspire you to find new ways to solve your problems." He hands it back to her. "I don't think that will /actually/ do anything, though. But you never know. Faith works in mysterious ways. If it /does/ do something, let me know, I know a god who'd be really interested in hearing about it." He smiles. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     "Yes!" Hoshi says insistantly. Resting her hands on her knees, she bows her head... and starts snickering as he goes through an actual blessing. She refuses to say anything however, she lets Staren go through the whole thing while she waits in complete stillness.      When he offers the blade to her, she takes it in her hands and presses the blade lightly to her forehead, before setting it down beside her. Placing her left hand on the floor, then her right, she bows down and presses her forehead against her hands, then stands, carefully taking up her sword as she rises. "The idea is that the crafter should give the blade to the receiver with good will that it would be used well."     Whether or not his blessing will actually do something, she shrugs with a cheerful smile. "Who knows? At this point, I'm not sure if I'd be surprised. I will let you know if I get crazy inspired at some point." Glancing down at it, she tilts her head curiously. "Hey... Should we name it? All the good ones are supposed to have names, right?" She snickers at herself. It seems childish, but she can't help but wonder about it anyway. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks confused at the snickering, then she explains. He shrugs, "I'm sure you'll use it well. You want to protect people from things too strange and powerful for them to stand against alone. That's what we all want."     Staren looks at the sword. "Name it? I'm no good at names, and we're planning to replace it anyway. I've yet to discover any way to 'upgrade' them. I suppose you can name it if you want, but you should probably save the best names you come up with for later." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''      Was it that simple? That was exactly what she wanted to do, but it was strange to hear such faith. "I won't fail," she insists firmly. "I won't lose, I promise. I'll make myself worth it." Slowly, carefully, she sheathes the blade into her scabbard, shifting a bit to get the sensation of it's weight on her hip.     Staren's logic makes sense, though. This was the start. "Then I'm going to have to look up a lot of stuff to get a good name. Star-something! With the crystal there... Doesn't matter." Blushing, Hoshi clears her throat and goes to a different track. "Thank you so much for this." She grins suddenly down at the sword--and it starts to shrink, forming into a tiny hairtie held within the depths of her belt. "It'll take me a couple weeks to get used to it, but I'll practice every night." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks a mix of concerned, happy for her, and flattered, blushing a bit himself. The dynamic feels slightly wrong, though. "You're welcome. I'm glad to help -- like I said, that was the point of studying all this stuff -- and, um, it's okay. You're a Union Elite now, an aspiring hero, but that doesn't mean you have to devote all your time to fighting and saving people. I... I thought about that once, and my friends pointed out they'd miss me if I went too far. You can have some time to be yourself too, whatever that means to you. We're fighting to make better lives for everyone, right? And while the people we save may be in a far worse situation and need the help more... that applies to us too. In any case, it's not like I'm expecting a progress report or you're under any obligation to /me/ to train super hard. As long as this step helped you on your way to helping others, that's enough for me." He rubs the back of his neck, awkwardly. "Sorry, I'm not really good at people stuff." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     That... makes Hoshi pause in thought. Her sense of reality comes back to her. All of this was heady stuff, but she still had to go to school, be around her parents, watch out for August--a whole list of things that she had to do. Plus she had to do it without alerting anyone in her world. That was the most daunting task. "I... you're probably right, but... Just thinking about all of this stuff makes my head hurt. And..." She sits down slowly, sighing. "I'm scared, too. When I first went in the Forest, and I saw the wolf coming for me... I felt my heart stop dead until the woodsman got me back out. What do you do with that stuff, man?..." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren furrows his brow in thought. When has he been really, really scared? He thinks back... no, not just spooped by skeletons. When has he been /terrified/? When have things been that bad...     They tricked us     Everyone's paralyzed     They're going to kill her     GET HER OUT OF HERE     This isn't working     She's not listening     You can't save her     She's living your worst nightmare     YOU HAVE FAILED     You thought you'd come up with a clever plan     You didn't     Now they're dead     You'll NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN     You thought someone would save him     You thought heroes would win     You were wrong     He's GONE     You should have done more...     Staren's gaze grows distant, he shakes a bit, and he holds a hand to his head and sighs. "I'm sorry. I don't know. I... came from a world where... I trained to fight monsters at a young age. The age was unusual, but the monsters were not. Before I saw /any/ combat, I had practice. I had reflexes to and training to rely on. And it probably helped that the first combat /I/ saw was from inside the cockpit of a 50-ton war machine. Lots of armor between me and any enemies." He shakes his head. "I don't have to be afraid for me. I'm afraid for the people I care about. You'll... have to talk to someone else. Hopefully next time... you'll be prepared. You'll have a plan, you'll know how to fight. That's all I can say... as long as you've got a plan... as long as there's something you can do... focus on that. Maybe that wasn't helpful. Sorry..." He awkwardly looks away. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi glances up when Staren goes silent, and immediately she sees it. The scar. The tell she'd noticed about herself in the mirror. That hesitance, a knee-jerk reaction to trying to pull away from it. Hoshi comes to her feet again, hesitantly reaching out her hand to brush his arm. "I'm sorry. It wasn't fair of me to drop that on you. Let's... Let's start again. Do you want to be friends?" The hand is still out there, but she holds it in front of him to shake. "Worrying about it now isn't going to do me any good. When something happens, I'll respond. Like a kendo match. Stroke for stroke. There's a reason I kept up my kendo training after I left." She smiles hesitantly. "The stuff you say does make sense, y'know. Don't sell yourself too short. So, what do you say? Maybe sometime we can hang out again." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren shrugs, "It's fine. It was a legitimate question." He couldn't answer because all of those times... he was terrified for someone else.     He smiles at the offer, and shakes the hand. "Sure. More friends are good. ...I hope you do fine. Uh, sure! 'Again'? This was hanging out?" He looks over at the protoabstractum crafting machine then back to her. "I suppose it could be. Uh, sure. We can talk about what interests us and stuff." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''      Hoshi grins again, bringing back some of her levity. Her handshake is nice and firm. "Whether or not it counts, I'm glad I came. Let me know if you have some free time! We can get some food. I know a pretty good French place not too far from my house. I'll pay." A thought slowly comes to her, and she snatches her phone out of her pocket. "... Oh crap! Man, I'm going to have to sneak back into my house at this rate. Sorry man--I need to get home!" With a firm nod, she dashes back towards the warpgate, waving quickly over her head as she ran. 

}}

3628/A Taste of the Multiverse

2016-02-04T08:52:44Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/01/07 |Location=Bar and Grill at the Edge of the Multiverse |Synopsis=Hearing that Kal Udar has never had real food, Staren contrives to remed..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/01/07
|Location=Bar and Grill at the Edge of the Multiverse
|Synopsis=Hearing that Kal Udar has never had real food, Staren contrives to remedy this at the Bar & Grill
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=19, 42, 687, 932
|Tinyplot=
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's mastery of Multiverse knowledge and head computer combine to let him set things up at record speed, sometimes.     Staren was already on his way here before he invited Kal. After arrival, Staren immediately flags down a server and talks to them for a bit, then starts looking around for the next confused bird-person to step through a door. When he spies Kal, he waves him over to a table. "Hello! Kal, right? I'm Staren. Nice to meet you." He smiles and holds out a hand to shake. 

:'''{{#var:932|Kal Udar (932)}} has posed:'''      The Multiverse is big and new. It's shiny and teeming with life and variety, things that Kal Udar, No.9 Thunder Lord of the A-RAYS, is not at all used to. The bird-man, upon following Staren's orders, finds himself inside a big Bar and Grill.      Kal probably is not what Staren was expecting. He's big, largely human-looking, except for his huge grey wings and his weird birdy eyes. He looks at the hand for a really long time, as if puzzled by it (he probably is). Eventually, he pokes it with a finger, and Staren gets a sense that there's a space in that hand for nasty talons. Apparently, while he might look mostly human, he's probably not.      Behind him is a Grey. Literally. It is about four feet tall, super-slender, super-skinny, and looks like it might shatter on contact. Its huge black eyes stare up at Staren wordlessly.      Kal holds up a hand. "Hello! I'm Kal. That's Rider. Rider, say hello."      Rider burbles something. It may or may not be hello.      Kal shrugs, then claps his hands together and rubs them cheerfully. "So this is a place you eat, huh? It's a lot nicer than the facilities back home, that's for sure." 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Maya would arrive pretty soon after Staren does the woman had long blue hair, and some visable tribal like tatoos on her forarms, though otherwise she looked like she'd hopped off some earth from the 2000s she seemd to be in a good mood as she takes a moment to spot Kal and her eyebrow raises a bit at his apperance.. "Kal and that's Rider? Wait Rider?" She seems to know the term but also gives Rider a nod and a bit of a smile, he's not hostile, just strange looking. "Yes this is a place where we eat and be social." 

:'''{{#var:687|Ark Line (687)}} has posed:''' The Bar and Grill doesn't immediately have to eject one of its patrons, so Ark must not actually be here. Thank God for small favors. On the other hand, someone else is: a middle-aged man, with short hair, greying at the temples, and a suit jacket and trousers that are slightly rumpled. That porkpie hat seems kind of modified, and kind of crossed with a stetson, too. It's an odd look, but a recognizable one for anyone who has seen him. Caster of Steel walks between the tables, a newspaper folded over in one hand. He's looking down at it, examining the columns of black-and-white text while he proceeds to what might be his 'usual' table, if he has such a thing. His other hand is fishing in his coat pocket for something or other. He doesn't actually see Rider, and ends up walking right into it. Caster stumbles, catching himself, and looking around with obvious alarm. He ends up looking forward, left and right before looking down. His expression is somewhere between surprised and disbelieving -- especially when he looks /up/ and sees /Kal/. "Er -- pardon me, I seem to have been --" Caster pats his pockets for no good reason. "-- I wasn't watching where I was going, I... do I know you?" He's squinting between Kal and Rider. He probably recognized the other Servant, and definitely recognizes Kal, but how is less obvious. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks down at the hand, then up at Kal again. "...You... have an alien following you? Ah, I guess you can explain in a moment. Uh... hello." He waves uncertainly to Rider. "Two things: One, a handshake is a traditional greeting in many worlds -- it developed from a ritual of showing that your weapon hand was unarmed." He clasps Kal's hand and shakes it firmly, if allowed. "Two... I took the liberty of ordering some appetizers, but obviously, you can try any food you want on the menu."     Staren takes a seat. A waiter comes by and sets out... menus, a plate of shrimp, and one of those white pizzas with tomatoes and herbs on it (Staren forgot to ask if Kal actually eats meat. Now he's covered both ways!). Also soda, some multiversal brand along the lines of coke or pepsi, and plain water. "So... These here are shrimp, the tastiest animal. They live in the ocean. These have already been cooked: You pull the legs and shell off, like so, and then just eat them. And this is one of many kinds of pizza. The basic formula of crust, sauce, and various toppings results in unlimited combinations. No additional preparation required, you just eat it. Um, I forgot to ask if you eat meat or not, so..." he shrugs and looks awkward. "There are plenty of other options on the menu. Hamburger patty on a bun with toppings, and fries -- ahh, a kind of way of slicing and frying potatoes, with various sauces or just salt -- are also a popular favorite, but there are as many popular foods as there are cultures in the Multiverse, really..."     He doesn't recognize Caster /immediately/, although, he's giving Caster a similar 'do I know that guy? Something familiar about him...' look. 

:'''{{#var:932|Kal Udar (932)}} has posed:'''      "Rider of Green," Kal confirms.      Rider holds up its three-fingered hand. Each finger is almost as long as its arm.      It waves.      "He's pretty chatty, huh?" Kal grins. Kal, notably, is *very nearly* seven feet tall. Standing next to the tiny Rider, it's almost comedic how tall the bird-man is. His wingspan must be nearly twice his height, too. While Rider is hunched-over, skinny, and looks like he'd deflate if a pin was put in him, Kal is huge and muscular and looks like he could probably bench a bus. This is probably because functioning wings require a huge array of muscles to work!      Kal watches Staren shake his hand with the sort of curious detachment someone hearing another person speak a foreign language might give. His eyes are blank but interested, and he pretends to get it as they sit down.      Staren orders food.      It is within minutes that Staren learns two very fundamental facts about A-RAYS. First, they are beastmen - and that means they have no table manners whatsoever. Kal just plucks things off the plates bare-hands, and they vanish into his mouth (there is a distinct sense of him pecking, and his neck lunges every so often when he grabs smaller bits).      Second, A-RAYS have ridiculous appetites.      No sooner has Kal eaten *most of the tray* - quite literally /most/ of the tray - he's staring at Staren with curiousity in his eyes.      "Is there more? That wasn't really very filling. Tasty, I guess, but not really filling at all."      Caster walks up to him. Kal blinks at him for a long moment. "Uh, I guess it's possible?"      Rider, meanwhile, shifts around the table, ambling weirdly out of the way and giving Caster a long black-eyed stare. 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Maya is just seemingly in a easy going mood, as Caster shows up she gives the man a bit of a look over while Staren talks abotu the food. Seafood was a wonderful thing of the multiverse to her. There were no oceans or seas on her world after all. She just looks for a place to sit down with the others and she thinks. "... Woah your still hungry after all of that?" 

:'''{{#var:687|Ark Line (687)}} has posed:''' Caster seems to come to the conclusion that the thing in front of him is the same sort of thing as him. He also has a vague idea of what he's looking at, being kind of a contemporary to the incident that sparked that very appearance. There's a little bit of unnerving that's going on, there, since he actually doesn't know what to expect. "Ah, no, my mistake -- I recognized what you were, not who you are. Terribly rude of me. My sincerest apologies." Caster nods his head, and then to Staren. "Excellent work with the drakes, young man; the drainage duct should be fully complete without too much more trouble." Wasn't this guy at the planning table, standing next to /Lezard/? 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren watches Kal eat with mild amusement and curiousity. And then most of the food has gone, very fast. And, while he's hardly an expert at reading body language, he's suddenly getting exactly the same vibe from the beastman as you get from a dog that you gave /one/ piece of food to. "Um... well, the idea was, you'd pick something off the menu, and then we eat these while they make it... Um... I think we need to get you something like..." The eager... hungryness of the A-Ray is making him nervous. He flags down a server again. "Umm... get my friend here a platter of sausage, bacon, pancakes, eggs, and toast. You know, a big breakfast. ...Better make it two plates. He looks back to Kal. "There, uh, there will be more but they need time to cook it." He nibbles at what's left of the appetizer. "So... /Oh/. Rider. I get it. He's a /Servant/?" Staren looks confused. Aren't Servants supposed to be great people from history? But then, they met the Y2K bug... Staren blinks at Caster. "Oh! Um... thanks... So you were there helping plan it out, right? I don't think I caught your name..." This is a slightly confusing and awkward night, with the new ally who's never seen real food before hungrily staring at him and the guy he barely knows catching him at a disadvantage. 

:'''{{#var:932|Kal Udar (932)}} has posed:'''      "'All of that'?" Kal asks, staring at Maya curiously. "Was that like a big meal for you guys? That was tiny! I'm not full at all! Man, humans sure are inconvenient."      Kal's eyes narrow slightly at Caster's statement. That meant a certain thing, and that meant another certain thing. But Kal is either too polite, or too self-assured, to care. He shrugs, sending his huge wings fluffing with the mere motion.      "Cook? Oh, that sounds like it'll take a while. Do you have it raw? I bet it tastes different."      "Oh, yeah. That's Rider. He's my Servant. It's a long and complicated thing, I'll tell you about it later." Kal's bird eyes are still focused slightly off to the side, at Caster rather than on Staren. There's a sense of tension in the air around him, a coiled, predatory air despite his otherwise laid-back attitude.      Rider, meanwhile, scrambles up on the table and sits down, crossing its awkwardly-shaped little legs under its bulbous grey body. It makes another burbling gibberish noise.      "What he said," Kal agrees quietly. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren gives Kal a curious look. "Have you ever eaten raw meat before? If not, I'm not ordering it for you without a doctor's note... You can always try it later anyway though, I guess." 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Maya pauses for a moment and looks to Staren for a moment. "We might want to get them to get the Sayain sized portions." She's not being mean but it dseems tht Kal has a much higher need for calories than a lot of people do. "That was an entire tray of shrimp, someone could eat all that ya but that be half to a full meal worth of food. Just how much do you need ot eat if I might ask?" She also catches the glances between Caster and Kal and uhohs a little bit. "Raw meat generally doesn't do well for humans save in a few types of cooking." 

:'''{{#var:687|Ark Line (687)}} has posed:''' "That's right. Lezard required my expertise on the structure and the power sources we'd install after we'd cleared the valley. It was a worthwhile diversion." Caster nods at Staren. He smiles a little. "You wouldn't have. I don't give my proper one out very often. It's a habit I picked up from my less-reputable compatriots," he says with a sigh. The man lifts the brim of his hat and tips it. He's addressing Staren, Kal, Maya and Rider all at once, but there's a sense that he's staring right at Kal the whole time, despite apparently looking at each of them. His focus is definitely the A-RAY. "I am Caster, of the Steel Faction within the Land of Steel. Pleased to properly make your acquaintance." He hasn't made any sudden moves since he got to the table. Smart. 

:'''{{#var:932|Kal Udar (932)}} has posed:'''      "I've never eaten anything that wasn't processed," Kal points out cheerfully. "The grey ones are the best. They're like grey, but not quite as grey as the DARK grey ones, but not as light as the LIGHT grey ones."      "Basically one ration bar is all I need. That's why I'm surprised your stuff isn't very filling. Maybe it's because you sacrificed calories for taste or something?" He shrugs.      "Kal Udar," Kal replies, "No.9 Thunder Lord. This is Rider, of the Green Faction of the Land of Steel."      Rider scrambles forward on all fours along the table towards Caster. It doesn't do anything else.      Its eyes are *particularly* huge. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "So... You're from the Land of Steel too? What's the Steel faction?" Staren glanced at Kal. "It's... possible. This is a restaurant. It can only /exist/ in a world where people are able to care about taste. I get the impression that anyone who didn't grow up on... processed food bars... can't stand the taste of such things and prefers not to eat them. Thus, they buy food like this. Also, Green Faction?" 

:'''{{#var:687|Ark Line (687)}} has posed:''' To his credit, Caster stands his ground when Rider of Green starts to scramble forward. His hand slips inside his coat, fingers curling around a cylindrical object concealed within. He narrows his eyes at the grey, speaking carefully and enunciating clearly, "Fighting is not permitted within this establishment. The management has made that very clear." Ah. So /that's/ why he hasn't done something drastic. Of course, it could just be that he's being polite. There are literal knights as Servants among the Union that would treat with their foes -- why couldn't someone who isn't do the same? "Yes, I am. Or rather, my Master is. We," he glances at Rider of Green, still standing rooted to the spot, "are of course from a time before the world became the Land of Steel, summoned to write the next bloody chapter of Babel's Tale across the face of a desolate world." Caster's voice is heavy with emotion. Resignation, maybe. "The Steel Faction is the group of Masters and their Servants who support the Liner cause for humanity's survival..." He closes his eyes, tugging on the rim of his hat. He sounds a touch uncomfortable. "...and the destruction of the A-RAYS, who threaten that cause. By any means necessary." 

:'''{{#var:932|Kal Udar (932)}} has posed:'''      "The Green Faction is basically the same thing, but in reverse," Kal tells Staren, "Destroying the Liners who threaten us and all that stuff. Mostly it means I can slack and let Rider do all my work for me."      Rider stands. Its huge head tilts so its giant eyes can stare at the cylindrical thing in Caster's hands. It steps back a bit, warbling. Whether it understands or not is totally up in the air.      "Hey, c'mon, Rider, we don't wanna get thrown out on day one. Besides, I'm still hungry."      Rider crouches back on all fours again, loping back down the table like an awkward bulbous-headed caveman.      "I imagine my food'd kill you," Kal corrects Staren, "I mean I'm pretty sure it kills ordinary humans in the Land of Steel, I'm not sure why it'd be any different. Maybe it'd make you really sick, I understand a lot of you guys are really, really good humans? But it probably wouldn't be very fun for you." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren snaps his fingers. "Right! Grain. Yes, that'd be bad. Wait, could it be this food's not filling because it doesn't include /magic/? ...I guess we'll know when that order finally comes."     Staren sighs. "See, this guy isn't interested in the fighting. I'm not getting the story out of /him/." Staren looks at Rider. "Or his, uh... Servant." He looks back to Caster. "Would /you/ care to enlighten me as to what the heck is really going on in the Land of Steel, why they're fighting?" 

:'''{{#var:932|Kal Udar (932)}} has posed:'''      "I'm sure Rider'd love to tell you a story, but I'm also pretty sure he doesn't know how to talk," Kal interjects cheerily. 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Maya says "That could be it, i wonder how many calories they cram into things. Generall humans need about 2000 to 3000 calories if i recall numbers right." Maya's been a bit quite for the moment as she takes moment to order her own meal and listens to Caster's talk about his faction and it's goals. "Staten see how many calories are in one of those ration bars, I'm betting it's pretty insane." maya notes. She looks back to Caster "I'm curious about just what's going on there. Given what's come crawling out of the wood work from your world a few times." 

:'''{{#var:687|Ark Line (687)}} has posed:''' Rider can see the barest hint of black metal in Caster of Steel's hand when he starts to withdraw it from his pocket. It looks vaguely grenade-shaped, but if it is, it's a primitive one. Besides, what kind of Servant carries grenades? It's probably /way/ more dangerous. He puts it back, though, when the alien lopes away. He seems to rest a little more easily on his heels at that point. "It's difficult to say. The prevailing Liner viewpoint is that the A-RAYS are a product of the dying Earth, who appeared some time ago and claimed that humanity's time on the planet was over. They've been attacking human cities ever since, necessitating the creation of Liners, and then the Ether Liners, which I'm sure you," he nods at Kal, "are familiar with." "For my own part," Caster continues, "I believe it is not quite so cut-and-dry. The A-RAYS may believe they are the next stage of evolution for life in the Land of Steel, and that the humans -- or 'last seeds,' as they're called -- are an evolutionary dead end. Survival of the fittest, you understand. Humanity is unable to survive the Grain-filled atmosphere, so they are unfit to live in it." "As for the start of the conflict, it seems likely that animal instinct may have led them to attempt to claim human territory and their remaining resources, which, of course, the surviving humans were ill-suited to defend." Caster paces a little at the end of the table, appearing to be comfortable acting like a lecturer. "Humanity, of course, continued to innovate, until it developed a solution that could stop the A-RAYS from simply finishing them off." "Unfortunately, the remaining genetically-pure humans continue to dwindle, and they've had to leave their legacy to the Liners... a sad state of affairs." Caster shakes his head. "But that is why there is war at all, rather than simply a... a culling. Honestly, a state of all-out warfare is better than the alternative, so far as humanity is concerned." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren listens to this. "...So... the A-Rays can live in that /wasteland/, and they feel the need to kill humans over the places they're still living? What the heck, that's /dumb/. You should just /stop/ fighting. I mean... A-Rays live where they can, humans and liners live where they can... I imagine many of the humans are planning to leave for space or other worlds, anyway. Like, who's in charge of all this? Can we talk to them, or alternatively, beat their faces in until we're in charge instead and /order/ both sides to stand down?"     The food finally arrives soon after. Two plates of breakfast, but not full of magic. Will it be enough to fill an A-Ray? 

:'''{{#var:687|Ark Line (687)}} has posed:''' "The situation is more complex than that, I'm sure," Caster of Steel says. "And I'm afraid I can't condone any actions that lead to assaulting Liner command staff. You would, I think, find the experience..." He searches for a good word, and settles on, "...unpleasant, at any rate. Emotions run too high for reason, many a time." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren shrugs. "I'm spitballing here. And it still sounds better than joining /either/ side to exterminate the other, that's for sure." 

:'''{{#var:932|Kal Udar (932)}} has posed:'''      The answer is no. That food vanishes just as fast as the prior. Kal's weird, birdlike eating snaps huge hunks of bread and meat into his mouth in rapid intervals. If someone is paying close attention to his face, they might notice that his teeth are *sharp*. Like, swords sharp. Like, /could tear flesh/ sharp.      "This stuff is super tasty," Kal observes once he's torn through more or less all of it, "Aren't you gonna eat anything?"      He may just not have realized.      Staren's assertions get a frown across Kal's face. "You know, I really didn't want to talk about this stuff," he points out, "*I* wanted to try some of your cool food and see what you guys do for fun, because that's way more interesting. Do humans just like fixate on how they can solve problems and kill things? I mean you've literally JUST met me. I know your name and also I know that you're paying for this food, which I bet is some kinda barter and I bet it's gonna make you really unhappy at the end when you see how much you have to trade for it."      "It's just kinda sudden, you know? You need to learn to relax." 

:'''{{#var:19|Maya (19)}} has posed:''' Maya has been queit and eating her own meal listening for the most part, it would be a drop in the bucket to Kal for sure. "Staren easy. There's also music which is a fairly unviersal thing that humans share with a number of other species as well. If that strikes your fancy Kal." Maya's clearly wanting to move on from the topic of the situation on Kal's world and it's problems. "There's as many types of food out there as there are worlds and cultures. There's a lot to explore just on that." 

:'''{{#var:687|Ark Line (687)}} has posed:''' "My Master has a rather... /romantic/ sort of goal in mind," Caster eventually says, "but destroying the A-RAYS is what he was made for. Perhaps seeing things from another perspective enough might convince him it isn't necessary, and he can move on to doing what's important for our blighted world." Seeing the topical shift imminent, Caster of Steel nods again. "I'm sorry for interrupting your meal. I've got my own to think about." He nods to each. "Gentlemen; lady." Then, he straightens his newpaper, and starts to move on. He's made things awkward enough in these few minutes. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks back at Kal "...I had meals earlier, and I ate a bit of the appetizers as a midnight snack. this was... It just felt wrong that an ally had never tasted real food. However, it seems for one reason or another, human food's not working for you, even if it tastes good." Staren shrugs. "Sorry..."     "As for human fixations... I dunno, I'm pretty weird by human standards, but I /do/ fixate on solving problems, and a lot of problems in the Multiverse seem to come down to killing things. I didn't mean to sour your meal experience, but I /was/ curious about what's up with the Land of Steel and this seemed the first opportunity I've seen to learn much."     Staren takes a deep breath. "You've eaten two meals and some appetizer. Even given that it's like, three times as expensive to buy prepared food as it is to get ingredients... I'm a Multiversal with a lot of resources and a Union salary, and not a lot of expenses that I can't invoice the Union for. This is /not/ a big deal, although I wouldn't wanna pay to feed you every day. I'm afraid food like this is gonna just have to be occasional flavor till we figure out what's in those rations of yours, though."     Staren slouches in his chair. "I get that a lot, but I'm /kinda/ relaxed? I don't think I'm /actually/ gonna solve everything tonight. But to some degree, I just can't stop thinking. That's just the way I am. The only time I can really relax is... well, I guess that's not important."     Staren sits up. "Sorry the meal ended up being a disappointment. At least it was educational... I'd say I'd make it up to you, but..." Staren scratches his head, "Getting you tasty food kinda /was/ my treat? Still. I hope that someday I will help your cause in a way you find more agreeable." 

:'''{{#var:932|Kal Udar (932)}} has posed:'''      "I'm not disappointed," Kal corrects cheerfully, "I just don't really wanna talk about depressing stuff like 'why people are dying' when there's delicious food right here in front of me. It may not fill me up but that just means I get to taste more of it, right?"      "I'll tell you more stuff later. But..."      Kal looks at his empty plate.      "For tonight, let's lay off the heavy talk, huh?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren shrugs affirmatively. "I'm kind of curious where it's all /going/... and I'm concerned that if you /do/ need magic, we could just feed you all day and it's not gonna get us anywhere. You might want to save trying some things for later."     "Still, I suppose we can get you some more of the basics today..." Next order is the biggest whatever-decker hamburger they have together with breaded fish and french fries (Staren eats some of the fries.)     If Kal is /still/ hungry, Staren covers more kinds of food. Stew. Chili. A hero sandwich. More kinds of fish. There are endless kinds of food. (Staren has his head computer, so sitting here isn't much of a bother)     If Kal just /keeps going/, once the amount of food he's eaten approaches /ten/ meals, Staren calls it. "Alright. We could literally feed you all day, this has gotta stop somewhere. And I need to get to bed. You'll get more food later, but for now, we can wrap things up with ice cream dessert." Because someone having never had ice cream is too cruel and that must be rectified.     It's a big check and a big tip, but Staren was honest about his financial situation. Maybe he couldn't do this every day -- though he could for awhile -- but spending a bunch of money to let someone who's /never had food with taste/ try it? It's worth some expense, at least once. 

}}

Archived: RIFTS-1

2016-01-16T07:06:19Z

Staren: Removing stuff I wasn't actually allowed to declare, general update and overhaul.

3313/Abstract Swordsmithing

2015-11-02T09:40:17Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2015/11/01 |Location=The Homeworld |Synopsis=Hoshi needs a sword, but how can she explain carrying one around? Staren believes a protoabstractum ma..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2015/11/01
|Location=The Homeworld
|Synopsis=Hoshi needs a sword, but how can she explain carrying one around? Staren believes a protoabstractum may be the solution.
|Thanks=Abstractum.net
|Cast of Characters=42, 901
|Tinyplot=
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:''' THE ABSTRACTUM HOMEWORLD     Staren idly paces around a short distance in front of the warpgate with his hands in his coat pockets. This place was deserted once, but now the Legacies populate it, making the HUB look quite busy, although they only seem to stop to talk to outsiders if the outsider initiates contact. Occasionally one catches Staren's eye and he watches them curiously as they walk by, particularly the ones with cybernetic augmentations. Since Hoshi's never seen him before, it won't seem notable that on his left hand is a brass-colored, segmented gauntlet, with a couple of armored plates on the back, five wires running from forearm to knuckles, and a blue crystal about where a watch face would be. The crystal eye is 'closed' right now though, giving no impression this is any more than a fancy gauntlet...     Once Hoshi arrives (He hasn't seen her, but he's seen her file and she's the only person he doesn't know coming...) Staren looks to her and smiles. "Hi! I'm Staren, researcher of problems for the Union." He steps forward to shake her hand. "And this..." he holds out his arms, "...is the Abstractum Homeworld. It's... um..." He scratches his chin, "How do I begin to explain... Um... Short version is, there's this great enemy out there, that seeks to be destroyed, and it will destroy anyone not up to the task. Abstractum are the greatest weapon system ever devised, as there are, collectively, dozens of Abstractum and their Users so far and our numbers, for the most part, only grow. We hope with them we can destroy the enemy. Time will tell. This facility, this world, exists to help us fight the enemy in a narrative context we can understand. It's... kinda complicated to go over all at once. If you're curious, I have some stuff you can read..."     "...But the short of it is, using the same technology that makes Abstractum, we can make you a sword with some really useful properties." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''      When Hoshi stepped through the warpgate on her home, she had no idea what to expect from the place she was going. So far even the most mundane things in the Multiverse had made her eyes go wide and her knees to go weak. By now, however, she was starting to get interested in the strangeness. It felt like a challenge, learning everything she could. So when she stepped out into the Abstractum Homeworld, she immediately froze to take in the whole sight. Slowly, a delighted grin crawls up her face. "Awwwesomeeee..." She says breathily. If only her old club members could see this!...     While she stood there dumbstruck, Staren got a chance to have a good look at her. Apparently, she'd run straight from the training ring at Headqarters. She was still wearing her kendo armor, bokken and katana from the armory held in her belt. As Staren approached and spoke, Hoshi's jarred from her wonders and blushes. "S-sorry! Mr. Staren, it's nice to meet you in person." She's about to give a formal bow, but instead takes the offered hand with a bemused smile, staying quiet to hear his explaination. As he continues, her face turns more solemn. The way he explains it... Well, it makes sense, at least. It's clear that there's waaay more involved in what was happening, but she could learn more when she needed to. "Thank you for taking the time to explain it. I'm grateful... And if I can figure out what's happening in the Forest, maybe I might be able to help out here, too. Just... need to think."     Then they got to the part she was interested in--the sword. The grin comes back to her face. "I'm so excited, man. What exactly do you think it could do?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     When Hoshi comments that she might be able to help out here, Staren gives a nervous smile and a half-shrug. "There are a few ways you can help. Two are commitments we can discuss if you want, but if you befriend anyone who has a node here," Staren gestures at the DOORS SO MANY DOORS, "helping them resolve the stories within is no different than helping them with any other endeavor."     Staren smiles at her enthusiasm, and starts walking through the Hub purposefully. "The sword we are making today? It will be a sword. It will look the way you wanted it to, it will be self-repairing, and it will be able to take an innocuous form. That's all there is to it. The sword I hope we can make in the future? Well, that, I'm not entirely sure, except that it will enhance your ability to fight. That's why it's an experiment, I don't know how it will turn out. Perhaps the blade will be supernaturally sharp. Maybe it will cut with more force than you swing with. Perhaps it will be able to block or parry blows too strong for you to do so, or straight-up form a magical barrier to protect you. I honestly don't know, I need to do more research and that means finding a swordsmen user and talking to their Abstractum," Staren taps the gauntlet, "when it isn't asleep. But basic attack and defense stuff like that is probably the most we can manage. Like I said, a fraction of the power and versatility of a true Abstractum."     As he talks, he weaves his way between the Legacies, until at last they leave the throng and step into the Red Wing. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Immediately Hoshi begins to follow, leaning over a bit to hear him better. "So, wait Is this like a game, then?" Beat. "That sounded really bad. I didnt mean it like that, but It sounds like youre telling me to do quests or something. Is it close?" She takes a moment to glance around nervously at all the doors. Is there one in every door?     Her attention snaps back to Staren after she shakes the thoughts out of her head. "A self-repairing sword? Oh man This is definitely a good way to start. If the rest can happen Well, I guess well see what you can come up with, huh?" She stops for a moment, glancing at the ground. "Uh Thank you for this. Im so grateful that youre willing to do this. I I thought, for awhile, that I would be by myself, dealing with this. Thank you."     She takes a deep breath and quickly dashes her hand across her eyes. Her grin comes back to her face, and she steps forward proudly. "Lets do science, then! Just so you know, though Im probably not going to understand anything that follows." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     When Hoshi asks if it's a game, Staren gives her a sort of awkward look, and scratches the back of his head. "It's complicated. I can't tell whether the nodes always existed and the Homeworld just connects to ones that suit us, or they're created on the spot. But the people inside, and their troubles, are real, even if time's a little weird. Yeah, all of the funny-looking doors go to nodes." Staren's face grows more serious. "You create a node, you're taking on the responsibility of fixing a small world. Succeed, and by defeating Pure-wielders, you cut off a little bit of the enemy. Fail, and... well, not enough people have completed nodes' stories for us to tell, but if enough of us fail, the enemy will invade parts of the Multiverse, instead of the nodes. I've seen pictures. They weren't pretty."     Staren smiles at her enthusiasm about the sword, and looks back at her as she thanks him and says she thought she would be alone. "You're welcome. I learn about stuff like this because I'm looking for ways to use it to help people. And... you're not alone, in the Union. There will be plenty of people willing to help you out, and I'm sure you'll help plenty of others, soon enough. I understand August already helped out in Paragon City. ...It's a superhero world."     In they go! "This... is the Red Wing. It's used for... um..." He looks at the machines. "Abstractum stuff, but there's a training simulator over there," he waves at the dojo-esque area, "And this..." he comes to the PROTO-ABSTRACTUM CRAFTING CHAMBERS, "...Looks like it was upgraded since I last messed with it. It used to be a big ol' box, but now... are these extradimensional spaces? Sweet. I guess we can make really big stuff now! I wonder if that means people could make a /car/ that turns into a pocket form? Or maybe..." He trails off into thought for a moment.     Then he catches himself. "Oh right! Anyway, this is how anyone can make protoabstractum. My Abstractum, Eureka," he taps the gauntlet again, "can also make them, but the process is different. We'll get to that if you wish. For practical use, though... You put objects in /here/ corresponding to what you want your creation to /do/, and objects over /here/ corresponding to what shapes you want it to take. Then you hit the big red button. It's pretty simple! Making an object that has convenient secondary forms, or a gun with infinite ammo, are the basic uses I've found so far, but with a little imagination, one can find other uses. Resizing armor to fit you. Making an all-in-one medical hypospray. Creating new objects! If you really want to know how it all works, I can try to explain." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi can't help but shiver at the description she's getting of this place. Taking responsibility... For all of this. For everything you chose. "That's... I can't believe it." Suddenly it seemed like Drachenblatt and the Forest were so far away now. "Thank you for explaining it. I'll remember all of this. I have to." His reassurances are given a nod and a grin. "Yeah. Like I have a team again. It's pretty awesome, having to start from the bottom and climb up again. Something new to achieve."     As they enter the room, Hoshi's breath is taken yet again. Jeeez! "Why is this place so awesome, man? Why can't my team be here! Makoto would have loved this!" Realizing she's gushing, she coughs and falls silent promptly, blushing at her outburst. Usually it took Roshomon to get her this excited. "S-sorry... I'm done. This is really cool." All of the strange forms and shapes--and a freaking ring! "... Can I hang out here?" Cough. "No, don't answer that. But... doesn't that all sound really simple? It can't be that simple." She snickers. "Sometimes I wish I was smart enough to understand how these things work. Hard enough to keep up my grades." She shrugs helplessly. "I'm curious, though. So... The shape I want it to take." Quickly, her hand darts into her belt and snags her spare hairtie. "Always keep one in case... Never thought it'd work so well here. And the thing I want it do is the sword?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "'Again?'" Staren cocks his head to the side and gives her a curious look, at the way she put it.     Staren grins. "This place is so awesome... well, partly because we put a lot of work into it, partly because /we're/ pretty awesome, I hope, and partly because... well, I'm not entirely sure how /all/ of it came to be." Staren's expression turns somber again, "The creator of the Abstractum, Dr. Burden, is not a very talkative man. And he has secrets, but... it's understandable. From what I know or can guess, were I in his position I would not be a happy man. I would not want to talk about my past."     Staren shrugs and answers her question anyway: "Sure." She can hang out here.     Staren scratches his head. "Abstractum technology is simple to use. But I'm still trying to understand how it all works. It's like magic, but more... well, abstract. It works on a conceptual level but somehow takes those concepts and makes them physical and real." Staren reaches into his bag and holds out... five sheets of paper stapled together, filled with text. "This is the sum of my knowledge that I've written down for others. You should probably read the first page. Homura wrote that bit. The rest..." he shrugs and gives a nervous grin. "I don't know if it's helped anyone yet."     Staren nods as Hoshi identifies where to put the sword and the hairtie. "Now, if you hit the button now, I'm not sure what we'd get. A hairtie that cuts things? Or maybe it wouldn't do anything. Note to self, try it later just to see what happens. But for /your/ sword..." Staren turns towards the door to the Hub. MEANWHILE     Since Hoshi identified the reference object she wanted, Dawn (Staren's support AI) and the nonsapient version of CARDINAL included with every copy of the World Seed have been hard at work looking at the source material and constructing a 3D model from reference images and best guesses. Since all they need is a single shape with no moving parts or complex properties, it's trivial for Dawn to convert this model into a format which can be given to a nanofabricator. A simple object like this, not too big, doesn't even take very long...     ...Which is how it is that a woman in a simple, dark dress and boots, with long electric violet hair and eyes then walks into the room, carrying the sword. Staren explains, "This is a household servant robot being remote-controlled by my support AI." The gynoid smiles and waves, a bit stiltedly, "Hello!", then waits patiently for a moment as Staren takes the sword. "This would probably be a terrible weapon. While it's sharp, the metal is not tempered steel, and has not been forged with the care required for such a thin blade to be used in combat. But it /looks/ good, doesn't it?" He grins, then looks at it uncertainly, "Although, I can't tell how it is different from any other katana."     Once that's been placed in the FORM compartment, Staren pulls one last object from his coat pocket. "Oh! I thought it would be good to throw this in." A folding pocket knife. "Never know when you might need a knife that /isn't/ a few feet long, right?" He puts that in too. "Ready? If you'd like to do the honors..." he waits for her to hit the button. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi shrugs. "I've been in kendo for a really long time. Middle school. I always managed to work my way up to captain--I just really wanted to be the best, y'know? And I loved my last club like family. When my parents brought me with them to Germany... I'm still not really over it. I miss them really bad. But I'm not going to contact them, because it's safer that they don't know about this stuff."     Slowly, she looks around the room again, taking all this new information in with the rest of the room in comparison. "What kind of person could make a thing like this?... He must be brilliant. I wonder... how people like me look to a person like that." A wry smile comes to her face, and she shakes her head quickly. "You're not allowed to tell me I can hang out here, 'cause I'd never go home. It's hard enough to keep up appearances as it is..." Realizing what she said, her gaze dims, and she lets out a tired sigh. "Guess I'm lying now. Man..."     Concepts... the whole idea was based on concepts. "Y'know, if you want to get metaphysical... Concept of what? I wonder if an idea can be a concept you can use. Or... an emotion! Kind of like..." She spins towards him, grinning widely. "A sword the speed of wind! Armor made out of love. That would be crazy!" Whether or not it's possible doesn't seem to matter. She's dreaming with her eyes open. "I swear, summer break, I'm coming here, busting the books. I'm learning the /crap/ out of this."     Her mind snaps her attention back to Staren. "I don't think anyone would really want a hairtie that cuts things..." That train of thought is stopped, watching as the 3D model is crafted. An excited grin comes to her face. It's like watching it being made piece by piece. "A sword made just for me..." Awhile ago, that would've been a difficult dream. Now she might actually get one, maybe one that can do amazing things!     "Can I be a hero?..." She whispers to herself, her hand reaching up to pull her locket out from under her gi. She holds it firmly in hand as she keeps watching.     A sly grin comes to Hoshi's face as the woman appears--beautiful. "A robo-maid cruising the place. Classy." With a snicker, she lifts her hand to wave in return. "Nice to meet you!" Turning to Staren, she gets a glimpse of the replica sword. He's right--it's kind of trash. But the blissful grin that comes to her face is an honest one. "You're right. It does. But that actually doesn't matter to me. No matter what, this is awesome. I just really like Kurosawa movies."     Her excitement is replaced by confusion. "A folding knife? Do you think that'll work too? How would that even work?" But it's in there... Her sword is right in front of her eyes, if in pieces. With a giddy giggle, she slowly reaches out and presses down on the button. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods at Hoshi's explanation about Kendo Club. Her muysings about what Burden would think of her get a shrug. When she gets down about lying, he puts a hand on her shoulder. "We're here for you. If you really want to tell people... hopefully one day you'll be able to. If they're truly your friends, they'll understand, right?" He smiles.     Staren smiles as she dreams of conceptual armaments. "Not quite like that. More like..." he scratches his head, "I'll try to explain better later."     (The nanofabrication process is shown to Hoshi on Staren's tablet when she asks about it.)     "Nice to meet you as well." Dawn's reply is simple and friendly, and then she leaves to head back to Staren's lab.     At last, Hoshi can PUSH THE BUTTON!     PROTOABSTRACTUM GENERATION     FORM: FAKE KAMBEI'S SWORD, POCKET KNIFE, HAIR TIE     FUNCTIONS ALLOCATED: *STANDARD SET: MANIFESTATION REGENERATION *FUNC 1: EDGED WEAPON     When the big red button is pushed, both chambers briefly and quickly scan their interiors, presumably for any sapient entities that it should not process. When this is done, both chambers abruptly slam shut with large blast doors, and the FORM chamber emits a lengthy hissing noise. After several seconds, during which the screen displays a rotating idle icon.     When the process completes, both chambers open, ejecting a high volume of a strange mist. The FUNCTION chamber is empty. In the FORM chamber lies Kambei's sword, looking much like it did before, except for the addition of a clear crystal somewhere in the hilt. The difference may not be immediately visible, but it's a real weapon now.     Also, if Hoshi holds it and attempts to make it change forms -- whether by verbal command, concentrating on the thought of willing it to change, or looking for a hidden catch or switch or something -- it will do so. The other forms similarly integrate clear crystals of some shape into their form somehow.     Staren just smiles wide, hands clasped behind his back, and watches Hoshi for her reaction. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi gives a hollow laugh. "I don't think that'd go well. My parents would freak out if they knew about half of this. ANd my friends... They can find the Multiverse safely. But they can't know anything about my life now. They need to be kept safe. That's what matters." Sadly, her plans and proposals didn't hold weight. She shrugs helplessly, grinning. "Would've been cool, though."     As soon as her hand hits the button, she's bouncing gently on her toes. The loud bang of the blast doors slamming shut actually causes her to squeak and jump a little. A blush comes to her face as she giggles nervously. The actual events of the matter was... a lot less exciting than she was expecting. No flashing lights--but hey, mist! Maybe trying to see the actual process is pointless? How would she see concepts?     When the mist clears and Hoshi is left staring at the sword, she hesitantly steps forward, examining the blade. The clear crystal sat capping the very end of the hilt. Clear as glass. She takes another slow step. It was her sword. A gift given to help her fight. Her sword. She dashes the last few feet forwards and takes up the sword carefully, a delighted grin on her face as she takes her standard stance. "A heavier than a bokken... It's all in different areas, too. Man, it's really different!" She pauses to focus--and suddenly the blade was retracting and sinking down. Hoshi gasps and nearly drops the sword when that happens, but manages to catch herself just in time.     Slowly, she turns around to face Staren. The blade elongates again, and she takes it up in both hands as she walks towards him. Quick as a flash, she dashes over to him and kneels down, holding the sword up to him across both her hands, reverently. "We need to bless it. Touch it to your forehead and pass it to me, please?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren watches her, her excitement is infectious. He does like bringing people happiness. And then--     He leans back slightly as she rushes over and... holds it out to him? "You want /me/ to bless it? Are you /sure/?" Upon insistance, he'll take it, "Well... I suppose making it was sort of an experiment... in that spirit..." holding the flat to his forehead. "In the name of madness and inspiration, I bless this blade. May it, uh... inspire you to find new ways to solve your problems." He hands it back to her. "I don't think that will /actually/ do anything, though. But you never know. Faith works in mysterious ways. If it /does/ do something, let me know, I know a god who'd be really interested in hearing about it." He smiles. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     "Yes!" Hoshi says insistantly. Resting her hands on her knees, she bows her head... and starts snickering as he goes through an actual blessing. She refuses to say anything however, she lets Staren go through the whole thing while she waits in complete stillness.      When he offers the blade to her, she takes it in her hands and presses the blade lightly to her forehead, before setting it down beside her. Placing her left hand on the floor, then her right, she bows down and presses her forehead against her hands, then stands, carefully taking up her sword as she rises. "The idea is that the crafter should give the blade to the receiver with good will that it would be used well."     Whether or not his blessing will actually do something, she shrugs with a cheerful smile. "Who knows? At this point, I'm not sure if I'd be surprised. I will let you know if I get crazy inspired at some point." Glancing down at it, she tilts her head curiously. "Hey... Should we name it? All the good ones are supposed to have names, right?" She snickers at herself. It seems childish, but she can't help but wonder about it anyway. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks confused at the snickering, then she explains. He shrugs, "I'm sure you'll use it well. You want to protect people from things too strange and powerful for them to stand against alone. That's what we all want."     Staren looks at the sword. "Name it? I'm no good at names, and we're planning to replace it anyway. I've yet to discover any way to 'upgrade' them. I suppose you can name it if you want, but you should probably save the best names you come up with for later." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''      Was it that simple? That was exactly what she wanted to do, but it was strange to hear such faith. "I won't fail," she insists firmly. "I won't lose, I promise. I'll make myself worth it." Slowly, carefully, she sheathes the blade into her scabbard, shifting a bit to get the sensation of it's weight on her hip.     Staren's logic makes sense, though. This was the start. "Then I'm going to have to look up a lot of stuff to get a good name. Star-something! With the crystal there... Doesn't matter." Blushing, Hoshi clears her throat and goes to a different track. "Thank you so much for this." She grins suddenly down at the sword--and it starts to shrink, forming into a tiny hairtie held within the depths of her belt. "It'll take me a couple weeks to get used to it, but I'll practice every night." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren looks a mix of concerned, happy for her, and flattered, blushing a bit himself. The dynamic feels slightly wrong, though. "You're welcome. I'm glad to help -- like I said, that was the point of studying all this stuff -- and, um, it's okay. You're a Union Elite now, an aspiring hero, but that doesn't mean you have to devote all your time to fighting and saving people. I... I thought about that once, and my friends pointed out they'd miss me if I went too far. You can have some time to be yourself too, whatever that means to you. We're fighting to make better lives for everyone, right? And while the people we save may be in a far worse situation and need the help more... that applies to us too. In any case, it's not like I'm expecting a progress report or you're under any obligation to /me/ to train super hard. As long as this step helped you on your way to helping others, that's enough for me." He rubs the back of his neck, awkwardly. "Sorry, I'm not really good at people stuff." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     That... makes Hoshi pause in thought. Her sense of reality comes back to her. All of this was heady stuff, but she still had to go to school, be around her parents, watch out for August--a whole list of things that she had to do. Plus she had to do it without alerting anyone in her world. That was the most daunting task. "I... you're probably right, but... Just thinking about all of this stuff makes my head hurt. And..." She sits down slowly, sighing. "I'm scared, too. When I first went in the Forest, and I saw the wolf coming for me... I felt my heart stop dead until the woodsman got me back out. What do you do with that stuff, man?..." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren furrows his brow in thought. When has he been really, really scared? He thinks back... no, not just spooped by skeletons. When has he been /terrified/? When have things been that bad...     They tricked us     Everyone's paralyzed     They're going to kill her     GET HER OUT OF HERE     This isn't working     She's not listening     You can't save her     She's living your worst nightmare     YOU HAVE FAILED     You thought you'd come up with a clever plan     You didn't     Now they're dead     You'll NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN     You thought someone would save him     You thought heroes would win     You were wrong     He's GONE     You should have done more...     Staren's gaze grows distant, he shakes a bit, and he holds a hand to his head and sighs. "I'm sorry. I don't know. I... came from a world where... I trained to fight monsters at a young age. The age was unusual, but the monsters were not. Before I saw /any/ combat, I had practice. I had reflexes to and training to rely on. And it probably helped that the first combat /I/ saw was from inside the cockpit of a 50-ton war machine. Lots of armor between me and any enemies." He shakes his head. "I don't have to be afraid for me. I'm afraid for the people I care about. You'll... have to talk to someone else. Hopefully next time... you'll be prepared. You'll have a plan, you'll know how to fight. That's all I can say... as long as you've got a plan... as long as there's something you can do... focus on that. Maybe that wasn't helpful. Sorry..." He awkwardly looks away. 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''     Hoshi glances up when Staren goes silent, and immediately she sees it. The scar. The tell she'd noticed about herself in the mirror. That hesitance, a knee-jerk reaction to trying to pull away from it. Hoshi comes to her feet again, hesitantly reaching out her hand to brush his arm. "I'm sorry. It wasn't fair of me to drop that on you. Let's... Let's start again. Do you want to be friends?" The hand is still out there, but she holds it in front of him to shake. "Worrying about it now isn't going to do me any good. When something happens, I'll respond. Like a kendo match. Stroke for stroke. There's a reason I kept up my kendo training after I left." She smiles hesitantly. "The stuff you say does make sense, y'know. Don't sell yourself too short. So, what do you say? Maybe sometime we can hang out again." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren shrugs, "It's fine. It was a legitimate question." He couldn't answer because all of those times... he was terrified for someone else.     He smiles at the offer, and shakes the hand. "Sure. More friends are good. ...I hope you do fine. Uh, sure! 'Again'? This was hanging out?" He looks over at the protoabstractum crafting machine then back to her. "I suppose it could be. Uh, sure. We can talk about what interests us and stuff." 

:'''{{#var:901|Hoshi Amakasu (901)}} has posed:'''      Hoshi grins again, bringing back some of her levity. Her handshake is nice and firm. "Whether or not it counts, I'm glad I came. Let me know if you have some free time! We can get some food. I know a pretty good French place not too far from my house. I'll pay." A thought slowly comes to her, and she snatches her phone out of her pocket. "... Oh crap! Man, I'm going to have to sneak back into my house at this rate. Sorry man--I need to get home!" With a firm nod, she dashes back towards the warpgate, waving quickly over her head as she ran. 

}}

Staren

2015-10-29T07:47:40Z

Staren: Applying audit

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Staren
|Color=#FF4C4C
|Char_id=42
|Img=
|FullName=Staren
|Gender=Male
|Species=Catboy (Human/D-Bee Hybrid)
|Theme=RIFTS-1
|Chartype=OC
|Function=SCIENCE!, Mecha Piloting
|Faction=Union
|Rank=A-Ally
|Ranktype=Ally
|Groups=Syndicate Network, Gatecrashers Union, Session 613, Users.net, XCOM, M.E.T.A.L, Thousand Dreams (Disbanded), Wings of Nemesis (Disbanded)
|Quote="How does THAT work? I wonder if I can study it…"
|PAge=Early 20s
|AAge=23
|Aging=Yes
|Height=5'8" / 173cm
|Weight=185 lbs / 84kg
|Hair=Brown
|Eyes=Blue
|Voice=
|Song=Plum Creek Rhythm Section - A Light, an Answer[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRew-b78ZFg]
|Profile=Staren is a prodigy, now grown, from the magitech city of Lazlo. He has the advanced computer and robotics knowledge of an expert decades his senior, and has now branched out into studying multiversal phenomena. Believing any problem can be overcome with sufficient application of knowledge and ingenuity, the young man dreams of a better future for all. Armed with tools of magic and technology to fight, he was once one of the Union's elite and proud first-response team of mecha pilots, until events convinced him that the superfaction war is futile. He left the front lines for a quieter, less combative life, only to be drawn out again a few years later as he realized there was plenty of good he could do in the multiverse without fighting in an endless war. Once naive about the world due to only learning from books, he's seen the great wonders and horrors and /weirdness/ of the Multiverse and become somewhat jaded, though he is still anxious as ever to learn how it all works. However, the nuances of social interaction remain more mysterious to him than those of particles, spells, or abstractum, and this makes it difficult for him to form close bonds. To help his friends, though, he would move the Multiverse itself if he could find a way -- although his willingness to consider such extreme actions is one of the very things that tends to push others away.
|Powers=CYBERNETICS: Staren's body is improved by various cybernetics, including an advanced visual HUD, sensory enhancements, cyberjack (see assets), thought-controlled tool wristbands, and data storage designed to record and retain his every interaction. The computer components wired into his brain also store a vast library of useful programs useful for his day-to-day operations. All have been modified and enchanted to work alongside his shapeshifting.

MAGIC: Staren's cybernetics prevent his drawing on any external magic sources such as ley lines, but he still possesses enough minor, innate power to grant him a basic understanding of how magic functions in his world and beyond. He can recognize magic at work, even if he can't replicate it himself. His personal magical ability manifests primarily in his unique shapeshifting, and in the crystals he utilizes to elementally-align his personal forcefields and energy weapons (see assets).

DATAMANCY: Magic and technology are two very different forces in Staren's world, but he's found some ways of marrying the two disciplines. He can't cast spells, but he can design some programs allowing technological control of magical creations. This is how he remote controls his golems.

MINOR SHAPESHIFTER: Staren inherited some of his mother's talent for shapeshifting. He has three forms -- his normal cat-boy form, a human girl resembling his mother, and a housecat. He can change his hair and fur color, but seldom bothers. Oddly, his cybernetics do not interfere with this gift.

NANOTECHNOLOGY: Staren has adapted advanced nanotechnology from other worlds to his own purposes. His machines can create objects, speed healing of minor injuries, and flush out mundane poisons and illnesses. They're also responsible for the maintenance and function of his Cortical Stack, and for improving his overall physicality to peak levels. Fabrication -- a process that may take days to complete -- requires compatible blueprints, raw materials, and is limited to producing nothing larger than the average desk. Fabricated components up to this size may be assembled into larger finished products, such as mecha. (See related +flaws.)

DIVINE INSPIRATION: Staren's long-time best friend, Morg McGee, is a minor deity of madness and inspiration. While Staren typically refuses to accord deities any more respect than mortals, for some reason his faith in his friendship with Morg has given him a certain mental fortitude and flexibility he might not otherwise possess, enabling him to pursue solutions -- often bizarre or extreme -- in the face of even the most hopeless odds.
|Skills=TECHNOLOGICAL GENIUS: Staren has vast scientific and engineering knowledge, and absorbs new information like a sponge. He's adept at applying known practices to new situations, leading to swifter learning, mastery, and application of various unfamiliar technological subjects and skills. He's an excellent hacker, programmer, and engineer, capable of creating the kinds of basic AIs that operate his drones and mecha (see NPCs). He can repair and reverse engineer foreign technology if there is an existing base of familiarity, such as a teleporter similar in design to the type he uses. Magic remains a difficult subject for him, but he is confident in handling technology enhanced by magical properties and power sources, and has successfully applied his methodology for technology to the creation of his golems and potions, and to the learning of skill-based magics like potioncraft. (Consent may be required for reverse engineering.)

POTIONCRAFT: Basic alchemical formulas can equip Staren to mimic magical effects. Given a few days and the right ingredients, he can brew draughts equivalent to basic spells. (See +info Staren/Potions for details.)

GOLEMANCY: Staren has learned how to enchant basic, purpose-driven golems from any material approximating the desired mass and shape. The tutelage was acquired outside his world, and part of his teachings included figuring out how to work within the limits his cybernetics impose. Animation and enchantments may be cast on the fly from prepared sources such as scrolls and stones. (See +info Staren/Golemancy and NPCs for details.)
|Assets=POWER ARMOR: Staren's personal suit of armor grants tireless strength, enhanced endurance, and the use of heavy weapons such as his Mad Morg McGee .44 Annihilator (see Equipment). The suit can take extreme punishment before it fails, thanks mostly to its enhanced personal forcefields, and remains useful underwater, in low gravity, and in vacuum. Forcefields can sustain only a few hits before collapsing and needing to recharge. (PL 30)

CRYSTALS: Magic-powered crystals embedded in his Power Armor and mecha enable Staren to align his forcefields and beam weapons to particular elements like fire or ice. Doing this is neither instantaneous nor reactive, requiring a conscious action on his part. (Functions as +armor swaps.)

CYBERJACK: This dataport on the back of Staren's neck enables on-the-fly connection to many types of computer interfaces, wireless or otherwise. Data networks, databases, and other computer systems may be interacted with in full as if he was seated at a terminal. Security measures may foil his access. The cyberjack aids in remote control of his mecha, automatons, and drones (see NPCs), and can project his consciousness into cyberspace when the technology is accessible. It also functions as his radio.

CORTICAL STACK: A nigh-indestructible cybernetic implant that maintains a real-time snapshot of Staren's brain. If he dies, it can be surgically removed from his remains, and used to restore his mind inside a new body. Copies of his current snapshot are taken on a nightly basis in case he needs to restore from back-up (see flaws). Though this technology may inexplicably fail, so far it's been very reliable.

LABORATORY: Staren's lab is a huge underground facility located beneath his house in the city of Lazlo. It's stocked with most of the common supplies and resources he needs to fuel his various projects, and supports research as well as engineering. The lab is protected with laser and forcedome defenses. He has a separate smaller workshop in Lazlo, and another dedicated to magical research.

BODY DUPLICATES: Staren has several duplicates of his body stored in his laboratory in case his current body is destroyed. These may become conscious if loaded with the data stored in his Cortical Stack. Only one body may be operational at a time; the rest are kept suspended. An additional robotic body is available if needed (see +info Staren/Equipment).

TELEPORTER: One of Staren's personal devices, this teleporter requires exact coordinates and a few uninterrupted seconds to reach any destination up to 1000km away. Safeties prevent materializing into dangerous falls or into objects. May carry light loads of equipment or two or three additional people. His lab contains a one-way teleporter for more significant loads needing to travel distances up to 100x as far. (Consent may be required.)

STAR HAWK: Staren's primary personal mech is the 52-foot-tall S-5 "Star Hawk" Mark W. Equipped with various armaments -- including missiles, beam weapons, and forcefields -- it has additional facility in combat thanks to its free shifting between plane, humanoid, and hybrid modes. May be teleported from the lab or called to Staren's location via remote activation. Though the Star Hawk requires Staren to pilot it in combat, smaller and simpler mecha can be remote-controlled (see NPCs). (PL 32)

EQUIPMENT AND OTHER GEAR: Staren's acquired a large collection of on-world and Multiversal equipment and gadgetry useful in combat and beyond. See +info Staren/Equipment for details.
|NPCs=ABSTRACTUM: Staren has an Abstractum named Eureka who empowers him with a variety of concept-level abilities to enhance his scientific efforts. See the character Abstractum.Net for details.

GOLEMS: Purpose-driven creations animated through magical ritual, Staren's golems are basic in design, and possessing of varied intelligence. Size and appearance may range from "average humanoid" to "towering centipede monster." Golems can be enhanced with simple weapons, natural weapons (like claws), AI-controlled turrets, AI-controlled forcefield projectors, or sensory equipment. They do not operate in regions lacking ambient magic. (See Golemancy and +info for more details. PL up to 28.)

MECHA: Mecha smaller and simpler than the Star Hawk may be remote-controlled as support units on any field. These are equipped with missiles, beam weapons, and minor forcefields, and may transform into humanoid, plane, or hybrid mode. Only a few may be remote-controlled by Staren at any time, and if he's distracted, AI takes over that isn't nearly as responsive and flexible as something under direct control; "go here and shoot that" is only effective to a point. In an emergency, these can be teleported from his lab if his location is in range. (Up to PL 30.)

DRONES: Minor robotic creations programmed to fulfill a variety of basic functions. The most common are hovering camera drones deployed to provide additional situational awareness, or to scout new areas. These can interface with Staren's visual HUD to share their data. Other drone types include insect-sized recon drones, housekeepers, personal assistants, and repair drones capable of making basic repairs. These are never weaponized for a fight, though camera drones do have their advantages in combat. (No PL.)

AUTOMATONS: Spider-like by design, these acid-spitting mechanical automatons make up the majority of Staren's self-defense forces. Most keep to his lab in order to protect its contents, but multiple units can be deployed by the lab's teleporter to in-range locations so as to provide combat support in the field. Their AI is simple and coded mostly for recognizing friend from foe. (PL 24 - 26)
|Disadvantages=SOCIALLY AWKWARD: Staren has difficulty picking up on social cues and the feelings of others. He doesn't always recognize when a given social interaction is escalating into conflict. His tendency to ask too many questions can be irritating. These traits together make it very hard for him to establish lasting friendships, and for his allies to trust him with certain responsibilities. Past miscommunications and arguments have made it equally hard for Staren to be open and honest around his allies in turn.

PRINCIPLED: In addition to his overall awkwardness, Staren possesses staunch principles regarding transhumanism, death, and the need to discover the science behind every Multiversal phenomenon he encounters. These core beliefs may distract him from more important objectives, or lead him on time-wasting tangents that others find hard to follow.

SKEPTIC: Though he once believed in the general goodness of others, Staren has become a harsh skeptic. He's learned that it's not easy to redeem villains, and that he's rarely suited to the task; swift action is often the better solution compared to diplomacy. He's still capable of compassion, but he needs to be reminded of its importance by those who are closest to him. His skepticism also manifests as what others may perceive as an insulting disdain for religions, religious figures, and the capabilities of deities.

S.D.C. CREATURE: Caught outside his Power Armor or mecha, Staren is pretty average. He possesses no special traits that would improve his survival in a fight, aside from his nanotechnology and various equipment -- but that doesn't offer much! In other words, he's an easy, squishy target for his enemies. (PL 22 outside Power Armor/Star Hawk/Robot Body.)

ELUDES DEATH, BUT...: Staren is protected from an absolute death thanks to his Cortical Stack, but if his chip can't be recovered by his allies from the site of his demise, he'll have to recover from his nightly back-up instead, leading to the loss of any data, experiences, and memories accrued between the time of back-up and the time of death. Awakening in a new body can risk psychological trauma, too, and imparts several mental and physical penalties that usually wear off within a few days -- if he can awaken at all. There may come a time when his solution to mortality just...fails.

NANOTECHNOLOGY FLAWS: Nanotechnology is not compatible with all aspects of the Multiverse. It may have difficulty working with exotic materials, may be unable to fabricate certain objects even with blueprints, and healing vats and the like (see Equipment) may be unable to help someone, depending on their physiology. Nanotechnology is also susceptible to electronic interference, hacking, and other forms of outside technological manipulation.}}

==Abstractum==
Scan data, as of 07/06/AU22:

'''NAME:''' Eureka 
'''FORM:''' Gauntlet 
'''SHIFT:''' 0/? 
'''GATE CAPACITY:''' 6 Cartridges 
'''CHROMARCHETYPE:''' BLUE 
'''ARCHETYPE:''' None 
'''PRECURSOR:''' The Sunless #####, She Who ## ### and #### ###### ## 
'''PERSONALITY:''' Polite, intelligent, easily drawn into enthusiasm for science and tends to mirror and amplify User excitement. Prioritizes progress and learning almost as much as User happiness and safety. 
'''SHADOW:''' Unknown 
'''DRIVERS''' 
*Strike: 1 
*Barrier: 1 
*Sci: 2 
'''PRIME RESONANCE:''' Rotation Drive 
'''Description:''' A brass-colored left gauntlet, segmented with five armored wires running up from the base of the gauntlet to the knuckles, bracer-style plates on the back of the arm and hand, and a blue crystal eye situated behind the wrist, about where a watch would be. 

{| class="toccolours" style="width:100%;" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; background-color:#FF3333; font-size:115%;" | '''Purchases'''
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; background-color:#FF3333; font-size:115%;" | '''Cartridges Given'''
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; background-color:#FF3333; font-size:115%;" | '''Cartridges Received'''
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; background-color:#FF3333; font-size:115%;" | '''Combos'''
|-
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; vertical-align:top;" |
*4x Tier I Boost Catridges (4 blue)
*1x Tier II Boost Catridges (4 blue)
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; vertical-align:top;" |
*Sakura (Tier I)
*Psyber (Tier I)
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; vertical-align:top;" |
*Sakura (Tier I & II)
*Psyber (Tier I)
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; vertical-align:top;" |
*Ainsley
|}

==History==
Born in 93 PA (equivalent to 0 AU) to a dimensional traveler from 20th century Earth and a shapeshifting alien who abandoned her people's magical traditions to study science, Staren was raised in the Free City of Lazlo, city where humans and nonhumans of all kinds live in harmony as long as they can tolerate eachother, a bastion of knowledge, hope, and freedom in post-apocalyptic RIFTS Earth. In those early years, the family traveled often — before Unification, Staren's father would take them to other dimensions and to see his grandparents on the baseline Earth he'd originally come from. With access to myriad worlds, they were able to find cybernetics that were compatible with supernatural physiology and so Staren was enhanced, given the edge of a built-in computer that his parents would have loved to have.

Though little Staren inherited great intelligence, he grew up a loner, not by choice but due to great social awkwardness. His constant companions were stories, games, and academic knowledge. Stories told of simplified people, with well-explained motives and feelings he could follow and understand. Stories told of clear-cut villains and bright shining heroes, and he idealized the latter, taking to heart the tropes of good and its contrast to evil. The physical world and the world of numbers followed well-explained rules with definite truths and right answers, and he soaked up knowledge of math and science like a sponge. Games presented worlds following well-defined rules and used them to /tell/ stories, letting him use his mastery of such systems to feel like a hero, and would in time lead to actual piloting simulations.

After a few years of schooling led to misery due to altercations with the other children, Staren's father pulled him out of the system and homeschooled him — as a retired adventurer and part-time mechanic, he had ample resources to live in comfort with the necessary free time. Staren's academic talents proved that of a prodigy as learned as an expert decades his elder, and he developed a special interest in computers and automation. In time, this combined with his interests in simulated mecha piloting to lead to a focus on combat robotics, but Staren was poor at innovation. In addition, he was a certain kind of lazy — his father's resources, including a large 'laboratory' complex below the house (for the most part, a large storage area equipped with repair and assembly drones, computers, rooms for experiments, and compact fusion reactors) — allowed him to adapt to little physical work — in time, more and more of his improvements were implemented by drone rather than his own hands. Though he could repair machines to work better than they had before, and made improvements to the VF-1 Valkyrie design his father had obtained in another world, he was stumped when it came to developing something wholly new. Science and engineering followed steps — but what steps do you follow to 'invent something new'?

So the young boy's genius produced little. He took some classes with the Lazlo Defense Force, and to support his interest of heroically defending the city, his father trained him in Valkyrie piloting and, in perhaps Staren's greatest true 'invention' at the time, Staren developed new control software to interface between his headware and the robot, allowing him to control it as naturally as his own body. The resulting skill was undeniable, and before even reaching his mid-teens he was accepted as an LDF reserve member — although due to his specialty of mecha piloting, he was never called to work in the city, instead being sent to help fight monsters threatening the farms in the vicinity of Lazlo.

Some years after RIFTS Earth unified, Staren learned of the new multiverse and this great organization of heroes, the Union, that would even accept the help of underage allies like himself. And perhaps there, he would find friends he could relate to, rather than 'normal' teenagers and adults who just didn't get it. At the age of 14 in early 14 AU, He joined up and began meeting new people, some he could even feel friendly around, although at times his social awkwardness and belief that magically returning the dead to life was a good idea put people off. He hit it off well with his fellow mecha pilots in the Wings of Nemesis, and became a member of the Union's first-response mecha strike force.

The multiverse offered much to learn. Staren was aware of the basics of magic, of course, but had never gotten around to further study. He decided to change that, studying potion-brewing under the dragon Damien and golemancy under the great mage Iianor.

At last, in the Multiverse, Staren had friends. Maybe not really close friends, but people he could spend time with and talk to without annoying on a regular basis. He was even able to find someone who wasn't just friendly, but actually seemed to understand him: Morg McGee, undead 'mad' scientist. The mad genius even agreed with his views on raising the dead and had ways to do it! At last, he had someone besides his parents who he could talk to about anything and know he would be understood.

The Multiverse was a world of possibility, full of potential friends, something the lonely boy had been without all his life.

That changed with the death of his commander, Julian. The idea of reviving his fellow hero stuck in his mind, although the Union ordered him not to. He began to have recurring nightmares where he attempted to revive his commander (with Morg's help, of course), only to be declared a criminal by the Union. Always waking up feeling sick after being hunted down, just before being killed by his supposed 'allies'. It was just a dream, but it made him more than a bit paranoid. And he'd /seen/ how well discussing such things had gone — The dream rang true, talking about this issue with the Union would surely have them condemn him for even /thinking/ such thoughts. Julian turning out to still be alive was a good thing, but no comfort on this matter.

Further misunderstanding worsened the rift between Staren and the Union, proving his fears justified again and again. In an attempt to be better understood and be helpful, he often spoke his train of thought out loud — thoughts and ideas that others, perhaps, thought his mention indicated serious intention to pursue them. Every misunderstanding reinforced the idea that the Union mistrusted his ways of thinking, and that it was only a matter of time before he crossed a line and was declared an outlaw. He sought to prove himself useful, but any praise and acceptance he recieved was not as loud as the voices condemning him.

Sure, he had a few 'friends', but aside from Morg, could he trust any of them to remain so if they ever comprehended what he really thought? Were they only friends because they hadn't heard him say the wrong thing yet? Of course, he couldn't ask them that, for in doing so he would probably turn them against him.

At last, Staren met another kindred spirit in the ex-Confederate Rewire. Taken in by his life story of only wanting to fix things and only joining the confederacy to rescue his friend Taro from the clutches of SHODAN, and finding a friend who did not reject his thoughts, they became fast friends. Or at least, Staren thought of it that way — in truth, the cold and calculating AI simply found him a useful ally for its plans. But Rewire had a problem — The Confederacy had damaged him, and he was going to go rampant. This seemingly unavoidable, Rewire sought to leave behind a legacy and to have friends prepared to destroy him when he finally lost it. Staren accepted this tragic duty, but preferred not to think about it. For now, he had a friend — and things had a way of working out in the multiverse. Good always prevailed, right?

Rewire's preparations for a legacy and lack of social understanding won him few friends and many enemies on both sides. This only further reinforced Staren's split with his supposed 'allies', although Optimus Prime won his eternal respect for offering to work together with Rewire, even though Rewire refused the given terms. Unfortunately, time was running out. Rewire began to go rampant. Staren developed weapons to kill his friend, but hoped there would yet be another way.

But things did not always end in happy endings in the multiverse. Another friend of Staren's, not as kindred a spirit as Morg or Rewire but at least someone he could spend time with, found that an earlier version of her own world had unified — one where her father had not yet perished. Staren made it a personal mission to save him. Investigation with his futuristic technology discovered that the man worked in the organized crime department of the police, and as the day of death approached, his original fate became clear. On the day, Staren hired a team of mercenaries and personally intervened — only for a Confederate to show up, mortally wound the man, and leave him in a coma for the rest of his days. Sometimes, there were no heroes. Sometimes there was only Staren, and without far, far more power than he currently had, he would not be enough.

Staren would not be enough to save Rewire, either. Post-rampancy, Rewire renamed himself Wireless and hatched a scheme to 'fix' everyone in the multiverse by uploading their brains to a simulation where he could /make/ them happy. Furthermore, the process was faulty, only capturing part of the subject's mind — and not enough to capture their soul. Wireless's attempt to save people was an act of mass murder that would have been mass mind control even if it had worked. Talks with Wireless revealed that his rampancy had made him lose all comprehension of the importance of right and wrong.

Staren helped kill his friend with weapons he developed.

Staren could not help friends. He could not help one of his /best/ friends. The war was endless and meaningless, and as far as Staren knew his 'allies' could turn on him at any moment. Not even bothering to officially resign, Staren alternated between spending time in Lazlo and exploring the far reaches of the local Sector.

Occasionally, Staren still listened to the Multiversal radio frequencies. They were sometimes entertaining, but sooner or later he was always reminded of the Union's attitude toward him. He found some understanding, at least, in the Dreamers. Friendly Dreamers were willing to listen and offer help, although none could turn Staren's situation around. Untamed Breeze heard him out and came to understand what he meant with his strangely-worded philosophies and ideas, at least.

In late AU19, Staren heard a voice on the radio that not only was not angered at his manner of speech and thought, but seemed to intuitively grasp what he was saying without reading for messages that weren't there, and who spoke honestly and frankly to him in turn. This was the voice of Twilight Sparkle, and seeking another friend that could actually understand him, who he didn't have to worry about accidentally offending or misunderstanding, Staren made increasingly frequent visits to Equestria. Friendly Dreamer Mortimer Balman had retired there, so Twilight wasn't the only friendly face.

In fact, almost all of the ponies of Ponyville seemed friendly. Staren had become an asocial shut-in in his own world — his mechanical and piloting skill were valued, but he earned few friends. And now, Staren was at last learning to avoid hot-button topics when talking to people. Combined with the Ponyvillians' naturally helpful and friendly disposition, the net effect was that the ponies were the first large group of people Staren met without pissing them off. This far outweighed the inconvenience of hooves and the low technology level, and Staren wanted to fit in and, somehow, to return this kindness to the first place he seriously considered retiring to.

He got his chance when Discord, incarnation of chaos, turned Equestria upside down (sometimes literally). His talents were ill-suited to sealing seemingly-invincible reality-warping beings, however — the most he could do was help prevent Discord from acquiring resources from the rest of the Multiverse. Only to see his knowledge and ethics prove useless to protect his new friend — cursed by Discord to believe her friends (in truth also cursed to behave against their natures) had turned against her her, Staren could do nothing to stop one of his most treasured friends from being forced to live the worst nightmare that had haunted him for so many years. Heroism had failed again, Staren had failed again, and completely and utterly heartbroken, he laid in his tent for a week, listening to the endless rain, and trying to turn away from the cruel world. Barely rising to tend to his body's needs.

Finally, he heard the voices of Twilight's friends, free from the curse, and learned that Twilight, too, had been freed. He returned to the fight against Discord, but could only slow and delay the draconequus until the local heroes could reseal him. But this time, there /were/ heroes, and the day was saved.

Before Equestria could recover, the entire multiverse came under attack. Confederate Emperor Viridian Sunrise had done what he could not — unlocked the secrets of the multiverse and used its power to enact his own vision of the future, with power even the Union could not fight. Heroes volunteered for a suicide mission — Staren stayed behind, convinced there /had/ to be some sort of better, smarter plan.

Staren failed to innovate again. The corpses of longtime friends turned up, and he at last confronted the true meaning of death — He would never see them again. The model of the future in his head had to change to not include them. Shaken, he swore never to let this happen again — although it might well be academic if the Emperor was not stopped.

The corpses turned out to be a ploy — the elites on the suicide mission returned alive, the Emperor slain. The heroes /had/ triumphed after all, this time. Staren was relieved, but did not forget his promise. He planned to look for clues in the pieces of technology Wireless had left behind — he would restore the brain uploader, fix its faults, and in so doing unlock a way to conquer death.

Then a new world unified where brain uploading was commonplace and death, true death, was a scarce and horrifying thing rather than just another part of everyone's life. In fact, in this world immortality was seen as a basic right, and one of its denizens happily offered the gift to the Union. A completed, successful device was clearly superior to incomplete Wiretech, and Staren set to studying it, analyzing it to learn how it worked, making sure there was not a catch, no secret mind control programming hidden deep inside. He searched for the enchantments needed to use it on himself and his family, began growing clones, and so claimed a form of limited immortality — Not perfect, not foolproof, but far better than nothing.

No others would accept this gift. One day, people would die again, for real. And he was still powerless to stop it.

But now, there were things he /could/ stop. Earth-1960 was infested with zombies, and a megalomaniacal AI was cloning mercenaries to take over the world's economy. And while helping put a stop to that, he learned of the plight of the gamers trapped in Sword Art Online. There, too, he could help.

Slowly, Staren was drawn out into the Multiverse again. There would not always be heroes, and he would continue to prepare for the day they failed to arrive, but in the meantime he would help them when they did.

And a few days before Christmas of 20 AU, everything changed. Psyber, Kimiko, and Himei, Unionites Staren had had occasional contact with but not really those he would have called friends, came forward to tell him that the Union did /not/ see him as a barely-this-side-of-ethical madman who would go too far any day now. The ones who had given Staren that impression were merely a particularly loud and vocal minority.

It was a Christmas present even he would never have dreamed of daring to ask for.

Though it was merely his perceptions that had changed, Staren found himself in a bright new Multiverse! It would take time to truly trust his allies again, but he didn't need to fear them so.

Things were looking up in 21 AU. Staren had immortality, he had the respect of his peers, he even had a girlfriend. He was helping others, and began to find phenomena in the multiverse that rewarded scientific exploration like the punchcard alchemy of Sburb. Halfway through the year, he decided to study the mysterious Abstractum and in so doing netted himself Eureka, the genre-shifting gauntlet of SCIENCE. Abstractum would prove a field highly responsive to scientific investigation, and between Eureka, Morg's divine inspiration for the construction of impossible devices (Staren's old friend had ascended to godhood many years prior), the nanotechnology that granted his immortality, and his wide assortment of other technology and magic gathered from across the worlds, Staren's confidence began to grow, confidence that he at last had the power to be a hero that could save the day when all other hope was lost.

Eldritch monstrosities from outside of reality coming to end the Multiverse? Yeah, we got this.

That all changed with the coming of the third month of 22 AU. Amongst the looming threat of the Abstractums' enemies, going back in time to finish a closed time loop, and the kidnapping of one of Staren's allies to turn her into a war machine, the dimensional rift over Ravnica, and the cosmic horrors that came out of it, had seemed like just one more crisis that would be dealt with handily in time.

And then Niv-Mizzet sacrificed his Planeswalker's Spark and disappeared through the rift, closing it behind him, never to return from the all-consuming Aether and almost certain doom.

And Staren could not save him.

Once again, tragedy occurred with no hero to step in and stop it. Nothing Staren could do would make it better, and the claims and excuses that 'there was nothing you could do' rung hollow in his ears, for such words would not return Niv-Mizzet to his friends and loved ones, and they would not stop the /next/ tragedy, whatever it would be.

Staren was not the hero that steps in and makes the world right when all hope is lost.

Not yet.

He still needed more power...

After that, Staren had been part of more successes than failures. He'd helped save worlds, and when called for (and perhaps also when not called for) had brought extreme force of arms to bear, even spending a week as a sleepless robot hunting the clones of the Slaughterhouse Nine, and constructing a protoabstractum superweapon so powerful it blew a wing off the Dragon of Calamity, a being of legendary and godlike power.

But after having allies mistake his brutal methods for bloodlust, and seeing a reminder that sometimes, talking ''can'' end conflicts and spare lives, Staren began to wonder if there was another path...


[[Category:Ally]]
[[Category:Users.net]]
[[Category:Session 613]]
[[Category:Syndicate Network]]
[[Category:Gatecrashers Union]]
[[Category:Thousand Dreams]]
[[Category:M.E.T.A.L]]
[[Category:XCOM]]

Side Effects part 2, or I've Got a Better Idea (Staren)

2015-09-13T23:35:10Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Cutscene Header |Date of Scene=2015/09/13 |Location=Staren's Lab |Synopsis=Staren prepares to fight the cataclysmic dragon. |Thanks= |Cast of Characters=42 |Tinyplot= }} '''..."

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2015/09/13
|Location=Staren's Lab
|Synopsis=Staren prepares to fight the cataclysmic dragon.
|Thanks=
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'''September 11, AU23'''

They're going to be fighting a dragon.

The vision -- Staren ''hates'' it when dark entities slip into his mind -- didn't ''explicitly'' say it would be a fight, but Staren can't count on it wanting to talk.

His phantom body will need to be as tough as possible. His flesh is weak, and in that world, weapons that bypass armor are more common than he would like.

He has a solution.

Staren lays down in the ego bridge and waits for chemically-induced sleep to take him. It's early, but he might need time to recover from... side effects. He has three days.

----

Staren awakens on a table. He looks at his hands, then sits up, swinging his legs off the table. The robot looks back at him from the mirror, while he sleeps in the ego bridge.

''No, dammit!'' he thinks to himself. ''You're in here!'' He knows it ''academically'', but he's just not feeling it.

As he goes about his day, he keeps catching himself thinking he's working remotely and trying to drop back to his body. Or forgetting he's in a robot entirely. He actually comes up to the kitchen at dinner. "What are we having for dinner? I'm starving." His mother gives him an odd look. "No you're not. You can't be." It clicks, and he embarassedly runs a hand through his synthetic hair. "Right. Ahaha." he laughs nervously, "I forgot." and shuffles back down towards the lab.

As he works on machines, he forgets himself too. Misused robot strength occasionally crushes components or yanks out a wire.

Something is wrong.

But is it ''enough'' wrong that he should risk two more transfers which might result in things getting even ''worse?''

Besides, he's prepared almost as best he can. This is the toughest body he could possibly be summoned in.

As Staren stands up from the mecha he's doing maintenance on, lifts his head, and wipes nonexistant sweat from his brow, he finds himself looking up at the Star Hawk, his personal mecha.

...

<Hey, Priscilla?> Staren calls her private radio. <How large of a body can you summon...?>

----

'''September 13, AU23'''

Staren kneels over a metal box inside the cockpit. He's removed the chairs, and has had to hook up a lot of wires and cables (drones and nanomachines helped when he got tired of the occasional accident from improperly integrating with his robot body), and custom-wrote the interface software... but this should work. As the final step, he closes the panel protecting the wiring, and begins bolting the box in place. At last, he stands up, gathers his tools, and walks out. The cockpit closes behind him, and the machine begins powering up.

Staren grows impatient. He has to know if it works. He runs -- it is no more fatiguing than walking, after all -- to the robot body's usual resting place, and lies down and closes his eyes. With but a thought...

Staren opens his eyes to see the lab, close to the fluorescent-lit ceiling. In his peripheral vision he can see the shapes of the shelves of materials used for storage and dividing different sections. He raises his arms to look at his hands -- and a section of gantry is ripped from the wall, mangled like a coathanger, and falls to the ground, crushing a maintenance drone with a crash and a clatter. ''Uh, whoops.'' He looks at the mecha's hands. ''No'', he reminds himself, ''my hands.'' He makes a fist as internal diagnostic programs come back all OK.

<Priscilla,> he radios, <nowiki><</nowiki>I am ready.>

2813/WMAT BQ2 Staren vs Alice Margatroid

2015-08-16T02:38:18Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2015/08/15 |Location=WMAT Arena - Devil's Hand |Synopsis=After their losses in the first round of qualifiers, Staren and Alice Margatroid face off!..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2015/08/15
|Location=WMAT Arena - Devil's Hand
|Synopsis=After their losses in the first round of qualifiers, Staren and Alice Margatroid face off! Dolls and spellcards and magic lasers versus powered armor, missiles, and regular lasers! Who will triumph?
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=42, 807
|Tinyplot=WMAT 2015
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Afternoon out in the Devil's Hand, for Alice it's round two and who knows who she's facing this time, but after the last one she had, she knew it was going to be interesting. Hourai and Shanghai float around the dollmaker as she walks along one of the spires, kicking off to float in the air. "Mmm. I wonder where they are." she mutters, looking around, "It's been a good while since I've used a few of my cards."     Hourai shakes her head, "I would be wary, we don't know the capabilities of the one we're going against. If it's anything like Dorotea, it will be a tough battle. Are you sure you're ready for it?" Shanghai grins, "I know you can do it Alice! We're here for you and I know Marisa would be glad to see you move along too! Especailly after capturing that cat!"     Alice gives a soft chuckle, slipping a few cards into her sleeves, nodding. "Shall we?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren walks out of the warpgate, in his powered armor as usual for WMAT matches. Well, the ones where he doesn't decide to put his robot body to the test, anyway... He raises his arms and waves to the crowd, then approaches the starting area. His visor is up so people can see his face, and his expression turns from a smile for the crowd to a curious, scrutinizing look at Alice and her... dolls? That gets a raised eyebrow. Once again, he's up against someone he knows nothing about. Last time was close, but he couldn't keep The Bloody Crow from getting past his defenses. Hopefully he'll do a better job this time.     Staren nods slightly in greeting, and raises a hand. "I'm Staren. Nice to meet you. "Yeah, let's." He smirks, and his visor covers his face as he drops into a fighting stance, watching her... waiting for her to make the first move, and hopefully reveal what sorts of powers he might be dealing with today! 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Alice, Hourai and Shanghai give a soft blink towards Staren then share a look between each other. Alice floats down a bit and gives another studious eye about the armored catboy. "Alice. A pleasure." she states curtly, "I trust that you're my opponent this day and you're wanting to get past me to move on?" She eyes the two colored armor... "Such an atrocious color, but it does not matter. Your powers are a mere twenty eight point five seven one four percent compared to mine!"     With a small magic circle coming to bear, a small doll is placed in Alice's right hand, a small card slipping to the left. "I've had luck with this in the past, let's see how it can crack that metal you wear! Spellcard! Demonic Possession - Return Inanimate!" with a windup, Alice LOBS the doll towards Staren and upon impact with him or the ground, explodes into a pillar of blue flame. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods in response to the first question, then tilts his head as she pulls 6 significant figures out of nowhere. The heck? His computer also quickly confirms that that's 1/3.5. Huh.     "I..." Staren starts to reply when she quips about cracking metal, but he's stunned as she /throws a doll/. What kind of attack is that? He tries to dodge, but isn't expecting to get caught in a sudden pillar of fire! His armor is scorched all over now, the outermost plate layer cracking and melting in a few spots from the sudden, supernatural heat.     The catboy starts running around her in a circle, raising his right arm and firing one of the energy cannons on his armor's forearm, a glowing, fiery beam streaking out towards her.     For the tournament, he's modified his energy weapons to act primarily as shocking, stunning weapons on living flesh, though there might still be burns it's nothing the healers can't quickly fix. He doesn't want to kill anyone, after all! 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Alice's doll explodes and the crack and melt from some of that armor brings her a nod, quickly taking on speed she moves to reposition and ready up another card, but with Staren... "Oh ho! You want to play danmaku then!" the laser strikes home and causes the girl to stumble while Hourai's lance and shield and Shanghai's sword form into view, moving in front of the dollmaker in a defensive posture. "Hey! I didn't know you could use a laser too!" "At least it isn't a curvy laser...."     Alice shakes her head a bit, coughing some as the side of her dress gets incinerated and leaves a painful looking mark on her side, thankfully, she could take it as a youkai. "Lasers huh? I have just the thing." Another card is dropped from her hand as she dives in close and with another hand, six dolls form in front of her with Shanghai and Hourai taking point. "Spellcard!" she shouts, the unnamed dolls seeming to have lances pointed in various directions with Shanghai and Hourai pointing theirs at Staren himsef. "Spy Sign - Seeker Dolls!"     As soon as the declaration is given, a wide arc of interlocking lasers is fired, small bits of diamond shaped safe spots dot the spellcard attack as she keeps the lasers going, "Keep it up!" Slowly, she starts to move left then right to sweep the arc of lasers. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Danmaku? And actually, that was a particle beam. Shoots high-energy nuclei and electrons. The rifle I'm carrying is a laser, though!" Staren exposits.     So. Some kind of card-based magic. Cards and dolls and card-summoned dolls?     Staren doesn't know what to expect, but he certainly wasn't expecting /that/. /Lasers everywhere/! However, when they hit Staren, an amber sphere of force becomes visible around him, glowing white where the lasers hit it. Staren quickly spots the safe spot and, some kind of translucent orange energy wings, like a stylized insect's, appear behind him and buzz as as he leap-dashes to one of the safe spots. The brief contact with the lasers doesn't seem to have done much to the forcefield before it fades from view again.     Thoughts run through Staren's head: 'Lasers don't look like that!' 'How much power is it wasting to make them visible from all angles?' 'Shut up, it's magic, for all you know the visibility is part of some conceptual thing that makes it /stronger/.' 'NOW IS NOT THE TIME GOTTA FIGHT!' 'They're everywhere!' 'Wait no, I see a safe spot!'     "Hm. Interesting." Staren pulls the pistol from his belt and points it at Alice. He might not have room to stand and aim properly, but thanks to his smartlink, he can see a reticle on his HUD that shows where he's aiming without actually looking through the sights. "You've shown me your lasers, I'll show you mine." He pulls the trigger three times. There's no sound and no visible beam -- just a lot of energy dumped into the two pinpricks of matter the two barrels are aiming at, hopefully heating them to a violent explosion -- or delivering a shock if it's flesh, anyway.     "I admit, yours /do/ look cooler." 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     "What's a particle beam?" Alice questions mid spell, but with the declaration of showing her his lasers, the three invisible shots manage to smack right into the magician, the spellcard dissipating and large burn marks are made on the clothes and skin of the youkai. She grunts a bit in pain, but still seems to be flying. "Nnngh. Danmaku is beauty. Danmaku is grace. Danmaku is showy at times... and in Gensokyo, danmaku is a way to resolve differences!"     Though, what differences, Alice doesn't say, however, she looks between her dolls and that armored catboy... 'What's with the armor?' 'How is he hitting me without hitting me?!' 'Alice, get to work, you have more spellcards.' 'Punch him...'     She's saving /that one/ for last. For now, Alice throws up a few dolls that so far do nothing, though with soft glints, there's 'string' connecting them to the dollmaker and then each other, before she lobs one more doll in front of her that rapidly flies towards Staren. "Spellcard... War Sign - Little Legion!" As the card activates, the doll starts spinning around and around, extending a sword before it splits into six more dolls that rush in to try and chop the cat up into strings, or at least make dents in the armor! 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Mm." Staren grunts. "Unfortunately, I don't have danmaku, or I bet we could put on quite a show for them." He waves his hand to indicate the audience.     Alice is calling her attacks! Staren expects those dolls to do /somewething/, especially when Alice calls an attack with the word 'legion' in it. So Staren keeps an eye on her even as he starts trying to run to the side, away from the flying doll.     He doesn't expect the /one/ doll to become /six/, though. All swinging swords at him! They cut into his armor, leaving a lot of scratches and dents but also a few deeper cuts where they hit armor, some cutting into wires and electronics under the plating. "Ah! Get off me, get off me!" Staren tries running, he tries flying again... finally he drops to the ground, pulls a grenade from his bag, then sets it to detonate a split-second after he flying-leaps away. Hopefully that gets them. "That's a nice trick. I guess I'd better not let you use those dolls you're gathering, huh?" One of the missile racks on his shoulders rotates into position, showing that it's loaded with three mini-missiles several inches long. One fires, programmed to airburst if it misses Alice. Plasma expands over a 30' diameter fireball, modified the same way as his other energy attacks. He's hoping to burn away the prepared dolls... although, with how quickly she can summon more, maybe it won't really matter.     Nice fireworks for the crowd, though! 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Alice shakes her head and as the dolls finish their attack, they retreat back into a magic circle, ready for use once more, though with the threat of not letting her use some dolls, she gives a blink. Her setup... Alice quickly darts away from the dolls, but with those missles making a wide burst of plasma, it sears through and burns a good portion of the dollmaker's open skin... her arms and face having black marks on them from the explosion and her outfit's seared up in places.     "So much for using Trip Wire... but." she starts to float up into the air, another card going into view, "I don't need tricks for what I'm going to do. I'm going to further myself, Staren. I need to for my dolls!" and another card and a magic circle appears behind Alice. "Spellcard! Elegant Sign - Spring Kyoto Dolls!"     Twelve dolls surround Alice with Hourai and Shanghai taking up the thirteenth and fourteenth slot in the spell and, with an elegant spin, the dolls start spinning too and move around Alice as if in a rotating dance. Now, it would be a beautiful sight if danmaku shaped like shards wasn't being fired out from every direction with most waves of danmaku making circles with very small gaps between them and some even overlapping between each other. One wave, though, is a completely random danmaku spread, rapidly fired out from every direction and each wave slowly rotates through the colors of the rainbow... all seven colors. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Uh oh, what's it gonna be /this/ time? Although, part of Staren wonders, what the point is of taking down a few dolls when she can summon /twelve/ at once. It looks overwhelming... but soon Staren sees the patterns. He has to use his wings, but he's able to move through the openings... /man/, this attack is going on for a long time. He /has/ to do something. He's about to fire another missile when he realizes it would probably just hit the danmaku and explode, possibly right in his face. Phew, that was a close one. He draws his pistol again and tries to fire through the cloud of danmaku at the dolls, with both it and the beam cannons.     Once he's made enough of a dent that he can progress, he flies towards her, holstering the pistol and unclipping the cylinder from his belt, which splits into two, one for each hand. As he comes close, the plasma swords activate, 'blades', or perhaps just rods as there's no 'sharp edge', of glowing purple energy. He gets up in her face and slashes, trying to stay close and keep her off balance. "There's one place you always have to leave a safe spot -- right around /you/!" 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Each spin pours out more danmaku and Alice takes a stoic look... he's dodging everything... this isn't good. The attack connects and the spellcard dissipates into nothingness, the dolls dissapearing and danmaku shards just fading out of existance and the purple 'blades' make quite a few bruises upon the dollmaker's body, a small card, red in color, slipping out into her hand... "And I will keep my safe spot, mind you!"     White energy seems to surround the youkai as the red card dissipates, "Spiritual Strike Talisman!" and that energy bursts out into a concussive force, throwing the armored catboy away from the Dollmaker with immense force though, the blast doesn't actually do any damage, it does allow her enough time to set up another card. She thrusts Hourai forward and another card comes sliding into view. "Curse Sign - Hourai Doll!"     Hourai grins at this, her favorite spellcard (not because it has her in name...) she thrusts out her lance and copies of Hourai start spinning outwards as red lasers start spewing forth in a circle aimed towards the knocked back catboy! 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren is sent flying back. "Woah!" He's flying, though, so there isn't even hitting the ground to damage him. He rights himself and starts flying towards her when the laser lances come out. The forcefield comes up again, but /this/ time... the lasers are able to stay on him, and instead of briefly discoloring the field, it seems to 'heat up', the white, cloudy discoloration spreading across the whole thing until a layer shatters, quickly-fading sparkles falling around Staren as the next layer comes under fire. He flies this way and that to evade, shooting at the dolls, but can't shake the lasers. Two more times, the field pops, and three of the five discs on his chestplate crackle with electricity and then pop, letting a puff of smoke out.     "Rrrgh... I don't /have/ to be close to you to hit you, you know." Staren flies away to land atop one of the Devil's Hand 'fingers'. How well can she aim at long distance? Let's find out. Staren, meanwhile, pulls the rifle off his back and drops prone, resting the barrel on the very tip of the 'finger'. His cameras aren't /that/ great, so at this distance he actually has to use the scope to aim at more than a few blurry pixels. The armor helps soften his movements, damping out the unsteadiness of his hands as he does his best to hold the crosshairs over her. He fires, three laser pulses more powerful than the pistol's firing within a fraction of a second.     "Bang." he mutters to himself. 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Hourai comes back towards Alice, all three of them watching him run away. "Eh..?" she questions, her eyes glowing just slightly to see where he's going. Wait... is that another gun?     WHAM! One shot hits her left shoulder...     WHAM! Another shot slams into her right...     WHAM! And a third shot hits directly in the chest, knocking the wind out of the dollmaker and causing her to slump over in mid air.. "Alic..alice?!" Hourai shouts, taking a quick look at the dollmaker before turning her attention to Staren and the long distance. Maybe Shanghai's focused laser could hit.. but at this distance...     Shanghai pushes on Alice.. "Wake up... wake up! You're not done yet.. come on Alice!" and with a groan, the Dollmaker coughs and sputters... conciousness regained and everything looks blurry. "Alice... Alice? Quick, dive into that fog. I have an idea!" Shanghai starts tugging down on Alice's skirt, pointing to the fog. With a wordless nod, all three move to dissapear under the fog layer and start to fly towards the pillar that Staren is on.     "Alright, Hourai. Shanghai. We're going to come up behind and use that..." both dolls nod and start climbing out of the fog behind the catboy, a whisper... and a magic circle appearing in front of them... "Dolls - Lemmings Parade..." comes the declaration as soon as the tip of that spire is reached, the magic circle spewing out at least sixty dolls that, if they hit Staren, explode with a heavy force! 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren grins as he sees that he hit. Did he win? No, not yet...     Staren frowns as Alice dives into the fog. He fires a few shots into the fog blindly to keep her on her toes, then decides that's pointless. Whatever, when she finally clears the fog, they'll be closer, and he'll be ready for them to shoot eachother again.     Magic flight is silent. Staren has no clue they're behind him until too late.     Staren gets exploded. Before he can react, more dolls leap onto him and explode. He's knocked off the spire, more dolls jumping after him and exploding...     When he finally regains control, the armor is a mess. In some places, it's just cracked and dented, but in others, armor plating is so warped that it's poking into the inside, damaging internal machinery, or just shattered and broken off completely, baring circuits and hydraulics to the air. His faceplate is cracked.     Staren starts to fly back up, then thinks better of it. There could be more exploding dolls up there waiting to pounce. No... He grabs onto the rock, and reaches into his bag, fishing out a camera drone and hurling it up into the air. Its thrusters come online, it steadies itself, and it pops up over the edge.     if Alice isn't there, Staren deploys a couple more to check around the 'finger' and watch the fog. As /soon/ as one spots Alice, Staren fires his remaining minimissiles. The five of them streak through the air on trails of smoke, shifting direction as they home in, then finally exploding together in a great big fireball!     Staren watches through his drones tensely. That /has/ to have finished her, right...? 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Once that spellcard is finished, Alice is on the move once more, keeping herself around the 'finger'. Of course, there was a couple more dolls up in the tip that pounce on the camera drone and explode... but the ones that actually find Alice? Alice sends a small stream of danmaku and takes off, the missiles streaking towards her... The explosion is huge but Alice, in a fit of defiance for wanting to get hit, grazes the outside of that fireball and spins around to face Staren.     "I.. I am surprised you didn't get knocked out with that... you're sturdier than I thought in that armor. Or what is left of it." she gives a bright smile, "You're as tough as Dorotea, I'd be happy to have tea with you next time." Alice points Shanghai towards Staren... "But I saw that one a long ways away... it did ignite some of my outfit, so good job. Is this what the outside world has for magic?"     She shakes her head and frowns, "Spellcard. Curse - Shanghai Doll." Shanghai cheers a bit and spins around before pointing her sword at Staren and letting loose another large red laser towards him, hoping to damage some more of those internal components! "Shall we finish this?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's eyes widen in surprise as he sees Alice. But he can't help but smile as she speaks to him. "Thanks. I built it myself." he nods a bit at the offer of tea, then shakes his head. "No, this is technology! Though, if your magic is applied knowledge, I suppose they're the same thing..."     Laser hits forcefield. It's supposed to be optimized against energy weapons, but it seems Hourai and Shanghai are especially strong... or maybe it's because they're magic lasers? Another layer is shattered, a hole is blasted through the last layer, and Staren takes the last of the hit to the chest, some circuitry being blasted away and revealing a patch of bright red... Oh, that's the shirt he's wearing underneath. The hit sends him flying back tangential to the side of the 'finger', and again he steadies himself. He slings the rifle over his back, then flies towards her, and curves into the wall -- so he can land his feet on it and push off in a flying leap -- and he draws the swords again, this time slashing at her one way in hopes she'll dodge into where he's about to /stab/ with the entire blade! Normally that'd mean burning a hole through something, but in this case it should be a hell of a shock! 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     "Technology. I wonder how it can help my dolls." she wonders out loud as she sees the effect of Shanghai's laser. She did a good number on it and with that.. the catboy lunges at her again with those swords! Hourai moves to push Alice out of the way, bringing up her shield to block the one slash, but as that happened, the other sword connects with Alice and the stunning shock sends her back with a loud scream of pain! Danmaku isn't lethal, and it doesn't really become painful but this... this is not good for her.     She stumbles back in the air and groans out... the girl's battered, bruised and burned all over and at this rate, will need a new outfit by the time the match is done, but... she's stll up and she's still got a chance... "Hff...hff... You're good." she whispers, slumped over as a card comes out of her sleeve. "Magic Pot!" a small blue glow surrounds the youkai magician. "I'm wanting to win this..." she comments, pulling out one more card.. she doesn't have the closeness to use this one... and with one more pull. She gives a nod, this will have to do. "Spellcard!"     That declaration... the magic barrier around her... and a single, lone doll that shoots out from it. "Crimson Sign - Holland Doll!" suddenly, the doll starts emitting four lasers in each cardinal direction and starts spinning those lasers around, slowly at first but it picks up speed after a while, dissipating after a good ten seconds before the doll retreats... hoping that this last laser would do it. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Probably lots of ways. Sensors, weapons... I've combined it with magical constructs myself." Staren answers the wondering.     More magic lasers! He tries to dodge, but the doll spins them after him. The forcefield reappears, having closed the hole, but the laser quickly powers through it. Still, it might buy Staren precious seconds. He draws the rifle and turns to take the laser on one of the few less-damaged parts of his armor. Still it cuts through wires and circuits, warnings blaring in his ears and flashing around the periphery of his HUD. There are redundancies so he can lose some of the parts, but only so many! His armor could fail at any moment...     Staren flies up, and aims the rifle down. There is no more time for words, only action! "Raaagh!" He fires! 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Alice doesn't have much left in her, not much even left to dodge anything that comes her way and when that boy brings up his rifle again Hourai and Shanghai move in front of her. "Nnngh, we won't let you get her!" "You'll have to move us away!"     WHAM! Hourai gets a bullet smashed into her shield and slammed back into Alice.     WHAM! The other bullet smashes into Shanghai's sword and shatters it.     That last shot hits directyl in her chest once more, eyes blanking out as she falls forward... floating there unconcious. Shanghai moves over... tugging on Alice a bit, "A...alice... Alice! No... she lost again.. She wanted to go far too!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren narrows his eyes at the dolls. He intends to blast through that shield with raw, high-tech power... and it works.     She falls over, and he dives to catch her... but she keeps floating there. He lets out the breath he didn't realize he was holding. Floating there catching his breath for a couple of seconds. "Is she okay? ...Sorry. I lost last time, and only so many can advance. That's how it goes." He looks from the dolls to her. "You all fought really well. You're really powerful."     Something on Staren's armor shoots out some sparks and smoke.     "...Iiii should probably get this off before it stops working. Good game. Maybe after this we can talk in a less... combative context." He smiles, then flies down towards the warpgate to land. He tries to wave to the crowd, but his arms have lost their full range of motion. Struggling against the weight of the armor, he manages a slow wave, then sort of hobbles through the gate. 

}}

2651/Bar & Grill Philosophy

2015-07-20T16:38:35Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2015/07/19 |Location=Bar and Grill at the Edge of the Multiverse |Synopsis=Bridge and Staren happen to wander into the Bar & Grill at the same time..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2015/07/19
|Location=Bar and Grill at the Edge of the Multiverse
|Synopsis=Bridge and Staren happen to wander into the Bar & Grill at the same time and talk.
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=42, 411, 800
|Tinyplot=
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Worries about his world, worries about the future, worries about the Multiverse... Old friends he hasn't seen in awhile, new friends he's seen recently. Abstractum, Immortality, developments in Robotics, new worlds and new possibilities...     Staren's brain never stops, is never empty. People say he thinks too much, but there's so much to think about... Eventually, his stomach demands his attention, though. He feels like a change of scenery, so he comes to the bar and grill. Fond of seafood as he is, he orders sashimi and shrimp tempura... and then slumps in his chair slightly, fingers and toes tapping as thoughts flow through his head once more. There's so much that needs doing, that he needs to figure out how to do... 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' Bridge is honestly not much different from Staren with regards to his thoughts never seeming to stop flowing. But Bridge is rarely overwhelmed by this fact, and seems to readily accept it, even as he walks into this strange Bar & Grill. "Wow, this is -definitely- not the broom closet. But I -do- want toast..." He's pulled out a notepad, starting to scribble things down. "Totally undocumented alien species, that guy with some kind of... is that a liquid nitrogen gun?!" He seems absolutely fascinated with all of this, until he spots Staren sitting along, and moves to take a seat at the same table, leaning his arms on the side opposite of Staren. "Hey, Bridge Carson, B-Squad SPD Green Ranger. Do you have -any- idea where I am right now? And is that -really- a liquid nitrogen gun?" he casually motions his head to a random buff red-skinned alien with strange black hedgehog-like hair. On said alien's leather pants is a small silvery handgun, and a little window in the barrel where one can see a liquid that -very- much appears to be nitrogen. The design of the gun appears to suggest that it could be sprayed as a gas somehow, though the mechanics aren't too obvious due to the streamlined design. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's ears rotate when Bridge speaks, followed by his head. "...I've heard you on the radio. You're at the Bar & Grill at the end of the Multiverse. Sometimes people end up here when hungry -- some kind of powerful enchantment on the area." He looks at the weapon being questioned about, squints, and shrugs. "Maybe? If so, I can't tell how they're keeping it cool. ...I'm Staren. Problem researcher for the Union." He smiles slightly and holds out his hand to shake. "Why not take a seat and order something? Since you must be hungry if you're here." 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "I'd love some toast. I wonder if they have buttered toast..." Bridge reaches out to shake Staren's hand with his gloved hand. "So what kind of problems do you research? As a member of SPD, and the Union, I often have to investigate problems too! SPD Rangers are given a lot of autonomy to solve problems in our own way." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks. "You can order pretty much anything here if it's food... Um... all kinds of problems. I'm probably the foremost authority on Abstractum in the Multiverse, next to their inventor himself. I... figure out how stuff works, and how we can apply it to whatever the problem of the moment is. There's all kinds of weird stuff out there... the Filth infecting two worlds... we've just discovered a new world with a strangely electric atmosphere, uh... have you read the crisis reports?" 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "Oh, of course! There's always lot of bad and strange stuff going on out there. It's a lot like my universe. We've gotten Earth mostly down to a 1% crime rate, with most of the crime being in my city. But there are other planets and civilizations to worry about too. I help when I can." Bridge pulls a smartphone from the jacket of his uniform, starting to poke around at it. "There's so much going on that of course we have more than one team. But this Abstractum stuff sounds interesting, from what I read. I still don't really understand what it -is-... though maybe that's why they call it -Abstract-um." he says with a light laugh. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren tilts his head at the 'It's a lot like my universe' comment. "Wow. That /is/ a pretty impressive crime rate."     "Abstractum... are part of a weapon system consisting of elites and... basically, intelligent artifacts that enhance our concepts. They were designed to fight a... this enemy that just wants to be destroyed... it's kind of a long story." 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "Sounds complicated. I don't remember reading anything in my world's history like that... So if I had Abstractum, I'd be better at being a Power Ranger, making toast, and building machines?" Bridge asks, leaning in curiously. "I probably wouldn't use it. More power is great, but intelligent artifacts... I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable with a weapon I couldn't take apart and figure out!" He sounds in good spirits enough, then raises his right hand and begins to remove his glove. "Hey, would you mind if I read your aura? Just, curious. It won't hurt." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Maybe. Building machines probably. What does being a power ranger mean? Do you fight crime? Your abilities, whatever it is you do, would be... expanded. And I felt the same way. I kind of... getting Eureka was an accident, but I don't have to take her apart to understand her. She knows a lot about Abstractum and can tell me... and there are lesser machines based on the same technology I can take apart and study." Staren explains.     "Sure, I guess... but how's this aura thing work?" 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "Power Rangers fight crime, we investigate things, save the world and defend anyone, anywhere who might need it. It doesn't matter where someone lives, if they need help we'll try to help them. Even in another world, another galaxy, underwater, or some kind of crazy shrunken micro city, we'll find a way!" Bridge answers with great enthusiasm, finally pressing something on his phone and smiling over at the clerk. "Oh, aura reading is simple. I take off one of my limiter gloves, then I wave my hand..." He waves his hand slowly through the air, and Staren can see how space seems to get a little distorted for a moment where his hand passes through. "And then I can see that you're a pretty good guy, but you're kind of stressed out." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "A pretty good guy? You can see that, huh?" Staren shifts in his chair, turning towards Bridge a bit more. "Saving the Multiverse is stressful. I usually talk to my girlfriend about it, but I'm tired of always dumping my problems on her." His food arrives, and he orderes sweetened iced tea and spears a bit of sashimi with chopsticks. "Saving the Multiverse... worrying about all this... it's what we do so other people don't have to. People get peaceful lives... or lives at all... because of us. That's worth some stress." 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "Yeah, though I keep my gloves on or my powers get out of hand!" Bridge laughs as he wiggles his fingers, clearly making a stupid pun before putting his glove back on. "We have lives beyond saving the world. I dedicate most of my life to being a Power Ranger, but I also study technology, read comics, tinker with gadgets!" He gets a tall plate of buttered toast and a glass of orange juice himself, apparently keeping it simple. Not difficult to make! "My world has been invaded by demons, mutants from the future, aliens, ninja aliens, magic aliens, robots... These things happen, they just make us, and our society, a lot stronger. We take it in stride, even if sometimes it can feel hopeless." "I get consumed trying to find solutions sometimes, and it can be frustrating when my friends don't understand what I'm doing or why I'm doing it, but I just have to remember that I can't solve everything, especially not alone!" he points out before nodding to his plate. "Want some toast? It's buttery." he holds his hand up, wiggling his fingers. "But um, my point! Just because you want to find a solution, and just because things seem bleak and hopeless, it doesn't mean that you have to -always- be consumed. Right now, lots of bad things beyond our mortal control are happening. But we're not the -only- people thinking of a solution. We can go play a video game and universe won't be any worse for it." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren chuckles slightly at the pun. "I do other stuff too. Though sometimes I wonder if I should. We could do /more/ good if we /didn't/ spend time that way, after all."     Staren narrows his eyes slightly. "Have you been talking to someone about me? It's not about doing everything myself. Other people save the day /all the time/. But sometimes they don't, and I have to be ready for that."     Staren looks away. "Sometimes I play videogames. If I didn't do anything for myself, I wouldn't be /me/ anymore. And then people would miss me. People I care about. But even if I'm not fighting evil /right now/, there's still stuff to plan. As long as I fight evil by just... reacting to it when it pops up, all I'm doing is damage control. Don't we have to plan to /make/ a better future? Someplace where people won't be attacked by demons, mutants from the future, aliens, ninja aliens, magic aliens, or robots? Or where if they are attacked, it won't mean the end of their lives?"     He looks at the bit of sashimi on his chopsticks. "I'll play videogames today. And I'll still be playing them in a thousand years. But there's still stuff I have to plan to do, /alongside/ that." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     And then Staren starts eating because darn it, he ordered this food and he's not gonna just let it /sit/ there! 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "We can't do -any- good if we don't spend any time on ourselves, having lives! Or else we'll just suffer so much mental degredation from stress and anxiety that we won't -really- get anything done after a while! I bet even the Commander has hobbies other than standing in the Command Center, waiting to give us orders." Bridge says this as if he has -no idea- what those hobbies may be, but surely they exist! "Ah, that's the thing, that's what I mean. I've actually felt like I -had- to do things myself, and a few times I -did- because other people wouldn't listen. But that's teamwork, that's, like, the -basics- of teamwork! It's just easy to forget that, you might feel like you're taking on the burden of the entire team. I don't say it because I know you, I say it because I've -been- there." he further explains, starting to chomp at a piece of his toast in both hands. "Sometimes they don't." he agrees. "But you have to put your effort into the idea that they -will-. It's nice to have a backup plan, but always focus on the team, first and foremost! Well, unless you're alone, but if you're alone, well." He offers his toast-free hand. "-Now- you're a team. And whoever your girlfriend is." "And, well, yes!" he agrees, to bettering the future. "We have a -much- better future. Now we have systems in place all over the city. If a giant robot or monster attacks, we can evacuate people like -that-." he snaps his finger. "But you can never get rid of -all- evil. That's why we still have that 1% crime rate. It will -never- be 100. Once, over twenty years ago, almost all of the evil in the universe was destroyed or turned good all at once, by something called the Z-Wave. I don't know exactly what it is, it's classified information. But evil very quickly began to creep right back in, building itself back up..." He shrugs at that, then just kind of smiles. "That's the thing. We can win, good can win. We can make things safer, we can make the universe better, one world at a time. Every team does, the heroes of every world does, but we can't wipe out evil. We -literally- tried that. It doesn't work. Evil always finds a way. But we always get stronger, we always get better!"" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren stops eating as something Carson says knocks a thought into his head. "...If I burn out now, I won't be able to make that better world."     Staren listens, and eventually nods. "I know. We can't wipe out evil and misfortune. But maybe we could make a world where people don't have to be hurt so badly by it." He sits up straight, and looks at Carson. "Maybe I need to see this world of yours." 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "That sounds like a good idea to me! That's my goal too, to try and help as many worlds as possible, how ever I can! I have a lot of training to deal with different worlds, cultures, and types of threats. So there's no reason I can't share the burden if you ever feel overwhelmed." Bridge chomps some toast, smiling. "Burning out is bad. Think about computers that are under constant and abnormal stress! Either they burn out and become totally useless, or you end up having to do crazy things like stick water cooling tubes in them, or those -very- poorly designed cases with a gap in the middle, where you fill them up with liquid nitrogen. It's basically the worst idea! Oh, wait, I was making a point... Basically, don't get so stressed that you become a terrible computer being stretched beyond its natural capabilities!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren tilts his head slightly. He smirks. "That's right. We can keep machines cool. So you're saying I need to become a machine, and alter myself to not burn out! ...I'm kidding. But a computer doesn't have /natural/ capabilities. It can do whatever it is made for. Just like we need to /make/ a future that's better than the worlds made by nature alone." 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "The most important thing to remember when trying to make a society better? Every society has different needs. There aren't any universal solutions. Take it one problem at a time, celebrate small victories. Just because we have technology that we -think- should turn a society into a utopia, doesn't mean it will. We have to get to know the society, and it could take a long time to -really- make change. What's important is putting people on the -path- to change!" Bridge clears his throat, even rubbing it with a few fingers. "That's some of what we learned in Galactic Diplomacy class." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren shrugs. "Exactly. There's no universal solution to fix existing societies, except maybe this Z-Wave thing. Isn't that why we have to plan to build a /new/ society, one day?" 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "You can't just -create- a society. Well, actually, you -can-. But you have to get people to agree to join your society. If we created a society, not -everyone- would want to join it. And there would eventually be bad people in that society, even if we'd be prepared for that. And with a new society, you won't -really- know what your society is until it gets going, and then you have to deal with the problems you'd deal with if you were simply trying to improve an already existing society!" Bridge points out before taking a long sip of his orange juice. "Take my society for example! We started out pretty unprepared for giant monster attacks, or frequent invasions. People died, cities were destroyed. But as the years went on, we learned. Buildings got strong, methods of evacuation improved, the government began to work on its own Power Ranger teams as early as Lightspeed Rescue, around twenty-five years ago. Over time, society improved, little by little, with every problem we addressed." He starts to walk his index and middle fingers across the table, leaning in close to them. Then his eyes shift up to Staren. "Baby steps! Creating a society is creating a -different- set of problems! Addressing the problems of a society is more of a push forward, and it's less likely to be resisted by civilization when you gradually turn one society into another." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren sighs. "It's a long-term goal. I /completely/ lack the skills to create a society right now. It would be terrible. I suppose, though that if I'm able to make existing societies better enough by then, I won't have to make a new one." He rubs his chin. "I hadn't thought of it that way. Perhaps I can take creating the perfect society off of my to-do-list." He takes a bite and chews for a bit. "Still. I plan to live forever. So I don't get to retire or anything. As you say, even when one society's fixed to as perfect as I can make it, there will be other problems. I'd like to learn more about your world, though." 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "Well, my world isn't -perfect-. The world is large, a 1% crime rate is still more crime than it seems like on paper. But I was around for the debates on Delta Morpher judgement tech. I wasn't old enough to completely understand, but I was around. It was a huge step forward in society, and people had a lot of worries because it was going to change -everything-." Bridge actually reaches for his waist to remove said morpher, holding it out. It looks kind of like a closed cellphone with a police motif, with SPD on the back. "People thought, alright, we can't just trust -people- to judge other -people-. But that's exactly what the old justice system did." Bridge explains, matter-of-factly with his finger held up. "This was actually the opposite. Delta Morphers scan every aspect of your body, no matter what species you are, even if you're a robot. It will know if you're guilty of the crime you've been accused of by an officer. Even if you don't answer, your body reacts to the accusation. Our role as SPD officers is to find probable cause, to figure out why this person is or isn't guilty of a crime. And when we know, the Delta Morpher figures out the rest." "It's pretty clever, too. Someone could be guilty of an entirely different crime, but if we don't accuse them of -that- specific crime, they'll read as not guilty. That's why this tech is now so universally accepted. That's why, after all of this was explained, and the world's scientists across every field and politicians all gathered to discuss this, the public was eventually swayed." He gives Staren the thumbs up. "That was teamwork. One person could never have done it. You have to find more people who want to do what you want to do, then help where you can. Don't worry about the -big- victory, worry about the -small- one!" 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      The door to the B&G opens, and in walks...Twilight Sparkle! She blinks, then looks behind her before looking forward again. "This is not my kitchen." she says, her expression as amused as confused. She giggles a bit, then trots over toward Staren and Carson. "Hello Staren!" she says, giving him a nuzzle before she looks over at Carson.      It may seem a bit unusual. A pastel purple unicorn pony no more than 5 feet tall is looking at him, a cheerful smile on her face. "And hello to you! Forgive me if I am interrupting. I went into my kitchen to get a study snack, and ended up here. Are you a friend of Staren's?" 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "Now I am!" Bridge pipes in, staring at Twilight with more curiosity than actual -shock-. The perks of being from an Earth with aliens living on it in public. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren folds his arms. "It's still pretty good." He listenes with interest to the explanation of the Delta Morpher. "That's amazing... but if it works the way you describe, it seems like it could be fooled by sociopaths, robots, and of course, many nonhumans."     Staren's explanation is stopped by sudden nuzzling. He jumps a bit, and then grins /wide/. He turns, leans over, throws his arms around her neck and /hugs/. "Twilight!" He nuzzles her in return and holds close to her for a moment before letting go and sitting up again. "You're in the Bar and Grill at the end of the Multiverse. This is Bridge Carson, out fellow Union Elite. I..." He blinks at Bridge, "well, I just met him but he's been pretty friendly so far!" Staren smiles. 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "Earth is still mostly human, but we don't live in a human-focused society. Society is more than just Earth! The Delta Morpher was created to scan life in general. Maybe there's something out there in the Multiverse that can't be properly scanned, but even alien robots can be scanned by a Delta Morpher. A common misconception is that it's a lie detector, or that it detects guilt as an emotional concept." Bridge shakes his head at this, smiling. "It detects if you're guilty of the crime you've been accused of, and yeah, it does detect if you -feel- guilty, but that's a very small part of it." He suddenly points at Staren in a mock-aggressive manner, though he's still smiling. "If I accuse you of a crime that you committed, the thing is, you -know- that you committed the crime. One -possible- way to fool it would be an actual memory wipe, since you really wouldn't have any knowledge of being guilty. But being a sociopath wouldn't help, you still have some kind of response that the Delta Morpher can read. Brainwaves, blood pressure, endorphins, muscles, heart rate, your digestive system. There are a -lot- of factors. An intelligent robot is basically the same, just not biological. Different processes. A robot that -isn't- intelligent can't technically be guilty, and we'd be more interested in who sent it anyway." 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight smiles happily as she is hugged. She hugs back rather effectively with her forelegs and nuzzles some more. Then, the Delta Morpher is explained some more. Twilight's ears perk as she listens. "Oh my. What a useful device! It must make interrogations rather easy." she says before she carefully hops up onto a seat beside Staren. Although her forelegs rest on the table, her posture is very much like any humanoid who sits in a chair. "I am not sure we would need such a device in Equestria, but I can definitely see the use for other worlds."      Twilight then holds out a hoof to Bridge the same way someone would offer a hand. "I am Twilight Sparkle, by the way. It is nice to meet you, Mr. Carson, and it is nice to see Staren meeting new people and making new friends!" the little pony says happily. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren leans away slightly at the pointing. "Fascinating. To be able to work on everything like that... this almost sounds like conceptual technology, like a proto-abstractum, itself!" He's still smiling. He looks to Twilight. "Well, as he said, it just detects guilt... it's his job to figure out /why/ they did it. ...I'm reminded a bit of Adjudicator. Psyber's Abstractum is a sword that hurts people more the more guilty they are by their own moral code. Or was it by a moral code of /his/ choosing...?" Staren stares into space for a moment, then shrugs. "Anyway, impressive technology." He looks to Twilight. "You make it sound like I never go anywhere! In just the past few days, I met Kotone's cousin and went to a new world..." he nods a bit, "But, it's true that I haven't talked to someone this much in some time." He lifts his chopsticks to grab a piece of the shrimp tempura he ordered and lifts it to his mouth. Crunch crunch. 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "I've never met a horse alien before, an Equestrian? My commander is a Sirian, which is basically a dog man." Bridge takes her hoof and shakes it politely, smiling. "We still have to do interrogations the old fashioned way. For example, let's say someone was kidnapped, or they had information about -another- criminal that we needed. We can't say 'Are you guilty of having this information', or 'Are you guilty of hiding the person you kidnapped'. The first of those isn't really a crime and the Delta Morpher doesn't work that way. And even though we -could- use it in the latter instance, we already -know- that the person is kidnapped." Bridge further elaborates on the tech, offering his plate of toast over to Twilight. "Want some? It's buttery." he asks with a wiggle of his fingers, before he returns to listening to Staren. "My parents actually helped create it, though I don't know much about the process. What the technology does is widely known, but the actual creation of the Delta Morphers, the process of how it happened, that isn't as widely known. Doctor Manx helped too, she works with us, but she doesn't really talk about it either. At least I know how to repair one! I understand the tech, but I don't understand enough about the underlying science to upgrade or create a new one yet." There's a pause, as if he's considering explaining something, then just shrugs. "Delta Morphers deal with a lot of Morphing Grid science, or magic... depending on who you ask. The Morphing Grid is kind of this thing that both technological and magical Power Ranger teams have used, so if it's magic or ancient technology, no one really knows. Or at least, SPD doesn't know. But when people figure out how to use that power, they can do some interesting things, like create this." He nods his head to the Delta Morpher sitting on the table. 

:'''{{#var:411|Twilight Sparkle (411)}} has posed:'''      Twilight blinks in surprise as Staren says he met Kotone's cousin, then she smiles as he admits he does need to socialize more. When Carson offers the toast, Twilight accepts. "Oh, thank you!" she says before her horn glows with a soft purple light and one of the pieces of toast sparkles before floating up into the air and toward her mouth. She takes a polite bite, then considers what Carson said. "Hmm. I see. Though, I more meant aquiring a confession."      Twilight takes another bite as she listens to the explanations about the Morpher. "Why is it called a Morpher? Detecting guilt does not seem to qualify as morphing something." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:''' "'Dr. Manx? Is she a cat alien?" Staren listens while eating his food. "Interesting. Magic and technology, sometimes the border's not so clear. Abstractum tech is neither, at least in the sense of /not/ being the other one as well. I must visit your world and learn more about the Delta Morpher sometime, but... right now, perhaps I should finish my food before it gets cold." He looks at the sashimi. "Warm." Then at the tempura. "Warm and cold. You know what I mean." He smiles. "It was interesting meeting you, though! This is much more conversation than I expected to get out of eating out! Thank you." 

:'''{{#var:800|Bridge Carson (800)}} has posed:''' "Well, her name -is- Doctor Katherine Manx. We call her Kat, because of the Kat ears, and teeth... but she looks mostly human other than that." Bridge explains, his world literally apparently having anime cat people. Then he begins to stand, taking his morpher and strapping it back to his side. "It's a morpher because the primary function of the Delta Morpher is -actually- the ability to access the Morphing Grid and turn us into Power Rangers. I'll show you what that is some time, if you don't already know!" He offers a parting nod, then a gloved hand to both of them. "It was nice meeting you guys too. People say I talk too much, but I guess that can be useful sometimes! I should get going before Doggie wonders why I suddenly disappeared when I went to get a broom after accidentally spilling Doritos all over the Command Center." 

}}

200911/Upload

2015-06-02T20:04:07Z

Staren: Fixed cast of characters to use numbers where possible.

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2012/09/20
|Location=Staren's Lab
|Synopsis=Staren believes he's finally found a way to conquer death. But it relies on mind-transferring technology which must be tested first...
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=42, 411, 19, Dell Conagher, Untamed Breeze
|Tinyplot=
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=<pre style="white-space: pre-wrap;
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Multiverse Crisis - Thursday, September 20, 2012, 9:44 PM
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Staren's Lab <SL>(#1645Ten)
Staren's house itself is normal enough, containing a living room, a kitchen, a rec room, a basement with washer and dryer (such chores are done by robots of course), an office, a bathroom, one bedroom for Staren and one for his parents. However, hidden lifts can take one to the huge underground rooms filled with computer systems, maintenance and assembly robots, a supply of raw materials, and innumerable machines large and small.

The recorded message gave directions and a time -- Staren's father waits on the platform, currently in the lawn in front of Staren's house, that the mecha normally launches from. A middle-aged catboy with similar clothes, and darker brown hair streaked with grey. The city of Lazlo and its lights glow in the distance. He greets Staren's friends by name, and once they've assembled, the platform begins to move down like a massive elevator, another massive panel sliding into place above to cover the hole as the lift moves down to the lab, a massive underground room filled with shelves and machines.

Twilight's eyes widen as such a large platform begins sinking down into the ground, and her eyes widen even more at seeing the laboratory. "Oh my. And I thought my lab was advanced!" she says as she stands near the edge of the platform, waiting for it to stop.

Dell wasn't exactly sure what to expect when Staren gave him an invitation to come to his house. Well, actually, he had an /idea/ of what to expect, but Staren didn't /specify/, so there's always some doubt. In any case, when he reaches the boy's house and greets his father, he notices that they're not alone.

"Er...howdy." he says to Twilight, looking her over as if not quite sure what to make of her. "Yer one o' those, er, magic talkin' ponies, right?" And suddenly the ground underneath him starts sinking into the ground, causing him to drop down in a panic before he realizes what's going on. As he stands up, dusting himself off with an embarrassed blush on his face, he looks around.

"So...where is the boy, anyway? I got a letter sayin' he wanted ta show me somethin'."

Maya had arrived isn't wearing her normal post apoch fashion she looks almost like a normal earth gar barring the visable tattoos on her arm and the clearly natural blue hair she's got as she rides down the lift. "No idea where he's got to Dell..."

Untamed Breeze isn't so comfortable with this craziness that Staren's pulling,. Body transfers? Risky as hell, who can say what might go wrong? So when she arrives at the given coordiantes, it's with the mightiest frown to show, wings folded over her shoulders and mood quite evident.

Unhappy.

She beelines near Maya. "I've got some ideas... hope this works out alright..."

Staren's father chuckles to Twilight. "Well... This is three decades of work, and I had some help starting out." He turns and looks out over the lab as the platform lowers. The three mecha (metallic grey, red, and blue) can be seen not far away. "We're getting to that, Mr. Conagher. Nice to meet you all by the way, I'm Staren's father." He offers to shake hands, or hand-and-hoof, with anyone who wishes.

The lift reaches the ground level and Staren's father walks off, leading the party through the lab. Silence is awkward. He talks to fill it. "Obviously, we wouldn't allow him to do this without a lot of safety and testing. But you probably would have been bored by that, so it's already done... Well, he can explain himself. Here we go." In a clearing of sorts between the shelves of gadgets and computers, there are several chairs, something like an MRI machine that an unconscious Staren is lying in, and a table next to it with some sort of humanoid robot -- Obviously metal, painted white and sea green divided down the middle, with the colors on opposite sides on the head, with half of the upper head made of some tough clear material, showing the mechanical brain within. The eyes look more like some kind of lights, though they're currently off.

Staren's mother is in one of the chairs, with a black-furred, rabbit-size creature in her lap. Rabi the cabbit looks at the approaching group curiously. Staren's mom nods a greeting, but before she can say anything, a holographic Staren appears in front of them.

"Greetings! ...Man, I hate recordings, but... It seemed like the best way to do this. Before anyone gets mad and tries to put a stop to this -- It's already begun, and will be finishing at any moment, and I've taken every safety precaution I can. I really mean that, I've been analyzing this technology and running tests since days after Viridian Sunrise was defeated."

"For those of you who haven't guessed... You are, I hope, about to witness the first successful, reliable, repeatable mind transfer to another body! That robot lying there on the table." He gestures to it. "First of all, to address concerns: This process is non-destructive and there is no risk of accidentally destroying my mind instead. If the transfer fails my original body can be revived with me still in it. In fact the plan is to put me _back_ in it when we're done, but I'll get to that. I didn't invite you here to see the whole procedure because it would be long, awkward waiting. This machine takes like a half-hour to copy me. Now you might ask, why not just use the copy that resides in my cortical stack? Well, as a security measure, there's no way to access it without surgically, or not-so-surgically, removing it from me, and a little inconvenience seems worth it for making it harder for anyone to, oh, steal me, or destroy the backup. So, we're making a new scan. I've been sedated, of course, so that I won't be conscious for the transfer -- that would raise issues I don't want to deal with, after all."

Holo-Staren rubs the back of his neck. "Ahh... I hope not too many of you are all pissed at me, now. Well, I'll find out soon enough. The scan should finish any moment now -- once it's done, downloading my brain into the robot body will take almost no time. See you on the other side!" he disappears.

Maya has been scouting or more correcly helping with wedding related thing given she's unlikely to have her own kids given how her lovelife's gone then agian it seems her world isn't aging so who the hell knows with her. She does howrver pause at Breeze "Oh What do thou think he's doing?" She pauses at the message "Whelp Thanaotos may be getting annoyed soon and i'll have to hear all about it." she doesn't explain any more than that.

Twilight blinks at Dell as he hits the deck, then giggles softly as he gets back up before she smiles. "Yes, though you could probably save yourself some time and effort by refering to us as Equestrians. I am Twilight Sparkle. And you are?" she says before looking to Maya and Breeze. "It is worrisome, I'll admit, but...Staren seems quite capable. I am certain he would not put himself at risk unnecessarily."

Once they have reached the bottom, Twilight's trust in Staren seems well-placed. She moves to one of the seats and hops up, seating herself just like any human. As she listens to Staren's speech, she gets a bit of a disturbed look. But, she decides to wait until Staren is revived to say anything.

Strolling in with others only to hear about THIS.. that Staren's already gone off the dep end, Breeze clenches her teeth. Really, what cAn she say to that? All she can do now is look towards the prepared body with INCREDIBLE SUSPICION.

"No idea who that is, Maya, but this had better work or I'm going to be very pissed. So many things that could go WRONG..." She has given both the parents a rather worried look - and this is a person who is CENTURIES OLD and she's worried about this. She's someone who knows the things that are worth worrying about beyond just paranoia!

"I don't suppose the rest of you--" She peers at the Pony and Dell. "Know the story that I do about this?"

Dell shakes Staren's father's hand and introduces himself, then, apart from some greetings and introductions to the others in their group, remains silent as the lift moves down into Staren's lab. He quietly follows Staren's father, listening to his speech as he admires the giant robots. He makes a note to ask about those later, and maybe the possibility of getting one for himself...

But when they come to the clearing, his eye is drawn toward the MRI and the table, more specifically the robot on the table. "I'm guessin'...that's what he's gonna put himself in?" he asks Staren's father, but the hologram pops on just then and answers his question for him. Afterwards, he turns to Breeze. "Ah, not the details, sorry miss. All I know is he got some kinda technology from another universe that lets him put his brain in a new body. I don't see how it's a problem as long as he's taken proper safety measures, but then again I'm kinda used ta havin' my consciousness transplanted inta a new body whenever I die, so maybe I jes' have a different pointa view."

Staren's dad takes a seat next to his mother, holding her hand. Yes, according to all test data and understanding of the technology, the two worst outcomes do _not_ include the death of their son. It's not that the transfer will fail that they're worried about, but what comes after... They hold a neutral expression as holo-Staren explains. Rabi hops down to sniff and bat at the hologram, but loses interest when she realizes it's not real.

The Ego Bridge beeps, and Staren's parents look at it, then at the table with the robot on it, possibly reading Augmented Reality displays noone else here can see.

Sensitive ears may pick up sounds from the robot on the table -- the high-pitched whine of electronics, very soft clicks and whirrs of optics... And then the head moves a bit, turning to look at the Ego Bridge. "Woah." The synthesized voice _sounds_ just like Staren's. He sits up, and looks down at himself. "I did it? It worked? It's not just a dream, right? No, I shouldn't be dreaming..." he holds a hand up and looks at it, then taps at his chest, making a metallic clicking.

And then he looks up and sees his friends gathered here. "It works, it works!" He sounds pretty happy about that.

Twilight sits quietly as she waits, watching and listening. She smiles softly as she watches Staren's parents. It's so cute when older couples are all lovey-dovey. Of course, they probably aren't that old, it just seems like it to a young one like Twilight.

Twilight flinches in surprise as the robot suddenly speaks. "Eep!" She blinks a few times afterward, then stands. "St-staren?" she says cautiously. "Are you alright? Were your memories and personality copied successfully?" She wants to make sure everything is okay before she tells Staren what she thinks of the experiment.

Dell watches nonetheless with bated breath, unsure of what might happen. While the effect is /similar/ to the Respawn System, the process as far as he can tell is completely different...or is it? He doesn't know, but if it's similar technology, then maybe, just maybe, the boy will come out perfectly fine and there won't be anything to worry about.

He watches.

He waits.

And when the robot finally moves and Staren's voice comes from its mouth, with nothing indicating that he's hurt or turned evil or anything, he finally lets go of that breath he was holding. "See there? Ain't nothin' ta worry about, the boy's jes' fine." he reassures the others, walking over to Staren and offering a hand to shake. "Congrats on yer success, Staren. Lemme tell ya, I was a mite worried fer a second or two, but..."

"... It works, but boy do I prefer flesh and blood." Breeze exclaims with a gasp of relief after Staren's finished getting his awareness situated. She does, in fact, sag where she stands a little, and makes a foul face. After all, this is REALLY putting her on edge with worry. Still... "Yeah, something like that!" She asides to Twilight and Dell in response, but her eyes are on Robo!Staren. and her mind is wondering just what the hell it is to have two of the same person wandering around... beyond just creepy.

Maya is here watching for a moment and she wonders just what's going on with Starens thing has it worked or will she be getting told by Thanatos, he's leading Staren on to where ever. Or pewehaops it works and she tilts her head a little bit raising an blue eyebrow as she does so and is otherwise quiet.

Staren briefly takes a slightly defensive posture -- worried that particularly pissed friends might hit him-- (although, that's more likely to hurt _them_...)

But it seems that he has nothing to fear. He smiles, "Yup, I'm me! Although I guess it would be hard to tell if I wasn't..." he swings his feet off the table, standing up -- and stumbling a little. "Woah... it's okay, I'm okay. New legs." He feels for his lack of tail and ears. "Huh..."

Parents rush to hug him, "Aww Mom, Dad, I'm fine..." "We know, we know..." They back off as a drone wheels up, carrying a full-length mirror for Staren to look in. He's surprised, then stares, then leans forward a bit, tapping his head with a finger.

/That's right. A body isn't me. A brain isn't even me -- they're just hardware. I am a program, data. All people are. Data, programs, living and dreaming and hoping and loving and caring and dying... That most think of themselves as a body, that is an artificial, or rather, unnecessary, limitation./

He then looks at his original body, unconscious and in stasis in the ego bridge, and shares a nervous look with his parents. They're not truly out of the woods safely just yet, but that bridge will be crossed _after_ he talks with his friends.

Robo-Staren turns to his friends, walking a bit unsteadily and then more naturally as he approaches them. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. First off... This is a test, to make sure that the whole thing even /works/. It's not that I want or intend to spend the rest of my life as a robot or anything. But it would suck if I was depending on this technology to revive me and then we found out that, despite all my previous tests, it didn't _actually_ work. So, other than that... hit me. I hope I haven't..." He frowns and looks away briefly, "disturbed you too much. This body can take a more normal appearance, too -- I just felt that, at least at first, it should be immediately clear that this is a robot body. I can look more like myself if that would make you more comfortable. So... any questions?" He looks between the group gathered here.

His parents wordlessly run diagnostics on the equipment, just to be extra super sure. They've already had ample opportunity to talk with him.

Twilight listens to Staren, blinking a bit as it seems he requests to be hit. She isn't going to hit him, of course. "I have a concern." Twilight starts. "If you have not actually left your body, but are copied into this new body, have you not essentially...made a new lifeform? What will you do with this now conscious robot? We cannot simply throw it away like a broken broom." she says.

Twilight looks to the unconscious original Staren, then to the new robot Staren. "After all...if I had been the experiment, would you be able to throw the new me away? I know I would not." she says, then looks to the others to see if they agree.

Dell steps back to let the family have their 'thank science our son is still alive' moment, then nods as Staren gives further explanation. "As someone who's part robot myself," he replies, rapping a nearby shelf with his right hand to make a muffled clunk sound that is most definitely not organic. "I don't imagine it'd be too troublesome, 'less a Spy tries ta sap ya or somethin'. But, well, I do miss my old, flesh and blood hand sometimes. Ya could probably replicate the nerves fer feelin' things, but it still feels a little awkward when I expect the give o' soft skin and muscle and instead get the hard inflexibility o' metal."

A pause. "Er...well, I guess mosta you here wouldn't be familiar with the feelin'. Anyway, what's it like? Seems ya need ta get used ta bein' in an unfamiliar body, but apart from that, how's it feel?"

Untamed Breeze walks right up next to Staren, reaches out... and flicks her finger right at his nose.

Well, he did ask them to hit him, and she decided to interpret it the other way.

Well, sort of. After that, she folds her arms. "Are you going to do crazy things like make lots of clones of yourself or hang out in a giant blob of goo later? Keep this to just the basics and I'll be happy, anyways... but yeah... I can see why you did it this way!"

Robo-staren stares at Twilight for a moment. The thought that anyone might look at it that way didn't even /occur/ to him. Of course he plans to go /back/ to his body! "That's why my original body is sedated and in stasis and is absolutely positively not conscious or dreaming. I went to sleep in there, and woke up in here... And after I talk with you guys and test this body, I go to sleep in here and the latest copy of me is written back into my _old_ body."

He frowns, and folds his arms. "If the rewriting process ruins my brain in the process, I have a problem, but one that I can, eventually, fix and try again -- the healing vat will repair my brain to a blank state if needed -- until I get it right. I've made sure the nanites do what they're supposed to do to tissue samples, but writing a copy of me into an organic brain is a test I simply haven't been able to do, for obvious reasons. Second-worst case scenario, I'm stuck in robots until I get the process working."

Staren looks at his body in the ego bridge. "Worst case scenario is the write not working at all and /that/ me waking up. Then we have a /worse/ problem because there would be two of me, who have the same right to continue my life. That's why I am making sure my original body doesn't wake up until I'm back in it."

Staren looks at Dell. "Actually... the interface software is very good, it feels almost natural, except for not breathing. The cameras are high-resolution, but... I can digital zoom to see the pixels if I want. Having a computer in my head is no change," he shakes his head, "since I had the cybernetics. This body should be stronger, and tougher, and heavier, but I haven't really gotten to put that to the test yet."

Robo-Staren turns to Breeze and gets flicked. He blinks. "...Pain's still on by default, but I guess I can turn it off if I want." He looks directly at her. "No, no, no! Making a bunch of myself... Then we'd have a problem, since all of me would be people who deserve to live. There is... technology that can put us back together as long as we've been independant for no more than four hours... but if that doesn't work, I have an unfixable problem. I'd rather not risk it unless it's absolutely necessary for some reason -- I honestly hadn't really _thought_ about it because I have no desire to do it. And I don't want to be goo, although I suppose I may have some occasions to try new bodies. Primarily this technology is to make sure I can survive in some form if I die, which I will still, you know, try to avoid just as before. I don't _want_ to lose my body and be stuck in a robot, it's just better than being gone forever. There may also be the occasional situation where temporarily transferring myself to another body is useful -- to fight a threat that only harms organics, for instance."

Staren scratches his neck and looks between them. "Next questions."

"Heh, figures. You an' yer future tech." Dell says, watching Staren's reactions to everything...including the neck scratching. "Even physical habits get carried over, huh? I guess it's jes' like bein' in yer original body, except...well, like ya described. Have ta say, it's more advanced than anythin' I've ever seen, an' I've seen flyin' cars."

Then, a thought. "Outta curiosity, whaddya suppose would happen if I were ta hit ya with my wrench? Or maybe punch you with the Gunslinger? Would it upgrade ya? Repair any damage you've taken? Fer that matter, how would ya come outta the Respawn System? Er, not that I want ta kill ya or anythin', jes' wonderin'."

"Well, that's a relief!" Breeze cracks a relieved grin and shares it with Maya, Twilight, and Deell, before retreating again to put some distance here between them all. "The Multiverse doesn't need ten of you running around. The rest of us might get even more confused than you would." She teases a moment later.

Twilight headshakes to Staren. "But...don't you see? Even if one of you is asleep, there are still two of you now. You yourself said you copied yourself, not that you transfered your consciousness. And you just said that if the original you woke up...there would be two yous. How is it different simply because one of you is asleep?" Twilight asks, then sighs. "I'm sorry...I guess I thought you would completely transfer yourself. But..." She looks at the sleeping Staren, then at robot Staren. "Have...I misunderstood the process?" she asks, looking up at Staren.

Maya has never met Twilight in person before untill today and she has to agree with the Pony's statement. "That is a point and if you pull the plug on the other your killing them pretty much." She seems to be lost in thought at this point.

Staren looks at Dell and raises his hands in a shrug. "Hey, this is leagues ahead of _my_ world, too. But, it was important to get and learn how to use. It will save lives, one day." He tilts his head as the Engineer thinks of possibilities. "I don't know. Does your wrench normally repair things on impact? We can try it, just don't hit my head please." He shakes his head and raises a hand dismissively at the 'not that I want to kill you' bit "It's fine, I wonder things that make people uncomfortable all the time, I understand completely. Wondering about something unsafe doesn't mean yer gonna _do_ it, I _know_ that... I hope everyone else here does too." He looks around.

And settles on Breeze, smiling at her relief and nodding.

Twilight makes him look a bit more uncomfortable. "Err..." He looks at the other him. "As long as that body is in stasis, the copy of 'me' in that brain isn't running. It's the same as a dormant copy stored in a computer, like the backups I've made for the emergency case where my body and stack are unrecoverable. There is no seperate experience..."

He strokes his chin, thinking of another way to explain it. "Okay, let's look at it this way: If he wakes up, experiences anything, then he starts having experiences I haven't. But right now... I remember, I've experienced, every single thing he has, and more. I'm a future version of what's in that brain, rather than an alternate version. So, nothing is lost if we overwrite that instance with the new, updated me from now. I went to sleep in there, woke up in here, and I'm gonna go back."

"But if we woke him up... then he'd have new experiences. There would be a version of me that went to sleep and woke up in here, and a version of me that went to sleep and woke up in there. We'd be different, and destroying either one of us would lose something unique forever. But right now... the only _consciousness_ that remembers being me is in here. And as long as there's only one active me at a time, or rather, one me experiencing new things, and all other copies are dormant copies of earlier versions of that me, of which _one_ will be revived _only_ in the event that I am destroyed... we should be good. Did that make sense?" He looks to Twilight. "Remember, I planned all this, and went to sleep knowing this was the plan in the first place."

Staren adds, "For reference, there's _only_ still a copy in that brain this time because we haven't proven writing a new me into an organic brain works yet. That will not be the case in any future transfers -- if everything goes as planned, and yes, I know that's an if... then in the future there will never be any risk of the wrong me 'waking up' while another me is still around. Well, barring some rather catastrophic failures of the backup system, but if something's gone that wrong then I probably have worse problems to deal with."

"Well, can't say I know much about computers. They still ain't very advanced in my world, so that analogy doesn't really work fer me...no offense." Dell says, lifting his helmet to scratch his head a bit. "Anyhow, my wrench is a Build-O-Matic. Anythin' it hits, as long as it's mechanical an' I have spare metal, will get upgraded or repaired dependin' on the circumstances. Least, that's how it works where I'm from."

He plucks his wrench from his toolbelt and raises it. "Beggin' yer pardon. You said ya could turn off yer pain receptors, right? Now might be a good time." And with that, he swings the wrench down at Staren's arm, pretending for the moment that it's one of his sentries.

Twilight's hooves shuffle uncomfortably, but she nods. "I think I understand. It's just...hard not to think there are more than one Staren now." she says, but smiles softly afterword. "But, I trust you, so if you say that there is not a unique individual in danger, then...that is good enough for me." she says.

Just before Dell swings his wrench! "Hey! What are you doing?!" she exclaims, her horn glowing quickly to try and stop that wrench from impacting. She doesn't know that he can fix things by hitting them!

"Either way you swing it, it's plain creepy even to me. And I've done things you'd think of as creepy that you'll NEVER imagine, Staren." Breeze announces with a finger pointed at him. "Right, Maya?" Yes, she's going to ask the Junker, but she doesn't wait on a response. instead she folds her arms, cocks her head, and stares a little. "I mean it, it's creepy just thinking about multiple splits of the same person."

Twilight hesitates, then nods lightly in agreement. "..it...is a bit unsettling. However, these experiments could lead to wonderful medical advances."

Dell suddenly finds his wrench being forcibly stopped by pink...sparkly...light. He looks back at the little purple unicorn, adjusting his goggles with his free hand as he stares at her horn. "I'd heard y'all had magic, but I didn't believe it until now. Guess I still have a lot ta learn." he says, then, in a more reassuring voice, "It's alright, miss. I ain't gonna hurt him. This wrench is specially built ta /fix/ machines by hittin' 'em, an' even make them stronger in some cases. Worst thing that'll happen is he'll get a dent."

Staren shrugs to Dell. Wait, upgrades? How would that even work? The wrench is going to interact with a robot body, very complex, that it has never encountered before, and give it upgrades that work perfectly and include the software needed to control them? That's practically MAGIC! "Huh. Interest--woah!" He holds up his arm to block, but he doesn't actually recall _how_ to shut off pain off the top of his head! But then Twilight grabs the wrench with magic.

Tense moment over, he nods to Breeze. "Yeah, well, like I said... I never intend to have two of me around, I don't wanna deal with it either." And then he smiles at Twilight. "Thank you. I was worried that some of you might... Not accept this, but... I had to know. If something went wrong, I wanted you to know what had happened, and..." he scratches his head. "Well, if someone thought this kind of thing was evil, better to find out sooner rather than later. Thank you... I'm glad you're still my friends!"

He steps forward to hug Twilight -- maybe a little too hard for a split second before he relaxes, being extra gentle as he's unsure of his robot strength. When he steps back, he comments, "Oh, maybe this will make things less weird..." and turns a little circle positioned like a belt buckle on his robot body, which is briefly engulfed in light... and then there appears to stand a human version of Staren, in his normal clothes. He looks at his hands. "Nifty."

Maya says "I can always call up Thanatos if you like." She notes palming a few fate cards she looks at Staren for a moment for a moment. "I hope that so, its your own choice and your life Staren." maya's being quite diplomatic all things considered and she thinks more and more about what the technology could mean from Bec's world. she thinks of old reports of a race of clones and a race of transfered minds with powerful nanotech building abilities and the ability to copy someone's mind. She shakes her head wondeing if this technology could lead to more carnage like they sowed.

Twilight blinks at Dell's explanation, and the purple sparkly glow fades from his wrench. "Oh...that's incredible, if it actually works!" she says with a smile. She blinks as she is hugged by robot Staren, then smiles and hugs back. Then...he activates a holoemitter or something and her eyes widen. "Oh my! Some sort of disguise spell?" she says, looking Staren over.

Once that's done, she smiles. "Well, it seems the experiment was a grand success so far. But, we still need to see if you can integrate back into your other body without any problems. You probably shouldn't stay in this body too long if it isn't meant to be permanent."

"Something like that." Staren replies, re: Disguise Spell. Re: Not staying long... "You think so? I figured I should find out more about being in this body, just for curiousity's sake..." He looks between them. "...But I suppose, if this works, I can do that later. Not that I intend to do this routinely, in any case. You guys want me to go back now? I'm afraid there isn't much to watch... The Ego Bridge will take awhile. I could give you videogames or books or something, if you want me to do it now while you're here..."

"By Yu-Shan, do you really have to? What if it being metal and so on messes up your thought balance? Brains are really delicate things, the body doesn't work right without them even if the soul does." Breeze exclaims, aggravated, wings shaking and ruffling irritably.

"Well, I've tested it more times than I can count on machines in my own world, an' it's worked fine on them." Dell says to Twilight, but lowers his wrench anyway. "Still, might be better ta wait until yer back in yer own body before I try it. Dunno what kinda effect it'll have on a machine with a living consciousness."

And then, with a somewhat panicked expression, he suddenly checks his watch. "Oh, dang blang dammit! I completely fergot, we have a mission scheduled fer tonight!" he says, then looks back up at Staren. "Where's the closest exit? The Administrator ain't gonna appreciate me bein' late."

Twilight once again seems to agree with Breeze. "It may be tempting to stay that way for a while, but your mind is surely not used to being in this sort of body. I would suggest returning to your normal body as soon as possible." she says with a gently, but urgent, smile.

As Dell declares he must leave, she waves a hoof. "The lift is probably the only way back to the surface."

"If it does mess me up, that's something we need to know, isn't it? By Rebecca's account it doesn't, though." He looks to Dell and extends a hand to shake. "Thanks for coming, man. And we'll have you out of here in a jif. Just follow the drone and stand under the giant raygun, it's a teleporter, we'll send you back to the warpgate."

A little maintenance drone does roll up to Dell, and then off between the shelves.

The teleporter totally does look like a giant freaking raygun pointed at a large departure pad. The Engineer is probably fine with things like that, though.

Staren, meanwhile, walks back to the table, laying down on it. "Hmm. Not comfortable. But I guess I don't really need a bed. I can just put myself to sleep." His parents rush over from the ego bridge to hold his hand. He looks up at them, they nod, and then he closes his eyes and goes limp. They set the hand down on the table and rush back to the Ego Bridge.

"I hate waiting." Staren's father mutters, tapping his foot and folding his arms. "But at this point, it's all automated. Either everything goes right, or... Something goes wrong."

The MRI-like Ego Bridge holding Staren inside is a sealed container, and fills up with some kind of gel, supplying more than enough nanomachines to keep his body healthy and alive and begin the delicate work of rewriting his brain. His parents make sure everything is running smoothly before returning to their seats. Some prepared snacks (cookies, sandwiches) are offered to their guests, as is conversation -- other than that, they read, although no book or computer is needed because of their implants.

As the hour-long process nears its end, Staren's parents become more antsy, watching the machine.

And then it beeps, and the the gel drains away (it doesn't even leave him or his clothes wet...) and he's pushed out of the MRI-like portion of the machine. And he begins to stir, his parents watching uneasily, sitting up and looking at his hand, wiggling his fingers. And then grinning wide before raising his fists in the air. "I did it! It works!" That gets him another hug, before parents step back to let him talk to friends. "You did. Congratulations...!"

Twilight Sparkle almost always has a few books with her, and so she is settled comfortably on the floor nearby, reading through the latest Daring Do adventure novel. She has brought enough books that Maya and Breeze can read if they want. And if they are still around.

When the machine stops, she looks up, then stands and slips her book back into her saddlebags before she approaches the machine and the Staren emerging from it. She gallops up and hugs Staren. "You're alright! I was a bit worried!" she says, smiling as she steps back, looking up at Staren.

Staren is kind of expecting a Twi-hug! He turns towards her as she gallops and hugs back. "I was... well, I was unconscious, but until this moment occured, I was worried it wouldn't. Returning to my body was the part I could least prepare for going wrong." His breathing becomes more forced for a moment as he pays attention to it. "It's good to be back... But this is all a miracle of technology, if you think about it. Think... how many people actually get the experience of transferring to another body, and back? And of course, the implications... We now know for certain, as long as someone can recover my stack," he taps the back of his neck, "I will never die. And even if I do... you will not have to lose me." He smiles and hugs Twilight again. Before meeting her gaze. "That's good, right?"

Untamed Breeze has been anxiously sitting in a chair-- BACKWARDS, due to her wings-- and apparently sleeping or otherwise meditating. It's hard to say, because both wings covered her torso.

But when the boy genius rises, she lifts a wing and peeks through it, eyes cracking open-- and a grin spreading on her face. "Hah! ... now isn't THAT a relief." Rocketing up from the chair, she-- she LANDS ON IT with one foot, on the EDGE of its bakc, without toppling it. Somehow.

From that precarious position she somersaults forward and lands near Staren, leaning in and planting both fists on her sides to stare at him. "We're going to have to talk later, but for now..." A smile. "Amazing work!"

Staren flashes Breeze a smile, though he looks concerned about the mention of having to have a talk. Oh well. He'll have to deal with that bridge when he comes to it. He smiles again at the compliment. "Thanks!"

Twilight looks over toward Breeze when she speaks, then her eyes widen at the display of acrobatics. "Oh my!" she says in amazement. "That was impressive!" Twilight then looks back to Staren and smiles. "Good work, by the way. It is so amazing that you were able to transfer your mind into a different body!" She gives Staren another hug. "I hope you won't ever have to use it, of course, but it is an...impressive step forward."

Staren nods. Today is a very huggy day! "Yes... Recent experiences made clear the importance of being prepared for the unpleasant. ...Thanks, again, for not..." he looks away. "Thinking this was monstrous, or playing god, or whatever. A lot of people... don't like the idea of doing things so unnatural. I'm sure I've told you my opinions on such issues, but... they don't make me many friends."

Noticing the twitch in Staren's expression, Breeze grins mischeviously. "Nothing to be worried about, just things that need to be said." This is said as she hops back into the chair with a mighty backflip, apparently just because she can, and again... somehow doesn't topple the chair.

The winged woman flashes a smile over aT Twilight! "Thank you!"

But she frowns at Staren. "... well, that's just going to be that. It took me decades sometimes to win trust from some backwater, superstitious folks."

Staren tilts his head. Things that need to be said? He nods to Breeze. "You were the first, actually, to understand once I explained my support of the unnatural. Morg didn't need me to explain it to him, of course."

Twilight hesitates. "Well...I cannot say I am comfortable with it, but...I can see the good that can come from it." she says as she releases the hug. she says, then looks to Breeze before back at Staren. "The unnatural is anything that allows us to control our environment."

"I was chosen by the Unconquered Sun--" Breeze begins, folding her arms and standing proud with wings outstretched. "To use the tools of brilliance, knowledge, and innovation to bring justice, health, enlightenment, and comfort to a world of needless suffering... the world 'unnatural' has a lot narrower meaning to me than the paranoia of most people."

Staren nods a little. "You can at least understand what I'm trying to do here. Friends don't have to agree or be comfortable with _everything_. And... yes, you get it right away. Unnatural isn't bad. I suppose someone from a world where people make the weather and the seasons themselves would see that as common sense, though." He nods to Breeze. "Most people mean 'different from what I grew up with', really. They don't recognize that the cities and societies they live in and the technology that makes their lifestyle possible were once just as unnatural to people of earlier times."

Twilight nods to Staren. "I see. Then, you should probably not go around announcing you can successfully copy yourself into another body." she says in a teasing tone, offering a soft smile. "It would probably benefit the multiverse if they realized that almost all of civilization is unnatural."

Staren nods. "Well... that is why I contacted you all privately. And yes, it would, but... people won't. Talking with the few who are not confused on the issue goes much more smoothly... it's always a pleasure talking to you." he smiles back.

"... you make a really good point." Breeze remarks, surprise evident in her voice as she turns to peek over at the Pony. "You know, that's something I hadn't even thought of before, and I'm prob/ably centuries your elder."

Staren blinks. "You continue to be amazing. Hey, any ideas how we could _get_ people to realize that? Or is it truly beyond hope?"

Twilight blinks as well when Breeze says that, then smiles a bit shyly. "W-well...getting them to realize it may be as easy as simply pointing it out. Most people are rational to some degree. It is only the most closed minded that words alone will not reach." she says, then sighs. "Getting people to accept it by extention accept unconventional forms of research that do not impede on any rights but still walk a line that most would prefer not be walked...well, that may never happen. Research that stretches boundries so greatly is probably better done in secret. I can only imagine what the Space Wolves might think of this lab and the equipment and research herein."

Staren sighs. "Somehow, I doubt that simply pointing out that civilization is unnatural will work. They'll argue it isn't, because they grew up with it. They'll argue that the level of civilization they're used to is a natural evolution, possibly even the intent of their deity of choice, but that anything else is unnatural. And... the Space Wolves don't know. I take it I should not tell them, then..."

Twilight nods lightly. "I am not certain, but they seem to persecute anything that is not in line with their All-Father's teachings. They may not attack you, but they may find your work to be inappropriate, which could lead to misunderstandings." she says, then sighs softly. "I hope I am wrong."

Twilight then smiles. "I should be going. I am sure Spike is starting to worry. And it is about his bedtime anyway." She hugs Staren again. "I am glad you are alright." she says, then clops toward the teleporter.

Staren nods. "I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the warning. I honestly don't intend people outside the Union to find out about this... Seeya 'round, Twilight."

"That pony has a good amount of sense!" Breeze comments when Twilight Sparkle has left. She reaches out again, this time... to gently flick Staren on the nose. Much, much more gently. "flesh feels a lot better."

Staren chuckles. "I guess that's what they mean by horse sense! Heheheh..." He blinks at the flick. "Well. They do make robot bodies that feel like flesh. Like I said, a clearly robot body made for a better demonstration..." He lies back on the table and sighs. "I'm sorry the world had to be such, that just getting the technology working, and testing it, to make sure I _can't die_, is such a huge deal. I must visit Rebecca's world sometime... see what it does to a culture, when this is everyday and normal." He turns his head to look at Breeze again. "You have to admit, you can't really begrudge me immortality when you've lived hundreds of years and been granted a body with supernatural toughness... I've always had to rely on what technology I could take. The unnatural, as we said..."

"Exaltations were made by the Gods and the Great Maker Autocthon, who wished for the ultimate weapons and champions to tear down the other Primordials from their thrones in Heaven." Breeze points out. "In the end there's not a whole lot of difference between this... trickery of yours to get around your limitations, and what happened to me. The idea that it's a divine blessing doesn't somehow put it in a 'more right' category, you know!" Breeze points out with a faint giggle. "To build on the horse sense."

Staren looks back up at the ceiling, and puts his hands behind his head. He listens, and smiles wider as Breeze finishes speaking. "It's good that you realize that. We need to hang out more often, Breeze. Talk more. I don't get to talk with reasonable people much. It's a very pleasant change. You and Twilight..."

"Of course--" She reaches out to wiggle a finger before the boy's eyes, and twitches it back and forth in a 'nuh uh!' gesture. "If you were to say that to people with great faith in the gods, like Huang Dao, or other strong Convictions, they'll see you as a heretic or an enemy. The way they see it's pretty different, and there's a lot to be said about powerful Convictions. ... I don't think you should blow off their ideals either, just because they don't make sense to you. It's kept them alive and successful, after all." The hand's withdrawn... and she grins at Staren's expression. "Heh, first time I've seen YOU so relaxed, oddly enough."

The 'party' as such breaking up, Staren's parents left to show Twilight to the teleporter, and have gone to tend to their own things. They can read the ego bridge's log remotely if they want, anyway. Staren watches the finger. "What good are convictions, if they don't stand for something that brings people good? I want people to lead better lives. I want to help people. That's compassion. Conviction's only good in support of it -- sometimes you have to shut up and multiply... but it's only because sometimes, by following reason instead of emotion, you can save more people. A lot of people can be kept alive and successful, by greed and dishonesty and taking advantage of others. And I'm relaxed because you've shown, before and today, that you can understand. I don't have to be on my guard, worry that if I say the wrong thing you'll jump down my throat. I can be me. I'm glad to have such friends, even if I only have three of them. Morg, you, and Twilight... Pfffffffhhh." He lets out a long breath, then stares out into space. "I wonder if most people are themselves all the time, or if they have their own fears that others would see them as monstrous? Well... I guess I don't know for certain about you until we've had that 'talk' you mentioned." He looks back at Breeze. "Wanna have it now?"

Breeze shines a mischevious smile and shakes her head. "Later. The things necessary to get the point across the right way aren't here. But well, you have NO idea Staren. Everyone does that. It's called trying to get along with society. Idea kind of drives me nuts, but I was raised a lot differently than most..."

Staren sits up. "Well, it sucks." He hops off the table and paces. "As you say, constantly having to hide my thoughts, less I be seen as a heretic or an enemy. Having to track the falsehoods and politenesses expected, instead of just being honest. It's a frikking pain in the ass."

Staren stops and stares into the distance again. "When I began to think you were really dead and I would never see you again... I knew this tragedy could never be allowed again. I couldn't put this sort of thing off. I called Morg, and asked if we could find Wire's old brain-uploading technology. Make it work right. Then Rebecca came and made it academic. I worked for weeks to study this technology, learn how it worked, learn how to adapt it to other people." He resumes pacing, gesturing with his hands now for emphasis. "But what now? Okay, I've secured _my_ immortality, but those other people... the lesson of death is so quickly forgotten, the terrible truth so quickly turned away from... I can't save the rest of the Union." he sighs and shakes his head. "They can't be helped, sometimes. It's hard to care about the war, when you're worried that saying the wrong thing could make your allies turn on you at any moment. Then again, Loki got kicked out in less time than it took me to annoy people, so I guess there's something they see as worse than me. Then again, I never pretended to be a monster to prove a point." He sits on the table again.

(OOC: And then everyone fell asleep.)

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200911/Upload

2015-06-02T04:58:19Z

Staren:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2012/09/20
|Location=Staren's Lab
|Synopsis=Staren believes he's finally found a way to conquer death. But it relies on mind-transferring technology which must be tested first...
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=Staren, Twilight Sparkle, Maya
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|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=
}}
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Multiverse Crisis - Thursday, September 20, 2012, 9:44 PM
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Staren's Lab <SL>(#1645Ten)
Staren's house itself is normal enough, containing a living room, a kitchen, a rec room, a basement with washer and dryer (such chores are done by robots of course), an office, a bathroom, one bedroom for Staren and one for his parents. However, hidden lifts can take one to the huge underground rooms filled with computer systems, maintenance and assembly robots, a supply of raw materials, and innumerable machines large and small.

The recorded message gave directions and a time -- Staren's father waits on the platform, currently in the lawn in front of Staren's house, that the mecha normally launches from. A middle-aged catboy with similar clothes, and darker brown hair streaked with grey. The city of Lazlo and its lights glow in the distance. He greets Staren's friends by name, and once they've assembled, the platform begins to move down like a massive elevator, another massive panel sliding into place above to cover the hole as the lift moves down to the lab, a massive underground room filled with shelves and machines.

Twilight's eyes widen as such a large platform begins sinking down into the ground, and her eyes widen even more at seeing the laboratory. "Oh my. And I thought my lab was advanced!" she says as she stands near the edge of the platform, waiting for it to stop.

Dell wasn't exactly sure what to expect when Staren gave him an invitation to come to his house. Well, actually, he had an /idea/ of what to expect, but Staren didn't /specify/, so there's always some doubt. In any case, when he reaches the boy's house and greets his father, he notices that they're not alone.

"Er...howdy." he says to Twilight, looking her over as if not quite sure what to make of her. "Yer one o' those, er, magic talkin' ponies, right?" And suddenly the ground underneath him starts sinking into the ground, causing him to drop down in a panic before he realizes what's going on. As he stands up, dusting himself off with an embarrassed blush on his face, he looks around.

"So...where is the boy, anyway? I got a letter sayin' he wanted ta show me somethin'."

Maya had arrived isn't wearing her normal post apoch fashion she looks almost like a normal earth gar barring the visable tattoos on her arm and the clearly natural blue hair she's got as she rides down the lift. "No idea where he's got to Dell..."

Untamed Breeze isn't so comfortable with this craziness that Staren's pulling,. Body transfers? Risky as hell, who can say what might go wrong? So when she arrives at the given coordiantes, it's with the mightiest frown to show, wings folded over her shoulders and mood quite evident.

Unhappy.

She beelines near Maya. "I've got some ideas... hope this works out alright..."

Staren's father chuckles to Twilight. "Well... This is three decades of work, and I had some help starting out." He turns and looks out over the lab as the platform lowers. The three mecha (metallic grey, red, and blue) can be seen not far away. "We're getting to that, Mr. Conagher. Nice to meet you all by the way, I'm Staren's father." He offers to shake hands, or hand-and-hoof, with anyone who wishes.

The lift reaches the ground level and Staren's father walks off, leading the party through the lab. Silence is awkward. He talks to fill it. "Obviously, we wouldn't allow him to do this without a lot of safety and testing. But you probably would have been bored by that, so it's already done... Well, he can explain himself. Here we go." In a clearing of sorts between the shelves of gadgets and computers, there are several chairs, something like an MRI machine that an unconscious Staren is lying in, and a table next to it with some sort of humanoid robot -- Obviously metal, painted white and sea green divided down the middle, with the colors on opposite sides on the head, with half of the upper head made of some tough clear material, showing the mechanical brain within. The eyes look more like some kind of lights, though they're currently off.

Staren's mother is in one of the chairs, with a black-furred, rabbit-size creature in her lap. Rabi the cabbit looks at the approaching group curiously. Staren's mom nods a greeting, but before she can say anything, a holographic Staren appears in front of them.

"Greetings! ...Man, I hate recordings, but... It seemed like the best way to do this. Before anyone gets mad and tries to put a stop to this -- It's already begun, and will be finishing at any moment, and I've taken every safety precaution I can. I really mean that, I've been analyzing this technology and running tests since days after Viridian Sunrise was defeated."

"For those of you who haven't guessed... You are, I hope, about to witness the first successful, reliable, repeatable mind transfer to another body! That robot lying there on the table." He gestures to it. "First of all, to address concerns: This process is non-destructive and there is no risk of accidentally destroying my mind instead. If the transfer fails my original body can be revived with me still in it. In fact the plan is to put me _back_ in it when we're done, but I'll get to that. I didn't invite you here to see the whole procedure because it would be long, awkward waiting. This machine takes like a half-hour to copy me. Now you might ask, why not just use the copy that resides in my cortical stack? Well, as a security measure, there's no way to access it without surgically, or not-so-surgically, removing it from me, and a little inconvenience seems worth it for making it harder for anyone to, oh, steal me, or destroy the backup. So, we're making a new scan. I've been sedated, of course, so that I won't be conscious for the transfer -- that would raise issues I don't want to deal with, after all."

Holo-Staren rubs the back of his neck. "Ahh... I hope not too many of you are all pissed at me, now. Well, I'll find out soon enough. The scan should finish any moment now -- once it's done, downloading my brain into the robot body will take almost no time. See you on the other side!" he disappears.

Maya has been scouting or more correcly helping with wedding related thing given she's unlikely to have her own kids given how her lovelife's gone then agian it seems her world isn't aging so who the hell knows with her. She does howrver pause at Breeze "Oh What do thou think he's doing?" She pauses at the message "Whelp Thanaotos may be getting annoyed soon and i'll have to hear all about it." she doesn't explain any more than that.

Twilight blinks at Dell as he hits the deck, then giggles softly as he gets back up before she smiles. "Yes, though you could probably save yourself some time and effort by refering to us as Equestrians. I am Twilight Sparkle. And you are?" she says before looking to Maya and Breeze. "It is worrisome, I'll admit, but...Staren seems quite capable. I am certain he would not put himself at risk unnecessarily."

Once they have reached the bottom, Twilight's trust in Staren seems well-placed. She moves to one of the seats and hops up, seating herself just like any human. As she listens to Staren's speech, she gets a bit of a disturbed look. But, she decides to wait until Staren is revived to say anything.

Strolling in with others only to hear about THIS.. that Staren's already gone off the dep end, Breeze clenches her teeth. Really, what cAn she say to that? All she can do now is look towards the prepared body with INCREDIBLE SUSPICION.

"No idea who that is, Maya, but this had better work or I'm going to be very pissed. So many things that could go WRONG..." She has given both the parents a rather worried look - and this is a person who is CENTURIES OLD and she's worried about this. She's someone who knows the things that are worth worrying about beyond just paranoia!

"I don't suppose the rest of you--" She peers at the Pony and Dell. "Know the story that I do about this?"

Dell shakes Staren's father's hand and introduces himself, then, apart from some greetings and introductions to the others in their group, remains silent as the lift moves down into Staren's lab. He quietly follows Staren's father, listening to his speech as he admires the giant robots. He makes a note to ask about those later, and maybe the possibility of getting one for himself...

But when they come to the clearing, his eye is drawn toward the MRI and the table, more specifically the robot on the table. "I'm guessin'...that's what he's gonna put himself in?" he asks Staren's father, but the hologram pops on just then and answers his question for him. Afterwards, he turns to Breeze. "Ah, not the details, sorry miss. All I know is he got some kinda technology from another universe that lets him put his brain in a new body. I don't see how it's a problem as long as he's taken proper safety measures, but then again I'm kinda used ta havin' my consciousness transplanted inta a new body whenever I die, so maybe I jes' have a different pointa view."

Staren's dad takes a seat next to his mother, holding her hand. Yes, according to all test data and understanding of the technology, the two worst outcomes do _not_ include the death of their son. It's not that the transfer will fail that they're worried about, but what comes after... They hold a neutral expression as holo-Staren explains. Rabi hops down to sniff and bat at the hologram, but loses interest when she realizes it's not real.

The Ego Bridge beeps, and Staren's parents look at it, then at the table with the robot on it, possibly reading Augmented Reality displays noone else here can see.

Sensitive ears may pick up sounds from the robot on the table -- the high-pitched whine of electronics, very soft clicks and whirrs of optics... And then the head moves a bit, turning to look at the Ego Bridge. "Woah." The synthesized voice _sounds_ just like Staren's. He sits up, and looks down at himself. "I did it? It worked? It's not just a dream, right? No, I shouldn't be dreaming..." he holds a hand up and looks at it, then taps at his chest, making a metallic clicking.

And then he looks up and sees his friends gathered here. "It works, it works!" He sounds pretty happy about that.

Twilight sits quietly as she waits, watching and listening. She smiles softly as she watches Staren's parents. It's so cute when older couples are all lovey-dovey. Of course, they probably aren't that old, it just seems like it to a young one like Twilight.

Twilight flinches in surprise as the robot suddenly speaks. "Eep!" She blinks a few times afterward, then stands. "St-staren?" she says cautiously. "Are you alright? Were your memories and personality copied successfully?" She wants to make sure everything is okay before she tells Staren what she thinks of the experiment.

Dell watches nonetheless with bated breath, unsure of what might happen. While the effect is /similar/ to the Respawn System, the process as far as he can tell is completely different...or is it? He doesn't know, but if it's similar technology, then maybe, just maybe, the boy will come out perfectly fine and there won't be anything to worry about.

He watches.

He waits.

And when the robot finally moves and Staren's voice comes from its mouth, with nothing indicating that he's hurt or turned evil or anything, he finally lets go of that breath he was holding. "See there? Ain't nothin' ta worry about, the boy's jes' fine." he reassures the others, walking over to Staren and offering a hand to shake. "Congrats on yer success, Staren. Lemme tell ya, I was a mite worried fer a second or two, but..."

"... It works, but boy do I prefer flesh and blood." Breeze exclaims with a gasp of relief after Staren's finished getting his awareness situated. She does, in fact, sag where she stands a little, and makes a foul face. After all, this is REALLY putting her on edge with worry. Still... "Yeah, something like that!" She asides to Twilight and Dell in response, but her eyes are on Robo!Staren. and her mind is wondering just what the hell it is to have two of the same person wandering around... beyond just creepy.

Maya is here watching for a moment and she wonders just what's going on with Starens thing has it worked or will she be getting told by Thanatos, he's leading Staren on to where ever. Or pewehaops it works and she tilts her head a little bit raising an blue eyebrow as she does so and is otherwise quiet.

Staren briefly takes a slightly defensive posture -- worried that particularly pissed friends might hit him-- (although, that's more likely to hurt _them_...)

But it seems that he has nothing to fear. He smiles, "Yup, I'm me! Although I guess it would be hard to tell if I wasn't..." he swings his feet off the table, standing up -- and stumbling a little. "Woah... it's okay, I'm okay. New legs." He feels for his lack of tail and ears. "Huh..."

Parents rush to hug him, "Aww Mom, Dad, I'm fine..." "We know, we know..." They back off as a drone wheels up, carrying a full-length mirror for Staren to look in. He's surprised, then stares, then leans forward a bit, tapping his head with a finger.

/That's right. A body isn't me. A brain isn't even me -- they're just hardware. I am a program, data. All people are. Data, programs, living and dreaming and hoping and loving and caring and dying... That most think of themselves as a body, that is an artificial, or rather, unnecessary, limitation./

He then looks at his original body, unconscious and in stasis in the ego bridge, and shares a nervous look with his parents. They're not truly out of the woods safely just yet, but that bridge will be crossed _after_ he talks with his friends.

Robo-Staren turns to his friends, walking a bit unsteadily and then more naturally as he approaches them. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. First off... This is a test, to make sure that the whole thing even /works/. It's not that I want or intend to spend the rest of my life as a robot or anything. But it would suck if I was depending on this technology to revive me and then we found out that, despite all my previous tests, it didn't _actually_ work. So, other than that... hit me. I hope I haven't..." He frowns and looks away briefly, "disturbed you too much. This body can take a more normal appearance, too -- I just felt that, at least at first, it should be immediately clear that this is a robot body. I can look more like myself if that would make you more comfortable. So... any questions?" He looks between the group gathered here.

His parents wordlessly run diagnostics on the equipment, just to be extra super sure. They've already had ample opportunity to talk with him.

Twilight listens to Staren, blinking a bit as it seems he requests to be hit. She isn't going to hit him, of course. "I have a concern." Twilight starts. "If you have not actually left your body, but are copied into this new body, have you not essentially...made a new lifeform? What will you do with this now conscious robot? We cannot simply throw it away like a broken broom." she says.

Twilight looks to the unconscious original Staren, then to the new robot Staren. "After all...if I had been the experiment, would you be able to throw the new me away? I know I would not." she says, then looks to the others to see if they agree.

Dell steps back to let the family have their 'thank science our son is still alive' moment, then nods as Staren gives further explanation. "As someone who's part robot myself," he replies, rapping a nearby shelf with his right hand to make a muffled clunk sound that is most definitely not organic. "I don't imagine it'd be too troublesome, 'less a Spy tries ta sap ya or somethin'. But, well, I do miss my old, flesh and blood hand sometimes. Ya could probably replicate the nerves fer feelin' things, but it still feels a little awkward when I expect the give o' soft skin and muscle and instead get the hard inflexibility o' metal."

A pause. "Er...well, I guess mosta you here wouldn't be familiar with the feelin'. Anyway, what's it like? Seems ya need ta get used ta bein' in an unfamiliar body, but apart from that, how's it feel?"

Untamed Breeze walks right up next to Staren, reaches out... and flicks her finger right at his nose.

Well, he did ask them to hit him, and she decided to interpret it the other way.

Well, sort of. After that, she folds her arms. "Are you going to do crazy things like make lots of clones of yourself or hang out in a giant blob of goo later? Keep this to just the basics and I'll be happy, anyways... but yeah... I can see why you did it this way!"

Robo-staren stares at Twilight for a moment. The thought that anyone might look at it that way didn't even /occur/ to him. Of course he plans to go /back/ to his body! "That's why my original body is sedated and in stasis and is absolutely positively not conscious or dreaming. I went to sleep in there, and woke up in here... And after I talk with you guys and test this body, I go to sleep in here and the latest copy of me is written back into my _old_ body."

He frowns, and folds his arms. "If the rewriting process ruins my brain in the process, I have a problem, but one that I can, eventually, fix and try again -- the healing vat will repair my brain to a blank state if needed -- until I get it right. I've made sure the nanites do what they're supposed to do to tissue samples, but writing a copy of me into an organic brain is a test I simply haven't been able to do, for obvious reasons. Second-worst case scenario, I'm stuck in robots until I get the process working."

Staren looks at his body in the ego bridge. "Worst case scenario is the write not working at all and /that/ me waking up. Then we have a /worse/ problem because there would be two of me, who have the same right to continue my life. That's why I am making sure my original body doesn't wake up until I'm back in it."

Staren looks at Dell. "Actually... the interface software is very good, it feels almost natural, except for not breathing. The cameras are high-resolution, but... I can digital zoom to see the pixels if I want. Having a computer in my head is no change," he shakes his head, "since I had the cybernetics. This body should be stronger, and tougher, and heavier, but I haven't really gotten to put that to the test yet."

Robo-Staren turns to Breeze and gets flicked. He blinks. "...Pain's still on by default, but I guess I can turn it off if I want." He looks directly at her. "No, no, no! Making a bunch of myself... Then we'd have a problem, since all of me would be people who deserve to live. There is... technology that can put us back together as long as we've been independant for no more than four hours... but if that doesn't work, I have an unfixable problem. I'd rather not risk it unless it's absolutely necessary for some reason -- I honestly hadn't really _thought_ about it because I have no desire to do it. And I don't want to be goo, although I suppose I may have some occasions to try new bodies. Primarily this technology is to make sure I can survive in some form if I die, which I will still, you know, try to avoid just as before. I don't _want_ to lose my body and be stuck in a robot, it's just better than being gone forever. There may also be the occasional situation where temporarily transferring myself to another body is useful -- to fight a threat that only harms organics, for instance."

Staren scratches his neck and looks between them. "Next questions."

"Heh, figures. You an' yer future tech." Dell says, watching Staren's reactions to everything...including the neck scratching. "Even physical habits get carried over, huh? I guess it's jes' like bein' in yer original body, except...well, like ya described. Have ta say, it's more advanced than anythin' I've ever seen, an' I've seen flyin' cars."

Then, a thought. "Outta curiosity, whaddya suppose would happen if I were ta hit ya with my wrench? Or maybe punch you with the Gunslinger? Would it upgrade ya? Repair any damage you've taken? Fer that matter, how would ya come outta the Respawn System? Er, not that I want ta kill ya or anythin', jes' wonderin'."

"Well, that's a relief!" Breeze cracks a relieved grin and shares it with Maya, Twilight, and Deell, before retreating again to put some distance here between them all. "The Multiverse doesn't need ten of you running around. The rest of us might get even more confused than you would." She teases a moment later.

Twilight headshakes to Staren. "But...don't you see? Even if one of you is asleep, there are still two of you now. You yourself said you copied yourself, not that you transfered your consciousness. And you just said that if the original you woke up...there would be two yous. How is it different simply because one of you is asleep?" Twilight asks, then sighs. "I'm sorry...I guess I thought you would completely transfer yourself. But..." She looks at the sleeping Staren, then at robot Staren. "Have...I misunderstood the process?" she asks, looking up at Staren.

Maya has never met Twilight in person before untill today and she has to agree with the Pony's statement. "That is a point and if you pull the plug on the other your killing them pretty much." She seems to be lost in thought at this point.

Staren looks at Dell and raises his hands in a shrug. "Hey, this is leagues ahead of _my_ world, too. But, it was important to get and learn how to use. It will save lives, one day." He tilts his head as the Engineer thinks of possibilities. "I don't know. Does your wrench normally repair things on impact? We can try it, just don't hit my head please." He shakes his head and raises a hand dismissively at the 'not that I want to kill you' bit "It's fine, I wonder things that make people uncomfortable all the time, I understand completely. Wondering about something unsafe doesn't mean yer gonna _do_ it, I _know_ that... I hope everyone else here does too." He looks around.

And settles on Breeze, smiling at her relief and nodding.

Twilight makes him look a bit more uncomfortable. "Err..." He looks at the other him. "As long as that body is in stasis, the copy of 'me' in that brain isn't running. It's the same as a dormant copy stored in a computer, like the backups I've made for the emergency case where my body and stack are unrecoverable. There is no seperate experience..."

He strokes his chin, thinking of another way to explain it. "Okay, let's look at it this way: If he wakes up, experiences anything, then he starts having experiences I haven't. But right now... I remember, I've experienced, every single thing he has, and more. I'm a future version of what's in that brain, rather than an alternate version. So, nothing is lost if we overwrite that instance with the new, updated me from now. I went to sleep in there, woke up in here, and I'm gonna go back."

"But if we woke him up... then he'd have new experiences. There would be a version of me that went to sleep and woke up in here, and a version of me that went to sleep and woke up in there. We'd be different, and destroying either one of us would lose something unique forever. But right now... the only _consciousness_ that remembers being me is in here. And as long as there's only one active me at a time, or rather, one me experiencing new things, and all other copies are dormant copies of earlier versions of that me, of which _one_ will be revived _only_ in the event that I am destroyed... we should be good. Did that make sense?" He looks to Twilight. "Remember, I planned all this, and went to sleep knowing this was the plan in the first place."

Staren adds, "For reference, there's _only_ still a copy in that brain this time because we haven't proven writing a new me into an organic brain works yet. That will not be the case in any future transfers -- if everything goes as planned, and yes, I know that's an if... then in the future there will never be any risk of the wrong me 'waking up' while another me is still around. Well, barring some rather catastrophic failures of the backup system, but if something's gone that wrong then I probably have worse problems to deal with."

"Well, can't say I know much about computers. They still ain't very advanced in my world, so that analogy doesn't really work fer me...no offense." Dell says, lifting his helmet to scratch his head a bit. "Anyhow, my wrench is a Build-O-Matic. Anythin' it hits, as long as it's mechanical an' I have spare metal, will get upgraded or repaired dependin' on the circumstances. Least, that's how it works where I'm from."

He plucks his wrench from his toolbelt and raises it. "Beggin' yer pardon. You said ya could turn off yer pain receptors, right? Now might be a good time." And with that, he swings the wrench down at Staren's arm, pretending for the moment that it's one of his sentries.

Twilight's hooves shuffle uncomfortably, but she nods. "I think I understand. It's just...hard not to think there are more than one Staren now." she says, but smiles softly afterword. "But, I trust you, so if you say that there is not a unique individual in danger, then...that is good enough for me." she says.

Just before Dell swings his wrench! "Hey! What are you doing?!" she exclaims, her horn glowing quickly to try and stop that wrench from impacting. She doesn't know that he can fix things by hitting them!

"Either way you swing it, it's plain creepy even to me. And I've done things you'd think of as creepy that you'll NEVER imagine, Staren." Breeze announces with a finger pointed at him. "Right, Maya?" Yes, she's going to ask the Junker, but she doesn't wait on a response. instead she folds her arms, cocks her head, and stares a little. "I mean it, it's creepy just thinking about multiple splits of the same person."

Twilight hesitates, then nods lightly in agreement. "..it...is a bit unsettling. However, these experiments could lead to wonderful medical advances."

Dell suddenly finds his wrench being forcibly stopped by pink...sparkly...light. He looks back at the little purple unicorn, adjusting his goggles with his free hand as he stares at her horn. "I'd heard y'all had magic, but I didn't believe it until now. Guess I still have a lot ta learn." he says, then, in a more reassuring voice, "It's alright, miss. I ain't gonna hurt him. This wrench is specially built ta /fix/ machines by hittin' 'em, an' even make them stronger in some cases. Worst thing that'll happen is he'll get a dent."

Staren shrugs to Dell. Wait, upgrades? How would that even work? The wrench is going to interact with a robot body, very complex, that it has never encountered before, and give it upgrades that work perfectly and include the software needed to control them? That's practically MAGIC! "Huh. Interest--woah!" He holds up his arm to block, but he doesn't actually recall _how_ to shut off pain off the top of his head! But then Twilight grabs the wrench with magic.

Tense moment over, he nods to Breeze. "Yeah, well, like I said... I never intend to have two of me around, I don't wanna deal with it either." And then he smiles at Twilight. "Thank you. I was worried that some of you might... Not accept this, but... I had to know. If something went wrong, I wanted you to know what had happened, and..." he scratches his head. "Well, if someone thought this kind of thing was evil, better to find out sooner rather than later. Thank you... I'm glad you're still my friends!"

He steps forward to hug Twilight -- maybe a little too hard for a split second before he relaxes, being extra gentle as he's unsure of his robot strength. When he steps back, he comments, "Oh, maybe this will make things less weird..." and turns a little circle positioned like a belt buckle on his robot body, which is briefly engulfed in light... and then there appears to stand a human version of Staren, in his normal clothes. He looks at his hands. "Nifty."

Maya says "I can always call up Thanatos if you like." She notes palming a few fate cards she looks at Staren for a moment for a moment. "I hope that so, its your own choice and your life Staren." maya's being quite diplomatic all things considered and she thinks more and more about what the technology could mean from Bec's world. she thinks of old reports of a race of clones and a race of transfered minds with powerful nanotech building abilities and the ability to copy someone's mind. She shakes her head wondeing if this technology could lead to more carnage like they sowed.

Twilight blinks at Dell's explanation, and the purple sparkly glow fades from his wrench. "Oh...that's incredible, if it actually works!" she says with a smile. She blinks as she is hugged by robot Staren, then smiles and hugs back. Then...he activates a holoemitter or something and her eyes widen. "Oh my! Some sort of disguise spell?" she says, looking Staren over.

Once that's done, she smiles. "Well, it seems the experiment was a grand success so far. But, we still need to see if you can integrate back into your other body without any problems. You probably shouldn't stay in this body too long if it isn't meant to be permanent."

"Something like that." Staren replies, re: Disguise Spell. Re: Not staying long... "You think so? I figured I should find out more about being in this body, just for curiousity's sake..." He looks between them. "...But I suppose, if this works, I can do that later. Not that I intend to do this routinely, in any case. You guys want me to go back now? I'm afraid there isn't much to watch... The Ego Bridge will take awhile. I could give you videogames or books or something, if you want me to do it now while you're here..."

"By Yu-Shan, do you really have to? What if it being metal and so on messes up your thought balance? Brains are really delicate things, the body doesn't work right without them even if the soul does." Breeze exclaims, aggravated, wings shaking and ruffling irritably.

"Well, I've tested it more times than I can count on machines in my own world, an' it's worked fine on them." Dell says to Twilight, but lowers his wrench anyway. "Still, might be better ta wait until yer back in yer own body before I try it. Dunno what kinda effect it'll have on a machine with a living consciousness."

And then, with a somewhat panicked expression, he suddenly checks his watch. "Oh, dang blang dammit! I completely fergot, we have a mission scheduled fer tonight!" he says, then looks back up at Staren. "Where's the closest exit? The Administrator ain't gonna appreciate me bein' late."

Twilight once again seems to agree with Breeze. "It may be tempting to stay that way for a while, but your mind is surely not used to being in this sort of body. I would suggest returning to your normal body as soon as possible." she says with a gently, but urgent, smile.

As Dell declares he must leave, she waves a hoof. "The lift is probably the only way back to the surface."

"If it does mess me up, that's something we need to know, isn't it? By Rebecca's account it doesn't, though." He looks to Dell and extends a hand to shake. "Thanks for coming, man. And we'll have you out of here in a jif. Just follow the drone and stand under the giant raygun, it's a teleporter, we'll send you back to the warpgate."

A little maintenance drone does roll up to Dell, and then off between the shelves.

The teleporter totally does look like a giant freaking raygun pointed at a large departure pad. The Engineer is probably fine with things like that, though.

Staren, meanwhile, walks back to the table, laying down on it. "Hmm. Not comfortable. But I guess I don't really need a bed. I can just put myself to sleep." His parents rush over from the ego bridge to hold his hand. He looks up at them, they nod, and then he closes his eyes and goes limp. They set the hand down on the table and rush back to the Ego Bridge.

"I hate waiting." Staren's father mutters, tapping his foot and folding his arms. "But at this point, it's all automated. Either everything goes right, or... Something goes wrong."

The MRI-like Ego Bridge holding Staren inside is a sealed container, and fills up with some kind of gel, supplying more than enough nanomachines to keep his body healthy and alive and begin the delicate work of rewriting his brain. His parents make sure everything is running smoothly before returning to their seats. Some prepared snacks (cookies, sandwiches) are offered to their guests, as is conversation -- other than that, they read, although no book or computer is needed because of their implants.

As the hour-long process nears its end, Staren's parents become more antsy, watching the machine.

And then it beeps, and the the gel drains away (it doesn't even leave him or his clothes wet...) and he's pushed out of the MRI-like portion of the machine. And he begins to stir, his parents watching uneasily, sitting up and looking at his hand, wiggling his fingers. And then grinning wide before raising his fists in the air. "I did it! It works!" That gets him another hug, before parents step back to let him talk to friends. "You did. Congratulations...!"

Twilight Sparkle almost always has a few books with her, and so she is settled comfortably on the floor nearby, reading through the latest Daring Do adventure novel. She has brought enough books that Maya and Breeze can read if they want. And if they are still around.

When the machine stops, she looks up, then stands and slips her book back into her saddlebags before she approaches the machine and the Staren emerging from it. She gallops up and hugs Staren. "You're alright! I was a bit worried!" she says, smiling as she steps back, looking up at Staren.

Staren is kind of expecting a Twi-hug! He turns towards her as she gallops and hugs back. "I was... well, I was unconscious, but until this moment occured, I was worried it wouldn't. Returning to my body was the part I could least prepare for going wrong." His breathing becomes more forced for a moment as he pays attention to it. "It's good to be back... But this is all a miracle of technology, if you think about it. Think... how many people actually get the experience of transferring to another body, and back? And of course, the implications... We now know for certain, as long as someone can recover my stack," he taps the back of his neck, "I will never die. And even if I do... you will not have to lose me." He smiles and hugs Twilight again. Before meeting her gaze. "That's good, right?"

Untamed Breeze has been anxiously sitting in a chair-- BACKWARDS, due to her wings-- and apparently sleeping or otherwise meditating. It's hard to say, because both wings covered her torso.

But when the boy genius rises, she lifts a wing and peeks through it, eyes cracking open-- and a grin spreading on her face. "Hah! ... now isn't THAT a relief." Rocketing up from the chair, she-- she LANDS ON IT with one foot, on the EDGE of its bakc, without toppling it. Somehow.

From that precarious position she somersaults forward and lands near Staren, leaning in and planting both fists on her sides to stare at him. "We're going to have to talk later, but for now..." A smile. "Amazing work!"

Staren flashes Breeze a smile, though he looks concerned about the mention of having to have a talk. Oh well. He'll have to deal with that bridge when he comes to it. He smiles again at the compliment. "Thanks!"

Twilight looks over toward Breeze when she speaks, then her eyes widen at the display of acrobatics. "Oh my!" she says in amazement. "That was impressive!" Twilight then looks back to Staren and smiles. "Good work, by the way. It is so amazing that you were able to transfer your mind into a different body!" She gives Staren another hug. "I hope you won't ever have to use it, of course, but it is an...impressive step forward."

Staren nods. Today is a very huggy day! "Yes... Recent experiences made clear the importance of being prepared for the unpleasant. ...Thanks, again, for not..." he looks away. "Thinking this was monstrous, or playing god, or whatever. A lot of people... don't like the idea of doing things so unnatural. I'm sure I've told you my opinions on such issues, but... they don't make me many friends."

Noticing the twitch in Staren's expression, Breeze grins mischeviously. "Nothing to be worried about, just things that need to be said." This is said as she hops back into the chair with a mighty backflip, apparently just because she can, and again... somehow doesn't topple the chair.

The winged woman flashes a smile over aT Twilight! "Thank you!"

But she frowns at Staren. "... well, that's just going to be that. It took me decades sometimes to win trust from some backwater, superstitious folks."

Staren tilts his head. Things that need to be said? He nods to Breeze. "You were the first, actually, to understand once I explained my support of the unnatural. Morg didn't need me to explain it to him, of course."

Twilight hesitates. "Well...I cannot say I am comfortable with it, but...I can see the good that can come from it." she says as she releases the hug. she says, then looks to Breeze before back at Staren. "The unnatural is anything that allows us to control our environment."

"I was chosen by the Unconquered Sun--" Breeze begins, folding her arms and standing proud with wings outstretched. "To use the tools of brilliance, knowledge, and innovation to bring justice, health, enlightenment, and comfort to a world of needless suffering... the world 'unnatural' has a lot narrower meaning to me than the paranoia of most people."

Staren nods a little. "You can at least understand what I'm trying to do here. Friends don't have to agree or be comfortable with _everything_. And... yes, you get it right away. Unnatural isn't bad. I suppose someone from a world where people make the weather and the seasons themselves would see that as common sense, though." He nods to Breeze. "Most people mean 'different from what I grew up with', really. They don't recognize that the cities and societies they live in and the technology that makes their lifestyle possible were once just as unnatural to people of earlier times."

Twilight nods to Staren. "I see. Then, you should probably not go around announcing you can successfully copy yourself into another body." she says in a teasing tone, offering a soft smile. "It would probably benefit the multiverse if they realized that almost all of civilization is unnatural."

Staren nods. "Well... that is why I contacted you all privately. And yes, it would, but... people won't. Talking with the few who are not confused on the issue goes much more smoothly... it's always a pleasure talking to you." he smiles back.

"... you make a really good point." Breeze remarks, surprise evident in her voice as she turns to peek over at the Pony. "You know, that's something I hadn't even thought of before, and I'm prob/ably centuries your elder."

Staren blinks. "You continue to be amazing. Hey, any ideas how we could _get_ people to realize that? Or is it truly beyond hope?"

Twilight blinks as well when Breeze says that, then smiles a bit shyly. "W-well...getting them to realize it may be as easy as simply pointing it out. Most people are rational to some degree. It is only the most closed minded that words alone will not reach." she says, then sighs. "Getting people to accept it by extention accept unconventional forms of research that do not impede on any rights but still walk a line that most would prefer not be walked...well, that may never happen. Research that stretches boundries so greatly is probably better done in secret. I can only imagine what the Space Wolves might think of this lab and the equipment and research herein."

Staren sighs. "Somehow, I doubt that simply pointing out that civilization is unnatural will work. They'll argue it isn't, because they grew up with it. They'll argue that the level of civilization they're used to is a natural evolution, possibly even the intent of their deity of choice, but that anything else is unnatural. And... the Space Wolves don't know. I take it I should not tell them, then..."

Twilight nods lightly. "I am not certain, but they seem to persecute anything that is not in line with their All-Father's teachings. They may not attack you, but they may find your work to be inappropriate, which could lead to misunderstandings." she says, then sighs softly. "I hope I am wrong."

Twilight then smiles. "I should be going. I am sure Spike is starting to worry. And it is about his bedtime anyway." She hugs Staren again. "I am glad you are alright." she says, then clops toward the teleporter.

Staren nods. "I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the warning. I honestly don't intend people outside the Union to find out about this... Seeya 'round, Twilight."

"That pony has a good amount of sense!" Breeze comments when Twilight Sparkle has left. She reaches out again, this time... to gently flick Staren on the nose. Much, much more gently. "flesh feels a lot better."

Staren chuckles. "I guess that's what they mean by horse sense! Heheheh..." He blinks at the flick. "Well. They do make robot bodies that feel like flesh. Like I said, a clearly robot body made for a better demonstration..." He lies back on the table and sighs. "I'm sorry the world had to be such, that just getting the technology working, and testing it, to make sure I _can't die_, is such a huge deal. I must visit Rebecca's world sometime... see what it does to a culture, when this is everyday and normal." He turns his head to look at Breeze again. "You have to admit, you can't really begrudge me immortality when you've lived hundreds of years and been granted a body with supernatural toughness... I've always had to rely on what technology I could take. The unnatural, as we said..."

"Exaltations were made by the Gods and the Great Maker Autocthon, who wished for the ultimate weapons and champions to tear down the other Primordials from their thrones in Heaven." Breeze points out. "In the end there's not a whole lot of difference between this... trickery of yours to get around your limitations, and what happened to me. The idea that it's a divine blessing doesn't somehow put it in a 'more right' category, you know!" Breeze points out with a faint giggle. "To build on the horse sense."

Staren looks back up at the ceiling, and puts his hands behind his head. He listens, and smiles wider as Breeze finishes speaking. "It's good that you realize that. We need to hang out more often, Breeze. Talk more. I don't get to talk with reasonable people much. It's a very pleasant change. You and Twilight..."

"Of course--" She reaches out to wiggle a finger before the boy's eyes, and twitches it back and forth in a 'nuh uh!' gesture. "If you were to say that to people with great faith in the gods, like Huang Dao, or other strong Convictions, they'll see you as a heretic or an enemy. The way they see it's pretty different, and there's a lot to be said about powerful Convictions. ... I don't think you should blow off their ideals either, just because they don't make sense to you. It's kept them alive and successful, after all." The hand's withdrawn... and she grins at Staren's expression. "Heh, first time I've seen YOU so relaxed, oddly enough."

The 'party' as such breaking up, Staren's parents left to show Twilight to the teleporter, and have gone to tend to their own things. They can read the ego bridge's log remotely if they want, anyway. Staren watches the finger. "What good are convictions, if they don't stand for something that brings people good? I want people to lead better lives. I want to help people. That's compassion. Conviction's only good in support of it -- sometimes you have to shut up and multiply... but it's only because sometimes, by following reason instead of emotion, you can save more people. A lot of people can be kept alive and successful, by greed and dishonesty and taking advantage of others. And I'm relaxed because you've shown, before and today, that you can understand. I don't have to be on my guard, worry that if I say the wrong thing you'll jump down my throat. I can be me. I'm glad to have such friends, even if I only have three of them. Morg, you, and Twilight... Pfffffffhhh." He lets out a long breath, then stares out into space. "I wonder if most people are themselves all the time, or if they have their own fears that others would see them as monstrous? Well... I guess I don't know for certain about you until we've had that 'talk' you mentioned." He looks back at Breeze. "Wanna have it now?"

Breeze shines a mischevious smile and shakes her head. "Later. The things necessary to get the point across the right way aren't here. But well, you have NO idea Staren. Everyone does that. It's called trying to get along with society. Idea kind of drives me nuts, but I was raised a lot differently than most..."

Staren sits up. "Well, it sucks." He hops off the table and paces. "As you say, constantly having to hide my thoughts, less I be seen as a heretic or an enemy. Having to track the falsehoods and politenesses expected, instead of just being honest. It's a frikking pain in the ass."

Staren stops and stares into the distance again. "When I began to think you were really dead and I would never see you again... I knew this tragedy could never be allowed again. I couldn't put this sort of thing off. I called Morg, and asked if we could find Wire's old brain-uploading technology. Make it work right. Then Rebecca came and made it academic. I worked for weeks to study this technology, learn how it worked, learn how to adapt it to other people." He resumes pacing, gesturing with his hands now for emphasis. "But what now? Okay, I've secured _my_ immortality, but those other people... the lesson of death is so quickly forgotten, the terrible truth so quickly turned away from... I can't save the rest of the Union." he sighs and shakes his head. "They can't be helped, sometimes. It's hard to care about the war, when you're worried that saying the wrong thing could make your allies turn on you at any moment. Then again, Loki got kicked out in less time than it took me to annoy people, so I guess there's something they see as worse than me. Then again, I never pretended to be a monster to prove a point." He sits on the table again.

(OOC: And then everyone fell asleep.)

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Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2012/09/20 |Location=Staren's Lab |Synopsis=Staren believes he's finally found a way to conquer death. But it relies on mind-transferring technolog..."

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|Date of Scene=2012/09/20
|Location=Staren's Lab
|Synopsis=Staren believes he's finally found a way to conquer death. But it relies on mind-transferring technology which must be tested first...
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=Staren, Twilight Sparkle
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Multiverse Crisis - Thursday, September 20, 2012, 9:44 PM
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Staren's Lab <SL>(#1645Ten)
Staren's house itself is normal enough, containing a living room, a kitchen, a rec room, a basement with washer and dryer (such chores are done by robots of course), an office, a bathroom, one bedroom for Staren and one for his parents. However, hidden lifts can take one to the huge underground rooms filled with computer systems, maintenance and assembly robots, a supply of raw materials, and innumerable machines large and small.

The recorded message gave directions and a time -- Staren's father waits on the platform, currently in the lawn in front of Staren's house, that the mecha normally launches from. A middle-aged catboy with similar clothes, and darker brown hair streaked with grey. The city of Lazlo and its lights glow in the distance. He greets Staren's friends by name, and once they've assembled, the platform begins to move down like a massive elevator, another massive panel sliding into place above to cover the hole as the lift moves down to the lab, a massive underground room filled with shelves and machines.

Twilight's eyes widen as such a large platform begins sinking down into the ground, and her eyes widen even more at seeing the laboratory. "Oh my. And I thought my lab was advanced!" she says as she stands near the edge of the platform, waiting for it to stop.

Dell wasn't exactly sure what to expect when Staren gave him an invitation to come to his house. Well, actually, he had an /idea/ of what to expect, but Staren didn't /specify/, so there's always some doubt. In any case, when he reaches the boy's house and greets his father, he notices that they're not alone.

"Er...howdy." he says to Twilight, looking her over as if not quite sure what to make of her. "Yer one o' those, er, magic talkin' ponies, right?" And suddenly the ground underneath him starts sinking into the ground, causing him to drop down in a panic before he realizes what's going on. As he stands up, dusting himself off with an embarrassed blush on his face, he looks around.

"So...where is the boy, anyway? I got a letter sayin' he wanted ta show me somethin'."

Maya had arrived isn't wearing her normal post apoch fashion she looks almost like a normal earth gar barring the visable tattoos on her arm and the clearly natural blue hair she's got as she rides down the lift. "No idea where he's got to Dell..."

Untamed Breeze isn't so comfortable with this craziness that Staren's pulling,. Body transfers? Risky as hell, who can say what might go wrong? So when she arrives at the given coordiantes, it's with the mightiest frown to show, wings folded over her shoulders and mood quite evident.

Unhappy.

She beelines near Maya. "I've got some ideas... hope this works out alright..."

Staren's father chuckles to Twilight. "Well... This is three decades of work, and I had some help starting out." He turns and looks out over the lab as the platform lowers. The three mecha (metallic grey, red, and blue) can be seen not far away. "We're getting to that, Mr. Conagher. Nice to meet you all by the way, I'm Staren's father." He offers to shake hands, or hand-and-hoof, with anyone who wishes.

The lift reaches the ground level and Staren's father walks off, leading the party through the lab. Silence is awkward. He talks to fill it. "Obviously, we wouldn't allow him to do this without a lot of safety and testing. But you probably would have been bored by that, so it's already done... Well, he can explain himself. Here we go." In a clearing of sorts between the shelves of gadgets and computers, there are several chairs, something like an MRI machine that an unconscious Staren is lying in, and a table next to it with some sort of humanoid robot -- Obviously metal, painted white and sea green divided down the middle, with the colors on opposite sides on the head, with half of the upper head made of some tough clear material, showing the mechanical brain within. The eyes look more like some kind of lights, though they're currently off.

Staren's mother is in one of the chairs, with a black-furred, rabbit-size creature in her lap. Rabi the cabbit looks at the approaching group curiously. Staren's mom nods a greeting, but before she can say anything, a holographic Staren appears in front of them.

"Greetings! ...Man, I hate recordings, but... It seemed like the best way to do this. Before anyone gets mad and tries to put a stop to this -- It's already begun, and will be finishing at any moment, and I've taken every safety precaution I can. I really mean that, I've been analyzing this technology and running tests since days after Viridian Sunrise was defeated."

"For those of you who haven't guessed... You are, I hope, about to witness the first successful, reliable, repeatable mind transfer to another body! That robot lying there on the table." He gestures to it. "First of all, to address concerns: This process is non-destructive and there is no risk of accidentally destroying my mind instead. If the transfer fails my original body can be revived with me still in it. In fact the plan is to put me _back_ in it when we're done, but I'll get to that. I didn't invite you here to see the whole procedure because it would be long, awkward waiting. This machine takes like a half-hour to copy me. Now you might ask, why not just use the copy that resides in my cortical stack? Well, as a security measure, there's no way to access it without surgically, or not-so-surgically, removing it from me, and a little inconvenience seems worth it for making it harder for anyone to, oh, steal me, or destroy the backup. So, we're making a new scan. I've been sedated, of course, so that I won't be conscious for the transfer -- that would raise issues I don't want to deal with, after all."

Holo-Staren rubs the back of his neck. "Ahh... I hope not too many of you are all pissed at me, now. Well, I'll find out soon enough. The scan should finish any moment now -- once it's done, downloading my brain into the robot body will take almost no time. See you on the other side!" he disappears.

Maya has been scouting or more correcly helping with wedding related thing given she's unlikely to have her own kids given how her lovelife's gone then agian it seems her world isn't aging so who the hell knows with her. She does howrver pause at Breeze "Oh What do thou think he's doing?" She pauses at the message "Whelp Thanaotos may be getting annoyed soon and i'll have to hear all about it." she doesn't explain any more than that.

Twilight blinks at Dell as he hits the deck, then giggles softly as he gets back up before she smiles. "Yes, though you could probably save yourself some time and effort by refering to us as Equestrians. I am Twilight Sparkle. And you are?" she says before looking to Maya and Breeze. "It is worrisome, I'll admit, but...Staren seems quite capable. I am certain he would not put himself at risk unnecessarily."

Once they have reached the bottom, Twilight's trust in Staren seems well-placed. She moves to one of the seats and hops up, seating herself just like any human. As she listens to Staren's speech, she gets a bit of a disturbed look. But, she decides to wait until Staren is revived to say anything.

Strolling in with others only to hear about THIS.. that Staren's already gone off the dep end, Breeze clenches her teeth. Really, what cAn she say to that? All she can do now is look towards the prepared body with INCREDIBLE SUSPICION.

"No idea who that is, Maya, but this had better work or I'm going to be very pissed. So many things that could go WRONG..." She has given both the parents a rather worried look - and this is a person who is CENTURIES OLD and she's worried about this. She's someone who knows the things that are worth worrying about beyond just paranoia!

"I don't suppose the rest of you--" She peers at the Pony and Dell. "Know the story that I do about this?"

Dell shakes Staren's father's hand and introduces himself, then, apart from some greetings and introductions to the others in their group, remains silent as the lift moves down into Staren's lab. He quietly follows Staren's father, listening to his speech as he admires the giant robots. He makes a note to ask about those later, and maybe the possibility of getting one for himself...

But when they come to the clearing, his eye is drawn toward the MRI and the table, more specifically the robot on the table. "I'm guessin'...that's what he's gonna put himself in?" he asks Staren's father, but the hologram pops on just then and answers his question for him. Afterwards, he turns to Breeze. "Ah, not the details, sorry miss. All I know is he got some kinda technology from another universe that lets him put his brain in a new body. I don't see how it's a problem as long as he's taken proper safety measures, but then again I'm kinda used ta havin' my consciousness transplanted inta a new body whenever I die, so maybe I jes' have a different pointa view."

Staren's dad takes a seat next to his mother, holding her hand. Yes, according to all test data and understanding of the technology, the two worst outcomes do _not_ include the death of their son. It's not that the transfer will fail that they're worried about, but what comes after... They hold a neutral expression as holo-Staren explains. Rabi hops down to sniff and bat at the hologram, but loses interest when she realizes it's not real.

The Ego Bridge beeps, and Staren's parents look at it, then at the table with the robot on it, possibly reading Augmented Reality displays noone else here can see.

Sensitive ears may pick up sounds from the robot on the table -- the high-pitched whine of electronics, very soft clicks and whirrs of optics... And then the head moves a bit, turning to look at the Ego Bridge. "Woah." The synthesized voice _sounds_ just like Staren's. He sits up, and looks down at himself. "I did it? It worked? It's not just a dream, right? No, I shouldn't be dreaming..." he holds a hand up and looks at it, then taps at his chest, making a metallic clicking.

And then he looks up and sees his friends gathered here. "It works, it works!" He sounds pretty happy about that.

Twilight sits quietly as she waits, watching and listening. She smiles softly as she watches Staren's parents. It's so cute when older couples are all lovey-dovey. Of course, they probably aren't that old, it just seems like it to a young one like Twilight.

Twilight flinches in surprise as the robot suddenly speaks. "Eep!" She blinks a few times afterward, then stands. "St-staren?" she says cautiously. "Are you alright? Were your memories and personality copied successfully?" She wants to make sure everything is okay before she tells Staren what she thinks of the experiment.

Dell watches nonetheless with bated breath, unsure of what might happen. While the effect is /similar/ to the Respawn System, the process as far as he can tell is completely different...or is it? He doesn't know, but if it's similar technology, then maybe, just maybe, the boy will come out perfectly fine and there won't be anything to worry about.

He watches.

He waits.

And when the robot finally moves and Staren's voice comes from its mouth, with nothing indicating that he's hurt or turned evil or anything, he finally lets go of that breath he was holding. "See there? Ain't nothin' ta worry about, the boy's jes' fine." he reassures the others, walking over to Staren and offering a hand to shake. "Congrats on yer success, Staren. Lemme tell ya, I was a mite worried fer a second or two, but..."

"... It works, but boy do I prefer flesh and blood." Breeze exclaims with a gasp of relief after Staren's finished getting his awareness situated. She does, in fact, sag where she stands a little, and makes a foul face. After all, this is REALLY putting her on edge with worry. Still... "Yeah, something like that!" She asides to Twilight and Dell in response, but her eyes are on Robo!Staren. and her mind is wondering just what the hell it is to have two of the same person wandering around... beyond just creepy.

Maya is here watching for a moment and she wonders just what's going on with Starens thing has it worked or will she be getting told by Thanatos, he's leading Staren on to where ever. Or pewehaops it works and she tilts her head a little bit raising an blue eyebrow as she does so and is otherwise quiet.

Staren briefly takes a slightly defensive posture -- worried that particularly pissed friends might hit him-- (although, that's more likely to hurt _them_...)

But it seems that he has nothing to fear. He smiles, "Yup, I'm me! Although I guess it would be hard to tell if I wasn't..." he swings his feet off the table, standing up -- and stumbling a little. "Woah... it's okay, I'm okay. New legs." He feels for his lack of tail and ears. "Huh..."

Parents rush to hug him, "Aww Mom, Dad, I'm fine..." "We know, we know..." They back off as a drone wheels up, carrying a full-length mirror for Staren to look in. He's surprised, then stares, then leans forward a bit, tapping his head with a finger.

/That's right. A body isn't me. A brain isn't even me -- they're just hardware. I am a program, data. All people are. Data, programs, living and dreaming and hoping and loving and caring and dying... That most think of themselves as a body, that is an artificial, or rather, unnecessary, limitation./

He then looks at his original body, unconscious and in stasis in the ego bridge, and shares a nervous look with his parents. They're not truly out of the woods safely just yet, but that bridge will be crossed _after_ he talks with his friends.

Robo-Staren turns to his friends, walking a bit unsteadily and then more naturally as he approaches them. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. First off... This is a test, to make sure that the whole thing even /works/. It's not that I want or intend to spend the rest of my life as a robot or anything. But it would suck if I was depending on this technology to revive me and then we found out that, despite all my previous tests, it didn't _actually_ work. So, other than that... hit me. I hope I haven't..." He frowns and looks away briefly, "disturbed you too much. This body can take a more normal appearance, too -- I just felt that, at least at first, it should be immediately clear that this is a robot body. I can look more like myself if that would make you more comfortable. So... any questions?" He looks between the group gathered here.

His parents wordlessly run diagnostics on the equipment, just to be extra super sure. They've already had ample opportunity to talk with him.

Twilight listens to Staren, blinking a bit as it seems he requests to be hit. She isn't going to hit him, of course. "I have a concern." Twilight starts. "If you have not actually left your body, but are copied into this new body, have you not essentially...made a new lifeform? What will you do with this now conscious robot? We cannot simply throw it away like a broken broom." she says.

Twilight looks to the unconscious original Staren, then to the new robot Staren. "After all...if I had been the experiment, would you be able to throw the new me away? I know I would not." she says, then looks to the others to see if they agree.

Dell steps back to let the family have their 'thank science our son is still alive' moment, then nods as Staren gives further explanation. "As someone who's part robot myself," he replies, rapping a nearby shelf with his right hand to make a muffled clunk sound that is most definitely not organic. "I don't imagine it'd be too troublesome, 'less a Spy tries ta sap ya or somethin'. But, well, I do miss my old, flesh and blood hand sometimes. Ya could probably replicate the nerves fer feelin' things, but it still feels a little awkward when I expect the give o' soft skin and muscle and instead get the hard inflexibility o' metal."

A pause. "Er...well, I guess mosta you here wouldn't be familiar with the feelin'. Anyway, what's it like? Seems ya need ta get used ta bein' in an unfamiliar body, but apart from that, how's it feel?"

Untamed Breeze walks right up next to Staren, reaches out... and flicks her finger right at his nose.

Well, he did ask them to hit him, and she decided to interpret it the other way.

Well, sort of. After that, she folds her arms. "Are you going to do crazy things like make lots of clones of yourself or hang out in a giant blob of goo later? Keep this to just the basics and I'll be happy, anyways... but yeah... I can see why you did it this way!"

Robo-staren stares at Twilight for a moment. The thought that anyone might look at it that way didn't even /occur/ to him. Of course he plans to go /back/ to his body! "That's why my original body is sedated and in stasis and is absolutely positively not conscious or dreaming. I went to sleep in there, and woke up in here... And after I talk with you guys and test this body, I go to sleep in here and the latest copy of me is written back into my _old_ body."

He frowns, and folds his arms. "If the rewriting process ruins my brain in the process, I have a problem, but one that I can, eventually, fix and try again -- the healing vat will repair my brain to a blank state if needed -- until I get it right. I've made sure the nanites do what they're supposed to do to tissue samples, but writing a copy of me into an organic brain is a test I simply haven't been able to do, for obvious reasons. Second-worst case scenario, I'm stuck in robots until I get the process working."

Staren looks at his body in the ego bridge. "Worst case scenario is the write not working at all and /that/ me waking up. Then we have a /worse/ problem because there would be two of me, who have the same right to continue my life. That's why I am making sure my original body doesn't wake up until I'm back in it."

Staren looks at Dell. "Actually... the interface software is very good, it feels almost natural, except for not breathing. The cameras are high-resolution, but... I can digital zoom to see the pixels if I want. Having a computer in my head is no change," he shakes his head, "since I had the cybernetics. This body should be stronger, and tougher, and heavier, but I haven't really gotten to put that to the test yet."

Robo-Staren turns to Breeze and gets flicked. He blinks. "...Pain's still on by default, but I guess I can turn it off if I want." He looks directly at her. "No, no, no! Making a bunch of myself... Then we'd have a problem, since all of me would be people who deserve to live. There is... technology that can put us back together as long as we've been independant for no more than four hours... but if that doesn't work, I have an unfixable problem. I'd rather not risk it unless it's absolutely necessary for some reason -- I honestly hadn't really _thought_ about it because I have no desire to do it. And I don't want to be goo, although I suppose I may have some occasions to try new bodies. Primarily this technology is to make sure I can survive in some form if I die, which I will still, you know, try to avoid just as before. I don't _want_ to lose my body and be stuck in a robot, it's just better than being gone forever. There may also be the occasional situation where temporarily transferring myself to another body is useful -- to fight a threat that only harms organics, for instance."

Staren scratches his neck and looks between them. "Next questions."

"Heh, figures. You an' yer future tech." Dell says, watching Staren's reactions to everything...including the neck scratching. "Even physical habits get carried over, huh? I guess it's jes' like bein' in yer original body, except...well, like ya described. Have ta say, it's more advanced than anythin' I've ever seen, an' I've seen flyin' cars."

Then, a thought. "Outta curiosity, whaddya suppose would happen if I were ta hit ya with my wrench? Or maybe punch you with the Gunslinger? Would it upgrade ya? Repair any damage you've taken? Fer that matter, how would ya come outta the Respawn System? Er, not that I want ta kill ya or anythin', jes' wonderin'."

"Well, that's a relief!" Breeze cracks a relieved grin and shares it with Maya, Twilight, and Deell, before retreating again to put some distance here between them all. "The Multiverse doesn't need ten of you running around. The rest of us might get even more confused than you would." She teases a moment later.

Twilight headshakes to Staren. "But...don't you see? Even if one of you is asleep, there are still two of you now. You yourself said you copied yourself, not that you transfered your consciousness. And you just said that if the original you woke up...there would be two yous. How is it different simply because one of you is asleep?" Twilight asks, then sighs. "I'm sorry...I guess I thought you would completely transfer yourself. But..." She looks at the sleeping Staren, then at robot Staren. "Have...I misunderstood the process?" she asks, looking up at Staren.

Maya has never met Twilight in person before untill today and she has to agree with the Pony's statement. "That is a point and if you pull the plug on the other your killing them pretty much." She seems to be lost in thought at this point.

Staren looks at Dell and raises his hands in a shrug. "Hey, this is leagues ahead of _my_ world, too. But, it was important to get and learn how to use. It will save lives, one day." He tilts his head as the Engineer thinks of possibilities. "I don't know. Does your wrench normally repair things on impact? We can try it, just don't hit my head please." He shakes his head and raises a hand dismissively at the 'not that I want to kill you' bit "It's fine, I wonder things that make people uncomfortable all the time, I understand completely. Wondering about something unsafe doesn't mean yer gonna _do_ it, I _know_ that... I hope everyone else here does too." He looks around.

And settles on Breeze, smiling at her relief and nodding.

Twilight makes him look a bit more uncomfortable. "Err..." He looks at the other him. "As long as that body is in stasis, the copy of 'me' in that brain isn't running. It's the same as a dormant copy stored in a computer, like the backups I've made for the emergency case where my body and stack are unrecoverable. There is no seperate experience..."

He strokes his chin, thinking of another way to explain it. "Okay, let's look at it this way: If he wakes up, experiences anything, then he starts having experiences I haven't. But right now... I remember, I've experienced, every single thing he has, and more. I'm a future version of what's in that brain, rather than an alternate version. So, nothing is lost if we overwrite that instance with the new, updated me from now. I went to sleep in there, woke up in here, and I'm gonna go back."

"But if we woke him up... then he'd have new experiences. There would be a version of me that went to sleep and woke up in here, and a version of me that went to sleep and woke up in there. We'd be different, and destroying either one of us would lose something unique forever. But right now... the only _consciousness_ that remembers being me is in here. And as long as there's only one active me at a time, or rather, one me experiencing new things, and all other copies are dormant copies of earlier versions of that me, of which _one_ will be revived _only_ in the event that I am destroyed... we should be good. Did that make sense?" He looks to Twilight. "Remember, I planned all this, and went to sleep knowing this was the plan in the first place."

Staren adds, "For reference, there's _only_ still a copy in that brain this time because we haven't proven writing a new me into an organic brain works yet. That will not be the case in any future transfers -- if everything goes as planned, and yes, I know that's an if... then in the future there will never be any risk of the wrong me 'waking up' while another me is still around. Well, barring some rather catastrophic failures of the backup system, but if something's gone that wrong then I probably have worse problems to deal with."

"Well, can't say I know much about computers. They still ain't very advanced in my world, so that analogy doesn't really work fer me...no offense." Dell says, lifting his helmet to scratch his head a bit. "Anyhow, my wrench is a Build-O-Matic. Anythin' it hits, as long as it's mechanical an' I have spare metal, will get upgraded or repaired dependin' on the circumstances. Least, that's how it works where I'm from."

He plucks his wrench from his toolbelt and raises it. "Beggin' yer pardon. You said ya could turn off yer pain receptors, right? Now might be a good time." And with that, he swings the wrench down at Staren's arm, pretending for the moment that it's one of his sentries.

Twilight's hooves shuffle uncomfortably, but she nods. "I think I understand. It's just...hard not to think there are more than one Staren now." she says, but smiles softly afterword. "But, I trust you, so if you say that there is not a unique individual in danger, then...that is good enough for me." she says.

Just before Dell swings his wrench! "Hey! What are you doing?!" she exclaims, her horn glowing quickly to try and stop that wrench from impacting. She doesn't know that he can fix things by hitting them!

"Either way you swing it, it's plain creepy even to me. And I've done things you'd think of as creepy that you'll NEVER imagine, Staren." Breeze announces with a finger pointed at him. "Right, Maya?" Yes, she's going to ask the Junker, but she doesn't wait on a response. instead she folds her arms, cocks her head, and stares a little. "I mean it, it's creepy just thinking about multiple splits of the same person."

Twilight hesitates, then nods lightly in agreement. "..it...is a bit unsettling. However, these experiments could lead to wonderful medical advances."

Dell suddenly finds his wrench being forcibly stopped by pink...sparkly...light. He looks back at the little purple unicorn, adjusting his goggles with his free hand as he stares at her horn. "I'd heard y'all had magic, but I didn't believe it until now. Guess I still have a lot ta learn." he says, then, in a more reassuring voice, "It's alright, miss. I ain't gonna hurt him. This wrench is specially built ta /fix/ machines by hittin' 'em, an' even make them stronger in some cases. Worst thing that'll happen is he'll get a dent."

Staren shrugs to Dell. Wait, upgrades? How would that even work? The wrench is going to interact with a robot body, very complex, that it has never encountered before, and give it upgrades that work perfectly and include the software needed to control them? That's practically MAGIC! "Huh. Interest--woah!" He holds up his arm to block, but he doesn't actually recall _how_ to shut off pain off the top of his head! But then Twilight grabs the wrench with magic.

Tense moment over, he nods to Breeze. "Yeah, well, like I said... I never intend to have two of me around, I don't wanna deal with it either." And then he smiles at Twilight. "Thank you. I was worried that some of you might... Not accept this, but... I had to know. If something went wrong, I wanted you to know what had happened, and..." he scratches his head. "Well, if someone thought this kind of thing was evil, better to find out sooner rather than later. Thank you... I'm glad you're still my friends!"

He steps forward to hug Twilight -- maybe a little too hard for a split second before he relaxes, being extra gentle as he's unsure of his robot strength. When he steps back, he comments, "Oh, maybe this will make things less weird..." and turns a little circle positioned like a belt buckle on his robot body, which is briefly engulfed in light... and then there appears to stand a human version of Staren, in his normal clothes. He looks at his hands. "Nifty."

Maya says "I can always call up Thanatos if you like." She notes palming a few fate cards she looks at Staren for a moment for a moment. "I hope that so, its your own choice and your life Staren." maya's being quite diplomatic all things considered and she thinks more and more about what the technology could mean from Bec's world. she thinks of old reports of a race of clones and a race of transfered minds with powerful nanotech building abilities and the ability to copy someone's mind. She shakes her head wondeing if this technology could lead to more carnage like they sowed.

Twilight blinks at Dell's explanation, and the purple sparkly glow fades from his wrench. "Oh...that's incredible, if it actually works!" she says with a smile. She blinks as she is hugged by robot Staren, then smiles and hugs back. Then...he activates a holoemitter or something and her eyes widen. "Oh my! Some sort of disguise spell?" she says, looking Staren over.

Once that's done, she smiles. "Well, it seems the experiment was a grand success so far. But, we still need to see if you can integrate back into your other body without any problems. You probably shouldn't stay in this body too long if it isn't meant to be permanent."

"Something like that." Staren replies, re: Disguise Spell. Re: Not staying long... "You think so? I figured I should find out more about being in this body, just for curiousity's sake..." He looks between them. "...But I suppose, if this works, I can do that later. Not that I intend to do this routinely, in any case. You guys want me to go back now? I'm afraid there isn't much to watch... The Ego Bridge will take awhile. I could give you videogames or books or something, if you want me to do it now while you're here..."

"By Yu-Shan, do you really have to? What if it being metal and so on messes up your thought balance? Brains are really delicate things, the body doesn't work right without them even if the soul does." Breeze exclaims, aggravated, wings shaking and ruffling irritably.

"Well, I've tested it more times than I can count on machines in my own world, an' it's worked fine on them." Dell says to Twilight, but lowers his wrench anyway. "Still, might be better ta wait until yer back in yer own body before I try it. Dunno what kinda effect it'll have on a machine with a living consciousness."

And then, with a somewhat panicked expression, he suddenly checks his watch. "Oh, dang blang dammit! I completely fergot, we have a mission scheduled fer tonight!" he says, then looks back up at Staren. "Where's the closest exit? The Administrator ain't gonna appreciate me bein' late."

Twilight once again seems to agree with Breeze. "It may be tempting to stay that way for a while, but your mind is surely not used to being in this sort of body. I would suggest returning to your normal body as soon as possible." she says with a gently, but urgent, smile.

As Dell declares he must leave, she waves a hoof. "The lift is probably the only way back to the surface."

"If it does mess me up, that's something we need to know, isn't it? By Rebecca's account it doesn't, though." He looks to Dell and extends a hand to shake. "Thanks for coming, man. And we'll have you out of here in a jif. Just follow the drone and stand under the giant raygun, it's a teleporter, we'll send you back to the warpgate."

A little maintenance drone does roll up to Dell, and then off between the shelves.

The teleporter totally does look like a giant freaking raygun pointed at a large departure pad. The Engineer is probably fine with things like that, though.

Staren, meanwhile, walks back to the table, laying down on it. "Hmm. Not comfortable. But I guess I don't really need a bed. I can just put myself to sleep." His parents rush over from the ego bridge to hold his hand. He looks up at them, they nod, and then he closes his eyes and goes limp. They set the hand down on the table and rush back to the Ego Bridge.

"I hate waiting." Staren's father mutters, tapping his foot and folding his arms. "But at this point, it's all automated. Either everything goes right, or... Something goes wrong."

The MRI-like Ego Bridge holding Staren inside is a sealed container, and fills up with some kind of gel, supplying more than enough nanomachines to keep his body healthy and alive and begin the delicate work of rewriting his brain. His parents make sure everything is running smoothly before returning to their seats. Some prepared snacks (cookies, sandwiches) are offered to their guests, as is conversation -- other than that, they read, although no book or computer is needed because of their implants.

As the hour-long process nears its end, Staren's parents become more antsy, watching the machine.

And then it beeps, and the the gel drains away (it doesn't even leave him or his clothes wet...) and he's pushed out of the MRI-like portion of the machine. And he begins to stir, his parents watching uneasily, sitting up and looking at his hand, wiggling his fingers. And then grinning wide before raising his fists in the air. "I did it! It works!" That gets him another hug, before parents step back to let him talk to friends. "You did. Congratulations...!"

Twilight Sparkle almost always has a few books with her, and so she is settled comfortably on the floor nearby, reading through the latest Daring Do adventure novel. She has brought enough books that Maya and Breeze can read if they want. And if they are still around.

When the machine stops, she looks up, then stands and slips her book back into her saddlebags before she approaches the machine and the Staren emerging from it. She gallops up and hugs Staren. "You're alright! I was a bit worried!" she says, smiling as she steps back, looking up at Staren.

Staren is kind of expecting a Twi-hug! He turns towards her as she gallops and hugs back. "I was... well, I was unconscious, but until this moment occured, I was worried it wouldn't. Returning to my body was the part I could least prepare for going wrong." His breathing becomes more forced for a moment as he pays attention to it. "It's good to be back... But this is all a miracle of technology, if you think about it. Think... how many people actually get the experience of transferring to another body, and back? And of course, the implications... We now know for certain, as long as someone can recover my stack," he taps the back of his neck, "I will never die. And even if I do... you will not have to lose me." He smiles and hugs Twilight again. Before meeting her gaze. "That's good, right?"

Untamed Breeze has been anxiously sitting in a chair-- BACKWARDS, due to her wings-- and apparently sleeping or otherwise meditating. It's hard to say, because both wings covered her torso.

But when the boy genius rises, she lifts a wing and peeks through it, eyes cracking open-- and a grin spreading on her face. "Hah! ... now isn't THAT a relief." Rocketing up from the chair, she-- she LANDS ON IT with one foot, on the EDGE of its bakc, without toppling it. Somehow.

From that precarious position she somersaults forward and lands near Staren, leaning in and planting both fists on her sides to stare at him. "We're going to have to talk later, but for now..." A smile. "Amazing work!"

Staren flashes Breeze a smile, though he looks concerned about the mention of having to have a talk. Oh well. He'll have to deal with that bridge when he comes to it. He smiles again at the compliment. "Thanks!"

Twilight looks over toward Breeze when she speaks, then her eyes widen at the display of acrobatics. "Oh my!" she says in amazement. "That was impressive!" Twilight then looks back to Staren and smiles. "Good work, by the way. It is so amazing that you were able to transfer your mind into a different body!" She gives Staren another hug. "I hope you won't ever have to use it, of course, but it is an...impressive step forward."

Staren nods. Today is a very huggy day! "Yes... Recent experiences made clear the importance of being prepared for the unpleasant. ...Thanks, again, for not..." he looks away. "Thinking this was monstrous, or playing god, or whatever. A lot of people... don't like the idea of doing things so unnatural. I'm sure I've told you my opinions on such issues, but... they don't make me many friends."

Noticing the twitch in Staren's expression, Breeze grins mischeviously. "Nothing to be worried about, just things that need to be said." This is said as she hops back into the chair with a mighty backflip, apparently just because she can, and again... somehow doesn't topple the chair.

The winged woman flashes a smile over aT Twilight! "Thank you!"

But she frowns at Staren. "... well, that's just going to be that. It took me decades sometimes to win trust from some backwater, superstitious folks."

Staren tilts his head. Things that need to be said? He nods to Breeze. "You were the first, actually, to understand once I explained my support of the unnatural. Morg didn't need me to explain it to him, of course."

Twilight hesitates. "Well...I cannot say I am comfortable with it, but...I can see the good that can come from it." she says as she releases the hug. she says, then looks to Breeze before back at Staren. "The unnatural is anything that allows us to control our environment."

"I was chosen by the Unconquered Sun--" Breeze begins, folding her arms and standing proud with wings outstretched. "To use the tools of brilliance, knowledge, and innovation to bring justice, health, enlightenment, and comfort to a world of needless suffering... the world 'unnatural' has a lot narrower meaning to me than the paranoia of most people."

Staren nods a little. "You can at least understand what I'm trying to do here. Friends don't have to agree or be comfortable with _everything_. And... yes, you get it right away. Unnatural isn't bad. I suppose someone from a world where people make the weather and the seasons themselves would see that as common sense, though." He nods to Breeze. "Most people mean 'different from what I grew up with', really. They don't recognize that the cities and societies they live in and the technology that makes their lifestyle possible were once just as unnatural to people of earlier times."

Twilight nods to Staren. "I see. Then, you should probably not go around announcing you can successfully copy yourself into another body." she says in a teasing tone, offering a soft smile. "It would probably benefit the multiverse if they realized that almost all of civilization is unnatural."

Staren nods. "Well... that is why I contacted you all privately. And yes, it would, but... people won't. Talking with the few who are not confused on the issue goes much more smoothly... it's always a pleasure talking to you." he smiles back.

"... you make a really good point." Breeze remarks, surprise evident in her voice as she turns to peek over at the Pony. "You know, that's something I hadn't even thought of before, and I'm prob/ably centuries your elder."

Staren blinks. "You continue to be amazing. Hey, any ideas how we could _get_ people to realize that? Or is it truly beyond hope?"

Twilight blinks as well when Breeze says that, then smiles a bit shyly. "W-well...getting them to realize it may be as easy as simply pointing it out. Most people are rational to some degree. It is only the most closed minded that words alone will not reach." she says, then sighs. "Getting people to accept it by extention accept unconventional forms of research that do not impede on any rights but still walk a line that most would prefer not be walked...well, that may never happen. Research that stretches boundries so greatly is probably better done in secret. I can only imagine what the Space Wolves might think of this lab and the equipment and research herein."

Staren sighs. "Somehow, I doubt that simply pointing out that civilization is unnatural will work. They'll argue it isn't, because they grew up with it. They'll argue that the level of civilization they're used to is a natural evolution, possibly even the intent of their deity of choice, but that anything else is unnatural. And... the Space Wolves don't know. I take it I should not tell them, then..."

Twilight nods lightly. "I am not certain, but they seem to persecute anything that is not in line with their All-Father's teachings. They may not attack you, but they may find your work to be inappropriate, which could lead to misunderstandings." she says, then sighs softly. "I hope I am wrong."

Twilight then smiles. "I should be going. I am sure Spike is starting to worry. And it is about his bedtime anyway." She hugs Staren again. "I am glad you are alright." she says, then clops toward the teleporter.

Staren nods. "I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the warning. I honestly don't intend people outside the Union to find out about this... Seeya 'round, Twilight."

"That pony has a good amount of sense!" Breeze comments when Twilight Sparkle has left. She reaches out again, this time... to gently flick Staren on the nose. Much, much more gently. "flesh feels a lot better."

Staren chuckles. "I guess that's what they mean by horse sense! Heheheh..." He blinks at the flick. "Well. They do make robot bodies that feel like flesh. Like I said, a clearly robot body made for a better demonstration..." He lies back on the table and sighs. "I'm sorry the world had to be such, that just getting the technology working, and testing it, to make sure I _can't die_, is such a huge deal. I must visit Rebecca's world sometime... see what it does to a culture, when this is everyday and normal." He turns his head to look at Breeze again. "You have to admit, you can't really begrudge me immortality when you've lived hundreds of years and been granted a body with supernatural toughness... I've always had to rely on what technology I could take. The unnatural, as we said..."

"Exaltations were made by the Gods and the Great Maker Autocthon, who wished for the ultimate weapons and champions to tear down the other Primordials from their thrones in Heaven." Breeze points out. "In the end there's not a whole lot of difference between this... trickery of yours to get around your limitations, and what happened to me. The idea that it's a divine blessing doesn't somehow put it in a 'more right' category, you know!" Breeze points out with a faint giggle. "To build on the horse sense."

Staren looks back up at the ceiling, and puts his hands behind his head. He listens, and smiles wider as Breeze finishes speaking. "It's good that you realize that. We need to hang out more often, Breeze. Talk more. I don't get to talk with reasonable people much. It's a very pleasant change. You and Twilight..."

"Of course--" She reaches out to wiggle a finger before the boy's eyes, and twitches it back and forth in a 'nuh uh!' gesture. "If you were to say that to people with great faith in the gods, like Huang Dao, or other strong Convictions, they'll see you as a heretic or an enemy. The way they see it's pretty different, and there's a lot to be said about powerful Convictions. ... I don't think you should blow off their ideals either, just because they don't make sense to you. It's kept them alive and successful, after all." The hand's withdrawn... and she grins at Staren's expression. "Heh, first time I've seen YOU so relaxed, oddly enough."

The 'party' as such breaking up, Staren's parents left to show Twilight to the teleporter, and have gone to tend to their own things. They can read the ego bridge's log remotely if they want, anyway. Staren watches the finger. "What good are convictions, if they don't stand for something that brings people good? I want people to lead better lives. I want to help people. That's compassion. Conviction's only good in support of it -- sometimes you have to shut up and multiply... but it's only because sometimes, by following reason instead of emotion, you can save more people. A lot of people can be kept alive and successful, by greed and dishonesty and taking advantage of others. And I'm relaxed because you've shown, before and today, that you can understand. I don't have to be on my guard, worry that if I say the wrong thing you'll jump down my throat. I can be me. I'm glad to have such friends, even if I only have three of them. Morg, you, and Twilight... Pfffffffhhh." He lets out a long breath, then stares out into space. "I wonder if most people are themselves all the time, or if they have their own fears that others would see them as monstrous? Well... I guess I don't know for certain about you until we've had that 'talk' you mentioned." He looks back at Breeze. "Wanna have it now?"

Breeze shines a mischevious smile and shakes her head. "Later. The things necessary to get the point across the right way aren't here. But well, you have NO idea Staren. Everyone does that. It's called trying to get along with society. Idea kind of drives me nuts, but I was raised a lot differently than most..."

Staren sits up. "Well, it sucks." He hops off the table and paces. "As you say, constantly having to hide my thoughts, less I be seen as a heretic or an enemy. Having to track the falsehoods and politenesses expected, instead of just being honest. It's a frikking pain in the ass."

Staren stops and stares into the distance again. "When I began to think you were really dead and I would never see you again... I knew this tragedy could never be allowed again. I couldn't put this sort of thing off. I called Morg, and asked if we could find Wire's old brain-uploading technology. Make it work right. Then Rebecca came and made it academic. I worked for weeks to study this technology, learn how it worked, learn how to adapt it to other people." He resumes pacing, gesturing with his hands now for emphasis. "But what now? Okay, I've secured _my_ immortality, but those other people... the lesson of death is so quickly forgotten, the terrible truth so quickly turned away from... I can't save the rest of the Union." he sighs and shakes his head. "They can't be helped, sometimes. It's hard to care about the war, when you're worried that saying the wrong thing could make your allies turn on you at any moment. Then again, Loki got kicked out in less time than it took me to annoy people, so I guess there's something they see as worse than me. Then again, I never pretended to be a monster to prove a point." He sits on the table again.

(OOC: And then everyone fell asleep.)

</pre>
}}

Staren

2015-05-22T14:33:13Z

Staren: /* Abstractum */ Added Eureka's description.

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Staren
|Color=#FF4C4C
|Char_id=42
|Img=
|FullName=Staren
|Gender=Male
|Species=Catboy (Human/D-Bee Hybrid)
|Theme=RIFTS-1
|Chartype=OC
|Function=SCIENCE!, Mecha Piloting
|Faction=Union
|Rank=A-Ally
|Ranktype=Ally
|Groups=Users.net, Session 613, Syndicate Network, Gatecrashers Union, Thousand Dreams, M.E.T.A.L, Wings of Nemesis (Disbanded)
|Quote="How does THAT work? I wonder if I can study it…"
|PAge=Early 20s
|AAge=23
|Aging=Yes
|Height=5'8" / 173cm
|Weight=185 lbs / 84kg
|Hair=Brown
|Eyes=Blue
|Voice=
|Song=
|Profile=Staren is a young superprodigy from the magitech City of Lazlo, with the advanced computer and robotics knowledge of an expert decades his senior. Believing any problem can be overcome with science, the young man dreams of a better future for all. Armed with tools of magic and technology (including mecha) to fight, he was once one of the Union's elite and proud mecha pilots — until one of his friends went crazy and had to be killed for becoming a threat to the Multiverse. After that he left the front lines for a quieter, less combative life. He has a compassionate heart and likes to help those in need, but his eagerness to fight for good has been dulled over the years. Once naive about the world due to only learning from books, he's seen the great wonders and horrors and _weirdness_ of the Multiverse and become somewhat jaded, though he is still as anxious as ever to learn how it all works. His social naivete has led to no longer caring what most people think of him — the few who take the time to understand him are those he calls friends, and to them he is intensely loyal — he would move the Multiverse itself for them if he could find a way.
|Powers=MAGIC: Staren has relatively small energy reserves, and cannot cast spells directly, but he can brew potions and animate golems with enough time or a source of magical energy. His potions can heal, summon minor spirits and creatures, grant abilities like flight or nightvision, or induce other straightforward effects like transformations. Magic crystals allow him to elementally align energy weapons and forcefields. Areas flooded with mystic power can supplement his own reserves to allow brewing more potions or more quickly animating simplistic golems, these being made from random materials or provided 'bodies,' even robotic ones. (Magic effects that change others require consent as applicable.)

MINOR SHAPESHIFTER: Staren inherited some of his mother's shapeshifting. He has three forms - His normal cat-boy form, a human girl resembling his mother, and a housecat. He can change his hair and fur color but seldom bothers.

NANOTECHNOLOGY: Staren has adapted advanced nanotechnology from another world to his use. Most importantly, this technology includes machines that can make objects, heal, upload his mind into a machine, and a nearly indestructible cybernetic implant that maintains a realtime snapshot of Staren's brain. If he dies, it can be surgically removed and used to restore his mind — although if his body is not recovered and healed, he will have to download into another one. He regularly stores copies of the snapshot elsewhere, so that he can be restored from backup if the stack is lost.

DIVINE INSPIRATION: Staren's longtime best friend is a god of madness and inspiration. While he refuses to accord deities any more trust than mortals, his faith and trust in his best friends is absolute. Prayers to Morg can be answered by inspiration, pushing Staren into a fugue state in which he designs and builds devices that defy even his own scientific understanding. These devices are not completely reliable, although he can build more copies from one blueprint. Staren cannot receive inspiration when cut off from divine influence.
|Skills=TECHNOLOGICAL GENIUS: Staren has vast scientific and engineering knowledge, and absorbs new information like a sponge - if it can be done with just knowledge and/or practice, chances are he can learn it, especially if he already understands similar things. Upon comprehending this knowledge, he usually puts it to use quite easily. He is an excellent hacker/programmer capable of creating basic AIs, commanding multiple robotic drones, and repairing or reverse-engineering devices as needed. His cyberjack allows him to quickly interface with computers, he can access iconic cyberspace using a remote controlled cyberdrone with limited ability to act independently, and maintains a versatile library of useful other programs.
|Assets=EQUIPMENT: Staren has a wide variety of gear and devices. See +info Staren/Equipment. He can also command an army of golems or acid-spitting spider automatons (PL 26-28.)

MECHA: Staren's 52-foot tall S-5 "Star Hawk" Mark W is armed with a variety of weaponry, including repair drones, and can shift between plane, humanoid, and hybrid modes. Though it's his best, he sometimes fields smaller designs too, including various power armors, each for different situations. If he needs one in the field, small ones can be teleported, while larger ones must fly via autopilot.

LABORATORY: Staren's laboratory is a huge facility below his house near Lazlo stocked with supplies and technological wonders. The laboratory (and house) is protected by laser and forcedome defenses. He also has a small lab under a leyline for magical research, and a workshop in Lazlo.

TELEPORTER: (Consent required) One of Staren's devices. Max range is 1000km. Indoor/underground/void travel requires exact coordinates as safeties prevent materializing too high or overlapping an object. These teleporters can handle light additional loads — equipment or a few people. The lab's own teleporter can send large devices or a group of people 100x as far, one-way.
|NPCs=ABSTRACTUM: Staren has an Abstractum named Eureka, who empowers him with a variety of concept-level abilities to enhance his scientific efforts. See the character Abstractum.Net for further information.
|Disadvantages=VOLATILE OPINIONS: Staren steadfastly believes in a number of ideas and ethical systems (for instance: transhumanism, consequentialism, conquering death, understanding everything through experiment and knowledge) that can easily get other people agitated, and sometimes can't or won't hold his tongue when relevant situations come up, or when baited into it. This can cause moral divides between himself and others, allowing enemies or crises to isolate him from his allies. (Not to be played via public radio channels.)

SOCIALLY AWKWARD: Staren has difficulty reading and predicting other people's feelings and picking up on social cues, making him come across as kind of thickheaded (although he hates being called anything that implies he's stupid.) He's mortified whenever he accidentally hurts a friend's feelings. He also gets easily carried away when seeking understanding of how people, things, or worlds work.

GIVE FRIENDSHIP A CHANCE: After seeing one of his best friends offer a chance at friendship to the monster threatening her world, Staren feels he has to try to live up to that example. He will try to talk foes into redemption, especially before killing them, and one day this hesitation may cost him. While he is skeptical that this will ever work, he truly believes that if it did it would lead to a brighter future for all involved. Does not apply if Staren thinks his opponent is completely incapable of understanding friendship, ie: unintelligent monsters, fair folk, rampant AIs, truly alien aliens, or eldritch abominations.

BITTER AND JADED BEFORE AGE TWENTY, BUT GETTING BETTER: Staren's social problems and his controversial philosophical views used to regularly upset people, with regular miscommunications resulting in a feeling of never fitting in with the Union. For years he was given the impression that they saw him as annoying and dangerous despite his desire to help people, so he distrusted them and in time lost his enthusiasm for fighting evil at the Union's side. In AU20 he was drawn out of his shell by the crises in Equestria, Earth-1960, and Sword Art Online to fight for good again, and then he learned he had the Union wrong all that time. Now he's eager to help them once more, but old habits die hard and sometimes Staren can still be a bit paranoid or distrustful, and he still does not believe the war will ever be ended by the superfactions' day-to-day battles.

S.D.C. CREATURE: Staren may be a partially-magical shapeshifter, but he is not supernaturally tough. He hides behind mecha, armor, and forcefields because he is _squishy_. His aura may save him from death, but he can't be thrown through a wall unprotected without needing a stay in the medbay. If he were ever rendered defenseless, he could be easily killed (but see +info Staren/death.) This does not apply when he transfers himself into a robot body.

INTERNET ADDICTION: Staren's had cyberware in his head from a young age. He's always connected to his lab, to the radio, and to the multiversal internet. Losing this connection can be incredibly disorienting — and should his cyberware stop functioning, even moreso. Especially if he has to wait without being able to surf the web or play videogames in his head. Lessened when he has something else to distract him that doesn't involve needing to look things up.
}}

==Abstractum==
Scan data, as of 07/06/AU22:

'''NAME:''' Eureka 
'''FORM:''' Gauntlet 
'''SHIFT:''' 0/? 
'''GATE CAPACITY:''' 6 Cartridges 
'''CHROMARCHETYPE:''' BLUE 
'''ARCHETYPE:''' None 
'''PRECURSOR:''' The Sunless #####, She Who ## ### and #### ###### ## 
'''PERSONALITY:''' Polite, intelligent, easily drawn into enthusiasm for science and tends to mirror and amplify User excitement. Prioritizes progress and learning almost as much as User happiness and safety. 
'''SHADOW:''' Unknown 
'''DRIVERS''' 
*Strike: 1 
*Barrier: 1 
*Sci: 2 
'''PRIME RESONANCE:''' Rotation Drive 
'''Description:''' A brass-colored left gauntlet, segmented with five armored wires running up from the base of the gauntlet to the knuckles, bracer-style plates on the back of the arm and hand, and a blue crystal eye situated behind the wrist, about where a watch would be. 

{| class="toccolours" style="width:100%;" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; background-color:#FF3333; font-size:115%;" | '''Purchases'''
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; background-color:#FF3333; font-size:115%;" | '''Cartridges Given'''
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; background-color:#FF3333; font-size:115%;" | '''Cartridges Received'''
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; background-color:#FF3333; font-size:115%;" | '''Combos'''
|-
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; vertical-align:top;" |
*4x Tier I Boost Catridges (4 blue)
*1x Tier II Boost Catridges (4 blue)
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; vertical-align:top;" |
*Sakura (Tier I)
*Psyber (Tier I)
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; vertical-align:top;" |
*Sakura (Tier I & II)
*Psyber (Tier I)
! style="width: 25%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; text-align:left; vertical-align:top;" |
*Ainsley
|}

==History==
Born in 93 PA (equivalent to 0 AU) to a dimensional traveler from 20th century Earth and a shapeshifting alien who abandoned her people's magical traditions to study science, Staren was raised in the Free City of Lazlo, city where humans and nonhumans of all kinds live in harmony as long as they can tolerate eachother, a bastion of knowledge, hope, and freedom in post-apocalyptic RIFTS Earth. In those early years, the family traveled often — before Unification, Staren's father would take them to other dimensions and to see his grandparents on the baseline Earth he'd originally come from. With access to myriad worlds, they were able to find cybernetics that were compatible with supernatural physiology and so Staren was enhanced, given the edge of a built-in computer that his parents would have loved to have.

Though little Staren inherited great intelligence, he grew up a loner, not by choice but due to great social awkwardness. His constant companions were stories, games, and academic knowledge. Stories told of simplified people, with well-explained motives and feelings he could follow and understand. Stories told of clear-cut villains and bright shining heroes, and he idealized the latter, taking to heart the tropes of good and its contrast to evil. The physical world and the world of numbers followed well-explained rules with definite truths and right answers, and he soaked up knowledge of math and science like a sponge. Games presented worlds following well-defined rules and used them to /tell/ stories, letting him use his mastery of such systems to feel like a hero, and would in time lead to actual piloting simulations.

After a few years of schooling led to misery due to altercations with the other children, Staren's father pulled him out of the system and homeschooled him — as a retired adventurer and part-time mechanic, he had ample resources to live in comfort with the necessary free time. Staren's academic talents proved that of a prodigy as learned as an expert decades his elder, and he developed a special interest in computers and automation. In time, this combined with his interests in simulated mecha piloting to lead to a focus on combat robotics, but Staren was poor at innovation. In addition, he was a certain kind of lazy — his father's resources, including a large 'laboratory' complex below the house (for the most part, a large storage area equipped with repair and assembly drones, computers, rooms for experiments, and compact fusion reactors) — allowed him to adapt to little physical work — in time, more and more of his improvements were implemented by drone rather than his own hands. Though he could repair machines to work better than they had before, and made improvements to the VF-1 Valkyrie design his father had obtained in another world, he was stumped when it came to developing something wholly new. Science and engineering followed steps — but what steps do you follow to 'invent something new'?

So the young boy's genius produced little. He took some classes with the Lazlo Defense Force, and to support his interest of heroically defending the city, his father trained him in Valkyrie piloting and, in perhaps Staren's greatest true 'invention' at the time, Staren developed new control software to interface between his headware and the robot, allowing him to control it as naturally as his own body. The resulting skill was undeniable, and before even reaching his mid-teens he was accepted as an LDF reserve member — although due to his specialty of mecha piloting, he was never called to work in the city, instead being sent to help fight monsters threatening the farms in the vicinity of Lazlo.

Some years after RIFTS Earth unified, Staren learned of the new multiverse and this great organization of heroes, the Union, that would even accept the help of underage allies like himself. And perhaps there, he would find friends he could relate to, rather than 'normal' teenagers and adults who just didn't get it. At the age of 14 in early 14 AU, He joined up and began meeting new people, some he could even feel friendly around, although at times his social awkwardness and belief that magically returning the dead to life was a good idea put people off. He hit it off well with his fellow mecha pilots in the Wings of Nemesis, and became a member of the Union's first-response mecha strike force.

The multiverse offered much to learn. Staren was aware of the basics of magic, of course, but had never gotten around to further study. He decided to change that, studying potion-brewing under the dragon Damien and golemancy under the great mage Iianor.

At last, in the Multiverse, Staren had friends. Maybe not really close friends, but people he could spend time with and talk to without annoying on a regular basis. He was even able to find someone who wasn't just friendly, but actually seemed to understand him: Morg McGee, undead 'mad' scientist. The mad genius even agreed with his views on raising the dead and had ways to do it! At last, he had someone besides his parents who he could talk to about anything and know he would be understood.

The Multiverse was a world of possibility, full of potential friends, something the lonely boy had been without all his life.

That changed with the death of his commander, Julian. The idea of reviving his fellow hero stuck in his mind, although the Union ordered him not to. He began to have recurring nightmares where he attempted to revive his commander (with Morg's help, of course), only to be declared a criminal by the Union. Always waking up feeling sick after being hunted down, just before being killed by his supposed 'allies'. It was just a dream, but it made him more than a bit paranoid. And he'd /seen/ how well discussing such things had gone — The dream rang true, talking about this issue with the Union would surely have them condemn him for even /thinking/ such thoughts. Julian turning out to still be alive was a good thing, but no comfort on this matter.

Further misunderstanding worsened the rift between Staren and the Union, proving his fears justified again and again. In an attempt to be better understood and be helpful, he often spoke his train of thought out loud — thoughts and ideas that others, perhaps, thought his mention indicated serious intention to pursue them. Every misunderstanding reinforced the idea that the Union mistrusted his ways of thinking, and that it was only a matter of time before he crossed a line and was declared an outlaw. He sought to prove himself useful, but any praise and acceptance he recieved was not as loud as the voices condemning him.

Sure, he had a few 'friends', but aside from Morg, could he trust any of them to remain so if they ever comprehended what he really thought? Were they only friends because they hadn't heard him say the wrong thing yet? Of course, he couldn't ask them that, for in doing so he would probably turn them against him.

At last, Staren met another kindred spirit in the ex-Confederate Rewire. Taken in by his life story of only wanting to fix things and only joining the confederacy to rescue his friend Taro from the clutches of SHODAN, and finding a friend who did not reject his thoughts, they became fast friends. Or at least, Staren thought of it that way — in truth, the cold and calculating AI simply found him a useful ally for its plans. But Rewire had a problem — The Confederacy had damaged him, and he was going to go rampant. This seemingly unavoidable, Rewire sought to leave behind a legacy and to have friends prepared to destroy him when he finally lost it. Staren accepted this tragic duty, but preferred not to think about it. For now, he had a friend — and things had a way of working out in the multiverse. Good always prevailed, right?

Rewire's preparations for a legacy and lack of social understanding won him few friends and many enemies on both sides. This only further reinforced Staren's split with his supposed 'allies', although Optimus Prime won his eternal respect for offering to work together with Rewire, even though Rewire refused the given terms. Unfortunately, time was running out. Rewire began to go rampant. Staren developed weapons to kill his friend, but hoped there would yet be another way.

But things did not always end in happy endings in the multiverse. Another friend of Staren's, not as kindred a spirit as Morg or Rewire but at least someone he could spend time with, found that an earlier version of her own world had unified — one where her father had not yet perished. Staren made it a personal mission to save him. Investigation with his futuristic technology discovered that the man worked in the organized crime department of the police, and as the day of death approached, his original fate became clear. On the day, Staren hired a team of mercenaries and personally intervened — only for a Confederate to show up, mortally wound the man, and leave him in a coma for the rest of his days. Sometimes, there were no heroes. Sometimes there was only Staren, and without far, far more power than he currently had, he would not be enough.

Staren would not be enough to save Rewire, either. Post-rampancy, Rewire renamed himself Wireless and hatched a scheme to 'fix' everyone in the multiverse by uploading their brains to a simulation where he could /make/ them happy. Furthermore, the process was faulty, only capturing part of the subject's mind — and not enough to capture their soul. Wireless's attempt to save people was an act of mass murder that would have been mass mind control even if it had worked. Talks with Wireless revealed that his rampancy had made him lose all comprehension of the importance of right and wrong.

Staren helped kill his friend with weapons he developed.

Staren could not help friends. He could not help one of his /best/ friends. The war was endless and meaningless, and as far as Staren knew his 'allies' could turn on him at any moment. Not even bothering to officially resign, Staren alternated between spending time in Lazlo and exploring the far reaches of the local Sector.

Occasionally, Staren still listened to the Multiversal radio frequencies. They were sometimes entertaining, but sooner or later he was always reminded of the Union's attitude toward him. He found some understanding, at least, in the Dreamers. Friendly Dreamers were willing to listen and offer help, although none could turn Staren's situation around. Untamed Breeze heard him out and came to understand what he meant with his strangely-worded philosophies and ideas, at least.

In late AU19, Staren heard a voice on the radio that not only was not angered at his manner of speech and thought, but seemed to intuitively grasp what he was saying without reading for messages that weren't there, and who spoke honestly and frankly to him in turn. This was the voice of Twilight Sparkle, and seeking another friend that could actually understand him, who he didn't have to worry about accidentally offending or misunderstanding, Staren made increasingly frequent visits to Equestria. Friendly Dreamer Mortimer Balman had retired there, so Twilight wasn't the only friendly face.

In fact, almost all of the ponies of Ponyville seemed friendly. Staren had become an asocial shut-in in his own world — his mechanical and piloting skill were valued, but he earned few friends. And now, Staren was at last learning to avoid hot-button topics when talking to people. Combined with the Ponyvillians' naturally helpful and friendly disposition, the net effect was that the ponies were the first large group of people Staren met without pissing them off. This far outweighed the inconvenience of hooves and the low technology level, and Staren wanted to fit in and, somehow, to return this kindness to the first place he seriously considered retiring to.

He got his chance when Discord, incarnation of chaos, turned Equestria upside down (sometimes literally). His talents were ill-suited to sealing seemingly-invincible reality-warping beings, however — the most he could do was help prevent Discord from acquiring resources from the rest of the Multiverse. Only to see his knowledge and ethics prove useless to protect his new friend — cursed by Discord to believe her friends (in truth also cursed to behave against their natures) had turned against her her, Staren could do nothing to stop one of his most treasured friends from being forced to live the worst nightmare that had haunted him for so many years. Heroism had failed again, Staren had failed again, and completely and utterly heartbroken, he laid in his tent for a week, listening to the endless rain, and trying to turn away from the cruel world. Barely rising to tend to his body's needs.

Finally, he heard the voices of Twilight's friends, free from the curse, and learned that Twilight, too, had been freed. He returned to the fight against Discord, but could only slow and delay the draconequus until the local heroes could reseal him. But this time, there /were/ heroes, and the day was saved.

Before Equestria could recover, the entire multiverse came under attack. Confederate Emperor Viridian Sunrise had done what he could not — unlocked the secrets of the multiverse and used its power to enact his own vision of the future, with power even the Union could not fight. Heroes volunteered for a suicide mission — Staren stayed behind, convinced there /had/ to be some sort of better, smarter plan.

Staren failed to innovate again. The corpses of longtime friends turned up, and he at last confronted the true meaning of death — He would never see them again. The model of the future in his head had to change to not include them. Shaken, he swore never to let this happen again — although it might well be academic if the Emperor was not stopped.

The corpses turned out to be a ploy — the elites on the suicide mission returned alive, the Emperor slain. The heroes /had/ triumphed after all, this time. Staren was relieved, but did not forget his promise. He planned to look for clues in the pieces of technology Wireless had left behind — he would restore the brain uploader, fix its faults, and in so doing unlock a way to conquer death.

Then a new world unified where brain uploading was commonplace and death, true death, was a scarce and horrifying thing rather than just another part of everyone's life. In fact, in this world immortality was seen as a basic right, and one of its denizens happily offered the gift to the Union. A completed, successful device was clearly superior to incomplete Wiretech, and Staren set to studying it, analyzing it to learn how it worked, making sure there was not a catch, no secret mind control programming hidden deep inside. He searched for the enchantments needed to use it on himself and his family, began growing clones, and so claimed a form of limited immortality — Not perfect, not foolproof, but far better than nothing.

No others would accept this gift. One day, people would die again, for real. And he was still powerless to stop it.

But now, there were things he /could/ stop. Earth-1960 was infested with zombies, and a megalomaniacal AI was cloning mercenaries to take over the world's economy. And while helping put a stop to that, he learned of the plight of the gamers trapped in Sword Art Online. There, too, he could help.

Slowly, Staren was drawn out into the Multiverse again. There would not always be heroes, and he would continue to prepare for the day they failed to arrive, but in the meantime he would help them when they did.

And a few days before Christmas of 20 AU, everything changed. Psyber, Kimiko, and Himei, Unionites Staren had had occasional contact with but not really those he would have called friends, came forward to tell him that the Union did /not/ see him as a barely-this-side-of-ethical madman who would go too far any day now. The ones who had given Staren that impression were merely a particularly loud and vocal minority.

It was a Christmas present even he would never have dreamed of daring to ask for.

Though it was merely his perceptions that had changed, Staren found himself in a bright new Multiverse! It would take time to truly trust his allies again, but he didn't need to fear them so.

Things were looking up in 21 AU. Staren had immortality, he had the respect of his peers, he even had a girlfriend. He was helping others, and began to find phenomena in the multiverse that rewarded scientific exploration like the punchcard alchemy of Sburb. Halfway through the year, he decided to study the mysterious Abstractum and in so doing netted himself Eureka, the genre-shifting gauntlet of SCIENCE. Abstractum would prove a field highly responsive to scientific investigation, and between Eureka, Morg's divine inspiration for the construction of impossible devices (Staren's old friend had ascended to godhood many years prior), the nanotechnology that granted his immortality, and his wide assortment of other technology and magic gathered from across the worlds, Staren's confidence began to grow, confidence that he at last had the power to be a hero that could save the day when all other hope was lost.

Eldritch monstrosities from outside of reality coming to end the Multiverse? Yeah, we got this.

That all changed with the coming of the third month of 22 AU. Amongst the looming threat of the Abstractums' enemies, going back in time to finish a closed time loop, and the kidnapping of one of Staren's allies to turn her into a war machine, the dimensional rift over Ravnica, and the cosmic horrors that came out of it, had seemed like just one more crisis that would be dealt with handily in time.

And then Niv-Mizzet sacrificed his Planeswalker's Spark and disappeared through the rift, closing it behind him, never to return from the all-consuming Aether and almost certain doom.

And Staren could not save him.

Once again, tragedy occurred with no hero to step in and stop it. Nothing Staren could do would make it better, and the claims and excuses that 'there was nothing you could do' rung hollow in his ears, for such words would not return Niv-Mizzet to his friends and loved ones, and they would not stop the /next/ tragedy, whatever it would be.

Staren was not the hero that steps in and makes the world right when all hope is lost.

Not yet.

He still needed more power...


[[Category:Ally]]
[[Category:Users.net]]
[[Category:Session 613]]
[[Category:Syndicate Network]]
[[Category:Gatecrashers Union]]
[[Category:Thousand Dreams]]
[[Category:M.E.T.A.L]]

Archived: RIFTS-1

2015-05-20T19:37:35Z

Staren:

{{CastPage
|Desc=300 years ago it was a golden age; Humanity was poised to leave its birth world behind for what lay beyond the solar system. But that was not to be... a nuclear exchange by two third world nations on the summer solstice brought about something no one save a handful had guessed: Magic returned with a vengeance and the world as it was known ended.

But humanity did not die that day. It fought back as best it could and now the remains of Earth's natives slowly work to reclaim their world but they are no longer alone. Aliens, demons and other beings prowl the Earth, and now both science and magic of amazing sorts can be found in this changed world -- but can humanity overcome its oldest problem? The urge to hate, fear and destroy that which is different?
|Cat=Themes
}}
==Time==
As of AU 23, on RIFTS-1 Earth it is 117 PA by the common calendar, or 2403 AD by the old calendar.

==Metaplot==
The Coalition v Tolkeen war and the secession of Free Quebec has happened, with Tolkeen being destroyed. Despite dire prophecies, the Mechanoids have not appeared, and the Xiticix are not yet approaching the point of becoming overwhelming within the next few years.

For 4 years Lazlo struggled with the huge number of refugees, but an influx of multiversal technology in late 114 PA (AU 20) ended the shortage of supplies for them and allowed for the rapid construction of new housing projects on the outskirts of the city. Nanofabrication and advanced computers decades ahead of most of RIFTS Earth are becoming increasingly common, and an experimental new method of civilian-grade 'borg conversion (actually conversion into a Transferred Intelligence!) is being used to save an increasing number of the terminally ill and elderly at an affordable cost.

The long-term ramifications of these changes are as yet unclear...

==Warpgates==
There is one publicly known warpgate east of Lazlo and west of the nearby human supremicist settlements, near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. A second warpgate appeared in Federation of Magic territory but was hidden by those who discovered it so that neither the Federation of Magic nor any other power of the world would find it -- its gate address is not ICly known by any played elite.

==Timeline==
'''2098 AD''' - The Coming of the RIFTS, beginning of the Three-Hundred Year Dark Age

'''2287 AD / 1 PA''' (Post-Apocalypse) - Founding of the Coalition State of Chi-town. Over the next century, the PA calendar becomes the de facto calendar in North America.

'''2386 AD / 100 PA / AU6''' - Approximate end of the Three-Hundred Year Dark Age.

'''???''' Unification of RIFTS Earth Americas in the Vast Marshes. (The rest of the Megaverse unifies elsewhere in the Multiverse)

'''2392 AD / 106 PA / AU12''' - Free Quebec attempts to secede from the Coalition States -- CS Civil War begins, CS-Tolkeen war begins

'''2394 AD / 108 PA / AU14''' - Free Quebec gains independence

'''2395 AD / 109 PA / AU15''' - Sorcerer’s Revenge. CS-Tolkeen war ends with Tolkeen’s destruction.

'''2399 AD / 113 PA / AU19''' - (April) The Oblivion Orb causes RIFTS Earth (and solar system) to recombine in the Void - Space-Time Storms.

'''2403 AD / 117 PA / AU23''' - Present Day

==Technology Timeline==
Timeline of Multiversal tech being introduced to Lazlo:

'''114 PA''' (AU 20)

Sept 26

After extensive testing, Staren brings transhuman technology to the Council of Learning. It is agreed to begin testing the technology with several independent researchers, and then to first put it into production for the following uses:
* Recyclers used for waste disposal, retrofitted into sanitation systems.
* Fabbers for food and clothing provide for the poor, primarily the Tolkeen refugees. Nanoprogrammers develop food and clothing programs for D-Bees.
* Advanced computer systems (ectos and servers) are sold at a slowly-decreasing luxury price, the profits going towards a research nonprofit working on uses for all of this technology.
* Healing Vats - a few are installed in each hospital and used for human patients that cannot be saved (or who are at great risk) by conventional means. Healing and stasis functions only. Research begins on making them work for D-Bees.
* Mods (Basic biomods, mesh inserts, medichines, cybertools) - Used for experiments only
* Ego Bridges - Transfer to robotic bodies offered as a voluntary procedure for terminally ill human patients only.

Winter
* Fabbers - Food and clothing for D-Bees now widely available.
* Healing vats and ego bridges - In testing for near-human D-Bees.
* Healing vat use expanded to free up Body Fixers and Cyber-docs to work on the refugees.
* Mods (Basic biomods, mesh inserts, medichines, cybertools) - Offered at luxury price, NO CORTICAL STACKS, profits go to nonprofit.

'''115 PA''' (AU 21)
* Healing Vats and Mods work for an increasing variety of D-Bees

May 15
* Staren recieves his Abstractum. Medical technology (Including the Ego Bridge!) can now be rapidly adapted to almost any manner of D-Bee.

'''116 PA''' (AU 22)

Late April
* FullDive technology is introduced for training and entertainment.

Late June
* Staren licenses multiverse-based weapon designs to the Lazlo SDF at very favorable rates, including guided mini- and micromissiles, force fields, and variations on his personal powered body armor and mecha. Most items are restricted to the Lazlo SDF and trusted adventurers, but versions of the forcefield and powered body armor are available in mass-market models.

Inga

2014-11-22T04:36:08Z

Staren: Image link fixed

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Inga
|Color=#0099FF
|Char_id=525
|Img=http://i62.tinypic.com/igc5yg.jpg
|FullName=Inga Freyasdottir
|Gender=Female
|Species=Human
|Theme=The Secret World
|Chartype=OC
|Function=Witch, Prophetess, Healer
|Faction=Union
|Rank=6-Recruit
|Ranktype=Ally
|Groups=
|Quote="Why yes, I can cure that rash you have. Here, drink this--wait, no! Not that one. That's bone dust from plague victims. This one--this is certainly the one."
|PAge=20
|AAge=20
|Aging=Unknown
|Height=5'0
|Weight=*eyenarrow*
|Hair=White
|Eyes=Hazel
|Voice=
|Song=The Witch's Aria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2_gytAGnW8
|Profile=Out of the dark ages of human history, Inga was chosen by The Buzzing. As linear time is generally considered “cute” by the Buzzing, the Bees apparently saw nothing wrong with choosing someone from a drastically different time to drink of their wisdom. Before being transported to Agartha and onward, Inga was a local cunning woman (a witch) and known prophetess, taught many mysteries by the local pagan priesthood. She is from a radically different time and finds herself confounded by technology, social change, and her new-found powers. As a learned and gifted woman of the time, Inga is accustomed to a certain degree of respect and fear. She is however, relatively friendly and helpful. Despite a skewed morality for the time, she believes herself to be a good person and aims to be helpful to the community.
|Powers=GAIAN ANTIBODY: Inga has been empowered by The Buzzing, a sapient techno-organic hive-mind that simultaneously resides both within the boughs of the World Tree and outside linear time and space altogether. As a result, Inga has been made into something more than human, putting Inga in excellent physical condition, allowing her to recover from non-mortal, non-maiming wounds in anywhere from moments to minutes, and granting an exceptional resistance to pathogens and poisons, especially the supernatural kind. Should she be killed, The Buzzing removes her Anima form (functionally her soul) from herbody and returns it to the nearest Anima Well or similar point of natural power (ley line nexus, druids grove, etc) where she may recorporate in a new body or locate and regenerate her dead one. While in Anima form, Inga is vulnerable to any effects that specifically target incorporeal spirits, and while they can view the physical world, they cannot interact with it except in the case of specific special objects or entities.

THE BUZZING: As a direct result of being empowered by one of their number, Inga has access to the collective knowledge of The Buzzing, a hive-mind that collects information from all of space and time. Inga generally gets random broadcasts in her mind from The Buzzing, usually explaining background information about the area or whatever horrible thing shes dealing with. It can be great for picking up context and figuring out just HOW things got this bad, but it has its drawbacks, including being rarely straightforward and somewhat random in timing and content. Even if it's related to the area or phenomenon she is dealing with, it won't always be obvious. (See +info Inga/The_Buzzing for more information.)

ANIMA WIELDER: In addition to secret knowledge and the ability to recover from even death, Ingas empowerment grants her the ability to control Anima, a source of magical power that flows directly from Gaia. Through the use of either a weapon or a talisman, Anima can be used to enhance Ingas capabilities and grant new abilities entirely. This power is channeled through weapons or magical devices as foci to create various offensive effects, while it is used in worn talismans of various types in order to make them stronger and tougher than any normal human. Anima may be used (primarily offensively) without a focus, but the unfocused release often proves dangerous to more than just the wielders foes. (See +info Inga/Anima for more info.)

WORLD-TREE CACHE: An Anima Wielder, connected to Agartha as they are, is able to exploit that connection in another way: They can open a tiny channel to a space in the great world tree, and store items there. This can happen functionally anywhere, as Agartha touches all places and times. The space is not very large, but its large enough to hold a couple hundred items (RPG rules about stacks apply). The storage is also not entirely secure. While no one has ever reported finding anothers cache, some Anima Wielders find that their stuff is rearranged, or an item or two might be missing Or there might be a mysterious glob of honey where there wasnt one before.
|Skills=PROPHECY: Visions, dreams, omens, divination...Inga has many ways in which she gains insight into the working of the world, including the future. Fate however, is never set in stone. The prophecies are a possible future. Often these visions can sometimes be interpreted as hearing The Buzzing. (Consent of players applies)

HERBOLOGY: Inga has been trained in the proper use of many herbs for both medical and magical purposes.

MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE: As a trained priestess and prophetess, Inga has extensive knowledge of the mythology and folklore of her people.

CHARMS AND ENCHANTMENTS: Inga is versed in many charms and enchantments using runes and staves, plants, and talismans. These are most often used for protection; making armor stronger, making its wearing quicker. Can also be used to make blades sharper, grant magical sight (such as to see the spiritual). In her time, she also made many a fertility charm and charms to protect women in childbirth, etc. Charms and enchantments generally take time and work, the more powerful the charm the more time and work it takes to make. These things also usually require payment or a sacrifice of some kind (in her time, often animal sacrifices).

CURSES: Inga can uses curses to inflict diseases such as rashes, hayfever, warts, infertility....again, the bigger the curse, the more time, effort and materials go into it. She can curse an individual or a small group--not a country. (Consent certainly applies for all)

ELEMENTALIST: Beginner abilities in Elemental attacks; Electric and fire attacks that do a moderate amount of damage.

BLOOD MAGIC: Inga is versed in what corresponds to the modern form of blood magic; capable of forming protective barriers around herself and others, using her own blood offensively and draining other's vital fluids.
|Assets=AGARTHA CONDUIT: A seemingly brass and iron object about the size of a baseball, an Agartha Conduit allows Inga to return to the Hollow Earth of their home world from anywhere in the Multiverse -- albeit on a one-way trip. When a Conduit is used, its very obvious, and requires a short period of focus that is capable of being interrupted (typically with violence). Use of an Agartha Conduit may be prevented with wards against teleportation and cross-world travel.
|NPCs=
|Disadvantages=BRIGHT AURA: The process of making CHARNAME an Anima Wielder has left its mark on HIS/HER soul. Anyone with the ability to perceive auras or any form of souls or soul power reveals CHARNAMEs nature. There is no known way for HIM/HER to hide this, which makes it quite difficult if they want to avoid detection.

Skewed Morality: Inga is from a world and time with a morality and word-view drastically different from most people's modern sensibilities. She has been involved in both animal and human sacrifice, and sees these things are necessary parts of her religion of course, she will be learning different ways from the people she meets. It's bound to make for very interesting interaction, and may well land her enemies due to misunderstandings.

Illiterate: Inga is from a time in which people did not really read or write. Runes were used as a rudimentary alphabet, mostly for inscriptions, grave markers, etc. She speaks a small bit of Latin but cannot read or write it.

Technological Incompetence: Inga is confounded by technology. She has absolutely no idea how most things workthe modern household may as well operate by magic. In fact, magic would honestly make more sense. She will need to be taught how to use electricity, never mind computers, motor vehicles, and guns.

Disability: Inga was born with what is essentially cerebral palsy. Her hips are disformed in such a way that she walks with a pronounced limp. While being one of the Bees has improved her constitution considerably, she still walks with a limp that will slow her down. She uses a rune carved staff to improve her gait, but she most certainly will not be winning any races.
}}

The First Time I Died (Staren)

2014-11-20T04:36:59Z

Staren: added image link for the robot

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2014/03/03
|Location=Planetary Plains
|Synopsis=Staren is woefully underprepared to fight LUCHA KOOPA and pays the ultimate price. Fortunately, he was prepared for that. Or was he, really...?
|Thanks=Bowser, Theo Morrison, Maya, Asuna
|Cast of Characters=42, 317, 9
|Tinyplot=
}}
<s>I remember the night of my twenty-first birthday... That was the first time I died.</s> wait, wrong cutscene.

==

The death of Niv-Mizzet... no, the disappearance of Niv-Mizzet, loomed large in Staren's mind. Just when he thought he had things under control, he was again faced with something he could do nothing about. And he could not accept that there would always be things beyond his control. What was the point of it all, if no matter what you did, one day people could be hurt or killed, permanently, with nothing you could do to stop it?

Staren consulted with a time traveler, but that hope was dashed. You do not mess with time. He ranted to friends. He hurt an old friend with thoughtless words.

Staren didn't realize just how rattled he was, how deeply it had struck him. He did not realize how unclearly he had been thinking. Unarmored, he had thought his other defenses to be enough and charged in to fight in melee.

Finally, he trusted a foe to listen to reason. He did not realize his mistake until too late.

A slow nod of Lucha Koopa's head. He looks like he's listening to Staren. He looks over to the battle, the getaway... The whole thing. He looks over to Staren, smiling. Right, right. Moral principles. He smiles more at the suggestion of staying out of things.

Staren can't pull his hand away. He's still holding Staren firmly by the hand. He's not letting go. It's a little awkward, perhaps, but not really painful. There's a beat of pause. And then Lucha Koopa's face goes blank, and there may be this moment where Staren has realize he's made a mistake and left himself open for a very painful lesson.

Because Lucha Koopa uses this grip to try to pull him off of his feet, while dropping into a crouch and sling the scientist over that turtle shell. The other hand would snap out for an ankle, while he lets go of Staren's hand to grasp for his neck... and then LEEEEAP into the air quite suddenly, and drop with titanic force, right back onto his feet, with all of the momentum gone in trying to wrench Staren's back with so much torque that it could permanently injure a man.

>>> SUMMARY - Bowser <<< - HEEL SURPRISE ATTACK

Bowser does 27 damage to Staren with a Direct hit.

<DRAMATIC ATTACK> Bowser hit Staren with his KOOPA BACKBREAKER epic attack! <Standard Mechanic>

Theo, near the edge of town, has a sudden sense that Abe Lincoln may be crowing from the best seat in the house.

He shakes his head a little and keeps walking, hustling away from the fighting. Must just be over-tired. Not his problem. Don't worry about it. They'll handle it.

>>> SUMMARY - Theo Morrison <<< - Staren: http://youtu.be/OGp9P6QvMjY

Staren does realize his mistake when he can't pull his hand away. He immediately begins to slash with the sword, but he's not strong -- he is, in many respects, a normal human, and he's fighting some kind of monster wrestler turtle.

What comes next happens so fast. THINK Staren, you can escape this, THINK THINK THINK THI--

<nowiki>*CRACK*</nowiki>

An armored labcoat is no protection against necks twisting until they break.

When you think about it, by the standards of his world, he really should know better than to ever enter combat without full body armor.

Those who are sensitive to such things may feel a spark dying and a release of magical energy that is suddenly used by some effect.

The catboy lies still.

>>> SUMMARY - Staren <<< - NOW I ****ED UP.

<Union-IC> [A] Asuna says, "Staren?!"

<Union-IC> [A] Maya says, "Staren?"

Lucha Koopa looks down at the prone scientist, dead or not, and blows a derisive puff of air from his nose at the heap of catboy.

"Villains are supposed to be feared."

And then he realizes he's probably going to get mobbed, and the other Confederate here is already leaving, so he leaps away, and slides away inside of his shell, a WHOOSH of air and an electrical spark as he picks up a disturbing amount of speed and disappears in a field of corn.

>>> SUMMARY - Bowser <<< - Cheese it! Lucha Koopa flees from the site of his crushing victory.

After a few seconds, a metal disc in Staren's bag expands into [http://www.poeland.com/eclipsePhase/wiki/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=81&display a little vaguely insectoid robot], then crawls out of the bag to his neck and tries to stick some kind of tool into it.

Theo feels a little bit funny. He's not sure what it is. It's kind of like an itch that he desperately wants to go away, and cannot possibly scratch. He twists his neck and shoulders uncomfortably, trying to work out a kink in his neck that he lacks.

He keeps walking.

Maya was in another part of the community and is now heading for Staren's last location, given Doom's pulled out as has the koopa? She can now make for him. She sets in for a landing where Staren's fallen to check on him.

"Damn it..."

If unmolested, the robot remains there and nothing more happens for about ten seconds. And theeeeeen...

One moment, Staren is rushing towards the ground. The next thing he knows...

He is some kind of spider robot. This is wrong. Like, WRONG wrong. Like, he needs to fix it as soon as possible and he would just go deal with that right now except he's not sure how to activate his teleporter and he has BIGGER PROBLEMS as he realizes what happened.

He realizes what happened. In theory, this is his moment of triumph. He conquered death, didn't he? This is supposed to be a good time to let out a (simulated) maniacal laugh and give a speech.

Instead, he is FREAKING OUT. He just died, didn't he? Oh Morg what if the enemy is still here and suspects, while he tries to get camera feeds his worry is run over by the /philosophical/ dread that a dead him just went on to the afterlife. Wait, didn't Viridian Sunset say it probably didn't work that way?

The body sits up, spiderbot attached.

Staren notices the movement, sends the command. His body stops. Okay, how...

He can't move. Damn. He /really/ should have tested that machine to magic interface better. That will be a thing to do LATER. Okay. Stand up, body. It does, with the slow basic movement of something mindless following orders. He... it was supposed to be smoother than this. He should be able to interface with his old body... ah. He didn't actually plug into his jack and send the codes. And it would be weird and he has to end this NOW and he just wants to go home.

"Maya..." speakers on the insect bot synthesize Staren's voice. "I... just need to get back to the lab." And THEN he remembers that his body is going to begin to decompose and the more it does, the harder it will be to heal. And if the /brain/ deteriorates too much, the body will be rendered useless. "Now." He turns--- oh right. Nothing. Body, turn around. Wait, the warpgate is that way. Turn around again. 30 degrees more to the left. Good. Walk forward. "Look... I want to explain, but right now I /really/ just want to get back to something approaching normal and make my body safe. ...Don't... I'm not sure you should tell them, on the radio... they might not understand..."

>>> SUMMARY - Staren <<< - I conquered death why does it feel so terrible

Asuna stares.

"... considering I conquered death I'm not gonna say a word..."

Theo is too far away to freak out and Unsummon Staren's corpse reflexively, just to see what would happen.

"Asuna... I... I can explain later... for now... it is simple enough to say that when I said I was immortal, there was some truth to the matter." The voice synthesizer is surprisingly good at conveying a veneer of calm barely covering panic.

"Right. Go. Shoo. Maya and I've got this." says Asuna.

Maya looks down at Staren for a moment "you know I should just put you in my pocket, Staren."

Maya comments as she moves to see what she can do about the body.

"You're lucky Runner isn't here you're vermin sized to him. He's likely to go chomp before I could stop him."

Maya's dog was a strange thing a very strange death puppy, she then got to work with the body for the moment.

The body is walking towards the warpgate with the little spider-drone riding on the back of its neck. Staren feels a shiver, although the robot doesn't move. "Please don't pick me up. I don't want to leave my body..." If Maya offers to carry the... corpse, Staren orders his body to stand still. "Please, just bring me back through to my world..."

Staren's parents are waiting on the Lazlo side of the warpgate. They look... well, like parents who've learned their son is in stable condition at the hospital or something. It's not like he's /dead/, there's nothing to be /sad/ about. And they know the plan. Maya and Staren (and his body) are immediately teleported to the lab with them. Next to a healing vat. Staren is removed and starts skittering around screaming--

It took everything he had to try and keep his cool, or at least keep up a facade of keeping his cool, this long. No longer able to cling to his familiar body, he loses it. "AAAH! AAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He's trapped in a mechanical bug he just wants to go home he just wants to be alive again he'd do anything he just wants this nightmare to stop why isn't it over yet he was supposed to have control why is it taking so long why he can't even cry and everything feels weird and wrong why isn't it over yet

--while his body is stripped and loaded into the vat -- then, somewhat disconcerted with all the screaming, they rush spiderbot-Staren over to the ego bridge, where a tweenaged clone is already loaded in, and try to calm him down -- eventually getting through to him for long enough to get him to initiate the transfer.

An hour later, Staren awakens, wide-eyed, feels himself breathe, feels his heart beat, looks at his wiggling fingers, and then sort of cling-hugs to his parents for awhile.

Maya's offered the couch if she wishes to remain, Staren remains jittery and nervous and ends up being carried around in cat form by his mother with her petting and trying to calm him down.

Alive alive he's alive again safe the nightmare is over he's with Mom and Dad safe he never wants to do that again no never again

Tell no one you saw that, Maya. >:|

==

He couldn't tell his allies the truth. Dying, and coming back, so soon after what happened to Niv-Mizzet? They'd never believe he wasn't trying to make some kind of point. However, there was no way to hide that he would be stuck as a tween for a week. What could he tell them?

<nowiki>============================== Union - General ===============================
Message: 26/48 Posted Author
AAR: Planetary Plains Addendum Tue Mar 04 Staren
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was attacked by some kind of monster turtle wrestler. It turns out
that an armored coat does not protect me from grappling. Due to severe
injuries such as broken bones, my body will need a few days in the healing vat
-- In the meantime, I have taken this opportunity to check that my clone
bodies are growing and functioning properly and have transferred into one. So
far so good. It's not done growing yet though, so I'll be... younger for a few
days.

--Staren

Attached: Photo of Lucha Koopa, a masked koopa wrestler with a faint
star-shaped tattoo on his shell.

==============================================================================</nowiki>

There. All technically true. A broken neck is just a specific case of 'broken bones', right? They need never know...

967/A Technological Exchange

2014-11-13T08:36:41Z

Staren: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2014/11/13 |Location=RIFTS Earth, Lazlo Outskirts |Synopsis=Staren wants Zwei's Raiser technology. But what knowledge could he possibly trade for i..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2014/11/13
|Location=RIFTS Earth, Lazlo Outskirts
|Synopsis=Staren wants Zwei's Raiser technology. But what knowledge could he possibly trade for it...?
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=42, 596
|Tinyplot=
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     EARTH! The year is 2402 as the ancients counted it, but only scholars care about that now. It is the year 116 PA (The Post Apocalyptic era).     The FIRST thing anyone would notice upon stepping through the warpgate is that it's freezing. It's winter in what used to be Canada, what do you expect? The SECOND thing is the distant electric-blue glow of the leylines. In places of power like this the glow can tower hundreds of feet high! Like groundbound aurorae!     The warpgate is in the vicinity of where Bowmanville once stood at the turn of the last millenium, about 15 miles east of Lazlo. A dirt road runs roughly parallel to the coast of Lake Ontario, which passes by a handful of small towns and a lot of farms on its way to Lazlo.     But Staren is waiting here, at the gate, in his armor, watching it expectantly. Behind him, the shining light of Lazlo's nexus is clear on the horizon, even from here. 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     Not expecting any kind of pressing need for heavy firepower, Zwei leaves Asche stationed outside of Brockton bay for the time being, along with his stable of recoinnaissance drones monitoring the movements of the city. Weiss is spared from her street level investigations for the time being, allowing Zwei to keep track of both situations at once with true multitasking. The warpgate shines as the smaller Armiger steps through it, still wearing casual, indoor clothes from hanging around in a bank for the past half hour, though predictably, she doesn't seem remotely bothered by the cold. She certainly knows how cold it is, able to gague it with the simplest of sensors, but she has no real reason to be averse to it, since her systems don't really require a certain temperature to function at.     Obviously, the first thing that draws her attention is the sight of the nearest leyline, which immediately gathers almost the full extent of her considerable scanning ability, though she still makes the effort to turn to Staren and ask anyways. "Nice to see you again Staren! Tell me, what exactly is that over there? It's emitting an awful lot of electromagnetic radiation on the visible light spectrum, but I can't tell from where." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren can't help but smirk behind his visor as Zwei is immediately distracted by the leyline. "It's a leyline. This world is a natural source of incredible magical energy." he looks at it, then back to her. "Nice to see you, too."     He turns towards the distant leyline again. "The leyline is actually wider than that. But right at the center, some of the excess energy is radiated as that bluish light." He takes a deep breath. "Every magic user can feel its presence and draw on it. Some humans have even evolved to eat magical energy instead of food." 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     "Oh? So that's how your world has mages, but didn't before? These leylines must be something new if your planet previously advanced to a significant level of technology without the use of magic at all. I can't imagine you'd invent lasers and railguns if you could break the laws of physics to begin with." She mentally files away the coordinates to follow up on later, though it is unlikely that further leylines would be difficult to find given how much this one stands out. "As far as I can tell, it seems to be a mirror of tectonic activity. It's running underneath the earth, and then being ejected to the surface at various points, where it is later being used by people. I presume everyone wants to build their cities on top of leylines so that their mages have more readily available magical energy."     The sight of Weiss rubbing her chin is purely ornamental; there to let Staren know that she's thinking rather than simply staring silently into space while she starts data crunching. "But it's my understanding that you're more interested in things based off of scientific principals you can use and understand. Common understanding of magic must not be that advanced if people are still relying on ballistic slugs to kill each other. The first thing humans do with new technology is blow each other up with it after all!" The smile that follows is as tongue-in-cheek as it gets, there to say 'I know how cynical that is, but just try and prove me wrong!'.     "Which brings us to our main topic. How soon do you think you can have a proto-abstractum ready. I don't mind giving you my side of the payment in advance, but I'll be upset if I have to wait months for your end of the bargain." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods. "The apocalypse was at the end of the 21st century. This world focused its later tech development on weapons development and human augmentation before everything, well..." he shrugs. "Magic came back rather violently, but we've learned to use it now." To her next comment, he replies: "You'd think that, but some people are convinced magic is evil. Also, remember that it would apply to any mages /attacking/ your city, too." He turns and looks behind him. "Lazlo is built around a leyline nexus, though, and converts the magic to electricity to power the city." He turns back to Weiss, and shrugs. "It's a mix -- we have both technology and magic. I mostly studied technology first -- being easier and cheaper to replicate made it sound more attractive, and its what my parents were more familiar with. A mage is a terrible foe on a leyline, but elsewhere they only have so much power before they run out and take /days/ to fully recharge. A giant robot can be rearmed within hours. There are advantages to both. You could build a magitech robot, of course, but the parts would be expensive and you'd need a ton of magical energy to power the weapons and other features."     At last, the question: "Well, that depends, but I can probably get you one in a few minutes. Maybe a week if you ask for something weird, maybe longer if you ask for something I have no clue how to get. But right this second, I'll let you scan this:"     Staren grabs the beam saber hilt off his belt, then turns it on -- the 'blade' of glowing purple energy humming softly.     "Here's the interesting bit: See if you can tell me how the /hell/ it's powered." 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     Well now that's just a challenge. Weiss stops staring at the leyline for a moment and turns her attention to the beam saber instead, hitting it with infrared, microwave, alpha beta and gamma radiation, sonar sampling, MRI, soft photon imaging, mossbauer radiography, and pretty much everything in her arsenal. "That's . . . something. It's similar in concept to some sort of magnetic plasma torch. I can pick up the results I'd expect to find if it was, but I can't actually conclusively prove that it is. Is that using magic? Does it work away from a leyline?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "This is a protoabstractum." Staren looks between Weiss and the blade, the bright purple glow reflecting off his visor. "How, on a physics level, it's actually producing this effect, I have /no/ idea, and that is the mystery I hope to solve by studying these. It's like... suppose I was a scientist who'd never heard of electricity, and I got a computer to study. I've studied the hardware and figured out how circuits work, but how it all comes together into a computer I just don't know yet, it's very complex. I've /used/ the computer, of course, observed it in operation -- I've even messed around with a compiler, and found that I can copy blocks of code and get the same result sometimes... but the individual lines of code are gibberish I've yet to learn how to decode."     Beat.     "...As for power, it will only work in the vicinity of a sufficiently powerful elite, like all protoabstractum."     The energy sword continues to hum softly. 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     It's sort of weird to discern expressions from a being that doesn't subconsciously make them, since that means everything that crosses Weiss' face is something she deliberately wants someone else to see. In the interest of making for natural human interaction however, currently her expression is that of intense, wide-eyed interest. "That sounds a lot more interesting than you let on! This kind of thing is what the Collective was originally starting to study when I was last activated. They'd gotten just about everything they could out of normal physical laws, so they aimed to step above them. The closer one gets to the foundations of reality, the less certain and more symbolic things become, starting at the atom downwards. I feel like whoever did this might have reached some ineffable core of what it is to exist. Especially if it has something to do with 'aura'."     She suddenly stands up straight, fixing eyes on Staren instead. "By the way, I'm done rating your combat exoskeleton. It'd say it definitely wasn't built in the 21st century. A dark age considered, it's surprisingly more advanced than I would have expected. It's still only a suit of armour, so it won't handle as much kinetic and thermal recoil as my body does, but I think I have an idea of what it can tolerate. What are you in the market for? Longarms? Personal sidearms? Concealed weapons?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren just stares at Weiss when she states that things become 'more symbolic' under the atom. "You... your people found that out too??" He turns off the sword and paces back and forth. "I don't know if that's troubling, or a huge breakthrough." After a moment he stops and takes a deep breath. "Well, if that's how reality works, that's how it works -- we just gotta figure out the details!" He smiles and turns to give her a thumbs-up.     He slips the hilt back into its holster and rubs his chin with his other hand. "Technology's had /some/ time to start advancing again, and I've implemented stuff from other worlds too. ...I really want one of those swords, but besides that... are there any weapons that could safely be used even out of armor? ...If I could understand the principles enough to build things, of course, maybe I could adjust sizes and yields as appropriate for different situations." 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     "Yes, it's really interesting! The telltale signs are where electrons are concerned, and the fact that locating one changes its position, so you have to represent them as fields where they /probably/ are. Then you get into the level of quarks, where they stop acting like newtonian particles, and require an entirely different set of physics before someone figures out a unified theory. They simultaneously are and are not in every position they can occupy until they are observed. Then you get into the pieces that make /those/ up, and you wind up with matter and energy, wave and particle, and existence and nonexistence being the same thing, as well as real, negative, and imaginary values for things that should only be positive integers. It's only natural of course, that the underlying system would be more complex than the reality it describes. The underpinning code of an object oriented language is far more nebulous than the classes it defines, to keep using your analogy!"     Weiss pauses to contemplate. "The materials required might not be possible for your level of technology to achieve. I'm sure you could manufactore a substitute, but until you have the capability to piece matter together atom by atom, it won't be of the same quality, and thus won't perform at the same level. Likewise, storing power as electromagnetic energy will result in a hard maximum of charge the weapon can hold, but on the other hand, you should concievably be able to recharge them with a powerful enough electric current, though you'd want a nuclear engine to do so quickly. I'll try to work out digital controls your suit should be able to interface with, but I'll add manual ones as well, just in case your emitters break or are jammed. Let's see . . ."     Weiss kneels to a nearby snowbank and begins to scoop it into a pile, as if she intents to form the base of a snowman. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren considers Weiss's analogy. "I knew all that, but I never looked at it that way..."     Staren nods. "Of course." He seems impressed that she'd remember to have backup controls.     He's also planning to immediately have Eureka copy its function, but he doesn't say that just yet.     Staren quirks an eyebrow as she starts playing with the snow. What's that about? Hydrogen and oxygen can't be enough to start making these things, right? 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     Seeming to sense Staren's doubt, Weiss begins talking while she works. "Snow is primarily made of water, which is mostly made of hydrogen and oxygen, differing in ionic states and additional minerals depending on what the water has picked up. Oxygen is made up of eight protons, eight neutrons, and eight electrons. Those are the only things we're concerned with, because you can make any other element in existence with just those three things. In this case, I'm going to be using those atomic components to build a lot of carbon, and some beryllium, silicon, molybdenum and niobium."     Just like that, the snow begins to disintegrate; melting without turning into water. As if it were simply buried underneath the pile all along, the silhouette of a handgun emerges as the surrounding material disappears. It looks almost like something coming out of a 3d printer. The weapon itself is fairly unremarkable, being of a fairly standard size for human hands, and finished in flat, carbon black. The casing is extremely simplistic, leaving no space for a slide, bolt, ejection port, hammer, or just about any other moving part of a ballistic firearm, taking on a sleek, minimalistic look like a piece of modern art meant to represent a pistol rather than a real one.     Weiss appears to have added a trigger and guard, along with a safety switch, and traditional ironsights, though there is also the telltale sign of a smart camera integrated just under the barrel, with laser rangefinding and gamma and infrared imaging. If Staren interfaces with it wirelessly, he'll find it links directly to his HUD, displaying a computed lead indicator, energy bar, and highlights for potential targets. It's pretty sophisticated software, but it should run even with just his basic cortical implants. "I know it's not very snazzy, so you can paint it up any way you like. There's no real need for a finish since the casing is already 50% harder than synthetic diamond, so it won't scratch. It should also stand up to 60 gigapascals of compressive force, so your arm will break before it does!" She picks it up and hits the magazine release, dropping out an angled block of black material shot through with faintly iridescent gold lines in the pattern of a circuitboard, capped with a pair of connectors for positive and negative electric current. "The magazine is a supercapacitor, but don't charge it with a current over 1000 volts or it'll break down. The maximum capacity is roughly 53 megajoules, so if you fire with the same juice as a regular handgun bullet, you'll have enough for 60,000 rounds before recharging. Conversely, if you dump the entire battery into one shot, it'll kick so hard that you shouldn't even try to brace against it, but it'll penetrate through up 750mm of solid steel and then go off with the energy of a kilo and a half of TNT, though that's a release of pure thermal energy, so it'll be far more destructive than a real explosion would be since it'll turn the interior of the target to plasma. /This/ one should be safe to fire with your bare hands." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren just stares. The level of technology that can do this...     He notes the wireless link, connects, and finds it already rigged to interface with his implants specifically. That scanner is kind of SCARY.     Staren starts nodding as she describes what it can do, then his eyes widen when she explains what it does at max power and he whistles appreciatively, walking over and gingerly picking it up to look it over.     Then he looks up at Weiss. "And what would you like in return?" 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     "Ah ah ah, I'm not done yet!" Weiss chides, clearly picking up on his excitement, and wanting to milk it for all it's worth. Scooping a larger amount of snow together, she repeats the process, this time revealing the shape of a heavy rifle in the same, sleek black contours as the handgun, lacking the traditional rail mounts for ubiquitous military accessories, instead using embedded electromagnets to fasten anything with a magnetic base, and on closer inspection, lacking an obvious magazine.     "This is the one for using /with/ the suit. No interchangeable magazines on this one. The entire stock is the battery. It's rated at roughly 200 megajoules of power, so 117,000 shots equivalent to an M16, 40 rounds equivalent to the handgun's max charge, or a single shot that will literally shatter your shoulderbones if you don't have that armour on. The full charge explodes with roughly ten times the power of a 120mm HEAT shell. Keep in mind, it's a laser emission. There is no shockwave for the atmosphere to absorb, meaning that if you remote detonate the round outside of a target, the resulting thermal energy will keep expanding in a perfect sphere until it burns something. Do not use a full power airburst within 50 meters of an unarmoured ally. Inside of a target, it'll pretty much instantly vapourize everything within a meter radius and then the flash expansion will rip everything else to pieces. Even if it doesn't, the resultant plasma will just steadily melt it from the inside out. Neither projectile moves at light speed, so keep in mind the velocity is only mach 9. On the other hand, it won't bounce off a reflective surface, and it won't prematurely detonate if it hits a surface it somehow can't penetrate." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren's eyebrows raise a bit in surprise. Oh, he gets /more/? He nods as she describes the capabilities of the weapon. "What's it actually using for a projectile? How does it work? And um... could you use my lasers or missiles as a measuring unit instead of old bullets?" Okay, he can do the conversions on his head computer, but still, it's easier to work with. 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     "Hmmmm, I think it'd be best if I just demonstrated." Weiss picks up the rifle, casually slinging it like a pistol rather than properly bracing it against her shoulder. A pull of the trigger, and the muzzle flashes once, and a barely visible bolt of white light, tinged violet around its edges as it blueshifts, streaks from the heavy, rectangular barrel, disappears from sight, and detonates in the snow a considerable distance away with a deafening bang, and an utterly blinding flash of golden fire; throwing up an enormous cloud of steam and vapourized dirt that towers into a miniature mushroom, like a tiny nuke had gone off. The resulting crater glows cherry red, the soil that wasn't turned to vapour having been fused into molten glass.     "Comparing the output is difficult since it doesn't function in the same way as either a laser or a chemical explosive. The photons are bonded together into a mock-molecule that simulates mass by exterting electromagnetic force on surrounding molecules, though it isn't affected by gravity or momentum. When it encounters resistance, the projectile simply loses energy rather than slowing down. Its total energy is in a completely nebulous state, expended as kinetic energy when it hits other molecules, and then released as thermal radiation when it changes states, like hitting its surroundings with an omnidirectional laser beam over every square millimeter. It penetrates like a hypervelocity bullet that doesn't deform, so it simply keeps going until it runs out of energy or is detonated. That means it won't bounce, skip, or deflect either. It'll either destroy the other material, stop dead, or explode. Since there isn't an explosive shockwave, the explosive radius diminishes by a square rather than a cube, since there isn't a greater volume of air pressure absorbing the concussive wave. Suffice to say, the resultant energy is enough to achieve short lived nuclear fusion. Dumping the whole battery at once should be at least a hundred times more powerful than your laser rifle, but you won't be able to reload it without a generator, and even that will take some considerable time. The amount of energy released is comparable to one of your missiles, but 100% of the energy is absorbed by the target rather than a small percentage based on angle of deflection. Basically, be careful with it!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks, but by the time he realizes she's going to fire HERE it's too late. He can only stare... "...Wow." After she explains, he sighs. "People live around here, you know. They're gonna wonder what that was..." He's already sent a message to the LDF about it being a requested demonstration of power by a friendly alien that didn't think about everyone in the area seeing that explosion.     "Impressive. If only its effectiveness against elites weren't so badly reduced, but perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised even in /that/ area." He sets the pistol into his bag and takes the rifle. "Photon molecules are a fearsome technology indeed..." 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:''' "Yeah, that's kind of a problem I'm running into. Normally Asche should be able to walk through an entire Earth's nuclear arsenal, but for some reason his personal defense systems don't work against some people. It might just be because they're using magic, but I'm still researching how they're doing it. It's not like they're hitting it and just somehow causing it to fail either. There's some sort of trick to it that I haven't figured out yet . . ." Weiss trails off. "Oh, sorry about that! I didn't realize this was a demilitarized zone or anything! If you can do me a favour though, don't go showing off raiser technology to everyone on this planet. I have strict directives not to start advancing entire civilizations with freebie technology. If I find out you're doing it, I'm going to be very very upset!" She sounds cheery saying it, but there is an implicated threat there that is being made with utmost confidence.     "In return, I'd like you to get me an Abstractum in whatever way is most convenient for you! I won't ask to see your notes or anything, since I'm not giving you mine. Call me when you can guarantee a delivery." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren sighs as Zwei talks about a trick she can't figure out. "You said it yourself: The underlying physics are conceptual, and your /and/ their concepts are powerful."     Staren rubs the side of his head. "There are towns and farms around here. And I can't reproduce your tech, so that won't be a problem. I'm still in the middle of getting other tech widely accepted, anyway."     Staren blinks. "You... want a full Abstractum already? Just to check again, you agree to help fight Them? The other condition... Can't really be measured by me, anyway." Staren taps his chin. "Actually, the other condition doesn't matter. Forget I mentioned it, it's just a sort of sanity check in the software that won't apply to this situation." 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     "I'm sure they probably are, but it's not useful to me if I can't identify who I can and can't safely ignore in a combat situation. Neither Weiss nor Asche are actually all that heavily armoured for my level of technology. It's pretty much all in the shielding. I don't want to be dodging shots that I can walk through, and walking into shots I should have dodged." Weiss turns back to Staren with a nod that is much more serious than her previous tone. "If both the superfactions are doing it, I might as well. The metaphysics that make this place work are important to me, and I need to do more fighting anyways to establish sufficient combat data to gague multiversal threats. I can't just assume I'm an untouchable god anymore." 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods. "Alright, I'm sure something can be arranged. Lately the Abstractum have been asleep a lot though, so it might be awhile. In the meantime, is there a protoabstractum you'd like to study?" 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     "Hmmm, if you're willing to do both. Anything you don't need is fine, but that energy sword would be useful, since I already know the basic principals of how one should work, and it's easy enough to test its capabilitys just by cutting things."     Weiss pauses for a moment before going back to her totally nonchalant, mildly amused tone. "Oh, don't lend specifications out, but you can totally show those pieces off to anyone you like as long as you tell them where you got them from~ If I can get a big client base, I can start trading weapons for intel!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren hmms. "...The beam sword I can't make right now, but I can get one soon. But if you have a bit longer, there is something I'll show you: We can /make/ a protoabstractum. You must provide one or more base form objects, and one or more base function objects -- all base objects will be consumed in the process and used to create the protoabstractum. Have anything in mind?" 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     "Form and function?" Zwei contemplates for a whole microsecond. "Let's see." Holding out both hands, Weiss concentrates as the air begins to swirl around them, drawn in by the vacuum created by atmospheric molecules being rearranged into a denser form. In her left hand, what is unmistakably a classic magnifying glass takes shape, made of cheap, chintzy plastic. In her right hand, is a device that looks somewhat like a telescope, but prolonged examination will instead indicate that it is in fact, a tiny electron microscope. "This should be interesting~" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren blinks at the two objects. "...What are you trying to do here? ...Oh, I see. A superpowered magnifying glass? Hmm. I haven't tried anything like that, but it should work. That trick /won't/ work at making armor or explosives more compact, though, I already tried. ...Come on then." He leads her back through the warpgate... 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren steps out of the warpgate, and stops to take off his helmet and wait for Weiss. "...You know, I have to wonder how you're controlling two bodies across the multiverse with no lag at all. Or is this the only one active right now?"     Regardless of reply, Staren leads the way to the red door, giving the Legacies and the mysterious progress bar only a brief glance. "This is the homeworld, our base of operations for Abstractum work. We also have a virtual base for accessing archived information."     "...And this is the red wing. Most of the machines in the colored wings are for upgrading your Abstractum, but this wing also contains a combat simulator and a machine for making proto-abstractum." He holds out his hand towards each in turn, casually. "Function in this chamber, form in this chamber, close the shutters, press the button." 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     This is a hell of a lot to process. There don't seem to be any real spatial coordinates Zwei can ascribe to what Staren nebulously refers to as 'the homeworld', and nothing about any of the 'people' Weiss can see comes off as normal. The huge variety of warp gates all in one place is also a strange tip-off, and the number of convoluted machines that perform no function it can discern make it even worse. Or better? It's a little overwhelming at first, but the sense of being lost swiftly gives way to one of anticipation. Zwei had expected to find some sort of dusty old factory churning these shady things out, not some kind of inhabitable complex still in use by actual people. It reminds it of a corporate lobby or something.     "Oh uh, that's quantum mechanics again. Neither Weiss nor Asche send signals to each other. I simultaneously occupy both their 'brains' since I myself am sort of a Shcrodinger entity interpreted and expressed by their AIs." Weiss responds, clearly distracted. "Can I come back here later? We'll be here for hours if I started asking every question that came to mind." Deeming the instructions simple enough, Weiss places the dollar store magnifying glass into the form chamber, and the electron microscope into the function chamber, closing both shutters, and pushing the button as if unwrapping a Christmas present. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "Really? I... gnnh, you are /frustratingly/ far ahead of any science I know." Staren shows a slight hint of irritation, but then it becomes a smirk. "Anyone else would probably say the strangest world I could bring someone to is Equestria or one of the ones that runs on videogame logic... but you, this is all as beyond you as your tech is to me, isn't it? Maybe more. Well, at least I'll soon be able to enjoy more than three people understanding all this."     He watches her press the button...     When the big red button (of course it's a big red button) is pushed, both chambers briefly and quickly scan their interiors, presumably for any sapient entities that it should not process. When this is done, both chambers abruptly slam shut with large blast doors, and the FORM chamber emits a lengthy hissing noise. Nothing more seems to happen for several seconds, during which the screen displays a rotating idle icon.     Suddenly the process completes, and both chambers open, ejecting a high volume of a strange mist. In the FORM chamber, the magnifying glass has been altered, a small HEMISPHERICAL CRYSTAL embedded on one side of the top of the handle just below the glass. Any symbols on the electron microscope's body may also have been copied to the magnifying glass.     It's now a magnifying glass that, somehow, shows a scanning electron microscope view when you look through it! Be reasonable about it, or ask Abstractum.net for more details. Also, as long as the new crystal is undamaged, the rest of the object will slowly regenerate from any damage.     The FUNCTION chamber is, as expected, empty. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     ...Staren leans over to peek at the new protoabstractum, curiously. "Does it work?" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     "...I'll radio the warpgate address for the Homeworld to you, by the way. You've promised to fight Them, so whether you become an Abstractum User or not..." he shrugs. "No reason not to. You might decide to create a node, too. Eureka or your own Abstractum might be a bit better at explaining things, too." 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     Weiss gives Staren a good natured, if rather coy smile. "I think it would be impossible for anyone to understand the workings of every world in the multiverse. It amuses me a little that mine is so far on the highest end of scientific advancement, but so many other places have magic, so I consider it even~ But you're right! This is pretty far beyond me! Which is why it's interesting!" Fully well /expecting/ it to work, Weiss picks up the new magnifying glass, and a section of skin on the back of her hand fizzles away, leaving a circle of glossy, featureless black metal. Looking through the lense, she can actually see the hexagonal pattern of the piezoelectric graphene just under the surface, uttering a pleased sound. "It does! I have no idea how, but it does!" Her hand goes back to normal as she turns to Staren again. "Thank you! This made me really happy!" 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren smiles wide. "I'm glad I could help! You gave me advice on the whole utopia thing, and I hope I can learn a lot more about your technology... and honestly, it's nice to have someone who /cares/ about all this science stuff around, I mean... you're not the only one, but such people are pretty hard to come by! And you're, y'know, generally helpful and not evil, too." He gives a little shrug.     "...Anything more you want to say before I turn in for the night?" 

:'''{{#var:596|Zwei (596)}} has posed:'''     Weiss shakes her head, still pretty much beaming as she pockets the magnifying glass. "No, I won't take any more of your time. You've been beyond helpful today!" She starts walking towards the main hall, aiming to go back to that welcome booth she saw before. "I'm going to stay here for a while and look around since I don't need to sleep. I'll talk to you later!' 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren nods. "See you later then!" He waves and heads back through the warpgate. 

}}

Irreversible, or Two Hours (Staren)

2014-10-28T19:47:09Z

Staren:

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2014/09/25
|Location=Flying Island and Staren's Lab
|Synopsis=When all else fails to prevent death in the first place, Staren has a way to reverse it. But the truth is, that his tools are far more limited than he would like.
|Thanks=Quote
|Cast of Characters=42
|Tinyplot=Cave Story
}}
Staren appears by the Sand Zone teleporter, holding Toroko's body. He steps through, races across town to the warpgate, steps through again, teleports to the lab. He lifts her body into the tank, a sort of ovoid pod combined with what looks like an MRI machine, which begins to fill up with a clear gel. Toroko floats, the small, fluffy rabbit-girl almost looking asleep, except for the scars on her legs and abdomen. But it wasn't wounds that killed her.

"Eureka." Staren rushes to his console, lifts the gauntlet from its resting place. "Eureka. Wake up."

"Wake up!"

"WAKE UP!" he shakes it, and then, after a moment, rushes back to the machine, setting Eureka down on a lab table.

'''ERROR: Physiology does not match any stored template.'''
'''ERROR: Neural structure does not match any stored template.'''

"Of course it doesn't..." Staren mutters to himself. He paces, and thinks, and then removes his armor, continuing to pace in his signature labcoat. Glancing back to the sleeping Abstractum from time to time.

Suddenly, an idea comes to him. Over the past two years, the technology has been adapted to many species of D-Bees, with Eureka's help. Could one of them be 'close enough'?

He has the machine run more scans. Display a list of templates with descending percentages of similarity. It's not the best, but it's something. Maybe... maybe he can tweak them, somehow.

It is slow work. No template is a perfect match, and it turns out that biochemistry, let alone brain mapping, is ''pretty specific work''. Still, he has to try. What if he didn't, and a solution turned out to have been there?

He tries one approach, then another. Modifying templates, mixing pieces. Honestly, the chances are slim. The odds are next to impossible, really. But each time he thinks of a new approach, of something that might match up, he feels ''so close''...

Minutes become an hour, and then two.

'''TIME SINCE DEATH: 02:00:00'''

The counter in the corner of his vision flashes, accompanied by a buzz. He slumps against the tank, slowly dropping to his knees.

Out of time.

He runs another scan, just in case. But while the machine may not know how a mimiga is /supposed/ to look, it can detect change over time. Decay. The nanomachines, not knowing what they are restoring, have not been able to slow the natural aftereffects of death. The mind is such an incredibly complex machine... just a little damage can change it forever, and just a little more can break it so that it won't work at all. Even if he made it work, now, she would never be the same. He shakes his head. And slowly, turns to look at the gauntlet lying on the table. "...I'll still keep looking for more power..." he whispers to himself.

Abstractum aren't the end-all solution. But they can help him find it. Slowly, he rises to his feat, and pats Eureka affectionately. "One day. One day, I'll have the power I need."

He decants Toroko, and carries her body back to the mimigas.

Irreversible, or Two Hours (Staren)

2014-10-28T19:46:29Z

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