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Priscilla     When all those words had flown about regarding Lodestone being some kind of secretive group of special engineers versed in the old magitechnology of Garit, moving unseen and undertaking incomprehensible shadow projects with the island-city's defunct tech, the impression of Lodestone had been something like some kind of genius cabal of recluse inventors and shady Illuminati of master planners.

    What people get, when allowed into their secret underground headquarters, deep in the bowels of what passes for the city's 'electrical' grid, is a chaotic mess of wall to wall mad science crammed into every duct, crawl shaft and corner, to make way for workshop tables scraped clean and loaded with messy piles of food, booze, and probably illegal fireworks, currently being used indoors. Despite the Prospekt being universally white-skinned black-eyed bald and subterranean adapted people, the sheer amount of ridiculous goggles, aviator shades, bandanas, do-rags, and even someone who has appropriated a nutty professor hairstyle out of cable fibre, is utterly boggling.

    One of the maintenance tunnels, large enough to drive a pickup truck through, is currently plugged shut by a massive device roughly the size of a tiny theme park carousel, cobbled together from the cannibalized remains of at least twenty different machines, and bristling with what appear to be /alarmingly similar/ to nuclear fuel rods, just kinda sitting out in the open. A sloppily painted banner has been hung from the wire grafts in the ceiling, spelling out "HAPPY FUCK THE FASCISTS DAY!" and the young Prospekt that had invited Biteblade (and by extension, others) to the party is quick to show them in, shoveling them before the inebriated crowd covered with incredibly unsafe-looking tools, who largely respond in whoops and hollers and immediate attempts to slap backs and shake hands.

    It's rowdy frat boys meets Back to the Future. That's basically it.
Captain Flint      Flint and Silver are here with a small contingent of Walrus crewmen. These crewmen take to the Prospekt here like ducks to water, sharing inappropriate jokes and burly, crowing laughter. The captain and his quartermaster share a brief, but resigned look. Already, personal reserves and private staches are being brought out of dirty pockets and ragged shirts, to be shared with the Prospekt themselves.

     Silver blends in with the crowd, standing near a group of crewmen and Prospekt without really saying much. Flint, on the other hand, takes it upon himself to strike up conversations among the crowd. Striding up with ease and confidence to one of the celebrating Prospekt, he gestures with a hand towards the huge contraption in the hallway.

     "Quite the object d'art you've put together there," he notes. "Does it serve any particular purpose?" The captain is careful to keep any sort of caution from his voice--though a keen eye will note a wary glance towards the odd stray wire.
August Kohler August hasn't been doing well, lately. Frustrated and angry with learning that part of his mind wants to hurt many people, he'd sunk himself into his video games to try and take the edge off since his last mission. But it was time for the Lodestone party, and he was the only Watchman who'd be there. His distrust of the Concord regarding this, especially how they might influence the Lodestone, made it a priority to come, even if he was working under the mindset of uniting all the tribes. His primary principle for this messy affair had been 'civil war is better than slavery', though, so he was still being cautious.

Because it's a party, even though August is terrible at those, he's dressed reasonably. T-shirt and jacket, jeans, and a pistol and knife holstered to his side, the redhead started making his way through the tunnels, glancing around at all the things plugging it up, and then glancing at the massive device which is near it. He mutters under his breath. "That better not be a goddamn nuke." Glancing around for food to take some of because he forgot to eat this morning, August moves to find someone reasonably sober to talk to, though he tries to stay in range to overhear the response to Flint about the device. If he finds anyone who looks like they could answer questions, he starts speaking. "So, who's in charge around here? I'd like to speak to them."
Kushiko How Kushiko is here is by way of a semifamiliar Warframe of hers; that of Mag--at least the Orokin-tech 'Prime' variant thereof--replete with the ninja tabi feet, gently flowing twintailed syandana. Which is basically like a flowing 'scarf' thing attached to her back.

What she's actually doing is trying her best not to let the confusion show on her somewhat featureless 'face' as it were. Because she's deeply confused. And troubled. And not sure what the heck she should do in the face of the vast celebratory party boys filled with stunning amounts of salvaged tech up to and including oh hello there nuclear rods. Yeah, uh, Kushiko's going to kind of be that polite chaperone types as she mingles.

...or tries to as she mingles a little bit. Hell, she can do some party tricks with the control she has over electromagnetics, so there's... more than a few things doing little spinnies and arcs around one another with appropriate degrees of trailing lights.
Starbound Flotilla     Biteblade has brought her own food. Some godawfully massive chunk of huge... Reptile or something? Who knows. It's cooked properly, despite Biteblade's own objections to that. She also doesn't really understand alcohol the way a person ought to, but hey, if they like it, it's not like she doesn't have a still among the Flotilla's industrial apparatus.

    "HEYYYYYYYYY!!" She calls out, engaging in incredibly overdone displays of friendliness and positivity. Among the various things the Flotilla can manufacture is sound equipment and other such basic aspects of modern electronics, and so if they've no music of their own she's planning on setting up something for them. On one hand, it's a collaborative effort with the Lodestone group. On the other hand, it's just slightly competitive: She's fully focused on making sure that she becomes the primary source of Tribal Joy when it comes to the growing group in its transitionary stages between factions and government, so that however the new government matter gets resolved, Biteblade still holds the power of forcibly integrated tribes. A little more rational than the average tribal warlord, certainly, but just as focused.

    First thing's first though: That's the power source they were going to use to fry the Black Diamond, right? Biteblade wants to check to see if she can do anything fancy with it, anything that would properly show off that /considerable/ manufacturing ability of the Flotilla and their effective ways of interacting with such technologies, but also something that would get her properly linked into the social high regard of the Lodestone group.

    She'll also seek out those who seem to be the most aggressively social, the most well-regarded, the people who everyone wants to talk to; it's unlikely there's a /leader/, per se, but there's likely someone who influences things pretty well in general. She's also quietly devising something in her head, and any canny observer will see her... Counting something, oddly, doing mental math as she moves through the group. Whether that comes to fruition will be up to events though.
Lemeza Kosugi Despite the celebratory nature of the party, Lemeza still came dressed in his usual archaeologist attire, fedora and all. He'd come with minimal background information on the situation, and mainly showed up out of curiosity as to what the hubbub was. Though, as he cast his gaze across the vomitorium of technological weirdness, his expression fluctuated between genuine interest, mild disdain, and frustration. With a sigh, he got out a notebook and pencil and started taking notes.

His eyes finally fall on the political banner above the crowd, and a smile threatens to take over his face before it collapses into a look of disappointment. "I missed the interesting part, didn't I?" First words out of his mouth, aimed at nobody in particular. Then, an idea strikes. Looking about for a Prospektian not obviously preoccupied, he walks up and introduces himself, offering a hand in greeting. "Lemeza Kosugi, archaeologist and historian." He motions toward the banner. "What can you tell me about those fascists that references?"
Touta Konoe Touta had just heard about Lodestone recently, it was only an offhand name perhaps from Biteblade or just over the radio at some point. Though once he arrives he's sorta just ends up caught in the flow of the frat like environment. As far as party attire goes he probably seems like one of the more normal people in the room compared to the others who have arrived. He didn't arrive with a group of crewmen, or wearing some sort of strange, yet cool get up, he was pretty casually dressed with his usual attire. A red t-shirt, black pants, and black gakuran. The most out of place thing that he has on him is the black katana he doesn't have a sheath for. But it's not like he's waving it around like a moron. For the most part he's following Kushiko's example of trying to do party tricks, mingling, introducing himself to the somewhat crazed scientist types. Hell, he's even asking them about a few of their inventions. He probably won't have a clue what they're talking about, but inventors usually like bragging about how awesome their stuff is right? After hanging out with a few people here and there thinks he's got a reasonable enough idea of the place, at least more than he did before arriving. If anything he likes to think he made a few new friends.

Still, he hasn't gone too far with bothering the locals with any questions yet, it seemed like everyone was enjoying themselves so far and figured that they would start talking more when things winded down. So for the time being Touta was just enjoying the atmosphere, meeting new faces and recognizing a few familiar ones as well...And some voices! Some more than others at least. The first one he sees is Biteblade, it would make sense for her to be here. He'd wave 'hi' to her briefly before continuing to look around, it looked like she was busy mingling already.

As he kept moving along he'd even see Kushiko's tricks which he applauds to for a bit before eventually hearing a mumbling voice in the background he was familiar with. He never met this guy in person before, or at least as far as he can remember but the sour face he had on seemed similar enough to the descriptors people used when describing him on the radio. Considering this was a party, what better excuse was there to talk to him right?

"Hey, you're that not-husband Master right? What's the face for?"
Staren     Since they are going to some kind of mad science party, in hopes of making a good impression Staren wears the same getup he's been using when playing villain in Tomoe's quest from CARDINAL: a howie-style labcoat with huge black buttons, instead of his usual open one, and he has his goggles pushed up onto his forehead. His hair is deliberately uncombed to be extra-wild. Over the coat he wears some kind of chest harness with magic or tech-y looking discs on it. His usual messenger bag hangs at his side. Completing the outfit are military black slacks and matching shiny black boots and long gloves.

    Staren shakes hands and smiles the forced smile of someone not fond of parties or social events trying to make a good impression at one anyway. And even Staren balks at what look suspiciously like fuel rods /lying around in the open/. He pulls what looks like a flipphone from his bag and scans them warily, reminding himself that if he's already contaminated he will probably be fine as long as he gets out of this body in the next few days.
Priscilla     Compared to all the other Prospekt that Multiversals have met on the island so far, these 'secretive' and 'elusive' individuals are by far the most welcoming. Those who make a genuine attempt to engage with the celebration are accepted immediately, pulled into drinking games and sharing stupid stories and party tricks right away. There doesn't appear to be a dress code, because the people here are wearing whatever the hell has managed to withstand too many random combustions and magical radiation anomalies, which gives the place an oddly 'vibrant culture'."

    That means they're practically swarming around Biteblade when she brings two of the most important things: 1) food, 2) tunes. A few of them even have what appear to be gem-chipped cassettes that they insist she figure out to play, most of which or more or less thrasher melodies to headbang to. The meat doesn't disappear nearly as fast as one would think it would, but that might be expected for a race that was supposed to be cheap to maintain.

    One of the slightly less drunk partygoers overhears August and makes sure to slap him on the back. "Hahaha! Naw man, it's /way/ better! Eddie is some kinda fuckin' /genius/ to have come up with that hot mess, lemme tell you! Guy's an 'artiste'! He even does a really shitty Italian kissing motion. "Best boom you're ever gonna see, trust me man!" The Prospekt that Lemeza tracks down's first order of business to is to look up and solemnly comment: "Dude. That hat is rad." He then takes a big bite out of his greasy lizard sandwich and resumes talking with his mouth full. "Well, originally it was gonna be 'fuck the anarchists' day, but since they all, y'know, blew up, we changed it to the runner up. Good job on that by the way! Slick stuff! With the Black Diamonds gone ka-fuckin'-boom, we can drop this bad boy on the First Militia and then it's just chill bros left on this island dump, y'know?"

    Trying to track down who invented what is actually kind of a pain in the ass for Touta. It seems like this 'secret society' is largely a group of DIY nutcases and Reinnaissance men who grouped up to share tips, take shifts, and loan out everything from rayguns to hover scooters to x-ray goggles to each other, all jammed together out of bits of Garit transport, computing, and military infrastructure, stripped straight out from behind the panels.

    So, it seems that the guy who invents the biggest, flashiest, most convoluted, probably most explosion-prone stuff is the king poobah around here. That means Biteblade meets Eddie pretty quickly, straight up brought out on a ghetto palanquin by four hooting technicians, and wearing enough pairs of sunglasses and goggles that they basically stack up on his head like a turban-crown. Even Eddie yells out to answer Flint, Staren can assure himself that the glowing rods are indeed blatantly radioactive and completely unshielded, though it's some kind of nebulous magical radiation instead of nuclear cancer rays.

    "That Piece de Resistance, that Magnum Opus, that /sick as hell/ gizmotron, is the patented EdXterminator five thousand baby! I spent two months on that damn thing and fuck me if I don't love it like my own child! Originally, we were gonna plant it under the Black Diamond's shithole and vent a couple of megatons straight up from beneath their asses like the spiciest thing you ever saw, but since you did that /for/ us, it's going straight to the First Militia compound and all those jackbooting flag-saluting marching fetish fuckboys are going sky high instead! And we had like this whole council on who we were gonna use it on too! If we get rid of them, then it's just us, our sewer buddies, those weird farming hicks, and the cool dudes up in the tower on this whole island. Pretty sweet huh? No more need to shoot each other, ya dig?"

    This is probably at least the second least responsible person anyone here has ever seen be allowed to possess a weapon of mass destruction.
Captain Flint      Flint grins, turning to face the would-be king brought in on the makeshift palanquin. "Well, you'll be all the more pleased to know that we've already obviated the need for you to shoot at each other." He approaches, resting a hand upon a nearby table, brushing bits of mechanical detritus aside if necessary. Leaning upon it for support, the captain continues.

     "Thanks to some labor from Captain Biteblade," he says with a nod towards the floran, "Some persuasive leverage from our acquaintances, and, here or there, an impassioned speech, we've managed to get every group of Prospekt, save yours, seated at a table and discussing the future."

     "If you'd like, you could easily save that warhead for a rainy day and take a seat at that very table." He raises his eyebrows, his grin widening ever so slightly as he nods towards Biteblade. "I think it'd be a rather effective deterrent for foreign aggression, if some sort of Prospekt-led state were to come about."

     "Your thoughts, captain?"
Kushiko The nice thing about party tricks, is that she can listen in and follow conversations around a bit until something juicy surfaces. Or several juicy somethings, whenit gets right down to it. There's a special degree of crazy going on here, so the Tenno will do... some things.

More specifically, she'll keep demonstrating some pretty cool tricks with her ferrokinetic things. Like conversing with a few Prospekt about unassembled things, and creating fields--/very/ precise fields of electromagnetic energy. And maybe talking really cool guns from time to to time, like the Lanka she has with her. Hey, may as well integrate a little with the crowd as she mingles, talks, and edges closer towards the Piece de Resistance.

Mostly so she can take an subtle, analytical tack to it; functionality, possible sabotage avenues, and more importantly, actual power output. Given what they were doing with the generators and more at the bank, they could probably already be doing a great deal more than the mere appearence lets on.
Staren     Well. Staren can certainly understand the desire to just explode your percieved enemies -- everyone knows /he's/ opined that he'd rather do so on countless occasions.

    Flint thinks that maybe a peaceful resolution with the First Militia is possible, though. Staren moves through the crowd, trying to keep eyes on Flint and Eddie and also be ready to run if things go south.

    Any interest he may have had in trying the party food has disappeared when he realized how little they cared about mysterious magical radiation.

    Staren has NO IDEA how you could talk peace into these people, but Flint's arguments sound pretty damn reasonable. He looks to Eddie to see how the Lodestone Leader takes it.
August Kohler Wow, these people are...surprisingly friendly and also absolutely August's type of people. He ends up grabbing a bottle of booze at one point, sipping at it. If it feels strong, he gives up on it quick, not wanting to actually become impaired. The warhead is concerning...but it's the kind of concerning August isn't entirely against, being entirely okay with weaponization and blowing things up. During this time, Touta approaches him. August takes a moment to try and place his voice.

"Touta, right? I recognize you from the radio. August Kohler. It's nothing." The fact he frowns while saying it means he's probably lying. "Nice to meet you. Didn't know you had a stake in this whole Prospekt thing. You with the Concord?"

As Eddie shouts out, August actually considers what they're saying. On one hand, the Watch has teamed up with the First Militia. On the other hand, that is pretty much a team-up of 'these guys are capable and nobody else wanted to get along and we're trying to make everyone get along', and under August's previous belief of 'civil war over slavery'. But the First Miltiia is absolutely problematic, what with having wanted to be in charge. August approaches up towards Eddie's direction, moving to speak up.

"Heads up, old Garit hired mercenaries to come subjugate the island again. I can absolutely understand your problem with the First Militia, but listen to him and consider their skill with arms. If you guys could all actually work together, you might be able to make a strong nation." August keeps his hand away from his weapon, moving to drink at his beer. He wants to see how Lodestone considers the idea. He himself is considering what he's going to do if they refuse.
Lemeza Kosugi Furious scribbling and writing ensues. Black Diamond, anarchists, exterminated by Concord. First Militia, fascists, nuked by Lodestone. Actually, put a question mark by that, but definitely noting the blatant hostility. Lemeza takes quite a bit of time to write down his notes, before looking back up at his conversation partner. "I see, I see. You guys are quite passionate about what you do. Let's see..." He pauses to consider his next question. "Hm. So, I'm curious. You blow up this First Militia, everything's chill and great, now what's your plan in case some other tyrant comes along and wants to conquer you? What's your self-defense plan?"

After finishing his question, the professor starts glancing a bit nervously at the exposed glowy rods, finally thinking maaaaaaaaybe they shouldn't just be chilling out there like that. Another glance goes out to the warhead, and now that Lemeza knows just what it is he's looking at, he's inching away, concerned. Still, he hangs around for an answer, and takes a moment to dig around in his backpack for some of his own curry to add to the party food.
Starbound Flotilla     Of course Biteblade will do her god damndest to get these gem-cassettes into her music system. Mixtapes that are no doubt this fire are always good to harvest as a source of thermoelectric power.

    But more relevantly, she keeps an eye on Captain Flint. he's going to be trying to figure out the political matters. Biteblade herself neither especially knows nor especially cares what happens to the First Militia, as long as she winds up in a position of substantial power in some growing or effectively dominant tribe herself, and so her entire angle here is one of mixed apathy and a sort of power-greed. "Floran thinksss, ehhhh... Floran doesssn't underssstand political ssstuff, but Floran really likesss ussse for power infrassstructure and then, blow up bad merchantsss if come back!" She takes a massive bite of her meat-slab she's cut out and swaps the music system to the next tune.

    "Floran thinksss, big Firssst Militia wantsss lot of control. Will get sssuper frussstrated if Lodessstone did cool leverage thingsss! Lodessstone could get good ssstuff from other faction. Not really know politicsss, jussst think fun and good!" It's subtle. By focusing on her engineering ability and less on her political aims, more on what seems emotional, she's avoiding anything that might tie her too closely to Flint, and which might disconnect her from Lodestone itself. She actually winds up mingling a lot in way more friendly ways, using her initial introduction in an extremely positive context to wind up sharing and socializing a lot, getting into her usual Floran affection and such, and eventually starting involvement in the drinking stuff.

    At some point she's starting up a drinking song, though it's more of a chant, set to one of the slightly less thrashy but still very thrashy songs. Oddly, the composition itself is more evocative of older irish influences; it's delivered like the bastard combination of something you'd hear frat boys drunkenly chanting, something you'd hear a thrash metal singer screaming, and something you'd hear sung in a pub. It may not /exactly/ match their frat-boy lifestyle, but hell it is fun to sing and it's probably going to get their attention and their joyous singing along... If Biteblade's friendliness and such has lasted.
Starbound Flotilla "Now I'm the Floran Biteblade, I'm native to the trees,"
"I'd killed my first prey by my hand when I was only three,"
"My first ship downed at eighteen and my own by twenty-two,"
"And when I met the Lodestone boys, knew they were like me too!"

"So raise the strength we all hold dear! The hammer of Lodestone!"
"We'll build and break and think and make and chase the wild unknown!"
"So raise the Lodestone hammer, the strength we all hold dear!"
"We'll build and break and think and make and have our time for beer!"

"We were driven to the edge by the oppressor's hand,"
"But builders know the way to fix a bleak and broken land!"
"Some elbow-grease, a well-timed shot, a spark of brilliance!"
"And hands of friends that hold the strength of our deliverance!"

"So raise the strength we all hold dear! The hammer of Lodestone!"
"We'll build and break and think and make and chase the wild unknown!"
"So raise the Lodestone hammer, the strength we all hold dear!"
"We'll build and break and think and make and have our time for beer!"

"When traitors hungered for our blood, to give us Diamond chains,"
"I left Black Diamond fools behind, those traitors with no brains!"
"I built my guns, my traps, my homes, and sharpened up my knife!"
"And if Black Diamond came to me they'd leave without their life!!"

"So raise the strength we all hold dear! The hammer of Lodestone!"
"We'll build and break and think and make and chase the wild unknown!"
"Build our fate and keep ours safe -- and never have a doubt!"
"If Diamonds come to mess with us -- they're blown the FUCK right out!"

"If fascists come around, to try to put us in the mines,"
"Well we won't give a damn 'bout ranks, only for our designs!"
"If they would have us dig again without our own machines,"
"We're the boys who'll turn them into smoking smithereens!"

"So raise the strength we all hold dear! The hammer of Lodestone!"
"We'll never have a king! No fools who can't make their own throne!"
"So raise the strength we all hold dear! The hammer of Lodestone!"
"We'll build and break and think and make and chase the wild unknown!"
"So raise the Lodestone hammer, the strength we all hold dear!"
"We'll build and break and think and make and have our time for beer!"

It continues on much the same for many more verses, going into topics of engineering, infrastructure, and the various joys of working on one's own craft, while generally referencing how unassailable Lodestone is and how they can effectively keep the island safe and themselves safe while maintaining a reasonably cautious diplomatic connection.
Starbound Flotilla     Biteblade has carefully crafted what she's singing in the minutes while she was meeting with them.An underrated skill of a tribal leader is this: To create songs and other moments of joyous tribal unity that themselves specifically encode a particular political goal. In this case, it's to make the group receptive -- or even focused on -- the idea of using the device as a bargaining chip, and being able to have higher demand for their machines, and higher demand for their use, and more contexts for the use, and so on... It's meant to evoke to them an idealized state of having one over on the First Militia, which would let them keep themselves and the potential allies safe, defended, and respected.

    Social priming. Celebratory manipulation. And a moment of getting Biteblade working at what she hopes is a very high position in the Prospekt unspoken social rank, since she put some of that bragging down at the start before flattering the Prospekt a bunch.

    Let's hope Flint can work with that!
Touta Konoe "Yeah, Touta Konoe. Also, not really, I'm not part of any of the factions. I sort of just ended up hearing about Lodestone through the grapevine. Honestly, I don't have an amazing reason to be here. If anything I'd probably just end up being considered a tourist as silly as that sounds..."

It's at that moment he starts hearing all the chatter on the radio, the talk of the bomb, the talk of Marx, it's at this point that Touta's just hearing everyone trying to appeal to this Eddie guy who seems to be the big kahuna of the place. While August may not have been frowning at the moment now, Touta surely was.

Touta can't really find anything to say to Eddie. After all, he barely knows him and everyone seems to be trying to talk to him all at once to deter him from this. Touta's no bomb expert, or a great politician but he's sure that if these guys actually do decide to blow up this Militia, that they'll probably end up with more trouble later down the line.

It's at this point Touta sorta wants to ask August a few things. Some questions were irrelevant like where was that Archer friend, but then there were more realistic questions like 'You don't think they'll actually blow these guys up do you?' or 'Where did you hear that from?', he also wanted to ask if it was a good idea to tell these guys that the people they're trying to bomb are coming to the island to subjugate them again? He gets what August is trying to tell them but maybe their was a better way to word it so it didn't sound like the guys coming were going to be hostile?

Of course before he gets a chance to say anything it looks like Biteblade's already started to get the attention of everyone with that song of hers. So for the tme, he's just stuck without much to say. He's not the most diplomatic person he knows unfortunately.
Priscilla     Examining the 'EdXterminator' indicates it is possibly the last safe thing conceivable to try and sabotage. It looks like a huge array of extremely condensed and highly charged magical crystal rods designed to be injected at extremely high velocity and collide with each other inside an internal catalyzation chamber. It's basically the most ghetto version of nuclear fission imaginable, except it slams together a bunch of unstable magical isotopes until they blow up into raw mana particles. The thing seems to actually be designed to fire the discharge broadly upwards, in an extremely wide but not omnidirectional arc, thus obliterating a chunk of the city above it (or a substantial part of a mining complex) but leaving the underground it was placed in (sort of) intact. Any sabotage would make the rods collide unevenly, and thus cause it to explode like a normal bomb. That is: everywhere.

    "Maaaan, of course they did." Eddie responds to August. "Old pricks don't know when to leave well enough alone. Why'd you think we spent all this time doing CAPITAL ESS SEE EYE EEH EN SEE EEH instead of just livin' off the land like the New Terra dorks? To blow them the /fuck/ up when they come back! Amirite boys?!" The entire chamber explodes into uproarious applause. "Worst case, they won't try coming back for a /long/ time. Best case, there ain't any Garit left to come back at all! If that's how they wanna play, fuck 'em! You mess with the bull, you get the /Ed/!" Another round of hooting and hollering goes up

    Eddie points at Lemeza, in the kind of way that a pro wrestler dramatically points at someone in the crowd. "Easy man! The First Militia are squatting on the mines, right? They got what they got because they're the only mofos on this rock who can actually drag the glow juice out of the ground instead of suckin' it out of car batteries. Once they go *pffft*, then it's ours. So we dig up the rocks and weee . . .?" he holds up a hand to his ear. Immediately, the entire room begins chanting. "AND /YOU/ GET A BOMB! AND /YOU/ GET A BOMB! AND /YOU/ GET A BOMB!"

    "That's right! We have /free run/ of all the sweet tech on the island and all the magic rocks we want. You have any idea what kind of SSSYENSSE we can get up to with that?" He continues with Flint and August. "For real. We can have this rock lit up like a Christmas tree with more lasers'n'tasers than you've ever seen. Fuck all that shit about drills and formations and divisions and rations and chain of command. We a free people, and we deserve the freedom to not give a /fuck/ about mercs and slavers, because they got vaped the second they set eyes here, not lining up in the trenches to fuckin' duel with them so some armchair strategist can get his rocks off."

    He then holds up his hand with a "shhhshhshhshhzhzzzhzhzzzzz!" when Biteblade gets ahold of the mic, and the next several minutes are essentially an impromptu rock concert where nothing remotely useful gets done. It's only after she lets the mic drop that Eddie is found stroking his chin, and popping a couple more of his collars in deep thought.

    "The green chick has a reasonable and well-detailed point. I like someone who can so eloquently communicate that kind of logical rationality here. How bad you think we can bust their balls? I /know/ they want their stubby fuhrer fingers on our glitz."
Captain Flint      "If I may," says the pirate captain, either unfazed by the rampant hooliganism or just doing his best to ignore it. "I think you can bust their balls quite a bit... if you do so seriously. If they feel as though they're being mocked, they'll not negotiate with you."

     "Now, all of you strike me as hedonists, if not Epicureans. There's nothing wrong with that philosophy. In fact, you could easily have what you want, as could the First Militia, without either of you coming to blows over it." His eyes narrow in a sort of scrutinizing way as he pushes off of the table. Raising a glass to Biteblade as thanks for her little song, he takes a drink.

     "That was brave," mutters the ship's physician, a man with wavy brown hair.

     "If I take your measure right, all you want is the ability to pursue science and pleasure, free from pain or fear. All the First Militia wants is a society where workers manage the fruits of their own labor, free of the burden of capital. Their only flaw is that they insist upon a top-down model, when none of the rest of you wish to submit to that."

     Flint takes another sip of his drink. "If you take a seat at that table, it will be as equals. Each group has its own voice, contributes labor for the good of the whole, in ways agreed upon by all. If you keep the Militia alive, you'll never need to go into the mines, and what's more, you'll have a steady supply of minerals to conduct your experiments without needing to divert resources of your own to secure them."

     "In return, the militia gets whatever technology you're willing and able to provide--you're the experts, not them, which gives you a fair degree of clout at the bargaining table. By yourselves, your model isn't sustainable. Blow up Garit, and you've noticeably less places for celebrations like this." He waves a hand around.

     "But with organized labor and a happy, free workforce, I daresay Garit could reach a level of automation that might entirely obviate the need for Prospekt labor. What could be more hedonist than that?" Flint chuckles. "Biteblade, would you be so kind as to tell these gentle folk about your pet project in the sewers?"
August Kohler August leaves the negotiation to Flint, just nodding to Eddie when he responds. Instead, he moves to respond to Touta. "No, I understand. When you haven't been in the Multiverse long, sometimes you just need to jump into things." A glance to the bomb, after spotting Touta's frown. "I doubt it's going to explode in here. I doubt they'd be partying around it if they thought it was." August isn't.../entirely/ sure on that but outwardly he seems confident. "Since the others are handling this negotiation thing, I want to ask you. What's your goal, out here in the Multiverse? I haven't seen you attach yourself to any of the factions or even met you before now, but from what I've heard, you seem like someone who wants something, especially to come to a party like this."
Staren     Staren continues to be a wallflower.

    He likes science and all, but not this... rowdyness. The atmosphere is all wrong. He feels like even if he found someone to talk shop with, it would be constantly interrupted by attempts to crush beer cans on their forehead or something.

    The important thing is the negotiations.

    And Biteblade is busting out original songs like someone from Ponyville. Staren half expects a full blown musical number to surround her, but no. It's just a drinking song.

    Flint continues negotiating. Staren eagerly listens to see if there can be peace or if he needs to start running.
Starbound Flotilla     "Oh, yeah, project!" Biteblade says. "Floran hasss been helping Underfolk! Been making feastsss, been making fun! More partiesss, more musssic! Underfolk helped Floran build biiiig Challenger tank to blow up Black Diamond!" She says, gesturing wildly, with broad motions and directions coming with each clause. "And Underfolk probably gonna hang out at table, and need New Terra to make good food for party, and wanna get good big club place to make more! Floran hasss big plan for arcade, and moviesss place, and maybe cool hangoutsss ssspot, but gonna need Jade Sssurvivor help. And gonna make sssure big hunt to keep badguysss out, but need Militia help, and... Bleh! Floran wishesss cool ssstuff could happen without all that. But, they're okay for figuring out! Could make big cool placesss and ssstuff!!"

    She's focusing, particularly, on avoiding any ideals, on disregarding political direction. The entirety of her focus is still on the tribal aspects, and those tribal aspects are far, far more concerned with acquiring power through adding /joy/.
Kushiko IT's a very good thing that Kushiko's Warframes /have/ no face, because the look of abject, dawning horror at the ghetto magical fission device would get her apalled look plastered on her face. At least it's relatively stable; but she really shouldn't be doing anything else to it.

Thus, did she turn her attention towards the negotiators in this case--content enough to play at being somewhat entertaining, if nothing else maybe tapping and making things fly and bob to the tune of Biteblade's song to soothe the souls of potatoes--er, drunkards, er--no, let's move on. For what it's worth, Captain Flint is /undeniably/ impressive in being rather unflappable in the face of the raw, unfiltered crazy here.

... huh. Lemeza's question is a good one. <"So pretty much all of the tech and ores and things are down in the mines here, or is it more spread out?"> This is a casually asked question as she attempts to imitate a normal functioning being since well. Warframe. What's this thing called drinking and eating again?
Lemeza Kosugi Eddie's putting out quite some harsh rhetoric, very much hellbent on nuking the fuck out of the First Militia. Lemeza pauses, then starts to wonder if there's even a point to this diplomacy thing in the face of such vitriol -- or even if there's any /need/. Seems like the Lodestone guys have things figured out, and there's literally zero sign of any of them backing down. You'd have to be a wizard to change their mind.

And Flint is hellbent on being that wizard. That said, he's putting forth some pretty decent arguments; work with the First Militia and sustain your partying! Not that that line of argument would work, but Flint's phrasing is actually pretty damn persuasive. Lemeza figures it's best to leave well enough alone, and let the negotiators negotiate. And -- huh. The green hissy lady seems also to be skilled at the art of not ruining this horribly. Yep, better leave this to the professionals.

Though, there's one question still on Lemeza's mind. He rips out a page from his notebook, and writes a message down: "Any chance they'd let one of us explore their mines? I'm curious as to whether there's more than just resources down there." He folds the paper and hands it to Flint, choosing to write the message down rather than say it out loud in order to avoid disturbing talks more than he already has. And with that, he distances himself from any further politik and instead engages the weird robot Warframe thing in a side conversation. "I'm actually wondering if there's artifacts or ruins down there, but I suppose knowing where their tech is could be important as well. Er, I think. This whole diplomacy thing isn't really my kind of job, heh."
Touta Konoe He doesn't know how Biteblade was able to do it, but her song clearly was the common language of the people. To literally go from chanting to give someone a bomb to well...Whatever it was now? If anything it would be great if they were able to come to some sort of compromise. Hell, even if they decided to keep the bomb around as long as they didn't actually use it they could probably keep it as a deterent and form of negotiation tool at least right? That'd be for the best probably especially after hearing how unstable that magical bomb is from Kushiko over the radio.

<Magical...Bomb...Magic...Bomb...> His eyes veer towards the incredibly unstable magical equivalent to a nuclear bomb and a bead of sweat starts going down the side of this immortal's cheek.

It's at this moment, Touta Konoe realized he fucked up...Magical bomb... That sounds like a form of magical device...A magical device that has been confimed that any sort of tampering could cause it to go boom. Actually, wasn't this an island filled with magical mad scientists...Weren't all of them using some sort of magical device that was probably incredibly unstable in design to begin with...

This was the worst possible situation. Touta was unable to use magic for a considerable amount of time, and even when he tried to use magical apps they would always end up breaking when he touched them. So when he remembers where exactly he is he can't help but think that one thing.

<THIS PLACE ISN'T A MAGICAL MINE. IT'S A MAGICAL MINE FIELD!> With those thoughts alone Touta's immediately goes to escape.

Of course this /would/ be the moment August stops him.

'I doubt it's going to explode in here...' Oh how August's remark makes Touta even more hot under the collar. Then there's his question.

Touta starts being more conscious of his surroundings. Any object he's not familiar he's sort of awkward stepping out of the way from any possible danger. While Touta should just leave, he feels like if he doesn't August would just end up trying to stop him so he just takes a breath and says his part.

"Well, I don't know if I have an actual goal per say...MMMMmmm, my friend told me this quote from a famous Indian guy, 'Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.' So when I ended up here, I thought that I should learn as much as I can ya know?"

Touta eyes something and finds himself starting to lean back against one of the walls. Don't touch anything damn it. "But I guess if I had to have an actual goal I'd say I'm hoping that maybe the things I learn from here can help me out in my own world, and maybe while I'm here, the things I know can help some of the people in the Multiverse somehow."

It was a pretty simple answer honestly. It wasn't some grandiose scheme or goal, some sort of power beyond his realm that he desired. He was just curious about his multi-universal neighbors. Though perhaps such an answer would make sense for a guy who opted to try and help August's servant achieve her wish without having to rely on the grail...Even if he had no idea what that wish was. Though given the current circumstances that part about helping the Multiverse would probably be hard to believe when he's unknowingly acting as a possible detonator for this machines.

"Uhm, anyway I think I need to leave. Still, it was nice meeting you, August. Next time I see ya bring Archer with ya too! I wanna talk to her about that wish of hers."

With that out of the way he starts inching towards the exit. While he didn't really think he could help with the political negotiations, he could at least make sure everyone was safe...Even if it was partially his fault, though they shouldn't be leaving unstable magical nuclear devices out in the public!
Priscilla     "Aw shit, sewer buddies got sucked into this?" Eddie immediately exclaims, albeit someone lamely, to Biteblade. "Man those guys are cool. We gotta use a lot of the same tunnels so kinda live and let live y'know? Sometimes they point out the real good shit and we fix somethin' up for them. It works out. Man they're gonna get treated like shit aren't they? The hell they got to bring to a table? Not a whole lotta much." He seems distinctly put off by this.

    "The tech's all up here but all the stuff you need to fix it up and make it go is down there, y'dig?" he offhandedly says to Kushiko, but mostly, Eddie is stroking his chin with his best attempt at a pensive face. At some point, people got so wrapped up in the whole conversation that the four guys carrying the rickety palanquin with the pilfered couch throne are starting to sweat from having to hold it up so long. Eddie doesn't seem to notice.

    "Alright alright. The /Ed/ is gonna check in, but only to make sure nobody gets screwed a'ight? If those wind up GI Joes wanna do all the mining themselves, whatever dog, easier than spending all day looking for juice for a fuckin' lightbulb. If sewer buddies need our support to make sickass clubs, we're gonna make /damn sure/ it goes through those Militia assholes! Else we /peace out/ and blow them the fuck up like plan A, got it?" This presidential proclamation is received with thunderous applause.

    Eddie turns to the one Prospekt with the fake Nutty Professor hair. "Dan. Dan! /Dan/! Get me my negotiating shades."
Kushiko <"Mmm. Probably."> is the first words out of Kushiko from the Warframe's position towards Lemeza. A brief aside 'look' from the monocular focus of Mag's head, as though briefly sizing Lemeza up. Ah, that voice. She recognizes it from Concord frequencies, causing her to bob her head lightly. Between Lemeza's query and Ed's words, she recalls something.

<"Last I remember, briefing said it was /extremely/ dangerous to go down there if you're not Prospekt,"> she asides to Lemeza, though the way this conversation goes at least, they're not going to have to worry about the bomb being used. <"So while there's probably ruins, actually traversing there safely is going to be extremely difficult even with foreknowledge from Lodestone here. It's something we can worry about later."> she finally concludes. Huh. Wonder why Touta was looking all nervous. Surely nothing awry, right? Not that she knows directly about how volatile his very presence is around magical devices. Not that she herself is magic (she's not, but hey, Void-related nonsense is weird man.)

In the meantime, she makes a few notes and makes sure Biteblade--and to that end, the Flotilla--know precisely how unsuitable the Piece de Resistance is for potential power, given the effective 'ghetto fission' generator that it is. Sure it could be fixed and refined, at least. Maybe.

...maybe not.
August Kohler "Well, alright. That's an interesting way of seeing things." Touta seems kind of uncomfortable, so August doesn't continue to question him. Maybe meeting someone and asking them their goals isn't the best first question. With the party winding down and the Lodestone okay with heading to the negotiation, August himself moves to start checking out of the party.

First he's going to pilfer as much food as possible, and possibly try to shove some of it in his jacket.
Captain Flint      Upon being handed the note by Lemeza, Flint holds his coat open and pockets it, intending to read it in the very near future--just away from prying eyes. He must be the paranoid sort, because he scans his crew first and the Prospekt second to see if anyone noticed. Lemeza is given a nod of acknowledgement.

     The captain finishes his drink, setting it upon the nearby table with a definitive clink. "You'll not regret making this decision," he says with certainty. "History will remember the Ed not just for his legendary revelry, but his prudence." With a nod given towards the Prospekt leader, Flint excuses himself, likely to read the proffered note.
Lemeza Kosugi "The word I didn't hear you use is impossible." Lemeza carefully ponders Kushiko's response. "So. I should know after these talks are over if these guys will let me explore. It's honestly right up my alley, and these Prospekt ought to know what protection I'd need." He nods in affirmation. "Yeah, sounds like a plan. I've got another thing to take care of before a full exploration, but if they'll let me, I'd love to go check it out!" Well, it's clear Lemeza knows the extreme danger of the situation... and it's equally clear that he doesn't care.