Scene #902: Woods of Change First Contact

Owner	Pose
Abstractum.Net	The door here is heavy, and organic. Or, at least, for the most part. THe hefty wooden thing appears to have been partially shattered at some point, part of it replaced with heavy metal plates. Kotone's the only one who seems to be able to undo the heavy latch that bars the door closed. Beyond it is something unusual. It appears to be the interior of some sort of craft. A boat, perhaps, or maybe a starship, it's hard to tell. The hallway is collapsed, damaged heavily on either side, but has been, for a long, long time. Vines, part of a tree, and other flora have invaded, partially, over the course of several years. It's a lengthy hallway, though, and goes on for a while. Out, in the sunlight, one can see a parallel path, off in the distance, below, a forest path, seen through the trees... Mr. Speaks is there, and he walks parallel to the hall, and he talks, dispensing a message, almost seeming pre-recorded, without reacting to the group here or slowing down his walk.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa has returned she was almost afraid to but she's comitted now and can't back out on now as she moves to the door ands she moves to work the latch as it opens. She pauses for a momeht she stares at the internals for a moment she notices how damaged it is and it's been here a while she moves carefully at this point untill she sees mr. Speaks for a moment staring. "Wait what's this?"
Riva Banari	This is all new to Riva, much like most Abstractum-related things. She has been studying up on it, though, so she's at least sort of caught up to what's going on. Kotone is a friend of hers, and Riva's always happy to help a friend! If she only had enough time for everything... Oh well. The Templar walks into the craft, looking around at the environment. She looks like she's not sure what to expect, but... "Something got busted up in here, bad." She says, working to navigate the hallway with the others present. She crans her neck, looking over to where Speaks is walking. "Huh." She says, but stays mostly quiet. She wants to see what Speaks is up to and it's hard to eavesdrop when you're chattering. She's moving along to try to stay within range of Speaks as he moves.
Noble Six	Per Kotone's request, Noble Six has arrived to assist with her node. She still remembers witnessing the creation of this node. She's also still thinking a bit about what happened on Halloween, but is trying to not let those memories and feelings stay with her. She is back in her usual armor, the red MJOLNIR Mk. V armor. She has brought her usual weapon loadout and has come up behind Kotone, "So what is all of this?" She asks aloud, as she looks around at the gathered group that's with them.
Kirito	As always, the Spriggan Kirito wears a billowing black longcoat to the occasion. Twin black scabbards are strapped over his back - in one is his Abstractum, Double Fault. The other, showing a white wyvern emblem, holds a crystal-blue longsword... one of the best Lizbeth's ever made since Dark Repulser. The young man's gazing about at everything appreciatively, though. His attention does turn immediately to Mr. Speaks when the operator appears though! He wants to hear this...
Abstractum.Net	Mr. Speaks is well-tanned, muscular, with short, dark hair. He walks alongside with the typical business suit of the Operators. "This session is meant to provide an understanding. Not just of what it means to have humanity, but what it means to protect that humanity. This session is also about the true cost of keeping it, and how one is meant to do so." "The Reserve separated from the Transcendent some time ago. Their brothers abandoned their humanity in order to ascend to a higher state of being, and then to a higher plane, while the Reserve refused to abandon their flesh, and stayed behind in this universe, migrating in a great vessel to another land. The last bastion of real humanity is now under siege by their home. If the last remains of humanity are to be saved, you will need to determine what, exactly, is to be saved among them." "The Woods of Change welcome you, Kotone. It begs for salvation." Mr. Speaks walks past the end of the craft. There's the distinct impression that this is actually just the place between the Homeworld and the Node itself, rather than a real place. There's a door at the end here, though, just like the gate before. Presumably, it leads directly into the Node itself...
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa says "You got me I know about the bugs, and what they did to that man, one bite caused his flesh starting to go necrotic...I never seen anything like it act so fast." It's just been a chain of horror for her this week, Jack, then Newfoundland, now her own node. She just freezers at what Mr. Speaks says and somehow she's glad certain people are not here she's not even sure now if she's trust a certain someone but she's more focused on what's said. This was some pretty heavy stuff. "...So a world where everyone but the constatives rushed ahead and became something else." She shudders, not a response from someone whose pretty much transhuman when you get down to it. Kinda funny ain't it? "...well nothing to go but go ahead I had the node forged I have to see this to the end..." With that she heads for the door.
Riva Banari	The speech from Mr. Speaks also causes a resonance in Riva. She listens carefully, frowning as the others join them. Not at them, of corse, but something else. Some wounds are still fresh. Riva nods to Kotone after a minute. "Well, let's get to work. This is your Node, Kotone, so you're lead on this. And, um..." She looks around nervously. "I'm not a huge fan of super poisonous necrotic bugs."
Kirito	"There's some animals with toxins that can do it. Hours? minutes?" what a morbid conversation, but Kirito's curious what Kotone's talking about. He nods appreciatively at Mr. Speaks. "The Transcendents are attacking the Reserve, huh... I wonder why."
Noble Six	"Hrm." Noble Six muses for a moment as she looks at Kotone for a moment, "Lead the way." She says, following Kotone to that door. She's here to help, since it is Kotone's node, after all. She will handle anything that she needs to handle, as she's prone to do. She has figured out how these nodes work by now. She looks at Kirito, "Seconds. It happened within moments of him getting stung."
Abstractum.Net	"I don't think it's them." That's Overclock, a little cartridge plugged into Kotone's body. "They're out of this plane, from the sound of it. Sounds like nature. We need to figure out how to deal with that vulnerability." "Or kill all the bugs. Seems like a more straightforward way of going through this, you know?" That's Double Fault speaking up from Kirito's sheath. "Could try to just protect where people are, not disrupt either side, right?" Enforcer, the armor module on Noble Six's arm says, with a frank sort of tone. The area the group emerges at... Isn't a vessel at all! The door opens up out of some kind of cave! It looks like that place didn't really exist after all. They're at the edge of the woods now, near a small cluster that seems to hide their cave entrance. The woods themselves hold little that can be seen between the trees, but there aren't any bugs around, at least. Past the border of the woods, one can find the settlement of the Reserve, large, manufactured, prefab buildings in strange metallic colors that shine softly in the setting sun. It's clearly still inhabited, though with a low population; it looks like the size of a village or a small town.
Kirito	"Kill all the bugs?" Kirito muses. "Do we have enough manpower for that, even if it's the best way? If they have some kind of Queen it's doable." Yeah, boss fight mentality at work there. But he's just musing aloud. "How big are these bugs?" The walk through a cave doesn't bother him at all. He can see even with minimal light, and will help anyone who has trouble. Spriggan Nightvision sure comes in handy. But he's glad to get out to somewhere his wings will work. Not that he needs to worry about that. Just looking around's enough to see where they need to go. "Looks like that's our destination. Think they'll be friendly?" He gestures at the distant settlement, already walking.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa says "Insects, Kirito and the process starts with in seconds from what I saw in the vision when it loaded up. It's good that your in full enviormental armour I don't have that issue and you Kirito? Your just the regular old digital dreamboat." She seems to have found her humopr for a moment and she then looks to Riva whom should be able to recover. "I suggest fire with these things either way in we go right?" She pauses to Overclock and muses. "It might not be the only hazard here if an ecosystem produced something like that it needed a defence like that, right? There could be worse things we need to figure more on the situation before we start on anything. As for the bugs normal insect no bigger than a Japanese Hornet."
Noble Six	"From my understanding of these nodes, our primary goal should be to find the Pure user and shut them down. If this Trancendent group is the attackers, there's a very good chance our target would lie with them...However we will need to gain intel and these are just assumptions based off of what I have seen in other nodes." She glances down at Enforcer, "Setting up a defense of the weaker group should be a high priority, even if we're not going to get directly involved in their conflict."
Riva Banari	"Fire, huh?" Riva nods. "All right. Find the pure, protect people, rock on. Check." Riva seems to have everything figured out so far, but she moves on to jog out of the cave and towards the settlement. The first place to look would obviously be to check with the Reserves and see what's going on at the moment. Get the lay of the land. "Figuring out how to protect humanity... Is going to be an important thing. I guess we have to figure out what that's going to mean, right?" This doesn't keep her from preparing to go for her guns regardless should it be necessary. "Somehow, I doubt things are going to be going easily..." Riva comments to the others.
Abstractum.Net	The Settlement is a mixture between a village and a town, already urbanized, despite lacking the appropriate population density, due to the technology they apparently brought with them. It's small and humble, cozy in a way, with outdoor markets and other simple things like that. The buildings are aged, and the people around here seem to have been here for several dozen years, having turned the natural landscape to something more favorable without really losing harmony with nature tself. It also seems emptier than the number of buildings would suggest. It's a troubling sort of look to it, the kind that makes it seem like the people - who wear rather modern clothing without any particular fashion that seems to strike the eye, and yet in more vibrant colors - are far less numerous than even the meager village scale implies. There are many STRUCTURES and FACILITIES that may be perused. A full suite of ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURES and ARCHIVAL and LIBRARY facilities are also present, as well as COMMUNITY and SOCIAL areas.
Kirito	Protecting humanity, huh. Kirito's not sure about this aspect. He glances at Kotone... remembers she is cybernetic. The implications of this node, then, are somewhat troubling in all kinds of ways. As the group finally arrives however, Kirito gets a chance to look around the place... "... It's kind of empty, even for a village...." Though nobody's yet approached them, which is telling in its own kind of way. "Any ideas, Kotone? I'd head for the local government buildings if nothing else comes to mind. They'll know all the big events to worry about."
Riva Banari	Riva looks around at the buildings as she enters the outskirts of the area. She tilts her head as she considers the buildings and how they interact with the area. Something causes her to purse her lips. "You know, this place is kind of empty." She comments to no one in particular. "A little more spacious per person than one might expect, right?" She nods in agreement with Kirito. "Let's split up and try to figure out what's up. We'll cover ground faster that way." Riva, being a super gossip, breaks off and heads for the SOCIAL and COMMUNITY areas. That's always a good place to get a good idea of the local temprature and environment.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is now in the town at this point she gets the idea protect humanity and she's very troubled at this point she's not sure which way is going to go really and she looks about. "I'm thinking that, they should have information on what's going on and then we could hit the Archives and libary if we neede too right? I'll take the government buildings you hit the archives?" With that away she goes.
Noble Six	"There is a very good chance we are being watched, even if we can't see who is watching us." Noble Six says to the group, taking a quick look around. She's looking for anything that might be observing them. Cameras, possible high points where a sniper or spotter would put themselves. Anywhere that would grant the people of this town an advantage over the potential invaders that are Kotone and her group.
Abstractum.Net	Riva finds a very futuristically manufactured sort of social and community area that has, over time, slowly been repurposed into some sort of combined tavern, theater, and generalized forum, and so there's plenty of gossip and socialization to go around. A thorough RPG examination of the environment - which is to say, running up to people and doing the Arbitrary Interact Action to listen in or discuss things with people - she'll be able to determine that the people here are being subjected to irregular assaults by rapid-onset-necrosis-inducing bugs. They don't seem... Unfriendly, though. They're just people. Social. Normal.
Abstractum.Net	The major government buildings are really pretty meager, just sort of a small office, but they're there, and it's not like a lot of people are clamoring to see the leadership. It would seem that the settlement is led by one Dr. Evans, who doesn't have many appointments today, and after speaking to the secretary for the whole governmental office, Kotone and Kirito should find no trouble securing a meeting with the local leader.
Abstractum.Net	Meanwhile, Noble Six is going to find that the place doesn't seem particularly equipped to handle organized, sapient invaders in the traditional sense, at least. There's bug nets and animal-focused traps, actually, more commonly around here. But, it seems like they're not particularly concerned - either in the low, savage sense, or in the high-minded warfare sense - with violent SAPIENT invaders.
Riva Banari	STEP 1 - RPG Interaction Mode STEP 2 - Get Info STEP 3 - ??? STEP 4 - Profit? The topic on everyone's mind seems to be the necrosis-bugs. Riva tries to get some details. Is that the only problem they're having? Is there anything in specific that causes the bugs to attack? Are there any areas that are harder hit than others? Riva remains upbeat, positive, and cheery, assuring people she's there to help with the problem. If that's the problem they're going to start with, then by golly they're going to work on helping to find a way to fix it!