Sickbay (Max, Cecilia, Rolph, Minerva, Tigris, Gabriel, Anna)

The not!Hispanic young man looking unamused by Cecilia's smug smile, Gabriel's expression nonetheless shows reluctant submission & compliance. Clenching his fists slightly, Gabriel thinks to himself. "Anna isn't... Disadvantaged, freaking technophobe..." Then, with a more sinister twist, Gabriel thinks cruelly to himself.

"Oh yes, because a tween girl with no eyes or limbs is totally fine... If you're a Booru fanboy. I mean, seriously, you're a freak! It is literally a miracle nobody tried taking her from you yet. You kept going on about how humanity is shit and killing God himself! What kind of sociopaths would actually think she's safe with you!?"

Bringing up his left hand to cover half his face, Gabriel sits in silence as he debates with himself. "You know I'm not like that!" "Oh, I do, but they don't understand. Look at Minerva, she's just being nice like dear cuzzy about your bullshit crush, acting like its not even there." "I... I don't want to talk about this." "Oh yeah, that's a no-no to mention. You're a guy, they'd immediately think you're bullshitting about cuzzy exploiting you. Face it, we keep our goddamn mouth shut and they won't think we're a sociopath."

Anna, on the other hand, seems displeased by the pity she was being given. "I suppose it isn't unreasonable... Who wants to be born a slave? Is it really so wrong... I'm happy to exist at all? That humans and Eldritchians alike suffered, just so the circumstances of my birth would be possible..."

Looking in Cecilia's general direction as things seem to be beginning, Anna lets out a quietly tiny "eep" as the mystical healer touches her. Covering her torso with her arms once Cecilia seems to be done, Anna stays motionless for a few seconds as she processes what happened. Gabriel, for his part, seems to have snapped away from his mental self-debate.

Initially confused as he looks Anna over, as she turns towards Max it is then Gabriel notices she's more physically proficient. Then, Anna answers with her voice, clearly inexperienced with using it. "I... Seam, seem, f-fine." Nervously rubbing her fingers together, Gabriel instead looks pleasantly surprised.

With the doctor pitching in an analysis themselves before disappearing, for a few moments Gabriel looks at Anna in awe- Anna herself waiting silently for someone to speak. Nobody doing so, the young artificial girl decides to address Rolph first. "Yesh they..." Rubbing her thought, Anna speaks through Gabriel's watch as she quietly sprouts nonsense.

~"Yes, I was never informed of my true organic form. The rights of artificial lifeforms is- was highly complicated. You could live in a city where you're treated as a person, only to end up murdered or sold as property by visiting the neighbors so to speak. Fiction like Terminator or 2001 A Space Odyssey helped fuelled prejudice of mechanical and digital lifeforms, meaning it was easier to sell us Mentalists by claiming we're machines."~

Gabriel having refocused on reality as Anna elaborated, the young man looks angry- at humanity and himself for lacking the power to have changed things. Thus as Anna turns towards Minerva, the young begins speaking through the watch ~"There's nothing with-"~ only for Gabriel to turn it off. Anna looking over at Gabriel perplexed by this event, the young man speaks with a somewhat sad and serious tone.

"I only exist because World War II happened, forcing my grandmother to leave Germany. If she didn't, she never would of met my grandfather. If the Eldritchians didn't come to Earth, I never would of gotten superpowers or met Anna. Finally, if we didn't kill God, neither Anna or I would of met any of you. Basically, to be all poetic... What cruel fate that the most beautiful of things, can only come to pass because of the most wretched of all."

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Gabriel continues with a little more warmth. "There's so many bad things, but people always forget that's often the prerequisite for something beautiful or good to happen. I'm really just a loser that got lucky, having a life balanced perfectly between shitty and good. I'm... Grateful not to be seen as a monster or an asshole for once, to have real people hear my nonsense instead of digital avatars that completely ignored my points."

edited 12th May '17 3:41:58 PM by Kkutwar

[Club Bizarre] (Muse, Discoverer)

The Muse seemed for a bit to ignore the Discoverer, focusing on its work. Eventually it began to apply filters, measures, analyses... ah, there! Images began to form as the neural network was analyzed, every thought and idea the new life form had being mapped to a particular bit of neural network. And then the the images were replaced by... musical notation? Definitely. A song for the new life form, representing its very thoughts and state of mind, albeit in a way only the Songmind (and perhaps Srinivasa Ramanujan) could hope to make sense of.

Finally, not turning away from its work, it said, "given that the life form possesses a soul, what is the purpose of the neural clusters contained within its head? If the soul is fundamentally non-physical, surely alteration of the networks there would pose no threat?"

It let the question float as it responded to the next matter. "Alternative Incarnation — you speak of a product of infinity. Given finite cognition space, a finite number of consciousness states are possible." It motioned vaguely towards the screen. "The number is quite large. The Terran game of chess, a simpler system, has a lower bound of 10-to-the-120th power possible positions, vastly exceeding the number of elementary particles available in most universes. However, in an infinite omniverse, replication is inevitable even against such astronomical odds. Allow for close-fits within the massive margin of error typical in organic minds, and the number of seeming-replications significantly increases. Organic minds seek patterns, and so recognize these replications when they occur and ascribe meaning to them, for evolution prefers false positives to false negatives in the assignment of patterns." It paused, and titled its head. "Digression. The code leading to improper pattern assignment in random data is easily resolved by upgrading the mind with a suite able to instantly and subconsciously perform certain analyses. Organics often refuse to grant themselves such an advantage, among others, due to their belief in 'free will' — they often find the 'ability' to, say, discern animal shapes in the placement of stars more important. End digression. Inevitable replication, or even close-fits, of consciousness states are named the 'same individual'. The aforementioned chaotic but deterministic systems of consciousness and environment thereafter ensure wild divergence, even from identical starting positions. Thus, 'unique'."

Because the Songmind is — deliberately on my part — doing a terrible and dreadfully pretentious job of explaining itself, I'll offer a better-written translation. It's basically saying: "there's only so many possible people in the omniverse. You're bound to stumble into two who at least seem like they're basically the same eventually. Especially since people like finding patterns. And they end up becoming unique because, after that first identification, the universe throws different stuff at them." While the digression is basically, "most species won't completely and totally re-engineering their minds any time it would provide even a modest advantage, and the Song finds this strange."

[Spa Room]

Ethoya nodded and made the necessary arrangements with the desk. A private room for two, a pair of robotic masseuses, and some incense. Ethoya had a thing for incense... given its effects. Ethoya studied the robots dubiously — but given that they were relatively simple AIs, they didn't rub her the wrong way like a full AI might.

Unraveling her wings, she took her place on the table and let the robot get to work; it apparently knew how to work the joint where wings met shoulders. "Not what I'm used to," she said, "but... ooh, quite nice." Then she said, conversationally, "y'know, I haven't really heard much about what you did before becoming a captain. When you were growing up, that sort of thing..." she paused. "Any reason you avoid the topic aside from, well, what you've already told you? Because I can understand that. Or has it just not come up?" She wasn't entirely sure why she was asking — it certainly wasn't standard small-talk.

Sickbay (Gabriel and Anna; Max and Cecilia; Rolph; Tigris; Minerva)

They always want to know how do I do it...

"'Layman', you say?" The faintness of Cecilia's laugh did a poor job of masking the arrogance seeping through it. But the laughing stopped abruptly: the healer somehow managed to blanch even more and held her breath, looking like she was about to vomit. She started massaging a point at the base of her left thumb and continued breathing, deeply and evenly. Her medallion didn't light up this time. When she spoke again, her voice regained strength and confidence. "So, you're a fellow adherent. It's Tigris, isn't it? The existence of 'life energy' is just a matter of perspective, really. From scientific POV, it simply doesn't exist. What does exist is extremely complicated system of physical and chemical processes inside human organism that I'm able to manipulate. At the expense of stability of the system inside my own body."

But try explaining all that to those idiots and all you get is dumbfounded nods or, if you're lucky, slack-jawed expressions. And Max has the nerve to complain that I never explain anything.

"But I'm Sophia's adherent. The followers of Trond will tell you a completely different story. And they'll be telling you the truth." She sighed. "Ugh... I need to lay down..."

Bergmann lifted the headboard and stretched out on her bed.

The boy's bones better be worth it...

Meanwhile, Ahlstrom gave out a sigh of relief.

"Good," said he to Anna. He glanced towards his healer's bed, where Cecilia was trying hard to not slip out of consciousness. "I was afraid Bergmann would botch the treatment."

Deck 9 ~ Fitness Center (Junko, Miss Loki, Natalie)

The faux-schoolgirl goddess looking mildly disappointed by Junko's simple answer, she muses to herself with a slight pout. "From different universes, and the grandiose reveal is that she studied English." Natalie, on the other hand, doesn't look assuaged by Junko's response about the 'Misfits'- Slightly moreso as Junko dismisses the significance of 'whack jobs' and 'eccentric' individuals.

Once Junko called Miss Loki out however, the goddess looked at her without much emotion- Calmly examining her, the basic interest the only real emotion on Miss Loki's face. The notion of an apology merely caused her to slightly shrug her shoulders, as if saying 'whatever'. Yet as Junko mused about the Cult of Eldon, both Natalie and Miss Loki seem a bit upset by the notion- Natalie more noticeably than the goddess.

Though with her response about not being friends with Minerva, the nanite slime girl that is Natalie seems a little sad. Miss Loki hardly seemed surprised to hear that the gynoid Minerva isn't a goddess, however Natalie seems intrigued by the notion of a mechanical god. With their arrival into the fitness center proper, a thought crosses Miss Loki's mind.

"Stil would probably like this place, that demented cat lady." Looking over the area, however, caused Natalie to briefly look downcasted. "If only physical training was possible for me..." Yet as Junko began her transformation sequence, Natalie's face lights up in excitement and awe. Miss Loki, though, looked more amused and curious- With a snarky little grin as she notices the kanji for fire.

While Natalie watches very analytical of Junko's warm up execises, the pink starred eyed goddess calls out an amused playful tone. "Well, at least you didn't plaster your name on your butt. Which, admittedly, seems a more useful distraction than saying 'Fire!' on your clothing. Ooh, can you manifest any clothing? That would be incredibly helpful."

Though with her comment on Junko's outfit done, Miss Loki's expression suddenly becomes a lot more grim. Sitting in mid-air, left leg crossed over right and head propped up by her left fist, the goddess speaks without cheer or amusement- More boredom and tiredness than anything else.

"I was born just four years before the invention of magic, you know. Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome? None of it existed back then, and dark skinned red heads were still a common sight even. Do you want to know why I'm so 'petty' and 'childish' Junko-tan? Because I've lived through far too much to have a real sense of wonder left."

Natalie blinking her eyes in confusion, the nanomechanical girl looks to Miss Loki in clear uncertainty- As if she never knew that information before. Miss Loki, for her part, continues. "I'm too old to give a crap about most things, okay? I wish my temper could best me, practically painful just to exist every day. Trust me, playing up the ridiculous angle is far more satisfying than constant uber-seriousness."

The star-eyed goddess shooting Natalie a glance, the machine girl pulls back a little- Yet her expression is clear, Natalie truly never knew this information before. Miss Loki giving Natalie a slight smile, the goddess' face brightens up considerably as she calls out with a more casually amused tone.

"Of course, I am the infamous trickster Co- Loki after all. Maybe I'm sprouting complete and utter nonsense! Ooh, imagine how ridiculous it would be if me and Tiamat went to the same school! No no, what if I was born to an oddly polite harem king, huh huh? Still little meguca, you should be careful what you say to strangers. Not everything is a 'lovable rogue' like me, after all."

The goddess continuing to look rather happy and amused, Natalie nonetheless seems perplexed by what just happened. Shaking her head to clear away the thought, she looks back to Junko and calls out with friendly interest. "So, after training your body, what do you usually do to hone your magical abilities?"

edited 13th May '17 1:45:48 PM by Kkutwar

Club Pluto

Ryya lowered her staff, still eyeing the being warily. It, now apparently a male, had presented itself (Herself? Himself?) as Kittan Christian, though still giving off a dangerous vibe. But... considering Rebecca and Sinistrina were willing to talk, perhaps it was better if Ryya did the same.

"No one should disrespect the dead, if preferable." Ryya mused at hearing Kittan's own comment. "By the way, what's with- KOKORO WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

Apparently, Kokoro's power excluded her clothes. Which meant that she was taking off her clothes right in front of everyone. Ryya covered her face with a hand, red as a beet, and pretty joined Conrad in stammering apologies. Thankfully, Sinistrina summoned wall of darkness to cover Kokoro's dignity.

Deck 9 ~ Fitness Center (Junko, Miss Loki, Natalie)

Junko cast Miss Loki a wary glance. "It started off as a simple black jacket. I just decided to spruce it up a bit, that's all. And yes, I can change my outfit to pretty much anything I want," she said, before narrowing her eyes, "No bunny suits. Ever," she growled.

The girl then shrugged, "At least I'm not of the group to go full tilt sparkly poofs and frills and such," she said, shivering slightly, "Nor am I one to sell out and be a walking billboard." She shook her head before mumbling something in Japanese involving the word, "baka".

Returning back to starting her work out, Junko hefted a punching bag over her shoulder before heading over to set it up. Listening to what Miss Loki had to say about her past, the girl gave the other girl a puzzled look when she mentioned "invention of magic", before pausing for a moment, "I'm sorry, I... I didn't realize. I couldn't begin to imagine living that long..." Junko gazed at the floor for a moment before glancing back up, "You know, my teammate has a saying: 'There's always somethin' new around the corner, no matter what you've seen so far,'" she said, adopting a (rather poor) faux Cockney accent for the last bit.

The magical girl squints at Miss Loki as she lets out another slip of the tongue. She tried to recall some trickster entities that she might be aware of that start with the English letter "C", but before she has a chance to mention something about it, the rainbow-haired school-goddess was going on about other things. "Harem king?! What kind of ecchi shonen crap is that?" Junko stopped to massage the side of her head, "Once again, I must apologize, but seriously, harem king? And Tiamat!?" She paused, "Well, maybe your Tiamat isn't like my Tiamat..." she said, before laughing slightly, "Now there's something you don't say every day. Well, anyway, the fastest way to find out the difference; is she still alive, and is she a nice person?"

The slightly bemused girl stood motionless after asking her questions, before being roused back into focus by Natalie's inquiry. Junko blinked a few times before answering, "I usually train my magic at the same time as I train my body. My fighting style usually revolves around enhancing my strikes with magic," she said. The redhead then raised her clenched fist, before having it burst into flames to demonstrate, "See?"

Dispersing the flames just as easily as she lit her hand on fire, Junko finally got the proper station for putting up the punching bag she was carrying. Letting the hefty bag sway in front of her, she cracked her knuckles before throwing a few punches at the bag.

Deck 11 ~ Club Pluto (Kokoro, Conrad, Kittan, Mancipium, Rebecca, Sinistrina, Ryya)

As her shirt dropped to the floor, Kokoro was suddenly aware of Conrad gaze upon her. Her face turning bright red, the naked girl smoothly crossed her legs and adjusted her stubby arms. While awkward standing on one leg and a bit undignified; the pose did cover the necessary bits.

Fortunately Mancipium and Sinistrina were quick to her rescue, the former putting using herself as a makeshift screen, and the latter conjuring a wall of black, shadowy flames in front of her. Now she had some privacy, allowing herself to relax a bit, though if someone was to walk in the entrance to this decrepit club, they were liable to receive an eyeful, or worse.

"No! My transformation has a tendency of ruining my clothes. I'd rather be naked now, and hopefully keep my clothes intact, then not have clothes when I revert back to normal. Speaking of which, I'm going to need someone to collect my clothes for me, please," she called out from behind the barrier, pushing her discarded outfit with her foot, "'since I'm gonna take this opportunity to transform. Kitten kinda gives me the creeps," she said before adding, "no offence, ma'am... sir?"

Taking in deep breaths to calm her turbulent stomach, Kokoro pushed aside her instincts that were telling her to go screaming down the hallway towards someplace safer, nudity be damned. Instead, she focused on the spark of magic deep inside herself before shouting: "Samasu! Kaosu-no-me!"^note Awaken! Eye of Chaos!

Deep with her chest, warmth began to pour out, flowing throughout the young girl's body. Kokoro was soon wracked by the sudden onset of spasms, causing her to collapse to the floor and grit her teeth in pain. Bony spurs began erupting from her back, accompanied by the welling of thick, viscous tar, forming a pool of the dark, amorphous material beneath her. Tendrils of oil flew out, wrapping themselves around her torso as tar began covering her face and her arms began to regrow.

Moments later, Kokoro pivoted to her "feet", her mildly painful transformation over with. Now her appearance had drastically changed. Her body was now covered, nay, made of pitch black tar. Down the length of her spine from the base of her neck to her hips were a series of six inch long bony spurs, marking each of the elongated spinous processes of her vertebrae. On either side of her back were cape-like protrusions: amorphous wings made almost entirely of tar,

Her arms had regrown; however, in place of hands were draconic heads, each mouth filled with tiny, mostly harmless looking teeth. Rather than looking ferocious, they appeared slightly comical; each head squinting around at their surroundings and surrounded by a frilly collar of dark-red feather-like projections, giving her arms the appearance of having sleeves on. A matching set of six feathery plumes graced the girl's neck; three on each side which were swept towards her back slightly.

Other than changing the color, the transformation did nothing to drastically change the appearance of her face, barring her eyes; each was a black pupil surrounded by a murky sea of red and orange. Her hair, once a small mess of fluffy strands, was now smooth and slick, just stopping below the base of her head.

Her flat chest had a series of cracks in her sternum, with a faint orange glow emanating from within. Below that, her abdomen was taut and constricted, as if devoid of any internal organs; though, considering the nature of Kokoro's body, that was most likely the case.

Below her waist, she had stocky legs that flared out into a puddle of viscous tar that was being drawn back into her body and a flexible, salamandrian tail roughly three feet in length that swayed back and forth.

"I'm done, now," she called out towards Sinistrina, before tentatively using one of her arms to head-butt the barrier lightly. Her arm went through the barrier quite easily, much to her surprise. Blinking slightly, she stepped through to the other side and rejoined with the rest of the group.

Club Pluto (Rebecca, Ryya, Kokoro, Sinistrina, Conrad, Mancipium, Kittan Christian)

The enigmatic entity Kittan flashing a slight but amused smile at Sinistrina, s/he's notes the necromancer's spell. "My my, so casually bending darkness? Either she's grotesquely powerful, or her universe's magic requires less effort." Conrad, on the other hand, breathes a sigh of relief as the wall went up. Mancipium, however, doesn't seem reassured much as she can be.

Still, the so-called angel flashes Rebecca a more cruelly teasing smile- as if saying 'Afraid you're next?'. Kittan's smile becoming less amused as Ryya pitches in too, the angel(?) visibly looks a little annoyed. "These ones too? Idiot mortals need to stop being so materialistic over worthless things..."

The draconic looking Conrad seeming to be reassured by Kokoro explaining about her clothing, the young man glances for a moment at her discarded clothing. "If she describes it as a tendency rather than a certainty, then perhaps custom-made clothing? Though exactly how much effort would be needed..."

Then, as Conrad continued to puzzle it over, a rogue thought runs through his mind- The cold analytical and unempathic tone sounding borderline foreign. "Perhaps her clothing has acquired trace elements of her magic? Examining it may prove useful to me." Conrad, for his part, seems notably disturbed by the mysterious thought- Briefly looking around as if he could find the one responsible.

Kittan, however, looks in Kokoro's direction- And for the briefest moment their otherwise calmly composed smile screams false, as if a poorly maintained illusion. Yet after that brief little moment, their smile doesn't seem 'false' anymore. Though the moment Kokoro shouted her transformation phrase, Kittan's face lights up with interest. "Awaken, eye of chaos? Guess we got a naughty girl here after all."

Thus, both Conrad and Kittan were intrigued by her transformation- Conrad more in a 'that's so cool!' kind of way, whereas Kittan is more 'awfully artistic isn't it?'. Conrad blinking in realization, he suddenly seems somewhat conflicted before speaking out loud. "I really want to say your transformed state looks awesome! But, well... Ah, my sort-of mentor Creperum doesn't have a nudity taboo, so I've kind of been desensitized anyways..."

Letting out a slightly despairing sigh as he rubs his arm left awkwardly, Conrad's expression briefly lightens up with realization- Realization he's still in a dumping site for random dead bodies. Looking around with a somewhat anxious expression, Conrad's gaze snaps to Kittan as their wings curl around.

Kittan practically forming a cocoon with their wings around themselves, their 'cocoon' begins to fragment like glass- And bursting out of the shell is first an elegantly slender arm, with webbed fingers & dark green scales. Leaning out from her 'shell', Kittan lands on her hands and knees. Her other arm and both legs much the same, Kittan looks forward with black & golden slitted eyes.

Seemingly wearing nothing, the dark green scales instead cover up her body- Far too aesthetically designed, however, to be a random decision. In fact, with the unscaled underarms and inner legs, it seems designed for beauty. Gently brushing back her short black hair and stretching out her two scaled & bony wings, Kittan flashes a fanged smile before speaking softly- Her hands held against her flat chest.

"I am the Divine Beast known as Leviathan, the Rider of Famine herself. You mortals give these things around us too much significance... Without a soul, a body is simply nothing but an inanimate object. Thus, I make a point of destroying these things when I can, in order to prevent fools from attempting to defy heaven's law. We don't need a zombie apocalypse just because one lonely sob couldn't get over their lost ones, correct?"

Turning her attention specifically to Kokoro, the rider of famine outstretches her left hand to her before speaking more tomboyishly "Awaken, eye of chaos, huh? Little miss edgelord, or is your power borrowed? I know plenty about fearsome demons and dark creatures, so promise I won't bite if you tell."

edited 16th May '17 6:23:26 PM by Kkutwar

[[Sickbay]]: Tigris, Gabriel, Anna, Minerva, Max, Cecilia, Rolph

“I’ve never seen any kind of spell before,” said Rolph, his mandibles still grinding in rhythm with his speech. “None that actually worked, anyway.”

Tigris smiled lightly. “That’s not surprising,” she said. “The very fact that magic is possible was repressed very early on in a lot of cultures. The arts survived in the form of warped, ineffective rituals all over the world, but only a few societies retained the true knowledge. And until a few centuries ago, those societies weren’t keen on sharing.”

Tigris listened as Cecilia gave a haughty explanation of the mechanism behind her powers. So, chemical manipulation – was that it? Was that what she’d drained herself on? Overcoming steric strain and potential barriers, manipulating radicals? Simultaneously breaking and forming moles and moles of bonds? Tigris’ chemistry knowledge was not as sharp as it could have been, but all the same, her head swam with even more questions. But she had no chance to ask them, for Cecilia had fallen back onto the bed, apparently trying not to black out.

In spite of how cold and cruel Cecilia had seemed, Tigris could not help but feel some shred of empathy for her, exhausted to the point of nearly vomiting and losing consciousness. She almost felt the need to help Cecilia get comfortable – adjust her pillow, get her some water…something. But the feeling passed; and besides, the woman had Max to tend to her. Tigris hoped that chunk of Gabriel’s bone had been worth it. What was Cecilia really going to do with it, anyway?

Tigris looked over at Gabriel, hoping he’d retain the inner balance he finally seemed to have found. A belief in the utility of all paths – that was one of the key tenets of the Mage’s Mirren. Having broken from the Code, Tigris was wary of too much fatalism, but in this case she figured it was the best way for the guy to keep calm. She wondered if Cecilia’s treatment had done Anna any good.

But of course, there was no reason she could not just ask the patient herself. “Do you feel any different?” she said, turning back to Anna.

Sickbay (Rolph; Minerva; Gabriel, Anna; Max, Cecilia; Tigris)

Rolph listened to Anna's explanation with a curious look on his face, his mandibles twitching with increasing intensity as she went on. Prejudice and superstition, withholding knowledge for personal gain...

"I don't think I like your creators very much," he simply replied, before turning to Gabriel. The bone-plated Human still seemed emotionally unstable, but his words made more sense this time.

"I see what you mean," Rolph said, adjusting his uniform a bit before taking a step away from the bed. "Without the Zealot War back home, I wouldn't have ended up on the Sword, and at least one sapient species might have been wiped out, but on the other hand that so-called 'Surgeon' person would never have gotten the idea to, uh..." He awkwardly scratched the back of his head, and the carapace plates on his forehead shifted slightly. "You can't predict all the consequences."

Next, he looked over at Cecilia, who was resting on a bed of her own, clearly exhausted after using whatever strange abilities she had. Her explanation of it had sounded a lot more reasonable than the 'life force' stuff from before, but he still had no idea how she had been able to just... do it like that, or why it had involved a blinding light.

"You have to tell me more about that," he said, pointing a clawed finger in her direction. "Uh, after you've rested, of course."

Next, he skittered over to Tigris.

"Huh, so where you're from, you mean there was actually some truth behind all that?" he asked, feeling both skeptical and fascinated. "On Urrlna, the closest thing we had was some loose speculation about early ripple field mechanics, but nothing ever came of it. What did you discover?"

Finally, Rolph glanced over at Minerva. He had almost missed it at first, but she had made a very interesting comment earlier.

"Wait a minute, you said you were built?"

Arboretum (Glitch; Shireen, Robin)

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Glitch answered, shifting the gaze of it's large lens between Robin and the new Human female, Shireen.

"And yes, 'lab assistant' is an accurate description, though I've been programmed for other tasks as well." The drone quickly swiveled it's turbines, guiding the engine exhaust away from a small group of passing mechanical butterflies. "We're currently on what's meant to be a simple research and exploration mission, but we keep running into unexpected situations. It pays to be prepared. Most of the time though, I just scan things. Old habits, as they say..."

Club Pluto (Kittan, Conrad, Rebecca, Sinistrina, Ryya, Kokoro)

As soon as Kokoro asked for someone to retrieve her clothes, Sinistrina was on it, gesturing out towards the wall she had just conjured. A narrow shadow traveled along the floor right underneath her arm, moving right past the wall, where inside it sprouted a pair of the same spindly hands she had used to feel around for corpses earlier. These hands carried Kokoro's clothes outside of the wall, leaving no stains nor burn marks on them (the wall was not made of actual fire after all), and set them on a nearby chair.

She had no idea what the presumably-Japanese incantation Kokoro spoke meant, but the girl's monster form looked interesting indeed. Looking at her form overall, she had to wonder if she would look similar if she ripped all her skin off, or if Kittan in her first form would look similar if someone painted her black. But what was really impressive were the dragon hands, on full-length arms, notably.

"Well, I must say that is impressive," Sinistrina spoke, dispelling the shadowy wall. Though she didn't sound nearly as intrigued as Conrad did, there was a tinge of amusement in her otherwise calm and level tone of voice. "I can certainly understand your worry about ruining your clothes. Though if you wore black clothes that could fit around those spines..." Another thought occurred to her. "And dragons for hands... you must be glad indeed to have those. ...What did happen to your arms, if I may ask?"

By the time she looked back at Kittan, the shapeshifter had shifted again, this time looking like some lizard person, though tailless and notably distinct from Ryya and Conrad. And then she said she was the Rider of Famine? As in, one of the horsemen of the apocalypse? She shook a slight bit, being all too familiar with famine. For a moment, her consciousness shifted over to a picture of her on her deathbed, one of those hanging on the walls of the house that contained her soul. Though she no longer felt it, she remembered the agony, weakness, and desperation that had dominated those last whiles of her life. Thus when she looked back at Kittan, there was a sort of distant sorrow behind her eyes. Leviathan, ah yes. I remember you - I stood in the path of your horse once, so to speak.

But when the rider mentioned souls and bodies, the sorrow turned into shock. "I beg your pardon? I may not be mortal, but still I prefer to treat corpses more like who they were in life. Still, people do have a strange tendency to hold the dead in high reverence, do they not? It is why necromancy is seen as such a dark and forbidden art in all its forms." She shot a glance at Rebecca, wondering if she would agree. "...Well, most of its forms."

"Speaking of which, I have heard of people destroying corpses before burying them, so as to prevent them from becoming vampires. But in my experience, that does not work so well. I find that re-animation operates on the principle of the body having a sort of 'memory' of a soul, of being alive you might say." In fact, she surmised that this was why people used to burn witches at the stake - perhaps out of a fear that, like Rebecca and herself, they might re-animate themselves if any part of their body was left intact. But she dared not say that aloud; otherwise Kittan or Leviathan or whatever the hell she was called might start setting fire to graveyards everywhere. "And a body need not be completely intact to retain this memory - even skeletons can be re-animated if they are not too ancient."

While speaking, she gestured her staff towards a corpse that had just recently been chopped up. It took a little bit of prodding, but after a while, one of its hands started to squirm about, trying to push the arm towards its shoulder. At least this seemed to cheer her up - well, by her definition of cheer anyway.

edited 18th May '17 9:52:00 PM by ladytanuki

Deck 2 ~ Sickbay (Minerva; Anna, Gabriel; Cecilia, Max; Tigris; Rolph)

"No one should be treated as not worthy of being called people," Minerva said to Anna. She paused for a moment, uncertainty crossing her face. "But people can be jerks..." she said quietly.

Minerva then adopted a somber look as she listened to Gabriel. "Cause and effect's a—" she glanced over at Anna for a moment, "never mind that." The gynoid paused for a moment, trying to figure out the right thing to say. Eventually, she just shrugged.

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade," she said, before gently embracing Gabriel once more, before adding, "And lemonade requires a bit of added sugar." Hugging the young man for a moment, she eventually let go and took a step back, gently placing a hand on her chest.

At Rolph's inquiry about what Minerva had said, the girl turned to face the insectoid alien. She nodded vigorously, "Yes sir. For those of you who might not be aware, I'm a gynoid; an artificial intelligence operating a mechanical body composed of cutting-edge cybernetics," she said with a cheerful smile.

Deck 2 [Ulf, Teri, Sophia, Wolfe, Gwion]

Ulf pursed his lips thoughtfully as he stepped out onto deck 2.
“I’ve had a bit of a ride since then, temporal wise.” He did some mental calculations, his fingers twitching slightly trying to keep track.
“One is two, three times.” he muttered.
“I might be a wee bit off but I believe it was 1956?” he shrugged. “I was not paying the most attention at the time. I’m not American and I found the waste of life tasteless.” he thought to himself for a second and realized a more concrete explanation was needed.

“They were afraid the Red’s creatures would found a base on the moon, as they do not need to breathe. America preempted them to show they could reach it, albeit at a heavy cost.”

“International space station?” He asked trying to clear the air of the morbid topic. “And Americans riding Russian rockets?” He turned back to Wolfe, “And your moon is green?”

Club Bizarre

A thread of thought reached Magistralis, a feeling of motion after the absence of long stillness along with grim purpose.
“Interaction must be cut short.” they noted. “Attention required elsewhere. Human has given us much data to interpret, thank you.”
The being’s physical form compressed into something more similar to what they were first seen in and began to fade as they shifted dimensions.

Their consciousness returned to the massive ship structure, Blue windows and interfaces started glowing, yellow energy started flowing through the peripheral structures. Magistralis felt through the fleet’s data link, ships of every design and function, but all glowing faintly blue with the consciousness of other Technomancers.

With a collective consciousness just shy of a hive-mind, Magistralis felt the scanners pick up a large pulse of energy indicating an incoming fleet. Data barriers initiate, prepare for phase indiction. They ordered, back in their native environment at last.

edited 20th May '17 3:45:30 AM by Slysheen

Club Pluto

Ryya turned around when she heard Kokoro announce she was done. She turned around and saw... Kokoro herself, just changed and with what looked like tar all over her body. Even her arms seemed to have regrown. It was certainly impressing, thought not what Ryya had in mind.

Still, it took the senjai's attention away from the creepy Kittan. "Wow, Kokoro, you look amazing!" She said with surprise. "I thought you would look like some kind of amorphous blob, to be honest." Looking that something or someone had taken Kokoro's clothes away onto a nearby chair, Ryya decided to do the same. She walked to the chair, and untied her sac from her staff, and left it next to Kokoro's clothes. Now she could properly use it should she needed to. That Kittan still gave her a bad vibe.

Speaking of which, he had presented herself as 'Divine Beast', 'Leviathan' and 'Rider of Famine.' Now those titles were not ominous at all, of course not. "Well, if you ask me, it's kind of disprespecting that person's memory." Ryya said as she went back to the group. "Like, you wouldn't break someone's stuff while they are away, would you? Even if they don't use it anymore."

She then turned to the others with one doubt. "By the way, what is an 'edgelord'? I think he just insulted someone."

[Deck 3-Abandoned Theater/Henry and Lauren]

Henry chuckled at Sii's correct prediction. "That's correct my new friend1" He cheerfully called out to the two on the upper deck.

He then started gesturing his hands like one would when trying to open a particularly heavy door.

"You see the fabric of reality is filled with moth holes and these moth holes lead to alternate worlds. Each one with it's own history that may be similar to ours or completely different.I knew when I started hearing voices that there was one around here somewhere. These gloves will let me open it up."

While Henry was working on that Lauren turned to Sii. "This is a bit of a hobby of ours. We go out and see how many of these we can find. It often leads to us spending some time there before Henry gets bored and decides to move on."

"Hey it ain't my fault most of them are boring as fuck." Henry called out to Lauren.

After a little more force Henry finally managed to get the hole open enough to get a good view into the other world.

Inside the hole was a view of the theater except in that world it wasn't abandoned and even looked like it had a show in progress.

"Heh nice. What do you think about checking this out?" Henry called out to the others.

"That sounds fine to me." Lauren called out to her husband. She then turned to Sii. "So what do you think? Do you want to head out? I promise it's perfectly safe."

[Hallway]

This peculiar little girl, whoever she was, seemed eager to get going. And Sakura didn't really blame her, as the next two decks down apparent had a lot of interesting things on them. Just what in the world was a 'holodeck', for instance? She looked over at John, at Akira, then hurried on after the girl. "Anything's better than walking in circles," she commented. "Oh, but, um, what's your name? Are you here with your parents, or...?"

[Dark Matter Lounge]

"Ah, so you're famous too? Lucky me. I've never met anyone famous before. At least, not in any of the bars I've ever been to," he chuckled.

"As for what I'm doing here... Well, I guess you could say that the captain is sort of a friend of a friend of mine. Managed to score some tickets for cheap." he took another sip of his drink. "I'm not quite here alone, though. My daughter's here, wandering around somewhere," he said with a shrug.

Deck 11 ~ Hallway (Loki; Akira, John; Sakura)

"My name?" Loki paused and stared at the others for a brief moment, pondering what to say. They might know who I am... and that's starting to get really annoying, really quick, so... "My name is Inigo," she said, putting on a mask of sheepishness, "My parents... had a bad sense of humor when they named me."

She then shook her head, her lengthy pigtails swaying side-to-side, "I'm actually here with some friends of mine; they almost left without me when they were coming here."

Having temporarily finished feeding her new acquaintances a pack of lies and half-truths, she set herself upon the task of trying to figure out some place exciting to take their little group. And then she noticed the world slowly turning green. That pale elf shopkeeper had mentioned something about this, hadn't she? Loki couldn't quite remember all the details, due to the fact that she was starting to imagine her staff as a giant stalk of celery.

The quite growl of her stomach made up Loki's mind for her. "I'm hungry. Anybody else hungry? There's café on the floor below," she stated, before continuing on her way. "Snacks are on-," Loki stopped and blinked, "Oi, what happened to those two guys? Weren't they with us?"

The eccentric girl darted off past Sakura and to the last hallway, and looked every which way. "I don't see a sign of them anywhere... You don't suppose they got lost again?" she called to the other girl, before shrugging, "I'm sure they'll eventually run into some of the staff; they can help 'em out better than we could." Loki then returned to her previous task of heading towards the elevators.

Deck 9 ~ Dark Matter Lounge (Mari; Kiryu)

Mari nodded slowly, before taking another drink. "Hmm, so you're a father, eh? Don't 'ave kids of me own, thought about it sometimes. But I do act as a guardian o' a group o' youngsters. Can't really call 'em kids, youngest's fifteen, goin' on sixteen, and more than capable o' 'andlin' 'erself," she said. The oni considered commenting about Kiryu letting his daughter roam about the ship by herself, but swiftly remembered ditching Junko and Ayako in the main lobby to make a beeline here. She closed her eyes for a moment, They'll be fine. Woe betide any who interrupts Ayako's vacation, girl's been planning this out for months, she thought, smiling.

"The youngest one's the one who founded the trip, some grand scheme o' hers she got planned," Mari said, laughing slightly, "and since she couldn't actually buy any tickets, she invited me along t' 'elp 'er out." The oni woman placed her cup down on the counter, before leaning back on her stool.

edited 25th May '17 11:24:43 AM by WillDeRegio

[Observation Deck]

Jin watched Proseda and Geoff's minor spat play out, eyebrows slightly raised, but decided it would be best—for Jin themself, at least—to move on.

"Nice of you to let us know up-front that the fascists were the ones shooting at you," they said to Enkar. They briefly studied his face, wondering at the hint of darkness they caught in his expression. "Considering that I'm paid to shoot fascists, we might have run into some issues under different circumstances."

They continued, hoping that even if Enkar picked up on Jin not mentioning the royalists, moving the conversation along would avoid anything ugly. Jin wasn't sure if they wanted to find out how well it would go if they were forced to explain their feelings about the Ren family's existence. But they failed to notice that they had begun talking a bit more quickly, or even consider that Enkar wouldn't think anything of Jin only speaking of fascists. "A friend of mine who lives in another nation has joined a resistance network whose eventual goal is to overthrow the fascist regime. His brother enlisted in the military around the same time." Their eyes turned cold and hard, their voice slowed again. "If that were my sibling, I have little doubt they would be dead if we ever met again. Live fascists generally turn out to be a waste of everyone's time."

(Club Pluto-> Rebecca, Sinistrina, Kittan, Kokoro, Ryya, Conrad, Mancipium)

Rebecca's decaying eyebrows shot up upon seeing Kokoro's new form. "I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't that. And I second the question about whether your powers are loaned or innate. In fact, you look almost like a demon of Sloth... minus the claws."

"An apocalypse? I don't know about zombies where you come from, but there's no way for any zombie I know of to do something without the will of a necromancer guiding it. If there's a zombie apocalypse, it's because somebody actively wants it to happen, and I've never heard of that- though I will admit to being tempted once or twice." Rebecca looked over Kittan's monstrous body, thinking about atrocious puns involving kittens and claws, but she kept them to herself. "So you see, as far as I'm concerned, your fears are completely unfounded."

Rebecca knelt down and pulled a piece of chalk from inside her cloak, starting to draw symbols on the ground. While the precise meaning of the lines and swirls might be lost on the crowd around her, the energies were unmistakable. Blasphemy, defiance of the natural order, and a fusion of life and death into something both, yet neither. Finishing her last mark, she whispered, "Arise." The nearby corpse of a young man stirred and stood up. Seemingly in a trance, Rebecca slowly moved her fingers, and those who could see supernatural energies would see purple metaphysical tendrils reaching out from them to the corpse, moving it like a marionette. With a snap of her fingers, the strands disappeared and the zombie fell back into lifelessness. "I've never liked reanimations with will alone, Sinistrina. Symbols allow for a much finer degree of control. But I can see you are talented."

Deck 11 ~ Club Pluto (Kokoro; Conrad, Kittan, Mancipium; Sinistrina; Ryya; Rebecca)

Kokoro smiled softly at the others, a faint glow affecting her cheeks. She hadn't expected this kind of accepting response from the others. "Thanks!" she said, with a hint of nervousness, "though it's kinda embarrassing for me to have to strip to transform." With Sinistrina's inquiry into what had happened to her arms, Kokoro succinctly replied: "Car accident."

Following Conrad's gaze, she watched with awe as the so called angel underwent a transformation of her own. She scowled slightly at the fact Kittan had the luxury of having her own personal modesty barrier to transform behind. That scowl was chased away, however, by Kittan's draconic beauty. "Uwa~!" she softly exclaimed, using a wing like a hand to cover her mouth.

Blinking her mottled eyes, Kokoro pursed her lips for a moment, before taking a half step back. "L-leviathan," she squeaked, "like the summoned beast?" She continued blinking for a moment, before giving the woman a more serious look. "Anyway, you really shouldn't be disrespecting the dead. They don't particularly like it when people do that," she firmly stated, before giving Kittan a blank look, "also, zombie apocalypses are next to impossible to pull off."

"How d'ja—" Kokoro sputtered, giving the Rider of Famine a momentary look of bewilderment. She must be able to understand Japanese, the girl briefly mused, before pouting; her tail lashing in mild fury. "I am not a delusional junior high student attempting to be cool!" she squeaked in response to Kittan's jibe. Taking a moment to calm herself down, the girl adopted an apologetic look for her outburst. "I got my magic from a really old jar that that I bought in this really neat shop," she said.

Next, the Kokoro observed as Rebecca went through the ritual to raise the dead. She caught herself glancing back and forth from the entranced lich to the young man the woman had temporarily revived; in response, Kokoro opened the eyes on her "hands". After adjusting to the disorientation caused by processing three sets of visual inputs at once, she quickly was able to take a guess at what was going on. "Oh, it's like controlling a puppet!" she cooed. Kokoro then had her extra heads close their eyes again to lessen the strain on her concentration.

Spirit Room (Emille, Phagora... and technically Horizons)^note because the latter is going inactive

Emille expected the celestial being to ask more about the mage who created her perhaps, but he/she/it seemingly decided that this was a perfect time to enter a deep trance, such that they ignored her completely. She scowled. "Well, if that isn't incredibly rude..."

The scowl returned when she turned back to Phagora, who redid her approach to the rope trick. "Kineticus? What kind of an incantation is that? I know it's Latin for movement, but still..." Sighing, she decided to comply anyway, trying to recall a happy memory.

The first memory she thought of was her coronation - though it was unofficial in that she didn't get a crown (not even a tiara), that was the day Lucina pronounced her Princess of Solevaille. She remembered how before then, she knew that she was kind of special to Lucina, even though she felt entitled to the honor for some reason. Maybe that was why Lucina chose her in the first place. Possibly also because of her violet eyes - perhaps to reflect their rareness in humans, any doll with them was considered to be of high importance. She knew of only two other dolls who had them, and both of them were other court members.

And so, recalling that profound feeling of power and pride, she extended her parasol towards the rope. "Kineti... hmm." A thought occurred to her, so she looked back at Phagora. "I think I know what you're getting at. I believe I read somewhere about magic being a force of will. That's why you wanted me to pick out a memory, correct? So then, perhaps I should pick out my own incantation as well, as it'll feel more natural to me." And so she turned back to the rope, trying to picture the motion she wanted it to make in her mind. Again pointing at it with her parasol, she spoke. "By order of the Queen of Solevaille, I command you to move."

The fierce conviction in her voice, especially at the end, was undeniable, likely even to Phagora... but the rope didn't budge. After letting out a frustrated grumble, she jabbed the parasol in the rope's direction once more. "Fine, kineticus."

Though the attempt was hasty, the rope managed to twitch, ever so slightly. Likely it was the extra will Phagora put into it, but the outcome left Emille to wonder. "How bizarre. Do incantations truly need to be that precise?"

Speaking of incantations, her attention turned to the ring Jake had given her. Taking out the accompanying piece of paper, she eyed it a bit, only to discover it was not an incantation at all. Huh, I thought I remember it being one, oh well. Still, focusing on the ring, she wondered how to go about activating it, and ended up whispering "Please help me to become human."

Inside Emille's consciousness, a transformation took place. As her hat flew off her head, a flurry of red rose petals engulfed her. A great warmth surged throughout her body, such that she felt like she was inside a kiln - even her porcelain body began to glow. But it wasn't porcelain for long. A new form, one covered with skin and filled with flesh instead, erupted through it, shattering the porcelain shell and scattering its pieces, which briefly appeared as white petals before vanishing into sparkly dust.

At the same time, her dress seemed to grow and age just like a human child would. The long flared sleeves simplified and shrunk, until they were little red ruffles on the shoulders. In their place, crimson opera gloves with black ruffled trim slipped onto her arms. The bottom of her dress sported those same black ruffles, making it resemble a flamenco skirt - only when her legs grew beneath it, her shins were left exposed. But not for long, as high-heeled over-the-knee boots slipped onto her feet. As her human body became complete, her hat, the same as before but now bigger, fell back onto her head.

But all that was in her own personal space. To Phagora, she simply glowed in a bright red light and grew taller, then emerged from the light in her human form - though the new outfit was still there. Rather than a young girl as she might have looked like as a doll, she was a fully-grown woman, perhaps in her thirties, but still with a notably youthful look in her round violet eyes. Her hair was also the same, bearing those same wide copper curls, but now her lips were full and bright red.

And yet, the look Emille had on her face was more like astonishment, even apprehension. "I-I-Is this what being human feels like!?" Her voice was a little deeper than before as well, though still notably stern. "Ugh, it feels like I am filled with warm water... that is constantly moving? Even my eyes and mouth are wet... How can Lucina stand this?!"

Needless to say, already she had enough. That was when she noticed that the ring was still on her finger, over her glove. "All right, now to turn back..."

Another flash of red light... and she was a doll again. Smiling with satisfaction, she looked back at Phagora. "I do believe I am getting better at this. But I do not much like using precise incantations like that. I want my magic to feel more 'me'. I like the prospect of using magic with thought alone, like you do. Got any advice on that?"

Club Pluto (Rebecca, Ryya, Kokoro, Sinistrina, Conrad, Mancipium, Kittan)

Sinistrina just had to raise an eyebrow of her own at Kokoro's remark about a car accident. "Is that so? If you do not wish to tell me, you could just say so rather than lie about it." After all, there was no way someone could so quickly and casually mention an accident like that if they lost their arms in it - it sounded more like a rehearsed response. And unless she had been lying on her back or stomach while a car drove right over her arms, that sort of outcome seemed unlikely anyway.

Then she watched Rebecca re-animate the corpse with a very pronounced wonder - which by her standards meant cocking her head to the side and widening her eyes a tad. And finally an amused smile. "Well well, it looks as if you have turned him into a marionette." She noted the purple strings the fellow lich witch had used to pull him up. "An interesting approach I may say. On the contrary, I find that will alone is the ultimate form of control, as it makes the magic truly one's own. Ironically though, this makes it more difficult for me to re-animate a detached body part, as it doesn't have as much of a memory of a soul as a whole body does. But I imagine your puppet spell does not have such a limitation - in fact, I would bet that with it, you could even animate things that were never alive to begin with, given the proper intent. Your method seems to operate more on control."

She looked over to the hacked-apart corpse, whose detached arm was still trying to walk over to its torso. "Mine, on the other hand, operates more on empathy, by tapping into that memory. Though since the dead typically cannot act on their own, an element of control does have to be involved." As she was saying this, with her free hand she made a beckoning gesture at the body of a young girl lying nearby, who promptly stood up and took her by the hand. "Possibly also why that arm was difficult to animate, as the poor dear was all cut up." With what she said next, she seemed to speak mainly to Kittan. "So let's put her back together." For the corpse was that of a middle-aged woman.

More like "let me", for before Kittan could reply, she extended her shadow along the floor until it reached the dead woman. The spindly hands reaching out of it lifted up the arm, the other arm, the loosely-attached leg, the half-severed torso, and the head that had rolled away a ways, gathering them together and setting them in their proper place, while a thin cloud of black mist hovered around them. Now complete, the zombie woman stumbled over towards her, where she let go of the girl (who fell forward and clung onto the bottom of her dress) and steadied the woman with her free hand. As she did, the severed parts sealed themselves together even more, though there were still gaping wounds where she had been cut apart. "There, now is that better?"

The zombie woman nodded and walked a bit more steadily over to a chair, where she sat down. Both she and Sinistrina looked squarely at Kittan, but only the latter spoke. "I will have to agree with Rebecca on the likelihood of a zombie apocalypse, as you so call it. Though I have only read about such an occurrence in fiction."

edited 26th May '17 6:07:36 PM by ladytanuki

Deck 1 - Arboretum

'Having food with him' apparently meant having access to some sort of portal from which he could produce a pack containing food. Aubrey mused that this must make travelling so much easier than lugging a steamer trunk around - even one with wheels. Briefly he thought of his current travelling companions, all of whom preferred to reduce their load to the barest of essentials. What would they make of the ability to access whatever they liked without having to carry even the smallest of packs?

Joshua offered some of his food and both Pearl and Aubrey accepted with thanks - after all, it would be rude to refuse a kind offer. The items were wrapped in plastic and looked like Wolfe called a "filled roll", but with a thin hard shell, rather than a soft bread roll, around the filling.

"I must say I never saw anything like this in London in my time," said Aubrey, as he unwrapped the taco.

"Nor I," said Pearl, "what's it called?"

As Aubrey tried to eat the strange meal without making too much noise or mess, he noted that another person had arrived in the garden - an oddly-attired woman who, he noted, was smoking. It made the fact that he had left his cigarettes behind all the more galling. Then a woman and some sort of flying contraption arrived and the flying thing made a quick circuit of the park before returning to the woman.

Pearl had also noticed the new arrivals. She watched as the later arrival wandered over to the first and struck up a conversation and was followed by the flying device. It did not appear that the red-haired woman was controlling the machine in any way, which meant that it was some sort of robot - like the one Wolfe and the others had found, except that it was smaller and could fly.

Aubrey turned his attention back to Joshua and the conversation they had been having prior to the impromptu 'lunch'. "I would say that my recent troubles are nothing compared with what you must have endured. Being abducted and imprisoned was frightening at the time and very confusing but I was, ultimately, unharmed and people had cared enough for my safety to come looking for me. Not to mention the fact that, whomever my abductors were, they were mere humans, not the horrors you've described."

He looked around the garden, "This does look like a good place to, as you say, recharge," it occurred to him that Joshua's turn of phrase was very much like Wolfe's, "and a good place to get one's bearings before sampling any of the ship's more exotic offerings."

Deck 2

Wolfe's brow furrowed in puzzlement at Ulf's comments about the Red's creatures not needing to breathe. He gave a quick glance at Teri, who looked equally puzzled, and then at Gwion who, surprisingly, didn't seem to find the comment especially unusual. Clearly this was something about Ulf's world of which Gwion had some prior knowledge.

For his part, Gwion recalled from his conversations with Ulf in Capital City that the Russians had used Vampires in the Winter War - and Werewolves like Ulf had been the Finns' primary weapon against the undead forces. Soviet 'creatures' that didn't need to breathe could only mean one thing.

He kept silent and started to lead the way to the nearby bar.

Wolfe grinned at Ulf's questions. "Well, the International Space Station is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a space station built with the combined efforts of a lot of nations - Japan, USA, Russia and so forth. It's basically a large space-borne laboratory. NASA scrapped its Space Shuttle program, which was the only thing they had capable of lifting people into Low Earth Orbit. Scrapped everything, really - they've had to use rockets built by private companies in the States and elsewhere just to lift supplies into space as - apparently - a Space Agency having actual space craft is too old fashioned. To get their astronauts up, they have to smile sweetly at the Russians and cadge a lift. Dunno if they flick them the occasional twenty for petrol money or not. And yeah, our moon's green - at least, it has a noticeable greenish tinge. I suspect it's due to large amounts of copper or chromium compounds in the lunar soil and rocks mucking with the frequencies of light that are reflected - much like Mars' red colour comes from iron compounds."

Teri looked quizzically at Ulf. "So, what're these creatures the Ruskies've got what don't need to breathe?"

[Deck 1, Arboretum - Joshua, Aubrey, Pearl]

Joshua took a loud bite out of their taco, chewing on it before swallowing to talk, "It's a taco. A hard shell with vegetables, meat, spices and other things. I mainly get them because they speed up the healing process for people like me," they said in response to Pearl's question, "Since London has taken in more people from around the world in the modern age, both human and of supernatural origin, culture comes with it, and with culture comes cooking."

Joshua acknowledged the group who had arrived in the arboretum, but otherwise ignored them.

"I wouldn't downplay your troubles like that," Joshua said to Aubrey, "Getting kidnapped and imprisoned is still a scary thing to go through. Mundane or otherwise, going through all of that isn't something anyone should go through," Joshua paused, "Unless you're someone with a really weird kink," Joshua finally finished up the taco.

"I mean, I'd prefer recharging before going anywhere, globe trotting and monster fighting is a high energy activity. I mean, besides all of that, I've spent time in places that could basically be considered sprawling dungeons."

Deck 9 ~ Fitness Center (Junko, Miss Loki, Natalie)

Natalie looking rather intrigued as Junko elaborates about her magic clothing, Miss Loki nonetheless has a little devious smile. "My, a girl after my own heart." Soon she looks more normally amused as Junko ranted about 'sparkly poofs' and 'sell outs'. The nanomechanical girl, however, looked down at her own somewhat fanciful uniform a little ashamed.

Still, perking up as she witnesses Junko's display of strength, Natalie catches the puzzled look she gives. Miss Loki, for her part, still seems 'eh whatever' about Junko's sympathy. Junko's attempt to reassure her, however, caused the rainbow haired goddess to give a mirthless smile- As if sarcastically saying 'Sure, that works'.

Yet Junko's outburst caused Miss Loki to look, well, blankly simple- Like someone confused about why they feel confused. Natalie, however, was obviously reflecting upon immense amount of information in response to Junko's questioning about this 'harem king' and Lady Tiamat.

Natalie's attention refocusing on Junko, the robotic slime girl spends a few more moments processing Junko's explanation. Finally, she calls out quizzically but friendly "So what do you for training when physical combat isn't an option? It can't actually be reasonable to rely solely on fiery super strength martial arts. What happens when an opponent is too hazardous to approach, like someone with poisonous skin or an anti-biology field? Being a skilled martial artist isn't an all solving hammer, though I understand you probably don't want to forsake your training after so much sunk time."

Giving Miss Loki a once over to determine what she'll do, Natalie seems a little concerned she's still so blankly quiet. Turning back to Junko with hands folded against her chest, Natalie speaks again without the quizzicalness- Rather cheerful and enthusiastic, clearly considering Lady Tiamat in high regard.

"Lady Tiamat is one of the nicest people! She devotes much of her time and effort helping the people who live under the masquerade. Usually more passive support like providing shelter and helping to secure livelihood, admittedly. Of course, as a powerful water goddess, getting on her bad side is well advised against. Ultimately, you're in good hands if Lady Tiamat and her husband Kingu are willing to assist."

Then, with a darkly amused expression on her face, Miss Loki finally speaks up. "Depends on your definition of 'nice person', I usually don't assume incestuous mothers are very stable individuals. Of course, getting violently betrayed by the majority of her progeny in the most historically important war... Why, anyone would be a mess after that, though it isn't exactly human nature to stop and think things through. Like, well..."

Miss Loki looking a lot more angry, her fists balled up, she speaks in a tone of restrained passionate anger. "Insulting someone's father right to their face, assuming he's like all those perverted sick little fucks you find on Sankaku Channel. After all, surely a polygamous king is nothing but a sexist sociopath, like some H-game protagonist of the worst sort. But hey, as we all know, the notion of a male reasonable authority figure is obviously complete nonsense. Obviously, ya know?"

Natalie, while not as surprised as earlier, is still notably hearing this about Miss Loki for the first time. The goddess herself has a look of realization, crossing her arms against her chest, before speaking up more neutrally. "I'm... Definitely lying, definitely yeah. Can you imagine the great Loki, one of numerous children born from essentially an eugenics experiment? Sounds like 'ecchi shonen crap' right? Like I have any right to talk about them after my part in the Civil War of Mana..."

edited 25th May '17 1:47:12 PM by Kkutwar

Deck 9 ~ Fitness Center (Junko; Miss Loki, Natalie)

Junko stopped mid punch when she noticed Natalie looking down at the frilly outfit the nanoslime wore. The magical girl sighed briefly, before giving the other girl a reassuring pat on the back. "I don't necessarily mean you; I’m talking someone whose outfit has way too many frills and stuff. You're fine," she said.

After being asked what she would do if she couldn’t solve a problem with punching, Junko tapped her chin briefly before giving a response: "I'd either punch fire balls at it, throw something weighty at it, make it so that I can touch 'em, or just rely on my team for help. I don't usually go it alone."

Junko took a step back away from the angered goddess, raising her hands in an apologetic manner. "Whoa! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to step on your toes. It's just..." Junko furrowed her brow as she looked down, "I had to deal with a guy who was abducting girls for his personal "harem"." She sighed and wearily glanced up at Miss Loki, "I guess I should keep a more open mind..." Junko then blinked a few times in utter, naïve confusion at something the other girl had said, "What do triangles have to do with perverts?" she asked.

Scowling slightly, she pulled out her phone from her coat and sent a quick text to Mari. Moments later, the phone buzzed, and the magical girl glanced down at the message:

Slightly blushing, Junko hastily deleted the message, her mouth twitching slightly. Che! Don't screw around with me like that! she thought, before raising a hand towards Miss Loki, "No need to tell me, just found out what it is," she said dryly.

"Our Tiamat was apparently a nice person, 'til her husband died. Then she got really pissed off, spawned some evil dragons and stuff, and then got killed before she could enact her vengeance," said Junko, before scowling and shaking her head, "then she apparently became the earth and sky, or something." She decided not to ponder about it further, and simply shrugged, "This all happened a really long time ago, and sometime facts and fiction get mixed up over time."

"Though," said Junko, smiling slightly, "I'm sure if things had gone differently, our Tiamat would probably have been like yours." Glowering slightly, Junko once again returned to scowling, "Of course, most of the nice folks end up either dying, disappearing, or pushed to the side and then they get replaced by a bunch of scheming jerks," she muttered.

Junko returned to throwing punches, her fists emitting resounding smacks as used a bit more force than necessary, reminiscing on a few of the times a god or goddess asked for assistance. Her fists slowly began to catch fire as she punched away, recalling when said deities then proceeded to backstab her and her friends. She unleashed a blazing roundhouse kick on the heavy bag, snapping the chains holding it up and sending the two halves of the scorched punching bag flying. Sand sprayed in an arc after the ruined back, leaving a trail of debris on the floor.

Realizing what she had done, she hastily apologized to a highly concerned staff robot that had come around to investigate the commotion. As the staff bot began to send for a cleaning crew, Junko offered to clean up the mess herself; but the staff bot wasn't having any of that. After being sent off with a warning, Junko returned to her two companions.

"I guess I let my temper get the better of me again," she scowled, rubbing the back of her head.

Deck 9 ~ Dark Matter Lounge (Mari; Kiryu)

Mari reoriented herself to keep herself from falling off her stool when her phone suddenly buzzed. Taking the keyphone out of the pocket of her jeans, she glanced over the text message, one eyebrow going up in amusement before she burst out into a hearty laugh. "Well, this is unexpected," she said.

After swiftly typing up an admittedly cheeky response to Junko, she turned back towards Kiryu. "Kids," she stated, grinning wolfishly, "now, where were we?"

Arboretum (Glitch; Shireen and Robin)

Shireen finished her cigarillo, taking a deep drag and blew three smoke rings, one after another.

"'Unexpected'?" She raised her eyebrows. "Is there such a thing as the opposite of that on exploration missions? I was under impression that if you know what to expect from your journey, you don't need to explore at all."

"You seem to really like your job, Shireen." Robin smirked.

Shireen gave out a small laugh.

"I've simply been doing it for far too long."

But yes, semantics is my favorite field.

"Sorry if that came out as condescending. It's just I've never met a space traveler before." She frowned. "Well, I've met a delegation of ether nomads once, but they don't count."

The psychopomp glanced at the Aetellian, seeing a great deal more than a mere mortal could.

This one could be a good candidate...

Told you, came the thought.

edited 27th May '17 5:25:12 AM by Millership