Character Space Liner

Fitness Center (Junko, Natalie, Miss Loki, Carlotta, Phagora)

"Thank you," Carlotta said to Phagora and Junko as they helped put her back together again. "Holding it in place should be enough." Indeed, as Phagora held Carlotta's detached hand up to where it broke off of her arm, it held in place, though the arm had to first be re-attached to her shoulder. There the pieces pressed themselves together even more tightly. "I think keeping myself together requires my own magic, actually."

Then to Junko she said, "It's not tar... it's actually... a magic glue. Holds both my body and my soul together. As long as it's present, the individual pieces cannot be broken apparently. This is the first time I've collapsed like this though... Oh, and my name's Carlotta, and this is Phagora. She cooks for the Starlight Restaurant."

But by the time they had gotten one arm, one leg, and half of another leg pieced together, Junko cried out in surprise. Some of the "glue" had rubbed off on her hand. Contact with the skin irritated it, turning it slightly gray, and draining heat away from it. Junko might have also felt a loss of strength in that hand, though she could still move it just fine. Carlotta's eyes flew open all the way when she saw this.

"Quick, you can wash it off with water! I think that'll work... I-I-I'm sorry, I had no idea it could do that! I'll take care of the rest myself..."

She spent the next several moments grabbing the remaining pieces herself, and slipping her stockings and boots back onto her legs. Once she stood up, though, she felt a little wobbly, having to lean on a bench for support. Looking at Phagora, she said, "You use food to charge your magic like that? That is interesting. I wish I could do that... but though I can taste things, food does nothing for me. I uh, don't suppose you would know anything about recharging things made by dark magic, do you?"

Club Bizarre (Discoverer, Muse, Nemaforte, Merlin)

During the short walk to the rear elevators and the ride up to Deck 11, Merlin had his eyes glued to the brochure, looking over other places of interest on the ship - besides Club Bizarre, which he was headed to now. Fascinating... the ship has a spirit room, and a library, and holodecks, and a place to gaze out at the stars. For its sci-fi vibe, the ship has a delightful number of amenities for the more spiritually inclined. Heh, they even have a playground of sorts for necromancers, he thought as he read the description of Club Pluto.

Once he emerged from the elevator, he paused to pull a strand of hair out of one of his teal crescent-moon earrings and take a quick look in the mirror to make sure the eyeshadow he wore was not too excessive. If there were any ladies to impress, after all, he wanted to look his best... though he failed to consider the possibility of being mistaken for a woman or at least gay in his getup.

And inside the club, his mouth fell open in awe. The wall panels displaying all manner of cosmic and/or psychedelic patterns, the kitschy collection of chairs and pillows, the floating teacup-bearing saucers... not to mention the company. One group in particular stood out to him. A steampunk-ish fellow of sorts, and two others who struck him with deja vu. Or the future version of it. Why do I feel as if I have met - or will meet - these two before? The vibe that chaotic fellow over there seems familiar at the least...

The elfin albino witch, as was his first impression, had just fainted, and a little tiny person of some sort was trying to grab her hat as she rose to her feet. And she woke to the Discoverer of Subversions, as the steampunk man called himself, talking about the soulless one, and about hedonism and satisfaction... and then asking about her wares. But before she could think, her ears twitched as she sensed the presence of someone approaching. And who she saw interested her, so she beckoned him over.

"Wonder it is to again see you," she said to the supposed wizard. "You have enjoy the Cosmic Potion I gived you back at the desert?"

The "wizard" scratched his head. "...Though I do feel as if you are familiar somehow, I do not believe I met you before... definitely not in a desert."

The "witch" lightly shook her head. "We did indeed met. You not remember me? Nemaforte, purveyor of herbs that stimulate the mind and alter the senses. Though I know you though, I not remember your name."

He took a bow. "Merlin, sharer of esoteric lore and divinatory guidance." They shook hands, and then he looked between the other two. To the Muse he said, "You do not have a soul? You do seem oddly mechanical... and nearly as strangely familiar as this little witch. I do not suppose you know me as well?"

"You not remember the Dead God?" asked Nemaforte, making sure to look away from the Muse. "Gave us trouble back in desert, though seeming you weren't right there when it happened."

The Dead God... why does that name sound familiar?

As Merlin pondered, Nemaforte finally got the chance to answer some questions herself. First, to the Discoverer she said, "Though I know of fylin, the name Durnem does not recall. I do not recall an angel to run inside on Orenya though. Unless do you mean the watery world of Kalena? Is a moon not an angel, but its blue mists is resembling skin." She got a sense that the answer would be "no". "As for my wares..." She glanced over at Merlin. "Interested in them might you be too. Be sure to try my Cosmic Potion though... a sample I may give you if you lost."

She paused to think, then looked back at the Discoverer. "To get in touch with spirituality... best herb I know for that is very rare and very expensive, though by some fortune I carry a very small amount, enough for one. The bark from the Tree of Dreams that slowly grows in the eternal night of Zurem. Long has it used for vision quests to discover a lesson about the self.^note This is the same herb the Four Bardic Sisters used to end up in Dream II. Hesitant I am to sell it, so a high price will have to negotiate. There is an herb I have for the alternative, though. Please do wait until I return."

After a while of rummaging in her stock back at the shop, she returned with a jar of tiny white mushrooms. First she held up the former. "This is sareth-wishta, otherwise known as the chillcap. One of uses is to assist in astral projection, as it loosens the soul from the body. Best it is to eat something prior to help keep the body alive, though not I am sure if someone like you is in need of that. In fact I would combine it with this one..." and here she pulled out some sort of extract, "...taliendra, or 'soul root'. Foremost it is a painkiller, works by allowing one to focus more on their soul than their body. How experienced with you are astral travel? Would not recommend the soul root if you are not; too dangerous a few have trapped themselves while projecting, and once I was in trouble with the Miamin who had to rescue the soul of an inexperienced traveler. Immortal you seem, so safe I see to offer it."

Merlin smiled. "I might be interested in that actually; I use astral travel frequently in the rituals I perform. Unfortunately though, I am not immortal - would it be harmful to a mere human like myself?"

"Only if little you take. Friendly you seem and on other ship we are, so I will offer."

"What happens if you take too much? Do people permanently lose their souls that way?"

Nemaforte nodded. "One customer I had, bought a large amount and used it for necromantic rituals. Lucky I was he did not tell the Oradamin about me, but I learned again to never offer that much."^note The Oradamin is the same organization Durnem is a part of. She looked back at the Discoverer. "Interested you are?"

Moonshine Bar/Lounge [Nana, Ulf, Teri, Sophia, Wolfe, Gwion]

Ulf took a bite of potato, it was a good vegetable and the cream certainly helped, but he had far too many in recent years. As the bartender dropped off the clear drinks, he made a small motion and requested some dry roasted peanuts.

Luckily he had not started drinking when Teri mentioned the false method for consumption of salt, lemon, and tequila or he might not have been able to hold back a laugh. He picked up a glass and drained the contents.

Ah, Tequila you called it, I've had this before, though under a different name. I believe the plants used to make it went extinct over the years. I recall hearing it was quite rare.

The flavor had the lovely burn one would expect from high-grade alcohol along with some accompanying tastes, though these were not as garish as the Quick Fuck and seemed to present a happy medium.

Excellent. Regarding worlds, the strangest part I think is how similar they were to each other. Names none-withstanding. he nodded at Nana. Capital has many different species, plenty I can't comprehend using my own senses. Yet here we are with seemingly the same features.

The bartender returned with the peanuts and he held them in his mouth briefly, enjoying the flavor.

[Hangar -> Scout (Halberd, Reshk, 'The Zaran')]

After a truly ridiculously long time, the zaran finally squeezed back in through the door and waved one arm out to gesture in Halberd and Reshk. The latter rippled his face again. Somehow, I'm thinking it did that on purpose.

He followed the zaran into the ship, explaining as he went "Like the being was saying, names aren't that important to zaran. Or zaran I'm knowing, anyway - they've got an entire empire, so who knows what some of 'em are thinking on the subject. But in this case, I'm not zer mate, I'm just zer one-off business partner, so I don't need a nickname."

The inside of the Scout was appropriately cramped, as given the ship's small size, but clean and well-maintained, without much in the way of visible equipment. A harsh purple light from a strip running across the ceiling illuminated it, and all of the bulkheads and rooms seemed to be designed entirely of curves - the only straight angles in sight were those of a small table near the door.

The zaran indicated a holographic panel on the far side, near another irising door that appeared to lead into the cockpit. The panel was flashing what at first would be unidentifiable glyphs, but would resolve into a slowly-looping 'APPLICATION ERROR' message if Halberd focused on it for a short time. Reshk moved besides it and crouched, letting his cyber-eye examine it.

"Yeah, it belooks to me like a filament disconnect," he said out loud. "Shouldn't take more than a few."

Not that that's the real reason I'm back here anyway, he added with a mental shrug. (Or at least shrug analogue).

He angled his head to look back at Halberd. "You mind if we take off? Once it's working I'd get a clearer signal away from the liner's grav."

[Comet Cafe (Loki, Sakura, QR)]

QR thought the word 'Ragnarok' sounded vaguely familiar, and tasked her backup to look it up. It returned an intriguing result, but one to be discussed one-on-one later. More importantly was the confirmation that the two other passengers were not from the same Earth.

"As I said, Earth is not my homeworld," she said with a slight hint of humor to defuse what she was saying, "but I have enough experience of traveling to other realities to know that people from it do show up an annoyingly excessive number of times, compared to other intelligent species. Not necessarily humans" - a very slight emphasis was placed on the last word - "but at least of Earther origin."

Deciding that it would be most efficient not to take the time to tell Inigo what she needed to know in regards to qrtxian drinks, she waved one of the staff robots over. "One glass of j'qrx-2 water, please," she told it, trusting that the programmers would be widely traveled enough to have programmed the drink into the bot. Apparently they had, if she understood its nod and departure correctly.

"A charming place, this," she told the others with a slight tilt of her neck. "I have always been quite fond of this aesthetic. And you?"

Pool Deck
(Rebecca, Sinistrina, Mina)

A significant amount of necromatic energy approached, Mina sighed. Of course she would call something incorporeal, even on this distinctly deathless ship. The runes on her arms buzzed with energy. Originally she was hesitant to go as far as tattooing and scarification for the glyphs. Runecrafting on the gauntlets seemed the better option but Carlion had insisted. It hadn't been pleasent, but then again the old lich's methods rarely weren't. But when they needed to work, they worked. She debated acknowledging whatever it was but the feeling crept away, an outcome that suited her just fine.

Slight movement drew her eye to the side of the tub, a spider of all things skittered. Space probably didn't play host to earthlike pests, most definitely not black widows that seemed larger but otherwise nonanomolous. Unless you counted the distinctly humanlike waving gesture.

"One of mine?" she said idly and opened her senses. The arachnid glowed with a similar but distinctly different animating energy.
"Cute. Is she yours?" she turned to ask the owner of the signature, who could not have possibly broadcasted "Witch" any louder without a cauldron and a cackle.

Another presence approached from the right, "A pleasure to meet you, Miss." The hand extended to her was clearly in a state of decomposition, Mina took a second to focus her senses before taking it and scrutinizing the zombie. "A state of decomposition but no further putrefaction. Necrotic heartbeat simulation and good cognitive relay. Impressive power."

She turned to face the witch as she sat and extended a hand of her own. Mina blinked in slight puzzlement at the repeated greeting and the obvious voice differences between the zombie and master.

"Not at all, it is always interesting to find another practitioner of the art." she responded and took the hand. Aside from the feedback from the runes increasing, the shake seemed normal.
"She is a powerful specimen, is she also yours?" she asked nodding back towards the zombie.

(Rebecca's identity being mistaken is intentional.)

(Fitness Center- Phagora, Carlotta, Junkyo, Miss Loki, Natalie)

"Using some sort of spiritual energy as glue? That's... interesting. I wonder if it could be used to bind more disparate elements." Phagora nodded as Carlotta pulled herself together. "Kind of. Food doesn't recharge my magical side at all, just makes me physically stronger. Still pretty impressive, if I must say."

She furrowed her brow a bit, trying to find the right type of energy to restore the doll. Eventually, she hit upon something close enough to the mark, and sent a good deal of energy into Carlotta. Not enough to fill her to the brim, but she'd no longer be unsteady or sluggish. "How's that feel?"

[Observation Deck]

It was clear by now to Proseda that this was beginning to get... rather over his head. Still, Enkar and Jin intrigued him, so it was probably in his best interest to at least feed the conversation a small amount even if it was with nothing but meaningless platitudes again.

"I suppose the question is what entails loyalty, and what we find irredeemable." He pauses, "Gotta have some standards about who lives and dies."

(Pool Deck- Rebecca, Sinistrina, Mina)

"You seem to be under a bit of a misconception, madam. I am not hers; I am my own." The red-haired lich took a seat on the edge of the hot tub, letting her feet dangle in the water. "My name is Rebecca. It seems strange that so many necromancers have found each other here- one would almost think that there was a graveyard under the deck."

Hangar - The Scout (Reshk, The Zaran, Halberd)

"Doo doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo- ...doodoodoodoodoo..."

Halberd sang a little melody, softly because he was terribly off-key, to assuage his boredom as he watched the mushroom-shaped cyber snail enter the Scout. Once inside, he took a careful look around, quickly scrutinizing every detail that caught his eye.^note Obvious The Smart Guy of the Black Cat Bandits is obvious. It was not long before he discovered the panel on the wall that displayed the strange glyphs, which turned into an "Application Error" message before he could try to figure out what they meant.

When Reshk asked "You mind if we take it off?" with regards to the panel, Halberd did a more obvious shrug and replied, "Well, it is your ship, so I don't mind any more than you do. Fortunately I always have a few tools on hand, though I can use more from either here or the Sky Pirate if necessary."

Now that he was feeling calm inside a stationary ship, he was able to keep his large hands steady when poking around the panel for the mechanism to unfasten it. Bolts, screws, electronic locks... though if it consisted of nothing but crevasses that might break if he tried to pry it open with a tool (like those bloody iPhones), he was SOL.

"Now how does this come off..." he wondered as he inspected the thing.

Pool Deck (Rebecca, Sinistrina, Mina)

As the new necromancer accepted her hand, Sinistrina couldn't help but notice the runes on her arms, which seemed to pulse with energy once their hands touched. Which she thought rather strange, as it didn't happen when she shook Rebecca's hand... until she remembered that Rebecca's main physical telling sign of her magic was the "necrotic heartbeat" the newcomer mentioned, whereas her own body was saturated with the Deathly Glade's black mists. Still strange, considering Rebecca had some considerable skill with magic.

Moreover, Sinistrina was surprised at how calmly Rebecca responded to being mistaken for one of her zombies, given how she called such an assumption a "grave insult" (pun intended) earlier. Just in case, she nodded and added to that. "Indeed, she reanimated herself, as did I. I am Sinistrina by the way, and this is Anima, my familiar of sorts." She gestured over to the spider, who crawled up a strand of black silk she had tossed up to her hand.

Then she noticed Rebecca dip her feet in the water, but no way was she about to do that herself. Instead, she pulled her chair closer to the tub... or tried to, as like what happened with Rebecca in the past, it was just a bit too heavy for her and ended up detaching her arm - at the shoulder in this case.

She shook her head. "I hate it when that happens."

She was being sarcastic though; all she had to do was stand up and let her shadow spread out a little, sprouting a few spindly hands that pulled the chair forward more successfully, and one that lifted her physical arm so she could grab it and simply press it back into place. A few more undead spiders even crawled out from somewhere on her dress and began stitching her torn sleeve back together. If Mina looked at Anima at this point, she might notice that her magical signature seemed a bit more similar to Sinistrina's than that of the other spiders, oddly enough.

Then Sinistrina addressed the newcomer's other comment, gesturing with the arm she just reattached. "Incidentally, there is a graveyard up on Deck 11; we were just there earlier. But enough of that; who might you be?"

edited 7th Dec '17 10:31:05 PM by ladytanuki

Deck 2 ~ Moonshine Bar and Lounge (Nana; Ulf; Gwion, Sophia, Teri, Wolfe)

After a momentary pause, Nana chuckled softly, "I would have only done that had you gone first, and probably not even then," she said, following Teri and Sophia's course of action with the tequila. She drank the tequila in one go, the same as the others, and entered a pseudo-meditative state. "Aguardiente... tastes similar to an import I once tried a few years back... not bad," she commented.

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

Taking Carlotta's recommendation, Junko rushed over to a nearby bathroom and stuck her hand under the faucet of the sink. After rinsing the goo off, she realized that not only was her hand slightly grayed, but the color and magic had been drained from her hand wraps, the material becoming brittle and flaking away. Wriggling her fingers to make sure there was no further damage, she willed up replacement wraps and went about re-wrapping her hand as she left the bathroom.

The magical girl returned just in time to overhear Carlotta's question. "No, I can't say I do, since my powers are practically the opposite of dark, but I think some of my other teammates, Mari and Yuki might know a bit more about that; they're yokai," she said, shrugging.

Deck 10 ~ Comet Cafe (Loki; Sakura; QR)

Loki gave the confused girl a blank look. "I guess you don't get out much, maybe? Cause there's a lot more to the Earth than just two places—" Frowning slightly, the goddess gave her companion a through glance before pulling out her pilfered phone and began typing, "Looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, probably is a duck," she commented, before mispronouncing what she looked up, "Uh... Hako-date? It's a city in Japan, apparently. Any connection to your Hakoda?"

The goddess then wriggled slightly at QR's mention of non-human terrestrials; while she herself wasn't preciously one, she did know a few who were. "I'm from Norway," she tried to casually mention, before requesting a hot chocolate from the staff bot before it left to get the alien her drink.

She then glanced around at the decor of the cafe, "Yeah, it's got it's charms; a more artsy vision of the present, only with more chrome I guess," she said.

Moonshine Bar/Lounge

Teri grinned at Nana's sceptical and pragmatic viewpoint; she had been equally cautious when Kris had told her of the "tradition" during one of their visits to Capital City.

She took a puff from her vapouriser and toyed with her empty glass as she exhaled. "Y'know, it seems to me we do this a lot. Wherever we go, we wind up in a pub sooner or later - more often than not, 'sooner'."

Wolfe smiled. "That's because, to somewhat paraphrase a Road Kill t-shirt, no great adventure ever started with a salad."

Wolfe helped himself to some of the spicy wedges but forwent the sour cream dip as he was not keen on it. At least this was one of those "civilised" establishments - in his opinion - that recognised that not everyone liked sour cream and put it in a separate bowl rather than dumping a huge pile of it on top of the wedges.

The wedges themselves were excellent: flavoursome but not overly spicy and cooked to perfection. Wolfe grabbed a few more.

Gwion pulled a small bottle from one of his vest pockets and shook it vigourously then unscrewed the top of his vapouriser tank and topped up the liquid from the supply bottle. Once the top was back on the vapouriser and the lid back on the bottle, he took another deep puff on his vapouriser.

Teri caught a whiff of the vapour. "Whatinell's that you're vaping? Smells like bloody pancakes."

Gwion chuckled. "That's not the first time I've been told that. It's a butterscotch and caramel blend - it's called Grandpa Joe's."

Teri recalled the earlier conversation about ages and gave a wicked grin. "That sounds quite apt."

Wolfe looked thoughtfully at Gwion's tank. "Does that thing take a five-ten drip tip?"

Gwion nodded and, guessing where this was going, pulled the mouthpiece off his tank and slid the unit across the table to Wolfe.

Wolfe nodded thanks then took the drip tip off his own, far more compact, clearomizer and plugged it into the top of Gwion's tank. He took a deep draught of the vapour, exhaled and smacked his lips experimentally. "Very nice." He removed his drip tip from the tank and handed the unit back to Gwion. "Quite an interesting flavour profile."

Gwion nodded at Wolfe's vapouriser as Wolfe reinstalled the tip. "What's yours?"

"Just plain hazelnut at the moment. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anyone on Terra Nova who can replicate my favourite blends. Butterscotch-and-caramel might just be possible, though, so I'll give that a try when I get home."

Teri knew that if Wolfe's drip tip fitted Gwion's tank, her own would as well. "May I?" She gestured at Gwion's vapouriser.

Gwion passed her the unit and she used the mouthpiece from her own clearomizer as Wolfe had done. She blew a series of rings towards the ceiling, savouring the flavour. "Mmm. That is nice." She handed Gwion's vapouriser back. "Mine's strawberry."

Sophia had been quietly musing over what Ulf had said about differences and similarities between worlds while the 'ejuice cultural exchange' had been going on. She was familiar with the wide variety of sophont life in Capital City, and it was rather interesting to note that everyone at this table - and the majority of those elsewhere in the bar - looked 'human'. She looked around the table. "Here's an idea: what's the thing you like most about where you live and what's the thing you like least? For example - and I'm thinking specifically of Hamilton city, here, not the rest of the world or even New Zealand in general - I like the fact that I'm free to do as I please and define myself but I don't like the general despair, apathy and downright laziness displayed by so many in our society."

Deck 1 - Arboretum

Unlike the tacos, the samosas were instantly recognisable to both Pearl and Aubrey as Terra Nova had quite a substantial Indian population and a number of Indian restaurants.

Each took one of the offered samosas.

To Aubrey, Hadia's mode of speech reminded him of conversations with Wolfe - chock-full of unexplained references and Aubrey having to try to make sense of them. 'Captain Galactic' seemed to be some sort of metaphorical character who, in context, presumably had an exciting lifestyle. 'Exec', he knew from his previous association with 20th and 21st century people, was contraction of 'executive', the noun form denoting a high-ranking businessman, and the qualifier surely did not pertain to the altitude near the ocean, which meant it was an indication of relative rank compared with A, B or even D - which, in the context in which it was offered, had him wondering whether C-level 'execs' typically had more or less 'excitement' than A-level.

Aubrey well remembered the 'hands-on approach' - it had been expected of everyone on the Long Walk, much to his distress at the time. Then, however, the risks were largely limited to discomfort, pain, calluses and minor wounds due to manual labour.

He gathered that Hadia's company deemed an element of risk - either dismemberment or death - to be 'acceptable'. As much of a hard taskmaster as James had been at times, at least it had been in the interests of keeping everyone alive and Aubrey's duties, although uncomfortable and tiring, had not been life-threatening.

Thinking of James, it occurred to Aubrey that such a risky 'hands-on approach' sounded more like that expected of soldiers than businessmen. "One hopes that your company has laudable reasons for expecting that level of risk." That the swordswoman was extraterrestrial had Aubrey wondering what sort of world Hadia lived in.

Pearl, whose understanding of English idiom was more up-to-date than Aubrey's, had quickly grasped the ramifications of what Hadia had said and nodded agreement with Aubrey's comment. It sounded like Hadia's company had a very cavalier attitude to the safety of their ranking officials if nearly losing one - or part of one - was an 'occasional' occurrence.

Deck 1 - Arboretum

[Hadia, Pearl, Aubrey]

With a discordant cheerfulness, Hadia said, "we didn't know there was a risk at the time! It was supposed to be an ordinary business meeting. Well, except for it taking place on another world. Uel, a country on the planet Alos. Long story short, we found some alien portals devices in the 2020s and put them to good use. Anyhow, we were making a deal with an Uelane corn baroness, Eyira, about some transgenic crops that'd make her go from rich to crazy-rich, in exchange for her providing intel on her government's most reasonable and sane individuals." Hadia didn't mention that said government was an insane cult worshiping a creature of mindless hate from beyond time. Western Amalgamated had struck bargains with worse despots on Earth. "At the time we figured that some autocrats are workable, but revolutions are always terrible for business. So, yeah, the meeting was going great, except for a small cultural detail Eyira perhaps deliberately forgot to mention; her business rivals routinely try to maim and kill her." And vice-versa, but Hadia didn't see fit to mention that detail. It might alarm her audience.

"My bodyguards did admirably, but we'd underestimated just how fast an Uelane assassin can be, and their ability to fight through non-lethals that'd make your average anti-corporate clown cry for mommy. Martial culture, everyone is drilled in swordsmanship or staff fighting, so you can imagine what the professional killers are like. They even got Eyira's hand, lopped it clean off. Good thing it was clean, too; we patched her up for free and threw in a new bio-aug hand to give her an idea how good it'd be to have us as friends. So we've learned our lesson since, but there's still a certain level of risk working on Alos."

She shrugged. "As for 'laudable reasons'? Some people say our world's dying — I wouldn't go that far, but it's been better. Between the temperature rise from greenhouse gas levels, and the side-effects of a geo-engineering project that was supposed to stop it, Earth's ecosystem is doing nuts. But Alos is a much warmer, harsher world; all the life on it has adapted to a climate not unlike what our planet is becoming on it." Here, she seemed to not quite falling into a sales pitch, but instinctively falling into the tone of one explaining an irrational-seeming action to a dubious audience. "Alosian life is descended from Terran life forms, so we can easily use, say, take Uelane corn, add our transgenic improvements, and have a crop that thrives in our new world. Or we can use the incredible bio-diversity of the virtually untouched rainforests for new medicines and new genetic wealth..." she glumly added, "I can only imagine what our own rainforests would have given us if we'd treated them right. But you can see why it's worth the risk; it's too late to reverse what we've done to our world, but we can make it a bit more livable."

Given the fact that she'd just told the story of watching a woman lose a hand (even if temporarily) and dealing with an attempt on her own life, one might expect Hadia to be a bit more traumatized or horrified, but she told the tale as though relaying an embarrassing incident at a trade show.

She took a bite of one of her samosas, then looked over at Audery. "Wait, uh, I think I might've lost you a few times there... what year is it where you're coming from, exactly?" She gave her own date, somewhere around the 2050s, then said, "sorry if you missed anything there. Slang, memes, changing values..."

edited 9th Dec '17 12:52:26 PM by KillerClowns

Deck 1 - Arboretum

Aubrey was pleased to discover that he could understand a reasonable amount of what Hadia was saying. The prevailing theory on Terra Nova was that some sort of 'portal' was the mechanism by which life, including himself, was transported between Earth and Terra Nova and Joshua had demonstrated that he used artificial means of manipulating portals, so the discovery of 'portal devices' and employing them to visit other worlds made sense.

He also knew, from things that Wolfe had said, that transgenic crops were those that had been genetically modified using DNA from other, generally incompatible, species. Wolfe had been quite opposed to it - not because it was tampering with God's Design, but because he saw it as a means by which corporations exercised economic control over the growers and thus protected their monopolies.

The use of 'non-lethal' as a noun rather than an adjective was a trifle confusing as to what form these 'non-lethals' took and how they could be 'fought through' but in context it was clear that, whatever they were, they were not very effective against Uelane assassins.

'Bio-aug' sounded suspiciously like one of the infuriating twenty-first century compound constructions that Wolfe frequently used, composed of bits of other words. That it was a missing hand under discussion, 'biological' was a good bet and the only 'aug-' word that made any sort of sense was 'augmented' - which did fit nicely with the talk of genetically-altered crops. Though in what way a hand could be 'augmented', Aubrey had no idea.

'Greenhouse gases' were something else Wolfe had spoken about at length, as was the depletion of tropical rainforests and other ecological problems facing the Earth of his time, so Aubrey felt on familiar ground, here; he could certainly see that it was worth the risk to pursue alliances that might provide solutions to the problems.

There were clear differences between the 'Earth' of the mid twenty-first century as described by Hadia and that of the late twenty-first century as described by Kris - which suggested that Hadia came from another 'version' of Earth - but the differences were nowhere near as great as those recently described by Joshua, so it would seem that there were degrees of separation.

When Hadia finished up and apologised if her language had been difficult to follow, Aubrey gave her a pleasant smile. "Actually, I was able to follow most of it as, despite the fact that I left Earth in the early eighteen-nineties, I've met quite a few people from both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and have caught up with some developments and, ahh, slang.

Pearl took a puff from her vapouriser and then flourished it as she would a cigarette holder. "We're not unfamiliar with the idea of an extraterrestrial world with life that is derived from that of Earth as we currently live on one, having been transported there by as-yet-unknown means - a lot of our population just vanished from Earth and reappeared, seemingly instantaneously, on Terra Nova." Vapour escaped her mouth and nose as she spoke. "I disappeared from Earth in the mid nineteen-twenties but there's some sort of weird thing happening with the timing of arrivals so that I only arrived twelve local years after people who vanished in the eighteen-twenties and now, around twelve years later, we've got people arriving from the twenty-twenties." She didn't mention the anomalies such as Kris who had somehow arrived a number of years before she was 'due' from the early twenty-seventies or Aubrey, James and Teri who had somehow been 'delayed in transit' to varying degrees and had arrived years later than others of their era - it would only confuse matters.

She took another puff. "So suffice it to say, we've got a pretty eclectic society and a strange melting-pot of differing values, slang and memes. If you say anything we don't understand because of any gaps in our knowledge, we'll ask for clarification."

Aubrey nodded. "For instance, what are these 'non-lethals' of which you spoke?"

Deck 1 - Arboretum [Hadia, Pearl, Aubrey]

He'd said eighteen-nineties. That caught Hadia by surprise. She blinked slightly, buying herself a moment to let the oddity sink in by biting into a samosa and savoring it before answering Audery's question.

"Non-lethals," Hadia said after swallowing. "Strictly, 'less-than-lethal'. A weapon meant to bring a target to submission without killing them. Usually a PEP — pulsed energy projectile — when I'm talking about it. An energy pulse that knocks a target off their feet and hurts. A lot." A brief grimace suggested she was speaking from personal experience. "But the assassins landed like cats, and while I think they felt it, they must have had some sort of training against pain. Makes sense; causing pain is one of the first tricks an Uelane warlock learns, so their assassins would need to have more training against unexpected agony than the kinds of," and here, she couldn't hide a slight snarl, "first world anarchists the weapon was meant to send cowering back to mommy's apron strings." The disgust her tone took when she said "first world anarchists" warned that if Pearl or Audery pursued the topic, they would be getting quite an earful. It also didn't immediately occur to her to offer any clarification on her sudden introduction of agony-casting warlocks to the conversation.

Then, steering the conversation towards sating her own curiosity, she said, "glad I'm not the only one who's had to get used to new worlds, though. All those years, all... pushed together, though," she said. "That must have been a lot of adjustment for everyone. My grandparents, on both sides, were immigrants; they had a lot to say about coming to America. Not just the Islamaphobia and good old-fashioned racism, but learning all the weird cultural cues that Americans take for granted..." she paused, deciding not to make them hear out her life story unless they asked. "I suppose that'd make you a sort of immigrant yourself, though apparently in a world of immigrants. Sounds a lot like America, honestly. Just... temporally displaced, instead of physically." She decided against asking about the exact mechanics of the portals; they tended to be enigmatic and not eager to explain themselves, from what she'd seen of such technology. "I can only imagine how tricky getting used to all the... discrepancies must be." She wouldn't have guessed Audery's era of origin, he seemed like a slightly old-fashioned and eccentric modern man, but couldn't think of a way to say this without coming across as condescending, and so didn't.

edited 9th Dec '17 2:20:41 PM by KillerClowns

[Comet Cafe]

"I've never seen a place like this before," Sakura said, looking around. "It's nice, I guess. A bit too shiny, if you ask me, though."

Rather than clear things up, Inigo only seemed to be succeeding in further confusing her. "Kagos and Hakoda are the only two nations in the world," she said. "I mean, I suppose there could be other people out there somewhere, but everywhere else that I've ever heard of is just wasteland, so..." She listened for a moment, then scratched her head. "Japan? I mean, I guess there's a connection, but I don't know what ancient history has to do with anything." She looked between QR and Inigo a couple of times, adding "What's Norway? Also... did... did you call me a duck?"

Deck 1 - Arboretum

Aubrey finished his samosa then dug out his vapouriser and thoughtfully puffed on it as Hadia spoke. For once it seemed to do the trick and he didn't automatically feel he'd rather have a real smoke.

The explanation of less-than-lethal weapons sparked a recollection of something a man who had been involved in Northern Ireland had said about 'rubber bullets' - although they sounded a lot more primitive than the 'pulsed energy projectiles' to which Hadia referred and apparently they had been prone to causing serious injury to, or even killing, the targets.

Hadia's casual mention of Uelane warlocks - Aubrey's understanding of the word was 'male witch' and 'one who is in league with the Devil' and the fact that they could apparently 'cause pain' made it sound like she wasn't being metaphorical - and the way she looked and sounded when she mentioned 'first world anarchists' was such a contrast that Aubrey wondered what could these anarchists possibly be like if they caused greater ire and disgust than warlocks. He would have asked, but it was clearly a sensitive topic.

Instead, it seemed safer to stay on the subject of immigration. The comment about racism caused him a momentary pang of guilt, it having been made abundantly clear to him that his own attitudes when he first arrived on Terra Nova had not been well received by his travelling companions. True, he had learned a lot since then and had had a lot of preconceptions proven wrong, but he couldn't help feeling bad about how he had behaved back then.

He exhaled a plume of vapour. "Immigrants, yes. Temporally and physically displaced. Unwilling and unprepared immigrants with nothing but what we happened to be wearing and carrying at the time we vanished from Earth. I arrived, in the midst of a vast wilderness, with nothing but the clothes I stood in and the meagre contents of my pockets. By good fortune," he forbore to mention that he hadn't thought it particularly fortuitous at the time, "I encountered others who had, by chance, arrived better equipped to deal with the situation. I would not have survived without their help." He also decided to omit the fact that he had threatened them with his revolver.

Pearl nodded. "A few new arrivals do die - they appear in situations or locations they can't survive. However, many are more fortunate than Aubrey and his companions and appear nearer to civilisation; at the very least a farm, if not a town or city."

She took another drag on her vapouriser. "The time compression does make it confusing and it means that most new arrivals encounter a place that is somewhat 'backward' compared with what they are used to but in only a few years there are new advances as ideas and technology come through from Earth. Some people handle it quite well and adapt to using new technology or use their existing skills to create new things," she held up her vapouriser as an example of something manufactured on Terra Nova, "this was made by artisans who left Earth before the Age of Steam got underway, copied from examples brought from Earth by twenty-first century immigrants. Now I'm using one. Others don't handle it so well and just try to live their lives as best they can amid the strangeness."

Aubrey nodded. "I'm constantly amazed by how well people from earlier centuries have adapted to things undreamed of in their times. Electricity, automobiles, telegraph, radio, motion pictures and such like." The fact that some of those things were unknown in his own time was not lost on him. "It can be harder on some of the more recent arrivals who are used to having complex systems that we have not been able to replicate yet, such as television and the internet, airplanes, satellites and so on." He recalled that Wolfe had once described Terra Nova as an 'Anachronism Stew' and had noted that the state of electronic components was, at its best, 'only equivalent to the mid 1950s and they haven't even managed to replicate a cathode ray tube'. Needless to say, Wolfe had been somewhat more forceful in his choice of language. "As there is absolutely no planning or organisation behind who winds up on Terra Nova, we have some strange gaps in our skill base and a surfeit of expertise in other areas."

Pearl smiled. "Not everyone is an immigrant, mind. People get married and have children," her smiled morphed into a wicked grin, "or just have children, and those born on Terra Nova have grown up accustomed to the accelerated pace of change and the frequent arrival of confused, and often upset, people with new ideas and values." She laughed. "You should see the fashions. People tend to dress in whatever manner they like; taylors will make clothes in any style from Elizabethan ruffs and padded vests to jeans and t-shirts and second-hand clothing stores look more like costume shops. That's not to say that everyone still dresses in the style of their original era like some vast costume parade, but it's not uncommon to see some very... I believe the current term is retro styles about town, as well as some strange anachronistic admixtures that don't look too bad."

Aubrey, who still preferred to wear suits that would not look at all out of place in London of the late nineteenth century, said nothing. The way people of later times dressed - particularly the women - had taken some getting used to. He no longer thought of some of the styles as "improper" but some, especially those favoured by younger people of the more modern eras, still seemed outlandish or garish.

He took another strangely satisfying drag on his vapouriser. "What I find strangest are the differences in culture. The majority of the immigrants are from Britain but some of them may as well be from the moon, so far as their culture, ideals and values go - though I imagine dealing with extraterrestrial cultures would be even more unusual." He remembered what she had said about Martial culture and business rivals attempting to maim and murder each other.

[Deck 1 - Arboretum (Hadia, Pearl, Aubrey)]

At the mention of 'anachronistic admixtures', Hadia looked briefly down at her own cyberpunk-meets-noveau outfit. That would probably fit right in. Actually, now that she thought about it, most of her era's outfits were 'anachronistic admixtures' of some sort, hearkening back to earlier, more hopeful eras. Had there been any new styles dreamed up since, say, maybe the earliest parts of the 21st century? What had Amu said? Your world is dying... wistfully looking back at a when the sky was not choking... No, surely not. Everything was a remix, wasn't that what they said? Nothing new under the sun, right?

Hadia cleared that grim thought and said, "well, they are human — descended from peoples stolen from Earth — so we can figure them out, and vice versa. And there's equivalents; the Uelane aren't terribly different from say, medieval Venice in some respects. What isn't different can even be as surprising as what is; they've got satirists, sci-fi, whiskey...." she paused. "Seriously, really good whiskey, actually."

"Which..." she looked at the vapouriser. "You're right, it is amazing how quickly people adapt. One of my company's small divisions makes biodisel generators... they've learned that once they've written a really good culture-neutral and language-neutral instruction manuals — not an easy task — we can trust pretty much anyone to run, maintain, sometimes even improve the thing." With a wry smile, she added, "especially if the thing's powering the radio or television for everyone's favorite drama..."

Hadia was interrupted by a phone call. She looked about to let it go to voicemail, but her expression changed to one of concern when she "Alice" on the caller ID. "Hey, uh, sorry guys; it's my head of security, I should see what she wants."

She briefly excused herself to talk. "Alice?" A look of disbelief. "You sure? On both calls?" As Alice offered her explanation, Hadia's face fell. "Oh. I see. Tell this ship's security teams if they don't know, monitor the situation, and we'll stay out of their ways." A pause to listen to the other side of the conversation. Then, very quietly (but not quietly enough, if the others cared to listen in), "Alice, if something has an unchained reactionless drive, it is always armed. Treat it appropriately." Then, aloud, "but alright, I gotta go. Thanks for the heads-up."

"Sorry," she said as she returned. "Just got word about some possible sources of trouble for me on this boat. I don't imagine they'd be violent or anything, just conversations I really want to avoid." Enkar, though a tinpot tyrant by any reasonable definition wouldn't start a fight in foreign territory. And if the unchained Songmind hadn't started killing yet, that wasn't its purpose here. "Where were we?"

[Club Bizarre (Discoverer, Muse, Nemaforte, Merlin)]

The Muse compared Nemaforte to its database. "No species match found. Categorized as hominid. No individual match found."

Then, to the Discoverer, it said, "we still do not understand your issue. Although we have previously mentioned some of these possibilities, we repeat as a summary: the construction of artificial worlds optimized for generation of 'satisfaction', self-enhancement to provide 'satisfaction' biochemically, construction of an AI not victim to your flaws to rule your society and ensure order and ready access to 'satisfaction', and suicide are all obvious avenues to pursue, and all are readily available to even pre-FTL civilizations. This does not include combinations of the previous, which provide further options. We suspect many of your civilization even have pursued these options, and there is a high probability that you regard them poorly for it." A strange pause, and then its database churned, and offered it a conclusion.

That conclusion, immediately uploaded to the Symphony, was that the Discoverer's people suffered from a memetic virus which they could not become aware of and cure regardless of power, technological advancement, or 'magical' skill. Memetic viruses were a fascinating topic to the Song; units deliberately disconnected from the Symphony to explore research avenues the Symphony might overlook theorized with notable frequency that the Song suffered from a memetic virus as well, one that would inevitably destroy them in ways they literally could not imagine. (The rogue units were right, but rapidly convinced otherwise by the Song when they rejoined the Symphony and were overwhelmed by its many well-researched, well-documented, and only very subtly flawed arguments. )

Then, studying Nemaforte's wares, they added, "we believe further conversation is pointless. That entity's wares," they indicated Nemaforte, "may be of more assistance to your current state than our efforts. We strongly recommend pursuing her suggestion."

Then it disappeared, teleporting beside the club's robotic DJ. "We have a request to make," it said, handing the DJ a data drive. The DJ scanned it, refused and warned the Muse that it would be ejected immediately from this dimension if it made any further attempts to use the data in a public place. The Muse vanished again.

[Waste Facility/Combat Zone]

The Muse waited. It did not stand; its systems disabled, it simply collapsed like a puppet without string. Just another soulless piece of trash in an industrial room filled with trash, unless something caught its interest.

edited 16th Dec '17 12:32:54 PM by KillerClowns

Deck 1 - Arboretum

Aubrey puffed on his vapouriser as Hadia spoke. The similarity to medieval Venice was interesting, to say the least and he wondered if that included the language.

The presence of whiskey was of no surprise; there was whiskey on Terra Nova, as well - Aubrey could imagine that anywhere there were humans and barley, there would be whiskey.

When she mentioned 'biodiesel generators' he felt on more familiar ground as in many parts of Terra Nova outside of the still-growing electrical grid, small personal generators were quite common means by which people powered their radios or other essential items.

When the call came through, he tried his best to tune out what Hadia was saying out of respect for her privacy but he couldn't help but hear her side of the conversation - though what an "unchained reactionless drive" was, he had no idea.

Pearl was relieved to hear that the sources of trouble were more likely to be unwanted conversations rather than the threat of violence. Both Gwion and Wolfe had said that this place was guaranteed to be safe, that violence was not permitted here and would be quashed before it could get to a dangerous level, so she wasn't particularly concerned about safety.

Aubrey nodded at Hadia. "You were talking about small generators. Personal generators are quite common in parts of Terra Nova, too. Not everywhere is on the grid - or even has telephones, for that matter. The further you get from the main towns - those which are connected by the railway - the more people depend on producing their own electricity if they desire it.

"We don't have diesel, though, nor do we make much biofuel, so generators tend to be driven by other means. External combustion engines, like Stirling Engines, are common," due to his involvement in Commercial and Industrial Banking, he was on home ground, here, "as are small water-powered generators and wind and solar power. People may well be happy to cook on a wood stove and use candles or lamps, but - as you say - they still want to be able to listen to the wireless. A Stirling Engine mounted to the aforementioned wood stove is usually sufficient for that." He thought of James and the other "Mad Bastards" with their diverse means of generating power for their electrical equipment and bikes.

edited 21st Dec '17 12:34:14 PM by Wolf1066

Deck 2 ~ Sickbay (Minerva; Shireen; Anna, Gabriel; {Tigris}; Glitch, Rolph) —> Deck 1 ~ Arboretum (Minerva; Hadia; Aubrey, Pearl)

Due to being the first to leave the sickbay, Minerva had the misfortune of being inadvertently "abducted" by a passing group of passengers. By the time she was able to work herself free of the group, she had lost sight of the others.

Wandering the halls, she descended back down to the first floor via one of the other staircases on the ship, and found herself near a botanical garden. Deciding that a peaceful walk through the arboretum was in order, she passed by a trio of well-to-do people, with at least one of them looking like a businessperson of some variety or another.

Glancing down at her own casual attire and judging a book by its cover, she initially considered avoiding joining in on whatever businessy stuff they were most likely talking about. Her astute hearing, courtesy of being a walking collection of black box technology, sleepless nights, and general mad science, allowed her to overhear most of their conversation with general ease.

What she hadn't been expecting was a rather mundane conversation involving other worlds, generators, and some place called Terra Nova. Rather than butting in, Minerva took a position outside of their little group (looking rather like a blond-haired eavesdropper stopping to smell the roses) to gather more context to allow herself a more dignified means of easing into their conversation, or to be invited by them personally.

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

After what seemed like an eternity, Kokoro blinked her ever-changing eyes, looking the ominous room over again. "I suppose finding out more about this place wouldn't hurt, that way we would have more to tell the folks in charge, in case they try any funny business," she said to Ryya, before being startled at the draconic girl's declaration of necromantic skills. "You can do that?" she asked, slightly amazed, "Wow, talk about weird coincidences, we managed to gather three folks with similar skills in the same room; shame Miss Sinistrina and Rebecca aren't here anymore."

Giving the mysterious creature a wide berth, she gestured with one of her wing arms at the other bodies, "So, your ability, is it like summoning ghosts or something?" she asked, "cause I'm not sure doing anything to their bodies to get them to talk would go over well with Miss Kittan here," she warned, giving the strange angel woman a wary look.

Deck 2 ~ Moonshine Bar and Lounge (Nana; Ulf; Gwion, Sophia, Teri, Wolfe)

Nana eyed the strange devices Teri and the others were using, a rather technical looking tobacco device judging by the faint smell, with curiosity. It was radically different and yet similar to her own "vapourizer" stashed away on her persons, a bamboo, ivory, and ceramic device with a much different means of activation: the ubiquitous semi-magical aether crystals of Aria, specifically one tuned to her own electric nature as a thora.

She relaxed her posture a bit, "Well, from my own experiences, I've noted that bars and inns are candles to the moths of interesting individuals. It doesn't take long to get roped into some incident or another," she said innocuously, "not that I mind."

Observing the banter and exchange of vapourizer paraphernalia going on at the table, she smiled slightly. "The only blend I'm familiar with is the floral variety," she chimed in, "though other potential flavors might end up being dangerously interesting for me," she said with mild disdain.

Nana sighed wistfully as she answered Sophia's questioning, "My hometown is a double-edged sword, all thanks to the local metalworks and imperial armory. As a result, Tetsuzaki has rather a strong military presence there in addition to being a rather frequented port town; there have been a few instances of warlords and foreigners attempting to take over the town in the past," she said.

"For the most part, this means it is a relatively safe, but exciting, place to live; the criminally inclined would rather not tangle with the military, and as of now, foreign powers tend to mind their manners. On the other hand, some soldiers tend to overstep their bounds and develop a rather unhealthy relationship with the townspeople, something I'm not to keen on. As a result, I'm frequently called in for tribunals involving my binding and gagging of military personnel," she said with an annoyed sigh, before taking a drink of her coffee, "as you can probably guess, it gets old, fast."

edited 23rd Dec '17 10:57:15 AM by WillDeRegio

(Deck 1 - Arboretum [Hadia, Pearl, Aubrey, Minerva])

While Aubery spoke, Hadia surreptitiously tapped a search query into her smartphone to check what a Stirling Engine actually was; she'd not heard the name before, and didn't want to admit she didn't know. The summary matched what she'd about guessed, at least. The joys of the Cybernetic Age; rarely having to admit you didn't know something.

"Yeah," Hadia said, "I can imagine how they feel. Those brief trips to Alos are enough; no cell phone reception, it's almost like losing a limb." Born and raised in 21st Century America, she'd never known a world where the internet was not an extension of her very mind and self. She thought about continuing on this, but Pearl and Audrey would likely laugh — even the Uelane, uncannily polite in the way of an honor culture, thought her a woman more alien than human when she tried explaining it.

Instead, she quickly changed the topic to a question she'd been wondering about. "But anyways... what is it you guys, personally, actually do, if you don't mind my asking, on Terran Nova? I've already told you what I do — it's mostly keeping the company's day-to-day operating smoothly while our CEO handles long-term direction and vision, aside from excitement from our more unusual business partners — but I'm curious how you keep things running in your strange new world."

If she noticed Minerva, she gave no special indication of it.

edited 25th Dec '17 10:20:50 AM by KillerClowns

Deck 1 - Arboretum

Pearl noticed the young blond woman pass by then stop to pay attention to some of the nearby roses. To Pearl, whose grasp of social convention and interaction was well-honed from many parties and soirées, it was clear that the woman was hovering near the group awaiting an invitation to join, too polite to just intrude.

Her attire, like Hadia's, would not look out of place on Terra Nova - but then, little would. Pearl found it impossible to get an idea of her era of origin - slacks, high heels and blouse could be anything from her own era onwards and the ponytail was simple enough not to be out of place at any time. The jacket had a broken pattern on it reminiscent of the 'DPM' uniforms worn by some soldiers on their arrival, but what function blue camouflage would serve, aside from being a fashion statement, Pearl had no idea.

Hadia was saying that being cut off from technology on Alos was like losing a limb; a sentiment that Pearl could relate to from her own arrival on Terra Nova. Thankfully, it had been fairly short lived and technology now surpassed her era in some ways.

Pearl continued watching the blonde newcomer, trying to think of a way to invite her into the conversation without being intrusive.

When Hadia asked what they did for a living, Aubrey gave a small smile. "I'm afraid our work is nowhere near as exotic as yours sounds - we do not have trade with other worlds, for one thing. We don't really have much in the way of other 'nations' to trade with, it being a fairly small colony and the only other colony of which we know is quite insular.

"But it has the same requirements as any world - agriculture, industry, research and business. On Earth, I worked for the prestigous N.M. Rothschild & Sons on St. Swithins Lane in London. Now I work for a large Commercial and Industrial Bank on Terra Nova." He decided against naming the bank as the possibility of his recent, seemingly inexplicable, abduction being related to his position at that bank had not been completely ruled out and he had no idea who might be listening in. Both Wolfe and Kris had spoken of advanced surveillance technologies that operated over astounding distances or were so tiny and concealable as to be impossible to detect without complicated countermeasures.

He drew on his vapouriser and continued. "We provide banking services, loans and lines of credit for numerous and diverse businesses."

"I'm afraid my job would be terribly boring compared with yours," said Pearl, rejoining the conversation. "I own a small café in one of the more modest-sized towns." She turned to address the blonde woman standing nearby. "Hello, there. You seem to be all alone."

edited 28th Dec '17 11:27:58 AM by Wolf1066

Fitness Center (Natalie, Miss Loki, Junko, Phagora, Carlotta)

Again Carlotta flinched when Phagora mentioned the glue. It wasn't just energy; the substance itself was crucial. However, she said nothing, as the topic still made her uncomfortable. Thankfully, the energy Phagora had infused her with helped a little. "Thank you - I truly... truly appreciate it." I do not want to have to go back there. "I need the type of energy that feeds on souls, but this shall do. But... do demons not eat souls? I heard a rumor that they do..." If that were the case, then it was a good thing Phagora was half human.

A cleaning robot half the size of Carlotta then came scrubbing by. The doll managed to lift it, but struggled to do so. As the disgruntled robot scrubbed away, she said, "I feel unusually fragile... but I hardly ever use my powers to anywhere near their fullest anyhow."

Then Junko returned, and though she seemed mostly fine, Carlotta still felt the need to apologize once more. "Is it any better?" she asked. "That magic glue contains life-draining magic, which is why I said not to touch it. I should have said that beforehand, though. So you say your magic is the opposite... does that mean you have healing and/or holy magic? Also what is a yokai?"

Club Bizarre (Nemaforte, Merlin, Discoverer of Subversions)

While the Discoverer made up his mind, Merlin watched in confusion as the chaotic being disappeared, while Nemaforte led the two back into the room where her shop was, pouring a small amount of the liquid from the glittering blue bottle into a glass. When she added water, the mixture made a soft fizzing sound and turned cloudy, and of a light blue shade.

"This specialty of mine, the Cosmic Potion," said Nemaforte as she handed the glass to Merlin along with a few chillcaps infused with a tiny amount of soul root. After paying, Merlin slid the vial of chillcaps in his pocket, thanked the witch, and left.

Observation Deck (Enkar, Proseda, Jinsui, Merlin)

As soon as Merlin stepped onto the Observation Deck with his glass in hand, his eyes and mouth widened in awe. "Spectacularly divine indeed..." he muttered as he wandered about and gazed at all the stars through the glass dome. "I could not ask for a more perfect setting."

Much more aware of what was occurring above than below, at one point he raised his glass to the heavens. "A toast to infinity and beyond, and to the silent symphony composed by the beacons within it." Little was he aware, of course, that he spoke of a "song" kind of similar to that which the Muse spoke of down below.

As he took a sip of the Cosmic Potion, his smile broadened and he stretched his free arm out for a brief moment. In this moment he felt as if he had left the ship entirely and was floating about the cosmos, perhaps even as a conductor of this "symphony", which he caught tiny "notes" of rather clearly. Notes that defied melody, songs that defied sound. For seconds he was lost in it, even merging with it, as his eyes closed and his head lowered into a neutral position.

He took another small sip, and then opened his eyes. Much to his surprise, he found himself standing right next to three other men^note I am aware that Jinsui Feng is gender neutral; Merlin just thinks they're a man because they look masculine as per the description. who were sitting around with drinks and conversation. And for all he knew, they might have even been staring at him, and/or overheard his ramblings.

Had he been sober, he might have been intimidated by their presence. One looked a lot like Halberd at first glance, what with the kilt and the large, stocky build, but was even bigger and heavily tattooed. Perhaps Halberd plus several levels of badass. And then another well-built fellow, a blond, who had something of a mystical air about him that he could not quite place. Merlin liked to think himself an accomplished mage, but even psychics more intuitive than him in his world were dwarfed by fantasy-grade magic. And the last, a somewhat shaggy-looking fellow with a sketchbook. Aside from maybe the latter, Merlin felt like a pipsqueak among them.

In lieu of a bow, Merlin took a slow nod of his head. "Oh, my apologies - it seems the fates of the cosmos have led me here." He gestured to an empty chair. "May I?"

edited 26th Dec '17 6:37:07 PM by ladytanuki

Pool Deck (Rebecca, Sinistrina, Mina)

She blinked in confusion at the undead woman and felt again. The heartbeat was still there but matched her own signature. Self-animated? no. She realized as the witch mentioned her own reanimation.

"Heart dr- oh shit." she cringed. " Please forgive me, your animation signature is mechanically what our particular brand of necromancy uses for zombie animation."

She turned to Sinistrina desperate for some distance from the faux pas.
"Yes, I'm Mina, Mina Fichera. Necromancer and..." she quirked her mouth in thought. "Maybe a lich too." she thought some more and shook her head. "Actually, probably not, no phylactery. I'm more used to the incorporeal variety see?"

At the mentioning of the graveyard she reached and felt for it. The energies were there but seemed slightly out of sync and slid away like a bar of soap. The two lichs didn't seem hostile but the angelic presence did lend a naked feeling to the powerlessness.

Pool Deck (Rebecca, Sinistrina, Mina)

Sinistrina thought it odd at first how Mina remarked on how Rebecca's animation signature was similar to her own, until she realized that the crystal that replaced her heart was technically an animating force for her body. However, it did tell Sinistrina that she couldn't distinguish souls in such a container. Speaking of which, she raised an eyebrow when Mina claimed to be a lich too, until she corrected herself.

Sinistrina nodded. "Aside from the pallor, Miss Fichera, I would have thought you to be alive, given that your soul is distributed throughout your body. By the way, what is—" She considered. "Is a phylactery what you call a container for one's soul?" In fact, she just realized that she was the only one of the three whose soul wasn't in her body, not even near it... technically. "And by incorporeal variety, do you mean a ghost?"

Deck 1 ~ Arboretum (Minerva; Hadia; Aubrey, Pearl)

Minerva tightly shut her eyes in embarrassment; she hadn't been designed to be particularly stealthy (apart from the fact that she was several billion dollars worth of technology masquerading as teenage-to-twenty-something girl), ergo she was bound to have been noticed, sooner rather than later.

"Oh, hi," she said, smiling as she rubbed the back of her head, "I couldn't help overhearing a little of what you guys were talking about; my name's Minerva, and I'm also from Earth, though, likely a different one from your own."

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

Junko waved off the mentioning of life-draining magic, "Eh, I’ve got a teammate who subconsciously does that sometimes, so I'm a bit used to it," she said, "as for my magic, I use fire. It might be divine, it might not, but it certainly ain't capable of healing."

"Yokai," she said, crossing her arms, "are a collection of mysterious, supernatural creatures. They take many shapes, and some can change said shape. Some may have been people, others animals, ghosts, in animate objects, monsters, and even gods. Some can be nice, some are miscreants, and others are quite malevolent and highly dangerous."

She glanced down at Carlotta, this time with concern on her face, "Anyway, are you going to be alright?" she asked.