Deck 1 - Arboretum

[Joshua, Pearl, Aubrey]

Pearl didn't need to see Joshua's eyes to note the shocked reaction to her question. Clearly he hadn't expected to be overheard.

Both Pearl and Aubrey jumped to their feet in shock as Joshua apparently fell through the floor in mid sentence. Both cast about anxiously, half to see where he had gone and half out of fear that the ground beneath their own feet might well swallow them too. The hole through which Joshua had fallen had gone just as suddenly as Joshua had. but there was no telling if another would open up.

"What the hell just happened?" Pearl's voice was almost a screach.

Aubrey shook his head. "It's like he just fell out of the world." He suddenly froze and slowly turned his head to face Pearl - to find her staring at him. "D'you..." Aubrey's voice caught in his throat. "Do you suppose our own departures from Earth must have looked like that, to anyone witnessing them?"

Pearl nodded slowly, with a horrible look on her face. "For all we know, he's slipped away to Terra Nova. Or to that 'Hell Dimension' he mentioned."

They looked around the garden - now eerily quiet. "It's bloody unnerving."

Pearl arched her eyebrows. For Aubrey to use that level of language was a rare thing - and a sure sign that he was deeply distressed.

Before they could do much more, Joshua came running up from the direction of the lobby and stopped, clearly out of breath.

He managed to gasp out an apology and said something about spontaneous teleportation.

Aubrey let out a forceful breath out of sheer relief and Pearl visibly relaxed. It was reassuring to see that Joshua had not been transported to another planet and had been able to - it appeared - run back from wherever he had got to.

However, when Joshua settled himself down as if absolutely nothing had happened and blatantly changed the subject to advanced battery technology, Aubrey and Pearl exchanged a quick glance.

It was patently clear to Pearl that the whole escapade had somehow been engineered just to avoid talking about the Hell Dimension - she had no idea how, exactly, Joshua had done it, but if they could step through a "portal" from Terra Nova to Capital City and then from there to the lobby of this ship, then it was clearly possible for someone to slip through a portal here and emerge elsewhere within walking distance. She would have called him out on it but it occurred to her that he would either vanish again or find some other means to evade the topic.

"I must say," she said lightly, "that you are most fortunate. Aubrey and I were just saying that the way you vanished must be very much like how we vanished from Earth, except when we arrived on Terra Nova we were rather discombobulated - the symptoms were not unlike recovering from a faint - and not remotely capable of walking, let alone running, for some time afterwards." She gave Joshua a sweet smile. "I expect the difference is in the distance travelled or something like that."

Aubrey suppressed a smirk. "Yes. That must be it. And most fortunate, indeed, that you didn't end up on Terra Nova - very few of us know the way out." After the stress of Joshua's sudden and alarming departure, which now seemed to be nothing more than a deliberate and unnecessary ploy, Aubrey really felt like a real cigarette, but he didn't have any. He extracted his vapouriser from his pocket and switched it on - it would have to do!

"Well, yes, advanced battery technology," he said, talking around exhaled vapour and raising his vapouriser as an example. "As you might guess, electricity is vitally important to industry and the means to make it as portable as possible is of paramount importance when you don't have easily-transportable energy sources like coal or petrol. Fortunately, batteries are quite simple affairs at heart - just a suitable container and some chemicals, after all - and we have people well enough versed in chemistry to be able to identify the components of batteries brought in by new arrivals and replicate them for our own batteries."

He took a reflective puff on his vapouriser - his nerves steadier now, despite it not being a "real" cigarette. "Kristina brought with her a number of devices with battery technologies that were decades beyond the others that were coming through at the time."

Pearl took out her own vapouriser and settled herself comfortably on the grass again. "And the great thing about electric cars is this: you can improve them significantly just by changing the batteries - we have cars that were built to use the old lead-acid accumulators that now can travel faster and further because the new battery packs are lighter and have better storage capacity."

She was aware that the exchange of information was extremely one-sided but not keen to ask Joshua too many questions lest he panic again. She decided to play it safe and ask something that he could answer as vaguely or fully as he liked. "So, what's Earth like in your time?"

Club Bizarre

Kiran nodded, muttering, "Yeah, guess I shoulda figured." She chugged her own drink down to about half, then came up for air. "Thanks for that, by the way," she said, suppressing a small burp. "Just... Listening. I don't get to talk to people much. Not exactly great at it, in case you couldn't tell." She grinned awkwardly, slightly tipsy now. "My job kind of makes that a little hard, too. There's a ship docked in the hangar area, the Pride of Rust, and I'm her Captain. Captain's got responsibilities, so I can't exactly let my hair down around my crew, if you get me. Well, metaphorically anyway." She ran her free hand through her hair again, attempting to flatten it's unruly mess of short auburn spikes.

Kiran's cheeks were beginning to blush, though it was a quite subtle effect considering the tone of her skin. "... But," she continued, "I suppose, from time to time, it's good to talk about your personal problems with a complete stranger. I wasn't really expecting you'd have any concrete answers for me. I mean, who could? You'd have to be a god, or something." Kiran rolled her eyes.

She took yet another lengthy draught, leaving her glass at less than one quarter full. Then, after a short inhale of breath, she said, "Ya know, I go to bars like these all the time on shore leave and usually, even the people who want to talk to me- wait, I've said this already." She shook her head forcefully. "Whatever, I'm a little drunk. Anyway, even people who want to talk to me usually have this kind of sense about them, it... It's- it's like they've come to stare at the exotic animal. You get it." Kiran briefly dipped her head, indicating horns, ears, stripes, the lot. "Thing is, you've got none of that. By now I'd be able to tell. One of the advantages of being me is, you tend to learn what other people think of you real quick. But you?" She canted her head, curious. "You might not be all that similar to me after all, but I swear there's something about you... Can't really put my finger on it. You don't have that- pretension, I guess?"

Kiran's gaze had returned to Ethoya's eyes.

"I like it."

Those last three words were delivered with a certain subdued earnestness that implied the it stood in for another word. Maybe a you?

edited 16th Mar '17 1:20:15 AM by Gault

yey

Square Root of Pie (Rolph and Glitch; Max, Robin and Cecilia)

Cecilia makes a face of a child that's been denied candy.

"Oh. Yes, sure thing," says she. "There's a sickbay somewhere on this deck - we can go there afterwards."

After receiving their respective meals, the crew starts eating.

"I don't have much to say about Sophia herself, since I don't know her personally." Bergmann takes a bite from her pizza, and, after quickly chewing and swallowing, continues: "I've only met her once, at my initiation ceremony. The neophytes ascend to the Scarab, where Sophia bestows..." The healer, using her clean hand, produces a round silver medallion with a ruby in the center that could fit in the palm of her hand from inside her blouse. "...these unto them as a token of her sympathy and a source of their powers."

Bergmann hides her medallion back, and takes another bite.

"All everyone knows about her is that she's the incarnation of knowledge and, well, that she's all-knowing," says Ahlstrom.

"So I can't really tell you much about her," says Cecilia. "But I can tell you a lot about the Scarab. It's not only the dwelling of Sophia, but also a heavenly body that shapes the shard we're living on, hence the name."

Max scoffs, and says:

"Which also means that we're living on a big, round pile of sh-"

"Don't listen to him, Rolph," says Bergmann. "He's Austerian. Their peninsula originally wasn't a part of our shard. They're a bit bitter over this fact."

"A lot of people died, Bergmann."

"Um, excuse me?" Robin, who's been listening to this conversation for a couple of moments, suddenly decides to intervene. "This topic is not well suited for table talk, especially in front of strangers."

"Right," says Max after a pause. "Sorry about that."

"Rolph, why don't you and Glitch tell us about your travels?" says van Segher. "I guess you have a lot of interesting stuff to tell."

Spiral out, keep going.

Square Root of Pie (Rolph and Glitch; Max, Robin and Cecilia)

Rolph listened intently, making a few mandible clicks every now and then, as he tried to make sense of it all. Some kind of ancient terraforming device maybe, worshiped as a god by the locals? It was probably best not to voice that thought though.

He grabbed a slice of pizza and quickly pulled the whole thing into his mouth with two tendril-like tongues before replying.

"Our travels? Sure. We've worked aboard the Sword for over a year now. It's all part of a Cravyn exploration mission, to find new potential colonies and such, but my people thought it would be a great research opportunity, so some of us were sent along. We're mostly just updating star maps or scanning dead rocks for minerals, but there has been a few... interesting incidents too."

Glitch rose a few centimeters above the table, spinning around to look at the others.

"And several dangerous ones," it added.

Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.

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

Joshua took another deep breath while they listened to Pearl and Aubrey's explanation on the battery technology on Terra Nova.

"I gotta say, it must be interesting to live in a world with wood stoves alongside battery powered cars. There must be such a strong disconnect between the technology you worked with on your time on Earth and technology from the past and the future that you now have to interact with."

"As for life on Earth," Joshua had to think on an answer that didn't reveal too much, "How has life on Earth always been? People live and die and we in-between it all we love, fight, cry and smile and go on dealing with our problems. Sometimes we help others with their problems along the way."

Joshua thought for a second. They wanted to take our the pipe and smoke a bit, but they felt it honestly wouldn't help, "That may have sounded more dramatic then I intended," a small, but reassuring smile appeared on Joshua's face to lighten the mood.

Joshua thought about the questions they had been asking, "I've asked a lot of question about the people on Terra Nova, but what the animals on Terra Nova like?"

An excited look appeared on Joshua's face, "Ooh! Do you have stuff like dinosaurs, or animals from the future?"

Note to self: Pick less edgy username next time.

Deck 2 ~ Sickbay (Minerva, Anna, Gabriel, Tigris)

Looking at the other woman when she said war zone, Gabriel's exposed eye showed a mixed expression- Of faint sadness over an otherwise blank look, easily conveying what his private thoughts would be. "War zone makes it sound like there's something to go back to..." Still, Gabriel couldn't stop himself from letting out a dark chuckle when Minerva finally spoke up.

Letting her words sink in before responding first, it isn't until Gabriel sets Anna down- Reluctantly and with suspicion of the bed, does he finally follows up his chuckle with a deadpan tone "Quite the understatement don't you think?" Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Gabriel sits down on the bed's corner- Facing their two companions.

Peeling off the half-mask over the right side of his face and his little horn with it, the unnatural blackness of his newly exposed face notably clashes against his otherwise lighter skin. The inside of the mask is also notably different from the first part he took off- In that this second one is made of black bone, the material over it hiding how much the bone part conformed to his face.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, he looks to Minerva and the other woman. Opening his mouth a little and his face twitching, like he's uncertain what to say, Gabriel lets his head hang. With his face having calmed down, he speaks with a calm yet quiet tone- One tinged with uncertainty.

"I... I know how I must sound regarding humanity. I, I used to respect them and carve their acceptance as a child. Hell, for the longest time I just wanted to be popular... I wouldn't be lying when I said I wasn't much of a person then. God, its so stupid to think I bought into homophobia then or wanting a pet Artificial myself..."

Raising his head and leaving his hands in his lap, Gabriel glances back to the now-clearly physically uncomfortable Anna- As if she's completely unnerved by such a soft bed. The young man himself sighing at the sight, he turns to the two- A look of scanning and grim expectation in his eyes, yet his face itself and tone remain the same.

"My 16th birthday, the day I got this-" Lifting up his right arm, the suit seems to peel back to reveal his arm to be plated in black bone "-was what I needed to become... Real. Thus I began looking pass all the biases I was taught, of humanity's wants and desires... Suffice to say, it felt like I woke up."

Clenching his hands, a sense of self-hatred began bleeding into his face and voice. "I... I tried playing along when I could, but I could never stop feeling this disgust at myself... Disgusted I couldn't fix all the problems of humanity that seemed so simple. All discrimination is so goddamn stupid, governments effectively demanding that you work to earn the right to life, humans whining and whining when its all their fault..."

Gabriel slamming his fists against his inner thighs and a sort of 'clunk' noise sounding from the right side, he throws back his head- A weak but general anger as the newest addition to his tone. "How could I respect a species that constantly denies itself paradise because they're too fucking lazy and arrogant to be nice to each other!? To, to not demand rewards first before helping or even saving others!?"

Stepping up to his feet, Gabriel pulls at his hair before letting his arms drop, tensing with anger. "The problem was that God was idiotic enough to create humans! All they do is ruin and destroy, constantly complaining about why reality won't bend over and get ga-" ~"It is because of my people reality died..."~

Gabriel's ranting coming to an abrupt stop when Anna interrupted him, a kind of groany cry that seems like an aborted scream comes from his throat. Sitting back down and generally seeming ashamed of his outburst, he hides his face in his hands. Anna, though still uncomfortable with the bed, had managed to pull herself into a sitting position with some difficulty.

Reaching out to Gabriel and failing to reach him- Her flailing almost as if she's blind, she manages to look in Minerva's direction anyways. Working her mouth into a small, apologetic smile, she 'speaks' again from Gabriel's watch. ~"From what I could tell once our VESTA could no longer quantify time, it likely hasn't been more than two hours upon coming here. He..."~

Leaning forward and falling onto her knees, Anna's hands stop on Gabriel's back before she lifts her right to rest supportively on his shoulder. Gabriel himself jolting at the sudden contact, he almost seems afraid upon realizing it is Anna. Letting his head go back to hanging, he doesn't bother hiding his face- A look of 'soft' despair, like he's not at all certain what to feel.

~"I don't think Gabriel should keep going down this route for now... What can you tell us about yourselves? Gabriel has taken to calling me Anna Kelly. Apparently the name Kelly means warrior, which I do find rather fitting. Oh, Minerva, are those girls you mentioned Psychics like me or Fey Touched like Gabriel?"~

---

Deck 6 ~ Stern Elevators (Junko, Natalie)

Her expression notably becoming deflated as she noticed how unenthusiastic Junko was, Natalie quickly blinked in oddly adorable confusion when Junko explained her hair. So even though Natalie was paying attention to all else, she almost fidgety- Like someone just dying to ask or say something pestering them.

Thus as Junko managed to poke Natalie, her finger first feeling coolly regulated metal the gynoid burst out into an inquisitive & commentary tone. "Your hair explicitly seems snow white to me which is really weird for a pyrokinetic so shouldn't it be a more traditional white color or strongly resemble how white-hot flames would look?"

With Natalie taking a completely unnecessary(?) deep breath and letting out a long sigh, during her sudden outburst Junko would of felt the area she touched change sensations- As if reactionary, feeling like silky soft skin now. Natalie herself doesn't seem to take note of Junko touching her, playfully poking out her tongue and giving a friendly smile before answering Junko's question.

"I am a nanomechanical lifeform created with the capacity to assume any number of roles, up to and including emulating organic lifeforms. Division Leader Gottfried personally suggested the creation of an entity like myself. I technically wasn't designed as a gendered unit, but girls get to be so cute and oh my gosh that just sounded fun!"

Rubbing the back of her head like a playfully embarrassed anime character, Natalie's expression becomes slightly more serious as does her voice. "So, AEGIS works to ensure a masquerade like the Servants of Humanity? Would you agree magic and civilians is like giving a child a bazooka? Sure any adult realizes that's bad, but no adult is actually prepared to deal with such a scenario- Best case, the 'child' becomes too afraid after something goes horribly wrong."

Natalie looking out pass the elevator, vaguely in a direction people would be, she continues once more. "Do you know how magic was created in your universe? In mine it was through the uses of capital g Gifts, strange and unfathomable abilities that defy science and magic as is known. Which is quite a feat, as magic is the art of defying reality..."

edited 16th Mar '17 5:43:54 PM by Kkutwar

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

[Club Bizarre]

Ethoya gave a soft smile. "Thanks," she said. "I... try. I guess I've seen a lot of strange things in my time." The smile grew slightly impish, hinting at greater ages than her appearance belied...

A nervous feeling prickled the back of her neck; the Xayu was growing tired of tolerating her "harmless" deception. Ethoya cleared her throat nervously and said, "but, really, I should probably be honest with you. I'm, uh, not human. I mean, maybe you look more obviously different, but, well... it's easier to show you." she removed the mushroom and her card from her bag, placed them on the table, and stood. In a swift motion, she turned into a cloud of black smoke and golden feathers; the smoke coalesced into a much smaller shape, into which many of the feathers simply disappeared, while the remainder formed into a covering. In a few strange moments, a literal golden parrot was perched on the back of Ethoya's chair, staring back at Kiran with Ethoya's eyes.

And then, in much the same manner, she turned again into a cloud of smoke and feathers and reformed in the seat, clothed as before. "It's not easy to explain exactly what I am, but... while I'm not a 'god', I've been around for... a few millenia." She finished her whiskey. "And while I try to teach people to worship the Xayu — er, the cosmic force that permeates all things, I can explain the details later — well, people like to put a human face on their beliefs. So, there's a few human temples dedicated to... well, me."

Okay. So far so good. She felt a weight coming off. "And I didn't tell you this at first because..." she was about to make up an excuse, claiming it was because she didn't want to be seen as strange or unapproachable. Which would have been half true. But the words failed to come to her throat. It looked like she'd have to be entirely honest here. "Well, okay, I kinda like seeing how long I can keep a white lie going. I know, it's terrible, but... don't worry, I don't have any other dark secrets." She breathed a sigh of relief at the end of this. Well, time to see how Kiran took it.

edited 16th Mar '17 9:00:55 PM by KillerClowns

(Starlight Restaurant- Phagora, Shireen, Winky, Lucina, Emile, Jake)

"Oh, don't worry about me. I'm not here to corrupt any of you or anything like that. Just needed to do something to earn my keep, and with my skill set, it was an easy choice." Phagora smiled, a bright shiny grin completely at odds with the dark being she had revealed herself to be. "And I don't consider myself a demon- more of a witch than anything else." A quick nod to a waiterbot confirmed that he had heard Shireen's order. "We serve everything here. One of the particular quirks about my ancestry is that I know every recipe ever created... though I personally have my qualms about pairing beef with pumpkin."

Phagora raised an eyebrow when Lucina said that she was the only flesh-and-blood human in her entire royal court. "How does that work? I mean, if something were to happen to you, fate forbid, who would take over?"

Then, a newcomer appeared, one who claimed to be of a status equivalent to her father. <Now, this is intriguing.> "Well, I know you're not from my world. Our Pride would be insulted to be referred to as a mere Lord. It's King Malpholiel, if you please," she said in a deep voice. It was clear that she was doing an impression, but a little girl trying to imitate the master of all evil left a lot to be desired in the intimidation department.

(Nebula Lobby- Rebecca, Carlotta, Ryya)

"It doesn't surprise me that your Celestials got jealous of the gods, Ryya. In my experience, beings of that power tend to have massive egos that need to be massaged."

Rebecca turned back to Carlotta. "And I do prefer the term 'lich', Carlotta. It refers to one who has moved their soul into a storage place other than their flesh, and the process requires incredible skill with spiritual, and in my case, physical necromancy."

Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!

Deck 1 - Arboretum

[Joshua, Pearl, Aubrey]

Aubrey was about to point out that the areas that were most reliant on wood stoves were least likely to have electric cars but then he realised that Joshua probably meant "alongside" in the figurative, rather than literal, sense. "It's all very new for me," he said. "Much of that to which I was accustomed in my time has been replicated on Terra Nova - with the exception of gas lighting, naturally - so I am most amazed by newer technologies. I had not even fully recovered from my arrival when I first encountered twenty-first century technology. Still, one does not need to understand the science behind such things to use them - there are people born during the reign of Elizabeth the First who have little problem using electrical lighting and appliances."

Pearl gave a grin. "Past technologies are not much of a problem for most people. Lack of things you're accustomed to, that's what gets your goat. Fortunately for me, there's very little that I was used to back in Manchester that we don't have in Hartmouth, but there are those who really miss their television, the internet and so on. They want to watch their favourite shows and do their shopping from the comfort of their own homes and talk to people around the world on their mobiles when they're out and about, but they can't."

She couldn't help but notice that Joshua's description of Earth revealed nothing at all - it confirmed her surmise that he was being deliberately evasive and she supposed that he must have his reasons. After all, she and Aubrey were complete strangers and Joshua was certainly entitled to keep things private.

She laughed when Joshua asked if they had dinosaurs or animals from the future. "Sadly, no. Most of our animals are those commonly found in the British Isles, which is hardly surprising since most of the flora and people come from there as well and it makes sense that, if the animals are coming through one at a time like the people have, only the commonly found animals are going to arrive in great enough numbers to form stable breeding colonies. It would appear that whatever brought us to Terra Nova hasn't been happening long enough for us to have dinosaurs, but it has been happening long enough that animals that were eradicated from the British Isles centuries ago are thriving on Terra Nova - for example, brown bears, wolves and lynxes are all quite common. We've also got animals that were introduced to the British Isles, like rabbits, American grey squirrels and some foreign deer species. Occasionally animals turn up from other places - anomalies, like people from outside the British Isles or from unexpected times - but not in sufficient numbers to successfully breed. I've actually seen the skin of a tiger that was shot just ten miles outside New London." She laughed suddenly. "It's a common enough occurrence that one of the standard jokes played on newcomers is to tell them tall tales about strange animals that have turned up - like a fifty-foot shark allegedly appearing in the middle of a nearby field or street or piranhas being found in local streams. The tale about an elephant appearing turned out to be mostly true, but it wasn't an adult, as is most often claimed."

Aubrey gave a tight smile - he had fallen prey to more than one of these "japes" and still felt embarrassed when he remembered.

edited 17th Mar '17 3:44:26 AM by Wolf1066

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

"That's kinda mean," Joshua said in response to Pearl's comment about playing pranks on newcomers to Terra Nova, "I say that because I probably would have fallen for it. I was a big biology nerd in my younger years. Being into paleontology and speculative biology was a part of that."

"I imagine pretty much all the plant life must be from the British Isles as well," Joshua remarked, "Oak trees and evergreens and the like. Stuff those accustomed to western civilization would recognize."

Joshua couldn't think of anything to ask about Terra Nova for now. They ended up doing a gentle slid down the trunk of the tree, eventually sitting on the grass at eye level to Aubrey and Pearl.

"I know I said I'm not a resting on my laurels type anymore, but standing all the time sucks too."

Note to self: Pick less edgy username next time.

Club Bizarre

A look of confusion came to Kiran's face. It very quickly gave way to a stony expression, and she became very still. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Kiran closed her eyes. Then, her mouth curled into a grin and she started to laugh. Her forehead contacted the bartop with a dull thunk! and she sighed.

"You know," she began, voice muffled slightly by having to bounce off the wood of the bar, "before you walked over here, I had this thought about those two inhuman things you were with at the table. What could a nice transgenic girl like her possibly have to talk about with a pair of eldritch beings?"

Kiran propped her head up on an arm, elbow resting on the bartop, and contemplated Ethoya with an ironic smile. "Shows what I know, huh? Anyway, you don't have to worry. You seem a decent sort."

yey

[Deck 1 ~ Nebula Lobby] (Kokoro, Carlotta, Ryya, Rebecca)

Kokoro began pushing her suitcase around. A robotic bellhop arrived shortly to take the suitcase to her room, and attempted to hand her a keyphone. Kokoro briefly mulled over the fact that she had a room before shooting a mild glare at the robot, waving her arms for emphasis. She sighed and pointed her hip at it, "Just put it in my pocket for me, please. I can take a look at it later."

After the bellhop complied, Kokoro happily wandered about the lobby, until she found herself among kindred spirits. Said spirits consisted of a clay doll, a dragon lady, and someone who had seen better days. This probably said something odd about her, but Kokoro didn't pay the thought any mind.

"Oh, hello!" she said, joining the group.

[Deck 9 ~ Stern Elevators] (Junko, Natalie)

Noticing how metallic Natalie felt, Junko withdrew her hand. She shrugged at the notion that her hair color wasn't what one would expect a fire user's to be. "Eh, my hair was originally black. Now it's white. My hair turns red when I transform, so there's that," she said.

She laughed slightly at Natalie's excitement. "You sure are energetic," she noted. She narrowed her eyes at her, "So, you're a machine, I take it?" Junko crossed her arms and held out a hand, "Yeah, we've got a gynoid, she's very insistent about that, accompanying us on vacation."

Junko gave a slight smile at the nanoslime girl's comparison. Giving a child a bazooka...

---

In room, playing a card game at a table with some of her teammates, a girl wearing a black beret and a pair of aviators suddenly sneezed. She placed her hand of cards down to rub her nose. Someone must be talking about me... she mused.

---

In Room 6.202, Ayako sneezed in her sleep.

---

Junko scratched her cheek, "A masquerade?" Initially, she imagined a costume party, then her thoughts drifted towards a certain talkative scientist... "Oh! No, AEGIS doesn't do that. Where I'm from, the supernatural isn't exactly "covert"," she said, adding air quotes to the last word. "From what I heard, they used to, and the governments could come up with some odd ball cover story whenever something happened, but now-a-days..." She shrugged.

With Natalie's additional questioning, Junko got another shoulder workout. "I wouldn't know that. All I know is that I can produce flaming kicks and punches, and can shoot fireballs at stuff. I leave the figuring out the potential science behind it to the geek squad."

The elevator chimed, indicating they had arrived at the deck Junko was headed to. She turned back to Natalie, "I'm going to the fitness center. You can come with me if you want, I don't mind the company."

Starlight Restaurant 1F (Lucina, Emille, Winky, Phagora, Shireen, Jake)

Shireen's explanation of her academy was all Greek to Lucina, but the Queen of Solevaille didn't show it, gazing at the instructor with as much wonder as a little kid would typically display at a magic show, her own wide baby blue eyes gazing right into her striking gray-blue ones. What she also didn't show was the disgust at her dish of choice - though she had to agree with Phagora on beef (beef offal no less) not pairing well with pumpkin, she managed to keep the same light smile she always wore, stopping only to blink her eyes a couple of times almost as stiffly as a doll would.

Her smile grew even wider when a smartly-dressed young "catman" arrived at the table, ambling around elegantly like a trained acrobat. She even clapped her hands in quick succession upon his arrival, though the sound was muffled by the gloves she still wore. "Lucina Geppetto, Queen of Solevaille," she introduced to him. "I must say, I am honored to be acquainted with two demon lords this lovely afternoon!"

"I am quite sure it is not afternoon," said Emille, beckoning Jake towards an empty chair at the table. "And I am Emille Laroux, Princess of Solevaille. And that is Winky," she added, pointing her parasol at the marionette on Lucina's shoulder. Then she looked over to Phagora with a more devious smile on her face. "So you call yourself a witch. Interesting choice of term, considering how witches and demons are not very different. I don't suppose you have the power to magically alter the taste and/or composition of food?"

Lucina gave Emille a brief dirty look before returning her gaze to the catman. "But by all means, do join us if you would like, General. I always enjoy company. Which reminds me..." She looked all around the table, then all around the restaurant, then at Emille. "Carlotta has been gone for quite a while, hasn't she? I do hope there was no trouble with that permit."

Emille shook her head. "No way." Just then, the robot waiter arrived with the hibiscus tea, placing the pot on the table along with five cups. "I am a princess, not an errand girl. Winky, how about you check on Carlotta?"

"I say, she has been gone for a while, has she?" said the gentlemanly marionette.

Lucina sighed, lifting him off her shoulder and lowering him to the floor. "Well, there goes my shoulder decoration." But when she straightened up again, her cheer returned. "Help yourself to some macarons by the way!" She gestured around to the little round cookies on the table, while behind her, Winky walked out of the restaurant, the strings hanging off his back dragging behind him.

Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.

Starlight Restaurant 1F (Lucina and Emille; Shireen; Jake; Phagora)

Shireen pouts at Phagora, upon hearing the reasons behind her choice of occupation.

"Pity. The cooks are often too under-appreciated, for such a vital profession. If you change your mind, though, you can corrupt me anytime you like. I won't mind." She gives the demon child the warmest of her smiles.

She turns to Jake:

"Well, the word 'demon' means 'guardian spirit'. There are a lot of spirits where I'm from, and they could be counted as guardians, depending on the domain they represent. Yours is Greed, which, sometimes, is good, for a lack of a better word. My name is Shireen, by the way. Pleased to meet you."

The psychopomp takes a cup of hibiscus tea and takes a sip from it.

"Can I ask you a personal question, General? What kind of spirit are you? Are you defined by Greed, or do you define the Greed by yourself?"

Square Root of Pie (Rolph and Glitch; Max, Robin and Cecilia)

"Dangerous?" Max seems to be lightened up by that statement. His frown almost disappeared. "You've run into hostile aborigines?"

The rest of the crew look at Rolph with expression of genuine curiosity, while silently chewing on their pizza.

edited 18th Mar '17 11:52:53 PM by Millership

Spiral out, keep going.

Square Root of Pie (Rolph and Glitch; Max, Robin and Cecilia)

"Oh, we try not to disturb the natives," Rolph said, grabbing another slice of pizza. "Lots of rules about that, actually. We did stop an asteroid from hitting a medieval world a few months back, which must have looked very suspicious to their astronomers, but no one's really gonna blame you for things like that."

"Ambassador Yezrin seemed quite upset about all the paperwork, but no harm done," Glitch added.

Rolph finished his second slice. The maggots were a species he hadn't seen before, but they turned out to be really tasty.

"When it comes to dangers to us," he continued, "there's been everything from ancient combat drones and alien plants that weren't actually plants, to criminals from back home who fled into unexplored space."

He adjusted his sitting position a bit, moving his four legs to more comfortable spots. "I bet you must have seen a thing or two on your own travels as well, right?"

Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.

Deck 3 - Galaxy Apparel -> In front of Sushi Gundam

In the mini-mall portion of Deck 3 near the front of the ship, there was a fairly large store that specialized in vintage and secondhand clothing from all over the universe. Everything from the simple things like jeans and outdated T-shirts, to the more elegant things like fancy coats and dresses, to the futuristic things like defunct body suits and rocket boots. It even carried really outdated and outlandish things like togas and cowboy hats, if anyone was interested. There were even some odd trinkets found from who knows where.

Presently, the cashier/inventory person, a young boyish-looking man with short ponytailed hair, was organizing things at the counter, when he spotted one of his robot assistants approaching him, carrying an old-fashioned wooden chest. The robot, clearly half the human's size, struggled to lift it, but managed to set it on the counter unharmed. "Gerald," the robot spoke to the lad, "I have found another unclaimed item aboard the ship. I recommend that you take a look at it."

Casting the robot a slight smile, this Gerald fellow undid the latches on the chest and lifted the lid, and immediately saw a tattered mass of black and grey cloth. Curious, he removed the garment and held it out before him. It was a dress, probably from somewhere around the Victorian era judging by its modest elegance. First he noticed the elbow-length sleeves seemingly attached to fingerless lace gloves, ending in little black stones in tarnished silver frames. Then the gray frills and buttons down the front, and as he flipped it around to glimpse the lacing in the back, a black corset fell out onto the floor from within it. And finally the skirt part with a petticoat underneath, guessing to be about shin length in front and longer in the back, with tattered strips of gray cloth attached along the bottom of the otherwise mostly-black dress.

"Huh. It looks nice enough," Gerald remarked, shaking the dress out a bit before draping it over the counter. "Might be able to make a good buck out of-" The hair on the back of his neck bristled as he pulled his hand away and saw a spider - a dead one, thankfully - on it. Looking down and around, he saw a few more dead spiders on the floor, and looking in the box, there were a few in there as well. Also in there was a detachable collar clearly meant to go with dress, with a large spider pendant made of bone lay on top of the attached black frills. "...Okay, maybe not," he reconsidered, shaking the spider off his hand and taking another look at the pendant. "Is this supposed to be a Halloween costume or something?"

Finally he noticed the last item in the chest: a silver-framed hand mirror. Removing it and holding it before him, he was about to look at his reflection in it, when its surface suddenly turned dark, with some sort of mist swirling around inside of it. A brief sense of dread struck him as a gut feeling told him to look away, so instead he held the mirror at a distance, where now the black mist was coming out of it, leaking out and spreading onto the ground like one of those fog machines. But it quickly rose up and turned opaque, reaching a shape about human height - and indeed when it cleared, a woman stood in its place. A witch by the look of things, judging by the tall black pointed hat with a wide brim - which upon closer inspection had gray spider-web embroidery around said brim. From beneath it, a thin layer of wavy black hair reached down to the middle of her back. Her features were overall quite gaunt, her face angular and her arms and chest visibly bony - and also very pale with a slight grayish tint. Currently her face had a very surprised expression on it, as an equally-bony left hand reached up to it. As she looked up and around at the place, Gerald could see the deep red irises of her eyes.

Currently she was wearing a simple black robe, but quickly her gaze turned to the dress on the counter, which surprised her even more to see. "What is my old dress doing here!?" she spoke, her voice low and soft and solemn despite the clear surprise in it. Reaching her right arm aside, as Gerald could now see, she held a staff, one just tall enough to rest comfortably under the rim of her hat. Looking up at the top of it, he could see a human skull (minus the jaw) resting atop the black shaft, and a ring of twisted black branches reaching out from its earholes, something like a black spider web spun within it, complete with a black widow spider sitting at its center. When she placed the staff down, it stood up on its own atop a pool of shadow that had spread out around the laced-up black boots on her feet. A spindly hand extended upward from that shadow, lifting the fallen corset up to her as she retrieved the dress from the counter and the decorated collar from the wooden chest. As she did so, the spiders Gerald could have sworn were dead earlier crawled up onto the counter and onto her outstretched hand.

Finally she looked back at Gerald, that same look of mild surprise on her face. "I-I never expected to actually end up here... where am I anyway? What is this place?"

Gerald gulped, staring wide-eyed at her. "Um... this is the IMS Carpe Noctem, an-an intergalactic cruise ship. Specifically this is my store, Galaxy Apparel. Where did you come from?" He took a quick glance at the hand mirror now resting on the counter (courtesy of another spindly arm emerging out of the shadow on the floor).

"That is none of your concern," said the witch. "Now would you kindly show me to a fitting room so I can be more presentable?"

Still frozen in place, Gerald stiffly nodded, gesturing an arm over towards the rear of the store. "I-it's right over that way past the space suits..."

Bowing her head in a sort of sorrow, she retrieved her staff and the outfit and headed off to the fitting room. Several minutes later she was out again, now wearing the dress, and instead carrying the old robe she had worn before, the latter of which she put back in the chest. Then she adjusted the frills of her collar and the spider pendant atop it, glad now that the former was covering her previously-exposed chest and the lacy gloves were covering her previously-exposed forearms, even if the latter seemed to make the grayness of her fingernails more prominent. During all this time, Gerald hadn't dared to touch the mirror, which she retrieved and hid under a puffy fold in the rear of her dress. And with her staff in hand, she turned to walk out of the store.

Gerald took a step after her. "You can't just walk out with-" He cut himself short, fearing what kind of spell the witch might put on him if he tried to oppose her. So all he could do was watch and scratch his head as she left and turned away to walk down the hall.

Before long she spotted the grand Nebula Lobby off in the distance, with its dazzling futuristic decor. Though she paused to admire the beauty of it all, first she paused to look at a map on the wall next to a sushi restaurant, deciding where to go next. Hmm, I suppose the most logical thing to do would be to head to the lobby first to get my bearings. But before heading there, she took a look at what other facilities were on this surprisingly large spaceship. A spaceship. She shook her head all the while, incredulous to the entire concept of it.

Nebula Lobby 1F (Carlotta, Winky, Rebecca, Ryya, Kokoro)

Though Carlotta's clay face was mostly stiff, it was just strangely fluid enough around the mouth for her to smile, which she did as she listened to Ryya's talk about the Celestials. "Heh, looks like they could deserve a good friendly whack with a hammer," she mentioned, taking a glance back at the restaurant she had come out of earlier. "Power like that could turn all sorts of people insane. The queen of my kingdom, for instance, is like that. She executes people - dolls too - if they place one toe out of line. I'm surprised the kingdom still has a larger population than the Deathly Glade."

She glanced at Rebecca during the last part with a playful smile, clearly indicating the world of death she had just mentioned. But that smile quickly faded when she remembered her remark about liches - this even made her take a nervous step backwards. "People would willingly do that? Why?" After all, what she had gathered about Sinistrina becoming one made it sound as if it was the result of a rare and terrible curse. Even Rebecca apparently did so as an emergency measure. "I can't imagine anyone wanting to be stuck with a dead body like that for so long! What kind of a tradeoff is that for permanent death?" Though as she said it, she began to regret it, looking down at a place beneath her stocking where the barely-visible dark aura-like substance contained within her body was exposed - even Ryya and this new girl might notice it as a faintly visible gray line right above her right boot. Wincing at the memory that surfaced in her mind, she forced herself to look away.

She was actually thankful for the new girl's arrival, to take her mind off the subject. "Hello," she greeted back. "I'm Carlotta. What's your name?" She hoped that that girl had not overheard the last bit of their conversation.

But as she looked the girl up and down, she caught a glimpse of something on the stairway that made her freeze in place. A marionette in a top hat, monocle, and fancy green coat was stumbling his way down the stairs, eventually requiring a kind guest to carry him the rest of the way down. "Oh no - that's Winky, a member of the evil royal court I mentioned earlier. I have to check something at the info desk real quick - meanwhile, you don't know anything about me, okay? I'll be back soon, hopefully..."

Hesitating no longer, she turned around and hurried over to the front desk, grabbing a stool to stand on along the way.

Moments later, the red-nosed marionette named Winky passed by the group, looking up around all of them. "I say," he spoke, his wooden mustache twitching on bolts above his mouth, "none of you have seen a blond Ceramic in a green dress and a pink bonnet pass through here, have you?" He extended a hand upward to shake, as he was about knee high on the rest of the group. "Winky, pleased to make your acquaintance."

Nebula Lobby 1F - Front Desk (Carlotta, Han Solo Expy^note meaning Gault's as-of-yet-unnoticed guy)

"Ah, you must be one of the dolls traveling with Miss Lucina Geppetto," said the robot at the counter. "I take it you are here regarding the permit for that mirror?" Carlotta nodded. "Ah yes." He handed her a tablet displaying some sort of electronic form. "If you would please take this to Lucina and have her sign it. Also, it might interest you to know that a similar mirror has been found lost on the ship - a hand mirror specifically. Would you know anything about it?"

Carlotta shook her head. "No, not at all. I'll tell Lucina anyway." However, inwardly, she was shocked. Does that mean... No, it couldn't be true, so she dismissed the thought from her mind. So instead she blinked at the robot, taking the tablet from him and inspecting it. "What is this? It looks like a mirror, but it's not very reflective..."

This she pondered as she walked away, heading back toward the stairway while actively trying to avoid being seen by Winky. Along the way, she noticed a large brown furry creature standing against the far wall of the lobby. This place keeps getting weirder and weirder... While staring at the creature and walking, she bumped into the leg of a man who looked to have been watching the group she had met with. "Oh! I'm sorry!" She blinked as she looked up to him, finally handing him the tablet. "Do you know how to use this by any chance? I've never seen anything like it before."

edited 18th Mar '17 1:45:32 PM by ladytanuki

Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.

Club Bizarre:

Disappointed that the one called Ethoya departed before they could answer, Horizons instead focused on he explanations the little organic actor before them and Magistralis, whom they were still wary of. "Previous encounters between my kind and beings of information were unhappy endeavors, according to the reports. I hope it is possible to keep etiquette and avoid direct interface and its potential side effects.", they said before speaking with Nemaforte.

"Magic.. batteries you said?", Horizons hummed in confusion. Was that yet another of the misconceptions organics carried about the workings of the universe? Skeptically, they touched the object with his hand, intending to do a brief scan, and were surprised that when contact initiated they felt themselves being repelled by it, a small flash of blue light shining between their limb and the battery. There was also a different frequency to it, not in terms of light or sound, but maybe in an exotic spectrum of states of being. Chirping with surprise, they said:

"Have I... charged it?". That was notable on itself, yet it bespoke of a possibly greater discovery. "Eyes" shining more intensely, they said with now emotionless, deeper and more synthetic-sounding voice "Compatibility was unexpected. Tell me, Nemaforte, what do you know of your makers?"

edited 18th Mar '17 2:41:45 PM by EternaMemoria

"The dried flowers are so beautiful, and it applies to all things living and dead."

Deck 1 - Arboretum

[Joshua, Pearl, Aubrey]

Pearl nodded. "Yes, quite mean." She carefully avoided mentioning that she had been guilty of spreading such tall tales on more than one occasion, herself.

Aubrey looked up at the mention of plant life. "Yes, most plants are also from the British Isles. Oak, beech, ash, elm, yew, birch and such. My arrival point was somewhere in the midst of a vast beech forest very similar to what one would find in England; we had quite a long walk before we found civilisation. Thankfully, one of the people who found me - James - was quite accustomed to foraging in similar forests on Earth and was able to show us what was edible." He fell silent, remembering long hours of gathering various wild plants that James had identified. He had hated every minute of it: the walking, endless chores, sleeping on the ground under crude shelters and complete lack of home comforts.

The others had handled the situation better - and he had to admit that that was his own failing. He had allowed himself to become despondent while the others had - as Wolfe's beloved Ten Commandments for Survival put it - maintained a "cheerful disposition" despite the hardships. They had saved his life - not just by showing him what to eat and how to make a fire, nor by providing shelter and formulating a plan that eventually led them to civilisation, but by forcing him to keep going when he would have just given up if left to his own devices.

"I've seen a few plants from other places," said Pearl, "but then, I suppose a seed that lands in fertile soil has a better chance of enduring and starting a colony than a single tiger or wombat. We have coffee plants, but only because someone arrived who happened to be carrying a number of green coffee beans and they've been very carefully cultivated."

Aubrey gave a smile. "Terra Nova is the most distant of the British Colonies and the Empire never knew it existed. A new England on a new Earth."

Pearl looked at him. "With the exception of the anomalies, of course."

"Of course." Aubrey agreed.

edited 18th Mar '17 3:34:01 PM by Wolf1066

Deck 9 ~ Stern Elevators (Junko, Natalie)

Giving a slight smile of her own when it initially seems like Junko agrees, the moment she actually asks for clarification causes Natalie to silently & tinily mouth an "Oh" of dawning realization. Though the fact Junko's world has seemingly forsakened the idea of a masquerade... Made Natalie very curious. Thus the fact Junko wants to physically train despite being a magical girl was but the icing on top.

So, still looking towards Junko after she invited Natalie to follow, the nanomechanical girl gives a short bow- Hands in her lap and arms against her side, speaking with her still sweetly friendly & curious voice. "I'm ready to go when you are, though... Red flames tend to be one of the cooler colors, so do you train your body to compensate?"

Holding out her right hand, nanomechanic slime rises up to form a small human doll wearing a black bodysuit. Gaining color so it looks like a scaled-down teenager with ginger red hair, the doll opens her eyes as she pulls into a fighter's stance. Having red eyes despite seeming like an otherwise ordinary 'white' girl, Natalie continues speaking.

"This is Faith Reproba Mulier- Or Faith Long if her friend. She's an extremely powerful pyrokinetic herself, but given how easily her emotions affect it she's proficient in other forms of combat if needed. If it is possible to establish a working relationship with AEGIS, I'm sure it wouldn't be impossible for the two of you to meet."

The little doll flipping her short red 'hair', the nanomechanical slime making it becomes resubsumed by her body. However, after she does so, she picks up that slightly more serious air as when she asked about the masquerade in Junko's world- Speaking once more. "Odd ball cover stories... Was the masquerade never taken seriously in your world?"

With that she holds out her left hand, from which a similar figure arises- Yet this time it is of a woman with albino skin, white hair like beams of light, and eyes of the same coloration. Dressed in what could be called a grim reaper outfit made of white light, the figure 'summons' a white and red blade- Almost seeming bloodstrained if one didn't noticed how it swirls. Holding the sword over her shoulder, the scaled-down doll snarls at Junko.

"This is the Reaper of Light, an evil woman working for our enemies the Cult of Eldon. Ever since the birth of magic, they have existed in one form or another- Terrorizing the population that just want to live peaceful lives. They do not believe such 'boring' individuals deserve the right to exist, so they aim to destroy the public society. It is because of unstable individuals like them we're forced to maintain the masquerade."

'Crushing' the doll in order to sink it back in, Natalie takes a clearly psychological deep breath and lets out a calm sigh. Looking towards Junko, Natalie holds her hands together against the small of her own back, seeming a little uncertain what to say next. Rather fittingly for a machine, she picks it back up very quickly.

"So between those monsters wanting to 'liberate' the world and how incredibly dangerous all things fantastic are when used wrongly... It is rather unfathomable to think of the masquerade being ever shut down. You know, a lot of problems in my world are caused by people trying to use shortcuts when it comes to magic. Just make one mistake with a rune and Boom! All the laws of physics are inverted in a thirty mile radius."

---

Starlight Restaurant (Lucina, Emille, Phagora, Shireen, Jake Ronso)

Laughing genuinely cheerfully at her attempt of a deep voice, the mysterious Jake Ronso smiles before responding with a touch of playfulness. "King is he? I suppose it isn't hard to be king when you're the only one with an eye, so to speak. Such insistence on a mere title... Does he think that gives him power, or is he like my brother Pride- Understanding humans are more likely to acknowledge his very real power if he uses the right title?"

Turning to the incredibly elegantly dressed young queen and her porcelain princess sharing a similar flare, Jake Ronso gentlemanly bowed before them both before 'standing' up- Hovering over to where her princess gestured, ultimately not physically down despite floating over the seat with his right leg crossed over his left. Looking towards the queen, the cat boy demon general asks politely.

"How is it that you are to be properly greeted? Brother Pride makes it a point to properly respect those who hold power of their own. Of course, he also likes seducing aforementioned individuals in order to prove his superiority over them. Still, it doesn't seem entirely uncommon for one to kneel before a queen and kiss her hand. Frankly I find that a strange mixture of greed and pride..."

However, once he turned to look towards Emillie, a dark whispery intrusion dances on the edges of her hearing. "What exactly are you to her? It would hardly be the strangest thing if you are her bore child, but that doesn't seem right... Are you wishing to succeed her? Such is the purpose of all princes and princesses. Though if you want magically altered food, it'll be easy enough for me."

Yet, his attention was soon pleasantly surprised by Shireen, looking her over with clear curiosity and interest. Smiling warmly at her request to ask him a personal question, the seeming teenager responded to her- An almost whimsical sense of happiness at the corners of his polite tone.

"I am a savior, a hero, one of seven who shall overthrow His tyranny. Therefore, I am indeed a guardian, yet I am no ephemeral being. My grandmothers are respectively the First Angel and First Human, my parental grandfather the Archangel Samael, and my mother the Horserider Famine. As for my domain..."

Bringing his right hand up to the sleeve of his left, he briefly puts his hand in there before withdrawing it- A banquet of flowers held in it, despite the sheer impossibility. Gently flicking it to the side, the flowers lazily float over the table, perfectly centered so anyone could touch them.

"Of us seven, the name reflects who we are. Since my desires are the greatest, I am known as Greed. Usually though, I let that be channelled into mastering my abilities, and I tend to be the scout of our group. I suppose you'll be surprised to know that Lust draws more pleasure from motherhood than actual procreation. Sister Envy though, would probably be considered a more typical Wrath at first glance."

Scratching lazily at the back of his right car ear as his tail swings, Jake Ronso closes his eyes in thought- Speaking without opening them. "Exactly who are you? One wouldn't invite any kind of being to corrupt them, if they were someone accepting of their life. Unless, of course, you are one who baits their prey?"

edited 18th Mar '17 9:09:11 PM by Kkutwar

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."

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

Joshua laughed at Aubrey's comment about Terra Nova being part of the British Empire, "When will the hunger of British Imperialism finally be sated!" They said with a playful tone, throwing their arms in the air for emphasis. Joshua crossed their legs and leaned back on the tree behind them, "I'm guessing these anomalies don't happen often though. Like a once in a blue moon type of thing. You could get something from another part of the world, but don't hold your breath."

Joshua rested their chin on their right palm, fingers curled as they faced to their right, looking into nothing as they thought. They considered bringing up moving to a different area of the ship to take advantage of the other amenities, but their mind became a haze of buzzing and dark whispers.

Joshua shook their head and turned toward the two, "I know we've only been chatting for a short while, but," Joshua hesitated, "Do I seem like a liar?"

Note to self: Pick less edgy username next time.

[Deck 1 - Spaceship/Pod Docking Area]

The endless space surrounding the IMS Carpe Noctem was the very definition of the word serene. Dotted with millions of twinkling stars and smeared by the hazy glowing bands of the galaxy, the celestial sphere was a view which would never diminish in beauty.

Immediately surrounding the grand vessel was a small number of automated maintenance and surveillance droids, which lazily orbited the craft and only stopped on occasion to quickly inspect particular regions of the hull. One of these droids, which was passing directly underneath the Carpe Noctem, took notice of a new, unfamiliar spacecraft approaching from below. This craft was far less sleek and shiny than any machine associated with the space liner, being very box-like in shape and moreso resembling a semi-truck than anything meant for intergalactic travel. The dull-white, back-heavy ship raised itself to the level of the entrance to the Docking Bay, and as it stopped to adjust its angle, the nearby droid locked its sights on it and began keeping a close watch on the ship's movements.

The ship slowly hovered through the enormous entrance to the docking bay, passing through a blue electric barrier which rippled like water as the ship made contact. It continued slowly moving forward until it was directly over a large, empty space on the ground. As the ship began to lower itself, it was clear that the pilot was having some trouble. It descended in quick, irregular jolts, and at one point the ship began veering off to the left, which meant another good minute of adjustments before the vessel was back in position.

Eventually, the clunky ship finally landed with a resounding clang, having simply dropped the last few feet. The moment the ship landed, its buzzing, rumbling engine slowed to a halt, and moments later the door on the left side was opened wide.

The first one to drop down from the six foot high door was a man by the name of Anton Stronach. He was a man in his prime, having an apparent age in his early thirties. He had a full head of wavy brown hair on his head, as well as a balbo beard to go along with a square jawline. He was rather short, standing at a height of 5'5, but even through a full blue-and-white striped gangster suit it was clear that he was quite muscular. His fiery amber eyes took in his new surroundings with almost manic enthusiasm.

The second one to exit the ship was another man, Timur Rychen. He was larger than Anton in more than one way; he was significantly taller at a height of 6'0, and he had a prominent beer gut. However, as was the case with Anton, it was clear that a significant portion of his weight was muscle. He wasn't quite as vibrant as Anton, his balding head of black hair and bushy mustache showing his age of 43, but he still maintained a semblance of class with his dark brown tuxedo jacket, white collared shirt and tan pants. Upon reaching the ground, he immediately began to inspect the landing gear of the ship.

The last one to leave the ship and set foot on the Carpe Noctem was a woman by the name of Isabelle Tavora. She was a lean, lithe figure who emanated glamour. She had silky jet black hair which hung down just past her shoulder blades, and she wore a slick tuxedo consisting of a white jacket and black wide-bottom pants. Topping it off was a light blue silk scarf with floral patterns which was carefully tucked into the open collar of her jacket. Her face, however, somewhat contrasted with the rest of her extremely refined exterior. Her skin was rather pale, and her sharp jawline and seemingly-permanent scowl made her look older than her true age of 33. Her deep blue eyes in particular were sunken in and dulled, scanning her surroundings with a stern cynicism.

As Isabelle lowered herself to the ground and Timur knelt down to inspect the landing gear, Anton took in a big breath of his surroundings. "Ahh, we're finally here! It's already even better than I'd hoped!"

Anton placed one hand behind his back and turned around to face Timur. "Fine job getting us here Timur, but for the future I'd recommend working on your landings."

Timur, mildly offended, stood himself up at this remark. "How about you try transitioning from driving a car to piloting a goddamn spaceship in a year? If I didn't come with you through that alien time portal thing I guarantee you'd be in a pile of burning wreckage."

"Hey, I know that! I appreciate it! All I'm doing is giving you a little bit of constructive criticism, I didn't mean anything by it."

Timur turned around and pointed to the wreckage of what appeared to be a red fighter plane not far behind their own ship. "Think of it this way, Anton. It looks like I'm far from the worst pilot on this ship."

Anton followed the direction where Timur was pointing and his eyes lit up upon seeing the plane sprawled across the ground. "Well would you look at that! Guess we weren't too far from space travel in our old time after all, eh? I've gotta say that thing's giving me a bit of nostalgia..."

At that moment, Anton picked up on a deep, harmonic humming sound approaching from his left side. He turned to find out what it was, and saw that it was a large, bulky robot with forklift-like arms which floated above the ground via a pulsating magnetic force. All three members of the group gathered by Anton as the machine approached, only Anton showing no signs of wariness or fear. The ten foot tall robot stopped a few feet in front of the group and aimed the scanners at the center of its body towards them.

"Do you intend to take residence on the IMS Carpe Noctem?" The robot said in a reverberating, monotone voice.

Anton nodded with a smile. "We do indeed! I take it you can make such arrangements for us?"

"Please state your names." said the robot, disregarding most of Anton's words.

"Sure. My name is—"

At that moment, Anton was interrupted by three quick, loud, high-pitched beeps from the robot. "Detected breach of Code B0-771A, "The use of any form of firearms, regardless if they are lethal, incapacitating, or toys, is strictly prohibited." Please store away your weapon or you must be expelled from the Carpe Noctem."

Anton, confused, looked down at himself and began scanning his immediate surroundings. "Firearms? I'm not holding any-" Then, he saw the problem. Isabelle was gripping a pistol by her left hip tightly with both hands, her gaze fixed on the robot.

"Jesus Christ Isabelle, you know that's extremely discourteous, right? Put that thing away!"

Isabelle said nothing and gripped her weapon harder, looking back and forth between Anton and the robot in disbelief that Anton would suggest to let her guard down in front of the mechanical beast before them.

"If you don't do it things are guaranteed to get worse." chimed Timur. "If we do what it says there's at least a chance it won't crush us."

Isabelle paused for a moment in contemplation, and then, slowly, she placed her gun back into the belt of her pants and begrudgingly raised her hands to show they were empty.

"Code breach resolved." said the robot. "You now have one warning, one more code breach of this degree will not be tolerated." The robot paused briefly, in which time nobody spoke. After a clean five seconds, the robot spoke again. "Repeat. Please state your names."

"My name is Anton Stronach."

"Mine's Timur Rychen. Spelled R-Y-C-H-E-N, just so you know."

"...Isabelle."

After another brief pause, a green light lit up above its scanners. "Anton Stronach, Timur Riken, Isabelle. You at now registered into the data log. Please report to the attendant by the door to determine your rooms."

With that the large robot turned itself a perfect 90 degrees and hovered away, and Anton turned to face his two companions. "Well, you heard what it said! Let's get ourselves settled in!"

Anton immediately made a bee-line for the door to the main area, and Timur and Isabelle, after exchanging blank glances, followed step.

edited 19th Mar '17 6:51:31 AM by Stegomasaurus

[Observation Deck]

Bright lights were not permitted in the area, but this didn't seem to matter to the artist who had quietly set up shop on the observation deck. Nor were they perturbed by Proseda's unusual appearance. Sitting with one leg crossed over the other, a sketchbook propped up on their knee, they began to sketch the demon. The strokes were smooth, deliberately placed, and there was a firmness to them despite the artist's light hand.

Jinsui Feng would never describe themself as a man, but their thin, flattish facial features and sturdy physique were defined and angular in a way that most people would categorize as masculine. Their black hair was just beginning to enter a state of shagginess, almost reaching their intense brown eyes, which had a black line painted along their upper lashes. They were plainly dressed in a high-collared black shirt fastened with frog buttons, black trousers, white socks, and black slippers. A silver tattoo of a symbol (the Renesian numeral for the number three) on the back of their right hand almost glowed against their coppery brown skin.

Jin paused their work to pick up a glass of iced water and take a small sip. They surveyed their progress with a slight frown. Hm. Not too bad. It'd been too long since a real artist could assess Jin's work with a critical eye. Praise from their friends was nice, but it wasn't what they needed. They put down the glass and continued drawing, now with a slight frown. But despite that and their intense gaze, there was still a disarmingly serene quality to their face. It was almost surreal.

I pre-arranged Jin's entrance with Aqueos; they wouldn't have tripped Proseda's wards. I'm not actually sure exactly how dim the observation deck is, so I'd also like to clarify that Jin can actually see in the dark.

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

[Observation Deck]

Proseda makes a swiping motion in the air with his left hand, and his phone disappears, sent back to safely charge in his small studio apartment on earth. He looks up at the stars for a bit, before managing to recall what he had been discussing with Enkar. "Before we got sidetracked? Whether life has meaning or if it's all just a giant pile of pointless monotony. If I got the gist of things, you were saying that we all have to create meaning in a cold unfeeling universe."

He sighs, "I get that, that's all the humans do. Their faith in an absentee god, their dreams, it's all part of that. But for them it has meaning, at least as I see it, because time is finite. You can only accomplish so much in your life, and then you perish. It matters if you have a family or not, or marry or not, because ultimately whether you do or do not the clock keeps marching. Mortals can say they want to do something tomorrow, but your decisions have a permanence, twenty four hours spent doing one thing cannot be spent doing another. I can fuck around for 5000 years and nothing changes, all the options I had remain open, nothing is closed."

He pauses, looking up at the stars, "I guess I have forever to decide at least. But since we're up here and alone..." His voice cuts off abruptly, realizing that in his haste he had set up his wards as he usually did on earth, to transform him only when a boring old non magical human tripped them, and that one fairly magical being had entered a minute or so ago. He looks over his shoulder, seeing Jin poring over his sketchbook a distance away, drawing what seemed to be the demon himself.

A mischievous grin flashes across his face as he turns back to Enkar. "Or at least we were. No matter." He rolls his shoulders and extends his wings fully. On the back of his wings only visible to Jin, the coloration begins to change, bright blue spots forming all across their webbing. They stay stagnant for a moment, before moving across his wings as if it were a computer screen, forming a line of text. "Oooh, artsy. I like that." A moment later the line disappears and his wings return to their normal coloration. Color back to normal, he returns them to a more neutral position.

Bet you didn't see that coming

Square Root of Pie (Rolph and Glitch; Max, Robin and Cecilia)

There is a rather long, awkward pause as the crew exchange worried glances after Rolph asks them about their travels. Robin mouths "Whoops" at her captain, and says:

"Our airship is a personal flying vessel of a high ranking member of Eckstein Incorporated." That's right, van Segher, it's better to stick closer to the truth when lying. "Our main task is to fly him around the country when he needs to."

"Or when he feels like," says Max in a grumpy tone and sends a piece of pie to his mouth.

"So our flights are usually not that dangerous," continues van Segher. "Although there was one time when we got attacked by pirates who tried to kidnap honorus Frost."

"Personally, I think they were terrorists," says Bergmann. "Luckily, the Afalina is well-armed enough for us to repel such attacks."

There's another pause, as the crew returned to their pies.

"You've mentioned an ambassador, Rolph," says Cecilia. "Does that mean that your mission is government-funded?"

Spiral out, keep going.

[Observation Deck]

"Ah," Enkar said, cheerfully, "you seem to have an admirer." He glanced over at the artist. "Perhaps attractive. It's hard to tell; my own culture's beauty standards would insist you and he both are tragically underweight." He proudly patted his own bulk.

Enkar had wanted to continue the previous conversation, but filed away his thoughts for later. Proseda seemed to have found a new interest. "Waiter," he hailed the nearest machine, "a change, I think. Tea, perhaps? Voskaka trok, if you can manage it." Here, "tea" was a poor translation — Enkar's homeworld didn't have a single tea leaf on it. The utilitarian, modern teapot placed on the table with a trio of teacups shortly after instead contained a pleasant, drinkable tisane that was close enough to chamomile with a dash of honey. An obvious invitation to the artist, if Proseda's hadn't been enough.

Ethoya in time.