[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/VaKdwK5.png[/img][/center] [i]They seem to still measure time here, with cycles as units. They speak of an “Old Age”. “Mithrilium”. Combustible, smokeless synthetic wood...[/i] Much to her frustration, she didn’t understand much of the soldiers explanation - at least not yet, when so much detail was still lacking. Even then, she mentally took note of all the clues and untied ends in the stream of information that just might come in useful later. That was what she always did - although now, she would remind herself later to write all of it down under the pages labelled “Cog and Gears” in her notebook to protect them from distortion and forgetfulness. [i]Caves. Mermaids.[/i] Throughout the conversation, although Est was mostly rambling on by himself happily, Leila did not neglect to put up a slight smile that implied interest - only polite. At the mention of certain details, however, the smile felt a bit more forced than usual. “-thank you.” She said quickly upon the parachute being lifted off her arms. She would have asked on still, perhaps even indefinitely if allowed to - but that was evidently not possible as the soldier turned to talk to the doctor. “Nano - wait are those - can I - ” Her interest was then directed towards the technology the Nobody in doctor robes mentioned, which at least shared a name with something that she remembered to be only theoretical yet had a great potential for development, back at home. She needed to see this, she thought, desperately trying to hide the over-excitement and also questioning a bit whether to feel bad about not feeling bad about Inadi being partly forced into the procedure. It wasn’t long, however, before her attention was diverted again, when the sound of shattering glass rang throughout the corridors as a cascade of containers crashed down from rows of shelves onto the ground nearby - and onto Lesley. [centre]* * * * *[/centre] Leila remained slightly upset throughout the entire journey out from the hospital and towards the paintball field, mostly because she didn’t get to witness the exciting technology that was used to heal Inadi’s wounds. Inadi seemed to be alright now, however, and Leila was glad about that - although she still wondered infinitely about the nanobots. How did they repair the damage? How is the process controlled? Were there still there? Would they be somehow degraded by the body - were they made of such materials? Or were there - should she ask Inadi if she can have someone take a blood or tissue sample from there to - -no, that was a silly idea. Leila bit her lip and walked on along with the group, switching the subject of her thought to trying to come up with a reasonable process for one to accidentally embed a cog into an eye socket. (Taking into account that this is Nowhere - that the possible scenarios were actually more numerous and diverse than expected wasn’t exactly astounding.) She also struggled to decide whether to jump over and ruffle Lesley’s new, black-and-pink hair to see if it feels any different besides from having changed in colour. Regardless, Leila still remarked that Lesley was - of course - still just as fabulous as ever. [centre]* * * * *[/centre] [b]"But you're here to play paintball? May celery save your souls..."[/b] When she was done gasping at the structure that composed the giant dome encompassing the mapped area that must have been as large as an entire section of her home city, Leila cringed a bit at this notion from a resident soldier, having only to speculate what exactly had contributed to the ominous undertone of the remark. The denizens of Nowhere lived with sirens, dragons, and witches. What could….? Paintball launchers were non-lethal weapons and should be relatively safe...she thought as she turned her sight to the nearby table where the equipment was placed, and the wall behind it on which more objects were hung. When the soldier indicated to do so Leila walked over along with the others, and picked up one of the launchers. The weapon was slightly larger in proportion than she had expected, and heaver. [i]A lot[/i] heavier. It felt to Leila as if most parts, if not the entire object, was crafted out of dense metal. It took her a fair amount of strength and many tries to lift it off the table it originally sat upon, and even more to lift it to an height enough to aim at anything. She tuned in and out when the operation of the weapons were explained, but upon placing hands on the actual thing she figured it wasn’t really that hard to determine which part of the object served what function. The safety was labelled, and the path along with the projectiles would be fed into the barrel and then launched. “Ah, okay! Thanks -” She turned briefly to look at Harper and the other humans when he asked whether she would like to join them. Coming to think of it, she had received help from the boy more than once previously when she was in danger in the earlier events in Nowhere, and it was an unexplainably amusing feeling that the humans were siding again to participate in combat that they were not forced into, but this time requested themselves. Actually - who was it who proposed that they do this again? She thought as she absentmindedly flip the firearms in her arms sideways to check the bottom. [i]Is this already loaded or -[/i] [i]-bang.[/i] The next thing she knew she was collapsed onto the ground, back throbbing in pain after having collided with a nearby chair, and ears ringing from the explosive sound produced by the firing of the paintball gun. The wall behind the table now wore a big splat of pink paint on its centre, some of the equipment hung on it clattered to the ground. The weapon itself was swung out of her grasp and lay nearby. She glanced across the room apologetically, while just having realized at the back of her mind that, incorrectly placed, the recoil from a firing like the one that just happened would have easily dislocated a joint or snapped some of the thinner bones.