[center]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/Z4tbhP3.png[/img]
[color=FireBrick][h3]Captain Piper[/h3][/color]
[color=FireBrick] level[/color]: 3
[color=FireBrick]XP  /////////////[/color]///////////////// (13/30) 
[color=FireBrick]word count[/color]: 785
[color=FireBrick]day/time[/color]: day 3 - evening 
[color=FireBrick]Location[/color]:  The Forbidden Lands Temple
[color=FireBrick]Tag[/color]: [@Guardian Angel Haruki][@Holy Soldier][@ONL][@DJAtomika][@Tenma Tendo]
[/center]

Clunking around the temple had done little for Piper’s mood as the entire structure seemed devoid of basically anything useful. [color=FireBrick]”Grind my Gears, who makes a building this big and puts nuthin’ in it?”[/color] she complained as she ran out of places to look, finding herself as high as she could go. Anything higher up seemed to have no stairways leading to it and it was all covered with greenery. 

Piper rested her back against one of these plant covered walls and popped open her chest mounted furnace in order to poke around in there with a little folding fire poker basically every steambot carried around with them. She nudged some of the existing coals around and then popped a few more little clump of fuel in from one of her hip pouches to keep the fire going. Then she popped it shut again, put away the poker and took a swig of water from a small canteen she had. Once this refueling process was done she pushed herself of the wall and turned to face the weird greenery she had been using as a head/back cushion.

[color=FireBrick]”What even is this stuff?”[/color] she asked herself, tugging at the tangled plant growing against the wall she had been leaning against. [color=FireBrick]”s’ like a ladder. Made of plants? Weird”[/color] she concluded when she followed the path of its growth upwards. Piper did think it might be deliberate in some way, certainly there seemed to be more temple up there that nonetheless had no other ways to it, but having a complete lack of any understanding or experience with plants in general she really couldn't say for sure it wasn’t natural. What she did know was that there was more places to explore up there and, even if it was a waterless venture it was at the very least a high point from which she could use to get a better look at their surroundings.

[color=FireBrick]”Maybe I can see a way forwards or spot those Titans from up there? Only one way to find out ah suppose”[/color]

She gripped the plants and gave them a tug to test their strength. Suitably impressed by their sturdiness she hauled herself up of the ground, her human like and claw machine hands pulling the rest of her body upwards. Surprisingly it all managed to hold the weight of the bronze forged bot, even if there was some ominous creaking.

[color=FireBrick]”This is such a terrible idea.”[/color]

But it was this or either going back to the Boss and admitting that she hadn't found anything, or wandering off into the forbidden lands alone. Both of these where things she did not want to do for entirely different reasons, so up she climbed. It was tough going, climbing up the often unhelpful plants that were often only barely adequate in their emulation of a ladder. While her weight fought against her and her missmatched hands weren't ideal for this task, most of Piper’s physiology was suited for this climb. She’d chosen her own parts as she grew, and her resulting frame was designed predominantly for monkeying up and down ladders inside the cramped confines of spaceships, meaning she had plenty of upper body strength. She also had no muscles to tire nor any skin to become sore, only gears, pistons, metal and sensors. As a result the climb was a calcuatable contest between gravity and steam powered engineering, one Piper knew she could win barring any major setbacks. 

Setbacks there where however. Plants snapped under her weight or slipped from her inelegant grasp. Once or twice she nearly fell. She could also probably survive falling here, although someone would have to put her back together after she smashed against the ground. That would make her look bad in front of the boss however, and she did not want to leave the task of getting fixed to him. At certain points she had to give up on the the plants entirely and rely instead along stone outcroppings. At one point she even had to jump from one wall to a stone pillar to keep going. Though none where setbacks where enough to kill her or stall her for to long, by the time she was approaching the top Piper’s furnace was in dire need of refueling.

Piper’s hand reached up one last time from the greener, only to find air and then stone below it. Feeling a  little further forwards she found that this was not another stone outcropping out an actual platform she could stand on Her destination reached Piper halued herself upwards onto onto the stone surface.  

She’d done it! She’d made it! Now where in the world had she made it too?