[center][h3]Fae[/h3][/center]

“I… do not believe we will be needing to swim all the way there” Fae said after a long moment, really hoping that the pair talking along that line of thinking where joking, before deciding to pivot this into a snipe at their benefactors “After all, I’m [i]sure[/i] the Unity Organization can afford a ship if this matters so much to them”

As it turned out, they could, though that came a little later, because before that the quality of the candidates was further shown off when one of them turned up late for the party. 

They certainly were an interesting one as well, to Fae at least, who analyzed it as a fascinating combination of cutting edge technology and total hack-job. A corporate job, he guessed, due to the complete lack of artistry and disregard for preserving the subject's humanity while doing the work. Emphasis on disregard, those damn mechanisms would have gone further and intentionally stripped it away, and this lacked that ideological intent.

It was certainly not something he’d ever install, nor was he likely to ever have a pleasant conversation with the person who did, but he wasn’t so foolish as to dismiss the effectiveness of the augmentations out of hand either. 

He did all this analysis in the blink of an eye, and then rather than be found dissecting her with his eyes set a subroutine to passively analyze the scans he’d made while he himself actually addressed her greeting and question.

“Good day, and yes, you have missed a fair bit, but here, let me just-” he paused to manufacture a mix of metal and illusory magic crafted into the form of a butterfly, which took wing and began to flitter over to the other cyborg as he explained it contained “a recording of the meeting from my point of view” one which it could play on its illusory wings after landing on a perch (such as her hand).

Only a little after that their handler arrived, informed them of the irreverent names the taskforce head had come up for each of them (upon which Fae simply commented that “octopus would have been more accurate” and took some mild amusement from Sinmara’s ogre pun), and then gave them actually useful information, namely that there was indeed a ship ready and waiting to transport them to their destination. 

“Ah, finally, someone competent” he declared with a single light clap, before adding “I always knew they had a few people like you squirreled away somewhere, keeping everything actually running” only half joking as he did.

As for the name of the team, Fae delicately suggested that “it might not be the best idea to lean into the same imagery as our ‘damned’ opponents?” regarding Sinmara’s own suggestion, and not even touching on how self aggrandizing it was before adding “If we must run in the same vein as them, perhaps something of a lighter mirror instead? Citizens of Salvation or something of the sort? Or we could ignore/dismiss them and be simply the Seekers of the Seven”

At any rate, a fair bit later they were rolling up to their nautical transport, and while Sinmara’s concern that they’d be given a sailboat was rather absurd, he hadn’t exactly considered that they would be getting an entire warship assigned to them.

“This whole operation is all over the place in terms of investment it seems” he assessed, one that was only added too by the pratfall that left him less than confident in the crew’s abilities.  

At least the ship was able to stand up to having Sinmara crash down onto it, which given it was going to host her, it had best be able to do over and over if they had any hope of reaching land. As for why it had to take that first hit, well, the oni of a woman had challenged them to a race.

“Oh please, I hardly think this is appropriate behavior for people in the employ of the fine and upstanding unity organization” he replied boorishly, even as his mecha-tendrils all planted their claws on the ground, coiled, and then without warning launched him upwards in a similar leap to the one she had just made.

Somewhat similar anyway, as he didn’t reach anywhere close to the height, and so had to reach out with his claws, stick them to the side of the boat with a mix of magnetism and speed welding, and then finally climbed his way up to join her.  Throughout this, he kept a calm composure, hands clasped behind his back, expression showing not a hint of exertion. 

“Completely inappropriate” he joked, as his feet touched the ground again.