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Qualia: Mission Sub Rosa

Nazca Whitehall

Clockwork Autumn

As it happened, Nazca’s choice of restaurant had been entirely based on the cuisine she had experienced the other night. Despite her unfortunate encounter with some dish that her stomach had not agreed on, she had rather enjoyed the Oriental cuisine out on display at the ball, and it was the Japanese dishes that had especially brought a small to her palate. Vietnamese and Chinese had come in a close second and third, but alas for Ryuuko, after taking the lead of the little arson brunch party, the first restaurant she had come across was the Katsubochi.

Although the British-raised Abyalan girl struggled with the chopsticks, it was clear that she had taken to the Japanese meal, happily downing the entire set with the subtlest smile on her face. The mackerel and the soup was delicious, and the natto had not even fazed her.

Though, she had noticed the frowns and looks of distaste on a few of her fellow students, and couldn’t help but to stare at Ryuuko and wonder what was wrong with the Japanese egoist and her culinary preferences. Surely her break with her country didn’t also mean she absolutely hated the food as well? No, no, that certainly couldn’t be it.

“I see.”

Slowly nursing her miso soup, she returned her attention to what truly mattered, Jeanne’s testimony. Certainly much had occurred in the night after all. To her, at least, it was obvious that the two actors that the Frenchwoman had encountered were likely working in concert. Nazca briefly wondered what bone they would have to pick with Jeanne, but it was clear her reputation preceded her at this point. Still, she couldn’t help but to rub the bridge of her nose at some of the decisions the girl had taken last night. It was absolute insanity, enough to match what had happened to her to begin with.

“A bat with a camera, is it… well, it’s certainly not the only flying thing with a camera that night,” Nazca murmured. She’d only briefly glanced at sections of the film negative that she recovered in the morning—she would have to immediately develop it now, if only for the curiosity of what her hawk might have picked up. “I took photographs of the city after dark with one of my birds to test whether or not they would properly function as a result of the starsteel formulation. It’s doubtful because of the thick fog, but it is possible that I might have captured something useful in relation to what happened last night,” she decided to cautiously offer, omitting any in-depth explanation of the full capabilities of her bird-drones.

“Regardless, I doubt it’s difficult to disguise oneself for a short time on the airship, especially if they were intending to be deceptive enough to attack another student after curfew. They could still be a student.”

Dead Gods Dream: A post-apocalyptic divine action-adventure RP

Aureia, of gold, commerce, wealth,

and the far less important, trivial aspects of travel and luck

Aureia simply shrugged as O’Menus seemed to get her point, and strode off to scout ahead. She contemplated joining him for a moment –it made the most sense to do, after all—but for all of her situational acumen, she really didn’t want to hang out all alone around the sun god when he was grumpy. And if recent memory served right, he was grumpy a lot these days.

So, she elected to stay with the group, though she took a mental note of the direction the god had scouted towards incase they would have to rescue him for some reason, bidding him farewell with a nonchalant wave.

She stepped back towards Alasayana and the priestess, raising her eyebrows at the animal carcass that she had brought back. It didn’t look bad at first glance, but she really didn’t know where to begin cooking that thing… though, Aureia did know how to cook. It was a small pastime for her to poach recipes from mortals, after all.

“Me, I can help,” she offered, deciding to make herself useful and help Mori with the task of preparing a meal. She’d never worked with no equipment at all, though… How were they going to make a fire? “Oh… hmm, perhaps we shouldn’t have sent off the sun god, some heat or a fire would be useful right now.”

Aureia, was, after all, completely clueless on how to set up a camp or even get a proper fire going without the trappings of civilization.

How…

Civilized?

Dead Gods Dream: A post-apocalyptic divine action-adventure RP

Ah whoops, I'll post tomorrow.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist @PKMNB0Y

Perhaps it wasn’t one of her best decisions, but they were committed now, and the hunters had to be stopped regardless.

With Lazhira acting as the distraction, Narkissa watched from her cover as she approached and opened the box… only for the slime inside of it to launch the smaller girl away. Not what she was expecting, but it seemed she hadn’t been overly harmed, and the hunters were very distracted now.

The fact that they had been looking for Lazhira after all had been concerning, though.

“Misaki, see if you can’t get that slime to keep its focus on the hunters somehow. I’m going after them,” she whispered, drawing her sword while still in cover before quickly maneuvering to a better hidden position to act against the hunters. She had selected one of the archers on Lazhira’s suggestion. Taking a deep breath, she gathered all that she had learned about magic and focused her energy on the bow-wielding hunter. Recalling her water-jet based attacks that she had used in the temple, she prepared a similar spell, lancing out at the back of the distracted enemy with the edged burst of water.

Taking advantage of the chaos created by Lazhira and the freed slime, the white-haired girl would keep this magic fire up from her position of concealment, changing targets if and once the hunter was incapacitated, and making sure to take advantage of any of the slime’s attacks. Nonetheless, she was fully prepared to spring out with her sword if her position was compromised, or if her two companions fell into trouble.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist @PKMNB0Y

“Hmm…”

Between the three of them, she supposed the situation wasn’t quite as ideal as she initially thought. Lazhira seemed competent enough fighting back at the temple, but then again, she’d only seen the girl fight when it came to beating up some minor slimes. Misaki, she had no idea how much she could do. She herself had her sword and basic proficiency in the magic that she’d been lucky to learn, but how much of that could she leverage in this situation?

At the very least, it seemed Lazhira had some sort of illusion magic that could provide them some extra cover.

Narkissa wasn’t the type to throw caution to the wind, but at the moment, it seemed proactive movement was required to intervene, and it seemed Lazhira partially agreed at least. She stared out at the hunters and their movement. It took her several moments to make a deliberation before she spoke up again.

“Well, they say fortune favors the bold. Let’s give it a crack.”

Qualia: Mission Sub Rosa

Nazca Whitehall

Clockwork Autumn

There was a slight twitch in her eye when the jumped-up student assigned her and the other secondary volunteers shared responsibility and consequences. Really, she had been offering to do a favor in keeping watch over the implicated technologist, with her being a direct neighbor and all… her own personal interest in the strange Frenchwoman aside.

At her male counterpart’s leave, the crowd of students began to disperse, leaving the few students that had taken responsibility or had otherwise stood up for the alleged arsonist. She took to the stage with the others, sparing the mesmerologist a glance before turning to the others. Nazca had yet to form a true opinion on her fellow Abya Yalan, but she afforded him a more respectful nod than her first target.

“Nazca Whitehall,” she responded simply, offering her name by way of introduction to Inti, and then the same to the Japanese egoist once the horned girl’s attention had also fallen on her. Having already announced her relation as her dormmate during her stunt in the crowd, she felt no need to repeat it again now. “It seems that we’re all mostly in agreement that there’s something particularly unusual about the matter of Jeanne and the library last night,” she agreed, nodding yet again at the mutual desire to work together. They would all have to, or her scholarly career and more would already be at stake just for sticking her neck out.

Her attention then finally turned to the accused, a tick of annoyance flaring up within her at the girl’s blasé attitude towards her capture and the morning’s charade. She stared at her hard with a deadpan expression as the girl freely admitted to her destruction of the library.

“I would hope that our intervention is not wasted on you,” she sniped at the confessed arsonist. That she had so terribly misjudged the nature of her peer left a sour taste in her mouth, not to mention the loss of any respect she might have had for the technologist upon her admission of destroying a center of learning. Had the situation only been that, she would have simply turned on her heels and left, but the allusions of a fight between a rogue egoist inside the library both concerned her and roused her flagging interest.

“So you say,” she smiled wanly at the blunt insult leveled at the students that weren’t Higashiakemi Ryuuko, but otherwise ignoring it. “I intend to investigate this monster of yours, if only to satisfy my own curiosity. I do have some means to look into the events of last night,” she continued, allowing some minor insight into some of her own abilities. “As unconcerned about your fate as you seem to be, we would hear your story.”

@Jumbus @Yankee @Medili @banjoanjo

Dead Gods Dream: A post-apocalyptic divine action-adventure RP

Aureia, of gold, commerce, wealth,

and the far less important, trivial aspects of travel and luck

Well, those were certainly some strange looking creatures within the shrubbery. Sort of cute, if Aureia had to say so herself, although she had enough experience with certain animals in the past that she knew that cute didn’t necessarily mean harmless…

She was pretty sure they were harmless anyway, especially when you had the goddess of hunt nearby, and oh dear, it looked like Alasayana wanted to hunt the strange looking deer. Were they edible, though? “Hmm… that does raise a question though, cute as the local fauna may seem… can we actually eat them? Will they taste good?” At the very least, even in their reduced state, Aureia was positive mortal poisons or inedible fauna wouldn’t hurt gods. The question of whether they’d find the meat tasteful, on the other hand…

Well, at least she knew some good recipes from her time hanging out in mortal cities. It was only a shame they didn’t have a full palace kitchen, and they would have to settle for field roasting any meat they hunted.

The goddess of commerce rolled her eyes at the sun god, but she did at least half agree with him. She still didn’t want to dally for much longer in the forest, but she recognized the need to hunt, if only to give their new mortal friend some sustenance.

She yawned. “Come now, O’Menus. I dislike this forest as well, but I suppose we will need to make camp at some point… why don’t we scout ahead to find a suitable spot while ‘Yana does her thing?”

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist @PKMNB0Y

“Great,” Narkissa groaned. It seemed like she hadn’t gotten a break ever since coming to this world. There was more conspiracy and intrigue in this little village than in her research department back at the university, and that was saying something. There were just far too many undercurrents to keep track of, to know of what was going on… but there wasn’t much she could do about it.

At the last moment, she just barely remembered that Leannah had passed on a message while she had been shopping at Mie’s. She was retrieving something beyond the village, was it? She’d also added something about ‘where it all began’ which was something vaguer than what she needed to hear. But was she referring to this obelisk? She clicked her tongue.

“It’s possible Leannah was messing around with that monument before the hunters showed up,” she muttered to Misaki and Lazhira. “Something about getting something from ‘where it all began.’ Seems clear enough that whatever the hunters ar doing regardless, it’s nothing good.”

She squinted at their preparations. “They’re hardly prepared. If I may be as so bold to say… but how about we counter-ambush them? We’d have the element of surprise…”

Qualia: Mission Sub Rosa

Nazca Whitehall

Clockwork Autumn

It was at ten bells, as Nazca was about to draw her bath, when the Clocktower rang, and with it, the surge of energy and the flurry of locks clicking and doors slamming shut. Having long since honed her skills of stoicism, she didn’t jump at the sudden noises, although she found herself very cross with it all. The noise of the bells, while irritating, were alright, but the locking of the doors for curfew, in her mind, was insulting the honor and intelligence of the students it hosted. Especially so, with its implementation of the Starsteel Formation.

…Not that Nazca would have always adhered to the curfew anyway. There were certain things in the night that required her investigation, including the fog, which she was instantly reminded of as her windows were covered by the pervasive opaque mist. Was the mist simply another means to keep the student body inside? She hadn’t inspected the doors or windows of her dorm thoroughly, but it was obvious that could be easily forced open. Of course, it would leave evidence of such an act, but a resourceful enough person could simply repair a window or a door the old-fashioned way, with enough skill. It was perplexing.

Having a clue on the nature of the fog, though, made her think of the hawk she still had in the sky. Could she still get through to it? She was confident her drone was loitering high enough in the sky to not be affected by the fog, but if she couldn’t send out or communicate with any drones during curfew, that would be… less than optimal. Normally, she could control her clockwork drones reasonably well without any large and cumbersome devices, but when it came to long-range operations…

Nazca hastily pulled out a trunk –or more properly, and advanced wireless set in the shape of one—and set it upon her desk. She quickly went through the motions of setting it up, hooking up its battery, extending its long aerial, power up the device. Since she’d last used it right before the airship had landed to launch her hawk, it was still tuned into the right frequency. Using a switch that looked quite familiar to any wireless operators, she keyed out a command in her own proprietary code.

Scout One. Acknowledge test signal.

She paused to listen to a reply. The clicks that came in response came in strong—short click, long click, short, short, long, modulated long—the correct identification code for the unit. That was good, it meant it was still in the air, and she could communicate with it by radio. She tapped in another pre-programmed command.

Scout One. Execute diagnostic test and report.

She waited patiently for the machine to test its servos, gyros, gears, and onboard equipment before reporting back. The full power test would significantly draw down its remaining power and flight time, but she was bringing it back in the next morning to collect its data anyway. After several minutes, the encoded beeps and clicks filled the airwaves again as the bird reported back its current altitude, speed, axes of orientation, rough position by dead reckoning, and other basic data—all indicating it was functioning correctly.

Satisfied, she gave it a few more tests—simple commands to increase and decrease altitude, and then moved on to more advanced commands, including proper formula-encoded ones. To her mild surprise, they executed fine, with a proper acknowledgement, although she didn't risk allowing it to descend enough that it might get caught in the fog. She wasn't sure what it would do her instruments yet, and it lacked the proper sensors to navigate blindly in a fog. Nonetheless, she would have to conduct experiments later.

She shut down the wireless set. Nazca would bring in the bird in the morning as planned. Her attention then wandered over to the locked door. Cracking open yet another trunk for more equipment, she brought out a set of tools. There really was a lot of overlap between a jeweler’s, watchmaker’s and a locksmith’s toolkits. Equipment in hand, she headed over to the locked doors, keen to find out its mysteries, the hard way or the easy way. Either way, she would have that door accessible—even if she had to fit a tungsten plate shim over the mechanism before curfew.

---

Unlike a certain other white-haired girl, though, Nazca wasn’t an extreme autist. Success or fail, once the night drew on for too long, she took her bath and then turned in for the night, only to be rudely awakened in the morning by the sounds of a public school announcement.

With a mild bit of irritation, she rose and went through her morning routine –including brewing tea and bringing her bird back—before she headed over to the Central Monument Library for the curious ‘examination,’ piping hot tea in a thermos in hand.

By the time she arrived at the library, she had a good inkling of what had happened. Even before arriving on sight, the lingering smell of burnt wood and the wispy remains of ashes rising into the morning sky was more than evident, and half-burnt, singed pieces of parchment and paper littered the streets and floated through the crowd on the occasional gust of wind. It hadn’t been a day, and a vast repository of knowledge was already gone—one that Nazca had fully intended to make use of. Her mood continued to sour.

Nonetheless, she remained curious at what had happened here. Unfazed at the youthful appearance of the school official with the unnecessarily fancy name, she frowned at his speech. Wouldn’t he get to the point?

The news of the Ottoman collapse was an interesting enough footnote, though, even if its imminent demise had been predictable.

Far more interesting was the restrained and slightly singed form of Jeanne Du Bordeaux up upon the platform with her overly pretentious countryman. That girl had built quite the reputation for herself, and a controversial one, at that. She had been one of the ones that she had looked forward to speak to or observe—neither of which she had done, ironically, despite knowing that she had been assigned to the same dorm building as herself.

The evidence on-site seemed damning. A burnt library, and a Frenchwoman with a reputation for arson. Nonetheless, she found herself agreeing with the Austrian fraud of all people. Guilt was determined in a trial, not established as pseudo-fact before one, even if all facts pointed towards her destruction of a library, and the lack of intervention of a mysterious witness was strange. Furthermore, even if she had a reputation for arson, what was her motive for burning a building down? On her first day? If anything, her reputation would make it less likely to be her-- the ideal candidate to frame. She wondered if the bird was able to manage to pick up any useful data during the night despite the fog.

It wasn’t her direct mission, but she decided to intervene. She raised a hand.

“I may not be an egoist, but I believe it would be only proper for some of her fellow dormmates to participate in her supervision alongside the volunteer.”

She gave a nod towards Ryuuko. The Japanese egoist, was it?

There was something more to this than meets the eye, and Nazca needed to know.

The Epic of Beginnings - Fragments of a weathered scroll

Narkissa Langdon

@Rune_Alchemist @PKMNB0Y

Narkissa slowly made her way towards the scene of the commotion. Carrying all the new stuff was still a bit cumbersome, even with two bags to hold all her stuff and her sword awkwardly holstered in a makeshift belt, but she managed. It did make her a little less than stealthy, though, so she approached carefully.

It seemed she wasn’t as good at making herself unseen as she thought, though, when she heard her name called out by none other than Lazhira. Raising an eyebrow at the waving girl, she made her way over. Hopefully Lazhira was the only one that had seen her, as she would soon find out.

By the time she reached the girl, Narkissa realized they weren’t alone, in more than one way—Miksaki was there, shushing the other girl, and it was also evident there were hunters down in the darkness. Hunting something, obviously.

“Hello,” she greeted simply, keeping her voice down. “I’ll confess I’m out of the loop, seems a lot has happened since we met at Mie’s,” she shrugged, peering over at the scene. She crossed her arms. “Considering their track record over the past couple days, nothing good. Lazhira, they aren’t after you, are they?”