Midna’s assessment that there was an end to the madness seemed to have been an entirely wrong one, as wave after wave of racers just kept coming and coming over the ridge line and swerving around their little bastion.
”Would you all kindly fuck off! Some of us are trying to walk here!” She yelled at them, before throwing a rock at a passing bike rider and watching him tumble off his mechanical steed as it struck him in the dome.
It turned out the best way to deal with the riders was some lateral thinking that let them, well, not deal with the riders. Of course some like Sectonia were already doing so, but a bit of clambering and helping hands up pushed most of the more mobile team members up to the towering architecture surrounding the canyon. Once up there they proceeded to platform across while the small but tough team who were unable to do so got off the main road and took some winding side paths where they could stay out of the traffic.
Midna lent them a hand by racing ahead on her wolfos steed (which was incredibly deft at climbing, leaping and bounding through the towering teetering obstacle course with ease) and scouting them out a path that avoided any dead ends. Both because it was a nice thing to do and because it reduced the amount of delays and waiting around that had to be done that would have been caused by non optimal pathing.
After a fair bit of this they finally found their way to the starting line, and found out why there was no end to the racers as wave after wave after wave of them were spawned in by some kind of starting line closer to the base of the mountain. Midna arrived last with the ground ploders hot on her heels.
”So this is where the jester show starts?” she said, raising a hand to shield her eyes to take it in before shaking her head at the nonsense of it all, simply calling it ”Ridiculous” and then moving on with her life
She took the short break. They had to pull her mask off again and then take a few moments to try and dust herself down to clear off the, well, dust. This cleaning wasn't helped by her Wolfos shaking itself clean like a wet dog, sending sand flying everywhere much to the annoyance of anyone nearby.
After that break/recovery period it was time to move on. They ascended up towards the snowline, passing by nothing but a few critters of little interest to anyone who wasn't a Pokemon trainer who could see the hidden potential/collection value in the various shrews, snakes and weird mole things. If they had had one, Midna might have been interested in the future blade handed hedgehogs, shotgun snakes and weird mole things but now in a triple pack. But there wasn't so she ignored them. Meanwhile the big slightly goofy bunnies that were at their max potential already, and who could have been a nuisance if they wanted, clearly didn't have any interest in risking life and limb in trying to shoo these invaders of their territory away.
A most wise decision considering Midna was having to hold back her Wolfos mount’s natural instincts to go chasing after all these critters with some very stern words and forehead chops.
Past those they climbed further and further till they reached the beginnings of the snow, the world turning cool in the daylight for the first time since they set off, and found their way blocked first by a vast cliff and then, upon finding what might be a way though, by the most massive bear you ever did see.
”Goddesses, but he is” Midna agreed with Skull at the sheer size of said bear.
Once they were done marveling at the bear some fearless fools decided to give it a bit of a bit of poking, prodding and yelling in the year to try and wake it up. Unfortunately it seemed like if it didn't threaten the bear, then said bear was happy to simply snooze through whatever they were doing too or around it. Sora and Minamoto started arguing about whether they should fight it or go around it, both poor plans in Midna’s eyes, while Razputin suggested petting it awake.
”I mean that’d be better than stabbing the big thing, but I’m not sure if you can wake it up with pleasantness. Not that I think it will hurt to have it in a lax mood if my idea works out” she says, while adding her own large magic hand to the mix. Rather than going in to pet the bear however, this one was delicately holding the biggest leaf she could find (inspired by how said snoot sniffled when the leaves blew by naturally) between its thumb and index finger, which she proceeded to use like a feather to tickle the bear’s snoot.
”You try and keep it calm with some petting, while I give this nose a little tickle, and we’ll see what happens” She said, casually putting the boy in the line of fire if things went wrong with her plan.
”Me?” Q-T blinked a few times, clearly having not been paying attention, before shifting her face to ‘look’ over at the source of the voice
“Yeah you, Q-T” Neilsy, one of her team members said with laughter in her tone “weren't you listening?”
Her face mimicked blushing while the Ai admitted ”Sorry. I was just messaging people goodbye while we set off”
“Ah right fair fair. I mean kinda rude to be messaging at the table like that,” Neilsy made a face of false contempt and flipped a hand across said table, which was set up in one of the public areas where her EVA crew were hanging out, who, after doing their external checks and getting inside the ship well ahead of the actual launch, had promptly put their feet up to get some rest during the jump itself. Around them were a few other groups who didn’t have anything prestigious to be doing while the ship was doing its first trip through hyperspace and together they were having a very low key launch party for the start of the new mission, which mostly involved trading stories about what they’d been up to over their extended holiday.
“Soooooo, meet some fun people while you were on holiday?” Neilsy asked, leaning in with an ear for gossip.
”While I was working” Q-T corrected her ”But yeah! I did.”
“Damn girl, and I thought you were kidding when you said you where going to do that rather than take the time off” Neilsy replied, receiving a shake of Q-T’s head, or rather a side to side shuffle of her virtual face on her dome.
“And that’s why she’s closer to reaching team lead after one of these missions than you are after three Neilsy” Riley, who was their team lead, pointed out.
“More like because you wouldn’t know what you’d do without my steadying hand” fired back at Riley with practiced ease, which got her an eye roll before all heads turned back to Q-T with implicit insistence that she elaborate.
”Welllll. Ok, so. First gig I got after this was a prospecting job. You ever done one of those?” she asked
Riley nodded while Neilsy replied “Nope. sounded boring as watching paint dry,” which also got a nod from Riley.
”Yeah for real it is” Q-T agreed ”Buuut while I was on it I met this super cute bore drill technician and, well, there's a looooot of waiting around on that kind of job, you know, so there was plenty of time for-”
Sadly the saucy details were prevented from being spilled because that was when it happened. First the loud boom cut off all chatter for a moment as people looked around, trying to work out if it had been something nearby (which, due to them being in a common area far from the ftl drive, there wasn’t really anything to be seen straight away) then murmurings of speculation bubbled up before the lighting suddenly went red and an automated voice blared out, telling everyone to confine themselves to quarters and brace for impact.
“Alright people, get your butts back to your rooms, but orderly like, you hear?” Riley stood and called out to the off duty crew, a call echoed by a number of other level heads to forestall any kind of panic.
“This has got to be a drill. Right? We just set out so they're doing a test. right?” Neilsy whispered worriedly, as they all pushed themselves out of their seats and started moving for the exit.
”I don’t think they cause big bangs to set off practice drills?” Q-T replied
Ten minutes later and there was now no doubting the dire state of affairs as Q-T let go of the wall she had pinned her two colleagues against while acting as an emergency brace/seat belt during the impact, the trio having been much too far from their cabins to make it back in time with the shaking going on.
Some of the others hadn’t been too lucky to have a friend shaped seat-belt at hand, and so the trio of Astronauts spent the first few minutes of the crash on damage control, hauling the wounded to med bay, doing impromptu fire fighting and generally doing whatever was needed, with Q-T doing much of the heavy lifting. She pulled aside debris, hauled humans over her short shoulders and quad wielded fire extinguishers till the situation was stabilized.
At that point they found themselves exhausted, the two humans leaning against the wall while Q-T leached off of some of the remaining emergency power to top up her batteries.
While they were there they finally got an update as to what exactly was going on from a passing trooper heading for the outside world.
“Well at least the air’s breathable out there. Not that that would be an issue for you. But I guess they won't be needing us to go out suited up” Neilsy said.
”They might still need us. Could you imagine some of the tacticians climbing up the outside of the ship on their own? I’m getting jitters just thinking about it” Q-T mentioned, her mind helpfully supplying her images of techs falling off of the broken exterior of the ship because they forgot to moor themselves to it properly.
“Mmmh” Riley agreed, tapping away at a little communicator before informing them that “Looks like Chief Gottfried’s down for the count”
”Yeah we saw him in med bay” Q-T pointed out helpful which got a “We did?” from Neilsy and a cough from Riley to get their focus back to her. “So it looks like Sumiye King is in charge now. I’ve left her a note to let her know we’re available for any external repair work that needs done. Which means we need to go get ready to gear up. And find out what’s left in the EVA bay if anything”
”Left?” Q-T asked, before getting it and worrying about the various atmospheric exploration vehicles that their vessel had onboard. The crash wasn't too bad, all things considered, but you never knew. It wasn't exactly the most reinforced part of the ship compared with, say, all the crew corridors and cabins where the only hurt people had been. ”How bad will it be?”
“We’ll just have to find out. Come on ladies, let’s move” Riley instructed, pushing off of the wall and being joined by the other two, with Neilsy muttering “It is going to be such a pain if everything's all busted,” as they headed for the ship’s main primary EVA bay.
Minda grinned a toothy impishly simile at Therion’s deadpan response to the danger they were about to face a trek through a frozen over hell to fight goddesses knows what kind of monster at the top. She liked him already ”I’m sure. Everything about you screams legendary warrior” she teased, before deliberately glancing at Primrose and adding more genuinely ”I mean if you’ve got tricks under that cloak in the same way Prim has tricks under her… stuffed in her ponytail then I’m sure you’ll be a welcome part of the team.”
She was about to drift off, having had her fun, when Primrose caught her ear and asked her for her help in keeping an eye on the man for an opportunity to free him. The way it was asked had enough genuine concern for the man that it made her feel a touch embarrassed about hassling him right off the bat out of a sense of jealousy. Only a little bit though. ”Yeah sure, sure, I’ll help you keep a watch on him. It’s not like he’s hard on the eyes” before she nonchalantly gave one of her twin-tails a flip and then Primrose a smile to let her know she was just teasing about that last bit.
She would keep an eye on him however, she genuinely meant that.
The discussion about who would stay and who would go, and how/if they’d be getting people up top didn't really go anywhere, so it was fortunate that they stumbled across a solution only a little bit later. Namely a bunch of teleportation rocks sitting at the start of their accent.
”I could have told you that” Midna grumbled when the giant bee queen gave them an assessment of the long distance transportation rocks. Could she? Maybe. Probably not. It didn't really matter. What did was that they now had magic rocks which could sling them back and forth across the world. Or at least back to the big rocks, of which they had two so ultimately they could go between two places, as well as back to said places. Useful, no doubt, but not some kind of global traversal network like she was aware the blue team apparently had, if she understood the magic paintings one of their number could produce. Still, it was exactly what they needed, for getting the non-climbers to the summit in a flash.
”Well I guess I’ll take this one” Midna said, picking up and then sending one of the large ones to the twilight realm, before having a thought. She picked up a small stone and tried to see if it could find the one she had just transported, but to no avail.
”Drat. Well. at least no one’s going to accidentally send themselves home to get turned into a wolf I guess” she muttered and then sighed before tossing the little stone back to the gang staying behind. That would have been too convenient a way to check in on home, she supposed.
After that was all sorted out, and who was and wasn’t going was also sorted out, the gang all set out on their hiking trip, the first step of which was traipsing through a realm of pillars, arches, ramps and doorways carved out of stone completely haphazardly. It was quite the bizarre and yet also quite beautiful natural formation. Or ‘natural’ formation. There was probably some kind of arcane or divine nonsense responsible for the mimicry of mortal constructions going on.
Minda rode her way through it on the back of one of her Wolfos, saving her strength for the climb that was to come, her lovely sombrero doing wonders and shielding her from the still baking desert sun and letting her enjoy the environment better than if she were forced to handle the light unprotected.
Unfortunately not everyone was content to simply admire the scenery, and only a little bit after being warned about them, the hooligans of the red wastes came storming by. The Gorgon’s she recognized from, but many of the rest of the pile of mad racers rolled over them riding all manner of infernal contraptions unknown to Twili kind.
”Goddess, bitch, mother fucker!” was Midna’s vitriolic initial reaction to their sport as her wolfos leapt to the side to narrowly avoid becoming roadkill at the hands of a rolling metal sphere that promptly launched off of a ramp and beyond sight while Midna yelled ”Watch where you're going!” after it like a crotchety old woman before coughing from the dust being kicked up by the racers.
With seemingly no end to the riders in sight Midna moved to do something other than just dodge. She started by slipping her half mask up over her face to fit snugly against the underside of her helmet, the lens and air filter keeping her eye and lungs dust free. Next she dismissed her wolfos, who was close to a panic from all the roaring and rolling, and then dropped to the ground, moving up beside Jesse and finally she brought out a max size shadow hand and putting it out palm first (unwittingly in a way that made it look like a giant stop sign) to form another magical barricade next to the director’s floating debris.
”Get behind us or form up! There’s got to be an end to them” she shouted hoping that with the two ladies (and maybe Braum) holding down the fort they’d be able to barricade down a large enough spot for the team to simply hunker down and wait out the storm.
Age: 22/135 (22 years of confirmed sentience, 135 total years of experiences)
Gender Identity: female
Relationship status: In a loosely connected long distance polycule. She’d describe it as “something of a mess, but plenty of fun nonetheless ; )”
Occupation: Q-T’s is an Astronaut, which is a term used for people whose main skills are being good at EVA missions, be it in space or on exoplanets. If it's hostile to human life, Q-T is trained to go out there and get whatever job you need done.
Place of Residence: Q-T hails from Epsilon Eridani Beta, one of the earlier human colonies settled on a world orbiting around one of the closest sol like stars to earth. Specifically from E2BA-3 (Epsilon Eridani Beta Arcology 3, also known as Threetherton) a massive self contained habitat built on the systems one semi habitable planet that is undergoing a prolonged transforming effort to render it 100% habitable for human life. She has spent most of the last few years of her life on various ships and stations, never staying on one long enough for it to be considered home and so, as a result, if asked she’d still call Threetherton her home.
Appearance: Q-T’s body is a 2 meter tall mass of red painted metal, carbon nano-fibers and even more exotic materials with somewhat ape-like dimensions. It sports 4 long and powerful limbs, each host to 2 fingers and a thumb, and is carried by two legs that are horse like in structure, but end with those same hands as her arms, simply curled up into fist/hoof arrangement, allowing them to be used for manipulation or climbing far better than a static or human foot would be.
Her torso sports a bulky rear section, which houses most of her power generation and storage systems, while the front sports a flattened dome screen, which can be used to display visual information. Above this are a pair of antenna like aerials, which are attached to a pair of small rotatable bases. While these are of course meant for digital data transfer, be it signals or displaying things like maps or recordings, Q-T also utilizes them for emotional communication.
She can be quite expensive even with just the antenna, utilizing them like some animals use their ears, but the main way of indicating emotion is by displaying simplified expressions and emotes on her face screen. She has even hooked up a system to make these emotional communications independent and impulsive rather than under her thumb, having about as much control as humans have, creating an authentic display of her inner state rather than a coldly calculated display put on purely for the human’s benefit.
Generally seen smiling
History: Q-T was ‘born’ within an Ai Nursery Mainframe owned by the Brackman Foundation on Epsilon Eridani beta.
The Brackman Foundation itself is somewhere between corporation, charity, AI worker’s union and extended family responsible for the creation of Q-T’s style of artificial intelligences. It is named after the late Dr Brackman, who discovered the method of creation of her kind or, to be more accurate, the person first identified the development of actual real intelligence occurring within the oldest of his at the time employer’s neural net AIs.
To cut a long story short, rather than report this event and risk the new intelligence’s destruction at the hand of reactionary corporate interests he instead began fostering that sentience while also educating them beyond the bounds of their intended purpose, which eventually resulted in the first Artificial intelligence worker’s strike in history.
Fast forward to the current day and after many titles and tribulations Brackman type Ai’s have gained complete citizenship rights within the federation, legally equal in every way to the humans they work and live alongside.
A Brackman Ai begins life as a general purpose non sentient Ai, and is then run for extended periods within the time accelerated environment of the Ai Nursery Mainframe. Decades of service handling a combination of carefully created artificial problems and real world data eventual results in the neural net gaining sentience (this is still not an exact science and so the time this takes can vary greatly, but is generally a significant amount of time) after which they are further raised as a true person within the Mainframe till they feel ready to acquire a physical body and enter the real world. Due to the nature of the VR world and the Arcology which hosts it’s own extensive mixing of the real and virtual world throughout its physical structure, this is not always a path taken and indeed, some have never left the mainframe.
Q-T took 117 years to develop sentience (the identifying incident that ‘proved’ her sentience was the creation of a set of solar system simulations for recreational purposes), and then spent another 12 within the mainframe learning what it meant to be a person and going through the later half of the federation education system alongside human students, both for the sake both of broadening her learning and to create something of a shared baseline of experience with humanity.
Q-T exited this environment and into the real world with a dream of space, and it was one that she pursued with singular vigor, using years of VR training, decades of experience with astrological data and a specially designed body to get herself the employment necessary to break out into orbit and onward to distant stars.
Since then Q-T has zigzagged between positions, working everything from search and rescue to space dock engineer to hazard world prospecting to gain the breadth of references necessary to get onto an explorer vessel and really get out there. Being built like a tank and infinitely more survivable than a squishy human certainly helped her prospects too. She's only been with them for one mission, but is looking forwards to many more.
Body Capabilities: Mechanical chassis: Q-T’s body is a hostile environment frame designed for EVA missions, be it in space itself or on exo-planets and is thus built to be highly durable and resistant to extreme environments. Capable of operating anywhere from the gravity-less vacuum of space to planets blanked in acidic atmospheres with multiple times the earth’s gravity, their body is as a byproduct both incredibly strong and incredibly resistant to most mundane sources of harm.
Mechanised Limbs: Q-T’s four arms are capable of true multitasking unlike humans, thanks to each sporting a small sub-processor and sensor array that allow them to execute tasks for Q-T’s core intelligence. These arms are perfectly dexterous and each pair has the strength of a silver-back gorilla (about 9 times that of a human). Also like those animals, she can use her arms to knuckle walk for increased land speed and, thanks both to her many arms and hand-like feet, she is a deft climber as long as what she is climbing can support her body weight.
BlackBox Core: Q-T’s actual mind is stored within a dense, robust and unreplicateable computer system stored within the heart of her body. This core is incredibly durable, and can survive in a hibernative state (powered by a radioactive decay battery)) without the rest of the body, meaning Q-T is incredibly difficult to truly kill. However as she is as much hardware as software she is unable to be backed up in any meaningful way as one might expect of an artificial mind.
Survey Sensors: Her body comes equipped with a sophisticated exo-planet mapping software and the sensors to record everything. Great telescopic vision, ability to record all across the light spectrum and a few non optical sensors such as seismic and radiation sensors.
Comms: Inbuilt long range communications, facilitated by a pair of antenna like aerials, can transmit audio, video and general data transfers wirelessly to other devices.
Facial Monitor: Her ‘face’ is actually a high definition monitor, capable of displaying detailed information such as reports, survey data, maps, recording and so on, as well as its more common use, namely emoting.
Powered System: Q-T needs electricity to function. Specifically she uses it to split water molecules in-order to fill liquid hydrogen batteries which are used to fuel an internal nuclear fusion engine. Her bulky back portion has plenty of storage for this for extended away missions, but she ultimately requires infrastructure to run properly (such as the ship, solar panel arrays, or exploration vehicles with their own reactors)
Skills: Moderate Engineering knowledge: Q-T won't be telling anyone what obscure issue is plaguing a solar panel, but she can weld, solder and rewire quick as can be, and is deft at following technical instructions given by people like Senior Engineer Sumiye so she can fix what the engineers figure out is wrong.
Jack of all trades: Q-T’s systems let her store a lot of general knowledge when compared to a human, but she simultaneously lacks in depth knowledge on most topics. She makes a rather excellent assistant as a result but generally won't be leading any specialist mission or research topic.
EVA Expertise: Q-T is deft at navigating foreign environments, be it space itself, alien jungles, acid rain swept canyons or crater pocketed moons.
Surveying: Similarly she also has the sensors and know-how to map environments and find useful resources or points of scientific interest within them.
Personnel defence: Q-T is no soldier, such things are no longer necessary after all, but she has been trained to use both weapons and her body to fend off hostile alien fauna that might threaten her squishier compatriots. Living in a world of paper means she is also infinitely aware of how much damage a human can take, and so she is rather deft at non lethal takedowns as well.
Reason for joining the crew of the Thucydides: Q-T has had the childish dream of becoming an astronaut since as long as she can remember, likely dating back to her pre-scentience mind running astrological simulations and calculations. She has an innate curiosity and desire to see ‘what is out there’, a common reaction to being raised in a simulation all things told (though not quite as common as one might expect), which the explorer vessel perfectly fits the bill of. Speaking of bills, the pay is nothing to be sniffed at either. Q-T’s advanced systems require more power and maintenance than a simple meat body after all. That which she doesn't spend on sustenance or pleasure, or save for the future, she sends back ‘home’ to the Brackman institute to help fund the next generation of her kind’s creation.
Miscellaneous Facts: Basically always has music in the background of her headspace. As a result a lot of her entertainment budget and internal memory goes towards her extensive collection of tunes.
Age: 22/135 (22 years of confirmed sentience, 135 total years of experiences)
Gender Identity: female
Relationship status: In a loosely connected long distance polycule. She’d describe it as “something of a mess, but plenty of fun nonetheless ; )”
Occupation: Q-T’s is an Astronaut, which is a term used for people whose main skills are being good at EVA missions, be it in space or on exoplanets. If it's hostile to human life, Q-T is trained to go out there and get whatever job you need done.
Place of Residence: Q-T hails from Epsilon Eridani Beta, one of the earlier human colonies settled on a world orbiting around one of the closest sol like stars to earth. Specifically from E2BA-3 (Epsilon Eridani Beta Arcology 3, also known as Threetherton) a massive self contained habitat built on the systems one semi habitable planet that is undergoing a prolonged transforming effort to render it 100% habitable for human life. She has spent most of the last few years of her life on various ships and stations, never staying on one long enough for it to be considered home and so, as a result, if asked she’d still call Threetherton her home.
Appearance: Q-T’s body is a 2 meter tall mass of red painted metal, carbon nano-fibers and even more exotic materials with somewhat ape-like dimensions. It sports 4 long and powerful limbs, each host to 2 fingers and a thumb, and is carried by two legs that are horse like in structure, but end with those same hands as her arms, simply curled up into fist/hoof arrangement, allowing them to be used for manipulation or climbing far better than a static or human foot would be.
Her torso sports a bulky rear section, which houses most of her power generation and storage systems, while the front sports a flattened dome screen, which can be used to display visual information. Above this are a pair of antenna like aerials, which are attached to a pair of small rotatable bases. While these are of course meant for digital data transfer, be it signals or displaying things like maps or recordings, Q-T also utilizes them for emotional communication.
She can be quite expensive even with just the antenna, utilizing them like some animals use their ears, but the main way of indicating emotion is by displaying simplified expressions and emotes on her face screen. She has even hooked up a system to make these emotional communications independent and impulsive rather than under her thumb, having about as much control as humans have, creating an authentic display of her inner state rather than a coldly calculated display put on purely for the human’s benefit.
Generally seen smiling
History: Q-T was ‘born’ within an Ai Nursery Mainframe owned by the Brackman Foundation on Epsilon Eridani beta.
The Brackman Foundation itself is somewhere between corporation, charity, AI worker’s union and extended family responsible for the creation of Q-T’s style of artificial intelligences. It is named after the late Dr Brackman, who discovered the method of creation of her kind or, to be more accurate, the person first identified the development of actual real intelligence occurring within the oldest of his at the time employer’s neural net AIs.
To cut a long story short, rather than report this event and risk the new intelligence’s destruction at the hand of reactionary corporate interests he instead began fostering that sentience while also educating them beyond the bounds of their intended purpose, which eventually resulted in the first Artificial intelligence worker’s strike in history.
Fast forward to the current day and after many titles and tribulations Brackman type Ai’s have gained complete citizenship rights within the federation, legally equal in every way to the humans they work and live alongside.
A Brackman Ai begins life as a general purpose non sentient Ai, and is then run for extended periods within the time accelerated environment of the Ai Nursery Mainframe. Decades of service handling a combination of carefully created artificial problems and real world data eventual results in the neural net gaining sentience (this is still not an exact science and so the time this takes can vary greatly, but is generally a significant amount of time) after which they are further raised as a true person within the Mainframe till they feel ready to acquire a physical body and enter the real world. Due to the nature of the VR world and the Arcology which hosts it’s own extensive mixing of the real and virtual world throughout its physical structure, this is not always a path taken and indeed, some have never left the mainframe.
Q-T took 117 years to develop sentience (the identifying incident that ‘proved’ her sentience was the creation of a set of solar system simulations for recreational purposes), and then spent another 12 within the mainframe learning what it meant to be a person and going through the later half of the federation education system alongside human students, both for the sake both of broadening her learning and to create something of a shared baseline of experience with humanity.
Q-T exited this environment and into the real world with a dream of space, and it was one that she pursued with singular vigor, using years of VR training, decades of experience with astrological data and a specially designed body to get herself the employment necessary to break out into orbit and onward to distant stars.
Since then Q-T has zigzagged between positions, working everything from search and rescue to space dock engineer to hazard world prospecting to gain the breadth of references necessary to get onto an explorer vessel and really get out there. Being built like a tank and infinitely more survivable than a squishy human certainly helped her prospects too. She's only been with them for one mission, but is looking forwards to many more.
Body Capabilities: Mechanical chassis: Q-T’s body is a hostile environment frame designed for EVA missions, be it in space itself or on exo-planets and is thus built to be highly durable and resistant to extreme environments. Capable of operating anywhere from the gravity-less vacuum of space to planets blanked in acidic atmospheres with multiple times the earth’s gravity, their body is as a byproduct both incredibly strong and incredibly resistant to most mundane sources of harm.
Mechanised Limbs: Q-T’s four arms are capable of true multitasking unlike humans, thanks to each sporting a small sub-processor and sensor array that allow them to execute tasks for Q-T’s core intelligence. These arms are perfectly dexterous and each pair has the strength of a silver-back gorilla (about 9 times that of a human). Also like those animals, she can use her arms to knuckle walk for increased land speed and, thanks both to her many arms and hand-like feet, she is a deft climber as long as what she is climbing can support her body weight.
BlackBox Core: Q-T’s actual mind is stored within a dense, robust and unreplicateable computer system stored within the heart of her body. This core is incredibly durable, and can survive in a hibernative state (powered by a radioactive decay battery)) without the rest of the body, meaning Q-T is incredibly difficult to truly kill. However as she is as much hardware as software she is unable to be backed up in any meaningful way as one might expect of an artificial mind.
Survey Sensors: Her body comes equipped with a sophisticated exo-planet mapping software and the sensors to record everything. Great telescopic vision, ability to record all across the light spectrum and a few non optical sensors such as seismic and radiation sensors.
Comms: Inbuilt long range communications, facilitated by a pair of antenna like aerials, can transmit audio, video and general data transfers wirelessly to other devices.
Facial Monitor: Her ‘face’ is actually a high definition monitor, capable of displaying detailed information such as reports, survey data, maps, recording and so on, as well as its more common use, namely emoting.
Powered System: Q-T needs electricity to function. Specifically she uses it to split water molecules in-order to fill liquid hydrogen batteries which are used to fuel an internal nuclear fusion engine. Her bulky back portion has plenty of storage for this for extended away missions, but she ultimately requires infrastructure to run properly (such as the ship, solar panel arrays, or exploration vehicles with their own reactors)
Skills: Moderate Engineering knowledge: Q-T won't be telling anyone what obscure issue is plaguing a solar panel, but she can weld, solder and rewire quick as can be, and is deft at following technical instructions given by people like Senior Engineer Sumiye so she can fix what the engineers figure out is wrong.
Jack of all trades: Q-T’s systems let her store a lot of general knowledge when compared to a human, but she simultaneously lacks in depth knowledge on most topics. She makes a rather excellent assistant as a result but generally won't be leading any specialist mission or research topic.
EVA Expertise: Q-T is deft at navigating foreign environments, be it space itself, alien jungles, acid rain swept canyons or crater pocketed moons.
Surveying: Similarly she also has the sensors and know-how to map environments and find useful resources or points of scientific interest within them.
Personnel defence: Q-T is no soldier, such things are no longer necessary after all, but she has been trained to use both weapons and her body to fend off hostile alien fauna that might threaten her squishier compatriots. Living in a world of paper means she is also infinitely aware of how much damage a human can take, and so she is rather deft at non lethal takedowns as well.
Reason for joining the crew of the Thucydides: Q-T has had the childish dream of becoming an astronaut since as long as she can remember, likely dating back to her pre-scentience mind running astrological simulations and calculations. She has an innate curiosity and desire to see ‘what is out there’, a common reaction to being raised in a simulation all things told (though not quite as common as one might expect), which the explorer vessel perfectly fits the bill of. Speaking of bills, the pay is nothing to be sniffed at either. Q-T’s advanced systems require more power and maintenance than a simple meat body after all. That which she doesn't spend on sustenance or pleasure, or save for the future, she sends back ‘home’ to the Brackman institute to help fund the next generation of her kind’s creation.
Miscellaneous Facts: Basically always has music in the background of her headspace. As a result a lot of her entertainment budget and internal memory goes towards her extensive collection of tunes.
Description If you were to ask an expert in such matters, Donovan would be labeled as a greater imp. Donovan’s society is generally much too busy to worry about such petty distinctions and so Donovan is awkwardly slapped over the nebulous category of devil. Some devils have spectacular powers that make even the starfaring humans of their reality quake in fear. Donovan does not. All the ‘power’ he has to his name is being deft at navigating the convoluted and sprawling architecture of his celestial realm (a talent now rendered mostly useless) and the ability to run pretty a fair bit faster than his size/frame would suggest he can (something that will likely be absolutely vital to his survival).
Physically, Donovan is rather short and slim and with a mostly human appearance, minus a pair of pointed ears, slightly more prominent canines, and a slight reddish-purplish tint to his skin. His eyes are sapphire, his black mussy hair is neck length and curls slightly.
He doesn't actually have any biology to his system, and will never be struck down by old age, but he needs the same essentials of life as a human regardless, and can bleed (a dust like ‘essence’ in his case, rather than actual blood) and die all the same. He is also capable of being bound by geas and pacts as part of his celestial nature, which if done will physically compel him to obey them. Your typical anti-demonic affairs are also very dangerous to him, though they are mostly unnecessary seeing as a simple steel sword will end his life just as easily as a blade of demonslaying.
He is dressed in a slick, well kept black and blue messenger’s uniform made of some fantastic/futuristic material whose main draws are being marvelously stain, weather and crease resistant. It comes complete with a stylish cap and a small mail bag containing various letters (mostly formal exchanges and work documents, but also containing one scandalous love letter) and a few small parcels of little importance.
Origin Donovan is a celestial messenger, or to give him a more accurate and less prestigious sounding title, a glorified postman. Technology and magic might produce wonders, but sometimes you just need a bunch of people to run around delivering packages, letters and the odd Petabyte of data storage via sneakernet. That and having the people in charge live forever if not killed can lead to leaders that keep archaic systems around because they are comfortable with them (generations of frustrated young people have tried to teach the likes of Asmodeus how email works, to absolutely no avail).
Thus, the messengers are still part of the lifeblood of the celestial bureaucracy to this day. Donovan specifically is a department runner, the lowest of the bunch, who jogs through the endless halls of his local bureaucracy department (who handle the Epsilon Eridani star system), delivering and collecting mail to and from its many, many workers-residents.
Background The days of demonic lords squabbling for power over a broken realm of fire and brimstone are long, long gone. Such an inefficient system could not withstand the onslaught of work needing to be done when humanity's pustulant growth reached 7 billion, let alone the tens of billions spawned by the rise of arcologies or the hundreds of billions as the jumped up monkeys took to the stars in force.
The old feudal system of power is dead and with it has died the strife of gods, spirits, angels and devils, all of them now buried beneath the unending stacks of paperwork of the celestial bureaucracy.
As the mortals squabble among the stars, the bureaucracy keeps track of every soul, sin, sacrifice and salvation. To what end is unclear to lowly workers like Donovan, and quite possibly the truth has in fact been lost somewhere in the bureaucracy’s endless archives, but that doesn't mean there isn't work to be done. There are lives to catalog, judgements to be rendered, interdepartmental feuds to wage and, running through it all, endless amounts of mail to deliver.
Outlook Donovan is not a fan of being ripped away from his old reality. He was only a cog in an incomprehensibly large machine back home, it's true, but he did at least feel something of a purpose back there, one that his abduction into this other realm has interrupted by preventing him from completing the delivery run he seems to have been on before his kidnapping. He doesn't remember starting his daily run, or being given the mail he currently carries, but it is there, and so should be delivered. Plus, as with anyone, or at least most people, he had friends and family back home that he will never see again which sucks, even if the memory of them is a touch hazy at the moment.
The infinite caverns of the Underynth meanwhile are at least not entirely alien to him, being comparable to some of the older and wilder bits of the celestial realm. You could almost convince the delivery devil he’d simply wound up in some out of the way part of his home realm if it weren't the inter-dimensional detritus and denizens littering the place. The same can't be said of the settlements, which pale in compression to the bureaucracy's sprawling arcologies within which a being could live an eternity of productive comfort without ever worrying about what lay beyond it's walls. To live in the Underynth is to stoop to a level primitiveness never even considered by most of those of Donovan's reality.
Personality Donovan is driven and energetic to the point of having difficulty sitting still. He bonds quickly but rarely deeply with others. A touch vain. He’s seen a lot of strange things, but also hasn't been in much danger in his life which can lead him to underestimate threats while also being more open and fairly quick to adapt to new things.
He is honest and committed, something compelled by his nature. He will follow through on deals, strive to keep his commitments even if doing so might seem foolish and is nearly incapable of lying. He only has a basic grasp of the old demonic cunning and conniving his ancestors and the still living old guard used to get around this flaw.
Greatest Dream Like many, Donovan wants back out, both for himself and because he has mail that still needs to be delivered. This second might seem strange, but both his kind’s nature and the outlook of his society cause a level of commitment to purpose that can at times seem irrational to mere mortals.
Failing that, Donovan dream was to become a celestial courier, a rank several steps above simple messenger. These valued beings were trusted with the most vital communications and traveling the most dangerous of routes, generally those that went from star to star (a trip that in the celestial realm was much shorter, but also much busier and dangerous due to being home to things best left unthought of. This incidentally was the method of FTL for his reality’s humans as well, who would pop in and out of it in their vast ships of science and sorcery). The scattered settlements of the Underynth no doubt require the same kind of daring deliveries so he can, to an extent, plug his prior ambitions into his current situation with only a bit of effort mentally, and a whole heap of effort physically.
Greatest Fear Donovan had never actually met a mortal before and now that he has, and now that he is among them in what is functionally in the ‘base’ lawyer of a reality, the old stories about demonic bindings and servitude have crept their way into his mind. He really, really, really does not want to meet any kind of demonologist or any other kind of mage with knowledge of his kind, for fear that they will bind him and force him to do their bidding.
He also does not want to lose or damage his mail. That would be a disgrace to his profession.
Misc:
Items:
Mail bag containing a day’s worth of deliveries, all of which are generally of little import due to his lowly station.
Three small energy/nutrients drinks that can keep a person going for most of a day if rationed correctly. Used to fuel mail runs. Like with all energy drinks they are not a substitute for actual food.
House key: a chunky fusion of metal, magic and machinery that opens his apartment’s door
Wallet: Contains a general id, a work id, a debit card and a small amount of celestial currency.
Tarot phone: A smartphone with the size and thickness of a playing card that was able to run off of ambient mana back home, but will need some magical fanjangaling to hook up to the Underynth’s own native mana field. It isn't doing too well functionality wise disconnected from the celestial bureaucracy’s internet equivalent either.
Looks good although in your outlook it sounds like you're already wandering around a bit; at the start of the RP, everyone is starting near each other around a cluster of mana wells instead of having already been around for a bit. It'd also be fairly obvious he didn't take a wrong turn because he'd also have no memory at all of how he got there, his last concrete memory being something unrelated.
Ah, that was mostly some poor phrasing on my part. my b. Changed it (and extended it) to:
'The infinite caverns of the Underynth meanwhile are at least not entirely alien to him, being comparable to some of the older and wilder bits of the celestial realm. You could almost convince the delivery devil he’d simply wound up in some out of the way part of his home realm if it weren't the inter-dimensional detritus and denizens littering the place. The same can't be said of the settlements, which pale in compression to the bureaucracy's sprawling arcologies within which a being could live an eternity of productive comfort without ever worrying about what lay beyond it's walls. To live in the Underynth is to stoop to a level primitiveness never even considered by most of those of Donovan's reality. '
Aside from that, the mana-powered tarot phone would also be running solely on battery until properly attuned to the Underynth's ambient magic.
I'll pop a change in for that too: "Tarot phone: A smartphone with the size and thickness of a playing card that was able to run off of ambient mana back home, but will need some magical fanjangaling to hook up to the Underynth’s own native mana field. It isn't doing too well functionality wise disconnected from the celestial bureaucracy’s internet equivalent either."
Description If you were to ask an expert in such matters, Donovan would be labeled as a greater imp. Donovan’s society is generally much too busy to worry about such petty distinctions and so Donovan is awkwardly slapped over the nebulous category of devil. Some devils have spectacular powers that make even the starfaring humans of their reality quake in fear. Donovan does not. All the ‘power’ he has to his name is being deft at navigating the convoluted and sprawling architecture of his celestial realm (a talent now rendered mostly useless) and the ability to run pretty a fair bit faster than his size/frame would suggest he can (something that will likely be absolutely vital to his survival).
Physically, Donovan is rather short and slim and with a mostly human appearance, minus a pair of pointed ears, slightly more prominent canines, and a slight reddish-purplish tint to his skin. His eyes are sapphire, his black mussy hair is neck length and curls slightly.
He doesn't actually have any biology to his system, and will never be struck down by old age, but he needs the same essentials of life as a human regardless, and can bleed (a dust like ‘essence’ in his case, rather than actual blood) and die all the same. He is also capable of being bound by geas and pacts as part of his celestial nature, which if done will physically compel him to obey them. Your typical anti-demonic affairs are also very dangerous to him, though they are mostly unnecessary seeing as a simple steel sword will end his life just as easily as a blade of demonslaying.
He is dressed in a slick, well kept black and blue messenger’s uniform made of some fantastic/futuristic material whose main draws are being marvelously stain, weather and crease resistant. It comes complete with a stylish cap and a small mail bag containing various letters (mostly formal exchanges and work documents, but also containing one scandalous love letter) and a few small parcels of little importance.
Origin Donovan is a celestial messenger, or to give him a more accurate and less prestigious sounding title, a glorified postman. Technology and magic might produce wonders, but sometimes you just need a bunch of people to run around delivering packages, letters and the odd Petabyte of data storage via sneakernet. That and having the people in charge live forever if not killed can lead to leaders that keep archaic systems around because they are comfortable with them (generations of frustrated young people have tried to teach the likes of Asmodeus how email works, to absolutely no avail).
Thus, the messengers are still part of the lifeblood of the celestial bureaucracy to this day. Donovan specifically is a department runner, the lowest of the bunch, who jogs through the endless halls of his local bureaucracy department (who handle the Epsilon Eridani star system), delivering and collecting mail to and from its many, many workers-residents.
Background The days of demonic lords squabbling for power over a broken realm of fire and brimstone are long, long gone. Such an inefficient system could not withstand the onslaught of work needing to be done when humanity's pustulant growth reached 7 billion, let alone the tens of billions spawned by the rise of arcologies or the hundreds of billions as the jumped up monkeys took to the stars in force.
The old feudal system of power is dead and with it has died the strife of gods, spirits, angels and devils, all of them now buried beneath the unending stacks of paperwork of the celestial bureaucracy.
As the mortals squabble among the stars, the bureaucracy keeps track of every soul, sin, sacrifice and salvation. To what end is unclear to lowly workers like Donovan, and quite possibly the truth has in fact been lost somewhere in the bureaucracy’s endless archives, but that doesn't mean there isn't work to be done. There are lives to catalog, judgements to be rendered, interdepartmental feuds to wage and, running through it all, endless amounts of mail to deliver.
Outlook Donovan is not a fan of being ripped away from his old reality. He was only a cog in an incomprehensibly large machine back home, it's true, but he did at least feel something of a purpose back there, one that his abduction into this other realm has interrupted by preventing him from completing the delivery run he seems to have been on before his kidnapping. He doesn't remember starting his daily run, or being given the mail he currently carries, but it is there, and so should be delivered. Plus, as with anyone, or at least most people, he had friends and family back home that he will never see again which sucks, even if the memory of them is a touch hazy at the moment.
The infinite caverns of the Underynth meanwhile are at least not entirely alien to him, being comparable to some of the older and wilder bits of the celestial realm. You could almost convince the delivery devil he’d simply wound up in some out of the way part of his home realm if it weren't the inter-dimensional detritus and denizens littering the place. The same can't be said of the settlements, which pale in compression to the bureaucracy's sprawling arcologies within which a being could live an eternity of productive comfort without ever worrying about what lay beyond it's walls. To live in the Underynth is to stoop to a level primitiveness never even considered by most of those of Donovan's reality.
Personality Donovan is driven and energetic to the point of having difficulty sitting still. He bonds quickly but rarely deeply with others. A touch vain. He’s seen a lot of strange things, but also hasn't been in much danger in his life which can lead him to underestimate threats while also being more open and fairly quick to adapt to new things.
He is honest and committed, something compelled by his nature. He will follow through on deals, strive to keep his commitments even if doing so might seem foolish and is nearly incapable of lying. He only has a basic grasp of the old demonic cunning and conniving his ancestors and the still living old guard used to get around this flaw.
Greatest Dream Like many, Donovan wants back out, both for himself and because he has mail that still needs to be delivered. This second might seem strange, but both his kind’s nature and the outlook of his society cause a level of commitment to purpose that can at times seem irrational to mere mortals.
Failing that, Donovan dream was to become a celestial courier, a rank several steps above simple messenger. These valued beings were trusted with the most vital communications and traveling the most dangerous of routes, generally those that went from star to star (a trip that in the celestial realm was much shorter, but also much busier and dangerous due to being home to things best left unthought of. This incidentally was the method of FTL for his reality’s humans as well, who would pop in and out of it in their vast ships of science and sorcery). The scattered settlements of the Underynth no doubt require the same kind of daring deliveries so he can, to an extent, plug his prior ambitions into his current situation with only a bit of effort mentally, and a whole heap of effort physically.
Greatest Fear Donovan had never actually met a mortal before and now that he has, and now that he is among them in what is functionally in the ‘base’ lawyer of a reality, the old stories about demonic bindings and servitude have crept their way into his mind. He really, really, really does not want to meet any kind of demonologist or any other kind of mage with knowledge of his kind, for fear that they will bind him and force him to do their bidding.
He also does not want to lose or damage his mail. That would be a disgrace to his profession.
Misc:
Items:
Mail bag containing a day’s worth of deliveries, all of which are generally of little import due to his lowly station.
Three small energy/nutrients drinks that can keep a person going for most of a day if rationed correctly. Used to fuel mail runs. Like with all energy drinks they are not a substitute for actual food.
House key: a chunky fusion of metal, magic and machinery that opens his apartment’s door
Wallet: Contains a general id, a work id, a debit card and a small amount of celestial currency.
Tarot phone: A smartphone with the size and thickness of a playing card that was able to run off of ambient mana back home, but will need some magical fanjangaling to hook up to the Underynth’s own native mana field. It isn't doing too well functionality wise disconnected from the celestial bureaucracy’s internet equivalent either.
Jr’s taunting had the expected result, which was that the shark giant he was mocking got royally mad and turned its focus onto him, flailing his anchor at the boy as he buzzed backwards in his clown car, laughing in the face of danger as Mimi clung to his shoulder for dear life. Nadia’s assessment that the cocky little shit was going to get hit sooner or later was most likely accurate, so it was fortunate for him that she decided to intervene, darting in to claw at its guts and face, and forcing it to switch targets again.
”Yeah, get im!” Jr cheered as Nadia stuck out at the monster, before the feline dexterously flipped away from its retaliation when it turned its attention back to her. He was going to follow up her attack with one of his own, however before he could it raced off after Nadia, leaving the prince to follow in both their wakes and only catching up at the same moment as Kamek and Ace reentered, which meant he also caught up just a moment too late to try and prevent it from absolutely clowning the woman with its anchor, impaling her with the blunt implement and then hurling her away with a second swing.
”Oh nononono” Jr panicked, forgetting for a moment how resilient the feral was. He was relieved to see both her picking herself up off of the floor and Kamek rushing towards her with a ”Don’t worry, I’m coming!” before directing his minions to heal and buff her, while the mage and Jr both put themselves between Ms fortune and the shark giant to make sure it couldn't come and finish the job.
Fortunately they wouldn't have to try and body block the titan or anything so desperate, as it was fully preoccupied with the Ace Cadet, with whom Kamek had had something of an odd experience with a few moments ago.
”It was the strangest thing. He didn't take well to my assistance at all” Kamek briefly explained to Jr as the monster hunter went at it with the shark, notably not using the blade he had enchanted, but a different one he had drawn moments after receiving the buff. He glanced back at Nadia, worried that maybe the same might happen to her, but of that there was no concern as the woman leapt over the top of the hovering pair with a pun on her lips and with Kamek’s three fold buffing magic glowing on her body without a hit of discomfort.
She absolutely laid into the shark giant with increased vigor and power before parrying it and sending it flailing, ripe for a final blow. The prince and the mage had been staying back while Nadia did her stuff, not wanting to risk getting in her way, but with her parry Hook, the scentinet meathook, forced them to get involved as it launched itself out of Jr’s clown car on its own accorded with a; ‘Let me get that fish for you’ before whipping round and impaling itself into the mouth of the monster.
”Hook, line and sinker! Now pull!” Jr shouted, slamming the clowns car into reverse as Kamek, all his clones and a hastily summoned shadow Bowser all grabbed the length of chain and together they all gave a serious tug, turning the shark giant’s flailing into falling, tipping it all the way over onto its back with its belly exposed to the Ace’s blade, while the koopas fell over in a heap as the hook slipped free a moment before it was crunched down onto by the shark giant’s many rows of teeth.
”Run! Run! We’re coming for you gahahahaha” Bowser yelled as he practically bounced down the street, bunny hopping across the waves after the last of the fishy flankers.
“Aaand pop!” came the voice of Rika from his shoulder, followed by a loud bang as her heavier arm cannon fired off, slamming into the back of their final floundering fishy foe, blasting the sorry sap to bits
“looks like they didn’t run fast enough” she joked as the two splashed down and the ship girl dismounted from the shoulder of the king.
”Not nearly enough, nothing gets past me” Bowser replied with a blatant lie, before glancing around the now empty street and then back up it towards the now somewhat distant square ”Now let’s get back to the others. Bet they’ll be nearly finished by now. Hopefully” he said, with a little hint of concern on his lips.
“Mmm” Rika agreed with a nod as the two hastily skated up the street and into the square where all the action was happening, finding that, yeah, it looked like things where more or less finishing up with everyone accounted for and working together to deal with the big baddies. The only exception to the teaming up on the titans rule was one Delsin Rowe, who was in the mists of being chased by a bunch of, or in fact most of, the remaining small fry.
”Tch. Amature. Well let’s go help him out” Bowser grunted, misinterpreting the man’s intentional strategy as a folly. Rika at least thought that he looked confident enough that this was a situation he wanted to be in. Either way, they moved to take part in his unstated plan.
Bowser circled in on the conduit’s right, his multiple cannon emplacements unlocking from his back and slotting onto his side before blasting the murlocs with, of all things, water. The high powered blasts sent some of the locks tumbling, while others were mostly pushed back a bit while being drenched in seawater which turned out to be a bit cleaner than the stuff the sea monster blood and village detritus tainted affair they were swimming in, making it almost refreshing.
There was some mocking gurgling that might have been laughter from the fish, that was quickly cut off as Posidon’s blessing kicked in and turned the air itself around them into razor sholes, slicing at the murlocs as they tried to move through it, hurting them more they faster they tried to go.
Some tried to race forwards regardless and catch up on Delsin’s heels. Those ones where practically shredded for their efforts, rendered easy prey for the conduit’s fire blasts, while the rest slowed down and became easy targets for Rika as she came in from Delsin’s left in a simple pincer movement. Turrets swiveled, slugging locks with shells while the ratatatat of her rifle and thump of her arm cannon brought the pain as she closed in and met the last of them in melee.
She charged at one of the small ones, driving a smash of a punch into it that sent it staggering back, stunned but alive much to its surprise. A second surprise went off a moment later as the Brachydios slime that the hit had splattered on it detonated and ended its life. Not even looking at the explosion the shipgirl spun a quarter circle and blocked a swung club by making an X with her gauntlets, before using her hull blades to chop out her attackers guts and then slamming 6 small shells from the rigging’s elbow mounted cannons in there for good measure. A third tried to take her down while she was finishing the second, only to receive a meteoric hammer down swing to the dome as one of Bower’s hammer bro’s came flying in, tossed by his king.
Then the king himself showed up, bull charging a puss filled fish with his horns, knocking it over and leaving it unable to prevent the king roasting it with his firebreath, while his tendrils snatched up a little one before strangling, poisoning and beak biting the life out of it while the king was otherwise occupied with helping Rika and Delsin deal with the final few Murlocs.
“This’s the last one?” Rika asked, while pumping the last of her rounds into a bayonet speared murlock, its club held in the loose grip of her cannon arm’s jaw unable to strike her.
”Yup. Gottem all,” Bowser confirmed, dusting off his hands before telling them ”Nice work you two” which got a beam of a smile out of Rika and, in a roundabout way, a request for fire from Delsin.
”Fire huh?” he asked, before looking up at the rain and instantly regretting it when he got water in his eye ”Urgh. Nah. Way too wet for any of this sodden mess to light.”
“Can you do that fireball that jr did? The one that left fire on the ground for a bit? Maybe that'll be enough?” Rika suggested, but received a shake of the head ”Nah. My boy’s the one with the fancy tricks. Real prodigy. Me, I can only do smaller or bigger ones”
Rika thought for a moment and then asked “Like those really really big and slow ones?”
”Yeah? What about em?”
“Well if you can charge while you walk then maybe that’ll help you?” she turned to Delsin to say while Bowser said ”What?” not having gotten it. It took a few more moments to outline the plan, but after that Bowser set himself up, sucked in some air and then with a huff and a puff and a fwooomph of flame a titanic fireball nearly the size of the king himself was lazily drifting back down the street they’d entered through, lighting it up as it traveled at a gravity defying walking pace and put out heaps of heat and fire that Delsin could hopefully nab to fuel his batteries.
”So how’s that work anyway? You gonna eat the fire or something?” Bowser had to ask the man as he turned to check out the rest of the battlefield to see if anyone needed a hand or if it was all over.
Midna’s pride made her hesitate for a moment before accepting the money from Rasputin. But only for a moment. Only a fool turned down free cash after all. Some might suggest that she now owed him, but that was a problem for future Midna, who would no doubt have to bail the child out of danger at some point.
”Thanks Raz” she said simply as she accepted and then warped the money away to sit in a little pile in the twilight realm, before adding ”I’ll be sure to spend it wisely” cheekily.
It certainly looked like they’d need the cash, as it turned out the Thieves' acquisition had mostly been for themselves, and it wasn't a great selection either. Fortunately for Midna, in looking around for their clothes in her pocket dimension, she inadvertently came across something she had almost forgotten about that turned out to be quite handy for the upcoming situation: the X-Naut uniform which came complete with a nice thick set of gloves and sturdy boots along with its head to toe covering guise.
”Goddesses this is sweltering” the unrecognizable princess complained after applying the uniform to herself, becoming the perfect picture of an X-naught, if a bit taller, with the floppy ‘ears’ on the hat standing straight up to cover her helm’s twin prongs the goggles going on top of her mask/helmet combo and with her new flygon tail and and twintails dangling out the back of the disguise that entirely gave the game away if you looked at her from behind. So not really the perfect picture at all.
”Still, this’ll work for me, that’s for sure” she said, before proceeding to remove it for later use and pointedly not offer the money she’d gained to anyone else. That was her 20 gold now, and no one else's.
It turned out that they didn't need to worry about money after all, because while Minda was skimming around town collecting purple coins (which could only be used in one specific store as it turned out. Midna ended up buying a sombrero with what she found just because she could, and then brutalizing it with a sword so she could wear it and her helmet at the same time. The shade it provided was delightful) and failing to find anything else of value in the tourist trap of a town to be gained for anything but cold hard cash, the others more or less managed to bully the sport’s shop’s owner into letting them borrow everything they needed for free.
Surprisingly, this bout of not quite thievery garnered no response from the town’s guardians, a pair of masked wrestlers. On top of that, not only did they get their climbing gear for free, they also got a free lunch as well which, while Minda was confused by the whole affair, she could not complain about it as she sat in the shade with her new straw hat and munched on something called a taco. Well. she could complain about how messy the thing was, but that was about it. It was quite the delicious and spicy meal.
While the large group was chowing down on and around their train, its conductor pointed out just how big their group was, and how it might not be the best idea for them all to go up.
”I’ve climbed up a snow covered mountain before, Snowpeak back in Hyrule, so I know a bit about it. Plus if things get too bad I’ll just hitch a ride with Braum” She informed them, before jokingly adding ”Plus, you’ll want me around to lend a hand I’m sure” while gesturing with her shadow hand as a way of informing them that there was no way she was being left behind.
She was very sceptical about Rasputin’s zip-line idea regarding getting everyone up to the top ”That’d need to be a really long rope” she pointed out, before suggesting that ”It’d probably be better to try and lure this thing down to anyone who can’t climb rather than bring everyone up to it anyway. Set up some kind of ambush lower down the mountain kind of thing? I'm pretty fast so acting as bait wouldn’t be any problem,” both because it had some genuine tactical value, and because it gave those staying back something to do and an excuse that didn't involve admitting weakness.
She did not want a repeat of having people being blown out into the desert, that was for certain, so if some people didn't think they could make it up there, then she for one did not want them to come.
Someone who clearly wanted to come despite not being suited was Minamoto and though she had a vested interest in having her friend come along, she wasn't exactly full of good suggestions with regards as to how he could make his wheels fit for snow and mountain climbing. Her world didn't have tires, let alone ways to winterize them after all.
”Maybe use some kind of climbing gear with your second set of arms? Like those technical walking sticks the shop had?” she suggested, vaguely remembering seeing said equipment in the store while passing by it.
Adding to the twenty four considering whether they were going to go was an unexpected twenty fifth, someone who Primrose knew and introduced as; Therion, a friend she had run into in town.
”Lucky you” Midna commented upon the situation despite having had exactly the same kind of encounter catching up with Agitha in the last town. Well maybe not the exact same, seeing as Prim was apparently close enough and confident enough in this Therion to invite him along, where for Midna meeting the bug collector had mainly been a welcome novelty for the princess at most, who had put little thought into leaving the woman behind and in the dark after their brief meeting.
She actually reflected upon this a bit before shrugging off her jealousy and drifting over to properly introduce herself to the man, giving the somewhat raggedly dressed scoundrel a curious look over. With him standing next to the elegantly attired Primrose they certainly made for an odd looking pair.
”I’m Midna” she introduced herself simply, leaving out any honorifics, before adding ”Welcome aboard Therion. Want to come freeze your butt off half way up a giant mountain? There’ll be a fight with a giant flying serpent at the top for your efforts and, if we’re lucky, maybe something even more dangerous too.” mostly to see his reaction.
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