2018-03-16: Become an Ally of Justice! Mystery Monster X!

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  • Log: Become an Ally of Justice! Mystery Monster X!
  • Cast: Xantia, Carina Wynne
  • Where: Sluice Forest
  • Date: Friday, March 16, 2018,
  • Summary: Newly arrived to Lunar, Metal Digger Locus investigates rumors of a forest monster... who turns out to be a new arrival as well.

==============================<* Sluice Forest *>===============================

The forest separating the ruins of Vane from the port city of Azado is populated by monsters and toxic fauna, perhaps the result of exposure to millennia of magical runoff from the nearby Magic Guild (hey, they have to dump their failed potion exams /somewhere/). It is known as the Sluice Forest because the woods are cut in to by a large lake that can be drained and filled through the operation of a sluice gate.

Nobody is quite sure who would do that, or why. But it's a thing.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yawlRq0VMss

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Some time ago, following the battle against the Lord of Calamity, Xantia, like many others, was whisked away to Lunar. Severely exhausted from pushing her limits far further than she should have, and having the misfortune of being seperated from everyone else, she spent the next several hours face-down in a forest clearing. Curious woodland creatures eventually ventured out to examine the fallen girl, creating a scene not unlike that of a fairy tale, akin to a princess surrounded by her animal friends. If the princess wasn't the particularly graceful kind, and was just lying there motionless in the mud.

And if the princess then suddenly leapt up and started slaughtering all the animals in sight, ravenously devouring anything she could get her hands on. It could happen. Fairy tales get pretty gruesome sometimes.

The most essential element for survival covered, Xantia wandered for a time, looking for, well, anything familiar, anything at all. A lush green forest of that size made her suspect that she wasn't in the Badlands anymore, but who could say for sure. The sight of a small farming community was thus a sight for sore eyes. Hopefully they would be able to tell her in which direction to go to get back to familiar territory.

Unfortunately, Xantia had made a small oversight. Nothing that she ever considered might be problematic at all. But for some reason, the village's inhabitants seemed to take offense to the fact that she was still covered in blood and animal guts. An unfortunate pitchfork incident later, Xantia had concluded that wherever she'd ended up, the people were oddly unfriendly, and it might be best to avoid the locals until she found her way back to somewhere she recognized.

Obviously, there was little chance of that happening. Despite wandering for many days, nothing looked familiar in the slightest. Not even the night sky seemed the same, somehow, though she couldn't quite put her finger on the reason for that. That shouldn't have been a problem though. She did alright for herself when she was alone before. She'd just have to put herself back in the same mindset as back then.

That wasn't as easy as she thought. She lacked any memories back then, so there wasn't anything much she could miss. A year's worth of memories gave her plenty of things and people to miss. The thought of never seeing anybody she'd met during that year ever again was more painful than she'd ever imagined. But there was little else to do than to just... Keep going. Keep searching. Keep hoping.

Currently, Xantia has made herself a little temporary hideout in the Sluice Forest. She's already had the displeasure of having to deal with a few people who came looking for her - strangers, who attacked her for no reason that she could discern. Though city officials dismissed the rumors as the usual superstituous balderdash from the boonies, some enterprising bounty hunters did respond to reports of the bloodthirsty monster that looked like a girl with an X emblazoned on her chest.

Punching the problems until they go away didn't take a great deal of effort on Xantia's part, but it certainly has been annoying. Hence her current hiding spot: a cave smack dab in the middle of a gloomy forest. Not doing the image of herself she'd inadvertantly spread any favors, surely. But it makes enough sense to her. Not many people who'd want to go to a place like this, and even if they do, she's not completely out in the open.

Except that she wasn't particularly careful about covering her tracks. Obvious boot prints left in the soft soil are all over the place, and the site of her most recent hunting outing is clearly marked with a pool of blood, leaving a trail that leads directly to the cave she's holed up in, the entrance to which emits the faint light of a campfire further within.

It would be a shame if anybody were to interrupt her one of several lunches...

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

Carina is on a quest, a fashion quest. The CaraKin and their many stranded Drifter friends stand out quite a lot in this strange new world, and so she has offered her services preparing everyone outfits more appropriate to this medieval-ish environment. This means she has to travel a lot between the CaraKin and the nearest cities, purchasing materials and taking extensive notes on the fashion scene.

This also means having a chance to pick up rumors. She may be a mysterious stranger herself, but she's also curious and equipped with a notepad. And so, when she heard of a ravenous, humanoid monster with an X emblazoned across its chest, she immediately thought of...

Some sort of Mysterious Space Monster X!!

So sue her, she doesn't know Xantia very well, having only run into her in her Locus guise. But if a weird monster is terrorizing the region, surely this is something a superhero can take care of, right?

And so, she has transformed into Locus to wander into the forest. Not only is it useful for self-defense, but it also helps her actually see Hellions, a thing she still can't do without her armor. But most importantly, the Matrix Eye lets her track the mysterious space monster much more easily. She only had to find a set of boot prints, scan it, and there she was, following helpfully-highlighted tracks!

She has switched to heat vision when approaching the cave. A campfire and a person. Is that really a space monster? She wonders. Space monsters don't normally bother with fire, as far as she knows. Well, only one way to find out.

"HELLO!" she calls out, dashing into the cavern and immediately striking what she thinks is a martial arts pose. "BEFORE WE START, I have to ask, are you a SPACE MONSTER or are you a LUNAR PERSON who's fallen on hard times?"

It never hurts to ask.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

No sense of caution at all, an attitude that Xantia aught to be able to appreciate. But given everything she's had to deal with as of late, her tolerance for rude interruptions of mealtime has gotten to be rather low. The obvious loud 'HELLO' and following quick footsteps tell her everything she feels that she needs to know, she knows this pattern by now. And so the reaction is obvious. Without even the decency of letting Locus get through the entirety of her Heroic Declaration, she interrupts by means of one of her signature air displacement punches, intending to blow whatever unwelcome visitor this is right back out the cave.

It was a kneejerk reaction, and one which has unforeseen consequences. Xantia wasn't particularly careful about her positioning, pretty much just jumping to her feet and punching immediately. Failing to take into account that directly in front of her was her campfire, and the meat she was roasting over it. Thus she is also sending a collection of partially burnt branches and a half-roasted animal of some sort in Carina's direction, which distresses her a lot more than whatever she might end up doing to the one currently still labelled as Stranger.

"Aaah, oh no, my food! And my fire, that wood took so long to gather, but my food! Look what you made me do!!"

Only after rushing out to chase what she inadvertantly lost and casting a displeased look at the intruder does she begin to piece together that this is not, in fact, a stranger. Her expression gradually transitions into one of surprise. "Hey... are you..." While she's quite certain that this looks like someone she knows, all things considered she's hesitant to assume that this actually is Metal Digger Locus, finishing that thought after a pause with, "You look familiar, have we met before?"

Neither Space Monster nor Lunar Person, it would appear. Having since cleaned herself up, aside from some discoloration of the previously white X on her shirt and her hair being an even bigger mess than usual, Xantia looks much the same as she did in previous encounters.

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

Air is displaced, and so is Locus. She's sent bowling over back towards the entrance of the cavern, spinning in the air but managing a miracle skid-landing that doesn't quite appear to agree with the laws of physics.

"Whoof, okay then--"

Electricity crackles around her fist as she prepares to counterattack, but Xantia's panicked (and somewhat familiar?) reaction sobers her up. "Wuh?"

She gets a closer look, and it takes a second, but she recognizes the girl from the Seven Sages facility and the Pleasing Garden. "Oh hey! It's you! Huuuuh..." She realizes that she doesn't know her name, then looks down at the shirt.

"X?" Yes, that must be it.

But there is a crisis at hand! "Huuuh, right!" Locus dashes after the flying remains of the fire and what was cooking on it just a second ago. She grabs some sort of roasted squirrel in mid-air. Nice! And then takes a look at what she's actually holding. "Ewwwww! Gross!" She lets go, and it falls into the mud. NOOOOOOOO!

"Aw jeez, now I feel like a jerk," Locus says, scratching the back of her head. "But never fear!" Her bug eyes glint.

"I, Metal Digger Locus... have brought SNACKS!!"

She poses, dramatically!! Like some sort of karate flamingo. But the question is... where ARE those snacks? Her hero suit doesn't have any pockets!

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Recognition! So it IS actually her, and not just someone who looks exactly like Metal Digger Locus! Which was a pretty strange initial assumption to make probably, but that's just how Xantia's mind works. It's not like she even has much of a reason to assume nigh-identical doppelgangers are a thing, what would even be the odds of that happening?

Needless to say, Xantia's demeanor turns a lot more cheerful after that, now being able to positively identify, "Metal Digger Locus, it IS you! I've been looking all over for someone I actually know!" Not particularly well, but she'll take what she can get. For a while there she was starting to doubt if she was even on the same world anymore. Ha ha, such crazy thoughts she has.

Not realizing that the 'X' was a guess at her name, and there being the much more important matter of food at hand, she fails to actually correct this. She's far too focused on Metal Digger Locus reacting to try and save the food, which had actually slipped her mind in all the excitement. She quickly follows, but is too late to prevent the ensuing tragedy, which actually does make her go "NOOOOOOOO!" and drop to her knees in despair. Not that she hasn't been managing to gather food with relative ease thus far, but regardless, wasting food is the saddest thing to behold.

Thankfully, there is still hope for an immediate food solution, which of course instantly draws Xantia's attention. "...You have? Where? Or... can you just sort of make snacks appear, is that one of your powers?" She can only hope that's it. Locus's powers seemed similar to her own, so if Locus can do that, maybe she could learn how to do it...!

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

"Ohhhhh, I wish," Locus answers with a shake of her head. "If I can use some kind of snack beam, I don't know how yet... But all right!"

She pauses.

"Actually, can you keep a secret?"

She doesn't actually wait for Xantia to answer, because of COURSE she can keep a secret. (And besides, even if she can't, she might just say yes so that snack time happens faster.)

There is a flash of light, and one by one, the smaller components of Locus' armor peel away and glow, disappearing... somewhere. Carina Wynne shakes her head, running a hand through her ponytail. But most importantly, she's suddenly holding a shopping bag!

"That's right! My secret identity is the mild-mannered armorer from November City, Carina Wynne! Please don't tell anyone." BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY...

She looks down at her bag. "But you were hungry, right? Okay, let's see, I brought myself a couple sticks of beef jerky, and I bought some apples, and some candy too, 'n' I've got a waterskin if you're thirsty..."

She hands the bag over so that Xantia can help herself to what catches her eye. She doesn't know enough about the girl yet to realize what a terrible mistake she might be making.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Darn. Spontaneous snack-creating powers remain elusive. Xantia can't hide her disappointment at this news, but she can't get stuck on it for very long. Mainly because there's a distraction.

She doesn't get to answer the question of whether or not she can keep a secret, partially because her initial impulse is to answer that with "A secret?" and next would have been 'what kind of secret' if she got that far. No direct confirmation would have happened regardless. But there's probably nothing to worry about, as long as Xantia is aware that something is supposed to be a secret. Probably.

A transformation of that magnitude has Xantia dumbstruck, as is only appropriate. Blinking blankly at the DRAMATIC REVEAL, which... well, it would've been a bigger shock if she knew who Carina was, perhaps. As it is, the first thing that comes to mind is, "I see... so, it was a costume!" Because to her, the biggest mystery here was whether it was that, or Metal Digger Locus was a Beastman. The second thing is, "You were holding the snacks all along? How does that work?" Because that matter involves food, so it is automatically important.

Back to her feet in no time, Xantia zips right over as the contents start to be revealed, not making it much of a secret how hungry she is by way of the starry-eyed look directed at the shopping bag. And once it's handed over... the obvious happens. Xantia starts rapidly eating its contents, showing no signs of intention to stop any time soon. Jerky disappears in no time flat, apples are entirely gone after only a few bites, core and all... the candy might still be saved, if action is taken quickly enough...!

It's not until considerable damage is already done to the food supply that Xantia finally gets to what was arguably the most notable part of what she just witnessed. "A costume, as secret identity, and you fight bad guys... hey, does that make you a hero?" She actually knows about these things, she's read all about them in books! They might have been fiction. She can't usually tell the difference.

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

"I dunno," Carina answers, truthfully, on how her inventory works. "It looks like if I'm holdin' something when I transform, it disappears. I haven't COMPLETELY figured it out yet, it's a really confusing system."

Her eyes go wide as Xantia tears into the bag's contents. Boy, she thinks, X must have been starving. Poor girl. She watches with slight horror as snacks she intended to consume over a week get consumed before she entirely understands what's happening. She doesn't even attempt to save the candy-- She figures if Xantia goes for it, she must have REALLY been starving. Right?

A hero has to make sacrifices...!

Speaking of which, Xantia puts it all together. Carina nods vigorously, smiling. She sets her hands at the back of her head, assuming a laid-back anime posture.

"Hm-hmm, that's right! I'm a superhero! By day I'm just a regular goofy gal, but by night, I go out and fight bad guys and help people 'n' such! Why you ask?"

Her stomach rumbles. She tries to ignore it.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

It's really quite simple - Xantia was given something, therefore that something now belongs to Xantia, in its entirety. It doesn't even cross her mind that she isn't supposed to consume everything in the shopping bag, therefore all of it is consumed, candy and all. Not even a mention of being particularly thirsty, but hungry, yes, evidently. That being this hungry basically all the time is normal for her still doesn't seem like something that she should inform other people of before they potentially make the huge mistake of giving her a carte blanche in regards to food.

The whole inventory situation is forgotten by the time that's over, and Xantia cheerfully hands the empty bag back to Carina with a simple, "Thanks! That was great!" She obviously sees nothing wrong about what just happened. This is hardly the first time a similar situation occured.

The confirmation of her suspicions only adds further to her already radiant mood, prompting her to slam her right fist into the opposite palm. "I knew it! I mean, I don't really understand why day and night matter for fighting bad guys, but... heroes are really great, I wish I could be one!" Crossing her arms, her expression sours slightly as she frowns. "But I guess I couldn't be a pirate and a hero at the same time... heroes are supposed to fight pirates, right? Not that I'm a very good pirate, anyway."

With a shrug, she uncrosses her arms and casually asks another important question, completely disregarding the fact that she is under the impression that the two of them are supposed to be fighting each other. "How DO you become a hero, anyway?"

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

Carina takes the emoty bag, careful not to let it fly away in the faint wind. Trying to conceal her sadness, she places it in her other bag-- the one without edibles in it, alas.

"H-Hey, no problem." She waves a hand. But Xantia's enthusiasm puts a grin right back on her face. Xantia has questions about heroes, who are one of her areas of expertise, and so Carina crosses her arms, raising a finger to indicate that she's about to drop some deep truth bombs, pearls of wisdom formed from her extensive life experience.

"Pirates can be heroes too! You've got some hero pirates. And I, huuuh, am not sure what your whole deal is, but you were fighting Siegfried and also that Lord of Calamity guy who wanted to take over the world, right? That's already pretty heroic!"

But the next question is trickier. Carina has to cup her chin to think about it. "That's... actually a really deep question, X." She realizes that she never did ask for her name, but the girl seems to be okay with that nickname? So she keeps on using it. "There ain't no one thing that makes someone a hero, besides really wanting to make people happy 'n' help them with their trouble."

Her lip quivers a bit, her eyes get misty as she recalls the inspirations in her life, the ones that made them want to become a hero!

"In other words... anyone can be a hero!!"

She clenches a fist, but immediately calms down because she ain't done answering the question. "But it also helps if you have, like... lightning punches and mega kicks, and I saw you've got those covered. So... what else... you could have a flashy, cool costume, too. But as for becomin'... well, most heroes have this real dramatic story, like their parents got killed so they decided to beat up all criminals, or their spaceship crashed on Filgaia and now they don't remember they were supposed to destroy humanity so instead they decided to save it, or they got caught up in a science experiment that went terribly wrong, or maybe they got, like, this mysterious belt in the mail from their sister who's missing and now they have powers they don't totally understand, and it's all weird 'n' confusing and sometimes you see, like, a Locus ghost or a Metal Demon says they swear they've killed you before!!"

Pause.
"Or you could become another hero's sidekick, that works too."

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia detects no sadness, so in that regard the effort is a success! Not that it's a huge accomplishment to cause Xantia to fail to notice something obvious, but never mind that.

"H-hero pirates...?" the alleged pirate repeats with the due shock of someone who never considered dual-classing like that could be a thing. She waves the notion of already being pretty heroic off with a shake of her head, however. "Maybe, but just being heroic doesn't make you a hero." Whoa, speaking of deep truth bombs. Though that one was probably a complete accident, or even more likely, she just quoted something she's read.

Being directly addressed as 'X' causes an inquisitive headtilt, but Xantia doesn't actually correct it, or even realize that Carina doesn't remember her name. She's pretty sure she introduced herself - globally, not to anybody in particular - while on the way to Seven Sages, and why wouldn't everybody's memory be completely flawless? Never mind what an ironic assumption that is for an amnesiac. No, she just figures that this is a purposefully chosen nickname. She knows how that goes, it's not like she hasn't been casually shortening people's names herself.

Instead, she just listens, visibly fascinated by all this valuable information on heroes Carina is providing. After all, what better authority on the subject than an actual hero - a superhero even? In the process, she completely misses how one of the examples given was oddly specific, finding another one of the examples possibly more relevant to her own situation. "I don't remember my past, so... I'm not sure if I have a story like that. ...I really hope I wasn't supposed to destroy humanity." Actually a genuine concern, when she considers the ambiguity of those dreams she's been having.

Of course, then there's the other option, which prompts a confused expression. "A sidekick? I'm good at kicking, but how do you... become a kick? That doesn't make any sense." Looks like what she's read didn't cover every topic on the subject.

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

Carina likes when people take what she's saying seriously. ESPECIALLY when she's rambling with no clear goal in mind. But she IS quite the expert on this subject, unlike others for which she would speak with the same amount of confidence despite being full of crap.

She does pause for a beat, at least, when Xantia drops her own truth bomb. "Hmmm... Yeah..."

Regarding the destruction of humanity: "Well, that's the thing. In these stories, heroes are the ones who don't do what people are yellin' at them to do, and instead follow their hearts 'n' do what's right for everyone. Bein' a hero's not easy!" She pauses. "Sorry 'bout your past, though... Not knowing this sorta thing must be pretty sucky." Ah, Carina, delicate as always.

"Oh yeah, no," she waves her hands, on the matter of sidekicks. "I didn't name 'em, I don't know who called them that or why. But a sidekick is like... huh... like an apprentice hero, y'know? Someone who hangs out with the main hero and helps 'em out. Sometimes the sidekick gets into trouble, but it's okay, it's SUPPOSED to be a learnin' experience and only jerks get steamed when trainies mess up."

She pauses, gears visibly turning in her head. "You knooooow... If you want to be a hero..."

She crouches down to search through her bag. It's unclear precisely what she's doing.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia makes for a great audience in that regard, because she tends to believe everything people tell her, whether she has much evidence of them being an authority or not. Carina could tell her the mud around here could be made into delicious pie and Xantia would believe it. If you can't trust a superhero, who can you trust?

There's no immediate follow-up to the notion of her past, and how a hero would act in certain situations, but Xantia's feelings tend to be easy to read. With her head slightly sagging, and a vague sadness in her eyes, it's not a huge stretch to arrive at the conclusion that something about that doesn't make her very happy. Not that there is any need to speculate, as she doesn't stay silent about it forever.

Firstly though, the matter of sidekicks. Now she understands, nodding a bit as she concludes, "I see, it's one of those." As in, words that don't make sense if you take them literally, but are what certain things are called anyway. She'll never understand why that has to be a thing, but it's clear she'll need to accept that this happens, more often than she'd like. "I didn't know that happened. I thought there'd be... I don't know, some kind of school for it?" Not that she understands what schools are like very well either.

She curiously looks on as Carina starts to root around in her bag, not having the faintest clue what to expect there. Given her own best guess, maybe she has a flier for some kind of Famous Adventurer Correspondence School For Heroes? It could happen.

This does give her a moment to collect her thoughts on what was said earlier, and finally speak her mind on it. "I... don't know what I would do, if I did get my memory back. But I'm sure there's something very important I had to do. I can't imagine it now, but... if I remembered that I was supposed to destroy humanity and the reason for it, well... maybe I'd want to do it."

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

"There ain't no hero academia," Carina says, shaking her head with slight disappointment, "and believe me, I checked! But maybe if we got enough heroes together... Hmmm..."

Well, that's an idea for later.

She continues searching through her bag, and eventually finds what she was looking for. It's black, high-quality fabric and a pair of scissors, which she uses to cut a clean strip off the edge.

"Dang, that's heavy stuff to say..." She interrupts her work to look at Xantia with a trace of sadness in her eyes. "I hope it never comes down to that. Well, if it does, I'll try 'n' be there to stop you, you can count on that." She grins, unsure if she's joking but sure hoping so.

"And besides," she resumes her work, snipping here and there in a practiced motion, "one thing heroes are supposed to do is prevent others from gettin' so sad they wanna destroy humanity. So I'll try 'n' make sure that doesn't happen either."

She retrieves some string and a needle, with which she makes the finishing touches. And ta-da, there it is!

She rises, presenting the item to Xantia. It is a superhero's domino mask, the sort that doesn't really do much identity-concealing at all but at least looks cool.

"How does being Metal Digger Locus' sidekick sound to you? You could be, huuuuh... Space Hero X! Or I dunno, we can come up with a cooler name later."

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Well, that does make sense, Xantia affirms with a nod. "I guess there'd be a lot more heroes around if there was a place people could go to to become one." Probably just making the idea sound that much more appealing, though it was only meant to be a casual observation.

Not having the slightest clue about fabrics and how to make things with them, Xantia can only guess what Carina might be doing now. To her, it just looks like ruining a perfectly fine piece of fabric. Because that's what would happen if she was holding the scissors.

She likewise isn't entirely sure how to feel about what she said, and the response she gets, but manages a smile anyway. "Thank you. I mean, I'd rather not have to be stopped, but if I ever do anything really bad... I hope people will realize that there's a part of me that would want to be stopped." Not letting up on the heavy stuff, it seems. Though she doesn't see it that way. It's just things that occupy her mind a lot. Things that she worries about, but she knows she will end up risking when it comes down to it. Because she simply has to know, no matter what happens.

Carina presents her latest creation, and Xantia just looks at it as if she were watching water burning. She has no idea what this is, looking at the proud creator quizzically until the explanation is provided, which turns her expression to downright shock. "You... Really? You want me to be your sidekick?" Despite being told how it works moments ago, she never even considered that as an option until just now. She frowns a bit, wondering aloud, "I don't know if I have anything to do with Space, but..." That just means she'd have to come up with a better word to use instead. This is important, Xantia understand that much about being a hero.

Before that, though, she has to reaffirm, "Are you sure? And... what would I have to do, exactly?" Under different circumstances, she would probably have accepted without any questions asked. But as things are, she's less certain of herself. And besides... "I have to keep searching for my friends, can I still do that?"

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

"Y-Yeah," Carina says with a nod, as she finishes her work. She would also really rather X here never had to be stopped! But that goes without saying.

She watches Xantia's shock over her mask and explanation. "Sure, why not?" she says, with a slight shrug and a big grin. "We can workshop a name later, it's just a suggestion. Could even be Metal Digger X, though you don't seem to be metal and I dunno how much diggin' you usually do."

She was starting to forget that they're in the middle of a questionable forest and that Xantia here is currently functionally homeless. Oh yeah! Oh yeah, that's right.

She waves a hand. "I haven't really figured it out yet, but you can help me fight bad guys from time to time! And I'll give you some tips 'n' tricks and such. I don't expect it to be a thing with many big obligations, y'know? I don't like big obligations either!"

But right, right, searching for her friends. Carina nods a few times, emphatically. "Sure, of course! Actually, I was wonderin', wanna follow me back to the CaraKin? I work slash live there. And I doubt they'd say no to you poppin' in right quick to have a shower 'n' sleep on the couch instead of in a crummy cavern. We've got a good enough chance of runnin' into your friends too, I think?"

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Carina is about as casual about a huge deal as Xantia would normally be. Figures, the one time she doesn't act quite as typically, and she only gets more validation that the way she would typically act is the most sensible way. Is it any wonder some things about her never change? This being the case, and hearing that she likely wouldn't be obligated to do much of anything, makes the decision a lot easier.

"Well, if you're okay with that... then sure, why not!" She's already repeating Carina's earlier word choice, that's a good sign for a sidekick, right? She chuckles at the notion of Metal Digger X, shaking her head. "I couldn't do that, I'd feel like I was stealing your name!" She has strong opinions regarding the importance of names, given that her name is all she feels she can be absolutely sure about. "It would be easier to come up with something if my past wasn't a complete mystery to me. ...maybe that's it, Mystery Hero X!" A bit on the nose, and also super ironic if her costume is literally just a domino mask, but...

Speaking of which, she looks at the object Carina still has in her hand, wondering, "So what am I supposed to do with this?" Complete failure to recognize standard hero gear. Evidently her books didn't have very many pictures.

The mention of the CaraKin, however, changes everything. She almost literally jumps with that part of important news. "The CaraKin is around here?! Yes, please, take me there! I thought I'd never find anything that looked familiar... I'm sure Jay can point me in the right direction!" Not that she has any solid evidence for that, it's just that, well, amnesia was about the only thing Jay hasn't been able to help her with.

<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.

"Mystery Hero X!!" Carina repeats, ethused enough to pump a fist at the sound of the name. "Even I couldn't have come up with that one! Sounds good to me!"

"It's not so far, yep! It's a real stroke of luck, I don't think I'd have survived just campin' like you and eating squirrels and never taking showers 'n' such. You're a real trooper!" She nods, with satisfaction, pointing in the distance as if one could just SEE IT. (One can't.) "But all right, then! I'll take you to it. I'm sure Miss Jay and the rest would be happy to help you!" Heck, the CaraKin was supposed to be about helping people to begin with. It's nice for them to, for a change, get the chance to do that without the fate of the world being at stake.

But there is still an important matter to attend to. Her head tilts in a very sudden motion as Xantia seems puzzled as to what to do with the domino mask.

"Huh? Oh, it's like your... hero uniform, I guess? We can come up with something more elaborate later but it'll have to do for now. Hold on, just let me put it on." And then, she takes the mask, places it on the girl's eyes and ties it up.

"Ta-da!" She grins. And takes a step back to STRIKE A POSE and transform into Metal Digger Locus once again! "All right, sidekick Mystery Hero X! Those woods are dangerous and they aren't going to kick themselves before night falls! Let's get to the CaraKin... together!!"

And she's already off!

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia is all smiles when her suggestion passes superhero inspection. "Really? Okay, great! I guess I have a superhero name now!" Absolutely no idea what she's getting herself into, but happily getting into it anyway, as usual. She's less certain about the compliment regarding her survivalist skills, replying to that with only one word from her previous reaction: "Really?" This one word might be enough to conclude that she in fact considers this normal, and was expecting anybody to be able to handle those sorts of circumstances as well as she can. Not really anything she ever thought about.

And something she won't be thinking about right now, as she is transformed into Mystery Hero X! And just with a little mask, who knew it could be that easy? It's not such a big step, really. She was already wearing an improv cape after all, if anything this is a finishing touch to make it official. But it sure feels like something very new and exciting to Xantia, who pauses to touch the mask on her face in wonderment.

Only for Metal Digger Locus to make her re-appearance and rush off almost immediately, forcing Xantia - nay, Mystery Hero X - to take decisive action! "Okay! Right behind you, Metal Digger Locus!" She has no problem with that part, perfectly capable of keeping up with the energetic superhero's impulsive actions. Perhaps this too, was destiny.