2018-08-17: Talking Shop

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<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    The last anyone had seen of Josie (specifically, that had been Lily) the archaeologist had just checked in from a bout participating in combat on Hyland's side of the battlefield. It hadn't gone well, particularly for her. There was a reason she'd made the trek back to Vane to get Lily to look at the knock-on effects of her wounds.

And almost immediately after -- well, after some rest -- she'd head out again for, apparently, Ladylake, the source of some potent rumors regarding a certain flavor of weaponry making waves on Lunar.

    DAYS AGO, ON THE ROAD TOWARDS LADYLAKE

    ...Or well, more accurately, a town a long distance from the road towards Ladylake, because the road in the direction of Ladylake is sort of occupied by an army, Josie drinks an ice-cold 'water' (courtesy of her own embellishments) and reconsiders her plans.

    So that's why she's back in Vane. One foot propped up on a chair, a pad of paper in hand, she's tapping a graphite pencil against the table while -- to judge from her facial expression -- thinking deeply about what's set out before her. Judging from the sheets (and charcoal) she's been taking some rubbings off the matched pair of tiles set on the table before her. One of them features an odd set of protrusions missing from the other.

    Lily had said it seemed as if it was a sort of 'key'... Is the other one, too?
    But poking at the second one -- from Ash Hare -- hasn't turned up anything yet.

    Lazily, a softly glowing orb of magical light orbits in a slow arc around the table. It gets a little too close at one point, prompting Josie to take an absent swat at it with her pencil.

    Penelope, unsanitarily, perches on a beam not precisely overhead. She seems to be sleeping.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied is back in Vane, rather groggy and sapped after the last series of battles; they'd been taking a deep toll on her, and she really ought to take a moment to recuperate and not strain herself.

    ... taking care of the Wolfsbane Tavern with Mikaia and Janey, apparently, doesn't count under her rather silly definition of 'straining herself', because she's got an apron on as she brings drinks and nibbles out from the kitchen.

    "Oh, hello, Josie... it's been a while," Riesenlied expresses, tilting her head with a smile as she looks towards her glass to ask, "Would you like a refill?"

    The magical light nearly bounces off her, prompting a soft yelp. "Goodness, what is this...?"

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

Leon, for his part, has been cooped up in the Wolfsbane's basement for the better part of a month.

While he has come out sometimes, particularly for food and drink, he has had a laser-focus which comes from the fact that something interests him. Until now, only Lily, Riesenlied, and Noeline have really seen this: the Captain is something of a gearhead. He has been working on some project in the workshop that he set-up down below, and working on it ever since.

He comes up the stairs with a yawn. He wears a collared white shirt, rolled up to the elbows, and a pair of goggles rests on his head. The shirt, the leather gloves on his hands, and his pants all have some black smudges from grease stains. He looks about for a moment, silver eyes moving lazily.

Then, finally, they settle on Josie. Then, he looks towards the second tile. He blinks, once; his eyes, however, move towards the orbiting ball of light.

"Magic?" he asks, shortly after Riesenlied. He has to stifle a yawn; his eyes have bags under them.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly, too, is here. Elly has been doing...

Magic practice.

But not where people can see. Ha HA! Though she is also possibly now in arrears for the Magic Guild.

Her eyes track the circling globe in silence, not least because she was finishing the last of a noodle dish that was supper. "... That's impressive," she says, about the globe, which may be low-key extra praise coming out of her mouth, but: "What is it, exactly?"

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily, for her part, happens to be comin down the steps, and doing so somewhat carefully at that. When she made it back to Vane after the matters in Zulan and Castle Rabenstein, she looked tired to the point of illness. ...She still does, frankly. But maybe she managed to avoid the kids.

As she walks down from the stairs, Dog loyally trots along beside her, glancing up now and then and forward to ensure the path is clear and she's not doing too poorly.

She glances Leon's way as he comes up, and actually smiles for just a moment. ...It's easy to miss. Might not've happened.

"If you're offering drinks, Riesenlied, I'd appreciate a whiskey," Lily says, and sets a hand on the chair before sitting down at Josie's table. She sees the tiles, all right.

She is dressed casually enough for Lunar; a black tunic over black pants, soft boots, rather thn the armored clothes she'd taken back to for a while. ...This makes the markings on her hands and--now, unlike before, at the base of her neck in addition to her collarbone--quite visible. They shift faintly between colors, slowly.

She doesn't seem that surprised by the magical orb. Dog, meanwhile, looks up curiously at Penelope rather than curling up at Lily's feet.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei is here as well! He is presently petting Chaya. He has been petting Chaya for like twenty minutes. He seems contente to be petting Chaya.

He looked up when the orb of magical light showed up but seeing nobody else caring about it, determined that it was probably supposed to be there. He tries to only be a little bit uneasy as opposed to very uneasy.

When it bonks into her, Fei finally looks up again.

"It's the thing. It's supposed to be here right?"

He looks over to Leon, sweating faintly.

"Uhh.... Did Hammer ask you to help with something?" Fei asks.

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

    Noeline, for the record, had nothing to do with getting Riesenlied into an apron. If she were, she certainly wouldn't share. ... still, she looks pridefully pleased to see her partner doing something lighter, watching on fondly from where she's curled up in the corner of the tavern, cozy in her 'office' - which pretty much consists of the comfiest armchair she could find and a large collection of books.

    Everyone else goes towards the orb of light, but Noeline's attention - as piecemeal and lazy as it currently is - is focused on the two slabs that Josephine has uncovered. She's not about to get in the archaeologist's way given the lack of space around the table, but there's the occasional telltale moment when she stretches up in her chair to take a peek over.

    "They look like two parts of a whole. As if they were intended to latch together and then be slotted into something, that would be my guess," she suggests, flicking out her hair imperiously as she makes her declaration over the top of the tome she's apparently conducting her own research on, the only problem being the tome is apparently a collection of local Lunar folk tales.

    She pauses, and throws a half-lidded look Lily's way. "... you should probably also ensure that Leon has eaten. I would place secure money that he's forgotten again."

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia has been in and out of the Wolfsbane a lot, getting into a lot of fights, often on her own accord. Nothing new there. All things considered, the few days she was on the quiet side and mostly stayed in her room probably were of greater concern. But after that it was back to business as usual, back to being all over the place.

She keeps meaning to get back to Lily's magic lessons. Just hasn't seemed like the right time for it in a while, for various reasons. The current reasons being that Lily's hurt, and she's... well, she's not really feeling it right now.

Not that she seems any different from usual, sliding down the stairs's balustrade and entering the common area full of energy as always. Overhearing talk of drinks, she's quick to chime in, "What about food, is there any food?" It's Xantia, so one can assume she means a little more than your average 'nibbles'.

She too is quickly distracted by the cool glowy thingy, then distracted yet again by the unusually big gathering of people here at the same time. "Oh hey, you're all here! Was there a meeting today?" Can't blame her for assuming - this happening by chance is infrequent enough for her to take notice.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Josie glances up at Riesenlied's voice, dropping the paper pad with a thwap against the table. "Why, thank you. I flat forgot to get something for my throat. At this I'll be forgetting my own head."

    The light barely has any substance; there's just a single bap as it rebounds off Riesenlied and starts its slow orbit outwards again. Josie's dark-eyed gaze follows it for a moment and she just sighs.

    Looks like she's got company. Her gaze travels between Leon and Elly and back again. Then at Fei.

    "That? Sure is." She jabs her pencil at the erratically circling orb. "Just your basic Symbology spell for 'light'. Handy in a pinch." She sets the pencil down and snaps the fingers of her left hand; the light winks out almost instantaneously. "I'd wanted some steadier light on the subject, so to speak, but either I'm getting distractable in my old age," a blithe grin, here, "or the tablets are having some effect on the spell. It's not supposed to wander like that." She shrugs. "Who knows!"

    The tablets rest on the table, covered with ancient allegedly Zeboim-era (if Montagu is to be trusted, and if she can trust anyone on the subject, that old dear would fit the bill) script and other assorted carvings. They look old. The one with protrusions looks like it might have been in a fire at one point.

    "So, Tiger. Lion!" She's enjoying that nickname too much. "Don't suppose either of you two would feel like giving them a look-see?" She straightens, rocking the chair she's using as a sort of footrest back a degree or two. "Gotta say... I'd love to know how you kids can read this stuff. Did you know scholars are still arguing about how to read script from the era?" She waves a hand absently. "Something about grammar, or maybe it was punctuation. Same old ivory tower infighting..."

    Noeline chimes in. "Bin-go! I'd say they're actually two of four from the look of them. See how it's cut off here and here? Forged around the same time, probably." Josie takes a step back, leaving the chair she's been propping her foot up on behind, ushering the lot of them towards the table.

    "Anyway, hell, why don't you all take a closer look -- it's not like you can damage them more than I have." ...That one tablet was definitely in a fire, wasn't it. Spotting Xantia, Josie waves. "-- Hey, Spitfire, you too. Maybe you've got some strange talent with ancient artifacts like the rest of 'em~?"

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

Leon, as it happens, smiles back at Lily. He nods once to her, but then glances back at the rest and the commotion. As he walks in, he rotates both of his shoulders, like they're stiff. "Oh? Well, I've asked his help some, but--no, this is a project that I've been working on, Fei," he says. "I've always had a soft spot for some engineering."

A beat.

"I helped get the Fereshte airborne, after all," he says. He cracks a smile at Xantia, then shakes his head. "No, no meeting--we're all just gathering, I think." However, his expression screws up when Noeline speaks up -- and he shakes his head, quickly. "I've--I've done no such thing!"

Guilty as charged.

Then, he glances sideways at Josie. He blinks his eyes, slowly, before he shakes his head once. "Is that how symbology works?"

Then, he shrugs his shoulders and steps closer to the tiles. "I can certainly have a look. Even if, all told, I'm not sure why I can read the language. Or why the Zeboim language is on the moon, either. It's... interesting."

Nonetheless, he looks down, his eyes squinting.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied bashfully smiles as she pours a drink for Josie. It's just water, but, well, water's a pretty good starting point for most customers. Lily asks her for whiskey, though, which prompts a bit of a blush as she moves behind the counter to express, "Okay, but not too much..."

    Momliness and waitressliness doesn't exactly mesh...

    Xantia asks her about food, which prompts a smile too. "Yes, Argus is finishing up with the Sunday roast in the back? I think..." well, it's her first day serving, so she doesn't exactly know the menu like Mikaia does.

    "I'm not versed in ancient languages, but I recall Lily was able to decipher that Zeboim recording," Riesenlied muses.

    She looks at Leon, and smiles a little bit more apologetically. "Good work there... did you make progress? Let me know if you'd like a drink and a meal."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily has been gone, really, so there's not much chance for the magic lessons lately. ...But maybe soon. Lily remembers them, of course. And Xantia seems... fine. The question about the meeting is already answered, so she doesn't worry about it.

"It's fine, just a small glass is enough," Lily answers Riesenlied without really addressing the concern. But Hammer? Lily glances Leon's way as if there's an in-joke. "That he has. You should see him around things like that--I'm a passable mechanic, but Leon..."

A beat, "No bet, Carver. ...It's fine. I haven't eaten yet either."

The burns at least are mostly healing quickly; up close it's easier to spot the bandages Lily was workin on concealing. Josie gets a curious look though, and then--well, how does she speak it? Lily glances to the side.

"That's interesting, that they affect magic. I wonder if it's just Symbology?" But it's a little tense. "...I'd love to know how I can read it too," she says after a moment. "Doesn't surprise me if they're arguing." She pauses, glances to Leon, "The things I've seen from it here aren't as familiar, though. Different word choices... But it's apparently still conversant."

Apparently.

"I'll have a look, either way." She peers over.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"O...oh." Fei says slowly.

Josie starts describing how scholars have difficulty reading the script.

"Huh? They are? Why?" He scratches at his head a little bit. Of course, as Lily knows he damn well can read it just fine himself, but it doesn't seem to occur to him in this moment. "I guess that's why I'm not a scholar. I just figure if there's two translations you might as well just write down both rather than argue about it!"

He smiles over to Xantia when she arrives. HE waves a hand at her direction before looking back to Josie. "It looked like it was under guard. It affects magic too?" He scratches at the side of his head. "Is this... what has drawn your attention to these tiles in the first place, Josephine?"

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly reaches down to pet Chaya's snakehead. This is the real power of this pet: you can give 3x pets simultaneously. She takes a deep breath as she sets her plate aside, before she shifts to rise up and move nearer to the tablets.

Leon speaks encouragingly. Elly looks at him. He mentions the Fereshte. Oh, Elly thinks, eyes turning downwards again.

"I could try something near it, if you want, just to test it," Elly says. She then pauses, brow furrowing, and slowly turns to look to Fei as he says something and reads between the lines.

"What!" she says, eyes going wide. "You - I had no idea!" Then back to Josie, as she says, "And you found it here, on Lunar? You're sure it's not just convergent writing scripts?"

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

    "Ah, that sounds rather more familiar," Noeline nods towards Josephine with an appraising hum, pausing as Riesenlied swans past to reach out for her hand. The touch is ever so quick - meant more as a quick affectionate moment than anything else. "I remember seeing something similar over in Aquvy once, long ago. It was a mural that you had to complete to open a door - I suppose, given the size and the runes all over them, you would do the same with those. Complete the mural, then present it in a setting on the floor or the wall."

    It's hard to tell if she's being serious, but she sounds secure enough in her logic... but she isn't exactly being particularly stringent about it, content to leave the actual translation up to the other members of the Black Wolves as she stifles a yawn instead.

    She puffs out a breath when Leon complains at her, answering it with a snicker. "I can answer at least a couple of those questions. There's a mountain of evidence that suggests the two worlds used to be significantly more connected - Duras Drum basically confirmed it by suggesting he hid them from each other, after all. I would not be terribly surprised at this point if there were remnants of Elw machinery up here as well - to be honest, some of the devices we've seen in ruins definitely seem to point towards similar technology."

    "Not that we've yet to find any concrete records that explain why or how, though. Ah, well. What a find that would be, hm?"

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

So, no meeting, but lots of people are here, and there's going to be food! That sums up the situation for what's most important to Xantia well enough, so that's plenty of reason for her to smile brightly. "Okay, great! Can't wait for the food!" She waves back to Fei from across the room and starts to head in his direction.

Then stops when Josie addresses her, and... looks behind her, having failed to understand that she apparently has a new nickname now. Since there's nobody else back in that direction, she turns back and looks confused as she figures out, "...do you mean me? But I can't spit fire. ...yet." She glances at Lily. She doesn't say anything out loud, but now she's seriously wondering if Lily can teach her to spit fire, you can just tell.

She has no clue what any of this is about, but since she was asked, she moves over to Josie's table, to look over the tablets. She blinks a few times, there's clearly no recognition there at all. All she concludes is, "I can't read this at all." Then she raises a fist. "But I bet I can damage them more than you can!" That part just sounded like a challenge to her.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    It's water. Josie is going to be disappointed.
    But then again, she should have specified.

    'But I can't spit fire,' Xantia protests. 'Not yet'.

    Josie makes a... single finger gun, pointing right at Xantia. "See, now there's the spirit. Come on and give it the old university try, huh?"

    ...Xantia can't read them.
    But she might be able to damage them!! "Whoa-- slow down there a moment, sparky," Josie interjects, reaching over with her good hand to ward the younger girl off a titch. "Maybe let's save breaking 'em for last resorts, eh?"

    Leon and Lily say they'll give it a look, which is about as much as a girl can hope for at this point.

    "By the way, Tiger, Ladylake's a no go. Whole damn army's planted itself down that way, and I dunno about you, but I feel more confident about jumping borders when there aren't a bunch of twitchy soldiers lining every possibly inch of them. I'm giving that plan a miss.

    Which is... basically why she's back here and doing some actual work instead of drinking, sleeping, or playing soldier-of-fortune.

    "Trust me, Junior," Josie says, wrinkling her nose. "There's nothing a bunch of eggheads love to do more than argue about the placement of a dash or a line." Lopsidedly, she smiles. "There's a reason I left that business behind."

    Before Elly makes a comment that prompts Josie to blink. "What? No, no. No, they're both from Filgaia. One from 'Doomed to Obscurity', the other from 'Ash Hare'. Though, I don't think this one," and here she taps the one with protrusions, "exactly came from old Obscurity. I think some good old fashioned ruins-plunderer-meeting-a-poor-end was the cause for that." She rolls back a step, glancing at the lot of them. "But no, between everything that happened -- and me losing those for a long while, thank you, -- I simply haven't had the chance to do an indepth analysis. Still, given that business with the Metal Dragon," she nods, Noeline's way, "maybe doing some hunting the others might not be such a bad idea."

    She shrugs, lopsidedly. "Might as well make the best of the situation, eh?"

    It isn't as if they have any idea how to get back home again.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied knows her friends, at least, because by the time she returns from behind the counter after spending a moment to encourage herself by Noeline's side, she's got Lily's whiskey -- served neat, and a second similar glass for Josephine that she sets next to the water.

    "... Ash Hare... that was where we searched for Gryndille back then, was it not?" Riesenlied muses as she tries to recollect the memory, wincing. "Mmm..."

    She nods quietly at Noeline and Josie. "Yes. There are much older figures that have come here from Filgaia... the interchange between our two worlds spans farther than modern knowledge covers..."

    She smiles warmly at Elly and her little pet -- she kinda looks like she wants to pet it too, but maybe feels a bit intimidated...

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"If it wouldn't trouble you, Riese, I'd be happy to take a beer," Leon says. A moment's pause, and then he adds: "And whatever you've cooked up."

He gives Lily quite the look before he looks back down at the tile. He nods to what Josie says. "A shame about Ladylake. You're right, though. This warrants looking into. Ash Hare, hm...? It was, Riesenlied."

He remembers that place well. It reminds him that Gryndille is still out there. That thought, in turn, makes his expression turn harder at the tile.

He lifts it, turning it over in his fingers, and reads aloud: "Warning: key access to this computer system is restricted by Zeboim Fed..." He pauses. "An abbreviation. Er--anyways. 'Government Code Section 833.16, Top Secret clearance only. Biometric scans may be required for some access, pursuant to Zeboim Fed. Government Code 833.16.2. This key is to be returned immediately if in unauthorized hands.'"

Then, he turns it over. "Ah--here. In small letters. It says... 'Fire Activator WASN-78-2.'"

He looks at Lily. "What does your say?"

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Huh?" Fei asks, looking to Elly. He doesn't get i the way of Elly pets because he can pet the lion head while she pets the snakehead. That really is a big advantage. Fei blinks a few times in confusion up at Elly before understanding dawns, "Oh! Yeah. Sometimes. Sometimes I can't. It's weird."

"Federation?" Fei offers as an option before looking over towards Lily and then back to Leon. "Um, I hate to say it, but judging by the sound of it...it is probably...really dangerous. Or rather, waht it unlocks is."

He pauses for a moment before adding, "Uh, or it's like something really boring like files. About boring things. Boring government things."

He gives a nod to Josephine, completely understanding about eggheads.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Dog, for her part, gives up on her curiousity towards Penelope after a while and looks cheerfully over at Chaya and Elly before she walks over to stand by Leon. ...Lily has taught Dog well, apparently.

"I'd be interested in seeing," Lily admits to Elly. Then--Fei? What did Elly have no idea about...?

But yeah Lily's not saying shit about how Fei can read it unless he says so himself. She's good at privacy and secrets.

"People like to be right," Lily suggests as her answer with a very light shrug. ...Point of fact she's not moving all that much. She glances to Noeline as she explains, recalling some of that herself, but before she answers--

"Xantia," Lily says seriously, "I am not planning to teach you to spit fire. That's a good way to burn your mouth."

"Mm. Don't blame you--of course, I said in the first place you were better off not going," she points out.

During Josie's explanation, Lily has time to reach out and take one of the tiles, glancing it over, because like hell she's standing up this instant. Her whiskey is set down beside her and Riesenlied gets a "Thank you" and a look before Lily gets back to work. ...She does not say anything about Ash Hare, does not need to be reminded about Gryndille's state.

"...I agree we should hunt the others," she says, looking to Leon. "--I remember, yes..." She pauses. "Wait. I didn't see that part, before." She is after all the one who adjusted the first one, made the block stick out.

"Ah. Mine says..." Pause, turning it over and looks. "Wind Activator WASN-78-3." She considers. "...So it's in sequence..."

Lily says after, "I think it means Federal. That fits with '<Government>'." And of course, she says the actual word on the tile without even considering it. "...Yeah, probably dangerous. Especially if that's true about the spell..."

"Elly, could you conjure something small? I just want to see."

But why not do it herself?

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"And Lombardia must have travelled here somehow... I suppose she might be able to survive the environment of space, but with her injuries I doubt that she could have come here on her own strength." Thus Elly muses. Lombardia looms large in her thoughts at odd hours.

Of course, that's dragons for you.

Also of course it may be the wrong end. Elly sweeps a hand up through her hair, though it is an obscure relief. "... Is there any kind of... I guess you wouldn't have a wide range to compare it to," she says to Fei, before her eyes turn to Riesenlied. There is a whole third head to pet, Riesenlied.

A goat.

"baa" says the goat head, quietly.

"It could be an acronym," Elly then says, about the mystery of 'Fed.' At least it isn't 'Zed.' Then Lily asks her, and she nods once. "I'm going to try to make an icicle across it, towards you, Lily. So if you could be ready to hold onto it..."

The magic doesn't hold the ice up on its own after all! Not unless you have a lot of makeup on and are secretly an adoptive mother to the main cast. Elly tilts her head forwards, eyes half lidding as she raises one hand, fingers pivoting... as if she were holding a pen or a pencil. There is a tingling sort of tension in the air, and the temperature drops a little as she aims to send a small thin coil of freezing Ether across the face of the tablets, towards - well - Lily. It is low speed and the far end is blunt, so what's the wor-

No: We won't ask about the worst.

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

    Noeline's snort is good-natured. "Ah. An in-depth analysis is a little surplus to requirements when someone can just read the thing, hm?" she ventures, and then instantly grumps as it turns out to be terrifically mundane, her pride and curiosity somehow significantly dented despite the translation.

    "Well. Leaving aside the fact that our mythical, mysterious text has turned out to be a disclaimer," she huffs unhappily. "That at least confirms that there is a dash-one out there, and probably a dash-four as well. 'Fire Control' would point to it activating a weapon, most likely."

    There is a thoughtful pause from her, as she flips a page. "Or deactivating one, I suppose. I might be a bit of a cynic, but I'm prepared to recognize that much. A biometric scan might be a signficant problem, mind you," she scratches at her cheek, then realizes it might not be a word some people know - so she glances to Xantia with a snort. "That is, 'it knows who should be opening the door'. If you're not on the list, it'll tell you to go away."

    She watches as Elly decides to try bridging the two components; her hand sneaks its way to Riesenlied's arm once more as she peeks over the armrest. "I doubt that it will do terribly much without the system it is intended to activate... at least, I hope not," she huffs and then quickly snickers. "It might be something ridiculously long-range - I wouldn't put it past anyone at this point to build something so ridiculous."

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Lily decisively shoots down Xantia's ambitions of spitting fire. And when the option to smash the tablets is also off the table, boy does she look disappointed. "Aw... okay." Breaking stuff is what she does best, and thus the best way she feels she could help with this. She only wishes seeing these would trigger something and lead her to realize more about herself. No strange talents appearing in this case, alas.

Instead, she makes room for Leon and Lily, trying to peer over their shoulders in light of these new revelations. "You can read it? What language is that?" An innocent question - she's really just curious. Then she glances to Lily again in particular. This time she's wondering about something a bit deeper than spitting fire. She may not know the language, and yet, that single word Lily just spoke is enough for her to connect it to words she heard Lily speak before, when using that special power in fights.

Where it comes to the translation, though... well, it's not odd that Noeline would assume that to Xantia in particular this would still all sound like a foreign language. Xantia doesn't really look lost though, simply nodding at the additional explanation. "Right, I guess they can somehow read something about the body of the person holding them." She doesn't even know what 'spitfire' means, but she knows what biometrics are...?

She's also pretty quick to notice a pattern, offering, "So if there's a Fire one, and a Wind one, I guess there could be ones that activate other elements, too? ...whatever activating elements means." It may be surprising how well she's managing to follow along, but it's not like she has any idea about what these things are supposed to do, exactly.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Oh like Zeboim Federal Government. That makes sense," Fei says. He's not entirely sure how Lombardia got here either, but he doesn't like to think about Lombardia. The things Lombardia said make him uncomfortable. He regrets asking for it, frankly. If he could turn back time, he would probably have preferred to not ask at all. All he can think about is the failure of the past, how it rests on his mind. Is it some ancient ancestor that failed all of humanity? That failed Filgaia? Failed it so much that it crushed Siegfried's hope--

--or is it something even worse. Is it somehow his own fault?

Fei kisses the goat on the head so it feels love, petting it by the neck, but he'll pull back if Riesenlied takes goat-petting position.

"I guess there'd be a water and earth one? That's what it sounds like it'd be." Fei guesses.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "You did, but I wasn't expecting a damn army, Tiger," Josie grouses, her lips tilting headlong into a sardonic pout. "Which means, whoever's behind this ARMs-distributing business is safely behind an army." Her shoulders lift and fall. "And here, I was thinking about asking them if they'd be interested in making a deal..."

    And add more fuel to the fire in Glenwood? Apparently, yes.

    "Sure was," Josie says, with a glance towards the second glass as it's set down. Still, she doesn't go for it quite yet, apparently relishing in the role of 'professor' (as it were) for the moment. "Found more than a few interesting pieces in there, this aside."

    Then she leans in as Leon, and then Lily play the role of translator.
    She might be a scholar in this era, but she can't read the language worth a damn.

    "...That code business again, huh? That some boilerplate? Guess it confirms that they're part of a set, though."

    Fire Activator.

    Wind Activator.

    "Hmm."

    Dark eyes, heavy-lidded, turn Xantia's way.

    "Got it in one, Sparky. The others are probably something like 'water' and 'earth'. The classical Crest alignment, right, Junior?"
    Though even she can't help but be contrarian: "Unless they're gonna throw us a curveball and have the other two be Light and Lightning, or something." Well, Wind/Light/Lightning/Fire would be the /sparkly/ elements.

    "And if those are '2' and '3'... I'll put a thousand gella on the other two being '1' and '4'. --Yep, just like that." Noeline might have beat her slightly to the chase, but...

    "What, so we could collect the keys and still not open the door? Hmm. Well, that's going to be a bugger, especially what with the person in question probably being dead for a few thousand years. Still, what have we got to lose by trying?"

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied looks just a little bit overwhelmed as she pours Leon a beer and gently hands it over the counter. The perfect pour, every time!

    "E-er, bio... metric? 833... Fed... Federation?" Her eyes very slowly turn into black-bordered white circles as she grapples with a lot of the jargon, looking at Xantia. E-even she's following more than she is!

    Fortunately, she's distracted from any technological ineptitude of her own when Chaya's goat head rears up next to her.

    She looks at Chaya.

    Chaya looks at her.

    baa

    Her eyes start to sparkle. "S-so cute... aah..."

    She leans down and-- and-- pauses. "Huh? You want me to..." She knows what to do.

    She leans her head down gently, and then her horns droop as she shakes horns with it.

    ...?!

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"I've given it some thought," Leon says. "But, truth be told, I don't understand how something could travel here." After all, while he worked on the Fereshte, it was the dream of someone else who wanted to go to space. "It must be quite the device... and, well, I've usually been working on Gears and weapons. Things to keep our gear working in the field."

He shrugs, once. "I heard every time we tried to get an airborne unit, Gebler shot it--er." He looks at Elly. "Sorry."

He then opens his mouth, nervous as the ice crosses the space between the two tiles. "Nor would I," he affirms to Noeline, quietly.

He glances at Fei, then to Xantia, and then to Josie. "It stands to reason," he says. "But there could be a -05 and -06 and more. I suppose? I mostly heard about the different sorts of elements, but... I'm far from a practiced sorcerer."

He shakes his head, and then he looks towards Riesenlied -- and he blinks, before he looks down at the goat. "Maybe we should make sure we get ample food for the goat, going forward. I'll talk to Argus about it."

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

    The Crimson Notble wonders about that for a long moment, but it isn't until Fei and Xantia complete the thought that she speaks up. "In fact, it feels rather like inscribing Crest Graphs, does it not? Selecting and controlling the mixing together of elements to produce different effects - well, I can't begin to suggest what all four primary elements in the same blast would do, but I assume it would not be terrifically pleasant to whatever was on the receiving end."

    "Or, very beneficial to the surrounding area. Who can say? I suppose it depends on whether it's a weapon or a shield," she sums up rather airily with a shrug of her shoulders. "That said, we do have a serial number now. It would be wise to cross-reference that with any other records recovered from the past."

    She has to pause for a second, clamping her mouth shut at Riesenlied's display, and ever so slowly pats the other Hyadean on the back in what appears to be support. It gives her a chance to hold her breath and simply watch that ice establish a connection with mildly bated breath.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"Always expect an army," Lily suggests. Is she making a joke? ...It's hard to tell.

She shakes her head about that 'dealmaking.'

"Zeboim," Lily explains to Xantia. "...Apparently the language of some old ruins." She looks back to Xantia--can't read her mind, not really, just some emotions. ...But Xantia does pick up on a lot. She's smarter than people give her credit for. "But activating elements..."

"...I'm not sure fire and wind activation are literal," Lily cautions, thoughtful. "Fire, wind--if it's four elements, four tiles," she nods to Fei, "Then it may be corresponding to some filing system." She glances to Josie and Xantia in turn, nods. "Like Crests, or some ruin puzzles." Pause. "...Not that I'd rule out a weapon. There seem to be a lot of them out there."

She pauses, looks at Leon. "That's true, there could be more. How old is the system of Crests, anyway? If it corresponds to leylines..." She considers, shakes her head, and finally picks up her glass.

Maybe most strangely of all, she doesn't even use her magic on it. She just drinks it as-is, taking a sip, looking down.

"As for travel..." Lily pauses before answering, watching the ice move carefully--watches it melt a little over the fire, grow under the wind, wobble on its course--and she reaches out to catch it with one bandaged hand. ...It does not rear up and stab her.

"We've seen one way. For travelling through the air..." She glances to Elly. She thinks. "...Heh. Yeah. I can fix a car, or make explosives, but..."

She shakes her head. Dog, meanwhile, curls up at Leon's feet.

"Right," Lily says to Noeline then. "Sort of what I'm thinking."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly has a plan for Lombardia. It is a plan that Fei will not hear of until it's too late. Unless Hammer...

wait for it

RATS her out.

But Hammer is cool. Elly likes and trusts Hammer. As she rubs a scale that's already starting to get a little cloudy - Chaya is a growing chimera and as such his snakehead sheds a great deal - Elly answers Shalune, "Still... if they have a distinctive effect, even if it's something small, that could make it easier to find them. After all, you're hunting for two small items from thousands of years ago..."

Meanwhile Riesenlead leans down and, instead of butting heads or anything like that, lets her horn slide down to loop around the little nubbin that the chimera's goat head has. The fuzzy lips of the goat part in an obvious :D of happiness as the horns intertwine, and Elly herself smiles, distracted momentarily even as Lily catches the ice rod of examination.

Then the goat lets out a low and extremely human "aaaaaaaAAAAAAHHHH" as Elly stopped paying attention to it.

"Chaya! Rueh," Elly addresses the animal, who quiets down and opts instead to nose up, the chimera's snake head flicking out a tongue at Riesenlied.

"... It's alright," Elly tells Leon. "Anything capable of powered flight over four hundred meters is registered. At least, that was the previous threshold, and I doubt it's changed much." After a beat, she says, "Though, I can think of a way around it, if you want to do aerial reconnaisance."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

It's really more of a chimaera, Leon. That's three more mouths to feed.

"Oh, yeah, that's a good idea. We don't know what uh they CAN eat, but we've managed to experiment and found some options. We probably should see if there's more books on chimaera rearing in the library." That weren't checked out by that JERK Craymel anyway. "Um, maybe a fourth if we can uh---release the seraph from their cage. do seraphs eat, Elly?" He looks towards her briefly before back to Leon. "We uh, didn't mention yet, I don't think, but we found a seraph in a cage but we can't release 'em since we don't know how to decode the symbology. We thought of going back, but it may just be easier to do it back on Filgaia."

Fei smiles faintly as Elly chastizes the goat. He tries not to spoil it in the meanwhile. He nods slowly to Josephine's words.

"Guess crest magic is that old huh?" He murmurs to himself. "...Can we just...bust the door down? I mean--it's not as if we know what it even opens. Oh but maybe it can signal us to the door at least...?"

He thinks about the names. Doomed to Obscurity. Ash Hare.

He frowns deeply.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia scratches her head, only now figuring out that it looks like she's Sparky now. The concept of nicknames is still kind of baffling to her. Never mind that she readily shortens people's names where possible, that's different. She just never gets the reason for those nicknames. Even though she's making a bit of a case for her own when her eyes light up at the mention of the 'sparkly' elements. "Ooh, I like sparkly!" She might be smarter than it often seems, but her typical thoughts tend towards the uncomplicated.

Case in point, when this is compared to a puzzle, she crosses her arms and looks unhappy, right up until Fei suggests breaking it down. "Yeah, that's right, if these are for a door, let's just smash it!" Makes sense to her - she's done that to doors a lot more often than she's used keys on them.

She glances towards Chaya for the first time since entering the room when the goat head suddenly makes a noise. Or was it because Leon just mentioned it in relation to food? She quickly looks away again. Nope, not gonna say anything.

Better to stay focused on the matter at hand. "Zeboim," Xantia repeats to herself some time after Lily said it, looking as if she's in thought for a moment, before she shakes her head slightly. There's always at least a tiny bit of hope that hearing things like that will trigger something in her mind. But if she's ever heard of that language before, it's not something she can recall. She is silent a moment, before...

"...Are we any closer to figuring out how to get back to Filgaia?"

A question right out of nowhere, but one that never left the forefront of her mind ever since arriving on Lunar. It's not entirely unrelated... after all, if these keys relate to Filgaia, it won't do much good if they can't get back there.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    That comment, from Xantia, provokes a short laugh. "Hey, sometimes you just have to shine a light in the darkness, eh?"

    After which she nods at Leon's comment. "The way I hear it, it was some sort of magical event portal thing," way to be technical, Josie, "that brought us up here, and something like that brought those Lunar people on down to us. Maybe that sort of passage between worlds used to be normal." She tilts her head slightly to the left, as if thinking it over. "Or maybe those Gebler or whatever didn't use to shoot people down." She taps a foot, as if thinking agitatedly. "They used to exist, though. Flying machines, and I don't mean Gears either. They're hard to get working again if you find even a mostly intact one in a ruin, and harder to build from scratch -- it's about lift, air resistance, the works. But even without using ancient ARMs, it's possible."

    She just grins toothily. "You just gotta be prepared to bail out, or so I hear. Even without some assholes taking a potshot at you... let's just say heavier-than-air flight with modern machines doesn't last long without a reaaaally good engine."
    And even then, you're more likely to eat dirt than not.

    Elly earns a thoughtful look. "Four hundred meters, huh... So if we stay under, we're out of sight and out of mind."
    She said 'powered flight', Josie thinks to herself, filing that one away for later.
    "Red, one of these days, we should sit down and have a nice long chat."

    And then Leon has to go and really rain on her parade. "Who starts numbering objects with '2'? That's just inconsiderate," she gripes goodnaturedly, staring upwards towards the ceiling beams. "And if there's more than four of them... you know, there can be too much of a good thing? Geez... there really could be six or seven of the things, though, if they're using the Symbological base-element system instead of the Crest elements."

    A beat.

    "Or more than ten if they're using one of the heterodox systems." She winces, grinning throughout. "Ouch. Guardians, I hope you're right, Sugar, or I'm gonna be digging these up for the rest of my natural life."

    As for the nature and number of Crests: "No clue. Ask Jay or someone who practices that tradition -- I just know that Crest Sorcery builds on four elements. If it's not Symbology, I don't know it."

    Whereupon she pauses and considers what Fei's just said. "Hey, not a bad idea. At the end of the day, if you can't unlock the door, you can always bring a bomb."
    ...Isn't she supposed to be an archaeologist?!

    But leave it to Xantia to cut to the heart of the larger problem.

    "'Fraid not, kiddo. Still, what goes up must come down. Chin up, we'll figure it out."

    They'd better.

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"Really? Four hundred meters," Leon says. "Good to know. If you do have thoughts, I am curious--though I haven't the foggiest of where we would even begin to find a suitable vehicle. To... say nothing of the trouble of returning to Filgaia."

He rubs his chin, and then he looks back at Fei. His eyebrows lift -- and then he nods, once. "A Seraph in a cage? Well, typically, I'd suggest freeing them. Though--er--I can't vwry well see Seraphim. It's moderately annoying."

He looks sideways at Xantia, then. He shakes his head. "Honestly... I haven't the foggiest. It's rather frustrating, all told," he says. "But I'm also not sure what we can do about it."

Then, he glances at Josie. He tilts his head for a moment.

"Aren't you an archaeologist? Wouldn't that ruin the ruins? Er, ruin them further?"

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    "E-eeek!"

    Riesenlied leans back a little as her horns draw back and shoot straight up in embarrassment. She pauses, before blushing to look around at her odd display of hornkinship, tilting her head. She stammers to Noeline, "It felt right! Like the world was beckoning me to it!"

    Riesenlied does take the time to look up to Xantia and reassures, "The Fereshte's repairs are nearly done, thanks to Mister Leon, Lydie and everyone else's hard work. It won't be enough to bring us back to Filgaia, of course, but... at the very least, we might be able to be more mobile in our search."

    Leon points out that Gebler shot airborne units down... well, that happened to them too, but they got away. Barely.

    Someone's calling her from behind. "Ah, that should be the lunch... let me go get it..." she hurries to the back. Wow, she's having a weird day today!!

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily has no plans about Lombardia. The dragon she has it out for is somewhere on Filgaia by now.

...Dog watches Chaya and Riesenlied curiously, and even Lily notices the noise the goat head makes. But, "I don't know," she admits to Fei. "But it might be. I only know some of the basics--if not for my abilities, I'd have studied it at the Academy, but... As it was, I stayed far away from the mages who came to teach."

She shakes her head. Not the best memory aspect.

"Regardless, I think if blowing up the door was all it took it would've been done by now. Not everything can fall to brute force."

Without even considering apparently the hypocrisy of her statement, Lily glances to Xantia--she's curious too, if somehow it would be a link... But it doesn't seem so. Her question, though--

...It doesn't interrupt a different question that's been in her mind since Elly spoke. "...I haven't heard 'Rueh' before--is that another name...?" No, she knows full well it was a command. But she's sneaky. Pause. "Four hundred meters..." She glances away. She generally prefers not to be looking at people when she thinks about Gebler.

"...Unfortunately," Lily agrees, "We aren't. ...Maybe the Feresthe can help us look, as Riesenlied says." She pauses. "...If not... Neo-Vane floats. Maybe they'd have something. I don't know."

"But we need to get back. One way or another."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Growing chimeras do need fodder. Fortunately, Chaya's goat head can eat literally anything. (It attempts to taste Riesenlied to see if she has a flavr, even as she moves away. "baa")

The question arises: Do Seraphs Eat? Elly blinks at the question, having never considered it, other than potentially in the sense of 'Seraph Ragnell can eat my entire--'

Never mind. "If we ever get back there," Elly says, eyes dipping down. "But yes - I've been keeping the crystal close... I think it was injured by experiments. But I'm able to hear it, a little..."

Lily! Her eyes flick back to her, even as Riesenlied goes to get food which is hopefully not a knuckle sandwich from Althena's Guard. "Oh. It's... It's just something that they said when I was young... It's the kind of thing you say to a fussing baby, you know?" She smiles at Lily, more weakly.

Then to Leon. As she resumes petting the chimera, she says to him, "I can tell you that powered flight would be safe here on Lunar... at least, from Gebler. Though I think they may be able to field a Wandknight triangle now, I don't believe they'd focus on an aerial operation on the other side of Lunar. But a - a -"

Elly's brow furrows again. "I don't know the words exactly. A huge balloon of thin cloth, filled with heated gas. That could lift people or cameras. It would be vulnerable but it wouldn't be a military threat. Or gliders..."

Her eyes return to Josie. "... I'd like that." She smiles.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"What's wrong with ruining ruins? Most of them are death traps already." Fei asides to Leon. "And I'm pretty sure most of them were like that before we got to them too."

Elly says a lot of words about Gebler, about half of which Fei understands, but he gets the gist of it--Gebler will try to fuck up aerial maneuverings on Filgaia but they can't do it here on Lunar. "What does Gebler have against flight anyway?" He asks. He actually kind of figures he knows why, but it might not be what he suspects.

He raises both eyebrows at Leon. "You can't?" He seems surprised. "Huh. I heard of folks who went to Uzda Il Jam and came back capable of seeing 'em, but I don't know if that's still a viable method." He frowns. "...Haven't tried that trial there yet either. It sounds like suicide honestly."

He grins at Josie. "That's right."

He doesn't even mention the archaeology.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia looks around from person to person at the various answers she receives to her question... but it's plain to see that she doesn't feel very reassured. It's been too long. At this point, only a straight 'yes' would have done much to reassure her.

"It's not like I have any big clues myself, but... I don't know. It feels like we could be doing more. Instead of..." Well, getting involved in this war, for one thing. She doesn't say it out loud, but it could be inferred. She certainly hasn't gone out of her way to volunteer for anything to do with that. Xantia loves a good fight, but war is... different. Not a fan, to put it mildly.

But she doesn't want to belabour things, so she never does actually finish her sentence. "Well, never mind. I'm sure we'll find something out soon, right?" Those who pay close attention to Xantia's usual radiant smiles can probably tell that this one is a little forced. She's doing her best to stay optimistic, but being away from Filgaia for so long is something that weighs very heavily on her mind.

Times like this, it's best to keep oneself distracted. And what better way than what Riesenlied just mentioned? "Oooh, lunch is ready? Wait for me!" She rushes to the back as well, almost like she's fleeing the scene, which is not entirely inaccurate. Not that she isn't also hungry. Of course she is, she's always hungry.

Hopefully Riesenlied isn't expecting Xantia to help carry the food or anything. She'll only make it so that less will need to be carried out, going off to eat her food right where it is. It's just more efficient that way, isn't it?

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Huh."
    That's gotten Josie's attention. "A Seraph in a cage? Don't suppose it's the kind of cage you can just carry along with you? ...Guess so, or you couldn't take it to Filgaia." She pauses a moment, then makes a grimace.

    "Marze. Try asking in Marze," she suggests. "If it's actually Symbology, that is. Otherwise, save yourself the pain and suffering and go to Lacour."

    She doesn't elaborate further.

    "They came after the Fereshte before, so I guess something like that's a no-go. Well, even based on size alone, I guess it'd be a dead giveaway, huh. You could probably see that one going from miles away."

    Planting her hand on her hip, she swings her attention Elly's way.
    "Got an idea, do you, Red?"

    Elly explains.

    "A hot air balloon. --Right, I've heard of those. They're tough to control and hell if you lose height and hit the treeline, but..." She lifts her god hand and gestures vaguely, as if to indicate some sort of--
    Oh, she must be getting at 'wind magic'. "A little outside manipulation'd go a long way, you know?"

    She pauses. "Just watch out for any smartasses. 'Vulnerable' ain't the end of it. Still, good idea."

    "Who wants to volunteer to go on a balloon ride~?"

    Josie lifts a snowy eyebrow at Leon. "What, would you rather look at the doors, then? Write a lengthy dissertation about the doors and speculate about what's inside?" Briefly she rolls her eyes, then settles into her usual catlike smile. "Fei Fong Wongeally~ we'll be able to get in without breaking things too much. But you know what they say about making omelets..."

    And speaking of omelets--

    "Hey, don't suppose you've got eggs in there? I think I could go for some."

    Atop her perch, high above on the beams, Penelope suddenly awakens as if from a terrible nightmare...

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"If we can help," Leon says, "let us know. Seems like the sort of thing we should do something about."

He rubs his chin -- glancing sideways at Elly. Then, he nods; it isn't a bad idea. "Let's keep it in mind. Once we find a way back--or use it to look for one, somehow."

Then, he glances sideways at Josie. He cracks a smile. "Far be it from me," he says. "I'm not much of a historian, I'm afraid. I was just surprised to hear it from you."

He glances towards Riesenlied, though, and the door. He raises an eyebrow. "I wonder what'll be for lunch."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Bobble, bobble, bobble...

    What comes out of the kitchen isn't Riesenlied, but rather Riesenlied's legs and her top half hidden behind a giant roast on a platter, complete with one of those fancy paper coverings for the legs.

    Sadly, no eggs today...

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily missed the comments about the Seraph at first, possibly on account of the fact that since she's come to Lunar, Seraphs have been disappointing her left and right. Why can't the rest of them be more like Lailah?

"We'll get back," Lily reassures Elly. "...You say it's trapped...?" She shakes her head. "I only know some of the basics of Symbology. Given time I could transcribe some basic spells, but... Probably not something that complicated."

She listens to Elly's explanation though, nodding distantly. "I see," she answers, and finally looks back to her. It's clear she does, at least; she doesn't have to say 'Solarian language' for the thoughtful cast in her gaze to be clear.

"...But the main problem with ruining ruins is you might break what's behind the door. You have to be careful with your explosions."

She pauses. A 'Wandknight' triangle, but...

Lily spots Xantia's forced smile, all right. But there's not much she can do for it right now; she just looks over to her... and thinks about what Fei told her. Her gaze turns downward. "..."

'It sounds like suicide honestly.' "Then it's a good thing I'm not planning to go alone," Lily points out to Fei. "Though you don't have to come if you prefer otherwise." Of course she's going.

A beat, "I don't know. I was considering a career change. I could be a good archaeologist. I can already speak one dead language." Lily glances towards Riesenlied--well, food...

Dog rises, barks happily. Lily lifts an eyebrow at her.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"Oh... air travel would allow people to communicate too readily," Elly tells Fei. "And the military advantages, too, not to -"

Chaya suddenly lunges forwards, tail curling upwards as the chimera vaults over Elly in order to try and assail the massive platform of savory meat. "No--!" Elly exclaims.

"*roar*" says the Lion head. (Very quietly. It's more like a low-pitched mew.)