2020-01-18: Wolves on a Boat

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=============================<* Freykragg Isle *>=============================

Perhaps a bit closer to the rest of civilization, the eastern major island of Sielje is just as cold as the rest, but feels less lifeless. A few settlements do dot its chilly terrain, along with roving herds of various kinds of deer and larger mammals, some of which are great and powerful enough to challenge even the monsters of the region.

It is not, however, entirely idyllic; this is the region that houses the Sielje Magical Academy, and it was chosen for its isolation: there is little residue from that centre of study, but a few strange magical experiments or energies may well have seeped out into the snow, because some of the monsters in this region are very strange indeed, and some speak of odd mirages that belong more in a desert than a snowfield.

Accordingly, the central region near the teleporter to the Academy is mostly clear of other settlement, whether these rumors are true or not. What people live here prefer to hug the coasts where they can.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_gmgvAz8Ks

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

HROTHMUND is torn apart into so much debris. The rail car comes slamming to its end -- smashing to a stop at the end of the tracks, and on a large platform. There, a number of huge doors -- sized for Gears -- are gathered, each closed. It is the one closest to them that opens, though.

The doors open up with a loud hiss, ancient dust swirling -- and when they do, there would be a scent of sea air, were any not inside of an enclosed Gear. As it is, only Lunata can enjoy that. The reason is a clear: an underground bay is through that door, and an immense pier that juts out into it. The pier is a thing of steel, concrete, and technology -- and a drydock, which holds a ship inside. Water has not been allowed in...

...which is for the best, because five thousand years of ocean water would destroy even the finest vessel.

It is an enormous, black-hulled ship. It has a flat profile, with sections of dark blue metal recessed inside. Leon blinks at it. "Well... seems like something we should look at."

His eyes do glance, too, at the screens appearing in the air. Holographic display screens -- flickering, and showing a map of Filgaia, with locations highlighted as flashing dots. The Weglaff steps forward, step after step, towards the ship. As they approach, a hangar opens...

A LITTLE WHILE LATER

The ship required only a little exploration. The hangar proved to be the only part that fit their Gears; the rest required them to approach on foot, but it seems to -- mercifully -- lack in automated defenders. Having disembarked, the group entered an elevator, which flashed a warning in the Zeboim language:

        NEW ARRIVALS -- TRANSPORTING TO BRIDGE

The elevator doors open onto the sight of the bridge. A long room, with a flat viewport that looks out over much of the ship, and four stations at varying consoles. The technology matches the Zeboim Federation's: sleek, with dark grey coloring, and glass panels that provide screens. Leon stares, for a moment.

He steps ahead of the others -- and looking away from him, there isn't a chance to catch the slight flash in his silver eyes, before the consoles all begin coming online.

"Well," Leon says. "This bloody well isn't what I expected."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        Lunata does smell the scent of the sea air. It's not what she was expecting, to be honest; up in the high mountains of the Sielje region, she didn't really have a sense of their traversal such that they actually reached portside... then again, HROTHMUND made sure that their attention was well underway.

        She's kind of lain in a heap, burnt and blackened in parts. The Servbots went off somewhere...

        Though--

        "Lily? Leon?? Everyone?" cries a familiar-sounding voice.

        There's a yellow blob, currently in the form of a Magitekal suit of Armour that Leon is notoriously familiar with from that one time they fought Emeralda... as well as an also-familiar Hyadean that's apparently struggled to catch up with the group.

        She sniffles and coughs a little, from the cold weather. It's probably a good thing she didn't come with.

        "I brought medical supplies with me..." she holds up a big comical box with a + symbol on it, voice full of concern.

        A LITTLE WHILE LATER

        Riesenlied leaves Muni-Muni to stand guard, given she's a sentient being, as she helps with the rest of the Wolves;

        She's got a new mobility aid in the form of a pair of braces on her legs, and... is walking, albeit with a hobble! A soft gleam of Wing and Geo crests shimmer on a cap on the knees.

        She sees the warning, but she's not terribly familiar...

        "I wonder whose ship this was... the technology certainly has a-- familiar ancientness about it," she whispers. 

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

Emeralda was perfectly willing to get out of her Gear and go exploring. More: she was eager to. She wants to see all the things and probably push some buttons, though the only button she has pushed so far is one that had a symbol that suggested it kept the elevator doors open longer.

There's always a button for that. Emeralda is pretty sure it didn't work. "We're going to the bridge!" she says, happily, as the doors finally close; apparently she has no trouble reading it, even if she's not entirely sure when she learned it. Maybe before she was awake.

NOW

Emeralda steps out behind Leon, looking around the ship's bridge with awe. "Wow!" She doesn't seem to know where to put her eyes... or the rest of her, because with a practiced evasion so that Fei can't grab her collar and pull her to a stop, she darts out into the bridge proper, moving toward the closest of the consoles.

Which, fortunately, she does not touch, but she does watch it come up with interest, squinting at one of the lit panels as if it had secrets inside. "<Hello?>" she says, and not in a common language. 

<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.

For someone who just lept off a runaway robot to almost certain death, Cidney Laplace looks to be in rather good spirits.

Of course, that might be because 1) she did not have a certain death thanks to the intervention of Fei and his Weltall, or perhaps 2) because there is a plentiful amount to be distracted by, right now. Either way -- after assuring Fei she has never met anyone named Bart before in her life (Sigurd is another story; Sigurd, apparently, being an extremely popular name in Guild Galad, by Cid's nonchalant explanation, though she only knows of a Sigurd missing an arm, not an eye), Cid rides in the grasp of the Weltall for as long as it can take her, nostrils flaring as she takes in the familiar scents of salt and water, the brime of the sea filling her world just as much as the immense sight of that ship.

"Someone took great pains to make sure this stayed preserved," she observes, though without the benefit of a radio anymore -- the woman of House Laplace says this largely to herself.

It's later, after Cidney casually yet gracefully hops off the palm of the Weltall and makes her way inside, that she gets the opportunity to truly absorb her surroundings. Standing amongst the Wolves is an odd woman out, with all the easy confidence of someone who looks like they've belong and have belonged, for a very long time. Dressed in a white dress shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbows, brown vest and slacks, and well-polished shoes, the one-eyed, white-haired woman idly straightens her tie into orderly perfection as she takes in the sight of the bridge unfolding all around her.

Technology, far beyond anything even in Guild Galad. A ship, perfectly preserved for god knows how long.

"Zeboim," she murmurs, dark brow lifting.

The Laplace heiress steps within a few seconds after. She pauses, only briefly, to look Leon's way, in the second's before everything comes online. A little twitch of a chartreuse eye.

"Well," she echoes Leon mildly, a smile on her lips, "isn't this fantastic?" 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Parking Hellerune at the moment is something of an adventure; Lily keeps it together with Josie piloting for a while, but it eventually becomes a neat collection of very large constructions. Getting out involves a slight jump, but it's fine. ...Lily, for her part, floats out, and is willing to help Josie get there, but once she gets to the ground, she lets herself let go the transformation.

Her eyes stay all black, though. That's just going to linger for a while, even if the circuit patterns don't. It's not that unsettling.

Here the elevator... Lily starts to explain, but she doesn't speak as quickly as Emeralda. Instead she just gestures to the girl with a nod, for those who don't speak the language to confirm that she's quite right. She remains pleased to see Riesenlied walking, though she doesn't focus on it overmuch for the moment, not wanting to put her on the spot.

"I wonder whose, too." She pauses, and looks over the glass panels, the viewport.... The stations. "It looks like they wanted to get their hands on this, too... But they didn't." She sets her jaw, looking to Leon for a moment, from behind. Shaking her head, the witch steps forward around.

Isn't this fantastic?

Lily looks over the consoles. "...I should be more amazed at the technology, shouldn't I?" Lily asks. ""Let's see..." She steps over to one of the consoles, examining the closest. 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei is mostly relieved he didn't accidentally crush Cidney in Weltall's hands he has reasons to worry about accidentally hurting people he was trying to help! But eventually he has Weltall crouch and sets Cidney down on the ground so she can move on her own power without having to try and jump off a Weltall too. He says, "Ahh, the Sigurd I know has both arms." He...thinks, anyway. Maybe it's just a very convincing prosthetic.

Fei walks along, minding his own business for the time being. He laughs a bit at Riesenlied's quip. "Familiar ancientness, huh?" He says as he looks around a bit. It's an interesting place, but he wonders what Keil was looking for exactly.

Fei reaches out to try and snag Emeralda so she doesn't get too far but misses and ends up jogging forward. He looks over to Cidney and manages, "I don't know." with a bit of an awkward shrug of his shoulders.

He seems kinda vaguely uneasy but that isn't unusual. He looks at everything as if expecting the ship was made out of proximity mines and if he got too close, KABOOM.

"Em?" He asks. "Is this place familiar to you?"

He glances to Leon again then looks to the floor, then gives in and taks a look at one of the station consoles. 

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

        Shalune stares at the vista of the pitch-black ship from the back of Big Shal, and lets out a long and low whistle of appreciation.

        She'd previously scurried over to Lunata's side along with her golem, trying to ascertain whether Lunata was alright after her self-destruct attempt. She might know, deep down, that Lunata doesn't need first aid - but that won't and didn't stop her from trying to make the other girl comfortable and bandaged before handing her over to her draconic babysitter.

        Now, Big Shal has remained with the other Gears as the pink-haired girl - still bundled up in a thick coat and scarf and two other layers - bobbles along with the rest of the group. She doesn't seem to be able to read Zeboim, but she does instinctly recognize a transport when she sees one, and is braced ready for the way in which it lurches and then heads for the bridge.

        She seems terrifically pleased at the sight of Riesenlied being upright, and peers with open curiosity at the pair of braces, nodding enthusiastically when she catches sight of the Crests glowing on the front. "They're really good," she decides after a moment. I thought braces would help, but I didn't know how to actually make them-- brace well enough. I guess sorcery does the rest, huh?"

        When they reach the bridge, she has to pause for a long moment to take in the sight of it all. "This looks-- really functional," she concludes. "I mean, preserving stuff in the cold is usually really easy. Preserving stuff in seaside air, not so much. Kinda expected this to be encrusted by now, but that's Zeboim for you, I guess."

        "Honestly," she adds towards Lily, "I like it just because it's a bit more... ordered compared to some of the other ancient stuff I've found. I mean, you can usually get a sense of how it works and fits together. Elw stuff's kinda there but then they'll just decide to rip out a circuit and replace it with a knobbly crystal, and Lunar ruins just go full on gems-and-beams-of-light, y'know?"

        * * *

        Back at the camp, Noeline is finishing up with a little more in the way of first aid for Lunata - and heating something up over a hastily-made campfire. "... I never thought there'd be a day that I'd be serving you dinner rather than the other way around," she snorts in amusement. 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia's first time piloting a Gear again in a long while was a bit more of a trial by fire than she bargained for. Though doing better than anyone, including herself, could have predicted, she too is pretty glad for the opportunity to get back to handling things while on her own two feet. She needed a moment, outwardly fine, but if Xantia isn't bouncing back from something instantly, it probably means the experience did more of a number on her than usual. Perhaps it hadn't been such a great idea to go out there without at least a little bit of practicing Gear handling beforehand.

Nevertheless, soon she is back on her feet and back in the usual high spirits. And asking the important questions, of Emeralda in this case: "Is your egg sandwich okay?" Xantia has her priorities straight. Other than that she seems fairly concerned, although she does linger a moment to study the screens that show a map of Filgaia, taking note of the marked locations. Never know when remembering that might come in handy.

Once the group arrives on the ship bridge, Xantia seems interested, bounding ahead when the consoles show signs of life, to peer over Lily's shoulder. As Fei wonders if Emeralda finds any of this familiar, Xantia sees cause to wonder the same of Lily: "...What about you? Does anything feel familiar to you?" 

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        In the end -- even with the pain rolling up her right forearm and into her shoulder, Josie manages to pilot the machine well enough. Using a Gear isn't her forte, but you don't get to poke around engineering on the Yggdrasil (to say nothing of Lunata's own machine) for months on end without learning something.
        And while the setup may be a little more esoteric compared to Leon's own way back when, it's not as if the basics differ.

        And all she needs to do is pilot it without crashing, which she does with flying colors (and a very sore hand).

        Getting out -- with the cannon -- takes a little doing by contrast.
        It's a little wedged in the back there.

        Fortunately, Riesenlied brought the medical supplies! Josie has rarely seen a more welcome sight. "Sunshine, ain't you a sight for sore eyes. Got a moment, there...?"

        A LITTLE WHILE LATER

        The cannon is set down with a little less care than might be warranted a weapon of mass destruction as they arrive on the bridge. "...Fengalon's claws," Josie whistles, taking in the sight properly. "I knew this old thing looked in pretty good sort, but this... damn." A glance is given Shalune's way. "Just goes to show, eh? However the hell they made this stuff, they made it to last. Though, I gotta say... this is even better than I find anything, mostly." She approaches one of the screens.

        "Hey, you kids. Can you read any of this?"

        Though it may all still just be on the boot screens... 

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"It is something, isn't it?" Leon says to Riesenlied, giving her a look and a smile. It's good to see her walking again, though he doesn't say that aloud. He would worry about Lunata, but the truth is that he can think of no one better than Muni-Muni to be with her. This may say a great deal about Leon, as well as Leon's estimation of himself and his allies.

"It's amazing, what they can do," Leon agrees with Shalune. "Far beyond my ability... but, who knows what sorts of things we might find here?"

The consoles begin to come online. Emeralda touches one, and then they light up -- displaying maps of Filgaia, though they are out of date. For one, they show a lot more land than exists in Southern Aquvy; signs of the catastrophe that struck in the past. For another, they show a lot more greenery. The maps, unfortunately, are a little too abstract to be useful in a deep analysis.

The lights come on all the way, as they touch more consoles. Leon, in the end, walks up towards Lily -- just a moment before she touches her console. When she does, that screen lights up, and a single blue message box appears over the screen, with white words:

        WELCOME, MASTER. YOU STAND ABOARD THE ZFS KARLSEFNI. UNLOCKING ALL USER PERMISSIONS.

"...It seems..." Leon's eyes reflect in the screen. "...It recognizes Lily."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        Riesenlied nods softly to Josephine and says, "Anytime..." as she hands out potions and berries alike.

        She does smile warmly and pat Shalune on the shoulder, after reaching for her cheek and wiping away some soot from her. "Noeline is with Lunata. It'll be all right... she'll take care of her."

        Emeralda sounds exuberant; she smiles as Xantia speaks of familiarity, and she looks to Lily in turn. She's not familiar with Zeboim technology like the others are...

        "This is even more advanced than that ship we went to Elru in... the Kraken, was it? And even though it cannot fly like the Fereshte..."

        She bobs her head, as the words appear as she looks to Leon and how the ship recognises Lily.

        Recognises Lily or... the other person...

        "It is really timely for you... Aquvy is difficult to traverse without a ship, we are finding, given the Fereshte is still missing." Fei makes a quip in turn, and she flushes, "Ah, just... something really common about it, with what we have seen so far. Shalune has the right idea." 

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

Emeralda doesn't go too far even without Fei stopping her. She is poking around one of the consoles, certainly, but she's not doing anything likely to break it, unless talking to it in conversational Zeboim counts.

"...I don't remember this," Emeralda replies to Fei. "It doesn't seem like anything I dreamed. But I can read it. Zeboim... - oh!" Hers is popping up a different screen than Lily's. "I found a map! But it's wrong." Emeralda has seen a few maps - most significantly, the big one on the Thames - and she knows that Aquvy isn't shaped like that. She leans over to try to move the map around on the console, or see if anything else comes up.

It doesn't seem to do anything before Lily makes contact and ... "Oh! She unlocked it." Emeralda points at Lily. "I didn't have the key. I guess it's working now! Can I try again?" She means the map console; she doesn't feel any need to sit at the probably more-important one where Lily is.

Xantia asks the most important question of all. "...aah I forgot my sandwich on Crescens! ...I'll eat it on the way out. Maybe there is a sandwich in here too? No, it's probably soggy." 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"...Maybe," Lily answers absently of Xantia's question of familiarity. Or at least... --Well. Josie asks, but Lily blinks as the message box appears. She looks it over, black eyes reflecting the screen just as much as the screen reflects Leon's--and tilts her head.

"Yeah," she says after a moment. "And I don't know if familiar is the word, but I know how to work this. Let's see..." She taps a few keys, as quickly as if she'd done this many times before. "Initiating diagnostic on internal systems, engine control..."

Tap tap tap. "In that case..."

"I find the same, but I'm not sure if it isn't just bias," she admits to Shalune as she works the system.

"I'm going to need to look at one of the others--Yeah, Emeralda, you should be able to understand the readout in that one there, it'll be faster if we're both looking." 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei places his hand on his forehead for a moment before nodding slowly to Emeralda. "It's been a very long time, maps change... but even that far back, it shouldn't be this different, not unless something--heh, well, I guess we already know something terrible happened back then didn't we? I guess this shows the shape of what happened."

He looks to Xantia, "Xantia, come on, we're not gonna eat a sandwich from this place. We'd get sick." He isn't entirely sure that principle applies to Xantia herself but even Fei has some standards on what he puts into his mouth.

He looks to Riesenlied and adds, "Yeah... I guess having our own boat would be easier...but THIS boat...uh...it's not exactly inconspicuous. We'd have to be real careful where we put it."

He looks to Leon for a moment, blinking, and then towards Lily.

"Even if this is a Sharon thing... why would she have permissions for a ship like this?"

He crosses his arms. "It's one thing if it's a golem but..." 

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        Emeralda remarks that she found a map.

        That gets Josie's attention, and she abandons the screen she was staring at, unable to read any of the scrolling Zeboim text. "Lemme see, Jadelet," she says, leaning over the girl. "...Huh. Yeah, now, that is definitely Ignas, so this is Aquvy... but it's got a lot more land than on the maps," she says, jabbing a finger at the image. "There's some other stuff here, and there that ain't... huh, now ain't this a puzzler," she murmurs, beetling her brow as she continues to study the screen.

        "Guess they weren't kidding about the end of the world."

        But she straightens and turns, glancing back over her shoulder as Leon says that the ship...

        Her gaze settles on Lily.

        "So, what are you going to do now, Rose-of-Sharon?" Her somewhat lopsided smile narrows as Lily proceeds to work at the keys.

        "You've done this before. Or something like it," she remarks, watching her now as she works.

        "Curiouser and curiouser." 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

You see Emeralda, you see? This is why you always eat all the food you have immediately. No good will come from saving anything for later!

Oddly for Xantia, she isn't pressing that subject for the moment, rather taking note of Emeralda's response, and then Lily's. She is quiet for a moment, one hand on her chin, mulling over these developments. Not the first machine to recognize Lily, without her recognizing it back. And yet, knowing enough to operate it. She glances over to Leon, as if silently asking for his assessment, rather than giving her own.

Then she places her hands behind her head, seeming her usual unconcerned self. "Well, it's good that we can find out some stuff from this, at least. Don't think I can help with this one, unless hitting a thing hard will make it work better." Which in her experience does tend to help with that, in some cases.

Instead, she turns to Fei, since he has something to say that matches her expertise more. "You're gonna end up really hungry if you're too picky about these things. Gotta make do with whatever there is!" Sounds like maybe she should be kept an eye on to make sure she doesn't eat anything in here. A good general policy, honestly. 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Jadelet is a much cooler nickname than Junior, Fei thinks. "I... I don't know if not wanting to eat a 5,000 year old sandwich or whatever is too picky..." But even as he says it, he already sounds kind of defeated. 

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

        "Mm... not me, sorry," Shalune shrugs towards Josie with a light grin. "I only specialise in listening to components and gears, not so much written instructions." ... perhaps that counts as a remarkably self-aware moment by her standards.

        "Put it this way, I don't think we're gonna find a lot here that isn't bristling with weapons," she notes to Leon rather bluntly, but only because she's scratching at her hair and pouting a little. "I was really hoping for that imaginary water purifier. Ideally in a form I could, y'know, unbolt and take with me?"

        She looks to Riesenlied for a long moment, then furrows her brow. "... is that really gonna be okay, though? Taking a ship like this around Aquvy? I mean, you're not wrong, it'd definitely be a whole lot easier to get around, but..." she chews at her lip for a while, wondering how to word it. "It just-- kinda feels like this is a ship that'd get even more Solaris troops landing on you than the Fereshte did. Kind of a big target."

        She leaves that hanging in the air, though, because honestly - she could understand if Leon was perfectly happy to thumb his nose at Solaris and go for it. Instead, she sticks a glum pout on her face and glances over at Lily. "Look, as someone who's worked with all three, it's not bias. You wanna fix Elw stuff, you bring a saw and a big apron and it looks like you've been working at the butchers all day. I've only barely gotten used to it." 

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"Mm-hm. The Kraken was Kislevi... probably something from the Metal Demon Wars, if I had to guess. And a loaner," Leon says. Kislev and the Kaiser owed them a favor, but it wasn't a favor that lasted long enough to lend them a private warship. "I'll take it. We could certainly use the transportation. But..."

He looks at Shalune, then nods. "It'll be dangerous. I would want to keep a low profile -- and away from cities. We'll want to do an analysis of it, either way, first."

When Lily activates it, a lot happens. For one, the maps are now touch screens. They can be zoomed in on, though most of what they display is simply wrong; cities and place names that no longer exist, and that they have little context for. There are, however, a few things of note. The first is that five dots flash across the map of Filgaia.

One is in the north of Aquvy, where they stand. Another is in what is now the Badlands -- where Ash Hare was. A third is in southern Aquvy. Two more are in Elru. Then, text flashes across the screen:

HEOROT: LOCATION UNDETERMINED

The text fades.

Leon frowns at it, for a moment, then looks back at Fei. "I think... there's quite a bit more, here, than some vengeful, ill-guided automatons."

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

"Well it'd be wet and soggy in here," Emeralda points out. "Unless it was sealed? You could seal it, right?" She has a vague image of a Ziploc bag, except more intense.

She isn't sure what the intensity looks like.

Emeralda slips into the seat when Lily says she should look. On a whim, she says, "Aye aye, Captain!" because she's heard people say it before; she's grinning, so she's probably not terribly serious about it. "What's a Karlsefni anyway?" she asks, while Fei and Josephine look at the map past her. Jadelet is a cool nickname, which is why she doesn't object to it.

She starts poking at the map a few moments later, seeing that she can drag it around to look at the 'wrong' terrain. None of it is familiar to Emeralda and none of it seems like the map she's used to: "I can't even find Guild Galad," she complains. "It's big! It should be easy!" She's actually in more or less the right place, she's just off by about four thousand years.

Emeralda keeps prodding as the dots pop up, panning the map around. She doesn't know what to make of it but she can sure show everybody else what she's seeing! "What's a Heorot too?" She says it wrong. 

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        Riesenlied thinks of Shalune and Fei's thoughts that it'd draw a lot of attention. "That's true, but..." she lowers her head. "Even without... it seemed like you'd already attracted a lot of attention from Colonel Keil. Those Gears outside when I came in..."

        She shakes her head. "But that's true. You're good at keeping a low profile..."

        Emeralda's map draws her attention like Josephine's though. She twitches a little. "I've seen that map once before..."

        She frowns a bit deeper. "In that Veruni temple I met Avril, a long time ago... the Temple of Rejection...."

        There's a deeper breath from the Hyadean. "Are they ancient Zeboim words, I ponder...?" 

<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.

As everything lights up with activity and life, Cidney Laplace's chartreuse eye falls on Lily Keil for a quiet moment. It is in that silence that the white-haired woman happily lingers even as the others converse around her -- even as her attentions turn towards that map of Filgaia. Or at least... what Filgaia might have once been.

"We've lost so much," she observes, quite matter-of-factly, as her single-eyed gaze drops towards where Southern Aquvy lingers, whole. Her head tilts.

"So I'm guessing you have a connection with these places. Your Gryndille friend was likely a countermeasure, much like the thing we had the pleasure of meeting outside, which means these facilities are being protected." Cidney runs through this with a certain level of thought layered into the confidence of her tone as she looks over the map, and the phantom cities that race across it.

Her eye falls upon the dots, taking them in one by one. It tilts towards Elru, considerate.

"You have been here, where we stand now... and here," she points, towards the location of Ash Hare, "yes? And so that makes a two yet undiscovered, presumably." Two, she says. A name flashes across the screen. Emeralda asks her question.

"That would be what your more colorful Wolf friends would be looking for," is Cidney's answer, stated to a certainty. A second passes.

She points somewhere towards the south.

"Guild Galad is right there. It just doesn't exist yet. Presumably, neither do the fields of bones that made its existence possible." 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Why would she have permissions for a ship like this? Lily can't entirely answer the question. No... she can only guess. But Josie is right, too.

"I'm going to get this thing working, I guess," Lily answers the archaeologist. "After that...?" She nods to Xantia. "Probably best not to." Instead, though--Shalune's question is reasonable. However, Lily is not, always:

"Let them come. They have reason enough already."

Lily turns, once the system is activated, looking over the five dots, the cities and place names that aren't there, and one... Two... three, four, five. "Heorot..."

"Karslefni is the name of the ship," Lily explains the part that she can. "...I don't 'remember' that, it just seems clear to me based on the message we saw." Important clarification. She turns then to Cidney, and nods. "I do," she says. "I'm--It's a long story. But I'm connected to these automatons. One of them identified me as its maker."

"I think you're right. Heorot... No, that's it. Heoh Rott--" She pronounces it slightly differently, "Fath--Colonel Keil spoke of it, sometimes. I overheard conversations between he and my... his wife. I never knew very much about it, but if it's the same thing... We already know that he had control of Gryndille, somehow; he had people out there."

"I guess it suggests he hasn't beaten us to all of it--or else this ship wouldn't be here. Which means these other sites are worth looking into... Which means we need these maps."

"...Not... that I'd be willing to give this up, in any case," she admits. "I need to... look this thing over. Top to bottom. Maybe there are more clues." 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei says, "That's..that's what I mean. It'd be one thing if she was making things for the military, but they wouldn't leave control over to her would they?" He grimaces sharply when Cidney mentions the 'field of bones that made Guild Galad' possible but he doesn't comment on it. "This makes it feel like Sharon made all these places...for herself. But ... why?" He shakes his head. "These places are all over the world... There's only a few reasons I can imagine having places like this all over the world and under your power."

He seems shaken but he shakes his own head as if to clear it.

He grips at his arm for a bit before turning and walking a bit aways from the group for a bit. 

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        "You and me both, Lunie," Josie remarks with a chagrined smile, shaking her head. "Some of the rest of these kids, though..."

        Her gaze lingers in particular, a moment, on Lily.

        "More's the pity. I could use a real ship instead of tagging along on whatever's going my way," she says, to Leon. "Not to mention the land part of things... oh, but this can't fly, can it?" She sighs, as if in lament. "More's the pity." Shalune wonders aloud about Solaris, but at that, Josie can only shake her head. "We'll burn that bridge when we come to it. Maybe we'll just make a little more subtle-like on the outside. Or maybe there's something else we can do that ain't us kicking their hive any. Chin up, kiddo."

        At Lily, she nods, her mouth widening a touch more as that smile of hers makes a slight resurrection. "Yeah. Let's start with the practicals, right? And from there, we'll see what comes up. If we're going in blind, might as well go all the way."

        Lily activates the screens, which causes a cascade of change across the map Josie is now looking at. "Well, I'll be-- look at that. I think that's Ash Hare. But the others... Aquvy mainly. Elru. Hey, captain--"

        She smiles, lopsidedly. "Sure does look that way."

        Emeralda protests she can't find Guild Galad. "I think you're in the right place--"

        Cidney finishes.

        "...Yeah. This isn't Filgaia as it is now, or nothing. It's how it used to be."

        As Lily explains about Gryndille, Josie interjects to add, "Had control. It's scrap now." She can't help but glance back at the cannon, left by the entrance to this area of the ship.

        "Yep." This, to the remark that Lily's father hasn't been here yet. "We've beaten him to the punch, sure enough. If there was anything he wanted here -- and I can tell by looking he'd want plenty of this -- he'd have taken it then taken the ship or destroyed it. He's a cocky bastard but he's not stupid." 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia also wants to speak up when Shalune mentions a ship like this may draw Solaris's attention, with a response a lot more enthused than anyone else's. Saying something is dangerous never discouraged her before. She's pleasantly surprised when Lily beats her to it, to which she quickly chimes in, "Yeah! Wrecking their plans would be great, whether we go to them or they come to us. Just let 'em try!" She grins from ear to ear as she slams a fist into the opposite palm. Given recent developments, her eagerness for a good fight is greater than ever where it comes to Solaris specifically.

She briefly loses some of that enthusiasm when Cidney points out that Filgaia is smaller than it used to be. But saying such things only makes her want to counter it with something optimistic. "Nothing's lost that can't be found again." Words to live by, where she's concerned. Something she pretty much has to believe is true to stay as positive as she is about the future, the recovery of her memories in particular.

Xantia glances at a monitor displaying Filgaia, seeing those dots again. She'd already connected the dots (so to speak) before, confidently nodding along with the conclusions. "So there's more to find, huh?" In light of that, she addresses Lily. "That's good, right? Maybe you'll find out more if we go there." From the perspective of an amnesiac whose priorities have returned to finding out more about her past, nothing about this is even potentially bad news. She doesn't think about things as deeply as Fei's doing.

She does however notice Fei's reaction and apparent distress, and moves to follow him. "Fei? Is something wrong?" She frowns briefly. "It's not that guy acting up, is it?" 

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

        "If you need any help with repairs and physical problems, let me know," Shalune chirps back to Leon, her eyebrows raised high - but she glances at Lily and Emeralda with a lopsided but bright grin. "But, I kinda don't think you will? Honestly, I'm tempted to stick around to see if I can pick up any tips. So far, all I've done with Zeboim is just experiment."

        She trails off as the multitude of lights spring to life, and slowly tilts her head. "Refuelling stations? Hangars for servicing? They're spread out that way, I think... I mean, it could be some kinda command structure, but they're all so far apart."

        Cidney's rather blunt comment about what Guild Galad is built upon earns a brief worried bobble and a glance towards Riesenlied; she wonders for a moment if she should speak up in the Hyadean's defence, and just settles for a slightly wavering expression and a bit of a puffed cheek or two. At least it's said in what seems to be a disapproving manner.

        "That's okay!" she blurts towards Josephine, grinning as she pumps her fists. "If you can't figure out where to start, you just stand on the shoulders of giants instead. That's just how all science goes," she adds matter-of-factly. "Sometimes I gotta stand on Big Shal's shoulders instead of metaphorical ones, but it all pretty much comes to the same thing in the end."

        She does at least grin when told to chin up. "If you weren't the Black Wolves, I'd reckon the first thing to do would be a coat of paint. I'm pretty sure people would be a lot less worried about something like this if it weren't plain black, I'm just saying." 

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"I haven't the foggiest," Leon says to Emeralda. "Probably something from their culture. Who can say for sure?" He looks at the map that Emeralda looks at -- then at Cidney, and nods. He lets Cid explain where Guild Galad is, and then glances down at the ground for a moment.

'What's a Karlsefni, anyways?'

Fei remembers.

FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO

"...this is part of our contingency plan," Doctor Barton Klaeber explained. He stepped ahead of Kim, walking down the bridge of the Karlsefni. He wore a suit, rather than a lab coat; his love may have been science and engineering, but public relations and lobbying had come to define his life. The scientist looked older than his late thirties -- blonde hair gone to grey, male pattern baldness at the back of the head and thinning the top too.

He turned, smiling back at him. Though, it never reached his tired, steel blue eyes. "...The Karlsefni, a ship to let them explore what remains and reestablish themselves, should the worst come. To let them breathe easy, knowing it will see to their needs--that it can repair itself--as they reclaim this world."

Klaeber sighs. "And Dr. Wyatt said it's a waste of money... well, one can't blame her for being focused."

THE PRESENT

Leon turns to look at Riesenlied, then nods. "They are," he says. "The language of Zeboim. Miss Laplace is right... we've lost so much. This map shows us that. And..."

He glances at Lily, and then he nods once at her. "...Keil's mentioned it. I think... it means we should go after them. As Fei said... there's only a few reasons to want something like this."

Even if it isn't, he thinks, something that Lily would want.

"If you'd like to," he says to Shalune, "I'd appreciate it. I'd like to have a look -- get an idea of what it can do. You'd help a lot, there," Leon says. He cracks a smile. "It might be fun, besides?"

Leon goes quiet for a moment -- thoughtful, ruminating on the monitors' displays -- and then he looks up, when Josephine addresses him. Leon blinks, then nods, as he looks at the script.

He still takes a moment to translate the characters. When he does, he reads them out: "Akasha Project Key Status... Vayu-Key, Azure Terminal. Agni-Key, Aeschere. Apas-Key... unknown, assumed lost. Prithvi-Key, Eos Base."

He looks at Josie, unsure, before: "Aeschere... Ash Hare?"

And, indeed, the dot on the map that Cidney observed -- the place they visited in Ignas, known by locals as Ash Hare -- is labeled as 'Aeschere.'

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

Emeralda absorbs a history lesson courtesy Ms. Laplace. "Oh," is what she says afterwards. "I guess if the map really is that old..." A memory slowly drifts into her mental processes, but - as soon as she tries to focus on it - it's gone again.

"I know it's the name of the ship!" Emeralda was reading along, after all. "It said so. I just don't know what it is. But I don't know what the Thames is named for either." It has to be named after something, right? Like the Sweet Candy (not that Emeralda has been on the Sweet Candy) is named for candy, which is a fairly logical thing for someone to name something after.

It makes sense to Emeralda, anyway.

"Well," she says to Fei instead, "what if they all move? Like this is a ship. So they didn't have to be all over the world originally! They could have all just... gotten stuck there." She's not sure whether the dots are ships or the facilities the ships are in. "But... are you okay?" She doesn't mean to echo Xantia, but it's important to her. 

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        "Oh..."

        Riesenlied has been so distracted with patching people up that she's been rude -- she looks to the one-eyed woman, Cidney, and bows her head. "Sorry, do you need medical assistance as well? I am afraid I am not familiar. My name is Riesenlied, a Hyadean. Are you an acquaintance of Mister Leon?"

        She knows of Gryndille... has she been involved in the Black Wolves' struggle for long?

        She mentions the field of bones...

        "The bones of... my fellow dragons..." she shivers.

        Lily and Leon both begin translating. Karslefni is the name of the ship, and the other sites... Ash Hare, Heoh Rott...

        But Fei looks discomforted, and Xantia approaches him. She already has an understanding of some of the pain he's feeling. "... I feel the same way, Fei. A thousand years and what did my people leave but weapons...?"

        Josephine speaks further, and Shalune comforts her for a moment.

        "I would rather... entrust this ship to you, than to Colonel Keil," Riesenlied does at the very least speak. "I trust you all." 

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        The remark on the field of bones didn't immediately register with Josie -- she is at times a bit of an ARMS Meister in practice, so it is sometimes hard to recall what powers most ARMS.
        Then she sees Riesenlied shiver and her expression flattens out, dropping any mirth that may have been there.
        She glances away, back down at the screen again.

        She nods in response to Shalune, her slight smile widening. "Yep. We'll figure something out, sure enough. Just take it easy, got it? First things first, let's figure out what we all got here, secure this thing, and then we'll..." She barks out a laugh. "So what do you think? Color-wise. Pink, maybe? I'm sure them lot'd never expect a big old pink ship!"

        Leon reads off a few lines of text from a screen, most of which Josie only partially registers until he gets to one word in particular.
        "Hey. Read that to me again, Leon." All easy-going nature has slipped from her; she abandons her position near the map by Emeralda to head over towards him, her attention now rapt on text she cannot understand. "Aeschere..." she echoes, testing the sound of the alien word. "Ash Hare. Sounds close enough like to me," Josie says, frowning in thought. "Prithvi Key... and you said one of them was 'Apas'? That was the one we found in Spira, right? It had that written on it." She pauses, takes a breath, and pulls herself up to her full height to regard him, properly. "You're sure that's what you read?"

        She stands stock still, staring at him fixedly.

        "'Cause if that's so... then that means the last one of these things is in 'Eos Base'."

        It means a heck of a lot more than just that, but Josie is approaching this one piece at a time. "What's it say about Eos Base? You got a coordinate thing or suchlike on that?" 

<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.

Xantia speaks up in counterpoint to her murmured assertion, and Cidney looks her way. The right corner of her lips twitches upward in approval.

"That's exactly right," she confirms, with firm confidence, as she looks back towards the screen. "What's lost can be regained, if we wish it. Or perhaps even greater. We don't have to settle for simply eking out survival. We can do - and achieve - much better things."

For the rest, Cid seems more than content to simply sit back and listen for the most part, unless directly addressed. Arms folding over her chest, she tilts her head, her ponytail brushing over her shoulder with the effort as she listens to Lily -- and to Fei, musing on the intentions of these facilities' presumed creator.

"I wouldn't mind hearing the long version, sometime," she asides to Lily. "But it'd seem like you're an important piece of this puzzle, whatever it might be." She leans back, eyeing that map with an impassive expression.

"After so many generations of lost history, who knows what that original intention really was, compared to what it is now?"

Arms unfold as Cidney looks over the list of names, exposing some lines of bruising flesh along Cidney's forearm when Riesenlied addresses her. That lone eye shutters in a blink, peering at the Hyadean curiously.

"Oh?" she wonders, head cocked. "I've never actually met a -- Hyadean, yes? -- before. It's a pleasure. There's no need to worry about this, Ms. Riesenlied." She flicks a finger against her forearm with an easy smile. "Just a bit of bruising. Among the perils of human flesh, they're by far the least perilous. Now egos, on the other hand..."

She looks back, towards the map, when Riesenlied speaks next. 'Fellow dragons.' That chartreuse eye falls on where Guild Galad is -- would be -- in the coming centuries -- millennia?

"Ah," exhales the one-eyed woman. "I understand. It's a harsh thing to grapple with. The reality is, without the bones of your ancestors then, the people of Guild Galad likely would never have survived." That chartreuse eye narrows, frown pressing at her lips.

"... and without them now, we wouldn't have bloated Merchant Houses picking at them like vultures at the macabre feast, using the memory of your people to increase their own personal wellbeing while their people suffer."

Cidney sighs. The smile she offers to Riesenlied is an apologetic one. "... But I'm letting myself get carried away. I am sorry, Ms. Riesenlied, for touching too close to what is clearly a personal issue. Maybe it's time I introduce myself properly."

And as Leon discovers 'Aeschere' for what it is, Cid places a hand to her chest, head dipping respectfully to those gathered. "Colonel Cidney Laplace of Guild Galad's armed forces, currently acting as head of military police for Guild Galad's railway network. I've been chasing rumors of a strange facility here, thinking it might be linked to Odessa's activities." Her yellow gaze tilts back towards the map. "... but it seems like I've fallen into something considerably bigger." 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei reflects that Emeralda has a point. If they're all ships, they could just have been sent all over the place rather than being built everywhere--but the idea of Sharon having a fleet of ships is not particularly comforting either--she was just a scientist looking to better humanity, wasn't she? What would she need an armada for?

He steps away to clear his head. He isn't trying to make a scene or anything and the idea that he kind of is anyway causes him to tense up. He looks to Riesenlied and laughs a little, "Well, with enough time, maybe weapons will be the dominant lifeform."

What if Kim made Emeralda to be a weapon, he worries, the idea that someone like that could be attached to his past sickens him--it doesn't even feel right, it feels so WRONG that it's difficult to even imagine...but how can he really know what this 'Kim' was thinking? It's like watching a movie on a projector screen like Lunar had--who knows what he was thinking truly when he talked with Sharon, or made Em--

Xantia approaches and asks him if something is wrong. He doesn't answer immediately, instead sitting himself down and placing his hand on his forehead.

"Oh he doesn't need my help," He murmurs to Xantia--possibly Emeralda too if she followed. "He gives himself more anxiety than I ever could...heh... So I'm just showing him a little something..." He pauses to look at Emeralda, though and that cocky expression shifts to something considerably warmer.

"Hey kiddo." He says, smiling. "How ya enjoying the world we left ya?" If Emeralda lets him, he'll reach up and ruffle her hair a bit with a hand. For a moment, the demon looks human enough.

He closes his eyes and adds, "...Alright.... That should do it." And then that presence is gone.

Fei blinks his eyes back open and his cheeks pinken considerably in embarrassment. "Um..." He lowers his head. "Sorry. I'm okay. I'll be okay. I just... Guess I don't really know anything."

He doesn't comment on the memory immediately, needing a moment to recover as he rubs at his face again. "Sorry, Lily..." He looks over to her. "You said... this ship is the Karslefni?" He looks around a bit longer. 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"I don't know," Lily admits to Fei. "I don't know what it's all for, what it would all be used for." She doesn't comment at first on the bones--it may be thoughtless, but Lily is focused now upon the ship and its answers, and misses things that are otherwise easily. She nods, to the idea of sharing with Shalune, though. "Once I figure some out."

"...But that's true, Josie. He's not stupid. So I have to wonder what it is he has in mind from here."

A shake of her head, as she stops--and blinks, looking up suddenly to Leon. A hand comes up to her head, as she repeats, "Akasha project... Is that...?" she nods to Josephine. "Yes. It seems that way. I'll look, see if I can find them."

She does look thoughtfully at Emeralda, though. "If they're mobile, that would explain something..."

"It's a puzzle, all right. Even the long story... Well, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't believe it, hearing it."

Who knows, indeed? And yet...

"Colonel?" Lily repeats, looking to Cidney then, brow still knit. "I guess I'm not the only one with secrets. Well, I can't say you didn't find something worth reporting... And it looks to me that you aren't interested in changing our terms. ...Heh. I think I like you after all."

Then a pause. "What are you apologizing for?" she says then to Fei, confused for a moment. "Yeah, that's the ship's name."

...If she happens to be watching Cidney more closely for the moment just in case, it may be missed in the way she stands and walks over to Fei. 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Well, that settles it, Cidney's okay in Xantia's book. Agreeing with her on a single Very Important Thing is plenty for that to be the case.

But Xantia's a bit distracted at the moment, with Fei's sudden signs of distress. She seems to have a way of telling when Id's involved in some way, which... well, she's usually actually glad to see him, but at the moment her feelings are mixed, and she crosses her arms.

"Showing him something," she repeats, in a tone that makes it clear she's not convinced of that being a good thing. But she doesn't say anything else about it one way or the other. She does look surprised at Id's reaction to Emeralda, though. Other than that, she only waits until the moment when Id's about to withdraw before she says anything else, possibly to avoid some kind of rebuttal.

"Soon. Don't forget."

It's reiterating something. She certainly didn't forget. In fact, what she promised has been on her mind pretty much constantly. She wanted to be prepared more, but at this rate... well, it's neither or nor there, for the moment.

When Fei returns, Xantia uncrosses her arms, but the frown remains a moment. It won't help Fei if she presses what just happened though, so instead concern returns to her expression in short order. "Well... you'll let me know if anything worries you, right? I may not understand everything, but, you know. I can always listen." She gives him a pat on the shoulder in reassurance, then makes a 'don't worry about it' gesture to Lily before standing aside. That should be enough to wordlessly communicate Id's involvement, all things considered. 

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

        "Yessir," Shalune salutes with a half-grin towards Leon. "Lunie'll probably need a bit to regenerate back to strength, so we might as well see what we've got. I can try to teach you some of the stuff I've picked up along the way, but it's pretty much all experimentation anyways. Let's just bang things with wrenches and see what happens. --figure of speech," she adds, before anyone can take issue with that.

        She swivels towards Emeralda in a way that could be called dangerous. "... actually... the Thames is named that way because there's so many beast people there. It's Thames-ing with them," she explains at a complete deadpan, pairing that with a pat on the head should she be allowed.

        She feels bad for the levity shortly afterwards, biting her lip at Riesenlied's comment. "... that wasn't your fault. I don't even think it was the fault of your people. You had someone pushing you to be a certain way for centuries. It's not like-- your civilization just decided as a whole to start pushing military, right? Someone incited them that way. So I'd like to think it's a bit different, I guess."

        She pauses, and puffs out a softer breath, letting the moment pass. "Definitely pink," she rather stoically says back to Josie, then seems to recover herself a little as she warms to that idea. "An insignia of a pony on the side, because ponies are friendly, and so are the Black Wings. Oh, so the pony should have wings too, naturally."

        She clamps her mouth shut at Cidney's declaration, picking at her hair for a moment as she sheepishly wonders if she's being too casual. She's just not good at bows or curtseys, and settles for returning the bow with the most awkward headbob she can seem to manage.

        She just about manages to connect her brain to her mouth and clamp her mouth shut before the words 'you sound kind of like Riese, ma'am, but angrier' can come out... and instead rubs at her hair, grinning faintly. "Ever since I met Riese, I've stopped working on fossils. Shalune, ma'am. I'm more of your ancient stuff expert." 

<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.

Emeralda feels vaguely guilty about the bones and she didn't even bring them up! Except for wondering where Guild Galad was. But anyone would have done that, right? ...right?

She slumps slightly in her chair, only to perk up again when Fei - or Fei? - addresses her. She does not stop him from ruffling her hair. "I like it," she says, and leaves it at that. It's true. She does like it. She loves the world and exploring it and everything else about it.

Emeralda clearly does not get Shalune's joke, though. She just kind of looks at her for a few long moments before her gaze tracks over to Cidney. She doesn't entirely get the politics behind it (she is, after all, about ten - or looks it, anyway) but nobody else seems to be upset by it, so she's not either. However, she also isn't going to bow. She doesn't know how. "It is a pretty big ship," she agrees.

"...hey... can we make it move? I want to try driving! They wouldn't let me drive the Thames." 

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"I don't think there is a civilization that hasn't left some tragedy for those that follow," Leon says, with a glance downward. "It's what we're good at, sad to say. But... we'll try to use it well, Riesenlied."

His eyes turn -- and then looks at Josie. His eyes are inquisitive, before he bobs his head. "I'm certain. Eos Base," he confirms. "And the coordinates... ah, there's some data corruption. I have latitude, but not longitude. We're looking at... well, the northern hemisphere." He points to the sea, south of Meria. "About here, but it could be anywhere in the hemisphere."

He looks sideways, at Cidney. Leon's quiet through her introduction -- though his eyes widen. "Colonel Laplace, is it? I admit... I took you for another Drifter. Seems you're rather more," he says. "But... yes, it seems you have found something different than Odessa."

He frowns. "And something they should not know of, either."

Leon looks at Fei, then. His silver eyes regard his friend, for a moment, and then he watches as he seems distracted -- or maybe distraught. His expression betrays any attempt to hide his concern. "Fei... rest easy, all right? We've got time to figure out what all this means, and make of it what we will."

He does, momentarily, glance at Xantia. He seems to half-understand, at least. His eyes turn back to Shalune -- and he quirks a smile, before he nods his head. "We'll bring her aboard. Lunata's always got a place here, with the Wolves, if she wants it. You, too, all right? We'd never turn either of you away." 

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        Eos Base...? Riesenlied does not know, but Josephine seems to have some interest in it. She wonders if there was something else to be discovered there.

        But Cidney speaks up, and smiles at her as she dissuades that a flesh wound is just that. Then she speaks. "... yes, I understand," Riesenlied quietly nods, as she says that the ancient Guild Galad would not have survived without the help of her ancestors.

        And yet... as she speaks of the Merchant Houses...

        "... ..."

        She glances aside. "I once... fought directly against them, against some of their plots, in Ignas. We were able to stop some of the thefts, but not others. Yet..."

        She shakes her head, bowing her head in turn. "No... it's okay. I need to grapple with this reality myself." She looks to Cidney as she introduces herself.

        "Colonel Laplace..." she's a bit breathless. "I see... it is relieving to hear someone like you resist Odessa. They have been-- active, certainly, as of late."

        She lets herself get distracted by Fei ruffling Emeralda's hair, thinking how there's some warmth to be had even in a conversation like this. She doesn't let herself think that weapons will be the dominant lifeform... and Xantia has that too.

        Lily speaks further, of the Akasha project. Was that connected with what Josephine was looking for?

        Then Shalune speaks up! "It may not be, but it is still our responsibility to push against that tide. And..." she smiles and pats Shalune on the head again. "Thank you for being so considerate." 

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"I'm glad," He says to Emeralda...

Id wasn't lying unfortunately, sometimes Fei just makes himself miserable without any help from other personalities. He simply saw an opportunity to see Emeralda with his own eyes and took it--and then quickly withdrew after.

Fei also completely missed Cidney revealing her rank but, to be fair, he wasn't exactly conscious at the time.

As usual with his 'memories', there's enough to be intriguing, enough to be frightening, but very little to be understood. What is clear is the purpose of the Karlsefni, though, that purpose seems centered on hope rather than slaughter. Strangely for once, the ominous memory calms him down a little.

But of course the bigger question is '...who are they?'

Fei smiles at Emeralda. "Heh, well, if Lily doesn't mind." Is he just passing the buck to Lily? You bet! "But I think that's the right idea. We should see about getting it moving."

He stands himself up, too quickly in fact and he briefly gets woozy again--just normal woozy, not spooky woozy--but he steadies himself and nods to Xantia. "Oh yeah sure, most def. I'm just--" He looks to Lily. "--Sorry for having a moment there. Leon--Leon's right."

He smiles again. "We've got time."

He doesn't object to Lunata having a place here or anywhere. As far as he's concerned, Lunata gets free rights to crash where she wants.

He looks to Cidney. "Is that okay? To get it moving, I mean."

He doesn't ask for further details on her identity, instead looking to Lily. "Anyway, um, it seems like this place was probably built to last, so it might even still work? Or can be put in working order, maybe? If we're trying to get a ship going, I mean." It is in some ways a complete 180. 

<Pose Tracker> Cidney Laplace has posed.

'Ancient stuff expert,' Shalune proclaims of herself, and Cid's response is a look of approval, all the way down to the smile.

"Is that right? I've something of an interest in ancient stuff, myself," she responds amicably, as if the term was just the technical way to say it. "Maybe we can trade notes some time. And please --" She taps herself once on the chest.

"Call me Cid."

But with those introductions out of the way, the Guild Galadan officer turns a thoughtful, yellow eye upon Riesenlied. "You did?" she asks, as she speaks of thefts. "I'd be interested in hearing about -that-, too, sometime soon. Maybe somewhere private. It's easy for walls to have ears, even this far north of Aquvy."

A second passes. And, Cid proves just how adaptable she is by mentioning, immediately, for Xantia's benefit, "It's a figure of saying, by the way. They do not have actual ears."

With that, her attention turns, towards Leon and Lily both. She watches with a smile as Lily makes her way towards Fei, lingering, a moment, on the young man in quiet thought as that smile fades into a thoughtful line. And then:

"No -- you found this place, you put yourself through the rigors of it. It clearly likes you," she jokes easily. "I don't see any particular reason to change the terms. Do with all of this what you will. It's likely better than what the other wolves might do. Speaking of which... I apologize for the smoke and daggers. But -- it's hard to know who you can trust. Especially out here."

She steps comfortably next to Leon; and, after a moment, leans to the side, to speak to him. "It wouldn't. And like I said... I doubt someone from Kislev developed a firm grasp of Aquvy's geography so quickly without some helping hands to make it possible. I'd be careful, if I were you, Captain."

With that advice dispensed, though, Cid falls back into watching Fei with a look of mild concern, her head tilt as she considers the young man, and the people speaking to him. Is it okay?

"Of course. It's yours now, after all. Isn't it?" She looks behind her, towards the bridge.

"Somehow, all this managed to slip my notice while I was writing my report. What a shame." 

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

        "Pink, and with a pony on the side?" Josie remarks, struggling now to keep from laughing from the look of her. "Let's add a few rainbows, too. They're cheery enough. Might as well make sure they never see it coming, heh heh..."

        Well, she keeps her 'straight face' up only a few minutes more before she breaks down and laughs a moment at the thought of engaging Solaris' lot with the pinkest, pony-est ship Filgaia ever mustered.

        It takes her a moment to assemble herself, and just in time to hear Cidney explain who she is and what she's doing here, at that.

        "Ah, and here we go," Josie remarks, glancing Cid's way. She props her one good hand on her hip. "And I was wondering if maybe our good captain had a bit of a sidepiece situation on," she continues, the look in her eyes and the curve of her lips suggesting she thought anything but that. "Well, good luck your lot -- you found what you were looking for. So what's the plan now? Going back to Guild Galad, reporting in, or what?"

        She gets her answer, in a form--

        "Really now? So your masters ain't gonna come and ask you what happened to what you found-- aha." At that, some of Josie's initial frostiness melts away. "Heh. Now, you're in the wrong line of business, Cid. Or perhaps, in just the right one?"

        Riesenlied's reminder of the Merchant houses -- and their machinations -- serves to remind Josie of that time with the skull. "Tch," she hisses, glancing away. It's not even worth agonizing over at this juncture, and yet...

        But information comes out, as it does -- and with it a few familiar names scattered into the unfamiliar.
        Josie waits, on baited breath, as it were for Leon's readout. "Corrupted? Tch-- well, fine. Beggars can't be choosers. Whatcha got?"

        He indicates; her gaze follows his hand. "So anything about that lat... hm. Well, ain't this dandy," she says, shaking her head and letting out a sigh. "Might as well start with areas near enough." Though she can't help but crack a smile: "Once I've got a little more coin in my pocket, that is. Ain't gonna be cheap to feel around for info -- it'd take a lifetime or more to do it blind."

        But she turns to Lily. "Yeah. Seems like what these things are connected to got a little bit of a name attached. Hey," and she twists, back towards Leon. "Anything in there about 'Akasha'? ...Guess I should ask you, too, Tiger." She has the decency to look a little sheepish, but only a little bit. 

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

With the particular assurance Xantia gives her, Lily wouldn't expect Fei to be this... Well, not awful. But it's not as if she can simply sit and grill him on why he isn't miserable. So instead, she nods at Shalune. "I think that's the best approach. Though... we might not have to bang on that many things to get the ship itself working."

Can Emeralda drive? "We'll think about it," Lily says, "But not until we have it somewhere safer. After that..." She looks at Leon, and gives a 'hey maybe' sort of expression. She will indeed consider it.

A look at Cidney, then, from Fei. "Likes me. I suppose that's true. ...No, I don't mind the secrecy--we're quite used to it, with the way we've had to live since leaving Kislev." A beat, as she lifts an eyebrow at Josie. "What, so little faith?" she quips back about the sidepiece situation, though there's a more serious look in her eye as she considers Josie's expression.

"...The right line of work for us, at least," she says on Cidney and the report. "We'll remember that."

Who you can trust...

She turns to Fei again, then, as she sees him steady. "And I don't mind, you have whatever moments you need. We'll get it working. I suspect you're right--this thing is in great condition, and apparently I know how to work the consoles, so..." A gesture.

"Maybe we can take you around for a little while, for once," she says to Riesenlied. But to Leon, "We have the time. Though... I doubt I'll be sleeping for a couple of days. Too much to look into. Including your Akasha--If Leon doesn't have more over there, I'll check the database." 

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        Riesenlied smiles as Fei says that Lunata's welcome here too. Though she mysteriously doesn't know her all that well, she's glad that she can have a place...

        Cid expresses interest in the thefts, and Riesenlied blinks a few times and nods. "... yes. I would be happy to assist. I am no longer in such a role, as leader of the Wayside Outreach, focusing instead on reparation, but... neither can I let that slide."

        She does catch Josephine's 'tch', however, as she quietly says, "... Josie... I don't blame you. It was a very tangled web of deception we were dealing with." But she knows that in a way, that's not how the archeaologist ticks.

        Josephine queries about Akasha again, and she's happy to let her take the lead on that, looking to Lily with a smile.

        "That's true... in time, I'm sure you'll make it just as cozy as the Fereshte."

        A pause.

        "I'm hoping it doesn't catch fire as often, though..."

        SPIRA, SOMEWHERE

        The Dragonshead figure of the Fereshte sheds a silent tear.

        Janey exclaims, "The Fereshte's Morale gauge is dropping! I don't know why!!!" 

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

Leon's eyes shift, to look at Cid. He nods to her, after considering what she informs him about. The other Wolves, and Colonel Keil, must have some help in Aquvy. The thought had occurred to him, already, but it seems even more accurate. "Quite so," he says. "We'll need to be cautious. And... find out who, exactly, they're working with."

His eyes narrow. "We've unfinished business with that lot, I fear."

Leon makes a face at the 'sidepiece' comment, then sighs. "Well... we'll help you look, Josie. Seems we've got some new resources, to that end," he says. Then he cracks a smile at Lily. "You're right. No sense in arguing otherwise."

He folds his arms, looking at the view port.

"I think we should get it moving," Leon says, looking at Fei for a moment, and then to Lily. "It's a good base. And..." He taps at the console -- being able to read the keys helps -- and one of the monitors changes. It shifts, to show the layout of the Karlsefni, with three decks -- though the cargo hold is large enough to make a few. But, rooms are quickly highlighted.

"It seems we have quarters to spare. A place to stay, for all of us."

He cracks a smile at Cid's suggestion she never saw this. Then, he looks back at Lily, and then Emeralda. "Well, Emeralda... maybe later. But, for now--"

He looks at Lily, then nods. "Make it so, Lieutenant."

It is a short time later that the drydock gates open. Seawater floods into it -- and the Karlsefni shifts, ever so slightly, as it is buoyed by water for the first time in millennia. The engines on the back of it fire -- and the ship slides out into the water, gracefully.

A moment later, it comes from under the mountain. Sunlight falls down, glittering on the black steel frame -- and the blue, recessed portions glow lightly. The ship turns, leaving Sielje behind it as it takes to the sea.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Damn, Cid is a cool nickname too. It's the sort of nickname you could build a franchise around, Fei thinks.

"Yeah," Fei says in agreement as he looks to Cidney. He smiles back at her. At first he was a little uneasy about this newcomer, but she seems plenty friendly, reasonable, and kind so maybe he had it all wrong. He says, "Thank you," with embarrassing amounts of sincerity. "It's okay. Everybody's got their secrets, you know? Nice to meetcha, Cid."

He makes his way off once more to get some space and air for himself. Resting his hand on wall.

He closes his eyes.

"...Thank you," He murmurs to his other self.

And the other self is silent for a bit before, grudgingly...

...You were scaring the kids...that's all. Try not to jump at shadows.

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