2020-05-06: It's a Long Story...
- Log: It's a Long Story...
- Cast: Citan Uzuki, Lunata Croze, Gwen Whitlock, Ethius Hesiod, Juni Vandrer
- Where: Sylvaland Islands
- Date: May 6, 2021
- Summary: While at a Gear hangar, a few individuals have the opportunity to have a chat with one another. Topics discussed are expensive Gear repairs, Crest Sorcery vs Symbology (and the Ley), and the matter of what, precisely, is someone's story. Also dad jokes.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Even with power restored, Heimdall had been in bad shape after the business with Stein had concluded. Citan had required assistance to remove the Gear to the nearest place that could take it. Which, due to distance, had not ended up being the Karlsefni, but instead rather...
...an extremely allegedly Ethos-run installation on one of the small scattered islands off of Sylvaland. If the owner or any of the workers are at all actually affiliated with the Ethos -- so many (but hardly most and certainly not all) Gear shops have traditionally been across Filgaia -- Citan would be, frankly, completely flabbergasted.
Still, it doesn't seem that they have done poor work. Naturally, he'll have to look into some way to reinforce the poor machine's armor or possibly reconfigure its electrical wiring, but that will have to wait for a later date. He at least knows himself here -- if he gets started on toying with such things now, he's not going to have a functional Gear for a few weeks.
And they need to get to Shevat.
Still, while he had been prepared in a sense for what to expect from the bill--
"Here you are, sir," says one of the technicians as he waits in the hangar here.
--he still blinks when he takes in the grand total.
"Ah... I see..." the doctor utters, readjusting his glasses as he tries to cope for a moment with the fee. Of course he can pay it, but...
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata heard that some of the Wolves were gathering around an island installation just off Sylvaland, which was a great opportunity: the Rephaim's been running ragged after so many, um, skirmishes, shall we say. What skirmishes are they? Against who? They're all offscreen, so no one can tell.
The Rephaim -- a Relic machine whose true internal workings and origins is still shrouded in mystery -- is stationed at one of the hangars next to the Heimdall, with many of its ports and vents wide open.
It's also, uh, got its beam rifle held in its arms since Lunata is doing repair work on it in a manner that we can very definitely call 'non-OSHA compliant'--
"GYAAAAAA"
--as shown when a bright ZAPPP of Ley and electricity warps around the hangar bay and the ex-waitress flops ontop of the beam rifle's casing.
"Okay, I give up," Lunata moans with slightly frizzier hair.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
If Citan's bill was bad...
well, Gwen's bill is probably not as bad, due to the Halcyone's nature. While her model line of Gears had long since ceased production by the time it found its way to that watery grave where the Thames would come to troll over, that's the case for many, many Gears. While its shape is unorthodox, the parts that make it up are not.
Which is likely why Gwen's poor Gear is in the shape it's in. "I-is there any way I could do some of the work myself? I *am* a courier, so, maybe, I could cut down on some of that shipping cost, so..." She haggles with the poor mechanic on her end and eventually signals her defeat, shaking the mechanic's hand over the price. "Guess those upgrades are gonna have t'wait a little longer."
But it's faster to have the mechanic work on it than Gwen herself, despite her knowledge.
'GYAAA'
Gwen's right ARM jerks sympathetically with the ZAP of electricity. "Oh guardians, Lunata?! That you? You okay?!" Leaving the bewildered mechanic, she jogs over to Lunata's Gear just in time to see Lunata moan her defeat. Gwen sighs with relief. "Holy cow, what were y'tryin' t'do anyway?" She looks over, seeing Citan, and recognizes the expression on his face.
It's one she had moments ago. "Hey, doc! You too, eh?"
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Even though Ethius Hesiod (who is present on similar business, unfortunately) is all the way over there in a different corner of the hangar bay, the moment Lunata zaps herself, a small handful of people shoot him some dirty looks as if he were the one responsible. (After a handful of years, you sort of begin to grow in infamy for the sorts of garbage one gets up to.)
He's been holding up all right after being given the business by an unidentified automaton who was exhibiting functions he knew were physically impossible from his trained eye.
The Caravan Kinship are all making sure their own vehicular assets are in top enough shape, and it's Ethius who's been dragging his feet the most. The strange man went through far more trouble than seems reasonable over something like a paint job on Spira. When it was necessary to obtain off-world repairs, the alterations were... endearing, temporarily. (On a very, very temporary basis.)
The re-restoration of a Kattelox-native machine is only affordable in so much that its kind of model isn't too uncommon. Segments for the laser-rifle staff, its structural plating, etcetera. Its paint job cannot be restored with the same level of wear and tear he insisted it carry prior to the operation to stop the Guard from conquering Spira.
He leaves the maintenance to the experts, and he has been given a very strict mandate as to how close he can be to any of the Gears present, because... well, almost everyone's wise to him now, something that will never not be uncomfortable and worrisome on levels beyond 'can't get away with usual antics.'
For the moment, he keeps to himself.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
...It's just that it's also going to just about completely deplete his savings. And it would be despicable to go about, at his age, asking one of his companions for a 'loan'. There's no two ways about this. He'll need to--
"Ah, Gwen, is that--"
'GYAAA'
"Oh my! Miss Croze! Are you all right?" He's already started off in her general direction. "That seemed as if it had been quite a shock! ...Yes, perhaps it may be best to leave it be, for now. I take it that the team here cannot assist?"
He does not seem terribly concerned about her apparent shock just now, but that's probably just because he knows what she can safely endure without much real harm to her being.
On the way over Citan pauses, glancing briefly in Ethius' direction.
"..."
Before continuing on.
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.
Juni Vandrer is doing some leg-work so she doesn't have to walk everywhere. Because she's tired of walking everwhere and she needs to know just how nightmarish maintenance would be were she to... acquire a gear. She's smart enough not to consider just hotwiring one here for a multitude of reasons, tempting as the shortcut might be. Ish.
She's been chatting up some of the techs and maybe even getting some ideas on what to look for in her journey. You know, to hijack one. Of note, she's wearing her field coat, hood up and pulled low enough that she doesn't have to answer too many questions about being a funny looking tree squirrel. It's just a heavy coat and a beastman! Nothing out of the ordinary!
As for why she's out on an isolated island? She's checking for rumors clearly. It's a forest, albeit a strange one, maybe survivors made it out this way. It was a dead end, as best she can tell, but you might as well make use of it. Also she didn't really have to walk most of it. Still, all of that is thrown out the window at the sound of an electrical zap and a scream. She's halfway to pulling on the hidden sling when she realizes it's probably mundane. It is a good excuse to wander over there though to check the situation out. Maybe get a peek at the internals. Sparking up a conversation. Preferably without a pun about sparks. "You okay?" she asks, making her way over. Even if she's looking Ethius's way just due to the... atmosphere in the room.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
For a moment, Ethius and Citan meet stares.
"..."
This exchange may be extremely important foreshadowing for background lore in Chapter 4, Act 2.
(no)
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
To be fair, the concern is warranted -- that's the kind of electric shock that could easily injure or even kill someone. Just, you know, this is Lunata, undead body and all, operating under different rules.
"F-fine, fine! Fine, Gwen, thank you," Lunata blurts out, even if her speech sounds a little electric. Citan also asks if she's all right, and she gives a despondent, lazy wave to him.
"Uh, yeah, I haven't found any shop that knows how Ley-powered beam weapons work, which makes a whole lot of sense. Also, the last techie I asked to work on it said he started hallucinating about ghosts."
... which isn't an exaggeration, with the Rephaim.
"I owe Frankie a frankfurter..."
Juni asks if she's all right, and she sits up with a rub. "Yeah, just gotta touch metal for the next couple of hours to ground myself, I guess..."
There's a peek towards Ethius, and the Gear nearby that's being serviced. Huh, is that his Gear? She remembers it a little... cool.
"Wait, doc, do you know how beam weapons work?"
PUT ON THE SPOT
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Mm?" Citan and Gwen's eyes meet, two desperate souls with urgent problems. The drama! The intrigue! The electrocution!
Wait, no, that last part is Lunata.
Who is thankfully perfectly fine, though Gwen still feels a bit of that aftershock just *looking* at her. And she's not even empathic!
"'Fraid I can't help y'there either, Lunata." She rubs a hand over her cap. "Though ghosts, you say? Y'sure your Gear ain't haunted? I mean, I 'spose if a house can be haunted, a Gear could be too. Though with all our Gears bein' hauled up from the ocean bed I ain't surprised more of our gears ain't already haunted as it is." She's already walking towards the Rephaim, examining it with the lack of care of those who are not particularly afraid of any ghosts.
".... Yeah, n' remind me not to shake your hand, too," Gwen says absent-mindedly, looking the Gear over. "What's the Gear's name?"
Gwen says it like it was a particularly unique breed of puppy Lunata was carrying around.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata interjects quickly to say, "No, my Gear is definitively, 100% haunted, that's how I became a Drifter."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
With urgent, income-related problems.
That will have to wait until later to be resolved, which means that Citan can kiss goodbye any browsing for machinery parts for now. Let's hope that the trip up Babel Tower is not in vain (or at least doesn't result in future damage to Heimdall)...
But there are things more urgent than his bill afoot. Lunata is in a bit of a fix, even if it's the sort of damage she can walk away from.
"Well, ah," he starts to say, when Gwen wonders if the Gear is haunted.
"...In a manner of speaking, yes."
He pauses a moment, glancing over as Juni makes her approach. He looks her over, tilting his head to one side, then returns his attention to Lunata. "Yes, that would be... difficult. I do not believe there are many who are adept in such things, these days." Though as it happens, he can think of a few who just might--
"Beam weaponry? Well, er..."
He fidgets with his glasses a moment.
"...I do know some of the basic principles behind such, as it happens. Though... it may be different if it is drawing upon the Ley?"
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The Aiguille sits there, a four star gacha pull-tier relic once again pulled forth to continue fighting a war someone else long dead started - probably. It is 100 percent free of any charming otherworldly fey regents.
(You can know this because Ethius is its pilot, and he's about the furthest thing from that possible.)
He does turn his head at mentioning as to how beam weapons work, but he doesn't speak up as Citan and Gwen speak their feelings on the matter. He slinks off a bit further away, because if he comes any closer to the group he's breaking the distance rule between himself and other Gears the other technicians have set for the likes of him.
"Would that be a discipline more apt to ask of Crest Sorcery experts, Miss Lunata?" Ethius asks.
<Pose Tracker> Juni Vandrer has posed.
Juni Vandrer tilts her head and says flatly, "Wouldn't a lingering charge like that usually be- uh, bad for you?" Then she hesitates and shrugs, letting it drop. She's seen enough weird things, she's just going to assume it's normal. A hand wave later and she says simply, "Never mind."
That's when a question about beam weaponry comes up. That gets her attention. She hadn't figured this place advanced enough for it any kind of beam weaponry. "Didn't think there'd be common beam weaponry out here." She doesn't specify whether she means the backwater planet, or just the island.
There's another comment earlier that she wants to loop back to though. "Wait, you can fish these things out of the water?" That's a hell of a lot easier than stealing one. Maybe. Less likely to get her chased down by an angry pilot, military or both though. "Where?"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Gwen asks what the Gear's name is. "Oh, it's Rephaim. It's... um, something, in ancient language. I honestly forget, I looked it up once, or mom told me," Lunata muses unhelpfully, picking away at her hair and grinning when the courier says she shouldn't shake her hand.
Citan says he knows a little bit of the basic principles, but it's different if it draws upon the Ley...
How vexing.
"I asked Jay, Mister Ethius," Lunata does at least show she's done that bit of work. "The Ley Converter itself's fine, she checked that, just... whatever's inbetween the power and the part that goes 'PSHOOOOM' is broken, because it makes more of a 'peh, peh' noise."
... so scientific.
"Ah, it's not common... I mean, this thing's some weird one of a kind that eats souls that my mom found in a creepy ruin," Lunata explains as casually as if she just bought orange juice from the nearby grocer.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Rephaim.... man, that sounds real pretty." The kind of pretty.... that eats souls. "Oh, that ain't good, eheh. Ethius, uh, do you know anything? Or-- oh, so she's already checked with you." When Juni points out the actual nature of that charge being potentially deadly, Gwen grins. "Lunata's just that kind of special! The kind that keeps on tickin'."
Turning to face Juni fully, Gwen nods eagerly. "Volunteer around the Thames enough n' you're bound to have one fall into your lap if you're lucky. They ain't as fancy as Doc's, n' I realllly recommend a good power-wash or ten before you go flyin' around in it, if it's flyable to begin with. That's where I got the base for ol' Halcyone here!"
Gwen's eyes suddenly light up. ".... OH RIGHT, Lunata, you *just* reminded me." Looking now like quite a cat that got the cream, Gwen taps the fingertips of her two gloved hands together. "I just remembered, there was that nice commision I did not too long ago. Hehehe!"
Specifically, a client needed someone to deliver some creepy relics from a creepy ruin in a noncreepy fast-like fashion to their not really creepy university estate. Usually this would be the beginning of a horror story, but in Gwen's case, it was just a lot of money and no zombie goasts to speak of.
"Maybe I can do a new paint job on it, and oh, maybe spruce up the A/C.... though it's still working pretty damn well, but hehehehe."
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Rephaim.... man, that sounds real pretty." The kind of pretty.... that eats souls. "Oh, that ain't good, eheh. Ethius, uh, do you know anything? Or-- oh, so she's already checked with you." When Juni points out the actual nature of that charge being potentially deadly, Gwen grins. "Lunata's just that kind of special! The kind that keeps on tickin'."
Turning to face Juni fully, Gwen nods eagerly. "Volunteer around the Thames enough n' you're bound to have one fall into your lap if you're lucky. They ain't as fancy as Doc's, n' I realllly recommend a good power-wash or ten before you go flyin' around in it, if it's flyable to begin with. That's where I got the base for ol' Halcyone here!"
Gwen's eyes suddenly light up. ".... OH RIGHT, Lunata, you *just* reminded me." Looking now like quite a cat that got the cream, Gwen taps the fingertips of her two gloved hands together. "I just remembered, there was that nice commision I did not too long ago. Hehehe!"
Specifically, a client needed someone to deliver some creepy relics from a creepy ruin in a noncreepy fast-like fashion to their not really creepy university estate. Usually this would be the beginning of a horror story, but in Gwen's case, it was just a lot of money and no zombie goasts to speak of.
"Maybe I can do a new paint job on it, and oh, maybe spruce up the A/C.... though it's still working pretty damn well, but hehehehe."
She breaks from monologuing aloud to look back at Citan. "Oh, by the way, Doc, what were you gonna ask me about?"
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Crest Sorcery...? Hmm, perhaps so," he muses, when Ethius tenders his own suggestion. "As it is, I can only advise on the... theory," he says, shaking his head. "Ah, though, perhaps it might not even need to function as physics would dictate? Ley applications are particularly outside my domain, as it were... though I would not dislike learning more about them!"
Back then, there had never been any call for the 'home country' to focus on such things. Indeed, the opinion of most in Solaris on Crest Sorcery and Symbology is... not flattering. But on the other hand, perhaps this is a good moment to recall something his own grandfather had once told him.
'If you know yourself, and you know your enemy...'
He knows more than most of his origins about such things. But he also knows where he still has gaps.
"Indeed, it would be quite illuminating. I know the theory behind Crest Sorcery, yet..."
He trails off as Lunata speaks up.
"Ah. So it might be a 'physical problem' after all..."
Then Gwen asks him what he was going to ask her about.
"Oh, er, well... I had meant to ask you how you have been, Gwen. It has been some time since..."
He lapses into silence, perhaps unwilling to outright bring up her situation from months ago.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
To hear it from Lunata, Jay found nothing wrong with it - and she's one of the modern day authorities of Crest Sorcery (she's licensed to even recombine Crests, which to Ethius' understanding puts her high up in the mastery hierarchy of that craft), and Citan further concedes that it may be a 'physical problem.'
"I see," is the entirety of his insight. This is someone who pilots a Gear that has a beam weapon unto its own - that beam weapon being maybe the biggest thing that keeps that salvaged Kattelox region Gear reasonably competitive with the ones that make the rounds today.
He turns his head as Citan's voice trails off in his attempt to broach a sensitive subject to Gwen, activating for all intents and purposes BACKGROUND DECORATION PERSON MODE. (that is a lie)
(for ethius it is always on)
(he can't turn it off and his warranty is expired it's terrible)
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"Pretty...? Well-- kinda?" Lunata sounds kind of at a loss to that, but she keeps her grin on. "Tickin'... ahaha, in a way, I do, don't I?" It's at this moment she doesn't actually know if Gwen knows that she's a zombie.
Citan and Ethius provide their own musings, though. "Mmm, yeah. I'm gonna need to track down Shalune, she's usually the one who fixes things for me," Lunata admits. "As much as I wanna try learning to fix it on my own... I gotta learn how to walk before I can run."
Citan also asks how Gwen's been since... since what? Lunata might have missed some development of the courier herself!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It's hard to pinpoint just what exactly Gwen knows of Lunata's condition from expression alone. The fact that Lunata was shocked with a charge that would potentially be deadly to most people, the bits Gwen's seen in the battles they've both been in...
She doesn't seem to regard it with any more suspicion that she would Ethius's comments!
..... Which is likely not that great a standard to judge by either.
What Gwen does do, however, is pure Gwen.
"Lunata, did somethin' happen?" Grey blue eyes peer at Lunata in open, well-meaning concern. "Or did you mean the shock? Y'sure you don't need to sit down from that, right? S'good to try repair yourself, buuut Shalune *does* know what she's doin'."
Any then Citan says something that shows that Gwen may have some secrets of her own. She laughs sheepishly, rubbing a hand over the top of her head.
"W-well. My hair's getting back to the way it was before, at the very least." Gwen looks towards Ethius and Lunata for a moment, her gaze evasively darting past their faces before going back to Citan. "I haven't noticed anything strange since then. Not that I remember, anyway."
Which is a pretty important distinction.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"And you are... a Symbologist yourself, correct, Mr. Hesiod? I have wondered about Symbological applications in machinery, though I have little practical expertise." Or for that matter, the understanding and initiation into using Symbology.
"Oh my, yes. If I were you, I would certainly not attempt that on your own!" Though Citan pauses. "I would be interested on what she had to say, of course. It is not every day that one gets to see a machine of this esteemed age!"
How is this man only in his thirties?
Citan looks at Lunata for a moment. Then he looks at Gwen.
"It is... a long story," is his statement on the matter.
In other words, you're not getting any help from explaining this one from him, Gwen.
"That is good to hear," he says on the topic at hand (which is to say, how Gwen is doing). "I have it on good authority that hair is precious to young women," he says, reflecting back on a comment he had heard from Lan on that very subject. Then again, he thinks, absently reaching up to touch the end of his ponytail, it isn't just young women, is it?
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius turns his gaze as Citan broaches the subject about Symbology. "Yes, that is my sorcery discipline." That much he's not secretive about, even when he tries to hide as many of his tattoos as he does. (From all that's been seen, he has very little bodily real estate - a quantity of which is typically reserved for grand masters of the art, given the amount of memorization and intense study involved in mastering one.)
A hand goes to his forehead - one of his usual tics - as Citan mentions its potential applications in machinery. "I have seen extensive use of Symbological crests for industrial purposes within the years of my recollection, yes," a neutral and roundabout way to broach the subject but not really offer his own personal insight or advertisement of his capabilities there. "If necessary, I'm willing to see to the maintenance or removal of such crests so long as I understand their construction."
That's a 'no' on 'personally innovating or iterating on this sort of thing himself,' which may not bode well for helping Lunata find an alternative for making the pretty light brr-y thing go brrr pew pew pew pew.
As Citan and Gwen talk at length about some personal matter involving hair, he sees how Citan touches the end of his ponytail - and suddenly he seems to show a sign of self-consciousness about how unkempt his hair is.
(This - Ethius - is someone who goes out of his way to dress like a common thug or other cultural undesirable wherever he is, in blatant contradiction to his vocabulary!!)
When Gwen is looking at him, he doesn't meet her gaze but is looking more in the direction of her ARM arm. (arm^2?)
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata runs both her hands behind her back with a little noise of frustration, but shakes her head and says, "No, no, nothing happened. Just, it'd be great if I could be a bit smarter about these things. Not be so dependent on other people." I mean, that's pretty evidently something, but maybe not enough for her.
Gwen says some cryptic things about her hair, and Citan says it's a long story.
Lunata immediately winces and nods, thinking she's been there, with a palmful of superglue and sticking it to her head of hair too. "Yeah, hair sure is important... people're shallow and vain."
She shrugs at Ethius again as she says, "I mean, it's not really a Crest Sorcery device, it's... rawer than that? I'm not sure, it's all ancient technology... Jay'd be able to give you better tips."
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
How dare that Citan, implying that all young women are occupied with some element of their looks!
...
"... Y-yes," Gwen squeaks, then clears her throat. "At least, to me, it does." She gives Lunata a small laugh. "I have never had that much luck, with longer hair, so I appreciate what I get."
It's then, out of the corner of her eye, she sees Ethius, looking at her ARMarm, or arm^2.
"Nonono, it's nothing t'do with my ARM, I swear, pleasedon'tuseanyofthosespells. Everything's okay, in fact, my ARM saved my life! ... Along with my friends."
She gives another look to Lunata, realizing one thing.
"... I guess the sentence 'it's a long story' applies to the whole lot of us here, eh?"
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Young women most certainly aren't the only ones, as he's realized after giving that particular mental image a moment's actual consideration...
Citan's own knowledge of Symbology is by no means all-encompassing (even someone as particularly well-read as him can only know so much) but he's also by no means ignorant of some of the particulars that Ethius' mastery entails.
Including the fact of the degree of his tattooing.
"Yes... and I believe Miss Klein had demonstrated a similar application. Though, of course, with Crest Sorcery! I have heard that there have been applications as you have described, Mr. Hesiod, though I have not had the opportunity to research further." Keeping an eye on Fei does, these days, generally take priority.
"Hmm, yes... it is not running on 'Crests', now, is it? One of the Baskar tradition might know more; I must confess I know only some of their practices."
He pauses, though.
Fidgeting with the end of his ponytail, he says then, "That all being said, ah... I believe your impulse to confer with your friend, first, may be the correct approach."
Then he glances over at Gwen and...
...and shakes his head, barely able to keep the smile at bay. "I... cannot deny that, Gwen..."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"I believe it's all right for anyone to determine the importance of their own hair for themselves," Ethius says as Lunata speaks of people being shallow and vain, for someone who looks like that. He has decided it's all right to determine that his hair looks kind of bad enough on its own merits. "...I may enquire down the line," if he remembers to do so within the span of the next two weeks that would be great. (He will be likely to forget to do so in the next two weeks.)
Ethius continues to stare at the arm^2, and to Gwen's hastily spoken request he does not use any of his destructive spe--
"DON'T DO IT," a technician calls, as if Gwen finds solidarity in Background Gear Maintenance Friends.
Ethius takes the implied threat in stride. There is an element of inevitability involved, as there are any number of items that can comically attract themselves to his skull here, and after five years of almost seamless recollection of that span of time, he may have finally learned something there.
"Yes, that much is true," he nods once to the application of Crest Sorcery to items. Crest Sorcery itself, he recognizes as a novel discipline by... some criteria he still can't fully grasp. Symbology comes naturally, but not the disciplines shown in Crest Sorcery, or what has been seen from Lunar. Or... those who just seem to be able to will the elements to happen without much warning (as he had to deal with when he and Lily tried to kill one another under Lacour's colosseum).
"I must refrain from comments about the length of applicable stories in question," he speaks up at the idea that everyone has 'it's a long story' about everything about them. (This phrasing sounds practiced!)
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"Ehh.... yeah... maybe," Lunata does at least give this one to Ethius, when he mentions that everyone should be able to determine how important their hair is. "Oh, you interested in hair product, Mister Ethius?"
Ethius is staring at Gwen's arm, and Gwen starts panicking! "Yeah-- uh-- I mean, Gwen's arm's cool, we'd be in a worse place without it!" Lunata vouches for the courier herself.
Gwen mentions that the phrase 'it's a long story' can apply to all of them, and her face scrunches up as Citan also chimes that he can't deny it...
...
...
"No! I'm not gonna say that! Why should we be ashamed about the stuff that happened to us!" Lunata huffs aloud, puffing her chest up (despite her lack of lungs) and strutting her arms up proudly!
"Hi! I'm Lunata! I fell into a robot and died and now I'm a Drifter! Hah hah hah hah haaa... haa!" Big, robust laughter and a V-sign and everything!
... it sounds kinda forced.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen would be lying if she didn't look at how Citan is stroking his hair.
Or how Ethius is *still* looking at her ARM.
Or how--
.....
Gwen stares.
....
..... Gwen stares some more.
.........
She then presses her left hand to her forehead, like she was miming Ethius.
"OHHHHHHHH, so _that's_ what happened! Okay, yeah, that's gotta be a pain. It's okay, I nearly died a few times myself!" She even beats on her chest, where her heart is. "That's how I got my heart! My gear's just a gear, though... there is something special about it." She holds up a finger. "It makes deliveries!"
Now Gwen is laughing, with her hands on her hips and everything.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
There... is something about the way that Ethius is regarding Gwen now, though. Citan shoots the man a glance, his hand falling away at last from the end of his ponytail.
Surely, he has noticed that Ethius has a way with machines. ...Depending on how one chooses to define 'a way', that is.
"Please, do not act hastily," he begins to say, as some technician nearby calls out, and also as Gwen hastily explains that it's not the cause of her problems. "I assure you that such a course of action would be... detrimental for Gwen's continued existence."
To put it mildly.
Fortunately, that appears to be waylaid, for now...
Because Lunata has something to get off her chest.
"..."
There is a long moment of silence from the doctor. "I... see," he says.
And then Gwen tells her own 'long story short'. In a sense, the two young woman have one thing in common.
"...So you would say it was a 'grave situation' that you both had been in?" Citan Uzuki finally remarks, because if nothing else, he is a dad, and the urge to tell terrible, terrible puns is a universal constant that cannot be denied.
(is he going to explain his own deal?)
(no, he is not)
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata stares at Citan for a good, long, wordless eighteen seconds. Then, she starts climbing up behind her.
"That was so bad I'm going to crawl back into my own beam rifle..."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"Miss Gwen has illustrated that point by hand at least once," Ethius remarks to Citan's explanations of the matter, as various stories are shared in a joking manner - and then the following awful puns that follow, it is his turn to bring up the summary. He stands straight, hands behind his back, and...
"Long story short, then... no comment."
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Yes. Though, Ethius's abilities have come in handy at least once. Knowing how to shut down an ARM... that *is* very useful, just best used sparingly."
She glances back to Lunata, adding, "to clarify, since you've declared one of your secrets..." She presses a hand against her chest once again, over her heart. "My ARM powers my heart. It was installed to keep my first heart beating, and when my heart was stabbed through, it became my heart, more or less. I'm still alive, and function the same way as anyone would. But my heart itself is basically an extension of my ARM."
Lunata's nervous declaration seems to have loosened Gwen's initial wariness, clearly.
Unfortunately, it loosened other things as well, in Citan ad Ethius.
Gwen stares at the two with mild curiosity, like she was humoring a client who had just made a terrible joke. "... Y-yes."
.....
"Doc, I should properly introduce you to Hiro, one of these days. You two have... a similar talent."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata scratches her head and-- blinks a few times, nodding with a smile. "Ohh... that's honestly, really cool? I mean, my aunt knows a few people who'd still be with us if they could get a heart replacement." She grins and gives her a thumbs up.
"I don't really know how it works with me, but Jay and a whole lot of other people say I'm some kind of undead? Lich, technically! Still the same Lunata in a lot of ways, just without my soul, since it's--" she vaguely gestures at the Gear, "--stuck in there somewhere with all the other people who got trapped before me!"
But it's time to stare at the two dad (yes Ethius you count as one) jokers....
"Oh no, don't let it spread..."