2017-06-15: Different Rules, Indeed

• Log: Different Rules, Indeed
• Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Kalve, Gwen Whitlock
• Where: Lacour - Market District
• Date: 6/15/2017
• Summary: Ida takes Gwen to Lacour to meet up with Kalve, who wanted to apologize for cutting her ARM off. The three then quickly learn just how differently Filgaian and Hyadean cultures operate. Could peace ever come between the two societies?

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========================<* Lacour - Market District *>========================

The Lacour Market District does not rival that of the major commercial powers of Filgaia in terms of volume or value of trade, but it the class of the world in traditional weapons and protective gear. More than a hundred individual shops line the streets of the district, each bearing its own name, specialties, and branding. Almost any kind of weapon or armour can be found in Lacour, and odds are good that anything innovative will be found here first...or make its way here in short order.

The merchants of the Market District are proud and competitive, and walking down the streets is an exercise in patience, as they bombard passersby with litanies in praise of their work and curses for the rust-ridden works of their neighbours. At no time is this competition more fierce than during the Lacour Tournament of Arms; this annual exhibition to name the World's Greatest Fighter includes considerable prestige for the merchants sponsoring their entries, and talented fighters will find their services heavily sought-after.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bqMqHag86c

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

With the Tournament of Arms coming up, Lacour is a very busy place. Nevertheless, there are spots that are quieter than the rest, such as a secluded grove of trees in a park on the edge of the Market District. Earlier, there were people here, including two martial artists who spent the better part of an hour sparring with each other. Now, it is next to empty, with the exceptions of two people. One of them is seated behind a large tree, legs crossed, calmly observing her surroundings. Ida made a point of not bringing her ARM belts, but she keeps missing the familiar weight at the small of her back.

This is what Kalve meant by synchronization...?

Ida hasn't said much to her companion since they got here, since she got most of it out of the way beforehand--Kalve wants to speak with her, and she will be on hand to act as mediator if Gwen desires it. She did not explicitly offer to fight Kalve if things went south, because she is hoping it will not happen.

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

Kalve lingered in Lacour for a time before he went to the meeting point. Essentially, he spent two or three hours people-watching: waiting a step aside from the throngs of busy people all getting ready for the Tournament of Arms, judging weapons and their wielders... and curiously observing unarmed men and women, friends and families touring the city together without a care in the world.

It puzzles him for a time. It will be something to think about later.

Kalve arrives at the park a little ahead of time, catching the tail end of the martial artists fighting in the space. He smiles faintly at the familiar practice. He lingers nearby, blending in here and there with the colorless camo-cloak that seems to do its job far better than the weirdly-colored poncho he seems to have misplaced. It isn't until he's sure that Ida and Gwen have settled that he actually appears.

He does it on the far side of the grove, making sure not to hide his presence. He makes a somewhat noisy entrance, brushing past low-hanging branches and slowly moving into sight. He's... human? Human-looking, certainly. There's no trace of the monster from the demonstration grounds. He inclines his head politely. "Hello." No weird echo, either. Does that make this less weird, or weirder...?"

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

Synchronization. It was by this process that Gwen could perhaps owe her continued life to. There's no telling what the ARM was meant to be used for centuries ago- maybe it, too, was meant to be used as a heart, or some device to manipulate a user's body. Maybe it was just the luck of the draw that it could be adapted to keeping Gwen's heart in check, each beat of her heart a testament to how specific an ARM can be in regards to synchronization.

It's not a two dimensional scale, by any means.

And it is, as Kalve once told Gwen, still synchronizing with her.

Gwen, right now, is oddly quiet. There's a nervous energy present in how she sits herself by Ida, her right hand clenched in a tight ball. Thankfully, she's not that keen on fighting Kalve either, for various reasons.

Riesenlied's words help a little to explain Kalve's behavior, but the trauma, whether he intended it, was still there. Did he know it'd have that affect on her? Was it something he simply couldn't understand? An ARM isn't meant to be used this way, after all; it's meant to be used as a weapon, right?

Gwen seems caught up in these thoughts and questions, staring at the flagstones underneath her boots, to the point where, when Kalve appears, she nearly jumps in shock.

Looking up at the strangely human-looking man, the man she remembered meeting from before that day, Gwen nods slowly. ".... Hey. Ida, er... said you wanted to talk to me." Her left hand subconsciously grips her right, almost cradling it. "You seem well, so... that's good!" She offers up a nervous smile.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida blinks.

As Kalve approaches, she rises, brushing a little dust and grass off the back of the grey frock coat she's wearing. "Hello, Kalve," she says, sounding as calm, polite, and proper as ever. "It's good to see you're well." She turns back to Gwen, letting her state her peace. At the moment, she has nothing to add, beyond a reassuring look, for Gwen. She sees the way she's pulling in on herself, and gripping her artificial hand.

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

"Ida." Kalve smiles at her. He inclines his head towards her. A few seconds later, Kalve is looking Gwen over with an appraising eye instead. He thinks about what to actually say, now that he's here. "I did not suffer any permanent damage. Nor, it would seem, did you. Did you regain your complete range of motion and activity?"

That's probably not the best thing to immediately ask about. Kalve frowns fractionally. "Yes. I wished to, ah... apologize for the prior deception, and any exacerbation of your... condition, that I may have caused. I bear you no personal animosity."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

"Yeah. Ms-" She stops herself. Kalve, right now, could offer any information she volunteers to the Metal Demons. "A friend of mine got everything reattached. My ARM's working great now." She unclasps the hand around her right ARM, looking on to clasp and unclasp with a small degree of fondness. "You told me yourself, didn't ya? That this was my weakness, and that no one should know about it."

Looking up as Kalve apologizes, the courier allows herself a small smile. "I didn't think you did, honestly," she admits, shaking her head. "I don't think any of you guys sent out to watch us really did. Nothin' was personal." But it makes her feel better, to know for certain that was the case. There's already an easing up of her body posture, her poise slowly relaxing, if not completely so.

It wasn't personal.

Yet some of it was- it just didn't involve Gwen herself. She remembers Zed's words to Ida that innocent day not too long before the invasion. Just how messed up would it be, for Gwen to see mementos of people placed before her as evidence of 'dead demons' from 'a past age'? "How did you... turn into that?"

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida nods, silently. Gwen becoming more at ease is both calming and worrying to her. She heard that little slip, and how Gwen caught herself. "If you'd care to explain that," Ida adds, "I would like to listen. If you're comfortable, of course. The two at the Castle did nothing of the sort, so I was curious..."

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

Kalve watches her false hand, then returns his eyes to her face and nods once. He was upfront about it, that's true enough. "You offered me enough trust to allow it to be discovered, and so it seemed prudent to apologize for exploiting it. None of that was." Except for very specific frustrated words, maybe, but Kalve isn't quite willing to go so far as to admit that.

He looks between the two of them. "Nearly all Demons are capable of it to some extent. Our physiology is malleable to the point of being able to seal wounds and prevent serious internal injury, though this is largely done reflexively. My chosen martial art, Method Mercury, allows for greater control over one's body, among other things."

Kalve shrugs a shoulder. "Others may have the ability to drastically alter themselves into a form more suitable for battle through other means; I have merely been practicing for a very long time."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

It's hard to switch gears. Gwen never liked treating people with suspicion beyond what was prudent for any Badlands native. To treat and see someone as 'an enemy', without that initial, unrelenting reasoning of 'trauma', is like calling herself a hypocrite. But then again, it's willful ignorance that may have cost her that chance to free herself from Kalve's grip that perilous day. "You didn't seem to be like the sort of guy who had grudges, really. Maybe that's part of why Zed considers you his pal?"

Gwen looks to Ida, then back to Kalve as he explains his abilities, her eyes wide. "So you can change your shape? Not that I'm gonna ask you to do it here, for obvious, uh, reasons. I'll just take your word for it."

Malleable. Self-healing. Gwen's ARM, while it imitated human flesh to a certain degree of give, it couldn't heal itself any more than any other ARM could. It reconnected itself to Gwen to a certain degree, but it was more akin to a magnetic hold than anything else.There was a difference, even if it could be mistaken as the same.

...

And then, like the sky after a rainstorm on a hazy day, things come into focus: Zed's discovery of Gwen's ARM, his enthusiasm, Kalve's examination, the odd excitement in his words that fell into subtle disappointment when the nature of Gwen's ARM was revealed.

The final piece of the puzzle as Hiro's recounting of the plight of the so-called 'Metal Demons' (a label they had certainly earned through the terror they've caused), and how Filgaia was rejecting them, similar to the process her Auntie Frea explained once: that of a human body's immune system.

"I guess it all makes sense, now. When you examined me that one time, you thought you might've found a case of a Metal Demon's ARM on a human being," Gwen starts, careful to not let her words be overheard. "Filgaia's rejecting some aspect of you guys somehow, thought I'm not sure how since you all seem pretty okay. So, if you had found a case of this, it really would've changed everything."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida nods to Gwen, as if confirming that yes, what Kalve told her is true. She watches as Gwen seems to go a little distant, only to come up with an observation that Ida herself hadn't considered until now. Her eyes widen, just a little. "The Guardians," she murmurs. "Ebon Lead said that the Guardians' spite was to blame, but she didn't know why." Ida turns the thought over in her head. "Some ARMs Meisters back home experimented with the materials in prosthetic limbs, but grafting an intact body part onto a human would be something an order of magnitude more complex. You'd have to find one, of course, and then bridge two physiologies that are extremely..." Ida shrugs, still deep in thought.

"They wouldn't make very genial neighbors, possibly."

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

"It... would seem to be," Kalve agrees, a touch awkwardly. He doesn't really know what his relationship with Zed is. Zed is a strange kind of guy, even for a Demon. Especially for a Demon.

Gwen hits the nail on the head. Kalve has a seat in the middle of the grove, folding his legs underneath himself. "Yes. Exactly. The possibility was there. The chance, at the very least. It was difficult to accept that it was not so. I confess, I am uncertain as to the specific reason for this rejection, but I was hoping -- I am hoping -- to find a method of coexistence that does not necessitate major ferroforming. Work continues nonetheless."

Kalve looks up. "I have been working on a proof of concept related to Gwen's ARM," Kalve tells Ida, "that mimics the human form while it is constructed with the same method used in the creation of an ARM. The method I use," he adds by way of slight clarification. Whatever method that is. "I do not have a sufficiently large sample size to properly map the human body to the point of perfect mimicry. I have an experiment I would like to perform, but I would require a willing human subject, something that I find to be in very short supply at present."

(Kalve is not Alhazred. He probably doesn't have the extra budget allowance for an elaborate dungeon to hold people in like a Quarter Knight could.)

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

"The Guardians..." Wait, did Hiro mention that as well? Gwen can't quite remember. "Also, you're takin' about body parts. When one part of body gets into another, that other body fights it off. That's... what my auntie says, anyway..." Gwen sheepishly scratches the back of her neck. "She's got a lot of crazy theories, but a lotta them make sense sometimes, y'know? Graft a metal demon's arm onto a human, and that human may just die trying to fight it off. Bad news for everyone. And vice versa, well, I dunno if the Guardians are gonna be all too happy with that either."

Ferroforming. The courier just looks on with a blank, confused look on her face at the term. It doesn't sound like an entirely nice term.

But there may be an alternative. Gwen looks to Ida for a long while, trying to decide just how dumb it'd be to take the very risk she's beginning to consider. It was a risk when she underwent the surgery for her ARM, after all.

Could she take on a risk, it it meant it could help people, too, as well as Metal Demons? Maybe even help ones like Riesenlied?

"I could be convinced to help some." The offer is placed very quietly in front of Kalve, Gwen seeming fully aware of just how much danger she could be placing herself in. "You'll just need to be extra sure that you're aware of what's on the line here, as well as what I want to happen as a result." She's not joking around, or pursuing some dig with an almost lackadaisical goal in mind, enjoying herself no matter what comes of it. Her hands are primly placed in her lap, slightly clenched. "I want peace. I know that can't come with how your bosses are, all hell-bent on just takin' everything no matter what's goin' on. I want to see you guys bein' able to find your place here, among us. Even if that may lead to another kind of fightin'. We've learned a lot from each other just by gettin' to know each other like we have. How are we gonna even help ourselves if we can't help others?"

Gwen's mouth sits in a firm line, her blue grey gaze turning rock solid in determination. "I'm not volunteerin' my life or my health. But you can study me. And that stuff... you're gonna use it to help both your guys *and* us. And by your guys, I mean even what some of you guys called the Tainted."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida was not expecting such resolve out of Gwen. Perhaps, in retrospect, it will become more obvious to her that it was there the whole time, hiding. She nods to the other woman, a subtle little smile on her lips. "I would like to continue my involvement in this matter, if both of you consent," Ida adds. A moment passes. She turns to Kalve. "You're... not going to remove anything, are you?"

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

"To speak frankly, I have no interest in what these 'Guardians' approve of or disapprove of," Kalve says. "The state of my people is of a higher concern than the opinion of such... things."

He cycles a breath. Peace? Peace is a distant dream. He doesn't say that, though. Peace is ideal, but for his people, he is uncertain it is actually optimal. "Is there something that you desire of a more personal nature? A goal as broad and nebulous as peace, or as 'finding our place,' seems somewhat beyond the typical scope of human desire." Kalve doesn't sound like he's being insulting; just... observant. "Any such arrangement will certainly lead to violence between our peoples, even if the scope and scale changes as a result. Further..."

"...I have been alive for slightly over two hundred years, by the reckoning of this world. Many of my brethren are much older, and have been preparing for war for much longer." Kalve's expression is grim. "Do you think they will lay down their ARMs so easily?"

He closes his eyes and takes another breath. Kalve bows his head. He looks like he's centering himself; considering his next action, perhaps. How much should he share? Would it matter if he said everything? Ida asks a pertinent question, but he addresses Gwen. "It may cause the removal of the ARM you presently have grafted to your body," Kalve states. "I wish to conduct an experiment to see if human tissue could be used to quicken an ARM in the fashion of a Demon. If it is so, the replacement would be of your own flesh." He opens his eyes, staring at Gwen. "In an ideal situation, it would also remove the mechanical crutch you require to survive by repairing the damaged organ."

"If these techniques succeed, a blending is the next clear step. Once I am certain there is a way to allow both biologies to intermingle seamlessly..." He trails off. After that... would that be enough to let them live here without suffering Filgaia's wrath?

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

"If we do something like this, I'd kinda appreciate it if you did, actually, Ida." Gwen grins widely at the brunette. "Then I can say it was all your idea~" She's kidding.

She's seen what Ida looks like when she's angry. That ARM could certainly overpower Gwen's own in a hurry.

For all of Gwen's seriousness just now, she still was the one who decided to quickly ask for 'peace' right at the beginning. When she's called on it by Kalve, a giggle escapes her lips, a sign of something far closer to her usual nature. "Yeah, I guess that's kinda a bit thing to ask for. I mean, we're just three people here, right? I guess... I just don't want to have this just make things worse. Like, find myself starin' down the barrel of some nightmare weapon that kills everybody I care about. But I also wanna see you guys at least have a chance at more than one future. If I exist and believe that, there's got to be more people like that, right? I can't be the only one who believes that."

A statement, that could only be made by someone nineteen years old. Someone who hasn't seen everything that could corrupt a person. An infant, practically, when compared to the length of time Kalve's been alive.

"They're gonna need those ARMs to live here, no doubt," she admits. "Just like I've had to, just to survive. But one on one conflicts is lot different from the scale we're talkin' about here." She sighs, rubbing her head. "Sorry, I kinda... just liked it when we were all among each other. It was really neat, y'know?"

Then, Kalve offers something to Gwen- a solution, maybe, to every problem Gwen may have ever had. She's quiet, thinking on it with a melancholy expression on her face.

She thinks back to the many times her ARM had allowed her to do things that she wouldn't have been able to do, even with a regular right arm of her own. Some benefits would've been kept, like the understanding of what it felt like to be a sort of outsider, but others...

"I... can't give up my ARM completely, no. There's been a lotta times it's been the only thing that's kept me goin'. Even if you managed to promise me a replacement." She clasps her metal ARM, and fondly smiles. "... My auntie was the one who gave this to me. It was really hard for her to do it, too, so if I gave it up, I'd be turning my back on what she wanted for me, too. I can survive being without it momentarily, so that might help you, but it has to be put back on when you're done. May seem like a misstep in design, but many people can't survive if they got their arm hacked off either without some help."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

There's that term again. Ida regards Kalve calmly, apparently unfazed by his assessment of the situation. It would stand to reason that one embedded in the Demons' culture for so long would develop opinions like those. She's silent a moment, before offering a cultural footnote of sorts. "I would say the same if you offered to replace Devil's Due. Besides--Gwen has already managed to achieve synchronization with this device, and separating her from it for a lengthy period might have adverse effects.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

There's that term again. Ida regards Kalve calmly, apparently unfazed by his assessment of the situation. It would stand to reason that one embedded in the Demons' culture for so long would develop opinions like those. She's silent a moment, before offering a cultural footnote of sorts. "I would say the same if you offered to replace Devil's Due. Besides--Gwen has already managed to achieve synchronization with this device, and separating her from it for a lengthy period might have adverse effects. It could be rather disruptive, especially given the relationship involved."

"If I may ask, though," Ida says, "what does this 'quickening' involve?" You can use big words with her, she's got a background in this. "I remember... before you left, you told me that it was a waste to use Demon remains without recapturing their mercurial essence, as it were. Is that related? And how, pray tell, do you think you can replicate something like an ARM with human flesh?"

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

Kalve looks at Gwen askance, a curious look on his face. Her optimism is striking. Even in their youth, he knows few Demons with similar attitudes. Is this a show of this 'human spirit,' or just... naivete? He's genuinely startled from even thinking about it. He smiles a little. "You are not the only one that believes that."

Gwen... turns him down. He nods slightly. "I see. I am not certain I understand, but I am closer to achieving understanding than I had been previously. Sentimentality seems detrimental to ideal performance in most cases, but in the case of synchonization..." He casts a look towards that arm, and then another towards where Ida usually carries Devil's Due. He nods again, this time at Ida, and then turns back to Gwen. "I may still request to examine you to determine the nature of your synchronization with your ARM, and, with your permission, harvest tissue samples for experimentation as well."

He looks to Ida. There's a long moment of silence. "It is difficult to explain," he says, finally, "and there are intricacies I will not speak of so freely, but it is best to think of their base designs as grown rather than assembled. The raw material is taken from a Demon and guided into a shape that best fits that Demon's needs by a skilled artificer. Further shaping requires careful examination of the properties of the resultant proto-ARM and drawing out desired traits until they have manifested properly. Others can use an ARM not meant for them, but..."

Kalve shoots a glance at Gwen. There's a rippling effect on his cloak. One of his extra arms draws a pistol from... somewhere... and passes it into his right hand. The arm disappears. The pistol, clearly an ARM, looks like it's assembled out of shards of grey, cloudy glass pieced together like a puzzle. It doesn't look like it has a hammer or an action, and the barrel is dense and heavy-looking. Kalve detaches a long, thin, grey metal box of some kind from the top and holds the weapon up.

"This was created for one of the Tainted, who came to me privately despite knowing of my personal distaste for the majority of them. They requested I attempt to make an ARM for them, despite their innate disadvantages when it comes to such a process." Kalve turns it over in his hand. The light catches it strangely. "The originator was killed in battle before it was finished, and I was forced to attempt to complete it using a substitute material nominally used to treat wounds. It was finished, but I will never fully synchronize with it. By all metrics, it is a failed, flawed ARM."

He looks back to Ida. "However, this same weapon will puncture steel plate at long range, and I am quite certain I could use it to shoot through walls if I could see what was on the other side. It should never have been attempted, nevermind completed, nor should it possess the power it does. I did it anyway." Kalve spreads his (two) arms. "If I am capable of creating this, why should such a project be beyond me?"

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

With Gwen, it could very easily be both. Human spirit, *and* naivete! Only time will tell.

Gwen looks to Ida, rubbing her chin. "... Y'know, that makes sense. Like, my ARM didn't respond to me like this right away. Now, imagining myself without it is kinda like imagining myself without my... right... arm..."

Well, that's already a terrible analogy, and whatever sense it may have had may be hard to explain without completely falling apart. "There's more to it than sentimentality, of course. I mean, it's kinda a crucial part of my business model, y'know? Hard to be 'super courier' if anyone can just walk up to ya and steal from ya, y'know? Also, it's... kinda made sure I didn't just, like, die because I decided to be nice to the wrong person." She waves her right away, clenching it loosely in a claw formation as she waves it back and forth. "Turns out making a bandit believe I'm a monster or something makes them less likely to rob from me. The real serious ones, well... those tend to realize I'm just not worth the energy. It's like coming up to a delicious apple and finding that it's way higher than you initially thought it was."

She's getting off point, but it seems she's back to becoming comfortable with Kalve again.

"But yeah. I can certainly do that. My auntie might, uh, have some papers on it if I manage to ask her the right way, but a majority of them kinda... got lost in a fire?" That's a suspicious amount of guilt in Gwen's voice just now. ... It's funny how Frea never did try to write down that information she lost. "As for samples, well. We'll figure it out. Some things a human body ain't real good about getting samples from. But that's why Ida here will be great to have around!"

As Kalve explains to Ida, Gwen looks between the two, her expression one of someone just on the cusp of understanding what's being talked about, but not *quite*. "So, it's... like, you take a part of a Demon, and you can tell it to grow into an extra arm or leg? Or, do you mean an ARM?"

When Kalve draws the pistol, it may be to their benefit that Gwen's right ARM twitches out of reflex, before she settles down, looking around to make sure no one saw the display. "It's... honestly a very pretty one, even if that ain't what you were going for. Like, if you held it to the light, and let the light bounce around in it-" She coughs, catching herself. "Thing is, a Tainted's still a demon. A human being's gonna operate by different rules. I bet Ida could probably explain in a better way than I could."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida is an apprentice ARMs Meister. Technology is in her blood, and even if it weren't, she grew up in a place saturated with it, driven by the needs to push the boundaries of industry in a never-ending quest for power, profit, and influence. Nevertheless, she is also a follower of Granas, and Granas made things very clear. Technology must be used in service to humankind. Without a steady hand and compassionate heart behind it, it could unleash the horrors of the Day of Collapse all over again.

This probably explains the trajectory she takes as Kalve explains himself. "The more you explain of this," Ida says, "the more I want to see it, as impossible as it is." She sounds almost wistful. When Kalve pulls the weapon out, she looks at it, thoughtful. Personal distaste? she thinks, frowning a little. "An ARM, yes. Only made of tissue taken from a living Demon, and not a dead one."

"Different rules indeed," Ida says. "In accordance with that, Kalve, I would like to ask something of you, as you asked something of me." Ida smiles, showing a little more teeth than usual. "Gwen is my friend. We are already accepting a great deal of risk just by being here, as I'm sure you understand. I ask you not to do anything most would deem suicidally reckless, on top of that." Didn't Kalve say that to Ida a couple weeks ago?

"I have no idea if you and Father would be best friends, or dire enemies," Ida adds, a moment later. "He always liked pushing the envelope, but never too far, too fast."

<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.

"It would be trivial to make you seem more monstrous to keep brigands at bay," Kalve remarks, "but any method I would recommend would almost certainly draw more attention rather than keep it away." Or would seem impossible, like seeing if she could use certain techniques to manipulate her ARM like he does.

Kalve catches the twitch. He doesn't mention it. "My extra limbs are also an ARM, but the level of synchronization and familiarity I possess with them makes the distinction a pointless one." He glances at the weapon, giving Gwen another weird look when she talks about the aesthetics. It fades when the Tainted come up, and rules related. "Tainted are barely Demons. Some have their merits, however, and learning the differences is a key point of what I wish your help with."

Ida makes a remark and a request. The first is easier than the second to cover. "The equipment necessary is some distance from here. Perhaps someday I will have the ability to demonstrate it, however. As for your... request...

Kalve slowly stands. "...I do not intend to take such risks unless they are completely necessary. I have no strong desire to throw away the rest of my life when I could be spending it more productively."

Still totally gonna make an ARM arm, though. Just watch.