2017-08-10: Unconsidered Considerations
- Log: Unconsidered Considerations
- Cast: Shalune Amira, Josephine Lovelace, Lunata Croze
- Where: Silver Coast
- Date: August 10th 2017
- Summary: As she gets ready to leave, Josie drops by Shalune's corner of the world to see how she's coming along with the sphere she mentions. The conversation takes a more thoughtful turn.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
The hanger bays of the Yggdrasil are never exactly a hotbed of activity, setting aside the moments when Bart abruptly decides to launch everything at once; the peace is actually kind of welcome, in fact, because it's giving Shalune a chance to actually manage to slow herself down and for once think properly through the two problems in front of her. Sat cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the open space, she's kind of draped over her large backpack as she stares thoughtfully towards two of the bays and their currently-deactivated occupants.
On one side, the Rephaim sits as quietly as ever. It's looking a bit better than it was; the bodywork has been fixed up in many places, and the missing arm has been 'replaced' with what is hopefully going to be a temporary solution - a large, thick rod with a plate of metal on the side, apparently intended to partially replace Rephaim's barrier with a very low-tech and physical one. The disembodied arm, wrecked at one end, is sat innocently next to it - but so far, Shalune remains uncertain how to even properly attach it to ensure that the power and barrier properly spreads to it.
On the other side, a circle of chairs that Shalune has dragged together form a makeshift stand to prop up the odd sphere that she found in a recent ruin delve - it's significantly large, a glass or crystalline ball about four feet in diameter. Inside of it appears to be some kind of fluid, together with a spinning octagonal gem - but the surface of the sphere is pitted with moss and lichen and the accumulated crust of ages, while the fluid inside is cloudy and dim, apparently slowing the natural rotation of the crystal inside of it.
The obvious question of how to clean it aside, Shalune finds her gaze-- travelling straight through it, past it to the form of Diablo where it still stands silently in its bay, half-burnt but with some sections of the outer frame fixed up or replaced. She's at least smart enough to spot that many of the golem's systems are intended for weaponry, and several aspects of the golem are obviously intended to hold munitions to match - and the mechanic finds herself bothered that it never really registered with her before. A question lingers on her mind - and she sinks down a little in her position, with a low 'hum~m...' of distaste.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
At some point soon, it's time that the archaeologist makes her way on out of here. Ruins across the continent are calling her name -- or at least one in particular sure is, now that she's had more than confirmation that she's on to the Real Thing and has a way to possibly get there (assuming she doesn't get shot trying, but these are the risks you take -- Publish or Perish indeed) -- and the longer she hangs around, the more the chance slips from her grasp.
But that doesn't mean she's about to leave all her loose ends... hanging, as it were.
And Shalune had mentioned something interesting about the object she'd found.
Which is, as was foretold, indeed covered in moss and other junk.
Penelope, as it happens, isn't here -- a bird flying around the hangar makes the techs nervous for various reasons. In deference for once, she's made a deal to keep the pigeon out.
So she's alone when she comes calling for her little farwell visit.
"Gella for your thoughts?"
Thus it is that Josie makes her entrance, having crept up behind the younger girl in a possibly ill-advised way.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata is there too, of course, but she isn't exactly a mechanic and has even fewer knowledge of how a Gear works, let alone its component parts. She's very much an... intuitive pilot, shall we say, guided by the flashes of memory that Ge Ramda seems to be beaming into her mind. She's seated next to Shalune as she watches the other girl work, and as if to distract her from touching anything critical or damning to touch, she's been given a distraction so that she doesn't get in the way:
*spritz* *spritz*
"Wow, this is just like Mister Thomas'! Lunie, you're a genius!"
She spritzes some water on Shalune's face.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
It's-- definitely a little rare for Shalune to be so out of it, alternating between lapsing into quiet thought and doing her best to clean off the surface of the sphere with some rubbing alcohol and good old fashioned grit and gusto, only stopping whenever she has to keep pushing chairs back in to prevent it from sagging towards the ground. It's pretty obnoxious work, that's for sure, though it doesn't seem like something that would affect the mechanic so visibly.
She barely even notices Josie creeping up on her from behind, in fact, though that might just be the curtain of pink hair blocking her view; she does at least give Lunata a pleased grin at her newest invention, looking proud of herself as she bobs her head to one side. "Right? After I thought about it for a bit, I figured out how it must work. That little pipe inside kinda sucks it all up from the bottom then shoots it out, y'know? You could probably fill it with whatever you want," she adds blithely, because she's yet to consider things like 'flammable backlash'.
She nearly drops back into thought - and that's when there's a voice at her ear. "Wah--!" she blurts, bolting upwards and to one side, and then-- "Weh?!" as Lunata spritzes her, sending her back in the other direction; she splutters for a moment, caught between them, then slowly puffs up into a solid sort of pout. "No fair double-teaming me!" the girl whines as she plants her hands on her hips and tries to look mad.
She fails spectacularly, just rubbing sheepishly at the back of her hair instead. "Aah... was I lookin' that bad?" she wonders, knowing that Lunata asked her the same question just a short while ago; she flicks her eyes towards the waitress, beaming over the Lunie-symbol of reassurance that thy'll talk it out. "Ah, I guess I was just sorta wondering what to do next. Just 'cause we got the Rephaim's arm back doesn't mean we can hook it back on just like that, and this thing--"
She pauses at the crystal, and frowns. "Um, I don't have the faintest clue about it."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Where you find one Lunie there's usually the other. Josie has long since twigged to this fact.
Well now that's a pretty interesting device Lunata is playing with, Josie notes, in the two seconds or so before she calls out to Shalune. From almost directly behind the pink-haired girl.
A sort of mild chaos briefly unfolds. Josie straightens. And then Josie... slowly tilts her head to the side, planting a hand on her hip. "You okay there, kiddo? ...Yeah, you're just a little bit wet, looks like," she decides, a slight smile playing on her lips. Dark eyes tilt the other of the nigh-omnipresent pair's way. "Lunata, I should have figured you'd be out here. How're you guys doing? Find anything good?"
And she picks that moment to step in close, lean in and gently... poke at the sphere with a gloved finger. "Certainly looks like it was found in a hole somewhere, huh?"
She lifts her gaze from the sphere. "...Yeah, the arm looks like it's a wreck. I think you could do something else with it, and like I said -- if you don't need some pieces, I might take a crack at doing something with them sometime... Well, assuming I can find what I need to do it with... Or a spare ARM no one's using."
Or maybe she could even see if she could build one up from scratch sometime... there's a thought, assuming she could get the literal spare hand she needs.
"Yeah, you mentioned that a few days ago," Josie says, straightening to eye the moss-covered sphere, rubbing her chin all the while. "I figured I'd drop in and see if I could take a look before I left."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata lets out just a little giggle as she looks up towards Josie, and then rubs her hands behind her back as she sets the spritz bottle aside. "The arm doesn't look like it's going to be fitted back in..." A pause, as she lets Shalune let out more details on that, since... she only heard bits and bobs, really. But even ancient arms turn to scrap when you squish them with a ball and chain mighty enough.
"You just-- looked a little more down than usual, is all!" she pouts to Shalune with another giggle. "Where are you headed off to, Miss Josie...?"
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
The way Shalune sticks her tongue out at the other Lunie from behind suddenly-wet hair would be brattish, if there weren't an obvious affection behind it. "Beehhh," she sounds out theatrically, but grins faintly - in a manner that picks up the moment mischief lights her face up. "Well, if I'm down, I just need-- a Lunie-recharge!" she threatens with her hands up - threatening because in the space of an instant she's buried onto Lunata in a hug, burying her face into Lunata's shoulder to shake her hair dry exaggeratedly.
She picks up her expression afterwards, remaining latched onto the other girl, as she looks to Josie in surprise. "Oh-- oh, right, you weren't really a member of the crew, huh? Didja have somewhere you were headed in specific? Maybe we'll see you there, you know? The CaraKin's gonna be rollin' soon!" she enthuses brightly.
"Umn... I'm still thinking on the Rephaim's arm, but I figure it's up to Lunie to offer bits of it away. It's hers, after all," she puffs up almost solemnly, but then scratches at her head. "As for this thing, um-- anything you wanna try is fair game, I guess? I was really just going through the motions, gettin' the outside clean."
She hesitates visibly, then chews lightly at her lip. "Ma'am, if you-- let's say you got the chance to get Diablo totally working. What would you wanna do with it?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It's hard not to laugh when Shalune lets Lunata know the absolute depths of her disppointment. Or at least asks for a hug in the most roundabout and yet aggressive way possible. Josie's never been good at being all that restrained.
Hard not to laugh = there is laughter from this direction of the room.
"No, I think... it's a little too busted to fit back in. Maybe if we had top scholars and a high-level workshop..." She shrugs, hands raised to the heavens as if in supplication. "Well, even then that's 'maybe'. I figured I'd leave the shards I collected out here on the ship since I'll be traveling light. Besides, it is yours." And hopefully avoid having to pay a Bart Toll or something if she comes back for them -- assuming they are hers to reclaim.
Which, speaking of.
Josie grins brightly. "Nope, somehow I've managed to dodge recruitment so far!" As well as coast on perks, in a way, thanks to Lily. "Me? I'm headed out west. Let's just say I've got a very good lead on a discovery," she says, smiling a little self-indulgently. "You know, Jay mentioned to me that you all were about to start heading out. Maybe we'll meet up again sometime. And if not, well..." She pauses, then shrugs. "Then I died chasing the dream, I suppose!" She's way, way too cheerful about this.
"Hmm..." Once again, she regards the sphere thoughtfully. "Well, getting it clean is a good start -- that way you'll get a better look at what's inside. But I can try seeing if it responds to Symbology..."
Closing her eyes briefly, Josie focuses, before her left hand goes through the motions of a spell. Light gathers in her hand--
And dissipates into a fine glowing mist, when Shalune asks her a question, spell disrupted.
"...I thought I said I wasn't old enough for 'ma'am' yet," she sighs, rolling her to one side. "...Honestly, though, I haven't thought that far ahead yet," she admits, straightening and glancing back Shalune's way. "Why do you ask?"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata blinks before laughing as she hugs a slightly wet Shalune, shuffling her fingers through the pink-haired girl's hair like she's going 'bawww who's a wet and fluffly dog who just jumped out of the bath, you are!'. "Then you'll get a recharge!"
She scratches her head for a moment in the middle of that hug to look up at Josie. "I heard some of the other mechanics say that a lot of the black box parts of the arm are basically smooshed... the best they can do is replace the shoulder with something standard and hook a regular arm to it, rather than stick with the unknown that's currently ... well, dangling there."
Which isn't an unreasonable approach to it -- trying to hang onto a frayed cable that does nothing, no matter how unique and ancient, is... not exactly going to make it have an operable arm.
She peers towards the sphere for a moment yet as she smiles, "We're going to head out west too!" A pause, before she pouts. "But you'd best not die, or, um--"
She hesitates as the cube bobs around near Josie for a moment, where it's just been floating there complacently.
"I guess I'll have to row your spirit to the other side... do you think Ge Ramda's the sort to ask for coins for a ferry ride?"
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune remains hanging around Lunata's shoulders, though she does shuffle around to follow the viewpoint towards the Rephaim. "... maybe I can do some experiments, or something," she wonders after a moment, furrowing her brow. "If we could just figure out how the surface conducts that barrier, that'd be enough - we could just make a new frame underneath then layer the metal bits on top, but-- umm. The best thing I can do is make a bunch of spares, I s'pose," she adds, tilting her head to indicate the very makeshift shield arm that currently hangs there.
"No dying!" she blurts with a huff of air, puffing up. "I mean, I was gonna say that if you ever needed any help, you should swing on by. I'll have Big Shal for excavations and we're all gettin' to be pretty seasoned diggers, you know? We're pretty reliable when it comes to diving into dangerous old ruins and stuff like that." She looks proud of herself, at least, if still just a little overwhelmed by the thought - even if her stint on Elru was probably, on balance, a whole lot riskier.
"Besides, Lunie mustn't row your spirit anywhere! I don't want her to have to end up in a big ol' black robe or something." Maybe one day, Shalune will get the bright idea to imagine Lunata in a Ge Ramda bridal kimono and then curl into an uguu ball.
Shalune bits at her lip as she realises she's interrupted whatever Josie was going to do, though, frowning slightly. "O-oh, um, sorry. It's kinda a force of habit," she grins brightly at talk of titles. "Maybe 'Miss'? That's good, right? Anyway-- I just--" she abruptly loses steam, and then quietly frowns. "Someone asked me what I'd do with Diablo. Or rather, they asked if I'd considered that it might be dangerous once it's activated. ... kinda both, I guess. In a 'are you gonna go send it out to shoot people' way. My answer was the same as yours - I hadn't really thought that far yet."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie rubs at the back of her neck. "Yeah, that sounds about the long and short of it... well, hang onto it. Maybe I'll get lucky and be able to repurpose some of the bits you're not looking at. And if not..." She shrugs. "It's worth keeping around. I haven't run into anything like it before, so it's as good an excavation find as anything else from that era. Someone's gotta be able to reuse that stuff..."
Recycling: a Filgaian way of life.
"Uh, hi there?" Josie greets the sudden attention of the cube, blinking owlishly at it. Her gaze slides over to Lunata. "...Sure, why not? It's not a bad thing to see a familiar face before the end--"
She mock-winces as Shalune weighs in. "Whoa, whoa," she says, waving a hand through the air in pseudo-supplication. "Don't worry, I'm not planning on kicking the bucket yet. Okay, kiddo? But," and she glances back at Lunata, "tell your little friend I'll save her a coin if that's what she wants." In spite of the morbidity of the conversation, she grins.
"But hey, I'll keep it in mind. I'm not sure what condition the site's in. It's been a few years since I was last there, so I might need to hire you on or something." Though perhaps after she recorrects her cash flow issue.
Again.
But out west should be good hunting for that problem.
"Hey, don't worry about it," Josie says with a shrug. "Besides, you can call me by name if you want..." 'Miss' isn't that much better by her reckoning, but...
Sometimes patience is actually a virtue.
She folds her arms as Shalune explains.
"Shoot people, huh... Well, yeah, it was built as a weapon. I suppose you could repurpose it for digging or something, but..." Her smile's lopsided. "Of course, that's the case with some things that come out of the ruins. A lot of weapons survived hundreds, thousands of years. Powerful ones, too. Sort of makes you wonder what the people were like long ago..."
She shakes her head.
"I'd say, though, that things are what you make of them. Sure, alright, a sword's for stabbing, there's not much you can do but kill with a gunsmoke ARM... But if you're going to look at things like that, you might as well question anything that would or could cause harm..."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
As if being morbid is its specialty, the cube actually turns into a little shallow bowl as if posing itself to be a donation cup for a moment--
--before Lunata whaps it on its side to go, "That's for only if she does die! No scamming people out of their ferry money early, Ge Ramda!"
... Lunata, are you starting to really get into this ferrying reaper business?
Lunata looks to Shalune a little more intently, before expressing, "I know you're better than to just climb onto something like Diablo or the Rephaim and want to burn the entire countryside, Lunie... so don't let some random person's comments get to you, okay?" A random person she has the fortune of never meeting. Who the heck's the uguu tsunami that's got Shalune so down, anyway!? Must be a real loser.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune's kind of puffed up, but it's still in a good-natured fashion as she bops Lunata lightly on the arm in turn. "Don't make me ask Jay to make you a big floofy robe," she teases, but has to pause as the subject of the donation bowl comes up; in no time at all she's gone a little crosseyed, trying to work out the actual logistics of that statement. "Wait, but, um, if Ge Ramda took your money now, wouldn't you become a spirit instead? I mean, that sounds pretty cool to me if you can go hang with Seraphs or somethin'..."
She trails off, shaking the thought loose as she brightens again. "Well, just bear it in mind if we're around the area, y'know? It's not like you'd have to pay to hire us or anythin'. We're friends, so we'll help out. That's just how the CaraKin goes, right?" she looks to Lunata for confirmation, though the nod of her head is confident enough for two.
At least, it is until she pauses, seriously taking in both responses as she lets out a breath. "I mean-- I know that I wouldn't ever want a golem to be stuck doing that. If I ended up with a Big Shal like that it'd just be the worst ever, y'know? But--"
Frowning, she shakes her head. "--but what would Diablo want for itself? I dunno yet, and the only way to really know if it's dangerous or not is to turn it on and see. For that matter, what would the Captain want it to do, or Miss Lily, or-- I dunno. It kinda got me thinking. Then I started wondering how golem's minds work, and whether I'm forcing Big Shal into stuff she doesn't wanna do, and--... yeah. I dunno."
A huff, and she's perked up. "Anyway, um-- that aside, what were you gonna try?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
As the rather-sudden-bowl is offered -- or rather offers itself -- Josie raises an eyebrow. "Forward little thing, aren't you," she remarks, propping her good hand on her hip. "Sorry, but that's only good for after I die, and not one second before!" She nods Lunata's way. "See? You should listen to Lunata more. She knows what's up."
Shalune on the other hand considers the metaphysics of this deeply. "Kiddo... don't worry about it," she says, tone a mixture of weary and good-natured. "Now I kind of want to see how the faithful'd handle you..." she adds, off-handedly.
When Shalune offers to work for free though, Josie's smile grows brilliant. "Oh, then I'll absolutely have to call on you," she says cheerily. "Do you know how much I've had to pay excavation crews? Heh, there's a reason I started doing excavations for the money... Well, if I hit pay dirt somewhere, maybe I'll be able to cut you a fraction anyway."
How generous.
"What would it want for itself, huh..." Josie tilts her head, as if considering this. "What does a golem want? ...Maybe it depends on how it's made. I don't know much about them, kiddo, so you'd know best. ...Besides. This is your project. If someone starts pressuring you about the golem, you should go on and press them back."
Oh, right. There was the spell she was about to try.
"Maybe it'd be better if I focused it like this..." Josie says, planting her hand -- gently -- against the sphere. Her lips move slightly, and she focuses, channeling the illumination spell into the depths of the sphere.
If nothing else, it'll look a bit pretty for a moment while it glows from within.
"See anything in there? Maybe it'll highlight something," Josie says, most of her focus on keeping her little ball of light inside the sphere. It wants to float.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata lets out just a bashful little chuckle from the both of them, but she tries to make light of the situation as she says, "I think Jay'd make me a very pretty robe." She hums in thought for a moment, before she says, "I think Ge Ramda should be better than to take bribes or upfront payment... you'd want a honorable system!"
The cube kinda dithers and sweats at the suggestion that it might be being called Crooked Ge-Ge.
"Oh..." Lunata pauses in thought for a moment as she gazes at Josie's spell and peers into the sphere. "Ooh, pretty..."
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Aw, if anything happened to me I'd just make big eyes at Ge-Ge," Shalune offers back with a serenity that thankfully appears to be at least a little mischievously put on for show. "Or I'd see how many people I could spook. Maybe I could possess Big Shal and we'd just roll on around together," she adds to Lunata, and that part definitely sounds rather like wishful thinking and then some no matter how wide her grin is.
She puffs afterwards, tilting her head with a bemused frown. "Well-- it's not like I'm gonna offer it to everyone, y'know? But if you need Big Shal, she's always a real good choice for pushing through rubble and dirt and lifting stuff out the way."
The discussion on the nature of Golem Morality is at least something that Shalune seems to take in, even if she's not terribly sure what to actually do with it just yet; she nods slightly, filing away the thought for later as she lets out a breath - and just like that, lets the thought go for a moment, snickering happily at Lunata. "Aw, I'll draw you one! And, y'know, maybe we should both try to look a bit more adventurery now we're headed out," she wonders with a tilt of her head--
--that turns into a soft noise of surprise at the sight of the crystalline sphere lighting up. "Ooh..." she chimes in turn with Lunata, kneeling down a little to try to squint through the light of the spell. "Um. I can't really tell what's going on in there, but it doesn't look bad. Kinda wish I had a circuit to hook it up to to monitor how it's doing, but..." she trails off with a shake of her head. At the very least, the sphere does seem to be lightening, some of the pallor of the interior fluid dissipating.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Hmm..." Josie, herself, looks thoughtful as the girls speculate about the afterlife. She raises a hand to her chin again. "Well, if it were me, there are a few people I'd haunt for sure. But once they learned their lesson, I'd go find myself a nice bar..."
Hopefully no one was expecting anything meaningful or profound from her. Josie at least doesn't disappoint.
"I know, I know..." Josie sighs, mock-hanging her head. "Lily would kill me for that, I bet. ...Really, I appreciate it! ...So let's say 60-40, assuming no one else is on board~?" The lilt gives away the fact that she's not nearly as mercantile as she's acting. So at least there's that.
Josie can't tell much of what's happened from her current perspective, either. A lot of her view in is somewhat obscured.
"Maybe you should try running a weak current through it," Josie suggests, finally releasing the spell in a puff of brief brilliance. "I thought about trying a weak lightning spell, but looking at it now... I think it needs a little more finesse than that." To wit: it's a spell meant for self-defense and thus hurting things; there's a chance it could cause actual damage to the sphere even if she pulls her punch.
Aaaaand there are some things that even Josie is reluctant to reckless at.
"But first of all, I'd get it cleaned off. The moss could mess with the conductivity... if it has any."
She takes a step back, eyeing the sphere. "Well, it looks a little clearer, so that was a start... maybe if you put it out in the sunlight?"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata doesn't seem too put out by the talk of the afterlife. Whether she means it or not, Ge Ramda's presence around her certainly does feel like she's thoughta bout it a lot more than before. But at the suggestion, though, she nods at Shalune as she gets up to her feet and starts off. "I'll go mix some vinegar and club soda and water! If it works for the grimy showers Cap'n Bart has totally not been washing, it'll work for ancient relics too, right?"
It's... it's a bit hard to tell whether Lunata's joking or not, but she might be serious given the way she's headed off already. Oh dear...
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Umn..." sounds out Shalune as she glances through the fluid, rubbing at the surface of the sphere with a sleeve in a thoughtful manner and probably getting it grubby in the process. "Maybe... I dunno if electricity is gonna really help, though, since I'm not sure if the stuff inside is conductive. I guess it couldn't hurt to check... at least we know one thing works, though, right?"
"It'd help if the sphere weren't all covered with dirty anyway," she puffs, and the light of determination is in her eyes as she pumps her fist. "First up, we've gotta stabilize it so I can really bring the broom to bear, and-- yeah!" she agrees with Lunata in a cheery manner, pumping her fist. "Something like that would seriously help. We'll scrub this thing clean, just like--"
"--just like--"
And what Lunata actually said kind of catches up with Shalune, as her eyes turn into blank circles. "E-ehhh?! Lunie! What are they making you do~o...?!" she wails after the disappearing girl.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"It might not be, true..." Josie considers. "Well, there was a reaction to light, and it's been covered in dirt for some time, so try and see what happens if you expose it to the sun," she reiterates, nodding along as Lunata says that she knows what will work for cleaning it because it's worked with...
With...
"Uh, wait, hold on, his what--"
Lunata exits, followed closely by Shalune.
"..."
Which just means that Josie is left standing by herself as both girls run off, a deeply deeply disturbed expression on her face.
Does she... want to know the answer?
Some things are best left unlearned. Even for an archaeologist.