2018-06-22: No Need to Fly

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  • Log: No Need to Fly
  • Cast: Riesenlied, Shalune Amira, Josephine Lovelace, Lydia Seren
  • Where: Plains of the Goddess
  • Date: June 22nd 2018
  • Summary: The Fereshte has been found and Josie heads north to link up. Lydia spots a familiar face. Josie gets a horrible idea. Shalune makes a promise (???). Riesenlied gives thanks.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    The Fereshte has been found, nestled up upon the peaks of Taben alongside what some cunning Lunarian scholars may be able to identify as the remains of the Grindery, from a catacalysmic battle a thousand years ago...

    ... which is mostly home to Nall and his rowdy orphans now, which have been joined by the Feresthe crew, their own orphans, and the Ebony Wings. It's a lively sight, an open terrace where the villagers have set up their own stalls and have assembled something of a community.

    Riesenlied is in the midst of this, spending time with the Tainted; she's easy enough to spot where she's taking care of some children that are sleeping on her lap right now.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

    Shalune - and by extension, Big Shal - are pretty much in their element. Taben Peak would be interesting enough on its own, easily scaled by the golem's slow and methodical process, and Shalune's already taken enough in the way of sketches and quick pictures of the scenery to suggest that she's ready to camp out here at some point in the future. But add in Nall and his orphans, and then top the whole lot with the Ebony Wings and the crashed Fereshte, and it's a combination the mechanic can't resist.

    Big Shal stands peacefully near to Riesenlied, acting as a de facto babysitter; it's not that the golem is actually doing anything to look after the children at her feet, more that she's an adept and accomplished jungle gym, with many of the orphans clambering over and up the machine's legs and scaffolding to sit atop it and gawk at how high they've ended up. Every so often, the golem does move - but only to steady one of the children before they can fall off, setting them back on balance with infinite patience.

    Amongst them, the pink-haired mass of hair that signifies Shalune is easy to spot. She's missing her hat for once, enjoying the breeze as she swings her legs; on her lap is her battered and beaten-up notebook, nearly out of pages and crinkling with age, but still holding together as she scribbles a collection of notes and pauses every so often to twirl the stub of pencil around her fingers.

    Next to her sits her old coat, bundled up - the garment is a little too beaten up and now retired, but she still useful when she knows she's going to have to get dirty. Come to think of it, the rest of her isn't doing that much better, cheek and hands smudged with oil and her jeans rather dirty from where she's been trawling through some of the smaller nooks and crannies of the Fereshte's engine in an attempt to pick out what needs fixing next.

    From the look of her list, the answer is 'rather a lot'.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    When the message arrives, Josie heads out to the mountainside without hesitation. Even restocking the essentials is drilled down to 'what she can get and get quickly', and before long, the wayward archaeologist is out on the road.

    It takes some time to get there. ARM openly holstered against her back, she takes a moment far down the mountainside to squint upwards, shielding her eyes against the sunlight with her right hand.

    For the first time in a few months she grins -- really truly grins -- and makes her way on upwards.

    "Hope I didn't keep you all waiting."

    That'll have to serve as her introduction as she steps on in, dropping her pack.

    "So, everyone still alive? First things first." There's that grin again, the all-too-typical lopsided grin she tends to sport when dancing on the brink between something feral and something joking. "Where's my stuff?"

    At least the look in her eyes is more friendly, glittering in the light.

    "Coo," announces Penelope, from atop Josie's shoulder.

    It's then at a remove that Josie's gaze falls on a familiar puff of pink hair.

    "Heyyy kiddo, found your way up to the moon too, huh? ...Not bad."

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia Seren as just got back to the Fereshte and has been working on the ship since she has gotten back. She hasn't bothered Shalune too much since she's been moving from location to location to keep tabs on damage and repairs. Naturally, since this is Lunar, it's a lot harder to find the materials and tech required to do such repairs but her last estimate figures she can at least get it moving albeit it probably won't be FLYING when she does.

When she's not doing this, she's often in the Glenwood area doing something ... ... ... mysterious. Surely nothing that wouldn't result in more problems down thel ine.

In fact, it's when Lydia is welding a section of wall shut when she hears a familiar voice.

Lydia slowly turns to look. Who is tha--

Lydia sees Penelope and she recognizes who this new individual is. Her face goes pale as she thinks back...into the past...

*woooba wooba wooba woooba*

JOSIE SHOOTS LYDIA IN THE HEAD

LATER, LYDIA SHOVES JOSIE INTO A TRAP

*woooba wooba wooba woooba*

She covers her face with her hand even though Josie hasn't seen this particular face.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied glances up towards Big Shal with a mirthful little expression, as some of the children clamber over her and one of them pounds her chest to exclaim and sing, "Strongest Golem in the world, Big Shal!" "Big Shaaal~" some other children chime in.

    She perks up when Josephine arrives, however, waving as several other Fereshteans -- Fereshti? -- also perk up to exclaim, "Miss Josie!" "Miss Josie, it's been a while!"

    She asks about her stuff, and then one of them looks towards Val, who's currently--

    "AAARGH me hearties you've eviscerated me, watch my guts bleed!!"

    ...

    ...

    Val's refrigerator torso is apparently currently being repurposed as what looks like a sausage grinder, because there's a grinder leading towards a die and a feeding tube in where protein casing is being stuffed to make sausages.

    It's probably insensitive to pretend like you're getting mangled in front of kids, but to be fair, they're having a big amused riot of this...

    Val pauses to go, "'eeey Josie! Took you long enough to get up here, I've kept all your belongings safe, let's get a drink together!"

    A pause.

    "When I've re-attached my stomach tank, I don't exactly have one right now."

    Riesenlied isn't aware of the history behind Josie and Lydia, so she smiles towards the beastgirl as she works with Shalune...

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

    "Wah, Miss Josie!" Shalune calls back, having leant back far enough to stare upside-down at the newcomer, her hair draping below her as she-- suddenly has to pinwheel for a handhold before she loses her balance. "I checked all your stuff too - it looks like it might've been banged around a ton, but it seems like it's pretty all intact. I didn't move any of it," she reports dutifully, or perhaps she's just got the common sense to know when she's approaching a danger point, willing to leave that up to Val. "So it's all pretty much where it was, but you might haveta climb a bit to get to it."

    Rest assured, Shalune has at least offered Lydie a large hug upon sighting her and making sure she's okay - though since then, she's been content to work on different sections, recognizing that they each have their own way of going about things. The other girl's calculations tend to be a good deal more precise than hers, so most of the time she's been working on creating actual replacements via her pot, while Lydie manages the architectural side of things.

    It does make for tiring work - more tiring than anything else she's done recently, and as the odd ARM she uses as a miniature manufacturing plant quietly pulses where it's sat next to her, she fishes in her pocket for another energy bar and calls out: "Lydie, I think I'm gonna have the new joint pieces done in--" she squints, looking at the glow from her pot. "--'bout twenty minutes, I guess?"

    She squints a second time as the cheer for Big Shal goes up, but looks undeniably proud of the golem as it mimics reaching up into the air to flex a bunch of nonexistant muscles. Rolling to one side, Shalune lets herself drop to ground level, landing easily next to Riesenlied with a brighter smile. "Hehe~. It's been a while since Big Shal's gone all out! She looks right at home. You too, Miss Riese."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Josie is as to the point as ever. "Same to you -- you all look no worse for--"

    This is before her gaze leads her to Val.

    There is a long, silent stare, ultimately punctuated by a squint as if Josie is trying to work out what in tarnation is going on over here. ...Oh.

    "...wear," she finally, much belatedly terminates the statement with. "You okay over there, Val?"

    Which is then met with another long moment of silence when Val makes an offer -- and equally quickly adds a qualifier for why doing it just this moment is a bad idea.
    But Josie, perhaps finding her equilibrium here quickly enough, ultimately just shrugs, lopsidedly smiles, and says, "Sure. When you've got your guts back where they belong."

    Metal Demon physiology sure is different.

    Shalune provides a little much-needed info on the state of her 'stuff'. "Banged up, huh...? Well, probably nothing a hammer can't fix. Looks like the ship took a beating, so that's life, eh?"
    Shalune has some good instincts.
    "Show me where it is, and I'll go get it down and take a look, okay? Heh, maybe I'll want to borrow that little gadget of yours."

    Which is followed by a pause and an appraising look. "Say, Shalune... can that thing make bullets? ARM parts? You just need to give it the raw materials, is that right?" She may have been bit by the beginning of an idea.

    As for Lydia, well...
    There's a long look at the beastgirl. Then an equally long look over at Riesenlied, as if to silently inquire after this apparently strange behavior.
    Josie... sure doesn't recognize 'Asteroid the Kid'.

    For now, though, Josie seems content to glance up at the golem, left hand on her hip. "Big Shal's looking good, too. Got some new parts in...?"

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia laughs awkwardly as Josie gives her a long look. Please don't recognize her and shoot her again, please don't recognize her and shoot her again.

Josie doesn't seem to recognize Lydia and doesn't shoot her again. Lydia exhales in relief before she makes her way over. "Hey Val, you're uh. Who is... the new...friend??"

There, she thinks, NOBODY NEEDS TO KNOW. Lydia gives a suspicious look at Penelope. Can that bird see through her incredible disguise??? Stare. STARE.

But she eventually just gives Riesenlied a one armed hug. She has new metal bits under her eyes now, of course, but this doesn't stop her from hugging Shalune. She's trying not to think about the WEIRD THING altering her body structure when she could just be enjoying time with friends. At least, like, not every time it gets a little worse. That'd be a lot of wasted time.

"Thanks for helping out, Shal." Lydia says, meaning the girl rather than the golem here. "Twenty minutes huh? You work fast!" She smiles back over to Big Shal and then over to Shalune. "I'm sorry I've been bouncing around all over the place but it kind of puts me at ease knowing that you're helping out too. Otherwise I probably wouldn't feel like I could ever leave."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    Riesenlied would want everyone to get along, as much as they can anyway... she glances towards Lydie and Josephine for a moment, before smiling to express, "Oh, that's Miss Josephine--" A pause. "Josie," she corrects herself, because Josephine did make her promise. "She's with the Wolves, we've worked together quite a lot... I trust her a lot."

    She draws her arm around Lydia again -- her human arm is occupied with a sleeping child, so she has to use her dragon arm to do it... but she's careful. She does notice the metal bits, but... well, she would empathise with body structure and having it fall apart over time. It's kind of her thing.

    "I'm really glad you two are helping out... I don't really know what to do mechanically, and it wouldn't have been possible without you," Riesenlied smiles.

    Val cackles to go, "I'm fine, I'm fine! Stop by for some fennel and garlic sausage though once we're done here-- the kids love it, you will too!" "Sausage sizzle!!" "Woooo!!"

    Riese looks up to Josie and expresses, "It could've been worse, given the crash landing we took... it's going to be a while before it can fly again, but-- right now, we more need it to hover than truly take to the skies."

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

    "Oh, it's all neatly together in one corner of the bridge," Shalune natters happily back to Josephine, scratching at the side of her rather messy hair. She kind of needs a haircut, not that that would particularly tame it in any way. "It's more that the doors to get there might kinda suck for a while, since we haven't gotten to them yet. Honestly, the best way is prob'ly to shimmy up the side and hop in a window, or else brute force through the door a bit.

    Her eyebrows raise, and then she grins. "Aww. If you need stuff fixing up, then sure it's free of charge - and yeah, all I need is the raw materials, really. Well--" she pauses, and frowns to herself. She's not really a suspicious sort, it's more that she's never even really considered making actual bullets, not in Filgaia where the things were embarrassingly common. "I need a clear idea of what I'm makin'. Gunsmoke ARMs, bullets, machinery - I know how those work, down to the components. Fancy ruin ARMs, not so much."

    Shalune is about as good at being suspicious of people as a brick, so she doesn't really question Josephine's idea - nor Lydie's moment of caginess. Instead, she breaks into a sheepish smile, rubbing at the back of her hair. "Aww..." she chimes as she bobs from foot to foot. "It's all good! I mean, the Carakin have mostly been stayin' around this area, so it's easy for me to just pop in and do some work, bit by bit. I definitely know what you mean, though." she adds, tapping at her lips. "It looked pretty crazy at first. Gettin' a hold of stuff's pretty hard, and Lunar's pretty--... peaceful."

    At least she says it with a frown, knowing that it isn't exactly a cakewalk here, and that she's got a fair bit of confirmation bias.

    "Aww, Miss Riese!" she chimes-- again, and would probably pitch into the hug if Riese's arms weren't busy. "It's not like I know that much. The Wings are all real good at patchin' stuff up and getting it together again, so I'm probably the one that's learning more out of this. I'm just real good at making the stuff you need," she grins brightly, but then grimaces at a stomach pang and chews a block off her snack. Perhaps the secret to staying thin is pouring your energy into an ARM...

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Right, right," Lydia says. "That's good. Great even. Friendship is awesome." She pauses. "Especially with people I definitely don't have any weird and awkward past interactions with." She blinks a few times with a strained smile on her face.

She then focuses on Josie and adds, "Uh nice to...meet?...you? Riese is basically m'mom now so uh, thanks for looking out for her." Despite her strange behavior here she is genuine enough about that.

She smiles over to Shalune. She definitely understands feeling overwhelmed by what the Waysiders know about tech relative to what she knows about engineering. She does step back to let Shalune get a dragon arm hug if she'd like one. Riesenlied is a socialist mom who can be shared by everybody.

She does swallow a bit at 'Free of charge' though.

"Yeah but it'll be ok. probably? no sense worrying over what can't be changed right now."

She grins at Riesenlied. "Heh well I've had good teachers." Me myself and Emma and Cetiri periodically. She worries, though, about what will happpen in a few acts where they may be low quantities of huggable children...!

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    There's no recognition to be had in Josie's gaze. At least not this time. Something about the girl's voice seems a little familiar, but the archaeologist will be damned if she can place it.

    Sidelong, her gaze rests on the pair of them as Lydia asks after Josie and Riesenlied answers.
    This then is the point where Josie winks at Lydia and gives the girl a little wave.

    "Archaeologist. Drifter. Mercenary, I suppose~ Have we met, kiddo? You seem familiar."

    Perhaps it might be best to leave things at that for the time being.

    A nod meets Shalune's assessment of where her much-lamented lost belongings are located. "Up on the bridge, huh? Shouldn't be an issue. --Doors are sticking? Or-- ohh, I see." She tilts her head to one side, as if considering the options. "Well, nothing a little percussive maintainance won't fix~"

    Which is when Shalune answers her more direct question about the capabilities of that handy little pot of hers. "Nah, nah. Gunsmoke ARM's fine. ...How many could you make, and how quickly, if I brought you components?"
    This is surely only going down a good route towards the future. Surely.
    Though Josie seems to pause, reconsider her options a moment, then lead in with: "--That is, let's say for now... just ammo. Though, I'm pretty curious about ARMs, too. Hmm." Her brow creases as if in thought. "Where did you say you got that pot again?"
    ...Not that it would be much help with them all up here on the moon, but...

    This certainly won't lead to mischief.

    Which is about the point where her attention rests on Val, still processing sausages.

    Josie's gaze rests on Val and the filling casings.

    "Sure," she says. "All I've been eating is traveling rations. Won't mind a little fresh sausage. And a beer. ...Local harvest?"
    Whether she's referring to the grains or the sausage's source is anyone's guess.

    "Anyway. Guess I should hop to it and see what needs fixing, right? ...I'm holding you to that, Shalune," she adds, before heading towards the door, apparently opting to the girl's real name simply out of a congregation of 'kiddos' here otherwise.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

    "Shaluniiiie," chimes one familiar Wayside kid, "Didn't Jay say you shouldn't be doing things free of charge??!" as if she's acting like Shalune's... well, it's not really 'conscience' here. Sense of materialistic spirit? It's not clear.

    "O-oh, I didn't mean... but your spirit helps people here too, you know," Riesenlied smiles bashfully. "They've asked, 'Where's the CaraKin? Where's the Lunies?' You as well, Josie, and Lydie's part of the village too... everyone's missed each other, it's nice to know and see..."

    She tilts her head as Josephine says she needs lots of bullets. "I suppose bullets aren't available here in Lunar, are they... I didn't even think about that. I've never had an ARM synchronise with me..."

    A pause, as Val grins and goes, "Yeah! Everything's locally sourced from Taben's Peak's bounties. There ain't a lot of cooking tools or know-how here, so when we Waysiders and the kids got together, the results are as you see!" as she pulls the links up and starts twisting them. "We got dried ones too, so take some with you for a trail stew!"

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

    With a light grin, Shalune nods back at Lydie - after accepting one of Riesenlied's hugs, of course. "Aw, yeah, that's true. Plus, it's not like we have a time limit per se. Or at least, we don't seem to have anyone gunning for us--"

    A pause, and the mechanic looks glum as she very deliberately knocks on the bark of a nearby tree for luck.

    "--so we just need to keep plugging away at it and we'll get there in the end!" she cheers Lydie forwards as if she didn't just have an aside.

    "Umm-- I mean, it depends how rested I am. The pot works pretty fast, so long as I keep it running well, I just gotta make sure I've got the energy to handle it," she admits sheepishly, rubbing at the back of her hair again as she explains the half-eaten bar still in her hands. "Full ARMs aren't really that easy because I've gotta make all the bits separately and put it together myself. Bullets-- I've never really tried, but I can give it a go sometime!"

    She balks when one of the nearby orphans calls out, her eyes a little wide. "A-aww, c'mooon! I'm just sticking together with solidarity for Filgaian folk!" she strings together words in the hopes it'll sound good and wise. "Besides, if it got busted up in the Fereshte crash it's up to all of us to pitch together in our own ways! ... and if I can help out with the kids, all the better. Lunie's appreciated company as well, y'know? Even if she's been a little scarce," she adds to Riesenlied and Lydie both with a lighter smile.

    Shalune is not that great at dodging questions, and it's pretty clear she just ducked out of Josie's quite hard...