Return of the Son of Explosion Man

Schneider is looking particularly contemplative today as he walks below Ft Ouph. He has not parachuted down, though he would like to. A part of him would dearly like to know if a city's protection trumps the rules against flying or not. He's fairly certain, though, they getting ripped to shreds personally would be the end result, and so he's deferred that experiment. But he's got other things he's planning, just as carefully as he's planned his flight testing, and he seems to be ticking things off on his fingers, "She couldn't have had more than that much fire. So it's definitely more than just fire. More air than I had, but I have more air now. Scripture... Appraisal, check.... Still missing the Dark... I suppose that must be next."

Llyn is just out traveling, exploring and gathering information. What she did not expect was to bup into Schenider she's distract her nose in a journal of some sort writing or sketching and she might just run right into him!

Schneider is, it seems, not ignoring his environment completely. He sidesteps Llyn, and he says, "You should watch where you're going, or you'll run into people." He smirks, allows a waft of air to swirl his long white hair dramatically, and he laughs madly, but just for a moment. "I am on the cusp of a plan," he explains. "So soon, it shall come to fruition. I can taste it. I can feel it." He smiles beatifically. "They said it couldn't be done. They said it didn't exist. But /she/ had it, and six months into the game, no less. It's taken me two years to track down this skill, and I can almost taste it!"

Shiruba had been helping deliver some of the supplies to begin the restoration project in Ouph. So she just happens to be in the area to wander across Schneider and Llyn. "I guess today is my day for randomly crossing paths, hello!"

Llyn snaps out of her current task and looks very sheepish. "Oh I'm sorry! I was just working on a few plans." She looks Schneider over fdor a moment "Plan you say do tell...." She pauses looking Shiruba over with a grin "Well now it's been a while! Good to see you!"

Schneider looks over as Shiruba greets him and Llyn. He smiles widely, and calls, "Hello, yes, hello." He looks up above into what can be seen of the city, seeing the restoration going on. "Yes, good," he agrees. Looking back to Llyn, he looks confused for a moment. Then he ohs! "My /Plan/!" He smiles widely again. "Oh, yes. /She/ found it early, six months into the game. I don't know how. But there must be /some/ way. A secret teacher? Some hidden tome? What could it be. But now, I have deduced what she must have known then, yes....."

Shiruba smiles at Llyn. "Good to see you're adjusting to life over here." Then turns her attention back to Schneider. "And thank you for teaching me that alternative identification method." Then tilts her head very much that same way dogs do when curious, ears perked. "She who? Knew what?"

Llyn says "Yea it is though I still don't trust any of the landers farther than I can throw them." Yes murderous AI's She would if she ever got out make Cyberconnect's life a god damn nightmare. "mmm who what?" She looks curious too then pauses at Shiruba "I know I shouldn't but when you make that look I ... want to pet you..."

Schneider nods more or less graciously to Shiruba for teaching her the identification spell. "The LOONS, we share knowledge," he explains. "Oh, what knowledge /she/ must have known, before she went away," he laments. Who? "Why a player named Megumin, of course. I met her about six months into the game," he explains. "And if I had known how hard her magic would be to work out, I would have dogged her every step. But she walked away with a demonstration and half an explanation, and I have been searching for what she knew since then." What? "She knew the power of /Explosion/." The way he says the word, a mix of awe and reverence, implies the capital letter.

Shiruba ooooohs. "Right, right, she had an explosive magic no one else did." Then she snickers a little at Llyn. "You are hardly the first to have that issue."

Llyn is controlling herself as she now twigs "Yes I'm in Loons as well and Megumin I fear I do not know of her." She pauses for a moment "Explosion? I never heard of that ... type of magic is it only in Yamato?" She looks to Shiruba and smiles. "It could be worse right?"

Schneider nods slowly as Shiruba summarizes his obsession. "As you say," he agrees. "But through research, I have arrivrd at what her stats must have been. If she can qualify for that magic, then I can." So he's no closer to learning it. But he wants to match her stats so he's not missing any prerequisites she may have had. To Llyn, he says, "No one knows what type of magic it is, no Lander teaches it, I've checked. I think it must be part of some endgame build, but I don't know how she managed to start with it, or what even the ramifications might be."

Shiruba cusps a hand to her chin thoughtfully. "End game build would explain no Lander knowing it... but not how she maintained it when we were all downgraded at the initial apocalypse..."

"Why, why," Shenmi remarks as he casually walks onto the spot. "What is this about a new power?", he asks, debonair yet casual. "Explosion, you say?" An eyebrow is quirked, in mild curiosity. "How is that different from applying a passable amount of fire magic to your problem?"

For those not in Scale Emblem, the 'passable' in 'passable amount of fire magic' actually means 'ridiculous'.

Llyn says "She must have done some crazy min maxing before everything happened." She muses for a moment and now she tils her head "Yet I'm very curious about this and what we could do with such a spell type. We could if we were lucky find a way to break The Palace Land Kingdoms...."

Schneider nods to Shiruba. "I think the degree she obsessed and clung to that one skill over all others was why a fragment remained after the apocalypse," he suggests. "It was perhaps not an /endgame/ skill, but certainly advanced from what players at the time could learn. The question becomes, is it still so advanced? What secrets does it hold?"

When Shenmi arrives and asks that imporrtant question, Schneider explains, "No one knows quite what it does, or what it is. How is it different? I don't know that, either. But I have seen the explosions, myself, and they are next-level more intense. You will forget about Fireball, if you saw her Explosion." He nods about breaking the Palace Land Kingdoms. "This would definitely aid that effort."

Shiruba gives Schneider a pat on the shoulder. "It's good to have a goal to work towards, but don't forget you have other things to work towards in the meantime."

"Well, well, color me intrigued."

Shenmi's eyebrow raises by the slightest amount that still counts as clearly noticeable. "A technique of massve destruction of those proportion would be extremely useful in addressing the unique challenges we face in the Tower." His hand reaches for his goatee, which he strokes pensively. "We need some way to accelerate our tower pushes, after all the stalling of late..."

Llyn says "We'll figure it out in time right? So yes it would be useful for mass clearing things on Tower Climbs or ... Incernating Palace Lander Soldiers." Yeah she wants the Palace lands broken but can you blame her? Given what they have done." She looks over to Shenmi for a moment.

Schneider sighs to Shiruba. "But I /don't/ have other things to work toward. Just occasionable Lore nibbles I have to jump for as and when they appear. I worked on the Chaos Gates for /months/, someone else walks in, poof, solved. I work out how to fly? Except it doesn'y work overland. This is my fallback project, because I -know- this won't go anywhere, but it's a way to spin my wheels."

He nods to Shenmi, "Accelerating Tower pushes sounds interesting, but Alliance leadership..... they seem to still be focused on the Palace Lands. Not that anyone can tell /since they never say what's going on/." Heavysigh.

There is a twitch of Shiruba's tail at the mention of the Tower. "Be sure to remind the good doctor to alert the other Alliances before another push is made, so we can be prepared for the results."

What Llyn will see when looking towards Shenmi will be him merely crossing his arms and, eyes closed, offering a silent nod. He may not have been as vocal as her about his feelings towards Landers, but his lack of condemnation of her words probably speaks volumes.

He chooses not to dwell on that, and instead he offers the group, "Of course, of course. Focus on the war." As if in acknowledgement to Shiruba, he remarks, "A push right now? The consequences would be unpredictable. That's exactly what is slowing us down." Finally looking up and opening his eyes again, he adds, "That is exactly why we need ways to speed up the pushes after we restart."

Schneider seems to have grown sufficiently restive that he flat out just chims Prophylaxis. He'll have an answer if anyone does. If. He shrugs to Shiruba, and says, "We'll be sure to do so. As many as possible go to both floor pushes and Waves, but it's such a long way to travel now, it's hard to get there in time. But as Shenmi and Llyn say, taking out the Crowners is probably the greater threat. Once that is sorted, we can take the Tower at our leisure."

Shiruba nods her head. "The long distance is why it's important to have other people prepared..." She pauses then shoots a look at Llyn. "I assume you mean the Crowned ones and their leaders."

Llyn says "Aye, I won't stop till the leaders of the Palace Lands Dance froma rope." She seems serious on that. "So many don't seem to understand how many people their blood lust have killed..."

"It's War," Shenmi says to Shiruba, in a bit of a fatalist manner "We won't win it by asking the enemy to 'pretty please stop.' No amount of sugar on top will cut it. It's going to be messy."

"Oh, right, if you have any news about what we're going to do, I'd be interested. As you know, I don't keep in touch with leadership much...", he mentions to Schneider.

Where 'not keeping in touch' means he's mostly off cavorting in inns and gambling wherever there's gambling going on.

"Yes," Scneider agrees with Shiruba, "It's definitely cool that you guys have been on the ground where these Waves happen. Just another spiteful mechanic the game throws at us to try to split our focus." Shenmi gets a sigh, and he says, "No one does. Whatever Proph learns, he mostly keeps to himself in any event. I don't know when the last time I found out what Leadership was doing, or wanted done. Just poof, we'll find out some coup has been set up for us to complete, and nevermind /how/ or why or how it got set up, and could we please help with that bit? No." He sighs. "It makes me wonder why I still play this game sometimes."

"I know I know." Shiruba replies to Shenmi with a sigh. "But our efforts must need remain directed at the sources of the problem. If we just attack indiscriminately we are no better the. the ones we are fighting." She just rolls her eyes at Schneider. "Not much of a choice right now."

Llyn looks for a moment. "I rather see we're safe it's like dealing with the Kim Family on a worse scale." She makes a face and fully gives away she's from South korea too. She sigh and driops the topic for the moment.

"Probably because we have no choice," Shenmi comments to Schneider as he makes the motion to flick his menu open, and points at the bottom with his open palm. "No logout button."

"Of course, by yielding to blind rage we would dig ourselves into a ditch deeper than the one we are in right now," he answers Shiruba. "We have to be careful about it, or this whole story will blow up in our face."

The latter may or may not have been directed to Llyn as well.

Schneider nods to Shiruba. "Exactly. Which is why I'm wrestling with the question of Explosion now. I won't be able to solve it, but I'll waste my time entertainingly for a while. Meanwhile, we will be grateful for the scraps we are given." Llyn's comment draws a confused, "Huh?" Shenmi gets an off-handed shrug, and he asks, "How has this not already blown up in our faces? We're doing damage control now to keep it from getting worse, sure. But ... what even is the point anymore? I'm not giving up. But I'm super frustrated with so many things right now."

"Trust me you're not the only one. But as a wise old panda once told me." Shiruba coughs, then does a very awkward impression of a scruffy old man "We don't know how strong we are until we have to be."