It's Sketchy

The Hunter's Guild has plenty of seating and all mamner of people. You know what else it has? Parchment. Ink.

It is perhaps because of these things that Jazz is camped out in a corner of the building, several sheets of parchment beside her, upon each identical drawings, or at least as identical as her hand and quill and ink can make it. They're drawings of some sort of elaborate disc covered in various markings and with various components. If Mizuk is familiar enough, she may recognize an astrolabe of antiquity.

    Mizuki passes by the Hunter's Guild and sees... "Jazz!" She waves cheerfully and approaches, giving the drawings a curious look. "What are these?"

"Clocks," says Jazz, dryly and without looking up from where she keeps her hand steady. "Hello, Mizuki. How are you?" She carefully scrapes quill along parchment with her face screwed up in concentration.

It is, of course, d'awww.

    Mizuki blinks. "Clocks? I don't get it..." She slides one of the finished papers closer to herself for a look, but it doesn't help. "Alright I guess. I talked with Giganpor about weapons. Tonfa swords may be impractical, but he's working on katars. But also I maybe should branch out and try different things."

    She pulls up a chair across from Jazz. "...I'm still worried about you, you know. Although... it's good to see you focused on something. Why clocks?"

"Why not clocks?" replies Jazz, keeping her voice deadpan and flat, "We've got all the time in the world, don't we? Information travels through our neurons at something like two hundred miles an hour. If our ability to perceive time is rooted in the speed our brains are flickering, time could be an illusion. It could be like that episode of Deep Space Nine where O'Brien suffers."

Beat.

"Wait, that's every episode."

    Mizuki sweatdrops. "That's the one Star Trek I didn't watch. How can it be Star Trek without a spaceship? I know, it was probably good, but young me was dumb and later I never got around to it."

"And now your last memories of Star will be the JJ Abrams version. I must apologize," says Jazz, sympathetically, to Mizuki. Apparently, she was not a fan.

"So young," she gives Mizuki a faux-sympathetic look.

    "You know, I actually /liked/ that movie? Not as Star Trek per se, but it was a decent sci-fi action flick and it was something I could reccomend even to non sci-fi fans. Like Back to the Future is a time travel movie anyone can watch." Mizuki replies.

    "And hey, they may not be my *last* memories! Maybe we'll get out of here and I'll see..." Pause. "...I guess any new Trek would be a continuation of that movie, huh? So more action movie than thoughtful sci-fi. Well, at least I could rent Deep Space 9 DVDs. Or maybe by then there'll be some kinda video on demand thingy for Altimit, like Netflix was gonna be right before Pluto's Kiss ruined everything. Netflix and... there was another one... the one where you could watch all of Stargate SG-1 for free? Well, in theory. I only got to rewatch SOME of it before Pluto's Kiss but it was neat."

"More like Pluto's Kiss Off," remarks Jazz, dryly. She finishes off the 'clock' she's drawing and then proceeds to place it with the others so that the ink can dry.

Another parchment is picked up and she wset it down in front of her with a sigh. She pulls out a second, yellowed scroll and checks it for reference, beginning to draw again. This parchment definitely seems older.

"Anyway," she continues, "these are not actually really clocks. They're astrolabes. An analog calculator for measuring a horizon and the position of the stars."

    "So THAT's what an astrolabe is!" Mizuki takes the news and accompanying revelation excitedly. "How'd you find that out? And how do you use it?"

    She blinks. "Man, do you think if we're in here long enough Adventurers will start holding Star Trek conventions?"

    Beat.

    "...Man I bet there's already a group of roleplayers somewhere doing the Star Ocean 'sci fi explorers trapped in a fantasy world' bit, huh. Or pretending to be a lost SG team."

"I suppose one could continue roleplaqying to avoid having to confront how awful everything is! Kudos to them for coping, I guess," remarks Jazz, absently, as she continues to draw. Apparently, she herself doesn't see the appeal. Her tentacles twitch, the ends going this way and that.

"I mean, I knew what one was before, but I had no idea what it looked like. The existawnce of star charts means logically that you'd need something to create them with -- but I didn't presume that the simulation went that deep. Apparently, at least one did." Her brow furrows in thought.

    Mizuki looks thoughtful, holding a hand to her chin. "...If there /were/ Star Trek conventions though, I'm not sure how I'd feel about being forced to choose between cosplaying as M'Ress and having everyone TELL me I should've cosplayed as M'Ress."

    She blinks, then stares at Jazz. "Wait, you knew what an astrolabe was the whole time? So how DOES it work? Is it... a list of stars and constellations with markings to indicate relative inclination, or something?"

    Wisteria has been out and about testing her newly enchanted sword. She wanders back into the Hunters Guild and spotting Mizuki and Jauhanzu she smiles and wanders over. In human form she drapes her white arms over Miz's shoulders rests her chin some where comfy and says. "Hello Mizuki-chi." she sounds tired. Her short white hair messy. She is probably skirting the line of debufs for personal attention. "Whatcha working on Jaz." she doesn't tack on any cutsie sufixes or any suffix heck she even shortens her name she's a good bun.

"Yes and no. I always knew what one ostensibly was -- a device for measuring a stars position relative to the horizon. But, say you know that. That doesn't give you any idea *how* they measured one, or how to reverse engineer one to be able to do yourself. Unlike ancient man, I never had to give the problem any thoght until I was dropped into this half-assed perdicament." She gestures around.

"It lets you measure each stars position and thus you can create an accurate map of the stars. Once Giganpor builds that works based off this model, I'll be able to see differences between the charts, made before the black wave, and the stars afterwards." She looks up at Wist's arrival and gives her a little polite bow from her seated position. "Wist."

    Wis shows up! Mizuki perks up a little, "Hey Wis! How's it goin'?"

    "Predicament." Mizuki corrects Jazz's enunciation without thinking. Then: "Sorry, reflex!"

    She oohs at further explanation. "So there was nothing obvious enough to spot just looking at the star charts and the sky, huh? But you think there might've been a smaller change?"

    Wisteria looks at the drawings over a Miz shoulder. "Oooh doin star stuff, how's the map stuff going? I need to do more exploring and mapping... but I had to get my sword enchanted first so I could make sure how it was working and if we could make our own unique enchantments and not just use the menus." she says "It's AWESOME!" she says brightly then sags back into 'cape' mode using Mizuki-chi as a kickstand.

Jazuhanzu's expression flattens at Mizuki 'corrects' her. She could not be any less impressed than she is right at that moment. Adorably unimpressed, but unimpressed all the same.

"I don't know, Mizuki. Maybe there is, maybe not. But one needs the tools to try to find o--" and then Wisteria is doing ... that.

    "This is my life now." Mizuki states flatly. "She's tall, and I'm... actually maybe not that short by Japanese standards."

    "I look forward to your discoveries, but there's something else I was wondering: You hate being in here. The only time you seem remotely... excited is when you're working on maps and stuff, learning more about the world so you can find a way out. How come you're not in the Scale Emblem Alliance?"

    Wisteria giggles softly "You're Mizuki-chi, by definition smol and thus a leaning place for the tall and mighty." she says teasingly. "Hey wana see my sword?" she asks Jazuhanzu "It took a lot of tinkering after the crafting fair but I figured out how to properly enchant things." she says smiling brightly. No razor fangs on display just pearly whites.

"Never follow anyone who hates the samqe thing you hate," says Jazz to Mizuki, gently, before turning to Wisteria and giving her a nod. "Sure," she adds.

    "Hrm. Point," Mizuki responds, "but the Scale Alliance isn't about hating being in here so much as trying to get back home. I think most of us are having to at least find /something/ to like about this place, anyway."

    Wisteria nods "Yah, I mean there's cool stuff here... I just wana go home so that something that is suppose to be fun isn't ruinig everything else I planned." she sighs and then she produces a katana from her inventory and holds it out scabard and all to Jaz, still leaning on Mizuki.

"Give it time," remarks Jazz to Mizuki. She doesn't have anything else to add on the matter. She dips her quill into her ink and proceeds to resume drawing, humming briefly under her breath. Then: "Fourty two days, Mizuki. We've been here fourty two days."

    Give it time? "What are you trying to imply?"

    "Holy shit, has it been that long already?!" Mizuki slumps in her chair. "Well... okay, we may well be here for years. Forty-two days isn't that surprising, I just haven't been counting... What's your point? You think time in here is going to turn the people trying to get out angry and mean?"

    Wisteria just holds the sword there, even as Jaz ignores it. She leans against Mizuki's back and just kind of stands there like that. "I've been avoiding thinking about it... after I did the math on clearing the tower." she says quietly.

"Please, Mizuki. People get mean and angry when you don't have their favorite ice cream in stock at the supermarket," Jazz answers Mizuki.

    Mizuki sighs. "Well... we had to deal with those folk in the real world too. And /many/ of us are reasonable people. And yes, we all have superpowers now. So you're saying that we're going to have a bunch of newly-minted supervillains lashing out at the world? ...Fair enough point, but what do you suggest we do about it? If you saw the issue coming, we can plan and prepare!"

Finally, Jazz looks up to inspect Wiz's blade. She squints at it. "So you figured out what you were trying to do? I wouldn't mind hearing more about that later, you know," she tells the not-bun of the moment.

    Wist smiles at Jaz her red eyes twinkling happily. "Go on...draw it." she says with a smile "Take a look... it's cool, and I think... you might want to say... enchant your thingy with like arcane eye or something right?"

    Or maybe Jazz has nothing to say about it at the moment. "Her 'thingy'? Hmm. I guess I should think about enchantment options too... But this low level, I haven't really figured out what I /need/ yet."

"Oh!" Jazz says to Wist, "I know just how to encahnt your blade with one! Mizuki, could you do me a favor?" She reaches out to draw the blade, holding it up at face level to Mizuki's face, "Hold the sword for me, would you? Just a moment."

    The blade has a wicked gloaming to it's edge, the reflections in it somehow distorted.

    Mizuki hesitates. "Uhh, Jazz? All naive attempts to enchant weapons immediately destroyed them, and that was /with/ Wisteria's class having the skill. Adding anything more to this blade might break it..."

"Relax, Mizukie. I'm an Enchanter class and I've studied this problem *very* closely as well." She continues to wait for Mizuki to hold the blade. She squints at the shiny reflection in it briefly. "Very pretty," she adds to Wist.

    Wisteria seems to have some confidence in her work. "It smashes into peoples minds as well as their bodies." she says proudly.

    Mizuki looks to Wist for confirmation, then holds the blade as requested, watching Jazz curiously.

Once Mizuki has the blade in place, Jazz reaches into her coat and produces her feather-duster-wand.

She waves it in the air vaguely as Mizuki stares at her over the crossguard.

She clears her throat, and then intones, in all the digniified straight-laced solemnity she can manage, "Sword of Omens! Grant Mizuki sight beyond sight!"

Nothing happens.

Jazz shrugs, tentacles lifting with her shoulders. "Oh well. Guess I was wrong."

She puts the feather duster away.

    Mizuki narrows her eyes. "Are you making fun of me?" She looks at Jazz suspiciously.

    Wisteria giggles. "Well don't hit Jaz with it Mizuki-chi... don't want her going all cross eyed and forgetting how to read maps or something." she says

"I am wounded, Mizuki," says Jazz, casually, indicating she isn't. She doesn't smile, but she does sound amused. "Never saw that show, hm?" She picks her quill back up from where she set it and adds another layer of ink to a line.

"I just want to be able to morally recognize the person I am when we get to go home and I don't think centering my life around Aincrad will let me do that."

    Mizuki blinks innocently. "What show?"

    She pouts slightly. "We don't spend that much time in Aincrad. Aincrad's one of multiple plans. I prefer learning more about this world, like you, so we can find a way out. Wisteria here is looking for glitches."

    "There's weird stuff going on in here. There's a cliff face in Ezzo that's an Immortal Object, but it had recent tracks leading in and out of it. So that's ONE mysterious thing. And I'll find more if I keep looking, I'm sure. But, I'm gonna help out with the tower from time to time too; partly in return for having an Alliance to support me, and partly because fighting boss monsters as a flippin' /ninja/ is pretty sweet!" She smiles.

    Wisteria nods her head and vanishes her sword into her inventory. "Right." she says and nods her head.

"... cliff?" asks Jazz, focusing on that. "What cliff?" she asks, glancing towrds Wist and then back to Mizuki.

    Mizuki blinks. "Just some cliff. But obviously it's covering a secret passage, and it was put there by /someone/ who can make Immortal Objects! So, I dunno if it's a secret room the developers hid or what, but someone's there and using it!" Her tail twitches as she speaks enthusiastically. Then she relaxes a bit and folds her arms. "We couldn't find 'em, though. I wanted to talk to Att, see if he has any ideas where someone who could modify the game like that would hide the open/close switch."

    Wisteria nods "That's the kind of thing I'm looking for, but I'm mostly looking for places where things don't meet up in general. Like quests that don't end right or dungeons with weird glitchy places."

"... whatq's an immortal object, though? Is that some game term?" Jazz has no idea what the heck Mizuki is on about.

    Mizuki blinks. "Oh, right. It's this indicator that appears when you interact with something that doesn't interact with physics. I haven't seen it anywhere else in /here/, but it was a common thing in Elder Tale Offline. Kind of a reminder that 'No, you can't break this, stop trying, solve the dungeon normally.'"

    Wisteria shrugs at Jaz she doesn't really KNOW the games stuff she's learning as she goes along and looking for things that don't fit NOW not stuff that was from before. She returns to her posture of draping and being proped up by a Miz cause it's just something she's always done to friends.

"Maybe it's just a code artifact, then. Something that was being developed and now isn't. It's not like there aren't game magics that let you teleport and so on. Maybe they're just blinking into a space they know that's there." Jazz points out to Mizuki with a shrug of her shoulders. "I wouldn't assumew that it means someone is capable of making it without harder evidence than you've shared so far."

    Mizuki blinks again. "No, the tracks were clearly going in and out of the wall. Recent, too, because of the tide. And I'm not saying I'm assuming someone /is/ capable of making such things... if someone could edit the game, why not do exactly as you say? A teleport-access-only hiding place would be much more secure. That's why I think it's someplace the developers left in that either someone stumbled across and is using... or someone who already knew about it, like a developer or someone they talked to, is using it as a hiding place."

    Mizuki adds, "Either way, the presence of the only non-physics-interactable objects we've seen in the game so far is notably weird. Uh, the random rocks and bits of driftwood and stuff nearby were /also/ immortal objects. Not sure what purpose that serves."

    Wisteria shrugs a bit "Duno computer stuff is your job Mizuki-chi, I know how swords and armor and stuff work."

"Aesthetic, probably. Things like that tend to be hand-crafted rather than procedurally generated," muses Jazz, drumming her fingers across the table top.

"Perhaps have someone watch from a distance." She shrugs.

    Mizuki smiles a bit at Wis pointing out that computer knowledge might be good for something! And Jazz points out the obvious answer. "Yeah, that really seems like a good idea, but nobody wants to do it. Everyone who went to investigate were gamers who get bored easily, and if we get bored we're gonna start missing things or fall asleep. Maybe we coulda paid someone else to do it, though. Thaaaat will definitely be on the to-do list for next visit."

"...so find some people who can hold a proper stake out," suggests Jazz, "and do it from appropriate distance." She makes a face. It's cute.

    Mizuki sighs. "Yeah, but before I could think of that, Kite started talking about how we're probably not in our bodies anymore and I got distracted and then the boat we were on was headed back to Aincrad Isle. We'll do it next time."

    Beat.

    "...So why do you need so many drawings of astrolabes, anyway?"

    Wistiera just watches, she really does seem tired and disheveled compaired to usual, but she had to put her new sword through it's paces now didn't she?

'...not in our bodies," mutters Jazz, annoyed. "I suppose it's possible. I doubt it, but then, I would have doubted I'd spend a month and a half like this too." A grimace twists her expression and then she sighs.

"Giganor asked for extra copies."

    Mizuki nods. "Kite didn't say exactly why he thinks that, it's... tied up in what happened to his and Balmung's friend in Fragment. But that'd be why their friend was left in a coma." She taps her head, somberly. "No one home..."

    She looks down at the table. "Although there are still countless possibilities, it's /one/ explanation for why we haven't woken up to people pulling our dive gears off."

    "He didn't want to talk too much about what happened, and it segued into a discussion about how we're not so different from the Landers, if we all exist inside some computer now."

    Mizuki looks back up at Jazz. "So yeah, by the time the idea of hiring someone else to do it came up, the boat was well out to sea."

    Wist might be asleep it's hard to tell, her eyes are close and she's just being propped up by a Mizuki so anything is possible really.

"Well, it's an immortal cliff. It's not going somwhere. Send someone not distracted by laser pointers."

...she may be making marginal fun of Mizuki again.

    "Uuuuuuuugh." Mizuki groans, throwing up her hands then laying them and her head on the table, but seems to be taking it good-naturedly this time. Then she carefully gets out of the chair while supporting Wis if need be. "Well. It was good talking to ya, Jazz." She looks at the Undine. "...And it really is good to see you working on the star stuff again. Keep me posted!" She starts leading the not-currently-a-bun to the door. "Wis and I should get back to the castle, it's getting late."

    She stops for a moment. "Oh my god we live in a castle. HOW COOL IS THAT?!"

    She turns and waves, "See ya, Jazz!" before continuing heading to the door.

"Have fun storming the castle, then," says Jazz, looking back down at her parchment.

    Wisteria jumps looks around "Wha who where?" she has her katana in her hands and looking around for where the attack is coming from... of course it's just Miz saying it's time to go ACTUALLY sleep and not just doze off on friends

    Mizuki laughs at the reference! "We will!" She keeps walking. THAT'S TEN WORDS!