Deus Ex Machina: Broken

Though it is still morning, the pale face of the red moon stands in the distance as the team approaches the island from afar. After so much time, Jazuhanzu has finally found what she's been looking for, along Mifa.

The Queen of the Zorah Kingdom points at it from the bow of the ship as they get close enough that they can see it more accurately without using any kind of binoculars or spyglasses. Though being this close, they start noticing other things as well.

At the center of the island stand multiple ruins. Stone buildings, most of which are so overgrown, it is hard to tell what state they truly are in. Then, at the top of a small hill mountain, what looks like a shrine. It's too hard to tell at this distance.

But most notable... are the craters. Enormous craters, each the size of a baseball field, dipping deep into the earth. It looks like the site of some kind of cataclysmic event!

Getting closer, longboats are deployed, sending people to the beaches. Pale white beachheads awaiting them - with greenery further inland.

While exploration is something that always sparks Mikage's interest, there is one thing that certainly does put a damper on it for her: boats. The Were Fang is hunkered down against the side of the ship, with a slightly green cast to her usually pale complection. She does not do well with long voyages over the open ocean and Cyrus had yet to finish creating anti-sea-sickness potions.

It is almost a relief when they spot dry land. Even aboard the longboats, she still looks as if she get sick again at any moment. It isn't until they actually pull to the shore that she flops down onto the white stand beach, seeming to relish in the fact that they are finally on solid ground.

Rama circles around her, clearly not as effected by things as his master. "I'll... be right with you guys. Just... give my stomach a few minutes." Miki just sprawls out, starfish style, taking a few deep breaths.

Jazz doesn't feel the same palpable sense of relief this time that she did previously but she's definitely staring off into the horizon. Why, as soon as the island was in view, she had her spyglass out to stare through.

As she reaches the beach at last, she gestures vaguely forward.

"Behold, Tsushima, I suppose." While she does not sound overly excited, it is hard to miss the little twitches that her tentacles give.

    "At least we're not Russian," the young bard remarks. She's spent most of the voyage working, helping the crew, but as the ship approached the destination she's torn herself away from the 'fun' to rejoin the other adventurers. "That might end up with us being mildly embarassed."

A sharp whistle comes from the wolfgirl leaning precariously on the edge of the deck as Shiruba eyes the approaching island. "Those are pretty big craters if we can see them from here!" Her tail continues to flick back and forth, partially in keeping her balance and in part just her general excitement in being on this expedition. Seeing massive holes in the ground from some unknown event doesn't dampen that excitement any.

If anything she's even more determined to get out there and see this place for herself. Craters and ruins and who knows what else long forgotten mysteries await them!

When word is given to head for the shore she eagerly climbs down into one of the longboats. This is the sort of adventure she needs after all the doom and gloom and chaos that's been going on lately... Though those events have tempered her enough to not throw caution to the wind, and once on the longboat she takes point at the front with her bow out and ready just in case they get any unfriendly welcomes on the shore, being the first to step off once they reach the sandy coastline. It -looks- unoccupied from here, but who knows what monsters might be lurking.

She snickers a little at Jazu's nearly deadpan remark. Those tentacles are about as much of a giveaway to deeper emotions as her tail is.

    It was certainly concerning, the state Jazz went into. Mizuki was not a healer, and she had other duties helping climb the tower; so she's only been around part of the time, keeping monsters of Jazz, and seemingly never when anything exciting happened... until now. Fortunately Jazz had other friends to help her too.

    An island that noone's been to since the Apocalypse. Was it even there BEFORE the apocalypse? This... this sounds exciting, both to Mizuki's natural curiousity and the part of her searching for clues about their situation.

    "Congratulations, Jazz! ...So, ancient ruins. I wonder who made them? In lore, I mean. The alvs, perhaps, or some other ancient society?"

    "Multiple craters... Meteor strikes? Bombs? Magic attacks? A lot of little -- well, relatively speaking -- events, rather than one big one. I wonder what the significance of that is? Probably not a bomb, then... but if it's magic, I have no idea whether magic spells are more efficient at making one big boom or a lot of little ones..."

    As they reach the beach, she looks for footprints, tracks, and other signs of inhabitants. Sniffing, too, if the beach isn't upwind. "I don't see any smoke yet. If anyone lives here... well, maybe they're just not cooking right now. Or perhaps magitech in the ruins still functions. Of course, there could still be undead and constructs..."

Gwen was excited for this trip not only her Patreon was on this trip, but so was Shiruba, Jaz and Mikage. She has been somewhat cool to Mizuki as of later but shed wasn't hostile at all. She takes a look at the island and the ruins. "What kind of artillery was being thrown around there? Anything short of a tac nuke..."

Strange Gwen seems to have some passing familiarity with large weapons odd there. Soon the party is on the beach and Gwen notes "Don't worry I bouche beach outfits for everyone later!"

She made outfits for this already?

She'll be on the beach soon and just seem to be bouncing around while she waits for everyone to recover.

"Shiruba this will be like the time we went camping in the mountains!"

She'll look to Jaz for a moment.

"This is one hell of a discovery you made here, but it's up to you if it gets out, right? Don't want to get it stripped clean..."

Once on the island, things are pretty quiet. There's a few birds that fly overhead, and there's a few Grunties that peek their heads out from behind a few bushes. The Island itself is not abandoned, but it's clear that aside from plantlife and some animals, it isn't extremely populated.

But then, it /is/ a large island. It'd take multiple hours just to talk from one side to the other. So perhaps there is more to see here in the forests and fields that surround the island itself.

One of the bird makes a caw-sound and drops its droppings towards some of those passing through, as if trying to ward them off. Best hope Mikage is not at center target.

Mizuki's search reveals no recent sign of inhabitants. No people-tracks anyhow, though there are the obvious grunty tracks. One of them even comes out from the forest, confused at the presence of people, and ends up kind of... walking into Mizuki and continues walking in place while pushing against them. Not really trying to push them away. But more like... being a dumb grunty. Walking into things is just something they do.

Everyone on the beach, Mifa steps forward, smiling at Jazuhanzu. "Come on. You discovered this. Let's find out what is here!" The Undine excitedly demands - glad to be away from some of her people. And tries to grab her by the hand and drag her off towards the Ruins!

The walk to the ruins themselves is not a short trek. A good half hour to an hour passes from where they landed before they reach the bottom of the hill and begin to climb. The structures are akin to stone temples and wooden houses. All of them heavily overgrown. There's the occassional insect monster that tries to bother people - but with the team together, they are hardly any danger to them.

Further up the hill stands the only complete shrine still, with Japanese Torii leading up towards it - the shrine itself atop a small cave and looking like one would expect from... well... a small Japanese shrine. People of course have a chance to check inside some of the homes and Temples as well.

There's just a soft exasperated sigh from Shiruba when Gwen mentions she has beach outfits at the ready. It's more a sigh of expectation and acceptance it was going to happen than anything else.

She gives Mizuki a pat on the shoulder after she's become a grunty stop. "Looks like you made a new friend already," she teases lightly.

But onward to exploration!

The journey to the ruins isn't rough but just long. Once they're amongst the remains of buildings though Shiruba gets right down to her own exploration efforts, trying to examine the buildings and find windows or doorways to glance through. Igniting a fire arrow in her hand like a torch is enough to ward most bugs away while doing so.

She's mainly looking for any signs or hints of what kind of people lived here at one point, without dragging behind the group likely heading mainly towards the shrine in the distance.

It doesn't take too long for Mikage to recover from the sea-sickness now that she is on solid ground. The Were Fang pushes herself up to her feet, dusting a bit of the sand off of her trousers and then reaching out to ruffle Rama's ears. "I'm fine." She answers the lynx's concern as she stands up, finally taking a look around at the island. That is when the bird drops a foul bomb where she had just been laying. "Right... we should move."

The others have already had some time to survey their surroundings, but she lets out a low whistle at the sight. Overgrown ruins, craters, and no immediate signs of habitation is enough to spark her curiousity. The Ranger approaches the others, Mizuki's analysis met with a nod of her head, "Hopefully we'll be able to scout most of the island, if we're given enough time." It is quite a bit smaller than the isle of beginnings, so given a couple of days, they might be able to see most of what this place has to offer.

As she follows the others on the trek into the unknown, Rama runs ahead, sniffing around at the new environment. At one point, the lynx gets distracted by something in one of the buildings, causing Miki to have to break off from the others, "Just a second. Rama scents something." In a place like this, it could be anything drawing his attention, but she peeks into the building behind him, "Come on, we don't want to get left behind."

    "Um. Nice grunty." Mizuki pets it halfheartedly. This is exploration time, not cuddling cute animals time! As the rest of the group starts to pass her she tries to step around it and move on.

    Closer to the Apocalypse she'd have commented on how different walking through nature is in here than out there, but she's said all there is to say about that, and after over four months in here she has simply become accustomed to travelling long distances on foot.

    After the encounter with agressive insects, she comments "Well, now we know the zone isn't necessarily peaceful..."

    And then they reach the ruins. "Huh. There's an awful lot that isn't destroyed. What killed all the people? Where are the corpses? ...Oh, right. I guess a disease or curse could've killed them without damaging the structures... I guess they could've starved, if all these plants grew after... Or they left, for some reason."

    They come to an intact japanese shrine complete with torii. "Well, I guess that ties this place to the same culture that built these elsewhere in Yamato."

    She turns towards the most intact, sturdiest-looking building she can find. "Well... I'm no archaologist, but maybe taking a look around inside these houses will tell us something about the people who lived there? I mean, I guess they're close to human since these are recognizeably houses, but... maybe we'll even find a statue or something? If it's not all eroded away. 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings...' Ooh, maybe there'll be WRITING? Or magic runes or something. That could be a clue..." She moves in to explore the buildings.

"I just helped point the way," replies Jazz, spyglass and astrolabe put away for now. "It doesn't belong to me in any way. And what sort of word gets out about it is entirely up to Mifa here." A gesture toward the Lander. Indeed, Jazz seems deferential to them on the matter, "... which does remind me, I'd been meaning to ask what your intentions actually are, Mifa? Does the Fourlands, or even just the Zorah clan, intend to claim the island?" There's no issue with that suggested by her tone, it'd appear, and then she's glancing back towards Mikage, "Hmm?"

As Shiruba peeks into one of the many homes with her flaming arrow, she finds more plant growth. What does remain is pretty low tech, but the benches and the like which poke out here and there are clearly made for people of... well... their size. There's nothing particularly high magic or high tech to suggest this was once Alven - such as the Root Cities.

What Rama has picked up is something in particular though. A spot where they'd just been, Mikage will spot a splash of rainbow-like black liquid.

Mizuki's search for writing unfortunately does not reveal much. She might remember that the invention of writing is 'semi recent' for the Yamato region however, which does help her possibly date this place!

The Undine looks at Jazuhanzu as they carry along. "No, this is yours now." She declares to her. "If you will permit us to set up a trading outpost here eventually." The sly Queen grins at Jazuhanzu, letting her make her own assumptions based on that commentary.

    Miyako is clearly enjoying herself, grinning as she runs from one thing to the next, eager to see everything she can. She pokes her head into each of the houses she passes, taking time when needed to stab a monster or two. "Looks like families just... up and walked away," she muses. She doesn't disturb anything in them, simply looking, and then withdrawing. "No writing yet, though, not that I've seen." She's somewhat disappointed at the lack of books, but isn't too surprised by it. "How long did you say this place has been empty?"

Gwen will cast a light spell as she too starts to go searching in the homes with Shirba trying to help her with looking for things.

"I wonder what the people who lived here were like Shiruba as she too starts trying to seek out things maybe they can find something useful here as she seeks out any signs of useful items that might help them identify the people who live here. Maybe there are tools or other items that might give her a hint.

    Mizuki loots some chopsticks which might be of interest to archaeologists later. "I guess this is recent enough that the wood hasn't rotted... or maybe they used enchanted or treated wood or something..." She considers a damaged goddess statue. "Is it hidden because this religion was outlawed? Or perhaps religious artifacts were targeted in... whatever happened. Perhaps this statue isn't even FROM here, but from a settlement that got blown up? Brought here by the survivors..."

    She heads back outside to tell the others, but then stops just short of the door and slaps her forehead with the heel of her hand. She got so into playing archaeologist she stopped thinking of it as a GAME. But it is, which means she has access to GAME MECHANICS.

    She starts trying to identify the chopsticks, the statue, the walls, anything the skill will work on, to see if she can tease a lore drop out of the game!

    No lore drop. Damn, she felt clever thinking of that.

    Still, Mizuki can meet with the others to relay her findings and theories, noting her observation about the Integrity as well.

    "Man. I bet actual archaologists in this world can date stuff by integrity loss like how we use carbon dating... 'Yep, it's lost 90 percent integrity, this is consistant with a structure about 300 years old...' It's like that scene in Order of the Stick where the Cliffport PD are analyzing a murder victim all 'well, it looks like he was killed by a weapon with a d8 damage die' 'run some more tests and see if you can narrow down the critical threat range.'" She smiles at the memory of when webcomics were a thing, and then she's sad because they're not anymore.

Shiruba chuckles a little at Mizuki. "Something like that to a degree, yes. If you know how long it takes something to wear down in the environment, you can." She pats the side of one of the buildings. "These structures are pretty common looking. No signs of anything of 'lost advancement' that would suggest they were used by the Alven... but that raises the question of why normal Landers would live this far away from general society... Or draw whatever attention made those craters."

"Mifa," says Jazz, giving her a side-eye.

Still, she's going to poke around herself. Turn over rocks. Make notes on parchment. Yes, she's already mapping what they can see. Would anyone have expected anything different from her?

"300 years, huh? Not as old as I thought it might be, but that's hardly surprising. There's a lot we don't know about even the most 'recent' past of the world. It doesn't take long for things to fall dwon the memory hole." She bends down and picks up a bit of debris, turning it over in her hand.

She stops by one of the rubbled buildings herself, leaning into it to have a look before turning her attention back up to the shrine. It's the center of her interest, it would appear, and she's drawing closer to it.

The same thing that caught Rama's attention draws Mikage's as she peers at the strange splash of unusual liquid. Not wanting to touch it, she takes out a dagger and lightly tries to scrape some of it free to get a closer look. She sniffs at it, but beyond that, she doesn't have the skills to really examine it more closely.

"I've... got something here, but I'm not entirely sure what it is." She calls out, moving out of the building with the small scraped off blob of strange liquid still sitting on the edge of her dagger.

    Mizuki double-takes at Jazz. "No, that was like, an example! I have no idea how old this place is, although I notice there's no writing."

"Huh?" Shiruba turns around at Mikage's remark, and walks over to take a look for herself. "Interesting..."

Examing the black glob on Mikage's knife does have her looking away from Jazu wandering onward towards the temple though. Surely nothing bad will come of that...

    Once Mikage brings forth the strange oil, Mizuki tries to Identify it. She's not expecting anything at this point, she's just going to rub the 'Appraise' button on everything now to see what she gets.

    But then her eyes widen. "Synthetic oil?! That's advanced technology! Well, nearly modern, for us. Where did you find this?!" When prodded, she'll remember to read aloud the whole description: "High Performance Synthetic Oil. Regenerative qualities."

Gwen has some actual luck finding things she finds some bowls, both metal and wooden chopsticks which she'll stash in her inventory to give to Jaz later but when she finds something over one of the houses. She'll message Jaz and the rest of the party over. <<I found a carving of a Leviathan!>>

When anyone checks it out they would find a carving of an enormous Leviathan looming over the houses, bowing his head towards the Shrine above, and some kind of angel touching its maw.

"Yeah, that's an odd thing to find here. Something like oil is out of place with the basic appearance of the buildings."

And then Gwen has something else of interest. "Oooh!" Shiruba quickly hustles to join her friend at the carving. "That's impressive for the size of it. Why is it pointed at temple thou--is that what attacked here?! Or maybe the craters are from whatever fought it off!"

Shiruba and Mizuki end up checking out the curious black oil Mikage has found, while Jazuhanzu approaches the shrine. There's a strange whirring sound that sounds from within the cave for a moment, as fading lights start to rise in brightness.

"E-E-E-error. Hostile detected?" It's a female voice, and they seem alerted. "Lösen: Ender Apokryphen!" Followed by a sudden Golden Beam that flares from the cave entrance straight down - just above the buildings! Jazuhanzu manages to get out of the way just in time.

Those behind her get to watch, as the impact point far along the beach - almost on the opposite side of the island, suddenly detonates. A crater, easily the size of a baseball field suddenly forms as an enormous dome-like zone of eradication forms - melting the sands into glass and annihilating any plant life and animals that might have been there...

"E-E-E-E-E-E-ERROR... Hostile Confirmation?" What stumbles out of the cave is something... horrifying to look at for some. It's a girl, perhaps sixteen years of age. There's clothing, but it's all tattered and... barely clothing. Her left arm is missing, and sparking - with cables coming out of her shoulder. Her ears are these strange 'triangles', and there's a unique 'circle' on her purple hair that looks more mechanical than anything.

Her left leg is missing, and with her weapon lowered, she is now using it to slowly move forward - as if it were a walking stick. Her face is half melted on one side, and her eye and face are clearly mechanical.

It looks like a doll, more than a human. Everything has smooth curves, and gives this 'uncanny valley' look with how worn it is.

<< Uber Cluster Zwei Null Sieben Peh Err Vier Acht Neun Teh Neun >>

It carries the typical icons for Monster. She... it? - the thing has 10 health bars, but is down to its very last one, and it's in the red. Still, it is of Black danger difficulty.

    Miyako blinks and lifts her head to look at Mizuki and Mikage, surprise clear on her face as she abandons the house she was examining. "Wait, what? Oil?" That doesn't make much sense to her at all. Unless something *quite odd* is going on.

    "I really need to pick up that Skill at some point," she mutters, trying to dredge up what memories she can of synthetic oil from the 'real' world. Not much comes up, and it's all forgotten when she hears the explosion. "Ohboy." A magical blast? Or... oh great. The image of a mechanical squid hits her memory like a fist to the face, and all makes some vague kind of sense. "There's an old saying that comes to mind right now," she says as she looks up to find the source of the blast. "Do not call up that which you cannot put down."

"Leviathins? That checks out. You know, I had wondered if that might've been why --" and then she's cut off because she has *got* to dive. She does. She dives out of the way of the golden beam that comes straight at her, skirts poofing and frills everywhere! "GWAH," she yelps.

Cutely.

"The hell?!"

She scrambles back to her feet as quickly as she can, trying to run for some kind of cover she can peek back around.

"...it's ... a girl ... robot ... thing?" she says, sounding a little confused.

"When did we start playing Phantasy Star? Though I suppose it goes with the oil." There's a pause and she leans out a little more. Leave it to Jazz to try talking first.

"We're friends, not foe! NOT hostile! NOT hostile!"

"There's a splatter of it just over here. Rama caught scent of it." Mikage explains, motioning back into the building she had come from. "Why would something like that be here of all places?" Confusion is written on her features.

That is, until the beam of light and the explosion that follows has her nearly leaping out of her skin. Rama moves to hide behind her legs, ears flattened back, his bob tail puffed up.

The oil is forgotten about, for now, as she breaks into a run, rushing to try to figure out the source of the attack. Her first thought comes out as a whisper, "An Angel?" There are elements of the robots appearance that strike that familiarity to Mikage. The slightly inhuman look, the cables coming out of her, the strange triangles, there were angels that looked like that...

Raising her hands in a show of peace, the Ranger takes only a few slow steps closer to Jazuhanzu, trying to get a better look at the creature. With a weapon like that, fighting it seemed like a poor choice. "Has anyone... seen something like this before in the game?" She asks, keeping her voice quiet.

    "Not just oil. /Synthetic/ oil." Mizuki repeats.

    And then... Jazz awakens a local construct. The existence of constructs was expected, so when Mizuki's ears perk up at the words 'Error, hostile detected' she's imagining a golem or something, ready to fight...

    But no. This is not only clearly a robotic android, it's far more powerful than she ever expected.

    At least one mystery is solved, though: Now they know where the craters came from.

    Well, shit. They clearly can't fight it. They may not even be able to /escape/ it. Which leaves...

    "Wait wait wait wait wait!" Mizuki shouts, waving her arms. "We're not hostiles! Umm... run diagnostic! System override! Emergency shutdown! Can we talk about this? Enter talk mode! They made you look like a person so you're not just for blowing shit up, right?!"

    "We've seen mechanicals before," Miyako says to Mikage. "But humanoids like this?" She shakes her head. "Nothing that I've heard of. And those health bars... what the absolute heck?" She remains somewhat quiet, hoping not to attract the guard's attention while the others try to talk it down.

If there's one thing to get even an Archeologist's attention away from fascinating ruins its the *SHOOP-DA-WHOOP* beam firing over their heads. Reflexively Shiruba ducks some and, even at the distance from them the laser hits the beach there's enough dramatic rush in the air to make her ponytail and wolftail both flutter about wildly. Then she glances back.

".. Well, I guess that confirms the craters having been made by a defense.." Followed by turning her head to follow the path the laser(?!) took to the source emerging from the Temple. "... and the oil..." She makes a face. That's some kind of doll automaton that's now very creepy looking thanks to being all beat up.

She's moving closer, and has her weapon ready, but kept lowered in a non-aggressive manner. "Not personally," she replies to Mikage. "I would guess it's something of Alv design, that these people were using for defense... Maybe they left it here because they didn't know how to repair such a thing..."

Despite the potential danger present she's still being all explorer analytical about it. "Fascinating... Might get us all killed, but still fascinating!"

The talk of oil does get Gwen's attention, but that vanished real quick as something else is going on she can hear the voic and the golden beam does get her attention. She's scrambling away from what she's found. Then comes the crater she curse and she's already getting her weapon out, this was going to bad, very bad but what she sees is not what she was expecting.

"A kid...?!"

What the hell is this? She looks at this thing what happened to her? What damaged her?

"I swear to god if Idola or Laughture starts playing..."

If not for Jaz's call Gwen would be going into full tank mode at this point, she lowers her weapons t this point as Jaz is trying to talk it down. given the power of that blast? Gwen couldn't /tank/ that. There was a more terrifying question, what messed this girl up like this.

"Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong?"

Hey it's worth a shot.

"Designating... non-hostile. Undine have avoided the War... estimated acc-acc-accuracy - fünfundneunzig." Her machine eye whirrs and telescopes slightly, while her remarkably human eye follows along to inspect Jazuhanzu.

"Enemy power level... insignificant. Zero danger to Prüfer unit." Everything is said with slightly too much distance between each word. As if each word has its own meaning, rather than forming a proper sentence.

"Chronological Trace Synchronization... error. Prüfer requires current date."

Her head turns towards Mikage. "Were Fang Ausführung Zwei... power level, insignificant." She does raise her weapon towards Mizuki however. "Befehler not detected! Commands rejected." It seems this being does not appreciate someone telling her to do some kind of emergency shutdown.

"Prüfer unit - task, Scout." She then declares, before lowering her weapon. "Were Fang Ausführung Zwei... power level, insignificant."

"Cait Sith Ausführung Zwei... power level, insignificant." To Shiruba. Turning to Miyako; "Spriggan. Allied to the monkeys... power level, insignificant."

Gwen. "Sylph, enemy to Gnome and Flügel... this one's power level, insignificant." It then tilts its head in confusion. It doesn't even bother getting into a defensive stance. "Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong?" Pause. "... are you trying to make fun of this unit?"

Looking at those gathered here, she seems confused. "Enemies working together... what is your objective, so I can report back to Cluster once Reconnection is complete."

    Okay, that's clearly German. Mizuki doesn't know german. Well, okay, she knows zwei is two. Wait, why isn't the translation effect working? Also... the commands working was a long shot, but the fact she responded at all is interesting.

    More interesting, of course, is that she's willing to talk rather than just kill them.

    "Enemies? Look, whatever war you were fighting is long over. Just look around to see how long you've been offline..." she waves a hand at the overgrown ruins. "We don't even know who you or your masters *are*. But... perhaps we can trade information for information? There have been some... interesting developments in Yamato recently."

    "What's a flügel? And how are you reconnecting? Radio waves? Magic? Maybe we can even help you... if we can be sure you're not just going to blast us the moment you no longer need anything from us..."

Shiruba's hackles raise a little at them all being called 'insignificant', but she refrains herself. Compared to what they just saw this being do despite it's delapitated state, and it's Black threat level, in comparison to itself the assessment is probably accurate...

Wait, what? "... Enemies working together," Shiruba repeats under her breath. "Is this entity from before one of the massive wars in-theme, then? That would make it..."

She actually has to stop talking to focus on doing the math in her head. Finally just supplies "Really, REALLY old," in order to not confuse anyone.

She doesn't seem all that surprised that it's using German words.

When she's delcared insignificant, Jazz just snorts.

"Tell me something I don't know," she retorts, dryly. "We're not enemies and there's no war. I suspect you're long past when it ended. This location has been lost for hundreds of years, at least." Slowly, she begins to emerge from hiding, keeping her hands up, now, both in a sign of surrender to superior firepower, but also to show she means no harm. "I'm Jazz. These are my friends," she indicates each of them in turn, offering their names, when they're in view. "We're explorers. We heard there was a lost structure here and we thought we'd come explore but this is not what we expected to find." She's just gonna go ahead and treat it like a person. "You're badly hurt and I'm not sure that we'd know how to help you... but would you be okay with telling us what happened here? You must have questions too."

She offers a disarming smile.

It just makes her look even more unbearably twee.

    Being called 'insignificant' doesn't bother Miyako that much. She's used to being ignored or dismissed. It's why she chose Bard, not just because of the music - which was a big deal for her - but to get the attention. "Monkeys?" The other part of the dismissal, she isn't so fond of. "THESE are my allies," she says, waving her hand at the people around her. "I don't see any monkeys here. I don't see anyone's enemies."

Though Mikage doesn't understand a word of german, she has, at least, heard the language before. "German?" She asks, looking uncertain. "It feels like ages since I've heard another language spoken in Elder Tale." Not since the Apocalypse...

She can't help but raise an eyebrow at the appraisal from the robot, but if the power level reading on it is correct, it isn't far from the truth. "We're not enemies. We're allies, friends." Miki attempts to explain, even as Rama peeks out from behind her legs, the cat obviously still unsettled.

Shiruba's comment about the history of the game Miki nods along with it. While she wanted to learn more about the game and its history, a good amount of the lore always seemed out of reach. "Certainly from before we got here..."

Trying to keep her voice calm, despite the fact that the whole situation feels dangerous, she offers, "Is there anything we can do to help you? You are damaged. We can try to help?"

Gwen says "It was a universal greeting where I'm from! I wasn't sure what to say! I was not trying to make fun of you, I mean no insult."

She pauses making notes of what the strange girl is saying to them. Wait wasn't this some of the game's lore? The races were at war at one point were they not?

"We were exploring...."

She notes looking to them for a moment. "So you were a scout for this cluster? From that shot, you fired? You are powerful, what ... hurt you like this?"

What could hurt something like this, nearly dead Gwen could guess she could wipe out a good chunk of a Raid if not entirely.

Gwen will also inspect on the strange girl her when she has a second maybe she can get a bit more information on that.

"I'm Gwen Pendragon, we're an adventuring party. Yes you seem to be in pretty rough shape..."

"War... over? No... war ended in World Fraction." The Machina answers. "... synchronization error." She then repeats. "Current date requested." Her head turns towards Mikage for a moment, then the Spriggan, before it returns back ot Mizuki. Her eyes flickering, lacking proper power it almost seems.

The Machina collapses down to her feet, sparks flying. "Lowering Power Drain. Disengaging Combat Form." As a hologram-like effect flares over her weapon arm and turns it into a proper doll like hand, and some of the lights that are flaring around her disengage.

Kneeling on the ground, she looks almost pitiful, this damaged. Looking up at them all. "Cluster connection is Cluster Connection." She simply answers. "Flügel are Flügel. Children of Artosh."

Looking to Jazuhanzu, she simply answers; "Leviathan." A single word. And for many, that is enough to understand what happened here. "Something you do not know..." Pause. "The monkeys are going to eradicate the world." Her left eye twitches as she says this, and it's quiet enough that they can hear the 'clicking' of the devices that help close that eye.

"... error. These races are enemies. Ability to ally... null." The Prüfer unit declares. "... this Prüfer unit requires reconnection to Cluster. Requires repair." It raises its arm a bit - hand touching the round device there. "Require Red Disk or compatible device."

"Adventuring party..." It then repeats. "No adventuring parties have been launched since the erradication of the Hunters Guild by the Flügel. E-E-ERROR."

    Mizuki did feel a slight sting at being called insignificant but she's not in a position to argue it. She whistles as that arm transforms. This tech is crazy advanced... oh right, it's a game, so it can be like whatever the devs made up. Still...

    Artosh? She looks hopefully at Jazz to see if she's heard the name before.

    "Well, whoever the monkeys are, the world is clearly still here. Why would you want to eradicate the Hunter's Guild?" She scratches her head. "We may LOOK like various species, but... hmm. Do the words I'm saying stop making sense if I start talking about players and non-player characters and levels and XP?"

"I'm afraid we do know. The Leviathins have been running rampant for some time." Jazz answers, putting a hand to the back of her head. "May I approach you?" she asks, seeking permission. She isn't going to do anything that the Doll doesn't want her to do, of course. "Red Disk. Okay. I'm gonna guess that's not something we can find around here on the island, eh?" She glances towards the others. "Apparently, there's a new Hunter's Guild?" she offers, "so Adventurers are definitely a thing. I'm one of them. So are my friends here, except for Mifa and her crew." She gestures over her shoulder. "They're good people. We'd definitely like to help you and find out more about what happened here, and happened to you." She shakes her head at Mizuki. Artosh is a new one on her.

    "*Races* are not allies or enemies," Miyako insists, a moment of stubbornness suddenly striking her. "*People* are. Like me. I *choose* to be a friend to these people, and they have chosen the same. No 'monkey' gets to tell me otherwise." She crosses her arms over her chest and hmphs softly. "The people who put you here may have thought differently, but it's clear that they were not infallible. Faulty premises leads to faulty assumptions leads to faulty data."

Leviathan. Like the carving depicted... So this doll Machina was the 'angel' in the artwork? Shiruba wishes she'd gotten more time to look at it now. And monkeys? Who does she mean by monkeys? Is that some rude nickname for humans or something?

"Times change. So do people. So do their nations," Shiruba remarks. Tilts her head, raises a brow as the chatter from the now powered-down doll continues. Several thoughts turn in her mind as she considers. Could be dangerous... but could also be something that could help them get cooperation out of this unit and find out more... but still dangerous...

But in the end, as an explorer, curiousity tends to win out.

"Do you mean," Shiruba takes out her 'Red Disk' relic and holds it up, "something like this?" She has to know if there's some sort of connection here.

For as much as she is part wolf, her curiousity could put the proverbial cats to shame.

"Uh..." Mikage raises a hand and begins swiping through menus, trying to remember where it is that she can look up the current date and time in Yamato. It isn't something she regularly uses, "May 13th, the year 400." She says, blinking and then swiping her hand again to dismiss the window.

She looks around at each of the others before back to the machine, though there is a sense of relief when the being seems to stand down and no longer consider them an active threat. "I don't know anything about a erradication of the Hunters Guild in the past... but I think most everyone here is part of the current one."

Confusion remains lingering there as Mikage crouches, trying to calm Rama after the loud explosion. Her hand moves over the lynx's back. "If Levithans are the cause of the damage to your systems... why are they attacking you? Is there something on this island you're protecting?"

Gwen says "The guild exists now and is active. We're all ranked within the Hunter's Guild." Gwen notes for a moment she pauses though at a moment as she looks at the strange girl.

"World Fraction? Curious I know that term before, what number was it and just what is a world Fraction? As for the date? It's Monday, May the 13th year 400. I am also an Adventurer as well and she nods.

"Levithan's are horrors. Monkeys? Who are the monkeys? ... Is that a term for ... humans?"

She looks at the robot girl for a moment curious about it.

Mizuki's words indeed just kind of go in one ear, out the other. The Machina doesn't even pay attention to her at all. "Designation - Adventurer... Unknown." The Prüfer unit notes. It then looks towards Jazuhanzu. "Approach - verboten. Trust - low." The Prüfer notes.

It then looks towards Miyako. "Incomprehensible. You are Spriggan. Ally to Monkeys. Recent date... incorrect?" The Prüfer asks, confused... before its eyes widen at what Shiruba is holding.

"Red Disk... examining..." A sudden holographic light overcomes it, originating from her robotic eye. "Origin... Crystal Tower Rebellion. Date... incorrect." It notes, as she holds out her hand and tries to get up onto her one leg, shaking and trembling. "You will give the Red Disk, and I will not annihilate you." She promises.

Then, Mikage finally gives the date. "... incorrect. It is... 1400 After Scrapped Princess War. Synchronization... fail." A few sparks fly at her head, causing her body to jerk. It however does answer...

"Protect... shrine. Error injected 900 After Scrapped Princess war by Prüfer unit - Uber Cluster Zwei Null Sieben Peh Err Vier Funf Sieben Teh Neun. Personality Algorithm changed. Monkey child... asked this of me."

It then looks to Gwen. "What is... 'Human'?" Its head tilts.

Then...

"World Fraction designation - Zero."

"...scrapped princesses. I remember reading about that in the game lore Benji showed me somewhere..." Jazz puts a finger against her lips. She still doesn't know a lot about ETO history, after all, but she's learning. "... go ahead," she tells Shiruba, "Now that you've played the hand, I don't see as how we've any choice but to go forward with it." She tips her hat in her direction before her gaze swings back around towards the Doll.

"It's been a while but I think you'll find a lot has changed while you've been protecting the island. What do you know about the Leviathins?" she asks, "...and what's a world fraction, anyway? I know I've heard THAT before too. She turns towards Gwen, then says to the doll, "People've been trying to figure that one out for ages. We'll let you know when we've got the answer."

    Okay. It still ignores those words like other NPCs. This may be weird, but it's still within the 'game'.

    Mizuki's not sure which outcome she prefers...

    She stares at Shiruba when she produces a 'red disk'. "Where did you get that?!"

    She looks back to the robot girl -- the 'Prüfer unit' -- "Is that your designation? Uber cluster zwei null... the rest of it? If the monkeys are your enemies, why did you take orders from a monkey child?"

    "You know, human? They look kinda like all the other races, but without any wings or long ears or -- oh wait." She detransforms. "You know, like this?"

'Crystal Tower Rebellion'? So many new unanswered questions, but even unknowns are bits of useful information. It's how you know where to look for answers eventually.

"Promise not to annihilate us, good." As a Guild Leader she feels like it is part of her duty to ensure the party is safe, so if this keeps the damaged doll from Party Wiping them all, that's a good thing. Shiruba holds the Red Disk Relic over for the machina to take. Maybe it will help stablize her enough she can give some more concrete answers.. Though right now, just making sure they're not all blown up is good.

"I've.. had it?" She replies to Mizuki with a shrug. "As an explorer I pick up a lot of things, I couldn't tell you specifically on half of them if I tried, ahaha."

    Mizuki hmms. "Have you fully appraised it? If not, could I try to identify it before you hand it over? It might tell us something useful."

    -So- many hints, so many tidbits. 'Scrapped Princesses' Miyako remembers reading about in the game lore. Some sort of ancient war. 'Crystal Tower'. That one she hasn't heard before. "Jazz is right. It's been centuries. Things change. Alliances change. People change." She shakes her head, unsure why she's still arguing it, except out of sheer stubbornness. Which isn't exactly a bad thing. "My /name/ is Miyako. That's who I am. Not 'spriggan'."

"I mean, dating systems change over time. It's possible that this is the year 400 based on some event in the past." It's the only guess that Mikage can come up with. In the real world, there were a number of different year structures depending on where in the world you were and what major event you wanted to base your counting on.

"She knows what Were Fangs are, but... not what humans are?" That certainly seems strange, because to all the limited knowledge that Mikage has, Were Fangs were created from humans, weren't they?

Her eyes flick over towards Shiruba, lookng at the strange artifact that she seems to have in her posession. Many people had artifacts which remained with them during the Apocalypse, but this one clearly has some kind of connection.

"Can you tell us what is so important about this shrine that you were placed here to protect it? Why would the Leviathans threaten it?" There is a lot of information missing, and the German rambling isn't helping...

Gwen looks to Shiruba for a moment it's her friend's call about the item she's asking for. She takes a moment and she pauses at it. "Take it easy I think the network is down at this point. If it still exists it's offline or your hardware to connect is not functional. As for a moment, it takes Gwen a moment to puzzle out. She knows the term Scraped PRincess though and that's fairly serious at this point.

"The name of my Tapesity is the fourth world fraction."

She notes to her friend and doesn't say more on that, she wonders for a moment about it and then turns back to the girl.

"That is question that has been asked for a very long time, by many people I admit. So just what were the Monkey's doing to destroy the world?"

"It's some manner of scanning device," Shiruba replies to Mizuki. "It highlighted an area in a manner that made it easier for me to find details with my tracking skills." She smiles. "It's okay. Knowing it has a connection like this, and can ensure our safety, I don't mind letting her utilize it."

"World Fraction definition - Fractioning of the Law of Alba and a change of...." A zap at her head, causing her to quiet as she tries to express that. She looks to Jazuhanzu, while attempting to approach Shiruba.

"Designation: Uber Cluster Zwei Null Sieben Peh Err Vier Acht Neun Teh Neun." A pause, before she proceeds; "I can not speak of our aid to the Monkeys. The Six Laws demand it." The woman then tilts her head. "You are still Were Fang Ausführung Zwei. Those who look like you... monkeys. They have no name. Nameless. Null. Irrelevant. Weak."

She then looks to Miyako. "Designation... Spriggan - Miyako."

The girl turns around. "The shrine... the Elder said it is here to ward off omens. Once, it was the port between Yamato and the Land of Dragons. But the Leviathan attacked. The Shrine is damaged... because of my arrival." She turns back to Mikage. "I promised that little girl, I would protect them."

A pause.

"Mission... fail. Leviathan is überlegener Feind."

She finally reaches out to the Red Disk, taking it into her hair - removing the broken wheel at the top of her head, and laying in the red device. It immediately locks into place with this incredibly satisfying 'click' - and a radial light glows from it. Her eyes immediately roll up into their sockets.

"DESIGNATION: Uber Cluster Zwei Null Sieben Peh Err Vier Acht Neun Teh Neun. REQUEST: Reconnect to Hive Cluster." A blue line suddenly seems to spring from that position, thin as a laserpointer's beam, turning, and aiming at the moons in the far distance - pale as they may be at the moment.

Her head twitches in that creepy doll like manner. "STARTING DOWNLOAD... SYNCHRONIZATION..."

Another spark.

As it falls to the ground, suddenly looking hopeless. "Year... 400 After Princess War. RECONNECT... denied. Unit rejected. Too many anomalies detected."

As those who inspect her, will note an icon appear next to the various monster icons.

An I.

She doesn't answer Gwen's question at that moment, as she seems to fall quiet for a bit.

Shiruba steps back, letting out a soft 'ooooo' at how smoothly the device clicks into place and syncs up. This is all facinating to her, having learned what the real purpose of the device was, that she doesn't mind at all having to give it up to ensure the party's safety as well as satisfy her curiousity.

But... there seems to be nothing for the machina doll to connect to, and she collapses in... can she feel dejected? Or is it just from the lack of response, or power.

Yet, so much information is being given if you know how to listen. World Fractions.. break the Law of the world? So major events.... and if Gwen's tapestry is the Fourth, while this girl is refering to 'Zero'... this has happened... and "Land of Dragons?" Shiruba's eyes widen a little, ears perked forward with rapt attention. "What's the Land of Dragons?"

Jazuhanzu observes.

She observes quietly for a long moment. She looks ... sympathetic, to say the least. "What's that mean?" she asks of the appearing 'I'. She's still learning the various sigils and more, but she does glance over her shoulder towards the others. She kneels down on the ground and stares at the Doll.

"I get it," she murmurs.

"Too many anomalies. Yeah, who hasn't been there? We've all been rejected by the people we thought we belonged with at one time or another. I've been alone before too." She reaches out a hand but shjje doesn't get any closer. "Six laws. Sounds aasimovian. We'll respect your protocols. We'd like you to let us explore the island, if you'd let us, and maybe in time we can find out ways to help you too -- but I'd like us to be friends."

Trust Jazz to want to befriend the rejeccted and broken doll.

The realization that the monkeys mentioned /are/ humans feels as if it leaves more questions than answers. Mikage eases to her feet, lips pressed into a thin, thoughtful line. "So, this was a port between Yamato and another land." This much, seems to be straightforward.

"Can you tell us what needs to be repaired? We've got friends and allies who are skilled crafters and might be able to help both you and the shrine." Although, helping the machine-doll might be a longer shot than the shrine, at first glance. In some ways, the technology reminds her of the parts now in her inventory, from the so-called 'Elemental machines'.

The appearance of an additional icon causes her to pause, though. Miki had left the inspect open in her HUD just to track if the doll's health was impacted by their questioning. Instead, she just seems to stare at that corner of space. "Um... did anyone else spot that?" Apparently Jazz did. "She just acquired a new icon on the inspect screen." Perhaps a result of that strange connection?

    World Fractions are a change in the laws of the world? Huh.

    "Well that's rude! Humans are people the same as everyone else." Mizuki retorts, hands on hips. "If they're so irrelevant, then why do you recognize Were Fangs, who were created by humans?"

    She looks to the others. "The Land of Dragons? Is that the Chinese server, or another place from lore?" She looks back to the android. "And what's this 'Ausführung Zwei' you keep calling us mean in the common tongue?"

    And apparently, unit Uber Cluster 02-whatever is rejected by the network... and the I icon appears. "...Does that mean you're independant now? Do you still have to follow all the same orders?"

    She goes from inquisitive to concerned as the android falls silent. "Um... I guess it's a lot to deal with, making your own decisions and stuff. But... we've been doing it our whole lives, and it's pretty alright. You'll be okay." She tries to sound reassuring.

    Miyako has So. Many. Questions. And unfortunately is only likely to get the tiniest fraction of them answered today. She watches, warily, as the red disk is handed over, and the attempt at reconnection commences. Entirely possible that this will result in orders to kill them. But it doesn't. It's just... rejected. Well.

    She sinks to one knee as she sees the doll-girl fall, her heart sinking. Is this the end of such a being? ... Perhaps not. "I'm sorry," she says softly. "There's just so much we don't know. So much that's been forgotten. Things that happened so long ago. That war... that war is long over. Past. The children's children's children of those who fought it are dust and ashes now. The Scrapped Princesses are... gone, so far as we know. So we make our own way, as best we can, each of us making our own choices. As I'm sure you can.... I'd like to be your friend."

Gwen looks at the android girl for a moment she pauses for a moment. "I see." The Six Laws? curious she thinks about telling the girl about the carving she found as she suspects it's about her fight with the Levithan at this point. She'll wait till she reconnects to whatever server it is and she pauses looking up at the moons. "The moons..."

She now has some more details she looks at her for a moment.

"They rejected you?"

Gwen scowls at this for a moment.

Gwen looks at Mizuki "The question what is Human is also a philosophical one as well."

She then pauses as there's a new icon on the girl's inspect. An I. Like a Lander or an Adventurer would. Did they just trigger a quest?

"Sounds like it could be Mizuki."

She thinks about repairing this girl.

"It might take us hunting for ruins from her era or hunting Elemental machines."

"Maybe there's nothing left out there for her to connect to..." Shiruba remarks to Gwen. Then blinks at Mizuki when she mentions what the Land of Dragons could be. "... Wait, she's talking about one of the other servers?! There was a.." She pauses. ".. Isn't China under a lot of firewalls? Like, totally out of access. That's why I never bothered learning much about it."

She cups a hand thoughtfully to her chin. "Even if it isn't implimented, if there's was a way in code to connect between Servers... Oh wow..." She mururs in an awestruck tone, but for the moment keeps that thought to herself. Too much conjecture without information to back it up is a dangerous hole to fall too far down at one time.

Instead she turns her attention back tot he collapsed down, smirking a little as Jazz tries to befriend it. There's something fitting in that. "Do you have a individual designation we can refer to you as? A.. name?"

The Prüfer Unit tilts her head. "Were Fang are not Monkeys. Were Fangs are Were Fangs." She indicates firmly to Mizuki. "Were Fang Ausführung Zwei were made from Monkeys." The Machina points out firmly. As if it is important to correct someone when they are wrong on the internet.

It then slowly turns to look to Jazuhanzu. "You are free to explore the island." It then tilts its head. "Friend... term introduced by Uber Cluster Zwei Null Sieben Peh Err Vier Funf Sieben Teh Neun." A pause. "Your race and mine are not compatible for a mating ritual. Only Friend Level Eins can be provided by this Unit. Requirement... Chess Set."

She looks back towards Mikage as she asks what needs repairing. "Shrine requirement... special item from Undine lands." Her eye glows for a moment, and a holographic item appears. A blue crystal of sorts, slowly rotating.

"You are unable to treat me with your technology. Another compatible Machina unit would need to be found." It seems rather certain of this. But someone probably could create her a prosthetic leg or the like with enough time and effort.

Notably, its health does not appear to be draining. Though it does seem like its getting a 'Tiredness' effect from this. And it's getting pretty heavy. Likely, they won't get much out of her for a while, until she's done recharging. No doubt that beam from earlier took quite a bit out of her.

At Mizuki's questioning of independence or an 'common tongue' designation, she doesn't answer. But the assurances just have the machine look down.

But when Miyako mentions a particular thing... it shakes its head. "The Scrapped Princesses... year 400. They are not gone." Again, friend. "Requirement... Chess Set."

It tilts its head the other way to Shiruba. "Self Designation?" It seems to think about this for a moment.

"Schwarzer." She jumps to. It doesn't fit her at all.

    "A chess set, hm? You want to play a game? Sure." Miyako smiles warmly. Then she pauses, as inspiration strikes, and she swipes her hand to bring up her inventory. "Just a moment, I knew I had something here... no, not that... aha." She taps 'materialize item' and an assortment of parts from a wrecked Elemental Machine appears on the ground before her. "Can you use any of these to repair yourselves?" she asks, waving a hand as if offering the set to the gynoid. "If you can..."

    As the android keeps talking, Mizuki 1. starts to realize that all those unit designations are probably different and indicate which machine uploaded information to the network and 2. coughs when it brings up 'mating rituals'. What the hell, was the unit that uploaded that one a perverted robot? ...Wait, these things were clearly made to look like cute girls. Yeah, she can imagine someone hitting on one and giving it a questionable definition of 'friend'.

    "A chess set? We don't need a physical chess set to play, we can make marks in the dirt if needed." She points at the robot's stumps. "And we may not be able to provide replacement parts, but... magic can restore OUR limbs, so what about healing spells?"

    Schwarzer. ...Blackie? Translating the name that way, it sounds more suitable for a pet. But maybe it sounds better in German. Or maybe Schwarzer isn't schwarz+er and she's making wild guesses about a language she doesn't know.

Shiruba is amused that her use of something more technological sounding in terms got through when 'name' and 'friend' didn't... but the unit picks something that doesn't really sound fitting, for what little she can translate from it. Why does she keep asking for a Chess game though?.. Though Chess is a game based on war, and she is a machina for combat, scout or not.

Then Miyako pulls out some Elemental Machine parts, and her eyes widen. "Whoa? Where did you get those from?" she practically echoes the questions asked of her about the Red Disk earlier.

At the remark of a mating ritual, Jazz just stops dead in her tracks. She was going along with things up to that point. THe scales and spots of her face light up with Undine bioluminescence. Her shoulders slump and she just utters one word, quiet, but loud enough to be audible to those around her.

"/Nerds/."

Her hand goes to her face and presses for a moment. "Okay. A chess set, then. Makes me think of all the computers trained to play chess, you know? And we can see about getting something to improve your mobility so it isn't so hard for you to get around -- and maybe some information world history. That way, you can compare what you know to what *we* know, and we get a little more figured out. I wonder if Shiroe's friend might be interested in coming out and talking to you. He knows a lot." She's referring to Li Gan, of course.

"That name doesn't work. I think I'll call you Spatjahr instead." A glance over her shoulder. "I don't know German, but I remember hearing that before. It's Autumn," she explains, and then back to the doll.

"... if that's okay with *you*, of course."

The tension of the moment seems to a surprised reaction when the broken machine seems to take Jazuhanzu's invitation for friendship as an invitation to something else entirely. The urge to laugh bubbles up, and Mikage is only able to choke it back with a slightly amused sound as she claps a hand over her mouth.

Of course, that reaction turns into a stunned expression when Miyako seems to materialize some very familiar looking parts. "I... have some of those, too." She admits, looking from Shiruba to Miyako and back again. "I haven't had a chance to look into where they came from, but the ones I had were given to me by after the tournament in Breg Epona."

More curiously, Mikage eyes the item that is briefly shown in hologram, then looks to Jazuhanzu. "Looks like we might have reason to go visit your people." With the machine seeming to be low on power, she doesn't press with additional questions, and instead looks at the others.

Gwen says "There's a carving here you might like to see I think it's about you Schwarzer." She will show her the carving she found at some point. "I think some of the people on the island survived thanks to you... and left a record of your fight." She pauses "The Scrapped Princess are not ... gone?!"

That's very worrying to Gwen she has to wonder now what kind of world have they fallen into, the events of the last week more and more dissuade her of this being just a game. It's a digital reality perhaps but does that matter for a moment.

"It's a good name Jaz I like it but the question is does she like it?"

She looks to the Andorid "We might be able to at the very least jury rig a leg for you at some point. That can wait however..."

"Game..." The girl repeats. "Yes, game." She then looks at Miyako as she whos parts of an Elemental Machine. "... Designation - Elemental Machine. Weapon of the Flügel. No, these are not compatible. It must be Machina."

It then slowly rises a bit, and begins to 'hop' lamely back towards the cave. "Your weak healing spells can not repair Machina parts."

It tilts its head towards Jazuhanzu while she retreats. "About to engage recharge cycle in 30..." The small strange 'wires' that hang from her body towards the ground spark and seem to hum at their types - almost like they started to resonate with something.

"Designation: Spatjahr. Adjustment was made for self-configuration." Her voice is flat - and she seems non-plussed. Much as she has been about everything.

It looks to Gwen, and shakes its head. "The local populace... used to think of me as their protector." It then falls quiet, a few whirrs following, before it tilts its head down and quiets.

    "You don't know that! Maybe the healing spells we have now are entirely different from the ones people had centuries ago. It's worth /trying/, at least." But is anyone here a healer?

    Mizuki listens curiously. "The local populace... Were they monkeys?"

    Mizuki blinks at another realization: "You fought a leviathan with all that firepower and still LOST?! I had no idea they were so powerful..."

"I think she needs her equivilent to sleep," Shiruba observes. "Though seems like she accepted your suggestion... I don't know if I'd call it a loss. More of a standstill until it withdrew? I mean, SOMEONE was here long enough to carve that mural..."

That icon change is interesting, to say the least, but along with everything else that's a lot of process to take in.

Shiruba clasps her hands together. "But she did say we could explore the island!" Pause. Turns her head a bit to look around. "Speaking of, where's Mifa?"

    Where did she get the parts? "The Golden Grotto. Dungeon had a 'mech boss. We trashed it, but I picked up a few bits in case they might come in useful someday. The others did, too. Dunno who might still have some." Miyako shrugs. No need to bother if Schwarzer can't /use/ them, after all. She sighs softly and slides the parts back into her inventory. "And you cared about them... you protected them. I don't know what happened to them... but you did well." She sighs and closes her eyes for a long moment as she sees the android go silent. "Rest well, friend."

    Oh, Spatjahr has to shutdown to recharge. "I wonder how she's getting power, exactly." Mizuki comments. "Yeah, I guess we can. I hope there aren't any... more agressive and less talkative 'flügels' here..."

    Mizuki looks at the damaged android for a moment. "...Do you think they might be the 'Scrapped Princesses' the war is named after?"

Watching the machina retreat back to her cave, Mikage is left with only hints at some greater story. "So... step one, I think we should explore the rest of the island while we have the chance." She suggests, "Step two... we see what we can find out about machina, or see if any of our crafters can manage to come up with some temporary repairs."

Then, she looks to Jazuhanzu, "Step three... we seek out the Undines and whatever that crystal is that she showed us." With a groan, she mutters to herself, rubbing at the back of her neck, "We might just need to ask Merek about those water-breathing potions he made for the tower climbers. We'll probably need them."

It's not answers, but she at least has ideas. Some way to step forward with this and try to see where this strange encounter will lead.

"Mifa's smat. I'm sure she and her's backed off. I wonder if she'll be okay with the trading outpost? I have an idea on the chess set..>"

Jazz sits up, glancing towards Mikage. A nod.

"Yeah, you're right about that, mostly." She reaches a hand up to scratch at one of her gills absently. She doesn't much like the idea of going under water.

Gwen will see what she can do to make sure Autumn would get a chess set. "Rest well Autumn."

She'll wait till she's powered down. "We should do something to protect her from the elements. I think Mifa got the ship to a safe distance. She can't get back up and neither can most of the crew right?"

She notes and then she looks to the sleeping android for a moment.

"This raises questions, and I have to speak to someone on this."

Her mission eariler this week makes her wonder about things. More and more this world seems to be a world and not some dream of Earth. Was it ever? Or did they tap into something unwittingly?

"Right Does not Grandure have some serious crafting as does the Silver Blade. Also I suggest we don't talk about this island for now. Though if we want to take a break I have food and BEACH OUTFITS!"

    So many questions about these battle androids. Mizuki wonders if they can accept friend requests. Being able to talk to an ancient machine by chimlink could be pretty handy.

    Hell, if they could get her to help out with the Tower they could probably clear Aincrad in about a day. How's THAT for an overpowered exploit?

    Hmm.

    Mizuki turns towards Gwen. "Alright, I'll bite. What'd you come up with for beach outfits?"

    Miyako pauses, looking up at Mizuki, and shrugs. "Okay, sure, I forgot to bring a swimsuit anyway."

"Okay Gwen, what do you have?" Shiruba is too excited from all this to object to her friend's clothing shenanigans right now. "Since there is a beach to explore might as well be properly attired for it."

Gwen says "Swimsuits and more and you might want to drop into your human form it. I hear wet fur is a special kind of hell." The item list has Hawaiin shirts, shorts, swimsuits of several sorts, sun hats, a few ball caps. Don't forget the sandal and Gwen change she's now in a fairly nice bikini sandals and a big old sun hat also shades. Also of note, she does have wind-wave tattoos on her body as we

"No," says Jazz to Gwen about swimsuit wearing.

She turns and begins to wander away, intent on exploring, turning over rocks and getting some peace and quiet.

WEll, that's Jazz.

Oh look, as soon as swim suits get mentioned, Mikage is off to explore other parts of the island. Nope, it appears the Were Fang Ranger has no interest in making this a beach episode at the moment.

Jazu wanders off one way. Mikage wanders off in another. Shiruba... isn't entirely surprised. Though she's not also running off immeadiately either.

"You know, we maybe shouldn't go out in the water until we know it's safe. Considering.. you know.. if it was attacked by Leviathans at one time some of those ugly fish zombie things or something might be lurking around."

That said she does take one of the more tanktop style tops and shorts, sandals, and one of the big brimmed hats. MAkes sure to put it on via menu so they adjust for her ears and tail. "These will be perfect for some beachcombing though!"

    Miyako considers it. Swimming and enjoying the beach... or exploring the island. Swimming... or exploring.

    Oh what the hey. Beaches will be there later. An unexplored island, however, will not. Time to go a-jaunting!

    "It's okay, I can dry off fast." Mizuki peruses the collection of clothes. "Oh hey, nice!" She'll take a swimsuit cut like sports underwear, and shorts, shirt, and sun hat. Lacking sunglasses in this world is a pain sometimes.

    She's not super excited about the beach, but what to wear in the water has been a problem a few times and so she's glad to finally have it solved. "Thanks."

    She looks at Shiruba. "Good point, but it's better to have this stuff for when we need it than have to choose whether to wear our clothes in the water or go naked. It's... good to finally have that solved."