Skyside 6: Return of the Cheddar

[5a Violista]

[Riftline Cantina]

Minerva turns to the large robot that enters.

This is definitely....weird? Yeah, weird. Robots charging in. Robo-taxis? Yeah, looks like some kind of aggressive taxi. On the plus side, it does look like Leslie knows the robot? Sort-of?

She helps grab a couple of Leslie's things to give it to the robot, hoping to gain favor with the robot. "Wait, where are you taking her? What -" she asks, trying to cash in that favor.
...
Does this even work on robots?

[bc56]

Seagull

One more. Jade flaps away from the bird-blob. Now it's big enough to block her shots, she needs to maneuver around it. Just a little more, there! She fires at the last obstruction. Once she's gotten rid of the blockages, she can just get out of here and blow the reactor.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Magpie and Cucco]

Aviene doesn't give the tent more than the cursory glance required to see that the cooler is empty. She gets a picture of the tablet and captchas it in a card, then picks up the notebook and flips through it as she proceeds into the ruins.

--

[Riftline Cantina]

The robot interprets Minerva as holding the items for ransom and calculates that the value of retrieving them outweighs the cost of divulging one little bit of information.

"to work, miss. COMBINED PHARMACEUTICALS, TWO ZERO SEVEN SIX ZEK STREET, LOWER CLOUDTOP DISTRICT, SKYSIDE, ZERO ZERO ZERO FIVE ONE"

[5a Violista]

[Riftline Cantina]

Yeah, robots are kind-of bad at image recognition so no wonder it mistook helping for ransom.

"Oh," she says. She, obviously, gives the objects to the robot. "Thanks." Yeah, that place seems pretty reasonable for a kidnap-robo-cab.

Not sure if the robot-cab is sound-proof or not, she calls out to Leslie, "Bye! I'll see you later, 'kay?"

And she does nothing else that could be misconstrued as delaying the robot.

[Earl of Purple]

Bird's the Word Magpie

If it makes the individual communicating with the troll feel better, the magpie's clothes are decent but old, worn more by time than grime. She's poor, but not so poor that she couldn't afford a weapon, yet the fact she carries only a length of rusty old pipe, combined with the steel shackle on her ankle, suggest that she's less likely a corporate spy and more likely a mutant slave who has decided that Aviene is a good chance of attaining- and keeping- her freedom.

The magpie's perching feet grip onto the vehicle she's now riding, but she hangs on with her hand as well. Her eyes are closed and she's breathing quite heavily. She's not used to travelling quickly on a vehicle like this; she had a bike, but not an engine. She'll swap her pipe for a pickaxe, shovel or- best of all- a garden fork if there is one, abandoning the old pipe. She might also take a bag, if there's one lying around that isn't getting yoinked into a capchalogue. She'll rummage through it as she follows into the tunnel, less interested in books and food than weaponry. This place looks dangerous, and she doesn't know why she's following. It just seems like a good way to avoid the Guild, and hey, she's outside Skyside. That makes her considerably safer by itself.

[Rebonack]

[Bird is the Word]

With one more well placed shot the final obstruction is removed and Jade dives for the exit to the reactor chamber! And just in time, too, because the mass of BIRD is truly monstrous in size. Though the door she dives as amorphous tendrils of BIRDNESS slither after her, lashing at the too-small exit.

A thankful thing.

Jade really doesn't need the flock of BIRD chasing her around the facility while she's trying to blow it up. As she moves back to the reactor control room Jade will be able to hear the mass of BIRD slapping and squawking and mercifully not pursuing her further. There is, however, a slight problem.

The door to the reactor chamber is still open.

When the reactor is activated again radiation (not the ornithological kind) will flood the control room. There is a second door she can close on the far side of the decontamination hall, but it is large and heavy. Normally she would need power to seal it. Or at least another person (ideally one with hands). The radiation suit might prevent the radiation spike from killing her instantly, but it would still be pretty unhealthy. Either Jade needs to find a way to get the BIRD mass away from the outer door and shove that one shut, or she needs to somehow find help in this forgotten tomb.

MEANWHILE!

Two more enter the depths.

The first sight to greet them is the casket, a huge lead box marked with those threatening looking red and black symbols that dominates the center of the chamber. It looks like it is approached via a catwalk from above. Lurid light pours from the open container, causing everything it falls on to be bird. Feathers and beaks and toes stick out of the ceiling where most of the light falls, a chaotic mishmash of parts without reason or purpose. Most of it looks dead. Some bits twitch spasmodically. It is deeply, horrifically disturbing.

Our heroes will get the feeling that direct exposure to the Entity would be a terrible idea.

A flight of stairs leads further down. REACTOR is written on the wall in faded yellow letters.

Everything is cast in the low red glow of emergency lighting. Awful squawking can be heard from the direction of the reactor.

[bc56]

Jade high-tails it out of that deathtrap until she's out of reach of the bird horror. Hmm. She needs to close that door somehow. Fortunately her suit has grippy things on the ends of her wings. So she tries to bring those to bear against the door. But it's way too heavy. And she's all alone in here. She can't ask the horror for help. That would be suicidal.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Cucco and Magpie]

"Huuum?" 0v0 The chicken-troll sees the Ark of the Cormorant and is struck with the impression that anything written in the archaeologist's logbook is probably moot at this point. "Looks like -w-e found the source! Now -w-e just need to close it up." She glances around the massive chamber. Somehow, the horrific squawking and twitching of a ceiling being slowly brought to life doesn't monopolize her attention. "I... don't see a lid any-w-here, do you?"

She absentmindedly takes the catwalk around the side, taking pictures of the strange technology lodged in the walls and surrounding the casket's pedestal. "Maybe they o-v-ereggcited it looking for infinite po-w-er and quackcidentally birdified the co-v-er? No, the -w-hole thing -w-ould probably get up and flap off if that -w-ere the case. They must have just mo-v-ed it for some reason."

In the search for a lead casket lid, the reactor room seems like as good a starting point as any.

Spoiler: AR Log

Show

LP: Aviene! Are you okay?
AV: Hi Leslie, I think I'm fine
AV: I noticed the Bird Thing kind of stalls at different points for different people
AV: I'm just a bit soft and feathery so far ^v^;
LP: Um, right, okay! That's good to hear!
LP: I'm still looking at the data...
LP: But so far it looks like the condition has three components!
LP: It's transmitted via sensory observation, and after that it's driven through the body and mind by cognitive triggers.
LP: I can't explain whatever third component is accelerating it... I guess that's the radiation?
AV: That's the theory -w-e're -w-orking -w-ith, yeah

[Earl of Purple]

Bird's the Word

The magpie looks around to see if she can find a lid, but I don't think there's one present. She's very careful to avoid stepping in the light; she's not too happy with how she's changed already, and that doesn't look healthy.

She's going to head down to the REACTOR, if there's no lid here it might be deeper in. And also that way she gets away from that awful light of birdiness.

[Rebonack]

[Bird is the Word]

Oh come on.

Jade hasn't even TRIED talking to the horror yet.

Maybe if she asked nicely or had a tuna sandwich to offer it would be more helpful? She DID swallow that sandwich earlier she could probably regurgitate it for her new amorphous BIRD mass acquaintance. That's a thing birds do for other birds they're trying to be nice to.

Then, as Jade contemplates, another bird arrives! A magpie by the looks of it, not another gull. She's seems almost like the opposite of Jade. Bird head with human-like arms. It might be hard for her to speak with a beak like that BUT she's still got fingers!

Jade could probably ask her for help right?

MEANWHILE!

From the look of things the upper portion of the casket appears to slide into place. Right now it's split into two halves and it appears to be closed mechanically. The casket itself is about ten feet to a side and made of a good two feet of lead, so even if the lid COULD be moved manually it would take a tremendous amount of strength to do-

Oh wait.

There appears to be a manual closing wheel up there on the catwalk near the casket. Problem is it is perilously close to the BIRD LIGHTS and anyone trying to operate it is likely to get pecked at or worse by the BIRD TUMORS sprouting out of the wall.

[bc56]

Jade squawks at the magpie. "Hey. You've got hands. Help me close this?" The horrible sounds of the bird horror probably serve to emphasize her point. "We've got to blow this reactor and get rid of that thing in the casket. It should stop us from changing further." Jade looks like a harpy in a radiation suit, with grey and white feathers and webbed feet. In other words, she looks like a female seagull. Which she is. She's just been inflicted with human bits. Right? No, she was human before. Her mind is rather confused by the effects of birdification.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Cucco - Casket Room]

"Huum, there!" Aviene points out the valve-winch-thing. "It was more integrated with the facility than I thought, but..."

...Magpie already went to the reactor room, didn't she? Part of Aviene wants to just let her do her thing and go take care of the lid herself. She can deal with the creeping monster guarding it. Alas, another part of her needs to make sure the other bird is safe first, and that part takes her to the reactor room without thinking. Weirdly, this turns out to have probably been the correct decision!

0v0 "Eggscuse me? 'Blo-w- the reactor?' -W-ouldn't that just spread radioacti-v-e bird stuff e-v-ery-w-here?" She's assuming that she and the gull-harpy are more or less on the same page radiation-wise, but said harpy can always correct her if she wants.

Even amidst these concerns, the masked alien helps close the emergency door without questioning it. Her hands are serviceable, though under the gloves they probably look a little like an archaeopteryx's climbing claws, or maybe some concept art for an albino feathered velociraptor. "Look, there's a -w-inch on the big sarcophagus-pool-thing o-v-er there. -W-e can just close it."

[Earl of Purple]

Bird's the Word

The magpie will help close the door, but with all this tech-stuff she's lost. And she can't talk, because she has a beak.

She can close the door, however, leaning her pipe against the wall. She's a bit jealous of Jade's wings, but Jade doesn't have fingers so the magpie thinks that maybe she'd rather keep the fingers. This way she can at least get changed when her clothes are dirty.

[bc56]

"We can't leave it here! Some other idiot will come along and open it up again, and this whole thing will happen all over. We should be deep enough underground that the radiation doesn't get up to the surface significantly." The troll may notice a familiar looking blue armored glove on the harpy's foot. The last piece of the Athena Armor? Is this its owner?

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Bird is the -w-ord]

Nah, it can't be. The gloves for the armor Aviene found would never fit on a harpy foot.

Spoiler: AR Log

Show

JJ: I see that glove is the same color as the armor you so boldly salvaged. *___
LP: Um, armor? What?
JJ: It could indicate a uniform. *___
JJ: Two members of the same research team, perhaps? *___
JJ: A team that was instructed to blow up this facility? *___
JJ: Trying to destroy a weapon before it falls into enemy hands, perhaps? *___
LP: You think so?
LP: I think it looks more like some kind of ancient power plant...
LP: Which, um, I guess isn't mutually exclusive with all of that...

Aviene huuuuums in consideration. "I still -w-ant to secure the core. My team -w-ill need it to de-v-elop a -w-ay to re-v-erse this. You do -w-ant to re-v-erse it, right?"

Spoiler: AR Log

Show

LP: Um, actually, I think we should be able to work with just a small sample!
LP: It looks like whatever's in the core might eat through your containment cards, though...
JJ: She has already obtained a sample, *Leslie.
JJ: She's just lying in hopes of securing the core for ourselves. *___
JJ: Bird-based superweaponry is a valuable commodity, after all. *___

Aviene adjusts her goggles. In truth, she had genuinely not considered that the little foot she already has could be enough to work with, but what's been said has been said. "I'll e-v-en t-w-eeten the deal: help me get this under control, and as soon as -w-e ha-v-e the counter-agent, -w-e'll change you back to normal for free. Ho-w-'s that sound?"

[bc56]

"No, no, no, no, no." Jade shakes her head. "I don't deal with shady corporations." It's pretty obvious that this alien is working for some sort of corporation. "I definitely don't want such an apocalyptic threat falling into the wrong hands. Or any hands. I'd rather stay like this than have that thing out in the world where it could start another epidemic." She begins punching in the commands to disable the failsafes and start the reactor meltdown with her foot. "Besides, medicine doesn't work on this. There's a silo in Skyside proper, I can point it out to you. The guy who set up his lab there was experimenting on this thing. He discovered the cure, but didn't have time to use it on himself before he lost his mind to the bird plague. It's not something you can sell, so you might as well give up your hopes of making a quick buck off this plague." She sighs. "Hopefully, you're bright for a corporate agent. The plague spreads through concepts. The idea of "bird" is enough to infect someone. And then they start turning into a scavenger, a trash bird. The cure is to be, conceptually, the opposite of a trash bird. That'll undo the transformation. But killing this thing, that should prevent it from spreading."

[Earl of Purple]

Bird's the Word

Whilst the other two argue, the magpie- who can't say anything, so is a bit left out- makes sure the door is closed. She'll also sit down somewhere and start rotating the steel cuff on her leg, trying to figure out how to get it off. There's a keyhole, but she doesn't have a lockpick set with her, but she's found the hinge and is looking around for a screwdriver. Hopefully she'll be able to use it; the Slaver's Guild use special screws with a five-pointed star shaped head to prevent escapees disassembling their collars, cages or cuffs.

[Rebonack]

[Bird is the Word]

The reactor is still disengaged! Deactivating the safety protocols is impossible without powering it back up. And the power up process will take a bit of time. Though in better news that awful screeching from the BIRD horror got abruptly louder when the reactor started up. Nothing like a nice healthy dose of ionizing radiation to kill terrible giant mutant things. Or at least one would hope this would kill it. Hopefully the radiation doesn't make it stronger somehow. With something this exotic it is honestly hard to guess.

Strictly speaking the cure that Jade found is more of a vaccine. It prevents contracting the Bird Flu and halts its spread once already infected. Actually reversing the effect is another matter, one which the the researcher thought the mysterious pigeon foot might be able to aid in somehow. Given how insane this contagion is, however, it probably wouldn't be anything as simple as an anti-bird pill.

Or maybe it would be?

Maybe the simple act of creating a cure is sufficiently un-scavenger-like?

Regardless!

The debate continues and Jade gets the ERROR message again regarding power to the reactor safeties.

As for Magpie? She finds something even better than a star-shaped screw driver! She finds a screwdriver with a tip that consists of many tiny sliding cylinders. The tool deforms to fit into any imaginable screw-shape. Very handy to have around.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Birb is the Wirb]

Cucco is mildly offended when Jade calls her a trash bird. Or, well, kind of indirectly implies that her lusus was a trash bird without any way of knowing she's doing so, and also if she did know then she would technically be in the right by Alternian legal classification. Hence the, 'mildly.'

Spoiler: AR Log

Show

LP: They already developed it?
LP: That's great! It must be somewhere in those notes, then!
LP: Though... what's the "opposite" of a bird?
JJ: That's a good question. *___
JJ: Give me a moment, I'll consult Artbreeder. *___
LP: "Artbreeder?"

While Aviene is considering the pros and cons of keeping around this likely-unnecessary dangerous thing, her train of thought is completely derailed by the magpie picking at the steel cuff.

"Huum? Are you alright? Here, let me look at it." On some newfound instinct, she crouches down next to the former slave and puts a comforting, blanket-like arm over her shoulder. She pokes at the shackle a bit and quickly recognizes the screw as the magpie finds the tool to undo it. "Aww... I get it, you just managed to escape and now you're caught up in all this..." Being this close to Magpie's mute bird face fills Aviene with an intense feeling. Something shifts in her hips. Instincts continue to light up, telling her to protect all present from the dangerous thing whatever the cost. "Alright, let's bury this place and get out of here!"

[bc56]

"If that doesn't work, I can cut it off. But I'll need the power supply from my armor." Jade powers the reactor on and sets it to blow. If you could just drop me off at the silo so I can collect the stuff I left there, I would appreciate it.

[Rebonack]

[Bird is the Word]

Setting the reactor to blow requires pushing a pair of buttons on the opposite side of the room at the same time, but with the extra help it isn't that hard to accomplish. Kind of weird that this reactor was designed to self destruct like an atomic bomb. Probably intentional, given what's down here.

Hmm...

It looks like it is possible to set the timer on the self-destruct.

This compound was about two hours flight away from Skyside. Plenty of distance to get away, provided the time is set high enough. Maybe they just need to-

"Are you here to feed Bigbird?" asks a raven perched atop the computer the second the reactor comes back on but before the self-destruct sequence can be set.

It looks like a normal bird.

Completely normal. Absolutely nothing unusual about this bird at all.

Normal ravens are the color of polished brass, right? With feathers lit as by celestial light? There's nothing unusual about a wheel sitting behind a bird's head, burning with the intensity of a star? Those are all normal bird things, yes? Nothing unusual going on? Good.

"The power has been off for so long," says Normal Bird. "No one has fed Bigbird."

[Earl of Purple]

Bird's the Word

The half-elf magpie really likes this screwdriver, this is a thing she's going to keep. She's going to fight to keep a hold of it, glaring at the troll if she tries to take it away. She's also not very comfortable with the hug, but tolerates it for now. Her body stiffens a bit, and her beak-dominated face is hard to read, but her eyes don't look too happy.

She'll push away from the hug when the clockwork raven speaks, grabbing her length of pipe and pocketing the screwdriver. She hisses a threat at the bird, brandishing the pipe. It's not a very loud hiss, barely noticeable, but hissing is a noise that is pretty much universally recognised as a threat.

[Arkhosia]

The Latest Pawtector

Do to her? If Fi could hear that thought, she would be shocked. Last she checked, she was the one who held the knife to Elizabeth, not the other way around!
"Sure, and anywhere else if you want. I have the time to help, if- if you want, that is."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[What's the word? Is it bird? I bet it's bird]

Aviene is disappointed when Magpie doesn't like her comforting gesture, but then she suddenly realizes how weird she's being and shakes her head. Magpie found the screwdriver she needed, she'll be fine.

Somewhere under her goggles, Aviene raises an eyebrow at the robot space raven. ov6 "Big Bird, huuum? Does that make this a temple? Sorry, but I think your religion died out a long time ago."

Spoiler: AR Log

Show

JJ: I think it's a Chinese restaurant. *___
LP: ...what?
JJ: I generated an algorithmic visual pastiche of several scavenging birds, then inverted all of the bird-generating subroutines. *___
JJ: The result was an image resembling a decorative window and some hanging lanterns in a comfortable-looking red room. *___
JJ: It reminds me of a buffet place in Tempest Row. *___
JJ: Wait, I refreshed it and now it looks more like a medicine cabinet. Perhaps a cluttered bathroom? *___
JJ: *Aviene, try imagining yourself as a cluttered bathroom in an East Alternian theme restaurant. *___
LP: That's so stupid! Where are you even getting this from?

She entertains the idea of turning into a restaurant, but it only makes her think of being cut into chunks and thrown on fried rice. She shivers and puts it out of her mind.

[bc56]

A definitely worried look plasters itself on Jade's face. She's encountered these things before. Or similar things, in any case. "Yeah, we're here to feed Big Bird. Nuclear radiation." She points her foot with the glove at the bird. "I made this myself. If you're like your parent, you know what this'll do to you." Right? This thing is a personification of the bird plague, which means it must be vulnerable to the same things. Either way, she's expecting this to be a fight.

Given what this plague is doing and what she's seen elsewhere, she should probably have a talk with Zee. She's not comfortable with this kind of power being in even good hands.

[Rebonack]

[Bird is the Word]

The magpie hisses!

Very threatening.

The normal bird reacts to this by making a throaty raven noise back at her. This sound contains a very large helping of the concept BIRD which may or may not cause and addition burst of BIRD in the magpie. Or it may do nothing at all! This normal bird is quite normal and should not concern anyone.

Especially when it tessellates across the room and stars perching on top of the containment door to the reactor.

Existing as an abstract geometric pattern of BIRD for a brief time before being a normal bird again is definitely something normal birds do.

There is no cause to be alarmed.

"No. This is not a Shrine. That it were. Perhaps it would be, if you would feed Bigbird?" the normal bird replies to Aviene's comment. "There is a chute above the casket for delivering garbage to BigBird to feed upon. But the chute is now clogged with BIRD."

Oh geeze that was unpleasant.

More birdthought.

The birdthought seems to be unaffected by restaurantthought, Chinese or otherwise.

The normal bird quirks his head to the side and peers at Jade with one eye.

"You wish to destroy BigBird? Despite her bestowing her blessing upon you? Even the ancients could not bring themselves to harm her. Very well."

The normal bird unfolds for lack of a better word. Just kind of... splits open and more and more of it keeps coming out. Gears and light and metal and feathers and wings and beaks and talons.

"I will show you Ashpothel's more excellent way. May we reach heaven through violence."

A volley of metal feathers are launched at Jade! Getting struck by them would probably be extremely unhealthy.

[bc56]

Jade jumps out of the way and flaps her wings to avoid the darts. "This isn't a blessing, it's a curse! I want my hands back you [REDACTED]!" Her foot clenches, and a beam of light lances out at the bird. The weapon is set to lethal intensity. "Gah. Wish I had my full armor." Not going to get many shots out of this thing otherwise.

[Meowmai]

[The Latest Pawtector 2 (I'm all out of puns okay)]

Elizabeth's line of thought was more about how she felt she rather provoked the whole 'being held at knifepoint' thing by chasing Fidelia around for what turned out to be completely no reason. Though then again, she perhaps drawing a knife on her was a bit excessive, at least in her eyes. She was still taken aback by Fidelia's apparent willingness to help her out after everything that had just unfolded though. Normally she might be very suspicious about further hidden intentions from the knife wielding stranger, but in this situation she couldn't think of any plausible secret agendas that would make sense.

Well, she might as well make use of the stranger's generosity. "Well... if it's no trouble then, I, uh, would appreciate that help. A lot. Um. And sorry again about the whole... stalking and chasing you thing... you said your name was, err, Fidelia? Am I right? I'm not the best with names." Especially when at the time of the name-giving she was still more worried about being stabbed than keeping the woman's name in mind.

[Earl of Purple]

Bird's the Word

Feathers erupt from the magpie's arms as it's hit by the first blast of bird from the... bird. Her shirt, which wasn't great to begin with, has ripped along the sleeves to make space for them, and the second blast creates more feathers, crawling over her body under the remains of her shirt and sticking out from the edge of her clothes. Her hair's completely gone, now, replaced entirely by feathers. She hurls the steel cuff she recovered from her ankle at the Empyrean bird, since she can't fly up there and deal with it herself.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[BIRD is the word]

Aviene's bird thoughts are a bit more... complicated. Subtle. People think of being a bird, and they think of scaled feet and beaks, of flying and stealing chips. Aviene thinks of it, and she thinks of things like pigments and muscle insertions and protective instincts applied to children laid and adopted. She's got a lot going on under that fluffy white humanoid exterior. She can feel the effects of the latest burst flexing in her calves and sternum, like coiled springs pushing against the lid of a mint-themed prank canister.

Speaking of explosives, we're fighting now, so it's time to use some! Cucco must protect babies!

"HEY! Get a-w-ay from her, co! FIRE IN THE HOOOLE!" Right, vocal cords were also part of those bird thoughts. Can't forget those.

She draws several egg-shaped grenadekind weapons from her strife deck (not to be confused with her captchalogue deck, where Jade's armor resides (don't worry, she's picking up on all of Jade's hints, she just hasn't yet thought of a way to get that card unlocked)), flaps her feathery arms to loosen them up a bit, and hurls the bombs into the dimensional well that the raven boss has so invitingly opened into itself.

"Cu-so, that armor of yours!" she calls over to Harpy, "Does it ha-v-e a remote passerine-w-ord or anything that you'd use to -w-ake it up, co? You kno-w-, like, 'Alexa,' or, 'Blatherskite?'"

Do Ducktales references count as bird thoughts? Probably not. If the armor does wake up, it would most likely become ejectable, either via emergency protocol or from just bursting out of the card on its own.