Vigil VII: Strife Amidst the Clouds

[Zefir]

Training Grounds

Zophiel spots her looking at his wings and picks up on the implication.
He shakes his head: "These are unrelated, but they can't be removed, either," he says. The fact that he said 'either' suggests that the 'personal problems' can't be solved, too. "Any attempt at healing magic makes them grow back, so any solution is temporary at best."

Anyway, back to the better part of the conversation. Zophiel is a paladin, so of course he would be interested in religion. "What church do you go to?" he asks, "And what sort of things are taught there?"

Training Grounds

Maybe his personal problems can't be removed? Which meant Mia is not the fitting person to do so.

Mia nods. "I understand. I had to reform my healing magic when I arrived here. It doesn't seem to mind if there are things you don't want to heal back or not." Kind of the Deadpool drama where the tumor regenerates as well.

"Obviously to the church of Deus mechanicus. As a high priestress I'm like the leader of it. He is the god of machines. Every machine is a children of him and we are the guardian. He gives us all we need to know to build and maintain them so they can do the task they were build for." Mia pauses. "Don't hesitate if you got questions. Since I am in the nexus I noticed that this concept is strange for many people."

Zophiel might have taken a closer look by now and saw that Mia appears as a young adult. She could be at best around 18 years old or younger.

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

"Okay here goes!" Lapis says as she grips her weapon and swings it down in a powerful overhead stroke.

It passes through Felicity without resistance.

And also without harm.

It'll feel a little warm, but not really setting things on fire sort of warm. Especially considering that she's already on fire to begin with.

When Felicity opens her hands to reveal the piece of fabric she'll find that it has been neatly cut in half.

Well!

That's pretty fancy, right?

Lapis is, of course, grinning like an idiot. At some point she started being a little girl again. It isn't exactly clear when that took place.

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

"Oh, wow. That really was special." Felicity's grinning, from the fact that Lapis' sword should have cut her hands in twain, but she's still intact. Also on fire. Her dress is properly burning now, and Felicity has finally noticed the smell of burning cloth. "Oh, no! My dress!" Felicity drops to the floor and starts rolling desperately to put the fire out, and if Lapis were to grab one of the fire blankets Felicity brought with her and tried beating the flames out, it would be surely appreciated.

[5a Violista]

[Training Grounds]

The paladin had never heard of that church before.
"Huh, interesting. Seems like a good church," he says.

The paladin Zophiel looks older than Mia.

Since itnwas something they both cared about, Zophiel asks, "Who would know what projects Vigil is working on?"
"Or, is there a place to go to find out something we can do?"

[Zefir]

[Training Grounds]

"I think some members are scatered around. They might know something." Mia says.
"Otherwise Cessie and Wenomir would be the one who know something."

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

Oh no Lapis' new friend is on fire!

Which she was before.

But now she seems distressed about it?

Which means Lapis needs to be distressed about it!

She decides to do the only thing that makes sense in this particular situation! She reaches out, evokes the sphere of Matter, grabs a fist full of fire, and pulls.

The flames peel off Felicity like one of those stickers on new electronics.

Or maybe like sunburnt skin.

Just slides right off and now Lapis has a roiling orb of flames in her hand.

"Are you okay?" she asks, sounding concerned.

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

Felicity stops rolling as she realises the flames are gone, and gets up. Her dress is burnt, rather badly as it happens. There's holes across a lot of it; I doubt she'd meet Cessie's approval if they met like this. She is, however, no longer on fire. "Thank you, Lapis. That's... very useful. I don't want this dress to burn too badly, not unless I'm studying how hot I get." And even then, such a study would probably be best performed in one of the labs, standing on ceramic tiles, far from any furniture that could burn, whilst naked to get accurate measurements across her body.

Felicity wants to poke the fire, see if that will disrupt it or extinguish it, but in her case that is a very bad idea.

[5a Violista]

Training Grounds

Zophiel thinks about that.
"Yeah. They might," he says.

He thinks about it. "You know, I have never met either Cessie or Wenomir or any of the other leaders of this place, even for as long as I've been here. I don't think I would even recognize them if I saw them."

[Zefir]

Training Grounds

Mia looks a little confused. Didn't you need to talk to a person in charge, even a year ago?

"Not even one?" she says. "I thought they are common knowledge, but maybe it's just because i am here halv of my time. We can look for one if you like."

Mia makes a short pause for the answer befor she has to ask an urgend question.

"If you joined you had to talk to someone, can you remember to who or what they looked like?"

[5a Violista]

[Training Grounds]

"If I saw him, I'd recognize him," the paladin says.
He tries to remember who it was. Since his player can't remember the name of the person and doesn't feel like going back to search at the moment, it's going to be pretty hard for him to remember.

"Let's see...he was big, even bigger than me," he says, which is saying something because he's already both tall and really broad-shouldered. "And was in some kind of robotic armor."

...
"I dunno. I'll remember eventually."

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

Felicity should definitely poke it.

For science.

"I wasn't sure if it would work but it did!" Lapis laughs. "What should I do with it now?"

For all practical purposes the orb of fire looks like a solid object. Like something you could pick up and drop in a bucket if you felt so inclined.

It still looks like fire.

Just fire all roiling around over itself in a small sphere.

This obviously shouldn't be possible.

But Lapis just turned the 'gas' aspect of the fire into a 'solid' aspect.

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

"I... don't know. What have you actually done to it? Ooh, we could take it down to my lab and figure out if it's flame enough to make me burn again. I should really get changed anyway." It's not exactly Felicity's lab, it's just... a lab nobody else was using in which she's started to study herself in. She's removed everything that might burn in it, so it's safe enough for weird orbs of fire.

Felicity can't take her eyes off the weird orb of solid fire. Hopefully Lapis doesn't drop it, or throw it at the hoopoe which may be hanging around.

[Zefir]

[Training Grounds]

"Hmm". Mia says. "I would remember someone like that, especially with such an equipment." (Player can't remember)
"Let's keep that in mind. And if we don't remember we can ask others if we see them. "

She makes a short pause befor speaking up again.

"So, what kind of task are you looking for? Are you more of a close combat fighter? I assume you aren't an enginiert, otherwise we might have met earlier."

[Rebonack]

[Dumb Dummies]

"I used the Matter sphere to make it solid instead of gas," Lapis replies matter of factually. She looks really proud of herself! "I never used it for that before! Mother said I should probably try practicing with other spheres but I dunno I like just doing stuff with swords more."

Swords really are the best as far as Lapis is concerned.

It will likely occur to Felicity that if Lapis can casually change the state of an object, including in typically impossible ways, she can probably do some pretty incredible things with that trick.

Also some very harmful things.

What if she made a living thing into one hundred percent liquid?

Would that kill them outright?

The fire still seems to be fire. Just solid fire.

"Oooh, can I see the lab? That sounds fun. There was another guy I met at the cafeteria who does lab things he tried to give me a can of lizard repellent."

[Earl of Purple]

Dumb Dummies

That is very interesting, and does give Felicity a few ideas. It could kill someone, maybe. She'll get a glass of water and ask Lapis to make that a solid, see if it becomes ice or not. If it does, then it would probably kill someone. If it doesn't, it might not. But Felicity's not really cruel enough to try on animals; she mostly fed the stuff Professor Payne extracted materials from or worked with the purified/concentrated/distilled/fermented extracts Professor Payne had altered through alchemy and/or science. The actual alchemy Professor Payne uses is kept secret, so Felicity only knows the vaguest things about it.

"Sure, I'll show you my lab. Was that Dr. Valiance?" It sounds like Dr. Val, and Felicity should know. If anyone gave cans of lizard repellent to children, it'd be him. Or maybe give cans of lizard repellent to angels, depending. Felicity grabs her stuff and heads down to

Felicity's Lab

Which is a polished, sterile space with everything made either from polished metal or stone/concrete. There's two freezers plugged in, and large windows and a ventilation unit. There's also drains in the floor and a pretty open shower in the corner, as well as sprinklers. The room's ever so slightly damp, so they've been used recently. There's several fume cupboards and other science-type equipment about. Felicity will open a metal cupboard and pull out a ceramic bowl, handing it to Lapis to put the orb of solid fire in.

[5a Violista]

[Training Grounds]

"I don't know, exactly," Zophiel says.
"I'm a paladin, so...sure, decent at fighting and healing and such, but one of the things I'm really good at is magic seals and sealing magic."

After only a little more thought, he adds, "Really, though, I'm just looking for anything I can do soon that'll help somebody out."

[Purple Eagle]

[Training Grounds]

The hug takes Wenomir by surprise, something that's not otherwise very easy.

"I would like that. It might take me some time to learn not to treat you as a student, though," he adds as a half-joke. "I seem to make a stronger impression on many people than I would expect. Hopefully it doesn't go to my head. But I've got people to keep me grounded, too."

[Training Grounds]

Svetlana listens to him, nodding and smiling. "<Friends, then?>" She ventures in Polish, since Wenomir's name always sounded such to her... though she'll translate if needed.

"I look forward to it... well then, I must soon depart for HALO, even if I could ever return to VIGIL, I would prefer to use my scientific expertise in a place more research-focused... but I am always available to help out, if needed. I understand there is some friction between the two organizations, but I care not for that." By which she means that any rivalry won't stop her from interacting with both organizations. She doesn't know the extent to which she goes, but she's heard enough to guess.

Her lips purse as she thinks of VIGIL's science division, remembering him. Thankfully, he's not come up so far, and she'd like to keep it that way. It's too pleasant of a day to ruin.

[Zefir]

[Training Grounds]

Mia nods.

"I can understand." she says. "I'm not a fighter, but I learn the way of the sword from Wenomir. I don't wanna be a burden and rather help people. I just ask, because if yor trained in something it's a better start. We should ask around and see what comes up. At worst we only met others. The only thing i would avoid would be going into a forest. I don't feel comfortable surrounded only by trees, bushes and such."

[Morty]

[Training Grounds - Svetlana and Wenomir]

Wenomir blinks, surprised, when Svetlana speaks in a language he almost recognizes. Almost, but not quite.

"Sorry, what was that? It almost sounded like the language people spoke back home." Then he nods. "I think HALO will be a good place for you. But there's no real tension between us. After they took off in a more research-based direction, we seem to complement each other smoothly."

[5a Violista]

[Training Grounds]

"That makes sense," the paladin says. Makes sense why she'd ask that, then.

He starts to put away the things he was training with.

"I actually feel most comfortable surrounded by trees and such, so I guess I'm the opposite of you, then."

Having cleaned up after himself, he gets ready to leave the Training Grounds.

[Purple Eagle]

[Training Grounds - Svetlana and Wenomir]

"That was Polish, Comm- I mean, W-Wenomir?" If they're going to be friends, they might as well get on first-name basis sooner rather than later, though it feels no less strange for Svetlana to use his name like that. "My motherland, as opposed to my fatherland, which is Japanese. Both, I consider my homeland... and your name reminds me of home. The translation is: 'Friends, then?'."

She exhales happily when told that the organizations now complement one another. "That is very good to hear. Our time working together might yet resume, in the future. Although, I might still require the occasional practice session..." She trails off, leaving the implication for Wenomir to get.

After all, he did prove to be an even better trainer than the rumors said.

[Rebonack]

[Felicity's Lab]

Lapis shall follow Felicity down to the lab!

Mostly because she is curious what's down there and hasn't visited the lab yet.

Also she really isn't doing anything else right now and the dummies just aren't any good for practicing on anymore.

The girl resolves to find some worthy foes at some point.

"I dunno, I think so? He smelled funny," Lapis recalls.

She's very perceptive like that.

"He also wanted to give me money but it wasn't real money it was just paper I think."

What would she even do with paper with faces and numbers on it, anyway? She can't buy talents or skills with that. So dumb.

When they arrive in the lab Lapis looks around in wonder! She has no idea what any of these things are for but they look neat.

[Earl of Purple]

Felicity's Lab

"It was probably Dr. Valiance, then. I work with him sometimes." Less often now he's off-screen, but still. "Oh, um, mortals like me use paper as money. Metal too, especially gold, silver, copper and nickel." Felicity guesses angels don't use pounds, dollars or even pence, but still.

"Could you put that in the bowl, please?" Felicity's going to see if the fire remains a sphere when placed in the bowl and no longer held by Lapis.

[Ironsmith]

[Felicity's Lab]

At around this time, a young Korean woman would wander into the lab, a clipboard in her hands, which she was studying intently. She doesn't seem to have realized where she is yet; whatever she's looking at, it has her full attention. She probably took a wrong turn in the hall, or didn't turn when she should have, or something.

Neither of the people in the room will have met her. She's a little on the tall side, at around five and a half feet, and built very skinny; worryingly skinny, even, though it's mostly hidden under her coat. Her black hair is pulled back neatly into a short ponytail that reaches just above her shoulders. She's dressed in what looks like a set of hospital scrubs, worn under a plain white labcoat. She also has a set of blue nitrile gloves on, which appear to be slightly worn and stretched out around the knuckles; she's had them on for a while. Finally, she has a small blue box fixed to her hip, which lets out a little electronic chirp every few steps; she doesn't appear to be paying much attention to it, either.

[Rebonack]

[Felicity's Lab]

Lapis gives a little gasp.

"THAT'S why none of you know how to buy talents! 'cuz you haven't got any relics to buy them with!"

Suddenly everything makes sense.

Also?

She plops the orb into the bowl with a glassy sounding TINK! It looks like a very strange marble and it will begin slowing heating up the bowl. Given that the thing is made of ceramic it will probably be fine. The orb isn't any hotter than the fire it was derived from.

Then someone else walks into the room!

"Hi I'm Lapis Lazuli I love your box it sounds pretty," the clearly completely normal half drow girl calls out. She looks to be about eight or nine in human terms. Her skin has a bluish tinge to it and her hair is raven black. She's wearing a child-sized version of the uniform that the non-combat support staff around VIGIL tend to be clad in.

[Earl of Purple]

Felicity's Lab

Felicity is a young woman, maybe twenty or so, with ash-grey skin and dark eyes. She's shaved all her hair off, even her eyebrows, and she's wearing a scorched blue dress, but she is not currently on fire. "Um, hi! I'm Felicity, I'm... sort of a research assistant, this is my lab. Can I help you?"

Felicity is not currently on fire, but she is holding a ceramic bowl containing a solid sphere of fire. It's not very big, apparently, so it might not be immediately visible from the doorway. Probably the best lab to have such a thing in, since this lab doesn't have anything that would burn. With the exceptions of the clothing and Eun's clipboard, everything here is metal, ceramic or similarly non-flammable. Also, ever so slightly damp.

[Ironsmith]

[Felicity's Lab]

Lapis gives a little gasp.

"THAT'S why none of you know how to buy talents! 'cuz you haven't got any relics to buy them with!"

Suddenly everything makes sense.

Also?

She plops the orb into the bowl with a glassy sounding TINK! It looks like a very strange marble and it will begin slowing heating up the bowl. Given that the thing is made of ceramic it will probably be fine. The orb isn't any hotter than the fire it was derived from.

Then someone else walks into the room!

"Hi I'm Lapis Lazuli I love your box it sounds pretty," the clearly completely normal half drow girl calls out. She looks to be about eight or nine in human terms. Her skin has a bluish tinge to it and her hair is raven black. She's wearing a child-sized version of the uniform that the non-combat support staff around VIGIL tend to be clad in.

Felicity's Lab

Felicity is a young woman, maybe twenty or so, with ash-grey skin and dark eyes. She's shaved all her hair off, even her eyebrows, and she's wearing a scorched blue dress, but she is not currently on fire. "Um, hi! I'm Felicity, I'm... sort of a research assistant, this is my lab. Can I help you?"

Felicity is not currently on fire, but she is holding a ceramic bowl containing a solid sphere of fire. It's not very big, apparently, so it might not be immediately visible from the doorway. Probably the best lab to have such a thing in, since this lab doesn't have anything that would burn. With the exceptions of the clothing and Eun's clipboard, everything here is metal, ceramic or similarly non-flammable. Also, ever so slightly damp.

[Felicity's Lab]

The woman looks up from her clipboard and seems to realize for the first time that she had, in fact, wandered into someone else's lab. She lets out a little gasp of surprise and drops her clipboard on seeing Lapis; she was getting a little more used to seeing odd characters around VIGIL, but the little blue girl still startled her and they'd never met yet. "Sorry! So sorry!" She stammers, picking her clipboard up and pressing it secretively against her chest. She closes her eyes and takes a calming breath before addressing Felicity. "Sorry." She says again, a little more steadily this time. "I didn't mean to barge in like this. I hope I'm not interrupting anything important."

[Rebonack]

[Felicity's Lab]

"Felicity asked me to put a ball of fire in that bowl," Lapis explains helpfully, pointing at the bowl in question.

The bowl is pretty unremarkable.

Ceramic meant to hold very hot objects.

The ball is a little more remarkable.

Imagine somewhere took a video of a large fire and then used video editing to smoosh it into a sphere.

Just a sphere of roiling fire.

Sitting there.

In a bowl.

It feels pretty hot, even from a distance.

[Zefir]

[Training Grounds]

"That makes sense," the paladin says. Makes sense why she'd ask that, then.

He starts to put away the things he was training with.

"I actually feel most comfortable surrounded by trees and such, so I guess I'm the opposite of you, then."

Having cleaned up after himself, he gets ready to leave the Training Grounds.

[Training Grounds]

"I guess your god is a nature type?" she says. "In my home world we have some bad experience with a nature god. You could say it's a constant war."

There is the question where go next. Wenomir seems to be nearby, but he is talking to someone else. As for other people, we might ask in Discord.

[Earl of Purple]

Felicity's Lab

"It's fine, come in! I could use an extra pair of eyes for this. My specialty's biochem, not that I actually completed my master's. Best I've got is a bachelor's. We're playing with fire, Lapis here turned it into a marble. I'm gonna get some tongs." Felicity walks over and opens a drawer, grabbing the tongs and using them to pick up the sphere of fire- so long as it remains solid, anyway. Eun might notice that despite the heat, Felicity's not wearing gloves. She probably should, actually, but she's not used to hot things hurting her any more.