Vigil VII: Strife Amidst the Clouds

[Earl of Purple]

Great Balls of Fire

"That makes an awful lot of sense. I've not been back to Inside since, well... I'm pretty sure I count as having dropped out of my course by now." It's been a few years, and she's got a superpower that makes biochemistry a little trickier than before.

Felicity puts the equipment on, grunting a little under the weight before adjusting it to be more comfortable. "Right, it's on. It's heat proof and non-flammable, right? Because if the ground's on fire, I will be too, very quickly." But Felicity's fine with being on fire. She's gotten used to the experience, which is just as well, really.

[Rebonack]

[Bed Quest]

"Some of them aren't," Lapis says quietly. "The bigger they get the less people-y they get. And even some of the small ones like me aren't very nice."

Then she drops her voice to a whisper.

"Mother told Mister Wenomir how to kill her just in case she ever stops being good. She loves the Nexus too much to let someone hurt it. Even if that someone is her."

Those are deep and dark secrets.

"I can do that," Lapis confirms. "Because sometimes people think it's creepy," Lapis says to answer that second question.

And then, as if on cue, Eun is thinking it's creepy.

"See? Miss Eun doesn't like it."

Though Anika might insist that Lapis do a read on her instead.


[Great Balls of Fire]

"Inside is a great source of... well, just about anything really!" Geneva laughs. "The outfit isn't flammable at all, barring some pretty extreme oxidizing agents. The outfit will be fine."

One door swooshes closed.

One door swooshes open.

And beyond that door?

Fire.

Lots of fire.

Everything, somehow, is on fire. The ground is literally made of solid fire. Felicity might be reminded of the appearance of the fireballs Lapis made.

A great rolling landscape stretches out before Felicity, grass made of waving flames swaying gently in a burning breeze. Trees of fire covered in leaves of rippling flame. It's like standing in a world made of flashing fire opal. It... it's beautiful Beyond imagining. There's no sun in the sky. Why would there be a need for one? There isn't a single shadow to be seen thanks to the incandescent light that permeates every inch of the world. The fire plane is, of course, very hot. Hot enough to be near instantly lethal for a normal human.

"There's a big red button on the scanner suite," Geneva calls in over the communicator. "Could you flip that for me?"

[Zefir]

[The Battered Shield]

"You seem to be lucky then." Mia says. "I haven't met anyone with a simular story and I have a church here that should draw their attention. On top it is well documented in my homeworld if anyone dimension traveled."

Mia listens to their Stories, but she doesn't seem to mind.

"The nexus is a mix of many people so most don't mind such couples. There is a fraction in inside who would. They are human only people so I guess they wouldn't allow it. Thanks to the size of the nexus and it's ever expanding borders everything goes here." her expression then goes a bit more seriouse and sad. "Even slavery and such are common in some parts of this world."

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

Anika raises one of her long eyebrows as Lapis whispers secrets. She shouldn't be surprised considering what Wenomir had told her about Zee, but that sounded pretty bad. She wasn't going to linger on the topic however.
"Well, y'know Lapis, people can be pretty bad too regardless if they're big or small. That's why they're so tricky, since you can never tell the difference."

A beat.

"Unless you have that information sense of yours I guess."

She gestures to Lapis. "In fact, that's part of the reason I want to check what you can see with it. If some bad empyrean seer uses that then at least I'd know what kind of information they get when they're looking at me. Maybe I could even use it to my advantage."

[Ironsmith]

[Bed Quest]

"Some of them aren't," Lapis says quietly. "The bigger they get the less people-y they get. And even some of the small ones like me aren't very nice."

Then she drops her voice to a whisper.

"Mother told Mister Wenomir how to kill her just in case she ever stops being good. She loves the Nexus too much to let someone hurt it. Even if that someone is her."

Those are deep and dark secrets.

"I can do that," Lapis confirms. "Because sometimes people think it's creepy," Lapis says to answer that second question.

And then, as if on cue, Eun is thinking it's creepy.

"See? Miss Eun doesn't like it."

Though Anika might insist that Lapis do a read on her instead.

[Bed Quest]

Anika raises one of her long eyebrows as Lapis whispers secrets. She shouldn't be surprised considering what Wenomir had told her about Zee, but that sounded pretty bad. She wasn't going to linger on the topic however.
"Well, y'know Lapis, people can be pretty bad too regardless if they're big or small. That's why they're so tricky, since you can never tell the difference."

A beat.

"Unless you have that information sense of yours I guess."

She gestures to Lapis. "In fact, that's part of the reason I want to check what you can see with it. If some bad empyrean seer uses that then at least I'd know what kind of information they get when they're looking at me. Maybe I could even use it to my advantage."

[Bed Quest]

Eun had to admit, Anika had a fair point. Lapis was going to be able to read them either way, and so was any other Seer. At least if they knew what such a scan would turn up, they could have a little peace of mind.

Still, no sense in having Lapis read them both. She'd get the same suite of stats regardless of whether she was looking at just one or both of them, right? ...Actually, she didn't know that for sure. Maybe she would, maybe she wouldn't. Eun would probably have to volunteer to find out.

With that in mind, she talks a calming breath and stands next to Anika again. She takes a little solace in the fact that she wouldn't actually have to worry about hiding anything from Lapis; she'd read her once already and insisted on calling Eun by her first name ever since. Even though she still greatly preferred "Doctor Bu". That's life, though, isn't it?

[Rebonack]

[Bed Quest]

See that's why Zee is like Onyxia.

Quest giving NPC that turns out to be a raid boss later.

But that also means Lapis is a welp and Anika has gotten fifty deekaypee minus a whole bunch of times for touching her.

"Well, I guess that's true..." Lapis admits.

Then?

She feels a bit better when Miss Eun decides to scoot back next to Anika again!

Oh! She must have changed her mind! It's true that she has already checked both of her friends here before but she really doesn't commit most of the information to memory since she can always look again later if she needs to remember something important. And so-

She checks again!

There's lots of information. Lapis isn't totally sure what all of it even means.

"What kinds of things did you want to know about what it says?" Lapis asks.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

But Lapis was a friendly welp!
Surely any reasonable raid leader would have mercy on Anika's meager DKP rating? She was already at 0!

She scoots back over to Eun and waves to Lapis.

Huh, her eyes didn't even when she used that sense. "First, how do we know if its used? I figured your eyes would start glowing or something." Anika admits. "But... uh... what's the information made up of? Numbers? Symbols? Words? Does our names appear?"

[Earl of Purple]

Great Balls of Fire

Felicity nods and walks through the door. The moment she steps out, she looks around and gasps. It's hot, but that's fine- she's used to hot. The boots and trousers she's wearing mean she's not yet on fire, but it's probably only a matter of time, but that's fine too- again, she's used to being on fire.

She presses the button and keeps an eye open for anything that might be a threat, turning to look at the portal she came through. She's interested in how finite this place is; she got the impression that it wasn't very big when Geneva asked her to do this, so she's interested to see if there's a border she can see, a black wall of obsidian stretching to the sky or something.

[Ironsmith]

[Bed Quest]

See that's why Zee is like Onyxia.

Quest giving NPC that turns out to be a raid boss later.

But that also means Lapis is a welp and Anika has gotten fifty deekaypee minus a whole bunch of times for touching her.

"Well, I guess that's true..." Lapis admits.

Then?

She feels a bit better when Miss Eun decides to scoot back next to Anika again!

Oh! She must have changed her mind! It's true that she has already checked both of her friends here before but she really doesn't commit most of the information to memory since she can always look again later if she needs to remember something important. And so-

She checks again!

There's lots of information. Lapis isn't totally sure what all of it even means.

"What kinds of things did you want to know about what it says?" Lapis asks.

[Bed Quest]

But Lapis was a friendly welp!
Surely any reasonable raid leader would have mercy on Anika's meager DKP rating? She was already at 0!

She scoots back over to Eun and waves to Lapis.

Huh, her eyes didn't even when she used that sense. "First, how do we know if its used? I figured your eyes would start glowing or something." Anika admits. "But... uh... what's the information made up of? Numbers? Symbols? Words? Does our names appear?"

[Bed Quest]

Eun glances around anxiously as her "stat window" comes up, worried about what it might say and unable to read it for herself.

Flappable Field Tech
Eun-Jung Bu

[Card Data]
[Operant Rating: ☆★★]
[Active Skill: Tech Boost]
Adjacent friendly agents have +☆.

Tactical Notes:
Low OR leaves her pretty vulnerable to picks, especially snipers. Works great as backrow support but can be a mediocre mid- to late-game draw. Recommend pairing with searchers or other stat-boosting agents for best effect.

[Character Data]
-Origins-
Mother: Kimberly McMewyn-Bu
Father: Byung-Ho Bu
Date of Birth: September 3rd, 2093 AD
City of Birth: Seoul, United Provinces of Korea
Siblings: None

-Medical Basics-
Age: 27
Sex: Female
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 99 lbs
BMI: 16.1 (Underweight)
Blood Type: B-
Nuerotype: B
Pregnant?: No, never.
Current Medications: Tranquilizers, Digestive Aids, Sensory Depressants
Other Conditions: Requires corrective lenses (2.25), allergic to shellfish, lactose intolerant

-Economic Status-
Net Worth: N/a
Patents Held: 12,613 (12 pending)
Charitable Donations: 190 thousand EC/year*

-Romance-
Status: Single
Seeking Partner?: No
Orientation: Heterosexual
Dates Since Majority: 12
Romantic Partners: 0

-Education-
Highest Degree Held: PHD in Organic Chemistry
Total Degrees Held: 19
High School GPA: 4.2
College GPA: 4.4
UCCT Score: 998 (99th percentile)

-Recreation-
Most Frequent Hobby: Listening to music
Hobbies: Work-related projects, listening to music, gaming, reading, drawing
Favorite Sport: N/a

-Metafictional Data-
-She is UNAWARE of her status as a fictional character

[Rebonack]

[Bed Quest]

"I don't think you do?" Lapis replies, puzzled. "Why would my eyes glow when I'm looking at things closer? Do yours do that?"

She isn't being snide with that last question.

She's honestly curious!

Anika's eyes seem like they glow an awful lot maybe they glow MORE when she's looking at something really carefully?

"No it isn't like that," Lapis shakes her head at the question of how she actually sees things. "It's not words or numbers or anything. It's ideas. Umm... I don't know how to explain it."

Lapis is seeing raw information. Not an archival system or an encryption system for storing or transmitting information. She's seeing the immaterial thing itself. But she doesn't know the words to use to describe that.

Which is too bad.

"I know your name and your job. Like you're a druid, Anika! With 'shape changer' as your sub-job? Oh! And there's a thing about how to fight shape-changers. It says sealing their ability to be different things by invoking the Shape sphere makes it harder of them to fight back. But I wouldn't ever do that since you're my friend maybe if we ever meet a druid that's a bad-guy then I can try that," Lapis rambles. "It also says that you've beaten up fifteen goblins which I think might be a lot? It says that since you've beaten up agents of the Dreamheart you might want to be friends with agents of the Empyrean like me but I already know you want to be friends. And is says you haven't got any dragon kill points but I don't know what those are."

It doesn't specifically say any of these things.

This is all just Lapis' interpretation of the information she's getting.

"And Miss Eun you're flagged as a 'critter' that means you're harmless and wouldn't fight which means even most of the mean empyreans would probably leave you alone except if maybe an arena happened here but there are lots of really tough people at VIGIL so I think you would probably be okay. I don't like using 'critter' or 'creep' for people since neither of those words sound very nice but that's what the other Aspirants are always calling normal people," Lapis explains in her typical rambling fashion. "Your job says 'Flappable Field Tech' I think that means you get scared sometimes but that's okay everyone gets scared you shouldn't feel bad and your oh are is one star out of three and you give an extra star to other friends nearby? I don't know what that thing means, either. I think maybe you're good at helping people do things with technology? You're weak to picks and snipers which I guess are sort of the same thing as a Lancer and also you're allergic to shellfish. That one's really sad since there were these really fancy shrimp I had at Cora's house one time and they tasted so great but I guess you can't try them since that would make you sick."

Lapis is just a fountainhead of tactical information.


[Great Balls of Fire]

A black wall of obsidian would suggest that the edge of reality is absorbing all light that touches it. That would mean the pocket universe is constantly bleeding off energy?

Instead?

Should Felicity peer off into the distance she would get the impression that she is inside of a giant fun-house with incomprehensibly large mirrors surrounding her. The reflective surfaces are so huge and so distant that she might not even realize that they exist right away. The one that would probably be most apparent would be looking straight up since it would look like the surrounding terrain is echoed directly above her exactly five hundred feet away. Looking back over her shoulder, she'll be able to see a roughly door-shaped window in reality surrounded by a prismatic haze with the inside of the air-lock chamber on the other side.

If something threatening DOES she up she would be able to sprint back pretty quickly.

And so!

Button is pressed!

"Great, I'm getting video and audio feed. And some interesting gravitational wave readings. I had suspected this pocket universe was tiny but... Could you hold that sensor suite above your head for just a moment?"

Before she can comply the box hums and vibrates in her arms. Once she holds it aloft it'll do so again.

"Would you mind walking forward approximately ten meters? I'd like to take another sounding."

So far so good.

Plenty of fire and zero monsters.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

"My eyes glow all the time, Lapis! It's my, uh, soul I think. Or maybe just magic or something. Either way, I still think its weird when people's eyes don't glow, especially if they're doing magic." Since if Anika's eyes were magic then if people did magic their eyes should glow too right? Since there was magic being channeled through their body?

"Wait, it also gives you tips of what abilities to use against me?" Anika inquires as she crosses her arms over her chest. "No offense to you Lapis but that sounds super-lazy. I have to figure out all that myself!" Really, these people must either be playing on easy or still be stuck in the tutorial.

Or maybe it's just since Lapis was a noob and still had the tooltips activated?

"But all of that is good to know." Anika nods thoughtfully when an idea suddenly occurs to her. "...how many goblins have you beaten up, Lapis? Obviously we can't beat up dragons. I mean, your mom is kind of one right? There be no way she'd just let us beat her multiple times just to improve our stats."

[Ironsmith]

[Bed Quest]

"I don't think you do?" Lapis replies, puzzled. "Why would my eyes glow when I'm looking at things closer? Do yours do that?"

She isn't being snide with that last question.

She's honestly curious!

Anika's eyes seem like they glow an awful lot maybe they glow MORE when she's looking at something really carefully?

"No it isn't like that," Lapis shakes her head at the question of how she actually sees things. "It's not words or numbers or anything. It's ideas. Umm... I don't know how to explain it."

Lapis is seeing raw information. Not an archival system or an encryption system for storing or transmitting information. She's seeing the immaterial thing itself. But she doesn't know the words to use to describe that.

Which is too bad.

"I know your name and your job. Like you're a druid, Anika! With 'shape changer' as your sub-job? Oh! And there's a thing about how to fight shape-changers. It says sealing their ability to be different things by invoking the Shape sphere makes it harder of them to fight back. But I wouldn't ever do that since you're my friend maybe if we ever meet a druid that's a bad-guy then I can try that," Lapis rambles. "It also says that you've beaten up fifteen goblins which I think might be a lot? It says that since you've beaten up agents of the Dreamheart you might want to be friends with agents of the Empyrean like me but I already know you want to be friends. And is says you haven't got any dragon kill points but I don't know what those are."

It doesn't specifically say any of these things.

This is all just Lapis' interpretation of the information she's getting.

"And Miss Eun you're flagged as a 'critter' that means you're harmless and wouldn't fight which means even most of the mean empyreans would probably leave you alone except if maybe an arena happened here but there are lots of really tough people at VIGIL so I think you would probably be okay. I don't like using 'critter' or 'creep' for people since neither of those words sound very nice but that's what the other Aspirants are always calling normal people," Lapis explains in her typical rambling fashion. "Your job says 'Flappable Field Tech' I think that means you get scared sometimes but that's okay everyone gets scared you shouldn't feel bad and your oh are is one star out of three and you give an extra star to other friends nearby? I don't know what that thing means, either. I think maybe you're good at helping people do things with technology? You're weak to picks and snipers which I guess are sort of the same thing as a Lancer and also you're allergic to shellfish. That one's really sad since there were these really fancy shrimp I had at Cora's house one time and they tasted so great but I guess you can't try them since that would make you sick."

Lapis is just a fountainhead of tactical information.

[Bed Quest]

"My eyes glow all the time, Lapis! It's my, uh, soul I think. Or maybe just magic or something. Either way, I still think its weird when people's eyes don't glow, especially if they're doing magic." Since if Anika's eyes were magic then if people did magic their eyes should glow too right? Since there was magic being channeled through their body?

"Wait, it also gives you tips of what abilities to use against me?" Anika inquires as she crosses her arms over her chest. "No offense to you Lapis but that sounds super-lazy. I have to figure out all that myself!" Really, these people must either be playing on easy or still be stuck in the tutorial.

Or maybe it's just since Lapis was a noob and still had the tooltips activated?

"But all of that is good to know." Anika nods thoughtfully when an idea suddenly occurs to her. "...how many goblins have you beaten up, Lapis? Obviously we can't beat up dragons. I mean, your mom is kind of one right? There be no way she'd just let us beat her multiple times just to improve our stats."

[Bed Quest]

For her part, Eun has no idea what to make of what Lapis told her. For most of that information, the fourth wall stood directly between her and comprehension. She could at least confirm the shellfish thing, though. And while she found it a little distressing that whatever cosmic forces Lapis was tapping into described her as "flappable", she had to admit they weren't exactly wrong. Also, wasn't everyone vulnerable to snipers? That's kinda the whole point.

Still. Lapis assured her that she wasn't going to be a target for less savory empyreans (whatever those were), so... hooray?

Eun just keeps walking along and listening to them talk about glowy eyes. Biologically implausible though they may be.

[5a Violista]

[The Battered Shield]

"There's a lot of things around here that are pretty normal," the paladin says, agreeing. Not everything should be normal, but look around enough and you'll find someone who thinks it's normal.

Of course, he hasn't met anybody who was in his same situation yet, but that's okay. He wouldn't really wish it on anybody.

"How long have you two been together?" Zophiel then asks.

[Ironsmith]

[The Battered Shield]

"You seem to be lucky then." Mia says. "I haven't met anyone with a simular story and I have a church here that should draw their attention. On top it is well documented in my homeworld if anyone dimension traveled."

Mia listens to their Stories, but she doesn't seem to mind.

"The nexus is a mix of many people so most don't mind such couples. There is a fraction in inside who would. They are human only people so I guess they wouldn't allow it. Thanks to the size of the nexus and it's ever expanding borders everything goes here." her expression then goes a bit more seriouse and sad. "Even slavery and such are common in some parts of this world."

[The Battered Shield]

"There's a lot of things around here that are pretty normal," the paladin says, agreeing. Not everything should be normal, but look around enough and you'll find someone who thinks it's normal.

Of course, he hasn't met anybody who was in his same situation yet, but that's okay. He wouldn't really wish it on anybody.

"How long have you two been together?" Zophiel then asks.

[The Battered Shield]

"Really? I'll have to introduce you sometime. I'm sure you would get along with the adult. What was his name again? Etude? Sonata? It was some kind of song, I remember..."

Emet shrugs. He remembered, of course, but that was the kind of nuance he couldn't communicate well.

"But yeah, I've heard all about the slavery going on in less savory parts of the Nexus. Some big to-do going on in Skyside along those lines, from what the grapevine tells me. Sounds like the kind of mess my kid brother would jump headfirst into." Angela shakes her head, tsking her tongue. "That man is insufferable sometimes."

When Zophiel asks how long she and Emet have been together, she purses her lips in thought. "Tough question. Officially, less than a year. But then again, Emet was my moving-out present. He's been at my side for almost fifty years. I wouldn't describe our initial relationship as romantic, especially since he wasn't even sapient at the time..." She frowns. "...Oh, good lord, there's no way to describe what happened without sounding creepy on my part, is there?"

Emet shakes his head and lets out a stuttered breeep that sounds vaguely like a laugh.

"See, drones like Emet here don't start off with human levels of intelligence. When they're first assembled, they can only learn in the vaguest sense; they're meant to be taught a few simple tasks and then turned loose to do the job until they eventually break down." She swirls her drink in her hand as she talks. "But, with careful nurturing and a few happy accidents, a few have been known to develop a general intelligence comparable to humans. When it became clear Emet was developing his own interests, I started giving up more and more system access until he became fully autonomous. We already had a strong bond by then and things kinda went from there." She takes a swig and frowns. "I tried to do this as ethically as possible, but it's mostly uncharted territory. The closest historical equivalents start with gross dehumanization and only get worse afterwards. Personally, I get why there are laws against such things; there's such a large power imbalance baked into the relationship that allowing it on a large scale would bound to lead to abuse. It's just a little inconvenient for people like Emet and me."

[Rebonack]

[Bed Quest]

"I don't do magic though, Anika," Lapis insists, doubling back to one of their earlier conversations. And this would seem to support her point though, right? If you do magic then your eyes glow. Lapis' eyes do not glow. Therefor Lapis does not do magic. Completely logically sound. "Scanning needs to be a good thing to do because otherwise I can just sword a bad-guy instead. It's supposed to be so I can help people on my team and find bad-guy weaknesses. Helping people is great, I love it, but the other Aspirants didn't they only cared about blowing things up faster."

Finding weaknesses is a very important job.

On the topic of goblins Lapis looks thoughtful.

"Only a few? They might not have been goblins they might have been different faeries I wasn't sure since I hadn't picked a class yet and I was still just learning things. That was the first mission I went on for VIGIL and I've gotten WAY STRONGER but Miss Cessie and Mister Wenomir won't let me go on more it isn't fair," Lapis pouts. Why do they have to be so unfair? Is it because they don't think she's good enough to go on missions? She does so many important chores around VIGIL and she has practiced SO MUCH but they still won't let her go! She's had to sneak off a few times to do quests but that isn't quite the same as getting a real quest from the people in charge.

But then?

Lapis has a cunning idea!

"Anika what if the next time you go out for a VIGIL mission I sneak out with you? Then when we get back you can tell Miss Cessie and Mister Wenomir how much I helped and then they'll know I'm not bad at doing missions!"

This is clearly the best plan and nothing could go wrong.

Then Lapis quite suddenly perks up when her quest log pings at her. A new quest!

Help Anika fix her bed.

Oh.

She was doing that one already. Lapis heaves a sigh and accepts the doing chores quest. That's the only sort she ever gets to do these days.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

"It's just another kind of magic though." Anika insists. "Which... looks different."

She honestly didn't want to linger on that subject though so Lapis mentioning sneaking out is welcome in a way. Eun's presence complicated things though.

"Uhh... of course I can't do that, Lapis." She says with a glance at Eun. "Since that would be wrong, especially if we'd do it tomorrow." She turns and winks at the girl.

[Ironsmith]

[Bed Quest]

"I don't do magic though, Anika," Lapis insists, doubling back to one of their earlier conversations. And this would seem to support her point though, right? If you do magic then your eyes glow. Lapis' eyes do not glow. Therefor Lapis does not do magic. Completely logically sound. "Scanning needs to be a good thing to do because otherwise I can just sword a bad-guy instead. It's supposed to be so I can help people on my team and find bad-guy weaknesses. Helping people is great, I love it, but the other Aspirants didn't they only cared about blowing things up faster."

Finding weaknesses is a very important job.

On the topic of goblins Lapis looks thoughtful.

"Only a few? They might not have been goblins they might have been different faeries I wasn't sure since I hadn't picked a class yet and I was still just learning things. That was the first mission I went on for VIGIL and I've gotten WAY STRONGER but Miss Cessie and Mister Wenomir won't let me go on more it isn't fair," Lapis pouts. Why do they have to be so unfair? Is it because they don't think she's good enough to go on missions? She does so many important chores around VIGIL and she has practiced SO MUCH but they still won't let her go! She's had to sneak off a few times to do quests but that isn't quite the same as getting a real quest from the people in charge.

But then?

Lapis has a cunning idea!

"Anika what if the next time you go out for a VIGIL mission I sneak out with you? Then when we get back you can tell Miss Cessie and Mister Wenomir how much I helped and then they'll know I'm not bad at doing missions!"

This is clearly the best plan and nothing could go wrong.

Then Lapis quite suddenly perks up when her quest log pings at her. A new quest!

Help Anika fix her bed.

Oh.

She was doing that one already. Lapis heaves a sigh and accepts the doing chores quest. That's the only sort she ever gets to do these days.

[Bed Quest]

"It's just another kind of magic though." Anika insists. "Which... looks different."

She honestly didn't want to linger on that subject though so Lapis mentioning sneaking out is welcome in a way. Eun's presence complicated things though.

"Uhh... of course I can't do that, Lapis." She says with a glance at Eun. "Since that would be wrong, especially if we'd do it tomorrow." She turns and winks at the girl.

[Bed Quest]

Oh god.

Anika just put Eun in a bit of an awkward position.

See, as her absurd number of degrees and Patents clearly indicated, Eun wasn't stupid. She completely understood the subtext here and would definitely know they were planning something. Which wouldn't be so bad if she didn't also know the higher-ups would be very much against it. If they went through with it, she'd have to tell them. There were Rules about this kind of thing.

So, in effect, Anika had given her three options:

1) Report it now and let Wenomir take care of it. This was unlikely to earn her any points with anyone; nobody likes a tattletale and she'd have to go behind Anika and Lapis's back to do it.

2) Wait until they go, and then report it. All the drawbacks of the above, with the added pain of possibly bad timing.

3) Tell them now that she'd have to report it, which still probably wouldn't stop them and would give them ample warning she couldn't be trusted if a conflict between them and the boss came up.

God damn it. How did anyone ever manage to have a social life with this much capacity for accidental backstabbing?

Okay, okay. Maybe she could talk them out of this.

"I don't think that'd be such a good idea." Eun says shakily. "If mister Wenomir doesn't think you should go out yet, he probably has a good reason. Besides, Lapis, you've just made two impossible objects that really merit further study. I was thinking we probably could set up something tomorrow."

Eun glances between the two of them nervously, really hoping that was enough to resolve the crisis.

[Rebonack]

[Bed Quest]

Oh.

Anika just told Lapis that they can't do that.

And Miss Eun said that they shouldn't do that, either.

"Oh... I guess that wasn't a good idea, then," Lapis responds with a dejected sigh.

It should be immediately obvious to both Anika and Eun that Lapis managed to completely miss the glaringly obvious subtext on Anika's statement.

This is not because Lapis is stupid.

Rather, it is because the Light of Truth burns on the little girl's tongue and the concept of lying is largely alien to her.

This probably has something to do with why she's so earnest and forthright about relating what she's thinking and feeling at any given time. There isn't an ounce of guile in her.

Lapis scuffs her shoe against the floor as she walks. "I think Mister Wenomir thinks of me like I'm a normal mortal little girl but I'm not. I'm an Aspirant. Doing quests and things is what makes me get bigger and stronger."

[Earl of Purple]

Great Balls of Fire

If the edge of reality is absorbing energy, that'd explain entropy, wouldn't it? Or does Earl not understand entropic physics, in addition to other physics Earl doesn't understand? Like time and gravity.

Felicity tightens her grip as the box hums and vibrates, before raising her arms- and the sensor suite- above her head. She'll try to keep it steady overhead as she walks forward, keeping an eye on the burning ground to make sure she doesn't trip. The fact the flames are constantly moving makes this trickier, since she can't tell if something is a solid flame or not, and she may trip. If she does trip, her hands are over her head, so she might struggle at catching herself.

[Rebonack]

[Great Balls of Fire]

If that question were asked aloud then Geneva would be happy to explain that entropy isn't so much a decrease in energy in the absolute sense, but rather a decrease in energy that's useful for work. Energy just bleeding out into nowhere would mean that the pocket universe is an open system, which universes are sometimes. Especially weird small ones like this one.

Anywho!

The great quest of walking around holding a box continues!

"Hmm... interesting," comes Geneva's voice over the coms. "Could you turn to your right and walk another ten meters? I think that should get me the information I need to answer this particular question."

Answer it eventually.

The data will still need to be processed.

People often aren't aware how much science consists of sitting around waiting for a program to run.

Meanwhile!

As Felicity is walking she may notice something interesting! It looks like a bird of some kind? A bird made of fire. It's quite well camouflaged and if it hadn't just moved she likely would have missed it. It scurries away from Felicity, dragging one wing and making a loud popping noise like a log cracking in a fireplace. The bird appears to be trying to get her attention.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

Good, Lapis was playing along!

"Whatever do you mean, Eun? I already told her it was a bad idea." She glances at the girl. "Right, Lapis? We're not planning anything." She winks at Lapis again which is really undercutting what she's trying to do here...

[Ironsmith]

[Bed Quest]

Oh.

Anika just told Lapis that they can't do that.

And Miss Eun said that they shouldn't do that, either.

"Oh... I guess that wasn't a good idea, then," Lapis responds with a dejected sigh.

It should be immediately obvious to both Anika and Eun that Lapis managed to completely miss the glaringly obvious subtext on Anika's statement.

This is not because Lapis is stupid.

Rather, it is because the Light of Truth burns on the little girl's tongue and the concept of lying is largely alien to her.

This probably has something to do with why she's so earnest and forthright about relating what she's thinking and feeling at any given time. There isn't an ounce of guile in her.

Lapis scuffs her shoe against the floor as she walks. "I think Mister Wenomir thinks of me like I'm a normal mortal little girl but I'm not. I'm an Aspirant. Doing quests and things is what makes me get bigger and stronger."

[Bed Quest]

Good, Lapis was playing along!

"Whatever do you mean, Eun? I already told her it was a bad idea." She glances at the girl. "Right, Lapis? We're not planning anything." She winks at Lapis again which is really undercutting what she's trying to do here...

[Bed Quest]

Eun ponders this a moment, going over what Lapis had said in her head. "That's... that's a nasty Catch-22, isn't it?" She says finally. "Can't go out to get stronger because you don't look like you could handle it because you can't go out to get stronger. Hm."

Anika had the right-ish sort of idea about fixing this. At some point, Lapis was going to have to break out of that cycle, with or without approval from the higher-ups. However, she still hated the idea of going behind their backs to do it. If nothing else, undermining the authority they all reported to was a recipe for disaster later down the road. The best course of action would then be to get their approval, which shouldn't be too hard; Lapis already had reality-bending powers, it was hard to imagine her being in a situation where she couldn't defend herself. What they really needed was a relatively safe way of demonstrating her capabilities to Wenomir and Cessie. Training dummies could work, but she had a suspicion Lapis wasn't about to agree to that. Finally, she has an idea.

"You know, I have a friend over in HALO with some spare hardware laying around." Eun says with a smile. "It should be about on par with the average... 'creep' out in the Nexus proper. If you want, I could have him bring some over. It should be strong enough to pose a challenge, but we can pull the plug on it if it proves to be too much. And I know he's been itching to dust the cobwebs off it. Would you be interested in that at all, Lapis?"

[Zefir]

[BATTERED SHIELD]

Mia appears a bit confused how she phrases the people as Adult. Sounds a bit wrong.

"Maybe you can send them to DMside in riverside." She replies.

"I can t say i have heared simular stories, even thought i come from a tech heavy world. I guess that has to do how we see machines in general."

[Rebonack]

[Bed Quest]

Lapis glances between Anika and Eun, looking a little confused. "I don't... think so?"

She's pretty sure they aren't planning on anything at least...

Right?

Then Eun suggests something pretty neat!

"Hardware? Like... a robot?" Lapis asks. She's fought some robots before! Those ones that it's Eao's job to keep an eye on! They were really mean and pretty tough. "I've fought robots before I'm good at that."

And she's learned some new tricks since the last time she tangled with them, too!

Law of Blades is definitely a big deal, in Lapis opinion.

"Is the robot strong enough that if I can beat it do you think Mister Wenomir and Miss Cessie will believe that I'm tough enough for missions?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

Was Eun on to them? Drat.

Well, her idea didn't sound that bad either...

"I could talk to Wenomir too. If he sees you beating those things left and right I'm sure he realize you're not just some little kid, Lapis. I'll put in a good for you."

[Ironsmith]

[Bed Quest]

Lapis glances between Anika and Eun, looking a little confused. "I don't... think so?"

She's pretty sure they aren't planning on anything at least...

Right?

Then Eun suggests something pretty neat!

"Hardware? Like... a robot?" Lapis asks. She's fought some robots before! Those ones that it's Eao's job to keep an eye on! They were really mean and pretty tough. "I've fought robots before I'm good at that."

And she's learned some new tricks since the last time she tangled with them, too!

Law of Blades is definitely a big deal, in Lapis opinion.

"Is the robot strong enough that if I can beat it do you think Mister Wenomir and Miss Cessie will believe that I'm tough enough for missions?"

[Bed Quest]

Was Eun on to them? Drat.

Well, her idea didn't sound that bad either...

"I could talk to Wenomir too. If he sees you beating those things left and right I'm sure he realize you're not just some little kid, Lapis. I'll put in a good for you."

[Bed Quest]

Eun smiles. "Exactly. And if it turns out you aren't ready, at least we'll know more specifically how and why and can act on that." Not that she expected that to be the result. If Lapis could repeat her "tiny star" trick with any degree of regularity, that robot wasn't going to stand a chance. "I'll message him later tonight and see what we can arrange."

Then Eun frowns, looking over at the signs on the wall denoting the rooms they were passing. If Anika ever told her where her room was, she'd be able to tell they overshot it slightly. All this talk was a little distracting.

[Rebonack]

[Bed Quest]

Frankly any sort of application of an empyrean's Spheres can be potentially catastrophic for something on the receiving end. The main problem Lapis has is that she hasn't really thought of all the applications she could potentially use the ability to casually warp specific aspects of reality. In spite of her insistence to the contrary she is still just a child and she's still figuring things out. She had no idea that the fireball trick would even work but it did.

That's one of the upsides to being able to alter the state of matter a thing is in.

"Could you Anika? That would be really wonderful I would love it! I know Mister Wenomir likes you if you tell him I can do missions I know he'll believe you."

Or at least she's hoping he'll believe her.

At the talk of potentially NOT being ready Lapis tries to look as fierce as possible!

Given that she is a small child who appears to be nine and a half or so she does not, in fact, look very fierce.

"I can definitely beat robots! The ones I helped my sister Eao with were REALLY strong! They had guns and other things."

Having other things surely marks them as highly capable combat robots.

"Is your room around here Miss Eun?" Lapis asks, looking about as well.

[Earl of Purple]

Great Balls of Fire

Felicity does as she's told, looking around as she does. "There's a bird, it seems injured. Or it might have a nest, and it's faking to lure me away from its eggs. I'm going to follow because I don't want it to attack me if I stand to close to its nest, and if it is injured maybe I can help. Can you see it with this thing?" Felicity had to go egg hunting for some odd things whilst she worked for Professor Payne, so she knows a few bird tricks.

[5a Violista]

[The Battered Shield]

Zophiel agrees that that does sound a little creepy.

But, well,
honestly,
The most he knows about robots is that they have something to do with angels. And so he's never really had many chances to interact with them.
"I see," he says, not really understanding it all. "Makes sense."
He's starting to think Mia and these two would be having a much livelier conversation if it was just them, because they seem to understand what each other is talking about.

Maybe he can come up with an excuse to leave so that they can talk about what it seems like they want to talk about, without feeling bad for trying to keep him included in the discussion.
"Oh," he says. "Actually, I might have to turn down eating here for now: I normally eat at the same time as my forest shark and she'll probably be pretty lonely if she learns I ate without her."

[Ironsmith]

[BATTERED SHIELD]

Mia appears a bit confused how she phrases the people as Adult. Sounds a bit wrong.

"Maybe you can send them to DMside in riverside." She replies.

"I can t say i have heared simular stories, even thought i come from a tech heavy world. I guess that has to do how we see machines in general."

[The Battered Shield]

Zophiel agrees that that does sound a little creepy.

But, well,
honestly,
The most he knows about robots is that they have something to do with angels. And so he's never really had many chances to interact with them.
"I see," he says, not really understanding it all. "Makes sense."
He's starting to think Mia and these two would be having a much livelier conversation if it was just them, because they seem to understand what each other is talking about.

Maybe he can come up with an excuse to leave so that they can talk about what it seems like they want to talk about, without feeling bad for trying to keep him included in the discussion.
"Oh," he says. "Actually, I might have to turn down eating here for now: I normally eat at the same time as my forest shark and she'll probably be pretty lonely if she learns I ate without her."

[The Battered Shield]

"I might just have to do that. Provided I can find the man back, of course." Angela smiles.

That is, of course, until Zophiel excuses himself. "Well, I certainly won't keep you if you aren't comfortable." She gives him a small smile. "Which you certainly seem to be. Feeling a little third-wheely, are we?"

Emet shakes his head and wags his finger. Ah-ah-ah, he beeps.

"Oh, you're right. That was rude of me, wasn't it?" Angela sighs. "Sorry. It's just... well, it's a little obvious, isn't it? I don't need a synaptic readout to see you're not very comfortable."