Vigil VII: Strife Amidst the Clouds

[Rebonack]

[Great Balls of Fire]

"I'm getting a visual, yes," Geneva replies. "That certainly looks like nest luring behavior to me. Probably has young or eggs nearby? Or whatever equivalent birds made of fire would have."

The biology of fire-based organisms are a complete mystery to Geneva.

"It looks like it's hobbling off in the direction I was needing you to go, so that's fine. Just be careful, Felicity. Don't focus too much on the bird. Try to maintain awareness of your surroundings."

Geneva doesn't want Felicity to get so tunnel visioned on the bird that she doesn't notice a... giant flaming trap door spider.

Or something.

The sensor suite once again vibrates!

And the bird, seeing that Felicity is following, makes some loud crackling noises, flutters one of its wings uselessly, and scampers further away.

It is making sure that she can both see and hear it really easily.

Crackling again, it runs toward a large mound and hops on top of it.

[Shadowcaller]

[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.

[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.

[Bed Quest]

Anika seems to be moving in the direction of something which is presumably her room. "Don't worry, Lapis. I'll tell him how good a fighter you are." A beat. "Though, uh, to be safe I should probably write it down so I can remember it. Hard to keep track of everything."

Suddenly, she stops. "...speaking of remembering things."

The druid turns around and walks up to a door they recently walked past. "Here's my room." She inserts a key and the door swings open. "Be on the lookout for goblins. I've had a lot of trouble with them recently."

[Ironsmith]

[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.

[Bed Quest]

Anika seems to be moving in the direction of something which is presumably her room. "Don't worry, Lapis. I'll tell him how good a fighter you are." A beat. "Though, uh, to be safe I should probably write it down so I can remember it. Hard to keep track of everything."

Suddenly, she stops. "...speaking of remembering things."

The druid turns around and walks up to a door they recently walked past. "Here's my room." She inserts a key and the door swings open. "Be on the lookout for goblins. I've had a lot of trouble with them recently."

[Bed Quest]

"But we're in the middle of VIGIL headquarters" Eun was tempted to say. There was no way Anika hadn't noticed that particular detail, which carried the implication that their location didn't stop goblins from pestering her.

...Well. Eun wasn't going to be getting much sleep tonight.

"...Right. Okay." Eun takes a deep breath and walks into the room, behind the two reality-bending girls accompanying her if possible. No way she was going in there first.

[Rebonack]

[Bed Quest]

Anika definitely isn't reality bending she just knows druid magic so she can turn into a bear.

That's a normal thing not a weird thing.

"I learned that there are lots of sorts of goblins," Lapis says as they enter Anika's room. "Some of them are small and grey and have got eyes like foxes. Some of them are green and have big noses and like building things. Some of them have tiny noses and lots of really big, really weird looking teeth. Some of them are human-colored and all lumpy and REALLY mean and stink like the Dreamheart. Some of them haven't got any eyes they've just got a big nose-hole for a face! But they're all called goblins even through they're all different sorts of people."

Lapis is on to something, here.

"And that's true of elves and dragons and angels and demons and LOTS of things! Except humans. Humans all seem like they're using the same word for the same thing. I've never met a human that's a lizard."

Lapis isn't sure why this is the case.

Why are humans so boring and the same when everything else is so different?

[Earl of Purple]

Great Balls of Fire

"If it's a true phoenix, it'll have eggs and chicks. But it might not be, because I don't think it's hot enough in here to incubate phoenix eggs. Normally they go for volcanoes I think." Felicity's not too familiar with phoenixes, but she's done some research when she considered freelancing as a superhero/villain, but her power's just not great against bullets so she decided against it. "You're right, if it's got behaviour to lure predators away from its eggs or nest, then there's probably something here that would want to eat them." She looks around, expecting... something. A firefox, or a sundog, or something.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

"This goblin was orange and really annoying." It was small too of course but to Anika most people were small. "Stole food straight out my fridge she did." The druid gestures towards the small fridge on the other side of the room.
The room is a standard affair, the only thing that stands out is how big some of the items (like the bed) in here are and how messy it is.
Anika gestures to the broken bed. Looks like the middle of it has nearly snapped into two and the whole thing collapsed on the floor. "Well, here it is, Eun. And what's what about humans, Lapis? Aren't there a whole lot of different ones?"

[Zefir]

[The Battered Shield]

Mia looks confused at Zophiel. The whole time they were on the way or here a forest shark wasn't mentioned. She didn't thought his liking for the woods would be simular to those of a druid or something a like. On top Mia wasn't going for a deep tech talk since she knew others might not follow up. That Angela spells it out just confirms it.

"Well, we did come here for some jobs to do after all, but I agree that nothing here matches what we were looking for." Any people who are against such relationships is nothing you can force to change and if they try that wouldn't help for long.
"We should go and seek for some of the other members. If you can't stay we can meet up later."

[Ironsmith]

[Bed Quest]

Anika definitely isn't reality bending she just knows druid magic so she can turn into a bear.

That's a normal thing not a weird thing.

"I learned that there are lots of sorts of goblins," Lapis says as they enter Anika's room. "Some of them are small and grey and have got eyes like foxes. Some of them are green and have big noses and like building things. Some of them have tiny noses and lots of really big, really weird looking teeth. Some of them are human-colored and all lumpy and REALLY mean and stink like the Dreamheart. Some of them haven't got any eyes they've just got a big nose-hole for a face! But they're all called goblins even through they're all different sorts of people."

Lapis is on to something, here.

"And that's true of elves and dragons and angels and demons and LOTS of things! Except humans. Humans all seem like they're using the same word for the same thing. I've never met a human that's a lizard."

Lapis isn't sure why this is the case.

Why are humans so boring and the same when everything else is so different?

[Bed Quest]

"This goblin was orange and really annoying." It was small too of course but to Anika most people were small. "Stole food straight out my fridge she did." The druid gestures towards the small fridge on the other side of the room.
The room is a standard affair, the only thing that stands out is how big some of the items (like the bed) in here are and how messy it is.
Anika gestures to the broken bed. Looks like the middle of it has nearly snapped into two and the whole thing collapsed on the floor. "Well, here it is, Eun. And what's what about humans, Lapis? Aren't there a whole lot of different ones?"

[Bed Quest]

Well, that didn't sound so bad. If Anika was having trouble with one specific goblin raiding her fridge, that was a whole other matter.

Eun leans over to examine the broken bed, looking to see what supports had failed and where. "It might be because so many of us are from the same place." Eun points out, producing a penlight-like device from her Hotbox and running it over the splintered bedframe. "I haven't seen many humans here who aren't from Earth, either directly before coming to the Nexus or before wherever they're native to now. What's more interesting to me is why there are so many things that are definitely not human but still look quite a bit like us. And I'm not just talking about the ones that go out of their way to look human." She gives a little gesture toward Anika. "You were born like this, right? Don't you find it curious that there are so few visible differences between us? I mean, in terms of evolution, there's no reason either of us couldn't have been a giant, sapient scorpion or something."

At least, she didn't think so. Maybe there was. This wouldn't be the first example of convergent evolution she'd ever seen. She's vaguely reminded of Carcinisation; nature's tendency to make more crabs. Maybe a humanoid shape served a similar evolutionary niche for sapient life?

[Rebonack]

[Great Balls of Fire]

There don't appear to be any predators leaping out and attacking Felicity or the bird or anything else.

And that's good, right?

"I'm not sure if that's a phoenix," Geneva admits. "It looks more like some kind of shore bird. Except it's made of fire."

Granted, everything here is made of fire so that shouldn't come as much of shock.

"Okay... looks like this pocket universe is exactly one kilometer cubed. That's fascinating. It seems likely that this is an artificial universe," Geneva muses. "I don't think exploring too deeply is a good idea. Not yet, anyway. But I would like to see if there's some sort of control mechanism at the center of the universe."

The bird continues sitting on top of the strange mound staring at Felicity.

It crackles and walks around in a little circle, dragging its wing.


[Bed Quest]

That poor bed.

It should have been more resilient.

"Humans aren't different colors they're all different sorts of brown," Lapis points out. From dark brown to really really light brown. Everyone is brown. Even Lapis is sort of brown! Just brown with blue in it giving her an interesting dusky skin tone.

Then?

She ponders.

"I think Mother was from Earth before she came to the Nexus," Lapis comments. "And I talked to one of those really colorful ponies once time and THEY said they were from Earth, too, but they weren't a human."

Obviously.

They were a pony. Ponies aren't humans.

[5a Violista]

[The Battered Shield]

Zophiel gets the feeling that two of these three people are either making weird assumptions about him or are having a grave misunderstanding about him.

...
Well, to be honest, it's not like he particularly cares what sort of weird things they're thinking about him. He's already a little overdue for dying, so there's little point in trying to correct those misconceptions.

"No, it's fine, you should stay here and talk and eat," the paladin tells Mia. "If I find anything, I'll make sure it gets passed on to you. Besides, splitting up is the most effective way, anyway." She could stay here for now and see if any of the Vigil higher-ups show up here.

Well, he leaves the building.

Once out there, he whistles, and...well, a forest shark does appear in the distance. It's a bit too far for most people to see what it looks like, but it's small, has a big head, and is very fluffy.

[Ironsmith]

[The Battered Shield]

Mia looks confused at Zophiel. The whole time they were on the way or here a forest shark wasn't mentioned. She didn't thought his liking for the woods would be simular to those of a druid or something a like. On top Mia wasn't going for a deep tech talk since she knew others might not follow up. That Angela spells it out just confirms it.

"Well, we did come here for some jobs to do after all, but I agree that nothing here matches what we were looking for." Any people who are against such relationships is nothing you can force to change and if they try that wouldn't help for long.
"We should go and seek for some of the other members. If you can't stay we can meet up later."

[The Battered Shield]

Zophiel gets the feeling that two of these three people are either making weird assumptions about him or are having a grave misunderstanding about him.

...
Well, to be honest, it's not like he particularly cares what sort of weird things they're thinking about him. He's already a little overdue for dying, so there's little point in trying to correct those misconceptions.

"No, it's fine, you should stay here and talk and eat," the paladin tells Mia. "If I find anything, I'll make sure it gets passed on to you. Besides, splitting up is the most effective way, anyway." She could stay here for now and see if any of the Vigil higher-ups show up here.

Well, he leaves the building.

Once out there, he whistles, and...well, a forest shark does appear in the distance. It's a bit too far for most people to see what it looks like, but it's small, has a big head, and is very fluffy.

[The Battered Shield]

Angela looks back and forth between the two strangers, now a little lost in terms of the conversation. Once Zophiel leaves, though, she shrugs it off with a little smile. She's got a vague feeling she might have scared him off, but it didn't really help to dwell on such things.

...Not that she wouldn't, but it wouldn't help.

Emet gives her a little tap on the shoulder, snapping her back to the present.

"Right. Sorry. So... tell me more about this world of yours." Angela says with a strained smile, trying to keep up a good face for her remaining guest.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

Anika isn't reality bending, she's bear bending. "It's more than just their skin color, Lapis. Some humans have souls, others don't. Like Wenomir. Some have magic, like C-command, others don't, like... uh, Wenomir. Also, there's Tina who is part metal... like Magtok! Maybe they're the same kind of human?" Anika scratches her head.

She then turns to Eun. "Evo-what? Of course I was born like this! Humans where I'm from came from giants who were... cursed or something I think. I've kinda forgotten the details but the point is that we're not really related to humans at all. My people have sadly never been giants." Still manages to be pretty tall though.

[Ironsmith]

[Bed Quest]

Eun looks up at Anika, who still has another two feet on her, while Eun herself wasn't exactly short. "I... you... um..." Could've fooled me, is what she wants to say, but she's debating the wisdom of snarking at someone who is, again, two feet taller than her and supposedly has the ability to turn into a bear. "...Yeah, okay." She mumbles, returning to work on the bed, touching the two broken halves of the bed together. "Could you lift this for me? It's a bit too heavy for me to do myself."

Eun turns to Lapis. "Hang on... did you say 'ponies'? Like the ones in Carousel Court? They're supposed to be from Earth? Our Earth?" She pauses. "And your mum, too? That's... um..." difficult to wrap her head around, to put it simply.

[Zefir]

[The Battered Shield]

Zophiel seems to missunderstand her. She was saying she will stay here for a bit and then they can meet up and see what they got. She now has the feeling that Zophiel feels uncomfortable or they said something that made him mad. She might have to ask him later, since it seems he won't mention it by himself. Mia also doesn't feel much comfortable with Angela and Emet. They do feel kinda strange and from what she knew about the nexus they had some rare meetings. Lucky for them Mia is a trained High pristress and able to not show any signs of her discomfort. You have sometimes people that give you a bad feeling but you need to stay calm all the time.

"Hmm, well for once we barly have any human like androids. This is related to Deus mechanicus as we try to create them in his image. It might be confusig to have a god for all amchines and then not use them as deep as other worlds. We are as mentioned in an ongoing war against the other god of my world but no side seems to get an advantage so far. It is a wide range of subjects here so I'd rather like to know what you want to know."

[Ironsmith]

[The Battered Shield]

Zophiel seems to missunderstand her. She was saying she will stay here for a bit and then they can meet up and see what they got. She now has the feeling that Zophiel feels uncomfortable or they said something that made him mad. She might have to ask him later, since it seems he won't mention it by himself. Mia also doesn't feel much comfortable with Angela and Emet. They do feel kinda strange and from what she knew about the nexus they had some rare meetings. Lucky for them Mia is a trained High pristress and able to not show any signs of her discomfort. You have sometimes people that give you a bad feeling but you need to stay calm all the time.

"Hmm, well for once we barly have any human like androids. This is related to Deus mechanicus as we try to create them in his image. It might be confusig to have a god for all amchines and then not use them as deep as other worlds. We are as mentioned in an ongoing war against the other god of my world but no side seems to get an advantage so far. It is a wide range of subjects here so I'd rather like to know what you want to know."

[The Battered Shield]

Angela nods her way through Mia's explanation, doing her best to keep her mind in the here and now and not ruminating on her apparent hospitality failure. "Well..." she begins cautiously, "what would happen if one side did get an advantage, or won outright? Would you guys just not have nature or technology anymore, or...?"

[Rebonack]

[Bed Quest]

"Yeah but all those humans aren't very different still," Lapis insists. "Have you SEEN all the different sorts of dragons? Some have got wings, some haven't got wings. Some have feathers wings or bat wings or pterrisaur wings. Some of them are like big snakes. Some are like big snakes with legs. Some have fur, some don't. Some have got horns. Some have lots of heads. Some are HUGE and some are tiny. There are so many sorts of dragons."

Just dragons forever.

Then, of course, there are things like Lapis.

Seraphs.

If you asked one that was a little less naive than Lapis they would probably tell you that they aren't dragon shaped.

Dragons are them-shaped.

"Yeah! I talked to one of them one time and she said that she was from Earth, too. But I guess it must have been a different Earth since Mother said that her Earth only had regular ponies."

It's a multiverse! Except an interesting fun whimsical sort of multiverse instead of a boring realistic multiverse where the vast majority of universes only contain hydrogen.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

"Pretty sure that has more to do with something else Lapis. Like, uhm, the fact we're all talking darnassian since a lot of those don't sound like dragons to me." Either definitions were super-wide in the nexus, to the point where some words didn't really mean anything, or they were words with different meanings that all got translated into the same thing.

"Oh, ponies are like small horses, right? Horses being those demon-breeds animals humans use as mounts." They had hooves and Anika had seen plenty of warlocks ride around on them therefore they were clearly related somehow.

[Earl of Purple]

Great Balls of Fire

"I don't know, I've not seen a phoenix. Snallygasters do the same thing if you approach their nests, though. Professor Payne wanted me to gather a snallygaster egg once, which was... less dangerous than I was expecting, really. Given that they're lizard-birds with steel beaks and claws, I mean." Now, which way is the middle of the universe? "So which way's the middle, then? I'm not great at navigating. I've never been to the centre of a universe before. Unless you count Trog's, which... y'know, moves." Or maybe it doesn't move, and the rest of the universe moves around it. Either way, it's not a static monument to mark the centre of the Nexus.

[Ironsmith]

[Bed Quest]

"Yeah but all those humans aren't very different still," Lapis insists. "Have you SEEN all the different sorts of dragons? Some have got wings, some haven't got wings. Some have feathers wings or bat wings or pterrisaur wings. Some of them are like big snakes. Some are like big snakes with legs. Some have fur, some don't. Some have got horns. Some have lots of heads. Some are HUGE and some are tiny. There are so many sorts of dragons."

Just dragons forever.

Then, of course, there are things like Lapis.

Seraphs.

If you asked one that was a little less naive than Lapis they would probably tell you that they aren't dragon shaped.

Dragons are them-shaped.

"Yeah! I talked to one of them one time and she said that she was from Earth, too. But I guess it must have been a different Earth since Mother said that her Earth only had regular ponies."

It's a multiverse! Except an interesting fun whimsical sort of multiverse instead of a boring realistic multiverse where the vast majority of universes only contain hydrogen.

[Bed Quest]

"Pretty sure that has more to do with something else Lapis. Like, uhm, the fact we're all talking darnassian since a lot of those don't sound like dragons to me." Either definitions were super-wide in the nexus, to the point where some words didn't really mean anything, or they were words with different meanings that all got translated into the same thing.

"Oh, ponies are like small horses, right? Horses being those demon-breeds animals humans use as mounts." They had hooves and Anika had seen plenty of warlocks ride around on them therefore they were clearly related somehow.

[Bed Quest]

"(No, really, any time now!)" Eun mutters, trying futilely to lift the two halves of the fram back into a repairable position. Anika's bed was huge, and heavy, and Eun was kind of scrawny. Like, scarecrow level scrawny. She lets out a little groan of effort as she pulls against the bedframe, succeeding at nothing except getting her shoulders sore.

Her efforts to lift the bed stop when Lapis starts hinting at a multiverse. She had her own theories about that, of course. She'd always been taught that the multiverse was a series of three-dimensional slices along a fourth, continuous spatial dimension. It occurred to her now that Lapis had previously described herself as "folding" into various shapes, implying a higher spatial dimension in the process. She'd always thought a true 4D object would have infinite mass, since even a tiny one would represent a continuum of an infinite number of 3D objects (which also had mass). Naturally, scientific curiosity takes over.

"Sorry if this is a weird question, but... how much do you weigh, Lapis?" Eun asks, not seeming bothered by what would externally appear to be a non-sequitur.

[Zefir]

[The Battered Shield]

Angela nods her way through Mia's explanation, doing her best to keep her mind in the here and now and not ruminating on her apparent hospitality failure. "Well..." she begins cautiously, "what would happen if one side did get an advantage, or won outright? Would you guys just not have nature or technology anymore, or...?"

[The Battered Shield]

Mia thinks about that for a moment. Then she shrugs.

"I don't know." she says. "I assume If nature wins all the technologie will be destroyed. getting back to a more simple life with nature magic as the only advanced source. On the other side the nature part of the world would decrease, but mostly because we still need it for farming. We are aware that without the woods and nature we might starve or don't get freh air."

[Ironsmith]

[The Battered Shield]

Mia thinks about that for a moment. Then she shrugs.

"I don't know." she says. "I assume If nature wins all the technologie will be destroyed. getting back to a more simple life with nature magic as the only advanced source. On the other side the nature part of the world would decrease, but mostly because we still need it for farming. We are aware that without the woods and nature we might starve or don't get freh air."

[The Battered Shield]

"Sort of sounds like a no-win situation." Angela replies, propping herself up by the chin on her arm. "Which kinda explains that 'show at the borders' thing, now that I say that out loud. Neither side wants to win, but it'd be worse to lose."

Emet gives an affirmative beep and nods sagely. Yeah, that really did sound like a bad situation to be in.

"So... how's that translate outside your world? Ever run into any problems with the wildlife out here?"

[Rebonack]

[Great Balls of Fire]

"I'm afraid I don't know what a snallyghaster is," Geneva admits. "And I don't believe Trog's is the center of the Nexus. Maybe metaphorically? I wouldn't suggest exploring further in this pocket universe just yet. I've got plenty of data to go over and I would like you to leave the sensor suite there where you're standing before you return to the portal. That way I'll be able to continue collecting information without putting you at risk. We're still not sure if there are any dangerous organisms living there and I don't want to place you in any unneeded danger."

See?

Geneva is all about safety!

Don't take risks that you don't have to.

The weird fire bird continues crackling and limping around at Felicity from atop its mound.


[Bed Quest]

Lapis makes a huffing noise in response to Anika. Clearly her friend doesn't know dragons that well.

"I can help!" Lapis says as she scurries over to the absolutely gigantic bed and begins hefting on it with all the might of an eight year old girl.

Which.

Is to say.

Not a whole lot.

Hopefully Anika decides to help, too.

But then Eun asks a really important question! Lapis has to think about that one.

"Like me right now or all of me?" she asks for clarity. "Because I don't think all of me fits here and I've never seen a scale before to stand on when all of me isn't here."

[Earl of Purple]

Great Balls of Fire

"Picture a bird, give it a steel beak and claws, green-brown scales on its head and neck and a rattlesnake tail. Relatively large but quite drab and hard to spot, lives in forests. They aren't particularly good fliers, I guess they're too heavy." Since they've got organic iron bones, that's probably a fair assessment. Felicity puts the sensor suite down and heads back to the portal, keeping an eye on the bird to make sure it doesn't surprise her with an attack, but otherwise ignoring it.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

Anika quickly decides to help to and she's thankfully stronger than your average person (or even your average night elf) so that'll probably help a lot with lifting.

She has no idea what Eun was talking about though so she's just gonna focus on the lifting part for now and put the halves into position. "She must weight more than Blanche at least since she's been in it plenty without it collapsing." Anika helpfully points out.

[Ironsmith]

[Bed Quest]

Lapis makes a huffing noise in response to Anika. Clearly her friend doesn't know dragons that well.

"I can help!" Lapis says as she scurries over to the absolutely gigantic bed and begins hefting on it with all the might of an eight year old girl.

Which.

Is to say.

Not a whole lot.

Hopefully Anika decides to help, too.

But then Eun asks a really important question! Lapis has to think about that one.

"Like me right now or all of me?" she asks for clarity. "Because I don't think all of me fits here and I've never seen a scale before to stand on when all of me isn't here."

[Bed Quest]

Anika quickly decides to help to and she's thankfully stronger than your average person (or even your average night elf) so that'll probably help a lot with lifting.

She has no idea what Eun was talking about though so she's just gonna focus on the lifting part for now and put the halves into position. "She must weight more than Blanche at least since she's been in it plenty without it collapsing." Anika helpfully points out.

[Bed Quest]

"In theory, it shouldn't matter." Eun replies, her tool warbling as she runs it over the gap in the frame. "You should have the same amount of mass no matter how you happen to be sitting at the moment; it shouldn't be any easier or harder to displace you, either." She gives an internal sigh at Lapis's efforts to lift the bed. The little seraph was adorable, but really made her head hurt sometimes. "So if you do weigh more when you're folded differently, the theory is wrong and I'll have to rewrite some of it."

Well. Close to all of it, really. The first thing she's going to do when she gets home is delete her Quad-Space Mechanics textbook; clearly, it was wrong about pretty much everything.

But, this was a time for the more relevant question!

"Who's Blanche?" Eun asks. "Friend of yours? Close friend? Girlfriend? Something like that?" She'd kinda have to be, if she spent any meaningful amount of time on Anika's bed.

[Rebonack]

[Bed Quest]

"It shouldn't?" Lapis replies, a little puzzled by the idea that her mass should be the same all the time. "I know there are trees that I can climb when I'm all folded up girl-shaped but when I'm not I'll break the branches if I try to climb them so I think I'm definitely working the right way. Umm..."

Oh!

Oh oh oh!

They're talking about different things!

"Oh! The trees don't break because there isn't as much of me for the slidey-hole thing the planet makes to pull on!"

Whatever dimension Lapis is interacting with apparently prevents the propagation of gravity. She's describing a situation where her mass doesn't change but her weight does. In truth, it isn't a 3+1 dimensional manifold that she's talking about, it's something altogether weirder. But the child really doesn't have the words to describe it.


"It's like when I drift I won't fall and I can move around wherever. Sort of like swimming!" Lapis says as she decides that Anika has definitely probably got the bed handled and steps back a little bit and rapidly shrinks out of existence. There's a dull whump! of displaced air as the atmosphere fills in the vacuum she left behind.

Something pretty weird happens when she does that. There's a deep, primeval sensation of being watched. Like there's a tiger lurking in the grass somewhere getting ready to pounce but you can't quite see it. Anika has been around when Lapis 'drifts' before so she'll probably be expecting it. Eun likely less so. A few seconds later she VOOPS! back into existence up near the ceiling and immediately drops, landing easily on the floor.

"See? Like that! I saw Blanche once she's got kitty ears," Lapis says, adding constructively to the conversation.

If Eun felt like it she could try putting a hand on Lapis and shoving her. It would definitely feel like she's trying to move something way bigger than Lapis appears to be.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

"Yeah, something like that! With super-cute cat ears and a really cool gun. I've never seen her miss a shot!" Perhaps overselling her a bit there, Anika...

"Pretty sure she could even take Wenomir in a fight if she got her gun." Uh...
"Like, BAM and you're gone. Last time we were in a fight she took out like a dozen demons on her own." Anika temporarily let's go of the bed so she can make a gun motion as to show how Blanche held her gun while shooting people.

[Ironsmith]

[Bed Quest]

"It shouldn't?" Lapis replies, a little puzzled by the idea that her mass should be the same all the time. "I know there are trees that I can climb when I'm all folded up girl-shaped but when I'm not I'll break the branches if I try to climb them so I think I'm definitely working the right way. Umm..."

Oh!

Oh oh oh!

They're talking about different things!

"Oh! The trees don't break because there isn't as much of me for the slidey-hole thing the planet makes to pull on!"

Whatever dimension Lapis is interacting with apparently prevents the propagation of gravity. She's describing a situation where her mass doesn't change but her weight does. In truth, it isn't a 3+1 dimensional manifold that she's talking about, it's something altogether weirder. But the child really doesn't have the words to describe it.


"It's like when I drift I won't fall and I can move around wherever. Sort of like swimming!" Lapis says as she decides that Anika has definitely probably got the bed handled and steps back a little bit and rapidly shrinks out of existence. There's a dull whump! of displaced air as the atmosphere fills in the vacuum she left behind.

Something pretty weird happens when she does that. There's a deep, primeval sensation of being watched. Like there's a tiger lurking in the grass somewhere getting ready to pounce but you can't quite see it. Anika has been around when Lapis 'drifts' before so she'll probably be expecting it. Eun likely less so. A few seconds later she VOOPS! back into existence up near the ceiling and immediately drops, landing easily on the floor.

"See? Like that! I saw Blanche once she's got kitty ears," Lapis says, adding constructively to the conversation.

If Eun felt like it she could try putting a hand on Lapis and shoving her. It would definitely feel like she's trying to move something way bigger than Lapis appears to be.

[Bed Quest]

"Yeah, something like that! With super-cute cat ears and a really cool gun. I've never seen her miss a shot!" Perhaps overselling her a bit there, Anika...

"Pretty sure she could even take Wenomir in a fight if she got her gun." Uh...
"Like, BAM and you're gone. Last time we were in a fight she took out like a dozen demons on her own." Anika temporarily let's go of the bed so she can make a gun motion as to show how Blanche held her gun while shooting people.

[Bed Quest]

Eun watches Lapis with interest as she demonstrates her abilities, suitably creeped out when she disappears, and relieved when she reappears. She gives the little seraph a shaky smile and a nod; this was starting to make a little more sense to her, but was just weird enough to nibble away at the edge of her comfort zone.

All of that before Anika lets go of the bed, of course.

There's a sharp crack as the partially-repaired bedframe gives in under its own weight, followed by a shriek of surprise and alarm from Eun as she jumps back, her tool flying out of her hand. She staggers a little further back, her mind racing with adrenaline and thoughts of how much worse that could have gone.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" She screams, having finally endured one too many close calls in a single day. "I TOLD YOU TO HOLD UP THE BED WHILE I WAS FIXING IT, WHY DID YOU THINK 'OH HEY, I SHOULD LET GO WHILE IT'S STILL RIGHT OVER TOP OF HER'?! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET SOMEONE KILLED?!" She spends a solid minute glaring at Anika, breathing shallowly and rapidly, in a mixture of rage and panic.

[Rebonack]

[Bed Quest]

Gravity doesn't always pay attention to Lapis, but it DOES pay attention to Anika's bed.

Lapis goes very, very still and quiet when the shouting starts.

She isn't sure what to do.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bed Quest]

Anika's eyebrows raises as Eun starts screaming. Whoops, she had not realized that the machine had started repairing the bed yet. She had been spending far too much attention on talking and must have also missed the part where Eun had described the process?

"Uhh... sorry? I... didn't realize it had started repairing..." Anika's cheeks darken as she suddenly feels very stupid and awkward.