Day 6 of Egret [Video]

[unfavorableinstigation]

[There's a young brunette wizard on your ICPs today assuming you have them on at all, who should be at least a little familiar to everyone on the train by now.]

Hello, everyone. This is Nita Callahan.

[She's not quite smiling, but from the look of how she's holding a purple stereoscope in her hands, she's clearly got something on her mind.]

And this is one of the souvenirs we can get from the shop - Eva's got the one I ordered if anyone wants a look at that one, but it does reflect light similarly to the void, so I wouldn't recommend staring at it for too long.

[Nita sighs, shakes her head a little, and makes herself get back on topic.]

Anyway, I ran a scan on the images here and the device itself. The device isn't made of plastic, but it's similar in nature. The pictures - and if anyone's got a better sense for those please get in touch with me, maybe you'll get more out of them than I did - are of various worlds the Voidtreckers have visited. Most of the landscapes are pretty generic, honestly, but they're not places I've ever been, and that's saying a lot.

As far as I can tell, they were taken digitally and then printed, and they don't seem to have been photoshopped or made into something they're not... it's just that there's no people in them.

[Nita squeezes the stereoscope in one hand - then jerks her head up, remembering something.]

Oh! So, the other purpose of this message was - what other scans have you been running? Dairine, I know you've been up to something, but if you don't mind sharing with the rest of us sometime, that'd be great.

[The sarcasm only surfaces for part of a line, but it's very tangible. Then she goes back to professionalism:]

And, this is for everyone, what other scans can we run, on the train, the SCAs, or anything else we've got? I promise you, there are no stupid or silly answers!

[With that, Nita ends her message.]

Comments

[video]

[thebiggestguy]

I'd be interested in seeing what this scan of yours makes of aether.

[Easy way to identify that, too. Lifting one hand, Dread balls it into a fist so the white rune on the back of his glove bursts into life.]

Re: [video]

[unfavorableinstigation]

[Nita shoots Dread a bemused look.]

Bit easier to do in person, but if it's energy at its most basic, there may not be much to conclude.

[Though maybe it would be more like analyzing someone's blood type? Or gauging the lifespan of a star from the energy it emits...]

Want me to come by your cabin? Or just meet up elsewhere up the train.

[video]

[thebiggestguy]

It's complicated.

Probably somewhere else. Gym? I have enough room to move there. [Nita doesn't need to be large for him to be cramped, thanks to his size.]

[video]->[Action]

[unfavorableinstigation]

[Nita nods.]

Gym works.

[And, unless Dread has his own way of teleporting, Nita may well beat him there.

Assuming he's actually in his cabin, of course.]

[thebiggestguy]

[Even otherwise, Dread moves slow -- a necessity, to keep from bumping too many things, or people. He makes his way in a minute or two after her, straightening up after a reflexive duck to get through the connection.]

So let's see this thing in action?

Now to figure out what she CAN get as spell results. |D They can be pretty dry.

[unfavorableinstigation]

[Nita's found herself a place to scuff out and draw a basic power-storage spell diagram - just the outlying circle. She also has her Manual primed and ready. Taking one hand away from her book, she waves Dread over.]

Just come on over here. I can have it analyze while we talk - voice patterns and the like help refine it. Be a bad idea to take too many shortcuts when getting your Name and all.

In person, if she's broadcasting from their room

[les_magique]

I used to have a pair of spectacles I had enchanted to let you see the flow of magic through the environment when you put them on.

They're not with me, though, and I'd need some special materials to make another pair.

[Action] it is!

[unfavorableinstigation]

[Nita turns to look at Samata, intrigued.]

That would be useful.

[Never enough wizards, never enough kinds of wizardry, etcetera etcetera...]

Apparently you can get stuff from home through the shop here, though I don't know how well that works, yet.

What kinds of materials is it made of, though?

[les_magique]

Just off the top of me head?

Six perfectly round lenses, two made of quartz, about three feet of silver wire, a jeweler's kit, a dash of lead, some manner of frame to mount it all in...

I think I could improvise the rest.

[unfavorableinstigation]

... Given the kinds of craftspeople we have on this train, that's still all probably doable.

Not sure who has a jeweler's kit, mind, but we've definitely got tools ordered in.

Voice

[mtsilver_conquor]

I suppose I wouldn't mind offering to have Princess Moon Force the wall blocking us from the engine while someone was scanning him.

It could help, and it'd be useful to start getting this all compiled into one place.

Re: Voice

[unfavorableinstigation]

... As a sort of stat-gathering move?

[Nita's seen the Moonblast attack now; Princess is strong.]

It may not breach the wall, but it'd sure be a point of comparison with everything else people have tried.

[Nuclear energy, mutant strength, drills...]

I'll definitely note it, thank you, Eva.

Voice

[mtsilver_conquor]

I know it won't breach and I know it'll rebound on him. But as a comparison point? Worth it.

More so if I space it out and give him time to heal between attacks.

[Voice] ... Would this be a post-mission log idea, or should they try it now?

[unfavorableinstigation]

[Nita nods.]

Yeah, him being tired will probably skew the results.

Post-mission.

[mtsilver_conquor]

It's less that and more actual healing. Pokemon can take a lot, but even then...

[And she has no potions or pokemon centres :(]

voice

[mimidaeia]

[alright so I’m probably overcommitting with this tagin, but Eva’s suggestion of “Moon Forcing the wall” is an incredibly alarming thing for any device to register.

Unlike their previous interactions, the voice that comes out from the ICP is toneless- which might make it easier to mistake it for the train’s own voicebox, except for the ID that denotes the message is coming from another ICP in Cabin 5A. Maybe this means something. I dunno. Maybe someone’s a bit miffed.]

Stop that.

Excessive scanning is likely to impede the system’s function. Forcing a wall will damage the system.

Re: voice

[unfavorableinstigation]

[The only thing preventing Nita from assuming the train is now actually talking is the fact she's met SXT-2 before - and knows how the voices sound similar.]

No one's been able to break the train itself yet - and for my part, I know my scans definitely aren't supposed to break what they're analyzing.

[This is audio, but she's frowning.]

Granted, it'd help a lot if we could have a dialogue instead...

[mimidaeia]

[Humans have all sorts of weird vocabulary and yet they don't understand something so obvious. Or they understand and choose to disregard it anyway, a hypothesis she favours from experience. Either way-]

If you can't talk with the train then the train has no ‘talk’ function. You're not an official technician, therefore you don't have clearance to enter the system.

If the train cannot talk then nothing you say or do will induce it to do so.

[unfavorableinstigation]

[Nita has to pause and take a deep breath before resuming the conversation.]

The last time I'd met an entity, a system, that was this... quiet, it was because they had been bound so by an entity hostile to all Life.

I wouldn't want to be blindsided by a similar situation here. That's the gist of it.

[mimidaeia]

Hypothetical: the last time I meet a human who is convinced they need to interfere with the system, they cause nothing but damage.

Ha ha- yes, let's say this is a hypothetical.

Who's personal experience takes priority? Is it yours, by virtue of being organic?

Audio - Sorry for uncooperative little sister

[wizard_redfive]

[Oh my word, Nita is drawing attention to a project that Dairine has only just begun, by her standards. She had no intention of sharing her work until it had been completed!!]

[...Which admittedly might take a little longer than she had projected, working with such limited resources.]

[Dairine replies, but her response is moody and short.]

Can't it wait?

/does a loophole

[unfavorableinstigation]

[Nita opens her mouth - then closes it, thinking better of it, and has Bobo send the following message through Spot:]

Getting a slow start, huh, sis?

[It is, of course, still snarky, but at least it's private????]

/she appreciates the loophole

[wizard_redfive]

[Dairine might have been trying to ignore the ICP, but she can't ignore the direct message. Mainly because she's using Spot at the moment.]

[Her biting tone still rings through the text.]

I'm TRYING to be careful here.

[For once.]

We still don't know the price for delving too deep into the train's business.

[She remembers all too well how fickle the castle could get about such prying.]

Re: /she appreciates the loophole

[unfavorableinstigation]

It launched Will Stanton across the room for trying to see past incidents at the engine wall, so I do see what you mean.

[But there's still one other idea:]

If we can offer it something that would be useful - outside of our continued presence as Voidtreckers - you think it would agree to a chat?

[Still, they're definitely tangenting.]

[wizard_redfive]

[The name Will Stanton rings a bell, so Dairine files it away for later.]

[Dairine's tone gets, if possible, even sharper.]

Nita, I am not gonna go offering deals to the shady powerful being that brought us here!

I like my soul in one piece, thank you very much.

[Looking at you Paradisa.]